The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1844-11-12 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

WESLEYAN FOREIGN MISSIONS.-9n Wednesday evening last, a public meeting of the subscribers and friends in the two Liverpool circuits was held in Brunswick Chapel, Moss-street, on which occasion the Rev. Thomas B. Freeman attended for the purpose of making communications respecting the progress of missionary operations on the Gold Coast and in the kingdom of Ashanti. The meeting was very numerously attended, and the. chair was taken, amid loud cheers, by the Mayor. —The Rev. G. Osborn, of Manchester, proposed a vote of thanksgiving to God forthe success of the society. This was seconded by the Rev. W. C. Milne. M.A. missionary from China, who explained the operations of the London Society in that empire.—The Rev. T. B. Freeman followed in a long and deeply iroeresting address. lie had, he said, taken the banner of the cross, and unfurled it in distant lands, amidst the perishing sons of men. One of the most painful things that had arisen in his mind while travelling there, was the comparison between the beauties of nature, and the awful condition of the unfortunate natives. In Ashanti, and other parts of Western Africa where he had visited, the traveller passed through an almost unbroken scene of the most wild and extraordinary luxuriance —the poor native was the only growth that dwindled. Nature triumphed in all her majesty and fertility, but man was ignorant of the God that made him. Human sacrifices were of every day occurrence. In by-gone days, when a monarch died, thousands were sacrificed ; when a chieftain, hundreds ; and when a subordinate, five to ten vie' tiros perished. The natives, on these horrid occasions, became excited with ardent spirits, and danced furiously round the bodies—proceeding from one degree of wretchedness and vice to a greater. They supposed it necessary to send into the other world a certain number of slaves to attend on their deceased friends. The effect of these scenes led the natives to imbibe tastes so extraordinary that their very instruments of music were decorated with scull bones of human victims. Man not only on the one hand murdered his brother, but sold him also into foreign slavery ;—and they not only bowed down to idols, but they worshipped the very reptiles that crawled over the face of the earth. This was a specimen of the greater part of the nations and triber of Arica. It was about ten years since the first Wesleyan missionary had gone out to Cape Coast Castle; and what wonders had they seen during the last seven years. He had the happiness of reporting, that they now occupied a district extending over 400 miles along the western coast of Africa, and reaching 200 miles into the interior. It contained 21 stations,and there were between 700 and 800 members in Society, and upwards of 500 children in the schools. There was an institution for training native agents, with nine promising youths undergoing instruction, and between fifty and sixty native agents were now actively employed in earning out the views of the missionaries. There were a number of chapels erected, in which the true God was worshipped, and he rejoiced to say that on every hand they bad a most pleasing and delightful prospect of still greater success. The reverend gentleman enlarged on these topics. and sat down amidst much applause. A collection was made at the close, which amounted to the liberal sum of z.£265.