“One bright spring morning I had just dressed my fair girl-baby in her first short dress, then carefully placing her upon the bed, stood back, mother-like, to admire. The outer door of my room was wide open, and I saw approaching what seemed to me then the most miserable-looking squaw I had yet seen. On she came with the grace and tread of an elephant; and oh, how revolting she looked as she stood in the doorway! Her hair was cut short and hung over her forehead to her eyes. Her face, neck and breast were painted in narrow stripes of different colors. About her waist was fastened a short skirt made of a part of a buffalo robe. She saw my darling, and before I knew what she intended she had her in her arms. What did I do? Why, I sprang forward, saying, ‘You horrid, dirty thing,’ and took my baby into my own arms. The poor miserable woman looked at me in the most pitiful manner, and then gathering up the corner of her blanket, she held it in her arms as one would hold a sick infant, and at the same time with a mournful cry, she made a sign that her baby had died; and to show how great her grief had been, she held up her hand so that I could see she had cut off her little finger, which is one of the extreme mourning customs of the Kiowas, and she also pointed to the deep scars on her breast and arms. Tears ran down her cheeks, and my sympathies were so moved that almost unconsciously I placed my baby back in her arms. How carefully she handled her, and how tenderly she passed her hands over her plump limbs. After some minutes she handed her back to me, and with a grateful look and smile, giving me a hearty hand-shake, she departed. In a week she came again, and placed in my lap about a peck of ripe wild plums, which ripen there in the early spring. They had been freshly washed, and were brought to me in a piece of new pink calico. Again she held the baby, and this time with signs asked permission, and got it, to kiss our darling, for she was no longer disgusting to me. She left me as before, and in another week she came again, this time bringing two buffalo tongues. All she wanted in return was the pleasure of holding baby. This was her last visit. Where she came from or where she went, I never knew. She came and went alone.”
BLACK MISSIONARIES FOR AFRICA—THE BISHOP CROWTHER PLAN.
REV. G. D. PIKE, D.D.
If God “hath set bounds to the habitations” of the different races of men, or to any race, that fact should enter into our plan of missionary work. It is our duty to succeed. How to do it, is worthy of our greatest thought and most earnest prayer. When we take the road to success in God’s work, we find heavenly attendants all along the way, and abundant supplies of grace and every needful thing. Just now the great question before the Christian world is, “How to succeed with missionary work among the recently discovered Pagans in Equatorial Africa.” Attempts have been made on the borders of this country for hundreds of years, but no permanent success has been achieved inland. We have learned, however, two things. One is, that white men and mulattoes are, as a rule, incapable of preserving their health and lives in the climate of tropical Africa; and the other, that the genuine negro has a constitution entirely fitted for its vicissitudes. “Negroes for Negroland” must be emblazoned on the banner of the successful missionary army, as it goes forth to battle against sin through the Dark Continent.
The history of every missionary endeavor of long continuance among the negroes in tropical Africa warrants this conclusion. But have negroes succeeded as missionaries? They have not had much opportunity for doing so, as but few missions have been committed to their care. Public sentiment has been against them. The theory of manning stations by black men is comparatively recent. Our great societies, however, are forced by the unfolding of providential events to weigh the evidence in favor of the theory. The only question left to be settled pertains to the negro’s aptitude and capacity. Can he achieve success in the domain of missions? We are fortunate in having an illustration which enables us to answer this question in the affirmative.
In 1821, an African lad was captured in a village about 100 miles from the Bight of Benin, and put on board a slave-ship, from which he was subsequently rescued by the English government and landed at Freetown. Here he was received into a mission school under the care of Mr. Weeks. In 1825, when 15 years of age, he was baptized, and sent to England to study. Soon after, a Bible-school for training native students to preach was established at Sierre Leone, and the young African, who had been named Samuel Crowther, was recalled and placed in this school, where he remained as student and teacher until 1841. At this time, Lord John Russell’s famous Niger Expedition selected Mr. Crowther as interpreter, and while exploring the territory on the west bank of the Niger, he became exceedingly interested in the people living in the villages of the country. When the purpose of that expedition was abandoned, Mr. Crowther gave himself to missionary work in the towns he had visited. To fit him more thoroughly for this, he was sent to England, where he remained till 1843. He then returned to his chosen field, reduced the language of the people to writing, and preached the Gospel to them in their native tongue. At one of his preaching stations, he discovered his mother, brother and two sisters, who had been held in slavery for many years, and procured their ransom. Among his first converts in the great town of Abeokuta, was his own mother. At this place, he commenced preaching in 1845. In 1861, there were reported to be 1,500 converts as the result of his labors. In 1864 he was consecrated “African Bishop of the Niger.” Since then he has proceeded with his great work with many additional facilities.
Some friends in England have secured for him a steamboat, valued at more than $22,000, by which he is able to visit his mission stations, now nine in number, located along the river, and superintend some 22 native preachers and helpers under his charge. At an early age he married Asano, a girl delivered from bondage at the same time with himself, and instructed in the same school. Several children were born to them, and some of these, at least, are very worthy and helpful to their father.
Here we have in a nut-shell an illustration of how the work may be done. Representatives of the inland tribes may be gathered into suitable schools, taught the things which pertain to the Christian faith, and practiced in the arts of teaching and preaching, under the supervision of wise and experienced missionaries, and then returned to their tribes to declare the good news of a salvation which, through the blessing of God, they have experienced. The illustration we have chosen would indicate that it were wise to establish the training-school in Africa itself; and the fate of scores of white missionaries and others of our race, who have perished on account of the climate of Africa, points to the wisdom of selecting black men as teachers in these training-schools, whenever suitable persons for the position can be found among the colored people.