Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/539

Rh MISSIONS 517 preparing freed slaves to bo teachers and missionaries. Amongst the Indians on the Essequibo and Berbice in British Guiana, the missions of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel have been rapidly extended, and now upwards of half the Indian population are members of Christian churches. In the British West Indies, through the united labours of various missionary societies, out of 1,000,000 inhabitants upwards of 248,000 are returned as regular members of the churches, 85,000 as communicants, while 78,600 children receive instruction in 1123 day schools, of which number about 45,000 belong to Jamaica. Passing to the southern promontory of South America, we find that the self-denying labours of Allen Gardiner are beginning to justify the devotion that prompted them. The London South American Missionary Society not only carries on its operations in the Falkland Islands, where youths from Tierra del Fuego receive instruction, but has founded stations in Tierra del Fuego itself, has roused the natives of Patagonia from their spiritual deaducss, and has extended its labours even to the Indians in Brazil. Africa. Here there are three great regions of missionary activity, on the west coast, in the south, and in some parts of the east. The largest and most fruitful mission field in West Africa is that of Sierra Leone, where at least seven-eighths of the people are now Christians, though the first mission does not date further back than the present century; 1 and important results have also been obtained in Senegambia (on the Pongas), in Old Calabar, and in the republic of Liberia. On the Gold and Slave Coasts the labours of English Wesleyan missionaries and of the North German missionary societies have been crowned with no small success, while the Basel Society, which celebrated its jubilee in 1878, has extended its sphere of activity to Ashantee, translating the Scriptures into the native languages, and changing primeval marshes into bright- looking Christian villages. In the Yoruba lands the Church Missionary Society has 11 stations, 5994 Christians, and 1657 scholars, while on the Niger we are confronted with the interesting spectacle of negro preachers and teachers labouring under the coloured Bishop Crowther, carrying on a work which within the last few years was consecrated by the blood of martyrs. South Africa has for some time been a centre of missionary activity. Here thirteen British and Continental associations have proved that all the South African races, Hottentots and Kaffrcs, Fingoes and Bechuanas, Basutos and Zulus, are capable of attaining a considerable degree of Christian civilization, and can not only be instructed in handicraft and agriculture, but trained as ministers and teachers. A single instance of this is afforded in British Kaffraria by the Lovedale Institute of the Free Church of Scotland, where youths from all the above-mentioned tribes are taught along with Europeans, and every Sunday sixty students proclaim the gospel in the neighbouring villages. In the cause of mission work here few ever laboured more zealously than the late Bishop Gray, whose diocese, when first constituted, included the whole colony of the Cape, but whose successor has now for his suffragans the bishops of Grahamstown, Maritzburg, St Helena, Bloemfontein, Zululand, St John s, and Pretoria. East and East Central Africa, so long neglected, is now being rapidly occupied by missionary enterprise. Here the island of Madagascar has been in great part evangelized, while on the island of Mauritius the Anglican Mission has developed pre-eminent results. On the mainland, the coast of Zanzibar calls for special notice. Here the little island of the same name has long been the sent of the Universities Mission to Central Africa, and the heroic Bishop Steere has not only erected a cathedral on the site of the former slave-market, but translated the New Testament into Sawahili, a language which can be understood by the tribes around the lakes, and even in Uganda. China. &quot;0 mighty fortress! when shall these impenetrable brazen gates of thine be broken through?&quot; was the mournful exclamation of Valignani, the successor of Xavier, as he gazed in sadness at the mountains of China. The words well express the incredible difficulties which this largest and most thickly peopled heathen land in the world, with its petrified constitution and culture of three thousand years, presents in the way of missionary effort. The country itself, the people, their speech, their manners, their religion, their policy, seemed to unite in opposing an insuper able barrier, but history has to record how efforts have been made by many bodies, and at many times, to break it down. An early Nestorian Church established itself in the empire, but was either uprooted, or died out in course of time. In the 16th century the Jesuits undertook the task, and in spite of the persecutions which they have undergone the missions of the Roman Church, with their numerous foreign clergy and their hosts of natives of different ecclesiastical degrees, have attained no small measure of success. Before the country was really opened to foreigners by the treaty of Tientsin, pioneers proceeded thither from America, and from the London Missionary Society. The labours of Dr Legge in translating and reducing to system the Chinese classics are 1 See Lightfoot, Ancient and Modern Missions, p. 10. well known. At