CHAPTER IX.AFRICA The voice of my departed Lord, THE fifth article of the fifteenth section of the Constitution of Liberia has the following provision: "The improvement of the native tribes, and their advancement in the arts of agriculture and husbandry being a cherished object of this government, it shall be the duty of the president to appoint in each county some discreet person, whose duty it shall be to make regular and periodical tours through the country, for the purpose of calling the attention of the natives to these wholesome branches of industry, and of instructing them in the same, and the Legislature shall, as soon as can conveniently be done, make provision for these purposes by the appropriation of money." Although the Liberians have not yet been able in their short existence
to carry out this purpose to
any extent, yet, through Mr. Peyton's liberality, Junius had, almost from his landing at Sherbro, beeh at liberty to devote himself to this cause. While the other emigrants waited at Fourra Bay until a home could be found for them, he, unfettered by any ties, resolved to comply with Mr. Peyton's wish, and act as a missionary among the heathen tribes around him. Freely he had received, and freely he was willing to give. He found the people sunk in the deepest ignorance and superstition. They, indeed, acknowledged a God as the creator of the world, but worshiped the devil as the ruler of human affairs; and their mode of worship, their actions and feelings, were such as the spirit of evil might be supposed to have inspired. At the entrance of almost every village which he visited, Junius found a pole set up, with a rag or a few fibres of the bark of some tree dyed black fluttering at the top. This the people considered sacred, and called their gree-gree pole; and the mysterious motions of the gree-gree, as it waved in the wind, was supposed to prevent the entrance of the devil or conciliate his favor. Besides this general gree.gree or charm, each house and individual had
their private gree-grees or fetiches, which they regarded as endowed
with intelligence, and possessing power to do them evil or good,
according to their deserts. By means of
these, they thought that their priests were made acquainted with the most secret thoughts and intentions of their owner. The gods to which this benighted people they pay awful reverence, are pieces of yams, broken pots, feathers of fowls, horns of animals, broken bows and arrows, knives and spears. To these they erect altars, and place before them dishes of rice, maize, and fruit. Those who can afford it, sacrifice weekly to them a cock or sheep. In the centre of some dense forest, a portion is selected, and called the gree-gree, or devil-bush. Into this no woman or boy is allowed to intrude, under heavy penalties; but once a month the head-men meet there, and sacrifice to the power of evil a goat or some other animal; and the control of the oracles that proceed from the devil-bush is absolute over the ignorant African. The belief in witchcraft was and is universal, where the spirit of Christianity has not shed its blessed light. This gives the priests immense power over the inhabitants. Dark and magical rites, incantations, and barbarous customs are
continually practiced, accompanied by all the terrors that the dread
of a malignant being and the fear of unknown evil can invest them.
Upon the death of any one, excepting infants and aged persons, the cry
of witchcraft is imme-
diately raised, and the friends invariably institute an investigation to discover who "made witch" for the deceased. The power of determining the question rests with the priests, and is
one of the chief sources of their influence over the people. They have
several ordeals, to which all who are objects of suspicion are forced
to submit. Sometimes they are obliged to grasp heated iron, or to
plunge their hands into boiling oil; if innocent, it is alleged that
they suffer no pain; if they are burned, they are punished as guilty.
The most common and severest test is the ordeal of sassy-wood. This is
regarded as infallible. The suspected person is forced to drink a
strong decoction of the bark of the sassy-tree. This is sometimes soon
thrown off the stomach, when the individual is regarded as innocent;
but this seldom happens, and when it does not, the sufferer is
invariably condemned to death. At one time Junius arrived at a village
a few miles from the coast just after the death of the headman. A
secret investigation was going on to discover the witch. Anxious to
see the result, he remained. For a long time the search was fruitless.
At length a gree-gree man, by continued incantations and daring
diabolical communications, succeeded, and the hapless murderer was
brought to light. He protested his innocence in vain. The result of
the
ordeal was unfavorable, and he was condemned to die. Junius exerted all his influence against the sentence; but in vain. He remained with the tribe two weeks, and during that time three persons fell victims to this practice. The other two were women, who were accused of causing the death of a man who died from a wound he had received in battle. This ordeal is so powerful an engine of state policy, that the kings
are unwilling to abandon it. It is the right arm of an African
monarch. By keeping on terms with the gree-gree men, they can rid
themselves at any time of a dangerous or aspiring subject. And the
priests can so arrange these tests as to make them produce any result
they wish. By weakening or strengthening the decoction of sassy-wood,
they can make it innocent or fatal, as interest or inclination may
lead. If the trial is to be made by heated oil or iron, they can, by
previous application of some preparation to the part to be operated
upon, enable it to resist the effect of heat, and the accused escapes
uninjured. Thus this system puts the life of the whole community in
the hands of the priests, who, of course, would use every effort to
perpetuate a custom so favorable to their power. But wherever the
power of Liberia extends, whether over the native tribes who have
become their fellow-citizens, or over those who are only their
allies, these mock trials have been abolished. If that had been all that this settlement had effected for our common humanity, it would be enough to repay those who established it for all their efforts. Junius also found slavery prevailing among all the tribes he visited. And the condition of the slaves was indescribably worse than any thing that he had ever seen, or heard, or imagined before. By far the greater number of the people were in a state of the most abject servitude to masters, who, without the slightest compunction, would inflict on them the severest punishment, and would even kill and eat them, or throw them alive on the funeral pile at pleasure. He had heard a great deal of the power of the King of Dahomey, a country lying in the interior of Africa, nearly two hundred miles from Liberia, and he resolved to venture upon a visit to that place. On his way there, he narrowly escaped twice from the hands of the slave-hunters. Once he was obliged to conceal himself in the forest for several days, and at last crept out to take refuge in a large village that he had passed through a few days before. He found it dismantled and in ruins. A few old people sat in
despairing apathy amid the desolation, and the wail of some neglected
infant arose occasionally on the air. Junius asked the cause of the
change, so great and sudden, and learned that the
slave-hunters had made a sudden descent on the village the night before, and left not a single strong man, or woman, or child in it. A few years after, he passed over the same spot, and it was so overgrown with rank grass and bushes, that he could hardly realize that it had not long before been the abiding-place of so many people, happy and contented in their few wants, and the abundant provision nature had made for them. Nor was this a single instance, but as years rolled on, many other similar cases came under his observation. As he went farther into the interior, he found a great improvement in the country as well as the people. The land gradually became higher and more hilly. There were no burning sands or unwholesome swamps as along the coast, but an undulating surface of hill and valley, covered with trees larger and loftier than any that he had ever seen before. Beautiful streams of cool and pure water crossed his path at short intervals; and the soil was evidently of exceeding fertility. But though rich in all natural resources, the large country through which Junius had to pass was very thinly peopled, owing to the devastating wars and slave hunts of which for more than a century it had been the theatre. The region lying near Dahomey was subject to the inroads of this terrible people, whose king derived all his revenue from the sale of his slaves. At last he reached Dahomey, and found his way to its capital unharmed. Taking his stand under a palm-tree that grew near the houses, he began to tell the idle throng that soon gathered around him some of the more important truths revealed in the Bible. They discovered that he was from Liberia, of which place they had heard wonderful accounts. Without heeding the precepts he was enforcing, they began to ask him all kinds of questions, some idle and childish, and others showing a great degree of acuteness. At last rumors of an American having come to his dominions, reached the ears of King Gezo, who commanded him to be brought to his presence. A troop of Amazons, the king's female guard, and his bravest and most trustworthy soldiers, were drawn up to receive the stranger, and impress him with a feeling of awe. All around the king's residence the ground was paved with human skulls, and Junius was obliged to push them away as he walked if he did not wish to stumble over them. He found the king, a commanding, intellectual-looking man, proud,
stern, and haughty, simply dressed, and sitting amid his wives and
ministers. He asked Junius many pertinent and comprehensive questions
about the objects and state of the settlement at Liberia. Junius
answered them satisfactorily, and went on to tell him about many of
the strange things to be seen in America, about the condition of the civilized portion of the world, and their wonderful inventions. While they were conversing, word was brought that a town, that had long held out against the Dahomans, was at last reduced to submission. "That would please my father," said King Gezo; "I must let him know it. Send a slave here." A slave entered calmly. The king gave him the message to be delivered to his father, and when he had finished, at a nod his prime minister arose, and, taking a rude ax, in one moment the slave's head rolled in the dust. "I have forgotten something," said the king; "send me another." Another entered, and the message being finished, the same scene occurred. Junius looked on in horror. "Why is this?" asked he. "My father is in the land of spirits," said the king; "is there any other way to communicate with him?" Junius had heretofore used all his eloquence to excite a feeling
against the slave-trade; but now he thought that even to live a slave
would be preferable to so uncertain a tenure upon existence as the
subjects of King Gezo possessed. He suggested to that monarch the
