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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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library 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 URBANA 
 

A Life for Africa 
 
 Rev. Adolphus Clemens Good, Ph. D 
 
 American Missionary in Equatorial West Africa 
 
 By 
 
 Ellen C. Parsons, M.A. 
 
 Editor of “ Woman’s Work for Woman ” 
 
 Appendices: (a) Scientific Labors of A. C. Good 
 By W. J. Holland, LL.D., F.Z.S. 
 
 (b) Superstitions of Equatorial Africa 
 
 By A. C. Good 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 1897 
 
Copyright, 1897, by 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 THE NEW YORK TYPE-SETTING COMPANY 
 
 THE CAXTON PRESS 
 
firfc4-6 
 
 r 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES 
 WHO HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES 
 IN AFRICA 
 
 TO THE GLORY OF OUR ADORABLE 
 
 LORD 
 
 i f 7935 ! 
 
ijjuiiu lim ine 
 
 I f u 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Boy's Resolution— Among Pennsylvania Hills— A 
 Typical Community— Getting an Education — Early 
 Christian Influences— Confessing Christ— City Mis- 
 sions— Recollections of the Young Student— Board 
 of Education Incident— Dedication to Africa— 
 Motives for Choosing Africa— Mother's Influence- 
 Ordination— Departure for an Unpopular Field. . . . 11 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Arrival at Gaboon— A New World— “ Baraka "—Up 
 Gaboon River— Up the Ogowe— Off to Corisco 
 Island— Introduction to Fever— Up to Benito— 
 Boat Travel— “ He has Come to Stay "—Located— 
 
 The Odds at Baraka— Training-class— Church 
 —Studying Mpongwe— Departing Missionaries— 
 Treasurership— Studying French— A Funeral- 
 Furniture— Married on Board a Man-of-war— First 
 Mpongwe Sermon— Schools Closed by Law— A 
 Jesuit Hand— Moral Condition of the People— 
 First-year Conclusions 30 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Colonial Government— European Scramble for Africa— 
 Conferences with the Commandant— Delicate Posi- 
 tion— Plans— Steadily Communicates to the Board 
 —Asks for a French Teacher— Population on 
 Waters of the Gaboon— Preaching in Vernacular 
 Conceded— Plan for Transference of Field— Wants 
 5 
 
6 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 a Definite Policy— Malignant Fever— Joys— Threat- 
 ening Facts— Annual Report of the Board ........ 54 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Ogowe River— Removal to Kangwe— First Itineration- 
 Fever— Trip to Madeira— School Question— Strife 
 with Jesuits 65 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Religious Inquiry— Caution— Positiveness— Economy of 
 Mission Funds— Itineration— Overseeing Helpers— 
 
 A New Official— School Opened— The Ogowe in the 
 Rains— Religious Awakening— Communion Seasons 
 — Conversions— Growing Christians— Needs a Col- 
 league— Value and Deficiencies of Bible-readers— 
 Revival Continued— Need of Books— Mission Re- 
 solves to Advance into German Territory— Greet- 
 ing to New Secretary— Education Necessary for the 
 Church to Stand 79 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Sunday Letter-writing— Sand-flies— “ Getting Demoral- 
 ized” — On a River Steamer — See-sawing with Com- 
 mandant— In Bad Humor— Selfish to Want his 
 Wife Back— Sumptuous Fare— Lonely Evenings— 
 Market for Books— Mosquitoes— Weight of Respon- 
 sibility— Dull Weather— Submits a Grave Question 
 — Encouragement from Far in the Bush— Cleans 
 House— Meets his Family in England— Interviews 
 Officers of French Society— Return to Kangwe. . . . 102 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 French Protestant Missionaries— Kundt the Explorer— 
 Key-note of New Departure— Harvest from the 
 Great Awakening— Lord’s Table in the Bush- 
 Coast Tour— Thinking about Interior— Compared 
 with Hannington— More French Missionaries— At 
 Death's Door— Furlough— Abroad in the Home 
 Church— Service to the Board— Degree Conferred— 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mother's Death— Embarks for Africa— Compan- 
 ions— Drunken Captain— Welcomed on the Ogowe 117 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Inspection of Field after a Year's Absence— Lights and 
 Shades— A Service by Moonlight— Fear of a 
 Demon — Convincing not Converting— Death of M. 
 Tissot— New Church Organized— Revising New 
 Testament— First Fang Convert— Trinity Church, 
 Montclair— Fang Greed— African Imitation— Old 
 Problem of Wages— Must Allow for Growth— 
 Chooses to Await the Lord's Discharge 135 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 An Unwelcome Task— Views on Health Furloughs— At 
 Sierra Leone— In Monrovia— Liberia in General— 
 Methods of Inspection— Subjects Reported on— One 
 Mysterious Man— Temper of Visiting Committee— 
 Good Word for Liberia— Return on Appointed Day 160 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Reasons for Transfer of Stations— Where to Go?— The 
 Key— Exploring Committee— Again the Old Cry— 
 Yearnings of the Dead— Awaits Orders— Delayed 
 Mail— Leaving Kangwe— Serious but Courageous- 
 Exploration Plans — u Emergency against which I 
 shall Provide "—Carriers— The Start— A Forest 
 March— First Bulu Town— Preaching— First Public 
 Prayer— Ndum's Town— Bulu Compared with Fang 
 — Geographical Inquiry— Copying Manuscript- 
 Lay Missionaries Ought to Vote 167 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Ignores Excuse for Delay— Second Exploring Journey— 
 Rain— Roads— “ Powerful Fetish "— “ Small Gun " 
 —Length of Marches— Sites Rejected— Favorable 
 Site for Station— Methods Used with the Bulu— 
 Specimen Sermon— Return to the Coast— Summary 
 of Journey— Written Report— Where the People 
 
8 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 are— Bulu Language Wide-spread— Bulu Traits— 
 Argument for Locating in Bulu Country— Report 
 Indorsed by Mission— Report Adopted by the 
 Board 184 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Animal Pets— Collecting Butterflies— Earthworms— Al- 
 bino Monkey— Celebrated Cave— African Arithme- 
 tic— A Human Fiend— African Justice— Visit to 
 Dwarfs— Salutations, Proverbs, A Bulu Fable 205 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Founding a Station— Bulu Immorality— Efulen— Re- 
 cruits Arrived— Bark House— Object-lessons— 
 
 “ Terrible 77 Journey— A Typhoid Patient— Sermon 
 on the Mount in Bulu— Capturing Language— 
 Dealing with a Chief— Separation from Family 
 —Influence of Station— Outside Congregations— 
 Twelve Days 7 Preaching— A Specimen Hearer- 
 Burden of Responsibility 233 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Making Roads— Building— On the March— Bulu Towns— 
 Woman’s Lot— No Old People— Made a Spectacle 
 to Men— Bulu Translation Begun— Committee on 
 Second Station — Ebolowo’e — Heathenism— Mail 
 from America — Influence of the Word — Crude In- 
 quirers— Dr. Good as a Citizen— A Blow at Witch- 
 craft— Night-school— Strides in Translation— A 
 Bulu Proverb 250 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Full of Plans — Full of Vigor — Weather Obstacles — 
 Vegetable Garden— Plans Thwarted— Deprecates 
 Leadership— Religious Progress— Arrival of New 
 Missionaries— The Last March — Returns 111 — 
 
 Death— Burial— Successors— Fruitage 276 
 
 Appendix A 291 
 
 Appendix B 299 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Portrait of Rev. A. C. Good, Ph.D. . 
 
 Map of Gaboon and Corisco Mission in 1882 
 Ordinary Canoe of the French Congo | 
 Mission House at Baraka . . . ) 
 
 Church at Benito 
 
 Full-length Portrait of A. C. Good 
 FAng Idol of the Ogow£ .... 
 
 Chapel at Kangw£ 
 
 Mission Surf-boat 
 
 Characteristic OgowE Town 
 OgowE River ... ) 
 
 Mission House on KAngw£ Hill ) 
 
 Carriers’ Strap and Bulu Charm . 
 
 Bulu Necklace 
 
 Dr. Good’s House at Efulen | 
 
 Bulu Town near Efulen . ) 
 
 Specimen of Lycopodium from Efulen 
 Heads of Bulu Women at Efulen l 
 Pit-saw and Workmen . . ) 
 
 Group of Bulu in Ebolowo’e . 
 
 Bulu Town near Elat .... 
 Map of the Bulu Country 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Frontispiece 
 To face 30 
 
 “ “ 32 
 
 . 64 
 
 To face 75 
 . 78 
 
 To face 91 
 . 101 
 To face 111 
 
 “ “ 134 
 
 . 183 
 . 204 
 
 To face 238 
 
 . 249 
 
 To face 250 
 
 “ “ 264 
 
 . 275 
 . 316 
 
 0 
 
A LIFE FOE AFRICA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Girded when He Knew it Not 
 1856—1882 
 
 P in a grassy apple-orchard on a western 
 
 Pennsylvania farm, a curly-headed boy 
 stretched himself, one spring day, and looked 
 off on the panorama of surrounding hills. He 
 knew that fair prospect well. With eyes shut 
 he could see the uplands broadly plaided with 
 alternating fields of winter wheat and plowed 
 land, could point to the dip in the rounded 
 hills where Pine Creek runs, or where the 
 Little Mahoning marks a gap between lines 
 of forest-trees, and Glade Run itself, scarcely 
 beyond ear-shot, babbles across the road be- 
 tween the farm and yonder little borough of 
 
 u 
 
12 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Dayton. But this boy’s merry brown eyes 
 were never shut in daylight, and now they 
 were dark with resolution, and his mouth 
 wore an expression of determined purpose. 
 
 The orchard was his retreat. With the 
 village boys he went fishing; with his bro- 
 thers he caught squirrels in the woods and 
 set the trap for fox and mink ; but when he 
 went to the top of the orchard he went alone, 
 and there he had thought through many a 
 perplexity under the blue sky, with the winds 
 of heaven blowing round him. To-day he had 
 come again with a mighty question surging 
 through his soul, and to-day it must be set- 
 tled. When at length, his meditation ended, 
 he sprang to his feet, a frank-faced lad 
 stouter than tall for his sixteen years, his 
 conclusion was fully reached and there was 
 no hesitation in his bearing, as he strode down 
 from under the trees prepared to announce 
 that he “ must have an education ” and he 
 would “ find a way or make one.” 
 
 The orchard sloped to the south, and on 
 the farther side of the road at its foot was his 
 father’s comfortable homestead, with green 
 
GIRDED IV HEN HE KNEIV IT NOT 
 
 13 
 
 yard in front, a Dutch oven and other out- 
 buildings cozily grouped at the rear, and a 
 roomy barn beyond. 
 
 Adolphus Clemens Good was born Decem- 
 ber 19, 1856, in a log house in West Maho- 
 ning, and in a log house he had lived till thir- 
 teen years old. His father, Abram Good, was 
 of German descent, and had gone with his 
 parents when they pioneered up from Mary- 
 land into a remote pocket of the Indiana 
 County hills, Pennsylvania. Scant were 
 Abram Good’s opportunities for schooling in 
 that primitive mountain district, and when 
 thirty years old he seized his last chance for 
 a short winter term taught by Hannah Irwin. 
 The spring following he determined to “ take 
 the schoolmistress and all.” Of five sons born 
 to them, Adolphus was the second ; and his 
 one little sister having died, the mother often 
 leaned on his cheerful assistance in milking, 
 churning, and other household tasks. 
 
 Abram Good was a Lutheran, like his godly 
 forefathers, and his eldest sons were baptized 
 in a Lutheran church, the only one accessible 
 from the farm. His wife was of Seotch-Irisli 
 
14 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 ancestry. The Irwins for generations had 
 represented undiluted Presbyterianism, as 
 well as intelligence above the average. So 
 when the Good family removed from their 
 romantic but oppressively quiet farm into 
 Armstrong County, they cast in their lot with 
 Glade Bun Church, of which Hannah Irwin’s 
 father, Benjamin, was an original member 
 and an elder until his death at a good old age. 
 
 This was a typical homogeneous American 
 community. Social simplicity and hard- 
 working thrift were the rule. No flagrant 
 wickedness was heard of, for temperance, 
 order, and religion prevailed. To this day it 
 is unaltered, and fortunate is the city resident 
 to whom it is permitted to fly from the smoke 
 of Pittsburg up the Alleghany Valley in the 
 month of May, and, leaving the railway fifty 
 miles beyond, mount a big wagon behind 
 stout farm-horses and drive twenty miles 
 straight into the heart of the hills. Platoons 
 of violets and low saxifrage escort him, tril- 
 liums wave from banks above, redbud and 
 shad-tree brighten the woods, a joyous cas- 
 cade here and there tumbles down towards 
 
GIRDED WHEN HE KNEW IT NOT 
 
 15 
 
 Pine Creek, robins and mocking-birds sing 
 in the tree-tops, and every farm-house is 
 embowered in apple-blossoms, peach, and 
 cherry. 
 
 One Lord’s day spent in that rural hamlet 
 discloses to the visitor not only what the 
 people are, but what they have been for a 
 hundred years since the first settlers came, 
 following a pack-saddle trail across the moun- 
 tains. Somewhat chary of speech they are, 
 thinking more than talking, generous in their 
 hospitality, patriotic, inured to hard work, 
 and stanch believers in the Word of Gfod. It 
 is a goodly sight, after “ second preaching,” 
 to mark the long line of top-buggies and open 
 wagons, grayheads and rosy children together, 
 defiling homeward in every direction up the 
 long hill roads. Looking backward to the 
 plain little church standing on its own height, 
 with evergreens and marbles over three gen- 
 erations of sleepers on the right of it, and to 
 the left the most unpretentious hall of learn- 
 ing one ever saw, you have the material em- 
 bodiment of the most forceful agent in keep- 
 ing that community wholesome, intelligent, 
 
16 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 and Bible-loving. Pastor Mechlin 1 was also 
 for over thirty years principal of Glade Bun 
 Academy, and he was wise in his generation. 
 From its quaint belfry rang out an enticing 
 voice to girls and boys of the farms for miles 
 around. In low, bare recitation-rooms a hun- 
 dred or more students at a time grappled 
 with geometry and Greek ; and in a period of 
 about thirty years, over sixty young men who 
 passed out from the academy preached the 
 gospel in then* several denominations, and 
 seven men and women became missionaries 
 to the heathen. When from time to time his 
 “boys” came back from their niches in the 
 wide world, Pastor Mechlin proudly stood 
 them up in pulpit or on platform, and then 
 the village children learned with awe what 
 greatness and eloquence are. 
 
 In this environment, in such an atmosphere, 
 Adolphus Good grew up, and, fond of a book 
 in a home where books were rare, always “ a 
 good bit like his mother,” the schoolmistress, 
 it was inevitable that the hour should come 
 
 1 Rev. George W. Mechlin, D.D., pastor of Glade Run 
 Church thirty-five years ; died 1895. 
 
GIRDED WHEN HE KNEW IT NOT 
 
 17 
 
 when Learning would beckon to him with 
 her potent finger and become his master pas- 
 sion. There was no Christian motive in his 
 decision that spring day, but he was girded 
 when he knew it not. The boy who would 
 “ find a way or make one ” from farm to col- 
 lege would one day cut a path into unmiti- 
 gated savagery in Equatorial Africa, and 
 push the frontier of civilization a step forward 
 there. He more than half suspected that his 
 independent decision would not meet a warm 
 response. His mother might ponder these 
 things in her heart; but for the father to 
 part ways with his son, one whose activity 
 matched his own, who never had to be called 
 twice in the morning, who could hoe his long 
 rows of corn and turn his straight furrows 
 with the best of them, who, though a boy, 
 was intelligent upon the whole subject of 
 farming — no wonder if this would be a keen 
 disappointment. In the neighborhood, too, 
 were those who viewed such a departure with 
 suspicion. “’Dolphus had taken to books, 
 and a first-rate farmer had been spoiled.” 
 From this time on for nine years young 
 
18 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Gfood took straight aim for an education, and 
 pursued it with all his might. Hand over 
 hand he climbed upward. Three years he 
 studied at Glade Run Academy, walking to 
 and from home two miles, “ always in class- 
 room soon after seven o’clock for first recita- 
 tion,” filling vacations and odd hours with 
 teaching school or helping his father in barn 
 and hay-field ; three years at Washington and 
 Jefferson College, Washington, Pa. ; three 
 years more at Western Theological Seminary, 
 Allegheny, Pa., where he threw himself 
 ardently into Soho Mission and for most of 
 the last year preached at Freeport. 
 
 Recollections of him are rife. After thirty 
 years, the picture that comes up to one is of 
 “ a sturdy little boy, his dark eyes snapping 
 with energy and fun and his feet swinging 
 back and forth twice as fast as any other 
 boy’s ” on the long bench in Sunday-school. 
 One of the assistants in the academy remem- 
 bers the lad who entered in the spring of 
 1873, “ earnestness personified,” who had “ a 
 way of giving his whole thought to whatever 
 engaged his attention for the time, whether a 
 
GIRDED WHEN HE KNEW IT NOT 
 
 19 
 
 problem in algebra or a game of ball. The 
 boys often said, ‘ Good plays fair.’ He did 
 not seem ambitious for leadership, and yet 
 because of his qualifications was often given 
 first place.” To this teacher 1 he came, when 
 directed to write an essay, saying that it was 
 a new thing and he did not know how. Hav- 
 ing received general instructions, he went 
 away and some days later came before the 
 society with an essay on “ Wheat ” “ which 
 made some of us think that we had one with 
 us who would some day be known by his 
 pen.” Years after, Dr. Mechlin wrote with 
 the trembling hand of age : “ Adolphus was 
 an industrious, earnest, and obliging boy, 
 ready to make the best of circumstances. 
 He was respectful to his teachers, a kind of 
 natural leader among the boys and always 
 popular with them. It was often said of 
 him, ‘ He will make a good man.’ ” 
 
 There was special religious interest among 
 the students the very summer that Good 
 entered the academy, and, exemplary as he 
 was, always attendant upon public worship, 
 
 1 Rev. A. B. Marshall, Des Moines, la. 
 
20 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 with the strict and early instruction of his 
 home, it was expected that he would be 
 among the first to avow himself on the Lord’s 
 side. But when his teacher asked him if he 
 did not wish to take that stand he was “ sur- 
 prised ” to be met by “ a decided negative.” 
 When under appointment as missionary to 
 Africa, he told this friend that he “never 
 got away from that conversation ” ; that 
 he delayed becoming a Christian because he 
 thought it would bind him to the ministry, 
 while he then had “other plans.” Those 
 plans were for the profession of law and in 
 the direction of a worldly ambition, which 
 he was gradually enabled to put under his 
 feet. He also passed through a period of 
 questioning the received doctrines, and came 
 out, where he stood immovable all his life, 
 upon the solid rock of conviction. He made 
 a “ manly confession,” and united with Glade 
 Run Church, June 6, 1876, being then in his 
 twentieth year. 
 
 The next autumn he entered the sophomore 
 class in Washington College, and, having had 
 a shorter “ fitting ” than most of the students, 
 
GIRDED W HEN HE KNEW IT NOT 
 
 21 
 
 took first rank in nothing; but he ranked 
 well all around, and entered heartily into all 
 the college life. He found his place in the 
 Society of Religious Inquiry the first Sunday, 
 and was always in athletics. No one enjoyed 
 better a good foot-race or game of ball. A 
 member 1 of another class recalls that his 
 most intimate associates in college were “ men 
 intellectually strong,” and “ Good was a 
 dominating force among them. He gave the 
 impression that, other things being equal, it 
 was better not to get into an intellectual 
 contest with him. No one ever doubted his 
 religious conviction. He went his way; 
 he acted on his conviction; nothing else 
 mattered.” 
 
 One of his classmates 2 through both college 
 and seminary recalls the first time he saw 
 the “sun-browned athlete, . . . eager for 
 work, but impatient of trifling. He was 
 quiet and diffident to a degree, but it soon 
 came to be understood that where muscle or 
 courage or brain or conscience was needed, 
 
 1 Rev. S. B. McCormick, Omaha, Neb. 
 
 2 Rev. Henry C. Minton, D.D., San Francisco, Cal. 
 
22 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Good’s place was at the front.” At the end 
 of his college course, as well as the beginning, 
 “ his face was transparent ; he had nothing 
 to hide.” 
 
 His splendid physical life precluded un- 
 couthness at this or any other period ; “ but,” 
 says a friend, “ he was wanting in those graces 
 of deportment which have to be courted, and 
 his rugged honesty and self-respect without 
 them led him, all his life, to underrate, per- 
 haps, then’ value.” 
 
 He was one of six men of the classes of ’78 
 and ’79 who banded together, and lived at the 
 lowest terms of expense, cooking for them- 
 selves by turn, as no other men in college did. 
 If this drew down an occasional sharp grind 
 on “ Poverty Row,” he was thoroughly insen- 
 sitive on the subject. He belonged to the 
 Grand Order of Log Cabin Men of America, 
 where Lincoln belonged, and Grant and Gar- 
 field. No snobbery can touch such men. 
 All six of that lively and congenial band be- 
 came ministers in the Presbyterian Church, 
 two of them foreign missionaries. 
 
 “What was Good’s leading characteristic 
 
GIRDED WHEN HE KNEW IT NOT 
 
 23 
 
 in college days?” was lately asked of one of 
 those chief friends. “ Virtus — manliness,” 
 was the answer. 
 
 When his own earnings were exhausted, 
 Mr. Good’s father came to his rescue, and 
 during his seminary course he received aid 
 from the Board of Education to the amount 
 of one hundred and fifty dollars. Every cent 
 of this was voluntarily paid back from his 
 salary in Africa, an act which astonished the 
 secretary 1 into issuing a call to pastors over 
 comfortable churches in America, asking if 
 they could not also refund some part of the 
 aid which they had enjoyed. 
 
 Both in college and seminary, along with 
 other students, Mr. Good led country Sun- 
 day-schools and cottage prayer-meetings, 
 “ preached the gospel to the poor and visited 
 them in their homes.” His services were 
 offered at Soho Mission, Pittsburg, with the 
 remark, “ I do not know what I can do, but 
 I want to do all I can and in the best way.” 
 Again he was girded when he knew it not. 
 The poverty, shiftlessness, and vice with 
 
 1 Dr. Poor. 
 
24 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 which he there came in contact were surpris- 
 ing to one reared in his country ways, and 
 long afterward, in Africa, he was applying 
 the lessons he learned in that experience. 
 
 When this loyal, exuberantly active young 
 student made an unreserved surrender in 
 favor of the ministry of the gospel, it was as 
 good as settled that it would carry him far- 
 ther — it would take him as far as the com- 
 mission read. Accordingly, in March, 1881, 
 we find him writing to his pastor that he was 
 about to offer himself to the Board of For- 
 eign Missions. “ It has long been my pur- 
 pose.” What field he shall enter must be 
 determined in the future; now he only asks 
 to know whether he “ will be sent anywhere 
 or not.” His reasons for this step are most 
 matter-of-fact — “ just about those that would 
 suggest themselves to any one. The gospel 
 is here within reach of all and many of its 
 temporal benefits, at least, are enjoyed by all. 
 The heathen have neither.” This, he thought, 
 made it the duty, “ especially of every young 
 minister,” to inquire, not, “ Why should I 
 go? but Why should I not go? To the 
 
GIRDED IV HEN HE KNEIV IT NOT 25 
 
 latter question I can give no answer, and I 
 therefore consider it my duty to go if the 
 church will send me.” This whole-souled 
 decision next constrained him one step far- 
 ther — to propose the field at that time most 
 unpopular in the range of Presbyterian mis- 
 sions. His was a nature impatient of half- 
 way measures. 
 
 In a speech before the General Assembly, 
 June, 1882, the treasurer 1 of the Presbyterian 
 Board of Foreign Missions announced with 
 satisfaction that “ thirty young men, gradu- 
 ates of our seminaries, have been accepted for 
 the foreign field.” Only one of them was sent 
 to Africa, and he only after a mild effort had 
 failed to turn him towards another country. 
 When Adolphus Good took aim he was not 
 one to turn aside without convincing reasons, 
 and he had taken aim for Africa. 
 
 The following letter to the secretary 2 of the 
 Board in New York explains the situation: 
 
 “Allegheny City, Pa., December 6, 1881. 
 
 “. . . I had not known until I received 
 your note how much I desired to go to Africa. 
 
 1 William Rankin, Esq. 
 
 2 Rev. John Lowrie, D.D. 
 
26 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 I had looked upon my going there as almost 
 a certainty, especially after seeing you this 
 fall. The action of the Board came as a sur- 
 prise and, I confess, somewhat of a disap- 
 pointment. I have thought over the subject 
 a good deal since, and tried to find out exactly 
 why I prefer that field to others. Part of the 
 ground for my preference, I frankly confess, 
 is not very sound. 
 
 “ At first I chose that field without having 
 any decided preference. I chose it because 
 it seemed to me, as it does yet, the field in 
 which the church was most shamefully com- 
 ing short of her duty, and the one where she 
 was least likely to be able to find men to 
 work. Since then, looking forward to it, the 
 hopefulness of youth and a somewhat adven- 
 ture-loving disposition have clothed the enter- 
 prise in a sort of romantic 1 dress, which I 
 well know is unreal and would be soon torn 
 off by the hard facts of missionary life. Of 
 course the thought of not going disappointed 
 such hopes as these. I find that the great 
 
 1 “ With Mr. Good, missions were a reality, not a romance ; 
 there is little romance in a life spent like his.” (Letter from 
 M. H. Kerr, Africa, March, 1895.) 
 
GIRDED W HEN HE KNEW IT NOT 
 
 27 
 
 incentive to mission work, the only lasting 
 source of inspiration, — love for the Master 
 and lost souls, — is to be found in any field. 
 So I will go, and try to go willingly, wherever 
 I am sent. Still, I think there are reasons 
 why I should go to Africa, if I am sent. I 
 am unusually strong and healthy, and think 
 I could stand the climate. In my early days 
 I learned what hard work and roughing it 
 meant. I am rather inclined to adventure 
 than afraid of it. Doing without home and 
 society is not so much of a privation 1 to me 
 as to most persons. And, most important of 
 all, I have at present no prospect of being 
 married.” 
 
 Two months later his position is the same, 
 and he hopes the Board is about ready to 
 reach a “ final decision ” as to where to send 
 him. 
 
 “ If there is good reason for further delay 
 I can wait still longer, but if not I would like 
 to have the matter settled. I have no great 
 objection to going to Siam. . . . Still, for 
 
 1 He ate his words again and again. Writing to his wife 
 in 1887 he says : “ It is a small eternity yet before I have 
 any hope of seeing you,” 
 
28 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 reasons given in my last letter, I prefer 
 Africa. Hoping that if such is the will of 
 the Master you will prefer to have me go 
 there, 
 
 “ I remain, yours respectfully, 
 
 “A. C. Good.” 
 
 Whence came this young man’s first im- 
 pulse which had resulted in dedication on the 
 foreign missionary altar ? As Robert Moffat’s 
 came, like Mackay’s of Uganda — from his 
 mother. She pored over the pages of the 
 missionary magazine, and searched out every 
 missionary paragraph in the Banner; and 
 the boy’s eyes followed his mother’s. For the 
 rest, the whole gospel was declared in Glade 
 Run Church ; the last command of Jesus was 
 preached, and Paul was preached. 
 
 Mr. Good was licensed by the presbytery 
 of Kittanning, April 21, 1881. 
 
 “ I remember his trial sermon,” says one. 1 
 “ My heart was drawn out to that young man 
 with his smooth, frank face and clear eye.” 
 Pastor Mechlin considered that “he under- 
 
 1 Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart, Indiana, Pa. “ I am living on 
 borrowed time, but I remember.” 
 
GIRDED WHEN HE KNEW IT NOT 
 
 29 
 
 went a remarkable examination in theology ” 
 at that time. The same presbytery ordained 
 him an evangelist the next year, and he sailed 
 alone for Gaboon three months after, Septem- 
 ber 28, 1882. So little did the West Africa 
 mission stand in the eye of the church in those 
 days that, when the humiliating quota of one 
 new man a year was filled, even his name was 
 overlooked in the list of departures in the 
 Foreign Missionary, and for four years after 
 only one brief paragraph referring to him 
 appeared in its pages. 
 
 But in the old home, that September day, 
 his father was walking nervously from house 
 to yard, from yard to house, no one ventur- 
 ing to speak to him ; and his mother sat silent 
 and tearless in her chair. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Grappling with the Situation 
 November 21, 1882 — December 1883 
 
 F IFTY-FOUR days after leaving the pier 
 at Philadelphia our traveler landed nine 
 thousand miles away, at Gaboon, West Coast, 
 Africa, and opened his eyes on a new world. 
 He had caught glimpses of tropical life on the 
 voyage from Liverpool — off Sierra Leone, 
 Lagos, the Gold Coast, Old Calabar, Fernando 
 Po. Now he saw the indescribably dense 
 jungle at close range : endogenous stemmed 
 trees, gigantic vegetable forms with gay- 
 blooming parasites trailing over them, the 
 lantana grown to a bush seven feet high, the 
 oleander become a tree. He was only fifteen 
 miles north of the equator. “ Since I came 
 I have not seen a tree, plant, leaf, blade of 
 grass, an insect, a bird, fish, scarcely an ani- 
 
 30 
 
MAP OF GABOON AND CORISCO MISSIONS, IN 1882. 
 
UNIVERSITY ;f ILLINOIS 
 
 L .A 
 
GRAPPLING WITH THE SITUATION 
 
 31 
 
 mal, that was familiar to mo in America, ex- 
 cept the dog, cat, and rat.” Centipedes and 
 cockroaches hid in his closet, white ants in 
 the backs of his commentaries, the python 
 swung itself from branches overhanging the 
 path of his boat. Back in the forest big game 
 were found — elephant, antelope, wild boar, 
 and the very ancestral seats of all the monkey 
 family, from the gorilla and chimpanzee to 
 “ the little kiting a, whose waist you may clasp 
 with thumb and finger; and every one has 
 the same white spot on the end of his nose, 
 and the tail is as long as the body.” 
 
 He was “agreeably surprised” with Ga- 
 boon , 1 the pleasantest place he had yet seen 
 in Africa. It has a fine harbor, one of the few 
 good ones on the whole Gulf of Guinea coast. 
 A modern French town faces it, Libreville, 
 where are the commandant’s house, custom- 
 house, and other accessories of a colonial 
 station. The American mission premises, 
 Baraka, lie back from the beach two miles. 
 In the name survives the memory of a Portu- 
 guese slave-barracoon which stood on its site 
 
 1 Name of the district now included in Congo Fran9ais. 
 
32 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 early in the century. The first missionaries 
 having arrived shortly after the foreign slave- 
 trade had received its death-blow, they saw 
 the last company of blacks destined to the 
 slave-ship. Within distance of a block from 
 their mission house they saw the ground, an 
 acre in extent, white with the bones of slaves 
 whose bodies had been thrown to beast and 
 vulture. 
 
 The eighth day after joining the mission 
 Mr. Good was on his way up-country with 
 one 1 of his brethren. By open sail-boat, and 
 again by canoe, they followed the course of 
 the salty arm which the Atlantic Ocean here 
 throws inland, and which goes by the name 
 of “ Gaboon River,” and explored its upper 
 waters to where they emerge in a series of 
 rapids from the Sierra del Crystal range. 
 Most of the towns all the way up to Angom 
 Station were those of the real Fang, cannibals 
 with their teeth filed to a point, and a loaded 
 gun at full cock nearly always in their hands 
 
 1 Kev. Arthur W. Marling ; went to Africa 1880 ; died at 
 Angom, October, 1896. A Fang church of thirty- seven mem- 
 bers and Scripture translations in Fang are his enduring 
 monument. 
 
ORDINARY CANOE' OF THE FRENCH CONGO. 
 
 DR. GOOD’S HOUSE AT BARAKA : 
 OLDEST RESIDENCE IN THE MISSION. 
 
HBRAR> 
 
 ONlVtRBHV OF ILLINOIS 
 URBANA 
 
GRAPPLING IVITH THE SITUATION 
 
 33 
 
 — “ on the whole, in the rough, materials for 
 a high manhood.” Mr. Good preached at 
 several places through an interpreter, and 
 through the week was taking a thorough 
 measurement of the region as a field for mis- 
 sionary operations. Both on the up journey 
 and returning he was all night in an open 
 boat, drenched with rain, and with a face for- 
 midably swollen from sand-fly bites presented 
 himself again at Baraka. 
 
 Five days after he was on a flying trip to 
 the Ogowe, where he was at home among the 
 missionaries, “ as if I had always known 
 them.” He was struck with the rapid current 
 of the river ; its volume was “ grand ” ; but he 
 had no compliments for the brown color of 
 its waters. Kangwe Station was well located 
 to command hundreds of small towns by 
 itineration. The Mpongwe-speaking inhabi- 
 tants were fast being ruined by drink, and the 
 Fang seemed rather inferior to those on the 
 Upper Gaboon. 
 
 A few weeks later he was away on the 
 coast at Corisco Island, serving as clerk of 
 presbytery, and preaching an installation 
 
34 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 sermon for the first African pastor 1 in the 
 field. 
 
 Having “ a glorious day ” on their hands, 
 he and a brother delegate rowed over to 
 Banya Island and picked up shells on the 
 beach, wading under a hot sun into the water 
 for the finest shells, just as they might have 
 done at home. This was defiance of African 
 climate. It proved a costly lesson. With his 
 fresh, sound constitution, Mr. Good escaped 
 with a light penalty ; but his companion was 
 prostrated with the fever of the country in its 
 most dangerous form. It had been precipi- 
 tated by standing in the water, although the 
 cause lay far back ; for he was an ardent mis- 
 sionary 2 who had been doing the work of two 
 men. Mr. Good helped to nurse his associate, 
 and made a thorough study 3 of African fever 
 at this time. He did not inform his secretary 
 about that day at Banya Island, but he ap- 
 propriated the warning. Many a time after, 
 
 1 Ibia, the first convert on Corisco, had been ordained 
 twelve years before. 
 
 2 Rev. G. C. Campbell. Fever drove him from the coun- 
 try soon after. 
 
 3 Standard work by Henry A. Ford, M.D. ; died in Africa, 
 1858. 
 
GRAPPLING IVITH THE SITUATION 
 
 35 
 
 the path of stern duty required of him the 
 same and worse exposure, but he never again 
 took such a risk for amusement. In fact, a 
 fine balance of fearlessness and prudence in 
 enterprise became one of his marked mission- 
 ary characteristics. 
 
 His introduction to the most unfriendly 
 element to human life on the West Coast was 
 more personal still. “A subtle poison fills 
 the air,” he wrote to his family. “ Sometimes 
 for a year or more it does no serious mischief, 
 but gradually it pulls down the strongest 
 men. This does not make life here unpleas- 
 ant, as you might suppose. One is not un- 
 well, only feels a languor and disinclination 
 to activity. But I have no reason to com- 
 plain, for I have had only a little fever twice 
 within the first three months.” 
 
 Another typical journey was taken to pres- 
 bytery at Benito, one hundred miles north of 
 G-aboon, and an account of it was sent to one 
 of his brothers : 
 
 “ Gaboon, April 10, 1883. 
 
 “ . . . The trip had to be made by sea in 
 an open boat. I went because somebody 
 
36 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 must go, and I was the only one able, Bro- 
 ther having been recently ill. My outfit 
 
 was a boat about thirty feet by six, carrying 
 a sail twelve by eighteen, with six men to 
 pull when the wind was unfavorable. Started 
 March 16th about 10 a.m., and did not reach 
 Corisco Island until midnight. Just when 
 we were passing the rocky point near Elongo 
 a tornado struck us, and as the night was 
 very threatening I was persuaded to try to 
 land. Turning the point too close, we were 
 caught in a rather ugly breaker. Coming up 
 to the landing-place, we found it one mass of 
 angry foam. The boys backed off and said 
 we could not land. ‘What then?’ said I. 
 ‘ Lie at anchor here all night and take it,’ was 
 the reply. ‘ No, not I ; if we can’t land, we 
 strike at once across the bay for Cape St. 
 John.’ As they were too timid for this, they 
 again tried the landing. We ran for a bank 
 of sand which lay above the rocks and, when 
 the tide is full, may be safely run into. We 
 were carried ashore with a force that made 
 the future of our boat doubtful. We went 
 over the rocks and into the sand safely ; but 
 
GRAPPLING IVITH THE SITUATION 
 
 37 
 
 the boat must be gotten out again at once, or 
 it would be broken. The boys went at this, 
 and I had to get ashore up to the middle in 
 water, in my shirt-sleeves. The boat was 
 pushed out quickly into deep water, and over 
 the roar of the breakers it was impossible to 
 call for my clothes, even if it would have been 
 proper to bring the boat ashore again. I was 
 glad to get a bed with our native pastor. 
 Next morning, everything wet, my food 
 spoiled; and so we started again, in our 
 wet clothes. It was very hot, with only a 
 little wind till 2 p.m., when another tornado 
 came up, and pouring rain till between eight 
 and nine o’clock. Beached Benito about mid- 
 night almost starved, for I had retained no 
 food for forty-eight hours. None of us seems 
 able to eat on such a journey ; consequently 
 a square meal is acceptable when the chance 
 comes. 
 
 “ Now you will think such a trip is danger- 
 ous. Tornadoes, for instance. Not so; I 
 have been at sea in four or five. The wind 
 is terrific for a time, and sail must be taken 
 down at once ; then there is no danger. The 
 
38 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 worst tiling is the rocks all along the coast, 
 and the surf. The boat Avill not strike if she 
 is in two feet of water, and the man who 
 would drown in that case ought to ; but let a 
 boat, even if not running very fast, strike a 
 rock, and you have a wreck. As such a boat 
 costs from two hundred and fifty to three 
 hundred dollars, it is not wise to be reckless. 
 On this trip my boat was in danger two or 
 three times, and yet my men knew the coast 
 very well. Once we were running probably 
 at the rate of ten miles per hour when it was 
 very dark, and suddenly, not more than thirty 
 yards ahead, a reef was seen above the sur- 
 face. A moment more and we might have 
 rested there till morning. The return trip 
 generally takes four or five days, but we 
 covered it in thirty-four hours, the best time 
 ever made on the route, as far as I can learn. 
 But to do it we sailed all night, and made the 
 crew work, one of the hardest things to ac- 
 complish with Africans. I stood it splen- 
 didly, but was so sunburnt when I got 
 home that people did not know me at first 
 sight.” 
 
GRAPPLING IV1TH THE SITUATION 
 
 39 
 
 Thus the battle was joined at once. For 
 twelve years to come Mr. Good should have 
 his full share of the Africa missionary’s lot — 
 of open boats under glaring sun and tropical 
 downpours, of stemming the ocean tide at 
 river mouths and contending with frantic 
 surf ; contending also with a far more formi- 
 dable enemy, one demanding courage equal to 
 any foe on any field — the burning fever and the 
 languor of reaction after fever. Could this ene- 
 my be conquered on the West Coast, the white 
 man’s life would be stripped of half its perils. 
 
 The new missionary was not to be dazed 
 by the new world into which he was plunged. 
 Like William of Normandy on landing in 
 England, he took hold of Africa “ with both 
 hands.” In all the places where he went he 
 was assimilating facts, in a level-headed way, 
 on which to form conclusions for action. The 
 Mpongwe people of Gaboon quickly sized 
 him up: “He has come to stay.” And the 
 venerable senior missionary 1 saw “a fair 
 
 1 Rev. William Walker, one of the founders of Gaboon 
 Mission (established by the A. B. C. F. M.), was in Africa 
 the most part of thirty years; died at Milton, Wis., De- 
 cember, 1896. 
 
40 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 prospect of some evangelistic missionary 
 work in this vicinity. He will soon be preach- 
 ing in the vernacular.” 
 
 The mission, in Annual Meeting (January, 
 1883), located Mr. Good at Baraka. There 
 the gospel had been preached forty years, 
 against great odds of heathenism on shore 
 and antichristian trade at the river mouth. 
 In 1845 a missionary 1 found a whole town 
 beastly drunk one day. Six of their men had 
 been sold as slaves to the great Spanish 
 “ slave factory ” 2 on the south side of Gaboon 
 River, and were paid for with six hogsheads 
 of rum which the people, young and old, 
 were consuming as common property. He 
 saw a line of women, hand in hand, fall like 
 a row of ninepins, stupefied with rum. In 
 1860 an Old Calabar missionary wrote : “ The 
 difficulties of our brethren there [at Gaboon] 
 
 1 Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, the leader in opening Gaboon 
 Station, 1842 ; twenty years in Africa ; afterward secretary 
 of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church 
 (North) ; resigned in 1861 ; appointed secretary of Board of 
 the Presbyterian Church (South) ; died in South Carolina, 
 1886. 
 
 2 A British agent is called a “ factor , ” hence “ factory ” for 
 trading-house. 
 
GRAPPLING WITH THE SITUATION 
 
 41 
 
 are like our own. The ‘ trade ’ gets all the 
 advantage of their labors among the young 
 men ; the demon of polygamy devours the 
 fruit of their labors among the girls.” 1 
 
 In 1883 the conflict was still on. The prob- 
 lem to be grappled with at Gaboon was 
 complex: Heathenism — not like virgin soil, 
 but like the stubble twice burned over. 
 Trade — not educative, industrious and inno- 
 cent, but demoralizing, always associated 
 with intoxicants. “ Trade is our great 
 enemy,” wrote Mr. Good. “Men worth 
 anything to work can get unheard-of wages.” 
 He saw the white trader’s net spread for the 
 native woman, and the better educated the 
 heavier the temptation. Liquor — almost uni- 
 versal among white and black. Roman 
 Catholicism. The French priests were manu- 
 facturing brandy from the mango. By “ treat- 
 ing ” parents to rum they swooped scores of 
 children into their schools, baptized them, 
 hung a cross about the neck, and taught them 
 never to listen to a Protestant. 
 
 How win victories for the gospel in the 
 
 1 Mr. Kobb, in the Record , Scotland, September, 1861. 
 
42 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 midst of such forces ? “ Do not feel so much 
 for our privations and discomforts,” Mr. Good 
 wrote to his old pastor ; “ I have seen little of 
 these; but we do need your sympathy and 
 prayers in these tremendous spiritual diffi- 
 culties.” 
 
 There were unaccustomed duties to be 
 grappled. First, mission assigned a train- 
 ing-class of candidates for the ministry. Con- 
 cerning this he wrote to his secretary in New 
 York: “All seemed to agree that no other 
 person could be spared for it, so I have been 
 appointed. It is a work I am utterly unfit to 
 do, owing to want of experience and my very 
 imperfect knowledge of the language. The 
 difficulties and responsibilities are too great 
 to be thought about. I can scarcely hope you 
 will approve the appointment ; yet I do hope, 
 now that it is done, you will do all you can, 
 by your advice and influence, to help me.” 
 This class was but temporary. 
 
 Care of the church at Baraka was added to 
 that of the class. Its membership had become 
 reduced to about forty, some of them aged, 
 and some lifeless Christians. 
 
GRAPPLING IVITH THE SITUATION 
 
 43 
 
 Mr. Good was fast getting liis bearings; 
 improving the advantage of “Father Walk- 
 er’s” presence, enjoyed for a few months; 
 studying the people out in their towns on 
 foot or by boat; especially studying the 
 Mpongwe language with all his might. He 
 had found on his arrival a mission force of 
 twenty-three Americans. By one steamer 
 after another, he saw ten missionaries depart 
 for home within a year. At the end of six 
 months he was the only man left at his sta- 
 tion. As Baraka was general depot for the 
 mission, the duties of treasurer were now 
 laid upon his shoulders. These involved 
 bookkeeping for the mission, receiving and 
 shipping freight for all the stations, the com- 
 plex, wearying business of African barter, 
 relations with custom-house and other French 
 officials, and acquaintance with French laws. 
 To be competent for these last, he straightway 
 began evening lessons in the French lan- 
 guage. He confides to his mother (to whom 
 the regular monthly letter never failed while 
 she lived) that “ the place is a tough one for 
 a mere boy to hold. A great deal of business 
 
44 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 experience is needed, and I have none.” His 
 chief complaint, however, is that he cannot 
 work as he used to at home — “cannot do 
 more than half as much.” 
 
 One of his public duties, conducting the 
 funeral service of a white trader who had led 
 a scandalous life, is referred to in his note- 
 book : “ My task was a difficult and delicate 
 one — to keep from giving offense either to 
 his friends or to my conscience. I took care 
 to avoid the latter.” 
 
 A letter to the Board in May refers, as to a 
 trifle, to the fact that, though a vessel has 
 arrived direct from America, the furniture 
 which was ordered before his own departure 
 has not yet put in an appearance. “ Fortu- 
 nately there will soon be some for sale in the 
 mission from which I can supply myself, so 
 it does not matter much.” He is intending 
 marriage, or we should never hear of the fur- 
 niture at all. 
 
 The next month an American man-of-war 
 was off Graboon harbor ; and as excessive red 
 tape was essential to legalize a marriage 
 under colonial laws, the wedding-party went 
 
GRAPPLING WITH THE SITUATION 
 
 45 
 
 out and boarded the Quinnebaug , which was 
 anchored in neutral water four miles from 
 shore. There, June 21, under the stars and 
 stripes, Adolphus C. Good was married to 
 Miss Lydia B. Walker, who had been for 
 several years a member of the mission. The 
 incident is on the records of the Naval De- 
 partment at Washington, D. C. All the cir- 
 cumstances suited Mr. Good, for he was a 
 thorough American. 
 
 The first Mpongwe sermon came off after 
 only ten months in Africa. Inquiry meetings 
 follow. “We expected two or three persons ; 
 ten came.” Cases of religious interest in the 
 towns are reported, and, “ from visits among 
 the same people, I know they are not over- 
 drawn.” 
 
 In this summer of 1883 began to be oper- 
 ated those decrees of the republic of France, 
 through their commandant in Gaboon, of 
 which intimations had been heard before, and 
 which would eventually cause the transfer of 
 a part of the mission to French hands. All 
 schools in what had become French territory 
 were ordered closed unless they were taught 
 
46 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 in the French tongue. If the authorities had 
 simply discriminated against the English 
 language, and left to missionaries their in- 
 struction in the vernacular, Mr. Good would 
 have been well content. He was inclined to 
 believe that teaching in English at Gaboon 
 had been “ a curse.” But American mission- 
 aries had not prepared themselves to teach 
 French schools; they could not approve of 
 them. They knew that a generation would 
 have to pass away before Africans could be 
 brought to Christ through the medium of a 
 foreign language. Accordingly the schools 
 were closed, but, with justifiable strategy, 
 “ we manage to keep with us all the boys of 
 the inquiry class, and all who gave promise 
 of entering the ministry or Bible-reading 
 work. Were we to send them away to be 
 lost — the boys to go into trade, the girls to 
 the bad ? ” They were retained on the terms 
 of a French law which defined a “ school ” as 
 constituted of “ four or more pupils.” Each 
 missionary was permitted to have as many 
 as three Africans at a time attached to his or 
 her premises ; and thus a dozen girls and boys 
 
GRAPPLING WITH THE SITUATION 
 
 47 
 
 were employed in washing, cooking, weeding 
 yards, and were taught the Bible as before, 
 only on mission-house verandas instead of in 
 a school-room. 
 
 A Jesuit hand was inside the glove of 
 authority. It was not the zeal of Paris, but 
 of the Roman Catholic mission at Gaboon, 
 which had closed the schools. Its force in- 
 cluded a bishop, half a dozen priests, and 
 as many nuns. There was one Protestant 
 missionary to face their machinations. He 
 was afraid of only one thing: that, in view 
 of government threats, the Board at home 
 would “decline to send out the reinforce- 
 ments we ask for.” 
 
 What were these Africans upon whom 
 missionaries were expending their lives ! To 
 what stage had the problem of their elevation 
 been worked out? Mr. Good was fitted to 
 pass an unexaggerated judgment upon Gaboon 
 people. He saw them with somewhat differ- 
 ent eyes from what might be the first glance 
 of a refined woman who had never visited the 
 slums of a metropolis, and had passed her 
 happy girlhood amid the proprieties and pre- 
 
48 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 ponderating Christian influence of an Amer- 
 ican town. His conclusions were based, not 
 upon the degree of their nakedness, but upon 
 the inward qualities which they disclosed, and 
 their powerful race institutions of polygamy, 
 dowry, and tribal slavery. 
 
 To his friends of Grlade Run Church he 
 wrote : 
 
 “If you were to come here and see the 
 degradation, superstition, and wickedness of 
 the people, you would feel, as I cannot help 
 feeling, that the work of Christianizing them 
 is just begun. But when I turn away from 
 this picture, and ask of those who have been 
 longest here how they found this people when 
 the gospel was first brought, they paint a 
 picture so much darker than we see now that 
 I find a great deal to be thankful for. There 
 is a decided advance. 
 
 “ ‘ "What sort of beings are they ? ’ do you 
 ask? Without industry and energy. ‘Do 
 they not work ? ’ ‘ Are they not great hunters 
 and fishers?’ Yes, when hungry and driven 
 by the evil of empty stomachs to the lesser 
 evil of work. When rain pours through the 
 
GRAPPLING WITH THE SITUATION 
 
 49 
 
 rotten roof, or the long-propped-up walls fall 
 around them, then they build. Many of them 
 are strong, athletic men with wonderful 
 powers of endurance; but take away the 
 necessity for work, and they sink into a nor- 
 mal condition of sleepy inactivity. Even 
 courage, a quality which is usually thought 
 to be part of the savage character, must be 
 subtracted from it, at least in this part of 
 Africa. They delight in bloodshed; almost 
 every town of the great Fang race has a 
 deadly feud with neighboring towns, and 
 they are constantly killing and eating each 
 other ; but I never heard of a battle here. It 
 is always an ambuscade — a stealing upon 
 an unsuspecting enemy in the bush and 
 murdering him. You could not induce them 
 to stand up face to face in open fight. It is 
 not cruelty and brutality that make a brave 
 man, but culture, refinement, and the inculca- 
 tion of noble sentiments and principles. 
 
 ‘‘Theft, dishonesty, lying, are fearfully 
 prevalent ; fidelity to promises the exception. 
 How could it be otherwise? No God; only 
 cruel, revengeful spirits, who inhabit the 
 
50 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 forest, and are to be feared. Love is almost 
 unknown here, for love is of God. The 
 family? There is none, in our sense of the 
 word. Wives are slaves ; they are bought by 
 giving dowry, as it is called, but just about 
 the price of a slave is given. A man’s rank 
 is determined by what he owns, and his 
 wealth is accumulated in the form of wives. 
 They are beaten and abused unmercifully. 
 They have only one escape ; that is, to run 
 away, back to their tribe, or get some man to 
 take them and pay to their first husband 
 what they cost him. In all Gaboon and 
 vicinity there are not more than three or 
 four women, outside of our mission, who 
 have lived all their life with the same hus- 
 band. These people see nothing immoral in 
 such a course. There is some care for the 
 children, but it mainly proceeds from the 
 same base motives. Is it a son ? He honors 
 the parent and strengthens the family, an im- 
 portant consideration in their tribal feuds. 
 Is it a daughter ? She will in a few years be 
 worth from fifty to two hundred dollars, 
 enriching her family thereby. Most of the 
 
GRAPPLING WITH THE SITUATION 
 
 51 
 
 parental affection rests on strictly business 
 principles. If you doubt it, you would be 
 convinced by seeing bow the father will sell 
 his daughter to any man who will pay his 
 price, no matter how many wives he may 
 have, nor how wretched she may be with 
 him. What a life ! How dark it is ! They 
 do not realize the saddest features of their 
 condition. As a people they are noted for 
 freedom from care. They cannot be called 
 unhappy, as a rule, but you will travel a long 
 time among them before you see a genuinely 
 happy face; and when old age comes and 
 strength deserts the arm, leaving the man 
 nothing to be proud of, and the woman use- 
 less and therefore neglected, the picture is 
 sad indeed. 
 
 “ Perhaps you will say, ‘ They are not like 
 us ; they are a lower order of beings.’ Nay ; 
 but what has made us to differ is the gospel 
 with you, and the want of it here. You will 
 find men in America who have practically no 
 religion, and they show as little honor and 
 truthfulness as men here. It is want of re- 
 ligion that has sunk this people. Climatic 
 
52 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 conditions have determined the direction of 
 the descent. Here nature is too good to her 
 children. Fish always swarm in the rivers, 
 and you can have plantains and cassava 
 eveiy day in the year. A few days’ work 
 provides a bamboo house with thatched roof. 
 A few yards of cloth satisfy their very prim- 
 itive ideas of propriety. Thank G-od for 
 long, hard winters for a great part of the 
 globe ! But this people are waking up, and 
 this sleeping giant must be constrained by 
 the love of Christ, or he would better be 
 asleep than waking. 
 
 “ The gospel has made some real men out 
 of this awfully poor material. Of course it 
 is hard, slow work. At home, temptations 
 like a great stream bear thousands away; 
 here they are a mighty flood hurling multi- 
 tudes on to eternal doom. Africa is opened. 
 Those who have the gospel must determine 
 whether it shall be her destruction or her 
 salvation.” 
 
 In the fourteen years which have passed 
 since this description was penned there have 
 been hundreds more of “ real men ” developed 
 
GRAPPLING WITH THE SITUATION 
 
 53 
 
 through knowledge of their heavenly Father ; 
 but outside of narrow sections where Chris- 
 tianity has acquired a considerable foothold, 
 this indictment is as true to-day as then, not 
 only in Equatorial Africa, but over all the 
 great Dark Continent. 
 
 During his first year our young missionary 
 had grappled with a handful of problems 
 pertaining to African life, and had reached 
 several conclusions to which he held tena- 
 ciously through his whole career : 
 
 1. That Africans are to be won to Christ 
 through the medium of their own vernacular, 
 not through a foreign tongue. 
 
 2. That the gospel is to be given to the 
 people to prepare them for education and 
 civilization, not the reverse. 
 
 3. That Gaboon Mission was to grow and 
 from time to time apply to the church at 
 home for reinforcements. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Embarrassed by Government Restrictions 
 1884 
 
 T HERE was no foreign governmental es- 
 tablishment within one thousand miles 
 on the coast, and for two thousand miles 
 eastward, all the way to the Indian Ocean, 
 was unexplored savage territory, when 
 Gaboon Mission was founded in 1842. But 
 the very next year a French cannon-ball 
 struck the mission school-house while a re- 
 ligious service was in progress. A French 
 Jesuit mission soon planted itself within 
 three miles of Baraka, and not long after a 
 French administration was formally extended 
 over the district, in spite of the helpless re- 
 monstrance of the more shrewd headmen in 
 Gaboon villages. 
 
 Relations between French officials and the 
 
 54 
 
GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS 
 
 55 
 
 Americans were friendly in the early days, 
 and as late as 1864 Walker wrote: “Embar- 
 rassments from the French government are 
 not to be apprehended. It has shown as 
 much regard for our mission as could be ex- 
 pected from any government.” In 1882 the 
 situation was somewhat altered. The scramble 
 for Africa had begun among European powers, 
 and the French were on the alert to legally 
 establish their claims in the Gaboon. The 
 Spanish, who appeared on Corisco Island as 
 early as 1858, had disappeared and reap- 
 peared again, came now to stay. In 1884 a 
 German man-of-war took possession of the 
 Benito River and various points north ; and 
 the French, having with great promptitude 
 discovered an old treaty which gave the 
 Benito to themselves, took possession of the 
 south bank. The political situation became, 
 and all summer continued, “ uncertain.” 
 
 Mr. Good was drawn into several confer- 
 ences with the French commandant. It was 
 a delicate position for a man so young, so 
 new in the mission, unversed in social eti- 
 quette, only beginning to speak in French, 
 
56 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 and wholly without experience in diplomacy. 
 One hurst of temper, one social blunder, a 
 hasty inference, a little slowness in compre- 
 hending the commandant’s tactics, might 
 jeopardize the future of the mission. The 
 responsibility weighed heavily. He longed 
 for “ Campbell to be back to share the 
 burden,” as he was forced, the only man at 
 headquarters, step by step to take action 
 alone. The course natural to him was the 
 best possible. His directness, his habit of 
 taking straight aim, the sagacity which had 
 been cultivated in watching the wily ways of 
 birds and rabbits in his boyhood, added to a 
 fund of good nature and self-control, carried 
 him through. He had bent before the storm 
 at its first approach and closed his school. 
 The commandant still refused his opening it 
 in the vernacular. If the Americans could 
 not meet the requirement of the law them- 
 selves, they must secure French teachers. 
 This was reasonable, and the missionary 
 yielded again. 
 
 The retired veteran , 1 looking out from his 
 
 1 Walker. 
 
GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS 
 
 57 
 
 Wisconsin watch-tower, “ did not think there 
 was any one at G-aboon who knew what to 
 propose this year, except to work on, preach- 
 ing the gospel, confirming saints, and winning 
 sinners. It seems to me a time to stand still 
 and wait the moving of God’s providence.” 
 But he had a successor, yet too young and 
 too energetic to be warranted in simply 
 standing still. He proposed to do some mov- 
 ing himself in connection with God’s provi- 
 dence. Mr. Good more than met the situa- 
 tion : he formulated plans for action. 
 
 Now began a gentle but firm bombardment 
 of the doors of the home office. From month 
 to month he writes about the course of the 
 commandant. In March he observes that 
 some property at Gaboon is held by “the 
 Board,” while French law recognizes only 
 such as is held in the name of an individual. 
 He finds the Jesuit mission prohibited from 
 preaching in the vernacular , because the colony 
 pays them twenty thousand francs a year 
 for teaching exclusively in French. “ Still, 
 I cannot help asking, How have we escaped 
 this blow ? ” And his intention is that this 
 
58 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 blow shall not fall. He points out that re- 
 strictions are not laid on account of the Prot- 
 estant religion, but because of the feeling in 
 Prance that “our schools are making the 
 people of the colony English.” The com- 
 mandant promised that the other schools 
 should be taught in the vernacular if a French 
 school were opened at Gaboon. 
 
 Plan No. 1 has therefore developed. He 
 asks the Board to grant a French teacher 
 to assist in the Gaboon school, “ in order to 
 satisfy the commandant.” Concerning this 
 letter he tells an associate, “ I wrote it to in- 
 duce the Board to make an advance of some 
 sort” He wishes they had a light-draught 
 steam- or naphtha-launch, 1 for with it they 
 could give the gospel with reasonable regu- 
 larity to one hundred thousand souls within 
 easy reach on the Gaboon and its tributaries. 
 He has just seen five missionaries on their 
 way to the Congo. “By every steamship 
 there is somebody going to that mission. 
 We might well take a lesson from them.” 
 
 In August, though not yet officially in- 
 
 1 This is still called for. 
 
GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS 
 
 59 
 
 formed, he learns that the commandant “ has 
 orders in his pocket to close our only ver- 
 nacular schools left at Benito.” 
 
 September. He had been notified of fresh 
 instructions from France. A school might 
 be opened at Talaguga Station , 1 but in French 
 only. Much suspicion was directed towards 
 the Sabbath services. 
 
 Then follows cautious see-sawing between 
 Baraka and the colonial office, the main end 
 never lost sight of. Nor does Baraka always 
 lose. One official concession grants “reli- 
 gious services in the native language” ; so that 
 nail was driven. 
 
 There is another tap at the secretary’s door. 
 Mr. Good recalls the experience of English 
 missionaries on Tahiti — how, after French 
 occupation, they had been constrained to 
 turn their mission over to French Protestants. 
 One of his colleagues had already suggested 
 to the Board a similar course in their mission. 
 For himself, he begins to think that “ getting 
 French teachers is a compromise plan ; I am 
 
 1 On the Ogowe River ; opened by the Rev. R. H. Nassau, 
 M.D., in 1882. 
 
60 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 afraid of it. It is the settled policy of France 
 to make every one of her colonies a new 
 France in language and customs. I am 
 sorry to believe it, but I do believe we shall 
 in the end be forced to transfer our work to 
 French missionaries ; and this will be best for 
 the kingdom of Christ in the colony. The 
 government is determined to make this a 
 French people. If so, a French church can 
 best harmonize with that policy; we never 
 can.” 
 
 But men were needed. “ At present, with 
 just enough to guard each station, we are 
 doing nothing. People we taught have gone 
 to their towns, and we cannot even follow 
 them. If we keep on thus a few years, there 
 will be nothing either to hold or to transfer.” 
 He corresponds with his associates in the 
 mission concerning a possible transfer. One 
 of them having first broached the subject to 
 the Board, he can “follow.” Otherwise he 
 would have been “afraid they would take 
 such a suggestion from the youngest member 
 of the mission as assumption. Let us discuss 
 this among ourselves. Nothing will make 
 
GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS 
 
 61 
 
 our Board act but something like unanimous 
 opinion boldly expressed by mission meeting. 
 I want this mission to adopt some definite 
 policy.” 
 
 November. He is “ sorry to say I have had 
 the so-called malignant fever, which is be- 
 coming so fashionable in our mission.” He 
 credits the attack to a sedentary life. After 
 active exposure, “ all night wet and cold, eat- 
 ing all kinds of food, drinking all kinds of 
 water, I have never been the worse for it. 
 When I have walked fifteen or twenty-five 
 miles a day it put new life into me for weeks ; 
 but when confined a month or two at Baraka 
 I have become languid and bilious.” 
 
 December. A parting shot to the home 
 office : “ The French are likely to get Benito, 
 and we may expect our schools to be closed 
 there, just when the harvest is being gathered 
 in so fast.” 
 
 All the year Mr. Good had been mission 
 treasurer, and pastor of Gaboon Church, and 
 superintendent of the station. “ Of course I 
 do justice to neither.” He might have added 
 that watching through the alarming illness 
 
62 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 of his wife, his own recurring attacks of 
 fever, and anxiety for the future of the mis- 
 sion had drained his strength. But the year 
 had its joys. He had welcomed a little son 
 with fatherly pride. There had been “ a quiet 
 work of grace in a few hearts ” — a few ; he 
 will not overrate it. He had succeeded in 
 visiting “ a few Fang towns,” and he “ rejoiced 
 while he sorrowed ” for Bessie, the good Bible- 
 woman. She had “ labored beyond her 
 strength” among her countrywomen, and 
 led many of them to the Saviour ; and when 
 painful illness kept her foot from the oft- 
 trodden paths, she “gathered women of the 
 towns around her death-bed and prayed with 
 them.” This woman was a Kroo, who had 
 been trained from a child at Gaboon. 
 
 A few other facts were outstanding. “We 
 discipline church members; the Jesuits do 
 not, and are attracting great numbers. We 
 shall have baptized heathenism instead of 
 confessed heathenism to deal with.” More 
 breakers ahead : “ Three times as many trad- 
 ing establishments in the Gaboon as eighteen 
 months previous.” The Mpongwe race was 
 
GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS 63 
 
 “dying out” on account of its viciousness. 
 From six thousand of them at Gaboon in 
 1842, they were now reduced to between two 
 and three thousand, and were likely to be- 
 come extinct in twenty years or less. “ Is it 
 wise to lay foundations in a sinking beach 
 that in twenty years will be submerged? I 
 confess I should like to see promise of more 
 permanency for the work to which I devote 
 my life. I should like to see a move interior- 
 ward most of all, but suppose that in any 
 case the coast must be held.” 
 
 Several members of the mission had been 
 obliged to flee for their lives during 1884. 
 One 1 had lain down in her last sleep at Ta- 
 laguga, beside the great Ogowe. All had 
 borne hardship, some of them in desperate 
 loneliness; but all were united in resolve to 
 stand by their banner in Africa. Not spe- 
 cially heartening could have seemed to them 
 the report of the Board presented to General 
 Assembly in the following spring : 
 
 “Frequently grave doubts have arisen 
 whether it is best to continue the mission in 
 
 1 Mrs. Mary Foster Nassau. 
 
64 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 such a climate. These doubts are now in- 
 tensified by the disturbing influence of French 
 regulations.” The necessary frequency of 
 furloughs is referred to : “ Perhaps the best 
 remedy for these climatic evils is to remove 
 the mission to some other African field.” Re- 
 quests from the mission to employ French 
 teachers, or to consider a transfer of some of 
 the stations to the care of French Christians, 
 are at first presented as “ suggestions,” but in 
 the end, as it were, laid on the table. “ There 
 seems but one course open, that of standing 
 in our lot.” (“ Annual Report of Board,” 1885, 
 p. 55.) 
 
 THE CHURCH AT BENITO, AFRICA. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Beginnings in the OgowE Country 
 1885 
 
 T HE Ogowe is one of the mighty rivers of 
 Africa. It stretches for over seven hun- 
 dred miles along the equator, and connects 
 with the Congo by its upper branches. It 
 is a grand waterway for two hundred miles 
 from its mouth, but above that are rapids 
 for five hundred miles. Its current is swift, 
 and through an immense delta it pours into 
 the Atlantic, according to the season, from 
 360,000 to 1,750,000 cubic feet of water per 
 second. The largest island in the river 
 divides it into two channels opposite Kangwe. 
 
 J ust there, at Kangwe, the mission stationed 
 Mr. Good, and he arrived there with his 
 family February 1. The four months follow- 
 ing he pronounced “ the happiest since I came 
 
 65 
 
66 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 to Africa. Nearly half my time was spent in 
 my boat. I visited all the Gralwa towns, some 
 of them several times, and many towns of the 
 Fang and the Akele.” The record of the first 
 among his numberless itinerations in this 
 region is interesting as showing the system 
 with which, at just twenty-eight years of age, 
 but two years in Africa, and with no super- 
 intending eye upon him, Mr. G-ood went 
 about his work. His care to be exact, at least 
 to avoid exaggeration, is illustrated in his 
 frequent use of the word “about.” His 
 notes of this journey were preserved solely 
 for his own reference, especially as a geo- 
 graphical guide, and are given verbatim. 
 
 1885, Feb. 9. Began my first boat journey in 
 the Ogovi. 1 Started about 8 : 30 a.m. down the 
 small river. 
 
 Passed a Gralwa and town called Atangino 
 
 on our left, one mile below K&ngwe. Also a small 
 Bale (-16 town opposite. 
 
 Next Akama (Galwa) left side £-1 mile below 
 Atangino. 
 
 We entered Degelg creek just opposite, which 
 1 Afterwards written “Ogowe.” 
 
BEGINNINGS IN THE OGOIVE COUNTRY 67 
 
 flows to the N. five miles to a small lake of same 
 name. No towns. From the lake, Deggle creek 
 turns W. and S. W. ten miles (all distances are 
 guessed) where it approaches very near to the river 
 it had left, so that just opposite the Adjumba 1 
 towns two creeks break through from the large 
 river into it. 
 
 By the upper of these, Osondo, we crossed to 
 Adjumba. Still no towns on the Degele which 
 flows on under a new name to Lake Azyingo. 
 Reached Adjumba towns about 12 m. 
 
 Spent the afternoon and night here. 
 
 Preached in the lower end of the town on the 
 Prodigal Son. Present about 30 people. 
 
 A little above, on the New Birth to 40 people. 
 At the town farthest up the river on Matt. v. 1-10 
 to about 20 people. 
 
 Again below this to about 30 people on Jno. iii. 
 15-19, and in the evening at Mbumba’s place on 
 Rom. viii. 1-5 to 50 people. Mbumba with whom 
 I stayed is a middle-aged man who has a very boy- 
 ish appearance partly for want of a beard, which 
 want he very much regrets. He is very friendly 
 and did his best to make me comfortable. 
 
 Feb. 10. Meeting at Adjumba before starting 
 for Lake Azyingo. Spoke on Rom. v. 1-10 to about 
 1 Afterwards written “Ajumba.” 
 
68 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 30 people. Started about 7 : 30 a.m. Crossed from 
 Adjumba to a small creek a little below called 
 Orembagogo. Leaving a branch of this, Oremban- 
 kala, to the left we keep to the right and re-enter 
 the Degele under the new name Orembazyingo. 
 Course nearly due N. Five to seven miles from 
 Adjumba, a large Pangwe 1 town on the right called 
 Atanda, and five miles further a town on our left 
 of Syekani 2 and Bakele, called Ateve. Stopped 
 and talked to the people at both the above places. 
 Three miles further we enter a creek called Eganli 
 coming from the Lake. Two miles along this 
 sluggish stream course N. and we enter the Lake 
 from the W. S. W. We passed, near the entrance 
 on our right, to another town of the Adjumba 
 called Mandezimbanli. Head man Agambwi. 
 Stayed with Mangandi. Learned that there were 
 no towns on the Lake, except one (Adjumba) on 
 the opposite side of the entrance and four Pangwe 
 towns at the other end of the Lake probably 10 to 
 12 miles distant. 
 
 Visited the town opposite called Azyngo, where 
 I talked to 35 people on Rom. iii. 10-20. Town 
 small and the people timid. Returned to Mande- 
 zimbanli and in the evening preached to about 25 
 
 1 Afterwards written “Fang. 
 
 2 Or “Syeki. 
 
BEGINNINGS IN THE OGOWE COUNTRY 69 
 
 on Gal. v. 16-23. The people of both these towns 
 seem wild and act strangely and, especially those 
 of Azyngo, have mixed with the oldest Mpdngwe a 
 great many words which I take to be Syekani and 
 Bakele. 
 
 The Lake, as nearly as I can make out, is made 
 up of two nearly equal ends (separated) connected 
 by a strait. The country beyond is hilly, almost 
 mountainous, but had no time to explore more par- 
 ticularly. 
 
 Talked again in the evening to 25 people on Matt, 
 xviii. 21-35. 
 
 Feb. 11. Had a rather poor night. Was tired 
 but failed to sleep on account of the bedbugs of 
 which (if I am to estimate them by the sense of 
 touch) there were thousands in my bed. 
 
 Talked in the morning to a few people on Matt, 
 vii. 14. 
 
 Re-entered the river we had left the day before 
 to come to the Lake. Its name changed to Olowi- 
 guma. Course westerly. Beautiful hills on our 
 right outside the Lake. Densely wooded. After 
 7 or 8 miles, the river divides around a long island 
 ( 4-5 miles long) and the right hand stream widens 
 into a shallow lake one mile wide and 3 or 4 long 
 called Nkove. Some Pangwe towns at the end 
 farthest from the entrance. In passing through 
 
70 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 this lake, keep close along the island to the left or 
 the outlet will be missed. Course here becomes S. 
 W. to S. for 5 or 6 miles, when we pass a small but 
 very picturesque lake on our left, opening full 
 breadth into the river and extending back one mile, 
 called Ogondwe. Toward noon we found a small 
 lake on our right \ by 1 mile. Very fine— called 
 Igulwe— 4-6 miles from Ogondwe. Took dinner 
 in this lake and bought meat. No towns, only 
 fishermen. 
 
 From this the river runs deep, and with strong 
 current, between wooded hills 7-8 miles and then 
 opens on our right another lake called Loge. Seen 
 from the river it seems very fine indeed. We see 
 the lower end. It lies parallel with the river and 
 near to it, 1 mile by 3 miles. Hills around it are 
 very fine. A mile and one half further brings to 
 the Adjumba River and we begin to ascend. First 
 Galwa town 1J miles above the junction on our 
 left, called Longwe. Opposite, a little below, a 
 small creek goes off to the big river coming out 
 between Egenja and Asyuka. Called Ntondi. 
 Said to be J day’s pull from Longwe to the main 
 river. Preached in the afternoon to 60 people 
 (many children) on Luke v. 31-32. Evening, to a 
 house full on Luke xii. 39-40. Probably over 60 
 present. People left off dancing mbwiri for a 
 
BEGINNINGS IN THE OGOIVE COUNTRY 71 
 
 young man who was lost, in order to attend the 
 meeting. Longwe a large town, perhaps 200 peo- 
 ple or more and full of children. 
 
 Feb. 12. Passed a very comfortable night at 
 Longwe. In the morning talked on Christ and the 
 woman at the well to 40 people. Start up the river 
 due E. We pass to the right of a large island be- 
 ginning a little above Longwe and continuing 2J-3 
 miles. Soon above, another island l£-2 miles long 
 on the upper end of which is the small Galwa town 
 of Nenge. We turned to the right in passing the 
 above island, but the main channel is on the other 
 side. To Nenge took 2-2£ hrs. and the distance 
 may be 8 miles. 
 
 Preached here to 20 people on Matt. xxii. 36 sq. 
 Close above, we pass to the right of a small island 
 and, a little above, to the left of a long island ex- 
 tending past the next town. About 5 miles above 
 Nenge we reach Olamba on our left, a small Galwa 
 town like Nenge in size. Talked to 15-20 people 
 on Jno. vi. 47-57. People came very reluctantly. 
 Reached this place about noon and left about 2 p . m . 
 
 After 4 miles further reach a town of Ivile peo- 
 ple on our right, called Ompoymanla. Talked to 
 20-30, on the Prodigal Son. People friendly and 
 apparently anxious to hear. 
 
 Close above this a Galwa town, Ngondo, of fair 
 
72 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 size, very friendly but situated in an unhealthful 
 place and poorly kept. Spoke on Jno. iii. 14-21 to 
 about 50 people. Some of the chief men and 
 women were the worse for drink. They had made 
 some sort of intoxicant from cane juice with the 
 bark of some tree in it. This, the last of the four 
 Galwa towns on this part of the river. Met here 
 Afangananga, head man of the Adjumba towns. 
 
 Just above this town a creek a few hundred yds. 
 long enters Lake Addle. A fine body of wafer 
 2-2 J miles wide and 4-5 long. End toward the 
 river. 
 
 6 p.m. Spoke again in the Ivile town to about 
 25 people on Luke vi. 42-49. 
 
 8 p.m. Talked again in Ngondo on the parable 
 of the Sower, to 20-30 people. 
 
 Feb. 13. After a fairly good night talked again 
 to 20 people on Matt, xviii. 1-9. 
 
 One half mile above, on the opposite side, a small 
 new Ivile town called Egolianli. Preached here to 
 20 people on Matt. v. 1-12. Just around a bend of 
 the river on the same side a Syekani town, Njongo. 
 Spoke here to 15 people on Matt. vi. 6-13. People 
 very timid. 
 
 Two miles above this, on the opposite side, a 
 town of Syekani, a fairly good sized and well built 
 town, called Adaginlanjambig. Spoke to 15-20 
 
BEGINNINGS IN THE OGOIVE COUNTRY 73 
 
 people on Matt. xiii. 47-50. No towns between 
 this and Adjumba, from which, distance 4-4£ hrs. 
 pull, or 12-15 miles. Took dinner in the bush and 
 reached Adjumba 2 : 30 p . m . Met here Angom and 
 his wife. 
 
 Evening, spoke to 40-45 people on 2 Pet. iii. 8-11. 
 
 Feb. 14. Left Adjumba at 5:30 a . m . f mile 
 above, a small Adjumba town called Anenga. Too 
 early to stop. 
 
 Pull 2 hrs., then the river Omoni goes off to the 
 main river ; 3 or 4 mi. further, we come to the two 
 towns called Ompolavoma on our left. The lower 
 one Syekani, small ; the one, a little above, Galwa 
 and a very fair town. 
 
 Spoke in the lower town to 12 people on the Prod- 
 igal Son. In the Galwa town talked to 25 people 
 on the New Birth. 
 
 A little below Degele creek, the river Ekalegambe 
 goes off to the main river joining Omoni further 
 down. 
 
 Close below Degele creek (lower entrance) on 
 same side, a small Pangwe town. Talked here to 
 40 or 50 people. 
 
 Crossed to Akama and talked to 15 people on 
 Jno. iii. 16-21. 
 
 Stopped at Atangino to call the people to church 
 next day. 
 
74 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Reached home, noon. 
 
 Preached in all thirty times, to about 800 people. 
 Traveled 100-110 miles. 
 
 Missionary efforts on the Ogowe had thus 
 far been made through the Mpongwe language 
 and chiefly expended upon the Galwa tribe, 
 while they were far outnumbered by the Fang. 
 “Tens of thousands of Fang,” wrote Mr. 
 Good, “ and not a single convert among them, 
 on this river. It would be my wish to allow 
 my associate to go on with his previous work, 
 and devote myself to the Fang.” But after a 
 few months of energetic initiative came one of 
 those inevitable, characteristic interruptions 
 to every enterprise of white men on the West 
 Coast. His associate 1 was dangerously low 
 with fever and had to be sent to Gaboon, and 
 soon after Mr. Good himself succumbed. The 
 physician ordered them both out to sea. At 
 every calling port a message was sent back 
 to Mrs. Good. 
 
 “Up with R all night; temperature 
 
 1 Rev. W. H. Robinson ; resigned from the Africa mission 
 in 1886. 
 
library 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS 
 
 URBAWA 
 
DR. A. C. GOOD AT OLD CALABAR, 1885. 
 
BEGINNINGS IN THE OGOIVE COUNTRY 
 
 75 
 
 103 £°. Mrs. R sick too. ‘Yours truly’ 
 
 is getting on very well.” 
 
 From Old Calabar : “ R ’s fever down, 
 
 but takes little food. Place unfavorable to 
 recovery. Going to Bonny. If he gets up, 
 you may expect me by next mail-steamer. 
 If not, there is nothing for it but on to Ma- 
 deira. I am going to get awfully tired of it. 
 Don’t like the idea of being away from you 
 and work so long, but I am in for it. Don’t 
 worry; am feeling first-rate.” Accompany- 
 ing this letter was a photograph for “ the girl 
 I left behind me,” taken in the yard of the 
 Scotch mission. 
 
 Back at Kangwe: “Now I hope to stay 
 here a long time without change. My health 
 seems completely restored ” — a seeming to be 
 disproved by many a burning fever yet. 
 
 No time is lost in getting that boat again 
 into motion. Within a month the missionary 
 has seen “ nearly all our people ” at commu- 
 nion, and taken reports of Bible-readers. 
 “ What pleases me most is an inquiry class 
 of seventeen, among them some young men 
 who have borne persecution well.” There was 
 
76 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 a school of thirty to forty started, but French 
 authorities closed it. Men twenty to thirty 
 years old worked one half-day to go to school 
 the other half. They gave up their wages to 
 buy books ; nearly all lived ten to fifty mil es 
 down-river. “ Now we must turn them away. 
 The children say, ‘ Must we grow up in dark- 
 ness ? ’ Parents ask, ‘ Shall we send them 
 to the Roman Catholic school?’ Hitherto I 
 have said, ‘ Wait ; ’ but that answer is getting 
 rather old. Some church members will send 
 to the Catholics if we do not soon supply 
 this want. What shall we say to them?” 
 The question at Giaboon was the question at 
 Kangwe. 
 
 “ Faithful, earnest Nguva, the only elder of 
 our little church, has gone to his reward. I 
 shall miss him very much, and his place will 
 be hard to fill. The want of schools bears 
 heavily on Bible work. These men we have 
 can hardly read. People will not long listen 
 to such instruction as they can give.” 
 
 A French priest, an ignorant, intemperate 
 man, frequently amused himself by breaking 
 up meetings which Protestants conducted in 
 
BEGINNINGS IN THE OGOIVE COUNTRY 77 
 
 the towns. Mr. Good was ready for such 
 cases. He could summon his patience and 
 stand still in answer to abusive language, or, 
 allowing his opponent to address the people 
 as long as he would, “ then I took the floor, 
 or rather the middle of the street, and replied, 
 trying to do what ho had failed to do — confine 
 my remarks as much as possible to presenta- 
 tion of the way of salvation, and contrasting 
 our teachings on the subject with theirs.” 
 One day the Fang themselves undertook to 
 settle a discussion of this kind in their town 
 by a characteristic method. Each white man 
 should send for a canoe of tobacco. “ Let it 
 be brought and given; then we will know 
 who is best.” The priest fell into the plan at 
 once. “ I let him commit himself thoroughly ; 
 then I told them plainly that the Word of God 
 was what I came to give. If they heard it, 
 well ; if not, it was their palaver. I would 
 preach it to them, but would not pay them to 
 listen ; it was worth being heard without their 
 attention being bought. And, to my sur- 
 prise, the people said I was right.” 
 
 But it was a year of strife with the Jesuit 
 
78 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 mission. It was their aim to bring Protestant 
 missionaries into disrepute with the French 
 government. They snatched and burned 
 Protestant Scriptures in the hands of poor, 
 pagan, black people, as if they were living in 
 Spain ; and Mr. Good came back to the old 
 conclusion, “ We shall never have any peace 
 till we teach some French.” 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A Rising Tide on the OgowA 
 1886—1887 
 
 N otwithstanding attacks upon it, 
 
 the Word of God became precious in 
 those days. A spirit of inquiry arose in the 
 Ogowe concerning things of the soul. In 
 March, 1886, the class of inquirers was swelled 
 to over thirty members. Swifter and swifter 
 flew the Montclair down the great river for 
 a week at a time, in all weathers, putting in 
 to shore wherever a group of banana-leaved 
 roofs showed above the tall grass ; and people 
 listened to the “words of God” in direct, 
 well-mastered Mpongwe. In June twenty- 
 three were added to the inquiry class. “ I 
 was counting on from three to five.” 
 
 Referring to this time, Mr. Good wrote 
 to his secretary, several months after: “I 
 
 79 
 
80 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 thought of announcing the good news then, 
 but hesitated. I doubted the motives of so 
 many in coming. There is nothing I so 
 much dislike as writing good news and after- 
 wards being compelled to take it back.” 
 
 A large caution in making deductions and 
 statements was one of Mr. G-ood’s missionary 
 qualifications. His conclusions were reached 
 with deliberation and then held positively , 1 
 and it was humiliating to retract them. A 
 characteristic instance was the case of a 
 Congo woman who, he judged, could be of 
 use in the mission. A trial of her proved 
 otherwise, and he acknowledged his “cha- 
 grin ” : “I never was so deceived in a person, 
 and, thinking over the whole matter, cannot 
 help feeling a little ashamed that, after form- 
 
 1 One of his brethren in the mission says : “ Mr. Good was 
 a man of strong convictions and great tenacity of purpose. 
 He seemed at times, to some of us, almost too positive in 
 insisting upon the adoption of his own views ; but those who 
 knew him best learned that it was not because they wer6 
 his opinions, but only because of his intense conviction that 
 the plan proposed was the best or most practicable, and if 
 it had originated with some one else he would have been 
 just as hearty in his support of it. . . . He was thoroughly 
 loyal to the mission as well as to the Board, accepting its 
 decision as final.” 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 81 
 
 ing so good an opinion of one, I should so 
 soon be seeking to get rid of her.” He adds 
 that her wages have not been taken out of 
 mission money, and here another characteris- 
 tic is touched. 
 
 Strict uprightness in the use of money, 
 economy of mission funds as a sacred trust, 
 marked Mr. Hood’s course. Four years out 
 of his first five in Africa, he returned an 
 annual balance to the mission. When about 
 to take' a voyage on mission business, he 
 would exert himself to investigate passage- 
 rates and choose the route by which he 
 could “ save eight days’ time and five pounds 
 sterling.” While on furlough in America, a 
 gentleman, from whom he had expected as- 
 sistance for the mission, surprised him with 
 a personal gift of two hundred dollars. In- 
 stead of putting it into his pocket for a visit 
 to his brothers in Nebraska, he writes like an 
 embarrassed school-boy to ask his secretary, 
 “ What shall I do with it ? ” Finding a satis- 
 factory answer was more trouble to him than 
 to wade through a mangrove swamp. Not 
 because he was niggardly with his own 
 
82 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 money. “ The grand balance,” he writes to 
 his wife, inclosing an order for every cent 
 left to his account at the end of a year. 
 And again : “You do not need to account to 
 me for your expenditures. If you spend all 
 the money you can get, you will not be ex- 
 travagant.” 
 
 This was while Mrs. Good was in America, 
 ill health having compelled her return in the 
 summer of 1886. They had determined upon 
 the sacrifice of separation ; and, putting wife 
 and boy on board ship at Gaboon, he went 
 back alone to the great, lonely Ogowe, his 
 nearest missionary associate being seventy- 
 five miles above Kangwe. 
 
 Now again, day after day, rain or shine, 
 Galwa, Nkami, Akele, Ivile, Syeki, Orungu, 
 and Fang, all, in their low brown towns, des- 
 cry the tireless Montclair headed for their 
 landings, the well-known white helmet in its 
 stern. At least four towns in a day are 
 visited, sometimes fourteen. Up the Ogowe 
 and down flies the Montclair , and by the 
 “ small river,” by Degele Creek, and in high 
 water by the big lakes to the south. More 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 83 
 
 often yet it is seen tied to the clay bank, and 
 the missionary is tramping mile after mile in 
 the bush, through its twilight, among colossal 
 forest trees with their endless festoonery of 
 vines, lush swamps, naked mangrove banks 
 decorated with crocodiles ; in the bush, dark 
 with foliage above, terrible below with giant 
 wrecks of lightning-struck cottonwoods, red- 
 woods, or palms, slippery vines to trap the 
 foot, entangled bush-rope as strong as a 
 cable, and, hiding under the leaves, vipers, 
 lizards, snakes, for each variety of which the 
 African has a separate charm. 
 
