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Dundee City Archives Mary Slessor Letters and Documents
This is a file of letters and documents relating to Dundee missionary, Mary Slessor. These letters are held in the City Archives, Shore Terrace, Dundee (City Archivist: Iain Flett). www.dundeecity.gov.uk/archives ã Copyright Dundee City Council and the transcribers, 2001
Amess, Mina GD.X.260.19xxii b GD.X.260.19xxii b
Letter from Miss Mina Amess, Akpap, Calabar, describing the work at her mission.
As this letter is included with the preceding item [GD.X.260.19xxii a] it was
decided to reproduce it here. Miss Amess was a fellow worker of Miss Slessor's
and often mentioned in her letters.
________________________________________________________
From the Women's Missionary Magazine of April 1914?
Mrs McGregor came over for our Communion, and also for the formal opening of the
new church. That ceremony took place on the Friday. We had a good turn-out,
and a liberal collection - £6, 3s. 3d. Then, on the Sabbath morning we had
about 450 people at the service, even a larger attendance than we had when Ma
was here. Several couples have renounced polygamy, and are now married
properly. We are glad that at last a stand has been taken against this old
custom.
We are now free of debt, and have £18 in hand for complete lining for the
roof, paint, and cement for the floor. This building is now quite nice and
serviceable as it is, so none of these extras will be done until the people
themselves, at the ordinary church collections, give the amount that will be
required. The people at Ifakko, Usun-Eauk, and Obio-aka-nkpa are all paying
for their own teachers, and also gave money to buy a table and chair for each of
the schools.
The progress of the past months has cheered us greatly, but while we
rejoice in good church attendances and liberal collections, we want far more
than these, we want a band of real Christian natives who will be a power for
good amongst their own people. The Church members and catechumen members are
beginning to realise their responsibilities more.
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Anon GD.X.260.17 This item consists of one manuscript page in an unidentified hand, but similar script, to that of Miss Slessor. As two passages have been found to be from Miss Slessor's letters to Miss Crawford, it is possible that all these passages represent part of a collection of extracts from Miss Slessor's writings made by some person unknown. ------------------------------------------------------------ were I to record some of the manifestations of God's power & guidance & loving patience to myself through times of loneliness & stress, it would doubtless strengthen the faith of His people. It is so sweet when Christ rules in a home to see the love & loyalty to Him in the giving up of one another for His sake. [from Miss Slessor's letter to Miss Crawford, dated 6th September 1907: see GD.X.260.03] Thank God for His restraining grace as well as for His electing grace. [from Miss Slessor's letter to Miss Crawford, dated 6th November 1907: see GD.X.260.05 May God get His proper place as the Chosen & then all will be well for He is able to [?] [?] we sometimes make the [Choos - ?] & the doing our business too much & then we get trouble TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A Mackenzie, June 1999 EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, June 199 GD.X.260.17 Anonymous GD.X.260.19ii
The author gives us a picture of a typical day in the life of Miss Slessor at
the time of her visit, and goes on to list the major changes that have occurred
in Okoyon since she took up residence there.
----------------------------------------------
Presumed source Women's Missionary Magazine of December 1902
A private letter of 16th August ?1902 gives a glimpse of Miss Slessor's work.
[Author unknown]
I came to Akpap on 22 July and found Miss Slessor well and busy amongst her
children. There are six little boys, only two of them can walk; four little
girls and two big ones. Miss Slessor goes out at 6 A.M. to a village about
three miles off to hold a school. She comes home at 10, when there is always
someone waiting for a palaver with her. In the afternoon she has school in the
house here, when a good many lads come, all very anxious to learn. After tea,
she attends the sick. Every fourth day is market day, on which she has a lot
of visitors. They come to her with their troubles, big and little, and her
word is law. On Sabbath mornings at 6, she goes to the village where she has
the school, and holds a short service. Some of the boys who attend the school,
go with her to a still more distant place. When she comes home she has two
meetings in different villages, and in the evening she goes to some big yard and
has a service for children.
There is a great change on the people of Okoyon since I first saw them, thirteen
years ago. At that time fourteen persons were caught to be put to death
because the chief's son had died. We had much ado to save them - but there is
nothing like that now. Formerly no husband would live with his wife, if she
became the mother of twins, nor were the twins allowed to live. The other day I
saw a mother quite happy with a pretty little twin child.
There are other changes. When the market-day falls on our Sabbath, no market
is held. One needs to know the people and live among them to see what the
Gospel has done for them.
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Anonymous GD.X.260.19iii Presumed to be from the Womens Missionary Magazine of March 1904? Miss Slessor, whose furlough now falls due, has chosen to spend it in Old Calabar, rather than return to the homeland. She intends to enter the Inokon country by way of Itu and the Enyon Creek, with the hope of extending mission operations in that direction. TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999 EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999 Anonymous GD.X.260.19xx
A report on Miss Slessor's stay in the Canary Islands and her improved health on
her return to Calabar. Letter No. GD.X.260.12, dated October 1912 to Miss
Crawford, written while at Grand Canary, describes this trip in more detail.
------------------------------------------------
From the Women's Missionary Magazine of January 1913?
MISS SLESSOR, who, as many of our readers know, was far from well for some time,
went recently to Grand Canary for greatly needed rest and change. We rejoice
to report that she has received much benefit. We have pleasure in passing on
the following extract from a private letter, written on board ship on her return
voyage to Calabar,as a proof of this. Referring to the time spent in the
Islands, Miss Slessor writes:- "It was worth waiting a lifetime for, so perfect
was it all. It will ever be a dream of beauty and joy to hold in memory.
Well, it has come to a close in one sense, but I am so well, so changed
altogether that of course it is *not* done, and I trust it will be like Elijah's
meal in its results. Thank God with me for all the goodness and tender mercy
He has made to pass before me these last two months."
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Anonymous GD.X.260.19xvii
Miss Slessor announces her commitment to moving to Ikpe.
---------------------------------------
Presumed to be an article from the Women's Missionary Magazine of January 1911?
Extension work in Calabar - As many of our readers know, Miss Slessor has long
had a desire to open new ground up the Enyong Creek, among a people who have
given strong proofs that they are stretching out their hands to God. News has
come that she has visited Ikpe, a day and a-half's journey from Use, to make
arrangements for opening work there. Writing to a friend, Miss Slessor says:
"Do pray that I may be helped, for the need of these poor people is great and
infinite. I have done the thing now and am committed to it. The site is
cleared for the Ikpe Mission House, and the first fifty sheets of corrugated
iron have gone up. I am in the dark on many points, but my mind is in perfect
peace, that God will work and carry it through, for the Pillar leads."
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Anonymous GD.X.260.19xi
An account of a meeting held in the Assembly Hall, ?Edinburgh prior to Miss
Slessor's return to Calabar. A plea for more personnel to help with the mission
work in Calabar, and for prayer, is made by Miss Slessor, together with Miss
Peacock and Miss Reid.
----------------------------------------------------
From the Women's Missionary Magazine of November 1907?
Miss Slessor's Return to Darkest Africa.
A farewell meeting to Miss Slessor was held in the Assembly Hall on the evening
of 7th October, presided over by Dr.Robson, Miss Peacock and Miss Reid being
also present.
Miss Peacock told how the burden of the unreached parts of Calabar had weighed
upon her and her colleagues. As the home Church held out no hope of support,
Miss Slessor had offered a native house at Ikotobon, and she and Miss Reid went
there last March to work among the Ibibio people, who are a race very far down,
physically, morally, and spiritually. They started a school for the men and
boys. One lad, Efiong, has become a new creature in Christ Jesus. On being
asked how it was that he became a Christian, he replied, "I don't know, but I
heard the gospel, and God just showed me and I believed."
Miss Reid described the sad down-trodden look in the faces of the women, and
recalled to us the fact that these are our sisters. One woman, who had been
helped with medicine, clasped her hand and said, "The God of Efiong bless you."
She knew nothing about the God of Abraham, but knew that the God who had changed
the life of that lad must be good.
On rising to speak Miss Slessor met with a very hearty reception. She began by
saying it was not a weak cause that they had come to plead. There have been
sixty years of work in Old Calabar. The second chapter of the history of the
Mission is to be written now. God has had to employ the British Government to
do what we could not do; and the British soldiers have been humane. patient, and
tactful with the natives. Had it not been for the work of the Church, they
could not have done what they have; and they will never hold the country without
gospel light. Itu was the slave-market and was kept by the north-country
people. The soldiers penetrated beyond. All honour to our soldiers; they
deserve our prayers as well as our criticism. The Governor had asked again and
again, "Why don't you move in?"
Miss Slessor went on to tell how a deputation of the natives waited upon her and
said, "We are going to sit down till you come with us; we have money laid aside,
and you must come." She engaged a boy and went up to Itu. The women
especially came crowding in to the worship. These women became Christians and
have been true missionaries; outspoken in their devotion to Christ. There is
now a congregation testifying for Christ. Miss Slessor then told of the call
to Arochuku. Two missionaries went up to a village and took a boy with them.
He is now the head of the Church there. From this work in Arochuku six
congregations have sprung, five of them have Christian men and women, the sixth
has been taken up by Miss Reid and Miss Peacock. In a country like that, women
must go first, not men. Wherever a punitive expedition has been, the natives
will not believe in men, they plead for women.
Miss Slessor told of a Christian man who had presented twenty-seven children of
his own for baptism the day he was baptised himself. Another man came up once
to Arochuku asking Miss Slessor to follow him to his home. She went up with Mr
Wilkie. He took them into his semi-European house with a court, in which stood
a table and chairs. They sat down, and a box was brought forward in which were
some books, a Bible, catechism, an ink bottle, etc. They asked whose box it
was. "My boy's," was the reply. "Where is your boy?"
"My boy is dead. I had a son, and I thought he would bury me when I was dead.
There is nothing I have left undone. I got Christian traders to come in and
teach him, and I got another boy taught with him to keep him company. *I want
God*" the man continued fiercly, "and you won't leave me till I find Him."
Miss Slessor said, "Oh, father, God is here! He is waiting for you." Half-an-
hour later a silent company went away, but the man got God: of couse he did.
Now he is a Christian. He has twins living there that he has taken in from
Ibibio. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth.
We hold the money and the power, and we hold everything, and what are we going
to do with that great land? It is not twenty men or a score of women that we
want; it is a *host* to take possession of it for Christ. This is a new
opportunity. Something more than money is wanted, and a kneeling prayer of a
few monutes twice daily. We have not learned to pray yet. If we had a
praying people we would have a missionary Church and a victorious Church. The
Church will have to set times apart just for praying, and keep on. The command
is, "Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Teach
them by prayer and by the power of the Holy Ghost. If we are in living union
with Christ, the men and women and money will come. May it be that Calabar
will be marvellously helped by the faith and love of the Church.
Mrs. Duncan M'Laren said Miss Slessor's dauntless spirit was clamouring to be
back in Africa. Africa claimed her, and for Africa she was eager to labour on
to the end. We were there not to praise her, but to praise her Lord, the Lord
who has guided her, and whose gift she is to our Church, and who has kept her
through manifold dangers safe to this hour. There are times when the beckoning
hand is seen, when the voice is heard distinctly, "Speak unto the children of
Israel that they go forward." There are also times when it needs the God-given
vision to see the guiding hand. We feel that our friend has this vision, and
she at least has not been disobedient to the heavenly vision. We all feel
humbled when we hear what she and her brave colleagues have done. Do we not
feel that we must make a great change in our policy after this night?
We say farewell to Miss Slessor, praying to God that it may indeed be a "faring
well" with her to the end of the journey. May we so hold the ropes that when
she comes again bringing her sheaves with her, we may in a humble measure
rejoice with her. In God's keeping we may safely leave her, praying that the
Lord may preserve her going out from this time "even for evermore."
