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CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 OF FINGOLAND 
 
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 t • • • • 
 
 MRS. FORSYTH 
 
 Photograph by the author taken the day she appeared before the 
 Foreign Mission Committee on her return from Africa. 
 
CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 OF FINGOLAND 
 
 THE STORY OF 
 THE LONELIEST WOMAN IN AFRICA 
 
 BY 
 W. P. LIVINGSTONE 
 
 AU'THOR OP "THE WHITB QUEEN OP OKOYONG,* 
 "MART BLBSSOR OP CALABAR," ETC. 
 
 > » > • • • 
 
 ILLU8TBATED 
 
 NEW HiPjy YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1919, 
 BT GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 • •• • 
 
 . •: : 
 • • • 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES Of AMERICA 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 Mks. Foksyth^ the heroine of the following 
 narrative, lived alone for thirty years in an 
 isolated mission station in Fingoland, South- 
 East Africa, amongst a wild and dissolute 
 tribe of heathens. During that period she 
 never moved outside a radius of twenty 
 miles from her humble mission-house. She 
 seldom saw a white face; she was unknown 
 to the majority of South African mission- 
 aries, even to those of the Church with which 
 she was connected; only a few had come 
 across her; fewer still had been at Xolobe. 
 To all who knew of her she was a marvel. 
 The missionary under whom she worked de- 
 clared that there was not one woman in five 
 hundred who could have lived the life she 
 lived. 
 
 Her character was almost as unique as 
 her work. " It is curious," writes another 
 missionary, " that she should have a bio- 
 
 45S621 
 
vi CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 graphy; one can scarcely imagine her read- 
 ing it. She was simple and unassuming to a 
 degree. Praise was very far from her — she 
 who merited praise more than any of us. 
 We often spoke in admiration of her— but 
 never to her face. In her house, her dress, 
 her speech, her bearing, her surroundings, 
 her whole outlook on life and manner of life, 
 her simphcity and humility and abnegation 
 of self were evident." 
 
 Before she retired, at the age of seventy- 
 two, the attention of the writer was drawn 
 to her remarkable career, and he desired to 
 essay some account of it, but waited until 
 she returned to Scotland in the expectation 
 of obtaining abundant material from herself. 
 For the sake of the mission cause she was 
 persuaded to consent to the project, but, 
 when it was undertaken, only grew enthusi- 
 astic about her converts, and was smilingly 
 reticent about personal details. What is 
 written, therefore, has been compiled chiefly 
 from an early diary, her reports and letters, 
 and material supphed by friends. Special 
 acknowledgment must be made of the assist- 
 ance rendered by the Rev. James Auld, 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE vii 
 
 M.A., and his sister, Miss E. M. Auld, of 
 Paterson, Kafraria, to whom the book owes 
 much of whatever interest it possesses. 
 When she read the MS., Mrs. Forsyth's 
 only remark was : " There is too much about 
 myself in it." 
 
 It is a simple human story. The range 
 of interest and action is a narrow one; no 
 large events or important policies emerge 
 for treatment; the racial, political, and eco- 
 nomic problems which bulk so largely in 
 South African affairs find no place in it. 
 But in the whole range of missionary bio- 
 graphy one will find few figures who are at 
 once so lovable and so strong, so lonely and 
 yet so happy, so humble and yet so great. 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth was very like Miss Slessor, 
 the pioneer missionary of Calabar, in char- 
 acter, faith, humour, patience, and courage, 
 and there are some curious parallehsms in 
 their careers, but the two differed greatly in 
 their methods. Miss Slessor was a worker 
 on a large stage and touched thousands of 
 lives. Eager for territorial expansion she 
 thought in terms of towns and districts. 
 
viii CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth was an intensive worker, think- 
 ing in terms of individuals. To use her own 
 words she was " a watcher for souls." She 
 was as brave and tenacious in seeking to 
 conquer a man or woman as Miss Slessor 
 was to win a tribe. 
 
 But it was the same spirit which impelled 
 both, and the service of the one was comple- 
 mentary to that of the other. Hence the 
 record of Mrs. Forsyth's career may com- 
 plete a picture which Miss Slessor's life be- 
 gan — a picture of how women's faith and 
 love and effort are seeking, along different 
 lines of activity, to redeem and re-create the 
 people of Africa. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 FAOX 
 
 Introductory Note v 
 
 PART I 
 Early Lights and Shadows 
 
 OHIPTER 
 
 I Artist or Missionary? . 
 
 II A Love Mystery .... 
 
 III From Fife to South Africa . 
 
 IV A Land of Blood and Superstition 
 V Over the Veld to Paterson . 
 
 VI School and Kraal .... 
 
 VII On the Edge of Rebellion . 
 
 VIII Hail, Rain, Lightning . 
 
 IX The End of Her Romance . 
 
 PART II 
 The Heat and Burden of the Day 
 
 15 
 20 
 25 
 81 
 42 
 47 
 56 
 60 
 65 
 
 1 
 
 In the Den of " Wolves " . 
 
 . . 71 
 
 II 
 
 Adventures .... 
 
 . . 77 
 
 III 
 
 The Powers of Darkness 
 
 83 
 
 IV 
 
 The Siege of the Chief 
 
 . 89 
 
 V 
 
 Persecution .... 
 
 . 93 
 
 VI 
 
 The Tyranny of Taki . 
 Is 
 
 . 100 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTKR 
 
 VII The Witch-Doctor's Fate . 
 
 VIII A Nine-Days' Wonder . 
 
 IX The Greenock Gift 
 
 X Official Tributes .... 
 
 XI An Experiment Which Failed 
 
 XII A Fire and a Revival 
 
 XIII The Miracle of Ten Years . 
 
 XIV Abdication , 
 
 XV The Doctor's Warning . 
 
 XVI Visitors from Scotland . . . 
 
 XVII A Bigger House of God . 
 
 XVIII Mr. Stewart's Pen-Picture . 
 
 XIX The New Umfundisi and His Sister 
 
 XX Toiling and Rejoicing . 
 
 XXI Personal Characteristics 
 
 XXII A Vision of Souls .... 
 
 PAftB 
 
 108 
 112 
 116 
 121 
 126 
 133 
 137 
 142 
 146 
 151 
 156 
 163 
 168 
 173 
 181 
 189 
 
 PART III 
 
 Eventide 
 
 I Completely Shut In . . . .211 
 
 II Her Independence 216 
 
 III The Shock of the War .... 221 
 
 IV Sadness of Farewell .... 226 
 
 V Back to Civilisation .... 232 
 
 VI Was It Worth It? 237 
 
 VII An Estimate from the Field . . 240 
 
 VIII Rest Time 244 
 
 Index 247 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth Frontispiece 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Map of South-E as t- Africa xiv 
 
 At the Age of Twenty-five 40 
 
 A Witch-Doctor 40 
 
 Xolobe 74 
 
 A Group of Fingo Women 86 
 
 A Boys' " Initiation " Dance 86 
 
 A Typical Fingo 114 
 
 The Greenock Schoolhouse 144 
 
 Handing over the School 144 
 
 Married Women Outside Hut 158 
 
 Christian Fingo Girls 178 
 
 A Heathen Family 178 
 
 'Smoy ana's Bathing Place . . « • ^218 
 
PART I 
 
 EARLY LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 
 
 Age 1-41 
 
ARTIST OR MISSIONARY? 
 
 In the early years of last century there 
 lived in Perthshire a prosperous farmer 
 named Moir. He leased two properties — 
 Daldoran and Thornhill — which were well 
 stocked with cattle, and he had a balance 
 of £1000 to his name in the bank. One ill 
 day the laird's factor, a worthless man, who 
 had fallen into difficulties, apphed to him 
 for financial help, and he, sympathetic and 
 generous, became his surety to a large 
 amount. As not infrequently happens in 
 cases of the kind, the surety was called upon 
 to make good the responsibility he had under- 
 taken. Ere the claim was satisfied the farmer 
 was swept bare of all his possessions and had 
 not a penny to call his own. The house- 
 hold was broken up, and father and sons 
 went into service. 
 
 One of the sons, John, found work in 
 Glasgow. With the same simple trust in 
 
 15 
 
'. ... i^.. \ ; CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 * Kumaii nature as his father he placed all his 
 savings in the care of his master. By and 
 by the latter failed, and John's money was 
 lost. Undaunted, he started again, and 
 after many difficulties and hardships attained 
 success. He was, however, forty-six before 
 he felt justified in marrying. Then came 
 years of sunshine and happiness, with 
 children growing up in the home. There 
 were three girls and a boy, the second of 
 the girls being Christina, who was born on 
 October 23, 1844. 
 
 John Moir was a quiet man, of sterling 
 character and deep religious convictions, and 
 his wife was like-minded, and they were 
 loyal to the best traditions of Scottish homes. 
 The children were carefully drilled in the 
 Shorter Catechism, gathering every Sabbath 
 evening round their father and repeating 
 the answers. Often he would tell them that 
 he had learned the Larger Catechism off by 
 heart and rallied them on not being able to 
 do what he had done. 
 
 Mrs. Moir died when Christina was ten 
 years of age. The manner of her going was 
 that of one who had lived much in the Un- 
 seen. The dividing line had worn very thin. 
 " The room is full of angels," she said, in 
 an awed whisper. She committed the 
 
ARTIST OR MISSIONARY? 17 
 
 children to the care of Bessie, the eldest, 
 who thenceforward became the mother of 
 the household. Mr. Moir passed away ten 
 years later. He seemed at the last to have 
 a vision of Christ, and his last words were, 
 "Peace. I shall see Him as He is now." 
 The appropriate text of the funeral sermon 
 preached by his minister, the Rev. David 
 Young of Montrose Street (now Woodlands 
 Road) Church, was, " Mark the perfect man, 
 and behold the upright: for the end of that 
 man is peace." 
 
 Christina was educated at a private school. 
 She was a girl of original character, taking 
 life seriously, and early began to consider 
 her future. Two careers, widely diverse in 
 character, appealed to her, that of an artist 
 and that of a missionary. She had an eye 
 for pictorial effect, and haunted the city 
 exhibitions. Long afterwards, during the 
 lonely years in Africa, the memory which 
 gave her most pleasure was the enchanting 
 time she spent in those galleries. A cousin 
 who was an etcher encouraged her in her 
 ambition to study art, but her father opposed 
 the idea: in his estimation drawing and 
 painting were not "useful" accomplish- 
 ments for girls. 
 
 The longing to be a missionary was more 
 
18 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 deeply implanted in her nature and less 
 objection was taken to the proposal. In her 
 mother, indeed, she found a strong ally who 
 stimulated her interest in the work abroad 
 by every means in her power. The last 
 prayer she taught Christina was, "May the 
 knowledge of the Lord cover the earth as 
 the waters cover the seas." 
 
 When she was about fourteen Christina 
 had a definite religious experience which 
 shows how life touches life and creates 
 impulses and movements that influence 
 others in ever-widening circles. A cousin 
 came to visit the family, and one day in 
 conversation she ventured to ask Christina 
 if she had faith in Christ. A simple question, 
 but it startled the girl and made her think. 
 The two friends went to a meeting in Bridge- 
 gate Free Church where a workman in his 
 rough clothes told how he had found Christ. 
 " The words that caught me," he said, 
 " were, * Come unto me, all ye that labour and 
 are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest'." 
 Christina returned home deep in thought and 
 longing to secure the rest and peace which 
 the Divine invitation offered. She knelt in 
 prayer, intimate and intense, and when she 
 rose her life had been surrendered to Christ. 
 
 After this she naturally passed into the 
 
ARTIST OR MISSIONARY? 19 
 
 service of the Church, becoming a teacher 
 in a mission Smiday School and then in one 
 in connection with Montrose Street con- 
 gregation. Amongst her colleagues there 
 was a Miss Paterson, who afterwards be- 
 came the wife of the Rev. John Sclater, the 
 founder of the mission station in South 
 Africa with which Christina became so 
 closely connected. Mrs. Sclater recalls the 
 strong impression which the girl made upon 
 her by her pronounced principles and the 
 character of her prayers at the teachers' 
 meetings. During one of Mr. Sclater's fur- 
 loughs he gave an address in the church on 
 Kafraria, and so stirred the heart of Christina 
 that she told her elder, Miss Paterson's 
 father, that she was willing to give herself to 
 the work. 
 
II 
 
 A LOVE MYSTERY 
 
 There was another experience affecting 
 Christina at this period which had probably 
 the greatest influence in determining her 
 career. The factors that alter the currents 
 of lives are not always visible or known to 
 onlookers; they are sometimes of the most 
 secret character; but it is only in the light 
 of these hidden causes that after-events can 
 be read aright. If the course of true love 
 had run smooth for Miss Moir the African 
 mission-field might have lost one of its 
 noblest workers. 
 
 In the church she attended sat a young 
 man, the son of a banker in the city, who 
 was attracted by the fair-haired, winsome 
 girl. The liking was mutual and gradually 
 there grew up between them an affection 
 which ripened into deep and steadfast love. 
 They did not give much expression to their 
 passion; they were both of strong reticent 
 
 90 
 
A LOVE MYSTERY 21 
 
 natures; but it flowed pure and sweet and 
 made life for them beautiful and glad. It 
 gave an impetus to the girl's religious im- 
 pulses and made her a still more earnest 
 and eflieient worker. 
 
 Time merely accentuated the bond be- 
 tween them. No open declaration was 
 necessary, for the mutual understanding was 
 perfect. The young man went to London 
 to train as a banker and a year or two later 
 he received an appointment in India. He 
 returned to Glasgow to say farewell to his 
 friends. It was not time to enter into a 
 definite engagement, but anxious to keep 
 in touch with the girl he loved he devised 
 a scheme which, he imagined, would fulfil 
 the purpose. He made the three sisters 
 agree to write him regularly and he promised 
 to write each in return. In this way he 
 would be able to correspond with Christina 
 without exciting comment. And so, happy 
 in the dream of youth, he went forth to 
 make his fortime. 
 
 The plan was carried out. Christina 
 wrote, and then going quietly about her 
 work, looked and waited for a reply. She 
 waited in vain. Her sisters received letters 
 from India and wrote in return, but none 
 came for her, and she remained outside the 
 
22 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 friendly correspondence. Her heart grew 
 wistful, then sad, then cold. Gradually all 
 casual references to her dropped out of his 
 communications to the other sisters, and 
 she, on her part, never mentioned his name. 
 It was a mystery. There was clearly a mis- 
 understanding somewhere but she was not 
 conscious of anything blameworthy. 
 
 He came home on furlough and they met, 
 but years of silence are not easy to explain 
 or span, and they drifted further apart. 
 She said nothing, showed no sign of distress, 
 and buried her sorrow deeper in her heart. 
 
 A poem she wrote at this time gives a 
 clue to her thoughts and fancies. It is like 
 an eyelet in a wall through which we obtain 
 a glimpse into a secluded garden. We see 
 her stricken and disillusioned heart, but we 
 also see her soul rising above mortal pain 
 and struggle and finding peace and rest in 
 the Eternal. We see also the blossoming 
 of those qualities of faith and devotion 
 which sent her at last to Africa in obedience 
 to the "golden law of sacrifice": — 
 
 Wherefore, O wavering soul, this wild unrest^ 
 This beating at the prison bars of life? 
 It is the Lord of All who dealeth out 
 Thy daily lot — how canst thou then repine? 
 Think of the sorrows of the Lord of All, 
 His daily dying through His earthly years. 
 
A LOVE MYSTERY 23 
 
 The agony of dark Gethsemane, 
 
 When blood-sweat flow'd, when darkness fiU'd His soul. 
 
 With none to watch and none to sympathise. 
 
 Behold thy Saviour drink the bitter cup 
 
 Unmurmuring — " 'Twas not My will, but Thine." 
 
 Think, think of this, my soul, and how canst thou 
 
 Say aught? Think of false Judas; remember too 
 
 The soldiers, with the lanterns and the staves ; 
 
 The Spotless Lamb led silent forth to slaughter; 
 
 The malice and the fiendish craft of men 
 
 And devils all array 'd in blackest hate ; 
 
 The garments parted, and the kingly robe. 
 
 The reedy sceptre, and the crown of thorns 
 
 Piercing His flesh; anew the blood flows forth. 
 
 And all that pain and shame were borne for thee. 
 
 And now they blindfold, mock, and buffet Him; 
 
 Then force the weary, fainting Son of Man 
 
 The heavy cross to bear, along the way 
 
 Of grief to Calvary, where He, uplifted, dies 
 
 With basest ones on either side. My soul. 
 
 Behold the Man ! my soul, behold thy God ! 
 
 This death brings life to thee. And now 
 
 Combined is all the force of Hell. The sun 
 
 In horror seeks to hide his face, and noon 
 
 Doth wear the sombre hues of darksome night. 
 
 Christ in deep anguish cries : " My God, My God, 
 
 Why dost Thou Me forsake ! " 'Mid pangs of death 
 
 Resigns His soul into His Father's hand. 
 
 And then 'tis o'er. Triumphantly the cry 
 
 Utter'd on earth is by angelic hosts 
 
 With gladness caught and echoes through all space 
 
 As they do bear the Lamb of God again 
 
 To Paradise, with ransom'd new-born soul. 
 
 Pledge of His pow'r to save to th' uttermost. 
 
24 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Baffling the very might of Satan^ 
 As He arose, the first-fruits from the dead. 
 My soul ! thou canst not fathom love like this. 
 It has a height, a depth, a length, a breadth 
 Thou eanst in life but know in part; but joy 
 Awaiteth thee. Look up, rejoice. He lives, 
 A glorious Saviour ! Constantly He pleads 
 For thee within the veil, with God, thy God. 
 Thy times are in His hand. He orders all — 
 Joy in the thought that thou canst sujffer loss 
 Or cross for Him. He led the way, He bids 
 Thee follow on, and with thy life it ends. 
 If it is dark, how bright the light of heav*n. 
 Pure, dazzling, unimagined and unknown 
 To mortal earth. Here night shuts out the day. 
 " Earth's fairest flow'rs bloom but to fade and die/ 
 And fondest friends forsake. He felt this too. 
 Cling close to Him; He will not leave in life 
 Nor yet at death forsake. Him glorify; 
 Let every wish, and word, and work be for Him, 
 And for those who love His name; and those 
 Who are without bring in that they too may 
 Receive His saving grace. The golden law 
 Of God is sacrifice. The fields are white 
 To harvest, but the labourers are few — 
 Lord of the harvest, thrust Thy lab'rers forth. ■ 
 • ••••• 
 
 Fear not; the cloudy pillar leads by day. 
 The fire by night; beneath the brooding cloud 
 The manna falls, and He is " God with us." 
 
 Yea, as the boundless ocean covers all 
 
 The deep, so shall the knowledge of Thy name 
 
 Overspread the earth. 
 
