UDWIG KRAPF ifornia )nal ity KRETZMANN John Ludwig Krapf The Explorer-Missionary of Northeastern Africa BY PAUL E. KRETZMANN COLUMBUS. OHIO THE BOOK CONCERN Made in U. S. A. Stack Annex 3 1/ WOOz. JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF CHAPTER I THE DARK CONTINENT The name "The Dark Continent" was given to the great continent of Africa by Henry M. Stanley. This newspaper man was sent out by the New York Herald to find the missionary David Livingstone, who had gone into the wil- derness of central Africa and had not been heard from for several years. Stanley himself found it a very difficult matter to locate the great missionary, but he finally found him in a little town on Lake Tanganyika. Stanley had ample opportunity to study Africa at first hand, and the term which he applied to the great conti- nent is most fitting from several points of view. In the first place, a very large part of Africa is inhabited by negro races, most of whom are very dark-skinned. Then also, the great in- terior of this great continent was practically unknown to white people till a little more than fifty years ago. Even today there are large sections, fully as big as some of the states of the American union, which have hardly been seen by white people. And, in the third place, the races of the interior of Africa may be said ef JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF )s- to be in the very deepest and densest darkness as far as religion is concerned. Most of these tribes, as found by the white man, were entirely without sacred writings and systems of wor- ship. All their customs were saturated with superstition and devil worship, so that the greatest part of Africa was in the densest blackness of spiritual and moral darkness. Few people realize just how large the con- tinent of Africa is in extent. As a matter of fact, it is the second largest of the continents, Asia alone exceeding it in area. It contains close to twelve million square miles. That means that Africa is fully three times as large as Europe, about one and one-half times as large as either North or South America, and that it contains nearly one-fourth of the total land area of the world. From north to south Africa measures about five thousand miles, and its greatest width, from east to west is about four thousand five hundred miles. If we look at a map of Africa, we find that it looks something like a pear, with the larger end toward the north and a deep dent on the west side. The equator cuts across Africa just a little south of the larger end, and the conti- nent extends a little more than thirty degrees in either direction from the equator. The large gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }>- northern part of Africa is occupied by the great Sahara Desert and other half-desert sections. On either side of the equator lie the tropical forests and jungles. The southern part of Africa extends into the south temperate zone, therefore its general nature approaches that of the south and southwestern portion of the United States. If we take up a physical map of Africa, we find that the continent looks something like an inverted saucer. The rim of this saucer is along the lowlands, near the ocean, what is known as the coast strip. Beyond this strip lie the mountain ranges, with an average height of two to three thousand feet. The center of the inverted saucer within the raised circle is the great central plateau of Africa, somewhat lower in the middle. In the center of Africa are found the great lakes, from which flow the mighty rivers which drain the whole continent, with the exception of the northwestern part. The largest lakes are in east central Africa, Lake* Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Nyasa being the most important. On the southern border of the Sudan is Lake Tchad, one of the largest of several lakes which have no outlet to the sea. JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF ]- The rivers of Africa are known, at least by name, in every part of the world. The Nile has been written about for scores of centuries, and it is still one of the most romantic streams of the world. Its basin is two thousand five hundred miles in length, and it has seen the rise and decay of more civilizations than possibly any other river in the world. The Congo flows through the very heart of Africa. Its volume of water is second only to that of the Amazon, and its entire system includes at least ten thou- sand miles of navigable streams. Over in south- eastern Africa is the Zambesi, where we find the great Victoria Falls, almost three hundred and fifty feet high, and therefore much greater and more wonderful than Niagara Falls. The Niger River rises in the southwestern Sudan and drains a very fertile section of Africa before flowing into the Gulf of Guinea. All the river basins of Africa contain dense forests, with the exception of the valley of the lower Nile. Stanley's account tells of jungles so dense that the sun can never penetrate to the ground, while the luxuriance and beauty of the vegetation is equalled only by that of the Amazon valley in South America. Among the trees that grow in this part of Africa are red and brown mahoganies, some of which are up { JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF jg* to twelve feet in diameter and fully two hun- dred feet in height. In these jungles we also find the great rubber trees, whose output has become more valuable as the automobile in- dustry has grown. On the great plateaus of southern Africa are immense prairies or savannahs, where big game is still to be found in large quantities. It seems strange that there should be moun- tains in Africa, almost beneath the equator, whose foot hills are covered with the palms and the jungles of the tropics, while their sum- mits are covered with everlasting snow. This fact caused the American poet Bayard Taylor, to write his celebrated description of Mount Kilimanjaro : "Hail to thee, monarch of African mountains, Remote, inaccessible, silent and lone Who, from the heart of the tropical fervors, Liftest to heaven thine alien snows, Feeding forever the fountains that make thee Father of Nile and creator of Egypt! I see thee supreme in the midst of thy co-mates, Standing alone 'twixt the earth and the heavens, Heir of the sunset and herald of morn. Zone above zone, to thy shoulders of granite, The climates of earth are displayed as an index, Giving the scope of the book of creation. JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF There in the wandering airs of the tropics Shivers the aspen, still dreaming of cold: There stretches the oak, from the loftiest ledges, His arms to the far-away lands of his brothers, And the pine looks down on his rival, the palm." Of the products of Africa the best known are the costly hardwoods of the tropics and the gems of south Africa, particularly the diamonds of the great fields near Kimberley and Pretoria. But this does not exhaust the resources of the continent. We find that the countries along the Mediterranean raise grapes, olives, and figs. The great forests of the Atlas Mountains yield cork oak, and the northern part of Africa furnishes dates in great abundance. In the valley of the Nile fine cotton is grown, as well as various products of the more temperate climate. The great prairie lands of south Africa are well adapted to the raising of cattle, and the ostrich culture is still a prominent industry. Among the products of the tropical section of Africa are to be named cassava, coffee, sugar, palm oil, ebony, and ivory. In short, the great continent of Africa holds vast possibilities for the future, and the term "Dark Continent" should lose its significance in a very short time, also with regard to the change JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF which ought to come concerning the spiritual condition of its native population. A very great factor in the mission work in Africa is that of the climate. When we study the map, we find, first of all, that a large part of Africa lies in the torrid zone, and may there- fore be expected to have a fairly hot climate. Of course, the temperature varies according to the elevation. As we have seen, there are mountains almost directly at the equator, whose summits are crowned with eternal snow, while their foot hills are covered with dense jungles. Along the entire coast of the continent the climate is hot and dry, and it is possible for people from Europe and America to become accustomed to this heat. In Egypt one part of the year is fairly pleasant, but when the hot winds are blowing from the desert, the heat is almost unbearable for one who has not grown up in the country. Along the western coast we find a great deal of low, marshy soil. Here the heat is almost unbearable, and millions of in- sects carry various diseases. It is to be ex- pected that malaria is very prevalent, and the death rate among white people is very high. Since the disease has now definitely been con- nected with the anopheles mosquito, it is pos- sible for white people to adopt certain measures ( JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF against infection. This has somewhat improved the situation, although it is not always possible to employ the proper safeguards. Another very dangerous illness is caused by the bite of a small tick, and white people have found it almost impossible not to be infected by this pestilent insect. Possibly the most dreaded affection is the sleeping sickness, found mainly in the Congo basin and in the so-called Uganda territory. This sickness is caused by a germ carried by the tsetse fly. Although steps have been taken to meet this emergency, there will always be the difficulty of having the remedy at hand when it is most needed. The natives of Africa, have, in some meas- ure, met the situation in various ways. Much of the treatment given by the witch doctors is, of course, without significance. On the other hand, recent investigations have shown that the natives us a bitter medicine containing quinine to combat the deadly malaria. They also know that the mosquito is the bearer of this sickness, and they take measure to keep them- selves safe from the bite of the insect. With regard to many other diseases they have dis- covered ways of making themselves immune or partly so, and many centuries of contact with the specific diseases of their country have 10 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF g*- hardened the natives to such an extent as to make them virtually safe from the attacks of these dread enemies. But the white man com- ing into the country for the first time is often not able to meet the situation as successfully, in spite of the fact that he makes use of every convenience which medical science has dis- covered. Fortunately the higher regions of the in- terior are both more temperate and more healthy, so that white people have little trouble about establishing themselves on these plateaus. South Africa, that is, the section outside the tropics, has a climate very agreeable to Euro- peans, and therefore work in this part of Africa is not attended by the same discomforts as elsewhere. The study of the inhabitants of Africa and of their languages causes the greatest difficulty. According to various accounts there are on this continent more than five hundred distinct languages to which we must add more than three hundred dialects. It seems that tribes living only a few miles apart are unable to communicate with each other by means of the spoken language, and are therefore obliged to use the sign language of the interior, one which is known throughout the length and breadth ll s{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF of Africa and south of the Sudan. All this makes the classification of Africa's native pop- ulation extremely difficult. According to one authority we must distinguish the following chief divisions of the people now living in Africa: 1. The Berbers, who are the abor- igines of the countries along the Mediterranean Sea and of the Sahara, most of them being Caucasian in origin and physically of a very fine type, although their skin is dark; 2. The Arabs, tribes originally coming from Western Asia and now constituting a great part of the population of Egypt and other sections of North Africa; 3. The Negroes, mainly in the great Sudan, from the Nile westward to the Atlantic coast, the purest type being found along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, characterized by receding foreheads, high cheek bones, broad and flat noses, thick lips, kinky hair, and coal- black skin ; 4. The Bantu, including practically all the tribes south of the Equator, the Kaffirs, the Zulus, the Basutos, the Bechuanas, and others, closely resembling the Negroes, but with more regular features, and usually not so black in color; 5. The Pygmies, the Bushmen, and the Hottentots, scattered through the Bantu section of Africa, small in stature, nomadic in 12 ig{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF habits, and lowest in the scale of African humanity. In a recent volume by W. C. Willoughby, which has been called the most authoritative book on the subject, the inhabitants of Africa are divided into six great races, which, however, are so mingled that, though all are distinct in parts, each is blended with the others in some parts. These races are as follows: "The Semite (the Arab and Negroid Arab who has influenced Africa for at least 2000 years) ; the Hamite, a tall, sinewy, broad-shouldered, red- dish-brown, straight-nosed, thin-lipped trader and wanderer; the Negro, a burly, long-armed, short-legged, black, woolly-haired, broad- and flat-nosed man with projecting lips and jaws; the Bantu, a mixed race (probably a fusion of Hamites and Negroes) by far the greatest of the African peoples; the Bushman, a merry, very primitive, music-loving soul, about five feet high, slim, sinewy, with broad forehead, flat nose, and wide mouth and rusty wolly tufty hair ; and the Hottentot, the real South African (with a Bushman strain and probably some Hamitic blood in him) some five feet six inches tall, ranging in color from tawny to dark brown, woolly-haired, with broad flat nose and Negro lips." 13 ~gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF } The religions of Africa are another great problem for any one who wishes to become ac- quainted with the difficulty of missionary work on this great continent. One of the greatest authorities in the field, Dr. C. H. Patton, taking the total population of Africa as 130,000,000, makes the estimate that of this number 18,- 000,000 are Pagans, 14,000,000 Mohammedans, and 10,000,000 Christians. But we must not forget that these 10,000,000 Christians include some 7,000,000 members of the Abyssinian, the Coptic, and the Roman Catholic Church, of which the former two have decidedly lost their specific Christian character. Only about 3,- 000,000 of Africa's inhabitants are Protestant Christians, and therefore the continent chal- lenges the world with more than 120,000,000 people who do not know the way of salvation in Christ. The situation is all the more difficult because of the nature of Mohammedanism and of the African Paganism. The outstanding feature of Mohammedanism is its fanaticism, and while the religion is no longer spread with fire and sword, it is the greatest menace to missions in Africa, its missionaries being extremely active far beyond the boundaries of the Sudan and rapidly conquering sections of Africa south of 14 ~-sf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }>~ the equator. The Paganism or Fetishism which is the native religion of a large part of Africa is a form of Animism or the worship of spirits. It is a religion of almost unbelievably terrible darkness. It believes in numerous horrible demons, and the Pagan native of Africa thinks of these as surrounding him on every side, continually seeking to do him injury and to bring about his death. These demons are sup- posed to inhabit every object, whether pos- sessing life or not, plants, trees, rocks, rivers, reptiles, birds, beasts, and also deceased rela- tives. To escape the harm wrought by these evil spirits, the native will resort to various charms or fetishes, which usually consist of strangely carved figures or curious natural ob- jects, such as heads of birds, teeth of lions, leopards, and serpents, pieces of glass, strange- ly formed pebbles, human bones and various other objects, which he wears on his body to give him protection against the spirits. The strange religion of Africa has given rise to a number of horrible practices. It has undoubtedly led to human sacrifices, in order to supply the needs, to win the favor, and to avert the vengeance of the spirits. It has been re- sponsible for the practice of burying the wives of a chief with his dead body, as bad as the sf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF suttee of India. It has even resulted in canni- balism, of which it is believed that the practice originated as a sacrificial feast. Above all, this belief in spirits has caused the practice of witchcraft and of trials for witchcraft, the fiendish system which has taken countless lives, who become victims of the witch doctor's poisoned cup. One careful observer estimates that 4,000,000 people have been killed in one year in the endeavor to discover witches. Some- times entire districts have been depopulated by witch trials. No wonder that the same man makes the following summary concerning the religious conditions in Africa: "Delicacy per- mits but the most guarded references to the revolting brutality and nauseating licentious- ness which are the legitimate offspring of Pagan gods and religion. To be consistent with his perverted conceptions of religion the African cannot be other than he is. ... The Pagan African is what he is because of his religion. . . . The religion of the African is a religion of terror and hate. In the things which pertain to God he lives in abysmal dark- ness. When most religious, he is most fiendish." So far as mission work in Africa is con- cerned, it is most remarkable that efforts were made at a very early date to win sections of the 16 -<$ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF great continent for Christ. Some authorities believe that the Eunuch of Queen Candace of Ethiopia established Christianity in the country south of Egypt. It is certain that the Christian religion was here established by the fourth century, the work being usually ascribed to Frumentius. In Egypt Christianity was estab- lished before the middle of the first century, the Evangelist John Mark being named as the one who founded the first Christian congrega- tion at Alexandria. By the end of the first century large parts of Egypt and Lybia had been Christianized, and the Gospel was grad- ually carried westward and southwestward as far as the Atlantic coast, and to the southern boundary of the Sahara Desert. By the middle of the fourth century there were hundreds of bishops in the Christian Church of Africa, and by 411 the number of Christian bishops from Northwestern Africa alone, meeting in the city of Carthage, was 565. All these churches were swept away when the Mohammedans invaded Africa between the seventh and the tenth century. Modern missions in Africa began in the southern part, and the most successful work has been done in the section south of the tropics. 17 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF ) Here the names of George Schmidt, Robert Moffat, David Livingstone, Samuel Crowther, and others are notable. Every one of these men is worthy of special notice, and books contain- ing their biographies will prove of great value in stimulating missionary interest. The difference between the conditions in Africa before and after the coming of the mis- sionaries is well pictured by Vachel Lindsay in his poem on the Congo. His description is, in part, as follows : "A roaring epic, rag-time tone From the mouth of the Congo To the Mountains of the Moon. Death is an Elephant, Torch-eyed and horrible, Foam-flanked and terrible. BOOM, steal the pigmies, BOOM, kill the Arabs, BOOM, kill the white men, HOO, HOO, HOO. . . . Then along that river, a thousand miles The vine-snared tress fell down in files. Pioneer angels cleared the way For a Congo paradise, for babes at play, For sacred capital, for temples clean, Gone were the skull-faced witch-men lean. There, where the wild ghost-gods had wailed A million boats of the angels sailed 18 gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF fa- With oars of silver, and prows of blue And silken pennants that the sun shone through. Twas a land transfigured, 'twas a new creation. Oh, a singing wind swept the negro nation And on through the backwoods clearing flew: 'Mumbo-Jumbo is dead in the jungle. Never again will he hoo-doo you. Never again will he hoo-doo you'." In the present study we are especially in- terested in Abyssinia, formerly known as Ethiopia, where Frumentius labored. We are told that an Ethiopic translation of the Bible was completed before the end of the fourth century. For about ten centuries the religion, as thus established, spread slowly throughout the country. At the end of the fifteenth cen- tury Jesuit missionaries, with the help of Portuguese soldiers, tried to win over the Abyssinian Christians to the Roman Catholic Church, but the attempt was a failure. The result was the same in 1621, and afterward in 1750. Abyssinian Christianity is a strange mixture of Christianity, Judaism, and Moham- medanism, and it is hard to imagine how a change can be brought about from within. Our story concerns itself chiefly with a modern attempt to win Abyssinia for the truth and to 19 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }- establish mission stations throughout Central Africa, from the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Guinea. For the man who began this work and whose impetus is felt to this day, was John Ludwig Krapf . 20 CHAPTER II THE EARLY TRAINING OF KRAPF CHAPTER II THE EARLY TRAINING OF KRAPF John Ludwig Krapf, pathfinder and pio- neer among the explorer-missionaries of Africa, was born at Derendingen, near Tuebingen, on January 11, 1810. This was just three years before another great explorer-missionary was born, namely David Livingstone, and it is a remarkable fact that Henry M. Stanley became acquainted with both of these missionaries in the Dark Continent. The little village of Derendingen is located in the foothill district of the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, one of the most beautiful sections of Wurttemberg. His people were farmers, his father being regarded as wealthy. Incidentally he was most interested in giving his son as good an education as he could afford. When John Ludwig had finished the village school, he was sent on to the Latin school at Tuebingen. He was then only thirteen years of age, and the grammar school interested him greatly, as well as the classical languages, Latin and Greek, with which he became acquainted in this school. But his greatest interest was in maps and geography. While other boys pre- ferred to read stories or to play games, little 23 gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF Ludwig would be sitting in some corner poring over a precious map which some teacher had given him, and he was soon acquainted with every continent, especially by the water routes. He often played a game with himself, according to which he would visit some foreign country, starting out from one of the harbors of Ger- many and then making the voyage through the various bodies of water. He knew the chief harbors of the world so thoroughly that he was able to tell just what kind of shipments one might expect from any one of them. He became acquainted with a book of geographical descrip- tion by Bruce, the title of which was "Journeys in Abyssinia." This he devoured with a great deal of concentration, so that he was familiar with every part of the African country long before he ever thought of visiting Abyssinia in the capacity of missionary. At the age of fourteen Ludwig expressed the decided wish to become a captain of a great ocean ship, and thus see other countries. His father was ready enough to entertain this sug- gestion, but when he made further inquiries concerning the expenses connected with naval training, he found that he would, after all, not be able to help his boy in gaining his heart's desire, and so the idea had to be given up. JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF )- It was about at this time that a peculiar incident turned the thoughts of the boy to the work of the missionary. The head master of the school in Tuebingen one day read to his boys a pamphlet on missionary work and on the spread of Christianity among the heathen. The pupils were afterwards to embody the chief points of this pamphlet in an essay. Ludwig had never before heard anything about mis- sions, but the earnest appeal made by this teacher so impressed him that he began to think about becoming a missionary. When young Krapf had finished this work at the grammar school, the question was natur- ally raised what he wished to study next, upon entering the university. The discussion turned to medicine and to law. But the boy stated that he preferred theology, his only fear being that he could not pass in Hebrew. Meanwhile he had been asking himself a very serious question, one which young people in any teach- ing position might well ask themselves, "How can I think of teaching others when I know so little of my Savior myself?" Thereupon he made up his mind to begin a very careful and systematic study of the Bible. All this served to keep him in contact with the Church and its work, and there can be no doubt that he was 25 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF } a true Christian at that time. More and more the determination grew in him to become a foreign missionary, to bring the Gospel to people who had never yet heard of their Savior. When young Krapf was seventeen years old, he went to Basel, in Switzerland, to be trained as missionary. In many respects the choice of this school was to be commended very highly. As early as 1780 there had been an organization in Basel which had in mind the encouragement of pure doctrine and of true piety. Among the publications of this organization was a little paper or periodical called "Collection for Lovers of Christian Truth," and the purpose of the little magazine was to bring reports from the foreign mission field, in order to awaken the interest of its readers for work in heathen countries. At first all the gifts for missions were sent to Halle, Herrnhut, and London, but in 1815 Blumhardt and Spittler, who had been the secretaries of the organization, founded a school for the training of mission workers. At this time the institution did not yet send out missionaries. In 1816 these indefatigable workers founded the "Magazine for Missions" of Basel, in which they reported on the mission work of the day in every part of the world. So clear, JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF g* thorough, and interesting were the reports made in this manner, that gifts came in not only from every part of Switzerland and Wurt- temberg, but also from the most distant parts of Germany. Many mission societies were formed in cities and villages, and the interest in the work grew by leaps and bounds. In consequence of this awakened interest a great many young men who where interested in foreign missions, came to Basel, in order to be trained for their great vocation. While the institute was not confessional and did not offer a complete semi- nary training, it did much to arouse the interest of its students, and the practical side of the training was distinctly valuable. In this school Ludwig Krapf soon felt at home. The rules of the school were very severe, and in some ways they were not altogether wise. In keeping with the pietistic trend which was found in the school, the reading of all literature of the so-called mystics was forbid- den. The chances are that a tactful explanation of the reason for this prohibition might have kept the students from reading this literature. But since such explanation was not given, the natural result was that many of the students, including also Ludwig Krapf, were eager to find out just what mysticism offered. 27 g{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF One can readily see that the study of this field would appeal to the young man in the circumstances in which he found himself. For mysticism, in the sense in which we use it here, is applied to that state of mind according to which some people have been said to become spiritually, and even physically, united with the Godhead. People who are given to this strange form of religious ecstasy insist that they have practically lost their physical being when engaged in thinking about the beauty of God. They have stated that they were com- pletely submerged in the divine being, that they received revelations beyond experience of men, and that they were directly inspired by God. Wherever there is a state of pietism, or wher- ever people have been influenced by pietism, they have readily yielded to some form of mysticism, feeling themselves united with God or with Christ and being filled with the most extravagant ecstasy. The experiences of people in such states have been dictated by them to others, or have been written out by them in various volumes, this literature having a pecu- liar appeal for men and women, and especially young people, who are not sound in their belief in the objective relation of the Word of God. JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF } Such was the literature which Ludwig Krapf began to study. The mystical writings of a certain Madame Guyon and of the German, Jacob Boehme, finally so filled his mind that he felt he could not with a good conscience remain any longer in the institution at Basel, which was conducted at the expense of the mission. When he reached his decision, as he himself stated because he was convinced of his inner unworthiness and inability to take up the call of a missionary, he was honest enough to lay before the school authorities the reasons for his decision. And so he left the school in 1829, two years after he had entered it. The ex- perience which he thus had, unfortunate though it was at the time, undoubtedly had its value in the training of Ludwig Krapf, and his practical mind soon got away from the tendencies which were suggested by the forbidden literature. He now returned to Tuebingen, and once more faced the question as to the training which he wanted to take up at that time. The Univer- sity at Tuebingen in those days had an ex- cellent reputation. The school had been founded in 1477, by Count Eberhard, the purpose being, as its charter puts it, "To help dig the founda- tion of life, out of which consoling and saving wisdom might be drawn from all ends of the 29 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF } world, for the quenching of the destructive fire of human lack of reason and blindness." The institution in its early years, had been strength- ened by the addition of another similar organ- ization which had been located at Sindelfingen. During the century of the Reformation the University engaged the teaching of such men as Camerarius and Brenz. As a result of their labors the first building of the institution had to be enlarged, in the year 1560. Since that time the University of Tuebingen had been known for its conservative theology, although the influence of pietism became strong during the second half of the seventeenth century. On the whole, the institution was still evangelical in its general character when Krapf entered, although some of the teachers then in office later became known for their critical position over against the Bible. It seems that the impression gained during his stay at Basel kept Ludwig Krapf from ac- cepting statements concerning the Bible which did not agree with his earlier high opinion of the inspired Word. He passed his University examination with good success, and in 1834 finished the course in theology. Meanwhile his thoughts had often turned to mission work, for he could not get rid of his 3U -~if JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF } interest in foreign countries and in the great needs of pagans in every part of the world. All this was once more brought home to him when a cousin of his, bearing the same name, entered the missionary institute at'Basel. Nevertheless the young candidate for the ministery deter- mined to take up the work of preaching in his home country, after he had occupied the posi- tion of tutor not far from his home town. His argument was that he would be able to carry on work similar to that which his cousin would take up in non-Christian lands. Evidently he was not yet firmly decided ; his mind was still in a state of uncertainty. He accepted a call to a charge at Wolfenhausen, where the neglected condition of his parish and the work which he was obliged to do once more called his attention to conditions where the Gospel had never been heard. He began his work earnestly enough and seems to have been faithful in the discharge of his duties. But that he was still thinking of the foreign work is apparent from a letter which he wrote at this time. The following statements reveal to us just what he thought of the situation about the year 1835. He wrote : "The inducements to mission work appear to me in a new light. In the needs of my congre- gation I recognized those of non-Christians in 31 g{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF ]-- a measure which affected me very deeply; in their sorrow I recognized the wretchedness of the heathen; the cry for help from my own congregation seemed an echo from heathen lands. The grace which I myself enjoyed, and which I commended to my own people was, I felt, for the heathen as well, but there may be no one to proclaim it to them. In this country every one may without difficulty find the way to life; in those lands there may be no one to show the way. Here, in almost every house the Holy Scriptures may be found; there, the Scriptures are only scantily distributed. This seems to me a powerful incentive to think seriously of missionary work." The crisis came in 1836. At this time Krapf met a missionary by the name of Fjellstedt. At about the same time certain utterances which he made from his pulpit gave offense to the church authorities, and he was told that he must give up his charge at Wolfenhausen. At about the same time, also, the secretary of the Church Missionary Society of England made a trip to southern Germany, and also to Basel. His purpose was to look for young men as recruits for his society, since the Basel Mission Institute, in the early days, supplied quite a few missionaries to that great English society. 32 -i{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPP We regret exceedingly that the truth was not completely upheld in many of the transactions of this kind, although we recognize fully the great value of the work done by some of these staunch workers in the mission fields. For among men who at that time went out into heathen countries were workers like Pfaender, whose work concerned missions among the Mohammedans, Schoen, who worked in the tropics of Western Africa, and Klein, who was a pioneer missionary in Northern Africa. Krapf met the secretary of this society, and as a result he once more entered the mission in- stitute, if he had not even before this made application for admission, and in the following year he entered the service of the society. It so happened that a former student of the mission institute at Basel had been selected by the Church Missionary Society to go to Abyssinia, but he had died in the meantime, and so Krapf was asked if he would go instead. Since he was now stronger in every respect and better equip- ped for the work than ever, he declared his willingness to go wherever his services might be needed, and so John Ludwig Krapf received his commission as missionary to Abyssinia, in Northeastern Africa. This was early in 1837. 33 CHAPTER III THE FIRST YEARS IN AFRICA CHAPTER III THE FIRST YEARS IN AFRICA Abyssinia was our missionary's goal, and it seemed fortunate that he had, on account of his youthful interest in this country, gathered so much information concerning it. Undoubt- edly he looked forward to some wonderful ex- periences in this country, for it is a land of strange and interesting contrasts. The most outstanding physical features of the country are those of its vast series of table lands. These plateaus are themselves of great elevation, and from them rise numerous ranges of high and rugged mountains, some of them of very singu- lar forms, and strewn over the surface of the country in apparently the wildest confusion. Some of the most remarkable and loftiest sum- mits occur in the center of the northern part of the country. The Ras Dashan is more than 15,000 feet high, and is capped with perpetual snow. Other mountains, like Abba Yared and Buahit, are said to be even higher. Along the entire eastern side of the country, where it borders on Eritrea and on French and British Somaliland, extends a mountain range or es- 87 -- ig{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }*>- carpment forming a natural barrier or rampart, with an average elevation of seven to eight thousand feet for a distance of some six hun- dred miles. No volcanoes are known to exist at present, but there are many evidences of volcanic action in the past. From the moun- tains flow inexhaustible supplies of water, which pour down into the deep canyons and ravines of the country, thereby giving to the plains and valleys of the lowlands a wonderful fertility, rich in the most valuable products of the soil. The principal river of Abyssinia is the Tacazze (Takkazye), which flows through the northern part of the country. The Blue Nile has its origin in Lake Tsana. This river is called the Abbay in its upper portion. In the earlier part of their courses, as long as the rivers of Abyssinia are flowing over the com- paratively level surface of the table lands, they are not much more than -muddy brooks, almost disappearing in the dry season. But during the rains they overflow their banks and set the plains for miles under water. From the sea level to a height of about 3,000 feet the plants are mainly tropical; from that point to a little more than a mile in height the subtropical plants are found ; and between 6,000 and 9,000 feet high the vegetation of 38 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF fa- temperate climates is everywhere in evidence, the principal grains being wheat, barley, maize, and teff . Of the last grain two crops are ob- tained yearly, the seed being sown in one field, while harvesting is going on in the next. Among other vegetable