Of course, but little actual mission work has been performed thus far. The mission has no permanent home, and time is required for preparation. Sunday services have been held from the first, and a school with a fair attendance is carried on. A great deal has been accomplished, however, in suppressing the slave trade. Formerly thousands of slaves were sent across the lake from Jumbe's, who is a Mohammedan, but the Arab traders have now left the lake and gone inland to carry on their nefarious business. Two members of the mission, Dr. Laws and Capt. Elton, have died, and all have had the fever.
A short distance to the south of Livingstonia, and closely connected with it, is Blantyre, the mission of the church of Scotland. It has a very favorable location in the Shiré hills. It is high, cool, well wooded, a stream is near, it has good soil, and an iron mine. Until last year the evangelistic work was performed by a missionary from Livingstonia, but now an ordained missionary is in charge. The gardeners have a large tract under cultivation, and Blantyre is evidently to become the centre of a large population. The natives are gathering around it, they are very friendly, and they are giving more attention to the cultivation of the soil. The school has many promising scholars.
The second mission established in Central Africa was that of the Church Missionary Society on the Victoria Nyanza. November 15, 1875, a London paper printed a letter from Stanley calling for Christian missionaries to enter Mtesa's country, Uganda. Three days later the Church Missionary Society received a letter from "An Unprofitable Servant," offering $25,000 for such a mission. Shortly afterward another anonymous contribution of the same amount was received, the society having meanwhile decided to undertake the mission. The mission party left the coast at Bagamoyo, in 1876, in four divisions: the first on July 14, the second on July 29, the third on the last of August, and the fourth on September 14. After crossing the Wami River, the expedition took the route of Mr. Roger Price, of the London Missionary Society, to Mpwapwa. From Mpwapwa the route was west and north to Unyanyembe; thence north to Kagei, at the southern end of the lake, the advance party reaching that point in January, 1877, the journey of 800 miles being performed in about six months, without serious mishap. One of the party, Dr. Smith, died on the way of fever. The provisions were stored at Kagei, but Ukerewe Island, in the southern part of the lake, was made the basis of operations.
Lieutenant Smith and the Rev. C. T. Wilson proceeded to the northern shore of the lake, entering Rubaga, the capital of Mtesa's kingdom Uganda, on June 30. They were received with great favor by Mtesa, who is the ruler of a powerful people. Lieutenant Smith remained with Mr. Wilson a month, and then returned to Ukerewe to assist Mr. O'Neill in preparing for removal. Mr. Wilson was well provided for at first by Mtesa, and had a house near the palace, but the chiefs and the Arabs used their influence against the missionary, and the supplies of food grew smaller and less frequent, and at last Mr. Wilson was informed that he must remove farther from the palace. He had, however, free access to the king and held divine services every Sunday in the palace, the king himself often taking part in them.
Several of the Uganda boys were gathered into a school, and were found to be bright and quick to learn. Late in December, Mr. Wilson had news of a disaster on the lake, and hastened south to find that Lieutenant Smith and Mr. O'Neill had been murdered by Lukongeh's people in a dispute raised by an Arab trader about a dhow. Finding that the stores at Kagei were almost exhausted, Mr. Wilson went on to Unyanyembe, whence he returned to Uganda, arriving at Rubaga March 26, 1878. The last letters received from him by way of the Nile speak hopefully of the future. The caravan, with the bulk of the goods, has made very slow progress. Porters by the thousand were required to convey them, and porters in Africa are arrant villains. At the latest accounts the caravan was still some distance from the lake. A reinforcement for Uganda was sent out at the beginning of 1878, of three young students of the Church Missionary College, and a medical missionary, by way of the Nile. The latest news from them stated that they reached Berber in July. One of their number had been sun-struck and was compelled to return. Thus far $65,000 has been received for the Nyanza mission; also a large part of a fund of $50,000 asked for by the society last April for the support of it.
The liberal donor who gave $25,000 for the Nyanza Mission offered the London Missionary Society the same sum for a mission on Lake Tanganyika. March 15, 1876, the Society resolved to undertake the mission. The Rev. Roger Price, who was commissioned to ascertain what was the best route to the interior, found that by starting from Saadani, wagons could be used as far as Mpwapwa, and that the costly and vexatious system of porterage could thus be avoided so far. Four ordained missionaries, one scientific man, and one builder, left London in March, 1877, as the first contingent of the expedition. At Saadani they divided, four starting July 25, and the rest with the caravan in October. In March the expedition reached Kirasa, forty-five miles east of Mpwapwa, where they left the wagons and employed porters. They reached their destination August 23, having been thirteen months on the journey from the coast, in consequence of unexpected obstacles and vexatious delays. The letters announcing the arrival were only forty-five days on the route to the coast, and only thirty-three thence to London. A high and healthy camping place was chosen near Ujiji. The caravan has not yet reached the lake.
The history of these missions is yet to be made. None of them can be said to be fully established yet. Buildings are to be erected, languages are to be learned, the country is to be explored, and the ways of the people are to be studied, before much can be done in declaring the Gospel. The missions are well situated. The country around them is thickly peopled, and great opportunities are opening to them. Much good has already been done in checking the slave trade, in opening lines of legitimate commercial traffic, and in inducing the natives to cultivate the soil. Other missions will be established in due time. The English Baptists are prospecting for a new mission up the Congo, and Lake Bangweolo, west of Lake Nyassa, and south of Lake Tanganyika, called by Livingstone a paradise, will become the centre of another great mission. Thus from the South, the East and the West, Christian missions are approaching the heart of Africa. Before many years we may hope to see a chain of stations across the continent, and another from Lake Ngami to the equator. The tribes touch each other like drops of water, and when one of them is moved by the Gospel, those which surround it will be agitated. Thus will Christianity take possession of Africa.