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301

*Mbampa. 27.

*Mbweni. 18.

Mesinje's. 31.

*Mharuli's. 26.

*Misozwe. 6.

*Mkunazini. 12.

Chibisas. 45.

*Chingomanje's. 33.

*Chitangali. 22.

*Chitejis. 30.

Dar-es-Salam. 14.

*Dikomo. 29.

Ibo. 23.

Katunga's. 44.

*Kilnua Mguu. 12. Kilwa. 17. *Kiungani. 12. Kota Kota. 34. Lamoo. 1.

*Lindi. 18.

*Lukoma. 29.

Livingstonia. 38.

*Losewa. 35.

Maandaenda's. 32.

Mafya. 16.

Magomero. 42.

*Mataka's. 36.

*Masasi. 20.

*Magila. 7.

Malindi. 2.

EASTETORIAL

AFRICA.

SCALE OF MILES. 6 50 100

ceeded in setting a great part of the African continent moving onward in a new path."

Under the guidance of Livingstone the first settlement was northeast of Blantyre at Magomero in July, 1861. In 1862 it was resolved, when disease had carried off Bishop Mackenzie and several allies, to transplant the station at Chibisas on the Shiré. This spot was scarcely less disastrous and fatal. Directed by Bishop Tozer, the successor of Mackenzie, a sphere was chosen on Mount Morambala, adjoining the confluence of the Shiré and Zambesi. Again climatic troubles thickly befell the witness-bearers, which determined Bishop Tozer to make an exodus to Zanzibar, in the hope of founding Christian homesteads on the mainland and in training redeemed slave children. In 1864 the bishop was reinforced by that bright servant of the cross, Dr. Steere. Together, in comparative obscurity, these yokefellows from 1864 to 1874 laid broad and deep the corner-stones of the mission.

*Mkuzi. 9.

Mombasa. 3.

Monkey Bay. 39.
Morambala. 47.

Mozambique. 49.

Mponda. 40. Mpwapwa. 15. Msaraka. 46. *Mtarika's. 24. *Mtua. 19.

*Mwembe. 36.

*Newala. 21. *Pangani. 11. Pemba. 4.

Quillimane. 48. *Slave Market. 12.

*Songea's. 25.

Tanga. 10. *Umba. 8.

*Vuga. 5.

*Zanzibar City. 12.

NOTE. The names of places in the index list are accompanied with numbers which correspond with the numbers at the sites of those places on the map.

Exhausted and shattered in health, Bishop Tozer resigned in 1874. The same year Edward Steere was appointed third bishop of the mission. By polished intellectual gifts, disciplined religious character, humane symphaties and herculean physical energies, Bishop Steere was regally endowed for the commission, on which his impress has been ineffaceably stamped. With unconsumable ardor he threw himself "against the desolating ignorance and barbarism of the east African coast and the districts which supply the bulk of the slave trade." He swerved from no kind of labor. As carpenter, compositor, printer, bricklayer and architect he was no less expert than, in the realms of philology, scholarship and organization, he was ably equipped. Possessed of a striking personality and rare charm of address, he drew about him a group of right heroic souls, whose exalted lives and deeds were held in reputation throughout east central Africa. In his early missionary career the

