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CORISCO DAYS 
 
 THE FIRST THIRTY YEARS OF THE 
 WEST AFRICA MISSION 
 
 REV. ROBERT HAM ILL NASSAU, S/f.D. 
 
 Author of "Fetishism in West Africa." 
 
 If /a 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT 
 
 PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 witii funding from 
 
 Princeton Tiieological Seminary Library 
 
 littp://www.arcliive.org/details/coriscodaysfirstOOnass 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 I have not tried to make this a history of the West 
 Africa Mission down to present date. Purposely, I 
 have confined these sketches to the extreme Hmits of 
 the fifty years from 1842, the beginning of the old 
 Gaboon Mission, to about 1892. 
 
 I preferred to include the records of only the thirty 
 
 / !)^ years from 182^9, the beginning of the old Corisco Mis- 
 
 / ^J^ sion, to about "rSy^, when Corisco ceased to be under 
 
 white control, the management of its ecclesiastical and 
 
 educational affairs being placed in ei^cient native hands. 
 
 More especially, I have confined myself to the days 
 of the ten years, 1861 to 1871, during which I was 
 personally located at Corisco and Benita. 
 
 R. H. NASSAU. 
 
 (3) 
 
NOTE. 
 
 In pronouncing native Bantu words, 
 
 1. Give to the consonants their usual English sound, except 
 that g is always hard, and y is never a vowel. 
 
 2. Give to the vowels, 
 
 a as in English far, 
 
 d as in English law, 
 
 e as in English they, 
 
 e as in English met, 
 
 i as in English machine, e. 
 
 u as in English rule, 
 
 o as in English know, 
 
 3. Close every syllable with a vowel. 
 
 4. Accentuate the next to the last syllable. 
 
 5. Where double or triple consonants begin the first syllable 
 of a word, prefix to them a slight vowel sound, e. g. Mpongwe = 
 iMpo-ngwe; and ngweya = ingwe-ya. 
 
 6. Ng has the reduplicated nasal sound of ng in the English 
 finger, (as if fing-nger). 
 
 e. 
 
 g- 
 
 Ulato; 
 
 e. 
 
 g- 
 
 Haka; 
 
 e. 
 
 or 
 
 Elobi; 
 
 e. 
 
 g- 
 
 Lembwe; 
 
 e. 
 
 g- 
 
 Bonito; 
 
 e. 
 
 &• 
 
 Uganda ; 
 
 e 
 
 g 
 
 Kongo. 
 
 (4) 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 Foreword 3 
 
 Index 5 
 
 I. Geography of the Corisco Region 7 
 
 1, The Island and its Mission Stations 7 
 
 2, A Walk Around the Island 10 
 
 3, The Bay and its Islands 22 
 
 4, Elobi Islands and Adjacent Parts 25 
 
 5, Aje Out-Station 28 
 
 6, Hanje Out-Station 30 
 
 7, Benita Station 33 
 
 8, Up the Bonito River 36 
 
 II. An African Village 41 
 
 III. A Native African Church 43 
 
 IV. Childhood in Africa 50 
 
 V. Betrothments and Marriage 53 
 
 VI. Mourning for the Dead 56 
 
 VII. The Sabbath on Heathen Ground 63 
 
 VIII. A Sabbath School in a Heathen Land. 66 
 
 IX. Come to Prayers 71 
 
 X. Lights and Shades 74 
 
 XI. Native Evangelists 78 
 
 XII. The Ukuku Fight 86 
 
 XIII. The Building of a Church 92 
 
 XIV. Corisco Transferred 97 
 
 XV. A Life for the Interior 102 
 
 XVI. First Ten Years of the Benita Church 122 
 
 XVII. Into the Sunrise 131 
 
 XVIII. The Town of Libreville 134 
 
 XIX. A Trading Settlement 140 
 
 XX. A Communion Service at Baraka 143 
 
 XXI. The First Thirty Years of the West Africa 
 
 Mission 146 
 
 XXII. Thirty Years of the Presbytery of Corisco, 
 
 1860-1890 163 
 
 (5) 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Geography of the Corisco Region. 
 
 i. the island and its mission stations. 
 
 THE young may be frightened at the word "geog- 
 raphy," and their elders may despise the idea 
 of being taught what they are supposed to have 
 learned long ago. 
 
 I think, however, both parties are in error; many do 
 not know where are the stations of some foreign mis- 
 sions; and, as to the Corisco Mission location, maps of 
 Africa are exceedingly incomplete. Because, great as 
 is the importance of those localities for influence on 
 Africa's spiritual welfare, they are so near each other, 
 and (some of them) of so small commercial interest, that 
 they would not appear on any other than a missionary 
 map. 
 
 About a degree north of the equator, the Atlantic 
 Ocean, by its Gulf of Guinea, extends fifteen miles into 
 the land, between two points about forty miles apart, 
 viz. : Cape St. John on the north and Cape Esterias on 
 the south, thus enclosing Corisco Bay. 
 
 On a line connecting these two points is Corisco Island 
 (native name Manji), about twenty miles from each Cape, 
 and twelve to fifteen miles from the adjacent mainland 
 eastward. It is irregularly shaped; in length some five 
 miles, in width three. Its surface is exceedingly diversi- 
 fied with slight hills, valleys, plains, springs and streams. 
 One stream, Lembwe, flowing from a small central lake, 
 
 (7) 
 
8 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 Bololwe, never fails, even in the Dry Season. A wide 
 dazzlingly white beach surrounds the island, markedly 
 diflferent from the tawny sands of the mainland. There 
 are no large wild animals, only small ones like squirrels, 
 chameleons, lizards, snakes, iguanas, and birds. Long 
 reefs extending from the shore afford at low tide fine 
 ground for gulls and sea-eagles; and for the native 
 women to gather shell and other fish. 
 
 On the island there were three places occupied by 
 the Mission. On a promontory toward the south end 
 was Ugobi, the school for boys of the Benga tribe. It 
 was the first spot occupied by the mission. Near it 
 were Ulato, Ngelapindi, and other native villages with 
 many people. The view seaward is beautiful. A little 
 archipelago lies to the south and east and west; and on 
 the south and east extends the blue sky line of the main- 
 land. At Ugobi lived and died Rev. George M'Queen. 
 Afterward it was occupied by Rev. C. DeHeer. After 
 him, it was no longer held by a white missionary; but, 
 a native candidate for the ministry lived there and taught 
 the remaining scholars; and, on the Sabbath, one of 
 the missionaries of another station preached at the chapel 
 there. But it is abandoned, the work having been 
 transferred to Alongo. To Ugobi was a two-miles walk, 
 most of the way along a white, hard, beach, from 
 Evangasimba. 
 
 Evangasimba, standing centrally on the western side 
 of the island, was the principal Station. There was the 
 church. There were two mission dwelling-houses, a 
 few hundred yards apart, viz.: the treasurers, and the 
 girls'-school superintendent's. In the treasurer's yard 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 9 
 
 was the storehouse of provisions and of all kinds of 
 goods, with which to pay expenses of schools and Sta- 
 tions; for, unlike missions to other countries, ours did 
 not pay and buy with cash, the people not being civil- 
 ized enough to use money; but our workmen and 
 teachers were paid, and our school children's food, (and 
 much of our own), was bought with knives, and plates, 
 and beads, and cloth, and a hundred other things. This 
 was very troublesome; but it was less expensive than 
 the use of cash would be. Under the treasurer's charge 
 was also a carpenter-shop, where the natives learned to 
 make chests and tables and other useful articles. The 
 girls' school dwelling was called "Itandeluku," to distin- 
 guish it. The children were under the care of female 
 missionaries, but, one man usually lived there as super- 
 intendent, taught candidates for the ministry, preached 
 at Ugobi. and visited the mainland out-stations. Those 
 two missionary dwellings, with their numerous outhouses 
 in a large cleared space, quite resembled civilization, 
 and afforded a pleasing sight, as one, coming in from 
 the sea, looked upon them. It was finally abandoned, 
 and its work transferred to Benita, on the mainland. 
 The Spanish Roman Catholics have now a mission at 
 Evangasimba. 
 
 Three miles from Evangasimba is Alongo, on a high 
 promontory at the north end of the island. It was a 
 school for boys from the mainland tribes. It was first 
 occupied by the Rev. William Clemens; but, subse- 
 quently, by the Rev. C. DeHeer. The view from Alongo 
 is wide, west and north, and eastward into the Bay. 
 That school was blessed by God. From its pupils arose 
 
lO CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 almost all the young men who became assistants as 
 Scripture-Readers among their own mainland natives. 
 Tts light shone. Light, if true light, cannot help shining. 
 God blessed its former pupils' teaching among their own 
 people, and saved many souls by their work, worth in- 
 finitely more than all the money that has been given 
 for that school, or spent on the whole mission. 
 
 All the work on Corisco Island is now concentrated 
 at Alongo; and it is carried on without any foreign 
 white aid, under the charge of a native minister, all of 
 the expenses being paid by the native church-members 
 themselves. 
 
 2. A WALK AROUND THE ISLAND, 
 
 If you had been on Corisco Island, and were visiting 
 at the Girls' School, I could have taken you a pleasant 
 walk, and shown you a variety of new things. We called 
 the house Itandeluku, which is written short for Itande- 
 ja-iluku; it meant "Love-of-a-sister," or Sisterly-love. 
 Sometimes it was called, simply Maluku (Sisters). Let 
 us imagine we are taking that walk. 
 
 The Spring. 
 
 But, come! if you stop long to look at the house, the 
 pleasant part of the day will be gone, and perhaps rain 
 may soon come. You ask, "Why! do you have much 
 rain?" "Yes, plenty of it; and glad I am of it; for, it 
 fills up the springs." You suggest, "Well, then, let us 
 go to the spring." So, out of the back-door, down the 
 flight of steps, and along a narrow path, lined by pine- 
 apples. You exclaim, "Pine-apples!" Yes, you may 
 
CORISCO DAYS. II 
 
 pluck and eat a whole one yourself, without danger of 
 being made sick. I do not wish any myself; I am tired 
 of them. If my friends in America could have thrown 
 me an apple across the sea, I would have flung back to 
 them a dozen pine-apples. 
 
 Then, down a short and rather steep declivity, and 
 we are in the lower corner of the yard. When the 
 house was built, the forest and underwood were all 
 cleared away, except in this corner about the spring. 
 It was a low, damp spot. A heavy ledge of rock projects 
 from the ground. On this, and in its crevices, were 
 trees growing; which with their roots bound rocks and 
 earth together. Under one corner of the ledge, the 
 earth had been scooped out about a foot in depth, mak- 
 ing a basin some four feet across. The bright, clear, 
 cool water flowed, not bubbled, but ran continuously 
 from its hidden source under the rocks and from the 
 root of the hill on which the house stood. It over- 
 flowed the rim of the little scooped-out basin, ran off 
 among a clump of bamboo-palms (that love a wet 
 swampy place) and wandered through the woods, down 
 toward the sea. It was very sweet water. 
 
 What a delicious thing a cool water draught is ! How 
 painful to be thirsty, even for a few hours! Yet, many 
 travelers have died in deserts, being without water for 
 days. A little water would have saved their lives. Well 
 does Jesus call Himself the Water of Life! He is the 
 "Fountain opened." Who would not give for water all 
 he possesses, if dying of thirst? 
 
 That spring went dry three or four months in the 
 year. At the "Latter" Rainy Season time (March) it is 
 
12 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 full; for, rain is then plenty. Put some of the water in 
 a Canary-Island filter, (a hollowed soft stone), and it drips 
 through clear. Put this away in an unglazed earthen 
 urn or carafife, on a window-ledge, or other shaded place, 
 where there is a current of air, and it will become so 
 cool, that you will not often wish for ice, even in hot 
 Africa. (But, when sick, one does long for the ice!) 
 In May, water would be scarce. The spring then 
 changed, by beginning to run slowly, became muddy, 
 and, before the end of June, it would be dry. There 
 was no rain in the Cold Dry Season (June- August) ; 
 and all the water for the school had to be carried in jugs 
 on a man's back, from another spring that did not go 
 dry, a mile away in the woods. But we usually tried to 
 get enough for all the children's wants. They would 
 feel the need, and would have suffered much if they did 
 not have their cup of water. 
 
 With glad thoughts about the free and unfailing Water 
 of Life, we turn and retrace our steps up the slight 
 declivity. 
 
 The Social Birds. 
 
 Here we are under a tree of ordinary height, but that 
 seems taller, because there are no branches except at its 
 very top, where there is a cluster spread out somewhat 
 like an umbrella. "But, what a twittering of birds!" you 
 exclaim. Yes; they are what I want you to look at. 
 When I lived there I did not allow them to be disturbed, 
 and they were quite tame. 
 
 Now watch them! There are black ones, and there 
 are yellow ones, like orioles, and there are others colored 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I3 
 
 like a brown canary. Perhaps these were two different 
 species Hving together. They reminded me of sparrows 
 in their shape. They had no melody in their voice, but 
 were forever twittering, like swallows. They were very, 
 very busy, always building houses. 
 
 See! the entire tree, at its terminal twigs, is covered 
 with scores of nests. Here are scores of nests lying 
 on the ground, blown down by the winds. A very 
 singular structure. It is a hanging nest. The en- 
 trance is near the bottom; and, observe, it does not 
 slant downwards, but upwards. For what reason, do 
 you think? Because, like the eaves of a house, the rain 
 was shed from it. While the twig to which the nest is 
 attached was rocking under the blasts of wind, the bird 
 could lie in its corner, its weight keeping the lower end 
 of the nest downward, and the slant of one side over 
 the entrance serving as a roof for the rain-drops to 
 roll off. 
 
 Now, see! a number of the birds fly down to the 
 bamboo-palms by the spring. They alight on a leaf. 
 The leaves are from two to three feet long, narrow^ 
 and lance-shaped. You can tear them in long narrow 
 strips. The bird seized a leaf on its edge with its bill, 
 bit it, and, holding the bitten end in its mouth, started 
 to fly. A string two feet long is thus stripped off. See! 
 they are all flying up to the tree-top, with the strings 
 of palms streaming behind them. They do the same 
 way with the leaves of the plantain. These strings are 
 twisted, and tied, and woven, and plaited, and worked 
 together by their bills and feet, into a smooth, close, 
 hollow, pear-shaped nest. A beautiful, warm, dry nest! 
 
14 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 A good example do they set us, to be diligent! If a 
 storm blows their houses down, they set to work to build 
 others. Let us too work, to-day! These birds were 
 always making nests for new families of young ones, 
 and they would have become very numerous if they had 
 had no enemies. One day I saw a sea-eagle robbing 
 their nests. The great hungry fellow caused the small 
 branch to bend under him, but he stepped very uncon- 
 cernedly from nest to nest, thrusting in his bill to get 
 the eggs. The frightened birds flew about him pro- 
 testing; but they could neither harm him, nor defend 
 their homes. Also, iguanas and snakes climbed the tree 
 to rob the nests. Yet the birds seemed very happy. 
 They got plenty of crumbs and scraps from the school- 
 girls' eating-room which was near. We could always 
 see a flock eating there. We called them "Social" birds, 
 but their name in the books is "Weaver" birds. How- 
 ever, they are social, so many of them living on the 
 same tree. Yet, for all their being so many, I did not 
 often see that they quarrelled. I think that even the 
 school-children, who sometimes got angry and fought 
 each other, would have said it was shameful for birds 
 to quarrel. Yet, birds haven't got souls, and children 
 have. 
 
 Now let us turn of¥ across the garden, and down a 
 path toward the sea. 
 
 The Manji Tree. 
 
 But, stop, look back at this great tree! Turn aside 
 from the paths to examine it. Three men standing at 
 its foot would not be able to make their joined arms 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 1 5 
 
 reach around it. It was nearly two hundred feet high, 
 and it looked very bare, with no branches except in a 
 bunch near the top. The name of that kind of tree is 
 Manji, the native name of the island. It was only three 
 or four hundred feet from the dwelling-house, and acted 
 as a lightning-rod. In the months of February and 
 March there were terrible thunder and lightning, by 
 which the grounds and house shook, and this tall tree 
 w^as sometimes struck. Its gigantic form, with its limbs 
 opened out like arms, guarded the dwelling. Some of 
 the limbs were dead; and, in some places the bark was 
 ripped oflf where the lightning had run down it. 
 
 May not those wounded limbs remind us of Christ? 
 He spread out His arms to save us from the lightnings 
 of His Father's wrath, and His hands and side and head 
 were wounded for us. "He was wounded for our trans- 
 gressions. He was bruised for our iniquities." 
 
 That tall Manji tree was also a landmark. For, out 
 at sea, its top could be observed; and. as the land was 
 neared, its form rose higher and higher, until the other 
 trees seemed like bushes beneath it. Captains of sailing 
 vessels knew it. When they came to bring new mem- 
 bers of the Mission, or boxes and barrels of food and 
 clothing, and they wished to cast anchor near the island 
 in a safe place, they looked carefully toward the Manji 
 tree. There are many reefs of rocks that run far out 
 from shore, where there is not much depth of water, 
 and on which a ship might strike. Even where there 
 is deep water, the bottom in many places is covered 
 with rocks. Such spots are not good on which to 
 drop an anchor; it may become so fastened among the 
 
l6 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 rocks as that it cannot be drawn up again. But a 
 well-known path of the sea, marked by some little 
 islets and this tree, showed the captain his safe an- 
 chorage. 
 
 Sometimes the Manji was almost without leaves. 
 There is under the Equator no season like winter, taking 
 from all trees all their leaves. But, there, each tree, 
 or even certain limbs of a tree, has each its own season. 
 This tall landmark cast its leaves once a year. But they 
 did not all fall at once. Beginning on one side, the 
 new leaves were out again before all had fallen from the 
 other side. 
 
 Now we leave the tree, and, getting into the path again, 
 will go past the Goat Enclosure, and follow the path 
 down to the sea. Here are plenty of things at which 
 to look! 
 
 The Caves. 
 
 We may stop among the sea-weed, and pick out the 
 red stems or green leaves and filaments, and berries 
 that look like fruit; or, we may watch the funny little 
 fish and crabs; or, we may search under the reefs for 
 handsome shells. There are no fine breakers rolling 
 in just now, so we will take advantage of the low tide, 
 and go to the Caves. These are they which are causing 
 all that loud roaring. They are farther on, a quarter 
 of a mile ahead. We must go around several rocky 
 points. Leaving the fish and shells behind, we soon 
 have come to the Caves. When the tide was high, there 
 was no possible path here; for, the water would then 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 1/ 
 
 (lash against the bold front of the rocks. These rocks 
 lie in strata almost parallel with the level of the sea. 
 The waves dashing against them day after day, year 
 after year, and generation after generation, have entirely 
 worn away the lower layers, and worked back some 
 thirty feet under the upper layers. The roof of the 
 mouth of the largest Cave is high above our heads. 
 We enter, and go back to the far corner where we have 
 to stoop down. Here the roof is dripping and the sandy 
 floor is wet. Some small waves are rolling toward us 
 on the beach. They make an angry ripping noise as 
 they tear along the edges of the reef, and roll up to the 
 Cave's mouth. But their force is spent, and they do not 
 reach us. What a strange place! Above our heads the 
 point of land is high and rocky, covered with trees and 
 brushwood. It was called Ugoni Point. The super- 
 stitious natives said that spirits of the dead, and evil 
 spirits like devils lived on such high localities as Ugoni, 
 and in these very caves. They thought that the strange 
 sounds heard when the high tide came roaring into 
 these recesses were not all caused by the sea. It was 
 believed that the myondi (spirits) were also talking. 
 So, the people were afraid, and made offerings to the 
 evil spirits, and wore charms in order that they might 
 not be hurt. 
 
 But there were indeed very loud and strange noises 
 in these caves, at times. They were heard mostly at 
 night. When everything else was still, their sounds 
 appeared louder than in the daytime. You could lie 
 in your bed, and hear a rumbling noise growing louder 
 and louder; then, a report like a distant cannon; and 
 
1 8 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 then a whistling rushing note that slowly died, seem- 
 ingly receding far and farther away. It often kept me 
 awake, the while that 1 wanted to go to sleep. I, too, 
 would have been afraid, had I not known that it was 
 caused by some great wave roaring in from sea over the 
 reef, striking the Cave's mouth, filling it, and com- 
 pressing the air in its recesses under the rocks, which 
 then made those whistling notes as it rushed out with 
 the receding wave. So, when those noises kept me 
 awake, I found even a pleasure in analyzing them, as 
 I listened to the thundering waves. 
 
 Now leave these dripping rocks and wet sands, and 
 let us continue our walk for two miles farther along the 
 beach, southward. 
 
 ' A "Medicine" House. 
 
 We will pass in sight of several little isles; for, Corisco 
 is not the only island in this Bay. There is Leva, to 
 the west. Farther on, toward the south, is a view of 
 Mbanye. And there, opposite Haka Point, and south- 
 eastward, is a sandy shoal with only a few low bushes 
 on it. There the gulls lay their eggs. No persons lived 
 there. You exclaim, "But! there is a little house; what 
 is it for?" Why, that was a piece of heathenism. It was 
 a "Medicine-house;" and the object of the "medicine" 
 it contained was to increase the natives' trade. It was 
 but a little hut, too small for any one to live in; but in it 
 were a great many "charms," buried in the ground or 
 hung on the walls. These "charms" were called "fet- 
 ishes;" they were what the people put in the place of 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 1 9 
 
 God. They believed there is a God, but they did not 
 trust in or fear him. They feared the spirits of the 
 dead, and trusted in those fetishes. All their medicines 
 for the sick were fetishes, for they said that spirits had 
 made the patient sick. So you see, a medicine-house is 
 a fetish-house. The special object of the "bwanga'" 
 (medicine) in that hut off on the little isle was to please 
 the spirits so that they would be favorable to the builder 
 and cause the ships of white men to come to the Bay, 
 so that he might have "luck" in trade. 
 
 The natives went out into the forests on the mainland 
 and gathered the juices of the india'-rubber vines, or 
 shot elephants for their ivory. This rubber and ivory 
 they sold to white men's ships for calico-prints, guns, 
 tobacco, rum and very many other things. Now, per- 
 haps, the man who built that hut was a great thief, 
 and the captains of ships that were already there would 
 not trust him with any of their goods, for fear he would 
 not pay them back with the ivory or rubber. So, he 
 hoped that the spirits would bring some new ship whose 
 captain did not know him, and who would lend him 
 all the trade-things he wanted. This he called a "good 
 trade." That was all he cared for. He looked at the 
 dirty charm he had tied about his neck, or hung up in 
 his dwelling, or buried in his trade hut; and he was sure 
 the next ship that sailed in sight of that little isle with 
 its little hut, would turn in and anchor there, for him 
 to get some goods. 
 
 We have gone on our walk far enough; let us turn 
 back. You will be sufficiently tired before we have 
 returned over the track of our more than two miles. 
 
20 CORISCO DAYS, 
 
 Horse Charley. 
 
 There are no cars onto which to jump; no wagon to 
 pick us up in our way. We must travel on our feet. 
 The tide is coming up. We cannot now get around 
 Ugoni Point, but, leaving the beach, will follow a path 
 through the forest, or, as we called it there, "the bush." 
 In visiting the other Stations, we rode sometimes in a 
 hammock, that was made of a strong piece of canvas 
 tied at its ends to a pole; in it we lay suspended as in a 
 cradle, and were carried on the shoulders of two men, 
 one at each end of the pole. Foreigners are apt to 
 become very weak in warm countries, and can not walk 
 long distances. There, on Corisco, we had a sturdy 
 white and gray horse on which to ride from one station 
 to another. 
 
 Perhaps you would like to ride him? You may do so, 
 if you can catch him when we get back to the house. 
 Try to. Here he is! He is not large; is of pony size; 
 he comes ambling toward us, for, he is very affectionate 
 and playful. But, put out your hand to catch him; 
 and if you have a halter in your hand, back are laid his 
 ears, up goes his head, and he's off! Suppose you do 
 catch him, can you make him mind you? If he wanted 
 to run along the smooth, hard beach, he would have his 
 run out, for all we might tug at the bridle-reins. If 
 we were in a hurry, and he wanted to walk, he would 
 look around at us with his funny eyes, as if to say, 
 "Your switch is too small. I want to walk; and I will 
 walk." So, he stopped to eat some sweet long grass, 
 and then trotted on to another clump, and cropped 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 21 
 
 a few mouthfuls there; and then trotted on to stop 
 again. 
 
 Take care, too, that he doesn't turn his head around 
 and try to snap at your toes! For, he Hked to play, 
 and his horse-play was rude. If we were walking, and 
 passed near him, he would amble up to us, get behind 
 us, and try, like a playful dog, to snap at our back or 
 arm. Rebuke him by pulling his ear or nose, or by 
 slapping his face; and he jumped away. As soon as 
 ever our back was turned, he was after us again! He 
 did not mean any harm. That's what people say some- 
 times when they do what is wrong, "We didn't mean any 
 harm; we were only playing." Yes! but they did harm, 
 for all that they didn't mean it. The harm was done 
 whether they meant it or not. "Avoid even the appear- 
 ance of evil.'' Horse Charley was very much feared by 
 the natives. He knew and enjoyed this. If he saw a 
 company of children, he started after them with out- 
 stretched neck. They screamed and hid behind bushes 
 and houses; and he dashed on from one village to 
 another through the narrow streets, men, women, 
 children, chickens, ducks, goats, dogs, and all flying 
 before him! Often little babies were lying in the sand 
 in the street, but Charley was careful to jump over them. 
 Though he chased people so often, he never hurt any 
 one; though he snapped, he never bit hard. He was 
 a useful horse, and often carried tired mission-workers. 
 He was the Mission's horse, and a missionary horse. 
 "A missionary horse?" you say. Yes! it is not only 
 angels and men who are to serve God, but "let everything 
 that hath breath praise the Lord." I think that Charley 
 
22 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 showed God's power in his licing the active, strong, 
 and interested creature that God made him; and he 
 helped to show forth God's praise by helping those who 
 were trying to do so. He was helping (without know- 
 ing it) to bring on that time when all things shall be 
 consecrated to God's worship and service; when "Holi- 
 ness" shall be written on the bells of the horses, when 
 even such a thing as the harness of a beast of burden 
 shall contribute to God's glory. Then shall come that 
 happy time when "the leopard shall lie down with the 
 kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together, 
 and a little child shall lead them!" 
 
 3. The Bay and its Islands. 
 
 Let us sail around into the Bay. Two broad rivers, 
 draining the adjacent mainland, pour into Corisco Bay; 
 one, the Muni, entering at the northeastern side of it. 
 To the other, the Munda, at the southeast side, we will 
 come in our journey to-day. 
 
 Starting from Evangasimba beach and rounding the 
 point on the south, called Ugoni, we reach the islet 
 Leva, about a mile to the south and west. When the 
 tide is low, its sand-banks are laid bare and dry, where 
 birds and man find a rich harvest of shell-fish. Great 
 quantities of a conch, called konongo, are gathered there. 
 If you had time to attend to natural curiosities, you 
 would find on the Corisco reefs and in the shallows 
 near and in the low water about the Leva banks, an 
 endless variety of shell and weed. Many of them no 
 doubt, are unknown to books and scientific men. 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 23 
 
 The islet is uninhabited. Its sides are steep; about 
 twenty feet above the sea. Its top is flat, of an area less 
 than two acres, and covered with trees and bushes. 
 It has no water in the Dry Season. Though so small, 
 it was very much resorted to by natives gathering fish; 
 and the missionaries frequently took their scholars a 
 day's excursion there, "A day at Leva" was to our 
 pupils what a Christmas holiday is in America. We 
 took cassava-bread for them, and sandwiches for our- 
 selves; a fire was built; the shell-fish for which the 
 children dove, were cooked on the coals, and we all 
 enjoyed the day. If the sun had well dried the sands, 
 we sometimes ate in a cave called Ikenga-ja-Leva (Leva's 
 Reception Hall). But generally we sat above on the 
 islet under some spreading tree. 
 
 Let us sail or row on now! The water over which 
 we move is full of fish; very many varieties of big and 
 little, caught by net and spear and hook. On farther, 
 with the boat's prow turned toward Cape Esterias; five 
 miles beyond the southern point of Corisco is Mbanye 
 island. It is almost two miles in circumference. Only 
 a stone's throw from its western side is a gem of an 
 islet, and farther to sea is a bare sand-bank. The island 
 was inhabited by a large number of rats, so bold that 
 they ran about the beach in the presence of visitors. Na- 
 tives did not kill them, saying that bad winds would 
 overtake any one who so did. People went there and 
 stayed for a week at a time, taking with them thatch 
 with which to make temporary houses (called maka), 
 and spent the time in spearing large fish. Turtles were 
 caught there; and occasionally a hairless seal from the 
 
24 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 adjacent Munda, (a manatus, the dugong) whose flesh is, 
 to me, tlie most delicious of meats. 
 
 Looking in a southeast direction from Mbanye, is 
 seen the wide mouth of the Munda river. It is broad, 
 but not very long. On its south side the land bends out 
 westward to Cape Esterias, where there is an outstation 
 of the French Roman Catholic mission of Gaboon. On 
 the north bank is the country of the Mbiko tribe, occu- 
 pying the eastern side of the bay. 
 
 At a town, Bonjumba, in that country, near the mouth 
 of the river, Rev. Wm. Clemens once redeemed a little 
 girl who was about to be put to death on a charge of 
 witchcraft. He named the child "Maria" for his sister-in- 
 law, Mrs, Walter H, Clark. Maria grew up a useful ma- 
 tronly woman. (Under a different name she appears in 
 one of the chapters of my "Mawedo."*) The death from 
 which she was rescued is common. All African tribes 
 believe in witches. 
 
 Returning from Mbanye to Corisco, we journey 
 rapidly with the sea-breeze. Soon is seen before us a 
 bank called Nenge-Megege (Gull Island). It is on the 
 eastern side of Corisco, near the south point. Flocks 
 of gulls are hovering over the glistening white sand, or 
 darting out over the water to some fish school. If we 
 went to it, we would be in about the very middle of the 
 bay. Off, on our right, (east) hand, would be Mbiko; 
 farther to the northeast, the trade island Elobi. A 
 beautiful journey it is. You look from the boat, the 
 islands and mainland encircling as a green and blue 
 
 American Tract Society 1881. 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 25 
 
 wreath. But that island was then lawless of God and 
 man. How often I prayed that that people might say. 
 "The Isles for Thee are waiting." 
 
 4. Elobi Island and Adjacent Parts. 
 
 When we were sailing in the Bay, we saw to the 
 northeast the Elobi Islands. There are three: Big Elobi, 
 Little Elobi, and Mbe Elobi. Little Elobi is slightly 
 to the north and east of the other two, so that as you 
 approach from Corisco, the larger one overlaps the 
 others and you seem to see but one island. 
 
 On large Elobi the Mission had an outstation called 
 "McQueen." occupied by a native licentiate, who after- 
 ward became the late Rev. Mr. Ibia. At present, the 
 island population has largely died out. 
 
 Small Elobi is of only a few acres area, with scarcely 
 any native residents. It was, and still is. occupied by 
 the Spanish as a government-post; and by several other 
 Europeans who have anchored ships and boats, and on 
 shore have large buildings called "factories" for trading 
 in ivory, rubber, and red-wood and other native lumber. 
 These men had cloth, knives, and all other kinds of 
 goods, with great cjuantities of rum and gin in their 
 stores. These they lent, on "trust," out to the natives 
 in parcels of from $5 to $100. The Benga tribe, occu- 
 pying the sea-coast, kept a monopoly of the "Trade," 
 to the exclusion of the tribes lying back of them in the 
 interior. Any coast-man who received in trust, say. ten 
 dollars, retained about two dollars as his "share" of 
 profit, handed the remaining eight to some man of the 
 
26 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 tribe just next behind the coast, e. g. Mbiko, who 
 retained, say, two dollars as his share, and passed the 
 six left to the next tribe, the Fang, who collected the 
 rubber or wood, carried it to the Mbiko, the latter to 
 the Benga coast-men, who gave it to the white trader. 
 The white trader knew that four dollars had not come 
 back; but his gain was so large on the native articles 
 when imported into Europe, that it covered losses by 
 such dishonesty. This "Trust" or Commission system 
 was bad; it caused all the people to be worse thieves 
 than they naturally were as heathens. That the native 
 stole was the traders' fault, who yet were the loudest to 
 complain of the people for badness. 
 
