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ASSAM AND ITS MISSIONS.

[FEB

THE following paper has been forwarded to us by a correspondent. We very readily give it insertion, regretting that we could not find room for it in an earlier Number.

Amongst the items of intelligence which have reached us from India, is that of the insurrection having spread to the Province of

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ASSAM AND ITS MISSIONS.

[FEB. Assam. I believe there are few places less known to the people of England than this portion of our Indian possessions, although it has been annexed since the year 1825. The circumstance of its remote position, the mixed races of which its regiments-the 1st and 2d Assam Light Infantry -are composed, numbering nearly 1200 each of all ranks; the nature of their duties breaking them up into small detachments, scattered here and there throughout the province, having seldom more than 300 or 400 men at their head-quarters, led me to hope that they, if any, would have remained faithful to the Government. Having resided in Assam for a period of fourteen years, during seven of which I commanded the 2d Light Infantry at Gowhatty, and being acquainted with the greater part of the officers in civil and military employ, and the few Missionaries located in the province, I need scarcely say that I perused with much regret and anxiety the sad tidings of the threatened danger and disruption of the province.

The troubles, however, which seem likely to be visited upon Assamand God grant they may be few!-may effect what, through many years of peace and comparative tranquillity, the persevering and urgent applications of a few British officers, who have taken a lively interest in the spiritual welfare of the natives of the country, have been unable to achieve. Some Missionary effort, some sympathy corresponding to the necessities and claims of a people, whose ignorance, debasement, and moral depravity, joined with simplicity and comparative freedom from the trammels of caste, with other favourable circumstances, render them a very hopeful race for Missionary labour. One station, Dibroo Ghur, the head-quarters of the 1st Light Infantry, in Upper Assam, has been occupied by the Rev. E. Higgs, of the Gospel-Propagation Society, since 1851. Sitsagur, also, in Lesser Assam, and Nowgong and Gowhatty, in Lower Assam, have Missionaries from America, and these have been stationed there since the year 1835. These are all on the south bank of the Berhamputra. On the north bank there is only one Mission-at Tezpur-situated about eighty or ninety miles north-east of Gowhatty. It is supported by local funds, and was established by the late Captain J. T. Gordon, a pious officer, who for several years held an important appointment in the province, and, with some others, sought the welfare of the people by an attempt to raise their spiritual condition. Since the year 1846-47 it has carried on the work according to the means it possessed; but these have been so limited, that its labours have been restricted to within very narrow limits, its first object, that of evangelizing the hill tribes on its northern frontier, having hitherto been almost entirely defeated. Being myself intimately connected with the rise and progress of this Mission, and with a desire to interest my fellow-Christians in its behalf, as well as in the spiritual welfare of the province in general, I would draw attention to the present circumstances and position of the Tezpur Mission. Almost from the time it was first established its adoption has been urged upon the Church Missionary Society, and its claims have been supported by Archdeacon Pratt, of Calcutta, and the Society's Committee in that city; and I believe I may say, so favourably impressed were they with its advantages as a field for Missionary operations, that the want of men and means alone prevented their compliance with our wishes. As an earnest of their sympathy and

1858.]

AFRICAN WARS.

15

love for the undertaking, I may mention, that they assisted us for some time with a grant in aid of 251. per annum. This, I regret to say, has ceased, from their inability to continue it. Still, however, up to the latest accounts, the work progresses. With only one Missionary and his wife, and two native assistants, who have recently been raised up, some eight or ten orphans are maintained and instructed in the truths of the gospel, five of whom are baptized, and such an education otherwise imparted to them as may fit them for the stations of life they may be called, in God's providence, to fill. To the villagers around Tezpur the gospel is preached; and when the season of the year admits of more extended operations, the Missionary, with his native assistants and orphan boys, itinerate a distance of forty or fifty miles, proclaiming as they go the glad tidings of salvation to the natives of the plains and the hill tribes, who at this season descend into the valley, many of whom never heard before the blessed Saviour's name. With means so inefficient great results can hardly be expected. Nevertheless, we are privileged to feel that this little Mission, like an oasis in the spiritual desert of this part of Assam, has not sent out the living waters of the gospel in vain. By the Divine blessing upon its labours, thirteen souls, instead of bowing down to stocks and stones, now worship the true God in the little church at Tezpur, besides others who have returned to their homes to proclaim to their families and friends what great things the Lord hath done for them. (To be continued.)

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AFRICAN WARS.

CHRISTIANITY is, as yet, only in its infancy in the Yoruba country. It is advancing, but amidst conflict. The beneficial influence which it is exercising is manifest, both in individual cases and in the nation at large. But man's corrupt nature often puts it aside, and follows on in the old path to which it has been so long accustomed. Hence, while the chiefs of Abbeokuta respect the Missionaries, and afford free scope to the action of the gospel, they still, from time to time, act against their advice, and not only engage in war, but wage it after the merciless customs which prevail amongst savage nations. We must be prepared for this. The leaven is at work, but the whole lump is far from being leavened. The following communication from our Missionary, the Rev. T. King, shows us how much is still to be done, and makes us long for the time when there shall be peace on earth.”

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"Let me bring before your notice the destruction of Aibo, which occurred on the 7th of November 1857. The inhabitants of that town had been endeavouring, to the utmost of their power, to ingratiate themselves with the Dahomians. They employed all efforts they possibly could to stimulate the desperate monarch of Abomey to undertake a second attempt, with the combined forces of Kosoko, and all other advocates for the revival of the slave-trade, to storm this place. In this invidious combination it is fearful to remark that the King of Yoruba was not behind, as he prefers a direct route from his residence through Okeodan to Porto Novo, that route being more secluded from the cognizance of the Missionaries and the British Consul at Lagos. In order to

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ADDRESS DELIVERED TO MR. L. NICHOLSON.

