APPENDIX H 259 



England, and it has also the advantage of making the subscribers 

 at home regard the African as an innocent creature who is led 

 away by bad white men, and, therefore, still more interesting 

 and more worthy, and in need of more subscriptions than ever. 

 I should rather like to see the African lady or gentleman who 

 could be "led away"; all the leading away I have seen on the 

 Coast has been the other way about. 



" I do not say that every missionary who makes untrue state- 

 ments on this subject is an original liar; he is usually only 

 following his leaders and repeating their observations without 

 going into the evidence around him ; and the missionary public 

 in England and Scotland are largely to blame for their perpetual 

 thirst for thrilling details of the amount of baptisms and experi- 

 ences among the people they pay other people to risk their lives 

 to convert, or for thrilling details of the difficulties these said 

 emissaries have to contend with. As for the general public who 

 swallow the statements, I think they are prone, from the evidence 

 of the evils they see round them directly rising from drink, to 

 accept as true — without bothering themselves with calm investiga- 

 tion — statements of a like effect regarding other people. I have 

 no hesitation in saying that in the whole of West Africa, in one 

 week, there is not one-quarter the amount of drunkenness you 

 can see any Saturday night you choose in a couple of hours in 

 the Vauxhall Road; and you will not find in a whole year's 

 investigation on the Coast, one-seventieth part of the evil, 

 degradation, and premature decay you can see any afternoon 

 you choose to take a walk in the more densely populated parts 

 of any of our own towns. I own the whole affair is no business 

 of mine, for I have no financial interest in the liquor traffic 

 whatsoever. But I hate preying upon emotional sympathy by 

 misrepresentation, and I grieve to see thousands of pounds 

 wasted that are bitterly needed by our own cold, starving poor. 

 I do not regard the money as wasted because it goes to the 

 African, but because such an immense percentage of it does no 

 good and much harm to him. 



" It is customary to refer to the spirit sent out to West Africa 



