F.P. MISSION, MATABELELAND.
THE following letter, containing a Report, was read by the Rev. Neil Cameron, Convener of Foreign Mission Committee, at the meeting of Synod:—
C/o NATIVE COMMISSIONER, BEMBESI,
MATABELELAND, SOUTH AFRICA, 10th March, 1915.
MY DEAR MR. CAMERON,—I received your letter dated the 3rd of February, together with the enclosed bank draft for £6 5s. in payment for the 500 copies of the first twenty-four Psalms in Kaffir Metre. The draft has been cashed, and the money sent to Lovedale. Many thanks for the same. We are all very glad to have the Psalms alone in a separate book. It is a matter to be much grateful for to the Lord for having opened up a way that we should have the Psalms in Kaffir Metre. It is to be hoped that we may have the complete book of Psalms before the end of the year.
Copies have already been sold to those of our people who can read, and are able to pay for them, but the majority of our people, especially the heathen, cannot read, and care is taken that “the line” is carefully read in all our congregations. It is very good that we should have here, at all times, a sufficient number of copies in hand, as the young, who are learning to read, will buy them from time to time.
Thanks for your suggestion that the money for the copies sold should be given to those that are poor. We have many poor people amongst our congregations, who are entirely destitute, and who have no means even to buy clothes to go to church. And it becomes specially difficult when they are ill and practically have no means of paying for their medicine, especially in a time like this when there is a fever epidemic, and many of them are ill. To call a doctor from Bulawayo would be impossible: the expense would be too great. I always encourage those that can pay to take the sick to the doctor at Bulawayo, or to send to the chemists at Bulawayo for these ready-made fever mixtures and quinine. But very few indeed are able to do that. Missionaries in the country generally have boxes of medicine sent them, and some of them are kind enough to give to the sick also, who do not belong to their Church. But some will only give to those who are members and adherents of their Church, and so this money for the books will be some help to me to help the poor in the way of buying them medicine—ready-made fever mixtures, pills, and castor oil, and quinine.
The heathen or uncivilized natives usually go to a witch-doctor when they are ill. Their belief seems to be that a person cannot be ill unless he is bewitched by somebody. The witch-doctor will then cast his bones, and these bones, as he says, will be able
to smell out the person who has caused these people to be ill. The next thing he orders is that a black sheep or goat must be killed, as he wants a certain bone to mix with his medicine. But he takes good care to take all the meat away with him to his home; he has always several assistants to carry it home. If they are too poor and have no goats or sheep, and no money to purchase them, then he would say that a couple of fowls would do, “let them be killed and a certain bone taken out of each to mix with the medicine”; and the meat is taken away by the witch-doctor to his home. The law does not allow these witch-doctors to be practising and deceiving the people, as they are doing. They are punished by the authorities, when caught.
I have also several boys here staying in the Mission who are entirely destitute. One is from the Zambesi, another from Selukwe, and another from Mashonaland, besides Kiwa Mhlahlo, Chief Mhlahlo’s youngest brother, and also a little orphan girl whose mother died recently in the Lunatic Asylum at Bulawayo. As they did not know what to do with the little girl at the Asylum, I was asked to adopt the little girl, and give her a Christian training, and we consented to take her. These are being educated with the hope that they might be of use to us in our Missions as teachers when required in our outstations. The little girl is about five years old. The two boys Hlazo and Sojini are still being educated at Lovedale, but I am sorry to say that Mzamo’s daughter did not return to Lovedale as Mzamo is no longer able to pay for her. They usually sell cattle in order to get money to send their children to school. He has no more cattle to sell. That is to be greatly regretted, as she had only one more year to stay in order to finish her three years’ course.
I mentioned in Mr. Mackay’s letter that we had opened another preaching place at Chief Mhlahlo’s kraal, about five miles from Ngwenya. The large square hut that we were building there is now finished, and the services are now being held there. The Chief’s youngest brother, named Kiwa Mhlahlo, is attending our school here and has been with us for two years and ten months now, has learned to read the native language and has also received his Bible, and is now about to complete No. 2 English Reader. He has, as I have already mentioned, been recently converted, and is very fond of his Bible. Wherever he goes, you will always find him carrying his Bible in his pocket. He is very anxious to go to Lovedale to study as a teacher in connection with our Church. I have told him several times, that I was not in a position to send him to Lovedale; so I thought I would ask if our Church in Scotland could not support him at Lovedale for three years, as his people are not able to support him: they are heathen Matabelees. He has only his mother and brothers; his father died about three years ago, and even here I have to supply him with food and clothing, and buy his books. I have always kept several boys here in our Mission at my own expense in food
and clothing, and also bought medicine for them when they are ill, as fever is very common in this country. This is done with the hope that they may be of some use to us as teachers, as they are acquainted with our simple scriptural mode of worship. Mr. Mackay saw some of the boys that were here when he visited us. It will be better to have teachers belonging to our own Church. The different Churches here have always a few boys that they educate and train as teachers in their Missionary Institutions.
I paid a visit to Selukwe, to our people there, and preached at Chief Garner Sojini’s place. They were all very glad to see me, and expressed the desire that I should visit them more often. There seems to be a very great fever epidemic. Many of our people are seriously ill, in some families three and four people are down with it at one time, and so I am kept very busy visiting the sick. This is the case here, and in the outstations. As soon as any of them are sick, they always send for me to come, and read the Bible, and pray with them.
I find the bicycle very useful in visiting these scattered kraals, as it enables me to see a good number of people in one day, and also in sending one to Bulawayo for medicine in cases of urgency.
Chief Sigogo Ngege and his wife are still as regular as ever in their attendance on the means of grace. He has his own trials and troubles with the farmer he is living with; as he wishes Ngege to work on his land even on Sabbath-days, and to dip cattle on that day; but Chief Ngege has firmly refused to dip cattle or weed lands on the Sabbath-day.
The Kaffir Bibles are finished, and so some scholars, who are entitled to a Bible, have not yet received them.
I read, with interest, Mr. M’Queen’s and your account of Mission to Forces in England, and we pray that the Lord might bless the labours there to the saving of many of our soldiers and sailors. I must now conclude with kindest regards to you.—
Yours very sincerely,
J. B. RADASI.
The Jesuits and the War.—In an “open letter” to Cardinal Gibbons Bishop Manuel Ferranclo (ex-Roman Catholic), says:—”We can see as clear as day that the final outcome of the war will reveal that the object of it all was the realisation of a long-laid Jesuitical plan. The rulers of the fighting nations may be entirely ignorant of the fact that they are serving as instruments for the carrying out of a well-studied plot, but any one well acquainted with the tricks played by your Church in the world’s political history, can see that the election of the present Pope, the appointment of Sir Henry Howard as Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Vatican, the neutrality of Italy, and the election of Father Ledochowski, are events too significant to be regarded as mere coincidences. That they obey a mind and are subservient to a purpose is but too apparent.”—
Aberdeen Free Press.