 Another source of evil in the Elobi trade was, that, 
 in every parcel of "trust" given out, the trader (at that 
 time) compelled the native to take a certain proportion 
 of rum; because, on its sale most gain was made. We 
 often wrote at length on this secular point to show to 
 friends in the United States a cause of discouragement 
 in the African-coast missions. Temptation was thrown 
 in the way of native Christians, and many were made 
 drunkards. Most of the traders were members of the 
 Established Churches of England, Scotland or Conti- 
 nental Europe; but many threw away their religion, 
 disregarded the Sabbath, and lived as polygamists. 
 Some of their merchant employers in Christendom have 
 been church office-holders. It was a shame for Christi- 
 anity! A crime against the heathen! 
 
 These islands face east to the mouth of the river 
 Muni, or Rio D'Angra, miscalled by sailors "River 
 Danger." It has many branches inland; on two of them 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 2^ 
 
 our first Scripture-readers or evangelists were located; 
 but tribal quarrels compelled their removal to other 
 places. Several years before. Rev. Messrs. Clemens and 
 Mackey had gone to almost the source of the Muni, 
 finding beautiful waterfalls in its course, and very cool 
 weather at its head on the ridges of the Sierra del 
 Crystal. 
 
 On the south bank of the river, by its mouth, at the 
 town Ukaka, the Mission had a Scripture-reader located; 
 but he fell into rum-trading. He was suspended. The 
 offense was repeated. He was dismissed; later, he went 
 so far in native wickedness as to be excommunicated 
 from the church. 
 
 The name Ukaka has disappeared. It was originally 
 given to that village because of an enormous "log" 
 which, floating down the river, had lodged there. Later, 
 a white man planted a cacao garden there; his trader 
 associates spoke of it as the Cocao place. In hasty 
 pronunciation they called Ukaka, "Coco." A trading- 
 house now stands there. The bales and boxes brought 
 there by steamers from England are labeled "Coco"- 
 Beach, the foreigners thinking that the name was derived 
 from the plantation of the chocolate trees. 
 
 In the arc of the Bay from the north bank of the 
 river, we meet, for the first time, with another tribe, 
 the Balengi. Skirting on farther westward toward Cape 
 St. John, we come to Mbangwe, the former home of 
 Rev. Mr. Ibia, at Hondo. There he tried to induce the 
 people to cultivate the ground industriously, to learn 
 mechanic arts, to practice trade legitimately, i. e., to cut 
 their red-wood, carry it to the "factory," and receive in 
 
28 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 useful articles (to the exclusion of rum) their pay, after 
 having thus earned it. He hoped in this way to open for 
 his tribe a healthful path to earthly prosperity, while 
 at the same time he was teaching and preaching to them. 
 But his efforts failed. The Mission at that time, 1860- 
 1870, with strange unwisdom, discouraged all attempts 
 at the industrial side of evangelistic work. 
 
 5. AjE OUTSTATION. 
 
 The part of the mainland that at that time yielded to 
 the Mission most of fruit for labor spent, where already 
 were several outstations, and where we looked expect- 
 ingly for new Stations for white missionaries, was the 
 land north of Cape St, John. 
 
 Leaving Corisco Bay, sailing around Cape St. John, 
 and passing a few Benga villages, we meet again with 
 Balengi. A little farther northward, we come to a por- 
 tion of the Bapuku tribe. Among them, a small river, 
 Aje, empties into the sea, thirty-two miles from Corisco. 
 At its mouth were a mmiber of villages, the people 
 seemingly were desirous of the gospel, two of our young 
 men were sent there, and a bamboo nouse was built as 
 an outstation. One of them subsequently became the 
 late Rev. Etiyani. Each of them married former pupils 
 of our girls' school. The stream is not wide, but it is 
 very attractive, winding from a long distance inland, 
 with swift current flowing beneath the wide-covering 
 branches of trees leaning toward each other from either 
 side. 
 
 Aje was a pleasant place to visit. When the mission 
 first made journeys there, there were no white men or 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 29 
 
 trading-houses near; we were the only white friends the 
 people claimed. Whenever the boat visited the two 
 Scripture-readers located there, long before it reached 
 the beach, the shore would be lined with people shouting 
 welcome, and there was a large company to attend 
 prayers in the evening. Doubtless, part of this show 
 of interest was in hope of obtaining earthly gain. But, 
 some of it was surely sincere; for, several young men 
 became inquirers, the children attended school, a wife 
 of the principal man professed conversion and publicly 
 united with the church, and even he himself threw away 
 fetishes he had trusted in. But he was not a Christian; 
 the love of strong drink enslaved him, and while he was 
 under its influence he said and did things that troubled 
 the native Christians. 
 
 The people in that region were not as well acquainted 
 with missionaries as were the inhabitants of Corisco, 
 and they made strange mistakes as to our motives and 
 objects. They were acquainted with other white men, 
 many of them rough sailors, but they did not understand 
 our pacific character. Once, as I was sailing rapidly 
 under a strong wind past that part of the coast, a few 
 miles south of Aje, a canoe ran out from shore, as canoes 
 often did, to ask the news and perhaps sell a few 
 fish. The two men in the canoe, unskillfully stood 
 straight across our path instead of coming alongside. 
 I was lying down sick in the boat, and, before the man 
 at the helm could alter his course, we had struck the 
 canoe and knocked a hole in its side. We helped the 
 men as well as we could, and, having no time to stop, 
 passed on to our northward journey; nor had I any time 
 
30 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 when we came back, to see the people ashore and ex- 
 plain matters. Some weeks afterwards, word come to 
 me at Corisco that the Bapuku people, at the town where 
 lived the owner of the canoe, were very angry, that they 
 believed that I and my men had purposely run down 
 the canoe out of hatred to them and their tribe, and that 
 they intended to attack the boat on its next journey, 
 and demand a fine. Such outrages and revenges were 
 common among those tribes; but I was exceedingly 
 grieved that they should think me capable of them. 
 At the next journey that I made northward, I stopped 
 on my way particularly to see those people. After the 
 usual religious services, the man who owned the canoe 
 was sent for; and, when he had finished his angry state- 
 ment of grievances, I explained the facts of the accident, 
 and told them of a missionary's character and object of 
 his life. The man was satisfied, and said nothing more 
 about assault and fine. 
 
 Later at Aje, a house was built on the beach by the 
 villagers for foreign trade, and much liquor was sold 
 there. Surely Satan was afraid his kingdom would be 
 overcome. That rum-factory was a great stumbling- 
 block to the people, many fell into the pit of drunken- 
 ness. 
 
 6. Hanje Out-station. 
 
 Three hours' sail with a good wind took a boat from 
 Aje northward around a very long Point of land to 
 Hanje. If you walked, following the beach, the distance 
 would be much longer, for the shore is indented with 
 numerous coves, into which creeks empty, and to cross 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 3I 
 
 which took time if no canoe was at hand. We could 
 amuse ourselves, however, by picking up colored shells, 
 mostly bivalves, and by observing, on the sand, tracks 
 of the feet of elephants, and the branches of trees broken 
 bv them in their browsing on the twigs and leaves. 
 
 Hanje is in the limits of the Kombe tribe. It was 
 difficult of approach wdien the tide was low; for, the 
 shore is somewhat rocky, and shelves very gradually 
 over a long stretch of reef, so that the boat had to find 
 its anchorage far out. The rest of the way to land then 
 had to be made by canoes, that came off to us when 
 the people recognized our boat. The canoe finally grated 
 over the rocks at the mouth of Hanje Creek, on a side 
 of which was built a mission-house. That was the first 
 out-station located north of Corisco, in 1861. The first 
 occupant was a man named Balevi, who, beginning with 
 great zeal, afterwards fell into sin, was suspended, and 
 soon after died, professedly repenting. Another, 
 Njumba, was sent to the vacant place immediately after 
 the suspension, and remained there for a few years. 
 He had a difficult position to fill. The people were of 
 a violent, excitable character; and, at the very first, there 
 was opposition to him, because he had been sent to super- 
 sede Balevi who had relatives there. But faithful atten- 
 dance to religious duties wore away hatred, and broke 
 down opposition. He remained there three years with 
 varying success, sometimes enjoying the friendship of 
 the people and listened to with attention. At other 
 times, he was subjected to insult, and even to anger. 
 One time, Ukuku (a spirit whom the people feared, and 
 who, in the darkness of night, or in the secrecy of a 
 
$2 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 house or dense bushes, uttered his directions by the 
 mouth of a man temporarily appointed and representing 
 Ukuku) came on the mission-premises and uttered a 
 "curse" against Njumba's mother. He arose from bed, 
 went out, and told Ukuku to go away, that he himself 
 was a worshipper of God, and that Ukuku had no claim 
 on him. The followers of the evil spirit were angry, 
 called a large council, bespoiled Njumba of all his goods, 
 and even threatened his life. His final case was sad. 
 Though he had suffered for the Gospel, pride led him 
 astray, and he became a miserable outcast. 
 
 The country back of Hanje is of forest, and a plain 
 covered with bushes, but has no hills until some fifteen or 
 twenty miles inland. The people kept near the sea- 
 shore and did not go inland much, except to make their 
 plantations and to gather rubber in the forests. The 
 plantations were a mile or so from the villages, and 
 were much disturbed by elephants coming at night and 
 eating the cassava plants. 
 
 I made a journey by that beach northward, on one 
 occasion. Three miles from Hanje there is a rapid creek, 
 Ndoti, not wide, but the people said it was long, and that 
 hippopotami lived in it. It was to be swum if no canoe 
 happened at hand; and sometimes there were sharks. 
 The sun set while on my way, but, the tide being low, 
 I went on by night. The women were out at various 
 places on the reefs with torches (called myanyo) made of 
 dried split bamboo. The glare and reflection of the 
 lights along the arc of the shore of the coves as I looked 
 ahead on the beach, with the forest as background, was 
 picturesque. By 9 P. M. I came to a certain part of 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 33 
 
 the coast called Sipolu, which was thickly clotted with 
 villages along the three miles of its exent to the mouth 
 of the river Bonito. There were six or eight trading- 
 houses within those three miles. 
 
 A part of my journey was rather lonely, there being 
 no people on a portion of the beach skirted by a long 
 stretch of dense "bush," such as is used for native burial- 
 ground. I came to a streamlet crossing the beach, too 
 wide for me to jump across. Having waded over it, 
 I sat down on a log to put on again my shoes and socks. 
 While so doing, a deep groan issued from the bushes 
 but a few feet behind me. I was sure it was not a 
 human being; for, no native would at night dare to be 
 alone there so near to graves. The sound was repeated 
 while I was hastening on my shoes; so I went rapidly 
 away, not running at first, lest the animal might be 
 excited, by my precipitancy, to follow. 
 
 When I imitated the sound next day to a number of 
 natives, some were alarmed and said it was the voice of 
 the ghost of the grave-yard. Some said it was a leop- 
 ard's growl. Others, more reasonably, said it was the 
 grunt of a wild hog. Wild animals do thus prowl at 
 night, and even come near the native huts. 
 
 7. Benita Station. 
 
 Benita was a word that, for the Corisco Mission, had 
 so much of hope and longing, a dark line of sadness, 
 and yet expectations of future joy. In our journeys 
 north we had often passed the mouth of the river Eyo 
 (San Bonito) ten miles beyond Hanje, on our way farther 
 
34 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 on to Meduma, our most distant outstation, in the Kombe, 
 a tribe, at that time, much despised by both the Benga 
 and Mpongwe tribes. There the mother of a Christian 
 man, Yume, a slave on Corisco, had been found; and, 
 the people professing to desire the Gospel, he, having 
 obtained freedom, was sent. The people listened well 
 to his exhortations, and some even learned to read 
 better than their teacher. But his zeal cooled. Cold- 
 ness and carelessness came aver the people. Finally 
 he fell into sin, was dismissed, and Meduma was aban- 
 doned. 
 
 A short time before that, an out-station, Mbini, had 
 been located with two evangelists, just in the mouth of 
 the river on its south side. It prospered for a few 
 months; and then was suddenly broken up by the natives 
 themselves, even before a mission-house had been built, 
 because of a family quarrel arising from jealousy in 
 trade, with which the two young men had unwisely 
 tampered. 
 
 Those two locations, Meduma and Mbini, though they 
 had not been intended as permanent, we hoped would 
 principally be useful as stepping-stones into the interior. 
 For a while, we were disappointed. Operations even 
 at the river's mouth were suspended. But a bright day 
 came in 1864. Rev. George Paull, with his youthful 
 energy, was added to our little company. He made a 
 "Kombe journey," was charmed with the mainland itin- 
 erant work, was as my successor given its superintend- 
 ence, and placed a Scripture-reader at Upwanjo on the 
 north bank of the river's mouth. At a subsequent jour- 
 ney, on which I accompanied him, the apparent openness 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 35 
 
 of the way urged us to ask the location of one of our 
 number on Mbade, a beautiful point of land on that 
 north bank. The Point is called on the English nautical 
 chart, "Heybern." It is a perfectly level, elevated 
 prairie, dotted with clusters of trees. Back of it, an aver- 
 age mile from the sea, is the native forest, where existed 
 large numbers of monkeys, elephants, oxen, and even 
 leopards and gorillas. 
 
 In January, 1865, it was decided to occupy that ground. 
 Mr. Paull's wish was gratified, and I yielded him the 
 preference of the first settlement on the inviting field. 
 That same month he promptly removed from Corisco, 
 took up his abode at the native town Upwanjo, near the 
 Point, vigorously set to work preaching and teaching, 
 and commenced building a permanent dwelling. How 
 our hearts rejoiced at the good news that almost every 
 week came to us of the willingness of the people to 
 assist; of the evident working of the Holy Spirit of 
 God on their hearts by Mr. Paull's pungent, affectionate 
 appeals! How we longed for more help that he might 
 have an associate to sustain him, and that we might at 
 once go on up the river to locate another station! How 
 delightful, at the April Communion Conference, to hear 
 reports of the awakenings among the people! How 
 pleasant that our missionary brother was succeeding in 
 making a little home for himself, the building of the 
 house having progressed sufficiently for him to occupy 
 a part of it, and the ladies of the Corisco house- 
 holds having given up their best servants for his 
 aid. Then a cloud arose on the horizon. It at first 
 seemed small, at the beginning of Mr. Paull's sickness; 
 
36 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 but it overspread our mainland sky with darkness at 
 his death. 
 
 When the sad news flew back from Corisco (where 
 he came to die) to his Benita people, they wept and 
 mourned the wailings customarily given their most hon- 
 ored and greatest chiefs and parents. 
 
 It was my lot to go a week afterward and close his 
 premises, and gather his personal effects. The people 
 were in sorrow's darkness. The inquirers and Christians 
 seemed stricken with dumb astonishment at their loss. 
 They followed my steps as if expecting help in some 
 unlooked-for way; and, for the hundredth time, asked, 
 "Would another white man come?" I replied, that I 
 hoped so; "When would he come?" I could not tell. 
 But, though we called Mr. Paull's death a "providential 
 dispensation," we learned a lesson which was made into 
 a Mission rule, i. e., never to send a man, especially a 
 new one, alone to open a new Station. The good rule 
 was not always kept. Twice it was subsequently broken ; 
 and, in both instances, with the same fatal result as in 
 Mr. Paull's case. 
 
 8. Up the Bonito River. 
 
 Naturally a description of the river should have pre- 
 ceded the notice of the Station located at its mouth. 
 But I left that which geographically should have come 
 first, to be thus last, for a chronological reason. To 
 the upper banks of that river it was that we looked for 
 future Stations. To it, the energies of our mission were 
 directed. 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 37 
 
 As I often in journeys from Corisco sailed past the 
 mouth of the river and looked up the vista that opened 
 inward, it was refreshing to gaze at the ranges of hills 
 and mountains that, running somewhat parallel with the 
 coast, at distances, variously estimated as twenty or thirty 
 miles inland, rose with their calm blue just above the 
 harmonizing green of the nearer forest tops; and then, 
 with regular gradation, grew from blue hills to white 
 hazy mountains in the far background. A charming 
 perspective! Well named was the Sierra del Crystal! 
 But the eye wearied to look on the cloudiness of the 
 distant range; a lower and nearer one gave it rest. I 
 thought of the blue hills of Pennsylvania, and could 
 almost forget the then ever-present sea-sickness of my 
 boat-journeys. 
 
 Wonderful stories of a cataract called Yovi, had been 
 often told us; and Rev. Mr. Clemens had once, a number 
 of years before, gone up the river about 17 miles and 
 been shown by a guide (who refused to take him farther) 
 a fall, which Mr. Clemens reported to us as rather insig- 
 nificant. As far as is known, he was the first and only 
 white man who had entered the river any distance. 
 
 In the month of July, 1863, Rev. J. L. Mackey and I 
 determined to explore the ground with reference to future 
 operations, though our time was exceedingly limited, 
 only a day being left (by necessary mission arrange- 
 ments) at our disposal on the journey. The natives said 
 three days would be needed to go up to the Ivova (falls) 
 and return. Perhaps that time would be consumed by 
 a people who journeyed only by fair winds and not by 
 
38 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 oars, to whom time was no object, and who abandoned 
 until to-morrow that which would require diligence if 
 to be accomplished to-day. 
 
 The native name of Bonito (called by traders "Banita," 
 and by the chart "Benoit") is Eyo. Between the ex- 
 tremest points of the gaping mouth by the sea the 
 distance is three miles. The river proper is probably over 
 a mile wide where the beach ended in mud and man- 
 groves, and where our boat, in which I had coasted 
 along with four men, stopped to take in Mr. Mackey 
 (who had been holding meetings ashore) and a guide. 
 
 We marked the hours, so as to judge of the length of 
 the journey. It was 10 A. M. with a tide beginning to 
 run up. Aided thus by tide and a moderate wind, we 
 went comfortably without oars. There was scarcely any 
 perceptible bank. Lining the broad stream were man- 
 groves, stilted up on their long claw-like roots and 
 props, and multiplying themselves infinitely by the 
 twenty, thirty, forty feet long shoots that. Banian-like, 
 they left fall perpendicularly from their outer branches. 
 Such a wilderness of roots! The haunt of wild hogs, 
 elephants and snakes. Among the trees disported mon- 
 keys, but they did not permit any near approach. There 
 were strange sounds that came from throats of new birds, 
 trumpetings of toucans, screams of parrots, whistles, 
 calls, etc. After a while, the banks rose, grew steeper 
 as we proceeded, and became dotted with villages on 
 each side. The wind became fitful, sometimes altogether 
 failing, making oars necessary; and in the afternoon, 
 beyond the tide, where the mangroves ceased and the 
 pandanus or "screw-pine" increased, and with the rapid 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 39 
 
 current of the river against us, vigorous rowing was 
 necessary. 
 
 The foam from the falls, seen all along the upper 
 stream, became thicker as, late in the afternoon, the 
 roaring cataract saluted our ears. It was exhilirating 
 to look at the clearly defined ranges ahead, to glide 
 along under the cool afternoon shadow of the over- 
 hanging trees, and dip to thirsty lip the pure water of 
 the river. I may say I had not been fever-sick (of 
 any special account) in Africa; but then, almost for the 
 first time, I felt American health. When the stream 
 narrowed to a hundred feet, and the deep current too 
 swift to stem, the boat was tied ashore at precisely 5 
 P. M., and we walked half a mile over an ascending path 
 parallel with the river, which, however, was hidden by 
 the dense bushes lining it. Then the guide pointed 
 through a vista showing a series of foaming, broken, 
 abrupt, tumbling rapids, saying that those were what 
 Mr. Clemens had seen. Another half mile's walk, still 
 ascending, brought us to a most remarkable basin, some 
 fifty feet in diameter, into which, from a height, say, of 
 twelve feet, fell a portion of the stream reduced to thirty 
 feet in width. (Other portions flowed around little 
 islands after the manner of Niagara and Goat Island.) 
 I noticed facts connected with the river and that whirl- 
 pool-basin that I have never seen recorded of other 
 cataracts. Out of another corner of the basin went the 
 stream, tumbling over the rapids with probably a descent 
 of seventy feet, to the mile distant where our boat was 
 tied. We stayed until sunset, when the guide, with 
 superstitious fear, hurried us away. In the two Rainy 
 
40 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 Seasons, the amount and rapidity of the water over the 
 falls would be immense, and some of the strange native 
 stories told us could be true. Our Scripture-readers 
 said that the region of the falls had a large population. 
 It was there that we hoped would be erected the next 
 tower on our Zion's walls. But the hope was never 
 realized. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 An African Village. 
 
 SOME of the native villages in the Gaboon and 
 Corisco regions were built in the midst of the 
 dense forest, where the women, who do most of 
 the work, clear a few acres. Huts were erected where 
 slaves guarded the plantations of plantains (a fruit which 
 looks like a very large banana but of a different species) 
 and cassava (the tuber from which tapioca is made). But 
 most of the villages were placed on the edge of the forest 
 near the ocean, or on the banks of the many rivers that 
 pour into it the mighty rains that fall there. A village 
 (mboka) might have from live to fifty houses, according 
 as the man who owned it was poor or rich, arranged 
 along the two sides of the one street about twenty feet 
 wide. Each hut, about sixteen feet long, eight feet wide 
 and five feet high under the eaves, had two rooms. They 
 were easy to build. Stout saplings (mbingo) were thrust 
 into the ground upright; on to these were tied horizontally 
 slats of bamboo palm (mbanja), and over them were tied 
 wide strips of bark or a matting of palm-leaves (ngonja). 
 The roof was thatched with the same leaves neatly 
 stitched together. A hut with open sides would be 
 put up as a blacksmith shop; generally it was located 
 in the middle of the street. Sitting there might be seen 
 a man who was either blowing the native bellows, or 
 
 (41) 
 
42 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 stitching together, with Httle sticks Hke pins, the palm- 
 leaves for thatch. In front of the village might be a 
 pile of wood, either ebony logs (evila) or red dyewood 
 (ehiyo). These are cut by men in the forest in pieces 
 three or four feet long, and carried on the backs of 
 women to. the village; then put into canoes and floated 
 down the river to the seaside, where are white men's 
 trading-houses, and sold for tobacco, plates and basins, 
 knives and guns, powder and beads, calico and rum. and 
 a great variety of other goods. 
 
 In the rear of the huts were "behu" or kitchen-gardens 
 where the sweepings are thrown, and where choice plan- 
 tains are protected. The plantain has no woody struc- 
 ture; it is far softer than a cabbage stalk; its leaves are 
 a beautiful light green, are six or eight feet long, and 
 sixteen or eighteen inches wide. We see usually only 
 half their width, for they fold on their midrib like two 
 leaves of a book. The natives call a book's leaves 
 mapepu, from these two parts of a plant's leaf. The 
 wind tears them into ribbons, and they are forever flut- 
 tering and shaking like aspens. 
 
 The forest scenes are very beautiful; the majestic trees 
 are tied together by convolvuli and a great variety of 
 other vines running all over them. The trees and vines 
 both have flowers, most of them sweet-scented, and of 
 strange shapes, but mostly reminding one of pea-blos- 
 soms and honevsuckles and azaleas. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 A Nativ^e African Church. 
 
 THE first church-building on Corisco Island was 
 at the central Station Evangasimba. Ascending 
 the somewhat of a declivity that rises from the 
 beach, and walking a few hundred feet on the straight 
 wide path, which was used also as a public road, you 
 would pass the Mission-house, in which the first Pastor, 
 Rev. J. L. Mackey, resided. A few hundred feet farther 
 on from his house, within the enclosure fronted by the 
 orange trees of his yard, was a little bamboo house, used 
 once as a dwelling and later as a hospital. A few yards 
 beyond this was the church. You would call it only a 
 long low building. But when you should go into the 
 native village, and see their "long low" houses, but (for all 
 practical purposes in their stage of civilization) suffi- 
 ciently high, you would agree with the people in saying 
 it was a "ndabo enene" (a great house). It stood back 
 thirty feet from the path; and, on each side of the 
 entrance way were trees and bushes and long grass. 
 Bushes would persist in growing notwithstanding all 
 efforts at cutting them down. One kind of coarse grass 
 twisted itself erect two fathoms in length; and of the 
 trees there were a variety of fruit-bearing. Here was a 
 cocoanut palm, there a guava, on one side an orange, 
 and on the other a lime. But, those trees being along 
 
 (43) 
 
44 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 the public path, we obtained but little of their fruit. 
 As in other countries, with apple trees, the mischievous 
 boys did not allow the fruit to ripen. Even the guavas 
 were eaten unripe. Of the limes we obtained a few, 
 for lemonade. The gable of the building fronted on the 
 path. Its exact dimensions were fifty-one feet long, 
 thirty-eight feet wide, eighteen feet high to the ridge 
 of the roof, which sloped down at the sides to a height 
 of nine feet, and extending live or six feet beyond the 
 walls, shedded the rain at seven feet from the ground. 
 Such long eaves, and such comparatively low roofs are 
 necessary in a country where in certain seasons (e. g. 
 February-May) there come tornado gusts and dashing 
 rains. The exterior of the building consisted entirely 
 of bamboo. Not the West India jointed bamboo (which 
 is, botanically, a grass) but the so-called "bamboo"-palm. 
 The same material as used by the natives in their clay- 
 floored huts. Foreigners, in using the bamboo, elevated 
 their houses above the damp earth. First, were set cer- 
 tain strong posts of mbimo (teak) such as white ants 
 would not attack. In later years, there have been used 
 brick or stone mason-work, or iron pillars, and more 
 recently the cheaper and more easily worked concrete. 
 These posts or pillars were placed apart, from eight to 
 twelve feet, and any convenient height above the ground, 
 e. g. two to six feet. On these were laid heavy beams 
 of hewn logs, which were the real foundation. If the 
 superstructure were to be imported boards, their erection 
 actually began on those logs or sills. If the super- 
 structure, as in the case of the church, was to be bamboo, 
 auger holes, a foot or two apart, were bored in these 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 45 
 
 beams, and into them were stuck upright saplings 
 (mbingo). On to these, several inches apart, were tied 
 horizontal strips (mbanja) of the split fronds of the 
 bamboo, with strings of a split rattan (ulanga) the 
 calanuis-palm, a climbing vine. Over these, to protect 
 them from the rain, and to cover the wide open space 
 between the mbanja, were tied, like enormous shingles, 
 matting (ngonja) of the bamboo leaves skillfully stitched 
 together. This is the mode used in the ordinary native 
 dwellings. But, the church, to be still better, had mbanja 
 strips tied also over the ngonja matting both inside 
 and outside of the walls. And these horizontal strips, 
 instead of being several inches or even a foot apart, 
 were tied close together so as to touch and make a solid 
 covering. The entrance to the door was ascended by a 
 few steps. They made no attempt at ornament. They 
 were plain, substantial, smoothly-hewn logs, resting on 
 small piles. The door-way was wide; the doors' only 
 ornament being the smoothness of their surface, from 
 some American planing-mill, they being of imported 
 pine planks. But, above the door, there was an attempt 
 at ornament, by a great efifort of native art in the con- 
 struction of a six-sided window, whose shape might be 
 described as a parallelogram with a triangle at each end, 
 latticed with neatly split bamboo. It ventilated the room, 
 and admitted light, the other window-spaces having no 
 sashes, only shutters, which had to be closed during a 
 rain. But rain could not enter this large window- 
 space, the roof extending far over the gable. 
 
 Inside, there was some attempt at art. The roof was 
 supported, at half the distance of its descent toward the 
 
46 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 eaves, by a light structure of planed unpainted American 
 white-pine scantling that rested on four similar upright 
 beams, two on each side of the aisle, standing in the 
 center line of the two blocks of seats. Though light, the 
 structure displayed in its thin outlines a firmness that 
 a scientific architect might have admired. There was 
 one broad aisle extending from the door to the pulpit, 
 and narrower ones, on each side of the house next to 
 the walls. The seats were not separately movable. 
 Some of those same pine scantlings having been laid on 
 the floor, holes were bored in them, into which to insert 
 the legs of the benches. These long seats were made 
 like rustic benches in any civilized country. No boards 
 were used; but long, round, smooth young trees served 
 as the frames, and the ever-present bamboo made a 
 rough, hard bottom. Nevertheless, they were uniform 
 in shape, were straight, and had backs, and arms at 
 their ends. There were also three short ones on each 
 side of the julpit. 
 
 That Pulpit! What a structure! A platform, some- 
 what wider than the aisle, was ascended by two steps. 
 On this was a "Desk" ascended by another step; and 
 there then was room just sufficient for the minister 
 and a large marvelous arm-chair, made of crooked elbows 
 of trees, such as are often used in "rustic-work" on the 
 shaded walks of the villas of the rich in civilized countries. 
 The top of the Desk was finished with considerable taste 
 by a variety of combinations of upright, horizontal, and 
 oblique pieces of bamboo, in imitation of panels and 
 framed edges. In front of the Desk was the Elders' 
 Bench (not always occupied by them) used by the pastor 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 47 
 
 at Tuesday evening prayer-meeting, and by the Superin- 
 tendent at Sabbath-School. In front of it was another 
 and lower desk, not so highly finished as the upper one. 
 In that entire pulpit structure there was no piece of 
 foreign wood; only the bamboo, and round, smooth 
 native saplings denuded of their bark. 
 
 The floor, a stranger would at first have been afraid 
 to tread on ; it yielded at every step. Not that the entire 
 floor shook; its basis was firm, being made of long 
 straight saplings laid across the heavy foundation beams. 
 On these saplings was laid a matting of bamboo split 
 finely, about an inch in width, and curiously tied to- 
 gether (somewhat like East Indian "tatties"). Over this 
 were strewed leaves and straw; and over all another 
 immense bamboo matting, three or four widths covering 
 the entire floor. It yielded to our tread like a Brussels 
 carpet, except that it creaked and snapped, making a 
 new-comer think that he would break through it. But, 
 one soon became used to its elasticity. 
 
 Light was admitted to the Pulpit by a large diamond- 
 shaped lattice. There was also a window-space on each 
 side of the Pulpit. But, one of these spaces had been 
 enlarged for a wooden lattice-shuttered American-made 
 pine door, which opened out to a little burial-ground. 
 It contains the sacred dust of the first Mrs. DeHeer, 
 Rev. George M'Queen; Rev. Thos. S. Ogden and infant; 
 Rev. George Paull; a British Naval officer; and two 
 African assistants. At first it had no enclosure, and the 
 goats and sheep wandered over it. Mr. Mackey gath- 
 ered funds from private sources with which to purchase 
 in America and erect an ornamental iron fence around 
 
48 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 three sides of the Httle square, the church gable closing 
 the fourth. On each side of the house were three 
 window-spaces closed by solid wooden shutters, except 
 toward the Evangasimba yard where one of the spaces 
 was occupied by a door, that afforded near access to 
 Mr. Mackey's house. For evening services in the church 
 a few dim rays were shed about the speaker's desk 
 (while all the rest of the house was in blank darkness) 
 by two remarkable fixtures, the result of Dr. Loomis' 
 ingenuity. He was the most ingenious man I remember 
 ever meeting in the Mission. What he made, though 
 insufificient, was vastly better than the single hand-lamp 
 or candle previously used. Taking two empty tin bis- 
 cuit-cans, about twelve inches by sixteen inches in dimen- 
 sion, he cut out the sides, and inserted glass panes, cut 
 ventilators in the top, made doors in the bottom for 
 the introduction of four candles into each, and then hung 
 them from the roof by the ever-useful rattan strings on 
 each side of the pulpit. The manner in which the sides 
 of the can were cut out, so as leave a margin for the 
 insertion of glass, was really ingenious. Later on, Mr. 
 Mackey suspended there a fine hanging kerosene lamp 
 which he had brought from America for use in his own 
 house. That gave, comparatively a flood of light. The 
 two "chandeliers" were removed to the two darker 
 corners. The leader of the evening meeting was then 
 able, by dint of hard staring of the eye, to discover 
 which of the dusky forms in the audience on whom to 
 call for a prayer. At that early stage in the Mission, 
 few natives had learned to read English, and there was 
 not any hymn-book in the vernacular. So, no light was 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 49 
 
 needed by tlie audience for handling books. The leader 
 "lined out" the hymns. 
 
 It was a very simple building for Him whose Sanc- 
 tuary is ''strength and beauty." He should have had 
 better; but those native Christians gave their best. 
 Most of the labor spent on its erection they gave with- 
 out compensation. 
 
 That building has long ago fallen in decay. Scarcely 
 its site is visible. Its successor was built at Alongo on 
 the northern end of the island. Evangasimba was aban- 
 doned. Only the graves mark that locality. Even of 
 it, the iron fence has rusted away; but reverent native 
 hands yearly clear away the bushes and rampant grasses. 
 A Spanish Roman Catholic School has been built near 
 it ; part of our Protestant work being centered at Alongo, 
 and the remainder being transferred to the mainland at 
 the mouth of the Benito River, some fifty miles north- 
 ward. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Childhood in Africa. 
 
 WHEN an infant was born, there was great joy in 
 the village. The house was filled with women; 
 and the men outside were drinking rum, and 
 firing guns and shouting and singing. The first morn- 
 ing after its birth, the babe was subjected to the 
 ceremony of public reception. This ceremony was 
 intended as an honor; but, even the tender mercies of 
 the wicked were cruel. The naked baby was laid on 
 a plantain leaf in the open air in the middle of the 
 street, and all the people of the village gathered about, 
 each one sprinkling water on its shivering form. I 
 wondered that the little tender things did not die. This 
 custom reminded me of baptism; probably it is a remains 
 of their traditions. But the people knew of no other 
 meaning in it, than as a welcome. Then the baby was 
 returned to its mother, and the two were to remain 
 indoors for a whole month. The mother might not go 
 out farther than the street, and the baby not at all until 
 the month was ended. During that time, it lived on its 
 mother's milk. At the end of the month, the mother 
 cooked a great deal of food, and putting on her best 
 clothing, carried the food to the village town-house where 
 her husband and his friends ate the food. One of the 
 friends then, having presented the father with a piece 
 
 (50) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 5 1 
 
 of crockery, or a few yards of cloth, entered the house 
 in which the babe and mother had stayed, and striking 
 the low roof with a stick, called aloud the name he had 
 chosen for the child. The baby and mother might then 
 go wherever they pleased. 
 
 If the baby was a boy, he learned to look forward 
 with fear to his circumcision, which might be performed 
 when he was three years old; but oftener it was delayed 
 until as late as eight or ten years. (A memory of "the 
 8th day" of Judaism?) This over, he looked with fear to 
 his twelfth or fourteenth year, when he would be pre- 
 sented to a great (evil) spirit Ukuku; a wicked, and (we 
 supposed) a painful ceremony. (A memory of the 
 Temple dedication of children, in Judaism, at the twelfth 
 year ?) 
 
 Then his "troubles are done," as he supposed, and he 
 soon grew up into proud, impudent, lazy, vicious young 
 manhood. 
 
 If the baby was a girl, her "troubles" were supposed 
 to be "done" at the end of the first month. But, really, 
 they were only beginning. As soon as she could walk 
 or run well she followed her mother to the plantation, 
 and carried a basket in her hand, or a small jug of water 
 on her back, or a stick of fire-wood on her head, to be 
 taught to work as women; or, went with the women to 
 gather shell-fish along the sea-shore. 
 
 The people loved to have children; and they petted 
 them very much the while they were quite young, or 
 unable to do any work. That is, they indulged them 
 one hour, and perhaps abused them the next. They 
 taught them to talk, but, among the first words which 
 
52 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 were taught were bad words, native curses, insults, and 
 foul sayings. If the little tongues succeeded in saying 
 them, they were much admired as amusing. But, if a 
 child should happen to become angry and utter those 
 same words in earnest, then it received abuse from the 
 very one who had taught it. 
 
 Those children were governed only by fear. The 
 same "Black-man-down-in-the-cellar" that is used so 
 wickedly by silly servants and parents in America, was 
 used also in Africa, except that he was generally a 
 "white" man. I regret to say that I was the one used 
 by some of the people of the village adjacent to my 
 house. Almost all the little children were afraid of all 
 white people. When subsequently they grew out of 
 this, there was employed the fear of spirits. And when, 
 later on, they got a fetish charm, each one for himself, 
 to guard them against the spirits, there was no further 
 control of them, except for females, for whom was used 
 Ukuku, and the hippopotamus-hide lash. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Betrothment and Marriage. 
 
 IN no one thing, more than in the social position of 
 women, is the difference seen between a Heathen 
 and a Christian country. Heathen women are only 
 slaves. So far from being man's superior, they are in no 
 respect regarded as even his equal. The tender relations 
 of lover and husband (as we know them in the chivalry 
 of America) do not exist. I doubted sometimes whether 
 those native people knew of a lover's knightly feelings. 
 A woman there is not wooed and won by love, so that 
 her own heart and will should direct her destiny. She 
 was bought with money. This buying with money or 
 goods as a "dowry" gift was quite tolerable, if the young 
 girl consented to the arrangement. We missionaries 
 for a time found it necessary to follow that plan in 
 furnishing wives for the young men from our schools. 
 In this there was nothing wrong. But the Heathen way 
 was a frightful shame. Often, little girls, as soon as they 
 were born, were betrothed to some old gray-headed man. 
 A young man had not much chance. But an old man 
 found more favor from the father, on account of the 
 wealth or influence he should thus bring to the family. 
 So, the old man would lay down at the father's feet 
 some article, such as a pitcher, a sword, a shirt, or a 
 piece of cloth, as a claim on the little baby, who was 
 thenceforth called his "mwajo" (woman; there was no 
 
 (53) 
 
54 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 real word for the name wife). From time to time he 
 paid other articles, worth in all $50.00 to $100.00, in- 
 cluded in which sum was a slave or its equivalent in 
 price. When the little girl was about ten or eleven 
 years old, she was taken to live with him in his village, 
 and her father would have no more control over her. 
 If she died before she was taken to the husband's village, 
 the father paid back the things or gave him another 
 woman. 
 
 Here is a list of the goods I took with me once on a 
 journey to Kombe, where some negotiations had been 
 made for a wife for one of our Christian young men: 
 35 iron bars, 2 brass kettles, 3 matchets, i sword, 10 
 brass rods, 2 copper neptunes, i gun, i keg of powder, 
 2 butcher knives, i hatchet, 5 heads of tobacco, i paper 
 of needles, i razor, i scissors, i straw hat, i black hat, 
 I umbrella, 4 pipes, 2 shirts, i pair of ear-rings, i goat, 
 10 fish-hooks, i coat, 2 bunches of beads, i iron pot, 
 17 pieces of calico prints, i handful of flints, 20 pieces 
 of crockery, i looking-glass, and 2 chests. The girl 
 was willing, and was to have been brought to school 
 to be taught, until she was woman-grown. But, the 
 father had sold her to another man before I got there. 
 
 There was a very sad case of one of our school girls 
 about that time. Most of the girls there had been paid 
 for by us in the way of dowry gifts and were safe in our 
 care. But this young girl's father would not take a 
 dowry from us, and she stayed at school, every month 
 liable to be taken away by some rich man with other 
 wives. She was a pretty girl about twelve years of age. 
 delicately formed, little hands and feet, and a neck that 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 55 
 
 made us think of Anne Boleyn's. She was called Jenny 
 Baird, for a lady who was contributing to our school. 
 Her native name was Ijuli. She sang all the Sabbath 
 School songs sweetly, sewed very neatly, could make 
 her own dress after it was cut out for her, always said 
 her lessons perfectly, and never made any trouble or 
 broke rules. One day. I heard her father had sold her 
 to a man from Elobi Island, for a large two-masted 
 boat. I saw^ the boat lying at the beach near her father's 
 village. I found the report was true. Alas! it was too 
 true; for, a few days afterward, while I was teaching in 
 school, her father and two other men, one of them the 
 hated owner of the boat, came, all of them drunk, and 
 called for me and the girl. I had no right over her; 
 went to the room where they were; and sent word for 
 her to come. She would not come: for, she knew what 
 they wanted. At last I had to go myself to the girls' 
 yard and lead the weeping child to her drunken father 
 rather than have him make an assault on the school. 
 There were many tears that day. We gave her clothing, 
 books and needles, and other keep-sakes, and a chest 
 in which to put them, and she was led away from us. 
 She often came to visit us afterward. But she was not 
 happy. Her own father had made her so. In later 
 life, she fell into other hands, became a Christian, and a 
 useful church-member. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 Mourning for the Dead. 
 
 THERE were many strange customs and manners 
 among' Corisco people which struck me forcibly. 
 I suppose it would be so in any country, in which 
 one was a foreigner; from which, subsequent acquaint- 
 ance would take off the sharp points of attention; yet the 
 impression produced by first sight remains long. 
 
 Within a few months after my arrival in September, 
 1861, on Corisco Island, quite a number of persons, of 
 all ages, died, and I heard and saw somewhat of the 
 custom of mourning for the dead; my ear began to be 
 used to the sounds of wailing; but, when I isolate myself 
 in thought on a certain evening in March, 1862, memory 
 brings back as sharply as ever the peculiar efifect caused 
 by the first hearing of an African wailing: until then, 
 there had not been any deaths in my immediate vicinity, 
 since my arrival on the Island. In the village Kamba 
 (a large one) about three-quarters of a mile distant, the 
 second in authority, Okota by name, who, for many 
 years, had had what appeared to be epileptic fits, was 
 lying dangerously ill. Several of the Girls' School chil- 
 dren were from that village. All the children of any 
 village call its headman by their universally mis-used 
 name of "Father." Several times came a message. 
 "Okota a wendi" (Okota is dead). Properly appreciating 
 native untruthfulness, that message meant that the sick 
 
 (56) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 57 
 
 one was much worse, or that death was anticipated; so 
 that one does well not to beheve the word until it comes 
 three or four times. I had before gone to see the sick 
 man; he could not (or would not) speak, though he 
 could hear perfectly well. His whole body was enor- 
 mously swollen with dropsy. I sent medicine to relieve 
 distressing symptoms, but felt that any attempt to under- 
 take a course of medicine for recovery was useless; he 
 was too near death. Moreover, firmly in the grasp of 
 heathenish rites as he was, no regular prescriptions 
 would have been followed, against the word of the 
 wretchedly superstitious women who had him in charge. 
 
 I took his three "children" (no real relation) to see 
 him, and expressed sympathy with the people in their 
 affliction. The village was full of people; had been so 
 for a month; strangers from other villages on the island 
 or mainland, who could make even the most distant 
 claims of relationship by blood or marriage. They had 
 come, according to native custom, to see the sick man 
 die, to share in the spoils at the subsequent division of 
 his wives and other goods. As guests, they were to 
 have what they wanted, of smoking, eating, and sleeping. 
 I imagine that the inhabitants of the village were becom- 
 ing wearied by extra fishing, and beggared by the amount 
 of tobacco they had been compelled to furnish. 
 
 The weather had been very clear and beautiful on a 
 certain Saturday in March, 1862. A very delightful 
 season there; no raining in the daytime; and yet cool, 
 because verging toward the Long Cool Dry Season. 
 In the evening, two fellow missionaries. Rev. and Mrs. 
 Mackey, had come up to take tea at my house, accom- 
 
58 CORTSCO DAYS. 
 
 panied by Winwoode Read, a young English gentleman, 
 and amateur traveler and hunter, and subsequently an 
 author. The day, though beautiful, had been rather 
 wearisome. I was not perfectly well, so that I was not 
 enjoying the evening conversation. Suddenly, a great 
 outcry was borne on the air. "There is mourning in 
 Kamba!" I had not heard such mournful sounds before. 
 Okota was reported to be dead. The school children 
 had all retired at their usual time, but their quick ears 
 caught and recognized the sound. Judging the cause, 
 the three Kamba children began a sobbing which 
 soon became infectious, and the whole twenty girls were 
 presently crying aloud. It was annoying, and exceed- 
 ingly depressing; so depressing that I could not endure 
 it. Their crying was unseemly; the news was probably 
 false; none of them were blood relatives; at all events, 
 there was no call for mourning in obstreperous native 
 fashion in a mission-house. They promptly yielded to 
 an intimation to be quiet; and, after our visitors had 
 said good evening, I went over to the village to see the 
 state of the case, first agreeing with Mr. Mackey to go 
 in the morning with him to speak to the people. The 
 two school-boys who were living with me wished to 
 accompany me; I was glad of their presence; for, there 
 was something really fearful in the wails that sounded 
 louder and louder as I approached the village. I have 
 never forgotten that walk. The way led in a narrow 
 path through the thick "bush," down a dark hollow 
 and up a slight ascent under a dense covering of leaves. 
 In native towns there is only one street; wide, with the 
 houses set closely together on each side. As I came 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 59 
 
 to the head of the street, I saw, in the bright moonlight, 
 a man advancing toward me, wailing with such an utter 
 occupancy of grief as (apparently) to be unaware of my 
 approach or of the presence of others near him. His 
 arms were akimbo; and stepping- slowly along with a 
 jaunty motion that in America would be called an 
 attempt to be "dandified" (but which here is a part of 
 grief) with head thrown back, he was pouring forth with 
 powerful voice, not words, but mostly a cry. Beginning 
 with an imploring scream, ''O! Tata-o" (O! my Father) 
 the last sound was changed into an O tone, three notes 
 above, and this note was continued for an amazing length 
 of time, the voice relieving itself by a very rapid tremu- 
 lous trilling, that seemed rather the inability of nature to 
 sustain the strain on one chord, than a musical attempt 
 on the part of the mourner. 
 
 On a nearer aproach, I discovered that he was one of 
 my own workmen, a suspended member of our church, 
 who lived in the village. On approaching the spot where 
 I stood, he ceased, and began to talk in a very ordinary 
 tone about very ordinary matters. I was standing with 
 two others of the townsmen, who also were employed 
 in the Mission. One of them lived at our Station, and 
 was a very devout, faithful Christian. Though a nearer 
 relative to Okota than was the man who was making so 
 great an outcry, he was -standing quietly and seriously. 
 I could not see how any of them could be otherwise than 
 serious. Death was near; that wretchedly mournful 
 wailing was pouring on my ears from as many as fifty 
 voices, and the beautiful tropical night was about me. 
 (There has always been to me something inherently 
 
6o CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 painful in the exquisitely beautiful.) What a mixture 
 of beauty and wretchedness! A beautiful land, but a 
 wretched people! 
 
 Everybody whom I met said Okota was dead, and I 
 believed it. I wished to manifest my sympathy ; yet, how- 
 ever insincere the grief of some certainly was, I did not 
 like to intrude. No mourner speaks to the visitor; 
 nobody says "mbolo" (long life to you!) You are looked 
 at with a vacant stare that is rather repelling. Not being 
 at that time well acquainted with their customs, I asked 
 the advice of the Christian assistant, and advanced to- 
 ward the center of the village. In and about the door 
 of one house were gathered quietly the nearest relatives 
 of the deceased. (I found out next day that he was not 
 actually dead at that time.) Across the street was the 
 house where the "corpse" lay; (they really thought him 
 dead). Around the door were a dozen women, sitting 
 on the ground with dust thrown on their heads and 
 bodies. Respectfull}' taking ofif my hat, I sat on the 
 ground with them. They were crying, sobbing, scream- 
 ing, wailing, as if their hearts would break. It was 
 almost impossible not to weep with them. It was so 
 utterly mournful! Such wails; such utter desolation! 
 Such sobs! I thought of Jewish hired mourners. One 
 woman sitting on the ground, with her hands spread 
 on her thighs to support her body, was rocking to and 
 fro, not uttering words, but sobbing, sobbing, in a low, 
 broken-hearted tone. Another uttered a succession of 
 screams as if under the infliction of punishment. Another 
 was extending her arms forward in an imploring manner, 
 calling on the deceased to come back. Another was 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 6 1 
 
 crying and sobbing, and at the same time plaintively 
 telling over the blessings they had possessed but had 
 now lost with their "Tata" (Father). I did not salute 
 nor was saluted; but my presence was recognized by a 
 woman who began in her wailing to appeal to "Paia 
 Nasa" (Father Nassau). Most of them uttered the same 
 kind of wails as made by the man whom I had met at 
 the village entrance. I never heard notes and tones 
 expressive of such extreme desolation and grief, even 
 from the most accomplished public and private singers 
 whom I have listened to in civilization. Such apparent 
 abandonment! Such entire overwhelming of sorrow! 
 Then, suddenly, the mourner would stop, take a pipe of 
 tobacco from a neighbor, and quietly and unconcernedly 
 smoke and talk, while another took up the strain. I 
 entered the house. It was crowded with forty or more 
 women, most of them mourning. The bed on which 
 Okota lay was not accessible. Objection had been made 
 to my offering prayers, when I once visited him while 
 he was living, before there was any mourning, and 
 while the house was quiet. It would have been vain 
 to request permission that night. 
 
 I returned saddened; for, to all the causes of depressing 
 sorrow already accumulated, I knew that the lives of a 
 poor slave woman and her little son were to be sacri- 
 ficed; perhaps before Okota was buried. They were 
 charged with having caused his death by witchcraft.* 
 Nobody (natives say) dies a natural death; to them there 
 
 * This incident I have used in my "Mawedo," published by 
 the American Tract Society, 1881. 
 
62 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 is scarcely any such thing; in their beUef, every dead 
 person has been "bewitched." The question after one's 
 death is, "Who killed this person?" They look around; 
 he or she who does not mourn much ; who has had some 
 quarrel with the deceased; who has sometimes uttered 
 a threat; whose life is not worth much, or who has few 
 friends to defend him or her against the charge, is fixed 
 on, and killed, sometimes with torture. 
 
 Talking to my boys on the wickedness of the practice, 
 as we walked back to our house, I was pained to find 
 that one of them rather sided against the woman; al- 
 though he had been for some years in our school; his 
 hereditary ideas cropped out. Perhaps the thought was 
 partly in him that she had actually administered, as 
 some said, poison, and was, therefore, a murderess. It 
 was not a pleasant ending for that Saturday night: the 
 many and conflicting thoughts kept away sleep. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 The Sabbath on Heathen Ground. 
 
 THOSE who live in a Christian land do not know 
 how to value the Sabbath, as do those who have 
 left it to live in a land where that holy day is not 
 known. For, when it comes in America, the Christian 
 knows the day ; and seems to breathe an air different from 
 that of other days. The bells ring solemnly, and troops 
 of children are seen collecting in schools, and lines of 
 people are wending their way to church. 
 
 In a heathen land it is not so. The people do not 
 know which day is Sunday; all days are alike to them. 
 If persons came to me on Saturday to sell something, 
 and they said, "To-morrow I will bring some more," 
 and I replied, "To-morrow is the Sabbath," their answer 
 would be "Hu yowe ("we do not know"), (That some- 
 times means, we did not care to know.) If you were 
 visiting there, you would see on Sabbath morning, 
 women passing by with burdens on their shoulders or 
 backs (for women do most of the work) carrying their 
 mevanda (cassava) to soak at the springs; or, with a 
 basket and a matchet going to work in the plantations. 
 You would see the men traveling out into the forest as 
 usual, with a gun to shoot wild animals, or, to kill 
 enemies, if they should get into a quarrel. Very pos- 
 sibly they might get into a quarrel; for, they generally 
 (if they did not have rum) had their bottle which they 
 
 (63) 
 
64 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 would fill with palm-wine (the juice running from the 
 wounded trunk of a palm tree) which, if drunk in large 
 quantity, will intoxicate. 
 
 Some did not know it was the Sabbath; but others, 
 who did know, might be seen carrying their chests and 
 boatsail to the beach, to commence a trade-journey. 
 They said, "This is a good day: so, I will go on my 
 journey to-day, and will have good luck." They did not 
 understand that it is a good day for God's work, but a 
 very bad day for Man's business. My heart often was 
 saddened when I saw these things. I have longed for 
 the quiet of an American Sabbath; for the bright, clean, 
 happy faces turned church-ward; for the chimes of the 
 many bells of a city, or the single note of the village 
 church, as it echoed over a plain and down a valley. 
 I have thirsted, until my eyes paid for the heart's pain, 
 longing for the joys that come from association with 
 many christians in a christian air. Then God came 
 into my heart, and said "Peace;" and all was peace. 
 Sometimes there was sent joy for the tears, as, sitting, 
 of a calm Sabbath morning, and looking out on the 
 placid sea, with a fresh cool breeze sweeping from the 
 land, I dismissed the sounds and thoughts of Sin that 
 had there made man "vile," and I saw only the "pros- 
 pects" that pleased. There, the gently heaving, or, 
 white-capped sea ; there, the blue sky above it ; all around 
 the tropical verdure, green, but with many shades, from 
 the pea of the plantain to the almost brown of the 
 bombax. And I felt that God had "made everything 
 beautiful in his time." Then I sang most heartily, 
 "The morning light is breaking." "Let rivers of Salva- 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 65 
 
 tion in larger currents flow." Led from this, back to 
 thoughts of heathen degradation, I felt no more the 
 heavy pain, but an exultation; for, I knew that surely, 
 though slowly, a beautiful light of the Gospel, like "the 
 rosy light of morn," was creeping over that sin-stricken 
 land's hills and vales. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A Sabbath School in a Heathen Land. 
 
 THE fathers and mother of heathen children had not 
 the blessings of the Gospel in their youth. They 
 were not called by the Sabbath-bell away from 
 their play and work. Even when the Gospel is brought 
 to the children they do not naturally love its truths. They 
 do not love the Sabbath, for it cuts them ofif from some 
 sinful pleasures, or idle works. They at first do not love 
 school, for, they have never been used to thinking; to 
 learn to read is for them, hard work. But the parents saw- 
 that knowledge of books has made men wise for many 
 useful things; so, they told their children to go to school 
 on both week-days and Sabbath. But, heathen children 
 mind their parents only as they please; so, they came to 
 Sabbath School only if they chose to do so. Some days 
 there were only a few pupils besides those who happened 
 to be in the mission boarding schools, who, of course 
 were brought by those who had them in charge. 
 
 A Sabbath School in a heathen land is unlike one in 
 a civilized country. But it is not very unlike; except 
 that in civilization we have more Christian light, and 
 are more able to understand the privileges we possess, 
 the hymns, Bible stories, pictures and addresses. But 
 all children and all people have evil in their hearts; so, 
 heathen children need the same instruction about dutv 
 
 (66) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 6/ 
 
 to God, and warnings against the ways to hell the more 
 even than are needed in Christian lands. 
 
 I will tell how Sabbath School was held on Cor- 
 isco. There were three places, or ''Stations" on the 
 island, at each of which there was a Mission-house. 
 Those places were Ugobi, Alongo, and Evangasimba; 
 but at the last named, there were two minor dwellings. 
 At the other two places there were chapels where there 
 were held Sabbath Schools; but at Evangasimba was the 
 church. There the Girls' School attended. Let me 
 describe that school. On Sabbath afternoon ; the first bell 
 had rung at 2.45 P. M. Soon our dwelling-house was 
 shut up, and the teachers with the procession of twenty- 
 five girls, were on a winding path of a few^ hundred 
 yards to the church. Rev. Mr. Mackey, the pastor, 
 sat in front of the pulpit, and he gave out a hymn, some- 
 times from the English hymn-book, sometimes from 
 the small manscript Benga collection. Then a prayer 
 was offered for God's blessing on the instructions about 
 to be given and received. The pupils of the Station- 
 households were called on at random to stand up and 
 recite the verses of a Benga hymn, which it had been 
 one of their tasks to learn during an hour of each even- 
 ing during the preceding week. A great deal of 
 religious truth was thus imparted to their memories if 
 they but tried to retain it. At least, they learned the 
 words and could join thus in public singing; for, we 
 at that time had no printed Benga singing-books, only 
 the missionaries having their manuscript copies. Now, 
 look at the classes! There, in the side seats at the left 
 hand of the pulpit, w^as Mrs. M'Oueen's Bible-class, 
 
68 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 a few of the oldest School girls, some young women who 
 were formerly pupils in that school, and several lads 
 and young men who had been in the boys' schools. 
 They recited from the Union Question Book. On the 
 right hand side of the pulpit were Mrs. Nassau's six or 
 eight little girls. They were the lambs of the flock, 
 the youngest in the Sabbath School. They could not 
 read or spell, barely knew their letters, but their teacher 
 loved little children, and knew how to interest them. 
 Their eyes would twinkle with delight over a picture of 
 the infant Savior, or would sadden at the sight of the 
 capture of Joseph; and their quick ears soon caught 
 up all Bible stories from Adam and Eve, through Noah, 
 Samuel and Daniel to Christ; nor were they wearied to 
 listen and ask even after their gentle teacher's voice and 
 strength had tired. 
 
 Down the middle aisle, on the same right hand, was 
 a class of five or six girls. They could not read or 
 understand English, but they were reading in the Benga 
 Primer and answering from a Benga Question Book. 
 Their teacher was a native Christian man, who, not 
 many years before, was a heathen, trusting in his fetish. 
 But he had laid it aside to trust in Christ. He gave 
 me that fetish, to let me see in what a foolish thing he 
 had believed. His name was Upinyalo. which means 
 "perseverance." 
 
 On the other side of the aisle, opposite his class, were 
 a half-dozen school-girls. They read well in the Benga 
 New Testament, and some of them also in English. 
 For a while, they had for their teacher a young, native 
 man who had been a promising Christian, but who after- 
 
CORISCO DAYS. , 69 
 
 wards fell under temptation. Yet, he knew well what 
 and how to teach, and could tell others the way, and 
 could explain verses, even though himself had turned 
 from the right path. This class sometimes had another 
 teacher. 
 
 Still farther down the aisle on the left was a miscella- 
 neous collection of boys and lads and men from the 
 villages. Sometimes there were only two, sometimes 
 more than seven. Some could read, and some did not 
 know a single letter of the alphabet. But, Mr. Mackey, 
 as Superintendent, took care of them, and to each one 
 gave instruction according to their capacity or attain- 
 ment. 
 
 Opposite to this collection of lads, on the other side 
 of the aisle, was an almost equally heterogeneous collec- 
 tion of girls and women from the villages, taught by 
 Mrs. Mackey. Sometimes she had only the three or 
 four girls of her household; sometimes she had half 
 a dozen others, who came in as their fancy happened 
 to dictate, or, in response to some promise they had 
 made during her visits to their homes. If they lis- 
 tened, they were well paid for their coming. They 
 were given explanations and instructions and affection- 
 ate advice. 
 
 More than an hour was thus passed, and the lessons 
 were ended. Perhaps the children's and teachers' backs 
 were tired with sitting on the hard benches, or with 
 stooping over. So, they all rose and sang a Benga song, 
 such as "Ho tatakudwe n' Anyambe" (Preserved by Thy 
 All-mighty Power), or. "O'be na din* iyam' o he" (There 
 is no name so sweet on earth), or, "Ho tumbwakide 
 
yo CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 Jisu" (Come let us sing of Jesus), or, "llina, pepwaka" 
 (My Soul, be on thy Guard). With such words on their 
 lips, the hour and a half was closed. If rightly used, it 
 was a preparation, for both teachers and taught, to join 
 in the Lamb's song of the saved in Heaven. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Co.ME TO Prayer. 
 
 GOD uses some very singular means to spread the 
 Kingdom of Himself. In the days of Christ's life 
 on earth, when the proud Pharisee refused to see 
 in Him .the true God. and to glorify Him as such, children 
 in the Temple made Him known as the human Son of 
 David and the Divine Son of the Highest. Often, when 
 parents have strayed away from religious influences and 
 neglected the ordinances of religion, their little children 
 have been used as the means of bringing truth to them, 
 or themselves to the place where the truth might be 
 heard. Such was the case in our Corisco household, 
 where we had morning and evening prayers. The even- 
 ing prayers were held after darkness had fallen, when 
 supper had been eaten, and when all work was done. 
 A hand-bell was rung on the front porch, and the doors 
 and windows were left open, so that all within sound 
 of the bell or in sight of the light might know that they 
 were invited to enter. There was a native village just by 
 our enclosure, so near that I could have flung a stone 
 into the middle of its long street, and I am sure that 
 the tones of that hand-bell could be heard that far. But 
 the people did not always obey its call; some few always 
 came. 
 
 The house nearest to us was inhabited by some thiev- 
 ish slaves, who never came to prayers. They had. liv- 
 
 (71) 
 
72 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 ing with them, a Httle mulatto child, left by its negro 
 mother in their care. This little child, as soon as she 
 could attempt to run at all, found her way into our 
 yard, and up the steps into our house. She was afraid 
 of white people, at first, and would run away when any 
 of us looked at her. But, after a while, she ceased to be 
 afraid, and came to the missionary ladies when they 
 spoke to her. Like all little children there, she was 
 naked; and we clothed her. She admired her little frock, 
 and whenever she saw the lady who had given it to her 
 she called out, "Mama-O! Mama-O!" Then, when the 
 bell rung in the evening for prayers, she would come to 
 see the bright lights in the hall, and the array of school 
 girls sitting around. She knew w'hen the time came; 
 and. it being too dark for her to come by herself, I 
 could hear her call to some one of the slaves to take 
 her to "sikulu" (school). But those people did not wish 
 to come to prayers, and they would not mind her call, 
 or would bid her be quiet, or perhaps strike her to 
 make her sit down in their house. But Egalulema (for 
 that was her name; it means "Secret-of-the-heart") would 
 only scream the louder, and kick, and cry to go to 
 "sikulu" and "Mama." One night, w-hen one of the 
 women had unwillingly yielded to the child, and had 
 brought her to prayers, and she had sat very quietly 
 until all was over, the woman began to complain to us 
 that the child made her come to prayers! Egalulema 
 had cried until the woman, to pacify her, had brought, 
 her! This little infant came only because she liked to 
 see the pretty things of the house where she was always 
 treated kindly. Perhaps the people she compelled to 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 73 
 
 come with her, though they sat unwilhngly under the 
 sound of the Gospel, heard some words which may have 
 been as seed in their hearts, and might spring up there- 
 after under the blessing of the Holy Spirit. "Out of 
 the mouths of babes and sucklings, Thou hast ordained 
 praise." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 Lights and Shades. 
 
 IN 1864 we had been grieved by a disturbance at one 
 of our out-stations, Mbini, on the mainland among 
 the Kombe tribe, during the month of March. That 
 out-station was the latest one made; it was located fifty 
 miles north, at the mouth of the Bonito River, on its 
 south bank. Two young men, Makendenge and Mbata 
 were the ones we had placed there. Mbata, contrary to 
 our rule, interested himself with one of the Elobi island 
 white traders in Corisco Bay, to get some "trust" for 
 his relatives on the north side of the river, and induced 
 Makendenge to assist him with his knowledge of English 
 in writing for him to the trader. The envy, jealousy, 
 and anger of some parties living at and near Mbini, 
 and rivals of Mbata's people in trade, were aroused by 
 this. They said that the young men were leaving their 
 proper business of speaking God's word and were med- 
 dling with "Trade." Mbata, fearing trouble, absconded 
 to his people across the river. The rival faction made 
 an assault at Mbini, and severely beat Makendenge, 
 and said they would not have him live there any more. 
 All this occurred just before the Communion Season 
 at Corisco of April of that year. When the young men 
 all came down to attend the Lord's Supper we investi- 
 gated the matter. 
 
