Dear Mr Partridge
Had anyone hinted that February wd almost have gone before I
wrote to you, I should have said a few straight words, & yet!! here it is. My,
but the days do fly! This Court *is* a shop, & not an hour of respite, not even
on my way to service on Sundays. And yet, if it weren't I shd be sorry, for it is
better they come direct to myself, even to ask about their summons, as to
whether it has been delivered, or whether they should go & ask, & so make sure,
& etc etc than that they went to policemen, or to any other body who might
make mischief. But it is a silly people, & a trial to patience, & I'm so tired as a
rule, that all my good resolutions, made daily, to write a lot at night are put one
side at sight of my sofa & a book. I had fever right on 3 or 4 times a week, all
through January, & I have only twice been able to walk to Church this year.
But last Saturday I took quite a turn for the better, & am now just myself again.
I owe you many thanks for that kind - far too kind, letter you sent just at the time
I needed it badly to cheer me up! Never mind though all you say in it misses
the mark by a long way, for thats not Mary Slessor on the Pedestal you set up!
its a creation of your own, never the less tho I cant lay claim to it, I can aspire to
be the sort of being it pictures, & only wish I had a chance to try on yourself.
Fancy *Me* helping **You**!! & fancy *my* temper & patience, put
alongside of yours!! Still I *can* try, old as I am, & last Court day, I *did* try,
& pray too, & I think I *was* more helpful & patient. Wait a bit, when you
come back, I *will* try again, if I get the privilege, & perhaps you may then
praise.
Mr Mansfield *is* kind, & "sane". I could not have got a better Chief among
the lot. I see & hear little of him, as he is kept very busy. He has the "Justice"
there just now, & perhaps Mr Fosbery. I am not sure whether the latter passed
this week. Mr Brooks has gone, but I have never got that boundary yet, & there
are still "Ructions" I had a sheet of paper the size of this one, from Etim Offion
of Ikorofion this week anent, Ikot Ayan, from which you appointed a Chief to sit
in this Court. I did not answer, but sent it right on to Ikot Okpene. Udo Antias
Case made a flash in the pan for a little after you had gone. When the Rd.
surveyors sent forward boys to ask for a shed for their forward step, they were
held up. Just as the men from Imuks place I told you of were, only he gave
them Mbian [Note 1]. They said they were from a distance, going to gather
their debt. They lied so glibly, that they were taken to Udo himself in a hut on
his land, & after the Mbian he threatened to do all sorts of things if they told of
him. This brought the thing to a head. Just as Obori, the Okpo man, had found
for me, Where he was living with a mother in law. So Capn Lloyd came, &
burned his place & had loot of yams & goat & a cow the first day, without
seeing him. Next day they went to a different place near his own, & just missed
him, He ran into the bush. But he found it too hot I expect, & sent for the
Interpreter, Esien, to come & bring him in. Meanwhile his mother came in, &
she expecting they would shoot him, hung on to me, lay on me, hugged me for 4
long hours. I could not get out of her embraces till I was nearly fainting. "Take
me, take him," "take me, take him", "We will be your slaves for ever" "[loky?]
did he not listen to you long ago, when you called him," etc etc she wailed. He
is all I have, *All*, *all* I have" --- till the Chiefs were shedding tears. It was a
bad hour for me I tell you, for even Udo Antia is loved by a Mother. What a
mighty, what a mysterious thing is mother love! She coveted the chance of
dying for him, & she crouched where her eyes devoured him, all the time of the
trial, till she was so overcome they had to remove her. The mob which came to
the trial, made us defer the sentence till next morning for fear the mothers
wailing might upset things. I asked after the crowds had gone, if they were at
all hostile to us. No! said my children & my people, they were hungry to hear
how the White Man would punish, & to gloat over him, & I think the
disappointment at only 2 years, *after* *your* 2 years is general. Eniyon &
Ibibio dont think he is punished enough. He was allowed an audience of his
mother, daughter & a slave man, in my presence before he was removed, & they
behaved well. I told the mother I should look after her & her affairs, as her son
had asked me, & begged her to let him go quietly, her daughter then said to him,
"Dont trouble about us. Keep to your work, & keep well, & then come home to
us & live quietly & dont have any more crooked ways." So the old lady comes
& embraces me, & gives me a few yams, & tells her troubles & cries, & goes
again. His slaves have stolen every thing & run away, & Ibiaku went & burned
the only hut the White Man left they say. The latter fact is not yet proved, as I
gave it to Mr Mansfield. They brought from Udo's place 8 guns, & his own
revolver. He lived in the bush all the time, & had the revolver under his arm
sleeping & waking. I believe Mr Mansfields carriers were fired on, on the Oyo
road the other day, & we have had two or 3 gun Cases, all however submitting at
once. There are lots of guns all over the place. I wish you had been at Udos
trial, if only to study Ibibio character. I had to dismiss Ekandem & Ete Eduku
long ago they were too ------
I dont know what I was to say here. I was interrupted. The Road was all cut a
month ago past here, & last time I was carried down to Itu - a fortnight ago, to
the first Baptismal service at Itu, I had not to get up the hills at all. There are
gangs at work every bit all along, & one could get along the whole way on the
new road in various stages of completeness. The paid labour has transformed
the thing & one can see now what is being done, & the surveyors are kept at it
like navvies. A White foreman has come, & they have now a large compound
on the top of the hill second from Ikot Obon, with office, a clerks house & all.
