PREFACE. EMBOLDENED by the approbation which my former volume,-" Church Missions in Western Africa," has elicited from many of my brethren in the ministry, whose praise is in all the churches; as well as from no small portion of the periodical literature of the country, I venture to send forth this my second attempt to record in a condensed form the labors of the Church Missionary Society; with such collateral matter of a historical and geographical character, as seemed to me necessary to enhance the interest and usefulness of the work. The name of Sierra Leone, the subject of the present compilation, is familiar to us as a "household word: " it has often mingled itself with our fears-rarely with our hopes. In civil, military, judicial, and medical circles, the ill-omened appellation has always been heard with trembling interest, by aspirants after Government appointments, and with the gloomiest forebodings of bereavement, by the relatives and friends of West African adventurers. Probably in no department of society, except among the comparatively insignificant class of Christian mission advocates and supporters, has ought but ill been augured of the "white man's grave," as this Colony has lugubriously been denominated; and in the records of political complaint and vituperation, the maintenance of this deadly appendage to the British crown, bears a conspicuous part. Does it not seem strange, that with scarcely a voice, public or private, to deprecate its abandonment— and involving as its maintenance does, an immense annual drain on the British exchequer not to speak of the fearful consumption of life and health; Sierra Leone still continues in proud affiliation with Great Britain, commanding the earnest attention of her successive Cabinets, and obtaining almost unlimited supplies of blood and treasure on demand? "Thus saith the Lord, "Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it." I for one, cannot doubt that this is the simple explication of the matter: and I entertain no little confidence, that not a few readers of the following pages will take the same view of so obvious a case of providential interposition. It perhaps has not escaped some, who are acquainted with the history of this distinguished Colony, that a striking parallelism exists between the christian Church planted here, now sending forth its offshoots into neighbouring districts, and the Church of Israel in the Holy Land, from whence in due time went forth living waters to refresh and heal the nations. May not the language of the Psalmist, with some restriction, be applied to the one as well as to the other; "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparest room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, The hills were covered with the shadow of it, were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her and her branches unto the river." * Both vines originally drooped in the foul atmosphere of slavery, and both were providentially restored to the land of their fathers, where a home was prepared for them amidst the darkness of heathenism, in which civilization, freedom, and spiritual life soon shone conspicuously, and the object of this in both cases evidently was, that in the fulness of time, messengers of peace and salvation, fitted for their office-in the one case miraculously, and in the other scarcely less so, that the people to whom they came, might hear in their own tougue wherein they were born, the wonderful works of God-might go forth to proclaim among the heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ. If the Pentecostal effusion could boast and it filled the land. and the boughs thereof boughs unto the sea, of its " signs from heaven," as indicative of the superhuman source from whence it flowed; surely the fact, that the representatives of thirty or forty different African tribes, speaking as many different languages or dialects, have been assembled independently of all human * Ps. lxxx. 8—11. foresight, in one spot, on which the rays of divine truth have now shone for years, in spite of the most formidable disasters and discouragements, is no less demonstrative of omniscient intervention and contrivance. Human agency in the attempt to regenerate Africa, has hitherto failed. We have now arrived at a juncture when it will be seen whether He who chooses the "base things of the world, and things which are despised," to effect His mighty enterprises, shall not make the much-abused Colony of Sierra Leone, "a praise in the earth." Although the "Niger Expedition,"-a sketch of which I have included in this volume, does not stand in strict relationship to the Church Missionary Society's work, yet it cannot be called altogether independent of it, since the society was collaterally instrumental to its efficiency, by supplying interpreters to the Expedition, of such a character as commanded the respect of the native chiefs, who were visited on the voyage up the river; and enhancing in no small degree their admiration of British intelligence and generosity. Moreover, as the information obtained by the Expedition, regarding the countries in the proximity of the Niger, from whence great numbers of the liberated Africans in the Colony were originally sold into slavery, has inspired a general desire on their part to return home, and thus accomplish the manifest purpose of God in collecting them at the Colony; there seemed to me a propriety in taking some notice of the occurrence, in which such a movement has originated. Besides, the Niger Expedition appears to me to remove any doubt, if it ever existed, of the future welfare of Africa; being under God, entirely dependent on a well-trained native agency: the point to be kept prominently before us, in every consideration of the value of the Sierra Leone Mission. To the bulk of the present volume, as well as' of that which has preceded it, some may reasonably object, but I beg to assure them that keeping in view my original object, viz: providing an adequate representation of missionary experience, for satisfactory reference in time to come, and for profitable perusal at all times, my great difficulty has been, in the abundance of valuable matter with which the journals of the missionaries have supplied me, to confine my work to the present limits; but at the same time, I can truly say, that while forced to a certain selection of matter, my conscientious aim has been that the character of what was necessarily excluded, should in all its features be most scrupulously represented by that which appeared ; and in the absence of all bias of any kind, I trust I have not strayed from this intent. I commend my volume and its readers to the great first Missionary, Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be ascribed all the glory of every achievemeut in the field of spiritual warfare, at home and abroad. Amen. Summerhill, Meath, October 1, 1846. SAMUEL A. Walker. |