BV 00 UC-NRLF SB ETb 025 O CM CD >-J I- ■■ ■ • "'■rv ■ '•'-.'-•':- {■■■ &■ I 'A 'N ^sn3ejX5 wjnpD/nuDiAr jy HISTORICAL SKETCH MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD AFRICA. Rev. S. C. BARTLETT, D.D. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY THE BOARD, 1 Somerset Street. 1880. FRED LOCKLEY RARE WESTERN BOOKS 4227 S. E. Stark St. PORTLAND. ORE. S l 1C 7 Long. West fhtmi Wa shing Ian LO 8 Meisel.Lith Ros BARTLETT'S SKETCHES MISSIONS IN AFRICA. Africa has been a dark land. Excepting the extreme northern part, its history is unknown. Its surface was long wholly unexplored. Its moral condition was gloomy, and its prospects forbidding. Its coast line, without bays or peninsulas, was repellent. Malignant fevers stood sentinel along its rivers. Petty fighting tribes were a terror to the traveler, and a hundred and fifty dialects a bar to the missionary. Among its explorers, Horne- mann, Oudney, Clapperton, Overweg, Duncan, Ritchie, and Livingston, have perished, and Park, Neuwied, Laing, Vogel, and Maguire have been murdered. And yet nature has dealt lavishly with Africa. It is indeed the land of great deserts and of torrid heat. The sands of Guinea and of Nubia will roast an egg or blister a negro's foot ; but the vegetable and animal life of the continent are marvelous in abundance, variety, and mag- nificence. Its species of quadrupeds are three times as many as those of America, and five times those of Asia. The most brilliant birds, the most beautiful insects, the hugest reptiles, and the lordliest brutes abound. Fruits, grain, spices, and vegetable products in immense variety, fill its interior. In Yoruba, says a traveler, " the hill- sides and banks of streams often present the appearance of solid walls of leaves and flowers. The grass on the 1 M195485 2 r SKETCHE3 OF THE MISSIONS. prairies is from eight to twelve feet high, and almost im- pervious." And at Natal you " can find flowers every' month in the year, and at times so thick in the open fields that scarce a step could be taken without treading some of them under foot." In contrast with the natural productions, human beings in Africa are of low types. The various races show the marks of centuries of degradation* Nothing is too low to worship. Slavery is the most ancient inheritance of the country. The chief coast trade for ages was in slaves ; and systems of brigandage were organized all through the interior to supply the market. Polygamy of the lowest, loosest kind is universal. For an ox or two the husband buys his wife, and for a string of beads the mother has sold her child into bondage. The frightful prevalence of cannibalism was checked by the greater value of the vic- tim for the slave market than the table. Everywhere woman is the animal of all work, and in many tribes modesty in personal exposure is almost unknown. The traveler beholds ' k young women dabbling in the creeks," innocent of clothing and of scruples. Yet all that was forbidding in Africa has not repelled the missionary, nor prevented his success. More than twenty different Boards have planted stations in this moral waste. They have found the people highly susceptible to religious influences, wherever rum, war, and the slave trade would permit those influences to act. They reckon some forty-seven thousand communicants at the present time, 1 many of them, however, in churches that do not make conversion a condition of church membership. Many a thrilling story could be told of the labors and adventures of such men as Vanderkemp, Shaw, the Al- i 1871. MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 3 brechts, Krapf, and Moffatt. It was hard at times for Moffatt to know whether he was safer among the Bechu- anas by day, or among the eight lions that roared around his wagon in one night. It would be delightful to sketch some of the remarkable revivals that have visited the Methodist, Wesleyan, Moravian, Baptist, and Presby- terian missions, and to portray some of the Christian lives they have wrought, and the transformations of soci- ety. But we leave the tempting field for the humbler work of the American Board. The missions of the Board have been two — the Ga- boon mission in West Africa, near the equator, and the Zulu mission in South Africa, toward the Cape. They are interesting in quality rather than in quantity. They show how the gospel can struggle with the mightiest of obstacles, and what it can do for the most degraded of characters. The Gaboon mission need not detain