"Failures, Disasters, And Misadventure May Attend Our Efforts Of
Discovery; The Intrepid Explorers May Perish, As They Have So Frequently
Done, or be scalped by the Indian savage in the American wilderness, or
stabbed by the treacherous Bedouin of Asiatic
Deserts, or be stretched
stiff in the icy dreary Polar circles, or, succumbing to the burning
clime of Africa, leave their bones to bleach upon its arid sandy wastes;
yet these victims of enterprise will add more to a nation's glory than
its hoarded heaps of gold, or the great gains of its commerce, or even
the valour of its arms.
"Nevertheless, geographical discovery is not barren ardour, or wasted
enthusiasm; it produces substantial fruits. The fair port of London,
with its two parallel forests of masts, bears witness to the rich and
untold treasures which result from the traffic of our merchant-fleets
with the isles and continents discovered by the genius and enterprise of
the maritime or inland explorer. And, finally, we have always in view
the complete regeneration of the world, by our laws, our learning, and
our religion. If every valley is to be raised, and every mountain laid
low, by the spade and axe of industry, guided by science, the valley or
the mountain must first be discovered.
"If men are to be civilized, they must first be found; and if other, or
the remaining tribes of the inhabitable earth are to acknowledge the
true God, and accept His favour as known to us, they also, with
ourselves, must have an opportunity of hearing His name pronounced, and
His will declared."
My husband would, indeed, have rejoiced had he lived to witness the
active steps now taken by Oxford and Cambridge for sending out
Missionaries to Central Africa, to spread the light of the Gospel.
Among his unpublished letters, I find one addressed to the Christian
Churches, entitled "Project for the establishment of a Christian Mission
at Bornou," dated October, 1849. He writes: "The Christian Churches have
left Central Africa now these twelve centuries in the hands of the
Mohammedans, who, in different countries, have successfully propagated
the false doctrines of the impostor of Mecca. If the Christian Churches
wish to vindicate the honour of their religion - to diffuse its
beneficent and heavenly doctrines - and to remove from themselves the
severe censure of having abandoned Central Africa to the false prophet,
I believe there is now an opening, _via_ Bornou, to attempt the
establishment of their faith in the heart of Africa."
He ends his paper by quoting the words of Ignatius Pallme, a Bohemian,
the writer of travels in Kordofan, who says "It is high time for the
Missionary Societies in Europe to direct their attention to this part of
Africa (that is, Kordofan). If they delay much longer, it will be too
late; for, when the negroes have once adopted the Koran, no power on
earth can induce them to change their opinions. I have heard, through
several authentic sources, that there are few provinces in the interior
of Africa where Mohammedanism has not already begun to gain a footing."
It would be a great solace to me should this work be received
favourably, and be deemed to reflect honour on the memory of my lamented
husband; and, in the hope that such may be the case, I venture to commit
it into the hands of an indulgent public.
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