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BY DAVID CHRISTY, AGENT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY FOR OHIO.

CINCINNATI: PUBLISHED BY J. A. & U. P. JAMES, NO. 167 WALNUT STREET. 1854.

PREFATORY REMARKS.

In the course of his labors, as Colonization Agent for Ohio, the writer, at an early day, found it necessary to examine the subject of African Missions. It was zealously urged, by many, that the Colonies of the Society, instead of being auxiliaries to the evangelization of the natives, presented an almost insuperable barrier to the spread of the Gospel in Africa. The facts ascertained, during the investigations, have been used, from time to time, in the Lectures delivered in different parts of the State, with general satisfaction to the friends of Colonization. The events of the last year or two in Africa, however, have been so marked, and the superiority of the missions in Liberia over all the others, so fully demonstrated, that the publication of the results has been urged as an act of justice to the American Colonization Society and to the Missions in the Republic.

In the preparation of the Lecture, none but the best authorities have been consulted, and the greatest care has been taken to avoid error. References to the sources of information are given in a few instances. Should any wish to verify the whole range of the facts stated, they will find them, mostly, in the following works and periodicals: Choule's History of Missions, Reports of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Missionary Herald, African Repository, and the works occasionally quoted in foot notes in the Lecture.

A LECTURE ON AFRICAN MISSIONS.

In temporal affairs, experience supplies the best rule for the guidance of man. In spiritual concerns, the word of God is the law by which his conduct must be governed. In relation to the spread of the Gospel, while the Saviour has given a few general directions, as to the mode of its propagation, he has left much to human wisdom, as to the measures by which it is to be extended. Pagan countries differ so widely in their civil relations, social customs, superstitions, and degrees of intelligence, that corresponding variations must be made in the plans for their evangelization. Africa, when first visited by the Missionary, was one broad field of ignorance and barbarism. Its condition differed so widely from that of any other country, where missions had been established, that the efforts made for its redemption, could be little else than experiments.

The time has arrived when we may safely proceed to contrast the results of the several classes of missions in Africa, ascertain what experience teaches, and determine the rule by which the greatest progress is to be made, in the extension of Civilization and Christianity, in that land of darkness and desolation. This task we now propose to execute, and shall take up the several missions in the following order:

With the National Independence of our country, there arose higher conceptions of the individual man. This was a logical inference from the principles maintained. People found themselves capable of self-government; hence, the individual must possess the capacity for self-elevation. So reasoned the founders of our Republic; and, to this end, equal laws and privileges were secured to every citizen, that the improvement of all might be promoted. But in the case of the colored man, the National Government was powerless. It possessed neither the means, nor the constitutional authority, to change the relations in which he stood to the whites. It only remained, therefore, to make the colored man, himself, the instrument of his own redemption. No sooner had this thought sprung into existence, than it was seized by the Philanthropist; and, in his grasp, it suddenly expanded into the grand idea of making him also the agent for the deliverance of his country.

The time had come for SAMUEL J. MILLS to act. Five years had rolled away since his companions, whom he had enlisted in the cause--JUDSON, NEWELL, NOTT, HALL, and RICE--had gone to their fields of labor, in the East. Africa, as well as Asia, was now remembered by the friends of Foreign Missions; and MILLS offered himself, to open the pathway for the colored man's return, with the Gospel of peace, to the home of his fathers. He accomplished his object, only to find his grave in the ocean, thus marking the way the captive must pursue to reach a land of freedom.

The exploration of Mr. MILLS, was made in company with the Rev. EBENEZER BURGESS, under a commission from the American Colonization Society. His death was deeply lamented by the friends of Foreign Missions, but the importance of the cause in which he fell, justified the sacrifice. The favorable report made by Mr. BURGESS, enabled the Society to proceed in its enterprise. The first emigrants, 86 in number, sailed for Africa, February, 1820; and the Colony was first planted at Monrovia, January, 1822. The pecuniary income of the Society being small, the emigration was slow--only 1,232 persons having reached the Colony during the first 10 years. The average number of Colonists, up to the period when the Colony became independent, was only about 170 per annum: the average from the first of January, 1848, to the close of 1852, has been 540 per annum: and for 1853, alone, it has been 782: thus showing a rapid increase since the establishment of the Republic. Previous to that date, three-fourths of the emigrants had been emancipated slaves, who received their freedom on condition of going to Liberia; but, since its independence, a largely increased proportion have been freemen.

