Many other people came and told her how glad they were that the old ways
were changing. They said that they knew the old ways were bad. Mary had
had a very hard time in the jungles, but now things were going better. She
was busy all the time, teaching and preaching and nursing. She journeyed
through the jungle where the wild animals were, but she did not fear. She
was trusting God to take care of her as He had taken care of Daniel in the
lions' den. Always she told the people of the loving Saviour who had died
for their sins.
After a time Mary fell sick. She caught the jungle fever. She became very
weak.
"Mary," said Ovens, "you must take a vacation. You must get away from the
jungle for a while. You must go to England for a long rest. That way you
can get well and come back to work here at Okoyong."
"You are right," said Mary. "Much as I hate to leave my work here, I know I
must go. I will ask for a furlough at once."
For three years Mary had worked in Okoyong. But already there was a change
among the heathen people. The Gospel of Jesus has a wonderful power to
change hearts and lives. As soon as word came that another worker was
being sent to take her place, Mary got ready to leave for England.
At last the day came that Miss Dunlop, the new worker, arrived. Mary was
ready to leave. Her friends carried her trunk and suitcases down to the
Ekenge landing. A great crowd had come to the landing to tell her good-by
and wish her a safe journey. Mary was telling them to help Miss Dunlop and
to remain true to the Bible teaching. Suddenly a man was seen running
through the crowd. He ran up to Mary.
"Come, white Ma, a young man has been shot in the hand, and he wants your
medicine!"
"Don't go Ma," said Ma Eme, Mary's friend. "You are tired and sick. You
must get back to England. If you go with this man you may miss your
boat. Let someone else go."
"It is a bad tribe. They are always fighting. It is dangerous to go," said
Chief Edem. "Do not go with the man."
"You cannot go," said her other friends at Ekenge. "You are too sick to
walk. The wild animals in the jungle will kill you. The wild warriors are
out. They will kill you in the dark, not knowing who you are."
"But I must go," said Mary.
"If you must go," said Chief Edem, "then you must take two armed men with
you. You must get the chief of the next village to send his drummer with
you. When the people hear the drum, they will know that a protected person
is traveling who must not be hurt."
It was night. Mary Slessor and the two men marched out into the
darkness. The lanterns threw strange shadows that looked like fierce men in
the darkness. At last Mary and her guard came to the village where they
were to ask for the drummer. They told the chief what Chief Edem had said,
but the chief did not want to help them.
"You are going to a fighting tribe," said the chief. "They will not listen
to what a woman says. You had better go back. I will not protect you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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