n j y~\ £. 
 
 A VISIT TO OUR AFRICA 
 MISSION* . 
 
 By Stephen J. Corey. 
 
 THE OREGON INDISPENSABLE. 
 
 During the whole of my eight weeks’ visit to the 
 Congo work the steamer Oregon was always head¬ 
 quarters, and, with the exception of a few nights at 
 Bolenge and a few more during itinerates in the 
 forest, the close of each busy day found me seeking 
 my night’s rest on board this effective little battle¬ 
 ship of the King. All told, I traveled about 2,200 
 miles on the Oregon. There are four comfortable 
 cabins on the steamer, and during all these weeks 
 mine was the one dedicated to the memory of Dr. 
 Harry Biddle and furnished by his wife and brothers. 
 It is hardly necessary to say that the sacred memory 
 of this consecrated pioneer, who gave his life for the 
 Congo, was a constant source of inspiration to me. 
 His life and service were brief, and he did not even 
 have the opportunity of seeing Bolenge, after its 
 purchase; nevertheless his sacrifice for the Congo 
 
 ■^This visit was made during the summer of 1912. 
 
that he loved was not in vain. Only God can meas¬ 
 ure what it has meant to the work. 
 
 A mission steamer is indispensable to our Congo 
 work. To conduct our present work without it 
 would be like evangelizing the Mississippi Valley 
 with only canoes on the rivers and forest paths over¬ 
 land as avenues of communication, with the neces¬ 
 sity of transporting most of the living supplies and 
 much of the material for buildings from St. Louis 
 as a base. Each of the other missions on the Upper 
 Congo have their steamers: the Presbyterians, the 
 American Baptists, the Congo Bololo Mission; and 
 the English Baptists have two. The Catholics have 
 a number of steamers. 
 
 THE STEAMER A RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION. 
 
 The Oregon is a religious institution. You are 
 awakened at five in the morning by the bell which 
 calls the crew to morning worship. A few minutes 
 afterward the steamer resounds with a hymn sung 
 in the Lunkundo tongue, and then follows prayer 
 by the captain or one of the crew. With the ex¬ 
 ception of the captain, who is a missionary, the 
 steamer men are all natives. There are three wheel¬ 
 men (the strain is heavy on these men, and they 
 must work by relay), two engineers, two firemen, four 
 anchormen, one watchman, and about fifteen work¬ 
 men to cut wood and load it, besides loading cargo 
 and helping push the steamer off sandbanks, if she 
 is so unfortunate as to strike them. Then there is 
 
the cook and table boy, making a force, all told, of 
 about thirty men. This is quite a company, but for¬ 
 tunately American wages are not required by Congo 
 native workmen. The wheelmen and engineers re¬ 
 ceive from $75 to $125 each per year, as they are 
 skilled men, while the rest of the crew average about 
 $25 per year. All the native men furnish their own 
 food. The headmen and nearly all of the crew are 
 Christians. The unconverted ones are usually soon 
 led to accept Christ by their zealous companions. 
 
 GREAT WELCOME AT BOLENGE. 
 
 The Oregon met me at Stanley Pool, 250 miles 
 from the mouth of the Congo, and it took us eight 
 days to make the 500 miles up river to Bolenge. We 
 reached Bolenge about ten in the morning of July 
 5th, and a great welcome awaited us. Fully one 
 thousand people were gathered on the slope of the 
 high beach* and as we drew near we could hear them 
 singing as with one voice, “Bringing in the Sheaves.” 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hensey and Miss Eck were in the 
 midst of the people waiting to welcome us. 
 
 BEAUTIFUL AND BUSY BOLENGE. 
 
 Mrs. Dye fitly described Bolenge in her book by 
 that title when she called it “Busy and Beautiful 
 Bolenge.” It is certainly both. The prettiest spot 
 on all the Congo, as far as I saw it, is this, our first 
 
 3 
 
station. Green grass everywhere, and the whole sta¬ 
 tion set in a bower of palms, mangoes, and orange 
 trees. Neatly outlined little streets run through the 
 station grounds. These are kept nicely swept each 
 day by the schoolboys. These same boys also keep 
 the grass well cut. 
 