us long. Its operations have been small, obstructed, and interrupted ; and the mission is now transferred to the Presbyterian Board. In the year 1834, John Leighton Wilson landed at Cape Pal mas to explore the place where, in the follow- ing year, he landed with his wife, and was received with joyful acclamations by the natives. Here he erected a framed house, which he had brought from America, opened a school, and began a book in the native tongue. Other missionaries followed — Messrs. White, Walker, Gris- wold, and Alexander Wilson, with their wives. The mission was headed for the interior. The plan was to make this the entering-wedge for a great system of in- land operations. It is scarcely possible for a Christian American to conceive the degradation of these Guinea negroes. Their p 4 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. morals were blacker than their skins. Mr. Wilson has drawn a large portrait of them with such strokes as these : " Falsehood is universal. Chastity is an idea for which they have no word, and of which they can scarcely form a conception." And after enumerating almost every varied form of vice, he concludes, " It is almost impossi- ble to say what vice is pre-eminent." But even with such a people the gospel proved a the power of God." Twenty-three of them were in due time converted and added to the church. A large boarding-school was filled with pupils, and day schools established at seven stations. Mr. Wilson at one time had a native audience of six hundred persons ; but the embarrassments of the Board in 1837 first crippled the mission ; and collisions with the neighboring American colony from Maryland, which Mr. Wilson had once saved from the fury of the natives, after seven years compelled a removal to the Gaboon. Here Satan's kingdom had not then been introduced from other lands — only the fetishes and native devils of Africa were the foes. There was no foreign government within five hundred miles on either side, and no trading factory along the shore. Nobler races, the Mpongwes and Bakeles, gave the missionaries a warm welcome. Scarcely was the work under way when, in two years, three French ships of war entered the river, and by brandy and fraud bought the territory. French guns even endangered the lives of the missionaries, and French influence reigned over the region. Still converts came dropping in — six, nine, twelve, eighteen in a year. Christian assemblies were organized. Two dialects were reduced to writing. More than a hundred youths gained a Christian educa- tion, and many thousands received light enough for sal- vation. Precious missionary martyrs — Mr. and Mrs. MISSIONS IN AFRICA. O White, Mr. and Mrs. Griswold, Mr. and Mrs. Porter, Dr. Wilson, Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Bushnell — cheerfully laid down their lives. But while the relations of the French authorities ultimately became pleasant, they were the cover for introducing Romish missionaries and all the unutterable abominations of the foreign trade. English, Scotch, and Dutch trading factories, and native dram- shops, crowded the shore, and a medley of tribes from every quarter rushed thither. The foreign captain, who had left a white wife perhaps in New England, hired an ebony wife or wives " by the week," or "by the run," in Africa. Rum became the presiding demon of the region. "Satan," said a missionary, "has an agent in every foreigner in the river." Well might he say it, when even " a Scotch Presbyterian elder sent a hundred thousand gallons of ' liquid damnation ' to the heathen in a single vessel, and atoned for the whole by giving a missionary free passage." " It is these things that kill," wrote the missionary. Yea, they killed ! Year after year these and kindred influences corrupted the whole community and the native church members. In 1868, seventeen were excommunicated at one time, nearly all of whom commenced their downward course in connection with rum. w The missionary works at the entrance of Ge- henna," writes Mr. Walker in 1869 ; and his wail is echoed by the deliberate utterance of a Scotch missionary on the western coast, " But for the British rum trade, I feel confident that long ere this the native membership of the church at Duke Town would have been reckoned by hundreds instead of tens." Never was a more formidable struggle. It was one long conflict, not alone or chiefly with African heathen- ism, but with the outlawed vices of the French, English, 6 