[The scene is in JOSESPH MERRICKS'S manse at Jericho, Jamaica. Time, June 1842. Room simply furnished with chairs, a table, a picture or two on the walls, etc. Mr. and Mrs. MERRICK are just receiving as guests the Rev. JOHN CLARKE and Dr. G. K. PRINCE, at one time workers in Jamaica, but now returning from pioneer missionary labours in Fernando Poo. Dress suitable to the period. Door on Right. Fireplace occupies centre of wall at back. CLARKE and PRINCE are to Left of scene, MERRICK Left centre, and Mrs. MERRICK near door, all standing.]
CLARKE [looking round]: Ah, Merrick, it brings back old times to be in this house again.
MERRICK: It welcomes you very heartily, my dear Mr.. Clarke, and you will have a great welcome from your old flock at the meeting to-night. Your labours here will never be forgotten.
Mrs. M.: We have been besieged with enquiries about you.
CLARKE: Thank you, thank you! God Blessed us very graciously in Jericho, my friends, and I rejoice that His blessing abides still.
Mrs. M: Well, I must leave you for a few moments—I have duties to attend to. You can have a good talk, but leave something to tell me. I shall join you shortly.
MERRICK: As soon as you can, dear. [Mrs. M. goes out, R.] A few weeks ago we had no anticipation of this happy re-union, Doctor.
PRINCE: Nor had we. We had thought to have been in England by this time, but the more we think about it the more we see the hand of God in this matter. He knew the solicitude of His people in Jamaica for their African brothers, and designed that we should first come and tell the story of our work to them.
CLARKE [quoting quietly]:
"God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm."
MERRICK: Ah, yes! But come, sit down and let me hear something more of it. I am eager to have it from your lips. [They take chairs.] You were really in great peril, I believe.
CLARKE: We were safe in the Divine care, but to human sense matters were for a time very precarious. We left Fernando Poo by the barque Maryon the third of February, and all went well for a week or two, but when we got well out into the Atlantic we encountered storm after storm. Lightning struck us and carried away one of the masts, and for two days, the barque was practically a wreck, driven helplessly at the mercy of the tempest. We hailed two ships bound for England in the hope that they would take us on board, but they refused. At length with great difficulty a jury-mast was rigged, and the master, running before the wind made the port of Demerara. We could not but see in this a providential detection, and proceeding to St. Thomas we found another barque going to Jamaica, and arrived at Kingston, as you know, on the 27th of May.
MERRICK: God be praised for His preserving mercy!
PRINCE: Amen! and that all these things turn out for the furtherance of the Gospel. For our visitation of the churches here is certainly going to produce rich fruits. We have had enthusiastic meetings at Kingston, Spanish Town and Falmouth, and already some have been moved to offer their lives for service in Africa.
MERRICK: We shall have a great meeting here to-night.
CLARKE: And to-morrow we are due at Salter’s Hall, where they are most eager to receive us.
MERRICK: Much, indeed, may come of this visitation, under god. [Re-enter Mrs. M. Right.] Ah! here is my wife again. She is as impatient as I am to hear the news of Africa. [MERRICK rises as he says this and places a chair for Mrs. M., who sits.]
Mrs. M.: Indeed, I am longing to know more. You have been so much in our prayers, and Africa has become of such intense interest to us. For, you know, whatever one prays about earnestly is bound to mean increasingly more to one’s mind. After all, isn’t this our work? Over three years ago now, you remember, we in Jamaica sent a memorial to the Committee at home, urging them to mission Africa.
CLARKE: Yes, we shall always be proud to remember that - and it was our own coloured folk, stirred by the Spirit of God to a passionate concern for the land from which they were unrighteously torn, who cried out for it. Let that honour be theirs, whatever the future may bring.
PRINCE: Yes, it has been born of the patriotism of the Cross! And may its portent be realised—the evangelisation of Africa by Africans!
MERRICK: Amen to that! But now to Fernando Poo. We were rather disappointed that you did not actually get to the mainland, as no doubt you were yourselves. You had always talked of the Niger.
CLARKE: Yes, it was a disappointment, but our full design proved impracticable, at least for the time. We visited and explored the Niger coast and further along to the Cameroons, and we tried to get passage up the Niger, but failed. Any hope of working up to the interior by the river seems impossible at present, and the marshy condition of the coast renders it extremely unhealthy. Altogether, the best course seemed to be to make Fernando Poo our base of operations for a commencement.
Mrs. M.: You were no doubt wisely led. And what is the Island like?
CLARKE: It is of great natural beauty; not large - only 36 miles long and an average of about 24 in breadth. Inland it is mountainous, the highest point, Clarence Peak, rising to 10,000 feet. It is well wooded, and there is good supply of spring water. The soil is fertile and the climatic conditions better in many ways than on the coast of the mainland.
Mrs. M.: And it is under British administration, isn’t it? - in spite of its foreign name?
CLARKE: Yes; it has had a changeful history. It was discovered by a Portuguese, Fernao da Po, but the Portuguese exchanged it to Spain for some other islands. The Spaniards tried to settle, but they aroused the enmity of the natives by their cruelty, until, the wells being poisoned, they fled, and for many years the Island was abandoned. But in 1827 the British Government took occupation, mainly to use it as a base for the suppression of slave ships, and to land the freed slaves from captured vessels. There is still a British Governor, though no longer a naval station.
MERRICK: It is certainly good to be under the protection of the British flag. And what of the people?
CLARKE: The natives are called Adeyas, or some call them Bubis. They are a simple and good-natured tribe, of friendly disposition, but their condition is very pitiable. They are almost naked and live in miserable huts, while their religion seems to be a kind of devil-worship, full of the most horrible superstition. Besides the Bubis, however, there are in Clarence, which is where our mission station is located, a number of people from various coast tribes. Many of these were slaves, rescued by our navy from the slave-traders. Dr. Prince made a census of their tribes last April.
PRINCE: They represent 26 different tribes from the mainland or other islands. There are a good number of them Ibos, who belong to the Niger country, and still more are Kroos. This is particularly interesting because we have so many of these tribes in Jamaica. I believe at Salter’s Hill alone we have about 130 of the Ibo tribe and quite a few Kroos.
MERRICK: A most interesting link - and surely an opportunity, for if these can be won for Christ they can become messengers to their own people on the mainland.
CLARKE: That is our hope. Moreover, some of these folk from the coast who are not ex-slaves have formerly had some touch with Methodist missions in Sierra Leone and elsewhere, so that the Gospel is not entirely strange to them, and some can read and write and speak a sort of English.
Mrs. M.: And God has prospered your labours? —though at the price of suffering, no doubt.
CLARKE: We have had our difficulties—we have even had to endure some hardship, but the missionary counts on this. And it is worth it all to bring light to dark Africa. And oh! the joy of the labourer’s reward! We have had classes of between 60 and 70 people, and that Sunday in November, ten months after our landing, filled our cup full. That was a day never to be forgotten, eh, Prince?
PRINCE: Never, please God! It was the feast of first fruits—five souls won from heathendom descended into the waters of baptism. And afterwards we had our first gathering at the Lord’s Table.
MERRICK: Praise God! It is His seal! Oh, that Fernando Poo may become all His -- and then a wider field! You haven’t given up all hopes of the Niger, Mr. Clarke?
CLARKE: We dare not! There are people there, and all along that coast, ready for the gospel. In one town we gathered a congregation of five hundred.
PRINCE: No, no; the continent is on our hearts and its call is ever in our ears. The Island is itself yielding fruits—we have established a school of 70 scholars at Clarence. But we must ever regard it also as an observation post for the dawn of opportunity on the mainland.
CLARKE: What we want meanwhile is a small sloop or cutter: this would make it possible for us to keep in touch with the mainland and even, perhaps, to navigate the Niger river. We are hoping, in fact, that some vessel will be forthcoming through the Baptist Jubilee Fund.
MERRICK: That is good news. Now that the enterprise has actually started, the watchword must be “Forward!”
CLARKE: Forward it shall be, God helping us. Africa must be Christ’s. We must have more workers, and in this matter I believe Jamaica will do her part. [A pause.]
MERRICK: [rising and taking his wife’s hand, who looks up at him and rises also]: Mr. Clarke—Doctor—my wife and I have talked this over and prayed mucho about it, and we feel that the call of Africa has come to us. If more workers are needed, we are ready to go. Will you have us?
[CLARKE rises and takes MERRICK’S hand: then PRINCE also follows suit, taking Mrs. MERRICK’S hand.]
CLARKE: Joseph, I have always regarded you as my son in the Gospel. I am proud that you should be moved to this.
PRINCE: The Lord bless you, dear lady! You are doing a brave thing. But it is a great ordination. All for Africa means Africa for Christ.
CURTAIN.
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