51XYEAR5//2 
 HAMMOCK 
 L \ND *^t 
 
 HJ. WHITE 
 
BERKELEY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
A 
 
HAMMOCK LAND INDIANS 
 
SIX YEARS 
 
 IN 
 HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 An historical sketch of the Lutheran 
 Church in British Guiana, with 
 observations and experiences of the 
 Missionary of the United Lutheran 
 Church in that land. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. RALPH J. WHITE 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 THE UNITED LUTHERAN PUBLICATION HOUSE 
 
COPYRIGHT, IQ22, BY 
 
 THE BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE UNITED LUTHERAN 
 CHURCH IN AMERICA. 
 
1 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 Six years in Hammock Land is an attempt 
 on the part of the author to give to the 
 Church an historical sketch of a Lutheran 
 Congregation that has endured for one hun- 
 dred and seventy-eight years in our sister 
 continent, in the midst of difficulties and dis- 
 couragements that would surely have over- 
 whelmed it had not God had some purpose in 
 its preservation: 
 
 Six Years in Hammock Land also con- 
 tains a sketch of the Ituni Lutheran Mission, 
 which has the distinction of being the only 
 mission of The United Lutheran Church to 
 the aboriginal Indians of the Western 
 Hemisphere. 
 
 Six Years in Hammock Land also con- 
 tains such incidents and observations con- 
 nected with the work of your missionary as 
 have seemed of interest to those with whom 
 he has come in contact during his furlough 
 periods. These are now put forth in this 
 form so that they may be available to a 
 3 
 
4 FOREWORD 
 
 larger number in our beloved Zion. 
 
 We have chosen to call British Guiana 
 "Hammock Land" because it is the home 
 of the hammock. The hammock is a com- 
 fortable bed and one that can be utilized by 
 traveler and explorer, by balata bleeder and 
 timber worker. A man of great experience 
 once said to me: u The hammock is the curse 
 of the River," meaning that it was so handy 
 and comfortable that much valuable time 
 was wasted lounging in it that should be 
 more profitably employed. While this may 
 be true, nevertheless, the hammock is one of 
 the great blessings to people in these parts. 
 It makes a cool bed for a needed siesta and 
 a comfortable resting place after a day's 
 hard work. I consider it one of the notable 
 inventions of the aboriginal Indian. 
 
 We trust that Six Years in Hammock 
 Land may prove informing to our Lutheran 
 people and help in some degree to direct the 
 attention of our Church to the great contin- 
 ent to the southeast that has so long been 
 neglected by the Churches of the United 
 States. 
 
 That our attention is needed in that direc- 
 
FOREWORD 5 
 
 tion is evident when you consider that the 
 United Lutheran Church in America has 
 only two missions and two ordained mission- 
 aries in a continent five thousand miles in 
 length and three thousand and five hundred 
 miles in width, one in the Argentine and 
 one in British Guiana. 
 
 Our Mission in British Guiana is our old- 
 est and largest mission in South America, 
 and probably the least known among our 
 constituency. All of which is an argument 
 for such a study of our Mission Field as I 
 have here attempted to give. 
 
 It is estimated that there are forty-seven 
 millions of aboriginal Indians in South 
 America and ours is one of the few efforts 
 to reach those lovable people with the 
 Gospel. 
 
 That this sketch may be blessed of God 
 to the quickening of our interest in the South 
 American Field is the one prayer of your 
 missionary to British Guiana, the Land of 
 the Hammock. 
 
 RALPH J. WHITE. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 SCENES AND EXPERIENCES ENROUTE TO HAMMOCK 
 
 LAND 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 A BRIEF HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 PLANTING AND DEVELOPING OF THE CHURCHES IN 
 
 BRITISH GUIANA 36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN 
 
 BERBICE 42 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OUR CHURCH IN BERBICE AS IT is TODAY 60 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE RIVER CHURCHES AS A MISSION FIELD 68 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 MOUNT HERMAN MISSION AND THE PRACTICE OF 
 
 OBEAH 73 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE WORK AMONG THE ARAWAK INDIANS 83 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NATIVE INDIANS 92 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SNAKES,, INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS 102 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 SOME EXPERIENCES IN VISITING OUR RIVER 
 
 MISSIONS 117 
 
 7 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 HAMMOCK LAND INDIANS Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM CHURCH 16 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM MANSE 16 
 
 THE REV. RALPH J. WHITE 17 
 
 ST. PAUL'S MISSION HOUSE 17 
 
 THE STRAND, NEW AMSTERDAM 32 
 
 THE KAIETEUR FALLS 33 
 
 RICE NURSERY 48 
 
 A DRAINAGE CANAL HOKER 48 
 
 A BALATA EXPEDITION 49 
 
 MOHAMMEDAN PRAYER WALL 64 
 
 MOHAMMEDAN WORSHIPPERS 64 
 
 A BERBICE RIVER SCENE 65 
 
 ITUNI INDIAN SCHOOL 80 
 
 SCHOOL CHILDREN 80 
 
 ITUNI DUG-OUT CANOES 81 
 
 A RIVER STEAMBOAT 81 
 
 TENT BOAT 81 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CONFIRMATION CLASS 96 
 
 EAST INDIAN CATECHIST FAMILY 96 
 
 A ST. LUST WEDDING 96 
 
 INDIANS GOING TO CHURCH 97 
 
 ITUNI MISSION RIVER SCENE 97 
 
 ITUNI MISSION HOUSE 97 
 
 MRS. WHITE'S S. S. CLASS 112 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM S. S. TEACHERS 112 
 
 ITUNI SCHOOL 112 
 
 MOHAMMEDAN PRAYER HOUSE 113 
 
 ITUNI INDIANS 113 
 
 8 
 
Six Years In Hammock 
 Land 
 
 "Lo our log-book! Thus once did we live 
 In the zones of the South ; thus we traversed the seas." 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SCENES AND EXPERIENCES ENROUTE TO 
 HAMMOCK LAND. 
 
 When first we visit a country the charm 
 of novelty is upon every feature. Things 
 that soon become commonplace then stand 
 out with clearness and distinction. The first 
 impressions of a land therefore have an 
 unique value as long as they deal with those 
 features that can be taken in at a glance. 
 
 Our voyage from the States to "Ham- 
 mock Land" first impressed us as a journey 
 from snow to roses. For on the morning 
 of our departure from our home in Ohio 
 the earth was covered with more than a foot 
 of snow. The trees were no longer barren 
 9 
 
10 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 and stark, but every branch and twig was 
 laden with a pure wealth of cottony white, 
 which, catching up the early morning rays, 
 glistened and sparkled as though covered 
 with diamonds of the clearest water. While 
 at this end of the journey we were ushered 
 out of the hot tropical sun into a cool house 
 decorated with roses, lilies, and orchids, 
 while on one side of the Church were bushes 
 loaded with large, pink, cabbage roses. 
 
 On the last day of December, 1915, we 
 arrived in New York to take the boat for 
 South America. We were especially inter- 
 ested in the different ways in which people 
 were celebrating the passing of the old year. 
 There was much revelry. In the hotels there 
 was drinking and dancing all night. One 
 large hotel boasted, glorying in its shame, 
 that even the office cat was drunk. But not 
 all, nor even a large per cent, of the people 
 of New York were thus turning a solemn 
 season into an excuse for debauchery. At 
 midnight we stood on Madison Square and 
 joined our voices with a great multitude in 
 hymns of praise as Old Fifteen passed out 
 and Young Sixteen came in. 
 
SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 11 
 
 On the evening of the 5th of January we 
 left the dock in East River on the steamship 
 Guiana. For two days we were seasick. 
 After we had finished with this inconveni- 
 ence we thoroughly enjoyed the beauties of 
 sea and sky and the balmy zephyrs of the 
 Gulf Stream. On the sixth day we came 
 to anchor off the island of St. Thomas and 
 caught our first glimpse of West Indian 
 life. 
 
 In the last six years it has been our privi- 
 lege to visit twelve of the West Indian 
 Islands belonging to the Danish, the French, 
 and the English. 
 
 Our American Church is especially inter- 
 ested in the Danish Islands, for they have 
 since become the American Virgin Islands. 
 In these islands the Lutheran faith was the 
 State Religion and our United Lutheran 
 Church now has charge of this work. 
 
 Upon our arrival at St. Thomas we called 
 on the Lutheran pastor and were cordially 
 received. With him we attended a temper- 
 ance meeting and later we had the privilege 
 of speaking to his Sunday school and ob- 
 serving other departments of the work both 
 
12 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 at this place and at Fredericksted on the 
 island of St. Croix. 
 
 When the agitation grew concerning the 
 acquisition of these islands by the United 
 States, we suggested both to Reverend Bergh 
 and Reverend Larson the desirability of 
 those churches seeking affiliation with the 
 General Council because of the proximity of 
 their work in Porto Rico. It was very grati- 
 fying to learn that that was the intended 
 course of action. We have noted with 
 pleasure the splendid response of the United 
 Lutheran Church in fostering the work in 
 these islands. 
 
 It was inevitable that our Lutheran 
 Church in these islands should suffer in 
 prestige by disestablishment and by the with- 
 drawal of so many Danish Lutherans from 
 the islands. However, if we combine with 
 our Lutheran ideals the characteristic pro- 
 gressiveness of American Lutheranism, 
 there is no reason why the Churches should 
 not recover their energy and prestige in a 
 few years. 
 
 St. Thomas was noted for its production 
 of bay rum. When we first visited the 
 
SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 13 
 
 island one quart could be purchased for 
 twenty-five cents. In the West Indies bay 
 rum was not so much a toilet requisite as a 
 beverage. I have heard men say that they 
 preferred bay rum for its "flavor" and 
 "kick" above the regular rum. We were 
 told that, during the war, many of our sailors 
 stationed at these islands acquired the bay- 
 rum habit, thus defeating the good inten- 
 tions of Secretary Daniels. 
 
 We were personally very much inter- 
 ested in the two French islands of Guade- 
 loupe and Martinique, because these were 
 the only places we had ever visited where 
 the Romish Church had the field to itself, 
 and because on Martinique are located the 
 ruins of St. Pierre, and because this island 
 was the birthplace of the Empress Josephine. 
 
 On one trip we were detained for four 
 days at Guadeloupe. Early one morning in 
 June we came in sight of the islands, for 
 what is generally known as Guadeloupe is 
 really two islands separated by a narrow 
 channel four miles long and known as 
 Riviere Salee. The islands are known as 
 Grande Terre and Basse Terre. 
 
14 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 We anchored just off the town of Pointe 
 a' Pitre with Grande Terre to our right 
 and Basse Terre to our left. From the deck 
 of the steamer we had a fine panorama of 
 the two islands and the tiny islets that dot 
 La Grande Bay. While these islands lie 
 so close together as to be known as one, 
 nevertheless their topography is very dis- 
 similar. 
 
 Grande Terre is flat and shows a very 
 slight elevation above the sea. It is cov- 
 ered with green verdure and is fringed with 
 greenish brown cocoanut trees. It lies 
 sweet and beautiful in the clear tropical 
 atmosphere. 
 
 Basse Terre, on the other hand, presents 
 a remarkable contrast. It is mountainous, 
 cloud-covered, and mist-enshrouded. The 
 clouds so press down on the mountains as 
 to give them the aspect of a high plateau. 
 And the mists so press down over the sides 
 of the mountains and into the valleys as to 
 impress one with some impending doom. It 
 is told that only occasionally at the end of 
 the year is it possible to see the tops of any 
 of the mountains. During our four days' 
 
SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 15 
 
 visit we could at no time discover the sky- 
 line of more than one-third of the island. 
 
 Prolonged Visit: 
 
 Our stop at this island was prolonged 
 because of the difficulties in discharging the 
 cargo. This experience gave a real insight 
 into labor conditions in the West Indies. 
 We arrived on Saturday and since it was the 
 end of the week we could not expect the 
 porters to begin a new job. Of course on 
 Sunday you could not expect more than a 
 few to work, even for double pay. Monday 
 was a Holy Day so no good Romanist would 
 work. Tuesday was "the day after" and 
 few were able to work. However, the delay 
 did not much inconvenience the passengers. 
 Of course there are always a few who are 
 bored to death at everything. But the 
 brides and grooms found it only a pleasant 
 prolongation of their honeymoon. And 
 never will they find a more beautiful moon 
 to look down upon their love than in the 
 almost day-like radiance of those tropical 
 nights, with the southern cross standing clear 
 and glorious like a wayside shrine. 
 
16 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 Excursions; 
 
 There were excursions to the town. "Nos- 
 ings around" we began to call them. Could 
 we have left our olfactory sense behind, the 
 town would have charmed with its quaint, 
 dingy, exotic appearance. We remembered 
 that it was French and that it was the tropics, 
 and making every allowance we hurried on 
 past the abodes of men and wandered away 
 from the town. Our path led up a winding 
 road between bananas, cocoanuts, and other 
 vegetation growing in wild profusion, until, 
 passing under some tamarinds and flamboy- 
 ants, we came to a promontory overlooking 
 the sea. Here the road was richly carpeted 
 with crimson fallen petals and a crimson 
 canopy of beautiful flowers stretched over us 
 with its occasional gleams here and there 
 of bright green leaves through which we 
 caught glimpses of the clear blue sky 
 dotted with white fleecy clouds. In such 
 a setting the town, the sugar factory, the 
 harbor with its rum and sugar-laden schoon- 
 ers presented a picture well worth remem- 
 bering. Distance lent the greater enchant- 
 ment for the odors remained in the "valley. 
 
NEW AMSTERDAM CHURCH 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM MANSE 
 
THE REV. RALPH J. WHITE 
 
 
 ST. PAUL'S 
 
 MISSION HOUSE 
 
SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 17 
 
 Swimming Party; 
 
 There were sailing parties along the 
 sparkling bay and swimming parties from 
 one of the small islands. And even though 
 our hosts spoke little English and our party 
 spoke little French, yet there was an abund- 
 ance of hospitality, cordiality, and conver- 
 sation. Some of our hosts had just returned 
 from New York. They had found it a very 
 disappointing place. However, we need 
 not feel too badly over their disappointment 
 as it was caused, as far as I could make out, 
 by the poor quality of the New York rum. 
 
 Roman Service; 
 
 Sunday morning a few of us attended 
 service at the Roman Catholic Cathedral. 
 In the party was a young lady Romanist 
 from Boston. As she would not believe our 
 description as to the kind of service she 
 would see, it was diverting to observe her 
 astonishment at the Beadle with his cocked 
 hat, his red suit and white stockings, and his 
 staff with which he repeatedly tapped the 
 floor. The beards of the priests were a 
 matter of great concern to her, as well as 
 
18 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 the location in the Church of the Governor 
 with his staff and his family, and the young 
 ladies collecting the offerings. As the ser- 
 vice lasted for two hours and was all in Latin 
 and French our attention was bound to stray. 
 We looked in vain for the Creole belles for 
 which the island had one time been famous. 
 The only truly picturesque people were the 
 black mammies with their long trailing 
 dresses of brilliant hues called "douillette," 
 and their Madras turbans of bright yellow. 
 It is interesting to know that the amazingly 
 brilliant sulphur yellow of these turbans is 
 not the result of dyeing, but that they are 
 all painted by hand. The making up of the 
 turban is called u tying a head" and a pret- 
 tily folded turban u a head well tied." 
 
