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 Isabella fl. Nassau 
 
 OF AFRICA 
 
 The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society 
 of the Presbyterian Church 
 
 501 Witherspoon Building Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Price, 3 cents; 30 cents a dozen 
 
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 Isabella A. Nassau 
 
 OF AFRICA 
 
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 ROM my earliest childhood I wished to go to 
 Africa as a missionary. I cannot tell how 
 1 came to say one day, when we children 
 were playing, that I would be a missionary to Africa. 
 But most vividly I remember that soon after I had said 
 the word, it was impressed upon me that I could not 
 take back the word I had spoken; it was a vow. I 
 think now it was a Divine call.'’’ Thus Miss Nassau, 
 when a veteran missionary, told how she came to choose 
 Africa for her mission field. 
 
 EARLY ENVIRONMENT. 
 
 Isabella Ann Nassau had behind her a lineage de¬ 
 voted to Christian service, and around her an atmos¬ 
 phere of Christian intelligence and activity. Her grand¬ 
 father, William Nassau of Philadelphia, was an active 
 member of the “Board of Missions/’ afterwards known 
 as the Board of Domestic Missions, for more than 
 thirty years, and for seven years its treasurer. Her 
 father was Rev. Charles William Nassau, pastor and 
 professor. Her mother was Hannah McClintock 
 Hamill, sister of Robert, Samuel M., and Hugh Hamill, 
 names well known in the annals of the Presbyterian 
 ministry and of preparatory schools. 
 
 Miss Nassau was born Tanuary 20th, 1829, near 
 
 Norristown, Pa., while her father was pastor of the 
 Providence Church. She was the second child and 
 oldest daughter in a family of ten She was baptized 
 June 28th, 1829, in the Old Pine Street Church, Phila¬ 
 delphia, by Dr. Ezra Stiles Ely. 
 
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A few years of girlhood were spent in Hannibal, 
 Missouri, whither her father removed to become Pro¬ 
 fessor in a proposed Theological Seminary, and to teach 
 GLs! Latin and Greek in Marion College. Then the family 
 came back to Montgomery Square, near Norristown, 
 for a brief period, and in 1841, when Isabella was 
 twelve years of age, removed to the college hill in 
 Easton. There her father became Professor of Latin 
 and Greek in Lafayette College. As the eldest daugh¬ 
 ter, she had already begun to have a share in the care 
 and direction of the younger children. She attended, 
 as a day pupil, the boarding school of Miss Lorraine, 
 down in the town. At the age of fourteen, on October 
 25th, 1843, she made public confession of her faith, in 
 the First Church of Easton. Three and a half years 
 later (May 19th, 1847), at the age of eighteen, her name 
 appears among the Sunday school teachers of that 
 church. 
 
 YOUNG WOMANHOOD. 
 
 A little later, she became a pupil of the Young 
 Ladies’ Seminary at Lawrenceville, N. J., then in charge 
 of the Misses Craig. In 1850, Dr. Nassau purchased 
 this Seminary, and removed there to become its head, 
 and from that date until Miss Nassau sailed for Africa, 
 in 1868, a period of eighteen years, she was a teacher 
 in that institution. 
 
 In January, 1851, she, together with her mother and 
 sister, upon certificate from the church in Easton, and 
 a sister upon profession of faith, united with the Law¬ 
 renceville church. The Rev. Mr. Gosman, pastor-elect, 
 and later her brother-in-law, had not yet assumed full 
 charge. Her uncle, Rev. Hugh Hamill, was Moderator 
 of the Session which received her, and her father con¬ 
 ducted the first communion service of which she par¬ 
 took as a member of this church. 
 
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Being now an energetic, capable and earnest young 
 woman of twenty-two, she entered at once and actively 
 into the religious work of the church. She took a 
 Sunday school class. She became a tract distributor, 
 and regularly tramped many miles in covering her dis¬ 
 trict. She joined the Missionary Society and soon be¬ 
 came its Secretary and one of its moving spirits. For 
 years and until she laid down the pen to start for 
 Africa, the minutes are in her hand. In her last days, 
 writing from Africa and describing herself as “this lone 
 woman in this far-off land,” she said of Lawrenceville, 
 “While life lasts it will be the dearest spot on earth 
 to me.’’ 
 
 THE CALL OF AFRICA. 
 
 Although as a daughter, sister, teacher, active church 
 member, she sought to honor Christ, she had not yet 
 had the opportunity of service for which her heart 
 yearned. Like the great missionary, Paul, she had 
 heard the call of “the regions beyond.” Through what 
 channel the Spirit first gave the call we cannot certainly 
 say. She herself said she could not tell. It may have 
 been through the prayers and teachings learned at her 
 mother’s knee, for to these her brother, Rev. Dr. R. 
 Hamill Nassau, ascribes his first interest in missions. 
 It may have been the missionary hymns which she de¬ 
 lighted to sing in childhood, and a favorite one of which 
 was “The Missionary’s Call.” It appears clear that 
 the call gained direction and force through a brief visit 
 made to her father’s house in Easton by Rev. and Mrs. 
 G. W. Simpson. They were about to go out to Africa, 
 to assist in starting the Corisco Mission, which they did 
 in 1850. They were earnest in their invitation to this 
 interested young woman to follow them. That they' 
 themselves were drowned within a year, while on a 
 
voyage to a neighboring island, probably added pathos 
 and power to the invitation they had given. 
 
 DETAINED HERSELF, SITE SEEKS TO SEND OTHERS. 
 
 But young Miss Nassau’s desire to offer for Africa 
 had not yet met with the sanction of her parents. It 
 was considered an impropriety for an unmarried woman 
 to venture in such savage fields. Although she could 
 not go to Africa, God had, in His providence, brought 
 some of the Africans within her reach, and she would 
 work for them, and if possible through them for Africa. 
 She took a particular interest in the colored people of 
 the neighborhood, and visited among them. She gath¬ 
 ered a class of three or four young colored men, whom 
 she sought to prepare for what was then Ashmun In¬ 
 stitute, and has since become Lincoln University. She 
 hoped that they might become missionaries in Africa. 
 One of them, at least, became a minister, but never 
 reached the Dark Continent. 
 
 But her missionary enthusiasm from girlhood had 
 been helping to prepare another missionary for the land 
 of her desires. She fanned the flame of missionary 
 zeal which had been kindled in the breast of Robert 
 Hamill Nassau at his mother’s knee. When he sailed 
 for Africa in 1861 (as he himself records), she rejoiced 
 in his going as probably opening a way for herself. 
 And so it proved. At his suggestion, the Mission in 
 Africa sent her a formal invitation to join them. The 
 scruples of her parents were finally overcome by her 
 brother’s presence there, his reports and this invitation. 
 
 AFRICA AT LAST. 
 
 At last, in March, 1868, when she was already a 
 mature woman of almost forty years of age, Isabella 
 Nassau set foot on African soil, to begin the missionary 
 
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career of which she had dreamed, for which she had 
 longed and prayed. It was a grave experiment for any 
 one to make under the circumstances. To enter upon 
 new work and that in a climate so different and so try¬ 
 ing, not onty to learn new languages, but to learn to 
 enter really into the thought and life and experience of 
 men and women and children so diverse from those 
 with whom she had hitherto dealt—this would have 
 been a great task even in that period of life when such 
 learning and adaptation is easiest. That the experiment 
 resulted in such splendid success is witness not only to 
 the keen intellect and the strong will of Isabella Nassau, 
 but I believe above all to that ardent love for Christ 
 and for Africans which from youth had glowed in her 
 heart. 
 
 SCHOOLS AND THEOLOGICAL CLASSES. 
 
 Her aptitudes, her acquirements, her experience, her 
 preference, made clear the line of her work in Africa; 
 it was pre-eminently that of a teacher. Securing a 
 native assistant from among the mission helpers at 
 Corisco, she began there a school for girls. In a few 
 months, with her assistant, she crossed to her brother’s 
 house at Mbade of the Benitc/ Station on the mainland. 
 Here she began with boys. Presently she removed with 
 her school to her own new house at P»olondo. Among 
 the half clad little savages to whom she then taught 
 the alphabet was one whose name now appears in the 
 Minutes of our General Assembly as Rev. Frank Sher- 
 rerd Myongo, pastor of Hanje native church, Batanga. 
 He is now the senior native minister of the Presbytery. 
 From A, P>, C’s to theology, Isabella Nassau was his 
 only teacher. 
 
 But he was only one. As Dr. Nassau reports, for 
 thirty years, from 1870 to 1000, the theological class 
 
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was almost solely under Miss Nassau’s care. Some of 
 the men had scruples about committing this work to a 
 woman, but it was necessary that the work should be 
 done. The male missionaries had neither time nor 
 patience to do it. Isabella Nassau could do it and she 
 did. When the men came up for examination in Pres¬ 
 bytery, they were found prepared. Dr. Halsey, Secre¬ 
 tary of the Board of Foreign Missions, who was present 
 on one of these occasions, wrote: “I listened to the ex¬ 
 amination of these candidates for the Gospel ministry, 
 and was well satisfied that whatever St. Paul meant 
 when he said that women should not speak in the 
 church, he did not mean that women should not teach 
 in a theological seminary in Africa.” 
 
 But she did not teach only those who were sent to 
 her. Rather, she was herself another Priscilla— 
 one who did not need an Aquila to aid her. She her¬ 
 self sought out many of the apt pupils to whom she 
 taught the way of God. Tier brother says candidates 
 for the ministry seemed to sprout where she trod. 
 
 While the training of students for the ministry was 
 perhaps the most striking, unusual and important form 
 of her work, it was by no means all. Beside the little 
 group of theological students who followed her about, 
 partly by her own labor and partly by the assistance of 
 others, she carried on schools for boys or girls, or more 
 usually for both, wherever she was. 
 
 Leaving Bolondo in 1878, she followed her brother 
 up the Ogowe River, first to Kangwe for seven years, 
 and then in 1885 to Talaguga, still further inland. The 
 Ogowe Missions in French territory were turned over 
 to the Paris Evangelical Society in 1892. Then, for 
 the fourth time, she was moved to a new field. This 
 time it was to Batanga, in the German territory of 
 Kamerun, which became thenceforth her African home 
 
 and is her last resting place. 
 
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To teaching Miss Nassau presently added translation, 
 that her scholars and others might have some Christian 
 literature in their native tongues. She prepared ard 
 secured the printing of (i) A Compend of the Bible in 
 Benga; (2) Scripture Questions in Benga; (3) Scrip¬ 
 ture Questions in Mpongwe; (4) Church History in 
 Benga; (5) Benga Customs. She herself reduced one 
 language to writing. 
 
 DIRECT EVANGELISM. 
 
 But with her, as with all true missionaries, the intel¬ 
 lectual training, vitally important as it is, was only a 
 means to an end. The spiritual regeneration and up¬ 
 building of these Africans for whom she believed Christ 
 died was the goal toward which her eye was ever 
 turned, her efforts ever directed. While physical 
 strength allowed, she seized opportunities to itinerate 
 through other villages than those in which she dwelt. 
 She canvassed her own towns and held prayer meetings 
 in the homes. When growing infirmities prevented 
 much walking, these meetings were delegated to her 
 native assistants, but down to the very last she kept up 
 her attendance on the Thursday Woman’s Prayer Meet¬ 
 ing in the church near by her home, and gathered about 
 her on Sunday afternoon a little group of earnest Chris¬ 
 tian women for prayer and counsel. 
 
 Some extracts from one of her later letters, describ¬ 
 ing one of her Sundays and particularly this little meet¬ 
 ing, reveal far more beautifully than the words of 
 another could do, her own spirit in her missionary work 
 and the sympathy that must have been one great secret 
 of her power. She wrote, July 18th, 1904: 
 
 “Dear Sister: —This is Sabbath evening; the precious 
 hours have been filled with precious opportunities for 
 service. First, in the service of nine A. M., the part 
 
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of organist falls to me. It is a service I love to render, 
 although my fingers are sometimes a little stiff; then 
 my lunch at twelve M. At two P. 3 VL, the Sabbath 
 School—the Superintendent is our native licentiate, 
 Mbula Dipipi, and it falls to me, in a variety of ways, 
 to superintend him, so that I usually have a much- 
 used-up feeling when four P. M. comes; but the faithful 
 little circle of our small Christian Endeavor Society 
 were awaiting me in the school room, and it was my 
 turn to lead. I always find that, no matter how broken 
 down I feel, I am sure that strength will come to me 
 from the Loved Unseen if my faith is but strong enough 
 to rely on it and take my Saviour at His word. We 
 had a most interesting meeting, though only five were 
 present. After our tea, the quiet hour came which I 
 like to give to my two girls who are living with Mrs. 
 Ogden and myself in this Evangeline Cottage. We 
 sang and talked, and when the bell rang at seven P. M. 
 for service, I realized that T dared not go out to the 
 meeting, but the two girls went, and I am attempting 
 to tell something about the little Christian Endeavor 
 meeting of this afternoon. It has gladdened my heart 
 and encouraged me, oh, so much ! 
 
 “These dear native women and I are getting near 
 each other’s hearts when we clasp each other’s hands in 
 these little meetings. One part of our pledge is that 
 each one is to make some direct, personal effort for 
 the conversion of some soul, or the edification of some 
 fellow-Christian, and there is always something to be 
 told.” 
 
 WAYSIDE MINISTRY. 
 
 Miss Nassau’s last earthly home was known as “Evan¬ 
 geline Cottage,” probably so called because that name 
 is derived from evangel, gospel—good news. It became 
 a veritable pulpit from which Miss Nassau preached 
 the glad tidings not to little groups only, but to wide 
 regions in the interior. For, as Dr. Halsey tells us: 
 “A well-trodden path leads by Evangeline Cottage. 
 Carriers from the distant interior pass on their way 
 to the factory beyond. The good missionary sits in the 
 
 10 
 
doorway of the cottage, and by the aid of the baby 
 organ induces the carrier to rest for a while on his 
 journey, ji The Word of God is preached to these 
 passers-by, some of whom are never seen again, but 
 surely we have the promise, ‘My Word shall not return 
 unto Me void, but it shall accomplish the purpose where- 
 unto it is sent/ ” 
 
 EVANGELINE COTTAGE 
 
 We have from Miss Nassau’s own pen an account of 
 the result in the case of one of these passers-by: 
 
 (Extract from letter dated Sabbath, July 31st, 1904.) 
 
 “Noon time we like to keep for our private devotions, 
 but to-day my Bulu friend, an old man named ‘Nkoto,’ 
 came, and I spent nearly one and a half hours instruct¬ 
 ing him. * * * * He insists that he is a Christian, for 
 ‘he prays.’ (Is not that true Gospel?) His town is 
 
beyond Elat Station; and King Madolo, my neighbor, 
 who journeys to distant places and has visited Nkolom- 
 bonda, the town of Nkoto, many times, informs me that 
 Nkoto keeps the Sabbath, compels his people to do so 
 also, and that he preaches to his people! Just think 
 of it! Within the last three weeks he has twice bidden 
 good-bye and gone to his town. But he is not satisfied 
 to stay there; he says he loves to be here at Batanga, 
 
 MISS NASSAU AND MRS. OGDEN IN THEIR AFRICAN HOME 
 
 to hear the little organ and to he taught. He brings 
 such nice, well-behaved people with him, who all make 
 daily visits to me. I had not noticed many while Sun¬ 
 day school was in progress, but at its close, more than 
 twenty gathered around the organ, and though it was 
 time for our dear little Christian Endeavor meeting in 
 the Girls’ School, I told the women to go on without 
 me and I played for the Built and helped them with 
 Bulu hymns.” 
 
 WAITING ON THE LORD. 
 
 Another quotation from one of her later letters leads 
 us into the Holy of Holies of her life, the shrine where 
 she communed with God. Tt witnesses to her simple 
 faith, her whole-hearted devotion. On her seventieth 
 birthday, in 1899, she wrote: 
 
“Some months ago, Dr. Gillespie wrote me suggesting 
 a furlough. I love this African land. I feel very much 
 at home among its people, and while the dear Lord con¬ 
 tinues to me some ability for work, I cannot say I wish 
 to go hack to America. I regard the providential order¬ 
 ings that have thus permitted me to work, as very high 
 privileges. Since Hamill left, there have been many 
 times when 1 have longed to see you all, and my 
 thoughts have travelled after him.” 
 
 Then she tells how another missionary had come 
 offering her his escort to America in September. She 
 continues: 
 
 “I thanked him most heartily and showed my appre¬ 
 ciation of his kind thought, but could not just then 
 decide. There is only One who can help me in such 
 decisions. I waited on the Lord. For days I had no 
 answer. At last it came thus: T had been reappointed 
 to the instruction of the class of candidates; if I were 
 to leave in September, it would be impossible for me to 
 keep up my usual instructions and at the same time 
 be gathering up my things for a departure, for I am 
 so deeply rooted. After that ray of light there came 
 another. To start from here in the latter part of Sep¬ 
 tember would bring me to America at the very begin¬ 
 ning of a long and cold season of the year. Flow plain 
 it all seemed ! I had not spoken to any one of how I 
 was waiting on the Lord. You cannot know how this 
 waiting on the Lord and this ‘showing* the way has 
 relieved my mind. I want to sing for joy, but the use 
 of my voice in singing is not now permitted me; it 
 causes a hacking cough, followed by painful soreness.” 
 
 Because Miss Nassau thus lived in constant, happy 
 communion with God, her face shone with good cheer 
 as she mingled with mankind. She maintained even to 
 old age a merry disposition, which won the young, while 
 it heartened the aged and the care-worn. One of the 
 last pictures of her, drawn by the pen of Mrs. Lippert, 
 in whose house she was at the time and where later 
 she died, shows this side of her character. Mrs. Lip- 
 pert writes: 
 
 13 
 
“She is such a dear old lady, so full of love and faith 
 in God, and she has so much charity and love for these 
 people, for whom she has done and given so much, and 
 who at times have seemed so unappreciative. We are 
 glad to have her with us. Nellie is devoted to her, for 
 she can tell the most wonderful stories, and all true. 
 She likes to do little things for her and spends much 
 of her play-time in her room.” 
 
 CLOSING SCENES. 
 
 Miss Nassau’s death occurred on Tuesday, the 12th 
 of June, 1906, and from Dr. Lippert, her fellow-mis¬ 
 sionary and physician, we have this account of her last 
 days: 
 
 “When Mrs. Lippert and T arrived at Batanga from 
 the interior, a little over four months ago, Miss Nassau 
 received us in a most sisterly way. As we had never 
 before been associated with her in the work at a station, 
 we were not well acquainted with her, and we are very 
 thankful that* we were able to know her and to see her 
 in her daily life. 
 
 “Our dear sister had suffered much during the last 
 year from an incomplete paralysis of the right arm 
 beside the ills which accompany old age. 
 
 “A more devoted and consecrated follower of Jesus 
 I have never seen. At times she would be so feeble 
 that she could hardly leave her bed/'fstill she would 
 insist upon doing something for others, entirely forget¬ 
 ting herself. The girls’ school, which she so long and 
 so faithfully taught, was upon her mind continually, 
 and most of her energy was employed in guiding and 
 directing the teachers and pupils. 
 
 “Because of her increasing feebleness, the mission¬ 
 aries at various times advised her to return to America, 
 but she, choosing rather privations and labor than the 
 comfort of her American home, remained in Africa to 
 toil until such a time as the Master would call her. 
 She was not one to fold her hands in idleness to await 
 the end, but most truly died in service. 
 
 “Two months ago, realizing that she was becoming 
 too feeble to take care of herself, she consented to come 
 and live with us, but after one month she was so much 
 
 T4 
 
improved that she felt she ought to go back to her work 
 until such a time as she could arrange to leave it in 
 other hands. She also intimated that as Dr. Nassau 
 would soon be leaving for America, and as she would 
 probably never see him again, she wished to be with 
 him as much as possible before he left. After the 
 Doctor left she still felt it to be her duty to stay by the 
 girls, saying, however, that she was looking forward to 
 the time when she could come to live with her friends. 
 Of late she was unable to walk any distance, and when 
 she wished to make a visit was drawn in a wheeled 
 chair. 
 
 “The Saturday before her death she visited us and 
 seemed to be unusually happy and cheerful. On Sunday 
 I visited her, and found her suffering somewhat. The 
 next day her condition was alarming, and we hastened 
 to remove her to our home. She rallied to some ex¬ 
 tent, but the next morning, while talking with her cook 
 about household affairs, she was attacked by a cerebral 
 hemorrhage and death came suddenly and painlessly. 
 
 “To tell of her virtues, her good deeds, her entire 
 unselfishness and consideration for others, would take 
 many pages. Many of you know her much better than 
 we do, but I must say that her daily Christlike life was, 
 and will continue to be, an inspiration to all who knew 
 her. Though we miss her greatly, we are glad that 
 she has gone to the home prepared for her, where the 
 ills of the flesh and the ingratitude of men will not 
 again cause her sorrow. 
 
 “The natives, too, have suddenly come to the convic¬ 
 tion that they had appreciated ‘Mama Bella’ far too 
 little during her lifetime. Her goodness had been so 
 constant toward them that they took it as a matter of 
 course, and often failed to recognize her claims upon 
 them, though all of them loved her as a small child 
 loves its mother. 
 
 “She gave her life for the people of Africa and the 
 cause of Christ, and many will be the jewels in her 
 crown. 
 
 “The remains were interred in the mission cemetery. 
 Great numbers of Christian and heathen natives, beside 
 representatives of European trading firms and of the 
 German Government, and the missionaries at the station, 
 
 15 
 
were present at the solemn and impressive services 
 conducted by Rev. Mr. Heminger and two native min¬ 
 isters, once her pupils.” 
 
 MANY TRIBUTES. 
 
 The German Governor sent a wreath of flowers and 
 a letter of condolence, in which he said: “Her unselfish 
 activity, her courageous persistency in staying*' for so 
 many years in the dreaded climate of tropical''Africa, 
 procured for Miss Nassau the reverence and admiration 
 not only of the whites, but in particular and to a very 
 high degree of the native inhabitants of this station, 
 and have created for her in the whole district a lasting 
 memory.” 
 
 It would be a pleasure to quote, if space permitted, 
 some of the other words of appreciation and affection, 
 which Miss Nassau’s death called forth from the Board 
 of Foreign Missions, under which she served; from the 
 Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions, Philadelphia, of 
 which she was one of the first missionaries ; from the 
 Society of the Woodland Church, Philadelphia, which 
 from 1870 supported her as its special representative; 
 from the missionaries associated with her upon the field, 
 and from her faithful and devoted African assistants; 
 but even so brief and imperfect a review of her own life 
 and work as has been here given demonstrates that 
 encomiums of others are not needed to carry conviction 
 of her beautiful character, her great devotion and her 
 eminent services. 
 
 She has passed into the manifest presence and to the 
 gracious reward of Him whose word declares: 
 
 “They that be wise (margin, teachers) shall shine as 
 the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn 
 many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” 
 
 Samuel McLanahan. 
 
 Lawrenceville, N. J. 
 
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