We shall not enter upon the history of the trials to which Liberia has been subjected, as the main facts are familiar to every one. Her extermination by war, on the one hand, has been thrice attempted by the slave traders, through the agency of the native Africans; and, on the other hand, her ruin has been sought, in the destruction of the Colonization Society, by an immense moral force, at the head of which stood men who are now the avowed enemies of the Bible. Good men, who, for a time, were arrayed in opposition to Colonization, finding themselves involved in a crusade against the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, have, mostly, given in their adhesion to the cause, and left the repudiators of Christianity and the traffickers in human flesh, as the only enemies to African Colonization. The prayer of SAMUEL J. MILLS, for the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, has been heard, and Ethiopia now stretches forth her hands unto God.

In proceeding to the missionary history of Liberia, we shall begin with the METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The mission in the Republic of Liberia, is her oldest in the Foreign field. The nucleus of this mission, consisted of several members, and one or two local preachers, of the Methodist Church, who went out with the first emigrants. In March, 1833, the Rev. Melville B. Cox, the first ordained missionary, landed in Monrovia. To maintain this mission, has cost much treasure, and many precious lives; but the fruits of it are inestimable. It is now formed into a regular Annual Conference, composed of three districts, each with a presiding elder, and having its circuits, stations, and day and Sunday schools. The mission now covers the whole territory of Liberia and that of Cape Palmas. The Conference consists of 21 members in full connection and on trial, all of whom are colored men. Its churches, according to the Agent's Report, 1853, embrace 1,301 members, of whom 116 are natives, and there are 115 probationers. The Mission has 15 Sunday schools, with 839 pupils, of whom 50 are natives; and 20 week-day schools, with 513 scholars. There are also 7 schools among the natives, with 127 pupils.

The sums appropriated to sustain this mission were, for 1851, ,000; for 1852, ,000; for 1853, ,957; and for 1854, ,957. This liberality is sufficiently expressive of the confidence of the Methodist Church in Liberia. The Report of the Board of Managers, for 1851, says:

"All eyes are now turned toward this New Republic on the Western coast of Africa, as the star of hope to the colored people, both bond and free, in the United States. The Republic is establishing and extending itself; and its Christian population is in direct contact with the natives, both Pagans and Mohammedans. Thus the Republic has, indirectly, a powerful missionary influence, and its moral and religious condition is a matter of grave concern to the Church. Hence, the Protestant Christian missions in Liberia, are essential to the stability and prosperity of the Republic; and the stability and prosperity of the Republic are necessary to the protection and action of the missions. It will thus appear, that the Christian education of the people, is the legitimate work of the missions."

Governed by these considerations, the Methodists have erected a seminary building, in Monrovia, at a cost of ,000, which is now affording instruction to youth in the higher departments of science and literature.

The Report for 1853, speaks still more encouragingly of the mission in Liberia. It says:

"The value of this mission is, perhaps, inconceivable: it not only dispenses the word of life to the people, but it contributes largely to the maintenance of good morals and good order in the Republic, and thus strengthens and assists in preserving the State. In this way it indirectly contributes to make the Republic of Liberia a steady light, beckoning the free colored people of this country to a land where they can be truly free and equal, and where only they can be truly men and govern themselves. The mission is thus assisting the State to give a triumphant answer to our Southern States when they ask, If we set the slave population at liberty, where can they go and be free and prosperous? This is a result of immense value. It probably contains the solution of the question of American slavery--that great mystery of iniquity which dims the otherwise resplendent light of our glorious Republic. And yet, further, this African mission in the Republic of Liberia is a steady and shining light to the western portions of Africa, where now reign the most degrading, cruel, and destructive superstitions to be found in the world. Until within a quarter of a century past, many thousands of human victims have been sacrificed annually, in their cruel and dark religious rites, within sight of the coast; and not very far removed from the coast these sacrifices still continue, to an extent of which it makes one shudder to think, much less to behold. Can the Church waver in her support of such a mission on the Western coast of Africa? She will not."

