Mary Slessor: Letters 71–80

Industrial Institute

"To Thank you & wish you a Holy Happy Xmas & growth in grace & the Highest prosperity in the New Year. Yours gratefully & sincerely M MSlessor"

Ikpe Ikot Nkon

My Dear Old Chief

I know you will not keep your threat. You will write to me sometimes when you have got home & had a rest. I was so glad to hear from you for I often feared you had had to go home, or that something had turned you from me. I meant to write by return, but I began to take frequent fevers, which did not take me from my work, but made me unable in the mornings to get up to write. Then I came up to Ikpe, & as there is no post up here, I got careless of writing in proportion to the pressure of work, & there was a whole week between at Use, when wrote Xmas letters every day, & because you were nearer hand, I let yours stand. I am at Ikpe again. We are building at last, & only that my Carpenter has gone somewhere for medicine, the roof would have been on my house today. However the walls will be finished to day I hope, except for mudding, as all the work for the roof, which is to be of Iron, is done. How these people have worked! & never did I have such material for building provided before, not one single inferior stick in the lot, & there are loads of stuff left over for out houses. We have got a hill about 7 minutes from the Market Place, away from the dirt & noise, & we have a spring of good water inside the grounds. We will land at the upper beach. It is always free from mud that road, but is a bit farther on the river. I don’t know whether I can get anyone to take over Use. I rather think, I shall have to divide the time between the two places. A new person could hardly take up this town, they are so heathenish, so brutish even, a novice wd. find it more than he cd hold onto, besides, he wd never get to know things under the suface. & then there is a Church & a hungry clamourous people at Nkana, & ever so many other places want supply. So I must get the roads cleaned & use my cycle among them till the spade work is done, when some one can take it up. They were rejoiced to hear that [B - k? e?] had gone, & O how every one was rejoicing up here & all Ikot Obon side when we heard that you were coming back to us. I was inundated with visitors from every where, to ask if it were true, & to tell you to come quick & not go away again to any other place, etc.etc. My first informant was Mr Rosario, who came in one day saying, "Ma what will you give me for my news? I know you will pay highly for it. It is rare news today." & he kept me on tenter hooks till then he said "Mr Partridge is coming to Ikot Okpene. The Native Clerks all knew it at Ikot Okpene & were scattering the news broadcast. The thing called A.D.C. [Note 1] at Itu, was wondering then where he wd. be, as *we* wd. run the show. I wish we had got the chance. The District groans. Im never done up here finding Blackmailers. The traffic is transferred from Aro Chuku to this Creek now, & there is a rather nice old man from New Calabar at the Rest House here on the Creek as Transport Clerk, & the Steel Canoe runs up & down, as the whole site & buildings at Bendi are being changed to a better place. It seems the old site is unhealthy. So this p - don’t know what I was to say here. Folks came with palavers [Note 2], & then I had to get on to the work place before the sun got too hot. So I'm sitting under the palm branches they have rigged up looking after things & the bairns are playing at my feet, while the bigger girls are washing as they can spread their clothes out here on the bush. We live meanwhile at the Church. There are two small rooms built on to the gable, & a small bit of the market place is fenced in for a yard. So we are very comfortable, but rather cramped, & there is no space for bairns. What a teeming crowd pass & repass all the day long, & on market day it is simply sickening in the heat. The noise & the smells are about enough to turn one over. But it is wonderfully quiet at night. Small Pox is all over the place I hear, & we got a motherless baby, whose Father has just got over it, but the mother & others have died at one of the Ebariba Towns. S00000o the Drs are busy trying to overcome the predguices [Note 3] of the superstitious frightened people & trying to get them to submit to vaccination. I have just had a letter here from Mr Chamly, the D.C. [Note 4] at Aro Chuku. He kindly invites me to spend a day or two with him on my downward journey. It has made sunshine this cheery letter. The people here are willing to be vaccinated if Ma, or a White Man will do it, but they will not have it from these black boys, as they are full of mischief i.e. sorcery & witch. The *Black* Man has no faith in his fellow black man, never seems to beleive good of him, & he can hear evil. I have heard from Marys husband at Ikot Obon Camp that my room window has been broken Use ran up & told him, but I don’t know whether the house is robbed. if it is, it is the first time I have had that experience in all my life among black folks. That Government Road is a pest House. All sorts of scoundrels from everywhere skulk on it, & nothing is safe. I have sent down Annie's husband, who is up here with me, to see, & to tell Use to live there till I come back.

