Chapter M: E. STRIEBY, Secretary

Dr. Goodwin, of Chicago, then led in an earnest prayer for the blessing of God upon the two societies and their common work.

Tuesday evening Secretary Strieby read a paper entitled “Providential Calls,” and President Merrell, of Wisconsin, on “The Providential Significance of the Negro in the United States.” These will be found in this MISSIONARY. Field Superintendent Roy gave “A Field View of the Work.” Rev. J. H. Twichell, of Connecticut, read a paper on “The Relations of America and China,” of which we reprint a portion. In the afternoon a paper on “The Necessity of the Protection of Law for the Indians” was read by Gen. J. B. Leake, of Illinois. These papers were referred each to the committee having charge of the cognate subject.

The Finance Committee reported through Mr. J. W. Scoville, approving the management of the Association and calling upon the churches to increase their contributions to its treasury, so that now freed from debt it might do a greater and a better work. The report was followed by remarks from Hon. E. S. Hastings, Geo. Bushnell, D. D., and Hon. E. D. Holton, of Wisconsin.

Rev. Henry A. Stimson reported for the Committee on Indian Missions, and followed the report with an able address, giving a sketch of the causes of the various Indian wars. An animated discussion followed.

Rev. C. H. Richards read the report of the Committee on Church Work, and was followed by District Secretary Woodworth and others.

The Committee on Educational Work reported through its chairman, Prest. A. L. Chapin, of Wis., followed by Professors Willcox and Chase, and Rev. Messrs. Bray, Boynton and Foster.

Rev. A. H. Ross, of Mich., reported for the Committee on Chinese Missions, following the report with a brief address, and followed by Rev. Mark Williams, of China, Jee Gam and others.

Dr. Dana, of Minn., reported on African Missions for the Committee. He also, District Secretary Pike, and Dr. E. P. Goodwin, made addresses.

For these reports in full or in part we refer to the following pages; and for the officers elected for the coming year, to the inside of the first cover.

The morning prayer meetings were led by Rev. James Brand, of Ohio, and M. M. G. Dana, D. D., of Minn. The Lord’s Supper was administered on Thursday afternoon by F. Bascom, D. D., of Ill., and Rev. Thomas Jones, of Mich. At this service a contribution was taken, amounting to $437.46, for the Trinity School at Athens, Ala., for which a special plea had been made in the morning.

President Fairchild and Col. C. G. Hammond presided at the morning and afternoon sessions of Thursday respectively.

A most interesting meeting was held on Wednesday evening, when, after prayer by Dr. Geo. N. Boardman, of Illinois, addresses were made by Jee Gam, a converted Chinaman, and now one of our teachers in Oakland, Cal.; by Big Elk, a converted Indian, from the Omaha Reservation, who was accompanied by Rev. Mr. Dorsey, who acted as his interpreter, and by Rev. James Saunders, a negro minister. These three told the story of their own religious experiences and life. Prest. Alexander, of La., and Dr. Roy, of Ga., followed, and pointed the illustration of this one humanity and one Gospel.

Thursday evening the closing session was held, at which Mr. M. H. Crogman, a graduate of Atlanta, and now Professor in the Methodist school at Nashville, Tenn., made an address which, by the vigor of its thought and the eloquence of its expression, was a sufficient illustration of the capacities of his race. President Tobey and F. A. Noble, D. D., also addressed the meeting. Resolutions of thanks to the First Church and its pastor, the people and press of Chicago, and the railroads which had given especial facilities, were passed. A few last words from Dr. Goodwin, and the benediction from Dr. Savage, of Chicago, and the Association adjourned for another year.

It would not be right to omit the notice of the Ladies’ Meeting held in the church parlors on Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. E. W. Blatchford presided, and the large assembly was addressed by Mrs. Prof. Spence, of Fisk University, and Misses Parmelee and Milton, teachers at Memphis, Tenn.

* * * * *

GENERAL SURVEY.

From the Annual Report of the Executive Committee.

The report opens with brief obituary notices of Rev. Simeon S. Jocelyn, a Secretary of the Society for many years and more lately a member of the Committee; and of Rev. William Patton, D. D., and Rev. George Thacher, D. D., Vice-Presidents; of Miss Laura S. Cary and Mrs. Anna M. Peebles, valued teachers, and Miss Rebecca Tyler Bacon, associated with Hampton in its early days, who have also died during the year. These may be found in full in the forthcoming Annual Report volume.

