gave the appellation of Indians both to the southern nations of Africk and to the people, among whom we now live; nor is it less observable, that, according to EPHORUS, quoted by STRABO, they called all the southern nations in the world Ethiopians, thus using Indian and Ethiop as convertible terms:  but we must leave the gymnosophists of Ethiopia, who seemed to have professed the doctrines of BUDDHA, and enter the great Indian ocean, of which their Asiatick and African brethren were probably the first navigators.[648]

FOOTNOTES: 

[646] Kafir Grammar, p. 3.

[647] Prichard, vol. ii. pp. 216, 217.

* * * * *

SHERBRO MISSION-DISTRICT, WESTERN AFRICA.

Western Africa is one of the most difficult mission-fields in the entire heathen world.  The low condition of the people, civilly, socially, and religiously, and the deadly climate to foreigners, make it indeed a hard field to cultivate.  I am fully prepared to indorse what Rev. F. Fletcher, in charge of Wesleyan District, Gold Coast, wrote a few months ago in the following language:  “The Lord’s work in western Africa is as wonderful as it is deadly.  In the last forty years more than 120 missionaries have fallen victims to that climate; but to-day the converts to Christianity number at least 30,000, many of whom are true Christians.  In this district we have 6,000 church members, and though they are poor, last year they gave over 5,000 dollars for evangelistic and educational work.

“Sherbro Mission now has four stations and chapels and over forty appointments, 112 church members, 164 seekers of religion, 75 acres of clear land, with carpenter, blacksmith, and tailor shops, in and upon which, twenty five boys are taught to labor, and where eleven girls are taught to do all ordinary house work and sewing, with its four day and Sunday schools, 212 in the former and more than that number in the latter, and with an influence for good that now reaches the whole Sherbro tribe, embracing a country at least fifty miles square and containing about 15,000 people.  The seed sown is taking deep root there, and the harvest is rapidly ripening, when thousands of souls will be garnered for heaven.  Surely we ought to thank God for past success and resolve to do much more for that needy country in the future.

“We now have Revs.  Corner, Wilberforce, Evans, and their wives, all excellent missionaries, from America; then Revs.  Sawyer, Hero, Pratt, and their wives, Mrs. Lucy Caulker, and other native laborers, all of whom are doing us good service.  With these six ordained ministers, and twice that number of teachers and helpers, who are devoting all their time to the mission, the work is going forward gloriously.  Still, there should be new stations opened and more laborers sent out immediately."[649]