RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Africa
service as such. Statistics of the missions are not clearly given, but seem to show about 20,000 converts. Protestant missions in this region quickly followed the explorations of H. M. Stanley. The Livingstone Inland Mission from England commenced work on the lower Kongo in 1878, but their stations were shortly transferred to the American Baptist Missionary Union. The Baptist Missionary Society of England established a mission on the upper river in 1879 having for its pioneers Grenfell, Comber, and Bentley; the Plymouth Brethren, led by F. S. Arnot, in the Garenganze region in 1881; the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, in the Balolo district of the upper Kongo in 1889; the American Presbyterians (South), led by S. N. Lapsley, on the Kassai River in 1891; the Swedish Missionary Society on the right bank of the lower Kongo in 1882. These missionary societies have about 200 missionaries and nearly 1,000 native workers, with schools, hospitals, industrial establishments, including printing-houses, and about 15,000 adherents. Several missionary steamers ply on the great river. Educational work is rapidly expanding, the natives showing the greatest eagerness to learn to read. The Belgian commission of inquiry in its report (1905) paid a high tribute to the value of these missions in singling out the field of the Baptist Missionary Society as a district where the natives have been taught to work and are noticeably industrious. Several of the dialects of the region have been reduced to writing by the missionaries. The whole Bible has been printed in Fioti (completed 1904); the New Testament, in Kongo (1893); and parts of the New Testament, in the Teke, Laba, Bopoto, Bolegin, Bangi, Nsembe, and Balolo. These latter translations are more or less tentative, and will hardly be enlarged more rapidly than the increase of readers may demand. In the mean time the Fioti Bible can be understood by people using other dialects in ordinary speech.
Lagos: A British colony and protectorate in Western Africa lying on the coast between Dahomey and Southern Nigeria, and extending inland to the French territories of the middle Niger. Area, including Yorubaland and the protectorate, 25,- 450 sq. miles; population (estimated) 1,500,000. The great mass of the population are pagan fetishworshipers. There are some 7,000 Mohammedans, 15,000 Roman Catholics, and 32,000 Protestants. A railway has been built from Lagos to Ibadan in the Yoruba country, with a branch to Abeokuta. The Yoruba chiefs are allowed to govern their land under British supervision.
Roman Catholic missions are under the Lyons Seminary for African Missions. They report 27 priests, 24 schools, and several charitable institutions. The Protestant missions are carried on by the Church Missionary Society and a native pastorate in cooperation with it; by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society; by the Southern Baptist Convention (1 856) ; and by the National Baptist Convention (U. S. A.). The whole Protestant missionary body has 189 stations and outstations, 55 missionaries (men and women), 317 native workers, 110 schools with 7,000 scholars, and 3 hospitals
and dispensaries. The government maintains Mohammedan and pagan schools, but the pupils availing themselves of this privilege of non-Christian education in 1902 were only 192. Abeokuta was evangelized in the first instance about 1842 by freed slaves who had been taught Christianity in Sierra Leone, 1,000 miles to the westward, and who led the people of the city to invite the Church Missionary Society to send missionaries there. This was done in 1846. A remarkable man connected with this mission in its early days was Samuel Crowther (q. v.), rescued as a boy from a Portuguese slaver, educated, and sent as a preacher to Abeokuta where he found his relatives. He afterward was consecrated bishop of the Niger in Canterbury Cathedral, and rendered admirable service to the mission during a long life. The assistant bishop of Yorubaland, now, is a full-blooded African. In 1903 the paramount chief of Abeokuta visited London to do homage to the king, and at the same time called at the offices of the Church Missionary Society and the Bible Society to express thanks for great services rendered to his people. The Bible has been translated into Yoruban (1850), and the New Testament into Hausa (1857). One of the Gospels has been tentatively translated into Igbira.
Liberia: An independent republic in Western Africa which has grown out of an effort to colonize freed slaves from America. The first settlement was made in 1822. The republican government was organized in 1847. The coast of the republic extends from Sierra Leone to the Ivory Coast Colony. The territory extends about 200 miles inland, and is hemmed in on the east by French territory. Only a region extending about 25 or 30 miles inland from the coast, however, is effectively administered by the republic. Area about 45,000 sq. miles; population (estimated) 2,000,000, about 20,000 of whom are of American origin. The language of the republic is English. Several native dialects are found among the tribes of the interior. It is estimated that there are about 850,000 Mohammedans and somewhat over 1,000,- 000 pagans in Liberia, with about 500 Roman Catholics and 25,000 Protestant Christians. Roman Catholic missions are dependent upon their headquarters at Free Town in Sierra Leone. The missionaries belong to the Congregation of the Holy Ghost and Sacred Heart of Mary. Since 1903 there has been a separate missionary jurisdiction confided to the Marist Fathers. Protestant missions in Liberia were commenced by the American Baptist Convention through the Rev. Lott Carey, who went to Monrovia in 1822. After disease had carried off many victims among the missionaries the mission was given up. The Presbyterian Church (North) established a mission in Liberia in 1833, which was also given up on account of the ravages of disease among the missionaries. The American Methodist Church established a mission at Monrovia in 1833, of which the Rev. Melville B. Cox was the pioneer. This mission is still carried on with a great measure of success. The American Protestant Episcopal Church established a mission at Cape Palmas in
Africa