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Unveiling the Shrouded Continent B y H. D. C ampbell ( General Secretary, Africa Inland Mission, Brooklyn, N. Y.)
attending the funeral of David Livingstone at Westmin ster Abbey in 1874 that Henry M. Stanley took up the work of exploration which the intrepid missionary had begun. In the next few years he blazed a trail across Africa and inaugurated a new era for missions as well as for commerce. In 1877 Mr. Stanley, who had entered Africa on the east coast, literally fought his way down the Congo River to its mouth, battling against cruel savages and the deadly climate which later gave to that section the name, “ the white man’s graveyard.” It was not long after this journey of Henry M. Stanley that several missionary groups were pressing into Africa both from the east with Mombasa as their base, and from the mouth of the Congo on the west. From that time many missionary societies have persistently pushed into new ter ritory so that, although the land cannot be said to be fully occupied by missionary laborers, it is no longer unopened. T he M issionary P roblem Missionary work in central Africa has never been easy. Tropical diseases have taken a heavy toll, and when life has been spared, many a laborer has been so reduced in strength by illness that he has been unable to render effective service. Again, the difficulty of travel, in the earlier days especially, has made the rapid spread of the Gospel impossible. Furthermore, the missionary has not found in any part of equatorial Africa a scrap of a writ ten language. There are many tribes, some of them quite small, with languages that are not easy. These have had to be learned and reduced to writing and the natives taught
A FRICA, the long impenetrable and unknown con- j| yll tinent, has at last been opened to the traveler and its secrets disclosed to the eyes of the world. WuiJpL The coast line of the continent had long been known. Because of the more hospitable climate of the Mediterranean coast and the extreme southern end of the continent, those parts were from, ancient times well known to the white man. But for many centuries equatorial Africa, by which is meant those vast contiguous areas north and south o f thè equator from coast to coast, had been hidden in the “ dark continent.” Many attempts had been made to penetrate this great land. As early as the year 1415, the Portuguese under Prince Henry captured the Moorish stronghold opposite Gibraltar and destroyed thé pirate ships which blocked advance into southern waters. After that, voyages were made at various times down the west coast until at last the mouth of the mighty Congo River was discovered in 1484. Through the centuries that followed, continuous e f forts were made by geographical societies, by various gov ernment agencies, and by independent explorers to enter the heart of Africa, but all failed to get very far behind the coastal barriers. They were met by savage men, by wild beasts, by venomous serpents and, worst of all, by the deadly diseases of that tropical country which has given it the name, “ a lovely charnel house.” An expedi tion sent out by the British government in 1816 under the naval officer, Lieutenant Tuckey, failed so completely that
not. one man sur vived7 to tell the s t o r y of defeat. The fate of the ex plorers w a s later learned from rec ords found in their vessel which h a d b e e n left in the Congo River at the point w h e r e the cataracts begin. To David Liv ingstone and Henry M. Stanley credit must be given for the real opening o f the continent to the world. B e f o r e t h e i r time there were mission sta tions of many so cieties a l o n g the c o a s t s , some of t h e m seeking to penetrate into the interior but meet ing with little suc cess. It was after
to read their own language b e f o r e real training of na tive laborers could be undertaken. A frica ’ s P resent N eed So much hasbeen said and written in recent times about the advance of civ ilization in Africa, of its cities with modern buildings and up-to-date con veniences, its auto mobile roads, its' airplane travel, etc., that m a n y have come to think that A f r i c a has been fully evangelized. Such is n o t the case, for Africa is still a great; neg lected field. There a r e y e t v a s t stretches of terri-
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