THE MENDI MISSION.
PROF. T. N. CHASE, ATLANTA, GA.
In November last, I received a letter from Secretary Strieby, asking me to visit the Mendi Mission in West Africa, which invitation, after consultation with my family, from whom I was separated, was accepted, and on the 6th of December I sailed for that land.
My instructions required me to make such changes in the force of missionaries and their respective duties as seemed best, and to obtain information, and report, upon the following topics, viz.: The health of the missionaries; the church, school, and industrial work; finances and accounts; the removal or retention of Good Hope station; extension of the work into the interior, and the use of the Mendi language.
Upon all these topics, and some others, I reported as well as I could to the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., and some extracts have been embodied in their Annual Report of the work of the Association. Most of the information and reflections in this paper will be supplementary to that report.
Between Liverpool and Freetown, Sierra Leone, is a weekly line of steamers, one of which we took; and, after touching at Madeira, Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Goree, and Bathurst, we landed, on the twenty-second day of our voyage, at Freetown. Thence a small steamer conveyed us to Bonthe, where is the Good Hope station of the Mendi mission. The Sherbro river runs between the main land and Sherbro Island, being quite like Long Island Sound; and into it flow several branches that penetrate the Mendi country. On the inside of Sherbro Island, about fifty miles from its northern extremity, where is the mouth of the river, and ten miles from its southern point, is Good Hope, with its church, school and home. The buildings are on the bank of the stream, and the peaceful river, several miles in width, studded with green islands, presents a beautiful view. On the Sherbro Island a few miles south of Good Hope, is Debia, and thirty or forty miles up the Small Boom, a branch of the Sherbro, is Kaw Mendi, which has been described in a recent number of the Missionary.
Starting from Good Hope, and sailing north, down the Sherbro twenty miles, and then east up the Bahgroo twenty miles more, we come to Avery. For most of the way the banks of the river are lined with mangrove trees—appearing at high tide to stand in the water—whose trunks rest, at several feet above the ground, upon pyramids of stems or roots, and whose outspread branches send down to the earth numberless rope-like twigs of various sizes, altogether forming an almost impenetrable jungle. But about a mile below Avery the scene changes. The mangroves disappear, the low banks give way to quite high bluffs, and for a long distance stretches a rolling surface, with a soil of partially decomposed iron-stone. In a bend of the river, on a conspicuous bluff, stand the buildings of Avery, the component parts of the station being a home, a church, a school, a saw-mill, a garden, a coffee-farm, and a fakir.
The home is beautiful for situation, being so nicely located as to command a view of both banks of the river for half a mile in each direction; water, rocks and foliage being blended most charmingly. In this home dwell the pastor of the church with his wife, the superintendent of industrial work, and ten little native boys and girls, whose voices cheer the heart of one who loves children, as the little fellows nearly exhaust their stock of English words in saying “amen,” and the end of grace at meals, repeating the Lord’s Prayer, and saying, “Good night, sir,” at their hour for retiring. Some of these buds of promise have such illustrious names as Robt. Arthington, Wm. E. Gladstone, A. K. Spence, Jennie Pike and M. E. Strieby.
It was our privilege to attend church twice, and prayer meeting several times. The dress of the congregation, so far as it went, was novel, these people having never submitted to the cruel tyranny of fashion, but in most cases the amount of apparel met the requirements of decency. Milliners, however, would have a dry time in this region, for I noticed but one hat or bonnet, and I could not tell which. In other cases the head was bare, or surmounted by a turban made from a handkerchief ingeniously twisted and tied. Some of the men had full suits, others only a country cloth wrapped about them, and a few seemed satisfied with simply a large handkerchief about their loins. But, notwithstanding their lack in style and quantity of clothing, they were good listeners, and doubtless carried away much that was said; at least, the writer of this paper found great pleasure in preaching a lay sermon from the text, “God so loved the world,” &c. The tithing master, who paces up and down the aisles, has as little to do in keeping drowsy persons awake as he would in many New England churches. Some entries in the agent’s ledger seem to indicate that attendance upon church and other religious services is not altogether voluntary. One entry reads, “Cut (docked) for staying away from church, one shilling;” and another, “Being late to morning prayers, one shilling.” And in estimating the rigor of this discipline, one need to know that a shilling pays the wages of a common hand a day and a half. They have no trade-unions there.
