“There is no doubt we shall require them [unmarried women missionaries] by and by as the Mission develops. At present all the work among women is done by missionaries’ wives. I should say the chief qualifications for a woman missionary, either married or single—after, of course, those which are spiritual—are, first, and most essential, really good health and a sound constitution, then, common sense, a sound knowledge of all household matters including the making of clothes, aptness to teach, and a cheerful, contented disposition. These, with a large stock of patience, a heart full of love, some knowledge of nursing and medicine if possible, and a single eye to the glory of God, will, I think, make an ideal missionary. Alas! we feel we fall far short of this ideal, but it is well to aim high. I have always regarded Mrs. Mary Moffat as my model, and have many times taken ideas from her life and work. I think one who is to become the wife of a missionary could not do better than study her life....
“Now a little about our work. We are very short-handed just now. My husband and I are quite alone, and are likely to be for some time. We are always busy, and cannot do half the work. We have at this station a native Church of fifty-nine members, thirteen of whom belong to other towns. These, we believe, are Christians, but the majority cannot read, and they all need constant teaching and supervision. Then we have a boys’ school of sixty, which meets every morning, and a girls’ school in the afternoon with eighty-five names on the books. Of course some of these are irregular, so that the average attendance would be a hundred and ten boys and girls. Then we have schools in three other towns. Two young men who were our personal boys are in charge of them, and there are over a hundred and twenty people in attendance. In all our schools there are a good many who are no longer children, but who are anxious to learn to read.
“Three times a week I have a dispensary, giving medicines to all who come. I have about one hundred and fifty patients weekly, sometimes more. Some are very sad cases for which we can do little. Others we are able to help and sometimes to cure. We have the boys and girls living with us who are trained to work in different ways. You can imagine that all this with classes, services, visitations of the sick and others in their own houses, keeps our hands pretty full. But we long so intensely to go about among the other towns and preach the Good Tidings. Several of these towns are visited on Sundays by the native Christians, but only those that are within walking distance, and there are scores beyond, speaking the same language which would gladly welcome us, but we cannot go for lack of helpers. If only the young men of England could really know the greatness of the work, and the scarcity of the workers, I am sure many would willingly offer themselves. One qualification I omitted to mention, needed by men and women, a good education. We do not need merely good people, but those who can influentially lead others. For after all Africa must be evangelised by her own people.”
“September 5th. (To Mrs. J. Jenkyn Brown.)—You ask if the deaths occurred near us. Both of the brethren [Messrs. Oram and Balfern] were well known to us, but one died at our farthest station [Bopoto], hundreds of miles distant, and the other on his way home, at Madeira. It is a rare thing for us to see any of our colleagues from the other stations. We are quite out of the world here, even the Congo world. It is a drawback in some respects, but there are advantages, and we are so busy that we have no time to pine for society. Still it would be very pleasant to see our friends sometimes, and the idea of being ‘spirited over to Birmingham for rest and petting’ is most alluring. But when we look around and see just our two selves, and our fellow-missionary, Mr. Graham, with every other influence, in the place and about it for hundreds of miles, telling against truth and righteousness, we can only hope and pray to be allowed to remain and work here.
“October 4th.—Your last letter was written from Devonshire and called up visions of lovely country walks which I should not mind sharing if only one could fly backwards and forwards. But there is no holiday for us. For the last ten days or so we have been busier than ever. We have been having a grand vaccination frolic. A few weeks ago our Resident left to be promoted to a better place. He wrote back from Noki to Tom, and sent him some tubes of vaccine. Most of it was bad, as it usually is by the time it comes here, but one tube was good, from which we vaccinated our house-children; then from them some of the outside people, and so on. The news soon spread, and people came in crowds. Every morning hundreds are to be seen entering the station. We all go to chapel and have prayers first; then I take all the medical work, while Tom and Mr. Graham go at it as hard as they can. You can imagine it is no play. Yesterday I gave medicine to over fifty people while they vaccinated 402!—225 were done to-day. This has been going on for nearly a fortnight, and ‘still there’s more to follow.’
“The people come from towns far and near, for they are terribly afraid of smallpox, and vaccination is something tangible which they can understand. So many are quite strangers, knowing nothing of God’s palaver, that it is very difficult to keep order at prayers. Indeed, it is hard to get silence to begin, for we have had the chapel crowded out. I am afraid they don’t take much in, at just one service. Still, it prepares the way for them to listen next time. Up till now the cases have numbered 1,651.
“The rains have just begun, and Tom is busy with his garden. On Saturday and Sunday he had a touch of liver trouble, and had to keep quiet for a couple of days. He is all right again now. I am thankful to say Mr. Graham and I are well too. We hear some talk of Mr. Phillips coming back soon after the new year as his time will be up, but Mrs. P. is not coming, and we are very much afraid Mrs. Graham won’t come either. We are waiting anxiously for this mail to hear something definite. I don’t mind much if my health keeps good except that there might be so much more done. Really my health is wonderful considering everything. I feel I can’t be thankful enough for it.
“We are having a hard fight here now, there are many forces of evil against us. Some of those who have been trained in the Mission are doing their very best to keep people away from us and our meetings, and trying hard to destroy and lead into sin those who do come. Still we have God on our side, and in spite of them all the work goes on. We have large meetings, good schools, and many people coming to be taught. Mr. Graham has been visiting the out-stations since I wrote last. He was very pleased with the work. He had not seen them before.
“November 23rd.—There is a great deal of opposition now to girls coming into the station, because the men find that they will not be slaves afterwards. Only those who really wish to live in a decent fashion will allow their girls to come, and even when they do there is often difficulty with their families.... But the conceit of these people, especially the young men and big boys, is astonishing. It is beyond measure! There is just that air about them: ‘I’m as good as you.’ They are not at all the poor humble negroes whom one reads about in story-books. They are very different even from the Cameroons people in their behaviour to the white man. There is one good thing about it. I think it will be easy to develop independent, self-supporting Churches as soon as we can find people to take the leadership.
“December 16th.—You said in your last letter that there will always be a welcome for us at 34. Thank you very much for the assurance. I am afraid we shall come to claim it earlier than we had expected. We did hope to stay out another year, but Tom is sick in bed with one of his old attacks, the second he has had, and a very severe one. So we dare not risk another, and shall leave as soon as there is some one with Mr. Graham. We shall not come to England though, until May, all being well, but shall stay at Madeira, to avoid east winds, and to learn Portuguese, which we badly need here.”