THE West African Mission, first at Fernando Po, and afterwards at the Cameroons and Victoria, was really one of the outcomes of the emancipation of the slaves in the British West Indies, and notably in Jamaica. Some of the emancipated in that island had been torn from their homes in Africa, and sold into bondage. When liberated, they felt the very natural desire to return to, or at least to visit, their native land. And as, while slaves in the far off island, they had been brought to Christ, they felt a burning desire to proclaim the gospel to their brethren still in the darkness of heathenism. The project took shape, and found encouragement among the pastors of the native churches and others in Jamaica. Two brethren, worthy of the confidence placed in them, were sent to Africa to explore and prepare the way for a mission there. These brethren, Dr. Prince and Mr. Clarke, reported so favorably that the English society, with which the Jamaica churches were affiliated, resolved to enter upon the work, and they did so, with the assistance of brethren in Jamaica, both white and colored. Fernando Po was the spot fixed upon as the base of operations. Alfred Saker, though not the first missionary at Fernando Po in point of time, lived to become the most prominent, and the most successful.
The old coach road from London to Maidstone passes through the village of Wrotham. A little below Wrotham the road from Sevenoaks unites with it. From the village of Wrotham there runs a cross road, which intersects the one from Sevenoaks at the hamlet of Borough Green, and near the point where the cross road meets the other, there stands a plain and capacious chapel or meeting-house, with which some of Saker's early years stand connected.
Alfred was one of a large family, most of whom died young. He himself was such a weakly infant at his birth, that the old nurse said he was "not worth the rearing." He never attained to the usual vigor and strength of manhood, but he possessed a mind which, though sensitive and gentle, fitted him to do and dare, when many with twice his strength of body would have fainted by the way, or failed to make an effort. His father lived at Ightham, an adjoining village, where he carried on the trade of a millwright and engineer. Alfred's school education began and ended at the National School of Ightham. He was a quick, studious, persevering boy, and at ten years of age he had learned all the master could teach him, and had acquired some knowledge of Euclid besides. He now went to work in his father's shop, spending his small leisure in study, and in the construction of mechanical appliances. His pence went for such things as books, a pair of globes, a telescope, and before he was sixteen he constructed a small steam engine.
He had a fine voice for singing, and was in the choir of the village church, sometimes going over to Wrotham Church, where his future wife's father was the leader in psalmody. Up to this time, however, he was a stranger to the gospel, and probably had never had its loving appeals addressed to him.
The believing people of God can often look back to the workings of Divine Providence on their behalf before they were brought into the bond of the covenant. Who would have thought that when a millwright at Sevenoaks 'applied to the elder Saker to lend him a hand, and Alfred was sent, what the issue would be for himself, for the Church, and the world? But
“God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform."
Passing down the High Street, one Sunday evening, Alfred's attention was attracted by singing; it came from the Baptist chapel, which lay back from the road. He entered, and heard words which turned the whole current of his thoughts, the whole course of his life, and, by the power of the Spirit, led him to Jesus, and made him a new creature. The preacher was not the venerable Mr. Shirley, the pastor, but a stranger, whose name Saker never knew, and who never knew what a blessing his preaching of Christ had been made to the young millwright and future missionary.
Alfred now found his way to the meetinghouse at Borough Green; he was baptized on a profession of his faith; became useful in the prayer meeting, in the Sunday-school, at cottage services, and, at length, as a village preacher. All these things and these places have a touching interest for the writer, he having had a personal knowledge of the places and people, and having preached the gospel in several of the places where Alfred Saker exercised his gifts.
On the death of his father, in 1838, Alfred, having passed a successful examination at Woolwich, was appointed to a post in Her Majesty's Dockyard at Devonport. In 1840 he married. This did not abate his desire to consecrate himself for the service of the Lord in Africa. His pastor encouraged him in his aspirations, and in 1843 he was accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society for mission work in Africa.
What preparation had he for so important a vocation? With only a common national school education, and that ending when he was ten years old, with no academic or college training, what fitness could he possess? Why, the very best he could have had. A mere man of books, stiffened with the learning of a university, would have cut a poor figure among the Duallas. His mechanical knowledge, his sound, practical good sense, his readiness to turn his hand to anything, besides the most important work of preaching the gospel as he had tasted, handled, and felt it, and his aptness in teaching the young, and his zeal in the Savior's cause, made him just the man that was wanted for the work he was called to do, and he had the blessing of the Holy Spirit working with him.
The centre of missionary operations in Fernando Po was the town of Clarence, where many of the colored people understood something of English.
The Chilmark reached Clarence by the way of the West Indies, 16th February, 1844. A cordial reception awaited the missionary and his wife. The same evening there was a meeting at the mission-house for thanksgiving and prayer. “It was cheering to our spirit," writes Saker, “to meet such a company, and hear their simple, touching expressions before God. After a hymn of praise, we united in those sweet lines of Doddridge:—
“Look down, O Lord, with pitying eye,
And view the desolation round;
See what wide realms in darkness lie,
And hurl their idols to the ground.
