AFRICAN NOTES.
—The long delayed tidings have been received by the London Missionary Society from Messrs. Hore and Hutley at Lake Tanganika. The particulars of Mr. Dodgshun’s death are given. Annoyances and delays interposed by the Arab slave-traders are rehearsed. We give a few extracts from letters:—
“During the seven months of our stay here, we have done much towards making friends with the natives; they have closely observed us, and admit that they can see nothing bad; but the influence of the Arabs is so powerful that they, the Wajiji, are afraid to make any definite negotiations with us apart from the Arabs.
“The slave-trade at Ujiji is merely a small local affair—slaves captured in war, &c., amongst surrounding tribes, and passed from hand to hand, till they finally come to a stand in some Arab’s shamba: this used to be done in the market, but since we came here, it has all been kept out of sight. Once only some Wajiji offered us a slave for sale as they passed by our tembe. The traders owning these domestic slaves, have from twenty to one hundred of them (I think Muniyi Heri reaches the larger number); they are their domestics, boatmen, carriers, body guard, and cultivators, and, of course, form the principle population of the place, filling up with huts the spaces between their masters’ larger houses.
“Slavery amongst the natives is another matter. The Wajiji are great slave-holders, slaves being as common as domestic servants at home; but no great numbers are owned by individuals as among the Arabs. A common present between chiefs is one or two slaves, and Mirambo sends small parties from time to time to buy both slaves and ivory. When the Portuguese and Arab slave-trades are crushed out, or nearly so, we shall see and more fully realize the extent of native slavery, or slave customs, which cover the continent through its length and breadth. The former will have cost an immense outlay of the power and influence of civilized Europe ere it is swept away. The latter will take years of faithful mission labor to eradicate.
“To fulfil my promise to an Arab, to whom I said, ‘We do not want to buy except for our own use; but I will send your words to England,’ I add these few lines:—The Arabs say, ‘If the white men will come here and buy, we will grow as much sugar and rice, and spice and oil, &c., as they want, and would much rather get our money in that way, than in dangerous [and, as they admit one by one privately, illegal] slave-hunting.’ I keep telling them that the slave-trade is dying out, and they had better look to something else before they are left in the lurch.”
—“I have great trouble with my sailors who of course are not sailors. On one occasion I was close off Cape Kiungwe. About two A. M., pitch dark, a heavy squall burst on us from the northward, with sheets of rain. I could not see one foot in front of my eyes. This lasted for two or three hours, the boat sweeping along at a great rate without a stitch of canvas, and a nasty foaming sea. All six men became perfectly helpless, and huddled together inside the cabin. The good little binnacle, however, kept the compass-lamp burning, and by it only I knew where to steer; had it gone out, none of them could have put it to rights. I could not possibly let go the tiller; they were perfectly unable to work the paddles had they been required, and it was only after roaring myself hoarse at them that I could rouse them to bale the water out. When they get home they strut about with a little cane in their hands, and boast of their sailorizing.”
—“I trust,” he writes, “no one will call this mission disastrous, or condemn Ujiji hastily as unhealthy. It is certainly much healthier than Zanzibar, and both Mr. Hutley and myself were never more persistent in our determination to go on. Certainly we want more help, but the work is going on. We are living down native prejudices and suspicions, and the lies of slanderers. We will slacken no effort to carry on this work; and I am speaking, not at home, but in the midst of the work and its difficulties. May God induce His stewards to do their part, and see in the vacant spaces of the ranks only cause for new and earnest effort. I commenced this letter with but mournful news; I desire to close it with an expression of thankfulness to God for what health and strength and success He has given us, and with an earnest appeal to all missionary hearts to apply their means and strength with renewed vigor to this work, and to be assured that, however cavilers may talk of disaster, there is no despondency here.”
—On the eve of going to press the Directors have received a telegram from the Society’s agent in Zanzibar, to the following effect: “The Rev. W. Griffith and Dr. Southon arrived at Ujiji on the 23d of September; all well.”
—An Alexandria despatch to the Daily News says Ismail Eyoud Pacha has been appointed Governor of the Soudan, vice Gordon Pacha resigned.