products of the country may be mentioned ebony, coffee, gum, balsam, incense, and various medicinal plants. The description of some travellers a few years ago will be of value in understanding the topography of Abyssinia and the character of its inhabitants. Speaking of the great plateau of the country, one of them says : "The plateau over which we were to travel for the next two months slopes upwards from the low plains of the Sudan, rising gradually higher and higher until the extreme eastern edge is reached. At this point the plateau breaks abruptly into a great escarpment, the first drop of which is one of fully 5,000 feet. Its surface is cut by streams, the larger of which flow through canyons of great extent and of forbidding depths. The aspect of the country is extremely mountainous, and the canyons present great difficulties to the traveller. They necessitate either very hazardous descents and climbs or detours of many miles, in either case much 39 ~g{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF )s time being lost. The trails, as far as possible, follow the high ground." The people of Abyssinia present one of the greatest problems to the student of ethnog- raphy. In the northwest we find tribes who are of Caucasian stock, with some mixture of Nubian tribes which were driven to this country in early times. Farther south are the Falashas, who profess a somewhat ancient form of Judaism, and may be descendants of some Jews who settled in southern Egypt before the Christian era. In addition there are some Hamitic tribes, most of whom have been under the rule of Semites with whom they have mingled to some extent. To the southwest are the Amharas, whose language is used in litera- ture, as well as in commerce and diplomacy. The larger part of the southern section of Abyssinia is occupied by the Gallas, a powerful tribe with whom our missionary became well acquainted. Of course Ludwig Krapf was familiar not only with the general description of the country, but he was also fully aware of the strange re- ligion which he would find in Abyssinia. As we learned in Chapter I, Christianity was in- troduced into the country at an early date, but it was soon mixed with other religions and lost -~gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF fr- its purity. One of its characteristic doctrines is the so-called Monophysite teaching, which denies the human nature of Christ. The whole aspect of its Christianity has now been changed to the mixture of Judaism, Christianity, Mo- hammedanism, together with pagan customs. The churches, usually small and poorly con- structed, are arranged in a manner similar to that of the Jewish temple. The Virgin Mary is regarded very highly, and the number of saints is large. The same traveller who has given us a pen picture of the general aspect of Abyssinia also describes certain religious features and customs of the country with which he became acquainted during his stay. We read in his account: "I visited the two churches at Ankober, which stood in the approximate center of the country. The first was quite new, the decorations being unfinished at the time. The typical church building of Abyssinia is circular, but this one was a many-sided structure. In all churches of this type the central part of the building is occupied by a second circular structure con- taining many sacred objects and books. During church services the priest performed their ceremony in this inner structure, the public being admitted only to the corridor which 41 # JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF )-- encircles it. The floor of the corridor is usually covered with a sweet-smelling grass which is fragrant even when dry. This building evi- dently superseded an older one, since two kings were buried within a few yards of it. "The second church, on the other side of Ankober Hill, was one of the most interesting that I found in the entire country. It may have been a hundred years old; it was circular in form, and it was decorated in the most gaudy of modern Ethiopian paintings. The outer wall of the inner sanctuary was covered with a great many paintings representing Biblical scenes, at least in part. But it must be confessed that the artist includes Abyssinian history and added a few fancies of his own. The colors were the brightest that can be gotten from aniline dyes. They were assembled rather than mixed, and as a collection of pigments the work was a huge success. Beside the Biblical scenes there were processions of Ethiopian kings, ocean sail boats without any apparent purpose, and, in one case, a cannibal sitting before a human body care- fully cut apart for his meal. Before the doors leading into the sanctuary were the ceremonial drums,one of these being of silver . . . An aged priest escorted me through the building, and at the conclusion of the tour I presented g{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF a small donation to the church. There followed a scene which afterwards became familiar to me, but which was at that time quite novel. He stopped me and all the natives nearby and offered a long series of prayers for my safe return to my country." We also have descriptions of the great Abyssinian festivals, just as they have been conducted for many centuries, and as Krapf saw them, partly to his great disgust. Almost a hundred miles north of Ankober is the town of Lalibela, which is known as the Jerusalem of Ethiopia. Of this town a recent traveller says : "Our visit to Lalibela was the most in- teresting single incident of our trip. It seems unbelievable that a city which is so important in the religious life of a country could be so little known, for it is, in a way, the religious center of Abyssinia, to which also all the pil- grims of the Amharas regularly come. "The Christmas celebrations are the climax of the Coptic pageantry of Ethiopia, and thou- sands of believers come from the various prov- inces, camping about the hills until every avail- able site is occupied . . . When we arrived near Lalibela thousands of pilgrims were gathered before the villages and the high priest awaited us on the open hillside, with scores of 43 e( JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF fr~- his priests as a background, all of them dressed in their most elaborate costumes blue, red, purple, and other colored cloth embroidered in gold. Gold and silver crosses of large size abounded and there were dozens of bright colored parasols with gold fringes. After the preliminary songs, greetings, and prayers for our safety were over, the priests danced for us, as their predecessors probably did in Palestine before the Christian era. "Lalibela's Christmas morning came. The festivities began early. The crowds had as- sembled long before we arrived, but space was reserved for us on the wall of the partitions surrounding Mascali Jesus, the church where the celebration was to take place. The pro- cession of priests, dancing and singing, was to encircle the wall, while a second detachment marched through the tightly packed courtyard about the church. Of the 30,000 pilgrims who came to see the rites not more than 1,000 were able to see them all, though the lines of encircling priests must have been visible from all parts of the village. When the procession started, the walls where the priests were to go were jammed with spectators. At the head of the procession marched three young men carry- 44 -- ions. This act, like the expulsion from Adoa, was due to priestly interference. Isenberg and Muehleisen now traveled back to Massowa, their intention being to reach Gondar, the old Portuguese city in northern Abyssinia. Krapf and his wife now went to Aden, at the southern end of the peninsula of Arabia. They had no intention of retreating without first making one more supreme effort to get into Abyssinia from the south. If nothing else, Krapf wanted to reach the land of the Gallas, for it had seemed to him that there was a little more chance of interesting these people than those in the north- ern provinces. But this proved to be imprac- ticable, so he determined to follow his two fellow laborers, and he was careful to take along with him a number of copies of the Ethiopic and Amharic Scriptures, so that he might at least, by spreading the Bible in the language of the people, do what he could for the spiritual welfare of Abyssinia. Crossing the Red Sea once more, he landed at Massowa, and he and his wife began their journey to the interior, in company with a trading caravan, their destina- tion being the province of Tigre, in northwestern Abyssinia. Mrs. Krapf would not think of leaving the side of her husband, although she was in delicate health, and although she knew 61 $ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF jg- that they were to pass through some rough and desolate country. As a matter of fact, their journey took them through a great sand plain, with only here and there a clump of trees, the great Shoho Desert. As they proceeded on their way, the great waste space came together in a rocky defile through which ran a river. At this point Mrs. Krapf , overcome by the heat and the fatigue of the way, prematurely gave birth to a daughter having no medical aid, or even the assistance of one of her own sex. The baby lived but one hour, but it was at once baptized by its father, who gave it the name Gneba (Eneba), which means tears. The little one was buried that same evening at the foot of a tree close to their traveling tent, the father conducting the funeral service in the Amharic language. It was only by the greatest effort that Krapf succeeded in obtaining three days rest for the young mother, for the wild Shoho tribesmen, with whom they were travelling, in- sisted on continuing their journey, and so she was hurried along with the caravan. Moreover it was only by giving the Shoho men a cow and a dollar a day that Krapf could persuade them to remain for even such a short while. And, after all, their journey was in vain, as was the mother's sacrifice, for when they 62 gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPP }* reached the boundary of Tigre, Isenberg and Muehleisen met them with the distressing news that the ruler of Tigre had adopted the same policy as the prince of Shoa, definitely forbid- ding the Europeans to enter his territory. Thus every attempt to establish the Gospel in Abys- cinia was frustrated. The door was closed at Adoa in the north and at Ankober and Shoa in the south, while they could not reach Gondar, the place where Europeans had lived for more than a century. But even then Krapf did not lose heart. His faith rose above all discourage- ment, and he wrote home in the following deter- mined declaration : "Abyssinia will not soon again enjoy the time of grace she has so shame- fully slighted. Meanwhile we will not cease to pray for that unfortunate land, especially com- mending to the Lord the many copies of His precious Word, that He would bless them and make them witnesses of His truth. It is a con- solation to us and to dear friends of the mission to know that over eight thousand copies of the Scriptures have found their way into Abys- sinia. They will not all be lost or remain with- out a blessing. . . . Faith speaks thus: Though every mission should disappear in a single day and leave not a trace behind, I would still cleave to mission work with my prayers, 63 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF my labors, my gifts, with my body and soul; for there is the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, and where that is there is also His promise and His final victory." The Krapfs now returned to Aden and, without losing further time, made preparations for an expedition into the country of the Gallas proper, at that time barely tributary to the Abyssinian princes. Krapf understood the language of this tribe, and felt that he would surely have success if he undertook to preach the Gospel in their midst. They sailed in an Arab vessel in November 1843. But strong headwinds and a heavy sea compelled them to return to harbor. It seemed as though the forces of nature were leagued against them. Their boat sprang a leak in the storm, and they barely kept themselves afloat by baling with the saucepans and bowls with which Mrs. Krapf intended to start housekeeping. When they reached the entrance to the harbor of Aden, the land wind drove the vessel back toward the open sea. There was no use trying to launch the lifeboat, for it could not carry twenty-five per- sons in a rough sea. When they were in the utmost extremity, and Krapf and his wife had retired to the small cabin for a last prayer to- gether, another boat hove in sight, and Krapf 64 gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }>- asked its captain to take them on board. This he at first declined to do, and it was only by promises and threats that Krapf at last induced him to take him and his companions off the sinking vessel. No sooner had they been trans- ferred than their