PREFATORY LETTER. xxi 



Qwn Son, on whom the Lord 'laid the iniquity of us all.' 

 The great difficulty in dealing with this people is to make the 

 subject plain. The minds of the auditors cannot be under- 

 stood by one who has not mingled much with them. They 

 readily pray for the forgiveness of sins, and then sin again ; 

 confess the evil of it, and there the matter ends." 



Does not this extract prove, that the poor African is of 

 a moral nature in the exact similitude of our own — that he is 

 of our very kith and kin — that he is indeed our humble 

 Brother ? If so, our duty towards him is plain on the general 

 score of humanity; and the commands of God are plain and 

 positive. This at least we may say — with a full assurance of 

 God's truth — that we commit a deadly sin against a benevo- 

 lent Creator if we try to enslave and shut out, from the bless- 

 ings of His truth, any portion of the human family: that 

 we mock His attributes and scorn His redeeming mercies 

 while we treat his humbler children as if they were only 

 born to be beasts of burden to the proud civilized idolaters of 

 Mammon. In the next paragraph — still writing of the Na- 

 tives — he adds, " I shall not often advert to their depravity. 

 My practice has always been to apply the remedy with all 

 possible earnestness, but never allow my own mind to dwell 

 on the dark shades of men's character. I have never been 

 able to draw pictures of guilt, as if that could awaken Chris- 

 tian sympathy." 



After tracking their way several weeks through swamps, 

 and forests, and rank grasses which often reached two or three 

 feet above the heads of those who were riding on the oxen ; 

 and after crossing many clear streams which ooze out of the 

 higher plains, and by their union form the last ramifications 

 of the Kasye (a supposed tributary of the Congo), they at 

 length crossed the Mosamba ridge. Soon afterwards they 

 found the western edge of the great table-land, and had their 

 hearts refreshed by the sight of a noble valley, the lateral 

 streams of which unite and form the river Quango. This 