Ill 
 
 FROM FIFE TO SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 All thought of the mission-field was mean- 
 while banished by the call of a service lying 
 more closely to her hand. John Moir was, 
 in accordance with his mother's wish, study- 
 ing for the ministry, and one of the sisters 
 was needed to keep house for him. Christina 
 saw that this was the path of duty for her 
 and cheerfully subordinated her own ambi- 
 tion to his interests. John passed through 
 the High School, University, and Divinity 
 Hall, graduating M.A. and B.D., and was 
 called to Cairneyhill, in the west neuk of 
 Fife, whence his sister naturally accompanied 
 him. She was now a capable young woman 
 of twenty-eight, in every way fitted to 
 discharge the duties of the lady of the manse. 
 Cairneyhill is situated in the historic 
 district where the Relief Church was cradled, 
 and borders the high road from Dunfermline. 
 The manse and church stand side by side, 
 
 86 
 
26 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 two plain grey buildings, with a garden and 
 a neighbouring " green " still known as the 
 tent-green, because the preaching tent was 
 pitched there at the sacrament season. 
 
 The manse of Cairneyhill was well known 
 throughout the United Presbyterian Church, 
 for in it had been carried on, during the 
 ministry of the Rev. John More, a " seminary 
 for young ladies," which drew pupils from 
 all parts of Scotland. Its founder and prin- 
 cipal was the minister's wife, who, for forty 
 years, both taught and mothered the girls 
 with equal efficiency. The hospitality of 
 the manse was proverbial, and there was 
 seldom a week-end when some distinguished 
 preacher or group of college students did 
 not pay it a visit. Mr. More was a man 
 much beloved by his people, and when Mr. 
 Moir settled amongst them he found his 
 memory still cherished. His own modest 
 and gentle ways reminded them so much of 
 their old pastor that they slipped into the 
 habit of calling him " Mr. More," and " Mr. 
 More " he continued to be to the end. 
 
 Nothing seemed more circumscribed and 
 permanent than the life Miss Moir lived in 
 this quiet country manse, yet the lines of 
 coincidence were stretching out from the 
 ends of the earth to change its even tenour. 
 
FROM FIFE TO SOUTH AFRICA 27 
 
 One day there appeared a young mining- 
 engineer named Allan Forsyth, the eldest 
 son of the editor of the Inverness Advertiser, 
 who had just returned from Australia and 
 was paying a visit to his aunt in the village. 
 He was attracted by the pleasant thoughtful 
 woman flitting in and out of the homes of 
 the people and he wooed her diligently. 
 She regarded him with favour. That old 
 romance of hers had still tremendous power 
 over her inmost feelings, but it was foolish 
 to cherish the thought of it and make it 
 spoil her future, and so she resolutely put it 
 away and turned to the practical possibilities 
 of life. Before long the friendship culmi- 
 nated in an engagement, but as Mr. Forsyth 
 was called away to some work in South 
 America, the wedding was deferred. 
 
 In due time John Moir married and his 
 sister felt free to realise her old longing. 
 She had always been attracted by the 
 character of the work in South Africa, where 
 both the Free Church and the United Presby- 
 terian Churches carried on missions amongst 
 the Kafirs, and in 1878 she offered herself 
 to the Mission Board of the United Presby- 
 terian Church as an unpaid worker for that 
 field, for a period of three years. In view 
 of her attainments she was accepted as a 
 
28 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 teacher for the girls' school at Emgwali, the 
 mission station rendered famous by its 
 association with the first ordained native 
 minister, the Rev. Tiyo Soga. Started in a 
 thatched cottage in 1861 by the Ladies' 
 Kafrarian Society, an auxiliary Church 
 agency which has, during its long career, 
 rendered splendid service in the cause of 
 education in Kafirland, the school developed 
 into a well-equipped and efficient institution, 
 and became noted as a centre radiating 
 Christian and civilising influences amongst 
 the natives of the country. 
 
 Thirty-four years of age. Miss Moir was 
 older than the women missionaries who are 
 now taken on the staff, but she never saw 
 cause to think that she began too late. It 
 might be very well for younger girls to 
 undertake ordinary station work, but she 
 believed that in the case of the difficult 
 conditions and problems associated with raw 
 heathenism, age and experience count more 
 than freshness and enthusiasm. 
 
 She left Southampton in the s.s. Nubian 
 in January, 1879, the month when the Zulu 
 War opened so disastrously. The first part 
 of the voyage was very stormy, and there was 
 a great deal of sickness amongst the pas- 
 sengers, but calm came in time. The com- 
 
FROM FIFE TO SOUTH AFRICA 29 
 
 f 
 
 pany on board was a varied one, and there 
 was much to interest and amuse the un- 
 travelled but observant and shrewd Scottish 
 passenger who kept so quiet and tranquil 
 amidst the petty distractions of the journey. 
 
 In her diary are brief characterisations of 
 various persons: the Bishop who was kept 
 busy all day escorting the numerous seasick 
 ladies of his party on deck, and who preached 
 to a pale and listless few from the text, 
 " Man goeth forth to his work and to his 
 labour till the evening"; the Curate who 
 threw off his sanctimoniousness when he 
 threw off his surplice; the German who was 
 so desperate to learn English that he waylaid 
 ladies for lessons; the bejewelled diamond- 
 digger and gambler who said there was no 
 proof that the Bible was true, and who, on 
 being told to think half an hour daily, 
 declared that if he were to think he would 
 go mad; the children to whom she found 
 gingerbread cake an excellent means of 
 introduction; the lady who told her, a little 
 spitefully, that she had seen more degraded 
 people in Edinburgh and Glasgow than in 
 the whole of Natal. 
 
 After a passage of twenty-four days Cape 
 Town was reached. It was bathed in the 
 light of sunset, and Miss Moir thought she 
 
30 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 had never seen a lovelier sight. Here she 
 made her first acquaintance with the dark- 
 skinned natives, and set herself, as she said, 
 to "get used to them." At Port Elizabeth 
 she visited the places of interest, but every- 
 thing suggested " a thirsty land wherein is 
 no water." The steamer arrived at East 
 London, the port of entry for the vast 
 territory of Kafraria, late on a Saturday 
 evening, but a storm kept the passengers on 
 board until the following afternoon, when 
 she was swung over the side in a basket, and 
 landed and faced alone the strange conditions 
 of a new country. 
 
IV 
 
 A LAND OF BLOOD AND 
 SUPERSTITION 
 
 On the way out she had been studying books 
 relating to South Africa — TheaFs chiefly — 
 and taking notes, endeavouring to form 
 some conception of the country to which she 
 was proceeding, the people who occupied it, 
 and the conditions of life amongst them; 
 and gradually she built up a picture in her 
 mind which had greater elements of interest 
 than she had imagined. She knew that the 
 sub-continent of Africa was classic mission 
 ground, but she began to realise that the 
 whole story of its human occupation was 
 extraordinarily fascinating and thrilling, an 
 epic of movement over vast regions in which 
 entire races strove for mastery and survival, 
 a record of struggle, adventure, and peril, 
 and that the district in which she was being 
 located was the scene of some of the most 
 
 31 
 
32 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 dramatic episodes in the development of 
 
 events. 
 
 * ♦ ♦ * * 
 
 As she read, a vision of the country came 
 before her, and especially Kafirland itself, 
 rich in physical beauty and economic possi- 
 bilities. It lies in the eastern comer of 
 South Africa, where the coast curves round 
 from the Cape and is washed by the warm 
 waters of the Indian Ocean. From the sea 
 the land rises in a series of terraces until it 
 culminates in the lofty range of the Drakens- 
 berg. 
 
 Into this strip of territory is crowded a 
 wonderful throng of valley, wood, plateau, 
 veld, and peak, threaded by streams and 
 rivers, now low and quiescent or altogether 
 dry, now pouring down in sudden flood. A 
 pastoral and agricultural country, the chief 
 productions are sheep and cattle, maize, 
 oats, wheat and barley, and potatoes, beans, 
 and other food plants. Only small patches 
 of the soil, however, are cultivated by the 
 natives. 
 
 The seasons are the reverse of those in 
 Britain, summer extending from October to 
 March, winter from April to September. In 
 the district of Fingoland the summer is 
 uniformly hot, often with a shade tempera- 
 
A LAND OF BLOOD 33 
 
 ture of 100 to 104 degrees, and there are 
 frequent thunderstorms and hailstorms, but 
 the mornings and evenings are cool and 
 exhilarating. In winter there is a dry sun- 
 shiny cold, the temperature often falling 
 below 45 degrees, and the higher hills are 
 white with snow. 
 
 m ^ 4iit « 
 
 Then her thoughts dwelt on the history 
 of the land. South Africa was originally 
 occupied by the Bushmen, a pigmy people 
 on the lowest level of existence, but with 
 some idea of art, as drawings of animals on 
 the walls of their cave dwellings testify. 
 They were succeeded by the Hottentots, who, 
 though wild and savage, were superior to 
 them both in physical and mental qualities. 
 Their language had peculiar suction " chcks " 
 made by the tongue against the teeth or 
 palate and used for the sound of certain 
 letters. 
 
 Both Bushmen and Hottentots dwindled 
 almost to the point of extinction before 
 the advent of a stronger race, composed of 
 many groups calling themselves the Bantus, 
 who swept in great waves down from the 
 unknown north. The vanguard of the ad- 
 vancing horde moved along the south-eastern 
 seaboard, and overran the whole of the fair 
 
34 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 country as far south as the Great Fish River, 
 where it came up against the frontiers of the 
 white men. To the members of this, the 
 Xosa group, was applied the name of Kafir — 
 an Arab word meaning " unbeUever " — and 
 the region became known as Kafraria. 
 
 The Bantus were a nation of warriors who 
 acted on the principle that might was right; 
 they entertained nothing but contempt for 
 tribes who were weak and loved peace, and 
 crushed them without pity; and those whom 
 they enslaved they exploited without mercy. 
 From the Hottentots they adopted the 
 " clicks " which form so curious an element 
 in their speech to-day. 
 
 Whilst Cape Colony was being settled and 
 developed — with an occasional clash on the 
 borderland between the forces of civilization 
 and barbarism — events were taking place 
 in the interior of the continent of the most 
 appalling character. In one of the more 
 powerful Zulu groups a lad named Chaka 
 grew up, active, daring, and ambitious. Step 
 by step he rose to command the army, and 
 eventually became ruler of the tribe. He 
 was in his rude way a military genius, he 
 devised the short assegai, trained and dis- 
 ciplined his warriors into perfect efficiency, 
 and organised schemes of colossal conquest. 
 
A LAND OF BLOOD 35 
 
 When all was ready he began a course of 
 systematic subjugation, rapine, and slaughter. 
 He ravaged the continent from east to west, 
 laying waste populous regions and exter- 
 minating entire, tribes, including vast num- 
 bers of women and children. Historians 
 estimate that from first to last nearly 
 two million lives were butchered or starved 
 to death through the agencies he set in 
 motion. 
 
 Many tribes fled before the approach of 
 the destroyer, and in their turn plundered 
 and murdered as they marched. One of 
 these was the wild Angoni, who finally settled 
 on the high lands of Nyasaland, now a 
 mission-field of the United Free Church. 
 Another group, consisting of broken remnants 
 of several tribes who concealed themselves 
 in the forests and subsisted by cannibalism, 
 at last crossed the Tugela River, and made 
 their way down through Kafirland, where 
 in 1824 they were attacked and defeated by 
 the Xosa. Amamfengu they were called — 
 " vagrants, wanderers " — a word which 
 Europeans soon twisted into Fingo. They 
 were so cowed by their experiences that 
 they had no spirit to resist the harsh and 
 humiliating serfdom which was imposed upon 
 them. Events proved, however, that in sub- 
 
36 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 mitting to the yoke they were unconsciously 
 stooping to conquer. 
 
 There was no cessation of the frontier 
 troubles with the Kafirs, who periodically 
 raided the Colony and left a trail of fire and 
 blood behind. The missions of the Free 
 Church and United Presbyterian Church of 
 Scotland and other bodies stood as outposts 
 in a sort of no-man's-land and were subject 
 to perpetual alarms and often destroyed. 
 Punitive expeditions were undertaken, but 
 the Imperial Government were reluctant to 
 add to their responsibilities by acquiring 
 more territory. 
 
 During one of these campaigns the Fingoes 
 begged to be taken under British protection, 
 and about 17,000 were located south of the 
 Fish River in order that they might form a 
 buffer region between the two races. As 
 with the negroes in Jamaica and the Southern 
 States of America, the bitter experiences of 
 slavery had destroyed many of their tribal 
 customs and taught them habits of regular 
 industry, and when they regained their 
 independence they developed rapidly in 
 character and material prosperity. This was 
 specially the case when they came under the 
 influence of the missionaries. In subsequent 
 wars they proved their loyalty and fought 
 
A LAND OF BLOOD 37 
 
 well for the Government. British oflScers re- 
 ferred to them as holding prayer-meetings 
 in camp and as being an example to the 
 white soldiery. 
 
 The event which more than any other 
 brought the long struggle for supremacy to 
 an end was one of the most extraordi- 
 nary in the history of Africa. It was a case 
 of national suicide. A seer, prophesying 
 through the medium of his niece, announced 
 that orders had been received from the spirit- 
 world that the Kafir people were to kill their 
 cattle and destroy their maize and corn. As 
 soon as this was done vast herds would 
 emerge from the ground, the country would 
 smile again with grain, and there would be 
 luxuries, clothes, and guns for every one. 
 The warriors of the past would reappear, 
 and in a final conflict, the whites and the 
 Fingoes would be scattered like autumn 
 leaves and swept into the sea. All who 
 believed this, and acted in the faith of it, 
 would enjoy perpetual youth. 
 
 It was a ghttering prospect — but the cost I 
 The Kafir loves his cattle and it tears his 
 heart to part with them. There was, how- 
 ever, no escape. The paramount chief, 
 Kreli, ordered every man to obey, and the 
 work of destruction was carried through to 
 
38 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 completion. Over two hundred thousand 
 head of cattle were killed and the entire corn 
 supply was scattered to the winds. 
 
 When the time for the fulfilment of the 
 prophecy passed and the days wore on, the 
 Xosa passed through agonies of anxiety, fear, 
 disappointment, and despair. They were in 
 a land without food. Impelled at last by 
 hunger and misery they began to cysl^I into 
 Cape Colony, a nation of skeletons, multi- 
 tudes falling dead by the way. Fully 30,000 
 men, women, and children perished. In a 
 short time the country beyond the Kei 
 River — the Trans-kei — was depopulated and 
 deserted, and nothing but empty kraals and 
 heaps of snow-white bones were left to tell 
 the tale of a people's magnificent faith and 
 incredible folly. 
 
 The policy of the Imperial Government 
 was still against the extension of colonial 
 territory, and the desolated upper part of 
 the Transkei was, therefore, offered to the 
 Fingoes. They flocked over in their thou- 
 sands. Many Christians were amongst them, 
 but also some of the worst characters that 
 heathenism develops. These naturally kept 
 together and settled in out-of-the-way 
 districts. 
 
 It was thus that Fingoland came into 
 
A LAND OF BLOOD 39 
 
 existence. Missionaries of the Free Church 
 and the United Presbyterian Church at once 
 followed up the migrants, and divided the 
 region into two zones of influence. The Rev. 
 Tiyo Soga, then missionary at Emgwali, 
 chose a site in the United Presbyterian sphere 
 for a station among the Christians who had 
 settled at Mbulu, and the work of organising 
 and establishing a mission was entrusted to 
 the Rev. John Sclater, who came from Scot- 
 land for the purpose. This station soon 
 became well known throughout the Church 
 at home. To Mr. Sclater succeeded first 
 Major Malan, a Christian soldier, and then 
 the Rev. James Davidson, who went through 
 the last Kafir war in 1877, when four United 
 Presbyterian stations were plundered and 
 destroyed. Though Mbulu was only a few 
 hours' march from the scene of hostilities, 
 Mr. Davidson stuck fearlessly to his post, 
 as also did his Free Church neighbour at 
 Cunningham.^ 
 
 ^ ¥it m * 
 
 Of the people in their present condition 
 she knew only what was told discreetly in 
 the books. There was much to their credit. 
 
 * In this story the term Mbulu is applied to the district, and 
 the station is given its recent name of Paterson after Mrs. 
 Sclater's uncle, the Rev. Dr. Paterson of Kirkwall. 
 
40 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 A brave, robust race, proud and independent, 
 and possessing abundant intellectual ability, 
 they appealed to her own strong nature. 
 Though they had lost their tribal govern- 
 ment and many of their habits had been 
 modified in contact with civilisation, they 
 had changed little in essential character and 
 the great bulk were still heathen. 
 
 They lived, she learnt, in kraals or vil- 
 lages of beehive-shaped huts constructed of 
 wattle-and-daub or sods, with only one low 
 opening, which served as door, no chimney, 
 and little or no furniture. Formerly they 
 clothed themselves with the skins of animals, 
 now they wore blankets which they folded 
 gracefully over their bodies, and they 
 adorned themselves with necklets and arm- 
 lets of beads, and copper and iron rings. As 
 a protection from the sun and insects they 
 rubbed their skin and blankets with red clay 
 mixed with fat, hence the name " red " 
 Kafir; when they became Christians the 
 clay and the blanket were renounced in 
 favour of civilised dress. Polygamy pre- 
 vailed. Women occupied an inferior posi- 
 tion, being bought in marriage for a dowry 
 of stock, and a man calculated his wealth 
 by the number of wives and cattle he owned. 
 
 Her chief interest was in their religious 
 

 A WITCH-DOCTOR 
 
( c c t 
 
A LAND OF BLOOD 41 
 
 position, and she gathered that though their 
 folk-lore showed considerable powers of 
 imagination they had never reached forward 
 to any true spiritual conceptions. What 
 might be called their religion was a hazy 
 mixture of magic and mystery. The Un- 
 seen to them was peopled by malignant 
 spirits, and their lives were haunted by super- 
 stitious fears which were played upon, for 
 his own profit, by the witch-doctor or priest. 
 Some of their tribal rites were repulsive 
 in the extreme, and virtue under the condi- 
 tions imposed by custom was impossible. 
 But such a general statement conveyed 
 nothing to her. What it really meant she 
 was to learn, to her horror, in the days to 
 come. 
 
OVER THE VELD TO PATERSON 
 
 Knowing no one in East London Miss Moir 
 made her way to the nearest hotel. Next 
 day she went down to the Custom House to 
 secure her luggage. As she stood in the 
 crowd she heard some one say, " I've been 
 looking a' day for a Miss Moa-r, and I'm 
 blowed if I can fin-nd her." 
 
 She turned and saw a young man. " I'm 
 Miss Moir," she said, smiling. 
 
 Instantly his manner changed; he be- 
 came extremely polite, and stated that he 
 had been sent by Mr. Coutts, the agent of 
 the steamship line, to find her. Mr. Coutts, 
 a Scot, was known as the "guardian angel 
 of the missionaries " on account of the 
 kindly interest he took in their welfare. He 
 looked after the affairs of new arrivals, 
 arranged their journey into the interior, and 
 saw them off by train. To his care Miss 
 Moir gracefully committed herself. 
 
 43 
 
OVER THE VELD TO PATERSON 43 
 
 Early in the morning, without breakfast, 
 she boarded a train for Peelton, thirty-eight 
 miles up country. At the first stoppage she 
 felt the need of food and asked the guard 
 how long the train waited. " Oh," he said, 
 "just till you're ready," and she had there- 
 fore time for her cup of tea. With her 
 usual helpfulness she carried another cup to 
 her sole fellow-passenger, a decent country 
 woman with a babe in her arms, and was 
 presented in turn with a rosy-cheeked apple 
 which, somehow, brought up a memory of 
 Scotland. 
 
 From Peelton she proceeded over the veld 
 by bullock wagon to Emgwali, a garden on 
 the rolling expanse of bare country, and was 
 received by the Principal, then Miss Ogilvie, 
 who was called by her Kafir girls " the mother 
 of the sorrowful." The new teacher was 
 warmly welcomed by the native women — 
 amongst whom were two widows of Sandilli, 
 the famous chief of the Gaika tribe, who had 
 taken part in the last rebellion. ** Some- 
 times," they said, " we feel inclined to doubt 
 the goodness of God, but we thank Him for 
 sending another teacher. We did not know 
 we had so many kind friends over the sea." 
 
 She continued the task of acquiring the 
 language with the quiet resolution habitual 
 
44 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 to her. Kafir is not easy; it is more difficult 
 than the Efik spoken in Calabar though not 
 more difficult than Chinese or the tongues 
 of India. It was odd to hear it spoken and 
 sung in all its native vigour by the people; 
 owing to the " clicks " in many of the words 
 it seemed as if she were hstening to a collec- 
 tion of clocks ticking or a body of carters 
 starting their horses. 
 
 She found that her name was a stumbUng- 
 block. There is no sound of " r " in Kafir — 
 the word Kafir itself is foreign to them — 
 and they could not pronounce " Miss Moir " 
 but they soon turned it into " Miss Moyana " 
 or " 'Smoyana " by which she was ever after- 
 wards known. As Moyana means ** a 
 breath " (in a spiritual sense) or " a httle 
 breeze," it was not an inappropriate designa- 
 tion for one who was destined to come into 
 their lives so often like a breath of pure air 
 from the fields of God. 
 
 She had not long, however, to sit and 
 hear the strange " ha, he, ho" of the children 
 at their lessons. Word came from Paterson 
 that Mrs. Davidson, the wife of the mis- 
 sionary, was seriously ill, and that a helper 
 was urgently required. Miss Moir was 
 chosen to go. 
 
 Travelling all day through a rain-washed 
 
OVER THE VELD TO PATERSON 45 
 
 land bright with geraniums and aloes she 
 camped after sunset, gipsy fashion, and 
 next morning crossed the Kei River in a 
 wagon drawn by fourteen oxen and arrived 
 the same evening at Paterson. 
 
 The beauty of its situation appealed to 
 her. The station stood on a slight eminence 
 at the head of the Mbulu Valley and com- 
 manded a far-stretching view down towards 
 the Tsomo River and away to the mountains 
 about the Kei. High hills, that suggested 
 to her the slopes of Arran, enclosed it, with 
 richly wooded glens softening their lower 
 outlines. Here and there, in open spaces, 
 or half -hidden by vegetation, the round huts 
 of the natives clung to the ground like limpets 
 to the rocks on the shore. From the heights 
 immediately above a magnificent prospect 
 was obtained as far north as the Stormberg 
 Range. The manse, a little below the 
 church, was a goodly building with a garden 
 stocked with orange and other fruit trees 
 and flanked by singing streams. 
 
 So, in the ordering of her life she came 
 to the district where her work in the future 
 was to lie. But there were years of training 
 and hard experiences to be undergone before 
 she finally settled in the niche that was 
 waiting for her. 
 
46 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Those who remember her at this time 
 state that she was very cheerful and happy. 
 She evinced a high conception of duty and 
 had evidently surrendered herself completely 
 to the service she had chosen. Strongly 
 built, slow and deliberate in speech and 
 manner, she impressed them as one who 
 would persevere steadfastly in whatever 
 task she undertook and would never deviate 
 from it because conditions did not square 
 with preconceived notions. How true the 
 estimate was her subsequent career will show. 
 
VI 
 
 SCHOOJL AND KRAAL 
 
 Her advent at Paterson synchronised with 
 an event which she always remembered 
 with pleasure. She had not been more than 
 a day or two in the manse when the Rev. 
 Dr. Laws, then engaged in founding the 
 Livingstonia mission in Nyasaland, paid the 
 Davidsons a visit. The famous missionary 
 gave an address to the Christian and heathen 
 population in which he told them a little of 
 his life-story, described the work of explora- 
 tion and settlement in which he was engaged, 
 and asked for men to assist. Two natives 
 oflfered themselves as evangehsts. 
 
 Perhaps what struck her most at first 
 was the extraordinary amount of work de- 
 volving upon the missionary. He had a 
 population of from nine to ten thousand 
 under his care: there were many out- 
 stations, one thirty miles away, one twenty- 
 five miles, another twenty miles, a fourth 
 
 47 
 
48 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 eleven, a fifth ten and so on; the day schools 
 numbered nine with 550 scholars, the Sunday- 
 schools ten with forty-nine teachers and 452 
 scholars. The mountainous nature of the 
 country added greatly to the difficulty of 
 traveUing and the fatigue incurred in super- 
 vising his vast " parish," and it was always 
 a wonder to her how he compassed all he 
 had to do. Yet his was not an uncommon 
 ease in the South African mission-field. 
 
 She soon learned, also, to realise how 
 potent a force the missionary's wife was 
 in a South African mission-station, and to 
 have compassion on her. The missionary 
 had his varied travelling and intercourse 
 with teachers, agents, and visitors to keep 
 his spirit fresh, but upon the wife lay the 
 monotonous burden of domestic manage- 
 ment, and the handUng of a thousand and 
 one irritating details. Often there were hard- 
 ships of no ordinary kind to be endured, 
 involving risk to strength and health, but 
 the difficulties and trials were faced and 
 overcome with uncommon courage and cheer- 
 fulness. 
 
 The advent of a white teacher, trust- 
 worthy and efficient, brought great relief to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Davidson. She was entrusted 
 with a large part of the day school work in 
 
SCHOOL AND KRAAL 49 
 
 conjunction with the native teacher. There 
 was an average of sixty scholars but the 
 numbers soon doubled. They were the 
 children of Christian and heathen parents 
 and attended in all sorts of attire. Most 
 of the boys wore long shirts; some had 
 jackets but no trousers. One was arrayed 
 in a soldier s old coat, and all displayed brass 
 rings. The girls came in prints and shawls 
 and without shoes or hats. The latter were 
 taught sewing and knitting in addition to 
 the ordinary subjects. 
 
 The school was not without children of 
 an older growth. One six-foot lad strove 
 hard to keep dux of his class. Another 
 " boy " twenty-four years old, and married, 
 came thirty miles to attend the white 
 teacher's reading lessons. Such ambition 
 did not seem unnatural to Miss Moir after 
 she had talked with a man who oflfered her 
 <£5 if she would teach his child to be a good 
 arithmetician. 
 
 " I will do it without a premium," she 
 said. " But why are you so anxious about 
 it?" 
 
 " I went," he replied, " to the white man's 
 shop to buy a blanket, and was made to pay 
 16s. for it. Afterwards I found a ticket on 
 it which I was told was marked 10s. I want 
 
50 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 my boy to read so that he may not be cheated 
 when he grows up." 
 
 "Very well," she agreed; "but he shall 
 be taught something for the life to come as 
 well as for this one." 
 
 Coming out of the " red " huts, the 
 children were often in an unfit state for 
 school and a dozen at a time would be sent 
 down to the river to be cleansed. Their 
 quaint ways were a perpetual source of 
 interest and amusement. A little house- 
 hold girl, when her turn came to repeat a 
 verse from the Bible, thought a moment and 
 said, "God loves me; me loves God." 
 "Where is that found?" she was asked. 
 " Oh," she replied, " me make it up ; me 
 in a hurry; not time to learn." 
 
 Even at so long-established a station as 
 Paterson the desire to take advantage of 
 the school was by no means general. Many 
 heathen parents placed it under a rigid 
 boycott and threatened to beat their children 
 if they ventured near. 
 
 There was one girl with a gentle voice 
 and kind disposition who attracted the 
 • teacher's attention by her eagerness to learn. 
 She was the daughter of a heathen and had, 
 when an infant, been thrown out to die by 
 her grandmother because she seemed too 
 
SCHOOL AND KRAAL 51 
 
 sickly to live. Her cries caused her mother 
 to crawl out and bring her in, and she was 
 nursed into strength, and was now a fine 
 healthy girl of thirteen. Her father pro- 
 posed to remove her from school, and in 
 dread of the bfow she one day shyly asked 
 her teacher to visit him. His hut was on a 
 plateau at the end of the valley with a 
 magnificent view. She found him to be a 
 tall muscular man, clad in a blanket, seared 
 and worldly, and afraid lest Bekiwe would 
 not wish to be sold for cattle when she came 
 of age. 
 
 Miss Moir thanked him for allowing the 
 child to attend school. 
 
 " I didn't send her,'* he said roughly, 
 " she went herself," adding significantly, 
 " when these clothes are done where is she 
 to get new ones? " 
 
 " If Bekiwe trusts in God He will provide 
 for her." 
 
 Some time afterwards Bekiwe received a 
 shawl from a Sunday School in Scotland, 
 and she said to Miss Moir, " 'Smoyana, you 
 said if I trusted in God He would provide, 
 and He has sent this." 
 
 In a letter of thanks to the children of 
 the Sunday School she said: "My parents 
 are heathen, I am a believer, but they are 
 
52 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 not like me, believing. The place I live at 
 is the place where the heathen sit. I am 
 the only person who dresses." 
 
 "What made you think of going to 
 school ? " her teacher once asked her. 
 
 "When I looked at my father's pass," 
 was her reply, alluding to the written per- 
 mission to travel obtained by natives from 
 the magistrate, " I thought I would like to 
 read it and so decided to come to school 
 for a year. God came into my heart and 
 then I had no wish to leave." 
 
 Of Bekiwe we shall hear again. 
 
 Another important work Miss Moir under- 
 took was to visit the kraals on Sunday 
 mornings accompanied by a bodyguard of 
 the Christian children who formed a kind of 
 choir. In this way she came close to heathen 
 life in its stark squalor and degradation, and 
 to the heathen mind, so curiously simple and 
 yet so bafflingly complex. 
 
 Not always was she welcome. Some men, 
 when they saw her coming, would slink away 
 up the mountain — " to look after their 
 sheep," they said. One exclaimed in disgust, 
 "You are always speaking about your gods. 
 I am sick of it." Another muttered, " God 
 will be with us whether we love sin or not." 
 After she had spoken on the resurrection. 
 
SCHOOL AND KRAAL 53 
 
 one protested indignantly, " I will not rise 
 from the dead." The only comment of a 
 yoimg man on an address she gave on prayer 
 was, " Can I get what I want from God ? " — 
 then, in an undertone, " I would like a 
 jacket." 
 
 This materialistic attitude of mind some- 
 times had startling manifestations. One day 
 she was sitting in a kraal in the midst of a 
 group of half-naked men and women decked 
 with ornaments of beads and coins. They 
 were cooking, eating, or lounging, while lean 
 dogs roamed around. She began to tell 
 them the story of the Crucifixion. As she 
 spoke the women fastened their eyes upon 
 her, their hearts touched by the pathos of 
 the great world-tragedy. When she finished 
 they expressed their horror at the cruelty of 
 the men who had put so gentle a Saviour to 
 death. Then one young man, covered with 
 beads, rose, and with dramatic posturings 
 showed how He had hung on the Cross and 
 suffered and died. 
 
 She never lost patience with them. 
 Quietly, doggedly, unceasingly, she taught 
 them the love of God and the principles of 
 the redemptive gospel. When she asked 
 one man what he would do with his child if 
 the latter would nof come to him or obey 
 
54 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 him, he said: "I would speak pleasantly 
 to it and induce it to come." " That is 
 what I mean to do to you until I bring you 
 to the Great Father," was her reply. 
 
 " Never mind the people not treating you 
 kindly, 'Smoyana," remarked another man. 
 " They are ignorant and foolish, and know 
 nothing; go on and teach them." 
 
 From time to time a wave of spiritual 
 conviction and surrender moved the district 
 and swept considerable numbers into the 
 membership of the Church. These occasions 
 often followed prayer-meetings which were 
 held by the people themselves and were 
 carried on throughout the night. 
 
 One evening the women of the Church 
 met for prayer in a Fingo hut. Mr. Davidson 
 and his daughter and Miss Moir went over 
 and entered, and sat with the natives on the 
 floor. The place was dimly lighted by a 
 candle and a lamp, and in the rows of dark, 
 intent faces they saw many of the school 
 children. Some of the women were in tears; 
 one grew so excited that she overturned the 
 lamp. When the missionaries left at ten 
 o'clock the meeting was in full progress. 
 
 In the early hours of the morning Miss 
 Moir was awakened by the sound of weeping, 
 and discovered that it came from the people, 
 
SCHOOL AND KRAAL 55 
 
 who were marching in the darkness from the 
 hut to the Church. Many were in deep 
 distress and crying out to God. At half-past 
 four Mr. Davidson and Miss Moir went up 
 with candles, and the missionary held a 
 short service and then advised all to go home. 
 They left, but gathered again in the hut, 
 and continued until morning in prayer. 
 Some hours later, when Miss Moir was in 
 school, which was held in the Church, the 
 women who had been at the meeting entered 
 the building. School was dismissed, the 
 bell was rung, and another prayer-service 
 was held. Mr. Davidson asked all who 
 wished to give themselves to Christ to stand 
 up, and forty did so. 
 
 On another occasion the church bell was 
 heard ringing at one o'clock in the morning. 
 Mrs. Davidson and Miss Moir rose and went 
 to the church, and found a company labour- 
 ing under great excitement. Men were on 
 their knees praying fervently. One was 
 huddled at the door weeping. A woman in 
 heathen dress with a baby on her back cried 
 aloud, " Lamb of God, take away my sins ! " 
 Mrs. Davidson addressed and quieted them, 
 and they gradually dispersed. 
 
VII 
 
 ON THE EDGE OF REBELLION 
 
 The country had never quite settled down 
 to conditions of peace, and there were 
 occasions when the outlook caused anxiety. 
 One night when Mr. Davidson was at an out- 
 station, and Mrs. Davidson and Miss Moir 
 were alone in the manse, a wild cat en- 
 deavoured to gain entrance into the fowl- 
 house. At midnight Mrs. Davidson arose 
 and opened her window and shouted in the 
 endeavour to frighten the animal away. 
 Then fearing that Miss Moir would be 
 alarmed she went to her room and explained. 
 
 " Oh," was the calm reply, " I thought 
 the rebels had come and were murdering 
 you, and I was just waiting my turn!" 
 
 After the Zulu uprising the Cape Govern- 
 ment thought it wise in the interests of 
 peace, to disarm all natives throughout the 
 country. The Basuto tribe refused to comply 
 with the requirement and hostilities ensued. 
 
 66 
 
ON THE EDGE OF REBELLION 57 
 
 The disaffection extended to the territory 
 adjoining Fingoland, occupied by the Tembu 
 and Pondomisi clans, the boundary of which 
 was only three hours' ride from Paterson. 
 
 Towards the close of 1880 rumours of 
 rebeUion began to reach the manse. The 
 Fingoes grew alarmed, for in such racial 
 conflicts they were always classed with the 
 Europeans. " What can we do ? " asked a 
 woman. " We have been disarmed. The 
 minister will need to pray hard for us." 
 
 Then news came of a magistrate having 
 been treacherously slain, of white traders 
 and Fingoes being murdered, of shops being 
 plundered and wrecked, and of refugees 
 escaping over the border. All available 
 forces were mobilised, and mounted police 
 patrolled the district. As an attack was 
 expected, the party at the manse were 
 ordered to be ready for instant flight. They 
 buried their valuables in the garden, made 
 up a change of clothes, and placed their 
 coats and ulsters where they could be swiftly 
 picked up. 
 
 Mr. Davidson, however, was unwilling to 
 leave unless he were driven out by force. 
 He had been through one war already, and 
 was not afraid. He held Communion and 
 took as his text, " Should such a man as I 
 
58 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 flee ? " "I prefer," he said, " to die at my 
 post of duty." When the levies departed 
 for the front the women of the district went 
 up to a mountain overlooking the rendezvous 
 to watch and pray. 
 
 From the out-station of Lutuli, within an 
 hour's ride of the enemy, came a request that 
 Communion might also be dispensed there 
 before the men left for Tembuland. Mr, 
 and Mrs. Davidson at once responded to the 
 appeal, and Miss Moir accompanied them. 
 They found a large company gathered, in- 
 cluding many heathen, with badges on, 
 ready for action. 
 
 As the service proceeded, a little girl, the 
 daughter of the chief, tiptoed into the church, 
 and approaching her father who was officiat- 
 ing as an elder, whispered something in his 
 ear. He rose and went up to Mr. Davidson. 
 
 " Make haste," he said, " a mounted 
 messenger has brought word that fighting 
 has begun and we must go." 
 
 The heathen men left the building, and 
 saddled the horses while Communion was 
 dispensed, the chief performing his duties as 
 calmly as on an ordinary occasion. 
 
 Then the women gathered round their 
 husbands and sons and bade them " Good- 
 bye." There was no sighing or sobbing 
 
ON THE EDGE OF REBELLION 59 
 
 then, but when the company had passed out 
 of sight they came together to weep and 
 pray. 
 
 On the way back to Paterson the mis- 
 sionaries saw huts burning on both sides of 
 the border, and encountered many fighting 
 men hurrying to the scene as well as Fingoes 
 fleeing from the enemy country. 
 
 Some hours later the women of both 
 stations met, and ascending a high hill 
 remained there in intercession from sunrise 
 to sunset. 
 
 The missionaries were perpetually on the 
 alert, but the news that was brought of the 
 progress of the operations became less alarm- 
 ing. Shortly after the paramount chief of 
 the Tembus had set fire to a mission-station 
 he was killed, and the conflict slackened. 
 Then other chiefs surrendered, and the war 
 was over. The Mbulu contingent returned 
 without loss. 
 