own boat capsized, and after a half hour it sank. So they were once more in Aden. It was then that Krapf carried out a com- mission to go to East Africa and begin work in that section of the continent. It was only eight days after his last distressing experience that Krapf and his wife set out from Aden again. After about five or six weeks of slow sailing around the eastern cape of Africa, from the Gulf of Aden to that of the Indian Ocean which is known as the Azanian Sea, they ar- rived at Takaungu, a small town north of the city of Mombasa. The British consul at Zanzi- bar welcomed Krapf and his wife and imme- diately set out to get them a letter of intro- duction to the coast chiefs from the Sultan of Zanzibar. It was a very quaint letter which served as his credentials, for it read as follow : "In the name of God, the most merciful and com- passionate, this letter comes from Said the Sultan. To all our friends, governors, and subjects, greeting. This letter is written for a Doctor Krapf, who is a good JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF man and desires to convert the world to God. Treat him kindly: serve him what you can, and everywhere. This is written by order of your master." Krapf decided to make Mombasa his head- quarters, and that in spite of the fact that this section of Africa at that time had a terrible reputation. The natives were reported as law- less, cruel, and violent. But Krapf was not to be dissuaded from his purpose. His wife cheer- fully went with him to Mombasa, and they chose a spot from which the first attempt to penetrate into the interior could be made. Unfortunately the season was an exceptionally bad one, and there was an unusual amount of fever during the rainy season. Krapf himself was very ill, and it took all the will power which he had to fight his way back to health. Barely had he recovered when, in July, 1846, his wife fell ill. The fever was all the more serious, as she was daily expecting to become a mother. A daugh- ter was born, but a renewed attack of the fever brought her very low. In prospect of death she was very much depressed in her mind, and she pleaded with her husband for some assur- ance that she was really and truly a Christian. She prayed: "Oh my Savior, I am unworthy to have any place in Thy Paradise, but have pity on me, and give me a small corner at the { JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF ]g edge of Thy glory, that I may be with Thee." Her husband's words about the grace of God had a very consoling effect upon her, for he gave her the assurance: "Christ is as surely thine, as thou art mine and I am thine. Do not give way to temptations of the Evil One. It is time to flee to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." With such and other words she was greatly strengthened. She said : "I have obtained grace and mercy from the Lord; He has looked upon me; I feel His presence as I have never felt it before." She then prayed aloud for East Africa, for the Sultan, for the natives and the mission work, and for her relatives. Again and again she asked God to incline the heart of the ruler, so that he might promote the eternal welfare of his subjects. The next day she appeared much better, but the following day she was once more in a very bad condition, and her husband himself was so weakened by fever as to be obliged to leave her care almost entirely to servants. When Krapf had watched with her from midnight till dawn, he begged her to rest. But she said: "No, there is plenty of time for rest. Now it is time for work." She called her servants, told them that she was dying, and that in the face 67 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF ]- of death she had only this to say to them that if they followed their Mohammedan doctrines they trusted in a delusion. "He cannot help you in the hour of death, but Christ can and does." Then she turned to her husband and said: "Do not forget to speak to every one whom you meet about the great truths. Even if your words have no effect at the moment, they will come to their remembrance in the hour of death. Do not sorrow because of me, but work while it is day. She asked that her letters and diaries should not be published, for there was too much of self in them. She also asked her husband not to praise her in his letters home, because she was not worthy of praise, but to say that she, a poor, miserable sinner, had received forgiveness through the unmerited grace of Jesus Christ. Shortly after her fever rose to such a point that her mind began to wander. On July llth, she was somewhat better, and husband and wife could pray together. But on the 12th her fever rose once more. Krapf himself had a very severe attack, and only now and then could he drag himself to her bedside. Her end was one of great peace and of perfect submission to the divine will. So brave and steadfast was she in her last hours, that her husband was 08 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF g*-- strengthened and confirmed in his purpose to devote his entire life to the missionary con- ditions. She asked him to bury her right here on the mainland of Africa, in order that the sight of her tomb might constantly remind the passersby of the great object which had brought the servants of the church of Christ to their country. "Thus," wrote her husband, "she wished to be preaching to them by the lonely spot which encloses her earthly remains." On the morning of July 13th she breathed her last. Krapf himself could hardly get up from his bed. He saw her growing stranger to him every moment, her glassy eyes and chilling body, like a garment left behind, telling him only too well that she had gone. The future lay dark before him, and he would only too gladly have followed her. On the next morning, a Sunday, they buried her. Krapf just managed to struggle over to the graveside. On his return, he found that his baby daughter also was ill. She passed away during the night, and was laid to rest by her mother's side. But Krapf, even in the midst of all these trials, found the strength to write, in a letter to the secretary of the Church Mis- sionary Society: "Tell the committee that in East Africa there is a lonely grave of one mem- --( JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF ]g ber of the mission connected with your society. This is an indication that you have begun the conflict in this part of the world ; and since the conquests of the church are won over the graves of many of its members, you may be all the more assured that the time has come when you are called to work for the conversion of Africa. Think not of the victims who in this glorious warfare may suffer or fall ; only press forward until East and West Africa are united in Christ." The loss of Krapf's wife was for him a heartrending experience, but of vast importance for his future life, which now became fully consecrated to the service of God. The grave- stone of his wife became one of the great cor- nerstones of the temple of God in Africa. As he recovered his strength, he continued his work, occasionally making short journeys from Mombasa to the mainland among the Wanika, anxious to establish a mission station among this people, but especially to open the way into the interior of Africa, a thought which was always very prominent in all his plans. 70 CHAPTER V TRANSLATING THE BIBLE CHAPTER V TRANSLATING THE BIBLE That Krapf was full of energy and persever- ance must surely be evident to every one who has followed this narrative up to the present point. Some men have a great deal of courage in attacking a problem, but they are also easily discouraged. They are willing enough to under- take some great mission, and they may even succeed in getting it established, but afterwards they are just as apt to leave the work when it- is only half finished and begin somewhere else. Krapf 's perseverance, at the same time, was not mere foolhardiness, a stubbornness which is not controlled by common sense. He surely tried hard enough to open up Abyssinia to the Gospel, and even when he found that his under- taking was hopeless, so far as personal endeavor was concerned, he saw to it that the Scriptures were given to the inhabitants of this country in the language which they actually understood. Work of this kind, like the actual missionary labors, was not an easy matter. Those who know the field thoroughly tell us that the work of translating the Bible into the so-called mis- sionary versions is one of the most difficult 73 gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }-- undertakings that men know of. It is true that the Bible, as a whole or in parts, has been translated into 835 languages and dialects, as the American Bible Society has reported in its recent bulletin. This is a wonderful achieve- ment and may well cause us to rejoice. On the other hand, we must remember that Africa alone has about 500 distinct languages and about 300 additional dialects, and the number of scholars who are working in the field is in- adequate for the immense task which is before them. It is a fascinating undertaking, that of translating the Bible into a strange tongue, and there are undoubted mental and spiritual compensations for the tremendous toil involved, toil extending perhaps over twenty years or more of the best part of a man's life. It would be labor enough to bring the Bible within the narrow grasp of the African tribes-man; the greater and more necessary labor is to enlarge his grasp. Let us consider for a few moments the ex- ceeding difficulty of much of this work of Bible translation. It is not an easy task even when the languages under consideration are well- known, when they are spoken by civilized people, when they have been put down in writ- ten form, when there are grammars and diction- 74 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF aries. This is true, at the present time in the Arabic, the Persian, and the Chinese language, also in the greater languages of India, like Hindi, and Bengali, and Tamil. But the difficulty is far greater in countries where the language has not become thoroughly fixed, where there is no written language, where the people have no written letters or characters at all, and where there are, of course, no grammars or dictionaries. It is not much of a task to learn French or Spanish or German, with modern grammars and textbooks; but what should a person do if he were suddenly put down in a Spanish village, where no one knows one word of English, where there was not a printed Spanish book available nor any help to assist in learning Spanish ? Many a missionary has found himself in a position just like that. It was true in the case of Ulfilas, the Apostle of the Goths, in the fourth century, who was obliged to create a written language for his people before he could trans- late the Bible into Gothic. So missionaries during the last century have been compelled to pick up the language bit by bit, often by ear only. Some missionaries have offered little prizes or presents for every new word which they heard and understood, such as a biscuit 75 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF )- or a few beads. If we listen to a native speak- ing, his language is very often nothing but a meaningless jabber. Usually we cannot tell where one word ends and another begins, and even when we have managed to separate them, how are we to tell which is a noun and which a verb and which an adjective and which a preposition? One can manage in reasonable time to catch simple words like boy or girl, or man or woman, or day and night, or go and come, or eat and drink. But this in itself does not yet mean that one is able to teach the Gospel in the new language, and still less does it mean that a person is able to translate the Bible. If missionaries find no written language, and are therefore obliged to put the new tongue into writing for the first time, they usually employ our Roman letters. But if there are written languages in use, as in India and China, the Bible must be printed in the letters or characters already used. This means that the missionary must not only learn the spoken language, but must master the written or printed language as well, again a task which is by no means small. Nor does the difficulty end here, for we are obliged to think a little of the difficulties of translation. Quite a few tribes in various parts 76 - 6( JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }- of the world have never seen a sheep. How can a missionary make these people understand the words of Jesus about the good Shepherd in John 10, who lays down His life for the sheep? How are such people to understand the wonder- ful parable of the lost sheep? How may they be taught the 23rd Psalm, with its glorious assurance : "The Lord is my Shepherd . . . He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, and leadeth me beside the still waters?" And how can a missionary, under such circum- stances, explain the glorious truth