"The government of the Republic of Liberia, which is formed on the model of our own, and is wholly in the hands of colored men, seems to be exceedingly well administered. I never saw so orderly a people. I saw but one intoxicated colonist while in the country, and I heard not one profane word. The Sabbath is kept with singular strictness, and the churches crowded with attentive and orderly worshipers."

But, as regards the missions among the natives, the Bishop says, very little indeed has been done--much less than the friends of the mission seem to have good reason to expect--much less than he himself expected. The result of his inquiries is by no means flattering, and he felt, and feared that the Board would feel, disappointed. These results, however, he says, are not due to any want of faithfulness on the part of the missionaries; as other denominations have not been more successful--perhaps not quite so much so--but are the result of the peculiar condition of the native population. These peculiarities will be noticed under the head of the native missions.

In 1825, the Rev. Calvin Holton, a white man, went out as a missionary, but died almost immediately after his arrival. "The mission continued to be sustained by Mr. Carey, with the aid of two or three pious assistants from among the emigrants. The resources by which it was kept alive were supplied almost entirely by his own efforts, as the funds which were furnished by the Board were of necessity at this time exceedingly limited. The labors of the mission were bestowed upon the emigrant colonists, and also, as far as possible, upon the natives of the country, who had either been rescued from slave-ships and settled upon the coast, or had voluntarily come in from the neighboring wilderness to join the colonies of their more civilized brethren. Mr. Carey in this manner preached and maintained schools at Monrovia, and also at Grand Cape Mount, among the Veys, one of the most powerful and intelligent of the tribes on the coast. At these and other settlements he was the life and soul of nearly all the religious efforts and operations that were carried on. He preached several times every week, superintended schools both for religious and secular instruction,--in some of which he taught himself,--traveled from one settlement to another, and watched with constant vigilance and unremitting care over all the spiritual and the social interests of the colonists.

"In September, 1826, he was unanimously elected vice-agent of the colony, and on the return of Mr. Ashmun to the United States, in 1828, he was appointed to discharge the duties of Governor in the interim--a task which he performed during the brief remnant of his life with wisdom, and with credit to himself. His death took place in a manner that was fearfully sudden and extraordinary. The natives of the country had committed depredations upon the property of the colony, and were threatening general hostilities. Mr. Carey, in his capacity as acting Governor, immediately called out the military forces of the colony, and commenced vigorous measures for repelling the assault and protecting the settlements. He was at the magazine, engaged in superintending the making of cartridges, when, by the oversetting of a lamp, a large mass of powder became ignited, and produced an explosion which resulted in the death of Mr. Carey and seven others who were engaged with him. In this sudden and awful manner perished an extraordinary man,--one who in a higher sphere might have developed many of the noblest energies of character, and who, even in the humble capacity of a missionary among his own benighted brethren, deserves a prominent place in the list of those who have shed luster upon the African race.

"At the period of Mr. Carey's death, the Church, of which he was the pastor, contained 100 members, and was in a highly flourishing condition. It was committed to the charge of Collin Teage, who now returned from Sierra Leone, and of Mr. Waring, one of its members, who had lately been ordained a minister. The influences which had commenced with the indefatigable founder of the mission continued to be felt long after he had ceased to live. The Church at Monrovia was increased to 200 members, and the power of the Gospel was manifested in other settlements of the Colonization Society, and even among the rude natives of the coast, of whom nearly 100 were converted to Christianity and united with the several churches of the colony."

