This is the name chosen by our brethren for the second conference organized in the West Indies. Our general meeting for the East Caribbean field was held in a tent in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The brethren are holding a series of tent meetings in this important center, having their tent pitched on a plat of ground just purchased for a church building.
In these island fields of the Caribbean, intercommunication is somewhat difficult, and the Lesser Antilles Islands were represented only by the workers from that group.
CHURCH AT ST. JOHNS, ANTIGUA
Members were present from the seven organized churches and other companies in Trinidad. These formed the nucleus for the conference organization. The three churches in Barbados, Antigua, and St. Thomas, and the eight churches in British Guiana were received into the conference, which thus has eighteen churches, with a total membership of about seven hundred and fifty.
Good reports were made of the work in the northern islands. In St. Thomas the people are preparing to erect a church building soon. Brother D. E. Wellman was able to report a very neat and commodious church building in St. Johns, Antigua. It had been quite a struggle to get a substantial work built up in Antigua, where I believe our work had its first beginning in these islands. But God has given the victory, and now that a live company holds the fort in St. Johns, the ministerial effort can soon be directed more generally toward other parts of the island, and even to other islands.
The workers in the new conference heartily join in the rallying call to push out into new fields, while the companies of believers are left with the responsibility of holding up the standard in the places already entered.
Brother E. Van Deusen, who has been working under the shadow of the volcano of La Soufriere, in the island of St. Vincent, reports a little company obedient to the faith. Before leaving them, he expects to have a small meeting-house erected, so that they shall be prepared to keep the light glowing.
The terrible scenes of the volcanic eruptions have seemed only to harden the hearts of the unbelieving. In fact, the preachers in the West Indies have very often led in scoffing at the idea that the judgments of the latter days are breaking over the earth. But in many minds these great calamities have served to emphasize the message that we bear.
Barbados is still under strict quarantine, on account of smallpox, and hence Brother W. A. Sweany and others from that island could not meet with us. The canvassers shut in by the quarantine have, however, done remarkably well in Barbados, we are told. This island is a sort of West Indian beehive, whose inhabitants are continually swarming over into other portions of the Caribbean. One meets the Barbadian on the South American mainland and in all the islands. Two of our preachers in Trinidad, formerly with the Methodists, are natives of Barbados.
The last year has been one of distinct progress in Trinidad. The canvassing work has been one of the most aggressive features here. The canvassers a year ago decided in council to put this work upon a good business basis, and have loyally co-operated with the directors in the effort to lift the book depository out of the difficulties which the former credit system had brought upon it. The Trinidad brethren have for some time been awaiting an opportunity to enter Venezuela, whose coasts lie just beyond the Gulf of Paria, which washes Trinidad's western shore. In normal times the island does much trade with the mainland. There are many English-speaking West Indians in Venezuela. Thus we have an open door into a country as yet absolutely unentered by us.
While our meetings were in progress, the powers raised the blockade of the Venezuelan ports, and the war-ships that had been patrolling the coast were gathering in the harbor of Port of Spain and other harbors, so that it may be hoped that one or two of our faithful Trinidad canvassers will soon be pioneering a new field with our literature. It is said that all the Venezuelan revolutions have been hatched in a certain hotel in Port of Spain, the rendezvous of political conspirators. Now our Trinidad friends will plan for a campaign of peace and good will into that distressful country. The brethren of the East Caribbean Conference are heartily with us in this campaign18to plant the standard in new fields, and they propose to do more work with less help from America than in times past, if necessary, in the planning of the world-wide missionary campaign.
Brother W. G. Kneeland, who has been director of the Trinidad work, now goes to the island of Tobago, with one of the native ministerial laborers, to open public work in that island.
Port of Spain is the headquarters of the conference. Brother A. J. Haysmer was chosen as president, with an executive committee representing the various districts comprising the conference. Instead of having three offices and book depositories in this region, we shall now have one. Workers in the Antilles and British Guiana may be settled with by the Trinidad office without difficulty, and the brethren feel that the organization of the whole field as one conference will facilitate the interchange of laborers when needful.
As in Guiana, so also in Trinidad, there are thousands of people from India, originally imported as laborers on the estates. The East Indian community in Trinidad has prospered, and many of this people are successfully engaged in trade and business on their own account. At San Fernando and Couva I met East Indian gentlemen of this class who are much interested in our work. One Indian brother, for years a Christian worker in another society, has joined us as a worker. Thus all classes are being reached.
It was decided to publish a paper for the West Indian field, called the Caribbean Watchman. With the two thousand believers in the two conferences, a circulation of several thousand should readily be secured. The printing will be done by outside firms, and the brethren propose to fix the price so that the paper shall be self-supporting. This is a medium for reaching the reading class of people that our workers have long desired. The paper will be published in Port of Spain.
Port of Spain is a beautiful and thriving city. Among West Indian cities, it stands next to Havana, Cuba, in size and importance, I believe. Midway between the Guianas and the Antilles, it is naturally a center for our work. One great need now is a church building in this city.
The brethren have been manfully working to secure this. A lot has been purchased in a good location. Land is very high in the respectable districts of the leading West Indian cities, and the purchase price, one thousand dollars, is regarded as a very fair bargain. It has, however, strained the local resources to secure the land. But our brethren mean to struggle on. Our work has sometimes lost much in this field by the necessity of carrying it on in out-of-the-way and even unsavory localities. The land for the Port of Spain headquarters is near the business quarter and on the edge of a respectable residential quarter. I believe the situation is such that outside help might well be given the brethren to assist in erecting a house of worship and depository combined.
I have been rejoiced continually in this trip to see what the truth is doing for the believers in these regions. Here was the battle ground, a few centuries ago, in the struggle of the European nations for the possession of the New World. If speech were given it, every league of this Golden Caribbean could tell tales of those times when adventurers braved perils and sufferings in the search for golden cities and treasures of pearl, and when pirate and buccaneer swept every coast and sea for spoil. Our workers have now the joyous task of searching for souls, the jewels of God's grace and love, scattered afar on island and continent. It has been worth while to send the missionaries and to spend our offerings for this purpose. Our brethren and sisters in the West Indies love the truth, and thank God for the blessed hope. They desire to stand loyally by us in hastening on this work to a speedy and glorious triumph.
