BY REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A., INVERNESS, SYNOD DEPUTY.
(Continued from page 307.)
WHEN the first part of this Report was written, after I was only a few days in Matabeleland, I was still hesitating as to whether I should devote the five Sabbaths which it was my purpose to spend in Rhodesia, entirely to the Mission, or whether I should give one of those Sabbaths to Highlanders in Bulawayo. I was not, however, long at the Mission when I concluded that it was my duty to devote all the Sabbaths I should be in that country to work at the Mission. Mr. Radasi, as already told, has three stations under his charge—Ngwenya (the principal one), Bembesi, and Koco. I held services on the first, third, and fifth Sabbaths at Ngwenya, on the second and fourth at Bembesi and Koco. Mr. Radasi preached or presided at our meetings occasionally; but, what between an effort to keep on the work expected at the day school, and his constantly acting as an interpreter for me when I spoke, his time and energies during those five weeks would have been well occupied had he not preached so much as once.
Bembesi, where we were on the second Sabbath, is about seven miles from Ngwenya, Mr. Radasi’s home. Our people there have a comfortable and sufficiently commodious place of meeting—the gift of Sojini and Sibendi, Fingo chiefs. Over and above the two ordinary services at which I preached, Mr. Radasi, in the interval between, conducted a Sabbath School, which, in proportion to the number of our people there, was well attended. I should say the people gathered at Bembesi would be about two-thirds of the number that I had witnessed at Ngwenya on the previous Sabbath.
At Koco, which is farther south than Bembesi, and about the same distance as the latter place from Ngwenya, our people had not, when I was there, a church or meeting-house to worship in, but one was in process of erection, and it is probably by this time being used for the ends for which it was being built. On that account we held our service in a private dwelling, quite a neat and spacious hut having been, by one of our own people, put at our disposal. The gathering at Koco was but small, but I am bound to say the service was not the least enjoyed of several much-enjoyed services held by me among the natives of South Africa.
Mr. Radasi’s rule is to be on the Sabbath at Ngwenya; but he gives an occasional Sabbath at Bembesi or Koco. Nevertheless, services in connection with the Free Presbyterian Church are regularly conducted by native members of our Church at these two last places.
Of the services of the first Sabbath at Ngwenya, I gave some account in the former part of this Report. The services of the third and of the fifth Sabbaths, as already intimated, were also held at Ngwenya. The church or meeting-house, where I should reckon about one hundred persons may congregate, was full or nearly full on the three Sabbaths I was there. The facts that the preacher on the first Sabbath was a stranger from a far-off land, that on the third Sabbath we had Communion services, and that on the fifth Sabbath, office-bearers were ordained and baptisms administered, might to some extent have helped to keep up more than the average attendance during those three services; but apart from these fortuitous circumstances, I am satisfied that quite a good and substantial congregation meet regularly in connection with Mr. Radasi’s ministry at Ngwenya. The native population of Rhodesia is, say, as compared with the peoples of India or China, not vast. I have somewhere read that the native population of Southern Rhodesia, which includes Mashonaland and Matabeleland, and is of the extent of 200,000 square miles, is less than half a million. Our Mission, besides, is not planted in the most populous part even of Rhodesia. One has to remember that a Mission can be planted nowhere without the sanction both of the native chief or chiefs of the district, and also of the native Commissioner. Ngwenya was not the spot first thought of by Mr. Radasi himself, but he had to take the place which Providence opened up for him.
The week-day services in connection with our Communion were not so largely attended as one had hoped for. Two facts went largely to give the explanation of this state of things. The first heavy rains of the season had fallen in those days. In this part of Rhodesia there are no bridges on the many rivers which come so suddenly into being when a heavy fall of rain takes place, so that one is apt to find oneself in a rather parlous condition if out at a distance from home in rains at such a season. And then, besides, whenever the first rains have fallen, the poor people make an effort to get their fields sown.
On the Friday before the Communion, we kept a Prayer Meeting. After an address given, two Fingo members of the congregation, as well as Mr. Radasi, prayed. I was not able to understand the words spoken, but I could not help being deeply affected with the evident and touching earnestness of those men.
On our last Sabbath at Ngwenya one elder and three deacons, all Fingoes, were ordained to serve in those offices. I had devoted a week-day previously to this service to giving them an explanation, as simply as I could, of what our acceptance of the Westminster Confession of Faith means. One elder and one deacon, who had been in those offices in Cape Colony, I presume, before Mr. Radasi went to Rhodesia, were regarded by Mr. Radasi ever since they became members of the Free Presbyterian congregation in Matabeleland as such office-bearers, and thus now there are in connection with us there two elders and four deacons.