In December, 1830, Rev. B. Skinner, a white man, with his wife and two children, reached Monrovia, to take charge of the mission. They were all seized with the African fever, soon after landing, and Mrs. Skinner and the children died. Mr. S. so far recovered as to embark for home, in July following, but died the twentieth day of the passage.

In 1834, Dr. Skinner, the father of the missionary, went out as a physician, and was afterward appointed governor of the colony. Soon after his arrival, he recommended the Baptist Board to establish their mission, for the benefit of the natives, among the Bassa tribe.

In 1835, two other white men, Rev. G. W. Crocker, and Rev. Mr. Mylne, were sent out to the Bassas. Mrs. Mylne, who had accompanied her husband, died in a month, and Mr. M., after laboring nearly three years, was forced, by ill health, to return to the United States. Mr. Crocker continued his labors, and was married, in 1840, to Miss Warren, who had gone out as a teacher. She died soon afterward, and the declining health of Mr. Crocker compelled him to leave for the United States.

In 1838, two years before Mr. Crocker left, he had been joined by Rev. Ivory Clarke and wife, whites, who continued to occupy the station, and labored with great success for several years.

In December, 1840, Messrs. Constantine and Fielding, with their wives, all whites, reached the Bassa mission. Mr. and Mrs. F. both died in six weeks; and Mr. and Mrs. C. were so much debilitated by the fever that they were compelled to return home in 1842.

In 1844, the health of Mr. Crocker had become so far restored, that he resolved to return to Africa; and, having been united in marriage to Miss Chadbourne, he sailed for Liberia, but died two days after landing. "Thus fell, in the midst of high raised hopes, and at an unexpected moment, a missionary of no common zeal and devotion to the cause."

On the death of Mr. Crocker, his widow attached herself to the mission, and labored for its advancement for two years; when the wreck of her constitution, under the influence of the climate, compelled her to abandon the work, in 1846, and return home.

In 1848, Mr. Clarke and his wife found their constitutions so completely shattered, and their strength so nearly exhausted, that they left the mission to return to the United States. But he had tarried at his post too long; death overtook him on the passage, and the sea supplied him a grave.

Thus, after thirteen years' labor, and the sacrifice of a noble band of martyrs to the cause of African redemption, was the Bassa mission left without a head, except so far as it could be supplied by the native converts. Amongst them, there was one preacher and four teachers, who kept up the organization of the little church, and continued the schools.

It was not until 1852, that the Board had any offers of missionaries for Bassa, to supply the place of those who had fallen or retreated. In that year, however, Rev. J. S. Goodman, and Rev. W. B. Shermer, and their wives, offered themselves to the Board, and were accepted. They set sail November 27, 1852, and were accompanied by Mrs. Crocker, who longed to return to the mission and devote her life to the service of her Lord and Master.

This Mission family was permitted to reach its field of labor in safety; but recent information brings the painful intelligence of the death of Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Shermer; and that Mr. Shermer himself, had also been very ill, and had left Africa to return home by way of England. In writing from London, under date of January 13, 1854, he says: "That during the past twelve months, six missionaries of different denominations have died, and eight have been and are obliged to return to America; all of whom had gone to Africa within the last year. This is indeed a fearful mortality among African missionaries. Yet God has a people there, and if the white man can not live to evangelize them, he can and will raise up other agencies. Educated colored men, in all probability, must and will be the only instrumentality employed in the conversion of Africa."

The mission, before the recent deaths, consisted of 2 stations, 2 missionaries, 4 female assistants, and 4 native assistants. Its Church has 16 members; and it has 2 day-schools with 36 pupils, and 2 Sabbath-Schools with 60 pupils.

THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY BOARD OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, came into existence in 1845. Its organization was a result of the differences of opinion, on the subject of slavery, among the members of the American Baptist Missionary Union. The Liberia Churches, which were founded by Lot Carey, Collin Teage, and their successors, connected themselves with the Southern Board, while Bassa, alone, continued its adherence to the Northern Board. This arrangement gave the Southern Board, at once, a strong missionary force in Liberia; and the mission has continued to prosper under their supervision. At present, it is composed of 13 stations, 19 missionaries and teachers, 11 day-schools, 400 scholars, and 584 communicants. As far as we can learn, all these missionaries are colored men.

