The Qontinent of the future.

HAMPTON, VA. :
Normal School Steam Press
1881.

I

VfM-E

THE CONTINENT OF THE FUTURE.
AFRICA AND ITS WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT — EXPLORATION,
GOLD MINING, TRADE, MISSIONS AND ELEVATION.

The tide of modern civilization and religious development
is sweeping round the globe. With the rapid advance of India,.
the unparalleled strides of Japan, and the steady progress of China to-
the new era, Africa is about to reveal its long-kept secrets and its pos
sibilities of contributing to the elevation of its inhabitants and the
welfare of the world. Commerce, capital, science, philanthropy and'
religion have joined hands to penetrate the mysterious land and cast
light on its gloomiest portions. Africa is very nearly everywhere re
garded as the continent of the future.
Governmental. — France seems about to absorb Tunis and Trip
oli, and to unite Algeria to her Senegal possessions. The Chambers.
have voted eight millions of francs ($1,600,000) for two railroads : (1)',
from Algiers to Timbuctoo, across the Sahara, and (2) from Saint Louis„
Senegal, to Bamaka and Sego. Two millions of francs ( $400,000) have
also been appropriated for the construction of a telegraph line from
Dakar to Saint Vincent, to place Senegal in telegraphic connection!
with Europe. A loan is proposed of forty-five millions of francs ($9,.
000,000) for the formation of three hundred villages and the introduc
tion of two hundred thousand colonists into Algeria. This expand
ing colony is just fifty years old. In 1830 the total exports and im-
'ports did not amount to two million francs, ($400,000.) They have
now reached three hundred and sixty-five million francs, ($63,100,000.)
M. Soleillet and M. Doponchel give the result of their long and*
thorough reconnoissance as highly favorable to the project of cross
ing the Sahara by steam, and they describe the desert as far more fer
tile than is commonly believed. The latter says : " What is being sa
successfully accomplished by England in India, by the United States
in North America, and by Russia in Central Asia, that should we try
to do in emulation of their example — seek a continent whereon to
extend our beneficent influence, and find, by the employment of our

2 Governmental.
idle capital, at once a new market for the products of our industries
and manufactures, and a vast centre of agricultural production, able
to supply us, at small cost, with the raw materials not indigenous to
our soil, which we now only obtain with difficulty from foreign sources.''
The expedition under Gallieni is stated to have reached Saint
Louis from Timbuctoo, having completed a survey for a railroad be
tween those points which is pronounced to be entirely feasible. He
met with a friendly reception, and formed treaties with numerous
tribes, whereby France is granted a right of, way, and may establish
ambassadorial or military representatives at the proposed principal
stations. M. Matheis has been commissioned by the French Govern
ment to explore the country from the bend of the Niger to Lake
Tchad. M. L. Vassian, an attache of the French Department for For
eign Affairs, is to reside for a time at Khartoum, to study the nature of
the commercial relations to be formed with Soudan.
At a conference at Paris in relation to the territories between Sier
ra Leone and the Gambia, it is understood that the decision reached
was that the French are to retain the Mellacouri and the English the
.Scarries. The newly appointed Governor of Sierra Leone, Arthur Eli-
toank Havelock, Esq., was one of the representatives of the British
Government at the conference.
Portugal is actively caring for her extensive African domain.
The Governor-General of Angola has been directed to organize a sys
tem of colonization in that province, by selecting a region best adapt
ed for its salubrity, fertility of soil, abundance of water and facili
ty of communication, and to prepare accommodations for one hund
red colonists and their families, an emigration having begun from
Madeira. Lorenzo Marquez, the port of Delagoa Bay, has been ceded
to Great Britain. It is the best harbor on the south-eastern coast,
while its geographical relation to Natal, Zululand and the
Transvaal makes its possession of importance to England.
The latter guarantees to Portugal the exclusive right to the
territory between the Ambriz and Congo rivers. The concession made
by the Portuguese Government to the Andrada Land Company, ex
tending from the Shire to the Kafrio, at Nyampanga Island, about
seven hundred miles, is in course of examination by a party of French
mining engineers. The Commercial Association of Lisbon is raising
funds by subscription to be offered to the Government to co-operate
with it in the foundation of civilizing stations in the Portuguese Afri
can colonies.
Spain is meditating a protectorate of Morocco. Messers Bolliglia,
Mamoli and Pastori, of the " Italian Society for Promoting Commer-