 (74) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 75 
 
 As a result of the investigation, Makendenge was 
 reprimanded, and his location was changed to Aje, to 
 live with Ilanga, who was there alone. Aje was some 
 seventeen miles south of Albini, and in Makendenge's 
 own tribe, the Bapuku. Mbata was suspended from the 
 service for six months. He felt the sentence severely, 
 and thought we were "putting him in darkness." But it 
 was desirable to make an example, as there had been no 
 small trouble about this subject of meddling in "trade;" 
 and our injunctions on the subject had been repeated 
 and specific. Another man, Yume, also, whose out- 
 station was at Meduma, eight or nine miles north of 
 Mbini, and who had been visiting on Corisco for six 
 weeks previous to the Communion, professedly to im- 
 prove in lessons, proved so irregular, unfaithful and even 
 immoral, that the Mission was constrained to dismiss 
 him. As this left Etiyani alone at Meduma, he was 
 transferred to Njumba's place, Hanji, (about half way 
 between Mbini and Aje). Thus were two of the out- 
 stations broken up. Doubtless these things would have 
 been less likely to occur had the Mission not been com- 
 pelled to leave the young men so much to themselves. 
 On the morning of that Communion Sabbath day, two 
 new elders, Njumba, Bible-reader at Hanji, and Eyavo, 
 Bible-reader at McQueen out-station, Elobi island, who 
 had been elected nine months before, were ordained to 
 their office. Much confidence had been placed in them 
 both. They seemed brave men. 
 
 A young man from Aje, under Ilanga's instruction, 
 was presented to the Session; and the examination was 
 gratifying; but it was deemed best to place him at 
 
76 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 Alongo for three months further instruction. Four per- 
 sons, adults, were inquirers at Elobi with Eyavo. They 
 were relatives of Eyavo and Licentiate Ibia. 
 
 After Communion, there was another trouble, which 
 was annoying; for it gave Mr. Mackey anxiety, the 
 while he was too sick and weak to be about or able to 
 do anything. There had been a war-cloud hanging 
 between the Benga and the Bapuku. With the latter, 
 the Kombe (of Bonito River) are somewhat associated. 
 The Bapuku had killed a Benga man, and, therefore, 
 were afraid to visit the island. Even Makendenge and 
 Ilanga were afraid to come, unless we sent our boat for 
 them. Our boat and premises were, from the first, to 
 be held sacred from violence. This had always been 
 the missionaries' understanding with the Benga tribe; 
 also it had been agreed that our ecclesiastical employees 
 were not to be involved in the war "palavers" of others. 
 On a Monday afternoon following Communion, it was 
 desired that all the young Bible-reader men should return 
 to their places in Njumba's native boat. All except 
 himself were afraid to do so. There were many exciting 
 and exaggerated reports that some Benga war-boats 
 had left the other (east) side of the island to intercept 
 the young men out at sea. The female relatives of 
 the young men, married on the island, increased their 
 fears by anxious tales. I oflfered to take the mission- 
 boat and go with them by night; but, they were so afraid 
 that they would not leave our premises, and even had 
 to be sheltered in our houses at night. After two days, 
 the reports subsided, and the whole company were put 
 into our large sail-boat under Mr. Ibia's care, with the 
 
CORISCO DAYS. yj 
 
 native boat in tow; and they left on a Wednesday eve- 
 ning. They reached their destination safely before day- 
 light of next day. Those of the Benga who would 
 naturally have been the foremost in any assault, (had 
 any been intended.) sent Mr. Mackey the most positive 
 assurances that there had been no truth in the reports. 
 
 A Spanish gentleman called, shortly afterward, from 
 a Spanish steamer, who was superintending the building 
 of the Roman Catholic priest's house on the island, and, 
 in course of a friendly conversation, he said he was 
 directed by the Governor of Fernando-Po to inquire 
 whether the American Mission intended staying on the 
 island. (It was claimed by Spain; and, some ten years 
 before, there had been a notification that we should 
 leave). Mr. Mackey told him that, having lived on the 
 island so long, we had no intention of removing. Sub- 
 sequently the Mission heard from sources that professed 
 to have good authority, that it would not be interfered 
 with. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 Native Evangelists. 
 
 TO increase the efficiency of the evangehsts, or, 
 as they were called, Scripture-readers, I re- 
 quired them to present me quarterly reports. 
 I give two of these reports, without addition or subtrac- 
 tion, except to insert explanations in brackets, thus mak- 
 ing the translation literal and idiomatic. The writer 
 Etiyani remained faithful to the end of his life, being 
 finally ordained as a minister. His reports were written 
 from his out-station at Aje. 
 
 Report No. i, 1867. 
 
 I went to Matemu [an interior tribe] when four days 
 of the week had passed. We slept on the way one day. 
 Then I spoke to the head-man of the village saying, 
 "Call the people." But there came not many. Per- 
 haps they feared; there came a few. Then I talked with 
 them, and I spoke unto them, saying, "Let us pray." 
 Prayer being ended, this one spread himself out to rest, 
 that one spread himself out to rest, and almost all of 
 them laughed. Then one man spoke to me, saying, 
 "Etiyani, we know that there is a God. but we follow 
 after the light of earth, concubines, and paramours, and 
 marriages with many women, and assignations." That 
 man was of the Bapuku (tribe). 
 
 (78) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 79 
 
 I have just come from the Matemu, very far away. 
 I was there with an interpreter [His own Kombe dialect 
 not being understood by the Ttemu people.] A week 
 passed while I was there. 
 
 These are the words which the Aje people spoke unto 
 Asamba | a Christian woman, who, for two communion 
 seasons, had been hindered from coming to Benita, by 
 reason of inter-tribal diflficulties] saying, "What is the 
 reason why you do not journey to the Feast-Sabbath? 
 Then would they give you cloths and other things" 
 [The little friendly gifts we sometimes gave to departing 
 visitors] And Asamba replied, saying, "I did not be- 
 come a Christian for the sake of goods; for, I am a 
 Christian for my own self." 
 
 When live days of the week had passed, I went to 
 Ulaba, [a village of the Bapuku, to the south] and one 
 man spoke, saying, "Know ye the reason why people have 
 not come to worship?" And I answered, saying, "I do 
 not know." And he spoke, saying, "Had ye given 
 people tobacco, then would we have come to worship; 
 but you did not give us even a leaf of tobacco." Some 
 of them said, "They are not real people." [i. e. that 
 Etiyani and his companion had not treated them properly 
 in not giving gifts, as the white traders usually did.] 
 
 On a week-day, then, I went to a certain house, and 
 I found a man and his wife in their house. So I spoke 
 with the husband, saying, "What do you think about 
 the words of God?" And he replied unto me, saying, 
 "These things are uselessness, and the property with 
 which you trade; they are old legends. And as to the 
 white men who come from their homes with those legends 
 
8o CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 they love you, and they give you things. But for me, 
 they are legends and folly." I told him rightly [about 
 the matter of gifts]. Another time he spoke to me, 
 saying, "I had a brother who talked English very well; 
 and the rest envied me, and they gave us an accusation, 
 and he died, being cut to pieces [on a charge of witch- 
 craft]. Shall I see him?" So I explained to him about 
 that. Then he spoke, saying, "I will not again see him; 
 for, he was cut to pieces alive, and they cast him away, 
 flesh, and arms, bowels, and head, and other members, 
 each in places by themselves. Will he arise?" I told 
 him exactly about that. 
 
 When three days of the week had passed, on prayer- 
 meeting night, one man came unto me, and spoke to me, 
 saying, "It is witchcraft that puts an end to people." [Not 
 believing that we died what we called a natural death]. 
 I told him what was right, and he believed, not the 
 belief of repentance from sin, but that witchcraft was 
 vmreasonable. And the wife talked with me, saying, 
 "Etiyani, we understand not of these things; therefore 
 it is that we have not gone to your house." [to hear 
 about them]. 
 
 When I went to Walenzyi [a tribe] then I came to 
 Ungaga's village, and some people spoke, saying, "A 
 white man came here who spoke with us, saying, 'Stand 
 up; Close you eyes;' 'Repent;' 'Respond in song;' 
 but he gave us nothing;" [Evidently some missionary 
 on an itineration]. 
 
 And some spoke saying, "A shadow is the spirit;" 
 others, saying, "Don't you see a mirror? As you look 
 at the mirror, the spirit is there." Then the owner of 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 8l 
 
 the town summoned the people to my meeting. Some 
 came thinking they would be given tobacco. 
 
 On a night of the week, one man came to me, and he 
 spoke, saying, "When I have married, then I will be 
 ready to become a Christian. [Their marriage customs 
 were often a stumbling-block. ] If I shall eat of the 
 bread of God and the wine of God, I will be made good." 
 That man was of the Benga tribe. [He had perhaps 
 heard from Romanists, of salvation by the Sacraments.] 
 
 Report No. 2, 1868. 
 
 The week had passed two days when I went to Ibota, 
 a village of the Abenga [tribe]. I went with the salt 
 which we made with our own hands [evaporated sea- 
 water] to buy food; and, at night, I called people to 
 prayer; and a woman spoke, saying, "Is prayer held 
 for the whole town?" And others replied, saying, "Yes, 
 at every place where they go, there they tell people the 
 words of God." 
 
 On a week day I went to another village, and while I 
 was entering into a house, before I spoke, the owner 
 of the house began to talk to me, saying, "We people 
 are like unto basins, and beasts, and fish. If a fish die, 
 it returns not again to this life another time. We people 
 have no souls, and God is not; for I consider that if a 
 human being die, he dies utterly." So I told the truth 
 about that. 
 
 When the week had passed two days, then I went 
 to Walenzyi [tribe], because a Walenzyi man had invited 
 my companion and myself to eat a plantain. But at that 
 
82 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 time 1 did not go. So afterwards I got into a canoe, 
 going toward the south of the river, and I tied it with 
 a vine to a tree-stump. But they look on the stump 
 with great respect, saying, that that stump is what gives 
 them the fish they eat. And when they observed that 
 stump tied with a vine, they asked among themselves, 
 saying, "Who has done a thing such as this?" There 
 was there a man who lived among the Benga, but who 
 belonged to the Bapuku; and on the night of a week- 
 day that man danced [in spirit worship] and he told 
 them that, "The children of the mission are those who 
 tied our myondi," [Sacred thing.] So they all w-ere 
 angry except one man, uncle to my companion. Then 
 they spoke to us, saying, "Eat ye not fish? Why 
 is it that you went to our myondi thus? Ye shall die." 
 They spake hard words so violently as would make some 
 people cut one another wounds. Then we spoke with 
 them, saying [to show that he had no fear of their 
 superstition] "We will go and cut down that stump." 
 Then the principal man of the village spake, saying, 
 "Ye have vexed us. If ye cut it down, then Ukuku 
 shall dance at your house [i. e. you will be boycot- 
 ted.] We live by those stumps; they are what give 
 us fish." 
 
 When the week had passed by four days, I went to 
 a village at one place up north. I reached the village 
 at sun-overhead, and a man said to me, that, "most 
 of the people are absent; but, speak to us the word of 
 God." I spoke there. 
 
 I narrate to you, brethren, that when the week was 
 passed four days, the men and women of Aje met to- 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 83 
 
 gether, saying. "Let us sacrifice for that stump which 
 is at the south of the river." So they took fish and 
 mashed plantains, and three kinds of leaves and fruits, 
 and pandi-feathers and rum; and they rubbed chalk on 
 the limbs of their bodies. In the early morning, before 
 day had opened, a man called the people in the darkness 
 with a voice lifted up, saying, "Come." So they got 
 into their large canoe, many people; they went to cook 
 food for the stump [as a sacrifice]. Now their thoughts 
 are that they shall obtain good things from that stump, 
 fish, and plantains, and white men to come and build 
 trading-houses among them. On a week-day, they met 
 together again both men and women, and they built a 
 fetish trade-house on the seaside. 
 
 When the week had passed by three days, then I 
 went to the Walenzyi of Etembwi creek. I capsized 
 and fell into the water, my companion and I, and the 
 canoe surged on the beach with the waves almost 
 breaking it. Reached the town wet, wet. The bed- 
 stead on which I sat was dripping with water; for, I had 
 nothing dry to dress in. So I told them the words of 
 God. And they spake, saying, "We have heard that 
 when people die they go to the white man's land. Some 
 of our dead relatives were recognized on a ship in the 
 cabin with a paper mask hiding their faces." [Probably 
 photographs.] And the other spoke, saying, "Are tliese 
 words so? Are they not tales?" One woman of the 
 Walenzyi was there, who is married among the Bapuku; 
 while I was speaking with them the word of God she 
 had no care to listen, but was only diligently singing 
 their own native songs. 
 
84 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 When the week had passed four days, then I talked 
 with them, and a man spoke thus: "I would that ye had 
 brought bottles of rum and goods of tobacco; we would 
 have come to hear you, many." But they came only 
 few. 
 
 When the week had passed three days, then I went 
 to the Walenzyi of the Etembwi creek, and I called the 
 people together and I talked. And a woman spoke to 
 me, saying, "Look on me, whether I still have a soul, 
 for I am sick so much. [The belief that the spirit 
 sometimes left the body in advance of actual physical 
 death. I So I told her about that. 
 
 When the week was passed five days, then I went 
 to Ulaba; and at night I called the people; and a man 
 spoke to me, saying, "If the commandments w-ere not 
 so many I would be a Christian." 
 
 People of Aje say that we evangelists are the ones 
 who caused to come the mosquitoes that bite people.. 
 "Because ye tied that stump with bands." Wherefore, 
 they say, "Pray to God, and then the mosquitoes will 
 no more exist; for, you say that there are no other 
 things of power on the earth but God only. Where- 
 fore, pray ye the Lord that the mosquitoes may no 
 more be." However, at this time, they have a house 
 on the sea-side, to call white people for trade. The 
 person who makes the "medicine" charm for that pur- 
 pose, whose name is "Doctor," is like a commander 
 [in his influence with the people]. And one person 
 came to say to me and my assistant, "Come, let us make 
 you a medicine-charm loved exceedingly by white men, 
 and then you will be a great Christian." 
 
COR I SCO DAYS. 85 
 
 I have come from one tribe the name of which is 
 Asanga, and I worshiped on the Sabbath there. And 
 the man who owned the village spoke, saying, "These 
 words are not of people of this earth." Yet some of 
 them commended us, and wished to go to the forest 
 [for their usual works]. But he spoke, saying "Go ye 
 not to the forest to-day; hear the words of this man, 
 for they are of God." Therefore they put off the forest 
 journey that day. 
 
 I spoke with the northern Bapuku the Word, but 
 they said they wearied of the hard commandments. 
 "Yet we know that the words are true." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 The Ukuku Fight. 
 
 MY eldest sister, Miss Isabella A. Nassau, joined 
 the Mission in the Spring of 1868, and began 
 work on Corisco Island. But. in the Fall of 
 the year, she joined me at Benita. Shortly after her 
 arrival, I was assailed by a native riot, in consequence 
 of my resistance of a boycott made in the name of a 
 great Superstition called Ukuku. An account of that 
 fight I wrote in 1874 in "Crowned in Palm-land."* I 
 here insert my sister's version of it, written in 1868. 
 
 BRIGHT SIDE, 
 
 "There is one thought that came frequently to my mind 
 during my first days on Corisco. I believed that the 
 impression would pass away as I became more familiar 
 with the people, but it does not; the impression is deep- 
 ened, that Christian missions among the people of Cor- 
 isco, and among these people at Benita, have been blessed 
 of God, in changing, in a remarkable degree, their state. 
 They do not seem essentially heathen. There seems 
 among them a quiet, fervent spirit, especially as, volun- 
 tarily, at the ringing of the mission-bell for morning 
 and evening prayers, they come crowding into the recep- 
 
 * "Crowned in Palm-land :" Lippincott, 1874. 
 
 (86) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 87 
 
 tion-room, where benches are provided for their accom- 
 modation. The missionaries on Corisco seem to feel 
 much encouraged; there appeared to be among the 
 people a widespread and awakened interest in rehgious 
 things; especially was it encouraging, because many 
 backsliders were desiring to come back again into the 
 church. I have often thought how very exemplary are 
 many of these native Christians; their temptations are 
 many, and peculiarly strong. Then, too, the Sessions 
 of the churches, both on Corisco and at Benita, are very 
 strict; they suspend their members without hesitation, 
 and they keep candidates long on probation. At the 
 April communion on Corisco a number of the promising 
 young men under suspension were desirous of being 
 admitted again to the privileges of the church. I think 
 the strictness of the church Sessions an admirable 
 arrangement. A feature of the mission work, the 
 standard of Christian membership, is becoming more and 
 more elevated. We are hoping and praying for a bless- 
 ing whose fruits will be seen at the next Communion. 
 Three persons were admitted, and one infant baptized, 
 at t'he Communion in April. There is a large and inter- 
 esting class of inquirers. 
 
 Of course there is more ignorance among some of 
 the people here, than on Corisco ; but the little congrega- 
 tion which gathers here regularly is very interesting. 
 The native Christians seem to depend more on them- 
 selves than at Corisco, owing, I suppose, to fewer mis- 
 sionaries having been amongst them. I believe there 
 has not been a moment since my arrival in Africa but 
 that I have been conscious of a deepening sense of the 
 
88 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 importance of the work of missions among the heathen. 
 I feel that God has so abundantly blest the feeble, 
 sparsely-given means and instrumentalities by which the 
 favored Church in Christian America has in some very 
 limited sense obeyed the last loving injunction of her 
 Lord and master, "Go ye unto all the world." I often 
 think if some of the warm-hearted Christians in America 
 could listen as these people sing the sweet, familiar tunes 
 we sing at home, could hear their earnest prayers, and 
 look upon their attentive, upturned faces, while the Word 
 of God is read and explained, they would exclaim as I 
 do, thinking of the priceless value of one immortal soul, 
 "All these! what, all these, for Christ," as the result of 
 such few and feeble instrumentalities! "What hath God 
 wrought!" 
 
 THE DARK SIDE. 
 
 A few days after my brother's return to Benita from 
 the quarterly meeting on Corisco, we found there was 
 some complaining among the people. Though there 
 are so many of them who are the mission's warm friends, 
 there were several who might be called enemies, though 
 they had no just reason to be such. These people are 
 very sensitive, and, in some things, very punctilious. 
 The men who were unfriendly incited others to demand 
 a higher price for the produce they every morning bring 
 to the door and expose for sale. Accordingly they came 
 on Thursday, April i6th, and made their demand. It was 
 quietly and positively declined. This irritated them; 
 they were angry; they went further, and ^aid they had 
 laid the prohibition of "Ukuk" on the spring of water 
 
COR I SCO DAYS. 89 
 
 which is on the mission premises; and, making it a 
 crime punishable with death, they forbade any one, to 
 bring water to the missionaries from that spring. No 
 one was allowed to bring anything to sell, or even to 
 cook for us; and others, employed on the premises, were 
 forbidden to come to the mission-house. Things were 
 in this condition from Thursday P. M., until Saturday 
 A. M., when matters were made severer. Dr. Nassau 
 ignoring the "Ukuk" prohibition, which had been laid 
 upon his own spring, and going thither himself. As he 
 was returning, a man met and followed him with a spear 
 thrust at him, but unable to strike him. He reached the 
 house in safety, but the action of the man was significant 
 of the feelings of the enemies. During the morning, 
 some of the Christians had come, inquiring if it would 
 be wrong for them to fight if the enemies made an 
 attack, which, I suppose, they knew better than he did, 
 was intended. He gave them Bible authority for de- 
 fending their lives, and the cause of truth and religion. 
 In the afternoon of Saturday, the people of both sides 
 congregated around the premises, the Christians to the 
 number of thirty or thirty-five, the enemies not more 
 than that, — I think they numbered less. They were quite 
 excited. One young man of the Christians declared his 
 intention to brave "Ukuk," and asked for a jug or bucket 
 to go to the spring. He went and returned, but on his 
 arrival at the house, an attack was made upon him by 
 the enemies, and thus the fighting commenced at 4 P. M., 
 on Saturday afternoon, i8th. We hastily barred the 
 doors and windows, and betook ourselves to the safest 
 place in the frame-house, which we thought was upstairs. 
 
90 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 Dr. Nassau was concealed for a time in the bamboo- 
 house, but, anxious about us, while the fight was pro- 
 gressing, came to a side door and called for admittance. 
 He knew we would not dare open unless we heard his 
 voice, for the enemies had been trying to force the 
 door of entrance from the verandah, which connects with 
 the bamboo house. The men, especially among the 
 Christians, were pretty well supplied with guns and 
 spears. The fighting was around the two houses. 
 Through the slight structures of the frame and bamboo 
 houses every sound came as distinctly as if we were 
 outside. There was something fearful, indeed, in the 
 hideous yells and shouts which accompanied the quick 
 firing of the guns. Yes; the sudden rage, the unjust- 
 ness and the cruelty of the heathen, is a fearful thing! 
 If it be God's will, I pray none of us may ever feel it so 
 near and terrible again. I thought I had looked danger 
 and death in the face in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, 
 on the night of the 17th of January. Then I felt myself 
 in God's hands; my Father could not err, and over those 
 tumultuous elements He had perfect control. But it 
 did seem something dilTerent to face death at the hands 
 of a company of excited heathens; yet, do not imagine 
 that our confidence in God failed for one instant. A 
 sense of His presence and His power calmed our hearts 
 during the brief but fearful trial. Side by side, Mrs. 
 Nassau and I knelt, and felt too deeply for words, that 
 "God was our refuge, a very present help in trouble." 
 The fighting lasted fifteen to twenty minutes, and then 
 the enemies made a retreat before the determined bravery 
 of the band of Christians. 
 
corisco days. 9i 
 
 Settlement of the difficulties. 
 There is often a sudden calm after these storms of 
 heathen passions. So it was on this occasion. Dr. 
 Nassau appeared among them; and they were ready for 
 a settlement of the difficulties in a talk, a "palaver," 
 which continued from 5 P. M. until 8 P. M. or after. 
 You will be surprised when I tell you that no one was 
 killed, and only three slightly wounded. The reason 
 for this may be found in the fact that these people are 
 not naturally brave. [Probably they fired without aim.] 
 It was an unheard of thing for those native Christians 
 to take the stand which they did, against their neighbors 
 and townspeople, and against the universally-acknowl- 
 edged law of "Ukuk.'' Their noble defense of the 
 Christian Church, which is planted in their midst, is 
 a most encouraging fact amid the dark acts of unfriend- 
 liness. It does seem as if God would make the wrath of 
 the heathen to praise him. Already there seems to be 
 quite a revulsion of feeling among the fev/ men who 
 were the leaders in the attack. Only a week after the 
 fight, one of the most determined of the leaders was 
 on Sabbath morning in the forest, cutting bamboo, when 
 he wounded himself severely on the foot. Now, it is 
 one of Dr. Nassau's rules with the people, that, if they 
 wound themselves in working on the Sabbath, they must 
 not come to him for aid. But this man was so badly 
 wounded that some of the Christians came hesitatingly 
 to ask Dr. Nassau if he would go to his enemy, who 
 desired him to come. He considered the matter; and, 
 principally because he was his enemy, he went, and 
 determined to improve the opportunity of impressing 
 some Christian truths upon his mind." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Building of a Church. 
 
 MY sister Miss I. A. Nassau's description (written 
 in Spring of 1869) of the first effort of the 
 Benita people to erect a church-building for 
 themselves, is accurate. The contributions were almost 
 entirely in materials and labor. But the actual erection 
 required much urgency on my part. The house was not 
 completed for occupancy until 18 months later. 
 
 "When you have been told of the church at Benita, 
 you were not to understand that a house for the special 
 service of worship had been built at the expense of the 
 mission. It was my brother's desire, from his first com- 
 ing here, that the people should grow into the idea of 
 building for themselves. 
 
 There are two houses at this station, one of bamboo 
 which Mr. Paull built and occupied, and the frame one, 
 material for which was brought from America, when Mr. 
 DeHeer came out last, built by Dr. Nassau. The bam- 
 boo house is occupied as study and storeroom by my 
 brother, as to one-half of its space; the other, a larger 
 room, able to hold, as these people can crowd, 100, per- 
 haps 150; and this is the church room. Here are held 
 morning and evening prayers, the day-school, the 
 prayer-meetings, class-meetings and Sabbath-services. 
 Often the people find trouble to seat themselves, even 
 bv crowding the study and the verandah which connects 
 
 (92) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 93 
 
 the two houses. They were, on each occasion, told of 
 the propriety of building a house able to accommodate 
 them and the many more whom they should desire to 
 bring in from among their heathen countrymen. The 
 feeling grew. Two months ago, our valued friend, the 
 devoted veteran missionary at Gaboon, the Rev. Wm. 
 Walker, visited my brother, and while here placed the 
 subject plainly and practically before the people; they 
 began to see that the thing could be done. 
 
 The bell and its mission. 
 
 When on the 15th of March, the 'Sweet Church Bell' 
 was given from the Sabbath School of the ist Presby- 
 terian Church of Peekskill, N. Y., through S. R. Knapp, 
 Esq., the question came up more pointedly than ever: 
 'Here is the bell, but where is the church?' Still my 
 brother left the initiative of the work with the people. 
 
 Then came the precious communion season of the 
 28th March, with all its attendant services, full of deep 
 interest. The 'bell' commenced its heavenly mission by 
 calling the people to these services. 
 
 Nothing had been said to my brother about their 
 plans, so that when, on Monday following the com- 
 munion, at morning prayers, the room was crowded, it 
 did not occur to any of us that they were brought to- 
 gether in such numbers, again, from any other feeling 
 than to enjoy once more before parting, some to distant 
 homes, the service they had found so delightful on 
 Sabbath. 
 
 I wish you could have joined with us and that gath- 
 ered band, most of whom were Christians, on that bright 
 
94 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 early morning. I looked on those bright faces, while 
 they sang the Benga hymn of 'Salvation, oh! the joyful 
 sound,' to their favorite Ortonville, then out upon the 
 calm, blue lake-like river, with its banks of constant 
 verdure, all beaming in the lovely sunlight, and my 
 heart swelled with joy that a heavenly light, a Saviour's 
 love, was pouring its radiance around me, making these 
 dark faces glow with love and joy. The song and 
 prayer ceased; after the usual salutation, two noble 
 young men came forward and seating themselves before 
 my brother, 'Tom' (one of Mr. Paull's first inquirers) 
 said they wished to begin their subscription for the 
 church, and requested him to draw up the paper and 
 receive the names with their gifts! That was a glad 
 moment for all of us. 
 
 They began with subscriptions not over five dollars, 
 though some added afterwards, giving their wives' 
 names, and one, an interesting young man, who had 
 been admitted to the church just the previous day, and 
 after his own baptism, had presented his little boy, only 
 a few months old, for the same precious rite, this young 
 man added to his subscription one dollar for his little 
 boy, the 'child of the church.' There was much en- 
 thusiasm, and more deep, because new, feeling, mani- 
 fested by this company than you would see in such a 
 meeting in America. 
 
 As I sat and looked and listened, I said, what a change 
 has the preaching of a Saviour wrought in five short 
 years! A band of thirty-eight earnest Christians and 
 many more interested ones, uniting to build a house for 
 the worship of God! 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 95 
 
 In about an hour, $ioo. were subscribed by the people 
 themselves! More has since been added. 
 
 They at once wished to have some advice about the 
 plan of the church, but, as my brother was to leave in 
 April for a week or ten days' absence at the mission- 
 meeting on Corisco, he told them to perfect the arrange- 
 ment about the division of building material, and he 
 would confer with them again.* 
 
 Oh! only those who have toiled alone, combating the 
 varying feelings and superstitions of a people like this, 
 can know our feelings, as at a late hour of the morning 
 we sat down to breakfast, at length able to realize the 
 scene of the morning prayers. 
 
 Since my brother's return from the quarterly meeting 
 at Corisco the two young men Ebuma and 'Tom' 
 (Mwanyatye) have had frequent consultations with him 
 about the building. 
 
 It is not probable that it will be ready for occupancy 
 before the communion in October; for, after the Bolondo 
 house, for my school, is finished, and the Long Dry 
 Season is really begun, my brother hopes to accomplish 
 a long-wished-for journey into the interior. One of the 
 young men, who will be in his company, himself having 
 been there, says that the head-man of one of those large 
 towns promised a large gift to any man who would 
 bring him a missionary. Of course, the visit would be 
 
 * Thus early in the history of the Mission I was urging the 
 natives to depend on themselves for the erection of their school- 
 houses and churches. And, yet, thirty-five years later, a charge 
 was made against me that I was opposed to the policy of Native 
 Self- Support I ! 
 
96 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 but a short one; yet the man might be satisfied if one 
 of the young men who have been Sscripture-readers, 
 and are now under additional instruction, should be sent 
 to reside with him." 
 
 Subsequently my journey was made; and a young man 
 was sent. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 CoRisco Transferred. 
 
 AT a meeting of the Corisco Mission in 1868, the 
 Rev. S. ReutHnger was appointed to prepare a 
 letter, setting forth the wants of its two Stations, 
 in the hope that it would reach the young men in our 
 theological seminaries and who were asking, "Lord, 
 what wouldst Thou have us to do?" Some time before, 
 I had written, "Do, do. beg somebody to come to us. 
 I do not faint when I look forward at the work; but 
 when I look back to the churches for support, my heart 
 weeps. Why will they leave the lone pickets to weary 
 and fall?" 
 
 With Mr. ReutHnger I therefore made the following 
 statement, "When Corisco Island was first selected, for 
 the purpose of establishing a missionary station, it was 
 not chosen on account of any advantages of its inhab- 
 itants over other neighboring tribes, but chiefly on 
 account of its central position. It was a matter of 
 necessity that such a station should keep up a connec- 
 tion with the civilized world. Corisco was favorably 
 situated for this purpose. It was further of great im- 
 portance that as healthy a place as possible be selected. 
 Corisco seemed also to meet this requisite, being at 
 some distance from the coast of the continent with its 
 dreaded malarial influence. Being thus situated about 
 the middle of the mouth of a Bay, it presented a central 
 
 (97) 
 
98 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 point, from which a large portion of the mainland could 
 easily be reached in boats as from another land. Two 
 rivers of considerable size emptying into this bay, were 
 also easily accessible in boats, and it was hoped that 
 they would become the great highways, upon which the 
 Gospel would be carried into the interior of this large 
 Continent. After the missionaries had settled and 
 acquired some knowledge of the native language, they 
 entered upon that great plan. Frequent journeys w^ere 
 made to different parts of the coast and up those rivers. 
 As a general rule, they were kindly received everywhere, 
 though they were sometimes annoyed by the quarrels 
 and feuds of the dififerent tribes. But, while the mission- 
 aries directed their plans and hopes chiefly to the main- 
 land, Corisco Island was not forgotten, and indeed could 
 not be neglected, from its very importance. A small 
 congregation was by-and-by gathered, which, by God's 
 blessing, increased. A congregation needs to be taken 
 care of, and especially so, if consisting of newly con- 
 verted members. The wider the members of it are 
 scattered the greater labor will be required; and this was 
 the case here. Besides, boarding-schools were estab- 
 lished, which had to be carried on chiefly by white men 
 and women. Also, the task and work of the treasurer 
 of this mission were by no means a trifle. So the work 
 on Corisco Island itself soon required the strength and 
 time of two or three male missionaries. Still, the visits 
 to the mainland could be contined, as the number of 
 missionaries was increased. But, when the work was 
 flourishing thus, a time of trials commenced. The 
 Civil War in America broke out, which soon made our 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 99 
 
 work feel its influence. Some of the nieniljers of tlie 
 Mission went either to their eternal rest, or to their 
 earthly homes for restoration to their health. Reinforce- 
 ments could only be sent out sparingly. A number of 
 church-members, of whom much good had been ex- 
 pected, fell back into heathenism." 
 