 At Bolenge we have three missionary family 
 homes, a single woman’s home, a dispensary, a print¬ 
 ing office, a store building, and the large new church 
 to be used partly for the Bible College. It is a well- 
 equipped station and only needs a good hospital and 
 dormitories for the Bible College to make it com¬ 
 plete. Mr. and Mrs. Hensey and Miss Eck were try¬ 
 ing nobly to look after all the work of the station. 
 Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Moon, who were home on fur¬ 
 lough in 1912, have since returned to Bolenge, and 
 with them Miss Apperson. We should have a phy¬ 
 sician at Bolenge, and one man should devote his 
 whole time to the Bible College. Thus two more 
 families are needed most urgently. It has not been 
 possible to complete the Bible College because of 
 the fact that there has been no one to take charge 
 of this work. 
 
 THE STATION AT HIGH TIDE. 
 
 I remained about a week at Bolenge, and the ex¬ 
 periences of those busy, happy days will never be 
 forgotten. It was the time of the quarterly incom¬ 
 ing of evangelists, visiting Christians from a dis¬ 
 tance, and candidates for baptism. Bolenge has 
 
 4 
 
about seventy-five evangelists of her own, who 
 preach in villages covering the larger Bolenge dis¬ 
 trict. These men brought with them groups of 
 Christians and inquirers. There were present be¬ 
 tween seven and eight hundred of these visitors. On 
 Sunday two hundred and nine were baptized in the 
 Congo. There were one thousand, two hundred and 
 forty-seven at Sunday-school, and over one thousand 
 at communion. A great Endeavor service was held 
 on Friday night, with eight hundred members in at¬ 
 tendance. Many of these people had come a distance 
 of from three to five days through the forest. The 
 thank-offering in our money amounted to nearly 
 $100. It would be hard to compute the real value 
 of such an offering to these people. It is doubtful 
 if the average income of all the people contributing 
 would amount to more than twenty-five cents a week. 
 Of course, this was Bolenge at high tide. The local 
 membership of the church is about three hundred, 
 and the Sunday-school about the same. As yet it 
 seems wise to keep the membership of the little 
 groups of disciples in the distant villages of Bolenge 
 District with the Bolenge congregation. The mis¬ 
 sionaries show rare skill in the management of this 
 large district. It would be impossible for them to 
 bear the burden if it were not for the great help of 
 a fine church board of officers at Bolenge and a group 
 of strong evangelists in the field. 
 
 From Bolenge the Oregon took us up the Busira 
 River to Longa, near the mouth of the Momboyo. 
 
 5 
 
LONGA, A STATION CUT FROM THE 
 
 JUNGLE. 
 
 At Longa another hearty welcome awaited us, 
 from Mr. and Mrs. Eldred and the Longa church. 
 This is a new station, but good progress has been 
 made, both in the church membership and the sta¬ 
 tion equipment. Mr. Eldred has a unique feature 
 in the work at Longa in the way of a school for the 
 study of the French language. This is very impor¬ 
 tant, as French is the official language of the Congo, 
 used by State officers and traders alike. The con¬ 
 gregation was lined up on the beach to meet us, 
 singing a gospel hymn; and as the steamer swung in 
 they gave us the military salute, and then a long 
 salutation in French in perfect unison. Here again 
 was the hearty handshaking and the enthusiastic 
 welcome. 
 
 Much must be done from a physical standpoint 
 to develop a mission station in the heart of Africa. 
 A few brief years ago the spot where Longa Station 
 now stands was a dense forest jungle. To fully ap¬ 
 preciate what that means, one has but to attempt to 
 penetrate one but a few yards. The growth is well- 
 nigh impenetrable. 
 
 In planting a station, all of this must be cleared, 
 and then the ground laid out in careful order. Longa 
 is now a beautiful spot, as pretty as Bolenge in many 
 respects, although it lacks as yet the stately and 
 matured beauty of the older station, where palms, 
 
 6 
 
mangoes, and other trees have been growing for 
 many years. We must remember that Bolenge was 
 laid out and planted by another mission more than 
 twenty years ago. Through the untiring work of 
 Ray Eldred and Dr. Jaggard two brick houses have 
 been erected at Longa, besides a brick store and 
 medicine house. For these the bricks were all 
 burned on the station, and there are sufficient of 
 these now on hand to go far towards the construc¬ 
 tion of a hospital. A good mud-wall, thatched-roof 
 church has also been constructed, which serves as 
 well for the day school. These are the incidental 
 things already accomplished, aside from the regular 
 missionary work. Longa is a very important station. 
 It is on the great Busira, near the mouth of the 
 Momboyo. Up this last river seventy-five miles is 
 Lotumbe; up the Busira something more than one 
 hundred miles is Monieka; seventy-five miles down¬ 
 stream on the Congo, below the Busira’s mouth, is 
 Bolenge. So you see Longa is the hub in our wheel. 
 It is a difficult field, owing to the fact that the Cath¬ 
 olics are quite strong and oppose our work bitterly, 
 and also because the church at Longa has never been 
 able to get much of a constituency from the native 
 village of Longa itself. But in the back country 
 there is a strong work, and Brother Eldred has re¬ 
 cently opened up a very promising out-station work 
 up the Bolingo River, sixty miles to the north. The 
 great need at Longa is more missionaries. (Since 
 writing this Mrs. Eldred has gone home to her re- 
 
 7 
 
ward, and Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Johnston have gone to 
 Longa.) 
 
 We had a most refreshing visit at Longa. Six¬ 
 teen were baptized on Sunday, and others are await¬ 
 ing baptism up the Bolingo River. The church was 
 well filled with a reverent congregation at all the 
 services. An excellent day school is being con¬ 
 ducted in Lunkundo besides the school in French 
 mentioned above. Mr. Eldred is conducting much 
 industrial work. He did much pioneer work at Bo- 
 lenge and in that district before going to Longa. 
 
 From Longa the steamer took us up the Mom- 
 boyo River to Lotumbe. 
 
 A LARGE CHURCH AFTER TWO YEARS. 
 
 Two years ago the Lotumbe site was granted to us 
 by the government. Less than two years ago Mr. 
 and Mrs. Smith, who had been on the Congo but a 
 few months, went alone to take charge of the work. 
 The church now has over four hundred members. 
 We baptized sixty-seven on the Sunday spent at 
 Lotumbe, then seventeen more the following Sunday 
 up the high Momboyo, and Brothers Smith, Hob- 
 good, and Holder baptized forty-four more up the 
 Lokolo River a week later. All of these in the Lo- 
 Uimbe field, making 124 baptisms for that church 
 during my stay. Mr. and Mrs. Smith and- a large 
 crowd met the steamer at the beach. Again our 
 hands and arms were made lame by the enthusiastic 
 handshaking. There are one hundred boys in the 
 
 8 
 
Lotumbe day school. These were lined up on each 
 side of the path, and after we had all marched 
 through between them and under an arch displaying 
 a motto of welcome, they joined in singing, “Cling 
 to the Bible.” Then they all repeated a large part 
 of Mark 14 in concert, and afterwards a boy of six¬ 
 teen gave quite a remarkable address of welcome in 
 the Lunkundo tongue. One is astonished at what 
 has been done here in a little more than eighteen 
 months. A large tract of land has been cleared from 
 the dense jungle, and a mud-and-thatch church, car¬ 
 penter-shop, and various other small buildings 
 erected, besides the construction of an excellent mis¬ 
 sion home. This latter was largely done by Mr. 
 C. P. Hedges. The few days and the Sunday spent 
 at Lotumbe were cheering indeed. It hardly seems 
 possible that in so brief a time so large a church, 
 giving every evidence of reverence and solidity, 
 could be built up. Many of the candidates who were 
 baptized during our visit came from a long distance. 
 Seven men who had heard of the teaching in a vague 
 way through others, walked and canoed ten days 
 from the far headwaters of the Lokolo River to be 
 taught more perfectly and baptized. The two new 
 missionaries, Mr. Hobgood and Mr. Holder, remain 
 at Lotumbe to hold the work, while Mr. and Mrs. 
 Smith come home for a much-needed furlough. 
 
 9 
 
J 
 
 EXPLORING THE HIGH MOMBOYO RIVER. 
 
 After spending some time in conference over the 
 problems of the work and in planning for the future, 
 we embarked on the Oregon for a week’s journey 
 up the high Momboyo. Already evangelists had gone 
 into this far region, and reports had come that there 
 were people awaiting baptism. We steamed over one 
 hundred miles up this swift river, through the great 
 forest to Iyete, where evangelists had gone a year 
 before. There we found a large village, a populous 
 back country, and many people deeply interested in 
 the gospel. I shall never forget the great joy of 
 the two lonely evangelists of this far region as they 
 welcomed us. They indeed “leapt for joy.” On 
 Saturday, while Mr. Smith and the others were ex¬ 
 amining the candidates and planning for the work 
 at Iyete, Mr. Eldred and I marched through the for¬ 
 est about twenty-five miles on a trip of missionary 
 exploration. We found a large population, well- 
 constructed villages, and a very hospitable and 
 kindly people. The people had never seen a white 
 teacher before, and to the most of them the gospel 
 was entirely unknown, yet they welcomed us and 
 asked for teachers. We returned to the Momboyo 
 about ten miles above Iyete on Sunday morning, and 
 the paddlers who had come to meet us took us down 
 in a canoe to the Oregon again, which we reached in 
 time to baptize the seventeen waiting candidates. 
 These were the first baptisms in this great new dis- 
 
 io 
 
trict, and the communion service held under the 
 trees near the Oregon was also a revelation to the 
 people. One of the reasons for our journey was to 
 look out a new place for a future station. The field 
 is great and ready for the harvest. Somewhere near 
 here we must have a station some day. God grant 
 it may be soon! For hundreds of miles farther up 
 this river there are multitudes of people who have 
 never heard the faintest whisper of the gospel. 
 
 THE MONIEKA WELCOME. 
 
 After returning to Lotumbe for a day, we jour¬ 
 neyed back to Longa, and then steamed up the Busira 
 a day and a half to Monieka, our newest and most 
 wonderful station. Dr. and Mrs. Jaggard accom¬ 
 panied us to be the first missionaries for these peo¬ 
 ple. A great welcome awaited us. Timothy Iso, our 
 strongest evangelist, has had charge of this work 
 for two years. It is less than four years since the 
 first work was done there by our people. After we 
 had baptized the 160 waiting candidates, this new 
 church had over six hundred members on its roll. 
 
 A GREAT WORK IN A GREAT VILLAGE. 
 
 Monieka is one of the largest villages I saw in 
 Africa, and is only separated by a mile or so from 
 another town almost as large, called Longa. Moni¬ 
 eka has been a famous town for its warlike people 
 and chief, and not until five years ago was the State 
 
 ii 
 
able to collect tax from these people. Indeed, it was 
 the furious fight and defeat of a State officer and 
 his solicitors by this town that attracted our mis¬ 
 sionaries to it. From the beginning the old chief 
 and his people have been friendly to our work. The 
 Monieka people are militant and enthusiastic in their 
 Christianity. I shall never forget the wonderful 
 welcome accorded Dr. and Mrs. Jaggard and the rest 
 of us as the Oregon landed at the beach. The mud 
 church is one hundred feet long, and was packed 
 and overflowing at the Sunday services, and the peo¬ 
 ple sit much closer together in Africa than in Amer¬ 
 ica. They have a wonderful way of sitting at an edge¬ 
 wise angle and packing in like sardines in a box. 
 
 SPYING OUT NEW COUNTRY. 
 
 From Monieka we went on the Oregon up the 
 high Busira River about 150 miles beyond Monieka 
 to spy out the land for evangelistic work and a pos¬ 
 sible future station. This was an entirely new field, 
 far beyond where the teaching had ever gone. The 
 farther we traveled the greater native population we 
 discovered. A marvelous field is open to our people 
 far up this river, even a week’s journey by steamer 
 beyond the point we reached. Everywhere we went 
 the teaching was welcome. In one large village on 
 the river bank where we stopped to teach, the crowd 
 of people and the five assembled chiefs all begged 
 that teachers be sent at once. The chiefs said that 
 they would at once begin to build a house and chapel 
 
 12 
 
for the teacher. I shall never forget the sight of 
 that company of heathen people standing on the 
 bank as our steamer pulled away, calling after us 
 for a teacher as far as we could hear. 
 
 We found a great untouched region for a new 
 station some day, and without doubt a field where 
 the history of Monieka could be repeated. The 
 people are the most decidedly heathen of any we 
 saw, but friendly and willing to hear the teaching. 
 On beyond this point the Oregon can go five or six 
 days up the Busira, and then a small boat can go 
 many days further, and still be within the territory 
 of the Lunkundo-speaking tribe. We are the only 
 people who can reach these needy natives. 
 
 DOWN RIVER AGAIN. 
 
