566 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



has been for several years in a languishing condition from want of these. 

 Much good work has been done, but a great deal, too, has been lost for want 

 of being sustained, especially in connection with the out- stations. The prin- 

 cipal station, Bavaka, is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Bushnell. It had fallen 

 back sadly during their last absence at home ; but a very cheering revival 

 was experienced soon after they returned, and many members were added to 

 the Church. This mission has been subject to peculiar vicissitudes. The 

 Bible has been translated into the language of the leading tribe, the Mpongwi; 

 but this tribe and two others, the Skekanis and Bakellis, among whom mission 

 work was carried on, have been rapidly dying out, and are being supplanted 

 by a powerful tribe from the interior, detachments of which have been for 

 the last twenty years or so coming down the river and occupying its banks. 

 Fresh interest in this southern portion of the mission has recently been awa- 

 kened by the discovery of a large river, the Ogoveh, to the south of the 

 Gaboon, on the banks of which a considerable branch of the Mpongwi tribe 

 is located, and it is hoped that by this river access may be got to the interior, 

 which is not unlikely if immediate advantage be taken of the opening, before 

 the obstructive trade system becomes established. About the time of my 

 coming to Africa, the American Mission received a considerable accession of 

 agents — two married missionaries with their young wives, an unmarried male, 

 and an unmarried female ; of these six, not one is in the field now. All of them 

 have gone home, some of them, I understand, not intending to return, having 

 found the climate unfavourable to their health and consequent usefulness. 

 With a few exceptions, the operations are being carried on by agents of long 

 standing, some of them advanced in life and worn out with long-continued 

 service, and who cannot, humanly speaking, continue many years longer. 



" The Baptist mission occupies the Cameroons river, where two ordained 

 missionaries are located. Not long since there were four married missionaries ; 

 at present there is only one actually on the ground, two being at home, and 

 one having removed to the mountain here, to begin work among the Bak- 

 wellis. Another agent is located here in Victoria, as pastor of the little flock 

 of settlers who came over from Fernando Po some fourteeen or fifteen years 

 since, in consequence of the persecution to which they were subjected by the 

 Spaniards. This mission was commenced with great spirit, but the result has 

 come sadly short of what might have been expected. Not only was there a 

 large force of ordained missionaries, but a small vessel was employed in con- 

 nection with it, which brought about forty settlers from Jamaica, consisting 

 of mechanics and persons versed in cultivating the soil. A settlement was 

 formed at Bimbia, about ten miles eastward from this, where suitable build- 

 ings were erected and machinery for making sugar put up. Nothing was 

 spared to make the undertaking successful, and yet little, very little, has 

 resulted from that part of the scheme. Several of the missionaries and almost 