[FEB.

expedite this project, the Aibo people caught several of the Abbeokutans, some time ago, and carried them to the infamous King of Dahomey. This apology the chiefs positively advanced for their reason in going out against that town; yet the consequences, as may be expected, are very distressing. The condition of the vanquished is indeed pitiable, and deeply excites sympathy. The siege lasted nearly five months. The innocent farmers and the females, as is always the case, are the worst sufferers. Many of the latter, and children, perished by hunger before the town was conquered, the men refusing to surrender. Several times an attempt was made by the women to get out of the town when famine prevailed on them, but the men prevented, and confined them by calling out Oro. Most of the captors were under the humiliating task of carrying their captives, they being unable to walk. Great numbers, when the town was taken, after murdering their children, completed the horrible task of destroying themselves. Among these was a man, who, after destroying his three children with poisoned arrows, attempted to kill himself, but he felt his courage fail him. He was afterwards caught, and brought to the town. The poor mother had been obliged to witness the ruthless destruction of her children in pensive grief. Far from being at liberty to say any thing to dissuade her husband from his merciless determination, she was expecting her own fatal stroke. She was nevertheless caught by another man, and brought to Abbeokuta. The indignation that their meeting together at Abbeokuta occasioned in the mind of the bereaved mother of those slaughtered children can be more easily conceived than described. The moment the callous and cruel husband saw her, he readily made a proposal to her captors for her redemption, whenever opportunity should offer to do so after his personal liberation is effected. "What pleasure can my redemption impart to me," said the woman, "after you have so mercilessly murdered those dear children, whom you should have employed your utmost power and skill to protect? Others, who are in the same common distress with myself, entertain hopes of being at liberty hereafter to redeem themselves and their children, but what are my prospects but dark and hopeless melancholy?" Such are the consequences of desolating and slave-making wars in Africa, which the slave-trade tends more or less to encourage.'

Let us pray that this poor woman may come under the teaching of the Missionaries. She will then find comfort, nor will she any longer say, "Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?" How abounding and efficacious is that balm for human suffering! but, alas! how few desire or come to be healed.*

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ADDRESS DELIVERED TO MR. L. NICHOLSON, ON HIS DISMISSAL TO SIERRA LEONE, AT THE CHURCH MISSIONARY HOUSE, dec. 22, 1857, BY THE REV. c. R. ALFORD, PRINCIPAL OF THE HIGHBURY METROPOLITAN

TRAINING COLLEGE.

DEAR MR. NICHOLSON.-I have been requested to offer you a few

*For further recent information respecting the Yoruba Mission, vide the “C. M. Record" for the present month.

1858.]

ADDRESS DELIVERED TO MR. L. NICHOLSON.

17

words of encouragement and affectionate farewell, and I trust they will not be the less acceptable to you, because spoken by a voice with which you are so familiar.

We regard your departure from the Training College with mingled feelings of sorrow and of joy;-of sorrow, for Highbury is now left, for the first time, without a Missionary student. We deeply regret that we shall thus commence the opening year, and trust it may be no evil omen. May others, both able and well qualified, be soon found and sent us; for we have always regarded our Church Missionary students as being to Highbury, what the ark was to Obed-edom's house! But we regard your departure also with joy. Another labourer is now called from amongst us to join the Missionary band. This very day last year, and as nearly as possible at this very hour, Mr. Duncan sailed from Plymouth Sound for Fort Simpson. The year before, Mr. Kirkham left us for Abbeokuta, Mr. Goodall for South India, and Mr. Mayhew for North-West America. And now you are going to Sierra Leone. You have received your Instructions; you are on the eve of departure; and may God enable me to speak to you a few parting words of useful admonition and affectionate encouragement!

It is a

Your destination, Sierra Leone, at once suggests a remark. post of honour, because a post of danger. You are well aware of the perils of the West-African climate. Many valuable lives have been laid down in doing God's work in Sierra Leone. Many clergymen, and many schoolmasters, and already two Bishops, have been called thence, after a very brief period of labour, to the land of rest. It used to be called, "the white man's grave." But we have to thank God, that now, humanly speaking, personal danger arising from an unhealthy climate is much less to be dreaded than in former days. The maladies of the climate are better understood; medical skill is more readily available; and the domestic and personal comforts of the Missionaries are, through the progress of the colony, much more favourable to health than used to be the case: so that the risk to European life is now, providentially, much diminished, and a sojourn on the West-African coast attended, comparatively, with but little danger. Yet there is danger. Our former Highbury student, Mr. Kirkham, has only lately returned from Africa, much broken down in health from the influence of the climate; and your health, too, may be speedily broken. I allude to these circumstances, not to alarm you, but to put you upon your guard. I believe you to be a bold, and devoted, and zealous man; and I am anxious that with courage and zeal you should mingle prudence and caution. I would entreat you to profit by the experience of others. In regard to health, listen to the admonitions of those who have gone before you, and who know full well where the danger lies. Do not presume on the good health you have enjoyed at home, to neglect the precautions necessary to be observed in Africa. Work while it is called to-day, and work with all your might. Give yourself fully and earnestly to the duties appointed you to perform; but at the same time let discretion and humility, and a regard for the Society you desire many years to serve, and for the poor negroes among whom you hope long to labour, preserve you' from carelessness in respect of health, where prudence and caution are so manifestly sacred duties.