We certainly never met with any benevolent person who
lavished all his charity abroad* and refused to extend a
kind and helping hand to the children of sin and sorrow
at home. Indeed we consider his existence to he a mere figment
in the brain of croakers, whose own benevolence shines
nowhere. So we anticipate no objection from those who are
most alive to the pressing wants of the home population
to our quoting with pride the Missionary Societies which are
at work on the West Coast of Africa. The societies are sixteen
in number. Of these six are British, seven American, two
German, and one West Indian. These societies maintain 104
European or American Missionaries, have 110 stations, 13,000
scholars in 236 schools, and 19,000 registered communicants,
a number which probably represents a Christian population of
60,000.
It is particularly pleasing to see the zeal of our American
brethren; they show the natural influences and effects of
our Holy Religion. With the genuine and true-hearted it is
never a question of distance, but of need. The Americans
Ratio Ratio Ratio
STATIONS. per 1000 of men per 1000 of per 1000 of
sick daily. invalidings. deaths.
Home ........................................ 48-1 31-2 9-6
Mediterranean ................. 61-8 45-4 10-4
North America and West Indies 60-4 36-2 42-1
B ra z ils ........................................ 43-4 27-7 1 6 1
P a c ific ........................................ 58-9 36-2 7 '9
West Coast of A fric a ................. 6 2 0 38’0 34-1
Cape of Good Hope ................. 76-7 31’3 18-1
East Indies and China 86-7 61 "6 26"1
Australia .. ......................... 40-0 28-4 13-7
Irregular E o r c e ......................... 77'4 26’5 10 4
“ No detailed information has been
obtained respecting the loss by death
of the civil servants of the Government
on the West Coast; but it may be
stated that the loss of life from climate
amongst this class is by no means
large. The facility with which officers
of all the Services who suffer
to any dangerous extent froth disease
are permitted to return home on
sick leave, must operate to diminish
considerably the number of fatal
cases.” *— Report of Colonel Ord,
p. 30..
make capital Missionaries; and it is only a bare act of justice
to say that their labours and success on the West Coast are
above all praise. And not on that shore alone does their
benevolence shine. In India, China, South Seas, Syria,
South Africa, and their own far West, they have proved
themselves worthy children of the old country—the asylum
for the oppressed of every nation—the source of light for all
lands.
Now that we have given but a faint outline of what has
been done on the West Coast, we ask with what face can the
Portuguese shut some 900 miles of the East Coast from these
civilizing and humanizing influences. Looking at the lawful
trade which has been developed in one section of Africa, is
it to be endured by the rest of the world that most of a
continent so rich and fertile should be doomed to worse than
sterility till the Spaniards and Portuguese learn to abandon
their murderous traffic in man? When these effete nations
speak of their famous ancestors they tacitly admit that the
same sort of mental stagnation has fallen on themselves as
on the Africans and others; the United States would eonfer
a blessing on Spain and tear away much of the veil that
blinds her, by annexing Cuba; and England would perform
a noble service to Portugal by ignoring those pretences to
dominion on the East Coast, by which, for the sake of mere
swagger in Europe, she secures for herself the worst name in
Christendom. As we have mentioned, the more enlightened
Lisbon statesmen would fain effect by an English mercantile
company what has been accomplished elsewhere by English
philanthropy, protected by English cruisers. Here, on the
East Coast, not a single native has been taught to read, not
one branch of trade has been developed, and wherever Portuguese
power, or rather intrigue, extends, we have that traffic
in full force which may be said to reverse every law of Christ,
and to defy the vengeance of Heaven.
All the efforts of England for its permanent suppression