THE FREEDMEN.

The varying fortunes of the Freedmen through the year have added another illustration to the many which combine to show that an uneducated mass of men is always an uncertain quantity in the national problem. That these once slaves in the South have been wronged and abused there can be no doubt. Advantage has been taken of their ignorance in contracts for labor, and in the manner of their pay. They have been misled and intimidated in the attempt to exercise their right of franchise. It would be useless to deny the facts. The thousands who have left their homes and associations in Mississippi and Louisiana for the chances of new settlement in Kansas, are witnesses as powerful in their silence as in their speech. They have not gone for nothing.

We have no apology to offer for those who have made it impossible for them to remain in peace, and who have sought by force to keep them from departing. But, on the other hand, it becomes us to remember that these evils spring not so much from local as from general causes. The same wrongs are perpetrated and endured, to some extent, wherever there are similar states of society. Ignorance is always at a disadvantage, whether it wants to work or to vote. It is always in bonds to some power and will beyond its own. New York, and perhaps even Chicago, knows something of abused labor and a controlled vote. The local causes which increase the evil may need thorough treatment, but that is not ours either to prescribe or to administer. It is the general cause which we may consider, and to which we are directing all our energies—not to the restraint or punishment of those who do the wrong, but to the removal of the ignorance which gives such large occasion for the wrong.

For our work is foundational and steady. Amid all social and political changes the need for it remains unchanged. We are not engaged in pulling up the shallow roots of weeds, nor in planting flower-beds with annuals, but in sub-soiling our Southern fields, and so preparing the ground for crops of better quality from year to year. The only permanent guarantee against the abuse of any race or class, either North or South, is the diffusion of Christian intelligence among the abused, and of the spirit of Christian love among those who abuse them. This is our work.

We have no word of criticism for those who have chosen to remove to another State. Liberty of emigration is one of the most unquestionable rights of freemen. But there is no charm in the name of Kansas which will make the ignorant or the timid either wise or brave. Let the masses of the colored race be once armed with intelligence, and they can stay or go with equal impunity. Without it they will be anywhere at the mercy of either force or fraud.

Nor is the work of the Association to be limited by any local changes among the Freedmen. The removal of seven thousand men, women and children from so vast a population leaves no noticeable void; nor, even if the proportions of this exodus shall reach the highest numbers at which it has been estimated, will it perceptibly diminish the millions of a race which is year by year increasing in numbers and in thrift.

The only plea which these facts make to us is, that we redouble our efforts to forge for them the armor which alone can be their complete defence.

The Association has not, therefore, felt itself called upon to divert its efforts to the field thus newly occupied. If, as the outcome of this movement, there shall be permanent and large settlements of the colored people in new localities, it may become needful for us carefully to consider the claim which they may make on us for such service as we are trying to render their brethren in the South.

We have cheerfully forwarded such gifts of money and clothing as have been entrusted to us to local agencies, in which we had reason to have the greatest confidence, for the relief of the present distress, and have kept ourselves to our main work.

EDUCATIONAL WORK.

Our _eight chartered institutions_, in the eight leading States of the South, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, have continued to do thorough and faithful work. One has been added to the number of our normal schools, making twelve in all. Twenty-four common schools have been aided—six more than the previous year. The total number of schools of all grades has been 44.

We have had in all 190 teachers in the field; of these 10 have also fulfilled the duties of matrons, 6 have been connected with the business department, and 11 have been pastors of churches, but all have been actively engaged in teaching.

The total number of pupils has been 7,207—almost exactly the number reported a year ago. These have been distributed as follows: Primary, 2,739; Intermediate, 1,495; Grammar, 633; Normal, 2,022; Collegiate Preparatory, 169; Collegiate, 63; Law, 28; Theological, 86. This shows an increase in the professional schools, a decrease in the collegiate, and over 500 more in the normal department than last year.

