ce at a singularly opportune moment,
and none can tell what an important part it may bear in carrying the light
of Christianity into that benighted Africa which modern discovery, the
discovery of our age, the age of Pius IX., is now throwing open to the
many blessed influences of civilization.

In the early days of the Pontificate of Pius IX., the Guinea missions
extended over regions of negro-land nine hundred leagues from east to
west, and seven hundred leagues from north to south, with a coast-line of
eleven hundred leagues. These African countries are very populous; and
there are towns of 20,000, 30,000, and even 60,000 inhabitants. The
greatest barbarism prevails. With the exception of a few Mahometans in
Sanegambia, the people are idolators. They are also cannibals, and human
sacrifices are frequent. Polygamy is one of their vices, and those on the
sea coast of Guinea have learned many others from contact with Europeans,
such as hard drinking and all kinds of excess. Their women are in a
degraded condition, doing all the drudgery, and not being admitted to an
equality with their husbands. Notwithstanding all this, the missionaries
give them a high character. They bear pain with fortitude, and have a
horror of slavery, although so many of them are reduced to servitude by
greedy traders. A sea captain once offered a negro any amount of money, on
condition that he should become his slave. "All the gold your ship could
hold," said the spirited African, "is no price for my liberty." They are
very sensitive, grateful, and even affectionate towards those who befriend
them. To the missionaries they always showed hospitality; and the peaceful
explorer, Livingstone, and his friends generally met with the same
kindness. If it was otherwise with the adventurous discoverer, Stanley, he
owed the hostility with which he was often received by the African tribes
to the armed force by which he was accompanied, and his determination to
traverse their countries, whether they liked it or not. They listened
attentively to the missionaries, and this circumstance induced these
excellent persons to express the belief that, with proper precautions,
they may be induced to embrace the Christian faith. Many things have
occurred, in the course of this favored age, to encourage this hope for
the future welfare of so many millions of the human race. Science has
thrown its light into the hitherto dark regions of Central Africa, where
no European h