Enthusiastic meetings in connection with Miss Slessor's return to West
Africa, and the forward movement there, have also been held in Glasgow and in
Aberdeen.
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, 1999
Anonymous GD.X.260.22iii
An article in the Record of the Home and Foreign Mission Work of the United Free
Church of Scotland, of February 1915.
Miss Slessor's passing is announced and some extracts from her last letter are
shared with the readers.
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The Passing of Miss Slessor
As these pages are passing through the press we learn from the newspapers of the
death of Miss Mary M. Slessor in Calabar. The announcement will cause the
keenest regret throughout the Church. "Few women or men have served God and
man better than Miss Slessor has", said the Rev. J. K. MacGregor, who so
graphically told the story of her career in the 'Record' in August 1913. We
refer readers meanwhile to that article for an admirable appreciation of her
remarkable personality. We hope that an adequate record of her life and
labours will be undertaken by some competent pen: it would prove one of the most
interesting biographies of women ever published, and would stimulate missionary
enthusiasm in the Church, especially among young people, as few books have done.
One could only know Miss Slessor's fine character by coming into personal
contact with her. Something of her rare spirit breathes through her letters,
and we venture to print a few extracts from a communication we recently received
from her which now bears a pathetic interest. It was in answer to a request we
made for a contribution on some aspect of her work. She first referred
humorously to the article about her in the 'Record', which had sent her flying
into the bush to a remote out-station where "she could blush unseen", and remain
hidden until the episode had been forgotten.
"Isaac did not feel more dazed when he turned down that hillside than I did
after I had grasped the full meaning and possible outreach of that 'Record'. I
left it behind me and came to this heathenish locality, which always keeps me
lowly in the fight with naked, unashamed heathenism. For it is borne in upon
me here that 'not by might nor by power, but by Thy Spirit' is the only
leverage. Man and Mary Slessor are simply nothing. I can get obedience and
respect, and gifts and heaps of things, but not one soul can I move to its own
salvation. A fine corrective to blarney!"
As to the proposed article, she wrote:-
"For one thing, I haven't the time; and for another, I haven't the strength,
either physical or mental. When one gets into the sixth decade one is on the
wrong side of the line, and the pace does not slacken on the mission field. It
needs husbanding of odd moments to get the tale put in at all. If I were
sitting down in Edinburgh and a kindred spirit asked me questions, I might
recall the dear fellow-labourers and the days in Calabar when it wasn't a
picnic. White and black, there were giants in those days, and were I to record
some of the manifestation of God's power and guidance and loving patience to
myself through times of loneliness and stress, it would doubtless strengthen the
faith of His people; but to sit down and conjure it all up and then write it
out, makes me feel faint. One cannot do much amidst schoolboys and visitors,
and sick folk and a household, and through the long sleepless nights which are
now my portion. It would be too strenuous, and as the shadows lengthen and no
sound of a fellow-traveller's voice comes up behind, and so much lies to be
sorted out before the sun goes down, one's energies are watched like a miser's
hoard. If I tell you that I am pledged to two towns, close on ten miles of
hill road away, and that this parish is absolutely beyond me, and that villages
all around are crying out for help, not to speak of a congregation unshepherded
at Use, you will understand how chary I am of writing even a letter that takes
the nervous strength out of me. .... So I think I shall just have to write you
a small friendly letter now and then to prove that I am not too soured and
cynical......Mr Macgregor and his dear wife are so good to me, and it is my
greatest rest-time and enjoyment to be with them. They are fine gold through
and through. Cannot you send some more? - we sadly need it."
At the end she whimsically excuses the "apparent slovenliness" of her letter:
"I've had a fractious, newly vaccinated baby on my knee under the pad, and she
doesn't like it any more than I do."
A modest and gallant spirit!
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Anonymous GD.X.260.19vi Extract presumed to be from the "Women's Missionary Magazine", dated Dec. 1905? The Slessor Mission Hospital While not a branch of our women's work, it is interesting to record that the hospital, which is to be erected at Itu in the Ibo country, is to be called the Slessor Mission Hospital. The advance into this district is largely owing to the initiative given by Miss Slessor, who, it will be remembered, elected to devote the furlough to which she was entitled to exploring the regions beyond Old Calabar. TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999 Anonymous GD.X.260.19xxi
A description of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem with which Miss Slessor has
been invested. She describes the occasion on which it was given to her in a
letter to Mr Charles Partridge [See Letter no. 81, 10th August 1913]
-----------------------------------------------
From the Women's Missionary Magazine of August 1913
The Order of St. John had origin in Jerusalem and Acre as an international lay
confraternity for the relief of the Crusaders. The Grand Priory of the Order
of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England was dissolved at the same
time as the monasteries, but was reconstituted in 1827, and was granted a Royal
Charter in 1888. The Badge of the Order is a Maltese Cross of white enamel,
with a lion and unicorn in alternate angles. King George V. is the Sovereign
Head and Patron of the British Order; H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught is the Grand
Prior.
Of this ancient and honourable Order, whose present work is entirely devoted to
the relief of the sick and suffering, Miss M. M. Slessor, our veteran missionary
in Calabar, has been enrolled an Honorary Associate. It is a unique honour to
a missionary, but none could have better deserved such recognition. Her long,
noble, self-sacrificing service was brought to the notice of the Grand Prior of
the Order by His Excellency the Governor of Southern Nigeria, Sir Frederick
Lugard, through the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It is unnecessary
here to tell at length the story of her work; it is well known to all our
readers. (An account of some aspects of the earlier years appears in the
current number of the "Missionary Record".[Note])
We all unite in offering to Miss Slessor hearty congratulations on receiving
this decoration, and we pray that she may be long spared not only to wear the
badge of the Order, but to continue that work for the relief of suffering (of
which the badge is the symbol), to which she has already given so nobly thirty-
six years of her life.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article is included here as "item GD.X.260.22i"
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
CROMARTY, Deas GD.X.260.20 An undated article on Mary Slessor from the "British Weekly". It appears to have been written soon after the appearance of the article in the "Record" August 1913 [see item GD.X.260.22ii] ______________________________________________________ MARY MITCHELL SLESSOR Until now I have never dared to put my honoured friend's name at the head of an article. Knowing the depth and reality of her puritanism, I was pretty certain that she would dislike any notice of herself; and not even to make the world aware of her original character and remarkable work should one give a moment's uneasiness to that valiant soul away in the shadows of Calabar:- shadows which her faith and sincerity, her courage and love have done so much to lighten. But the "U.F.Missionary Record" for this month has broken in upon her severe modesty with the chief facts of a life which is without parallel amongst women, and I may venture to add a few words of my own. I met her when she was home for her first furlough: a quiet, self contained, firm young woman, who left a mark of her own, so that through all the following years the portrait remained: that of a worker for whom the chosen task is everything; a servant of humanity for whom difficulties and dangers hardly exist. Her infrequent visits to Scotland deepened the impression of a singularly concentrated nature fixed on the Christian ideal that man, anywhere and everywhere, is a salvable creature; that the "savage" is a child, but not a brute beast; that "missionary work" means getting at the heart of this child and teaching it to live, bit by bit, as wise mothers teach. This radically simple faith, united to as simple a courage, took Mary Slessor to Calabar thirty-six years ago and has kept her there, living right amongst the natives, always more and more "up-country"; at their service, one might say their mercy, day and night, save for one jealously guarded hour on Sunday afternoon, when "Ma's" curtain is drawn and her bairns, bigger or smaller, must leave her alone with her Master:- the invisible, compelling Master who sent to Calabar the Andersons, the Goldies, and Euphemia Sutherland, and others of a kind and sturdy band whose health proved miraculously superior to malaria, and whose work laid the foundation for the South Nigerian Protectorate. Of that Protectorate the real founders are the missionaries; and Mary Slessor is now receiving from the British Government some of the tribute due. For some years she has been an appointed magistrate to hold courts and decide cases. She had been doing so informally, on her own personal authority, long before. She is now made an Associate of the Order of St. John, revived from Crusading times, and certainly, never did knight go forth to succour the crusaders with an outfit so unassuming or a spirit so humane. The little medal is quite in place on the Scottish woman's plain gown; but I know how Miss Slessor will regard it. She forgets the great world, except when a British officer passes her way and her girls make tea for him, or a few books and papers arrive, and something stirs and aches a little, and "Ma" feels the weight of all her dark family resting on soul and body. "An uncrowned queen"? Yes, by deep, pitiful love and service; by strenuous oversight and teaching and homely toil; by intimate knowledge of a people's ways and language such as a scholar might covet; by the "dash" and coolness that win through dangers and mesmerise the barbarian; by the fixed purpose that has become life itself and cannot cease. By all these Mary Slessor, to those who personally know her, stands a genius among women because she has "consecrated" a good Scots head and a vigorous Scots will to the redemption of a people with an absolute contempt for convention and the un-needful. There have been days of criticism; but I expect they are over. They ought to be. When she stands up - unwillingly - to speak of her work, the effect cannot be rendered in any words at my command. The remembrance of a meeting in Aberdeen, during her last furlough, will never leave me. The steady control of the face, the calm intensity of the words, few, yet out of a storehouse and charged with all the force of human need, human desire to meet that need. She told three little stories. A fourth, and some of us would have sobbed aloud. The air was tense with spiritual drama like that of the early Christian days. In a recent letter Miss Slessor speaks of the gaps in the stations. One missionary is "alone" here, another "alone" there, and "other doors are locked".... "Oh that the scores of unattached women at home would come for six months at a time! Our girls could attend them as interpreters." Women are going everywhere and doing incredible things. Will some not set out to open those locked doors? DEAS CROMARTY Johnston, James GD.X.260.21
"Pictorial Tract" of four pages- undated, but probably 1914- with a picture of
Miss Slessor on the front page. It incorporates a blank pledge proforma.
Published by The Scottish Temperance League.
It comprises a historical review of Miss Slessor's work,
and unusually emphasises her temperence work.
The author would appear to have used the article on Miss Slessor by the Rev.
J.K.MacGregor published in the "Record", August 1913, [See GD.X.260.22i] as one
of his sources.
------------------------------------------------
MARY M. SLESSOR
The "Uncrowned Queen" of Old Calabar
by James Johnston, F.R.Hist.S.,
Author of "Grenfell of Labrador," etc.
Scotia has no greater living heroine than Miss Mary M. Slessor, whose record of
achievement forms a romantic story in the annals of Old Calabar missions, on
West African shores. Entering in 1914, on her 38th year of service under the
banner of the United Free Church of Scotland, she has shown to the world what a
"woman of action" can do in the warfare against suffering, cruelty, degradation,
and heathenism in one of the darkest lands on the face of the earth.
Essentially energetic, resolute, businesslike, supremely courageous, and not
in the least sentimental, Mary Slessor has been eminently endowed with the true
heroic quality - an immense spiritual enthusiasm sternly directed to practical
issues.
Of humble stock, born considerably over sixty years ago in the granite city
of Aberdeen, Mary Slessor later accompanied her parents to Dundee, where her
life's battle began in childhood as an obscure power-loom weaver. Her
Christian zeal blossomed early by the endeavours which she made for the social
and spiritual uplift of a shockingly degraded area in that city. Even in those
far past days Miss Slessor displayed the qualities which, developed under the
storm and stress of circumstances in Calabar, have made her such a force for
righteousness amid savage tribes.
A staunch abstainer and born evangelist, Mary Slessor faced with composure
the worst of roughs in Dundee, and won respect for her message.
To this day, it is said, Miss Slessor remembers these lads- grandfathers some
of them now are - and she delights to tell of those who have done well in life.