 From Guadeloupe we passed on to Mar- 
 tinique, the birthplace of the beautiful Jose- 
 phine, the wife of Napoleon. In the public 
 square of the Fort de France is a large 
 statue of her, which is considered the finest 
 piece of sculpture in the West Indies. 
 
 The ruins of St. Pierre constitute the 
 most remarkable sight on this island. This 
 was one time a beautiful and prosperous city 
 
SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 19 
 
 with 30,000 inhabitants. Now, along with 
 about half of the island, it is lying in ruins, 
 buried beneath the ashes that burst forth 
 from Mt. Pele on May 8, 1902. Of all the 
 inhabitants in St. Pierre on that fateful day, 
 only one escaped immediate death, and he 
 was a condemned criminal in a cell. Even 
 his escape was not for long, for he died 
 from shock two days after he was rescued. 
 
 Only two of the seventeen vessels lying 
 in the roadstead escaped entire destruction. 
 A few of the crew in the hold and on the for- 
 ward deck of the Roraima escaped, the only 
 passenger to escape being a child who was 
 in the arms of her nurse when the flames 
 broke forth from the mountain. The nurse 
 fell, covering the child. The nurse was 
 burned to a crisp, but the child, although 
 horribly burned, still lived and was tenderly 
 cared for by the American relief forces, and 
 is now a charming young matron of Bar- 
 badoes whose friendship we esteem very 
 highly. 
 
 We have seen many records setting forth 
 that St. Pierre was destroyed as a judgment 
 of God because of its great wickedness. If 
 
20 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 half that has been related about the wicked- 
 ness of that beautiful and gay French city 
 is true, it is easy to believe that her doom 
 was just. However, as to the mind of God 
 in the matter, we have no way of knowing. 
 If it was a judgment of God because of 
 wickedness, how great is the mercy of God 
 that contrives to give a day of grace to so 
 many wicked cities that are still upon the 
 earth. 
 
 Having spent little more than a week in 
 these two French islands, it would be pre- 
 sumptuous for me to give an estimate of 
 the influence of the Roman Church. How- 
 ever, one who lived in Martinique said: 
 "The Church remains rich and prosperous in 
 Martinique. Of this there can be no question. 
 But whether it continues to wield any power- 
 ful influence in the maintenance of social 
 order is more than doubtful. A Polyne- 
 sian laxity of morals among the black and 
 colored population, and the history of race 
 hatreds, and revolutions rising out of race 
 hate, would indicate that neither in politics 
 nor in ethics does the Church possess any 
 preponderant authority." 
 
SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 21 
 
 My whole impression in the islands, 
 whether they were Danish, or French, or 
 English, was that religion did not touch 
 the life and influence the conduct in any de- 
 gree as religion does the lives of church 
 members in the United States. I am per- 
 suaded that the State Church idea has a 
 great deal to do with this; the general mix- 
 ture of the races is also a contributing fac- 
 tor. The start under the Spanish was bad, 
 the development has been under mercenary 
 auspices, and the climate is not conducive to 
 the development of sturdy morals. 
 
 To one passing this way for the first time, 
 there is a fascination and beauty in all these 
 islands along with sad contrasts. Azure 
 skies, transparent waters, quaint villages, 
 cloud-capped mountains covered with trop- 
 ical vegetation, gorgeous botanical gardens, 
 warships, boats, strange peoples, naked 
 divers, and beggars, all pass in rapid 
 panorama. 
 
 As we passed through the islands we 
 heard many strange stories about the land 
 towards which we were traveling. We were 
 advised to return by the same boat, for 
 
22 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 British Guiana was described as the "White 
 Man's Grave," "The Wild Coast," a land 
 of mosquitoes, malaria, centipedes, scor- 
 pions, and snakes. But now, after six years, 
 we can truly say that any tourist who comes 
 down this way and does not include this coun- 
 try in his itinerary is making a most serious 
 mistake. All the points of interest in most 
 of the islands can be seen while the boat is 
 discharging and receiving cargo. While 
 here in "Hammock Land," real West In- 
 dian life and the natural wonders of the 
 great South American continent can be seen 
 together. The wise and best instructed 
 tourist will arrange more time for British 
 Guiana than for all the lesser Antilles. 
 
 The Changing Scenes; 
 
 As we left Barbadoes we knew that within 
 one day and two nights we would see with 
 our own eyes The Land of the Hammock 
 where our brethren in the Faith were waiting 
 with anxious hearts for one to break the 
 Bread of Life to them. We were to arrive 
 in Georgetown on the morning of the 20th 
 of January. So about six o'clock we came 
 
SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 23 
 
 on deck. Everything was now changed. No 
 longer were we surrounded with an azure 
 sea with white-capped waves, but the boat 
 was making its way through muddy waters. 
 There were no cloud-crowned mountains 
 with tropical vegetation to delight the eye, 
 but, instead, a low fringe of trees marked 
 the place where dirty water left off and mud 
 flat began. All the dismal stories that we 
 had heard about this malaria and mosquito 
 infested land seemed to have their verifica- 
 tion in that first glimpse of the coast line as 
 we journeyed through muddy waters into 
 the Demerara River. To make matters worse, 
 there was a heavy downpour of rain, which 
 did not brighten the uncompromising aspect. 
 
 Georgetown; 
 
 After breakfast the rain stopped. The 
 sun at once came out. The stevedores be- 
 gan to unload the cargo, and we went ashore. 
 Passing through the customs with its mingled 
 odors of fish, rum, and sugar, we took a 
 carriage for the hotel. Passing from the 
 warehouses that lined the river front, we at 
 once entered into a broad and beautiful 
 
24 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 street. We found Georgetown a delightful 
 place; in fact the most beautiful tropical 
 city we had yet visited. The streets were 
 wide and many of them lined with stately 
 palms which formed natural colonnades of 
 great beauty and cool shade. The houses 
 were built on pillars, lifting them about eight 
 feet above the ground, and were surrounded 
 by beautiful gardens of tropical plants. The 
 houses were all large wooden structures with 
 galleries across the front, faced with lat- 
 ticed windows, thus giving the delights of 
 outdoors while shielding from the sun's glare. 
 
 Botanical Gardens; 
 
 We visited the Botanical Gardens with 
 their experimental grounds, beautifully 
 grouped tropical plants, and houses of ferns 
 and orchids. The late ex-President Roose- 
 velt declared that it was the finest tropical 
 garden that he had seen in all his travels. 
 
 Sea Wall; 
 
 We also visited the Sea Wall. This de- 
 fense from the sea has been made into a 
 fashionable promenade. Here at all times 
 
SCENES AND EXPERIENCES 25 
 
 a delightful sea breeze can be enjoyed. Here 
 bright-eyed children play under the care of 
 their dusky nurses. Here the band plays 
 and the elite see and are seen. That night 
 as we got under our mosquito netting to 
 sleep we felt that this land had many re- 
 deeming features, although it was not alto- 
 gether a land of roses. 
 
 The Last Lap: 
 
 It seemed as though we had just fallen 
 to sleep after our busy first day in Ham- 
 mock Land, when our door opened and a 
 black servant brought us our "coffee." After 
 coffee and a cold shower we were ready for 
 our second day. Soon we drove to the train 
 for the last lap of the journey. 
 
 The trip from Georgetown to New Am- 
 sterdam is an unforgetable one. The train 
 is a dingy little affair. I persist in still call- 
 ing it dingy although a local scribe took me 
 to account for saying so six years ago. It 
 takes three hours and a half to go the sixty 
 miles to Rosignal and then more than half 
 an hour before we are ferried across the 
 Berbice River to the town of New Amster- 
 
26 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 dam. As we stepped upon the landing at 
 New Amsterdam we were received by a 
 delegation from the Church and were greeted 
 by the ringing of the Church bell. As we 
 entered the Church the congregation sang a 
 hymn of welcome. After a few words of 
 greeting and a prayer of thanksgiving we 
 proceeded to the temporary manse. 
 
 During our first week there were nine 
 services at the Church, the last being a 
 service of general welcome from the com- 
 munity at which the Mayor of the town pre- 
 sided and different ministers spoke, along 
 with one of the Trustees and one of the 
 Vestrymen. It was really a very strenuous 
 week and the people hardly realized how 
 terribly worn out we were with so many 
 services amid such strange surroundings and 
 in such tropical heat, less than a month after 
 we had left our snow-covered home in Ohio. 
 It was not discourtesy that led us to write 
 at the time, "We learned that we were wel- 
 come and knew that we were weary." It 
 was all very strange. The people, the food, 
 the customs were strange. We were indeed 
 strangers in a strange land. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A BRIEF HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF 
 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 Some men buy an excursion ticket, rush 
 through a country, and then write a sensa- 
 tional book about its people and their 
 morals. Should they write up a Sunday 
 school convention they would make it lurid. 
 Such an one in the person of a Minneapolis 
 cleric (?) slandered the islands and British 
 Guiana in a recent book. It was properly 
 labeled: 
 "Of slandrous lies, a tissue, on our harmless 
 
 native land 
 
 By a sort of parson-thing from 'Over 
 There.' " 
 
 We, however, are writing these chapters 
 for the sole purpose of informing our Luth- 
 eran people about the Lutheran Church 
 located in this Colony. And, in order that 
 its history and workings may be understood, 
 we shall give a short review of the history 
 of the country and its peoples. 
 
 27 
 
28 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 British Guiana is made up of three coun- 
 ties, Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice. It 
 is known in trade circles as Demerara. All 
 three counties were at one time separate 
 colonies and were all originally settled by 
 the Dutch. The Spaniards never made a 
 settlement in Guiana on account of the hos- 
 tility of the cannibals. In 1595 Sir Walter 
 Raleigh directed attention to the Guianas by 
 his ill-fated expedition in search of El Dor- 
 ado, the mythical City of Gold. 
 
 The first settlement was made in Esse- 
 quibo by the Dutch in 1620, in Berbice in 
 1624, and in Demerara in 1745. In 1781 
 the three settlements were won by the Eng- 
 lish, the next year by the French, and the 
 next year they were again restored to the 
 Dutch who held them until 1796 when they 
 were again won by the English. In 1802 
 they were again restored to the Dutch and 
 in 1803 the English again came into posses- 
 sion and they have remained a British colony 
 from that date. 
 
 The Colony is governed by a semi-repre- 
 sentative Government. There is an Execu- 
 tive Council, a Court of Policy, and a Com- 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY 29 
 
 bined Court. The Governor is the head 
 of each body and dominates all three. The 
 Electives have hardly more than the right 
 of debate. Theoretically they control the 
 purse of the Colony, but actually they only 
 add to the Government Estimates. While 
 the British Government has not done much 
 for the development of the material re- 
 sources of the Colony, they have adminis- 
 tered the Government in an equitable man- 
 ner for all the races represented here, and 
 that is no insignificant task. 
 
 We are personally of the opinion that a 
 Crown Colony Government would be the 
 best for British Guiana. The semi-repre- 
 sentative system has not developed leaders 
 of a type that would encourage giving the 
 Electives more power. Neither does the 
 practical politics encourage one to think 
 that the time is ripe for the Government to 
 be constituted on a popular basis. 
 
 As British Guiana is divided politically 
 into three counties, so it is divided topo- 
 graphically into three belts. Along the sea 
 shore and extending inland for from ten to 
 twenty miles is a mud flat which has given 
 
30 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 the country the name "The Land of Mud." 
 Upon this flat the great bulk of the popu- 
 lation of the colony lives. Here are found 
 the cities and villages, the large flourishing 
 sugar plantations and the extensive rice cul- 
 tivation. This is the only portion of this 
 great Colony that the casual visitor sees. 
 But in many ways this is the most unpromis- 
 ing part of the whole colony. This flat is 
 below the level of the sea at high tide, and 
 must be protected by extensive sea-defenses. 
 Here the mosquito and its accompanying 
 malaria are very prevalent. Surrounding 
 this mud flat is the muddy ocean, and in- 
 denting it are the large muddy rivers, all 
 rendered so by the muddy currents that 
 sweep from the mouth of the Amazon to 
 the mouth of the Orinoco. And yet, be- 
 cause of its great fertility, the human species 
 much prefers this muddy strip to the de- 
 lightful interior. 
 
 Directly behind this mud flat is a belt of 
 higher land, rising slightly above the level 
 of the sea and probably the sea coast in 
 former ages. It was upon this belt that 
 the Dutch first established their villages and 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY 31 
 
 plantations of sugar, coffee, and cocoa. All 
 that is now left to mark these places are 
 heaps of bricks, the names of the planta- 
 tions, and here and there an old tomb be- 
 neath which lies the dust of some old-time 
 adventurer from Holland. The forests have 
 taken over the once fruitful fields. Under- 
 neath giant crab trees, mora and bullet wood, 
 can still be traced the planted beds. And 
 some of the cocoa trees are still producing 
 a crop of Theobroma. In this belt the popu- 
 lation is scattered sparsely along the banks 
 of the rivers and creeks. A little farming 
 and cattle raising is carried on by these 
 people but most of their time is spent bleed- 
 ing balata and squaring timbers. 
 
 Behind this belt are found the great nat- 
 ural wonders of the Colony. Lofty moun- 
 tains, rushing cataracts, mighty falls, dizzy 
 heights, wondrous valleys, and limitless 
 savannahs. Here are scattered herds of 
 cattle, a few ranchers, and the bulk of the 
 aboriginal Indians. Here diamonds and 
 gold are found in considerable abundance, 
 and it is here that the future greatness of 
 the colony is to be secured. 
 
32 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 There are four major industries in the 
 Colony: sugar, rice, cattle, and timber. The 
 greatest is sugar. Sugar has been and still 
 is the greatest factor in the life of the 
 colony. Sugar brought the European, the 
 African, the East Indian, the Chinese, and 
 the Portuguese to these shores. Sugar has 
 made possible the rice industry, has created 
 the demand for the local timbers that has 
 kept the saw mills going, and up to the 
 present time most of the available cattle have 
 been raised on the front lands of the sugar 
 estates. Some local people speak about the 
 sugar industry as though it were a monster 
 and they would be glad to see it crippled, 
 but the fact remains that the prosperity of 
 the colony is to be found in the prosperity 
 of sugar. 
 
 The day may come when other industries 
 can stand alone. But it is not yet. Sugar 
 is King. 
 
 A sugar estate is an interesting place and 
 the successful manager must be a man of 
 considerable ability. He controls to a very 
 large extent the welfare of hundreds of 
 people. He is both a planter and a manu- 
 
CO 
 
 w 
 W 
 H 
 
THE KAIETEUR FALLS 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY 33 
 
 facturer. He has control of the housing 
 and the handling of people of various races. 
 Their recreations, education, and religion 
 are matters of care to him. At his table the 
 overseers eat, and their time is at his dis- 
 posal. I consider his position one of the 
 most responsible in the whole colony. With 
 him lie vast opportunities for either good 
 or evil. His example is far more potent 
 than he himself often imagines. 
 
 The peoples of .British Guiana have been 
 gathered from the ends of the earth. As 
 was stated above, sugar was responsible for 
 this gathering of the peoples. Tropical 
 agriculture requires a large and cheap labor 
 supply. Africa, India, China, and Madeira, 
 all were called upon in turn to contribute. 
 The Chinese and Portuguese did not take 
 kindly to agriculture and soon became the 
 small provision and rum-shop owners of the 
 country. The Africans and East Indians 
 were the best agriculturists. All these people, 
 representing great diversities of thought and 
 feeling, are giving their contributions to the 
 life of the colony. 
 
 We sincerely trust that out of these diver- 
 
34 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 sities there may result a Christian commun- 
 ity, able to solve some of the great problems 
 engendered by race animosities. Under wise 
 leadership it ought to be possible to work 
 out in this colony a most interesting and 
 helpful experiment in the association of the 
 races. Would it be expecting too much for 
 each race to retain its identity and yet all 
 of them dwell together in Christian fellow- 
 ship? A great deal has been done along 
 this line by the Christian forces of the com- 
 munity, but much still remains to be done. 
 
 There are those in the colony who would 
 have churches for the Blacks alone, and 
 others who would have churches for the 
 East Indians alone. Such procedure in this 
 colony is not wise and would eventually set 
 race against race and cause no end of trouble 
 and confusion. It would be better if each 
 Church would try to minister to all the races 
 and bring them together in the same con- 
 gregations. 
 
 Christianity has made many conquests in 
 this Colony. When the Chinese came to this 
 Colony they were heathen. The Anglicans 
 carried on aggressive work among these 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY 35 
 
 people and today they are nearly all 
 Christians. 
 
 The Africans were brought here as slaves 
 and were heathen. Today they are all at 
 least nominally Christians. 
 
 The East Indians came to this Colony, 
 Hindus and Mohammedans, and today 
 thousands of them are Christians and many 
 of them leaders in the Christian Church. 
 
 Much has been done and there still re- 
 mains much to do as you will discover in 
 making a survey of the conditions. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PLANTING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
 CHURCHES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 
 
 When the British took possession of the 
 Colony in 1803, there were only two 
 Churches in the country. One was the Luth- 
 eran Church in Berbice and the other a 
 Dutch Reformed Church on Fort Island. 
 These Churches were about one hundred 
 miles apart; and, according to the "Local 
 Guide of British Guiana, " the services of 
 their ministers were sacred, not to the one 
 hundred and fifty thousand slaves which the 
 colony then contained, but to the services of 
 their masters. 
 
 With the entrance of the British, the 
 Dutch Reformed ceased in the Colony, so 
 that only the Lutheran Church can date its 
 origin to the old Dutch times. All the Eng- 
 lish Churches were planted after British pos- 
 session. The following shows the dates and 
 purposes of their organizations. 
 
 On the occupation of the country by the 
 
 36 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF CHURCHES 37 
 
 British, a chaplain attached to the garrison 
 at Kingstown read the prayers of the Church 
 of England in a small room in the Old Court 
 House, which might have accommodated 
 some thirty or forty persons. The services 
 were not intended for the slaves and the 
 black people used to be driven from the 
 doors when any of them ventured to look in 
 upon the few worshipers assembled there. 
 
 In the year 1805 a Wesleyan missionary 
 from Dominica visited Demerara. When he 
 informed the Governor that he had come to 
 instruct the slaves in the principles of Chris- 
 tianity, he was ordered to leave. 
 
 In 1807 the London Missionary Society 
 sent out their first missionary to this Colony 
 at the request of a godly planter. To the 
 London Missionary Society credit must 
 always be given for the first successful work 
 among the slave population of British 
 Guiana. Their labors were heroic, and their 
 zeal and devotion all that should mark the 
 children of the King. This denomination 
 has continued for one hundred and fourteen 
 years a pious administration to the spiritual 
 needs of the peoples of this Colony. They 
 
38 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 are deserving of special honor as the pioneer 
 friends of the black people. 
 
 In 1738 an unsuccessful attempt was made 
 by the Moravians to commence a mission 
 among the slaves. Two of their mission- 
 aries arrived in the Colony only to find no 
 opportunity afforded them of instructing the 
 negroes. Thereupon they removed to the 
 interior, where they were able after sur- 
 mounting many difficulties to form a 
 flourishing Mission Settlement among the 
 aboriginal Indians. Even there the oppo- 
 sition of the European Colonists pursued 
 them. But amid a variety of both encourage- 
 ments and discouragements they, and other 
 brethren who had joined them, continued to 
 labor on until 1765. In that year the negro 
 slaves rose in rebellion against their masters, 
 murdered many of the white people, and 
 laid waste the whole colony. The rebels 
 attacked the Indian Mission Village, the 
 people were scattered, and the missionaries 
 escaped to Demerara. There two died and 
 the remainder embarked for their native 
 country. 
 
 In 1810 a building called St. George's 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF CHURCHES 39 
 
 Church was opened in Georgetown, in which 
 the service was performed according to the 
 liturgy of the Church of England as by law 
 established. 
 
 In 1815 the Wesleyans commenced their 
 operations in Georgetown and succeeded in 
 establishing a Church in that place and in 
 Mahaica. 
 
 In 1819 St. Andrew's Church for the 
 professors of the faith of the Church of 
 Scotland was opened in Georgetown. This 
 Church, along with the Church of England, 
 was intended only for the European colon- 
 ists, who, during their temporary sojourn 
 here as planters, merchants, lawyers, and 
 doctors, all had a common interest in up- 
 holding the system of slavery and who were 
 in no wise interested in the spiritual welfare 
 of the slave. 
 
 In 1823 there arose an insurrection among 
 the slaves of British Guiana. The blame for 
 this was laid upon the Missionary activities 
 of the London Missionary Society. In 1824 
 there was a movement put on foot to exclude 
 them from the Colony and establish a "suffi- 
 cient supply of safe men" of regularly or- 
 
40 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 dained state-church clergymen. It was re- 
 solved therefore' to select and endow a par- 
 ticular order of clergy, whose position as 
 paid servants of the State should be a se- 
 curity for their good behavior. From their 
 teachings no danger could arise to the 
 "domestic institutions," for ministers of this 
 description, paid allies of the Government, 
 must always fall in with the wishes of those 
 in power. So there was established an army 
 of ecclesiastical police admirably fitted for 
 the accomplishment of any arbitrary design. 
 
 Thus arose the state-church idea as it has 
 been maintained i'n British Guiana. While 
 it lost its great object in 1836 with the 
 abolition of slavery, nevertheless, it lias 
 kept the churches of the Colony from the 
 development of that Christian independence 
 and generosity that should have been the 
 fruit of more than one hundred years of 
 church life. 
 
 As time went on other than the Anglican 
 and Scotch churches came to receive a por- 
 tion of state aid. Last year a kind of dis- 
 establishment was brought about by assign- 
 ing the following amounts of interest-bear- 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF CHURCHES 41 
 
 ing government bonds to the different 
 churches : 
 
 The Church of England $350,350 
 
 The Church of Scotland 87,660 
 
 The Church of Rome 113,210 
 
 The Wesleyan 75,000 
 
 The Moravian 6,380 
 
 The Lutheran 3,620 
 
 The Salvation Army 3,190 
 
 Total $639,410 
 
 In addition to the above amounts the 
 Churches of England, Scotland, and Rome 
 receive this year $26,342.00, which amount 
 is to be gradually reduced per annum until 
 it is eliminated at the end of twenty-five 
 years. So the Colony is still taxed over 
 sixty thousand dollars per annum for reli- 
 gion, which at the end of twenty-five years 
 will be reduced to about $32,000.00, or the 
 five per cent, on the total bonds issued. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH 
 IN BERBICE. 
 
 We now come to the history of probably 
 the oldest Protestant Congregation on the 
 continent of South America with the excep- 
 tion of the churches in Surinam. 
 
 All of South America was colonized by 
 Roman Catholic nations with the exception 
 of what is now British and Dutch Guiana. 
 In all those countries the work of the Pro- 
 testant Churches is now just beginning. But, 
 in Dutch and British Guiana, there have been 
 Protestant Churches for about two cen- 
 turies. It will interest you to know about 
 one of these churches which was organized 
 almost two centuries ago. 
 
 The date of the organization of the 
 Lutheran Church in Berbice is October 15, 
 1743. About twenty years before this a 
 Dutch Reformed Church had been built at 
 the mouth of the Weironie River. There 
 had been great irregularity in the services 
 
 42 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE 43 
 
 on account of the difficulty in getting "Pred- 
 icants" at the small salary offered. So on 
 the 21st of February, 1735, the Dutch Re- 
 formed had been constituted the State 
 Church by an act of the Berbice Association 
 which imposed a tax to provide a Church 
 Fund. 
 
 On the 7th of January, 1736, Johannes 
 Fronderdorff was* appointed Predicant of 
 Berbice. Hia salary was nine, hundred 
 guilders per annum, one-half cask of wine, 
 one anchor of brandy, and free boarding 
 for himself, wife, daughter, and maid-ser- 
 vant. At his recommendation a choir leader 
 was also appointed, who was to act as sex- 
 ton and schoolmaster on a salary of three 
 hundred guilders. 
 
 It was said of this first Reformed 
 preacher, that he was so intolerant, greedy, 
 and quarrelsome, that the Governor was un- 
 willing to permit him to continue at his table, 
 so a house was built for him near the church 
 and eight hundred guilders were allowed 
 him in lieu of rations. 
 
 At this time, it was said that both religion 
 and morals were at a very low standard, but 
 
44 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 the church was well attended, and the con- 
 tributions came in without much difficulty. 
 
 There were at this time a number of the 
 colonists who held to the Unaltered Augs- 
 burg Confession. Differing from the Re- 
 formed they naturally desired to worship 
 God according to the dictates of their own 
 conscience. Therefore, at a meeting held at 
 the home of one Lodewic R. Abbensetts, on 
 the 15th of October, 1743, these Lutherans 
 resolved to petition u The Honorable The 
 Court of Policy," and "Their Highnesses 
 The States General of the Netherlands," 
 praying for the privilege of free exercise of 
 their religion, and at the same time making 
 application by letter to "The Reverend Con- 
 sistory of Amsterdam" soliciting their aid 
 and co-operation u in this urgent vocation" 
 and their good services in procuring a clergy- 
 man for their community. 
 
 The petition was granted on the follow- 
 ing conditions: 
 
 First, the clergyman of the Lutheran 
 Body should, previous to his departure to 
 the colony, be presented to the Directors for 
 their approbation and confirmation. 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE 45 
 
 Second, all expenses for the maintenance 
 of ministry and building should be defrayed 
 by the members of the congregation; and in 
 addition they should contribute to the Re- 
 formed Church fund equally and in the same 
 proportion as all other inhabitants. 
 
 This second stipulation was so rigidly en- 
 forced that in the year 1790 the Receiver 
 General was instructed to proceed summarily 
 against the Lutheran Community for arrears 
 of acre-money. 
 
 Third, all persons presenting free colored 
 children for baptism were required to sign 
 an engagement that these children should 
 never become a charge to the community or 
 to the public. 
 
 This regulation was the cause of convert- 
 ing the Lutheran Community of Berbice into 
 what was aptly called u a mutual benefit so- 
 ciety." At present, however, there are only 
 two persons receiving pensions from this 
 community. 
 
 It has been suggested by local historians 
 that these hard conditions were made on the 
 part of the authorities because they feared 
 that an unauthorized body would be inclined 
 
46 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 to teach the slaves in such a manner as 
 would tend to cause them to revolt from 
 their masters. 
 
 We believe, however, that the opposition 
 was the result of the intolerance of the Dutch 
 Reformed Church; for the founders of the 
 Lutheran Community were themselves slave 
 holders, and the Church as an organization 
 owned slaves. The Reformed Church of 
 that day was intolerant whenever in auth- 
 ority, as is instanced in the action of the 
 Dutch Reformed when they were in power 
 in that other New Amsterdam, which is now 
 New York. 
 
 It might also be noticed that when the 
 slaves arose in insurrection in 1762, it was 
 Abbensetts of Solitude, one of the founders 
 of this Church, who did the most valiant 
 service on the Berbice River in holding the 
 slaves at bay with a small handful of men. 
 However, it seems fair to conclude that the 
 Lutheran Church had acted kindly towards 
 the slaves, inasmuch as they spared only the 
 properties belonging to this Body when they 
 burned and pillaged Fort Nassau. 
 
 Mr. Rodway in his excellent three vol- 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE 47 
 
 umed history of British Guiana says, "It was 
 rumored that the Lutheran Predicant being 
 unable to escape, had barricaded his doors, 
 and tried to reason with the slaves from the 
 window, but they set fire to the house and 
 murdered him as he was coming out." It 
 is evident from our records that this was 
 only a rumor for our records show that the 
 Lutheran buildings were not burned and the 
 Lutheran Predicant was not murdered, but 
 that he fled from the Colony. 
 
 The first century of the Berbice Lutheran 
 Community closed as the last resident Dutch 
 Lutheran vacated his pulpit about the year 
 1843. 
 
 The century had been one of continuous 
 struggle and had been filled with great dis- 
 couragements. The first twenty years had 
 seen three ministers in the Lutheran Church. 
 Of these our simple record states, "The 
 first and second of our clergymen died 
 shortly after their arrival in the Colony; 
 the third fled the country at the time of the 
 revolt in 1763, without giving notice of his 
 intention." 
 
 The necessity of supporting their own and 
 
48 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 also the established Church, and the large 
 expense of bringing out clergymen from 
 Holland, who either died or broke their con- 
 tracts in a short time, and the revolt of the 
 slaves, which left many of the Lutherans in 
 indigent circumstances, made it necessary 
 that a somewhat larger fund be raised and 
 secured for the maintenance of the Estab- 
 lishment. 
 
 The Lutherans therefore asked the Court 
 of Policy to grant them one hundred acres 
 to be developed in the interests of the 
 Church. This grant was given, but while 
 it was being surveyed the government showed 
 its hostile attitude by imposing a prohibitive 
 tax upon the same. The idea was aban- 
 doned for a time. Afterwards the govern- 
 ment gave permission for the tax to be paid 
 in ten annual payments and the work was 
 set forward. The old record says, "it be- 
 ing the unanimous opinion of the members 
 that with the blessing of God and by good 
 management their undertaking would most 
 likely be crowned with success, the execution 
 of their plan was once more resolved upon." 
 
 The record continues, "One of the 
 
RICE NURSERY 
 
 A DRAINAGE CANAL HOKER 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE 49 
 
 members living near the land undertook to 
 lay it out and put it into cultivation gratis, 
 in the carrying out of which labor he was 
 after his death succeeded by a fellow mem- 
 ber on the same disinterested principle. The 
 slaves who had been waiting on the last 
 minister were sent to the estate and employed 
 in the cultivation of the sotf with others who 
 were hired for the purpose." 
 
 While this estate was being established 
 the individual members often had to pay 
 from their own incomes government taxes 
 on the land, poor taxes (from the benefit of 
 which they were excluded), and the regular 
 running of the establishment. 
 
 The developing of this estate was the 
 labor of many years, and while this was go- 
 ing on there was no minister to care for these 
 people. In fact, during the first hundred 
 years there were only a few during which 
 the Lutheran Church had the services of a 
 resident minister. 
 
 From the date of organization it was 
 nine years before the arrival of the first 
 minister. During these nine years the Luth- 
 erans paid in annual subscriptions towards 
 
50 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 a fund for bringing out a clergyman and 
 as surety for his support, and they also built 
 a church and a manse. After nine years of 
 sacrifice and anxious waiting the minister 
 came and after laboring for two years died. 
 
 The second minister arrived two years 
 afterward and after a pastorate of four 
 years he also died. 
 
 The third minister arrived the next year 
 and decamped after a pastorate of two years. 
 There was then a vacancy of four years and 
 the fourth minister arrived and decamped 
 after a two years' pastorate. 
 
 It has been impossible for me to ascer- 
 tain how long a vacancy occurred after this. 
 But it must have been a very long one for 
 the next reference that I have been able to 
 find concerning a Lutheran Minister in Ber- 
 bice, is that in November 1826 the Lutheran 
 Minister informed the Protector that he was 
 about to begin the instruction of the slaves 
 in the Christian Religion. 
 
 It appears that this minister had been in 
 this Colony some time previous to 1826 and 
 that one other minister had been here after 
 the fourth. This sixth minister must have 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE 51 
 
 been the Rev. H. W. P. Junius, the last of 
 the Dutch ministers, who labored here until 
 1841. Allowing this man a pastorate of 
 twenty years and his immediate predecessor 
 a pastorate of ten years, there still would be 
 a vacancy of thirty years, during which time 
 the funds were raised which made the Luth- 
 eran Church to be known as "the rich Church 
 of Berbice." 
 
 From the time of the British occupation 
 the work of the Lutheran ministers must 
 have been increasingly difficult, for we are 
 told in contemporary history that the Luth- 
 eran minister could understand and speak 
 hardly any English. Nevertheless, the 
 Reverend Junius, during the last eleven years 
 of his pastorate, baptized 794 persons. 
 
 During this first century there were less 
 than forty years that this congregation had 
 pastors and over sixty years of vacancies. 
 
 The next twenty-five years witnessed a 
 period of deterioration in the Lutheran 
 Community. The congregation came nearly 
 dying out. Most of its members were scat- 
 tered among the several denominations that 
 had grown up here after the British had ac- 
 
52 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 quired the land. Only four male and seven 
 female members remained at the close of 
 this period. 
 
 During this period occurred what might 
 be called the Wesleyan Occupation. It con- 
 tributed to the decay of Lutheranism. The 
 Wesleyans of Berbice certainly owe a great 
 deal to the avarice of the Vestry of the 
 Lutheran Community. They wished to con- 
 trol the large income of the Lutheran Church 
 for their private ends, so rather than seek 
 a minister they invited the Wesleyans into 
 the Church, giving them free use of the 
 church, manse, and school, and setting aside 
 a substantial sum for the support of their 
 minister. Thus the Vestry had services and 
 enjoyed the greater part of the funds of the 
 church. 
 
 After having enjoyed their privileges for 
 a quarter of a century, the Wesleyans tried 
 to secure the undisputed control of the Luth- 
 eran properties, possibly supposing that pos- 
 session was nine points of the law. Without 
 going into the disagreeable details of the 
 affair it is enough to say that the matter 
 ended by the Wesleyans being excluded from 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE S3 
 
 the buildings. While the vestry were pos- 
 sibly animated by avarice in inviting the 
 Wesleyans to use their property, neverthe- 
 less the Wesleyans owe a debt of gratitude 
 to the Lutheran Community which they are 
 very reluctant to acknowledge. 
 
 During this period the greater part of the 
 revenue of the church was made to serve 
 private ends. This went on undisturbed 
 until the year 1875. At this time there was 
 made a distribution of $5,000.00 among the 
 few remaining members. Some considered 
 themselves unfairly dealt with in this distri- 
 bution and made representations to the Gov- 
 ernment that the administrators were wast- 
 ing the funds of the Lutheran Church. At 
 once the Government instituted a Commis- 
 sion of Inquiry. This Commission ordered 
 that the Lutheran Church should be re- 
 opened, and that the moneys be put to the 
 use for which they were originally intended, 
 and thus fulfill the objects of the founders. 
 
 The vestry, thereupon, invited Rev. John 
 Sanders, minister of the Lutheran Church in 
 Suriname to reinstitute Lutheran services in 
 Berbice. Reverend Sanders came, reopened 
 
54 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 the services, confirmed new members, and 
 advised obtaining assistance from some local 
 clergymen to maintain the services. 
 
 The Rev. J. R. Mittleholzer was invited 
 to hold these services as recommended by 
 Reverend Sanders. And thus began a rela- 
 tionship between the Lutheran Community 
 and Pastor Mittleholzer that continued for 
 over thirty-five years. For three years Rev- 
 erend Mittleholzer held the ordinary ser- 
 vices, while Reverend Sanders made period- 
 ical visits to the Church. Then in 1878 
 Reverend Mittleholzer was called as the 
 pastor of the Church, he having previously 
 journeyed to Suriname to receive confirma- 
 tion in the Lutheran Church. 
 
 On the 18th of September, 1890, the 
 church and pastor were received into the 
 membership of the East Pennsylvania Synod 
 of the General Synod of the Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church in the United States. 
 
 The recognition from this body of Luth- 
 erans was of great importance to the Ber- 
 bice Lutherans. It removed from the pastor 
 and congregation that feeling of isolation 
 that had always been theirs. It assured them 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE 55 
 
 of a continuity of a properly qualified minis- 
 try, and it helped them in the difficulties with 
 which they were then encompassed. Of this 
 union with the American Lutheran Church 
 Reverend Mittleholzer wrote: "The Lord 
 bless the Synod which came unknowingly but 
 timely to the rescue of this distant but not 
 unimportant branch of the great Lutheran 
 Church. May our Zion flourish to the honor 
 and glory of her Divine Master whose kind 
 and ever-watchful providence has guided her 
 from her commencement, protected her amid 
 crushing dangers and changing scenes, and 
 once more revived and established her ! May 
 she ever prove a satisfaction and credit to 
 the venerable Synod with which she is con- 
 nected." 
 
 Up until his death in August, 1913, Rev- 
 erend Mittleholzer remained the faithful 
 and efficient pastor of the Lutheran 
 Churches. The eleven members of 1875 
 had now increased to a fine congregation in 
 New Amsterdam. He had also established 
 himself as one of the most successful of the 
 Creoles of the Colony. He was the one who 
 introduced the Christian Endeavor Society 
 
56 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 into British Guiana. He also conducted a 
 school known as Beneva Academy in which 
 some of the most prominent men of Berbice 
 received their education. 
 
 After the death of Pastor Mittleholzer, 
 the Vestry petitioned the East Pennsylvania 
 Synod to send a minister to their church. 
 Finally, in 1914, the Rev. M. H. Stine, 
 Ph.D., D.D., came to the colony to take up 
 the work. 
 
 Owing to the long illness of the late pas- 
 tor and the vacancy caused by his death, the 
 properties of the church had greatly deteri- 
 orated, and many of the members and fol- 
 lowers had become scattered. Dr. Stine felt 
 unable to take up the burden because of his 
 advanced age and because he saw that, at 
 once, considerable money would be required 
 to meet outstanding debts, carry on the 
 established -work, and put the property in 
 proper condition. 
 
 After three months he returned to the 
 United States and recommended that the 
 Synod transfer the Church to the Board of 
 Foreign Missions in order that money might 
 be available for the needs of the Community 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE 57 
 
 and that a supply of ministers might be as- 
 sured. The transfer was accordingly made, 
 and in January, 1916, the writer took charge 
 for the Board. 
 
 Some might wonder why after all these 
 years this Church still needs outside help 
 for carrying on its work. I am sure that 
 this brief review of the history of this 
 Church will rather lead one to wonder that 
 there should be any Lutheran work left in 
 this Colony. For a Church to have main- 
 tained its existence through the changes that 
 have taken place in this Colony in one 
 hundred and seventy-nine years is no mean 
 accomplishment. 
 
 Let us not forget that of the churches 
 founded by the Dutch, only the Berbice 
 Lutheran remains. The Dutch Reformed, 
 State-aided and carefully protected, has 
 passed entirely out of existence, leaving only 
 a dim historical record. But the Lutheran 
 Church, the fruit of sacrifice, toils, and 
 prayers, stands forth today full of hope and 
 courage for the future. 
 
 This Church had enemies without and 
 sometimes it had its worst enemies within. 
 
58 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 Its large funds offered a great temptation to 
 those who had not toiled for them, and they 
 were cruelly dissipated. And yet God has 
 kept our Church here and his care of her in 
 the past cannot but bring to our hearts the 
 assurance that he will bless her in the future. 
 
 We need not wonder that more was not 
 accomplished during the first century. We 
 marvel that anything was left after the 
 Wesleyan Occupation. Under Pastor Mittle- 
 holzer a great work was accomplished. The 
 Lutheran Church today is still an influence 
 in Berbice. Our work is moving forward. 
 To many the Lutheran Church may seem 
 both slow and weak, but the wise men ob- 
 served, "The race is not to the swift, nor 
 the battle to the strong." 
 
 God accomplishes His purposes slowly, 
 "One day with the Lord is as a thousand 
 years, and a thousand years as one day." 
 The future we leave in the hands of God 
 who has brought us through one hundred 
 and seventy-nine years. For the past under 
 His providence and Divine blessing we 
 thank Him and praise Him for His loving 
 kindness which endureth forever. 
 
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN BERBICE 59 
 
 "Soli Deo Gloria" is written over our 
 door. 
 
 "Encompassed by seditious foes 
 Our Zion hath her anguish known, 
 Still in His name she overthrows 
 And glory gives to God alone. 
 
 Zeal for her Master be her care, 
 Nor e'er His sacred cause disown, 
 His lambs like jewels, may she rear 
 And glory give to God alone." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 OUR CHURCH IN BERBICE AS IT Is TODAY. 
 
 Leaving the past we wish to present to 
 you a picture of the Lutheran Church in 
 Berbice as it now is. We wish you to see 
 our equipment, our people, our plans, and 
 our hopes. 
 
 The original building of this congregation 
 was erected at Fort Nassau when that Dutch 
 fort was located fifty miles up the Berbice 
 River. Today that old fort is marked only 
 by some cabbage palms that tower high 
 above a dense forest and by piles of old 
 brick that mingle with the roots of the trees. 
 For it is now considerably over one hundred 
 years since that old fort and town were de- 
 serted and New Amsterdam was founded at 
 the River's mouth. 
 
 Our Church was moved to the new town 
 and we are very fortunate in having a pic- 
 ture of the new building erected by the 
 Dutch. This building still forms the main 
 part of our Church, after having done ser- 
 
 60 
 
OUR CHURCH IN BERBICE AS IT IS TODAY 61 
 
 vice for over one hundred and twenty-five 
 years. This building was added to about 
 forty years ago under the pastorate of Rev- 
 erend Mittleholzer and was repaired and 
 painted under the present pastorate. This 
 building is unique in this Colony in its archi- 
 tecture and presents a very pretty picture, 
 standing as it does surrounded by royal 
 palms. It is valued at about $10,000.00. 
 
 In the same yard stands the old Manse. 
 There are timbers in it that have been in use 
 more than a century. However, upon our 
 arrival in the Colony we found the house in 
 what looked more like ruins than a home. 
 The renovation cost a little over $3,000.00, 
 of which amount about half was paid by the 
 Board and half from local funds. Reno- 
 vated it is a large, cool, and comfortable 
 home, and is valued at about $5,000.00. 
 
 This Church and Manse face the Strand, 
 which is the best business street. They are 
 located in about the center of the town. The 
 lot on which they stand extends for a full 
 thousand feet to Main Street. And facing 
 Main Street there are two other buildings 
 belonging to the Church. The larger house 
 
62 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 is rented and the smaller one furnishes a 
 home for our East Indian Catechist. 
 
 The Church also owns a small piece of 
 land in the town facing Backdam, which is 
 leased as a site for the Anglican East Indian 
 Church. The property of the Church 
 in New Amsterdam is worth nearly 
 $20,000.00. 
 
 The Church also has something over a 
 hundred shares in the Royal Bank of Can- 
 ada. The income is about $1,700.00 a year 
 from the property and funds left in trust 
 by the original founders. Of this amount, 
 $1,200.00 is paid towards pastor's salary, 
 $264.00 is paid in pensions, and the balance 
 for taxes, insurance, and administration. 
 During the World War the bank shares 
 paid extra dividends and the money was 
 utilized for repairs on the Main Street 
 house and for building a fence around the 
 property. 
 
 The congregation in New Amsterdam 
 also contributes according to its ability for 
 local expenses. While the congregation is 
 small and the people are mostly poor, yet 
 their generosity is very marked and some of 
 
OUR CHURCH IN BERBICE AS IT IS TODAY 63 
 
 their sacrifices very commendable. The 
 assistance that the work receives from 
 America is so distributed that it does not in 
 any way destroy the self-reliance of the 
 people. The Board pays for nothing that 
 it is possible for the people to pay for 
 themselves. 
 
 Our congregation in New Amsterdam is 
 made up of Blacks, Colored, and East In- 
 dians. The blacks are the descendants of 
 the old-time slave population. The colored 
 are those of mixed blood. And the East 
 Indians are from India. There are no 
 people entirely white connected with the con- 
 gregation, but there are many who could 
 pass for white should they so desire. How- 
 ever, let it be understood that our people are 
 intelligent and cultured and show as fine a 
 type of Christianity as can be found in any 
 place in the world. We are proud of our 
 Lutheran people in British Guiana, and we 
 are sure that you would be, too, did you 
 know them. 
 
 Will you not come and spend a Sunday 
 with us? At nine o'clock our first service 
 begins. You will not be able to understand 
 
64 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 one word, but you will know that it is beau- 
 tiful because of the reverent spirit mani- 
 fested. It is our Hindu service. A hymn 
 is first sung and then our morning service 
 is rendered in Hindu, then an address by 
 the Catechist and prayer and the benedic- 
 tion. It is a small assembly, for work with 
 the East Indian is very slow in this Colony. 
 And yet there is a sweetness and a pathos 
 in those Hindu hymns that you will not soon 
 forget. 
 
 We have Hindu temples and Mohamme- 
 dan mosques all around us, and the Hindu 
 and the Mohammedan have a moral code 
 that is very easy to the natural man, and 
 so we go on slowly, hoping and praying that 
 somehow in God's own time some will be 
 saved. Especially do we long for those 
 bright-eyed boys and girls who are coming 
 somewhat under our care. This is the only 
 work here in New Amsterdam that is 
 financed by our Board. We look for the 
 time when it shall grow into a great work. 
 