The Slave Trade. j>
¦rial Exploration in Africa," have left Tripoli to examine the elevated
plain of Barka and to found trading posts at Bengasi, Derna and Te-
breck, and afterwards others on the oasis bordering the road to Uadai
and Bornu. The Italian Government has contributed generously to
outfit the expedition. The same Society has dispatched M. De-
meitri and M. Michieli from Khartoum for the Red Sea, with a cara
van of seven hundred camels laden with various kinds of merchandise
for trade. The Egyptian Government has sent the learned Rohlfs to
the King of Abyssinia to arrange mutual relations on a friendly basis.
The Sultan of Zanzibar has engaged the intrepid Thomson to con
duct a geographical investigation of the Rovouma.
The Slave Trade. — It is estimated that fifty thousand natives
are annually conveyed to the Turkish and Egyptian ports of the Red
Sea, where they are disposed of to dealers. The Sultan of Zanzibar
has dispatched an armed force of five hundred men, commanded by
an officer detailed from the British Army, in the direction of Lake
Tanganyika, and the British Government is to establish consuls at
Suakin and Khartoum, with authority to travel in Egypt and on the Red
Sea, " to heal the open sore of the world." The French Government is
to make earnest efforts and to co-operate with England in all meas
ures having in view the same humane object. The Khedive has ap
pointed Comte Delia Salla to the special office of repressing the
slave traffic in lower Egypt. It is to be regretted that at the Berlin
Congress in 1878, which afforded an excellent opportunity for con
certing a treaty on slavery between the Powers of Europe, this good
result was rendered impossible by the action of the English represent
atives. Explorations. — In the exploration of Africa the Germans keep
the lead, of which almost nothing is known until they appear after
an absence of a few years, with a fund of knowledge that is astonish
ing. Witness, for instance, the apparition of Lenz from a journey
from Morocco to Timbuctoo, and thence to Medina and St. Louis.
This famous traveler reports passing through towns of from ten to
thirty thousand inhabitants, and of having made discoveries which
¦explode the theory of converting the Sahara into an ocean. He states
that the most depressed portion of El Juff, the body of the desert, is
some five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and that there
exist in several oases points which promise to be of great utility for
the proposed Sahara railway.
Dr. Pogge is penetrating the country inland from St. Paul de Lo-
ando, the German Government having asked for him the protection
of the Portuguese Government in its African jurisdiction. Dr. Holub,

4 The Congo.
who has made interesting researches on the Zambesi, intends to cross
the continent from south to north. Starting from the Cape of Good
Hope he is to strike the Zambesi, thence the watershed district be
tween that river and the Congo, and on to Egypt through Darfur.
Dr. Stocker is exploring Lake Toana. M. Piaggia is traversing Sou
dan, south of Khartoum, between the Blue and White Nile, M. Lom
bard, corresponding secretary of the Normandy Society of Geogra
phy, has entered on a scientific mission to Abyssinia. M. J. Chouver,
a Hollander of fortune and experience as a traveler, has reached the
Galla country on his way to the Cape of Good Hope. Capt. Ferreira,
Governor of Benguela, and several officers of the army, have offered
their services to the Geographical Society of Lisbon for a Portuguese
expedition across Africa, starting from the West Coast. M. Antusa
is organizing a commercial station at Zomba, where he is to be joined
by workmen whom the Portuguese Government has promised to fur
nish to erect buildings. The learned Dr. Schweinfurth has returned
from a visit to the Island of Socotra, off the coast of Aden, and affirms
that it is very fertile, with a splendid and varied vegetation. One-
fourth of its plants are peculiar to the locality.
M. Moustier, who in 1879, with M. Zweifel, discovered the source
of the Niger, is again to start from Freetown on a trading venture and
to fix the exact geographical position of " the rise of the mysterious riv
er." Lieut. Dumbleton and Surgeon Browning, R. A., are in charge of
an expedition to penetrate, by the Gambia, into the valley of the
Niger to Timbuctoo. Dr. Gouldsbury lately • led an exploring
party from the river Gambia, via Timbo and Port Lokko, to Si
erra Leone, the outlay for which from the colonial treasury was
^2,400, ($12,000.)
The Congo. — The illustrious Stanley has reached his second
station on the Congo, Isangila, about 30 miles above Vivi, which point
was gained only after faithful but weary toil, and against every kind
of difficulty. He was obliged to throw bridges across the streams,
open, hatchet in hand, a route across dense forests, blow up rocks;
leading the way with a group of pioneers, and after advancing a
little, to make a halt, pitch a camp, then go back to bring by instal
ments the rest of the convoy, till all were united. Count de Brazza
has ascended the Ogowe to its headwaters, reaching thereby
the sources of several of the affluents of the Congo. Descending
one of these, the Alima, partly along the shore and partly by
boats, he struck the Congo below Stanley Pool, and coming down
the river he met Stanley, It is suggested that a more practicable
route to the interior than that by the lower Congo may be opened by

