The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-11-26

interests Of the Unitas Fratrum. four important
missionary movements were made by the breth-
rem on tho Continent OF Europe. and the next
year missions to Lapland Turkey. Ethiopia.
and Greenland were proposed. Hlnzendorf Is
appropriately called by DR. Thompson the John
Howard OF German evangelical effort. for no
| German neither Gossner Of Berlin nor Harms
| OF Johannesburg. has sent forth m issi onarics
| to so many countries.
| The Moravian mission in Greenland is nearly
100 years old. three brethren having embarked
at Copenhagen in 1888. and having landed six
weeks afterward at Balls River. The attempt
to Christianize and civili8e the Bsduimaux
natives at first encountered obstacles seem
ingly insuperable. but the difficulties involved
in mastering the Esauimaux language we're at
| length overcome. After the missionaries had
learned to speak the native tongue progress
became more rapid with the ultimate result
that Grcenlanders az n body have been raised
from the condition OF wild and filthy savages
to that OF docie. orderly. and decorous peo-
pie. The whole number OF Esauimaux now In
the continent OF Greenland is estimated at
from eight to ten thousand. all OF whom
have received baptism with the excep-
ton Of a few recently settled companies
| OF heather colonists from the south
eastern coast. Tho Moravian mission.
confined TO the sout hwestern coast. has six sta
tions. New Herrnrhut tho earliest and most
northern. was established in 1888. while TWEEN
ty-nve years afterward Lichtenfels was found
cd eighty miles to the south on an island in
Fishers inlet More than 800 miles still fur
Their to tine south lies Lichtcnau, begun in 1774.
and forty miles further on in the same drcc-
| ton Friedrchsthal was settled in 1924 The
two moro recent stations. Umanak and Igdlor
| pait. date respectively from 1861 and 1864. At
the present time uSSi the corps OF Moravian
missionaries resident in Greenland numbers
nineteen. and 1.545 Esuuimrux are active
members OF their churches. What the United
Brethren have done for this isolated people
and for Arctic navigation is effectively summed
up in the remark OF DIR. Kane that for the last
hundred years Greenland has been safer for
the wrecked mariner than many parts Of
| the coast OF Europe or OF that OF
the United States while hospitality is tho uni
versal characteristic Of the inhabitants" The
same happy results have followed the lebors Of
the Mornvian missionaries in Labrador. where
there are now six stations and thirty-nine
members of the brotherhood. Almost the
| whole length Of the coast has been subjected to
| the civilizing influence of the mission; only to
the north of Hebron and to the south OF
Hofienthal do there remain few heather Es-
QuimauN, some Of whom are reported to be
still herce and boodthirsty. Into the Esqui-
mauX dialect Of Labrador have been translated
the whole Bible. book of Psalmody. Har-
mony OF the Gospels II Summary OF Christian
! Doctrine. Luthcr's Exposition of the Apostles
! Creed. Barth's Bible Stories a song book with
music for schools. geography. and o die
! tionary in two volumes. In the Greenland dia-
lect besides number of the foregoing there is
an old grammar and dictionary compiled by
Stach. and recent grammar by Kleinschmidt.
| which is said to exhibit unusual merit.
Almost contemporaneously with the mission
| to Greenland, some Of the United Brethren I'M
| dertook to convert and cvlize the native
| tribes dwelling between the Orinoco and the
Amazon. in the region now known as British
French. and Dutch Guiana. Here again their
first step was to acquire some knowledge Of n
native language: they chose the Arawak. said
to be the softest and most flexible OF all the In
dian tongues spoken in those parts. For the
first eight years the missionaries received no
encouragement but by the year 1856 Plger-
hut, the Mornvan station. had grown to be a
Christian colony OF 1913 believers and eight
years later the brethren extended their mis-
sionary work from the native tribes to the So
called Bush negroes. the descendants OF fuGi-
tive slaves. whose language is conglomerxte
OF several European tongues and African dia-
lects. Looking back over all the Noravian
labors in English and Dutch Guiana. we ind
that during the sixty-fve years which closed
with the last century 159 brethren and sisters
had been sent out to Demerara and Surinam
OF Wnom nal Ole0 on the ground. TO their
labors. which from first to last have received
but little furtherance from the Government.
the black population Of Surnam. including
both slaves and Bush negroes arc almost ex-
cusvely indebted for the measure OF civiliza-
ton which they enjoy. There now in Surf
nam IA missionaries and 2l.oS3 adherents
Tho New Testament has been translated into
the Bush negro tongue. and part OF the New
Testament. besides n Harmony OF the Gospels
n hymn book II grammar. and q dictionary.
have been printed in the Arawak language.
The first modern Protestant movement in be-
half Of the natives Of Africa made by Mo-
ravians, and at the southern extremity OF the
continent. Although the Dutch had had foot
hold al the Cape OF Good Hope for more than
threc-fourths Of n century. they had not taken
the first step toward giving the Gospel to Hot
tentot or kahr. and the Dutch masters would
not even allow their slaves to be baptized.
When the Moravian missionary George
Schmidt arrived ut Cape Town in 1887 he was
received with so much dcriSion and hostility
that lie was obliged to establish himself among
the Hottentots many miles away from the |
white settlements. Finding their language
peculiarly difficult, Schmidt began by teaching |
his Hottentot neighbors Dutch. and was pro- |
ceeding to baptize them when the Hollander |
settlers took alarm and compelled him to re- |
turn to Europe. Not till after more than fifty |
years WIS INC ullsSlon renewed. In / w., now |
ever. the President OF the Dutch East India
Company was friendly to the Moravians
and three OF the brethren were per-
mtted to establish missions east OF
Cape Town. Repeated attempts were made
by the Hollaadcr farmers to starve out and
even to murder the missionaries. but pcrsecu-
ton received II check during the English pro-
tectorntc u795-lS03l. and was still further
curbed when the Cape of Good Hope was def
nitely coded lSl5) to Great Britain. Whom the
jubilee festival of tho first Moravian settlement
took place at the Cape in 1912 it appeared that
1851 adults and over 2 900 children had there
received baptism. while at the second Mora
Wan station. some thirty miles north OF Cape
Town, 71S adults and over 600 children had
been baptized during the ffty years following
its foundation us0sl. The Moravans. more
over did not conine their labors to the Hottcn-
tots and Bushmen, but as early as 1918. estab-
llshed n post among the Kaiirs. the dominant
race OF South Africa Among tho Ea0rs how