Tales out of school

Part II. In The School: The School-girls

Tale 1, The breaking-in of a New Pupil 22

2, Little Fags 27

3, A Day's Doings, 1st Half 35

4, A Day's Doings, 2d Half 43

5, Rules and Black Marks 48

6, School Promenades 56

7, Vacations 61

8, The Seven Re-Captives 70

9, A Little Fag's Experience 79

10, Friendships and Pastimes 87

11, Quarrels and Fightings 92

12, Pranks 96

13, "Bird's-Claws," a Black Sheep of the Flock 106

PAGE

Tale 14, Esonge Climbs out of the Window 109

" 15, Agnes Breaks the Switches 113

" 16, Wasted Privileges 116

" 17, Fando Runs Away 125

18, Njivo Bites the Teacher 130

11 19, Onanga, An Unexpected Treasure 138

Part III. In The Church

Kabinda : An Ignoble Life 144

Part I. The School; Its Location, And Its Teachers

ONLY a few miles north of the Equator, on the South- West Coast of Africa, a river emerges into the South Atlantic Ocean. It is not a long stream; not more than one hundred and fifty miles in length. But it has many affluents; some that join it in the Sierra del Crystal range of mountains, where itself finds its source, and others that join it lower down on both its banks, as it flows westward and finally northward into the sea.

It is not a wide stream, until, as it comes in sight of the sea thirty miles distant, it suddenly flings itself out on either side, like a man throwing open his cloak, making a Bay or Estuary, spreading until at its mouth it is twelve miles in width.

Its native is Ma-kwe-nge. But the early Portuguese traders, as they entered its broad mouth, imagined its "cloak" -like expanse, and called it "Gabon." English people pronounced the word, "Gaboon." That was the name by which it was known, for a hundred years, to foreigners, the river itself, the tribe which dwelt on its banks, and the region of country for fifty miles each side of it. When, sixty years ago, traders spoke of going to "Gaboon," they meant anywhere within fifty miles of that river. The French word for a man of the tribe is "Gabonais" (female Gabonaise) . But the tribe called itself "Mpo-ngwe." Ordinary sea-captains could not pronounce that word; they miscalled it "Pongo." Also, they called the entire region the Pongo country, for a hundred and fifty miles northward. A legend of the Bube tribe, inhabiting Fernando-Po island, states that they were driven to that island for refuge by their enemies, the Mpongwe, who had formerly extended that far north, long before the tribes called "Benga," "Kombe," "Banaka" and others had emerged from the interior on to the Coast, at points respectively forty, ninety and a hundred and sixty miles north of Makwenge river.

This river, like all rivers emerging on the south-west coast of Africa, empties itself northward. In whatever direction they come from the interior, on approaching the coast, they turn northward, not entering the sea at a right angle to the land, but at quite an obtuse angle on their right bank. The cause of this is the constant north-flowing ocean-current, which, as it meets the water of the rivers, (all of which bear quantities of sand and mud), makes a quiet eddy on the west or left bank, in which the sand is deposited. This deposit grows, year by year, causing shallow shoals, and finally a long Point of land. The force of the rivers' current is thus thrown toward the right bank. So, on these streams, the land on the east or right bank, has its earth torn away and bare rocks stand out ; while, on the west or left bank, the long low sandy Point grows yearly longer. Vessels, in coming from the south, therefore, can not see the river's mouth, until they have really passed it; then they turn, and, looking down into the mouth, sail southward into it.

The rocky Point on the Gaboon river's right bank is called by English people Point Clara; by the French, Joinville. The low Point on the left bank is called by English, " Sandy Point." Natives called it "Ompomowa-igara" (Point-of-the-outside) , because, a traveler who is coming down river, and who wishes to turn southward, comes apparently to several points, each of which at first seems to mark the ocean, before he finally reaches the "outside" or farthest one. Most foreigners who cannot speak Mpongwe, when they heard those words" 'mpom' igara" pronounced rapidly, thought they sounded like one word "Pongara." That is the name they marked on their charts.

The distance between the two Capes or Points, on the river-mouth, is as much as twelve miles. The Bay, on soundings, is entirely free from rocks; and the channel is so well marked by two or three buoys, which indicate the only sand-bars, that no pilot is needed; the depth of water is enough for vessels of any draft; and the harbor is large enough for any number of vessels to anchor on good sand or mud bottom. Being landlocked, even the frequent, sudden and severe storms of a tropical country do not raise heavy waves in the Bay. There is never any uncomfortable surf, through which to land.

On the western side of the Bay, the land is low. A sandy prairie comes down to Pongara Point. The prairie itself is dotted, in its many slight depressions, by "islands" of trees, and by small ponds; in which are caught, during the long Cold Dry Season (June-September) when the ponds are low, a great quantity of fish, some kinds of which are known to crawl, at spawning times, over the stretch of prairie-land lying between river and pond. During the two Rainy Seasons (October-December, and March-May) when the grass has sprung up young and tender, after it has been burned over, in the two Dry Seasons, viz. the short Hot Dry (January and February), and the long Cold Dry, the prairie affords fine hunting of wild oxen, wild hogs, gazelles, antelopes, and even elephants.

Farther up stream, still on that western side, the land slowly rises, covered by a heavy forest, and is very much intersected by inland water-ways lined with mangrove swamps. On the edges of this forest are many villages, formerly of the Shekyani, but now of the Mpongwe tribe ; and large plantations with hamlets of their slaves who cultivate their farms ; raising, for their own consumption and for sale to the white residents at the Trading-Houses on the other side of the river, quantities of plantains, yams, and other vegetables. There also are the best fishing-grounds of the river; whence daily, fresh fish are carried to the market across the Bay.

That western side is called "King William's side," from the English name of a deservedly honored native King Rapantyamba. The French called him "Roi Denis." He had a town of hundreds of retainers, at a place on the prairie called "St. Thome" (from the Portuguese island of St. Thomas, distant at sea about two hundred miles). Though a heathen, and entirely uneducated, he was a man of great intelligence, and of naturally noble character. His son Adande, who inherited his name Rapantyamba and title Roi Denis, is a well-educated and civilized gentleman, speaking English and French; is a nominal Romanist, adhering to the native customs connected with Polygamy, and practicing some of the divinations of Fetishism.

After a course of fifteen miles up the Bay, steamers come to anchor a mile from the shore of the town of Libreville. There had been a town there, certainly for the last two hundred years, known as "Gaboon." But, when the French seized that region in 1843, they called it "Libreville," intending that, like the city of Freetown in Sierra Leone, it should be a port of deposit for recaptured slaves. The town looks beautifully from the deck of an anchored vessel. The Bay curves eastward, making a bight, of a chord of some three miles across. The town is built on the curve of the arc. A well-macadamized road, called the Boulevard, wide enough for two vehicles to pass (were there any vehicles) runs for four miles on that arc. At long intervals, there are a few cross streets. No attempt is made at grading or paving them. Barely are they kept clean of grass and weeds, by spasmodic efforts, every few months to keep down the rampant vegetation. Some of these streets are shaded by avenues of coco-palms with their gracefully waving, feathery fronds, or by densely foliaged mangoe trees; from whose over-ripe fruit the Roman Catholic missionaries have made a brandy; which, however, has not obtained wide acceptance, due to the peculiar turpentine-like taste of the mangoe.

On the long Boulevard are built the scattered houses of the town. At the upper end, called by the natives, Lamba, and by the foreigners, Glass (after the English name of a former old King " Glass") the native dwellings are the densest. And there, formerly, were congregated on the beach almost all the foreign Trading-Houses, two English, two German, and one American.

Thence, a mile farther down, were a few more Trading-

Houses, including only one French, and the small French Government Building, on an elevated area called the Plateau.

And, two miles beyond is the native village Anwondo. At the Lamba end of Libreville, a few hundred yards back from the beach, runs with a gentle ascent a ridge, which follows, at that distance, most of the curve of the Boulevard. At the extreme Lamba end, the ridge rises gradually to a small hill, on which, in the old days of the Slave Trade, was an enclosure for slaves, called in Portuguese, a barracoon. Natives, in trying to pronounce this word, called it "Ba-ra-ka." It was a depot for slaves gathered, from time to time, from various interior tribes, and detained in the enclosure on that Hill awaiting the coming of some slave-ship.