But her passion travelled beyond the limits of the Tay city. Arrested by
the needs of the heathen world, Mary Slessor equipped herself for the call, and
was accepted by the United Presbyterian Church as a lady missionary, sailing in
1876 for Duke Town, in Calabar territory, Southern Nigeria, to embark on a
career which has shed lustre on all engaged in the cause of humanity the world
o'er.
There for nigh forty years, neither faltering nor slackening, with the will
and energy to spend herself in work at the call of the Spirit, she has played a
noble part in leading out a nation on the highway of civilisation.
Than the mission at Old Calabar, both on the seaboard and hinterland, few
enterprises for humanity's sake have had more stirring, tragical, and fruitful
issues. Courageous deeds mark every stage of its progress, the outcome of
which are visible to-day in the successive stations of light which shine on the
lower and upper reaches of the Cross and Calabar waterings, where dense mangrove
swamps, rich tropical forest verdure, and savage beast, challenge the white
man's foot and coming.
Labouring for a while at Duke Town, Miss Slessor then went inland to Old
Town, to live right in the midst of a race where every village had a feud with
its neighbours, and life was cheap. A man scarce ventured alone through the
bush, and women going for water to the springs took their lives in their hands.
Meanwhile the missionary toiler entered into their thoughts, learned their
family relationships and acquainted herself with the cross currents of native
opinion; in a word, practised the art of "thinking black," by which Miss Slessor
gained unrivalled knowledge and influence. Her mastery of the Efik language is
reputed unequalled by that possessed by any other European. Not satisfied with
her role in the coast region, Miss Slessor obtained permission at the end of
twelve years, to penetrate the regions beyond, and settled at Okoyong, lying
between the Cross and the Old Calabar rivers, and there, almost single-handed,
essayed the redemption of one of the most savage and blood-thirsty tribes in
Equatorial Western Africa. She had to live close to God if she were to live at
all, surrounded by the wild, and at that time cannibal tribe of the Okoyong.
Daily, terrible crimes met her gaze - the horrors of witchcraft, the poison-bean
ordeal, murder of twin children, sacrifice of slaves, trial by burning oil, and
like cruelties. Not repelled by these inhumanities, this heroic woman, when
the Okoyongs continued their wanderings to Akpap, went with them, and erected
her thatched abode adjoining their huts.
Than in the case of Miss Slessor, a woman's sainthood, determination,
courage, and tact, exhibited under the most trying conditions, never had more
conspicuous reward. As the first, and for several years, the sole European who
resided among them, her influence over this fighting race was extraordinary.
By a strong will and fearless spirit, under God, Mary Slessor, the once plain
factory girl, wrought gloriously in checking the savagery of lawless combatants,
shielding the helpless and young, making peace terms in periods of war, and
pleading, not in vain, for the freedom of condemned slaves.
The lone white pioneer woman became a power in the land, which Sir Claude
Macdonald, then British Governor, recognised by appointing her British Consul
for the Okoyong province. Strange were the scenes afterwards witnessed when
fierce chiefs appeared at the missionary heroine's Native Court and "palavers",
and bowed to her judgments and counsels. Miss Slessor's sphere of operations
gradually extended, and all over the country, as she moved from village to
village, the people flocked to her for medicine, protection, and aid. Nothing
came amiss to her who was known as "Queen," and showed herself just as ready to
take to her arms the castaway child in the bush, as she was energetic in
persuading a belligerent chief that "Ma's" law was just and good.
Remarkable as the triumphs of her work have been in promoting race
pacification, raising the status of native women, establishing schools for
children, etc., Miss Slessor's mind was far too broad to be confined to any
specified line of activities. Her recognition of the value of skilled manual
toil for the natives was seen in founding the Hope-Waddell Industrial Training
Institution in 1895, while the help that she has given in opening up the country
to trade has been enormous.
Noticeable, too, is the fight which Miss Slessor has made against the
abominations of the gin traffic. No one in Southern Nigeria knows better than
she, the havoc wrought by the gin trader upon the hapless natives. Pathetic
to relate, it has been this pioneer's lot, after combating cannibalism and
slavery, to be engaged in resisting the sale of gin and other spirituous liquors
which, far and wide, have imposed another slavery on the land. All friends of
temperance are grateful to Miss Slessor's witness to this great cause on African
shores.
Frequently she has received thanks from state officials and others for
services to her adopted land, and quite recently was enrolled as an Honorary
Associate of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, of
which the king is Sovereign Head and Patron, the only form of official honour
conferred on women in Great Britain.
The foremost crusading missionary that the Calabar Mission has had, Miss
Slessor has finally made Itu[Note] her mission home, originally the site of the
greatest slave-markets on the Cross River, and there in the sunset of life nobly
spent, she still labours for the cause she loves.
Miss Slessor has stood for an ideal, the ideal of doing good to her fellow-
creatures, in a sphere where she felt that humanity most needed the guiding
instinct and the specialised insight of woman.
It will certainly be admitted that in Mary Slessor, a good woman has made the
corner of God's footstool which she occupied, better for her appearing.
[Note: The lower half of the fourth page comprises a "Pledge" to be completed by
those promising "to abstain from all Intoxicating Liquors" and sent to the
Scottish Temperance League.]
EDITORIAL NOTE: Actually, by 1914, Miss Slessor was at Ikpe
ENTERED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
[MacGregor, Rev. J.K.] GD.X.260.22ii GD.X.260.22ii
A biographical article describing Miss Slessor's work, in the "Record of the
Home & Foreign Mission Work of the United Free Church of Scotland", August 1913,
p372. It includes a photograph of Miss Slessor taken on her return from the
Canary Islands.
A note elsewhere [in the announcement of Miss Slessor's death in the "Record"]
mentions that this was written by Rev. J. K. MacGregor
------------------------------------------------
Miss Mary M. Slessor
The Story of her Romantic Career
Miss Slessor has been enrolled as an Honorary Associate of the Order of the
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, of which the King is Sovereign
Head and Patron and the Duke of Connaught Grand Prior. This honour has been
conferred upon her in recognition of her services "in the cause of humanity."
Apart from her missionary work she has earned the gratitude of the Government by
influencing the native tribes of Southern Nigeria to settle down and cease
fighting among each other.
Few women, or men, have served God and man better than Miss Slessor has.
Giving up everything, she has, to her surprise, discovered that the path of
sacrifice (of which she never thinks) is the path of fame (for which she does
not care). Living in the wilds of Africa, where white people are few, she
finds that the eyes of many in her own country and the world over are turned on
her. Her services have been recognized by the Order of the Hosital of St.John
of Jerusalem. The honour was never more worthily gained, for surely no one has
more devoted herself to the relief of suffering humanity than Miss Slessor has
done.
It is six years since Miss Slessor was last home and many must still have
vivid recollections of the shy and nervous, yet forceful, little lady whose
greatest ordeal was to face the crowds that came to listen to her interesting
addresses. She dislikes publicity, and is able to endure it because she never
goes before the public unless the path of duty leads her there, and then she
thinks not of the public but solely of her duty. When publicity is forced on
her, she withdraws within herself, and those who come to stare depart with a
totally wrong impression of her.
Miss Mary Mitchell Slessor hails from the East country. Her years, till she
went to Calabar, were spent north of the Tay, mostly in Dundee and its
neighbourhood. Even then she showed qualities which, developed under the
stress of circumstances in Calabar, have made her such a force for
righteousness. Who that has heard her tell how she tackled the gang of roughs
that had determined to spoil the services in the Mission Hall in Dundee has not
been thrilled? There she stood in the wynd[Note 1], encircled by the gang,
undergoing the ordeal of a leaden weight swung nearer and nearer her head. She
never winced, never faltered. At last the leader was satisfied. "She's game,
boys," he cried, and they, who had resolved to scoff, kept to the bargain they
had made with her and went to the service. To this day Miss Slessor remembers
these lads - grandfathers some of them now are - and she delights to tell of
those who have done well in life.
In 1876 she was appointed to Calabar, and was at first stationed in Duke
Town. She was full of life and fun, and "Daddy" Anderson, as the late Rev.
William Anderson was called by everyone, must often have shaken his head over
the Mission Agent, who boasted afterwards that she had climbed every tree
between the Mission Hill and Old Town, where she taught school. Meanwhile she
was laying the foundations of that mastery of the Efik language and of native
law and custom which I have heard competent judges declare to be unequalled by
that possessed by any other European. After she went to live at Old Town she
lived very close to the natives. She entered into their thought, learned their
family relationships (which in a polygamous country, where ties are loosely held
to, are exceedingly intricate), became acquainted with the cross currents of
native opinion, and acquired that patience and decision which are essential to
anyone who would influence them. Under trying circumstances she displayed that
determination, courage, and tact which have made her such a power for good
amongst the people.
These were the old fighting days, when every village had a feud with its
neighbours and life was cheap. A man did not dare to go alone along the paths
through the bush. Even when going for water to the springs the women took
their lives in their hands. Besides the spirits were supposed to dwell in the
bush and molest people, any tree might have behind it a foe of flesh and blood.
Sometimes this intermittent murder was fanned into a war, and village went out
to attack village. At these times Miss Slessor knew not danger. On more than
one occasion she has heroically gone into the zone of fire and stayed there till
the combatants went home, for they would not fire lest she whom they respected
so much should be hurt. Then, when they had separated, she negotiated terms of
peace. By her tact and persuasiveness, by her unfailing sympathy and insight
and good humour, she has frequently been a successful mediator, and for her sake
towns that hated each other have sunk their differences.
HER COURAGE AND FAITH
With that fearless unselfishness which has characterized all her life, she
went in 1887 up to Ekenga amongst the wild and, at that time, cannibal tribe of
the Okoyong, a sept of the Ododop people that migrated from the north-east to
the country between the Calabar and the Cross Rivers. Here she had to live
close to God, if she was to live at all. I can picture her landing at the
beach in the evening after being paddled all day from Duke Town. Before her
stretched five miles of path through the forest which was infested with
leopards. And she had no lamp. Home she must get, and, as she herself has
put it, she went in faith that the path of duty was the path of safety. "He has
promised that we can take up serpents, why should I be afraid of leopards?" So
along the track she walked, praying, "O God of Daniel, shut their mouths."
Hers is the faith that always abides under the shadow of the Almighty. It was
not on land alone that dangers were to be faced. On the river, when a
hippopotamus attacked the canoe in which she was travelling, she covered the
children's heads with her dress that they might not see the danger and spurred
the men on to paddle harder, knowing that their courage depended on them seeing
her calm. One can easily believe her when she says she was afraid that time,
but what is courage but faith conquering fear?
When the Okoyongs continued their wanderings to Akpap, Miss Slessor went with
them. She was the first, and for many years the sole, European who resided
amongst them, and her influence over them was extraordinary. She found all the
horrors of witchcraft, the poison bean ordeal, and twin murder rife amongst
them. Shortly after her arrival, the chief's son was killed by the fall of a
tree, and his father enquired of the witch-doctor who had been the cause of his
son's death. Twelve persons were accused of it, and they were put in chains
that they might undergo the poison bean ordeal. Miss Slessor never rested till
they were all released, and through her exertions the chief's son was buried
without the sacrifice of a single human life. Such a thing had never before
been known in Okoyong. Brawls were of frequent occurence, and in them Miss
Slessor by her courage saved many a life. On one occasion when a man had run
amok with a drawn sword, she tripped him from behind and got the sword from his
grasp.
When Native Courts were started in Southern Nigeria, she was asked by Sir
Ralph Moor, the High Commissioner, to take charge of the one in her district.
Later, and till recently, she held a similar position in connection with the
Native Court of Ikotobong, in the Ikot Ekpene District. In this way her work
as a missionary was linked up with the systematic pacification of the country
which the Government had entered after she began her labours. It is noteworthy
that no punitive expeditions have been required in the country over which she
ruled as uncrowned queen.
