Edgar Anthony Low, Union Street, [London,] to the Committee of the Baptist Mission Society, [Baptist Mission House, London], 2 November 1842.

To the Committee of the Baptist Mission Society

      It having been intimated to me that a practicable Man for the penetration of Africa in connexion with their Mission at Fernando Po would have their serious consideration if it did not recieve [sic] their approbation and support, I respectfully submit the following to them. It is to endeavour to reach Kernuk on the Shary river, the chief town in the Kingdom of Loggun by proceeding in a North Easterly direction from the Old Calabar river, through the Mandara Kingdom, or up the Jehadda river, according as circumstances would permit

      The objects which I should have in view are these.

I. The opening a communication wherever practicable with the various places I should pass through for the establishment of Xtian mission stations and the reception of Native Teachers

II. The collecting information of the country for the purpose of drawing attention and exerting interest towards it.

III. The establishment of a Mission at Kernuk. I will take the liberty of offering a few remarks on the desirableness of selecting this part of the country and making Kernuk the object for a mission tho no doubt most of them will have already occurred or are known to the committee.

I.   It is above 600 miles from the coast and yet places you almost in the heart of Africa.

II. The following extracts from Major Denham’s Travels in Africa  Speaking of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Loggun he says “they are any one’s people who can gain an influence over them and appeared to care as little about the Mohammedan form of religion as we did ourselves it is a very populous country—Kernuk has 15, 000 inhabitants at least. They have a metal currency. The first which he had seen in Negroland  They are a much handsomer race than the Borneoese and far more intelligent. They are very industrious and labour at the loom very regularly—in one house I saw 5 looms at work. The market which is held every evening and well supplied with the necessaries of life for which they exchange their various manufactures. Kernuk itself is more healthy than any other part of the banks of the Shary—and in another place he says they are a remarkable healthy goodworking race and in the immediate neighbourhood of the great river (the Shary) some of the towns are extremely healthy.”

III. Its contiguity and communication with Begharmi. The language spoken being almost the same and one half the inhabitants natives of that Kingdom.

      Some of the committee may think it too near the Mohammedan line of countries but even Fundah which is much more so is supposed by Mr Iain out of 36, 000 inhabitants to have 9/10ths pagans.

      How is the country to be reached and the others passed through. So far as I have directed my attention to this subject, it will be necessary to form a small expedition of 3 or 4 persons acquainted with the language spoken of the countries we should pass through. The expedition to be prepared to travel by land or water as opportunity offered. The journey overland from Old Calabar to the Ichadda must be performed on foot as there are no means of conveyance—natives might be lured to convey whatever articles were required to be taken to be used as a medium of exchange, for food and other things we might require and should be able to procure—

      When we reached the Ichadda the difficulties of conveyance would be very much diminished the river would afford one means by purchasing a strong large canoe or land traveling might be had recourse to if the advantages were found to be greater.

      I may here say that in traveling through countries little known it is almost impossible to say how you are to do so till you arrive on the spot. When the best means of doing so which present themselves would have to be made use of—I respectfully refer the committee to the following Societies Individuals and papers

the Royal Geographical Society
African Civilization Society
Wesleyan Mission Society
Edward Robinson LLD of New York

Revd L. P. Balch of New York
Sir Fowler Buxton
Col. Nicolls
Revd Robert Moffat

to some letters and papers in the hands of our respectful Secretary the Rev J. Angus with two of the Revd Balch’s

                                          With Xtian respect

                                                            I remain

                                                                              Edgar Anthony Low

Nov 2. 1842

P.S. The journies of Mr Campbell and Freeman shew what may be done as regards the difficulty of traveling in Africa. The former is 700 miles from Cape Town—and both had their full share of difficulties.

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 264-67 (annotated version); also MAW, Box 39 (BMS 1759), John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Low (see his letter of July 1841 above) was still pursuing his objective of becoming a missionary, had now become a Baptist.

Dixon Denham (1786-1828) was the author of Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa: in the Years 1822, 1823, and 1824 (1826). The African Civilization Society was formed in 1840, largely due to the efforts of Thomas Fowell Buxton, (1786-1845), Anglican M.P., philanthropist, prison reformer, supporter of the Bible Society, and avid opponent of slavery. The missionary wing of the Methodist church was formed at Leeds in October 1813, largely as a result of the work of Dr. Thomas Coke, who died while leading the first Methodist mission to Ceylon in 1814. By the early 1840s, Methodist missionaries were working in India, South Africa, Australia, and along the western coast of Africa.

Other references above are to Travels in South Africa, Undertaken at the Request of the Missionary Society (1815) by the Scottish missionary, John Campbell; and Journal of Two Visits to the Kingdom of Ashanti, in Western Africa (1843) and Journal of Various Visits to the Kingdoms of Ashanti, Aku, and Dahomi (1844) by Thomas Birch Freeman (1809-90), a pioneering Methodist missionary to Africa.