The reports of the _quality of the work_ thus accomplished have been most encouraging. Greater regularity of attendance has been attained than ever before, and the ambition to keep up with the classes entered has been marked. The same persistence in overcoming obstacles to entrance arising from poverty and distance from the schools which marked previous years, has been no less conspicuous during that just passed. The range of study and instruction has been much the same as heretofore. The work of the class-rooms has been too good to need to be materially altered.

The _industrial and practical training_ has been that in which there has been the most marked improvement and expansion. How to work is quite as important a branch of knowledge for the colored boys and girls as how to teach. Indeed, that they maybe able to teach others how to work is a large part of their vocation. How to behave themselves on the farm, in the shop, in the work-room, sick-room and the kitchen, is as needful for them to know as how to behave themselves in the school-room and in the church of God. This training is receiving more and more wise and thorough attention, and we are sending out young men and young women better and better fitted to be the teachers and leaders of society, as well as of the school.

Our schools and teachers have been evidently _growing in favor and esteem_, both with the colored and white people of the South. A most noticeable instance of the attachment of the colored population to the schools, and their appreciation of their value, was given very recently at Athens, Alabama. It became necessary to give up the school at that place, or to rebuild at an expense of not less than $5,000, which latter it was deemed impossible to do. Word to that effect was sent to Athens. The grief of the people was intense. It did not, however, expend itself in tears, but became motive power. They offered themselves to erect the needful building, pledged over $2,000 at once, and by gifts of labor and material provided fully for it, and are at work upon it now. They propose to make brick sufficient for its completion, and a surplus to exchange for the lumber which will be required. They are all at it. A blind man, who can do nothing else, offered to turn the crank to draw the water. Whether they will be able, in their extreme poverty, to accomplish all they have undertaken, yet remains to be seen; but such zeal in a good thing is surely worthy of special notice. When the colored people attempt to co-operate with us to such an extent, we cannot desert them. The school will go on.

During this year it appeared to the Committee that a sufficient fund had been accumulated to warrant at least a beginning of the permanent building for the Tillotson Normal Institute, in Austin, Texas. The foundation is already laid, and the contract drawn for the enclosure of the building. This great State, with its rapidly increasing population of colored people, and its insufficient provision for their education, demands the earliest possible completion of this building, and the equipment of the institution for efficient work.

With the four _buildings_ completed the previous year at Mobile, New Orleans, Macon and Savannah, we are now in possession of better and more permanent equipment for our school work than ever before. But it is yet quite insufficient for its pressing need, which is most felt in the necessity of enlarged provision for boarding pupils, for it is, after all, in those who are thus brought under the continuous influence of their teachers, and away from the debasing surroundings of cabin life, that the best results of mental and religious training are realized. The call for such relief has been continuous and increasing in its urgency; but we have been obliged almost to deny it a hearing in the poverty and pressure of these past years.

The near future will, however, we trust, do much to relieve this long-felt want, through the generous gift to the Association of $150,000 by Mrs. Daniel P. Stone, of Malden, Mass., from the estate of her late husband, of which, though it is not yet in our possession, we have been fully assured. In accordance with the expressed wish of the donor, this money is to be used in the erection of buildings at Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans and Talladega. These buildings will largely increase the accommodations of these institutions for the class of pupils which has been named, and will greatly diminish the percentage of expense for their education, as but few additions to the corps of teachers already in the work will be required. In these normal and collegiate institutions it is the variety of studies rather than the number of students to which the teaching force must be adapted. We may add fifty per cent. to the number of pupils, and need to add only five per cent., perhaps, to the number of teachers. There can be no more acceptable gift than that of these new buildings for well-established schools—none which will so add to their effectiveness.

A few school _buildings_ belonging to the Association have been, of late years, _rented to local school boards_, in cases where greater good could be accomplished for those for whose use they were intended than by retaining them in our hands. It has been a saving to our treasury, a widening of their usefulness, and a bond of fraternity between the friends of education North and South.

We may only, in passing, refer to the beginning in the accumulation of valuable _libraries_ made in some of our institutions. There is yet room for much needed enlargement of this important branch of our educational service.

Two things yet remain to be done that our schools may be placed upon a permanent and satisfactory basis, and these are adequate provision for the maintenance of professorships and of scholarships. We have been compelled to confine ourselves chiefly to making appropriations for the salaries of teachers, simply because without them there could be no schools at all. This was the one thing indispensable from the very start. But, increasingly, the need of _student aid_ makes itself manifest. Gifts have been secured from churches, Sunday-schools and individuals for this purpose, and more money must be raised from similar sources. Yet it is evident that this must not be taken from the fund by which the teachers are sustained. That would be to increase the number of applicants, and, at the same time, to close the doors at which they seek admission. We must not try to lengthen the skirts of our coats by cutting them off at the shoulders; they will fall off from us altogether if we do that. This is our problem: both to maintain our teachers and to support more students. It cannot be solved by any process of subtraction. Can it be done in any other way than by addition to our income? And it must be done, if we are to make our work tell as it ought upon the vast negro population of the South. To overcome the obstacles which stand at every step in the way of attaining the thorough education needed by those who are to be the leaders of their people, demands a power of will and an energy of perseverance such as few individuals of any race possess, unless they are assisted all along the way.

The origin and surroundings of these colored students must be continually borne in mind. They have nothing to help them in the homes from which they came; nothing to help them in the prevailing sentiment of the white people toward them; the fewest possible openings for such remunerative labor as is ready for white students in similar conditions, and checks on their ambition of every sort. Nor is it strange that they lack that stamina which generations of culture and self-restraint impart. Their help, both moral and material, must come from us, and those who, like us, believe that they can be and should be thoroughly trained before they are sent forth to lay foundations for the upbuilding of their race. Student aid must be freely and systematically given, or our higher schools will accomplish their beneficent design at great disadvantage, and only to a very limited extent.

But the glory of our schools and colleges is more than in all else in their _religious character and influence_—that they are Christian schools and missionary colleges. Indeed, they are so completely at one with the church work that it is difficult to draw a line between the two departments, and to tell where the one ends and the other begins. A few particulars may best illustrate the influence of faithful Christian instruction and example. Of 52 graduates of Atlanta, 50 at graduation were professing Christians, and none have fallen away. Later we hear, “All the members of the classes to be graduated now profess to be Christians.” A revival is reported during the year, and not less than 30 conversions. Fisk reports several additions to the College church at every communion, and as many more of those converted there to other churches. At Talladega we hear of “a precious work of grace; 37 were received into the church. All but two of the girls, and all but four of the 45 young men, who are boarding scholars, are professing Christians.” The pastor at Hampton writes: “Nowhere can teachers be found more earnestly evangelical, laboring often beyond their strength to bring souls to Christ. 11 of the Indian students were, in March, received into the College church.” At Berea, the graduates of this year are all professing Christians. These are examples of the good accomplished and reported. In several of the lower schools, also, we hear of many being brought to Christ.

Nor are these Christian students idle in the Master’s vineyard. They go out to _their school work_ in vacation time, and have learned as they go to preach. The help which was given, the previous year, to lengthen the short terms of a few common schools, thus furnishing employment for our _student teachers_, was thought to be fruitful of good results by our best and most experienced instructors. It has been deemed wise to somewhat enlarge the work in that direction.

108 teachers from Fisk, in 1877, taught 9,332 pupils. Over 10,000 pupils, during the year 1878, are estimated to have been taught by those educated at Atlanta. On this basis, we feel justified in estimating that at least 150,000 pupils have been reached by our present and former students during the year. They also go out to do Sunday-school and missionary work on the Lord’s day. Talladega reached 1,200 Sunday-school scholars through its students during the last year, and in all the years some 20,000. A high educational official testifies that the students of Tougaloo “almost invariably start Sunday-schools as soon as they open their day-schools.” So the seed is sown not by the way-side, nor on the rock, nor among the thorns, but where it “also beareth fruit and bringeth forth, some an hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty.”

A few words, by way of bridging over to our church work, as to our _Theological Departments_. They are four—at Nashville, Talladega and New Orleans, which are ours altogether, and at Washington, where we continue to share the support of the Theological Department of Howard University with the Presbytery of that city. There are 86 students in these schools, of which number nearly one-half are at Howard University. They are sending out ministers, well trained both intellectually and spiritually, into our churches and those of other denominations.

THE CHURCH WORK.