 Of what Mr. Good ever ate on these innu- 
 merable bush journeys, or how he slept, no one 
 at the mission rooms ever saw a line from his 
 pen ; but once , 1 when Mrs. Good accompanied 
 him, she wrote upon these points to a friend : 
 
 “Passed on into the large lake Onanga. 
 Two small islands came in sight, and the 
 trees looked from the distance as if covered 
 with white blossoms ; but as we drew near 
 we discovered they were blossoming with 
 hundreds of large white birds. Ate our 
 
 1 June, 1888; down-river among the lakes. 
 
84 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 lunch on one of the islands, and went on to 
 Ngewa, quite a large town. Held a meeting, 
 and crossed to the other end of the lake 
 to Okonjo. Arrived at dark, wet and tired. 
 Did not find royal accommodations. After 
 some talk we were allowed the use of a room 
 in a house minus windows or doors, having a 
 mud floor, with a pile of leaves and ferns for 
 a bed. ‘ A bed of ferns ’ may sound luxurious, 
 but my experience was otherwise. Spent the 
 Sabbath in this place ; thirty-five present at 
 morning service. Next day up and away for 
 Lake Ogemwe, far eastward. Visited three 
 towns. Ate lunch in the forest, and then the 
 boat-boys pulled hard till dark. Slept at 
 Aningwa-revo, in a native house as uncom- 
 fortable and dirty as usual, but were tired 
 enough to be thankful for even that.” 
 Bible-readers, here, there. Every one who 
 is capable of imparting an elementary gospel 
 message is set to teaching his people, but is 
 not left to himself. The man can never con- 
 jecture whether it will be on Tuesday or 
 Saturday, but his missionary’s visit of inspec- 
 tion is sure to take him by surprise; then, 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 85 
 
 whatever he has tried to do will not escape 
 that keen eye, neither what he has neglected ; 
 and laziness is the one thing that will never 
 he spared. 
 
 But these workers must he paid ; appropri- 
 ations have heen “ reduced,” and “ the school 
 will eat up all the money left” — that is, the 
 school which is to he, if only the Board allows 
 French teachers. There are always resources 
 to him who can do without. Every workman 
 is dismissed at Kangwe who can possibly be 
 spared, even the boat crew, and what is saved 
 on their wages is paid out from the mission- 
 ary’s own vital energy in annoyance and 
 watchfulness with temporary paddlers who 
 must he summoned and coaxed an hour be- 
 fore each trip. 
 
 In the summer of 1886 the telegraph came 
 to Gaboon and a sub-commandant to the 
 Ogowe. For some months the same fencing 
 had to go on with this official as with the 
 Jesuit mission. The same tactics won the 
 day. At first hostile and surly, he “soon 
 backed down on every charge.” Then, yes, 
 he would give permission for “ a school,” but 
 
86 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Bible-readers he would have to see for him- 
 self. “ All a game to stop my work.” Where 
 should that French teacher come from? No 
 one sent from New York ; no promise of one. 
 No French teacher, no school. It would be 
 unendurable to lose the advantage that had 
 been wrenched from the commandant. It 
 was not lost. A young African was secured 
 who had learned French at the Jesuit mission. 
 “ This I do with the knowledge and approval 
 of all my brethren.” No fear of a traitor in 
 camp, because there was “ not enough religion 
 there of any sort ” to have been absorbed. A 
 school was opened, the young man put in 
 charge, and the event justified the measure. 
 
 No earthly commandant could stop the 
 current which had begun to move in men’s 
 hearts on the Ogowe. The Spirit of God was 
 in it. 
 
 Every year in October, in that equatorial 
 region, the skies open and tropical rains pour 
 down. They last for weeks ; and what began, 
 like the tuning of an orchestra, with an omi- 
 nous drum, drumming, upon countless green 
 leaves, swells to a wild, pauseless symphony, 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 87 
 
 reverberating through the whole vast, shad- 
 owy forest. All the streams hear it — some 
 of them mentionable rivers themselves — and 
 they forget their old banks, they spread out 
 in lakes, and with accelerated heart-beat rush 
 forward to bury themselves in the bosom of 
 the mighty Ogowe. She hears them coming, 
 and, always rapid, as broad at two hundred 
 miles from sea as the Delaware is at Philadel- 
 phia, she welcomes them with a quickened 
 pulsation. Her current strengthens to fully 
 five miles an hour. Low sand-banks, patches 
 of papyrus, and small islands are drowned 
 out of view. Vines wont to swing far up on 
 palm-stem and redwood branch now dip and 
 trail in the water’s edge, and floating islands 
 glide down-stream. The bush is alive with 
 vivified ants, and lizards, and glistening 
 snakes swinging from boughs overhead, 
 while hippopotamuses troop away to find 
 shallow lagoons. 
 
 And in the heart of the human dweller 
 along its banks, who, perhaps, distrusting his 
 house foundations, has climbed to a perch in 
 a tree to sleep, the dread of the Ogowe grows 
 
88 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 night by night as he harks to the roar of the 
 forest wind, the crashing of some giant tree 
 or a boat-house swept away, or a startling 
 shriek, warning him that another canoe has 
 been engulfed. Morning by morning he looks 
 out on an awesome sight, for the Ogowe 
 covers a vast area. By the tenth day it has 
 risen twenty feet in front of his door. You 
 cannot legislate the rise of the Ogowe in the 
 rains. 
 
 At the beginning of 1886 thirty-eight souls, 
 gathered out of paganism, constituted the 
 church 1 of Jesus Christ on the Ogowe. But 
 the tide was rising ; ten years after there were 
 six hundred Christians there. 
 
 All 1886 each quarterly communion was a 
 high-day and a holiday at Kangwe. One is 
 reminded of the old observance of sacraments 
 in the Highlands of Scotland. Canoes came 
 flocking from every waterside for fifty miles 
 around. They came on W ednesday or Thurs- 
 day before communion Sunday, and the peo- 
 
 1 The first converts were taken to the coast to be baptized, 
 and united by letter when the church was organized in 1879, 
 with nine members, three of them on confession of faith. 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 89 
 
 pie lived on the mission premises five, six, 
 seven days together. Every one brought the 
 inevitable mosquito net of strong cloth ; and 
 when they had been hung over stakes driven 
 into the ground, there was presented an en- 
 campment of multicolored tents, which sur- 
 rounded the church, overflowed the mission 
 yard, and made points where light played in 
 the shade of the plantain grove, under the 
 oil palm and mango trees. In true African 
 style, they all had brought cooking utensils 
 and provisions ; and when the sudden tropi- 
 cal night fell, and the pale equatorial moon- 
 light spangled the Ogowe, only fifty yards 
 from their feet, picturesque cooking fires 
 shone here and there, and the people sat 
 around them in homelike fashion, eating a 
 supper of cassava, roasted plantains, and dried 
 elephant meat. The echo of tom-toms across 
 the river easily located some heathen dance ; 
 but the loudest sound on Kangwe Hill was 
 the chorus of voices singing the beautiful new 
 Mpongwe hymns, and singing them well. 
 
 But what was to the people a joyous Feast 
 of Tabernacles was a week of strain and care 
 
90 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 to the missionary in charge and any associate 
 who might come to his help for the occasion. 
 There was the direction of preaching services 
 every afternoon and three times on Sunday, 
 besides those which the people held them- 
 selves every evening. There were the offer- 
 ings of consecration : a fowl or a basket of 
 eggs, a few fish or a bunch of plantains. 
 These must all be examined and a proper 
 due-bill given to each individual, which he 
 places in the collection in lieu of currency. 
 Bible-readers must render reports, receive 
 their wages and instructions. Long hours 
 were consumed in examining applicants for 
 inquiry class; longer, intense hours were 
 spent with church session at every available 
 time of day, and far into the nights, in care- 
 ful examination of candidates for baptism. 
 Mr. Good once compared Kangwe commu- 
 nions to calling the roll of divisions of an army 
 after battle. Christians had come by twos 
 and threes and tens from scattered villages 
 in each district, and calling the roll was some- 
 times glad, often sad, work. “From some 
 villages comes news of victory and new; re- 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 URBANA 
 
 * 
 
THE MEMORABLE CHAPEL AT KANGWE. 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 91 
 
 cruits ; from others sad stories of defeat and 
 loss.” 
 
 The missionary had at once to discharge 
 the duties of host, mission agent, and bishop 
 of souls. Such responsibility, dread of being 
 deceived by flattering appearances, contact 
 with hundreds of human beings crowded 
 about him, even into his private apartments, 
 all wore upon brain and spirit. “ I do not 
 pretend to sleep more than a few hours each 
 night during communion.” 
 
 In September : “ It was the busy season, 
 and we expected to add only eight or ten to 
 the roll of inquirers. After a great deal of 
 sifting we added forty-three, making the 
 whole number about ninety. Of course these 
 figures must not be taken for their full face 
 value. Not all of these ninety persons will 
 finally become baptized members of the 
 Ogowe Church, but a large part of them will. 
 There is enough to convince us that the 
 Spirit of God is at work mightily here. 
 
 “ We see a marked increase of spirituality 
 within the church, a disposition to call 
 offenders to account instead of shielding 
 
92 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 them, as was too common formerly. Chris- 
 tians are beginning to realize their duty to 
 preach Christ; in some quarters they begin 
 to give to his cause. Grod was at work when 
 we had least reason, apparently, to expect it, 
 and now, having seen his power, we realize 
 what we might accomplish by his power. 
 Pray with us that his hand be not stayed till 
 he work a great change in this river region.” 
 
 From Longwe and Nenge they brought 
 over ten dollars in fish to the collection. 
 “ Nenge is a town I had given up. The last 
 time I passed, the people were so drunk that 
 I passed without preaching ; now six or eight 
 men at one time gathered their fetishes and 
 threw them into the Ogowe. Women are 
 beginning to come.” 
 
 Of December communion he reports to 
 his wife: “More than two hundred stayed 
 somewhere about the houses. They put 
 boards under the big house and stayed there. 
 Unprotected women were admitted to the 
 dining-room, and twelve mosquito nets were 
 put up there. Boat-house crowded. The 
 collection about twenty dollars. Baptized 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 93 
 
 eight. Beceived eighty-one new inquirers; 
 total, one hundred and sixty-three, of whom 
 forty are women — the most encouraging fea- 
 ture, for at the beginning of the year there 
 were only three or four women in the church. 
 The change is like a waking from the dead. 
 
 “ I wish I had a good man here on whom 
 to roll a part of this responsibility.” 
 
 As the year closes there is an urgent voice 
 at the secretary’s door in New York : “ What 
 we need now is help. Already I have had 
 the most dangerous form of fever twice. The 
 doctor says I ought to go home now — not 
 that I have any notion of acting on this ad- 
 vice ; but should I break down without an- 
 other man here, it would be disastrous. More 
 now depends on constant, careful supervision 
 than anything else except the presence of the 
 Holy Spirit.” 
 
 He begs that an assistant be sent in time 
 to learn the language and gain the confidence 
 of the people, especially to learn how to take 
 care of his health in the African climate, be- 
 fore he should be left alone. “ To begin alone 
 would be almost certain death.” 
 
94 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 In connection with his annual report, Jan- 
 uary, 1887, Mr. Good repeats his earnest re- 
 quest : 
 
 “ I beg to remind the Board of the necessity 
 of at once sending us assistance. We must 
 acknowledge that God has been far more 
 faithful in blessing the gospel than we have 
 been in preaching it. The work done by my- 
 self has been little enough — nothing com- 
 pared with what ought to be done. The main 
 part was done by five Bible-readers. My 
 field is so extensive, all I could attempt was 
 to inspect their work occasionally. It is 
 these men who have brought the gospel 
 weekly to scores of villages scattered up and 
 down the Ogowe for a hundred miles. Each 
 is provided with a small canoe and two or 
 three boys to help handle it ; thus fitted out, 
 he is expected to visit as often as possible all 
 the towns in his district. It is to the efforts 
 of these men, more than all other influences 
 combined, that we are to ascribe, under God, 
 this awakening we have enjoyed. But it 
 will not do to overestimate their efficiency 
 and neglect to provide anything better. 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 95 
 
 u If each of these men were educated, or 
 being educated, so that, when in a few years 
 each of these Bible-reading stations has be- 
 come a church, he could be licensed to preach, 
 and when his church had grown strong to 
 support him could be ordained its pastor, 
 then the plan would be perfect. But I am 
 sorry to say these men are utterly unfit for 
 such a work. They are only useful because 
 the mass of the people are so ignorant. Some 
 of them can barely read their own language, 
 none read well; and they write a little in 
 characters that are fearfully and wonderfully 
 made. When their modicum of knowledge 
 becomes the property of the many their use- 
 fulness will be past, unless they can be 
 educated so as to keep in advance of the 
 people.” 
 
 This awakening was connected with no 
 prospect of gaining worldly advancement. 
 Few converts could be employed by the mis- 
 sion, and conversion would require many, by 
 refusing to deal in rum and by honoring the 
 Sabbath, to lose positions in trade. All who 
 had more than one wife were bound to incur 
 
96 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 loss of dowries. Still, one hundred and sixty 
 men and women this year decided for Christ 
 in the Ogowe. “ If the Holy Ghost has not 
 done it, what has ? ” 
 
 But the missionary’s ideal was not to he 
 blurred by a measured success. The converts 
 and inquirers were from several different 
 tribes, but so far there was not one Fang. 
 One Bible-reader spoke Fang fluently, and 
 was so located as to visit frequently fifteen 
 or twenty Fang towns. “ The only one for 
 twenty or thirty thousand Fang within easy 
 reach of Kangwe! What is one among so 
 many ? ” 
 
 Still the tide was rising on the Ogowe. 
 There were more troubled consciences than 
 ever in 1887. At March communion extra 
 benches filled every available space on Sun- 
 day. Scarcely any were mere spectators; 
 almost all were members or inquirers. Only 
 six were baptized, for inquirers were obliged 
 to complete a year in the class before baptism. 
 There were now two hundred and forty-nine 
 inquirers from five different tribes, speaking 
 languages as different as German and English. 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 97 
 
 Spiritual earnestness was the token on every 
 hand. Church members in general held daily 
 prayer and Sabbath services wherever they 
 were, and inquirers went long distances to be 
 present. 
 
 Two problems now confront the missionary : 
 
 1. “ How are all these inquirers to be in- 
 structed?” Answered, by increasing the 
 efficiency of Bible-readers. They and other 
 picked young men, a normal class of twelve, 
 are brought to Kangwe for a month of hard 
 study and again sent forth. 
 
 2. Books were required. “I could have 
 sold a hundred primers communion week. 
 At the rate they are called for, a year will 
 exhaust all the Mpongwe books we have in 
 print, except hymn-books.” This problem is 
 solved by two Mpongwe manuscripts, which 
 spring up like Jonah’s gourd, and are 
 promptly mailed to America to be printed 
 while Mrs. Good is there to read proofs. As 
 for money to pay the printer, his butterfly 
 net has provided for “the tract,” and he 
 “ would rather foot the bill ” for five hundred 
 primers also “than not to have them right 
 
98 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 away.” The church in America was poor, 
 and the missionary paid for the primers ! 
 
 Difficulty with the colonial government had 
 never ceased. There were constant oppor- 
 tunities for sub-officials, clothed with a brief 
 authority and backed by a Mohammedan 
 soldiery and police from Senegal, to be exas- 
 perating towards Americans. One fact only 
 prevented rupture : a modus vivendi had been 
 established by opening the French school at 
 Kangwe, and by the promise of the mission- 
 aries to do all in their power to secure French 
 teachers. In view of the situation, the mis- 
 sion, in January, 1887, passed the following 
 resolution : 
 
 “Whereas, In view of the settled educa- 
 tional policy of the French rulers of this col- 
 ony, it is, and in our opinion always will be, 
 impossible for us to carry on our work here, 
 except under most crippling and vexatious 
 restraints ; therefore, 
 
 “ Resolved , That w r e strongly urge upon the 
 Board the advisability of transferring to a 
 French Protestant society the whole of our 
 Gaboon and Ogowe work.” 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 99 
 
 A committee of the mission also reported 1 
 that should the mission continue to hold the 
 Gaboon and Ogowe districts, “we have no 
 hope of making further advance therein,” and 
 requested the Board “ as soon as possible to 
 take steps with the German government ” in 
 the north to extend efforts in that direction. 
 “We are under the impression that, Germany- 
 being a Protestant power, we would be free 
 from the seizure and burning of our people’s 
 Bibles by Romish priests, at present un- 
 checked by our French rulers.” 
 
 A few months later, a new secretary 2 hav- 
 ing been placed in charge of the Africa mis- 
 sion, Mr. Good sent him greeting : 
 
 “ I cannot say that I congratulate you on 
 the task you have undertaken. Missionaries 
 in Africa are apt to be bilious, and a bilious 
 man is proverbially hard to please. The cli- 
 mate is at times terribly depressing, and 
 when everything looks blue we are apt to 
 blame the Board with it all, just as foolish 
 people at home blame the government for 
 poor crops. That Dr. Lowrie has lived to 
 
 1 Signed “ W. G. Gault,” “R. H. Nassau.” 
 
 2 Rev. John Gillespie, D.D. 
 
100 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 his age with this incubus on him is little less 
 than a miracle. ... You have taken up this 
 work at a trying time. Great changes must 
 be made in the near future, and only divine 
 guidance can keep us short-sighted mortals 
 from mistakes.” 
 
 On the subject of the proposed transfer, 
 this letter advocates the measure, largely on 
 the ground that arrest of educational work 
 will in the end defeat the very object of the 
 mission. 
 
 “You will say, ‘Why not go on as you 
 have done, without schools, devoting all your 
 time to preaching ? ’ Because no mission can 
 be permanently successful in such a country as 
 Africa without education. What can I do with 
 three hundred and fifty inquirers scattered 
 over a breadth of fifty and a length of one 
 hundred miles ? The one Ogowe church 
 must soon become four. Who is to take 
 charge of them? If we go on organizing 
 churches without a native ministry, what can 
 it ever amount to? In Africa, not only the 
 vast multitudes to be reached, but the deadly 
 climate, forbid the thought that white men 
 
A RISING TIDE ON THE OGOIVE 
 
 101 
 
 can ever be more than beginners and leaders 
 in giving the gospel to her people. ... I 
 would not underrate God’s power or resources, 
 but he uses means. Men who do not sow 
 cannot harvest. We have one licensed 
 preacher in the Ogowe field, and after that 
 nothing. It will take years to prepare men 
 who are needed here, and this educational 
 work cannot be done in either English or the 
 vernacular.” 
 
 MISSION SURF-BOAT. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Life and Solitude on the Ogowe 
 September 1886 — December 1887 
 
 [OTHER side to life on the Ogowe is 
 
 suggested by Mr. Good’s letters to his 
 absent wife. 
 
 “Kangwe, Sabbath evening, 8:30, Septem- 
 ber 5, 1886. For a long time it has been a 
 fixed rule with me never to write a letter on 
 Sunday ; but I do so many worse things on 
 Sabbath than writing to my wife that I will 
 make her case an exception. I am somewhat 
 at a loss how to write. If I could know just 
 how you are feeling I could come nearer the 
 mark. If, when this reaches you, you are 
 perfectly happy with your friends, I don’t 
 want to come in with a clumsy effort at 
 soothing your loneliness, and tell you not 
 to weep overmuch over our long separation. 
 
 102 
 
LIFE AND SOLITUDE ON THE OGOIVE 103 
 
 On the other hand, if this letter finds you 
 crying your eyes out over your poor husband 
 far away among cannibal mosquitoes, then my 
 foolishness might seem like trifling with your 
 most sacred feelings. . . . Hope to start up- 
 river in two days, then down, preparing for 
 communion. ... If it were not for making 
 you homesick, I could tell you how lovely 
 the Ogowe is now. The cloudy weather is 
 past, and it is clear, except a little while at 
 noon. Fish is plenty ; I have all the grena- 
 dillas 1 that I ought to eat, and it is so quiet. 
 Don't you wish you were here ? . . . When I 
 get lonely you will hear nothing about it. 
 
 “ October 8. If the sand-flies allow, I will 
 write you a letter this morning, to go by 
 regular Portuguese mail. ... I am anxious 
 
 to know how B [his two-years-old son] 
 
 takes in civilization. I fancy he would like 
 as well to be back among the goats and but- 
 terflies of Africa. He will not find the natives 
 of America as obedient to his commands as 
 those here, and he will probably be a good 
 deal disgusted when grown men and women 
 
 1 Fruit of a passion-vine. 
 
104 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 refuse to come at his call. Tell him that 
 Folaba has one of the prettiest little kids I 
 ever saw. . . . 
 
 “ There is a rumor that duties are to be 
 taken off imports and put on exports. Unless 
 they put a duty on sick missionaries going 
 home, this would be a decided gain to our 
 mission ; it would save much of this nuisance 
 of receiving goods. . . . The rains have just 
 begun ; no tornadoes yet. Bats are bad. Hope 
 to get cartridges for shot-gun by the Angola; 
 then the war will begin. . . . 
 
 “ Hope next week to go out to Lake Azy- 
 ingo and down the small river. . . . The 
 worst is, I am becoming demoralized men- 
 tally, and especially spiritually. Trials seem 
 to make me worse and worse. I am ashamed 
 to go on doing my work with so little heart 
 in it. I feel like running away ; but to leave 
 my work would only make me worse, not 
 better.” 
 
 [Specimen experience on board a river 
 steamer.] 
 
 “November. We were going around the 
 islands at the entrance of the OgowS, and 
 
LIFE AND SOLITUDE ON THE OGOIVE 105 
 
 there we stuck in the mud. The captain had 
 spent his life running sailing-vessels and 
 knew nothing of the management of a 
 steamer. Twice we got off and twice we ran 
 on worse than before, till a part of the cargo 
 had to he removed to the island near by. In 
 short, we stayed at that delectable place from 
 Thursday afternoon till Saturday morning. 
 Once in the river, the captain had no more to 
 do with the ship and we got on better. I am 
 glad you were not on board. The captain 
 was the queerest old stick, kind and good- 
 hearted, but so wanting in manners. The 
 food was a caution. There was one course of 
 meat, almost always the same — roast beef. 
 We were seven white men, and, if real hungry, 
 I could eat the whole business. Imagine how 
 careful we had to be to make it go around ! 
 The captain saw the danger, and so helped 
 himself first. He would sing out, ‘ Come to 
 chop,’ and, while we were taking seats, help 
 himself to about one third of all the meat, 
 then pass it. You would have laughed to see 
 him. We had no vegetable but rice, and once 
 string-beans. While we were aground fish 
 
106 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 were plenty. There was, fortunately, bread 
 and butter and cheese in sufficiency. 
 
 “ Tell B I bought him a pet, a young 
 
 bushcat. It has a very sharp nose, body the 
 color of a raccoon, tail very thick at the base 
 and running to a point.” 
 
 [Letters from his wife having been sent 
 past Kangwe to a French trading-house up- 
 river.] 
 
 “ December. They may be returned in ten 
 days, may go on to Stanley Pool. It is inter- 
 esting, I tell you. However, I have not given 
 up hearing from you altogether. If I live to 
 a ripe old age, I hope some of your letters 
 will reach me to be a comfort in my declining 
 years. 
 
 “The usual number of people are going 
 wrong, and an encouraging number are try- 
 ing to go right.” 
 
 [Referring to obstacles raised by a French 
 official.] 
 
 “ He has found a law of 1781 (how is that 
 for finding laws?) which gave the comman- 
 dant authority to examine the character of 
 ‘ missionaries ’ before allowing them to labor 
 
LIFE AND SOLITUDE ON THE OGOIVE 107 
 
 in the colony. I gave him an account of all 
 the young men, accepted all his terms, and 
 await his decision. He is anxious to stop the 
 Bible-readers. It is not pleasant to have so 
 much responsibility resting on me. I have 
 scored several points in the mission’s favor ; 
 but one cannot see ahead, and if I blunder it 
 will be bad for all. I have made up my mind, 
 if he does not allow the Bible-readers to go 
 on, to refuse to submit to the law. If he 
 brings me up, I shall claim that the law does 
 not apply.” 
 
 [His claim would be that the law read 
 “missionaries,” which the black men were 
 not ; their title was either “ Bible-reader ” or 
 “ catechist.”] 
 
 “ To-day I have tackled accounts, and 
 Monday begin stock-taking. [Of mission 
 goods, which take the place of currency in 
 Africa.] You know how I like that.” 
 
 [Care, feverish days, isolation, were begin- 
 ning to tell. No one in his house but black 
 boys.] 
 
 “ I am getting irritable and cross, and find 
 it impossible to deal with people and things 
 
108 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 equably. Things look to me favorable or 
 unfavorable just according to the humor I 
 happen to be in, and I am in a bad humor 
 pretty much of the time. 
 
 “ January, 1887. I came up (from mission 
 meeting at Baraka) by Fernan Yaz; saw a 
 lot of new country and a lot of people need- 
 ing the gospel. They wanted me to do some- 
 thing for them, and I promised to take a trip 
 through there. It means a journey of three 
 weeks ; don’t see how I can leave for so long.” 
 
 [Referring to the possibility of going to 
 America to bring his wife.] 
 
 “ In the present state of our mission there 
 is no honorable course for me but to stay on 
 the old craft as long as I possibly can. The 
 Board, the church, and you would despise me 
 if I were to leave the field now. If I ever 
 go home, I want to go with nothing to be 
 ashamed of. 
 
 “ But I will tell you what I have done, and 
 you will vote it about the most selfish thing 
 I ever proposed. I laid a request before 
 mission which opens the way for you to come 
 out again in the summer, if you are well 
 
LIFE AND SOLITUDE ON THE OGOIVE 109 
 
 enough and willing, I to go to England for 
 you. I should he absent from Africa nine or 
 ten weeks. It would be a change that would 
 enable me to stay here two years longer. 
 Until I hear from you I shall not lift a finger. 
 When I think of the comforts and friends 
 that surround you, inviting you out to this 
 land of bush and mosquitoes to relieve my 
 loneliness seems unvarnished selfishness. 
 
 “January 26. Ogula is cook and very 
 faithful, only he wants to cook twice as many 
 things and twice as much of each as I can 
 eat. It is the time of green corn and inkula 
 nuts, and there are sour -sop s ; altogether, I 
 fare sumptuously every day. Evenings at 
 Kangwe are the most lonely, when mosqui- 
 toes make it impossible to read or write, and- 
 I can only walk the floor and think. But 
 don’t worry ; I am not going to die of home- 
 sickness in a hurry. ... To leave work here 
 for personal comfort would be little less than 
 treason. My health is provokingly good. 
 
 “ Holland 1 sends me some beautiful plates 
 
 1 Chancellor Holland, Western University of Pennsylvania, 
 to whom Mr. Good sent specimens of butterflies and moths. 
 
110 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 and drawings; says he has an article in the 
 printer’s hands describing three new species 
 and three hitherto undiscovered females. I 
 am still finding a few new things. 
 
 “ February. One good sign is the number 
 of books sold. I sell Scriptures almost every 
 day, often to strangers. Sometimes men 
 from down-river bringing food will buy two 
 or three books at a time, evidently for other 
 people. There must be from one to two hun- 
 dred people learning to read on this river 
 now. 
 
 “ April. Last month took a trip of eight 
 days down-river to Lake Avanga, on the 
 south side of the Ogowe — a narrow lake run- 
 ning inland ten miles and containing ten or 
 twelve towns of Nkamis, Akeles, and Fang. 
 I was the first missionary who ever visited 
 them. Came home by way of the small river. 
 In all parts of our field I found a fairly en- 
 couraging state of affairs. 
 
 “ In one respect this was the worst trip I 
 ever made. I thought I knew about mosqui- 
 toes before, but all I have ever seen is nothing 
 to that trip. At Asyuka, where I slept two 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 I IDRAWA 
 •jriLni'.n 
 
LONGWE, A CHARACTERISTIC OGOWE TOWN. 
 
LIFE AND SOLITUDE ON THE OGOIVE 111 
 
 nights, after dark it was impossible to sit. 
 I left my supper half eaten and fled to the 
 street, where I walked till bedtime. The 
 thickest clothes seemed no protection. If I 
 sat down for a moment near a lamp, literally 
 hundreds would be biting me. When I 
 stirred them up, it was not mosquitoes I saw, 
 but a swarm like bees. One night at Longwe 
 they got into my net. I fought them till I 
 was tired, then fell asleep and let them go 
 ahead. If I did not find two hundred mos- 
 quitoes full of blood in that net, then I can- 
 not guess. Even by day, if I walked in the 
 bush and stopped a moment, my legs would 
 be covered. The people say the great quan- 
 tity of obbos that have gone to waste in the 
 bush this year is the cause of their numerous- 
 ness. 
 
 “ The big question now is, what to do with 
 these crowded communions. The strain on 
 the nerves of having all these people about 
 is something fearful. They are quiet and 
 orderly, but there is danger of abuses grow- 
 ing out of such gatherings. I must divide 
 and hold communions in different districts. 
 
112 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 But there are no buildings, and it would 
 mean long absences from Kangwe, and here 
 is a school requiring constant oversight. I 
 don’t know what to do with it all. I feel like 
 running away and getting from under the 
 responsibility. The very success of the work 
 makes me feel utterly insufficient. But 
 enough of whining. 
 
 “ Am sorry B does not want to come 
 
 back and live with ‘ black people.’ We could 
 catch butterflies, and shoot squirrels and big 
 birds, and go in the boat. In going about 
 from place to place, you will need to be care- 
 ful, not so much of his health as of his man- 
 ners. People often act as if spoiling children 
 were a virtue. I say this, not that you do 
 not know it, but to show you that I realize 
 the difficulties of your position. 
 
 “May. We get, on an average, one mail 
 a month. I have waited a week now for 
 American mail. I give it up, and start to- 
 morrow for a trip to the lakes. I don’t feel 
 like writing. Things are just as they were 
 when I wrote last. The water of the OgowS 
 is still flowing. I suppose each day it is new 
 
LIFE AND SOLITUDE ON THE OGOIVE 113 
 
 water that passes, hut it looks much like the 
 same old water ; and so of everything else. 
 
 “ Later. This morning was dull and heavy, 
 the beginning of dry season, and I felt in 
 sympathy. This afternoon the sun has come 
 out, I have bought a nice piece of fresh 
 hippopotamus meat, caught a new species of 
 butterfly, and feel in better humor. 
 
 “ Should you decide to meet me in England, 
 I will leave to you the business of laying in 
 a stock of provisions. You can choose better 
 than I. G-et the best American provisions 
 going. We are nearly out of everything. In 
 a month or two I shall have nothing but fresh 
 herring two years old. My meals take from 
 three to five minutes.” 
 
 [Having heard that Mrs. Good will come 
 to England in August, he arranges for the 
 meeting.] 
 
 “May 24. . . . Now those are my plans, 
 and (D. V.) I will carry them out to the letter, 
 so you may know what to depend upon. 
 
 “Another matter has been a subject of 
 much meditation and anxiety, and I now sub- 
 mit it to you for decision. I shall act on 
 
114 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 your advice if I get it in time. After you 
 left I was very careless of my personal ap- 
 pearance, and neglected to shave. As the 
 result, the hair has grown all over my face 
 until I do not believe my own wife would 
 know me. What is to be done with that 
 beard? It is a great convenience in my 
 bachelor life, as it completely conceals the 
 fact that I have on neither collar nor necktie ; 
 but of course when you come back such un- 
 worthy subterfuges must be given up. What 
 — shall I do — with — this — beard? Write — 
 telegraph ! 
 
 “The music came all right, and will be 
 enjoyed when you get back; but I feel too 
 much like the Jews beside the waters of 
 Babylon to care for music now. 
 
 “June. Last week enrolled thirty-two in- 
 quirers in Wambalia alone. In far-off Lake 
 Ogemwe, where I have been only once, and 
 that nearly two years ago and found the 
 people in blankest ignorance of everything 
 spiritual I am told many want to become 
 Christians, through the influence only of 
 Christians who have at different times visited 
 
LIFE AND SOLITUDE ON THE OGOIVE 115 
 
 in the towns. I shall strain a point to visit 
 them before communion. . . . 
 
 “ You could never guess what I have gone 
 through to-day and how exhausted I am after 
 it. Actually, I cleaned house ! Let me tell 
 you how I did it. I took my writing-table 
 into my bedroom, shut myself in, called the 
 boys, and told them to take everything out 
 of the parlor, clean, and put back again. 
 Twice during the afternoon I looked in to see 
 that they were working, and really, now it is 
 over, I am not as fatigued as I thought I 
 should be, and the room looks well, too ; only 
 it will take a week or so to find where any- 
 thing is. . . . When at last (if I am spared) 
 I get aboard ship and her head sets north, I 
 shall give myself up to the anticipation of 
 our meeting. Till then may Glod keep us, 
 and may we meet to part no more.” 
 
 By instructions from the Board, Mr. Good 
 went to Paris in September and held an inter- 
 view with officers of the Protestant mission- 
 ary society. The result was a promise from 
 them to send three teachers to the mission as 
 
116 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 soon as possible, and also commissioners to 
 look over the Ogowe field with a view to pos- 
 sible acceptance of it in the future. 
 
 In this interview the question of wine- 
 drinking was one of the most delicate to be 
 introduced. “We missionaries are all as a 
 matter of course teetotalers. It was with 
 fear and trembling that I suggested the 
 matter. . . . They admitted that the drink 
 sold to the natives would ruin them, and that, 
 as Christians, we were right in abstaining for 
 the sake of weak brethren, and they promised 
 that the teachers employed should have the 
 matter laid on their consciences.” 
 
 After an absence of three months and 
 twelve days, Mr. Good was again at his post 
 in the mission, and his report for the year 
 begins with expression of thankfulness for 
 the health and safe return of his family, and, 
 “above and better than all else, the Holy 
 Spirit has been with us and wrought a great 
 work. The church has doubled numerically, 
 and, I think, has fully doubled its strength.” 
 
CHAPTEB YII 
 
 Events in Eapid Evolution 
 1888 — October, 1890 
 
 S UCH relations were now established be- 
 tween the Board of Foreign Missions in 
 New York and the Societe des Missions Evan- 
 geliques that in the spring of 1888 four men 
 were sent from Paris to the Gaboon Mission 
 in the capacity of teachers and mechanics. 
 These were intended as forerunners of or- 
 dained men who should ultimately carry the 
 gospel where French explorers had gone on 
 the Upper Ogowe. The colonial authorities 
 were gratified by their arrival, and at Kang- 
 we they were joyfully received. One of these 
 French teachers soon had a school of sixty 
 boys ; another was able to take charge of the 
 station in Mr. Good’s constant absences among 
 the towns. “ So,” he wrote, “ if God gives 
 
 117 
 
118 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 me and my family health to hold on till these 
 men get the work in hand, and expected re- 
 cruits be sent from Paris and also get the 
 language, that for which I have been work- 
 ing nearly five years will have been accom- 
 plished. What I shall do after that, or what 
 will be done with me, does not trouble me, 
 and I have given the matter little thought. 
 For the present my work is here, to guide 
 this flock and gradually accustom them to 
 their new shepherds, so that they may follow 
 them and not be scattered when they hear 
 their strange voice. 
 
 “ A few weeks ago I received a call from 
 Herr Kundt, who has lately been exploring 
 back of Kameruns. Five or six days from 
 Batanga he passed the mountains and found 
 himself on a high, grass-covered table-land 
 twenty to twenty-five hundred feet above the 
 sea, apparently healthy and densely peopled 
 by, as he thought, branches of the Fang 
 nation. Here, it struck me, is our field. We 
 could make Batanga our base and reach this 
 interior table-land. But would Germany 
 allow us to work there untrammeled ? If we 
 
EVENTS IN RAPID EVOLUTION 
 
 119 
 
 were to promise to teach German at Batanga, 
 is it possible that restrictions would be laid on 
 what we might undertake in the interior ! If 
 we are to be prevented from entering such open 
 doors, I shall feel that the Christian nations 
 ha vebecomethe worst enemiesofChristianity.” 
 
 Here, though he did not know it, was struck 
 the key-note of a new departure which was to 
 cost him toil and sacrifice, yea, his own life 
 also, while across his grave an outpost of 
 Christianity would be planted one step for- 
 ward towards the heart of Africa. 
 
 Of the years of the Great Awakening in 
 the Ogowe, 1888 was signally reaping-time. 
 Ninety-four persons were promoted from in- 
 quiry class into the church, and about four 
 hundred were under instruction for baptism. 
 No one knew so well as the missionary, who 
 went himself in and out of their forest-hidden 
 villages, in what wicked surroundings these 
 Christians lived. “My wonder is that any 
 stand.” But even in his conservative judg- 
 ment, they stood the test. “A change has 
 taken place in hearts, and is taking place in 
 communities, which is nothing less than a 
 
120 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 miracle. Where this work has been firmly 
 rooted the people are slowly and painfully 
 struggling up to a better life. The field is 
 dead ripe.” 
 
 The last of Kangwe mass-communions was 
 held in March. The hundred-miles-long 
 parish was then divided into three sections, 
 and in J une there were three session meetings 
 instead of one, three sets of inquirers in- 
 structed instead of one, and the missionary 
 held communion successively at Kangw§, 
 twenty miles below at Wambalia, and at 
 Igenja, fifty miles down-river. Now those 
 who had never been to KangwS saw the 
 Lord’s Table, for the first time in history, 
 spread in their wilderness. The white cloth 
 and silver were brought in the boat, carefully 
 wrapped ; and from the decorum of that Table 
 and the reverence which surrounded the sa- 
 cred emblems there went forth an influence 
 solemn and wholesome into the lawless bush. 
 The people of Wambalia and Igenja began 
 building chapels with their own hands, and 
 the next step would be organization of 
 churches in these towns. 
 
EVENTS IN RAPID EVOLUTION 
 
 121 
 
 The three years’ revival was not followed 
 by sudden coldness. Steady accessions of 
 believers continued through the fourth year. 
 At the end of 1889 there had been “ almost 
 no cases of deliberately going back to the 
 world ” ; while “ a good many had fallen into 
 sin,” repentance was hopeful of “ all but one 
 or two.” Could more be reasonably expected 
 of Africans at this stage of recovery from 
 wild heathenism ? 
 
 Visitation of his flock required the mission- 
 ary’s absence from home half the time, yet 
 six weeks of the summer (1889) were con- 
 sumed in a tour on the sea coast, acting on a 
 visiting committee for the mission, toBatanga 
 and to inspect several fields in charge of Afri- 
 can helpers. The report of this tour is char- 
 acteristically thorough and clear. 
 
 At Bata : “ As communion had been held, 
 I confined myself to an examination of the 
 condition of the church. Called session to- 
 gether and went over with them the roll of 
 members.” There follows in detail the num- 
 ber in “good standing,” men and women 
 separately counted, those “ suspended,” 
 
122 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 “ awaiting discipline,” “ excommunicated,” 
 deaths, dismissals, and inquirers. The 
 chapel is reported on ; its capacity, “ boards 
 of the floors hewed from trees in the forest.” 
 The fact is noted that it was built by Bata 
 people themselves, who, now that it is too 
 small, propose to rebuild. “ All these north- 
 ern churches have shown a good deal of pluck 
 in building for themselves, but I find that 
 material and work are given mostly by a 
 few. Collections are taken up only once in 
 three months. I urged monthly collections, 
 and tried to show them that if all would help 
 they could not only build a church of which 
 they might be proud, but afterwards could 
 
 easily contribute ’s salary, and he could 
 
 then be made their pastor.” The Sabbath 
 audience and Sunday-school pass under 
 analysis. The latter “ left a great deal to be 
 desired ; singing all through was poor.” Lack 
 of a Bible-reader is commented upon, as well 
 as the eldership, on both the spiritual and 
 material sides. Of one, “ He is the ablest man 
 I met on the coast,” and his occupation and 
 social standing are defined. Exact location 
 
EVENTS IN RAPID EVOLUTION 
 
 123 
 
 of the church, its environment and reach, 
 are discussed and the summing up is made : 
 “ Remember how little has been done. This 
 half-educated man and a [missionary’s] visit 
 once, or at most twice, a year to hold com- 
 munion. When one considers the success, 
 he cannot help asking, If there were a man 
 here to speak the language fluently, full of 
 fire and activity, what hinders that thousands 
 might be converted in a year ? ” Reviewing 
 the condition of other churches, the same 
 thought is uppermost. “ I cannot help the 
 feeling that only faithful work is needed to 
 win the whole country to Christ.” 
 
 But this is no one-sided reporter who sees 
 only what he has gone to see. A disorderly 
 session is faithfully described : “ They would 
 get into angry dispute about nothing ; 
 would all talk at once; I had to reprove 
 them sharply.” The offenses of suspended 
 members are enumerated in no euphemistic 
 terms : “ Several for adultery, two for keep- 
 ing slaves, a few for trading in rum, whipping 
 their wives, or fighting, two for taking doAvry 
 for daughters. The fact that the last is re- 
 
124 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 garded an offense by the church indicates a 
 tremendous advance.” 
 
 Characteristics of people in different local- 
 ities are discriminated. At one place “ they 
 are proud and difficult to manage; on the 
 other hand, they are energetic and aggressive.” 
 At Batanga Mr. Good saw the explorer 
 Knndt again, and learned all he could of the 
 interior table-land. 
 
 “If we were only ready to send some one 
 in to look over that country and get the lan- 
 guage! But of course the first step is to 
 occupy Batanga. By that time a road doubt- 
 less will have been cut through the coast 
 forest belt ; then, at least, we ought to follow 
 and give the gospel to those multitudes. . . . 
 Until I must return to America, my work is 
 cut out for me in the Ogowe. In all I have 
 said I have no wish to suggest myself for any 
 part of that work ; but this field has kindled 
 my enthusiasm, and I long to see it occupied 
 by men who will make it a success.” 
 