The Board proposes to occupy three stations in Central Africa, by six missionaries, four of whom are already secured, and have departed for their field of labor. The mission field in Africa, is represented as very important and very inviting, both on account of the constantly increasing emigration from the United States, and the facilities enjoyed for the evangelization of the heathen tribes. During the meeting of the Convention at Baltimore, in June, 1853, the advantages of Central Africa were discussed at length; and the Rev. T. J. Bowen, who had explored the field, delivered an address, in which he spoke particularly of Yoruba, as a country with a delightful climate, apparently healthy, and moderately fertile. The people, he said, are far above savages, polite in their manners, quite intelligent, and dwelling in walled cities, some of which cover an area as large as the city of New York. They are prepared by their religion, he conceives, to appreciate the value of the great Sacrifice and Mediator, Jesus, and are willing and anxious to hear the Gospel; and some of them, during his short stay of eight weeks, gave evidence of a change of heart and of faith in Christ. He was the first white man who had visited some parts of that country; and "his narrative was at once surprising and encouraging."

THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF MISSIONS, sent their first missionaries to West Africa, in 1833. The Rev. J. B. Pinney was the pioneer in this mission. In the earlier years of its existence, it was greatly interrupted and retarded by the sickness or death of its missionaries; but within the last few years its prospects are more encouraging. In 1837, attempts were made to establish missions among the natives, and the efforts continued throughout a series of years. Much labor and several valuable lives were sacrificed in the work, and the only remaining fruit is a single station, at Settra Kroo, with a small school for native children. In 1850, a new mission to the natives was commenced at Corisco Island, which, thus far, is very promising.

The mission in Liberia, for colonists and natives, was the first established and has been more prosperous. It now embraces 116 church members, 2 ordained ministers and 1 licentiate, 3 congregations, and flourishing Sabbath-schools. The day-schools are well attended, by both colonists and natives. The Board, 1852, sent out the Rev. D. A. Wilson, a white man, of finished education, to take charge of the Alexander High School, and raise it to the grade of a college. At Monrovia, the press for admission into the English school of Mr. James, is represented as so great, that it had been found almost impossible to keep the number as low as fifty scholars--the number had averaged 70, and in consequence of the inadequacy of teachers, the progress of the pupils had been less rapid than, under other circumstances, must have been the case.

The Board urges the necessity of multiplying the number of educated ministers and teachers in Liberia; and offers, as an argument in favor of that field, and the one on Corisco Island, that these missions are likely soon to yield abundant fruits of Gospel culture. The following is the closing sentence of the Report: "Their past and touching history; their sphere of labor on a continent so benighted, and yet separated from this country only by the Atlantic; and the residence among us of so many of the children of Africa, many of whom are in the communion of our churches;--all seem to direct a large share of the missionary strength of our body to be employed hereafter in connection with these missions, and in the general field of labor to which they are doors of entrance."

The Mission of the AMERICAN PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, in Liberia, was regularly commenced in the year 1836, at Cape Palmas. It now embraces 6 clergymen, including Bishop Payne. A high school has been established for training colonist teachers and missionaries. Connected with this school are 5 candidates for orders, 3 of whom are natives. The number of youth in this school at present, is 10; who are supported at the expense of the mission. The children of the colonists, to the number of 15 or 20, are admitted as day scholars. A female colonist day school is also in operation, with an attendance of 45 to 50 children. The mission includes 4 stations, at all of which native boarding-schools are, or have been, maintained with some good degree of regularity. The average attendance of scholars here has been over 100, and the number instructed in the way of salvation at least 1,000. Day-schools are and have been taught, in which many heathen children have learned to read, and also acquired that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation. Sunday-schools, composed of boarding scholars, and children from heathen towns, have been another means of good. The Gospel has been, and is still, preached to nearly the whole Grebo tribe, numbering a population of some 25,000; besides which, a congregation in Maryland, in Liberia, has been supplied with stated services. More than 100 have been admitted to baptism, or having previously received this rite, been enrolled as communicants of the Church. Some of these have apostatized, others have died in the faith; while about 80 still remain members of the Church militant. The Grebo dialect has been reduced to writing, and many portions of the Scriptures, and other books, published in it. A printing press is in operation, from which, besides other publications, a small Missionary paper is issued. It should be named, as one of the most important fruits of the Mission, that a wide-spread conviction of the truth of Christianity has been produced in the native mind, and an expectation that, at no distant time, it must supersede the religion of the country.