Gold Mining. £
the Ogowe and the streams which rise near its source. The Count is
again to descend the Alima, this time in a transportable steam launch,
and then to make a thorough examination of the valley of the Congo
— the area of which is estimated to be four times that of France.
Telegraphic. — Telegraphic communication has been established
between Elmina and Cape Coast. The Portuguese Commissioner of
Public Works has constructed in Angola a telegraphic line from St.
Paul de Loando to Dondo and Calcullo. Preparations are making
for its extension. The French Government proposes to connect Tunis
with Corsica by cable. A third cable has been laid from Marseilles to
Algiers. A second telegraphic line is in operation between Algeria
and Tunis.
Gold Mines. — Six companies are working on the Gold Coast
with encouraging prospects. Improved machinery has been shipped
by the African Company, and its mine is reported to be one of extra
ordinary richness. The success of the Gold Coast Company places it
in the highest rank of gold mine enterprise. At meetings of the Effu-
enta Company (July 7 and 21) resolutions were adopted to create an
additional two thousand shares of ,£5 each, ($25,) to be distributed
among the existing shareholders proportional to their present hold
ing. The number of shares applied for was more than double the
amount to be issued. The Akankoo Gold Coast Company — a new
organization — has acquired territory on the borders of the river An-
cobra, and the celebrated Cameron has been engaged to open up the
property. The British authorities have placed a civil commandant
with a police force at Tacquah. Much of the delay experienced in
the production of the precious metal is attributed in some cases to er
ror of management, perhaps unavoidable, and in all to the many diffi
culties encountered in an almost unknown region, with the additional
disadvantages of a very unhealthy climate for Europeans.
Financial. — A prospectus has appeared for the establishment of
"The Bank of West Africa," capital ,£500,000, ($2, 500,000,) in fifty
thousand shares of ^10 each, ($50.) The chief office is to be in Lon
don, with branches at Sierra Leone and Lagos. The shares of the
Standard Bank of South Africa, ^25, ($125,) paid, are quoted at 57,
and the dividends paid for the last two years have been sixteen per
cent. Postal money order offices have been opened between Sierra
Leone and the Gambia, at the rate of three shillings (75 cents) per
j£io, ($5°-)
Commercial. — Africa contains resources upon which large por
tions of the enlightened world will in no very remote future be de
pendent, and it possesses the very highest capacity for the consump-

6 Steamers.
tion of many of the productions of civilization. One of the marked
developments is the numerous orders for utensils and simple machin
ery of various kinds, to be worked by hand or with light power, and
for mechanical tools and agricultural implements. The business is
already extensive and is likely to be of immense magnitude. Dr. Ho-
lub describes Prince Sechele, chief of the Bechuanas, as living in a
grand abode, which he had erected in European style, at a cost of $15,
000. Khartoum is making astonishing progress. Magnificent stores
have been built within the last three years, and everything in modern
civilization can now be had there. The Northwest Company is ex
tending commerce at Cape Juby. The security afforded since
the " annexation " by England of Lagos has powerfully helped
it to become the " Liverpool of Africa." The declared value of its ex
ports in 1878 was .£577,346, ($2,886,730.) The number, tonnage, &c,
of steam vessels which entered Lagos in the same year is thus given:
Nationality. Steamers. Tonnage. Crews.
British  144 i4I.S9° 5.746
German  72 4,251 1,177
Totals  216 145,841 6,293.
" The Lagos Warehouse and Commission Company," capital ,£50,
000, ($250,000) in ^5 ($25) shares, has been formed, for the purpose of
founding a wholesale warehouse at Lagos, and, when desirable, at oth
er important points on the West Coast. Thus a native merchant will.
be put in possession of two thirds of the net value of his consignment
immediately the Company is in possession of his produce, and he will
be enabled to have all his produce realized in the home market.
Steamers. — Twenty-five years ago it took a passenger from the
United States one hundred and thirty days to reach Corisco ; now a.
trip via Liverpool of about a month, in a palace compared with the
pent-up quarters of a sailing ship, and tables furnish with luxuries in
stead of ringing the changes of salt beef and hard bread from day to
day . Twenty-eight steamships afford weekly communication between
Liverpool and the West Coast. The vessels of " the African Steam
ship Company " are named as follows : Africa, Akassa, Ambriz, Ben
in, Biafra, Ethiopia, Landana, Mayumba, Nubia, Opobo, Whydah and
Winnebah, and those of " the British and African Steam Navigation
Company " bear the following names : Benguela, Bonny, Cameroon,
Congo, Corisco, Dodo, Forcades, Formoso, Gaboon, Kinsembo, Loan-
do, Lualaba, Ramos, Roquelle, Senegal and Volta. " The West Afri
can Steam Navigation Company " also employ a number of steam-

Explorations.

MAP OF AFRICAN EXPLORATIONS DOWN TO AUGUST, 1877.

•8 Railroad Survey.
ships in the West African trade. Messrs. Rubattino & Co. announce
their intention to put on several steamers between Genoa and Ben
gasi. Not a steamer from the United States to Africa !
A company has been formed in New York for " the establishment
of a line of steamships for passengers, mail and freight, between New
York, Madeira, St. Thomas and Teneriffe, Cape de Verde, the West
ern Islands, the Canary Islands, and the ports of. the West Coast of
Africa." The capital stock is $100,000; and may be increased to $4,
000,000; shares $100. Such a line would open cheap and rapid com
munication between the Liberian Republic and our own, furnishing
facilities for the thousands of people of color who desire to obtain an
expansive field for their energies, and bringing to our market the val
uable staples of its productive soil. In relation to this important pro
ject an experienced missionary writes : " Often, during these twenty
years, I have been surprised at the apparent indifference of American
capitalists and ship owners to the share that they might have ob
tained in the profits of the African trade, other than slaves. I have
seen two English lines of steamers (the South and the West, having
their termini respectively at the Cape of Good Hope and the mouth
of the Niger) develop by rich opposition to five, and the termini of
three of them extended from the Niger down to the Congo-Living
stone, and literally every nation of Europe engaged in their profits,
while America has scarcely a showing." A subsidy or liberal legislation
by Congress is counted upon before additional steps in this enterprise
are taken. And among other public action tending to success is the
creation and appointment of consuls at the Gold Coast, Lagos and
Bonny; and vice-consuls at smaller points between Monrovia and the
Niger, to be under the supervision of the Minister Resident to Liberia.
Railroad Survey. — While the United States flagship Ticonde
roga, Commodore Shufeldt, was on the West African coast, two of her
officers, Lieut. Drake and Master Vreeland, assisted by eleven men
from the ship and twenty-seven natives furnished by the Liberian
Government, made a survey of the St. Paul's river, and ran a line of
levels along its northern bank and some distance inland, to determine
the feasibility of constructing a railroad to connect Monrovia With
the Soudan Valley, via Boporo. This reconnoissance proved that the
engineering difficulties would be comparatively trifling. There is no
•doubt that Monrovia would be the most available point for the
starting of such a road, as it would pass through an entirely virgin
country and penetrate to a salubrious region, whose resources for
trade, known to be prodigious, are as yet untouched. Such a con
nection with the interior, with the various appliances of civilization

