! tively disseminated by missionary settlements in other parts of the island. Five such settlements are now oc- cupied, and nearly two thousand souls are under the direct care of the missionaries. About one filth of the population of West (ireenland receive Christian in- struction at the mission settlements, and there are scarcely any iuiba])tized (Jreenlanders on the whole west coast up to tlie seventy -second degree of north latitude. On the east coast the inhabitants are still heathen; hut they are veri- few in number, and practi- cally inaccessible to foreigners. The peninsula of Lab-
MISSIONS
377
MISSIONS
rador is sparsely inhabited by Esquimaux, a race of I natives similar in language and customs to the Green- j landers. To that land, therefore, the Moravians ex- tended their efforts successfully in 1771, since which time they have been extending Christian influence by means of mission stations, of which there are now four — Nain, Okak, Hopedale, and Hebron. At these stations thirtj'-five missionary agents are employed, and about twelve hundred natives are under Christian instruction. The Gospel has triumphed in frozen Labrador as well as in Greenland. See Crantz, History of Greenland; Egede, Greenland Mission; Holmes, United Brethren; j Histories of Moravian missions in Greenland and Ice- land. I
VIII. Missionary Geography. — From the above sur- ' vey it may be seen that in an important sense the world is already occupied as the field of active mis- sionary enterprise. A few brief statements of results accomplished by it during the current centur_y may serve as a just indication of still greater results that may now be safelj'^ anticipated in time to come from its increasing and maturing agencies.
The mission to Tahiti in 1793-1 was the first at- tempt in modern times to carry the Gospel to an iso- lated and uncivilized people. It was commenced at a j period when the greater heathen nations of the world ■
were wholly inaccessible. In the islands of the Bouth- ern seas, as upon a trial-ground, all the great problems of humanity have since been wrought out. The dens- est ignorance has been enlightened, the fiercest can- nibalism has been confronted, the lowest conditions of humanity have been elevated, and the most abomina- ble idolatries overthrown and substituted by a pure worship. The various languages and dialects of the islands of the Pacific have been committed to writing. Dictionaries, grammars, translations of the Script- ures, and many other books, have been printed and in- troduced to the daily use of the populations, a large proportion of whom have been taught by schools to read and write in their own languages. The civil condition of the various communities has also been improved by modifications of their laws and customs adapted to the new and improved state of public feel- ing and knowledge.
It is hardly possible for the processes of elevating nations from pagan barbarism to Christian civilization to be better stated than in the language of John Wil- liams, the renowned missionary martyr of Erromanga. "I am convinced," wrote he, forty years ago, "that the first step towards the production of a nation's tem- poral and social elevation is to plant among them the tree of life, when civilization and commerce will en-
1. Am. Board (Cong.). 2. Am. Presb. M. S. 3. Am. Bapt. M. U. 4. Am. Meth. Epis. M. S. 5. Am. United Presb. M. S. 6. Am. Free Bapt. AI. S. 7. Am. Lnth. M. S. S. Am. Ref. (Dutch) M. S. 9. Am. Miss. Assoc. 10. Eng. Soc. Prop. Go8i)el. 11. Eu?. London M. S. 12. Enjr. Church M. S. 13. Eug. Bapt. M. S. 14. Eng. WesleyauM.S. 1.5. Euir. Presb. M. S. 16. Scotch Estab. Ch. M. S. 17. Scotch United Presb. M. S. 18. Sctch Free Ch. M. S. 19. Irish Presb. Ch. M. S. 20. Welsh Calv. Meth. M. S. 21. Leipsic M. S. 22. Basle M. S. 23. Herman usburg M. S. 24. Gossuer's M. S. 25. Danish M. S. 26. Moravian M. S. 27.RhmeM.S. 2S. Dutch Zeuding M. S.
MISSIONS
378
MISSIONS
CHINA
AND
JAPAN
ono 300 400 fioo
1. Am. Koard (Conir.). '2. Am. Piesh. M. S. 3. Am. rnitecl Presb. M. S. 4. Am. Southeru Presb. M. S. 5. Am. Muth. Ep. M. S. 6. Am. Soiitheni Melh. M. S. 7. Am. Kc-f. ^D'ltcli) M. S. S. Am. h.ipt. M. U. '.). Am. .Soiuhein ]{apt. M. S. 10. Am. Scvciith-Uay liapt. M. S. 11. Am. Plot. Kp. M. S. 12. Eiig. London I\I. S. i:!. Enfr. Cliiirch M. S. 14. En^'. Wesleyan M. S. 15. Enjr. Bapt. M. S. 10. Eiig. Piesb. M. S. 17. Eng. United ]«etli. M. S. IS. Eng. Meth. New Con. M. S. 19. Eng. China Inland M. S. 20. Scotch United Piesb. M. S. 21. Irish Prcsb. M. S. 22. Basle M. S. 23. Khiue M. S. 24. Berlin M. S.
twine their tendrils around its trunk, and derive sup- ])ort from its strength. Until the people are brought under the influence of religion they have no desire for the arts and usages of civilized life, but that invari- ably creates it." "While the natives are under the influence of their superstitions, they evince an inanity and torpor from which no stimulus has proved power- ful enough to arouse thcin but the new ideas and the new jtrinciples imparted by Christianity. And if it be not already proved, the experience of a few more years will demonstrate the fact that the niissionarj' enter- prise is inconiparaldy the most effective machinery that has ever been brought to operate upon the social, the civil, and the commercial, as well as the moral and spiritual interests of mankind." At the present time tile mission licld of the Soutli Sea Islands presents cverj' variety of communities, from those of the coral islets, just emerging from barbarism and learning their first lessons of Christianity, to those that have been longest taught and most thoroughly' tried by intercourse with the outer world, which has sonietinios been as destruc- tive as their original paganism. It has been thought by some that the first experiments of modern missions to the heathen were providentially directed to the Bmall islands of Polynesia, among an imprcssii)lo peo- ple, rather than to the great and ancient nations of