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Frederick Stanley Arnot (12
September 1858 – 14 May 1914) was a British missionary who did much to
establish missions in what are now Angola, Zambia and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC).
PREFACE
I HESITATED long as to
the form the Life of Arnot should take, alternating between a
descriptive narrative amL a transcript of his diaries and letters. As I
read and re-read these I felt something of the spell that the diaries'
of David Brainerd, Henry Martyn, and Murray McCheyne have exercised over
so many, and I felt that it would be better for the most part to allow
Arnot to tell his own story. So I have made a plentiful use of his own
words, believing that the result of combining the two methods will be
the addition to our literature of a story that will be both interesting
from a narrative point of view, and stimulating and inspiring from the
devotional standpoint. In the use of letters I have not specified,
except on occasions when I have deemed it necessary, to whom they were
addressed.
Arnot must be reckoned, not only amongst the greatest saints and
missionaries of modern times, but also amongst its greatest travellers.
He made nine journeys to the centre of Africa. Without reckoning the
tens of thousands of miles that he had to travel on the ocean to get to
Africa and back, without counting the journeys around the coast from
port to port, and without including the long distances he was able to go
in the latter part of his life by train over railways that had then been
built, it is estimated that he covered 29,000 miles in all by foot, in
hammocks, on the back of donkeys or oxen, or in canoes. This is a record
that has probably never been surpassed in Africa, and it is doubtful if
many have equalled it in other parts of the world.
I am greatly indebted to the hearty co-operation of Mrs. Arnot, the
widow of F. S. Arnot, for the loan of diaries, letters, and other
papers, and for numerous articles and booklets written by Arnot from
time to time. Mrs. Arnot’s counsel has been invaluable in deciding what
to include and what to eliminate.
Some of the material has of necessity appeared already in Arnot’s
principal books, Garenganze, Bihe and Garenganze, and Missionary Travels
in Central Africa, and grateful acknowledgment is hereby made both to
Mrs. Arnot and the publishers of these works for permission to use the
material contained therein.
Miss Ray Arnot, Arnot’s eldest daughter, who assisted him in his later
years in his literary work and correspondence, has been a great help in
correcting place-names.
Then a word must be said for the great traveller’s mother, Mrs. Arnot,
who is still alive, and, at the time of writing, is eighty-six years of
age. She resides in Glasgow and has followed with great interest the
progress of this Biography, and has trusted letters of her son to the
mercy of the seas, infested in war time with the deadly submarine.
Glimpses of him, in a tenderer and more vivid light, can thus be given
to the public than could be obtained from a perusal of his journals and
letters, which were written with a view to publication.
ERNEST BAKER.
Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Life & Explorations of
Frederick Stanley Arnot
The Authorised Biography of a zealous missionary, intrepid explorere &
self-denying beneactor amongst the natives of Africa by Ernest Baker
(1921) (pdf)
Missionary Travels in Central
Africa
By F.S. Arnot, with Introduction by W. H. Bennet (1914) (pdf) |