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. American, Dutch, and Scotch nations. But in this Africo-European " Gehenna," the devoted missionaries never gave up heart or hope. After a quarter of a cen- tury of buffeting with Satan in his citadel, Mr. Walker could say, " I desire to live to see the Gaboon mission in a different condition. I have faith in God. I believe that he will perform all his grand promises. The gospel is still the power of God unto salvation." The latest re- port of the mission announces the boys' school and the girls' school still in encouraging operation, six accessions to the church, and Sabbath congregations " as attentive as any in the States." Still the church is but a shadow of what it should have been. Mr. Walker has retired after his twenty-eight years of toil and conflict, and the mission is transferred to the Presbyterian Board, with a prayer for God's blessing on it. The Zulu mission is a brighter field, though the fiery ordeal has swept over it. It deals with a higher style of man. The Zulus, an offshoot of the Caffre stock, stand midway between the negro and the European type. The black skin and woolly hair are joined often with the aquiline nose, straight lip, prominent forehead, mild eye and lithe and muscular physique. The scantiness of their costume — ranging from nothing up to a greased cow-skin demi-skirt — is compensated for by a profusion of bracelets, armlets, anklets, necklaces, girdles, shoulder- bands, and rings for the ears, fingers, and thumbs. The people live in kraals, or circles of wicker-work beehive houses, thatched with grass, and floored with mixed ants' nests and cow-dung. The men take care of the cattle, do the tailoring for themselves and wives, lounge, drink, smoke, snuff, and when food is plenty, gorge like boa- constrictois ; while the poor woman, " with her pickaxe MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 7 and basket, must serve as plow and cart, horse and ox," corn planter, grist-mill, and cook. In other words, woman was virtually a slave. They were brimful of superstitions, with witchcrafts and witch doctors, the latter wielding practically the power of life and death ; and they worshiped the spirits of their ancestors. In these huts, infested with cockroaches, and in cold weather filled with soot and smoke, imagine them round the cen- tral fire, seated on their haunches, like the dogs by their side, snuffing, smoking, eating, chattering, and laughing till bed-time, then dropping on their rush mat and block pillow, covered with a hide, while goats, sheep, and calves share their hut, — and you partly apprehend the case. Such was the inviting scene which, in 1834, six mis- sionaries set forth to see. They were Rev. Messrs. A. Grout, Champion, Lindley, Wilson, Venable, and Dr. Adams, with their wives. But they were not at once to be gratified. One company of them designed to stay at Port Natal, the other to strike for the interior. The latter party traveled a thousand miles in ox teams, only to be driven back by the Boers, or half-savage Dutch farmers, over wretched roads, thirteen hundred miles in length, — leaving the lifeless form of Mrs. Wilson till the resur- rection. Mrs. Grout, of the coast party, had died of consumption soon after landing in Africa. Meanwhile the coast party had begun their work at Umlazi, near Port Natal. While Messrs. Grout and Adams were conveying their families and goods to the place, Mr. Champion opened a school. His first school- house was the shade of a tree ; his first school-book was the sand, in which he traced the letters ; and of his first twelve scholars, some were nurses, with infants tied to 8 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. their backs. Three other stations were occupied a few months later. Two schools, with fifty scholars, were already established, a printing press in operation, and a Sabbath congregation of five hundred persons gathered, when the storm of a war between the Dutch farmers and the Zulus broke upon them, and drove them away. Four years later a part of them returned and resumed the brok- en work. The printing press was working again in the scorched mission buildings at Umlazi, a flourishing school gathered, a Sabbath school of two hundred, and a con- gregation of five hundred ; and, O, joy ! at last there was one hopeful convert. A second station at Empangeni numbered an audience of two or three hundred, in the centre of thirty-seven kraals, when, one morning, at day- break, a sudden attack