“February, 1905. (Circular letter to children.)—It is rather a long time since I wrote to you about the work here, but I have no doubt you read the Herald and so know a little of how we are going on. This is such a very dark spot, and the saddest part is that now the True Light has come into their midst the people still prefer darkness. Night after night we can hear them shouting and dancing at their fetish palavers. When any one falls sick they say it is caused by an evil spirit, and all the friends of the sick person assemble after dark to drive it away by charms and incantations, accompanied by singing and dancing. The next day they will solemnly tell us that they saw the spirit go away into the darkness, although the patient is no better and oftener than not dies.
“Yet in a few cases the light is beginning to pierce the gloom; some are wishing to learn, and what I think is even more hopeful, some—very few at present—of the men are beginning to want their wives and children taught. For the last six months all the workmen on the station have been attending day or night school, and at Christmastime some of them came and said they saw that we—the missionaries’ wives—were not happy because the women did not come to be taught, so they were going to make an effort to get them, as they wanted their wives to learn. They made a feast, to which they invited all the chiefs and headmen, and told them that now they themselves went to school and knew there was no witch palaver in it, so they must not prevent the women from coming. The chiefs agreed to this, and the following Monday when we began school after the holidays two women and a little girl came. These two have long wished to come, but were prevented by the superstition of their husbands and relatives. Others came afterwards, so now we have eleven besides the nine girls who live with us on the station, and we hope many more will come since they have made a beginning. They are not stupid. Four have already learnt their letters, and I was surprised yesterday at the slate of ‘a’s’ written by one of them from the blackboard. She had a child in her arms, and had never attempted a stroke until she came to school.
“They are very wild and dirty and not at all inviting-looking, but it is wonderful to see how gradually, almost imperceptibly, they are getting into order and how well they learn to say the text with which we close school.
“On Sunday afternoons I have started a class for any girls or women who will come, and I get from five to fifteen besides the station girls. Some of these are older women who do not come to day school. They learn a text, and then I tell them as simply as I can something about Jesus. Some of them listen very well, and I want you all to join in praying for these Zombo women and girls that many more may come to be taught, and that those who do come may learn to love and follow the Saviour.
“A week or two ago my husband and I went out for a visit to some of the towns to the north of this place. In some we were well received, as we had visited them before when we first came to Zombo. In one group of towns in particular we were able to make friends and have some nice talks with the people. In one town there were several sick folk, who were glad of medicine, and in the same town there was one woman who had just lost her daughter, another who had a little baby, and both of these seemed to like to listen to what I told them about the great God Who made us all and loves us.
BRIDGE OVER LUSENGELE STREAM NEAR COMBER STATION, KIBOKOLO.
“One day a rather tiresome incident occurred, although we cannot help laughing when we think of it now. We wanted to go to a place called Kidia, which is on the other side of the Nkisi river. This is a fine river and too deep to ford; the only way of crossing is in a large canoe, which is kept there as a ferry. We crossed, but found the district most miserable; the people and the houses all seemed dead or dying, so we did not stay there long, but returned to the river at another place, as we wished to come back by a different route altogether.
“We got to a wretched little town early in the morning, and as the people did not seem friendly, and there was not a decent house in the place, we decided to cross the river and go another way. When we arrived at the ferry the canoe was on the farther bank and the ferryman nowhere to be seen. The carriers called and shouted for about an hour, when two boys came down to bring the canoe over, but when they saw Mr. Lewis they fled, and as we heard afterwards, went and told the townsfolk there was ‘something’ on the opposite bank, not a man at all! We sat and waited, hoping they would bring their master, as our men called after them to do, but hour after hour passed and still no one came. At last one of our young men, the only one who could, swam across; but when he attempted to punt the canoe, he only fell over into the water, so the men called to him to go into the town and fetch the ferryman. We waited another hour and a half, when the boy returned, saying he could find neither town nor people. So there was nothing for it but to go back to the little town we had left in the morning. We were very weary, for we had taken nothing but some biscuits and milk all day, and had not been able to rest at all between the hot sun in the open space by the river, and the insects when we retreated into the shade. The people were very angry when they saw us coming back; they thought we had been driven away from somewhere, and suggested that if we had only waited till dark, ‘the devil would have taken us over.’ We got the best house we could; but there was hardly room for our beds in the one place in the middle where the roof was whole, and we had hardly got them up before a tremendous storm came on. The next morning we went back to the ferry by which we had previously crossed and got over all right.”
In 1908 Mr. Lewis read a paper before the Royal Geographical Society in London, entitled “The Ancient Kingdom of Kongo.” It was illustrated by splendid photographs, and received with enthusiasm. I was present, and can testify to the heartiness of the cheer given by the audience for Mrs. Lewis, who had been her husband’s fellow-traveller. The following passage is taken from this paper, which was printed in the Geographical Journal for June, 1908:—