| Description | A CMS deputation, accompanied by Maxwell has had a favourable interview with Lord Bathurst to press the government to build a church and to sanction CMS care of all captured children with rations allowed. Gen. Neville is preparing a memorial requesting this. Bathurst was told of MacCarthy's grant of land and CMS plans for the Christian Institution, including plots for settlement, and cultivation by liberated adults of good character, on the lines of the Moravian settlement in S. Africa.
Butscher is urged to do likewise at Canoffee, having first purchased land, making sure the transfer is well attested and the boundaries registered by S. L. Maxwell thinks the chiefs would not object provided liberated slaves were the labour. Pratt hopes cultivated produce would largely support the outlay. Renner should be in charge, Wenzel and Klein translators and evangelists, Harrison and elder boys keep school and the women aid in their usual way. Bashia could remain an evangelising centre.
The same plan should be followed at Gambier, land being purchased from Fernandez on terms favourable to him, as recognition of his help and part compensation for his losses in the stopping of the slave trade. A few sheep, goats and pigs should be kept. Fernandez should be presented with best bound Arabic bibles for himself and friends. |