Southern Baptist Missionary Journal, March 1849

' - vrt . • . . \ SOUTHERN BAPTIST MISSIONARY JOURNAL. VOL. III. MARCH, 1S49. NO. 10. MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA. The committee to whom this subject was teferred, beg leave to report in favor of the measure, and recommend to the Board as speedily as practicable, to organize a mission to Central Africa. Having come unanimously to this decision, and being fully persuaded that this mission ought to be attempted, we deem it proper to set before you, somewhat at large, the considerations which have influenced our minds. We have surveyed the field, with reference to its fitness for missionary operations, and the probabilities of success in conducting them, and our conviction of the importance and practicability of the measure has increased, at every step of our progress. Soodan, Beled El Sudan, “ the country of the blacks,” is a term applied by the Aral's to the interior of Africa. It is employed more definitely by the geographers of Euiope, to designate all the countries along the southern edge of the Sahara, from Sencgambia and Sierra Leone on the west, to Dar Fur, (. Bar Foor,) on the cast. This region extends from 10° W. long, to 25° E. long. ; is 2,400 miles in length, and contains an area of 880,000 square miles, which is mote than four times the area of France. It is superior to every other part of Africa, “ in fertili¬ ty, cultivation and population, not excepting the countries situated along the Medi¬ terranean or even Egypt,” [Penny Cyclopedia, Art. Soodan, vol. xxii: pp. 246, 253. With icspcct to the orthography and accentuation of the names of places, which appear in this report, wo have followed the Universal Pronouncing Gazetteer, by Thomas Baldwin, Philadelphia, Lindsay & Blakiston, 1845.] “ The interior coun¬ try of Afiica watered by the Quorra — a river which, from its source in the Kong Mountains down to Timbucloo, is called the Jol-i-ba, or ‘ great river; ’ and thence to its outlet, the Quorra, but is known to Europeans as the Niger — by the tiibutaiies to the Tchad, ami by other unknown streams that probably exist, may be in general described as a fertile region, well suited to the habitation of man, and apparently not possessing a climate unfavorable to life, eithei for the natives, or for Europeans who know how to take care of themselves,” [Penny Cyclop, vol. 1, p. 190.] A portion of this region, called Western Soodan, comprehending the country west of the Quorra, from Timbucloo to its entrance into the Delta at Abbazaca, and distinguished throughout for its fertility and comparatively high state of improve¬ ment, includes the kingdom of Yarriba. Of this kingdom, Murray remarks: “ It is one of the most fruitful countries on the globe, and is also well cultivated and densely peopled. The fields arc coveted with thriving plantations of Indian corn, millet, yams and cotton. The loom is busily plied, though its products arc not equal to those in the neighboring country Nyffe,” [Encyclop. Geogr. vol. 3, p. 87.] In this salubrious and productive kingdom, our missionaries might select a loca¬ tion, whence they might easily cross the Niger into Nyffe, “ a very line country,