of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world? When the old Saxons were in this position, the first translator of the New Testament into their language, in the wonderful poem called the Heliand, struck this difficulty in the story of Christ's birth, he simply substituted horses for sheep, and caused the shepherds to become men who watched their horses by night. In New Guinea there are no sheep, but there are pigs; so the missionary shows his charges the picture of a sheep, tells them it is about the same size as a pig, and makes them learn the English word sheep then they get some sort of an understanding. They know from experience that pigs sometimes wander away and are lost ; and the people go and search for them, and 77 ig( JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF )>- when they find them they bring them home on their shoulders, or carry the little ones in their arms. In this way the natives are gradually given the understanding of Bible words and Bible pictures. It is said that there are tribes in Asia, especially in the mountain country west of China, who had no word for father, nor for son, nor for hand, nor for feet. They have words or signs which stand for "my father" and "your father" and "his father"; also for "my feet" and "your feet" and "his feet." They say that every father must be somebody's father and every hand must be somebody's hand, and so their language immediately tells whose father or whose hand they are talking about. But how is it possible to explain in their lan- guage the terms "God the Father" and "God the Son?" This difficulty is about as great as another one spoken of by Dr. Frierson, for he says that some of the mountain tribes have only one idea of a feast and of being merry, and that is to get hopelessly drunk. How can these people be told the parable of the prodigal son? Or how could we explain to them the Feast of the Passover ? The situation becomes still worse if we think of some of the special Bible terms which are 78 g{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF peculiarly significant in the great Christian doctrines. There are a great many barbarous and ignorant tribes who know of no such words as regeneration, justification, and sanctification. In Romans 5, 1 we are told that we have peace with God. But certain cannibal tribes who are always in the midst of war can think of peace only as an agreement to quit fighting for a little while; the idea of faith is altogether strange to them, for they never trust one an- other or anybody, and the notion of being justi- fied is absolutely foreign to their thinking. When work was first begun on the islands of the South Seas, it was found that some tribes had as many as forty words for murder, but not one word for love. How can one make clear to such people the fundamental fact of the Gospel that God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son? Let us now look somewhat more closely at Africa, the continent in which we are espec- ially interested. The following account taken from a recent bulletin of the American Bible Society will speak for itself. Go among the Bulus, for example, and witness the work of the translators as described by one of them, Dr. Melvin Fraser. "It is as hard to put into Bulu certain rich portions of the Scriptures," 79 -Hg{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF ] says Dr. Fraser, "as it is to run a six-inch stream through a four-inch pipe. Either the stream must be reduced or the pipe enlarged." The latter expedient was chosen. The Bulus had no word for God. They had a word, "Zambe," signifying an immortal spirit that created man and the gorilla, then went far off and left them so shift for themselves. So this name was used for "God" in the transla- tion. The wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, truth and mercy of the Supreme Being as revealed in the Bible gave to "Zambe" a new and larger personality, "and the Bulu soon came to recognize and appropriate a new spiritual entity under the old name." Thus was the four-inch pipe enlarged to take the full stream of the Word. Since the Bulus had no equivalent for "saints," the translators simply said bot ya Zambe, people of God, and these common words began to acquire an enlarged meaning. They had no term for "conscience." They did have a quaint expression, mone mot ya nlem, "little man of the heart." So these pointed words are used in the Bible translation, and the Bible gives the little man of the heart an authority over daily conduct that he never before possessed. 80 -~gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }>- Think of the difficulties of translation when the native language contains no word for "book," no word for "bread," none for "church" or "wolf" or "moth" since these things them- selves are unknown ! The words, "Their hearts are as wolves" would mean nothing to the Bulu r but he immediately understands when you say, "Their hearts are as leopards." He is not troubled by moths, and it would be beside the point to warn him not to lay up treasures where moth and rust corrupt. But the bibiam, hard little insects equipped with tweezers, do destroy his property, and the lesson immediate- ly goes home when it reads, "Do not lay away goods where bibiam and rust eat." Thus ex- treme literalness, while strictly adhered to in most cases, must sometimes be sacrificed in the interest of fidelity to the real significance of the text. A curious example of how misleading a literal translation can be occurs with reference to the word "serpent." "When a son asks for a fish, will his father give him a serpent?" in- quires Jesus. Our mental answer is a horrified "No!" The translators knew, however, that the Bulus eat snakes and regard them as a great delicacy. "A Bulu boy," says Dr. Fraser, "would be more pleased at receiving a snake 81 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }- from his father than at receiving a fish; for thus he would not be bothered by bones and scales, would get more meat from a snake than from a fish of the same size, and would enjoy the meat and skin fully as well as those of a fish. The point and force of the illustration obviously require that the earthly father shall be represented as giving his son something good not only good, but better than some other thing which he avoids giving, else God's willing- ness to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask would not be set forth. A fish, as we have seen, is not better than a snake, to the Bulu; but it is better than a centipede. Accordingly, nsanelette, 'centipede,' instead of nyo, 'serpent,' is used in the translated text, and the Bulu at once understands, reading or hearing thus, that as a father gives his loved son a fish, not a centipede, so, and much more than so, God is willing to give his Holy Spirit to those who ask." These few examples may slightly suggest the immense labor that is necessary wise, patient, loving labor before millions of homes are opened to the Bible. The same thing, which is so vividly de- scribed, is true of about a score of other African languages, into which the whole Bible has been 82 gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF translated, beside the thirty or more into which the New Testament has been translated, and smaller portions in over eighty others. In South Africa, for example, the great mission- ary Robert Moffatt translated the whole Bible into the language of the Bechuanas. This grand old veteran spoke at a meeting in London and in the middle of his speech he stopped, and seemed unable to go on. Finally he said: "Friends, do forgive me; I am thinking in Bechuana and translating my thoughts into English as I go along; and I cannot remember what the English word is for a Bechuana word which I have in my mind!" He had been in Africa for over fifty years, and the language which he had learned to speak there had become almost a mother tongue to him. In West Africa a large part of the trans- lation of the Bible into the language of the Yourbas was done by Samuel Crowther, the negro who had been a slave boy and afterwards became the first black bishop. In East Africa it was an English bishop by the name of Steere who made the complete version in the language spoken on that coast, and in Uganda, one of the latest and most fruitful mission fields, the work was done chiefly by two laymen. Mackay of Uganda made the first attempt to translate the 83 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF Gospel of Matthew into Luganda, and printed it on the spot with his own hands, while the great part of the whole Bible was done by George Pilkington, another African missionary. These versions, and many others, are supplied by the British and Foreign Bible Society. These few paragraphs will give us some idea of the difficulties with which John Krapf had to labor when he began his work in Abys- sinia, and later in East Africa. It is character- istic of the man that he had hardly gotten to Abyssinia when he began to collect valuable Ethiopic manuscript, which he sent on to Europe. For this work the University of Tuebingen, about the time when Krapf was refused entrance into Abyssinia for the last time, conferred the degree of Doctor upon him. It is just as characteristic of the man that he had been in East Africa hardly six months when he began his translation of the Bible into the widely-spoken East African trade language, the Suahili, and for two years he did little else but translation work. He became acquainted with many of the languages and dialects of East Africa, and he was able to do extensive work in various dialects of the Wanika and of the Kinika. But the work for which Krapf is mostly 84 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF noted is that connected with the Abyssinian version. As we have seen, there is a form of Christianity in Abyssinia, and one of the ver- sions made in ancient times, probably in the fourth century, was in Ethiopic, the language of that country. But as time went by, the mother tongue of this people came to be Amharic, and Ethiopic was known only by those who studied it, as Latin and Greek is with us. In this way it came about that the people of this church could not read their own Scriptures. This was just as great a misfortune for the people of this church as it would be for us if we had the Bible only in Hebrew and Greek, and only the learned men could understand it. But about one hundred years ago there lived in Egypt an old Abyssinian monk, whose name was Abu Rumi. This man's life had been saved by the French consul in Abyssinia,' and the old monk considered himself under special obliga- tion to his benefactor. The consul hit upon the happy idea of having this old man make a translation of the ancient Ethiopic version into modern Amharic, as spoken by the Abyssinian people today. Every week for ten years they sat together for two days, working at this im- mense task, comparing with the Ethiopic ver- sion the original Hebrew, beside the Syriac and 85 B{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }>- the Arabic translations. The version which they produced in the modern Amharic language filled 9,539 pages, all written out by the old monk. This translation was seen by a scholar by the name of Jowett, of Cambridge, England. Realizing that this version might be of great importance for Abyssinia, the manuscript was purchased for over $7,000, to be used by the British Bible Society. In consequence of this wisdom and forethought, a great many copies of the Scriptures were sold in Abyssinia by the missionaries of the early days. One of these, of whom we shall hear a little more, was Samuel Gobat, afterwards bishop of the Church of Eng- land at Jerusalem, and another was John Lud- wig Krapf . Sixty years later that same Krapf , whose life we are studying, was, in his old age, employed by the Bible Society to revise this version. The work was completed in 1879, the printing being done at the Missionary Press of St. Chrischona, a missionary institute near Basel. We shall find that Krapf also assisted many other translators and revisers who were attemping to render the Bible or parts of the Bible into languages and dialects of East Africa. 