«/*- kVt-J t/v«. 
 
 MH- iH~j. 
 
 'Slincrttan ISoarti of (jrommtssioncrs for 
 jForrign ilHtsstons. 
 
 West Gentrsl Aerimn Mission. 
 
 A CONDENSED SKETCH. 
 
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 CONDENSED SKETCH OF THE 
 WEST CENTRAL AFRICAN 
 MISSION. 
 
 i _ 
 
 The Origin. — At the Annual Meeting of 
 the American Board in October, 1879, the Pru¬ 
 dential Committee was directed to open a mis¬ 
 sion, if practicable, in West Central Africa. 
 The region selected was that of “ Bih6 and the 
 Kwanza, an elevated plateau, or rolling country, 
 some two hundred and fifty miles inland from 
 the Atlantic Ocean at Benguela, in about 12° 
 south latitude.” The selection of this site was 
 the result of extended and laborious inquiry and 
 correspondence conducted by the late Rev. John 
 O. Means, D.D., just prior to his election as 
 Corresponding Secretary of the Board, who vis¬ 
 ited England and the Continent and conferred 
 with many European travelers who were familiar 
 with different parts of Africa. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting in October, 1880, the 
 Prudential Committee reported the arrangements 
 for the opening of the mission as already in pro¬ 
 gress. Rev. Walter W. Bagster, Rev. William 
 
 
4 
 
 H. Sanders, and Mr. Samuel T. Miller, whose 
 offers of service had been accepted, sailed from 
 Lisbon on October 5, the day of the Annual 
 Meeting, and landed at Benguela, November 10. 
 After a tedious delay of three months, porters 
 were secured, and the party set out for the in¬ 
 terior March 9 and reached Bailundu March 28, 
 1881, where, owing to the determined oppositibn 
 offered by King Kwikwi to their further progress, 
 the central station of the mission was estab¬ 
 lished. Bih6, the second station, was occupied 
 early in 1884. After the expulsion, a station 
 was fixed at Benguela on the coast, as the base 
 of supplies to the whole mission. 
 
 
 The Location. — All these stations are with¬ 
 in the limits of the province of Angola and are 
 nominally under Portuguese jurisdiction. Bai¬ 
 lundu is 190 miles from Benguela, almost due 
 east; while Bih6 is seventy miles from Bailundu, 
 to the southeast. Both are situated on a rolling 
 plain about five thousand feet above the level of 
 the sea, in a most salubrious climate, where the 
 mercury rarely sinks below 35° F. and rarely 
 rises above 88° F., affording a temperature nearly 
 such as is found in Washington Territory or 
 Oregon. The face of the surrounding country 
 is broken with hills and watercourses; the soil 
 
 
5 
 
 is fairly fertile and capable of a great variety of 
 crops when properly tilled; the timber is light 
 and of small value for lumber; the underlying 
 rock is granite, with rich deposits of iron and 
 other valuable ores. Sweet potatoes and corn 
 are grown in great profusion, oranges and 
 bananas flourish under cultivation, and with 
 proper tillage a large population may be sus¬ 
 tained. 
 
 The People. — The native inhabitants of the 
 region around our stations are scattered through 
 numerous small villages and perhaps equal in 
 number those of the agricultural districts in New 
 England. They live in wattled houses, well 
 built and convenient for such a people, and 
 they are all partially clothed. They are a brown 
 race, with regular features and closely curled 
 hair, of erect, finely formed figures, active in 
 habit and friendly in disposition. They belong 
 to the great Bantu family, that occupies the 
 southern part of Africa from ocean to ocean, 
 from 5° north latitude to 20° south latitude. 
 Their language is called the Umbundu and ap¬ 
 pears to be one of regular construction, flexible, 
 and capable of receiving and conveying religious 
 ideas with reasonable facility. They are gov¬ 
 erned by a king, who is their leader in war and 
 
6 
 
 their chief at home. There is a council of chief 
 men, or elders, who own the land, surround the 
 king, give him advice, and as the exigency re¬ 
 quires regulate the succession. The authority 
 of Portugal in the high lands is little more than 
 nominal. 
 
 There are no carriage roads between the re¬ 
 gions inland and the coast; all communication 
 is by a footpath for men and beasts, and all 
 transportation is by means of carriers. Twelve 
 days is the shortest time from Benguela to Bai- 
 lundu, and often fifteen days are consumed. 
 Beasts of burden are very little used; the tepoia, 
 a hammock suspended upon a pole, is the only 
 conveyance for women and children. The Bai- 
 lundos and Bih^nos have no distinct object of 
 worship, no well-defined religious system; and 
 the teachings of the missionaries have to en¬ 
 counter only the apathy and opposition of the 
 unregenerate heart. The total population acces¬ 
 sible to this mission is only matter of conjec¬ 
 ture : within a radius of thirty miles around each 
 of the inland stations there may be ten thou¬ 
 sand people, and within reach from Benguela 
 perhaps half as many more. The country east 
 and south inland, to which these stations are the 
 natural gateway, is vast and populous, and the 
 opportunity that opens before the mission is 
 almo'^t illimitable. 
 
