The next point occupied along the coast is Benguela, whence the missionaries of the American Board had extended their operations as far as Bihe (Ovihe). The intrigues of Portuguese traders resulted in their being driven away from Bihe and Bailunda, and nearly all the party returned home. We hope, however, to hear shortly that the work, which commenced with so much promise, has been resumed, and that the southern districts of the Congo Basin may be evangelised by that agency.
Further south we find the Rhenish Missionary Society in Namaqualand; but there we are beyond the limits of the Congo Basin.
So the various societies are attacking the continent from the west coast at points about four hundred miles apart. Roman Catholic Missions have been established in the Gaboon territory, also at Loango, Landana, on the Congo as far as Stanley Pool, in the Portuguese possessions south of the Congo, and on the Cunene River.
On the east coast they are at Zanzibar and Bagamoyo; also on the Victoria, Nyanza, and Tanganika lakes, and on the Zambesi River.
THE PLYMOUTH AFLOAT.
CHAPTER VIII.
Missions on the Congo River.
Now as to the Congo River, and the two Protestant missions established there. When the missions had been established on the great lakes, Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, wrote to the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, offering them £1,000 if they would undertake mission-work in the Congo country, and in districts east of Angola, where there had been Roman Catholic missions in time long past. The Society accepted the offer, and sent instructions to two missionaries at the Cameroons to prepare for a preliminary journey in the region to be occupied.
Scarcely had these steps been taken, when the news reached this country of Mr. Stanley’s arrival at the mouth of the Congo, having traced the course of the river from Nyangwe, and thus discovered a water highway into Central Africa. At once the field of the new mission became enlarged almost indefinitely. In January and April, 1878, journeys of exploration were made by Messrs. Grenfell and Comber, and the latter returned to this country to confer with the Committee and to seek for help in this enterprise. While these preliminary investigations were being made, a party arrived on the river to found the Livingstone (Congo) Inland Mission (undenominational).