"Dieterle from Akropong"

Not much time to learn Twi. School useful for him, becomes freer to preach in English (p 1). Palaver of a young man who wanted to kill his uncle by magic and the punishment he got (pp 1-2). Street preaching at Davu. Visit by Buafo, the second after the chief. Promise to send his son to school. Was presented with a pipe. Threatening bloodshed: The Akwapims had captured some Ashantis. The Asantehene sent a messenger to fetch them, otherwise to commit suicide before the Akwapims which would be a sign for war. The messenger did not succeed at Akropong and went to the governor, who came with 24 soldiers. When the Chief refused at first to give up the prisoners, he threatened to take the paramount chief to Christiansborg. Therefore the Akropongs all armed themselves, but bloodshed was avoided, since the palaver could be settled peacefully (p 2). There is hope with the 7 schoolboys of the top class but he does not rush them towards baptism. He wants them to be well founded in faith first. Baptism of the two Osu Carpenters on Pentecost. A boy from their school who would have been sold otherwise, bought free for 10 Rigsdaler and sent to Osu to learn shoemaking. He had been coming to school secretly the last days (p 3). Sakyiama had been privately teaching others. The boys he had been teaching came on the same evening he left to ask Dieterle that another schoolboy should teach them, to that he gladly agreed. Extracts from diary: June 9: Into bush to fetch shingles – children cheerfully singing hymns. June 16: People came to ask for pictures. He had none to spare, but Ashanti showed them the ones he uses in school and told them the biblical stories they represent. Schiedt and Stanger sick but recovering. News about other missionaries: Methodists recovered, Halleur sick with wife in Christiansborg where Schiedt cares for him. Gossner does not send out money for the missionaries. The two at Tantum suffering also from want. June 20: They wanted to have street preaching in Davu and to convince the children there, that they were not frightful people, they brought school children along. But since there were funeral customs going on, they could do nothing. In the next village (Awukugua) scarcely everybody was present, all having gone to their villages in the bush the people present were afraid of them (p 4). June 22: Going to Aburi to visit Meischel. Hold up by the Mamfe people who asked for a missionary and a school. June 25: Returning from Aburi. At Mamfe people crowd round him but had failed to talk over the matter with their chief. He said that he could not send them a teacher before they had trained some ourselves at Akropong. He has not much confidence in the teachers trained at Cape Coast, they have no good characters, are conceited and demand a huge salary without doing deep in their appreciating of the Bible. Without careful supervision they are useless. June 26: A Danish soldier came to mobilize the Akwapims against the Anglos who had besieged Seta fort because the governor wanted to stop their slave trade. War will only be avoided if the Anglos pay 1000 dollars indemnity. July 6: Exam of his children in presence of Widmann, Mrs. Widmann and Mohr. The children were given a little piece of cloth each (p 5). A snake in school, happily no child hurt. Freemann and Halleur came for a visit.

02.08.1847

02.08.1847

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6 pages