The sun., 1873-05-21
Progress i'm kfricn.

We have read with intense interest the
report OF n lecture upon the condition Of
Western Africa, recently delivered In Lon
don by MIR. J. PorE HrNNEssy. This dis
tingushcd gentleman, v no is now in this
city on his way to the scene of his Official
duties rs Governor Of the Bahama Islands
was fora considerable period Governor of
Sierra Leone, and in the lecture to which
we have referred he states some circum-
stances Of extraordinary importance re-
.pcctiug the present condition of the Afri-
can people in the interior, between the
great desert and the equator.
The most Impressive of these circum-
stances i that the Mahometan religion
Is continually gaining ground ~ Central
and Western Africa, aud that the populous
valley of the Niger is already generally Of
that creed. This is the result not of any
process OF conquest or violence; it is n
peaceful movement among the Africans
themselves. The missionaries who extend
the faith of The Koran are all Africans. and
the religion of Islam makes lis advances
not merely through their labors. but also
by virtue of its peculiar adaptation to the
intellectual and moral wants of the negroes.
At the same time II produces among them
change of prodigious consequence: IL
converts them from scattered tribes, with
out cohercncy, laws, general ideas, or any
kind of culture, into members OF one reli-
gious communion. having "A social orgaui-
zation and an administration of justice
founded ON the inculcations OF the Koran.
Il literary language, the Arabic, which Is
taught 10 the children IN the schools, and
taste for literature and science, whose
developments are already surprising.
Mr.. HENNESsY says that ho visited AN in
terror city named Kambia, some eighty
miles 10 the northeast of Sierra Leone, and
found there in the possession of a native
negro library well stocked with Arabic
manuscript works on jurisprudence as
tronomy, medicine, nnd Aristotelian
philosophy. All the children were study
ing their tasks in Arabic, under schoolmas-
tcrs supported by the voluntary contrhu-
tions of the people, and all these were Ma
hometansas well as pure negroes. There Is
no comparison whatever, he says. between
the success of the Christian missionaries
black or white. Protestant or Catholic. In
disseminating the doctrines of the Bihe,
and that of the Mahometans in spread
ing the religion of the Arabian prophet.
And this work, it should be remembered,
Is purely of native origin and is carried
forward without e Intervention of Fu-
ropcans; il Is Africa developing herself
from the lowest state Of sayagism and
f"tichism toward civilization, culture, and
some sort of political order.
Mr. llESNESsY also dwclls with utclli-
gout saliSf9ction upon the commercial
progress of that part Of the African coast
which hns hccu under his government, and
upon the increasing tnnc with the natives
IN the interior, remote rs well rs near. 1t
is evident thal this traffic is capable of II
Vast extension, indeed that the whole
4 trade now carried On by caravans across
the desert must IN time be transacted by
means oi steam upon the river Niger; but
10 the mind Of the philosoph, r and states
man this Is far less important than the fact
that the African mind is gaining new light
andnew Nitality from religion which, with
all its nbsurdities ana its vices, still teaches
that all men are dependent upon one God,
and that lie Is no mere embodiment Of the
blind forces of nature, but Il spiritual, self
existent Being whose mercy toward all his
children Is Infinite and eternal.