Part 2

_Chorus_—Jesus mitlite kopa Saghalie Kunamoxt konoway tillikums kloshe.

2. Yahwa tillikums wake klahowya, Wake sick tumtum, halo till, Halo mimoluse, wake mesachie, Wake polaklie, halo cole.—_Chorus._

3. Yahwa tillikums mitlite kwanesum, Hiyu houses, hiyu sing; Papa, mama, pe kloshe tenas; Ovacut yaka chicamin pil.—_Chorus._

4. Jesus potlatch kopa siwash, Spose mesika, hias kloshe, Konoway iktas mesika tikegh, Kopa Saghalie kwanesum.—_Chorus._

Tune, “_Greenville_.”

1. In Heaven all the people Are not hungry, are not sick; They do not tell lies, do not become angry; They do not become drunk, do not cry.

Jesus lives in Heaven, Together with all good people.

2. There the people are not poor, Have no sorrow, are not tired; They do not die, are not wicked; There is no darkness, no cold.

3. There the people live always; There are many houses, and much singing; There is father, mother and good children; The street is of gold.

4. Jesus will give to the Indians, If you are very good, Everything you wish, In Heaven, always.

We only extract, further, the literal translation of the Lord’s Prayer, some of the petitions of which seem to find admirable expression in this version, especially the “lead us not into temptation,” etc.:

“Our Father who lives in the Above, good thy name over everywhere. Good if thou become true Chief over all people. Good if thy mind is on the earth, as in the Above. Give to us during this day our food. Pity us for our wickedness, as we pity any man if he does evil to us. Not thou carry us to where evil is; but if evil find us, good thou help us conquer that evil. Truly all earth thy earth, and thou very strong, and thou truly very good, so we wish all this. Good so.”

It is no little task to make hymns for such a people out of such poor materials. Let it be understood that these are only hymns for the transition state, for Indians who can only remember a little, and who sing in English as soon as they have learned to read.

This little book is an interesting monument of missionary labor, and full of suggestion as to the manifold difficulties to be encountered in the attempt to Christianize the Indians of America.

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INDIAN STUDENTS.

The fifteen Indian students who have been studying at Hampton remain there through the summer. Many of our readers will look with interest for some news of them, and be glad to hear of their continued progress and content. Like the other students who remain, they work through the summer, chiefly on the farm, thus earning money for their clothing and support. They are allowed a day and a half in school each week, and thus, under a regular teacher, their instruction is kept up in the English language, with object lessons, and phonetic practice, writing, arithmetic and geography. They also meet for an hour every evening, from eight to nine, with a few of the other students, under the care of a teacher, for conversation, and games that are exercises in talking. This conversation class is thus far a great success, enjoyed by the Indians and the other students who take pleasure in helping them.

They also have their Sunday-school class, and a prayer-meeting, in which most of them are very constant and devoted attendants. The devoutness of their simple prayers in Cheyenne and Kiowa cannot be doubted by a listener, though understood only by the Great Spirit to whom they are addressed.

At their first meeting, a gentleman present spelled out the question with the card letters for one of the young men to answer: Why do you like to learn? Letter by letter the startlingly impressive answer followed, “Because it makes me a man!”

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THE WET SEASON ON THE WEST COAST.

It will be borne in mind by those who have special interest in our Mendi Mission that it is still the rainy season, to which all the peculiar perils of the West Coast of Africa are to be encountered, and with great risk to the health and life of those who are not fully acclimated. We have had weekly letters from our colored missionaries there, to as late a date as Aug. 13th, who have been passing the first test of their ability to endure the climate and resist the African fever. None of them have entirely escaped the touch of its hot breath and icy hand, and yet it seems to have for the most part passed them lightly by. Two of the female missionaries have been very sick. One, Mrs. Dr. James, died early in the season.

Thus far, then, we are encouraged to believe that, as we hoped it would prove, men and women of African descent endure the risks of transplanting and of naturalization far better than those who have neither themselves nor their ancestors been “to the manner born.” And, if these perils at the threshold can be encountered better by them than by others, we may surely hope that the less malignant influences which pervade the atmosphere will not undermine their strength, as it does with those who are foreigners by both blood and birth.

It behooves their friends on this side the ocean, who believe in the power of prayer, to keep these missionaries constantly in their minds and in their hearts, and to pray the Lord of the harvest, who has already raised up and sent forth these laborers into the field, that He will enable them to bear the heat and burden of the day.

They are doing well in their work. The schools are growing and gaining in every way. A lack of proper text-books has hampered the teachers, and an unfortunate delay has occurred by the loss of a box containing a supply, which, with the boat which was conveying it from Freetown to Good Hope, failed to reach its destination. The church has received valuable accessions since Mr. Snelson and his co-laborers reached the field. We hope to have more regular and full correspondence to lay before our readers in future, from month to month.