from King Dingan, on six of the nearer kraals, doomed three of them to utter destruction. Though no harm was done to the missionary, it was an act of distinct hostility to the mission, and of retaliation for its growing influence over Dingan's subjects. Mr. Grout declined the unequal contest, and left the field. In view of these repeated disasters, and the unsettled state of the country, the Prudential Committee determined to abandon it. Here seemed the end of nine years' labor. But Provi- dence interposed. Natal meanwhile passed under British control. The natives began to flock thither for protec- tion, till ten thousand of them had collected ; and it be- came clear that the government was about to pursue an honorable policy. When Mr. Grout reached Cape Town, on his way home, he was met by a united remonstrance from Christians and ministers of every denomination, as well as from the American consul and the British gov- ernor. A public meeting was called, and a year's support MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 9 for Mr. Grout was raised. The post of government missionaries was offered to Messrs. Grout and Adams, and of government preacher among the Boers to Mr. Lindley. The Board recognized the plain interposition, and re- voked their instructions. The missionaries turned joy- fully to their work. After ten years of toil, a solitary convert at Umlazi — an old woman — sat down with Mr. and Mrs. Adams to the table of the Lord. Six months later, two men came out from heathenism and polygamy, and took each one wife in Christian marriage. At the end of the year still another. The long-deferred harvest was begun. Re-enforcements came. Six years after the mission was on the point of being abandoned, it comprised thir- teen missionaries — Adams, A. Grout, Lindley, Bryant, L. Grout, McKinney, Rood, Marsh, Ireland, Abraham, Tyler, Wilder, Dohne — with their wives, laboring hope- fully at twelve stations. Nine churches had been organ- ized, containing one hundred and twenty-three members, thirty-six of whom were received in one year. But trials were not over. The young school of teachers and preachers that was started in 1853 with nine scholars, and in four years increased to twenty-five, was broken up by the failure of Mr. Rood's health. In the great dis- cussion of polygamy in 1855 and 1856, Bishop Colenso defended the system. The disturbed state of the country for several years hindered religious interest. The mis- sionaries toiled on. A Zulu Dictionary of ten thousand words appeared, and a Grammar of four hundred and thirty pages. The Scriptures were printed by gradual installments, beginning with the historic portions of the New Testament. School books of various kinds ap- 10 SKETCHES OP THE MISSIONS. peared. Steady congregations were gained and held. By the end of 1863, such palpable signs as these were seen : two hundred and sixty-six church members in good standing ; one hundred and seventy-five Christian families, comprising five hundred baptized children ; sev- eral congregations of from one hundred to three hundred, three fourths of them respectably clad, worshiping in brick buildings erected chiefly by the natives ; two native home missionaries, supported by native converts ; schools maintained by the natives ; prayer meetings well sus- tained, and monthly concerts, with contributions aver- aging a dollar a year to each member ; many families living in brick houses, with nearly all the appliances of civilized life ; a hundred Yankee plows at work in the fields, to the inexpressible relief of poor, toiling woman. These things were palpable to the eye. The year 1865 brought a cheering revival like those of the home churches, and, sooner or later, of all the missions. Its extent was not great ; yet it brought sev- enty-nine converts into the churches in a single year. The same year witnessed the establishment of a perma- nent training-school for teachers, and measures lor a boarding-school for girls. And when, next year, Mr. Grout saw three native preachers supported by the native missionary society, and a thousand dollars of native con- tributions ; ninety-seven members in his own church, and an average of four hundred in his congregation — he who had been driven away from three successive stations, and waited eleven years for his first convert — well might he exclaim, u If I was a fool in the eyes of some men, I have lived to see a hundred fold more done than I ever dreamed that I might effect in a long life, and