Thus, after thirteen years’ labor, and the sacrifice of a noble band of martyrs to the cause of African redemption, was the Bassa mission left without a head, except so far as it could be supplied by the native converts. Amongst them, there was one preacher and four teachers, who kept up the organization of the little church, and continued the schools.
It was not until 1852, that the Board had any offers of missionaries for Bassa, to supply the place of those who had fallen or retreated. In that year, however, Rev. J. S. Goodman, and Rev. W. B. Shermer, and their wives, offered themselves to the Board, and were accepted. They set sail November 27, 1852, and were accompanied by Mrs. Crocker, who longed to return to the mission and devote her life to the service of her Lord and Master.
This Mission family was permitted to reach its field of labor in safety; but recent information brings the painful intelligence of the death of Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Shermer; and that Mr. Shermer himself, had also been very ill, and had left Africa to return home by way of England. In writing from London, under date of January 13, 1854, he says: “That during the past twelve months, six missionaries of different denominations have died, and eight have been and are obliged to return to America; all of whom had gone to Africa within the last year. This is indeed a fearful mortality among African missionaries. Yet God has a people there, and if the white man can not live to evangelize them, he can and will raise up other agencies. Educated colored men, in all probability, must and will be the only instrumentality employed in the conversion of Africa.”[[12]]
The mission, before the recent deaths, consisted of 2 stations, 2 missionaries, 4 female assistants, and 4 native assistants. Its Church has 16 members; and it has 2 day-schools with 36 pupils, and 2 Sabbath-Schools with 60 pupils.
The Foreign Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, came into existence in 1845. Its organization was a result of the differences of opinion, on the subject of slavery, among the members of the American Baptist Missionary Union. The Liberia Churches, which were founded by Lot Carey, Collin Teage, and their successors, connected themselves with the Southern Board, while Bassa, alone, continued its adherence to the Northern Board. This arrangement gave the Southern Board, at once, a strong missionary force in Liberia; and the mission has continued to prosper under their supervision. At present, it is composed of 13 stations, 19 missionaries and teachers, 11 day-schools, 400 scholars, and 584 communicants. As far as we can learn, all these missionaries are colored men.
The Board proposes to occupy three stations in Central Africa, by six missionaries, four of whom are already secured, and have departed for their field of labor. The mission field in Africa, is represented as very important and very inviting, both on account of the constantly increasing emigration from the United States, and the facilities enjoyed for the evangelization of the heathen tribes. During the meeting of the Convention at Baltimore, in June, 1853, the advantages of Central Africa were discussed at length; and the Rev. T. J. Bowen,[[13]] who had explored the field, delivered an address, in which he spoke particularly of Yoruba, as a country with a delightful climate, apparently healthy, and moderately fertile. The people, he said, are far above savages, polite in their manners, quite intelligent, and dwelling in walled cities, some of which cover an area as large as the city of New York. They are prepared by their religion, he conceives, to appreciate the value of the great Sacrifice and Mediator, Jesus, and are willing and anxious to hear the Gospel; and some of them, during his short stay of eight weeks, gave evidence of a change of heart and of faith in Christ. He was the first white man who had visited some parts of that country; and “his narrative was at once surprising and encouraging.”
The Presbyterian Board of Missions, (O. S.,) sent their first missionaries to West Africa, in 1833. The Rev. J. B. Pinney was the pioneer in this mission. In the earlier years of its existence, it was greatly interrupted and retarded by the sickness or death of its missionaries; but within the last few years its prospects are more encouraging. In 1837, attempts were made to establish missions among the natives, and the efforts continued throughout a series of years. Much labor and several valuable lives were sacrificed in the work, and the only remaining fruit is a single station, at Settra Kroo, with a small school for native children. In 1850, a new mission to the natives was commenced at Corisco Island, which, thus far, is very promising.
The mission in Liberia, for colonists and natives, was the first established and has been more prosperous. It now embraces 116 church members, 2 ordained ministers and 1 licentiate, 3 congregations, and flourishing Sabbath-schools. The day-schools are well attended, by both colonists and natives. The Board, 1852, sent out the Rev. D. A. Wilson, a white man, of finished education, to take charge of the Alexander High School, and raise it to the grade of a college. At Monrovia, the press for admission into the English school of Mr. James, is represented as so great, that it had been found almost impossible to keep the number as low as fifty scholars—the number had averaged 70, and in consequence of the inadequacy of teachers, the progress of the pupils had been less rapid than, under other circumstances, must have been the case.
The Board urges the necessity of multiplying the number of educated ministers and teachers in Liberia; and offers, as an argument in favor of that field, and the one on Corisco Island, that these missions are likely soon to yield abundant fruits of Gospel culture. The following is the closing sentence of the Report: “Their past and touching history; their sphere of labor on a continent so benighted, and yet separated from this country only by the Atlantic; and the residence among us of so many of the children of Africa, many of whom are in the communion of our churches;—all seem to direct a large share of the missionary strength of our body to be employed hereafter in connection with these missions, and in the general field of labor to which they are doors of entrance.”
The Mission of the American Protestant Episcopal Church, in Liberia, was regularly commenced in the year 1836, at Cape Palmas. It now embraces 6 clergymen, including Bishop Payne. A high school has been established for training colonist teachers and missionaries. Connected with this school are 5 candidates for orders, 3 of whom are natives. The number of youth in this school at present, is 10; who are supported at the expense of the mission. The children of the colonists, to the number of 15 or 20, are admitted as day scholars. A female colonist day school is also in operation, with an attendance of 45 to 50 children. The mission includes 4 stations, at all of which native boarding-schools are, or have been, maintained with some good degree of regularity. The average attendance of scholars here has been over 100, and the number instructed in the way of salvation at least 1,000. Day-schools are and have been taught, in which many heathen children have learned to read, and also acquired that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation. Sunday-schools, composed of boarding scholars, and children from heathen towns, have been another means of good. The Gospel has been, and is still, preached to nearly the whole Grebo tribe, numbering a population of some 25,000; besides which, a congregation in Maryland, in Liberia, has been supplied with stated services. More than 100 have been admitted to baptism, or having previously received this rite, been enrolled as communicants of the Church. Some of these have apostatized, others have died in the faith; while about 80 still remain members of the Church militant. The Grebo dialect has been reduced to writing, and many portions of the Scriptures, and other books, published in it. A printing press is in operation, from which, besides other publications, a small Missionary paper is issued. It should be named, as one of the most important fruits of the Mission, that a wide-spread conviction of the truth of Christianity has been produced in the native mind, and an expectation that, at no distant time, it must supersede the religion of the country.[[14]]