 At eleven o'clock we have the regular 
 morning worship. Our full service is again 
 used. This time in English just as you have 
 
MOHAMMEDAN PRAYER WALL 
 
 MOHAMMEDAN WORSHIPPERS 
 
OUR CHURCH IN BERBICE AS IT IS TODAY 65 
 
 it at home. The same sweet songs are sung, 
 the same lessons are read, and the same 
 kind of sermon is preached. The singing is 
 hearty. At first it might sound a little 
 strange to you but you will like the mellow- 
 ing and softening that you associate with the 
 Jubilee Singers at the home Chautauqua. 
 
 There is a special reverence in the wor- 
 ship of these people that would shame many 
 a congregation at home. No one comes to 
 the service who does not begin with a silent 
 prayer and no one leaves without a quiet 
 moment of prayer after the service. 
 
 At 2.30 in the afternoon our Sunday 
 school meets. All our Lutheran literature 
 is used and paid for by the offerings of the 
 school. Classes are well taught. The order 
 is exceptionally good, and everything is done 
 with reverence. 
 
 After the regular Sunday school, classes 
 are held in the different ends of the town 
 for those poor children who cannot come to 
 the regular school because of "circum- 
 stances." "Circumstances" usually means 
 lack of boots, or trousers, or a good dress. 
 A shirt is considered quite enough for at- 
 
66 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 tendance at these classes. It is nothing 
 unusual to see little boys on the street with 
 only a shirt, but of course they would feel 
 ashamed to come to school in that alone. 
 When the pastor goes out unexpectedly to 
 visit these classes, there is always a flying of 
 shirt tails and a borrowing of pants that 
 they might return and show how well they 
 have learned their lessons. 
 
 At a recent review one little chap asked, 
 as we were about to leave, whether all the 
 prayers had been said. He had come late 
 and had not heard the opening prayer. We 
 told him that prayers had been said but that 
 we would pray again and asked him to pray 
 and any others who might desire. And then 
 several little children not over twelve years 
 of age offered beautiful prayers that they 
 had learned in their class from their teacher. 
 I wonder how many little boys at home 
 would stand up among their fellows and lead 
 in prayer. Two of these boys were East 
 Indians whose parents are heathen. 
 
 At seven o'clock we have Vespers. The 
 regular Vesper Service with a sermon. On 
 Monday evening Prayer Meeting. On 
 
OUR CHURCH IN BERBICE AS IT IS TODAY 67 
 
 Tuesday evening Luther League. On Wed- 
 nesday evening a mid-week service with 
 Vespers and sermon. So we go on, praying, 
 preaching, teaching. We do not complain 
 that our congregation is small and that re- 
 sults are not always in evidence. We thank 
 God that we have strength to witness for 
 him in this place and among these different 
 peoples, and that he has preserved this 
 Church for nearly two centuries and still 
 gives to her the privilege of proclaiming the 
 unsearchable riches of His Holy Word. 
 
 Here in New Amsterdam our congrega- 
 tion numbers about one hundred and sixty, 
 including our little handful of East Indians. 
 Our Sunday school has an average attend- 
 ance of about one hundred and our outdoor 
 classes have nearly fifty enrolled. It is a 
 little work but we doubt not that with the 
 blessing of God it shall grow through the 
 years and shall be the means of bringing 
 many into the Kingdom. 
 
 This work is very much like the work in 
 any Church at home. The only difference 
 is the country, the climate, and the nations 
 represented 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE RIVER CHURCHES AS A MISSION FIELD. 
 
 We now come to a consideration of what 
 constitutes the real mission field of our 
 Church in British Guiana, the River 
 Churches. Our work in New Amsterdam is 
 that of an old-established and practically 
 self-supporting congregation. Only our East 
 Indian work there is new, and it is, and 
 should be, the logical work of every congre- 
 gation in this colony. But our river work 
 is in a different class. 
 
 While it is true that even here we have 
 no new field, inasmuch as this work has been 
 carried on for about a quarter of a century, 
 yet this work has been undeveloped and must 
 remain so to a certain extent until a minister 
 shall be able to give the majority of his time 
 to this work alone. 
 
 The best developed of our River Churches 
 is St. Paul's Mission at Bien Content. There 
 is connected with it a day school known as 
 the Maria Henriette Lutheran School. Here 
 
 68 
 
THE RIVER CHURCHES AS A MISSION FIELD 69 
 
 we found a flourishing congregation and 
 school upon our arrival in the Colony. 
 
 We have in this congregation one hundred 
 and twenty-five members, a Sunday school, 
 a Luther League, and a day school with 
 fifty-four children enrolled. The healthy 
 condition of the work is owing a great deal 
 to the zeal and intelligence of the former 
 Catechist, Mr. J. F. Hartman, Sr., who 
 gave over thirty years to the work in this 
 field. 
 
 Pastor Mittleholzer had attended to the 
 erection at this place of what is the largest 
 River Church. The school however has 
 only a thatched-roof building. We have re- 
 cently completed a comfortable Mission 
 House and have thus secured for the first 
 time in six years a decent place for my own 
 accommodation on the River. 
 
 At St. Paul's we have a regular Vestry and 
 the congregational life is well developed. 
 During the life of Catechist Hartman, who 
 very recently passed to his reward, the can- 
 didate classes were very carefully instructed 
 and all the church services properly con- 
 ducted, and the people were wisely admon- 
 
70 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 ished from Sunday to Sunday. Up to the 
 present time we have been unable to fill the 
 vacancy made by this good man's death. 
 
 The people here contribute towards the 
 maintenance of their own church and to- 
 wards the traveling expenses of the minister 
 when he visits them. In the building of the 
 Mission House they contributed in labor and 
 materials at least six hundred dollars. The 
 balance was paid by our Board. 
 
 Upon my arrival in the Colony the Gov- 
 ernment was contributing $172.00 a year 
 toward the maintenance of our school here. 
 This amount has now been increased to more 
 than $600.00. It is mostly absorbed in in- 
 creased teachers' salaries. Unfortunately 
 we cannot report that it has stirred the 
 teachers to any greater devotion to their 
 duty or efficiency in their work. 
 
 This was our only school in the Colony 
 six years ago. We now have a school at 
 St. Lust and one at Ituni. Both are receiv- 
 ing government grants. The grant for Ituni 
 is $180.00 a year and for St. Lust $150.00. 
 These grants are not sufficient for the 
 schools. Our Board makes up the balance 
 
THE RIVER CHURCHES AS A MISSION FIELD 71 
 
 and also finances the founding of these 
 schools and their expenses until we are able 
 to meet the Government requirements. 
 
 At each of our three River Churches we 
 employ a Catechist, who, to the best of his 
 ability, attends to the congregation during 
 the absence of the pastor. We have re- 
 ceived the past year from the Government, 
 Bonds amounting to $3,620.00, paying in- 
 terest at 5 per cent, the income from which 
 is to be used towards paying these Cate- 
 chists on the River. All additional expenses 
 connected with this work are cared for by 
 the Board, which has also made possible a 
 second Mission House at Ituni. So it is evi- 
 dent that our Church in British Guiana is in 
 a fair financial condition for carrying on its 
 present work in four churches and three 
 schools, with its invested funds, its school 
 grants, its government bonds, and its con- 
 tributing members. However, there are 
 some very necessary expenses that they are 
 unable to pay. It is necessary that a pastor 
 laboring in this field should have frequent 
 furloughs and opportunities to return home. 
 This is expensive and our funds cannot pay 
 
72 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 these expenses. It is necessary that our 
 work be extended, and this would be alto- 
 gether too slow an operation were it neces- 
 sary to wait for local financing. Another 
 minister is needed in our Church work in 
 order to inaugurate any forward movement, 
 and it would be necessary that he receive his 
 salary from the outside. We need two 
 church buildings on the River, one at St. 
 Lust and one at Ituni. While the people at 
 both places are ready and willing to donate 
 their labor and whatever raw material they 
 might have on their land, they are not able 
 to furnish ready cash for such a venture. We 
 also need a new school house at Maria Hen- 
 riette that can also be used as a social center. 
 For all these improvements we shall need 
 the help of the home Church. We also need 
 a church in Georgetown, the capital city of 
 the Colony. This is most urgent for our 
 members are constantly going down there to 
 live and we should follow them and care for 
 them. Besides Georgetown is destined to 
 become one of the great cities of South 
 America, and we do not wish to lament an- 
 other opportunity missed. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MOUNT HERMON MISSION AND THE PRAC- 
 TICE OF OBEAH. 
 
 Mt. Hermon is the name of our River 
 Mission situated at St. Lust. This church 
 is near the intersection of the Weironie and 
 Berbice Rivers and the spot where the first 
 church was erected in Berbice in 1723. 
 
 This portion of the River district is very 
 different today than it was two hundred 
 years ago under the Dutch. Then there 
 were fine plantations of coffee, cocoa, and 
 sugar upon the banks of the River. Then 
 there were the fine, large, cool houses of the 
 planters with their true tropical hospitality. 
 Bridle paths joined the different estates and 
 comfortable tent boats passed up and down 
 the river with their crews of black oarsmen. 
 Sugar factories, coffee and cocoa drying 
 houses and quarters for the slaves were 
 everywhere evident, and large well-kept 
 fields of plantains, bananas, and pineapples 
 supplied food for the considerable population. 
 
 73 
 
74 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 Now a few thatched-roof huts can be seen 
 sparsely scattered along the river. Crowd- 
 ing down upon them is the dense bush with 
 only a little path leading to the landing. A 
 few sticks of furniture and a canister with 
 a few clothes are all that are to be found 
 in these abodes. A corn field and a rice field 
 cut and planted for one crop and then aban- 
 doned, furnish most of the food for the 
 family. Some of the most ambitious make 
 crab oil from the nuts of the crab wood 
 tree, and a few timbers are occasionally 
 squared for the local saw mill. Thus the 
 mixed people of the river, descendants of 
 planter, African and Indian, eke out their 
 living. 
 
 It is in such surroundings that our Mt. 
 Hermon Mission is situated. The people 
 lack ambition and the intelligence necessary 
 to make the most out of their circumstances. 
 They need constructive leadership. They are 
 kept back by disease and laziness. To say 
 that their morals are "Polynesian" would be 
 putting it mildly. 
 
 Twenty years ago they built brick pillars 
 upon which to place their church. The 
 
MOUNT HERMON MISSION 75 
 
 church has not yet been erected. When we 
 came to the Colony there was a thatched- 
 roof chapel with its thatch full of tarantulas 
 and other creeping things, and there was no 
 school. 
 
 We have not been able to accomplish 
 much here, for who could do much for any 
 church by visiting it three or four times a 
 year for a day or two at a time? However, 
 the chapel was enlarged, a school has been 
 organized and placed on the Government 
 list, a house has been built for the teacher, 
 and a Sunday school has been organized. 
 Our progress has been slow but there at 
 least has been some progress. 
 
 It was here at St. Lust that the missionary 
 and his wife had a rather interesting ex- 
 perience about five years ago with taran- 
 tulas. 
 
 We arrived at St. Lust from St. Paul's 
 Mission on a Sunday afternoon to hold an 
 evening service. The little chapel was 
 packed with people. We had a few oil 
 lamps and the parson's lantern was placed 
 on the pulpit so that he could see to read the 
 Scripture lessons. While he was preaching 
 
76 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 there was something about the size of his 
 hand and black and hairy, that dropped from 
 the thatched roof and struck the lantern. One 
 of the members knocked it to the floor and 
 dispatched it with his foot. This was our 
 first sight of a full-sized tarantula. 
 
 After the service we killed about half a 
 dozen of those large black fellows that ap- 
 peared between the roof leaves. After this 
 we got out our folding cots with their mos- 
 quito nets, and putting them up in the open 
 chapel, retired. Under the loose floor pigs 
 and goats grunted and snored, and fleas left 
 pig and goat for a cannibalistic diet. How- 
 ever, after some time, we managed to get 
 to sleep. 
 
 After a while the missionary awoke. Some 
 strange night sound of the jungle must have 
 penetrated his ear and brought him to con- 
 sciousness. He lay quietly for a while and 
 thought about those tarantulas, and a story 
 that he had recently read about their pois- 
 onous sting killing human beings, when look- 
 ing out of the corner of his eye he saw 
 something long, black, and hairy within a 
 few inches of his face. He was in a quan- 
 
MOUNT HERMON MISSION 77 
 
 dary. What should he do ? To move might 
 invite a venomous sting. To lie still was 
 but to postpone an uncomfortable situation. 
 It was impossible to jump up and get away, 
 for the mosquito net enclosed everything in 
 the bed. So he decided to strike with his 
 hand and at the same time jump away from 
 the threatening object. You can imagine 
 his surprise and relief when, upon striking, 
 he discovered that the long, black, hairy 
 thing that he had mistaken for the legs of 
 the tarantula was nothing more dangerous 
 than the fringe of a steamer rug that he was 
 using for a covering. 
 
 St. Lust is also a great district for the 
 practice of Obeah. Before the law was 
 passed that made it an offence to even be 
 found with any of the paraphernalia of 
 Obeahism, every moonlight night at St. Lust 
 we could hear the drum of the obeah man 
 calling the people to the comfy dance. The 
 hold that obeahism has on the people of the 
 colony is one of the great mysteries and 
 points to the greatest failure of the Church 
 in this place. 
 
 I have before said that all the black and 
 
78 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 colored people of the colony are nominally 
 Christian. I have had to limit their Chris- 
 tianity because of the hold that obeahism 
 still has upon a large majority of them. One 
 hundred years ago, a minister writing from 
 Demerara to England said: "A species of 
 witchcraft, called Obeah, is very common 
 among the negroes. Its efficacy is attributed 
 to some infernal supernatural agency. For 
 this terrible superstition no other remedy 
 has ever been found but the Christian reli- 
 gion." 
 
 There is no doubt that Christianity has 
 cast this devil out of thousands of people, 
 but it is one of the failures of our religion 
 that it has left so much of this superstition 
 in the minds of the people. 
 
 The Molly Schultz murder case brought 
 this terrible thing most forcibly to the atten- 
 tion of the Government and suitable laws 
 were made to deal with it. 
 
 "Obeah" signifies every pretended as- 
 sumption of supernatural power or knowl- 
 edge whatever for fraudulent or illicit pur- 
 poses, or for gain, or for the injury of any 
 person. 
 
MOUNT HERMON MISSION 79 
 
 Obeah is generally practiced for the pur- 
 pose of inflicting disease, loss, damage, per- 
 sonal injury, or to cause or divert affection 
 by use of love philtre or charms. The para- 
 phernalia usually consists of a human skull 
 or some other part of the human body, 
 either taken before or after death. 
 
 In the case of Molly Schultz, it was 
 shown that those diabolical demons took the 
 eyes from the child while she was still alive. 
 
