The American Missionary — Volume 34, No. 7, July, 1880 — John Shaqi
The American Missionary — Volume 34, No. 7, July, 1880Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 34, No. 7, July, 1880
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
This noble, wise, and magnificent animal is hunted in every part of
Africa; shot by the Englishman’s rifle in South Africa and on the
White Nile, speared by the natives, pursued with the sword by the
Abyssinian tribes, as if he were the most deadly enemy of the human
race.
It is all for ivory, for the tusks which have taken perhaps fifty
years to grow, that the huge beast is slain.
This hunting has been going on for many years, and now in parts of
Africa there are no more elephants left.
Some good people, who are also trying to open up the “Dark
Continent,” resolved to try some Indian elephants. They were sent
from Bombay in a ship to Zanzibar, and after much trouble were landed
on the coast. Then away they marched, and after a little time this
new procession reached our station at Mpwapwa, and our missionary,
Mr. Last, writes to say how successful the elephants have been. The
dreaded fly could not harm them; indeed, they kill the flies by
catching them in the folds of their thick skin, if the old African
travellers are to be believed.
Our missionary, Mr. Stokes, writes from Uyuvi that these elephants
had reached Unyamwezi. He says:—
“They can bear a thirty-six miles’ march without food or water. They
can carry from twenty-five to thirty men’s loads; and the natives
here very soon pick up the management of them. I think these
elephants have done more towards the civilization of Central Africa
than anything else I have seen. The natives think the white man a
most wonderful fellow when these big creatures on which they look
with terror obey him. It was quite a picture to view the astonishment
depicted on the faces of these poor blacks, as they watched these
huge beasts kneeling down at the word of command to let us get on
their backs, or elevating their trunks to bid salaam to an Arab.”
The Church Missionary Society would be very glad if it could send
two or three of these wise beasts to their Mission at Mpwapwa, to
help carry the missionaries up and down with the stores they must
have from time to time; and then, when our missionaries can speak
freely in the language, think what a help the elephant would be on a
missionary tour.
Besides, when the natives see how useful the elephants are, they will
soon learn to catch and tame them, as did the Carthaginians, 600
years before Christ.
Turn to the fortieth chapter of Job, and read about the behemoth. You
will see in the marginal reference, “The Elephant.” “He is the chief
of the ways of God.” What a blessed time that will be, if, instead of
being destroyed by man, this, the most wonderful of God’s creatures,
is used to carry about the messengers of the Gospel of Peace!—_Church
Missionary Juvenile Instructor._
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RECEIPTS
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FOR MAY, 1880.
MAINE, $158.52.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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