"They are mad, they will shoot wildly. If you are not assassinated, you
will be shot by accident."
"They will insult you in their drunken rage."
But Mary shook her head and started, a man going before her beating
a drum to show that a free protected person was coming. She marched
straight to the village and there the warriors deceived her. They were
going to start out in the morning, but they said they would call her
and she might go with them. In the morning they called her as they had
promised, but not until they were ready to start. By the time she had
quickly sprung up from the earth where she was sleeping, the warriors
were off.
They showed great stupidity, however, when they believed that they
could get rid of Mary Slessor in this fashion. A hundred yards away she
caught up to them and now she stood calling to them like the sign-post
which warns of the danger of the rushing train, "Stop! Listen!" This
danger was worse than that threatened by any rushing train. They began
to howl and yell.
Mary looked at them scornfully. She knew how to talk to them.
"Don't carry on like small boys!" she said. "Be quiet."
To their amazement, she walked straight through their ranks and on to
the village where the enemy was drawn up in battle array.
"I salute you," she said.
The enemy were too much astonished and enraged to answer.
"Where are your manners?" she said chidingly. She began to smile and
joke.
At once an old man stepped out and knelt down at her feet. Here was one
person at least with manners.
"Once when I was sick you came to see me and healed me. This is a
foolish quarrel. We beg you to make peace for us." If Mary had been
presented with a million dollars, she wouldn't have been so happy.
"You bring three men," she commanded, "and three men will come from the
other side, and we will have a palaver."
For hours she listened to their story; she coaxed them and commanded
them and pleaded with them and laughed at them. In the end she
conquered, and they made peace. Then she said a few simple words about
her Saviour and went back over the dark, lonely forest path. The boat
had gone, but messengers were waiting to take her down the river in a
canoe.
It was not this time that Mary Slessor was afraid, but the time was
coming nearer.
* * * * *
The afternoon was pleasant and at Duke Town, along the coast of
Calabar, there was a stir which betokened some unusual event. The
chief missionary, Mr. MacGregor, was moving about busily, now in the
missionary buildings, now in his own house. The Governor General and
the Commissioner sat on their porches looking out as though they were
watching for something or somebody, or waiting for something to begin.
When Europeans met, they stopped and said a joking word to one another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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