The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-04 00:00:00

C. COLDEN HOFFMAN.

This missionary of the American Episcopal Church
was born in New York City, Dec. 15, 1819, and
died in harness on the 25th Nov., 1865, at the
Orphan Asylum, Cape Palmas, Liberia. The me-
moir of his life is written by his intimate friend the
Rev. George Townshend Fox Df Durham, with a
preface by the Bishop of Carlisle, and putting
aside the bias natural under such circumstances
enough remains to show that the missionary's life
might well be held up for example. The fault of
such works is the too diffuse expression given to the
daily feelings, which cannot fail to be a repetition,
and to weary the general reader; although we can
understand how deep may be the interest to some
minds, in furnishing them with a means of compa-
rison. More than half the book is thus occupied,
the extracts being taken from Mr_ Hoffman's diary
and from letters to his mother. The real interest
to the world in the biography is the description
and account of his labours in Western Africa. He
sailed from Baltimore for Liberia on the 2 ith Febru-
ary, 1849, accompanied by his fellow-student
the Rev. J. Rambo. Both had studied for the
ministry at the Alexandria Theological Seminary,
Virginia. Liberia had its origin in the desire of
some Ameriean citizens, in 1816, to place the free
negroes of America on the soil of their ancestors,
away from the scorn they endured in the United
States, with a field for enterprise, with scope for
self-government and improvement, cherishing the
hope, through them, of evangelizing Africa. The
territory extends along the coast from 4 deg. 15
min. to 7 deg. north latitude. Although it was
unconnected with the Government, President Mon-
roe took a deep interest in the scheme, and was
enabled to aid it by the ships of war employed in
the suppression of the slave trade. He established
the depot for liberated slaves in Liberia, and the
capital of the colony was named after him, Mon-
rovia. In the infancy of the settlement a governor
was appointed, but in 1845 the progress made
enabled it to organize a rule independen t of the Colo-
nization Society in Washington, which was formed
upon the model of the Republic, with a President,
Senate, and Chamber of Representatives, a fun-
damental condition being that the members were
to be of negro blood. The first President was J. J.
Roberts, who, for some years previously, had been
governor. The term is for two years, but the in-
cumbent is eligible for re-election. The land has
' been chiefly acquired by purchase from the tribes,
but disputes regarding boundaries have led to wars
with the natives. In 1819 the population consisted
of 250 emigrants from the United States, and it is
now upwards of 18,000. A colony, independent of
Liberia, was formed at Cape Palmas, 250 south Of
Monrovia, but being compelled to apply to Liberia
for assistance in a war against the natives in 1856,
during Mr. Hoffman's mission, Maryland. (the name
of the new settlement) was annexed to Liberia, the
colony being then divided into the four counties—
Mesurado, Bassa, Sinoe, and Maryland. The line
of coast now claimed by the Republic from Cape
Mount to Kabla on the Hora river, extends 300
miles, but these points do not confine its limits.
Taking the coast line with the parallel one 100 miles
inland, there will be found 50 aboriginal tribes,
with a population estimated at 3,000,000. The Cape
Palmas mission commenced in the year 1836, and
derived its origin from the Domestic and Foreign
Missionary Society, founded in the United States in
1826 by members of the Episcopal Church. This
was succeeded in 1835 by a Board of Missions
formed by the General Convention, with two stand-
ing committees, the one to administer foreign
affairs, the other the domestic departments. The
board proved less perfect in practice than in theory,
and the Domestic Committee was superseded in
1860 by a Voluntary Society. The Foreign Com-
mittee retained the confidence of its friends,
and therefore still remains. Recently a Church
Missionary Society has been organized in the United
States, but it was under the Foreign Committee of
the Board of Missions that the Episcopal Church
was established in Liberia. At the call of
Dr. Milner, Dr. Savage and the Rev. John Payne
proceeded to the colony, the former in 1836 and
the latter a few months afterwards, where he has
continued for upwards of thirty years. Bishop
Payne says that on his first visit to Mount Vaughan
he had to pass through jungle up to the unfinished
mission premises, which, when about to reach, his
horse sank to the middle in a morass, and it was
not long before a leopard seized a dog, and a boa-
constrictor killed another ; antelopes were seen is
the paths, and monkies sported in the trees, the
natives being as wild as the beasts. They lived in
huts of the humblest character, their food was rice
and cassada, seasoned with palm butter. Marriage
hardly existed ; polygamy and the grossest immo-
rality prevailed. The clothing, both of men and
women, consisted of a strip of cloth round the loins.
There are many separate tribes speaking different
languages and dialects. It was among these people
that Colden Hoffman landed on the sth April,
1849. He alludes to them as never having seen men
of finer appearance ; tall and athletic, limbs beau-
tifully rounded, and intelligence marked on their
features. " Is this the race," thought I, " compared
to the beast, and next to the monkey ; not a man
on board can compare to them." On reaching the
shore he describes Monrovia as a village generally
built of wood, though a few houses were of stone,
rising one above another, scattered irregularly,
with streets covered with grass, abundance of
shrubbery and trees, with the palmetto, cocoa nut,
pan-pau, palm, &c. Cabbages were growing in
ill-dressed gardens from two to four feet high, and
pine-apples and orange trees. Natives passed to
and from with wicker baskets rudely made on their
beads with cassada. The cows, dogs, sheep, goats,
calves, and poultry, were sleek and fine-looking,
brisk, and frolicsome. The cows, though small, were
graceful as deer, with short hair, smooth and long
horns. The sheep have hair like goats, but they
are nearly as large as those in America. The dis-
tinction between the sheep and goats amused him ;
the one with ears and tail down; and the other
with ears and tail up. Up to May 3, a month
after he landed, he says the thermometer had not
been higher than 83 deg., and it was seldom lower
than 75. Mr. Hoffman spoke of a grey-headed man
he had seen in a village inland, whose grandfather
was alive, and this speaks well for the climate
of the interior, much of which is mountainous.
In 1850 Mr. Hoffman returned to Norfolk, Vir-
ginia, where he married Miss Virginia Hale, and on
the 21st December he and his wife sailed for
Liberia. His station was Cavalla, 12 miles east
of Cape Palmas. Ilis wife took an active part in
his duties, which about this time were greatly in-
creased through Mr. Payne's recall to America to
be consecrated bishop after 15 years' service. His
first work was to erect a new stone church, for which
and a school he had raised a sufficient sum in the
United States, one of the main objects being to
teach the youth so as to fit some for the mis-
sionary work of carrying the gospel through the
country. In 1855 Mr. Hoffman gave an interest-
ing report of the progress in Africa to the Church
at home. He then said, " We have arrived at
that desirable and very important point in the
history of all missions when a native agency
,has been raised up ; when men of the soil have be-.
come the ministers and teachers of their own people."
Mrs. Hoffman's first child was born in 1853, and it
was found necessary at the close of the year for her
to recruit in the bracing climate of her native land.
Colden Hoffman, therefore, returned to America via
Rio, where he remained till May, 1855, when be
left Norfolk, on his third visit to Western Africa,
and took up his residence at Rocktown, Cape
Palmas. Before the end of the year, both the child
and her mother expired, and it is in such a bereave-
ment that the strecgth of the influence which sus-
tained Colden Hoffman is best seen. It is almost
impossible to conceive a position more deso-
late than when on the wild shore of Africa,
surrounded by the savage tribes it was his
mission to civilize, bereft at a stroke of his
wife and child, he stood alone in the Orphan
Asylum at Cape Palmas, where he himself was des-
tined to end his days. His loss only spurred him
more devotedly to his task. " You ask," he wrote,
" dear mother, if I will leave my work. Oh, no !
I have-no idea of this. Duty's path is always the
right one, and the happy one ; and it is clearly my

