{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_10022/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_10022","id":"gutenberg_10022","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10022","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Other","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Missionaries -- Nigeria -- Biography","Missions -- Nigeria","Slessor, Mary Mitchell, 1848-1915"],"text":"WHITE QUEEN\n\nOF THE\n\nCANNIBALS\n\n\n_The Story of Mary Slessor of Calabar_\n\n\nby A.J. BUELTMANN\n\n\n\n\n_Contents_\n\n1.  A Drunkard's Home\n2.  A Brave Girl\n3.  In Africa\n4.  On Her Own\n5.  Into the Jungle\n6.  A Brave Nurse\n7.  Witchcraft\n8.  The Poison Test\n9.  Victories for Mary\n10. A Disappointment\n11. Clouds and Sunshine\n12. Among the Cannibals\n13. Blessings Unnumbered\n14. Journey's End\n\n\n\n\n#1#\n\n\n_A Drunkard's Home_\n\n\"On the west coast of Africa is the country of Nigeria. The chief city is\nCalabar,\" said Mother Slessor. \"It is a dark country because the light of\nthe Gospel is not shining brightly there. Black people live there. Many of\nthese are cannibals who eat other people.\"\n\n\"They're bad people, aren't they, Mother?\"  asked little Susan.\n\n\"Yes, they are bad, because no one has told them about Jesus, the Saviour\nfrom sin, or showed them what is right and what is wrong.\"\n\n\"Don't they have any missionaries out there, Mother?\" asked blue-eyed Mary.\n\n\"Yes, there are a few and they are doing wonderful things for Jesus, but\nthere are still thousands and thousands of people who have never heard a\nmissionary. They need many, many more missionaries.\"\n\n\"When I get to be a big man, I'm going to be a missionary,\" said Robert,\n\"and preach to the black people of Calabar and Nigeria.\"\n\n\"I want to be a missionary; too,\" cried Mary, tossing her red hair about.\n\n\"Girls can't be preachers,\" said Robert.\n\n\"I want to preach to the black people,\" said Mary, the tears racing down\nher cheeks.\n\n\"When I'm a missionary,\" said Robert, \"I'll take you into the pulpit with\nme.\"\n\nThis made Mary happy and she was much happier when Mother Slessor said,\n\"Perhaps you can be a teacher and teach the little black children of\nCalabar. Now, children, I want to be sure you know your memory verse for\nSunday school tomorrow. Let's all say it together.\"  And Mother Slessor and\nher six children joined in saying:\n\nGo ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.\n\nAs they finished reciting the memory verse they heard a hoarse voice\nsinging:\n\nGin a body-hic, meet a body-hic,\nComing-hic, through the rye-hic.\n\n\"It's your father, children. Off to bed with you quickly now. Oh, I do hope\nRobert has brought some money home with him so that we can buy some food\nfor tomorrow.\"\n\n\"Where'sh the shteps? Somebody alwaysh moving the shteps,\" said the father,\nRobert Slessor, as he staggered drunkenly to the door.\n\nMother Slessor took hold of him and led him to a chair.\n\n\"Hello, dear,\" he said thickly. \"Howsh my, besht gurl? There ish no\nshoemaker's got a prettier wife-hic-than I have. Yesh shir, we drank a li'l\ntoash to you, my dear.\"\n\n\"Oh, Robert,\" said Mother Slessor to her husband, \"I do hope you brought\nhome some of your paycheck. We need it badly for food.  We don't have any\nmoney in the house. All the food we have is what I kept back from the\nchildren's supper so you could eat.\"\n\n\"Shure, I brought money home,\" said Father Slessor. \"All I did wash buy my\nfriendsh a few drinksh.\"\n\nMother Slessor's face brightened. At least they would be able to buy\nfood. Her husband reached his hand into one pocket and brought it out\nempty. Then into another pocket and again brought it out empty. Finally\ntrying several other pockets, he held out his hand with a small coin in it.\n\n\"Shee, there ya' are, I brought money home. There'sh a thrippence for ye.\"\n\n\"Oh, Robert!\" said Mother Slessor in dismay as the tears filled her\neyes. \"Oh, Robert!\"\n\nThen because she was used to these things, Mother Slessor heaved a sigh and\nsaid quietly, \"Come and eat supper, Robert.\"\n\nThe father staggered over to the table where Mrs. Slessor had placed the\nplate of food which the children had saved out of their own small helpings,\nthat he might have something to eat.\n\n\"Who wants shupper?\" said Father Slessor, and he threw the precious food\ninto the fire. He staggered to his bed and fell into drunken sleep. With a\ndeep sigh Mother Slessor put out the light and she, too, retired for the\nnight. Early the next morning she was up, preparing breakfast. Carefully\nshe scraped every bit of oatmeal out of the container and boiled it for\nbreakfast.\n\n\"Come, children, it's time to get up. Sunday school this morning,\" called\nMrs. Slessor.  Up jumped the six little Slessors. The older ones helped the\nsmaller ones get dressed.  When they had eaten the little oatmeal that\nMrs. Slessor had for breakfast, they lined up for inspection.\n\n\"John,\" declared Mrs. Slessor, \"you did not wash behind your ears. Go with\nMary and let her scrub the dirt away. Now I'll put a bit of perfume on your\nhankies, and here's a peppermint for each of you. There, off we go to\nSunday school and church.\"\n\nFather Slessor snored in his drunken sleep, while the family went off to\nhear God's Word and to sing His praises. When they returned, Father Slessor\nwas awake. He was sitting on the side of the bed and holding his head. He\nhad \"morning after\" sickness.\n\n\"Come, Robert,\" said Mrs. Slessor, \"and sit up to the table. Good Elder\nMcDougal has given us a bit of meat and some bread, so we can eat this\nday.\"\n\nFather Slessor groaned, but sat up to the table and ate dinner with his\nfamily. It wasn't much of a dinner. It would have been even less were it\nnot for the kindness and charity of friends, because Father Slessor had\nspent all their money for drink.\n\nAfter dinner the children did the dishes and ran out to play. When they\nwere alone, Father Slessor hung his head and said,\n\n\"Oh, my dear, what can I say? I am so ashamed. I did so want to bring my\nwages home that we might have food for the children.  And well--before I\nknew it, my wages were spent.\"\n\n\"Robert,\" said Mrs. Slessor, \"you have said again and again that 'tis your\nfriends who lead you astray. Would it not be well to move away to some\nother town where you can find new friends who will not drink and who will\nnot tempt you to drink?\"\n\n\"Aye, my dear, that no doubt would be the best. But where shall we go?\"\n\n\"I have heard that there is plenty of work in Dundee, with the mills and\nall. Let's sell our things here and move to Dundee.\"\n\n\"Aye, let us do that. 'Tis certain it won't be worse than here for you and\nthe children.\"\n\n\"Very well, then. I shall tell the children and we shall move before the\nweek is out.\"\n\nWhen Mother Slessor went outside to call the children, she found Mary\nseated on the steps with her stick dolls about her.\n\n\"Well, Mary dear, what are you doing?\"\n\n\"I am the teacher and these are the black children of Calabar. I am\nteaching them about Jesus. I am telling them that He saved them from their\nsins.\"\n\nMother Slessor hugged her little teacher and told her about the move they\nplanned to make. Then the other children were called and told, too. There\nwas much excitement, especially when the furniture was sold and the\nSlessors with their remaining possessions took the train to Dundee.\n\nIt did not take long to find a place and get settled. Mother Slessor at\nonce looked for a church they might attend. She found the Wishart Church,\nnamed for the famous preacher, George Wishart, who in 1544 had preached\nnear the place where the church was built. Shortly afterward he was killed\nfor preaching about Jesus.\n\nBut Father Slessor did not do better in the new home. He could not overcome\nthe drink habit, and probably did not try very hard to overcome it. In the\nmeantime a new baby came to the Slessor home. They called the baby\nJanie. How happy her brothers and sisters were to welcome Janie! Mother\nSlessor was not altogether happy because she knew there was another mouth\nto feed. Father Slessor promised to give up drinking, but that did not mean\nanything, because he never kept those promises.\n\nThe money they got from selling their furniture in Aberdeen slowly melted\naway. Sickness came to the Slessor home. Robert Junior, who was going to be\na missionary to Calabar, became sick and died. Two other of the children\nalso died, and only Mary, Susan, John, and Janie were left. But even that\ndid not make Father Slessor give up his drinking.  The Slessors had less\nand less money to buy food. At last Mrs. Slessor went to work in one of the\nfactories. Mary had to take care of the home. But the wages Mrs. Slessor\nreceived were very small. Somehow they had to find ways of getting more\nmoney. When she was eleven years old Mary went to work in the factory,\ntoo. Would she ever get a chance to be a missionary or must she give up\nthat dream?\n\n\"Mary, Mary,\" called Mrs. Slessor, \"it's five o'clock. Time to get up and\ngo to work.\"\n\n\"Ho, hum,\" said Mary, \"I'm still tired, but I'll get right up. I don't want\nto be late!\"\n\nAt six o'clock in the morning Mary was at work. She had to tend to the\nshuttles on the weaving machines. The weaving sheds where Mary worked were\ndamp and dark. All morning long she heard the whirring of the belts and the\nclacking of the looms. In the afternoon she went to school. By the time she\nwas fourteen years old she was an expert weaver.  She now began to work\nfull time.\n\nThe hours were long. Twelve hours every day for six days a week the\nfourteen-year-old girl worked in the factory. And the pay was very\nsmall. But it was a joy when she received her pay on Saturday night. Mary\nhurried home.\n\n\"Mother, Mother,\" she called happily as she hurried into the house, \"here\nis the money I earned this week.\"\n\n\"Oh, Mary, that is so good of you,\" said Mother Slessor. She wiped tears\nfrom her eyes with the end of her apron. She felt sad that Mary had to work\nin a factory. She thought of her own childhood in a happy home where there\nwas always plenty to eat and plenty of money to buy things that were\nneeded. She quickly hid Mary's wages in the same place where she hid her\nown wages, so that her husband would not find the money and spend it for\ndrink.\n\nMary did not lose courage by the long hours in the factory. She remembered\nthat David Livingstone, the great missionary, had worked in a weaving\nfactory, too.\n\n\"If I want to be a missionary, I must study,\" said Mary. \"When can I find\ntime?\"  Again Mary remembered something David Livingstone did when he was a\nboy. He would take books to work and read them when the weaving shuttles\nwere working right and did not have to have someone attend to them.  Mary\ndid the same thing. She read many books from the Sunday school library. She\nread books like Milton's _Paradise Lost_. But most of all she read the\nBible.\n\nConditions at home grew worse. Mary's drunken father became meaner and\nmeaner.  Saturday nights were the worst. Mary and her mother would sit\nwaiting, after the younger children had been put to bed, for the father to\nstumble home. One night he was so mean to Mary, she had to run out of the\nhouse to get away from him. The whole family was unhappy because of\nMr. Slessor's sinful habit. Finally, one morning he did not waken from the\ndrunken sleep. In the night his soul fled to face the Judge in Heaven. The\ndeath of the father was really a great blessing to the family, for he had\nbrought them only sorrow and trouble.\n\nNow the family felt free. The load they had borne was lifted. Mary at once\nbegan to take a more active part in church work.\n\n\"If I want to be a missionary, I better have some practice. I know what I\ncan do, I'll ask the Sunday school superintendent for a class to teach.\"\nShe did, and was given a class of girls. She enjoyed teaching the girls\nvery much. She called them her \"lovable lassies.\"\n\nBut Mary was not satisfied. She wanted to get more practice.\n\nOn her way home from the factory Mary passed through the slums of the\ncity. Mary herself did not live in a fine house; in fact, it was a very\npoor one. But in the slums the children lived in small, dark\napartments. The streets on which they played were narrow and dirty. The\nchildren here did not know about the Saviour. They grew up rough and tough,\ncursing, swearing, stealing, and doing many mean things. Mary's heart ached\nfor these children of the slums. She wanted to teach them that Jesus could\nmake them happy. She talked with many people about it.\n\nAt last her church opened a mission in the worst part of the slums. Mary\nwent to the superintendent.\n\n\"I want to teach a class in our mission,\" said Mary. \"I am sure you can use\nme better there than you can here.\"\n\n\"But Mary,\" said the superintendent, \"you are doing a fine job here in the\nchurch; why do you want to go to the mission?\"\n\n\"There are many who will gladly teach a class here at the church, but not\nso many who are willing to teach at the mission. I am willing. I will teach\nthere if you will give me a class. Please do.\"\n\n\"But Mary, those children are tough and mean. You couldn't handle them. You\ncould not make them behave. You are hardly more than a child yourself.\"\n\n\"Oh, please let me try,\" said Mary, \"I do so want to tell those boys and\ngirls about my Saviour. Please let me try. Then if I don't make good, you\ncan get someone else in my place.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said the superintendent, \"I will give you a class, but I warn\nyou those children are tough and mean and hard to handle.\"\n\n\n\n\n#2#\n\n\n_A Brave Girl_\n\n\"Quit pestering us to come to church.  If you don't let us alone, we'll\nhurt you,\" shouted Duncan, the leader of a group of tough boys in the\nslums.\n\nMary prayed God to make her brave and then said, \"I will not stop trying to\nget you to come to church. I will not stop trying to tell you about Jesus,\nthe Saviour. Do whatever you like.\"\n\nThese boys had often tried to interrupt and break up the services, but Mary\nwent out into the streets and tried to persuade and coax the young people\nto come and hear the Word of God.\n\n\"All right then,\" said Duncan. \"Here goes.\"  He took a piece of lead from\nhis pocket and tied it to a long string. He began to swing it around his\nhead. Each time he whirled the lead, it came closer to Mary's face. Mary\ndid not move. The gang watched. They held their breath as it came closer\nand closer to her blue eyes. Mary did not blink. Finally, it grazed her\nforehead. Still Mary did not move.  Duncan dropped the piece of lead to the\nground.\n\n\"We can't scare her, boys,\" he said. \"She's game.\"\n\n\"There is Someone who is far braver than I am. He's the One who makes me\nbrave.  Won't you come to the services and hear about Him?\" asked Mary.\n\n\"All right, Spunky, I will,\" said Duncan.  \"And the rest of the fellows\nwill, too. Come on, boys, we're going to the church tonight and no funny\nbusiness.\"\n\nThis was not the only time that Mary had to face the tough boys and girls\nof the slums.  But she had a Friend who was closer to her than even her\ndear mother. He made her strong and brave and true. Mary loved her Saviour,\nand was ready to do whatever He might want her to do.\n\nHer class grew larger all the time. She visited the members in their slum\nhomes. She fitted herself into the family. If the baby needed tending, she\ntended to it. If someone was sick, she helped to nurse the sick person.\nAlways she told the family about Christ and His power to save. The people\nof the slums came to love this home missionary and many of them were won to\nChrist through her work.\n\nThe years went by. Did Mary still remember she wanted to be a missionary in\nCalabar?  Yes, she remembered, but now she had all she could do to support\nher family. Since Robert, the would-be missionary, had died, Mother Slessor\nhoped that her youngest son John would be a missionary. But God had other\nplans. John became sick. He was sent to New Zealand for his health, but\ndied when he arrived in that country. Was there to be no missionary from\nthe Slessor family?\n\nWhenever missionaries came to the Wishart Church or to Dundee, Mother\nSlessor, Mary, Susan and Janie would go to hear them.  At home they would\nread the stories of missionaries and their work. They read missionary\nmagazines. They read about the missionaries in China, Africa, Japan, India,\nand even Calabar.\n\nOne day William Anderson, a missionary to the West Coast of Africa, came to\nthe little church. He told of the great need for missionaries in Africa. He\ntold of the bad things which the people did who did not know Jesus.\n\nSitting in church, listening to the missionary, Mary saw in her mind a\npicture of Africa. It was not a beautiful picture. She saw captured Negroes\nbeing taken to other lands as slaves. She saw alligators and crocodiles\nswimming in the muddy waters, ever ready to eat black children who would\ncome too close to the river. She saw cannibal chiefs at their terrible\nfeasts and fearful battles with spears and arrows. She saw villages where\ntrembling prisoners dipped their hands in boiling oil to test their guilt;\nwhere wives were killed to go with their dead chief into the\nspiritland. But these things did not frighten the Scottish girl who was\nafraid to cross a field if a cow was in it. She longed to go to Africa.\n\n\"Why don't I become a missionary?\" Mary asked herself as she worked the\nlooms in the factory. \"Can I leave my home? Does Mother still need my help?\nSusan and Janie are working now. They could get along without me. But will\nI be brave enough? There are tropical jungles, and black men who eat\npeople.  There are wild animals, sicknesses, and death. God can make me\nbrave to face all of these things.\"\n\nMary prayed, \"O God, if it is Your will, let me go as a missionary to\nCalabar. Let me be a teacher to teach these black people the story of\nsalvation. You have commanded us, Your disciples, to carry the Gospel to\nthe farthest parts of the earth. Use me, O Lord, to help carry it to\nCalabar. Hear me, for the sake of Jesus, my Saviour.\"\n\nIt was 1874. The news flashed around the world: \"Livingstone is dead.\" The\ngreat missionary had died on his knees in Africa.  Everywhere people were\ntalking of this great man who had given his life to tell the people of\nAfrica about the Saviour. Mary made up her mind! She must go to Calabar!\nBut what would her mother say? And if her mother agreed, would her church\nsend her out to that field? Mary went to her mother.\n\n\"I want to offer myself as a missionary,\" said Mary Slessor to her\nmother. \"Are you willing?\"\n\n\"My child, I'll willingly let you go. You'll make a fine missionary, and\nI'm sure God will be with you.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Mother,\" said twenty-six-year-old Mary. \"I know God will be\nwith me and will make me strong and brave to serve Him.\"\n\nMother Slessor was very happy. There was going to be a missionary in the\nfamily after all. But there were some people who did not agree with Mother\nSlessor. They shook their heads in doubt. Others thought Mary was very\nfoolish to risk her life in that way.\n\n\"You're doing real well at the factory,\" said one of them. \"And you're\ndoing missionary work right down there at the mission.  Why rush away to\nthose people way off in Africa? Seems to me missionary work ought to begin\nat home.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Mary, \"it should begin there, but not end there. There are some\nwho cannot go to Africa. They can do the work at home. If God lets me, I\nwant to take His Word to those people who have never heard of Him or His\nlove.\"\n\nThe next year, 1875, Mary offered herself to the Foreign Mission Board of\nher church.  She asked to be sent to Calabar. Then she waited. Waiting is\nhard sometimes. Mary had to wait until the Board had a meeting.  Then when\nthe meeting was over, she had to wait for the secretary of the Board of\nForeign Missions to write her a letter. Early in 1876 the letter came. How\nexcited Mary was! Her hands shook as she tried to open the letter. Had they\naccepted her offer or refused it?\n\n\"Mary dear,\" said her mother, \"you are so nervous, you had better let me\nopen that letter.\"\n\n\"I'll manage, Mother,\" said Mary. She finally got it open, and she read:\n\nDear Miss Slessor, I take great pleasure\nin informing you that the Board of\nForeign Missions accepts your offer to\nserve as a missionary, and you have been\nappointed teacher to Calabar. You will\ncontinue your studies for the teaching\nprofession at Dundee. May God richly\nbless you in His service.\n\n\"Oh, Mother, I'm accepted! They're going to send me to Calabar!\"\n\n\"Praise God from whom all blessings flow,\" said Mother Slessor. \"That is\nwonderful news indeed. To Calabar! Oh, I'm so happy I could shout for joy!\"\n\nIn March another letter came. This letter told her that she was to spend\nthree months at a teachers' college in Edinburgh. All Mary's friends in\nDundee gathered at the train as she got ready to leave for Edinburgh.\n\n\"Come, Mary,\" said Duncan, the tough boy from the slums, who was now a\ngrown man and a faithful worker at the mission, \"give us a speech.\"\n\n\"I can't make a speech,\" said Mary, \"but I'll just ask you this: Pray for\nme.\"\n\nWhile Mary was at the school in Edinburgh, some of the other girls she met\nthere tried to talk her out of being a missionary.  They did not want her\nto go off to Africa where there were wild animals and man-eating heathen,\nand all kinds of terrible sicknesses.\n\n\"Don't you know that Calabar is the white man's grave?\" asked one of her\nschool friends.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Mary. \"But it is also a post of honor. Since few volunteer\nfor that section, I wish to go because my Master needs me there.\"\n\nAt last the time had come for Mary to leave for Africa. For fourteen long\nyears she had worked at the looms in the weaving factory.  As she worked,\nshe had dreamed of Calabar. Now her dream was going to come true. Mary went\nto the city of Liverpool.  There she went on board the ship, the \"S. S.\nEthiopia.\" As she got on board she looked around. Everywhere were barrels\nof whiskey.\n\n\"Hundreds of barrels of whiskey, but only one missionary,\" said Mary sadly.\n\nThe boat whistle blew. The engines chugged.  The \"S. S. Ethiopia\" was on\nits way. It was August 5, 1876. Mary saw the shoreline of Scotland become\ndimmer and dimmer. She looked forward to seeing the coast of Africa and the\nland of Calabar.\n\n\"At last I am on my way to Calabar,\" said Mary Slessor as the\n\"S. S. Ethiopia,\" sailed southward. \"How Mother would like to be with me!\nHow often she prayed that God would send more missionaries to Calabar. I\ndidn't think then that I would really be one of them.\"\n\nIt did not take Mary long to make friends on board the ship. Among the\nfriends she made were Mr. and Mrs. Thomson.\n\n\"So you are going to Calabar,\" said Mr.  Thomson. \"Aren't you afraid of\nthat wild country?\"\n\n\"Oh, no,\" said Mary, \"because God is with me. He will take care of\nme. Jesus said, 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,'\nand I am trusting in His promise.\"\n\n\"Do you know what this country is like?\"  asked Mrs. Thomson.\n\n\"Only what I have read about it,\" said Mary. \"You've been there before,\nhaven't you?\"\n\n\"Yes, we have,\" said Mrs. Thomson. \"My husband wants to build a home where\ntired missionaries can rest and rebuild their strength for their wonderful\nwork. He has explored the West Coast and chosen the Cameroon Mountains as\nthe place for that home.  We are going there now to build this home for\nmissionaries. Missionary work in Africa is so hard that missionaries need a\nplace where they can rest from time to time.\"\n\n\"I think that's wonderful of you!\" said Mary. \"I know the Lord will bless\nthe work you are doing. Won't you tell me about Africa?\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Mr. Thomson, \"the climate is very hot. The sun is so strong\nand hot that white people don't dare go out without a hat to protect their\nheads. The rivers are very muddy and often flow through dark, gloomy swamps\nthat white people can hardly get through.\"\n\n\"But often,\" broke in Mrs. Thomson, \"there are beautiful green banks with\nthe most beautiful flowers. You will see the prettiest birds in all the\nworld dressed in the brightest reds and greens and blues and purples. You\nwill see the long-legged cranes and the funny pelicans with their big\nbeaks.\"\n\n\"And don't forget the man-eating crocodiles that are swimming in the river\nor lying on the banks. They look like an old log, but if you get near them,\nlook out! They seem lazy and slow, but they can snap off a leg or drag you\ninto the river as quick as a wink.  Then in the jungles are the lions, and\nelephants, and other wild animals.\"\n\n\"I am most frightened of the swift and terrible tornadoes,\" said\nMrs. Thomson.\n\n\"And, Miss Slessor,\" said Mr. Thomson, \"don't forget that the natives are\nwild and fierce and many of them are cannibals who would be glad to eat\nyou.\"\n\n\"I shall not fear,\" said Mary. \"God is leading me. He is my good\nShepherd. He can protect me from fierce beasts and the wild people. I am\nhappy He has chosen me to bring the messages of the Saviour to these wild\npeople. He will call me home to Him when the work He has for me is\ndone. Till then nothing can really harm me.\"\n\nFour weeks passed. The ship was plowing through the tropical sea. The air\nwas warm, but the sea breezes made it very pleasant.  