Messrs Russells agent has sent up some boards, & a present of biscuits & a cake. Isn't it good of him? Nobody I think gets so much love & service as I do all the time. I just wonder at it. I think Mr Mann may come up & try to gain a place for trade, while I am here. They have tried it for 3 years now but the people wont hear of it. They don’t want the white man at any price. I expect they want to monopolise the market, at least Eniyon does. They are mad at my coming, but eventually, they will have to give in, for it is coming fast. The Old Chief at Itu is dead, & several others of some weight there, so I feared for the money due on the new Church Itu has had put up. It has cost over £300 & as the funeral rites & mourning & etc has cost so much I thought the £151 not gathered might make Trouble, but I have a note from Dr Robertson saying the collection at the opening was £113 - - . What do you think? All the Creek Congregations & others were there & have done well. Asan, Akani Obio, & several others have Ballances for building in 3 figures, Our own little Church at Use had a new Bell out from Home costing over £8 - - & they have paid it from their offerings. It is heard all over the farms and at Ididep. Mr Stephens & Dr Roach heard of our not being able to hang it, as it has a pully and wheel, & they came up & with the villagers hung it for us. So you see things are moving here. You wd. not know Itu now. Factories all along the length of the beach, the Bungalow & Hospital on the Hill. All the forest cut down, & the slope beautifully laid out. Alas! a number of grave stones are there too, as the Xtians [Note 5] have a cemetery & now the beautiful Church is up, with a tower & bell, & it is all like a picture. What a land site it is for a Home? Where is the copy of the Book you found for me? If I knew the Publisher I shd. get it for myself, but the copy I had was so well read & lent that the Covers were gone, & I was charged not to let any leaves be lost. Why don’t you go on? It is perhaps that sickening hatred of the pen that keeps you from doing it? Or is it too much to do? & your brain is fagged? It is a pity any how that you don’t go in more for literary work, for you have the power to do it. However, you *may* be doing, for ought one knows, or maybe better still, you are gathering material for days of leisure. Any how I shall hope to see some more of your work before I go to the "Halo Brigade". My! but this is a grand name!! Struck me as quite distinguished! & I shall do my utmost to qualify for it.

This has been quite a series of interruptions Interviews, Palavers, advice, complaints etc. & the last is the Head Man of the Town who has been giving me a long list of the honours of his father, & his power, & of the determination of the people to have himself succeed, of how he fought against the honour as he was too young, & how he had fought but they thrust it on him, & now *his* *Mother* has come to make things better for them than ever! He hopes she will be his friend & tell him when he is wrong, & etc. & will she tell the young men when they have done my house to carry sticks for him, so that he may have a house worthy of the White Woman in his Town & high up in the roof like this, & blarney without measure! now I'm hungry & am sending for Jean to get my chop [Note 6] brought here, & as she is going to Nkana to open a school, I expect there will be little time for writing as have only Maggie & Whitie with me! There is a brace of big baby boys who are far too heavy for me. Annies boy died not long ago. He was running about, & began to speak. Mary has a fine little girl, & is immensely proud of it: David has been a good son in law, so has Akpa Inyan. Jean is still the House Mother. The Dr has told her she cant marry, & she is fain [Note 7] to keep the kids here. She may take the English Class in school here. We shall see. As they scatter, I miss them for they did my hard work. Dan will D.V.[Note 8] be home for Holiday from Duke Town Institute, one of these days. He is not clever, but is thus far, a good boy, & obedient & cleanly in all his habits & ways. Asogno, the little Adam, who wd not wear his clothes, is at school there too, but is not at all satisfactory. He is a young tatterdemalion & a regular man of CHOP.

