Page:The future of Africa.djvu/149

that as the Republic is growing in itself, so likewise it is telling upon the interests of theaboriginal population. I have already referred,incidentally, to this topic. I wish, however, to call attention more distinctly to one or two facts which will show more strikingly the work we are doing among our uncivilized kin in Africa, Our diffusion of the English language illustrates this point. A mighty number of native children have been brought up in our colonist families and in mission-schools. ]iany of these, it is true, on reaching their majority, return to country homes; but they carry with them good English utterance; in many cases capacity to read and write; in all cases many of the elements of civilization. I have had native boys working for me, who when they wished any article from their distant towns, would write an English note, in as good style as myself; and yet they dressed and were living in native style. Their habits, civilized necessities, and acquired wants assimilate to ours. Vessels sailing from American ports loaded with provisions, on reaching our coast, find a ready market in native towns, as well as among our civilized settlers. They buy meat, and fish, and sugar, and molasses, as well as cloth, tobacco, and beads. And thus, in these and various other ways, our different settlements are diffusing a civilizing influence among our native population, and gradually bringing them up to our standard of civility. There is also another large class of natives who live among us constantly: the youth who have been apprenticed to our families, have grown up in our midst, and who have been brought, more or less thoroughly, into