A geography and atlas of Protestant missions : their environment, forces, distribution, methods, problems, results and prospects at the opening of the twentieth century

Front matter

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^'geography and atlas of P?otestant missions

A GEOGRAPHY AND ATLAS OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS

Preface

The present work is the twenty-third in a series of text-books that have been pubHshed since 1894 for the use of students in the institutions of higher learning of North America. As those for whom the books are primarily prepared are members of study classes conducted by the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, their needs have determined the typographical peculiarities and the selection of material here found.

The general aim of the present volume is to present in Part I of each chapter facts bearing on the geography, ethnography and religions of the country under discussion, thus placing the reader in possession of the main elements in the missionary's environment. Part II follows with a statement of the missionary force, work and outlook. This part of each chapter is a present-day survey only.

Volume II is a royal quarto. It contains, in addition to the maps especially prepared for this work, an index to mission stations and the statistics of more than four hundred independent and auxiliary societies. Its size makes it possible to present on a single page extended tables, as well as to print far larger maps than could appear in a volume as small as this one. Unlike the missionary maps printed hitherto by the Volunteer Movement and by most missionary societies, in which few towns except those occupied by missionaries appear, these maps are purposely made full in order to give some conception of the land yet to be possessed. The Station Index is likewise as

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valuable as it is unique. So far as the author knows the literature, nothing- of the sort has ever appeared.

A superficial examination of the present volumes will reveal the differences between them and other works of somewhat similar scope. Usually these are prepared for the use of a single society, and even the most extensive and valuable publication of the class, " The Church Missionary Atlas," 1896, confines its letter-press and maps almost solely to its own operations and fields. Ecumenical volumes, such, for example, as Dean Vahl's " Missionsatlas med Forklaring," 1883-86, and Grundemann's " Kleine Missions-Geographie und -Statistik," 1901, have to do with the work of the larger societies only. Still others are either statistical and cartographical, like Dr. Dennis's " Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions," 1902, or cartographical alone, as Grundemann's " Neuer Missionsatlas," 1896. In so far as those volumes describe missionary operations, the treatment is largely historical, little attention being paid to the present status of missionary effort. Much space is given to statistics of stations occupied, societies engaged and the results of missionary effort.

The present work includes the operations of a larger number of societies than are found in any other publication, except Dr. Dennis's ; but, unlike his volume, it contains extended descriptions of the various fields and concise accounts of the present missionary status and outlook. While it gives in its Station Index more data with regard to the work of the various stations throughout the world than are found in any other volume, thousands of criticisms from students and professors, received during the past six years, have practically banished such details from the descriptive volume. These friends object to being obliged to read barren and categorical lists of towns, societies, station statistics, etc., though they acknowledge their value in tabular form. The absence of the critical element, which makes Dr. Warneck's writings so valuable, was necessitated by the lack of space. The same necessity has prevented anything more than the barest reference to the fascinating and

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instructive history of the planting and development of Protestant missions in the various fields. The reader is referred for such material to Warneck's " History of Protestant Missions," 1901, or to text-books published by the Volunteer Movement on the leading missionary countries.

The reader will likewise note that, unlike writers of the Continental school, the author includes missionary operations among the Catholic populations of Latin America. In Volume II, statistics of Protestant missionary societies laboring in the Papal countries of Europe are likewise included, for the reason that an account of these societies would be incomplete without statistical reference, at least, to missions among communities that are not deemed proper mission fields by some distinguished writers.

On the other hand, no reference is here made to labors for the colored population of the United States, though both Dr. Grundemann and Professor Warneck consider them as falling within the province of the " Heidenmission." While admitting the inconsistency which Dr. Warneck points out of including the colored population of the West Indies and omitting the negroes of the United States, it may still be said that when the Protestant colored churches of only six denominations have a membership of 3,314,581, thirty-eight per cent. of the entire colored population according to the census of 1900, — a far larger proportion of church members than prevails among the whites, — they can hardly be considered as included in the list of heathen, notwithstanding their African ancestry.

Another feature of Volume I will probably be criticised, namely, the large amount of space given to quotations. This is intentional. As no one writer can by any possibility personally visit all the mission fields of the world and thus become competent, in a sense, to give first-hand views concerning them, the author has in lieu thereof attempted to secure information from the most reliable sources. Instead of burdening the volume with footnotes acknowledging the hun-

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dreds of sources consulted, he has adopted the expedient of freely using quotation marks and giving in Appendices A and B most of the authorities that have been consulted. Part II of the various chapters owes much to the nearly two hundred missionaries from different parts of the world, whose names were suggested by their societies and who have so kindly and freely furnished the author with most valuable information. He hereby acknowledges his great indebtedness and gratitude to these workers who are in the thick of the fight. He is even more indebted to the nearly three hundred missionary societies that have so generously furnished him with detailed statistics, as well as with printed reports of their recent work.

December, igoi.