1868.] NATIVE EAGERNESS FOR CHRISTIANITY. 279 



an interest in all that happens, and his father was equally 

 interested in this country's affairs. He declares that no 

 attempt was ever made by Mohamadans to proselytize 

 the Africans : they teach their own children to read the 

 Koran, but them only; it is never translated, and to 

 servants who go to the Mosque it is all dumb show. Some 

 servants imbibe Mohamadan bigotry about eating, but they 

 offer no prayers. Circumcision, to make halel, or fit to 

 slaughter the animals for their master, is the utmost ad- 

 vance any have made. As the Arabs in East Africa never 

 feel themselves called on to propagate the doctrines of 

 Islam, among the heathen Africans, the statement of 

 Captain Burton that they would make better missionaries 

 to the Africans than Christians, because they would not 

 insist on the abandonment of polygamy, possesses the same 

 force as if he had said Mohamadans would catch more 

 birds than Christians, because they would put salt on their 

 tails. The indispensable requisite or qualification for any 

 kind of missionary is that he have some wish to proselytize : 

 this the Arabs do not possess in the slightest degree. 



As they never translate the Koran, they neglect the best 

 means of influencing the Africans, who invariably wish to 

 understand what they are about. When we were teaching- 

 adults the alphabet, they felt it a hard task. "Give me 

 medicine, I shall drink it to make me understand it," was. 

 their earnest entreaty. When they have advanced so far as 

 to form clear conceptions of Old Testament and Gospel his- 

 tories, they tell them to their neighbours ; and, on visiting- 

 distant tribes, feel proud to show how much they know : in 

 this way the knowledge of Christianity becomes widely dif- 

 fused. Those whose hatred to its self-denying doctrines has 

 become developed by knowledge, propagate slanders; but 

 still they speak of Christianity, and awaken attention. The 

 plan, therefore, of the Christian missionary in imparting 

 knowledge is immeasurably superior to that of the Moslem 



