wrote a few months ago in the following language: "The Lord's work in
western Africa is as wonderful as it is deadly. In the last forty
years more than 120 missionaries have fallen victims to that climate;
but to-day the converts to Christianity number at least 30,000, many
of whom are true Christians. In this district we have 6,000 church
members, and though they are poor, last year they gave over 5,000
dollars for evangelistic and educational work.

"_Sherbro Mission_ now has four stations and chapels and over forty
appointments, 112 church members, 164 seekers of religion, 75 acres of
clear land, with carpenter, blacksmith, and tailor shops, in and upon
which, twenty five boys are taught to labor, and where eleven girls
are taught to do all ordinary house work and sewing, with its four day
and Sunday schools, 212 in the former and more than that number in the
latter, and with an influence for good that now reaches the whole
Sherbro tribe, embracing a country at least fifty miles square and
containing about 15,000 people. The seed sown is taking deep root
there, and the harvest is rapidly ripening, when thousands of souls
will be garnered for heaven. Surely we ought to thank God for past
success and resolve to do much more for that needy country in the
future.

"We now have Revs. Corner, Wilberforce, Evans, and their wives, all
excellent missionaries, from America; then Revs. Sawyer, Hero, Pratt,
and their wives, Mrs. Lucy Caulker, and other native laborers, all of
whom are doing us good service. With these six ordained ministers, and
twice that number of teachers and helpers, who are devoting all their
time to the mission, the work is going forward gloriously. Still,
there should be new stations opened and more laborers sent out
immediately."[649]

FOOTNOTES:

[648] Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. pp. 4, 5.

[649] Twenty fifth Annual Report, United Brethren, 1881.

* * * * *

Part II

_SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES._

CHAPTER XV.

CONDITION OF SLAVES IN MASSACHUSETTS.

The following memorandum in Judge Sewall's letter book was called
forth by Samuel Smith, murderer of his Negro slave at Sandwich. It
illustrates the deplorable condition of servants at that time in
Massachusetts, and shows Judge Sewall to have been a man of great
humanity.

"The poorest Boys and Girls in this Province, such as are of
the lowest Condition; whether they be English, or Indians,