the present day it is estimated that there are upwards of 29 societies at work in the country, with about 250 ordained missionaries and 63 female teachers, and the number is constantly increasing. These societies, of which the largest pro portion belong to England, and.the next largest to America, support, it is estimated, 20 theological schools, 30 higher boarding schools for boys with 611 scholars, 38 for girls with 777 scholars, 177 day schools for boys with 4000 to 5000 pupils in attendance, 82 for girls with 1307, while 16 missionary hospitals and 24 dispensaries are under the direction of medical missionaries, whose work in China has been recognized almost from the first as the source of the greatest blessing. The mission centres stud the east coast from Hong Kong and Canton to the frontiers of Manchuria in the north ; thence they advance little by little every year into the interior, while as yet the western provinces are scarcely touched by missionary effort. The literary labours of the various societies have been carried on with the utmost perseverance ; and on the foundations laid by a Morrison and a Milne later toilers have been enabled to raise a superstructure of translations of various portions of the Bible, as well as various Christian books and religious and general periodicals which constitute a means of vast importance towards gradually gaining over this land of culture. At Peking a Russian mission has been labouring for more than one hundred and fifty years. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Church Missionary Society have lately opened up new centres in this almost limitless country. 4 Japan. Of the missions in Japan it is as yet too early to fore cast the future. The signing of the commercial treaties of 1854 and 1858 with America and England was followed in 1859 by efforts on the part of the American churches to extend a knowledge of Christianity, and in these Bishop Williams, an accomplished Japanese scholar, proved himself a valuable leader and guide. Soon afterwards other societies found their way into the country, and in March 1872 the first Japanese congregation, of 11 converts, was constituted in Yokohama. Within the last eight years these 11 have increased to 1200, while the American missions have been supplemented by those of the Church Missionary Society and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Nearly every mission has what may be called a high school for girls, and these institu tions are very popular. Thousands of copies also of the Gospels have been circulated in Japanese, and representatives of nearly all the missions are engaged in translating the entire New Testament, while a Russo-Grei-k mission has established itself in the north, and is advancing steadily, having already made about 3000 converts. 3 Thus, when it is considered that in the beginning of the 17th century the Japanese Government drove out the Portuguese and massacred the native Catholic converts, and prohibited all Christians under pain of death from ever setting foot in the country, and when it is borne in mind that many of these old laws against Christianity have not yet been repealed and that the old distrust of strangers is still plainly discernible among the governing classes, it is clear that, while there is much ground for hope, effectual results can only be the work of time. India. What is true of China and Japan applies with tenfold force to India. Here the results achieved resemble those which were attained in the conflict between Christianity and the religion of old pagan Rome, with its mass of time-honoured customs interwoven with the literature, institutions, and history of the empire. Against the influence of prestige and settled prejudice the wave of the gospel beat for centuries in vain. Slowly and gradually it was undermining the fabric, but no striking results were immediately visible. So also in India with the Hindu proper Christianity has hitherto made inappreciable progress, while among the rude aboriginal or non-Aryan tribes its success has been remarkable. Independently of Roman Catholic missions upwards of twenty-eight societies are earnestly engaged in the English mission field, and the following figures will give some idea of the progress that has been made during the last twenty or thirty years. In British India, including Burmah and Ceylon, it is estimated that in 1852 there were 22,400 communicants and 128,000 native Christians young and old; in 1862 these had increased to 49,681 communicants and 213,182 native Christians; in 1872 there had been a further in crease to 78,494 communicants and 318,363 native Christians, while in 1878 the latter figures rose to 460,000. When we look at the share that each of the societies has had in this increase, we find that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Church Missionary Society together have since 1850 increased in member ship from 61,442 to upwards of 164,000; the London Missionary Society from 20,000 to upwards of 48,000 ; the Presbyterian missions of Scotland, England, Ireland, and America from 800 to 10,000 ; the Basel mission in India from 1000 to 6805 ; the Baptist missionary societies (including the American as well as the English) from 30,000 to 90,000 ; the five Lutheran societies from 3316 to about 42,000. In some places the progress made has been excep- yearly increase of about 2000. 3 Christlieb, Foreign Missions, p. 222.
 * The Roman Catholic Mission had 404,530 converts in China in 1876, with a