“Two years ago (August to October, 1905), in company with my wife (who has always travelled with me, and assisted me in my observations for some twenty years), I made a journey through Nkusu into Mbamba, visiting on my way the celebrated, but now abandoned, copper mines at Mbembe.
“The Nkusu district is the most populous I have visited in the whole of my journeyings through Northern Angola. The villages are numerous, and the inhabitants generally seemed to be strong and healthy. I always judge of the prosperity of the country by the area of land under cultivation. The extensive plantations of manioc, maize, beans, sweet potatoes, and other native products point to the inhabitants being industrious and prosperous. The Nkusu folk also engage in trade like all the other tribes, and spend much of their time away in the rubber market. This being a free trade in Portuguese Congo the natives make good profit by it. The highest altitude I have registered on the plateau is in this district, being 3,600 feet above sea-level.
“I cannot help comparing this district with that of Kidia, on the east side of the Nkisi, where we passed through some of the most wretched villages I ever saw. There was hardly a hut fit for any human being to live in, and all were in a tumbledown condition. The people were ill-fed and dirty, and the children—the few I saw—were feeding on palm-nuts and raw manioc. We came to two villages close to each other, and found that all the inhabitants had died of sleep-sickness. The carriers entered some of the huts and saw the bodies of two or three in the last stages of decomposition on the floor. These were possibly abandoned by the small remnant who had fled before this terrible scourge of Central Africa.
“It was, therefore, an agreeable change to travel day after day among a bright and prosperous tribe of people. But even there we came across some disagreeable scenes and cruel customs. One day we arrived at a village where they were just preparing the body of a woman for burial in the Lueka River close by. Our carriers, always attracted by a funeral feast, went to look on, and one of the lads ran back to tell us that they were going to bury a four-days-old baby with the mother. I hastened to the spot just in time to see the grandmother pulling a native cord and fastening the living babe to the neck of the dead mother. Amidst great confusion and wild protests I rescued the child out of her hands and carried it to my wife. It only lived, however, ten days, but we remember with horror that the child had been left for twenty-four hours to suck at the breast of a dead woman. The burying of infants with their dead mothers is a common practice through the whole Congo region, except where there are missionaries or Government officials to stop it. I have heard of one father who reared his motherless child with native beer (mbamvu) and palm wine, but I know of no other case outside the members of Christian communities.”
In the course of this journey Mr. and Mrs. Lewis visited Mabaya, a new station far south of San Salvador, recently founded by Mr. and Mrs. Cameron. Their coming had been eagerly expected, and was warmly welcomed. They were delighted with the progress their friends had made in so short a time, and in the following letter Mrs. Lewis gives a brief account of the visit:—
“Mabaya, September 17th. We have been here nearly a week.... We found Josephine fairly well though rather depressed, for Mr. Cameron had been very unwell and she was very anxious about him. His health is not at all satisfactory. He has been left far too long without a colleague, and when the Kirklands come there ought to be a third man very soon, in case the Camerons have to return. They are holding on bravely here, doing with the minimum of comforts to save transport, and the work seems decidedly promising. The people here are more like San Salvador folk than are our wild creatures in Zombo. Josephine has three meetings for women; that in the near town is very good, and the women are learning to sing quite nicely. To-day we are assisting at the opening of the new chapel, a very nice, large grass structure—not quite finished. Tom and I are to speak this afternoon (Sunday), and to-morrow night Tom is to show a magic lantern. Then, on Tuesday, we start homewards by a different route. I shall write a circular letter about our journey, so I must not write about it now. I had a nasty fall from my hammock which might have been serious. It delayed us a day, and kept me from doing anything for several days. I am thankful to say the effects have passed off without any permanent damage, though I have reminders now and then.”
“November 14th. (To Mrs. J. Jenkyn Brown.)—We have had a most discouraging year with regard to the work here. It seems like a blank wall of superstition and wickedness, and were it not that we know that there is nothing impossible to God we might well despair. We have been here now more than five years, and seem to make very little headway. I do hope the women’s meetings I have just begun will be maintained. I have not been able to get them hitherto, so that is a step in the right direction. Also, the women are coming better now to school, but the boys’ school is so interrupted by the constant demands for carriers from the Portuguese authorities, who are simply recruiting agents for the traders. At ‘women’s meetings’ so far, I have had a number of boys and girls and a few men as well, but I am glad to get any one who will listen. The Sunday services are a little better attended lately, but the numbers are still small.”
In January, 1906, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis attended the United Conference of Congo Missionaries at Kinshasa, Stanley Pool, to which Mr. Lawson Forfeitt brought the heavy news of the death of Dr. Holman Bentley. The following passage is from a letter dated Kibokolo, February 3rd:—
“The ladies were a good deal to the fore in the meetings and there were several papers read, and discussions in which we all took part, about women’s work. Then the ladies had two close meetings to talk over private matters with regard to the time for these girls to marry, &c., &c. These were felt to be most helpful, especially to the younger ones among us, who were quite surprised at many of the customs which we older ones could tell them of. I certainly feel now that the time was not wasted which I spent up there, for they said I had taught them many things with regard to women’s work here which they could not have learned otherwise. I was very glad to have some talks with Dr. Catherine Mabie of Banza Manteka, on medical matters. She is so nice, and so are Dr. Leslie and his wife. Their little boy, ten months old, was with them. Then all other sides of the work were discussed and many papers read. On Sunday morning we met for a memorial service for Dr. Bentley, when Mr. Grenfell gave such a beautiful address. After that we all sang a hymn I chose, which seemed to me so specially appropriate,