This is tomorrow. I was not able to stay & tho' I had fever on me had to go out & judge between some Uneme women & Ibibio men. This morning I have just answered a very prudish epistle from a black clerk, asking me "to tell my Church member women to cover their nakedness when they pass here, else I shall make the boys *drive* them away". Rather a tall order, seeing Govt. has planted its shed at the ford where the women cross the Creek to their farms, & which takes a woman up to the arm pits. *Ive* *answered* *him*. Besides I have no Church members yet up here. They are creeping up, but certainly this is not the way to help them. The Chief called saying he had ordered all the men to make mats & put up a cooking shed at once, thats more than I bargained for. I meant to do this myself slowly. So thats an offset to the Govts. super refined chastity & effort to shew off his power. But I know you will make capital of this, & laugh at our work as providing these objects, & of course you know, that if you were at Close Quarters I should shew you that these are not fair specimens, as we have very sane & clean men men & women, who never come to the front & who are thus unknown to officials. Miss Peacock & Miss [McM- ?] are still at home, but I have two dear girls in their place at Ikot Obon, who are such a help & comfort to me. Miss Amess & Miss Annie McMinn. Now I must stop this rambling rubbishy talk. You will never have time to decipher it. Anyhow one comfort is, your own calligraphy is about equal to it as an enigma. I do wish you a very very Happy Xmas, & the best New Year you have ever had, & with it every good & perfect gift. I never forget to ask Our Father for this, & I trust you have the results of these whisperings in His Ear, in your experience many a time. You will be going home into the cold, but I trust it will brace you, & that your stay at home may be as pleasant & profitable in every sense as is possible, to you & yours. I'm telling the girls round me that you are to get this & they all send their Ekom [Note 9] to you. So do I, & so would many if they knew I was writing.

I am dear old friend,

Chs. Partridge Esqr – senior

Stowmarket

Suffolk

England

Ikot Okio

Dear Old Friend

You will be thinking Im a fine friend grateful woman, never thanking you for my Xmas Pudding nor for the book you so kindly sent me. The fact is, I've been at Ikpe most of the time, & building, & school & 4 evening meetings a week, with the Sabbath School & Services, Visitors, Palavers, & a Panic Stricken people with Small Pox taking its toll, & its numerous patients, & the babies the dead mothers babies & vaccinations, all made my first visit in this year a very hard time, & I came down broken in mind & body. This last month's stay has been as busy, as every Minute came fill in, but the Pox is a bit slacker. I have got well on with my new House. Two bedrooms *upstairs*, are ready for a visitor, & the Hall on the ground floor is almost ready, over 2/3 of the floor cemented. It is hard to get stones up there & the girls had a deal else to do. This time we have never got to Nkana at all, but the lads held Services there on Sunday last, & at other villages as the time allowed. There has been a Court started, since I went up, but Ive never heard or seen an Ikot Okpene D.C. [Note 1] not even the mark of a pen. I'm thoroughly discredited since Brooks thanked me in the name of the Govt. [Note 2] for my services. The People are hard at work at farms, & the new Road to the Court House has been a big work between times. It is making a new & fine Road. The Court is at Itu Ikpe, & clerks & C.Ms [Note 3] from Ikot Okpene work it. They are very respectful, & have a wholesome fear of my overlooking. The people are greatly pleased at being releived from the long journey to I- Okpene. But Eniyon don’t like the opening of Ibibio. Major Cockburn, has been to Calabar sick ever since he came out till last week, he passed up again. Mr Rising going to releive Chamley at Aro Chuku. How few gentlemen there are nowadays among these. The Governor & Lady Egerton were here when I went up. But they were to call I beleive on the morning after I left. So I did not see them. I hear it is his last visit. Who will be next? I hope the next will be as good as they have been. I got a real surprise, & a lot of anxiety on coming down to find that David & Mary had been sent on to Ibadan, as the motor is to be off all this wet season. I'm hoping the rumour is right that they are still in Calabar. Fancy her going to a strange land alone with a tiny baby. She is only 18, & was never out in the world before. David is careful & kindly, but I shd. have liked to see them, & have given her things, & a letter to the Missionary where she is gone. All the others are well. Dan & Asogno still at school at Duke Town Institute. Dan brought the 1st prize in his Division at Xmas. I have not seen a White Officer here for ever so long. Mr Mann at "Russells" is very kind, & far above the average merchant in manners & culture. He goes this month. Dr Robertson is going by this mail. A lad from Edinr. [Note 4] has come to fill his place, a fine fellow. Miss Peacock came out 2 months ago, & is well. She is a good woman & a good neighbour. We had an awful thing in uniform at Itu. A German named Falk. The people wd. not have borne him much longer. I don’t know who is there now, he went this month. Udo Antia has again been the pet of Ikot Okpene under Brooks, who wont hear that his record is bad, & he has been [chasing?] the Old Chiefs & etc, till they went to Duke Town about it. I don’t know the upshot, I only came down night before last. He is the Head of that side & keeps a Clerk. The tornados have been specially heavy, & I got wreckage everywhere to come to. All the town houses and Church have suffered. The Iron [Note 5] from my verandah was blown down the hill, & the boxes on the verandah were blown into the bush. I was on the roof all day yest., & today have been vomiting Bile, so am sitting quiet, for Ive not slept the last 2 nights, & the Ikpe Fatigue is not gone yet. But I'm very, very fit. I do hope they will make roads up yonder which can be cycled on. As yet, it is not possible. I'm expecting a dear girl friend to come to me this Autumn. She is a fine woman, & not merely ornamental in her qualifications either. Ikpe cd not be properly worked by one person, the school is large, & the Xtian [Note 6] lads are insatiable in their desire for meetings & classes. I got 19 names of candidates for Baptism, & a number of women & girls are attending, tho' I wont put their names down till I see their parents. Some of them are betrothed to the boys in Church. It is a hopeful place for work, & the Chiefs are old friends & very good tho' heathen.

I hope you have had a good time at home, but it has not been a very healthy winter I fear. You will soon be coming out again! How the time flies! I wonder if I shall ever see you again! O how splendid it wd be for us, if you came here, but *you* might not like it. I saw Mr Maxwell when I was down at Presby.[Note 7], no one else. He is the same old cheery lad he ever was. Did you know Mr Wordsworth? You wd hear of his death in India & his leaving a young wife & a baby a few days old there!! It is particularly sad. I had a great opinion of him. He was a good man, from a good home. I have a long letter from Mr [Darby?] of the Rd's Dept - He & his wife & two boys are in India, but he has taken the Nigerian Malaria with him. Mr Rosario has gone home, & I don’t know anyone else. Have you been writing that you have never sent me a line? or are you paying me out? You wd not do that! Do send me a wee bit just to say how you have been & if you know where you are to be stationed next term. Now I must close, as the day wears on, & the children are fretty. I thank you for your goodness to me, & tho' Jean ran of with the King's Ring, & I got it only second hand, I got it & will treasure it. When is the next one coming? Do something about the Country & its peoples. You know enough now to take any tack, only don’t meddle with Xtianity. You've no experience there. My halo gets grayer & grayer, but no boils live this year on my head. I'm renewing my youth, working like a navvy. God bless you. Will you convey to your parents my best regards? I get papers by mail from Mr Partridge. It is so kind of him to remember me.

All the bairns wd send Comps. [Note 8[ were they at hand, for they often ask if Mr Partridge is never coming back. SO DO I! I am Yours ever affectionately

Chs Partridge Esqr

Ijebu Ode

Via Lagos

Nigeria

(Post-marked Itu December 27^th, 1912; Calabar Dec 27^th; and Lagos 2^nd Jan)

 

Editorial Notes:

Enclosed with this letter is a photograph of Mary Slessor, the back of which is inscribed "A snap shot taken at Canary [--?] Have no Xmas Cards