The ship turned\nlandward and soon Mary could see the shore of Africa. How thrilled and\nhappy she was--Africa at last! On September 11 the ship entered the\ntumbling, whirling waters of the Cross and Calabar Rivers which here joined\nand poured into the sea. Mary had read about these rivers, and now she\nactually saw them. She saw, too, the pelicans and the cranes. She saw\ncrocodiles, about which Mr. Thomson had told her, lazily slide off the\nsandbanks into the muddy waters of the river.\n\nMr. and Mrs. Thomson stood with Mary at the rail of the ship as it sailed\nup the river.  They would point out to her interesting sights as they\npassed along.\n\n\"Look,\" said Mrs. Thomson, \"there is Duke Town. That is where your mission\nis.\"\n\nMary saw clay cliffs. She saw mud houses with roofs of palm leaves. Duke\nTown did not look in the least like Dundee or the other cities in Scotland\nwhich Mary knew. Duke Town did not look pretty, but Mary did not care. To\nher it looked beautiful, because here she would have the chance to serve\nthe Lord.\n\nSoon native canoes came out to the steamer.  Then the boats of the\ntraders. All was hurry and bustle as the great ship anchored and prepared\nto unload the part of its cargo that had been sent to Duke Town. Mary\nlooked about, wondering how she was going to go ashore.\n\nA tall Negro came up to Mary. He bowed and said, \"Are you the new white ma\nthat is coming to the mission?\" By ma the native meant lady. They called\nall white ladies \"ma.\"\n\n\"Yes, I am,\" said Mary.\n\n\"Mr. Anderson sent me to bring you ashore and take you to the mission\nhouse.\"\n\nMary was lowered from the great ship into a large canoe. Her baggage was\nbrought down and placed in the boat. Then with powerful strokes the rowers\nsent the boat skimming across the water toward Duke Town.  Mary was helped\nashore by the tall Negro who had come for her.\n\n\"At last,\" she said to herself, \"at last I am in Calabar.\"\n\n\n\n\n#3#\n\n\n_In Africa_\n\n\"Welcome, welcome, Mary,\" said \"Mammy\" Anderson, as she hugged Mary.  Mammy\nAnderson and her husband, William Anderson, were among the first\nmissionaries at Duke Town in Calabar. \"This is Daddy Anderson,\" said Mammy\nAnderson, \"and Daddy, this is Mary Slessor, just come from bonny Scotland\nto help us.\"\n\nDaddy and Mary shook hands. \"Long ago you preached in our church in\nDundee,\" said Mary. \"You told how many missionaries were needed. I wished\nthen I could help you.  I hope I can.\"\n\nMary liked this fine Christian couple from the start. The mission house\nwhere they lived was high on a hill above the town.  Mammy took Mary around\nthe house and the yard, which they called a compound. She showed Mary where\nthe workers stayed who helped at the mission house. She showed her the\nschool where the little black children were taught to read and write and\ntold of the dear Saviour who had died for them, too, that they might be\nsaved from sin and Hell and go to Heaven.\n\n\"And here,\" said Mammy, \"is the bell. I am putting you right to work. One\nof your jobs will be to ring the rising bell for morning prayers. You ring\nthis at six o'clock.  Then everyone will get up, and we will have prayers\nin the chapel.\"\n\nThat was Mary's first job, but alas! Mary often overslept and did not ring\nthe rising bell in time. One morning she awoke and saw that it was very\nbright outside.\n\n\"Dear me,\" said Mary, \"I've overslept again.\" She jumped out of bed,\nslipped into her clothes and rang the bell, loud and long.  Soon the\nworkers began coming, rubbing their eyes and yawning.\n\n\"What's the idea of ringing the bell now?\"  asked one of them. \"It's much\ntoo early.\"\n\n\"But look how bright it is,\" said Mary.\n\nDaddy Anderson laughed.\n\n\"Mary, Mary,\" he said, \"it's only two o'clock in the morning. The light you\nsee is our bright tropical moon. It's not the sun.\"  And all the workers\nlaughed, and Mary laughed with them.\n\n\"I guess I'm not a very good bell-ringer,\" she said.\n\nMary's real job was to teach the children in the school on Mission\nHill. She remembered how she had played when she was a little girl that she\nwas teaching the children of Calabar.  Now she was really doing it. She\nloved the little black children. After school she would take long walks\nwith them into the bush. There they saw beautiful birds of many bright\ncolors, and beautiful flowers of all kinds.\n\nMary ran races with the black children.  How they loved that! She climbed\ntrees as fast as any boy. The black children loved their white ma who\ntaught them and played with them. But playing with the children often made\nMary late for meals.\n\n\"Mary, Mary,\" scolded Mammy Anderson gently, \"you are late again. I am\ngoing to punish you. You go to your room. Since supper is over, you'll just\nhave to go to bed without it.\"\n\nMary went to her room. In a little while she heard a knock at her door.\n\n\"It's Daddy, Mary,\" said a deep voice.  \"Please open your door.\"\n\nMary opened the door. There stood Daddy Anderson with his hands full of\nbiscuits and bananas which he was bringing to her with Mammy's consent.\n\n\"I thought you might be hungry,\" said Daddy Anderson.\n\n\"You and Mammy are perfect dears,\" said Mary. \"I don't deserve all your\nkindness.\"  Mary soon began to visit the different yards or compounds in\nDuke Town. Missionaries had been here for thirty years, but there weren't\nmany of them. They worked chiefly in Duke Town, Old Town, and Creek\nTown--three towns at the mouth of the Calabar River. They also had opened a\nstation at Ikunetu and Ikorofiong on the Cross River.  One day Mary was at\none of the stations with another missionary. When he finished his talk, he\nsaid, \"Mary, won't you speak to these people?\"\n\nMary stood up. \"Please read John 3:1-21,\" she said. The missionary\ndid. Then Mary told the people how they could be born again.  She told them\nof the joy that they would have if they took Jesus into their hearts.  She\ntold them of the hope of life after death with God in Heaven. The natives\nlistened.  They liked her talk. After that whenever she came to that\ndistrict, crowds would come to hear her speak.\n\n\"Mammy,\" said Mary, after she had come from a trip to the outstations, \"it\nhurts my heart to see how cruel these people are. And those awful, ugly,\ncruel gods they pray to.  The chiefs are so cruel and mean and have no\nmercy. And then that terrible secret society, the Egbo. I saw some of their\nrunners dressed in fearful costumes scaring the people and whipping them\nwith long whips. I saw a poor man whom they had beaten almost to\ndeath. Then there is that horrible drinking. They are worse than wild\nanimals when they become drunk. And worst of all is that they have slaves\nand sell their own people as slaves.\"\n\n\"Ah, lassie,\" said Mammy Anderson, \"you haven't seen anything yet. There\nare millions of these black people in the bush and far back in the\ninterior. Most of them are slaves. They don't treat a slave any better than\na pig. The slaves sleep on the ground like animals. They are branded with a\nhot iron just as animals are. And just as the farmers back home fatten a\npig for market, so the girls are fattened and sold for slave wives. The\nslaves can be whipped or sold or killed. When a chief dies, the tribe cuts\noff the heads of his wives and slaves and they are buried with him. The\ntribes are wild and cruel. Many of them are cannibals, who eat people. They\nspend their lives in fighting, dancing, and drinking. But the way they\ntreat twins is one of the worst things they do.\"\n\n\"What do they do to twins?\" asked Mary.\n\n\"They kill them,\" said Mammy Anderson.  \"Sometimes they bury the twins\nalive and sometimes they just throw them out into the bush to die of\nhunger. The mother is driven into the bush. No one will have anything to do\nwith her. She is left to die in the jungle or to be eaten by the wild\nanimals.\"\n\n\"But why do they do such cruel, wicked things to harmless babies?\" asked\nMary.\n\n\"They believe that the father of one of the twins is an evil spirit or\ndevil. But they don't know which one's father was a devil, so they kill\nboth to be sure of getting the right one.\"\n\n\"That must be stopped,\" said Mary. \"I will fight it as long as I live. I\nwill never give up. Jesus loves twins just as much as other children. The\nnatives must learn that. They must learn that God said, 'Thou shalt not\nkill.' I'll teach them.\"\n\nMary made many friends, not only among the children whom she taught, but\nalso among the grown-up natives. One day she heard a chief speaking to his\npeople about God and His love. He was a Christian. Mary thought that he\nmade a very fine talk. She could tell he was very sincere. He talked so\nthat everyone could understand him.\n\n\"Who is that chief?\" asked Mary of the man standing next to her.\n\n\"That is King Eyo Honesty VII,\" said the man.\n\n\"King Eyo Honesty? I must talk to him.\"\n\nAs soon as she could, Mary went up to the chief.\n\n\"King Eyo Honesty,\" said Mary, \"I am Mary Slessor. Many years ago the\nmissionaries told my mother about you. They told her what a fine Christian\nyou were. She told us. She will be very happy when I tell her that I have\nmet you.\"\n\n\"I am very happy to have met you,\" said King Eyo Honesty. \"Perhaps I could\nwrite a letter to your mother and tell her how happy I am that I have met\nyou. I would tell her how happy I am that her daughter has come to teach my\npeople about God.\"\n\n\"Mother would be very happy, I know, to get a letter from you.\"\n\nFor many years the African chief and Mary's Scottish mother wrote letters\nto one another.\n\nEvery day when school was over, Mary went to visit the natives in their\nhomes. She would tell them about Jesus and how He loved them. She told them\nJesus wanted to save them. She told them that Jesus had paid for their sins\nby dying for them. If they loved and trusted in Jesus, He would take their\nsins away.\n\nOne Sunday morning as she was walking through the village, she saw one of\nthe old men who came to church all the time sitting at the door of his mud\nhouse. He looked very sad.\n\n\"Ekpo,\" said Mary, \"why aren't you on your way to God's house? Mr. Anderson\nwill be looking for you. He will miss you.\"\n\n\"If your heart were sad, would you go any place?\" asked Ekpo.\n\n\"But why is your heart sad?\"\n\n\"My son, my only son, is dead. Even now he is buried in the house.\"\n\n\"Ekpo, let me tell you a story,\" said Mary.  \"A long time ago there were\ntwo sisters.  They had a brother. They loved him very much. They loved him\nlike you loved your son. He became sick. The two sisters sent a messenger\nto Jesus to tell Him. When Jesus came, the brother was dead. Martha, the\none sister, said to Jesus, 'Lord, if You had been here my brother would not\nhave died. I know that even now God will give You whatever You ask Him.'\n\n\"Jesus said, 'Your brother will get up from the grave.'\n\n\"Martha said, 'I know that he will get up from the grave in the\nresurrection at the last day when all the dead shall come out of their\ngraves.'\n\n\"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in\nme, even though he dies, he will live. Whoever lives and believes in me\nshall never die.'\"\n\n\"Did the brother get up from the grave?\"\n\n\"Yes, Jesus went to the grave and said, 'Lazarus, come out,' and Lazarus\ndid. But, Ekpo, later Lazarus died again. Then his body stayed in the\ngrave, but his soul was with God. He was happy. All Christians are happy\nwith God. Your son was a Christian, wasn't he?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, Ma, he was,\" said Ekpo's wife, who had come to the door while\nMary was talking.\n\n\"Then don't you see, God has taken him.  He is with God. He is happy. If\nyou believe in Jesus, then some day you, too, will be with God and will see\nyour son again.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Ekpo, \"if God has taken him, it is not so bad.\"\n\n\"Come, then,\" said Mary, \"let's go to God's house and thank Him that your\nson was a Christian and is now with God in Heaven.\"\n\nMary knew there was a great deal to do.  There were so many people who did\nnot know about Jesus. There were so many who were terribly mean and\ncruel. But Mary knew that with the Lord on her side she would not lose in\nthe fight against sin and wickedness.  Every day she would tell the natives\nabout Jesus. Every day she would show them their sins and the Saviour.\n\nFor three years Mary worked hard. Then she became sick. It was the terrible\ncoast fever. Sometimes she was so sick, she did not know what was\nhappening. She was very tired. She wished that she could see her mother and\nsisters.\n\n\"Calabar needs a brave heart and a strong body,\" said Mary. \"I don't have\nmuch of a brave heart, but I often feel the need of it when I am sick and\nlonely.\"\n\n\"Mary, you must go home to Scotland and rest,\" said Mammy Anderson, \"then\nyou will get well from the fever. You will never get well here.\"\n\n\"That's true, Mammy,\" said Mary, \"but you know that I cannot leave my field\nof work was until the Board of Missions says I may.\"\n\n\"That's right, but you have a furlough coming. I do hope we hear from the\nBoard soon.\"\n\nIn June, 1879, the letter came. Mary read it gladly. It told her that she\ncould come home for a year's vacation. It did not take Mary long to\npack. She left for Scotland on the next steamer. There were tears in her\neyes as she stood on the deck. There on the shore were her black friends\nwaving good-by to their white ma. They were crying, too.\n\n\"Come back again! Come back again! God bless you and keep you!\" they said.\n\nMary waved to them.\n\n\"I will be back,\" she said. Mary loved Africa. She loved the people there,\nbut she knew if she wanted to get well she would have to go home. Then,\ntoo, she was anxious to see her mother and sisters again.\n\nThe ocean trip did Mary much good. The cool ocean breezes blew the fever\naway. It made her cheeks pink again. Every day she prayed for the people of\nAfrica. She prayed that she might go back again. She prayed that more\nmissionaries would be sent out to show these poor people the way to Heaven.\n\nHow happy Mary's mother and two sisters were to have her with them again!\nAnd how happy Mary was to be with them! They could not hear enough about\nCalabar. It made Mary's mother very happy to know that her daughter had\ntaught the black children the way to Heaven. She was glad to hear about the\nother missionary work which Mary had done. But other people, too, were\nanxious to hear about Calabar. So Mary had to speak at Wishart Church and\nother churches.\n\nMary told about the heathen, the wicked things the heathen natives did to\ntwins, the mean way they treated slaves, and the many other cruel, wicked\nthings these people did.\n\n\"There is only one thing that will change these people,\" said Mary. \"There\nis only one thing that will turn these heathen from their sins. That is the\nGospel of Jesus Christ, the good news about the Saviour. But who will tell\nthese people about Jesus? We need many, many more missionaries. If you\ncannot go yourself, you can send gifts and offerings for this work. We need\nmoney so the missionaries can buy food and clothing. We need money so that\nthey can build homes and churches and hospitals. Have pity on these poor\npeople! Pity the poor little children! Help them now!  Above all, pray for\nthese people, and pray for your missionaries that God will bless their work\nwith these lost souls.\"\n\nEverywhere Mary went she won friends for Calabar. The people who heard Mary\nwanted to help make Christians of the heathen people. Many prayed. Many\ngave. Men and women gave gifts of money for the work.  Boys and girls\nbrought their little gifts, too.  They knew the hymn:\n\nIf you cannot give your thousands\nYou can give the widow's mite.\nAnd each gift you give for Jesus\nWill be precious in His sight.\n\nMrs. Slessor was not well. Living in the crowded, dusty, smoky city made\nher sick.  Mary found a little home out in the country.  Here were clear\nblue skies and pleasant fields.  Mary's mother was much better after they\nmoved her. Mary's sisters enjoyed it also.  The months passed quickly. Soon\nthe year would be over.\n\n\"What do you want to do when you go back?\" asked Mrs. Slessor.\n\n\"I want to go on up the river. I want to go where missionaries have never\nbeen. I want to go to Okoyong and tell the people there about Jesus. I am\npraying God that sooner or later He will let me go and work there.\"\n\n\"Isn't it much more dangerous there?\"  asked Mrs. Slessor.\n\n\"Yes, it is,\" answered Mary, \"but I am not afraid because I know that God\nis with me and His angels are watching over me.\"\n\nJune came. Mary had been home a year.  Now she was in good health\nagain. She wanted to get back to Africa. July, August, September went by\nand then the good news came. Mary was to leave in October for Calabar.  It\nwas a happy day for her when she got on the ship that would take her back\nto the Africa she loved.\n\nOn the ship she found the Rev. and Mrs.  Hugh Goldie. They, too, had been\nmissionaries in Calabar for many years, and now after a short vacation were\ngoing back once more. All the way to Africa the friend talked about the\ngreat work of winning souls for Jesus, especially the souls of the people\nof Calabar.\n\nAt last the big steamship entered the mouth of the Calabar and Cross\nRivers. It was not far now to Duke Town. Soon Mary would learn what work\nshe should do. Would it be work she wanted to do? Would it be work in the\njungles? Mary would soon know.\n\n\n\n\n#4#\n\n\n_On Her Own_\n\n\"Mary, how would you like to have a mission station of your own?\" asked\nDaddy Anderson.\n\n\"Why, I'd love it,\" answered Mary.\n\n\"It is hard work and very unpleasant at times,\" said Daddy Anderson.\n\n\"I don't care how hard or unpleasant it is,\" said Mary, \"as long as I can\nwork for my Lord.\"\n\n\"Good, then you will be in charge of the Old Town Station, two miles up the\nriver.\"\n\nIt did not take Mary long to pack her things and move to Old Town. But what\na sight greeted her when she arrived! The first thing she saw as she came\ninto the village was a man's skull hanging from the end of a pole and\nswinging slowly in the breeze.\n\n\"Where is the mission house?\" asked Mary of one of the natives.\n\n\"Down that way at the end of the road, Ma,\" he answered.\n\nMary found the mission house. It was an old tumble-down shack. It was made\nof long twigs and branches, daubed over with mud.  The roof was made of\npalm leaves. It was not nearly as nice a home as the one on Mission Hill in\nDuke Town. When Mary went inside, she found that it was whitewashed and\nsomewhat clean. Mary got busy cleaning up her house, and as she did, she\nbegan to make her plans.\n\n\"I don't care if my house is not so fine. I am nearer to the jungles. I\nwant to get into the jungles sometime and win those poor, ignorant heathen\npeople for Jesus. I am going to live in a house like the natives and use\nthe tools and things they do--only I'll be a lot cleaner. Then they will\nfeel that I am one of them and I'll be better able to win them for\nJesus. Then, too, it's cheaper to live that way and to eat bananas. I will\nbe able to send more money home to my poor mother in Scotland. Living this\nway will also help me get ready for the time when I can go into the\njungles. Then I will have to live that way.\"\n\nMary held services every Sunday. She started a day school for the\nchildren. The grownups came, too. Mary was so friendly and kind that the\nnatives loved her. More and more came to hear about Jesus. Mary showed them\nthat He was the Saviour of the blacks and whites alike. Many came from\nfaraway places to hear the white ma and go to her school.\n\nMary soon visited all the villages in the neighborhood and every place she\nwent she would tell the people about Jesus. At one place the king of that\npart of the country came regularly to hear the white ma. He would sit on\nthe bench with the little children and listen to Mary tell about the\nSaviour who loves all people.\n\nOne thing still bothered Mary very much.  This was the way the natives\ntreated twins.  As soon as twins were born, they would break the babies'\nbacks and stuff the little bodies into a jar made out of a big gourd. Then\nthey would throw the jar out into the jungle.  The mother would be sent\naway out into the jungle to die.\n\n\"It is very wicked for you to kill these twin babies,\" said Mary to the\npeople. \"It is a sin against God, who said, 'You shall not kill people.'\nJesus loves all children. He loves the twin babies, too.\"\n\nThe natives would not listen to her. They were afraid of the evil\nspirits. One day Mary heard about some twins that were born. She rushed\nover to the house and took the babies before they were killed. She brought\nthem to her house and took care of them.\n\n\"She will have lots of trouble taking an evil spirit into her house,\" said\none of the natives. \"Just you wait and see.\"\n\n\"Maybe she is a friend of the evil spirit,\" said another.\n\nBut weeks and months went by and nothing happened. The people began to see\nthat Mary was right. Everywhere the people began to call Mary \"the white ma\nwho loves babies.\"\n\nAnother wicked thing the people did was to kill the babies of slaves who\ndied. They did not want to bother taking care of them so they killed\nthem. Mary began to take these little orphans into her home and take care\nof them. But it began to be too much work for Mary alone. She wrote a\nletter to the Mission Board asking for someone to take care of these\nchildren.\n\nOne day a trader came and knocked at Mary's door. He was carrying a little\nblack baby in his arms.\n\n\"I found this twin out in the bush,\" said the trader. \"The other one was\nkilled. This baby would have died, but I know how you love these little\nones, so I brought it to you.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" said Mary, taking the tiny baby in her arms. \"I shall call her\nJanie, after my sister.\" Mary adopted the little baby and the baby brought\nMary much joy and happiness.\n\nOne time Mary took a baby six months old into the mountains. The baby was\nsick. In the valley it was very hot.\n\n\"This child shall not die if the cold can save him,\" said Mary.\n\nUp in the mountains it was much cooler than in the valley. Mary pitched her\ntent and stayed there for a time so the baby could get well.\n\nOne night Mary woke up. She heard a growling noise. She looked around. A\npanther was in the tent! He had the baby in his mouth! He was going to\ncarry it away!\n\nMary jumped up. She grabbed a burning stick from the fire and rammed it\ninto the panther's face. With a wild howl the panther dropped the baby and\nran off. Mary picked up the baby who was crying now. She looked him over,\ncarefully. He was not hurt. Softly she sang to the baby and rocked him to\nsleep.  After the baby was well, Mary went back to the mission station in\nthe valley.\n\nAnother time news came that twins had been born. All the people had thought\na lot of the mother, even though she was a slave.  Now everyone hated\nher. The other women in the house cursed her. They broke up the few dishes\nshe owned. They tore up her clothes. They would have killed her but they\nwere afraid of Mary Slessor and what she would do.\n\nThey took the two babies and stuffed them into an empty gin box and shoved\nit at the woman.\n\n\"Get out! Get out!\" they said, \"you have married the Devil. You have a\ndevil in you.\"  They threw rocks at her and drove her out of the village.\n\nMary met the poor woman carrying her babies in the box on her head. The\nscreaming, howling crowd of people were following her.\n\n\"Go back! Go back to your village,\" Mary told the crowd. Then turning to\nthe woman she said, \"Give me the box and come with me to my house.\"\n\nWhen Mary opened the box, she found one child dead. The baby's head had\nbeen smashed when it was jammed into the box.  Mary buried the poor little\nbaby. Soon the owner of the woman came and took her back.  She was willing\nto do this as long as she had no children. The little baby stayed with Mary\nand became another of her family.\n\nOne evening Mary was sitting on the porch of her mission house talking to\nthe children.  Suddenly they heard a loud noise. They heard the beating of\ndrums. Then they heard men singing loudly.\n\n\"What's that?\" asked Mary. She took the twin boys that were with her and\nrushed down to the road to see what was going on.  Here she found a crowd\nof people. They were all dressed up. Some wore three-cornered hats with\nlong feathers hanging down. Some had crowns. Some wore masks with animal\nheads and horns. Some put on uniforms with gold and silver lace. Some just\ncovered their bodies with beadwork and tablecloths trimmed with gold and\nsilver.\n\nWhen Mary came, the shouting stopped.  The king came forward to meet her.\n\n\"Ma,\" said the king, \"we have had a palaver.  We have made new laws. The\nold laws were not God's laws. Now all twins and their mothers can live in\ntown. If anyone kills twin babies or hurts the mothers, he shall be hung.\"\n\n\"God will bless you for making those wise laws,\" said Mary.\n\nThe mothers of the twins who lived at the mission and other mothers, too,\ngathered around Mary. They laughed and shouted.  They clapped their hands,\nand with tears running down their cheeks, cried: \"Thank you! Thank you!\"\nThey made so much noise that Mary asked the chief to stop them.\n\n\"Ma, how can I stop these women's mouths?\" asked the chief. \"How can I do\nit?  They be women.\"\n\nMary was happy, but after a while some of the people began to forget the\nnew laws.  Quietly and underhandedly they began to go back to doing the old\nbad things again. This was because they were not Christians. They did not\nlove and trust the Saviour. Mary knew that the main thing to do if she were\nto get them to live right and do right was to change their hearts. New laws\ncould not really change them. Only faith in Jesus could do that.