He had faults, I well know. But I am not the one to mention them, so much do I still feel my indebtedness to him for innumerable kindnesses through all those years, in which he journeyed with me sharing exposure and hardship, sharing also the joy of preaching the Gospel.
On one occasion Ndong Koni went into a French trading-house and asked for something which he wanted to buy. The white man behind the counter told him that he did not have the article. Ndong Koni turned to go out, but the white man called to him and said: “Why don’t you buy rum instead?”
“Because I am a Christian,” answered Ndong Koni.
The white man railed at his belief and told him his own anti-Christian beliefs.
“Well,” said Ndong Koni, “if I believed as you do I would drink rum and do a great many other things that I do not do. But as long as I am a Christian I shall not do those things.”
Once at the close of a school term when I was taking the schoolboys home, I had seventeen boys in the Evangeline, which I was towing behind the Dorothy. We had gone about twenty miles when the engine of the Dorothy suddenly stopped and refused to go in spite of all my efforts. I found afterwards that the benzine which had been sent me from Germany was not the quality which the engine required. I had this same experience frequently during the next several months, and after starting out with the Dorothy towing the Evangeline we would return to port a few days later with the little Evangeline towing the Dorothy. But this time I had first to take the boys to their homes leaving the Dorothy at anchor. The Evangeline with seventeen boys in it was already crowded, but myself and the crew of five men squeezed into it, and room was also made for the men to use the oars. There was a good wind but we had no sails. The tide had just turned and was against us, the current was strong, and we sat in that cramped position for ten hours, while those faithful boys pulled hard at the oars without relief. At midnight we reached the first town, twenty miles beyond where the Dorothy had stopped. Here we remained until morning. Three of the schoolboys lived in this town. The other fourteen lived in several different towns on other rivers. Morning found me with fever, due to the long exposure to the sun, for which I was not prepared, not having expected it. It was necessary that I should start for home immediately in the Evangeline. But what was I to do with the schoolboys?
In the emergency I called Ndong Koni, who looked tired enough from the long pull at the oar; but he said that he would take them through the bush to their homes. Of all the boys who have worked for me in Africa there was none excepting Ndong Koni and perhaps Makuba to whom I would have committed the care of so many boys in such a situation. The roads which are but poorly beaten paths lay through swamp and jungle all the way, and at the close of the wet season they were at the worst. The Fang of this region seldom use the bush-path, their towns being all on the watercourses. But the chief difficulty was the danger of meeting enemies on the way, and the fact that certain boys must avoid certain towns. Ndong Koni got them all safely to their homes. But immediately after starting he found that the smallest boy had a sore foot and walked with difficulty. I too recalled this after they had gone and I was very anxious about the boy. Ndong Koni, however, instead of letting him walk, or of sending him back to me, carried him on his shoulders all the way to his town, more than ten miles distant.
The sequel may be of interest to my readers. Before Ndong Koni left me I had engaged a man to take his place at the oar. Knowing from dire experience the unreliability of the native and the ease with which he absolves himself from the solemnest engagements, I told this man that he might change his mind and cancel the engagement if he chose to do so before Ndong Koni should leave me, but that after Ndong Koni had gone he would not be at liberty to change his mind, but would be obliged to accompany me even if it should require a flogging to persuade him. He protested that his feelings were badly hurt at the suggestion that he would be capable of breaking his promise and of leaving the white man in such a distressing predicament, especially this particular white man, to whom he owed every virtue that he possessed, and any of his neighbours would be glad to testify to his stainless reputation and the purity of his life.
Nevertheless, half an hour after Ndong Koni had gone, when I was ready to start, this saint among savages was missing. I called him and hunted for him in vain; nor could I get a man to take his place. The people told me that he had gone ahead of me in a canoe and was waiting for me at their fishing-camp a short distance down the river—which I knew to be false for the simple reason that they said it was true. I asked them to show me the man’s house, but no one seemed to know in which house he lived. His own brothers could not tell me. A bribe of a dose of salts was sufficient to induce the chief to lead the way to the man’s house. The door was a large piece of bark propped from the inside. It yielded to a vigorous push so easily that I was precipitated into the house headlong, my feet catching as I passed through the door and my helmet as usual rolling into the ashes. The man, I believe, was hidden within, but I did not search for him. I seized a large earthen jug, used by the women for carrying water and counted a valuable possession, and started off for the river, the whole town at my heels, making a deafening uproar. Many were in violent remonstrance and others were laughing. I took the jug aboard the boat and ordered the boys to push off.
We were getting under weigh when the missing man appeared upon the bank. But the saint had reverted to the savage, and was nothing but an ordinary cannibal threatening to cut me into small pieces and eat me. While the boat moved slowly towards the middle of the river I talked with him and told him that if he wanted the jug he would have to keep his agreement. He at length offered to go on condition that I would send the jug ashore as soon as he came aboard and not take it to Gaboon, for it belonged to his wife. I agreed to this proposition. He probably intended, when the jug was at a safe distance, to leap overboard and swim ashore. But once I had him in my grip I decided to take no chances lest his noble character might suffer another relapse. I made him lie down on his back in the bottom of the boat beneath the thwarts, and I seated myself on his stomach. The whole population of the town was on the bank, and rending the air with laughter, in which even the man’s wives joined. So we put off down the river.