 Moreover. Rev. George Paull thought himself guided 
 by divine Providence to establish a station north on the 
 banks of tlie Bonito River; and. after his unexpectedly 
 early death. I thought myself guided by the same prov- 
 idence to take his place there. In consequence of all 
 these things, the work on Corisco had to be reduced. The 
 plans concerning the mainland near Corisco were partly 
 abandoned, partly modified. It was found that native 
 evangelists, even if safe among hostile tribes, had to be 
 given white superintendence. Corisco proved to be no 
 more free from malaria then the mainland. If, therefore, 
 malaria was to be accepted, we decided to accept it with 
 a sphere of work wider than the little island. One (girls') 
 school had to be discontinued, and another one (boys' 
 school) could still for some time be carried on, but was 
 finally broken up. Before this last mentioned event, Li- 
 centiate Ibia established a school at Mbangwe on the 
 mainland of the Bay, with the view of making it self-sus- 
 taining. For several years afterward, the reinforcements 
 sent from America were only sufificient to fill the places 
 of others who departed; and their next object could, of 
 course, only be to keep what their predecessors had 
 gained, and confine their work as far as possible to 
 Corisco alone. In 1868 the girls' school was attempted 
 to be re-established, but it was soon abandoned. The 
 
lOO CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 work on the mainland (along the bay) was re-com- 
 menced ; but expectation of its being extended failed. 
 
 Later, there were gratifying signs of growth both in 
 the Corisco and Benita churches. But there were not 
 enough missionaries to maintain the schools in both 
 places. 
 
 The work at Benita was out-growing my strength. 
 "A great eagerness was prevailing among the Kombe 
 tribe. The people there were ruder than the Benga 
 on Corisco; but they seemed to possess more energy, 
 and. in many respects, a greater stability of character. 
 Both these features are of course only human, but the 
 importance of their presence in a person who wants to 
 become a Christian, will easily be recognized. In the 
 comparatively short time, in which the Benita work was 
 carried on, much had been done. A church was organ- 
 ized and had ever since been increasing in numbers, but 
 at the same time increasing the burden laid upon their 
 pastor. Besides the care of the station, building houses 
 and outhouses, attention to the sick, teaching those who 
 wished to learn to read, instructing the catechumens, 
 superintending all our Bible-readers but one [because 
 they lived much nearer my place than Corisco], and 
 conducting services, all these different branches of the 
 work threw a greater amount of care and labor upon 
 him than a white man can safely stand in Africa without 
 injury to his health." 
 
 But my strength was still further taxed. About the 
 same time that the revival took place on Corisco, a 
 similar but more extensive movement, commenced at 
 Benita. About thirty persons had been organized in a 
 
CORISCO DAYS. lOI 
 
 catechumen class, still others were inquiring and desirous 
 of knowledge of the truth. All this was bearing upon my 
 strength, however joyful it was. Considering my great 
 need of help, the last meeting of the Mission would have 
 readily appointed one of the three on Corisco to go to 
 Benita and share my work. It was thought that that 
 could not be done without serious injury to some under- 
 takings on Corisco. After some months, however, it 
 was decided to transfer to Benita not only one of the 
 three, but to take his work along with him; and, rapidly, 
 later on, to place in native hands the remaining portion 
 of the Corisco work when the two other missionaries 
 should take their furlough to America. Rev. and Mrs. 
 Solomon Reutlinger, therefore, joined me at Benita in 
 1869. 
 
 The Corisco Schools and itinerant works were grad- 
 ually transferred to Benita; until, in about 1875, arrange- 
 ments were made for the last representatives of Corisco's 
 white force (Rev. and Mrs. C. De Heer) to remove to 
 Benita, and leave the Corisco Church and School in the 
 hands of the native minister, Rev. Mr. Ibia, who carried 
 them on faithfully and successfully. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 A Life for the Interior. 
 
 AT Benita I had made various plans to carry the 
 work of the Mission to the inland tribes. The 
 monopoly of Trade, held by the coast-tribes, 
 frustrated those efforts, as far as a permanent residence 
 by any white missionary was concerned. The same 
 native monopoly as effectually barred all white traders 
 from living' in the interior. But, the Benita people had 
 not objected to my placing a native evangelist at the 
 village of Senje, among the VValenzyi (Balengi) tribe, 
 seventeen miles up river, on the right bank and near 
 the cataract below the Yovi Fall, the last of a series 
 made by the river as it breaks through the Sierra del 
 Crystal Range, on its way to the sea. 
 
 When the Rev. Solomon and Mrs. Reutlinger were 
 transferred from Corisco to Benita in 1869, his wishes 
 joined mine in our hopes for extension interiorward. 
 He was not tied to the Station, as I just then was, by 
 family and church duties. Having a "free foot," he 
 determined to make a survey of the adjacent interior. 
 In our secret expectation, this was to lead to a perma- 
 nent location in the near future, if Kombe tribal jealousy 
 could be placated. But, in the journey, which I had 
 hoped to make myself, and which I aided him in plan- 
 ning, we had to promise the Benita people that he was 
 making only a tour of observation, and that he would 
 
 (102) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. IO3 
 
 return within a month. He did return, but in a dying 
 condition. 
 
 The story of his journey and its incidents in detail I 
 obtained from his native employes. I got statements 
 from each, and combined them. Themselves had kept 
 no record; their statements of dates were confused, and 
 Mr. Reutlinger, in his delirium, was unable to give me 
 any data. 
 
 1ST DAY. 
 
 On Wednesday. June 9, 1869, Mr. Reutlinger, with 
 Itongolo (an Elder) and wife, Ngombalondo (my most 
 trusted assistant) and three other Kombe boatmen, 
 started in the four-oared gig "Charlotte Draper" about 
 noon: and early, with the turn of the sea-breeze, put 
 up sail. 
 
 He had been in ordinary health; though I knew that 
 he needed a course of alteratives. But, in starting, he 
 was in good spirits. I saw nothing ill that day, except 
 that there was a swelling on his right temple that was 
 pointing like a common boil. I observed that the boat, 
 after entering the river for two miles, crossed to the 
 south side and stopped for a little while at a Trading- 
 house. Thence, two canoes w^ere going up river on 
 an errand of their ow^n; and the "Draper" indulged in 
 a friendly race with them. Beyond this, my information 
 is derived entirely from the native assistants. In the 
 boat's progress there were no special incidents except the 
 fact that, at the Island some eight miles up river, the 
 channel on the south side was chosen in order to avoid 
 the Manjanga villages on the northern side, whose 
 
I04 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 women had demanded a fine for interrupting them in 
 some superstitious rites. Opposite the Island, Mr. 
 Reuthnger alighted to gather some limes at a deserted 
 village; farther on, near the village of Chief Isambi, 
 some canoes of the Walenzyi tribe pursued the boat until 
 they discovered that it was not on a trade journey; (the 
 Walenzyi held against the inland tribes the same jeal- 
 ousy that the Kombe entertained against themselves;) 
 farther on, a village was passed where was trading a 
 Kombe man, Uhemba (a church-member), who, by pre- 
 vious arrangement, had promised to accompany them 
 on the journey; word was left for him to follow to Old 
 Senje village, which was reached at the dusk of that 
 day; there Itongolo and Ngombalondo crossed by canoe 
 to New Senje on the south side, and returned with 
 another Kombe recruit, Njaku (an educated man) in 
 time for the evening prayer service. 
 
 2ND DAY. 
 
 The next morning, Thursday, the loth, they all crossed 
 in the boat to New Senje, where Uhemba was awaiting. 
 A friend of Njaku, Masa, of the interior Boheba tribe, 
 was engaged as guide; and Masa's two wives were hired 
 to help carry the baggage. 
 
 After an early breakfast, by 8 A. M., Itongolo and wife, 
 with the three Benita crew, left to return with the boat 
 down river. Mr. Reutlinger, with his company of four 
 men and two women, started a-foot: on their way about 
 one and a half miles, passing the Yovi Falls, and crossing 
 the river in a small canoe some three and a half miles 
 
CORISCO DAYS. IO5 
 
 above the Falls, at a village Ngumbi, or Esile. There 
 they rested, and ate a lunch. About a mile beyond 
 Ngumbi, they came on a wide well-cleared path leading 
 to a cluster of huts where were living a few people 
 guarding their plantations at night from depredations 
 of elephants. There had some time before been an 
 epidemic of small-pox from the coast; and the people 
 did not welcome them fearing that the coming of a white 
 traveler would bring them evil. The path was good, 
 and the journey was continued without further incident, 
 except their coming upon a very big hollow tree, inhab- 
 ited by a species of very large bats, which rushed out 
 in large numbers, on Mr. Reutlinger's firing into the 
 hollow. 
 
 About noon, they came to a rudely-built hut where 
 several natives were extracting a rich edible oil from a 
 winged ant, called nyebi. The insects were caught in 
 enormous numbers in nets at night, being attracted by 
 the light of a fire. 
 
 The path became rougher and steeper, as spurs of the 
 mountains were crossed. At the top of one of these 
 ridges, the path led through a narrow defile between two 
 masses of rocks. There was there a noticeable stone, 
 just the height of a man's knee and jutting into the 
 path at a sudden turn. Unless a traveler was careful 
 in making that turn, he would be sure to strike his knee 
 against the rock; which, thence, was known in that 
 region as lyombwi-ja-Mabanga (Desire-for-Knees) ; as 
 if the rock had a spiteful wish to hurt a traveler's shins. 
 The company reached a village Ndambu, by the middle 
 of the afternoon; estimated fifteen miles from Senje. A 
 
I06 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 few presents were made to the chief of the village, and 
 Mr. Retitlinger remained for the night, holding a prayer- 
 service in the evening. Apparently, he was less wearied 
 than his natives, to some of whom he gave a lotion of 
 tincture of arnica for their sore feet. Although it was 
 Dry Season at the coast, rain fell at night. 
 
 3RD DAY. 
 
 On Friday, the nth, after breakfast, the journey was 
 resumed. The boil on Mr. Reutlinger's temple was 
 inflamed and painful. The narrow forest paths were 
 rough, and intersected by many small mountain streams. 
 
 One of these creeks was crossed by a submerged log 
 instead of the stepping-stones of the usual fords; Njaku, 
 at such places, carried Mr. Reutlinger over, on his 
 back, to save him from wetting his feet. 
 
 Before noon, a village Membeni was reached. The 
 company was welcomed by the people. Among other 
 objects of interest was a red albino woman. Quite a 
 curiosity to Mr. Reutlinger, as much as he was to the 
 blacks. Albinos, both white and red, are not rare in 
 West Africa. (Quite distinct from Mulattoes.) After 
 resting, and lunching, the journey was resumed to a 
 village Medvima by the middle of the afternoon. After 
 eating dinner there, there still being so much of the day 
 before him, Mr. Reutlinger wanted to pass on; but, his 
 young men assured him that he could not reach the 
 next village on their direct route before night. 
 
 Though he was hospitably received, some of the people 
 feared that such an unknown thins: as the arrival of a 
 
CORISCO DAYS. IO7 
 
 white man would bring desolation to their land. Others 
 brought to him their young children to show them the 
 "white Spirit/' a being to be feared like their own 
 Ukuku, (the native Spirit in whose name all their laws 
 were made, and by fear of whom the obedience of all, 
 especially of women and children, was compelled). 
 After preaching-service, he went with two men of his 
 company on an excursion from one side of the village 
 to see a waterfall, about a mile distant, that was much 
 larger than the Yovi Cataract. While walking along 
 the bank below the falls, he slipped into the boiling 
 whirlpool, and would have been carried away by the 
 swift current had not Ngombalondo caught him with 
 one hand, himself holding on to a tree with the other. 
 Njaku came to the rescue of both, and dragged them 
 safely onto the land. This alarmed the young men, 
 and, though Mr. Reutlinger was anxious still to examine 
 the falls, they insisted on his return to Meduma. 
 
 From there, there still being daylight, he went with 
 the same two men, ai/other detour to the other side of 
 the village. Crossing a creek, he struck the Bonito 
 river again, opposite to an island so large that it was 
 reported to be inhabited by gazelles, monkeys and other 
 wild animals. The river there was very broad; and 
 he was told that looking up-stream from one end of 
 the island, a large falls was to be seen; and looking 
 down-stream from the other end, there was another 
 falls. On the island was a village. Calling to the vil- 
 lage for a canoe, one came paddled by two women and 
 a child. The canoe was only a wretched dug-out, with 
 one side broken, and the hole plastered with clay. It 
 
I08 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 was also so small that in ferrying Mr, Reutlinger and 
 his two companions, only one of the women paddled; 
 and then she returned for the other woman and child. 
 Mr. Reutlinger visited the village, and ate of plantains, 
 fish and pa (rich gravy made of an oily nut) all of which 
 was cooked after his arrival, as a welcome to the white 
 man. (Probably also, in the minds of some, it was 
 presented in the nature of a sacrifice to the "white 
 Spirit.") These villagers were apparently of a better 
 class; for, they had a house, better built than the ordinary 
 hut, elevated from the ground on posts, for the occup- 
 ancy of their headman. The company returned to 
 Meduma after dark; Mr. Reutlinger being so wearied 
 that Njaka conducted the evening-prayers, in his place. 
 The estimate of the distances journied that day was 
 twenty miles. 
 
 4TH DAY. 
 
 On Saturday, June 12th, after prayers and breakfast, 
 the journey was resumed. A man from the Meduma 
 village, going on an errand of his own, went with them 
 to guide them. On the way, they met a Kombe man, 
 Menanji. who had come from the coast carrying salt 
 (the most valuable trade commodity) on business of his 
 own, and who was on his way back to the coast. He 
 was accompanied by two Walenzyi from Senje. These 
 he sent on, and himself turned back to assist Mr. Reut- 
 linger. There were many small affluents of the Bonito 
 to be crossed, over which Mr. Reutlinger was carried. 
 In one of them, he picked up a stone which he thought 
 might contain valuable ore. Inhabitants along the route 
 
CORISCO DAYS. IO9 
 
 were industrious, building fish-wiers across the streams. 
 After a while, a severe rain-storm fell which continued 
 for a long time. The Walenzyi carriers rushed on 
 ahead to find shelter in the next village. The sea-coast 
 tribes very much affect the use of umbrellas. But Mr. 
 Reutlinger observed that there was no use for them in 
 the interior, in a forest country, with narrow paths ob- 
 structed by low bushes. He reached a village, Medi. 
 in the afternoon, rain still falling. The first object that 
 struck his attention as he entered the village, was a new- 
 made grave of one of the wives of the headman, placed 
 in the middle of the street and marked by a little flag. 
 He found his Walenzyi deserters, comfortably drying 
 themselves by the fire in the public reception-house. 
 He changed his clothes; and then dried his wet gar- 
 ments by that same fire. To prevent his fire-arms 
 from rusting, he astonished the people by discharg- 
 ing his wet rifle, shot-gun and pistol. To amuse them, 
 he directed Xjaku to fire the rifle at a distant object on 
 a tall tree. 
 
 He gave out goods, with which to buy food in prepara- 
 tion for the next day. There being a scarcity, his mes- 
 senger had to go to search at other villages. He and 
 his company ate of fowls bought in the village. But 
 that evening he was overcome by fever, and was not 
 able to conduct the visual prayers. The swelling on 
 his right temple was increased in size; but, though con- 
 taining pus, was not very painful. The villagers were 
 considerate, and acceded to Njaku's request that they 
 refrain from their usual noise, lest the white man's sleep 
 be disturbed. 
 
no CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 5TH DAY. 
 
 On Sabbath, June 13th, Mr. Reutlinger had a high 
 fever; and one eye was swollen shut. He lay down 
 all day, and ate but little. His bread had become stale, 
 but he had cans of condensed milk. A fowl was killed, 
 but he ate little of it, and gave it to his people. The 
 two young men held a service in the morning. The 
 villagers were sympathetic and kind. By evening, the 
 other eye was swollen closed. The young men again 
 held serivce. Men arrived as visitors from the village 
 Mbongo, to which Mr. Reutlinger had looked as the 
 limit of his journey, and whither had been carried reports 
 of his coming. They were noisy and inquisitive, and 
 resented Njaku's rebuke, saying that the white man, 
 having come to see them, was theirs, and they wished 
 to see him. 
 
 6th day. 
 
 On Monday, June 14th, the fever increased; and he 
 was not able to sit up or conduct morning prayers. 
 There were not many people left in the village, most 
 of them having gone for the day to their usual work 
 at their plantations, and the visitors also having departed. 
 Mr. Reutlinger ate a little native food. Both his eyes 
 were so swollen that he could scarcely see, so that he 
 needed to be guided when he attempted to walk. As 
 Mr. Reutlinger was requiring no special attention, Njaku 
 went hunting for meat in the forest. Though the young 
 men knew nothing about diseases, Mr. Reutlinger, who 
 
CORISCO DAYS. Ill 
 
 began to be anxious about his condition, (but who did 
 not suspect that it might be erysipelas,) counseled with 
 them. When by themselves, the young men began 
 to think of the desirability of sending a messenger to 
 the coast for me to come with medicine, the while they 
 should be waiting in the village. 
 
 The native food (plantains) that had been sent for 
 on Saturday came; but the Walenzyi who brought them, 
 though under pay as one of their porters, demanded 
 additional share of the food, as extra pay. Mr. Reut- 
 linger found the stiflf native bed, with its bamboo slats, 
 too hard on which to lie, and the space in the hut was 
 too short in which to suspend his hammock. So, he 
 had the young men cut four stout sticks which they 
 stuck into the ground in the street in pairs, tying their 
 tops together, and leaving a crotch in which a fifth pole 
 was laid horizontally; and from this frame the ham- 
 mock was slung. His mind became a prey to anxious 
 thought as to the nature of his sickness. Poison is a 
 very common suggestion among foreigners in Africa. 
 He was very tender-hearted in his assurance to his own 
 people that he did not suspect them; and he prayed 
 w^ith them that his thoughts might be calmed. Mr. 
 Reutlinger had studied homeopathy, and had de- 
 pended solely on that class of medicines. He took 
 during the day frequent drops from a vial which 
 the young men recogni/sd as aconite. At night, 
 he was very restless. Twice he rose, guided by 
 Njaku, and went into the street, taking with him 
 his rifle, as if he feared some danger. Rain fell dur- 
 ing the night. 
 
112 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 7TH DAY. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 15th. all of Mr. Reutlinger's symp- 
 toms were worse. He neither conversed nor walked 
 about. He proposed the sending of a messenger for 
 me. To which the young men promptly assented, add- 
 ing that, as his case was getting worse, they should 
 at once bring him on sea-ward as far as they were able, 
 the while that I should be coming to meet him. But 
 he thought them unable to carry him, and delayed that 
 day. During the day, visitors from other villages came 
 to see him. 
 
 8th day. 
 
 On Wednesday, the i6th, Mr. Reutlinger wrote a note 
 to me, and Menanji with Masa were sent with it, and 
 were enjoined to hasten with it to me. (I do not know 
 why the note was dated at Mbongo; from the young 
 men's account, he was still at Medi.) It stated that the 
 swelling on his head had increased, and that he was not 
 certain of its nature; that he could not see to write with- 
 out holding up an eyelid; wished me to come with food, 
 supplies, and hammock bearers. To hasten my coming, 
 he added that on no account should Mrs. Reutlinger 
 come with me, unless I left her to await him at Senje. 
 
 Mr. Reutlinger then began his journey sea-ward. 
 Three Walenzyi were hired in addition to his three 
 Kombe men, as one of them, Uhemba, had early broken 
 down, and had not been of much service on the way. 
 Mr. Reutlinger thought Uhemba's chest too weak; but 
 I have always thought he was indolent and less devoted 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I 1 3 
 
 than the other two. The company left Medi before 
 noon. The bushes were still wet with the rain of the 
 previous night, whose drops he dreaded on his head, 
 as he thought the water aggravated the inflammation; 
 the twigs and little bushes on the narrow path in the 
 forest in its short turnings switched his face already 
 tender with the swellings. In crossing a line of "Driver 
 ants," the bearers' feet disturbed them; some got into 
 the hammock and distressed him with their sharp bites. 
 The three Walenzyi were unaccomstomed to hammock 
 bearing, and clamored for their pay before their work 
 was done. Uhemba gave out. And the work was left 
 to the other two. 
 
 Mr. Reutlinger was in a highly nervous state; these 
 annoyances distressed him; besides the actual pain caused 
 by the hammock, in its swinging from side to side with 
 the uneven tread of the two bearers, striking against 
 stumps, logs or standing trees. His bearers knew that 
 his excitable state was due to his sickness; for, in health, 
 Mr. Reutlinger was always mild-spoken and patient. 
 They reached Meduma in the afternoon. The young 
 men again cut poles from which to suspend the ham- 
 mock. The Meduma people were not kind; they were 
 intrusive, talkative, and noisy. (Probably they were 
 fearful of the reported danger of the white man's death 
 as if they would be held responsible for it.) All these 
 noises wearied the sick man, from whom his two faithful 
 servants could not hinder the knowledge of the discus- 
 sions going on in the street. The Medi men were paid 
 ofif; and three Meduma men were hired for the next 
 day. Mr. Reutlinger slept pretty well that night. 
 
114 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 9TII DAY. 
 
 Thursday, the 17th: The company started early, and 
 made no stop except to drink at Membeni. The crossing 
 on Njaku's back, by the log over the creek, was difficult 
 and dangerous. 
 
 The three Walenzyi soon became tired; and, having 
 been paid in advance (as an inducement for them to 
 work), wanted to desert. The company reached Ndambu 
 in the afternoon. There they were told that Menanji 
 had slept there on Wednesday night. This disheartened 
 Mr. Reutlinger; for, he assumed that Menanji would 
 delay also at Senje, and thus would arrive at the coast 
 too late for me to come to him before the end of the 
 week. He therefore ceased to expect any aid from the 
 sea, and proposed that Njaku should leave him, go on 
 to Senje and hire men from among the Kombe who 
 were trading there; for. Njaku and the other two were 
 exhausted by their hammock work. So, Njaku imme- 
 diately walked on alone, only stopping a little while to 
 eat at Ngumbi, and reached Senje some time in that 
 night. 
 
 From this point, I take up the thread of the story, 
 as I myself laid hold of it. 
 
 Menanji had not stopped at Senje, but had come very 
 rapidly, reached my house just before 6 P. M. sun-down 
 that Thursday, 17th, and handed me Mr. Reutlinger's 
 note. Some little time was consumed in understanding 
 the messenger's verbal story, and in appreciating the 
 state of the case. Menanji was anxious to return at 
 once, on his own business. So, a little food for Mr. 
 
CORISCO DAYS. II5 
 
 Rcutlins^er was tied up and sent by Menanji in advance. 
 An hour more was consumed in selecting and properly 
 packing against rain other supplies and provisions for 
 Mr. Reutlinger and his men. In the meanwhile, I sum- 
 moned a certain man, hired him. and sent him to find 
 three others. After evening prayers, he came with two; 
 one more being wanted I took one of my workmen, 
 Ebapwe. One of the two, Mweli, showing a disposi- 
 tion to make gain of my necessity, I declined to take 
 him; and one of my headman friends. Bote, volunteered, 
 not for pay, but "for the pity." We were off in the 
 "Draper," with the tide well risen in our favor, by 9 P. M. 
 Those four boatmen scarcely slacked on their oars the 
 whole seventeen miles of the way; though, after mid- 
 night, I found my own eye-lids very heavy. With the 
 rudder-ropes in my hands. I was aroused suddenly sev- 
 eral times, by the boat rushing, under my misguidance, 
 among the thorny pandanus leaves fringing the bank. 
 
 lOTH DAY. 
 
 Friday. June i8th; Though I had no watch, I am sure 
 it was not more than 3.30 of Friday morning when we 
 reached Senje. Menanji was there, with the informa- 
 tion that Njaku had arrived and had hired some Kombes, 
 the bargain with them being conditioned on my non- 
 arrival. Two of them, Mambondo. and Momukuku, 
 being still willing to go, I at once hired them; thus 
 making six in my company; had a few words of prayer, 
 and laid down to rest. By 6.30 A. M., I was up again; 
 a hasty breakfast; and ofT by 7 o'clock. Crossed the 
 
Il6 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 river to Njakii at New Senje, and left the "Draper" 
 there in care of his father. After a short delay I started, 
 with my six Kombe men and Njaku, Menanji again 
 accompanying on business of his own; thus making a 
 line in single file of eight, besides myself. Passed the 
 Yovi Falls; crossed the river Ngumbi, and rested there 
 for half an hour while the men ate. They did not 
 believe 1 could endure the expected rapid journey; and 
 promised that they would bring Mr. Reutlinger safely, 
 if I would remain at Ngumbi; and await their return. 
 I too had my own doubts about my ability; but I deter- 
 mined to go on. Ebapwe was also already lamed, hav- 
 ing cut his foot against a tree-stump. We hastened on 
 through the wide path to the plantation. There I felt 
 so faint, that, for a few moments, I thought seriously 
 of waiting there, while the rest of the company should go 
 on. Farther on, I drank deeply from a cold sparkling 
 brook, and felt refreshed. With unequal pace, our line 
 straggled out, and two of my men, being in the rear, 
 missed their way, and, for a while, there was a good deal 
 of shouting on our and their part to direct them. 
 
 We hastened on past the hollow Tree. The day 
 was not rainy; but drops of rain from the previous night, 
 as they were brushed ofif from the bushes lining the 
 path, made my legs wet to the knees and my arms to 
 the elbows. 
 
 Unwilling to lose time, I ate some hard biscuits as I 
 walked; and, streaming with perspiration, I drank in- 
 temperately from every brook. At the Nyebi Hut, I felt 
 so tired on being told that we were only half way on our 
 journey, that I said I would rest there, and the others 
 
CORTSCO DAYS. II/ 
 
 should go on. But, on second thought, I saw that 
 motion must be kept up, that it was not safe to sit in 
 my wet clothing. On the top of the Ridge, I sat down 
 on the "Desire-for-Knees." I was so exhausted, that 
 I said to my people that if they would promise to go on 
 and return with Mr. Reutlinger that same day, I would 
 await them there in the forest. But their tired looks 
 showed me that that was impossible; and I felt con- 
 vinced that only example on my part would stimulate 
 them. So, with desperate energy, I began to leap down 
 the rocks on the other side of the Ridge. When within 
 gim-sound of Ndambu, I had Menanji fire his gun twice 
 as a signal to let Mr. Reutlinger, if he was probably 
 there, know of our coming. Forded a beautiful moun- 
 tain stream near the village, which was reached at 3.30 
 P. M. Our guns had been heard, but were not recog- 
 nized as a signal; so our arrival was unexpected. I 
 found Mr. Reutlinger lying in his hammock in a hut. 
 His face and head were frightfully swollen. His only 
 reply to my salutation was, "O! brother Nassau, how I 
 have suflfered!" He wished to start immediately. But, 
 we were so exhausted by our eighteen hours almost 
 continuous and rapid journey, that I believed we would 
 really make more progress, if we first took needed rest. 
 His eyes were swollen so tightly shut, that he had much 
 difficulty in reading a note I handed him from Mrs. 
 Reutlinger. I had never seen erysipelas; but the name 
 at once came to my lips when I saw his red swollen skin. 
 His scalp had a soft and mushy feeling, from the under- 
 lying pus that was traveling in all directions; and his 
 right temple had numerous open abscesses from which 
 
Il8 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 the white pus issued on slight pressure. He drank some 
 broth from food we had brought. Himself realized that 
 his life was in danger; and. fearing a determination of 
 the disease to his brain, gave me a variety of directions 
 in case of a fatal issue. My six men and his three all 
 ate heartily and slept soundly. 1 slept in the little hut 
 with him. He was very restless; changing his position 
 in the hammock; and rising to go out doors, as if 
 anxious to commence our journey. His nervous con- 
 dition showed itself in occasional weeping. The rats 
 in the hut seemed to alarm him. 
 
 1 ITH DAY. 
 
 Saturday, June 19th. Up by 5.30 A. M. daylight. 
 Preparations for departure. Mr. Reutlinger was now 
 as anxious to delay, as he was on Friday to be moving. 
 He feared that the rain-drops of the night on the bushes 
 along the path would irritate his inflamed face. I had 
 to insist on the journey; for, to have waited for the forest 
 to dry would have required a delay until noon; and then 
 we could not have reached the sea that day. He at 
 first thought his own little hammock sufficient; but 
 accepted the larger one I had brought for him. The 
 men worked with renewed strength, having had a long 
 night's sleep and a hearty breakfast. Menanji w^as re- 
 warded; and he went his way on his own business toward 
 the interior. Some presents were made to the people 
 of the village. Not that they really deserved them (for, 
 in their fear of sickness, they had held themselves aloof 
 from any assistance, and had said some unkind things 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I I9 
 
 in our men's ears); but, for the two days' use made of 
 their house by Mr. RoutHnger. Our united company 
 besides Mr. ReutHnger and myself, consisted of nine 
 persons, arranged in order thus: — two with our luggage 
 chests slung on a pole between them; two more, empty- 
 handed, awaiting their turn at the hammock. (The 
 passage of those four in advance would probably dis- 
 lodge most of the raindrops from the bushes.) Then 
 came two men carrying the hammock slung from a 
 pole on their shoulders; the hammock made soft with 
 all our bedding, and Mr. Reutlinger lying head foremost, 
 so that swaying bushes should not strike him in the 
 face. By his side strode Njaku, carrying nothing but 
 a gun, his sole charge being to see that, at turnings, 
 the hammock was not swung violently against trees or 
 rocks. Two others followed behind the hammock, 
 charged to assist only in extricating any emergency, 
 and holding themselves ready for their turn at the ham- 
 mock. I brought up the rear, surveying the entire line. 
 We passed rapidly on. When any two bearers wearied, 
 two others of the six, in their turn, stepped in, without 
 a moment's delay. Thus we passed, over rocks, and 
 streams, and bushes, at a rate that put me on the 
 quickest step in order to keep up with the procession. 
 The six bearers were very compassionate and skillful, 
 avoiding, even in their rapidity, with a care that greatly 
 surprised me, many obstacles, and expressing sincere 
 regret when an unfortunate swing of the hammock ex- 
 torted from Mr. Reutlinger a cry of pain. I especially 
 noticed their great care in handling the hammock while 
 descending the rocks of the Ridge. The bearers of our 
 baggage had pushed ahead; and we found them, on our 
 
I20 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 reaching Ngumbi, cooking plantains for the company. 
 Mr. Reutlinger rested there a few minutes; and the 
 plantains were eaten, while the entire party was being 
 ferried across the river in detachments, the small canoe 
 having to return several times, to complete the transfer 
 of ourselves and our belongings. 
 
 We reached New Senje by 2 P. M.: seven hours con- 
 tinuous rapid travel. Here, Mr. Reutlinger wanted 
 water boiled for himself; and an hour passed while he 
 stretched himself on a comfortable bed; changed his 
 clothes, which were a little dampened by the wet bushes; 
 drank some broth; and took some of his medicines. I 
 ate a hearty dinner; and paid some little debts among the 
 natives. The two men I had hired at Senje, remained 
 there with Uhemba, on their own business. With the 
 remainder (my four and Mr. Reutlinger's two) started 
 again at 3 P. M. in the "Draper" down river. 
 
