The school at Avery is taught by Mr. Jowett, a native, who speaks English correctly and fluently. The pupils appeared very much like other children. Some read and spelled well, and some had to “get their lessons over.” Little John Bull showed that he had some surplus energy by thrusting his fist into the mouth of his drowsy neighbor.
The sawmill is said to have been erected by Mr. D. W. Burton, with the assistance of natives alone, and is a monument to his ingenuity, energy and perseverance. Small logs are sawed by a circular, but most of the work is done by an up-and-down, which allows the logs to drag their slow length along sufficiently fast to make the mill pay its way under careful management, with sawyers at fifteen dollars a month, and lumber at forty-five dollars a thousand. Other entries in the ledger show a high state of discipline in this department of mission work. “Neglecting to tie a canoe, one shilling.” “Smoking in the mill, four shillings.” “Neglect of duty, one shilling.” “Not obeying, two shillings.”
The chief productions of the garden are cassada, sweet-potatoes and pineapples. The cassada is a root of milk-white color, and is the leading article of food. It is usually boiled, but sometimes baked, or eaten raw. The sweet-potato flourishes well and is very palatable. The pineapple grows on bushes or shrubs two or three feet high, the fruit standing up in the midst of long, narrow, serrated leaves. The yard has cocoanut, banana, orange and cinnamon trees. In reading lists and descriptions of the African productions, one might conclude that this is the land for an epicure; but the fact is that none of these things take the place of the beef, wheat, vegetables and fruit of the United States, and a person who has lived in the tropics for a little while, longs for a Fulton or Quincy market.
The coffee farm consists of 1,500 trees from two to six feet high, set in rows eight feet apart and just beginning to bear. The coffee grows in pods about the size of a robin’s egg, in each of which are two kernels enveloped in a skin or husk. To keep down the rapid and rank growth of grass with the hoe alone, requires a vast amount of labor. I find that these industries are highly appreciated by travelers and traders, and have made the name of Mr. Burton well known on the coast. The natives have felt their influence already, and will be more and more inspired by them to habits of industry and enterprise.
The remaining element of the station is the fakir, or native village. Most of the houses have mud walls, with bamboo or thatched roofs. They are built without much system, and are huddled together, because, probably, where wars prevail, it is necessary to wall in the towns and villages for defence, and so the houses must not occupy too much ground. Such is Avery, with its material, mental, and religious machinery, all tending to produce an intelligent and stable Christianity.
And now those who have become interested in the experiment of manning the Mendi mission with graduates of A. M. A. schools, are asking whether the plan is successful, and I am supposed to have some information upon this point. It is not quite three years since the first party of these colored missionaries sailed for Africa, two of whom have returned, and the others have had a shorter term of service. So it is too soon to say whether the experiment has been a success or a failure. If the work had been carried on by them in the most approved manner, it would be premature to say that the problem of African evangelization had been successfully solved. And, on the other hand, if the experiment thus far had been an utter failure, it would be unjust to the colored race to conclude, from this one brief trial, that they are incapable of carrying on mission work by themselves in Africa. Those who are most ready to embark in an enterprise of this kind are not always the best qualified. Zeal is needed, and in no leas degree, sound judgment also.
Fisk University graduated its first college class in 1875, and Atlanta hers in 1876, so that from these Institutions have come only five or six small classes that have completed a collegiate education, and the first one of these students to graduate from a full theological course has just received his diploma. And then the officers of the Association have not had their pick from the graduates of their schools. Some of those best qualified for mission work abroad are fully persuaded in their own minds that their field of labor is at home.
So the experiment at the Mendi mission has not been tried under the most favorable circumstances. The officers of the Association have not had, like those of the American Board for its work, a large number of fully educated, mature and consecrated men and women from which to select candidates for their African mission.
But what is the actual outcome of this brief experiment? The colored missionaries have kept alive the churches and schools, have well cared for the buildings and grounds of the stations, have cultivated the coffee-farm, have bought logs, manufactured and sold lumber, have organized a new church of considerable promise, and all but one of them have kept unbroken the brittle thread of life.
[After granting that the mission has as a whole met with serious drawbacks, and suffered from the lack of character and wisdom on the part of some of those to whom it was entrusted, Mr. Chase refers at some length to the following as reasons why mission work in Africa is, and must be, slow: 1. Polygamy; 2. Mohammedanism; 3. The superstitions of the people; 4. The rum trade; 5. The unhealthfulness of the climate; 6. The pernicious influence of traders; 7. The inability of the natives to procure the equipments of Christian civilization. The paper concludes as follows]: