One of the Scotch Societies, near the close of the Kaffir war, when summing up the effects it had produced, draws this melancholy picture:
“All missionary operations have been suspended; the converts are either scattered or compelled, by their hostile countrymen, to take part in the revolt; the missionaries have been obliged to leave the scenes of their benevolent labors; hostile feelings have been excited between the black and white races, which it will require a long period to soothe down; and the prospects of evangelizing Kaffirland have been rendered dark and distant.”
But we are not yet done recounting the obstacles to the progress of the Gospel in South Africa, and the oppressions to which its population are subjected. Our last reference to the Boers, left them emigrating toward the interior of Africa. It appears that they have selected territory and organized themselves into a government, under the title of the “Free Republic;” and that, in the course of the last year their independence has been acknowledged by Great Britain. The Boers, although recognized as a nation, seem little disposed to peace; but have, lately, proceeded to destroy some of the stations of the London Missionary Society, and to drive two English missionaries from their territory. They have also attacked and plundered three of the native tribes, killing 60 men and taking a number of women and children prisoners. Their movements seem to indicate that they are determined to prevent the English from extending northward into their vicinity; and it is feared they will enslave or ruin the native tribes among whom they have settled. When charged with this design, they denied it, and claimed that the servitude they adopt is not slavery, but a system of apprenticeship—such, we suppose, as the English have established, to secure laborers for their West India plantations. The missionaries, however, have ascertained that the natives are bought and sold by them; and from this fact it is inferred, that the fate of the Hottentots, in former years, will, doubtless, be the lot of the natives who are now in the power of the Boers. Alas! for poor Africa!
Referring to these events, the London Society expresses the opinion, that, hereafter, the missionaries will not be left untrammeled, or the liberty of the natives preserved, in the “Free Republic,” unless the British nation shall utter its voice distinctly and earnestly in behalf of these unoffending myriads.[[52]] In that event, doubtless, the liberty of the natives might be prolonged, until English emigrants should demand their lands; and then, the fate of the Kaffirs would await them.
We must here close these investigations. In reflecting upon the consequences attending the emigration of the English and Dutch into South Africa, we can not but be struck with the sameness of the results there, and those connected with European emigration among the North American Indians. Unlike the emigration of the colored people into West Africa, that of the whites into South Africa and North America, has tended to the destruction of the native heathen, and not, as in Liberia, to their moral redemption. Nor are the inducements to exchange heathen customs for those of Christianity, as strong in South Africa as in Liberia. The natives, in the former, on abandoning heathenism only become subjects of British law, and not freemen, as in the latter, participating in the affairs of government. The South African chief, has even less reason than his people, to forsake his barbarism; as he only thereby loses his power, and, from being himself a king, he becomes a subject, and compelled to bow to the white man, who has robbed him of his greatness. These obstacles to missionary progress in South Africa, are daily on the increase, by additional European emigration; as each white man, who sets his foot upon the Cape, but adds to the necessity for robbing the natives of additional lands. On the contrary, each colored emigrant to Liberia, by adding to the strength of the Republic, is aiding in extending to the natives the blessings of freedom and of peace, and securing to them their right to their homes under the sanction of Christian laws.
Thus, it appears, that, as the colonization of colored men in Liberia elevates the native population, secures harmony of feeling and unity of interest between the parties, gives distinction to the race, and secures the more rapid extension of the Gospel; so the emigration of white men into South Africa, tends to degrade the natives, produces enmity of feeling and diversity of interest, destroys whatever of nationality they possessed, and erects a mighty barrier against their conversion to Christianity.
The total missionary force in South Africa, is under the care of eleven Missionary Societies, ten of which are European, and one American. Their condition, in 1850, before the commencement of the Kaffir war, was as follows:[[53]] Missionaries 214, assistant missionaries 155, native assistants 8, communicants 12,116, schools 60, scholars 20,100.
CONCLUSION.
Here we must close our inquiries, sum up the results, see what experience teaches, draw the contrasts between these several classes of Missions, and determine the best mode of employing human instrumentalities for the extension of the Gospel in Africa.
These Missions, as we have shown, had to be planted upon a broad field of barbarism; where the civil condition, the objects of worship, the social customs, the intellectual state of the people, were the antagonists of what prevail under a Christian civilization. The missionary’s task embraced much of toil, privation, danger, patience, perseverance. Wars were to be turned into peace, superstitions overthrown, polygamy abolished, ignorance dispelled, before civilization and Christianity could be established. This was the work to be accomplished. The results have been given in detail, and now they must only be recapitulated and contrasted.