Part 4

_Thursday, Feb. 16th._—Went on shore, and visited the town. The soil is gravel, sand and loam, and the town stands up high and dry from the river. The shore is covered with a beautiful white sand, underneath which is a layer of excellent clay for bricks. The town is built of straw huts, and is surrounded with a zeriba. We called at the Governor’s, and were treated to sherbet and coffee. We then walked about the town, and I took a photograph of the Assistant Chief of the Dinkas, and one of a Dinka woman, and then took an inside view of the town and another general view from the outside of the zeriba. This place must be comparatively healthy. We were presented with a sheep by the Governor as we were about to start. We left at 9:45 A.M. Doctor and I were sitting on the bridge seeing what we could see, when I discovered a huge snake in the water swimming slowly and trying to cross the river. I rushed for the shot-gun, and although we had almost got beyond range, gave him both barrels with good effect. I jumped into the small boat with a number of men; the steamer put about and we went after that snake. As we neared him, however, he began to show signs of life, and Doctor, fearing he might get away, fired two shots at him with the rifle from the bridge. The second ball struck, but glanced, leaving not the slightest trace of a mark, but stunned him so that he turned over on his back. We picked him up and found that we had got hold of a boa-constrictor. As soon as he was landed in the boat he came to again, and made it lively for us. His strength was something remarkable. He ran his head a little way under a board, and six men pulling with all their might and main could not get him out. He came out when he got ready, but then we had a rope around him, and hauled him on deck. There was a scattering of the crowd then. We choked him to death, cut his teeth out, and put him away. He came to life again, and broke one of the supports of the water-jar. Then Ibrahim stood on that snake’s head till he was dead. We hung him up. He came to life again, and nearly got away. Then we beat him on the head with a club till he was “as dead as a door nail.” He came to life again! No use! We determined to conquer him this time, and proceeded to skin him. This was too much for him, and he concluded to remain dead. He measured 9 ft. 6 in. in length, and 11¾ in. around. I have preserved the skin, and hope to have it stuffed. The sailors will eat the flesh. We anchored for the night, and to get wood, about 4 miles north of Gebel Ain, on the east side. Temperature, 7, 62°; 12, 84°; 7:30, 80°.

_Friday, Feb. 17th._—The thumping of the rudder kept us awake nearly all night. We went on shore not expecting to be gone long, but the men said they had seen a lion, and that started us off, and we soon got on the trail. Doctor and I were separated in the thick brush. He followed one trail and I another. Ibrahim was with me; a good sailor with him. I soon came upon three large deer. I had only a shot gun, but dropped a bullet in, and was just raising the gun when Ibrahim, in what I call his woman’s clothes, came marching up, and asked what I saw. Of course I saw no deer then. It was a splendid hunting ground. There were fresh tracks of lions and buffaloes and deer, etc., all around us. But it was time to return to the steamer. We had turned and gone only a little way, when, all of a sudden, two mounted Baggara Arabs, with their long spears leveled, sprang from the bushes and stood in the pathway between us and the steamer. The truth flashed upon us. We were waylaid by followers of El Mehdi, who would not hesitate to kill us if they could. Ibrahim began to mutter his prayers and repeat passages from the Koran. The two men stood their horses before us, directly in our pathway, and eyed us from head to foot. My gun was ready, my finger on the trigger, and they saw that the first step forward meant death to one if not both of them. We walked steadily forward and towards them. Ibrahim was so frightened that I could hardly make him understand anything I said. Finally, I spoke so sternly that he recovered his senses, and kept close to my side, as I ordered him to do. As we approached the Arabs they turned their horses and walked them ahead of us, consulting what they had better do. Then they moved around us in a circle, and followed us up in the rear. Finally, they called to us, and we turned and faced them. They had evidently concluded that our guns were too many for them; but they tried to get us to go back into the country, telling us that our friends wanted to see us. But we were not to be fooled so easily, and kept steadily on till we reached the steamer. We thought, at first, that possibly the Doctor was in trouble, and did want to see us, but we found, on his return, that he had not seen them, and knew nothing about them. It was a ruse to get us into a trap. All agreed that, if we had not been armed as we were, they would have killed us in a minute. The Doctor had had his adventures, too. He had seen three lions, and wounded one and chased him nearly to Gebel Ain. He had met a party of Shillooks, and found them friendly, after marching up to them and shaking them by the hand. This region is full of game of all sorts. I killed some pigeons for dinner, and then we all went on board. We started at 11:20, and reached the broad part of the river, known as Aboo Zeid, which Gordon has put down on his map as _a town_, at 3:30. We anchored near the island of Abbas, about two hours from the former village of Mohammed Achmet. Along here we saw hundreds of cords of ambatch in rafts. But this spot did not please the Captain; so we turned and tied up finally at the upper end of the island of Abbas, near the town of Gos Aboo Goumaah. * * *

