2. Those in the English colonies of Recaptured Africans.
3. Those among native tribes, beyond the protection of the colonies.
4. Those to the natives of South Africa, within the English colonies of white men.
I. The Missions founded in Liberia.
Rev. Samuel J. Mills is called the father of our Foreign Missionary scheme. His heart first received the Divine impress of the spirit of missions, and through him it was communicated to others. “I think I can trust myself in the hands of God, and all that is dear to me; but I long to have the time arrive, when the Gospel shall be preached to the poor Africans.” This language, entered in his diary, while a student at College,[[1]] proves that the thought of Africa was foremost in his mind. He beheld her captive children, dwelling in our midst, deeply degraded. From this condition they could not be elevated to the dignity of freemen. Christian philanthropy made the effort, but was unable to afford them relief.[[2]] Their country, too, was yet a bleeding victim, with few to pity and none to protect.
With the National Independence of our country, there arose higher conceptions of the individual man. This was a logical inference from the principles maintained. People found themselves capable of self-government; hence, the individual must possess the capacity for self-elevation. So reasoned the founders of our Republic; and, to this end, equal laws and privileges were secured to every citizen, that the improvement of all might be promoted. But in the case of the colored man, the National Government was powerless. It possessed neither the means, nor the constitutional authority, to change the relations in which he stood to the whites. It only remained, therefore, to make the colored man, himself, the instrument of his own redemption. No sooner had this thought sprung into existence, than it was seized by the Philanthropist; and, in his grasp, it suddenly expanded into the grand idea of making him also the agent for the deliverance of his country.
The time had come for Samuel J. Mills to act. Five years had rolled away since his companions, whom he had enlisted in the cause—Judson, Newell, Nott, Hall, and Rice—had gone to their fields of labor, in the East.[[3]] Africa, as well as Asia, was now remembered by the friends of Foreign Missions; and Mills offered himself,[[4]] to open the pathway for the colored man’s return, with the Gospel of peace, to the home of his fathers. He accomplished his object, only to find his grave in the ocean, thus marking the way the captive must pursue to reach a land of freedom.
The exploration of Mr. Mills, was made in company with the Rev. Ebenezer Burgess, under a commission from the American Colonization Society. His death was deeply lamented by the friends of Foreign Missions, but the importance of the cause in which he fell, justified the sacrifice. The favorable report made by Mr. Burgess, enabled the Society to proceed in its enterprise. The first emigrants, 86 in number, sailed for Africa, February, 1820; and the Colony was first planted at Monrovia, January, 1822. The pecuniary income of the Society being small,[[5]] the emigration was slow—only 1,232 persons having reached the Colony during the first 10 years. The average number of Colonists, up to the period when the Colony became independent, was only about 170 per annum: the average from the first of January, 1848, to the close of 1852, has been 540 per annum: and for 1853, alone, it has been 782: thus showing a rapid increase since the establishment of the Republic. Previous to that date, three-fourths of the emigrants had been emancipated slaves, who received their freedom on condition of going to Liberia; but, since its independence, a largely increased proportion have been freemen.
We shall not enter upon the history of the trials to which Liberia has been subjected, as the main facts are familiar to every one. Her extermination by war, on the one hand, has been thrice attempted by the slave traders, through the agency of the native Africans; and, on the other hand, her ruin has been sought, in the destruction of the Colonization Society, by an immense moral force, at the head of which stood men who are now the avowed enemies of the Bible. Good men, who, for a time, were arrayed in opposition to Colonization, finding themselves involved in a crusade against the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, have, mostly, given in their adhesion to the cause, and left the repudiators of Christianity and the traffickers in human flesh, as the only enemies to African Colonization. The prayer of Samuel J. Mills, for the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, has been heard, and Ethiopia now stretches forth her hands unto God.
In proceeding to the missionary history of Liberia, we shall begin with the Methodist Episcopal Church. The mission in the Republic of Liberia, is her oldest in the Foreign field. The nucleus of this mission, consisted of several members, and one or two local preachers, of the Methodist Church, who went out with the first emigrants. In March, 1833, the Rev. Melville B. Cox, the first ordained missionary, landed in Monrovia. To maintain this mission, has cost much treasure, and many precious lives; but the fruits of it are inestimable. It is now formed into a regular Annual Conference, composed of three districts, each with a presiding elder, and having its circuits, stations, and day and Sunday schools. The mission now covers the whole territory of Liberia and that of Cape Palmas.[[6]] The Conference consists of 21 members in full connection and on trial, all of whom are colored men. Its churches, according to the Agent’s Report, 1853, embrace 1,301 members, of whom 116 are natives, and there are 115 probationers. The Mission has 15 Sunday schools, with 839 pupils, of whom 50 are natives; and 20 week-day schools, with 513 scholars. There are also 7 schools among the natives, with 127 pupils.