A WIDE DOOR OPEN IN AFRICA
A feeling of incredulity seems to have possessed the public mind, rendering it almost
incapable of receiving reports favorable to the social elevation and evangelization of Africa. All
have been ready to ask: can any good thing come out of this stricken portion of the earth? This
land, by common consent, is given up as utterly hopeless. The barbarism which for ages has
distinguished its tribes, is regarded as one of the fixed laws of its being, and all attempts to
change its moral condition are deemed worse than useless. A wide-spread desolation marking
the whole eastern and western coast, and spreading far into the interior, is but the natural and
necessary destiny of Africa, in the estimation of the civilized world. Hence but little has been
done excepting to increase her degradation, until she has become a by word and reproach among
the nations.
It is not strange, therefore, that any attempts to elevate and save this devoted land, have
been looked upon with derision and contempt. For the same reason all the statements which
have been made by explorers and missionaries in regard to the improvement of the people, and
the openings of commercial enterprises, have only excited a feeling of distrust. It has been
difficult to satisfy the most philanthropic that these reports are true. But a new era is about to
commence in the history of this people. The dense darkness which has overshadowed them is
passing away. The world will be compelled to believe that the period of their redemption draws
nigh. Strange as it may seem, this wonderful revolution is to be achieved by means undreamed
of by men. While the spirit which animates the philanthropist was too sluggish to attempt the
work; while even the Christian churches were hesitating to fulfill their great mission, the cupidity
of a few worldly men, and the farsighted policy of the British government, have been brought
into active cooperation, and these agencies overruled by the Divine One, are opening to the glare
of the nations, a wide-spread, accessible, and interesting field for the exercise of commercial
activity and Christian benevolence. This spectacle is destined more particularly to attract the
attention of politicians and merchants, while the missionary of the cross will “lift up his eyes and
look on the fields” so full of promise; “fields white already to harvest.”
As illustrative of the fact that these openings for the prosecution of missionary labor, are
mainly attributable to the adventurous spirit of worldly men, and to the governmental influence
of Great Britain, we introduce a paragraph from the London Shipping and Mercantile Gazette:
A deputation, consisting of Sir E. N. Buxton, Viscount Middleton, Lord Calthorpe,
Captain Maude, R.N., Mr. Macgregor Laird, of the African Steam Shipping Company, Dr.
Baikie, Admiralty Commander of the last Niger expedition, Mr. A. Smith, M.P., Mr. R. Gurney,
Q.C., Mr. J. G. Hoare, Rev. H. Venn, and several other reverend gentlemen missionaries, had an
interview with Lord Palmerston on Friday, for the puipose of addressing her Majesty’s
government on the extension of West African Commerce, by the opening of the Niger river to
lawful trade, and by the adoption of other measures. The following statements were submitted:
The trade with the Coast of Africa, independent of its beneficial influence in suppressing the
slave trade, is of great and increasing importance to this country. That the published accounts of
the successful expedition up the rivers Niger and Tshadda in 1854, undertaken at the instance
and under the auspices of her Majesty’s government, show that great advantages would accrue to
the commerce of West Africa, if this natural highway into the interior of that continent were