 The penalty for the practice of Obeah is 
 imprisonment and flogging for men and soli- 
 tary confinement for women, and still the 
 terrible thing goes on to an alarming degree. 
 It is frightfully demoralizing, and yet people 
 from all sections of the population are under 
 its sway. On the street one day there was 
 pointed out to me the "obeah man" of a 
 prominent Chinese merchant. Many of the 
 blacks and East Indians aie in constant fear 
 of obeah. I have known aboriginal Indians 
 to throw away a dispenser's medicine and 
 take their sick for a long journey to an 
 obeah man. And even many of the colored 
 people look upon sickness as the result of 
 the evil eye, and who consider the rags and 
 
80 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 bones of the obeah man more destructive 
 than overcrowding and germ-laden mosqui- 
 toes. Recently I was told about some col- 
 ored people who secretly carried a terrible 
 concoction prepared by an obeah man to one 
 of their friends in the hospital. Is it any 
 wonder that the doctor is often mystified in 
 the progress of his patients? 
 
 Obeah is the cause of much of the irre- 
 ligion and immorality of the people, and so 
 far has not given way to the teaching of the 
 schools and churches. 
 
 I should be very sorry were what I have 
 said about "obeah" and its influence upon 
 people of all sections of the inhabitants to 
 lead you to the conclusion that the people 
 have made no progress in Christian living. 
 To judge the people by the followers of 
 obeah would be like judging America by the 
 "spiritualists" who have many points of 
 likeness to this relic of African savage super- 
 stition. 
 
 The black and colored people form the 
 great bulk of the members of the Christian 
 Churches. The fate of Christianity in this 
 colony is in their hands, and I believe that 
 
ITUNI INDIAN SCHOOL 
 
 SCHOOL CHILDREN 
 
ITUNI DUG-OUT CANOES 
 
 A RIVER STEAMBOAT 
 
 TENT BOAT 
 
MOUNT HERMON MISSION 81 
 
 it is in safe keeping. The black and colored 
 people are practically the Christians of the 
 colony. One of the most pleasing features 
 of the Negro temperament is his tendency 
 towards religion. There are no atheists 
 among the Negroes. They are largely domi- 
 nated by the Church. They are far more 
 faithful in their duties as Church members 
 than the average European in this colony. 
 
 In our Church we have found that they 
 have as thorough an acquaintance with the 
 doctrines of the Church, coupled with the 
 practical application of the same, as can be 
 found any place. Some people, unacquainted 
 with people of other races than their own, 
 assume that the religion of the black and 
 colored is of a superficial character. This 
 is not so. They are as sincere lovers of 
 Christ, as devoted to the Church, and as 
 practical in their Christian living as people 
 of any other race. Of course, like all races, 
 they cannot all be included in the above des- 
 cription. Many of them are nominal Chris- 
 tians, just like many of our people at home. 
 Many have been baptized and confirmed, 
 and with this the matter has simply ended, 
 
82 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 just as with many of our people at home. 
 
 The black and colored people have taken 
 very kindly to education. Their progress in 
 this has been remarkable. They are keen to 
 educate themselves and their children and 
 make large sacrifices towards this end. 
 
 And I believe that they are industrious 
 when well. Much that is taken for idleness, 
 laziness, and thriftlessness is the result of 
 sickness. Give them heathful surroundings, 
 and sufficient food and they can accomplish 
 a great amount of hard work, and they 
 generally are very cheerful about doing it. 
 
 Negroes are filling positions of responsi- 
 bility and honor in this colony and are doing 
 so with distinction. As a race they have 
 made wonderful advances since the abolition 
 of slavery in 1836. Their future and the 
 future of the colony and of the Christian 
 Churches here are but different sides of the 
 same question. I, for one, am very optimis- 
 tic about all three. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE WORK AMONG THE ARRAWAK 
 INDIANS. 
 
 We come now to the presentation of our 
 work among the Arrawak Indians. This 
 ought to be of great interest to our people, 
 as this is the only mission of The United 
 Lutheran Church among the original inhabi- 
 tants of the American Continent. 
 
 The Mission is located on an island 
 formed by the Berbice River, the Ituni Creek 
 and the Itabo (supplementary mouth) of 
 the Ituni. It is situated one hundred and 
 twenty-five miles from our head station in 
 New Amsterdam. There is a semi-weekly 
 river steamer that runs from New Amster- 
 dam to within three miles of this Mission. 
 
 The church here is called Mount Carmel 
 and the Mission is known as the Ituni Luth- 
 eran Indian Mission. 
 
 To visit this Mission we must be up and 
 off at seven A.M., and it is usually after 
 midnight when we arrive at Paradise, the 
 
 83 
 
84 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 steamer terminus. From here we go in a 
 batteau for the rest of the journey, and by 
 two A.M., or after a hot journey of nine- 
 teen hours, we arrive at our destination. 
 
 Up until August, 1921, we had only 
 a small thatched-roof building about 
 12 x 20, to accommodate the preacher, 
 teacher, catechist, and whoever else might 
 be at the Mission. Here we have also a 
 small thatched-roof building that does ser- 
 vice as a chapel and school. But through 
 the kindness of the home Church, and with 
 the assistance of our Indians, we now have 
 a pleasant cottage with two rooms and a 
 gallery for the accommodation of the 
 minister. 
 
 The building of this cottage was quite an 
 undertaking. Our Board gave us a generous 
 grant towards this object, but, as I believe 
 in teaching people self-reliance, I would use 
 the money only for those things that the 
 Indians could not supply. So the Indians 
 went into the forest and cut a supply of crab- 
 wood logs. It was necessary for them to 
 make roads through the forest from the 
 stumps to the river. Then they dragged the 
 
WORK AMONG THE ARRAWAK INDIANS 85 
 
 logs with their own strength over this road. 
 Then the logs were tied into a raft with 
 bush-rope and the raft was floated for more 
 than a hundred miles to the saw mill in 
 town. There the raft was sawn up into 
 one and a quarter inch boards for flooring; 
 groove and tongue and spring boards for 
 siding; and inch boards for roofing. These 
 boards were then loaded into a punt and 
 floated back up the river to the Mission. 
 The river is very accommodating, in that 
 the tides run for nearly one hundred and 
 fifty miles from its mouth, so that not much 
 more time was taken to float the punt up 
 than to float the raft down. 
 
 The windows and blinds were made at the 
 mill in town from New York boards and 
 shipped to the Mission. Next we gathered 
 bricks from an old abandoned plantation 
 for the foundation and blocks, sills, beams, 
 and uprights were squared out in the forest 
 and dragged or floated to the Mission. 
 
 The plan for the house was drawn by the 
 Missionary. Some carpenters were em- 
 ployed and the house raised. It was a long 
 job but will no doubt well repay the effort 
 
86 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 in comfort and convenience for the mission- 
 aries during the coming years. 
 
 The work and material thus donated by 
 the little handful of men connected with the 
 Mission, amounted to about one-half of the 
 value of the completed house. I am sure 
 that you will conclude that that was not so 
 bad for your aboriginal Indian Lutheran 
 brethren of the South American forests. 
 
 I shall never forget my first visit to the 
 Ituni Mission. There were only a few In- 
 dians present with their children. The Cate- 
 chist had brought up a few of the members 
 of St. Paul's Mission to sing a few hymns. 
 The Indians were unable to join in any por- 
 tion of the service and sat stolid while I 
 tried to bring a message to them from God's 
 Word. The children were strange and shy, 
 and the whole proceedings left me terribly 
 depressed. What was there to do? The 
 Indians could not understand me and I could 
 not understand them, although we were all 
 speaking English. I was sure that I would 
 not be able to learn the Arrawak language 
 along with the care of the four churches, 
 and I was especially concerned about the 
 
WORK AMONG THE ARRAWAK INDIANS 87 
 
 bright-eyed, red-skinned children. The prob- 
 lem that this Mission presented was no small 
 one. After prayerful consideration we de- 
 cided to organize a school for the training 
 of the children that they might learn correct 
 English and the principles of our holy 
 religion. 
 
 I wish that you would try to picture those 
 little, shy boys and girls of the tropical 
 forest. They were bright-eyed, lively little 
 children, very lovable and loving, and dear 
 to the heart of the Master. But they knew 
 nothing about the dear Saviour who took 
 little children up in His arms and blessed 
 them. They knew none of the sweet songs 
 that our own little ones learn in Sunday 
 school and church. They could not read, 
 write, sing, pray, or join in children's games. 
 Prejudice would tell us that their condition 
 was their own concern; but Christian love 
 revealed wonderful possibilities and urged 
 us to endeavor in Christ's name to bring the 
 Gospel unto even these little ones. 
 
 Finally the day came for the opening of 
 the school. As the hour drew near, an In- 
 dian boy stood on the river bank and blew 
 
88 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 a hunting horn. As the sound went up and 
 down the river and creeks and echoed 
 through the forest, the little girls eagerly 
 finished the plaiting of their hair; the boys 
 smoothed theirs with oil and hurriedly got 
 in their dugout canoes to hasten to the Mis- 
 sion. Gayly they came, knocking their 
 paddles on the sides of their canoes and 
 chattering to one another in their Indian 
 dialect. 
 
 We opened our school with about thirty 
 children, and as the news spread to the "top 
 side of the bush" others came, until fifty 
 children were enrolled. Fifty boys and girls, 
 who before had known only the wild, prim- 
 itive life of the tropical forest, now began 
 to lay the foundation of their education. 
 They were taught to read and write and 
 reckon. They were taught to pray and sing 
 and play. Their minds were filled full of 
 Bible stories, the greatest of the Psalms, 
 the Beatitudes, and other choice passages of 
 Scripture were engraved upon their hearts. 
 
 Now, if you will visit the Mission, you 
 will be delighted with the service. Our full 
 Common Service is used. Every response 
 
WORK AMONG THE ARRAWAK INDIANS 89 
 
 is sung by the children. Our creeds are con- 
 fessed and the quiet tropical forest is made 
 to ring with the triumphant songs of our 
 beloved Zion. 
 
 After our school had been running about 
 a year, I went to examine those who were 
 reported ready for promotion to the second 
 standard. In examining the children in read- 
 ing we discovered that they had committed 
 their entire first reader and could recite as 
 well without the book as with it. While 
 this was not according to the best rules of 
 pedagogics, yet it revealed that these little 
 children had wonderful memories, so what 
 better could we do than to fill those ready 
 minds with the Word of God, the confes- 
 sions of the Church, and the beautiful hymns 
 of the people of God. Many of the child- 
 ren can give a large number of the hymns 
 from the first word to the last without any 
 reference to the book. 
 
 In this way we have made little mission- 
 aries of many of them. Sometimes their 
 parents come down to the Mission and call 
 their children to go with them into the bush 
 upon some kind of an expedition. The child 
 
90 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 takes its hammock, its cooking pot, its cas- 
 sava bread and bunch of plantains, and get- 
 ting into the canoe is off for hunting and 
 fishing, on a balata bleeding trip, or to one 
 of the timber grants, and wherever it goes 
 it carries the Word of God, the confessions 
 of the Church, and the Hymns of Zion. For 
 these children are taught to pray daily and 
 sing and confess their Saviour; and often 
 their words are heard in the innermost re- 
 cesses of the forest and among people who 
 have never before heard the Gospel message. 
 As they explain their words in the dialect of 
 the tribes, Christ is made known. As a black 
 man once said after he had unexpectedly 
 heard one of our children singing far from 
 the Mission, and after he had been for many 
 months far away from civilization, "It was 
 too (very) sweet to hear the songs of the 
 Church in the top (distant) side of the 
 bush." 
 
 It is a sweet thought to know that little 
 children who knew not their blessed Saviour 
 and perchance might never have known Him, 
 are now this day singing hymns of praise 
 to His blessed name in that tropical forest, 
 
WORK AMONG THE ARRAWAK INDIANS 91 
 
 because our Church has carried the Gospel 
 message to them. 
 
 A permanent church building is to be 
 erected at this Mission. The old thatched- 
 roof chapel will be used then for school 
 purposes only, and this much needed place 
 of worship will give a certain required 
 stability to our work. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NATIVE INDIANS. 
 
 The aboriginal Indians of British Guiana 
 are civilized if by civilized you mean polite. 
 It would be hard indeed to find any of these 
 forest people who are unpleasant or savage. 
 If you mean polished according to the white 
 man's ideas, and encumbered with a super- 
 fluity of clothes, then you would not always 
 consider them civilized. Indeed, the full 
 dress of some of our interior Indians is 
 made up of a small bead apron and various 
 strings of beads. However, the Indian 
 woman is generally quite as modest in her 
 demeanor as her more highly polished and 
 much more dressed white sister. Indian 
 women do not wear European clothes grace- 
 fully. Should there be designed for them 
 such clothes as the Girl Scouts wear, they 
 would be beautifully appropriate. It would 
 not overmuch please the class of merchants 
 who make a business of selling to the poor 
 aboriginal women high-heeled slippers and 
 
 92 
 
THE NATIVE INDIANS 93 
 
 ill-fitting garments when they come to town. 
 
 It is often pathetic to see how the abor- 
 iginal Indian under the guidance of a cer- 
 tain class of tradesmen rig themselves out 
 for their festive occasions. I have seen poor, 
 unhappy brides, who had always known the 
 perfect freedom of a primitive life, brought 
 to the altar by their admiring friends in the 
 breathless embrace of their first corsets and 
 with their feet crowded into a pair of satin 
 slippers several sizes too small for them. 
 How they would perspire under their bridal 
 veils, and sometimes they would sensibly slip 
 off their shoes while the service was being 
 read. 
 
 Unfortunately our teachers and catechists 
 encourage them in these things and the stage 
 is all set and the paraphernalia purchased 
 before the parson's advice is sought. Now 
 that we finally have a small Mission House 
 at Ituni we trust that the Missionary's wife 
 will be able to institute certain dress reforms 
 on behalf of the Indian women. 
 
 The Indians live as they have lived for 
 centuries, except where they have been 
 touched by European civilization, and even 
 
94 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 this civilization has not materially changed 
 their existence. Where our so-called civili- 
 zation goes, there are always two influences 
 at work the one of the trader and the 
 other of the Church. One pulls in one direc- 
 tion and the other exerts its influence in the 
 opposite direction. 
 
 It is contended that civilization always 
 affects the aboriginal in a deleterious man- 
 ner. And this is always true if civilization 
 is represented by the rum shop and the 
 trader. I have heard the rum shop keeper 
 and the trader contend that it is the missions 
 that thus hurt the Indian. I have known a 
 man high in the councils of the State, a man 
 knighted by the King, to contend that mis- 
 sions exploit the Indians, and who was op- 
 posed to any kind of missionary activity in 
 their behalf. Such men are only concerned 
 in shifting responsibility for the evil influ- 
 ence of our so-called civilization. 
 
 Missions are always planted in order to 
 bring the best of our achievements to the 
 life of a people. Missions and missionaries 
 are the best friends of primitive peoples. By 
 their influence the complete annihilation of 
 
THE NATIVE INDIANS 95 
 
 these peoples is prevented. As a missionary 
 we are concerned about the Indian, and 
 anxious that he may be helped to make the 
 most out of his condition. We preach the 
 gospel to him; we supervise the education 
 of children; we try to teach him hygiene 
 and sanitation, and minister to his physical 
 as well as mental and spiritual welfare. And 
 then, when the rum shop undermines his 
 constitution and he dies, we are accounted 
 his slayer. If he learns tricks from the 
 trader and applies his education secured in 
 mission schools to obtain his just dues, the 
 trader claims that the missionaries have 
 taught him tricks and spoiled his primitive 
 simplicity which was always so pleasing, 
 picturesque, and profitable to the trader. 
 