have en- joyed a hundred fold more than I expected. Every MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 11 promise of God has been abundantly fulfilled to me." It was written in the very year when Bishop Colenso said, u the plan of salvation was so difficult, he never tried to explain it to the Zulus." The good work has gone steadily, if not rapidly, for- ward. The annual report for 1870 shows nineteen sta- tions and out-stations, with twelve churches, containing about five hundred members, twenty-eight of whom were received within the year. The little band of mission- aries, — apostolic in number, — with their fifteen female assistant missionaries, are at length re-enforced by thirteen native preachers and two native pastors — one of them rejoicing in the honored name of Rufus Anderson, — eighteen teachers and four catechists, eighteen common schools, a female seminary with twenty-six bright-eyed, quick-witted girls ; the training-school, with its thirty- five young men, — its British aid of one thousand dollars a year, and its expanding plans, — give cheering promise that the harvest-time is not far away. Meanwhile, where once were only kraals, the visitor would now see more than two hundred upright houses, a dozen of them built of brick ; children engaged with their books, or perhaps praying in the bush ; readers of the Pilgrim's Progress and the Dairyman's Daughter, translated by a Zulu girl ; students of Barnes's Notes ; congregations that can sing, M Nearer, my God, to Thee ; " school girls that will repeat a psalm or hymn without mistake, after a single hearing — one of whom learned the first seven psalms in half an hour. He would hear a dying mother say, " I know I am dying ; but why should I fear to go home ? I love my Saviour. I love my God. I have no fear — all is so bright." He might see a man in the prime of life who has abandoned Zulu wealth and power, and 12 SKETCHES OP THE MISSIONS. resisted the dissuasions and almost compulsions of his friends to travel with the gospel message to many hun- dreds of his fellows, ever hearing those words, " Son of man, I have set thee for a watchman." He could see, in the day schools at Mapumulo, four grandchildren of a man who once refused to send his own children, lest they should become Christians, while one of those very sons now takes part in the prayer meeting. In those African schools you might see a girl with eight spear-marks on her person ; another who was untied from the back of her dead mother in the waters ; another who fled from the den of the polygamist, to which she had been sold for two extra cows ; a young man whose tribe-mark is an amputated finger ; and another whose relatives once burned his clothes, and intoxicated him by force, to keep him away. " These are they which came out of great tribulation." Or you might take a walk with a lady missionary to the homes of the Christian Zulus around her. Passing the white cottage flanked by rows of orange trees, where the wife is away, — though the husband, dressed in his straw hat, blue shirt, and black trousers, invites you in, — you enter the next house, where the mother, in calico dress, sits sewing with the baby by her, and a boy and girl sit by the table, one with a book, the other with the needle, while the room contains chairs, book-shelves, and a cupboard, with cups and saucers, and the bed-room adjoining shows a bed with its blankets, and pillows, and patch-work quilt. The next, a brown cottage, shows a little girl in front teaching the baby to walk. In the parlor a young woman is cutting and making a dress, the father reading aloud, while the wife sits near at work, and some children are playing with a doll. And when you MISSIONS IN AFRICA. . 13 leave, the three-year-old " Jeremiah " will take up the song he heard on Saturday in school. u Beyond, we came to a red-brick house, a flower-garden in front, cur- tained windows, and matted floor. In the parlor stood a table, with ink, pens, paper, and books on it, and a clock ticked away merrily on the shelf. The table was set for tea in the back room, with cloth, plates, cups and saucers, spoons and forks, bread, butter, and sugar, while hot coffee was ready, of which the cup we drank was very acceptable. I asked the father what he did evenings. 