JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL STEAMER FOR THE MENDI MISSION.
The Mendi Mission was organized in 1842, in about 7 deg. north latitude, West Central Africa. It was primarily a mission for the Amistad captives, freed slaves who had escaped from bondage by the incidents following their mysterious appearance in Long Island Sound, and their subsequent imprisonment in New Haven, Connecticut. The men who, by their charitable forethought, provided for their defense in the U.S. Supreme Court by John Quincy Adams, and for their education while in New England as well as their return to Africa, were most active in founding the A. M. A., which has sustained the mission since 1846.
The fact that there are no roads or domestic animals for carrying burdens in the Mendi country, renders the use of boats a necessity as a means for transportation. The interests of the mission have suffered for the want of a steamer to facilitate the work at the saw-mill and to carry the missionaries back and forth up the river, thereby avoiding the exposure to disease by long delays in the marshy regions.
The proper persons are already provided to have the steamer in charge, and we only wait for the little rills and large streams of benevolence to flow in and float it. About $10,000 are needed.
In order that old and young may have a part in this work, we have arranged to issue two grades of shares as follows: First Grade, $100; Second Grade, $10. The certificates of shares will be issued on heavy calendered paper, size about 8 by 10 inches, in two colors; the First Grade Certificates green and black, and the Second Grade black and brown.
We cordially invite all friends of African missions, whether pastors, Sunday-school superintendents, heads of families or others, to assist us in providing, at an early date, this much-needed agency for the development of Christian civilization in the dark continent.
All communications should be forwarded to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer of the American Missionary Association, 56 Reade Street, New York.
