Letter from Rev. Mr. Murray
Greenville, Sinou county, March 27, 1 85 1
My Dear Brother: — With pleasure I sit down to write you a
few lines - acknowledging, with gratitude, the many mercies
conferred on me and mine by our kind and indulgent Heavenly
Father. I have nothing of special interest to relate, while I rejoice
that my labor is not in vain.
One of our brethren, who is now in the interior, a few
miles, says, in a letter to a friend: “I am quite astonished at the
regard evinced by the natives of the place for the Sabbath; they
refuse to trade because it was God’s day.” Thus, the preaching of
the gospel to them will eventually be attended with its proper
effect. The interior presents a more inviting field than the sea-
coast. The natives have no intercourse with the traders, a majority
of whom have as little regard for the Sabbath, or the institutions of
religion, as the heathen. Those away in the country are freer from
prejudice than those natives who are much employed by or deal
with traders on the coast. With a few exceptions, the conduct and
the precept of these men have exerted the most baleful influence.
This has been clearly demonstrated by the little success of the
missionaries at Setha Kroo. The natives of the Sinou country have
recently had an opportunity of attesting the folly of their doctors
and the weakness of their charms. A native of some note was
arrested on suspicion of committing a murder. He was tried and
condemned. On the gallows he confessed his guilt. Their doctors
were not idle, but they failed to deliver him from justice. The
circumstance will, I believe, greatly weaken their influence.
When I came to this place in 1844, I found a gree-gree
house a little to the back of Fishtown. In 1845 all the chiefs united
in repairing it; now it is going to ruins, and no man regards it. This
may appear a small matter to those ignorant of the attachment of
natives for such places. While clearing the settlement, in 1 845, we
cut down a palm tree. It happened to be a gree-gree tree, for which
they demanded one hundred bars, or about twenty-five dollars.
Now you may cut down any tree, and they will scarcely take notice
of it. Upon the whole, I believe, their superstition is already
beginning to decline; and, if God is my helper, I will endeavor to
give its downfall a helping hand.