duty to remain while the labourers are so few and
the work so extended, my health so good, and God's
grace so abundant." He founded a station on Hoff-
man River, named after a resident in Baltimore,
who took a deep interest in the Maryland Coloni-
zation Society, but the station received its name by
Bishop Payne from himself, the names being simi-
lar through a singular coincidence. In 1858
Colden Hoffman was married, at St. Mark's Church,
Cape Palmas, by Bishop Payne, to Miss Caroline
M. Hogan, one of the three ladies who had pro-
ceeded to Africa the
.previous year to strengthen
the mission. Finding a change of air ne-
cessary after his long continued labours in
the treacherous and enervating climate of West
Africa, he proceeded to England in 1859, when
the author had the pleasure of receiving him under
his roof after a separation of many years, and he
returned to Africa by way of America, bidding his
mother a last farewell before landing in Liberia in
1861. The duties of a missionary in Africa are far
from confined to preaching the Gospel, branching
into every variety of subject. One of the objects which
had earnestly attracted Mr. Hoffman's attention
was the foundation of an hospital at Cape Palmas,
the corner stone of which was laid on St. Mark's
Day, 1859, whence its name of St. Mark's Hospital.
We believe this work hasproved of great utility alike
to colonists and natives, and to sailors on the coast.
The missionary labours of Golden Hoffman were not
confined to the stations he founded, but embraced
wide tours into the interior of the country, generally
performed on foot, and up and down the coast. Our
space does not admit of our following more fully this
excellent man in his labours, and we can merely state
that after his return from one of these tours he was
taken ill, and notwithstanding the tenderest nursing
of his wife, his strength, exhausted by the climate,
succumbed, and he died at the Orphan Asylum, on
the 25th November, 1865. The news of his death
sprea I dismay through the colony, and produced an
outburst of sorrow, such as has rarely been witnessed
in any community ; but his name will be treasured
in Liberia, more especially at Cape Palmas, as the
pioneer in that African wilderness, the faithful sol-
dier, and servant of Jesus Christ.

