A History of Protestant missions in the near East

388 History of Protestant Missions in the Near East
it
Originally was as little the intention of the Swedes to
proselytize, and to form congregations, as it was that of most
of the other Protestant missions among the ancient Churches.
Nevertheless, this has been rendered necessary by the opposition
and the persecuting spirit of the native ecclesiastical authorities.
In 1907 the congregations contained 1,061 members,
of whom 452 were communicants. In some villages, especially
in Shuma Negus, the Gospel has become a power among the
people.
In connection with the Swedes there is a man, highly
at work further south in Amhara
This is Debra
Mariam Tayeleny, a man of extraordinary parts, who has been
respected for his learning,
and Shoa, the central provinces of Abyssinia.
successful in representing the claims of Protestantism before
the Negus Menelik and the highest government and church
authorities.
In comparison with this " Abyssinian " mission, the so-called
" "
Tigr'e branch of the Swedish mission work is less prominent,
embracing now, as it does, only outposts in the low-lying torrid
plain of Massowa (especially at Monkullo) and at Geleb in the
district of Mensa, where the inhabitants, a savage, stolid tribe
of hardly 8,000 souls, are nominally Christian, but have been
slowly yet surely falling away to Islam. The Swedes have
also renewed their work in their first field among the Kunama
tribe there ; they have established a station in Kulluko, and
are engaged in building a second, in Auso Konoma. They
have also translated the Gospels into the language of the
country. But thus far no success can be reported.
We have already mentioned that, through the recommendation
of Dr. Krapf, the Swedes originally intended their mission
to be for the benefit of the Galla. The people
of this Hamitic
race, scattered over a large portion of Africa, are well grown
men of a warlike disposition, apparently also of mental talent,
and are not without political unity, though split up into
numerous nomadic hordes. Some of them in the north have,
under Abyssinian influence, embraced Christianity, though a
far larger number have been converted to Islam.
The tribes