By Our Special Commissioner.
MR. GOODMAN WITH TEACHERS AND CHILDREN OF DAY SCHOOL, TIKONKO.
(Photo: The Rev. W. Vivian, F.R.G.S.)
A terrible adventure befell the Rev. C. H. Goodman, missionary in the Mendi country, West Africa, in the summer of 1898. It is really surprising that he is alive to tell the tale, and, indeed, the marks of great suffering were still visible on his face when, a few months afterwards, he kindly told me the story.
THE REV. C. H. GOODMAN.
(Photo: Mr. Stephens, Harrogate.)
The peril came on him with startling suddenness. No bolt from the blue could dash from the heavens more unexpectedly. He was stationed at Tikonko, about two hundred miles inland from Freetown, Sierra Leone, and had been in charge of the United Methodist Free Church Mission there for about six years. Suddenly, one morning, he heard by chance that his life and the lives of his Mission-workers had been demanded by a neighbouring tribe.
"Is it really true," he asked his friends, the Tikonko Mendis, "that the Bompeh people wish me to be killed?"