The number of slaves that come down the Blue and White Nile is probably 25,000 annually (Southworth, see page 355; Charles New’s “Wanderings in Africa,” page 492). Many of these are gathered from the Fatiko, Obbo, Latooka and Madi country (see “Ismailia,” page 355), and efforts for their relief by missionaries co-operating with the Government of Col. Gordon would be of much promise (Col. Long, before Executive Committee A. M. A.), especially as Col. Gordon has been appointed Governor General of the Nile basin for life, by the Khedive of Egypt, which position he has accepted, with the avowed purpose of suppressing the slave trade. (“Khedive’s Egypt,” page 294.) He appears to have entered upon this task with the spirit of an old Scotch Covenanter, taking his Bible with him in his tent, in the desert and in the wilderness. (“Khedive’s Egypt,” page 291.)
It is a matter of interest that the proposed mission is among the real heathen. Moslem Africa extends across the continent to about 9 deg. north latitude. (See Reade’s “African Sketch Book,” Vol. I., page 312.) Below that belt of country there are no obstacles in the way of religious efforts among the natives, except those common to all missions among an unclad and tropical people. Sir Bartle Frere, as quoted by Secretary Hutchinson of the Church Missionary Society, says that the “missionary, by the negro, free or slave, is everywhere regarded as a friend. He has not the slightest objection of any kind, moral or material, political or social, to the missionary, whom he is glad to welcome as doing him good in many ways, and greatly adding to the importance of the tribes, in the midst of which a mission station is established.”
The peculiarity of the climate and the characteristics of the people indicate that the proposed mission should be manned largely by Freedmen from America. The climate is sure to wear out a white man in the course of a few years, if he remains constantly on the ground. (Col. Long, before the Executive Committee of the A. M. A.) The degree of mortality among the white soldiers of the Egyptian army, and the fate of the missionaries of the Austrian Mission at Gondokoro, illustrate the same fact. Besides, the general testimony is, that black men are better able to convince people of their own color of the attainments that may be reached in religion and civilization by the African race. Thus it appears that not only the climate is for the Negro, but the work of missions as well. It is the office of this Association to make use of the Freedmen educated in its schools as missionaries to Africa, as speedily as Providence shall open the way. It is able to furnish a portion of the force required at an early day.
The animal and vegetable productions of the country are so abundant that the material interests essential to the success of the mission are assured. The resources of the country are immense. “It is estimated that in the nine provinces of the Soudan there are 140,000,000 acres of fine, black, soft, loamy soil, an acreage that would make two productive cotton empires, each larger than France. You need not plough this soil; you need not work it; you have only to scatter the seed, and the periodical rains, or sikeahs (water-wheels for artificial irrigation) water the earth, and then at maturity you reap your harvest.” (“Four Thousand Miles in Africa,” page 357.)
The Madi country, for example, is thickly settled, and abounds with vast herds of the finest cattle. (“Ismailia,” page 286.) The Fatiko people are muscular and well built, and, generally, their faces are handsome (“Ismailia,” page 282); while the Obbo people, living as they do at an altitude of 3,600 feet above the level of the sea, wear clothing, and afford a market for cloth, for which they exchange ivory, giving promise of an active market at an early day. (See “Albert Nyanza,” page 224.)
The physical geography of a portion of the territory mentioned by Mr. Arthington is as attractive as any found in Central Africa. In latitude 3 deg. to 9 deg. north, on the White Nile, and eastwards, the elevations vary from 1,500 to 4,000 feet above the level of the sea (“Ismailia,” page 522), and possess all the variety of scenery of mountain, plain, forest and meadow, which give a park-like beauty to portions of the country. At Fatiko, in latitude 3 deg. north, during eight months the range of the thermometer was between 60 deg. at 6 A.M. and 90 deg. at noon, the average temperature being equal to about 75 deg. (“Ismailia,” pages 513, 514, 515, 516.)
From all that can be gathered, your Committee believe that, if the means shall be furnished for entering upon the proposed mission field, it will be wise to inaugurate the work among the highlands south of Gondokoro, among the Berri, Fatiko, Latooka or Obbo tribes, selecting a locality, if possible, accessible by steamer, not too far from some station of the Egyptian Government, and among tribes of mild and friendly disposition, and thus open to religious and civilizing agencies.
The Committee also urge that the relations of America to the slave trade have been such that we are in duty bound to do all we can for the redemption of the people of Africa, and that as a thank-offering to God for His overruling Providence in ridding our country of slavery, we, of America, should be ready to establish one new mission at least in addition to the three that have recently been undertaken with so much enthusiasm and at so great expense by our British friends.
The special claims of this field upon the American Missionary Association are obvious. Equatorial Africa is not a new and untried field to it. The Mendi Mission was organized by the Amistad Committee thirty-seven years ago, and was transferred to the care of the Association in 1846. We are not unfamiliar with the discouragements or the hopeful aspects of the work. We ought to have learned something by so long experience. It is by no means proposed to divert strength from the old mission, which has never, perhaps, been in more promising condition, to a new field. Rather it would be our hope, if the Lord should lay this work upon us, that these eastern and western fields, balancing each other across the dark continent, would more than double the interest of those who work through us in the evangelization of Africa. The negro race has always been our prominent and peculiar charge. That the people of this district have been degraded more by the slave trade than by their native heathenism, makes their claim on us the less possible to resist. And the fact that the missionary spirit among the students in our Southern colleges will soon demand room in which to expend itself in self-denying labor, forbids that we should refuse such an offer without careful and prayerful consideration.
We, therefore, advise that an appeal be made for $35,000, which, with the $15,000 offered by Mr. Arthington, will amount to $50,000, as a fund for the establishment of a mission in the Nile basin, to be called “The Arthington Mission,” in remembrance of the beneficent donor, who, under God, has by his liberality already made it possible for the great missionary societies to establish Central African missions.