Those who have most widely traversed bar-
barous lands are best able to judge the missionary's
work. as a civilizing agency. We desire to be clearly
understood in our assertion, that it has everywhere
been found almost the only means of reclaiming the
savage. This is often disputed, because the vast mars
of those capable of forming an opinion have seen but
one side of the question. A man who proceeds from
highly civiPzid lands like England or America to
settlements where missionaries have long been at
work may detect much theft and immorality, more
especially where a sprinkling of white traders and
sailors are settled among the natives. He is apt to
judge from this that Christianity is there a mere pro-
fession, and to maintain that it has effected no
radical reform, and has had little elevating influence.
But the man is not qualified to pronounce an
opinion until he has seen the natives among whom
no missionaries have worked. Then it is that be
begins to realize the value of their labour, and to
mete out to these pioneers of civilization the high
award, he can in his heart give, though hitherto
withheld. Nor is the benefit of such a career as that
of Colden Hoffman confined to the 'actual good he
accomplishes in life, however vast in its quiet, un-
pretending way that may be, for it tells more forcibly
than men can readily believe, as an example, as as
elevating influence, and as a spur to others. In
the presence of such a career the infidel is silent ;
the shaft of ridicule is like a child's pop-gun against
the ironside of a Monitor—it merely raises a sense
of the ridiculous against the person who attempts
to fire it. If Christianity can be disgraced by the
shortcomings of its professors, surely it can be ele-
vated in the eyes of those who so argue by the
devotion and self-sacrifice of men like Colden Hoff-
man ; and where in the history of creeds have such
missionaries as he gone forth ? From the days of
St. Paul to those of a Colden Hoffman, expiring
on the lonely hill overlooking the broad ocean which
separated him from his country, the blood of mar-
tyrs has sanctified the religion of Christ. Other re-
ligions have produced fierce enthusiasts, who cram-
med their tenets down the throats of people at the
Point of the sword. But where can we look for men
formed after the likeness of Christ except as the
offspring of the doctrines he taught? Bright among
these will be the story of C. Colden Illfftnau,
which will be told in Liberia by coming genera-
tions of negroes as of one of the true founders of
their national existence, who gave away his life in
the effort to gather them into the community of
Christians countries, and render free institutions
and self-rule durable, among even the despised and
down-trodden children of Ham.—Anglo-Americas
Times.

Mr. Moorhead, of Pennsylvania, has made a
furious attack on Mr. Wells, Special Commissioner of Re-
venue, on the 13th July, when the House wont into Cora'
mitteo on the Tariff Bill. The Commissioner is on 019
road, we presume, to free trade, and he may look out for
squalls.
A miniature locomotive and tender, 25 inches
long, made entirely of pure gold and silver, has been
hibited at Woonsocket, Rhode island. The base on wh'°
it stands contains a music box, which, being wound UP'
carries the moving parts of the engine to a musical 0'
companiment. It is a beautiful specimen of workmartabil":
contains $2,500 worth of the precious metals, and v7B'
made for presentation to George W. Perry, master 1319:
chanic of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore'
Railroad.

