J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.* 
 
 * 
 
 { UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. ? 
 
 
*P #5v 
 
 
GEOKGE PAULL, 
 
 OF 
 
 BENITA, WEST AFRICA. 
 
 A MEMOIR. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Eev. SAMUEL WILSON, D.D. 
 
 I .72 > 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PEESBYTEEIAN BOAED OF PUBLICATION, 
 
 No. 1334 Chestnut Street. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 
 
 THE TRUSTEES OF THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 
 
 "Westcott & Thomson, 
 Stereotypers and Electrotypers, Ph ilada. 
 
GABOON AND CORISCO. 
 
 P . 3. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Those who would know something of Africa, and 
 of the life, labors and privations of our devoted mis- 
 sionaries in that dark land, will, we trust, find a deep 
 interest in perusing this memoir of one whom God 
 has greatly honored, but early called to his rest and 
 reward. As his heart burned with the love of the 
 gospel and the cause of Christian missions, though 
 dead, he may yet speak to those who are the hope of 
 the Church to fulfill her mission to a perishing world. 
 The volume has been prepared mainly for the young, 
 and our earnest prayer is that God's blessing may rest 
 on all who read it. It consists chiefly of Mr. Paull's 
 letters, written to relatives and intimate friends with 
 the usual freedom and familiarity of correspondence, 
 and without the remotest idea of their publication. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 George Paull was the second son of Joseph 
 and Eliza Lea Paul], and was born near Connells- 
 ville, a beautiful and romantic village on the banks 
 of the Youghiogheny River, in Fayette County, Pa., 
 Feb. 3, 1837. His boyhood, like that of many 
 of Pennsylvania's noblest sons, was spent on his 
 father's farm. His early education was largely in 
 the common and Sabbath-schools, but especially 
 around the domestic altar, from which the incense 
 of the morning and evening sacrifice ascended — 
 the place where young hearts are prepared for 
 Christian and missionary work. 
 
 Full of youthful ardor and enterprise, with his 
 elder brother and other companions George often 
 sported on the rugged banks of Dunbar Creek, 
 and the craggy steeps of the Laurel Mountain, 
 adjacent to his lovely home. Here he drank 
 health from the mountain breezes, and vigorous 
 thoughts and imaginations from the bold scenery 
 
6 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 which on every hand greeted his eye. While his 
 young life was thus being developed into manhood, 
 God was preparing him, by faithful teachings and 
 fervent prayers, for a higher life of spiritual conse- 
 cration. 
 
 Children are God's heritage, and he calls and 
 qualifies them for his service. For this he puts 
 into operation fitting instrumentalities. Chief 
 among these are the family altar, the Sabbath- 
 school and the church. To all these George 
 evinced an early and strong attachment. lie was 
 an earnest pupil in the Sabbath-school and Bible- 
 class, often taking the prize for good conduct and 
 successful recitations. Being of a modest and gen- 
 erous disposition, these honors were cheerfully ac- 
 corded to him by all. In church he was always 
 an attentive and profited hearer of the word of 
 life. Thus he grew in knowledge as in stature. 
 
 He commenced classical and mathematical studies 
 under the Bev. B. Stevenson, pastor of the Presby- 
 terian church at Connellsville, continued them in 
 Dunlap's Creek Fresbyterian Academy, and after- 
 wards under Prof. John Frazer, from Cromarty, 
 Scotland, the successful wrangler for the Hutton- 
 ian prize in the University of St. Andrews — for a 
 time president of the Boyal College in the Bermu- 
 

 
 Early Home. 
 
 p. 7. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 7 
 
 das, and afterwards professor of mathematics in 
 Jefferson College, Pa. — a teacher of high qualifica- 
 tions. With such preparatory training, young 
 Paull, with his older brother, A. Torrence Paull, 
 entered Jefferson College at Canonsburg, where 
 he graduated with high credit in the class of 1858, 
 in the twenty-first year of his age. 
 
 Though he frequently had seasons of deep con- 
 cern about his spiritual state and prospects, it was 
 not till the spring of 1858, during a revival of 
 religion in the college, that he obtained a hope in 
 Christ and made a public profession of religion, 
 which he did in the church at Connellsville, of 
 which his father is a ruling elder. 
 
 After leaving college, Mr. Paull went to Missis- 
 sippi and taught for a short time. But realizing 
 his call of God to preach Christ, he returned and 
 entered the Western Theological Seminary at Alle- 
 gheny, Pa., where he spent three years diligently 
 preparing for his great life w T ork of preaching 
 Christ to the heathen. The love of Christ, and a 
 burning desire to save those sitting in utter dark- 
 ness, fired his heart and inspired his daily medi- 
 tations and prayers for divine direction. In April, 
 1861, at the outbreak of our terrible civil war, he 
 was, by the Presbytery of Redstone, licensed to 
 
8 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 preach the gospel of grace and good will to men. 
 In April, 1862, he completed his course in the 
 seminary. 
 
 Fully realizing his call of God to the missionary 
 work in the foreign field, he offered his name to 
 the General Assembly's Board of Foreign Missions 
 for the work in Africa, and was accepted. But on 
 account of the embarrassed condition of the Board, 
 arising from the civil war, he could not be sent on 
 his mission immediately. For a time he supplied 
 Tyrone and Sewickley churches, then without a 
 pastor, where he is affectionately remembered as 
 the devout and earnest preacher whose sole aim 
 was to bring sinners to Christ. At the suggestion 
 of the author, he went to the West and found a 
 vacant, scattered church at Morrison, Illinois, in 
 the Presbytery of Bock River, to which he minis- 
 tered with great popularity and success. From 
 their earnest entreaties to become their pastor, he 
 found it difficult to tear himself away to obey the 
 call of God to preach the gospel to poor benighted 
 Africa. When his devoted friends at Morrison 
 gathered around him, and besought him with tears 
 to abide with them in the pastoral work, his spirit 
 was sorely tried. But his sense of duty to Christ 
 and the perishing heathen prevailed. He was or- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. V 
 
 dained an evangelist for the missionary work, by 
 the Presbytery of Redstone, in October, 1863. 
 
 Mr. Paull was regarded by all who knew him 
 as a Christian and minister of rare piety and prom- 
 ise. As a son, he was affectionately devoted to his 
 parents, who early dedicated him to God in Chris- 
 tian baptism, and prayerfully nurtured him in the 
 doctrines and duties of religion. As a friend, he 
 was remarkably ingenuous and constant. As a 
 student, he was conscientious, diligent and suc- 
 cessful, beloved and admired by his companions 
 and teachers. His scholarship was highly respect- 
 able; his understanding was comprehensive; his 
 imagination fertile and chaste ; his memory good, 
 and his taste refined. His reading and observation 
 were not so extensive as they were judicious and 
 profitable, of the kind best adapted to qualify him 
 for his cherished work of preaching " Christ and 
 him crucified." 
 
 His piety was peculiarly simple and artless, 
 deep, earnest and practical. It was of that lovely 
 type which distinguished the beloved disciple. 
 His large heart was an utter stranger to the spirit 
 of selfishness and censoriousness, and his lips to 
 the speech of unkindness ; but both were familiar 
 with thoughts and expressions of goodness. Emp- 
 
10 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 tied of self, he clung to Christ and his righteous- 
 ness with most affectionate devotion. He felt 
 bound, in covenant fidelity, by earnest prayer and 
 self-examination to find daily experience in his 
 inner life that would attest the gracious indwelling 
 of the Holy Spirit; hence, he would call himself 
 to account before God, and confess his sins and 
 shortcomings in duty with deep humiliation of 
 spirit. This is seen in his letters and diary of 
 missionary labors and spiritual life in Africa. 
 Active and laborious beyond his physical strength, 
 full of holy zeal and charity, he was ever elab- 
 orating schemes of usefulness. The burden of 
 the Lord on his heart continually was, that he 
 and others might be fully awake to their high 
 responsibility in working, praying and giving for 
 Christ and the salvation of the perishing in all 
 lands. Few men of his age have evinced such 
 weanedness from the world and devotion to Christ, 
 such wakeful, tireless sympathy with all efforts 
 to sow the seeds of salvation beside all waters, 
 even to the remotest parts of the pagan world. 
 
 As a preacher, Mr. Paull was, in the best sense, 
 eminently popular. His preaching was scriptural, 
 pungent, tender, earnest, practical and faithful. 
 His aim was not the mere entertainment of his 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 11 
 
 hearers, but their conversion and sanctification 
 through the truth, which he pressed, like the 
 sainted McCheyne, in such winning and cogent 
 strains that young and old would congregate in 
 crowds to hear him. 
 
 Of a portly and commanding presence, with a 
 deep, full and wonderfully sweet and persuasive 
 voice, fervent and eloquent in sentiment, logical 
 and forcible in argument, natural and striking in 
 his illustrations, and withal filled with love to 
 Christ and the souls of men, he never failed to 
 stamp his burning thoughts on the hearts of his 
 audience and win souls to Jesus. Who that heard 
 his sermons on Christian missions can ever forget 
 their ardent spirit and melting power as he pleaded 
 for the cause of Christ among the heathen ? He 
 seemed to verify that tender of personal agency, 
 "Here am I, send me." Although his popular 
 talents and manners seemed to mark out for him a 
 ministerial career in some large city church, yet his 
 self-denying spirit and zeal for the salvation of the 
 destitute determined him to one of the humblest 
 and most perilous of all the fields of missionary 
 work — a missionary to Africa. Now that his work 
 is quickly done, and the Master has called him to 
 the unfading crown, the Church might well in- 
 
12 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 scribe on the beautiful marble monument erected 
 to his memory by parental affection in the cemetery 
 at Corisco, as her estimate of his character, " By 
 the grace of God, a bright example of devotion to 
 the missionary work." This noble standard-bearer 
 having fallen, the Church looks earnestly to see 
 his likeness reproduced in some of her sons, who 
 shall seize and bear the banner onward to final 
 victory in reclaiming Africa for Christ. But let 
 us permit him to speak for himself, and in his 
 familiar letters and the brief notes of his diary 
 tell the story of his missionary life. 
 
 On his arrival at Xew York, on his way to 
 Africa, Mr. Paull wrote to his parents : 
 
 Xew York, Nov. 27, 1S63. 
 " To-night I am in Astoria, at the house of Dr. 
 Lowrie. I arrived to-day at noon, went to the 
 mission-house, met Mr. Rankin and Dr. Lowrie, 
 also Mr. and Mrs. Clark, missionaries to Africa. 
 Secured a passage in the steamer 'City of London ' 
 for Liverpool. The vessel sails to-morrow at noon, 
 and I leave America perhaps for many a day; 
 but there is no sadness in it to me, for I look 
 beyond, I hope. Instead of sailing from Liver- 
 pool, I am to sail from Glasgow, Scotland, as that 
 is the port to which the vessel belongs. So after 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 13 
 
 sailing to Liverpool, I go to Glasgow, and it is 
 possible I may have to be there for a considerable 
 time. The steamer on which I go to Liverpool is 
 one of the very best, so that you need have no 
 uneasiness on that score. I do not think you can 
 hear from me again until I reach Liverpool, when 
 I hope to write to you at some length. Good-bye 
 till then, and may the blessing of our heavenly 
 Father rest on you all." 
 
 Again, he writes to them from on board of the 
 steamer " City of London " : 
 
 "Dec. 7, 1863. 
 
 "Many a league from shore to-day, we are 
 steaming on the broad Atlantic, but by noon on 
 to-morrow, if Providence favor, we hope to reach 
 the harbor of Cork, Ireland, and thence about a 
 day will bring us to Liverpool. Our voyage thus 
 far has been most prosperous, speedy and pleasant 
 — fair winds and favoring tides all the way. On 
 account of the heavy fog on Saturday, 28th, we did 
 not get out of New York harbor until Sabbath 
 morning; we left the wharf at 7 A. M., and sailed 
 down the channel, with Staten Island on our right 
 and Long Island on our left. Passing the three or 
 four bristling forts for the defence of the harbor, 
 and the ' lightship/ as it is called — a ship that 
 
14 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 always stands anchored in the bay, and is lit up 
 at night as a landmark to the proper channel — 
 and, passing out of Sandy Hook, we dropped our 
 pilot and soon were out of sight of land. The 
 passengers (about thirty-five or forty) nearly all 
 gathered on deck, for the sake of the fresh air, and 
 there with busy tread they passed to and fro, in 
 hopes of driving away all symptoms of the dreaded 
 sea-sickness, but it was a useless expedient; sea- 
 sickness would come; and ere long one of our 
 gentlemen, a State Senator from Xew Jersey, grew 
 suddenly pale, and hurried off to the railing at the 
 stern of the vessel, and we saw but little more of 
 him for several days. Many more of my fellow- 
 passengers, from time to time, slipped off more 
 quietly to their state-rooms, there to roll about in 
 misery for almost half the voyage. All of the 
 passengers are about now and able to appear at 
 table, but some of them look pale and a little thin. 
 You are anxious to know, I suppose, how I came 
 through this general epidemic. Unexpectedly to 
 myself (but I can scarcely say that, for I did not 
 really expect to be much sick), I had but little of 
 it. I felt a little nausea for a few days, and once 
 or twice ivas relieved of my sujjper, but generally 
 I had a good appetite and was in my seat at 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 15 
 
 the table, and now I am as comfortable as the land 
 could make me. 
 
 " This is the ninth day out from New York. The 
 weather, generally, since we started has been quite 
 pleasant, one or two days very bright and sunny. 
 We have no variety of scenery here ; every day, in 
 respect to that, is alike : a large circular basin of 
 dashing waves, expanding far as the eye can reach 
 and meeting the horizon, is the scenery for one 
 day and for all. The waves do not seem very 
 high, from the deck of the vessel, but they are 
 rolling and dashing against each other, sometimes, 
 too, breaking clear over the bulwarks of the vessel. 
 We have not seen a vessel since we left New York, 
 nor anything that has life, save the sea-gulls, that 
 constantly follow in our wake in large numbers, 
 picking up the crumbs and waste that are thrown 
 overboard. They are a beautiful bird as they 
 skim around and over the deck of the vessel. 
 They are about the size of pigeons, white, all ex- 
 cept their backs and the tops of their wings* Some- 
 times at night the waters present a beautiful sight, 
 as the vessel ploughs through them and rolls them 
 back all sparkling and bright as though filled with 
 electric sparks. 
 
 " I have been very fortunate in getting a good 
 
16 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 steamer for crossing the ocean; everything about it 
 is in superb order. It is the newest of the Phila- 
 delphia, New York and Liverpool line, which runs 
 regularly and carries the mail between New York 
 and Liverpool. It is an iron-plated steamer, most 
 substantially built at the cost of half a million of 
 dollars. Officers and stewards are very gentle- 
 manly and polite, all of them Englishmen. I 
 could give you no idea of the appearance of an 
 ocean steamer, unless it be that it looks like an 
 immense black boat with a deck rising up inside 
 of it a few feet higher than its side-, and on top 
 of this are the three masts and sails. Under the 
 deck is the cabin, about one hundred feet long and 
 forty wide; in it the passengers sit and take their 
 meals. The next story below the cabin is filled up 
 with state-rooms, all fitted up most comfortably. 
 I have one to myself. Under the state-room 
 the hold, which is used for freight, etc. 
 
 " Life on board the vessel is very dull and lazy. 
 Most of the passengers lounge around on the 
 cushioned seats that run all around the cabin, 
 reading or talking or dozing, feeling too unsettled 
 both in stomach and mind to undertake anything 
 that would require much energy. We have break- 
 fast every morning at 9 o'clock, lunch at 12 o'clock, 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 17 
 
 dinner at 4 o'clock, and tea at 6J o'clock. Our 
 dinners are generally sumptuous, consisting of four 
 or five courses, and requiring about one hour and 
 a half to get through them : first course soups — 
 ox-tail, clam or mock-turtle ; then meats and fowls 
 of all kinds, prepared in almost every way ; then 
 cheese and celery; then pastry, pies, puddings, 
 tarts, etc.; then fruits, apples, oranges, figs, raisins, 
 almonds, English walnuts, etc. This is a pretty 
 sumptuous bill of fare, but it will not be long 
 until we shall be able to change this style of living 
 for something plainer. 
 
 "Our passengers are all pleasant and genteel. 
 They are a mixed company of English, Scotch, 
 Canadians, French and Americans, Protestants, 
 Roman Catholics and infidels, one honorable, two 
 or three sea-captains, and the rest I believe are 
 private individuals. Among the captains (who are 
 all blockade-runners) are two who were taken 
 about Wilmington. One commanded the Robert 
 Lee, which was captured, and the other the Venus, 
 which was burned. Seven or eight of our passen- 
 gers are ladies. One lost her husband and her 
 only child on this vessel as it came over to New 
 York the last time, and now she is going back 
 again in it to her home, desolate enough. I like 
 
18 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 the young Senator from New Jersey very much. 
 Presbyterian proclivities brought us together. His 
 father was a Presbyterian minister, and his brother 
 is one also, and is now settled in Springfield, Ohio. 
 The one with whom I am most intimate is a young 
 merchant from New York, who attends Dr. Phil- 
 lips' church. Dr. Lowrie introduced me to him 
 just as we were going aboard. He has often 
 been across the ocean, and I find it an immense 
 advantage to have such an acquaintance. lie 
 seems to be a verv modest, noble fellow. 
 
 " We had service on board yesterday (Sabbath) — 
 Church of England service — in the morning, read 
 by the captain, as is the rule of the ship; and I 
 preached in the afternoon at 1 o'clock. I had a 
 very pleasant little audience, and preached with a 
 good deal of satisfaction, though it was difficult to 
 keep steadily on my feet, as the vessel rolls all the 
 time. Indeed, it is a pretty difficult matter to 
 write, and I hope this will excuse the more than 
 usual unreadableness of my letter. 
 
 "The apples and cakes which Lizzie deposited 
 in my trunk I fetched out a few nights since, and 
 found them all very nice, more especially so as 
 they had the flavor of home. Everything that 
 suggests home is pleasant to the taste or sight. It 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 19 
 
 was a sore pang to part with all that I hold dear 
 on earth, and yet I feel sure that it is of the Lord, 
 and I rejoice exceedingly that he has called me 
 and given me grace to do even this little for him. 
 My days, I think, are now as happy as almost any 
 that I have ever spent, in prospect of the work 
 that God has called me to do, and that he has con- 
 ferred this great favor on me — sending me to the 
 heathen to tell the story of Christ and the cross. 
 I have no doubt in regard to the fulfillment of 
 that promise to those that forsake father and 
 mother, etc. I trust that I can now lay claim to 
 it, and I am assured that Christ will be to me 
 more than all earthly things. 
 
 " There is a gentleness and kindness in Dr. Low- 
 rie's manner very attractive. He and his father 
 made me a present of four or five books before I 
 came away — Walter Lowrie's ' Memoirs and Ser- 
 mons/ etc. He and Mr. Rankin, Mr. Waugh, 
 and Mr. Beatty of New Brunswick, came down 
 with me to the ship to see me off. Mr. Waugh 
 promised to drop you a letter to say that I got off 
 safely, as you could not hear from me again until 
 I arrived at Liverpool. 
 
 " Tuesday, Dec. 8. — This morning, for the first 
 time since leaving New York, we saw the land 
 
20 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 again, and right glad we all were. Sailing up the 
 Irish channel, just to our left lay Old Ireland. Its 
 rugged shores looked bleak and barren enough at 
 the distance of two or three miles, but when we 
 drew nearer they looked better. At Queenstown, 
 the harbor of Cork (about twelve o'clock), we 
 stopped long enough to send off some of our pas- 
 sengers by a tug which steamed up to us. The 
 shores looked green and all hedged off into little 
 fields. On the hillside we saw a flock of goats 
 quietly browsing. The houses seemed a good deal 
 lower than ours, apparently built of stone, and 
 roofed with thatch. On the other side of us was 
 an island on which the Irish keep their convicts. 
 
 " To-day it is gloomy and drizzling, but not cold, 
 nor has it been since we left. A good deal of fog 
 is still hanging over us as we steam up the Irish 
 Channel, and now night has come on ; but by 9 or 
 10 o'clock to-morrow we hope to be in Liverpool. 
 An old captain on board tells me that this will be 
 the quickest trip ever made by a screw steamer. I 
 saw a sailor-boy climb to the mast head, one hun- 
 dred and fifty feet above deck. They are a merry 
 set of fellows. They work their ropes to a song, 
 and good music they make of it. I shall not have 
 time to write in the morning, so I will close to- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 21 
 
 night, and mail my letter from Liverpool to-mor- 
 row. I may go to Glasgow by way of London, 
 and will of course write to you again from Glasgow. 
 A great deal of love to each member of the family, 
 and may the richest blessings of our Father in 
 heaven rest on you all." 
 
 " London, Dec. 12, 1863. 
 
 " My Dear Sister : As you see, I am in the 
 great city to-night, and have already spent two or 
 three days here seeing the wonders of England's 
 great capital. 
 
 " My last letter I wrote at sea and mailed in 
 Liverpool. I hope it reached you in due time. 
 When I landed at Liverpool, I found that I had 
 several days before the vessel was to sail from Glas- 
 gow for Africa, and so I concluded to pay a visit to 
 London. My baggage I sent on to Glasgow by a 
 clever young Scotchman of Glasgow, with whom I 
 became acquainted on board the vessel. 
 
 " We landed safely at Liverpool on Wednesday 
 morning, had our baggage examined, but the exam- 
 ination really amounted to nothing. Mr. Thorp 
 and I footed it from there up to the railway depot 
 for London, stopping on the way at the Liverpool 
 Exchange, which is said to be much more magnif- 
 icent than the great London Exchange. Both of 
 
22 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 them are immense, massive stone buildings, sup- 
 ported on great columns. Within the courts are 
 scores of burly brokers and speculators of every 
 description, chattering and chaffering and striking 
 bargains. I visited also St. George's Hall, in which 
 they hold their courts, etc. It also is built of stone, 
 and in magnificence and grandeur, without and 
 within, it far surpasses anything I had ever seen 
 before. Indeed, when standing before it, as well as 
 before many other buildings I have since seen, I 
 have been dumb with amazement, and feel utterly 
 unable to give a description of them. I started for 
 London the same evening about 4 o'clock, and was 
 hurried along at almost lightning speed until about 
 9 o'clock, when we found ourselves landed in the 
 midst of cabs and cabmen at the London depot — 
 distance over two hundred miles. In company 
 w T ith some others I took a cab and went to the Ter- 
 minus Hotel, at the end of the great London bridge, 
 a good hotel and of very moderate charges. Their 
 hotel system here is very different from ours. For 
 instance, we paid two shillings (half a dollar) for 
 room and bed, and then we could take our meals 
 wherever we liked. It is much cheaper and as pleas- 
 ant to get them at some coffee-house. A mutton 
 chop and cup of coffee for breakfast, at about a shil- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 23 
 
 ling ; and a mutton chop here is almost equal to a 
 dish of oysters in point of delicacy — so rich and 
 juicy. We do not know anything about them in 
 America. On Thursday morning, Mr. Greenly (a 
 young man who came over with us in the vessel) 
 and I started out to see the sights. St. Paul's 
 Cathedral was the first object of interest to which 
 we bent our steps. So, passing down by the pier 
 of London Bridge to the river Thames — and 
 London Bridge, by the way, deserves a word, it has 
 so great a fame ; but it is not imposing in appear- 
 ance. There is no wood, no wire, no paint about it : 
 all stone and mortar. The arches beneath, and the 
 side walls running up four or five feet from the floor, 
 and the floor paved with stone just like the street, 
 is all that there is of it. But then London Bridge 
 is such a wonderful thoroughfare. In the after- 
 noons it is a strange sight to see the pell-mell rush 
 of wagons, cabs, omnibuses, all mixed up and mov- 
 ing to and fro as best they can, and footmen in the 
 same dilemma. 
 
 " But to St. Paul's we took a boat at the pier — 
 little tugs that steam up and down the river with 
 wonderful rapidity, carrying passengers at a penny 
 apiece to any distance almost — and ran up to 
 the St. Paul's wharf, and from that a short walk 
 
24 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 brought us to the cathedral. But of that grand 
 old pile of stone, rising upward toward the clouds 
 more than four hundred feet, I can scarcely say 
 anything that would be satisfactory. You would 
 think me wonderfully enthusiastic if I should at- 
 tempt to speak anything as I feel in regard to it. 
 Entering by the north door, you are at once in the 
 main and central part, an immense amphitheatre, in 
 which you might place almost a score of churches, 
 steeples and all. All around this vast dome, on 
 the walls and against them and against the col- 
 umns, are monuments and sculptures with inscrip- 
 tions to the memory of the great dead — generally 
 their full-length effigies carved in marble. You 
 look up, and about three hundred feet above you, 
 all around the inside of the dome, are splendid 
 paintings illustrative of incidents in Scripture. 
 From the floor, by paying two shillings, you are 
 taken by guides to the very crown (a flight of over 
 six hundred steps), and a weary climb it is. Your 
 first landing-place is on the ( First Gallery/ about 
 two hundred feet high on the outside ; the next is 
 the 'Golden Gallery/ about one hundred feet 
 higher, and from here one can see all over Lon- 
 don. But the day was foggy. Greenly and I, as 
 most others do, climbed on until we stuck our 
 
GEORGE PA ULL. 25 
 
 heads up into the inside of the topmost crown. Of 
 course there was no danger, as it is all inside of 
 the building. We then came down and looked at 
 the clock, which is about two hundred years old, 
 and reminds you of a small saw-mill running sev- 
 eral circular saws. Then we gave a glance at the 
 library and the great bell and the circular stairway, 
 which are all well worth a careful survey. It 
 really seems as if it were worth a trip across the 
 Atlantic to peep into St. PauPs. 
 
 " In the vaults below, through which we also 
 went, lie the bones of those who died centuries 
 ago, and some of later date, as the Duke of Wel- 
 lington and Lord Nelson, I think, and Benjamin 
 West, the great artist from our own land (Pennsyl- 
 vania). Never lived there a man in Great Britain, 
 I suppose, whose memory is so revered as that of 
 the Duke of Wellington. Near to his tomb, which 
 is a splendid mausoleum, is deposited the car on 
 which he was drawn by ten black horses to his 
 last resting-place. It is a splendid and costly 
 affair ; the wheels (twelve in number) are all brass, 
 moulded from the cannon which, I think, he cap- 
 tured at Waterloo. The body of the car is cov- 
 ered with black cloth, adorned with trappings and 
 immense ostrich plumes. Around the walls of 
 
26 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 the vault are hung black cloth and trappings and 
 armor. The vault is lit up by candles constantly 
 kept burning. 
 
 "After spending some hours thus most pleas- 
 antly in St. Paul's, we dined, and went to visit 
 the Houses of Parliament. These, too, are very 
 gorgeous. They are just across the street from 
 the old Westminster Abbey. Entering at the 
 door and passing through an immense hall, high 
 and arched, we ascended a few steps and then en- 
 tered another hall to the left. Each side of this 
 hall was lined with full-length statues of England's 
 great ones — Pitt and Grattan and others. At the 
 end of this hall, right and left, are the House of 
 Commons and the House of Lords. I went into 
 the House of Commons, but I cannot describe its 
 gorgeousness. The House of Lords was closed, and 
 visitors were not admitted except on Saturdays. 
 But by permission of one of the police, who are 
 always in attendance, I got into a hall from which, 
 through a glass door, I could get a peep at its 
 magnificence. The throne, on which her majesty 
 sits when she presides, was covered over, so that I 
 did not get a sight of it. The Houses of Parlia- 
 ment are right on the bank of the river Thames. 
 
 " We next passed over to the great Westminster 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 27 
 
 Abbey, memorable in English history for many a 
 century. Parts of it yet remain in the old Saxon 
 and Norman style of architecture. Beneath its 
 pavements lie the bones of many a monk interred 
 before the Keformation, some of them eight or 
 nine hundred years ago. Here all of England's 
 kings and queens have been crowned for many a 
 generation; and here also lie their bones. The 
 whole building is an immense affair, splendidly 
 adorned with all that the sculptor's chisel, in times 
 both ancient and modern, could supply. Many 
 of the windows are filled with the most beautiful 
 Scriptural designs, painted on the glass. Here I 
 stood on the graves of Addison (of the Spectator) 
 and Southey and Johnson and Garrick and Sheri- 
 dan and Campbell and Spenser. Macau! ay, too, 
 lay near by, and many others of the noble dead. 
 They lie just under the stone floor; some of them 
 have slabs lying over them, and almost all have 
 busts and inscriptions to their memory on the wall. 
 I stood, too, beside the tomb of Queen Elizabeth, 
 for whose memory (although she was a great queen) 
 I do not have any wonderful respect. Mary, Queen 
 of Scots, whom she so hated in life, lies near her in 
 death, and I stood beside her vault, on top of 
 which is her full-length statue, recumbent. 
 
28 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 " In one of the chapels I was shown the stone 
 chair on which the monarchs of England are 
 crowned, and have been for a long time back. It 
 looks old and rusty, and seems to have been cut 
 out of solid stone. On one side of the Abbey is 
 an entrance for the royal family, along which no 
 others are allowed to tread. In one part of the 
 Abbey, service is kept up twice a day all the year 
 round — the service of the Established Church, the 
 same as the Episcopal Church in America, with 
 the exception of some little formalities, viz., bow- 
 ing the head whenever the name of Christ is men- 
 tioned ; chanting their prayers ; having their choirs 
 composed of little boys in white robes. I have not 
 seen any of the royal family since I have been in 
 London, nor any of the nobility, as they are all 
 out of the city. 
 
 " English people, so far as I have met with 
 them, seem to be very kind, noble-hearted and 
 polite. If you ask for information on the street, 
 or anywhere, from the highest class, they are all 
 attention, and seem willing and anxious to do you 
 all the kindness in their power. I think they feel 
 kindly toward Americans, and wish Americans to 
 feel so toward them. On every hand they say, 
 i When are you going to get through with this 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 29 
 
 war ? * It is a terrible pity to have so much blood 
 shed/ But they will admit that the North could 
 not well do otherwise than she has done. 
 
 " Englishmen recognize Americans almost as soon 
 as they speak, and some of them take a great pride 
 in it, and soon give you to understand that they 
 know where you are from. Their accent and the 
 pronunciation of some of their words is quite dif- 
 ferent from ours, so I am sure there would be no 
 trouble in recognizing an Englishman anywhere. 
 
 " But to return to our travel around the city. 
 After leaving Westminster we took a hansom — a gig 
 which is the most common conveyance here, a 
 heavy-wheeled affair with one horse, the driver sit- 
 ting on a seat on the top behind— and drove around 
 by St. James' Park and Buckingham Palace, which 
 is fine, very fine indeed, but yet not so imposing as 
 might be expected for the residence of England's 
 Queen; and then, passing first Hyde Park, down 
 through Temple Bar — which is an arched gateway, 
 once the outward entrance to the city when it was 
 walled — past St. Paul's and over London Bridge to 
 the Terminus Hotel. But enough of description 
 for this time. I shall not get off from Glasgow 
 for Africa until the first of January. If I had 
 * The civil war then unhappily raging in the United States. 
 
30 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 known this, I might have had the pleasure of 
 staying longer at home. But God has ordered it as 
 it is for the best, and I am content, as I trust I ever 
 shall be when I walk in the way in which God 
 leads me. I am happy, though I have a strange 
 feeling of being cut off from the sweets of home 
 and friends, a wayfarer, a stranger, journeying 
 slowly onward, I trust, toward the heavenly City 
 of which the Lord God hath said, ' I will give it 
 thee/ I am expecting to take the morning train 
 for Glasgow, to await the sailing of the vessel for 
 Africa." 
 
 Mr. Paull writes his first letter from Scotland to 
 his two younger brothers : 
 
 "Glasgow, Dec. 21, 1SG3. 
 "For nearly a week I have been snugly and 
 pleasantly settled in this old but thriving city of the 
 Scots. Look at the map, and you will find it on 
 the banks of the Clyde, a little river, and once of 
 not much note ; but latterly its channel has been 
 deepened, so that the largest vessels now sail up to 
 the city. To this it owes its present wonderful pros- 
 perity." After a brief description of the city, he 
 says : " On my arrival at Glasgow, last Tuesday 
 night, I stopped at the Queen's Hotel, and a very 
 fine one it is. While I think of it, I must tell you 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 31 
 
 of some Highlanders that I saw there. They were 
 the largest and finest-looking men that I have 
 seen. Their dress was the peculiar part. First, a 
 short coat extending down below the waist, then, 
 fastened under that, and extending down to the 
 knees, was a petticoat — ( kilt ' they call it. Their 
 stockings reached up nearly to their knees, and 
 this was their full dress — no pants on — so you may 
 imagine there was a good opportunity for the 
 wind to whistle about them on a cold day, for their 
 legs were entirely bare except the clothing I have 
 mentioned. They were officers of a Highland 
 regiment in the British army, and this is their 
 usual dress. 
 
 " Next morning I went to hunt up Mr. Laugh- 
 land, in whose ship I am to go out. He was not in, 
 but one of his clerks, who has spent some years on 
 the coast of Africa, asked me if I was Mr. Paull, 
 and said that a Mr. Thompson, who had been a 
 missionary on the coast of Africa at Calabar, and 
 was now at home recruiting his health, at his uncle's 
 house, wanted to see me. The clerk took me down 
 to call on him, and they so insisted on my making 
 my home with them that I could not refuse with- 
 out being rude. So here I am, feeling perfectly at 
 home, and receiving every kindness, in this warm- 
 
32 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 hearted Scotch family. The family consists of the 
 missionary and his sister (a young lady), an uncle 
 and aunt, both unmarried. They are all pleasant, 
 and great friends to the missionaries. They seem 
 to make it a point to entertain all missionaries who 
 come along this way. 
 
 " Mr. Thompson's station is a few hundred miles 
 north of that to which I go. I met also a mission- 
 ary and his wife just starting out to Calabar, It 
 seems to be a short trip from here to Africa, a good 
 many missionaries going and returning, and young 
 men going out as clerks and traders along the coast. 
 I find I am not likely to get off before the middle 
 of January. The ship is not yet returned from the 
 coast, but is expected about New Year. It will 
 then be to load and repair." 
 
 Mr. Paull resumes his report of sights in Lon- 
 don, and says : " I found my way to the British 
 Museum, and there, in that wonderful collection of 
 natural history (nor are works of art by any 
 means wanting), I spent most of the day. It 
 is a great building, covering perhaps an acre or two, 
 with immense rooms hundreds of feet long, run- 
 ning in every direction, and these filled with collec- 
 tions of every kind, from every clime. Going up 
 stairs, almost the first things that I saw were Du 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 33 
 
 Chaillu's gorillas, three of them (stuffed, of course), 
 and one of them an immense creature. There 
 were stuffed elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, lions, 
 bears, deer, antelope, and every kind of animal you 
 could mention, and hundreds of animals which 
 you have never seen, nor even heard their names. 
 In the departments for the birds, I suppose I 
 may safely say there were tens of thousands 
 of stuffed specimens, of every size and shape 
 and color, from almost every clime under the 
 sun. In the department for reptiles it was the 
 same — alligators, lizards, snakes, seals, the walrus, 
 etc. There was also a department for geological 
 collections which was very interesting — the bones 
 of animals dug from the earth after having been 
 buried for ages; rocks of different kinds, with 
 every possible impression of plants and animals 
 and reptiles on them. There were also departments 
 for the antiquities that have been found in the 
 ancient cities. Layard's discoveries are there from 
 Nineveh, etc. Also mummies from Egypt, mum- 
 mied cats and mummied dogs. Also sarcophagi 
 from Greece and Rome, Indian curiosities, and 
 curiosities from Greenland and Iceland — clothes 
 of skin, sledges, etc. Besides these, they have vast 
 libraries containing thousands upon thousands of 
 
 3 
 
o4 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 volumes, and also autograph letters and manuscripts 
 by the great men of the world for many centuries 
 back. I saw the original will of Mary, Queen of 
 Scots, and the prayer-book which Lady Jane Grey 
 used on the scaffold ; some of the writings of Mil- 
 ton and Addison, written with their own hands. It 
 would be impossible to give you a description of 
 the things that are there, and, even if it could be 
 done, it would not be very satisfactory. But I 
 hope you may one day be able to see them for your- 
 selves. Good-bye. Give much love to all ; and 
 that you may be noble and faithful boys is the 
 prayer of your brother." 
 To his parents he writes : 
 
 M Glasgow, Dec. 29, 1863. 
 " From old habit, I suppose, I feel that I ought 
 always to be at least doing something toward 
 writing you a letter every week. Those I have 
 already mailed since I landed on this side of the 
 water I trust have duly come to hand. My 
 thoughts wander back and cluster around my old 
 home with a daily constancy. But I have been 
 kindly kept from either sadness or loneliness, so 
 that I trust you may never have occasion to think 
 of me in any other way than as calmly content and 
 happy in treading the path which I trust the 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 35 
 
 providence of God has marked out for me. The 
 lines have fallen to me in pleasant places here, and, 
 unexpectedly, I have been set down among as kind 
 friends as I could have met with in my own land. 
 From the very first they have taken me in and 
 treated me with the most kind and careful attention, 
 making me feel as perfectly at home, almost, as 
 though I had known them all my life. The mem- 
 bers of the family are all warm-hearted Christians, 
 and their being so intimately interested in the mis- 
 sionary work, through their nephew and his father 
 (who was also a missionary, and died away in the 
 interior of Africa), they have a kindly sympathy 
 for all who are wending their way to and from the 
 heathen. 
 
 " The nephew has spent most of his life in Africa, 
 was about fourteen or fifteen when his father died, 
 and was with him on an expedition into the interior 
 at the time. After his father's death, he, being the 
 only white person in the company, took charge of 
 the expedition back again to Sierra Leone. After 
 this he came to Scotland for his education, and went 
 out again as a missionary to Calabar, a few hundred 
 miles north of Corisco. He has since then been 
 out ten years, spending five years there, and then 
 coming home a year or two to recruit. I hear so 
 
36 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 much of the coast of Africa that it scarcely seems 
 to be a far-off land, and all that I have heard has 
 but heightened my zeal for the work, and helped at 
 least to confirm the hope that my call to go there is 
 indeed of God. 
 
 " I have had a glimpse or two at Glasgow peo- 
 ple at a public l tea-party/ a peculiar institution 
 on this side of the water. These parties are held in 
 their large halls. I was at one last night in the 
 City Hall, given by the Young Men's Christian 
 Association. A shilling at the door admits you. 
 Within, the seats are ranged alongside of narrow 
 tables running the whole length of the hall. On 
 these are seated a vast assemblage, awaiting the 
 dealing out of the popular beverage. At the ap- 
 pointed hour (7 o'clock) the chairman, a tall Scotch 
 baron, took his seat, and after a short prayer the tea- 
 drinking commenced, and cakes of various kinds 
 were served with it. This lasts half an hour, and 
 the remainder of the evening is filled up with 
 speeches, generally from the more eminent minis- 
 ters of the city. The evening passed away very 
 pleasantly. The speeches were good, generally 
 having some bearing on the association. This cus- 
 tom of so much public speech-making must be a 
 great tax on the ministers, in addition to the duties 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 37 
 
 connected with their various charges ; and yet they 
 seem in a measure obliged to take part in these 
 things, or be lost sight of in the busy city. I was 
 at another, in honor of the installation of Dr. 
 Brown over one of the churches, much the same 
 in kind as this of which I have spoken. 
 
 " You will perhaps wonder how my Christmas 
 was spent, as I also was striving to guess how you 
 were all enjoying yours. By previous invitation, 
 I went to partake of a family dinner at a brother 
 of Mr. Thompson's, in another part of the city. 
 We dined on roast turkey and plum pudding, 
 which is, I believe, the favorite Christmas fare 
 with both English and Scotch. I met at the 
 dinner a very pleasant gentleman by the name of 
 Shields, a relative, I believe, of the Thompsons. 
 He has since sent me an invitation from his pastor 
 to preach for him on next Sabbath, which I agreed 
 to do on the morning of the day. There are sev- 
 eral eminent ministers here that I want to hear 
 before I go away. Dr. McDuff, the author of the 
 'Morning and Night Watches/ is settled here; also 
 Andrew Bonar, author of the life of McCheyne. 
 I heard on last Sabbath Dr. Eadie, a celebrated 
 Scotch commentator; also two other ministers of 
 considerable note. 
 
38 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "The vessel (Elgiva) is expected in from the 
 coast of Africa in a few days now, and then in 
 about twelve days' time she will be ready to sail 
 again. She is a new vessel, and has an excellent 
 captain. The voyage requires about two months. 
 A letter was received by Mr. Thompson this 
 morning from Mr. Bushnell, of the mission on the 
 Gaboon River, opposite Corisco. He seemed afraid 
 that our missionary privileges might be restricted 
 at Corisco, as a Jesuit priest was soon to be sta- 
 tioned there by the Spaniards. 
 
 "But I had not yet finished giving you an ac- 
 count of my London visit when I closed my last, 
 so I will devote part of this letter to that. After 
 I had visited the British Museum, I concluded to 
 take up my lodgings near the central part of the 
 city. I found a boarding-house right by Charing 
 Cross, which is the great omnibus centre, from 
 which you can get an omnibus to any part of the 
 city. I had very nice quarters. Next morning, 
 going down to the Thames, I took a boat up past 
 the London Bridge to the old Tower of London, 
 so famous in English history. Paying a shilling 
 at the entrance, I found a guide who led the way 
 across the old moat, now dry, into the frowning 
 and massive walls of stone to the Horse Armory. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 39 
 
 Here were mock men on mock horses, clad in steel 
 armor which had been worn by kings and nobles 
 from Edward I. (1272) down to James II. (1685). 
 The suits on men and horses were polished bright 
 and clean — beautiful relics of the times that are 
 past. Some of them w T ere of immense weight; a 
 wonderful burden for a horse to bear must have 
 been old Henry VIII., with his own ponder- 
 ous body and his full suit of steel plate and the 
 armor for his horse! There were armors that a 
 score of other kings (as Henry VII. and Richard 
 III.) and noblemen had worn, and some of smaller 
 size, which had been the property of young princes. 
 In addition to these, there were lances and spears 
 of every age, and swords and pistols and guns 
 innumerable. 
 