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An honored New Hampshire pastor writes: “I should be glad to see the A. M. A’s debt removed, and I am in hearty sympathy with the Society. It seems to me to combine, in the persons of the freedmen—to say nothing of the Chinese, etc.—the claims of Home and Foreign Missions in a remarkable degree. Patriotism and philanthropy meet and blend in its work.”

The same friend says: “Communism, so much, and thus far, perhaps, so extravagantly dreaded, will find friends among the black race at a future day, to an extent unexpected now, if we are not prompt to enlighten and Christianize that vast army of ignorant and voting laborers.”

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When, at the opening of the war, the life of the infant Berea College was sought, the Angel of Providence said: “Arise, and take the young child and flee into the Egypt of Safety, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for the Herod of Slavery will seek the young child, to destroy him.” But, when Herod was dead, behold, the angel appeared, saying: “Arise, and take the young child and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead which sought the young child’s life.” And they arose and took the young child Berea, and went back into their own land. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit. And other children were born to this household of faith—Howard and Hampton, and Fisk and Atlanta, and Talladega and Straight and Tougaloo, and several more. These do not have to flee for their life; but they need to be nourished into maturity, that they may do the mighty work assigned them in this and in coming generations, here and in other lands.

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_Apropos_—A judge from a Western city told us, the other day, that, having had a black man to testify in his court, he turned and complimented him from the bench as the most intelligent witness he had ever had in that box.

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He had been a colonel in the war. Since the coming of peace he had remained in the South, to engage in the process of the social and political reconstruction. He felt the desperateness of the case, and yet was hopeful. In our office, he was setting forth the Southern status, and arguing for patient endurance and vigorous endeavor when, in his military phrase, he broke forth: “It is only one shot in five hundred that hits.” Fire away, then, ye soldiers of the Cross! Some of the shots will hit.

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It was the Christmas of the year 1865. It was in a Southern city. The preacher, though black, had the frosts of seventy winters on his head. His text was the parable of the vine and the branches. In the sermon of singular unction, he said: “My brethren, we has the advantage of the vine and the branches. They get the sap only in the spring and thro’ the season, _but the Christian has the sap all the year ’round_.”

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_Old Whitey._—Lewis Tappan had nothing too good to be used for the benefit of the colored people. While our new Field Superintendent was in the last six months of his course at the Union Theological Seminary, with aid from the American Home Missionary Society, he preached back of Brooklyn for a Presbyterian church of “Americans, falsely called Africans,” as Mr. Tappan was fond of styling that people. His own family carriage and horse he furnished the young preacher all that time for riding out and back. Storms and mud did not prevent the cheerful bringing out of the rig. In later years, upon meeting the preacher, he would always speak with pleasure of the service of Old Whitey. In those days, or even now, how few men would furnish their family turnout for such a purpose!

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ITEMS FROM CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.

HAMPTON, VA.—The Trustees of the Normal Institute have decided to uniform the male students. A plain sack-coat, pantaloons and cap of bluish-gray cloth have been selected. The suit will cost about ten dollars.

—Seventy young men and twenty-two young women remain at Hampton Institute this summer—a larger number than in any previous year—finding employment on the school-farm, in the shops, knitting-room, laundry, and at housework. The young people are under watchful care and supervision; the family life of the school is kept up, and regular Bible-class instruction on Sundays.

BYRON, GA.—Two united with the church during the month of August; two infants baptised. Still, many are asking what must they do to be saved.

TALLADEGA, ALA.—A professor writes: “Never before were our young ministers, as a body, so much in earnest as now, or more successful than this summer in their Christian work. They evince more tact in overcoming difficulties, and show more power in removing obstacles than I have ever seen in them before. The last two years have told powerfully on their mental and Christian development.”

—Rev. Mr. Hill writes; “At the church prayer-meeting in the chapel, September 3d, three girls, pupils in the college, rose and expressed a hope in Christ. Two of them are in the family at Foster Hall, for whom we have felt anxious, and have been praying all summer. They seem now very decided and very happy. I have been much impressed with the deep spiritual tone of the teachers here, and their entire consecration to the work.”

—The Talladega College Industrial Department will hold a State Industrial Fair at the grounds of the College, in Talladega, Ala., in November, 1878. This fair is intended as an exhibition of what the colored people are able to do, as farmers, carpenters, printers, manufacturers, musicians, housewives, etc. Any one who has produced, or made, or who owns anything he considers especially fine, is invited to exhibit. Three hundred dollars or more are promised, and it is hoped the sum may be increased to one thousand dollars, to be given as prizes.