The present _number of churches_ in connection with the Association is sixty-seven. These are supplied with pastors, some of them white ministers of experience and culture, who, for health’s sake, are glad to be in the South; others, young and earnest men, who prefer to devote themselves to work among the lowly; others still are colored men, who have been educated in our own or similar institutions, and who are doing good work among their own people. Some of these are also principals or teachers in the schools, thus doing double duty.

The number of church members is 4,600, of whom 745 have been added during the year. This work has been under the supervision of Dr. Roy. It has been a time for making acquaintance with the men and the field, but his first visits have been full of service in quickening and counselling those on the ground, and in correspondence with the administrative force at home.

Three _new churches_ have been established during the year—at Shelby Iron Works, Ala., at Cypress Slash, Ga., and at Flatonia, Texas.

After a careful survey of the material and opportunity, we are neither prepared to rush in and organize new churches wherever it may be possible, nor to abandon the field as unfitted to our polity. We could probably buy up a hundred churches within a year at $100 apiece, and then should be worse off than when we began, loaded down with useless burdens. There is nothing in the nature of the South or in the character of the negro by which the people of that region or that race are unfitted to be good Congregationalists. It only demands intelligence and the power of self-control. Where these have been developed by Christian education there is readiness and preparation enough. Hitherto our churches have flourished under the shadow of our schools and of their graduates. But as the sun goes toward the west the shadow broadens, and the field for churches of our order is enlarged. There are some half dozen localities now waiting and ready to organize Congregational churches, to which our Field Superintendent will give early attention and assistance. Discriminating and timely help at such points will accomplish far more in the end than rapid and ill-considered assistance. Too many churches, both North and South, die early, because born too soon. We design and purpose to extend this work as fast, and only as fast, as we may do it with the hope of permanent results.

A goodly number of these churches report _religious interest_ during the year, and, indeed, some of them are engaged in seasons of special effort and ingathering at this time; for in the South—strange as it may seem to us—the summer gives an interval from farm work which is often and successfully devoted to special Christian effort. A letter just received informs us of such a series of meetings in one of our churches in North Carolina, with a congregation of 200, who bring their lunch and stay from morning till afternoon, and often till the evening service too.

The impression made by these churches upon ministers who went among them for the first time last winter was very noticeable, and their testimony agrees as to the decorum, as well as fervor, of their colored congregations. Nor are they without the witness to their progress, which is indicated by efforts looking toward their _self-support_ and a participation in the general work of missions. These all have _Sunday-schools_ connected with them, in which are gathered 6,219 scholars, besides which some of our teachers are engaged in Sunday-schools connected with other Christian churches. The cause of _temperance_ receives constant attention in both schools and churches. Juvenile and adult organizations are found in nearly all of them, and the young men and women go out pledged, not only to abstain themselves, but to make it part of their mission to persuade others to follow their example in this respect.

To the six _Conferences_ into which our churches were organized one has been added during the past year—that of North Carolina. The Georgia Conference takes the place of that of South-eastern Georgia. The Congregationalism of the South is thus fully associated. The meetings of these bodies are full of interest. Their discussions are practical and admirably sustained. Their fellowship is cordial and Christian, and their spiritual power is in some cases remarkable. The South-western Conference, this year held at New Iberia, La., was signalized by the quickening and reviving of the churches represented, and by the conversion of fifty souls.

_Councils_ are called for ordination of pastors from time to time, and in all customary ways the churches mutually advise and help each other.

We should be greatly remiss did we not call attention also to the work done in the homes of the colored people by _devout women who have given themselves to this missionary work_. The need of such work can easily be imagined, but cannot be appreciated fully without a knowledge of the facts. At Memphis, Tenn., Atlanta, Ga., Miller’s Station, Ga., Charleston, S. C., etc., faithful visitations have been made from house to house, and Bible-reading, cottage prayer-meetings, practical instruction, and occasional temporal relief, have been administered by lady missionaries, while many of our lady teachers have cheerfully engaged in similar work, so far as their engagements would allow. No general organization of Northern women has been attempted in this behalf, but of their own motion circles have been formed at Detroit, Mich., Waukegan, Ill., Oberlin, Ohio, and other points, whose object it has been to provide the expenses for these messengers of mercy. The work, though limited in its extent, has been fruitful of good results.

