That sets the islands free.
J. G. Whittier.
A TEMPERANCE MEETING IN AFRICA.
James Backhouse, an English Friend and a minister, published a journal of his mission in Africa, in which he says, under date of December 1st, 1838—
This is the memorable day in which slavery ceased in Cape Colony, South Africa. We arrived at Hankey in time to join a considerable congregation of those who had been in bondage—natives of Madagascar and Mozambique, as well as home-born slaves; they had come from the surrounding country to unite with those on the mission station in praising God for their deliverance from bondage. In the evening a meeting was held, when several Hottentots (natives of South Africa) and freedmen addressed the congregation. The next day was "a Sabbath day," and truly "a high day." About five hundred freed slaves and Hottentots assembled early in the morning; they held a prayer-meeting, in which the language of thanksgiving was held forth by one lately in slavery, and appropriate hymns were sung. I exhorted the liberated to seek, through Jesus Christ, deliverance from that worst of bondage—slavery to sin. In the evening of the third day a temperance tea-meeting was held in the chapel. A suspended wheel-tire was struck for a bell, to call them to assemble. The men sat at the tables on one side of the chapel, and the women at the other side; tea and cakes were dealt out by some of the women. All were remarkably clean, and conducted themselves with sober cheerfulness and looks full of interest. After the Missionary had returned thanks and made a brief address, it was my privilege to follow him in recommending total abstinence from intoxicating liquors. Several Hottentots and freed slaves then addressed the meeting, which afterwards adjourned for a short interval at milking time. On re-assembling, George W. Walker spoke at some length, and several others.
At half-past ten the Missionary suggested that it would be unseasonable to continue the meeting longer; he therefore opened a book of signatures to the total-abstinence pledge, and one hundred and sixty new names were received. As neither my companion, G. W. Walker, nor I had hitherto signed such a pledge, we also added our names. A sweet sense of the love of God overshadowed this meeting.
Some attention had been paid to temperance from the early institution of this settlement. The children have so little idea of what drunkenness is, that in 1842, when an Englishman appeared in a state of intoxication, some of them ran away, thinking he was mad; others thought he must be ill because he staggered, but others feared he was blind, and offered to lead him.
At the expiration of a year from this period, only one of the persons who signed the pledge on this day, was known to have broken it, and that only to the amount of taking a single glass of wine.