08 Second Term at San Salvadore (cont.)

Chapter 8 SECOND TERM AT SAN SALVADOR— Continued

THOUGH the missionaries craved greater progress the work of the year 1892 was encouraging, and their devotion and their hope were unabated. In his official report Mr. Lewis records that eleven persons were baptized during the year, and that the membership stands at forty-seven, a clear increase of nine. The Christmas collection was again made with enthusiasm, and concerning this Mr. Lewis writes: "We closed the year by making a special effort to seat our chapel. We have a spacious native building, but it has never been seated, and our few forms are next to no good. We suggested that the Church and congregation should join in defraying the expenses of good pitch-pine seats on iron standards, ordered from England. They took it up enthusiastically, and last week made a collection with this object. The meeting was the largest we ever had in Congo, and goods to the value of £50 were taken. This is more than we really needed, but we can use it in some other way." The report contains two lines which are significant in relation to the work of Mrs. Lewis: " The girls’ school has had no interruption through the past year, and the girls have made satisfactory progress. There are sixty-two scholars, four of whom are boarders." On February 2, 1893, Mrs. Lewis wrote a long letter to Miss Hartland reporting a fortnight’s itineration, made with her husband, in the course of which they visited many places where no white man had been seen before. The women were delighted to find that she could speak with them, and she and Mr. Lewis agreed that in most places "the women were by far the better part of the population." In this letter occurs the following interesting passage about her girls: —

" You ask in your letter if we have any nice bright girls, like the boys. Several other people have asked much the same question, and I begin to fear that I have not said enough about the girls and women. I am so much afraid of giving a wrong impression, and have perhaps gone to the other extreme. There has been so much fuss made at home over these boys that many people seem to think them paragons of excellence, and that our work lies mainly among them. You see when people come out first it is only with the boys they have to do, as they alone understand English. It takes much longer time to get to know the girls and women. Since I have been in Africa my work has lain entirely among them, and I consider, on the whole, that it is decidedly encouraging.

" Two of my girls are now teachers, helping us in school. Another, who is married to Zwarky, Mr. Grenfell’s boy, has a very good character from every one up river. Yet another who married Lo last summer, though not so clever with her brains as some, is a dear good girl and a splendid nurse. She nursed Mrs. Graham’s baby, and was most devoted. These four are all Christians. Of course we have had some trouble, some naughty girls, but they do not exceed the boys in that regard; and although we have many more women than men in the Church, we have not yet had to exercise discipline on one. Two have lately fallen into sin, but have seemed so truly penitent that we felt we could only say to them, ’ Go, and sin no more.’

"The girls I have in the house now are comparatively new. Ntumba, who is engaged to Elembe, is a very quiet useful girl who is getting on nicely. She has been with us just a year. Nsukula, who is engaged to our cook, Manwana, is a very bright little girl and, I believe, a Christian. She has been in the day school a long time, and can read fluently, but has only been in the house a few months. Nsunda, who is quite a young woman, has been here about six months, and is under our protection from her own father. She is very wild, but not at all stupid. Then there is Ndungani, who has just come. She is the King’s daughter and is engaged to Vita. She is a very big girl, and seems very anxious to learn. Another is just coming, Kuvovwa. She has been at school a long time, but I fear is rather stupid. However, we must see what can be done with her.

" Of course our great object in dealing with these girls is to lead them to become followers of Jesus Christ, and we are very thankful when this is the result of our teaching. Unfortunately we can never keep them as long as we keep the boys, because they get married too soon, according to our notions; but I am very glad if they will only wait until they are fairly grown. The marriage question in its many aspects is our greatest trouble, and that can only be remedied by teaching the girls and women, as well as the boys and men, to think and act rightly in the matter. Only women can do this. It is most important to let the girls understand, as I think they do now here in San Salvador, that we take them and teach them for their own sakes, and not simply because they are engaged to certain boys. I go on the principle of never keeping a girl against her will, for I have only a limited amount of time and strength, and I feel it better that they should be spent in training a few who wish to learn, than in coercing a larger number, retained against their will. Although I have to be very strict, 1 think they like it, and we are on the best of terms. I treat them as much as possible as I should treat school-children at home. Now I think you know most of what there is to know about my girls." The report said: " The girls’ school has had no interruption through the past year." But the girls’ school and all Mrs. Lewis’s work in San Salvador were destined to suffer serious interruption full soon. At the end of March, 1893, she records that her husband has been seriously ill, and that all things are packed up for a voyage to Grand Canary, where it is proposed that they shall spend five or six weeks, in the hope that so much rest and change may effect such restoration as will enable him to resume his work without a return to England. She is thankful that her own health has been preserved, and the general concern displayed by the natives in her husband’s illness is noted with grateful appreciation. The chiefs of neighbouring towns have been assiduous in their inquiries, and carriers, many more than they would need, have eagerly volunteered for the journey to the coast, that they might serve those whom they esteem highly, though it is the middle of the wet season.

Mrs. Lewis had received news in advance of a plum-pudding which had been despatched in honour of her birthday, and says in a postscript to the letter containing the foregoing particulars, that they are hoping to meet the plum-pudding at Tunduwa. They did meet the plum-pudding at Tunduwa, but no immediate intimacy ensued. It was handed to them just before their steamer sailed, and they handed it back to Mr. John Pinnock, to be taken care of till the first week in July, when they hoped to share the joy of it with him, and maybe others. On May 10th they arrived at Grand Canary, having made the voyage in the steamer Lulu Bohlen, which they hoped to catch again upon her return from England, as they well liked her appointments and her officers. Two days after landing Mrs. Lewis reports that Mr. Lewis is much better, and that they are comfortably housed in an hotel which is made charming by spacious gardens ablaze with flowers. The island is not so pretty as Madeira, but much drier, and therefore more suitable to their health requirements. Her letter continues: —

" This island is, of course, Spanish, and terribly priest-ridden. The people are wretched and dirty. Oh, the contrast between the miserable shanties of Canary, with their dirty, half-naked children, and the clean, sweet cottages of Wales! We went into the cathedral the other day, a strange, uninteresting building, where the priests were droning the service. The only thing we admired was a series of pictures, of more than life-size, illustrating "The Way of the Cross." I was glad to see them there, and hoped that some poor people would derive from them knowledge of Christ’s love and suffering, which they might not otherwise obtain.

" There are crowds of lazy, sleek priests about, who grind every possible penny out of these poor people. Next to no mission work seems possible among them, the restrictions are so many. There is the Sailors’ Institute, for English sailors especially, and the English church, recently opened, for English visitors. I think the Searles do a little, and perhaps the English clergyman does; I do not know. But it is very little. There is one comfort, we shall have somewhere to go on Sunday. There will be the church in the morning; we have promised to go down to tea with the Searles; and in the evening there will be the Gospel Service for sailors. I have promised to do my best to play the hymns for them. There is a man-of-war lying here now, so the sailors, or many of them, will be present. I was asked to speak, as they say the sailors listen better to ladies; but I begged off for next Sunday at least. I am not comfortable in speaking to men only." As Mr. Lewis grew stronger they were able to make interesting excursions into the heart of the island, and in the course of a journey to an extinct crater received beautiful hospitality at the hands of a venerable peasant couple, of which Mrs. Lewis gives an idyllic picture. The first day of June brought the sojourners no little joy in the appearing of Mr. W. C. Parkinson, who had so timed a flying visit to Grand Canary that he might spend a few days with Mr. and Mrs. Lewis. Mr. Parkinson was and is an honoured and devoted member of the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society; he was the Superintendent of Camden Road Sunday School, under whom Mrs. Lewis served in earlier years, and withal an intimate personal friend. Mr. Parkinson was accompanied by his daughter May, who, as a child, had known Mrs. Lewis in the Sunday School, and in the class conducted by Thomas Comber. She also was inspired by missionary ideals, and has since served the cause of Christ for many years on the hard field of Morocco. The four following days were golden days glowing with the glad, free intercourse of kindred minds, maintained amid delightful physical conditions. The happiness passed into memory on June 5th, when their friends left, but Mrs. Lewis’s remark: " We did just enjoy the Parkinsons’ visit. It was splendid, hearing all about everybody, and I think they enjoyed it too," indicates how keen the happiness had been. The stay in Grand Canary had done all that was hoped for in mending the health of Mr. Lewis, and on June 13th, when the Lulu Bohlen was hourly expected, to take them back to Congo, Mrs. Lewis wrote a letter to her friend, Miss Hartland, which bubbles over with high spirits and pulsates with laughter. It contains a long, humorous account of an equestrian picnic expedition, made by the Lewises and certain acquaintances, to a distant part of the island. The use of the convenient epithet " equestrian " involves a certain economy of truth, for most of the horses were donkeys, and one of them was a mule. In fact, there was only one horse, but the reader will pardon the inexactitude for the sake of euphony. The letter was accompanied by a pencil sketch of the cavalcade. Candour compels me to confess that the artistry is of the nursery order, and that the names written beneath the figures in the picture are necessary for identification, save in the case of Mr. Lewis, whose long beard, black spectacles, and big helmet would enable the reader of the epistle to be sure of him at once. I quote one paragraph: —

"As we sat waiting for coffee we rested in various fashions. Tom lay on the floor with his feet on a chair. The other two gentlemen sat in an opposite corner, each with his chair tilted up, and his feet on another. Our ride had made us so lively that we laughed continually. When the waiter appeared with the coffee — none of your sleek waiters in evening dress, but a very rough Spanish man in country clothes — he asked if Tom would have his coffee on the floor. Tom answered ’Yes.’ Whereupon Mr. Kennedy laughingly instructed the waiter to pour it down his throat. And this the obedient fellow was on the point of doing, with utmost gravity, evidently regarding it as one more freak of ’ those English,’ who ride donkeys and take long walks for pleasure. We had a splendid ride back, my donkey keeping up with Mr. Kennedy’s horse and coming in at a gallop, far ahead of all the rest." In good health and good heart Mr. and Mrs. Lewis left Grand Canary on board the Lulu Bohlen, sailing on June 15th, and early in July were safe at Tunduwa, greatly cheered by good news of the Mission. Their short stay at the base station was made memorable by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Grenfell, who appeared just in time to partake of the plum-pudding, which was destined for exceptional honour. Writing on July 5th to Miss Hartland, Mrs. Lewis says: " We had the plum-pudding for dinner to-day, and just before ’ chop ’time Mr. and Mrs. Grenfell arrived, so they partook of it as well. Mr. G. said he hardly dared to, but must for your sake. He did not know of dear mother’s death, as his letters failed to reach him and were sent back here. He is now reading them all. Though he looks very well, he has been ailing for some days. We were ardently hoping that he would come before we left, as was Mr. Forfeitt. So the Pinnocks, Messrs. Forfeitt, Pople, and Kirkland, Mr. and Mrs. Grenfell, Mr. and Mrs. Roger and ourselves, all ate of your pudding and enjoyed it. It was first-rate after all these months. I thought you would like to know."

" San Salvador, August 27th. — Since my last letter Messrs. Grenfell and Lawson Forfeitt have been here for a flying visit. We were so sorry they could not stay over Sunday. It was such a pleasure to have them, and they said their coming did them both good. Mr. Grenfell stayed at Mr Graham’s house, and Mr. Forfeitt with us, but they both ’ chopped ’ here, and we had welcome talk with them about many matters. They are both special favourites with us. We were sorry Mrs. Grenfell could not come, but she had not returned from the Cameroons." A fuller account of this visit is given in "The Life of George Grenfell ", including a letter from him, in which he refers to the great change which had come over the place since his previous visit, and proceeds: " The Church members number forty-nine; the scholars in regular attendance, about twice that number, the girls being more numerous than the boys; a fact largely due to the marked influence of Mrs. Lewis, who is a splendid missionary."

" October 31. — The commodity, time, has been very scarce with me lately. You may possibly have heard that Mrs. Phillips had a son on the 7th of this month. He is a darling little fellow, and of course I love him muchly, as you know my predilections in that line. Mrs. Phillips is getting on nicely. I have just returned from bathing baby, and getting her up. She is now sitting on her piazza.

" February 5, 1894. — If you only knew how busy I am you would forgive a short letter I am sure. I will just tell you in detail of my day’s work and then you will know how time flies. Directly after breakfast this morning came prayers with the girls, then I gave out ’ chop ’ to them and the small boys, and arranged dinner for ourselves with the cook. After this I dispensed medicine to over sixty people, and you can imagine what a job this is. Next came conversation with some Christian women who had come over from two other towns for Communion yesterday, and had many things to discuss before they went back. Then I took a class of inquirers from one of these towns, consisting of six women. By that time it was after twelve, noon.

"Just as I was coming to sit down quietly, one of my house-girls came to speak to me. So I sat down in my bedroom to listen to the good news that she wished to give her heart to Christ. While she was speaking another girl came on the same errand. When I got to the sitting-room I found Tom talking to one of our boys, one of those everlasting marriage palavers which is not settled yet. By that time there were ten minutes left before dinner, after which we get an hour’s rest, and need it, especially just now when the weather is broiling in the middle of the day. After rest and a cup of tea I wrote a note to one of our boys at Tunduwa about another matrimonial affair, and then went to school for two hours. When I came out I found Mr. Pople in fever and Tom looking after him. Then I took a quarter of an hour’s stroll outside, and have been writing ever since tea. I was forced to write many letters for this mail. This is a fair sample of a day. Only the evenings are usually given to teaching, sewing, or translating.

" We had a delightful baptismal service last week, when five persons from one town, one from Mbanza Mputu, and two of my schoolgirls confessed Christ. I have written in full about the candidates to Mr. Baynes, so perhaps you may see the letter in the Herald.... We are so delighted to hear about the Congo Sale. You have done splendidly this year! "

"May 22nd. [To a correspondent.] "There is no doubt we shall require them [unmarried women missionaries] by and by as the Mission develops. At present all the work among women is done by missionaries’ wives. I should say the chief qualifications for a woman missionary, either married or single — after, of course, those which are spiritual — are, first, and most essential, really good health and a sound constitution, then, common sense, a sound knowledge of all household matters including the making of clothes, aptness to teach, and a cheerful, contented disposition. These, with a large stock of patience, a heart full of love, some knowledge of nursing and medicine if possible, and a single eye to the glory of God, will, I think, make an ideal missionary. Alas! we feel we fall far short of this ideal, but it is well to aim high. I have always regarded Mrs. Mary Moffat as my model, and have many times taken ideas from her life and work. I think one who is to become the wife of a missionary could not do better than study her life....

"Now a little about our work. We are very short-handed just now. My husband and I are quite alone, and are likely to be for some time.

We are always busy, and cannot do half the work. We have at this station a native Church of fiftynine members, thirteen of whom belong to other towns. These, we believe, are Christians, but the majority cannot read, and they all need constant teaching and supervision. Then we have a boys’ school of sixty, which meets every morning, and a girls’ school in the afternoon with eighty-five names on the books. Of course some of these are irregular, so that the average attendance would be a hundred and ten boys and girls. Then we have schools in three other towns. Two young men who were our personal boys are in charge of them, and there are over a hundred and twenty people in attendance. In all our schools there are a good many who are no longer children, but who are anxious to learn to read.

" Three times a week I have a dispensary, giving medicines to all who come. I have about one hundred and fifty patients weekly, sometimes more. Some are very sad cases for which we can do little. Others we are able to help and sometimes to cure. We have the boys and girls living with us who are trained to work in different ways. You can imagine that all this with classes, services, visitations of the sick and others in their own houses, keeps our hands pretty full. But we long so intensely to go about among the other towns and preach the Good Tidings. Several of these towns are visited on Sundays by the native Christians, but only those that are within walking distance, and there are scores beyond, speaking the same language which would gladly welcome us, but we cannot go for lack of helpers. If only the young men of England could really know the greatness of the work, and the scarcity of the workers, I am sure many would willingly offer themselves. One qualification I omitted to mention, needed by men and women, a good education. We do not need merely good people, but those who can influentially lead others. For after all Africa must be evangelised by her own people."

" September 5th. (To Mrs. J. Jenkyn Brown. ) — You ask if the deaths occurred near us. Both of the brethren [Messrs. Oram and Balfern] were well known to us, but one died at our farthest station [Bopoto], hundreds of miles distant, and the other on his way home, at Madeira. It is a rare thing for us to see any of our colleagues from the other stations. We are quite out of the world here, even the Congo world. It is a drawback in some respects, but there are advantages, and we are so busy that we have no time to pine for society. Still it would be very pleasant to see our friends sometimes, and the idea of being ’ spirited over to Birmingham for rest and petting ’ is most alluring. But when we look around and see just our two selves, and our fellow-missionary, Mr. Graham, with every other influence, in the place and about it for hundreds of miles, telling against truth and righteousness, we can only hope and pray to be allowed to remain and work here.

" October 4th. — Your last letter was written from Devonshire and called up visions of lovely country walks which I should not mind sharing if only one could fly backwards and forwards. But there is no holiday for us. For the last ten days or so we have been busier than ever. We have been having a grand vaccination frolic. A few weeks ago our Resident left to be promoted to a better place. He wrote back from Noki to Tom, and sent him some tubes of vaccine. Most of it was bad, as it usually is by the time it comes here, but one tube was good, from which we vaccinated our house-children; then from them some of the outside people, and so on. The news soon spread, and people came in crowds. Every morning hundreds are to be seen entering the station. We all go to chapel and have prayers first; then I take all the medical work, while Tom and Mr. Graham go at it as hard as they can. You can imagine it is no play. Yesterday I gave medicine to over fifty people while they vaccinated 402! — 225 were done to-day. This has been going on for nearly a fortnight, and ’still there’s more to follow.’

" The people come from towns far and near, for they are terribly afraid of smallpox, and vaccination is something tangible which they can understand. So many are quite strangers, knowing nothing of God’s palaver, that it is very difficult to keep order at prayers. Indeed, it is hard to get silence to begin, for we have had the chapel crowded out. I am afraid they don’t take much in, at just one service. Still, it prepares the way for them to listen next time. Up till now the cases have numbered 1,651.

" The rains have just begun, and Tom is busy with his garden. On Saturday and Sunday he had a touch of liver trouble, and had to keep quiet for a couple of days. He is all right again now. I am thankful to say Mr. Graham and I are well too. We hear some talk of Mr. Phillips coining back soon after the new year as his time will be up, but Mrs. P. is not coming, and we are very much afraid Mrs. Graham won’t come either. We are waiting anxiously for this mail to hear something definite. I don’t mind much if my health keeps good except that there might be so much more done. Really my health is wonderful considering everything. I feel I can’t be thankful enough for it.

" We are having a hard fight here now, there are many forces of evil against us. Some of those who have been trained in the Mission are doing their very best to keep people away from us and our meetings, and trying hard to destroy and lead into sin those who do come. Still we have God on our side, and in spite of them all the work goes on. We have large meetings, good schools, and many people coming to be taught. Mr. Graham has been visiting the out-stations since I wrote last. He was very pleased with the work. He had not seen them before.

" November 23rd. — There is a great deal of opposition now to girls coming into the station, because the men find that they will not be slaves afterwards. Only those who really wish to live in a decent fashion will allow their girls to come, and even when they do there is often difficulty with their families.... But the conceit of these people, especially the young men and big boys, is astonishing. It is beyond measure! There is just that air about them: ’ I’m as good as you.’ They are not at all the poor humble negroes whom one reads about in story-books. They are very different even from the Cameroons people in their behaviour to the white man. There is one good thing about it. I think it will be easy to develop independent, self-supporting Churches as soon as we can find people to take the leadership.

"December 16th. — You said in your last letter that there will always be a welcome for us at 34. Thank you very much for the assurance. I am afraid we shall come to claim it earlier than we had expected. We did hope to stay out another year, but Tom is sick in bed with one of his old attacks, the second he has had, and a very severe one. So we dare not risk another, and shall leave as soon as there is some one with Mr. Graham. We shall not come to England though, until May, all being well, but shall stay at Madeira, to avoid east winds, and to learn Portuguese, which we badly need here." On January 16, 1895, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis left San Salvador, and after a tedious voyage reached Grand Canary on March 20. There they were compelled to wait eight days, and the subsequent passage to Madeira proved frightfully rough and perilous. They arrived much knocked about, but not permanently damaged by the buffeting. Their friend Mr. Parkinson, who had called upon them at Grand Canary in the previous year, dropped in again at Funchal, and remained with them a week, to the great augmentation of their pleasure and their cheer, but whether or not to the advantage of their projected study of the Portuguese language I cannot say.

Early in May they were in London, and found a temporary home in the near vicinity of the church which Mr. Lewis had come to regard with affection akin to that long cherished by his wife. In the following month, Mrs. Lewis had an important interview with Mr. Baynes respecting the work of women missionaries on the Congo, and the advisability of allowing unmarried women to join the staff. She was of opinion that this should be done when the Committee had been educated to adopt right lines in the matter, concerning which her judgments were very definitely formulated. Suffice it here to say that ultimately her recommendations have been almost exactly embodied in practice. At the end of July, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, accompanied by their niece. Miss Eva Percival, joined Mr. and the Misses Hartland at Penmaenmawr, and began a holiday in North Wales which was ever remembered with enthusiasm. Among the pious pilgrimages of this sojourn in the hill country was one to the inn at which Mrs. Lewis’s father and mother spent their honeymoon, and another to the churchyard at Maentwrog where her grandparents and one of her uncles were buried. As the year drew to its close, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were both in the full swing of deputation work, and in a letter dated December 16th, Mrs. Lewis states that she and her husband have each had fourteen meetings at Loughborough within one week. Their programme included a five weeks’ working tour in Scotland, in the interests of the Mission; and after many labours there came a spell of strenuous rest in Switzerland, of which no other record has reached my hand than the following enthusiastic picture-postcard communication, addressed to Miss Ethel Percival: —

" Chamonix, June 9th, — Here we are in the midst of glories too big for words. Mont Blanc showed us his head yesterday. Such a sight! This morning we walked over the Glacier du Borson. Had to start by climbing a long ladder, then steps cut in the ice just big enough for one foot — woollen socks over our boots. Splendid walk there and back through pine woods smelling deliciously! Waterfalls, mountains, streams, and flowers in abundance. Love to all. Tell Eva I have got my mountain spirits on.... To-morrow we go to see another glacier, bigger and farther off. I go on a dear beast." The furlough with its manifold labours and spells of recreation which constitute the "rest and change" which missionaries come home to enjoy, wore to its close. Public and private farewells were spoken, and on Saturday, July 4th, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. White, Mr. Wherrett, and Mr. Gardiner of another mission, left London for Antwerp. Mr. Parkinson accompanied them upon this first stage of their journey. Sunday was spent in Antwerp, where they attended services at the Seamen’s Church and visited St. Paul’s and the Cathedral. On Monday Mr. Parkinson took the whole party to Brussels for the day, but on returning to Antwerp had to say " goodbye " without waiting to see them off. They were sorry at the leave-taking, and would fain have had his company all the way, as I, who have had the privilege of travelling with him more than once, can well believe. But if Mr. Parkinson did not see them off a good many other people did. Their ship was a new one, named Albertville, after the Crown Prince. When she loosed from the quay flags were flying, bells ringing, bands playing, all the craft in the river ablaze with bunting, and "all Antwerp" at the riverside to see the spectacle; for the Crown Prince himself had come aboard, and ten nuns and two priests bound for Africa had embarked in procession, led by two dignitaries of the Church wearing gorgeous apparel. As the Albertville dropped down the Scheldt " music played while His Serene Highness was pleased to eat his victuals." At Flushing the Crown Prince and the bishops left the ship with ceremonious adieux and episcopal benedictions. It was all glorious and affecting, but left somewhat to be desired. The music which cheered the Prince at his banquet failed to satisfy the cravings of hungry English missionaries, and Mrs. Lewis ruefully records in her journal that they did not get their lunch until four o’clock.