Domestic slavery had been practiced, from time immemorial, by all the tribes of the entire African continent, as a punishment for crime. Criminals, even those condemned to death, had, sometimes, their sentences commuted to sale into slavery. Vicious and otherwise troublesome members of the family were sometimes thus disposed of. Persons charged with the universal crime of Witchcraft, if not promptly killed, were sure thus to be sold away. Pitiably, useless persons, — the idiotic and the deformed, — were thus gotten rid of. None of all these were retained in slavery in their own tribe. They might have had even there some sympathisers, and therefore would have become refractory. The sale was always made to the tribe next adjacent sea-ward. If there they were found useful and docile, they were well-treated. If refractory, they were sold away again to the next nearer seashore tribe. This process went on, so that those who finally reached the sea-coast were the very worst specimens. It was from them that the first cargoes were made up for Brazil and the West Indies. Subsequently, as the market was stimulated, and the demands by white men grew for a larger supply, the cupidity of the native "Kings" was aroused, and the strong tribes raided the weaker ones, seizing prisoners of men, women and children to fill the slave-market.

Pawning of their children for debt was early known to the poorer members of the tribes. Debts grew, and the pawns were rarely redeemed; they were sold away.

Frequently children were kidnaped. Salt, in the old days, before white traders imported it, was as valuable as gold. Except for the salt-" pans" and springs of the far interior, the only source of obtaining it was by evaporating the sea-water. This was the monopoly of the coast -tribes. Their emissaries, carrying little packets of salt, would intentionally drop them temptingly at points along interior paths of travel or near springs, and then hide themselves in ambush. Some child coming to the spring, would snatch up the treasure: and then would be seized by the tempters, and carried away, on a charge of theft.

When in June, 1842, Rev. J. L. Wilson transferred a Mission of the A. B. C. F. M. from Cape Palmas, Liberia, to the Gaboon River, he bought from the native "Kings" or Chiefs that Baraka Hill. One of those chiefs was named Ntaka. Being an unusually intelligent and truthful man, the white men had called him "the true man." He adopted those words as his surname, "Truman." His descendants have retained it.

One of them became a minister in the Mission, Rev. Ntaka Truman. Old King Ntaka always wore a high silk or beaver hat, such as the Traders brought from Liverpool damaged auction sales, with the cast-off liveries of the servants of English nobility. These were given as presents to the native men of prominence, being regarded by them as signs of dignity of the greatest value. Indeed, from Ntaka' s constant use of those old high hats the white traders called them "Epokolo ya Toko" (the Taka hat). But those white men were not philologists. They constantly got native names mispronounced; and their mis-spelling is continued by long use even to-day, by men who now know better. Those Traders miscalled him "Toko." One of them put up a grave-stone for him in the Baraka Cemetery, on which the mis-spelling is perpetuated.

So also, two affluents of the Gaboon River are misspelled. The Rembwe is mis-called "Ramway;" and the Nkama is mis-called "Komo" or Como.

The buildings of the Mission occupy the site of that slave barracoon. There grows there now a large, handsome bread-fruit tree, planted by Mr. Wilson on the very spot where was standing a native forest tree used as a whipping-post for cases of any slaves who became refractory while they were in confinement awaiting their exportation.

The view from that Baraka hill-top is the finest in Libreville. Look up the river to several large islands ten or fifteen miles distant. One of them is Parrot island, a home of hundreds of the grey red-tailed African parrot; another is King's island. The long-ago old Dutch Trading Company named it on their chart

"Koenig." They had a fort there. And still to-day, a few old rusty cannon are there.

Looking across the estuary, at different lines of vision, twenty, fifteen, and ten miles distant, a mangrove swamp shows how, in the centuries, that side of the river has been built up by the mud brought down the stream. The tide runs up for about seventy miles, and comes back with a strong current. Out over the bar, to the west and north, is a magnificent sea- view. Steamers are visible long before they actually arrive at anchor.

Most of the native forest trees have been cleared away in the proximity of the beach. But their place is occupied by a jungle of flowering shrubs and vines, on the edges of patches of elevated open land; behind which, a half-mile from the sea, is the solid edge of the great African Forest that covers a parallelogram of eight hundred miles interior by three hundred miles of the coast of the African Equatorial belt. In it are elephants, wildoxen, wild hogs, leopards, a number of species of antelopes and gazelles, a great variety of chimpanzees, monkeys, and birds, and smaller animals. In the jungle are snakes, and those horrible caricatures of human beings, the gorillas. And, in the rivers, are the huge hippopotamus, crocodiles of the gavial species, the delicious manatus or dugong, and a variety of fish. The early Portuguese Roman Catholic, and later the English Protestant, missionaries brought foreign seeds and plants. So, besides its own indigenous tropical fruits, the entire region is well supplied with other fruits, introduced from Brazil and the West Indies.

France had very little interest in her possessions in the Gaboon region, for a long while after her seizure of that country in 1843. The dominant influence in Trade and Religion was English. But, when Count P. S. De- Brazza, about 1874, revealed the value of the Ogowe river as an avenue to the Kongo interior, France asserted herself, successively, by an active government of the natives, by the fostering of a Roman Catholic Mission, by the granting of special favor to French Trading-houses, by the prohibition of the use of the English language (and finally the requisition of the French language) in School and public documents. The American Trading-house was abandoned ; some of the English and German traders withdrew; French firms were largely increased; the machinery of Government was made more prominent in the number and size of Official Buildings, the increase of Officers, and the red-tape of Regulations. Government-House, Hospital, Post-office, Custom-house, Treasury, Telegraph, Repair-shops, Cathedral, etc., were all centered around their original single building on the old Plateau area. The French Trading-houses gathered there. And, at the present time, that spot is the real Libreville. "Glass" is very much reduced in its population ; and its importance is almost gone, except for the presence of one English Trading-house, and the Protestant Mission on Baraka hill.

All those French additions are the new things of the present. These School-girl Tales come from the times and conditions of a generation ago, between the years 1850 and 1880. The missionaries named or referred to by these former school-girls, lived there during those years. Only one of them, Mrs. Bushnell, is living to-day, in the United States. After Mr. Wilson had examined the Gaboon region, and selected and bought the Baraka hill in June, 1842, he wrote word to his associates in the A. B. C. F. M. Cape Palmas Mission, that he considered Gaboon a more healthy country than Liberia, and directed them to abandon Cape Palmas. They did so, and an American Episcopal Mission occupied their place. And in December, 1842, Rev. Wm. Walker removed to Gaboon; in June, 1843, he was followed by Rev. Albert Bushnell; and he subsequently by Rev. I. M. Preston from America. There were many other missionaries, male and female, lay and clerical, married and single, who followed during the years 1845-1885. Some of them died: Others, for various reasons, — ill-health, dissatisfaction, incompetency, the belief (at that time) that white maternity in tropical Africa was almost necessarily fatal, the great fear (at that time) for the lives of white infants, — returned to the United States. But the entire work in School, Church and Station, at Baraka during the forty years, 1842-1882, can be covered by the four names Wilson, Walker, Preston and Bushnell. During all those years, excepting occasional intervals of only a few months, some one of those four, or their wives, was present and in charge. If one or two of them happened to be absent on furlough in the United States, at least one of the others remained in charge, assisted by some two or three of the many transient ones of shorter stay whose names I have not here mentioned.

Of those four, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were the first to retire from the Mission. He became the Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, D.D., Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (North) ; and, after 1861, Secretary of the similar Board of the Presbyterian Church (South). They are now dead. The next to leave were Rev. Ira M. and Mrs. Preston. They lived for several years retired in ill-health in Ohio; are now dead. Mr. Bushnell became the Rev. Albert Bushnell, D.D. He died of pneumonia, on the African steamer, as it was entering Freetown harbor, Sierra Leone, in 1879; was buried there; and subsequently was re-interred at Baraka. His widow remained in the Misssion until she finally retired about 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Walker retired from the Mission (as he supposed) finally, in April, 1871. He was aged; he thought he had reached the end of his ability to serve: he was a hearty Congregationalist ; and, his A. B. C. F. M. Society having given up its Gaboon mission-field to the Presbyterian Church of the adjacent Corisco Mission, he was not willing to transfer his ecclesiastical connection. He retired with the respect and love of most of the natives, who, though he was often severe, believed in his paternal sincerity, and were impressed by the strength of his rugged mind. Even the white foreign community, against the dissolute lives of some of whom, he had been denunciatory almost to the point of exasperation, respected his vigorous intellectuality and fearlessness. They made up a complimentary purse as a present for his declining years. He left behind him at that time an honored and revered name. Mrs. Walker died in the United States. Nine years after his leaving the Mission, an emergency occurred. The force at Baraka was very weak; no one was at all equal to Mr. Walker in knowledge of the Mpongwe language; it was desired that the translation of the Bible should be completed ; he was in an unexpectedly comfortable state of health; and the Presbyterian Board asked him to return to Africa, for a limited period, for the sole purpose of translating the Scriptures. There were others in the Mission who could attend to the Church, the School, and the Station secular work.

In making this request of Mr. Walker, the Presbyterian Board did him the unprecedented honor of not asking him to join, even pro forma, the Presbyterian Church, as is invariably their custom, when any one applies to be sent out under their direction. Under that rule there have been members of the Mission, men and women who had formerly held their connection with Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, Lutheran and other evangelical denominations. In consideration of Mr. Walker's age and former eminent service, and the fact that the proposition for renewed service had not come from him, the Board most considerately said nothing about denominational connection. Nor was there any need to do so. As a Congregationalist he could translate the Bible as efficiently as if he was nominally a member of any other evangelical Christian body. And, it was not the expectation that he would have any other function than that of a Translator. (Though, as he came accredited as a full member of the Mission, he had a right to all its privileges; and might, probably, be elected to some of its offices.) But he was not a member of the ecclesiastical Body, the Corisco Presbytery, except by the courtesy of corresponding membership. And therefore, though, by request, occupying the Gaboon church pulpit, he had no authority over its Session. He returned to the U. S. when his Translation work was completed. And died a few years later.

Almost all the missionaries, male and female, of the transient ones, and the female assistant teachers in the Girls' School, are remembered kindly by those girls. Every man or woman, connected with any School any where, has some foible in character or manner, on which pupils seize, and which, among themselves in private, they mimic or laugh at. It was so with these unnamed missionaries. But the mimicry or the joke was not intended by the school-girls as disrespect toward those whom they loved. They loved almost all. They have named to me but two or three, of the many who were there during those forty years, whom they disrespected; and only one lady whom they learned to hate, because of her tactless and unjust dealings.

In the following tales, the word "Mistress" or "Ma" used by the narrators, means always either Mrs. Bushnell, Mrs. Walker or Mrs. Preston. "Teacher" means the (generally) unmarried female white assistant to the one of those three ladies who happened to be in charge. There were other assistants, native females, whom I call monitors.

In the region are many tribes of the Negro stock called Bantu; stock that covers the entire southern third of the African continent below the fourth degree of north latitude. Many of these tribes are small in number. Some counting only a few thousands. But, for all that they are small, and without any real central native government, they are exceedingly clannish, clinging tenaciously to the small differences that separate them from adjacent tribes. This clannishness often made difficulty in the Schools, the "upper" tribes, formerly, being unwilling that their children should be taught in the company of members of what they called lower tribes. This question of precedence rested on two factors, viz. priority of emergence on to the Coast; and the proximity to foreign white Trading-houses. The tribes on the Coast, having originally a monopoly of the Ivory and Rubber Trade, allowed neither foreign traders to go into the interior, nor the interior tribes to emerge onto the sea-side. (That monopoly is now broken.)

Of the dialects of Bantu spoken by all these tribes, while they all had the same grammatical construction, they differed more or less in their vocabulary. Indeed these differences in some dialects were so great that they could not be understood by some of the other tribes. It was found in reducing these dialects to writing, that they could be grouped into three lists, 1st. The Mpongwe of Gaboon. Cognate with it were the languages of tribes to the south, the Nkami, Orungu, Ajumba, Inenga, and Galwa of the Ogowe Delta. 2nd. Northward, the Benga of Corisco Island and Bay. Cognate with it were the Mbiko, Bapuku, Kombe, Banaka, and Bakele. 3rd. Interior- ward was the great Fang tribe, with its divisions of Osheba, Bulu, and others.

These, though living in the same general region, with one climate, differed much in their customs, dress, and food. Some tribes chose to live mostly on the plantain; others on cassava (the tuber of tapioca) ; others on the eddo (a calladium) ; others on ground-nuts. But all cultivated all these and other vegetables also. It was remarkable that tribes thus breathing the same air, eating much the same food, and intermarrying, yet kept their tribal physical characteristics. The Mpongwe people were tall, gracefully fashioned, polite and handsome. The Benga were tall, strongly and roughly built, and their men of a fierce look. The Kombe were smaller in stature. The Banaka of medium stature, and their features coarse. So marked were these differences, that, even where there were no tribal tattooings, it was possible for me to tell what was a stranger's tribe, at first sight, without always being able to indicate to any one else just what were the points of feature, manner, etc., etc., on which I had made my diagnosis.

As to social status, the Mpongwe reckoned themselves superior to all the adjacent northern coast tribes. It was utterly forbidden that a Mpongwe woman should descend by marriage to any man of those tribes, however worthy he personally might be. But Mpongwe men, by marrying women of these ''lower" tribes, elevated them (as they considered). With some hesitation, a Mpongwe woman could marry an Orungu or Nkami or other southern-coast man. Next in precedence were the Benga. After them, the shades in social status were marked with only slight gradations. Always, however, remembering that no interior tribes-man could marry any coast-tribe woman. All interior tribes were contemptuously called "bush-men."

These Tales were told me by three of the former school-girls (two of whom are now dead), when themselves were grandmothers, and members of the church. I wrote them from their lips; and, in compiling them, I have generally retained their pronominal first person. My interjected remarks are in brackets.

What I have written myself is gathered authoritatively from Church Records, or from my own personal knowledge, or from the direct and positive statement of the native involved in the case. I have taken nothing at vague hear-say or second-hand information.

Mission Reports are written every year from their Stations, Schools and Churches; and extracts are printed by their Home Boards for information of friends of the cause. Those extracts are true, interesting, and instructive. But they are incomplete. They represent the foreign workers' point of view. They are like the official circular of the principal of any institution in America. But, if a visitor could privately meet the pupils in that institution, he might be given another report — the pupil's point of view.

So, these Tales give an aspect of occurrences in Church and School not usually presented in missionary letters. That the occurrences were actual I know, from my own observation, or from the testimony of Christian witnesses.

Part II. In The School

Tale, No. 1.

The Breaking In of a New Pupil.

IN our school-days, whenever a new pupil came, the other girls would welcome her with the usual salutation, "Mbolo" (Long life to you!) Then they would begin to judge concerning her, to decide on the place where she should stand in the company; looking at her height; her size, her bearing, and her manners and ways; by these, to judge of her whether she was weak-spirited or stronghearted. Then those who were of the same height as she, would say, "She belongs to our set; she is nkona (equal) with us." Then some of the troublesome ones of that set would say, "No! we can't tell that yet, whether she belongs to our group or not." This meant that she would have to do a lot of fighting before she gained her own place. She then would be left for a time by herself, with only two or three to pay her any attention as friends.

The next thing was to begin to tease her, so as to know what her temper was, whether weak or strong, in order to start up a quarrel, which would grow into a fight. If the new girl was strong enough to conquer the first one who should fight with her, or at least proved to be equal in strength, then they would begin to say,

"O! may-be she is all right; and she belongs to our nkona." After that first fight and her nkona was settled, the others of that same nkona would say, "She must now fight each one of us in succession. " One of their number would say, "I take the first chance!" And so it would go on. If, after that first fight, they saw that she was brave, and had fought it out well, the rest of the nkona would try her, not in anger nor to strike to hurt, but to ndemb'-opa (wrestle) in a friendly contest, or in running a race. Thus she soon fights out her place, and is fully accepted in their company or nkona. But, if she was not successful in her first fight, she feels troubled and is ashamed. Then all the others will take advantage of her, and torment her all the time, in many small mean ways. For example, thus: — "What do you look at me for in such a cross way?" "Why do you bring your body against mine in passing, as if you want to push me?" "Why do you tread on my toe?" "Why do you step on my dress while I'm sitting down? Did your father and mother give it to you?"