368 



MOHAMMEDAN AMBITION. 



Chap. XIII. 



on the other hand rescued a woman at Senna by entering 

 the water, and taking her out of the crocodile's mouth. 



It is not assumed that their religion had much to do 

 in the matter. Many Mohammedans might contrast 

 favourably with indifferent Christians ; but, so far as our 

 experience in East Africa goes, the moral tone of the 

 follower of Mahomed is pitched at a lower key than that 

 of the untutored African. The ancient zeal for propa- 

 gating the tenets of the Koran has evaporated, and been 

 replaced by the most intense selfishness and grossest 

 sensuality. The only known efforts made by Moham- 

 medans, namely, those in the North- West and North of 

 the continent, are so linked with the acquisition of power 

 and plunder, as not to deserve the name of religious 

 propagandism ; and the only religion that now makes 

 proselytes is that of Jesus Christ. To those who are 

 capable of taking a comprehensive view of this subject, 

 nothing can be adduced of more telling significance than 

 the well-attested fact, that while the Mohammedans, 

 Fulahs, and others towards Central Africa, make a few 

 proselytes by a process which gratifies their own covetous- 

 ness, three small sections of the Christian converts, the 

 Africans in the South, in the West Indies, and on the West 

 Coast of Africa actually contribute for the support and 

 spread of their religion upwards of £15,000 annually.* 

 That religion which so far overcomes the selfishness of 

 the human heart must be Divine. 



Leaving Kota-kota Bay, we turned away due West on 



* " In 1854 the native church 

 at Sierra-Leone undertook to pay 

 for their primary schools, and 

 thereby effected a saving to the 

 Church Missionary Society of 

 £S00 per annum. In 1861 the 



contributions of this one section 

 of native Christians had amounted 

 to upwards of £10,000."— " Manual 

 of Church Missionary Society's 

 African Missions." 