Before leaving this hurried review of the Southern field, we are happy to say that our corps of workers, as a whole, has never been more admirably efficient than now. There are fewer changes in the force from year to year than formerly, and those who have just gone for the first time into these schools and churches are men and women of superior intelligence and character. We look for grand work and great results, through God’s blessing on their labors in the coming year.

AFRICA.

About the beginning of the current year, the Rev. Floyd Snelson, who was at the head of the _Mendi Mission_, was obliged to return to this country on account of the health of his wife. We greatly deplored his loss, as we trusted much to his wisdom and experience for a wise administration of our work in that far land. To Rev. A. P. Miller were committed the position and responsibilities thus vacated. He, with Rev. A. E. Jackson, and their wives, Dr. James and Mr. White, constituted then our missionary band.

On the 13th of February, Elmore L. Anthony was sent, _via_ Liberia, to join them. His various experiences as a slave, a soldier and a student, had fitted him to take special charge of the industrial work at Avery, though we believed him to be as much a missionary in spirit as those who had preceded him. He was submitted to a severe medical examination, and pronounced sound in health; for we have concluded that those only of unimpaired health should be exposed to the debilitating influences of a tropical climate. He has so far fulfilled all our expectations.

We have just sent another missionary to the field. Nathaniel Nurse, a native of Barbadoes, who has resided already in Liberia five years, and who has been maintained at Fisk University for the last two years by English and Scotch friends, sailed on the fourth of this month. He has shown much enterprise in the past, which we hope will be effectively applied to the missionary work on the West Coast.

Our force consists then, at present, of these six men and the wives of two. The men have endured the climate wonderfully well, having suffered only temporary disabilities, and having been laid aside but little from their work. Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Jackson have not been as well, perhaps, because they were not in as firm health before leaving this country, but have not been compelled, as yet, to leave the Mendi coast, even temporarily.

Last year we had but a single _church_ to report, of 44 members, at Good Hope Station. Since that time a church has been organized also at Avery. These two churches now include a membership of 85, and have 190 Sunday-school scholars in connection with them.

The _school_ at Good Hope Station has been in a condition of growing prosperity, and has enrolled during the year 245 scholars, with an average attendance, as collated from the monthly returns, of 156. At Avery the school has been small, the children being frequently diverted by their parents to work of various kinds. About a dozen children have been taken into the Mission Home to be educated under permanent Christian influences. A school has also been sustained at Debia, and a preaching service.

The _industrial work_ has been carried on with energy, the mill and property have been put in better order, some 16 laborers have been employed in the saw-mill, the coffee plantation is beginning to be productive, and we trust that this arm of the service will prove increasingly a means of education to the natives and a help in the support of the mission.

Our missionaries have not been content with merely maintaining the work as they found it, but have been exploring the interior to study opportunities for its enlargement. They found the people peaceable and friendly, and open to their approach not only, but inviting their permanent settlement. It is their plan to use native Christians for preaching at _out-stations_ as far as they may be able.

Our missionaries have had to labor under the disadvantage of a very limited experience in organizing and carrying on either church or school work. They all went directly from the college to the foreign field. They have made fewer mistakes of judgment than might have been anticipated. We regard this experiment of African missionaries to Africa as practically solved. Their endurance of the climate and their general success in the work are evident. More and more clear to us, from year to year, is the connection between our work on the American and the African continents.

And now, while our original mission field is again becoming fruitful under these new conditions, the question is brought to us in a way we cannot refuse to consider. Shall we, in addition to this, undertake a new field upon the other side of the “Dark Continent”? The generous _offer made by Robert Arthington_, of Leeds, England, of £3,000, to this Association, to aid in the establishment of a mission between the Nile and the Jub, and from the 10th parallel of north latitude down almost to the equator, compelled us, early in the year, to examine the field and the possibility of undertaking it. A large committee, through books and travellers, made as thorough investigation as was in their power, and were supported by the Executive Committee, as a whole, in regarding the proposed location as offering advantages in accessibility over almost any of the new fields recently opened in equatorial Africa; but they delayed any distinct acceptance of the proffer until this fund should be swelled from other sources to not less than $50,000. In this state of abeyance the whole matter remained until a very recent date. Dr. O. H. White, the Secretary of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society in Great Britain, has been sanguine as to the willingness of the English and Scotch brethren to further aid us in the establishment of the proposed mission. He has already received contributions to a considerable amount for this object, and at the last regular meeting of our Committee, after careful discussion, the following resolution was unanimously passed:

“Voted, that on condition of the receipt of £3,000 from Mr. Robert Arthington, of Leeds, as offered to us by him, for the establishment of a new mission in Eastern Africa, and of a like amount from the British public, raised through the efforts of Dr. O. H. White, the Association pledges itself to devote thereto the sum of $20,000, and with the blessing of God and the assistance of the friends of Africa in Great Britain and America, to undertake permanently to sustain that mission.”

The Committee were encouraged to take this step by the fact that the debt of the Association was no more an obstacle, that several thousand dollars were already in hand from the Avery estate, bequeathed for this very purpose, and by other, as they thought, evident leadings of Providence in this direction. And now if these conditions be met, and this new work at no distant day be fairly entered on, the Mendi Mission on the West, and the Arthington Mission on the East, will support one another in their plea to Christian England and America for generous and prayerful sustentation. Our foreign work will thus be more complete than it can be with but a single mission, and we shall be able to present a wide field for the generous devotion and self-consecration of the sons of Africa now in this land.

This new field is among the real heathens, unclad, and with their native barbarism made worse by all the atrocities of a slave-hunting ground. That evil is, providentially, fast passing away. During the past year Col. C. G. Gordon has overcome the mightiest of the slave traders, and his large and desperate force. When the influence of the Arab invaders is withdrawn, with their unnatural stimulation of tribal wars and the ready market they afford for human beings, other of the native kings, under the influence of even a few Christian men, will follow the example of Mtesa, who has lately forbidden the sale of slaves in his dominions under pain of death. So the Lord has set before us an open door, and no man can shut it. Shall we not go in and set up our banners in the name of Immanuel?

THE INDIANS.

The Indians still remain under the care of the Department of the Interior. We believe that the Administration earnestly desires the promotion of their true interests, but the grievous wrongs under which they have so long suffered still continue to be visited upon them, and will so long as an impossible policy is attempted to be carried out by an insufficient force. The question as to the legal status of the Indian is now before the courts. Until his rights there, and to hold property by a secure tenure, are established, he will be exposed to provocations which we cannot expect him to bear in silence.

To us was assigned, several years ago, the nomination of six _Indian Agents_, who were to report to us as well as to the United States Government. We trust that this work has been to the advantage of these tribes, as our agents have, with perhaps a single exception, maintained good character and reputation amid all the temptations of that trying life. And yet our relations to the Department are not what we could wish them to be. In four of the six agencies where we make nominations, changes have been made necessary during the past year. In two of them agents have been appointed by the Department without our nomination or approval, so that we have no longer any responsibility for the agencies at Red Lake, Minn., or Green Bay, Wis., nor have we, under these circumstances, the same motive as at first to secure good men for these places, when they may be so easily removed, or our nominations thrown aside for others backed by another kind of influence.

_Our missionary at S’Kokomish_, Rev. Myron Eells, is still patiently pursuing his good work. He is pastor of the church of 23 members, and has three other preaching stations. In these four the attendance upon public worship is nearly 200; 110 children are in the Sunday-schools; 128 families are under his pastoral care. Mr. Eells has travelled among the neighboring people, and diffused his influence over a wide area.

A new element in work for the Indians has been the _educational work at Hampton_. 77 Indian boys and 9 Indian girls have spent the year at the Institute, contented and studious, and responding to patient and skillful teaching with marked and steady progress. During the summer a number of them gained great credit to themselves by their good conduct on the farms and in the families of Massachusetts among which they were distributed. It is hoped that the number of girls allowed to enjoy these privileges may be considerably increased. Captain Pratt has obtained permission to do a similar work at Carlisle, Pa.

The great feature of the advantage in this training is the continuous influence under which these students are held. It is indispensable to the best work as Christian educators of those who are not helped by their home life. Our experience is the same among the Freedmen, the native Africans and the Indians.

