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Church Missionary Record.

No. I.]

JANUARY, 1830.

[VOL. I.

THE reasons which have led to the enlargement of the "Monthly Paper," and to the publication of the Society's Proceedings under the title of the "Church Missionary Record," have been already stated in the Circular addressed by the Committee, in the Monthly Paper of October, to the Collectors and Friends of the Society. It is a subject of thankfulness with the Committee, that the mode of publication, which, after mature deliberation, they have been induced to adopt, has been sanctioned by the approval of a large portion of the Society's intelligent and efficient supporters.

The commencement of a publication, exhibiting the Society's proceedings in a distinct and separate form, seems to be a suitable occasion for giving a brief sketch of each Mission, from its commencement to the present year, as the events connected with it are brought under notice. The first of these is the

WEST-AFRICA MISSION.

This Mission was commenced in 1804. The spiritual darkness of the inhabitants of Africa, the wrongs which this country had inflicted on them by its participation in the inhuman Slave-Trade, the guilt contracted by that nefarious traffic, and the duty of attempting something towards a reparation of the injuries which we had heaped on them, were powerful and constraining reasons why the Society should direct its first efforts to this part of the world. All attempts to obtain English Missionaries having failed, two Lutheran Clergymen, after the example of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, were engaged; and early in the year 1804, these two, the Rev. Melchior Renner and the Rev. Peter Hartwig, with Mrs. Hartwig, left this country for that part of the western coast of Africa which lies between the tropics, and which had been the chief seat of the Slave-Trade. They have VOL. I.

been followed, in various years, by others; and the number of the Labourers, namely, Missionaries, Catechists, and Females who have gone from this country in connection with the Mission, since its commencement, has been ninety-three.

With the exception of Freetown in the colony of Sierra Leone, where one or other of the Missionaries officiated as Chaplain till 1816, the chief scene of their labours for several years was the Susoo Country. Various obstacles delayed the formation of a Settlement among these people till 1808; when one was begun at Bashia and another at Canoffee, both on the Rio Pongas, and distant about 100 miles N.W. from Sierra Leone. Mr. Nyländer undertook a Mission to the Bulloms, a people in the neighbourhood of the Sierra-Leone River, and fixed himself in Yongroo-Pomoh in 1812. Gambia, on the River Dembia, among the Bagoes, about 70

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miles N.W. of Sierra Leone, was formed three years afterwards; and, about the same time, Schools were established in Goree, an Island off Cape Verd. A revival of the SlaveTrade, that inveterate bane of Africa, rendering the presence of the Missionaries in the country obnoxious to the Chiefs and people, measures of a most nefarious description were resorted to, in order to expel them from the coast; and all hopes of succeeding in the object of the Mission being for the present destroyed and the lives of the Missionaries exposed to hazard, the Society was reluctantly compelled to abandon, one after another, these oncepromising Stations. Bashia was given up in 1816, and Canoffee, Gambia, and Yongroo Pomoh in 1818; about which time Goree was restored to the French, and the Schools of the Society, in consequence, discontinued. Thus ended, for a season, the labours of the Society in the territories of the Native Tribes of Africa; though not without one instance, at least, of the Divine Blessing attending them, in the conversion of a Youth, named Simeon Wilhelm, who was educated in the School at Bashia, and a Memoir of whom, published in 1817, is probably well known to many who take an interest in the Society's proceedings.

The painful, though necessary measure, of retiring from the territories of the Native Tribes, was greatly compensated by the important sphere of Missionary Labour presented by the Colony of Sierra Leone; where the objects of the Society could be prosecuted beyond the influence of the Slave-Traders. To this point, therefore, the Missionaries successively retired; and to this spot the efforts of the Society in Africa have since been almost entirely confined. Sierra Leone having been made the depôt for those Natives who were rescued from slavery by his Majesty's cruizers, great numbers of Africans, of many different tribes and dialects, have been brought hither, liberated from the slave-chain, distributed into villages,

and humanely maintained and clothed by Government till able to support themselves. The ignorance and superstition of the people, and that depression of the whole man which is the direct consequence of slavery, have thrown no inconsiderable difficulties in the way of the Mission: in dependence, however, on the grace of God, the Society's Missionaries and Schoolmasters entered on their work; and, by His blessing on their exertions, a decided and beneficial change in the habits and manners of the people has been generally produced; and, as far as man can judge, very many have experienced the power of true religion on their hearts.

The Colony of Sierra Leone was divided into 14 parishes; for each of which it was the object of the Society, according to an arrangement with His Majesty's Government, to provide an efficient Minister; but the sickness and mortality which have prevailed in the Colony have rendered this impracticable: and, owing to the inadequacy of their number, the Missionaries have been compelled, within the last year, to relinquish, for a season, one of the three Districts into which the Colony had been recently divided. While the frequent reduction in the number of Labourers, by death, removals through ill-health, and other causes, has necessarily circumscribed the operations of the Society within a much narrower sphere than the limits of the Colony, the regions around have been left almost untouched; and, though some considerable tracts of country have been placed under the authority of Great Britain by the Chiefs and people, and an advantageous opening thereby made for the introduction of the Gospel among some neighbouring tribes, the Society, from these causes, has not had it in its power to avail itself of these opportunities of extending its labours.

The difficulties, with which the Missionaries have had to contend, have been further increased by their having been charged for some years with the

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