4 O,' he said, ' we light the candle, my wife sews, and I teach the children their lessons for school the next day. When this is done, we pray, sing a hymn, I read a chap- ter, and we go to bed.' " Reader, these scenes are in Zulu land, these people are jet black, and the kraal is still in sight of their homes. And one of the noble men who began that blessed change, Alden Grout, after thirty-five years of undaunted toil and trial, still lives to thank God for it all ; and through eternity will he rejoice in the work God gave him to do. Postscript, 1880, November. The foregoing sketch was prepared in 1871. Succes- sive editions have been exhausted, and the progress of events, and of interest in African Missions, has been rapid ; and further statements are needed, to bring the record of important movements to date. The Zulu Mission has carried on its work in the line of former labors, with encouraging success. It has sought to extend its operations westward, and in 1876 Mr. Pink- erton began a new station at Indunduma, near the Polela River, one hundred and twenty-five miles west of Durban. The difficulties connected with this mission have been 14 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. great. The apathy of the English residents of Natal, with reference to efforts for the evangelization of the native population, in connection with the political changes which have transpired, have stood in the way, to a great degree, of the hoped-for success. The annexation of the Transvaal Republic to the British possessions has been followed by a fierce war between the British forces and the uncivilized Zulus on the North, under their King Cetywayo. As the result of the English conquest there ought to have been a wider field open to missionary operations, but the opportunity was thrown away by the colonial government. The death of Mr. Abraham and his wife in 1878 was a severe loss to this mission. He had done a great work as a translator of the Scriptures into the Zulu tongue. The present version of the New Testament, revised by him, is a monument of his unwearied labors. He was en- gaged in preparing the Old Testament for the press at the time of his death. The work has gone forward and now approaches completion ; and it will be of the greater value, in view of the many tribes speaking the Zulu tongue which it is hoped will soon be reached by the gospel message. A Zulu Home Missionary Society has been organized and supports three ordained ministers. An important extension of the Zulu Mission has been undertaken, to Umzila's Kingdom. Special information about this country, and the reasons for its occupation, may be obtained from a separate pamphlet, recently issued by the American Board. » The country lies northeast of Natal, beyond the Trans- vaal, between the great Zambesi River on the northeast and the Umcomasi or St. George's River on the south- MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 15 west. The latter empties into the Atlantic at Delagoa Bay. The Portuguese claim the coast ; but the inland territory, called the Gasa country, six hundred miles long, and reaching westward to the Chitivatanga Mountains, is ruled by Umzila as king. The interior is elevated and believed to be fertile and healthy ; and those who have good opportunity to know the facts concur in the opinion that Umzila's Kraal, which lies back of lofty peaks on a table-land of 3,200 feet elevation, is the most important strategic point at present for new missions in this part of Africa. Mr. Pinker ton, having first revisited America and left his family here, set out from Natal on the 8th of July, 1880, on an expedition to Umzila's country, with two com- panions, an American, and a Christian native. He finds that the Zulu language is understood from Natal to the Zambesi, and has held a service for the Kafirs at Delagoa Bay. If the hopes and plans of the Board are realized in this direction Mr. Pinkerton will be joined by Mr. and Mrs. Richards who have recently sailed from this country ; and we may confidently anticipate that this ex- tension of the Zulu mission will bear important fruit, in the great work of giving the gospel to Africa. The Zulu Mission now includes : 6 stations and 12 out-stations, with 15 churches, 8 missionaries, and 14 female assistant mis- sionaries, 2 native pastors, 8 native preachers, 16 cate- chists and 24 teachers. The mission force is about to be increased by the addition of Mr. and Mrs. Wilder, and Mr. and Mrs. Richards ; Mr. Wilder goes back as a mis- sionary to the land of his birth, and Mr. Richards is ex- pecting to join the advance movement upon the interior of Africa in the direction of Umzila's Kingdom. The list of missionaries is as follows : — 16 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. Missionaries, 18S0. Station. Went out. Bridgman, Rev. Henry M. . Umzumbi 1860 Bridgman, Mrs. Laura B. Umzumbi 1860 Day, Miss Laura A. . . Adams ( Amanzimtote) . 