Naturally her influence has been greatly directed to the helping of women and
children. Already at Old Town she had begun to care for twin children, who had
formerly been thrown into the bush as accursed, and for twin mothers who had
been banished from the towns, springs, and markets. These she took under her
special protection, and many hundreds have, through her instrumentality, been
saved from a fate too terrible to contemplate. She has done much to elevate
the position of all classes of women, and in Okoyong succeeded in abolishing the
ordeal by burning oil, which was resorted to in cases of suspected infidelity.
Miss Slessor's mind was far too broad for all her interests to be absorbed by
any one section of the community, and realizing the importance of industrial
training for the elevating of the people, she advocated strongly this branch of
education. As the result of her appeal, the Hope-Waddell Training Institution
was started in 1895.
INFLUENCE OVER THE PEOPLE
The help that she has given in opening up the country to trade has been
enormous. While the Efik people still held a monopoly of trade with the
factories and acted as middlemen for all up-river tribes, she herself brought
down canoes from the Calabar and Cross Rivers to the factories, and thus showed
the up-river people the benefits of direct trading. During the war between Kwa
and Efik, the only way by which the Kwa people could get to the factories was by
going through the grounds of her house at Old Town during the night.
Her self-forgetful labours have won for Miss Slessor a great influence over
the people - an influence which extends over an area of more than 2000 square
miles. So great is her personality that to her house at Okoyong there resort
natives from Ugep and even from the country north of the Cross River, from the
north-west from Arochuku, west from Uyo, east from Oban, seeking her help and
advice. Her fame has reached even to Northern Nigeria, where the natives know
of the "good white Ma who lives alone." In this way she has exerted a profound
influence for civilization that is yielding great fruit.
In all her varied activities, in all her plannings and journeyings, it is as
a missionary of the Gospel that Miss Slessor has always worked. It was to
further the Kingdom of God that she went to Calabar, and for that, even in the
Native Courts and palaver sheds when she listened to the woes and quarrels of
the people, she has laboured. She is the greatest pioneer missionary that our
Mission in Calabar has had. After the Aro expedition in 1902, the people of
Enyong Creek came and begged her to come amongst them. Soon at Itu, which had
been the greatest slave-market on the Cross River, a little church was built,
and in that district and along the banks of the Enyong Creek, there are now more
than a dozen churches with over a thousand Church members. She still labours
for the cause she loves, and at Use and Ikpe is instructing the people and
building up young churches.
For some time her health has given her friends some anxiety, but she was
greatly benefited by a short holiday to the Canary Islands at the end of last
year. God grant that in health and strength for many years to come she may be
spared to help the people for whom she has lived, and to whom she has brought
the Word of Life.
(In writing this sketch free use has been made of passages in "Calabar and its
Missions.")
EDITORIAL NOTES:
1] Wynd = lane or narrow alley in a town [Scots]
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19viii a)
Miss Slessor describes a happy Christmas when they had the pleasure of visitors.
Afterwards Mary experienced some dangerous situations when some trouble arose
which required action by a unit of the army, and she calmed and helped a
prisoner and his family. Both road and rail have arrived in her area. A new
church is to be opened in Duke Town, but owing to a bout of fever and the
unsettled state of the country Mary has decided not to attend. The school
house and church is almost finished, and the court takes up most of her time.
-----------------------------------------------
An article from the Women's Missionary Magazine of April? 1906
Our Missionary Mail-bag.
Africa - Old Calabar
From Miss Slessor, Ikot Obon, 17th January, 1906.
I had Miss Wright and Miss Amess for a week and more at Christmas;[Note] we had
such a happy time, though we were crowded. There were over half-a-dozen
Europeans here, and as the surveyors are Christian men, we dined with them in
the open shed in which they lived, and also had tea with them several times.
Then trouble arose through a disloyal house here, and so we have had ten
European officers in this bush for the last ten days. Every spot is ablaze at
night with fires; there are sixty soldiers, a captain and sergeant, with their
retinue of servants, all in tents and booths; and then two railway surveyors
with horses and servants. They and our road surveyors have been "held up" by
these people.
After careful going about it, the man came in, and his people brought a number
of guns and he his revolver. I have just had the privilege of hearing his
commands, and his depositions to his mother and daughter and one confidential
slave, and he has gone quietly to his cell, and they have gone quietly to take
hold of his goods and children till he comes back in four years' time. My
being here gained the mother this privilege, and I think I may win them not only
to loyalty but to Christ.
Next week there will be silence again, but only the silence which brings the
sound of an abundance of rain. For here is road and rail, where six months ago
was dense darkness and silence. Oh that our Church may move on and *in*! Am I
to give up this opening? I cannot see the way to turn back.
This is an eventful day in Duke Town; the new church is to be opened. I should
have liked to go, and could have had a good escort, but I have had fever the
last three weeks, and this unsettled state of the country absolutely forbade my
thinking of it. May there be souls born and nurtured for God in that building!
As there were so many of us here last Sabbath, I asked them to hold some sort of
service if only for example's sake, and we mustered seven, and had some singing,
and a chapter, and some good talking.
The court takes up a great deal of my time, but I do not know how to let any of
it go, for it holds such possibilities for good. The schoolhouse, which is
also the church, is almost finished. This is harvest season, so the boys have
little time, but we have worshipped there the last two or three weeks. Last
Sabbath we had over thirty men from the road; the navvies are over five hundred
in number on the four miles between here and the beach. This would make a fine
field of itself, as the men come from all parts.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This event is mentioned in Item GD.X.260.19viii b) a letter
from Miss Amess in Akpap, dated 20th January 1906.
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
GD.X.260.19viii b)
This letter is included because Miss Amess was such a close friend and co-worker
of Miss Slessor's. She describes her work at the Akpap Mission and mentions
her visit to Miss Slessor during the New Year holidays.
________________________________________________________
From the Women's Missionary Magazine, April 1906?
From Miss Amess, Akpap, 20th January, 1906
The work here is most interesting; we have five boys and two girls staying with
us. The youngest boy is about five years old; he knows English fairly well
and sings several English hymns. One feels the great hope of the future is to
win the children for Christ. They are just as lovable as white children; I
like to watch their little black faces during worship, as they are answering the
Bible questions. We have school from 9 to 11, and from 3 to 5. The
attendance varies considerably; one day we had eighty-three present. The
natives are busy with their farms just now, so we have had only from thirty-five
to forty this week.
On Sabbaths there is morning service which Miss Wright conducts; in the
afternoon she has the Sabbath School, and I go with a few of the native
Christians to have a meeting at one of the farms. One of the native Christians
speaks, and I give out the hymns, and one Sabbath spoke through an interpreter.
Miss Wright gives me an Efik lesson every night. We are reading the "Pilgrim's
Progress" in Efik.[Note] Will you kindly remember me in prayer with regard to
my learning the language? I hold on to the promise, "If any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not; and it shall be given him." It is really wonderful how God hears and
answers prayer about even the details of our life.
We went to see Miss Slessor during our New Year holidays; she was so glad to
see us. The natives have a true friend in Miss Slessor; she lives for their
highest welfare. She speaks Efik just like them, with all their inflections
and gestures. It is good to meet a veteran on the field, unflagging in her
zeal for God's glory and the extension of His kingdom. We are expecting her
here for a week soon, as the chief of this place died a few months ago, and
there are some matters to settle.
On the Sabbath we were at Ikot Obon; we went to a village about three miles
from Miss Slessor's house. At first the people were frightened, they had never
seen a white woman before, but after a little persuasion we got about one
hundred gathered together for a service. Miss Wright had the privilege of
telling the story of Jesus and His love to some who had never heard about the
Saviour before. Oh, the need for more labourers! Truly the harvest is great,
but the labourers are few.
EDITORIAL NOTE: A copy of this work in Efik, donated by her friend Charles
Partridge, is included in the Dundee Central Library's "Mary Slessor
Collection".
TRANSCRIBED BY: Ruth E. Riding, June 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, June 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19ix The article is an edited version of material contained in Miss Slessor's letter to Mr Stevenson, Ref: GD.X.260.02, dated 28th February 1906. q.v. _______________________________________________________ An article in the Women's Missionary Magazine of June 1906. Old Calabar. From Miss Slessor, Ikot Obon, 28th February 1906. The hospital is a grand gift, and I am so glad with and for our people in its bestowal. Itu is already being justified as the site for such a house of healing, for there are hundreds of men on the river frontage there, making a railway embankment. It will be the base of lines for road and rail that shall intersect the whole of this Ibibio country, down to the estuary and across to the Niger. Such things are being rushed before our eyes; things that never entered our wildest dreams of Calabar. In all this, how plainly God has been leading me! First to Itu, then the Creek, then back from Aro, where I had set my heart, to a solitary wilderness of the most forbidding description, where the silence of the bush had never been broken; and here, before three months are past, there are miles of roads, and miles more all surveyed, and being worked upon by gangs of men from everywhere, and free labour is being accepted and created as quickly as even a novelist could imagine! There is a pressing need for some industry at which a respectable Christian woman, wishing to earn her living, could do so apart from native marriage. Every woman born here can work the land, raise stock, etc., and we could get land up country for this purpose. There is room for women who could do laundry work near the river, as there are weekly steamers, and officers are scattered all over the Cross River, Aro Chuku, and Ibibio districts. Then, too, there is baking, and as this great tribe is still unclothed, there could be dress-making up here. Then there should be elementary schools both for boys and girls, with farm work, mat-making, etc., attached; and these scattered about would supply Sabbath services. The first communion at Itu was most thrilling. The new teacher at Akani Obio seems to find a good field for his energies and zeal, and the converts there seem quite as enthusiastic as ever. Asan has peculiar difficulties, on account of the relationship of old families to slaves, but they too have got a teacher, and I trust the Word will conquer all the old fashions and the passions of the people. My oldest girl is at Okpo, doing a little among the women and girls at school, and she says the services go on steadily and prosperously. The lads there too do a little in the Ibibio land behind them. Pray for boys and girls, taught of God, to teach small schools all over the land! There are 700 men on the four or five miles between here and Itu, living in grass huts by the roadside. They are from every part of the country, and it is such a grand chance to sow the seed and have it carried far and near as they return to their homes! This navvy work will go on. There are two gangs near, who come from the place where at first the Government had to go and fight. They come to church without being asked now, and are very attentive. The service is very informal, but the building is almost ready. We have been worshipping in it these two months, and it is Gospel they hear, if it is not oratory. We have forty scholars, and a fairly good congregation wherever we go, a hundred or so just now in morning service, as it is farm time. For the rest it is just living among them and doing every daily and social duty in such a way as shall win their confidence and affection. TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999 EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999 Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19xix
This article is taken from Miss Slessor's Report to Mr Stevenson, 23rd March
1912. See item GD.X.260.11.
-----------------------------------------------
An article assumed to be from the Women's Missionary Magazine of July 1912?
This item includes a photograph entitled "A Bridge in the Up-River Region".
Facts about the Up-River Work, Calabar
The following account of her work comes from Miss Slessor too late to be
incorporated in the Report of the Women's Foreign Mission. We have pleasure in
passing it on to our readers.
"Early last year I had to go under doctor's orders; so more or less I had to do
things in a soft sort of way, which would not let one feel satisfied. But my Use
people .........."
[There follows a version of part of the letter GD.X.11 already transcribed .]
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.22i
An article from "The Record of the Home & Foreign Mission Work of the United
Free Church of Scotland", [possibly the issue for December 1907 or January 1908]
page 21. It includes an interesting map of the Cross River area.
A warm letter of thanks from Miss Slessor to all those who have written to her,
made donations for her work, and those who gave her hospitality, on her recent
visit home.
This item also contains a sketch map of the mission area included in a part
article by Rev. Wilkie.
--------------------------------------------
OUR FOREIGN MISSIONS. AFRICA.
Old Calabar.