_Wednesday, Feb. 22d._—We tried to start this morning at 4 A.M., but found that one of the boats in tow was aground. This delayed us until 6 o’clock, when we were off. The men were at work during the night cutting wood, and we have a fair supply. Saw the encampment of a slave caravan on the west bank, a little north of Gebel Owlee. The suppression of the slave trade is a farce from beginning to end. The first sight of Khartoum was a welcome one. It seemed almost like getting home. How grand its mud houses looked too, after the straw huts to which our eyes had become accustomed. There is quite a fall in the White Nile just above its confluence with the Blue. Looking across the low island which divides the main stream of the White Nile, a narrow rushing river, from the Blue Nile, the latter appears about six feet lower. We soon rounded the point of the island, and were once again in the clear blue water of the branch river. At 5:30 we tied up at Khartoum. The White Nile voyage was safely ended. As soon as we were fairly at land, Marcopoli Bey came on board and greeted us. And soon our Syrian friends, who were the last to see us off, came to welcome us back. We were among our friends again. We now heard the news for the first time that Raouf Pasha had been deposed, that there was a new order of government for the Soudan, and a new ministry, and mixed up state of affairs in Cairo, with Arabi “Pasha” at the top of the heap. The only thing that can be predicted with any certainty is that there will be a general muss, and probably an Anglo-French intervention. In the Soudan there can be no peace till Mohammed Achmet is taken. Giegler Pasha is preparing an army, such as it is, of about 3,500 men, to march against him, but the result is very doubtful. It is reported that there is considerable fever in town. One of our visitors had it upon him while he was calling on us, and there is a lady at his house, who it is feared is dying with it. We sent Ibrahim to see if our rooms were ready for us at the consul’s. He came back to say that they were, and brought Mougades, the “bookman,” with him. He seemed rejoiced to see us again. He was expecting to start by a _merkeb_ for Berber tomorrow, but will wait now, and go with us. We marched up to the consul’s in the evening, and felt quite at home when we got back into our rooms. A pile of letters was awaiting us, and what a feast we had after hungering and thirsting so long for news from home. Our hearts are indeed full of thanksgiving to the kind Providence who has watched over our dear ones, and has brought us thus far on our way in safety.

* * * * *

THE CHINESE.

* * * * *

GOD ANSWERS PERSEVERING PRAYER

REV. W. C. POND.

CHINA FOR CHRIST!

It is now four years and more since I wrote (for the MISSIONARY of Sept. 1878), an article under this title, “China for Christ.” I said that this was the motto of our mission—inscribed, indeed, as the legend on our corporate seal—because one chief source of our enthusiasm in our mission work in California, is that we hope by means of it to help dissipate the darkness of the great empire across the sea. The object of that article was to invite our American Missionary Association to undertake a mission having its headquarters at Hong Kong, but reaching out especially into those districts of the province of Kwang Tung, from which our Chinese came. It would be extravagant to hope that that appeal might be fresh in the memory of many of the readers of our magazine. But the matter of which it treats has never been absent for a day from the thoughts and prayers of the more earnest and advanced of our Chinese brethren. Nothing has sufficed to discourage their prayers. Repeatedly we have been made to understand that the Association could not undertake this work in addition to its other tasks, but the brethren prayed on. I thought that I had said all that I could say, and done all that I could do, to bring to pass what seemed to me so pressingly important, and had become almost silent, waiting, I trust, on the Lord. But the prayers and the faith of these brethren would not let me be still. They seemed deaf to the negatives I brought them. “What are you going to do with this money?” I said to one of them, referring to a sum of several hundred dollars which the Congregational Association of Christian Chinese has gathered and placed at interest. “We are keeping it till the Hong Kong mission is established,” was the prompt reply. Year after year they have counseled, prayed and waited, and, it seems, have waited not in vain.

