| Level | Item |
| Finding Number (Click this to view full catalogue structure) | CMS/B/OMS/C A1 E2/2a [2] |
| Title | Letter from Rev. L. Butscher to J. Pratt: 30 June 1809: Fantimania |
| Extent | 1 doc. |
| Date | 1809 |
| Description | Sends journal after delay. Not every trader to S. L. can be trusted and $4-6 a day is the cost of hiring a boat. He feels the mission needs its own craft. Communication is easier on the Rio Pongas.
Butscher left Bashia in Apr and now has 8 boys in care, the Renner's having 5 boys and 8 girls, 6 of them "mulattos" [historic term] (traders' children) and 2 natives. Fantimani [William] wants instruction for several girls but is unwilling to send them to 'the coloured school' at Bashia and urges Butscher to find a wife to teach them. CMS has not answered Butscher's request for one.
The traders can usually support their children but the native children must be fed and clothed while being taught "white man's book" and "white man's good fashion", English being the medium until missionaries speaking Susu arrive. Butscher would resign his present post to someone speaking better English while he studied Susu; perhaps one the 4 coming recruits would free him. |
| Notes | This entry’s description has been retrospectively altered, expanded upon, or elements removed, where historic offensive or derogatory language has been identified as part of the Cadbury Research Library’s equitable cataloguing project, 2024-2026. |
| Access Conditions | For preservation reasons, microfilm or digital copies are made available in place of the original documents. |
| Access Status | Open, but subject to some access restrictions |
| Physical Description | E2: The numbers are original numbers and the first 17 documents bear either one or two crossed-out numbers as well. Several numbers are missing and so marked and several documents had been previously transferred to other series and are so marked. |