A lovely house & a lovely site, so the old shed is bare & black, & Mr Rosario is
away on beyond Udo Antias place, the road runs through his town. It is a big
responsibility, the having of 600 men without wife or home on the road. Theres
a big work on [E-nd?] from Itu, below the rest house the embankment is
wonderful already, & the Railway surveyors are gone further up & further
round. They purpose taking my old road by [---?] Obio going out at the Creek
by the small oil market. Ikot Obon is its old prevaricating lazy self, but the
Robing Room is there waiting for the Robes, & we are comfortably housed.
The policemen & male prisoners are staying there. 2 rooms of the policemens
houses are up, but we were helping with mats for the camp, & they payed us
well. I'm through my second Summons Book & well on with my third, & my
second evidence book is almost full. We have a good lot of money in hand, & I
think we get along fairly well. They behave much better, & only one Chief - &
he as goodlooking as most, & clean, - Udo Ekandem of Ntan, - has had to be
expelled for bad conduct. Calabar is becoming more scarce as the old Itu Cases
are disposed of, & I'm glad as they rile me. Charles CoCo seemed surprised at
getting off with costs of 12/- [Note 2] only in the old ladys Case, he behaved
admirably, & sent his respects. John sent a summons to a lad of their house in
Duke Town, in a Case he had held over at Itu Court for 2 years, & the boy got
into trouble for impertinence to the Court, & his lounging chair & patent leather
foot gear & velvet suit gave way to a dirty cloth, & lying prone on the ground
before me every day. Then the heads of the house Etim Offron from Itu came
up, & the boy let it all out, that they made him the scapegoat, & he knew nothing
of the matter, & the head of the house brought the two women with him before
the Case was tried, & gave them up. I felt like taking John up for fraud & man
snatching -!!! Well, let them go. I'm now trying to get in their debts from
Ibibio & warning Ibibio not to receive any more trade goods from them, but to
go straight to the shop at Okop Edi. They are doing well there. I cant tell you
properly their returns, but he buys over 7 tons of kernels from women alone over
the counter on a market morning. The Efiks are sitting in branches all up the
road intercepting the market people but that will cease too in time I expect.
I have only sent 2 men from the road yet to Ikot Okpene. I keep as much in
touch with all of them as I can & will try to visit their Camps on Sunday, &
make friends with them. Mr Smith has gone home, Mr Darby is away seeking a
site for a sanatarium in the Ekoi, among the [Bumby?] Hills, 2,000 feet high.
My dear laddie Mr Maxwell is back, but not in good health Im sorry to say. He
is doing office work, as he is not fit to rough it this term. I trust he will pull up
soon & be about by next trip. Still, he is not an ideal administrator, as I have
told you. He is like myself, to nervous, & impatient. But he is a good boy, & a
clean, straight clever lad, a lad to *love* & cherish. I had a letter from Mr
Dyer, who is not ill pleased with his post, but is longing for the old friends &
people he did so much good work among. Mytton seems to do well, & he is a
courteous correspondent. The Robertsons are getting a fine place. A new
White Carpenter has come out to build the Hospital. He came up one day, but
wont let his wife come till the roads are made. She is a nice woman, as quiet as
he is loud, & as plodding as he is unreliable.
I do not know whether I shall stay here. Ive sent home word that Mr Rankin
shd. take over the Station & work it properly, & I should move farther on. If so,
wd. you advise me to go toward Ikot Okpene, or nearer the Inokon side. I wish
you wd tell me, in case it happens I move. I have only got the sanction of the
Preby. till April for this work. Im supposed to go back to Okoyon then I expect,
which I shall simply refuse to do, as it wd. be unfair to Miss Wright, at least till
her furlough is due in mid winter.
I had a visit on Court day from a Mr Wilson, who is dredging or cleaning the
river & creek. He expects to be on that work for long. He wants prison made
mats, & as I can sell them at a profit, I shall let him have as many as he wants.
So they will be going to build largely, as he has got 1000 already from Ikoneto,
& wants 1000 at least more. I hear Sir Walter Egerton is come to Calabar, but
am not sure. He sent the railway men to call on me. His wife is with him, so it
will be lively at the Consulate I dare say. Gaiety will be the order of the day
now. All the Europeans are to have their wives now, which will be a good thing
for them & for the country. There's your chance, I'll be an Aunty to you both
shd. you be wise & fortunate enough to accept your privileges. I do trust you
will come straight back to Ikot Okpene, & will say it any & every where. You
have made & settled the District really, & why should you not complete it unless
indeed you get something more enticing. I've never had a chance to speak to
Esien since you left. Ive had his brothers wife threating [Note 3] to leave Ofon,
this evening, & really she was entirely in the right. She is the elderly clearly
intelligent mistress of the house you lived in always in Ikot Obon. He behaves
abominably towards her, & she does for herself. She does not get one yam a
year from him in return for her work to him. nor will he pay for what he takes
from her out of what she trades for others. Such is marital bliss in Ibibio. We
have substituted for giving over children to old husbands, giving 18 goats or a
girl, & 9 goats to replace the mother & child by another wife, & it is working
well, without the harrowing details of breaking up a family.
We have had our first twins saved here, but they were such tiny sickly things,
they only lived 2 days. The father is your head man, at the back of our hill, so I
was glad to see them go. The day after, a boy of 2 or 3 months old came from
behind the brick field, its mother dead, so the twin mother took it when its
people left, & she has helped with it ever since, & she is very quiet, & has
another child, but they wont let it come for fear it dies beside her. They have
given her 4 yams, which means they wont have her back.
Now what means the two books come by this mail? It is your handwriting, & I
have been reading Halbeck during the nights. It is not the best of Mrs Wards.
She has created a most original, & difficult heroine, & the evolution of her
character under such strange & extreme circumstances & environment is an
interesting study, but she can do better work in analasis than this. The workings
& results of Christianity from the Roman Catholic point of view, are so unreal so
laboured, so manifestly a working from the outward, that it grows grotesque, &
instead of the exquisite & subtile charm of mysticism, there is a wearying almost
sensuos piling up & on of the commonest gauds. It is all too tawdry to be
associated with the sacred Name of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World. The
very burden of the ritual, & the unloveliness of the characters, both Protestant &
Catholic, make the whole system something above the level of the African Fetish
& its Product. I trust Christ & Christianity will do more for the high spirited,
finely strung, independant young woman of today than it did for poor Laura &
her noble husband to be, & for the poor "starved soul" of the invalid stepmother.
I have sent a reading round to Mrs Robertson today, & am anxious to renew my
girlhoods friends of the "Mill on the Floss", those wholesome, natural sinners
bred in our own homeland, who somehow are very dear because of their very
faults & frailties. I thank you most sincerely for them, for I'm sure it is your
gift, but cant make out the Post Mark. How are things at home? Im glad for
Liberal victory all along the lines. Dont trouble to pity me, I'm glad of my
Plebian tastes, & trust public money will be spent for public good. How goes it
with Poor Russia? she is paying dearly for ----------!! I wont be drawn into it!!!
but she will be born again & live out of the agony. The birth throes are always
agony for body & spirit, for nature & nations, but who wd. choose death in
preference? Well, Well! heres another sheet of Govt. paper. I have not a scrap
of writing paper till the Str [Note 4] comes, but I have written my own for
Government for years, so conscience does not prick. I dont know if you can
wade through this. It has been a constant interruption. I trust you will enjoy
your furlough, & be a comfort to your home circle. Whether you smile or not, I
pray God to bless you & to *satisfy* you with *Himself*. *It* *is* a Grand
*Reality* this *personal* relationship through Christ.
Byebye.
Yours most sincerely
Mary MSlessor
The £50 is all right. Mr Mansfield told me it is in the Safe. Thanks