2 volume set. First edition.
Publishers decorative cloth with gilt and black title and vignette on both the covers and the spines.
Rough-cut page edges with many pages remaining uncut. Decorative endpapers.
Volume one contains chapters on material culture, arts,
religion, laws, language, while volume two contains
short histories and accounts of travel and the author's travel
and life at Blantyre.
Volume I. Native Customs and Beliefs.
xvi, [i], 301 pages + frontispiece.
Full-page plates + in-text illustrations.
Volume II. Mission Life.
ix, [i], 371 pages
Full-page plates + in-text illustrations.
Many pages remain uncut.
Duff Macdonald was the first ordained missionary of the Church of Scotland to central Africa. While his tenure on the mission field was brief and tumultuous, it laid the foundation of a Presbyterian mission that would significantly impact the development of Christianity in southern Malawi.
From the preface:
Heathen Africa is a wide world, but not so wide as might at first sight appear. A large part of the continent has been reached by Mahommedanism, and Christian Missions are everywhere making bold inroads, so that the portion of Africa left entirely to the light of nature is less than is often supposed.
My main object is to contribute to a better understanding of the African heathen, and the reader acquainted with books on the “dark continent” will perceive that the greater part of the information given in these pages is entirely new. My knowledge was gained while I worked in the African Mission field. Unfortunately I arrived at the scene of my labours to find that the Directors of the Mission had set up a peculiar Civil Administration which, as might have been expected, soon gave rise to great difficulties. Hence, although I was labouring with increasing success, and daily gaining the confidence of the natives,
I was suddenly recalled by the Directors. Although no longer privileged to labour in Africa, I have still the deepest sympathy with its people, and am led to publish these volumes in the hope of stimulating Christians to more hearty endeavours in behalf of this dark land.
A knowledge of these Africans is interesting for its own sake. Besides, we cannot believe that God has maintained such multitudes of human beings for so many generations without our being able to learn lessons from them.
- Binding Condition: Good
- Overall Condition: Fair
- Size: 230 x 155 mm