It may be, in the providence of God, in this direction, that the Indian work of the Association is to be pursued and enlarged in the future. The Committee recommend, for the present at least, co-operation with General Armstrong in the work he has so well begun in this direction. The result of his experience, thus far, is his decided conviction that “there is no better way to elevate the Indians than in negro industrial schools.” An effort in this direction promises greater results, for the same expenditure of money, than the attempt to found new missions among the Indians.

THE CHINESE IN AMERICA.

The condition and numbers of the Chinese on the Pacific coast, after all the various agitations of mob, and State, and National Congress, have not been materially altered. The sand lots have still echoed with the blasphemies of Kearney and his followers, and even some of the churches, with scarcely less vigorous proclamations, that the Chinese must go. California has adopted a new Constitution, though the question whether its Chinese provisions are constitutional is yet unanswered. It discourages immigration, imposes conditions on resident Chinamen, forbids their employment by any corporation, and requires cities to remove them beyond their bounds or locate them within prescribed limits; and, finally, both houses of Congress, yielding to political pressure, in the presence of the resident Minister of the Chinese Government, ignored its solemn treaty, and declared that no ship should bring to this shore more than fifteen Chinese immigrants at any one time. We have to thank the President of the United States for the veto which alone prevented this action from becoming law.

And yet the Chinaman is, on the Pacific coast, in numbers not increasing, but not materially diminishing. He does not come, because he can do better elsewhere. He does not go, because he has not yet attained the object of his coming. Meanwhile, several Chinamen have, during the year, been naturalized in other States, and the force has thus been broken of the decision that, being neither white nor black, he cannot be allowed to vote.

_Our work_ has not diminished in our twelve schools under the superintendency of the Rev. Wm. C. Pond. Only three less pupils (1,489) have been enrolled than the year before. 252 has been the average attendance all the year through; 21 teachers are now in the service, including 5 Chinese helpers; 84 gave evidence of conversion during the year, while 137 have renounced idolatry. Mr. Pond says: “The total number of whom we have cherished the hope that they were born of God, from the beginning of our work until now, cannot be less than 235. The Congregational Association of Christian Chinese has now 198 members, of whom 44 were received the past year.”

We believe that this work, with that of our Presbyterian and Methodist brethren on the Pacific coast, is both acceptable to God and approved of men.

FINANCES.

We come now to the statement of our financial history and condition. With profound gratitude to Him to whom the silver and the gold belong, and with renewed confidence in those to whose stewardship he has entrusted it, we make this record: (1.) The expenses of the year have been fully met; (2.) The debt of the Association is entirely extinguished; (3.) On the 1st of October the balance in our treasury amounted to $1,475.90.

It is sixteen years since the Association has been reported free from debt. The expansion of its work, which the changes effected by the war imperatively demanded, involved us in these unpaid obligations, which increased upon us almost yearly until, in 1875, our debt was over $96,000. Then came the turning point. It was diminished by a little over $3,000 during 1876; in 1877 it was reduced by about $31,000, to $62,800. Last year $25,000 more of it was liquidated, leaving, at the beginning of this year, $37,389.79. And now we are able to say that that whole amount is paid. $28,808.67 have been sent us for that express purpose. The balance has come from our general receipts from the living and the dead. And this has been paid in cash. We began to fear that our constant plea in this behalf was injuring the support of our regular work, and last year we set apart, to cover it, a residue of western lands of sufficient value; but the debt is absolutely gone now and not balanced against anything, and that property is free to be converted to other uses.

The total income of the year has been $215,431.17—nearly $20,000 more than that of the preceding year. $15,000 of this increase is, however, from bequests which have amounted to $50,034.16.

For the ability to make these cheering statements we thank God, and in the remembrance of His past goodness we take courage. It looked an almost impossible thing that that great debt of nearly $100,000 should have disappeared, and that in these “hard times.” But the way to know the goodness of God is to try some hard thing in His name. To Him be the praise.

We would not leave the false impression, however, on the minds of any, that these years of retrenchment have been easy years for us, or that the past twelve months have been free from causes for anxiety. Twice during the year we have been $10,000 behind last year’s receipts or this year’s needs. We were greatly perplexed in our unwillingness to increase the old debt or to incur a new one, when, in one case, a large gift, and in the other a large legacy, lifted us over the shallows and enabled us to set sail again rejoicing.