1870 Edwards, Mrs. Mary K. Lindley (Inanda) . . 1868 Hance, Miss Gertrude II. Groutville ( Umvoti) 1870 Ireland, Rev. William . Adams {Amanzimtote) . 1848 Ireland, Mrs. R. 0. . . Adams {Amanzimtote) . 1848 Kilbon, Rev. Charles W Adams {Amanzimtote) . 1873 Kilbon, Mrs. Mary B. . Adams {Amanzimtote) . 1873 Morris, Miss Fannie M. Inanda 1877 Pinkertou, Rev. Myron W r # Umzila's Kingdom . . \ 1871 Pinkerton, Mrs. Laura M Umzila's Kingdom . . 1871 Piukerton, Miss Marv E. Umzumbi 1871 Pixley, Rev. Stephen C. Lindley {Inanda) . . 1855 Pixley, Mrs. Louisa . . Lindley {Inanda) . . 1855 Price, Miss Martha E. . Lindley {Inanda) . . 1877 Richards, Rev. Erwin H. 1880 Richards, Mrs. M. Artemi si a 1880 Robbins, Rev. Elijah . Adams {Amanzimtote) . 1859 Robbins, Mrs. Addie B. Adams {Amanzimtote) . 1859 Rood, Rev. David , . Groutville ( Umvoti) . . 1847 Rood, Mrs. Alziua V. . Groutville ( Umvoti) 1847 Tvler, Rev. Josiah . . Umzunduzi .... 1849 Tvler, Mrs. Susan W. . Umzunduzi .... 1849 "Wilder, Rev. George A. 1880 Wilder, Mrs. Alice S. . 1880 MISSIONS IN AFRICA. 17 WEST CENTRAL AFRICAN MISSION. While thus pressing its Zulu mission forward on the east, the American Board proposes to plant a new mis- sion on the west of Africa. The place selected for this mission is Bihe, a plateau, or rather a rolling country, two hundred and fifty miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, east of Benguela, in about 12° south latitude. The elevation is four or five thousand feet, and moderates the tropical heats ; and the climate is said to be delight- ful. The region has great agricultural and commercial capabilities. One of the main routes across the conti- nent passes through it, and it is a great caravan center. It is a point in favor of Bihe that it is on the side of Africa fronting America, and that no other society occu- pies any part of it, and that access to it is comparatively easy, by way of Lisbon and a monthly line of steamers thence to Benguela. This mission is undertaken with a view to pushing on, as God's providence may open the way, into the more distant interior, and Bihe seems very favorable as a point of departure for the regions beyond. To commence this mission three young men have been appointed : Rev. Walter Weldon Bagster, Rev. William Henry Sanders, and Mr. Samuel Taylor Miller, the latter going as assistant missionary. Mr. Bagster was born in October, 1847, in London, grandson of Samuel Bagster, the famous Bible publisher. In 1872 he came to California, was for some time pastor of a Home Missionary church, and graduated at the Pacific Theological Seminary in June 1880, receiving ordination in Oakland. Mr. Sanders was born in Ceylon in 1856, the son of 18 SKETCHES OF THE MISSIONS. an honored missionary of the Board. He graduated at Williams College in 1877, and Hartford Theological Sem- inary in June 1880, and was ordained at Williamstown. These brethren sailed for England August 7. Mr. San- ders proceeded at once to Lisbon for the study of the Portuguese language, and Mr. Bagster delayed in Eng- land to complete the preparations for the expedition. Mr. Miller did not sail from New York until Septem- ber 9. His parents were slaves, and he was born in Burkeville, Va., February 22, 1855. He was early in the public schools, and developed such proficiency that he was encouraged to enter the Hampton Institute, where he graduated after a three years' course in 1875, and was at once employed in teaching in his native county. It was hoped that a missionary physician would be found to join these brethren, and that one or two other teachers and missionaries ready for this work would offer themselves. As soon as such can be found they will be sent forward ; the equipment and stores shipped have been with reference to this increase expected in the mis- sionary force. Letters have been received from this pioneer company, dated October 4, at Lisbon. The steamer was to sail the next day, and they were preparing to go on board. The interest and prayers of many Christians will surely ac- company them, that their mission may be prospered, and that the Lord of missions will make it fruitful to the end of Africa's redemption. THE MISSIONARY HERALD: A Monthly Magazine of 40 pages octavo; the organ of the American