Stanley and the Missionaries.

Evening Star, Issue 6726, 7 October 1885, Page 4

Stanley and the Missionaries.

Mr Stanley, in a recent speech, said he thought one of the most interesting books he could write would be the true story of a missionary's life in Africa. He thought he could do it because lift was unprejudiced and unbiassed. He could tell the candid truth, and it would be a lesson to many. Probably they thought that the missionaries exaggerated. They always accused him (Mr Stanley) of exaggerating—(laughter) —but the candid truth would astonish them. After learning the Native language in the part in which he had settled, the missionary, perhaps, hears of a tribe more promising higher up. He goes among them, and he has to drop what he has learned and begin to acquire a new language. Every time the missionary advances he has to go through the same process. If he were to attempt to talk English the Natives would believe that he was swearing at them.—(Laughter.) He had not spoken of the fever which might overtake him, as that might be owing to his own indiscretion, not knowing the climate; but they could fill in the details of his life until they had the real and true missionary standing before them. As to the country, perhaps they had a dim idea that Africa was a kind of wild botanic

garden, a conservatory full of palms and bananas and beautiful flowers, and so on. In a great measure it was They could imagine a vast conservatory ; instead of a glass dome a burning sky, with a burning white sun shining right through and heating the whole till it was like an overheated conservatory, in which the temperature was between 80deg and lOOdeg. This was the conservatory to which they sent their young missionary. What did they tell him when he went out 1 They sent a doctor to examine him, they inquired abont his moral character and his intellectual ability, but did they ask him how much judgment he had, how much discretion ho had? They did not, but trusted in his good sense. What a large faith !—(Laughter.) They had a solemn duty not to send these young men into Africa without strongly advising them and teaching them how to learn practical life. They ought to talk with them as if they were children to whom they wished long life, because what was the value of a dead missionary any more than any other dead man?—(Hear, hear.) Imagine Mr Comber dead at Stanley Pool six feet below the surface of the ground. What value would he be to them? They would only have a memory of his greatness and a constant and increasing regret. What was the value of dead Gordon on the Nile ?—(Hear.) Absolutely nothing; but had he lived, the civilisation which has received its deathblow in the Soudan would have been still in its dawn j they would have seen a summer dawning in the interior of Africa. That was the reason why they must absolutely derote themselves to preparing practical advice for their missionaries, as he impressed upon the committee at Brussels the importance of preparing practical precepts for every day conduct. In those oven-like valleys, on those breezy mountain tops, with tall grass constantly waving in the Atlantic winds, how can a man live ignorant of how to live ? A young missionary is sent out and has instructions to reach Stanley Pool. He prepares hurriedly, hastily heads his dusky column, ascends those steep hills, precipitates himself into the valleys, is lost in the tunnels of grass three times the height of a man, and pushes on, bathed in perspiration. Soon he sees a cool stream and rushes in, drinks quai'ts of water, and sinks down under the cool shade. Again he ventures on, because he has not done the day's journey he has mapped out for himself. He is mad ; it is pure madness. He goes on and reaches Stanley Pool, having done the trip in fifteen days. He finds the steamer is not ready to take him on his further journey, and so he waits. In the quiet summerlike -life which follows the period of strain and exertion comes the reaction, and then illness, and perhaps death, and then a letter of regret, and then an expression of condolence. Avoid these things as much as possible. He would give them an example. He would show them an old man living in the interior of Africa up to his sixty-first year. . Absolutely for six years he was without one grain of medicine, eating corn cobs with teeth so loose that he might have plucked them out, and a few green bananas. Poor old Livingstone—(cheers) —lived to his sixty-first year, and was perpetually talking of the beauty of Africa. He had never seen an old missionary of the Baptist Society yet. In reality the climate of Africa was not as dangerous as many parts of the Southern States of America, and it was much cooler than in the room in which they were then met.—(Laughter.) In conclusion, Mr Stanley said that the little ho had done for the missionaries was not altogether spontaneous, as it had been done in obedience to the command of His Majesty the King of the Belgians. ■