86 CHAPTER VI FURTHER WORK IN EAST AFRICA CHAPTER VI FURTHER WORK IN EAST AFRICA After the death of his wife, Krapf plunged into the work which he had undertaken with all the energy of his consecrated mind. Abys- sinia lay behind him, a bitter experience, but not without blessing. East Africa was as yet an experiment. In the southern part of the continent work had been done with intermis- sions for about a century, and on the edge of the Black Belt Robert Moffat was even then estab- lishing his base for futher progress into the interior of the Dark Continent. Krapf was all alone for a time on the Zanzibar coast. Men like Rebmann became his faithful assistants in the difficult work, and their loyalty deserves a special chapter. East Africa extended no special invitation to the missionaries, and, as a matter of fact, the missionary labors of Krapf were not very successful in the first years. For a long time his only convert was a cripple of the tribe of Wanika, and he could do little more than barely explore the coast. This part of Africa rises from the Indian Ocean to the highlands of Ukamba, Kenya, and 89 -g{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF } Uganda. Farther up on the plateau is Lake Victoria. To the north is Lake Rudolf, to the west extends a string of lakes, with Lake Albert as the northernmost, then Lake George, Lake Edward, Lake Kivu, and finally Lake Tanganyika. There is a description of this country by a traveller who had the opportunity of seeing it from every angle. He writes, in part: "The country here is of red soil, gor- geously beautiful to the eye. Occasionally we passed coffee shambas, where white men were attempting to carve a living out of the jungle. . . . . One day at Masindi in the Uganda territory, we amused ourselves in throwing Australian boomerangs. The strange char- acteristic of this weapon made the natives think it was bewitched, and they scattered in wild disorder. For generations these black people have been victimized by their witch doctors, and as a consequence anything that is unusual is an object of terror to them. "The town of Jinja rests on the hills of the Buganda country, overlooking Lake Victoria. This lake is quite a large body of water, some 250 miles long, second only to Lake Superior in size, and the source of the River Nile. While we were dining, we could hear the roar of the river as it broke away for its journey down 90 e{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }- into Egypt, for the Ripon Falls were only a little less than a mile away. Kisumu, on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria, is some 3700 feet above sea level, while Nairobi, in the higher mountain country to the east, is nearly 5500 feet high. Therefore, when we left Kisumu on the little railroad leading down to Mombasa, we at once began to climb. The train mounted the Kikuyu escarpment, with an elevation of 8000 feet, and we began to experience arctic cold, although this railroad is only a few degrees south of the equator. Nairobi is the largest town in east central Africa, and a seat of the British government. It is very desirably sit- uated, and rather pretends to be a city after the tropical design, although there is nothing tropical about the Kenya colony in which it is located. The adjacent country is mountainous. The naked native blacks seem out of place. The English had very strenuously attempted to make the region civilized and productive, with the result that it is the best of the so-called white man's country in Central Africa. Though Kenya Colony is located on the equator, such is its altitude that the European residents have winter sports, skating, tobogganing, and skiing. "There is a distinctive kind of native in Kenya Colony. In and around Nairobi the 91 -Hg{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF women shave their heads and pierce and distend their ear lobes to almost unbelievable limits. When the ears are free of decorations, these mutilated lobes hang down in loops, but usually pieces of wood or metal jewelry fill the spaces. These decorations assume the propor- tion of saucers. Under the ear chrysanthemums of copper wire, wrapped in bright-colored silk, give a color contrast to the dusky complexion. Arms and legs are decorated with bracelets and anklets of copper wire. Over parts of their bodies they wear a single garment of tanned skin, of a soft brown color, draped like a Ro- man toga. Most of the women carry burdens slung on their backs, held in place by a strap passed over the foreheads. They stoop as they walk. One sees thousands of these bent, shuff- ling, barbaric figures. "The country east and southeast of Lake Victoria is inhabited by the Masia tribe, still the most war-like and most feared of all African tribes. They are a cattle-owning people. They live on cow's milk and cow's blood. They consider agricultural work a dis- grace. The little flour and other additional foods which they require they get by trade. Incidentally there is cattle tick and cattle fever among their great herds, so there is a quaran- 92 6{ JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF tine station on the edge of the Masai country to keep their cattle and the consequent con- tamination out of Kenya." If such is the condition of the country today, we may well imagine what it was like eighty years ago, when the intrepid missionary began his labors in this wilderness of East Africa, for his work was largely in the Kenya Colony, along the coast, in the Ukamba territory, and westward into the mountainous section, of which we shall hear more in the next chapter. Krapf was ever restless and energetic, enter- taining far-reaching plans. He even saw in imagination a chain of mission stations across the entire continent, thus connecting East and West Africa. When Rebmann joined Krapf, they decided to establish a mission station at Rabbai Mpia, a Wanika village not far from the seacoast. In October of the same year they had so far finished a house as to allow their living in it, and Krapf remarked in a letter: "Every true friend of Christ's kingdom must rejoice over this mission, for it is the first step in the way to the heart of Africa. We have secured a position whence the unexplored regions of the interior can be reached and the ancient bulwarks of Satan assailed by the messengers of Christ." 93 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF It was not an easy matter to bring Chris- tianity and civilization to the natives of East Africa. Though the people seemed keenly alive to the material advantage of having Europeans among them, they were perfectly indifferent to the truths which these men taught. The natives were inveterate beggars; the mission house constantly looked like a shop filled with customers, of whom none, however, had any intention to pay. The missionaries quite natur- ally felt the difficulty in dealing with the re- quests of the people. If they consented to give them everything they asked for, the result would be an increase in avarice. Besides it looked too much like bribing the natives to become Christians. On the other hand, if they refused every request, it would lead the heathen to conclude that, although the white teachers spoke a great deal of love and self-denial, they themselves did not practice these virtues. Krapf was inclined to be liberal in his gifts, because he argued that, although the mission- ary cannot ordinarily heal the sick and raise the dead, he can at least perform deeds of love, humility, patience, and self-sacrifice, so that the natives would almost be obliged to ask themselves: "How is it that the missionary 94 { JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF ]g submits to so much on our account, and does us so much kindness?" Like many other missionaries, Krapf in the early period of his work thought it necessary to spend much time it attacking the false be- liefs and superstitious practices of the people. As a consequence, the simple presentation of Christian truth and the salvation through Christ was somewhat pushed into the back- ground. With regard to this point he himself says : "I have a conviction that for some time past I have argued too much against the heathen customs and practices of the Wanika, for their abominations excited my indignation ; but I ought to preach to them more of the love of Jesus for the lost and erring slaves of Satan. I must pity them more and speak to them more pitifully, and sympathizingly." When the first convert was made, this served as an encourage- ment, for the poor cripple gave evidence that the Christian truth was a real power in his life. And what is more, the poor cripple was the means of bringing to the missionaries an- other native, who eventually became a true Christian worker among his countrymen. Krapf was not the man to rest long in one station and to be contented with a gradual building up of one congregation. He had 95 gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPP ambitious plans for the extension of mission work in Africa, and he attempted several times to penetrate farther into the interior. He visited Usambara, to the southwest, in 1848, and the land of the Wakamba the following year. In both places he received a friendly welcome from the chiefs and the natives, and everything seemed favorable for the extension of mission work. When twelve years of labor in Africa had passed away, broken by occasional trips to Europe, Krapf thought the time was come to make a longer visit in the home country, partly for rest and change, and partly to arouse a greater interest in African missions. During his stay in Europe, he secured the promise of three further missionaries and three artisans to strengthen the African mission station. With the missionaries he hoped eventually to place two stations farther into the interior, and by the aid of the artisans he intended to carry out a plan which he had long had in mind, the establishment of a Christian colony. When he left Europe, the outlook for mission work in East Africa was at its brightest. With him were two missionaries, Pfefferle and Dihlmann, together with three mechanics. But on reaching Aden, Dihlmann who had scruples about con- -gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF )- necting himself with the Church Missionary Society, remained at Aden. The next blow came when the little company of men arrived at Rabbai, for Rebmann and Erhardt, who had previously fully agreed to Krapf's plans, were found to be opposed to further extension, with- out first laying a firm base of operations on the coast. In theory they were undoubtedly right, but Krapf thought that a disinclination to meet dangers and hardships was the chief factor in their opposition to his forward movement. There also grew up an unbrotherly estrange- ment between Rebmann and Erhardt on the one side, and the three mechanics, on the other, resulting in much trouble to Krapf, who found it a difficult task to deal with both parties. It was not long before the three artisans, together with Pfefferle were stricken with fever; of which the latter died after an illness of a few weeks ; thus trouble upon trouble seemed to fall on the head of Krapf. Yet he wrote to Dr. Barth in June, 1851, the following noble, even prophetic words : "And now let me look back- ward and forward. In the past what do I see? Scarcely more than the remnant of a defeated army. You know I had the task of strength- ening the East African Mission with three missionaries and three handicraftsmen; but 97 JOHN LUDWIG RRAPF }*- where are the missionaries? One remained in London, as he did not consider himself ap- pointed to East Africa ; the second remained at Aden, in doubt about the English Church; the third, Pfefferle, died on May 10th of nervous fever, into which the country fever had devel- oped. As to the mechanics, they are ill of fever, lying between life and death, and instead of being a help to me and to Brothers Rebmann and Erhardt, look to us for help and attention ; and yet I stand by my assertion that Africa must be conquered by missionaries ; there must be a chain of mission stations between the east and west, though thousands of the combatants fall upon the left hand and ten thousand on the right. . . . From the sanctuary of God a voice says to me, "Fear not ; life comes through death, resurrection through decay, the establish- ment of Christ's kingdom through the dis- comfiture of human undertakings. Instead of allowing yourself to be discouraged at the de- feat of your force, go to work yourself. Do not rely on human help, but on the living God, to whom it is all the same to save by little or much. Do what you can in the strength of God, and leave the result in His hands. Believe, love, fight, be not weary for His name's sake, and you will see the glory of God.' 98 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF "Now when I heard this voice I could ac- company my departed brother to the grave in the conviction that in spite of this the Lord's work in Africa must and will advance. . . . It does not matter if I fail entirely ; the Lord is King, and will carry out His purpose in His own time." Soon after the death of his assistant Krapf made a journey to Ukambani, about 100 miles from Rabbai, to establish a further station; but the journey ended in disaster. While he was travelling in company with a friendly chief, a superior force attacked the chief's party. The chief himself was slain, his followers scattered, and the missionary found himself abandoned by friend and foe. There was nothing left for him to do but to retrace his steps, and after much suffering from hunger and thirst, he at last reached one of the villages of the Wakamba in the state of complete exhaustion. He sus- pected that the villagers had designs upon his