pecuniary advantage he might
derive from selling those whom he sacrificed so wantonly. The kin, proudly answered, "I have killed many thousands without thinking of the slave-market, and shall kill many thousands more. Some heads I place at my door, others I throw into the market-place, that people may stumble over them. This gives a grandeur to my customs; this makes my enemies fear me; and this pleases my ancestors, to whom I send them." Junius found it impossible to convince him of the enormity of this practice, or to induce him to set the least value upon the life or comfort of a slave; but he listened to him with a degree of forbearance and respect that could only be accounted for by his clear perception of the superiority of the civilized man over the savage, and he seemed to desire the friendship of the Americans, as he called the Liberians, rather than their enmity. The missionary did not remain long there, for he saw that the time had not yet come when the Gospel might be proclaimed with any prospect of success in that bloody land. He went where he could employ himself more usefully than in gratifying the idle curiosity of the vacant-minded savages, who crowded around him daily to question him. There were many kings who received Junius with great kindness, and
listened to him with the utmost respect. One of them went so far as to
wish
that "his son had been a slave in America, that he might have learnt 'Merican fash." He asked Junius to take two of his children to Monrovia, that they might learn what they could there, saying, that he wished them to be wiser than their father. As the principles and character of the settlers of Liberia became better known, a missionary from along them was welcomed with increasing warmth, till at last their eagerness for teachers, or men with the "book," as they called it, became so great that it was almost painful. A few months before Ben's arrival in Liberia, Junius had been on one
of his usual tours through the interior, visiting, as far as he could,
every native village within twenty miles of Liberia. He found that a
great change had taken place among the people since he first journeyed
through their towns. The desolating wars that each petty tribe had
felt obliged to keep up with their neighbors in self-defense had
ceased. The quiet of a universal peace prevailed throughout that
once-troubled land. Never had they been so willing to listen to God's
messenger, or so anxious to learn His will. In whatever place he
stopped, he had only to say, "I wish to talk God palaver to you," and
in a few minutes a crowd would be assembled to listen to what he had
to say. Neither was it necessary to use flattering words, nor to speak
with respect of their su-
perstitious observances. With the utmost boldness he was accustomed to denounce their ordeals, their gree-grees, and their fetiches, as delusions of the devil, and to tell them that to God alone they must look for salvation; and kings as well as people would listen in meek submission to the words of one, who swept away as cumbering rubbish the whole system of worship on which they had been accustomed to rely for temporal and eternal safety. They seldom argued against or opposed his teachings, but would say, "We never prayed to God; we don't know how to come to him. How must we seek God? What must we do to find him? How can we forsake our sins?" And not withheld by the pride that often prevents the civilized man from openly acknowledging his dependence on his Maker, when the missionary revealed to them the only way of approach to Him, they might often be seen the same hour kneeling, king and people together, imploring the mercy of God. Of course there were difficulties to be overcome and privations to be
endured on these journeys. After toiling all day over hills and
through the thick undergrowth, Junius was often obliged to throw
himself upon the bare earth at night, without food, and sleep with no
protection but a fire from the leopards and other wild animals that
infested the forest. But he forgot all his sufferings when
he entered one of their villages, and met the warm reception of the people, and saw how anxious they were to hear and learn the truth. Often they pressed him with such urgent entreaties to remain, that it was with difficulty he could forge himself away from them. There was hardly a town through which he passed where a teacher might not have found full employment—and what employment yields so rich a harvest as this of teaching the inquiring heathen?—but there were no laborers ready for the work. The Macedonian cry, uttered with an earnestness that almost amounted to agony, was heard on all sides; but there were few who seemed willing to emulate the self-devotion of St. Paul. Junius had a favorite project to which he had directed his thoughts and exertions during this last tour. It was to select some spot that would be eligible for the location of an inland colony. He found it easy to do this. After traveling a few miles from the low lands lying along the coast, the country became at once beautiful and healthy. No longer level and marshy, but hilly and undulating, with clear streams flowing through it, and shaded by dense forests, there was no malaria to dread or guard against. The great difficulty was not to find a suitable place for a
settlement, but to obtain settlers who would be fitted for their work.
If he could but see
established in these dark places of the earth a Christian colony, "with their houses, barns, and mills, wagons, roads, fences, farms, and waving fields," with their schools, their churches, and the influence of their regular and Christian life, he felt that one great step would be taken toward the conversion of the whole surrounding country. Pent up within their coasts as the Africans are, with no large gulfs or rivers, as in Europe and America, giving free access from the Ocean to their farthest centre, almost the only way of reaching the inland tribes to do them any permanent good, is by planting Christian colonies among them, from which an influence may radiate that will transform the whole continent. Much has been done for Africa in the last thirty years. The first step, in all enterprises the most difficult, has been taken and proved successful. Liberia has outlived the doubts of the weak-hearted, the sneers of the disbelieving, the open opposition of its foes, and is now a great and triumphant reality. But much yet remains to be done. The promise so assuredly given, that "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God," is on the verge fulfillment. Let not the heavy blame of delaying that blessed event one day or hour rest on the head of those to whom Providence has intrusted so many of its exiled and homeless children. |