By these mainly are the meetings at Bembesi and Koco kept open. On the same Sabbath on which the ordination was held, I baptised one man, two women, and three children—all Matabeles. I had, of course, previously to granting them baptism, examined the adult applicants, and they seemed to me not only to accept the doctrines of grace, but to have some feeling of their truth and power. The husband of one of the two women baptised was present, and was himself baptised that day. The second woman baptised—(if my memory serves me right)—had two children also baptised, and her husband, although he did not come forward for baptism, was, as I learned, quite willing that his wife and children should thus be baptised. A third woman, a member before this time—also with her husband’s consent, although himself not yet venturing to ask for baptism—had been there with a child for baptism.
It was, I think, on the Wednesday before the last Sabbath spent in Matabeleland that, in company with my interpreter, I visited what had been the late Chief Ngege’s kraal—a circular, small enclosure, with somewhere from ten to twenty families. I there met with a specimen of almost pure heathenism, and I had the feeling, as Dr. Love puts it in one of his letters, that one had there to fight Satan on his own ground. Not that they are fierce; but especially the women and children have a very poor, degraded look, and their minds, so one thought, enveloped in such mists of darkness and ignorance that, if the Gospel were merely an agency of human power, one would be apt altogether to lose heart in setting to address them. They came out of their huts into the open in goodly numbers, and I endeavoured to speak to them from John iii. 16, Mr. Radasi interpreting. This, I may say, was a kind of work in which, when I proceeded to South Africa, I expected to engage in more frequently than anything realised by me. I may give the reason. Kraals in the Ngwenya district are not numerous; indeed, I did not know of any of any considerable size, at least, save Ngege’s, in the neighbourhood of our Mission at Ngwenya. As a rule one finds the natives scattered over the country in single or double huts and families, and these at some distance the one from the other.
If one were to search for the most populous parts, the experience would be that, generally, where the people were most populous, the land was most fertile, and where the land is most fertile British farmers are in possession. Now, the sad thing is that few of these British farmers wish missionaries, and least of all, native missionaries, to come to preach to the natives who are in the position of squatters and cottars on these farms. Even Ngege’s kraal was on a Britisher’s farm, and although I preached to the people of the kraal without waiting for the farmer’s consent, as I had learned he was from home that day, I thought it my duty afterwards to write him and explain the circumstances under which I had preached to the Matabeles in Ngege’s kraal. Of course no objection can be made to natives going out from those farms to hear the missionary at his own Mission station; but the fact that British farmers are, to an increasing extent, taking possession of the most fertile and at the same time most populous parts of Rhodesia, has led almost all the denominations sending missionaries there to take steps to secure from the Government large farms in connection with the Mission stations. This they do at once, in order that the natives may not be dispossessed of all the best of the land, and also in order that, without molestation, their missionaries may visit and preach to natives whose homes are on such farms. There are, indeed, ten acres attached to the Free Presbyterian Mission at Ngwenya, but the place, although healthy, and for the district central, is not well watered. Mr. Radasi, I may further add, digged near the Mission a well about sixty feet deep, and thus there is always as much water to be had at the Mission as the Mission itself requires, but there is not sufficient to entice others to come and live on the Mission lands.
It gave me much pleasure to read in the December number of our Magazine, that not only did the Synod receive my suggestion on the subject of clothing the Matabeles in a kindly way, but improved upon my suggestion by asking that friends should send contributions, whereby lighter material than is ordinarily worn in this country, could be bought and sent out to the Mission. That no doubt would be the ideal way, but inasmuch as at a future time the Church may supplement its kindness by sending some light second-hand clothing too, it may be the proper thing that I should place on record the law regulating the admission of second-hand clothing into Rhodesia, as that was supplied to me by the Administrator of Southern Rhodesia. The fact is that when I visited Sir William Milton, the Administrator referred to, at Salisbury, and told him what I had suggested to the Synod on the subject of clothing the Matabeles, he informed me that it was contrary to their Custom’s laws to introduce clothing of that kind into the territory.
Afterwards, however, I fell in with one Mr. Woodhouse, a Methodist Episcopal preacher to the natives at Umtali, Rhodesia. I spoke to Mr. Woodhouse about the disappointment I felt on account of what Sir William told me was the law touching the introduction of second-hand clothing into Rhodesia. Mr. Woodhouse assured me that they were constantly in the way of getting such clothing for the natives at their mission, and that no objection had ever been made to it. Mr. Woodhouse also kindly allowed me to make any use I liked of the information he thus gave. The result was that I took it upon me to write Sir William on the matter, giving expression to my surprise that what was allowed at Umtali was disallowed at Ngwenya. I am indebted to Sir William for the following reply which I received after returning to my home, and inasmuch as it may interest people beyond the Free Presbyterian Church, it may be put on record:—
“ADMINISTRATOR’S OFFICE,
SALISBURY (RHODESIA), 3rd December, 1909.