Through the influence of individuals belonging to the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., and with the cordial and joyful God-speed of the Committee as a whole, the American Board has determined to listen to this appeal, and—to use the apt expression of Dr. Alden in his letter to me—“to accept this sacred trust.” Our readers may be assured that no time was lost in sending the good news to the brethren. At their assembly at our Central Mission House that evening there was glad thanksgiving, and with it fresh and fervent prayer. To receive what one has long been craving, sometimes almost makes one tremble. Our mission, as a “sacred trust,” seems doubly sacred to me, now. Its possibilities are magnified beyond computation, and the mistakes into which we shall certainly fall, unless we are guided by a wisdom better than our own, look fraught with such loss, such disaster, that I shrink from the responsibility which I knew all along the answer to our prayers would certainly involve. Let all our friends pray for us with new faith and new ardor, that from among the Chinese in California a genuine Salvation Army may be gathered—Bible readers, colporteurs, pastors, teachers, evangelists—that, under the direction of some wise and warm-hearted American missionary, residing at Hong Kong, may advance to the conquest of China for Christ.

THE CLOSED GATES.

On the 4th day of this month of August, the new law against Chinese immigration went into effect. The hardships and inconveniences it involves, already—in some minor instances—begin to appear. But the main effect has been to stimulate immigration to such an extent that the Chinese population of our Pacific slope is at least 33 per cent. larger to-day that it was seven months ago. The arrivals during the six months ending July 31 were 25,733; the departures, 3,627; the gain, 22,106. This increase will diffuse itself to some extent over the entire country—not all of it remaining on this side the continent—but almost all of it staying in America, a permanent addition to our Chinese element. More and more will the privilege of returning be prized by those who go back to their native land for with a temporary stoppage of the immigration there will come a relative diminution of the supply, and a consequent increase in the compensation of Chinese labor. Let no one imagine then that the passage of this law is likely to bring to a speedy close our missionary opportunity. Thus far it has greatly increased our work, and never before did we look over the rapidly approaching line between the old year and the new and see such hopeful indications as we see to-day. Let me give a few figures from the statistics for July; New pupils, 230; total number enrolled, 971; average attendance, 467. Total number enrolled as pupils in our schools during eleven months of this fiscal year, 2,373. These numbers are greater by almost 35 per cent. than those of the corresponding month of last year, and those of that month were greater, I believe, than any ever before recorded. The gain will not be so great in the future, but it will not cease because for a time the immigration ceases. Nothing can stop it but a stoppage of supplies. And of that—thank God that I may speak so confidently by faith in Him and in his people—of _that_ I have no fear.

AN INTERESTING SCENE.

The last communion season in Bethany Church occurred August 6th. It was one of the few such seasons in which we have received no Chinese to membership. But when from two Christian Chinese families four children were presented for baptism, I felt with fresh joy and power that God’s seal of blessing was manifest upon our mission work. Two of the children were boys, sons of Jee Gam, our veteran helper, who made so many friends while on a visit eastward two years since. The other two were daughters of Chung Mon, one of the first group of Chinese whom it was my privilege to baptize—a staunch and steadfast believer, long president of our Christian Association. His wife is a faithful Christian, a member of the Methodist Church, and if you go into his home you will see, in the tenderness and affection with which the Christian father fondles his daughters, what Christ-life in a Chinese heart has done for budding womanhood. Sons could not have been welcomed more heartily or cared for more lovingly. Nothing there of that sentiment prevalent in all heathendom, illustrated in the story of “China Mary,” in our August MISSIONARY, that the birth of a daughter is a token of the anger of the gods. The wife of Jee Gam has been in California only about a year, the older son having been born in China. She does not yet call herself a Christian, but hopes to become one, she says—when she can learn a little more. Our brother looks on his two boys and tells the longing of his heart, by saying, “I hope they may both become missionaries in my native land.”

But I am already encroaching on space that belongs to some other department of the one great work, and I will bid my eager pencil cease.

* * * * *

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

* * * * *

LETTER FROM AN AFRICAN BOY.

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, } ATLANTA, Ga., June 16th, 1882.}

Doctor Pike have told President Ware that your are collection some money for me. I am very glad to hear this. I am very thankful toward you for your kindness toward me. I was the little boy who came from Africa about four years ago this month. I was brought by sea captain. I am very glad indeed to sit down and write to you all. Our school closed last Friday. I like the school very much, and I also have good many friends in Atlanta University. I hope that the Lord will save my life, and helping me to get my learning, that I may return back to my people, telling them about Jesus Christ, who have died for all peoples. Mark, 16, 15: And He said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. May the Lord bless you and help you to do more for the poor.

PHILIP G. PAGE.

A QUESTION OF COLOR.

BY NELLIE L. TINKHAM.

“Dear me!” said Mrs. Strawberry Jam, A-growing very red, “What a most unfortunate creature I am; I can scarce hold up my head. To think that I should live to see An insult offered, like this, to me! That I should be placed on the very same shelf (Oh dear! I hardly know myself) By the side of that odious Blackberry Jam— That vulgar, common, Blackberry Jam!”

So she fumed and fretted, hour by hour, Growing less and less contented, Till her temper became so thoroughly sour That she at last fermented. While Mr. Blackberry Jam kept still, And let her have her say— Kept a quiet heart, as blackberries will, And grew sweeter every day.

One morn there stopped at Dame Smither’s fence The parson—to say that he might, By the kind permission of Providence, Take tea with her that night. And the good old lady, blessing her lot, Hastened to open her strawberry pot. “Oh, what a horrible mess! Dear—dear! Not a berry fit to eat is here. After all,” putting it down with a slam. “Nothing will keep like good Blackberry Jam, Honest, reliable, Blackberry Jam.”

Mrs. Strawberry J. went into the pail; Oh my—what a dire disgrace! And the pig ate her up, with a twitch of his tail And a troubled expression of face. While Blackberry J., in a lovely glass dish, Sat along with the bread and honey, And thought, while happy as heart could wish, “Well, things turn out very funny!”

—_The Century._

* * * * *

RECEIPTS FOR AUGUST, 1882.

* * * * *

MAINE, $181.39.

Dennysville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $9.00 Gorham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 25.28 Gorham. T. P. Irish, _for Needmore S. S._, 5; Mrs. Caroline F. Smith, 5, _for Talladega C._ 10.00 Limington. Arzella Boothby, _for John Brown Steamer_ 5.00 Machias. Centre St. Sab. Sch., 5; Miss U. M. Penniman, 5 10.00 Portland. Rev. John O. Holbrook 5.00 South Waterford. Giles Shurtliff 2.00 Waterford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.31 —————— $71.59

LEGACY.

Vassalborough. Estate of Mary B. Buxton, by Samuel Titcomb, Exr. 109.80 ——————— $181.39

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $441.57.

Acworth. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.00 Bedford. Mrs. S. P. D. 1.00 Centre Harbor. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.00 Chester. C. S. G. 1.00 Concord. A. J. H., Mrs. A. S. and Mrs. I. N. A. 2.00 Exeter. Second Cong. Sab. Sch., 22; “Friends,” 8, _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ 30.00 Goffstown. Cong. Ch. and Soc. (10 of which _for John Brown Steamer_) 45.60 Hinsdale. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.96 Hollis. Cong. Ch. 8.54 Keene. Second Cong. Sab. Sch. 25.00 Littleton. Cong. Ch. 14.25 Monroe. Cong Ch. and Soc. 4.51 New Ipswich. Cong. Ch. (1 _of which for John Brown Steamer_), 12.53; A. N. T., 1 13.53 Pembroke. Cong. Ch. 25.50 Peterborough. Rev. Geo. Dustan, Bbl. of C, and 2 _for freight, for Tougaloo U._ 2.00 Plainfield. Mrs. Hannah Stevens, _for John Brown Steamer_ 8.00 Portsmouth. North Cong. Ch. and Soc. (5 _of which for Indian work at Hampton_) 159.98 Tilton. Cong. Sab. Sch. 10.00 Wakefield. Rev. N. Barker, 2; Mrs. M. J. B., 1 3.00 Westmoreland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.00 Winchester. Cong. Ch., 34.51; Sab. Sch., 9.19, _for S. S. work_ 43.70

VERMONT, $383.43.

Berlin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 17.30 Brattleborough. Dea. Joseph Wilder, 10; G. H. Clapp, 5; H. Hadley, 5; Mrs. B. A. Clark, 2, _for Talladega C._ 22.00 Burlington. Winooski Av. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Lady Missionary at Topeka_ 44.15 Chester. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 25.33 Hinesburgh. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.75 Jamaica. Cong. Ch. and Soc., ad’l 1.00 Johnson. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00 Londonderry. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.00 Ludlow. Cong. Ch. and Soc., 14; Sab. Sch., 4.40 18.40 Ludlow. Mrs. L. H. Coffin 2.00 Middlebury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 29.97 North Craftsbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.00 St. Johnsbury. No. Church, _for Parsonage_ 25.00 Sheldon. Cong. Sab. Sch. 20.00 Springfield. Mrs. Frederick Parks 100.00 Swanton. Cong. Ch. 26.72 Tyson Furnace. By L. G. 0.65 West Enosburgh. Henry Fassett 5.00 Woodstock. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.16

MASSACHUSETTS, $2,576.96.