CHAP. XXIX. FAILURE OF MOHAMMEDANISM.

633

No attempt has been made to collect information from all the African Missions, but from the replies of unimpeachable witnesses it appears that the contributions from negroes in the West Indies, and in West and South Africa, for the support and spread of the Christian Faith, amount to upward of £15,000 annually. We therefore repeat, that while, in exceptional cases, Mohammedans have propagated their religion, and at the same time gratified their lust of plunder or selfishness, the rule is, that native Christians make sacrifices of their property to spread Christianity, though always instructed that they never thereby purchase their own salvation.

Having failed to find the grounds on which the spread of Mohammedanism is asserted as a fact, we can not help associating the assertion with others made against the English anti-slave-trade policy, which, on examination on the spot, we found to be groundless. These latter seem to have emanated from traders on the Coast, who in their cups would have no objection to see the slave-trade revived. With all due deference to our countrymen abroad, and in spite of the conviction that they have a higher sense of justice than the members of some other nations, we must confess that the low English trader is so much of a bully that he needs looking after; and, putting out of the question the national duty of the strong to protect the weak, we think that the amount of trade* already

* The Annual Trade Returns presented to Parliament show that the declared value of British and Irish produce and manufactures exported to the West Coast of Africa, arranged in periods of five years each, has been as follows⚫

The same Trade Returns show that the imports of African produce from the

634

REPORT OF COLONEL ORD.

CHAP. XXIX.

developed by Lord Palmerston's policy on the West Coast demands the continuance of that policy in unabated strictness.

The Report of Colonel Ord-the commissioner appointed to inquire into the condition of the British settlements on the West Coast of Africa-which was ordered to be printed by the House of Commons on the 29th of March, 1865, says: "As regards the slave-trade, it is a well-established fact that it has disappeared from the neighborhood of every spot on the West Coast which has been made a British settlement, the distance to which it has been removed depending in a great measure on the extent to which the authorities of the settlement have been able to make their influence felt. Nor need this statement be limited to British territory, the Dutch and Danish possessions on the Gold Coast, and the Republic of Liberia, having been equally the means of banishing the traffic from their vicinity" (p. 28).

Although it is a little apart from the point to which our observations tend, and we would not willingly be thought indifferent to the loss of even a single human life, it is desirable that it should be more widely known than it is, that the employment of our squadron does not now involve the mortality that it once did. The men are not so much employed

West Coast into Great Britain have been as follows. The "official value" is given before 1856, after that date the "computed real value" is given: 1851-55....... £4,154,725; average £830,945 (1856-60...... 9,376,251; 1,875,250 1861-63............. 5,284,611; 66 1,761,537

Official value..........

Computed real value

The value of African produce has decreased during the last three years in consequence of the discovery of the petroleum or rock-oil in America. In 1864, between 4000 and 5000 bales of cotton were shipped to England.

It is to be borne in mind that under the system which existed when Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and Gold Coast settlements were maintained for the promotion of the slave-trade, the lawful commerce was only £20,000 annually, and that now the amount of tonnage employed in carrying legal merchandise is greater than was ever engaged in carrying slaves.

CHAP. XXIX.

MORTALITY ON THE WEST COAST.

635

in the rivers as formerly; condensed water has been brought into common use, and the treatment of fever is better understood. In our own experience, instead of bleeding, as was the practice, we found an aperient combined with quinine so efficacious, that an attack of fever was generally not much worse than a common cold, and no strength was lost by the patient. Somewhat similar treatment has reduced the rate of mortality in H. M. ships on the Coast of Africa lower than on the West Indies and North American station.*

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 be 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

*The following table shows the ratio per 1000 of mean force, at the different stations, of men daily sick from all diseases and injuries, of invalidings, and of deaths:

"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 among this class is by no means large. The facility with which officers of all the services who suffer to any dangerous extent from 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.

636 OUR AMERICAN MISSIONARY BRETHREN. CHAP. XXIX. 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 nev er a question of distance, but of need. The Americans make capital missionaries, and it is only a bare act of justice to say that their labors 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 confer a blessing on Spain, and tear away much of the veil that blinds her, by annexing Cuba; and England would perform a no

CHAP. XXIX. SOLUTION OF OUR CONVICT QUESTION.

637

ble service to Portugal by ignoring those pretenses 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 traf fic 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 are nullified by a few convicts and needy Portuguese ́governors, who in no case have authority to the extent of their unaided vision from their forts. If East Africa is still to be used only for convicts, why should not the English send theirs thither too? It does not belong to the Portuguese any more than China belongs to them because they possess Macao. Bad as our convicts are, they would be an improvement on those already sent. Neither officers nor men would deal in slaves. The climate certainly mollifies and subdues the passions. This we observed at Loando, where every night the whole of the arms of the city are in the hands of men who have once been convicts. The subject deserves consideration in the present difficulty of disposing of our convict population.

In the able Report of Colonel Ord, it is stated that, while the presence of the squadron has had some share in suppressing the slave-trade, the result is mainly due to the existence of the settlements. This is supported by the fact that, even in those least visited by men-of-war, it has been