SIR,—I am directed by Sir William Milton to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 19th ultimo, from Beira, on the subject of distributing second-hand clothing to the church-going natives living near the Free Presbyterian Mission, Ngwenya, Matabeleland.
In reply, I am to inform you that since your interview with Sir William on the 17th of November, he has gone into the question of the introduction of second-hand clothing for the purpose mentioned by you, and finds that by Section 16 of the ‘Customs Union and Tariff Ordinance, 1906,’ the importation of second-hand clothing is only prohibited when brought in for sale, and His Honour is of opinion that the Customs Authorities have not any power to stop the importation of such clothing when it is sent under a declaration that no portion of it is for sale.
If the clothing is imported through Cape ports, it will have to be fumigated at the port of entry unless a certificate of fumigation before shipment is produced.
I should mention that any such clothing should be valued as ‘second-hand’ consignment before being despatched from Great Britain.
If duty is paid at Cape ports it will be at the rate of 15 per cent. ad valorem, if declared to be for presentation and not for sale, otherwise at the rate of 2/- per coat, vest, or trousers.
If the goods are imported via Beira there will be three per cent. transit duty in addition to the 15 per cent. ad valorem under a similar declaration.
The Customs authorities would be unable to accept any certificate of British origin, as the suppliers could not know where every article was made.—I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
A. H. HOLLAND,
Private Secretary.
Rev. J. R. MACKAY,
Free Presbyterian Manse,
Inverness, Scotland.”
I visited Bulawayo, some thirty-seven miles distance, twice during my stay at the Mission. On the first occasion I had to make arrangements concerning the voyage home; and to buy some things required for Communion Services, and at the Schools. Friends, ere I left home, had given me some money to spend on the Mission, and it occurred to me that I could not do better than thus dispose of it. A detailed account of these transactions will be submitted to the Financial Committee, and if there be any reason for it the account may be printed later on in the Magazine. In the course of this first visit to Bulawayo, I arranged for a later date upon which to preach a Gaelic sermon for the benefit of Highlanders living in that town. I thus returned the second time to Bulawayo on the Monday after the fourth Sabbath at the Mission, and on the following evening preached in the Presbyterian Church (Mr. Greenfield’s) to a fair gathering of Highlanders hailing from Sutherland, Ross, Inverness and Argyll, what is reckoned to have been the first Gaelic sermon ever preached in Rhodesia. The Highlanders of Bulawayo generously marked their appreciation by making the preacher the recipient of a valuable and much-prized gift. I may mention that my precentor on the occasion was Mr. D. C. Morrison, a brother-in-law of Rev. Donald Macfarlane, Dingwall.
I bade farewell to our dear friends at Ngwenya on the Tuesday after the second Sabbath of November. They too, ere I left, shewed their gratitude for the Church’s interest in them by presenting me with a valuable jackal-skin rug. Except for those visits to Bulawayo, I had none for those five weeks to converse with, at least to any considerable extent save Mr. Radasi, nor any to preach to but native Africans, yet I felt much drawn to them, and parted from them with regret. My distinct impression is that it is a Mission which the Lord is blessing, and will bless. It is a work which for many reasons the Church at home should bear sympathetically and prayerfully on their spirits. Perhaps the greatest discouragement is owing to the felt want of sympathy towards missions, and especially towards a mission carried on by a native, on the part of the greater number of Europeans who for mining and farming purposes have taken up their abode in Rhodesia. In fact, Sir William Milton, at the interview already referred to, told me that the Administration stretched a point when they allowed Mr. Radasi without any immediate European supervision to start his Mission. They did so, he said, on account of the excellent testimonials with which he came to them, and he added that he was bound to say that he never heard anything but good of Mr. Radasi. But notwithstanding this regrettable state of mind characterising the most part that one has met with of Europeans in Rhodesia, there are many circumstances in connection with the Mission which are fitted to encourage us. Of course, the salient fact, the fact outweighing all other facts, whether favourable or unfavourable, is the desirable possession by the Mission of the constant goodwill of Him who said: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—I have surely seen the affliction of my people, and I am come down to deliver them.” I have already expressed my conviction that something of this favour is being experienced at the Mission, but I may now, in bringing this Report to a close, refer to some external circumstances which may be the means through which this favour works out the gracious purposes of Him whose it is. It is, then, for one thing, no little comfort to feel assured that if the pure Gospel of the Grace of God is known among us in Scotland, it is the same Gospel, and the same godly practice that are being taught the Fingos and Matabeles at our Mission in Matabeleland. This is a circumstance to be appreciated all the more in view of such a fact as that at the present hour the Society which perhaps sends more missionaries to South Africa than any other is the so-called Society for Propagating the Gospel, a Society representing the Ritualistic party in the Church of England, whose teaching, one may well fear, is little better than that of Roman Catholics.