 Among those whose names are associated 
 by all the world with Africa, Bishop Hanning- 
 
EVENTS IN RAPID EVOLUTION 
 
 125 
 
 ton is the man whom our missionary most 
 resembled. Very unlike Hannington in the 
 circumstance of birth into a home of elegance 
 and wealth ; inferior to Hannington in social 
 training, in ardor and expression of spiritual 
 life ; his superior in early intelligent dedica- 
 tion to God ; ecclesiastically at opposite poles 
 — there was between the two men a marked 
 likeness of natural gifts and traits. Had they 
 met they must have been congenial friends. 
 When the American boy was on his second 
 term at Glade Run Academy, the English 
 curate, nine years his senior, went to his first 
 missionary meeting, and “ was made to speak, 
 much against my will, as I know nothing 
 about the subject and. take little interest in 
 it.” Both went to Africa in 1882. 
 
 Taking up a sketch 1 of the bishop’s life, 
 sentences here and there are accurately ap- 
 propriate to our young American. Of Han- 
 nington’s characteristics, so of Adolphus 
 Good: “Love for his mother, fondness for 
 nature, great courage for exploits.” 
 
 1 Abridged from Dawson's “Life of Bishop Hannington,” 
 published at 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. 
 
126 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 “ A born naturalist.” 
 
 “Enjoyed nothing so much as telling a 
 ludicrous story against himself.” 
 
 At college : “ There was an indefinable 
 charm about this bright, queer, passionate, 
 fun-loving, unconquerable undergraduate, . . . 
 a strong undercurrent of genuine kindliness 
 and genial love for mankind.” 
 
 “Contempt for canting protestations of 
 superior piety.” 
 
 Of going to Africa: “His home church 
 sought to dissuade him, saying that his suc- 
 cess showed he could serve Ood as well in an 
 English [American] parish as in a heathen 
 country.” 
 
 In African travel : He might “ suffer in- 
 tolerably and yet be the life of the party, 
 never permitting his companions’ spirits to 
 flag. They testify that he was full of thought- 
 ful acts and gave them the best and easiest 
 places. . . . When food failed and they could 
 not buy and would have starved, his tact 
 succeeded.” 
 
 In estimate of Africans: “I agree with 
 Livingstone that they are capable of high 
 
EVENTS IN RAPID EVOLUTION 
 
 127 
 
 culture and compare favorably with the early 
 history of civilized nations.” 
 
 James Hannington once traveling on a 
 Rhine boat which took fire, his journey was 
 delayed, and the pilot advised him that he 
 would not be able to keep his appointment 
 at Cologne. “ I have undertaken to be there ” 
 was the answer, and there he was on the day 
 appointed. So sacredly regarded were Adol- 
 phus Good’s appointments, so scrupulously 
 kept, often in the face of extraordinary ob- 
 stacles. But there was one masterful element 
 which even his indomitable will and perse- 
 verance could not control. It was the force 
 that conquers every white man in Equatorial 
 Africa. “ Our society,” said the agent of the 
 Equitable Life Assurance Society in New 
 York, “ does not wish to receive an application 
 from a missionary to the West Coast of 
 Africa.” 
 
 From his inspecting tour Mr. Good returned 
 to the Ogowe with the expressed purpose not 
 to take a furlough to America before the end 
 of 1890. Two ordained French missionaries 1 
 
 1 Rev. Messrs. Allegret and Teisser&s. 
 
128 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 had arrived in his absence, and were at once 
 invited to accompany him on his journeys. 
 Into the midst of these activities — traveling, 
 preaching, introducing the strangers to Afri- 
 can life, speaking constantly in Mpongwe, 
 Fang, French (to which he had been quietly 
 applying himself) — suddenly that subtle, un- 
 conquerable African force laid its finger upon 
 him. For the third time he was prostrated 
 with hematuric fever. The ninth day he was 
 carried on a folding cot to a steam launch 
 owned by a trading-house and hurried down- 
 river, and, as soon as harrowing delays per- 
 mitted, after hanging between life and death, 
 out to sea, bound for America. With the 
 first breath of the Atlantic he opened his 
 eyes ; but even after reaching Liverpool there 
 was yet a sharp conflict before he came off 
 victor over his enemy. 
 
 Mr. Glood landed with his family in New 
 York, September 20, and having made his 
 salutations at the Mission House, his secretary 
 well remembers the characteristic gesture 
 with which he exclaimed : “Now, the voyage 
 has straightened me out ; give me something 
 
EVENTS "JN RAPID EVOLUTION 129 
 
 to do, or I shall die.” The ninth day after, 
 he was giving a missionary talk at Pittsburg. 
 
 In his native air the sallow African color 
 yielded at last, and he rapidly recovered the 
 splendid health which was natural to him. 
 His finely knit figure, manly bearing, clear 
 eye, powerful voice, alert activity, simplicity 
 of purpose, devotion to Africa, made a power- 
 ful impression upon the audiences which he 
 addressed from New York to Nebraska. He 
 was equally adaptable Sunday morning in 
 the pulpit of a wealthy city church, or in the 
 little hamlet of his boyhood where he held 
 gospel services ten days consecutively, the 
 whole countryside turning out to hear him. 
 
 His address before the students of Prince- 
 ton Seminary was pronounced by one 1 who 
 rose up, left all, and went with him to Africa, 
 “ the most powerful missionary appeal I ever 
 heard.” A pastor says : “ Older people who 
 heard him thought once more of the eloquent 
 Duff.” His speech from the platform of the 
 mass-meeting held in connection with General 
 Assembly was referred to six years after in 
 
 1 Rev. W. S. Bannerman. 
 
130 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 the same hall at Saratoga. Said the Moder- 
 ator of that year 1 : “ The impression of that 
 young man, his face bronzed by a tropical 
 sun, his burning words in behalf of Africa, 
 the audience carried away by his enthusiasm, 
 will never be effaced from memory.” 
 
 The missionary himself would sometimes 
 have preferred his boat on the Ogowe to a 
 public appearance. “Was urged to bring 
 ‘ me grip ’ and spend the Sabbath,” he wrote 
 his wife. “ Hate to do it, for I fear it is a 
 stylish place. . . . Am getting awfully tired 
 of this public speaking; long to go home to 
 wife and baby.” At the same time, the so- 
 ciety of his peers, in exchange for a black 
 crew with their poverty of thought, was a 
 mighty refreshment. He was absorbing in- 
 formation on every hand : examining modern 
 boats and asking “innumerable questions” 
 with reference to their use on African rivers ; 
 with the aid of a dictionary and a German 
 friend reading two volumes of travel by 
 Kundt, whom he had met in Africa; and, 
 most satisfactory of all to himself, aiding the 
 
 1 Rev. Russell Booth, D.D., 1895. 
 
EVENTS IN RAPID EVOLUTION 
 
 131 
 
 Board to secure three new men specially 
 adapted to the conditions of the mission. 
 
 That year Washington and Jefferson Col- 
 lege conferred on him the degree of Ph.D. 
 “ I do not deserve it,” was his comment. 
 
 Dr. Good’s mother died suddenly during 
 his furlough. Thus it was, in the divine 
 ordering of events, that, of all her sons, the 
 one she gave to Africa called the physician 
 for her in her last hours and stood by her 
 dying pillow. “ This is the cutting off of one 
 of the last ties,” he wrote, “ that bind me to 
 native land.” 
 
 After eleven months in America, Dr. Good 
 sailed for Africa the second time. Seven 
 years before he had embarked solitary. In 
 1890 the largest 1 force for Africa, within the 
 memory of the oldest Presbyterian, set forth 
 together. It was a glad day. Tried mis- 
 sionaries were returning to their posts rein- 
 forced by the beautiful strength and promise 
 of three young missionaries and their wives. 
 “ But when we are all located, our stations 
 
 1 From Liverpool, they numbered twelve adults and two 
 children. 
 
132 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 will be only half manned. At least one will 
 have to be manned with women alone.” 
 
 One of the new couples , 1 of French- Swiss 
 family, had been selected with special refer- 
 ence to the Ogowe, and no time was lost in 
 conducting them to Kangwe. A common in- 
 cident of steam travel in those parts, the 
 captain’s drunken condition, created unneces- 
 sary risks on the voyage between Gaboon 
 and Kangwe. Dr. Good stood guard. 
 
 “ The tide drifted him towards the hospital 
 ship, and he failed to see it; when he did 
 signal to the engineer, the latter was not in 
 condition to notice it (drink again), and the 
 captain rushed below and got the engines 
 started barely in time to prevent a collision. 
 Then we had to run close round a sandy 
 cape ; but as it was bright moonlight, a child 
 ought to have been able to do it. But our 
 captain was very full and could not see the 
 sand bank. We were within three ships’ 
 
 1 Key. and Mrs. Herman Jacot, “our co-laborers,” wrote 
 Dr. Good, “and a couple better fitted in both head and 
 heart for this work it would be hard to find.” Mr. Jacot 
 died at Kangwe, October 29, 1895. A Christian gentleman 
 and consecrated missionary. 
 
EVENTS IN RAPID EVOLUTION 133 
 
 length and running full speed into it, and the 
 captain was standing at the wheel airily talk- 
 ing about how he would round the point 
 when he reached it. I said, ‘Captain, you 
 are running ashore,’ and just then we struck, 
 fortunately in a bed of sand inside the point. 
 Had we struck outside, the steamship Eloby 
 would hav.e been pounded to pieces before 
 morning by the heavy swells. I did not re- 
 tire till I saw the captain safely asleep and 
 the ship in the hands of the mate and point- 
 ing well out from land.” 
 
 News of the missionaries’ return had run in 
 advance, in the mysterious African way, and 
 as soon as the Eloby reached the first village 
 where Christians were living, groups were 
 descried from her deck, standing on the beach 
 and gazing inquiringly towards the passengers. 
 The ladies’ dresses, and especially the small 
 white boy, settled all doubts. Then began 
 a pantomime on shore which became more 
 steadily continuous as villages thickened and 
 progress was nearer and nearer towards 
 Kangwe. The noise of the steamer’s machi- 
 nery drowned the shouts along the river bank; 
 
134 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 but plainly there was shouting as black forms 
 moved and postured, pointing, beckoning, 
 dancing, running to call an absent one, toss- 
 ing hats and arms in the air. And so, with 
 miles long of joyous, childlike welcome, they 
 reached Kangwe landing, past midnight of 
 October 27. 
 
 “ I wish,” wrote Dr. G-ood, “ that some of 
 the croakers who do not believe the African 
 can appreciate what is done for him could 
 have been with us on that steamer and heard 
 the chorus of voices shouting, as we landed, 
 ‘ Akeva Any ambit! Aleeva Anyambie ! ’ 
 (‘ Thanks be to God ! Thanks to God ! ’) I 
 have not heard a prayer since my return 
 that was not full of thanksgiving to God for 
 permitting us to come back. When we left 
 so suddenly, they confess they were cast 
 down, and their discouragement was increased 
 by reports, circulated by the Roman Catholics, 
 that 1 had died, and, when that was disproved, 
 that I would not return. I believe we are on 
 the eve of better days than ever befoi-e.” 
 
THE OGOWE RIVER AT KANGWE. 
 
 THE MISSION HOUSE ON KANGWE HILL. 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 1 IDDAMA 
 4 *Jru .n 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Another Stage at KangwE 
 November 1890 — 1891 
 
 A VIGOROUS inspection of his great 
 parish was inaugurated at once after 
 Dr. Good’s return to Africa, and his unvar- 
 nished reports went home to America. 
 
 “The state of the work is a good deal 
 mixed ; some sad falls ; inquirers grown care- 
 less. No denying the fact that in general 
 Christians have decidedly cooled off, espe- 
 cially in out-of-the-way places. At Nganda : 
 Talked to a small audience who manifested 
 small interest. At Olamba: A large com- 
 pany of Christians welcomed us. The gospel 
 has in fact prevailed ; the town seems com- 
 pletely transformed. At Ajumba : Found old 
 Afangananga a mere skeleton, evidently near 
 death. He and his people have exhausted all 
 
 135 
 
136 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 their superstitions to work a cure, but have 
 given it up as hopeless. Now, Afangananga 
 seems disposed to look to God in his extrem- 
 ity, and who knows but he may be accepted 
 even yet ? At Longwe : Nearly all the women 
 who were enrolled as inquirers have been 
 guilty of adultery. The falling away of so 
 many can only show that the work there was 
 very superficial. Was glad to get away from 
 the place, even though it was to enter the 
 blank heathenism of the lower river. 
 
 “ In two Syeki towns, people listened well ; 
 in a third, listened intently. At Nenge, peo- 
 ple saw my helmet and ran into the bush, 
 having heard a rumor that M. de Brazza was 
 seizing men to serve as soldiers. Almost im- 
 possible to gain their confidence ; and this is 
 where, on a former journey, I supposed I 
 made so favorable an impression. At En- 
 yonga, hundreds of people believe in the 
 gospel, but they are depending upon some 
 sinful course for their living and are not 
 ready to sacrifice all for Christ. Mbora was 
 stationed here in 1889. It has been trying 
 for him, fighting heathenism single-handed. 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KANGIVE 
 
 137 
 
 As a music teacher he is not a success. I 
 started a tune which they were said to know, 
 but no two sung the same tune. Result 
 something fearful; but the audience seemed 
 to enjoy it. Spent the night at Ngumbi; 
 intensely interesting service; people seemed 
 impressed with the folly of their superstition. 
 On the whole, encouraging and discouraging 
 features are about equally divided.” 
 
 Ten were baptized at the first communion. 
 Given, mere babes in Christian knowledge; 
 added, the African temperament ; leave them 
 unshepherded for a twelvemonth in their 
 native villages, and who could look for better 
 results! However, the chief cause of de- 
 clension was not mere neglect, but a revival 
 in the ivory and rubber trade. Prices trebled 
 in Europe, wages — to traders, canoe-boys, 
 house-boys — went up on the Ogowe, and 
 there was a rush to its upper sources. The 
 best Christian young men were first to go. 
 Their families left behind, with the prospect 
 of a year’s separation, beyond reach of the 
 Sabbath or Christian influence, surrounded 
 by drunkenness, many were swept away by 
 
138 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 temptation. “ I long for the day,” wrote Dr. 
 Grood, “when this wretched trade will he a 
 thing of the past. Then these people will 
 stay at home and till the soil, and the great- 
 est hindrance to Christianity be removed.” 
 One incident 1 of the autumn visitation 
 must be given with somewhat of fullness. 
 
 “ After having preached in five villages in 
 the course of the day we came, about sun- 
 down, November 20, to a large town called 
 Nengawaga, sixty miles perhaps from Kang- 
 we. The people on this part of the river be- 
 long to the Orungu tribe, who occupy the 
 region about the mouth of the Ogowe and to 
 the north. When I stopped at this village in 
 February, 1889, I was the first white man 
 to come after the Spanish and Portuguese, 
 who had visited all this region in quest of 
 slaves. I preached here then, and Mbora has 
 visited and preached at this village two or 
 three times since. This is all they had heard 
 of the gospel of Christ. 
 
 “ The old chief, Mbiti, received me cordially, 
 
 1 Printed in The Church at Home and Abroad, June, 1891. 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KANG IV E 
 
 139 
 
 and at once installed me in his fine large 
 house, which stood at the head of the main 
 street of the village. I noticed that he was 
 staying in a much poorer house a little on 
 one side, and I said, ‘ Why do you give me 
 the whole of your fine large house ? ’ He re- 
 plied : ‘ I do not go into it any more.’ ‘ Why 
 not?’ said I. ‘I dare not. My doctor, or 
 medicine man, has told me that I must not 
 go into that house again or I will die; a 
 demon is lying in wait for me with a club, 
 and will kill me if I enter the door.’ A crowd 
 was standing about, and I turned the laugh 
 on him by exclaiming in much indignation : 
 ‘ So a demon with a club haunts that house, 
 and you are afraid, but you put your guest 
 there to be killed ! ’ He hastened to exclaim 
 that for me it was safe ; the spirit would only 
 be dangerous to him. Then I said, ‘ Do you 
 really believe that ? ’ He replied^ ‘ It is so. 
 If I even come near to the door I begin to 
 feel hot.’ ‘You begin to feel afraid,’ I said, 
 and I tried to explain to him how much fear 
 has to do with sickness and health. For ex- 
 
140 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 ample, a Fang woman will see her dead hus- 
 band in a dream, and he will say, ‘ I want 
 you ; come join me in the spirit land.’ Next 
 morning she will say to her friends, ‘I am 
 going to die; my husband has called me.’ 
 Her people will try to make her forget it and 
 cheer up, but it is useless. She pines and in 
 a few days dies. ‘ Now,’ I said, ‘ your case is 
 similar. If you are afraid of what the medi- 
 cine man told you, I would not myself urge 
 you to enter that house. You might be so 
 worried by your fears that you would lose 
 your appetite and perhaps sicken and die. 
 But if you had faith in Glod, and courage to 
 walk into that house without fear, it would 
 harm you no more than me.’ He admitted 
 the force of all that I said, but still the old 
 fear remained. 
 
 “ I tried another tack. ‘ Did the medicine 
 man who told you this live in your town, or 
 does he belong to another family ! ’ I knew 
 that these doctors always come from a dis- 
 tance and have usually no honor among their 
 own people. ‘He came from down-river,’ 
 said the old chief. ‘ Ah, I understand it now. 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KAN GIVE 
 
 141 
 
 You are one of the first chiefs in your tribe. 
 You have built a house that is an honor to 
 your town. This medicine man is jealous 
 of your greatness, and so he takes this way 
 of making your fine house useless to you.’ 
 
 “ This no doubt true explanation, at least 
 in part, set the old chief and others to think- 
 ing. But when I called the people together 
 for evening service, Mbiti asked me to hold 
 it, not in the large front room, as I thought 
 of doing, but in the street, where he could sit 
 near by. He was still afraid to enter his 
 house. He seemed convinced, but still did 
 not care to take any risk. I have repeatedly 
 noticed this. A man may be so thoroughly 
 convinced of the folly of his superstitions 
 that he will neglect them, but he will never 
 throw away his fetishes or violate a command 
 of a medicine man, until the converting power 
 of the Spirit has set him free from his bond- 
 age of fear. 
 
 “ I wish you could have seen that meeting. 
 A table was set in the middle of the street 
 and on it was my lantern. At this I sat, and 
 around me was my audience — fifty or sixty 
 
142 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 people. Many living in the place were away ; 
 you almost never find more than a third of 
 the people of a town at home. It was a bril- 
 liant moonlight night, about an hour after 
 dark. The world seemed asleep and the time 
 a fitting one for drawing near to God. 
 
 “ I spoke to them of their neglect of God, 
 their Maker. I reminded them that they 
 knew God, and their fathers had known him 
 and called him Anyambie, before they ever 
 heard of white men. I said, ‘ I come not to 
 introduce a new religion, but to reestablish 
 the religion of your fathers ; for they must 
 have once worshiped God, whose name has 
 come down to you. This high and noble 
 worship you have given up for foolish super- 
 stitions, which are an offense to God and a 
 disgrace to yourselves.’ I pointed them to 
 the fact that they knew clearly right and 
 wrong; that they had a book which every 
 one could read without going to school, 
 written in their hearts by the finger of 
 God; but they had deliberately violated its 
 precepts. 
 
 “All this time the most intense interest — not 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KANGIVE 
 
 143 
 
 a dissenting murmur ; only low exclamations 
 of approval. Tired as I was before I began, 
 I talked an hour. When that solemn meet- 
 ing closed, and the last strains of ‘ Delay not, 
 delay not ! ’ (in Mpongwe, of course) had died 
 away, every one drew a long breath, which 
 was almost a sigh. For a moment no one 
 spoke. Then the old chief said ‘ there could 
 be no further doubt ; it was all clear at every 
 point, and whoever would not believe now 
 had no head.’ To have seen that audience, 
 you would have thought half at least would 
 avow themselves on the Lord’s side. To have 
 heard the response of the old chief, you would 
 have said, ‘ He, at least, is certainly converted.’ 
 But, if you could have seen that same com- 
 pany next day, your heart would have sunk. 
 The old chief as worldly and superstitious as 
 ever, and most of those who seemed so im- 
 pressed careless as before. I have no doubt 
 that meeting will do much towards breaking 
 down superstition; but one does not work 
 long in Africa till he realizes that convincing 
 a man is not converting him, and a profound 
 impression is not the new birth. Men are not 
 
144 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 converted from such darkness as that of 
 Africa by a single sermon. The wonder is 
 that they sit by so tamely and allow us to 
 demolish what has always seemed to them 
 sacred.” 
 
 The death of a young French teacher, 1 only 
 two months after arriving at Kangwe, cast a 
 dark shadow across the spring of 1891. “ He 
 
 went to work so quietly, so sensibly, so ear- 
 nestly, that it is only to-day we realize what 
 a helper he had already become. As a true 
 missionary M. Tissot came, and he stood 
 ready to spend his life in the service of Christ 
 in Africa.” A contrasting opinion of another 
 was fully justified : “ He has not come out for 
 life; not for the work of redeeming Africa, 
 but to see how he likes it.” 
 
 A fourth church was organized this year, 
 at Olamba, with a membership of forty-three. 
 A class of young men was taught, for a 
 month, at the station ; and uncounted hours 
 were expended on fatiguing revision of the 
 Mpongwe New Testament and hymn-book. 
 
 1 M. Robert Tissot ; died at Kangwe, May 3, 1891. 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KAN GIVE 
 
 145 
 
 These volumes were a necessity for the church 
 of the Ogowe. “ Our French successors could 
 not take it up for years. . . . Will be the 
 most valuable legacy we can leave them.” 
 So sincere was the purpose of the mission 
 in parting with the Ogowe stations ; so true 
 to the broad interests of the Church of 
 God. 
 
 The Fang were hard to catch. They con- 
 stituted perhaps four fifths of the population 
 on the Ogowe. They seemed impervious to 
 the gospel. Their great tribe was looked 
 upon as terrible and cruel, even by their cruel 
 neighbors, and they bore a stigma above all 
 tribes on the river — cannibalism. Twice a 
 school of six or eight Fang boys was at- 
 tempted at Kangwe; but as soon as their 
 cheeks were plump from plenty of food and 
 their bodies arrayed in a clean cloth, they all 
 with one accord arose and fled. It was there- 
 fore a notable event when a regular, though 
 informal, Fang service was instituted in 
 1891. It followed the church service in 
 Mpongwe on Sunday mornings. “I have 
 
146 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 for some years spoken the language but 
 all the time was painfully conscious that 
 what I said was hardly intelligible, certainly 
 could not be interesting. Now I have been 
 working on their language and feel that I can 
 really talk to them.” In October the first 
 Fang convert on the river was reported. 
 
 “We have several times had young men 
 from that tribe express a desire to become 
 Christians, but it was always coupled with a 
 request for employment. I knew they looked 
 upon ‘ godliness as a way of gain.’ 
 
 “But some time ago a middle-aged man 
 who had four wives, nothing in the world 
 to make and a great deal to lose by becoming 
 a Christian, announced that he wanted to be 
 saved no matter if he lost all he had in the 
 world. He gave up three of his wives ; that 
 was like giving up half his fortune. Not 
 only that, but he did something else which 
 took my breath away. Every Fang keeps 
 the skull of his father in a bark bucket and 
 from time to time makes offerings, sometimes 
 of blood, at others meat of a goat or fowl, to 
 this skull. This is supposed to secure the 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KANGWE 
 
 147 
 
 favor of the ancestral spirit. If he goes to 
 trade, or to marry another wife, or to war, 
 he cooks a feast for his father’s spirit and 
 sprinkles the skull with redwood powder. 
 This is, in short, the great fetish of the Fang. 
 All I expected was that converts would cease 
 to make offerings to the skulls; one could 
 hardly expect them to throw them away. 
 Imagine my surprise when, one day, Bi§ gave 
 me the neat basket in which was this precious 
 fetish. This was something so unheard of 
 among the Fang that it brought on Bie’s head 
 a storm. There is no danger of violence 
 being done him, but the Fang vocabulary of 
 abusive epithets has been exhausted by his 
 neighbors in expressing their opinion of the 
 man who will give up three women and his 
 biety, his great fetish, and for what ? But his 
 stand has had an effect, and quite a number 
 are seriously balancing the claims of this 
 world and the next. Three young men are 
 inquirers, and promise well. But it takes 
 some such sacrifice as Bie made to give me 
 confidence in a Fang.” 
 
 Bie was genuine. After instruction a 
 
148 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 whole year, it was said : “ Bie has taken up 
 his cross and follows.” In 1893 twelve more 
 Fang were added to the class from Foula, 
 Bie’s town. 
 
 A proposition had been sent to the Board 
 of Foreign Missions from Trinity Church, in 
 Montclair, N. J., while Dr. Good was in Amer- 
 ica, that they be allowed to assume his entire 
 salary and regard him as their special repre- 
 sentative in Africa. This arrangement re- 
 sulted most happily. Dr. Good’s relation to 
 the Board was in no wise altered thereby, and 
 a particular benefit has accrued to the church 
 at large; for never before had he allowed 
 himself the time to write such full, leisurely 
 letters upon general subjects, as he rec- 
 ognized it his duty to write to the mixed 
 congregation of young and old in Trinity 
 Church. 1 
 
 1 The pastor, Rev. Orville Reed, by wish of the session, sends 
 the following testimony : “ The influence upon Trinity 
 Church of these letters was at once apparent. Foreign 
 missions became real as never before. Hard-headed busi- 
 ness men, looking at things from a business point of view, 
 now took a vital and increasing interest in the work. They 
 became warmly attached to Dr. Good, but also evinced an 
 increasing interest in all missionary work. Read at monthly 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KANGIVE 
 
 149 
 
 He was intolerant of glamour or rose-color 
 in representations of missionary work, and kis 
 former ideas of tlie usefulness of missionary 
 letters were somewhat narrow. They were 
 modified by his home visit, so that, while he 
 always had stood up squarely to the duty of 
 fully informing the Board upon his work, he 
 now went further, and said to his secretary : 
 “ I am coming to realize that we on the field 
 must assume more of the burden. The church 
 is not awake to the facts of missions; and 
 though I dislike writing above all things, 
 I shall endeavor to do my part if you point 
 it out.” But, to the end, the best he had 
 to say he said to the Board and to Trinity 
 Church, and never wrote a line for a news- 
 paper. 1 
 
 One of the Montclair letters of this period 
 
 concert and then passed about among the families of the 
 congregation, those letters kept alive interest, called forth 
 many a gift, and inspired to most hearty prayer for Africa. 
 
 “ Attachment deepened as the months passed on. The 
 1 pastor in Africa ’ was included with the pastor at home in 
 the hearty prayers of a devoted people, and his labors were 
 watched with the deepest interest.” 
 
 1 By request, he furnished one article to a Princeton 
 publication, for which he received six dollars, the only re- 
 muneration earned by his pen. 
 
150 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 introduces us to neighbors, whose depreda- 
 tions were frequent. 
 
 “Now, I submit, it is hard to preach the 
 gospel in anything like the right spirit to 
 people who you know have robbed you and 
 are studying how they can do it again. I 
 find it most difficult to live the gospel of 
 charity and forbearance and not lay myself 
 open to be cheated at every turn. These 
 Fang like us and respect us, but their greed 
 is insatiable and their ideas of honesty so low 
 they cannot resist the temptation to help them- 
 selves from what seems our superabundance. 
 
 “ Here lies the difficulty in giving the Fang 
 the gospel. Ten dollars in cash would buy 
 all the worldly possessions of the average 
 Fang man, barring his wives. Every Fang, 
 on the average, owes for wives already mar- 
 ried two or three times as much as all he 
 possesses. Besides this, he wants to marry 
 some more, no matter whether he has one or 
 twenty. He never accumulates goods. Cloth 
 is the principal currency; but few men will 
 be found to have more than ten or twenty 
 yards in their possession. It goes as soon as 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KANGIVE 
 
 151 
 
 bought to pay for some woman. Where do 
 the hundreds of thousands of yards go ? The 
 Fang number perhaps three millions. Of 
 these only a few thousand get cloth directly 
 from traders. The others buy it with ivory, 
 rubber, but especially with women. The 
 poor interior supplies wives to their more 
 fortunate countrymen who have the white 
 man. There is little polygamy among the 
 poorer interior tribes. While such a system 
 prevails, and every man keeps before him as 
 his highest ambition the marrying of at least 
 five wives, the Fang will remain poor. 
 
 “ Such a man brings his plantains to sell. 
 He sees in the mission store perhaps a thou- 
 sand dollars’ worth of goods. Oh, what riches ! 
 He learns that when we need more goods we 
 write home for them. How easy that seems ! 
 What great men these missionaries must be ! 
 And where do all their goods come from? 
 They cannot believe that people in America 
 would of their own free will contribute such 
 sums to enable us to come out here and teach 
 people who are not even of our own color. 
 It is, to their minds, pure nonsense. It must 
 
152 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 be that we have some way of getting goods 
 without earning them. Often I have been 
 questioned on this point, and as often as I 
 tried to explain, they have set aside my ex- 
 planation and returned to the attack in some 
 other form. Sometimes they try to catch me 
 by leading questions : ‘ Who makes cloth and 
 guns and powder?’ ‘We white men do,’ I 
 reply. ‘No, you do not. Is it not Any am 
 [God] who makes these things ? ’ That 
 sounds very pious, but wait till you see what 
 he is aiming at. ‘ Does not God give you all 
 these goods you white people sell to us ? and 
 they don’t cost you anything ; and why can’t 
 you put the prices down, and why can’t you 
 make us poor people gifts of cloth, tobacco, 
 etc.?’ Again I go over the whole ground 
 and explain how white people work for what 
 they have, and goods are given by Christians 
 in America to enable us to live among them 
 and give them the gospel, and are not to be 
 given away, else they would soon be finished 
 and the work stopped. But it is useless. 
 Some shrewd old scoundrel will look up after 
 I am done and say with a provoking grin : 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KANG IV E 
 
 153 
 
 ‘ Now, Good, you know you are lying. You 
 white people don’t make cloth. Only God 
 could do that. You white people are hard 
 not to be willing to divide with us who have 
 nothing on our bodies but one small cloth.’ 
 
 “. . . While I am preaching they are 
 studying my clothes, and when I am through, 
 these are some of the exclamations I hear : 
 ‘How finely he is dressed! Look at that 
 coat ; and he is not satisfied with that, but he 
 wears something else under it. See his shoes 
 and hat, and look at us! Only two yards 
 of cloth on our whole body ! ’ They are dis- 
 posed to blame God. ‘ If he loves us, why 
 has he given white men so much and us 
 nothing ? ’ 
 
 “ Our whole manner of living is a snare to 
 them. Our plain table has on it a wealth of 
 dishes to a people who eat out of a basket 
 with their fingers, and dip their soups out of 
 the pot in which they were cooked, using 
 leaves for spoons. And a bed ! What rolls 
 of cloth ! That one bed would buy a woman. 
 
 “ Some will imagine that natives of this 
 country would be impressed by the sacrifice 
 
154 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 we make in spending our lives among them. 
 This is the case with the more intelligent. 
 But to these Fang, fresh from the bush, our 
 life seems one of luxury and ease. 
 
 “ Some will suggest that, like Paul, we 
 might be everything to every man, and live 
 as the people do among whom we labor. But 
 no half-way measure would be appreciable to 
 these ignorant savages. I presume no one 
 would ask us to reduce our wardrobe to the 
 native standard, or to sleep on a bed of logs 
 laid together with the round side up. 
 
 “We can only pray Glod to impress upon 
 these poor grown-up children the fact that 
 there is something more important than 
 worldly wealth. Meanwhile we must expect 
 that, while they look upon us as they now do, 
 they will steal. And we must rejoice with 
 trembling in our spiritual successes. When 
 a man says he wants to come to the mission 
 and learn about Glod, we must act cautiously. 
 From the way we question him you would 
 imagine that we did not want the Fang to 
 become Christians. We say, ‘ What is it you 
 want V ‘I want to live in the mission,’ he 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KANGIVE 
 
 155 
 
 replies. ‘ What for V ‘I want to do God’s 
 work.’ ‘ You want employment in the mis- 
 sion so you can get wages?’ ‘Yes; but I 
 want to learn about God too.’ Beware ! the 
 man is probably not a convert. 
 
 “ We have had most of our success among 
 older tribes who have known us long and 
 well. But I believe the future of our work 
 lies among these hardy and energetic but 
 fearfully ignorant Fang. There seems to be 
 a beginning already.” 
 
 A packet of questions was sent to Dr. 
 Good from Trinity Church friends, some of 
 his answers to which fill the remainder of this 
 chapter. To a general inquiry, he answered : 
 “ The most intelligent Christians here can- 
 not see why they should not have everything 
 we have. They have no national costume, 
 and every one of them would like to have 
 clothes just like ours, from hat to shoes, re- 
 gardless of the fact that they would be mis- 
 erable in such dress. One of our elders made 
 me fairly shudder, some months ago, by ap- 
 pearing at communion in a thick overcoat. 
 He sweltered in it through a long hot day 
 
156 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 with a look of supreme contentment. It was 
 a white man’s coat, and therefore must be 
 right. I suppose I was the only person in 
 the audience who did not envy him. I saw 
 a young man ready to pay four months’ wages 
 for a clock, for which he had no use whatever. 
 These are illustrations of a prevalent evil. An 
 African wants everything he sees. 
 
 “ A few Christians are in mission employ, 
 and they are discontented and grumble be- 
 cause their wages will not enable them to 
 live as we live. If we keep their wages down, 
 they are bitter against us and say we want 
 to keep them down. If we increase their 
 wages out of proportion to incomes of the 
 people, we put off indefinitely the day of 
 self-supporting churches. They do not want 
 to see that day, for they know that any sup- 
 port the churches can give them will be 
 meager compared with what we furnish. Do 
 not imagine these men are mercenary hire- 
 lings. Most of them are earnest men. But 
 it is hard for them to see why the means of 
 grace should not be provided without price 
 to the end of the chapter. Great firmness 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KAN GIVE 
 
 157 
 
 and wisdom will be needed in dealing with 
 our churches.” 
 
 Q. “ After a self-sustaining church and an 
 educated ministry have been secured, do you 
 think the church will live and grow without 
 the missionary?” 
 
 A. “ That is a hard question. Not all the 
 churches established by the apostles lived and 
 grew. Doubtless this question means, Can 
 the people of Africa maintain and propagate 
 Christianity, once it is established among 
 them, or are they essentially inferior to other 
 races, so that they will never stand without 
 outside support? I believe that, given the 
 same conditions and opportunities we have, 
 the African will stand morally and intellec- 
 tually just where we do. But a people who 
 have been stunted and degraded by thousands 
 of years of heathenism cannot be trans- 
 formed at once into such Christians as this 
 question contemplates. Growth is a gradual 
 process. It will not be in ten or in fifty 
 years.” 
 
 [To a question concerning his health.] 
 “ Once a month or so I bring myself thor- 
 
158 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 oughly under tlie influence of quinine, and 
 so escape fevers.” 
 
 Q. “ Do you not often grow weary and 
 homesick ? ” 
 
 A. “Of course one’s thoughts often turn 
 to friends and scenes in the home land, and 
 one wishes he could, at least for a little time, 
 annihilate space. But I believe, since I came 
 to Africa, there has never been a time when, 
 after balancing the pros and cows, I would 
 not rather remain than go home. I do not 
 mean to say that I like the country or people 
 of Africa as such ; that I enjoy isolation, ill 
 health, living on canned provisions, working 
 where my best efforts are little appreciated. 
 I could probably have better health, more 
 amusement, a better time generally, in Amer- 
 ica, perhaps a more successful career, regarded 
 from some points of view ; but I doubt whe- 
 ther, knowing the needs of Africa as I do, I 
 could have an easy conscience if I were to 
 run away from this work. I prefer to stay 
 at my post till the Lord discharges me. Mean- 
 while I manage to be fairly comfortable and 
 happy in Africa. 
 
ANOTHER STAGE AT KAN GIVE 
 
 159 
 
 “I have spoken only for myself; but I 
 think nearly all who have come to Africa as 
 missionaries have felt much as I feel on this 
 subject.” 
 
 [At the close of 1891.] “ Looking at the 
 
 physical side, I think I can honestly say that 
 I have worked up to the full measure of my 
 strength. But when I remember that the 
 success of efforts put forth in the service of 
 Christ depends absolutely on our spiritual 
 attitude towards him and his work, I am con- 
 scious of shortcomings that amount almost to 
 failure.” 
 
 Seventy-two persons were admitted to 
 the church this year in the Ogowe. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Visit of Inspection to Liberia 
 January — April, 1892 
 
 1 the end of 1891 Dr. G-ood received in- 
 
 structions from the Board to proceed on 
 a tom* of inspection to the Liberia Mission. 
 This had been established in 1833, had been 
 left without superintendence for a long time, 
 was at present controlled entirely by colored 
 men, and the Board was in doubt whether it 
 should continue on the old basis. This was 
 an unattractive task. Dr. Good always suf- 
 fered from seasickness on board ship; he 
 knew the Liberian coast was dangerously un- 
 healthy; visitation of the scattered stations 
 would involve great exertion under a hot sun ; 
 there was no prospect of finding material for 
 a glowing report, but eveiy chance to antag- 
 onize people; and, most of all, it involved 
 separation from his family and interruption 
 
 160 
 
VISIT OF INSPECTION TO LIBERIA 
 
 161 
 
 of his Ogowe work for three months. He 
 replied to the Board that he could not but be 
 grateful for their confidence in him, but the 
 responsibility involved in the visit to Liberia 
 would be a “ load ” to carry. “ Of course I 
 shall go, and, if I am spared, endeavor to per- 
 form the task assigned me.” 
 
 Without waiting for adjournment of mis- 
 sion meeting, he was off to Liberia by the first 
 opportunity in January. In order to make 
 ship connections he was obliged to go beyond 
 Liberia to Sierra Leone and return ; but at 
 whatever port he stopped there was always 
 something to learn, to investigate, or some 
 piece of business to transact for the mission. 
 At Kameruns it was the proposition for a 
 sanitarium to be established, by several mis- 
 sions combining, upon Kameruns Mountain. 
 Discussing the general subject, Dr. Good 
 wrote to the Board that he thought furloughs 
 were apt to be wastefully managed. Mission- 
 aries in Africa usually took no vacation until 
 sickness compelled it, whereas if they were 
 expected to spend a month each year away 
 from their cares, sickness might be saved. 
 
162 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 “ Seven days in the week and every week in 
 the year is the rule with some of us, and the 
 only fact that makes it possible to keep it up 
 is that our work is very varied. Have a mis- 
 sion sanitarium? Yes, if we are required to 
 use it a few weeks each year ; no, if it is only 
 a resort when we are broken down. After 
 malignant fevei’, six months, not six weeks, 
 are necessary for restoration, and I would 
 much prefer going to America, where I could 
 recruit spiritually and mentally as well as 
 physically, instead of going into the wilder- 
 ness for a six months’ exile.” 
 
 At Sierra Leone he interviewed persons 
 well informed upon Liberian men and affairs. 
 He went to the English cathedral and a 
 Mohammedan mosque, and took a general 
 measurement of moral forces in the country. 
 
 Landing at Monrovia, February 11, he 
 spent one month in Liberia, traveling seven 
 hundred miles on foot or by canoe, and 
 visited every station of the mission, with one 
 exception. He also visited the Lutheran 
 mission at Muhlenberg. 1 
 
 1 “ He brought with him a flood of sunlight, and when he 
 left took the love of all in the mission.” (Letter from Rev. 
 David A. Day, Lutheran missionary.) 
 
VISIT OF INSPECTION TO LIBERIA 
 
 163 
 
 Everything passes under observation : the 
 condition of Liberia, political, commercial, 
 agricultural, especially the coffee plantations ; 
 the proportion of Americo-Liberian popula- 
 tion to the great majority of uncivilized 
 aborigines ; methods of the Colonization So- 
 ciety; methods, rules, salaries of different 
 mission Boards. It was some of the time in- 
 tensely hot ; and starting at 6:30 a.m., once 
 before 3 a.m., in order to take advantage of 
 the tide up June Biver, he walked hours to- 
 gether over an uninteresting country. Sab- 
 baths he preaches — four times one Sabbath. 
 He arrives entirely unannounced, before 
 they have time to confer or “ fix up ” accounts, 
 at each minister’s or teacher’s door, now be- 
 fore seven o’clock in the morning, again at 
 eight in the evening. He makes a memoran- 
 dum regarding the extent and value of all 
 mission property and by whom deeds are 
 held ; visits all the schools and examines the 
 scholars, recording the discrepancy between 
 numbers enrolled and present; notes those 
 who are just beginning arithmetic, those who 
 drop final consonants in pronouncing, those 
 who scarcely understand simple English but 
 
164 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 glibly recite long answers from tbe catechism. 
 Acting as eyes for tbe Board, be reports a 
 teacher who “ beats tbe scholars more than is 
 warrantable. I told him that be must win tbe 
 people or be written down a failure.” He marks 
 those ministers who are political candidates, 
 thereby creating division in their flocks ; those 
 who increase their income by a side business, 
 or whose moral character is under public sus- 
 picion ; and he notes the man who “ pleased 
 me much by his plain, unaffected way of 
 reading and leading in prayer.” He finds 
 Schieffelin the only place where Presbyterians 
 are in the majority, and here “we ought to 
 have a minister,” but advises the Board to 
 withdraw from a hamlet of three hundred 
 people, where he discovers three churches, 
 the Presbyterian weakest of all. His ear is 
 open to requests on every side, but he distin- 
 guishes between wishes and needs: “ 
 
 wants me to recommend windows and seats 
 for the church. I cannot recommend the 
 
 latter.” At they “sadly need books.” 
 
 Having taken leave of a station, he found it 
 convenient to make a second, sudden reap- 
 
VISIT OF INSPECTION TO LIBERIA 
 
 165 
 
 pearance, whereby his first impressions were 
 confirmed or revised. There was only one 
 man who made any success of evading the 
 keen-eyed visitor. “ Loafed about the place, 
 
 learning but little ; seemed busy all day 
 
 and into the night, but I could not make out 
 what he was doing. Crowds of people come 
 and go, and it cannot all be church business. 
 He was not communicative. I have the im- 
 pression that, though professing cordiality, 
 he was glad to get me off.” 
 
 This errand to Liberia was executed in a 
 temper which made his visit agreeable to the 
 African brethren. His energy might give 
 them a cyclone shock, but they appreciated 
 his fairness and friendliness. His report was 
 temperate, and more faithfully presented the 
 situation to the Board than if they had seen 
 Liberia themselves. Liberians were compared 
 with other Africans, not with Englishmen. 
 “ Why should it be expected that freed slaves 
 and their children should make an unblem- 
 ished success of this business of self-govern- 
 ment, which the first cities in the United 
 States find so difficult ? . . . On the whole, 
 
166 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Liberia seems to be getting on her feet. I 
 could easily criticize, but knowing Af rica, as 
 I do, I feel more like praising.” Emphatic 
 praise was accorded to the public sentiment 
 against use of spirituous liquors. “ Liberian 
 churches discipline for drunkenness, and only 
 white men handle liquor in Monrovia.” 
 
 On setting out for Liberia, Dr. G-ood had 
 promised his little son to try to return by his 
 birthday, April 12 ; but it was already the 3d 
 when Eloby was reached, and there yet re- 
 mained a boat journey of two hundred and 
 forty miles. Here the news met him that his 
 wife was ill. Taking a canoe, he rowed all 
 night up the Moonda River and walked across 
 country to Gaboon to save a few hours. All 
 in vain. He waited five days to catch a boat 
 for Cape Lopez ; thence took a trader’s launch 
 which dropped him at Kangwe at midnight 
 of April 12, and he entered the sick-room with 
 the step and voice of a practised nurse. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 On to the Interior 
 January — August, 1892 
 
 ITH each year the course of the colonial 
 
 government added something to the 
 strength of conviction in the mission that 
 their only way out was by the transfer pro- 
 posed. 1 Dr. (rood’s position was clear. The 
 transfer must take place : 
 
 1. To save Christians and the prosperous 
 churches in the Ogowe from falling to Roman 
 Catholics. American missionaries were liable 
 to be ultimately expelled from the river ; un- 
 less evangelical Frenchmen could take pos- 
 session of their stations, Jesuits would. 
 
 2. French Protestants had decided to come 
 to Congo Fran<jais ; rival stations were not to 
 be thought of. 
 
 1 See Chapter IV., u resolution ” of the mission in 1887. 
 167 
 
168 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 3. Economy of mission funds demanded it. 
 French schools in the Ogowe could be con- 
 ducted at half the cost of American schools, 
 because granted a much larger subsidy ; gov- 
 ernment also discriminated heavily in their 
 favor in custom duties. 
 
 The Board of Foreign Missions in New 
 York had for many months seriously weighed 
 the question of their duty when the transfer 
 should be consummated. A section of the 
 mission force in Africa would then be set 
 free for new undertakings. Where did wis- 
 dom and the providence of Hod point as the 
 proper location of this force ? 
 
 As usual, Dr. (rood’s views were construc- 
 tive. He saw a great stretch of inland sav- 
 agery reaching up to the very door-stone of 
 the mission. There was the place to begin. 
 “ While we hold the coast we have the key to 
 a great interior which we ought to open or 
 give somebody else the key.” The work 
 “grandly begun” on the coast could not be 
 abandoned, and it pointed to the next step, 
 eastward from Bata and Batanga. “ In such 
 a work we ought not to act as if we were 
 
ON TO THE INTERIOR 
 
 169 
 
 trading horses, but rather see what will, in 
 the long run, most hasten the coming of the 
 kingdom.” As to distance: “We cannot ex- 
 pect the interior to come closer to the coast 
 than one hundred miles. To reach Stanley 
 Pool is a land journey of twenty days over 
 fearful country.” 
 
 At the opening of 1892, mission requested 
 Dr. Giood, should the Board indorse and au- 
 thorize the same, to select an associate and 
 make a trip of exploration into the country 
 adjoining Batanga district on the east, with 
 reference to a future occupation in those 
 parts. At this point the Africa Mission takes 
 up afresh the old cry which had been raised 
 by voice after voice from the beginning of its 
 history : 
 
 “ If the providence of God [Wilson, 1843] 
 shall continue to smile on this mission, we 
 may hope that Christianity will have a 
 favorable door of entrance in the interior.” 
 “ Before a mission can be established in the 
 interior [Report, ’49] the acquaintance of 
 intermediate people must be made. The line 
 of communication must be in the hearts of 
 
170 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 the people.” “ Ten years have passed [Bush- 
 nell, ’54] since we first came in view of these 
 Ethiopian mountains, . . . with feeble ranks 
 we have been detained upon these lowlands. 
 Oh, when shall we be permitted to unfurl the 
 banner of Immanuel there ? ” Ogden’s dying 
 words (’61) had never been forgotten : “ Who 
 will go ? — will you go ! — who will go to preach 
 on the mainland 1 ” “ We looked up the lovely 
 Benito [Oeorge Pauli, ’64] to the great blue 
 mountains beyond, and thought of the ‘ plenty, 
 plenty people’ waiting ... to catch some 
 tidings of salvation. We are encouraged to 
 hope that ere many years those dark hilltops 
 shall shine with the glory of a brighter dawn.” 
 “It is the country far back from the sea [Re- 
 port, ’74] that our mission must consider. 
 There dwell the myriads of Africa. Every 
 door that may be opened by Providence in- 
 land should be at once entered.” 
 
 Doors had been entered from time to time ; 
 some after opening had closed again; now 
 the mission was looking eastward and asking 
 whether again they saw the door. 
 
 At Kangwg Dr. Good awaited marching 
 
ON TO THE INTERIOR 
 
 171 
 
 orders from the Board ; but the expected in- 
 structions were mysteriously delayed. Mail 
 succeeded mail, and no reference to the all- 
 important subject. Had their plans collapsed ? 
 With each passing week the rains approached 
 so much the nearer, when exposure in travel 
 must be proportionally increased. With 
 soldierly obedience, he would not stir from 
 his post to anticipate orders by a day. He 
 plunged into work industriously. All spare 
 hours, early, late, while waiting for other 
 people, now and again a steady pull for a 
 week, he bent over the Mpongwe New Tes- 
 tament which was begun two years before. 
 At length, as the last line of revision was 
 complete, the long-awaited letter came, June 
 16. It had been mailed three months be- 
 fore. 
 
 Arrangements were at once made for pro- 
 ceeding to Batanga, his family to be left 
 meanwhile at Gaboon. A substitute at 
 Kangwe was obtained in the missionary from 
 Talaguga, which station was formally turned 
 over to the French in the following month. 
 
 Dr. Good preached as usual on the last 
 
172 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Sunday, taking no formal farewell of his 
 people. The journey on which he was bound 
 could at present be treated only as an experi- 
 ment, and he expected, for shorter or longer, 
 to come again to Kangwe . 1 In truth, the 
 books he left standing on their shelves he 
 never touched again. The road on which he 
 was started now would never lead back to 
 the scene of those seven rounded years of 
 manful toil ; its goal lay far north, in a region 
 untrodden by white man’s foot. 
 
 On the Fourth of July — auspicious day — the 
 little party, all unknowing, looked their last 
 towards their home, buried among feathery 
 palms and orange trees, as the boat turned 
 southward on the oft-traversed river course. 
 Ten years’ experience in Africa forbade this 
 step should be taken lightly; no one more 
 sensible than Dr. Glood himself what hardship 
 and risk were certain, how much might he in- 
 volved. From this time forth there appears 
 in his letters, always marked by freedom 
 from hackneyed pious expressions, an un- 
 
 1 The station, with all its property, was made over to the 
 French brethren, without charge, in 1893, 
 
ON TO THE INTERIOR 
 
 173 
 
 wonted note of gravity which repeats itself, 
 with simple urgency, again and again : “ Pray- 
 ing that we may all he divinely guided in 
 this new enterprise.” Yet it was with ample 
 courage, and not without some exhilaration, 
 that the intrepid missionary turned down the 
 Ogowe page to open upon a new chapter. 
 
 Plans had not been deferred until the time 
 to start. In looking for a mission location, 
 he proposed to avoid the German government 
 road, with the chance of becoming involved 
 in government conflicts with natives. He de- 
 termined to travel with the fewest carriers 
 possible, not only to save expense, but because 
 every additional man would increase the 
 danger of a breakdown ; the sickness of even 
 one carrier would delay the whole party. In 
 response to a charge from the Board to use 
 caution : “ I shall try to have a [missionary] 
 companion, and shall prepare as carefully 
 against all emergencies and dangers as I 
 know how ; but the emergency against which I 
 shall most carefully provide is failure ” 1 He 
 ventured no prophecies. “It is difficult to 
 
 1 Italics are Dr. Good’s. 
 
174 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 speculate about fields one has never seen. A 
 road is hard or easy according to a man’s idea 
 of what a hard road is. The German gave a 
 rather dark picture of the road for the first 
 seven days ; but, as I looked at him, I decided 
 in my mind that he was not a man of great 
 physical endurance, and his picture may be 
 too dark.” 
 
 "West Coast men are not, like the Zanzibari, 
 trained carriers ; they are not equal to a load 
 as heavy by twenty pounds, and are afraid to 
 enter the country of a strange tribe. The 
 greatest vexation which Dr. Good encountered 
 this summer was in securing his few neces- 
 sary guides and carriers. Trade goods, 
 which, instead of money, would purchase 
 food, must be transported; the weight of 
 every article had to be calculated, anything 
 not absolutely essential being rigidly ex- 
 cluded; and then, had it not been for four 
 boys from the Ogowe who could be implicitly 
 depended on, men could scarcely have been 
 found for even the seven loads. When, on 
 the sixteenth day after leaving KangwS, all 
 was ready at Batanga, and none of his breth- 
 
ON TO THE INTERIOR 
 
 175 
 
 ren, though willing, was thoroughly available 
 for the journey, Dr. Good started alone at 
 the head of his modest caravan. 
 
 In this preliminary exploration, which lasted 
 twenty-three days, he reached a point about 
 one hundred miles inland. No report of it 
 was offered to the mission, because the popu- 
 lation found was not sufficient to justify 
 opening stations on this route. Trinity 
 Church, however, received a letter which, be- 
 sides details peculiar to this instance, unfolds 
 several features common to all exploration in 
 Equatorial Africa : 
 
 “ Now a word as to this country into which 
 I am about to lead you. The Batanga people 
 live on the sea shore. Just back of them are 
 the people called here Mabeya, Dibea, by 
 some Osyeba, but who call themselves Kwa- 
 siwo. Their towns are within ten or fifteen 
 miles of the beach. Among Batanga people 
 the gospel has taken a strong hold. Among 
 these Mabeya scarcely anything has been 
 done; but the devil has been busy among 
 them, and many of them are slaves to drink. 
 
 “ When we had passed the last Mabeya town 
 
176 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 we found ourselves in a virgin forest, through 
 which we had to travel from sixty to eighty 
 miles before we reached the inhabited inte- 
 rior. This meant that food must be carried 
 for from five to eight days, according to the 
 rate of march. There are, of course, no roads, 
 only narrow winding paths ; no bridges over 
 streams, no swamps filled up, no hotels, only 
 low rude sheds under which travelers may 
 sleep on beds of poles with a fire on each side, 
 but affording little protection from rain. The 
 natives dislike climbing hills, and so these 
 roads are fairly level ; but, unfortunately for 
 white men, they do not have the same dread 
 of mud and water. We had hardly gotten 
 into the forest when the path dropped down 
 into the bed of a stream, which it followed 
 for a hundred yards or more. 
 
 “We tried each day to start soon after six 
 in the morning. By half -past ten or eleven 
 we stopped to eat, and by three or four in the 
 afternoon everybody was tired enough to stop 
 for the night. Beyond this there is little to 
 say of our tramp through the forest. There 
 were a few birds in the trees, usually too high 
 
ON TO THE INTERIOR 
 
 177 
 
 to be shot. We saw a few deer, or rather 
 antelope; but I got only one chance for a 
 shot, and that time my gun missed fire. There 
 were many traces of elephants and occasion- 
 ally of buffaloes, also wild hogs. We saw 
 many monkeys, some of them very large ; but 
 the trees were so enormously high that shot 
 would not reach them, and the forest was 
 always so dark that it was impossible to shoot 
 with a rifle with any accuracy. Even where 
 trees were neither very high nor very thick 
 it seemed unaccountably dark. Most of the 
 time the sun was clouded, and the effect was 
 as if twilight had already fallen, even at 
 noonday. Even when the sun came out, it 
 seemed to have no power. In fact, African 
 sunlight is in some way of an inferior quality. 
 As Mr. Stanley has said, it is more like moon- 
 light than sunlight. 
 
 “ On Tuesday, the sixth day, about 2 p.m., 
 suddenly the forest grew light before us, and 
 a few moments later we came into a clearing 
 close to a small Bulu town called Bieti. Here 
 for the first time in seventy-five miles we 
 were able to see out and look about us. We 
 
178 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 were well received by the people, according 
 to their ideas of hospitality. The old chief 
 was very friendly, and gave me a fowl and 
 my people plantains, although food was 
 scarce. After some time a house was pro- 
 vided, and glad was I to be under a roof, even 
 if I could hardly stand erect under it. I had 
 known that the Bulu people were closely 
 allied to the Fang; but I soon found that, 
 while many words were the same in the two 
 languages, the differences were so great that 
 little that I said was intelligible to them. 
 How was I to preach to them — for preach I 
 must? Our guides had told them that we 
 are not traders but teach people the words 
 of G-od, and the whole town was anxious to 
 hear what was our message. They all came 
 together, and the palaver house was packed 
 with men, women, and dogs. Fires are always 
 kept burning in these houses, and the smoke 
 was very affecting, often moving one to tears ; 
 but it had to be borne. I talked in Fang, 
 which my Mabeya people understand a little 
 better than the Bulu people, so they helped 
 me to explain what I could not express clearly. 
 
ON TO THE INTERIOR 
 
 179 
 
 But they added a good deal to what I said, 
 being anxious to display their knowledge, and 
 I was not quite sure that what they said was 
 always orthodox. 
 
 “Among the Bulu I was on new ground 
 and had to begin by finding out what they 
 call God, and I got a new name for the Creator 
 of all things — Nzambe. The Mpongwe call 
 God Anyambie; the Benga and Batanga peo- 
 ple, Anyambe ; the Mabeya, Njambe ; the Fang, 
 Nzam ; and here the Bulu call him by a name 
 evidently related to the others and yet differ- 
 ent enough to be confusing. 
 
 “A scene here was repeated daily for the 
 next two weeks. I wished to impress upon 
 them the truth that God is not far from any 
 of us and can hear us when we pray. So I 
 explained the meaning of prayer, and re- 
 quested them all to keep quiet while I rose 
 and began. At first there was only a little 
 noise, but three or four shouted out, ‘ Keep 
 quiet ! ’ To make matters worse, the Mabeya 
 shouted, ‘Shut your eyes!’ So unusual a 
 performance convulsed some with laughter. 
 Some mothers thought closing the eyes was 
 
180 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 an important matter, and so held their hands 
 over their children’s eyes. Of course the 
 youngsters screamed. Some women became 
 frightened and bolted for the door, laughing 
 and screaming ; and the dozen or more dogs 
 that had been asleep around the fires, roused 
 up by the unusual excitement, began to bark. 
 I need hardly add that by this time the prayer 
 was effectually interrupted. 
 
 “ At Akok, the village of Ndum, we spent 
 a most interesting Sabbath. The chief killed 
 a large sheep, and did his best to make us 
 comfortable. People came in from the sur- 
 rounding country, and I preached, or tried to, 
 rather, to a large audience. I kept my note- 
 book in hand constantly, and set down every 
 deviation from the Fang which I noticed. 
 Sabbath morning I got on fairly well, and 
 Sabbath evening the people encouraged me 
 by declaring that they understood everything 
 I said. Some of them stood around and 
 questioned about what I had preached till 
 late at night. One thing especially pleased 
 me. When I said I must go on the morrow 
 they seemed sorry, but made no effort to 
 
ON TO THE INTERIOR 
 
 181 
 
 hinder me. On the whole, I liked the Bulu. 
 They resemble the Fang but are more civil 
 and humane. Imaybemistaken,butitseemed 
 to me they had the good qualities of the 
 Fang and not all of their faults. But I must 
 add, they could lie almost as well as Fang.” 
 Dr. Good tried to find out how far north of 
 the Campo River he was, and as a specimen 
 of the difficulty in getting geographical in- 
 formation is the variety of answers he re- 
 ceived: “We don’t know.” “It is very far. 
 No people live between here and the Campo. 
 There are no roads.” “ It is one day’s jour- 
 ney.” “ It is ten days’ journey.” “ It is three 
 or four days’ journey.” “ The country be- 
 tween here and the Campo is inhabited by 
 Fang; some of their towns are quite near.” 
 “ The country between us and the Campo is 
 inhabited by Bulu, but none of them live 
 within three or four days’ journey.” 
 
 Sabbath, on the rapid march home, was 
 spent in the edge of the forest. “What a 
 Sabbath! It rained most of the day. My 
 hut was so low I could not stand in it. The 
 people were noisy and offensively curious, but 
 
182 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 withal meant well. I could make myself 
 understood, and many seemed interested. 
 They begged me to come soon again, and 
 were sure, if I would stay and preach to them, 
 they would all become Christians. Poor 
 people ! How little they realize the strength 
 of the chains with which the devil has bound 
 them ! ” 
 
 In the interval between his first and second 
 exploring journeys, and while mustering car- 
 riers again, Dr. Good was copying his Mpong- 
 we manuscript with exceeding care for the 
 diacritical marks, as it would be put in type 1 
 in America by printers of course ignorant of 
 the language. 
 
 The Board having asked for suggestions 
 from all missionaries regarding the “ Manual,” 
 about to be reissued, he addressed to them 
 some of his matured views on practical points. 
 They related largely to the subject of expense. 
 In regard to voting in mission meeting, he 
 urged that lay missionaries, men and women 
 alike, should vote upon all questions; that 
 
 1 The Roman alphabet is used. The Testament was 
 printed by the American Bible Society. 
 
ON TO THE INTERIOR 
 
 183 
 
 employees of the mission should be appointed 
 missionaries “after long, approved service”; 
 wives should be “ associate missionaries,” 
 without a vote but with a voice in mission 
 affairs whenever they chose. “ To refuse the 
 vote to laymen is to wrong men and women 
 who, in all but ordination, are the equal of 
 their ministerial brethren.” 
 
 CARRIERS’ STRAP, OF 
 WOVEN BAMBOO. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 August 1892 — January 1893 
 
 O N setting out for the Bulu country the 
 second time, Dr. Hood wrote : “ My plan 
 has never had in it anything grand or roman- 
 tic. If I can this year find a good site for our 
 first station, and assure myself of a large popu- 
 lation beyond, I do not see the need of doing 
 more at present.” 
 
 This journey was begun August 30, and 
 ended October 4. It had been thrown for- 
 ward into all the disadvantages of the rainy 
 season by delay in transmission of the letter 
 of instructions. No one would have regarded 
 Dr. Good as recreant to duty if, placing the 
 responsibility upon that delay, he had post- 
 poned his journey until the good weather of 
 December. But in January mission would 
 
 184 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 185 
 
 convene to take action upon all its affairs for 
 the ensuing year. Unless his report were 
 laid before that meeting, no recommendations 
 could be made, and the advance movement 
 might be retarded a whole year. Such waste- 
 fulness of time, especially in uncertain Africa, 
 was not to be thought of ; therefore, into the 
 bush without hesitation ! 
 
 The start was south from Batanga, avoid- 
 ing the forest belt, then east and southeast, 
 passing through Mabeya villages and farms, 
 to the Lobi River. Twenty-five miles of 
 tramping brought them to the most westerly 
 Bulu town ; thence, by a forest path of twelve 
 miles, they emerged upon a line of towns 
 called Kokwa, which suggested itself as an 
 excellent location for a Bible-reader. “He 
 could reach thousands of souls within a day’s 
 journey.” All the Bulu encountered the first 
 week belonged to the same clan, and there 
 are over one hundred clans. 
 
 The vicissitudes of travel were varied. 
 Several nights were spent in the forest, 
 “ sleeping with nothing but a mosquito net 
 of cheese-cloth between me and all out of 
 
186 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 doors, and I felt no ill effects.” Two blankets 
 at nigbt were occasionally necessary, and it 
 was rarely hot except at noon. But a twenty 
 miles’ march in tropical rain, “sometimes 
 pouring down till the air seemed full of 
 water,” would be followed next day by pour- 
 ing rain again, and for days following by 
 “rain pouring as usual.” There were no 
 roads, only crooked African paths worn 
 trough-shape by water, their center six inches 
 deeper than the sides. Bridgeless streams 
 must be crossed, often every mile or two, or 
 bogs several hundred yards wide, through 
 which our pioneer went barefoot. “ I have 
 read what Stanley says against a white man’s 
 letting natives -see his bare feet, and I con- 
 sider it all nonsense. The African has a 
 great deal more respect for a white man who 
 can take care of himself than for one who has 
 to be carried like a baby.” Near the towns 
 constant obstructions, such as fallen tree- 
 trunks, which Africans always go around, — 
 never remove for the public benefit, — made 
 fearful work for carriers. On either side, the 
 narrow path was often lined with a dense 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 187 
 
 growth of weeds and grass, always wet with 
 dew, if not rain, till ten o’clock in the fore- 
 noon, and the white traveler, disadvantaged 
 by his clothing, was soon wet to the hips. 
 Worst of all, the paths, habitually dropping 
 along the course of streams for a mile or 
 more at a time, required constant walking in 
 and out of cold water, the misery increasing 
 at every step from sand and quartz pebbles 
 which gathered in the shoes. 
 
 Occasionally a town banded together, re- 
 fusing food unless at exorbitant prices. Then 
 the caravan fell back upon rice, which had 
 been brought in their loads for such emergen- 
 cies. Now and then a churlish chief offered 
 no welcome, or promised them robbery and 
 murder at the next town on the road. At 
 one place the question of plundering their 
 loads was openly discussed, but abandoned 
 at the suggestion from their own elders that 
 the white man must have a “ powerful fetish ” 
 or he would not venture so far from his peo- 
 ple. “ I could not help thinking how easily 
 they could take our all if they had the cour- 
 age.” But though at times surrounded by 
 
188 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 hundreds of armed men, they generally met 
 a friendly reception. The only arms in the 
 party were Dr. Good’s old single-barreled 
 shot-gun, loaded with bird-shot, and a re- 
 volver which he carried out of sight, and 
 displayed, with apparent indifference but a 
 wholesome effect, on one occasion only. It 
 was enough. The fame of the “ small gun ” 
 was thenceforward their avant-coureur. Scores 
 of times he was asked to show it, but always 
 sternly refused, thereby heightening the 
 mystery. This he called a “silly ruse” 
 which might answer for once, but would not 
 do when the white man became a familiar ob- 
 ject. It would be safe to recognize the limi- 
 tations to exploring among unknown savages. 
 “ Establish one station ; from this explore for 
 the next, choosing the best seasons and going 
 only one hundred miles at a time.” 
 
 Ten miles a day was a “ hard ” march, but 
 nearing home a “ tremendous ” march of 
 twenty-five miles was once covered. As Dr. 
 Good proceeded from town to town, a crowd 
 of several hundred followed at his heels, add- 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 189 
 
 ing to liis natural fatigue and anxiety the 
 loud jangle of their untamed voices. He laid 
 a mental tax upon himself by continually 
 watching for new Bulu words and idioms, 
 which were straightway transferred to the 
 little note-book in his side pocket. 
 
 In searching for an appropriate station 
 site, some towns which had been recom- 
 mended (by Africans) proved disappointing. 
 True, Minkale was more than two thousand 
 feet above sea-level, surrounded by moun- 
 tains from three to four thousand feet higher, 
 with a bracing air; but it was too isolated. 
 The group of seven towns on the watershed 
 between the Kribi and Campo rivers had 
 friendly people, and an elevation of two 
 thousand feet, but was too far from the sea. 
 The valley of the Muile, “ fertile and level 
 as a Nebraska prairie,” was densely populated, 
 but promised to be unhealthful. Biyemyem 
 was a town a mile long and would be a fine 
 center as regarded population, but lacked 
 wood and water. There was a right place. 
 
 “ I was especially attracted by a long line 
 
190 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 of almost continuous villages called Nkoneme- 
 kak, where the people seemed to swarm on 
 all sides. This line partly encircled the base 
 of a hill which struck me as an admirable 
 site. The elevation of the town was only six- 
 teen hundred feet, but this hill is two hundred 
 feet higher. Here is, in my opinion, the site 
 for our first interior station. By the crooked 
 path we must travel, the distance from Ba- 
 tanga is not less than seventy miles ; but this 
 is the first large center of population we met 
 with on elevated ground, and the largest 
 within one hundred miles of the sea. This 
 point can be reached from the west by two 
 or three different roads, and we can go east- 
 ward by two roads. This is an important 
 consideration in a country where any chief 
 who imagines he has a grievance may close 
 the road against us. Food is reasonably 
 abundant, though not very cheap. I found 
 the people ready to listen to the gospel wher- 
 ever I stopped long enough to preach.” 
 
 The method by which the minds of those 
 wild Bulu listeners were brought into contact 
 with the divine message, which for the first 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 191 
 
 time was conveyed to their race, is pictured 
 in one of the letters to Trinity Church. 
 
 “ I never failed to announce that I was not 
 a trader. I went out of my way to prove this. 
 Many times, when invited to go and see the 
 house full of ivory of some chief, I really 
 wanted to go ; for I had often heard there 
 were houses full of ivory in interior towns, 
 and was curious to know whether this meant 
 a room with ten tusks in it or fifty or one 
 hundred. But I was being so carefully 
 watched that if I even went to look at their 
 ivory the news would follow me wherever I 
 went, and the impression produced would be 
 that I was a trader in disguise, spying out 
 the riches of the land. So I always pretended 
 utmost indifference to questions of trade. At 
 times I would go into a long explanation of 
 how only a few white men were traders, and 
 these not the greatest men with us. I would 
 disgust them especially by telling them that 
 my father was a farmer, and before I learned 
 the ‘work of the Book’ I myself hoed corn 
 and potatoes. Among them such work is 
 only performed by women, or men of no 
 
192 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 standing. They wanted to almost worship 
 me, hut this confession shattered their idol. 
 Many a time I could have gotten on more 
 comfortably by a time-serving policy. Often 
 I would have preferred to pay an exorbitant 
 price for something rather than go without it. 
 But I expected to come back sometime, and 
 preferred to have my difficulties at the be- 
 ginning, and to leave no precedents that might 
 make trouble for some one else. Sometimes 
 they intimated quite plainly that they wanted 
 a white man who would make them rich buy- 
 ing their rubber and ivory, not one who came 
 with nothing but ‘ words.’ 
 
 “In nearly every case the gospel seemed 
 to make a profound impression, at least for 
 a time. The truth of what I said was rarely 
 questioned. You will wonder at this in a 
 people who never before heard even a rumor 
 of divine truth, until you understand how 
 wonderfully the truth we preach harmonizes 
 with and supplements what they already be- 
 lieve. They believe in an eternal Being who 
 has made all things, to whom all men return 
 at death, but they do not think of this Being 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 193 
 
 as observing their actions, or that after death 
 he may call them to account for deeds done 
 in the body. 
 
 “ The fundamental truths which they hold 
 seem like fragments of a broken chain, which 
 they are too thoughtless to connect; but 
 when the missionary comes along and con- 
 nects these severed fragments, they cannot 
 help seeing how they fit together. I ask who 
 made them and all things, and they reply at 
 once, ‘ Nzam’ 1 Who gives you all the bless- 
 ings you enjoy?’ ‘He does.’ ‘Do you love 
 and worship him and thank him for his good- 
 ness?’ ‘No.’ ‘Why not?’ At once they 
 see their conduct must be displeasing to God. 
 ‘Are lying, stealing, and killing right or 
 wrong ? ’ ‘ Wrong, of course.’ ‘ How do you 
 
 know?’ They cannot tell; they just know 
 it. To the suggestion that these things are 
 written in their hearts, like the words in a 
 white man’s book, they assent at once as a 
 satisfactory explanation. ‘ Who wrote those 
 things in your hearts?’ ‘We don’t know,’ 
 they say. ‘Who made you?’ ‘ Nzam,’’ or 
 ‘ Njambe .’ Both words are used. Then, ‘ Did 
 
194 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 he not write these laws in your hearts?’ 
 Here was a break in their knowledge, but the 
 moment the missing link is supplied the chain 
 is made complete in their minds. ‘ Yes,’ in a 
 chorus; ‘yes, he gave us these laws in our 
 hearts.’ Then I am ready to press home the 
 great truth from which there is now no es- 
 cape. ‘If God made this law, he must be 
 angry when it is broken. He must see when 
 it is broken, for he made the eye; as he 
 made the ear, he must himself hear what 
 is spoken contrary to this law.’ ‘ Yes, that 
 must be so.’ ‘ Then, when death calls you 
 into the presence of this Being whose laws 
 you have broken, how will he receive you?’ 
 They attempt no evasion; they admit that 
 God will be angry ; and when I tell them of 
 heaven and hell the excitement sometimes 
 becomes intense. Then I lead them on to 
 the blessed truth that God is a God of mercy ; 
 and often, when the strange new story is 
 finished, trade and greed, all else, seem for- 
 gotten. But next morning or an hour after- 
 wards, when they have talked together a little 
 and repeated to one another what they have 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 195 
 
 heard of me, doubts begin to arise. They 
 call me and want to talk a little more. I sit 
 down, prepared to be questioned. The ob- 
 ject of my visit has been fully explained. 
 But no matter; the first question generally 
 was, ‘ Where are you going ? ’ ‘ I do not know 
 exactly. I told you I was going as far as I 
 could and to see as many peoples as I could.’ 
 ‘ But who are you going to ? ’ ‘I don’t know.’ 
 An astounding statement to them, as they 
 never dare go anywhere unless where they 
 have a friend who can protect them. ‘ What 
 are you going for?’ By this time I would 
 be losing patience, and reply something like 
 this : ‘ I have told you already ; why do you 
 keep on asking the same question?’ ‘Yes, 
 we know ’ (coolly) ; ‘ but tell us now what 
 you are really seeking ! ’ Several times I 
 thought they did believe me, but was after- 
 wards convinced that, with the exception of 
 perhaps two towns, the people took little 
 stock in my explanations, and by most I was 
 set down as an impostor. Had I come to 
 look for trade, had I killed and plundered, 
 they would have fully appreciated my mo- 
 
196 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 tives ; but that white men want to teach them 
 about God and heaven without money or 
 price, that was incomprehensible. The first 
 great law of heathenism is selfishness, and, 
 tried by this their only standard, you can 
 see how unbelievable must have seemed my 
 statement.” 
 
 Dr. Good returned to Batanga in health, 
 having traveled over four hundred miles on 
 foot, penetrating the country about one hun- 
 dred and seventy miles, and having seen the 
 dwellings of from thirty to forty thousand 
 people. He had expended less than half the 
 money granted, had selected one station site 
 and the approximate location for a second. 
 Incidentally, he had acquired considerable 
 fluency in the Bulu tongue and revised the 
 geography of some towns and of the Campo 
 River. At once he prepared a masterly re- 
 port upon what he had learned, which was 
 presented to his brethren in mission meeting 
 and forwarded to the Board. The contents 
 were arranged in three parts : (1) a general 
 outline; (2) analysis of important features; 
 (3) recommendations for action. 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 197 
 
 He acknowledged his consciousness of as- 
 sistance from above : 
 
 “ Not only my brethren here, but friends in 
 America, must have been helping me at the 
 throne of grace. Again and again my way 
 seemed closed, but always opened just in 
 time. I was turned aside from the course 
 marked out for myself by scarcity of food, 
 want of guides, native feuds; sometimes I 
 was misled by false statements ; but although 
 at the time I fumed and fretted, I can now 
 see that I could hardly have laid out a better 
 course than that by which I was compelled 
 to go.” 
 
 He explained the geographical relations of 
 many tribes; how from interior forest seats 
 the coast trade had beckoned them, and, 
 moved by greed, they had years before begun 
 a march which was gradually increasing in 
 volume and momentum as they advanced. 
 He showed the bearings of this seaward mi- 
 gration upon missionary opportunity. 
 
 The Ntum people were real Fang from the 
 Ogowe. “ They will soon be down to the sea 
 just north of the mouth of the Campo.” The 
 
198 
 
 / 
 
 // Y&O 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Bulu and Upper Campo Fang were practi- 
 cally one people — “ in a few years will fill the 
 region back of Batanga.” The greater part 
 of them were still in their old homes, but, as 
 fast as they pushed those in front of them 
 out of the way, were pressing westward. 
 This scramble to reach the sea was demoral- 
 izing. Constantly on the move, old indus- 
 tries, such as working in iron, were abandoned, 
 their towns were carelessly built, they planted 
 too little and were therefore hungry some 
 months every year. The whole social fabric 
 was shaken because towns belonging to the 
 same clan became separated in transitu , and 
 a central government was therefore impossi- 
 ble. But this very movement would bring 
 hundreds of thousands of souls, before nearly 
 inaccessible, within easy reach of the gospel. 
 The forest back of Batanga would in twenty 
 years, perhaps less, be filled with a dense pop- 
 ulation; “that is, if we meet these peoples 
 with the gospel of peace and so tame their 
 savage instincts that they can be crowded 
 together without exterminating each other.” 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 199 
 
 The vast country from the Campo River 
 north to the Soudan border might be worked 
 as one field, in the Bulu language. 
 
 “The bane of mission work in all West 
 Equatorial Africa is the multitude of tribes, 
 each with a distinct language, into which the 
 people are split up. How I have longed for 
 a field in which one language and literature 
 would reach everybody! As I studied the 
 map, the prospect was not inspiring. There 
 were the Batanga people, the Mabeya, the 
 Fang, the Bene, the Yengone, the Yewondo. 
 I said to myself, ‘ Which of these tribes shall 
 we adopt!’ I dwell on this that you may 
 realize the thrill of pleasure with which I 
 learned that all these people, except the first 
 two, speak closely related dialects. . . . 
 When, in conversation of a half-hour with a 
 Yewondo man, I was able to detect only a 
 few slight variations from the Bulu, my last 
 doubt vanished, and I thanked Bod that we 
 had found our field.” 
 
 Climate indications were favorable, “ if 
 there is such a thing as good climate in 
 
200 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 Africa; but the man who is willing to go 
 only where the climate is good had better 
 stay in the United States.” 
 
 The Bulu were not cannibals, they held no 
 slaves, had no intoxicating drink, and, “as 
 far as I could discover,” there was no true 
 idolatry among them. Their superstition is 
 the fetish. “ They have not come in contact 
 with civilization enough to get even a veneer 
 of good manners, and simply acted out their 
 true character — not that they do not know 
 better. Their moral natures are tuned to the 
 same pitch as ours. They praise the same 
 virtues and reprove (in others) the same vices. 
 But in practice they are shamelessly immoral, 
 dishonest, cruel. They might be worse. I 
 think they are less vindictive than the Fang 
 of the Ogowe. Bulu character is somewhat 
 relieved by frequent streaks of good humor. 
 
 “ How often the thought came to me that 
 if heaven is to be a happy home for God’s peo- 
 ple, it will not do to admit these Bulu ! And 
 yet they are material out of which saints may 
 be made. Out of these rough, unlovely blacks 
 might be wrought beautiful images of Christ.” 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 201 
 
 The first “ recommendation ” of Dr. Good’s 
 report was that “we definitely adopt this 
 field. I believe God has assigned it to us 
 and calls us to enter. ... I make this rec- 
 ommendation after much prayerful, anxious 
 thought. I know that treasure must he ex- 
 pended and lives sacrificed if this region is to 
 be evangelized . 1 But with the difficulties and 
 perplexities in full view, I urge that we take 
 up this work.” 
 
 Promptness to act in establishing a first 
 station seemed of the greatest importance, 
 because the German government had prom- 
 ised not to allow Roman Catholics to enter a 
 field preempted by Protestants, and vice versa. 
 Americans would probably have no chance 
 unless they seized it soon. “If we let the 
 Catholics beat us in this race, we ought to go 
 home and quit.” 
 
 It was recommended that three new men, 
 one of them a mechanic, be sent out to man 
 the first station, others to follow in due time. 
 Were not the proposals conservative? “I 
 cannot bring myself to believe that our great, 
 
 1 The italics are the author’s. 
 
202 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 wealthy church will turn hack from this open 
 door. At least, let the work he laid on her 
 conscience. ... I have faith that men will 
 he found ready to go, and others will he glad 
 to make an investment for eternity by send- 
 ing them.” 
 
 Pending action upon his report, Dr. Good 
 was with his family at Baraka, his pen flying 
 night and day, from epistle to epistle, — would 
 it never get done? — copying the MpongwS 
 Testament. 
 
 Mission indorsed the report, and passed 
 resolutions adopting the new field and asking 
 the church for eight men to work it. Dr. 
 Good was appointed to Batanga, from there 
 to superintend opening the first station. On 
 account of his family, he regarded himself as 
 ineligible for permanent location in the inte- 
 rior. He strongly advocated having it opened 
 up by unmarried men, not chiefly on account 
 of difficulty of access and the roughness of 
 a pioneer station, hut rather to reduce ex- 
 penses to a minimum. He considered that 
 for the first years the people, food supplies, 
 climate, all, were on trial. The people might 
 
PIONEERING IN BULULAND 
 
 203 
 
 turn against white men and refuse to sell 
 them food. In such cases, if their houses 
 were simply built of bark in native style, 
 nothing to tempt the covetousness of Afri- 
 cans, the missionary would be in a position 
 to control the chiefs by threatening to move 
 on to So-and-so’s town. But if their premises 
 were too valuable to leave behind they would 
 be in the power of the Bulu, and the Bulu 
 would know it. “ I opposed taking ladies to 
 the new field chiefly because doing so means 
 building better houses and furnishing them 
 more expensively than I think the unsettled 
 condition of the country warrants. While 
 our plant has little value, the temptation to 
 plunder will be small.” For himself, he hoped 
 to perfect his knowledge of the Bulu language, 
 and, living at Batanga, alternate preparation 
 of Bulu books with itineration among the 
 Mabeya and near Bulu towns, thus strength- 
 ening the work of the interior at the rear. 
 
 When the report was received in America, 
 utmost pains was taken to have its contents 
 thoroughly digested by members of the Board 
 of Foreign Missions. The vote of adoption 
 
204 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 was unanimous, and it is probable that the 
 Board never took a forward step with more 
 perfect comprehension of what was involved. 
 
 In respect of distance from the sea, the 
 proposed first station did not compare with 
 some which had been opened prior to this 
 time, but there was this difference : all others 
 had been planted upon waterways, where the 
 missionary’s boat made him independent ; but 
 from Bululand there could be no way out ex- 
 cept on foot, through the bush, across bridge- 
 less streams, or, at best, in a hammock swung 
 upon men’s shoulders. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Byways of an Industeious Life 
 
 N O one was well acquainted with Dr. Good 
 who did not know of his fondness for 
 pet animals and his keen delight in the out- 
 door world. He would chase a monkey with 
 the zest of a hoy. He had not been in Gaboon 
 two weeks before a night-ape was sharing his 
 chamber. Later there was an owl named 
 “ the Judge.” A goat, gazelle, civet-cat, and 
 nine monkeys at one time were among the 
 domesticated pets in the Kangwe home. He 
 once shot a leopard that was robbing the 
 Baraka chicken-house, and he hunted ele- 
 phants now and again as they crossed the 
 track of his itineration; hut although the 
 true gorilla country was just behind his 
 Ogowe field, and it would have been his joy 
 
 205 
 
206 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 and pride to shoot a gorilla, he never left his 
 post to try it. 
 
 His chief diversion in Africa was collect- 
 ing moths and butterflies, of which he sent 
 thousands of specimens to America . 1 When 
 weaker men would have been snatching a nap 
 on the lounge, he was out in the air with his 
 butterfly net, a recreation which contributed 
 not a little towards keeping his mind healthy 
 and his judgment sound. But the very 
 Lepidoptera were made to fold their gauzy 
 wings for the redemption of Africa; every 
 dollar of remuneration for his specimens 
 was conscientiously devoted to mission pur- 
 poses. 
 
 Dr. Good’s ability was so versatile and his 
 tastes ran in so many channels that the old 
 phrase “ an all-around man ” was often ap- 
 plied to him. Had his life been prolonged to 
 old age he would have been able to make 
 valuable additions to the world’s knowledge 
 of the natural history, geology, ethnology, 
 and philology of Equatorial West Africa. 
 
 This chapter is devoted to extracts upon 
 
 i See Appendix A, 
 
BYIVAYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 207 
 
 miscellaneous subjects, taken verbatim, or 
 slightly condensed, from bis note-books and 
 letters. 
 
 EARTHWORMS AND DRIVER-ANTS 
 
 “ I saw to-day a curious sight. An army of 
 drivers had spread themselves out to forage, 
 and part of the path was black with them. 
 They swarmed not only on the ground, but on 
 bushes to a height of five or six feet, and 
 there was the usual commotion in the insect 
 world. When thus scattered about driver- 
 ants make a noise on the leaves exactly like 
 raindrops, and, misled by the noise, earth- 
 worms come out as they are wont to do when 
 it rains. It is a mistake, however, which they 
 usually atone for with their lives. To-day, 
 in advance of the advancing swarm of ants, 
 I saw two immense earthworms scurrying 
 across the path. They had come out to enjoy 
 a shower, but, happening near the edge of 
 the ants, were making good their escape. 
 One of them especially was of immense size, 
 fully a foot long and a quarter of an inch 
 thick. The extremities had a bluish cast, 
 
208 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 and about an inch and a half from the head 
 was a raised ring nearly half an inch wide. 
 When interfered with it squirmed violently. 
 Happening to touch it with my finger, I 
 noticed a spray striking my hand. Trying 
 again and again, I found that from any part 
 of its body it could send out, to a distance of 
 six inches or more, a jet of spray thick enough 
 to be distinctly visible and to make the hand 
 quite wet. The jet seemed to come out just 
 where the creature was touched and along a 
 half -inch perhaps of its length — a little diffi- 
 cult to determine exactly, for the spray did 
 not become distinctly visible till it had left 
 the body an inch or two. It came out ap- 
 parently from a center or point, and spread 
 like an inverted cone. I noticed no contrac- 
 tion of the skin or effort of any sort on the 
 part of the worm when it sent out the jet, 
 and it followed so quickly the touch that I 
 should say it was involuntary. The ejection 
 was not irritating to the skin, and had no 
 odor except an earthy smell such as one no- 
 tices when an earthworm is put on a fish- 
 hook.” (April 21, 1891.) 
 
BY IV AYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 209 
 
 “In New Nganda saw a young specimen 
 of what I take to be an albino monkey. It 
 was distinctly white, but that yellowing or 
 reddish white peculiar to albinos.” (1891.) 
 
 VISIT TO THE CAVE BUDIA (SYEKI NAME) 
 
 “While spending a night at the Orungu 
 town Nengawaga, about sixty miles below 
 Kangwe, I learned of the existence of a re- 
 markable cave a mile or two above. I at 
 once asked the chief to give me some one to 
 show me the way, and he promptly offered to 
 go himself, and so did, accompanied by quite 
 a large party of his people. We pulled up 
 first about one and a half miles to Anyam- 
 hicawango, landed, and got a slave to agree 
 to guide us for a small consideration. A 
 number of boys and young men having 
 joined us, we set out on foot for the cave. 
 I found it a real curiosity. About a mile 
 brought us to the orove mi talco (tobacco 
 prairie), much of which is bare rock and of 
 an unusual character for this country. All 
 rocks in the region seem to be sedimentary, 
 
210 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 but vary greatly in hardness. This one, 
 when wet, is covered with a slime as slippery 
 as soap, which, where it was dried, formed a 
 black, wrinkled scum not unlike tobacco in 
 appearance, though utterly unlike in flavor. 
 The people are said to use it as a substi- 
 tute, however, when they are hard up for the 
 weed. 
 
 “ At last we reach one of the entrances to 
 the cave. It is at the foot of a steep decliv- 
 ity, and looks like a big hole formed by a 
 cave-in of surface rocks. Lighting our lamps, 
 we are soon on the floor of the cavern, upon 
 which still lay the rocks whose falling in 
 made this entrance. To the north and south 
 start galleries which soon come to an end; 
 but a low one, leading in a westerly direction, 
 intersects the main gallery at right angles. 
 From there we start into the darkness nearly 
 due north. The first thing that strikes me is 
 a dull, peculiar roar like the noise of a power- 
 ful wind rushing through a rocky mountain 
 gorge. You can hardly believe it is only 
 bats, but soon you will ; for as you go on you 
 start them from their resting-place on the 
 
BYIVAYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 211 
 
 roof by thousands, and the air, as you look 
 towards a light, appears full of their dark 
 forms. The floor of the cave, where water 
 has not cleared it away, is covered to a depth 
 of four to six inches with a black mass which 
 feels under the bare feet like accumulated 
 soot. It is the excrement of myriads of bats. 
 Through and over this crawl the larvse of 
 two species of beetles, and everywhere may 
 be seen hopping about a long-legged and 
 rather feeble-looking cricket. These, with 
 countless small flies, gnats, and mosquito-like 
 insects, which did not appear to bite, make 
 up the life of the cave. The bats were of 
 two species. One was a little larger than 
 the common American bat. This filled the 
 whole interior of the cavern. A few of a 
 larger species, their wings having a spread 
 of more than a foot, were seen near the en- 
 trance. 
 
 “On one side usually ran the stream of 
 water. The floor of the cave is a talcose clay 
 or slate, so soft that it is difficult to say 
 whether it is clay or rock ; but it is sedimen- 
 tary and in distinct strata. Above this are 
 
212 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 strata of rocks of a peculiar porous character. 
 Much of it, I feel sure, would serve for drip- 
 stone. It seemed as light as chalk, and some 
 of it looked as if formed of a mass of minute 
 shells. It was certainly sedimentary, for it 
 was full of water-worn pebbles of various 
 colors, and in some pieces I brought away 
 there are distinct fossils. The roof was of 
 course a border rock, and the cave is simply 
 the course of an underground stream which 
 has hollowed out for itself a channel in this 
 soft rock. The main gallery varies from ten 
 feet in height and width to twenty or even 
 thirty feet. A gallery about midway of the 
 main one comes in from the east and, judging 
 from the stream of water issuing from it, is 
 quite long. Its entrance is only about two 
 and a half feet high, and, owing to our com- 
 pany getting divided and frightened, I could 
 not explore it far. 
 
 “ In the north end of the main gallery our 
 guide pointed to an entrance beyond which, 
 he said, were leopards. He hurried away, 
 pretending to be afraid. I called my boys to 
 follow me on a tour of investigation. An 
 
BYWAYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 213 
 
 examination of this supposed leopards’ den 
 showed no tracks except of dogs and men, 
 who had been there killing bats. The slaves 
 eat these bats, which they knock down with 
 clubs. Some one had found that in this par- 
 ticular cavern, which gradually became lower 
 and narrower as we proceeded, the bats were 
 driven before him until the air was thick 
 with them and the bat-catcher could bag all 
 the game he wanted. The ‘ leopard ’ was an 
 invention to keep others from sharing his 
 discovery. I went until I could see the end, 
 and I saw nothing more dangerous than bats. 
 How they did swarm ! I had to hold my 
 hand before my face as I advanced. Dozens 
 of them struck me all over the body every 
 moment, and a score or more were clinging 
 to different parts of my person. A rough 
 measurement of the cave gave a length of 
 three hundred and fifty yards. 
 
 “ Here I saw an amusing illustration of the 
 African’s ignorance of arithmetic beyond ad- 
 dition and subtraction. A vine was taken 
 into the cave to measure its length. The 
 main gallery from north to south entrance 
 
214 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 was thirty-two lengths of our vine. After 
 we came out, a native measured it by stretch- 
 ing his arms horizontally, thus giving the 
 length of his two arms plus the width of his 
 body. This gives one fathom, or six feet, 
 with a fair degree of accuracy. I laid the 
 vine on the ground and paced its length, mak- 
 ing it eleven yards, agreeing with the native’s 
 measurement. ‘ Now,’ said 1 , 1 our rope is five 
 and a half fathoms long, and the cave was 
 thirty-two times its length ; how many 
 fathoms long is the cave ? ’ They could not 
 see how it could be made out. When I told 
 them at once three hundred and fifty-two 
 yards, they thought I must be guessing. I 
 said, ‘ Count it up and see if I am not right.’ 
 They studied over it awhile, then one said he 
 could do it. He picked up the vine and 
 started to measure it off again in fathoms. 
 When I found that he intended to pass that 
 vine through his hands thirty-two times, 
 counting up as he went along, I told him 
 that his arithmetic was too slow for me, as 
 I wanted to get back to my dinner before 
 night.” (November, 1890.) 
 
BY IV AYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 215 
 
 A HIDEOUS INCIDENT FROM THE OGOWE 
 
 “ At Arevoma I was shown the evidence of 
 a fiendish act of cruelty. A man belonging 
 to a village just above Arevoma had married 
 a woman of Afangananga’s tribe, so far as 
 giving the dowry. The woman disliked him, 
 however, and wanted the marriage broken. 
 This gave the prospective husband an excuse 
 for claiming several times as much back as 
 he had paid. This was refused, and the 
 woman was compelled to marry him. She 
 went and, as far as I could learn, did nothing 
 out of the way ; but he caught her one morn- 
 ing, compelling a slave by threats of death to 
 help him, and cut off her ears, nose, and lips 
 clear around the mouth, leaving her horribly 
 disfigured. Thus he sent her home. Her 
 mother he struck a blow across the eyes that 
 put her blind. And this human fiend was 
 allowed to settle for all his cruelty by pay- 
 ment of a fine of five times the price of a 
 slave. There would be some comfort in even 
 this if the payment went to the injured 
 
216 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 women; but it all goes to the men of the 
 family.” (November, 1890.) 
 
 AFRICAN IDEAS OF JUSTICE — TWO GABOON 
 STORIES 
 
 “ One night, some years ago, a leopard killed 
 a very fine calf for Rev. William Walker, of 
 the mission, but was discovered and driven 
 off before it had time to eat or carry it away. 
 The same night the chief man of one of the 
 little towns that make up Gaboon had a very 
 fine pig taken by a leopard, presumably the 
 same one. Next morning the man came to 
 Mr. W. and wanted him to pay him for his 
 hog. Why? Because, as he argued, if the 
 leopard had been allowed to eat the calf it 
 would not have taken the hog. Mr. W. by 
 driving it away from the calf became directly 
 responsible for its taking the pig, and so 
 ought to pay for it. 
 
 “When the explorer Cameron was either 
 in Gaboon or somewhere on this part of the 
 coast, a native of means was attracted by 
 some of his goods and began to take measures 
 
BY IV AYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 217 
 
 to get them. He paid a man two hundred 
 dollars to steal them for him. The man went 
 and tried, hut Mr. C. had perversely locked 
 them up where it was impossible to get them ; 
 but he did not want to lose his two hundred 
 dollars, so he ran off. The man who was two 
 hundred dollars short by the transaction then 
 came to Cameron and told him the whole 
 story, and demanded of him, first, the two 
 hundred dollars which he had caused the com- 
 plainant to lose by locking up his goods, and, 
 second, the price of the goods he had put 
 out of the thief’s reach and which our cheeky 
 native friend had thereby been made to lose.” 
 
 VISIT TO THE DWARFS 
 
 [The publication of the following account 
 fell under the eye of a Scotch lady, who was 
 moved to provide the means for founding a 
 mission to these “ little people,” and two men 
 have undertaken the difficult experiment of 
 giving them the gospel.] 
 
 “ The second day from Batanga I struck a 
 village of the famous dwarfs. As everybody 
 
218 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 knows, it is only by a rare chance that one 
 ever gets a sight of these little people. They 
 are found all over this part of Africa, but 
 live much as the Gipsies do with us — scat- 
 tered among many tribes, belonging to none. 
 Other peoples live by agriculture. Though 
 much engaged in hunting and fishing, what 
 they kill is a small part of their living ; it is 
 on their gardens that they mainly depend. 
 
 “The dwarfs are not so. They live by 
 the chase and on such wild fruits and edible 
 leaves as are found in the forest; but they 
 are as fond of cassava, plantains, etc., as 
 other Africans. They want vegetable food, 
 but do not wish to work for it. How are they 
 to get it? I am happy to say they are not 
 charged with stealing from their neighbors’ 
 gardens. It is admitted on all hands that 
 they are remarkably honest. Here is their 
 mode of life : They attach themselves to some 
 town of Fang, or Mabeya, or whatever tribe 
 occupies the country. They are skilful 
 hunters, and if there is game to be had they 
 will get it. When hungry for vegetable food, 
 they take their game to the town and ex- 
 
BYWAYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 219 
 
 change it for what they want. This arrange- 
 ment seems so satisfactory to both parties 
 that often a family of dwarfs will maintain 
 such an alliance with a town of their stronger 
 neighbors for generations. The dwarfs are 
 themselves a timid, harmless people — at least, 
 those found in this part of Africa. I am as- 
 sured they never pretend to fight for their 
 rights. When people to whom they have at- 
 tached themselves do them a wrong which 
 they are disposed to resent, they simply 
 move away and seek alliance with some other 
 town. It is considered an advantage to have 
 them as neighbors. Their towns are not 
 permanent, merely rude sheds, which they 
 occupy only while game lasts in the neigh- 
 borhood, and so constantly move from place 
 to place that even their friends hardly know 
 sometimes where to find them. 
 
 “ But if the stronger tribes do not rob or 
 kill them, they certainly take advantage of 
 their ignorance of the world. They supply 
 them with cloth, guns, powder, spears, at 
 such prices as they choose to ask, and they 
 take good care that ‘their dwarfs’ come in 
 
220 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 contact with no one who will tell them how 
 they are being cheated. Here comes in the 
 difficulty of seeing them. You ask to be 
 shown a town of the dwarfs. The people 
 pretend to be most willing, but they explain 
 that the dwarfs have never seen a white man 
 and will be afraid ; they must go in advance 
 and prepare them. Their real object is to see 
 that they run away. If one comes upon a 
 dwarf village in the forest himself, — a most 
 unlikely thing, — the stories the dwarfs have 
 been told about the dreadful white man will 
 send them flying in all directions. Had I 
 asked the Mabeya to show me ‘ their dwarfs,’ 
 I would have asked in vain ; they would have 
 hit upon some scheme for keeping me away ; 
 but I happened to have a young guide who 
 was very impetuous. As we were trudging 
 through the forest, I noticed a newly beaten 
 track leading off from the main path, and at 
 the same moment heard voices at no great 
 distance. I asked in surprise, ‘Who made 
 that path?’ Without taking time to think, 
 he replied, ‘ There is a town of dwarfs there.’ 
 Then I had him fast, ... I found the dwarfs 
 
BYWAYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 221 
 
 at home to the number of fifty or sixty, and 
 not so badly frightened, after all, which I at- 
 tribute to the fact that they had not been 
 ‘ prepared ’ for my visit. 
 
 “The village was evidently newly built; 
 the thatch was still comparatively fresh. The 
 spot selected for their village was well chosen ; 
 the ground was high and well drained, and a 
 fair-sized stream of beautifully clear water 
 flowed close by. I could have enjoyed spend- 
 ing a few days in such a camp myself ; but to 
 spend one’s life in such encampments, — no 
 clearing, no open country, no sunlight, no 
 outlook beyond the shadowy forest glades, — 
 the thought was enough for me. I have pic- 
 tured only the reality. How can these people 
 ever see clear sunlight ! They can, of course, 
 wade out into the middle of some stream 
 wide enough not to be overshadowed by trees, 
 or find a place where a large tree has fallen 
 and carried down with it a number of its 
 lesser neighbors, thus letting the sunlight 
 through to earth ; but practically these people 
 only see the sun as they get dim glimpses of 
 it through the trees. Their houses are simply 
 
222 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 sheds. Poles are placed with one end on the 
 ground, the other resting on a horizontal pole 
 supported on posts four or five feet from the 
 ground. Across these poles small sticks are 
 laid, like lath on a roof, and on these the 
 large leaves that serve as shingles. You 
 would imagine that such a roof would leak ; 
 but when well made it is really wonderful 
 how it will turn water. These houses are ten 
 to twelve feet from front to back, and any- 
 where from ten to twenty-five feet long. 
 Sometimes the ends are partly closed by set- 
 ting up branches of trees against the roof. 
 The front is always open. 
 
 “ I found a number of Mabeya in their en- 
 campment, exchanging cassava for game. 
 They seemed rather put out at seeing me 
 there, but the dwarfs appeared rather pleased. 
 They gathered around and gazed in speech- 
 less wonder ; but I doubt whether their curi- 
 osity was greater than mine. Could I talk 
 to them ? I tried Bulu on them ; they replied 
 modestly that they did not know Bulu, but 
 as they spoke in a language very like the 
 Fang of the Ogowg, I felt at home at once. 
 
BYWAYS OF Ah! INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 223 
 
 A big and very consequential Mabeya came 
 up and offered to interpret my Bulu into 
 Mabeya; but I promptly declined his ser- 
 vices, and I had no difficulty in making my- 
 self understood. They answered questions 
 about themselves without hesitation. One 
 little old man seemed especially intelligent 
 and fearless. I put the question to him 
 plainly, ‘ Why do you live here in the bush 
 like this, and never come to see the white 
 man ? ’ He replied, with a side wink towards 
 the Mabeya, 1 These people will not allow us 
 to see the white man.’ I spent most of my 
 time trying to solve a question, the answer 
 to which I have been seeking for years, viz. : 
 Do the dwarfs have a language of their own, 
 or do they speak the language of the tribe 
 with which they associate themselves ? Other 
 tribes answer the question both ways; but 
 while I was among them I heard nothing but 
 Mabeya and Fang. 
 
 “ These dwarfs did not fit any description 
 I have ever read of African pygmies. Some 
 of them must have been five feet or more in 
 height ; still, they were distinctly dwarfed in 
 
224 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 stature. They were a lighter tint than the 
 surrounding tribes, but I could see no sign 
 of the yellowish or reddish growth of hair on 
 the body, of which some travelers have 
 spoken. Certainly these dwarfs were the 
 lowest specimens of the human race I have 
 yet encountered. Their jaws were much too 
 large ; their foreheads and tops of their heads 
 seemed irregular and rough, instead of smooth 
 and rounded. The lowness of their foreheads 
 was emphasized by the size of their eyes ; the 
 children especially seemed to have eyes like 
 saucers. The eyebrows, which were heavy, 
 seemed farther above the eye than in other 
 races. You can imagine the result. The 
 eyebrows seemed to be in the middle of the 
 forehead, and, worst of all, the brows did not 
 in cases appear to be set on straight ; the two 
 eyebrows on the same person did not, in 
 some cases, seem to have the same slant. 
 This must have been a mistake on my part, 
 but it certainly seemed to me so. The upper 
 part of their bodies was strong enough, but 
 the abdomen was far too large for symmetry, 
 and their legs were crooked and weak. 
 
BY IV AYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 225 
 
 “ On the whole, my visit to the dwarfs left 
 on my mind a feeling of sadness. I tried to 
 learn something of their religious ideas, but 
 could not find that they differed from those 
 of the Mabeya. 
 
 “ I am told that far back of the Bulu there 
 is a country occupied by dwarfs alone. Cer- 
 tainly there are in Africa a vast number of 
 these weak, harmless people, and the Chris- 
 tian cannot but ask, How long will it take 
 the slowly dawning light to reach these chil- 
 dren of nature skulking with the beasts in 
 the shades of these mighty forests ? 
 
 “ One more curious fact. It is freely ad- 
 mitted by other tribes that the sea was first 
 discovered by the dwarfs, while the people 
 now on the coast were still far back in the 
 forest and did not know there was such a 
 thing as the sea.” (Batanga, July, 1893.) 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS SAYINGS AMONG THE BULU 
 
 Proverbs . — You set an ngombo (a basket for 
 catching fish), you think of ghosts (because 
 such baskets are set at night in lonely places). 
 
226 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 The dead trunk of the otunga (a species of 
 tree) has broken down the trunk of the odii 
 (a larger and stronger tree); (i.e., a man of 
 small importance has caused the death of an 
 important man). 
 
 As you despise a stick (or log), it hurts or 
 strikes your leg. 
 
 The buffalo that catches you in the street 
 of your fathers, is it not goats that are in the 
 street of your fathers’ town ? 
 
 An Oath. — Destruction ! (A call to all the 
 dead.) I swear by the dead. I swear by (my) 
 father. I swear by (my) mother. Another 
 form of oath is : I swear by the people who 
 have perished (equivalent to, the dead). 
 
 Ideas of God. — Bisi Zam ele — The seats of 
 God are there. (Said when calling attention 
 to brilliant cloud effects.) Endi Zam ele — The 
 roof of God is there. (Used in the same way.) 
 
 If Zam speaks, there is no longer any medi- 
 cine that will avail. If Zam wishes to heal 
 people, medicine is useless. 
 
 O Zam, thou hast made us ; why, then, do you 
 take away an only wife? (Such complaints 
 common, but no one openly abuses Zam.) 
 
BY IV AYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 227 
 
 Had it not been for Zam, this would not 
 have been accomplished (lit., arranged). 
 
 Zam ate nye ni , ane mone Zam — God has 
 saved him, he is a son of God. (Said of one who 
 has experienced some remarkable deliverance.) 
 
 I will not occupy the place of a king; I 
 will occupy the place of Zam (i.e., the place 
 Zam assigns me), because Zam, who has 
 made us all, he says, Be so. (Language of 
 one who has been disappointed in not being 
 chosen chief.) 
 
 One who is hopelessly afflicted is called 
 Ndenden. Of such an one it is said : God him- 
 self has afflicted him. (Said especially of a 
 cripple.) 
 
 A prayer: Zam, do not take me (i.e., by 
 death) till I have first eaten that food. (Such 
 a prayer is likely to be uttered by one who 
 sees that his garden is going to give a good 
 crop.) Other examples of petition : Zam, do 
 not take me till I first see how my son will 
 turn out (lit., how he will hunt). Zam, let 
 me first marry, let me first have a child. 
 
 When a boy curses an old man, or steals, or 
 any man does wrong, he is often reproved by 
 
228 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 saying to him : Zam ayi yene wo abe — Giod 
 will not like you, or, will be displeased with 
 you. One who is wronged often says: God 
 will revenge me on high. 
 
 Not all will “ see” good in the world to come ; 
 some will live in “ God’s town,” which is re- 
 garded as a great good ; but bad people will 
 not be allowed to stop in God’s town, but will 
 be compelled to pass to a place called Etoto- 
 len, a place of exile ; as, when one is carried 
 away over the sea to unknown countries from 
 which he can never return, nor see his people 
 again, he is said to have gone to Etotolen. 
 Another version is that all must pass over a 
 high, narrow bridge across a deep, wide stream. 
 Over this the good successfully pass, but the 
 bad fall into Etotolen. I heard this version 
 only once. A bad man is told : You cannot 
 live in the place where God lives. 
 
 Of a cripple it is said : There remains for 
 him only to go and meet Zam ; he has become 
 a person of “ on high ” ; he no longer amounts 
 to anything as a man. 
 
 The rainbow at first lived in this world. 
 When he went to Zam above, he went because 
 
BYWAYS OF AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 229 
 
 he had caught people. Men cut him in two. 
 The tail turned into the python. Black spots 
 on the python’s skin are said to be skins of 
 people he ate while still the rainbow. The 
 rainbow, called the snake of Zam, is said 
 to come to earth occasionally at waterfalls. 
 When seen in such places, children are warned 
 not to go near lest he eat them. 
 
 Fabulous Stories about Peoples in the Inte- 
 rior . — Back somewhere east of the Bulu are 
 said to be the Biyamos, a people who sleep 
 by day and work and travel at night. 
 
 There are Ye-Mefap, a people said to have 
 wings. There are Bemfamelede, called also 
 Bilatata, a Siamese-twins sort of people, 
 always in couples, joined together back to 
 back. In Minjem, people spend most of the 
 time by day scattered in the tree-tops. They 
 come down to build, make gardens, etc., but 
 as a rule only come to town at night. A full- 
 sized, warlike people, who fight from their 
 tree-tops. Said to be very black. 
 
 The Bifaifai are a people whose heads are 
 flattened both behind and before, hence called 
 also Bibambam. 
 
230 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 As a specimen of the original ancestral 
 tales from which the “ Uncle Remus ” stories 
 have unquestionably descended, the follow- 
 ing has a special literary value. 
 
 A BULU FABLE — THE LEOPARD AND THE 
 PYTHON 
 
 [Among the Bulu there is a custom that 
 whoever has a palaver with one whom he 
 fears may go to a third party and say, “Song” 
 which is equivalent to saying, “ I put my 
 palaver in your hands.” This third party 
 then presses his claim, not only collecting the 
 debt or damages claimed by the aggrieved 
 party, but enough more to pay himself.] 
 
 The leopard said to the turtle, “All the 
 animals of the forest I have caught, save only 
 the python. Song — catch him for me.” “ All 
 right,” said the turtle; “go to your town.” 
 When the leopard had gone, the python came 
 and said to the turtle, “ All the animals of 
 the forest I have caught, save only one, the 
 leopard. SSng — catch him for me.” “All 
 right,” said the turtle; “go to your town.” 
 
BYIVAYS OF 4N INDUSTRIOUS LIFE 231 
 
 When the python was gone, the turtle 
 thought the matter over, and dug a deep pit 
 in the bushes near his house. This he covered 
 over carefully and awaited the coining of his 
 clients. The python came wriggling up and 
 said, “Where is the leopard I asked you to 
 catch for me ? ” The turtle whispered, “ Don’t 
 speak again. There is the leopard coming. 
 Run and hide there ” (pointing the way of the 
 trap). Hurrying to hide himself in the 
 bushes, crash ! went the python into the pit. 
 The turtle came and said, “ Don’t dare to 
 speak, lest the leopard hear you ; you are in 
 a safe place,” and carefully covered the pit 
 over again. Then the leopard came, to whom 
 the turtle said, “ Run ! hide there quick ! I 
 see the python coming over there.” He, too, 
 running to hide himself, crashed through the 
 treacherous cover into the pit. The python 
 cried, “What’s that?” The leopard cried, 
 “What’s that?” The python coiled for a 
 spring; the leopard stood with opened jaws 
 and paws uplifted, ready to meet the dreaded 
 enemy. Then from the mouth of the pit 
 came the mocking voice of the turtle : “ Leop- 
 
232 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 ard, you asked me to catch the python for 
 you. You, python, asked me to catch for you 
 the leopard. I have caught you both. You 
 are in the pit, both of you. Make the best 
 of it.” And at it they both went, and fought 
 till they fell apart, both dead. 
 
 Of course this is not a literal translation of 
 the original ; indeed, to translate the wonder- 
 fully concise and graphic style of these fables 
 is impossible. But this is a sample of the 
 stories which these people have told over, 
 generation after generation, for who knows 
 how many centuries 1 These childish tales, 
 when well told, have a charm and fascination 
 that no written story can ever have. The 
 leopard does not simply come up — his stately 
 tread is imitated; so, too, the wriggling of 
 the serpent, the crash as they fall into the 
 pit; and when they fight, the story-teller’s 
 teeth seem to become fangs, his fingers claws, 
 his arms are the python’s deadly coils, and 
 his voice growls and groans until one can 
 almost fancy the creatures engaged in a 
 death-struggle before his eyes. (Efulen, 1894.) 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Roughing it in the Bush 
 1893 
 
 I N anticipation of introducing the coming 
 recruits to the interior, there was much 
 to be done: studying Bulu when nothing 
 else; casually picking up Banaka speech, 
 useful with carriers ; especially making more 
 trips inland by which to win the confidence 
 not only of Bulu, but also Mabeya, who were 
 afraid this passing beyond through their 
 towns meant losing their trade. On each re- 
 appearance among them, the white man was 
 greeted with diminishing suspicion. Few 
 now asked the question, “What are you 
 seeking for ! ” But as he came closer to the 
 people, notwithstanding all his previous 
 knowledge of Africans, Dr. Good was pro- 
 foundly impressed with their unspeakable im- 
 
 233 
 
234 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 morality. “ I cannot lift the veil.” That the 
 gospel is the power of God was his only confi- 
 dence. “ Of one thing I am certain. There is 
 no remedy but God’s great remedy for sin. 
 And that that will avail I have already been 
 permitted to see. The Galwa of the Ogowe, 
 while less savage, were once much more 
 superstitious and hardly less immoral than 
 these Bulu. I did not see them until they 
 had been greatly changed by the influence 
 of the gospel, but I had abundant testimony 
 as to what they had been. And I have seen 
 hundreds of those Galwa come to Christ and 
 become, if not saints, at least as different 
 from what they were as darkness is from 
 light. The degradation of the Bulu has 
 shocked me, because I have seen it in all its 
 shameless nakedness. Pray that I may be 
 permitted to see even these brought to the 
 feet of Jesus and clothed in his likeness.” 
 The first bush for the new station was cut 
 June 5, on the hill afterwards named, at the 
 suggestion of a Bulu woman, “Efulen” 1 — a 
 mingling. The missionaries had come to 
 
 1 Pronounced “a-full'en.” 
 
ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH 
 
 235 
 
 settle all palavers and bring together (mingle) 
 all kinds of people. Within a few weeks 
 after it was occupied, Batanga, Mabeya, Ban- 
 aka, Galwa from the Ogowe, and Bulu were 
 all working together on Efulen Hill. 
 
 Batanga men were first set to making a 
 small clearing, and then left to put up a bark 
 house, native style, for a first temporary 
 shelter. The Bulu promised, on their part, 
 to build the indispensable palaver house, 
 which serves all the purposes of restaurant, 
 club-house, court, and city hall ; in this case 
 it was to be also the house of prayer. 
 
 The expected three men for the interior 
 having arrived, Dr. Good wrote to his strong 
 backers in Montclair: “They all seem well 
 adapted for the work to which they have 
 come. Pray for them, as you have prayed 
 for me, that they may be long spared to work 
 for the Master, a blessing to Africa and her 
 perishing millions.” And, about to march 
 up-country, he wrote to the Board: “You 
 cannot move too fast for me. I see no ob- 
 stacle to our establishing three or four sta- 
 tions as fast as the men can be gotten out,” 
 
236 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 In Africa there are always obstacles. The 
 new doctor was at once detained at the coast, 
 and within two years both the professional 
 members of the party were in America, on 
 the resignation list. But that event was for 
 the present hid from their eyes. 
 
 Mr. Matthew Henry Kerr and Bev. B. H. 
 Milligan went up with Dr. Good and reached 
 the mission clearing July 22. The one-roomed 
 little house with earth floor was ready for 
 three educated white men, and a tent for dry 
 weather; after that, they had nothing but 
 their hands and tools and the rich primeval 
 forest surrounding them, from which huge 
 tree-trunks lay felled in the clearing. The 
 station possessed neither table, desk, nor 
 chair, and was equally destitute of furniture 
 for preaching the gospel. There was not a 
 page of the Bible in Bulu, nor one hymn. 
 Only one of the trio could even imperfectly 
 convey the message of God’s Word. He was 
 struggling with gaps in the savage language. 
 How express the idea of the Holy Spirit to a 
 people whose only notion of “ spirit ” is the 
 shadow of a living man or the ghost o£ one 
 
ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH 
 
 237 
 
 dead? There were two words in Bulu for 
 “ town,” but only one and the same verb for 
 “to believe,” “to trust,” and “to have faith.” 
 Mr. Kerr began at once getting out planks 
 with a pit-saw, and whenever it was in motion 
 he was the center of a curious and smiling 
 circle of Bulu. After six weeks the Station 
 were able to elevate themselves off from their 
 earth floor, so dangerous in malarial Africa, 
 and to move, though still in one cramped 
 room, into a new residence built on posts 
 three to four feet high, with bark walls and 
 roof of bamboo thatch. It was completed 
 by the middle of October, affording a private 
 room for each missionary, a store-room, and 
 one general living-room, which occupied the 
 center of the house and opened on a porch at 
 each end. The floors were plank. There was 
 neither sash nor glass, but open window- 
 places, protected by shutters. Their dining- 
 table was a true antique — a circular slice of 
 a virgin forest tree, with the bark left on, 
 supported on stakes for legs. A clay fireplace 
 was constructed in the “parlor,” where the 
 weather permitted of a fire burning most of 
 
238 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 the time. Fuel bills were at zero, and no 
 taxes to pay. Dr. Good, by dint of persever- 
 ance, built himself a bedstead and stuffed 
 his mattress with native corn-husks. The 
 poor hard soil was worked, a variety of vege- 
 tables planted, and banana and other fruit 
 trees were started. 
 
 Efulen commanded a crystal stream of 
 water, and, on those sides not walled in by 
 forest, a distant view of grand mountains. 
 Workmen were paid wages of sixteen or eigh- 
 teen cents a day, and the house, sixteen by 
 twenty-eight feet, cost $52.80. In this way 
 Dr. Good’s purpose to give an object-lesson 
 to the people was realized. 
 
 “ On the coast we import everything, and 
 the natives conclude that to be civilized they 
 must have foreign food, foreign furniture, et 
 cater a , and thus native industry is discour- 
 aged. The Bulu think God has given us our 
 wealth, and scoff at the idea that white men 
 make cloth and furniture. If we build and 
 furnish our houses and spread our tables 
 from the resources of their own country, we 
 are pointing them in the only direction in 
 
THE EFULEN HOUSE— MORNING BARTER 
 DR. GOOD’S ROOM ON THE RIGHT. 
 BULU TOWN OF NKONEMEKAK. 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 URBANA 
 
ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH 
 
 239 
 
 which there is hope of bettering their condi- 
 tion. If we set out to have foreign supplies, 
 the report will go through the land that white 
 men have come with inexhaustible wealth ; 
 but if we make the least possible display of 
 foreign goods, raise our own food and make 
 our furniture, the story will be rehearsed far 
 and wide that the white men work with their 
 hands, even make gardens. This will do 
 more to correct their absurd ideas of white 
 men than years of preaching.” 
 
 The population around Efulen was not 
 stagnant. Native traders were coming and 
 going. Strangers appeared from distant 
 places, so that preaching at Efulen was like 
 preaching to the inhabitants for a hundred 
 miles east and northeast. 
 
 Development of the station was going on 
 smoothly when news from his wife compelled 
 Dr. Good to hasten to the beach. He had 
 been there but a week when a pursuing mes- 
 senger brought tidings that Mr. Milligan was 
 very ill. This was one of the times of dilem- 
 ma when the missionary discussed within 
 himself “ whether my duty lies there or with 
 
240 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 my invalid wife.” He left Mrs. Good in bed, 
 under tlie doctor’s care, and, with the roads 
 at their worst, made a forced march — a “ ter- 
 rible ” journey even for him. The only way 
 he could cross some of the swollen, rushing 
 torrents was by climbing trees and swinging 
 himself from interlacing branches of one tree 
 to those of another on the opposite bank. 
 But difficulties of the journey were naught 
 compared with the anxiety in his breast. His 
 patient was five weeks in bed with typhoid 
 fever. 
 
 Itineration being thus prevented, Bulu 
 manuscript multiplied. A dictionary was 
 growing fast. By October two hymns would 
 “ go ” and the first consecutive passage from 
 the Word of God was read to the Sunday 
 audience (October 1). It was a portion of the 
 Sermon on the Mount. What conception 
 did those bloody men receive from the novel 
 proclamation, “ Blessed are the poor in spirit,” 
 “ Blessed are the peacemakers ” ? 
 
 At this stage in mastering the language, Dr. 
 Good’s method was to set a Bulu man to talk- 
 ing and stop him with questions whenever 
 
ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH 
 
 241 
 
 he used a new word. That would result in 
 gaining a general idea, spread over three or 
 four terms. The hinge of the task was then 
 to extricate the exact meaning in each of 
 these terms. What should be done for a 
 word to express thanks and thanksgiving? 
 The Bulu had no word. Christian ideas had 
 no expression, because they had no place in 
 the heart. u Give them the ideas, and they 
 will soon find expression for them.” It was 
 therefore his purpose to translate the gospels 
 as soon as possible, and stop there. Some 
 development of religious language might be 
 counted upon within two or three years, when 
 translation of the whole New Testament 
 would be in order, to be rounded out with a 
 revision of the gospels. 
 
 The Bulu tongue, however, was well 
 equipped with terms for sense-perceptions. 
 A race standing guard, through suspicious 
 generations, against human foes and lurking 
 beast and viper in the twilight of the forest 
 had developed five or six synonyms for the 
 phrase “ to see.” “ For all forms of evil they 
 have a wealth of names that completely 
 
242 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 discounts the English. ... It is intensely 
 interesting to stand by and watch the regen- 
 eration of a language.” 
 
 His young brethren looked on admiringly 
 as from the lips of a wild Bulu, however re- 
 pulsive his personal presence, his enunciation 
 changing and indistinct, his intellect however 
 dull, word by word, idiom by idiom, was cap- 
 tured. Ask the expression for “my gun,” 
 and the answer is given ; then ask for “ my 
 guns,” and the man declares, “I have only 
 one.” It is no use to press him further. He 
 is ready to call all his wives and brothers to 
 testify that he has “ only one gun.” Half a 
 dozen Bulu would be successively played out 
 in a morning under his fire of questions, 
 while “ Dr. Good would toil on till night, 
 never once losing patience, to my 1 know- 
 ledge. . . . His understanding of the African 
 people and his discretion in dealing with 
 them commanded my continual respect and 
 admiration. . . . He could learn the truth 
 from them when they told him nothing but 
 lies. He might ask the road to some partic- 
 
 1 Key. R. H. Milligan. 
 
ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH 
 
 243 
 
 ular town, and they would tell him the bold- 
 est lies ; but without betraying suspicion he 
 would continue to question, keeping his at- 
 tention apparently fixed upon the chief 
 speakers, but hearing every word spoken by 
 others aside. At last, when they had finished, 
 he would start off in the right direction, leav- 
 ing them amazed and saying among them- 
 selves, ‘This white man has very powerful 
 charms.’ 
 
 “ One day a Bulu chief called Ngombair, a 
 powerful man, came to our station storming 
 furiously against the white man. He had 
 been sending many persons for medical treat- 
 ment without paying anything for medicine. 
 Other natives paid something, but he pre- 
 sumed upon his importance until, at last, we 
 had sent his patients back to town without 
 treatment. He cursed us to the workmen 
 upon our own premises and roused them 
 against us, using very abusive language. Dr. 
 Hood heard it without any show of indigna- 
 tion. Then, with a quiet smile, turning to 
 another native, he asked : ‘ Is this Ngombair 
 who talks in this way! Is this the wise chief 
 
244 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 of Nkonemekak ? ’ Already the chief began 
 to feel ashamed. Dr. G-ood talked to him a 
 few minutes in a friendly way, and soon sent 
 him home cheerful and praising the white 
 man. So skilful was he in controlling and 
 quieting their savage passions.” 
 
 The illness of his wife detained Dr. Good 
 at the coast for some weeks towards the end 
 of 1893. “ All goes well at Efulen,” he wrote ; 
 
 “ but so long as I alone have the language, 
 the evangelistic side, the most important 
 side, of our work must depend mostly on 
 myself. And yet I sometimes suspect that if I 
 should never he able to go hack , the Master 
 could find others to carry on this work ! ” 
 
 From the Ogowe Dr. Good had written to 
 his wife in 1888 : “ This separation is to be 
 the last, or I can’t help it.” And to the secre- 
 tary : “ As a rule, I am utterly opposed to 
 such separations ; only the weakness of our 
 force could have induced me to consent.” 
 Yet, ever since, temporary separations from 
 his family had been constant, and, at the 
 opening of 1894, he was again face to face 
 with the alternative. Mission meeting was 
 
ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH 
 
 245 
 
 at hand; their trunks were packed to take 
 the invalid to America; the steamer would 
 soon arrive. Some of the brethren conferred 
 together, and begged him to stay behind. 
 Affairs in the interior were not in a condition 
 to be left without him. It was true. With 
 prayer and searching of heart he consulted 
 his wife. When she gave her full consent 
 for him to remain, he said, “ You are really 
 helping the work more than any one else.” 
 He sent her and their son, in company with 
 a missionary lady, to Grand Canary, whence, 
 as the season advanced towards spring, she 
 might safely go on to America. He watched 
 the disappearing steamer, and plunged into 
 the bush. 
 
 Already, only six months after the station 
 was opened, its influence had begun to tell. 
 There were certainly no converts yet ; there 
 was not even one of whom the missionaries 
 could hope that he would soon take hold on 
 Christ ; but there were good signs. 
 
 Every Lord’s day brought a company of 
 people to Efulen Hill ; and instead of staying 
 away after their curiosity was gratified, the 
 
246 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 most attentive hearers were those who had 
 heard most. The part of the gospel message 
 which the Bulu seemed to grasp first was 
 what they eminently needed — “ peace among 
 men.” Walking through a town where a 
 palaver was being talked, Dr. Glood asked in 
 jest if the palavers were not all finished yet. 
 “Can palavers ever finish?” one of them re- 
 plied; but added, “Were we ever before so 
 long without killing people as since you 
 came ? ” “ And, thinking over the matter, it 
 
 is true. In towns about Efulen there has 
 been no attempt at bloodshed since the station 
 was opened. Women have eloped or been 
 carried off under circumstances that in the 
 old days would have led to bloodshed ; but, in 
 every case so far, it has been avoided out of 
 deference, so they say, to our teachings.” A 
 man from the Ntum tribe, three days south 
 on the Campo, said that the “Word” had 
 gone all through the Ntum country, and peo- 
 ple were “ settling their palavers.” 
 
 The comparatively subdued behavior of 
 Efulen audiences was realized only by the 
 contrast in towns outside, where usually two 
 or three young fellows would keep up run- 
 
ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH 
 
 247 
 
 ning comments on the preaching, not intend- 
 ing to be disrespectful but frequently giving 
 to it a ludicrous turn. Or, one would notice 
 something about the missionary’s person that 
 struck him as odd and nudge his neighbor. 
 Eyes in all directions would quickly take the 
 hint, till suddenly the whole audience, who a 
 moment before were listening intently, would 
 be lost in gazing at the speaker’s hair or 
 shoes. And they would laugh at everything, 
 especially when the eternal punishment of 
 the wicked was mentioned, no matter how 
 carefully and seriously. A babel of voices 
 would remind one another that that was for 
 them. If stealing or other immorality were 
 mentioned, side-glances and ringing laughter 
 not only played havoc with the thread of dis- 
 course, but indicated how prevalent such sins 
 were. It was usually impossible to hold 
 attention in new places for more than ten 
 minutes. The missionary could never ex- 
 plain the reason why towns differed in their 
 reception of his message ; for in some places 
 he could talk without interruption for half 
 an hour. 
 
 Of the draft there is upon one in present- 
 
248 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 ing divine truth to such people, Dr. Good had 
 ample experience this year. In February he 
 tramped twelve days, back and forth, on a 
 preaching tour southeast from Efulen, in the 
 region where it was hoped to locate a second 
 station. Every day he preached in from five 
 to eight towns. A specimen experience must 
 be given in his own words : 
 
 “ Frequently after I have ceased speaking, 
 the chief or some other man of influence will 
 harangue the people and urge them to receive 
 and obey the words God has sent the white 
 man to teach them. How he will tax his 
 people with lying, stealing, robbery, immo- 
 rality ! To hear him remind his neighbors of 
 what they may expect in the world to come, 
 one would think he himself must be an angel 
 of light, with nothing to fear from the events 
 of the last great day. And yet that man is 
 passionate, cruel, always ready for a fight or 
 a foray, probably a robber and murderer 
 many times over; his avarice is insatiable, 
 he is a beastly glutton. But as he stands 
 forth, dilating on the shortcomings of his 
 forty or fifty wives and on the faults of his 
 
ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH 
 
 249 
 
 neighbors in general, he seems utterly uncon- 
 scious of the fact that he is probably the 
 greatest sinner of them all. How exceedingly 
 human all this is ! and how I long for the day 
 when the Spirit of truth will give them such 
 a view of their own sins that they will forget 
 those of their neighbors ! ” 
 
 The responsibility resting upon Dr. Good 
 for the health of his younger associates and 
 of the whole great enterprise was keenly ap- 
 preciated. “ You will not be surprised when 
 I tell you that I sometimes tremble. I under- 
 stand now Paul’s anxiety, so often spoken of 
 in his epistles, lest he should be ‘put to 
 shame.’ I can only pray that God will glorify 
 his great name.” 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 The Ckowning Year 
 1894 
 
 1 Efulen all was animation and action 
 
 in the spring of 1894. Dr. Glood and 
 Mr. Kerr were out with native workmen, 
 making a road around swamps, the worst 
 place on the route to the beach, and bridging 
 the Kribi River at a point twenty miles from 
 the station, by felling an immense tree across 
 it. He doubts whether there is a pastor in 
 New York City who could have done four 
 such days’ work “without feeling inconve- 
 nience.” A school-house is finished in May, 
 the first in all Buludom ; and now that they 
 have promise of recruits from America, Mr. 
 Kerr’s saw is in motion again, and great bales 
 of bark and other materials are gradually 
 
 250 
 
HEADS OF BULU WOMEN AT EFULEN. 
 
 PIT-SAW AT EFULEN AND WORKMEN FROM SEVERAL TRIBES. 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 URBAN/ 1 , 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 251 
 
 gathering and seasoning on the premises for 
 a second missionary dwelling. 
 
 In late April Dr. Good is up and away on 
 the march, most of the time with two carriers 
 only, all comforts necessarily reduced to the 
 lowest notch. At the same time his order is 
 on the way home to the Board for one hun- 
 dred dollars, earned with his indefatigable 
 butterfly net, “ to aid in opening the second 
 station.” The object of this trip is to find a 
 site for that station and to study the field in 
 general. 
 
 His course, directed as usual by his pocket 
 compass, was south by east as far as the 
 Nlobo River, two hundred and ten to two 
 hundred and twenty miles from the coast. 
 There he was within three days of the Ja, 
 into which it flows, and the Ja is an indirect 
 tributary of the Congo. This journey deter- 
 mined in general the scope of the field which 
 had been entered. Its eastern limit must be 
 the Ja, for across that live the savage Ntem, 
 a people wholly different from the Bulu. To 
 the south one would soon drift into French 
 territory; but to the north Bulu towns 
 
252 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 stretched for a hundred miles, and, for no 
 one knows how much farther, those of other 
 tribes having a cognate speech. Dr. Grood 
 tramped on this journey four hundred miles, 
 a great part of the way where the foot of 
 white man never trod before. 
 
 The weather was cool, generally fine. 
 Sometimes from a hilltop he would catch a 
 view of wooded hills rolling away as far as 
 the eye could see; and when he reached 
 plateaus twenty-six hundred feet and more 
 above sea-level, the air was as pure and the 
 sky as blue as among the well-remembered 
 Pennsylvania hills. 
 
 It was plain that “ a vast population looks 
 to us for the gospel.” But the Bulu manner 
 of life forbade denseness of population, and 
 their method of building was such as to give 
 the appearance, from a distance, of unbroken 
 forest even in thickly settled parts. Bulu 
 towns, composed of three to thirty villages 
 strung along a path at intervals of fifty to 
 several hundred yards, might extend for 
 miles. Each village has its one straight 
 street, lined on either side with low bark 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 253 
 
 houses, and a palaver house across both ends. 
 Between these lines of villages are intervals 
 of bush or forest, or oftener clearings called 
 gardens, where corn, cassava, groundnuts, 
 and plantains grow. Cultivation of these is 
 entirely the women’s work, but is done so in- 
 efficiently that they get only two or three 
 crops in ten years. Dr. Good pitied the poor 
 drudges, who lose their good looks and are 
 old women when they ought to be coming to 
 their best years. He marked them carrying 
 the daily food of the family on their backs 
 from garden to house, and the basket of fire- 
 wood, besides, with which to cook it. He 
 watched the wife on the road, staggering be- 
 hind her husband under a load of food, goods 
 and rubber, perhaps fifty pounds’ weight, 
 while her liege lord burdened himself with a 
 single gun. “One of the saddest sights I 
 ever saw was women toiling through deep 
 forest under their heavy loads, perhaps in 
 pouring rain, with a crying baby slung in a 
 strap under one arm.” Even maternity re- 
 ceives but little consideration. Among some 
 African tribes, the Galwa, for example, the 
 
254 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 mother goes, before the birth of her child, to 
 her own people and remains till it is one or 
 two years old. Here there is no such relief. 
 As soon as her child is a month or two old 
 the Bulu mother must go to work as be- 
 fore. 
 
 He saw the men, after their desultory hunt- 
 ing and barter, loafing in the palaver houses, 
 eating, smoking, talking palavers and politics, 
 or taking care of the baby at home. “ One 
 of the most amusing sights I recall was an 
 old chief trying to pacify three or four hun- 
 gry babies whose mothers were away in the 
 gardens.” The men wear themselves out by 
 their viciousness at middle age, and Dr. Good 
 saw scarcely any old people on this trip. 
 
 As usual, he makes light of habitual hard- 
 ships. It has come to be almost a matter 
 of indifference whether his feet are wet or 
 dry. Swamp of all depths and degrees, bad 
 food, icy-cold streams to be waded, a smoky 
 hut at night with a bed of poles on which to 
 spread his blankets — all this he can bear, like 
 a born pioneer, with equanimity; but there 
 was one trial almost beyond endurance. 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 255 
 
 “I wish I could somehow make you eye- 
 and ear-witnesses of what I experienced. 
 Imagine me emerging from the bush, unan- 
 nounced, upon the first village of a Bulu 
 town. Some child first catches sight of the 
 apparition, and takes to the bush. Grown 
 people often looked indifferently at first, only 
 remarking, ‘ It’s an albino.’ But soon some- 
 body would divine the truth, or some one 
 who had followed from the last town would 
 make the harmless remark, ‘ It’s a white 
 man.’ The result I can compare to nothing 
 but the bursting of a dam. Out of the pala- 
 ver house come the men, as if they were being 
 fired from some sort of repeating weapon. 
 Women rush to the doors of their houses, 
 take one look, disappear again for a moment 
 while they set a pot off the fire or catch up 
 the baby, and then pour into the street, often 
 with a remark to the effect that nobody is 
 going to get anything to eat to-day while 
 this wonderful thing is to be seen. The chil- 
 dren, who ran screaming at first, soon regain 
 courage enough to come back and join the 
 procession. People from near gardens, hear- 
 
256 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 ing the racket, rush home, and men of the 
 next village snatch up their ever-ready wea- 
 pons and come running to see if it may be an 
 attack. As I go on from village to village 
 the crowd increases, until they swarm behind 
 and on both sides, forming a half-circle, of 
 which I am the center. 
 
 “ As all are talking at the highest pitch of 
 their voices, the noise is simply distracting. 
 Out of the babel I catch such exclamations 
 as ‘ O my mother ! ’ ‘ Is it really myself 1 ’ 
 
 ‘ And am I dead ? ’ ‘ Isn’t he a beauty ? ’ and 
 others that will not bear repetition. These 
 from the ladies. The men are more dignified, 
 but more disagreeable. They would crowd 
 into the places next me, and as we went on 
 through the towns would act as if they had 
 me in charge, telling me when to stop, and 
 giving all sorts of directions. To the crowds 
 of new-comers they would shout information 
 about me and the object of my journey, so 
 absurdly false that I often felt bound to stop 
 and try to correct the impression they were 
 giving. This was not easy. If I said, ‘ I have 
 come to tell you about Grod, and not to buy 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 257 
 
 rubber or ivory,’ some one who had heard ru- 
 mors of what we teach would begin shouting 
 an outline of our teachings, but such a carica- 
 ture of the truth as made me shudder. 
 
 “Disgusted at last beyond endurance, I 
 would attempt to silence the worst offender, 
 usually the man who was following close at 
 my heels, who for the last half-hour had been 
 shouting information into my ears. I would 
 turn and tell him that he knew nothing about 
 me and that I should myself stop in a little 
 while and talk to the people. At this he 
 would laugh as much as to say, ‘ I have gotten 
 the “ thing ” started to talk,’ and then shout 
 to the crowd behind what I had said, as if it 
 had been the performance of a parrot. By 
 this time I was getting out of humor, and 
 would request him in plain terms to keep 
 quiet. At this he would laugh again, and 
 shout to the people behind, ‘He says, keep 
 quiet.’ Then I would explain, ‘ It is not the 
 people behind whose noise is troubling me ; 
 it is you, who are walking close to me and 
 shouting in my ears.’ But it was useless ; 
 he would turn to the crowd and abuse them 
 
A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 258 
 
 for making such a noise, shouting, if possible, 
 louder than ever. 
 
 “ Then, if I was wise, I gave it up and went 
 on, allowing him to say what he pleased. 
 But sometimes I was too angry to be wise, 
 and I would get after the fellow and make 
 him think, at least, that I was going to chas- 
 tise him. Then he would at last realize that 
 I meant Mm, and would not speak above a 
 whisper, and would try by gestures to keep 
 others from doing so. Dead silence followed, 
 save the noise we made in walking. Mean- 
 while we had arrived at another village, and 
 you can imagine the result of the whole crowd 
 walking in silence and by frantic gestures 
 giving the village the impression that I was 
 some sort of a monster that might be rendered 
 dangerous by the least noise. This was 
 worse than noise, so I would explain that I 
 had no objection to talking, if they would 
 not yell. Then they would start again, softly 
 at first, but little by little the volume inci'eas- 
 ing till there was the same babel as before. 
 
 “ Then the crowd clamor for me to stop, 
 that they may take a good look at me. As I 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 259 
 
 have reached the center of the village, I ac- 
 cede to their request. Standing in the middle 
 of the street, they form a circle around me, 
 men in front, women for the most part behind 
 and trying to steal up close to examine some- 
 thing without being observed. I turn my 
 head, and at once there is a scream and 
 stampede ; but only for a moment ; they soon 
 return, but more cautiously. Silence, or 
 something approaching it, follows, while all 
 indulge in one long, intense stare, during 
 which only a camera could depict the various 
 expressions in their faces. Then we have a 
 dog-fight. Every man’s cur from all the vil- 
 lages we had passed followed his master, and 
 the dogs of the village in which we are stop- 
 ping object to their presence. 
 
 “ Meanwhile the chief is not being noticed, 
 and must make himself known. Stepping 
 into the middle of the circle and raising his 
 staff as if to chastise the crowd, he begins, in 
 what seems a fearful passion, to abuse every- 
 body for treating the white man in such out- 
 rageous fashion. As he is only talking for 
 the white man’s benefit, I silence him. 
 
260 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 “ Then comes a request to remove my hat, 
 that they may see my hair. This reasonable 
 request I always grant, and am rewarded 
 by a chorus of complimentary exclamations. 
 Next, no matter how much I had been talking, 
 some one would ask, ‘Can he talk?’ This 
 question I would answer by some trivial re- 
 mark, which would be received with a volley 
 of laughter. Then they ask questions just to 
 get me to speak. Then follow requests to 
 take off my shoes or other parts of my cloth- 
 ing, that they might see whether I was really 
 like one of themselves ; attempts to induce me 
 to buy ivory or rubber, offers of marriage, re- 
 quests for gifts, to show my trade goods, com- 
 pass, note-book, etc. 
 
 “ When I thought their curiosity had been 
 sufficiently sated, I would attempt to tell 
 them why I had come among them, and to 
 give them some idea of the gospel and their 
 need of it. 
 
 “ These scenes, with numberless variations, 
 are repeated as we pass through town after 
 town, till at last we must stop for the night. 
 If only one could escape the noisy crowds 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 261 
 
 then, that would nerve him to endure the 
 babel of the day. But the worst is to come. 
 I get a house, put my goods and carriers in- 
 side, and in order to give them a chance to 
 unpack and prepare supper I stay in the 
 street, talking to the people. At last I am 
 tired, and tell them they must go home and 
 let me rest. Needless to say they do not 
 go. As soon as I am inside the house they 
 crowd around the door. If I shut it (the 
 only opening in the walls of a Bulu house) it 
 is quite dark ; besides, the cooking is being 
 done over an open fire, and the smoke is suffo- 
 cating. But it may as well be shut as blocked 
 by heads and shoulders of the crowd. 
 
 “ Sometimes I try reasoning with them. ‘ I 
 want to be quiet and rest.’ ‘ But we want to 
 see you,’ they reply. ‘ Is this a proper way to 
 treat a visitor ? ’ ‘ No,’ they all agree. ‘ Then 
 why don’t you go away and leave me ? ’ ‘We 
 want to see you.’ So I shut the door, pre- 
 ferring smoke to the crowd. Sometimes I go 
 out into the street and call to the people 
 ‘ whether I am to have a house, or whether I 
 must go on to the next town.’ By this 
 
262 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 means I gain my point. At last I am in my 
 smoky den, and the crowd shut out. But I 
 am not hidden yet. When I light my tallow 
 candle every crack and crevice becomes a 
 peep-hole ; and I eat my supper knowing that 
 eyes are watching every movement. 
 
 “ Gradually the noise subsides, and appa- 
 rently they have become tired and gone away ; 
 but only apparently. A few are waiting to 
 see the white man go to bed, and they do not 
 attempt to conceal their disgust when he 
 blows out his candle before undressing. 
 
 “ Now I can stand this sort of thing for 
 three or four days quite philosophically, but 
 after about a week of it I become nervous 
 and irritable. Certainly, if I should ever 
 visit a menagerie again, and see a monkey 
 with a crowd around its cage, exclaiming, as 
 it scratches its head or takes a bite of food, 
 ‘ How funny ! How very human ! ’ I shall 
 profoundly sympathize with the monkey. 
 
 “ But I cannot stop here, or I shall give a 
 false impression. All this is curiosity, not 
 hostility or dislike. Impertinent and selfish 
 it undoubtedly was, but everywhere the in- 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 263 
 
 tention was to treat me well. And when I 
 have been able to walk, with only two carriers, 
 more than two hundred miles going and 
 coming, through a part of Africa where a 
 white man was never before seen, without 
 meeting the first symptom of hostility, cer- 
 tainly I ought not to complain if the people 
 were unpleasantly curious. This trip has 
 convinced me that any prudent man can go 
 as far as the Bulu language extends and 
 preach the gospel without hindrance.” 
 
 Dr. Good alternated his journeys with 
 translating at his desk — the “ same humdrum 
 vork ” of which he had more than enough on 
 the Ogowe. But it cannot be done too soon. 
 By the end of March a considerable Bulu 
 dictionary was finished and John’s gospel 
 begun. This was resumed after his journey 
 of a month, and again interrupted by an ar- 
 rival from the coast. A committee of the 
 mission came up to decide jointly with him 
 upon the site for a second station. They 
 made a twelve days’ trip together, retracing 
 a part of his previous journey ; and, as in the 
 case of Efulen, one place offered such supe- 
 
264 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 rior advantages that the brethren had no hesi- 
 tation in their choice. They bought land for 
 a station in the district of Ebolowo’e, sixty- 
 eight miles east by south from Efulen. The 
 site was on a low hill, at an elevation of 
 twenty-four hundred feet above the sea. The 
 town proper had only about eight hundred 
 inhabitants, but six roads led out in as many 
 directions to other towns, from a twenty 
 minutes’ walk distant to an hour, and one 
 might continue on for a whole day, or days 
 together, through a succession of villages and 
 a large aggregate population. To a novice in 
 Africa the people would seem wild enough.: 
 powerfully built, almost naked, smearing the 
 whole body with red powder, their hair deco- 
 rated with buttons, beads, shells, and feathers ; 
 they were always at war ; they held human life 
 at a discount ; nearly every girl was sold for a 
 wife before five years old. Fifty or a hundred 
 of them at a time, each armed with gun, knife, 
 or spear, they surrounded the missionary 
 group, prying curiously into all their few pos- 
 sessions. This was heathenism. But the tiger 
 tooth around the neck, the charmed antelope 
 
CHARACTERISTIC GROUP OF BULU MEN AND ONE WOMAN 
 IN EBOLOWO’E DISTRICT. 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 URBANA 
 
THE CROIVNING YEAR 
 
 265 
 
 horn over the shoulder, their “ medicine ” for 
 guns, their grotesque ngee and organized rob- 
 ber band, especially their speech, to those who 
 understood it, were a revelation of deeper 
 darkness. The whole Bulu world lay under 
 the paralyzing power of the fetish. 
 
 Our missionaries longed to give this land 
 to Jesus Christ for his possession; and, as 
 they traveled back towards Efulen, they 
 talked of what the mail from America might 
 bring. How soon would the new men be 
 coming? When could they begin to build 
 upon the new-bought property? How long 
 before they might proclaim liberty to the 
 captive there ? 
 
 At present not a Bulu from Efulen dared 
 to carry up their loads. One year from that 
 time the people of Ebolowo’e intrusted five 
 boys to the mission school at Efulen. The 
 name eventually given to the second station, 
 Elat, intimates a compact of friendship. 
 
 The mail came from America and brought 
 — delay. So far only one man had offered 
 for the service. “Our mission,” wrote Dr. 
 Oood, “ has been forty years seeking a door 
 
266 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 by which to enter the interior of Africa. Now 
 when this one has opened so widely, is it thus 
 we propose to enter!” Letters complimen- 
 tary to himself in no wise abate his disap- 
 pointment. He tells his wife that “ the soft 
 soap is coming in ” till he might be tempted 
 to think himself a hero, only he knows bet- 
 ter ; “ if any heroism is being displayed, it is 
 by you.” His accounts of the new field, of 
 which Efulen is “ only the outer edge,” go 
 home by every irregular opportunity. “We 
 need many things, but none more than the 
 prayers of Hod’s people.” 
 
 In countries which, like China or India, 
 possess an old civilization and sacred books, 
 missionaries have sometimes preached the 
 gospel for years before a soul would admit 
 its power. Not so on Efulen Hill. The for- 
 est people, gathering there with an increas- 
 ingly respectful demeanor from one Lord’s 
 day to another, had been all their lifetime in 
 bondage of fear from merciless and ubiquitous 
 spirits, and there was, to some ears, a welcome 
 sound of deliverance in the Word. Nor had 
 they the scholar’s pride in concealing their 
 
THE CR01VN1NG YEAR 
 
 267 
 
 interest. By March one village was “ stirred 
 up” on the subject of religion, one middle- 
 aged man was coming for special instruction, 
 an inquiry class would soon be “in plain 
 sight”; and when a palaver broke out, in 
 which three men were killed, the people were 
 “ ashamed ” because they “ prided themselves 
 on having given up war since we came.” In 
 July a number were expressing the wish to 
 be Christians — “too soon to begin to count 
 them.” As time went on : “ Of some we have 
 good hopes”; but many would-be inquirers 
 were warily held off . 1 The missionary had 
 “no confidence” in them. He had seen a 
 great many Africans. Not every one who 
 came with a pair of white man’s shoes on his 
 feet or a cast-off overcoat, in which he ap- 
 peared equally ridiculous and uncomfortable, 
 was bound for the kingdom of heaven. Mo- 
 tives had to be probed. Some of them lay 
 on the surface. The honor of receiving special 
 instruction, alone, from the white man was 
 
 1 “ With all inquirers he was a most faithful and loving 
 guide. No matter what he was doing, that work must wait 
 if there was a heart that could be reached after and pointed 
 to the Lamb of God.” (Letter from Mr. Kerr. ) 
 
268 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 enough to raise up some followers. And 
 when, desiring to grapple with a thoughtful 
 hearer, Dr. Good, in order to avoid the hang- 
 ers-on who would devour wayside seed by 
 provoking a laugh or a quarrel, took the man 
 into his own bedroom, alas for his theories 
 of an object-lesson in simple living ! There 
 were a table, a type-writer, shelves contain- 
 ing medicine bottles, and less than twenty 
 indispensable books. But this was a World’s 
 Fair to a Bulu, when seen for the first time. 
 His mind wandered ; his gaze was fixed now 
 on the machine, now on what seemed a giant 
 volume, the “United States Dispensatory”; 
 and “ I might as well try to preach to people 
 while an earthquake is going on as to my in- 
 quirer in such surroundings.” 
 
 And there was Zanga. It proved that he 
 was absent from Sabbath service because 
 he was hunting for an animal that he had 
 wounded the evening before. When told 
 that Christians do not work on Sunday, he 
 replied, “ Why, hunting is not work.” Then 
 the matter is made plain to him. But a Sab- 
 bath or two later, as the missionary is hold- 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 269 
 
 ing afternoon meetings out in the towns, he 
 comes across Zanga busy hewing out pieces 
 of wood to make a sheath for one of the large 
 sword-like knives which the Bulu carry. 
 When his attention is called to the way he 
 is keeping the Sabbath, he replies in amaze- 
 ment, “ Surely you don’t call this work ! ” 
 Then Zanga is instructed in the doctrine of 
 the Sabbath once for all. That day week, 
 passing again, there was Zanga, a smile of 
 self-approval on his face, sitting on a piece 
 of wood, which he was holding in place while 
 another man with an adz was hewing it into 
 a board, evidently for the door of Zanga’s 
 unfinished house. “ I simply made a remark 
 to the effect that I saw he was busy on his 
 new house. ‘ It is not I,’ he replied cheer- 
 fully ; ‘ this man is doing the work, and he is 
 not a Christian.’ ” 
 
 There was nothing surprising in the child- 
 ishness of such ideas among people born in 
 the heathenism of Africa, to whom the gospel 
 story was wholly a novelty. The missionary 
 was encouraged by their hearing ear; but 
 he longed for the Holy Spirit “ to make clear 
 
270 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 what we can make them only dimly under- 
 stand. What would we not give for a little 
 group of earnest Christians among them to 
 set the example for the rest of what Chris- 
 tianity is ! ” 
 
 Dr. Hood was rapidly identifying himself 
 with the people of the district. There were 
 chiefs and witch-doctors, but he was the in- 
 fluential citizen of all Nkonemekak. In cases 
 he was umpire. All the time he sat as if 
 Judge on the Supreme Bench against every 
 form of prevalent and condoned wickedness. 
 He protested to the black traders against 
 bringing up rum and gin. He used argu- 
 ments which they could appreciate — that it 
 would be no financial advantage to them, and 
 would work physical wreck. He was out in 
 the midst of the people, mixing in the every- 
 day life of the towns, and a bystander at their 
 palavers. Once he looks so shocked at the 
 conclusion they have reached that the men 
 apologize. At times they try to cover up 
 facts which they are ashamed to have him 
 know. In most out-of-the-way places people 
 were quoting, “ Mr. Hood says ” don’t do this 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 271 
 
 or that . 1 He took up the cause of the needy 
 and them that have no helper — the poor 
 women, lazy, impudent, vile though they 
 were. “What toil, patience, discipline will 
 be necessary before Bulu women can stand 
 where the gospel aims to place them ! ” But 
 he believed the old gospel which redeemed 
 womanhood in Europe and America would 
 be a sufficient remedy for them. Again and 
 again he reproved men for cruel treatment 
 of their wives, and for giving young girls as 
 readily as a sheep for pledges in palavers. 
 
 One Sunday afternoon in August, the 
 strident sound of beating drum and incessant 
 firing of guns fretting the air warned him 
 that mischief was brewing. So he strolled 
 down to the nearest town, where he was met 
 by a typical Equatorial Africa scene. 
 
 The corpse of a leading Bulu lay under the 
 burning sun, and his seven wives huddled 
 about it. They had been stripped of even 
 their usual scanty dress of grass and beads, 
 while the body was decently wrapped in new 
 
 1 Told by Mr. Kerr. “ Words Mr. Good had used months 
 before often come back in that way.” 
 
272 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 calicoes. Through the long afternoon they 
 lay there with eyes closed, pretending to be 
 asleep, and other women, encircling the center- 
 piece, kept up a low moaning. Right in the 
 middle of the street, where men only are 
 allowed burial, was the open grave ; and, get- 
 ting a hint that one of the wives had been 
 charged with causing her husband’s death by 
 witchcraft, and was destined to go with him 
 into that grave, the white citizen determined 
 to stand by and if possible prevent the deed. 
 Late in the evening the post-mortem examina- 
 tion came on, and they found, true enough, — 
 what they were looking for — a witch. “ The 
 only unbeliever present pronounced it a small, 
 oval, fleshy tumor, about an inch long, lying 
 just inside the spinal column. I felt some- 
 what elated, for I thought the woman was safe 
 now ; but I soon found they wanted to kill her, 
 and the witch business was only an excuse.” 
 Dr. Glood persisted. He “ buttonholed ” the 
 leading men, expressing his “strong disap- 
 proval ” of their cruel custom ; and at last he 
 had the satisfaction of seeing the dead safely 
 buried alone. Thus an efficient blow was 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 273 
 
 struck at witchcraft in Bululand. At this 
 time burial of women, alive or dead, in the 
 grave of their husbands was a common event. 
 Within two years after, three witch-doctors 
 in the district abandoned their calling, and 
 went to work building bark houses like other 
 men ; and for miles around Efulen belief in 
 witches had received, not its death-blow, but 
 an incurable wound. 
 
 His advances towards the people were re- 
 ciprocated. “ You are one of ns” they said. 
 After Dr. Good’s death, out from Efulen per- 
 haps twenty miles, Bulu men stopped the 
 missionary, as he was passing, to express not 
 only their sorrow, but — high proof of savage 
 friendship — a wish to go to Ebolowo’e and 
 kill those men of another clan whose witch- 
 craft had shortened their white man’s life. 
 
 In order to acquire colloquial expressions 
 and a limber vocabulary, Dr. Good engaged 
 the more intelligent of the men in relating to 
 him their folk-lore stories. 
 
 In August he writes to his little son about 
 his evening school of a dozen or more boys 
 from the town: “Very good boys for this 
 
274 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 country, and anxious to learn.” In lieu of 
 books, Mr. Kerr has fastened strips across 
 the face of a board, and the teacher inserts 
 between them small blocks of white wood 
 upon which letters and figures have been 
 stenciled, so by a sort of word game teaching 
 the class to read and count. 
 
 While this various, active contact with the 
 people was unremitting, Dr. G-ood’s indus- 
 trious pen was accumulating for them a dur- 
 able treasure. His systematic habit was to 
 rise at six o’clock, get to his desk at seven, 
 translate till noon, again two hours in the 
 afternoon, and, after that, daily go into the 
 near towns and preach. In June four hymns 
 were written. By the end of July the gospel 
 of John was translated, and seven chapters 
 of Matthew. September 19 the gospels by 
 Matthew and Mark entire are added to that 
 by John, and the same day manuscript of the 
 first Bulu book, a primer, is mailed to Amer- 
 ica to be printed. One month later the dic- 
 tionary has passed under careful revision, 
 and the pen is laid down at the last line of 
 Luke’s gospel. 
 
THE CROWNING YEAR 
 
 275 
 
 The first Bulu proverb which Dr. Good 
 thought worthy of transference to his note- 
 book is the following : U E mous me yen , osu 
 ndim ” — Behind I see, before [is] unknown. 
 Each week marked off, each day, was swiftly 
 narrowing the margin between him and that 
 “ unknown.” 
 
 A BULU TOWN NEAB ELAT. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 “ If this journey shall open a road for the light to en- 
 ter this dark region into which I have penetrated a 
 little way, I shall never regret the toil. I do hope 
 God's people in America will see to it that I have 
 not run in vain, neither labored in vain."— A. C. G., 
 1892. 
 
 The Last Five Months 
 July — December 13, 1894 
 
 F ROM the day of his boyhood’s resolve in 
 the apple-orchard, it had been Adolphus 
 Good’s characteristic to aim straight for the 
 mark. As the summer of 1894 waned, his 
 goal was as definite as ever, and his plans, as 
 usual, embraced a full year to come. First 
 of all, a start must be made at the second 
 station. Good news had come of two new 
 men appointed and soon to arrive at the coast. 
 
 276 
 
THE LAST FI HE MONTHS 
 
 277 
 
 They should come up straightway and hold 
 Efulen, while he and Kerr would take the ax 
 and move on to Ebolowo’e. There November 
 and December should be spent, vibrating be- 
 tween the building going on under Mr. Kerr’s 
 direction and itineration in the district. He 
 would move among the people, taking off 
 the edge of curiosity and running a furrow 
 through the fallow ground. Especially he 
 resolved to see the Bene branch of Bulu- 
 speaking tribes and get sufficient data for 
 locating two more stations. The opening of 
 1895 would carry them up to mission meet- 
 ing, and then the husband- and father-heart 
 should be allowed to speak. He would ask 
 permission to revise his Bulu gospels and 
 take them home to be printed. Allowing 
 himself six or eight months in America, he 
 would hope his wife could return with him, 
 and then — more service for the Bulu, more 
 toil and hardship for the redemption of 
 Africa. So man proposed. 
 
 And he had such resources of health at 
 command. It had been his refrain all the 
 year. In April: “Almost perfect health”; 
 
278 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 “ never stronger.” After four hundred miles 
 on foot : “ Strong as ever in my life.” In 
 June: “Do not think I ever had better 
 health”; “do not need to go home on ac- 
 count of my health ” ; “ no signs of fever or 
 malaria at Efulen” ; “ dismiss anxiety for my 
 health.” 
 
 July: “We are busy, and that is all. I 
 have been so occupied with translating, and 
 Mr. Kerr with building and teaching, that 
 our premises are rather out of repair; but 
 now we shall get time to put them in better 
 order. We are having fine tomatoes, cress, 
 string-beans, and some potatoes are growing ; 
 not many, however, as we failed to get seed. 
 Cabbage and cauliflower look well, but cannot 
 tell yet whether they will head or not. Corn 
 is abundant just now, but other food still 
 scarce, plantains especially, and we miss them 
 very much. We are trying to lay in a large 
 stock of provisions from the beach before the 
 arrival of the new-comers.” 
 
 October rains were heavy, and when they 
 had ceased at Efulen would be at their worst 
 in the interior ; “ so I am likely to have a bad 
 
THE LAST FIVE MONTHS 
 
 279 
 
 time of it ; but I cannot put off this trip, for 
 I want to visit the Bene country before I re- 
 vise my translations.” 
 
 Plans were defeated. The new missionaries 
 were coming too late to permit of building 
 at Ebolowo’e, and Mr. Kerr would be obliged 
 to remain at Efulen. Therefore, instead of 
 itinerating from the second station as his 
 base, Dr. G-ood must take the more difficult 
 alternative and make his journey of a month 
 or six weeks from Efulen. Rumors of threat- 
 enings in various towns reached their ears 
 and frightened the carriers. They defaulted ; 
 others were engaged and were exasperating. 
 Certainly this was destined to be a laborious 
 march ; but “ in all the years that are past of 
 my life , the path has never failed to open before 
 me clearly in good time.” 1 It opened in per- 
 fect day. 
 
 Already there was light in one direction. 
 He would soon divide his “ load.” “ I shall 
 probably be away when the new brethren 
 arrive, and I am glad of it ; for I am anxious 
 to draw out of the position of adviser. By 
 
 1 The italics are the author’s. 
 
280 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 the time I am back they will he well started 
 in. If they do not see things as I do, I shall 
 give them large liberty to do what they like.” 
 
 Before leaving he wrote with customary 
 candor and caution to the Board about pro- 
 gress at Efulen : “ There is a great deal of 
 interest among the people here, and we hope 
 there have been, or soon will be, several con- 
 versions ; but I fear to write of these people 
 as converts, lest my words should come out 
 six months hence and find them gone back 
 to the world.” 
 
 At last it was November 12. Carriers were 
 keyed up to marching pitch, and Dr. Good 
 took a cheerful leave of his solitary comrade. 
 But scarcely half a day out he was overtaken 
 by Mr. Kerr’s messenger : the new men were 
 coming. Back he turned and went forward 
 at a rapid pace, welcoming them several miles 
 the other side of Efulen, and escorting them 
 in to the station. They were three young 
 brethren fresh from America. All the after- 
 noon and into the night they talked earnestly 
 together, and next morning Dr. Good was off 
 to catch up with his loads. 
 
THE LAST FIVE MOUTHS 
 
 281 
 
 Now brace your back again, good soldier, 
 to its burden of anxiety and care. March on 
 once more, dauntless, through flood and forest 
 and noisy towns bare of a single token of 
 civilization. Open your lips again, brave 
 soldier, warning the people lest they die in 
 their sins, and give the message of life, eter- 
 nal life ; for this is the last journey, and your 
 guerdon waits at the end. 
 
 From the meager lines in his note-book the 
 thread of events is followed. Dr. Good went 
 eastward, spending the first Sunday at Olem 
 of the Yevo clan, people “ rough and careless, 
 but meaning to be kind.” A whole week he 
 preached among the towns of Ebolowo’e dis- 
 trict. The chief, a mighty man of eighty 
 wives, confessed to him that at the time of 
 his father’s death he had cut the throats of 
 ten people, and had killed twenty when his 
 brother died, all for witchcraft. Dr. Good 
 secured a pledge from him, made in public, 
 that he would never repeat these deeds of 
 blood. The first Bene town was struck the 
 25tli, eight miles north of Ebolowo’e, at an 
 elevation of three thousand feet. 
 
282 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 “November 27. I find the Bene country 
 less populous than the Bulu.” 
 
 The course was thence westward, in touch 
 with several tribes — Yewondo, Yengone, 
 Yando — and a line of towns belonging to the 
 Yeno’e clan. With all of them Dr. Good 
 made himself understood, and comparisons 
 between their speech and the Bulu were re- 
 corded. The second week a severe cold had 
 forced him to stay inside his hut one day. 
 His carriers proved as inefficient as they had 
 given promise. From stage to stage food was 
 disastrously unsuitable and eaten with an 
 anxious heart; and now, in one of these 
 Yeno’e towns, his insidious enemy met him, 
 like Joab in the gate. 
 
 “ November 30. In the evening I felt fever 
 coming on. I was quite chilly for a couple 
 of hours, then went into a profuse perspira- 
 tion. Took a heavy dose of quinine. Next 
 morning the fever was broken.” 
 
 Welcome would rest have been, but his 
 quarters were “ so mean and dirty ” that the 
 road seemed preferable. 
 
 “December 1. Feel badly. On through 
 
THE LAST FIVE MONTHS 
 
 283 
 
 Yeno’e towns — course same as yesterday, 
 nearly west. Distance for day, eleven miles.” 
 He might have added, “through mud and 
 water.” 
 
 The third Sunday was spent in a small 
 town whose chief was “ anxious for a teacher.” 
 Next day he was cordially received at Lolo- 
 dorf, the German government station in the 
 Ngumba country, whence he sends a reassur- 
 ing line, “ Safe and well,” to his dear ones far 
 away. 
 
 With the Ngumba he was “ disgusted,” and 
 the roads out from their towns balked him, 
 for they all ran east and west. But on the 
 6th he struck a southward line of Bulu towns, 
 in one of which he spent the 9th. It was 
 the fourth consecutive Lord’s day passed 
 amid savage sights and sounds, separated as 
 by an eternity from Christian sympathy and 
 hallowed worship. The town was Bieti, the 
 last name in the note-book. 
 
 Monday, at noon, he appeared at the door 
 of the mission house in Efulen, and watchful 
 eyes noted that his face was haggard and 
 ominously yellow. He acknowledged to 
 
284 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 having suffered from unsuitable food, from 
 sleeplessness, a feverish attack, and that a 
 return of fever had hurried him home. But 
 he dismissed it lightly; he would take qui- 
 nine and be “ all right in the morning.” There 
 was no loss of spirit and enthusiasm regard- 
 ing the interior. They had never seen him 
 more anxious to open the second station. In 
 all his journey of two hundred and thirty 
 miles he had found no place to compare with 
 their chosen site. 
 
 At midnight he was wakeful, and, calling 
 to Mr. Ford, who had come up from the coast 
 in his absence, they had two hours’ conference 
 on mission affairs. Next day, worse. His 
 five brethren surrounded him with every 
 possible ministry of love and care. Wednes- 
 day, hematuria was manifest, and remedies 
 were pushed as fast as he could bear them. 
 Loyal hearts and true wrestled in prayer for 
 his life ; but the patient’s temperature rose 
 steadily. “ I felt,” wrote the physician, “ that 
 the noble man was to be called to his reward.” 
 
 Delirium came on. Attempts at prayer in 
 English : “ 0 God, help in this supreme hour,” 
 
THE LAST FIVE MONTHS 
 
 285 
 
 distinctly repeated at intervals. In conscious 
 moments lie charged his brethren to he firm ; 
 not to be afraid, but to push on. Turning 
 to one of his watchers : “ It has come to be 
 the fashion to regard me as the representative 
 of this interior work,” (with an expressive 
 gesture,) “I never liked it.” Now he was 
 preaching in Bulu : “ Listen carefully, and 
 we will tell you about Christ.” Then, “ pray- 
 ing much” for the work of the interior: 
 “May good men never be wanting to carry 
 it forward.” Again, he is on the road, call- 
 ing to his carriers in Mpongwe and battling 
 with the obstacles of travel. And the fever 
 did not yield. 
 
 Thursday, near noon, in a few moments of 
 mental clearness, he sent his last messages. 
 “ In self-forgetful prayer ” he commended his 
 brethren to God, and asked for more laborers 
 to the interior, and for himself preparation for 
 death. All the afternoon, wild delirium — the 
 last struggle of a strong vitality and abound- 
 ing energy ; but at evening a hush fell. The 
 little sixteen by twenty-eight dwelling at 
 Efulen was shaken with a tread more stately 
 
286 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 than cathedral processional ; for a messenger 
 from the King of kings was at the door. As 
 peacefully as a child falls asleep in his moth- 
 er’s arms, the Spirit returned to God. 
 
 “ ‘A hut to die in ! * Let me rest ; 
 
 God bids me fall asleep ; 
 
 Here lay my pillow down. This earth 
 My wearied bones shall keep. 
 
 u It is well that I die upon the field 
 
 Where I have lived and worked and fought ; 
 
 I die upon my shield.” 
 
 The Galwa boys from the Ogowe were first 
 to find out the truth, and, heathen fashion, 
 were disposed to wail, but quieted at a word 
 of warning. The tidings flew down the line 
 of Bulu villages, and in the darkness a motley 
 company of men and boys came straying up 
 Efulen Hill and seated themselves on the 
 ground, each on his piece of bark, within the 
 radius of flickering light from a fire which 
 was burning behind the house. They sent in 
 a request to the missionaries to address them, 
 and, overwrought though they were with 
 nursing, excitement, and grief, they came 
 out and spoke to an audience at the moment 
 
THE LAST FIVE MONTHS 
 
 287 
 
 strangely solemn and receptive. A funeral 
 service was conducted next day in Bulu, 
 Mpongwe, and English; and, significant of 
 the scope of Dr. Good’s labors in Africa, his 
 last “ carriers ” were two Galwa, two Mpong- 
 we, and two Bulu men. 
 
 The spectacle of people who, a year before, 
 would have cared nothing for a white man’s 
 death now coming by hundreds to express 
 their sympathy, many of them with tears of 
 sincerity in their eyes, was sufficient evidence 
 of the faithfulness of their missionary among 
 them, and that his efforts had not been thrown 
 away. 
 
 Dr. Good died, like Hannington, at only 
 thirty-eight 1 years of age. The one penetrat- 
 
 1 The same year in which A. C. Good was appointed to 
 Africa (1882-83), twenty-six other men were also com- 
 missioned by the same Board. Of that number, eight are 
 still (1897) in active service ; six labored among the North 
 American Indians, averaging a term of four years and three 
 months ; the remaining twelve served abroad an average 
 period of six years and three months. Dr. Good's missionary 
 service was twelve years long— years of extraordinary ex- 
 posure. 
 
 “ Nelson's page in history," says the latest biographer of 
 the great admiral, “ covers a little more than twelve years." 
 (See Mahan’s “Life of Nelson," vol. i., p. 96.) 
 
288 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 ing the continent from the west side, the 
 other from the east, both moved forward to- 
 wards the heart of Africa, and, valorously 
 carrying the standard of the cross something 
 nearer to its center, held it with their solitary 
 graves. Let the army come up to the colors ! 
 
 The last halting-ground of the pioneer in 
 Bululand is on Efulen hilltop, overlooking 
 towns to the south. It is encircled with a 
 hedge of pineapple, and marked by a low 
 bronze monument adapted to endure the cli- 
 mate. This was sent out by Montclair friends, 
 and on it they caused to be engraved these 
 words: “Faithful unto Death.” 
 
 “ Lo, I am with you alway ” has been com- 
 ing down the ages, and it came to the support 
 of those five young servants of Jesus Christ 
 left at Efulen. They were Ford, to whose 
 ear the last messages were intrusted; Kerr, 
 on whom it fell to make the coffin for his 
 friend and counselor; Johnson, the good 
 physician ; Roberts, at the moment blind from 
 African fever; and Fraser, just recovered 
 from his first attack. There was no flinching 
 
THE LAST FIVE MONTHS 
 
 289 
 
 down that picket-line ; a tightening on of the 
 armor, rather. 
 
 “ Those of us who stood at his bedside have 
 promised not only Brother Good, but Him 
 who gave us life and has the right to take it, 
 that while strength and life last we will be 
 faithful to our trust.” 1 Their brief message, 
 cabled to America, though weighted with 
 sorrow was winged by courage : “ Send more 
 workers.” A few young men, like-spirited 
 with them, raised an answering signal and 
 stepped out from the ranks of the church 
 militant to join their brothers. More will 
 follow. The second station is manned. 
 Echoes from Dr. Good’s instruction float 
 back from all the forest paths. 
 
 One day in November, 1896, Dr. Johnson 
 led two Bulu young men into the same little 
 room where Dr. Good breathed his last, and, 
 after a farewell prayer and words of counsel, 
 “ with emotion not to be described,” he 
 watched them march down the hill towards 
 somewhat remote towns. These were the 
 first witnesses, in their great tribe, to catch up 
 
 1 Letter from Mr. Kerr. 
 
290 
 
 A LIFE FOR AFRICA 
 
 the evangel which had reached their own 
 hearts and attempt to pass it on. They were 
 sent to give their testimony by the wish and 
 at the charges of their own Bulu school-fel- 
 lows. This was, therefore, the initiative of 
 independent proclamation of the gospel by 
 Bulu lips. 
 
 And so a new chord has been struck in the 
 new song, and a voice dumb for nineteen 
 Christian centuries begins to blend with the 
 sound of many waters before the Throne. It 
 is the prelude of the victory, when the glory 
 of the King shall illuminate the farthest river 
 town and darkest forest tribe, and, remem- 
 bering all the travail of his soul, he shall be 
 satisfied in the redemption of Africa. 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC LABORS OF 
 REV. A. C. GOOD, Ph.D. 
 
 BY W. J. HOLLAND, LL.D., F.Z.S., ETC., 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE WESTERN UNIVERSITY 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 M Y first acquaintance with Dr. Good was made 
 during his senior year in the Western Theo- 
 logical Seminary in Allegheny. Learning that he 
 and two others of his class had accepted appoint- 
 ments to the foreign field, I invited the three young 
 men to dine with me, and took occasion to call 
 their attention to the important services which they 
 might incidentally render to the cause of science in 
 the remote regions which were destined to be the 
 fields of their labors. One was going to China, an- 
 other to Siam, and Mr. Good had accepted an ap- 
 pointment to the mission in West Africa. 
 