Liberia Coffee. g
which must follow it, would be one of the most effective agencies for
promoting a vigorous colonization, of the immigrants, who would at
once reach a healthy and fertile district, and it would prove a great
practical power in the advancement of missionary work, and immedi
ately become an important auxiliary in developing and controling an
immense and valuable commerce.
This reconnoissance was the first made in that quarter, and it has
done much toward bringing the interior tribes into commercial and
friendly relations with the Liberians. Other surveys were conducted
by the same bold and public-spirited officers, including that of the
Sugaree and Marfa rivers. The presence of the Ticonderoga and
Commodore Shufeldt will long be pleasantly remembered, and good
continue to result. This accomplished officer, in a letter dated April
6, 1881, remarks : " In view of the many failures which have been re
corded in every age of the world, Liberia may be regarded as a suc
cess. * * * This, the first effort of the African race to establish a
free government upon its own soil, merits and should receive the
sympathy and encouragement of every man, woman and child in
America." Liberia Coffee. — The species of coffee which is indigenous to
Liberia promises to have an important influence on the industry of
those countries in which the coffee blight has almost extinguished the
Arabian coffee plant. In Dominica, W. I., the Liberia coffee, from
seedings planted in 1874, has proved impervious to the ravages of the
blight, and its productiveness is a matter of astonishment. The
stranger is described as " much larger than that of Arabia, being, in
deed, in its native state a small tree, its leaves much larger ; the ber
ries are twice the size of the ordinary coffee bean, and the
flavor is excellent." The Liberia coffee seed has been introduced
into Ceylon, and Liberian coffee from that isle commands a much
higher price than the Ceylon, (Arabian) coffee. The bark
Elverton took from Liberia to Rio Janerio some one hundred
thousand coffee plants and fifty thousand pounds of coffee seed,
and returning to Monrovia, readily obtained a similar cargo for the
same parties in Brazil. A German trading firm is extending the
coffee culture a short distance inland, near the Gaboon, with scions
procured in Liberia. The Republic is in its infancy with regard to the
cultivation of the far-famed berry. The crop last year is said to have
reached a half million of pounds.
Mohammedanism.— Enthusiastic propagandists of Islam, without
commission or compensation of any kind, but trusting wholly to that
hospitality which is the pride of the Oriental, pass from village to vil-

10 Population.
lage reading the Koran and giving instructions to wondering groups
of natives. Whole tribes are stated to be converted to the Mahom-
medan faith. The eminent scholar and writer, Rev. Dr. Blyden, * says:
"Africans are continually going to and fro between the Atlantic Ocean
and the Red Sea. I have met in Liberia and in its eastern frontiers, Mo
hammedan Negroes born in Mecca, the holy city of Arabia, who thought
they were telling of nothing extraordinary when they were detailing the
incidents of their journey, and of the journey of their friends, from the
banks of the Niger — from the neighborhood of Sierra Leone and Liberia
— across the continent to Egypt, Arabia and Jerusalem. I saw in Cairo
and Jerusalem, some years ago, West Africans who had come on bus
iness and on religious pilgrimage from their distant homes in Sene-
gambia." The promoters of Christianity are using these native travel
ers and missionaries of the false prophet. Copies of the Holy Scrip
tures in Arabic, printed at Beyrout, are sent to Egypt and for circula
tion in the Delta and along the valley of the Nile, and to Liberia, whence
they are distributed among the inhabitants of vast outstretching
realms whose vernacular is the Arabic.
Population. — The population of Africa, exclusive of its Islands,
is estimated by Dr. Behm, in Peterman's "Mittheilungun," at 201,787,-
000. Of these the number of Protestant communicants in the various
colonial and mission churches was reported in 1880 as 122,700; the
number composing the communities connected with these churches
506,966; the number of Jews, 350,000; of Coptic, Abyssinian and simi
lar Christians, 4,535,000; of Mohammedans, 51,170,000; of heathen,.
145,225,000. To carry the gospel to these millions, sixty four societies are at
work. In South Africa and the colonies and Sierra Leone and Libe
ria there are connected with colonial churches 468 ministers, evangel
ists and teachers, of whom 54 are natives. The other white mission
aries and teachers on the continent, are reported as 662, with 1095
natives, making 1757 mission workers proper, and 2,255 ministers
missionaries and teachers of all kinds, engaged in religious labors.
The population of Liberia, including Medina, may be i&oo.ooo-
The largest proportion of the natives are Mohammedans, perhaps
1,000,000. There are 26 Baptist churches, reporting 24 ministers and
1,928 communicants. TheProtestant Episcopal Church of the United
States reports one bishop and 31 others, missionaries, teachers and
assistants, 361 communicants, 597 Sunday-school scholars and 415 in
* " Liberal use has been made of the writings of this gifted Negro, and of the pages of
the Missionary Herald, of Boston; Foreign Missionary, of New York, African Times, of
London, and L' Afrique, of Geneva.