Board, Price $1.10 a year. Address CHARLES HUTCHINS, No. 1 Somerset Street, Boston. LIFE AND LIGHT TOE WOMAN: A Monthly Magazine, published by the Woman's Board of Missions. Price 60 cents a year. Address SECRETARY W. B. M., No. 1 Somerset Street, Boston. CORRESPONDENCE. The Corresponding Secretaries of the Board are Rev. N. G. Clark, d. d., Rev. E. K. Allen, d. d., and Rev. John 0. Means, d. d. Letters relating to the Missions and General Concerns of the Board may be ad- dressed SECRETARIES OF THE A. B. C. F. M., No. 1 Somerset Street, Boston. * Donations and letters relating to the Pecuniary Concerns of the Board (except letters on the subject of the Missionary Herald) should be ad- dressed LANGDON S. WARD, Treasurer of the A. B. C. F. M., No. 1 Somerset Street, Boston. WOMAN'S BOARDS OF MISSIONS May be addressed as follows: — W. B. M., BOSTON: Miss Abbie B. Child, Congregational House, Boston. W. B. M., OF THE INTERIOR: Miss Harriet S. Ashley, 75 Mad- ison Street, Chicago. W. B. M. FOR THE PACIFIC : Mrs. H. E. Jewett, Oakland, Cal. Books Concerning Missions and Missionaril The following Books, many of them suitable for Sunday-sc^ Libraries, may be obtained by mail, postage paid, through the Officj the Missionary Herald. * • „ AFRICA. Zulu Land. By Lewis Grout $2.00 The Gospel among the Caffres . . .85 Missionary Travels in South Africa. By Dr. Livingstone 4.60 Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries. By Dr. Livingstone . 6.00 Through the Dark Continent. By II. M. Stanley 10.00 The Seed and the Sheaves ... .76 TURKEY, PALESTINE, AND PERSIA. History of the Missions of the A. B. C. F. M. to the Oriental Churches. 2 vols. By Dr. Anderson. Per vol. 150 Ten Years on the Euphrates. By Rev. C. H. Wheeler 1.25 Grace Illustrated. By Rev. C. H. Wheeler 1.25 Letters from Eden. By Rev. C. H. Wheeler 1.25 Daughters of Armenia. By Mrs. C. H. Wheeler 90 Little Children in Eden. By Rev. C. II. Wheeler 75 Life Scenes among the Mountains of Ararat. By Rev. M. P. Parmelee . 1.25 The Arab and the Turks. By Rev. E. L. Clark 1.50 Races of European Turkey. By Rev. E. L. Clark 3.00 Forty Years in. the Turkish Empire. Memoirs of ■♦'William Goodell, D. D. 2.50 Among the Turks. By Cyrus Ham- lin, D. D 1.50 Women of the Orient. By R. C. Houghton 2.00 Bible Work in Bible Lands. By Rev. Isaac Bird 1.60 The Land and the Book. By Rev. W. M. Thomson, D. D 6.00 Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestori- ans 1.60 Tennessean in Persia 1.75 Woman and her Saviour in Persia . . 1.25 Memoir of Miss Fiske. Faith Work- ing by Love . . 1.60 INDIA. History of the Missions of the A. B. C. F. M. in India. By Dr. Anderson 1.50 Lectures to Educated Hindus. By Pres. J. II. beelye 1.00 The Land of the Veda. By William Butler, D. D 4.00 Our Gold Mine in India Story ofj Baptist Missions «., CHINA AND JAPAN. The MMdfreiKjqgdom. 2 vols S. I Wells Williams, M£D.« f Social Life of the Chinese. By Rev. . J.'Doolittle . I China and the Chinese. By Dr. Nevius I Our Life in China. By Mrs. Nevius Five Years in China. Life of Rev.| William Aitchison .... The Mikado's Empire. By Griffis . SANDWICH ISLANDS AND P< NESIA. History of the Sandwich Islands Mis- 1 sion. By Dr. Anderson . . . Scenes in the Hawaiian Islands . The Morning Star Forty Years Mission Work In Poly- nesia. By A. W. Murray . . . MISCELLANEOUS. Fjceign Missions. By Dr. Anderson T|w Martyr Church of Madagascar . Memorials of Charles Stoddard . . Tales about the Heathen. By Dr Scudder .... Dibble's Thoughts ori Missions Light on the Dark River .... Christian Missions. By Pres. J H. Seelye Romance of Missions. By Miss Maria A. West Twelve Years with the Children. By William Warren, D. D These for Those : Our Indebtedness to Missions. By William Warren, D. D. From Egypt to Japan. Bv Rev. H. M. Field Jonas King. Missionary to Syria and Greece Non-Christian Religious Systems. I. Islam. By Rev. J. W. II . Stobart II. Buddhism. By T. W. Rhys Davids III. Hinduism. By Monier Williams Life of Bishop Patteson. 2 vols. Myra : or a Child's Story of Mission- ary Life. By C C. Tracy . . Missionary Sisters .... Memoir of Henry Obookiah . . Memoir of Henry Lyman . . Uncle Ben's Bag, and How It is Nev«r Empty .... . . 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK jROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. - du e on the last date stamped below, or „n the date to which renewed, ed-^are^iec^mn Ktw O 0CT12 , 65-^ W "LD 2lA-60m-3,'65 (F2336sl0)476B General Library . Uni««Uy of Calif otma Berkeley