Mary called the baby Janie for her sister in Scotland. Finally she had
seven, who would otherwise have died and whom she nursed and taught and
trained.
The Okoyong, who would not have endured the presence of a man,
tolerated her. She lived at first in the king's hut, where they were
able to watch her day and night. They believed that she could do them
no harm, and they were willing to let her prescribe for their illnesses
and try to heal their poor bodies. They called her "Ma," and when she
did not oppose their customs, they obeyed her.
But Mary Slessor was not one to countenance evil, or to step aside
from a path which she had set for herself. When she saw prisoners
about to be tortured, not as punishment, but merely as a test of
their innocence, she protested and argued and scolded until the chief
reconsidered. When human sacrifices were to be offered after the death
of a young chief, she grew frantic; she mocked and commanded and
even slept beside the prisoners so that they should not be murdered,
and she helped them escape. She arbitrated quarrels, she proved the
witch-doctors to be impostors. Day in and day out she preached of a
Kingdom of Love until the natives began to understand what it would
be to live at peace with their fellows, to be free from fear and
superstition, and to have hope in God.
The government sent no consul into the district but appointed Mary
Slessor to be consul, and she sat in distant villages and heard
disputes and debated with great chiefs about proper punishment for
criminals, about trade, and about matters in dispute between the
natives and the government. She was called "The White Queen of
Okoyong."
Now she was growing old; her little body was racked by ague; she was
often so tired that she did not see how she could live, but she saw
her work prospering. It was necessary for her to have a rest, and she
was about to leave. She was packing her few belongings and the river
steamer was almost at hand.
But at the last minute there came to her a message. It was a secret;
she did not know who brought it. A chief had been injured by a man from
another tribe, and his own tribesmen were on their way to avenge him.
She did not hesitate for an instant, unless it was to look at a picture
which hung on the wall of her little hut. It was the likeness of a
young man, the boy who had once defied her in Queen Street in Dundee
and had flung his leaden weight round her head. From the moment when
he had entered her meeting he had led a better life, and he had sent
her his picture and that of his wife and children to show her how
prosperous they were. With the recollection of that courageous stand in
her mind, she set out on her journey. She might miss the boat and not
get home, but that made no difference. How could she rest if she knew
that behind her all her work was being undone?
The chief men of the village opposed her going.
"They will kill you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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