VIII 
 
 HAIL, RAIN, LIGHTNING 
 
 The work of the station resumed its normal 
 course, the only disturbing events being the 
 occurrence of droughts, floods, and storms. 
 Hailstones on one occasion broke most of 
 the windows in the mission-house. The 
 dry spells were particularly trying; so high 
 did the temperature sometimes rise that 
 even the natives were injuriously affected. 
 Prayer-meetings for rain were usually held 
 at such periods, and Miss Moir's testimony 
 as to their effect is remarkable. Once, for 
 instance, a drought was being experienced, 
 suffering was imminent, and a day of humilia- 
 tion and prayer was appointed by the chief 
 magistrate of Fingoland. The morning was 
 sultry and intensely hot, the wind blowing 
 as from a furnace. At a kraal near the 
 station Miss Moir held a service, and told 
 the people of the efficacy of genuine inter- 
 cession. An evangelist began fervently to 
 
 w 
 
HAIL, RAIN, LIGHTNING 61 
 
 pray that the drought would break. As he 
 went on, a peal of thunder was heard, rain 
 began to fall, and Miss Moir was drenched 
 before she reached the manse. 
 
 After a period of scorching heat a thunder- 
 storm broke over Mbulu. The lightning 
 played vividly about the station, and the 
 thunder crashed and rolled with long rever- 
 berations down the valley. After one terrific 
 peal came the cry, " The church is on fire ! " 
 There was a rush to the building, but the 
 natives were afraid to venture near. When 
 rain began to pour down an attempt was 
 made to save some of the furnishings; one 
 man seized the clock, another the Bible and 
 copy-books, others the seats and door; but 
 all else was consumed. 
 
 It was a disaster, but not irremediable. 
 The people at once resolved to proceed with 
 the erection of a new and better building. 
 With the self-denial which has always been 
 characteristic of the Christian members of 
 the tribe, they gave freely of their time, 
 labour, and money. They quarried the 
 stones and provided oxen to convey these 
 to the site. They offered gifts large and 
 small. The children brought every penny 
 they saved. Two boys of ten who went a 
 long day's journey with a message received 
 
62 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 a shilling for their trouble. Tired and 
 hungry, they appeared at the mission-house 
 and asked for two sixpences in exchange. 
 Next morning at school they tendered a 
 sixpence each " to build the church." Be- 
 kiwe received Is. 6d. to provide herself with 
 a new jacket. Before going to buy it, she 
 also handed in a sixpence. 
 
 When the foundation-stone was laid, a 
 horse, sheep, and other live-stock were cheer- 
 fully given. The spirit of the people was 
 amusingly shown by a competition which 
 took place between a native teacher and his 
 mother-in-law. She put down a penny. He 
 laid down a threepenny piece. She capped 
 it with another penny. He placed a three- 
 penny piece on that. And so the friendly 
 contest went on until her tenth and last 
 penny was gone; but not to be outdone, she 
 went and brought half a dozen eggs and set 
 them down. 
 
 Contributions in kind were often given to 
 the mission. A woman once appeared with 
 a pot and bundle on her back. She laid 
 down the pot, lifted the lid, and let out four 
 chickens. Then, opening the bundle, she 
 released the mother-hen, saying: " Take 
 them; it is my offering to the Lord." When 
 the church at the out-station of Incisininde 
 
HAIL, RAIN, LIGHTNING 63 
 
 was opened, one teacher gave <£l for himself 
 and a sheep for his boy; another, a clock; 
 a third, window-blinds; a fourth, pennies 
 equal to the number of his scholars — 120. 
 A heathen chief in Highland cloak and ear- 
 rings said: "I give a sheep for my first 
 wife, a sheep for my second wife, a sheep for 
 my third wife, a sheep for my fourth wife, 
 and a sheep for myself." Many gave again 
 and again. The total amount received on 
 that occasion was £120. 
 
 ^ * ^ ^ 
 
 The three years for which Miss Moir had 
 engaged herself were at an end. According 
 to Mr. Davidson she had done splendid work, 
 and he was sorry to lose her. So were the 
 people. They came to bid her farewell, 
 giving her " tickies " — threepenny-pieces — 
 to keep them in remembrance. One of 
 these was also sent to their old missionary, 
 Mr. Sclater, with a message: " Ahahlolohazi 
 baka Esiguhudweni ha - hulisa Umfundisi 
 Slatelli pesheza holwandle, hakulu " — " The 
 widow women of Esiguhudweni greet Rev. 
 Mr. Sclater over the sea very much." Two 
 little boys in shirts shyly presented her with 
 a shilling, " to buy food for the way." 
 
 She received two quaint addresses, one 
 from the scholars, 115 in number, and one 
 
64 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 from the teacher. The latter, referring to 
 her " humble heart," said " Miss Moir was 
 so kind that I had almost forgotten she was 
 a white person. She didn't show any differ- 
 ence in colour for the whole of the three 
 years she was here." He praised her for 
 being so good a mother to the "little dirty 
 Fingo children," and then he drew a picture 
 of how " their little eyes " would be gazing 
 away in the direction of Kei looking for the 
 return of "their good kind Miss Moir — ^in 
 vain." 
 
IX 
 
 THE END OF HER ROMANCE 
 
 She reached Scotland to find her old romance 
 risen, like a ghost from the past, to mock her 
 with the thought of what might have been. 
 The mystery of the broken relationship had 
 been solved. The explanation was simple 
 and no blame attached to the lovers. It had 
 been a case of jealousy and intercepted 
 correspondence. 
 
 The banker learnt the reason when it was 
 too late. To his dismay he found that she 
 was engaged to Mr. Forsyth, who now came 
 from South America to claim his bride. The 
 tragedy of unfulfilled dreams was hastening 
 to its close. 
 
 After spending a time at Cairneyhill Miss 
 Moir was married to Mr. Forsyth in Glasgow, 
 and the couple went to reside in London. 
 But the lure of the gold-fields continued to 
 draw the mining prospector. At this period 
 the Transvaal was coming into notice as a 
 
 65 
 
66 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 gold-producing area. The first really suc- 
 cessful field in South Africa was that near 
 Lydenburg — rich alluvial ground from which 
 nuggets many pounds in weight were being 
 unearthed. Mr. Forsyth made up his mind 
 to try his fortune there, and a few months 
 later the couple were settled at the pictur- 
 esque mining town among the mountains. 
 
 Their married life was brief. Little more 
 than a year afterwards Mr. Forsyth was 
 fording the Komati River on horseback 
 when his saddle shifted in mid-stream, and 
 he was swept away by the flood-waters and 
 drowned. The news was broken to Mrs. 
 Forsyth by two members of the Dutch 
 Reformed Presbyterian Church, the elder of 
 whom slipped into her hand a paper on which 
 was written, " Thy Maker is thy Husband." 
 
 Her life again seemed to lie in ruins about 
 her, but there was one bright gleam in the 
 darkness. She received a letter from her 
 former lover offering her a home with his 
 two sisters. Though deeply touched by his 
 thoughfulness and devotion, she felt she 
 could not accept his bounty, and he ac- 
 quiesced. A few hasty lines which he sent her 
 reveal his poignant sorrow and resignation: 
 
 We may not meet to tell the tale 
 Of all our griefs and fears, 
 
THE END OF HER ROMANCE 67 
 
 To mark the ravage time has wrought 
 
 Within three dreary years. 
 
 We may not meet in this cold world 
 
 But we shall meet above. 
 
 And for the pains we've suffered here 
 
 We'll rea'p abundant love. 
 
 We may not meet to tell the tale 
 
 Of those we trusted long ago, 
 
 Who stood by us in times of peace 
 
 But left us in our woe. 
 
 It may be added that some years later, 
 having retu'ed in ill-health, he died in 
 Edinburgh. Thus ended our heroine's one 
 real romance, though its memory, at once 
 bitter and sweet, had always power to move 
 her strong, reserved nature to its depths. 
 
 ¥li ^ ^ ¥^ 
 
 She faced the future with a brave heart. 
 Her income would only be £40 per annum, 
 and it was not possible to do much on that. 
 She could, of course, return to Scotland and 
 spend the remainder of her days in some 
 narrow and obscure position; but her nature 
 craved a less conventional outlet, and her 
 thoughts turned longingly again to the 
 mission-field. She would never be able to 
 emulate the missionaries, with their extensive 
 spheres and great range of service, but she 
 felt in all humility that she might be able to 
 fill a niche somewhere — perhaps undertake 
 
68 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 the kind of work a Biblewoman did at home. 
 She was willing to go forth, not knowing or 
 caring whither, and make her home alone in 
 the desert with only the heathen around her. 
 
 A letter was soon on its way to the Mission 
 Board of the United Presbyterian Church in 
 Scotland offering her services as a voluntary 
 worker for Kafraria. She made it quite 
 clear that she would ask nothing from the 
 resources of the Church. 
 
 " I should not like to displace any worker 
 now engaged," she wrote; "I only wish to 
 help the cause of God with my time, influence, 
 and means. I will go where there is the 
 greatest need, where a missionary is away 
 on furlough, where there is a missionary 
 family in sickness or trouble, or where there 
 is an out-station with native chief without 
 a missionary. If the Board will point out 
 the place where my time will be most use- 
 fully employed, I am ready at once to go 
 and begin." 
 
 So fine and disinterested an offer was 
 accepted with gratitude, and she was asked 
 to go, in the first place, to Paterson. Selling 
 her house, she returned by the new route 
 through Portuguese East Africa to Delagoa 
 Bay, and thence to East London and Pater- 
 son, which she reached early in the year 1886. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE HEAT AND BURDEN OF THE 
 DAY 
 
 Abe 41-67 
 
IN THE DEN OF "WOLVES" 
 
 Me. and Mrs. Davidson were glad to see 
 their old assistant once more. Her face was 
 shadowed by the suffering of her experiences, 
 but her smile was as calm and sweet as ever. 
 They hoped she would settle down into her 
 former work, and were disappointed to hear 
 that she had determined on a new line of 
 service. She wished, she said, to be placed 
 alone in some out-district in connection with 
 the mission — preferably the most backward 
 region — ^where she could have a definite bit 
 of work to do and be responsible for it. 
 
 There was no need to discuss where that 
 was. The thoughts of the missionary at 
 once travelled to it — Xolobe^ about ten 
 miles away to the north-west, an isolated 
 " pocket " of heathenism between the Xolobe 
 and the Kei Rivers. He recalled the route 
 to it — the long stretch through a rocky canon, 
 
 * The ** X " in Xolobe is pronounced with a click. 
 
72 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 the steep climb up the mountain-side covered 
 with scrub, the rough ride through open 
 country, the descent by sheep and cattle- 
 track into another valley, and then the little 
 knob of ground with the dark circular huts 
 of the natives mottling the landscape round. 
 
 Half -jestingly he said, "Well, there is 
 Xolobe." 
 
 " Send me there," she replied. 
 
 He looked astonished. 
 
 " But," he remonstrated, " you know what 
 it is — a wild region of unbroken heathenism. 
 The people are the off-scourings of the emi- 
 grant Fingoes whom degradation and badness 
 have kept together. 'Wolves,' one of my 
 elders calls them. For years I have wrought 
 there with some of my best agents but have 
 made no headway amongst the rude and bar- 
 barous population. They are lazy, liars, and 
 notorious thieves. Again and again I have 
 tried, and again and again, on account of 
 the opposition, I have had to close the school 
 and leave the place to itself. It would never 
 do for you to go there alone." 
 
 *' I will go at once," she said. It was ex- 
 actly the kind of service which appealed to 
 her faith and courage. 
 
 He regarded her thoughtfully. She was 
 
IN THE DEN OF " WOLVES " 73 
 
 strong and capable, a woman of experience — 
 she was now forty-one years of age — and 
 knew her own power and capacity for holding 
 out. It was possible that she would succeed 
 where others liad failed. 
 
 He made one more objection. 
 
 " It would be a poor sort of life for you; 
 it would be very lonely; it would be giving 
 up too much." 
 
 But she only smiled as knowing better, for 
 she thought of some lines by Dr. Walter C. 
 Smith which she had learnt by heart and 
 were a kind of motto guiding all her actions: 
 
 All through life I see a Cross 
 Where sons of God yield up their breath; 
 There is no gain except by loss, 
 There is no life except by death. 
 There is no vision but by faith; 
 No glory but by bearing shame. 
 No justice but by taking blame: 
 And that Eternal Passion saith, 
 " Be emptied of glory and right and name." 
 
 Her confidence impressed and fortified 
 him. The longer he thought of the idea the 
 more it appealed to him, and at last he de- 
 cided to let her go. 
 
 When the project became known to the 
 scattered European residents strong disap- 
 proval was expressed. They thought she 
 
74 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 should not be permitted to take the risk of 
 living alone in such an isolated and wild 
 locality among a degraded class of natives 
 addicted to the worst practices of heath- 
 enism. 
 
 Mr. Newton O. Thompson, the magistrate 
 of the Tsomo district, was much concerned on 
 her behalf, and wondered whether it would 
 be wise to allow her to carry out her wish. 
 " The majority of natives," he writes, " be- 
 longed to the class known as ' reds.' To 
 make matters worse many of these people 
 had no desire to be interfered with, and con- 
 sequently regarded the coming of a lady- 
 missionary into the location with suspicion. 
 Some were much addicted to beer-drinking, 
 and on such occasions wer^ anything but 
 pleasant neighbours." 
 
 Mr. Davidson, however, said that his own 
 doubts had vanished and he thought there 
 need be no anxiety as to her safety, and this 
 settled the matter. 
 
 Packing her baggage into a wagon and 
 taking one of the Paterson elders with her 
 she set off, and, after a toilsome journey, 
 arrived at Xolobe. Surveying the conditions 
 of the district, she saw that all Christian 
 work and influence had gone to pieces, and 
 standing in the midst of the moral desolation 
 her heart sank within her. She wondered. . . 
 
fe= 
 
IN THE DEN OF "WOLVES" 75 
 
 "How many Christians are there?" she 
 asked the elder. 
 
 " One," he replied. 
 
 Taking her Bible, she turned over its 
 pages thoughtfully and read in Ezekiel: 
 
 " The heathen that are left round about 
 you shall know that I the Lord build the 
 ruined places j and plant that that was deso- 
 late: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will 
 
 do itr 
 
 And then there came into her mind a vision 
 of Xolobe won for Christ, and from that 
 moment she never faltered. 
 
 A lover of nature, she was helped by the 
 beauty of her environment. The mission 
 reserve was situated on a lip of land sur- 
 rounded by majestic precipices and steep 
 hill-sides covered here and there with patches 
 of woodland or bush, and was almost com- 
 pletely isolated by a couple of streams which, 
 after a series of minor falls, met and flowed 
 on to join the Great Kei River. Down the 
 valley her eye rested upon high hills faced 
 with rugged rock, clustering kraals, fertile 
 fields, and herds of cattle and flocks of sheep 
 and goats tended by native boys. The scarlet 
 aloe relieved the sombre greens by its splashes 
 of brilliant colour. As the fleeting changes 
 of light and shadow settled into the soft 
 tones of evening the fierce and naked fronts 
 
76 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 of the heights were lit up with glory, orange 
 and rose and purple, and then all suddenly 
 faded into the darkness and stillness of the 
 night with wreaths of white mist traihng 
 mysteriously in the dimness and lights glim- 
 mering here and there through the open door- 
 way of huts. 
 
 She lay down that night in a Kafir hut 
 on the tops of the boxes she had brought 
 with her, and covered herself with a shawl. 
 But she could not sleep, and was early up 
 and about in the morning. Xolobe in the 
 soft clear light looked to her " a gem of 
 beauty," and with a more buoyant spirit she 
 began that patient service which was to last, 
 without pause or respite, for thirty years. 
 
II 
 
 ADVENTURES 
 
 Her first task was to become acquainted 
 with the people and get into touch with the 
 children, and so introduce an atmosphere of 
 confidence that would prepare the way for 
 settled work in school and church. Remem- 
 bering Tiyo Soga's words that as a race 
 the Kafirs prefer to be drawn, not driven, 
 she made no stir, used no pressure, but 
 moved about quietly, with soft speech and 
 observant eyes, talking with this one and 
 that one, and silently laying her plans. She 
 had the patient, persistent, imperturbable man- 
 ner characteristic of the true African pioneer, 
 that unresting, unhastening movement which 
 we find best exhibited in the " forward tread " 
 of Dr. Livingstone. 
 
 Her method was to visit the huts, carrying 
 some simple medicines with her as a sure 
 means of winning an entrance. She would 
 
 77 
 
7t CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 appear suddenly in some kraal where the 
 men were sitting, wrapped in their terra- 
 cotta blankets, smoking and gossiping, give 
 them a pleasant word, and enter the nearest 
 hut, stooping through the low doorway from 
 which the smoke was issuing. A wife, red 
 handkerchief on head, would be attending 
 to the evening meal. The fire occupied the 
 centre, and upon it would be set a pot con- 
 taining Kafir corn, while a boy or girl, 
 clothed only in a necklace of beads, would 
 perhaps be roasting mealies from the cob. 
 She would find out the circumstances of the 
 family, talk sympathetically about them, and 
 then read and pray. 
 
 The faith of the sick in her powers was 
 pathetic. One old blind man besought her 
 to lay her hands upon his eyes and restore 
 his sight. " That power," she said to him, 
 "belongs to God alone: but I can show you 
 how you can get the eyes of your soul 
 opened." 
 
 Sometimes she would address the groups 
 in the open, but the painted men looked upon 
 her only as a diverting curiosity. Some were 
 polite and interested, some scowled, others 
 were indifferent. When she read the Bible, 
 told them about Christ, and prayed, they 
 laughed. To them her rehgion was absurdly 
 
ADVENTURES 79 
 
 childish, and they treated it with amused 
 scorn. 
 
 Far and wide she went. No journey was 
 too long or toilsome if sick folk called for 
 her services. She was asked to go to a spot 
 which a native evangehst had told her was 
 inaccessible. " There are no roads to it," 
 he assured her. She quietly gathered what 
 was necessary and set out. On the way she 
 passed a hut where the children ran terror- 
 stricken from the sight of a white face. 
 
 Some of the places were twenty miles 
 away, too remote to be visited in one day, 
 and she had often to spend nights in the 
 kraals. A message from a big man called 
 Gaka took her to his home on the flat of 
 a mountain top. A steep path bordered 
 by wild geraniums, zinnias, and gladioli led 
 to it. In a hut Gaka's mother was lying 
 sick of a fever amongst dirt and squalor. 
 'Smoyana chased out the noisy children, did 
 what she could for the comfort of the suf- 
 ferer, and read and prayed. Then she gath- 
 ered the boys and girls about her and taught 
 them. A man came in and was interested 
 in her talk; he had never heard of God and 
 did not know who He was. 
 
