A Lady's Letters from Central Africa. By Jane F. Moir.
(Mactehose, Glasgow.)—Mrs. Moir is the wife of the younger of two brothers whose names are well known in connection with the work of African investigation. "Lord Salisbury and Commissioner Johnston," writes Mr. Lindsay in his preface, "are building on the foundations laid by the Moira and the African Lakes Com- pany." These letters, written during the year 1890 from Nyassa, and Tanganyika, are simple but highly effective pictures of the life of African pioneers. Mrs. Moir quotes a notable remark about Roman Catholic missions : "Two Protestant missionaries said to
Don't be surprised if some time you find the whole shores of Tanganyika Roman Catholic.' " The missionaries buy children, and educate them as Christians. This plan, at present, seems to be highly effective. But more than once in the history of Roman Catholic missions, efforts of vast importance, as it seemed, have afterwards disappeared. Buying children seems a compromise of principle. In fact, we might say that it was one form of wor- shipping the devil in order to get possession of the world.— Along with this little book may be mentioned Ivory, Apes, and Peacocks : an African Contemplation, by the Rev. Horace Waller, (E. Stanford). It is not difficult to imagine what Mr. Waller would say to the plan of Christianising Africa by buying slaves. He is strong on our inconsistencies in this respect ; on the way, for instance, in which the slaves who are imported by traders who elude British cruisers, are employed by British explorers to act as porters. His little volume is well worth reading.
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