“Lord, let the gospel trumpet blow,
And call the nations from afar;
Let all the isles their Savior know,
And earth's remotest ends draw near.'
Surely the poet must have stood on the shore of Fernando Po, so expressive, so appropriate are these lines."
On the following Sunday morning, at six o'clock, a large company assembled for worship, and Saker preached from John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). Under that first sermon a young man was converted-Thomas Horton Johnson—who afterwards became a useful fellow-worker and friend.
“ ... But what a scene—a house crowded with thoughtful, attentive, and now respectably clothed hearers, listening with joy to the `words of this life’! Who can forget that three years since they were all given up to work all wickedness greedily! But now ' what hath God wrought? To Him be all the praise."
Thus began a work, which continued for thirty-three years—years of toil, of sufferings and trial— years of sorrow and of joy, of wonderful achievements and blessed successes.
Saker was very far from thinking that civilization and education must precede spiritual work, and he was as far from thinking that when by the grace of God men are converted, they should be left to their own unaided efforts to ameliorate their social condition. His object was, first, to lead them to Christ, and then to take them by the hand and lead them on in all needed social improvements. In this country we know how seriously the social elevation of the people, both in city and country is impeded by a want of proper domestic arrangements. He had experience of the frailty of native houses. The wood ants destroyed the contents of his clothes chest, and a tornado tore off the thatch of his house, and deluged it and all it contained with rain. About the same time he was laid down with fever four times in twenty days.
But the narrowness of our space warns us that we must not enter into details of his great life-work.
Fernando Po is only twenty miles distant from the mouth of the Cameroons River on the western mainland. He cast his longing eyes thither, wishing there to plant the standard of the cross, and begin the conquest of “Africa for Christ."
The country on the banks of the Cameroons, and on the margins of the tributary rivers, was explored. The different tribes mainly spoke one language, the Dualla, but there was no alphabet, no book, no written language. Everything was only a little above savage life. Two or three stations had already been established by other missionaries of the same society, and Saker resolved to pioneer in other directions. He resolved, too, to give to the people, not only a written language, but books, and, first and best, the Bible, and he did it to his own infinite joy.
The founding of new stations meant building mission premises, houses, workshops, schools, and other erections; in doing which his own hands must do much, while he trained the young converts to acquire various useful arts and work for themselves. The tilling of the soil, too, was not overlooked; for while, from house to house in the first case, and then in preaching and teaching, he dealt out to them the bread of life, he taught them to raise such products as their own needs, or the purposes of barter required. Thus, instead of a half-starved life for three parts of the year, they had abundance and to spare.
In 1858 the bigotry of Spanish priests and Jesuits succeeded in driving the missionaries from Fernando Po. Nominally it was Spanish territory, and it was determined that no religion but Popery should be taught. Saker and his co-worker, Mr. J. J. Fullers, a man of color, explored the region of Ambos, or Amboisis Bay, and there a colony of Christian settlers was established. Saker took possession of it in the name of the Queen, and named it after Her Majesty, Victoria. The illustration at the commencement of this article represents the mission station where Saker settled the refugees from Fernando Po in 1858. The tablet in the foreground marks the resting-place of Johnson, an African, who for years accompanied Saker in his toil. The British Government, however, did not annex the territory, and so, a few years ago, the Germans took it over and the Basle Missionary Society has purchased the mission property, and the British African Mission on the west coast has formed a new base of operations on the great Congo River.
Amid many interruptions, by reason of illness and needed visits to England, Saker carried on his work until the mission consisted of several stations, with chapels, schools, and resident missionaries. The work of translation proceeded, too, until, on 23rd February, 1872, he announced the completion of his great work of the Bible in Dualla. The work was immense; and it will give an idea of the greatness and thoroughness of his work as a missionary, when it is stated that the whole work of printing the sheets was done by him, with the assistance of Dualla youths, whom he had taught and trained. The writer has a sheet of the quarto Bible, and a bound copy of the Gospel of Matthew in Dualla. The type, printing, and binding are all good.
The toil of the work accomplished was great, Saker often working sixteen hours in the day, with little time for food. Even when too weak to rise from his bed, he would lie amid his books and pursue his beloved work. The writer's acquaintance with him was made in the latter years of his life; he was then the mere shadow of a man, worn to skin and bone by toil and suffering, but retaining an energy of mind truly wonderful.
Beautiful passages from his letters and his speeches at missionary gatherings could be given, but space will not allow it. They all show how fervid was his zeal, how sound his faith in the great verities of the gospel, how firm his grip of the promises, how full his realization of its hopes, how great his love to Christ and for the souls of men, especially of the African races. The project of a mission to the Congo filled him with joy. He would gladly live his life over again in such a cause. At length, in March, 1880, God called him home. There was little but a mere frame to lay in the grave. His last utterances were:—
“Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest."
And then, as a beloved friend read the fourth verse of Psa. 23, he faintly whispered, “For Thou art with me," and went to be with Him.
“Take it all in all," says Dr. Livingstone, “specially having regard to its many-sided character, the work of Alfred Saker at Came-roans and Victoria is, in my judgment, the most remarkable on the African coast." R. S.