The Arabs have so harassed the districts round the lake, that mission work is very difficult and trying; but when the steamer is complete, a station will be built at the south-eastern corner of the lake, which will be the terminus of the Stevenson Road. In the meanwhile, progress with the language is being made.
Thus, in spite of toil and difficulty, privations and losses, the continent is been attacked from the east coast, and in less than ten years the best strategic points have been occupied.
Neither has there been any crowding of several missions on one spot. The field is large, and each of the great societies is far apart from the other, but so arranged that between them the best points and most practicable lines have been taken.
The same policy is being carried out on the south-west coast. The Baptist Missionary Society have been established in the Cameroons district since 1845; and four hundred miles further to the south, the American (North) Presbyterian Church carries on the mission founded in 1842 at the Gaboon. Neither of these missions have been able to make much progress into the interior, and each has been lately brought almost to a standstill by the harsh and arbitrary action of European Governments.
Three years ago, the French Governor of the Gaboon made a law that there should be no instruction in the native language. Everything was to be on the lines of the French normal schools; other harassing restrictions were made, calculated to close the Protestant schools, and the utmost has been done to drive out the American missionaries, and indeed all foreigners (traders, etc., other than French). The schools have been closed; but otherwise the foreigners have not been driven away. All are hoping for a better, more reasonable policy.