 At sunset the women returned from their 
 " gardens,'* or fields, where they had been at 
 
80 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 work since daybreak, and set about making 
 the evening meal — Kafir corn, pounded and 
 boiled, served with amasi or sour milk. This 
 was the hour of gossip, and the man who did 
 not know God kept the company shaking 
 with laughter by retailing the scandal of 
 the day. 'Smoyana, however, created her 
 opportunity, and spoke to them of deeper 
 things. After prayer she was glad to retire 
 to a hut where the women, the children, and 
 a couple of kids were her companions. She 
 slept on a mat with her clothes on. At dawn 
 she left for another long journey to attend 
 some sick children. 
 
 In these early days her position was not 
 free from peril. One Sunday afternoon she 
 was at a distance from Xolobe when a thun- 
 derstorm threatened and she turned her steps 
 homewards. 
 
 In a lonely hollow amongst the hills two 
 strange men appeared from amongst the 
 scrub and began to follow her. She felt 
 instinctively that they meant mischief and, 
 turning, she eyed the one who was nearest, 
 a tall powerful fellow whose blanket was 
 slung over his shoulder and who carried a 
 huge club. His face was that of a fiend; 
 she thought she had never seen so repulsive 
 a creature. 
 
ADVENTURES gl 
 
 " You seem to be in a hurry," she said. 
 
 "What have you got there?" he de- 
 manded. 
 
 " Bibles." ^ 
 
 Remembering that she had been told not 
 to allow a native to walk behind her if she 
 feared violence, she commanded him to go 
 on before. He did so but kept near. 
 
 Looking behind, she observed that the 
 other man had come up noiselessly and was 
 at her back. She felt a thrill of alarm and 
 looked round for a way of escape. At that 
 moment a local native suddenly appeared 
 out of a path above them driving cattle. 
 Her expression of rehef made the men turn, 
 and seeing the herdsman they scowled and 
 after a moment's hesitation made off as 
 quickly as they had come. 
 
 When Mrs. Davidson was told of the 
 incident she remarked, " They meant to mur- 
 der and rob you, of course," a surmise which 
 was subsequently confirmed. 
 
 One Sunday she had been attending the 
 Communion at Paterson and had been de- 
 tained and it was five o'clock in the after- 
 noon ere she left to trudge the ten miles 
 back. Darkness fell but she kept on. At 
 last she lost the roughly-defined track and 
 went wandering amongst the rocks and scrub. 
 
82 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 It was impossible to tell where she was, and 
 she abandoned the attempt to proceed and 
 took shelter for the night behind a boulder. 
 The hours passed slowly; she wearied for 
 the dawn. With the light she discovered that 
 she had been resting on the edge of a preci- 
 pice. One step more and she would have 
 been killed. 
 
 She tramped to Xolobe and took up her 
 duties as if nothing had happened. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE POWERS OF DARKNESS 
 
 In her going in and out amongst the people 
 she came more closely into contact with the 
 conditions of primitive native life than she 
 had hitherto done. Outwardly she found 
 them picturesque enough. 
 
 The majority of the Fingoes were not 
 hlack but dark brown in skin, and their 
 bodies, shining under the fat and red ochre 
 or clay rubbed upon it, looked hke polished 
 bronze. The blanket was the sole article of 
 clothing of the men, and even this was often 
 thrown aside in warm weather. It was 
 greased and coloured in the same way as 
 their skin and embroidered with blue and 
 white beads. The dress of the women was 
 a skirt fastened round the waist, with some- 
 times a shawl wound over the upper part of 
 the body and a coloured handkerchief or 
 fillet round the head. Both men and women 
 decorated themselves with necklets and arm- 
 
 88 
 
84 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 lets of beads, shells, copper, ivory and wild 
 beasts' teeth, and the men usually carried 
 a knobkerry or stick. 
 
 The women drew out her sympathies in 
 a special degree. There was much simple 
 dignity about them. As she met them with 
 their babies tucked into a fold of their blan- 
 kets on their back, or carrying head loads 
 of wood or green maize and other produce, 
 she admired their symmetry and grace. But 
 they were practically little better than chat- 
 tels, being acquired in marriage by the high- 
 est bidder of stock. This is a custom which, 
 on account of some advantages it possesses 
 in existing circumstances, is not altogether 
 condemned, but is bound to disappear under 
 the continued impact of Christian ideals. The 
 wives were the real workers in the native 
 hive, being not only domestic drudges but 
 all-day toilers in the fields, while their hus- 
 bands only performed some perfunctory tasks 
 and lounged and smoked. Often cheerful 
 enough, their faces had that look which one 
 usually sees in non-Christian lands — the pa- 
 tient but lustreless expression as of an un- 
 awakened soul, which contrasts so notably 
 with the bright and intelligent aspect of 
 Christian womanhood. 
 
THE POWERS OF DARKNESS 85 
 
 Involuntarily, however, she penetrated 
 deeper beneath the surface of native life, 
 and saw heathenism in all its naked effron- 
 tery, and then- she began more fully to real- 
 ize the tremendous difficulty of the task she 
 had undertaken. It was the rites and prac- 
 tices of centuries she was challenging. 
 
 The system of religion she did not fear; 
 it was merely a superstitious belief in goblins, 
 demons, and ancestral spirits, which, potent 
 enough in its practical effect on their lives, 
 would gradually disappear before the light 
 of the truth. 
 
 Nor did she dread the witch-doctors, men 
 often of great cunning and ability, always 
 a powerful influence for evil, who played on 
 the weakness and follies of native nature, 
 and terrorised young and old. 
 
 What she did fear was the terrible hold 
 which the tribal customs had over their bodies 
 and souls. 
 
 There was, first of all, polygamy, regarded 
 partly as a tribal duty in former days to 
 maintain the fighting strength of the armies, 
 but an arrangement appealing to the self- 
 indulgent sense of a barbarous people. It 
 created a formidable obstacle to Christian 
 discipleship, for, when a man wished to join 
 the Church it meant that he must separate 
 
86 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 himself from all his wives save one, and 
 there were obvious hardships involved in such 
 a proceeding. Many would have gladly ac- 
 cepted the gospel from the first if they had 
 been allowed to retain their wives, but the 
 law of the Church was inexorable and though 
 they might be hearers they could not be 
 admitted to membership. 
 
 But polygamy was as nothing to the 
 hideous initiation ceremonies through which 
 every boy and girl had to pass into the stage 
 of manhood and womanhood. In the case of 
 the lads there was the rite of circumcision, 
 which, in itself, was not by some very se- 
 riously objected to, but it was associated 
 with practices of the most immoral character. 
 During the process of initiation these noviti- 
 ates were covered with white clay and dressed 
 in grass skirts and masks. In the case of 
 girls intonjane ceremonies marked the corre- 
 sponding period of isolation. 
 
 No description of the rites is possible; it 
 is suflScient to say that when the young peo- 
 ple emerged from their course of " training " 
 and license they had lost for ever that inno- 
 cence and purity which are the beauty and 
 the crown of life. 
 
 Another curse was beer-drinking. No 
 doubt it was the only method by which the 
 
A GROUP OF FINGO WOMEN 
 
 A BOYS' "initiation" DANCE 
 
THE POWERS OF DARKNESS 87 
 
 natives could give expression to their social 
 instincts, but it led to every kind of vicious- 
 ness and immorality. Much of the time of 
 the women wais taken up with preparing the 
 drink — in beating and grinding the corn, and 
 makhig, boiling, and straining the stuff. In 
 her visits to the kraals Mrs. Forsyth came 
 across many a carousal. The people were 
 gathered together in huts which were 
 crowded to suffocation, each man and woman 
 taking long draughts of the liquor amidst a 
 babel of confused talk and laughter. This 
 would go on for days and nights, whilst the 
 children went neglected or unprovided with 
 food. 
 
 Such were the peculiar evils which our 
 heroine found entrenched in the district she 
 had come to evangelise. When everyone, 
 young and old, was steeped in sensualism, 
 what hope was there that she, one lone 
 woman, could work a saving change? How 
 could she stem the raging current of un- 
 cleanness flowing as fiercely and irresistibly 
 as a river in flood? 
 
 She shivered as she thought of it all and 
 of her own helplessness, but she took refuge 
 in the assurance that with God everything 
 is possible, and relying on His guidance and 
 help she braced herself for the struggle. She 
 
88 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 passionately desired to succeed. " I ask Xo- 
 lobe for Christ," was a pathetic sentence in 
 one of her reports. 
 
 Her greatest weapon was prayer. She 
 was not content with petitions in general 
 terms, but made definite intercession for par- 
 ticular persons, and she begged her corre- 
 spondents to follow the same plan. " I ask 
 for prayer for so and so," was the burden 
 of her letters. In a poem which appeared in 
 the juvenile magazine of the Church she 
 voiced the cry of the children of Xolobe to 
 the children of Scotland: 
 
 We lie outside the Shepherd's fold — 
 The night is drear and dark and cold. 
 While you are safe and warm within. 
 Guarded and fenced and hedged from sin, 
 Oh pray for us! 
 
 " Oh pray for us," was her cry to the end. 
 
IV 
 
 THE SIEGE OF THE CHIEF 
 
 Her most stubborn fight was with Mnyila, 
 the chief of Xolobe, a typical "red," con- 
 forming to all the customs of his tribe with 
 the fanaticism of a zealot. He set a bad 
 example to his people who were frequently 
 embroiled in tribal fights. On one occasion 
 the affray was so serious that the authorities 
 arrested and imprisoned his followers in a 
 body, and fined them to the extent of £100. 
 This sum was promptly paid, but the punish- 
 ment did not stop the vendetta. A kraal 
 near the mission-house was surrounded by a 
 wild body of men, who attempted to stab the 
 police sergeant despatched to arrest them. 
 Afraid for Mrs. Forsyth's safety, an old 
 heathen came and said to her: 
 
 " Ma, these bad people of yours like to 
 fight; you must rise up and go away from 
 them." 
 
 " But," she said, " if they are bad they 
 
 89 
 
90 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 need me to stay and help to make them 
 better." 
 
 From the first Mnyila avoided her, would 
 not go near her meetings, and forbade his 
 people to go. His principal wife Nomonti 
 was of the same mind. It was one of her 
 huts which 'Smoyana was occupying, and she 
 used often to come in and talk to her about 
 the strange manners and customs of the white 
 people across the sea. A very clever and 
 intelligent woman, she parried all the mis- 
 sionary's frontal attacks and would have noth- 
 ing to do with her religion. 
 
 But it was the chief himself to whom 
 'Smoyana laid siege with the deliberation and 
 determination of a general assailing a fort- 
 ress. She paid him surprise visits, and when 
 she caught him talked to him with uncom- 
 promising directness, denouncing his sins, and 
 at the same time persuasively presenting the 
 better way. He listened with genial equa- 
 nimity, and when she left turned with added 
 zest to his revelries. 
 
 Once she found the kraal folk engaged in 
 indecent dancing. The chief kept out of her 
 way; the others turned a deaf ear to her 
 reproofs. She approached the head wife: 
 
 " Why are you doing these dreadful things 
 on God's Sabbath day?" she asked. 
 
THE SIEGE OF THE CHIEF 91 
 
 " Ma," was the reply, " you do not under- 
 stand; if we do not observe our customs 
 sickness will come upon us." 
 
 'Smoyana opened her Bible. " This is 
 God's book," she said, "and He says this": 
 — fearlessly quoting accusing passages and 
 throwing them at her like bombshells. 
 
 The chief's eldest son was often present 
 when 'Smoyana attacked him; he had some 
 conception of the truth, and once he was so 
 overcome by the visitor's solemn admonitions 
 that he burst into tears and left the hut. 
 'Smoyana had hopes of him, but he, too, 
 shrank from the surrender of his heathen 
 practices; the sacrifice was too great. 
 
 She was well aware how difficult it was 
 for these men to change their manner of life; 
 it involved their whole social status and fu- 
 ture. A native lost his position in his tribe 
 when he abandoned the customs of his fath- 
 ers; there was a heavy pecuniary sacrifice 
 in the abandonment of polygamy. Those 
 who renounced the initiation ceremony were 
 considered apostates to tribal tradition and 
 virtue, and treated with contempt and de- 
 rided as " boys." 
 
 But she realised that a beginning must be 
 made, and that every convert rendered it 
 easier for others to take the step, until the 
 
92 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 time came when a Christian community could 
 be formed and Christian ideals dominate the 
 land. To win a chief would be a great vic- 
 tory, and the influence of such an event would 
 spread far and wide. She never, therefore, 
 grew tired of trying to save Mnyila, though 
 he continued to make determined attacks with 
 the object of suppressing her work. Once, 
 too cowardly to come himself, he sent his 
 brother with the plain intimation that he 
 would be glad to see her leave the district. 
 She ignored the request, and merely re- 
 doubled her efforts to storm his pagan heart. 
 No case was hopeless in her eyes. And she 
 had her reward. He became less hostile, and 
 at last sent her a message: 
 
 " Speak much to my people, 'Smoyana, 
 and teach men about God,^ because we are 
 all wrong." 
 
 Imprisoned for theft, he was deposed. 
 Afterwards he became very ill, and, much 
 softened, he humbly accepted Christ and died 
 converted. Matole reigned in his stead, a 
 heathen, but more favourable to the mission 
 work. 
 
PERSECUTION 
 
 It was in a small wattle-and-daub building 
 which had been erected in the time of Mr. 
 Sclater that Mrs. Forsyth gathered the few 
 who were weary of their old ways and brave 
 enough to seek after better. Though uphill 
 and often disheartening work, her courage 
 and lovingkindness never failed, and one 
 after another of the people dropped in and 
 became interested and friendly. One heathen 
 actually presented her with a threepenny-bit 
 to help the cause. She sent it to Scotland 
 with the remark : " Perhaps this red man's 
 offering may make some of the people at 
 home who give pence and halfpence to the 
 collection try to give a little more." 
 
 But when she ventured to open a day- 
 school in the same building the opposition 
 broke out afresh, and she encountered end- 
 less difficulties and disappointments. The 
 local witch-doctor was her most powerful 
 
 93 
 
94 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 enemy, and incited the whole district against 
 her. 
 
 " Heathenism is rampant," she wrote to 
 her friends at home. "Darkness covers the 
 earth and gross darkness the people. Im- 
 agine seventeen children in one family whose 
 father hinders them from attending school, 
 but is ready to allow them any sinful in- 
 dulgence. When I expostulate with them 
 they say : ' We do not know it is sin ; our 
 parents teach us these things.' " 
 
 But again her quiet persistence wore down 
 all hostility; in twos and threes the children 
 began to attend, and soon she had seventeen 
 girls and fifteen boys, whom she taught writ- 
 ing, arithmetic, geography, and grammar, im- 
 parting also to the giris some knowledge 
 of sewing and general housework. They 
 came in red clay attire, a hayi or cotton sheet 
 which the boys wrapped round their bodies, 
 and the girls tied at the waist with a straw 
 cord, fixing it below with buckles into a kind 
 of petticoat. 
 
 They were wonderfully eager to learn, and 
 many walked long distances and arrived foot- 
 sore and weary. Perhaps it was the singing 
 that attracted them, for all Kafirs, young 
 and old, are passionately fond of music, and 
 they enjoyed nothing so much as the learning 
 
PERSECUTION 95 
 
 of the Kafir hymns 'Smoyana taught them — 
 those simple melodies which appeal to Chris- 
 tian children all over the world. 
 
 But the teaehing had its effect. When 
 visiting a heathen kraal she asked if a little 
 boy who came to the school ever spoke about 
 anything he learnt there. " Yes," replied 
 his mother, " he takes his elder brother aside 
 at nights and says, ' Let us pray.' " 
 
 Perhaps, also, it was the singing as much 
 as a feehng of curiosity which drew the 
 parents from their work in the fields to 
 watch the strange proceedings in the little 
 mud schoolroom. Some of these thought that 
 whatever the motive of the white woman was, 
 the effect on the children appeared to be 
 good, and they good-naturedly allowed them 
 to go; but the majority, jealous for the main- 
 tenance of their old ways, continued tacitly 
 to oppose the new development. Periods of 
 persecution recurred, during which the school 
 had to be closed. Attendances often mys- 
 teriously dwindled, puzzling the teacher until 
 she noticed that the falling away always hap- 
 pened after some boy or girl had expressed 
 a desire to be a Christian. The first lad con- 
 verted was handed over to the tender mer- 
 cies of the witch-doctor and forced to re- 
 
96 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 nounce his faith. When four scholars made 
 an open confession that they had accepted 
 Christ, every " red " child was taken away 
 on some pretext or other. 
 
 " It is a bitter trial," she said, " but we 
 cannot lower our standard. We never con- 
 ceal our intention, which is, to win Xolobe 
 for Christ." 
 
 Then the imposition of a school tax by 
 the Government annoyed the people and 
 revived the antagonism, and the most prom- 
 ising pupils were withdrawn. Other inter- 
 ruptions occurred. An outbreak of fever 
 stopped the work for months, many of the 
 natives and their children fleeing from the 
 district in terror of the epidemic. " Still," 
 she wrote, " we have reason to thank God 
 and take courage. Amidst all our weariness 
 and shortcomings we know and feel that He 
 is with us." 
 
 " She is working away," wrote Mr. David- 
 son at this time, " in a spirit of indomitable 
 courage and perseverance. I found her as 
 hearty as ever in a school full of children. 
 A child has been the means of converting 
 the mother, and I baptized them both. It is 
 one of the darkest parts of the land where 
 I could make no headway till she took it in 
 hand." 
 
PERSECUTION 97 
 
 In 1889 she added the fiftieth name to the 
 roll. " I trace all this," she said, " as an 
 answer to prayer." 
 
 One day when she had been fighting diffi- 
 culties, a passing stranger looked in. " Do 
 you remember me? " he asked smilingly. " I 
 am one of your old scholars at Paterson." 
 He was now the second teacher in the largest 
 school in Fingoland. She had a long talk 
 with him, found that he had been loyal to 
 his training, and always sought to lead the 
 children in his care to Christ. His visit was 
 like a gleam of sunshine in a grey day, and 
 she returned encouraged and invigorated to 
 her task. 
 
 Along with the day school she started a 
 Sunday School, but this, on account of the 
 early morning hour at which she held it not 
 suiting Kafir domestic arrangements, was not 
 at first so successful. Finding that many 
 girls remained about the station in the in- 
 terval between the Church services, she 
 formed a midday Bible Class for them, which 
 came to fulfil very much the same purpose, 
 and was one of the most important features 
 of the work. None gave her such pleasure 
 and satisfaction as this class of raw girlhood, 
 over none did she brood with more loving 
 and wistful concern. How she toiled to bring 
 
98 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 the young lives into the safe keeping of her 
 Lord I How she brought her simple and 
 absolute belief in the efficacy of prayer to 
 bear on each doubtful or anxious case! 
 