A Letter from Miss Slessor
It is an exceptional act to print a farewell letter from a missionary returning
after furlough, but in view of the exceptional circumstances of Miss Slessor's
pleading for Old Calabar, and of the quality of the letter itself, we have
pleasure in inserting it
S.S Fantu
Off Cape Verde, 29th October 1907.
DEAR DR. ROBSON, - As it is quite impossible to answer privately all the kind
letters and messages sent to me by sympathizing friends from all parts of the
Church, may I beg of you to express my thanks by a few lines in the "Record".
Such messages make the heart very sad and very tender at parting times, but they
are a great strength and stimulus too, and I trust they will make me more
earnest and faithful, and more worthy of the trust and friendship they express.
For all the gifts to the Lord's Treasury so graciously and prayerfully given
in answer to appeals for help, I also tender my thanks. I know they have
already been acknowledged to each giver by the King Himself, as they have been
registered in Heaven, but I am also the debtor of all, for I have received such
help to faith, and such tender rebukes for faithlessness, that the gifts, and
the letters which have accompanied them, have been to me a special means of
grace. May I ask that prayer not only accompany the gifts, but also *follow*
them, that God may give the leading, and the wisdom in administering them, so
that the utmost may be realized, and all mistakes avoided.
To all who have received me into their homes, and given me a share of what
are the most sacred things of earth, I give heartfelt thanks. What the Bethany
Home must have been to our Lord, no one can better appreciate than the
missionary coming home to a strange place, homeless. I thank all those who
have rested me, and nursed me back to health and strength, and who have nerved
me for future service by the sweet ministers and hallowing influences of their
home life. To the members of the Mission Board for their courtesy, their
confidence and sympathetic helpfulness, I owe much gratitude. And not only for
services which can be tabulated, but for the whole atmosphere of sympathy which
has surrounded me; for the hand-clasps which have spoken volumes; for the looks
of love which have beamed from eyes soft with feeling; for the prayer which has
upheld and guided in days gone by, and on which I count for strength in days to
come, - for *all*, I pray that God may say to each giving, sympathetic heart,
"Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto
Me." - With gratitude, I am yours in Christ's service,
M. M. Slessor
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19vii
Dr. Robertson, who is to take over the station at Itu as well as run the
proposed hospital there, has been up to choose the site and set his men to work
clearing the land. As soon as he and his wife are established, Miss Slessor
will be free to move on. This she views with a mixture of relief and a sense of
loss. A church is to be opened in Akani Obio at the end of the month. A twin
mother has been helped by the Christian women at Itu. A murder has just been
committed near by, and she is waiting to see how the situation develops and what
will be required to be done.
-----------------------------------------------
From the Women's Missionary Magazine January 1906?
Our Missionary Mail-Bag. Old Calabar
It has been arranged that Dr. & Mrs. Robertson should carry on the work at Itu,
the district which has been opened up by Miss Slessor.
From Miss Slessor, Itu, 7th October 1905
This is a lovely morning. Dr Robertson came up on Friday morning at 5.30, and,
without seeing the outlook, as the mist was heavy, chose his site, measured it,
and left his fourteen boys to work on it, clearing roots and levelling ground.
Itu is so happy and thankful for the new station; a thrill of new hope and life
seems to quiver all up the creek. Dr Robertson will go to Calabar again for
what he needs, and for a boy to cook, etc., and then come and take charge at the
end of next week. That means, that after the services of to-morrow and the
services for the following week, when I would be here to introduce him to the
routine, as it were, my work in Itu as direct pastor Itu is finished, and I am
at liberty to run up the creek or into Ibibio, just as God may lead. It is a
great relief, but it brings a sense of loss, too, for I hardly before realised
how much one is helped by good Christian intercourse, even among two-year old
Christians, till I see myself thrown back again on the stiltified, almost
fossilised, moral sense of the degraded Ibibio heathen. It is a trial to the
children, too, for they have no equals in Ibibio, and the Itu people have made
us love them dearly. Itu will love and cherish Mrs Robertson; God grant them
both grace and help, and make their lives here a blessed success. If all goes
well I would like the induction and baptismal services together. It was like a
fairy tale to hear that Dr Robertson had been given a blank cheque for the
hospital; I can only look up into this blue, blue sky, and say, "'Even so,
Father,' let me live and be worthy of it all, and worthy Thee."
I have almost engaged another teacher-boy; I think it best to create readers
and lay foundations as fast and as far-spread as we can, so that the Word may
propagate itself. The Chief at Akani Obio says he will be ready for the
opening of the church by the end of this month, but he wishes his friend, Mr.
Wilkie, to be there. The chief has been bereaved, indeed, in the loss of his
wife. Only nine or ten neighbours, that is, heads of houses, came to the
funeral, as there was no devil-making or drink, and they had such a time of
singing and praying, that "those who were not convinced as to Chritianity by
preaching, had to believe what they saw and heard from that death-bed." He
keeps very firm, so do they all. I shall have more time now to see them; but
Ibibio, with its multitudes, calls, so does the Aro country. We must thin out
at Calabar, unless we can get more labourers.
A twin-mother from Enyon is here now. The two babes have died, but the people
do not want her back. The church women at Itu have made Christianity a reality
to her and her people during this trial. They lived with her while I was away,
so dividing the time that she was never alone. She is recovering her spirits,
and is amazed at what she has seen and heard. The old chief has cut down the
old juju tree in the town, and removed the dirty altar and its furnishings.
God bless and comfort him for his courage and faith.
. . . ( Later, from Ikot-Obong ) My new room is crowded with a savage lot of
men and women. A murder has been perpetrated close by, about a woman. She is
but a girl, and they have brought her here in preference to tying her up and
torturing her to confess whom she wants for her husband, seeing she declares she
will never marry this one to whom she has been betrothed from infancy. She has
invented several excuses, the chief one being that there is one of his wives
whom she does not like. God help these poor down-trodden women! The constant
cause of palaver and bloodshed here is marriage. It is a dreadful state of
society. I have left them a little, to see whether she will confess. If she
will not, I cannot give her over to them; the safer way is to keep her as a
prisoner on parole, and get a place for her to sleep with some woman near. The
two policemen are away to see the murdered man. If there is to be a riot, I
shall go myself; but if they are able to take the prisoner away in quietness,
the matter will have to go to the station and garrison for this district. It
is almost impossible for a European magistrate to hold this horde of people; I
wish we had mission stations here and there to which things could come till they
are enlightened a little. What an awful thing heathenism is! How much
Calabar has to be thankful for indirectly in having the Gospel. It is only in
the face of such darkness as this that one realises the safety and enlightenment
and general comforts of life that flow from the presence of God's Word. . . .
I have been thinking much about the Christian's armour, and the shoes have come
home to me more than ever before. Just now, I am the feet of the Church, as it
were, and I am to go with shoes of peace. What a preparation for the
Government that is - to pave the transition roads with Gospel peace! Pray that
I may have both patience and tact, and that I may be able to lift the whole
question up to a higher than a political plane.
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19xii Miss Slessor has arrived back in Calabar, and has sent an article on the position of women there. She describes their traditional life, the problems faced particularly by the Christian women, and her proposals to help them by providing means for them to make their own living. --------------------------------------------------- From the Women's Missionary Magazine of January 1908?. The article includes a photograph of "A Market Scene in Calabar". 1] Miss Slessor has arrived safely in Calabar, and has received a warm welcome from all, including the Government officials. 2] Concerning Advance Work in west Africa by Miss Slessor The kind of advance, which concerns the women of the Church more especially, lies in the direction of some development of our work which will make the native woman something more than a mere cipher in the community; something more than a mere creature to be exploited and degraded by man. According to native law, a girl child, if not betrothed by her guardians to some man, lacks all protection of law. If she be not "a man's wife" she may be insulted or injured with impunity, no punishment except the merest rebuke can be meted to the man. Then, too, as emancipation advances under Britain's administration, something must be done to meet it. Not only must we provide some way of protecting and sheltering women, but in order to this end we must create some industry by which these women may earn their living, and thus become independent of the polygamous marriage and the open insult. Women who wish to live a Christian life in the Calabar towns, support themselves largely by dressmaking, the loose, almost shapeless garment used by the majority is easily made, and the sewing-machine is quickly mastered by our women. Cloth, which suits their pronounced taste, is sold cheaply by the trading houses, and there is a growing demand for such work. It is sent up country for sale, and it would be unwise to take the bread out of these women's mouths by a wholesale extension of this particular work up country, at least not yet. Something not too hard for her strength, something that will sell. Something that will not cost too much for initial expense can be found doubtless, and thus not only the woman be provided for, but the country be benefited. Government has one or two Homes in Northern Nigeria for women, and girls beyond school age, but these are not distinctively Christian, and the future of the girls is a problem they have not yet solved. Several girls in their care are boarded out among our intelligent women in Calabar, and several have been given to the sisters of the Roman Catholic school. As these get older, something definite will have to be done for them, and even if the question did not press on ourselves regarding the girls growing up in and around our mission houses, and in the Church, who cannot be betrothed according to heathen fashions, it is time we had some place at which a woman can be received for any length of time necessary, and at which she can be employed at remunerative work. Shall we do it? Shall we take and befriend twin mothers and their outcast offspring in these new districts where the fear of them still holds sway, or shall we leave the Government and the convent to help them? The leakage has been damaging to the Church in the past. Many who have been brought up in mission and Christian houses have gone to live with the partly educated natives, who come down from the coast to work in Government offices as clerks, artisans, or petty officers, in preference to becoming drudges in the harems of Calabar men. Hence their training, though not lost to the community, is wholly lost to the Church. Is this to go on? Shall we not rather gather them in to be saved, and saviours of others, to be an honoured factor in the community, a purifying and uplifting power in the market, in the home, and in the Church. TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999 EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999 Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19xvi
Miss Slessor relives in her imagination a Sabbath School trip with her friends
at home, and the singing of psalms at a service. However she describes a
typical service at her station [presumably at Use] declaring she would be no-
where else.
----------------------------------------------
Presumed to be from the Women's Missionary Magazine of March 1910?
A Missionary's Testimony
Extract from a Letter to Friends from Miss Slessor.
The sun is so brilliantly bright that last time I raised my head I felt quite
giddy, so I shut my eyes for a bit, and have gone over all your homes, and the
lane up to the Tweed, and the road far out that we went for the Sabbath school
trip to Sandyknowe, then up the road towards Newtown, past the church and manse,
the houses and shops under the railway bridge, and up by the lovely road, round
[by?] the Eildons to Bowden, each farmhouse and each garden standing out
separately, and it has been such a blink that it has made a feeling like home-
sickness. I wish I could get just a fortnight, or even a week-end to realise
it, and to grip each hand, and look into each face, and to hear the dear
homeland language, and to have an English service with the congregation singing
a psalm, "O Thou, my soul, bless God the Lord;" or "Praise waits for Thee in
Sion,Lord;" or "I'll of salvation take the cup." Just a wee blink of home and
a home Sabbath!
But though the tears are coming at the thought, you are not to think, for one
moment, that I would take the offer, even though it was given me! A thousand
times "No." I feel too grateful to God for His wonderful condescension in
letting me have the privilege of ministering to those around me here, who
otherwise would have no one to guide their worship or teach them. It is such a
privilege to have a people *waiting* on one's ministrations. I wonder if the
ministers at home feel this! To go up and find the church swept and clean;
mats and seats laid down, and someone waiting for your appearance to ring the
bell; and then, while your head is bowed behind the mud pulpit, to find that
they have trooped in, and are coming in as fast as they can, each one, even the
small boys and girls, bowing their heads in silent prayer. I tell you, dear
friends, I would not, for all the weight of responsibility, and the feeling of
my unfitness, change places with the happiest and mightiest on earth.
