The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 19

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

19

honorary member of your society.” After about
six years of arduous and adventurous experiences
in his heroic efforts to plant mission-stations among
the debased natives of extreme southern South
America, he died of starvation in the month of
September, 1851, in Spanish Harbor. But even
with starvation staring him in the face and while
dying because of the ingratitude of those whom he
wished to save, Gardiner left behind him an earnest
prayer that the work he had begun might be con-
tinued. The sad fate of Gardiner and his faithful
‘companions aroused England to great missionary
activity and helped much to make the last century
the beginning of a new epoch in the development
of missions.
Present. Missionary Work.

Merely referring to pioneer missionaries of the
first half of the last century and to the self-denying
labors of the many Bible colporteurs who have
sought to spread the Word of Life in every country
of South America, let us now turn our attention
to the present missionary situation in our sister
continent.

Our own Church has been working among the
immigrants of German extraction for years, espe-
cially in Brazil and Argentina. Our own Synodical
Conference, in particular, has been doing very suc-
cessful work in the two countries mentioned for the
last quarter-century. Contrary to the general be-
lief, our brethren have also worked in the Portu-
guese and Spanish languages for years, and have
even begun promising work among the Negroes of
Brazil.

While proselyting among Christians of other

South American Mission Church and Parsonage.

denominations is a most reprehensible way of doing
missionary work and for this reason deserves severe
condemnation, the nominal “Christianity” of the
Roman Catholics in South American countries is of
such a nature and the majority of nominal members

take such an attitude toward the Roman Church
that missionary work among them can only be com-
mended in most instances. To such an extent have

Roman priests adapted the doctrines, ceremonies,

Doctor Pfotenhauer and Two South American
Missionaries.

and symbols of their Church to the religious tra-
ditions and notions of the native Indians and others
that nothing but the mere husk of Christianity any
longer remains.

So far, only the coast fringe of South American
countries has been reached by Christian mission-
aries, except where Lutheran workers have followed
immigrants deeper into the interior. For example,
the northern, central, and western parts of Brazil
have hardly been touched at all by evangelical mis-
sionary agencies. The greatest stretch of unevan-
gelized territory in the whole world lies in the
center of South America and includes Central and
Western Brazil and the interior of Venezuela, Co-
lombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay. In
this vast stretch of territory, about two thousand
miles long and from five hundred to fifteen hundred
miles wide, there are only two or three missionaries
at work. There are seven states in Northern Brazil
having millions of inhabitants without a single
Protestant worker. Colombia, which is ten times
as large as the State of New York, has only twelve
ordained missionaries for its six million inhabi-
tants. In Ecuador, three times the size of Ohio,
there isn’t a single Protestant mission. ._In Chile
are a few very promising missions. In the cities of
Uruguay the Methodists and Baptists are doing
aggressive work. In Uruguay is a colony of Italian
Waldensians numbering over 6,000 people, which is
exerting a wholesome influence over a wide terri-
tory. In Paraguay missionary work has scarcely