ORIGIN OF THE CALABAR MISSION. 545 



The Rev. Hugh Goldie, in a series of interesting papers which have 

 appeared in the " Missionary Record" of the United Presbyterian Church of 

 Scotland, very graphically describes the Calabar of the Past and the Calabar 

 of the Present. It is impossible to peruse the following narration of the cir- 

 cumstances under which a few devoted men consecrated themselves to the 

 work of an African mission, without being solemnly impressed with the won- 

 derful overruling Providence of God in making the very curse of Africa — the 

 slave-trade — to operate in its redemption from a worse than Egyptian bon- 

 dage. That the fatherland of those emancipated slaves whom the mission- 

 aries had gathered into their congregations, should have engaged the attention 

 of themselves and their people, is creditable alike to the men and to the cause 

 which they had espoused. The success which has attended their efforts, in 

 the face of almost insuperable difficulties, is full of encouragement as to the 

 future of the whole Continent of Africa. Mr. Goldie says : — 



"In entering upon the consideration of the Calabar of the Present, my 

 thoughts naturally go back to Jamaica, the gem of the Caribbean Sea, where I 

 commenced my work in the mission field, and where memory delights to dwell 

 amongst the scenes and people, then all so novel to me and full of interest. 

 From our Jamaica mission, the most successful of our foreign enterprises, the 

 Calabar mission sprang, and its offshoot showed its vitality. Buxton's book 

 on the African slave-trade, and the Great Niger expedition, created much inte- 

 rest amongst the religious community of Britian on behalf of the intertropical 

 negro tribes, which had for ages been the victims of this traffic. The Act of 

 Emancipation having by this time set free the slaves of our West Indian 

 colonies, the brethren who then occupied our Jamaica mission took earnest 

 counsel together, consulting whether something might be attempted by them 

 oh behalf of the fatherland of those whom they had gathered into their con- 

 gregations, and who might, to a considerable extent, supply an agency for 

 any such enterprise. All devoted themselves before God to an African 

 mission, should it be undertaken; and it being resolved on, Mr. H. M. 

 Waddell was appointed by his brethren to lead the enterprise. He set sail 

 for Scotland, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Edgerley, sen., and three natives 

 of Jamaica, to lay the cause before the Church at home, and solicit its support. 

 The mission was warmly taken up in Scotland, and a great interest excited 

 even beyond our denominational connection. All were ready to bid it Gfod 

 speed. 



" In seeking a location on the African coast, through the agency of the 

 late Dr. Fergusson, Liverpool, who, so long as he was able, freely spent 

 himself in its service, it was guided into the region watered by the Calabar 

 river. The chiefs of that part of the continent had then entered into treaty 

 with our Government to abandon the slave-trade, and, through the hands of 

 a countryman trading to their river, they sent us an invitation to go amongst 

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