Another circumstance which I consider promising is the extent to which Mr. Radasi has the sympathy of the natives themselves, and that from the chiefs downwards. The late Chief Ngege was always friendly, and his two sons, whom I met both at their kraal and at church, continue like-minded. To Chief Sibendi, although himself not much of a church-going man, we owe at the present time the place of meeting at Bembesi, and he very kindly came, accompanied with three followers, to pay his respects while I lived at the Mission. To Chief Sojini I referred in the former Report as one that had come over a hundred miles in order to be present at our first service there. After his return home he sent me the following letter in the native language, which I insert as being a message to the Free Presbyterian Church not less than to me:—
“SELUKWE, 26th October, 1909.
REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A.,
Sibulela uhambo lwako lokusi hambela sikubone ufika apa e Africa uzo kusitandazela hai utando olunga osenzele lona ote ngenxa yemipefumlo yetu warazula amanzi olwandhle ngamana u Tixo akugcine ude uyokufika e Scotland ubalise nge Africa nabahleli kuyo ngezinto ozibone ngamehlo sibulela nebandhla lase Scotland elite levelana nati ngokubako kwako apa e Africa ngendhleko ngenxa yotando lwebandhla livelana nati ukuba sizimfama nje sibone amandhla ka Krestu notando asenzele lona nge Sicaka asitume ngengalo yake enamandhla ngalamazwi ndiyakubulisa kwakona ngalamazwi ndiyalibulela Bandhla elise Scotland ndhlela ntfe eluhambeni lokusinga ekaya ndim owako wenene.
(Signed) GARNER SOJINI.”
The following is Mr. Radasi’s translation:—
“REV. JOHN R. MACKAY, M.A.,
We are thankful to you for the visit you have paid to us here in Africa, to come and pray for us. Oh, what great love thou hast shown to our souls by crossing the waters of the ocean! May God keep you, and make you return safely to Scotland, to tell them about Africa and its people, and what you have seen with your own eyes. We also thank the Church in Scotland for its sympathy for us, for having sent you here to Africa at great expense, through their love to us. They sympathise with us because we are blind. We see the power and love of Christ that He has shown to us by sending us His servant. With these words I send my greetings. I again thank the Church in Scotland. May you have a safe voyage home.—Yours truly,
GARNER SOJINI.”
I refrain from giving more illustrations of the sympathy of the leading natives of the district, but one can see from what has been stated that Mr. Radasi is all the more likely to be useful from the kindly way in which all classes of the native population regard his work. For although the Mission is not a very large one, it is being taken notice of through a large surrounding district. Sojini has sent his son from Selukwe, a place about 120 or 130 miles to the north-east. Chief Ratilani, who lives about 100 miles to the south-west of the Mission, has been trying to make arrangements whereby two of his sons might be taught at the Mission. Two young men now at the Mission have come from beyond the Zambesi River.
Another promising circumstance is the firmness with which purity of worship, as well as soundness in doctrine, is being upheld at the Mission. Mr. Radasi has only a very few Psalms in metre which he can use, but to these he has adhered. So far as the Matabele portion of his congregation is concerned, that method needed no courage in order to follow it, inasmuch as everything of the kind is new to them, and they are inclined to accept what is taught them for the first time as right. But a goodly portion of the Fingo section were used in Cape Colony to more latitude in the matter of praise. One is glad to have to report that these also quite heartily fall in with Free Presbyterian ways, but the whole circumstances press home upon one the desirableness of our people in Matabeleland having a metrical version of the Psalter, with greater force than one might have felt it at a distance of a few thousand miles. On this account I ventured, when at Ngwenya, to write to Principal Henderson of Lovedale, asking him whether he could not get some men at Lovedale to give us a metrical rendering of the Psalms in the Kaffir language. I reminded him of some communications which Mr. Radasi had had hereanent with the late Principal Stewart, and how, as I thought, on account of the failing of Dr. Stewart’s health, this business had not been more advanced. I took it upon me to say that, if any considerable number of the Psalms were thus rendered, the Free Presbyterian Church would give some reward for his labour to the versifier, and would also order 500 copies of the Psalms from the Lovedale Press at their usual rates. Principal Henderson’s reply was as follows:—
“LOVEDALE, SOUTH AFRICA,
6th November, 1909.