 In these early days there were three mem- 
 bers in particular whom she desired to con- 
 vert — Jane, Bertha, and Daisy, all about the 
 same age. They were regular in attendance 
 and learnt their lessons well, but they would 
 not make the change over to a Christian 
 life. 'Smoyana employed every means in her 
 power to bring them to a decision but in 
 vain, and, completely baffled, she was almost 
 in despair when she remembered the answer 
 given to her by a lady speaker at home whom 
 she had asked to reveal the secret of her 
 power. The reply was, " This kind goeth 
 not forth but by prayer and fasting." She 
 chided herself for not realizing this sooner, 
 and at once put the principle into practice. 
 She fasted a whole day and continued in 
 prayer on behalf of the three girls. In the 
 following week Jane, the most obstinate of 
 the trio, came alone to the candidates' class 
 and signified her desire to accept Christ. 
 Then when the class met the other two fol- 
 lowed her example. 
 
 Such incidents, added to conversions 
 amongst women and boys, alarmed the 
 
PERSECUTION 99 
 
 heathen community, and a common effort 
 was soon on foot to stop the secessions from 
 tribal use and wont. Women were beaten 
 by their husbands again and again because 
 they would not renounce the profession of 
 Christ which they had made. Two sisters 
 had their clothes taken away to prevent 
 them attending the meetings, but they ap- 
 peared in scanty undress. When they re- 
 turned to their homes their indignant mother 
 cried, "Go away; we don't want qobokas 
 (Christians) to Uve with us." Another girl 
 was scourged by her uncle and thrown out 
 of the hut. Mrs. Forsyth took her in and 
 tended her with a mother's care. Boys also 
 had their clothes and wages seized when they 
 showed themselves attracted by the new way 
 of life. 
 
 Our heroine had a fierce hatred of injus- 
 tice, and the courage of her convictions, and 
 she welcomed and protected every runaway 
 who fled to her. The station was at this time 
 a sanctuary for the outcast and oppressed. 
 
VI 
 THE TYRANNY OF TAKI 
 
 The story of one typical family may be 
 given to illustrate the extraordinary ferment 
 going on in the district, and the trials which 
 the converts, like the early Christians, had 
 to suffer at the hands of the persecutors. 
 
 Taki was a caretaker in a store which was 
 mysteriously robbed during his master's ab- 
 sence. The thieves were never discovered. 
 Taki, however, lost his post and looked un- 
 happy as if he had something on his mind. 
 'Smoyana made a point of visiting him fre- 
 quently but he resented her solicitude. 
 
 " Speak to others," he said gruffly, " but 
 do not speak to me." 
 
 '' Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear 
 you, when ye depart, shake off the dust under 
 your feet for a testimony against them" she 
 quoted, and rose and left. 
 
 She had not gone far before she heard the 
 
 100 
 
THE TYRANNY OF TJmt \ lOl; 
 
 daughter running after her calling her back. 
 " He bids you return," she cried. 
 
 When she reached the hut she received a 
 grudging apology. 
 
 The daughter, Nomnyaka, a good-looking 
 girl of marriageable age, was eager to know 
 more of the truth but was afraid of her 
 father. One day she bought some cotton 
 sheeting and began making clothing. Her 
 father came in, gave her a look, and seized 
 a sjambok. She fled out of the hut, down to 
 the mission-house, he pursuing her with the 
 whip. Mrs. Forsyth was out, but the house- 
 girls let her in. The father stopped at the 
 entrance. When Mrs. Forsyth arrived she 
 found the girl trembling and in violent fear. 
 She kept her at the station, provided her 
 with clothes, and gave her work to do in 
 the garden and house, and she joined the 
 girls at school, attended the meetings, took 
 part in family worship, and was perfectly 
 happy. 
 
 By and by a brother-in-law, a witch-doctor, 
 took up her case, invited her to go to his 
 house, and promised to allow her to wear 
 clothes, and freedom to worship God and at- 
 tend school. When the father heard of this 
 he promptly came and made the same pro- 
 posal; naturally he did not want to lose the 
 
102; : • CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 lobola or dowry he would receive when she 
 married, which often amounts to ten head 
 of cattle. His offer she accepted, and re- 
 turned home, and later was baptized and 
 took the name of Kate. 
 
 A Christian widower from another out- 
 station then took a fancy to her and they 
 were married in Xolobe Church. She made 
 a good and industrious wife and a capable 
 mother. 
 
 At the marriage a girl in red clay stood 
 outside, curious to see the ceremony, but re- 
 fusing to go in. She watched the proceed- 
 ings through the open window. It was a 
 half-sister of Kate called Raqula, the daugh- 
 ter of Taki's second wife. Mrs. Forsyth 
 knew her as one who had never been per- 
 mitted to come to school, and was never 
 seen playing about like other children. When 
 at her hut one day she asked her, " Wouldn't 
 you like a doll to play with?" "No," was 
 the child's reply, " I like to make the house 
 nice for mother," and went on with her task 
 of pounding and beating the clay floor to 
 make it smooth and clean. 
 
 After the marriage of Kate further dis- 
 turbances occurred in the family. Raqula's 
 mother was converted, and through her in- 
 fluence her step-mother and sister were also 
 
THE TYRANNY OF TAKI 103 
 
 brought in. Her punishment was severe. 
 She was driven ruthlessly away, all her fowls 
 and belongings were sold, and a new wife 
 was installed in her place. Raqula was glad 
 to leave the home and live with a heathen 
 man some distance away. 
 
 One Sunday morning a young woman in 
 European clothes and of happy demeanour 
 came to the door of the mission-house. Her 
 face seemed familiar to Mrs. Forsyth. It 
 was Raqula, converted, clothed, and in her 
 right mind. She had come back with her 
 husband and little son to reside in Xolobe, 
 and soon entered the candidates' class, a 
 humble and industrious disciple. She be- 
 came a member and was regularly married 
 in Xolobe Church, and brought two children 
 to be baptized. 
 
 Kate's eldest sister Jane had also gone 
 to school. A quiet, diligent plodder, she was 
 soon able to read the New Testament, and 
 the beauty of the life portrayed there won 
 her heart. Casting about in her mind how 
 to procure clothes, she collected bundles of 
 wood which she sold to Mrs. Forsyth. She 
 had nearly amassed sufficient when her father 
 got wind of her intention, seized her hard- 
 earned savings, withdrew her from school, 
 and ordered her not even to think about the 
 
104 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 new customs. She had no alternative but to 
 submit, and she grew up to womanhood a 
 heathen. 
 
 After she married, her husband went to 
 work at the mines and met with a serious 
 injury. Jane was afraid he would die, and 
 the teaching she had received from Mrs. 
 Forsyth came back to her mind, and she 
 turned in her trouble to God and was an- 
 swered according to her faith. Becoming 
 a candidate at another out-station she was 
 baptized along with her children. 
 
 The leavening process went on. Another 
 of Taki's wives was moved to renounce her 
 " red " allegiance, but the position was made 
 so hard for her that she recanted. 
 
 Raqula's cousin, Nosimanga, was married 
 to an old witch-doctor and was the mother 
 of two intelligent boys. At a prayer-meeting 
 at her home she was brought to Christ and 
 soon learnt to read. Her husband, strangely 
 enough, put no hindrance in her way; he 
 even accompanied her occasionally to church, 
 though he kept to his own fashion of life. 
 
 Taki's cruelty increased with these re- 
 peated invasions of his heathen peace. A 
 daughter-in-law was won over by Mrs. 
 Forsyth, but her husband remained obdurate. 
 She was determined, however, to bring up 
 
THE TYRANNY OF TAKI 105 
 
 her infant daughter Su-pi as a Christian, and 
 she clothed her in the new way. When her 
 husband died suddenly her friends jeered 
 at her and said she was being punished. 
 They persecuted her and boycotted her but 
 she remained firm. Then Taki took her in 
 hand. One day he caught her on her knees 
 praying for herself, her child, and her heathen 
 friends. Infuriated he snatched up an 
 assegai and threatened to spear her and kill 
 her if she did not recant. She was so alarmed 
 that she ran out of the kraal and fled over 
 the hills. For a whole week she wandered 
 in the direction of her old home with practic- 
 ally nothing to eat, and then fell dead from 
 starvation and over-fatigue. 
 
 When the news reached Taki's kraal he 
 despatched a horseman to bring back the 
 child, who was stripped of her clothing and 
 smeared with red clay, and so received into 
 heathenism. By and by, however, she was 
 allowed to go to school and developed into 
 one of the best scholars, won many prizes, 
 and entered the candidates' class. 
 
 Another daughter-in-law lost her husband 
 and turned in her sorrow to Christ. Taki 
 threatened her and she went to 'Smoyana, 
 who took up her case and summoned the 
 man to her presence. 
 
106 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 " Taki," she said, " do you like your 
 sheep ? and count them ? Do you know 
 when you lose one or find one ? For there 
 was a man who had a hundred sheep and he 
 lost one, and he went after it a long time, 
 and he was wounded while he sought it, and 
 it was found in your kraal when you were 
 not there. And people said, ' Taki will not 
 be willing to give it up to the owner.' But I 
 said, *I think he will; I shall see him and 
 try.'" 
 
 By this time Taki was sitting bolt-upright, 
 his face working, his eyes staring. 
 
 " Taki," she continued, *' do not be afraid. 
 I am speaking a parable to you. God is the 
 owner of the sheep that was lost. The sheep 
 is your daughter-in-law whom you have 
 forbidden to come to Christ. Will you give 
 her to her lawful owner ? " 
 
 Somewhat relieved Taki replied sullenly, 
 " I have no power over her soul. I did 
 forbid her before, but now I have nothing to 
 say." 
 
 " Well, I would like you to give her leave 
 to attend the meetings and classes and the 
 Sabbath services." 
 
 " All right," he muttered. " She can go. 
 But I forbid you to come any more to the 
 kraal." 
 
THE TYRANNY OF TAKI 107 
 
 Writing Mr. Davidson on some matters 
 'Smoyana added a postscript: 
 
 " We are going to make a raid on Taki's 
 house in a body on Sabbath without his per- 
 mission. Pray for us ! " 
 
 Taki is still a heathen. 
 
VII 
 
 THE WITCH-DOCTOR'S FATE 
 
 Passing, one day, a large group of half -naked 
 men sitting imbibing beer she noticed, in 
 the centre, a commanding figure with a head 
 of tangled grey hair from which strings of 
 blue beads hung pendant to the waist. 
 
 It was her stoutest opponent, Loqina the 
 witch-doctor. When he saw her he shouted 
 threateningly, 
 
 " Go away, you Government spy; wie 
 don't want you." 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth's Scottish blood rose at this, 
 and she went forward and fearlessly told him 
 what she thought of him and his ways. 
 
 Shortly afterwards a native marriage took 
 place with its attendant abominations of 
 drinking and dancing — and worse. It ended 
 with a free fight between the girls of Xolobe 
 and a neighbouring district. Loqina was 
 present during the seven days of the feast 
 and then went stumbling home. "Loqina 
 
 108 
 
THE WITCH-DOCTOR'S FATE 109 
 
 is taking the wrong road," cried some one 
 who followed him up and found that the 
 old man's excesses had smitten him blind. 
 
 He was thereafter a prisoner in his dirty 
 home and was looked after by Nondika, his 
 queer old wife, to whom he rhapsodised 
 about the wars he had been engaged in, the 
 blood he had shed, and the wounds he had 
 received. His lucrative practice fell off and 
 he was reduced to want. 
 
 A little kindness from the white woman 
 worked wonders and he began to come to 
 her meetings. The parable of the lost sheep 
 attracted him strangely. " Tell me about 
 the sheep that was lost," he would say again 
 and again, like a child fascinated by some 
 story, and he never tired of listening to it. 
 When he left Mrs. Forsyth's presence he 
 always bent down and kissed her hand. 
 
 He grew poorer and more friendless and 
 was forsaken by his relations. His strength 
 failed as well as his sight and he wished Mrs. 
 Forsyth to go and count his sheep which 
 he had left in the care of a neighbour. The 
 sheep had disappeared, and at the last he was 
 only able to give Nondika a shilling. " Buy 
 some clothes," he said, " and go to church." 
 He did not make any profession but died 
 praying. 
 
110 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 The old wife discarded her red clay and 
 with a little help procured some clothes and 
 became a faithful attender at the services. 
 Whether the weather was cold or hot, wet 
 or sunny, she was at the station by sunrise. 
 She was finally baptized by Mr. Davidson, 
 but her home life was not happy. Food and 
 house-room were grudgingly bestowed, and 
 she was often taken violently to task for 
 not being able to complete the work allotted 
 to her in the fields. She caught a chill and 
 died one morning at daybreak, with love in her 
 heart for " God and Jesus and little children." 
 
 Another instance of the power of the new 
 teaching at this time gave Mrs. Forsyth much 
 satisfaction. Nomonti, the head wife of the 
 former headman, had become more hardened 
 after her husband's imprisonment and 
 pursued her sinful way. Some of her near 
 relatives, however, forsook their red clay 
 and after probation were admitted to the 
 membership of the church. This seemed to 
 startle her out of her complacency. One 
 day whilst Mrs. Forsyth was passing her 
 hut she saw the woman beckoning to her. 
 
 "Well, Nomonti," she said kindly, notic- 
 ing that she hesitated to speak. As she still 
 seemed at a loss how to begin Mrs. Forsyth 
 went 6n: 
 
THE WITCH-DOCTOR'S FATE 111 
 
 "And what do you think of your friends 
 accepting Jesus as their Saviour ? " 
 
 " Ma," she exclaimed, " I want to receive 
 Him too ! " ' 
 
 On the green grass by the roadside she 
 knelt and surrendered herself, and a month 
 later was baptized. 
 
 Becoming weak and frail in body she was 
 not able for rapid travelling and came down 
 to the mission-house on Saturday and 
 remained until Monday in order not to miss 
 the services. She enjoyed the morning and 
 evening worship and the talks with Mrs. 
 Forsyth, and up to the end was happy and 
 cheerful in her faith. 
 
 When she died she pled pathetically in 
 prayer that her Heavenly Father might be 
 with her as she went through the dark valley 
 of the shadow. So well beloved had she 
 become that one hundred and fifty " red " 
 men and women paid the last tribute of 
 respect to her. 
 
VIII 
 
 A NINE-DAYS' WONDER 
 
 As the work developed, and possibilities of 
 extension presented themselves, Mrs. Forsyth 
 longed for an assistant who would relieve 
 her of some of her routine duties. Plan as 
 she would, however, she could not make her 
 slender income stretch sufficiently to cover 
 the cost. She talked the matter over with 
 Mr. Davidson, always her wise counsellor, 
 and as his mind had fixed upon Xolobe for 
 her so it turned now to a society in Scot- 
 land which, he was sanguine, would provide 
 her the help she required. This was the 
 Greenock Ladies' Association for Promoting 
 Female Education in Kafraria, which had 
 been instituted in 1841 for the purpose of 
 assisting the work at Emgwali Training 
 Institution. 
 
 Acting on his advice she wrote to the 
 Committee describing her service and needs, 
 and received an eager and generous response, 
 
 112 
 
A NINE-DAYS' WONDER 113 
 
 the Society agreeing to send her out £20 a 
 year to pay the salary of an assistant. 
 
 Thus was initiated a connection which 
 lasted throughout the whole of her sojourn 
 in Kafraria and formed the principal link 
 between her and the homeland. She corre- 
 sponded with the Secretary, Miss Prentice, 
 and after her death, with her successor 
 Miss Macfarlane. Month by month the 
 lonely missionary related the story of her 
 work and back came the love and sym- 
 pathy of an understanding Christian heart. 
 These letters from Miss Macfarlane were 
 a perennial source of cheer and encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 In time other members of the Committee 
 got in touch with her and showed her much 
 kindness. As her name and work began to 
 be better known amongst the congregations 
 of the church, money and boxes of goods 
 for distribution to the natives were sent out 
 to her by work parties, Sunday School 
 children, and others. Two cases from the 
 Greenock ladies contained cotton and woollen 
 material, clothes, stationery, toys, and other 
 articles to the value of £75. These gifts 
 were very welcome; she was able to give 
 the children what they required to attend 
 school, to clothe the natives who renounced 
 
114. CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 their blanket, and to assist the people 
 generally in times of economic distress. 
 
 For her first assistant 'Smoyana chose 
 Ntintille, who happened to be a protegee of 
 the Ladies' Association, having been trained 
 at Emgwali. She proved helpful both in 
 school and in visitation, but the climate 
 proved too cold for her constitution and she 
 resigned. 
 
 She was succeeded by Bekiwe, her old 
 scholar at Paterson, who, at the instance of 
 Mrs. Macfarlane, of Glasgow, had obtained 
 some training at Emgwali, and was as con- 
 sistent in her life and as eager and devoted 
 in her service for Christ as ever. She was a 
 nine-days' wonder. The people were amazed 
 to know that this trim, wholesome girl had 
 been a "red clay" like themselves; but 
 they were also ready to ridicule and intimi- 
 date her. She, however, was a thorough- 
 going Christian, fearlessly facing their scorn, 
 and denouncing the evils of their heathen 
 customs. 
 
 Another subsequent assistant was Antyi 
 Mbanga, who was descended from a royal 
 clan, and was loved and respected by the 
 natives, and exercised real power in the 
 district. 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth saw that women like these 
 

 I 
 
 A TYPICAL FINGO 
 
A NINE-DAYS' WONDER 115 
 
 were the hope of Africa. There might, no 
 doubt, be failures, but the example and in- 
 fluence of those who succeeded were beyond 
 all calculation. This conviction led very 
 soon to an important development. 
 
ix; 
 
 THE GREENOCK GIFT 
 
 « 
 
 So absorbed was Mrs. Forsyth in her work 
 that she had forgotten to care for her own 
 comfort. She was still living in a damp and 
 dark Kafir hut, out of which she was occasion- 
 ally washed by the rains. But she was as 
 happy as a queen, and never thought of com- 
 plaining to any one. The fact, however, 
 came to the knowledge of the Greenock 
 ladies, who could not bear to think of her 
 passing her days and nights in so wretched 
 a dwelling. They made judicious inquiries 
 regarding material and costs, and then 
 through the generosity of a few friends the 
 Committee was able to remit to her the sum 
 of £48 for the purpose of building a two- 
 roomed cottage, one room to be entirely her 
 own, the other to be used as a schoolhouse 
 in wet or cold weather. 
 
 The news of the gift fell like a benediction 
 on the heart of the solitary woman. She 
 
 ue 
 
THE GREENOCK GIFT 117 
 
 was deeply touched by the thoughtfubiess 
 and sympathy it evinced and proceeded joy- 
 fully to raise her home. Selecting native 
 workmen who had renounced their heathen- 
 ism she set them to work. Interest and love 
 stimulated their service and by November 
 1889 the building was ready. She called it 
 " The Greenock Schoolhouse " in recognition 
 of the source of the gift. Thinking it well 
 to make a little function of the opening she 
 invited the magistrate of the district and 
 her umfundisi, Mr. Davidson, to be present. 
 Many Christians from Paterson and else- 
 where also travelled to the ceremony, and 
 an ox was killed and roasted for their benefit. 
 