1. Gran Canaria, one of the largest of the Canary Islands off the N.W. coast of Africa
2. D.C. = District Commissioner

Dear Mr Partridge,

Nearly every time the papers come, I write to you in my own mind, & feel so ashamed of my not having written sooner, but I'm so easily knocked up, that I dare not sit late, & so the days go past. I had to go to Grand Canary last Autumn, & was there for a month, & so correspondence got into arrears, & though I came back full of health & strength I had heaps of arrears in work too, & then 3 months ago, I had a small accident to my eye, & that sent me back again into debt with everything, so you must not think that lack of gratitude & appreciation has kept me from writing my thanks to you. The papers are a great comfort & uplift. I am specially interested in the Bible Study, & am following it closely along side of my own portions for the Morning Watch. I give away "The Xtian" [Note 1] & the other papers I take, to the English speaking clerks & employees of the Government. But I'm keeping up the Life of Faith for further use in the Classes for Teachers & etc., as well as for my own use personally. It is so good to have as unequivocal a Testimony to Divine Truth as the "Life of Faith" gives. I prize it & the Christian for their uniform faithfulness to the pure Gospel. I suppose the "Overcomer" is given up! It could never have been a popular paper, & there is no Capital in L.S.D. [Note 2] behind the Editors. It upheld some aspects of the Xtian Life, but to the rank & file of Xtians it was too polemical & too accademic in its style. I shall not say too doctrinal, for want of that is the fault & lack of the present day preaching & teaching I think. Doctrine is deprecated, but I'm Scotch, you see, & have had it in my blood to be doctrinal as a foundation for practice. But I have felt of late that the Overcomer was making the Xtian life too complicated & difficult, & putting "Means of Grace" & fighting, in the Place of the Saviour Himself, & of the work of the spirit. For my own work, It was too fatiguing, & too complicated, & I could not give it to the clerks. What a lot of indifference there seems to be in the Church! & yet how intense is the interest & prayer among living Xtians. What a world of unrest & doubt & pessimism you seem to live in at home. In every sense & sphere: Ecclesiastically, Socially, Nationally. There seems to be no solid foundation for Mankind to rest on, & to form ground for acheivement. Does it point to our Lord's near approach in the Parousia? [Note 3] I think so & I hope so! My only draw back, is, that I fear my bairns are not *all* ready, & what if we were seperated! But they are His, & He surely has infinitely more interest & love, in & for them than I have, so He will do *all* *things* well, for us all. He will not throw back the children given Him, in loving trust. A Gentleman of the World would not do that. I have had a rebuke this morning from 1st John 4.18, the last clause. "He that Feareth is not made perfect in Love." How dishonouring to our Father to keep misunderstanding Him, & imputing any thing unworthy to Him. I have been humbled this morning over this, for after knowing Him so long. It is shameful that Faith should be so small & so mean in its judgment. Things here go on smoothly, too smoothly I sometimes think, for being healthy, but we thank God for a Willing People, & for the adherence of the young. We had only 3 adult baptisms last communion time, but those were Good Material, & the number of candidates keeps growing here. At Ikpe Ikot Nkon, it is a hard fight with heathenism. They all want their children educated, but they *don’t* want them to serve Christ. Whenever the Xtian & heathen practices clash, they are fiercely on the heathen side, & few of the women are moving Xt-ward, though they are friendly & kind to us personally. The boys are all with us, but not a girl comes to school, not even a baby girl. Yet "Who art Thou, O Great Mountain? Before "Our" Zerubbabel - Thou shalt become a Plain!" [Note 4] "He is able" - heaps of Promises come after this Formula, for the individual soul & for the Church & the Churches work. Zeceriah holds a very hopeful note all through for the Xtian. I have been "browsing" in it, & its fine food.

I hope, D.V.[Note 5] to go to my old station Okoyon, on Friday for the opening of their new Church. It is a semi European Church, as native material is not durable, & they have raised all the money themselves. The two ladies who hold the Fort there are having great encouragement there, & souls are being born into the Kingdom. Most of my children were twin or outcast children there, so they are *all* going except perhaps two of the married girls who I fear wont be able to go. These will be an object lesson to them, & I hope there will be an ingathering & an awakening all over.

Our own village here has a new Church built, & only a few of the seats are to be put in, in order to be ready for opening, but we are not to dedicate a thing in debt, so we are buying wood & having the seats put in as we are able. They have raised it all among own selves too. Ikpe intend to try to build this year, for the place, as well as the building is bad. I shall go up there D.V. when I return from Okoyon. The children at school in Duke Town. Two boys at the Institute of our Church, & two girls getting training in the Girls High School, will be all coming for a fortnights holiday. They close on Friday First, so we shall have a buzy & happy time I hope. I have not heard from Mr Partridge for a long time. I wish he were back here again! The D.C.[Note 6] at Ikot Ekpene is very unwell just now. He is extremely kind to us missionaries personally, but he does not care for our work or our Lord. Only it is good to have a kind helpful friend, even if he does not understand us, & we can pray, & thats a deal isnt it? & try to commend Xt [Note 7] to them by our lives. Mr Partridge *made* this District, & right welcome he would be if he came back, & the hardships he had to endure are mostly removed. At least are greatly modified now a days. The D.C. has an assistant, a Dr, a hospital, a motor car for his journeys & several native courts, which releive the strain a bit. Also good buildings, & Telegraphic & Postal Offices, etc.etc. He did more than any 2 mens work in his day, besides the roughing of it. He has so much to do where he is that I don’t like to bother him by writing, as that makes him feel he must answer, but I hear of his welfare often. We have a D.C. at Itu now - a further dividing of his old duty - who comes from Lagos, & he gets news from there often.

Now don’t think you must answer this. It is only a belated "Thank You", for the papers, & to let you know how they are appreciated. May our Lord Himself give you your reward in His Own Royal Manner, - a thousand fold -. With kindest regards & trusting you are well & that Mrs Partridge is also well - I am Yours Gratefully & Sincerely