7 
 
 Beginnings of the Mission. — When first 
 planted at Bailundu, the mission consisted of 
 the three men named above — two of them or¬ 
 dained missionaries, the third a teacher. Their 
 first tasks were to build homes, to win the con¬ 
 fidence of king and people, and study the 
 language. Their houses thus far have been 
 built after the native fashion — one story in 
 height, wattled frames, with a thatched roof. 
 The mission was enlarged before the end of the 
 first year by the arrival, November 30, 1881, of 
 Dr. and Mrs. Francis O. Nichols and of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Frederick A. Walter. These ladies 
 were the first white women to visit the interior, 
 and w’ere naturally looked upon with great curi¬ 
 osity. The deference paid to them by the gen¬ 
 tlemen of the mission was a matter of profound 
 surprise and tended to heighten the popular 
 estimate of their rank and worth. 
 
 Early in 1882 the prospects of the mission 
 were for a time beclouded by the death of Rev. 
 W. W. Bagster, up to this time the pioneer 
 and leader of the enterprise. Excessive labors 
 and exposure, in the most unselfish devotion to 
 the work, broke down his vigorous health, and 
 with perfect resignation and an unshaken faith in 
 the future of the mission he passed away, leav¬ 
 ing a hallowed influence and a sacred memory to 
 
8 
 
 his mourning brethren. The precious remains 
 of this dear brother, laid to rest on these 
 heights, in a true sense consecrate the soil and 
 its inhabitants to the gospel he loved and came 
 thither to preach. We shall not have kept our 
 pledges to this brother until a Christian life and 
 civilization arise to guard the place of his burial 
 and to bless the nations and peoples round 
 about. 
 
 At the very time of Mr. Bagster’s death a 
 fresh reinforcement was on its way to the mis¬ 
 sion. Rev. and Mrs. Wesley M. Stover, Miss 
 Minnie J. Mawhir, who subsequently became 
 the wife of Rev. Mr. Sanders, and Rev. William 
 E. Fay arrived at Bailundu June 6, 1882, and 
 the mission was thus fully equipped for im¬ 
 mediate needs. For more than a year the time 
 and strength of the mission were occupied with , 
 the serious tasks of building houses and trans¬ 
 porting supplies from the coast and enlarging <; 
 acquaintance with the people and with their i 
 language. Religious services were held at the 
 homes of the missionaries, on the Sabbath and ! 
 on other days, to which the natives came in 
 with more or less regularity. The grammar of 
 the language was studied and analyzed, and a i, 
 vocabulary was collected, as frequent intercourse ' 
 with the people gave op23ortunity. A school was 
 
9 
 
 soon opened, and under Mr. Miller’s care made 
 commendable progress. 
 
 In 1883, owing to impaired health, Dr. and 
 Mrs. Nichols asked leave to retire from service 
 and returned to this country, leaving the mission 
 without a trained physician. In the course of 
 this year communication was opened with Bih6, 
 and an invitation was given by the king for some 
 of the missionaries to come and live with him. 
 
 In 1884 the forward movement to Bih6 began, 
 and Messrs. Sanders and Fay went thither to 
 open the new station and build the mission 
 home, Mrs. Sanders being the first white woman 
 who had ever visited this place. 
 
 The Expulsion. — The Portuguese author¬ 
 ities at Lisbon and on the African coast from the 
 first treated the missionaries with great civility 
 and rendered them important services. The 
 natives had given them hearty welcome, and King 
 Kwikwi of Bailundu formally adopted them as 
 his “white men.” The traders, however, seem 
 to have looked upon our men from the first 
 with suspicion and jealousy. They observed the 
 large stores that were taken inland and the gen¬ 
 erous presents that were made to the king and 
 his chiefs; and they were convinced that the 
 missionaries were traders in disguise, who would 
 
lO 
 
 win their profits away from them. Accordingly 
 they set themselves to prejudice the minds of 
 the native king and the people against the new¬ 
 comers, and in many other ways annoyed and 
 hindered them; but the missionaries forbore 
 complaints and went on their ways peacefully. 
 
 Thus matters stood at the middle of May, 
 1884, when suddenly the envy of one of the 
 most hostile traders brought affairs to a crisis. 
 King Kwikwi, bribed with gifts and alarmed by 
 false reports, sent urgent word to the mission¬ 
 aries that they must go from his kingdom in 
 nine days and only take a small part of their 
 property with them. Astonished at this sudden 
 outbreak, they could not believe their ears and 
 at once tried to see the king and expostulate 
 with him; but they could get no audience. 
 Word was sent to Bihd, and the party there 
 came down to Bailundu. Then, after an inter¬ 
 view with the king in which he renewed his 
 order to leave with angry threats, they were 
 compelled to seek the coast. Hastily, with such 
 few effects as they could carry, the missionaries 
 set out on their long and sorrowful journey, leav¬ 
 ing all their hopes behind them. The dangers 
 and fatigues and exposures and hardships of 
 that forced march, where three frail women and 
 two little children must keep pace with the men. 
 
with few carriers and scanty supplies, are more 
 easily imagined than described. A merciful 
 Providence guarded them from perils and saved 
 their lives and brought them every one to the 
 coast in safety, though some of them were almost 
 exhausted. Mr. Stover and family and Mr. Fay 
 came to America to report the disaster and 
 receive counsel. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders, after a 
 brief pause for rest, began to retrace their steps 
 and within four months were established once 
 more in Bailundu with the consent, and even 
 welcome, of the people and the king. Mr. Wal¬ 
 ter and family and Mr. Miller remained at Ben- 
 guela and took immediate measures to open a 
 station there. A little later Mr. Miller, at his 
 own request, was released from service and 
 returned home. 
 
 Mr. Walter, in the name of the mission, at 
 once opened negotiations with the governor- 
 general at Angola and conducted the affair with 
 such steadiness and address as, in conjunction 
 with communications opened at home with the 
 Court at Lisbon, to bring about his active inter¬ 
 ference in the case. The governor-general dis¬ 
 owned all responsibility for the ill-treatment our 
 men had suffered, instituted an inquiry into the 
 facts, and caused letters of commendation, in 
 behalf of our missionaries, to be addressed to 
 
12 
 
 the native kings. The services of Mr. F. S. 
 Arnot, a Scotch missionary to the Barotse i 
 Valley, who came to Bailundu a few days after 
 the expulsion, were freely rendered and proved 
 of great value to the mission. He dealt with the j 
 kings and chief men of Bailundu and Bih6 and ' 
 greatly aided in the prompt reestablishment of . 
 the mission. In consequence of these things the ! 
 two kings were led explicitly to condemn the I 
 expulsion and robbery and to invite all our ' 
 missionaries to return. 
 
 The Restoration. — Mr. and Mrs. Sanders 
 went back to Bailundu in November, 1884, and i 
 at once took up their abode in one of the mission 
 houses there and resumed the school and other 
 mission work. Not only were they unmolested ; 
 their return was the occasion of popular rejoicing, 
 and the violent expulsion of the previous July 
 was repudiated and condemned. 
 
 In June, 1885, Mr. and Mrs. Stover, with |; 
 their little daughter, set out on their return to 
 the mission, and September 28 reentered Bai¬ 
 lundu and took up their residence in the very i 
 house whence they were driven out fifteen 
 months before. While in this country Mr. Stover 
 and Mr. Fay had attended to the printing of the 
 first Umbundu grammar and vocabulary, of which 
 
13 
 
 the manuscript was happily preserved in the 
 flight. Mr. Fay returned with his wife, Mrs. 
 A. M. Fay, in April, 1886, accompanied by Rev. 
 and Mrs. Walter T. Currie. It is expected that 
 as soon as they arrive the station at Bih6 will 
 be reoccupied by two families. And thus, 
 within two years of the time of the expulsion, 
 both of the original stations will be reopened 
 and fully manned and Benguela added as the 
 station at the coast and the base of supplies. 
 The outlook for the future is as promising as 
 could be expected. It is too early to speak of re¬ 
 sults. It has been seed-sowing thus far, or 
 rather the rough work of breaking up the soil 
 preparatory to seedtime. And yet something 
 has already been accomplished. Good sites 
 have been chosen and occupied. The nature 
 of our work and the character of our laborers 
 have been fully proved to Portuguese and natives 
 and their goodwill secured. The language has 
 been reduced to writing and grammatical form, 
 and the first attempts at translation have been 
 made. An interesting school has been gath¬ 
 ered at Bailundu, and the work of education has 
 been fairly entered upon. In a few instances, 
 among those longest in the families of the mis¬ 
 sionaries, there seems to be some apprehension 
 of the meaning of the gospel and some desire 
 
14 
 
 to receive its truth. In due time the spiritual 
 harvest which we long to see shall be gathered 
 in abundantly. 
 
 WEST CENTRAL AFRICAN MISSION. 
 1886. 
 
 MISSIONARIES WITH THEIR 
 
 STATIONS AND 
 
 DATE OF 
 
 JOINING THE 
 
 MISSION. 
 
 
 Rev. William H. Sanders . . 
 
 
 Bihe. 
 
 Mrs. Mary J. Sanders . . . 
 
 
 
 Mr. Frederick D. Walter . . 
 
 . . . 1881 
 
 Benguela. 
 
 Mrs. Margaret D. Walter . . 
 
 . . . 1881 
 
 ■ 
 
 Rev. Wm. E. Fay. 
 
 
 Bihe. 
 
 Miss Annie M. Fay . . . . 
 
 . . . 1886 
 
 
 Rev. Wesley M. Stover . . . 
 
 
 Bailundu. 
 
 Mrs. Bertha D. Stover . . . 
 
 
 
 Rev. Walter T. Currie . . . 
 
 . . . 1886 
 
 Bailundu. 
 
 Mrs. Clara M. Currie . . . 
 
 . . . 1886