 After this journey we returned with the Oregon 
 to Monieka, where we spent a second wonderful Sun¬ 
 day, and then left Dr. and Mrs. Jaggard in their 
 little mud house to take up that great work. The 
 Oregon then steamed down the river to Longa. 
 Twenty-five miles from Longa, Ray Eldred met us 
 with two dugout canoes and native paddlers, and 
 took me up the little Bolingo River with the inten¬ 
 tion of visiting an important outpost far up this 
 stream and baptizing some waiting candidates. After 
 a day’s paddling through the great forest, we reluc¬ 
 tantly abandoned the trip because of low water and 
 the multitude of fallen trees barring our progress. 
 Brother Eldred opened up this Bolingo work about 
 
 13 
 
a year ago and stationed evangelists among these 
 people. Already the work shows great promise, and 
 there have been a number of baptisms. Paddling 
 down the Bolingo and Busira on our return journey, 
 we joined the Oregon at Longa again, and then pur¬ 
 sued our way to Bolenge. 
 
 IN THE MOBANGA COUNTRY. 
 
 We left Bolenge on August 20th, and, coming 
 down the Congo fifty miles to the mouth of the 
 Ubanga River, we steamed a day’s journey up this 
 great Congo tributary to visit an outpost and study 
 the field. Our evangelist and school-teacher at the 
 town of Bobanga received us with much joy. There 
 is a group of twenty Christians in this town, and 
 we have more evangelists and Christians farther up 
 in the interior of the Mobanga country. Here we 
 have another great field which is entirely unoccupied. 
 The Ubanga is about the size of the Missouri, and 
 for its entire course, from far East, where it rises, 
 a few miles from the Nile, to its mouth, there is not 
 a Protestant missionary and no teachers save our 
 own little group near the river’s mouth. (Since 
 writing this there have been nearly 100 baptisms in 
 this region.) 
 
 GOOD-BYE TO CONGO. 
 
 From the Ubanga we steamed down the Congo 
 to Stanley Pool, and on August 30th I bade good¬ 
 bye to the Oregon and its crew, including Captain 
 
 14 
 
and Mrs. Hensey and Miss Eck, and took the train 
 to Matadi, to catch my steamer home. 
 
 Thus I have but briefly sketched the visit to 
 Congo and my eight weeks with the steamer Oregon. 
 It was no easy task to say good-bye to the mission¬ 
 aries as I parted from them at the various stations, 
 and finally left the little group of three on the Ore¬ 
 gon. They had made my journey so delightful and 
 had planned in so many thoughtful ways to help me 
 to study the people, the field, and the stations. The 
 fellowship had been very sweet, and I had seen so 
 much of their noble work, and shared so in their 
 joys and problems that to say good-bye was almost 
 like saying farewell to a work of my own. How¬ 
 ever, I think the keenest pang I felt was on say¬ 
 ing farewell to the faithful native crew of the Ore¬ 
 gon. I will no doubt see the missionaries again, for 
 they are of my own land and race, but it is not 
 probable that I shall see again those faithful black 
 faces that became so dear to me during the eight 
 weeks on the Oregon. I can hear their distant shout 
 of farewell yet, as I turned to wave at them when 
 far up the beach under the African palms. 
 
 15 
 
OUR MISSIONARIES IN AFRICA. 
 
 BOLENGE. 
 
 A. F. Hensey. 
 
 Mrs. A. F. Hensey. 
 
 E. R. Moon. 
 
 Mrs. E. R. Moon. 
 
 *R. S. Wilson. 
 
 '"Mrs. R. S. Wilson. 
 
 Miss Edna V. Eck. 
 
 Miss Edith L. Apperson. 
 Dr. W. H. Fry mire. 
 
 Miss Edith Apperson. 
 
 LONGA. 
 
 R. Ray Eldred. 
 
 * At home on sick leave. 
 
 Mr. E. A. Johnston. 
 Mrs. E. A. Johnston. 
 
 LOTUMBE. 
 
 Herbert Smith. 
 
 Mrs. Herbert Smith. 
 C. P. Hedges. 
 
 Mrs. C. P. Hedges. 
 H. C. Hobgood. 
 
 MONIEKA. 
 
 Dr. L. F. Jaggard. 
 Mrs. L. F. Jaggard. 
 W. R. Holder. 
 
 THE FOREIGN CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
 
 BOX 884. CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
 
 16