\n\n\"I must help them more. I must lead more of them to Jesus,\" said\nMary. \"Many are sick. I will give them medicine, and at the same time tell\nthem about Jesus who makes the soul well and the body, too.\"\n\nAs Mary gave out medicine, many people would often crowd around her to hear\nher \"Jesus talk.\" She told them of Jesus' love for them. She told them how\nHe had died that they might be saved from everlasting death and be made\npure. Mary had her hardships.  Often she would not be able to get home at\nnight and would have to sleep in the open.  It was not easy to be a\nmissionary, but Mary was gladly willing to do it because she was working\nfor Jesus and saving souls.\n\nOne day a man came to the mission house.\n\n\"I am the servant of King Okon. King Okon has heard of the white Ma. King\nOkon has heard how the white Ma loves our people and is kind to them. King\nOkon invites the white Ma to come and visit our country.\"\n\n\"I shall be glad to come if I may tell your people about Jesus, the\nSaviour,\" said Mary.\n\n\"Sure,\" said the messenger, \"you come and make Jesus-talk.\"\n\nWhen King Eyo Honesty VII, Mary's old friend, heard of this invitation, he\nsaid:\n\n\"Our Ma must not go as an ordinary traveler to this savage land and\npeople. She must go as a lady and our mother, one whom we greatly respect\nand love.\"\n\nHe brought his own canoe to Mary and said, \"The canoe is yours to use as\nlong as you wish.\"\n\nMary's eyes filled with tears of thankfulness.\n\n\"King Eyo,\" she said, \"I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I accept\nthe offer of your canoe in Jesus' name. I know God will bless you for your\nkindness.\"\n\n\"God has blessed me,\" said the king. \"He has sent our white Ma to us.\"\n\nThe canoe was long and slim. It was painted in bright colors. At the front\nend bright-colored flags were flying. In the middle of the canoe was a sort\nof tent to protect Mary from the sun. The Christian natives had brought\ngifts of rice and these were put in the boat. Crowds of people came to say\ngood-by to the white Ma. At last it began to get dark. The thirty-three\nnatives who were going to row climbed into the boat. Torches were lit and\nthe boat started upstream.\n\nAs Mary lay down in her tent in the middle of the boat, she heard the\nrowers singing as they rowed.\n\n\"Ma, our beautiful beloved mother, is on board,\" they sang, \"Ho! Ho! Ho!\"\n\nShe thanked God that He had protected her in Old Town. She prayed that He\nwould protect her still as she went into a part of the country where no one\nhad yet brought the news about a loving Saviour. She prayed that He would\nbless her speaking, so that many people would believe in the Lord Jesus and\nbe saved forever.\n\nAs she prayed, the rowers continued singing their made-up song: \"Ma, our\nbeautiful beloved mother, is on board. Ho! Ho! Ho!\"\n\nMary fell asleep and the canoe carried her silently through the night to a\nnew part of the country and to new adventures.\n\nWhen the sun arose the following morning, the canoe carrying Mary Slessor\narrived at King Okon's village. A great shout went up from the people when\nthey heard the white Ma had come.\n\n\"You have my room,\" said the chief. \"It is the best room in the village.\"\n\nIt may have been the best room, but it was not a very comfortable one. Rats\nand big lizards were running back and forth across the floor. There were\ninsects and fleas and lice everywhere.\n\nThe people were much interested in the white Ma. They had never seen a\nwhite woman before. They crowded into the yard.  Many of them touched and\npinched Mary to see if she were real. Some were afraid. Their friends\nlaughed at them and pulled them into the yard. They watched Mary eat. They\nwatched everything she did. Mary did not care. She used their interest in\nher to tell them about Jesus who loved them. She told them that they must\nlove Jesus and trust in Him for salvation.\n\nTwice a day she held services and great crowds came to hear her. She cut\nout clothes for the people and taught the women how to sew. She gave\nmedicine to the sick and bandaged the wounds of those who got hurt.\n\n\"King Okon,\" said Mary, \"I would like to go into the people's homes in the\njungle.  May I go?\"\n\n\"No, white Ma, I cannot let you go. This is elephant country. The elephants\ngo wild and run over everything in the jungle. These stampedes have been so\nbad my people have had to leave off farming and make their living by\nfishing. I cannot let you go. You might get hurt or killed.\"\n\nOne night Mary saw that the people looked very angry. Some were sad.\n\n\"What is the matter?\" asked Mary.\n\n\"Two of the king's young wives have done wrong. They have broken a law,\"\nanswered one of the natives. \"They thought nobody was looking and went into\na room where a young man was sleeping. Each of them will be hit a hundred\ntimes with a whip.\"\n\nMary went to the king. She asked him to be kinder to these girls. She\nbegged him not to beat them so much.\n\n\"Ma, you are right,\" said the king. \"I will call palaver of all the\nchiefs. If you say we must not whip girl, we must listen to you as our\nguest and Ma. But the people will say God's Word be no good, if it keeps\nthe law from punishing those who do wrong.\"\n\nMary saw the king was right. She turned to the girl-wives of the king.\n\n\"You have brought shame to the king and the tribe by the silly foolish\nthings you did.  God's Word teaches men to be kind and merciful and\ngenerous, but it does not pass over sin or permit it. I cannot ask the king\nnot to punish you. Ask God to help you in the future, so that you will not\ndo bad or foolish things.\"\n\nAll the chief men of the tribe grunted their approval of what Mary had said\nto the girls.  But then Mary turned to the chief men and said:\n\n\"You are to blame. Your custom of one man marrying many wives is wrong and\ncruel. These girls are only sixteen years old and still love fun and\nplay. They are too young to be married. They meant no real harm.\"\n\nThe men did not like to hear that. They did not like to hear that their\nways were wrong.\n\n\"If punishment is hard,\" said the old men, \"wife and slave will be afraid\nto disobey.\"\n\n\"King Okon,\" said Mary, \"show that you are a good king by being kind and\nmerciful.  Don't be too hard on these young girls.\"\n\n\"All right, Ma,\" said the king, \"I will make it only ten blows with the\nwhip. Also we will not rub salt into the wounds to make them sting.\"\n\nWhen the whipping was over, Mary took the girls into her room. There she\nput healing medicine on their backs while she told them about Jesus who\ncould heal their souls.\n\nAt last it was time for Mary to go back to Old Town. The king and the\npeople were sorry to see her go. On her homeward way a tropical storm\nstruck the canoe and the people in it. Mary was soaked. The next morning\nshe was shaking with sickness and fever.  The rowers feared their white Ma\nwould die.  They rowed as fast as they could for Old Town. Mary was so sick\nthat she had to take a long rest.\n\nA few months later a big storm tore off the roof of her house and again she\nwas soaked as she worked to save the children.  Again she became very sick.\n\n\"You must go home to Scotland,\" said Daddy Anderson. \"You must go home and\nrest and get well.\"\n\n\"Since you tell me to do that and the Board has ordered it, too, I can only\nobey,\" said Mary. \"I am going to take my little black Janie with me. It is\ntoo dangerous to leave her here where some of the heathen might steal her\nand kill her because she is a twin.\"\n\nWith a heart that was sad at leaving Calabar, but glad to have a chance to\nsee her dear ones in Scotland again, Mary sailed for Dundee in April, 1883.\n\n\n\n\n#5#\n\n\n_Into the Jungle_\n\n\"Oh, Mary, it is good to see you again,\" said Mother Slessor when Mary\narrived once more in Scotland. \"And this is little Janie about whom you\nhave written us so often! We are happy to have you with us, Janie.\"\n\n\"I am glad to be home, Mother,\" said Mary, \"but I am anxious to go back to\nAfrica as soon as I can. There are so many souls there to be won for\nJesus.\"\n\nMary soon got over her sickness and was well and strong again. Now she went\nto the churches in Scotland to tell about the missionary work in\nCalabar. She made many friends. Some of the young people who heard her\nwanted to become missionaries. Miss Hoag, Miss Wright and Miss Peabody\ndecided to become missionaries and later worked in Calabar, too.\n\nMary was so successful in interesting the people in mission work that the\nBoard of Missions asked her to stay longer and visit more churches. Mary\ndid what the Board asked, although she was anxious to get back to\nAfrica. At last this work was finished.  Now she could go back.\n\nMary was getting ready to go back to Africa when her sister Janie became\nsick.\n\n\"You will have to take her to a warmer climate,\" said the doctor. \"That is\nthe only way she will get well.\"\n\nMary could not afford to take her sister to Italy or southern France.\n\n\"I will ask the Board of Missions if I can take my sister with me to\nAfrica.\"\n\nAnxiously Mary waited for an answer to her letter. At last the letter came.\n\nWe are sorry, but we must answer\nyour question with a No. We feel that\nto take your sick sister along to Africa\nwould be an unwise mixing of family\nproblems and missionary work.\n\nWhat should Mary do now? A friend told her to take her sister to southern\nEngland where the climate was warmer than in Scotland.  She wrote to the\nBoard to ask whether they would let her be a missionary if she took out the\ntime to take care of her sister. The Board of Missions wrote:\n\nDear Miss Slessor:\n\nWhen the way is clear for you to return\nto Calabar we will be glad to send\nyou out again as our missionary. In the\nmeantime we will be glad to pay your\nmissionary salary for three more months.\n\nMary was glad that she could go back again, but she would not take the\nmissionary salary when she was not working as a missionary.  This left her\nwith a sick sister and no salary. She took her sister Janie and her mother\nto southern England. They had been there only a short time when Mary's\nsister, Susan, in Scotland, died. It made her sad to lose a sister, but she\nwas happy in the thought that Susan was now with Jesus her Saviour in\nHeaven.\n\nAfter a while Janie was better and Mary packed up and got ready to sail\nonce more to Africa. Just as she got ready to go, her mother became\nsick. What should Mary do now? She took her troubles to God in prayer. As\nshe prayed, a thought came to her which showed her a way out of her\nproblem.\n\n\"I will send for my old friend in Dundee to come and take care of Mother\nand then I can go to Africa.\"\n\nMother Slessor agreed that this was the thing to do. Soon the friend came\nand now Mary was free to go to Africa. The weeks at sea were a good rest\nfor her and she was in the best of health when she landed once more at Duke\nTown. Ten years had gone by since she first came to Africa.\n\n\"Where should I go now?\" asked Mary of Daddy Anderson after she was once\nagain in the mission house on Mission Hill.\n\n\"This time you are being sent up to Creek Town,\" said Daddy Anderson.\n\n\"Oh, I'm glad,\" said Mary. \"That is the settlement farthest up the river.\"\n\n\"You will work with the Rev. and Mrs. H.  Goldie,\" continued Daddy\nAnderson.\n\n\"That makes me happy, too. They are old friends. I met them on the trip the\ntime before this one.\"\n\nAs soon as she was settled in Creek Town, Mary worked harder than ever for\nthe salvation of the natives. She did not care about her health. The only\nthing she could think of was how she could win more of the natives to\nChrist. She spent very little on herself because the money from her salary\nwas needed back home in Scotland.\n\nOne day very sad news came from Scotland.  Mother Slessor had died. Mary\nwas very sad. Her mother was the one who had interested her in missionary\nwork by telling her stories about it when she was only a little girl. Her\nmother had always encouraged her in her work. Her mother was willing to do\nanything and suffer anything so that Mary could be in the work of saving\nsouls.  Her mother was always interested in everything that Mary did. No\nwonder Mary was sad even though she knew that her mother was now with the\nSaviour in Heaven.\n\n\"There is no one to write and tell my stories and troubles and nonsense\nto. All my life I have been caring and planning and living for my mother\nand sisters. I am now left stranded and alone.\"\n\nBut she was not alone. The words of Jesus, \"Lo, I am with you alway,\" came\nas sweet comfort to her heart.\n\n\"Heaven is now nearer to me than Scotland,\" she said. \"And no one will be\nworried about me if I go up country into the jungles.\"\n\nMary was very anxious to go to the deep jungles to Okoyong, but every time\nshe mentioned it the Board and the Andersons said, \"No, not yet.\" The\ntribes were cruel and wicked. They were always fighting among themselves\nand with other tribes. They did more bad and nasty things than any of the\ntribes she had ever worked with. They killed twin babies. They stole slaves\nand when they caught some stranger they made him a slave.  They would hide\nalong jungle paths and when someone went by, they would kill him. They\nhated the people of Calabar and the British government.\n\nAt different times missionaries had tried to get into this land, but always\nthey had to run for their lives. The natives of Okoyong trusted no one. It\nwas to that country that Mary wanted to carry the love of Jesus and the\nstory that He died for them. Every day she would pray:\n\n\"Lord, if this is Your time, let me go.\"\n\nMeanwhile Mary worked hard at Creek Town. Besides her missionary work she\nwas taking care of a number of native children.  Some were twins she had\nsaved from death, some were the children of slaves. Mary took care of these\nchildren at her own expense. In order to take care of them and have enough\nfood for them, she ate only the simplest of foods, sometimes nothing but\nrice for a long time.\n\nOne day a man came to Creek Town to see Mary.\n\n\"I am the father of Janie, the twin,\" he said. \"I am glad you have taken\ncare of her.\"\n\n\"Come and see her,\" said Mary.\n\n\"No, no!\" said the man, \"the evil spirit will put a spell on me.\"\n\n\"You won't be hurt if you stand far away and look at her,\" said Mary.\n\nAs he watched Janie, Mary took him by the arm and dragged him to the little\ngirl. She put his strong black arms around her little shoulders. At last\nthe man took the little girl on his lap and played and talked with\nher. After this he came often to visit his little girl and brought her food\nand presents.  At last the time came when word reached Calabar that the\nMission Board had decided that the Gospel should be preached in Okoyong and\nthat Mary could go. Mary was very happy. At last God had answered her\nprayer.  She was going into a wild country. She was going to go ahead of\nthe other missionaries to find a place where they could build a mission\nhouse and church.\n\nWhen King Eyo Honesty VII heard of it, he came to see Mary.\n\n\"So you are going into the wild country, to Okoyong,\" he said.\n\n\"Yes, and I am so happy. Those people need to have their hearts and lives\nchanged.  I am happy that I shall be able to tell them about the Saviour.\"\n\n\"Aren't you afraid to go among these wicked men? What if they should go on\nthe warpath when you arrive?\"\n\n\"I am not worried. God is on my side. If it is His will, He can keep me\nfrom all harm.  If it is His will that I should die, then His will be\ndone. If giving my life will help open Okoyong to the Gospel, I will gladly\ngive it.\"\n\n\"God bless you, Ma. I am going to let you use the king's canoe for this\ntrip. My rowers can take you there swiftly. They will do anything you ask,\nbecause they love you.\"\n\n\"Thank you, King Eyo; that will help me very much.\"\n\nKing Eyo fixed up his canoe for Mary, as though she were a queen. He put a\ncarpet in it, and many cushions. He put a sort of tent on it so that Mary\ncould be alone when she wanted to be. The boat was loaded with homemade\nbread, canned meat, rice, and tea.\n\nAt last everything was ready for the trip into the wild country. Mary said\ngood-by to her friends, the missionaries, and to her native friends. Then\nthe thirty-five rowers pushed out from the shore and headed upstream toward\nthe wild country. On both sides of the river were banana and palm\ntrees. There were beautiful plants and flowers of many colors. The light\nshimmered on the flowing river as the rowers pulled the oars and sang their\nsongs.\n\n\"What will happen if the Okoyongs are on the warpath?\" Mary asked\nherself. \"What will I do then?\" Mary knew the answer. \"I will put my trust\nin God and not in man.\"\n\nShe lay back on the cushions and prayed to God to protect her in the wild\ncountry and to lead her in His way. The rowers rowed swiftly and sent the\ncanoe shooting up the river toward the wild country.\n\n\"There is the landing place,\" said the chief rower. \"Now we must walk the\nrest of the way to Ekenge.\"\n\nMary got out of the boat. The rowers followed her. They carried the\npackages Mary had brought with her. They began to walk through the\njungle. It was four miles to Ekenge where Chief Edem lived. As they came\nnear to the little village of mud huts, the chief rower whispered to Mary,\n\n\"There is Chief Edem. Praise God, he is at home and sober.\"\n\nMary, too, thanked God that the Okoyongs were not on the warpath and she\nasked God's blessing on her visit with them.\n\nWhen the people of Ekenge saw Mary they began to jump up and down and\nshout,\n\n\"Welcome, Ma. Welcome to Ekenge.\"\n\nChief Edem bowed to her and said, \"You are welcome Ma Mary. It is an honor\nto have you come to us. We are happy because you did not come with\nsoldiers. We know now that you trust us. I have set aside a house for you\nas long as you stay with us.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Chief Edem. I am happy to be here.\"\n\n\"This is my sister, Ma Eme,\" said the chief.  Mary liked Ma Eme at once and\nMa Eme liked Mary. They were friends as long as they lived.\n\n\"I want to go to visit the next village now,\" said Mary. \"I want to go to\nIfako.\"\n\n\"Oh, no, Ma,\" said Chief Edem. \"The chief is a very bad man. He is not fit\nfor you to meet. Besides he is drunk now and he doesn't know what is going\non. You must stay at Ekenge.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said Mary, \"I will stay, but call the people together so that\nI can have a Jesus-talk.\"\n\nWhen the people had all come together, Mary told about God's great love for\nthem.  She told them about Jesus who died that they might be saved. She\ntold them about the happiness Jesus would bring to their village by\nchanging their lives when they came to Him.\n\nThat night Mary did not sleep very much.  The chief had given her one of\nthe best houses in the village, but we would not think it was much of a\nhouse. Her bed was made of a few sticks with some corn shucks thrown over\nthem. In the room all night were plenty of rats and insects. But Mary's\nheart was happy.\n\nLater Mary went to Ifako. The chief there liked Mary very much. He and\nChief Edem agreed to let her start a mission in their villages.  Each one\npromised to give her ground for a schoolhouse and a mission house. Mary\nchose the places for the buildings. They were a half-hour's walk apart.\n\n\"Now I must go back to Creek Town,\" said Mary. \"When I come back again, it\nwill be to stay.\"\n\n\"Come soon, Ma,\" said Chief Edem. \"It will make us very happy to have you\nstay with us.\"\n\nAs they rode down the river, Mary could not sleep at first because the\nrowers kept whispering,\n\n\"Don't shake the canoe or you will wake Ma,\" or \"Don't talk so loud so Ma\ncan sleep.\"  At last, however, tired from her days of work in Ekenge and\nIfako, she fell asleep and did not wake up until she came back to Creek\nTown.\n\nNow she was very busy getting ready to move to Ekenge. One of the traders\nheard about her going to Ekenge.\n\n\"Do you trust those wild people?\" he asked.  \"Do you think you can change\nthem? What they need more than a missionary is a gun-boat to tame them\ndown.\"\n\n\"No, my friend,\" answered Mary, \"they need the same thing that every person\nin the world needs and that is the Saviour Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can\nchange the hearts of sinful people.\"\n\nAt last Mary was packed up. She was taking with her the five children she\nhad saved from death. Another missionary, Mr. Bishop, was going along with\nher. Now at last Mary was going to work in the jungles as she had wanted to\ndo. She had been in Africa for twelve years. She was now forty years old.\n\nWhen Mary was ready to leave, all the people of Creek Town gathered around\nher. They told her good-by and wished her God's blessing.\n\n\"We will pray for you,\" they said.\n\nOne of the young men she had taught in school said, \"I will pray for you,\nbut remember you are asking for death when you go to that wild country.\"\n\nIt was getting dark when Mary's boat landed near Ekenge. The rain was\npouring down. It was a four-mile walk to Ekenge.  Mary and the five\nchildren started out. Mr.  Bishop and the men who carried the baggage were\nto follow.\n\nAn eleven-year-old boy was in the lead.  He was the oldest of the five\nchildren. He carried on his head a box filled with tea, sugar, and\nbread. An eight-year-old child followed him carrying a teakettle and\ncooking pots. Next came a three-year-old who held tight to little Janie's\nhand. Then came Mary carrying a baby girl and a bundle of food.\n\nThe children slipped in the mud. They became soaked by the rain. The jungle\nwas dark around them and strange noises came from all sides. The children\nbegan to cry.  They were hungry and scared.\n\n\"Don't cry children,\" said Mary. \"Remember Jesus is watching over us. He\nwill take care of us. Soon we will be in the village and then we can have\nsomething to eat and we can put on dry clothes.\"\n\nThey marched on. At last they came to the village. The village was dark and\nstill.  \"Hello, hello,\" called Mary. \"Is anyone here?\"\n\nNo one answered. Mary called again. At last two slaves came.\n\n\"Ma,\" said the oldest slave, \"the chief did not know you were coming\ntoday. The mother of the chief at Ifako died and all the people have gone\nto Ifako for the burying.\"\n\n\"All right,\" said Mary. \"We will wait here then for Mr. Bishop and the\nbaggage carriers.\"\n\n\"I will send a messenger to Chief Edem,\" said the slave, \"to tell him that\nyou have come.\"\n\nMary took some of her food and cooked it over an open fire in the pouring\nrain. She fed the children and put them to bed.\n\nAt last Mr. Bishop came to the village.\n\n\"I am sorry, Miss Slessor,\" he said. \"The carriers will not bring anything\nuntil tomorrow.  They are tired. They are afraid of the jungle trail.\"\n\n\"But tomorrow is Sunday,\" said Mary. \"It would be a bad example for them to\ndo work for us on Sunday. I will not have them work tomorrow.\"\n\n\"John,\" said Mary, turning to a young man who had come with Mr. Bishop,\n\"you go back and tell the carriers they must come tonight for we need food\nand dry clothing.\"\n\nAfter the young man had gone, Mary decided she should go and help. She took\noff her muddy shoes and started back through the dark and fearful\njungle. Mary was afraid when she heard the snarls of animals in the jungle,\nbut she put her trust in God and went on.\n\nAs Mary came near to the beach she met John.\n\n\"Ma Mary,\" he said, \"the men will not come. They will not bring the things\nuntil the daylight chases away the hidden dangers of the jungle.\"\n\n\"I will talk to them,\" said Mary. She plodded on through the mud. She came\nto the canoe. The men were all sound asleep. Mary woke them and put them to\nwork. In the meantime Mr. Bishop had coaxed some of the slaves from Ekenge\nto help. Soon all the things Mary had brought were being carried to Ekenge.\n\nSunday morning was cloudy. Mary got things ready for church. Church time\ncame.  But where were the people? Mary and Mr.  Bishop and the children\nbegan to sing hymns as loud as they could. Still no one came. How\ndiscouraging! All the people had been at the burying. When they buried\nsomebody, especially somebody important like the chief's mother, they would\nhave a wild party. The people would get drunk and do many other wicked\nthings. The next day they would be too tired and sick to do anything.\n\nMary and the children and Mr. Bishop kept on singing. At last a few women\ncame. Mary gathered them around her and told them the story of Jesus and\nHis love. The women listened but they did not say anything.\n\nAfter the service was over and the women had gone to their huts, Mary knelt\ndown and prayed.\n\n\"O God, my heavenly Father, with Your help I have made a beginning in the\njungles of Okoyong. Things look black and discouraging now, but I know that\nif it is Your will You can change all that. If it is not Your will that my\nwork is successful here, then send me wherever I can work best for You.\nForgive my sins. Make me a better and more faithful worker for You. And\nbless the work here in Okoyong. I ask this for Jesus' sake.  Amen.\"\n\nWould the work in Okoyong be a failure or a success? Time would tell. Mary\nknew that it depended on God.\n\nAt last Chief Edem and his people came back from the wild, drunken party at\nIfako.\n\n\"Welcome Ma Mary,\" said Chief Edem. \"I am glad you have come. I have a\nplace for you. You take this room here in my women's yard. It is for you.