A PLEA FOR THE NATIVE 367 



He has followed him even to the death. See the splendid 

 bravery of the Waganda spearman at Lubwas' boma. 

 But he can no more understand his mental processes than 

 he can change his soft, brownish black skin to the tint of 

 his. Abraham was not sufficiently civilized to be a mono- 

 gamist. I do not think the East African always is. Chris- 

 tian missions, by insisting on a strictly monogamous state 

 for all natives, as a prerequisite to membership in the 

 Christian brotherhood, as well as by enforcing systematic 

 doctrinal teaching, have often blocked their own path cf 

 access to the native, and have left, and are leaving, to 

 Mohammedanism, millions of these people for whom a 

 simple form of the Christian religion could accomplish 

 what, of course, Mohammedanism never can. 



To the rapid advance of Mohammedanism I shall refer 

 later. Here, as I said above, I only wish to state clearly 

 at the outset what I believe to be the one cause above all 

 others why Christianity advances slowly and Moham- 

 medanism by leaps and bounds. Africa needs a very 

 simple, very rudimentary Christianity. The African is 

 incapable of understanding any other. (I have had no 

 personal opportunity of judging of any missions other than 

 those of East Africa and Uganda. To these, and these only, 

 I refer, but generally speaking, what is true of East African 

 missions is true of all missions on that continent.) Any 

 religion for him is an immense advance. He is, in his 

 native state, an atheist pure and simple. Christian mis- 

 sions have been unable to offer him such a Christianity. 

 Partly because our missionaries have not been trained to 

 do this. Partly because they are bound too constantly by 

 the laws of "Medes and Persians" obtaining in missionary 

 societies and directing committees at home. 



The Mohammedan missionary, on the other hand, has 

 done what the European failed to do, and hence his phe- 

 nomenal success. He has given the native as much as he 