 The magistrate gave a speech in which 
 he impressed upon the people the value of 
 education and the great things which Mrs. 
 Forsyth was doing for them and their chil- 
 dren. He then distributed the prizes to the 
 scholars. " To see," wrote Mr. Davidson, " red 
 heathen in one of the darkest spots of Africa 
 coming up in half-dozens and reading the 
 Bible both in English and their own language 
 correctly, and repeating from memory whole 
 chapters of the New Testament and Psalms 
 without a mistake, was really marvellous." 
 
 Now that there was a regular mission- 
 house, though a humble one, and a proper 
 
118 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 home atmosphere, Mrs. Forsyth decided to try 
 the experiment of taking in a scholar to live 
 with her. She felt that the chief influence 
 against the redemption of the children was 
 the evil surroundings of their huts, and it 
 might be possible to train up one or two who 
 would grow up into womanhood uncontami- 
 nated by heathen scenes and customs and 
 become teachers and inspirers of their race. 
 
 The Greenock Society, happy to share 
 the privilege of this development, hastened 
 to offer £10 per annum to cover the cost. 
 
 The girl chosen was " Bella Moir," a 
 lovable, affectionate girl, and a good scholar. 
 She proved worthy of the care which 
 'Smoyana bestowed upon her, bringing many 
 recruits to the school, and exercising a whole- 
 some influence upon aU. 
 
 " When did you begin to love your Saviour, 
 Bella ? " inquired Mrs. Forsyth one day. 
 
 " Only after I came here," she said. 
 
 Bella's case was so encouraging that 
 three other children were taken in. Theodore, 
 seven years old, was the son of Matole, the 
 new headman, who voluntarily gave him up 
 to the care of 'Smoyana. She looked for- 
 ward to the boy becoming a Christian chief 
 and exercising a wide influence for good. 
 To her sorrow he was suddenly withdrawn. 
 
THE GREENOCK GIFT 119 
 
 When she visited his hut she was greatly- 
 affected by his shame as he stood before her 
 decked in his, blanket and beads. He kept 
 thereafter out of her sight but once she saw 
 him outside the kraal. 
 
 " Theodore, do you still pray ? " she asked. 
 
 He hung his head. " No, 'Smoyana. My 
 mother forbids me." 
 
 Celani was a girl of heathen parents whom 
 Mrs. Forsyth picked up at a kraal down the 
 valley. Whilst speaking to the father the 
 child began to cry, and on the father asking 
 what was the matter she sobbed, " I want 
 to go with the missionary: I want to go 
 to heaven: I don't want to go to hell." To 
 Mrs. Forsyth's surprise the father gave the 
 girl up to her and she became a boarder. 
 Gentle and likeable, she was apt at learning 
 Scripture and was first in examination at 
 repeating long passages from memory. 
 
 One day, noticing a troubled look in her 
 face, Mrs. Forsyth asked her what was wrong 
 and learnt that the girl dreaded being taken 
 away. The blow fell soon after. For some 
 unknown reason she was removed, protest- 
 ing and in tears, and when Mrs. Forsyth went 
 to her hut she was cut to the heart by the 
 expression of sorrow and despair on her 
 face. A year later an epidemic of smallpox 
 
120 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 swept over the district, and Celani, much dis- 
 figured by the disease and suffering from a 
 racking cough, appeared again and was 
 taken into the shelter of the schoolhouse. 
 But after passing the Third Standard and 
 being baptized she left and put on red clay. 
 
 The other child, Ida, was only four years 
 when she became a member of the household. 
 Her mother was a superior woman, one of 
 the finest of the converts, but was married 
 to a " red " who neither sympathised with 
 her nor countenanced her ways. Ida was 
 a winsome little thing who was in danger 
 of being spoiled, but under the house- 
 mother's careful guidance she grew up into 
 a sweet and clever girl. Mrs. Forsyth wrote 
 of her: " Ida has learned quickly and sur- 
 passes all the children of her age at the 
 school. She can read Kafir, spell a little, 
 do simple addition, repeat the multiplica- 
 tion table, and is second best at Bible know- 
 ledge." When she was older a woman who 
 promised to take her down to the Communion 
 at Paterson drew back at the last moment. 
 Praying before going to bed Ida said, " We 
 have been disappointed to-day, but we 
 remember what Jesus said upon the Cross, 
 * Father, forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do.' " 
 
OFFICIAL TRIBUTES 
 
 It is the good custom of the Church in 
 Scotland to send out delegates at intervals 
 to its various mission-fields, to survey the 
 work being done at the stations, cheer and 
 help the workers, and bring back an account 
 of what they have seen in order to stimulate 
 interest at home. In 1892 Mrs. Forsyth 
 heard that two delegates from the United 
 Presbyterian Board were on their way to 
 Kafraria, the Rev. James Buchanan, the 
 Foreign Mission Secretary, and his son, Mr. 
 J. C. Buchanan, M.A., but scarcely antici- 
 pated that they would take the trouble of 
 penetrating to Xolobe. 
 
 Mr. Davidson, however, was resolved that 
 she should be seen in her mountain fastness, 
 and there came a day of pleasurable excite- 
 ment when the cavalcade rode up. Mr. 
 Buchanan was a man of critical discernment 
 and not readily moved, but he was profoundly 
 
 121 
 
122 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 impressed by Mrs. Forsyth and her work 
 and both in his official report to the Board 
 and in the magazines of the Church he 
 dwelt upon the remarkable service she was 
 rendering in her " green spot in the desert." 
 In the narrative of his travels over 1910 miles 
 of country he writes: 
 
 " As we approached Xolobe we discovered 
 two buildings, one apparently a wattle-and- 
 daub structure with thatched roof; the 
 other, a neat-looking cottage building 
 covered with corrugated iron. . . . Mrs. 
 Forsyth is an unsalaried agent of the mission 
 who has been doing work in this valley for 
 the past seven years. The tribe among 
 whom she lives and labours are perhaps the 
 rudest and roughest of the native people — 
 a stranger tribe who came from a distance 
 and settled in this valley some years ago. 
 Mrs. Forsyth was at first looked upon by 
 them with considerable suspicion, and her 
 friends were of opinion that she was exposed 
 to many risks in such a community. But 
 by her patient labour, by her kindly interest 
 in the people, both old and young, and by 
 her calm, unfaltering, unflinching courage, 
 she has won her way to their hearts, and 
 exercises a marvellous influence over them. 
 They look upon her as in a very special 
 
OFFICIAL TRIBUTES 123 
 
 sense their own, and woe betide any one who 
 would attempt to insult or injure her. 
 
 " She visits the people in their huts, and 
 gathers them together for worship in the 
 little church. She has some sixty children 
 at her school, whom she teaches to read and 
 to commit to memory portions of Scripture 
 and hymns. She has had about one hundred 
 and seventy young people under her hands, 
 and such a blessing has attended her efforts 
 on their behalf that no fewer than forty of 
 these have been led to profess their faith in 
 Christ, most of whom, after being thoroughly 
 tested by Mr. Davidson's session, have been 
 admitted to the fellowship of the church. 
 
 "As we observed Mrs. Forsyth busy at 
 her work; as we thought of the difficulties 
 she had overcome, and the position she had 
 made for herself amongst that barbarous 
 tribe; as we thought of her there single- 
 handed and alone doing the Master's work, 
 supporting herself out of her own resources; 
 as we marked the quiet, genuine happiness 
 that she has in her work, and her humble 
 trustful dependence upon Him whom she 
 loves and serves, we could not refrain from 
 saying that we had witnessed in that valley 
 perhaps the most remarkable sight that had 
 met our eyes throughout all our journeyings. 
 
124 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 " There are here many of the elements 
 of the truest heroism. The story of Mrs. 
 Forsyth's work in Xolobe during these past 
 few years is little known because of her 
 modest and unassuming nature, because she 
 looks upon the work as not done by her, but 
 by Him on whom by a simple but sublime 
 faith she depends; but it is not less a story 
 which may well touch our hearts, and that 
 may serve as an inspiration and a guide to 
 many who have time and means and culture 
 at their disposal, but who cannot find a 
 sphere in which to serve their Lord, and to 
 benefit and bless their fellows." 
 
 To this tribute may be added one from 
 Mr. Newton O. Thompson, who was Resident 
 Magistrate of the district until 1895: 
 
 "Mrs. Forsyth- had no fears. She kept 
 before her the great work which she had come 
 to carry out, and nothing could turn her 
 aside. Hopeful and courageous, she plodded 
 on in the face of much opposition, and 
 although she fully realised the great diffi- 
 culties in her way, never doubted, and was 
 always cheerful. I was much impressed 
 with the quiet persistent manner in which 
 she overcame all difficulties and carried on 
 the work without any trouble with the people. 
 
OFFICIAL TRIBUTES 125 
 
 I have no doubt she met with many troubles, 
 but, if so, these were always settled quietly, 
 or with the help and support of the mis- 
 sionary from Mbulu, and I cannot recall any 
 instance in which any complaint was brought 
 to the office. Those who at first were doubt- 
 ful as to the wisdom of the step taken by 
 Mrs. Forsyth came round in the end. Her 
 self-sacrifice and devotion to the work so 
 impressed people (white and black) that all 
 were ready to acknowledge her strength of 
 character and sincerity." 
 
XI 
 
 AN EXPERIMENT WHICH FAILED 
 
 Theee were few busier women in Africa at 
 this time than Mrs. Forsyth. Her days were 
 occupied early and late with a multitude of 
 duties in the interests of the people and her 
 household. Here is a note she gave the 
 Greenock ladies of her activities for one 
 week: 
 
 " Prayer-meetings on Monday, Tuesday, 
 and Thursday mornings at daybreak; meet- 
 ings on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; 
 sewing twice a week before school and 
 visiting afterwards; plastering outside and 
 inside; whitewashing; scrubbing and oiling 
 the stained floors; baking for Christmas; 
 killing sheep; roasting and grinding coffee; 
 attending to numerous callers." 
 
 Sometimes she would leave her routine 
 work and spend a week visiting the more 
 remote kraals. In her eagerness to help and 
 save the people she never thought of herself; 
 
EXPERIMENT WHICH FAILED 127 
 
 she slept where she could, and ate what 
 native food she could procure, and trudged 
 over the rocky hills indifferent to fatigue and 
 exhaustion. 
 
 There came times when, overwhelmed by 
 work and difficulties, she would stand in 
 rueful perplexity and wonder at herself. 
 " I don't suppose any one else would remain 
 here for any length of time," she confessed. 
 There was always some trouble or distress 
 disturbing the order of life. Now it would 
 be a severe drought, now a plague of locusts, 
 now an epidemic of rinderpest amongst the 
 cattle, now a visitation of smallpox or other 
 disease. At these periods every one turned 
 to her for her advice and help and comfort. 
 During one winter, with the assistance of 
 friends in Scotland, she fed forty children 
 daily. 
 
 She found at last that she could not com- 
 pass all her tasks with any degree of satisfac- 
 tion. " If only I had a white helper," she 
 sighed. The Greenock ladies were always 
 so interested in her work that she made up 
 her mind to lay the situation before them. 
 " Perhaps," she thought, " there may be 
 found at home some lady of consecrated 
 life who may be willing to come out and 
 devote herself and her means to such a 
 
128 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 service." She ventured to broach the sub- 
 ject, and asked the ladies to try and find 
 such an individual. " Give us," she said, 
 " some one filled with the Divine compassion 
 for souls that animated our Saviour." 
 
 The suggestion fell on sympathetic hearts; 
 it awakened, indeed, something like en- 
 thusiasm. There was only one doubt ex- 
 pressed. Mrs. Forsyth, it was said, was an 
 exception to all rule. " She is one in a 
 thousand and does work that no one else 
 would attempt. But might there not be a 
 risk in asking another to share her trials and 
 privations ? " The risk was, nevertheless, 
 accepted; the ladies determined to go for- 
 ward in faith. 
 
 A Committee was appointed to make 
 known the need, but the effect of the appeal 
 was disappointing. Not one could be found 
 to sacrifice her home life and interests for 
 service amongst the kraals of Kafirland. 
 The Committee met again and again without 
 result. It was not to be baffled. If no one 
 would go as a voluntary worker, perhaps a 
 salary would be an inducement. One friend 
 after another said she would feel it an honour 
 to be allowed to contribute to such a cause, 
 and guaranteed amounts for five years. The 
 total sum raised was beyond all expectation. 
 
EXPERIMENT WHICH FAILED 129 
 
 The choice of the Committee fell upon 
 Miss Isabella Lamb, who was dedicated to 
 the work at a ijieeting in Greenock at which 
 two South African missionaries, Dr. and 
 Mrs. Soga, were present. The former — a 
 son of the famous Tiyo Soga — advised her 
 to acquire some knowledge of dispensing, 
 and she went for a time to an institution 
 in Edinburgh, where she was taught how to 
 treat simple ailments. In June 1893 she 
 sailed with the Sogas for South Africa. 
 
 From East London she covered the same 
 ground as Mrs. Forsyth had done. She was 
 so fatigued by the rough experience that Mrs. 
 Davidson kept her at Paterson for a time to 
 recruit. On arriving at her destination she 
 wrote: "I can't describe the wagon journey, 
 but I don't think I will leave Xolobe until 
 there is a railway." 
 
 Mr. Davidson formally introduced her to 
 the people. To the headman he said : " I 
 hope you will receive her kindly and take 
 care of her, along with Mrs. Forsyth." 
 
 " Umfundisi," the headman replied, " we 
 know 'Smoyana. She is an old woman and 
 a woman of sense, but she goes to the huts 
 and over the rocks in the night-time. If 
 she does that what will Miss Lamb not do ? 
 — for she is young and perhaps flighty. We 
 
130 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 will take care of them but will not be respon- 
 sible for them after the sun is down and our 
 people are drinking beer. If they go to a 
 hut and the way is long they must stay till 
 sunrise, or get some one to see them safely 
 home. We receive Miss Lamb." 
 
 Then up spoke the headman from Pater- 
 son, a Christian, with a deeper knowledge 
 of the forces behind Mrs. Forsyth: 
 
 " 'Smoyana is safe. I have seen her come 
 to a flooded river which she was afraid to 
 cross. What does she do ? For a minute 
 she puts her hands like this [covering his 
 eyes as if in prayer], then goes bravely over." 
 
 Miss Lamb began with all the buoyancy 
 and energy of a newcomer, visited the huts, 
 and with her medicine-chest beside her held 
 continuous levees. Mrs. Forsyth, she de- 
 clared, was " nice and kind and a thoroughly 
 good Christian." The missionary watched 
 her with shrewd eyes, and wrote that the 
 Committee must not expect too much of her 
 for a year at least, and that it would depend 
 on the care she took of herself during that 
 time what her future in Africa would be. 
 Mrs. Davidson felt very sorry for her. 
 "The work is trying at the best," she said, 
 "and the isolation will be hard on a young 
 person." 
 
EXPERIMENT WHICH FAILED 131 
 
 As the days passed the rose-colours faded 
 out of the life, and difficulties seemed to 
 increase, though they were the ordinary 
 difficulties of a mission-station, which always 
 requires courage and patience and faith. The 
 people were hard-hearted. An epidemic of 
 smallpox and measles broke out, and the 
 school had to be closed and visitation given 
 up. The church was burned down. The 
 heat was severe and told on her health. 
 Despite an occasional visit to Paterson 
 where she was mothered by Mrs. Davidson, 
 she began to suffer from depression of spirits, 
 sleeplessness, and lack of appetite. She 
 brooded over the fact that she had under- 
 taken duties for which she had not the 
 physical strength. Finally the District Sur- 
 geon reported that she was suffering from 
 anaemia and recommended that she should 
 be removed to some place where the climate 
 was more bracing, the surroundings more 
 congenial, and the duties lighter. 
 
 The Ladies' Committee at home met im- 
 mediately this report was received and sent 
 out a kind message to the effect that she 
 might feel happier if she knew she was not 
 bound to stay but was free to do as she 
 wished, and that if she thought it best to 
 resign they would pay her passage back. 
 
182 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 She resigned but remained in South Africa, 
 finding more suitable employment as a nurse 
 in a hospital at Queenstown. 
 
 Thus ended Mrs. Forsyth's dream of a 
 helper and companion from the homeland. 
 She never sought another, but continued in 
 her isolation and loneliness, with only an 
 occasional visit from a missionary to keep 
 her in touch with white civiUsation. She 
 had a profound belief that she would obtain 
 all the strength and support she needed. 
 
 The episode is Uke a flash of light in the 
 darkness, revealing the exceptional character 
 of the conditions amidst which she lived, and 
 proving that not all would-be missionaries 
 are fitted for the rough and lonely work of 
 pioneering in Africa. " Few women," writes 
 the Rev. John Lundie of Malan Mission, 
 "have the nerve for such work. Fewer 
 still can stand the isolation and the dis- 
 appointments with native character without 
 breaking down in health and spirits. Mrs. 
 Forsyth always seemed to me fitted by 
 nature, temperament, and physique, as well 
 as spiritually, for the niche she filled." 
 
XII 
 
 A FIRE AND A REVIVAL 
 
 The old wattle-and-daub building in which 
 services were held had begun to leak and 
 Mrs. Forsyth set about re-thatching it. It 
 was the hot season. Over a hundred women 
 carried the grass, and a squad of men cut 
 and prepared the saplings for the verandah 
 poles. All was finished, and the thatcher 
 was burning the discarded material when 
 the wind arose and carried a spark to the 
 new roof. It blazed up like tinder and in 
 a trice the entire building was consumed. 
 
 Looking at the little heap of ashes Mrs. 
 Forsyth said to those around : " There is 
 only one thing to do; we must build another." 
 That is the characteristic spirit of African 
 missionaries when confronted by disaster; 
 they never acknowledge defeat or give way 
 to despair. They simply begin again. Life 
 in the wilds, indeed, is but a series of 
 beginnings. 
 
 183 
 
134 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 The services, meanwhile, were held in the 
 schoolroom which was crowded to excess by 
 both Christians and " reds " so that the 
 children had to find a place under the table. 
 There was no one more relieved than the 
 missionary when the new building was com- 
 pleted. The opening was a red-letter event 
 in the history of Xolobe. Along with the 
 magistrate and Mr. Davidson there was 
 present Mr. Candlish Koti, who had been 
 appointed assistant at Paterson. A native 
 evangelist of promise, he had been sent to 
 Scotland as a deputy to the Jubilee Synod 
 of the United Presbyterian Church and had 
 just returned. " I feel," he said, " as if I 
 had had a tremendous dream. When I tell 
 people about things I have seen they seem 
 to be listening to one who is relating a dream, 
 and are quite unable to realise what you 
 tell them." 
 
