But for many years the European nations only looked upon Africa as a land whence slaves were to be taken for their plantations in the New World. And this part of the history of Africa is a dark blot upon their fair fame. What with the European slave-buying in the West, the Arab slave-hunting in the East, and the chiefs perpetually at war and enslaving one another’s people, the lives of countless numbers of these ignorant people were made miserable in the extreme. The village lies slumbering peacefully in the hollow in the midst of its gardens of maize and sweet potatoes. It is silently surrounded before dawn by the cruel Arab and his men. Shots ring out. The startled inhabitants rush forth into the grey morning with shouts of “Nkondo!” (“War!”) “Nkondo!” (“War!”) The men who resist or try to flee are ruthlessly shot down. Houses and gardens are burned and destroyed, the dead and dying are left where they fall, round the necks of the living is riveted the hateful slave stick, and the gang is on its way to the coast leaving behind only the abomination of desolation. Too often, alas! have the children of Africa tasted of this bitter cup. And now that the European people know the sin from which they were freed by the mercy of God, it behoves them to try their best to make up to the black people for the injury they formerly did them. That much is being done we know for the whole continent is marked out as belonging to the different European nations and is ruled by them. So the days of the old tribal wars are over and the slave-hunter has disappeared from the land. The future of the Dark Continent you will then see lies now to a large extent in the hands of the people of Europe. The old rule of the native chiefs has in most places passed away, and in others is rapidly passing. The power has gone into the hands of the white man. Pray God he may use it wisely and guide his black brother towards the green pastures as becomes a follower of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. CHAPTER III THE GREAT RACES OF AFRICA Before I begin to speak to you about the children of Africa, I would like you to understand how the people of Africa are separated into different families or divisions. There are in Africa nearly two hundred millions of people, but they do not all belong to the same race. The three big families are the Berbers in the north, the Negroes in the middle, and the Bantus in the south. Besides these there are some smaller divisions to which belong the Pigmies or Dwarfs, those strange little people whom Stanley encountered on his famous journey through the terrible forests of the Congo. Then there are the Hottentots and the Bushmen of the south-west corner of Africa, who have been driven into the desert and hilly places by the more powerful invading Bantu tribes.