Recent Explorations.

u

5? !>7 »"_ 6/)  ™ "- Z  77

$Z £7  |P& 107 112 ,117 Ha 12? '3t

^ft»y /~Vg Cft

SS 57 »7 6?  ~Z  77  6?_

fl7 92 37 lOZ 10? "2 117 122  1*7 *^J

MAP OF EXPLORATIONS SINCE AUGUST, 1877-

J 2 . Missions.
•day and boarding-schools. The report of the Methodist Episcopal
Church of the United States, gives 25 ministers, 10 assistants, 4 native
preachers and 47 local preachers and teachers, 2,200 members, 1,831
Sabbath-school scholars and 300 day scholars. The American Presby
terian Church (North)reports 9 misionaries and assistants, 270 commu
nicants, and 65 pupils in schools. Total 104 ministers, assistants and
teachers reported, 4,759 communicants, 2,428 Sabbath-school scholars
and 780 day pupils.
It is a suggestive truth that a few only of the "104 ministers, assist
ants and teachers" laboring in Liberia were sent by missionary societies,
but that nearly all of them were sent or are the children of men sent
by the American Colonization Society as emigrants, and established
there with means of subsistence, This single fact teaches that in pro
portion as the emigrants from this country are multiplied, the Christ
ian laborers are aiso multiplied.
Missions. — The six European missions commenced in Central
Africa since the death of Dr. Livingstone have been constantly rein
forced and strengthened, viz.: The Presbyterian stations on Lake
Nyassa; the Church Missionary Society efforts on Lake Victoria Nyan-
:za; the London Missionary Society operations on Lake Tanganyika ;
the French Bassuto extension to the Barotse Valley, and the Baptist
Mission and the Livingston elnland Mission, both on the Congo. The
two latter named are pushing inland from the coast; the first on the
southern and the other on the northern side of the river. The Bap
tists are nearingthe accomplishment of their first leading design, viz;
the establishment of a station at Stanley Pool, to be used as a base of
operations beyond. A gentleman has given the ,£4,000 ($20,000)
necessary to procure a steel boat to be named the "Plymouth," to be
used upon the Congo. The Livingstone Inland Mission (undenomi
national, begun in 1878,) has founded five stations and passed some
two hundred of the three hundred miles to overcome the cataracts,
where the river stretches out in navigable waters for about one thou
sand miles. Here it is intended to locate an industrial mission sta
tion, and to make the work ultimately self-supporting and self-extend
ing. An offer of ^4,000 ($20,000) has been made by James Stevenson,
Esq., of Glasgow, for the construction of a road between Lakes Ny
assa and Tanganyika. The gift is based on the condition that the
London Missionary Society and the Livingstonia Mission open and
maintain stations at Mambe and Maliwanda, on the line of the pro
posed road, and that the Central African Trading Company under
take to keep up regular communication between Lakes Tanganyika