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19i
This would appear to be part of a letter by Miss Slessor telling of the
unusually happy outcome after the birth of twins in a nearby town.
-----------------------------------------------
Article from the "Women's Missionary Magazine", May 1901 or 1907, page 109. It
includes a photograph of "A Rescued Twin".
Triumphing over Superstition by Miss Slessor, Okoyon
My heart has been singing, and has been so light these days that it has been
like renewing my youth. Three weeks ago a messenger came from a place where I
have not worked much, because it so far off, to tell me that twins had been born
there, and to ask me to go and take them away. The people of that place had
been the last to give up marauding and old customs. I sent Mana and Janie to
try and help the mother and save the bairns; when they came back with a bonnie
baby boy, and the news that the other twin, who had died, had been decently
buried by the father, that the latter was sitting near the mother, and had made
a comfortable place for her, and that when she was stronger, she might come to
see her baby, we were all cheered.
The mother had formerly lived near our old home, and had heard the Gospel.
Her husband is a young chief whose half-brother is a member of our native court
of justice. He is good-looking, and evidently has a mind of his own, and is
wishful to give up the ways of Okoyon, and learn the new ones. He drinks rum,
but I have not come into "close grips" with him about that yet, for, from
infancy, drink is to these people like their food, and only the Spirit of God
can convince of sin and implant loathing for it.
My surprise, almost consternation, can be imagined, when I heard that he was
at the back door with his wife, and wished me to go to him, as he did not wish
to face Okoyon - my yard in front being crowded with people. When I went round
I found the couple sitting in an outhouse, where Mana had taken them to rest,
and, after greetings, the husband said, "Ma, I have come with Arigi to see our
child, Efik Idiom, will you bring him to us?" When he was brought, the mother
held out her arms, and the father rose and bent over him. I put the child into
his arms, and he held him. It was not a scene for words!
The couple, their children and slaves, stayed in the outhouse, tidied it up,
and improvised partitions and doors. They lived just like white Christians,
and were delighted and never wearied of the bairns, and the preaching. The
father stayed for four days, then went home for a day or two, and came back.
When I called for the heads of the houses to which Etok and his wife belong,
we had a most interesting meeting. I spoke to them not as a white woman, but
as a mother, and said that they ought to take my advice and keep their twin
mothers and children, without the use of force from the Consul. I reasoned
about the evils of the old customs from every point of view; the goodness of God
in sending the Gospel to them before he sent the Consul; and lastly, and most
strongly, about the relation of human life to God's creating, and especially His
redeeming sovereignty. When I asked them to express their opinions, there was
only a silence, that became unbearable in its intensity. I broke it, and
begged them to let me know what was in their hearts. I told them that I would
stand by the parents and their right to take their children home, and that no
one must forbid friends to visit them should they wish to do so, and that if
trouble or calamity befell them, and they dared to blame the twin house-hold for
it, I would stand by the innocent.
The old chief of the town and district kept his head in his hands. When I
proposed to him that he should come out of the wood into the daylight, and look
on the sunlight of God's love, his face broke into a wintry sort of smile, and
he said, "Ma, what can I say? I have nothing to answer you, you have given
your advice and commands, and I can only obey them."
The tension was broken, and relaxed into talk, but the old chief rose and
went away without having spoken to the father or to anyone, except "goodbye" to
me. The young men spoke to the father, however, but not one asked to see or
speak to the mother. Her people have been taught, and they went to her, and
sat outside. They said that they did not wish their woman to make strife in
Okoyon, but if her husband wished to keep her, they had nothing to say, they
would not cast her off or hinder her nursing the child.
Mana and Janie went home with the father, and mother, and baby, and had a
little meeting with the household. I gave Etok a parcel of clothing for every
wife and child in the house, as well as for Arigi and her baby. All were made
alike, so that the home-going might make a break in the tension of fear and
jealousy, the mingled and doubtful atmosphere of a heathen home. I had told
Mana to read the 91st Psalm, and to speak about the safety of the Christian.
When she came home, she said that she "was surprised till all the strength left
her body," when she saw Etok go deliberately to the altar and lift "the plates
of god" and the broken dishes, etc., and carry them all to the back-yard. He
said, "Now I have done with Okoyon! I will pray to the God of heaven, and,
whatever comes, I have done it, and I mean to stand by it. God will help me!"
Etok and his household live near Akom. Is it her prayers that are being
answered thus? "I will make all the places round about My hill a blessing."
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19xxii a
Miss Slessor gives an account of the opening of the new church at Use.
----------------------------------------------
From the Women's Missionary Magazine of April 1914?
From Miss Slessor, Use, Ikot Obon.
Well, "oor kirk" was opened at last on Christmas Day. Mr Cruickshank came over
on Christmas Eve, and stayed all night at Ikot Obon, and then Miss Peacock, Miss
Couper, & he came here. Miss Couper opened the door and we had a rare
forenoon. The church was crowded outside and inside, and all quietly but
neatly dressed, children and all. Mr Cruickshank was at his best - he is
always that among bairns - and the ladies were the same. The service was
hearty and reverent, though three highly coloured flags were flying in the
square on a very high flag-staff. Our collection was over £5, mostly in
"threepeny bits" and sixpences, and this, after all, as far as we have gone, is
paid, and that does not take in over £2 handed in the night before from the non-
Christian chiefs of the village. When the service was over, we came home for
lunch. The church folk gave a plain breakfast to all guests (mostly from Ikot
Obon, Use and Itu) who cared to stay.
When the visitors left, our own people held a praise meeting, the women in the
house square, and the men on our quiet road, walking up & down like a Salvation
Army march, waving occasionally a silk handkerchief. Some who could not come,
since it was Christmas Day and they were employed by white men, sent 2s. 6d. to
be added to the collection. God has been good to me! I am anxious that the
non-Christian chiefs who have given largely get right impressions about God's
work and money, and shall try to make this clear to them. I've been with the
newly released Israelites this morning, as they encamped by the Red Sea, for
God's "lest peradventure" made Him "lead them about through the way of the
wilderness," and we have still His "lest peradventure" working out strangely
inexplicable things, but the glorious freedom is ever His one grand objective
for the "farther on".
TRANSCRIBED BY: Lesley A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
GD.X.260.19xxii b
Letter from Miss Mina Amess, Akpap, Calabar, describing the work at her mission.
As this letter is included with the preceding item [GD.X.260.19xxii a] it was
decided to reproduce it here. Miss Amess was a fellow worker of Miss Slessor's
and often mentioned in her letters.
________________________________________________________
From the Women's Missionary Magazine of April 1914?
Mrs McGregor came over for our Communion, and also for the formal opening of the
new church. That ceremony took place on the Friday. We had a good turn-out,
and a liberal collection - £6, 3s. 3d. Then, on the Sabbath morning we had
about 450 people at the service, even a larger attendance than we had when Ma
was here. Several couples have renounced polygamy, and are now married
properly. We are glad that at last a stand has been taken against this old
custom.
We are now free of debt, and have £18 in hand for complete lining for the
roof, paint, and cement for the floor. This building is now quite nice and
serviceable as it is, so none of these extras will be done until the people
themselves, at the ordinary church collections, give the amount that will be
required. The people at Ifakko, Usun-Eauk, and Obio-aka-nkpa are all paying
for their own teachers, and also gave money to buy a table and chair for each of
the schools.
The progress of the past months has cheered us greatly, but while we
rejoice in good church attendances and liberal collections, we want far more
than these, we want a band of real Christian natives who will be a power for
good amongst their own people. The Church members and catechumen members are
beginning to realise their responsibilities more.
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19xiv
This is an account of a tragic occurence when two parents brought a dead child,
and their intense grief, to Miss Slessor, who did her best to solace them.
----------------------------------------------
An article from the Women's Missionary Magazine of March 1909?
A Pathetic Incident by Miss Slessor
A very pathetic incident occurred the other day. A woman came asking one of my
girls to "come out and see." The girl first went to see herself, as I had a
poultice on my leg and was resting it. She came and said: "Oh, ma, you come, a
poor woman and her husband are here to say that one of their children died two
or three days ago, and one has died this morning, and what are they to do --
could they ask any one, or could it not be *reversed?*" As a faint is called
death, I did not know for a minute how to take it, as it meant to them that
witchcraft was in it. I said: "Jane, go you and speak to the poor creatures,
and try to guide them to comfort and light, and come and tell me how it stands."
She came back with tears in her eyes, saying: "Ma, come yourself, I can't say
anything; they have the baby with them. "So I hirpled [Note] out and found as
pathetic a group as can be pictured - the father, a mere lad, in the front, with
a child over his shoulder, and a cloth covering it; the mother, dazed and
broken, holding out both hands to me, and crying : "Ma, help us;" a group of
silent men and women in the background, wiping their tears away, and looking to
see whether the white woman could do anything. What could I do? I said:
"Come, my child, give me your baby," and he laid the poor, dirty, unlovely,
unclothed child in my lap. No loving hand had cleansed the poor wee mouth, or
taken off the various layers of "medicine" which had been plastered over the
little head and face and neck. Her beads were on her waist and arms, and
elsewhere. It was death, in all its natural repulsiveness, stripped of the
sweetness of Christian love, and the hope of immortality, which makes "their
very dust dear" to His people; and instead of the hush of the chamber at home,
where all of our humiliation is hidden away, there were the glare of tropical
sunshine, the presence of all and sundry, and the long six miles' journey back
again to the miserable hut, which makes all they know of home.
You can hardly realise how difficult it is to find words to meet such a sorrow
to heathen parents. It is such a blank, such a gulf, and our God has no
tender, loving associations with home and childhood to them, who only know of
God as a demon to be placated in any way possible. I was just led to speak to
them of a great sorrow I had years ago, when I lost four boys in one month; and
as I told the story, and from that led them on to what was my comfort, and what
alone could be theirs, we came to a point where all broke down, and Jane took
the cloth and laid the baby in it and wrapped it up. The poor father said:
"Thank you, Ma; thank you, our mother," and he put his dead baby over his
shoulder and turned to go, the women holding the poor mother in her agony.
How little those who lightly throw it aside realise what they owe the Gospel.
May God in His mercy save us from ever becoming a Christless nation exalted to
heaven! May the fate of other Churches and nations who forget God never be
ours.
--------------------------------------
EDITORIAL NOTE: "hirpled" = limped [Scots]
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19x
This is a fascinating account of Miss Slessor's first experience of the use of
"modern" equipment, ie a phonograph, and slides, in telling Biblical stories.
Also her recording of the "Prodigal Son" is to be taken on to other villages the
Administrator will visit.
She has visited the Slessor Memorial Hospital for the first time, and is
delighted with it.
-----------------------------------------------
An article presumed to be from the Women's Missionary Magazine of November 1906
From a letter written by Miss Slessor acknowledging a parcel of work from St.
Luke's, Montrose.
Our Administrator has just come back from Britain after furlough, and has
brought with him a phonograph, a magnificent instrument, and a number of grand
old hymns - e.g., "Holy, holy, holy!" "Abide with me, " etc., and on Sunday
night he gave the village a great treat by having this at the service. We also
hung a sheet up, and filled the lamp, and gave an exhibition of several
Scriptural slides on the screen. It was all done without any forethought, but
it proved a great success; the Court House was crowded. The hymns and bits of
addresses were interspersed, and I spoke into the "trumpet" the parable of the
Prodigal (Luke xv.)[Note]; and it was reproduced twice over in a trumpet tone.
The audience was simply electrified. That parable has gone on to be reproduced
all over the Ibibio towns where our Administrator will be going on his
civilising and governing tours. Is it not grand? It seems like a dream! It
has opened up new ideas of means and possibilities for service. A person with
means could get the Gospel carried round like that, when he or she could not
speak a word of the language. It is so marvellous: every sound reproduced!
Even the little halt I made to remember a word came; the people could not keep
down their delight and wonder. The Administrator himself marvelled at the
stride from the unbroken heathenism of this place twenty months ago to a service
in which young and old took part with intelligent interest and reverence; and he
added some words of instruction and advice, and recommended the Gospel to their
acceptance. Oh, it was a red-letter day! I am so cheered by it all, for I
had not noticed myself, being always there, the difference a stranger sees.
Pray that the power of the Spirit may come to carry saving knowledge to their
hearts.
Now about the new hospital at Itu. I was there three weeks ago at the
Communion, and saw the hospital for the first time. It is truly a noble gift.
God bless the giver! May his reward be even now in his own soul, granted
according to the royal measure of God! What comfort to a weary, suffering body
speaks out from each of those appliances, and from that cool, clean, quiet
building! I think the doctor will keep one of the sections for white people,
and I would like very well to be a patient myself for a week under such
circumstances. Oh, the infinite difference and distance between Christianity
and heathenism! Thank God for what the Gospel has done for the bodies as well
as for souls!
EDITORIAL NOTE: The Mary Slessor Collection, in the Dundee Central Library,
contains recordings of Miss Slessor's voice, donated by her friend Mr Charles
Partridge. Among them is a recording of the "Prodigal Son" in Efik. The
originals are on wax cylinders, but these have been re-recorded onto other media
from time to time. Mr Partridge also donated a phonograph.
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19xv
A short news item, telling of a local funeral and of her adopted daughter Mary's
wedding.
Both these events are described more fully in her letter to Mr Charles Partridge
[Letter No. 63, dated 15th October 1909] and Mary's wedding is again mentioned
in Letter 64 dated 9th December 1909.
--------------------------------------------
From the Women's Missionary Magazine, January 1910?
MISS SLESSOR in a recent letter, gives the following glimpse of progress at Use:
"Things progress slowly, but I think surely here. Our old chief has died, and
instead of a week of drinking and flogging, the town was quiet, but for the
mourning women, and the *Egbo*[Note] drum for one night. Most of the male
members of the chief's house are Christians, and they came to ask what they
should do in regard to the funeral - the drink, and the goat sacrifice, etc.,
and all were firm for the right. The wife, who is left, is a candidate for
baptism, and they asked about her and the time of mourning; she will not be
prohibited from coming to Church, even on the first Sabbath, so I thank God and
take courage." After telling of the wedding of Mary, one of the many rescued
twins she has protected and mothered, Miss Slessor continues: "So our girlie
has gone out to a new life, but David, who is the motor driver on the Government
staff, is a Christian lad, and I am pleased to give her to him. He lives as we
do, and alone, not in a compound as the people here do. I trust Mary will be
good and faithful. . . Before they left David came and said, 'Mother, you won't
let us go without prayer,' and down he knelt; so we gave them to god, and had a
solemn time together."
EDITORIAL NOTE: "Egbo" - the name of the main Calabar secret society
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19xiii This article recounts the sad scene of the funeral of an African child. Her thoughts on this cause her to meditate on Revelation Chapter 21, Verse 4: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." --------------------------------------------------- From the Women's Missionary Magazine of July 1908? No More Sorrow by Miss Slessor, Use, Calabar We have to start early for the services on Sabbath morning, as we go far over the hills, and it is stony land and hard to manage - the cycle is no use then. Even before we reach our destination the sun is high. On entering the first town, we met a woman who told us, so and so's child is dead, and there, sure enough, were the mourning women round the door, and the little grave dug at the door-step. Pushing in among the sweating, howling crowd, I asked for the mother; then the wailing ceased. I found her in a dark corner. She had fainted. After a little she recovered, and her first conscious wail was "my boy, my boy!" By-and-by the wee laddie was brought out, just held in his mat. I opened it to see him, and there was the poor emaciated body with swollen head in all the hideousness of disease and dirt, to be hidden from the sight of the people. The grave was far too short, and rather than desecrate the poor wee body, I made them make it longer, and they laid him down to do this just as if he had been a piece of goods; then they laid him in, and threw on the earth less than a foot from the top soil. There was no want of tenderness either, for the women again burst forth with wailing. His own father threw on the earth, and the women after we had gone took the poor mother away to cheer her and remove the grave from her sight. It was all they could do. As I went from village to village the memory of this scene coloured all my outlook. It led me to take as my subject Revelation xxi, 4: no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death; God wiping the tears from all eyes. But even that great assurance could not lift the sadness, the terrible squalor, the utter hopelessness of these crowds of sister-hearts. Then there came comfort. It was if He said, "I do not wish you to be ignorant of what I am working out in all the mystery of sin and suffering. It is not My fault that you do not know, it is your own capacity that is wanting, but that too is coming. You do not need to wait for heaven, it is coming daily as your horizon widens, and day by day you will know better and more." Then the dark side passed out of sight, and brighter and grander things came into view. The sweetness of a summer breeze seemed to come over me, and the quiet, holy, perfumed, flower-laden atmosphere of the Christian home came before me, with all the earthly and the perishing parts transmuted into the heavenly. The valley was illumined by the Resurrection and the Life Himself, and He seemed to put His hand on me. Restfulness seemed to come then, and it covered all things and received all things into itself. The Glory even covered all that sweating, dirty, shrieking mass of womanhood I had left, and the poor, little body, with all the ravages of sin, unconcealed and unmitigated by covering and cleansing; and His voice hushed my heart into perfect trustfulness, as He seemed to say over and over again, "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999 EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999 Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19v
This article gives a full description the dedication of the new church at Akani
Obio, which was held with prayer, hymns, and tact and cheerfulness, and with a
good collection. There was a deputation from another place begging for a church
in their town, which she had visited the previous Friday. She is also planning
a visit to Akani Obio where a lad from the Itu church was working.
-----------------------------------------------
An article from the Women's Missionary Magazine of April 1905?
The Awakening up the Cross River, by Miss Slessor.
I have been up the creek to the farthest town. I cannot pretend to tell you
about the dedication of the church at Akani Obio, up this lovely little sub-
creek, because there was that subtle something which will not be caught by
language and put on paper, but which is as real as one's very personality,
pervading all the service and all the atmosphere, lifting one into something
like an upper chamber, separated from all the mists and wrangle of this world.
All the chiefs from the district were invited, and the hospitality was so
lavish, and yet so chaste and even refined - such a lesson to the heathen from
one of themselves, living under the same circumstances. Grace does so much for
the human as well as for the spiritual side of us! Truly there is no
refinement so thorough or so true as that springing from converse with Christ.
Mine host was dressed with care, in a black suit, black silk necktie, and soft
felt hat. His wife was also neat, and her yard and his house as fit for my
comfort as for that of the native - that says something for a man who two years
ago was a heathen, in a place which was not known to any but trader natives.
At the dedication the scholars sang, and there was prayer, and everything that
there would have been in a home church under the circumstances, and yet I know
that not one heathen chief felt uncomfortable or "out of it," it was done with
such tact, and cheerfulness, and meekness. It was just, "Stand still, and see
the salvation of our God," for it it was not of our doing, except in an indirect
manner. If you had seen my host's intelligent behaviour at the prayers and
service, you would have been surprised. He said to me: "Some men have their
women-folk dragging them back, but God has been good to me, and my women, small
and big, are *eager*, and if they have one rod[Note 1], or if they have ten,
they give it gladly to God's work." He is a very stern disciplinarian, too -
a born ruler, and is chosen by the Consul as president of the Court.
A bottle with coins, and a paper with the names of the ruling chiefs, and the
ministers in the Mission, the three missionary magazines, etc., were buried
where the pulpit will be. Their collection was good, and, after I was ready to
go, my host came with a Calabar friend, and, with a deal of blushing, held out a
handful of florins to me, asking if I would buy some food for myself, as they
did not know what kind of food I liked. But, of course, I told him to put them
away, and that I had plenty of food lying at Efik.
At the service there were rows and rows of nicely- dressed women with hymn-
books, though they do not know their letters, putting their "Amens" in the right
place, singing every hymn heartily, and leading off in the Lord's Prayer, as
well as filling the collection plate. It was a tribute to Christianity, for
they had the benches, while the men, other than chiefs, had only logs and the
ground to sit upon. May all those women be won really for Christ. They need
our prayers, for Satan tries hard to spoil the work. Some of their tribe do
not approve at all, as no Egbo[Note 2] or funeral rites can live.
A deputation was there from a bigger town further on. Two men were begging with
heart and soul for a start for God's Word and a church in their town; but the
old chiefs do not like to be second, and they would do nothing. Nevertheless,
those who wanted God met Sabbath after Sabbath and held service. I sent word
to them to send a canoe for me, and I went up on Friday last. The old chiefs
told me in open palaver their reasons for not going in with the few young and
"half slave;" and, with as much tact as possible, I tried to meet both views,
with just a scintillation of blame for each: and the starting of church building
is to take place at once, and, I think, on a lasting basis, but the question of
a school is left over for the present. The two old men are very affectionate
in their manner to me, and the church party are jubilant at the victory so
easily gained. I charged them to walk and speak with meekness, and so win
those without.
I also met a section of people at Akan Obio, among whom an Itu lad has been
working. They were not attending church, nor caring for school; but the lad
has been here to-day with a present of fish and bananas, and he says both men
and women are now turning out well to meeting and church. I hope to go up
there this week; they will paddle me in my own canoe.
I have had four women from *beyond* that same town to-day, with a complaint
against it, that the people have taken their fishing grounds and farming land
from them. As the case has been in the native Court I can do nothing for them.
But I should like to get hold of those women for God. What crowds there are of
them, and no one to teach and help them!
EDITORIAL NOTES:
1] Rod = the local currency
2] Egbo = the name of a powerful secret society
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19iv
Miss Slessor tells of the renting of land in the Aro country for the
establishment of any buildings she wishes to build. She has visited a town
recommended by the Consul and found a young man avid to hear more of the
Christian message. After getting lost she came out at a village where again she
found a welcome, and people desirous that she should live with them. She goes
on to tell of a recent visit to the man in this Creek whom the previous January
they had found treasuring books which had belonged to his dead son. He had
accepted Christianity and was struggling to hold services. She ends by listing
all the advances achieved in the area.
-----------------------------------------------
From the Women's Missionary Magazine presumably of December 1904. It includes a
photograph "Up-river Scene, Old Calabar".
Pioneering
The following is from a private letter from Miss Slessor, written on her pioneer
journey in the Aro country Old Calabar.
This is one of the last days of September, and I am writing this in my shed at
Amasu, in Inokon. The boys are putting in the long big sticks which make the
wall. The ants and damp have made ducks and drakes of the place, but with a
new wall I shall be able to stay in it on my next visit, which will be probably
about a month hence. We have stayed at the Consulate, where Mr Dyer has made
us so comfortable and happy. We shall, all well, go off with the steel
canoe[Note 1] tomorrow morning, and the Consul is going to get the chief to sign
the paper by which this place is leased to me today.
On our way down! In the most comfortable of boats and on a perfect morning.
Before leaving I did not get much writing done, as so many visitors came, and I
had to help with the building. The chief made half-an-hour's palaver about
taking anything from me for the ground, but the Consul was inexorable, as it is
the law for protection to the natives, that every bit of ground occupied by
Europeans, or indeed any stranger, must be registered. As a coin had to pass,
and as they had refused the £2, 10s., which the Consul offered to give in my
name, I just passed a shilling over to them, and then the whole thing was
joyfully settled. This was a merely nominal recognition of the fact that the
ground is not mine; they are protected, and I am installed and authorised to
build other structures necessary for any teaching work. So much for having
planted one foot in Aro soil! What is to be the result?
The Consul sent me to a town which I had not previously visited. I took his
orderly as a guide, and found there a young man who had gone across to the Niger
overland; he had there heard the Gospel, and is craving for teaching and light.