 The missionaries desire that the aborig- 
 inal Indian may live a beautiful, simple life. 
 We wish him to have the simple precepts 
 of Christianity in place of a demoralizing 
 and degrading superstition such as he 
 would have without Christ. We wish him 
 to be honest in his dealings with his fellow- 
 men, but we also desire that he be able to 
 protect himself in business and secure a fair 
 
96 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 deal. We wish him to live a long and 
 healthy life by observing God-given laws of 
 body and mind; we do not desire to see him 
 wrecked and ruined by a rummy civilization. 
 
 We not only do not exploit him, but at a 
 great personal sacrifice put ourselves in the 
 position of servant and teach him and min- 
 ister unto him, and become indeed his 
 brother, endeavoring to help him in this life 
 and prepare him for a blessed immortality. 
 
 In certain fundamentals the Indian is liv- 
 ing today as he lived for centuries. When 
 Columbus was cruising on his first voyage 
 among the Bahama Islands, he found the 
 people living a very primitive life, and most 
 of those primitive conditions still prevail in 
 this land. 
 
 The houses were thatched with palm 
 leaves and open on all four sides, with a 
 sort of a loft which gave little privacy to 
 home life. It is just in such houses that our 
 Indians now live, and a thatched-roof house 
 is without doubt the best sort of a house for 
 him to live in. I understand that the gov- 
 ernment, recognizing this, requires the In- 
 dian to live in such a house in order to be 
 
ST. PAUL'S CONFIRMATION CLASS 
 
 EAST INDIAN CATECHIST FAMILY 
 
 A ST, LUST WEDDING 
 
INDIANS GOING TO CHURCH 
 
 ITUNI MISSION RIVER SCENE 
 
 ITUNI MISSION HOUSE 
 
THE NATIVE INDIANS 97 
 
 eligible for certain special privileges granted 
 to aboriginals. I think that there should be 
 certain improvements in these houses. They 
 should be larger than they usually are and 
 separate sections should be constructed for 
 the different sexes after they come to a cer- 
 tain age. In Washington Irving' s "Voyages 
 of Columbus" we read, "For beds they had 
 nets of cotton extended from two posts, 
 which they called Hamacs." And to this 
 present time the aboriginal Indians of this 
 land woo Morpheus in their hammocks of 
 cotton. And so great is the convenience and 
 comfort found in these hammocks that many 
 Europeans prefer to swing in them even 
 when a large comfortable bed is available. 
 
 The invention of the hammock was a 
 great achievement for the aboriginal Indian, 
 and it would indeed be interesting to know 
 the different stages through which the in- 
 dustry passed until it reached its present 
 perfection. 
 
 The aboriginal Indian is also primitive in 
 his mode of travel. He still uses a dugout 
 or a bark canoe and displays considerable 
 ingenuity in the modeling of both the boat 
 
98 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 and the paddles. Three models of paddles 
 have come under our observation and it is 
 possible to know the part of the Colony 
 from which our Indian hails by observing 
 the cut of his paddle. The paddle of the 
 Berbice and Demerara and Essequito dis- 
 tricts are each of a distinct pattern. 
 
 Not only does the Indian still live in his 
 palm-roofed pavilion, sleep in his cotton 
 hammock, and ride in his dugout canoe, satis- 
 fied with the simple adornments that nature 
 has given to the human body, but he still eats 
 the same food, prepared in the same man- 
 ner. Corn and cassava are his main articles 
 of diet along with tropical fruits. Of these 
 articles of diet cassava bread is the most 
 interesting and complicated in its process of 
 preparation. 
 
 There are two kinds of cassava, bitter 
 and sweet. Both of these are tubers resemb- 
 ling our sweet potato in shape but some- 
 times attaining great size. The sweet cas- 
 sava can be utilized in its natural condition 
 and upon cooking or baking is ready for 
 consumption. On the other hand should you 
 thus prepare bitter cassava, it would be 
 
THE NATIVE INDIANS 99 
 
 found a rank poison, for the bitter cassava 
 contains a fluid that eaten in conjunction 
 with the fibre is poisonous, but both fluid 
 and fibre are edible when separated. After, 
 no doubt, thousands had lost their lives by 
 experimentation, the Indian discovered, ages 
 ago, a process whereby the cassarep could be 
 extracted from the cassava. This is the 
 process of preparation. 
 
 The bitter cassava is brought from the 
 fields in baskets carried on the backs of the 
 Indians, and supported with a thong passed 
 over the forehead. The tubers are then 
 pared and grated. The grated casava is then 
 placed in a matapee and the juice is ex- 
 tracted. This juice is then used as cassarep 
 and is utilized in the preparation of pepper- 
 pot. The pulp is then spread out in thin 
 layers on the stove and baked. This is the 
 cassava bread and the staff of life for the 
 aboriginal Indian. 
 
 The Indian also makes various kinds of 
 drinks. Cassiri is made from the sweet 
 potato and piauarri is made from cassava 
 bread. The first is non-intoxicating but the 
 second is filthy in its manufacture and disas- 
 
100 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 trous in its effect upon the consumer. When 
 the Indian is preparing for a piauarri spree 
 the women are called together. Large quan- 
 tities of cassava bread are made; a canoe 
 is pulled ashore ; the women surround it and 
 chew vast quantities of cassava bread which 
 they spit into the canoe. When this con- 
 coction ferments it is used as an intoxicating 
 beverage and the piauarri spree is on. It 
 takes the form of a degraded debauch with 
 disastrous effects upon the morals and phy- 
 sical constitution of the Indians. 
 
 The Indians should be encouraged to con- 
 tinue the industries that they have developed 
 through the ages. Weaving hammocks and 
 baskets, planting their fields, hunting and 
 fishing, have been to a great measure sup- 
 planted by balata bleeding and timber squar- 
 ing in the employ of traders to the detri- 
 ment of the Indian and the profit of the 
 trader. The Indian now often has to buy 
 his matapee and hammock and canoe, and 
 has lost his skill with bow and arrow. In all 
 this he is the loser, because he has become 
 dependent upon others than himself for his 
 simple needs that he should himself be able 
 
THE NATIVE INDIANS 101 
 
 to supply with his own unaided efforts. 
 
 Rum is the weakness and the curse of the 
 aboriginal Indian. The government has 
 laws for his protection but they are impos- 
 sible of execution, and the trader plays on 
 the weakness of the Indian for his own 
 profit. There is no work too hard for the 
 Indian if his reward is to be rum. When 
 all other inducements fail, this is sure. 
 
 The rum dealer will tell you that piauarri 
 is responsible for more injury to the Indian 
 than rum, but I cannot believe this. For a 
 piauarri spree requires hard preparation 
 and the consumption of large quantities of 
 the Indian's available food supply, while 
 rum is often procurable upon credit and is 
 far more potent in its effect. The preserva- 
 tion of these primitive people is a serious 
 problem and must be worked out by the 
 Christian Missions. We must aim to con- 
 serve all that is good of the Indian's past and 
 to add to that all of the good of our own 
 civilization that is adaptable to his require- 
 ments, and warn him from the evil that is 
 always attendant upon the invasion of other 
 races into his natural domain. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SNAKES INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS. 
 
 People generally think of South America 
 as the land of snakes. Our old geographies 
 always twined numerous serpents around 
 the caption for South America. It is true 
 that snakes are very numerous in Hammock 
 Land. To St. Patrick is given the credit for 
 driving the snakes out of Ireland. However, 
 we are told that there are no snakes in Scot- 
 land and only one harmless variety in Eng- 
 land. The old enmity between the serpent 
 and man gives the victory to man where his 
 kind is numerous. But in Hammock Land 
 there are less than three men to the square 
 mile and this is not enough to rid the land 
 of snakes. However, one could spend months 
 in Hammock Land on the coast lands and 
 see no snakes outside of the excellent museum 
 in Georgetown. But there are many snakes 
 in the land. Bright, green and yellow par- 
 rot snakes, poisonous rattlers, labarri and 
 bush masters, huge water commodies and 
 
 102 
 
SNAKES INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS 103 
 
 yellow tails help to make up the list. Many 
 of the natives will not call them snakes be- 
 cause of superstition, but call them long- 
 man, yellow-man, or green-man. Some East 
 Indians refuse to kill a snake believing that 
 at night the spirit of the snake will haunt 
 them. 
 
 It is said that the water commodies of 
 this Colony sometimes attain a length of 
 thirty-five feet, but I am afraid they look 
 longer than they really are when seen in the 
 bush, and even when the skin is shown in 
 proof it cannot be taken too literally as the 
 skin is often stretched in removing it from 
 the body. However, they do attain great 
 size and wonderful stories are told about 
 them. Men who often visit the interior tell 
 about snakes large enough to swallow deer 
 and large calves. They say that the snakes 
 contract around their prey and break up 
 their bones into a pulp and then find little 
 difficulty in swallowing very large animals. 
 
 Recently I saw in the newspaper an ac- 
 count of an attack of a water commodie on 
 a man who was about to bathe in an interior 
 creek. The man was standing at the water 
 
104 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 side cooling off before his swim when a 
 huge commodie rapidly coiled around him 
 and began to contract. His cries brought 
 his partner with his large bush knife in time 
 to hack the snake in two and save the man's 
 life. 
 
 Recently I saw also another account of 
 two snakes of this kind in the London Zoo. 
 One was eleven feet long and the other nine. 
 Two fowls were thrown to these commodies 
 for food. The larger one seized the smaller 
 fowl and swallowed it at once. Then notic- 
 ing the larger fowl still in the mouth of 
 the smaller snake, it seized both the fowl 
 and the smaller snake and swallowed both 
 of them. It was explained that the fangs 
 of this snake are so constructed that when 
 it closes on anything there is no way to get 
 it out of its mouth but by swallowing it, and 
 that it was possible for it to swallow the 
 smaller snake but the process took several 
 days. 
 
 When we cleared the ground for our Mis- 
 sion House at Ituni, two large labarries 
 were killed. Many of these snakes have been 
 killed around this Mission and we are very 
 
SNAKES INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS 105 
 
 thankful that we have escaped these veno- 
 mous vipers upon our visits to this place. 
 One day our two little boys were picking up 
 awaras under an awara tree at this Mission 
 and a few minutes after they left the spot 
 a large labarri was killed there. 
 
 After we had killed the two serpents in 
 clearing for our Mission House I went over 
 and sat on a bench under a cokerrit tree, 
 when glancing sideways I noticed a long, 
 green snake coiled around the tree with its 
 head a few inches from my face. We hastily 
 dispatched this fellow and saw no more 
 snakes on that trip. 
 
 While a snake bite might result disas- 
 trously there is every probability that one 
 would live very long in Hammock Land 
 without experiencing such a misfortune; but 
 there are pests that you cannot so readily 
 escape. Mosquitoes, sandflies, jiggers, tick, 
 bete rouge, ants, wasps, and sundry other in- 
 sects help to relieve the monotony of life 
 before one has traveled far or tarried long 
 in Hammock Land. I have been rather un- 
 fortunate with wasps, but the most pain- 
 ful bite that I ever received in all my 
 
106 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 travels was from a large black ant. 
 
 One day as I was just in the act of sitting 
 down in a canoe, a large black ant nipped 
 me at the base of my thumb. The thumb 
 and forefinger swelled very large, back as 
 far as the wrist, and throbbed with pain for 
 several hours. Although this happened five 
 years ago the mark of this bite still remains. 
 
 Ants seem to be everywhere present in the 
 tropics. There are wood ants that will de- 
 vour houses if they are not constantly 
 watched. They will eat out the timbers of 
 a house and the boards, leaving only a shell. 
 They can do a great damage in a very short 
 time, working silently, incessantly, and in 
 great numbers. 
 
 Among the most interesting ants that we 
 have noticed in Hammock Land are the 
 "cooshie" ants, known also as the leaf-cut- 
 ting or parasol ants. These ants are the 
 most dangerous enemies to vegetation in the 
 Colony. They cut off pieces of leaves of 
 various trees which they carry back to their 
 nests, held upright in their jaws. They 
 march along regular tracks which they clear 
 from the nests to the tree they attack. These 
 
SNAKES INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS 107 
 
 tracks are sometimes twelve inches wide and 
 are swept clear of every bit of vegetation. 
 They march along these tracks in two 
 streams going in opposite directions, the one 
 going to the nests, each bearing a piece of 
 leaf, and the other returning from the nest 
 for more. Not only leaves, but also pieces 
 of flowers, fruits and seeds are taken back 
 to their nests. They have been observed to 
 go as far as half a mile from their nests 
 for leaves. 
 
 There was a large troublesome nest of 
 these ants just behind our school at Ituni. 
 The nest was about twenty feet in diameter. 
 The ants not only stripped the trees at 
 the Mission but stripped the stalks of 
 everything planted in the school garden with 
 the exception of the bananas. Finally we 
 decided to destroy this nest. So one day we 
 secured some shovels and with the help of 
 the children we puddled the nest. The nest 
 was situated near the creek and was made 
 up of a series of tunnels and dome-shaped 
 chambers with probably fifty openings to the 
 surface. These tunnels were so constructed 
 that they all led into one that served as a 
 
108 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 drain and came out on the bank of the creek. 
 
 First we stopped up the drain; then we 
 made a ditch around the nest and filled it 
 with water. Next we filled a tub with water 
 and placed it about the center of the nest. 
 One man stood in this tub and shoveled the 
 earth while the children carried water and 
 threw it on the nest, thus making a mud, 
 stopping up the holes and killing the ants 
 in the puddle. It was a half day's job for 
 three men and about twenty children, but 
 there were few ants escaped. 
 
 Another time we tried shooting a nest 
 with an explosive acid but the results were 
 not satisfactory. 
 
 These ants carry the leaves to their nests 
 but they do not eat them. Inside the nests 
 the leaves are cut up very fine and kneaded 
 with the feet and jaws, forming a yellowish 
 brown spongy substance. On this substance 
 a fungus grows. This fungus constitutes 
 their food. One particular fungus is care- 
 fully looked after and cultivated and all 
 other kinds are prevented from growing. So 
 carefully and skillfully is this carried out 
 that the ants have been able to produce a 
 
SNAKES INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS 109 
 
 new growth in the fungus, as different as 
 many of our cultivated fruits and vegetables 
 are from their original wild forms. 
 
 It has been discovered that each of the 
 female ants, which may be seen issuing from 
 the nest at certain times of the year, carries 
 in a cavity at the back of her mouth a pellet 
 consisting of filaments of this fungus, with 
 which she is able to establish a fresh fungus 
 garden when she starts making a new nest. 
 
 Mosquitoes are the most dangerous pest 
 found in Hammock Land. Their stings are 
 very distressing and their germ-carrying 
 propensities make them the greatest enemy 
 of the human race in the Colony. Abolish 
 the mosquito and the malaria and Ham- 
 mock Land would indeed be a wonderful 
 place. 
 