302

bishop reduced the Swahili and Yao tongues to a written form. Dictionaries, grammars, manuals and story-books issued from his hand, the latter entertaining the natives and familiarizing their intercourse with the Europeans. The greater labors of this apostolic man were directed to the translation into the Swahili of the New Testament, the Old Testament from Genesis to Isaiah, and the Book of Common Prayer. Archdeacon Hodgson, who has latterly been obliged to withdraw from the mission, has completed the unfinished translation of the Old Testament. By this achievement his name will be lastingly associated with the distinguished bishop. "Our work," said Bishop Steere," must be all unsound without a vernacular Bible." His prolonged travels on foot in the formation of missions, visiting chiefs, rescuing slaves and sustaining stations, well-nigh defy credibility. The Slave Market Church at Zanzibar is a conspicuous monument to his memory. In the sanctuary which his own skill raised he himself was buried in 1882, two years after the celebration of the first holy communion within its walls. Referring to this edifice, on whose site thousands of slaves were annually sold, the late Sir Bartle Frere remarked, "It seemed to him and others as the fulfillment of a beautiful dream, which seemed hardly possible ten or twelve years ago, when he saw the market place at Zanzibar, a filthy place, crowded with slaves, laid out side by side in hopeless despondency, without a smile on their face, without a symptom of humanity about them besides the outward form. It was almost impossible to believe that where these scores and scores of slaves were then stretched out there was now a cathedral.” Attached to the mission nineteen years, eight of which belonged to the bishopric, this prince of Israel fell asleep at Zanzibar on August 27, 1882. His affection for east Africa was not exceeded by the fabled love of Ulysses for his rugged Ithaca. He was one of those who plough deep furrows in the great field of the world.

Operations were commenced in succession at Magila, thirty miles northwest of Pangani, and at Masasi, north of the Rovuma. On

[October,

the desolation of the Masasi station in 1882 by the terrible Magwangwara-the vandals of the southern Rovuma-the headquarters of the mission were located at Newala, 100 miles inland from the coast town of Lindi.

Treading in the footsteps of Bishop Steere on the eastern shores of Nyassa, the record of the Rev. P. W. Jchnson, who entered the Universities' mission field in 1876, illustrates the type of man by whom

"The doorways of the dark are broken."

Solitarily he toiled for two years at Mwembe, until Mtaka expelled him in 1881. The year following, together with the Rev. C. A. Janson, he journeyed to Chitejis, on Lake Nyassa, where his co-laborer died. Upwards of eighteen months alone and in hourly peril he proclaimed "the unsearchable riches of Christ." Frequently did the members of the Free Church at Bandawé, on the opposite coast, minister to his necessities. Worn out with toilsome exertions he departed for England to procure funds for a lake steamer. At Quillimane his sight totally failed him. On its partial restoration he embarked homeward, where by generous donations a sum of £4000 was subscribed for the Charles Janson missionary vessel. A companion craft, the Nyassa steam-launch, has since been floated on the blue waters of leafy-fringed Nyassa. Concerning his calling the much-tried missionary says, "We have on the water a grand sphere of independent influence, helping chiefs and their people; slavers and the oppressed all need help alike, none can be lopped off by us, while none welcome us wholly."

At Magila, the centre of the war territory, where the Arabs and Germans are antag onists, and also the region in which the Bondei and Masai wage bloody feuds, Christianity has won eventful triumphs. Contiguous are the four stations Umba, Mkuzi, Msaraka and Misozwe. Invaluable services have been rendered here by Archdeacon Farler, whose enforced retirement through physical weaknesss is greatly deplored. Of the mission the Earl of Dundonald has written: "The missions at Magila are doing a noble work. Surrounding them is a population over whom they exercise a great

1889.]

influence. In their churches the heathen are taught the existence of a God; in their schools are taught the sons of the chiefs, who will rule over important tribes; in their workshops are taught useful handicrafts; in their hospitals the sickness of the people is alleviated." An important controversy is proceeding in England respecting the resolution of the missionaries to stand by the institutions at Magila. The British

government urges their temporary withdrawal. To this the advocates of the mission reply in the noble language of Bishop Smythies: "We should consider it the gravest dereliction of duty, and disgraceful to us as Christians and missionaries, to abandon the native Christians, and under no circumstances can we consent to do so." Pending hostilities the lady workers have arrived at the coast.

Kiungani College, for the education of a native ministry-a cherished project of Bishop Steere's-was opened in 1888. Under the shadows of the lovely St. John's Church at Mbweni, south of Kiungani, the numerous agencies employed in training and supporting hundreds of redeemed slaves enjoy unbroken prosperity. In connection with the various mission centres the European missionaries are thus distributed: at Zanzibar, 10; Kiungani, 7; Mbweni, 10; Lake Nyassa, 9; Rovuma, 6; and at Magila, 18.

Charles Alan Smythies, the fourth bishop, consecrated on November 30, 1883, wears with distinguished honor the mantle of his illustrious predecessor. His amiableness, fortitude, self-abnegation, independence and unchangeableness of purpose have secured for him an endeared name among fellow messengers, kindred societies, the

303

African tribes and many of the Arab merchants. As an indication of the bishop's devotedness it was reported on his return to England in 1888, after four years absence, that he had made foot journeys of more than five thousand miles. When apprised of the conflicts on the East Coast he promptly re-embarked for his unrepresented diocese, where his attitude has earned for himself golden opinions.

Than the eulogy pronounced upon the Universities' Mission at its anniversary in May, 1889, by Mr. H. H. Johnston, her Majesty's consul at Mozambique, no better tribute could be desired: "While in all their difficulties the missionaries were upheld by their desire to implant the faith they held in the hearts of the natives of Africa, they also took a very serious interest in their bodies, realizing how closely soul and body are bound together. They tried to infuse spirituality into the negroes, and at the same time they endeavored to teach them useful trades, to make them live more comfortably and happily, to act upon and dissolve all the ancient and hideous superstitions, to introduce useful plants and herbs, and to give an English aspect to the country generally. In his journeyings in east Africa he had always felt, without any information or even rumors from the natives, when he was approaching the vicinity of one of the stations of the Universities' Mission. Round them there was the radiance of 'sweetness and light,' and evidences of civilization: abounded."

Weightier their diadem whose holy mission is the reclamation of the once flowerless desert of Africa's benighted humanity. JAMES JOHNSTON, A.S.A. BOLTON, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND.

The transformation of an empire demands prodigious labor and limitless patience. A single generation, be it never so industrious, can only begin the process. Criticism too often demands the removal of mountains and their burial in the sea, but faith alone

can work miracles, and criticism must be content with the ordinary and natural.

The men of new Japan undertook the reformation of Japan with high hopes and firm faith. They had the light hearts of inexperienced youth. What man had done

304

they could do. And more, they could cross the Pacific with a bound, and place their beloved native land in the most illustrious group of American and European states. Nothing was too great for their ambition, nothing daunted their courage, difficulty and danger only inflamed their ardor. Their highest praise is this, after twenty years manly perseverance continues that which youthful impetuosity began.

From the beginning of the new era the more enlightened of the leaders were deeply interested in popular education. They knew that Japan could never take the high place their patriotism demands for her with an ignorant and degraded populace. They never were content with the merely outward and material results of western enlightenment. To elevate the people, to give to every Japanese the rights, the intelligence and the moral character that had in the past characterized the Samurai, was the avowed object of some at least of the men who were guiding the affairs of the nation. So at once, so soon as peace was assured and feudalism had been cast aside, the problem of a national education was enthusiastically studied. And our American system of common schools was thought the only possible solution. At once then the educational machine was put in place. Everywhere, in cities and villages and remote hamlets, school-houses in the "foreign" style were building. The most pretentious structure was sure to be the school-house, and its size and foreign fashion at once showed the importance of the new education and its type. Under successive ministers of education the national system was formed and reformed. There were continual amendments and changes, and sometimes it seemed as though "improvements" were introduced only to be superseded the next year by some new fancy. But in a period of experiment, experiment you must have and a wisdom more than human is needed if first attempts are to need no revision. Now after fifteen years the system has taken form. There is a graded system of schools beginning with the rudiments and terminating in the professional schools of the Imperial University. It is

[October,

too much to suppose that the final stage of development has been reached; but we may believe that the future will be only the perfecting of the present.

The swarms of tiny children fill the elementary schools. The hum of their voices at study and their shouts at play fill our ears long before our eyes have found them out. Boys and girls study and play together, and begin the long ascent of this hill of knowledge with alacrity. There are more than twenty-eight thousand such schools in Japan, with almost two million six hundred thousand pupils. Surely young Japan is going to school in earnest. What do they study? Reading and writing with the beginning of arithmetic. But the reading and writing are enough to occupy all their time with something to spare. First they learn. the syllabary, an abbreviated form of certain Chinese ideographs adopted to represent the forty-seven sounds of the language. There are two distinct forms of these forty-seven characters with variations enough, it would seem, to suit the most luxuriant fancy. The children spend a year in mastering this their alphabet, but that is only preliminary to the life-long task of learning to read. The next year the Chinese ideographs are attacked. As all know the Chinese represent each idea by a separate character, and so there are as many characters to be learned as there are ideas. The smallest equipment for one who wishes to read is three thousand, and a scholar knows twice as many. Unfortu nately the Japanese have transplanted this system to their land, and so the babies in the elementary schools must work away learning to read and write these Chinese characters. It is a tremendous task, and for four years almost nothing else is done. From six years old to ten the children are at this lesson, and even at the end it has only been begun. The course of study in these schools covers four years, in addition to the preliminary year of work on the syllabary. The multitude of children that began together has grown less as the years have gone by, and only 40 per cent. remain to complete this first course.

Then follow the higher elementary

1889.]

schools. But not all who complete the lower course venture upon the higher. In many of the poorer and more remote districts there are no higher elementary schools, and the children must rest content with their beginning. And even where there are the schools most of the children have no leisure to attend. In these eastern lands it is early to work. Of the higher elementary

schools there are fourteen hundred and fifty, with one hundred and forty thousand pupils. This course of study again covers four years. The dreadful Chinese still takes half the time, and the remainder is divided between morals, arithmetic, geography, history and science. Then they have gymnastics, singing and sewing. Of course the standard is not very high in arithmetic, fractions, proportion, interest and the elements of bookkeeping; in geography, the simple facts about Japan, with the shape of the earth, the cause of day and night and the change of the seasons, the names of oceans and continents, with brief accounts of foreign countries, outlines of Japanese history and the science of common things complete the list. During the last year or two English has been introduced. About six thousand children complete this course every year.

In regular succession come the ordinary middle schools. There are forty-eight of these, with ten thousand pupils. The course covers five years, and the pupils must be at least twelve years of age on entrance. They are exclusively for boys. Chinese still holds. its own, demanding a fourth of the student's time. English is one of the chief studies, and in the last two years there is a smattering of French or German. Physical and political geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, Japanese and foreign history, and the elements of botany, zoology, chemistry and physics make a very full list for the remaining hours and strength. Morals with gymnastics and singing are also a part of the curriculum.

At the ordinary middle school most of the remaining students stop. Indeed, there are on the average only four hundred graduates each year in all Japan. Those who continue are the elect few who desire to take

305

the professional colleges of the university. The late minister of education, Mr. Mori, instituted higher middle schools in seven leading towns for the preparation of candidates for the university. These schools are of so recent formation that we cannot yet test the system. In the seven there are only four hundred and twenty pupils. Their course of study depends upon the profession chosen and the consequent destination in the university. The literature students, for example, study Chinese, English, German or French, Latin, history, mathematics, geology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, political economy and philosophy. Two years are spent in these schools and then the student is admitted to the Imperial University.

The university has had the special favor of the government for years, and neither labor nor expense is spared. Its president has the highest official rank, and its professors are also officials of dignity. One of the finest of the old feudal parks has been made the campus, and the colleges are among the most imposing of the modern buildings of Tokyo. Its faculty is large, one hundred and thirty-four Japanese and sixteen foreigners. There are five colleges-Law, Medicine, Engineering, Literature and Sci

ence.

The College of Law is divided into two sections, law and politics. These colleges offer a long list of courses of instruction, and the graduates are supposed to be prepared for practical work. For example, the Engineering college provides courses in civil engineering, mechanical engineering, naval architecture, technology of arms, electrical engineering, architecture, applied chemistry, technology of explosives, mining and metallurgy. In the College of Literature there are seven courses-philosophy, Chinese literature, Japanese literature, history, comparative philology, English literature and German literature. In all twentynine courses of instruction are provided. Each course is three years, excepting medicine, which has an extra year, four in all. The libraries and apparatus are all that need be desired. After graduation students may continue their studies for two years more as post-graduates in the University