DEAR MR. MACKAY,—I have your letter of the 28th ultimo, which arrived in my absence. As to your proposal, which I take to be that you desire a rendering of the Psalms into such metre as will admit of their being sung to the Psalm tunes to which we have been accustomed in Scotland, I do not see any very serious practical difficulty in the way. Bantu “poetry” is, in its own way, metrical, but it is not rhymed. The Psalms could be rendered into common metre, short and long, quite as well as other literary compositions in foreign languages that have been so dealt with. Only, the work will require time. If your Church can undertake it I am sure you will be rendering a service of great importance to the Native Christian Communities springing up in the country, and a service the value of which time will only enhance. I have wired you to-day an invitation to come to Lovedale. This I sincerely trust you may be able to accept, as it would give me an opportunity to discuss your proposal.
Will you excuse a hurried line? I have returned to work to-day after a week’s absence.—With kind regards, I am, yours sincerely,
JAMES HENDERSON.”
It was not possible for me to accept Principal Henderson’s kind invitation, as I had, ere this letter reached me, definitely arranged to return home by Beira and the Red Sea, and had already paid for a cabin on board the D.O.A.L., S.S. Admiral. I therefor wrote Principal Henderson in that sense, renewed the promise of being at the expense implied if the Psalms were given us in Kaffir, metricaly rendered, and expressed the hope that my inability to proceed to Lovedale would not retard the execution of this desirable piece of work.
To this second letter Principal Henderson was pleased to send the following reply :—
“LOVEDALE, SOUTH AFRICA,
7th December, 1909.
DEAR MR. MACKAY,—I have your note of the 15th ulto. and regret that it was not possible for you to pay us a visit here.
Should circumstances again lead to your visiting the Mission field I trust you may include Lovedale in your arrangements.
With regard to the proposal for rendering the Psalms in a Kaffir metrical version, I am sending you a copy of certain Psalms which have already been so rendered. I think it would be advisable for you to have these tried by your teacher, as the question arises whether a rendering in the Kaffir (or Xosa) language, which is the language of the greater part of our Mission field, would be suitable for Bembesi, Matabeleland, where the language spoken by the people is somewhat remote from Kaffir, and indeed probably nearer to Sesuto or even Zulu.—With very kind regards, I am, yours sincerely,
JAMES HENDERSON.
The Rev. J. R. MACKAY,
Free Presbyterian Manse,
Inverness, Scotland.”
The Kaffir Psalms have not, however, come to hand ‘as I send this report to the Editor.
I hope I have said enough to lead our people to an increased prayerfulness and sympathetic interest in this comparatively small mission in Matabeleland. It may be an opening to some greater things in the future. It embraces representatives of the Tonga, Makalanga, Matabele and Fingo tribes, and it is not too much to say that if these were evangelised, there is not a tribe in South Africa to which, so far as language is concerned, they might not have a tolerably easy access.
Much, very much, have I to record of the Lord’s goodness to me in this long journey. I referred to the remarkable weather which we experienced from London to Capetown in the former report. The experiences of the return journey were still more remarkable. I indeed hesitated as to whether I should venture home by Beira and the Red Sea as the East Coast route has such a reputation for excessive heats. I felt not a little anxious on this account, in coming down to a level lower than the sea, as in parts of Portuguese South Africa, and when, as the train approached those parts, rain began to fall, and the sun’s heat became proportionally less, I felt as though the Lord were laying a carpet to make the journey more comfortable to an unworthy servant. The same kind Providence followed us during those four weeks in which we were sailing in the waters of the East Coast of Africa, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, and the Mediterranean. We had neither excessive heat nor cold, neither storms, nor weather too calm. The weather was simply perfect. The only sad circumstance was that few recognised God’s hand in it, although everyone would own that the voyage had been extraordinary in its favourableness. For my own part, I believe it was an answer to the prayer of many, and in order that now it may redound to the glory of God through the thanksgiving of many, I venture to put on record my impressions of God’s nearness to me in His Providence, from the time of my leaving Europe until my return home.
× × × × × ×
P.S.—In regard of personal expenses: I received from Mr. Clunas, Treasurer, the sum of £150. After paying for outfit, voyage, sojourn in Africa, and the supply of my pulpit for fourteen Sabbaths, I am able to return Mr. Clunas the sum of £16 14s. 1d.
J. R. M.