Heathen Africa is a wide world, but not so wide as might at first sight appear. A large part of the continent has been reached by Mahommedanism, and Christian Missions are everywhere making bold inroads, so that the portion of Africa left entirely to the light of nature is less than is often supposed.

My main object is to contribute to a better understanding of the African heathen, and the reader acquainted with books on the “dark continent” will perceive that the greater part of the information given in these pages is entirely new. My knowledge was gained while I worked in the African Mission field. Unfortunately I arrived at the scene of my labours to find that the Directors of the Mission had set up a peculiar Civil Administration which, as might have been expected, soon gave rise to great difficulties. Hence, although I was labouring with increasing success, and daily gaining the confidence of the natives, I was suddenly recalled by the Directors.[1] Although no longer privileged to labour in Africa, I have still the deepest sympathy with its people, and am led to publish these volumes in the hope of stimulating Christians to more hearty endeavours in behalf of this dark land.

A knowledge of these Africans is interesting for its own sake. Besides, we cannot believe that God has maintained such multitudes of human beings for so many generations without our being able to learn lessons from them.

It is only when one has had an opportunity of understanding these races for himself, that he knows how much they require the help of Christendom. While from that dark land Christians hear the words, “Come over and help us,” seldom do they realize how urgent is the call. That call is associated with the shrieks of the helpless slave who is sacrificed at the tomb of his oppressor, with the last cries of a fond mother poisoned by a superstitious son, and with the sighing of a wife torn from the home of her affection and compelled to drag out a miserable captivity among men whose hands are red with the blood of her kindred. When labouring in Africa, often have I been asked to explain why I was “so long in coming” when I knew that its people were living in darkness, and such a question every Pioneer Missionary may expect to face. I cannot express the feelings of many a heathen African more touchingly and at the same time more truly than by quoting the following which comes from Mr. Gill, a Missionary in the South Sea Islands:—

“At one of the fellowship meetings which the native Christians of the South Sea Islands had among themselves, an old man rose and said, ‘I stand among you to-day a solitary and lonely man. Once I had a wife: dear she was to my heart; she is no more. Once I had five noble sons; they are all gone. O that terrible night, when my wife went out to the brushwood, never to return, when my boys left my home to be slain by our deadly enemies!’ He paused, and there was a deep silence; the tears rolled down his cheeks. ‘These things do not occur now,’ he again said; ‘Christianity has put an end to these bloody wars. But there is one thing I want to ask, Can it be that the Christian people in England have had this Gospel of peace for many long years, and never sent it to us until now? O that they had sent it sooner! Had they sent it sooner, I should not be to-day solitary, sad-hearted, mourning my murdered wife and children. O that they had sent it sooner!’”

As Missions to solitary stations among aboriginal tribes require to be conducted in a careful and well-defined manner, I have pointed out many difficulties by which the success of such enterprises is liable to be impaired.

With reference to the assumption of Civil Jurisdiction, which brought one or two East African Missions under public notice, I have said little except where any incident illustrated Mission difficulties or African customs, and on this subject I must refer the reader to Missionary Magazines—in particular the Missionary Review for 1882. But lest I should appear indifferent on the matter, I may, without obtruding the subject, introduce one or two remarks calculated to benefit the youthful Missionary. Such a man is generally full of zeal and enthusiasm, and the last thing in the world that he fears is the danger of being confronted with misrepresentation or doubtful diplomacy. But such a danger is possible—it is one thing to go to the heat as the servant of the Lord, and quite a different thing to go as the agent of a Committee. While Mission Directors incur some risk by setting up a Civil Jurisdiction, the real danger falls upon the agents they employ. If any of these agents say, “I am here commanded to act as a judge or a chief, I am perfectly aware this is a difficult task, but I am bound to do my best to obey,” he soon finds he is greatly blamed: and, on the other hand, when a man reasons, “My superiors have set up a strange organisation here. But these men are the great Leaders of the Church. They have been studying Missionary methods before I was born. I have no doubt they understand their plan. But I cannot understand it: I must leave it entirely alone and devote all my attention to Spiritual work,”—condemnation as certainly follows.

Again, when an ordained Minister becomes a Missionary, he is held to lay aside his ministerial status and become the agent of a committee, while a Licentiate who is set apart for work among the heathen is “ordained” in the same sense as a beadle may be said to be ordained—he may talk of “magnifying his office,” but he holds it only during the pleasure of a committee who, after he has performed his duties most diligently, may with the greatest complacency, turn him forth to starve!

Such are some of the difficulties that are thoughtlessly thrown in the way of Mission work.

There is, however, a more pleasant side to contemplate. I desire to say with emphasis:—“Savage tribes are not difficult to get on with, Heathendom is not an unpromising field,” and such is the experience, I think, of all Missionaries as they go forward, believing that “He shall have the heathen for His heritage, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession!”

I have pleasure in acknowledging that for several of the illustrations I am indebted to the courtesy of the Rev. H. Rowley, the talented author of the Story of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa.