Through lands that were dark / Being a record of a year's missionary journey in Africa and Madagascar

Khama, the Christian Chief of the Bamangwato Tribe.
THROUGH LANDS THAT WERE DARK Being a Record of a Year’s Missionary Journey in Africa and Madagascar
BY F. H. HAWKINS, LL.B., Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society for Africa, China and Madagascar.
“ To the Darkness and the Sorrow of the Night Came the Wonder and the Glory of the Light ”
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY 16, New Bridge Street, London, E.C. 1914
This little Book is dedicated (without permission) to the Friend whose generosity made it possible for the journey herein recorded to be taken free of any expense to the London Missionary Society
I hear a clear voice calling, calling, Calling out of the night, O, you who live in the Light of Life, Bring us the Light! We are bound in the chains of darkness, Our eyes received no sight, O, you who have never been bound or blind, Bring us the Light! We live amid turmoil and horror, Where might is the only right, O, you to whom life is liberty, Bring us the Light! We stand in the ashes of ruins, We are ready to fight the fight, O, you whose feet are firm on the Rock, Bring us the Light! You cannot—you shall not forget us, Out here in the darkest night, We are drowning men, we are dying men, Bring, O, bring us the Light! John Oxenham.
This short record of a year’s missionary journey in Africa and Madagascar is written at the request of the Directors of the London Missionary Society, and is based upon a series of Journal Letters written to my family and friends while I have been on my travels. This fact must be my excuse for writing in the first person. This little book has been prepared in the midst of the pressure of Secretarial work.
My visit to South Africa was a Secretarial visit. In Central Africa and Madagascar I formed one of a Deputation from the London Missionary Society. My colleague in Central Africa was the Rev. W. S. Houghton of Birmingham, and in Madagascar the other members of the Deputation were Mr. Houghton and Mr. Talbot E. B. Wilson of Sheffield.