American Missionary Association,

56 READE STREET, NEW YORK.

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Rev. C. T. Collins, of Cleveland, is Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements; Rev. H. M. Tenny, Chairman of Committee on Reduced Railroad Rates. Applicants for entertainment will address Mr. S. H. Cowell, Plymouth Church, Cleveland, before Oct. 12. Applicants for reduced hotel rates will apply before Oct. 19.

LAST WORD.—FINANCIAL.

As we go to press, Sept. 12th, we find that the treasury is lacking $24,028.11 of the $300,000 which was asked for at the last Annual Meeting, and which the work absolutely demands. We yet have time to wipe out this deficit if our friends will respond promptly. October and the next year will have their own burdens to bear, and so, as usual, our books will close with the remittances of September.

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“AN ARITHMETICAL PROBLEM.”

Our District Secretary Powell has the art of putting things, and this is the way he puts the question, how to “reduce 1172 to 0000,” i.e., to reduce the number of churches from which no contribution has been received since last September for the A. M. A. within the States of the Interior, to zero. The answer is, transfer each church to the list of those contributing.—Q. E. D.

A superintendent of our educational work has been appointed by the Executive Committee, the plan having been approved by a conference of our leading workers, held last winter. Professor Albert Salisbury, of the Wisconsin State Normal, at Whitewater, is the man. In the growth of this department, and in the purpose of the A. M. A. to do the very best work in its institutions, it was found needful to secure one who, as an expert in school processes, should help to the most approved methods of organization, of discipline, of instruction and of unification. Professor Salisbury had been assigned by his State to the specialty of conducting teachers’ institutes. In the same way he will serve our teachers and the native teachers whom they have raised up. Prominent educators and the Wisconsin and Boston journals of education have commended him as the right man for the place. Dr. Roy will continue in his service as Field Superintendent, giving yet more attention to the church work.

A mission at Hong Kong had been proposed to this Association as a means of gathering into fellowship the Chinese who may have returned from this country to their native land as Christians. It seemed to some that such a work would be cognate to ours on the Pacific Coast. But as it is the purpose of the A. M. A. not to extend its missionary operations abroad, our Executive Committee proposed to the American Board that it take up the mission at Hong Kong, and so work in harmony with our operations on the coast. We are glad to report that this overture has been cordially acceded to, and that the American Board accepts this “sacred trust.” And hence the rejoicing of Mr. Pond in his letter, to be found at the proper place. Now, will not our good friends bear in mind our mission on the Pacific, which is to be a feeder for that one on the opposite coast, and send us such additional funds as will enable us to enlarge our work, and so to help feed the millions of China with the bread of life?

A series of missionary meetings similar to those held in Connecticut several years ago, and in Ohio three years ago, has been held in sixteen of the leading Congregational Churches of central New York during September.[291] The places were Penn Yan, Norwich, Walton, Utica, Antwerp, Norwood, Sandy Creek, Oswego, Elmira, Ithaca, Canandaigua, Fairport, Lockport, Homer, Binghamton and Poughkeepsie. The A. B. C. F. M. was represented by Dr. H. C. Haydn, the A. H. M. S. by Rev. C. C. Creegan, the Cong. Union by Dr. L. H. Cobb, and the A. M. A. by Drs. O. H. White and J. E. Roy. Pastors and leading laymen bore a good share. A fuller account will be given next month.

A series of articles, worthy of attention, has recently appeared in the Atlantic Monthly under the title of “Studies in the South.” The name of the author is not given, but internal evidence shows that he is a Northern man who went South to study its problems with an honest purpose to get at the facts rather than sustain any pet theories. He was free in his intercourse with people of all classes and colors, and is very frank in his report of what he says. His statements as to the political situation are somewhat startling, yet correct, as we think. It is, however, his view of the deeper questions of the condition and prospects of the masses of the people, white and colored, that we are most concerned about, and we give a few extracts on these points.

It is with profound sorrow that we note the death by drowning of two adult sons of Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, now the pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Shawano, Wis. All our readers are familiar with the heroic labors and endurance of Mr. Rogers before and after the war, in building up the college and church at Berea, Ky. The names and birthplaces of the sons are historic. William Norris was born at Berea in 1859, and Lewis Fairchild was born in Ohio, while the family were in exile on account of the war. The eldest was a graduate of Berea and was a teacher there the last year, active, useful and greatly beloved. Lewis Fairchild at the time of his decease was a member of the senior class in Olivet College. “Lovely and pleasant in their lives; in their death they were not divided.” Multitudes of our friends will be afflicted in this bereavement of our brother and his companion.

One of our old friends writes: “Do the colleges and literary institutions supported by the A. M. A. prohibit the use of tobacco, as well as of intoxicating liquors, among their students, as Oberlin does?” We are happy to inform him and all other friends that this is the rule in all of our schools, and that they would be delighted to observe the freedom of all our school buildings from the pollution of tobacco. It is a fine element in the formation of character, as well as a matter of health and of economy.

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NATIONAL AID FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION.

The title is its own argument. It is the instinct of self-preservation. If one member suffer, the whole body suffers. Congress has adjourned without passing the proposed law. It was to appropriate $10,000,000 annually for five years, and to distribute the same among the States and Territories in the proportion of illiteracy. There is no doubt that some such bill will yet be passed. At this ratio, the former slave States would receive seven and a half millions out of the ten. That the North heartily agrees to this has been a grateful surprise to the South. The scheme would not have been thought of, except for the need of it in that section.

The question may, then, be raised: What would be the relation of such aid to the work of this Association? It would greatly increase the demand for the training of common school teachers in our normal schools and colleges. The three months of country schools would be raised to six. The increased facilities would tend to lead the people to call for a better quality of teachers. Dr. Barnas Sears, the late Secretary of the Peabody Fund, learned that one competent teacher introduced, led to the displacement of a half-dozen incompetents. The training of the teachers is the wholesale business in the process of education. Then, it is of the utmost importance that these teachers of the millions should themselves have that moral and religious preparation which our missionary institutions seek to impart, so that the lessons of morality, and virtue and piety shall be taught, along with the elements of a common education. The House committee, in their report, state that, according to the census of 1880, 4,715,395 persons at the South over ten years of age, or 70.56 per cent., are not able to write. To raise up the qualified teachers for this illiterate mass will tax the resources of all the institutions founded in that region by the benevolence of the North.

Government aid will still leave another demand upon our style of schools, viz., that which shall furnish industrial training. The old-time colored mechanics, who had been taught trades, which greatly increased their value in the market, are passing away. Scarcely any of the young men are now learning trades, for the reasons that white mechanics will not take them, that the colored tradesmen have not capital enough to employ them, and that too many of them have seen enough of working for board and clothes in the case of father and mother, not taking into the account the large and steady wages to come by and by. As it is going now, let the old colored mechanics pass away, and the skilled artisans coming from Europe will press in to fill the demand; and then the Africo-American citizens will be driven to the wall and forced back to be mere hewers of wood and drawers of water. The first demand upon our schools was to open the doors of knowledge to millions of starving intellects;[293] but now, more and more, must we push industrial training to help the people in the coming crisis, which they do not forecast as readily as do their friends who have studied the problem of their bondage and their freedom. So then, along with books and the art of school teaching, we must train the girls to the trades of cooking, of dressmaking, of nursing, of type-setting, of running knitting and sewing machines; we must teach the boys carpentry, blacksmithing, shoe and harness making, agriculture, the raising of improved stock and the running of machinery.

National aid for public schools will still leave upon our institutions and the like the great business of the higher education. For a portion of the people this is demanded. If they are to maintain themselves in their citizenship they must have the first quality of education in their preachers, professors, lawyers, doctors, journalists, scientists. In their general advancement they are already requiring more and more of cultivation in their preachers. With some congregations even now only the most thorough classical and professional training can satisfy the demands of their pulpits, while in the other professions nothing else can succeed. The public schools will prepare the material, and make the greater demand for the higher institutions, such as we are developing. And so we find that national aid, if granted, will only be a national call for our scheme of advanced education. Then, if such a law is passed, it is proposed to run only five years. And yet the generations of children will still be sweeping on and we must make our patriotic and missionary propagandism to keep up with them.

An important meeting of the National Education Assembly was held at Ocean Grove, N.J., Aug. 8, 9. The audiences were large, and many prominent educators were present from various parts of the country. The opening address was by Hon. John Eaton, U.S. Commissioner of Education, in which it was held that the national government is the only agency able to cope with illiteracy in the country. A feature of special interest was the showing of the work of the Northern churches in the South since the war. Dr. Strieby, of New York, represented the Congregationalists; Rev. Dr. J. M. Gregory, of Illinois, the Baptists; Rev. Dr. R. H. Allen, of Pennsylvania, the Presbyterians; and Rev. Dr. J. C. Hartzell, of Louisiana, the Methodists. It appeared that more than $10,000,000 have been spent by this agency, and that more than 15,000 students are now in schools of higher grade, thus supported. Bishop Simpson, Dr. H. A. Butz, president of Drew Theological Seminary, and Senator Blair of New Hampshire, made addresses. The sentiments of the Assembly were formulated in a memorial to Congress. A National Education Committee was organized to continue the effort to secure national aid. The secretary of the committee will reside in Washington,[294] and efforts to influence public opinion in favor of the end in view will be earnestly prosecuted.

The following is an extract from a letter sent to the president of the Assembly, Rev. J. C. Hartzell, D.D., from Hon. H. M. Teller, Secretary of the Interior:

“The great mass of the people must depend on the public school system for the education of their children. An efficient public school system, extending to all the State, and affording equal facilities for education to all classes of children, free from rate bills, cannot be too highly prized. * * * I recognize it to be the duty of the State to provide for the education of the children within its borders; but if the State neglects or refuses so to do, I think it is clearly within the power of the general government to provide such school facilities. But, fortunately, there is no State in which no provision for public education is made, and therefore the occasion for the exercise of this power does not exist, except as auxiliary to that of the State. I believe that in all the States the sentiment in favor of educating the children is so strong that the action required by the general government would be simply to make and wisely disburse proper appropriations, so as to encourage and stimulate the States that are the least able to carry on the work by themselves. To do this without seeming to discriminate in favor of certain States, such appropriations ought to be based on the degree of illiteracy as shown by the last census.

“If a system of public schools can be maintained for ten or fifteen years in any State, there will be no danger of its abandonment.

“An educated community will demand suitable educational facilities for the education of all classes of children. So that we may reasonably hope that the appropriation from the national treasury need not extend beyond a period of ten or fifteen years.”

ADDRESS OF MR. BUTLER R. WILSON

AT THE BOSTON ANNIVERSARY, MAY 31, 1882.

If I fail to be a good specimen, do not attribute it to my race; for my people were converted from a condition of chattel slavery into that of American citizenship, depending almost entirely upon themselves. What has been the result? In spite of nearly 20,000 political murders since the war, they have not all been killed; nor, at the present rate of increase, is it reasonable to suppose that they all will be. The prophecy of many good people, many worthy people, many earnest people, that the ballot in the hand of the negro was a stick with which to break the government’s head, finds its answer in the fact that the most loyal and law-abiding citizens south of Mason and Dixon’s line, to-day, are the ex-slaves.

With not enough land for a burial ground, had they all died immediately[295] after the war, they now pay taxes on millions of dollars worth of real estate and personal property, being assessed for nearly $10,000,000 in the State of Georgia alone. Prior to the war there was a law throughout the South prohibiting a colored person from learning to read and write on penalty of losing the thumb or index finger, so that what they now know in that direction they have acquired since the war; and to-day ten per cent. of the entire colored race in the South can read and write. This ability, on the part of the colored man, is a great step in his progress, for it introduces a new rule of computation in the Southern arithmetic—the old rule being, as you probably know, in Southern vernacular:

What has produced these results? Mainly two things: The inherent desire of the colored man to better his condition, thus differing from his poor white neighbor; and the work of the American Missionary Association. Taking up the work for which your honored dead died, the Association planted schools and churches in the South, and supplied these schools and churches with men and women, who had pluck enough and backbone enough to defy Southern prejudice and ostracism; and wherever one of these schools has been planted, the change is marked. Lawlessness disappears, property increases in value, and the colored people purchase homes. An ex-mayor of the city of Atlanta, at the dedication of the Congregational Church, said that the thrift, orderly habits and acquisition of property in a certain portion of that city were mainly due to the school and church of the American Missionary Association. Does the colored man sit with folded arms, while the North, Great Britain and Africa—let me repeat Africa—contribute for his civilization? I say Africa, because, sitting in the old Midway Church, in Liberty County, Ga., sometime ago, I heard read, in the list of donations, “One dollar contributed by a church in South Africa for the civilization of the heathen in America;” and there was nothing said in that donation, either, about the color of the heathen! But are the colored people idle? In one of the classes which graduated from the Atlanta University not long ago, were two married women who did their own house-work, walked more than three miles through the red mud of Georgia to school, were punctual in attendance and graduated with honor. In the same class was a married man who earned money to support his family, kept up with his class in school, preached for three country churches, helped edit a readable newspaper, and graduated with honor. In one of the schools across the city, an American Missionary Association school, there is a woman who entered the night school, finished that, entered the day school, has plodded on from class to class, to-day in the graduating class holding[296] a place of honor, and she has earned her living and has purchased a home by sewing at the same time. This school has done a great work; yet the loyal people of that city, of whom you heard not long ago such a beautiful report on this platform, for some reason took a great antipathy to that school, and, in order to break it down, established another school on the next corner, a public school. Did the A. M. A. school suspend operations? The 400 students, paying one dollar a month, increased to 600; two new teachers were called from the Oswego training school and a kindergarten school is soon to be annexed. But, in order that this school on the next corner might not suspend operations, a woman who does her own washing and ironing, cooks the meals of her husband, and sends him off to his work early in the morning, goes to the A. M. A. school till 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and sends two of her children to the public school. Hundreds of such examples might be given, even in the district schools taught by the students—examples of work and of sacrifice upon the part of both parents and scholars. What would you think of a man fifty years old going to school that he might learn to read the Bible, earning his living by bottoming chairs at night by the light of a pine-knot fire? No, my friends, the colored man is not idle; if he were, filibustering would not to-day be an item of business in the United States Congress.

We know the American Missionary Association in the South; we feel toward her as a man should toward his mother. I remember that the Association picked up from the streets of Atlanta an intimate friend of mine, followed him through the grammar school, the training school and college; taught him the lesson of Yankee push and independence; started him out with a prayer for his safety; and to-day stands with out-stretched hands bidding him God-speed in his way onward and upward. The work has not all been done. Our schools need to be increased ten-fold. Each school needs a training department as an annex, for mechanical ability is to play no small part in the progress of the colored man. Some people in the South say, “Keep the colored man where his vote will be useful.” The American Missionary Association has recognized him as a brother, and says, “Give him a man’s chance.” We thank the American Missionary Association for that; and under the inspiration of just such treatment we mean to stay in the South and fight it out. We are there “to the manner born.”

BENEFACTIONS.

Mr. Enoch Pratt, of Baltimore, has given $1,000,000 for a public library in that city.

Col. C. G. Hammond has given $20,000 towards the Professorship Fund of Chicago Seminary.

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A fund of $100,000 has been received by the Perkins Institute for the Blind—the same to be used in printing books for the blind.

Mr. J. H. Deane, of New York, offers to give $10,000 towards $50,000 for the library of Richmond College (Baptist), provided that $25,000 of the whole sum be raised south of Mason and Dixon’s line, and that $25,000 be invested, and its income be used for the replenishing of the library.

Hon. J. B. Grinnell has received a gift of $15,000 for Iowa College from John L. Blair, of Blairsville, N.J., a prominent railroad man.

The will of the late C. D. Talcott, of Talcottville, Conn., bequeaths $5,000 to be expended in building a free public library in that village.

Mr. James W. Scoville, of Chicago, in addition to his previous generous gifts to the Chicago Theological Seminary, has just paid over $10,000 for the endowment of the “Scoville Professorship of Elocution.”

President De Forest has secured $21,000 towards the endowment of Talladega College, Alabama. This is a good beginning. All of our State chartered institutions need such foundations.

GENERAL NOTES.

AFRICA.

—Rev. C. T. Wilson and Mr. C. W. Pearson, of the Nyanza Mission, on account of impaired health are obliged to retire. Rev. G. Litchfield is also invalided but hopes to engage again in missionary work. Mr. Wilson’s resignation leaves Mr. Mackay the only one now in the field of the original party of eight who went out in 1876. Four are dead and three have retired.

—All the missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church in Egypt got away safely, except Mr. Ewing and Dr. Watson, who remain at their posts. Most of them are at present in England and Scotland, a few being on the Continent. As the hot season had begun to come on, the missionaries in Upper Egypt had generally come down and were at Ramleh on the way for their usual vacation and rest. All those in Cairo, Mansoura and Alexandria were at their posts and their usual work until after the outbreak at Alexandria, on the 11th of June, when word was shortly afterward received from one of the United States judges in the International Court of Egypt warning them to leave at once.

—The Belgian Government reports that Mr. Henry M. Stanley is continuing, without relaxation, to develop his great enterprise of establishing a line of stations from the embouchure of the Congo River, in Africa, and carrying them as far forward as his resources will permit. He has completed the four stations of Vivi, Isangila, Manyenga and Stanley Pool, the first-named being below, and the last above the rapids. These have already their dwellings, gardens and flags. Each is under a white Governor, with three white assistants, but the rest of the population consists of Zanzibar negroes.

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THE INDIANS.

—At the Indian Training and Industrial School at Carlisle have been gathered together, during the last year, 295 Indian boys and girls from 24 different tribes, speaking as many different languages. In age these children range from eight years to maturity, the average being about 15 years. From 60 to 70 of the older children give evidence of sincere conversion to the Christian religion, and most of those who have professed conversion give evidence, in improved life and manners, of a change of heart. About 30 have joined the different churches in Carlisle.

—The Pawnees say larks on the prairies sing Pawnee; that they hear the brooding lark sing out from her nest, as the shades of night deepen around her, “Ku-chae, kan-kee, koo-de-do—kan-kee, koo-de-doo; Ka-chee, kan-kee, koo-de-do,” which interpreted is, “I am not afraid; truly, I am not afraid.”

ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

Luling, Texas.—Rev. T. E. Hillson’s people have hung upon their new church a sixty-dollar bell that is a delight to them.

Berea, Ky.—The Berea College people have secured from the legislature of Kentucky a law forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors within a radius of three miles from the College. The law has been printed on a handbill and is now enforced. A druggist in order to sell liquor must have a prescription of a regular physician. It was well this law was thus early secured, for, as Berea is to become a railway town, the need of it will be yet more pressing.

Eureka, Kansas.—The Second Congregational Church of this place within the first year of its existence has built a plain house of worship at a cost of $850, and it will be ready for use at the first of October. Rev. W. W. Weir is the pastor. The Council which organized this church thus find that their faith in it is justified.

Cedar Cliff, N.C.—In May last, Rev. A. Connet assisted Rev. J. N. Ray in organizing a church of 12 members at this place. Recently the church received 21 new members.

McLeandsville, N.C.—We hear of a revival now in progress in Rev. A. Connet’s church, nine having found the Saviour, and thirteen more being among the inquirers.

Dudley, N.C.—Rev. J. E. B. Jewett, of Pepperell, Mass., has accepted an appointment to the missionary pastorate at this place. His wife will assist him in the care of the school. Their former experience in an academy will make them greatly useful in our work. We have one daughter of Mr. Jewett as a teacher in Wilmington, and one in New Orleans.

New Orleans, La.—Rev. S. N. Brown, a student of Fisk University, who supplied the Central Church of this city very acceptably during the vacation of Dr. Alexander, proved himself also a good night watchman for our university premises. Hearing a burglar at work in the main college building, he sallied out without collar or shoe-tying and pursued the house-breaker, who soon put down the two clocks he had taken. But the pursuer wanted more and kept up the chase until he caught the thief. On his way to the police station he met a policeman, who took the prisoner in charge and put him in jail. The criminal proved to be a white man, and it is hoped that the court will give him his dues.

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THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., Field Superintendent, Atlanta, Ga.

STUDIES IN THE SOUTH.

FROM THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

A Black Planter.

There is a class of colored men in the South who are laying the foundations of a better state of things than now prevails, by sheer industry and devotion to money-making. I found a conspicuous illustration of this type in the person and work of a negro in one of the old Southern States. He could not read, but had learned within a few years, by instruction from his young wife, to write well enough to enable him to “keep the time” of his hands by recording it in his book of farm accounts. He had “begun without nothin’,” he said. At the end of the war he gathered up some “lame and sick gov’ment mules that had been turned out fuh de crows, an’ doctor’d ’em up.” Then he worked on the plantations near him, at first by the day, but soon began to rent land and “hire hands.” He said he “lived on nothin’, or what other folks frowed away; but I reckon I fed my mules mighty well.” He had bought land, a little at a time, and when I visited him owned many hundred acres of the best land in that region. He still worked hard himself, and exacted, most rigidly, the amount of labor which he thought his hands ought to perform. “I don’t lay out fuh ’em to do as much as I does, boss; but dey mus’n’t shirk.” His residence was but a few miles from a considerable town. The year before I was there a neighboring planter had wanted a twenty-acre wood-lot cleared off. It was heavily timbered, and this black man offered to clear the ground for the wood which was to be removed. This was accepted, and he “had de choppin’ done in de wintah, when dey wusn’t no wuk, an’ han’s wus cheap.” The wood was drawn out and piled up on a vacant lot near the road. “Nex’ summah eberybody’s out o’ wood in town; dey allays is; dey nebber luks ahead mo’ ’an twel’ dinnah time. Nobody hain’t no time to haul wood den. Eberybody’s in de cotton. But ebery night, ahtah we done done de day’s wuk in de fiel’, den my wagons every one takes loads o’ wood to town. De bigbugs pays good price den, ’cause dey ain’t no wood fuh to be hed. So dah, den [becoming animated], hi, boss, I sells de wood, see! An’ I pays all de spences fuh cuttin’ it, an’ in de nex’ place I buys de lan’ what de wood come off, an’ I hab suffin lef’ in de bank.” The guttural chuckle with which he ended I am powerless to represent. The principal citizens of the town said this story was true.

This man reared cattle, sheep, and hogs, and had better blooded animals than any other planter near him, white or black. He was saving all the manure that his farms yielded, and drawing more from the town—“de profit’s on de back load.” His fences were good, and, what is rare in the South, the fence-rows were kept clean, and free from weeds, briars and bushes.

The Fortunes of the Negroes.

Many of the negroes are acquiring land, and are farming successfully and profitably, in nearly all parts of the South, while multitudes of others still work as “hired hands,” and save nothing, consuming a large portion of their wages for intoxicating drinks. The general inclination of the negroes to leave the plantations and congregate in the towns is injuring the race seriously, in many ways. There is not sufficient employment in the towns for those who are already there, and great numbers become idle, dissipated and vicious. Most of the colored people are better adapted to farm-work than to other occupations, though many are doing well as mechanics, blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers, and plasterers. In the[300] towns and cities nearly all the cartmen and porters are negroes. Whatever may be the extent to which idleness prevails among them, it is certain that the negroes perform a vast amount of labor which is not only necessary or convenient for their employers, but highly profitable as well. The labor of the colored people is at present an important and, indeed, indispensable factor in the chief wealth-producing industries of the South. If the negroes could be brought to understand existing conditions and tendencies in the regions which they inhabit, they might soon greatly improve their fortunes, and secure for themselves and their children most important advantages from opportunities which are likely soon to pass away, never to be presented again, or at any rate, not during the reign of the influences which are now becoming dominant in the South.

Black Ministers.

Some of the colored preachers in most parts of the South are ignorant, fat, lazy and licentious. Many of them use intoxicating liquors freely. The influence of such men is of course a curse to the colored people, and is the cause of much immorality among the married women who are members of the “colored churches.” But it would be most unjust to allow my readers to infer that colored ministers generally belong to this class. Here, as in the description of all classes of people in the South, discrimination is necessary. The new order of things is manifesting itself in a conflict between opposing tendencies in the negro churches, and among their ministers. Except in the larger towns, most of the older ministers depend on mere noise and excitement to influence their hearers. They work themselves into incoherent fury, stamp and yell, and appeal only to the “feelings” of their uninstructed followers. These old men denounce “de high-flyin’ preachin’ we has dese days.” They say “it’s all book-l’arnin’; dey ain’t no Holy Ghos’ in it, at all. Dis new religion mighty smaht, an’ mighty proud, but it hain’t got no feelin’ to it.” There is a great deal of truth in this. The more intellectual preaching of the younger educated men is ill suited to the tropical and impulsive nature of the colored people. Their life is far more a matter of instinct than of thought, and to attempt to teach religion to them by means of appealing to their reason is to disarm religion at once of all its potency. The preachers and missionaries who are best adapted to the peculiar conditions and needs of the colored people are the young men who have received an industrial education, who have been trained to manual labor, and have learned either farming or some mechanical art at such schools as the Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Virginia, or the other admirable institutions of learning fostered by the American Missionary Association and the churches of the South. Of course, this class is still very small, but it comprises some excellent men, whose influence is already widely felt in the South, and is a potent factor in the soundest and most hopeful religious work now going on there.

Educating the Negroes.

The foremost men in the Southern States—I mean those who are foremost in business, and in the social and moral life and activities of the local communities—are everywhere taking up the subject of education for the negroes in a serious and business-like spirit. I did not find anywhere, except in Southwestern Texas, any manifestation of prejudice against negro education, or feeling of jealousy regarding the advancement of the colored people in intelligence or capability of self-elevation.

Many of the Southern people appear to me to be rather sanguine and extravagant in their expectations regarding the results of popular intellectual enlightenment. They talk very much as Horace Mann and his fellow-laborers talked, when they were beginning the intellectual revival which led to the establishment of the New England public-school[301] system. They will of course find, as has been shown in the Northern States, that even after the public schools have educated the mass of the people, other problems of a serious nature remain.

NEGRO PRAYER MEETING.

A Class with No Friends.

The negroes are being educated more rapidly, in large portions of the South, than are the people known as “poor whites,” More interest is felt and greater efforts are made in behalf of the negroes than for this class of white people. The negro has the advantage of being in the world’s eye and mind. He is somewhat picturesque, and occupies a position of historic interest. He has powerful friends. The poor whites have no friends: there is no picturesqueness, no historic interest, connected with their situation. The leading white men of the Southern States, democrats, seem[302] to me to feel a more kindly interest in the negroes than in this class of poor people of their own race. They know much more about them. Greater effort is likely to be made, for a long time to come, for the education and improvement of the negroes than for the advancement of the poor whites; and yet the class is not at all so degraded or so worthless as is popularly believed. These people are primitive in character, and in the conditions and methods of their life, but they are not degraded. There is, however, great danger that many of them will be debased under the changed conditions of the new order of things in the South. No other class in that portion of our country is so little understood, or would better repay careful study. It is highly important that the attention of thoughtful, philanthropic and patriotic men, both North and South, should be directed to their position and probable tendencies in relation to the new life of the country in which they live. In blood and inherited qualities they are not, generally, vicious or low. But they have no friends, no sympathy, either North or South.

Mixed Schools for the Two Races.

There is one important feature or division of the subject of education in the Southern States which I have not yet brought forward in these studies; that is, the question of separate or mixed schools for the two races. The sentiment, feeling and judgment of the Southern people are at present strongly and almost universally opposed to the idea of educating white and black children, or young people, in the same schools. But a change in this matter is already in progress. After attentively studying the subject everywhere, I am convinced that there will soon be mixed schools, for white and colored children, in many parts of the South. There are already a few such schools, and the effect of considerations of convenience, cheapness and practical efficiency are likely, I think, to cause a rapid increase in their number. I look for a decided revolution in Southern thought and feeling within twenty years in regard to this subject. A few of the most intelligent and far-seeing among Southern leaders—some of the foremost “Bourbons”—say that mixed schools are “sure to come,” and they are not disturbed by the prospect.

Educational Work of the A. M. A.

The educational work already accomplished in the South by the American Missionary Association is of a high character, and it deserves all possible recognition and assistance. The best Southern people everywhere spoke of it gratefully and enthusiastically. At the Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Virginia; Talladega College, in Alabama; Tougaloo University, Mississippi; Tillotson Normal School, Austin, Texas; and at several other colleges and normal schools which I saw, though the money endowments are scanty compared with the amounts which are needed, the endowments in personal qualities and character, as represented by the teachers, are of a remarkably high order. This is necessary, for the work of educating the colored people of the South requires the best teachers that can be obtained.

In many of these institutions the boys learn something of various trades or mechanical operations, and of farming, and the girls are taught sewing, cooking, and the care of a house. I examined a great number of the negro common and high schools, which are taught by graduates and students of the colleges and normal schools which I have named, and I think it wonderful that so many of these negro teachers are successful. They have to struggle against many disadvantages, but nearly all whom I saw had the confidence and respect of the leading white citizens where they were at work. There were a few fools among them, of course, but a great majority appeared to be serious and sensible young men and women.

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AFRICA.

DR. LADD’S JOURNAL.

The space in the Missionary will only admit of a few extracts from the remainder of this long journal. Much that is interesting we are obliged to omit. The time from Jan. 7th till Jan. 24th was busily spent in Khartoum. A small steamer was finally obtained, and our missionary explorers in the face of many discomforts and much danger pushed on up the Nile through the territory occupied by El Mehdi till they reached their objective point in Central Africa.—Ed.

Tuesday, Jan. 24th.—We fired up early. Crowds stood on the bank to see our steamer off. We started at 10:30 A.M. The views of Khartoum as we steamed down the Blue Nile were fine. The junction of the Blue and White Niles is very marked. The difference in color, and the line of demarcation are remarkable. The current as we rounded the point was very strong, for here the whole broad Nile is reduced to a very narrow channel, and our little steamer had all she could do to make headway. As we got beyond this point the river became very wide and the banks low. We were obliged to share our “hole” with an officer, who was one of the few who escaped from Mohammed Achmet at the time of the second slaughter. “He ran away and lived to fight another day,” and now he acted as though he were the hero of a hundred battles. We had a poor captain and not very good men, but a fine, energetic pilot. At 9:15 we anchored near the east bank in a position of comparative safety. We put up our mosquito nets and spread insect powder with a free hand, hoping to mitigate some of our troubles.

Wednesday, Jan, 25th.—No sleep; too many discomforts. The “Hero” kept up an incessant groaning. Our only hope was that he might die before morning. Doctor threatened to shoot him, and I stood ready to get him acquitted on the ground of justifiable homicide or of “insanity.” Started about sunrise. The river was like a great inland sea. There were thousands of ducks and geese. Mourgan and the mate both managed to tumble into the hold to-day. It was a wonder that they did not break their necks. The mate had to come under the doctor’s care. About sundown we stopped for wood. We went ashore in a boat as far as it could go, and were then carried to dry land. While on shore the mate was taken very ill with the fever, and lay on the ground in a most miserable condition. We got him on board, and the doctor took him in charge. The cockroaches are eating up everything, books and papers, etc. The water has come in at the port-holes, although we have stuffed them as well as possible, and has made the bedding damp. It is several inches deep under the floor, and have to look out and not step through a loose board into it. The mosquitoes may succeed in eating us up if they keep on. It appears to be only a question of time. Therm., S. R., 62°; M., 87°; S. S., 71°.

Thursday, Jan. 26th.—No sleep! The groans of the “Hero” and the bumping of the tiller, both “beyond control,” were too much for us. We left at 11 A.M. There were crocodiles in vast numbers along here and ducks by the thousands. From the steamer deck we shot great numbers. Finally the men got tired going after them. But what a feast they had. We also caught several large fish, but none of them are fit to eat taken in this water. Anchored for the night at Dooaim, a large town, evidently doing a good business, judging from the number of ships and boats that are here.

Friday, Jan. 27th.—Started at about 6 A.M. Had a good view of the town as we steamed slowly out. Arrived at Kowa at 10:30 A.M. This place was for some time the southern limit of the Soudan provinces. It is a very large town, and is now the southern terminus of the telegraph line. There is a low island opposite, but the town itself stands up high and dry on the desert. Here again[304] we were invited to see a “fantasia,” but declined with thanks.

My face is still peeling from the effects of the Korosko Desert.

On the way to Fashoda the travelers passed the island of Abbas, where Mohammed Achmet, the “False Prophet,” first distinguished himself, saw his village and the spot where the first slaughter occurred. They stopped at various other places of interest on the way, and had a variety of experiences. They studied the towns and the people in passing, and although generally well received, they had some difficulty to get wood, on account of the hostility of the Shillooks. They became acquainted with the African fever among the swamps, and were only too glad to reach Fashoda.

Friday, Feb. 3d.—The steamer stopped, before we awoke this morning, for wood, as it will be impossible to get it at Fashoda on account of the hostile Shillooks. Started at noon with a small supply. Arrived at Fashoda, within the territory designated by Mr. Arthington, at 2:30 P.M. Saw naked natives fishing along the bank. There are three villages with conical straw roofs to the north of Fashoda, but near it, which first came in sight. The “Dragomen” reside in these. We have a plan of Fashoda, which will give a better idea of it than any verbal picture. We shall also take some photographs of it to illustrate a more detailed account in the report. For this country the place is well fortified. We could not anchor off the main land, as the water was too low, but tied up to an island opposite the town. The other steamer and a few boats were lying here. Several Dinka villages were just visible with the glass on the east shore. On our arrival an officer came on board to search for slaves! He proposed to examine our boxes. But we told him there was no custom house here. He might look for slaves, but he could not examine any of our baggage. He found it was no use, and went off. What a farce this suppression of the slave trade is! Men will live in Fashoda, and draw good salaries to suppress the slave trade. When a steamer comes in, like ours, from Khartoum, they will come on board and look for slaves! While right back of them is a regular caravan route, over which thousands are carried every year, and they go on their way, and no questions are asked! It looks well to have an officer in uniform examine government steamers, and make a show of great things! We sent our letters and orders up to the Governor pro tem., but he and his aid were already on their way to call on us. We found them very pleasant and friendly.

Saturday, Feb. 4th.—There was much noise and loud talking and confusion in unloading the steamer. This would have been a good steamer for Mohammed Achmet to have captured, as we brought down 20,000 Turkish dollars, besides powder, cloth and soap. Took several views of Fashoda as seen from the deck of the steamer. The Governor sent us a present of two sheep, a quantity of chickens, and a couple of baskets of vegetables. We noticed here for the first time a species of crow with a white breast. The Dinkas on the east shore are said to be quiet and friendly. Fashoda is considered by everybody to be one of the most unhealthy spots on the White Nile. * * The town is surrounded with a thorn zeriba, and is built up, outside of the fort and the officers’ quarters, of round cane huts smeared with mud and thatched. The Shillooks, who come from the neighboring villages to trade and visit, are tall and well built. The faces of the men and women are much alike, as the men carefully pull out all the beard they have. The women generally wear the skin of some animal loosely suspended from the left shoulder. The men, when they come to town, wear a piece of cotton cloth thrown over one shoulder and wound around them. I called a few moments on the friendly and generous Governor. He walked with me to the boat, while the soldiers presented arms and the band played “All confusion worse confounded,” which is their national air. It sounds best at a distance, say of five miles or more. The Governor does everything he can for us. He has even sent us some[305] wood from the scant government stores. Witnessed a most brutal flogging from the deck of the steamer. Such an outrage would not be possible anywhere but here. I stood it as long as I could and then was about to interfere, when some of the men standing around drew off the man. There are great numbers of hippopotami around here; we hear them all about us toward night; I counted fourteen that I could see at one time. The Governor proposed to send a guard of soldiers with us to the Sobat, but we finally concluded that we would rather rely upon our own arms than have any such guard as he could furnish.

Monday, Feb. 6th.—Started about 4 A.M. Stopped for wood on the west side; went ashore and looked about. The Captain will not go on shore, nor allow us to do so, without being well armed. Some Shillooks came down to the shore apparently to barter. We were warned to be on our guard. They were absolutely naked, and a wild looking set. We were off as soon as we got wood enough. Passed a small island, one end of which was literally covered with crocodiles. There is almost a continuous stretch of Shillook villages on both banks along here. The men are all naked. The language strikes one as very peculiar. There are a number of palm trees in this vicinity with a bulge or swelling in the middle of the stem. Passed several villages of considerable size. Saw the village called O-Gawdie, where the late King of the Shillooks, who was killed by Mohammed Achmet, resided. The natives in many places are burning the grass and getting ready to plant their farms. We notice also various methods of fishing, which for a wonder seem to be quite successful. Some large flies came on board along here, and we found that they could bite. At 7:30 we cast anchor in the Sobat, at a point some distance above its mouth, and opposite the deserted military station. We chose the middle of the stream as a matter of safety, for although there are but a handful of people living near here, yet they will swarm from the White Nile, and other parts, at very short notice. Relays of three men each were placed on watch all night. Now that the military station is abandoned the country about here is not considered at all safe. But here we are in the Sobat at last! After all our hopes and fears, after all our journeyings over sea and land, up the old Nile and across the burning sands of the Desert, here we are at last! We are twenty-five hundred miles up the Nile. We are more than eight thousand miles from home. We are in Central Africa.

Dr. Ladd and his party went up the Sobat as far as was practicable, and took a number of photographs of the country and the people. They also went beyond the Sobat junction of the White Nile. Having successfully accomplished their mission, they were obliged to return as speedily as possible on account of the increasing dangers that surrounded them. They stopped at “Tawfikeeyeh,” where Sir Samuel Baker had his camp, and at the towns of Melacan and Waw, and took many interesting photographs of all these places. They also visited with a guard among the Shillook villages in the vicinity of Fashoda.

We rode around Fashoda outside of the zeriba of thorn bushes, which had been put up as a protection to the place, and then we struck across the plain to the village of Hegag. Here we had a pleasant interview with the natives, and saw a man who had received a bad bullet wound in the last fight with Mohammed Achmet. I took a photograph of this village and of the chief’s family. After we had had quite a chat with these people we again mounted, and, taking a good road back, we let our horses out on a full run, to see what an Arab horse could do. All the horses seemed to enjoy it, and certainly we did, after the cramped life we had been leading on board of the steamer. As we approached Fashoda the mounted guard, now always on the alert and fearing an attack from Mohammed Achmet at any time, spied us coming at full speed, and thinking something might be wrong, rode out to meet us. There is a constant fear that at any moment the place may be attacked, and a most[306] vigilant watch is kept. We rode around the town, took a photograph of the market place and then returned to our lodgings on the steamer. Here we were waited upon by a number of men who had all sorts of favors to ask. One was a convict and wanted help; another wished us to present some petitions for him at Khartoum. Toward evening we called upon the Governor at his private house; had a pleasant visit, and obtained much valuable information about the natives and the country. On our return I took a photograph of some native women cooking durra. By a careful calculation from latitude and declination, I find that the time of sunrise this morning was 6:10 and the time of sunset was 5:50. In this way only are we able to regulate our watches. * * *

Speaking of Kaka, Dr. Ladd says:

The small garrison of 50 men is practically in a state of siege. They can get no supplies, and are actually afraid to go more than a few steps beyond their zeriba. Kaka is thus threatened both by the Shillooks and the followers of Mohammed Achmet, and there is much fear expressed on all sides. This whole section of country is considered very dangerous and unsafe. We are repeatedly told: “It is well that you are armed; don’t go on shore without your arms.” There certainly seem to be perilous times ahead, for things are constantly getting worse, and the government has delayed to act until action means war. There is a young Greek merchant on board with whom I have been brushing up my Greek. He is from Fashoda and expected to stop here, but is frightened out of it, and says he shall go on to Khershawal, which is on the other side of the river, and a place of less danger. He says, and others agree with him, that there are spies everywhere who keep the rebels posted as to every movement. One man is now in irons at Fashoda who was found with a letter on his person directed to Mohammed Achmet, telling him the condition of the forces at Fashoda and urging him to come on at once and take the place. Threats have been made that if the government does not send on an army at once the rebels will take Fashoda within 20 days.

The town of Kaka is built of mud-smeared straw huts, surrounded with a zeriba. The fort is built of mud, boasts one cannon, and is surrounded by a dry moat. One of the officers presented Doctor with a young red-crested crane. After we had sufficiently examined the fort and town we took the photograph of a Dinka woman whose person was a marvel of bas-relief work, and also a general view of the town. We were presented through the “Yousbashi” with a couple of baskets of a seed called “sutcheb,” and were assured that it is a sure cure for dysentery. Saw one soldier who ought to have been shot on the spot for insubordination. The Governor ordered him to accompany the durra to the town as a guard, and he flatly and most emphatically refused to budge. The Governor tried to reason with him and urge him, but he grew more and more obstreperous, till finally, the governor slapped him in the face, and, after a tussle, took his gun away from him. The Governor tried to have some one arrest him, but no one would do it, and finally the man got his gun back, and did as he pleased. What discipline can there be in an army where such things are possible? Very soon there was another fight, and this time on the steamer. We were about to put off. Doctor and I were standing on the bridge. A soldier rushed on board claiming an “angarib,” or native bed, which did not belong to him; but he was bound to come on board and take it by force. The Captain ordered him on shore. He refused to go. The Captain undertook, with the help of his sailors, to put him off the boat, and there was a fight at once. Other soldiers rushed in to help their comrade, and it looked for a few minutes as though the crew might be overpowered. Instinctively our hands found their way to our[307] revolvers, and we stood ready to defend the Captain if it should become necessary. After a pretty general fight, the soldiers were obliged to retreat. The plank was drawn in, and to settle all questions of ownership, the “angarib” was broken up and thrown overboard.

Tuesday, Feb. 14th.—We were up early this morning, and started out to see the country and hunt a little before breakfast while the men were cutting wood for the steamer. We borrowed a rifle from one of the soldiers, so that we had two rifles and a shot gun in the party. We were warned, as we went on shore, of a lion that was lurking about in the bushes, but we wanted nothing better than to see a lion. We struck straight back into the country for some distance without seeing anything. After a time I got after some guinea hens with the shot gun, leaving the rest of the party with the rifles in the rear. I was creeping carefully along to get within range when I suddenly came upon two large deer, with horns over a yard long. They were close to me, and I ran a bullet into the shot gun, but decided that it would be better to drive them toward the rifles than to try them with only a shot gun. They stopped once and looked at me, and then bounded away in the direction of the rest of the party. Doctor fired as they passed, but the grass just there was tall, and he missed. We were about to follow them up, and get them, if possible, without giving them our wind, when our suspicious were aroused by something moving in the high grass and bushes. We watched closely, and soon made out a crowd of men with spears crouching down when we observed them, and darting from bush to bush, and circling around in such a way as to surround us. They had horses, and were easily identified as Baggara Arabs, probably belonging to Mohammed Achmet’s party. We thought it best to retreat while we could do so in good order. We reached the river, and reported the state of affairs to the Captain. Ibrahim and the Mate also soon came in, reporting that they were Mohammed Achmet’s people, that they were in great numbers, and that they were still advancing, and spreading out so as to surround us. The Captain gave the order to fire up at once, and ordered the men on board as soon as possible. The Doctor and I started to reconnoiter, but the Captain would not allow it, saying that we would find ourselves in an ambush, and that it would do no good. We did not want to be obliged to kill anybody to get away, or to fight unless it became necessary, so we obeyed him, and went on board. The ropes were cast off, and we turned on “full speed” down stream. We were glad enough to get safely away. We passed a large island, which is not properly named on the maps. In fact, there is not a single map or book upon the Nile, or any extended portion of the Nile, that is at all satisfactory. One would suppose that Gordon’s map of the White Nile would at least approximate to accuracy. On the contrary, it is full of the grossest and most amusing blunders. * * * Our steersman is very ill with the fever to-day, and just about used up. We have been obliged to take to eating durra, for our bread, as well as most of our other provision, has given out. Saw two large herds of buffaloes on the west bank. One herd numbered over a hundred head, young and old. We had a good long look at them before they sniffed the air and tossed their heads and plunged off into the jungle. In the evening, Turk and Greek gathered around us, and told us some marvelous stories of witches. Ibraham swallowed it all as the sober truth, while we laughed at his credulity. We stopped to spend the night and get wood on the east side, just beyond or north of Waldochone Island. There is said to be good hunting here, and we are preparing to enjoy the sport while the men are getting the wood in the morning. This is the only variety our life affords, and helps to keep us in good spirits. Temperature: 6, 61°; 11, 77°; 5:50, 83°.

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Wednesday, Feb. 15th.—We were up bright and early, and started back into the country over a magnificent hunting ground. We started up a hare, and were after him, when two large lions sprang out from behind a bush, and ran across our path, tails up, making for the jungle. They were immense fellows, and the men who were with us were frightened and lagged behind, while Doctor and I chased them up and tried to head them off. It was an exciting chase, and made the blood tingle in our veins, but the brush became so dense that they finally got away from us. It was an experience in African life that we shall not soon forget. * * *

About four o’clock we saw some 300 Arabs with their horses, cattle and spears. They were on their way, so the Captain and all on board said, to join Mohammed Achmet. Certainly serious times are brewing. What will the end be? Saw a number of Dinkas on the east bank; saw a dozen huge hippopotami sunning themselves. Ran aground, but were soon off again. It is a wonder we don’t run down some hippopotami, for they are very thick in the water about here. Arrived at Khershawal at 6:30 P.M. The pilot was so intent on looking for sand-banks that he did not see the town and the people waiting on the shore, till after we had passed it and them. I was looking at the place through my glass, and the engineer asked me if I did not see Khershawal. Of course I did, and we turned back, while the whole crowd had a good laugh at the pilot. Here there is a garrison, at present consisting of only 30 men. The Governor, a fine looking man, came on board. He said the Arabs we saw had passed here, giving as an excuse that they were going hunting, but that it was very well understood where they were going. It is said that great numbers of the Baggara Arabs are constantly going over to Mohammed Achmet, and that at present his forces number 10,000 men. The Greek merchant is afraid to go back to Fashoda as he intended, after selling his goods. Doctor has been threatened with another chill, but happily it has been averted. The nearest village of the Dinkas, who inhabit this side of the river, is six hours distant. The chief of the tribe lives there. His assistant lives here in Khershawal. Temperature, 6:10, 64°; 4, 87°; 9:40, 74°.

Thursday, Feb. 16th.—Went on shore, and visited the town. The soil is gravel, sand and loam, and the town stands up high and dry from the river. The shore is covered with a beautiful white sand, underneath which is a layer of excellent clay for bricks. The town is built of straw huts, and is surrounded with a zeriba. We called at the Governor’s, and were treated to sherbet and coffee. We then walked about the town, and I took a photograph of the Assistant Chief of the Dinkas, and one of a Dinka woman, and then took an inside view of the town and another general view from the outside of the zeriba. This place must be comparatively healthy. We were presented with a sheep by the Governor as we were about to start. We left at 9:45 A.M. Doctor and I were sitting on the bridge seeing what we could see, when I discovered a huge snake in the water swimming slowly and trying to cross the river. I rushed for the shot-gun, and although we had almost got beyond range, gave him both barrels with good effect. I jumped into the small boat with a number of men; the steamer put about and we went after that snake. As we neared him, however, he began to show signs of life, and Doctor, fearing he might get away, fired two shots at him with the rifle from the bridge. The second ball struck, but glanced, leaving not the slightest trace of a mark, but stunned him so that he turned over on his back. We picked him up and found that we had got hold of a boa-constrictor. As soon as he was landed in the boat he came to again, and made it lively for us. His strength was something remarkable. He ran his head a little way under a board, and six men pulling with all their might[309] and main could not get him out. He came out when he got ready, but then we had a rope around him, and hauled him on deck. There was a scattering of the crowd then. We choked him to death, cut his teeth out, and put him away. He came to life again, and broke one of the supports of the water-jar. Then Ibrahim stood on that snake’s head till he was dead. We hung him up. He came to life again, and nearly got away. Then we beat him on the head with a club till he was “as dead as a door nail.” He came to life again! No use! We determined to conquer him this time, and proceeded to skin him. This was too much for him, and he concluded to remain dead. He measured 9 ft. 6 in. in length, and 11¾ in. around. I have preserved the skin, and hope to have it stuffed. The sailors will eat the flesh. We anchored for the night, and to get wood, about 4 miles north of Gebel Ain, on the east side. Temperature, 7, 62°; 12, 84°; 7:30, 80°.

Friday, Feb. 17th.—The thumping of the rudder kept us awake nearly all night. We went on shore not expecting to be gone long, but the men said they had seen a lion, and that started us off, and we soon got on the trail. Doctor and I were separated in the thick brush. He followed one trail and I another. Ibrahim was with me; a good sailor with him. I soon came upon three large deer. I had only a shot gun, but dropped a bullet in, and was just raising the gun when Ibrahim, in what I call his woman’s clothes, came marching up, and asked what I saw. Of course I saw no deer then. It was a splendid hunting ground. There were fresh tracks of lions and buffaloes and deer, etc., all around us. But it was time to return to the steamer. We had turned and gone only a little way, when, all of a sudden, two mounted Baggara Arabs, with their long spears leveled, sprang from the bushes and stood in the pathway between us and the steamer. The truth flashed upon us. We were waylaid by followers of El Mehdi, who would not hesitate to kill us if they could. Ibrahim began to mutter his prayers and repeat passages from the Koran. The two men stood their horses before us, directly in our pathway, and eyed us from head to foot. My gun was ready, my finger on the trigger, and they saw that the first step forward meant death to one if not both of them. We walked steadily forward and towards them. Ibrahim was so frightened that I could hardly make him understand anything I said. Finally, I spoke so sternly that he recovered his senses, and kept close to my side, as I ordered him to do. As we approached the Arabs they turned their horses and walked them ahead of us, consulting what they had better do. Then they moved around us in a circle, and followed us up in the rear. Finally, they called to us, and we turned and faced them. They had evidently concluded that our guns were too many for them; but they tried to get us to go back into the country, telling us that our friends wanted to see us. But we were not to be fooled so easily, and kept steadily on till we reached the steamer. We thought, at first, that possibly the Doctor was in trouble, and did want to see us, but we found, on his return, that he had not seen them, and knew nothing about them. It was a ruse to get us into a trap. All agreed that, if we had not been armed as we were, they would have killed us in a minute. The Doctor had had his adventures, too. He had seen three lions, and wounded one and chased him nearly to Gebel Ain. He had met a party of Shillooks, and found them friendly, after marching up to them and shaking them by the hand. This region is full of game of all sorts. I killed some pigeons for dinner, and then we all went on board. We started at 11:20, and reached the broad part of the river, known as Aboo Zeid, which Gordon has put down on his map as a town, at 3:30. We anchored near the island of Abbas, about two hours from the former village of Mohammed Achmet. Along here we saw hundreds of cords of[310] ambatch in rafts. But this spot did not please the Captain; so we turned and tied up finally at the upper end of the island of Abbas, near the town of Gos Aboo Goumaah. * * *

Wednesday, Feb. 22d.—We tried to start this morning at 4 A.M., but found that one of the boats in tow was aground. This delayed us until 6 o’clock, when we were off. The men were at work during the night cutting wood, and we have a fair supply. Saw the encampment of a slave caravan on the west bank, a little north of Gebel Owlee. The suppression of the slave trade is a farce from beginning to end. The first sight of Khartoum was a welcome one. It seemed almost like getting home. How grand its mud houses looked too, after the straw huts to which our eyes had become accustomed. There is quite a fall in the White Nile just above its confluence with the Blue. Looking across the low island which divides the main stream of the White Nile, a narrow rushing river, from the Blue Nile, the latter appears about six feet lower. We soon rounded the point of the island, and were once again in the clear blue water of the branch river. At 5:30 we tied up at Khartoum. The White Nile voyage was safely ended. As soon as we were fairly at land, Marcopoli Bey came on board and greeted us. And soon our Syrian friends, who were the last to see us off, came to welcome us back. We were among our friends again. We now heard the news for the first time that Raouf Pasha had been deposed, that there was a new order of government for the Soudan, and a new ministry, and mixed up state of affairs in Cairo, with Arabi “Pasha” at the top of the heap. The only thing that can be predicted with any certainty is that there will be a general muss, and probably an Anglo-French intervention. In the Soudan there can be no peace till Mohammed Achmet is taken. Giegler Pasha is preparing an army, such as it is, of about 3,500 men, to march against him, but the result is very doubtful. It is reported that there is considerable fever in town. One of our visitors had it upon him while he was calling on us, and there is a lady at his house, who it is feared is dying with it. We sent Ibrahim to see if our rooms were ready for us at the consul’s. He came back to say that they were, and brought Mougades, the “bookman,” with him. He seemed rejoiced to see us again. He was expecting to start by a merkeb for Berber tomorrow, but will wait now, and go with us. We marched up to the consul’s in the evening, and felt quite at home when we got back into our rooms. A pile of letters was awaiting us, and what a feast we had after hungering and thirsting so long for news from home. Our hearts are indeed full of thanksgiving to the kind Providence who has watched over our dear ones, and has brought us thus far on our way in safety.

THE CHINESE.

GOD ANSWERS PERSEVERING PRAYER

REV. W. C. POND.

China for Christ!

It is now four years and more since I wrote (for the Missionary of Sept. 1878), an article under this title, “China for Christ.” I said that this was the motto of our mission—inscribed, indeed, as the legend on our corporate seal—because one chief source of our enthusiasm in our mission work in California, is that we hope by means of it to help dissipate the darkness of the great empire across the sea. The object of that article was to invite our American Missionary Association to undertake a mission having its headquarters at Hong Kong, but reaching out especially[311] into those districts of the province of Kwang Tung, from which our Chinese came. It would be extravagant to hope that that appeal might be fresh in the memory of many of the readers of our magazine. But the matter of which it treats has never been absent for a day from the thoughts and prayers of the more earnest and advanced of our Chinese brethren. Nothing has sufficed to discourage their prayers. Repeatedly we have been made to understand that the Association could not undertake this work in addition to its other tasks, but the brethren prayed on. I thought that I had said all that I could say, and done all that I could do, to bring to pass what seemed to me so pressingly important, and had become almost silent, waiting, I trust, on the Lord. But the prayers and the faith of these brethren would not let me be still. They seemed deaf to the negatives I brought them. “What are you going to do with this money?” I said to one of them, referring to a sum of several hundred dollars which the Congregational Association of Christian Chinese has gathered and placed at interest. “We are keeping it till the Hong Kong mission is established,” was the prompt reply. Year after year they have counseled, prayed and waited, and, it seems, have waited not in vain.

Through the influence of individuals belonging to the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., and with the cordial and joyful God-speed of the Committee as a whole, the American Board has determined to listen to this appeal, and—to use the apt expression of Dr. Alden in his letter to me—“to accept this sacred trust.” Our readers may be assured that no time was lost in sending the good news to the brethren. At their assembly at our Central Mission House that evening there was glad thanksgiving, and with it fresh and fervent prayer. To receive what one has long been craving, sometimes almost makes one tremble. Our mission, as a “sacred trust,” seems doubly sacred to me, now. Its possibilities are magnified beyond computation, and the mistakes into which we shall certainly fall, unless we are guided by a wisdom better than our own, look fraught with such loss, such disaster, that I shrink from the responsibility which I knew all along the answer to our prayers would certainly involve. Let all our friends pray for us with new faith and new ardor, that from among the Chinese in California a genuine Salvation Army may be gathered—Bible readers, colporteurs, pastors, teachers, evangelists—that, under the direction of some wise and warm-hearted American missionary, residing at Hong Kong, may advance to the conquest of China for Christ.

The Closed Gates.

On the 4th day of this month of August, the new law against Chinese immigration went into effect. The hardships and inconveniences it involves, already—in some minor instances—begin to appear. But the main effect has been to stimulate immigration to such an extent that the Chinese population of our Pacific slope is at least 33 per cent. larger to-day that it was seven months ago. The arrivals during the six months ending July 31 were 25,733; the departures, 3,627; the gain, 22,106. This increase will diffuse itself to some extent over the entire country—not all of it remaining on this side the continent—but almost all of it staying in America, a permanent addition to our Chinese element. More and more will the privilege of returning be prized by those who go back to their native land for with a temporary stoppage of the immigration there will come a relative diminution of the supply, and a consequent increase in the compensation of Chinese labor. Let no one imagine then that the passage of this law is likely to bring to a speedy close our missionary opportunity. Thus far it has greatly increased our work, and never before did we look over the rapidly approaching line between the old year and the new and see such hopeful indications as we see to-day. Let me give a few figures from the statistics for July; New pupils, 230; total number enrolled, 971; average attendance, 467. Total number enrolled as pupils in our schools during eleven months of this fiscal year, 2,373. These numbers are greater by almost 35 per cent. than those of the corresponding month of last year, and those of that month were greater, I believe, than any ever before recorded. The gain will not be so great in the future, but it will not cease because for a time the immigration ceases. Nothing can stop it but a stoppage of supplies. And of that—thank God that I may speak so confidently by faith in Him and in his people—of that I have no fear.

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MISSIONARY CLASS IN CHINA.

[313]

An Interesting Scene.

The last communion season in Bethany Church occurred August 6th. It was one of the few such seasons in which we have received no Chinese to membership. But when from two Christian Chinese families four children were presented for baptism, I felt with fresh joy and power that God’s seal of blessing was manifest upon our mission work. Two of the children were boys, sons of Jee Gam, our veteran helper, who made so many friends while on a visit eastward two years since. The other two were daughters of Chung Mon, one of the first group of Chinese whom it was my privilege to baptize—a staunch and steadfast believer, long president of our Christian Association. His wife is a faithful Christian, a member of the Methodist Church, and if you go into his home you will see, in the tenderness and affection with which the Christian father fondles his daughters, what Christ-life in a Chinese heart has done for budding womanhood. Sons could not have been welcomed more heartily or cared for more lovingly. Nothing there of that sentiment prevalent in all heathendom, illustrated in the story of “China Mary,” in our August Missionary, that the birth of a daughter is a token of the anger of the gods. The wife of Jee Gam has been in California only about a year, the older son having been born in China. She does not yet call herself a Christian, but hopes to become one, she says—when she can learn a little more. Our brother looks on his two boys and tells the longing of his heart, by saying, “I hope they may both become missionaries in my native land.”

But I am already encroaching on space that belongs to some other department of the one great work, and I will bid my eager pencil cease.

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

LETTER FROM AN AFRICAN BOY.

Doctor Pike have told President Ware that your are collection some money for me. I am very glad to hear this. I am very thankful toward you for your kindness toward me. I was the little boy who came from Africa about four years ago this month. I was brought by sea captain. I am very glad indeed to sit down and write to you all. Our school closed last Friday. I like the school very much, and I also have good many friends in Atlanta University. I hope that the Lord will save my life, and helping me to get my learning, that I may return back to my people, telling them about Jesus Christ, who have died for all peoples. Mark, 16, 15: And He said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. May the Lord bless you and help you to do more for the poor.

Philip G. Page.

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A QUESTION OF COLOR.

BY NELLIE L. TINKHAM.

—The Century.

RECEIPTS FOR AUGUST, 1882.