AFRICA.
OUR NEW MISSIONARIES.
Arrival at Sherbro—A Hearty Welcome—First Impressions.
Our letters from the newly arrived band of missionaries at the Mendi Mission have been, of necessity, brief and hurried. We learn from them that the party arrived at Sierra Leone on the 19th of November, and landed the next morning.
In a letter dated Nov. 22, from Sierra Leone, Mr. White says:
“We had, as you know, fifty-seven days on our voyage. The sea is a bad road to ride. All of us were sick some, and Mr. and Mrs. Snelson, Mrs. James and Mrs. Pardoe’s little boy, we thought would not be able to make the voyage. The captain is a very fine man, indeed, and tried to do all for us that was in his power. We are very thankful to him for the kindness he showed toward us. We are very well pleased with Africa—that is, so far as we have seen, but we cannot compare Sherbro with this place, because the people here are not all native, and those at Sherbro are. The mission has a house in Sierra Leone, in which we will stay till we go next week, by steamer, to our station. I want to visit some of the Industrial Schools here before I leave, so that we can tell how they are carried on.
“The people here are very kind to us. The place looks like some old towns in America, which are going to ruin. The houses are all built in the old style. Some of the people will compare with any of our people in the States, while others are far behind them—some of them dress very well, while some only wear a piece of cloth around their hips. You can tell the natives because all of them bear some kind of a mark, as all the tribes mark their children while they are small, to distinguish them from other people.”
From Rev. Mr. Snelson, under dates of Nov. 28 and Dec. 1, we learn that during the week while they were compelled to wait for the government steamer, they were the objects of many kind attentions from the ministers, Governor and leading gentlemen of Sierra Leone. Mr. Kirk met them on their arrival there.
Under the later date, Mr. Snelson writes from Bonthe: