[The verandah of the Mission House at Santa Isabel, December, 1893. One or two basket chairs, and a small cane table beside one of these, LEFT. On the table a basket of oranges. Background representing wall of house, with two shuttered windows - or hanging blinds. Entrance is on RIGHT. As curtain rises, Revs. ROBERT FAIRLEY and J. MARCUS BROWN - the latter lately out from England - walk on. They are dress in whites. They drop into chair, BROWN mopping his brow. FAIRLEY takes chair by the table.]
FAIRLEY: Well, that’s settled. We go by the S.S. Fernando Poo. Rather good, that! We leave Fernando Poo but Fernando Poo takes us to Rio del Rey and the doorstep of the continent. What do you say to that?
BROWN [still employing the handkerchief]: I should say it is a good augury.
FAIRLEY: I hope so, with all my heart. Warm, eh? - for December! [laughing]
BROWN [laughing in response]: It is rather warm - for an unseasoned Englander!
FAIRLEY [reaching towards basket]: Try an orange! [throwing one]. You want to come to Africa to appreciate an orange. I’ll have one myself. [Taking another.] I confess I was a bit staggered when you landed here with all that cargo, and it came home to me that I had to get you and it across to Archibong. The mission boat’s a useful little craft for yourself and a lunch-bag, but she isn’t a pantechnicon! However, Fernando Poo will see us to Rio, and if we take the boat in tow we can go up the river to Archibong in her, and after I’ve seen you settled I can return in her. So that’s another difficulty solved - though I shouldn’t wonder if there are a few more lying in ambush for us before we part company. You won’t be long finding out, my dear Brown, that difficulties fill up a good part of the missionary’s programme, and the getting over ‘em is his desperate delight.
BROWN: Yes, one rather expects that. I shall do my best.
FAIRLEY [heartily]: That I’m sure you will, my boy, and come out on top! Why, think of the story of this little island! If ever it should come to be written it will be an epic of triumph over difficulties. There was the Baptist start - and then they had to clear out. All finished, apparently - but the brave little company of black Christians carried on, until Hands found them out, and stirred up Primitive Methodism. And since Burnett and Roe came out, 23 years ago, what a tale of dogged perseverance in face of all sorts of obstacles! We’ve made but slow progress, perhaps, but what it has cost to hold our ground and gain what headway we have done, only those who have been through it can know.
BROWN: It has been a chequered history, I know. You have had such handicaps here - the uncertain attitude of a foreign government - the Roman antagonism - all that!
FAIRLEY: Yes, that accounts for a great deal. Holland banished, Welford imprisoned and banished, Nicol - our native worker - put in chains - those were some bad passages. Barleycorn bravely carrying on for two periods without a white missionary on the island - he and old Daddy MacFoy. Then, you know, Harvey Roe was shipwrecked on his way out and had to return - that helped to account for the island being left shepherdless the second time, Buckenham having broken down with repeated attacks of malaria.
BROWN: There are graves, too!
FAIRLEY: Yes, there are graves: Blackburn, Mrs. Maylott - and you can count Mrs. Buckenham and the Luddingtons as well, though their graves aren’t actually here. These, besides the babes…. But it has been uphill all the way - no grateful relief of a sudden breakdown of barriers and a great leap forward. Every inch has been won (ha sido ganado) by hard fighting. And so I love this little island, for there’s nothing so dear as what you’ve had to fight for.
BROWN: True! And you’ve had a good share in it, Mr. Fairley.
FAIRLEY: Over ten years - getting on for half the period, but not half the conflict: there are a good many more to share in that. Just take the three main centres. Santa Isabel here has been hampered all through by trouble with the authorities, and I’ve seen a bit of that, though not the worst, perhaps. You see, we’re right under their noses here, and they have done their worst to prevent us carrying on any schools - which goes right to the root of any work of development, of course.
BROWN: The priests, I suppose, are at the bottom of that.
FAIRLEY: Partly, but partly I think they are jealous of Anglicising influences. That’s been the case with some Governors, anyhow. We sent Barleycorn to Spain to learn Spanish and qualify as a teacher, you know, to meet that difficulty, but it didn’t end the trouble. Then look at San Carlos - or George’s Bay, as we used to call it.
BROWN: Yes, you have had something to do with that.
FAIRLEY: A bit. But Burnett and Roe spotted it from the first, and it was Maylott, who did the pioneering, and then Luddington followed him up. Theophilus Parr, too did yeoman work there - linguistic amongst the rest. Our converts there were hard won. There was stiff persecution from old King Sopo - but God broke down Sopo’s heart at last. He died a Christian about two years ago, and was buried on the Mission, instead of with his heathen fathers. And we’ve got one of his sons, Ben Twajo, who, one day, may do better than his father. Death took two of our most promising converts - Samuel Antliff Hooree and James Reading Bielo.
BROWN: Those providences are hard to understand.
FAIRLEY: They are. Hooree was our first Bubi convert, and I had great hopes of James…. There were attempts at further extension, too. First Luddington, then Parr and Griffiths, made great efforts to get an entry into Biappa, over on the south-east of the Island, but could not make headway with the king.
BROWN: We have never got any footing on that side.
FAIRLEY: No; and the people that way are said to be of a sturdier type, too. Apparently the old king was a bit too sturdy an obstacle. It was like trying to draw a badger. But the Bubis are not easy to rouse. Now take Banni. I know a bit about Bannie, too [chuckling]. It was Holland who prospected there first, about 188- - went over two or three times. I know I went with Buckenham and William Barleycorn in ‘84. My word! we did, and had a palaver and got consent for a site for a mission house, but [laughing] it was the journey back at night that put the cap on. Our torches gave out and it rained a deluge, and for three hours we had to wait in the pitch-black forest for the moon to rise and show us our way. I remember we sang “Leader of faithful souls and Guide” to keep our courage up!
BROWN: Let me see -
“We’ve no abiding city here,
But seek a city out of sight;
Thither our steady course we steer,
Aspiring to the plains of light.”
Isn’t that how it goes on?
FAIRLEY [delightedly]: That’s right! Oh, there’s a lot in it that was very appropriate. Well, we put Barleycorn at Banni for a start. Then the disturbances came at Isabel, and he had to come here, and poor Banni was left abandoned. He returned later, and then when he went to Spain young W.F. Nicol, another native, was put in charge. Jabez Bell was the first white they got. He came and took over in ‘87, and what a tale of heroic work is his! They talk about “working like a nigger” - [a laugh] that saying doesn’t sort with Bell’s experiences at Banni. He’s had to do it all - couldn’t even get any help from the people to build his church unless they were paid for it, and then it depended on their mood; the chiefs hindering as much as they could. He has tried in vain to get the sympathies of the adult population so far, but he won’t give in. He is bent on laying foundations, so he has taken nearly a score of children into the Mission House, and is determined by a combination of education and industrial work - cocoa farming - to create something to build on.
BROWN: It’s a wonderful story altogether.
FAIRLEY: It is a wonderful story - wonderful for the faith and persistence that have gone into the making of it.
BROWN: And not without fruit.
FAIRLEY: Thank God! no. Fernando Poo has had its trophies of grace - men like Peter Bull and William Barleycorn and the Menes, and John Petty Sogo; women like Mamma Job, Mamma Macaulay and others.
BROWN: Surely work with such a history can never die. It will go on, in spite of all that wars against it. And now that we have got a footing on the mainland as well -.
FAIRLEY [breaking in]: Ah! and that’s part of the history, Brown, painted in the same colours. It belongs to the heritage of the Island. The Baptists, Hands, and Robinson, Burnett and Roe - all saw that vision. Buckenham, going across to Bonny to meet his wife in ‘84, had a trip to Opobo in the Ibo country, and was impressed with its possibilities. When he got back here - I was on the Island at the time - we conferred and reported home about it. Well, you know how the tale goes on: the Burnetts, father and son, were sent there two years later, found the country upset and King Ja-Ja turned unfriendly, so had to come away. In ‘91 Holland paid another visit, but got no further. Then last year I was given a sort of general commission. I was stationed to Africa! Think of that! - a continental circuit with a vengeance. I went across to Opobo but found were now forestalled - the Anglicans had got established. So then I turned east and fixed on Rio del Rey, and we proceeded to settle there. But, as you know, after three months it was declared German territory, so we had to move, selecting Archibong as our spot. There we have placed our native worker, Mr. Knox - Mrs. Knox goes with us to-morrow - and there you take on, my boy. The ground has been prepared; it’s your honour to put in the foundations and see the structure rise.
BROWN: Yes, it is a great honour; I feel that. I hope I shall have grace and health and strength to discharge it.
FAIRLEY: Well my boy, it will be a lonely job for you. Your nearest white neighbour, a Swede, is 30 miles away - no other Englishman for 70 miles. But “put a cheerful courage on.” I shan’t forget you, and distance can’t divide spirit. If in need, let me know, and I will come to you if at all possible. [They rise, and BROWN grips FAIRLEY’S hand.]
BROWN: Thanks! I must take up the heritage - of difficulties faced and overcome. [Enter TIM, native house boy]
TIM: Massa, I come for tell you tiffin be fit.
FAIRLEY: Ah, tea’s ready. Right you are, Tim!
TIM: Please, Massa, Yellow Will come to you for palaver.
FAIRLEY: Yellow Will? Very well, send him up. [TIM goes.] This is one of the Kroo-boys I’ve engaged for the boat to-morrow. Something gone wrong, I suppose. [Enter YELLOW WILL] Well, what palaver, Yellow Will?
YELLOW WILL: Please, Massa, me no fit for go for dem big water in dem small boat. S’pose tornado go catch we, I go die.
FAIRLEY: Suppose you go die; it be all same for all other man, and Massa too go die.
YELLOW WILL: Massa, dat no be all same. Massa sabby God-palaver good, and s’pose he go die he go for up [with gesture]. Me no sabby God-palaver, and s’pose I go die, me no go for down! [pointing again]. [BROWN is visibly amused. FAIRLEY listens gravely.]
FAIRLEY: Very well. I make for get other person. [YELLOW WILL goes, relieved. When he is gone both break into laughter.]
FAIRLEY: Well, he’s got a good idea of the difference between up and down, anyhow! However, it happens there are two boys who want to go with us, so we can fill the gap.
BROWN: It was very funny.
FAIRLEY: Oh, these Kroomen are only like overgrown children. Well, come along; we’ll have that cup of tea. Then there will be a few things to see to. “To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.” [They go off, RIGHT.]
CURTAIN.
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