Such is the prosperous condition of this mission, that the Rev. John Payne, long at its head, was, in 1850, appointed a Missionary Bishop for Africa. He is a white man, highly educated, and eminently qualified for the sacred office to which he has been chosen. Since entering upon his duties, the agencies for extending the mission have been greatly increased. A station has been commenced at Monrovia, under the care of a colored clergyman, formerly of New York city, whose education was finished in England; and a large additional force of white missionaries has been sent out to occupy other posts. The foundation of an Orphan Asylum, to cost ,000, has been laid at Cape Palmas; and the funds to erect two church edifices have been supplied to the Bishop. Of the white missionaries, one male and one female have recently died; in other respects the prospects of the mission are very encouraging.

Mrs. Payne and one of the other ladies of the mission, have returned during the last year, to recruit their health.

In speaking of the necessity of extended effort in the Republic of Liberia, the Bishop makes this important statement: "It is now very generally admitted, that Africa must be evangelized chiefly by her own children. It should be our object to prepare them, so far as we may, for their great work. And since colonists afford the most advanced material for raising up the needed instruments, it becomes us, in wise co-operation with Providence, to direct our efforts in the most judicious manner to them. To do this, the most important points should be occupied, to become in due time radiating centers of Christian influence to Colonists and Natives."

THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED SYNOD OF THE SOUTH, have resolved on establishing a mission in Liberia; and have four native boys in the course of instruction, at the expense of the Synod, in the school of Mr. Erskine, at Kentucky, in Liberia. The Synod entered upon this work, a few years since, with earnestness and energy, but have met with many serious obstacles in the accomplishment of their purpose.

This closes our inquiries into the condition of the missions in Liberia. A remark or two, only, need be offered as to its social and civil condition. The citizens of the Republic are colored men, and enjoy a perfect equality under its constitution. They possess all the attributes of sovereignty, enacting and administering their own laws; but in purchasing territory from the African kings, the right of sovereignty and of soil is acquired, not to exclude the native people from the lands, but, as they adopt habits of civilization, to put them in possession of fee simple titles to their homes, on the same conditions allowed to the colonists.

The religious and educational statistics of Liberia are not complete, but are sufficient to show, that the different churches have more than 2,000 communicants; the Sabbath-schools more than 1500 children, of whom 500 are natives; while in the day-schools there are not less than 1,400 pupils.

In relation to the influence exerted by Liberia, on the cause of African Missions, BISHOP SCOTT testifies as follows:

"In my judgment, the bearing of African Colonization on the cause of Christian Missions, in that vast peninsula of darkness and sin, ought to be sufficient, in the absence of every other consideration, to secure for that great enterprise, the warm and steady support of every lover of Christ."

If, then, a Colony of colored men, beginning with less than 100, and gradually increasing to 9,000, has, in 30 years, established an Independent Republic amidst a savage people; destroyed the slave trade on 600 miles of the African coast; put down the heathen temples in one of its largest counties; afforded security to all the missions within its limits; and now casts its shield over 300,000 native inhabitants; what may not be done in the next 30 years, by Colonization and Missions combined, were sufficient means supplied to call forth all their energies?

The origin of this Colony has such an intimate connection with the rise of the Anti-Slavery sentiment in England, and the adoption of the measures which have done so much toward the redemption of Africa, that the principal facts of its history must be stated.

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