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Chief,\" said Mary. It was a dirty, filthy room, but it was the\nkind of room all the people of Okoyong used. Mary cleaned out the dirt. She\nhad a window put in. She hung a curtain over the door. While she was\nworking a boy came up to her.\n\n\"Ma Mary,\" he said, \"I am Ipke. I want to help you.\" Ipke worked hard. He\nhelped Mary as much as possible. Whatever there was to do, Ipke was ready\nto do it.\n\nA few days later Mary looked out of her room. She saw Ipke. He was standing\nnear a pot of boiling oil. A crowd of people stood around yelling and\nshouting.\n\nChief Edem came up to the crowd. Then a man took a dipper and filled it\nfull of boiling oil. Ipke stretched out his hands in front of him. Suddenly\nMary knew what was happening.  She rushed out of her house, but she was too\nlate. Already the man had poured the boiling oil over Ipke's arms and\nhands.\n\n\"Why have you done this?\" asked Mary.  Chief Edem said nothing. He turned\nand walked away. The other people also kept still. Mary took Ipke to her\nroom. She put medicine on the burns.\n\n\"Why did they do this to you, Ipke?\" she asked.\n\n\"It is because I helped the white Ma. The people say I do not follow the\nold ways. It is bad to follow new ways. I must be punished.  The bad spirit\nmust be burned out.\"\n\n\"O God,\" prayed Mary, \"heal this boy and help me to change the wicked\nheathen ways.\"\n\n\n\n\n#6#\n\n\n_A Brave Nurse_\n\nIt was strangely quiet in the village of Chief Okurike. The chief was\nsick. All the magic of the witch doctors could not make him better. If he\ndied, many of his wives, slaves and soldiers would be killed to go with him\ninto the spirit-world.\n\nA woman from a neighboring village came to the house of Chief Okurike's\nwives.\n\n\"You are sad because Chief Okurike is dying,\" said the woman. \"I know\nsomeone who can help him. Far away through the jungle at Ekenge lives the\nwhite Ma. With her magic she can make devils go out of your chief. My son's\nchild was dying. The white Ma saved her. She is well today. The white Ma\nhas done many wonderful things by the power of her juju. Let your chief\nsend for her. Then he will not die.\"\n\nThe wives talked it over.\n\n\"We must tell the chief,\" said the head wife. \"He must send for the white\nMa. If he dies, many of us must die too. We do not want to die.\"\n\nThey told the chief about the strange white Ma at Ekenge.\n\n\"Let her be sent for,\" said the chief. \"Send swift runners to ask her to\ncome.\"\n\nAll day long the men hurried through the jungle along the narrow\npaths. They went through many villages but they did not stop.  At last\nafter eight hours, they came to the village of Ekenge.\n\n\"We are the men of Chief Okurike,\" said the men to Chief Edem. \"Chief\nOkurike is very sick. We want the white Ala who lives in your village to\ncome and heal him.\"\n\n\"She will say for herself what she will do,\" said Chief Edem. He sent a man\nto tell Mary some men from Chief Okurike wanted to see her. Mary came at\nonce to see what was wanted.\n\n\"Ma,\" said the men, \"Chief Okurike sent us. He is very sick. Come and bring\nyour magic medicines and make him well.\"\n\n\"What kind of sickness does your chief have?\" asked Mary. \"Maybe I can send\nthe medicine with you.\"\n\nThey shook their heads. They did not know what the sickness was.\n\n\"I must help,\" said Mary to herself. \"If the chief dies, then according to\ntheir heathen way the tribe will kill all his wives and slaves so he will\nhave company on the long trip to the spirit-world. I must go and teach them\nabout the Good Shepherd who is with us even in the valley of the shadow of\ndeath. If the chief should die and the tribe think that it is because of\nwitchcraft it will be even worse.  Many people will be killed because the\ntribe will think they used witchcraft to kill the chief.\"\n\n\"I will go with you,\" said Mary.\n\n\"There are warriors out in the jungle and you will be killed. You must not\ngo,\" said Chief Edem.\n\n\"It is a long journey,\" said Ma Eme.  \"There are deep rivers to cross. It\nis raining very hard. You will never get there.\"\n\n\"If Chief Okurike dies, there will be fighting and killing. You will be in\ngreat danger,\" said Chief Edem. \"Don't go.\"\n\nMary knew that if anything happened to her, Chief Edem would go to war\nagainst the tribe of Chief Okurike, because she was his guest, and a chief\nmust protect his guest.  Mary prayed to God about it. Then she said to\nChief Edem, \"I am sure that God wants me to go. It will be a chance to tell\nthese people about Jesus who heals the soul-sickness. God will take care of\nme.\"\n\n\"Well, Ma, I do not like it, but you may go if you wish. I will send women\nwith you to look after you. I will send men to protect you.\"\n\nEarly the next morning they started on the journey. It was raining\nhard. After they had left Ekenge, it began to pour. The jungle was flooded\nand steaming hot. It was hard to go, but Mary and the guard pushed on.\nSoon Mary's clothes were soaked through.  They became so heavy she could\nhardly walk.  Her boots became water soaked. She took them off and threw\nthem in the bush. Soon her stockings wore out and she walked through the\njungle mud barefooted. She knew she was doing God's work, and even fearful\nrainstorms were not going to stop her.\n\nAfter three hours the weather began to clear, but now Mary's head began to\nache from fever. As Mary and the guard passed through the jungle villages,\nthe people looked at Mary with surprise. But nothing would stop Mary. She\npushed on, and after walking through the jungle for eight hours, she\nstumbled into the village of the sick chief.\n\nSome of the people were crying. They expected to be killed when the chief\ndied.  Others were laughing and shouting. They were going to have \"fun\"\nwhen the chief died. They were going to kill people and have a wild party.\n\nMary was tired and sick, but she went at once to the chief's house. He was\nstretched out on a dirty bed. His face was gray with sickness. He was\nmoaning and groaning. He was very near death.\n\nMary examined the chief to see what his sickness was. She opened her little\nmedicine chest and took out some medicine.  She gave the chief a dose. It\nmade the chief a little better.\n\n\"I don't have enough of this medicine with me,\" said Mary. She knew that\naway on the other side of the river another missionary was working. She\nknew he had some of the medicine. She went to the men of the village.\n\n\"You must go across the river to Ikorofiong for more medicine,\" said Mary.\n\n\"No, no, we cannot go,\" said the men of the village. \"Our enemies are on\nthe other side of the river. They will kill us if we go there.\"\n\n\"But I must have the medicine,\" said Mary.\n\n\"There is a man from that village down the river a little ways. He is\nliving in his canoe on the river. Maybe he will go,\" said one of the men.\n\nSome of the men ran down to the river.  They found the man. They promised\nhim many things. At last he said he would go.  The next day he brought the\nmedicine to Mary.\n\nFor days Mary nursed Chief Okurike. She taught one of his wives how to help\nher. She also told the chief and his family about Jesus.  Whenever she\ncould leave the chief for a short time she would talk to the tribe about\nthe Saviour and how He would change their lives if they believed in Him.\n\nDay after day Mary prayed for Chief Okurike. At last prayer won out. Chief\nOkurike got well. The people were very happy.\n\n\"Ma Mary,\" they said, \"we want to learn book.\" They meant that they wanted\nto learn about the Bible.\n\n\"I am glad you do,\" said Mary, \"but then you must do what the Book says.\"\n\n\"We will,\" said the people. \"We will make peace with Calabar. We will not\nkill the traders who come to our land or the other white people.\"\n\n\"Then I will always be your worker and I will send you a teacher as soon as\nI can, who will teach you of the Saviour who died for you to pay for your\nsins.\"\n\nMary went back to Ekenge. Here she found that Chief Edem was very sick. He\nhad some very bad boils on his back. Mary put medicine on the boils. Every\nday she came to his house and took care of him. One day when she came in\nshe saw feathers and eggs lying around the room. This was witch doctor\n\"medicine.\" On the Chief's neck and around his arms and legs were witch\ncharms.\n\n\"Oh, Chief Edem,\" said Mary, \"how could you do this? Surely you know that\ndoing witchcraft is a sin against God. I do not see how you could go back\nto it after you had learned to know about Jesus.\"\n\n\"Ma, you don't know all about these things.  Someone is the cause of this\nsickness. You don't know all the badness of the black man's heart. Look,\nhere are the proofs that someone is working witchcraft against me. The only\none who can fight that is the witch doctor.  He is the only one who can\nmake me well. See, here are the things that were taken from my back.\"\n\nChief Edem pointed to a collection of shot, egg shells, seed and other\nthings which the witch doctor said had come from his back. He believed the\nwitch doctor. He believed that someone using witchcraft had sent them into\nhis back.\n\nMary knew what would happen. Everybody whom the chief thought might have\ndone the witchcraft would have to take poison. The people thought that if\nthe person who took the poison died, he was guilty, but if he was not\nguilty he would live. The tribe would also use other tortures like pouring\nboiling oil on people to get them to confess.\n\n\"That is all wrong,\" said Mary. \"The sickness is because you have not eaten\ngood things or taken care of yourself and kept as clean as you should\nhave. Don't believe the bad witch doctor.\" (God said something about that\nin Exodus 22:18.)\n\nChief Edem would not listen. He had everyone he thought might have the\nwitchcraft made a prisoner. The witch doctor took the chief and his wives\nand chief men and prisoners to a nearby farm. Mary was not allowed to come\nto this farm.\n\nMary knew of Someone who could help her.  She prayed to God again and again\nto keep these people from doing the bad things they planned. Days went\nby. Mary prayed that Chief Edem might get well. God heard Mary's\nprayers. He did what she asked. He made Chief Edem well again.\n\nWhen Chief Edem was well again he decided not to kill the prisoners, the\npeople he thought might have done witchcraft against him. He let them go\nfree. Then the chief and his wives and the chief men came back to the\nvillage.\n\nThe tribe had a big party to celebrate.  They were happy the chief was\nwell. It was the wildest party Mary had ever seen. The people stuffed\nthemselves with food until they became sick. They got drunk. They had wild\ndances. They did many wicked things.\n\nMary had often prayed that God would turn the heathen people from their\nwicked ways, but here they were carrying on worse than ever. The only\nanswer to her prayers that she could see was that the prisoners who were\ngoing to be killed had been set free.\n\n\"Am I doing anything for my Saviour?\"  Mary asked herself. \"Am I having any\nsuccess in winning people for Jesus?\"\n\n\n\n\n#7#\n\n\n_Witchcraft_\n\nOne day Chief Njiri and his warriors came to visit Chief Edem. They stayed\nseveral days. They had wild parties every day. They drank native beer until\nthey became drunk. Then they would quarrel and fight. They asked Mary to\nsettle their quarrels and decide who was right. Mary was praying every day\nthat there would not be bad fights and that no one would be killed.\n\nFinally it was the last night of the visit.  The men were so drunk that\nMary knew there would be trouble. When the chief and his men were ready to\nleave, everyone was excited.  The people were shouting and pushing.  Some\nshots were fired and the men began stabbing with their swords. They were\ntoo drunk to know what they were doing. Mary ran into the crowd. She went\nup to Chief Njiri.\n\n\"Chief,\" said Mary, \"your visit is over. Go now before trouble starts.\" She\ntook hold of the chief's arm and led him out of the village and his men\nfollowed him. They started for their own village.\n\n\"I'm glad that's over,\" said Mary, but she had spoken too soon.\n\nOn their way home, as they were staggering along, Bakulu, one of Njiri's\nmen, cried out, \"Look!\" and pointed with his finger. The chief and his men\nstopped.\n\n\"It is witchcraft,\" said Bakulu. \"See the little banana plant with palm\nleaves, nuts and a coconut shell close by!\"\n\n\"Don't go past it,\" said one of the other men. \"It is bad medicine. You\nwill get sick and die.\"\n\n\"It is the people in the last village we passed through. They did it. Let\nus punish them,\" said Chief Njiri.\n\n\"Yes, let's punish them,\" shouted the men.  Mary had been following the men\nto make sure they would go home.\n\nShe heard the shouting. Now the men started running past her. She tried to\nstop them, but they slipped away. Mary took a short cut through the\njungle. She reached the road to the village before the men did.\n\n\"God, our Father in Heaven,\" prayed Mary, \"help me for Jesus' sake to stop\nthese men, so there will not be a bloody battle.\"\n\n\"Stop,\" she cried as the first men came in sight. \"Stop, I want to talk to\nyou.\"\n\nThe men stopped. The others soon came running up. They had to stop, too.\n\n\"You men are planning to do something bad. You do not know that the people\nof this village did bad things to you. You only think they did. You have\ndrunk too much beer.  You do not know what you are doing. Go home.\"\n\n\"But Ma,\" said Njiri, \"they have made bad medicine against us. They made\nwitchcraft.  They must be punished before we are hurt.\"\n\nNjiri and his men argued with Mary, but finally they listened to her. They\nturned around and once more started for home.  Mary went with them to make\nsure they would get there. At last they came again to the banana plant and\nthe witch medicine.  They were afraid to pass it.\n\n\"If we pass it, we will get sick and die,\" said Njiri.\n\n\"That is sinful foolishness,\" said Mary.  \"That banana plant and those\nother things will not hurt you. I am not afraid of them.\"\n\nMary picked up the banana plant, the palm leaves, nuts and coconut shell\nand threw them into the jungle.\n\n\"Now, brave men, come on. I have cleared the path. Let us go to your\nvillage.\"\n\nTimidly the men tiptoed past the place where the \"medicine\" had been. Then\nthey went on to their own village. Once more Mary thought that all would be\npeaceful now for a while. She started for the village of Ekenge.\n\nNo sooner was Mary gone than the people of Njiri began drinking again. Then\nthey started quarreling and fighting. One of the men in the village ran and\ntold Mary.\n\n\"I will fix that,\" said Mary. She took some of the men of Ekenge with\nher. She went to the village of Njiri. With the help of the men of Ekenge\nand some of the people of the village, they tied some of the most drunken\nmen and the wildest fighters to the trees. They left them there to cool\nthemselves in the breezes of the jungle.\n\nAfter several hours Mary untied them because she was afraid that some lions\nmight come and kill and eat them. Now that things were quiet, Mary again\nstarted for home. On the way she picked up the little banana plant that had\ncaused so much trouble and took it with her.\n\n\"I will plant it in my own yard and see what witchcraft can do!\" said Mary.\n\nEarly the next morning, a man from Njiri's village came running into\nEkenge. He went to Mary's house.\n\n\"Ma,\" said the runner, \"Chief Njiri was very sick last night. He suffered\nvery much.  The witch doctor took sticks and shells and shot from his\nleg. It is because he walked past the banana plant and other magic\nmedicine.  Give me the little banana plant for the chief.\"\n\n\"No, I cannot do that,\" said Mary. She knew that if the banana plant was\ntaken to the chief, someone would die because of the witchcraft belief.\n\n\"But you must send it,\" said Chief Edem.  \"If you do not send it, he will\nmake war on us.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said Mary, \"I will send it. But I know there will be much\ntrouble.\"\n\nSo he took the banana plant to Chief Njiri.  When he received it, he and\nhis warriors went to the village which he thought was working witchcraft\nagainst him. He made all the people of the village come to him. In great\nfear they came.\n\n\"Every one of you must swear that you did not make that bad medicine\nagainst me. I am going to find out who is working that witchcraft to hurt\nme.\"\n\nAll the people of the village swore they had not done it.\n\n\"I am going to take one of your finest young men with me. If I find that\nyou have told me a lie, I will kill him.\"\n\nNjiri's warriors captured a young man and took him along. If the villagers\nhad tried to rescue him, he would have been killed, and many of them would\nhave been killed also.  They sent a man to Mary.\n\n\"Ma,\" said the man, \"please help us. Please get Njiri to free Kolu.\"\n\n\"I don't like to have anything to do with Njiri. He is very wicked. But I\nwill go and try to get Kolu free.\"\n\nMary went to the village of Chief Njiri.  She walked right up to the\nchief. The warriors of Chief Njiri looked at her with angry faces. They\nshook their spears at her.\n\n\"Chief Njiri,\" said Mary, \"why have you taken this young man? He has done\nyou no harm. You are doing a bad thing.\"\n\n\"Ha, ha,\" laughed Chief Njiri. \"Do you think I am so foolish, Ma? I know\nthese people put bad medicine in my path. I saw the sticks and shells which\nthe witch doctor took from my leg. If sickness comes, I will kill this\nman.\"\n\n\"The village people have sworn to you that they did not put those things in\nyour path,\" said Mary.\n\n\"Perhaps they are lying.\"\n\n\"They are not lying, but you have lied.  You promised to go home and not\nharm these people. You lied to me. You have made trouble. You went to their\nvillage and made them swear. You stole this young man. It is wrong to\nlie. God will surely punish those who speak with a lying tongue. Please set\nthis young man free so that he may return to his village and his people.\"\n\n\"Ma,\" answered Chief Njiri, \"you do not understand these things. You do not\nknow the badness in the hearts of these people.  You do not know the bad\nthings they want to do against me. You do not know about witchcraft.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, I do,\" said Mary. \"I know that God will punish those who do\nwitchcraft. He will punish those who are foolish enough to believe in\nit. The people who trust in Jesus do not fear witchcraft. Why do you not\ntrust in Jesus?\"\n\n\"I don't need Jesus. I am a strong chief.  I have many warriors. No one can\nharm me.\"\n\n\"If no one can hurt you, why don't you set this young man free?\"\n\n\"I will not set him free. If I keep him, his people will be afraid even to\ntry hurting me.\"\n\n\"But think, Chief, how you would feel if you were captured and taken away\nfrom your people? Think how sad this young man feels.  Great chiefs show\nmercy and kindness to the weak. Will you show mercy and kindness to the\npeople of the village and free this young man?\"\n\n\"A great chief is not weak. He does not act like a woman. A woman shows\nkindness and love. I am not weak. I will punish. I will revenge myself on\nthose who would do evil to me.\"\n\n\"Revenge belongs to the true and powerful God. He will punish those who do\nevil. I beg you, Chief Njiri, to set this man free.\"\n\n\"Ma, if I were not a good chief I would have killed you a long time\nago. But go now.  I do not want to hear your talk. I will not set this\nyoung man free. Maybe I will kill him. Maybe I will not kill him. But I\nwill not set him free. Go, before I become angry with you.\"\n\n\"I will go, but remember Chief Njiri, the great and powerful God who sees\nand knows the badness in your heart. He knows the evil you do. Please turn\nto Him and believe in Him before it is too late and you end in Hell, the\nplace where bad people suffer forever.\"\n\n\"Go,\" said Chief Njiri angrily, \"get out of my village. Go back to Ekenge.\"\n\nSadly Mary started back to Ekenge.\n\n\"I have failed these people who asked for my help. O God, soften the heart\nof Chief Njiri and keep Your protecting hand over the young man Kolu.\"\n\nWhen Chief Edem heard that Njiri would not set the man free, he said,\n\n\"Njiri has insulted our Ma. Let the warriors get their spears and\nshields. Let us get ready for war.\"\n\nThe women slipped quietly into Mary's room to tell her the latest news. It\nmade Mary sad that these men were getting ready for a war, but neither one\nof the chiefs would listen to her. Mary knew where to go for help. She\nprayed to God.\n\n\"O God,\" prayed Mary, \"You can stop this war. You can soften the hearts of\nthese cruel chiefs. Please stop this war so that the warriors may not be\nkilled and their wives made widows and their children orphans.  Hear me for\nthe sake of Jesus, my Saviour.\"\n\nA man knocked on the door of Mary's hut.  \"Ma, Ma,\" he cried, \"Kolu has\nbeen set free. Chief Njiri let him go, and he is back at the village. There\nwill be no war!\"\n\n\"Thank You, Father in Heaven,\" prayed Mary. \"Thank You that You heard my\nprayers and that peace and quiet will again be in the villages.\"\n\nMary had a true friend in Ma Eme, the sister of Chief Edem. She helped Mary\noften.  She did everything she could to help Mary and the mission, but one\nthing she never did, that was to confess Christ openly. She and Mary talked\nof many things as they worked together. One day Ma Eme said,\n\n\"When my husband died, I had to go through the chicken test.\"\n\n\"What is that?\" asked Mary.\n\n\"All of my husband's wives, I too, were put on trial. The witch doctors\nwere trying to find who caused my husband, a great chief, to die. Each of\nus had to bring a chicken.  The witch doctor chopped off the heads of the\nchickens one at a time. If the headless chicken fluttered one way, the\nwitch doctor said the wife was innocent. If it fluttered the other way, he\nsaid she was guilty.\"\n\n\"What happened when they cut off the head of your chicken?\" asked Mary.\n\n\"It fluttered wildly in the right direction.  The witch doctor said I was\ninnocent. But the strain had been so great I fainted and had to be carried\nto my hut. But many of the other wives were killed.\"\n\n\"You do not believe in the witch doctors, do you?\" asked Mary.\n\nMa Eme looked all around. Then she stepped close to Mary and whispered,\n\"No, but I would not tell anyone else. They are too strong and tricky. They\ncould cause me much trouble if they knew I was against them.\"\n\n\"I shall fight the witch doctors as long as God gives me strength. God is\nagainst the witch doctors who do such evil things.\"\n\nChief Edem had promised Mary a house, and the people of the village had\nsaid they would build it. But whenever Mary wanted to start, they would\nsay, \"Tomorrow, we will start, Ma.\" But tomorrow just did not come.\n\nAt last Mary and the children she had adopted and the native children\ncleared the ground. They stuck sticks in the ground for the wall. They\nbegan to make the roof. Then some of the lazy people of the village began\nto help, and at last the house was built.\n\nMary also wanted to build a church and school at Ifako. The chief there had\npromised to help. But the people of that village were lazy, too. They were\nalways putting off doing the building. One morning a man came from Ifako.\n\n\"My master wants you,\" he said.\n\nMary went to Ifako. The chiefs were together at a cleared piece of ground.\n\n\"See, Ma, here is your ground. Here are the sticks, and mud, and palm\nleaves and other things we need to build. Shall we build the church today?\"\n\nIt did not take long for Mary to say yes.  The people of the village forgot\nto be lazy.  They were having fun building the church.  When it was finally\nfinished it was twenty-five feet wide by thirty feet long. We would not\nthink that was a very big building, but it was the biggest in the village.\n\n\"See,\" said the Chief of Ifako, \"it is much better than the house at\nEkenge.\"\n\n\"It is a fine church,\" said Mary. \"Now we must keep it clean and\nnice. There should be no dirty things in or around God's house.\"\n\nWe would not think it was such a fine church. The walls were made of dry\nmud and sticks. The roof was made of palm-leaf mats.  The floors were made\nof mud and so were the seats. But everything was polished and rubbed as\nsmooth as possible. There were no windows or doors in the building. There\nwere just holes in the wall to let in the light for windows and a larger\nhole to serve as an entrance.  But Mary thought it was a fine church\nbecause it was the best in that part of the country and because it was a\nplace where people could hear about the Saviour and learn \"book.\"\n\n\"We will hold our first service in the new church next Sunday,\" said\nMary. \"I want you all to come.\"\n\n\"We will come, Ma,\" promised the natives.\n\n\n\n\n#8#\n\n\n_The Poison Test_\n\n\"Tomorrow we will have our first service in our new church. You must dress\nright for it,\" said Mary.\n\nShe took out of her mission boxes clothes of all kinds and colors which the\npeople in the homeland had sent to her.\n\n\"You must wear these to church tomorrow,\" said Mary. \"In God's house you\nmust be clean. You must be dressed. You must not bring your spears into\nchurch.\"\n\n\"Can we come?\" asked the children.\n\n\"Indeed you can,\" said Mary. \"The children can come and the slaves can\ncome. God's house is open to everyone.\"\n\nThe next day was indeed a happy day for Mary. The church was filled with\npeople.  Many of them came just out of curiosity, but there were many who\nhad learned to know and love and trust in Jesus.\n\nMary now started day classes and these too were crowded because many wanted\nto learn \"book.\" They wanted to learn about Ma's God and about the Saviour\nwho took away sins. It was not long before a change could be seen in many\nof these people. They had become Christians. The look of fear was gone from\ntheir eyes. They no longer feared the demons because they had a Saviour who\nloved them and took care of them. They did not do the wicked things they\nhad done before. They tried to live as God wanted them to live.\n\nMary was happy. Now she wanted to build a larger and better mission house\nin Ekenge.  Chief Edem wanted that too. He felt that the church schoolhouse\nin Ifako quite outshone the little two-room house in Ekenge. Mary wanted\ndoors and windows in the new house.  She could not make them. The natives\ncould not. They had never seen any.\n\nMary wrote to the Mission Board about it.  The Mission Board put a notice\nin the magazine they published asking for a practical carpenter who was\nwilling to go to Calabar.  Mr. Charles Ovens saw the notice.\n\n\"This is God's call to me,\" he said. \"I have wanted to be a missionary ever\nsince I was a little boy. I could not study to be a minister.  I learned to\nbe a carpenter. Now I can be a carpenter for God. I can build mission\nhouses and churches and while I build I can tell the people about my\nSaviour.\"\n\nIt was in May, 1889, that Mr. Ovens started for Calabar. In Duke Town he\nfound a native helper and the two of them went to Ekenge. Mary was very\nglad to have him come. He was a very jolly man. He sang at his\nwork. Everyone liked him and the natives gladly helped him in building the\nhouses.\n\nFor a long time Mary had been trying to get the chiefs of Okoyong to trade\nwith the traders on the coast. They would not listen.  Now she invited them\nto her new house. She showed them the things she had and how useful they\nwere. The chiefs looked at the door and windows. They liked them. The women\nlooked at the clothes and at the sewing machine. They liked them. They\nlooked at the clock on the mantel. They liked it, too.\n\n\"We will trade with coast people,\" said Chief Edem.\n\nMary wrote to the traders and invited them to Okoyong. She told them to\nbring dishes, dress goods, mirrors, clocks, and the like to trade for\nivory, oil, and bananas and other things in the jungle.\n\n\"It is too dangerous to come up-country,\" answered the traders. \"We are\nafraid the native guards on the jungle paths will kill us.\"\n\nMary wrote to good King Eyo, of Duke Town. She asked him to invite the\nOkoyong chiefs for a conference. She promised they would bring jungle goods\nto trade.\n\nKing Eyo invited the chiefs. They did not want to go. Mary told them of the\ninteresting things they would see on the coast. She told them of the good\nthings they could get by trading. At last they agreed to go. They collected\ntwo canoeloads of bananas, barrels of oil and other jungle crops. Then the\nchiefs and warriors came marching down to the river to go to the coast.\n\n\"Wait,\" said Mary. \"You cannot take those spears and swords and guns\nalong. You will only get into trouble. You must leave your swords and\nspears, your guns and knives at home.\"\n\nWhen Mary said this, many of the natives disappeared into the jungle. They\nwould not go without their weapons.\n\n\"Ma, you make women of us,\" argued those who remained. \"Would a man go\namong strangers without arms?\"\n\n\"You may not take arms,\" said Mary.  \"You are not going to war. You are\ngoing for a friendly visit.\"\n\n\"If we cannot take our swords and guns we will not go. We will stay home.\"\n\n\"But you promised and I promised King Eyo that you would come. Will you go\nback on your word and make me a liar?\"\n\nFor two hours they argued with Mary. The beach filled with natives from the\nvillage who wanted to see the chiefs start on their trip.  The chiefs did\nnot want to look like cowards to the people of the village. At last they\ntook off their swords and gave their guns to their white Ma. Those who had\nrun away to the jungle came back and decided to go along.\n\n\"We do not like this,\" said the chiefs, \"but we will go. We will not make\nyou a liar, Ma.\"\n\nThey got off into their boats. As one of the boats rowed off, one of the\nbags shifted. Mary saw the gleam of flashing swords.\n\n\"Stop!\" cried Mary. The rowers stopped.  Mary took the swords and threw\nthem into the river.\n\n\"Shame on you,\" said Mary. \"I did not think you would try to fool me like\nthat.\" The chiefs said nothing. They just rowed down the river.\n\nThe chiefs who went to Duke Town had a wonderful time. They went to the\nchurch services. King Eyo Honesty talked with them about the Gospel and\nwhat it meant for their lives. He took them to his house and had a big\ndinner for them. They traded the bananas, oil, and other things which they\nhad brought for things to take home like mirrors, clocks, and white\npeople's clothes. Then the next day they rowed back to Ekenge.\n\nThe village people were all gathered down at the landing place to welcome\nthe chiefs home. They watched patiently for the boats.  When the boats came\nthe people shouted for joy.\n\n\"Welcome home, Chief Edem,\" said Mary.  \"How was your trip? Did you enjoy\nyour visit at Duke Town?\"\n\n\"The trip was fine, Ma,\" said Chief Edem.  \"Duke Town is a big\nvillage. They have a big churchhouse. We saw many things.\"\n\n\"Did you need your guns and swords?\"  asked Mary.\n\n\"No, Ma, you were right. We did not need guns or swords. King Eyo was good\nto us.  We have many fine things.\"\n\n\"If you work hard and get things to trade, you can get many more fine\nthings,\" said Mary.\n\n\"We are going to work hard. We want many of those fine things we saw.\"\n\nThe men did work. Because they were busy they had less time and less desire\nto get drunk and quarrel. Mary's missionary work was having its effect on\nthe lives of the people. Slowly they were changing from their heathen ways,\nbut there was still much to do.\n\nOne day while Mary and Mr. Ovens were working on the mission house they\nheard a wild scream from the nearby jungle. Mary jumped up.\n\n\"Something is wrong in the jungle,\" said Mary. \"Johnny, go and see what it\nis.\"\n\nOne of her orphan boys ran off to find out what was wrong. In a few minutes\nhe came back.\n\n\"Ma, Ma,\" he cried, \"a man is hurt. Maybe he is dead. Come quick.\"\n\nMary grabbed her case of medicines and followed Johnny into the\njungle. When she reached the place where the young man was lying, she\nlooked into his face.\n\n\"It is Etim, the son of our chief, Edem. He is going to get married soon\nand is building his house. A tree fell the wrong way and hit him. He cannot\nmove his arms or legs. This means bad trouble. The people will say it is\nwitchcraft.\"\n\nMary with her helpers quickly made a stretcher to carry Etim. They carried\nhim to his mother's home at Ekenge.\n\n\"I will nurse him,\" said Mary to Etim's mother.\n\nFor two weeks Mary took care of him night and day. She prayed God to spare\nthe young man's life. She did everything she knew to help him. Etim did not\nget better. Day by day he became worse. Sunday morning came.  Mary could\nsee that he did not have long to live. She left him for a short time to\narrange for Mr. Ovens to take care of the church services. Hearing Etim\ngroaning and crying out, she rushed back to the house where he was.\n\nThe natives were blowing smoke into his nose. They were rubbing pepper into\nhis eyes. His uncle, Ekponyong, shouted into his ears. They thought they\nwere helping him to get well. Instead they made him die sooner.  In a\nmoment he gave a cry and fell back dead.\n\n\"Etim is dead!\" cried the people in the house. \"Witches have killed him!\nThey must die! Bring the witch doctor at once!\"\n\nThe people who were in the house quickly disappeared, and soon only Mary\nand Etim's relatives were left. When the witch doctor came, he did all\nkinds of queer things, which he said would tell him who had made the young\nman die. He pretended to be listening to the dead boy talk.\n\n\"It is the people of Payekong. They are to blame. They put a spell on him,\"\nsaid the witch doctor.\n\nChief Edem called for the leader of his soldiers.\n\n\"Take my warriors and go to Payekong,\" said Chief E'dem. \"Capture the\npeople and burn down the houses. Quickly now!\"\n\nThe warriors were too late. Chief Akpo, the chief of Payekong, had heard\nthe news.  He and his people had run off into the jungle.  Only a few\npeople were left in the village.  Those were captured by Edem's soldiers\nand brought to Ekenge.\n\nMary was sure that Chief Edem would make the people take the poison bean\ntest.  This is how the test was made: A small brown bean full of poison was\ncrushed and put into water. The person who was tested had to drink the\npoison water. The natives thought that if the person drank the water and\ndied, he was guilty; if he lived, he was innocent.\n\n\"That is no way to honor your son, Chief Edem,\" said Mary. \"You know it is\nwrong and sinful to kill people.\"\n\n\"But they are bad people. They deserve to die.\"\n\n\"You do not know that. That water is poison. Anyone who drinks it would\ndie.\"\n\n\"Oh, no, Ma, if the one who drinks it is innocent he will live.\"\n\n\"I do not agree with you. Come, let us honor your son in a better way.\"\n\nMary wrapped the young man's body in silk. She dressed him in the finest\nsuit she could find. She wrapped a silk turban around his head and then\nplaced a high red and black hat with bright colored feathers on his head.\nNo chief had ever been dressed so fine for his burial. The body was carried\nout into the yard and seated in a large chair under an umbrella.  A\nsilver-headed stick and a whip was placed in his hand. This showed he was a\nchief's son. A mirror was also put in his hand so he could see how\nwonderful he was.  On a table beside him were placed all his\ntreasures. Those included skulls he had taken in war. Then the people were\nlet into the yard to see Etim.\n\nThe people shouted. They were so happy they danced around. They called for\nwhiskey to drink. Chief Edem gave them much whiskey to drink. They became\nwilder and wilder.\n\nMary and Mr. Ovens took turns watching the prisoners. They were afraid the\npeople would kill them. As Mary was going to her house for a little rest,\nshe saw some poison beans on the pounding stone. This filled her with\nfear. She was not afraid for herself, but for the poor prisoners. She fell\non her knees and prayed.\n\n\"Dear Father in Heaven,\" prayed Mary, \"watch over these poor people. Do not\nlet harm come to these prisoners. Keep the other people from doing\nmurder. Give me the courage to face the chiefs and tell them they are\nwrong. In all these things may Thy will be done. I ask this in Jesus'\nname.\"\n\nAfter she had prayed Mary got up and went to Chief Edem and his brother\nEkponyong.\n\n\"You must forbid the poison bean test,\" said Mary. \"It is wrong and\nsinful. God is watching what you do. Do not do that sinful thing.\"\n\n\"That is my business,\" said Chief Edem.  \"I am the chief of this tribe. I\nwill do what seems good to me.\"\n\nMary argued with the chief, but he would not listen. Ekponyong, his\nbrother, encouraged Edem to make the prisoners take the poison bean\ntest. Mary then went to the yard where the prisoners were kept. She sat\ndown in the gateway. She was not going to let anyone get the\nprisoners. This made the chiefs very angry. The crowd of village people\nhowled and yelled. Chief Edem's warriors shook their swords and guns at her\nand stamped the ground angrily.\n\n\"Raise our master from the dead,\" shouted the people, \"and we will free the\nprisoners!\"\n\nMary kept her place. She wrote a note to Duke Town asking for help and sent\nit off secretly by one of her orphan boys. Still she watched over the\nprisoners. She would not leave her place in the gate. The people were angry\nwith her, but still many of them loved and respected their white Ma and\nwould not hurt her. Suddenly a man pushed his way through the crowd. He\nshoved Mary aside.  He grabbed one of the women prisoners. He dragged her\nin front of the body of Etim. He handed her the cup of poison.\n\n\"Drink!\" he cried. \"Drink and prove that you are innocent, or drink and\ndie!\"\n\n\n\n\n#9#\n\n\n_Victories for Mary_\n\n\"Oh ma, do not leave us. Please do not leave us,\" begged the other\nprisoners as the poor woman prisoner got ready to drink the poison.\n\n\"Lord, help me and help these poor people,\" prayed Mary.\n\nMary went up to the woman. The woman raised the cup of poison to her\nlips. Mary grabbed her arm.\n\n\"Run,\" she whispered. \"Run to the mission house.\"\n\nBefore the crowd knew what was happening, Mary and the woman had run far\ninto the jungle. They went to the mission house.  No one would dare to harm\nanyone in the mission house. Mary then went back to the other prisoners.\n\n\"O God, I thank Thee that I was able to help this poor woman get away. Help\nme to save these other prisoners also.\"\n\nWhen Mary got back to the other prisoners, the argument with the chiefs\nstarted again.\n\n\"An innocent person will not die if he drinks the poison,\" said\nEkponyong. \"Only a bad, guilty person will die.\"\n\n\"That is not right,\" answered Mary.  \"Poison will kill anyone, good or\nbad. Chief Edem, you know it was an accident that your son died. It was not\nthe fault of any of these people. Please let them go free.\"\n\n\"I want my son to be buried in a box like the white people,\" said Chief\nEdem. \"Will Bwana Ovens make a fine box for my son?\"\n\n\"I will make a coffin for your son if you will let the prisoners go free,\"\nsaid Mr. Ovens.\n\n\"No, no,\" said Chief Edem.\n\n\"Then I will not make a box for you.\"\n\n\"Well, then I will let some go free,\" said Chief Edem.\n\n\"No, you must not let them go free,\" said Ekponyong.\n\n\"If I want to let them go free, I can,\" said Chief Edem. \"I am chief, don't\nforget that.\"\n\n\"Show that you are a great and wise chief,\" said Mary. \"Let them all go\nfree.\"\n\nChief Edem thought a while. Then he spoke.\n\n\"If Bwana Ovens will make a fine box for my son then I will let all go free\nbut Mojo, Otinga, and Obwe,\" said Chief Edem.\n\n\"But why keep them?\" asked Mary.\n\n\"Mojo and Otinga are related to Etim's mother. They planned bad things\nagainst my boy. Obwe is related to Chief Akpo who has run away because he\nis guilty. Now if I let these others go will you build me a box Bwana\nOvens?\"\n\n\"Yes, I will build you a box,\" said Mr.  Ovens.\n\n\"Please let the three go free, too,\" said Mary. \"They have done you no\nwrong.\"\n\n\"We have done more for you than we have ever done before. We will do\nnothing else,\" said Chief Edem. He turned his back on Mary and walked away.\n\nPeople from other villages came to take part in the wild parties that were\nalways held when there was a funeral. Mary tried again and again to get\nEdem to free the three prisoners. Mary and Mr. Ovens managed to take Mojo\nand Otinga to the mission house where they were safe. Again Mary pleaded\nfor Obwe. Chief Edem was very angry.\n\n\"Will you not have me honor my son? You have run off with my prisoners. I\nwill burn down the mission house. I will send you back to Duke Town. Then\nyou cannot trouble me any longer.\"\n\n\"Brother, you do not speak wisely,\" said Ma Eme, E'dem's sister. \"The white\nMa has done many good things for us. If we burn down the mission house you\nwill have a bad name among all tribes. Chain Obwe in the white Ma's yard so\nthat the village people cannot harm her. She cannot get away and you can\nfind out later whether she is guilty or not.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" said Chief Edem, \"I will do that. But the three must be killed\nfor the funeral. What kind of a funeral will that be for a chief's son if\nno one is killed? He will have no one to go with him on the way to the dark\nland.\"\n\nThe next day two missionaries came from Duke Town in answer to Mary's\nnote. It was a great honor to have so many white people at a funeral. Chief\nEdem was no longer as angry as he had been. The missionaries showed slide\npictures. The natives had never seen anything like it before. It pleased\nthem very much and it also quieted them down.  The next day when the\nfuneral was held, a cow was killed and put in the coffin with Etim instead\nof the people who were thought to have worked witchcraft against him.\n\nMary was glad and thankful to God that she had been able to save the\nprisoners. The last of the prisoners was let go free on the promise that if\nChief Akpo was caught he would take the poison test. Mary heard that Etim\nwas the only chief in Okoyong ever to be buried without some people being\nkilled as a human sacrifice. The people of the jungle thought Mary was\nwonderful indeed.\n\nMary thought that this trouble was over, but a short time later Etim's\nuncle, who lived in a nearby village, was accused of having killed the\nyoung man. He came to Ekenge and met with the village chiefs.\n\n\"I am willing to take the poison bean test,\" said the uncle, \"if all of the\nchiefs will take the test. That means you, too, Edem. Those who are\ninnocent will not be hurt. I will take the test, but all the other chiefs\nmust, too.\"\n\nWhen Mary heard that Etim's uncle was going to take the poison bean test if\nthe other chiefs would, she rushed to the village. The men were\narguing. They were shaking their swords and guns at one another. Mary\nlooked around until she found the bag of poison beans. She took them and\nran off with them.\n\nThe chiefs could not find the poison beans.  Finally, they quieted\ndown. Chief Edem went to Mary.\n\n\"Give me the poison beans,\" he said. \"I know you have taken them.\"\n\n\"Yes, I took them,\" said Mary, \"but I will not give them to you. There has\nbeen enough trouble and sadness and fear. When will you be satisfied that\nyour son's death was an accident?\"\n\nChief Edem turned around and went back to the village. He sent all the\nchiefs home.  Nothing more was said about the poison bean test.\n\nNow Mary began to plead for Akpo, the chief of the village which the witch\ndoctor had said had caused Etim to be killed.\n\n\"Chief Edem, let him come home. Forgive him. He has done you no wrong.\"\n\nGod softened Edem's heathen heart. After several weeks he agreed to let\nAkpo come home.\n\n\"You may tell him,\" Edem said to Mary, \"that all thought of revenge is gone\nfrom my heart. If he wishes to return to his own village, he may do so, or\nhe may go anywhere in Okoyong in safety.\"\n\nNothing like that had ever been done before in the jungle. The heathen\npeople did not forgive. They always took revenge. Akpo did not believe Edem\nhad forgiven him. He did not want to trust Edem. At last Mary convinced him\nthat Edem meant just what he said and that Akpo could really go home.\n\nMary and Akpo came to his home village of Payekong. The houses had been\nburned. The cattle had been stolen. But it was still home.  Tears came to\nAkpo's eyes. Thankfully the chief kneeled at Mary's feet.\n\n\"Oh, Ma, thank you, thank you for what you have done for me and my\npeople. I and my people will always do whatever you ask.\"  Akpo kept his\npromise. Other chiefs often argued with Mary and threatened to hurt her,\nbut Akpo and his people always helped her and did whatever she wanted them\nto do.\n\nChief Edem now was kind to Akpo and his people. He built houses for them\nand helped them get their gardens started again. He gave them some cattle,\ntoo. After some time had gone by, Chief Edem came to Mary. He kneeled down\nbefore her.\n\n\"Thank you, Ma, for being brave. Thank you for keeping after me until I let\nthose prisoners go. I am glad that people were not killed at the time of\nEtim's death. Your ways are better than ours. We are tired of the old\nways.\"\n\nMany other people came and told her how glad they were that the old ways\nwere changing.  They said that they knew the old ways were bad. Mary had\nhad a very hard time in the jungles, but now things were going better. She\nwas busy all the time, teaching and preaching and nursing. She journeyed\nthrough the jungle where the wild animals were, but she did not fear. She\nwas trusting God to take care of her as He had taken care of Daniel in the\nlions' den. Always she told the people of the loving Saviour who had died\nfor their sins.\n\nAfter a time Mary fell sick. She caught the jungle fever. She became very\nweak.\n\n\"Mary,\" said Ovens, \"you must take a vacation.  You must get away from the\njungle for a while. You must go to England for a long rest. That way you\ncan get well and come back to work here at Okoyong.\"\n\n\"You are right,\" said Mary. \"Much as I hate to leave my work here, I know I\nmust go. I will ask for a furlough at once.\"\n\nFor three years Mary had worked in Okoyong.  But already there was a change\namong the heathen people. The Gospel of Jesus has a wonderful power to\nchange hearts and lives.  As soon as word came that another worker was\nbeing sent to take her place, Mary got ready to leave for England.\n\nAt last the day came that Miss Dunlop, the new worker, arrived. Mary was\nready to leave. Her friends carried her trunk and suitcases down to the\nEkenge landing. A great crowd had come to the landing to tell her good-by\nand wish her a safe journey.  Mary was telling them to help Miss Dunlop and\nto remain true to the Bible teaching. Suddenly a man was seen running\nthrough the crowd. He ran up to Mary.\n\n\"Come, white Ma, a young man has been shot in the hand, and he wants your\nmedicine!\"\n\n\"Don't go Ma,\" said Ma Eme, Mary's friend. \"You are tired and sick. You\nmust get back to England. If you go with this man you may miss your\nboat. Let someone else go.\"\n\n\"It is a bad tribe. They are always fighting.  It is dangerous to go,\" said\nChief Edem.  \"Do not go with the man.\"\n\n\"You cannot go,\" said her other friends at Ekenge. \"You are too sick to\nwalk. The wild animals in the jungle will kill you. The wild warriors are\nout. They will kill you in the dark, not knowing who you are.\"\n\n\"But I must go,\" said Mary.\n\n\"If you must go,\" said Chief Edem, \"then you must take two armed men with\nyou. You must get the chief of the next village to send his drummer with\nyou. When the people hear the drum, they will know that a protected person\nis traveling who must not be hurt.\"\n\nIt was night. Mary Slessor and the two men marched out into the\ndarkness. The lanterns threw strange shadows that looked like fierce men in\nthe darkness. At last Mary and her guard came to the village where they\nwere to ask for the drummer. They told the chief what Chief Edem had said,\nbut the chief did not want to help them.\n\n\"You are going to a fighting tribe,\" said the chief. \"They will not listen\nto what a woman says. You had better go back. I will not protect you.\"\n\n\"You don't think a woman can do much.  Maybe you are right,\" said Mary to\nthe chief.  \"But you forget what the woman's God can do. He can do\nanything. I shall go on.\"\n\nMary went on into the darkness. The natives watched her go. She must be\ncrazy, they thought. She had talked back to their chief who had the power\nto kill her. She had walked on into a jungle where wild leopards were ready\nto jump on her. She was going where men were drinking and making themselves\nwild. But Mary was not afraid. Once in talking about her trips through the\njungle Mary said, \"My great help and comfort was prayer. I did not used to\nbelieve the story of Daniel in the lions' den until I had to take some of\nthose awful marches through the jungle. Then I knew it was true. Many times\nI walked alone, praying, 'O God of Daniel, shut their mouths!' and He did.\"\n\nAfter pushing on through the darkness, Mary saw the dim outlines of the\nhuts of the village. All was quiet. Suddenly she heard the swift patter of\nbare feet. She was surrounded by warriors shouting, pushing and shaking\ntheir spears.\n\n\"What have you come for?\" asked the chief.\n\n\"I have heard a young man is hurt. I come to help him. I also heard that\nyou are going to war. I have come to ask you not to fight,\" said Mary.\n\nThe chief talked with some of his men.  Then he came up to Mary.\n\n\"The white Ma is welcome,\" he said. \"She shall hear all we have to say\nbefore we fight.  All the same we shall fight. Here is my son wounded by\nthe enemy. We must wipe out the shame put on us. We must get even for this\nbad thing. Now Ma you may give my son your medicine. Then you must\nrest. Women, you take care of the white Ma. We will call her at cockcrow\nwhen we start.\"\n\nMary fixed the young man's hand. Then she laid down in one of the huts for\nan hour's sleep. It seemed as though her eyes were hardly shut, before she\nheard a voice calling her.\n\n\"Ma, they are going to battle. Run, Ma, run!\"\n\nThe warriors were on the warpath. Mary could hear their wild yells and the\nroll of the war drums. Mary ran after them. She was tired from the hard\ntrip to their village. She was weak from the sickness she had. But nothing\ncould stop her. She caught up with the warriors just as they were getting\nready to attack an enemy village.\n\n\"Behave like men,\" she yelled, \"not like fools. Be quiet now. Do not yell\nand shout.\"\n\nThe warriors became silent.\n\n\"God says that revenge is wrong,\" said Mary. \"He will pay back wicked\npeople for the wrong things they do. You should not try to get even. Leave\nthat to God.\"\n\n\"No, no,\" said the chief. \"If we do not pay back for the wrong done us, the\ntribe will not be afraid of us. They will do more bad things to us.\"\n\n\"Yes, yes,\" shouted the warriors. They kept shouting and shaking their\nswords and guns.\n\n\"Did the whole village hurt you? Did the whole village shoot the young man?\nWhen you fight against the village you will hurt many women and\nchildren. They are innocent.  They have done nothing. Let us pray to God\nabout it.\"\n\nAll the warriors were quiet as Mary prayed. She asked God to please stop\nthe war if it was His will. She prayed for the young man who had been\nhurt. She prayed for whoever it was that hurt him, that he might turn away\nfrom his wickedness and become a Christian. She prayed for the people of\nthe village.\n\nThen Mary spoke to the warriors.\n\n\"You stay here,\" she said, \"I am going over to the village.\"\n\nFearlessly she walked over to where the line of village warriors were drawn\nup with their swords and spears.\n\n\"Hello,\" said Mary.\n\nThe warriors said nothing. Mary looked over the angry faces. Then she\nlaughed.\n\n\"Nice bunch,\" she said. \"Is this the way you welcome lady visitors?\"\n\nThe warriors stirred uneasily. They did not say anything.\n\n\"Where is your chief?\" asked Mary.  \"Surely he is not afraid to talk to\nme.\"\n\nAn old chief stepped out from behind the village warriors. To Mary's\nsurprise he kneeled down in front of her.\n\n\"Ma,\" he said, \"we thank you for coming.  It is true we shot the young man,\nthe young chief of those who have come to fight us. But it was one man who\ndid it. The whole village was not at fault. Please make peace. Tell us what\nwe must do.\"\n\nMary looked into the face of the chief. It was Chief Okurike. Long ago she\nhad made a hard trip through the jungle in pouring rain to help when he was\ndeathly sick. Because of what she had done then, he was now at her feet\nasking her to make peace. Mary shook hands with Chief Okurike. Then she\nspoke to his warriors.\n\n\"Stay where you are,\" she said. \"Some of you find a place where I can sit\nin comfort.  I am hungry. Bring me breakfast. I will not starve while men\nfight.\"\n\nThe warriors did as she told them.\n\n\"Now,\" she said, \"choose two or three men to speak for you. We shall have a\npalaver. In that way we will settle this thing.\"\n\nThe four men met and talked with one another while Mary ate breakfast.\n\n\"Why do you want to fight and kill because one drunken man wounded your\nyoung chief?\"  Mary asked the men from the fighting tribe.  \"Let the tribe\nof the drunken youth pay a fine.\"\n\nA long talk followed. Sometimes it became very exciting. The arguing grew\nloud. The father of the young man wanted to have the man who had shot him\npunished hard. When the men became angry, Mary would stop them.\n\n\"Let us pray about this,\" Mary would say.  After she had prayed they would\nsettle the point. Finally Mary and her God won out.\n\nThe fighting tribe at last agreed to be satisfied with a fine. The village\npaid the fine.  They did not use money. So the fine was paid in barrels and\nbottles of trade gin. Now Mary was worried. What should she do? She knew\nthe warriors would drink the gin right away.  She knew this would make them\nfight after all in spite of their promises. A quick thought came to\nher. According to the law of these people, clothes thrown over anything\ngave it the protection of your body. No one else could touch it. Mary\nsnatched off her skirt. She took off all the clothes she could spare. She\nspread them over the barrels and bottles.  Now no one could touch them.\n\nMary took the one glass the tribe had. She gave one glassful to each chief\nto show that there was no trick and that the barrels and bottles were\nreally filled with gin. Then she spoke to them about fighting. \"If all of\nyou go to your homes and don't fight,\" said Mary, \"I'll promise to send the\nstuff after you. I must go away. I have been sick and I must go where I can\nget strong again. I am going across the great waters to my home. I shall be\naway many moons. Will you promise me that you will not fight while I am\ngone? It will make me very happy if you will make that promise. It will\nmake me sad if you don't, for I will always be wondering whether you are\nfighting and hurting one another.\"\n\n\"I will promise,\" said the chief of the village, \"if the other chief will.\"\n\nAll the warriors looked at the chief whose son had been hurt. For a long\ntime he said nothing. His tribe had always been fighters.  It would be hard\nfor them to give up fighting.  The chief rubbed his chin. He scratched his\nhead.\n\n\"Yes, Ma,\" he said finally, \"I will promise that we will not fight while\nyou are gone.\"  The two villages kept the promise made by their\nchiefs. When Mary came back the two chiefs could say, \"It is peace.\"\n\nMary was very tired. Slowly she tramped through the hot jungle. After many\nhours she came to Ekenge.\n\n\"We have sent your trunks and things on ahead,\" said Chief Edem. \"Here are\nmy best rowers and best soldiers. They are ready to take you to Duke Town.\"\n\nMary once more stepped into the canoe.  This time there was no one to call\nher back.  Little black Janie, whom Mary had adopted, was with her.\n\n\"Good-by, good-by, Ma,\" shouted the crowd.  \"God keep you safe and bring\nyou back to us again.\"\n\nThe rowers pulled their oars strongly, and swiftly down the slow moving\nriver went the canoe. Three years Mary had spent in Okoyong.  Already she\nhad seen a change in the heathen people. A greater change was still to\ncome. Mary was going to see more of the power the Gospel has to change\nheathen hearts and lives.\n\n\n\n\n#10#\n\n\n_A Disappointment_\n\nMary wrote to the Mission Board;\n\nCharles and I are very much in love.\nWe would like to be married. Charles\nis a wonderful Christian and a very\nfine teacher. He would be a very great\nhelp in my jungle work. We hope that\nyou will agree to our marriage and let\nCharles go into the jungle with me.\n\nI am ready to do what you say. I lay\nthe whole matter in God's hands and\nwill take from Him what He sees best\nfor His work in Okoyong. My life was\nlaid on the altar for that people long\nago, and I would not take one jot or\ntittle of it back. If it be for His\nglory and the advantage of His cause\nthere to let another join in it, I\nwill be grateful. If not, I will be\ngrateful anyway, for God knows best.\n\nThe Board was very much surprised to get this letter. If the Board members\nhad thought about it at all, they had thought that Mary would never\nmarry. She was forty-three years old and Charles Morrison, her sweetheart,\nwas twenty-five. He was a mission teacher at Duke Town. The difference in\ntheir ages did not bother the sweethearts.  They met and had fallen in\nlove. They wanted to marry.\n\n\"I will marry you if the Mission Board will agree to letting you work in\nthe jungle with me,\" said Mary.\n\n\"But suppose the Board will not let me go into the jungle, wouldn't you be\nwilling to come back to Duke Town with me?\" asked Charles.\n\n\"No, Charles, I couldn't. I love you very much, more than anyone I have\never known, but my work for God is in the jungles. There no one else has\nyet planted the Gospel seed.  To leave a field like Okoyong without a\nworker and go to one like Duke Town with ten or a dozen workers where the\npeople have the Bible and plenty of privileges--that's foolish.  If God\ndoes not send you into the jungle with me, then you must do your work and I\nmust do mine where we have been placed.\"\n\nIt was not long after Mary had returned to England that the Mission Board\ngave its answer to her request. The answer was no.\n\n\"What the Lord decides is right,\" said Mary. \"I believe that the Mission\nBoard is giving me God's answer because they are His servants.\"\n\nWhat Mary suffered no one knew. She longed to have a life's partner by her\nside in the great work of bringing the Gospel to the jungle, but having\ngiven her life to God, she felt that He must be her first love. Charles\nMorrison, however, took the refusal very hard. He became sick and had to go\nhome.  Later he went to America where he died.\n\nNow that Mary was home in England, she soon got over the jungle\nfevers. People wanted to hear about the missionary work in Africa. Mary\nwent from church to church telling about her work. She did not like to do\nthis. She would rather be in the jungle telling the natives about Jesus.\n\n\"It is hard for me to speak,\" said Mary, \"but Jesus has asked me to do it,\nand it is an honor to speak for Him. I wish to do it cheerfully.\"\n\nEverywhere people were thrilled to hear about the work for Jesus in the\njungle. They wanted to do something, too. They gave money. They sent boxes\nof clothes and food and other things out to Africa to help the heathen.\n\nThen Mary got sick with influenza and bronchitis. She could not go around\nspeaking any more. Instead, she wrote some articles for a missionary paper.\n\n\"The Gospel must be preached to the people of Calabar,\" she said. \"Then the\npeople ought to be taught some trades. They should learn to be carpenters\nand farmers and the like. We ought to send out people who can teach them\nthese trades so that they can make a living.\"\n\nThis was a new idea to many people. They wrote to other missionaries to\nfind out what they thought about it. Later a school, \"The Hope Waddell\nTraining Institute,\" was started.  This school taught the boys and girls of\nCalabar many trades.\n\nMary was slow in getting well. She and Janie, the black girl she had\nbrought with her, went to the southern part of England, where the climate\nwas milder. It was hoped that the sea breezes and the mild climate would\nbring back her health. Days and weeks went by. Little by little Mary got\nbetter. The year 1891 came to an end. The bells rang in the New Year.\n\n\"Soon we can go back to dear Calabar,\" said Mary. \"Oh, how I want to get\nback and tell more people there about the Lord Jesus.\"\n\nIn February, 1892, Mary and Janie sailed for Calabar. What new adventures\nawaited them in Africa?\n\n\"Welcome home, Ma, welcome,\" shouted the people of Okoyong. \"God bless\nyou. Praise the Lord for sending you back to us!\"\n\nWhen Mary came back to Okoyong, things were much different from what they\nhad been the first time she came. Now there was a fine mission\nhouse. Churches and schoolhouses had been built in many of the villages.\nThe people were slowly but surely turning away from their heathen\ncustoms. Formerly no chief ever died without the sacrifice of many human\nlives, but this was not done any more. One of the chiefs said, \"Ma, you\nwhite people are God Almighty. No other power could have done this.\"\n\nThere were still many chiefs who liked to go to war and to fight with other\ntribes. But Mary had friends who would tell her of the plans of these\nchiefs. She would have to go to them and persuade them not to fight.  One\nof Mary's dearest friends was Ma Eme.  When she would hear of trouble, she\nwould send a messenger to Mary with a medicine bottle. This would mean, \"Be\nready for trouble.\"\n\nMary was so good at settling the arguments between the chiefs that the\nBritish government made her a vice-consul. This was something like a\ngovernor and judge. The jungle people would not let the white men come and\nmake new laws or settle their arguments, but they did listen to Mary. She\nwas a very fair and honest judge. The people loved and obeyed her.\n\nBut life was not easy. Not all the natives were Christians. Even those who\nwere, were not always good Christians but would sometimes slip back into\nthe old heathen ways.  Then it was hard for Mary and her helpers to get to\nthe different places. There were no easy roads through the jungles, and\nwild animals were always there ready to kill the careless traveler.\n\nMary received many gifts both from the natives and from her friends in\nEngland and Scotland. One of the gifts she loved the best was a little\nsteamboat, which the natives called \"smoking canoe.\" The boys and girls in\nScotland had given the money to buy this boat.\n\nBut Mary was not satisfied. She did not want to take life easy. As soon as\nshe had built a church and the people were beginning to become civilized,\nshe wanted to move on to wilder places.\n\n\"I want to start new work,\" said Mary.  \"Let those who are younger and who\nhave not been in this work as long as I have, take the places where the\nwork has been begun.\"\n\nMany of Mary's friends among the natives had gone to Akpap, which was a\nvillage south of Ekenge. This village was about six miles from the Cross\nRiver. It was a large trading center. Many heathen came to this village to\ntrade their goods for other things they wanted. Mary wrote to the Mission\nBoard and asked them to let her begin work in this new place.\n\n\"We cannot at this time let you start work at Akpap,\" wrote the Mission\nBoard. \"To start there we would have to build a mission house, and we do\nnot have the money for that. Besides the nearest landing place is\nIkunetu. This is six miles from Akpap. The forests are wild and hard to get\nthrough. We believe you should continue the work at Ekenge.\"\n\nMary wrote again and again, trying to persuade the Board to let her start\nwork at Akpap. At last the Mission Board agreed to let her start work\nthere. They promised to build a mission house and a boathouse for her\nsteamboat.\n\nMary did not wait for the house to be built.  In 1896 she built a two-room\nnative shed.  Here she began her work. The house was not as good as the\nfirst house she built in Ekenge.  This did not bother Mary. She was more\nconcerned about bringing the Gospel to the heathen.\n\nThe work here was like that in Ekenge. The chiefs came with the troubles\nthey were having in their tribes. They wanted her advice.  The people came\nwith their family problems and wanted her to tell them what to do. There\nwere many heathen people who came from the jungle to visit her. Mary taught\nher classes.  She conducted Sunday services. She was busy all the\ntime. Then one day the smallpox sickness broke out.\n\n\"You must all be vaccinated,\" said Mary to the natives. \"I will scratch\nyour arm with this medicine and the smallpox will stay away from you.\"\n\nHour after hour, far into the night, day after day, Mary vaccinated the\nnatives. When her medicine ran out, she took blood from the arms of those\nwho had been vaccinated to use as vaccination medicine.\n\nOne day a man came running to the house where Mary was living in Akpap. He\nhad run a long way. He was scratched up and sweating.  He had run through\nthe jungle without stopping.\n\n\"Ma, Ma,\" he cried, \"the smallpox sickness has come to Ekenge. Chief\nEkponyong and Chief Edem are sick and many, many more.  Come quick, oh,\ncome to Ekenge or we shall all die.\"\n\n\"I will come with you at once,\" said Mary to the messenger from Ekenge. \"I\nwill help your people fight the smallpox sickness.\"\n\nMary went back to Ekenge. The smallpox sickness was very bad. Nearly the\nwhole village was sick.\n\n\"We must have a hospital,\" said Mary. \"I know what we will do. We will make\nmy house here a hospital.\"\n\nSoon the house was filled to overflowing with sick people. She had to be\ndoctor, nurse, and undertaker. Many of her close friends died. Chief\nEkponyong, who at first had worked against Mary and then had become her\nfriend, died. Chief Edem, the chief of Ekenge, was very sick. The tired\nmissionary did everything she could to save the old heathen's life. But one\ndark night he died.\n\nMary was all alone. Mary made a coffin for the chief. She put his body in\nit. Then she dug a grave. She dragged the coffin to the grave and buried\nit. Completely tired out she dragged herself back to Akpap.\n\nJust at this time Mr. Ovens and another missionary came up from Duke\nTown. They came to Mary's hut at Akpap. All was still and quiet. Mr. Ovens\nlooked at the other missionary.\n\n\"Something is wrong,\" he said. He knocked loudly at the door. He knocked\nand knocked again. Finally Mary awoke and opened the door. The missionaries\nsaw how tired and sick she looked.\n\n\"What is wrong?\" asked Ovens.\n\nMary told them about the sickness at Ekenge. She told them of what she had\ndone.  \"I don't see how you could have done that work alone,\" said\nMr. Ovens.\n\n\"Won't you go and bury the rest of the dead?\" asked Mary. \"I was just too\ntired to do it.\"\n\n\"Yes, we will,\" said Mr. Ovens. The two missionaries went to Ekenge. There\nthey found the mission house filled with dead bodies. They buried these\npeople and preached to those who were still living about the Saviour.\n\nMary was weak and sick, but she kept right on working. In one of her\nletters to a friend she tells about some of her work:\n\nFour are at my feet listening. Five boys outside are getting a reading\nlesson from Janie. A man is lying on the ground who has run away from his\nmaster, and is staying with me for safety until I get him forgiven. An old\nchief is here with a girl who has a bad sore on her arm. A woman is begging\nme to help her get her husband to treat her better.  Three people are here\nfor vaccination.\n\nEvery evening she would have family worship.  Mary sat on the mud floor in\none of the shed rooms. In front of her in a half-circle were the many\nchildren she had adopted and was taking care of. Behind them were the\nbaskets holding the twin babies she had recently rescued. The light from a\nlittle lamp shone on the bright faces. Mary read slowly from the\nBible. Then she explained the Bible reading to the children and\nprayed. Then she sang a song in the native language. The tune was a\nScottish melody and as she sang she kept time with a tamborine. If any of\nthe children did not pay attention, Mary would lean forward and tap his\nhead with the tamborine.\n\nMary did not get her strength back. She was not well. The mission committee\nat Calabar decided that even though they had no worker to take her place,\nshe must go home on a vacation which was long overdue.\n\n\"But who will take care of the work at Akpap?\" asked Mary.\n\n\"Mr. Ovens, the carpenter, who is building the mission house at Akpap, can\ndo the work until we find someone to take your place,\" answered the\nchairman of the committee.\n\n\"But what shall I do with my many black children? I don't want them to go\nback to heathen ways of living while I am gone. I don't like to ask the\nother mission workers to take care of them for me.\"\n\n\"Don't worry, Mary. We will find places for them.\"\n\nPlaces were found for all the adopted children except the four black\nchildren whom she planned to take along with her. These were Janie, who was\nnow sixteen years old, Mary was five, Alice three, and Maggie was only\neighteen months old. Now Mary had to find ways of clothing the\nchildren. The rags they wore in the jungle would not do for the trip to\nScotland. Mary took her trouble to the Lord, and He wonderfully answered\nher prayer. When she reached Duke Town, she found that a missionary box had\njust come, and it had just the things she needed.\n\nMary took her children on board the big ship. It was the biggest \"canoe\"\nthat any of the children except Janie had ever seen.\n\n\"We're on our way to bonny Scotland,\" said Mary.\n\n\n\n\n#11#\n\n\n_Clouds and Sunshine_\n\n\"The other missionaries at Calabar,\" said Mary, \"work as hard, if not\nharder, than I do. We need more workers to preach the Gospel of Jesus\nChrist for your lost black brothers and sisters. They have souls just as\nyou do. Jesus loves them just as He does you.  We must tell them of His\nlove. I would like to go farther inland to people who have never heard the\nGospel and make a home among the cannibals.\"\n\nMary was giving a talk at one of the churches. As soon as she was well\nenough to make speeches, many of the churches wanted to hear her. The\npeople were very much interested in the black children she had adopted and\nbrought with her. Many of them had never seen black people before. Mary had\nsome trouble speaking in English. For many years now she had been speaking\nalmost all the time in the African language. It was sometimes hard for her\nto say the right English words, but the Holy Spirit helped her, and the\npeople remembered her talks and gave generously for the work in Africa..\n\nLate in the year 1898 Mary and the black children got on the big \"canoe\"\nand sailed back to Africa. They spent a happy Christmas on the ship.\n\nOnce more strong and well, Mary went back to work in Akpap. She taught the\nchildren and grownups. She healed the sick. She visited in the bush and in\nthe jungle. During this time Mary had the joy of seeing six young men\nbecome Christians. These young men she trained and sent to the neighboring\nvillages as Gospel workers. She had hoped for more helpers, but was\ngrateful that God had given her these. More and more of the jungle people\nheard about her. Bushmen traveled hundreds of miles to see the white Ma who\ntold them about Jesus.\n\nMary used every chance she had to tell the Gospel to heathen who had never\nheard it.  The stories the visiting people told about their lands and the\ninland tribes filled Mary with the desire to explore other parts of the\ncountry.  Often in the mission boat or in a canoe she traveled to villages\nfarther away. On one trip the canoe in which Mary was riding was attacked\nby a hippopotamus. Mary thought her end had come. Nevertheless, she bravely\nfought off the animal, using metal cooking pots and pans as weapons.\n\nIn the southern part of Nigeria was a strong, wild tribe called the\nAros. They were a proud but wicked people. They made war on peaceful\ntribes. They would steal people from peaceful villages and make them\nslaves.  They prayed to the Devil, and they killed people as human\nsacrifices to please their idols.  They were cannibals who ate people.\n\nThe government decided to make this tribe stop doing these bad things. A\nsmall band of soldiers was sent against this tribe to make them obey. This\nmade Mary sad. She knew that sending soldiers to fight against these people\nwould not change them. She knew that only the Gospel could change the black\nmen's hearts. She wished she could go to this tribe with the Gospel of\nJesus, but the government said no. The government officers feared there\nmight be a tribal war which would even come to Okoyong. They decided that\nMary would be safer in Creek Town than Akpap. Sadly Mary left her friends\nand spent three months in Creek Town.\n\nHer Okoyong friends did not forget her.  They came often to visit her and\nbrought her gifts. They also brought their quarrels to her to settle. They\ncalled her their queen. Finally, Mary was allowed to go back to Akpap.\n\nThree years went by. It was now fifteen years since Mary had first come to\nOkoyong.  On the anniversary of the day that she came a celebration was\nheld. Seven young men whom Mary had won for Christ were baptized.  The\nRev. W.T. Weir, a missionary from Creek Town, helped in organizing the\nfirst Okoyong Christian Church. The following Sunday the church was filled\nto overflowing.  Mary presented eleven children for baptism.  The Lord's\nSupper was served for the first time to natives and white workers who had\naccepted Christ as their Saviour. After songs had been sung and speeches\nmade by others, Mary got up to speak.\n\n\"You must build a church large enough to take care of all who come to hear\nGod's Word.  Okoyong now looks to you who have accepted Christ as your\nSaviour and who have joined the church for proof of the power of the\nGospel, more than it looks to me. I am very happy over all that has been\ndone these past fifteen years, but it is God who did it. To Him belongs all\nthe glory. Mission houses, schools, and a church have been built. Wicked\nheathen customs have been stopped. Chiefs have quit fighting, and women are\nmuch better off than they were when I came. Let us praise God for this and\nlet us go on and do greater things. The Lord will help us and will bless\nour work.\"\n\nMary was happy the way the work was going, but she was not satisfied. She\nwanted to go to other places.\n\n\"This cannibal land of deep darkness with woods of spooky mystery is like a\nmagnet,\" said Mary Slessor. \"It draws me on and on.\"\n\n\"Where is this country where you want to work?\" asked Miss Wright, one of\nthe teachers at the Girls' Institute at Calabar.\n\n\"It lies to the west of the Cross River. It stretches for miles and miles\ntoward the Niger River.\"\n\n\"Haven't any missionaries been there?\"\n\n\"None have gone into the forest. Missionaries and traders have gone along\nthe edge of it when they went up the Cross River.\"\n\n\"What tribes live in this dark and mysterious country?\" asked Miss Wright.\n\n\"The Ibo tribe lives in most of the country, but they are ruled by the Aros\nclan,\" said Mary.\n\n\"Who are they? Tell me something about them, Mary. I know so little about\nthe tribes, except those who come to Calabar or send their girls to our\nInstitute.\"\n\n\"The Aros clan are a wise but tricky people.  They live in thirty villages\nnear the district of Arochuku, where I would like to begin a mission. They\nare strong and rule the Ibo tribe because of their trade and religion.\nThey trade slaves, which their religion furnishes.  When they cannot get\nenough slaves that way, they raid Ibo villages and capture the people who\nlive there and sell them.\"\n\n\"You say their religion furnishes them with slaves? How is that possible?\"\n\n\"The Ibo tribe and the Aros pray to the juju god. They believe the juju god\nlives in a tree. They think this tree is holy. Each village has its own god\nand sacred tree, but the main juju used to be about a mile from Arochuku.\"\n\n\"But you haven't told me about the slaves,\" interrupted Miss Wright.\n\n\"I am just coming to that,\" said Mary.  \"This main juju, called the Long\nJuju, was reached by a winding road that goes through a dense jungle and\nleads at last to a lake. In the center of the lake is an island on which\nwas the Long Juju. Here hundreds of people came to ask advice from the\npriests and to worship. When the people came here, the Aros clan had\ncaptured them. Then they were either sold as slaves, sacrificed to juju, or\neaten by the tribe.\"\n\n\"How terrible!\"\n\n\"The Aros are tricky. One of their tricks, was to throw some of the people\nthey captured into the water. The water at once turned red. The priests\nwould tell the people that juju had eaten the men. The people believed it,\nbut really the red was only coloring the priests had thrown into the\nriver.\"\n\n\"Is the juju still there?\" asked Miss Wright.\n\n\"No. The British soldiers went over the Cross River. They had a battle with\nthe natives and beat them. They captured Arochuku.  Then they chopped down\nthe Long Juju. But of course the natives still have their village\njujus. They still do many wicked things.\"\n\n\"And you want to work among those terrible people?\"\n\n\"Yes, don't you think they have a great need for the Gospel?\"\n\n\"Oh, they do! But I would not have the courage to work among them.\"\n\n\"I have no courage,\" said Mary, \"except what God gives me.\"\n\n\"Tell me, Mary, have you gone into that country at all?\"\n\n\"I have made some short exploration trips.  I told the traders to tell the\nchiefs that some day I would come to their country to live, but their only\nanswer was, 'It is not safe.' That is what the people told me when I wanted\nto go to Okoyong. I trust in my heavenly Father and I am not afraid of the\ncannibals no matter how fierce and cruel they may be.\"\n\n\"But Mary, did you know that when a chief died recently, fifty or more\npeople were eaten at the funeral ceremonies, and twenty-five others had\ntheir heads cut off and were buried with the chief?\"\n\n\"Yes, I heard that. But things were almost as bad when I came to\nOkoyong. God blessed my work, and He can protect me in this strange new\nland of the cannibals. I do hope the Mission Board will let me go and work\namong the Aros and Ibos.\"\n\nThe missionaries in Calabar wanted Mary to work at Ikorofiong and at\nUnwana, which were two towns farther up the Cross River from Akpap. But\nMary did not think these were good places for her work. She wanted to be\nwhere she could reach the most people.  She wanted to work at Arochuku, the\nchief city of Aros which was also near the Efik, Ibo and Ibibio tribes. She\nwanted to open her first station at Itu, which was on the mouth of Enyong\ncreek, her second station at Arochuku and a third at Bende. The\nmissionaries at Calabar did not agree, but they decided to wait until a\nworker could be found to take Mary's place at Akpap. Mary would not reave\nthese people until they could be taken care of by Christian workers.\n\n\"Send a minister to take care of a station.  I cannot build up a church the\nway a minister can,\" said Mary.\n\nIt looked as though Mary would not get to go to the land of Aros. Then Miss\nWright, the teacher from the Girls' Institute, asked to be sent to Akpap as\nan assistant. This request was sent to Scotland for the Board to\napprove. Mary now decided to start work at once. In January, 1903, with two\nboys, Esien and Efiiom, and a girl, Mana, whom she had carefully trained,\nshe loaded her canoe with food and other supplies and set off for the land\nof the cruel cannibals.\n\nThey did not know how the people there would treat them, but they trusted\nin God to take care of them and help them in their work. Mary found a house\nfor them.\n\n\"I am leaving you here,\" said Mary to the three natives, \"to begin a school\nand hold church services for the people of Itu. I must go back to Akpap but\nI will come again as soon as I can.\"\n\nBut Mary had to stay at Akpap longer than she expected. At last she was\nable to come again to Itu and to visit the school and the church services.\n\n\"You have done wonderfully well,\" she told the three workers. \"God has\nblessed your work. My heart was filled with joy when I saw so many people,\nyoung and old, at the services. And your school is filled with people who\nwant to learn book and learn the will of God. Now we must build a church\nand a schoolhouse.\"\n\nMary began mixing the mud and doing the other work that was necessary for\nbuilding a building in Africa. The native workers and the people of Itu\nhelped her gladly. It did not take long with many willing hands to build a\nchurch and school. Two rooms were added to the church building.\n\n\"These two rooms are for you, Ma,\" the people said. \"You must have a place\nto stay when you come to us.\"\n\nAfter the church and school were built, Mary went back to Akpap. Here she\nheard good news.\n\n\"The Board in Scotland has given me permission to be your assistant at\nAkpap,\" said Miss Wright.\n\n\"Wonderful!\" said Mary. \"Now I can spend more time at Itu and more time in\nthe jungle.\"\n\nOn a beautiful morning in June, 1903, Mary packed her clothes and supplies\nand marched the six miles down to the landing beach at Ikunetu. Here she\nwaited for the government boat which would take her to Itu. She waited and\nwaited. At last she found one of the natives and asked, \"Where is the\ngovernment boat? Is it late?\"\n\n\"No, Ma, it long time gone.\"\n\nSo Mary had to walk back six miles through the jungle to the mission house\nat Akpap.\n\n\"Why, Mary,\" said Miss Wright, \"what are you doing here? I thought that by\nthis time you would be traveling on the government boat to Itu.\"\n\n\"I am in God's hands,\" said Mary, \"and He did not mean for me to travel\ntoday. I have been kept back for some good purpose.\"\n\nThe next week when she again made the trip to board the boat, Colonel\nMontanaro who commanded the government soldiers in that part of the\ncountry, was on the boat.\n\n\"I will be happy to have you travel with me and my soldiers,\" said the\ncolonel. \"You will be safer that way. I am going to Arochuku.\"\n\n\"That is just what I would like to do,\" said Mary. \"Now I see why God did\nnot let me travel last week. I have been wanting for a long time to visit\nthe chief city of the Aros. I want to see more about this juju religion.\"\n\nSome time before, the government had sent soldiers into the country to make\nthe chiefs stop the juju worship. The chiefs had promised to stop it, but\nit still went on secretly.  After reaching Arochuku, Mary followed the\njungle paths over which the slaves had been made to walk for hundreds of\nyears. She came to the place of the Long Juju. There Mary saw the human\nskulls, the bones and the pots in which the bodies had been cooked.  Mary\nshivered when she thought of the cannibal feasts.\n\nMary thought the people might be against her, but instead they welcomed\nher. They had heard about the good things she had done in the jungle.\n\n\"O God,\" prayed Mary, \"I want to bring the Gospel to these man-eaters for\nwhom Christ died. Please, dear God, make the home church and the Mission\nBoard see the great need here so that they will let me win this part of the\ncountry for Christ.\"\n\nMary promised the people of Arochuku she would come again and open a\nschool. Then she returned to Akpap and wrote the Mission Board for\npermission to open a station at Arochuku. Soon the answer came back!\n\nWe are sorry, but it will be impossible at this time to open work at\nArochuku.  We do not have the money or the workers.\n\n\n\n\n#12#\n\n\n_Among the Cannibals_\n\n\"The mission Board says that they cannot open a mission station at Arochuku\nnow,\" said Mary. \"I have asked God to give me a mission station where His\nGospel can be preached to the Aros. I trust in Christ who is able to do\nmore than I am able to ask or think. I know God will give me what I have\nasked.\"\n\n\"What are you going to do now?\" asked Miss Wright.\n\n\"I am going to do what I believe God wants me to do. I am going to take\nsome native Christians and make a beginning in the land of the Aros.\"\n\nMary took some native boys whom she had trained. They were able to help\nwith school-work and church services. Mary and the boys went to Amasu, a\nlittle village which was nearer the creek than Arochuku. Here she opened a\nschool. It was soon filled with boys and girls thirsty for book and the\nloving God.  She held church services for the people, and many of them came\nto hear the white Ma teach about Jesus.\n\nAt last it was time for Mary to go back to Akpap. She left the native\nChristians to carry on the work of the school and church.  The people of\nthe village gathered around her. They said,\n\n\"Come again soon, white Ma. If you do not care for us, who will care for\nus?\"\n\nAs Mary went down the river in her canoe, she thanked God that He had let\nher open this new field to the Gospel. Suddenly there was a canoe barring\nher way. In it was a tall native.\n\n\"I have been waiting for you. My master at Akani Obio sent me to stop you\nand bring you to his house.\"\n\nMary told her rowers to follow the native to his master's place. Soon they\ncame to a trading place. Here Mary was greeted by a handsome young man.\n\n\"I am Onoyom Iya Nya, the president of the court and the chief of this\ndistrict. This is my wife. Won't you please honor us by coming into our\nhouse?\"\n\nOnoyom and his wife led Mary to a European-type house, which was very\nnicely furnished.  Onoyom's wife invited Mary to have some food with\nthem. While they ate, Onoyom talked.\n\n\"Many times I have sent my servants to find you,\" said Onoyom, \"but they\nnever found you until today. I am happy that you have come.\"\n\n\"But why did you seek me? Why did you want me to come to you?\" asked Mary.\n\n\"When I was a boy,\" said Onoyom, \"I served as a guide to a missionary. He\ntold me the Gospel story. I wanted Jesus for my Saviour. But my tribe beat\nme and punished me in other ways until I gave up the white man's religion\nand followed the juju religion of the tribe. I took part in Arochuku feasts\nwhere we ate 'long pig,' that is, men and women.\"\n\n\"But why do you want to talk to me?\"  asked Mary.\n\n\"I never forgot what the missionary told me about Christ. Later I had\ntroubles and sickness. I tried witchcraft to find the person who placed the\ntroubles and sickness on me. Instead, I met a white man. He said to me,\n'How do you know it is not the God of the white man who is angry with you?\nHe is all-powerful.' I said, 'How can I find this God?' I hoped he would\ntell me, but he said, 'I am not worthy to tell you. Find the white Ma who\ngoes to Itu and she will tell you.' O Ma, please tell us about your God.\"\n\nTears of joy ran down Mary's cheeks. Onoyom called all the members of his\nfamily and the servants together. Mary told them of Jesus and His power to\nsave them. She read from the Bible, prayed with the people, and promised to\ncome back again on her next trip.\n\n\"I will build a church for you,\" said Chief Onoyom. \"I have money. I will\ngive $1,500 for a mission house and school.\"\n\nAs Mary rode down the Enyong creek she thought of the new missionary work\nthat was opening up.\n\n\"O God,\" she prayed, \"I thank You for the new places at Itu and Amasu. I\nthank You for the chance to build a church at Akani Obio. Please let me\nopen a station soon at Arochuku. There with Your blessing I hope to conquer\nthe cannibals for Christ.\"\n\n\"I do hope,\" she said to herself, \"that the Board will soon send an\nordained minister to take over the Akpap station. I must persuade Miss\nWright to go with me to Itu. I am sure God will give her courage to come\nwith me.  This Enyong creek region will give us all the work for Christ we\ncan handle and more. We must go forward for Christ.\"\n\nMary made many trips to Akpap, to Itu and Amasu. She stopped at many little\nvillages and lonely huts along Enyong creek to tell the people about the\nSaviour who had died also for those with black skins. Often she slept on\nmud floors. She ate yams and native fruits.\n\nGod blessed the work at Itu and Amasu.  The people of Itu built a church\nand more than three hundred of them attended the services. At Amasu the\nschool pew fast.  The natives were learning to read.\n\nThe natives at Itu started to build a six-room house at Itu for Mary. It\nwas to be one of the finest homes in which the missionary had ever lived.\n\n\"I am afraid it is too much work for you,\" said Mary to the natives. \"It is\ntoo big.\"  \"No, it is not too much.\" said the people of Itu. \"Nothing is\ntoo much to do for you. We shall do it.\"\n\nAnother time a native woman knelt at Mary's feet. She washed Mary's tired\nfeet in warm water.\n\n\"You are so kind to me,\" said Mary thanking her.\n\n\"I have been so afraid, Ma, that you would think us unworthy of a teacher\nand take her away,\" said the woman. \"I could not live again in darkness. I\npray all the time. I lay my basket down and pray on the road.\"\n\n\"That is good,\" said Mary. \"Prayer can do anything. I know. I have tested\nit. Of course, God does not always answer our prayers the way we want them\nanswered, but He does answer them and in the way that is best for us. Trust\nGod always.\"\n\nOne day Mary thought of a new plan she wanted to try out. She had been in\nthe jungle for five years. She was due to get a year's vacation at home in\nScotland. Instead of this she asked for something else.  She wrote to the\nMission Board:\n\nI would like to have leave from the mission station at Akpap for six\nmonths.  This time I would spend traveling between Okoyong and Amasu. I\nwould visit many places which I do not have time to visit now. Already I\nhave seen a church and a mission house built at Itu, and a school and a\ncouple of rooms at Amasu. I have visited several towns at Enyong and have\nfound good enough places to stay.\n\nI shall find my own canoe and crew. I shall stay at any one place just as\nlong as I think wise. The members of my family [she meant the twins and\nslave children and other unwanted children she had adopted] shall help in\nteaching the beginners in the schools.\n\nI plan to live at Itu as my headquarters.  I will look after the small\nschools I have started at Idot and Eki. I will visit and work for Jesus in\nthe towns on both sides of Enyong creek all the way to Amasu. I will live\nthere for a while or travel among the Aros telling them of Jesus. Then I\nwill come back by easy stages to Itu and home.\n\nPlease send an assistant to help Miss Wright at Akpap, so I will be free to\ndo this new work in the jungle. I would like Miss Wright to help me with\nsome work among the cannibals, in some places, so that I will have more\ntime for pioneer work in the places farther away.\n\nItu should be our main station. We can reach the various tribes best from\nit. It is the gateway to the Aros and the Ibibios and near many other\ntribes. That is why it became a slave market. It could be reached so\neasily. It is only a day's journey from the seaport of the ocean steamers,\nhaving waterway all the year round and a good beach front. Itu is a natural\nplace for our upriver and downriver work to come together.\n\nMary was now fifty-six years old. She had suffered much from sickness and\nfrom the lack of many things. Now she wanted to go on a \"gypsying tour of\nthe jungle,\" as she called it. This was hard and difficult work.  There\nwere many dangers from wild animals and wild people. These tribes she\nwanted to visit did not know anything about the Saviour, or God's Word, but\nthey did know how to do many wicked things like killing and eating\npeople. Many a younger and stronger person than Mary would be afraid to\ntackle the job she had planned to do. Mary was not afraid. God had given\nher the chance to reach the wild cannibals. She was willing to die trying\nto bring the Gospel to them.\n\n\"I am willing to go anywhere,\" said Mary, \"provided it be forward among the\ncannibals.\"\n\nMary anxiously waited for the answer from the Mission Board giving her\npermission to work for six months in the cannibal country.  The answer did\nnot come and did not come.  At last she decided to go on a short trip\nthrough that country to encourage the black workers she had sent there. She\nwent to see the Wilkies and Miss Wright.\n\n\"I am going on a short trip through the cannibal country,\" said Mary. \"I am\ninviting you to be my guests on this trip. I want you to see what God is\ndoing among the cannibals.  Won't you come with me?\"\n\n\"We'll be glad to go with you,\" said Mr.  Wilkie.\n\nMary and her friends first visited Itu, where they met Colonel Montanaro,\nwho had first taken Mary to Itu. Then they went to Akani Obio. Here Chief\nOnoyom had a big party for them.\n\n\"Ma, when are you going to come and stay a long time with us?\" he asked. \"I\nwant you to bring the Gospel to me and to my people.\"\n\n\"I hope it will be soon,\" said Mary. \"I am praying every day that the\nMission Board will let me work in your country.\"\n\nMary and her friends now went to Amasu to see the Gospel work that was\nbeing done there. Then they visited the villages around Arochuku where the\nLong Juju was. Then they started back to Akpap. They visited many very\nsmall villages on the way back.  Everywhere the people said to them, \"We\nwant to learn book.\" They meant they wanted someone to teach them to read\nthe Bible.\n\nAt last they arrived at Akpap. Here there was the letter from the Mission\nBoard.  Mary's hands shook as she opened the long-awaited letter. Would it\ngive her permission to go to cannibal land or would it tell her to come\nhome and take her furlough in the usual way?\n\nYou may make the jungle trip that you plan, but you will have to pay your\nown expenses during this time. We do not have any money for that work.\n\nMary was happy. Mary took the little money she had and bought supplies at\nDuke Town. Then she got her canoe ready. She took a crew of black rowers to\nrow the canoe and a group of the black children she had adopted.\n\n\"It seems strange to be starting with a family on a gypsy life in a canoe,\"\nwrote Mary, \"but God will take care of us. Whether I shall find His place\nfor me upriver or whether I shall come back to my own people again, I do\nnot know. He knows and that is enough.\"\n\nAt last Mary and her group of travelers came to Itu, which was deep in\ncannibal land.  Mary had started the work here and then left native workers\nto carry on. Now there were three hundred people in the church. Mary found\nthat the mission house at Itu was not finished. Mary herself mixed the\ncement for the floor while Janie did the whitewashing.  Someone asked Mary\nhow she learned to make cement.\n\n\"I just stir it like oatmeal, then turn it out smooth with a stick and all\nthe time I keep praying, `Lord, here's the cement. If it is to Your glory,\nset it,' and it has never gone wrong.\"\n\nEvery day Mary made calls and helped to solve the problems of the people of\nItu. In the evenings she would hold prayer in the yards of many of the\npeople. Always Mary told the people of the Saviour who died for them.\n\nThe news that Mary the white Ma was in cannibal land soon spread far and\nwide. The tom-toms calling through the jungle told the different tribes\nwhere Mary was. From Ibibio southward, the natives sent messages to Mary.\n\n\"Please, Ma,\" they said, \"send us a teacher.\"\n\n\"It is not `book' I want,\" said a chief in his message, \"I want God.\"\n\n\"We have three in hand for a teacher,\" said Chief Onoyom of Akani\nObio. \"Some of the boys have already finished the books Mr.  Wilkie gave\nus. We can do no more until you send us help.\"\n\nMary spent the night praying to God to send more workers to Africa. \"O\nBritain,\" said Mary, \"filled full of ministers and church workers, but\ntired of Sunday and of church, I wish that you could send over to us what\nyou are throwing away!\"\n\n\n\n\n#13#\n\n\n_Blessings Unnumbered_\n\nGod blessed Mary's work in cannibal land and more and more people were won\nfor Jesus. Chief Onoyom stayed true to his faith.\n\n\"Come,\" he said to his people, \"we must build a church here at Akani\nObio. Let us go to the jungle and cut down trees for the house of God.\"\n\nChief Onoyom and his people went to the woods. The chief went to a tree and\ngot ready to cut it down.\n\n\"Chief,\" they cried, \"you are not going to cut that tree, are you? You know\nthat is the juju tree.\"\n\n\"I know it is the juju tree,\" said Onoyom, \"and I am going to chop it\ndown.\"\n\n\"The juju will be angry. He will not let us. He will kill us,\" cried the\npeople.\n\n\"Ma's God is stronger than our juju,\" said Chief Onoyom. \"Cut it down.\"\n\nThe people began to chop. The trunk of the tree was thick. After a while\nthey stopped.\n\n\"See, we cannot cut it,\" they said.\n\nThe heathen natives were glad.\n\n\"Aha,\" they said, \"our juju is stronger than Ma's God.\"\n\nThe next morning Chief Onoyom took some men who wanted to be\nChristians. Before beginning to chop at the tree they knelt and prayed that\nthe white Ma's God would prove stronger than the juju. Then they got up and\nbegan to chop. Soon the tree fell with a mighty crash. Ma's God had won!\n\nThe juju tree was used for a pulpit and seats in the church building. A\nlarge group of people came to the dedication services.  They were quiet and\nwell-behaved. What a great change the Gospel had made! Only two years\nbefore the people were wild savages.\n\nMary had to hold services at Arochuku out-doors, but now the people built a\nchurch and a schoolhouse. At other villages along Enyong creek\ncongregations were organized, and churches and schoolhouses were built.\n\nIn 1905 Mary had to go to the Mission Council meeting at Calabar. During\nthe meeting Mary was called on to tell about her work.\n\n\"God has done great things in cannibal land. We have congregations at Itu,\nArochuku, Oko, Akani Obio, Odot, Amasu, and Asang. In all of these places\nchurches have been built. In many of them we have built schoolhouses\ntoo. Many of the cannibals are being won for Christ. But we need more\nworkers. In all this wide country of the Aros, I am the only white\nmissionary. My six months' leave is almost up. Who will take care of these\npeople who are as dear to God as you or I? Now they are being taken care of\nby native workers, but these have only little training. Send workers to\ncannibal land to change these man-eaters into Christians.\"\n\nThe Council was thrilled by Mary's report.  They voted that she could spend\nsix more months in cannibal land, but again they said she would have to pay\nher own expenses. This did not bother Mary. She had never been paid, much\nsalary. In the first years she sent most of it back home to take care of\nher mother and sister. After they had died she used me most of it for her\ncolored Christians. She had adopted many black children whose parents had\nthrown them out. But money never bothered Mary. She had a little bit saved\nup.  She was happy that she could go to cannibal, land and win souls for\nChrist.\n\n\"But where shall I work now?\" Mary asked herself. \"Shall I keep on working\non upper Enyong creek or shall I go south to the Ibibios?  The Ibibios are\nthe worst heathen in this part of Africa. The worse the people are, the\nmore they need help. I should go to the Ibibios.\"\n\nMeanwhile the Mission committee in Scotland decided to build a hospital at\nItu. Dr.  Robertson was to be the head of it. The Mission committee chose a\nname for the hospital.  They named it, \"The Mary Slessor Mission Hospital.\"\nThe people in Scotland gave the money so the hospital could be built.\n\n\"It seems like a fairy tale,\" said Mary when she was told about it, \"and I\ndon't know just what to say. I can just look up into the blue sky and say,\n'Even so, Father; let me live and be worthy of it all.' It is a grand gift\nand I am so glad for my people.\"\n\nNow that Itu was taken care of, Mary had all the more reason to go south to\nthe Ibibios.  In their country the government was building roads and\nsetting up courts. The government people wanted Mary to come to that\ncountry too, because she knew so much more about the people and customs in\ncannibal land.\n\n\"Get a bicycle, Ma,\" said one of the government men. \"Here is the\nroad. Come as far as you can. And we'll soon have a motorcar for you.\"\n\nMary started out. She took along one of the boys she had adopted. It was\ntwelve-year-old Etim. He could read and she needed his help. Once more Mary\nwas beginning mission work in a new part of the country where Christians\nhad never been.\n\nMary and Etim went to Ibibio-land. Mary started a school and a small\ncongregation.  Etim was made the teacher of the school. He proved to be a\nvery good teacher. Soon he had a class of fifty children.\n\n\"It is my hope,\" said Mary, \"that Ikotobong will be the first of a chain of\nstations stretching across the country.\"\n\nMary went to visit the old chief of Ikotobong.\n\n\"What do you think of our work here?\"\n\n\"It is good,\" said the chief. \"I am happy you came. There are many things\nthat are strange to me and my people. We do not understand them. I am glad\nfor the light.  We will give Etim food as pay for teaching.  We will help\nbuild a schoolhouse and a church.\"\n\nMary was happy that the people were willing and anxious to learn. But she\nwanted to go to a new part of the country and start more places. The\ngovernment officer at Ikot Expene gave Mary a bicycle.\n\n\"I think it's God's will that I learn to ride this bicycle. Think of an old\nlady like me on a bicycle!\" said Mary. \"The new road makes it easy to ride,\nand I'm running up and down and taking a new work in a village two miles\noff. It has done me all the good in the world, and I will soon be able to\ndo even more work.\"\n\nThe treatment of the women in Ibibio was very bad. They were treated worse\nthan slaves. The men could do whatever they wanted to do with them. They\nwere often beaten.  They were bought and sold like cattle. Mary wanted to\nhelp the poor women.\n\n\"I want to build a home for girls, orphans, twins and their mothers, and\nthose who have run away from harems,\" said Mary. \"I also want to start a\nschool where trades and skills can be taught. All the women know how to\nfarm. They know how to weave baskets and make simple sandals. But I want\nthem to know many more things so that they can take care of themselves. I\nam going to look for a place with good land and pure water near the roads\nand the markets. Then I will write to my friends and to the Mission Board\nfor help.\"\n\nMary's furlough had first been for six months and then was made six months\nlonger. In April, 1906, it came to an end. She was supposed to go back to\nAkpap, because the Mission Council expected her to settle down in one place\nand work there. They appointed her to work at Akpap and that is where they\nexpected her to work.\n\n\"I do not want to settle in one place,\" said Mary. \"God gives me different\ngifts; I think my gift is to explore and start new congregations.  Others\nare better fitted to take care of them after they are started than I\nam. God is pushing me onward. I don't dare look backward.  Even if my dear\nchurch turns against me and will not have me as its missionary, I must go\nforward. I can find food for myself and the children. That is all I\nneed. God will help me.\"\n\nMary thought and prayed much over this matter. She thought of starting a\nstore or taking a government job so she could earn money to take care of\nthe missionary work.  She wrote a long letter to the Mission Board.  She\ntold how God had blessed the work at Itu and the villages on Enyong\ncreek. Then she wrote:\n\nIn all this how plainly God has been leading me. I did not think of doing\nthese things in my lifetime, but God has led me on. First Itu, and then the\nCreek, then back from Aro, where I had set my heart, to a lonely, spooky,\nwilderness.  There no one ever went, but now miles of roads are being\nbuilt.\n\nThe Board says I am to go back to Akpap in April. I love no other place on\nearth so well. But I dare not think of leaving the crowds of untamed,\nunwashed, unlovely savages, and take away the little sunlight that has\nbegun to flicker out over its darkness.\n\nI know that I am pretty old for this kind of work. But God will help.\nWhether the church permits or not, I feel that I must stay here. I must\neven go farther as the roads are made. I cannot walk now and I must be\ncareful of my health. But I can get four wheels made and set a box on them\nand the children can pull me. I dare not go back.  If the Board insists, I\nwill risk finding some other way to support myself and my family.\n\nAs April drew closer day by day, Mary anxiously waited for the Mission\nBoard's answer.  The Mission Board wrote to Mary:\n\nWe are sending John Rankin to look over the field where you have been\nworking.  After he has made his report we will decide what you should do.\n\nMr. Rankin visited the different places in cannibal land where Mary had\nstarted congregations.  He talked with the chiefs and the people. One chief\ntalking about Mary and the other women missionaries said, \"Them women be\nthe best men for the mission.\" He wrote to the Board:\n\nClose to Arochuku, within a circle of less than three miles in diameter,\nthere are nineteen large towns. I visited sixteen of these. Each of them is\nlarger than Creek Town. Most of the people are anxious to help. Already\nmany of them have begun to live in God's way. Even the head chief of all\nthe Aros wants us to do mission work in his country. He told the other\nchiefs he is going to rule according to God's way. He wants missionaries to\nbe sent to his people. He offers to build a house at Arochuku for any\nmissionary who will come.\n\nThe Mission Board was thrilled when they read this report. They agreed to\ngive the money for the work which Mary had planned.  They appointed Rankin\nto take charge of the stations at Itu and Arochuku. They agreed to let Mary\ngo into the new territory.  She did not have to go back to Akpap.\n\nThis made Mary very happy. Now she could work full time among the\nIbibios. She offered to pay for the building of a mission station among the\nIbibios if there was no money in the homeland treasury. In May the\ngovernment appointed Mary to take charge of the courts in the Ibibio\ndistrict as she had done in Okoyong. It paid her for this work so now she\nhad money to carry on her mission work whether the Board paid her or not.\n\nCourt was held at Ikotobong. Three chiefs and a jury helped Mary in trying\nthe cases, but Mary's word was law. Mary was fair and kind, but at the same\ntime she saw to it that those who did bad things were punished. In a letter\nto a friend she wrote:\n\nGod help those poor helpless women.  They are treated worse than animals.\nToday I had a crowd of people. How wicked they were! I have had a murder, a\npoison bean case, a suicide, a man branding his slave wife all over her\nface and body, a man with a gun who shot four people. It is all horrible.\n\nBut her work as judge did not stop her from doing her mission\nwork. Everywhere she went she told the natives of Jesus' death for\nthem. She opened schools and churches for natives. She also was thinking\nabout the other missionaries. She planned a place for them where they could\nspend weekends or where they could rest when they were getting over\nsickness. She chose a place half-way between Itu and Ikotobong on Enyong\nCreek. It was high above the lowlands where most of the sickness was. A\nfriend sent her a check for $100 and Mary used it as a start for this rest\nhome. She had the ground cleared and a small English house built.\n\nAlthough Mary was busy she was not well.  During most of 1906 she had been\nailing.\n\n\"If you want to keep on with your missionary work,\" said the government\ndoctor, \"you must go home to Scotland where you can rest up and get the\nfever out of your system.\"\n\nMary did not want to leave her work. A few days after her talk with the\ndoctor, when he came to see her again, she was much better.\n\n\"It looks as if God wants me to stay. Does that sound like He could not do\nwithout me!  I do not mean it so. How little I can do! But I can at least\nkeep a door open for missionary work so others can come and do more.\"\n\nThe year 1907 came. Mary was much worse. She could walk only a few steps.\nWhen she wanted to go anywhere, she had to be carried. At last she decided\nto do as the doctor told her and go to Scotland for a vacation.\n\n\"Oh, the dear homeland!\" she said with tears in her eyes. \"Shall I really\nbe there and worship in the churches again? How I long for a look at a\nwinter landscape, to feel the cold wind, and the frost in the cart ruts!\nHow I want to take a back seat in a church and hear the congregation\nsinging, without a care of my own! I want to hear how they preach and pray\nand rest their souls in the hush and silence of our home churches.\"\n\nMary took her six-year-old Dan, one of the many children she had\nadopted. The government officers were kind and helpful to her in getting\nready for her trip.\n\n\"God must repay these men,\" said Mary, \"because I cannot. He will not\nforget that they did it to a child of His, unworthy though she is.\"\n\nMary was now a wrinkled, shining-eyed old lady, almost sixty years old. She\nwas carried on board the ship that would take her to Scotland. Her friends,\nboth white and native, cried and wondered if she would ever come back to\nAfrica again.\n\n\n\n\n#14#\n\n\n_Journey's End_\n\n\"Send us workers for dark Africa,\" said Mary. \"If I can get the Board to\nsend us one or more workers, I will give half my salary to add to theirs. I\nwill give the house for them to live in and find the servants. You who have\nso much, won't you do something for these poor people of Africa?\"\n\nMary was speaking in the churches of Scotland telling about her work in\nAfrica. After she had returned to Scotland, she felt much better. The air\nand climate was much better than in the steaming jungles of Africa. As soon\nas she was strong enough, she began to go about telling about her work. She\nurged the people to give money and to send workers to Africa.\n\nAbove all, she wanted to get money to support the industrial home for women\nwhich she had planned. From May until October she went among the churches\ntelling about the \"African sheep\" whom the Good Shepherd Jesus wanted\nbrought in.\n\nIn October Mary asked to be sent back to Africa. She wanted to carry on her\nwork there.\n\n\"I am foolish, I know,\" said Mary, \"but I just feel homeless without any\nrelatives here in Scotland. I am a poor, lonesome soul with only memories.\"\n\nBack in Africa Mary was busier than ever, holding court, looking after her\nhome, and doing missionary work. On Sundays she held a half-dozen or more\nservices in the nearby villages in which lived the people with whom she\nworked during the week. On some of these trips she brought back orphan\nchildren to join her already \"overstuffed\" household.  But all this work\nwas too much for her. She became sick again and very weak. Now her eyes\nbegan to get weak, so that she could not see as well. But nothing could\nstop her. She started the building of the industrial home for women and\ngirls. She planted fruit trees there and planned to raise rubber and cocoa\nand cattle.\n\nMary wanted to move again. Some natives had come from Ikpe to see her\nbefore she went on her vacation to Scotland. They asked her to bring the\nGospel to them. Now they came again.\n\n\"We have heard of the great white Mother and we want to learn to be God's\nmen,\" they said.\n\nMary made a two-day canoe trip to their town. Ikpe was a large town with\nmany people in it. But the people were very wicked.  They did all the\nwicked heathen things that were against God's commandments. But there were\npeople in it who wanted to become Christians. They had begun to build a\nsmall church building to which they had added two rooms for the missionary.\n\nMary held a service in the church. Many people had gathered to hear for the\nfirst time the news of how Jesus saves us. After the end of the service\nMary decided that it was God's will for her to move to Ikpe. But she had to\narrange for someone to take care of her other work first.\n\nWhen she came home from this trip she was sick again. As soon as she was a\nlittle better she busied herself with the women's home. She wanted to get\nthat running well before she left for Ikpe. The natives of Ikpe sent some\nmore of their people to visit her and beg her to come to Ikpe. Whenever she\ncould, she made trips to that village. Often she took other missionaries\nwith her.\n\nIn November, 1909, she resigned from her court work. The government did not\nlike to lose her because she knew so much about the natives and their\ncustoms. But the government knew that Mary's first love was her missionary\nwork. They let her give up her court work and thanked her for all she had\ndone.\n\n\"Just a few more things to take care of,\" said Mary, \"and I will be ready\nto start for Ikpe. Those faithful people deserve a worker.  They are\nholding services even though they know very little of Christianity. I must\ngo there. I know God wants it.\"\n\nIt was the year 1910 and Mary was sure that now she could begin her work in\nthe new territory that looked so promising. Suddenly Mary became very, very\nill. The government sent its official automobile to take her to the Mary\nSlessor Hospital at Itu. Did God want Mary to work at Ikpe? Or would\nsomeone else preach the Gospel there?\n\nFor many weeks Mary lay sick in the hospital at Itu. At last she was much\nbetter.\n\n\"You must go to Duke Town for a longer rest,\" said the doctor.\n\n\"But, Doctor,\" said Mary, \"I have my work to do, I cannot spend my time\nlying in bed.\"\n\n\"If you are unwilling to rest at Duke Town, I shall have to send you to\nScotland on a long vacation.\"\n\n\"Very well,\" sighed Mary, \"I will go to Duke Town.\"\n\nThe next day the government sent its boat, the \"Maple Leaf,\" to take Mary\ndown the river to Duke Town. Here she spent many weeks resting and gaining\nher strength. At last the doctor agreed that she could go back to her work\nat Ikotobong. Once more the government sent its boat to take her back to\nher mission station.\n\n\"I want to go to Ikpe soon,\" said Mary, \"but first I want to establish a\nstation at Ikot Expene and at other places along the way.\"\n\nWhenever she felt strong enough, she rode her bicycle through the jungle to\nIkot Expene choosing places for schools and churches along the way, talking\nto chiefs, and getting the things ready for more places where the Gospel\ncould be preached.\n\nThe people at Ikpe were holding services even though they knew very little\nabout Christianity.\n\n\"Soon the white Ma will come,\" they said.  \"She will tell us more about\nJesus.\"\n\nA native teacher from another station, who had received training from Mary,\ntaught the people what he knew about the Gospel.\n\n\"Oh, why cannot the church send two workers to Ikpe?\" said Mary. \"Why don't\nthey use the money on hand for that? If there isn't enough money left after\ntwo years, let them take my salary. I shall be only too glad to live on\nnative food with my children.\"\n\nMary was busy collecting building materials and other things for the church\nof Ikpe. At last the time came. God wanted Mary at Ikpe. How happy Mary\nwas! How happy were the faithful people at Ikpe who had waited so long!\n\nMary at once was busy with much work.  She quieted mobs, she calmed\nquarreling chiefs, she held meetings with the crowds, and on Sundays\nconducted services. One day the smallpox broke out. The government sent\ndown men to vaccinate the natives so the sickness would not spread. Mary\nheard shouting and yelling in the streets. She looked out of her house. The\nnatives were yelling and shouting and waving guns and swords. Mary went up\nto the crowd.\n\n\"What is this?\" asked Mary. The crowd kept yelling.\n\n\"Be quiet,\" shouted Mary and held out her hands. \"Let your chief speak.\"\n\n\"Ma,\" said the chief, \"my people are afraid of the white man's juju. It\nmakes the people sick.\" He meant the vaccination.\n\n\"The vaccination may make a little sickness, but it keeps you from getting\nthe big sickness,\" said Mary. Then she told them how vaccination had helped\nother tribes. She showed them her vaccination. After a long talk with the\nchiefs and the people the matter was peaceably settled.\n\nMary wanted to keep in touch with her former headquarters at Ikotobong. She\nmade many canoe trips back and forth. These trips were very hard on her and\nshe did not rest well. Many people wondered how Mary could keep on working,\nbut she trusted God who made her strong to carry on.\n\nDuring 1911 a tornado struck Mary's house at Use, one of the stations. She\nfixed the house herself. During this she strained herself and had a heart\nattack which was followed by a severe fever. Sometimes the fever was so\ngreat she was delirious. But still she would not stop working. She\ncontinued to teach school and hold worship services on Sunday.\n\nDr. Hitchcock of the Slessor Hospital came to see her every week.\n\n\"You must not go to Ikpe again,\" he said.  \"You must not ride your\nbicycle. You must spend more time resting.\"\n\nBut Mary disobeyed the doctor and held services the following Sunday. It\nwas too much for her. She almost fainted before the service was over.\n\n\"You must stay in bed,\" said Dr. Hitchcock, \"until you are well enough to\nget up.\"\n\n\"All right, doctor,\" said Mary.\n\n\"And you must eat meat twice a day,\" said the doctor.\n\n\"But I'm not a meat-eater,\" answered Mary.\n\n\"You're going to be, or I will send you to Duke Town for a long rest.\"\n\nMary laughed. \"I've all my plans made and I must not draw a salary without\ndoing something for it.\"\n\nAt last the doctor sent her to the Slessor Hospital for a rest. Because of\nher hard work, she had a bad fever sickness. Now Mary saw that she was\nfoolish in not listening to the doctor.\n\n\"Life is hardly worth living,\" she said, \"but I am doing what I can to help\nthe doctor to help me, so I can be fit again for another spell of work.\"\n\nThe Christians at Ikpe sent some men to see Mary to ask her when she would\nbe back.  \"Seven weeks,\" said Dr. Hitchcock.\n\n\"I may run up sooner than that,\" said Mary. \"I'm very well if the doctor\nwould only believe it.\"\n\nNear the end of 1911 Mary was allowed to leave the hospital. She hurried to\nher friends at Ikpe. But Mary still was not very strong.  Her friends in\nCalabar and in Scotland urged her to take a long-earned furlough. While\nthinking about this, Mary decided to have a box on wheels made so that she\ncould get around since the doctor would not let her use her bicycle. Some\nfriends heard about this and they sent her a light cart which could be\nwheeled by two boys or girls.\n\n\"Now I don't need a furlough,\" said Mary.  \"Instead of going home as I had\nplanned, I shall stay here and enjoy going over ground in my cart that I\ncouldn't get over otherwise.\"\n\nA new government road was being built between Ikpe and Ikot Expene. Mary\nwanted to start schools and churches all along this road.  But she was not\nstrong enough to carry out her idea. Her heart was very weak now and she\nhad to rest often. If there had been someone to take her place, she would\nhave gone home for a rest. Mary wrote to a friend:\n\nWe were never so shorthanded, and I\ncan do what others cannot, what indeed,\ndoctors would not allow them to try. No\none meddles with me and I slip along and\ndo my work using less strength than\nmany would have to use.\n\nMary knew if she took a furlough her work at Ikpe and the other stations\nwould stop because there was no one to take her place.  This she did not\nwant to happen. She worked on through the summer of 1912. In September she\ncompleted thirty-six years as a missionary in Africa.\n\n\"I'm lame and feeble and foolish,\" said Mary, \"but I grip on well.\"\n\nHer friends were very much worried about her health. It was suggested that\nshe be sent on an expense-paid trip to the Canary Islands. There the\nclimate was milder than it would have been in Scotland during the\nwinter. She was glad to go. Mary wrote:\n\nWhat love is wrapped around me! It\nis simply wonderful. I can't say anything\nelse. Oh, if I only get another day\nto work. I hope it will be fuller of earnestness\nand blessing than the past.\n\nThis vacation was a real blessing to Mary.  The fevers left her. With no\ncommittee meetings, no court cases or other problems to worry about, she\ngrew stronger very quickly.  It was not many months before she was back at\nDuke Town. The doctor gave her an examination.\n\n\"You're as sound as an elephant's ivory tusk,\" said the doctor. \"You are\ngood for many years, if you will only take care.\"\n\nMary did not like that. She had never been willing to sit and twiddle her\nthumbs. Now her mind was full of new plans for more work. She wanted to get\nbusy with her work for the Lord.\n\nFor the next two years Mary worked hard at Use and Ikpe. She traveled\nbetween these two places, sometimes in a canoe, sometimes in the government\nboat, but mostly in her two-wheeled cart. There was still much to do. She\nwas still fighting the juju worship, the sinful practice of eating people\nand the murdering of twins.\n\nEight years had gone by since Mary had left Akpap. A new church was being\nfinished and the missionaries who now worked there invited Mary to attend\nthe dedication service.  Mary wanted to see the dear friends she had loved\nfor years. She decided to go and take her adopted children with her.\n\nFrom all over Okoyong the people had come to see their Ma, their White\nQueen. Ma Eme, the missionary's old friend, was there.  When they met tears\nfilled their eyes, they were so happy to see one another again. But Mary\nwas sad, too, because Ma Eme had never openly accepted Christianity.\nSpeaking of Ma Eme, Mary said, \"My dear and old friend and almost sister,\nshe made the saving of life so often possible in the early days. It is sad\nthat she would not come out for Christ.  She could have been the honored\nleader of God's work. Hers is a foolish choice. And yet God cannot forget\nall she was to me and how she helped me in those dark and bloody days.\"\n\nHundreds of people crowded into the new church at Akpap. Mary remembered\nthe wild parties and drunken fights of the first days of her work among the\npeople. How they were changed! How God had changed them through His Gospel!\nIt was wonderful! Mary thanked God for His wonderful blessings.\n\nShortly after her trip to Akpap, Mary was honored by the king of Great\nBritain. She was chosen by him to be a member of the order of St. John of\nJerusalem. This was an honor given only to English Christians who had done\ngreat things for God. The government people of Calabar decided that they\nmust have a public celebration of this great honor. They sent the\ngovernment boat for Mary. The little old missionary, now nearly sixty-five,\nwas brought to Duke Town. Here a great crowd filled the biggest hall in\ntown.\n\nThe governor made a speech and pinned the cross on Mary's left\nshoulder. During the speech Mary sat with her head in her hands.  When it\ncame time for her to speak, she found it hard to talk. Turning to the boys\nand girls who were in the hall she said, \"Be faithful to the government. Be\nChristians. Be friends of the mission and be followers of Jesus.\"\n\nLater she wrote to her friends in Scotland:\n\nDon't think there is any change in me\nbecause I received this honor. I am Mary\nSlessor, nothing more and none other\nthan the unworthy, unprofitable but\nmost willing servant of the King of kings.\n\nThe only change the honor made in Mary was that she worked harder than\never. A government road was opened to Odoro Ikpe.  Mary at once started a\nmission there and reached out into the small jungle settlements.  There she\ntalked with the chiefs and the natives.  At last she won their consent to\nbuild schools and churches. They gave her the land to do this. Now she was\nbeginning all over in a new territory. She had the same hard work, the same\ntroubles, the same heathen customs to fight. But Mary was glad to do it.\nShe thanked God for the chance to bring the Gospel to people who had never\nheard about it.\n\nMary saw to it that a house was built and then began teaching in the\nschool, holding services, settling quarrels, winning souls for Jesus. In\nAugust, 1914, rumors reached her that Europe was rushing into war. This\nmade her feel sick. She knew that this war would not only bring suffering,\nhorror, and death to many of her dear friends, but it would also hinder the\nwork in Calabar.\n\nSeveral months went by. The mail came.  Mary opened the newspaper. There\nshe read the headlines: Russia declares war! France declares war! England\ndeclares war! Mary fainted. The trouble and excitement were too much for\nher. For two weeks more she carried on her work but it was too much for\nher. She became weaker and weaker.  On Sunday, January 10, 1915, she held\nher usual church service. After the church meeting she fainted.\nDr. Robertson arrived from the Slessor Hospital at Itu. He was able to\nbring her to, but on January 12 she found it almost impossible to talk.\nHer last words were a prayer in the African language called Efik.\n\n\"O Abasi, sana mi yok,\" said Mary. \"O God, release me!\"\n\nJanie, the first twin Mary had saved, was now a beautiful black woman. She\nand other children Mary had saved and adopted were watching beside Mary's\nbed through the night. A rooster crowed.\n\n\"Day must be dawning,\" said one of the girls.\n\nDay was dawning for Mary, God's eternal day. She slipped away from the\nearth to be with her Saviour in Heaven.\n\n\"Our Mother is dead, and we shall be slaves now that our Mother is dead,\"\ncried the natives.  The news that the white Ma was dead spread\nrapidly. Natives came from all over the country to see the woman they\nloved.\n\nMary's body was taken to Itu where services were held. Then it was taken to\nDuke Town.  Here another service was held. Then the coffin was carried to\nthe beautiful cemetery on Mission Hill. From this place could be seen a\nlarge part of the city where Mary had begun her faithful missionary work in\nAfrica.  Around her grave the grateful natives gathered and wept for her\nwho had wept and prayed over them.\n\n\"Do not cry, do not cry,\" said old Ma Fuller, Mary's native friend through\nthe years.  \"Praise God for His blessings. Ma was a great blessing.\"\n\nFirst the Africans called her \"the white Ma who lives alone.\" Then they\ncalled her \"the Ma who loves babies.\" But lastly they called her \"#eka\nkpukpru owo#,\" \"everybody's Mother.\"\n\n\nTHE END\n\n\n\n\n\nBooks on Women Missionaries\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWHITE QUEEN OF THE\nCANNIBALS\n\nThe Story of Mary Slessor\nBy A.J. Bueltmann\n\nWhen Mary was young, she heard her mother read about the dangers and\nrewards of missionary work in Calabar, Africa. This challenged Mary\nSlessor's young heart and she determined to serve her Lord there. _White\nQueen of the Cannibals_ records her courage as a missionary to the worst\nof pagans. The story is simply told that it might inspire children to\nChristian service.\n\nNOT ALONE By Eunice V. Pike\n\nMany hundreds of languages in the world today have never been reduced to\nwriting. Uncounted thousands of people cannot read God's Word. The work of\nWycliffe Bible Translators is to master the language of a tribe, reduce it\nto writing, and then teach the people to read the Scriptures--in their own\ntongue. Eunice Pike recounts her years spent with the Mazatec Indians in\nMexico, giving them God's Word.\n\nCLIMBING By Rosalind Goforth\n\nAfter returning home from many years of missionary service in China,\nRosalind Goforth reflects on those incidents that most affected her life\nfor Christ.  Written to display the mercy of the Lord and \"to help others\nface life's hard problems,\" the author recalls her experiences from\nchildhood to retirement--a life of constant _climbing_.","title":"White Queen of the Cannibals: the Story of Mary Slessor of Calabar","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":38407}