St. Paul daily globe., 1890-05-12
Progress Of the Christian
Evangel in the Heart Of
Southern Africa.
Two Returned Missionaries
Tell Of the Great Change .
Wrought.
Hepoism Of New Converts
Who Fell as Martyrs to
the Cause.
A Country Of Which the Civ
ilized World Has Little
knowledge. *

Among the passengers at the union
depot yesterday awaiting the departure
of the evening train for the West over
the Northern Pacific were two whose
faces, bronZed to peculiar tinge not ac-
quired through exposure to any climate
on this continent, attracted the atten-
ton Of a GLOBE representative. That
these gentlemen were ministers was
evident from their attire. and that they
were ministers of the Methodist church
and missionaries developed in the cause
of subsequent conversation. They
were Revs. D. F. Hemnway and
Charles B. Korwin, who are now on.
their way to San francisco, from which
city they were sent by the Methodist
Missionary society seven years ago to
carry on missionary work in the province
of Benguela. OH the southwest African
coast, in which work they have been
engaged from that time to the present.
Both gentlemen talk in an extremely
interesting manner of the country in
which so much of their time has been
spent in the cause of religion, and of
the race inhabiting it. When an at
tempt at the reclamation of the people
of this benighted district was first un-
dertaken it was intended to begin at
first with the tribes along the coast line
and later to proceed to the interior. 1t
was found, however, that the transac-
tions of coast traders had so prejudced
the natives against the whites that it
was next to impossible to approach
them. The missionaries forthwith pushed
northward TO the CoanZa river. the
northern boundary of the province.
There were found native villages all
along the rivers course, and the tribes
were muclI more friendly and tractable
than had been those first met with. The
efforts of the missionaries i'll these vii
lagos resulted in the establishment of
the Christian faith in crude form, and
some of the most intelligent of the men
were selected for a course of special in
Struction. in order to fit them to act as
pioneers in announcing the truths they
had learned to other tribes, and to pro-
claim the coming of the white teachers.
Three Of these men, natives Of one of
the river towns. who were the first to
be dispatched in the interest Of
Christianity, were sent to work in the
country along the line of the Mocamba
mountains on the eastern boundary of
the province. In this region the tribes
were, until within the last few years, in
which they have been SubdueG by the
teachings of the Christian workers in
the country, extremely barbarous, many
of them practicing cannibalisln. The
newly constituted emssares Of the
church were regarded as men possessed
of devils or bad fetiches, and were
promptly slaughtered and their bodies
burnt as offerings to the outraged
fetiches whom their coming was sup
posed to have offended. Rev.
HeminWay speaks in terms of the
highest praise of one of these
martyrs, to the Christian cause. He was
amagnificent physical specimen, stand
ing almost seven feet high i'll his bare
feet His native name was UmOgaba,
and his teachers state that while only
devoutly attentive TO everything told to
him, and beyond all doubt Christian
when he met his death at the hands of
the ferocious tribe he was endeavoring
to convert. In the course of their resi-
dence in the country the missionaries
have, in connection with those of other
church denominations from the mission
headquarters in Benguela, trained some
500 men, who but a few years
ago were practicing cannibalism and
all sorts of atrocities, to labor for the
church. Rev. Korwin, in speaking of
the climate and products of the region.
stated that it was the most fertile he
had ever seen and of limitleSS agricult-
ural possibilities. All sorts OF vege-
tables and rice are grown by the natives
in the more civilized, portions, and game
of all kinds and wolves, lions and other
animals of the kind abound. Mr.. Kor-
win places the population of the terri
tory at 2, 2,500,000, and says that there is
now an organized mission in every one
of the principal towns, namely, La
conda, Nova Redondo, MOssamedes and
Benguela. The population of these
cities, aside from the native element. is
mostly Portuguese, aud Portugal claims
a sovereignty, which, however, is only
nominal, but little effort being made
to develop the vast interior resources of
the territory. There are Innumerable
rivers which traverse the length and
breadth of the country, and the soil is
kept SO moist as to produce tropical
plants of all sorts in the rankeSt pro-
fusion. The towns of Boganda, Der
ner, Eggorte thus named by French
missionaries in 1871 who left their bones
to whiten on the plains of the then un-
explored region) and many other of the
towns along the course of the Caunza
river are now Christian strongholds,
and native missionaries, Jealous in the
cause they have espoused, ale doing
more than the combined efforts
of the visiting Christians can accom-
plish to bring the tribes still uDsubdued
to realization of their condition. Rev.
KorWin is native of this state, having
T.,l- hn
very naturally says that he can recOg
nize no similarity between the St. Paul
of 1858 and the st. Paul of 1890. He is
son of Rev. Gust Korwin, a minister
of the German Methodist church, who
will be remembered by some st. Paul
people as one who vigorously denounced
the Catholic church and its teachings
from the pulpits of the then
existing st. Paul churches. Rev.
Gust Korwin died in 1860 at the Mer-
chants hotel Of disease Of the heart.
Rev. Heminway showed the GLOBE
man samples of native writing, the re-
suit of teaching in the mission schools
their laborS nave established, The
characters are very crude, and the con-
structiOn of the sentences used odd in
the extreme, yet the epistles are reada-
BILE. and show a marvellous progress in
intelligence by the writers, who but a
brief while ago were cannibals and fetish
worshipers. The missionaries left last
evening over the Northern Pacific for
San Francisco, where they will engage
in local preaching. Rev. Heminway
intends returning to Africa, but Rev.
Korwin. whose health has given way
under the rigors of the t0rrid climate,
will remain at home permanently.
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SENSATIONAL STORY