The school at Avery is taught by Mr. Jowett, a native, who speaks English correctly and fluently. The pupils appeared very much like other children. Some read and spelled well, and some had to “get their lessons over.” Little John Bull showed that he had some surplus energy by thrusting his fist into the mouth of his drowsy neighbor.
The sawmill is said to have been erected by Mr. D. W. Burton, with the assistance of natives alone, and is a monument to his ingenuity, energy and perseverance. Small logs are sawed by a circular, but most of the work is done by an up-and-down, which allows the logs to drag their slow length along sufficiently fast to make the mill pay its way under careful management, with sawyers at fifteen dollars a month, and lumber at forty-five dollars a thousand. Other entries in the ledger show a high state of discipline in this department of mission work. “Neglecting to tie a canoe, one shilling.” “Smoking in the mill, four shillings.” “Neglect of duty, one shilling.” “Not obeying, two shillings.”
The chief productions of the garden are cassada, sweet-potatoes and pineapples. The cassada is a root of milk-white color, and is the leading article of food. It is usually boiled, but sometimes baked, or eaten raw. The sweet-potato flourishes well and is very palatable. The pineapple grows on bushes or shrubs two or three feet high, the fruit standing up in the midst of long, narrow, serrated leaves. The yard has cocoanut, banana, orange and cinnamon trees. In reading lists and descriptions of the African productions, one might conclude that this is the land for an epicure; but the fact is that none of these things take the place of the beef, wheat, vegetables and fruit of the United States, and a person who has lived in the tropics for a little while, longs for a Fulton or Quincy market.
The coffee farm consists of 1,500 trees from two to six feet high, set in rows eight feet apart and just beginning to bear. The coffee grows in pods about the size of a robin’s egg, in each of which are two kernels enveloped in a skin or husk. To keep down the rapid and rank growth of grass with the hoe alone, requires a vast amount of labor. I find that these industries are highly appreciated by travelers and traders, and have made the name of Mr. Burton well known on the coast. The natives have felt their influence already, and will be more and more inspired by them to habits of industry and enterprise.
The remaining element of the station is the fakir, or native village. Most of the houses have mud walls, with bamboo or thatched roofs. They are built without much system, and are huddled together, because, probably, where wars prevail, it is necessary to wall in the towns and villages for defence, and so the houses must not occupy too much ground. Such is Avery, with its material, mental, and religious machinery, all tending to produce an intelligent and stable Christianity.
And now those who have become interested in the experiment of manning the Mendi mission with graduates of A. M. A. schools, are asking whether the plan is successful, and I am supposed to have some information upon this point. It is not quite three years since the first party of these colored missionaries sailed for Africa, two of whom have returned, and the others have had a shorter term of service. So it is too soon to say whether the experiment has been a success or a failure. If the work had been carried on by them in the most approved manner, it would be premature to say that the problem of African evangelization had been successfully solved. And, on the other hand, if the experiment thus far had been an utter failure, it would be unjust to the colored race to conclude, from this one brief trial, that they are incapable of carrying on mission work by themselves in Africa. Those who are most ready to embark in an enterprise of this kind are not always the best qualified. Zeal is needed, and in no leas degree, sound judgment also.
Fisk University graduated its first college class in 1875, and Atlanta hers in 1876, so that from these Institutions have come only five or six small classes that have completed a collegiate education, and the first one of these students to graduate from a full theological course has just received his diploma. And then the officers of the Association have not had their pick from the graduates of their schools. Some of those best qualified for mission work abroad are fully persuaded in their own minds that their field of labor is at home.
So the experiment at the Mendi mission has not been tried under the most favorable circumstances. The officers of the Association have not had, like those of the American Board for its work, a large number of fully educated, mature and consecrated men and women from which to select candidates for their African mission.