The American Colonization Society. ij
and Quilimane. The distance between the lakes is about two hun
dred and twenty miles. The London Missionary Society has resolved
to assume the conditions as far as it is concerned, and the Living-
stonia Mission of the Scotch Free Church has sent a force to begin
the station at Maliwanda.
Christendom knows not any other such mission as the Niger mission^
of the Church Missionary Society, begun in 1867, to evangelize that
portion of the continent by native Africans, headed by a native Afri
can, Bishop Crowther. Large and increasing Christian congregations
exist at Bonny and Brass, and assemblies of varying sizes at Onitsha,.
Asumare and Lokoja. Sixteen hundred worshippers attended re
ligious services at Bonny last Christmas. Kings and chieftains are
erecting churches for themselves and their subjects. A cathedral is.
to be built at Bonny at a cost of ,£2,000, ($10,000.)
The appointment of a Secretary by the American Board of Com
missioners for Foreign Missions to superintend its operations in Afri
ca, indicates an earnest purpose with respect to that land. Three pio
neer missionaries have been cordially received by the King of Bail-
unda, and others are on their way to found a station at Bihe, which
lies behind Benguela, some 250 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, an ele
vated region, inhabited by large and compact tribes.
The American Missionary Association has sent two commission
ers to select a site for a station near the headwaters of the Nile, in aid
of which Robert Arthington, Esq., of Leeds, has contributed ,£3,000,
($1 5,000,) and English Christians have given a like sum. Two mis
sionaries are under appointment to occupy this field. The American
Baptist Missionary Union is considering the Soudan as a theatre
of labor, stimulated by an offer from Mr. Arthington of j£7.°°0'
($35,000) toward a mission on an extensive scale in that populous dis
trict. No man in this age has done so much to stimulate missionary
enterprise as Mr. Arthington. The Southern Prebyterian Board of
Missions is contemplating the opening of a station at Kabenda, pre
paratory to an advance on the centre of the Kingdom of Loango.
American Colonization Society.— This association is quietly
prosecuting its work of boundless scope and thrilling issues. An im
partial observer of its progress in the United States, and who has per
sonally seen its fruit on the coast of Africa.lately declares: "This was the
first and remains the only Society ever organized for the explicit pur
pose of giving the Negro perfect freedom, of promoting his education
for his own good, of making him independent, of giving him a coun
try he can call his own, and of elevating his race to the standard of a
Christian nation. ***** Liberia's flag is now honored by all!

jq Climate. Workmen.
Christian nations, and none more deserves honor, for the cause over
which it floats is the grandest and holiest which ever gave birth to a
nation — the redemption of a whole race of mankind from heathenism
and slavery."
The number of persons provided passage to and homes in Liberia
by the Society in 1880 exceeded that in any one year since 1872. One
of its recent proteges, Rev. James O. Hayes, a graduate of Shaw Uni
versity, writes : " I have met many of the prominent citizens and
others, all of whom have extended to me the warm hand of fellowship
and welcome. Hon. Beverly P. Yates, who has resided in this Re
public fifty-two years, remarked to me that he would prefer Liberia to
America, even if he were made President of the United States. I have
two brothers and their families, with numerous friends residing at
Brewerville, and they are prospering finely. The conviction is
strengthened by all I see that persons who improve the advantages
afforded immigrants here could not be induced to exchange coun
tries." The Society looks hopefully for that increase in gifts which
the broadening work imperatively demands.
Climate. — Africa continues to be guarded by her malarious sea
board and poisonous fevers, and alien travelers, explorers, miners and
missionaries still there find early graves. Statistics show the differ
ence in the effects- of the climate upon the white, the mulatto and the
black man. In the recent Ashantee campaign, out of the heavy death
.list of forty-two English officers only six died of wounds. Four
.scientific explorers are known to have fallen in the last few months>
including the hardy Popelin, the leader of the second Belgian expe
dition. Each of the three first stations of the Livingstone Inland
Mission has been consecrated by the call of one of its founders to
higher spheres and grander activities. The Presbytery of West Africa
has had during the past twenty-five years eleven members. Four were
pure Negroes, the others mulattoes and quadroons. Of the mixed
men six are dead, all comparatively young. Of the Negroes two are
dead, both over sixty. Of the two who survive, one is nearly seventy
and the other is fifty years of age. The Niger mission of the Church
Missionary Society is manned wholly by native Africans, among whom
the deaths in twenty-three years have been but eight, and that in a
section which is mostly swampy and under water several months in
the year. The Negro is the man of God's right hand in Africa.
Workmen. — A convention of colored delegates from twelve South
ern States, held at Montgomery, Ala., organized the Baptist Foreign
Mission Convention, the object of which "is to give the gospel to
the people of Africa." Three ministers have expressed their readi-

Protestant Mission Stations.

*5

MAP OF PROTESTANT MISSION STATIONS IN AFRICA.

