Where reliance is placed upon education, mainly, for introducing the Gospel, its progress is necessarily slow; because a generation, or two, is needed to bring forward a competent number of agents to take possession of the field. The drawbacks, too, are very great—much seed being sown, which falls upon stony ground. If schools are conducted upon a large scale, the children must be supported by their parents; and, in such cases, the superstitions and vices of heathenism have, but too often, an easy victory over the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. In this respect no new principle has been discovered. In Christian countries, where custom, law, and the example of parents, combine to give the ascendency to virtue, who can hope that his children will escape moral contamination, if they be permitted to mingle, at will, with the vicious and depraved. How much more, then, are the children of the heathen endangered, if left in the care of licentious and idolatrous parents, among a population where the laws of virtue are unknown?
To avoid these evils, Bishop Scott urges, that the native children, attending the Methodist schools in Liberia, be taken into the families of the missionaries—a system which has been pursued with success, by some of the other societies.
But we need not extend these observations. It is not difficult to comprehend the connection which exists between Colonization and the more rapid extension of the Gospel in Africa; and to see the superiority of the missions in Liberia, to those among the natives. Look but a moment at its advantages. Liberia contains a greater number of the elements of success, than are embraced in the missions to the natives, or in those of any other class; and, consequently, must be more efficient in promoting the evangelization of the African people. The overawing influence of its laws upon the natives—the permanency of its schools—the circulation of the Scriptures and religious tracts among those taught to read—the protection afforded by its government to the missionaries—the constant preaching of the word—the high morality of its Christian population—the influx of civilized emigrants who are the descendants of those cruelly torn from their shores in former years—all tend directly to promote the work of missions. Colonization, therefore, supplies to the missions in Liberia, at once, the instrumentalities which those among the natives are only able to acquire after many years of toil.
IV. The Missions in Connection with the Colonies of White Men in South Africa.
We must refer a moment to the civil history of South Africa, as it is essential to the proper understanding of its Missionary history.
The Dutch took possession of the Cape in 1650, and this occupancy was followed by an extensive emigration of that people to Cape Town and its vicinity. The encroachments of the emigrants upon the Hottentots, soon gave rise to wars, which resulted in the enslavement of this feeble race. The English captured Cape Town in 1795, ceded it back in 1801, retook it in 1808, and still hold it in possession.
The climate of South Africa being favorable to the health of Europeans, an English emigration to the Cape commenced soon after it became a British province. This led to further encroachments upon the native tribes, and to much disaffection upon the part of the Dutch, who were designated by the term Boers.[[50]] They remained in the Colony, however, until 1834, when the emancipation act, of the British Parliament, set the Hottentots free. This so enraged the Boers, that they emigrated in large bodies beyond the limits of Cape Colony. In seeking new homes, they came in contact with the Zulus, as already stated, and aided in the subjugation of that powerful people. Driven by the English from the Zulu country, the Boers passed on to the north-west, far into the interior, where we shall soon hear from them again.
The English, in extending their settlements to the north-east of Cape Town, soon came into collision with the Kaffirs; who, being a powerful and warlike race, made a vigorous resistance to their advances. The Kaffirs stole the cattle of the whites, and the whites retaliated on the Kaffirs. These depredations often resulted in wars, each of which gave the English government a pretext to add a portion of the Kaffir territory to its own. As war followed on war, the Kaffirs improved in the art, acquired something of the skill of their enemies, and learned the use of European weapons. Thus every Kaffir war became more formidable, requiring more troops, costing more money, and, of course, demanding more territory. In consequence of these various annexations from the Kaffirs, Zulus, and others, the English possessions in South Africa now cover a space of 282,000 square miles; 105,000 of which have been added since 1847—the year of the great failure in the cotton crop of the United States.
The Missionary History of South Africa, though of great interest, must also be very brief.
A Moravian mission, begun in 1736, among the Hottentots, was broken up at the end of six years, by the Dutch authorities, and its renewal prevented for 49 years. Having been resumed in 1792, it was again interrupted in 1795, but soon afterwards restored under British authority. Here, the hostility of the Dutch government to Christian Missions excluded the Gospel from South Africa during a period of half a century.