To
WILLIAM COULSON PARKINSON,
WHO HAS SERVED THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY
ON COMMITTEE FOR TWENTY-TWO YEARS, WHO WAS
SUPERINTENDENT OF CAMDEN ROAD CHURCH SUNDAY
SCHOOL WHEN GWEN ELEN THOMAS WAS A TEACHER,
WHO BECAME AND REMAINED HER TRUSTED FRIEND,
WHOM THE AUTHOR ALSO GLADLY CLAIMS AS FRIEND,
THIS BOOK IS
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
PREFACE
In July, 1910, I was requested by the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society to write the life of Mrs. Thomas Lewis of the Congo. I had shortly before arranged with Mr. Lewis to undertake the work independently; but it accorded well with his feelings and my own that it should be done under the direction of the Society which Mrs. Lewis had served for five-and-twenty years. Unfortunately the final decision was not arrived at until Mr. Lewis was on the point of returning to Africa, having already sent forward his wife’s journals and papers. Consequently, in executing my task, I have missed the great advantage of consultation with him. Chapters III., IV., V., and VI. only have received his revision.
When I asked him about materials, he replied: “If you can get hold of the Hartland letters, you will have almost all you need. Gwen wrote to one or other member of the family by every mail during all her missionary life, and told them everything about her work which was worth the telling.”
The Misses Lily and Alice Hartland were kind enough to place “the Hartland Letters” in my hands. The series was not complete, some letters having been destroyed, and a few lost. But the remainder constituted a great mass of most valuable material, and this book is largely based upon it. On September 12th I received from Kimpese a small trunk filled with Mrs. Lewis’s journals and papers; and meanwhile important parcels of letters were entrusted to me by the Misses Percival, Mrs. John Jenkyn Brown, and Miss Taylor. I am also specially indebted to Mrs. Percival, the Misses Hartland, and Mrs. W. C. Parkinson, for personal recollections, and for many suggestions and corrections.
The Rev. C. E. Wilson, B.A., General Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, has given me the freedom of the Mission House for the consultation of books and papers; and the Rev. Lawson Forfeitt has helped me in many ways, especially in arranging the illustrations, and in reading the proofs.
To these, and other friends whose names are mentioned in the text, I acknowledge my obligations with warmest thanks.
In the numerous passages selected from Mrs. Lewis’s letters, the reader will observe that the name of the correspondent is sometimes given. When no name appears it must be understood that the citation is from “the Hartland Letters.”