I was so cheered to hear that he knew the vital truth of Christianity, the
atoning death of Christ. This man, an old woman, and a young lad, and some of
his wives whom he called in, made as interesting and interested an audience as
ever I had. Next day I lost my way, and came out at the Ibom Spring. There
two men took charge of my bundles and bairns, and led me to a bridge round a
little way. Then one asked me if I had come with God's Word. What else
should I come with I replied. "Oh," he said, "We have built a small church,
and are longing for you to come, and teach us, and we will build a house for you
to stay in." But I could not let the chance of a boat slip. I shall,
however, go back and stay a little time with them next month, and build.
Mr Wilkie could tell of our visit to a man in the Creek. Oh, what a lovely
creek it is! Surely creation has nothing fairer to-day! Last January, when
we were up here for a trip, I promised to call on this chief, and Mr Wilkie and
I went. What a revelation we got of a soul in darkness, wrestling towards God
and light and peace. The books belonging to his dead boy were brought.
There, in that dark place, were a Bible, hymn-book, copy-book, etc, and the
owner, who might have turned a teacher, had been snatched away, but God made
that the means of awakening the father. Well, he sent a canoe for me the other
Sabbath, and as soon as the boat glided to the beach, a bell rang out its
message of "Come to prayer." I got such a surprise. They can only meet and
say the Lord's Prayer, and sing(?) a hymn, and repeat short passages which they
have learned, but there they were, collection plate and all! Thank God for two
places in this creek, which during this year have begun services, and are
seeking the Lord. The darkness is fleeing before the rising of the Sun of
Righteousness, but where are those who are to teach?
To-day every canoe passing hails us with such kindliness and joy. Only a year
ago all this region was as much outside the Church as if it had been a thousand
miles away in the interior, now we have a baby-girl on board, motherless,
belonging to their tribe. I have six boys reading very fairly, and a number
coming up in the earlier classes. We have the Sabbath recognised, and I have a
room in three separate towns, besides Itu, which is my head-quarters. There we
have a congregation of from 250 to 350, many readers, nearly a score of
catechumen, and half-a-dozen Sabbath-school teachers.
EDITORIAL NOTES:
1] Charles Partridge, in his book "Cross River Natives" [pages 46-48:
published by Hutchinson 1905] gives a detailed description of a steel canoe.
"...they are built of metal plates, which are screwed together, and ...
furnished with armoured sides, to be used when necessary to protect the
occupants. They are flat bottomed, and are some sixty feet long, and nearly
eight feet wide in the middle,...there is a sort of cabin, ... having an arched
roof of wood, the highest point of which is only five feet ten inches from the
wooden floor ......"
2] Catechumen = people studying the basic teachings of Christianity prior to
baptism
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.19xviii
This article includes an extract from a recent letter describing developments at
Ikpe
-----------------------------------------------
Presumed to be from the Women's Missionary Magazine of March 1911?
IKPE, it will be remembered, is the name of the new up-river station in Calabar,
where Miss Slessor is planting the Standard of the Cross. In a letter written
at Use on 27th December, she says: "I came down from Ikpe at dawn on Sabbath
morning, where I have been building, and learning more of God's goodness, and of
the Name that is mighty to save, everywhere, and under all circumstances. I
was up for a month, and the house is nearly finished, but I came here to make a
home for the bairns at Christmas, and also to see my dear people, and be with
them at this hallowed time; also to get more building material, for the house is
bigger than I had first planned. The Ikpe people gave so heartily of labour
and material, that I took it as God's leading, so I shall need a hundred sheets
more iron than I expected. It is far up, and very isolated, and visitors will
need accommodation. I am trusting Him to fill up the great need that exists,
for we cannot believe how far we have gone here, till we see the life up there
in unbroken heathenism and darkness. But some are born again, really alive
unto God, and they have the vim and grit that is born of struggle and
persecution. Pray for them and for us."
TRANSCRIBED BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.03
Miss Slessor describes her vacation which she is currently spending in the
Tayside area. She thanks Miss Crawford for a book she has sent, and hopes that
they may become better acquainted.
----------------------------------------------
Mill Bank
Stanley
6. 9. 07
My Dear Miss Crawford
Your very kind note came, & was a joy to Miss Ames & myself. & your
message to her Mother is much appreciated. She remembers your Adress[Note 1] &
visit here with much gratitude, & the kind words you spoke to one of her girls
who was much affected by her sisters approaching departure. It is easy to get
to the mother heart, & so easy to brighten a fellow travellers life for the time
being, if we are just watchful & in the spirit of our Master seeking
opportunities. All the women here remember your visit very vividly. It must
have been to many a time of blessing. I have been calling on many of the
Christian women with Miss Amess & her sister & her mother & spent a very
pleasant evening with their Pastor Mr Thomson. Yesterday we were at a fine
meeting at Kinclaven, "the Kirk in the Muir"[Note 2]. There is not a house in
sight. The pine woods were divided to make a road for the manse people & the
worshippers, & there was a big strip of purple heather lying in front of the
door. the building dates from 1744. It was a rare experience to be in such a
place, specially as my dear & old friend Mr Logie was brought up there, & his
forebears from the starting time. 3 generations have been session clerks
there.
I am just going off to Perth for the week end, & then back to Newport on Tay as
they have made a few engagements of a quiet & private kind there, & among my
home friends at Dundee. I shall not be able to come to the sub meeting on 12,
but Miss Amess & I will be *surely*, if well, at the meeting on 19th. I would
be in Glasgow anyhow at Anderston on the 18th. We thank you for the book you
have sent us. I am to leave it here as they have not read it yet, & there are
so many to go over. It is intensely interesting. How great a work, & such
grand results, from such small beginnings. I do not know much about your old
work, but I trust we will get better acquainted, & so learn from one another.
One of the girls from this house is gone off to her sphere of work as a nurse in
England this morning & the parting with her sister is a very tender one, as they
may not meet again till Miss Amess has gone. I am keeping out of the way, but
it is so sweet when Christ rules in a home, to see the love & loyalty to Him in
the giving up of one another for His Sake. Were they near I know I should have
messages to you, as it is I am not troubling them, & you can just understand
that love is sent. Miss Amess hired a bicycle for the week I have been here, &
we have been out every dry morning for a long run, in order to get up strength.
We have both been so much the better of it, & our converse, & our fun too, has
been a great joy. Now I must just say bybye, as we also go off after
breakfast. I hope to see you before long & trust you will have much of the Joy
of the Lord for your strength, seeing you cant get into the open air for it
among the heather. I wish you had been with us Yesterday. Thank you for your
kind words of comfort regarding work & bairns. " The Lord bless Thee & keep
Thee. The Lord cause His face to shine upon Thee, & give thee peace."
Yours most affectionately
Mary M Slessor
Why do you say that about tying my shoe?? If you knew me, as God does!!! But
the blood goes on cleansing, that is all my hope & plea. Never say that kind
of thing again.
Yours again
MMSlessor
EDITORIAL NOTES:
1] Adress = Address, a speech
2] Muir = moor, or moorland[Scots]. Kinclaven, is a couple of miles to the
North East of Stanley [which is 7 miles north of Perth] where she is staying.
TRANSCRIPTION BY: Leslie A. Mackenzie, February 1999
EDITED BY: Ruth E. Riding, February 1999
Slessor, Mary GD.X.260.05
Miss Slessor begins by expressing her delight in Miss Crawford's last letter and
then in their newly established friendship which she states is "one of God's
most precious gifts to me on this furlough". She describes her journey and
fellow passengers at some length.
------------------------------------------------
S.S. 'Fantee'
Off Lagos
6. 11. 07
Dear Daughter of the King,
Your sweet message was given you by the Holy Ghost & it has
accomplished what He pleased, & I trust the text, which is at once a fact & a
promise will testify to my soul day by day, as I rise up, & as I lie down, of
the ever-full-to-overflowingness of the Grace which is available in every moment
& every circumstance of life, & it will also bring you before my mind, so that I
may speak to the King regarding you, as I beg of you to do for me. This is
surely the meaning in its highest sense of "The Community of Saints". What a
grand pattern we have of it in the Ephesians & Paul. Also the Phillipians.
What an intensity of desire, What a breadth of longing love, What a holy
audacity for His Children & brethren in Christ, What an infinitely high ideal
of what Gods Children should be. It is good just to lay all this prayer before
God, & to tell Him, Lord this is just what I pray of Thee to fulfill in, so &
so - & in thy Church Universal, & in our congregation, & among the heathen
converts. It lifts ones lives up to the light & stand point of Gods ideas for
us. Dear friend you have been one of Gods most precious gifts to me on this
furlough, & I thank Him for it, & trust that all He has meant for us through
this linking of hearts, may be fulfilled. Why has He so blessed me above
others? For His gifts to me overwhelm me, & make me feel ashamed of my poor
halting service & faith. May your faith & love & devotion, be a stepping stone
upward for me, that I may share in it to some extent, by a loving emulation.
We have had such fine weather all the way. It was rather heavy on the day
after sailing, the Sunday, but after that [it?] has been simply glorious. Sea
& sky one sheet of blue. How I have longed to share it with the invalids of
our dark dreary climate. Surely it has been an answer to prayer! I *have*
rested. Except that I wrote a great deal for the Sierra Leone Mail, I have
literally lolled about & I have never missed a meal, except one day. I was
asleep & missed the Tea Bell. Isnt that a good record? I lay down in the
Ladies room when we had gone down the Mersey a bit, more for Dan's sake, for
fear he wd. be sick, than for my own, & I had such a sleep that I was not
undressed till Monday morning, but I had hearty meals in my Cabin, & Dan lay
singing, & telling stories, & longing for, & wondering about all the dear ones
we left behind. Would we never get back to see Auntie? & etc, etc. So we
were borne over it all! Here comes the Capn. with a writing board for me!
How kind!!
But we had dreadful Company all the way to our last stoppages. A crowd of men
going to the Gold Mines, made a perfect pandemonium of the ship. Night & day,
they roared & hurrah-ed, & behaved like hooligans. Every low Music Hall song,
& every vulgar Chorus the boys on the street shouted, was given here in the
middle of the night, & all the day long. The Capn got angry in the end, & so
did some more of us specially last Sunday when they roared & danced till 4 o/c
a.m. & then did the same till 4 o/c a.m. next morning. That was their last
night, so we all let them go on, but poor fellows they went off in that dreadful
sun, to go up country to a homeless place & a rough life, after a fortnight of
drinking & gambling & sleeplessness. One passenger said as they went off,
"They will all die like dogs up there." How I longed to be of use, but I cd.
not go to that smoking room, & on Sabbath at dinner, I had to rise & go out, as
the only way I cd. protest. They were quieter after that. And poor fellows,
they were so kind too in their own way, & all came & bade me a kindly goodbye, &
smilingly agreed to my word of warning & advice. One, who was the leader, &
whom I had to rebuke one day, gave Dan a new shilling as he went off. He told
me his parents were Baptists, & he spoke nicely always about Missionaries. One
man told me yesterday, that his i.e the drunken fellow's - Mother was crying
like any thing when he came off, & he was quite tipsy, & hollering like a
madman, & yet poor chap, he may have only done it to hide what he was feeling.
Thank God for His *restraining* Grace, as well as for His electing Grace.
We have had two very quiet, but very hot nights, but it is so nice to have peace
& quietness to lie & think & read & pray. One of the rather wild lads who went
home with us, has constituted himself my cavalier & fellow at Table, & I think
he has been touched to better living at least, & has saved some money, & some
health too by the alliance. He is to write to me after we separate. He looks
so young, & he has a wife & two children, yet he squanders his money & his
health like anything. His favourite author & poet is Omar Kayam, & we have
some talks over it. What a negation to go into the bush with!! May God meet
him there & |