 I furnished them with some preliminary instruc- 
 tions to guide them in the work of collecting en- 
 tomological specimens, and assured them of my 
 readiness to aid them and to remunerate them for 
 the efforts which they might make to enrich n^ 
 entomological collections, the money which they 
 would receive to be paid into the treasury of the 
 Board if they should so elect. 
 
 291 
 
292 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 The three remembered my request, and I received 
 from them at different times collections of value. 
 The Rev. Mr. Good, however, proved himself speed- 
 ily to be the most deeply interested of the three, 
 and during the entire time of his stay in West 
 Africa, up to the time of his lamented death, he 
 proved a most capable and intelligent collector. 
 
 I have no means of ascertaining the exact number 
 of specimens which he gathered for me, but they 
 aggregate many thousands. His collections were 
 almost wholly confined to the Lepidoptera (butter- 
 flies and moths) and Coleoptera (beetles), although 
 I received from him valuable specimens of birds 
 and mammals, among the latter a magnificent 
 specimen of a gorilla, skin and skeleton, which, 
 mounted by Mr. F. S. Webster, is at present de- 
 posited in the Carnegie Museum in the city of 
 Pittsburg. 
 
 Acting under my instructions, Mr. Good paid 
 especial attention to working out the life-history 
 of the Lepidoptera of West Africa, and I have in 
 my possession a large number of manuscript notes, 
 some few of which I have already published, and 
 the remainder of which are still awaiting the time 
 when I shall be able to render them justice. His 
 collections of Lepidoptera have furnished the basis 
 of a number of articles which have, from time to 
 time, appeared in various scientific journals. 
 
 The principal articles based, in whole or in part, 
 upon the collections of Mr. Good in this field are 
 the following : 
 
 (1) “ Contributions to the Knowledge of the 
 Lepidoptera of West Africa.” By W. J. Holland. 
 Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 
 vol. xiii., pp. 325-332, Plates Yin., IX., December, 
 1886. 
 
 (2) “ Contributions to the Knowledge of the 
 
APPENDIX 4 
 
 293 
 
 Lepidoptera of West Africa.” Part II. By W. J. 
 Holland. Transactions of the American Entomolog- 
 ical Society , vol. vi., pp. 55-70, Plates II., III., IV., 
 February, 1889. 
 
 (3) “ Description of New Species of African Hes- 
 periidaB.” By W. J. Holland. Entomological News , 
 pp. 155, 156, December, 1890. 
 
 (4) “Description of New Species of African 
 Hesperiidae .” By W. J. Holland. Entomological 
 NeivSj pp. 3-5, January, 1891. 
 
 (5) “Description of New West African Lycae- 
 nidaB.” By W. J. Holland. Psyche , vol. v., pp. 
 423-431, November, 1890. 
 
 (6) “Description of New West African Lycae- 
 nidas.” Part II. By W. J. Holland. Psyche , 
 vol. v., pp. 50-53, March, 1891. 
 
 (7) “ The Life-History of Spalgis s-signata.” By 
 W. J. Holland. Psyche , vol. vi., pp. 201-203, 
 Plate IV., 1892. 
 
 (8) “Notes upon the Transformation of Some 
 African Lepidoptera.” By W. J. Holland. Psyche , 
 vol. vi., pp. 213-216, Plate V., 1892. 
 
 (9) “ Description of Some New Species of Afri- 
 can Lepidoptera.” By W. J. Holland. Annals and 
 Magazine of Natural History , pp. 284-295, October, 
 1892. 
 
 (10) “ The Genus Hollandia.” By Arthur Gard- 
 ner Butler. Annals and Magazine of Natural History , 
 October, 1892. 
 
 (11) “New Species of Neptis from Africa.” By 
 W. J. Holland. Entomological News , vol. iii., pp. 
 248, 249, Plate IX., December, 1892. 
 
 (12) “ Some New and Little-Known African 
 Butterflies.” By W. J. Holland. Entomological 
 News , vol. iv., pp. 22-27, Plate I., January, 1893. 
 
 (13) “ Communal Cocoons, and the Moths Which 
 Weave Them.” By W. J. Holland. Annual Ad- 
 
294 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 dress of the Retiring President of the Cambridge 
 Entomological Club. Psyche , vol. vi., pp. 385-391, 
 Plate IX., February, 1893. 
 
 (14) “ New African Nyctemerkhe and Liparidae.” 
 By W. J. Holland. Entomological News , vol. iv., pp. 
 59-62, Plate III., February, 1893. 
 
 (15) “New Genera and Species of West African 
 Limacodidae.” By W. J. Holland. Entomological 
 News , vol. iv ., pp. 102-108, Plate VII., March, 1893. 
 
 (16) “Three New African Bombycids.” By 
 W. J. Holland. Entomological News , vol. iv., pp. 
 136-138, Plate VIII., April, 1893. 
 
 (17) “New Species of West African Drepanu- 
 lidaB.” By W. J. Holland. Entomological News, 
 vol. iv., pp. 171-180, Plate IX., May, 1893. 
 
 (18) “New Exotic Lepidoptera.” ByW. J. Hol- 
 land. Entomological News , vol. iv., pp. 337-344, 
 Plate XV., December, 1893. 
 
 (19) “Description of Four New West African 
 Butterflies.” By W. J. Holland. Canadian Ento- 
 mologist , vol. xv., pp. 1-3, January, 1893. 
 
 (20) “ Description of New Species and Genera of 
 West African Lepidoptera.” Bv W. J. Holland. 
 Psyche , vol. vi., pp. 373-376, 393-400, 411-418, 431- 
 434, 451-454, 469-476, 487-490, 513-520, 531-538, 
 549-552, 565-568, five plates, numerous cuts. 
 
 (21) “ New and Undescribed Genera and Species 
 of West African Noctuidae” By W. J. Holland. 
 Psyche, vol. vii.,pp. 7-10, 27-34, 47-50, 67-70, 83-90 
 109-128, 141-144, Plates I.-V., 1894. 
 
 (22) “Four New Genera and Species of West 
 African Sesiidae.” By W. J. Holland. Journal, New 
 York Entomological Society , vol. i., pp. 181-184, 
 1894. 
 
 (23) “ African Hesperiidae.” By W. J. Holland. 
 Entomological News , vol. v., pp. 26-31, one plate, 
 January, 1894. 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 295 
 
 (24) “New West African Dysgoniidae. 77 By 
 W. J. Holland. Entomological News, vol. v., pp. 
 57-59, Plate V., February, 1894. 
 
 (25) “Some New and Little-Known African 
 Hesperiidae. 77 By W. J. Holland. Entomological 
 News , vol. v., pp. 89-95, Plate III., March, 1894. 
 
 (26) “ Two New African Lycaenids.” By W. J. 
 Holland. Entomological News , vol. vi., pp. 166-168, 
 May, 1895. 
 
 (27) “Synonymic Catalogue of the Hesperiidae 
 of Africa. 77 By W. J. Holland. Proceedings of the 
 Zoological Society , London, pp. 1-107, Plates I.-V., 
 January, 1896. 
 
 (28) “A New African Saturniid. 77 By W. J. 
 Holland. Entomological News , vol. vii., pp. 133-135, 
 Plate VI., May, 1896. 
 
 (29) “Western Equatorial African Microlepi- 
 doptera. 77 By Rt. Hon. Lord Walsingham. Trans- 
 actions of the En tomological Society , London, pp. 33- 
 67, Plates II., III., 1897. 
 
 In the twenty-nine papers which have thus far 
 been published by various authors, principally by 
 the writer, and which are founded almost wholly 
 upon the collections of Dr. Good, five hundred and 
 forty-seven species and seventy-two genera new to 
 science are described, for the discovery of which 
 we are indebted to him. 
 
 The collections made by Dr. Good have not yet 
 been nearly exhausted, and there remain many 
 species yet to be determined and characterized. It 
 will be seen from this statement that he has prob- 
 ably added more largely to our knowledge of the 
 insect forms of Africa than any other single col- 
 lector who has labored in that field. 
 
 The Coleoptera collected by him aggregate several 
 thousand species, and have as yet scarcely received 
 any attention whatever, which is deeply to be re- 
 
296 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 gretted, as these collections are singularly large 
 and perfect. 
 
 When time shall have been found to work out 
 fully the accumulated treasures amassed by the 
 industry of Dr. Good, it is more than probable that 
 he will have been found to have discovered over a 
 thousand species new to science ; and this labor 
 was accomplished by him without in any way inter- 
 fering with the strict performance of his duties 
 as a Christian missionary. His work was largely 
 that of direction, he having trained and employed 
 young natives connected with the schools, who were 
 taught to vigilantly search for specimens. Of 
 course upon his lengthy journeys he never failed 
 to carry with him his insect net and poison jar, and 
 it was upon the occasion of these journeys that he 
 succeeded in capturing many of the most interest- 
 ing specimens which were forwarded to the writer. 
 
 It has sometimes been said that Christian mis- 
 sionaries are deficient in those qualities which make 
 men eminently practical, and that they are blind to 
 the things of the world about them. This certainly 
 cannot be said of Dr. Good, and he is one of a great 
 number of the servants of the church who, while 
 faithfully attending to their ecclesiastical duties, 
 have been promoters of true science. 
 
 Among the many curious discoveries made by 
 Dr. Good was that of the carnivorous habits of the 
 larvae of a small West African butterfly belonging 
 to the genus Spalgis. The caterpillar of this little 
 creature feeds upon aphids, and is thus in its habits 
 allied to a North American butterfly of rather rare 
 occurrence, known to collectors as the Tarquin 
 butterfly, Feniseca Tarquinms. At the time the 
 discovery of the aphidivorous habits of this butter- 
 fly was announced by the writer, he called attention 
 to the fact that the same habit was known to char- 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 297 
 
 acterize another species of the same genus, Spalgis 
 Epius , which is found in southern India and Ceylon. 
 In the “ Journal of the Bombay Natural History 
 Society/ 7 vol. viii., Mr. E. H. Aitken presented an 
 account of Spalgis Epius , illustrating it by a repro- 
 duction of the plate given by the author in his 
 original description of Spalgis s-signata , as well as 
 by a plate of Epius itself. More remarkable, per- 
 haps, than the carnivorous habits of these two ob- 
 scure little butterflies is the singular resemblance 
 presented by the chrysalis to the face of an ape, to 
 which attention was called by Dr. Good. Nothing, 
 perhaps, more grotesque or curious has been dis- 
 covered in the animal kingdom ; and many natural- 
 ists have written to the writer, protesting that his 
 plate must have involved an exaggeration, which, 
 however, is not the case. 
 
 The same ape-like face appears upon the chrysa- 
 lis of the Tarquinius butterfly. 
 
 Another very interesting observation made by 
 Dr. Good was upon the communal habits of certain 
 caterpillars belonging to moths of the order Lipari- 
 dce. These caterpillars are gregarious, and when 
 they come to the time of metamorphosis they weave 
 for themselves a large outer cocoon of brown silk, 
 in which they again construct, each one for itself, 
 a smaller cocoon in which they undergo transfor- 
 mation into the chrysalis, and from which they ulti- 
 mately emerge as moths. As many as one hundred 
 moths emerge from one of these larger cocoons. 
 Dr. Charles Coquerel, as early as 1854, described 
 this phenomenon as observed in the case of a moth 
 which is not uncommon in Madagascar. In 1885 
 Lord Walsingham published an elaborate article 
 upon the subject in the “ Transactions of the Lin- 
 nean Society of London. 77 The next addition to 
 our knowledge of the subject was founded upon 
 
298 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 the specimens collected by Dr. Good and as de- 
 scribed in the paper numbered 13 in the foregoing 
 list of papers. The writer ventures to predict that 
 this communal habit will be found to characterize 
 a large series of moths allied in structure to the 
 genera Anaplie and (Ecura . 
 
 Many interesting notes were made by Dr. Good 
 upon the singular migrations made by swarms of 
 tropical butterflies. Slany writers have called at- 
 tention to the great clouds of butterflies which are 
 observed making migrations, but Dr. Good in his 
 observations calls attention to the fact that these 
 migrations appear in West Africa to frequently 
 take the direction of the approaching rains at the 
 opening of the rainy season, though the reverse 
 is also occasionally true. Thousands of insects 
 emerging from chrysalids seem to rise and hasten 
 away in the direction of the rains, the coming of 
 which is anticipated by all animate nature after 
 the period of drought, which in the tropics takes 
 the place of winter in latitudes nearer the poles. 
 
 In one of his journeys Dr. Good discovered, in 
 Lake Onanga, an island tenanted by immense 
 swarms of large bats, which hung during the heat 
 of the day pendent from the branches of the trees, 
 and in the evening and early morning were seen in 
 vast swarms going forth and returning to their 
 resting-place. Unfortunately, none of these bats 
 were collected by him. 
 
 I might fill many pages with accounts given me, 
 in letters and orally, by Dr. Good of the strange 
 habits of the animals of the region in which he 
 labored; but the few pages allotted to me in the 
 preparation of this little volume forbid. 
 
 Dr. Good was a brave and skilful field naturalist, 
 and in his death science sustained a genuine loss. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS AND RELIGIOUS 
 IDEAS OF EQUATORIAL WEST 
 AFRICA, ESPECIALLY OF 
 THE GrALWA TRIBE 
 
 A PAPER BY A. C. GOOD, Ph.D., 1893. 
 [Condensed by the author of this volume.] 
 
 I T seems as if Paul must have known the Galwa 
 of the Ogowe when he wrote Hebrews ii. 15 : 
 “ Through fear of death ... all their lifetime sub- 
 ject to bondage.” 
 
 Clinging desperately to dear life in a world 
 which he fancies is full of enemies, corporeal and 
 spiritual, he is daily tortured with suspicion and 
 superstitious fear. Every unexpected occurrence 
 is an omen. Every unusual place or object harbors 
 a spirit presumably hostile. He sees in every per- 
 son who has anything to gain by his death or mis- 
 fortune an enemy who is trying, by means of 
 charms, incantations, or witchcraft, to work him 
 harm. 
 
 These objects of dread, and the means employed 
 to counteract their influence, fall into definable 
 classes. 
 
 First, I will mention the Abambo (singular, 
 299 
 
300 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 Ibanibo), or spirits of the dead. They abide in a 
 state of weakness and monotonous misery in Ilom- 
 bo, which is at times spoken of as a place much like 
 the old Greek Hades, at other times as if a state, 
 for Abambo are thought to hover about the place 
 where the body is buried, and are free to return to 
 this world to harm or help. 
 
 These spirits are not indiscriminate in their at- 
 tentions. They make no new acquaintances among 
 the living, and so a stranger to one in life has no 
 fear of the same after death. A wife, a slave, a 
 child, or any person of whom one was not afraid in 
 life is not feared as an Ibambo. The passions and 
 feelings that influenced men in this life are sup- 
 posed to animate their disembodied spirits. For 
 example, a man may dislike his prospective heir and 
 say, “ I don’t want you to inherit anything from 
 me.” His saying so will not hinder the person 
 from taking the share allotted to him by custom, 
 but he has no peace of mind afterwards. He has 
 horrid dreams. He sees the spirit of his dead an- 
 cestor coming to him with angry face and threaten- 
 ing gestures. So he kills a goat or fowl, prepares 
 food, and sets it by the grave of the dead man. 
 He has now made reparation. His conscience is 
 easy and he dreams no more. The spirit may hence- 
 forth become his ally. Those who inherit with the 
 good will of the spirit also see him in dreams, but 
 always as a friend. They, too, make offerings of 
 food to his skull or at the grave, thinking to secure 
 protection in any enterprise they undertake. 
 
 These spirits are especially dreaded where we 
 would least expect it. A wife who was not liked 
 by her husband has little to fear from him after 
 his death. He has had enough of her. But the 
 favorite wife is in great dread. As he loved her in 
 this world, he will miss her in Ilombo, and will try 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 301 
 
 to cause her death that he may have her with him. 
 The same with a favorite slave on whom his master 
 greatly depended in this world. Such persons at 
 once paint or mark their bodies with certain pow- 
 ders prepared by a medicine man, that will make it 
 impossible for the spirit of the dead person to rec- 
 ognize them. If they are taken with illness, it is 
 the dead husband or master ; or in a dream they 
 see him calling for them. At once they give up all 
 hope, and often die, every such case strengthening 
 the Galwa 7 s belief in the reality and power of these 
 Abambo. 
 
 Another proof which the Galwa cites of the exis- 
 tence of such spirits is the nightmare. As he is 
 quietly sleeping he is suddenly seized by some in- 
 visible, intangible object, which holds him down so 
 that he cannot move or speak. At length he man- 
 ages to free himself and yells at the top of his voice, 
 when the spirit flies. It is a dead relative probably, 
 but no matter. He loads the offending ghost with 
 the most fearful curses: “Die a second death 77 ; 
 “ May you get into an endless swamp 77 or “ fall into 
 a lake of njogolo 77 (a plant growing in still water, 
 covering the surface with leaves, and rendering 
 swimming impossible, but offering no support to 
 the swimmer). 
 
 It has been claimed that all this is not belief in 
 the immortality of the soul, but only in ghosts. 
 Captain Burton is quoted as saying, “ The negroes 
 believe in a ghost, but not in a spirit ; in a present 
 immaterial, but not in a future . 77 Du Chaillu says, 
 speaking of the Nkami, whose customs and beliefs 
 are almost exactly those of the Galwa : “ Ask the 
 negro where is the spirit of his great-grandfather. 
 He says he does not know ; it is done. Ask him 
 about the spirit of his father who died yesterday ; 
 then he is full of fear and terror , 77 
 
302 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 Certainly the negro does not, in thought, go 
 beyond the ghost to the abstract idea of spirit. 
 He has no abstract word “ color , ; 77 but only names 
 for separate colors. He has no proper word for 
 “ spirit / 7 but he believes in at least three classes 
 of invisible, incorporeal beings. The Galwa will 
 say that the spirit of his great-grandfather “is 
 done / 7 by which he means no longer appears in 
 dreams to the living. But the chief of that same 
 inan 7 s village, when sickness or trouble comes, prays 
 for help to the Abambo, not of those recently dead 
 only, but especially to “the spirits of long ago . 77 
 
 Next to the Abambo we may place the Imbwiry 
 (singular, Ombwiry). These are not the spirits of 
 dead men. As to their origin, possibly the original 
 idea was that every natural object,— tree, rock, hill, 
 — every body of water, was the embodiment of a 
 spirit more or less powerful according to the object 
 in which it resides. The Galwa only thinks of the 
 Imbwiry as inhabiting objects and places about 
 which there is something fearful or phenomenal— 
 an unusually large vine, a whirlpool, a huge ele- 
 phant, a dark ravine, a precipice, etc. This is not 
 pantheism, or anything like it. A large tree where 
 a powerful Ombwiry has for years been worshiped 
 is cut down by people of another tribe who do not 
 believe in this particular superstition. You ask the 
 Galwa why those people have, unharmed, destroyed 
 the home of their Ombwiry, and they say that tribe 
 has a powerful fetish which has proved too strong 
 for the spirit so long dreaded by themselves. 
 “Where is the Ombwiry that so long lived in that 
 tree ? 77 “ He is gone ; we do not know where . 77 
 
 These spirits may be won over to befriend men 
 by suitable offerings, but are easily offended, and 
 when angry are able to produce every species of 
 misfortune, even death. Their anger is often in- 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 303 
 
 curred unconsciously. Where one had no thought 
 of there being an Ombwiry, he does something 
 disrespectful to the spirit of the place,— walking 
 carelessly by is enough,— and soon after is taken ill. 
 A medicine man is called, who informs him of what 
 he now learns for the first time— that that place 
 harbors an Ombwiry, which he has offended. The 
 doctor, for a consideration, of course, prepares a 
 suitable libation, which he pours out to the spirit 
 of the place, and the matter is settled. It is worthy 
 of remark that offerings to the Imbwiry are never, 
 as in the case of the Abambo, food, but always a 
 preparation of roots, leaves, etc., of the nature of a 
 fetish. The workings of this superstition are ex- 
 tremely absurd and to the white man often vexa- 
 tious. On a certain hill no garden can be made. 
 A piece of ground cannot be cleared because of 
 some vine or tree inhabited by one of these spirits. 
 The white man hears of some natural curiosity 
 which he wishes to see, but, ten to one, no one will 
 show him the way for fear of offending the spirit 
 of the place. 
 
 In passing, I must refer to a form of service 
 rendered alike by both these classes of spirits. 
 There are certain men and women, whom I will 
 call doctors for want of a better name, who are in 
 league with one or the other of these classes of in- 
 visible beings. When some one is ill, or thinks his 
 luck has deserted him, he calls either an Abambo 
 or an Imbwiry doctor and asks what is wrong. All 
 the family are called together. A small house is 
 built in the street, in which the doctor arranges his 
 fetishes and performs his incantations. Drums are 
 beaten by the men, the women sing, the doctor 
 dances and goes through mysterious ceremonies ; 
 sometimes he pretends to go into a trance or ecstatic 
 state, This goes on all night, sometimes three or 
 
304 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 four nights. All this is necessary to diagnose the 
 case. At last the spirit responds, and the doctor’s 
 announcement is ready. The sick man has offended 
 an Ombwiry and must make an offering. Or he 
 has been quarreling with some member of his fam- 
 ily ; he must make peace and supplicate the offended 
 dead. Or he is bewitched, and they must find the 
 witch. No form of initiation is necessary to become 
 a doctor, only enough shrewdness to swindle a 
 very stupid public. 
 
 One of the chief functions of the office of chief is 
 to make supplications to the Abambo of the tribe 
 and to the Imbwiry of the neighborhood. Just at 
 dusk he goes with his sacred bell into the bush be- 
 hind the town, and there offers a real prayer for 
 protection and help on behalf of the whole village. 
 
 But most to be dreaded of all the malign influ- 
 ences that conspire to make a Galwa’s life uncertain 
 are the Anyemba, or witches. 
 
 Some men are supposed to have the power of 
 “going out” from their bodies during sleep; i.e., 
 their invisible part, or Invemba, has this power, 
 and may go even long distances to “eat” those 
 whom they wish to injure. This “eating” is not, 
 of course, corporeal. The Inyemba eats of its 
 enemy that which corresponds to itself, i.e., the 
 spiritual part. After being thus “ eaten ” the body 
 seems intact, but bad luck, sickness, or death is 
 likely to follow sooner or later. The ignis fatuns 
 hovering over a swamp, the meteor flashing across 
 the sky, are such Anyemba on their way to “eat” 
 an enemy. To defend themselves against witch- 
 craft, the Galwa have a complicated system of 
 fetishes and ceremonies which secure the protection 
 of certain friendly spirits called Ilogo. These 
 often mortally wound the witches that come to 
 harm their patrons, 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 305 
 
 A long article would be the result if I attempted 
 to go into the details of this branch of African 
 superstition. Suffice it to say that every sickness, 
 every misfortune, is presumptive evidence that the 
 sufferer has an enemy who is working him harm ; 
 and that enemy is presumably a member of his clan 
 or family, some one who has reason to be jealous 
 of him, or something to gain by his death or mis- 
 fortune. Perhaps it is his wife who seeks to free 
 herself that she may marry another 5 a brother who 
 will inherit his property and wives ; or it is a rival 
 aspirant for rank in the tribe. Remembering this, 
 imagine, if you can, the suspicion, the angry crimina- 
 tion and recrimination within the family and tribe, 
 that must arise from this fearful superstition. 
 
 These are samples, not a summary, of the super- 
 stitions of this one tribe, and even this outline is 
 very incomplete. There remain several systems ( ?) 
 of belief and practice which I can only name. There 
 is Okwy, a fraud practised by the men on the 
 women to keep them in their proper sphere ; there 
 is Njembe, practised almost exclusively by women ; 
 and Bweti, in which an image is set up, before 
 which men dance and worship. This last seems to 
 be true idolatry as distinguished from fetishism. 
 These last two have been introduced among the 
 Galwa in recent times by their slaves, brought down 
 from the interior. 
 
 An outline of African superstition would be 
 incomplete without a brief account of fetishism. 
 What is a fetish? It may be anything— pieces of 
 food, of human bones, bark, snakes’ teeth, leaves, 
 roots, etc. A fetish is usually a mixture of such 
 objects, the exact composition of which is some 
 man’s secret. But it must not be understood that 
 the African chooses at random and calls any object 
 a fetish. It looks so to us; his reasoning seems 
 
306 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 absurd and fantastic ; but to these grown-up chil- 
 dren their fetishism seems profound wisdom. The 
 fetish is not of any value in itself ; i.e., it is not 
 from his fetish that a man expects to obtain help, 
 but from some animal or spirit with which his fe- 
 tish brings him into mysterious connection. Among 
 the Galwa there are fetishes supposed to secure to 
 their owner the protection of the Imbwiry, others 
 of the Abambo, others, again, of the Ilogo. 
 
 There are also fetishes to animals, to certain in- 
 sects, even to weeds. A man makes or buys a fetish 
 to a certain tree. It contains a piece of the bark 
 of that tree, or of another tree of that kind. Hav- 
 ing chosen that tree as his ally, he must not cut 
 down or injure any of that species, or his fetish 
 will no longer help him, may even turn against 
 him. Does he, then, think of the trees of a given 
 species as sentient beings? The better educated 
 among the Galwa usually answer the above ques- 
 tion affirmatively, but so hesitatingly that I am not 
 convinced. Among the uneducated, who alone con- 
 tinue to practise fetishism, I can find no clear ideas 
 as to the philosophy of their fetishism. The 
 modern Galwa’s reasoning is near the surface of 
 things. 
 
 A chief of small influence looks about him for 
 some means of increasing his power. He notices a 
 certain kind of tree which grows to an enormous 
 size, overtopping all its neighbors. “ Surely,” he 
 says, “ that tree has the secret of greatness ” ; and 
 so he makes a fetish to that tree. Or he sees how 
 many bees are in a bee-tree and how they multiply. 
 So he makes a fetish to the bees, that his town may 
 become as populous as the bee-tree. The leopard 
 is the strongest beast of prey known to the Galwa. 
 A man wishes to engage in trade, so he makes a 
 fetish to the leopard, that he may be among men 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 30 ? 
 
 what the leopard is among animals in the forest. 
 These examples might be multiplied indefinitely. 
 Hardly a tree or plant, bird or fish, beast or insect, 
 that has not some quality which some man tries to 
 acquire for himself by means of a fetish. There 
 are trade fetishes, fetishes to help a man secure 
 a wife, fetishes for oratory, love-charms, hunting 
 fetishes, and fetishes innumerable for the preven- 
 tion and cure of disease. If a man wants success of 
 any sort, the one thing he never thinks of is work- 
 ing for it or deserving it ; not he ! Why should 
 he, when for a small sum he can purchase a fetish 
 that will give him his desire by its magic influence, 
 and leave him to loaf and lounge in blissful idle- 
 ness? 
 
 One other fetish deserves mention— the life fetish. 
 A doctor prepares a mixture into which he puts 
 some of his patron’s hair, finger-nails, etc. This is 
 carried to some lonely spot in the deep forest and 
 hidden in a hollow tree, or it is taken by night and 
 sunk in the deepest part of the river. Then the 
 man thinks he is safe, for his life is hidden in that 
 fetish where no enemy can find it. 
 
 Fetishism is not worship, and fetishes are not 
 gods. Though he has a separate name for each, the 
 Oalwa calls both the dose which the white man 
 gives him to drink and the charm he wears about 
 his neck or hangs above the door of his hut by the 
 same general name, u medicine.” He buys a fetish 
 just as a sick person buys a patent medicine. If he 
 recovers from sickness or is successful in trade, the 
 reputation of the fetish is increased. But often 
 the contrary is true. Then the person of whom he 
 bought it explains, u The fetish is all right, but it 
 does not like you ” In that case he never thinks of 
 abusing it, as if it had personality. He simply 
 throws it away, and tries another and another, just 
 
308 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 as a confirmed invalid will throw aside as useless, 
 one after another, several kinds of medicine. 
 
 This is a very imperfect outline of the supersti- 
 tions of one African tribe. It is, with slight vari- 
 ations in details, an outline of those of all Equa- 
 torial West Africa, if not all pagan Africa. I say 
 “ superstitions,” because we have here no religious 
 ideas, in any proper sense of the term. To none of 
 these spirits which he fears and seeks to placate 
 does the Galwa attribute creative power. He 
 never thinks of them as having special influence on 
 his condition after death. In all his incantations, 
 fetishism, worship, and supplication of spirits there 
 is not one thought of preparation for a future 
 world, only an intense desire to keep out of that 
 next world as long as possible. Yet these super- 
 stitions are what most writers on Africa have called 
 the u religion ” of this country. But if we stop here 
 we shall have a very imperfect view of their reli- 
 gious ideas. 
 
 In addition to this mask of superstition, the 
 Galwa has a distinct idea of a Deity, the Maker 
 and Preserver of all things. Ask any man, woman, 
 or child among them, “ Who made all things ? ” and 
 without a moment's hesitation he will reply, 
 “Anyambie.” Ask him, “Who is the Creator of 
 all men, the Author of life and death?” and while 
 the question is in that general form he will reply, 
 “Anyambie.” True, all his superstitious practices 
 are inconsistent with such a belief, but that does 
 not in the least disturb him. 
 
 It will be asserted (indeed, has been by some who 
 could not reconcile the existence of such an idea 
 with their preconceived notions) that these views 
 of Anvambie have been introduced by missionaries 
 and are no part of the indigenous religious thought 
 of Africa. That such is not the case it will be easy 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 300 
 
 to prove ; not only so, but as a result of contact 
 with white men there is a strong tendency in the 
 opposite direction. 
 
 Anyainbie is become little more than a name. 
 He is now seldom or never addressed in prayer. 
 There is little thought among the Galwa of to-day 
 of God’s hatred of wickedness, or that he may in 
 extreme cases punish sin. Before missionaries 
 came among them, fifteen years ago, the Galwa 
 were certainly in a fair way to lose all intelligence 
 of Deity, and might in time have lost even the 
 name ; but the religious thought of the Galwa of 
 long ago has been enshrined in the classics of the 
 language, and it is to these we appeal for proof of 
 what is here asserted. There is still available, 
 though likely soon to be forever lost, a vast store 
 of unwritten lore, handed down from a remote past, 
 in traditions, songs, salutations, proverbs, fables, 
 and stories, most of which are older than the advent 
 of the first whites on this coast, and simply cannot 
 have been in any way influenced by them. The 
 fables are too long and too fanciful to be quoted 
 here. Most of their songs are borrowed from other 
 tribes, or are so old that the language is no longer 
 intelligible even to themselves. A few, however, 
 can be readily understood, and bear on this ques- 
 tion. As we should expect, it is their proverbs 
 which deal most with morals and religion, and from 
 these we get our clearest glimpses of religious 
 thought, not of the Africa of to-day, but of Africa 
 before she ever knew a white race. 
 
 One use of Galwa proverbs is peculiar. Every 
 chief appropriated one as his individual salutation. 
 A neighbor meeting him would greet him by re- 
 peating a part of said proverb, and he would reply 
 by finishing it. Each chief is usually named after 
 some ancestor of note, and in most cases adopts his 
 
310 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 proverb as his salutation or motto. Thus these 
 proverbs have followed family names from a remote 
 past. It is surprising how frequently they take a 
 religious turn ; after collecting a large number of 
 them, I cannot resist the conclusion that ancestors 
 of the Galwa were in a true sense a religious people. 
 
 I shall cite a number of these salutations, pro- 
 verbs, and songs, but in doing so I must regret 
 that they cannot be read in the original. The pith 
 and conciseness of statement are hopelessly lost in 
 a translation. 
 
 Salutations.— Address. There is no fetish of life 
 (that can give life). Reply. Fetish only Anyambie. 
 (I.e., Only God can give life.) 
 
 Address. Death knows (has) no doctor. Answer. 
 Doctor only God. (Equal to above.) 
 
 Address. Anyambie having done (decreed). 
 Answer. There is no doctor. (I.e., No medicine 
 can avail where God has decided.) 
 
 Address. Do not ridicule me. Answer. Anyam- 
 bie. (I.e., Do not ridicule me, for God made me 
 what you see me.) 
 
 Address. Anyambie forgets no one. Answer. All 
 of us. (Meaning all of us will be called by death.) 
 
 Salutation. Pray Anyambie, or, I beseech thee, 
 Anyambie. The person addressed repeats the same 
 words, and adds : Do not kill me till I first eat this 
 plantain my wife has planted after it has ripened. 
 (I.e., Spare me to eat this plantain, which will not 
 be grown for six or eight months.) 
 
 Proverbs.— Anyambie is planted in the mouth. 
 (That is, one having reproved another who has been 
 behaving badly, and his reproof not being well re- 
 ceived, he leaves him with the above proverb.) 
 
 The young palm that Anyambie has made, even 
 though an elephant break it down, it will become a 
 full-grown palm. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 311 
 
 Songs.— A drinking-song: Oh, drink! the day 
 that I return to Anyambie, there will be two items 
 of news (lit., the news will be double). This song 
 is so old that, like a pebble on a wave-swept beach, 
 it has been worn out of all grammatical form ; but 
 those who use it explain it thus : Oh, drink ! for 
 when I die the news to be talked over will be not 
 simply that So-and-so has died, but what a great 
 man I was. Modern Galwa thought never com- 
 posed that song, for they no longer retain the 
 thought of returning to God at death. 
 
 Another is sung when a new chief is installed. 
 Old form : PencV Anyambie Avila tow \igenge — Au- 
 thority (of king) comes from God out of the far- 
 off heaven. 
 
 Miscellaneous Sayings.— A bad man dies. 
 Everybody remarks : Anyambie has reproved him, 
 as he deserved. One dies, not from wounds or under 
 suspicion of witchcraft. They say : He died, or was 
 killed, by the war of Anyambie. (Exactly equiva- 
 lent to the old verdict, “ Died by the hand of God. 77 ) 
 
 I heard of one old Galwa man, who died not long 
 ago, who addressed all his petitions to Anyambie. 
 A violent mourner was quieted by saying, An- 
 yambie has taken him. This did not indicate a 
 spirit of submission. Dissatisfaction with God 7 s 
 decree was often ill suppressed, but, after diligent 
 inquiry, I am unable to learn that any one ever 
 dared to break out into open abuse of Anyambie. 
 
 When a cloud hid the sun, but at its edge showed 
 a spot of unusual brightness, the old Galwa said, 
 The throne (chair) of Anyambie is there. 
 
 Of an infant smiling in its sleep they say : He is 
 playing with Anyambie. 
 
 A species of dragon-fly may be seen in swarms 
 flying aimlessly about a given spot the whole of 
 a sunny afternoon. The old Galwa called them 
 
312 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 Anyambie’s slaves. Go and serve Anyambie, is a 
 curse. Tell a man to “ serve God” and he will 
 angrily say: “You want to kill me, do you?” A 
 man who goes about aimlessly or on a journey 
 which turns out to be useless is said to go Ugend’ 
 Anyambie, an expression which looks as if it ought 
 to mean “ a journey (or going) for God.” So the 
 phrase for “talking nonsense” looks as if it ought 
 to mean “ speaking to (of or for) God.” I venture 
 a probable explanation of these expressions. The 
 infant smiles at nothing in this world ; therefore it 
 must be at something invisible. The Galwa can- 
 not see why a man should walk when he could as 
 well sit, or the dragon-fly fly when it could as well 
 be at rest, as it seems to have no object in flying. 
 As he can think of no other reason, it must be 
 carrying out some purpose of Anyambie, and is his 
 slave. That telling a man to serve God is equiva- 
 lent to telling him to die suggests that there was 
 an old idea according to which the dead went to 
 serve God. But evidently the idea was not relished ; 
 it meant giving up the good things of life. Of a 
 sick person for whom there is no hope of recovery 
 it is said : “ There remains for him only to serve 
 Anyambie.” 
 
 I will only refer, further, to the names of persons 
 and towns, which often include the word “ Anyam- 
 bie e.g., when the Nkami tribe emerged from 
 the interior and built their first town on the coast, 
 near Fernan Yaz, and at last got a ship to stop and 
 buy slaves of them, they called the name of the 
 place Anyambie, as if God had helped them to get 
 the trade they had so long sought. All such names 
 were given in recognition of some striking provi- 
 dence. Examples are : Anyambie does ; Anyambie 
 sees; Anyambie tries (men); Anyambie cannot be 
 fled from. What do these examples prove ? 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 313 
 
 1. Clearly, these people have a distinct idea of an 
 invisible Being to whom they refer the creation 
 and, perhaps less clearly, government of the world. 
 
 2. He is unhesitatingly declared to be the Author 
 of life, and evidently in the old days was regarded 
 as the Author of death. A rank growth of super- 
 stition has nearly choked out this latter idea. 
 
 3. Some proverbs and sayings seem to prove 
 that long ago this Creator and Governor of the 
 world was thought to have some regard for the 
 conduct of his creatures and sometimes visited ex- 
 ceptional wickedness with punishment. 
 
 4. They seem to have once had an idea that at 
 death men u returned ” to God. No trace of such 
 belief can be found among them now, except in 
 songs and proverbs of the past. 
 
 5. A comparison of modern Galwa thought with 
 ideas clearly embodied in the quotations above 
 proves, it seems to me, that in recent times lower 
 superstitions have grown at the expense of these 
 higher forms of belief. The African is illogical, 
 but a people so superstitious as the Galwa, and all 
 their neighbors, could never have evolved the really 
 exalted ideas of Deity indicated in some of these 
 sayings. Their theism has grown dimmer and 
 dimmer ; a gross superstition has gradually taken 
 its place. Not because it ever occurred to the 
 Galwa that the two were inconsistent, but because 
 it is an intellectual impossibility to perpetually at- 
 tribute the same result to two different causes ; one 
 or the other must finally usurp the whole field. 
 
 Instead of this idea of a divine Being having 
 been introduced by white men, exactly the opposite 
 is the truth. The Galwa, before the first gun or piece 
 of cloth ever reached them, were low savages, but 
 they had a settled form of government and strin- 
 gent laws and social customs. Trade came. The 
 
314 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 king at first had a monopoly of this; bnt soon 
 energy began to tell, and others became almost as 
 rich as the king. Then a growing ambition led to 
 a contest for the succession, and the tribe was 
 divided into two towns. These soon subdivided, 
 until to-day there are nearly as many chiefs, or 
 kings, as there are families. A craze for wealth 
 and power has taken possession of the whole peo- 
 ple, and, under this stimulus, belief in fetishes which 
 doubtless always existed, has grown by leaps and 
 bounds. Had the missionary not appeared on the 
 scene, the idea of a supreme Creator and Euler of 
 the universe was likely to be lost, though doubtless 
 the name would have survived for a long time. 
 
 Africa has no temples where Anyambie is wor- 
 shiped ; no sacrifices are made or libations poured 
 out to him ; but it will not do to claim that there- 
 fore there is here no idea of such a Being. 
 
 Whatever I have said of the Galwa applies equally 
 to all Mpongwe-speaking peoples— the Nkami, 
 Orungu, Mpongwe, etc. I do not speak for the 
 whole continent, but inquiries which I have been 
 enabled to prosecute lead me to suspect that the 
 Galwa idea of a Supreme Being is held substan- 
 tially all over pagan Africa. I have found it in 
 various tribes north of Kameruns Mountain, among 
 peoples whose languages have no affinity with those 
 of the Bantu family. 
 
 [Citation of numerous different names given to 
 the Supreme Being by the Benga, the Kombe, 
 Mabeya, Fang, Yoruba, various tribes in Kameruns 
 and on the Congo, are omitted by the author.] 
 
 . . . Here, then, we have a series of names for 
 Deity, evidently of common origin, used by tribes 
 widely separated and differing in language and 
 customs. How came they by this common root, 
 expressing a common idea? The idea must have 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 315 
 
 existed when all these tribes were one and before 
 these widely differing languages began their growth. 
 The present tendency is for the idea to die out, and 
 before trade brought peoples together there was 
 almost no communication between different tribes 
 in this part of Africa. The reasonable explanation 
 seems to me that when the ancestors of all these 
 tribes were one people and spoke one language 
 they had an idea of a Supreme Being, whom they 
 called Nzam or Nyam or Nyambe, and that, as the 
 original family broke up and separated, these names 
 grew up from an original root. If so, Africa had 
 a highly spiritual conception of Deity for a thou- 
 sand years, at least. 
 
 One more curious fact which will, it seems to 
 me, serve to emphasize the persistence and ancient 
 lineage of this root “Nyam” or “Nzam.” In a 
 number of cases we have complex or compound 
 names for Deity. 
 
 [The author omits Dr. Good’s citation of examples 
 in several languages.] 
 
 Some form of our familiar root always begins 
 the formula. Among the Akele and Syeki the 
 second phrase is never mentioned unless they are 
 pressed by questions. In all these series the im- 
 portant name is the first, Nzam (etc.). He is Deity ; 
 the other is his father. The second phrase is not 
 derived, like the first name, from a common root, 
 but indicates a local, though not recent, origin. 
 
 But why is the second person always introduced 
 as “ father,” not “ son,” of Nzam ? Because, in the 
 immemorial tradition of all these tribes, Nzam (etc.) 
 created, or gave birth to, the first man or men, and 
 so the series was closed there. But looking back- 
 ward, there was an infinite gap. God was the 
 Father of men, but who was the father of God? 
 That question is asked to-day, and I have little 
 
316 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 doubt that these series of names for Deity are so 
 many local attempts to answer that question. 
 This explains why the names superadded to the 
 ancient root have so little importance. Anyambie 
 having made the world and men and animals, there 
 remains no sphere to be assigned to another, except 
 to be father or grandfather of the Creator. 
 
 [Amplification^under this head, by comparison 
 of tribal differences in reckoning genealogy, is 
 omitted.] 
 
 It seems to me these facts prove conclusively that 
 the people of Equatorial West Africa are not, as so 
 many have claimed, only fetish-worshipers wlio 
 have no idea of Deity. Not that those higher re- 
 ligious ideas have any influence on their 1 ves and 
 character. I know of no tribe in Africa whose 
 theism makes them any better or happier, or who 
 render to their acknowledged Creator any true 
 worship or service. But that does not prove that 
 they have no idea of God. The same is true of 
 thousands in America who would feel insulted if 
 called atheists. 
 
 But it seems to me that, in view of the facts, 
 those who have written of the origin of religion 
 must reconstruct their theories. If religious devel- 
 opment begins with blank atheism, and advances 
 by steps, of which fetishism is one of the lowest 
 and theism the last and highest step, w T hy have our 
 African fetish-worshipers these ideas of Deity, 
 which, by the theory, they should have gained 
 only through millenniums of evolution ? 
 
«./ !