It was some weeks after my husband's return from the Coast with a supply of food and barter goods, before he recovered from the effects of the terrible disease, which had attacked him on his long and dangerous journey. God had given to him great recuperative power, however, and, after a short period of rest, he was once again busy actively in the work to which he was truly fond of.
He loved the natives with a sincere affection, and however unlovable in many respects was their character and nature, he could detect within them great possibilities under the transforming and regenerating power of the Spirit of God. Although the terms "savage/native" is used in this book in its ordinary accepted meaning, yet to my husband and myself there was no insulting meaning in our thoughts and conversation. The naked denizen of the forest was to us a person made in the image of God, one who, however defaced and marred by his lawless life and degrading environment, could be recreated and born again by the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. To us the natives were friends, and we were rejoiced as the days passed by to find that there was an ever-growing return of affection, in which was shown greater freedom of communication and increased interest in our Message.
At this stage of our work, when life was becoming safe on our station and the elder children fully fluent with several of the languages of the surrounding tribes, I had the opportunity of taking many journeys with my husband. We had always a good following of natives with us for carrying tent, camp beds, cooking utensils and food.
In the evening time during these itinerations, after our usual Gospel talk with the men, we had the privilege of becoming more familiarly acquainted with the inward life and heart longings of these sons of the wilds. To satisfy their abnormal desire for flesh, and to make it unnecessary to carry with us large quantities of grain for the food of our carriers, my husband always shot some meat for them, in the cooking and partaking of which they reveled with great pleasure.
On those nights in the forest, as we sat by the blazing camp fires, every tongue seemed to be freed, and every heart ready to reveal its secrets. The unrestrained conversation of the savage heart on such occasions usually deals with the scenes of bloodshed and human killing, while they repeat the stories of all the intertribal conflicts in which they were ever involved. This, of course, was natural to them, for everyone of our night companions in camp was a murderer, each and all having repeatedly taken the lives of their fellowmen. My husband often directed their thoughts towards the phenomena of the universe, the sun, moon and stars, and then, from nature, pointed them to nature's God.
We gathered from their stories that N'gai, the Great Architect (ie...God), in creating the world, made two light-giving bodies, male and female, with natural powers of life and motion. The sun, they say, is to run his course without becoming old, until a time when it shall please the Creator to wipe this earth out of existence. In the meantime he has been ordered by the Supreme Being to move across the heavens every day so as to give light to men, but in the evening he is permitted to enter his hut in the west and rest a while. At midnight when men are asleep he sets out on his quick journey underneath the earth, and arrives at the eastern horizon to begin his daily course once more across the ethereal vault of heaven. The moon, his friend and spouse, is short lived; but before she passes away she gives birth to another moon, who soon grows to maturity, and then, like her predecessor, dies of exhaustion while bringing into existence her descendant. The myriads of stars which cover the midnight sky, as seen in the mysterious atmosphere of the tropics, are the children of the first maternal moon.
However crude and unclear may be the ideas of the natives regarding natural objects which are far from them by vast distances, yet they are possessed of an inconceivable wealth of knowledge concerning those things which come within the immediate range of their observation. To them Nature has unlocked many of her treasures. In the science of natural history they are marvelously expert, and are quite familiar with the life and habits of the plants and animals which surround them.
During the hours of the night in our camp, their ear eagerly catches the sound of the soft, but bodeful, crackling of a leaf; and they immediately recognize the cautious step of the padded foot of the King of Beasts. There goes a rustling among the bushes; and in that forceful advance they discover the crashing thrust of a rhinoceros, and the suspense grows more sharp with every moment, until they are assured, by the decreasing noise of his footsteps, that the great monster is moving back into the depths of the midnight wilderness. Apart from the legendary conception of God's universe and the interesting stories we hear from the lips of these children of the bush, regarding beast and bird and reptile, there is an indescribable weirdness and fascination about the primitive camp life itself in these solitudes of God.
The brightness of our camp fires only emphasize the dense darkness which lies beyond, in which dangers lie in wait on every hand. By and bye, however, there is a glimmer of light on the horizon, and soon the moon rises above the giant trees which surround our sleeping places, and her beams light up the spreading branches, which are decorated with a species of long, overhanging lichen. Many fireflies, those fairy-like companions of the tropical night, sway up and down through our camp like tiny lanterns of glowing flame.
Before we retire to rest, the loud, fear-instilling roar of the lion, who has just felled to earth its victim, echoes over the rolling wilds which surround our tent. His mighty bellowing rises higher and higher into reverberating billows and then dies away into a low, rumbling, yet far-reaching growl.
Away on the other side of our camp towards the river, we hear the peculiar, gruff, hollow, unearthly noise which the hippopotamus throws out upon the midnight air, in all its penetrating, nerve-shaking power. One would think the volume of sound, propelled by an abnormal force, was coming from some wide, engulfing cave. These animals are now feeding in herds among the long, thick grasses which cover the fresh areas near the river's banks. With such interesting sleep-songs ringing in our ears we pass into sleep.
When the morning comes in the eastern sky, we made Our way with renewed energy towards the Hippopotamus river, which was some distance below our camp, with the hope of getting one of these huge monsters to supply fat for the use of our men, as well as a little for our own food store, which we often used as a substitute for butter.
On the way, I had a very exciting experience, which, but for the providence of God, might have had a tragic ending. My husband was some distance ahead of me, and with him was the major part of our following of natives, while I, on my Arabian donkey, brought up the rear. We were passing through an open bush country, where numerous earth mounds, as large as high ant-hills, rose like excrescences on the surface of the earth, intercepting our view. In rounding one of these natural earth hills, I was terrified to find a huge rhinoceros charging straight for me at a great speed. The natives fled to climb the nearby trees, while I used my spur on the donkey to urge him forward at a gallop; but, true to his asinine attitude, he immediately came to a dead stop and trembled as if stricken by deathly fear. I instantly jumped from his back and, shouting for my husband, rushed to a huge rock nearby, onto which I climbed for safety. On hearing me call, my husband hurried back towards me and fired at the oncoming rhino, who immediately swerved and disappeared in the bush, leaving my Arab donkey untouched.
When we arrived at the river bank, where there seemed to be a deep volcanic pool, a sight was presented to the eye which can never fade from the memory. With the wind in our favor we carefully made our way through the creepers which hung from tree to tree, and, looking down through the overhanging branches, we caught sight of dozens of hippopotamuses sporting themselves in the water beneath. Sometimes they rose high enough to expose the one half of their gigantic frame, and then plunging beneath, to what depths I know not, they would, after a period, rise once more to the surface to blow, and then play about in total frolicsomeness. At times, some of them would open their great, cave-like mouth and show their gleaming tusks.
At a distance beyond them were huge crocodiles of fifteen to eighteen feet in length. Some of these lay as motionless on the water as if they were logs of wood, while others, seemingly furious, lashed the water into foam with their powerful tails. As we stood there, set and fascinated by the stunning scenery around, and awed by the inspiring sight of these powerful beasts playing in the pool below, I could not help thinking of the words of Job concerning the larger specimens of animated nature, "He moveth his tail like a cedar: his bones are as tubes of brass: his limbs are like bars of iron. He counteth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. He maketh the deep to boil as a pot. Lay thine hand upon him; remember the battle and do so no more." A sudden gust of a swirling breeze played among the trees behind us, and sweeping down over the pool, at once betrayed the presence of human beings; and from that moment not one of them displayed to view above the surface of the water more than the very tip of his nostrils. The hippo is an animal of sharp intelligence, and its powers of scent are well developed. Once he catches but the tinge of human odor, he invariably changes his habitat in the darkness of the following night.
There was no use in my husband firing at the target points which these discreet animals now presented, and to get the fat for which he wanted it was necessary to go further afield. Threading his way, with a native gunbearer by his side, along the well-wooded bank of the river where the tracks of hippopotamus were numerous, he sought to get in touch with some of the great beasts which had not yet been disturbed and alert to our presence. He scrutinized the deep pools in the river bed, in which these animals spend the sunlit hours of the day, and from which they emerge for their feeding grounds at night, when, with their huge, crowbar tusks, they mow down the reeds and coarse grasses of the lowlying fens as with a scythe. All the deep pools were as still as midnight, except for the splash now and again made by the movement of a lazy crocodile which was on the surface. We still carefully made our way through the endless stretch of intertwining climbers and trailing vines and thick undergrowth, which flourished beneath the overspreading branches of the trees that shot up heavenward from the river's bank.
Without any warning whatever there crashed through dense, thick bush before us, with the force of a steam engine, an avalanche of flesh and blood, puffing and blowing in furious rage. In a moment we felt the ground tremble beneath our feet, and the huge animal dashed past us, just missing our track by a couple of yards in its impetuous rush. It was a rhinoceros, whose anterior horn, of about three feet in length, stood out almost horizontally from his nose. How terribly unnerving it is to meet these huge brutes face to face in the thick, intertwining bush, where it is so difficult for man to make his way without stumbling, while these monsters crash through everything, breaking up the undergrowth as if it were sun-dried straw.
More carefully was our progression made through the dense tangle, and our ears strained to catch the faintest sound which the zephyr-like breeze might bring to us through the sultry, stifling atmosphere. We then approached another low depression in the river, and, peering down through the pendant branches of the trees which overhung the water's edge, we saw what seemed to be three black rocks projecting out of the bed of the river near to a large pool. These were hippos which were lying lazily enjoying the glare of the noonday sun. As my husband was raising his rifle, one of the men carelessly broke through some brittle wood, and the echoing sound, though faint, caught the sharp ears of the gigantic beasts, and momentarily they plunged head foremost into the depths below.
Our mission seemed somewhat hopeless that day, as the animals were unusually alert and watchful. Nevertheless, tired and weary, we patiently pushed forward through the intertwining growth which slowed down our progress. After some time we came side by side a lengthened stretch of natural reservoir in the course of the bending river. Close to the bulrush-covered bank there was a track, in which the feet of the pachydermatous animals had made innumerable imprints. These had been formed at the end of the rainy season, and had got baked into hard molds by the fierce rays of the equatorial sun. Along this track we passed, underneath the large, umbrageous trees which studded the wilds on one side, while on the other there was nothing between us and the water's brink but a gradually sloping bank, clothed with waving crowns of papyrus. The humid atmosphere was suffocating, and the fierce, hot rays of the sun gleamed down upon the still water of the great river pool, which reflected the huge palm fronds on the further side as if in a mirror.
My husband soon caught sight of something away in the distance, mid-stream, which seemed to be approaching, and which looked very much like the black, tarred hulk of an old fishing boat, without sail or spar, which was being propelled by some hidden energy. On that river, however, the surrounding natives had never launched a dugout. On came the bulky mass, cutting the surface of the calm pool, while the wavy waters rushed to either bank in surging ripples. As the oncoming monster got nearer, my husband discovered the broad muzzle of an massive hippopotamus and, commanding his followers in a whisper to fall flat on earth, he prepared to fire. As the great pachyderm got close to us, its suspicions were clearly aroused; and, rising in the water to the limit of its power, it scanned the papyrus-covered bank, when a well aimed gunshot rang out, and the extremely large beast, discovering my husband's presence, made a furious dash for the bank with wide-open mouth, in which he showed his white tusks. Another bullet met him as he approached the water's edge with his mighty challenge, and then he turned and made a desperate plunge into the depths below.
For a moment or two we watched the bubbling water which he had left behind him at the spot where he had disappeared, and when the agitation ceased a few air bubbles were seen to rise on the surface, and all was peaceful as before. We then knew that the meat which our men required that night would, in all probability, be held in a few hours' time; so, leaving a couple of natives on watch, we pitched our camp near the bank of the stream, while our hungry men expectantly waited the floating of the carcass, which usually takes place about an hour after the animal has been killed.
While the camp was being put in order, a man rushed to the tent with a beaming face, calling out "Bwana n'guo akwelilaf" (Sir, the hippo is floating!). With glittering blades the natives rushed for the spot, but none were brave enough to swim into the river to push the hippo to the shore, as the water was infested with crocodiles.
Several ropes were made from the bark of some motoa trees in the forest, and to the ends of these were attached stones and pieces of heavy wood, and the weighted ends were thrown beyond the carcass; and then, by a gentle tugging at the ends held on shore, a motion was imparted to the animal which gradually brought it near to the edge, when by means of a long pole, on which a metal hook was fixed, the landing of the great pachyderm was completed.
No sooner had the beast touched the shallow edge of the pool, than two men jumped on to his back and began to slice up the monster. This was done by cutting up the hide and removing it in narrow planks, for its great density and weight prevents it being removed in any other way, the skin along the back being one to one and a half inches thick.
Before sundown the men had all the fat they could possibly carry. When the orb of day had reached the western horizon, tinging the sky with a reddish glow. and outlining the tall palms, whose polished midribs raised their waving fronds high over our camp like giant guards, our thin, ebony-skinned followers were roasting their hippo steaks on the camp fires, while their faces beamed with exuberant spirits over the feast that had been provided for them in the wilds.
The simple existence in camp is enjoyable from many points of view, but the continual uncertainty as to what may happen at any moment is very difficult for the nerves. Within range of the glow of the flaming camp fires one feels quite at home, though snakes are frequently met with in camp, but, in the dense darkness which lies beyond, there are concealed innumerable dangers, which may assail one at any moment, and for which it is ever necessary to be prepared. Hundreds of carnivores are prowling about the forest, and dozens of the even more dreaded rhinoceros are browsing through the thick bush in the vicinity, any of which might pounce upon the camp at a time when least expected.
Sometimes a feeling of great insecurity would come over me, but the composure of my husband, who was cool and collected under the most difficult and eventful circumstances, always dispelled my fears. Often when I could not sleep, due to conditions which foreboded pending danger, he has assured me of being prepared for an emergency by lying down in bed at night with the rifle bearing a loaded magazine grasped by the butt in his hand while the muzzle lay between his feet, so that he was ready at any moment to defend the camp from a sudden attack.
On our journey homeward across the deep ravines and gullies which intersected the landscape, we came into unusually close touch with a herd of giraffe, who were feeding on the young growth of the high trees which lined those low, descending gorges. Our men were resting in the shade which the dense foliage of a huge, wild fig tree afforded, when, through an opening in the bushes, there silently stepped into our midst three or four stately giraffe stallions of eighteen to twenty feet high, leading a herd in which were several baby giraffes. These front line leaders of the group cast upon us a startled and inquiring look, and then scampered off with their unusual galloping leaps, so unlike the way of walking of any other animal in existence. Immediately following them came the mothers, with their active babies by their side, while a mixed company brought up the rear. My husband could have shot half a dozen of them if he had desired to do so, but he never killed except for food or in defense, and so with great interest we watched these giant specimens of a bygone age, as they ambled past us over the sunlit, park-like landscape.
When these beautifully-marked animals are standing still among the feathery foliage of the acacias on which they browse, the harmony of color with environment is very remarkable, and though one may be quite close to them, yet it is difficult at times to discern their presence until they begin to move.
Their only weapon of defense is their leg, and a kick from a full-grown male would be a terrible blow to any beast. They are, however, in no wise ferocious, and the eye of the giraffe is as mild in its expression as that of the most timid gazelle, while neither in joy nor pain do they ever utter the faintest sound. The lion kills them by springing upon them and crunching their neck with a single bite.
On an open piece of ground surrounded by bush we came upon one of those fatal snakes, the red-banded, fiery kiko, but the moment he was discovered on the track, the leading ones of our men threw down their loads and jumped aside. My husband, who was mounted on his donkey and able to see what was going on, determined to get the men to surround the reptile and kill it. The huge snake was very much disturbed, and inflated its neck to the utmost extent, as they always do when furious. The men who had bush sticks in their hands got into position in a circle, at a respectful distance from the monster. The moment the native approached towards the reptile, it coiled back on its tail and sprang at him with lightning speed. The man would jump back and another would seek to strike its tail so as to disable it, but only to hit the place where the snake had been, so fleet and rapid were its movements. By this time the serpent was furious with rage, and began ejecting poison from its mouth, throwing it several yards, but always falling short of the naked bodies of the men.
For a time it seemed as if none of the men were daring enough to venture within striking distance, but at last two of the bravest of our followers determined to approach the reptile and strike at the same moment. While one rushed at the head the other attacked it in the rear, and bringing down a fierce blow with a long, heavy stick, broke its back, and then dispatched it with a fatal blow on the head.
This is the most swift, ferocious and deadly serpent in the East Equatorial Regions, and we think that the fiery serpents which attacked the Israelites in the wilderness were probably of this species. It is the only snake we have met with that will boldly attack without provocation.
One day my husband came across one of these reptiles, on a piece of cleared ground near to our little church building, and it came straight for him. He had nothing in his hand at the moment, but seeing a few loose stones close by, he picked them up and hurled them at the snake, which immediately disappeared into one of the holes of a nearby anthill.
It is quite possible after some years to get accustomed to look, without much concern, upon lions walking about in the distance, through the bush in which you are traveling; but it seems as if humankind could never, with any degree of complacency, so familiarize themselves with the presence of poisonous snakes as to be happy to have them around and, at times, inside one's house. There is an ever-abiding hostility between their seed and that of the woman.
After some years of Missionary work among the Akamba, we were brought, however, face to face with a much more terrible scourge than that of prowling carnivores or venomous snakes. Small insects of Peruvian origin, called jiggers, found an entrance a good many years ago into tropical West Africa, and gradually moved forward along the Congo basin, penetrating the regions of the great inland lakes, and thence made their way among the savage tribes of Eastern Equatorial Africa until they reached the waters of the Indian Ocean.
These insects are so small as to be barely observable to the naked eye. They live mainly in moldy earth or sand, and spring upon and attach themselves to any human being who may chance to come their way, piercing and entering through the skin and then sucking the blood. They usually select the toes or fingers, and penetrate the soft tissues underneath the nails.
When the female gets implanted in the flesh, her eggs, to the number of several thousand, develop rapidly; and soon the insect, which was but a tiny, brown speck, increases to the size of a field pea, and the place where she entered becomes irritated and inflamed. When the eggs are fully ripe the membrane containing them bursts, thus scattering the contents. The innumerable offspring mature into fully developed insects in the course of a week or two. In many cases there is no pain whatever when the insect is burrowing, because the poison they inject renders the nerves somewhat insensitive, but after the bag of eggs becomes swollen and the skin is ruptured, the part usually ulcerates and most painful sores follow. When these pests reached our district the natives had never before heard of them, and were ignorant of their habits, and of the consequences which would follow their entrance into the flesh. We ourselves had no messenger announcing their approach, so that for several weeks the natives, when they came to our meetings or to work on the station, sat down on the ground in the vicinity, and extracted the jiggers which were troubling their feet; and thus, before we knew anything of their presence, our station was flooded with millions of these pests. Very soon we and our children got them in our feet and hands and different parts of the body, and very serious trouble and suffering followed.
We informed all natives with whom we came in contact that when jiggers were extracted they should not throw them nor their eggs on the ground, but destroy them with fire, else the inhabitants would be ruined. It was also advised that no native should be allowed to sit on the ground or remove any jigger from his body within the edge of our station.
In a short time, hundreds of natives were so disabled by the plague of insects that they were unable to walk to their little cultivated patches in the wilds, and many of them lost their toes, while some died from the effects of this terrible plague.
We sought all we could to lessen the number of jiggers in our home, but this was difficult, as it was only a one-story building with an dirt floor. Every day the rooms were swept out, after having been sprinkled with a strong, hot solution of carbolic acid.
No matter what we did to battle and wipe out the plague, it increased to a most vexatious point. Our little church building was so full of jiggers that we could not enter it without them swarming upon our person. The few we were enabled to kill inside the house with the boiling mixture of acid were as the small dust of the balance, compared with the swarming multitudes which were breeding in the sandy mold within the vicinity of our station.
Our children became greatly afflicted, and to some of them sleep was almost impossible, due to the inflammation and febrile disturbance which followed the numerous bites of these insects. My husband and I were kept busy many hours of both day and night in extracting jiggers and applying hot fomentations to relieve the pain and agony which our children were suffering, and this while we ourselves were scarcely able to put a foot to the ground. For months at a time it was impossible to wear a boot, so high were the inflammatory conditions which followed the penetration of these infinitesimal pests. Our house was a regular hospital and our children were harassed and tormented with indescribable agony.
It was most painful to look upon the poor, subdued natives, who came to our station in their wretchedness, exhibiting their sores and seeking medicine and treatment. Numbers of them had lost some of their toes before they came to us, while with others not only were their toes full of insects, but even the cracks and fissures round the heels of their horny feet had been penetrated by large numbers, and these had embedded themselves in the internal tissues, where there were numerous bags containing many thousands of immature jiggers.
We often felt that if the plague should continue much longer we must give up our work, leave the field which had cost so much to win, and come home. Never in all our lives had we thought so much about Job or were led so much into sympathy with him as during those long months of pain and anguish and sleepless nights, under the pestilential calamity which had invaded the country. Often had we prayed about the matter in a general way, but one day we were led of the Lord to put Him to the test and claim victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We unitedly met before Him with our little children and asked Him to remove the plague from the borders of our home. The Lord in grace and love was pleased to answer our prayer, and in two week's time we and our children were quite better, and there was not a single jigger to be found within the boundary of our station. In the providence of God we were completely delivered from them, though the plague continued in the country around for several years.