 Our first night in the Colony brought the 
 mosquito to our attention as we crawled 
 under the net over our beds, and I have not 
 been able in six years to get a night's rest 
 out from under a mosquito net, whether in 
 Georgetown, New Amsterdam or up the 
 Berbice River. 
 
 Upon our second day in the Colony the 
 
110 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 mosquitoes forced themselves upon our 
 attention by swarming into the cars as we 
 pursued our journey to Berbice. 
 
 We landed in New Amsterdam while that 
 ancient town was suffering from one of its 
 periodical mosquito invasions. As we sat 
 at the table they swarmed around our legs 
 and stung our ankles. As we walked the 
 streets it was necessary for us to carry long 
 dry grass bushes to drive them from our 
 heads and necks. As we went to church we 
 were under the necessity of smearing every 
 exposed portion of the body with citronella 
 oil, and even then constantly brush them 
 from our faces. Mosquito brushes went 
 swish, swish, swish, throughout the congre- 
 gation, during hymns, prayers, and sermon, 
 and the only rest for the weary and aching 
 body was to be found in the bed and under 
 the net. 
 
 In Berbice we have invasion after inva- 
 sion of these pests. Millions come down 
 upon the district. Laborers are often liter- 
 ally driven from the fields and there is no 
 peace from the pests even in the homes of 
 the people. Even the well-to-do people do 
 
SNAKES INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS 111 
 
 not screen but depend on smoke-pots for 
 relief during these invasions. The great 
 bulk of the population have not even nets 
 for their beds, and how they live through 
 the times of this scourge is beyond my com- 
 prehension. 
 
 The inconvenience caused by the mosqui- 
 toes is painful and severe, although people 
 in time become somewhat accustomed to 
 them and many people are able to sleep 
 without nets and would try to persuade you 
 that in their portion of the city or their dis- 
 trict in the country there are no mosquitoes. 
 However, there have been mosquitoes 
 enough to keep me awake all night in every 
 portion of the colony that I have visited 
 during six years, if I was deprived of a 
 mosquito net. 
 
 The painful inconvenience of mosquitoes 
 is not the worst phase of this question. But 
 the mosquito carries disease and practically 
 the whole colony suffers from malaria car- 
 ried by the anopheles. 
 
 For the first two years that I lived in 
 Hammock Land I suffered almost constantly 
 with malaria and took enormous doses of 
 
112 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 quinine. After these two years I had a bet- 
 ter house with several screened rooms, had 
 learned a certain degree of discretion and 
 had become acclimated. While my early ex- 
 periences were rather distressing, yet after 
 six years I am persuaded that with a good 
 screened house, care about sterilized water, 
 and reasonable precautions concerning activ- 
 ities during the heat of the day, one can 
 have a very pleasant and safe sojourn in 
 the Land of the Hammock. 
 
 This is not the only land that has mosqui- 
 toes in super-abundance. I have seen them in 
 swarms of millions on the prairies of Dakota 
 and in the swamps of Ohio. But it is a 
 land where the least precaution is taken 
 against the mosquito by rich and poor. Let 
 this be corrected and I am sure that the 
 death rate of the colony will be materially 
 reduced. 
 
 Among the larger animals we have the 
 jaguar, which is often erroneously called a 
 tiger, the deer, alligators, manattee or water 
 cows, wild pigs, and tapirs. 
 
 The tapirs are called maipouri by the 
 Indians and are good forest hunting and 
 
MRS. WHITE'S S. S. CLASS 
 
 NEW AMSTERDAM S. S. TEACHERS 
 
 ITUNI SCHOOL 
 
MOHAMMEDAN PRAYER HOUSE 
 
 ITUNI INDIANS 
 
SNAKES INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS 113 
 
 good eating. One time one of our Indians 
 brought me some meat and told me that it 
 was bush cow. I found out finally that it 
 was tapir. The tapir is nocturnal in its 
 habits and keeps to the dense forests, avoid- 
 ing all open places. It commences to feed 
 in the evening and continues to seek food all 
 night. Tapir are sometimes seen at the 
 water side early in the morning. Their 
 mode of life is in many respects similar to 
 that of swine. For instance, they like to 
 wallow in the mud, when surprised utter a 
 loud snort, and, while generally perfectly 
 harmless, yet a mother when deprived of her 
 young will sometimes attack even a person, 
 rushing upon her enemies and after knock- 
 ing them over, trample upon them and bite 
 them after the manner of wild swine. How- 
 ever, in their more solitary habits they pre- 
 sent a closer resemblance to their cousins, 
 the rhinoceros. 
 
 The method employed by the Indians in 
 hunting both tapir and deer is the same. 
 Dogs are put on their tracks. The Indians 
 wait at the waterside, for both deer and 
 tapir soon take to the water to throw the 
 
114 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 dogs off their scent. Then they are quickly 
 overtaken by the men in their canoes or 
 woodskins who dispatch the tapir either with 
 hunting knife or club. However, it is gener- 
 ally the custom to seize the deer by the horns 
 and hold its head under the water until it 
 is drowned. 
 
 Many monkeys are found in Hammock 
 Land. One of the most interesting ones is 
 the Red Howler monkey, locally erroneously 
 called a baboon. Charles Waterton states 
 that nothing can sound more dreadful than 
 the nocturnal howlings of this red monkey. 
 He says, "Whilst lying in your hammock 
 amid these gloomy and immeasurable wilds, 
 you hear him howling at intervals from 11 
 o'clock at night till daybreak. You would 
 suppose that half the wild beasts of the 
 forest were collecting for the work of car- 
 nage. Now it is the tremendous roar of 
 the jaguar as he springs upon his prey; now 
 it changes to his terrible and deep-toned 
 growlings, as he is pressed on all sides by 
 superior force; and now you hear his last 
 dying groan beneath a mortal wound. Some 
 naturalists have supposed that these awful 
 
SNAKES INSECTS, ANIMALS AND BIRDS 115 
 
 sounds, which you would fancy are those of 
 enraged and dying wild beasts, proceed from 
 a number of red monkeys howling in con- 
 cert. Yet one of them alone is capable of 
 producing all of these sounds. 
 
 Once I was fortunate enough to smuggle 
 myself under the very tree, on the higher 
 branches of which was perched a full-grown 
 red monkey. I saw his huge mouth open 
 and the protuberance on his inflated throat. 
 I listened with astonishment to sounds which 
 might have originated in the infernal regions. 
 
 The birds of Hammock Land are also 
 strange and wonderful. The kiskadee is the 
 most obtrusive and its distribution is so gen- 
 eral that it might be well called the sparrow 
 of the colony. But there are wonderful 
 parrots and parroquets with their varie- 
 gated colors, macaws with tints of gorgeous 
 blue and red and yellow adorning their 
 plumage; wonderfully tiny humming birds; 
 and toucans with their gaudy plumage and 
 ungainly appearance, with bills as large al- 
 most as their bodies, currie-curries with 
 their brilliant red, egrets with their tempt- 
 ing plumage, water hens and spur wings, all 
 
116 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 very common. And then in the interior the 
 rare Cock of the Rock, with his orange- 
 colored plumage and flat-sided crest, courts 
 the dull olive brown female with his grace- 
 ful dance. This bird is much prized for its 
 plumage, for the Indians use its feathers 
 for their fancy headdress and other decora- 
 tions. From the feathers of this bird was 
 made the large state mantle formerly worn 
 by the Emperor. Their skins were required 
 as tribute from certain sections. 
 
 We have in Berbice a bird that naturalists 
 have declared to be the most ancient bird in 
 existence. It is locally called the Canje 
 Pheasant because its habitat is along the 
 Canje Creek. It is also found along the 
 Berbice River. It is the hoatzin or the 
 hoactzin. Its plumage is olivaceous and its 
 head is crested. Its young have spurs on the 
 tips of their wings which they use to climb 
 trees, and when young it is also able to swim 
 and dive in the water. However, when 
 full-grown it is a crested pheasant. It lives 
 on the leaves of the mucca-mucca which 
 grows in the mud along the banks of the 
 Canje Creek and the Berbice River. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 SOME EXPERIENCES IN VISITING OUR 
 RIVER MISSIONS. 
 
 We would like to give you an idea of 
 some of our experiences in making our trips 
 to our River Missions. 
 
 A trip to the River Missions during the 
 dry season is not so bad. Aside from the fact 
 that the forward deck of the river steamer 
 is then too hot for comfort because of the 
 smoke stack, and the after deck is too hot 
 because of its low deck and lack of breeze, 
 and the steamer fare is too hot with pepper- 
 pot and curry, there are few inconveniences. 
 
 But a trip during the wet season ! Well, 
 that is another matter. Although the steamer 
 may have just been in dry-dock, the roof 
 leaks like a sieve. The floor is wet. The 
 only chairs that have not become water 
 containers are those occupied by passengers. 
 The curtains are all down at the sides and 
 the place is insufferably hot. Overhead 
 lowering, water-soaked clouds, and under- 
 
 117 
 
118 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 neath a dirty and water-soaked deck. 
 
 But at the end of the journey comes the 
 fitting climax. You feel sure that it is clear- 
 ing up as you near your destination and get 
 your luggage together. Tin canisters with 
 clothing and bedding, a canvas bag with a 
 folding canvas cot, boxes with provisions, 
 make up the lot. Then, there is bread that 
 came from the bakery just as the boat left. 
 Why was it not packed in a tin box? There 
 it is wrapped only in newspapers. 
 
 The boat whistles for your Mission, and 
 as though that tiny shrill whistle had power 
 to disturb the elements, the rain comes now 
 in torrents. Little dug-out canoes shoot out 
 from the shore to unload you in midstream. 
 Already they are half-full of water but a 
 boy in each is bailing out with a calabash 
 almost as fast as the storm is refilling them. 
 
 You wait until your canisters, bed and 
 provisions are deposited and then with rain- 
 coat and umbrella you step in. Ah, well! If 
 feet must get wet, degrees of wetness make 
 little difference. You still have your um- 
 brella and raincoat and they, you hope, will 
 keep your bread dry. But, alas, the umbrella 
 
VISITING OUR RIVER MISSIONS 119 
 
 simply changes the large drops into some- 
 what smaller ones, while your raincoat, 
 guaranteed in Harrisburg, Pa., to turn any 
 storm, soaks up the tropical rain like a 
 sponge. Soon everything is soaked and you 
 are nearing the shore. One hundred yards 
 yet to go and the rain stops, the sun comes 
 out and nature smiles. She smiles at her 
 little joke about your landing. 
 
 Safe in the Mission House you hurriedly 
 unpack. Your week's supply of bread is 
 wet. The wet portion is cut off and thrown 
 away. Yes, the bed would have been dry 
 had not the open end of the bag been 
 plunged into the water in the boat. The 
 canisters let no water in at the top but the 
 bottom of one had been sprung and plenty 
 of water entered that way. Oh, well, no 
 great harm is done. You are safe. The rain 
 has stopped and the sun quickly dries all that 
 the rain has soaked and night finds you quite 
 comfortable under your mosquito net. 
 
 As one travels up and down the Berbice 
 River there are two things that grow upon 
 him. The first is an ever increasing appre- 
 ciation of the beauty of that tropical stream, 
 
120 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 while the second is a knowledge of the vile- 
 ness of degraded man. Neither the beauty 
 nor the vileness are at first so evident. Both 
 are revealed only upon close acquaintance. 
 My first trip to the Missions did not reveal 
 much beauty; the discomforts were so great 
 that they overshadowed everything else. 
 The steamer was slow. The deck was hot. 
 The green clad banks seemed monotonous. 
 Animal life was scarcely evident. A few 
 hoactzin screeched among the mucca-mucca, 
 protesting our passage, while a few parrots 
 went shrieking overhead. It was all oppres- 
 sively hot and tedious. 
 
 And even after we were ashore it was 
 very tiresome. We attempted to penetrate 
 the bush a little from the river bank but 
 were soon covered with beatrouch and so 
 tormented with mosquitoes and sand flies 
 that we were forced to return. During our 
 entire stay of ten days we suffered constantly 
 with insects. 
 
 But before we had taken many trips we 
 learned to guard against the different pests. 
 Animal life began to be revealed to our 
 more accustomed eyes. Now a deer would 
 
VISITING OUR RIVER MISSIONS 121 
 
 be surprised sleeping in the forest shade, 
 tracks of tapir would be found at the water- 
 ing places, cries of tigers became familiar to 
 our ears. Snakes were seen basking in the 
 sun or hurrying to shelter as we walked 
 along. Baboons howled at us as intruders 
 from the water side. Sweet-singing and 
 bright-plumed birds appeared as by magic. 
 Myriads of radiant butterflies tempted us to 
 amateur lepidoptery. Delicate fragrances 
 lured us to the discovery of flowers and 
 fruits, or a splash of gold revealed won- 
 derful orchids. 
 
 The different seasons began to show dif- 
 ferent splendors, when at first there seemed 
 to be one season for the whole year. Seed 
 time and harvest finally became significant. 
 
 The night sounds of the tropical jungle 
 began to reveal their language and the story 
 of the night often drove the sleep from the 
 tired eyes and kept one alert until the dawn 
 as often a good book does. 
 
 The quick drawing of the curtains of the 
 night, the glory of the tropical moon, the 
 radiant burst of the morning light, all of 
 these spoke of the lavish kindness with which 
 
122 SIX YEARS IN HAMMOCK LAND 
 
 the gifts of God were strewn upon that 
 quiet-flowing dark brown river in that trop- 
 ical land. All these things appeared upon 
 close acquaintance like charms and graces 
 revealed only in the circle of beloved friend- 
 ship or in the sacred precincts of the home. 
 An intimate knowledge of this country makes 
 one exclaim: 
 
 "With lavish kindness 
 The gifts of God are strown." 
 
 How often have we thought u And only 
 man is vile," a hackneyed expression, yet 
 along with the revelation of the beauty of 
 the place, there came also an increasingly 
 vivid revelation of the depravity of many 
 of the people who share this forest home 
 with the timid deer, the sneaking tiger, the 
 sluggish sloth, the happy birds, and the jab- 
 bering monkeys. 
 
 At first all the people seemed normal. 
 They came to Church properly dressed. 
 They listened to the sermons with attention. 
 They were respectful in their attitude. They 
 seemed to be sincerely anxious to lead truly 
 Christian lives. Many of them were found 
 upon close acquaintance to be truly sincere 
 
VISITING OUR RIVER MISSIONS 123 
 
 and noble people of God. But so many still 
 believe in and fear the obeah man; so many 
 live lives of immorality unashamed; so 
 many children are illegitimate ; so many acts 
 of brutality are committed unrebuked that 
 the old time Mission Hymn still applies to 
 this country with force and truth, and sadly 
 we must say that for many it is : 
 
 "In vain with lavish kindness 
 The gifts of God are strown." 
 
I , DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEFT 
 
 This be ' ?' 'ast H ' *low, or 
 
 Renewe^ * s recall. 
 
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 AUTO DISC CIRC AUG 
 
 5^ '94 
 
 
 
 NOV 8 1999 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LD 21A-50m-8,'57 
 (C8481slO)476B 
 
 General Library 
 University of California 
 Berkeley 
 
U. C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES