th avidity by the
credulous multitude." And he adds: "Those who profess the Mohammedan
faith among the negroes are as ignorant and superstitious as their
idolatrous brethren; nor does it appear that their having adopted a new
creed has either improved their manners or bettered their condition in
life." Dr. Schweinfurth also describes the Mohammedan missionaries whom
he found at Khartoum as "polluted with every abominable vice which the
imagination of man can conceive of." In answer to various statements
which had been published in regard to the rapid missionary progress made
by Mohammedans in West Central Africa, Bishop Crowther wrote a letter to
the Church Missionary Society at the beginning of 1888, giving the
results of his own prolonged observation. He describes the methods used
as:

1. War upon the heathen tribes. "If the Chief of a heathen tribe accepts
the Koran his people are at once counted as converts and he is received
into favor, and is thus prepared to become an instrument in conquering
other tribes. But on the refusal to accept the Koran war is declared,
the destruction of their country is the consequence, and horrible
bloodshed. The aged, male and female, are massacred, while the salable
are led away as slaves. One half of the slaves are reserved by the
chief, the other half is divided among the soldiers to encourage them to
future raids."

2. Another cause of large increase is polygamy. "For although but four
lawful wives are allowed, there is unlimited license for concubinage."

3. The sale of charms is so conducted as to prove not only a means of
profit but a shrewd propaganda. "When childless women are furnished with
these, they are pledged, if successful, to dedicate their children to
Islam."

And Bishop Crowther verifies the statement made by others in reference
to East Africa, that the priests "besides being charm-makers are traders
both in general articles and more largely in slaves."[119]

We have only time to consider one question more, viz., What is the
character of Islam as we find it to-day, and what are its prospects of
development? It is a characteristic of our age that no religion stands
wholly alone and uninfluenced by others. It is especially true that the
systems of the East are all deeply affected by the higher ethics and
purer religious conceptions borrowed from Christianity. Thus many
Mohammedans of our day, and especially those living in close contact
with our Christian civili