CHILDERSBURG, ALA.—Rev. Mr. Jones was ordained here in June. Between twenty and thirty have recently come out on the Lord’s side.

ALABAMA FURNACE, ALA.—A protracted meeting is now in progress, with decided indications of good results; and also at the “Cove,” there have been several marked conversions.

NEW ORLEANS, LA.—A gentleman of high standing, in New Orleans, writes to Mr. Alexander, the pastor of the Central Congregational Church, who is now in the North: “Notwithstanding the intense heat, and the excitement that prevails because of the yellow-fever here, the congregation at Central Church have not abated their interest, and, both on Thursday evenings and on Sundays, they manifest by their presence that they will ‘not forsake the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is.’ The good Lord is present to bless at every service, and the faithful people are, as far as I know, conscientiously discharging every known duty. They display a zeal that is truly commendable, and must certainly meet your approbation and esteem.”

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GENERAL NOTES.

The Freedmen.

—The Trustees of the Peabody Fund have just sent $1,200 to aid schools in North Carolina. One thousand dollars of this amount is to be used in Raleigh alone—$600 for a white graded school, and $400 for the two colored graded schools. Dr. Sears, agent of the fund, said that the Trustees would have sent more money, but that the income from it had recently fallen off 40 per cent.

—The North Carolina Legislature of 1876–77 provided for two Normal schools—one for white persons and one for black persons. The latter offers continuous instruction throughout the year at Fayetteville. It is under the care of Mr. Harris, a colored man, who was prepared for the work, which he does well, in Ohio.

—The Board of Education at San José, Cal., has abolished the colored school, and the former pupils have been permitted to enter the other schools.

—At Memphis, a telegram says the colored population are acting well in the emergency, and heartily co-operating with the whites, and adds:

“A meeting has been called by prominent colored men for the purpose of organization, to assist the whites in relieving distress and guarding the property, which the people, in the panic of last week, left unguarded. Their action in the present emergency speaks volumes, and has greatly increased the confidence reposed in them by those who were their masters. Among the most efficient on the police force now are the negroes.”

—When the better people of the North come to be understood by the right-thinking people of the South, we shall have hearty co-operation in the education of the negro.—_Rev. Robert West._

—To “remove the colored man from politics”—in the sense of taking him out of such an absorption in politics, and such a misuse of them as does injury to himself and to others—it is only necessary to put him into education and industry.—_The Advance._

—No nation can possibly let twelve per cent. of its population grow up in ignorance, superstition and vice, without reaping a fearful harvest.

—Macaulay says: “The best remedy for the evils incident to newly-acquired freedom, is _freedom_.”

Africa.

From all the west coast of Africa, in 1874, there were imported 486,544 cwt. of palm oil and kernels, valued at £518,134, or over two-and-a-half million dollars; of India-rubber, 3,427 cwt. were imported, valued at £25,792; of coffee, 11,502 cwt., valued at £46,506; of spices and ginger, 8,803 cwt., valued at £20,908; and, noticeable fact to Americans, of raw cotton, 11,315 cwt., valued at £32,839.

The chief articles sent out to the islands and coasts were cottons, arms and ammunition, haberdashery, hardware and cutlery. Of these, cotton was king. The whole number of yards of cotton cloth, mostly prints, sold at these ports for that year, amounted to 47,217,966, or nearly forty-eight millions. Allowing thirty yards to a piece, and thirty pieces to a bale, there were over fifty thousand cases of calicoes, whose value was estimated at £745,179, or nearly four millions of dollars. Shall America utterly neglect so rich a field, with its hundreds of factories half idle, and not a few completely at rest?—_African Repository._

—The colored Republic of Liberia has 3,500 voters, 116 officeholders, besides petty magistrates and constables, and taxes the people at the rate of twenty-nine dollars for every voter, besides the cost of maintaining schools and government buildings.

—Stanley is said to have agreed to make another exploring trip through the Continent of Africa, at the expense of the king of Belgium.

—Mr. Williams, who accompanied the Azor’s shipload of South Carolina negroes to Liberia, is unwilling to take the responsibility of advising the colored people of the United States to emigrate. It is a magnificent country, and money is to be made there; but the risks of fever and disease are great, and the climate is enervating. Thrift, patience and good management are essential to success. No emigrant should land at Monrovia without a six months’ stock of provisions, a supply of simple medicines, a little ready money, and all the bright calicoes, brass trinkets and notions he can lay his hands on. Salt is always valuable, too. In the interior, the natives lick visitors’ hands for the salty taste of the perspiration. Those who have from $200 to $300 over their passage-money will have a much better chance of becoming independent in Liberia than in America; but those who expect to find there a heaven on earth, where they will not have to work, and who are unprovided with means, will soon become disheartened, and be anxious to return to the United States.