 The day was warm; but Mr. Reutlinger's disease made 
 him at times feel chilly; for which he was kept well 
 covered with the traveling rugs. He was disposed to 
 sleep; but so nervous that the conversation of the crew, 
 and even the strokes of the oars hurt his feelings. 
 
 We rapidly descended with the current; stopped at the 
 river's mouth on its south bank to discharge Njaku; 
 crossed to our own north side at Mbade Point; and had 
 the patient safely and comfortably in bed before dark, 
 having made seventeen miles of river in less than four 
 hours, and the entire journey, from Ndambu, in twelve 
 hours of almost continuous travel. 
 
 The Sabbath rest of the following day was refreshing. 
 But it gave no hope for Mr. Reutlinger's life. His 
 
CORISCO DAYS, 121 
 
 disease had progressed too far. There was no lack of 
 affection and care and physical comfort. But he de- 
 pended on the system of remedies in which he con- 
 scientiously believed, and which he prescribed for him- 
 self until final delirium prevented, (and indeed made un- 
 necessary,) the use of any human medicine. 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 First Ten Years of the Benita Church, 
 
 HE second church of Corisco Presbytery, in order 
 of organization, was located at the mouth of 
 the San Bonito or Eyo River. 
 
 I. preparation. 
 
 There had been a preparation of the ground, from 
 which was to be gathered its membership. The Rev. 
 William Clemens, while residing at his Alongo Station 
 on Corisco Island, had drawn most of his pupils from 
 the region north of Cape St. John as far as Batanga. 
 That entire line of coast, including more than one 
 hundred and twenty miles, he had frequently visited 
 before i860, in taking his pupils to and from their 
 homes, in preaching in all their villages, and in estab- 
 lishing evangelistic out-posts, called "Scripture-Readers' 
 Stations," at Hanje and Meduma in the Kombe tribe. 
 Many of those pupils became members of the Corisco 
 church. 
 
 After Mr. Clemens' death in 1862, the work of itin- 
 erating in the Benita region was carried on by Rev. 
 J. L. Mackey, Rev. Walter H. Clark, and myself, who, 
 during the following three years, in succession, visited 
 those scattered church-members, preached, and located 
 
 (122) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 1 23 
 
 new evangelists, making out-posts at Aje in the Bapuku 
 tribe, and Mbini and Upwanjo in the Kombe. 
 
 II. PLANTING. 
 
 In January, 1865, I yielded to my beloved friend, 
 Rev. George Paull, the Board's authority that had been 
 granted to me to make the first Station on the main- 
 land. He removed from Corisco, and located at the 
 mouth of the Bonito River, building his house on Mbade 
 Point and near the Upwanjo villages. To him was 
 given the superintendence of the entire field north of 
 Cape St. John. His was a most faithful and successful 
 work. He had the advantage of coming to a people, 
 not in their darkness so dense that they did not under- 
 stand what he talked about, but who had already heard 
 just enough to be touched by the earnest pathos of 
 his exhibition of the Savior's love. Many were awak- 
 ened by him. But he was not permitted to form.ally 
 gather them in. He died after only three months of 
 labor at Benita, and at the close of the first year of 
 his African life. 
 
 III. GATHERING. 
 
 The ingathering began when I was sent, on October 
 17th, 1865, to take Mr. Paull's vacant place. I imme- 
 diately formed a Catechumen Inquiry Class of those 
 who had been awakened by my beloved predecessor's 
 preaching: to which others were constantly added. 
 
 On December nth, 1865, by direction of Corisco 
 Presbytery, all the members of the Corisco church, liv- 
 ing north of Cape St. John, were set oflf to constitute 
 
124 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 the Benita Church, with myself as its Stated Supply. 
 This direction was carried out as far as it concerned the 
 members living at southern Bapuku and Kombe. The 
 few who were then at Banaka (Batanga) were still re- 
 tained in connection with the Corisco church. 
 
 The first Benita Communion was celebrated Decem- 
 ber 31st, 1865. In this first constitution of the Benita 
 church, those who were set ofif from the parent church 
 numbered eighteen, including one Elder. Their names 
 were: — Mbata, Makendenge, Esima, Ngatye. Njumba, 
 Mambo. Evemba, Ilanga, Etiyani, lyanga, Ebeva, Raku. 
 Ubomani, males; and Ngolo, Ndaga, Bohile, Asamba, 
 Mahangwangani. females. It must be acknowledged, 
 as a matter of shame, and also in explanation of subse- 
 quent falls and discipline, that, of this number, six were, 
 at the time of their transfer of membership, under sus- 
 pension: and their cases were subsequently prosecuted 
 by the Benita Session. Their distance from Corisco. 
 their having only occasional public means of grace, and 
 their being almost without shepherding, were good 
 reasons for the organization of a church on whose serv- 
 ices it was possible for them to attend. 
 
 IV. ELDERS. 
 
 The Elder, Njumba, himself was under suspicion. 
 While connected with Corisco. he had twice been 
 charged with a serious offense. Those charges were 
 investigated, once by the Mission, dealing with him as 
 an employe; and, on another occasion, by the Corisco 
 Session. In both cases he was acquitted; but, sub- 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I25 
 
 sequent events at Benita proved that he was really gnilty, 
 and that he had perjured himself. He became a thorn 
 in the life of the Benita church, and was excommuni- 
 cated. His having twice been able to deceive investi- 
 gating- Committees made the few who had been willing 
 to appear as witnesses against him afraid to do so again. 
 Other members, who themselves had been hiding sin, 
 were emboldened by his success. Also, investigation 
 had been all the more difficult as long as they were 
 connected with Corisco, more than fifty miles away 
 from observation, instruction, or advice. To the Elder- 
 ship were successively elected Etiyani-ya-Nyenje, or- 
 dained March 31st, 1867, who afterward removed to 
 Corisco, where he was soon chosen to the same office. 
 (Twenty years later he was ordained to the ministry, 
 and became pastor of the Bata church, an off-shoot of 
 the Benita.) Makendenge-ma-Ekunda, ordained March 
 31st, 1867. His course was not, like Etiyani's, a blame- 
 less one. He several times subjected himself to rebuke 
 and discipline. But the discipline was always blessed; 
 and his life has been a useful one. Itongolo-ja-Ivina, 
 ordained September 26th, 1869. He, with Ebuma-ya- 
 Metyeba, ordained September 24th, 1871, and Mozy- 
 emba-mwa-Ijabi, ordained October 3rd, 1875, constituted 
 the Session at the tenth year of the church's life. Iton- 
 golo subseciuently, after a long and blameless course 
 of training as day laborer, teacher, evangelist, candidate 
 and licentiate, was ordained as a minister. Cheerful- 
 hearted and energetic, he was the most spiritual of the 
 native clergymen; and died Pastor of the Ubenji church 
 (another of Benita's oflf-shoots). 
 
126 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 V. FOUNDATIONS. 
 
 I : Action on Slavery. The very first action of the 
 Benita Session in December, 1865, immediately after 
 its organization, was to make slave-holding a bar to 
 membership. Presbytery, up to that time, had allowed 
 slave-holding under certain restrictions, its entire pro- 
 hibition of the evil being subsequent to the action of the 
 Benita Session. 
 
 2: Catechumen Inquiry Class. The reception, and 
 instruction of Inquirers, had fallen into irregularity, 
 successive Stated Supplies of the parent Corisco church 
 altering or neglecting the Formula originally prepared 
 by the Mission in its early history, and which had never 
 been ofificially adopted by Presbytery. On my initiative, 
 the Benita Session in January, 1868. overtured a Form, 
 which was adopted by Presbytery, directing a certain 
 course of instruction during at least one year previous 
 to sessional examination for Baptism, and requiring 
 ability to read the native Scriptures (except in a few 
 cases either of age, impossible distance from school, or 
 proved mental inability) as a condition for baptism. I 
 regret to record that I was the only member of Pres- 
 bytery who rigidly enforced that rule. Had it been 
 faithfully carried out in all the later churches, there 
 would have been less ignorance, and (I think) less weak- 
 ness in their membership. 
 
 3: Evangelistic out-posts were established at Senje, 
 seventeen miles up the Benito River; and at Bata, 
 twenty-three miles north (which subsequently grew to 
 be the Bata church). 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 12/ 
 
 4: Marriage Ceremony. It was also on my initiative 
 that the Benita Session, in January, 1870, sent an over- 
 ture to the Presbytery, which led to its advanced action 
 on Marriage. Previous to that, only church officers 
 and other religious teachers had been required to receive 
 a christian ceremony in marriage. The new rule, insisted 
 on that ceremony for all male church-members. The 
 native mode was no longer to be accepted as valid, 
 except in case of a christian woman being married to 
 a non-christian. (Women, being bought and sold by 
 the custom of "Dowry," were not held responsible as 
 christian men were.) This rule I rigidly adhered to. 
 I regret to record that it was not always carried out, 
 in some of the later churches. I think that the irreg- 
 ularity led to much laxity as to the marriage relation; 
 and to inconsistent, and sometimes unjust discipline in 
 the Sessions. I held the Stated Supplyship uninter- 
 ruptedly and unassisted for six years, during which time 
 there were added forty-three (of whom eight by certifi- 
 cate); of them, thirty-two were males, and eleven females; 
 thus making a church roll of sixty-one. That the num- 
 ber was not greater was distinctly due to my insisting 
 on the two rules, as requisites for Baptism, viz. Ability 
 to read, and (in case of the married) a Christian cere- 
 mony. 
 
 VI. TRAINING. 
 
 When I left, on a furlough to America in December, 
 1 87 1, I was succeeded in charge of Benita affairs by 
 Rev. Messrs. Samuel H. Murphy, and J. C. De Bruyn- 
 Kops, the former of whom was elected as Pastor (though 
 
128 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 never formally installed by Presbytery). He was as- 
 sisted frequently in the pulpit by Mr. Kops. They 
 both did well the work to which they were especially 
 adapted, of strict discipline, and doctrinal training. The 
 church developed, i. It grew in spiritual strength and 
 understanding. 2. Its liberality in gifts increased. 3. 
 Efforts for the evangelization of other tribes became 
 more vigorous. 4. Thoughts on christian life and spir- 
 ituality were quickened. 5. Resistance was made to 
 the persecution of Christians by the heathen superstition 
 of the Ukuku Society, that led to almost its abolition 
 in that part of the country. No Christian any longer 
 feared Ukuku. During Mr. Murphy's pastorate of two 
 years there were added eleven persons. 
 
 VII. DECLENSION. 
 
 When Mr. Murphy returned to America in February, 
 1874, he was succeeded in charge of Benita affairs by 
 Rev. Wilhelm Schorsch, who was appointed Stated Sup- 
 ply of the church. This was an unfortunate change for 
 Benita. Mr. Schorsch was of unsovind mind; though 
 at first, even those who suspected it, covered his vagaries 
 by the word "eccentricities." He was a German, with 
 a hearty dislike for the American ways with which the 
 Benita natives were familiar; and he ignored the good 
 routine and order established by his predecessors. Dis- 
 cipline became lax, or irregular and arbitrary. Admis- 
 sion to Catechumen Class became so notoriously easy 
 that the heathen derided it; and admission to Communion 
 was allowed on slight examination. The moral tone of 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 129 
 
 the church deteriorated. Christian marriage was not 
 insisted on; lax views as to the Seventh Commandment 
 became prevalent; and the church was filled with bick- 
 erings and strife. During the one year of his term of 
 office there were admitted to the church twenty-one per- 
 sons. Mr. Schorsch's insanity, having finally become 
 patent to all, he was removed by Presbytery, from 
 Benita; and subsequently he was recalled from Africa 
 by the Board of Foreign Missions; and Presbytery, in 
 March, 1875, appointed as Stated Supply in his place 
 the native minister, Rev. Ibia j' Ikenge. 
 
 VIII. PERMANENT GROWTH. 
 
 Mr. Ibia's residence being at Mbangwe on Corisco 
 Bay, thirty-five miles from Benita, he attended to the 
 duties only by presiding at quarterly Session meeting 
 and Communions. During the intervening three 
 months. Elder Itongolo, by Mr. Ibia's direction, con- 
 ducted Sabbath Services, Catechumen Class, and weekly 
 Prayer-meetings. To aid him in which works, he 
 frequently used as exhorters, two of the ministerial 
 candidates, members of Miss I. A. Nassau's Bolondo 
 Theological Class. During Mr. Ibia's term of office, and 
 until July, 1877, there were added to the membership, 
 by both examination and certificate, fifty-four persons. 
 Omitting deaths, excommunications, and removals, 
 there was, at that date of the ten years of the church's 
 life, a roll of about one hundred members. Mr. Ibia 
 established an evangelistic out-post among the Evune 
 tribe north of Bata (which subsequently grew to be the 
 
130 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 Evune church). Elder Itongolo was faithful and invar- 
 iable in devotion to order and truth. The church slowly 
 but decidedly recovered from the declension into which 
 it fell during Mr. Schorsch's time. It had among its 
 causes of rejoicing and gratulation, the claiming as its 
 sons, almost all of the ministerial candidates, at that 
 date, on the roll of Presbytery. Its money contributions 
 were comparatively liberal, notwithstanding the fact that 
 its people received little aid from foreign commerce, 
 there being, at that time, very few traders in that imme- 
 diate region. Nor did the gifts of the only two mission- 
 aries then living at Benita (two ladies at Bolondo 
 School) appear in the church statistics; they making 
 their personal annual contributions direct to treasuries 
 in America. The membership, which at first was con- 
 fined to the Kombe of Benita, and Bapuku of Aje, grew 
 to include the tribes beyond Bata, at Evune, and as far 
 as the Banaka at Batanga, eighty miles northward. 
 
 After the first ten years of the church's life, the days 
 of preparation and training were past. Subsequent 
 Pastors, native and foreign, had on their hands a natural 
 work of development, whose processes under their wise 
 hands, and with the aid of efficient missionary women, 
 have made the Benita church among the foremost on 
 Presbytery's roll. From it grew, by natural division, 
 directly, four churches, the Bata, Evune, Myuma and 
 Batanga; and, from the Batanga, two churches, Kribi 
 and Ubenji; in all, six churches from the Corisco parent. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Into the Sun-rise. 
 
 THE following story of a Happy Death was written 
 by my sister in 1873. I utilized part of Mato- 
 mba's life, for the final chapter of my "Mawedo," 
 published in 1881. 
 
 "In May of 1871 a woman of the Benga tribe, living 
 on the island of Corisco, began work among her heathen 
 sisters, as Bible-woman. 
 
 We cannot doubt that she was led into this work by 
 the Spirit of God alone; there were no missionaries at 
 that time on the island. She was the first woman of 
 this tribe to receive support from the Woman's Foreign 
 Missionary Society. 
 
 In Mrs. Mackey's school, the first for girls in Corisco, 
 she had learned to read in Benga and English, becoming 
 also efficient with her needle. A life of varied and bitter 
 trials, such as only heathen women know, intervened 
 between her leaving the Mission School and about three 
 years since her public profession of her faith in Christ. 
 Her heart, filled with new, fresh love for the Master, 
 was asking, "Lord! what wilt thou have me to do?" 
 when, in May of '71, a letter of the Foreign Cor. Secre- 
 tary of the Philadelphia Women's Foreign Missionary 
 Society, with its overwhelming gift of love, and hope, 
 and strength, reached me at Libreville, asking, "Who 
 are your Bible-women? We will aid them!" Matomba, 
 
 (131) 
 
132 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 already self-consecrated, was chosen, and, under the 
 superintendence of the native pastor, began her work. 
 
 About a year afterward, she wrote me, "Since I have 
 been put in this work, I find it good. I hope I may 
 be chosen by God, as I have by men." How she was 
 enabled to do it, in the sight of her heathen people, and 
 what was the witnessing of the Spirit in her happy heart, 
 let me ask you to judge by the following extract from 
 a letter of Mrs. De Heer, who returned to Corisco (from 
 her furlough in the U. S.) in March '^2, and who wrote 
 thus to me in November last: "I should not perhaps 
 write you so soon again, but you ask what I can tell 
 you of Matomba, and I hasten to tell you the last that 
 you or I shall know of her on earth ; for, her work here 
 is finished, and she has gone, as we trust, to her reward, 
 leaving behind a beautiful dying testimony. Her works 
 do follow her. Hers was a triumphant, happy death-bed; 
 and when we heard her dying words to those who stood 
 about her, "Diyakani bwamu" (fare ye well), "Kamakide 
 Anyambe" (Believe in God), "Heven e ndi hwei" 
 (Heaven, it is calm), "Mba'landi na mbya" (I am going 
 with joy), we could not help feeling that the ransom 
 of her soul was ample reward for all the toil and care 
 expended here. You know she was frail; you know her 
 doubly-heathen husband had put her away because she 
 was not well and strong. For the last month of her 
 life her disease grew, and she was unfit for regular 
 labor; but all bear witness to her increasing zeal and 
 earnestness in warning and inviting sinners to come to 
 Jesus. When told that she would injure herself by so 
 much talking, she answered, "Something tells me that 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 133 
 
 I must talk." "Well, then, talk more quietly." "That 
 I cannot do, for I am too much in earnest and cannot 
 contain myself." "While I was musing the fire burned" 
 were the words that came to my mind with force. She 
 seemed unable to suppress her feelings, they zvould find 
 vent in words. One week since, Mrs. Reutlinger and 
 I gathered all the Christian women in a prayer meeting. 
 Matomba's name and praises were on every lip. Her 
 words follow her. Said one woman, "Mbu yowe, ho na 
 manga mabali nV iwedo (I did not know we have two 
 kinds of death) but I have seen the heathen die, have 
 heard him cry in despair to those about, to save him ; and 
 I saw Matomba die, fall asleep as peacefully as this 
 child I hold in my arms." They did not mourn for her, 
 seemed to think they must not. One said to me, "Ipa- 
 Iwanide i na ngebe, ndi hanga o pel' 'aju" (parting is with 
 sorrow, but not for her).' 
 
 A record of a brief, but blessed work for Jesus among 
 heathen women! 
 
 For those who sowed the seed, how full and rich the 
 gathered sheaves in their eternal harvest home! For 
 those who still sow beside those waters, what thrilling 
 words of cheer." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Town of Libreville. 
 
 SHORTLY after the location of the Gaboon Mis- 
 sion in June 1842, by the A. B. C. F. M., France, 
 under the government of Louis PhiHppe, deter- 
 mined to gain a footing on the West Coast of Africa 
 at the equator. With legal documents prepared, French 
 naval vessels entered the Gaboon river, and, inviting 
 on board the chiefs of the Mpongwe tribe, distributed 
 to them presents, feasted them, and prevailed on them 
 to set up on shore the French flag and to sign docu- 
 ments accepting a protectorate from France, in con- 
 sideration of an annual payment of a certain sum of 
 money. I doubt whether the chiefs, acute as they are, 
 were sufficiently sober after the feast to know the full 
 import of what they were doing. At least one of them, 
 whose intelligence and force of character really entitled 
 him to the name of "king," while he was wise enough 
 to do nothing that would incur punishment, never fully 
 acknowledged the P'rench authority. The mass of the 
 people objected, but were compelled to submit, at the 
 point of the bayonet and under the bombardment of 
 guns, some of whose missiles fell around our Baraka 
 mission premises. 
 
 One of the chiefs. King William, or Roi Denis, as 
 the French called him, on the west side of the river, 
 received visitors with an incongruous mixture of foreign 
 
 (134) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 135 
 
 dignity and native simplicity, foreign furniture and native 
 hut. foreign style and native poverty. He conversed 
 fluently in French, arid readily in English; and, during 
 the Franco-Prussian war, displayed an amazing knowl- 
 edge of European geography and politics. He showed 
 to visitors a handsome ducal coronet and medal pre- 
 sented by H. B. M. Queen Victoria, for his noble and 
 efficient interposition in saving the lives of some wrecked 
 British sailors who had fallen into evil native hands in 
 an adjoining tribe. Once a year, he and the represen- 
 tatives or sons of the original proprietors, went in mass 
 to the office of the French government to receive their 
 annual pension. The native attempt at pronunciation 
 of that word is "pago," and native pride looks upon it 
 as tribute paid by France to Mpongwe worth. So "pago" 
 is the word we used for "tax." 
 
 A picture, accurately taken, of the town of Libreville, 
 would include the French government buildings and 
 naval depot. The site is twelve miles up the mouth of 
 the Gaboon river, two miles below the Baraka mission 
 hill; and, that portion of the country, being an open 
 and gently undulating prairie, is called "the Plateau." 
 In front, is a roadway on the quay, which is part of the 
 wall of a water-battery, commonly called by the natives 
 "the fort." The smooth beach slopes very gradually 
 from the water's edge some dozen yards or more to the 
 government boat-house and coal-sheds. Behind, there 
 is a dense mass of guava and other bushes. On the 
 right, are the long one-storied naval stores and repair- 
 shops. Back, are two handsome buildings; one, from 
 which always floats the flag, contains the Post-office, 
 
136 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 Marine, Military, and Custom offices, clerks' offices, 
 and reception-room of the Commandant of the station, 
 who, in the absence of the admiral commanding, is the 
 acting Governor of the colony; the other is the Hospital. 
 To the left, is the arsenal ; and a building with wide 
 veranda is the officers' quarters. A long low building 
 in the corner is a cafe and billiard saloon. Admirably 
 interspersed are trees. In the foreground are graceful 
 coco and other palms, and the broad wind-torn leaves 
 of the plantain; and the graveled road smoothly graded 
 rises slowly up from the quay in the centre of the 
 parade-ground through avenues of dense and close- 
 trimmed mango trees. The soldiers' barracks are out 
 of sight back of the hospital and department; and, in 
 their rear, looms up the stately forest. These houses 
 are of stone covered with white plaster. They are cool 
 but damp, and do not exclude the inevitable white ant 
 which slowly eats out the joists of the floors. Iron has 
 been substituted in some rooms. If the water-front were 
 included in the view, there would be seen several trans- 
 ports unloading provisions and naval stores and coals, 
 perhaps an English or German steamer, and French 
 steamers waiting orders on the admiral's quarterly visit. 
 The government offices ashore give employment to 
 about fifty Frenchmen; and there are French private 
 trading-houses to the right and left of the "Governor's" 
 house. Just to the left, after passing the officers' quar- 
 ters, you would come to the Roman Catholic school of 
 Sisters of Charity, where, kept somewhat in the seclusion 
 of a nunnery, are some fifty girls, and Cathedral; and, 
 a half mile farther down the river, passing through a 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 137 
 
 village of native refugees and re-captives, are the parish 
 church, and boys' school, and priests' houses. There 
 are about one hundred boys in their school. The whole 
 settlement strikes the visitor, as he sails up the river, 
 as very beautiful. Entering the river by Point Clara, 
 the distant smoke-stacks of the steamers are seen, their 
 clouds of smoke look and smell very civilized to one 
 coming from the seclusion of Corisco or the wilds of 
 Benita. On nearing the Plateau, as the outlines of the 
 marble-like walls of the government-houses, glittering 
 white in the tropical sun, grow in the view, the eye 
 rests on them longingly, in memory of walls and homes 
 and occupations, and white faces left behind, and one 
 pants for the air and hungers for the social food of 
 civilization, the little oasis of which before yovi is so 
 sharply contrasted with the degradation that walks 
 through its path and lives by its side. I consider that 
 French naval station, on the whole, a source of comfort. 
 But it would be more a comfort if it were more moral. 
 Among all those men there are, besides the Sisters of 
 Charity, not a dozen white women. And its mission 
 schools would be nobler, if, instead of being Roman 
 Catholic, they were Catholic. 
 
 The French Jesuit schools are outwardly prosperous. 
 During the Franco-Prussian war they were reduced for 
 want of means; but they soon recovered their force, 
 both of teachers and pupils, and with financial and 
 political power. Exiled Alsacian priests here found a 
 refuge. There were some ten male and female white 
 teachers. They attracted the children by their ample 
 accommodations, not depending, as our Mission did, 
 
138 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 on native food for their pupils, but keeping on hand 
 salt beef and rice. To hungry natives this is a great 
 matter. Those Jesuits bear our Protestant schools no 
 love. In 1871 when Rev. Wm. Walker, the sole male 
 member of the old Gaboon mission then present on the 
 ground, was compelled to leave for health, it was neces- 
 sary for me to close Benita and occupy Baraka, until 
 Rev. Dr. Bushnell should return from his furlough, lest 
 the French should claim it as abandoned property. The 
 priests had been secretly inspecting our premises, and 
 had been overheard to say they would soon be theirs. 
 Our intercourse with them is but slight. Occasionally, 
 the Sisters have stopped at Baraka, apparently on a 
 visit of courtesy. We, on excursions, have in curiosity 
 entered their church and school-yard. At such times 
 the Sisters expose for sale artificial flowers of their own 
 making. On one occasion, after stating in reply to a 
 question by a priest, that I was a "Catholic," though 
 I declined polemics, I escaped an offensive dissertation 
 from him on ecclesiastical history, only by making a 
 departure as hasty as was consistent with politeness. 
 Discussion would have gained nothing. The priests 
 were active among the people. One of them was spe- 
 cially occupied in visiting and baptizing all who would 
 receive baptism. The natives formerly used coffins in 
 the burial of only their great men; now they all want 
 such burial. The priests furnished coffins for all who 
 accepted baptism, which they performed even post- 
 mortem. Their instructions have small effect on the 
 lives of the people, who see but little radical difiference 
 between their own sorcerer doctors' and the priests' 
 
^ CORISCO DAYS. I39 
 
 ceremonies. Instead of the fetish is substituted the 
 image of the Virgin, which, almost in the words of the 
 fetish-doctor, they are told ''will keep off evil." One 
 great obstacle to us, polygamy, was permitted by them. 
 The Sabbath, after morning mass, was holiday, the 
 priests playing games with their pupils. So, about the 
 only new thing their religion introduces is the confes- 
 sional; and its duties are easily accomplished. Never- 
 theless, they do teach a habit of prayer, which, though 
 its object is perverted, is useful when some of their 
 members have come into our communion. And they 
 wisely have attached to their schools, carpenter and 
 other shops, where the natives are taught industry. 
 They are aids in civilization, and, on that ground, I met 
 the Spanish priest at Corisco. But they are a bar to 
 our religious work. Our books are not permitted in 
 the hands of their pupils or employees, and our motives, 
 characters, and instructions are misrepresented. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 A Trading Settlement. 
 
 IN the region of Gaboon River and Corisco Island, 
 and, indeed, all along the entire West Coast of 
 Africa, British, German, French, Spanish, Portu- 
 guese and American merchants have sent young men to 
 trade with the natives for the palm-oil, india-rubber, 
 ebony, ivory, copal and other gums and riches of that 
 beautiful land. In exchange for these, they carry hun- 
 dreds of thousands of dollars' worth of all kinds of 
 earthenware, ironware, brass kettles and rods, guns, 
 powder, tobacco, trinkets such as beads, little mirrors, 
 cotton cloths and rum. These gentlemen trade very 
 unwisely. They "trust" those degraded natives more 
 than they would an honest man in their own countries. 
 They gave out to any body, without any security, five, 
 ten, or one hundred dollars' worth of goods in advance, 
 and then waited for its return in ivory, or palm-oil, etc., 
 which never did all come in. But, the retailed price 
 of the foreign goods to the native was so very much 
 greater than the invoiced wholesale price that the losses 
 were covered, and the merchants became rich. With 
 such a credit business, the natives became worse thieves 
 and liars that they were originally. If it were not for 
 their rum and this trust system, the traders would be a 
 real help to civilization, and missionaries could more 
 enjoy looking at their busy work and visiting their large 
 
 (140) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I4I 
 
 houses. Goin^ to a typical Trading-house (or "Factory" 
 as they are called), there would be seen a tall flag-staff, 
 from which floats the flag of the owner's country, as a 
 legal protection for himself, and also as a signal to 
 vessels entering the harbor. Tall trees, some of which 
 are as much as eight feet in diameter at their base, were 
 left when the forest was cleared away, as landmarks 
 for ships to sight and anchor by. There would be 
 also a long row of one-story houses and huts of bamboo- 
 palm, dwelling-houses, store for goods, storehouse for 
 rubber, ivory, etc., sheds for the dyewoods and boats, 
 huts for the large company of boatmen, porters, and 
 other servants; pens for the goats and chickens which 
 supply the meat for the establishment. Perhaps a pali- 
 saded fence runs around the premises, as a protection 
 against trespassers. Some of the traders, with a taste 
 for flowers, have a door-yard with roses, and other 
 flowering plants, and fruit trees. If no other trees, 
 everywhere would be seen coco-palms, in different stages 
 of growth. 
 
 Outside, on the beach would be boats and canoes. 
 These are abused by reckless usage; and generally there 
 would be some carpenter at work, mending, or caulking 
 and painting. At almost all trading-houses of any stand- 
 ing, the traders keep, besides their other boats intended 
 for rough usage, a handsome one, like a captain's gig, 
 for their conventional visits to the steamers and other 
 vessels in port. The native canoes, used only for freight, 
 are many of them sixty feet long, and four feet wide. 
 They carry heavy loads of boxes, crates, barrels and 
 hogsheads. When the tide is out, people enjoy strolling 
 
142 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 on the wide smooth sandy beach. With native care- 
 lessness, canoes are permitted to lie too near the water's 
 edge, where, at each wave, they are beaten up and down 
 with the changing tide; or wear themselves out on the 
 rocks; because the white owner has been too busy to 
 see, and the native employe too indolent to care for the 
 property. 
 
 Fishing canoes are generally in sight on the water, 
 whether it be of the sea, or of the broad rivers that 
 look down and out to the wide heaving ocean. 
 
 Merchants have no difficulty in getting young men 
 and even half-grown lads to go out there, to buy and 
 sell, with a chance to get rich, even if they do get sick 
 with fever, and die. They do not complain; and their 
 parents are willing. Why should Christian parents be 
 unwilling, or think it too hard to allow their sons and 
 daughters to go there, for a nobler service? 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 A Communion Service at Baraka. 
 
 IN my frequent visits to the Baraka house at Libre- 
 ville, Gaboon, from Corisco and Benita. I was some- 
 times present on Sacrament days of the Gaboon 
 church. Its Pastor, Rev. Albert Bushnell, D.D.. wrote 
 of one such occasion in December 1871 : — 
 
 "It is a delightful privilege for Christians to sit to- 
 gether in heavenly places, in Christ, anywhere on earth, 
 in such anticipation of the upper meeting; but, when 
 they sit around His table on missionary ground, sur- 
 rounded by heathenish darkness. He manifests himself 
 to them in a manner, exceedingly near and precious. 
 Such was our experience yesterday. The week before, 
 had been one of preparation for the solemn day. Day- 
 dawn morning prayer-meetings had been w^ell attended, 
 and the evenings had been passed in patiently examining 
 persons who desired to profess their faith in Jesus. At 
 one of the evening meetings, the ordination of a native 
 ruling elder was an occasion of new and deep interest. 
 From the thirty applicants for baptism, thirteen were 
 received by the Session, and the other seventeen were 
 asked to wait for further instruction and longer expe- 
 rience. 
 
 "How calm and beautiful," the Sabbath dawned; with 
 its first rays, a crowd assembled at the place of prayer, 
 and poured out their hearts to God in supplication and 
 thanksgiving, and exhorted each other to diligence and 
 
 (143) 
 
144 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 fidelity to the Master who had purchased them with His 
 own precious blood. 
 
