Ask the gray heads of the Bannockburn Medical Crusade what manner of
life their preachers lead; speak to the Racine Gospel Agency, those lean
Americans whose boast is that they go where no Englishman dare follow;
get a Pastor of the Tubingen Mission to talk of his experiences—if you
can. You will be referred to the printed reports, but these contain no
mention of the men who have lost youth and health, all that a man may
lose except faith, in the wilds; of English maidens who have gone forth
and died in the fever-stricken jungle of the Panth Hills, knowing from
the first that death was almost a certainty. Few Pastors will tell you
of these things any more than they will speak of that young David of St.
Bees, who, set apart for the Lord’s work, broke down in the utter
desolation, and returned half distraught to the Head Mission, crying:
“There is no God, but I have walked with the Devil!”
The reports are silent here, because heroism, failure, doubt, despair,
and self-abnegation on the part of a mere cultured white man are things
of no weight as compared to the saving of one half-human soul from a
fantastic faith in wood-spirits, goblins of the rock, and river-fiends.
And Gallio, the Assistant Collector of the country-side “cared for none
of these things.” He had been long in the district, and the Buria Kol
loved him and brought him offerings of speared fish, orchids from the
dim moist heart of the forests, and as much game as he could eat. In
return, he gave them quinine, and with Athon Dazé, the High Priest,
controlled their simple policies.
“When you have been some years in the country,” said Gallio at the
Krenks’ table, “you grow to find one creed as good as another. I’ll give
you all the assistance in my power, of course, but don’t hurt my Buria
Kol. They are a good people and they trust me.”
“I will them the Word of the Lord teach,” said Justus, his round face
beaming with enthusiasm, “and I will assuredly to their prejudices no
wrong hastily without thinking make. But, O my friend, this in the mind
impartiality-of-creed-judgment-be-looking is very bad.”
“Heigh-ho!” said Gallio, “I have their bodies and the district to see
to, but you can try what you can do for their souls. Only don’t behave
as your predecessor did, or I’m afraid that I can’t guarantee your
life.”
“And that?” said Lotta sturdily, handing him a cup of tea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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