The Indians.

—One fundamental principle in the management of the Indians should be, that they are not to be massed together, but separated in small communities, and as soon as may be, in homesteads. The more they mix with us the less they will disturb us.

—The solution of the Indian problem will be found whenever a policy founded upon justice shall be inaugurated, entrusted to a separate department of the Government, free from political or army interference, executed by men selected on account of fitness, who shall be exempt from the accursed political dogma, “that to the victors belong the spoils,” held to strictest accountability, and subject to removal only by impeachment. When this is done so that it cannot be undone, and the officers of the Department are clothed with power to protect the Indian under the civil law of the land, and the barriers to the citizenship of the Indian are removed, and he stands upon the same plane with every other man, alike responsible to law, and equally entitled to its protection, then, and not until then, may we hope for peace with our native tribes. When the army of the United States shall become what it ought ever to be, the executive servant of the people, called into requisition only when humane measures have failed, then it may fulfil its mission—never as a humane civilizing power.—_Col. Meacham._

—The number of Roman Catholic missionaries and teachers among the Indian tribes in the United States is 117.

—Of the 8,000 youth of legal school age in the Indian Territory, over 5,000 are enrolled as attendants at the common schools, and an average daily attendance of over 3,000 is reported. There is a _per capita_ expenditure upon the total school population of the Cherokees of twenty-five dollars, while New York State expends but six. The total expenditure in all the tribes is very nearly $200,000 a year. If money can make good schools, the Indians certainly ought to have them.

—The Bannock war is over, and the Snakes are scotched. If we may believe these last—though it was one of their tribe who deceived our first mother—in the division of labor, the Bannocks did the murdering, and the Snakes the stealing.

—The care of Spotted Tail agency was put into the hands of the Episcopal Church, under the administration of Secretary Delano, in the Interior Department. The present Commissioner of Indian Affairs decides that this means that no other missionary religious teachers shall go on this ground except Episcopalians. Consequently, three Catholic priests have just been banished from the Spotted Tail agency, against the wish and choice of that chief and his people. So says the _Advance_.

Chinese.

—The number of children in San Francisco between the ages of five and seventeen is 55,899, of whom 133 are negroes, and 4 Indians. The number under five years, of all classes, is 24,389, making a total under seventeen years, of 80,288, of whom 1,505 are Mongolians. Of the white children of school age, who have not attended any school during the past year, there are 16,147. The returns do not mention any Mongolian children as having attended school.

—The Chinese Consul, Lit-Mium Cook, who has recently arrived at the port of San Francisco, says that the Chinese Government has no desire to abrogate or modify the Burlingame Treaty, and also that it believes that the Government of the United States has both the power and the will to protect Chinamen in the enjoyment of their treaty rights in this country. Mr. Seward, United States Minister to China, who arrived at San Francisco in the same vessel, expresses himself as strongly opposed, on commercial and international grounds, to any change of the existing treaty with China. There is not the slightest danger, as he thinks, that Chinese immigration will ever be so great as to give that race any control in this country, or make it injurious to our industrial interests.

—Chinese labor is discountenanced by the Legislature of British Columbia. A resolution just passed declares that “Chinese laborers should not be employed upon the public works of the province, and that a clause should be inserted in specifications of all contracts awarded, to the effect that contractors will not be permitted to employ Chinese labor upon the works, and that, in event of their doing so, the government will not be responsible for payment of the contract.”

—Two Chinese young men are preparing themselves for the ministry of the Episcopal Church, in San Francisco, Cal.

—The Chinese Ambassador is credited with the statement that the Chinese will go to Ireland, as that is the only country that the Irish do not rule.

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OUR QUERY COLUMN.

One of our most experienced and successful teachers writes to us: “Why not have a Query Column in the MISSIONARY, which will bring us in contact oftener? Have questions practical, and answers concise, clear, and to the point.” To all which we say: Why not, indeed?

Answer: We will.

Here is, then, already the beginning—a query and an answer. The query practical, which is the only condition imposed by the writer. The answer, although our own, we are not afraid to measure by all the three conditions suggested. It is concise—not susceptible of any very great condensation; clear—no vagueness there; and to the point—indeed, a direct answer.

Our Query Column is, then, in its place. After the news and notes will be a place for the interrogation marks. Who will ask the questions? We suppose it will be he that wants to know. And who will answer them? We do not profess to know everything at the New York office; but we have a wise man in the East, at Boston, and one who may _occidentally_ know a thing or two at Chicago, a royal correspondent in the South, who will be everywhere, and a whole corps of intelligent teachers and pastors on the field, who, best of all, can answer each other’s questions.