THE MENDI MISSION.
PROF. T. N. CHASE, ATLANTA, GA.
In November last, I received a letter from Secretary Strieby, asking me to visit the Mendi Mission in West Africa, which invitation, after consultation with my family, from whom I was separated, was accepted, and on the 6th of December I sailed for that land.
My instructions required me to make such changes in the force of missionaries and their respective duties as seemed best, and to obtain information, and report, upon the following topics, viz.: The health of the missionaries; the church, school, and industrial work; finances and accounts; the removal or retention of Good Hope station; extension of the work into the interior, and the use of the Mendi language.
Upon all these topics, and some others, I reported as well as I could to the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., and some extracts have been embodied in their Annual Report of the work of the Association. Most of the information and reflections in this paper will be supplementary to that report.
Between Liverpool and Freetown, Sierra Leone, is a weekly line of steamers, one of which we took; and, after touching at Madeira, Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Goree, and Bathurst, we landed, on the twenty-second day of our voyage, at Freetown. Thence a small steamer conveyed us to Bonthe, where is the Good Hope station of the Mendi mission. The Sherbro river runs between the main land and Sherbro Island, being quite like Long Island Sound; and into it flow several branches that penetrate the Mendi country. On the inside of Sherbro Island, about fifty miles from its northern extremity, where is the mouth of the river, and ten miles from its southern point, is Good Hope, with its church, school and home. The buildings are on the bank of the stream, and the peaceful river, several miles in width, studded with green islands, presents a beautiful view. On the Sherbro Island a few miles south of Good Hope, is Debia, and thirty or forty miles up the Small Boom, a branch of the Sherbro, is Kaw Mendi, which has been described in a recent number of the Missionary.
Starting from Good Hope, and sailing north, down the Sherbro twenty miles, and then east up the Bahgroo twenty miles more, we come to Avery. For most of the way the banks of the river are lined with mangrove trees—appearing at high tide to stand in the water—whose trunks rest, at several feet above the ground, upon pyramids of stems or roots, and whose outspread branches send down to the earth numberless rope-like twigs of various sizes, altogether forming an almost impenetrable jungle. But about a mile below Avery the scene changes. The mangroves disappear, the low banks give way to quite high bluffs, and for a long distance stretches a rolling surface, with a soil of partially decomposed iron-stone. In a bend of the river, on a conspicuous bluff, stand the buildings of Avery, the component parts of the station being a home, a church, a school, a saw-mill, a garden, a coffee-farm, and a fakir.
The home is beautiful for situation, being so nicely located as to command a view of both banks of the river for half a mile in each direction; water, rocks and foliage being blended most charmingly. In this home dwell the pastor of the church with his wife, the superintendent of industrial work, and ten little native boys and girls, whose voices cheer the heart of one who loves children, as the little fellows nearly exhaust their stock of English words in saying “amen,” and the end of grace at meals, repeating the Lord’s Prayer, and saying, “Good night, sir,” at their hour for retiring. Some of these buds of promise have such illustrious names as Robt. Arthington, Wm. E. Gladstone, A. K. Spence, Jennie Pike and M. E. Strieby.
It was our privilege to attend church twice, and prayer meeting several times. The dress of the congregation, so far as it went, was novel, these people having never submitted to the cruel tyranny of fashion, but in most cases the amount of apparel met the requirements of decency. Milliners, however, would have a dry time in this region, for I noticed but one hat or bonnet, and I could not tell which. In other cases the head was bare, or surmounted by a turban made from a handkerchief ingeniously twisted and tied. Some of the men had full suits, others only a country cloth wrapped about them, and a few seemed satisfied with simply a large handkerchief about their loins. But, notwithstanding their lack in style and quantity of clothing, they were good listeners, and doubtless carried away much that was said; at least, the writer of this paper found great pleasure in preaching a lay sermon from the text, “God so loved the world,” &c. The tithing master, who paces up and down the aisles, has as little to do in keeping drowsy persons awake as he would in many New England churches. Some entries in the agent’s ledger seem to indicate that attendance upon church and other religious services is not altogether voluntary. One entry reads, “Cut (docked) for staying away from church, one shilling;” and another, “Being late to morning prayers, one shilling.” And in estimating the rigor of this discipline, one need to know that a shilling pays the wages of a common hand a day and a half. They have no trade-unions there.