Africans also recognized that the missionaries were used by the traders and that the government did not take kindly to missionary "interference" when it came to commerce. This perception was articulated clearly during an incident in 1862, when a Yoruba community in Southwestern Nigeria stole some English property. In response, Governor Henry Stahhope Freeman created harsh trade blockades. The missionaries complained to the government and attempted to reconcile Gov. Freeman to the African tribes, writing letters to explain that the Yoruba communities had not realized it was English property. Little resulted from their efforts.
This incident exemplified the role the missionaries played in defending Africans' interests. The British officials often viewed this missionary role as meddlesome. From the other side, the Africans affected by the trade blockade perceived the British officials as using missionaries to achieve their commercial ends. When they wondered aloud about the severity of the punishment, the Reverend H. Townsend quoted them as saying: "'Is this what is intended, first to send missionaries to win us over, that such men as we see at Lagos may follow after and crush us down?'" (Rev. H. Townsend to the Rev. H. Venn, Abbeokuta, 2 July, 1862, British Parliamentary Papers, Colonies Africa, vol. 63 (Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1970), 203.)
Despite the theoretical link between commerce and Christianity, people back in England struggled to accept the idea that sometimes missionaries had to trade to survive because they did not receive enough support from the mission agency (Roger B. Beck, "Bibles and Beads: Missionaries as Traders in Southern Africa in the Early Nineteenth Century," Journal of African History 30 (1989), 213). When missionaries actually did trade, it resulted in arguments about whether it was right or not. Some missionaries traded for survival, but the majority saw it as an essential tool for evangelism, part of the "civilizing mission"(Beck, 213).