 "In another room I saw the block on which 
 three Scotch lords had been beheaded, and the 
 head-axe with which Lady Jane Grey was said to 
 have been executed. In another apartment the 
 guide pointed out the crown jewels, kept in a glass 
 case surrounded by an iron railing. Victoria's 
 crown was there, resplendent with gold and jewels, 
 also the crown of the Prince of Wales and the 
 queen's golden sceptre, and much other gold and 
 jewels, in value about three millions of dollars. 
 
40 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 In another apartment I saw where the prisoners 
 have been kept in ages long gone by. The stones 
 were carved with various names and devices by 
 those who had been confined. In the outer yard 
 was marked the spot where the executions had 
 taken place by the block and axe. 
 
 " From the Tower a boatman rowed me to the 
 Thames Tunnel, a remarkable arched road running 
 under the river from one shore to the other. On 
 each side of the tunnel are little shops and stalls 
 for shops — many of them unoccupied — running 
 the whole way. Musicians at different places are 
 constantly making the tunnel ring with their 
 strains, hoping to pick up an occasional penny 
 from the passers-by in return for their melody. 
 While the tunnel was being built, I was told that 
 the water of the river once broke through, and 
 even carried a flatboat through with it. The 
 current was checked by throwing in sand-bags 
 from above. Another curiosity which I saw, but 
 did not travel on, is an underground railroad run- 
 ning for several miles immediately under the streets 
 of the city. There are depots through the city, 
 and steps leading down to the railroad. 
 
 " The last day I spent in the city was chiefly at 
 the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park, and a 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 41 
 
 delightful place they are to visit. Among all the 
 interesting things that I saw, this was by no means 
 the least. This is a large enclosure, with houses 
 and stalls and large cages, in which are collected 
 all manner of beasts and birds from almost every 
 part of the world. A sixpence was the price of 
 admission. The boys would think it a wonderful 
 treat. The monkey-cage generally had a crowd 
 about it, for the pranks of the creatures were 
 amusing beyond description. Parrots, too, were 
 there from every clime, and bears and lions; an 
 old elephant and a baby elephant ; immense hippo- 
 potami and giraffes and ostriches — one a most beau- 
 tiful specimen, with glossy black plumage over him, 
 except the wings and tail, which were white ; and 
 for size he was monstrous. As I stood by the en- 
 closure, he reached his head over high above my 
 own. Everything looked plump and in fine con- 
 dition, very different, indeed, from those that are 
 usually seen in traveling menageries. These im- 
 mense gardens, with their rare inhabitants, are kept 
 up partly at the expense of the city and partly by 
 private enterprise. 
 
 "In the morning of the Sabbath that I spent in 
 London I went to hear the great Spurgeon, as simple, 
 plain a gospel preacher as I ever listened to. His 
 
42 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 sermons are food for the soul. His tabernacle, which 
 holds five or six thousand, was full, as indeed is 
 always the case, and at nights it is often so crowded 
 that hundreds cannot find seats. It is built with 
 two rows of galleries running all the way round, 
 and his pulpit projects a considerable distance 
 toward the centre. Mr. Spurgeon is a heavy-set 
 man, not very tall, with a round, happy face. He 
 speaks with a clear and distinct voice, but not very 
 loud ; no one, I think, however, even the farthest 
 off*, has any difficulty in hearing him. He speaks 
 without notes, has but few gestures, and is en- 
 tirely free from affectation. I went in the after- 
 noon to Dr. Hamilton's church, but found it closed. 
 
 " With much love and a happy new year to you 
 all, I bid you good-night. And may our Father 
 still bless and protect us, though absent far one 
 from another." 
 
 Another letter to his parents from Glasgow is 
 dated 
 
 "Glasgow, Jan. 11, 1864. 
 
 " To-morrow, Mr. Thompson (the missionary), 
 his sister, and a Miss Stuart and I, start on a visit 
 to Edinburgh, Melrose Abbey and Abbotsford. 
 This little trip I have been putting off for some 
 time, knowing that I have several weeks for sight- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 43 
 
 seeing. A long delay it has been, and it might 
 have been a most tiresome one had not the Lord 
 placed me in the hands of such kind friends, who 
 make it their study to show me every possible kind- 
 ness and try to keep me from thinking the time 
 long ; so that, although I have felt anxious to be 
 away as soon as possible and at my work, I have 
 had a most delightful stay in Scotland. I hope I 
 am learning this lesson : to be content with what- 
 ever the Lord sends me. I have now some pros- 
 pect of getting away. The ship Elgivahas not yet 
 arrived, but is reported on the coast of Ireland, and 
 will be in Glasgow perhaps to-morrow. I may 
 expect to sail for Africa about the first of February. 
 I have been waiting so long that now the certain 
 prospect of getting off, though somewhat distant, 
 seems most gratifying. My time has been passed 
 pleasantly enough, but if I could have had my own 
 choice I would have spent more of it in reading 
 and writing. But the family have always had some 
 plan on foot to fill up the time — one day away 
 through the Cathedral and the Necropolis — the 
 cemetery of Glasgow — the last very different from 
 ours. It is a large terraced hill, and every terrace 
 filled with monuments of stone, granite or marble. 
 These are short and thick, so that every terrace 
 
44 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 gives you the impression of a rampart or fortifica- 
 tion of some kind. The hill presents a very grand 
 appearance as it rises in the distance, with its 
 weight of monumental stones and its solemn aspect. 
 There is a fine monument here to the memory of 
 John Knox, though his body lies elsewhere. I saw 
 the grave of Motherwell, the poet. Near by is an 
 inscription to the memory of nine men who were 
 martyred during the persecution in Scotland many 
 hundred years ago. The lines on the stone are 
 peculiar. The last two, speaking of the persecutors, 
 run about thus : 
 
 'They shall know at the judgment-day 
 That to murder saints was no fine play.' 
 
 " I went over the Clyde on yesterday (Sabbath) 
 a week, and preached for Rev. Mr. Birkmver of the 
 Free Church. He is a young man, lately settled 
 in a most important charge. I feel a sympathy for 
 him, for his work w r ill be heavy enough. On yester- 
 day morning I went to hear Dr. Caird, but was dis- 
 appointed, as he did not preach. The church in 
 which I sat is one in which Dr. Chalmers was for 
 a long time settled (Tron Church), and in which he 
 delivered his great astronomical discourses. In the 
 afternoon I preached for the Rev. Mr. Middleton 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 45 
 
 in one of the oldest churches in the city, which has 
 about twelve hundred members. I preached to as 
 attentive an audience as I ever saw. This I notice 
 among the Scotch — that they give good heed to 
 every one that addresses them. When the minister 
 reads they have their Bibles and follow him. Their 
 singing is altogether congregational. A precentor 
 leads and the congregation all join. I have not 
 seen a church with an organ, and they sing David's 
 psalms, the old version. 
 
 " We went to-day to the City Hall to attend a 
 meeting of the National Bible Society, saw quite a 
 large crowd and heard several very good speeches. 
 The Duke of Argyle presided, and made a good 
 speech. A noble man he seems to be, and thoroughly 
 interested in everything good. I heard a speech 
 from the Earl of Dalhousie, and part of one from 
 Rev. Sir Henry Moncrief ; so that for one day I 
 saw a good many representatives of the nobility, 
 and worthy specimens they are. There is a most 
 astonishing deference and respect shown to rank 
 here by every one. 
 
 " My New Year was spent here. Mr. Thomp- 
 son's brother and family were all with us. We had 
 a great dinner, like that on Christmas. On Saturday 
 Mr. Thompson and I took a trip into the country 
 
46 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 and a ramble over the hills at the foot of the High- 
 lands. We met some marks which the old Ro- 
 mans had left when they held possession here — 
 one old stone bridge, in particular, which was built 
 seventeen hundred years ago, in the time of Hadrian. 
 As I go early in the morning I will have to close, 
 for it is now late. This seems to me a very un- 
 satisfactory letter to send so far, but I hope to do 
 better soon, after my return from Edinburgh. 
 Much love to all my friends, and tell them all to 
 write, for I shall be greedy of letters. Good-night, 
 and much love and many blessings on you all." 
 
 To his sister he writes : 
 
 "Glasgow, Jan. 27, 1864. 
 
 " The Elgiva is now on the slip being examined, 
 and w 7 ill likely be off and loaded by the last of this 
 week or the early part of next. Although the 
 delay has been very long, it may all be for the best, 
 for even if we had got off several weeks sooner, 
 like many other vessels, we might still have been 
 tossing about in the English Channel, unable, on 
 account of the winds, to make the open sea. My 
 acquaintance here, too, has been extending, so as to 
 make my stay as pleasant as it could possibly be 
 under the circumstances. I have found a good 
 many Scotch friends, whom I shall always remem- 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 47 
 
 ber with great pleasure, especially the Thompsons, 
 with whom I am staying, who have proved them- 
 selves friends such as are worth having. I hope 
 I may never forget their kindness, and never lose 
 an opportunity of showing them that I fully ap- 
 preciate it all. 
 
 " Mr. George Thompson and I started on a trip 
 to Loch Lomond. The weather was foggy and 
 sometimes raining, but occasionally we got a peep 
 at the sun. We took the train down the Clyde to 
 Hellensburgh, and thence struck for the Highlands 
 on foot. The roads were delightful — all macadam- 
 ized and kept in fine repair. Our way lay right 
 up over the hills, and through the moors and peat 
 beds, where they get peat for burning ; all the land- 
 scape around looked splendid, just from its rugged 
 dreariness ; all the ground covered with the brown 
 heather, which in the distance looked like whortle- 
 berry bushes. We saw a great many heath-fowls, 
 about the size of a pheasant, but no one is at lib- 
 erty to shoot them without license. We caught a 
 glimpse of some beautiful pheasants on the estate 
 of Sir James Colquhoun — pheasants not such as 
 ours, but with very long tails, and beautiful bright 
 plumage about the neck and breast, originally 
 from China or Persia. On the way we were 
 
48 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 caught in a driving shower, but took shelter be- 
 hind a stone bridge. After a walk of about nine 
 miles we came to Luss, stopped at the inn and got 
 some refreshment, and then trudged on three and 
 a half miles farther to Inverngle's inn, on the 
 shore of the lake, and right under the shadow of 
 old Ben Lomond. There we stopped for the night, 
 and had a good supper of ham and eggs. We 
 were none the worse for the walk, except that I 
 had blistered my heel. However, after we got 
 rested and the moon was fairly up, I took off my 
 shoes and put on the landlord's big brogans, and 
 away we started for a walk up the lake by moon- 
 light. 
 
 "We were now about the centre of the lake 
 (or loch, as it is called, about thirty miles long and 
 from three to five wide), and right opposite stood 
 Ben Lomond, with its top white with snow and 
 covered with clouds. Along the side on which we 
 walked the bare hills ran up almost as high, and 
 the tops were also covered w T ith snow. As we 
 walked along their base, down came rivulet after 
 rivulet, jumping from rock to rock. The music of 
 one had not died away on our ears until we heard 
 the murmur of another. The whole scene was 
 wild, picturesque and beautiful. Its wildness and 
 
GEORGE PAULL, 49 
 
 strangeness made it seem almost enchanting. After 
 a while we wended our way back to the inn, feel- 
 ing in good trim for a sound sleep after about 
 fourteen miles of a walk. 
 
 " Next morning, after breakfast, we climbed up 
 the mountain side opposite Ben Lomond, and had 
 a noble view up and down the lake ; and while we 
 stood there, with our heads almost in the clouds, a 
 wild snow storm swept about us, and far above us 
 the tops of the mountains were white with snow, 
 and away through the storm, down on the lake be- 
 low, we saw the sunshine glistening on the waters ; 
 and along the lake we had seen some roses and 
 daisies in bloom. In a little nest among these 
 mountain tops we came across a beautiful little 
 lake, called the Fairy Lake, and from it a good 
 large stream goes tumbling down the mountain- 
 side. The Scotch have an old legend connected 
 with this little lake. The fairies here, in their 
 mountains, it is said, once had their abode, and at 
 this little lake they did their dyeing, not only for 
 themselves but for all the people around. As the 
 fairies were invisible, of course each old lady must 
 bring her fleece of wool and lay it down beside 
 the lake, with a piece of yarn thread of whatever 
 color she wished her parcel to be dyed. But a 
 
50 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 certain waff at one time brought a black sheep's 
 fleece with a white thread on top of it. This 
 piece of malicious waggery so offended and dis- 
 gusted the fairies that they deserted their beau- 
 tiful lake, and left the old ladies thereafter to do 
 their own dyeing. 
 
 " From this we went down again to the side of 
 the lake, and up along it on a splendid macadam- 
 ized road until we came to a Mr. M'Farland's, 
 where we took dinner. He had belonged to the 
 old M'Farland clan of Highlanders. Mr. Thomp- 
 son knew him, having spent some weeks there in 
 the summer. After dinner w T e went on up to Tar- 
 bet, near the other end of the lake, where is a fine 
 large hotel, and some beautiful summer residences, 
 for the accommodation of those who wish to spend 
 their summers on the shore of the loch. Nearly 
 all the land on one side of the loch is owned by 
 Sir James Colquhoun, and he has his residence on 
 a beautiful little neck of land that puts out into 
 the loch. At Tarbet we took the little steamer 
 that plies up and down the lake, and sailed down 
 to the river Swan, which is the outlet of Loch 
 Lomond. Here we took the cars to Bowling, and 
 walked thence to Dun Lochen, where I was to 
 preach for Mr. Slack on the next day. This was 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 51 
 
 one of the most delightful trips I ever had. Dun 
 Lochen is a town of cotton mills, nine or ten miles 
 from Glasgow. The property, amounting in value 
 to perhaps two and a half millions of dollars, was 
 all made and owned by one man ; but now he is 
 dead, and the heirs are quarreling over his will. 
 
 " On Tuesday I came into Glasgow, and in the 
 evening we had a very pleasant little party. 
 
 "Wednesday, Feb. 3. — This is my birthday, 
 which completes my 27th year. I hope I may 
 grow in all that is good as fast as I do in years. 
 I was out to take tea this evening at Mr. M'Cor- 
 mick's. Their son is going out with me as a clerk 
 to the Gaboon River. I felt for the poor mother. 
 As we spoke of his going away, the silent tear 
 would trickle down her cheek, showing the feel- 
 ings at work within. There are three young men 
 going out on the Elgiva, the only passengers be- 
 side myself. They go out as clerks along the coast 
 of Africa. I hope I may be enabled to do them 
 some good on the voyage. 
 
 " Thursday, 4th. — It seems we are to get off, at 
 last, on day after to-morrow. I am heartily glad 
 of it. To-day I must make some calls, and to- 
 morrow pack up my trunks and send them on 
 board. I will finish my letter to-day, and per- 
 
52 GEORGE PATJLL. 
 
 haps put a scrap in to-morrow morning, as it must 
 be mailed to-morrow to get off this week. It will 
 be a long time before you hear from me again, 
 possibly not till the middle or last of June, as it 
 will take about two months to reach Africa, and 
 two months for a letter to return. But do not 
 feel the least uneasiness or anxiety about me. I 
 have firm faith that our God who guides the storm 
 will bring me safely to my journey's end ; and 
 even if he should not, still all will be well, for we 
 shall meet again. Let me be often remembered in 
 your prayers, as I know I am, and particularly 
 that I may be a blessing to these young men who 
 go out with me. I long greatly to hear from you 
 all, but I must wait patiently till I arrive at Co- 
 risco. Mr. Thompson and I gathered some mosses 
 and ferns on the banks of Loch Lomond, and Miss 
 Jessie Thompson has arranged them nicely for 
 me to send to you as a memento of my trip. 
 
 "And now I pray that the graces of Christ may 
 dwell in us all richly while we live, and that we 
 may all at last sit down together on high. 
 
 "Friday Morning. — AVe expect to go down to 
 the bark to-morrow, and perhaps sail out in the 
 night or next morning. I was calling on some of 
 my friends yesterday to say good-bye. I have 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 53 
 
 friends in Scotland whom I will always remember 
 with pleasure. I have my trunks packed, and 
 expect to send them aboard this evening. Good- 
 bye." 
 
 To his parents he w T rites after sailing : 
 
 "Out at Sea, Feb., 1864. 
 
 "I intend to jot down such things as I think 
 may be of any interest to you, as we sail along, 
 and send the result to you at the first opportunity. 
 I wrote you a very short note just as we were 
 putting out to sea, and sent it back by the captain's 
 wife, who came out as far as the tug and went 
 back with it, but I had not time to speak of my 
 departure from Glasgow. On the Saturday even- 
 ing before I left, we were all out at Mr. George 
 Thompson's brother's for tea— quite a company of 
 us. We had a season of prayer together, and then 
 Mr. George Thompson and I started for Greenock, 
 where we spent the Sabbath. I feel under never- 
 ending obligations to the Thompson family ; they 
 have been kind, very hind friends of mine, and I 
 hold them in high esteem. If I have ever an op- 
 portunity, I will try to show them that I do really 
 appreciate all their deeds of kindness. When I 
 started, they put up for me half a dozen bottles of 
 raspberry vinegar to mix with the water at sea, also 
 
54 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 two nice jars of jelly and a fine big Scotch cake with 
 fruit mixed in it. They seemed sorry to have me 
 go away, and I am sure that I shall look back 
 with longing many a time for the return of as 
 pleasant hours as I spent in that family. One 
 thing that made my stay delightful and profitable 
 was the high tone of piety and Christian feeling 
 among them all. 
 
 " Tuesday, 9th. — The tug left us, we put the cap- 
 tain's wife aboard of her, and the sailors started 
 her off with cheers. The captain's little son is 
 along with us, and a nice little fellow he is, but 
 very delicate. His father takes him in hopes that 
 the voyage will make him strong. On the north 
 coast of Ireland, to-day, we passed the Giant's 
 Causeway, which the boys will know about from 
 their geography. The weather is fair, and we were 
 on deck part of the time, but in the afternoon the 
 motion of the ship made us all sick, and we were 
 obliged to roll into bed. 
 
 "Friday, 12th. — I have not done anything since 
 Tuesday but lie in bed sick, sick — not dangerously 
 ill, but then the most dreadful nausea and vomit- 
 ing. I was not much troubled with it coming 
 over from Kew York, but this time I have caught 
 it in its full force. All of us who are passengers 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 55 
 
 are in the same condition. We have a Dutch stew- 
 ard, a very clever old fellow, who watches over us 
 very tenderly, tucks the clothes in about us in bed, 
 brings food, and insists on our eating. This after- 
 noon two or three of us climbed up on deck, and 
 found it quite pleasant, as the sun was shining, but 
 the breeze was pretty cold ; we got down, however, 
 behind the boats, and John (Yahn) brought us 
 some boiled potatoes and salt and cold beef, and 
 we made out to eat a little. 
 
 " We expect to have morning and evening pray- 
 ers in the cabin, and preaching regularly on the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 " Tuesday, 16th. — For the last few days we have 
 been sailing under difficulties. On last Friday 
 night, when we had reached about the 53d par- 
 allel of latitude, off the west coast of Ireland, a 
 terrible gale struck us and threatened to blow us 
 away backward. But immediately all hands were 
 on deck, and the sails closely furled and the ship 
 left to drift. So for two or three days we were 
 tossed about at the mercy of the wind and the 
 waves, slowly drifting backwards with the cur- 
 rent. Sometimes a great wave would strike us, 
 and make the ship quiver, and again the waves 
 would break clear over us, and send the salt sea in 
 
56 GEORGE PAULL 
 
 upon us at every crevice, until the floor of the 
 cabin and state-rooms was entirely wet, and also 
 most of the bedclothes. Mine, however, remained 
 pretty comfortable all the time. 
 
 The poor seamen had a terrible time of it, as 
 many of them had to be on deck in the midst of 
 the rain and storm. The deck is just a plain 
 flat top, rather narrow, and without a bit of rail- 
 ing. How the men stood up on it in the midst 
 of a gale, while the ship was tossing like an egg- 
 shell, and turning almost halfway over on her 
 side, I suppose only a seaman can tell. Most of 
 us spent rather sleepless nights. Indeed to me it 
 was a time of anxious watchfulness, and much of 
 the time was spent in examining my own heart, to 
 know how my case stood. We were doubtless in a 
 good deal of danger, and it was at least a time 
 when, if ever, one should be thoughtful and anx- 
 ious to know his case. I endeavored to put all my 
 concerns in the hands of Christ, and to feel that 
 they rested securely there. And yet, oh how I felt 
 that if ever such a sinner as I be saved, it must be 
 'just so as by fire/ fleeing as a man flees from a 
 burning building, escaping naked from the flames ! 
 God knows just how to deal with his people, and 
 I trust he is saying to me in this, ' Fix your eye 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 57 
 
 more steadily on Christ, and never, never remove 
 it until you arrive in glory/ 
 
 " On Monday the captain concluded to put back 
 to harbor and wait for a change of wind, and 
 arrange his deck load of boards better; for the 
 boards had been tossed in such a way that it was 
 almost impossible for the sailors to get about over 
 them. He intended to take Belfast as the nearest 
 and best harbor (on the north-east coast of Ireland), 
 but when .he got around there this morning, he 
 found such a fine and favorable wind blowing, and 
 everything so promising, that he determined to 
 keep on down St. George/ s Channel, and out to sea 
 by that way, not stopping at all, but arranging the 
 boards as we go. So here we go to-day down the 
 channel with a fine breeze and the sea as smooth as 
 a lake and the sun out beautifully. We are all 
 over our sea-sickness, and now the sailing is 
 pleasant. 
 
 " Tliursday, Feb. 18. — Last evening we sailed 
 down past Dublin, but too far off to see it. The 
 bay is beautiful, and we saw the hills round about. 
 As we go down the channel we see sails in every 
 direction, and old Ireland in the distance still, keeps 
 in view. To-day we are beginning to get things 
 put to rights — bed-rooms cleaned up— and things 
 
58 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 wear a more cheerful aspect. The breezes bear us 
 down the channel at about four or five miles an 
 hour. The sea is smooth, with scarcely a ripple, 
 and the sun is out brightly and the day is almost 
 as pleasant as spring. I spend most of my time 
 now in reading. I have got hold of a volume 
 of Rev. E. Erskine's sermons, which are rich 
 and full of gospel marrow. 
 
 " Wednesday, Feb. 24. — I have written nothing 
 since the 18th, chiefly because we have been tossed 
 up and down most of the time with squalls. At 
 one time we had to furl our sails and lie to for 
 twenty-four hours ; yesterday morning, however, 
 we started on our way again at seven or eight knots 
 an hour, but still the sea is tossing us furiously. 
 Sometimes we are thrown from one side of the cabin 
 to the other. Our soup John, the steward, brings 
 us in bowls, and, instead of putting them on the 
 table, w r e hold them in our hands. Our seats are 
 two hair-cloth sofas — one at each side of the table 
 — securely fastened to the floor. John is a good 
 cook, and when the weather is fair, he gets up 
 a fine dinner, with plum-pudding for dessert. 
 But when the ship is tossing we take just what 
 we can get : potatoes, cold meat and hard crack- 
 ers — hard tack, as our soldiers call it — and, as we 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 59 
 
 have no cream for our coffee, I drink mine in its 
 purity, without sugar. 
 
 tl The captain, who is a very pleasant man, about 
 fifty-three years of age, gave me one of his caps and 
 a thick monkey-jacket to wear when I go on deck. 
 He shows me every kindness possible. The three 
 young men (fellow-passengers) are all very gentle- 
 manly young fellows. I preached on Sabbath on 
 1 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners/ 
 They were all attentive, and I hope the good seed 
 may take root in some. The captain's little son 
 Bob is a nice boy, very bright and intelligent. I 
 am to teach him a little every day. We started 
 from Scotland with two pigs, two birds and two 
 dogs, but they are all dead except one dog; the 
 other dog fell overboard, and the hard weather killed 
 the rest. The severe gales have emptied some of 
 our water-casks which were lying on deck, and it is 
 likely we will put into Madeira to get a new sup- 
 ply ; and of this I shall be heartily glad, for I shall 
 have an opportunity of mailing you a letter, as I 
 do not like the idea of your being in suspense till 
 June. The floor of the cabin and state-rooms is 
 quite wet again, and the deck is all the time covered 
 with water — that is, the deck on a level with our 
 cabin floor. We have another small deck over 
 
60 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 our heads. We are waiting anxiously for bright 
 weather, to get dried out again, and I suppose at 
 the rate we are sailing now, directly south, we shall 
 soon be in a warmer climate. 
 
 " Thursday, Feb. 25. — To-day at noon we are 
 about 40° N: lat, and 18° W. long., about oppo- 
 site the Azore Islands. We are driving almost 
 directly south, with a strong wind, from seven to 
 nine miles an hour. The captain says 6 if the wind 
 keeps up we may reach Madeira by Saturday 
 morning/ It would be a treat to get our feet on 
 shore for an hour. There has been a ship in 
 sight all day, sailing just ahead of us. In the 
 morning we could see her topsails, and this after- 
 noon we have gained so much on her that we see 
 nearly the whole ship. The sun is shining a little 
 to-day, and the men have their clothes out on the 
 ropes drying. The wind drove us along furiously 
 last night, and before the moon rose it was quite 
 dark. Little Bob was out on the deck and saw the 
 phosphorus shining in the water, and ran in 'to 
 get the lantern to see the fish/ for he said he saw 
 their eyes shining in the water. 
 
 "I have been reading an account of the labors 
 of John Williams, missionary to the South Sea 
 Islands, and find it very interesting. I have Mof- 
 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 61 
 
 fat's travels in South Africa in the same volume. 
 A great portion of my reading is in the Bible, so 
 that I may be the better furnished for the work 
 whereunto I am called. I count it the highest 
 possible earthly honor to be permitted to go and 
 preach the gospel to the heathen. My only trou- 
 ble is that I feel myself to be so unworthy and so 
 sinful that I am ashamed to lift up my face and call 
 God my father. I feel sure that it is the Lord 
 that has thus marked out my path in bringing me 
 to the heathen, and I trust that one of the import- 
 ant results in thus separating me from all the dear 
 ones that I love in my own land will be that I 
 shall be brought very near to God, and will be en- 
 abled to walk very closely with my Saviour. For 
 this I daily pray and strive. I feel that when all 
 earthly friends are far away, and earthly comforts 
 are few, there is no lasting joy to be found, except 
 I find it at the Saviour's side. Pray for me, that 
 this may be my only resort for comfort or enjoyment 
 so long as I am a pilgrim here. 
 
 "Saturday, Feb. 27. — To-day has been bright 
 and sunny, and the sunset very, very fine. The 
 sky has had something of that pale bluish tint pe- 
 culiar to Southern skies. Still the air is uncom- 
 fortably fresh, and we are anxiously wishing our- 
 
62 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 selves some degrees farther south. At noon to-day 
 we were about ninety miles north of Madeira, and 
 expect to see it to-morrow morning. The captain 
 has concluded not to land there, because the water 
 is so deep for anchoring in. He may stop at Tene-- 
 riffe, or perhaps not till we reach Africa. We have 
 seen vessels sailing in sight to-day, apparently com- 
 ing from the Straits of Gibraltar — a bark and 
 brig and schooner. The sea is quite calm again. 
 This evening I saw several large porpoises darting 
 through the water. 
 
 " To-day I have been reading Moffat's mission- 
 ary life in Africa. Truly, it is noble to endure 
 such privations for the sake of rescuing the heathen 
 from death, and making known to them a Saviour's 
 love. There surely seems to me to be no possible 
 doubt as to what was my duty in reference to the 
 heathen. Ah ! would I stay at home trying to 
 urge a few who know their duty to enter into life, 
 when millions are dying for lack of the knowledge 
 of Christ, and earnestly beseeching us to send them 
 the word of life ? But I dare not say that the sac- 
 rifice of home and friends has cost me no pangs. 
 Keenly, keenly have I felt it, and yet my heart 
 ought to swell with praise that I am called to so 
 high an honor, for will not He that has called me 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 63 
 
 make himself far nearer and dearer than ever home 
 or friends could be ? So that I be faithful to Christ 
 in all things, and walk closely with him, I shall 
 have no lack of peace and joy. 
 
 "March 2. — To-day we saw Teneriffe in the dis- 
 tance. It is about settled that we are to land there, 
 if we can get wind enough and in the right direc- 
 tion to blow us into port (Santa Cruz) ; if we do, I 
 shall have the pleasure of mailing you a letter. Our 
 reason for landing is on account of water. All that 
 we had in the casks is gone, and when the tank was 
 opened they found that in some way salt water had 
 got in, and it is too brackish to drink. We have 
 been making very little progress for days, as the 
 wind has fallen off. The sea is almost as smooth 
 as glass, and we are creeping along at the rate of 
 two miles an hour. The weather is now most 
 delightful, as we have got beyond the region of 
 storms. I think of you at home, shivering over 
 your fires, while the wind and hail make doleful 
 music without. But here the sun is almost too 
 hot to sit with comfort on deck, unless you get in 
 the shade of a sail. The captain, or i skipper y or 
 'sea-dog/ as he calls himself — for he is quite a 
 jolly old fellow — employs his spare hours on deck 
 sewing sails or making pants for himself, or mak- 
 
64 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 ing table-cloths, as he came away without a supply. 
 He treats me with every kindness, and readily ac- 
 quiesces in any proposition for religious services; 
 and now we have preaching on Sabbath, a blessing 
 at every meal, and prayers every evening. It 
 does my heart good when the old weather-beaten 
 captain and the young men and myself bow to- 
 gether around the altar of prayer. I preached on 
 last Sabbath on 'If any man love not the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha.' I 
 hope and pray that God will bless the truth to 
 many of them. 
 
 " On Sabbath morning we passed the Island of 
 Madeira, lying among the clouds away on the dis- 
 tant horizon. Yesterday we seemed to have fallen 
 in with quite a fleet of ships, as five or six were 
 visible on different sides of us. To-day there are 
 no ships in sight. Yesterday I was unwell, and 
 John brought me a cup of tea with mill: in it. I 
 suppose he brought his ' old coo' to life for my 
 especial benefit. On Sabbath last, by some process, 
 he contrived to make us milk for our tea and coffee. 
 But on Monday, when we asked him for more, he 
 said, c De coo is chat till next Sunday again? So I 
 suppose he is only going to give us this precious 
 beverage on Sunday, unless we are sick. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 65 
 
 "Saturday, March 5. — To-morrow morning we 
 hope to anchor in the harbor of Santa Cruz, the 
 principal town on Teneriffe, one of the Canary 
 Islands. For several clays we have been hovering 
 around in sight of the island, but were kept off, 
 partly by unfavorable winds, partly by calms, and 
 for one day and night we had quite a severe squall, 
 which drove us away a considerable distance. This 
 morning when we went on deck the first thing that 
 met our gaze was the lofty peak of Teneriffe (about 
 13,000 feet high), covered with snow, and looking 
 most beautiful in the morning sun. The whole 
 island seems high, and the outline is rough and 
 rugged. It has a population of 200,000 or more, 
 and is about forty-five or forty-six miles long and 
 about half as wide. 
 
 " I am heartily glad at the prospect of getting a 
 letter to you so much sooner than I expected, and 
 glad w r ould I be if some stray letter from home 
 could be put into my hands also. But I have faith 
 to believe that you will all be kept in peace and 
 safety. And I trust that I may have your fervent 
 prayers to strengthen and uphold me for many 
 years to come. It is a lasting comfort to know 
 that, although far away from home and friends 
 and all I love, yet we meet around the same throne 
 
 5 
 
66 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 of grace; and in your supplications my name, I 
 know, is not forgotten. I am anxious to learn 
 about Aaron's fate, and yet my fears are the worst. 
 Often since I left home have I seemed to meet him 
 and hold converse with him in my dreams, just as 
 we used to do when we were together. "Whatever 
 you may have heard in regard to him or Uncle 
 James, let me know when you write. How my 
 heart will leap when the tidings reaches me in Af- 
 rica that this bloody strife is ended, and peace 
 again smiles on our land ! I earnestly pray that 
 we may no more be called to mourn the loss of 
 any of our friends swept away by the tide of battle. 
 Jim and Jode are, I trust, now hard at their studies. 
 I am proud of them, and look forward with high 
 hopes to the time when they will become noble 
 Christian men — ministers, I trust, missionaries, it 
 may be. 
 
 " I sincerely hope that pa's health will recover, 
 and that he will yet be spared to us for many years. 
 I almost feel as though I would faint in the labors 
 which I am undertaking without his prayers to 
 uphold me. 
 
 " We have a long journey yet before us after 
 we leave Teneriffe, but I have firm faith to believe 
 that God will spare me to preach the gospel among 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 67 
 
 the heathen. You will not have an opportunity to 
 hear from me again till we arrive at Fernando Po. 
 Much love ; and may you all be greatly blessed 
 with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, is the 
 prayer of your affectionate son. 
 
 "P. S.— March 7.-- We landed on Sabbath 
 morning. I came on shore in hope of finding 
 church-service to attend. I called on the Ameri- 
 can consul, Mr. Dabney, and found there was no 
 service. Found Mr. and Mrs. Dabney delightful 
 people. They invited me back for tea and for din- 
 ner to-day. They introduced me to Judge Dyer 
 and his wife, from Chicago, Illinois. It has been a 
 great treat to meet all these Americans, and they 
 have treated me like an old friend. Mr. Dabney is 
 of American parents, but has always lived among 
 the Portuguese. Mrs. Dabney is from Massachu- 
 setts. The American man-of-war St. Louis sailed 
 into port yesterday morning. I have met all the 
 officers, some of them at dinner to-day. I went on 
 board this morning, by invitation of Captain Preble, 
 to see Lieutenant Stewart of Union town, Pa. I 
 found him a very pleasant fellow — spent two or 
 three hours with him. The meeting with him 
 here was quite unexpected, as I supposed he 
 was cruising farther south. Everything here is 
 
68 GEORGE PA ULL. 
 
 Spanish, and very strange to me. The climate is 
 like July." 
 
 To his sister : 
 
 "Off Teneriffe, Wednesday, March 9, 1864. 
 
 " This morning the sharp and rugged hills 
 of Teneriffe are fading away in the distance, and 
 we are again out on the ocean for a voyage of a 
 month or more. We set sail last night about 
 12 o'clock, having stayed in port one day longer 
 than I expected. I have had a delightful visit 
 on the island, particularly refreshing after my long 
 imprisonment on the ocean ; and the sight of Amer- 
 ican faces, with the warmth and kindness of Amer- 
 ican hearts, has made it a visit that I shall not soon 
 forget. 
 
 " We sailed slowly into the bay in front of 
 Santa Cruz, on Sabbath morning, and anchored 
 about half a mile from shore. The appearance of 
 the island from that distance was very barren and 
 desolate, there being scarcely any trees on it, and the 
 whole having a rugged appearance — -jagged peaks 
 with little valleys between covering the whole sur- 
 face, and these looking as if they had been burnt 
 with fire. As there was no prospect of having ser- 
 vice on board, I went ashore with the captain in 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 69 
 
 hopes of finding service. When we landed on the 
 pier we found ourselves in the midst of mulatto- 
 colored Spaniards, many of whom came about us 
 jabbering their half Spanish, half English, wanting 
 to be our guides, and some would follow us wher- 
 ever we went. One said to me, f You American V 
 i Yes/ I said, and asked how he knew. He pointed 
 to my square-toed boots as the indicator — for no 
 body wears square-toed boots but Americans. 
 
 " I went to the house of the American consul, 
 over which the stars and stripes float, as he was the 
 only person I knew of that it was probable could 
 talk English, or give me information where I could 
 find a church, etc. My Spanish guide — for one still 
 stuck to me — led the way through the outer door 
 and opened the second, which led me to the court 
 within. The houses here, all built in the Eastern 
 style, nearly all look alike, both of the rich and of 
 the poor — generally two stories high, built of stone, 
 and plastered outside with white lime. They are 
 square, and the roofs all flat, so that the families 
 can sit on them in the evenings. The court is an 
 open square inside, thirty or forty feet long and as 
 many broad. After going into the court, and up 
 stairs into a gallery or porch which runs all around 
 the house, and from which they pass into the rooms, 
 
70 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 I met Mr. Dabney and introduced myself. He 
 took me into the parlor, and I told him what I 
 came for, who I was and where I was going, etc. 
 After talking a few minutes, he said he had left 
 Mrs. Dabney at dinner, and she would like to see 
 me. After speaking to her, he returned and 
 invited me to dinner, where I met a cordial wel- 
 come from her and a Mrs. Cogswell, their family 
 governess. As I had been to dinner, I only took a 
 banana by way of dessert. I was greatly pleased 
 with Mrs. Dabney ; she is a lovely Christian wo- 
 man, kind-hearted and pleasant. They have three 
 children, but the two daughters, aged thirteen and 
 fifteen, were away on a visit to some other part of 
 the island. 
 
 " After talking a while I left with a promise to 
 come back next day for dinner. Mr. Dabney went 
 with me to the hotel, and introduced me to Judge 
 Dyer and his wife, of Chicago, now on his way from 
 Sierra Leone, West Africa, where he had been acting 
 as judge in the mixed court — a court established 
 by the English and Americans for the protection of 
 the coast against slavers. I found Judge Dyer and 
 his wife very pleasant people. The man-of-war 
 St. Louis sailed into harbor after the Florida, 
 which had sailed out a few days before. I learned 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 71 
 
 from Captain Preble and his son and the surgeon 
 that Andrew Stewart's son, of Uniontown. Pa., was 
 on board this vessel, second in command, and I had 
 an invitation from the captain to come aboard the 
 next day. All this was to me a very unsatisfactory 
 way of spending the Sabbath, as I got no quiet or 
 retirement. In the afternoon I walked out of town 
 a short distance for the sake of being alone. 
 
 "Santa Cruz is a peculiar looking place, 
 altogether Spanish ; population, five or six thou- 
 sand ; very closely built; streets not wider perhaps 
 than twelve feet. But they have very few wagons 
 or carts or carriages ; nearly all their transportation 
 is done by packing on ponies, donkeys and drome- 
 daries. The streets are thick with donkeys with 
 panniers thrown across their backs and a Spaniard 
 sitting on top. For packing stone they have a 
 wooden frame thrown across the back of a drome- 
 dary ; and on the back of one I have seen four big 
 stones two or three feet long by one foot wide and 
 thick. 
 
 " Teneriffe was once famous for grapes and wine, 
 but a disease of some kind has almost rooted out 
 grape culture. Now they cultivate the cochineal 
 very extensively, and vast quantities of potatoes, 
 figs, oranges and bananas. The climate is most de- 
 
72 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 lightful ; a constant sea breeze keeps it moderately 
 temperate. The people are lazy and dirty, and the 
 town full of beggars. The upper classes, however, 
 are quite fine-looking : nearly all have black hair 
 and eyes and rather dark complexion. 
 
 " I went aboard the St. Louis on Monday about 
 10 o'clock, in one of her boats pulled by eight or 
 ten mariners, and spent two or three hours with 
 Lieutenant Stewart.* I found him a very substan- 
 tial fellow. I met several other officers, all of 
 whom I liked very much. We dined at Mr. Dab- 
 ney's, had a fine dinner and a very pleasant time. 
 Lieutenant Squires and Dr. Lewis of the St. Louis 
 were there. On boarding the Elgiva I found that 
 the captain had concluded not to sail foranother day. 
 After spending the night on the vessel I went ashore 
 next morning, and met Lieutenant Stewart and sev- 
 eral of the other officers, and spent most of the day 
 with them, after calling on Mrs. Dabney to bid her 
 good-bye, and promising to write to her husband 
 from Corisco. I think I never met a more pleasant 
 and gentlemanly set of fellows than the officers of 
 the St. Louis. In the evening we were rowed 
 over together to the St. Louis, where w T e parted with 
 
 * This gallant officer went down on the Oneida, near Japan, 
 in 1871, bravely standing at his post of duty. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 73 
 
 a hearty grasp of the hand, declaring that we were 
 glad to have met each other. I took dinner with 
 Lieutenants Squires and Marsh at the hotel, one 
 consisting of eight courses, conducted with great 
 quietness and order. I enjoyed my dinner very 
 much, after being so long accustomed to sea fare, 
 though I did not partake of all the courses, nor 
 very heavily of any. Thus ended my pleasant 
 visit to Teneriffe. It cheered me, and helped me to 
 go forward with good courage. So now I am on 
 the ocean not expecting to see land again till we 
 arrive at Fernando Po. 
 
 "Saturday, March 12. — We are in the trade 
 winds now, and the breeze is strong and fine. 
 The air is quite cool since we left Teneriffe. We 
 have very little variety on board the vessel — -just the 
 same thing one day and again the same the next. 
 Sometimes we meet a vessel, and yesterday we 
 spoke one by signal flags — her name Verbena, 
 from Liverpool to Hong Kong, nineteen days out. 
 We telegraphed our name, where from and whither 
 bound. By signal flags she said our name, Elgiva, 
 was not in her book (vessel a new one), and asked 
 us to spell the name, which was done. 
 
 " I spend most of my time reading, sometimes 
 studying at the Benga Grammar which Dr. Lowrie 
 
74 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 gave me, and teaching the captain's son one hour a 
 day. I have read the missionary labors of John 
 Williams in the South Sea Islands, also of Moffat 
 in South Africa, and the life of Henry Martyn, 
 and other volumes, all with great interest, and I 
 trust with great profit. I have had many days of 
 darkness and inward trial since I came aboard, but 
 now the light seems to be breaking in, and I am 
 able to rest with calm peace and confidence in God 
 more than ever before. I have made the Bible my 
 study, for it is the only fountain at which I can 
 drink the living stream. I keep the large one 
 that cousin Susan Lamb gave me always near, and 
 it is a choice treasure. 
 
 "My thoughts have been much disposed to cen- 
 tre about home for a time, but not with any feeling 
 of melancholy, for I have never had a moment's 
 thought that it was my duty to do otherwise 
 than as I have done, and all my desire, I trust, 
 is to do as God would have me do, and to grow 
 in grace and in the assurance of peace with God, 
 and to reach the full and perfect stature of a man 
 in Christ. 
 
 " The captain found one of the sailors drunk the 
 other day, and immediately put him in irons, hand- 
 cuffs, and he behaved so outrageously and talked 
 
GEORQE PAULL. 75 
 
 so terribly that he had to gag him. He found out 
 that this fellow, with some others, had broken into 
 the cargo and drank a barrel of ale in bottles. It 
 was a miserable sight to see this man acting like a 
 brute, cursing and swearing most blasphemously. 
 I stayed in the cabin all the while, for I could 
 neither bear the sight nor the sound. 
 
 "March 16. — Our latitude, 15° north, and 
 the sun pours down with no little power, though 
 a constant breeze keeps the weather from being 
 oppressive. The thermometer stands at 80° in 
 the shade. We are now south of the Cape Verde 
 Islands — ran between them and the coast of Af- 
 rica. We could tell our nearness to land yester- 
 day by the color of the waiter. When we are 
 within soundings, or in the neighborhood of land, 
 it is of a light bluish cast, but when out in deep 
 water its color is very dark. We spoke another 
 ship to-day on her way from Wales to the Phil- 
 ippine Islands. The young men, or the 'lazy 
 spoons/ as the captain calls them, help handle the 
 signal flag. They are very pleasant, and ready to 
 help at anything, but the captain is fond of joking 
 them. They don't like the hard biscuit, and John 
 has been making loaf bread ; but the captain tells 
 them that he won't humor the lazy * quill-drivers ' 
 
76 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 any more; but they do pretty much as they please 
 with the old tar. 
 
 " I preached on Sabbath on i the danger of pro- 
 erastination.' About the time service commenced, 
 the mate came in and said the sailors would not 
 come in. I was much surprised and disappointed, 
 as it is in my heart to do them as much good as 
 possible while I am with them, but I preached to 
 the captain, the young men and mate. Next day 
 I found the reason why the sailors had not come 
 was because the mate (whom they do not like) had, 
 in a surly manner, ordered them in, and then for 
 spite they would not come. The vessel I spoke of 
 is sailing alongside of us, about one hundred and 
 fifty yards off*. She is a fine large vessel, clean and 
 nice. The tw r o captains have been having a fine 
 chat, but the distance and noise of the waves pre- 
 vents them from hearing each other easily. I 
 often look at these young men going with us to 
 risk their health and lives in Africa for the sake 
 of money, and think that if I had no nobler or 
 more sacred motives to take me there, I should be 
 at home among my friends. But then I think, 
 again, if men are so willing to live in Africa for 
 the sake of gold, a Christian ought to blush with 
 shame that would not be willing to live there for 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 77 
 
 the sake of souls. What a joy it would be if we 
 could always live with eternity in view — so near in 
 view as to make us forget the little interests of 
 self and time ! I am persuaded that one of the 
 greatest regrets, when we come to die, will be that 
 we were not wholly and unreservedly absorbed, 
 soul and body, in earnest efforts for the advance- 
 ment of the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 "Friday, March 18, 1864. — This morning we 
 are sailing fast toward the equator — within 8° of 
 it. The sun is almost directly over us, and pours 
 w T ith warmth upon us, but the constant breeze keeps 
 us comfortable. I have not yet felt it necessary to 
 take off my winter clothing. We have a large awn- 
 ing on deck, and under this it is delightful, cool 
 and comfortable. We are now in the region of 
 flying fish. We yesterday saw hundreds, or, I 
 might say, thousands, rising up and flying before 
 us like birds, as the ship sailed along, and skim- 
 ming away across the waves like swallows for one or 
 two hundred yards. They have every appearance 
 of a flock of snow-birds or swallows at a little dis- 
 tance. Some two or three flew into the ship and 
 fell down on deck ; these Bob appropriated for his 
 breakfast next morning. They are a beautiful fish, 
 from six to ten inches long, slender and delicate, 
 
78 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 very much like a mountain trout, except the spots. 
 They have two finny wings shaped like a snow 
 bird's, which open and fold up right at the gills. 
 They serve the double purpose of fins and wings. 
 They have also two smaller fins farther back 
 toward the tail. As the presence of flying fish 
 indicates the presence of larger fish, the young 
 men put out a line to drag behind the vessel yes- 
 terday. They caught nothing, but some creature 
 which we did not see tore away the hook and 
 bait. We have seen some pretty large turtles float- 
 ing on the top of the water. Yesterday Bob came 
 running in to call our attention to some young 
 whales which he saw in the distance. I suppose 
 they were porpoises of a large size. I caught a 
 glimpse of the back of one, which appeared to be 
 as large as a big bullock. 
 
 " 3fonday, March 21. — This is hot weather, but 
 the breeze keeps one tolerably comfortable beneath 
 the awning on deck. The trade winds have failed 
 us now, and we move slowly, three or four miles 
 an hour, and often less. AVe have reached the 
 latitude of Liberia, 5°, and long. 16°, and we 
 hope, God willing, to reach Fernando Po in 
 about fifteen days. The sea is almost as smooth 
 as glass, but neither bird, beast nor land is to be 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 79 
 
 seen. The Scotch laddies spend their time in read- 
 ing, joking with the captain and each other. We 
 are all anxious to be at our journey's end. I 
 preached to the men last Sabbath on the parable 
 of the prodigal son. They were very attentive. 
 After service I distributed some little books among 
 them, as I had done before. They seemed glad to 
 get them. To-day I finished Dr. Lowrie's i Two 
 Years in India/ and on Saturday ' Fox's Book of 
 Martyrs/ What a record of suffering for Christ's 
 sake the last is ! Those confessors swell the mul- 
 titude that walk in white before the throne, having 
 been ' slain for the testimony of Jesus.' The noble 
 army of martyrs praise thee, O God ! 
 
 " March 25. — For several days past our sails 
 have been flapping almost idly round the masts for 
 want of air enough to fill them. The sun pours 
 down so directly over our heads that at noon it 
 makes no shadow, and the thermometer stands at 
 90°. The sky is most beautiful, with its varied 
 cloud-tints on a ground of most delicate blue. As 
 night comes on the sky clouds up, and we have 
 lightning and thunder and rain, sometimes in 
 torrents. The young men have been busy trying 
 to catch some fish, but have only got one, which 
 the sailors call a bonita. I have never seen one 
 
80 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 more beautiful ; its shape is exquisite and its color 
 a bluish purple. One of the sailors, Bob they call 
 him — and a clever fellow he is — fell down with 
 violent pain in his stomach. He has not been well 
 all the passage, and I fear this will bring him to 
 his end. Poor fellow ! how he did moan in agony, 
 and said, c Ah, men, I am gone.' They took him 
 to his berth and gave him medicine, and applied a 
 mustard plaster, which gave him some relief. I 
 went in and sat down by him, and tried to explain 
 the way of salvation to him, and prayed with him. 
 He thanked me heartily when I left, as did some 
 of the other sailors who were in with him at the 
 time. Poor fellows ! I wish they knew the way to 
 Christ. I have tried to preach only Christ to 
 them, as nothing else will be of any consequence. 
 
 "I have finished the Life of Brainard, and am 
 reading Flavel on 6 Keeping the Heart/ and my 
 Bible and Greek Testament. For nearly a week 
 we have been lying almost still, but yesterday we 
 got a pretty good breeze and are now moving along 
 tolerably well. I check all thoughts of impatience 
 at the length of the voyage by remembering that 
 to bear patiently whatever comes, and perform 
 present duty, is serving the Lord just as much as 
 though I were in Corisco. Part of every evening 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 81 
 
 I spend reading and praying with the sick sailor. 
 He is nearly well now, and I sincerely hope his 
 sickness will be the means of bringing him to God. 
 I preached on Sabbath on the ' healing of blind 
 Bartimeus.' Some were very attentive. I hope 
 some fruit may be gathered unto life eternal. 
 
 " You are all daily in my thoughts and prayers, 
 as I know I am also in yours ; and what does it 
 signify though we be separated for a little while in 
 doing the Master's w r ill ? It is only for a little while, 
 and then we hope for an eternal reunion. My 
 health so far, since I left home, is as good as it ever 
 was, and perhaps better. I hope the climate of 
 Corisco will just suit me. 
 
 "March 30. — I took my old hat from my 
 trunk to-day to w T ear on deck, and the sight of it 
 filled me almost too full with thoughts of home. 
 I trust you are all well, though even four months 
 might make vast changes. In another week two 
 years will be gone since the battle of Shiloh. 
 Many a time have I thought of Aaron, and often 
 dreamed of him, since I left home. 
 
 "April 1. — I stood on the bow of the vessel 
 for half an hour to-day watching the porpoises. 
 They are about the vessel by the hundred, swim- 
 ming along with us, sometimes jumping entirely 
 
82 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 out of the water, and then swimming with their 
 back fins sticking up, giving the impression of a 
 drove of mules with only their ears above water. 
 Most of them are about six feet long, with dark 
 skin, without scales, like the catfish. The young 
 men shot at some of them, but that has no effect 
 on them, even when the ball hits. The captain 
 says it is eight hundred and fifty miles yet to 
 Fernando Po. 
 
 "April 4. — The first shark that we have seen 
 followed after us nearly all day Saturday. The 
 men tried to catch him with a hook baited with pork, 
 but he was too careful. Two or three pilot fish 
 were swimming with him, most beautiful little crea- 
 tures, striped all over with purple bars, such as you 
 see on the zebra. AVe are now almost immediately 
 south of the dominions of the king of Dahomey, 
 so famous for his inhuman cruelties. Had service 
 yesterday. As I thought it might be our last on 
 board, I spoke very plainly to the men on the 
 1 strait gate/ They listened very attentively, and 
 I hope and pray that some of them may enter in." 
 
 In his private journal, under date of April 4, 
 Mr. Paull writes : 
 
 "April 4. — Spend the time reading religious 
 books, and especially the Bible. Preach every 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 83 
 
 Sabbath plainly and pointedly to the men, but 
 nothing save Christ and him crucified. Have done 
 but little talking since I came on board. Others 
 jest and laugh around me, but my thoughts have 
 been engaged within. For many weeks I have 
 been c eating the bread of sorrow/ because I have 
 been in darkness and have had no light. All my 
 sweets have been turned into bitterness, and I have 
 walked on the borders of despair. I have been 
 truly in the dark, and neither sun nor moon nor 
 stars have appeared for many days. God grant 
 that this may be the fire that shall consume the 
 dross of sin wholly from me." 
 
 On the subject of missions he next writes : 
 " Some would turn aside from carrying on this 
 glorious work by saying that God will not punish 
 those who live in ignorance without the light of 
 the gospel. But what then must become of God's 
 character? He who is all good established a law 
 which is upright and good. ' The soul that sinneth, 
 it shall die/ Mercy may seek to let the trans- 
 gressor free, but justice, immutable justice, cannot, 
 must not, else it is no longer justice. Under the 
 government of a just and holy God, death must 
 follow transgression so surely as God is a God of 
 truth, whether there has been light or whether there 
 
84 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 has been no light; but then, according to scripture, 
 circumstances may mitigate the severity of that 
 punishment for which death is a general term. 
 
 " It is cheering to know that in some places, at 
 least, the heathen are earnestly pleading for the 
 bread of life — looking out from their darkness to 
 catch the faintest dawn of the morning. It would 
 do your hearts good to hear one tell, who belonged 
 to a station on the west coast of Africa, how, the 
 moment a vessel came to anchor, they all ran down 
 to the beach with the anxious inquiry, ' Have you 
 brought us a missionary ¥ If none had come, they 
 turned away with sorrowful hearts. But if some 
 one stepped forth and said that he had come to tell 
 them c the story of the cross/ how they bore him 
 away in triumph with a joy which knew no 
 bounds. 
 
 " We ought to make the world conform to our 
 religion, instead of our religion to the world ; for 
 Christ and his religion are paramount to every- 
 thing, and ought to be esteemed by us above and 
 before everything. The world and all its concerns, 
 pursued for their own sakes, are the vilest dross in 
 comparison with them. Our religion should be the 
 life, the very heart-blood, of every action and pur- 
 suit. If we ploughed and reaped, bought and sold, 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 85 
 
 for Christ's sake, if the busy crowd that pass the 
 streets were eager most of all to win riches and 
 honor for Christ, what a heaven there would be on 
 earth ! 
 
 " Thursday, April 7. — We have no variety in 
 our scenery here, except the change from sunshine 
 to cloud, and from the smooth sea to one a little 
 ruffled by the breeze. I am glad that the truest 
 happiness on earth does not depend on outward 
 circumstances, but upon the heart. Fix it on God, 
 and then we dwell in peace among gathering 
 storms or burning suns, or in the loneliness of the 
 desert. 
 
 " John, who is a great friend of mine, has been 
 getting a large canvas bag made for me to put my 
 mattress and blankets, etc., into, and every few days 
 he puts a quantity of figs into my berth for me to 
 eat ; and I also discover in my berth a bottle of 
 preserved cherries, one of apples, one of plums, and 
 one of desiccated milk. 
 
 "Monday, April 11. — Nine weeks to-day w T e 
 sailed from the mouth of the Clyde, and now we 
 are one hundred and fifty miles from Fernando Po. 
 This has been a long time to be on the water, and 
 yet not longer than vessels usually are in making 
 the trip. Last night one of the young men caught 
 
86 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 a bird about the size of a robin. It lit on one of 
 the yards and went to sleep. A young shark was 
 swimming about the vessel to-day, but as soon as 
 they threw a line over with a piece of pork on it 
 he swam away. 
 
 " I preached yesterday, as I suppose, my last ser- 
 mon to the men, on the first Psalm. I think I have 
 never so desired, or striven so thoroughly, to preach 
 the gospel plainly, pointedly and simply, as I have 
 to the men here. I earnestly hope and pray that 
 there may be some fruit. They have always been 
 most attentive and respectful to me, though I fear 
 they care but little for the gospel and for their own 
 souls. One of these, however — Mr. McCormick, a 
 noble fellow — I have noticed since Sabbath week 
 reading his Bible regularly every night. Last 
 night he seemed anxious to talk, and I got oppor- 
 tunity to converse with him. He is quite serious and 
 concerned about himself, and I earnestly hope it 
 may end in his sound conversion to God. 
 
 " I tried to think of you all yesterday as getting 
 ready and starting to church, but when I think of 
 you at any time I have to run backward six hours 
 on our clock, as our time is about six hours faster 
 than yours, so that when it is noon here you are 
 just about rising. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 87 
 
 " Wednesday, April 13. — To-night, after a long 
 voyage, we have cast anchor at Fernando Po. 
 Early this morning John waked me up to say that 
 it was in sight. As we sailed on the dim outline 
 became more distinct, and at length we saw the 
 green hills, covered with the most luxuriant growth 
 of green trees and bushes. As we sailed into the 
 bay, a most delightful odor of flowers floated off 
 to greet us. Before we put anchor down a boat 
 came off the island to meet us, in which was Mr. 
 Murray, whom I had met in Scotland. He ar- 
 rived here before us by the mail steamer. His 
 boat was pulled by four Kroo boys, as they call 
 them, the first native Africans that I have seen. 
 
 " Thursday, 14th. — This morning we opened our 
 eyes on a beautiful sight. We lay at anchor in a 
 semi-circular bay of great beauty, and the beach 
 all around us rising to the height of perhaps fifty 
 feet above us. On this high beach the little town 
 of St. Isabel is built. Behind the town the ground 
 gradually rises till it terminates in a peak about 
 10,000 feet in height. The island, so far as we can 
 yet see, seems to be one of exquisite beauty, cov- 
 ered with tropical plants, fruits and flowers. Cocoa- 
 nuts I see growing in the greatest abundance on 
 the tops of the tall, straight palm trees ; oranges, 
 
88 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 pineapples and mangoes also. The mango is some- 
 thing like an apple, said to be very fine, but not 
 yet ripe. Plantains and yams are here also. Al- 
 though vegetation is so rank and fruits so abun- 
 dant, the animal kingdom is but sparsely repre- 
 sented. They have no animals except those 
 brought from other parts of the coast, as a few 
 sheep, goats, and little bullocks about the size of 
 a large sheep. There are perhaps one or two 
 horses on the island, but the climate is such that 
 no animals can be reared. 
 
 "The town of St. Isabel, the only one on the 
 island, has about twenty houses ; these are occupied 
 by the Spaniards, as they are the owners here. 
 Their buildings are frame, painted white, and cov- 
 ered with thatch, one story high, and open inside 
 up to the roof, so as to look like a barn within. 
 Although there are a good many Spaniards and 
 some Englishmen, there are no white ladies here, 
 except one, a niece of the old ex-Governor Lyns- 
 lager. I went on shore to-day with the captain, 
 and he introduced me to Mr. Wilson, the agent 
 of Mr. Laughland, and also vice-consul. "We 
 went around and took breakfast with him about 
 10 o'clock; afterwards he took me to call on the 
 ex-Governor and the Spanish judge. I am to stay 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 89 
 
 with Mr. Wilson till I get away to Corisco, which 
 I shall not be able to do for two weeks. 
 
 "Tuesday, 19th. — On Friday, about 3 o'clock, 
 Mr. Wilson and I started on foot up the mountain, 
 some six miles, to see Consul Burton. The clouds 
 seemed to promise us a heavy shower, and prudence 
 suggested that we take a change of clothes; and 
 thus equipped, each with a long African staff in 
 hand, we set off, followed by four negroes — for 
 negroes are plenty here- — one carrying Mr. Wil- 
 son's matters, which he always takes with him, 
 another our carpet-bags, another our umbrellas, etc. 
 We passed through the town, which I found to be 
 much larger than I expected, not having seen the 
 most of it before on account of the numerous plan- 
 tains, cocoanut and orange trees, in the midst of 
 which the houses are built. There are, I judge, 
 several hundred inhabitants in the town, chiefly 
 negroes from other parts of the coast; and some 
 of them have obtained wealth by trading, to the 
 amount of thousands of dollars. The natives of 
 the island are all proverbially low, and live out in 
 the bush. Their houses are as good as any on the 
 island, some of them handsomely furnished, too, 
 even their tables abundantly supplied with silver. 
 
 " After passing out of town we found an excel- 
 
90 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 lent road, made by the Spanish governor, leading 
 up to Basili, where he and Consul Burton are now 
 staying, and where the Spanish soldiers are quar- 
 tered on account of their health. It is the only 
 road on the island, and there seems to be no need 
 of any other. The Boobies or natives have their 
 paths, by which they travel through the bush. On 
 either side of us we found the vegetation so rank 
 and thick that breaking a path through it seemed 
 an utter impossibility; the deep black soil and the 
 constant alternation of warm sunshine and rain 
 make tropical vegetation almost incredibly rank 
 and luxuriant. The trees grow to an enormous 
 height and size — the cottonwood especially — six or 
 seven feet in diameter. One palm tree I noticed, a 
 beautiful specimen, ran up to the height of ninety- 
 six feet without leaf or branch, and its diameter 
 (about eighteen inches) seemed to be the same at 
 the top as at the bottom. We had constantly our 
 ears filled with the chatter of crickets and insects, 
 and the songs of birds, which we could never see, 
 as they were hid by the dense foliage of the bushes 
 and trees. We saw no wild animals or game of 
 any kind, and there is but little on the island. 
 
 "We crossed one creek and several smaller 
 streams of beautiful clear water as thev came 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 91 
 
 tumbling down their rocky beds on the mountain- 
 side, reminding me of our own mountain streams at 
 home. About halfway up the mountain we came 
 to a village of Boobies. Their huts are almost hid 
 in the bushes, being very low, and only a very small 
 patch cleared around each one. They seem to be 
 merely a pen, made by driving stakes in the ground, 
 and roofing them with a thatch of palm leaves ; they 
 are about fifteen feet long by ten wide and seven or 
 eight high. The Spanish priests have built one 
 or two good frame houses at this village, and are 
 living among the natives, attempting to instruct and 
 civilize them. These Boobies seem to be a sim- 
 ple-hearted people, but very stupid. They wear 
 no clothing, or, if any, a yard of calico would 
 make it all. Their faces and arms are horribly 
 disfigured by tattooing. We reached the consul's 
 house, or Basili, as it is called, about 5 o'clock. 
 The consul came down the steps to meet us, and 
 gave us a hearty welcome, as he and Mr. Wilson 
 are great friends. As we were quite wet he hur- 
 ried ns off immediately to change our clothes, 
 which we soon did, and came out with a good 
 appetite for dinner after our walk of six miles, 
 and an ascent of perhaps two or three thousand 
 feet. 
 
92 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "The captain is a very gentlemanly man, very 
 intelligent, fluent and outspoken. He remembered 
 Mr. Flenniken * and the boys, Thomas and Henry, 
 and inquired very kindly for them all. He spends 
 his time writing, very busily, and finds he can do 
 much more up in the mountains than down below. 
 The house he lives in is a very nice one, of frame, 
 one story high, set on high posts, as all are on the 
 island. As they have no horses nor mules nor cattle 
 here, all the wood to build it was packed up the 
 mountain by negroes. From the porch we had a 
 fine view of the ocean and the harbor below, and the 
 air was refreshing and delightful ; though I really 
 have not felt it hotter here anywhere than in the 
 summer at home. The captain has several negroes 
 up there with him. I saw four little boys, about 
 twelve years of age, which the famous King of 
 Dahomey made a present to him. These, he says, 
 he intends keeping to support him in his old days. 
 After a lunch of tea and pineapple in the morning, 
 we started down the mountain before breakfast, and 
 the captain came with us a mile or two for the 
 walk. His style of dress was rather primitive — 
 a cassimere shirt without a coat, and his pants 
 stuffed into his boots, and a broad - brimmed 
 * Judge Flenniken, of Pittsburg, Pa. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 93 
 
 hat and a long staff completed his attire. We 
 reached the consulate in time for a hearty break- 
 fast, as we usually had breakfast between 9 and 10 
 o'clock, and took dinner between 5 and 6 o'clock. 
 I went off to the Elgiva in hopes of preaching to 
 the men on Sabbath, but could not get an oppor- 
 tunity. The Spaniards will not allow any Protest- 
 ant service to be held on the island. 
 
 " Wednesday, April 20. — I am spending my time 
 most pleasantly at the consulate, where Mr. Wilson 
 lives, and Captain Burton also when down from the 
 mountain. It is a delightful place. The house is 
 large, open inside up to the roof, walls and parti- 
 tions well painted, and .the rafters whitewashed. 
 It stands right on the high beach, overlooking the 
 bay. Behind it is a large garden, in which are 
 cocoanuts, plantains, pineapples, mangoes, etc. I 
 have been treated with the greatest kindness and 
 attention here as everywhere else. Indeed, it often 
 melts me to think how God has raised up friends 
 for me everywhere, who treat me with the greatest 
 kindness and consideration, as though I had been 
 one of their old friends all my life. Nothing is 
 ever lost by being kind to others, and, indeed, I 
 more and more feel that the less we live for self 
 and the more for others the nearer we come to the 
 
94 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 spirit of Christ. ' He that saveth his life shall lose 
 it/ and he that is willing to wear away his life in 
 kind deeds to others shall save it. 
 
 "Friday, 22d. — From my back window I see 
 distinctly the Camaroons Mountains on the main- 
 land, towering up to a great height. Captain Bur- 
 ton ascended the highest peaks, and has written a 
 book in which he gives an account of them. 
 Mr. Wilson and I went down to have a sea bath 
 last evening. Sea baths here are most delightful, 
 as the air and water are comfortably w r arm. Three 
 or four black ( boys ' went with us to carry towels, 
 and mats to stand on, and Batanga canoes for us to 
 sail in. These are quite narrow, and the least tilt 
 will turn them over; but they are so light that a 
 man will easily carry one twenty feet long. The 
 boys, used here for everything, are Kroomen 
 brought from the coast. They are good fellows to 
 work, sprightly and intelligent, and generally stay 
 from home a year. The natives do not often come 
 in to town, except to bring their palm oil, which 
 is almost the only product of the island. 
 
 " In the way of living here, where ships come so 
 often, w r e have almost everything that you have in 
 civilized life, and the tropical fruits in addition ; 
 bat the cost is greater — a little chicken, half a dol- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 95 
 
 lar; an egg, half a dime; beef, etc., in proportion. 
 Most of it is sent out from England preserved in 
 cans. All the cooking is done by men trained to it, 
 so that the life of a trader here is very much like 
 the life of a planter in the South. 
 
 "Monday, 25th. — Our beautiful bay seems full 
 of vessels, some of which have come in from differ- 
 ent parts of the coast to await the arrival of the mail. 
 We have some visitors on the island — three or four 
 ladies from the Calabar mission, about one hundred 
 miles north, on the mainland. They are all Scotch 
 ladies. I thought to have preaching again on the 
 Elgiva yesterday, but the captain did not find it 
 convenient. 
 
 " Tuesday, 26th.— Yesterday I had a most pleas- 
 ant surprise. Mr. Mackey, from Corisco, supposing 
 that I would be here, came up to meet me on a 
 Spanish vessel which had been at Corisco. He 
 says they have been waiting anxiously for me, as 
 they are short of help. One of the most pleasant 
 parts of the surprise was, that he brought my letters 
 that had already arrived at Corisco* 
 
 "April 28. — This morning our regular monthly 
 mail came in, and brought me letters, so that I have 
 had a great feast in the letter line. In Lizzie's letter 
 of the 15th January, she gives the sad tidings of 
 
96 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 Aaron's death. May the God of all grace comfort 
 you all ! I will write after I get to Corisco. I am 
 anxious to hear all the particulars about his death. 
 Mr. Mackey is off in the harbor, trying to get us a 
 passage by the French steamer. If he succeeds, we 
 go down this morning. Long ere this reaches you 
 I hope to have entered on my solemn work, I trust 
 with deeper, truer and more solemn views of life 
 than ever I had before. May very many prayers 
 follow me from the familv circle ! It will be 
 another month before we hear from each other. 
 Let each succeeding month find us more earnest 
 in the inquiry, c Lord, what wilt thou have me 
 to do?' and in our efforts simply to believe in 
 Christ." 
 
 The following letter to an intimate friend, written 
 from Fernando Po, West Africa, April 26, 1864, 
 evinces Mr. Paul's missionary spirit and care of 
 his own Christian life : 
 
 " Away across the wide waste, from all the dear 
 ones that I love, I sit to-day where darkness is as 
 the shadoiv of death ; and I would not have it other- 
 wise. Not because I do not love my friends, not 
 because it gives me no pangs to go down into and 
 remain in the dark valley of this separation, but 
 you know that I always felt and prayed that one end 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 97 
 
 in leading me into the wilderness, as it were, might 
 be my purification. And if God carries on his own 
 work thus, in his own way, what are all other things 
 to me in comparison to it ? I know I shall be the 
 happiest man on earth if Christ in his fullness 
 dwell in me, though my name should never be 
 breathed beyond the borders of this dark land. I 
 have had many dark hours since I left you ; indeed, 
 for weeks during my voyage, no light, c neither sun 
 nor stars, appeared ; 7 the waves and the billows went 
 over me. I could not tear my eyes away from 
 peering into that deep, dark pit of sin within me, 
 although I knew well that no peace or light could 
 come from it, and that Christ only could give me 
 light. But most heartily do I thank my God for 
 these days of darkness ; for you know that beauti- 
 ful hymn, c I asked the Lord that I might grow/ 
 etc. That is the way up out of darkness into 
 light. I believe there is no other way ; and now 
 my prayer is, My God, let the darkness come if 
 thou wilt only lead me in it, and bring me forth 
 into entire consecration to Christ. 
 
 " I think I have only lately begun to see that in 
 our religion we ought to be most terribly in earnest, 
 even storming the kingdom ; for how else can we 
 take it ? I hang my head with shame whenever I 
 
98 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 think how halfway I have been all my life, and how 
 miserably halfway and undecided I always shall 
 be, unless God take my case in hand. Do you not 
 often find yourself forgetting that it is appointed 
 unto us to enter into that strait gate by striving, or 
 that we are to gain the crown by coming off con- 
 querors — attacking, sword in hand, the armies of 
 the aliens within us, searching them out diligently, 
 and constantly slaying them one by one, till not any 
 enemy remains to raise his voice against the reign 
 of Christ within us ? 
 
 " But about Africa I have, as yet, said nothing. 
 Now, by the goodness of God, I have my foot on 
 her heathen soil, and I humbly pray that it may 
 never be removed until I be made instrumental in 
 claiming some of her children for God. Without 
 doubt death reigneth here. The trail of the serpent 
 is deeply marked over all the land. The shadow 
 lies so heavily on the land, that the courage and 
 zeal of the strongest must fail if he rests on a hu- 
 man arm. But I am glad and satisfied when I 
 know that He whose word is power has promised 
 that the Son shall have his inheritance here, that 
 Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God. 
 True, God has not said when this glorious consum- 
 mation shall be brought about, but we know that 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 99 
 
 the leaven which we put into the meal will work, 
 though we see it not, and the bread (seed) which we 
 cast upon the waters will bear the rich harvest 
 (fruit), though it be after many days. 
 
 " Give your little son a hearty kiss for me. I 
 pray that he may be a lamb, carried in the arms of 
 the great Shepherd. Try to get the love of Christ 
 mingled with his very life, so that it may grow with 
 his growth. Why ought we not to hope that the 
 little ones, above all others, should be attracted by 
 the sweetness and loveliness of Christ ? If we con- 
 stantly present Christ to their little loving hearts 
 in all the attractive features of his character, I do 
 not know how it is possible for them to help loving 
 him. They cannot but be melted by displays of 
 love and kindness such as Christ has made; and 
 if we keep these before them, they must sink into 
 the heart and transform the life." 
 
 Mr. Paull here uses strong language in recom- 
 mending religious instruction and example as 
 means of grace to children, yet he was a firm be- 
 liever in the doctrine of original sin and total de- 
 pravity, and the absolute necessity of the Holy 
 Spirit's work in regeneration. 
 
 To his father he writes whilst voyaging again 
 from Fernando Po to Corisco : 
 
100 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "On Schooner ' Estremadura/ April 29, 1864. 
 
 " This evening Mr. Mackey and I bade farewell 
 to Fernando Po, with many pleasant recollections 
 of the kindness received from Mr. Wilson and 
 others. Our next resting-place is on the little 
 schooner which is to take us down to Corisco, a 
 vessel belonging to Mr. Laughland, and running 
 between his trading-points on the coast. Accom- 
 modations for traveling here are but meagre, but 
 one feels thankful to get almost any mode of con- 
 veyance. Two of the young men that came out 
 with me on the Elgiva are with us, going down to 
 the Gaboon River. We four, with the captain and 
 his wife, filled up the little cabin to overflowing, 
 leaving scarcely any room to move. To relieve 
 the monotony of his voyages the captain keeps on 
 board two parrots and a Scotch terrier dog, and by 
 the kindness of Mr. Wilson a little goat is added 
 to complete the list. 
 
 "May 1. — This morning we are sailing slowly 
 down the channel between Fernando Po and the 
 mainland. The channel is, I suppose, about forty 
 miles wide. The winds are so light along the coast 
 here that it generally takes a week to make the 
 trip — two hundred miles. 
 
 "We had service on deck to-day. As Mr. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 101 
 
 Mackey is feeble, I officiated. Spoke to them from 
 the twenty-third Psalm. 
 
 "May 4. — We have been sailing all the while 
 in sight of the mainland, though five or six miles 
 distant. There are few mountains, but the high 
 hills run all along the coast, rising up behind one 
 another tier after tier. There are no places of in- 
 terest to be pointed out, no cities, no grand old 
 ruins, but all is one wild wilderness save here and 
 there, at the mouth of some river, you find a little 
 native town. To-day we were amused to see a 
 lone mariner sailing bravely by us — a bird near 
 the size of a pigeon, perched on a cocoanut, or 
 something of that size, riding coolly along and 
 keeping his balance, never heeding the tossings of 
 the waves as at one time they sent him up to the 
 top and again down to the bottom. 
 
 "Friday, May 6. — This afternoon my long 
 journey is ended, and I stand at last on my island 
 home, with a heart full of gratitude to God that 
 he has preserved me in all my journeyings, and 
 especially that he ever put into my heart to come 
 and preach his gospel to the heathen. The captain 
 anchored two or three miles off shore, and Dr. 
 Nassau came off to meet us with a boat. As our 
 baggage was considerable, one of the schooner's 
 
102 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 boats had to come off with us and carry part of it. 
 Corisco is a beautiful little gem of an island, 
 covered with verdure of the deepest green. All 
 around it lies a sandy beach, white almost as the 
 snow, over which the huge waves surge and break 
 unceasingly. Mr. Mackey and I were in a boat 
 together, and when we landed went immediately to 
 his house, on a little eminence about one hundred 
 yards back from the beach, and in full view of the 
 sea and in hearing of its unceasing thunder-like 
 roar. Mrs. Mackey gave me a hearty welcome to 
 my new home, and now I feel once more as if I 
 had found a resting-place for the sole of my foot, 
 and could settle clown in quietness to my work. 
 You will be glad to know that I am to make my 
 home with Mr. and Mrs. Mackey. 
 
 " And now I wish you could look over, for a 
 moment, into Africa, and catch a glimpse of this 
 home of beauty in the heart of heathenism. It 
 would make you glad, as it has gladdened me. 
 It would make you feel as you can fancy some 
 traveler upon the sandy desert would were 
 he to light upon a garden of blooming flowers. 
 So this little home of Mr. Mackey's, l Evanga- 
 simba/ has been fitted up with such taste that I 
 never would desire anything more beautiful. The 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 103 
 
 house is neat and large, with broad verandas 
 running round it. The grounds are planted with 
 fruit trees and flowers — the orange, lemon and 
 lime, plantain, banana, eoeoanut, etc. In the little 
 pasture lots about you see a pony and some cattle, 
 goats and sheep, rabbits, ducks and chickens ; so 
 that, in point of comforts such as these, there is no 
 lack. They live here as civilized people do in 
 America or anywhere else, I have a sleeping-room 
 in Mr. Mackey's house up stairs, and a very nice 
 study in a bamboo house in the yard." 
 
 In his journal of this date Mr. Paull speaks of 
 the Kroomen : 
 
 " There is a tribe of Africans from Cape Palmas, 
 called Kroomen, and known all along the coast. 
 They usually hire themselves out to traders and 
 captains of vessels, often ten or twelve in a batch, 
 under a head man, who becomes responsible for 
 the risk. These Kroomen are mostly stout and 
 well built. They generally hire themselves for a 
 year, and then return home with the proceeds of 
 their labor. Most of this is plundered from them 
 by the older ones, and with what is left they buy 
 a w T ife. 
 
 " Their heads are shaved in all fantastical shapes. 
 Their faces, too^ are marked usually with a black 
 
104 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 streak down the forehead and nose, also an arrow- 
 head at the corner of the eyes. They delight in 
 strings of large beads around the neck and wrists, 
 sometimes cowries and tigers' teeth around the 
 ankle. Hardly any clothes except the loin-cloth 
 and perhaps an old hat or vest. 
 
 " They seem to drink water always after their food, 
 and are particularly careful of their teeth, cleans- 
 ing them always after eating, generally carrying a 
 little wooden brush tied about their necks with a 
 string. They talk broken English, most all smoke 
 their short, black pipes, are fed on rice, and have 
 their long-toothed wooden combs. 
 
 "Monday, 9th. — Yesterday I went to church. 
 The meetings are held in a large bamboo church near 
 by. Dr. Nassau preached in English and one of 
 the black boys interpreted it to the congregation, 
 which was mostly composed of young people be- 
 longing to the mission schools. They are as neat, 
 nice-looking black children as I have ever seen 
 anywhere. We had Sabbath-school in the after- 
 noon. I taught a class of young men, some of 
 whom understood English. At night Mr. Mackey 
 preached or explained the first chapter of Ephe- 
 sians in English, which was interpreted. 
 
 " It did my heart good to feel that I was thus 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 105 
 
 worshiping God in this land of darkness, and to 
 know that he had at last answered my prayer and 
 brought me as a missionary to Africa. Now, since 
 he has done thus much, my unceasing petition is, 
 that he will consecrate me wholly to him and use 
 me entirely for his glory. It seems to me nothing 
 can be done here without prayer, unceasing prayer. 
 The minds of the heathen are so dark and igno- 
 rant and debased that nothing but a ray of heavenly 
 light can penetrate them. 
 
 " There are, I think, twelve hundred on the island, 
 which is about three miles long and three wide. 
 The people live in little villages of a dozen houses 
 or less, built near the sea-shore. Their houses are 
 built of bamboo poles split in two, and tied one 
 above another to stakes driven in the ground ; the 
 floors are of hard clay. I see no difference between 
 the natives here and the negroes at home, except 
 that here they wear scarcely any clothes. They 
 seem to be as apt to learn and as intelligent look- 
 ing as any. They nearly all wear a heavy roll of 
 small beads of various colors around their necks, 
 and the women wear brass rings around the ankle, 
 extending one above another sometimes nearly to 
 the knee. 
 
 " The old king was in this morning to see us. 
 
106 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 He wore an old dingy silk hat and black coat, and 
 a large piece of light muslin wrapped around him 
 extending down to his feet. He carried a butcher- 
 knife in a sheath belted around his waist; so do 
 most of the men. He wished Mr. Mackey to tell 
 me that he settled all the affairs of the black men 
 and his brother of the white men on the island. 
 This was, I suppose, to give me some idea of his 
 position. He is an amiable and quiet old man. 
 They look with great interest and curiosity on a 
 stranger. A great many have been in to see me 
 and shake hands with me. When I am on the 
 veranda I see many of them stopping to look as 
 they pass. I observed one woman with a little 
 child in her arms standing and pointing to me for 
 a long time, trying to get the child to look at the 
 stranger. 
 
 "There are three stations belonging to the mis- 
 sion on the island, one here (Evangasimba), and 
 Ugobi and Alongo at different points. There are 
 two excellent houses here (at Evangasimba), one 
 occupied by Mr. Mackey and the other by Dr. 
 Nassau and Mrs. McQueen. Ugobi and Alongo 
 are occupied by native teachers while Mr. Clark 
 and Mr. de Heer are away. Mr. Mackey has a 
 carpenter shop, and native carpenters, who have 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 107 
 
 been trained, making boxes, which are exchanged 
 for goods to the traders. He has a store-house 
 also, in which he keeps goods to buy food from 
 the natives, and pay them for work, etc. Every- 
 thing needed is sent out by the Board with vessels 
 coming to Gaboon River, so that there is nothing 
 to prevent our living comfortably. We have good 
 coffee and tea and sugar, and sometimes goafs milk 
 for cream, also excellent bread and sweet potatoes 
 and goat's flesh, and fish and roasted plantains 
 and tomatoes, rice, eggs, bananas and oranges, etc. 
 There is plenty of corn on the island, so that we 
 can have roasting-ears and mush and corn bread. 
 So you will not, I hope, feel any anxiety about my 
 personal comforts. I am as happy and contented, 
 and am as well cared for, as I could be anywhere 
 in the wide world except at home. Never for an 
 hour since I left have I doubted that I was in the 
 path of duty, nor ever have I been happier in my 
 life than I am now in the contemplation of this, 
 I trust, my life-work among the heathen. The 
 climate here is delightful. The sun is hot, but it 
 is easy to carry an umbrella. The nights are cool 
 enough to sleep under a blanket. With the bless- 
 ing of God, I see nothing to prevent me from en- 
 joying good health. As this is the wet season, we 
 
108 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 have rains almost every day, but the soil is sandy 
 and the water is soon absorbed. 
 
 " Thursday, May 12. — To-day we had a meeting 
 of the mission to consult as to what course I should 
 pursue. They suggested that I go to the study of 
 the language. Mr. Mackey has secured an inter- 
 preter (Ubengi) for me at twenty cents a day. He 
 is to come to-morrow, and I commence work in 
 earnest. I have been trying to pick up a few 
 words, and have about thirty. I am anxious to 
 learn the language as soon as possible, so as to 
 preach in it. 
 
 "Mr. and Mrs. Mackey and I went up this 
 evening after tea to the girls' school, kept by Dr. 
 Nassau and Mrs. M'Queen. The Doctor invited 
 us up to hear the children sing. They have about 
 fifteen little girls, between the ages of seven and 
 twelve or thirteen. They were all neatly clad, and 
 as intelligent, nice-looking black children as I ever 
 saw in America. You would never know them to 
 be heathen if you saw them in a Christian land. 
 Dr. Nassau led them, and they sang quite a num- 
 ber of hymns, both in Benga and in English. I 
 surely never heard sweeter singing. I thought, 
 those of them who are saved will sing no less 
 sweetly in heaven for having been born in a 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 109 
 
 heathen land. They learn very fast. Most of 
 them will commit a hymn by having it read over 
 to them a few times line by line. This seems to 
 be the truest and surest way of carrying on the 
 work in Africa, by commencing with the chil- 
 dren ; though even some of them, after having 
 been trained up and made a profession of relig- 
 ion, are led astray into sin by the heathenish prac- 
 tices of those around them. Nearly all the little 
 girls in the school are already betrothed, and will 
 marry at about the age of fifteen or sixteen. A 
 wife costs about one hundred dollars here, and they 
 are very difficult to be got at that, for this reason, 
 they are betrothed so young. Almost the greatest 
 difficulty the missionaries have to contend against 
 is polygamy. A man is usually looked down upon 
 with contempt that has but one wife ; some have 
 fifteen or twenty. It is said that yesterday one 
 of the chief men on the island had three people 
 killed because they were supposed to have be- 
 witched one of his relatives who died a short 
 time ago. This is yet the habitation of horrible 
 cruelty. 
 
 "Saturday, May 14. — Yesterday Ubengi came, 
 and I made a commencement in the Benga. I 
 have him with me from 8 o'clock till 11 o'clock. 
 
110 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 He is quite an intelligent fellow, and understands 
 English pretty well. As there is no complete 
 grammar in the language, nor any lexicon, I have 
 to proceed by learning the words and the structure 
 of the language from hearing him talk, and hav- 
 ing him read out of the Benga Testament. If I 
 am allowed to go on uninterruptedly with the 
 study of the language, I hope to be able to preach 
 in it in less than a year. But if I find it ne 
 sary to take charge of a station, preach, etc., as is 
 likely — for Mr. Mackey has about decided to leave 
 for England in ten days — it may take me two 
 years, or even three. 
 
 " I see several varieties of very pretty birds fly- 
 ing around, mostly small ones, and some of them 
 beautiful singers ; and parrots in any number I see 
 flying around over head. They are only visitors, 
 having their homes on the mainland. I have not 
 been around over the island much yet, as it is cov- 
 ered with a thick growth of underbrush, and there 
 are only narrow footpaths running through it here 
 and there. The little gray pony (Mr. Mackey's), 
 about as large as a yearling colt, is now in my 
 charge, and I shall, perhaps, make a tour round the 
 beach on him some day. 
 
 "Monday, May 16. — Heard Mr. Mackey preach 
 
GEORGE PAULL. Ill 
 
 yesterday to the natives. He makes the services 
 very short, as the natives soon become weary. I 
 taught a class in Sabbath-school, and at night 
 preached in English, and without an interpreter, as 
 most of those present (adults) were able to under- 
 stand English. To-day we had a meeting of the 
 mission to let Mr. Mackey get away to England for 
 his health. It seems a sore blow to the mission, 
 so weak before, and now the work to be done al- 
 most overwhelming to those who remain. But our 
 help is in God : * when we are weak then are we 
 strong/ He may be just bringing us to our knees 
 so that He may undertake for us. Besides the work 
 on the island, there are stations on the mainland 
 that must be visited and looked after. Dr. Nassau 
 and I have divided the work between us. He will 
 preach here, and I at Alongo and Ugobi. The 
 business part of it we also divided, as that part has 
 grown to considerable dimensions. They appointed 
 me treasurer of the mission. There is about three 
 thousand dollars' worth of goods on hand for the 
 supply of the mission schools, to exchange for 
 labor, food, etc. This comes under my depart- 
 ment, so that if I had a good knowledge of bus- 
 iness I could use it here." 
 
 [It must be remembered by the reader that ordi- 
 
112 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 narily trade is carried on at Corisco by barter, not 
 by money ; hence the necessity of goods with which 
 to pay for labor or purchase supplies.] 
 
 " Sunday, May 22. — It seems not an inappropri- 
 ate use of this Sabbath evening to write you a few 
 last words before my letters go, as Mr. Mackey 
 takes them with him when he sails, to-morrow 
 morning at 2 o'clock, for Fernando Po, to take the 
 steamer for England. We have had a delightful 
 day of Sabbath privileges in this African darkness. 
 Mr. Mackey preached this morning to a full house 
 of heathen, w T ho had gathered in because of his 
 going away. In the evening Dr. Nassau preached, 
 and we had one or two prayers after service, and 
 an address from Mr. Bushnell of the Gaboon mis- 
 sion, who came over yesterday to bid Mr. Mackey 
 good-bye. 
 
 " My health, I am thankful to say, is very good, 
 perhaps never has been better. My sea voyage 
 seemed to have so good an effect on me, that w T hen 
 it ended I weighed one hundred and sixty-four 
 pounds — more than ever I have known myself to 
 weigh. I often think of you all, and greatly desire 
 you to remember me continually in your prayers. 
 Greatly do I long for entire devotion to God, and 
 for the removal of everything in me which hinders 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 113 
 
 the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I am. 
 happy and perfectly contented in the prospect of 
 the work before me, and have no unhappiness or 
 sorrow except because of the sin that is in me." 
 
 To his parents : 
 
 " Corisco Island, W. Africa, May 24, 1864. 
 
 " Yesterday morning I accompanied Mr. Mackey 
 to the beach to see him off for England. We all 
 hope he may be granted a speedy return, for we 
 scarcely know how to spare one from our small 
 force. 
 
 " My new business of treasurer commenced on 
 Monday, which is the day for paying off the em- 
 ployed with goods, and the natives who are not in 
 any way employed by the mission, many of them, 
 come to buy, and cannot see why they should not 
 be accommodated. They bring money, while they 
 have it, obtained from the Spaniards who are 
 building on the island. Mr. Bushnell w r ent off 
 this (Tuesday) morning to Gaboon in his little sail 
 boat, about as large as a skiff; you would think it 
 too frail a boat to navigate the seas. I went to the 
 beach and saw him off. He is a warm-hearted, 
 Christian man, who keeps his i lamp trimmed and 
 burning/ 
 
 "I had not been to see either of the other 
 
 H 
 
114 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 stations (Alongo or Ugobi) on the island ; but to- 
 day Dr. Nassau and I went over to Alongo, on the 
 north corner of the island, three miles away. I 
 rode the pony, but found it tiresome, as my feet 
 reached almost to his hoofs. We traveled along 
 the almost snow-white sandy beach, a broad and 
 beautiful place to ride. All along lay sea-shells 
 and coral and stranded seaweed, and the white 
 surf with a continual roar broke on the beach and 
 rolled almost to our feet. Alongo is Mr. Clemens' 
 place, and after him Mr. Clark's, but in his absence 
 a native teacher (Ibia) has charge of the school. 
 It is a most beautiful place, on the highest point of 
 the island, and with a full, broad view of the sea. 
 This is to be my preaching place, and I made ar- 
 rangements to commence next Sabbath. A good 
 many of the people were met along the shore ; some 
 of them had their nets spread out drying. These, 
 I believe, are made of cocoanut fibre, and are used 
 for catching turtles, of which there are many and 
 large ones. They give us, as we pass, their saluta- 
 tion, which is i Bolo/ or if they are saluting two 
 or more, ' Bolani.' The reply you are expected to 
 make is, ' Ai Bolo 5 or i Bolani.' This takes the 
 place of our ' How T do you do ?' 
 
 "May 25.-— To-day I have not done anything 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 115 
 
 at the c Benga/ as I have been somewhat feverish 
 since last night ; and when signs of fever show 
 themselves here all study must be laid aside, lest it 
 increase the fever. Two of the Spanish priests 
 were over to-day from where they are building 
 their house, to borrow tools and buy some things 
 from the store-house. I was perplexed to under- 
 stand them, and to get them to understand me. 
 We are on good terms with them, and think it bet- 
 ter, by all means, to live peaceably with them, if 
 possible ; but it is not likely that they will let the 
 peace continue after they are once settled. 
 
 "I have not yet given you an account of our 
 mode of living here, which I must do that you may 
 have a better idea of mission life. We rise a little 
 after daylight, and before the front door is open 
 there will be perhaps half a dozen people about it 
 with something to sell — eggs or cassada (which is a 
 root of the nature of a yam or potato, and the 
 children of the mission school are fed on it) — or per- 
 haps they want to buy something, or maybe only 
 want to sit a few minutes to look or talk. At 
 half-past six the bell (which hangs at the side of 
 the house) rings for prayers, and all about the 
 premises are expected to come in. Mrs. Mackey 
 then hears the girls recite a verse each in Benga> 
 
116 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 and then we have prayers and breakfast. At 8 
 o'clock the bell rings again and all go to work, the 
 carpenters in the shop and two men to cutting 
 weeds about the mission grounds, the girls to their 
 books, and I with my interpreter to the study of 
 the language till 11 o'clock. At 12 o'clock every 
 one quits work and we have dinner. I generally 
 spend the afternoon in reading, writing and study- 
 ing, and hearing the boys recite English. The bell 
 rings at 2 o'clock for the men to go to work, and 
 at 5 o'clock for them to quit, when we have supper. 
 The men have thus much spare time to get their 
 own food, which is generally a little fish and cassada. 
 I try to go to bed here between 9 and 10 o'clock, 
 for if we lived here with the same recklessness as 
 in America life would soon go. The people come 
 to trouble me through the day to get things from 
 the store-house, but as it breaks up one's time to no 
 purpose, Mrs. Mackey tells them to go away and 
 come back in the evening or early in the morning. 
 " May 31. — For several days my pen has been 
 at rest, and I myself for most of the time laid on 
 the lounge, with my first attack of African fever. 
 I had only a slight attack, which lasted about three 
 or four days, but did not confine me to my bed. 
 Utter prostration and pain in the back, with head- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 117 
 
 ache, were the most uncomfortable features about it 
 But with the plentiful use of quinine and other 
 medicines, coupled with two visits a day from Dr. 
 Nassau, I got over it in time to preach on Sabbath 
 at Alongo. 
 
 " I had a pleasant ride to Alongo on Sabbath 
 morning, except that the tide was in so far as to be 
 constantly dashing about the pony's feet and 
 wetting mine. I met several natives on the beach, 
 about one-third of the way up, and as I knew them 
 I asked them to come along to church. They said, 
 ' Is this Sunday f I said, i Yes/ They replied, 
 1 It is too far to go to Alongo ; we go to Evanga« 
 simba/ I said, l Well, go to Evangasimba/ But 
 one boy did trot after me to Alongo, and called out 
 to the people as we passed through the little native 
 towns, in language which I did not understand, but 
 suppose meant, ( Come to church f at any rate, a 
 good many of them came. 
 
 " I had a very good congregation, composed of 
 the boys in school (I preached in the school-room) 
 and a good many natives. They were very atten- 
 tive, more so than I expected, for you generally see 
 them dropping off to sleep or yawning, or talking 
 or going out. Ibia, one of the native teachers, 
 who has charge of the Alongo school, was my in- 
 
118 QEORGE PAULL. 
 
 terpreter. I found that I could speak with almost 
 as much freedom and warmth as when I preach 
 without the interruption of interpreting. I had to 
 make my sermon quite short, as they soon grow 
 weary. I preached on ' Christ Jesus came into the 
 world to save sinners/ 
 
 " When I started away on my pony most of my 
 congregation (those who came up from the towns) 
 came trotting after, laughing and hallooing to see 
 the pony carrying a man. About a dozen of them 
 followed me about a mile, just out of friendly 
 curiosity and to get a good laugh. Sometimes, in a 
 narrow place, and to keep from being caught by 
 the tide, I had to put the pony to the gallop, but 
 as I galloped they ran and kept up. At last they 
 all went back. 
 
 " When Mr. Clemens first commenced preaching 
 at Alongo, he would tell those that he met on the 
 beach that it was Sunday, and they must come to 
 church, and not fish, etc. So, after that, they were 
 afraid to let him see them fish on Sunday ; and 
 when they did venture to do it (the women do all 
 the fishing) a part would fish while the rest watched 
 for him, and if they saw him coming they would 
 scamper off, crying i Sunday is coming ! Sunday is 
 coming !' Heathen soil is hard to cultivate, but He 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 119 
 
 to whom belongs the seed will make it grow sooner 
 or later, and I will sow in hope, and perhaps, 
 sooner than we anticipate, the harvest will come. 
 
 " I went down to Peter's town to-day, in hopes 
 I had enough words to talk a little Benga to him ; 
 but I made poor work of it. Peter is one of the 
 head men, a kind of patriarch or head of a family, 
 which he has gathered about him in a little town. 
 His wives, three or four perhaps, and slaves and 
 children and younger brothers make up a town of 
 perhaps twenty houses ; only one room in them, of 
 course. They are set about an equal number on 
 each side of a street which is, I think, fifty yards 
 long, occupying about half an acre, and beyond 
 this limit is the uncleared bush and trees. Be- 
 tween their houses you will perhaps see some plan- 
 tain trees growing, and an occasional duck or 
 chicken or goat or dog straying about. Peter is 
 a little, short, gray-haired man, with a pleasant 
 face and a warm heart. He met me outside, and 
 led me into his cabin by the hand and sat me 
 down on a chair. Presently eight or ten women 
 came to the door to see c Pauloo/ and said ( Bolo/ 
 and went away. He called in his little children, 
 nice little darkey fellows, clad in a string of beads 
 around the neck and two or three brass rings 
 
120 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 around the ankles, that was all. The little fellows 
 came between my knees, and leaned back on me 
 very confidingly, which would not have been dis- 
 agreeable if they had not just been rolling in the 
 sand and ashes. Their mode of blessing any one 
 is peculiar. If an old man in America wishes to 
 show his kind feelings to a little boy, he puts his 
 hands on his head and says, 'God bless you, my 
 boy P If an old African in like manner wishes to 
 show his kind feelings towards any little fellow, 
 he takes him by the shoulders and spits on the top 
 of his head. This is with them expressive of all 
 possible kindness. 
 
 "I visited the old king, Elepa, one day last 
 week. He is an amiable old man, has four wives, 
 and seems to live in peace. I found him attired 
 in a white muslin sheet hanging loosely about him, 
 and wrapped around his waist, extending down to 
 his feet. He also wore a striped cotton cloth. 
 When we went the old man was sitting outside the 
 door of his bamboo reception house, but, without 
 recognizing us when we approached him, he imme- 
 diately arose and went in to the back part of the 
 house and sat down. We followed him and sat 
 down also near him. He then reached out his 
 hands to shake hands with us, expecting us of 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 121 
 
 course to get up and go to him. He then became 
 very talkative and entertaining. His head wife 
 was lying on a bamboo lounge beside him, asleep, 
 so he waked her up, and seemed a little chagrined 
 at her being asleep. She opened her eyes and 
 talked to us, but did not get up. His legs were 
 loaded with brass rings from the ankle almost to 
 the knee. 
 
 " The king's house was only a single room, about 
 twice as long as it was broad, with a floor of 
 beaten clay, and open to the roof. The back wall 
 was adorned with eight dusty pitchers, of two or 
 three different shapes and colors, also two or three 
 earthenware images, portable statues of Jack 
 Spratt. There also he had a host of cheap wood- 
 cut pictures, great and small, but all highly 
 colored, also looking-glasses, framed, and hung all 
 around the walls. These, with a table, two or 
 three chairs, and some bamboo benches or lounges, 
 completed the furniture. About the centre was an 
 upright post, which supports the ridge-pole of the 
 roof. It also answered another purpose : to the 
 bottom of it was attached a chain, which was to 
 secure their prisoners of war and witches. The 
 old king got his padlock and showed us how to 
 secure them. 
 
122 GEOEGE PAULL. 
 
 " June 8. — It has been some days since I had my 
 pen in hand. My attack of fever returned again 
 on the seventh day, and so I was laid aside. Part 
 of the time I had a very hot fever, but for the 
 greater part no especial sickness, only a feeling of 
 intense weariness, and inability to do anything, 
 with pains in back, limbs and head. The remedy 
 is quinine, of which I have taken a great quantity. 
 It seems strange that this land, which is as the 
 garden of the earth for beauty and for its delight- 
 ful climate, should have an atmosphere so full of 
 deadly poison. In all my life I have never been 
 in so delightful a climate, and the pleasantest sea- 
 son is just beginning to como. The air is always 
 bracing ; I have never yet felt it in the least oppres- 
 sive. At night I find it very comfortable under a 
 blanket. I do not think the sun is nearly so hot as 
 at home, and we have double the quantity of cool, 
 bracing air. Fruits we have in great plenty, many 
 of which I have mentioned already. 
 
 " Everything moves along very pleasantly since 
 Mr. Mackey's absence. Mrs. Mackey is a noble 
 woman, very quiet, but keeps things moving like 
 clock-work. Monday last was settlement day ; we 
 settle and square up with all employed once every 
 four weeks. They are all greatly disposed to get 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 123 
 
 their pay before they do the work, so that I have 
 to hold some of them back a little. 
 
 " On Sabbath I went up and preaohed at Alongo. 
 I did not have a very large congregation, nor do 
 they ever turn out well unless you go round before- 
 hand and tell them to come, and then very often 
 they say c Yes/ but have no intention of coming. 
 After preaching at Alongo, I stopped on my way 
 back at Nqume's town and preached there. Nqume 
 is the head man — an old blind heathen. He said 
 Mr. Clemens had been his friend. I told him I 
 wanted him to be my friend also, and the old man 
 held on to my hand with a long and warm grasp. 
 I told him I wanted to preach for him, and soon 
 all the people of the town that were about came 
 together in his house — about twenty in all. They 
 squatted down on stools and wherever they could 
 find a seat, and then Uhamba (the young man who 
 interpreted for me) and I sang a hymn. They 
 were generally pretty quiet, while I preached of 
 c Christ coming into the world to save sinners/ 
 Sometimes a woman, w T ho did not know, perhaps, 
 that she ought to keep quiet, would say something 
 out loud ; the rest would cry to her to i hush/ and 
 we would have silence immediately. The wife of 
 Nqume, who is a nice woman, attentive and serious 
 
1 24 GEORGE PA ULL. 
 
 looking, said that once she tried to be a Christian, 
 but not lately. I asked them all to come up to 
 Alongo next Sabbath ; they said they would, but I 
 must come that way and let them know when it 
 was Sabbath, which I willingly agreed to do. 
 There are, I suppose, thirty or forty such little 
 towns on the island, in most of which the mis- 
 sionaries have preached. Ah ! if the Spirit would 
 only come and open these dark minds and make 
 the truth powerful, we should see displays of the 
 glory of God that would make our hearts rejoice! 
 Never can they be moved from this spiritual death 
 until the Spirit of God shall do it in answer to 
 fervent prayers here and at home. 
 
 " Yesterday was the day for giving out supplies 
 to the mission, and you would scarcely suppose that 
 our supplies here in Africa were the same as yours 
 at home — flour, butter, rice, corn-starch, hams, ker- 
 osene oil, etc. Attending to this gives me quite a 
 little bit of merchandising on Monday, and affords 
 me exercise and diversion. 
 
 " I saw a beautiful flock of sheep at Alongo ; 
 Mr. Mackey has some here also, but you would 
 scarcely take them for sheep in America. They 
 are real sheep, however, except the wool, of which 
 they have not a particle, but instead they have a 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 125 
 
 beautiful, glossy coat of hair. Their skins look 
 exactly like the skin of a young calf, and they are 
 of every color — red, black and spotted. They would 
 be a novelty in America. 
 
 " Thursday, June 16. — This evening I had prom- 
 ised Andiki, the native teacher who has charge of 
 the school at Ugobi, to come up and preach there, 
 so I mounted our pony at dusk and paced up along 
 the beautiful white sandy beach about a mile and a 
 half to the place. The ride was delightful, espe- 
 cially coming back, as it was a beautiful moonlight 
 night, and the breeze was blowing fresh and balmy 
 from the sea, and the tide was far out, which left a 
 broad white beach. As I told you, there are no 
 roads on the island except narrow footpaths, so 
 that the only road is along the beach, and indeed 
 there is no other needed, for all the little towns 
 are built around the island near to the beach. As 
 I got up before the time, I took a walk through 
 one or two of the towns near by. The men and 
 women were sitting about the doors of their cabins, 
 and although I do not know that I had ever seen 
 any of them before, almost all came to shake hands 
 with me, saying i Bolo, Pauloo/ As I had picked 
 up a little of their language, I told them all to 
 come to church, which they said they would do. 
 
126 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "At the usual hour Andiki rang his bell, and 
 quite a little congregation gathered, forty or fifty 
 in all ; three of the women were professors of re- 
 ligion, and some others had been. They were very 
 attentive while I preached. I preached to them 
 about the value of their souls, and their awful state 
 when lost, and tried to point out the way to save 
 them. I expect to commence preaching next week 
 around through their towns — it is not enough to 
 preach only on the Sabbath. I pray that God 
 may give me a terrible earnestness in my work 
 here. I have been feeling, myself, most deeply, 
 the truths that I preach to them about the soul, 
 and I hope and pray that multitudes of them may 
 be saved from a dreadful hell. It seems unac- 
 countable to me, sometimes, that we can rest in 
 peace for a moment, until w T e are sure that we and 
 our friends have made sure work of our escape 
 from the dreadful miseries of hell. Well assured 
 am I, as that the sun shines, that all these terrible 
 declarations in the Bible are true, and yet who 
 would suspect, from the way in which we live, 
 that w T e believed them? It is no easy matter to 
 escape the flames. If our religion sits easy 
 upon us, and our sins never trouble us, surely 
 it is time to be alarmed." 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 127 
 
 In his journal of June 25 Mr. Paull writes : 
 " Press on to the kingdom — no looking back 
 here — press right on, with courage firm and strong. 
 Cut off the things that are behind ; they are no 
 longer ours; you have solemnly disowned them. 
 Reach forth to the things that are before; they 
 shall be your inheritance. You are a ' pilgrim 
 and stranger.' Now, this land is not yours ; you 
 have no interest in it, nor in things about you ; you 
 are hurrying through, only tarrying for the night ; 
 to-morrow you journey on again. Be convinced 
 of your 'pilgrim character/ let it sink into your 
 heart, i say it ' in all your life ; for they that say 
 such things declare plainly that they seek a coun- 
 try — that they are pressing on hard after it, care- 
 less of all that is behind, i unmindful of the coun- 
 try whence they came out.' 
 
 " There can be no such thing as earnest pressing 
 on to the kingdom while our eyes are turned back- 
 ward ; they must be thoroughly and eagerly fixed 
 on the kingdom to which we move. Lot's wife 
 was fleeing to the mountains, while her eyes and 
 her heart were yearning for Sodom; this was no 
 escaping from destruction, this was i staying in 
 Sodom f and she perished by the way. As the 
 plough moves, our hands must be upon it, and 
 
128 GEOEGE PAULL. 
 
 our eyes and our thoughts must go with it; if 
 not, then we are not fit for the work, and our life 
 is a lie. 'No man, having put his hand to the 
 plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom 
 of God.' O Saviour ! how shall we ever reach 
 thy kingdom, unless thou wilt knit our souls to 
 thine, unless thou wilt lift up our whole beings, and 
 centre them intensely upon thyself?" 
 
 Here we see the workings of Mr. PaulPs inner 
 life, how ardently he desired entire consecration to 
 Christ and his service. No wonder that one whose 
 heart burned with such longings for complete con- 
 secration to his work should be willing to encoun- 
 ter perils by sea and by land to repeat the story of 
 the cross to the perishing in Africa. 
 
 Under the same date he writes to his sister : 
 " About a week since we despatched our mails, 
 and already I have begun to write again for the 
 next. This is to save me the perplexity of crowd- 
 ing all my letter- writing together at the last. 
 And then, too, every day as it glides along may 
 have some little incidents which, if not gathered 
 up as they pass, will be pressed aside by others and 
 forgotten. But you will not look for much variety 
 now, as, instead of being tossed on the tide, I am 
 becoming settled in life, and my duties and diver- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 129 
 
 sions are gradually falling into their daily regular 
 round. Almost the only changes, too, one feels called 
 on to note in so small and unimportant a world as 
 ours is here, are his own ever-varying moods 
 within, or the success or failure of his plans with ref- 
 erence to others without. These, while they are al- 
 ways fraught with absorbing interest to himself, are 
 generally of but little importance to others. But 
 I will always write, taking it for granted that what 
 I write will be at least of some interest at home, 
 I begin to see now how it is that, of all things for 
 a man, solitude is sometimes the best. When he is 
 cut off from the world without, he begins to explore 
 more diligently and to become better acquainted with 
 the world within. He begins to find that there is a 
 vast unknown there, filled with mysteries of which 
 he had never dreamed. If a man is driven to 
 look much within, he will see strange sights and 
 hear strange sounds, and shrink away from behold- 
 ing many a gloomy, fearful picture. His life, too, 
 may become a strange mixture of gloom and glad- 
 ness, and continual interchanging of sunlight and 
 shadow. But all this would be to any man a rich 
 and royal blessing, a princely gift at the hands of 
 God, tending to make one wiser and purer and 
 truer. Natures such as ours can never be cleansed 
 
 9 
 
130 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 from their dross without passing through some sort 
 of fire. 
 
 " June 28. — One part of a day since I last wrote 
 I spent pleasantly reading, etc., down in a little 
 rocky cave by the sea amid the incessant roar of 
 the waves and dashing of the spray. I love to sit 
 there in my leisure hours and read and think 
 while all is so secluded and quiet — no noise save 
 the thunder of the surf as it breaks on the shore. 
 Occasionally I lift up my eyes in this quiet nook 
 (it faces the sun), and look away to the westward, 
 trying to arrange in my mind a picture of things 
 as they may be at home. 
 
 " Most of my days, however, I spend in my bam- 
 boo house, studying, reading, writing, etc., or, when 
 not doing that, attending to the business of the 
 mission, which occasionally takes several hours of 
 the day. This morning, for instance, I spent send- 
 ing off a big boat to Iloby — an island near where 
 some traders have their factories — loaded with 
 twenty -five pine chests, which the boys working in 
 the shops had made. These chests we exchange 
 with the traders for supplies, and they sell them 
 to the natives. 
 
 " One day last week I got on the pony (Charley), 
 and taking Uharaba, went away four or five miles 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 131 
 
 off on the other side of the island, to visit some 
 towns that belong to my charge at Alongo. I was 
 at five or six towns, and preached at one and in- 
 vited all of the people to come to church, which 
 they said they would do. But, unfortunately, they 
 think it but little harm to tell a lie, and so, when 
 Sabbath came, they had forgotten their promise. I 
 do not think they can be reached without going to 
 their towns and preaching to them there, and I in- 
 tend to do this, though I believe it has not been 
 customary. The people were all glad to see me, 
 and the women clattered away with their tongues, 
 each seeming to try who could speak the loudest. 
 Many said, 'He is like Mr. Clemens/ and then 
 their usual message was that they wanted me to be 
 good to them. At one of the towns about a dozen 
 of the men and women followed me down to the 
 beach, and told Uhamba that they w T anted me to let 
 them see Charley run ; so I gave him a little gallop, 
 and they stood and watched, as much pleased as 
 children with Charley's nimbleness. 
 
 " This was a very pleasant day's ride to me, both 
 on account of seeing the people and some parts of 
 the island that I had not seen before. Quite a num- 
 ber of pretty little squirrels crossed my path, some- 
 thing like our ground-squirrels, but a little larger ; 
 
132 GEORGE PATJLL. 
 
 also some beautiful birds of a deep rich blue color, 
 aud one African dove which was beautiful in shape 
 and size and gentleness of appearance, like our own, 
 but of a darker color on the back, with the under 
 part of its neck and breast white. About most of 
 the towns I see a little flock of goats and of hairy, 
 spotted sheep. The children know Charley all 
 over the island, and often the first noise that I 
 would hear on coming near a town would be from 
 some of the children that had caught a glimpse 
 of him, with their noisy greeting, ' Oh, Charley ! 
 Oh, Charley !' 
 
 " I had my sermon already prepared for preach- 
 ing at Alongo on the next day (this was Saturday) ; 
 but as I rode along, that text, ' God so loved the 
 world that he gave his only begotten Son/ etc., came 
 into my mind so fully, and with such comfort to 
 myself, that I determined to take it, and prepared 
 a sermon and came home and preached it the next 
 day. Uhamba, who is a member of the church, 
 interprets for me when I preach. My other inter- 
 preter is a suspended church member, and has been 
 guilty of several grievous sins ; so that I do not 
 think it is right, either for his sake or the gospel's, 
 to allow him to meddle with so sacred a business. 
 He says, however, that he is praying and wishes to 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 133 
 
 repent and return to his profession. I hope he is 
 sincere. 
 
 "Uhamba is a very decent fellow, and wears 
 a clean shirt and a pair of pants, which is full 
 dress; but when he came on Sabbath morning 
 to go with me ; I noticed that he had on a filthy 
 shirt that he had worked in a week, perhaps, 
 and a dirty piece of gingham wrapped about him, 
 reaching from his waist to his feet. I thought it 
 very strange, but found that a friend of his had 
 died the night before, and that this is the African 
 badge of mourning — to go as dirty as you possibly 
 can. 
 
 "I had a good congregation at Alongo, though not 
 the tenth of those that promised to come. I had a 
 great deal of freedom in preaching. On my way back 
 I preached at Iduma's town. He is one of the rich 
 men on the island, and has about twenty wives. I 
 preached to him and most of his wives with all the 
 earnestness and solemnity that I had, and I trust 
 they felt some of the truths that were spoken. 
 They seemed very solemn and attentive. I have a 
 confident expectation of seeing many of these dark 
 children of sin yet coming to Christ, and the thought 
 greatly encourages me, for it is God's work and 
 his arm is not shortened, and he has bidden us 
 
134 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 pray and wait and expect a blessing; and if we 
 do these things, why should we not expect it, not 
 timidly, but firmly f" 
 
 Here is a letter of Mr. PaulPs to his younger 
 brother which will give some idea of Africa and 
 of heathen life : 
 
 " Corisco, June 30, 1864. 
 " I have been looking for a letter from you tell- 
 ing me that you have been studying hard all win- 
 ter and were anxious to be at it again, and that 
 you were determined to be a fine scholar and a 
 noble and good man. I know that you do study 
 well and faithfully, and it has made me proud of 
 you and given me high hopes that I shall one day 
 be prouder yet of what you will be and do. You 
 will not let me be disappointed. You must settle 
 it first of all in your mind, if you wish to become 
 a true and noble man, that you will not be ashamed 
 to be good, even if every one around you laughs 
 and sneers. You are not to care for what any one 
 says, if you know that you are doing right, any 
 more than you care for the bark of a dog. Deter- 
 mine, then, in your own mind, noiv, that you will 
 be kind to everybody, and that you will try to love 
 everybody and do everybody some good, even if 
 it puts you to inconvenience; that you will neither 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 135 
 
 do nor think anything under any consideration 
 that you know to be wrong; that nobody shall 
 make you ashamed to read the Bible often, and to 
 pray often, and to think often about God. If you 
 do these things, you will become a true and a noble 
 man, and I do sincerely pray that you may never 
 be anything else ; and so you must begin now. Go 
 every day to some quiet place, and there kneel 
 down and solemnly give your heart to God and 
 ask him to come and make it his home. You and 
 Jim are daily in my thoughts and also in my pray- 
 ers, and I hope that you do not forget to pray for 
 me also. 
 
 "Yesterday I had a little trip that I suppose 
 would have interested and delighted you, if you 
 had been here. In the morning Dr. Nassau came 
 to my study and said that he and Mrs. McQueen 
 and the schoolgirls (for it was vacation) were going 
 round to the other side of the island in the after- 
 noon to gather shells, and asked me to go along. 
 So we started about 1 o'clock, the doctor on foot, 
 for he prefers walking, Mrs. McQueen in a ham- 
 mock slung by a pole lying across two men's 
 shoulders : this is a very common way of trav- 
 eling in Africa; I went on Charley. He and I 
 have become quite close friends, and we generally 
 
136 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 go together. He is an affectionate little fellow, but 
 sometimes I have to box his ears for biting me, as 
 he loves to nip everybody that comes in his way, 
 and scarcely one of the natives will go within a 
 rod of him. We went along the beach until we 
 came to Ugobi, and then we took one of the native 
 footpaths that run through the bush across the 
 island. After winding along the path for a while 
 and crossing a marshy creek or two, suddenly we 
 came on to the most refreshing spot I have seen in 
 Africa. It was a long, narrow meadow, level as a 
 floor and covered with green grass. It was about 
 a mile long and from about one hundred to three 
 hundred yards wide. Beautiful palms and other 
 trees lined it all along on either side. As we rode 
 through it I almost fancied that the next turn would 
 bring us to some beautiful dwelling with all the 
 accompaniments of civilized life, for this little 
 meadow has such a thoroughly civilized appear- 
 ance in comparison with the wild bush that is 
 around us everywhere else. When we got to the 
 end of the meadow, we came again upon the sea- 
 shore, at the spot to which we were going, and a beau- 
 tiful, broad, white sandy beach it was. From it we 
 could see the mainland and Iloby and another little 
 island. While we gathered sea-shells, which lay 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 137 
 
 thick along the shore, scores of parrots flew scream- 
 ing over our heads, and occasionally a large eagle 
 would swoop down and sail just a little bit over 
 oui**heads, while cranes and gulls and other sea- 
 birds waded about in the edge of the water or 
 sailed around in the air above us. After spending 
 an hour or two and gathering a good many shells, 
 we came back a good deal wearied. The shells 
 that the girls gathered Mrs. McQueen gave me to 
 increase my stock, and you may perhaps see some 
 of them one day. 
 
 " We have a few white men come to see us occa- 
 sionally, and they all like to come here, for there 
 is scarcely any place along the coast that looks so 
 homelike and comfortable, and when there are 
 any sick men at Iloby or on any vessels that come 
 about here, they are generally sent to Corisco for 
 Mr. Mackey and Dr. Nassau to cure up. We had 
 three or four visitors from Iloby the other day : 
 they took dinner and went away again. One was 
 young Watson, who came out with me in the El- 
 giva ; another was a Dutch captain by the name of 
 ITenert — quite a pleasant fellow. He told an 
 anecdote of one of our Corisco black men that he 
 had seen somewhere to show how they make mis- 
 takes sometimes. Peter (the black man) is an old 
 
138 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 man, and has a son called Bobe. Bobe had been 
 away somewhere; and supposing Captain Henert 
 might have seen him or known something about 
 him, the old man said, i Did you see my father, 
 Bobe?' 'Why/ said Captain Henert, 'you are 
 an old man and Bobe is a young man ; Bobe can- 
 not be your father: he must be your son.' 'Oh 
 yes/ said the old man ; ' well, now I think that is 
 it — yes, he my son Bobe.' This, however, is only 
 a mistake of the poor old heathen : there is no harm 
 in that; and perhaps there is nothing wrong in 
 being amused at it. But there are some things 
 said and done by the heathen that bring no pleas- 
 ant feelings — drive away everything, indeed, but 
 grief and sorrow. 
 
 " I told you some time ago of two or three per- 
 sons on the island who had been killed under sus- 
 picion of having bewitched some man that had 
 died. Now there is another old man about to die 
 who has asked the people, in case he dies, to kill 
 some one on suspicion of having bewitched him. 
 This is the father of Andiki, one of the native 
 preachers. And yesterday, too, although it is 
 almost too revolting to speak of, a man that lives 
 right by here came to the house and asked Mrs. 
 Mackey for some poison to give to his mother. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 139 
 
 He said she had been sick a long time and would 
 not get well, and that he had to stay at home and 
 take care of her, and he did not want to be so 
 closely confined, but wanted to get away. Dr. 
 Nassau saw him afterward and talked to him, 
 but he said that he did not know that that was 
 anything the white man thought wrong. So you 
 see how pitiable a thing it is to be a heathen. 
 They have no government here, no laws, no 
 courts to try and sentence criminals, no officers 
 to punish them. Every man does as he pleases, 
 and they indulge in almost every sin and commit 
 almost every crime. Do you think you could 
 spend your life in any more useful way than by 
 coming out here, after a while, to teach these poor 
 people how to live and how to die? Keep this 
 object before you while you study, and ask God to 
 make you fit to tell these people, who are so mis- 
 erable, how they may be happy. This would be 
 far better and make you far happier than living a 
 life of sin, or a life of pleasure, or spending your 
 life in making money. I want you and Jim both 
 to be missionaries. Think of it often, and settle it 
 in your minds that, if God will send you, you will 
 go. I know of no way in which you could do 
 more good." 
 
140 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 Mr. PaulPs next letter was to his father, and, 
 written on the anniversary of our national inde- 
 pendence, it contains a few thoughts in reference 
 to that memorable event. 
 
 u Corisco, July 4, 1864. 
 
 "I do not remember certainly that I have 
 written to you individually since I left Scotland. 
 My letters heretofore have been in journal form, 
 and rather intended for all than for any one in 
 particular, and even yet I think I will jot down 
 things usually in the same way, just as they 
 happen, or as thoughts occur to me ; but this time 
 I have departed from my ordinary plan. 
 
 "The 4th of July calls up many recollections 
 that are pleasant and many faces that are familiar, 
 and my fancy carries me to where I seem to see 
 you all honoring the day, perhaps by some social 
 reunion, it may be a family ' pic-nic/ or joining in 
 some more public celebration. Here it passes 
 away as other days, save that we each one remem- 
 ber it, and take pride in it as a day of gladness at 
 home, but otherwise there is nothing outward to 
 mark it. I have spent most of the day in attend- 
 ing to the business of the station, settling up with 
 the men employed, which is done monthly, giving 
 out supplies from the storehouse, having our boats 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 141 
 
 painted, etc. I usually give Mondays to the bus- 
 iness of the station, and an hour on other days, 
 when it is necessary. Dr. Nassau has even con- 
 siderably more business than I have of this kind. 
 We were also at the funeral of an old headman 
 to-day who was buried in our graveyard because 
 of his son's having been connected with the mis- 
 sion; he was still a heathen, however. We did 
 not allow any of the heathen ceremonies at the 
 grave, but Dr. Nassau prayed and made a short 
 address. 
 
 " We have been on the anxious lookout all day 
 for the mail, as this was the day on which we cer- 
 tainly expected it, but there is no sign of it yet, 
 and we begin to give up all hope until to-morrow 
 or next day. This is one of our greatest disap- 
 pointments here, when the mail fails us at the time 
 when we expect it. 
 
 "Yesterday I sat down for the first time with 
 the native Christians here as they gathered around 
 the table of the Lord. There were not very many 
 of them, perhaps twenty in all, and three of them 
 were coming for the first time; once there were 
 many more, but, alas ! one and another has turned 
 away into sin ; and this is the saddest part of all 
 the missionary work, to see the devil lead captive 
 
142 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 and triumph over those who once seemed to be free 
 from his fetters. At the communion seasons, which 
 occur every three months, all of the members, both 
 on the island and at the stations on the mainland, 
 are expected to be present, and the whole number, 
 I think, is near seventy. But many of them for 
 various reasons were kept away this time. Dr. 
 Nassau conducted the services ; I preached the pre- 
 paratory sermon on the day before. I do not see 
 any special features of encouragement in the work 
 here now — indeed, several things almost make it 
 have a gloomy aspect, especially the fewness of our 
 numbers in the mission, the falling away of some 
 of the native members and a general coldness and 
 indifference on the part of most, though I have 
 sometimes, when hope was buoyant, been tempted 
 to look on these things as almost encouraging, for 
 God generally chooses a time to work when the 
 glory will be manifestly all due to himself. It 
 seems to be such a time now, for if light and life 
 and strength spring up out of this darkness and 
 death and weakness, all must surely fill their 
 mouths with songs of praise and say, i It is of 
 the Lord; to him alone be all the glory for ever. 
 Amen/ 
 
 "Tuesday, 5th. — This afternoon I spent very 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 143 
 
 pleasantly among my Alongo people. After rid- 
 ing about three and a half miles I stopped at 
 one of the little towns and talked with the people, 
 telling them that I would preach for them if they 
 would call in some more people from one or two 
 towns near by, which they did, and I had a very 
 nice little congregation. They were very attentive 
 to all I said to them of ' God's love in sending his 
 Son to die for sinners lost and wretched/ Some of 
 them listened with most fixed attention. I noticed 
 a great talking among them after preaching, and 
 Uhamba told me they were saying, i That was a 
 true word that was told them/ This evening the 
 mail came that we had been so anxiously looking 
 for, and we opened it with eager hands to get at 
 the precious contents of news from home and 
 friends, for so far as earthly pleasures are con- 
 cerned here, our letters from home are the 
 greatest. 
 
 " I begin to feel entirely at home in Africa now, 
 and am altogether contented and happy in the 
 work. My health is very good, and, so far as we 
 can judge, my constitution promises to be of the 
 kind that may bear the climate well. I shall heart- 
 ily rejoice if this be so. I believe that God has 
 sent me here, and I hope for good. If he is my 
 
144 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 guide, I shall be safe; and I desire to be done for 
 ever with attempting to direct my own steps, as I 
 fear I have sometimes done in the time that is 
 past. 
 
 " I am collecting some little African curiosities, 
 which I will send home, as they will be of some 
 interest to you all. Among other things I have 
 some brass and copper ankle-rings and some beads 
 which I bought from an African princess. Mrs. 
 M'Queen was down at Mrs. Mackey's to sit a while 
 this evening, and says she has discovered that I 
 have a namesake on the island. Some heathen 
 mother that I have never seen has called her baby 
 after me ; ' Pauloo ' is its name — that is, its English 
 name. Its native name is Ubengi, after the in- 
 terpreter; he, I believe, is its uncle. Mrs. 
 McQueen has been down pretty often to give Mrs. 
 Mackey a word of cheer in her loneliness, and it 
 is well. I have a great respect for Mrs. Mackey. 
 She is calm and even-tempered. Grace in her 
 seems to shine out clearly as it is gradually ripen- 
 ing her for glory. Her lamp, I think, is always 
 trimmed and burning. There is nothing on earth 
 so beautiful as a character mellowed by grace until 
 it seems almost divine. 
 
 "July 15. — TTe have had a young Scotch trader 
 
GEORGE PAULR 145 
 
 here from Iloby for several days. He came over 
 sick, but has gone away to-day quite well again. 
 This is a hospital for all the sick sailors and 
 traders in the neighborhood; they come here to 
 be cured up. I was around to-day on another 
 missionary tour beyond Alongo. I only had time 
 to preach in one town ; started after dinner, and 
 reached home again about six o'clock. It was a long 
 walk for TJhamba — seven or eight miles — but he 
 seemed just as fresh when we came back as when 
 we started. 
 
 " The church at home is growing fast, I hope, 
 under Mr. Fife's care. I trust he may be blessed 
 greatly, and I see not why there as well as else- 
 where (for I see notices of many revivals) Zion 
 may not be built in these troublous times. There 
 are very many in the congregation who have 
 grown up under the holy influence of a family 
 altar, and they ought to come out and declare them- 
 selves on the side of Christ. To resist the con- 
 stant, gentle wooing influences of the Spirit as 
 they are shed abroad daily in every pious, prayer- 
 ful home seems a dark and reckless sin — a sin 
 that I do not think will be lightly judged in the 
 latter day, for God is very jealous of the treatment 
 that his Holy Spirit shall receive ; and to have 
 
 10 
 
146 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 him mocked and set at naught is to treat the Spirit 
 of God as the Jews did his Son. It is worth more 
 than a birthright to a throne to have been brought 
 up in a pious home. I shall never cease to be 
 grateful for all the holy and restraining influences 
 that were thrown around me. They follow one 
 every day that he lives, and they never cease to do 
 their part in shaping the life and in forming it for 
 God. It is not in vain to sow the seed and to 
 water it with much prayer ; surely the harvest will 
 come at last. 
 
 " I saw some parties settling a dispute the other 
 day in a way which was rather novel. As they 
 have no courts, no regular laws, no officers of jus- 
 tice, usually might is right. But sometimes friends 
 from both parties meet and settle the matter pretty 
 satisfactorily. Generally, however, when a man 
 thinks he is wronged by another, he sends an am- 
 bassador to say that he must have so much pay or 
 he will come with his friends and fight. If the 
 person to whom this message is sent happens to be 
 a weaker person in point of friends, he has no re- 
 sort but to pay the demand. Ibape, one of our 
 workmen, came to me the other day greatly dis- 
 tressed and said that a man had a 'palaver' with 
 him, and was going to come and fight him if he 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 147 
 
 did not pay the demand. He was obliged to pay 
 (I believe it was just enough in this case), and 
 came to me to get help. A very usual demand is 
 the price of a slave, which is a set value, and con- 
 sists of just so many things of different kinds, and 
 must be neither more nor less (they amount in all 
 to about thirty dollars), and these things constitute 
 currency. The price of a slave is twelve romals 
 (cloth), one gun, one keg of powder, one iron pot, 
 two iron bars, two brass rods, two heads of tobacco, 
 one shirt, one red cap, two gun-flints, one fire-steel, 
 one cutlass, one small bell, one pme chest, one 
 stone jar, two tobacco pipes. All of these articles 
 must be included, and must be neither more nor 
 less ; nor must anything else, even though it be of 
 equal or greater value, be substituted in the place 
 of any of the articles in the list. 
 
 "July 19. — We have heard nothing lately about 
 the plans of the Spanish, and so do not know 
 whether they intend to let us stay here or not ; per- 
 haps they will — at least until they get thoroughly 
 under way. 
 
 " I found my little congregation at Alongo con- 
 siderably enlarged on Sunday. I think going 
 about among their towns has had a good effect on 
 them. I hope they may come on until there will 
 
148 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 not be room enough to hold them. I preached on 
 my way back at one of the native towns, and had 
 a good little congregation. I have had a strong, 
 unwavering confidence in God that he will yet ere 
 long work wonders among the people here. Pray 
 much for me and for the success of the gospel 
 among the people. I often feel most grateful to 
 God that he has yet spared you that I may have 
 the benefit of your prayers: surely I need them. 
 It was just one year yesterday since I preached my 
 farewell sermon at Morrison (Illinois). It has 
 soon passed away; another and another will go as 
 quickly. I often look back with great pleasure to 
 my stay at Morrison. It was the most anxious six 
 months I ever spent, and yet in many respects the 
 most happy, and, I believe, decidedly the most use- 
 ful. God most surely designed that I should come 
 here. I look back and see the path most strangely 
 marked out. From the time I thought of the mis- 
 sion work one difficulty and another was gradually 
 taken out of the way, and then by some most 
 marked providences it was kept from being 
 blocked up again. 
 
 "I feel that this is my proper sphere, and I 
 hope to be blessed in the work. My health is 
 good — perhaps has never been better. I feel as yet 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 149 
 
 no lassitude, as I thought I should; sometimes I 
 feel a little depression of spirits, which I had been 
 free from for the last four or five years, but per- 
 haps when I get at the work thoroughly this may 
 pass away. I am glad that I have the opportunity 
 of preaching some as I study the language. I feel 
 that I am at my proper work only when I am 
 preaching. I expect to keep up the habit of 
 preaching in the towns at least one day in the 
 week besides the Sabbath. If I did not do this, I 
 should feel depressed with the thought that I was 
 doing nothing, and I seem to be doing almost 
 nothing as it is. 
 
 " I think I see uncle, doctor and the boys busy at 
 the hay, as this is harvest-time at home. I wish 
 you could have as cool and pleasant weather for 
 harvesting as we have here. This is the African 
 winter, and the natives go about shivering ; so do 
 the white people that have been here any length of 
 time. Good-bye for another month, and may our 
 God bless and keep us all l" 
 
 "July 27. {Journal.) — There are seasons in the 
 lives of some Christians — and they seem to be peri- 
 odical — when c the enemy comes in like a flood ; (ex- 
 pressive figure!), the flood gates are up and the rush- 
 ing tide of corruption sweeps everything before it. 
 
150 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 Of what avail is a helpless sinner's strength in 
 such a time as this? All good resolutions bend like 
 rushes, and the flood-tide sweeps over them. A 
 Saviour's free and boundless grace for the chief of 
 sinners is the only hiding-place." 
 
 To his mother : 
 
 "Corisco, July 27, 18G4. 
 
 "I scarcely had intended to commence writing 
 letters until after our mail came, but as I sat down 
 by my table this evening with my lighted candle 
 before me, my books about me and feeling quite 
 comfortable in my solitude, it came into my mind 
 that I might spend a few minutes very pleasantly 
 in writing to you. 
 
 "I have been busy for the last two days, and 
 expect to be for another, putting a roof on the 
 church. I can hardly say that / have been very 
 busy, however, as my work was not very difficult. 
 I have had eight or nine barefooted and barelegged, 
 and some of them bareheaded, men to look after as 
 they sat along in a row on the top of the church 
 smoking a short pipe or two, out of which each 
 took a whiff in turn. They chatter away as fast 
 as they can, and work pretty well while you stand 
 before them and look on, but almost the moment 
 one turns his back the work stops, and very likely 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 151 
 
 the whole row, or at least a part, turns over on its 
 back to rest. They work for about sixteen cents a 
 day, and really do as well as could be expected of 
 them when one thinks of their irregular and indo- 
 lent life. The roofing material is of palm leaves 
 pinned together with little sticks into mats about 
 five or six feet long by two wide. These mats, 
 overlapping each other, are tied on to the bamboo 
 rafters with long limber splits, something like those 
 used to hang bacon. These mats make a pretty 
 complete roof, which turns the rain very well for 
 two or three years. I have one or two other jobs 
 of roofing to do yet — the boat-house and part of 
 the dwelling-house — and some fences to make before 
 the rainy season commences; this will finish the 
 out-door work. 
 
 "The comparison of the righteous to the palm 
 tree in the Psalms seems more beautiful and forci- 
 ble since I came here than ever before. Both for 
 beauty and for use it seems to surpass almost all 
 other trees. The natives build their houses almost 
 from top to bottom with it. They make twine for 
 their nets from its fibre. They get their wine from 
 it by tapping the tree. They lie under its shade 
 and drink the delicious cocoanut milk (I speak of 
 two varieties of the palm which we have here, the 
 
152 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 cocoanut and the oil palm), and they use the oil of 
 the nut for food and for light. The heart of the 
 tree also makes most delicious cabbage. We, too, 
 know the value of the palm for food. Yesterday, 
 for instance, we made our dinners on palm butter 
 and palm cabbage, and bread fruit, plantains, rice 
 and sweet potatoes, etc. The palm butter is a 
 choice dish made of palm nuts and chicken boiled 
 together. The palm cabbage (so called from its 
 resemblance to cabbage) is the heart of the palm 
 tree taken out near the bottom ; it is very good, but 
 it kills the tree to get it. This that we had yes- 
 terday was the first that I have ever seen. It was 
 sent to Mrs. Mackey by Mrs. M'Queen. Mrs. 
 M'Queen had received a quantity of it as a pres- 
 ent from the Spanish priest, who is a gentlemanly 
 young fellow and disposed to be polite. 
 
 "August 8. — For more than a week we have 
 been turning our eyes seaward in hopes of catch- 
 ing a glimpse of our coming mail, but now we 
 have almost given up the expectation for this 
 month, as we think it would have been here 
 before this if there had been an opportunity to 
 send it down from Fernando Po. Two of the 
 graces that one needs, especially in Africa, are 
 patience and quiet submission. If these are 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 153 
 
 strong, they will make many a rough place 
 smooth. 
 
 "As this is Monday, it has been my day for 
 giving out supplies, but the labor was very light. 
 I opened a barrel of butter, and I have not been 
 more surprised at anything than that we should 
 have such excellent butter every day away out 
 here. It is sent out to us packed in small kegs, 
 six of which are put in each barrel. I think 
 nothing else is done to preserve it, except filling 
 the barrel with strong brine. 
 
 "August 9. — To-day I have been busy with six 
 men making fence around the garden. It is not a 
 very difficult process, but a little tedious. Long 
 sticks are first sharpened and put into the ground 
 one foot apart. These are the posts, and the rails 
 are bamboo poles which are tied to the posts with 
 long timber splits. We make the fence about six 
 feet high, and it answers every purpose while it 
 lasts, but the hot suns and drenching rains rot it 
 away in one year. There is scarcely any wood on 
 the island fit for fencing ; it is all soft and easily 
 rots. The pickets for the fence which runs all 
 around the mission grounds were brought from 
 the mainland, as is also the wood which Mrs. 
 Mackey burns. The large timber on Corisco is 
 
154 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 not very abundant, although there are some im- 
 mense trees which I think would measure thirty 
 or forty feet in circumference. The women cut 
 away most of the trees, or the tops of them, when 
 they make their farms, which are only about half- 
 acre gardens. When they choose a place for a 
 farm, they take away the underbrush and only 
 cut the limbs off the trees, so that the tree may 
 not die ; and after they have used the ground for a 
 year or two the soil is exhausted, and they leave 
 it to grow up again with bushes and trees, so that 
 it may recover its strength. 
 
 "At this season of the year (the dry season) the 
 women spend most of their time making farms and 
 planting cassada and plantains : on these they 
 chiefly live. They do nearly all their work with a 
 simple iron cutlass, which is something like a corn- 
 cutter, or rather like a sabre. Their farms are 
 often a long way off from their houses, and they 
 pack their produce home in baskets, which rest on 
 the small of the back and are supported by a band 
 reaching up to the front part of the head. They 
 carry immense loads in this way, the weight of 
 which rests mainly on the head, and it is bent 
 forward as they walk. They carry their wood 
 in this way, tied in large bundles and stuck end- 
 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 155 
 
 wise into the basket, also their water, which is 
 first put into large four or five-gallon jugs and 
 the jug is put into the basket. This dry season 
 is their time for working, and I suppose they 
 lounge in their huts when the rains come. Now 
 they have it perfectly dry, scarcely a drop of rain 
 in the whole four months that the season lasts. 
 
 "As I walk about the beach I see them improv- 
 ing the dry season to boil their salt. They put up 
 a little shed and cover it with palm leaf mats, and 
 under this they lounge many a day boiling salt 
 and roasting palm nuts and plantains and fish. 
 Their kettles seem to be large pieces of copper 
 beaten into some kind of shape for holding water. 
 They never look happier than when they are lying 
 round the fire roasting plantains and boiling salt. 
 The women, I suppose, are the better portion of 
 the people ; and yet I do not know, either, for they 
 have so little in their characters that is womanly 
 that you scarcely can persuade yourself to give 
 them the place that otherwise would be their 
 due. 
 
 "August 10. — Part of my men went away this 
 morning — one went a fishing and another some- 
 where else. Scarcely any of them have patience to 
 work three or four days at the same thing. But if 
 
156 GEOBGE PAULL. 
 
 one goes, half a dozen are ready in a minute to take 
 his place. They are all anxious to work for a day 
 or so, to get some fish-hooks or cloth or something 
 else. This season of the year is a fine time with 
 them for fishing. They go out in their boats to 
 sea, a distance of two or three miles, and spend the 
 day catching what they call bianga (a fish about as 
 large as a mackerel) with hook and line. Each 
 man will catch perhaps twenty. They cannot 
 preserve them long except by salting them heavily 
 and then smoking them, which they do by simply 
 hanging them up in their houses, for they have 
 no chimneys. They build the fire in the middle 
 of the house and let it blaze and smoke away ; the 
 smoke and soot do not disturb them in the least. 
 In anything connected with boating or fishing I 
 believe they are tolerably expert. Their boats are 
 made out of immense trees, and are hewn out into 
 excellent shape, very much like a skiff. They use 
 sails on them, sometimes one, sometimes two. 
 Even the little boys are passionately fond of boats 
 and the water. They make very handsome little 
 boats, rigged with sails, and then their chief 
 amusement is in wading along the beach and drag- 
 ging them in the water. 
 
 "If nothing providential hinders I expect to 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 157 
 
 start on Tuesday to visit the stations on the main- 
 land and preach to the people there. The out- 
 stations are occupied by Scripture readers, who hold 
 prayer-meetings and make exhortations. It was 
 the intention of the mission for some one of the 
 missionaries to visit these stations once a month, 
 but this has not been done of late because of the 
 smallness of our force. Dr. Nassau is so much 
 troubled with sea-sickness when he sails that it is 
 almost impossible for him to leave the island ; be- 
 sides, his other duties — of school, etc. — make his 
 hands full. So I have offered to take the work at 
 the out-stations until more help comes. Dr. Nas- 
 sau is a fine singer and very fond of music. He 
 teaches all the children under his care to sing. 
 Many of the natives who have been about the mis- 
 sion sing very well, and even start quite a number 
 of tunes. When I preach, I generally depend on 
 my interpreter to raise the tunes. 
 
 " Dr. Nassau is expecting his wife out again be- 
 fore long. She seems to be very active and ener- 
 getic, and has a share in doing everything that is 
 to be done. She is fond of gardening, and has in- 
 stilled quite a love for the art into the doctor. He 
 has a fine large garden of sweet potatoes, which are 
 easily cultivated. The whole process consists in 
 
158 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 throwing up some ridges of earth and breaking 
 off some pieces of green potato vine and sticking 
 them in, and in a few weeks you have a flourish- 
 ing crop. Indeed, they grow all around wherever 
 a, piece of vine is thrown down. 
 
 "Our farm here is not large, perhaps three acres 
 in all, but with the amount of stock on it — viz., a 
 horse, two cattle, twenty goats and half a dozen 
 sheep — w r e have a good deal of trouble as well as on 
 larger farms, but not in providing food. All that is 
 necessary is simply to let them run and feed on the 
 grass all the year round. It grows very rank, and 
 a little piece of ground will produce a great deal. 
 It is never safe to let a sheep or a goat outside the 
 enclosure, as it is almost sure to be stolen. Even 
 the cattle of the missionaries at Gaboon are pretty 
 sure to be speared by the natives when they wan- 
 der away from the mission grounds. 
 
 "August 13. — My last letter from home was 
 dated 29th of March, wellnigh five months ago, 
 and we are still in ignorance of home affairs. For 
 lack of anything later, and for sake of bringing up 
 home pictures more vividly, last night I took out 
 the letters that I have received from home since I 
 left and re-read them. This was at least some 
 satisfaction. Five have reached me in all. One 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 159 
 
 of the continual temptations here is to have one's 
 thoughts running backward to home and friends 
 perhaps more than is right. The reasons are, first, 
 that one has no social enjoyments here, and it is 
 hard to root out the natural craving after friends 
 and friendly intercourse ; and since the craving can- 
 not be satisfied with the reality, one is constantly 
 tempted to be reaching backward after the shadow 
 or the remembrance of what was. Then, also, the 
 utter absence of outward business and stir and ex- 
 citement to draw off the attention has the effect of 
 turning one's thoughts altogether inward, there to 
 be occupied in studying one's thoughts and feelings 
 and experiences, or else in running back over the 
 memories of the past, gathering out the bright 
 spots for good cheer, and ruminating over the 
 darker ones to learn some lesson for the future. I 
 try, however, to bring my dreaming within certain 
 bounds, and do but little of it at other times, unless 
 occasionally when the tide breaks over all bounds 
 and takes its course. 
 
 " But aside from all this, I am perfectly content 
 in my African home, and would not give up my 
 field of labor here for any that I have had, or 
 might hope to have, in my own land. I say this 
 from the feeling that it is my proper place, and 
 
160 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 that God has sent me here in answer to prayer and 
 a sincere desire that I might be placed just where 
 my life might tell most truly for good and for 
 God's glory. Certainly, in the economy of God, 
 there is a place for every child of his, to which he 
 is in every way better adapted than to any other, 
 and in which he will accomplish more than in any 
 other. He made none of us without some design. 
 He had some end to accomplish in the creation of 
 each one of us; and if we seek earnestly and sub- 
 missively and prayerfully to have him fulfill his 
 whole will in us, we shall never be disappointed, 
 and in the end God shall surely be glorified. 
 
 " One of the most important effects on myself 
 that I look for here, and sincerely desire, is that 
 my worldliness may be in some measure subdued — 
 I mean my fondness for society and pleasure of a 
 social kind. It seems in all my past life to have 
 had possession of me like a demon, almost, and to 
 have hurried me along under its mad sway. And 
 yet so weak am I that if subjected to the same 
 temptations, unless kept by the mighty power of 
 God, I should be hurried away as madly again. 
 Every man in his best unaided strength is like a 
 reed before the blast; he bends and shakes until 
 the storm is past, and when the next wind blows 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 161 
 
 he bends and shakes again. They are blessed 
 above all others who mind religion in the earliest 
 dawn of life ; they are saved from many a snare 
 and from many a sorrow for time spent in folly. 
 
 " Since coming to Corisco I have seen but little 
 that is rare of the animal or reptile kind. There 
 is not much variety in that way on Corisco. Liz- 
 ards, it is true, run about on all sides and under 
 your feet, and birds in great variety — and some of 
 them, too, very beautiful — fly all around, and little 
 squirrels jump about within a few yards of you. 
 There are also some snakes, but I have seen only 
 a few. To-day, as the spring is about failing (they 
 always do here in the dry season), I opened the 
 large cistern, so that we could use the water in it. 
 Two snakes had found their way into it before us ; 
 one was dead and putrid, the other alive and 
 sprightly. They were five or six feet long, and 
 seemed to be a variety of the cobra di capello, and 
 are very poisonous. The living one I soon put 
 an end to with the cutlass. These are, I think, 
 the only snakes that I have seen on the island. 
 
 " Monday, August 14. — Yesterday I preached as 
 
 usual at Alongo and in one of the towns near by. 
 
 My congregations have been steadily increasing, 
 
 and give me great encouragement both by their 
 11 
 
162 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 quietness and attention and by the numbers that 
 come. This makes me hopeful that by preaching 
 to them patiently, earnestly and prayerfully their 
 hearts may yet be reached. I spend one day in 
 every week going around among their towns to 
 preach and invite them to church. There is no 
 desire among them to hear the gospel, as is often 
 supposed in America. They are too deeply buried 
 in darkness and in sin to know or feel their need 
 of it. But this, instead of being a reason for with- 
 holding the gospel, is only the stronger argument 
 for pressing and urging it upon them, 'compelling 
 them to come in.' Most of them, when urged to 
 come, make the promise to come simply to get rid 
 of you, or else they allow some trifling excuse to 
 keep them away. The older ones, who are attached 
 to their customs and heathenish practices, say that 
 it is better to stay away and to keep their wives 
 away, for they do not want to become Christians, 
 and that if they go to church they would be very 
 apt to do so. But I am persuaded that, stubborn 
 as the natural heart is, multitudes will yet bend 
 their necks to the sway of Him whose yoke is 
 easy and w r hose burden is light. 
 
 " We had a short visit to-day from three or four 
 traders on Ilobv. Some of them are very nice, 
 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 163 
 
 gentlemanly young Scotchmen, who have come 
 out to this coast for sake of the higher salaries 
 given by their employers in Scotland. One was 
 a handsome young fellow with a fine noble face, 
 but very pale. His name, Maclachlan. He came 
 to consult the doctor about his health, and had 
 fears of consumption, but the doctor relieved his 
 fears and told him there was no particular danger. 
 He put three dollars into my hand as he went away 
 for the benefit of the mission. It makes me sorry 
 to see a fine young fellow come out here as a trader, 
 because almost certain ruin is the result. There 
 are no restraints of society, no wholesome influence 
 of any kind, while on the other hand they have 
 every opportunity to run into all possible excess 
 and to indulge every appetite and passion. Many 
 a noble young Scotchman along this coast has fallen 
 a shattered wreck before he reached mature man- 
 hood, and his bones lie mouldering under the 
 sands. 
 
 "I have promised to spend next Sabbath at 
 Iloby and preach there on my way back from 
 the mainland. I would that I could be instru- 
 mental in doing them some good ! There are five 
 or six of them there now, and one of them was 
 anxious to have me come and preach to them, as 
 
164 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 he said they had no Sabbath at all there now, but 
 that Sabbath was their greatest trade-day. The 
 factories of the traders of which you read in Du 
 Chaillu are simply stores in which they keep goods — 
 viz., clothes, beads, rum, tobacco, etc. — to trade to 
 the natives for dyewoods, India rubber, ivory, 
 palm oil, etc., which they send back to England 
 and Scotland. There is indeed quite an exten- 
 sive trade all along this coast. Ships pass within 
 sight of us almost every week, and sometimes sev- 
 eral in a week. 
 
 u I have never mentioned in any of my letters, 
 I think, the use I made of Mrs. M'DowelPs con- 
 tribution. Let her know that it was invested in 
 Bibles, which were presented to four little boys in 
 Alongo school. They are learning to read them, 
 and I hope she will add her fervent prayers that 
 they may also learn to obey them ; and doubtless 
 the day will come that they will rise up and call 
 her blessed. I wish that many more would follow 
 her example. Many a dollar might be given that 
 would never be missed by the giver, and yet if 
 prayer, earnest and believing prayer, went with 
 it, it would kindle a light in some soul which 
 would at last blend its rays with the light that 
 is uncreated. A soul plucked from this darkness 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 165 
 
 and planted in the light, there to shine for ever 
 calm and beautiful as a star — that would be a rare 
 reward for a little self-denial. I have thought 
 much of late that I could ask no higher gift of 
 God for me than that I might be so wrapped up 
 in a desire for his glory and for the good of this 
 people as that I should bend every thought and 
 every energy, while I live, to this end. But, alas ! 
 it is with me as I suppose it is with many others : 
 I have exalted conceptions of what I would like 
 to do and like to be, but my progress toward the 
 mark is slow. I only seem to sit and resolve, and 
 then let the matter end, though I hope it is not 
 altogether so. 
 
 u For the last two or three weeks my progress in 
 the study of the Benga has been slow. Building 
 fence and roofing the church were interruptions, but 
 it was necessary that these should be done while the 
 dry season lasted, and my interpreter for the last 
 week has not come. His brother, the headman of 
 the town, has lately died, and his excuse is that 
 since then much business falls on him. It is pos- 
 sible that we may have to dissolve partnership. I 
 had hoped that our letters would get here before I 
 left for the mainland, but there is no sign of their 
 reaching us." 
 

 166 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 To his mother and sister : 
 
 " Corisco, August 23, 1864. 
 
 "I am safely back again from my journey to the 
 mainland. It was very pleasant, and the weari- 
 someness seemed as nothing because of the delight- 
 fulness of the work. On Tuesday, 16th, after due 
 preparation for a week's boating, I got off on my 
 first preaching tour to the mainland. The prepa- 
 ration kept me busy all the morning — that is, getting 
 the men (six in number) ready, getting the boat 
 launched, the mast np and the sails ready, etc., 
 and then, too, getting some shawls for sleeping on 
 and under (for there are no beds on the mainland), 
 and overcoats, and extra clothing for emergencies, 
 and a stock of medicines also in case of sickness. 
 Then also some cloth and knives, etc., must be 
 taken along to buy food for the men ; also some 
 supplies for the Scripture readers whom I went to 
 visit. Besides these, my own larder had to be 
 stocked ; for there is no white man's food there, 
 unless it be an occasional chicken. Mrs. Mackey 
 presided over this part, and stocked a small box for 
 me with roast beef, and chicken, and crackers, and 
 cakes, and bread, with the necessary helps in eating, 
 viz., knife and fork, plate, towels, etc., also a 
 candle or two and some matches. Thus comfort- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 167 
 
 ably equipped, I started off near noon with my 
 crew of six and two or three passengers. 
 
 " Our boat skimmed along the water before a 
 good breeze beautifully as a bird. It is only an 
 open boat, very much like a large skiff, perhaps 
 thirty feet or more long ; very strong it is, and will 
 carry a heavy load. We had not traveled very far 
 until I felt my old squeamishness returning, and as 
 the best preventive I laid down on my back and shut 
 my eyes. This plan would have succeeded, I think, 
 but presently some of the men called out that they 
 had brought nothing to bail out water with ; and as 
 the water was coming in, I was obliged to get up 
 and search my box for something that would an- 
 swer, and fortunately found a small tin bucket 
 filled with cakes which could easily be emptied. 
 But the getting up unsettled my stomach, and I w r as 
 seasick — sick enough indeed. But it was soon over, 
 at least the worst of it, and an hour or two more 
 of sailing brought us to Big Eloby, our first stop- 
 ping-place. 
 
 " Big Eloby and Little Eloby are small islands 
 directly east of Corisco, twelve miles from it and 
 within four miles of the mainland. Little Eloby 
 is perhaps one and a half miles in circumference, 
 and is occupied by five or six traders who have 
 
168 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 their factories there, and trade with the natives, 
 who bring them India rubber and barwood down 
 the river Muni, immediately opposite Big Eloby, 
 which is occupied altogether by natives, of whom 
 there are perhaps several hundred. We have a 
 station and one Scripture reader there, Eavo by 
 name, a very efficient, earnest man. 
 
 " We anchored at Eavo's station about 2 o'clock ; 
 and leaving one of the natives to watch the boat, 
 and getting on the back of another (this is the 
 usual way of being landed from boats here, to avoid 
 wetting of our clothes by the surf), I went ashore. 
 Eavo took me to his bamboo house, which is house 
 and church all in one, and belongs to the mis- 
 sion, and gave me a room. I was glad to lie down 
 for a little time on the bed (an oblong frame with 
 nothing but bamboo splits laid on it) and take a rest. 
 It takes but little to weary one in such a climate 
 as this. I cannot tell why it is, but all know by 
 experience that it is so. I had not rested long until 
 I heard the voice of zealous Eavo talking away very 
 earnestly in the next room ; and as I after a while 
 peered through where he was, I found him sitting 
 by the table with the gospel of Matthew (in 
 Benga) in his hand, expounding it to a young na- 
 tive with a grave and attentive face on the other 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 169 
 
 side of the table. I went around afterward 
 through six or seven of the towns to see the people 
 and invite them to church, as I intended to preach 
 at night. These towns had a sad and dreary 
 aspect to rue, and I scarcely knew why until I 
 smelt the rum on the breath of the men, and then 
 I knew. They live near to the factories, where rum 
 is bartered freely as water, and the poor creatures 
 drink like beasts. May our Father who is merci- 
 ful forgive the traders this great wrong ! Death and 
 sorrow and sin follow in their track ; and where 
 the missionaries seek to lure men up to God and 
 heaven, these others, with their cruel snares, gather 
 up scores and hurry them down to hell. 
 
 " When night came on, quite a houseful of men 
 and women gathered in to hear the word. After 
 preaching six inquirers remained, with whom I 
 spent half an hour or more trying to teach them 
 the way to Christ. They have been inquirers for 
 some time, and seem to have gained some know- 
 ledge of the - way/ but it is hard for minds so 
 dark to gain a clear and saving view of the way to 
 be saved. If the Spirit of God is leading them, 
 they will at last see the light. Nothing is too hard 
 for God to do ; he can give sight to all that are 
 blind. I supped before services on a part of my 
 
170 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 cold chicken and some cakes and a glass of water, 
 which I also carried in my box, for good water is 
 hard to get in many places. After all the duties 
 of the day were done I lay down on my bed of 
 bamboo splits with a shawl under me and one over 
 me, and my carpet-bag under my head for a pillow, 
 and thus slept with tolerable comfort until the 
 morning. 
 
 "On Wednesday, 17th, I was up a considerable 
 while before day to be off on my journey. I sat 
 down on the side of my bed and breakfasted on 
 the rest of my chicken by the light of the moon, 
 which was pouring in brightly at the window. 
 After prayer with the men we were again in the 
 boat and away before a nice morning breeze. 
 Eavo went with us to a point on the mainland 
 where his wife was on a visit, and where he wished 
 to talk to the people from the Scriptures. 
 
 " We stopped for a moment at Cape St. John, 
 the most northern point of Corisco Bay, to let one 
 of our passengers off. A little farther up the coast 
 we stopped till a canoe came off for the other. 
 About noon we came to Aje, one of the nearest 
 stations on the mainland, about thirty-five miles 
 from Corisco. There is a large native town here 
 at the mouth of the Aje River. The people speak 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 171 
 
 the Benga language with little variation, but they 
 belong to the Bapuku tribe. Many of them stood 
 on the bank as we sailed into the mouth of the 
 river, and hailed our arrival with evident delight. 
 I soon found Makendenga and Ilanga, our Scrip- 
 ture readers at that point, and went with them to 
 the station-house, which was soon crowded with 
 curious faces anxious to hear the news and to see a 
 strange white man. As I was tired and sick with 
 the headache from boating, I laid down and rested 
 for an hour on the bamboo splits. They cooked 
 me a chicken and an egg ; most of the chicken I 
 gave to the men, but I drank the soup or broth, 
 which they brought me in a mug. It tasted savory 
 indeed, for I had had no warm drink on my stom- 
 ach before since I left Corisco. They had neither 
 knife nor fork nor spoon nor salt to give me, 
 though I happened to have all these with me, ex- 
 cept the spoon. There was one short wooden spoon 
 in the house, but the men had it busily going 
 round their circle from one to another, dipping, 
 each in his turn, from a pot of food in the centre. 
 The fish and boiled plantains they eat with their 
 fingers, taking all from the same dish. The im- 
 mense quantity of food that they can dispose of at 
 one time makes me open my eyes with surprise. 
 
172 GEORGE PATJLL. 
 
 a After rest and food I took a short walk around 
 through the wilderness, which is thick all about, to 
 see something of the nature of the coast. I came 
 to the river again a short distance from its 
 mouth, but found it degenerated almost into a 
 stagnant swamp. Mangroves grew plentifully all 
 through it, leaving only here and there an open 
 passage. One peculiarity of the African coast (as 
 Mr. Mackey has sometimes told American audi- 
 ences) is that the oysters grow on trees. I saw the 
 sight myself, veritable oysters growing on veritable 
 limbs of trees ! But it is the tree, not the oyster, 
 that reverses the order of nature ; the oyster keeps 
 his place, but the limbs of the tree (mangrove) 
 grow under water. There are immense quantities 
 of oysters growing in this way, not very large, nor 
 of a very good quality, but still having the proper 
 flavor. Mrs. Mackey sometimes uses them at 
 table. 
 
 "I was here, too, just in the midst of the ele- 
 phant region. I did not, however, see any, but 
 the people tell me that the elephants cause them 
 an immense deal of trouble, coming into their 
 farms at night and tearing up and eating their 
 plantains and cassada. Very few elephants, how- 
 ever, are killed in this immediate neighborhood. As 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 173 
 
 night drew on a goodly number of attentive lis- 
 teners came in and filled the house, and I preached 
 to them the story of ' God's wondrous love in giv- 
 ing his Son to die that we might live/ One of the 
 wives of the headman is an inquirer, and remained 
 after preaching. I could get but little knowledge 
 of her thoughts, but I tried to tell her in the 
 simplest terms the way to God through Christ. It 
 is a joy to think that, if no more, at least one from 
 here and there shall at last come up among the 
 redeemed in glory and help to swell the song of 
 praise to * Him that has loved us and washed us in 
 his blood/ The Scripture readers are simple- 
 hearted, kind men. It is no hard task to love 
 them and to feel that they are one with us in 
 Christ. They hold meetings for prayer morning, 
 noon and night, reading also the Scriptures and 
 talking with the people. They keep a school, to 
 which all may come who will. I had a long 
 talk with them to encourage them and urge them 
 on in their good work. 
 
 " Thursday, 18th. — This morning I was more at 
 leisure in starting, as we had only a few miles to 
 sail. So, after prayers and a light breakfast on fish 
 and eggs, we were away to the beach and in our 
 boat. Unfortunately we found the anchor fast in 
 
174 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 the sand, but a couple of willing fellows jumped 
 into the water and were soon down to the bottom 
 to see what was the matter. So by a little effort, 
 with their assistance, we at last got away. When 
 we got fairly under way our boat sailed along de- 
 lightfully before the strong breeze. The next sta- 
 tion to which we were going, and the last one, was 
 at the mouth of the Hanje, another little river 
 eight or nine miles above the Aje, and among the 
 Kombe people. Their language also differs but 
 little from the Benga. 
 
 a The Scripture readers here are Jumba and 
 Etiane, and they are noble fellows, too. We met 
 them as we went, out on the sea, going to fish with 
 some other of the natives. They came back with 
 us in our boat, and their faces showed their joy, 
 for the arrival of the mission-boat is to them very 
 much as the arrival of an American ship is to us. 
 On the beach were numbers of Kombe people gath- 
 ered, and they followed us into the house. After 
 I had sat down for a while an old headman came 
 in, and, after a profound bow and a somewhat cere- 
 monious welcome, he laid down on the table before 
 me a paper which he seemed to esteem a most im- 
 portant document. I opened it, and found it to be 
 the article of agreement between Mr. Mackey and 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 175 
 
 them for the purchase of the ground on which the 
 station stood. 
 
 "I was much pleased with the Kombe people, 
 more, indeed, than with any that I have seen in 
 Africa. They seem generous -hearted, simple- 
 minded, and have not been so spoiled by the 
 corrupting influence of trade. After I had eaten 
 some dinner, which Jumba had been careful to 
 provide (shortly after my arrival he said, 'I go 
 get chicken for you'), I preached for quite a long 
 while to about forty people on the ' parable of the 
 Prodigal Son/ and through the whole of it they 
 were as quiet and attentive an audience as any, I 
 think, I ever stood before. Later in the afternoon, 
 one or two of the young men went with me, and I 
 walked back by a narrow path in the direction of 
 the interior until I came upon the river again. 
 Here I found nearly all of the women of the 
 town busily engaged in building dams across the 
 stream to catch fish. They build two dams near 
 together, and then bail out the water between them. 
 In this way they sometimes catch quantities of fish, 
 chiefly catfish. When I left them I bade them 
 good-bye and wished them success in catching 
 plenty of fish. They said, c Bless us, that we 
 may catch plenty of fish/ and the words sent a 
 
176 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 chill through me as I thought that in their blind- 
 ness they would put man in the place of his Maker. 
 I pointed them to Him who alone has power to 
 bless and prosper in every station and duty of life. 
 They said i Yes, all the people in Hanje know that 
 your God is a very great God/ But it is a diffi- 
 cult matter to make them believe and feel that the 
 6 white man's God ' is their God also. I urged 
 them to come in to hear about God at night, but 
 they said they would be too tired to walk so far, 
 and were going to sleep on the bank of the river. 
 
 "As I returned to Hanje by another path I sud- 
 denly came upon traces of elephants, and they were 
 so recent that it startled me for a moment when 
 I thought that I was then standing in the tracks 
 that wild elephants had made not long before. As 
 I passed along I came on more frequent traces, 
 which seemed to make it evident that elephants 
 were abundant there and would not be difficult to 
 find. Late in the afternoon I went with the Scrip- 
 ture readers to examine a house, in a town a short 
 distance up the river, which they wished to hire 
 for mission purposes. We got into a canoe and 
 paddled up the narrow, deep stream. In some 
 places it was so thickly covered with mangroves 
 as scarcely to leave a passage for the canoe. It was 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 177 
 
 a quiet, solemn ride, because of the dreariness of 
 the mangroves about and overhead. At length we 
 landed in a grove of palms, about twenty in num- 
 ber, and as tall and beautiful as I have ever seen. 
 They stood in rows as though they had been 
 planted, and their branches met at the top and 
 made a deep, quiet shade underneath. They stood 
 there like majestic old columns, grand and beauti- 
 ful; and since I was in Westminster or St. Paul's 
 I have not been in a place where I felt such awe, 
 and where there seemed to be such a deep, solemn 
 quiet, as though it were a temple of the living 
 God. 
 
 "After we had examined the house I went back 
 and preached to a good audience at Hanje in the 
 evening, and conversed with the mother and sister 
 of Jumba after preaching. 
 
 "Friday, August 19. — This morning we were 
 all up by daylight, and, after prayers, got off. 
 Our own boat was anchored . out from shore nearly 
 half a mile, because of the rocks near the land, so 
 we went off to it in Jumba's boat. I bade good- 
 bye to Jumba, as noble a Christian, I think, as I 
 have ever seen; everything about him seems tem- 
 pered with the spirit of the gospel. His face 
 shines with that peculiar lustre which speaks so 
 12 
 
178 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 plainly of happiness and peace within. At an- 
 other time I hope to give you some account of 
 him, as his history is interesting. When we got 
 our sails spread I took a little breakfast, viz., 
 some biscuit, hot fish, and a glass of water. The 
 fish are cooked by wrapping them with pepper in 
 plantain leaves (green), and thus laying them on 
 the coals. My breakfast had to serve me till 
 night, as we landed nowhere and I could eat noth- 
 ing while we were sailing. The trip up the coast 
 is pleasant enough, but going back it is very 
 tedious, as the winds are all against us, and we 
 are compelled to tack back and forward all the 
 time. Thus, as we were now on our return, we 
 were sailing back and forth all day, and making 
 but little progress. In the afternoon a man and a 
 boy came off to us from the shore in a canoe. He 
 brought twenty-seven ears of dried corn, a chicken, 
 and some dried fish. I bought them all for about 
 eight cents. We buy almost everything that the 
 natives bring us, as we generally find use for it at 
 the mission. 
 
 "About night I was glad to find that we were 
 drawing near to Cape St. John, where we expected 
 to stay all night, and where I wished to preach. 
 When we got there, however, I was obliged to put 
 
GEORGE PAULR 179 
 
 off the preaching, as there was such a hubbub on 
 our arrival (about 7 J o'clock), and as the men were 
 tired and hungry, and I myself was tired and had 
 eaten nothing since daylight. When we got into a 
 hut I stretched myself out on the ' bamboo splits 9 
 to rest, while the boatmen and the people from the 
 town, who had gathered in, kept up a terrible talk- 
 ing. If any natives are near there is no quiet, for 
 they are incessant talkers and talk almost at the 
 top of their voices ; their nearness to the sea gives 
 them, I suppose, the habit of loud talking. 
 
 "At 9 o'clock the women brought in some fish 
 and boiled plantains for the men, and in an almost 
 incredibly short time they had cut up my chicken 
 and boiled it in a pot, and now I had it smoking 
 before me. The legs and wings and neck tasted 
 very savory and tender, and on these I made my 
 supper and gave the rest to the men. They found 
 me a place to sleep — a little hut which was new and 
 nice enough, but only about ten feet square, and 
 with no hole in it for ventilation or for the escape 
 of smoke but the door. It was used for parlor, 
 bed-room and kitchen. As it was a warm night, 
 and the fire left burning in the middle of the floor, 
 and as I must of necessity shut the door to keep 
 out thieves, I could scarcely imagine what would 
 
180 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 be the result by morning. But no other house 
 could be found, so I had the fire put out, and, 
 shutting my door, I laid down and slept pretty 
 well until morning. When I opened my door 
 again at daylight, I saw an old man moving about 
 near by, and from him I got some water to wash 
 my face, which refreshed me as much as my 
 sleep. 
 
 "Saturday, August 20. — As I could not preach 
 last night, I got the people together this morning 
 about 8 o'clock and preached to them, and had a 
 solemn and, I hope, profitable meeting. Soon we 
 got started again on our way to Little Eloby, where 
 I expected to spend the Sabbath and preach to the 
 traders. We were obliged to row out a consider- 
 able distance from the point so as to catch the 
 wind, but the tide was against us and also the 
 wind. After rowing a considerable distance with 
 great difficulty, and after breaking one oar, the men 
 asked me to let them put in to shore and wait for a 
 change of tide, which I thought it better to do. 
 When we landed I saw a little town on the hill 
 above the beach. So, putting a couple of bananas 
 and as many biscuits in my pocket to breakfast on 
 by the way, I took the interpreter and went up to 
 preach to the people. When we got there we 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 181 
 
 found all the people away but one woman, but 
 small as my congregation was I did not fail to 
 preach the gospel to her in as plain and simple a 
 way as I could. She said Mr. Clemens had 
 preached to them once, but she did not remember 
 what he had told them. 
 
 "After change of tide we started again, and 
 this time got under way, though with some diffi- 
 culty, and in a little while again a calm fell on us, 
 so that it was late in the afternoon before we got 
 under full sail for Eloby. I was not a little glad, 
 however, when, about 8 o'clock at night, we landed 
 at Eloby and I found my way to Mr. Watson's 
 house, and there enjoyed again some of the c white 
 man's ' cleanliness and comfort. He immediately 
 sent his boys to get me some coffee and ham and 
 eggs, which I relished after my cold food, and es- 
 pecially as I had eaten nothing that day except my 
 biscuits and bananas in the morning. 
 
 "The five or six traders settled on this little 
 island (about a mile and a half in circumference) 
 live very comfortably in bachelor style, as there 
 are no white ladies in this part of Africa except 
 missionary ladies. They have good houses and 
 plenty of goods which they exchange with the na- 
 tives for India-rubber, bass-wood, ivory, etc., as 
 
182 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 they bring these to them from the mainland. I 
 was acquainted with the other traders on the island, 
 and they came in to see me shortly after I arrived 
 at Mr. Watson's. 
 
 "Sabbath, August 21. — This morning before I 
 got up I heard Mr. Watson calling to me that the 
 mail had at last come — the mail for which we had 
 been looking for the last twenty days. My letters 
 were among the rest, for I had left directions to 
 have them sent to Eloby to meet me, if the mail 
 should come while I was gone. I had quite a 
 package — two mails in one. I read my home 
 letters and another one, but the rest I put aside 
 until Monday. I spent a tolerably quiet and 
 pleasant Sabbath here; the traders met and I 
 preached to them as plainly and pointedly as I 
 could. They were apparently very glad to have 
 services, and when preaching was over one of them 
 passed a hat around and took up a collection for 
 the mission. They handed me five dollars in sil- 
 ver ; I suppose each man gave a dollar. 
 
 "Monday, August 22. — Started early from Eloby 
 this morning and reached Corisco about noon. It 
 is much more comfortable on land than tossing 
 about on the sea ; but we are not to study comfort 
 when all Africa is dying for the lack of light. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 183 
 
 "Thursday, September 1. — To-day our mail for 
 September came, and although I had scarcely- 
 digested all the good news I had received a few 
 days before, yet I gave it a hearty welcome. We 
 learn by this mail that our supplies and reinforce- 
 ments will be likely to reach us by the last of the 
 month. It will be a great day when a ship from 
 America lands at Corisco and brings more mission- 
 aries. Dr. Nassau is very busy fixing up every- 
 thing about his premises to receive his wife. I am 
 busy rebuilding the boat-house and reroofing part 
 of the dwelling-house, and attending to everything 
 that is to be done before the rains commence, which 
 will be about the 15th of this month. Will also 
 have to take an inventory of all the mission prop- 
 erty, so as to make report to the Board at the end 
 of the year, and also to put in order the store-house 
 to receive the new supplies. 
 
 "Saturday, September 3. — Spent part of this day 
 dressing up and cleaning out our little grave-yard, 
 so that it might not seem overgrown and neglected 
 when Mr. de Heer comes — his wife lies buried 
 there. 
 
 "Sabbath, 4th. — Preached at Alongo. Had a good 
 turn-out, about forty-four in number, and among 
 them two or three old headmen. At night I con- 
 
184 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 ducted the services for Dr. Nassau at Evangasimba. 
 It was monthly concert. We have monthly con- 
 cert and take a collection on the first Sabbath of 
 every month. 
 
 " Our heavenly Father has kept me thus far in 
 remarkably good health, much better, indeed, than 
 is common for new-comers, however I dare not 
 boast, but should be humble and thankful. 
 
 " I could scarcely venture so long a letter as this 
 for any place but home, lest it would seem a weari- 
 some task to read it; but I can trust that you will 
 not grow weary of it, unless by some means I have 
 failed to make it interesting. I shall not always 
 write you at so great length, but as long as I live 
 and my parents live I hope to write regularly, 
 and at some length, too, if by this means I can 
 afford any gratification to them. This is probably 
 the only means left me, or the only way that I 
 shall ever have of contributing to their enjoyment 
 or comfort. And whatever time I may spend in 
 this way I shall look upon as time well and accept- 
 ably spent. 
 
 " We are looking for Mr. de Heer, Mrs. 
 Clemens and Mrs. Nassau about the last of this 
 month ; we have heard from them and of their 
 arrival on the coast, a good piece north, about Li- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 185 
 
 beria. It will be a very busy time when the 
 vessel reaches here. There are many of my friends 
 to whom I would be glad to write, but I find if I 
 carry on a large correspondence, it will consume a 
 great amount of my time which I cannot conscien- 
 tiously spare from my work here. I have never 
 been able to get a letter off to my old friends at 
 Morrison, Illinois, until this mail. It was a 
 shame to neglect any who have been so kind to me 
 for so long a time, but it seemed unavoidable. 
 
 " August 23. — Conducted the prayer-meeting at 
 Evangasimba ; spoke to the people on the healing 
 of blind Bartimeus. Gave out the hymn, ' Awake, 
 and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb/ 
 While waiting for Mrs. Mackey to raise the tune, 
 my ears were surprised to hear some sweet strains 
 coming from another quarter of the house. It was 
 from the little girls of the school — about twenty in 
 number, and most of them from ten to fourteen 
 years of age. They had commenced to the tune of 
 ' There'll be no more sorrow there/ and with their 
 soft young voices they made music so sweet that 
 my heart was melted almost to tears. In the dark- 
 ness of a heathen land, to hear the praise of Jesus 
 sung so sweetly makes one dream of heaven. 
 
 " August 29. — Preached yesterday at Alongo on 
 
186 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 6 Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die V Not a 
 very large congregation. Preached in the after- 
 noon at Ngume's tow r n, on i Whosoever will, let 
 him take of the water of life freely/ Fever took 
 hold of me slightly in the afternoon, probably the 
 effects of my Kombe trip. The fever is also on me 
 to-day, with headache and a sore eye. Last night 
 I w T as restless. Have set the men at the boat- 
 house this morning to repair it. 
 
 "September 16. — Eecovered to-day from my 
 fourth attack of fever. All have been light, last- 
 ing only a few days at most, and only producing a 
 feeling of inexpressible worthlessness." 
 
 In a letter dated Corisco, October 5, 1864, to his 
 brother James, Mr. Paull w T rites : " The friendship 
 of any that have been my true friends I find has not 
 grown w T eaker by my being so far away ; nor do I 
 believe it ever will. But even if it did, this much 
 I know — that I could still be happy here in my 
 work, and in the comforts God can and does bestow, 
 were I assured that I had not a friend on earth. 
 They greatly mistake who think it a dry and 
 dreary life to be a Christian. If it is dry and 
 dreary to be full of peace, to be perfectly contented 
 and happy wherever God places you or with what- 
 ever he sends you, to be ready for either life or 
 
 t> 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 187 
 
 death, rather indeed preferring to die than to 
 live, then it is dry and dreary to be a Christian. 
 If you are not one yet, Jim, this will be like hold- 
 ing up a beautiful flower and discussing its form 
 and varied colors to a blind boy ; you will neither 
 see nor appreciate what I have said. You think 
 your pleasures now are delightful ; so does every 
 one of your age ; but when you become a Christian 
 you will wish that you had let them go to the wind, 
 and that you had sought with all your heart the joy 
 which is so much purer. Begin to look heavenward 
 with all your heart ; be in earnest." 
 
 To his parents : 
 
 " Evangasimba Station, October 20, 1864. 
 
 " This morning we got our mail away to Gaboon, 
 and I am determined not to delay my letter-writ- 
 ing so long. I would like to make my letters for 
 home a record of current events. The pressure of 
 business is over, and I am beginning to think of 
 getting ready for my monthly trip to the stations 
 on the mainland, and also of taking up again in 
 earnest the study of the Benga. 
 
 " I saddled Charley this afternoon, and took a 
 ride to Alongo to see how Mr. and Mrs. De Heer 
 were getting on in their new home. As I rode 
 along the white and glistening beach I saw a 
 
188 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 fine picture of African life. Just by a clus- 
 ter of cocoanut trees a batch of people were 
 lounging on the sand, half in the sun and half 
 in the shade. Some one had exerted him- 
 self and pulled some cocoanuts, so the rest and 
 he together were enjoying the fruit of his la- 
 bor. They seemed to be happy as kings as they 
 lounged on the sand, drinking the rich milk that 
 the cocoanut gives without labor or price. One 
 cocoanut was left as I rode among them, which 
 they gave me, tearing off the thick outer husk so 
 that I could easily get at the milk. After drinking 
 my draught, and promising the boy who gave it 
 some pay when he came to Evangasimba, I rode on 
 to Mr. De Heer's. 
 
 "Monday, October 24. — Yesterday was my day 
 to preach at Gobi. On my way I saw what the 
 Psalmist meant when he spoke of 'the dark places 
 of the earth being full of the habitations of cru- 
 elty/ and also I understood better the thought that 
 was in Paul's mind when he spoke of the heathen 
 as being 'past feeling.' A little fellow about ten 
 years old was lying on the sand of the beach cry- 
 ing with all his might. Three almost grown men 
 had hold of his arms and legs and were scraping 
 and scouring him (for he was almost covered with 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 189 
 
 sand) with pieces of bamboo as you would a pig. 
 The fellows left off their work as I came up and 
 commenced to explain that he was sick, and this 
 was their manner of cure ; and I suppose this is 
 the usual way of curing such diseases, but it makes 
 one's blood run cold to think of its cruelty. The 
 little fellow was covered with scabs and sores, and 
 these they scraped with their sticks and sand until 
 blood was coming from every sore ; then they sent 
 him with his fresh and bleeding wounds to wash 
 in the salt sea. My heart bled for the little fellow, 
 but the chief work was done when I got there. 
 They seem to have no tenderness of feeling, no 
 sympathy with suffering; their hearts seem to be 
 blunted by sin until they are hard as a rock. 
 These skin diseases are remarkably common 
 among the people, and are among the most 
 pitiful and sickening sights that one meets with. 
 I suppose they are brought on by their abomi- 
 nable lives. Some of them live like beasts, and 
 are besotted with almost every crime. Sometimes 
 I have seen their noses eaten away, their bodies 
 and limbs shriveled up at times. Often I see 
 great and incurable ulcers in different parts of 
 the body, and a sort of leprosy is common among 
 them which makes their appearance loathsome. 
 
190 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 Hundreds of years yet to come may not do 
 away with these terrible sights. Little by little, 
 as they learn to know the great Physician and 
 seek his balm to heal the heart, many of their 
 bodily ills will pass away, for a pure heart will 
 make a holy life, and it is their impure life that 
 brings their diseases. 
 
 " Men at home do not know anything of Af- 
 rica's sorrows. Poor people ! the heart that sees 
 them can pity, but they need more than pity. 
 Strong hands and kind hearts are needed — they 
 are needed here by the score — who will point 
 them to better things and help them to rise up 
 and enjoy them. America, looking back from this 
 land, gives one a peculiar feeling. It is impos- 
 sible to convince one's self that ministers or Chris- 
 tians there do one tithe of what they ought to for 
 this wretched people. The land at home seems full 
 of ministers, who crowd and jostle each other to 
 get a little flock to whom they may give the bread 
 of life, but they forget to turn and look for a mo- 
 ment this way, where mighty hosts of these miser- 
 able people are starving to death for lack of this 
 very bread which they could so easily spare. 
 
 " Tlmrsday, October 27. — This is one of Africa's 
 most beautiful mornings. The thermometer stands 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 191 
 
 between 75° and 80°, and the dryness of the air 
 has been moistened and cooled by last night's rain. 
 It is such mornings as these that make one think 
 Corisco almost a paradise. The plantains all around 
 with their great leaves wave and rustle in the 
 breeze, and the orange trees begin to give forth a 
 fragrant smell, for they are just now laden with 
 delicate white blossoms and with the new growth 
 of buds and leaves, and the lemon trees are full 
 of rich green fruit, just a little more than formed. 
 The wild flowers, too, are springing all around, 
 and every footpath is made beautiful with them. 
 Over the tree-tops clamber thousands of vines 
 bearing a rich burden of beautiful bell-shaped 
 flowers; and the great African lilies are putting 
 out here and there in two or three different vari- 
 eties. Indeed everything, since the rains are com- 
 ing, is beginning to look beautiful and bright, and 
 the air is almost enchanting, just warm enough to 
 be pleasant, and kept fresh by a constant breeze 
 from the sea. If anything else is needed to add 
 to the pleasantness of this African home, then we 
 have it in the songs of the birds which throng 
 every bush and tree in hosts almost innumerable, 
 and warble forth their constant songs sweeter and 
 richer, I think, than any I have ever heard before. 
 
192 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "The wife of my old friend JSTqume came this 
 morning carrying a chicken and a bunch of plan- 
 tains, but she would not sell them to Mrs. Mackey. 
 She said Nqume had sent them as a dash (a pres- 
 ent) to i Pauloo.' It is usually very nice to receive 
 presents, but the case is somewhat different among 
 this people : they think that every good turn de- 
 serves another and a far better. If they give you 
 a little thing they expect a big one in return. So 
 as Nqume's wife went away she very quietly took 
 hold of her cloth or dress, and pointing to it said 
 that it was all she had, intimating that a new dress 
 would be a very acceptable present. So I suppose 
 I shall have to give her one. I gave Nqume a 
 cloth some time ago, and he immediately suggested 
 that he would like to have some tobacco, and not 
 long after he modestly hinted that he ought to have 
 a new hat also. 
 
 " The people need but little clothing ; the usual 
 dress of both men and women is simply a piece of 
 cotton cloth or calico wrapped about them. This, 
 with a string of beads and an old hat, if they can 
 get one (though they are usually bareheaded), com- 
 pletes the outfit. Some are beginning to wear 
 shirts, which are made up by the girls in the 
 mission, and some of those who have been under 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 193 
 
 the instruction of the mission wear coat and pants. 
 If one of the old headmen gets a present of a coat 
 or hat he will wear it on particular occasions, but 
 not ordinarily. 
 
 " As I rode up to Gobi last Sabbath I met old 
 Peter, the oldest headman, perhaps, on the island, 
 and the one who was heir to the throne when the 
 last king died, but he refused the honor. Peter 
 is a little round-headed, funny-looking man, and 
 when I met him he was dressed in his Sunday 
 suit, which made him look all the more odd. He 
 had a big silk hat, a little worse for the wear and 
 somewhat dinged, a tremendous large coat made of 
 heavy cloth and reaching to his knees, looked like 
 an overcoat, and this he had buttoned. Thus he 
 trudged along thinking himself finely dressed, 
 though he was barefooted and barelegged to the 
 knees. 
 
 "November 1. — I would have been away to-day 
 on my trip to the mainland, but concluded to wait 
 another day for the mail. We saw the French 
 steamer on her way to Gaboon. We are all anxious 
 to get our letters. 
 
 "I received by the last mail a note from Dr. 
 Plumer. He says, 'I forewarned you, I believe, 
 that your correspondence would fail to come up to 
 
 13 
 
194 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 time. Jehovah Jireh' — the Lord will provide. 
 So I find it — the Lord provides : and I would not 
 fear any lack of happiness, come what might. 
 
 " Lizzie in her long letter of July 26 gives me 
 an account of the celebration of the 4th, and very 
 vividly the whole picture comes up before me. I 
 remember everything about home with strange 
 distinctness. Every hill and valley, every farm 
 and field, every tree and shrub and rivulet stands 
 out so clearly in my mind that I seem to walk 
 among them again. The features of every face are 
 clear, and every voice sounds distinctly, so that I 
 seem to be walking and talking among you as of 
 old. It seems but a step home again, and I often 
 pass through the front gate and up the yard, and 
 into the house, and through every room and out 
 again into the orchard or through the fields. All 
 this gives me pleasure, but I am not unhappy when 
 I come to myself and find that my home is here. 
 On the contrary, my happiness is truer and purer 
 here, at my sacred work in this dark land, than 
 ever it has been in my life before. If God takes 
 away some comforts, he well knows how to replace 
 them with others which are fourfold richer and 
 better. It is a good God that we serve ; all the 
 treasures of his storehouse are thrown open to us 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 195 
 
 when we draw near to him. Honey is not sweeter 
 than is the love of Christ, when we keep near to 
 him and constrain him by our importunity to abide 
 with us. 
 
 " My privations have not been very great, nor 
 have I been called on to make sacrifices such as 
 many other missionaries have made — at least not 
 such sacrifices as the world will ever know of — 
 but such as they are, already it seems to me accord- 
 ing to the promise, a ' hundred-fold ; has been 
 returned in spiritual blessings ; and the promise of 
 'life everlasting } with its infinite fullness is yet to 
 be made good. Happy are we whose God is the 
 Lord. People of the world who know nothing of 
 the love of Christ think us fools for rejoicing in 
 him, but I think I can say that I am perfectly 
 willing to be called a fool for his sake. It is no 
 hazardous venture when we stake everything for 
 time and eternity on the love and faithfulness of 
 Christ ; but we only know T this when we have made 
 the venture. 
 
 " I am glad to learn that father's health is so 
 much better and that everything about home is so 
 prosperous and cheering. It was one of our gloomy 
 forebodings when I thought of becoming a mission- 
 ary that his health might fail, and when I would be 
 
196 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 most needed at home I would be far away among 
 the heathen. But divine faithfulness crowns every 
 step in the path of duty with blessings ; his health, 
 instead of failing, has only grown better, and we 
 will pray that it may still continue to do so. I am 
 sorry to know that Mr. Burnet (pastor at C.) is so 
 feeble as to walk on crutches. He has often been 
 in my mind, and I trust I have sometimes been in 
 his prayers. It is pleasant to hope that the Chris- 
 tians about home, for whom I have a warmer 
 regard than ever, sometimes remember me when 
 they pray. Aunt E. ? s troubles are very sore. I 
 suppose she is weighed down with sorrow and can 
 hardly read aright the lesson that God is teaching 
 her — ( Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.' If 
 this is the way we are permitted to look at our 
 sorrows, then the burden becomes light, and we are 
 tempted to say, ' If by our sorrows we may know 
 that thou dost love us, then, O Lord, let them 
 come ! ? 
 
 " Our mail came this evening, bringing a good 
 long letter from mother, which was full of satisfac- 
 tion, as her letters always are. As a correspondent 
 I fear that none of us, her children, will ever equal 
 her. A short letter also came from Mr. Mackey, 
 and it gave us no little joy to know that he is now 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 197 
 
 on his way back to Corisco, and will doubtless be 
 here by the next mail. This will free me from the 
 secular work, and then I will be a missionary. I 
 had a letter from Rev. W. Thompson, in Glasgow, 
 telling me that he expects to bring a wife out with 
 him to Calabar. I met the lady in Scotland. 
 African life will be a change for her, as she lived 
 in splendid style, with every comfort that she could 
 desire, in Glasgow. Since my letters have come, I 
 start on my trip to-morrow morning to visit the 
 stations on the mainland. 
 
 " November 2. — Started to-day for Kombe and 
 Benita; reached Iloby and stayed over night. 
 
 " November 3. — Reached Aje and spent the night; 
 preached to a full house. 
 
 "November 4. — Eeached Hanje and spent the 
 night. 
 
 " November 5. — Reached Benita — -preached. 
 
 "November 6. — Preached in three towns at 
 Benita — placed Mbata there. Everything prom- 
 ising. 
 
 "November 9. — Reached home to-night. Landed 
 on the east side and took tea with Mrs. De Heer. 
 
 "November 19. — I have not written since my 
 return from the mainland, and I will not say any- 
 thing of the trip now. I am very well ; surely I 
 
198 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 never was in better health. Dr. Nassau remarked 
 to-night that I looked younger than when I came. 
 I visited Mr. De Heer the other day to give them 
 some account of my mainland trip. They are 
 greatly interested in the mainland work, and ex- 
 pect to go there when Mr. Clark comes. My own 
 opinion and the opinion of the rest of the mission- 
 aries is, that the mainland is just as healthy as 
 Corisco. The traders that live on the coast have 
 just as good health as we. There is a mighty and 
 a noble work to do here; other generations for 
 hundreds of years to come may find an outlet to 
 their zeal here, and I pray that the zeal in each 
 coming generation may be a thousand-fold greater 
 than it is now. If Christ is to get his inheritance 
 among the heathen soon, then Christian parents 
 must begin to teach their children to love missions 
 at home around the fireside : there is where mis- 
 sionaries grow. If the claims of the heathen and 
 their deep wretchedness become a common topic 
 around every Christian fireside, and if constant 
 prayer also is made to God for them, then the next 
 generation will see multitudes of earnest hearts 
 hastening to heathen shores, where there is now 
 but a lone traveler. 
 
 " November 20. — I write a few lines to close my 
 
GEORGE PAULL 199 
 
 letter to-night and give you the latest possible 
 word. We have just come in from evening services 
 at the church, which is at one end of our yard. 
 We have been greatly troubled with thieves of 
 late stealing chickens and plantains. Mrs. Mackey 
 came out of church this evening for a moment and 
 saw a fellow passing along in the dark by the 
 house. We found his tracks when we came home, 
 but that will not amount to much without the thief. 
 We have the house and grounds all surrounded 
 with a fence of sharp and strong pickets, but still 
 they get in. They almost think it no harm to steal, 
 particularly from white people; for they think 
 their goods and property come to them for nothing. 
 " Our ears have been stunned this evening, and 
 indeed for several days, by a great drumming and 
 noise at a town near by. The headman of the town 
 is sick, and the people are trying to drive away the 
 evil spirit that has made him sick. They dance 
 and halloo and beat their drums, and make the sick 
 man dance as long as he is able. This is a part of 
 their medicine for sick people. I went to Gobi 
 to-day to preach. As it rained nearly all day I 
 scarcely expected anybody out, but I was surprised 
 and glad to find twenty-five or thirty there from the 
 towns." 
 
200 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "November, 1864. 
 
 " I promised to send you some little sketch of 
 my last trip to the mainland. Perhaps it may be 
 of some interest, or at least entertain you a little; 
 and if it does this it is well, for this is almost the 
 only possible way left me of contributing to your 
 enjoyment. Making these trips every month or six 
 weeks is now my regular business ; and I really 
 like the work better than anything else. It is mis- 
 sionary work, preaching the gospel to those who 
 have never heard it, talking to inquirers, and try- 
 ing to help and encourage the scattered Christians 
 that I find. This trip was partly with the design 
 of establishing a new station up the coast some- 
 where, which I did at the mouth of the Benita 
 River, about fifty miles north from here. 
 
 " I started November 2, after getting the Gaboon 
 mail-boat away, w T hich had brought our letters the 
 night before. Mrs. Mackey packed me a box of 
 provisions, a more plentiful supply than I had the 
 last time; and it shall be even more plentiful the 
 next time, for I find that every comfort is just so 
 much of a saving to the health. Mrs. Mackey, who 
 is a willing and abundant provider, put up coffee 
 and sugar and tea and a little pot to make them in. 
 I had greatly missed the warm drink on the last 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 201 
 
 trip, doing without it nearly a week. I had also a 
 supply of beef and ham and bread ; the eggs and 
 chickens that I needed were easy to get on the way. 
 Mrs. Clemens added to my stock a little jar of jelly 
 and one of maple molasses, and they proved a 
 most valuable addition. A couple of shawls and a 
 pillow I took for sleeping on, an overcoat also and 
 umbrella for protection against the rain, and a 
 change of clean linen. In a box I stowed knives 
 and cloth and shirts and fish-hooks, etc., for buy- 
 ing food for the men, and whatever the natives on 
 the way might wish to sell. 
 
 " With five boatmen, and Andike for an inter- 
 preter, and several passengers who asked to go 
 along to see friends on the mainland, we got away 
 about ten o'clock in the morning. This time I es- 
 caped seasickness and felt tolerably comfortable all 
 the way. Andike had with him a bundle of hot 
 eonelis or shell fish which his wife had cooked for 
 him, and of which the people are very fond. He 
 handed some of them to me, of w 7 hich I ate one or 
 two (they are as large as an oyster), and found them 
 rich as butter. They are a great article of food 
 with the people. At every low tide you see hun- 
 dreds of women out in search of them. About 
 3 o'clock we reached Large Eloby, where we have a 
 
202 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 station, but I only stopped a few moments, expect- 
 ing to return that way. 
 
 " Having the mission accounts to settle with the 
 traders on Little Eloby, I went on there and spent 
 the night. After breakfast on Thursday, 3d, 1 got 
 off to Aje, my next stopping-place. One of our 
 passengers was the wife of Imunga, the brother of 
 the king on Corisco, but virtually the king himself. 
 To give you an idea of queenly attire in Africa, I 
 will describe her dress. Her hair was platted up 
 in a heavy, greasy roll on the top of her head, and 
 on this rested an old hat (man's hat), made secure 
 to the hair with an iron pin six or eight inches 
 long. Around her neck were some strings of 
 beads. On her ankles and wrists were, I think, 
 just one hundred and forty brass and copper rings. 
 Besides these she wore a large cloth such as 
 I have before described. This was her complete 
 attire. 
 
 "About 3 o'clock we reached Aje, and anchored 
 in the mouth of the little river. I went to our 
 mission-house, where Mackendenga and Ilanga, the 
 Scripture readers, live. After taking a rest, they got 
 ready something for the men and myself to eat. 
 They seem to understand that a chicken is almost 
 the only part of native food that a white man rel- 
 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 203 
 
 ishes, so they immediately suggest one and get it 
 ready. Their plan of cooking is simply to boil in 
 an iron pot until thoroughly cooked, and then sea- 
 son with cayenne pepper, which grows abundantly 
 here. They bring the chicken on a plate and the 
 broth in the bowl. The broth would be delicious 
 and savory if it were not so terribly hot with pep- 
 per. The men usually eat at the same little tables 
 with me. They have a wash-basin full of unguesa 
 (sliced cassada), which looks like cold sliced pota- 
 toes. They dip their fingers into the dish, and eat 
 this along with some hot fish and a part of my 
 chicken, which they never refuse. 
 
 " It is a strange custom these people have — when- 
 ever you sit down to eat every one else not eating 
 immediately goes out of the house and stays away 
 until you are done. There is a natural dislike 
 among them to have any one see them eat. An- 
 other thing I notice, and I believe it is a universal 
 custom in Africa, they never eat a morsel of food 
 without taking some water afterward and washing 
 their mouths. They all have good and beautiful 
 teeth, too, so the one seems to be, partly at least, 
 the consequence of the other. I heard great com- 
 plaints here about the elephants coming into their 
 farms and destroying their plantains, and they 
 
204 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 do not know how to cope with so immense an 
 enemy. 
 
 "In the evening the bell was rung (a large 
 dinner bell), and Mackendenga lighted the long 
 roll of resin, which burns like our rosin and is 
 the chief native light (there is a tree here which 
 yields it abundantly), and the people began to 
 gather for service. Soon all the seats were full 
 and still the people came ; benches were brought 
 in and they were all filled, until there was room 
 for no more in the house. Then the people gath- 
 ered about the door and in the little yard in front 
 of the house until all available space was occupied. 
 So I preached to them as they sat crowded together 
 in the dim light, and as they stood about the door 
 waiting to hear. I do not know that I ever had 
 better attention than from these dusky children of 
 sorrow, with minds even darker than their skins, as 
 I opened the news to them of a fountain for sin 
 and uncleanness, for sorrow and every human woe, 
 and invited them to come and drink freely without 
 money. I had a fine interpreter, and preached with 
 great comfort and interest on my whole trip, for 
 there is no work that I enjoy like preaching the 
 gospel to the poor. My old interpreter I have 
 exchanged for another (Andike) ; you will see his 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 205 
 
 name in the Foreign Missionary, often, as a licen- 
 tiate and elder of the Church. He interprets with 
 great fluency, and has a better knowledge of the 
 English than almost any other native. 
 
 "Friday, 4th. — Eight o'clock I got away for 
 Hanje. I could find no hot water to make cof- 
 fee, so I breakfasted on boiled duck eggs and soda 
 crackers, with a little of Mrs. Clemens' maple syrup. 
 At prayers, before starting, I had a full house again. 
 I read and explained the Scriptures. The wife of 
 the headman at this place hopes she is a Christian, 
 and wishes to unite with the church. 
 
 " About noon we reached Hanje, where Jumba 
 and Etiane are the Scripture readers. We were 
 obliged to anchor out from the shore on account 
 of rocks, and a canoe came off for us. When we 
 went ashore a crowd of people followed to the 
 mission-house to sit and hear the news, for they 
 have nothing to do but sit about all day, and 
 wherever there is the least excitement they speed- 
 ily follow it. After a while they brought in native 
 baskets and wooden spoons and melanga to sell, 
 some of which I bought. When we went in I 
 saw that Jumba had a chicken tied by the leg in 
 one corner of the house ; this he soon carried out 
 and cooked for dinner. Here I at last got some 
 
206 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 hot water to make coffee, and this I relished, for 
 boating is terribly hard work on the stomach, and 
 some warm drink saves much discomfort. I could 
 scarcely call my mixture coffee, though it tasted 
 like excellent coffee to me. It was hot water 
 poured on some ground coffee. This, after it 
 had stood a few minutes, I poured out and sweet- 
 ened and drank without cream. 
 
 " I spent an hour or two after dinner up in that 
 beautiful and solemn palm grove I spoke of on 
 my other trip. Jumba paddled me up in a canoe. 
 At the foot of one of the tall trees I found four or 
 five men lying, and, looking up, I saw another in 
 the top of the tree gathering palm w T ine. They 
 tap the tree in the top and then fasten a great jug 
 there, into which the wine runs. Every day or so 
 some one goes up and dips out the wine, when it is 
 brought down and divided. It is almost of a milk- 
 white appearance, and will intoxicate after it be- 
 comes a little old. The natives drink great quan- 
 tities of it, but I believe that the rum which the 
 traders bring to the coast is fast taking its place; 
 death and destruction the traders are scattering in 
 their path. 
 
 u After a good sleep and a comfortable breakfast 
 and prayers, we got away Saturday, 5th, for the 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 207 
 
 Benita River. We bad to go out to the boat in a 
 canoe, and these are uncomfortable to ride in, being 
 like an egg-shell, and a trifle will topple them over. 
 Just as I got in the canoe a breaker struck it and 
 tumbled me over, but I fell inside and not in the 
 water. After we got part way up the coast to Benita 
 a man paddled out to us in a canoe, who had with him 
 a little boy that had never seen a white man before, 
 and he evidently thought me a strange being, for he 
 began to cry and seemed to beg his father to take 
 him away as quickly as possible. The man had 
 never heard of God, nor of Christ, and as I had 
 the Gospel of John, in Benga, lying near by me I 
 read to him, ' God so loved the world that he gave/ 
 etc., and explained the way of salvation, hoping 
 that the truth might not only sink into his own 
 mind, but that he might also bear it back to his 
 people. 
 
 " At last we came in sight of the Benita, a broad 
 and beautiful river-- two or three miles wide, I 
 judge, at the mouth. On the south side of it are 
 several factories. I landed for an hour at one of 
 them. The agent there I knew, and he is quite a 
 genteel young Scotchman. He had been to Corisco 
 to consult Dr. Nassau about his health. From 
 there I sailed across the mouth of the river into a 
 
208 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 beautiful little bay where I thought of establishing 
 a station, and leaving Mbata, whom I had taken 
 along. 
 
 " While we were getting ready to land, men, 
 women and children to the number of thirty, per- 
 haps, gathered on the beach from the towns near 
 by. When I landed among them they gave me a 
 friendly welcome, shaking me by the hand and 
 looking quite pleased. With the aid of And ike, I 
 made them a little speech, telling them that I had 
 come to stay a little while among them, and that 
 perhaps I would leave them a missionary to teach 
 them of God, etc., if they were willing. I then 
 asked them if they could give me a house to live 
 in while I stayed, but they did not wait to reply : 
 off they started to the nearest town, which meant 
 that I was to follow. Eight or ten men were in 
 front, I came next, and after me the boatmen with 
 the bago-atre, then the women and children behind. 
 They never stopped till they came to the house 
 of the headman, and into it the whole proces- 
 sion went, boxes and all, and as many more 
 people as were able crowded in along with the 
 others. I then made them another little speech, 
 explaining more fully why I had come and what 
 we wished to do. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 209 
 
 "At night the people came again, filling the 
 house to overflowing, and I preached to them as 
 plainly and simply as I could the c Story of the 
 cross/ which they never before had heard. How 
 they listened ! I surely never before had better at- 
 tention than I had there from these children of the 
 night. There is a peculiar, indescribable joy in 
 preaching the gospel to the benighted. I never 
 was engaged in happier work ; nor do I know that 
 I ever was happier than as I lay down that night 
 in a little cheerless bamboo hut, all alone, and feel- 
 ing that I was surely a stranger in a very strange 
 land. It is a peculiar sensation that sometimes 
 comes over me when out on these trips, though it 
 is not unpleasant — I mean a sense of aloneness in 
 the great, w r ide world — a feeling that I have no 
 longer any place that can really be called home ; 
 no place where there will be any warm heart- 
 welcomes awaiting my return, and so the conse- 
 quence is that I am happy and at home anywhere 
 wherever the blue sky bends above me, whether it 
 be on the sea or alone in the smoky hut of the 
 Kombes. 
 
 "November 6 was the Sabbath, which I in- 
 tended to spend among the people where I stopped. 
 In the morning the rain was pouring down in 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 torrents, and so continued most of the day. I got 
 up from my bed of bamboo slats, on which I had 
 a comfortable sleep, and Tom (as he said the white 
 men called him), my host, brought me some water 
 to wash. After I had eaten my breakfast of coffee, 
 eggs, sardines and bread — the latter I shared with 
 Tom, for he said i I like white man's bread too 
 much' — I went into the headman's house about 10 
 o'clock to preach to the people. Soon they gath- 
 ered and crowded the house, while I preached to 
 them from Acts, on the ' Unknown God.' A more 
 attentive audience I think I never saw, listening 
 with a fixed gaze through the whole discourse. 
 At 2 o'clock I preached in another town, and in 
 the evening in a third. In all these was the same 
 good attention. 
 
 " As I got wet in the afternoon, going from one 
 town to another, I stepped into the house next to 
 the one I occupied to dry my feet by the fire. I 
 found a little girl here, the betrothed wife of Tom, 
 though she was only eight or nine years old. Tom 
 had promised to send her down with me to Corisco 
 to school ; but the moment she saw me she set up 
 a terrible crying, enough to alarm the whole town. 
 I do not know that she had ever seen a white man 
 before. She was still full of tears on Monday 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 211 
 
 morning, and on this account I left her till I 
 should be ready to go back again. As I sat in 
 my house I saw a man working away on his new 
 house just across the narrow street. As Tom was 
 standing near him I said, ■ Tom, don't you know 
 this is Sunday V 'Yes/ said he, 'I done tell 
 him so/ I do not know that the workman knew 
 anything about Sunday or that he had ever heard 
 of it before, but Tom had lived among w T hite men 
 and learned something of the Sabbath. 
 
 " Monday , November 7. — The headmen came 
 together early to get some little present before I 
 went away; this they always expect. I left Mbata 
 in their care, charging them to treat him kindly, and 
 telling them that if they did so, and attended well 
 on his instructions, that we would probably build 
 a mission-house among them. They were to give 
 him one of their houses to live in for a few months, 
 and after that we expect to build one for him. I 
 got away about 8 o'clock on my return to Corisco, 
 nearly the whole town following me down to the 
 beach to bid me good-bye, and I feeling rather 
 sorry to part with them, as my short stay had been 
 so pleasant and had impressed me so favorably 
 with them. The sea was smooth as glass as we 
 sailed away, and the sky clear and beautiful. No 
 
212 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 May morning in America was ever more lovely. 
 As I looked up the broad river I had a fine view 
 of the grand old mountains that run along the 
 coast about forty miles back from the sea. There 
 seem to be two or three ranges running parallel 
 with each other, and just as bold and lofty as our 
 mountains in Pennsylvania. 
 
 " I hope the time is not far away when we shall 
 be able to carry the work back among these ranges, 
 and even behind them. Here is where the Fan 
 tribe lives, the cannibals of whom Du Chaillu 
 speaks in his work ; but they are a bold and 
 thrifty people, and perhaps the gospel would 
 take a deeper hold on them than on the more 
 effeminate tribes nearer the sea. About noon we 
 reached Hanje again, not intending, however, to 
 stop, but an old headman came off to the boat 
 with complaints against one of the Scripture read- 
 ers, and his business was to have me go ashore and 
 ' talk the palaver.' This is the native way of set- 
 tling a trouble — calling all the people in town to- 
 gether and talking the matter over. This they 
 call ' settling the palaver/ 
 
 " I went ashore, and after the old man had col- 
 lected the people in a large bamboo house he arose 
 and made a speech stating all his grievances. I 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 213 
 
 made them another one or two, trying to arrange 
 the matter as satisfactorily as possible, and finally 
 they declared the 'palaver settled/ This con- 
 sumed a good deal more time than I have occu- 
 pied in telling of it, for the discussion lasted 
 long, and part of the time ran high among them- 
 selves, and then it was like being in 'bedlam/ 
 Every one would jump to his feet, gesticulating 
 fearfully, running toward each other and shout- 
 ing at the tops of their voices, giving also at the 
 same time a significant shake of the forefinger in 
 each other's faces. 
 
 " We hurried on to Aje to spend the night, but 
 the wind fell and the men had to take to their oars, 
 so that we did not reach it till 9 o'clock at night. 
 Every one w T as in bed, but Mackendenga heard the 
 songs of the boatmen, as they usually sing some 
 plaintive strain when they row (all their music, 
 indeed, is of a somewhat mournful character), and 
 came down to welcome us. I got a good night's 
 rest here, and indeed I had begun to feel the need 
 of it pretty badly. 
 
 "November 8. — I was awake at daylight, and the 
 people came around the house with mats and ducks 
 and chickens to sell, some of which I bought and 
 brought to Corisco, for it is beginning to be diffi- 
 
214 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 cult to get as much fresh food as we need. We 
 landed again at a town two or three miles farther 
 down the coast, where I expected to get a boy or 
 two for the school. Evaha was the headman, and 
 a pleasant, kind old man I found him to be. His 
 son, a very nice boy, was to come with me, but had 
 a sore foot, and I left him till another trip. As 
 neither the men nor I had any warm food in the 
 morning, we stopped long enough to have break- 
 fast. I bought a very big fish and had it cooked 
 with some plantains for them, and Evaha had a 
 chicken cooked for me, which tasted savory, for 
 my appetite had become strong by this time. 
 Evaha made me a present of a bunch of plan- 
 tains and divided his large cake of udika with 
 me, because he saw that I liked it with my 
 chicken. Udika is made of oily nuts pounded 
 together and hardened into a large cake ; this they 
 shave down with a knife and use it for thickening 
 the chicken gravy. 
 
 " I hoped that possibly we might reach Corisco 
 to-day, but the wind was bad, and, after a whole 
 day's sailing, we only reached Cape St. John in 
 the night — twenty miles from Corisco. I had 
 given up my intention of returning by Eloby, as 
 the return thus far had been so tedious and weari- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 215 
 
 some, on account of bad winds, that I felt anxious 
 to get home as soon as possible. 
 
 " After a tolerably good night's sleep at Cape St. 
 John, we left in the morning in the midst of the 
 rain for Corisco. We had not got far out to sea 
 when one of the principal ropes broke and fell 
 through the pulley at the top of the mast. This 
 rendered our sail useless. One of the boys climbed 
 the mast to put the rope through the pulley again, 
 but just as he was doing it a wave struck the boat 
 and the mast cracked, and the boy had to come 
 down. We then pulled back to shore into still 
 water, and fixed the rope securely and got fairly 
 under way again. We reached Corisco in the even- 
 ing. I got out at the north side of the island 
 (Alongo) and took tea with Mr. and Mrs. de Heer. 
 They gave me a hearty, homelike welcome. The 
 boys took the boat on to Evangasimba, and I 
 walked down after night. I was gone a little 
 over a week, and, after so much tossing on the 
 waves in an open boat, I found the quiet and 
 comfort of Evangasimba grateful enough. There 
 is much that is wearisome about the mainland 
 journeys, but it is the work that I like, and it is 
 a field that promises to yield fruit if there is faith- 
 ful sowing." 
 
216 GEORGE PAZJLL. 
 
 In a letter to his mother and sister, dated Evan- 
 gasimba, November 22, 1864, Mr. Paull writes: 
 
 "It is only slowly that the low and fearfully 
 wretched condition of these people becomes fully 
 known to one. Crime and cruelty seem so essen- 
 tially inwrought and mingled with their very in- 
 most lives that one feels obliged utterly and for 
 ever to despair of all human ability to make them 
 better. If good is done among them we will surely 
 scorn to take the praise, for in our hearts we must 
 say, ' It is the hand of the Lord, and only that — 
 from beginning to end it is of the Lord.' 
 
 "A man came to me this morning to get some 
 medicine, for both his ears were cut entirely off. 
 He was charged with a crime which was indeed 
 worthy of so severe a punishment, if he was guilty, 
 but it ought to have been administered in a differ- 
 ent way ; but for it his master had this punishment 
 inflicted. They cut and carve each other with a 
 brutality which makes the heart sick. You see it 
 everywhere. Scarcely a person passes you that can- 
 not show the scars of some horrid wound. On 
 each of the backs of two of our Christian women, 
 as they walked from church before me last Sabbath, 
 I remember to have seen, perhaps, three long, fear- 
 ful scars. I am astonished, now, at the little I 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 217 
 
 knew of the depths into which humanity can sink 
 and indeed has sunk in all heathen lands. I speak 
 not of occasional outbreaks into sin and crime, but 
 of the deep, dark and settled wickedness of the 
 human heart, and of the thorough and awful cor- 
 ruption which reaches to the very core and mani- 
 fests itself everywhere. This, however, is the very 
 thing which, instead of discouraging missionaries 
 and Christians generally, ought to drive away all 
 discouragement and doubt as to what we ought to 
 do, and nerve every heart for earnest work, because 
 it makes the path of duty so plain. It seems to 
 say to every Christian, c See here what guilt, what 
 corruption, what wretchedness, what terrible mis- 
 ery, absolutely immeasurable woe V Letting it 
 alone will not help it; for centuries that course 
 has been tried, and every hour it is let alone 
 the guilt is becoming blacker, the corruption 
 deeper, the wretchedness more wretched, the mis- 
 ery more awful ; the degradation goes on and will 
 go on, if you let it alone, until as a putrid mass 
 the heathen world sinks in ruin. They cannot be 
 helped, then, except we help them; give them the 
 strength of the right hand ; pull them out as from 
 the fire by prayer and every means which God has 
 ordained and will bless. 
 
218 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 " But I did not intend to take up my paper with 
 a sermon. I wish, however, I could preach in 
 American ears some of the things I have felt since 
 I came to Africa. I would like to take a section 
 of Africa, with all its darkness and crime and sor- 
 row and pitiable woe, and put it down in the midst 
 of the people, that they might see. I think there 
 would be some tears, some pity ; I think there 
 would be some warm and earnest resolves to do, 
 some bitter regrets that more had not already been 
 done. 
 
 "December 3. — This evening I returned from the 
 Gaboon, where I had a short but pleasant visit. 
 The missionaries there are kind-hearted, and make 
 one feel as much at home as if they had been old 
 friends. They have beautiful homes, and every 
 comfort that could reasonably be desired. Their 
 houses are built on high ground, back from and 
 overlooking the river. They have a beautiful 
 view of the sea, also, and of the ships as they 
 lie at anchor in the river below.* The Gaboon 
 is in possession of the French ; they have built 
 
 * On the left of the engraving is the mission chapel, a pleas- 
 ant bamboo structure, in the rear of which is the cemetery ; to 
 the right of the hill stand the school-house and the mission 
 residence. 
 
GEOEGE PAULL. 219 
 
 quite a town on it, and have a considerable num- 
 ber of soldiers and government officers there. 
 Several men-of-war also are kept constantly at the 
 station. There are many English traders there also, 
 which, with their ships lying in the river, give it 
 the appearance of quite a business place. India 
 rubber and ivory and palm oil are the chief articles 
 of trade, and these are dealt in pretty largely. 
 The Gaboon is an immense river, fifteen to twenty 
 miles wide at the mouth. Even up where the 
 town is and the mission station, it seems to be 
 three or four miles wide. I did not find Mr. 
 Mackey here, but we had letters from him saying 
 that he was at Fernando Po, waiting for an oppor- 
 tunity to get down. His letters tell us that he is 
 not much better. The physician at Sierra Leone 
 told him that he could not live in Africa, and that 
 if he wished to save his life he had better return 
 to America as soon as possible. 
 
 " I found my letters at the Gaboon ; and surely 
 I have not had such a gloomy package in many re- 
 spects since I came to Africa. The death of Aunt 
 S. was very, very saddening, and so entirely unex- 
 pected. I do not yet realize it ; it seems such a 
 terrible breaking of old associations and plans of 
 happiness which you all had doubtless formed in 
 
220 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 having her so near. So she is gone ! I look back 
 with strange feelings to see how our friends are 
 crumbling away — one and another dropping into 
 the grave, and leaving great blanks in our hearts 
 which nothing on earth can fill." 
 
 After referring to the death of several other 
 friends, he says : " The wheel of Providence keeps 
 turning majestically on, breaking up for ever the 
 surface of social life, and crushing beneath it un- 
 sparingly each one's most cherished plans j and this 
 is only kindness to us on God's part — he chastens 
 only because he loves ; if he designed to ruin us, 
 he would simply leave us alone. 
 
 "But I almost forgot these sorrows in the joy 
 that I found when I read that James had united 
 with the church. I had been long waiting and 
 asking for it. I trust it will not be long until Jo- 
 seph gives his heart to God. Every day that a 
 Christian lives he sees more and more the wisdom 
 of his choice, and only wonders that he forgot his 
 God so long. He that has acted the most wisely 
 in life is the one who has given his heart the soon- 
 est to God — given it wholly. 
 
 "December 13. — I am sitting in my study to- 
 day, writing up for the mail ; for I expect to go 
 and visit the out-stations again next week. I hear 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 221 
 
 the wild pigeons cooing all around and the birds 
 trilling most beautiful songs. The wild flowers 
 cover the ground just before the door, and the air 
 is as pleasant as on any June day at home. It is a 
 great mistake to suppose that Africa is such a 
 desolate, dreary land as some imagine — scorched 
 with hot suns and stifling winds, and covered with 
 burning sands. I would almost venture to say, 
 that in most respects there is not a more delightful 
 land on the face of the globe. If your early June 
 days, with their green fields and fresh air and 
 singing birds, lasted all the year round, then you 
 would realize something of the beauty and pleasant- 
 ness of Africa. I do not know that I have seen 
 the thermometer above 80°, and when the sun 
 would be hottest we usually have clouds to temper 
 its beams ; and then the fresh sea breeze always 
 gives life to the atmosphere about us. But if I 
 said no more than this I w T ould not tell you the 
 whole truth ; for you would think that in such a 
 land as I have described one might be for ever re- 
 newing his youth, and have good hopes of living 
 to a great age. But not so ; while Africa carries 
 beauty in her right hand, she holds death in her 
 left — she poisons while she pleases. It seems 
 strange that, in a land so lovely, white men wither 
 
222 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 away until they become thin, sallow, care-worn 
 shadows ; and yet they hardly know why, and, in- 
 deed, are scarcely conscious of the change that is 
 going on, so subtle and deadly is the poison. I sup- 
 pose it arises from the constant decay of vegetable 
 matter, from which poisonous gases rise up and 
 mingle in every breath we draw. 
 
 "We have a Scotch botanist and conchologist 
 staying with us for a few days, making some col- 
 lections. He has been pointing out some plants 
 new to me, as the arrow-root, which grows abun- 
 dantly all around, and the castor-oil plant, from 
 the bean of which castor-oil is made. 
 
 "December 15. — To-day, for recreation, Dr. Nas- 
 sau proposed a little boat ride to a beautiful island 
 half a mile in extent and a mile or two out at sea. 
 We took the school children and the ladies along. 
 Just as we were nearly there we saw a vessel 
 about to anchor near Corisco. So as soon as we 
 were landed at the little island, I took the boat and 
 boatmen and went to bring Mr. Mackey ashore, 
 for we knew that he was aboard the vessel. 
 Everybody was glad to see him back again, for 
 he is greatly beloved here. His health is not 
 much better, and it is not likely that he will be 
 able to stay here long." 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 223 
 
 From Mr. PaulPs diary we take the follow- 
 ing brief notes : 
 
 "December 20. — To-day just recovering from the 
 eighth attack of fever. Am preparing to go again 
 on my trip to Benita. Am reading Wordsworth's 
 ' Excursion/ 
 
 " December 22.— Started again with Dr. Nassau 
 for Benita. Arrived at Aje. Had a full house to 
 preach to. Bought a little house. 
 
 " December 23. — Reached Benita in the evening. 
 Preached to a great houseful. 
 
 " December 24. — Spent the day in examining the 
 grounds in search of a site for the mission-house. 
 Came on fresh elephant and deer tracks. 
 
 " December 25. — Christmas. Preached twice at 
 Benita and visited towns up the coast, talking 
 to the people. 
 
 " December 26. — Left Benita and reached Hanje. 
 Had a long walk along the beach, and dined on 
 roasted corn. 
 
 " December 27. — Reached Aje again. Started in 
 the night for Eloby. 
 
 "December 28. — Reached Eloby in the night. 
 Sick at Eloby. 
 
 "December 29. — Reached Corisco about 10 
 o'clock. 
 
224 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "December 31. — Preached in church at Evanga- 
 siuiba on Christian earnestness. Preparatory sermon 
 to communion. 
 
 "January 1, 1865. — Communion. Large turn- 
 out of people. One baptism — Ndate's wife. 
 
 "January 8. — Busy making preparations to go 
 and live on the mainland at the mouth of the 
 Benita River, where the mission a few days ago ap- 
 pointed me to go and build a station that I might 
 the better overlook the mainland stations." 
 
 To his mother he writes from Corisco, January 
 12, 1865: 
 
 "I think I was just about preparing for another 
 trip to Benita when I finished my last letter to you. 
 Dr. Nassau went with me, and we had in many 
 respects a most delightful trip, though the doctor 
 was sick most of the time; he cannot bear the 
 tossings of the sea. Nausea does not now trouble 
 me, and I can eat on the boat when out for a whole 
 day. I think I shall become quite a boatman 
 after a while, as my work among the stations will 
 call me almost constantly up and down the coast. 
 
 " Our trip this time was partly to examine the 
 point at the mouth of the Benita River on which 
 we propose to build a permanent station. V\e 
 spent two days there, one of which was the Sab- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 225 
 
 bath. On Saturday we looked for a site to build, 
 and selected a beautiful point right in the angle 
 between the mouth of the river and the sea. I 
 think I have scarcely seen a more attractive spot 
 on the coast of Africa. The cool and refreshing 
 sea-breeze sweeps over it constantly, and behind 
 there is a broad and beautiful plain entirely free 
 from trees with the exception of a cluster here and 
 there. A grassy plain is one of the rarest and most 
 attractive sights in Africa, and we think that such 
 a spot near to one's home adds more to one's 
 health than anything else, on account of the 
 absence of decaying vegetation. The site is 
 tolerably elevated, and gives you a view of the sea 
 that stretches far away to the west. There is not 
 much doubt that this will be altogether as healthy 
 a place as on the island. The traders who live 
 across the river enjoy excellent health. The people 
 are quiet and most kindly disposed, and withal 
 most anxious to have a missionary. 
 
 " I brought down four boys to school this trip, 
 and was to bring my friend Tom's little wife, of 
 whom I wrote in my last letter, but when we were 
 about to start and Tom looked for his wife she was 
 nowhere to be found. She had run off to hide 
 herself. At last, when we were just getting in the 
 
 15 
 
226 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 boat, Tom saw her away up the beach and ran to 
 fetch her, but she was off like an antelope, and so 
 I had to come without her. Tom seemed mortified 
 at the mishap, as he had already asked for a pas- 
 sage by my next trip to come down and see his 
 wife at Corisco. The wind was very much against 
 us, and we made only a few miles in the day. 
 When we sailed five or six miles we sailed to shore 
 and walked along the beach to Hanje, and let the 
 men row the boat. This walk was a pleasant little 
 episode in our trip. We landed at a little new 
 town, ground for which had just been cleared out 
 of the heavy timber. The people all (twenty or 
 thirty in number) came down to the shore, and by 
 their bright, happy faces seemed to give us a 
 hearty welcome. As the tide was full along the 
 beach we concluded to wait an hour or so till it should 
 go down. As we had brought a bucket of pro- 
 visions from the boat, we sat down and ate. Around 
 the town was about an acre of corn just ready to 
 roast. So we had three ears apiece roasted and sat 
 down on native stools in front of the headman's 
 house to enjoy our feast, the people all about us 
 in a circle, delighted and making merry. Before 
 we commenced to eat we each asked a silent bless- 
 ing, and there was a hush among some of the 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 227 
 
 people and a quiet murmur, as though they were 
 inquiring among themselves what it meant. One 
 of the women who had somewhere learned some- 
 thing of religion, immediately said 'Akalakia' (he 
 prays). 
 
 " We had salt for our corn, but no butter. The 
 fat from a cooked ham, however, melted on the hot 
 corn, answered in its place. One of the women 
 sympathized with the doctor in his seasickness, and 
 went through the motion of seasickness to show him 
 how boat-riding always affected her. When we 
 had finished our meal and sat a little while, we had 
 prayer with them, and spoke to them of the gospel, 
 and then went on our way, leaving them delighted, 
 and delighted ourselves with the visit. I do not 
 remember to have had a more pleasant little inter- 
 lude in Africa. The doctor was weak and could 
 only walk slowly, and was obliged to rest often, so 
 we were after night getting to Hanje. The latter 
 part of the way was rough and rocky, and we had 
 a creek to cross into w T hich I tumbled in the dark- 
 ness and was wet above the knees. I suffered no 
 inconvenience from it, however, for we soon got to 
 the mission station, and I took off my wet clothes 
 and put on a pair of Njumba's pants and went to 
 bed. The boat did not arrive till late at night. 
 
228 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 " We had to cross also a river about a hundred 
 yards wide; but over this we were ferried in a 
 canoe. There was a large town on the opposite 
 bank and plenty of people gathered about us ; to 
 these also we preached the gospel. Some of them 
 followed us a short distance and then gave us their 
 parting salutation, which is/ keke bwamu'(go, good), 
 something like our ' fare ye well/ I like the peo- 
 ple for their simplicity and kindness of heart. 
 Sometimes an incident occurs among them to make 
 one laugh. As we were sitting beside rather a 
 fierce-looking old headman on the Benita, suddenly 
 he took us by the beards, and, shaking them vigor- 
 ously, said we ought to cut them off, especially 
 about the mouth, as he thought it must hinder one 
 greatly in eating. Most white men here allow the 
 whole beard to grow, thinking it perhaps more 
 healthy, and indeed not caring to shave. But few 
 of the natives have any beard, except perhaps a lit- 
 tle tuft on the chin ; and they greatly envy the 
 long beards of the white men, and some of them 
 say, ' God is not good to them because he gave them 
 so little/ Some of the boys inquire very earnestly 
 if there is not something in the white man's 
 country that can be rubbed on the face to make the 
 beard grow. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 229 
 
 " We started from Hanje about 4 o'clock in the 
 morning so as to get the land breeze, but did not 
 even then reach Aje till late in the evening. After 
 two or three hours' rest at Aje, we set off again 
 about 11 or 12 o'clock in the night, so as to have 
 the land breeze and tide in our favor. By hard 
 sailing we reached Eloby at 8 o'clock in the night, 
 and from there we were glad to get back to Corisco 
 by the next morning, having been gone over a 
 week. 
 
 " I greatly love the missonary work in Africa. 
 I do not know that I have ever been so completely 
 happy in any work as in this. My prayer is that 
 God may spare me here for many years. The peo- 
 ple are deeply in need of the word of life, perish- 
 ing sadly without it ; and, alas ! we are so few and 
 our hands so feeble that we cannot do a tithe of 
 the work that it seems criminal to leave undone. 
 Mr. Mackey is back, and his health is much better. 
 This gives me a joyful release from so much secular 
 labor, and now I am about to enter fully on the 
 work that in my heart I love. In your last letter 
 you asked me not to go to the mainland. I think 
 I can appreciate your feelings and sympathize with 
 you in them. But you can scarcely realize the ne- 
 cessity that we feel here for pushing on the work 
 
230 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 among the tribes that yet sit in darkness. Our 
 hearts burn to raise the torch higher and carry it 
 farther, until it shall gladden the tribes who now 
 perish in gloom. AVe came here to serve God and 
 to do his work ; so death cannot touch us, nor even 
 the floods drown us, until God is ready ; and when 
 God is ready, then 'it is well/ You will not be 
 grieved, then, I know, when I tell you that God 
 has brought me into high honor, the highest by far 
 of my life — that is, to leave my home and comforts 
 again, and go to live among the heathen anew. 
 This will not give you sorrow, I know, because it 
 will give me more happiness and joy than aught 
 else almost that I could name on earth. The mis- 
 sion, at our last meeting, appointed me as the 
 pioneer of the work on the mainland. Others 
 would willingly have gone, but God gave the 
 privilege to me, and indeed his providence has 
 gradually been opening up my way ever since I 
 came. 
 
 " For the last few days I have been packing 
 boxes with tools for building and goods for trade, 
 and next week I am to set sail for the mouth of the 
 Benita, that beautiful spot on which I am to build. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Mackey will possibly take the trip 
 with me, and see me safely landed. I shall take 
 
Building at Benita. 
 
 p. 231. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 231 
 
 everything along that will be needful for my pres- 
 ent comfort, and perhaps I may also get back to 
 civilization every two or three months. Mrs. 
 Mackey and Mrs. McQueen will supply me with 
 cooking apparatus, and I will get plenty of pro- 
 visions from the storehouse : so you need have no 
 uneasiness about these things. As for loneliness, 
 that will not trouble me, and the slight fevers 
 which sometimes come I have learned to check ; 
 so with trust in God I shall do well. 
 
 " The plan of my house I have drawn off to send 
 you. It is to be built of bamboo, with board floors. 
 The reception-room is made large, as it will be the 
 preaching place. The kitchen will be outside, and 
 a little hut will answer for that. It is to be built 
 above ground on mangrove posts. I suppose it 
 will take about two months to finish it, and in the 
 mean time I expect to live in a native house. So 
 far as comforts go I shall have enough in every 
 way, for I will not expect many. But I shall be 
 able to tell you more fully of my situation in my 
 next letter. 
 
 " Our new mission station among the Kombes 
 will require some outlay, and the Board is pressed 
 for funds. If matters become worse, I think I 
 could live on half my salary, and I would gladly 
 
232 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 do it to help on the cause ; but this need not have 
 been spoken of. For the present press, however, 
 we greatly need a new boat ; it will cost perhaps 
 two hundred and fifty dollars, and w r e propose if 
 possible to raise it by private contribution. Cousin 
 L. B. by the last mail wrote to me to let her know 
 if I needed anything, so I am sure she w T ill contri- 
 bute, and Dr. Nassau will perhaps write to some 
 friends. If any of our friends, or the friends of 
 missions in the church at home, cared to do any- 
 thing, it would be a gratification and a great help 
 to the cause. I am sure God will not let us sink, 
 but will put it into the hearts of some who love 
 his name to help on the work. 
 
 "P. S. — January 17. — I must append a note on 
 the eve of starting. In the morning I expect to 
 go. We had a delightful prayer-meeting to-night 
 which strengthened my heart, and I go to my 
 work full of peace and joy, and hopeful that I 
 may gather some sheaves from the great ripened 
 harvest. Do not think of me as in the least sad 
 or lonely. I almost feel sure that I shall not 
 be either. God has been preparing me hitherto 
 for all that is to come upon me. I shall have good 
 company in the presence of Him who has said, 'I 
 will never leave thee nor forsake thee/ ' Lo, 1 am 
 
GEOEGE PAULL. 233 
 
 with you alway, even unto the end of the world/ 
 And I doubt not I will learn more of this kind 
 friend when my fellowship must be almost solely 
 with him. I seem almost to be going out as a mis- 
 sionary anew ; I have all the joy of such a step, and 
 it gives me a little sadness, too, at parting with my 
 brethren and sisters. Much love, etc. 
 
 "Geo. Paull." 
 
 He wrote under date of February 1 5 to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Mackey concerning the new mission station at 
 Benita. " The place grows in beauty. I think I 
 am safe in saying that I have seen no place on the 
 face of the earth that so gladdened my heart. Its 
 beauty, along with the general good progress of 
 everything, has kept me entirely from growing 
 lonely or even sick, except the slightest possible 
 attack of fever. I trust that the outward pros- 
 perity which thus far seems to attend and encour- 
 age the work here may be a forecasting of the spir- 
 itual blessings that may follow when the station 
 is fully manned and the work thoroughly entered 
 into. 
 
 " The attendance at church continues most en- 
 couraging. Quite a number were down from 
 Meduraa last Sabbath. Though there was rain 
 
234 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 in the morning, yet about one hundred and twenty- 
 found their way out to church." 
 
 The following note to Mrs. Clemens, at Corisco, 
 is from Benita River Station, February 16, 1871 : 
 
 " I did not have time by the last boat to drop 
 you a reply to your kind note of the second. I was 
 glad to get it. Kind words and assurances of 
 friendly regard are of wondrous worth, and my 
 package of letters will never be so large but that 
 I will be glad to have others added by friends at 
 Corisco. 
 
 "There is much that is cheering about the work 
 among this people, and it is really delightful to be 
 among them. I know this is ploughing in new 
 soil, and one cannot judge from first appear- 
 ances what the more permanent state of things 
 may be. But for the present, at least, everything 
 is exceedingly encouraging; and indeed I do not 
 know why they should not always remain so; I 
 mean if we do our part. I have exceeding faith 
 in the faithfulness of God. If he has said he will 
 give his spirit I think he means it; I think too he 
 is far more willing to save souls than we are to 
 have them saved. When, therefore, there is dead- 
 ness in the church and sinners are not being con- 
 verted, the fault is not God's but ours. I do 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 235 
 
 believe in my heart that if we missionaries and all 
 Christians lived as I am sure we ought to live, and 
 as some have lived, there would be a revival all 
 the year round, and sinners would be inquiring the 
 way to Zion all the while. God's faithfulness and 
 his promises in the Scriptures fully warrant such a 
 belief. When no blessings come down we are apt 
 to throw the blame on God, but do it in the form 
 of a modest apology for him, saying, ( His time is 
 not come yet/ I am ashamed whenever I think 
 this, for it is dishonoring to God. It is casting 
 on him that which only results from our own 
 indolence and lack of spirituality. God's time to 
 glorify himself and save sinners is always here. 
 I believe there is no time when he is more ready 
 than at any other." 
 
 Extracts from his journal : 
 
 " January 18. — God has given me to see this, one 
 of the gladdest days of my life. This morning I 
 sailed from Corisco to build my home among the 
 heathen at the mouth of the Benita on the main- 
 land. Mr. and Mrs. Mackey came with me as far 
 as Hanje, where we arrived at dark. We brought 
 two boats, which carried my building tools, clothing, 
 food and goods for purchases. Mrs. Mackey and 
 Mrs. M'Queen have shown great kindness in fitting 
 
236 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 me out with everything necessary for housekeep- 
 ing. I take Upingalo along for cook and house- 
 keeper. 
 
 "January 19. — This morning, after breakfast at 
 Hanje, the people came together to talk their 
 palaver with us for passing by them and going to 
 Benita River. TVe explained our reasons fully, 
 but they were not satisfied, and declared if we did 
 not build with them that the Scripture readers 
 must leave, and that the house and everything 
 must be taken away. They had made threats 
 against the Scripture readers, and had declared that 
 they would burn or tear down their house. AVe 
 told them that our plans were already made and 
 that talking was useless; so about 10 o'clock I 
 started with the boats and men, leaving Mr. and 
 Mrs. Mackey there to await the return of the 
 larger one. Reached Benita about 10 o'clock and 
 met with a most joyous welcome. Every one 
 seemed overflowing with gladness. They gave me 
 gladly the best house in town to live in, and ran 
 with great haste to carry up my boxes and stow 
 them away. Upingalo arranged things nicely, and 
 at tea-time set me a nice table with snow-white 
 cloth and tea-set. He brought me coffee with goat's 
 milk, butter and good bread and ham, which Mrs. 
 

 GEORGE PAULL. 237 
 
 Mackey had provided ; tea-cakes, a large tin of 
 which Mrs. McQueen had made me, served as a 
 kind of dessert. My house is tolerably neat and 
 clean. It is bamboo, good size, with one outside 
 door, but no windows save a little one about two 
 feet by ten inches. I am provided with a good 
 mattress, blankets and mosquito-net. 
 
 "I had a houseful at prayers — read and ex- 
 plained part of the first chapter of Genesis. May 
 God make me a blessing to this people ! 
 
 " January 20. — This morning I arose refreshed 
 by a tolerably good sleep. After breakfast I took 
 some men to cut a path and went to look at a place 
 for building. I selected one of the most charming 
 spots, I think, I have ever seen — a bluff about 
 fifteen or twenty feet high and about one hundred 
 yards back from the beach. On the top of the 
 bluif the land is almost level, and runs back about 
 a mile in a beautiful plateau of almost entirely 
 clear land. The view from it extends into the 
 river and away over the sea. A strong and con- 
 stant sea-breeze sweeps over it almost day and 
 night. To-morrow the king and headmen are 
 to meet me and sell me the land, and I commence 
 to build. The old king and several headmen were 
 to see me this afternoon. They say they are very 
 
238 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 glad to have some one to live among them and 
 teach them about God and how to be good, for 
 some of the people are very bad. 
 
 "The man whose house Upingalo uses for a 
 kitchen came to see how much I would pay him 
 for the use of it. He thought he ought to have 
 two dollars a month, but at last agreed to come at 
 the end of a month and receive one dollar. I went 
 with Ume (the carpenter) this afternoon and cut 
 the fork of a tree to hang the grindstone on. The 
 next thing will be to set and file the saw, so as to 
 be ready for building. 
 
 " The house that I now live in is quite comfort- 
 able. The large room, which I use as a reception- 
 room, study, dining-room and sitting-room, is about 
 fourteen by sixteen feet. The walls are about eight 
 feet high, and there is no ceiling between me and 
 the rafters. The rain, as it pours down to-night, 
 knocks the soot from the roof on the paper, but 
 Upingalo will remedy that soon by the use of a 
 broom. The other room is about eight feet by 
 twelve, and has no window or door to admit the 
 light except a little one three feet by one-half. 
 This is nearly always closed to keep out the 
 thieves, for here our treasures are kept. It is 
 pantry and store-house and bed-room. Chests 
 

 GEOBGE PAULL. 239 
 
 and dishes and trade-goods and bread and meat, 
 etc., are all stowed here. The whole house has a 
 floor of newly-pounded clay, which is comfortable 
 enough and looks clean. I had a board tied up in 
 the large room for books, etc., and another in the 
 small one to put the dishes on. There is a rope 
 stretched across the room on which to hang coats, 
 towels, etc. 
 
 "As I came in from cutting the grindstone 
 frame I found a pile of bark burning away like 
 a small coal-pit, and when I inquired I found it 
 was a miniature pottery. They make very nice 
 vessels for water, holding about a quart, out 
 of clay, figured over on the outside, and very 
 much the shape of a small iron pot. When they 
 have made them they put them into a pile and 
 pile bark around to burn them. When done they 
 are quite hard and serviceable. They make pipes 
 in the same way — pipes, too, that show the skill of 
 an artist. 
 
 " I saw some men and women this evening going 
 out to watch all night in their gardens, which are 
 about half a mile away. This is the only way 
 they can keep the elephants from destroying their 
 food. I tried to show them how they might dig 
 pits at their crossing places and catch the elephants, 
 
240 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 but that seems to them too much trouble. All the 
 old garden-spots that I see have the remains of a 
 lodge where the uight watchers slept." The reader 
 will at once be reminded of that passage in Isa. i. 
 8, " The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a 
 vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. ,, 
 
 "We had a full house at prayers, and I read 
 and spoke to attentive listeners about the creation 
 of man. The three native Christians that came 
 with me gathered into my room after prayers, and 
 we sang Benga hymns together till 8 o'clock. They 
 had no desire to leave off, although they had not 
 yet had their suppers. It is a delightful thing to 
 have these Christians with me — they seem like 
 brethren indeed in a land of heathen. I hope 
 they will do great good among the people. To- 
 day I set Mbata (the Scripture reader) to teaching 
 a school, which he has been doing in some sort 
 before. Big men and little boys go and are busy 
 learning the A, B, C. Some of them, too, have 
 now learned to spell. A headman from across the 
 river came to see me to-day and brought me a 
 present of a chicken, and I had, of course, to give 
 him in return a present worth more than the 
 chicken. 
 
 " I have an almanac for 1865 which Mr. Mackey 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 241 
 
 brought out and presented me. This keeps my time 
 as to the days and weeks, and I have a big silver 
 watch which I bought from Mr. Mackey. This 
 tells me how the hours go. For calling the peo- 
 ple together for prayers, I have a shrill whistle 
 (for we have no bell as yet) which Mr. M'Queen 
 used and which Mrs. McQueen gave me. I hope 
 to hand this back to her, however, whenever any- 
 body is kind enough to send us a bell from 
 America. 
 
 " The missionaries in Corisco feel a great inter- 
 est in this mainland undertaking, and they treated 
 me with great kindness and did everything for my 
 comfort that they could when I left. Surely it is 
 not vain and dishonest talk when I say that I can- 
 not see why God should treat me so kindly and 
 give me every comfort and enjoyment that I need, 
 so that in this land of darkness I am as truly 
 happy, I think, as I have ever been in my bright- 
 est days at home, among friends that I love and 
 surrounded by whatever we thought could make 
 life enjoyable. 
 
 "January 21. — This morning the old king and 
 the headmen came together to sell me some ground 
 for the mission buildings. I sat down and told 
 them my object in coming among them, and what 
 
 16 
 
242 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 I would expect on their part, viz., a good attend- 
 ance on missionary instructions, and when their 
 people stole anything from me that they were to 
 have it returned, also that I was to have a voice 
 in their palavers and councils, etc., etc., to all of 
 which they agreed. Poor people ! I feel greatly 
 attached to them; and they are very kind, and 
 yielded almost everything to me that I asked. 
 They are wonderfully anxious to have a mission- 
 ary among them, and say they want very much 
 to be taught about God. Mine will be a fear- 
 fully responsible work. I shall need grace every 
 hour. 
 
 " The land thus bought for the mission, I think, 
 is the most beautiful spot on which my eye ever 
 fell. Among the hills of Pennsylvania or the 
 prairies of the West or amid the rich scenery of 
 Scotland I do not think I ever saw anything that 
 made my heart so glad. Beautiful, beautiful, 
 beautiful, is all I can say that would be anything 
 like an adequate description. I went out this 
 afternoon and stretched myself on its green sward 
 under the shade of a tree, and as I looked up I 
 am sure my heart swelled with gladness that I 
 was in a land so lovely and engaged in a work 
 so blessed. I scarcely get time to sit down for a 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 243 
 
 moment but the people gather about me, and if I 
 commence to learn the language from them their 
 faces grow bright and they take great delight in 
 helping me. 
 
 " On the land are two springs w r hich the people 
 say never go dry. I was careful to have them 
 within the line, so that there might be no failure 
 of water. Near one of them I notice there are 
 four different varieties of beautiful wild flowers, 
 which, if they could be transplanted to America, 
 would be esteemed treasures. 
 
 "January 22. — This has been a delightful Sab- 
 bath. I spent the morning in thinking over the 
 first three chapters of Genesis. At 10 o'clock and 
 at night in my sermons I dwelt on the creation 
 and fall and the evil of the heart as described by 
 Paul in the first chapter of Romans, trying at the 
 same time to give some impression of the greatness 
 and sovereignty of God. I think these most im- 
 portant subjects just at the beginning of my work. 
 Both morning and night I had fixed attention ; at 
 night, especially, it seemed very solemn. At morn- 
 ing service there was an audience of between sev- 
 enty and eighty people, crowded together in the 
 little native house and about the door. One, at 
 least, and perhaps more, came a distance of eight 
 
244 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 or ten miles to hear the gospel. I asked him if 
 his heart believed the things he had heard. He 
 said, 'Yes, or else I would not come so far to 
 hear.' At night there were about fifty present. 
 I started a Sabbath-school in the afternoon, to 
 which about thirty men, women and children 
 came. The native Christians taught them a 
 while, and then I spent the rest of the time in 
 trying to explain to them the way of salvation. 
 My friend Tom seems seriously attentive, and the 
 young men tell me this evening that he has been 
 asking them to teach him how to pray. Perhaps 
 God will bless our work here, and then the pray- 
 ers that I have tried to offer for a long time will 
 be answered. I will pray and work and wait. I 
 trust God will yet use me for his glory. The peo- 
 ple in town have behaved in a very orderly way, 
 and with great apparent respect for the day of God. 
 "January 23. — This Monday active work com- 
 mences in the way of preparation for the new 
 house, and it makes quite a stir about the little 
 town, for every one is anxious to earn a cloth or a 
 hat, etc. Out of the number of applicants I hired 
 some twenty. Part of them went to cut and carry 
 posts to set the house on, the remainder with their 
 cutlasses I set to clearing off the ground ; cutting 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 245 
 
 away bushes and making a road to the beach. 
 Some of the number are women, and they hack 
 away w T ith their cutlasses as well as the men, when 
 the work is light. They form a merry group of 
 workmen. I have been among them most of the 
 day showing them what to do. In the evening 
 they gathered about my house to know how much 
 they were to be paid. 
 
 "Upingalo (the cook) thinks he has too much 
 to do; so Ngombalonda came to-night (a nice 
 bright boy, who had been Mrs. M'Queen's table 
 and pantry boy), and he is to stay and help and go 
 on with his studies. I let him stay, chiefly in hope 
 that I might be able to do him some good. I am 
 to teach the four mission boys, Upingalo, Ume, 
 Mbata and Ngombalonda, in the evenings. As 
 they are all Christians except the last, I find great 
 pleasure in having them about me. I read a chap- 
 ter with them in Benga, and explain it as we go 
 along. Beside this, they are to study geography 
 and arithmetic, etc. This is in my own room. 
 We have public prayers every morning and even- 
 ing, which many people attend. I read a chapter 
 and discourse on it, and we then sing a hymn and 
 have prayer. 
 
 " While the young men were in my room 
 
246 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 to-night, they asked me if I had a father. I said 
 i Yes/ and showed them his picture. They looked 
 at it and said, i Ah, he is a good man, very good. 
 He is old ; he was a good man when he was 
 young/ 
 
 " Upingalo — 'Tell him Upingalo says he is an 
 old man/ 
 
 " Ume — i Tell him when I go to America I will 
 see him. This face looks like yours/ 
 
 " Age is the great thing in a man, with them, 
 which demands reverence and respect. I had a 
 letter from Mr. Mackey to-day, saying that the 
 trouble at Hanje was all amicably settled before 
 he left. 
 
 " January 24. — This evening closes a busy day, 
 and also brings a good deal of weariness with it. 
 I have about twenty-five workmen on my list who 
 require to have everything that is to be done 
 marked out for them; and then they are to be 
 w r atched while they are at it, lest they make a mis- 
 take. I have four out of the twenty-five posts on 
 which the house is to stand already in the ground, 
 and to-morrow evening I hope to have the rest. 
 We put them down three feet in the ground. I 
 try to find out the best and most sensible w T orkmen, 
 and then act as headman for the rest. Plenty of 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 247 
 
 spectators come and stand about to see what is go- 
 ing on. The patent tape-line and the spirit-level 
 call forth wonderful admiration. I am having a 
 road cut around the ground; in some places the 
 workmen actually have to tunnel through the thick 
 hush, leaving a perfect roof of bushes and limbs 
 overhead. 
 
 "Our evening prayer was delightful to-night; 
 over thirty were present, to whom I spoke about 
 half an hour plainly and personally. I never saw 
 more fixed attention and more unmistakable in- 
 terest in what was said, I cannot but hope that 
 God will bless his truth to the people. One man 
 spoke in reply for the rest, and his words showed 
 that the truths they had heard were setting them 
 to thinking. 
 
 u January 25. — The list of workmen has in- 
 creased to thirty to-day. They work faithfully, 
 carrying tremendous loads of timber, as much 
 as twelve of them can stagger along with. They 
 are good-natured and even jolly. The women hack 
 away with their cutlasses, though they do not ac- 
 complish very much. I sent four of them this 
 morning to cut a path on the other side of a ravine 
 near where we are building the house. But from 
 some superstitious notion they were afraid to go. 
 
248 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 They said men might work there, but they would 
 die if they went. We came to a place the other day 
 from which the men, king, headman and all ran 
 away. They said they had buried a tiger there, and 
 if anybody went to that spot it would bring sick- 
 ness on the people. So they made a law that who- 
 ever went there should pay a great fine. 
 
 "One of the headmen brought me a present of a 
 chicken yesterday, and old King Mango, who lives 
 two or three miles up the coast, came tosee me to-day 
 where we are building. He brought me a present 
 of a chicken and a large bunch of plantains. I 
 seated his majesty on a block and gave him my 
 umbrella to keep the sun off. When I got leisure 
 I came with him to the house where I live (one- 
 quarter of a mile away), and made him a present of 
 a fine butcher-knife, with which he was greatly de- 
 lighted. I hope to win the hearts of the people by 
 kindness, and then I shall have the better oppor- 
 tunity for doing them good. 
 
 " January 26. — This morning the rain hin- 
 dered us, but we got something done notwithstand- 
 ing. All the posts are in the ground, and we have 
 commenced putting on the sills. This is wearing 
 work, as it is difficult to hew and make them fit 
 properly. I came to dinner perfectly exhausted, 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 249 
 
 but after a hearty meal and a short rest I felt as 
 fresh as ever. One of the headmen brought me a 
 present of a chicken and a bunch of plantains. I 
 suppose he was tempted by my present to the king 
 yesterday. I gave him a hat. Getting presents 
 of chickens and plantains is very expensive, as I 
 have to give a dash of double their worth in return. 
 I have the men now cutting a path direct from 
 where we are working to the town. I suppose the 
 people w T ill be glad of that. They never go to the 
 trouble of cutting a path if they can avoid it. 
 They prefer to go half a mile round. 
 
 " January 27. — This morning another headman 
 brought me a present, a basket of corn and a leg 
 of venison. The venison was something of a 
 rarity, though the bush abounds with a beautiful 
 little deer which the people sometimes shoot. A 
 pair of pheasants flew up before me to-day, but I 
 scarcely got to see them enough to say what they 
 were like. I saw yesterday a most beautiful 
 bird, black, with red bill and a white ring round 
 its neck. It had five or six long tail-feathers, 
 perhaps six inches long. Its body was no larger 
 than a snow-bird. 
 
 " The work at the mission-house is progressing. 
 The three heavy sills running the whole length of 
 
250 GEORGE PAULL, 
 
 the house are hewn and nailed on. Much of the 
 fitting of timbers and hewing I am obliged to do 
 myself; and in the evenings I feel almost exhausted. 
 The men keep in good spirits, and upon the whole 
 are the best Africans to work that I have ever seen. 
 Old King Mango and some of the headmen came to 
 see me this evening to put their marks to the deed 
 and get their pay for the ground. I promised to be 
 ready for them to-morrow. 
 
 "The morning and evening prayers are well 
 attended. This evening over thirty were present. 
 I try to teach them and explain the Scriptures as I 
 go along. 
 
 " A man came to me to-day to see if I could doc- 
 tor his wife's arm. By some means the shaft of an 
 arrow had been driven through it. I told him to 
 bring her and I would try and do something to 
 help it. 
 
 " January 28. — To-day came another present 
 from a headman, of a bunch of plantains and a 
 chicken. In the afternoon also another headman 
 brought me a part of a large fish. I set the work- 
 men free about the middle of the afternoon, as 
 they had been working hard and faithfully all the 
 w^eek ; and as I myself was tired, and had beside 
 appointed this afternoon to meet the headmen to 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 251 
 
 pay them for the land, and write them a 'big 
 book' (a kind of deed), a copy of which I keep for 
 myself also. I had written, on the day we went 
 around the land, a small article, just to seal the 
 bargain. I paid the six headmen and the king 
 four pieces of cloth, two shirts, six knives and a 
 few other things, all of which in America would 
 cost about ten dollars. These they divided among 
 themselves. I made as presents also (tokens of 
 friendship) six large butcher knives to the head- 
 men, and to the king I gave a red shirt. As we 
 went around the path again we came across the 
 bones of a great elephant which had been killed a 
 long time ago. 
 
 " January 29. — This has been a delightful Sab- 
 bath. In the morning I preached to a congrega- 
 tion of considerably over a hundred people crowded 
 into the house and about the door. Preached on 
 the Lord's Prayer. Two of the traders were over 
 from the other side of the river, the only English 
 traders there, and about twenty people beside. 
 They were most attentive, and I cannot but hope 
 that God will bless his truth plainly spoken. The 
 traders stayed with me for dinner. In the afternoon 
 we had a prayer meeting, and at night preaching 
 again to a good and attentive audience. Our 
 
252 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 singing has been delightful. One of the Scripture 
 readers with his wife from Hanje was here, and one 
 also from Aje. Ngombalonda, one of the mission 
 boys, is my clerk. He knows many tunes and 
 sings very well. My own singing powers are de- 
 veloping somewhat. 
 
 " January 30. — To-day I have been sick and 
 scarcely able to attend to building. The hot sun 
 this morning I think brought it on. A leopard 
 came into town last night and killed a goat. The 
 people are a good deal afraid of the leopards. 
 
 "February 1. — Yesterday I was sick with a slight 
 attack of fever, but heavy doses of quinine have 
 made me feel quite well to-day. The work of 
 building goes on prosperously. Last night was a 
 sleepless night on account of the fever, which was 
 just leaving me. Ume says, ( Ah, Mr. Paul], the 
 people of America make us very sorry, they catch 
 our grandfather and carry him away, they carry 
 away our people' (alluding to the slave traders). 
 
 "Februarys. — This is my twenty-ninth birthday 
 (I am twenty-eight years old), and I have spent it 
 as much as possible in quietness and alone, telling 
 the men to get along as best they could without 
 me. It was almost impossible to have ten minutes 
 of quiet in town, so I went out into the bush. The 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 253 
 
 natives gathered about me to-night in the bright 
 moonlight, while I told them some things about 
 the sun, moon and stars. They asked why they 
 could see no stars when the moon was round. 
 They thought it was because all the stars then 
 gathered themselves together to the moon to increase 
 its brightness. 
 
 "February 5. — The Mange came this morning 
 with the mail. She had been delayed by a tornado. 
 The people did not create an excitement as they 
 would have done on another day. It rained this 
 morning, and I expected scarcely any out to 
 church, but God sent me one hundred and ten. 
 I think I never preached so stumblingly since 
 I came to Africa. But God can bless the poorest 
 effort. 
 
 "The Christians tell me to-night that two of 
 the natives have been asking them how to pray 
 with all their hearts. They say their hearts never 
 troubled them as they do now. May God now 
 commence the work among us ! 
 
 "Sabbath, February 12. — This has been a 
 good day. The attendance at church was one 
 hundred and twenty — many more than I hoped 
 for, as it rained in the morning. Preached on 
 Isaiah, fifty-fifth chapter. In the afternoon meet- 
 
254 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 ing for prayer, and at night, there was an attend- 
 ance of from thirty to fifty, and most solemn at- 
 tention as I preached on the personal responsi- 
 bility of those who hear the word of God. 
 
 "February 18. — This evening Isanga came — one 
 of the men whose ' heart has been troubling him/ 
 He says, 'I heard from Mbata about heaven and 
 hell and sin and death, but I did not understand 
 about Christ. When you came and told us about 
 Christ suffering and dying to save us sinners, and 
 about his being the Son of God and coming to die 
 in our places, I asked my heart if it was its sin 
 that made Christ die, and ever since my heart 
 troubled me.' Mbala came in and I spoke with 
 him ; he says that he believes the truths that he 
 hears, but they do not trouble him. However, he 
 seems to be trying to pray. Upingalo says he 
 heard him praying the other night at midnight. 
 He says the young men are also beginning to 
 pray. Tom prays at midnight, and prays a good 
 deal. O Spirit, breathe on the bones in this 
 valley ! Jesus seems to help one wonderfully 
 when he walks in the path of duty. I have 
 never in my life seemed to be enabled to make 
 the way of salvation so plain as since I came 
 among the people of Africa. Every day almost 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 255 
 
 my heart is whispering, i Hasten, hasten, hasten ; 
 do not lose a day ! You know that life in Africa 
 is short, and there is much to be done. Do not 
 let your time be taken up with any trifles, but 
 hasten on the main work — preach the gospel/ 
 
 "February 19. — This seemed a barren day to 
 my soul. No desires after God, heart hard and 
 immovable, with no strength to do anything good, 
 but always failing in my good resolves to do for 
 God. So I felt until dark, when God was pleased 
 to visit me and soften my feelings, and although I 
 felt so worthless, as having done not a thing that 
 could stand before God in all my life, yet I thought 
 in the last day it might appear that he had used 
 my efforts some little for his glory — that possibly 
 he might have enabled me to be of a little comfort 
 to some of his people. But I felt so weary of sin 
 and temptation and failure to glorify God as I 
 ought that I earnestly prayed to Jesus, if it be his 
 will, to take me to himself out of the world. I 
 thought of myself as having sinned against God 
 from my birth, and yet God pitied me and bore 
 with me and would not cut me off, but sent his 
 Son to die for me. When I thought of the won- 
 derful forbearance of God my heart was melted to 
 tears, 
 
258 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "To-night I preached on 'God so loved the 
 world/ etc. Preached with some degree of feel- 
 ing and warmth, and the people were most atten- 
 tive. After service I asked those who wished to 
 talk about Christ to stay, or those who wished to 
 inquire how they might be saved. Some twenty 
 remained. I asked if they all remained to talk 
 about Christ, and they said that they did. Six 
 of them said their hearts had been troubling them 
 on account of their sins. One man said he would 
 not speak about himself now, but he would pray 
 on and pray on and pray on until Christ changed 
 his heart, and then he would come and tell me of 
 it. Several women remained who seemed seriously 
 disposed ; one expressed a desire to be a Christian. 
 Preached this morning on the fifty-first Psalm — 
 about seventy-five people present. Talked in 
 the afternoon prayer-meeting about heaven and 
 its desirableness. 
 
 "Monday, February 20. — Oh, I am struck 
 dumb with strange feelings ! I believe God is 
 working by his Spirit among this people. To- 
 night after prayers, at which there was a large 
 attendance, the houseful seemed to stand still and 
 sit down again as though not ready to leave. I, 
 however, came on into my own little home, and 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 257 
 
 three or four of those who expressed concern last 
 night followed me and sat down, seeming desirous 
 to speak, so I spoke with them and found them ap- 
 parently much concerned. Others came in to the 
 number of nine — every one declaring himself to 
 be concerned and troubled on account of his sins — 
 Ebuma, Miodi, Madoha, Beduka, Ikuba, Ijabi, 
 Upinda, Jumna, Ngambalonda. I spent, perhaps, 
 an hour and a half talking with each one and try- 
 ing to show them the way to Christ. O God, my 
 heart is full ! I would hide myself away in the 
 dust ! Do thou work for thyself among this peo- 
 ple! Some of them say that their trouble arises 
 from a feeling that they have a sinful heart. 
 Ebuma says he has always wondered where he 
 was to go to when he died, and now he hears of 
 heaven and hell and is troubled, and wishes to find 
 the way to heaven. 
 
 " Tuesday, 21st. — O Lord my God, I do not 
 know what to say. I ought to hide my face in the 
 dust, and I feel like hiding away from thy presence, 
 lest by some word or act or neglect of duty I 
 should grieve thy spirit, if indeed thou hast com- 
 menced to work among this people. But, O Lord, 
 if it is thy work, thou hast commenced it and thou 
 wilt not suffer my follies to stop it. Thou wilt 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 not suffer anything to stop it, but wilt carry it on 
 to thy name's everlasting glory. Glory, glory be 
 unto thee, O God ! Thou livest and reignest in 
 mercy and kindness ; this is my hope. 
 
 " This evening there was a much larger attend- 
 ance than usual on prayers, and the people were 
 solemnly attentive. They had no disposition to 
 rise and go away after it was over. I spoke to 
 them of their danger and lost condition, and tried 
 to show them that Christ was their only helper, 
 and urged them to seek him. Five followed me 
 into my room to inquire the way to Christ — Betluka 
 and his wife, Bela (1) and Bela (2) and Tom. 
 They seem to be really concerned for their souls' 
 salvation. Some of them have a most clear view 
 of their lost and helpless and sinful condition. I 
 am astonished at their Scriptural knowledge of 
 their state. O God, revive thy work ! Saviour, 
 pour down thy spirit as showers upon the mown 
 grass ! 
 
 " February 22. — To-night was our prayer-meet- 
 ing. The attendance was as large as it usually is 
 on Sabbath evenings at church. I spoke on Acts, 
 chapter second, 'Out-pouring of the spirit, and call 
 to repentance/ Some remained to make inquiries 
 how thev micrht be saved. The words of Isanga 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 259 
 
 and Ebuma were especially interesting and encour- 
 aging. 
 
 "February 23. — Oh God, I am filled with won- 
 der at thy ways of dealing ! Who by searching 
 can find out God ? Art thou in very deed visiting 
 this people with the reviving influence of thy 
 spirit ? A full house at prayers, to which I spoke 
 at considerable length on the ' Barren fig-tree and 
 the strait gate/ Surely I never saw more fixed 
 and solemn attention, but no display of feeling. I 
 was enabled to speak very solemnly and pointedly. 
 I invited those who wished to ask any questions or 
 to talk about Christ to come into my room. Five 
 followed me. Two of them, Bomani and Besaka, 
 had never spoken with me before, the other three 
 had. All the young men in town seem to be pray- 
 ing. They are heard at midnight lifting up their 
 voices to God in prayer. Almost every one who 
 has come to me has made this remark : { We heard 
 from the Scripture reader before about God and 
 heaven and hell, and our hearts did not trouble us, 
 but since you told us about Christ we feel trouble 
 in our hearts/ One noble young fellow, whom I 
 have noticed apparently much interested, came last 
 night and said with much earnestness, 'Tell me 
 how to pray/ To-night he came again with every 
 
260 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 indication of deepest earnestness and said, 1 1 come 
 to ask you how to love Christ. My heart keeps 
 saying, Love Christ ! love Christ ! Tell me how to 
 love him/ The deep sincerity of this young man 
 is most interesting. 'I came to tell you before 
 that my heart was in trouble, but now it troubles 
 me more and more. It did not trouble me until I 
 heard the things you told us about Christ/ One 
 young man came who has been much concerned for 
 two or three weeks and was one of the first two. 
 There are some things that seem hopeful in his 
 case; perhaps he has been led to believe. The 
 most surprising thing about these young men 
 is their Scriptural knowledge, although until 
 November last they had never heard the gospel, 
 with the exception of a few who had heard some- 
 thing of it from a Scripture reader at Meduma. 
 God's spirit, I am convinced, must himself have 
 taught them the things they know. 
 
 "Sabbath, February 26. — To-day I have tried 
 to preach the gospel to perishing sinners. There 
 was in the morning a congregation of more than a 
 hundred. I preached on ( The Son of man is come 
 to seek and to save/ etc. Many listened with 
 fixed and earnest attention. In the afternoon 
 prayer-meeting I spoke on i The kindness and love 
 

 GEORGE PAULL. 261 
 
 of Christ/ as shown in healing those who came to 
 him. There was much earnest attention by all, 
 and some apparent tenderness. Oh that the word 
 of Christ might enter into their hearts, and that 
 the power of the Holy Ghost might change them ! 
 At night I spoke on the fifteenth chapter of Luke, 
 explaining it. Afterwards I asked those who had 
 talked with me to remain. They were not all 
 present; eight, however, remained. God has evi- 
 dently been at work in their hearts. One (Tom) 
 I almost hope is a Christian. He says, 'My heart 
 does not feel as it did. It was all dark before, but 
 now it is different. To-day, when you preached 
 about Christ coming to save the lost, it made me 
 cry. I thought, I am a lost sinner, and Christ has 
 come to save me.' Bela seems much concerned. 
 I never have seen deeper and more earnest and 
 anxious attention than I have seen on the faces of 
 many to-day. As I walked out after this morning's 
 service to find a place of quiet and retirement, I 
 met one native Christian and a native who had 
 been out to the bush to pray. The native was 
 much concerned and had asked to be taught. He 
 was one who had been to hear me once or twice 
 before. I sat down on the grass and tried to show 
 him the way to Christ. 
 
262 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 " I visited Mango's town a day or two ago and 
 spoke to them about Christ. The king was just 
 about buying another wife; his wives were all dead 
 but one. I told him one was enough, and tried to 
 persuade him to turn from heathenism unto God. 
 He said he believed he would not get another wife 
 now. Perhaps he would buy a slave-woman. 
 
 "February 27. — This has been a day of joy and 
 grief— joy because God's work is prospering, but 
 I was made to grieve because I find that the devil 
 was hard at work, too. I paid a visit to M'Lach- 
 lan (trader), on the other side. He spoke of put- 
 ting a factory right among my people — a rum-shop 
 to ruin the mission work. I plead for God and his 
 cause with all the strength I could. May God 
 break the teeth of his enemies ! At night also in 
 the town there was a drunken frolic while we were 
 at meeting, and one of the men who had been most 
 concerned about his soul was in it. Rum was 
 bought from the traders. So the devil works. At 
 night, however, we had a good meeting, and for this 
 in my heart I can thank God. Thirteen or four- 
 teen stayed in after the meeting was over to ask 
 and learn the way to Christ. Some of them I had 
 talked with before. Five women stayed this time. 
 Some of them seemed to be a good deal concerned. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 263 
 
 Oh, I trust God will yet convert multitudes of 
 these people to himself, 
 
 "March 2. — The interest of those who have 
 been inquiring the way to God seems unabated. 
 About fifteen stayed in to-night to inquire and hear 
 about God, I appointed Saturday afternoon for 
 them all to come. The people of Hanje and Aje 
 are coming out encouragingly to church. My 
 house is wellnigh finished with the exception of 
 the floors. 
 
 "Saturday, March 4, — This afternoon I had ap- 
 pointed to meet the inquirers. There were four- 
 teen or fifteen present beside the Christians. I 
 talked to them long and tried to explain the way 
 to Christ. I talked to a full house to-night on 
 ' Behold the Lamb of God.' I feel quite w T eary 
 to-night, and am glad of it, from trying to serve 
 Christ. I have walked about six miles and dis- 
 coursed four times to-day. 
 
 "Sabbath, March 5. — This morning I preached 
 to about one hundred people on 6 Jesus stood and 
 cried/ etc. I had much freedom in thought and 
 word and illustration. In the afternoon prayer- 
 meeting I spoke a little on 'Christ a propitiation 
 for our sins,' To-night I discoursed on the terrible 
 catalogue of heathen sins in the first chapter of 
 
264 GEORGE PATJLL. 
 
 Romans. The people said, ' This is all true ; we 
 commit them all/ I talked with Isanga, Ebuma, 
 Ihuba, Bela, Beduka and Bomani. These all, 
 except Beduka, had some most encouraging things 
 about them. If in another land and among a more 
 enlightened people, their answers would make me 
 think them Christians. I cannot tell ; God know- 
 eth. Tom also some days since gave some encour- 
 aging evidence of a change of heart. 
 
 "Monday, March 6. — This day I am run down 
 with the work of yesterday and Saturday, and felt 
 unable to do anything. But about noon the natives 
 brought me word that Williams, a trader on the 
 other side of the river, had died. I took boat and 
 boatmen and went over. I found Captain Finley 
 there, of the Gordon's schooner. Mr. Williams had 
 died on board the schooner, and Captain Fin- 
 ley had already buried him. The natives had dug 
 the grave with their hands, and a picket fence was 
 put around it. He died without a thought of 
 death, and I suppose had not a hope to light the 
 grave. I tried to urge the captain to be ready 
 also when he should be called to go, but his hard- 
 ened heart turned off the subject like steel. It 
 must be hard to die alone on the coast of Africa, 
 unless the hope of better things beyond cheer the 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 265 
 
 darkness, and then nothing might be considered 
 easier. I am feverish to-night and a good deal 
 unwell." 
 
 From Benita, Mr. Paull wrote, March 12, 1865, 
 to his missionary friends Mr. and Mrs. De Heer : 
 "Please accept many thanks for both your kind 
 letters. I now look for my Corisco mail almost as 
 anxiously as for my American mails, particularly 
 since the American one for the two last times has 
 been playing me false. It seems a long time since 
 I saw you, but I trust it will not be many weeks 
 till I will be among you for a little while. Chris- 
 tian fellowship is hard to give up. The commu- 
 nion of saints may well be precious to us now, for 
 it is one of the things that will last for ever. 
 There will be so many things, however, to add 
 to its sweetness in heaven that we shall scarcely 
 be able to recognize it as the communion of saints 
 which we enjoyed on earth. This is good, but 
 that will be infinitely better. It is well that we 
 are not able here to realize all its excellence and 
 preciousness, else earth would seem to us like a 
 dreary journey through a wintry night, and we 
 should mourn like doves until the time would 
 come when we might fly away and join the dear 
 company. I thank you heartily for the prayers 
 
266 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 that I know you send up on my behalf. The 
 prayers of friends seem to me to have done more 
 for me than any thing * else in this world. The 
 prayers, too, that have gone up for God's blessing 
 on this station have, I trust, been answered at least 
 in some measure. There have been several asking 
 how they may find Christ, and some of them, I 
 trust, have learned the way to him. I wrote you 
 by the last mail of two who were asking the way 
 to God. On the Sabbath evening after the mail 
 went to Corisco several others began to inquire, and 
 since that others, until some fifteen or eighteen have 
 been to speak with me about i the trouble in their 
 hearts/ I have talked much with them and la- 
 bored much to make the way to Jesus plain. 
 Some of them, I trust, have found it, and are 
 resting in him. How the sweet story of Jesus 
 dying for our sins melts the heart ! Most of these 
 young men say, ( It did not trouble our hearts to 
 know about God and heaven and hell, but when 
 you told us about Jesus coming down and dying 
 for our sins, then our hearts troubled us/ I rejoice 
 greatly that God is doing something for his own 
 glory, and I long and pray that he will yet work 
 mightily all along this coast. I think in my heart 
 I would desire to glorify him, but surely I have 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 267 
 
 never in my life felt myself to be such a worthless, 
 miserable atom in creation as within the last three 
 or four weeks. But my joy is that God does not 
 need the help of any man ; he will work himself, 
 after all, and leave us to look on. 
 
 " I have had quite an attack of fever in the last 
 week, though I am entirely over it now. I sup- 
 pose I did not follow my dear sister's advice, or I 
 would not perhaps have had it. A week ago on 
 Saturday I w r alked up the river, preaching in the 
 towns, and then preaching twice on Sabbath, which 
 proved to be a little more than I ought to have 
 done. I hope wisdom will come by experience. I 
 am sure I want to live if I can do anything for 
 Africa. A young trader died last week. He has 
 gone to his account. He died without a thought 
 of death. I fear he had a dreary entrance into 
 eternity. 
 
 " I hope it will not be long until we may speak 
 face to face. With much love to both, affection- 
 ately, your brother, 
 
 "Geo. Paull." 
 
 In a letter to his brother James, dated " Benita 
 River Station, March 11, 1865/' after expressing 
 his affliction in the loss of the American mail which 
 went down to the bottom of the sea in the steamer, 
 
268 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 which sunk shortly after leaving Liverpool for 
 Africa, Mr. Paull writes : " I am greatly rejoiced 
 that God has sent me to labor among the mainland 
 tribes. If there are any privations connected with 
 it, I take it as high honor that he puts me to bear 
 them. If there be any good done, from my heart 
 I think I can say that I desire the glory to be his, 
 and I have high hopes that he will yet accomplish 
 much for his own glory here. Since I last wrote 
 home God has done many things to gladden my 
 heart. On Sabbath evening three weeks ago, after 
 feelings of great depression, and a deep sense of 
 utter helplessness and worthlessness in the world, I 
 preached on John iii. 16, 17: i For God so loved 
 the world/ etc. And God was pleased, I trust, to 
 bless it to the good of some of these poor heathen. 
 Some had seemed thoughtful before, and many were 
 so earnestly attentive to the truth that I thought 
 it good to ask that all might remain after the bene- 
 diction who were anxious to know more of Christ and 
 of the way to him. Quite a number remained, 
 five or six of whom complained of their hearts 
 troubling them on account of sin. Since that fif- 
 teen or eighteen have come to my little native hut 
 to speak with me about their souls. Some of them 
 are really and deeply concerned, and some of them 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 269 
 
 I think have found Christ, and are believing in him. 
 One young man who had been a great sinner before, 
 now says that he hates his old life, and does not wish 
 to live it again. He says : i My heart not feel now 
 like it did ; when you preach to-day about Christ 
 coming to save the lost, I feel I be lost sinner, and 
 Christ he save me, and it make me weep/ With 
 but few exceptions they never heard the gospel 
 until last November, when I made a trip here, and 
 left Mbata as a Scripture reader. Since I have 
 been here I have tried morning and evening to in- 
 struct them as to the evil of their hearts and their 
 utterly lost and helpless condition, but especially 
 pointing them to Christ, and trying to open up to 
 them his fullness and freeness and willingness to 
 save. I have long felt that Christ is everything to 
 sinners, and preaching anything else is of no use. 
 And it is wonderful how the simple love of Christ 
 is able to melt even the heathen heart. Almost 
 every one that came to me said, ' We heard of God 
 and heaven and hell from the Scripture reader, but 
 it did not trouble us; but when you told us about 
 Christ coming into the world and dying for our 
 sins, then our hearts trouble us much/ If only one 
 soul be saved from heathenish darkness and eternal 
 death, and be made an heir of glory by words 
 
270 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 that God shall enable me to speak, then I shall 
 have reason to bless him for ever that he has sent 
 me to Africa. 
 
 " I sat to-night musing about home, and think- 
 ing how delightful it would be to spend an evening 
 with you all, and especially a Sabbath evening, as 
 you are gathered around the fire. My life is now 
 altogether without those comforts of home and 
 friends, and I scarcely ever see the face of a white 
 man, except it be an occasional trader, since I came 
 here. But I am far happier here, feeling that I am 
 doing something for God, than I have ever been at 
 home, where I have often felt that my days were 
 idly, almost sinfully, floating away. It is not ease 
 or comfort that can make us happy : it is only the 
 feeling that we are redeeming the time for God 
 that can give us peace. I do not know whether 
 my life in Africa will be long or short, nor does 
 that give me any trouble, so I be sure that my 
 heart is wholly fixed on Christ. This is all that 
 need give me any concern. But whatever the 
 length of my life may be, I trust God will en- 
 able me to give it all for Africa. Every earthly 
 thing is very small when eternity opens up before 
 us, and we are wrong if we do not always keep 
 eternity in the foreground. If it make us solemn, 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 271 
 
 all the better ; we have no right to be anything else 
 but solemn ; for surely it is a solemn thing to live 
 and still more so to die ; so that living or dying, 
 we ought to be solemn. Our hearts are apt to plead 
 for a little mirth and levity, and they say these 
 things will not harm us ; but they only tell us lies ; 
 they would ruin us if they could ; the Scriptures call 
 them i deceitful above all things, and desperately 
 wicked/ I am sure we have no enemy so bad or so 
 dangerous as our own hearts. 
 
 " I have not yet got into my new house, but hope 
 to do so shortly. There is a delightful breeze 
 always fanning the rooms and a fine view over 
 the sea, that strangely contrasts with my present 
 abode, which is hemmed in with plantain trees all 
 around the town, so that the little houses can 
 scarcely be seen, and the house has no windows to 
 admit the breeze. I suppose I would be able to 
 get some monkey meat if I wished it. One of the 
 men shot one the other day, but I did not get to see 
 it till he had burned all the hair off it except the 
 tail. This is the way they cook them, with the 
 skin on. It was a little red one — red as a fox. 
 There are great numbers of them in the bush. The 
 same man also speared a shark in the mouth of 
 the river, and another shot a deer on the beach 
 
272 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 near town. There is abundance of game, but the 
 guns they have are so worthless they rarely kill 
 anything. 
 
 "The last mail brought me a paper from Mr. 
 Thompson, of Glasgow, which says there are many 
 rumors and a good prospect of peace in America. 
 I sincerely hope it may be so, and that this sorrow- 
 ful war will soon be ended and the country again 
 united." 
 
 To his mother: 
 
 " Corisco, April 10, 1865. 
 
 " Your letters and one from James reached me 
 yesterday. These brought me the only tidings 
 from home that I have had for three months. The 
 letters which you wrote me in November and 
 December, I suppose, are in the bottom of the 
 English Channel, a loss which I deplore more than 
 you can tell. I see by one of my last letters that 
 Cousin Thomas Foster has gone to rest. I hope he 
 has gone to the land from which, if we once enter, 
 we go no more out. Uncle and Aunt B. have had 
 heavy shadows drifting over them these late years. 
 I trust when the sun shines again its beams will 
 be the purer and brighter for the cloudy days. 
 You see from the date of my letter that I am now 
 at Corisco, though I expect to go back to my Benita 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 273 
 
 home in a day or two. I came down to attend 
 communion, the mission-meeting and meeting of 
 Presbytery. My stay here has been very pleasant 
 and refreshing after ten weeks 5 absence from white 
 faces, and Corisco too seems like a home, though 
 my own station among the Kombes has a hold on 
 my heart which makes the thought of going back 
 to it very pleasant. The interest among the people 
 there in reference to the things that make for their 
 peace, causes me to wish to be among them again, 
 with the hope that the divine spark will be re- 
 kindled and many more inquire the way to Zion. 
 I wish and pray that, with a heart undivided by 
 any earthly thing, I may be enabled to labor in 
 my wide field for the glory of our King and the 
 salvation of the people. 
 
 "I had a letter from my Scotch friend, Mr. 
 George Thompson, saying that he had sent a box 
 of canned meats for me and Mrs. Nassau by the 
 ship St. George. He had seen Mrs. Nassau on 
 her way home through Scotland. The meats have 
 arrived. I am glad the box from Afrie^ reached 
 home and gave you some pleasure. I hope some 
 day to send you a larger one. I had hoped this 
 mail would bring us tidings of an honorable peace, 
 but the day still seems distant. 
 
 18 
 
274 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 "I do not know any thought more comforting 
 and pleasant than that of dwelling for ever in the 
 ages to come with the meek and quiet in spirit — a 
 harmonious and happy family, undisturbed by 
 passion, and filled and permeated with eternal and 
 unchanging love. Those who have most of love in 
 them upon earth are nearest to heaven, and love 
 grows in us just in proportion as selfishness and 
 worldliness dies. 
 
 " My health in my new home has been wonder- 
 fully good except one or two little touches of fever 
 which are common to all, and which come and go 
 in a day or two ; but I came down looking much 
 better, the missionaries tell me, than when I went 
 away. I hope I shall be spared in Africa many 
 years yet to come. 
 
 "April 13. — Started for Benita again this morn- 
 ing with two boats loaded with furniture, goods 
 and provisions. The moon came up like a ball of 
 fire, at 7 o'clock, and we sailed along in the beauti- 
 ful moonlight, reaching Benita about 12 o'clock at 
 night. Many of the people came with their hearty 
 welcome and helped us unload the boat. I slept 
 in my new house for the first time, on a mattress 
 thrown on the floor. 
 
 "April 14. — Breakfasted on some provisions 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 275 
 
 Mrs. Mackey sent along, my table a chest and the 
 floor my chair. Very busy putting down matting, 
 setting up bedsteads, wardrobe and book-case and 
 unpacking stores. The people in the house all day 
 in crowds, some helping, others looking on, all 
 seeming glad. 
 
 "Sabbath, April 15. — This has been a good and 
 glad day. Discoursed three times in my new 
 house to good, serious and attentive audiences — 
 morning on ' Blind Bartimeus/ afternoon, 'Ye 
 will not come unto me/ evening i What think ye 
 of Christ?* — chiefly endeavoring to hold up 
 Christ in his mediatorial work, urging all to accept 
 of him. I seem to feel that God's spirit is present 
 with us yet, as I trust he was before I went away. 
 
 "April 20. — Kema ; s daughter seems to have be- 
 come really serious. I see her always present at 
 prayers morning and night, whether it rains or not 
 — often the only woman present. It is a strange 
 feature here that the women are the very last to 
 become interested in spiritual things." 
 
 We now come to Mr. PaulFs last letter, which 
 was finished by Mr. Mackey, at his request. It 
 was addressed from Benita River Station, April 17, 
 1865, to his brother James : 
 
 " My indebtedness is to you this time, I feel 
 
276 GEORGE PATJLL. 
 
 very grateful to you and mother and Lizzie for 
 having kept me so well informed of the progress 
 of things at home. The wide gap that the loss of 
 two months' mails made was no fault of yours, but 
 one of those providences which come divinely 
 ordered, doing their work and leaving us to wonder 
 why they came. I wrote to mother and Lizzie 
 while I was at Corisco. I am so far from the 
 ' central point' it is necessary to take every oppor- 
 tunity lest I get to send no letter at all ; so my 
 dates will be very irregular, though I hope to get 
 a letter to you by every mail. I write this now, as 
 I shall be obliged to go to Corisco again in about 
 two weeks, and I wish to leave it there for the 
 mail. I would not go if I did not feel that it was 
 important to be there on the arrival of Mr. Clark 
 and the departure of Mr. Mackey, so that we may 
 consult all together about the interests and pros- 
 pects of our work. A sea voyage of over one 
 hundred miles (there and back) in an open boat, 
 and almost constant sun or rain, is not a very delight- 
 ful undertaking. The chief part of my work, how- 
 ever, will require boating up and down the coast, 
 but the journeys will neither be so hard nor so long 
 as that to Corisco. 
 
 "We had a meeting of Presbytery while I was 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 277 
 
 at Corisco, and divided the church, making ar- 
 rangements to organize the second one here ; so 
 my charge will now lie north of Cape St. John — 
 a point about halfway between this and Corisco — 
 and extends as far north above this as I am able to 
 go. I hope we shall soon have a station here and 
 there like a line of beacon-lights, all along the coast, 
 pouring out their bright light for the safety and sal- 
 vation of Africa's bewildered ones. Within two or 
 three months the church will be organized here, 
 and one of the missionaries will be up to help me 
 at the organization. My visit to Corisco was a 
 pleasant one ; it was good to be among the mission- 
 aries after a tolerably long absence, and they greeted 
 me with warm welcomes. 
 
 " April 18. — I laid my matting on the study to- 
 day, put up the book-case, wardrobe and bedstead, 
 so that the room begins to look somewhat comfort- 
 able, at least much better than my quondam home 
 in the native hut. And as I hope to make some 
 more additions of furniture after a while, I need 
 not envy any one his comforts. 
 
 " I left Ngambalonda at Corisco, but have an- 
 other boy (Ijubi) who lives with me and sleeps in 
 the next room. He is one of those who were in- 
 quiring before I went to Corisco ; and I hope he is 
 
278 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 a Christian. Every night I hear him offering low 
 but private prayers to God in his native tongue — 
 and it is by no means a small comfort and delight 
 here to hear a heathen boy begin to pray. There 
 is the same good attendance and attention that 
 there was before I went away. Those who were 
 interested come regularly and faithfully to morning 
 and evening prayers, and to every meeting for 
 prayer, although some of them have more than a 
 quarter of a mile to walk, sometimes in pitchy dark- 
 ness, and almost trembling for fear of the leopards. 
 I hope in the last day it will be found that they 
 have washed their robes and made them white in 
 the blood of the Lamb. Every one who is received 
 into the church here must be received with fear 
 and trembling, for if they stand and keep from 
 open sin, it can only be because they are upheld by 
 the most amazing grace of God. There are a thou- 
 sand earthly helps to bolster a Christian up in a 
 civilized land; but here there is scarcely a single 
 prop. A healthy moral sentiment in the com- 
 munity is one of the greatest helps to Christians 
 at home, but here there is no moral sentiment at 
 all. The reins are all thrown loose, and they may 
 and do commit the vilest sins as freely as they like. 
 Imagine what a people must be without govern- 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 279 
 
 merit, without laws, without religion, without 
 morals ! 
 
 "April 20.— To-night the rain patters down 
 heavily on the roof, and the sound is not unpleas- 
 ant, but has rather a soothing effect when one is 
 under good shelter. But the thunder bursts loudly 
 overhead, and the red lightning darts in at every 
 crack, A bamboo house is by no means a tight 
 structure, for it is easy to read by the light which 
 pours in through the cracks, when the doors and 
 window-shutters are all closed. But this does not 
 hinder it from being a comfortable place to live in, 
 for the air also finds entrance at the openings ; and 
 it would be difficult to get along without plenty of 
 fresh air. 
 
 " I went out in the bush to-day to see if I could 
 find some fresh meat. In the bush, only a little 
 distance away, we found deer tracks almost as 
 plenty as rabbit tracks around a thicket at home, 
 and the fresh tracks of what is said to be a wild 
 cow, as though she had just leaped by; and it 
 seemed to be a perfect play-ground for elephants, 
 for the traces of them were all around, where they 
 had rubbed on the trees and put their huge feet in 
 the mud. We came across about a dozen monkeys 
 in the top of a tree cracking nuts. I would have 
 
280 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 been willing to forego my prejudices and eat a piece 
 of one of them, as the natives and white men on 
 the coast eat them, and esteem them excellent food. 
 But if I ever knew anything about hunting I have 
 forgotten it now ; for they all slipped away through 
 the tops of the trees, and we came home without 
 anything. I had Upingalo with me, and another 
 native. The monkeys go in great droves usually, 
 leaping along from tree- top to tree-top like squirrels, 
 and they may be seen almost any morning or 
 evening by a short walk." 
 
 Here Mr. PaulPs pen ceases its work. The Rev. 
 Mr. Mackey continues : 
 
 "This letter w T as written so far before your 
 brother's last illness. When on his death-bed 
 at my house he requested me to take it from his 
 portfolio, finish and forward it to you, in case he 
 should be called away. 
 
 " Your brother George has run his earthly race, 
 he has finished his course, and he has gone to re- 
 ceive his crown. He died on Sabbath morning, 
 May 14, a little before 11 o'clock, while the congre- 
 gation was worshiping in the church close by. 
 
 "Your brother was a most faithful and devoted 
 laborer in the cause of Christ. The members of 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 281 
 
 our mission esteemed him most highly as a Chris- 
 tian brother and fellow - laborer. The people 
 around his station on the mainland loved him 
 and received his teachings with gladness. I feel 
 that I have lost a personal friend. My dear wife 
 mourns his loss as that of a brother. We do not 
 repine or rebel against the will of God. He who 
 does all things well has afflicted us and you, but it 
 is done in love. Yours sincerely, 
 
 "James L. Mackey." 
 
 An extract from a letter written a short time be- 
 fore his death so well expresses his views and feel- 
 ings in entering upon the new station at Benita, that 
 we give it here, though not in its chronological order : 
 
 " To go and live among the mainland tribes and 
 declare unto them the gospel — is not this high 
 honor ? For some time I have had charge of the 
 out-stations extending along the coast for about 
 fifty miles, and I have visited them by boat, but 
 now I go to live among them and give my time 
 wholly to the work. If ever I wished to live it is 
 now, when my heart has hope that I may yet do 
 something for God and something for Africa. A 
 peculiar confidence has gradually been growing 
 stronger within me that God will yet give me 
 
282 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 grace to do something that shall be for his glory. 
 Thus God is gradually opening for me the way I 
 have so much desired to go, and I count it good- 
 ness and mercy in him. For years I have besought 
 the Lord for just the thing he seems to be giving 
 me now, and he has led me to it along a path in 
 many respects different from my expectations. His 
 faithfulness hitherto has made me strong in the 
 confidence that by his grace he will keep me from 
 falling unto the end. My darkness and my temp- 
 tations which pressed so sorely on me for many 
 months have passed away, and I cannot doubt that 
 they have left me stronger in the Lord, and have 
 introduced me more fully into the precious and 
 abiding love of Christ. If I be not deceived, 
 there is growing within me a firmer resolve to 
 glorify God and to be unreservedly given to him. 
 His character has been growing daily more beauti- 
 ful to me, and thoughts of his infinite excellence 
 fill my heart at times fuller than it can hold. Do 
 not fear, my friends, that any prospect of earthly 
 happiness will turn me away from the work to 
 which God has called me. God is too merciful to 
 suffer that. I count it better a thousand times to 
 die than to desert my i post/ " 
 
 This noble faith in God and devotion to the 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 283 
 
 great work of preaching the gospel to the sable 
 tribes of Africa affords a sublime illustration of 
 the power of divine grace in conquering all natural 
 attachment to the world and bringing all the 
 powers of the soul into the obedience of Christ. 
 
 Dr. Nassau, after giving a full account of Mr. 
 Paull's illness from his return from Benita to 
 Corisco to the day before his death, writes : 
 "On Saturday, 13th, Mr. Mackey asked him 
 whether in the face of an early death he had 
 any regrets for having come to Africa. He decid- 
 edly and warmly said, 'No, no, no;' and added 
 that his only sorrow was for the grief that his 
 relatives and friends would feel. Late in the 
 afternoon, as Mr. De Heer was going back to 
 his station, Mr. Paull rose up suddenly in his 
 bed and said, 'Oh, brother de Heer, I am so 
 nervous.' Mr. De Heer reminded him that there 
 was rest for the weary. ( Oh yes ; if I could only 
 fully realize that!' How sweet in weakness to de- 
 rive strength from Christ and rest leaning on the 
 arm of our Beloved. ' Yes, I long for that rest/ 
 As they pressed hands for the last time, Mr. De 
 Heer said, ' If no more on earth, brother, we trust 
 we shall meet in that better world.' i Pray much 
 for me, and ask all to pray for me,' was the reply." 
 
284 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 Dr. Nassau continues : " In the twilight of the 
 evening (I fanning him) he said, * Repeat that 
 hymn/ None had been spoken of, and I asked 
 which. He replied, ' Just as I am.' A little 
 after 9 o'clock he moaned, seemingly not intend- 
 ing to speak audibly, ' Lord Jesus, don't cast me 
 away. Such clouds and darkness on my mind.' 
 ' Has there been to-day V ' Yes, for two weeks.' 
 ' While you have been sick here V ' Yes.' l He 
 says He is light. There is light there, though 
 we do not see it.' 'True.' 'And Christian in his 
 darkness felt a hand, though he saw none. The 
 grace that availed for the heathen you preached to 
 at Benita avails for you.' ' That is so, that is so/ 
 ' We sinners all need the same grace. " Him that 
 cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." ' c In 
 no wise, in no wise.' I prayed, then, arising, said, 
 'He is a covenant -keeping God; he does not 
 break covenants.' 'No.' After an interval he 
 added, 'Lord, pity me, pity, pity, pity.' He lay 
 quietly much of the former part of the night, but 
 not asleep, for often I heard scarcely audible words 
 of ejaculatory prayer, and expressions like, 'O 
 Father, dear Saviour,' etc. Just at midnight, 
 when he was lying so quietly that I thought him 
 almost asleep, he said in a low voice, as if speaking 
 
GEORGE PATJLL. 285 
 
 to himself, ' Jesus can make a dying bed feel soft 
 as downy pillows are/ I carried it on, ' While 
 on his breast I lean my head/ and he finished the 
 fourth line, 'And breathe my life out sweetly there/ 
 
 "At one time on Sabbath morning I thought 
 death had come when he uttered, in a drawn out, 
 slow manner, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!' 
 Later still he spoke more distinctly, c Saviour, 
 Saviour, give me more light, more trust in thee/ 
 One of his last utterances before he died was, ( I 
 wish to lay myself at the feet of Jesus, and to feel 
 that Jesus is my all/ The loved friend felt Jesus 
 with him before he actually was ushered into the 
 enjoyment of the Sabbath above. I am sure that 
 God lifted that painfully obscuring veil, and 
 showed your son and brother his face while yet in 
 the valley. He could not desert one who in every 
 walk and conversation of life had honored him/' 
 
 Thus the Christian missionary, whose heart God 
 so strongly inclined to preach his precious gospel 
 to the perishing heathen in Africa, has gone to rest 
 in glory, honored and beloved by all who knew 
 him. His body sleeps in the beautiful mission 
 cemetery, at Corisco, awaiting the resurrection 
 morn when them that sleep in Jesus shall God 
 bring with him. Two oleanders, planted by lov- 
 
286 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 ing hands, one at the head and the other at the 
 foot of his grave, now bloom monthly in fragrant 
 beauty, emblematic of that immortal bloom which 
 awaits the raised body in the celestial country. 
 His spirit, so ardent in devotion here, I doubt not 
 is among the most seraphic of the spirits of the 
 just made perfect, now striking its golden harp in 
 notes of praise to redeeming love. His bright 
 moral image, now reflecting more perfectly the like- 
 ness of his Saviour, still lives in the memory of those 
 who knew him on earth, preaching most impres- 
 sively the great duty of love and fidelity to Christ 
 as the only true preparation for the crown of life. 
 
 A marble monument marks his tomb, with the 
 emblem of a cross and crown, and the inscription : 
 
 Eev. GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 Born Feb. 3, 1837. 
 Died May 14, 1865. 
 
 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saving, Whom shall 
 
 I send and who will go for us? Then said he, 
 
 Here am I, send me. — Isaiah vii. 8. 
 
 Dr. Nassau, on visiting Benita, wrote, " My heart 
 sank with heaviness for the breach that the Lord 
 has made upon us. When the news of Mr. 
 Paull's death reached Benita the people trembled 
 
GrRAYE OF Mr. PAULL. 
 
 p. 286. 
 
GEORGE PAULL. 287 
 
 —the native word means to be agitated exceed- 
 ingly — and wailing was heard through all the 
 towns as when a great man of their own tribe dies. 
 I found that he had obtained a deep and firm hold 
 on the people's affections. Those who were seek- 
 ing Christ told me mournfully of their sorrow 
 for their missionary's death, and wistfully asked 
 whether another would come. I think I may 
 count ten as hopefully Christians, and as many 
 more as sincere inquirers, and others whose hea- 
 thenish habits are modified and who respect the 
 Sabbath and other institutions of religion." 
 
 If the death of Mr. Paull brought sadness to the 
 mission circle in Africa, and called forth the wail 
 of the heathen in their towns, so did it bring sore 
 grief to hearts in America. Yet the grief of those 
 who loved him was tempered by the knowledge of 
 his godly life and blessed estate, and by the warm 
 words of those who knew him well. Letters of 
 condolence from men eminent in the Church, reso- 
 lutions of Presbytery, and the poetic tribute of 
 affectionate admiration, bore witness to the regard 
 in which he was held, but will not be needed by 
 those who have read the record of his life. This 
 plain record will enable them to form a just esti- 
 mate of his character. 
 
288 GEORGE PAULL. 
 
 I have permitted this noble young Christian 
 missionary to entertain and instruct my readers by 
 his letters, addressed in the usual freedom of cor- 
 respondence to his relatives and intimate friends, 
 and not designed by him for the public eye. Had 
 they known him personally, they would not won- 
 der that I should take the labor of transcribing 
 them for their benefit. May God imbue them with 
 a double portion of that Christian spirit which 
 animated the heart of his missionary to Corisco ! 
 
 To the young let me say, would you possess 
 a lofty Christian record on earth and an unfading 
 crown in heaven, commit your souls to God in 
 early life with the earnest and daily prayer of the 
 Apostle to the Gentiles, " Lord, what wilt thou have 
 me to do ?" Bring your young hearts to Christ in 
 loving faith and fervent devotion to his church. 
 Cherish that true concern for the perishing heathen 
 which made Mr. Paull so happy in preaching the 
 gospel even in Africa. If you have his faith and 
 zeal in the cause, though you be not called to 
 labor and lay your bodies in Africa or India, you 
 may nevertheless share in the glory to be revealed 
 when " They that are wise shall shine as the bright- 
 ness of the firmament, and they that turn many to 
 righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."