 At eight o'clock, the candidates for baptism assembled 
 in the pastor's study, for words of direction and instruc- 
 tion in reference to the solemn vows they were soon to 
 take. At ten o'clock, the Session and male members 
 of the church met in the same place for special prayer 
 to God for His presence and special blessing in the 
 solemnities of the sanctuary. At half-past ten o'clock 
 the chapel doors were thrown open, and soon the con- 
 secrated place was filled, and extra seats were brought 
 from the school-rooms, such a crowd had never been 
 there before. Before the sermon, three were received 
 by letter; and thirteen by profession, eleven of whom 
 received the rite of baptism. As they went forward to the 
 altar, two verses of the hymn commencing, "O! happy 
 day that fixed my choice," were sung; and, as they 
 retired to their seats, the remaining verses commencing, 
 "Tis done, the great transaction's done, "were sung with 
 exulting hearts and voices. The sermon in Mpongwe, 
 from Matt. X. 32, was followed by a solemn appeal in 
 English from the following verse, on the danger of deny- 
 ing Christ, quite a number of white men of different 
 nationalities being present. 
 
 At half-past two o'clock, P. M., the pupils of the Girls' 
 Boarding School and the native female Christians held 
 a prayer-meeting under the direction of Mrs. Bushnell, 
 and the boys assembled in their school-room for the 
 same purpose; a voice of prayer and praise mingling 
 from the two opposite points, was a sound that might 
 cause angels to rejoice. 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I45 
 
 At half-past three o'clock, the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper was administered in the chapel after the sermon, 
 and the baptism of an infant of one of the newly made 
 members, in the presence of an interested congregation, 
 many of whom hope at the next similar season to be 
 thankful participants. It was an occasion of deep and 
 tender interest, and of thankful joy that the number of 
 communicants, was just three times as many as were 
 present at the last communion, three months ago. 
 
 In the evening, the Monthly Concert of Prayer was 
 held in the chapel, the place where it had usually been 
 held being too strait, and every moment was occupied, 
 sometimes several rising at the same time. Strange 
 that it should be difficult to keep up our interesting 
 Monthly Concert in any church in Christendom! Cheer- 
 ing reports were made from Corisco, where "sinners 
 are turning unto the Lord," and where Rev. Mr. Ibia 
 says the women are taking the lead in religious things; 
 from Nengenenge up the Gaboon river where our native 
 evangelist is laboring among the cannibal Fangwes; and 
 from old Calabar, where another dear Scotch missionary 
 has recently ceased from his labors, and entered into 
 rest; and from other places. These Ethiopian converts 
 were as ready to give as to talk and pray. Several of 
 them who labor for $3, per month, gave one-third of 
 their last month's wages. The amount collected yester- 
 day was $23.50, which will be transmitted to the Mission 
 House, New York City." 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 The First Thirty Years of the West Africa 
 Mission. 
 
 I. Work of the Mission. 
 
 I. name. 
 
 THE Gaboon Mission, established in June, 1842, 
 by the A. B. C. F. M., and the Corisco Mission, 
 in 1849, by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign 
 Missions, working together side by side, and practically 
 one, became one, on the occasion of the union of the 
 Old and New Presbyterian Bodies, in 1870. The New 
 School brethren, who had been the principal supporters 
 of the Gaboon, wished to retain a mission, whose mem- 
 ories were sacred to them; and it was harmoniously 
 handed by the A. B. C. F. M., to the Presbyterian Board. 
 The united Mission, retaining the names of its constit- 
 uents, was known then as the Gaboon and Corisco 
 Mission. Its history claims, in common, whatever was 
 once singular and separate. 
 
 At a later date, the name was changed to "West Africa 
 Mission." 
 
 2. location. 
 
 T may say, therefore, that the Mission was founded 
 on the west-coast of Africa at the town of Libreville in 
 the Gaboon River, among the Mpongwe tribe, at Baraka 
 
 (146) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I47 
 
 Station, 23 miles north of the Equator, and 12 miles up 
 the river from Point Clara (the cape on the right bank 
 of its mouth), by Revs. John Leighton Wilson and 
 Benjamin Griswold, on their landing there, June 22nd, 
 1842. They were immediately followed on December 
 I, by Rev. William Walker and Mrs. A. E. Wilson. 
 
 3. REINFORCEMENTS. 
 
 From time to time were sent reinforcements of men 
 and women, of varying endowments of mind and spirit, 
 and with different physical constitutions. In a land of 
 narrow comfort and untried climate, ' some were cut 
 down early. Others, for various reasons (not all for ill- 
 health) returned, and are still living in America. In 
 this review, omitting to mention the names of arrivals too 
 recent for history, and of others whose lives, however 
 beautiful, or residences, however useful, were painfully 
 short, the list of those sent out during the thirty years 
 since the original founders, would include the names of 
 Bushnell, Preston, Best, Mackey, Ford, Porter, Mc- 
 Queen, Pierce, Herrick, Clemens, DeHeer, Adams, 
 Loomis, Ogden, Clark, Nassau, Paull, Reutlinger, 
 Murphy. Kops and Gillespie. 
 
 But the history of that Mission in its first 30 years, 
 could be grouped around the names of a few whose lives 
 cover, at its three principal stations, its entire existence. 
 At Baraka, Revs. J. L. Wilson, D.D., William Walker, 
 and A. Bushnell, D.D., and their wives; on Corisco, 
 Revs. J. L. Mackey and C. DeHeer, and their wives; 
 and at Benita, Rev. George Paull; and Rev. Messrs. 
 Nassau, and Murphy and their wives. 
 
148 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 4. STATIONS. 
 
 Various attempts at enlargement were made: From 
 the original Baraka Station at Libreville up the Gaboon 
 river to Ozyunga, 3 miles; to Olendebenk, on the Ikai 
 Creek, amonp: the Bakele tribe, 25 miles; to Nengenenge. 
 60 miles; and two native sub-stations in the Orungu and 
 Fangwe tribes. The principal Corisco station, Evan- 
 gasimba, among the Benga tribe, in 1849, north of 
 Gaboon 40 miles; and thence Ugobi, Alongo, and five 
 native sub-stations in the Benga, Mbiko, and Bapuku 
 tribes. Mbade at Benita, 90 miles north of Gaboon 
 among the Kombe tribe, in January, 1865, thence Bol- 
 ondo; and four native sub-stations in the Kombe and 
 Balengi tribes. These native out-stations have mostly 
 been sustained, even in adverse times. But, in some of 
 the dark hours that were permitted to come, there have 
 been reductions even of principal Stations; so that, at 
 the end of the 30 years there were of the latter, only 
 Baraka, occupied by Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Bushnell and 
 two unmarried ladies and Rev. S. L. Gillespie; Alongo, 
 Rev. and Mrs. DeHeer; Mbade and Bolondo, Rev. 
 Messrs. Murphy and Kops and their wives. 
 
 5. SCHOOLS. 
 
 Schools were gathered at almost every Mission-house, 
 even of the native agents, — the principal success being 
 at the Baraka Boys' and Girls' Seminary, under the care 
 successively of Revs. Messrs. Walker, Preston, Bushnell, 
 and their wives; the Boys' School at Alongo, succes- 
 sively under the care of Revs. Messrs. Clemens. Clark, 
 and DeHeer and their wives; and the Girls' School at 
 
COR I SCO DAYS. 149 
 
 Evangasimba. under the care successively of Mrs. 
 Mackey, Mrs. Ogdeii, and Mrs. M. C. Nassau. 
 
 Parents were ready, from the first, to send boys to 
 school; for, they recognized the pecuniary advantage 
 accruing to them from their sons having an education 
 which could be diverted to uses of trade. But they 
 objected to their girls being educated; they needed their 
 service too constantly in the numerous works that fill 
 a Guinea woman's lot, as daughter or w^fe (in either 
 case, a servant and slave); and they did not wish women 
 to obtain those civilized ideas of woman's right and 
 dignity which would make them less submissive servants. 
 
 There were boarding-schools, where the food and 
 clothing provided by the Mission was not only an in- 
 ducement to parents to send, but (at that time) a neces- 
 sary part of our plan to separate the children as much 
 as possible from the evil influences of their heathen 
 homes and villages. The exercises of the schools were 
 not simply literary, they included industrial work. The 
 literary were necessarily of a very rudimentary kind: 
 First, the native Primer; and when, in six months, the 
 pupils had read the Scriptures in their own tongue, they 
 were permitted to take up English Spelling, Reading, 
 Catechisms, Geography, History, Grammar, Arithmetic. 
 The industrial were all such works as, in the U. S., we 
 would call on our own children to do at table, in kitchen, 
 and in bed-room. For the larger girls, there were sew- 
 ing of their own dresses, and boys' trousers and shirts, 
 washing and ironing, and cooking their own food; for 
 the lads and young men, there was clearing of premises, 
 carpentering, repairing of thatch, errands, boating. 
 
150 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 6. CHURCHES. 
 
 Church organizations were made at Baraka and Evan- 
 gasimba at once on the location of the original missions 
 there; and at Mbade, in December, 1865. Despite losses 
 in localities, there was, through the field, a steady in- 
 crease in membership. The church at Evangasimba had, 
 at one time, as many as seventy, from whom were set 
 off about twenty, as the nucleus of the Benita Church. 
 Growth has come, not only from pupils of the schools, 
 but from others not educated at all. who heard the 
 Gospel in village visitations and itinerations. The 
 members have been as consistent as charity should ex- 
 pect, when we consider the circumstances of their early 
 depravity, the unbarred avenues to constant sources of 
 temptation, and their limited means of grace. There 
 have been seasons of revival and rejoicing, of declen- 
 sion and discipline. The saddest falls have been under 
 the powerful temptations presented by foreign lust and 
 rum. The foreigner, who has left his white wife at 
 home, has hired "an ebony wife or wives by the week 
 or by the run in Africa;" and among these women have 
 been some of our school-children and church-members, 
 sold by their own parents, husbands, or brothers. Brit- 
 ish and American Christians have sent to the heathen 
 hundreds of thousands of gallons "of liquid damnation." 
 "But for the rum-trade, the native membership of the 
 church would have been reckoned by hundreds instead 
 of tens." 
 
 7. NATIVE AGENTS. 
 
 Native aid was sought and used to the limit of pru- 
 dence; all who could be useful in any w'ay, as interpreters. 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I5I 
 
 teachers, monitors, catechists, exhorters, Bible-readers, 
 elders, or ministerial candidates, being employed when- 
 ever they expressed the slightest desire for usefulness. 
 In an often reduced state, the Mission could not have 
 sustained the work at even its low rate without these 
 humble and, some of them, but slightly-educated agents. 
 Placing a high standard before ministerial candidates, 
 and keeping them on long probation, most of them 
 wearied; and, though subsequently useful in other ways, 
 they laid aside expectations of the ministry; so that, at 
 Libreville, only two became licentiates. Of the candi- 
 dates and licentiates made as early as i860, at Corisco, 
 only one. Mr. Ibiya. had the patience to persevere, and 
 the purity to stand tests, and proved himself worthy of 
 his ordination laid in 1870. The comparatively new 
 ground at Benita has shown an unusual richness in 
 candidates. 
 
 8. WORK FOR WOMEN. 
 
 The simple existence of the foreign Christian lady 
 in the Mission household, ennobling it as wife and 
 mother, was, independent of her word, or prayer, or 
 exhortation, a standing example to native women of 
 what their brutal homes might become. But, beyond 
 this, direct attention to the elevation of heathen women 
 was given by their sympathizing foreign visitors from 
 the first, — not only in the special work of girls' schools, 
 but in efforts in what has since so prominently and 
 importantly become itself a special work — i. c, visiting 
 women in their villages. To this ever turned the eyes 
 of brave missionarv sisters, nameless in this narrative. 
 
152 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 unmarried ladies or women whose names and works are 
 here inckided in their husbands'. It, of course, could 
 be attended to but irregularly, and therefore without 
 very patent results, while the lady had her time occupied 
 by household or school. Mrs. Griswold, at Gaboon, 
 after her husband's death in 1849. "wholly devoted her 
 life to the women and girls, teaching them during the 
 day. visiting them afterwards, and meeting them on the 
 Sabbath in their own villages, where the noisy women 
 stopped their disputes, and gathered round her eagerly, 
 catching every word that fell from her lips." 
 
 Mrs. Clemens and Mrs. McQueen, on their respective 
 returns to Corisco, after the deaths of their husbands, 
 and while connected with the girls' school, and Mrs. 
 DeHeer in connection with her husband's work at 
 Alongo, did much of this same work. 
 
 At Benita, Miss Nassau inaugurated for the Mission 
 the systematic employment of Bible-women, educating 
 for that service a Liberian assistant (Miss Sneed), and 
 calling out the hidden worth of a native Benga woman, 
 Matomba. 
 
 9. SALIENT HISTORIC POINTS. 
 
 The Mission had during those 30 years critical periods, 
 times when hope was high; other times when the great- 
 est grace exercised was that of simple continuance. 
 
 The seizure by the French of the Gaboon coast in 
 1843, threatened the destruction of the Mission only a 
 year after its location ; then came the cloud of foreign 
 vice and intemperance, and the inception of a long con- 
 flict. Then the return of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. j. L. 
 
CORISCO DAYS, 153 
 
 Wilson in 1852 to the United States, after eighteen years 
 of service in Liberia and Gaboon; but continuing his 
 service for Africa and Foreign Missions, as one of the 
 Secretaries of the Foreign Board (North) for eight 
 years, and subsequently in the same capacity in the 
 Southern Presbyterian Church. Then the short and 
 brilliant lives of Rev. H. M. Adams, dying August 13, 
 1856, and Rev. H. P. Herrick, dying December 20, 
 1857; then, in i860 to 1862, a refreshing ingathering to 
 the church. Then the long waiting, no male missionary 
 being added during the ten years succeeding the returns 
 to this country of Rev. A. D. Jack in 1859, and Rev. 
 M. L. St. John, M. D.. in 1861; and, during all that 
 decade, Mr. Walker sometimes almost alone in waging 
 that "one long conflict," his companions, Messrs. Preston 
 and Bushnell, alternating in association with him in 
 care of Baraka and furlough to America. Then the 
 revival of 1871. 
 
 At Corisco, under the united rare judgment of Rev. 
 J. L. ^lackey, untiring zeal of Rev. Wm. Clemens, and 
 skilful educating of Rev. G. McQueen, the early history 
 was bright. The influence of Mr. Mackey was formative 
 of the estimation held of the mission in the native mind. 
 "Mackey" became a synonym for "missionary," so that 
 newer men, whose names some natives had not learned, 
 are known to have been called "Mackey," just because 
 it was understood they were missionaries. When they 
 failed to embody the traditional idea connected with the 
 name, they soon were told of it by some native. Under 
 Mr. McQueen's formative influence, the pupils of his 
 Ugobi school have since stood as the accurate English 
 
154 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 interpreters, teachers, and prominent young men of 
 that part of the mission, for almost all his successors. 
 Then came excitements by Ukuku, (the native oracle), 
 that frightened church-members and drove away pupils; 
 then agitations by Spanish Roman Catholics; then, in 
 1865. the radical change in Corisco plan, that, no longer 
 concentrating on the island (where the two expectations, 
 of immunity from fever, and of raising up native agents 
 whose travels should make itineration by us to distant 
 parts entirely unnecessary, had failed,) took, with no 
 greater chances of fever, a wider sphere, and, with the 
 necessity for superintendence of native agents, a shorter 
 and less arduous path, by a division and transfer to the 
 mainland at Benita: and the merging of the Ugobi 
 school for Benga boys into the Alongo, which thus lost 
 its distinctive character as a school solely for mainland 
 tribes, the diminution of tribal jealousy making a separa- 
 tion of pupils no longer necessary. 
 
 At Benita, the short labor of Rev. George Paull in 
 1865. apostolic in its success, planted a vineyard whose 
 fruit his two immediate successors gathered and pressed 
 as a wine that has gladdened many hearts. Then came 
 the sad crisis in March 1871, when, after successive be- 
 reavements through the entire field by death, and returns 
 to America, the old Gaboon Mission about to be entirely 
 vacant, I and my sister. Miss Nassau, the sole represen- 
 tatives (on the field) of the old Corisco Mission, tempo- 
 rarily closed the stricken Benita home, confiding the 
 property to the hands of a few honest natives, and went 
 to Libreville to occupy and preserve from threatened 
 French Jesuit spoliation the Baraka Station, in the in- 
 
CORISCO DAYS, 155 
 
 terval of a few months between Rev. Wm. Walker's 
 departure and Rev. Dr. Bushnell's return. The Mission 
 was at its lowest ebb. Then began a day of brighter 
 things. The rising tide of sympathy in the church, sent 
 precious aid, that arrived in June 1871, to conserve the 
 fruit of the labors of the past, and to enlarge the con- 
 tracted borders. 
 
 10. SILVER LININGS. 
 
 Where just two years before there were only one male 
 and one female white missionary, there were, at the close 
 of the 30 years, five male and seven female missionaries. 
 The presence of a Mission yacht, the sloop "Elfe," did 
 away, for the women entirely, and to a large extent for 
 the men, with the necessity for traveling the ocean in 
 little open sail-boats. Regular monthly trips of British 
 mail steamers stopping at Libreville, brought the mission 
 in access to America a month nearer; and a wise disposi- 
 tion of force (still insufficient to man even the Stations 
 of the past), in companies rather than in single isolation, 
 gave a little of that social life and companionship, the 
 lack of whose aid had, too slightly entered into the 
 account of former ill-health. 
 
 II. Results. 
 
 I. CHURCH-MEMBERS. 
 
 At that date there were in the three churches, a living 
 membership of only 200; a number however which gave 
 cause for gratitude, to those who are aware of (few in 
 
156 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 the U. S. can be made to properly appreciate) the intense 
 influences that prevent coming to, and that drive away 
 from, Christ. 
 
 2. CIVILIZATION. 
 
 The physical aspect of the people was much changed 
 by the civilization of even those who had not been able 
 to leave off evil customs so far as to unite with the 
 church, and yet, in regard to whose salvation we were 
 not hopeless, even if they should never enter communion, 
 (i.) Dress became civilized. Instead of the four or five 
 yards of calico cloth, the common dress of men and 
 women, wrapped about the loins, and the uniform naked- 
 ness of the children, most men added a shirt to the cloth, 
 or substituted for it shirt and trousers. And on Sabbath, 
 women came to church, their bodies covered entirely by 
 cloths or by a frock. This they did not wear constantly 
 during the week days; for, while they still had to do so 
 much of work in the forests, the skirts would be in the 
 way of the thorns and branches. (2.) Houses are still 
 built of bamboo, but it makes a sufficiently comfortable 
 building if used with skill. Instead of their huts, with 
 a single room on the ground, many now imitated our 
 varied-roomed and post-elevated dwellings. 
 
 3. MARRIAGES. 
 
 No marriage contract, and scarcely any ceremony, 
 formerly existed. Woman, when still a child, was bought 
 as an ox would be. The Mission ceased to recognize 
 the native relation as a marriage, and required all men 
 and women who had been living together previous to 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 1 57 
 
 their becoming' Christians, if they wished to retain the 
 same relation, to be married by Christian ceremony. A 
 few of the more enhghtened heathen Uking our mode, 
 have sought to have it performed for them also. 
 
 4. CHANGE OF CUSTOMS. 
 
 Customs are everywhere clung to, just because they 
 have been customs. In them are tied up the supersti- 
 tions, the religion of the country, (i.) Witchcraft mur- 
 ders, consequent on every death, had their foundation 
 in the belief in spirits, and the power of those spirits to 
 act destructively through persons in voluntary conjunc- 
 tion with them, who thus made themselves, in heart, 
 murderers. Immediately, therefore, after any death, 
 investigation always was made as to who the murderer 
 was; and someone was fixed on by the sorcerer-doctor, 
 and put to death, often with tortures. These executions 
 no longer occur in the vicinity of the Mission, when 
 the missionary can hear of the death in time to interfere. 
 (2.) The funeral rites, which were insincere, burden- 
 some, and superstitious, and which gave occasion for 
 wild gossip, riotous eating and drinking, and licentious- 
 ness, have been protested against, particularly at Benita, 
 and are discarded by most of the church-members. 
 
 5. DESIRE FOR EDUCATION. 
 
 A desire for education became general, so that many 
 learned to read in their own homes, independent of the 
 Mission, eagerly seeking the unpaid aid of our pupils 
 
158 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 and other readers, on their visits home, and on trade 
 journeys. At all the Stations, day-schools were put in 
 operation, where children and young men came volun- 
 tarily and without reward, and diligently learned to read 
 and write. 
 
 6. LIBERALITY. 
 
 Though poor, and not appreciating, as we may, the 
 duty of sustaining the gospel, they have given to the 
 support of the Mission work. At Libreville, some 
 natives provide all the clothing and much of the food 
 for their children; and at all times the churches have 
 been built largely by native aid and contribution. 
 
 7. LITERATURE. 
 
 Besides the two grammars and several reading books, 
 the entire New Testament in Benga and Mpongwe, 
 with parts of the Old Testament, have been printed. 
 A collection was made of some two hundred Benga 
 hymns, one fourth of them translations by Mrs. M. C. 
 Nassau. In their manuscript form many of them had 
 already been sung by the musical natives as songs in 
 their villages, and had been carried by the wandering 
 youth back from the coast to the mountains where our 
 own feet have not trod. 
 
 III. Prospects. 
 
 Under the attention excited by Stanley's story of 
 Livingstone, and with the interest with which the civil- 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I 59 
 
 ized world then turned to Africa, the future was full of 
 hope. That interest, on the Western coast, concentrated 
 on our own field; British, French, and German exploring 
 parties at that time investigating that region with refer- 
 ence to penetrating, and thus to supplement from the 
 west, Livingstone's researches from the east. 
 
 I. TRAINING SCHOOL. 
 
 A School was authorized by the Mission and located 
 at Baraka for the especial instruction of teachers and 
 ministerial candidates. For years there had been a 
 standing objection by those who were urged to devote 
 themselves to Mission service, and, by the ministerial 
 candidates, a complaint, that each missionary was so 
 busy with the various and secular business of his station 
 that he did not give the special instruction they needed. 
 When attempt was made to remedy this difficulty, it 
 was found that missionaries at three or four different 
 places were spending time and labor in doing for a 
 small class of two at each of those places, what one 
 teacher could better do for the entire six or eight, and 
 for more who would come if they were gathered at one 
 place. That work Dr. Bushnell tried to do in a proposed 
 Training School. But it failed; for, natives of other 
 tribes were unwilling or unable to go to the Baraka 
 School, whose Mpongwe dialect they did not know; also, 
 not all of them were able to study in English. So. since 
 then there has been a theological school maintained in 
 the limits of each of the 3 dialects, the Benga one being 
 taught during 20 years by Miss Nassau. 
 
l6o CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 2. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 
 
 Unlike the natives of India, China, and other countries, 
 the natives of Guinea have no business, or interchange 
 of arts. So that, when they become Christians, they 
 still have nothing to call them from their natural idle- 
 ness. In indolence they readily fall into evil. But they 
 have very generally a taste for carpentering and black- 
 smithing (using rude tools of their own make), which 
 only needs encouragement to make it efficient. More- 
 over, among the many works the missionary has to do, 
 are secularities which occupy time, and which his ignor- 
 ance ill fits him to perform. Dr. Loomis in i860, and 
 Rev. Messrs. Reutlinger and Menaul in 1868. and I, 
 later sought to have mechanical teaching introduced; 
 but the inability of any one missionary to devote himself 
 to the project, with other causes, prevented success. 
 An earnest Christian layman, a carpenter or other me- 
 chanic, could have done the house-building my hands 
 have had to do, and could at the same time have assisted 
 in religious work. (An Industrial School has finally 
 been recently established.) 
 
 3. MEDICAL MISSIONARIES. 
 
 There were in this United States, at the end of those 
 30 years, at least six families (as many adult members 
 as were then in our field) who were in good health and 
 diligently working here, who returned from Africa and 
 remained in the U. S. solely on account of their children; 
 a state of things which would not exist if there had been 
 proper medical attetidance. Since the foundation of the 
 
CORISCO DAYS. l6l 
 
 Mission, there had been but one resident physician, Dr. 
 H. A. Ford, from 1850-1858; and in all those hundreds 
 of miles of coast there had been no practising physician, 
 except the French Doctor at the Libreville Naval Depot, 
 and he was not available unless one was not too sick 
 to go to him. Missionaries were constrained to be their 
 own doctors by taking, just before going to Africa, a 
 hasty medical education in addition to their theological, 
 or by attending, during their furloughs in this country, 
 irregular courses of medical lectures, and getting a little 
 skill by sad experience in Africa. This frightful state 
 of things suflficiently accounts for some on the list of 
 deaths, without speaking of African Fever or blaming 
 African malaria. A true Christian physician can teach 
 books as well as, and cure diseases better than the 
 minister, leaving to the latter the proper care of the 
 churches. In the U. S. in a case of sickness, the hus- 
 band or father flies on a car or horse for the doctor, 
 distant only a few squares or at most a few miles. Our 
 Mission sent in boats, against adverse winds; and our 
 territory covered 200 miles in length, with only one 
 physician in it. (Since then this evil has been rectified.) 
 
 4. THE INTERIOR. 
 
 The sparse population on the coast would not war- 
 rant, in the presence of the calls from more populous 
 countries, even the few missionaries now there, much 
 less permit a plea for more, if the work begun there 
 were to end there. We had ever looked to the populous 
 and more healthy (because more elevated) Interior, but 
 
l62 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 never had the extra men who, leaving the coast stations 
 fully manned as a base, could go forward and investigate. 
 So we painfully and tantalizingly hung only on the 
 borders, without entering our wider and true field. Our 
 natural line of growth, at that time, seemed toward the 
 east and south. That step, I was the first one able 
 successfully to make, at the close of the first 30 years, 
 by entering and building on the Ogowe River in 1874. 
 
 (About 20 years later, the present advancement north 
 and east, was made at Batanga.) 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 TlnRT^■ Ye.\rs of the Presrvterv of Corisco, 
 1 860- 1 890. 
 
 PRELUDE. 
 
 AMISSION of the Board of Foreign Missions of 
 the Presbyterian Church in the United States of 
 America, was located on Corisco Island, in Cor- 
 isco Bay. Bight of Benin, Gulf of Guinea, equatorial 
 west coast of Africa, in June- July, 1850, by the Rev. 
 Messrs. James L. Mackey and George W. Simpson and 
 their wives. 
 
 Mrs. Mackey had died suddenly in May, at Libreville, 
 before the actual location was decided on, (the new Mis- 
 sionaries being temporarily guests of the adjacent A. B. 
 C. F. M. Gaboon Mission). 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were drowned from a small 
 vessel, in a tornado, of¥ Fernando Po Island, within a 
 year after the location. 
 
 Mr. Mackey, left thus entirely alone, was subsequently 
 joined by, in 1852, Rev. George McQueen; in 1853, 
 Rev. Messrs. Edwin T. Williams, William Clemens, 
 and their wives; in 1855, Rev. Cornelius and Mrs. De 
 Heer; in 1857, Rev. Thomas Spencer and Mrs. Ogden; 
 in 1859, Chauncey L. Loomis, M.D., and Mrs. Loomis; 
 and at intervals by several unmarried ladies, the Misses 
 Isabel Sweeny, Caroline Kaufman, Maria M. Jackson, 
 and Georgiana M. Bliss. 
 
 (163) 
 
164 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 The first Station was built at Evangasimba, on the 
 western side of the island. Subsequently two other 
 Stations were added — Ugobi. two miles distant toward 
 the southern end, and Elongo, three miles distant on the 
 northern end. 
 
 With changes from marriages, deaths and removals, 
 there were present in the Mission in May, i860. Rev. 
 J. L. and Mrs. Isabel Mackey, Rev. Wm. and Mrs. 
 Clemens, Rev. C. De Heer, Rev. T. S. and Mrs. Ogden, 
 Dr. C. L. and Mrs. Loomis, and Miss Jackson. 
 
 One Church had been formed, at Evangasimba, in 
 1856. 
 
I. ORGANIZATION OF CORISCO PRES- 
 BYTERY. 
 
 FROM this point begins the history of Corisco Pres- 
 bytery. On May 7th, i860, almost exactly ten 
 years from the Mission's first establishment, "in 
 accordance with previous notice, after due consultation 
 had, there were convened at Evangasimba, Rev. James 
 L. Mackey, Rev. William Clemens, Rev. Cornelius De 
 Heer, Rev. Thomas S. Ogden, and C. L. Loomis, M.D., 
 missionaries laboring at the three Stations on Corisco 
 Island, viz., Evangasimba, Ugobi and Elongo, together 
 with the three native Elders, Andeke, Ibia and Ubengi, 
 (of whom Andeke represented the Church.) for the pur- 
 pose of forming a Presbytery. The opening sermon, 
 from the words, 'O Lord, my God, thou art very great,' 
 Ps. 104:1, was delivered by Rev. J. L. Mackey, the 
 oldest Minister present." 
 
 Mr. Mackey was elected Moderator, and Mr. Clemens 
 Temporary Clerk. After the organization, Dr. Loomis 
 and the Rev. Walter H. Clark were invited to sit as 
 corresponding members. The former was immediately 
 appointed Stated Clerk; and the latter was, at a sub- 
 sequent meeting, placed on the Examining Committee. 
 Dr. Loomis was an Elder in a church in America, 
 had studied Theology at Union Seminary, New York, 
 was licensed by a Missouri Presbytery, but had not with 
 him his certificate. Mr. Clark had transferred himself 
 to our Mission from the A. B. C. F. M. Gaboon Mission, 
 
 (165) 
 
l66 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 and was laboring in our bounds, but had not yet received 
 his formal appointment by the Presbyterian Board, nor 
 his certificate of dismissal from his Presbytery of North 
 River. 
 
 Presbytery's name was officially "Corisco," and it 
 was voted to connect with the Synod of New Jersey. 
 This selection was had, probably, through the interest of 
 the brethren in the fact of their loved Theological Semi- 
 nary being in Synod's bounds. But only one, Mr. 
 Ogden, belonged to that Synod (Presbytery of New- 
 Brunswick) ; Messrs. Mackey, Clemens and De Heer be- 
 longing to, respectively, Chester, Pa., Washington, Pa., 
 and Wooster, O. 
 
 The new Presbytery was cordially accepted by Synod, 
 Oct. i8th, i860, at the hands of delegate Mackey, during 
 his visit to America, and by the General Assembly in 
 May, 1861, and those facts were reported by him, on his 
 return, to Presbytery, at its meeting, October 19th, 
 1 861. 
 
II. ORGANIZATION AND GROWTH OF 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 1. COR I SCO CHURCH. 
 
 THE mother Church of the Presbytery was formed 
 in 1856, the first Communion being held on 
 October ist, of that year, on which occasion 
 Ibia and Andeke were baptized; and at first was called 
 "Evangasimba"— afterwards changed to "Corisco." It 
 grew from crystallization of the first native converts 
 around the ladies of the Mission and a few Christian Li- 
 berian servants who accompanied the pioneers. In the 
 beginning, before there was material for native Eldership, 
 the ordained missionaries exercised the function of both 
 Teaching and Ruling Elders. Even after a board of 
 native Elders had been obtained, the original clerical 
 members of that Church, and some of their successors 
 on Corisco Island, sat and voted in the Evangasimba 
 Church Session — a practice which sometimes was at- 
 tended with evils. It has existed in none of the other 
 Churches, except the Gaboon, where it was allowed to 
 an vmnecessarily late day. 
 
 2. BENITA CHURCH, 
 
 Fifty-three miles north of Corisco. As comity to the A. 
 B. C. F. M. Gaboon Mission limited growth southward, 
 and inter-tribal jealousies barred advance eastward 
 toward the interior. Church extension went northward. 
 
