The continent of Africa, though probably the most ancient field of geographical enterprise, still is, and there

is reason to believe that it will long continue to be, the least explored portion of our earth. Though once the nursery of science and literature, the emporium of commerce, and the seat of an empire which contended with Rome for the sovereignty of the world,the cradle of the ancient church, and the asylum of the infant Saviour, yet Africa still presents a comparative blank on the map, as well as in the history of the world. Though, according to Herodotus, it was circumnavigated by the Phoenicians long before the Christian era, and its coast was the first object of maritime discovery after the compass had inspired seamen with confidence to leave shores and landmarks, and stand forth on the boundless deep ; yet to this day its interior regions continue a mystery to the white man, a land of darkness and of terror to the most fearless and enterprising traveller. Although in no country has there been such a sacrifice of men to the enterprise of discoveryof men the most intelligent and undaunted, of men impelled not by gross cupidity, but by refined philanthropy;yet, notwithstanding such suffering and waste of human life, we are only acquainted with the fringes of that immense continent, and a few lineaments at no great distance from its shores. Africa had once her churches, her colleges, her repositories of science and learning, her Cyprians and bishops of apostolic renown, and her noble army of martyrs ; but now the funeral pall hangs over her wide-spread domains, while her millions, exposed to tenfold horrors, descend like a vast funereal mass to the regions of woe. Christendom has been enriched by her gold, her drugs, her ivory, and bodies and souls of menand what has been her recompense ? A few crucifixes planted around her shores, guarded by the military fort and the roar of cannon. Had it not been for British power and British sympathy under the favour of Heaven, Africa to this day, with scarcely one exception, might have had the tri-coloured flag waving on her bosom, bearing the ensigns of the mystery of Babylon, the crescent of the false prophet, and the emblems of pagan darkness, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. "The countries extending throughout by far the greater portion of the vast surface just mentioned, are, as regards soil and capabilities, among the finest in the world ; but the population of the whole, with the exception of Egypt in ancient times, and the population of the shores of the Mediterranean when under the Carthaginian, the Roman, and the brighter days of Arab sway, have been, through every age, and are still, sunk into the lowest depths of ignorance, superstition, disorganization, and debasement j- the glimmer of civilization, which for a time appeared in Nubia and Abyssinia, compared with the whole, scarcely forming an exception." p.199 The acquisition of the language was an object of the first importance. This was to be done under circumstances the most unfavourable, as there was neither time nor place of retirement for study, and no interpreter worthy the name. A few, and but a lew words were collected, and these very incorrect, from the ignorance of the interpreter of the grammatical structure either of his own or the Dutch language, through which medium all our intercourse was carried on. It was something like groping in the dark, and many were the ludicrous blunders I made. The more waggish of those from whom I occasionally obtained sentences and forms of speech, would richly enjoy the fun, if they succeeded in leading me into egregrious mistakes and shameful blunders; but though I had to pay dear for my credulity, I learned something. After being compelled to attend to every species of manual, and frequently menial labour for the whole day, working under a burning sun, standing on the saw-pit, labouring at the anvil, treading clay, or employed in cleaning a water ditch, it may be imagined that I was in no very fit condition for study, even when a quiet hour could be obtained in the evening for that purpose. And this was not all ; an efficient interpreter could not be found in the country ; and when every thing was ready for inquiry, the native mind, unaccustomed to analyze abstract terms, would, after a few questions, be completely bewildered. I can fully enter into the feelings of Dr. Burchell, in the following extract from his travels, bearing directly on the subject:
" Those whose minds have been expanded by a European education, cannot readily conceive the stupidity, as they would call it, of savages, in every thing beyond the most simple ideas and the most uncompounded notions, either in moral or in physical knowledge. But, the fact is, their life embraces so few incidents, their occupations, their thoughts, and their cares are confined to so few objects, that their ideas must necessarily be equally few, and equally confined. I have sometimes been obliged to allow Mochunka to leave off the task when he had scarcely given me a dozen of words ; as it was evident that exertion of mind, or continued employment of the faculty of thinking, soon wore out his powers of reflection, and rendered him really incapable of paying any longer attention to the subject. On such occasions, he would betray by his listlessness and the vacancy of his countenance, that abstract questions of the plainest kind soon exhausted all mental

strength, and reduced him to the state of a child whose reason was dormant. He would then complain that his head began to ache ; and as it was useless to persist invit Minerv, he always received immediately his dismissal for that day,"

The reducing of an oral language to writing being so important to the missionary, he ought to have every encouragement afforded him, and be supplied with the means necessary for the attainment of such an object. The Bechuanas, though they had never known the worth of time, could, like men in general, set a high value on service done for a stranger. They supposed that, as we were supported by resources, not drawn from the country, we had only to call for riches, and they would come ; while at the same time we had the greatest difficulty in making both ends meet, which indeed we could not have accomplished without personal hard labour. A missionary who commences giving direct instruction to the natives, though far from being competent in the language, is proceeding on safer ground than if he were employing an interpreter, who is not proficient in both languages, and who has not a tolerable understanding: of the doctrines of the Gospel. Trusting to an ignorant and unqualified interpreter, is attended with consequences not only ludicrous, but dangerous to the very objects which lie nearest the missionary's heart. The natives will smile, and make allowances for the blundering speeches of the missionary ; and though some may convey the very opposite meaning to that which he intends, they know from his general character what it should be, and ascribe the blunder to his ignorance of the language. They are not so charitable towards his interpreter, whose interest it is to make them believe that he is master of a language of which they know nothing, and consequently they take for granted, that all is correct which comes through his lips. I have been very much troubled in my mind on hearing that the most erroneous renderings have been given to what I had said. Since acquiring the language, I have had opportunities of discovering this with my own ears, by hearing sentences translated, which at one moment were calculated to excite no more than a smile, while others would produce intense agony of mind from their bordering on blasphemy, and which the interpreter gave as the word of God. The interpreter who cannot himself read, and who understands very partially what he is translating, if he is not a very humble one, will, as I have very often heard, introduce a cart-wheel, or an ox-tail into some passage of simple sublimity of Holy Writ, just because some word in the sentence had a similar sound. Thus the passage, " The salvation of the soul is a great and important subject ;" The salvation of the soul is a very great sack must sound strange indeed. Oh, it is an untold blessing for one in such circumstances to have an humble and devout interpreter, who feels the very words glow as they pass through his lips. I have felt in Namaqua-land, with such an one, as if a holy unction from above were resting both on myself and interpreter. Alas! for us among the Bechuanas, ours was not of this description ; he had accompanied Mr. Campbell to Kurrechane, brought home a concubine with him, and apostatizing, became an enemy to the mission.