life, and so he stole away at night to travel to Yata, but the difficulties of the way, in which he advanced only six miles in three nights, determined him to return to the Wakamba village and to surrender to the natives. "Kill me if you will," he said, "but you must take the consequences." On the other hand, if they JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }>- allowed him to live in peace, he promised to give them a portion of the property he had left behind at Yata. To this they agreed, and, after Krapf had reached Yata and made good his promise, he returned to the coast with some men of the Wanika tribe, arriving at Rabbai after nine days' travelling, to the great joy of his fellow-laborers, to whom reports of his death had been brought. The following year he paid another visit to Usambara, but, war hav- ing broken out, he was compelled to return with- out accomplishing anything toward the estab- lishment of a mission. Since his health now made another visit to Europe necessary, Krapf left Africa in 1853 for his native land. At this time he also visited England, bringing to the committee of the Church Missionary Society glowing accounts of the lands through which he had travelled, and telling of the need of missionary work and of its possibilities. He declared that, while the East coast was unhealthy, the plateau coun- try father to the west had a delightful climate, and the tribes were friendly. He urged that the work of the mission should be extended further afield. In the same year Krapf, on his way to East 100 -if JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF fr- Africa, visited Jerusalem to confer with Samuel Gobat, who was now the Anglican bishop in that city. When these two men, during their conversation, got out their maps of Africa, and when Krapf gave the older man some account of his experiences among the Abys- sinians, Gobat, who was very well acquainted with Abyssinia himself, made the remark, "Why not link up Jerusalem with Gondar and build a road of mission stations named after the apostles ?" So it was planned, and so it was done, this being the beginning of the under- taking which resulted in the "Apostle Street" to Abyssinia. This is what Krapf himself said about the plan : "I have been appointed the secretary of a special committee connected with the missionary institution at Chrischona, for the purpose of locating twelve mission stations along the banks of the Nile, from Alexandria to Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, whence other sta- tions will be established towards the South-East and West of Africa, as it shall please Providence to show the way and point out the requisite men. This line of twelve stations will be termed 'The Apostle Street,' as each station will be fifty leagues distant from each other, and will be called by the name of an Apostle. For instance, the station at Alexandria will be named after St. Matthew, the station at Cairo St. Mark, at Assuan St. Luke." 101 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF In accordance with the plan thus made, the institute of St. Chrischona sent out numbers of men, and it was not long before some eight to ten stations were actually established, namely at Alexandria, at Cairo, at Assiut (Asyut), at Luxor, at Berber, at Khartum (Khartoum), and at Beni Shongul, close to the border of the Abyssinian mountains. But Krapf's plan went even farther than this, for he intended to link up this chain of mission stations with a second chain extending from Mombasa to the Niger River in West Africa. This was to be the great cross of mission stations, and Krapf had cor- rectly concluded that such a chain of stations would be necessary if the Christian mission- aries were to hold back the progress of the Mohammedan invasion. The wisdom of Krapf's plan has become increasingly evident, and it is a fortunate thing that the stations of the var- ious missions are now found from Kenya and Uganda on the east to Belgian Congo and French Equatorial Africa on the west, extend- ing even to the Gold Coast, to Sierra Leone, and to Senegal. When Krapf left Palestine, he set out for East Africa, taking Abyssinia on his way. His purpose was by an interview with the king to revive the mission in that country. A new 102 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF )- companion had joined Krapf in his journeys, namely Martin Flad of the St. Chrischona In- stitute. When these two men journeyed across the desert that lies between the Nile and Abys- sinia, under the hot tropical sun, mounted on their camels, with their Arabs singing by their side, Flad would call out from time to time, "Say, Krapf, see yonder that convenient bush !" They would slip down from the backs of their camels, and while the caravan journeyed on- wards, they would kneel and pour out their hearts in prayer to God that the good news of the Savior might before long be carried to the many peoples in the heart of Africa who had never heard of Him. In Krapf's writings on Abyssinia, the fol- lowing notes are among the most interesting. "Jan hoi! Jan hoi! (0 King! O King!) is the call with which the natives of Abyssinia approach their ruler. It was this title (Jan hoi) which in the 15th Century, when the Portuguese first came- to Western Africa, led to the report of the great king Prester John (Jan) ruling in East Africa." The quaint ideas of the Abyssinian priests and their interpretations of Scripture are exemplified in these quotations: "Alaca Wolda Hann gave me some proofs of their skill in explaining Scripture. 'The foxes have holes 103 JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }-- and the birds of the air have nests' (Matt. 8, 20) he explained. 'Those foxes are kings and governors who seek earthly things, but the birds are the priests and bishops who fly to heaven in their prayers and holy functions.' "Furthermore (Matthew 5, 29) 'If thy right eye,' etc. Of this he said, 'The eye is the wife, the hand the servant and the right eye the child.' When I told him the way in which we explained this passage he replied, 'That is one sense. We are fond of many senses of Scripture.' I then showed him the foolish and bad consequences of their explaining the Word of God, and that God would become displeased with them if they sub- stituted two or more senses, just as the King of Shoa would become angry if his people were to give some other meaning to his orders. "No Christian people upon earth are so rigid in their fastings as the Abyssinians. They fast in all nine months out of twelve every Friday and Wed- nesday throughout the year, then again forty days before Easter, twenty-five days after Trinity, fourteen days in August, twenty-five before Advent, and on other occasions. "Many of them believe that the Virgin Mary died for the sins of the world, and saved 144,000 souls. From the Abyssinian point of view the means to ex- piate sins are alms-giving, fasting, monastic vows, reading sermons, etc. They are extreme monotheists, for they admit only one nature and one will in Christ." "A great discussion has been going on among the church leaders in that country concerning the threefold birth of the Son of God: 104 ~*i JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF "(1st Birth) Begotten of the Father before all the Worlds, (2nd Birth) Became man in time, (3rd Birth) Was baptized in Jordan." The attempt to open up Abyssinia at this time again resulted in failure, and Krapf, in- stead of returning to Egypt by way of the Red Sea, chose the road by the Nile Valley. This journey so told upon his weak health that, on arriving in Egypt, he had to embark for Europe. Although he was barely forty-five years old, the tropics had so affected his health that an immediate return to East Africa was not to be thought of. As a matter of fact, Krapf now remained in Europe for several years, and his later journeys to Africa did not keep him there for many years at a time. 105 CHAPTER VII FURTHER JOURNEYS OF KRAPF AND SOME EXPLORATIONS IN THE MOUNTAIN COUNTRY CHAPTER VII FURTHER JOURNEYS OF KRAPF AND SOME EX- PLORATIONS IN THE MOUNTAIN COUNTRY One cannot study the life of Krapf and his associates without taking into account the im- mense amount of travelling which was done by these men under conditions which were far from comfortable, and in no way measured up to the travelling with conveniences to which we have become accustomed. For one thing Krapf made many journeys between Europe and Africa. In 1848 to 1849 Krapf made his third journey to the Dark Continent. It was at this time that he became acquainted with some of the possibilities of exploration in the interior, of which we shall speak at some length in this chapter. In 1851 to 1852 Krapf made his fourth journey, and this time he extended his travels to the Tanganyika country, and also to Galaland. In his book on "Travels and Missionary Labors in East Africa" he describes some of his experiences in the interior. He writes: "I was once in great danger of being sacrificed because it had not rained for a long time, and the absence of rain was ascribed to 109 ( JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF fr- me, as if I could have hindered it from falling, and again, with no less haste, I was almost deified when, ater a long drought, there was a sudden fall of rain. It was ascribed to my walking on the soil." Of Krapf's visit to Eng- land, in 1854, we have already heard. The journey in 1857 was the fifth time that he visited East Central Africa. He was there twice more, from 1861 to 1865, and then again from 1866 to 1868. Thus he was in Africa seven separate times, and on the last trip he journeyed with the British Expedition from Suakim to liberate the missionaries then im- prisoned by Thodorus, the Menelik of Abys- sinia. His real reason for being in East Africa at this time, was because the Methodist Free Churches had requested him to accompany their missionaries Woolner and Wakefield, to Africa, and to assist them in starting a mission. He consented, and after seeing Wakefield settled at Ribe, the new station, after illness had driven Woolner back to Europe, Krapf also went back, his health not permitting a long stay. Of the new station he remarked: "The station Ribe will in due time celebrate the triumph of the mission in the conversion of the Wanika, though I may be in the grave. The Lord does not allow His word to return to Him void, although often no ~gf JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF }s our own despondent hearts and the unbelieving opponents of mission will say, You are laboring in vain." We have here one of the unionistic utterances which are occasionally found in Krapf 's writings. When Krapf joined the British Expedition, as an interpreter, their object was to reach the capital of Abyssinia. As a matter of fact, the campaign was successful in its military object. But a military expedition to save Christian missionaries has never yet done any good. It may save the lives of the men concerned, but it closes the door to the hearts of the people. As a result of this expedition, which Kraft was obliged to leave on account of ill health, before it had reached its destination, the missionaries were withdrawn ; the fanaticism of the Moham- medans undermined the work in Egypt, and thus, with the main purpose gone in Abyssinia, one after another of the stations along the Nile was abandoned. Krapf's plan was too arti- ficial at that time, and some of his stations have not been re-opened to this day. An atlas and a map are not sufficient guides for spiritual work, just as no spiritual experiences can be bought with all the riches in the world. After the campaign the ancient country of Prester John was closed to foreign missions, and it was many ill 6f JOHN LUDWIG KRAPF years before any advance in this neighborhood could again be made, as we shall see in the last chapter. One of the most interesting features of Krapf's labors, as indicated by his extensive journeys, was his work as explorer and geog- rapher, a work for which he inspired other men as well. It was in April, 1848, that Rebmann, a faithful associate of Krapf in his work in East Africa, started for the distant region of Jagga, of which strange rumors had come to the ears of the missionaries. To penetrate the wilderness at that time meant to leave behind even the last vestige of civilized conveniences, but the plan of Krapf to explore the interior for a chain of mission stations was like a driving force in all his work. On May llth, when Rebmann was still a day's journey from the village of Taveta, he made the following simple entry in his diary: "This morning, at ten o'clock, we obtained a clearer view of the mountains of Jagga, the summit of one of which was covered by what looked like a beautiful white cloud. When I inquired as to the dazzling whiteness, the guide merely called it 'cold,' and at once I knew it could be neither more nor less than snow. . . . Immediately I understood how to interpret the marvellous tales Dr. Krapf 112