16 Colonies.
ness to enter upon labors in "fatherland." The African Civil and
Evangelical Association has for its purpose "the sending and sup
porting of missionaries and school teachers in Western and interior
Africa, a duty we owe as descendants of that continent to our kins
men there." The Presbyterian Synod of the Atlantic, composed
largely of Freedmen, has inaugurated a movement looking to mis
sionary efforts in the country of their ancestors.
There is a bright and cheering history of African enlightenment
to be written. The six millions of reserve force now drilling in
America for the final victory are to be called out. They are now
on the move. Thousands have already developed many of the prop
er qualifications for the work, and are waiting the means to go for
ward. And this mighty country has peculiar facilities for the intro
duction and extension of civilization. Europe has no population
available. Entering on the West Coast, the people and Government
of the United States may stretch a chain of settlements of her own
citizens through the whole length of Soudan, from the Niger to the
Nile — from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
Colonies. — A protracted experience convinces us that it may be
laid down as a principle demonstrated by numerous examples, that
if Western and Central Africa is ever to advance in civilization; if
its inhabitants are ever to become not Europeanized, but intelligent!
competent and productive Africans ; if they are ever to be brought
into commercial relations mutually beneficial with Europe and Ameri
ca, it must be by establishing and fostering such colonies as Liberia.
If it is the desire of Christians to abolish polygamy, to put a stop to
domestic slavery, to encompass and vivify the people by civilizing in
fluences, to elevate their thought, ennoble their action, and regenerate
the continent, these things must be done by planting colonies of
Christian and civilized Negroes along that coast and in the interior-
"Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us !
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy :
Till, nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round. "

[Editorial from The Sun, of Baltimore, October 25, 1SS1.]

The Continent of the Future. — The Supplement of "The
Sun" to-day contains an article by Mr. William Coppinger, Secretary
of the American Colonization Society, upon Africa, its condition
from various points of view, its trade, mines, agricultural products
and increased closeness of relation with the civilized world, which
cannot fail to prove of interest to all persons concerned in the future
of the mysterious " dark continent. " Americans can hardly conceive
the importance attached by Europeans at present to the matters
with which Mr. Coppinger so fully and entertainingly deals. The con
tinental powers of Europe, perceiving the immense advantage pos
sessed by England in having her Indian Empire and her colonies as
outlets for her manufactures and excess of population, are seeking to
imitate her example b.y founding claims to such territories yet unoc
cupied by Europeans as are unable to protect themselves from aggres
sion backed by Krupp guns. After the pickings of Russia, England
and France, there is little of Asia, besides, perhaps, the Corean penin
sula, left to appropriate. The jealousy of the United States has de
terred the nations of the Eastern hemisphere from attempts, like that
of Maximilian in Mexico, to found claims upon territories in either
North or South America. Africa remains, and is at their doors.
Having an area of 9,858,000 square miles, and an estimated popula
tion, mostly barbarous, of about 201,787,000 souls, it offers, despite
its unfavorable climate, great advantages to the European people
who shall first appropriate its fertile interior, its trade in mineral
and agricultural products, and open these up to European commerce
by means of lines of steamboat and railway communications. Afri
ca will perhaps at no distant day become to Europe what North and
South America have been for the last two hundred years, the re
cipient of their overflow of population and their chief producer of
food. Its capabilities are untried, but we know they are enormous.
Explorers within recent years have traversed the continent in every
direction, and have brought back reports generally favorable. The
Sahara is shown to be by no means the barren waste it has been
represented, and the Soudan has had its vast capabilities exploited.
Behind the explorer comes the military post and European civili
zation. As was shown in "The Sun" some time ago, -France has
since 1854 been extending her acquisitions from St. Louis, on the

1 8 The Continent of the Ejtturc.
West Coast, along the Senegal and Gambia rivers, eastwardly . into
the Soudan, until she now possesses a large area of country, and
exerts a predominant influence over a territory comparable, it is said,
in extent with that of England in India. It is to. consolidate and
strengthen her acquisitions that she proposes to add Tunis to Al
geria, and it would be doing scant justice to her policy to suppose
that the seizure of Tunis is a detached and insignificant incident.
Mr. Coppinger narrates in detail the measures being taken to con
firm her position in Africa, as against her various European com
petitors. A notable fact in connection with the Islamic movement,
of which so much is said, is the large hold the Mohammedan re
ligion already has in Africa. There are 51,170,000 of this faith to
145,225,000 heathen, 350,000 Jews and 4,535,000 Coptic and other
Christians. Even in Liberia, out of a total population estimated by
Mr. Coppinger at 1,400,000, fully 1,000,000 are Mohammedans, and
of an aggressive character.

YALE

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