But what is the actual outcome of this brief experiment? The colored missionaries have kept alive the churches and schools, have well cared for the buildings and grounds of the stations, have cultivated the coffee-farm, have bought logs, manufactured and sold lumber, have organized a new church of considerable promise, and all but one of them have kept unbroken the brittle thread of life.
[After granting that the mission has as a whole met with serious drawbacks, and suffered from the lack of character and wisdom on the part of some of those to whom it was entrusted, Mr. Chase refers at some length to the following as reasons why mission work in Africa is, and must be, slow: 1. Polygamy; 2. Mohammedanism; 3. The superstitions of the people; 4. The rum trade; 5. The unhealthfulness of the climate; 6. The pernicious influence of traders; 7. The inability of the natives to procure the equipments of Christian civilization. The paper concludes as follows]:
Now, in view of this rather gloomy presentation, does any one say, “Let us abandon the Mendi Mission; money enough has been spent, lives enough have been sacrificed”? I have not written with any such object in view. My purpose has been to state plain facts as they exist, for the consideration of wise men, believing that if there is any lack of tangible results, it is not all the fault of management or workers, and that great things ought not to be expected in the immediate future.
But there are grounds for hope as well as for despondency. The mission has a good name. The labors of Raymond, Thompson and others, are fragrant in the memories of natives and foreigners, so that even the British colonists in Sierra Leone are loud in their praise. The industrial work, instituted and carried on by the wonderful ingenuity and energy of Mr. Burton, has secured the good will of traders and foreign residents. I heard many encomiums upon the mission, especially upon its early history.
The Mendians are a numerous people, occupying a belt of territory of some hundred miles upon the sea, and reaching far back into the interior, all of which region is drained by the Sherbro river, near the mouth of which is located our Good Hope station. Our mission was established among them many years before those of other societies, and its work is far ahead of that of the Wesleyans and Church of England, and if these should greatly increase their efforts there would still be room for us.
By the assiduous labor of Mr. Claflin, the language of the Mendi people has been reduced to writing, an elementary grammar and small vocabulary have been published, and portions of the New Testament translated, so that the acquisition of the native tongue is comparatively easy.
The land and buildings of the mission constitute a valuable property; the Good Hope station, with its regular steamboat communication with Freetown, furnishes a needed base of operations, and the sawmill at Avery will provide lumber for future buildings.
The fact that this mission is right in the heart of the old slave grounds, ought to furnish inspiration for its support. Between it and Freetown on the Bomana Islands were the old slave pens of the infamous and afterward illustrious John Newton. Kaw Mendi is supposed to be the centre of the region from which the Amistad captives were dragged from their homes to be sold into slavery, and is the point at which they settled after their return from these Connecticut shores, through what might be called a series of special providences. At Kaw Mendi it was my privilege to see and converse with two surviving members of that slave cargo. Special interest in such a field as this is something more than mere sentiment. It is the breath of the God of Love sweeping across the chords of the soul.
Then too, in addition to the name and history of the mission, its valuable property, its large field, its written language, and its providential beginning, it has living material that can be utilized in its future extension. The station at Debia, where the lamented Barnabas Root labored for a time, is well carried on by a native educated at the mission; and another efficient helper of the same training is employed at Good Hope. And there are several traders and carpenters, mission-educated, who could render good service in penetrating the interior.
The great call at present is for two or three men of ability and culture, of broad views, of practical sense, of considerable business experience, and of deep consecration, who are ready to enlist for a long term of service, and take the lead in this enterprise.
The foundations have been laid, the material for the structure is at hand and the work is waiting for a wise master-builder.
Let a disciple of the Lord see those people there in their degradation, superstition, and poverty, and then let him visit some of our communities in the South, and see those of the same color, features, and form, living in comfortable houses, clad in decent garments, cultivating large fields of their own, and supporting the school and the church, and let him realize that these pictures present the same race and perhaps the same tribe of people, and that he can be instrumental under Providence, even in an ordinary life-time, in bringing about a repetition of this wonderful transformation, and he ought to need no stronger inspiration.