---- ---
The Albion says :—" Leading English Fire II
surance Companies are seeking to extend their busineo';
America more and more. The " Imperial," of Lonclol/%11
the latest example. Our British Consul is made the lea";
ing New York director, and Mr. E. W. Crowell, manager
The capital of the company, which was established in
1803, is set down at eight millions dollars in gold." ,h 0
A letter from Buenos Ayres, published in
Official Gazette of Turin, estimates at no less than 4,050 tlia
number of Italian emigrants lauded in South Araericai,
ports between the Ist of January and the 15th of gar°
of tho present year.
The milkmen of Gloucester met a few days q:
to consider the propriety of raising the price of milk, o--
consequence," as they put it, "of the drought "---or'
other words, owing to the scarcity of water.
Arctic
News have been received from the German a
expedition, under the date of the 20th of June. °rent);
land had just been sighted, and the crew were in P-

health. - •
The Hampshire, Hampden, and Franklin Agria;
cultural Society will hold their 50th annual ineetil3B
Northampton, Western Massachusetts, October 1 and„-*
ADVERTISEMENT.] —Holloway's Ointment and
These harmless yet patent remedies work a marvoLwt...
change for the better in those weak and worn out con but
tutions which are always sorely tried by an unusualbrAgirl
summer. The Ointment assiduously rubbed twice 'cive
over the pit of the stomach and liver, restrains ei,c.e,,tos-
action in those organs, and prevents the nausea, ~Buns"
ness, and indisposition for food which leads on togocir
consequences unless early attention be bestowed on °int-
removal. Rubbed upon the abdomen " HolloweKs,„ sea
meat" represses irritation, the forerunner of dierruy— the
cholera. Holloway's Ointment and Pills should lop-
ready remedies.of every household, where they aire,
able of doing mischief, and by attention to the Lux-
are productive of the utmost benefit.

Births. or
ASHBY—On the 2d inst., at Naseby
Woolley's, North f ii,
tonshire, the wife of George Ashby Ashby, 15(1'' °
daughter c f .
COPE —On the 2d inst., at 23, Salisbury-street, .vr3ll(Oh°
wife of Mr. Wm. Cope, of a son. tile
SALT—On the 2d inst., at Baildon Lodge, Yorkshire,
wife of Titus Salt, jun., of a son.

gang
WoEvuesr---sßquosurLea, Marriages.
Esq., of 0 &gel,
Dorsetshir to 31'
ECEh—arOlens the Ist inst., at St. Obeorragelijoter,
e, imie, elder daughter of John P° •te
Esq., of Cambridge-street, Eceliston-square, Wris
at-law.
mCr.olvueehs-Aenrrdi,NiroNrn—se7,
WEST—M Of °T.
house, third
Hornsey-lane, HAiglfbrgedatTeloilml.as,
West, Esq., of Wyfold Court, Oxon, to
o#
second
daughter of Thomas Mattinson, Esq., of
scl? betb,
the let inst., at Christ LA,-

s3ngton-park, Hugh Fraser, Esq.,
Deaths. Vl'
FRASER—On the 2d inst , at 20 Arundel-gardens, ea
52. il•
Jobe
MASCALL 0
n the Ist inst., at Chatham, Major
Mascall, Royal Marines, aged 80. t r c'i
MILLER,—On the 2d inst., Mr. Joshua Miller, malts.° '
Bishop's Stot tford, Herts, aged 82. .L.,,, of
TYE—On the Ist inst., John Chamberlain Tye, '-''''''
Bello-vuo, Plurnstead-common, aged 68. ,d pot-
WIBROW— On the 2d inst., at Glengall-grove, O'
road, Horatio Wibrow,,Esq., aged 63.________----"
late of Calcutta, ag
------ owS,
London : Printed and Publishd by WILLIA.3I is-141),„ 10.
or No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tile Surt 0.31 c:), anti a
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in 0,0 °2
liliddlegezwl'ueAdtty, Ault 4, 1868.