 (167) 
 
l68 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 Pupils to Rev. W. Clemens' Elongo Mainland School 
 came from Benita and Batanga; Scripture-readers were 
 sent to the Benita and Bata districts; Rev. George Paull, 
 in January, 1865, began the erection of the Mbade house, 
 Benita. At a meeting of Presbytery, April nth, 1865, 
 authority was given for the organization of the Benita 
 Church. But Mr. Paull's lamented death delayed the 
 act. It was not consummated tmtil December nth, 
 1865, when a Committee of Presbytery (Rev. R. H. 
 Nassau and Ruling Elders Ibia and Njumba) erected a 
 Church of eighteen members, including Elder Njumba, 
 of the Corisco Church, all of whom lived north of Cape 
 St. John. That Elder was never regularly installed over 
 the Benita Church. As the new Chvirch was set off by 
 direction of Presbytery — not at the request of the Church, 
 members themselves — and as it was constituted of 07ily 
 the set-ofif eighteen Corisco members (and none others) 
 over whom already that Elder had been installed, the 
 Committee supposed that the episcopal action of Presby- 
 tery rendered unnecessary an additional installation cere- 
 mony. 
 
 3. GABOON CHURCH. 
 
 When the Gaboon Mission of the A. B. C. F. M. was 
 transferred in 1870 to our Presbyterian Board, and by it 
 merged into our Corisco Mission, the Congregationalist 
 Society, existing since 1843, ^t Libreville, was, by direc- 
 tion of Presbytery, through Committee (Rev. Messrs. 
 Bushnell and Gillespie), June 14th, 1871, reorganized 
 as a Presbyterian Church, and on their report. August 
 19th. 187T, enrolled the third on our list of Churches. 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 1 69 
 
 4. BATANGA CHURCH, 
 
 Seventy-five miles north of Benita. The establishment 
 of the Batans^a Church was by order of Presbytery, in 
 precisely the same way — with much of the same reasons, 
 and with a Ruling Elder as one of the colonizing com- 
 pany — as in the case of the Benita Church. The order 
 was made in meeting of January 13th, 1879, erecting 
 into a separate body all Benita Church members living 
 north of Evune. The actual organization, as reported 
 by the Committee (Rev. Messrs. Ibia and Murphy), was 
 made April i6th. 1879, w-ith "thirty-eight members set 
 of? from Benita Church, with Itongolo, and two others 
 newly elected, as Elders." 
 
 5. OGOVE CHURCH, 
 
 One hundred and 30 miles up Ogove River, at Kangwe 
 Station. A written request to Presbytery, "signed by 
 four members of Gaboon Church and two of Benita 
 Church, residing permanently in the Ogove," was 
 granted at meeting of July 21st, 1879. The organization 
 by Committee (Rev. R. H. Nassau), was effected Novem- 
 ber 28th, 1879, with those six applicants, and H. M. 
 Bacheler, M.D., medical Missionary, who offered his 
 certificate of membership from the Summit Presbyterian 
 Church, New Jersey, and who accepted the office of 
 Ruling Elder, to which he was immediately regularly 
 elected, ordained, and installed. At a meeting of Session, 
 next day, ten candidates for baptism were examined, of 
 whom three were received. Five of those six who sisfned 
 
lyO CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 the request to Presbytery were the first Ogove converts, 
 and they had been taken to the sea-coast Churches for 
 baptism. 
 
 6. EVUNE CHURCH, 
 
 About forty miles north of Benita. The second colony 
 from the fruitful Benita Church was the Evune, set of? 
 in May, i88i, with twenty-one members, without, as far 
 as appears from the records, any request to or authority 
 from Presbytery. Rev. C. De Heer, at its meeting De- 
 cember 14th, 188 1, reported that he had organized such 
 a Church; "and, on motion, it was enrolled, and its 
 Elder, Mbai, admitted to a seat." 
 
 7. "first PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BATA," 
 
 About twenty miles north of Benita, the third Benita 
 colony, was, at the written request of Benita Church 
 members, authorized at the meeting of Presbytery, Jan- 
 uary I2th, 1883, and subsequently organized by Com- 
 mittee (Rev. Messrs. Gault and De Heer, and Elders 
 Ebuma and Etiyani), on September 25th, 1883, by set- 
 ting off forty-one members, "baptizing one new member 
 on profession of her faith, electing two Elders and in- 
 stalling them both, first having ordained one, the other 
 having been an Elder in the Benita Church." 
 
III. REDUCED MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 PRESBYTERY, organized with only four clerical 
 members, never had less than three to continue 
 its organic life; but, several times, by the ab- 
 sence of one or more of its members in America, it 
 has been without a working quorum. Shortly after its 
 organization, Mr. Mackey left, on a visit to America, 
 the three other members remaining on the ground. It 
 is recorded that one of them. Rev. C. De Heer, in order 
 to make a Cjuorum at the meeting of April Qtli, 1861, 
 was brought into the Church, sick with fever, ''wrapped 
 in a blanket and laid on a pallet." 
 
 During all of 1864, and again for a whole year in 
 1870-71, there were no meetings, there being only two 
 members on the ground. 
 
 On June 25th, 1880, a meeting is recorded as consti- 
 tuted with Elder Bacheler as Moderator, and only two 
 Ministers (Messrs. De Heer and Truman) ; the certificate 
 of a new member (Rev. A. W. Marling) being subse- 
 quently received during the session. 
 
 And on January 7th, 1884, another meeting is recorded 
 with only two members (Rev. Messrs. Nassau and Gault) 
 actually present; a third (Rev. W. H. Robinson) lying 
 in an adjacent house, too sick to be moved; and a fourth 
 (Rev. A. C. Good) arriving after the meeting had ad- 
 journed). 
 
 Indeed, the final reason for the ordination of Licen- 
 tiate Ibia, on April 5th, 1870, was for the salvation of 
 
 (171) 
 
172 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 the Presbytery's organic life — the expected absence of 
 Mr. De Heer and dismissal of Mr. Menaul, leaving only 
 Mr. Nassau actually on the ground. The same final 
 reason prevailed to the ordination of Licentiate Truman, 
 on January 7th, 1880, the expected absence of Mr. 
 Nassau and dismissal of Mr. Murphy, leaving only Mr. 
 Ibia actually on the ground. 
 
IV. UNUSUAL METHODS AND DISORDERLY 
 
 ACTS. 
 
 THIS occasionally reduced membership led to some 
 unusual, and perhaps unpresbyterial, methods. 
 I. At the meeting October 19th, 1861, Mr. 
 Clemens about to be absent in America, the two remain- 
 ing members (Rev. Messrs. Mackey and De Heer), were 
 appointed an "Executive Committee with power ad in- 
 tcri)}i.'' Subsequently, October loth, 1865, the circum- 
 stances being similar, it was voted that whenever the 
 Presbytery should be reduced, by absence in America, 
 to less than a quorum, the remaining two members on 
 the ground should be an Ad Interim Committee, "who 
 shall continue in office one year and until discharged by 
 Presbytery, whose duty it shall be (i) to receive creden- 
 tials of applicants for admission to Presbytery, and make 
 examination according to Presbyterial usage; and when 
 they shall approve such men, they shall report their 
 names to the Stated Clerk, who shall enroll them in the 
 Book of Records; and such applicants shall be then 
 considered regular members of this Presbytery. (2) The 
 said Committee shall also be authorized to examine 
 candidates for the ministry on their studies when they 
 are prepared for such examination. (3) It may also 
 examine Sessional Records. The acts of this Committee 
 shall be submitted to Presbytery for approval at the next 
 regular meeting, or whenever Presbytery shall call for 
 their report." Of the above-named vested powers, the 
 
 (173) 
 
174 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 second (2) was never exercised. The Committee's (Rev. 
 Messrs. Mackey and De Heer) first act was, about De- 
 cember, 1861, to receive the credentials of Rev. R. H. 
 Nassau, from the Presbytery of New Brunswick, who. 
 ipso facto, became a member of the Presbytery, and a 
 constituting member of the meeting of January i8th, 
 1862, that received the credentials of Rev. Walter H. 
 Clark, from the Presbytery of North River. The Com- 
 mittee's (Rev. Messrs. Nassau and Ibia) last recorded 
 act is the reception and recording of the name of Rev. 
 Albert Bushnell, D.D., from the Presbytery of Cincin- 
 nati, on June 14th, 1871 ; since which time, the occasional 
 difficulty (notwithstanding our increased membership) in 
 obtaining a quorum, has not been caused by "absences 
 in America;" and, therefore, the Committee ceased to 
 exist. 
 
 2. During all of i860, Dr. C. L. Loomis acted as Tem- 
 porary Clerk, at each meeting being invited to sit as 
 "corresponding member," and being elected Stated Clerk 
 for the year, though he never had any regular connection 
 with Presbytery. And, in 1861, Rev. Messrs. Clark and 
 Nassau, sitting as corresponding members, were placed 
 on Committees, and spoke and acted in all respects 
 (except voting) as if full members. 
 
 3. A Stated Meeting was held June 25th, 1880, by 
 only two Ministers, receiving during its sessions the 
 credentials of a third, and enrolling as a representative 
 Elder, a native who never was an Elder. The Pres- 
 bytery, thus constituted, proceeded to deprive of licen- 
 sure a native brother, for an alleged oflfense which an 
 informal (and therefore unrecorded) investigation by 3 
 
CORISCO DAYS. I 75 
 
 Other members of Presbytery, six months previously, 
 had decided did not call for discipline; and appointed 
 as Stated Supply of the Gaboon Church a Congregational 
 Minister (laboring in the employ of Mission within the 
 bounds of Presbytery, but having no connection with it 
 other than corresponding membership), who, assuming 
 possession of the Gaboon Church Books and Session, 
 had dismissed to a distant point the native Minister whom 
 Presbytery had regularly located as Supply over that 
 Church. This state of afifairs continued for more than 
 two years; protested against by only one member of 
 Presbytery; the other members, while admitting the ille- 
 gality of the proceedings, excused the allowance of them 
 by their personal respect for the Congregational brother, 
 and the deference due to his talents and long-continued 
 service in the former Mission. 
 
V. DISCIPLINE. 
 
 THE frequent changes and reductions in the mem- 
 bership of Presbytery, while they barely escaped 
 destroying its organic life, did destroy its con- 
 sistency, and made its discipline irregular and neglectful 
 of recorded rule. New members sometimes failed to 
 acquaint themselves with our historic precedents. A 
 leaven of independency carried, at times, severity even 
 to the point of despotism possible under Congregational- 
 ism, but which the bars and checks of faithfully-executed 
 Presbyterianism so justly prevent. At other times, there 
 was laxity that took no notice of what had previously 
 been severely dealt with. The inability to maintain an 
 invariable standard of opinion in a fluctuating member- 
 ship, and the disregard of old rules by new members, 
 led, at different times, to inconsistent positions and acts 
 on even g^rave moral points. Native church members 
 were, at times, disciplined for acts affecting the seventh 
 Commandment, which, at other times, were passed by 
 unrebuked; disciplined, at times, for acts regarding 
 temperance and Sabbath observance, for which same acts 
 even members of Presbytery went unchallenged. 
 
 (176) 
 
VI. CHURCH WORK. 
 
 BUT if these preceding points, in a truthful and im- 
 partial history, must be recorded, we can speak 
 with honorable pride of consistent, faithful and 
 efficient work done through the evangelistic labor of 
 Bible-readers. As early as the meeting October 19th, 
 1861, a Committee (Rev. Messrs. Clemens and Nassau, 
 and Dr. Loomis) "was authorized to bring before Pres- 
 bytery, in such a form as they may see fit, the duty of 
 Presbytery toward native helpers, especially as to their 
 examination respecting their religious views, their mo- 
 tives on entering the work, the doctrines they hold, 
 their general fitness for the work, and appropriate man- 
 ner of setting them apart for their employment." That 
 Committee, "The Mainland X'isiting," changed to two 
 members, never for ten years lost its organic life, vacan- 
 cies being regularly filled. Its field of operations lay 
 from Cape Esterias on the south, — eastward in the 
 Munda River and in the P)ay at Ukaka, Hondo and 
 Mbangwe, — and northward at Cape St. John, Italamanga, 
 Aje, Hanje, Upwanjo, Meduma, Bata, Batanga, and other 
 intermediate points. It located Scripture-readers at most 
 of those places, traveling hundreds of miles yearly in 
 their inspection, encouragement and, sometimes, protec- 
 tion. As other fields were opened up, their prominent 
 points were thus occupied by similar Committees. This 
 was especially true in the Ogove River under Rev. A. C. 
 Good, where the Bible-readers were the strongest arm 
 
 (177) 
 
178 CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 of the work. They contributed largely to the in-gath- 
 erings of the Church membership there. In the Benita 
 region they were the pioneers of the three Churches 
 colonized from the original Benita Church. They were 
 from the first regarded as under the appointment, in- 
 spection and direction of the Presbytery; the Committee 
 in charge being itself subject to Presbytery, making 
 regular written reports, and its acts being open to criti- 
 cism and alteration. 
 
 But at the meeting January 7th, 1884, a radical meas- 
 ure was passed. Presbytery abdicating all its right over 
 and interest in the Bible-readers, leaving their selection, 
 employment, wages and work, solely in the control of 
 each individual Missionary within the bounds of his 
 parish. There may be ground for question whether, in 
 so doing Presbytery did not neglect an important Church 
 interest, the work itself be not in danger of losing its 
 sacred character, and the workers themselves liable to 
 take it up as they would any merely secular job. The 
 plea for the change was that, as the Committees, by 
 Presbytery's failing to fill vacancies, had ceased to exist, 
 and the work had afterward been carried on by indi- 
 viduals in their separate parishes, those individuals should 
 be allowed uncontrolled charge of their own work. 
 
VII. CANDIDATES FOR THE MINISTRY. 
 
 ANOTHER most important duty that has ever 
 claimed the attention of Presbytery was the in- 
 ducting of worthy young' men into the ministry; 
 the native Church members being early charged that 
 the support and propagation of the Gospel in their own 
 country belonged to them, that it could not always con- 
 tinue an American import. To this end, the first mis- 
 sionaries, even before Presbytery was organized, each at 
 his own Station, had carefully taught and encouraged 
 their best pupils to seek the ministry. So that, at the 
 very first meeting. May 7th, i860, the three native Elders, 
 Andeke, Ibia and Ubengi, having already privately 
 passed the necessary studies, under the tutelage and 
 special patronage of respectively Rev. Messrs. Mackey, 
 Clemens and De Heer, came for examination, and were 
 assigned trials for licensure. At that same meeting, a 
 Committee (Rev. T. S. Ogden and Dr. Loomis) were 
 appointed to report a liberal course of study for future 
 candidates. And, at the meeting January 9th, 1872, a 
 Committee (Rev. Messrs. Gillespie and Bushnell) re- 
 ported a still more extended course. 
 
 As the English is to our candidates a foreign language, 
 proficiency in it was always accepted instead of Latin, 
 Greek or Hebrew. Later, also, meeting January 5th, 
 1886, the rule requiring even a knowledge of English as 
 a prerequisite for licensure, was relaxed in favor of cer- 
 tain native laborers, "who, by their exceptional zeal and 
 
 (179) 
 
l8o CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 success, had shown themselves worthy of the ministerial 
 office." From the beginning, almost every Missionary, 
 male and female, had some favorite pupil or pupils whom 
 their personal interest led into candidacy. So that the 
 honor of raising candidates can be claimed solely by no 
 one member of Mission or Presbytery. But these pupils 
 often became discouraged and dropped out. The multi- 
 farious businesses that distract a Missionary's time and 
 attention at each Station often made his teaching irreg- 
 ular, and the students turned aside, wearied at the delay 
 on the way to the goal of licensure. These delays were 
 increased by removals of the patron Missionary from the 
 field. The successor could not always fully assume the 
 role of patron to the (to him or her) comparatively un- 
 known protege; misunderstandings and losses inevitably 
 came, and the native helpers, with a hurt feeling against 
 individuals, charged Presbytery as a body with lack of 
 sympathy for them. However true this charge may 
 have occasionally been, Presbytery made effort twice, 
 in 1872 and in 1883, to relieve the evident discontent, by 
 attempting to gather at the central Gaboon Station, 
 students from all other Stations, into a proposed Gaboon 
 Theological Training School, under the special instruc- 
 tion of, successively, Rev. Messrs. Bushnell and Good. 
 But the efforts were unsuccessful. Candidates, as for- 
 merly, grew up where their tribal interests lay, or where 
 their employment during part of each day as Station as- 
 sistants affiliated them with the teacher of their own 
 choice. Thus, any teacher in the Mission might have 
 charge of one or more candidates. Presbytery, sev- 
 eral times, officially recognized the efficiency of their 
 
CORISCO DAYS. l8l 
 
 labor, particularly so that of Miss I. A. Nassau, who, 
 longer than any other one person, engaged herself in this 
 special work during those thirty years. As a result of 
 these various efforts to raise a native ministry, over the 
 twenty-eight years of the Presbytery's life (up to 1888), 
 there were on our roll twenty-eight candidates, not 
 including many others who were students to that end, 
 but who dropped out before actual enrollment. 
 
 Of these twenty-eight, there reached ordination four, 
 viz.. Rev. Messrs. Ibia, Truman, Myongo and Etiyani. 
 Eight others reached licensure; four of them went back 
 to the world, but one of these (Owondo) afterward re- 
 turned, entering his name again on the list of candidates, 
 thus leaving at that date, licentiates, four. Of the re- 
 maining eighteen, one (Tongo) died in good standing. 
 Dropped out, without discredit, four. Dropped with 
 censure, five. Leaving on the roll at that date seven, 
 (Owondo, Bapite, Eduma, Divine, Itongolo, Joaque and 
 Ogula.) 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Ordained 4 
 
 {Licensed 8") 
 
 License revoked 4> 4 
 
 Restored as candidate ij 3 
 
 Died in good standing 1 
 
 Dropped, without censure 4 
 
 Dropped, with censure 5 
 
 On roll in 1 888 7 
 
 Total 28 
 
VIII. SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE AND 
 SELF-HELP. 
 
 EVERY Pastor and Supply has, in his own way, 
 and according to his degree of interest on the 
 subject, urged the native Churches to self-sup- 
 port. But there was no systematic plan. Natural covet- 
 ousness prevented the natives from making energetic 
 eflfort. Indeed, those conmiunities, c. g., Gaboon, 
 which — -by the presence of white missionaries and the 
 expenditure of foreign funds in building of houses, feed- 
 ing and clothing of pupils, and employment of work- 
 men — ^received the largest amount of aid, were the 
 slowest to give for their own Church expenses. While 
 those, c. g., Batanga, which had been steadily refused 
 the white man's expensive presence, and which, as a con- 
 dition of our sending them even native teachers and 
 preachers, were required themselves to build school- 
 house, Church, &c., responded the most abundantly. 
 The Mission custom of providing everything for the 
 school children, food, clothing, washing, mending, books, 
 lights, bedding, eating utensils, etc., etc., evoked little 
 gratitude, seemed only to harden selfishness, until it was 
 seen to be an evil. Then, meeting January 13th, 1879, 
 the simple entering wedge of a change, /. c, the requisi- 
 tion that at least books should be paid for, was com- 
 plained against and resisted. But, finally, that requisition 
 and others are in force. 
 
 One native brother, Rev. Ibia, as early as 1865, felt 
 the evil habit growing on the aborigines, of depending 
 
 (182) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 183 
 
 for support on foreign missionaries and traders. He 
 asked to be allowed to establish and receive (only) tem- 
 porary aid in a project at Mbangwe, a point in Corisco 
 Bay, which he hoped, would eventually become self-sup- 
 porting, where "everyone who will marry but one wife, 
 and live industriously, is encouraged to come and live." 
 Oil-palm, cacao and coconut trees were planted, in the 
 hope of creating an honest trade, free from the dangers of 
 the dishonest "trust system" in vogue on the coast. Car- 
 pentering also was taught, and the breeding of cattle 
 and fowls for sale was tried. The enterprise was com- 
 menced, but, for various reasons, did not have the hoped- 
 for results. Nevertheless, Mr. Ibia, in season and out of 
 season with a reformer's zeal, but with little success at 
 first, urged on his people the duty of casting off their 
 inherited indolence; and, sometimes, received therefor 
 from them a reformer's painful isolation and even hatred. 
 
IX. PASTORSHIPS AND SUPPLIES. 
 
 THE undesirable letters "S. S.," appear very fre- 
 quently in Presbytery's annual statistics to As- 
 sembly. But they represent, not the American 
 relation covered by the name "Supply." but the inevit- 
 able instability of our connection between preacher and 
 people, due to our constantly fluctuating membership 
 and frequent absences in America. It seemed undesir- 
 able to constitute a pastoral relation that was to be broken 
 in a few years, or at least interrupted by absences of a 
 year or two. It resulted, therefore, that the Minister 
 whom necessity or the Mission happened to employ at 
 any particular Station, was appointed by the Presbytery, 
 without any reference to his fitness or the wishes of the 
 people, "Stated Supply" of the Church gathered at that 
 place. The only actual pastorships regularly formed on 
 call from the people and installation by Presbyter^', were: 
 Over Corisco Church, Rev. J. L. Mackey, January, 1862, 
 to June. 1865; and Rev. Ibia J'Ikenge. called in 1880, but 
 not installed till February 7th. 1883. Over Benita 
 Church, Rev. S. H. Murphy, 1872 and 1873. Over 
 Gaboon Church, Rev. A, Bushnell, D.D.. from 1872. 
 till his death, in 1879. 
 
 Licentiates have constantly been used as Supplies, 
 with a neighboring Minister to moderate Session and 
 administer Sacraments. 
 
 (184) 
 
X. CATECHUMEN INQUIRY CLASS. 
 
 PROFESSION of faith in Christ is not, in our field, 
 the cross it is in many countries. It rarely has 
 brought persecution. Indeed, Church connection 
 often brings the obscure native into enviable prominence. 
 Our Sessions are aware that baptism and the Christian 
 name are sometimes sought, with only a perfunctory 
 performance of public Christian duty, as a social distinc- 
 tion. A singular aspect of our work is therefore re- 
 vealed, viz., that of barring the way to the table by a 
 probationer's class, and by various delays of Session. 
 A resolution of Presbytery requires all who ask for 
 baptism, to first pass at least one year's instruction under 
 the Minister, Licentiate or Bible-reader nearest to them, 
 and to at once give a partial proof of their sincerity by 
 complying with our rules as to polygamy, slave-holding, 
 use of intoxicating liquor, and Christian marriage cere- 
 mony, and by making a faithful effort to learn to read 
 the Bible in their own tongue. 
 
 XL REVIVALS. 
 
 ALL parts of our field, each in its "accepted time," 
 have been at intervals blessed with revival. The 
 natural socially-sympathetic feelings of the Negro 
 may often have been involved in the causes that drew 
 the crowd; and too little has there been expression of 
 tearful sorrow for sin, and earnest longing after right- 
 eousness. Too often there crop out in Session exam- 
 inations desire of escape from the trouble sin brings as 
 
 (185) 
 
t86 corisco days. 
 
 punishment only in this Hfe, and a coveting of the bene- 
 fits of civilization that accompany Christianity. But, 
 with all this chaff, we believe much precious grain has 
 been gathered for the garner. 
 
 XII. WOMEN'S WORK. 
 
 THE more silent, but often powerful influence of 
 the work of foreign white (with a few native) 
 Christian women, being under the government 
 of the Mission, has not come under Presbytery's official 
 charge or inspection, except in the cases of the female 
 missionary teacher of candidates for the ministry, and 
 of the few natives (notably among them Mrs. Benje- 
 Itongolo, of Benita, and Mrs. Bessy Makae, of Gaboon,) 
 who have labored as Scripture-readers. But, limited as 
 has been Presbytery's direct or official connection with 
 the patient toil of these and of other women, it would 
 be an omission, in a historic sketch, not to acknowledge 
 its value and success. 
 
XIII. ROLL OF MINISTERS. 
 
 THE whole number of Ministers connected with the 
 Presbytery, from its organization to February, 
 1888, was twenty-two (22), as follows: 
 
 1. Rev. James L. Mackey,* from Presbytery of Chester. 
 
 Died. (See list of deaths.) 
 
 2. Rev. William Clemens,* from Presbytery of Wash- 
 
 ington. Died. (See list of deaths.) 
 
 3. Rev. Cornelius De Heer,* from Presbytery of 
 
 Wooster. 
 
 4. Rev. Thomas Spencer Ogden,"^ from Presbytery of 
 
 New Brunswick. Died. (See list of deaths.) 
 
 5. Rev. Robert Hamill Nassau, from Presbytery of New 
 
 Brunswick. Received. 1861. 
 
 6. Rev. Walter H. Clark, from Presbytery of North 
 
 River. Received, 1862. Returned to America. 
 Dismissed to Presbytery of Nebraska, 1871. 
 
 7. Rev. George Paul), from Presbytery of Redstone. 
 
 Received, 1865. Died. (See list of deaths.) 
 
 8. Rev. Solomon Reutlinger, from Presbytery of Win- 
 
 nebago. Received, 1867. Died. (See list of 
 deaths.) 
 
 9. Rev. John Menaul. from Presbytery of North River. 
 
 Received, 1868. Returned to America. Dis- 
 missed to Presbytery in Arizona. 1871. 
 
 10. Rev. Ibia J'Ikenge. Ordained, 1870. 
 
 11. Rev. Albert Bushnell, D.D., from Presbytery of Cin- 
 
 * Presbytery organized, 1860. 
 
 (187) 
 
1 88 CORISCO DAYS, 
 
 cinnati. Received, 1871. Died. (See list of 
 deaths.) 
 
 12. Rev. Samuel L. Gillespie, from Presbytery of Chilli- 
 
 cothe. Received, 1871. Returned to x^merica, 
 1874. Left without letter. Name dropped. 
 
 13. Rev. Samuel H. Murphy, from Presbytery of Chi- 
 
 cago. Received, 1871. Returned to America, 
 1874. Left without letter. Named dropped. 
 Came back from Presbytery of Winona, 1878. 
 Returned to America, 1880. Dismissed to Pres- 
 bytery of Mankato, 188 1. 
 
 14. Rev. J. C. deB. Kops, from Presbytery of Chicago. 
 
 Received, 1871. Returned to America, 1873. 
 Left without letter. Name dropped. 
 
 15. Rev. Wilhelm Schorsch, from Presbytery of Chicago. 
 
 Received, 1874. Returned to Germany. Insane. 
 Name dropped, 1878. 
 
 16. Rev. Ntaka Truman. Ordained, 1880. 
 
 17. Rev. Arthur Wodehouse Marling, from Presbytery 
 
 of New Brunswick. Received, 1880. 
 
 18. Rev. Graham Cox Campbell, from Presbytery of St. 
 
 Paul. Received, 1881. Returned to America. 
 Dismissed to Presbytery of St. Paul, 1888. 
 
 19. Rev. William Chambers Gault, from Presbytery of 
 
 Steubenville. Received, 1881. 
 
 20. Rev. William Harvey Robinson, from Presbytery of 
 
 Kittanning. Received. 1881. Returned to America. 
 Dismissed to Presbytery of Kittanning, 1887. 
 
 21. Rev. Adolphus Clemens Good, from Presbytery of 
 
 Kittanning. Received, 1883. 
 
 22. Rev. Frank Sherrerd Myongo. Ordained, 1886. 
 
XIV. MODERATORS. 
 
 THE roll of Moderators coincides so very closely 
 with the above list of Ministers as to be almost 
 a repetition of it. A spirit of impartiality in the 
 distribution of office was seconded by our often limited 
 material. A somewhat regular rotation therefore 
 brought into the Moderator's chair, in succession, at 
 least, once, every Minister, excepting Rev. Messrs. Tru- 
 man, ^lyongo and George Paull, the latter of whom 
 was connected with the Corisco Mission little over a 
 year, and with Presbytery only four months. Rev. 
 Messrs. Nassau, Bushnell and Gault each held the 
 chair two years. Rev. Ibia J'Ikenge three years, and Rev. 
 C. De Heer seven vears. 
 
 XV. LIST OF STATED CLERKS. 
 
 i86o-'6i. Corresponding Member, Elder Licentiate 
 
 Chauncey L. Loomis, M.D. 
 i86i-'65. Rev. James L. Mackey. 
 i865-'73. Rev. Robert Hamill Nassau. 
 i873-'75. Rev. Samuel Howell Murphy. 
 i875-'8o. Rev. Robert Hamill Nassau. 
 1880- '8i. Elder Henry Martyn Bacheler, M.D. 
 1881- Rev. Robert Hamill Nassau. 
 
 (189) 
 
XVI. NECROLOGY. 
 
 There died: 
 
 1. Rev. Thomas Spencer Ogden, May 12th, 1861, on 
 
 Corisco Island, of African fever. 
 
 2. Rev. William Clemens, June 24th, 1862, at sea, on 
 
 board ship en route to America, of yellow fever. 
 
 3. Rev. George Paull, May 14th, 1865, on Corisco 
 
 Island, of African fever. 
 
 4. Rev. James L. Mackey, April 30th, 1867, at New Lon- 
 
 don, Pa., U. S. A., of consumption. 
 
 5. Rev. Solomon Reutlinger, July 17th, 1869, at Mbade, 
 
 Benita, of erysipelas. 
 
 6. Rev. Albert Bushnell, D.D., December 2d, 1879, on 
 
 board British mail steamer, harbor of Sierra Leone. 
 W. C. A., of pneumonia. 
 
 (190) 
 
CORISCO DAYS. 
 
 191 
 
 XVII. STATISTICS TO 1890. 
 
 Ministers. 
 
 
 Churches. 
 
 Commu- 
 nicants. 
 
 Robert Hamill Nassau. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ibia J'Ikenge, P. . . . 
 
 . 
 
 Corisco, P. 
 
 
 109 
 
 Ntaka Truman, Ev. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Arthur Wodehouse Marling. 
 
 
 
 
 William Chambers Gault, 
 
 S. S. . 
 
 Gaboon, S. 
 
 S. 
 
 51 
 
 Adolphus Clemens Good. 
 
 
 
 
 <J 
 
 Frank Sherrard Myongo, 
 
 Ev. 
 
 
 
 
 Etiyani ya Nyenyfi, S. S. 
 
 S 
 
 Bata 1st S. 
 
 S. 
 
 119 
 
 Licentiates. 
 
 
 
 
 Spencer Trask Mbora. 
 
 
 
 
 
 George Wm. Bain Iguwi. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Itongolo ja Ivina, S. S. 
 
 
 Batanga, S. 
 
 s. 
 
 208 
 
 Owondo- Lewis. 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 Benita, V. 
 
 
 230 
 
 
 
 Evune, V. 
 
 
 117 
 
 
 
 Ogowe, I St 
 
 V. 
 
 82 
 
 
 
 2d 
 
 V. 
 
 68 
 
 
 
 " 3d 
 
 V. 
 
 106 
 
 Candidates — 8. 
 
 9 
 
 1090 
 
XVIII. THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 IN the beginning of the year 1887 the problem faced 
 us, viz., What to do with all the Churches, com- 
 municants, and the work connected therewith in 
 the Gaboon and Ogove parishes? the Presbyterian For- 
 eign Board having advised the Mission to retire to the 
 northern and German part of our field, and transfer to 
 the Protestant Church of France, all the work, including 
 two of our Churches, lying in French Colonial territory. 
 To part with those Churches would have been like giving 
 away a hand or an eye. But the transfer, it was hoped, 
 would be for the aid and better protection of our Church 
 members living under French government. Up to Feb- 
 ruary, 1888, that painful problem was only partially 
 solved, (because of that French body's financial inability 
 to accept the proposed transfer), by their showing their 
 willingness to aid us, in furnishing, at our Board's ex- 
 pense, French Protestant teachers. This unsatisfactory 
 state of afifairs continued a few years longer. It was 
 finally settled in 1892 by the French Protestant Society 
 consenting to take over our entire Ogove work; which 
 it has carried on with efficiency and success. 
 
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