 The building cost £50, the greater part 
 of which the people themselves contributed. 
 At the opening service they gave £9, mostly 
 in small sums, such as tickies (threepenny 
 pieces) and pennies, and in stock, such as 
 sheep and goats and fowls. One heathen 
 man laid down 10s. with the remark, " My 
 cattle are dead, and there is no harvest, I 
 can't afford any more." After the service 
 
A FIRE AND A REVIVAL 185 
 
 the company adjourned to the open where 
 they feasted and then quietly dispersed at 
 sunset to their homes. 
 
 The event seemed to shake the people 
 out of their routine and stir their deeper 
 feelings, for it was followed by a movement 
 amongst women and children which was 
 akin to revival. The church was packed 
 on every occasion. One woman walked with 
 her baby strapped to her back a difBcult 
 mountain journey of three hours to be 
 present at the services. " It is true," 
 remarked 'Smoyana, " that love lends wings 
 to the feet." 
 
 Special meetings were also held in the 
 surrounding huts which sometimes went on 
 all night. "We used to come here as red 
 heathen to dance," said one woman to Mrs. 
 Forsyth, "now we come to pray." A 
 notable part was taken by the women them- 
 selves who were singularly eloquent and 
 fervent in their prayers. One, who was old 
 and poor, poured forth her soul thus: 
 
 " Lord, I have no home. Thou art my 
 home. I have no goods. Thou art my 
 portion. I have no food. Thou art the 
 bread which came down from heaven, of 
 which if we eat we shall never hunger or 
 thirst." 
 
136 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth was happy. " My cup 
 runneth over," she exclaimed again and 
 again, and she attributed all to prayer put 
 up on her behalf in Scotland, Her vision 
 expanded. She not only wanted " Xolobe 
 for Christ." Her motto now was " Africa 
 for Christ." She urged her friends to wider 
 prayer. 
 
XIII 
 
 THE MIRACLE OF TEN YEARS 
 
 What impact had this one lonely worker 
 made on the massed heathenism of Xolobe 
 during her first ten years of service ? 
 
 In her humility she was only conscious 
 of how little had been achieved, and yet she 
 had accomphshed a result which onlookers 
 considered Uttle short of marvellous. Her 
 sole instruments had been a simple gospel 
 ministry, absolute faith, and indomitable 
 tenacity of purpose. With these she had 
 created, out of the crudest heathenism, a 
 civilised and Christian community. There 
 had been 117 baptisms and admissions to 
 the worship of the church, and many candi- 
 dates were ready and fit for joining. She 
 had established a series of religious organisa- 
 tions exercising an ever-increasing influence. 
 The day school she had started was now an 
 important institution, the work of which was 
 rapidly expanding beyond the limit of her 
 
 187 
 
138 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 powers. The people who had opposed her 
 and resisted her ministrations were at last 
 friendly; she was looked upon as a mother 
 to them all, their trusted adviser, helper, and 
 guide. She could go alone to any kraal, 
 night or day, even when a beer drink was 
 in progress, and feel that she was respected 
 and safe. 
 
 It was, indeed, a miracle of patient toil 
 and persistence. For one has to bear in 
 mind the untold expenditure of thought, 
 prayer, and energy which each changed life 
 represented. Sometimes she was years 
 shepherding some wild heart. There was 
 one heathen kraal which she had visited con- 
 tinuously since she arrived without observing 
 the least sign of change, yet she never lost 
 confidence. In the tenth year one of the 
 women inmates came forward and sur- 
 rendered herself, and the missionary wel- 
 comed her with humble gratitude. It was 
 such incidents that kept her life flushed 
 with hope and gave her the joy which made 
 her work endurable and glad. 
 
 Perhaps nothing thrilled her so much as 
 when she heard that the dying had passed 
 away in Christian faith and assurance. A 
 young married woman, one of her original 
 scholars, lay on her death-bed. " My body 
 
THE MIRACLE OF TEN YEARS 139 
 
 is weak," she murmured, " but my soul is 
 in perfect peace." Her first convert, a 
 young man, while dying, kept his New Testa- 
 ment lovingly clasped in his hand. After- 
 wards it was removed and given to Mrs. 
 Forsyth, who sent it to the ladies in Greenock 
 as a pathetic, yet significant, symbol of the 
 dawning of the new era in Xolobe. 
 
 Not that all the dark features of heathen- 
 ism had been eradicated, or that all hostility 
 to her teaching had ceased. There were 
 times when even her extraordinary courage 
 and hopefulness faltered and her spirits 
 drooped. At some of the meetings only a 
 few would appear. The others would be 
 away at a beer-drinking. Superstition was 
 still rife. Scholars would be withdrawn from 
 the school because 'Smoyana had sent the 
 rinderpest amongst them to destroy their 
 cattle ! 
 
 There were men and women, too, with 
 whom she could do nothing, and her grief 
 would have been unmitigable had she not 
 remembered that even her Master, with all 
 His power, could work no change with some 
 people because of their unbelief. Many 
 were sympathetic towards her but shy of 
 her message. It was almost ludicrous to 
 watch their attitude. They shunned the 
 
140 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 church when services were going on and yet 
 were eager enough to help her in any work 
 that had to be done to the building. Others 
 desired to come and hear her, drawn by a 
 powerful curiosity as to that Unknown God 
 of hers, and they would squat outside, long- 
 ing, yet afraid, to enter, lest they might be 
 converted. 
 
 There were troubles also with her own 
 members and bravely did she meet them. 
 "A few Sabbaths ago," she writes, "it was 
 my painful duty to warn the Christian people 
 amongst us not to give their sons to the 
 heathen custom of circumcision, and its 
 attendant evils. This custom permeates all 
 classes. Christian and heathen, and yearly 
 it is the beginning of a downward course 
 to many, who are thus lost to God and to 
 purity of life. I could see that my audience 
 were not in sympathy with me. The native 
 evangelist held down his head, and wiped 
 the perspiration from his forehead. Perhaps 
 the sins of his youth were rising before him. 
 2 Corinthians vi. 17, 18 were my last words 
 to them, ' Wherefore, come out from among 
 them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, 
 and touch not the unclean thing; and I will 
 receive you, and will be a Father unto you, 
 and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith 
 
THE MIRACLE OF TEN YEARS 141 
 
 the Lord Almighty.' The native evangelist 
 proceeded with his work afterwards, making 
 no allusion to what had gone before." 
 
 But the rank swamp of heathenism had 
 been cleared of its worst elements, and 
 although at times whiffs of moral miasma 
 drifted chokingly over the district the atmos- 
 phere was infinitely purer than it had been 
 when she arrived that sunmier evening ten 
 years before. 
 
XIV 
 
 ABDICATION 
 
 Another stage in the quiet evolution of the 
 work was reached when the day school 
 passed out of Mrs. Forsyth's hands. Her 
 chief thought was centred there, for she 
 realised that if she secured the youth of the 
 district she would be laying a secure founda- 
 tion for a Christian future, and she was con- 
 tinually pondering how to increase its useful- 
 ness and influence. 
 
 When a new magistrate was appointed 
 he was told of her work. " I wish I could 
 do something to help her," he exclaimed. 
 The remark reached her ears and she 
 promptly sent him a message to the effect that 
 the best thing he could do for her was to stir 
 up the " red " people to send their children 
 to school. He thought that would rather 
 increase her toil than lessen it, but he, never- 
 theless, acceded to her suggestion and held 
 conferences with the headman with excellent 
 
 142 
 
ABDICATION 143 
 
 results for the school. It grew steadily in 
 number until sixty-four boys and girls 
 were attending regularly. 
 
 The efficiency' of the teaching was always 
 tested at Christmas, when the parents and 
 friends of the pupils gathered to witness a 
 display of their powers. Examinations were 
 conducted in Bible knowledge, and it 
 astonished Mr. Davidson, who usually pre- 
 sided, to learn how thoroughly they had 
 been grounded, and how extensive and in- 
 telligent was their acquaintance with the 
 Book. Over 90 per cent of the answers 
 were, as a rule, correct. All the children 
 repeated the Ten Commandments and the 
 Beatitudes, and some could recite whole 
 chapters without a mistake. Hymns were 
 sung without the book and problems in 
 arithmetic solved. There was always one 
 who was proud of being able to say off the 
 multiplication table backwards. Specimens 
 of sewing work were also exhibited. The 
 proceedings ended with the distribution of 
 dolls and toys from a Christmas tree, and the 
 presentation of Bibles to those who had been 
 baptized. 
 
 It was little wonder that there began to 
 be talk of having the school properly in- 
 spected and of securing Government aid. 
 
144 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth foresaw what that meant — 
 the appointment of a certificated teacher; 
 but with her usual common sense and adapta- 
 bility she was ready to accept the change 
 for the good of Xolobe. 
 
 " It will be a sore wrench to me when it 
 comes," she wrote. " But I must try to 
 get over the feehng by throwing myself heart 
 and soul into the other work." This was 
 calling her with ever more insistent summons. 
 She brooded over the fact that fifty men and 
 women had died in their heathenism dur- 
 ing her sojourn amongst them. "Visitation 
 and evangelisation are urgent and I must 
 do more." It was her constant cry. 
 
 Shortly afterwards the school was taken 
 over by the Government; and she abdicated 
 in favour of Simon Ndima, a trained teacher, 
 the son of a Paterson headman, who was 
 given Antyi as an assistant. Mrs. Forsyth 
 feared that a Government teacher might not 
 accord due attention to Bible instruction and 
 said so to Simon. He looked at her sorrow- 
 fully. " 'Smoyana," he repUed, " I know that 
 no good can be done without that Book." 
 
 She was present when he gave his first 
 Bible lesson on the birth of Jesus, and was 
 struck by its simphcity and impressiveness. 
 With relief she wrote to her friends, " I 
 
J ' J % > 3 
 
 THE GREENOCK SCHOOLHuLSE 
 
 HJ NDING OVER THE SCHOOL TO THE GOVERNMENT TEACHER 
 
ABDICATION 145 
 
 leave the school in his hands without fear." 
 She and Mr. Davidson were appointed joint- 
 managers. 
 
 The school continued to flourish and the 
 curriculum was widened, cookery, sewing, 
 and knitting being amongst the subjects 
 added, whilst a qualified assistant replaced 
 Antyi, who devoted herself to evangelistic 
 work. It was always a grief to the teacher 
 that the older pupils left so soon, their places 
 being taken by the little ones, but Mrs. 
 Forsyth wisely said, " I am quite pleased 
 to see the dear wee things coming from 
 heathen kraals to be taught. God's stand- 
 ards are different from man's." 
 
 The teacher at this time lost his own 
 little child, and, sorrowing over the event 
 aiS if the infant had been her own, Mrs. 
 Forsyth went over with material for the 
 burial. Two women sewed a white gown 
 and cap, and the child was placed in a rough 
 coffin covered with black muslin. Amidst 
 the weeping of those present. Christian and 
 heathen, one of the elders spoke a few words 
 from the passage, " Now is Christ risen from 
 the dead " ; and then the old grandfather 
 took the coffin in his arms and proceeded 
 to the grave, where he prayed with such 
 emotion that he completely broke down. 
 
XV 
 
 THE DOCTOR'S WARNING 
 
 Relieved from the duties of the school Mrs. 
 Forsjrth gave herself more completely to the 
 general work of the station, organising it on 
 more comprehensive lines, and adding new 
 agencies as she saw need. 
 
 All this activity she carried on unaided 
 save by her native assistant and one or two 
 voluntary workers. "It is amazing the 
 work she accomplishes," Mr. Davidson re- 
 ported in 1902. She held the usual Sunday 
 services, a candidates' class, a junior candi- 
 dates' class, which met on Monday morning 
 and was attended by over sixty boys and 
 girls — a Sunday School with a senior class 
 for women who were learning to read the 
 Bible, and prayer-meetings both in the 
 church and the huts. Not content with 
 these stated events she gathered all the 
 school girls and lads of the church on Satur- 
 days and dealt with each apart. 
 
 146 
 
THE DOCTOR'S WARNING 147 
 
 She also began a branch of the Upward 
 and Onward Society which met on Sunday 
 and was well attended. The membership 
 of the Society throughout the district of 
 Mbulu and out-stations was over five hun- 
 dred. In this connection she came into 
 touch with the Countess of Aberdeen. To 
 commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary 
 of the Society the latter sent out a gift of 
 pale-blue satin bookmarks, and Mrs. Forsyth 
 was amused to find at a local ceremony that 
 the women had adorned their bodies with 
 them. The Society later became incorpo- 
 rated with the Women's Christian Association 
 of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa. 
 
 Meetings to pray for rain were a special 
 feature of the work. In this northern storm- 
 lashed land of ours such gatherings seem 
 strange, but droughts in South Africa are of 
 frequent occurrence. When the sun shone 
 pitilessly for weeks on a slowly shrivelling 
 land, the people turned to their " rain- 
 makers " to break the spell. Mrs. Forsyth 
 endeavoured to raise their materialistic con- 
 ception to a higher and more spiritual plane. 
 To her meetings the heathen came in large 
 numbers, the church never being able to 
 hold them all. Her attitude was a humble 
 waiting upon God, maker of heaven and 
 
148 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 earth, and she was justified in a wonderful 
 way. Here is a single instance told in her 
 own words : " In consequence of the lack 
 of the summer rain the corn and maize were 
 stunted and drooping. The heathen head- 
 man sent a request for special prayer to be 
 made. On the very day the prayer was 
 offered the rain began to fall. As they 
 continued to pray it fell in torrents and their 
 crops were saved." Over and over again 
 in her reports comes the laconic sentence, 
 " We prayed for rain ; our prayers were 
 answered." The people declared that it 
 was she who had brought the rain, but "of 
 course," she said " it was God." 
 
 She was giving much thought and time 
 to the training of her boarders, whom she 
 wished to be an object-lesson to the people. 
 Usually she had from four to seven under her 
 care, for each of whom the Greenock ladies 
 contributed £5 per annum. She gave them 
 good plain food and clothing, kept them 
 busy during working hours, but allowed them 
 plenty of leisure for recreation and play, and 
 if they needed correction she did not spare 
 them. As a result they were seldom ill, and 
 were a contented, merry little company. 
 
 Ida was still one of the number and was as 
 
THE DOCTOR'S WARNING 149 
 
 bright and diligent as ever. Seemingly with- 
 out effort she always came to the front, and 
 was first in general intelligence. She was 
 eager to continue her education and become 
 an evangelist to her own people. Young as 
 she was she was already beginning to speak 
 to them of her knowledge of the peace and 
 joy that attended the Christian life. So 
 bright and promising was her character that 
 when she could advance no higher in the 
 school the Greenock Committee decided to 
 send her to Emgwali Institution for the 
 training she desired. There she also proved 
 an apt and painstaking pupil, adding to her 
 acquirements a thorough knowledge of sewing 
 and baking. " I am glad you taught me to 
 be a Christian child," she wrote to Mrs. 
 Forsyth. " I want you to forgive me for all 
 the unkind things I did to make you sorry. 
 I am asking God to forgive me and trying 
 hard to do my duty." 
 
 Another boarder was Eliza, who was 
 clever both at housework and lessons. She 
 was the niece of the headman, and ultimately 
 left to become cook to a white family. All 
 the others did weU, and one stood highest 
 in the Presbyterian examination. 
 
 Such incessant toil at her age — she was 
 now fifty-eight — told upon Mrs. Forsyth's 
 
150 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 health, and there was a lowering of vitality 
 which made her a ready victim to influenza. 
 The attack was a severe one, and she was in 
 bed for many weeks. When at Paterson 
 attending the marriage of Mr. Davidson's 
 daughter she saw Dr. Arnot — who had 
 married the other daughter — and he examined 
 her thoroughly and gave his verdict. 
 
 ** There is no organic disease," he said; 
 " but the muscles of your heart are strained. 
 You must not take any more long walks to 
 heathen kraals. If you insist on doing that 
 you will simply drop down some day — sooner 
 than later." 
 
 Her comment on this to a friend in 
 Scotland was: " I am beginning to feel that 
 I am in the sere and yellow leaf. We are 
 both nearing the borderland, and the only 
 thing that grieves me is the number of 
 opportunities for serving our dear Lord and 
 Saviour I have missed. What an unprofit- 
 able servant I have been ! I would like you 
 to know that when my time comes I would 
 not like a single word to be written about 
 me but this: 
 
 Not in mine innocence I trust, 
 I bow before Thee in the dust, 
 And through my Saviour's blood alone 
 I look for mercy at Thy throne. 
 
XVI 
 
 VISITORS FROM SCOTLAND 
 
 The union of the United Presbyterian 
 Church, with which she was connected, and 
 the Free Church left her position unaffected. 
 She had been appointed an honorary worker 
 by the Foreign Mission Board of the Church, 
 and did not come, like other ladies on the 
 foreign staff, under the jurisdiction of the 
 new Women's Foreign Mission Committee of 
 the united Church. But, like many another 
 missionary, she was less of a personality than 
 ever. She was now one of the most obscure 
 units in the vast missionary force of the 
 united body, occupying a remote and solitary 
 outpost, and she pursued her tranquil way 
 unknown to all save an interested and loyal 
 few. Only an infrequent notice about her 
 work appeared in the Missionary Record of 
 the Church. " It is seldom," wrote Dr. 
 Robson, the Editor, on one occasion, "that 
 we can say anything about her quiet but 
 
 161 
 
152 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 splendid ministry of service." When Dr. 
 Robson died, she, like all the missionaries, 
 missed his friendly interest. " He was like 
 a father to us all," she said, " so great 
 intellectually and spiritually and withal as 
 humble as a child." 
 
 She was greatly cheered and strengthened 
 by a passing glimpse of two visitors from the 
 homeland, distinguished members of her 
 former church, and prominent workers in 
 the united body, Mr. and Mrs. Duncan 
 McLaren of Edinburgh, well known for their 
 deep and generous interest in missions and 
 missionaries. As Mrs. MXaren edited the 
 Womenfs Missionary Magazine of the Church 
 she was specially sympathetic to the women's 
 side of the work, and was anxious, while in 
 South Africa, to see Xolobe and Mrs. For- 
 syth. Both visitors came away impressed by 
 the saintliness of her character, her absolute 
 trust upon God, and her devotion to the 
 work. Here is Mrs. McLaren's own account 
 of her experience: 
 
 " Mrs. Forsyth had come over the moun- 
 tains from Xolobe to meet us at Paterson. 
 We thought it best after a short rest to 
 accompany her on her return home. The 
 first hill we had to surmount was like a 
 stony staircase. The road leading over it 
 
VISITORS FROM SCOTLAND 153 
 
 was so steep, so bad, so impossible for horses, 
 that Mr. Davidson kindly gave us four oxen 
 to draw our cart and us up. After a time 
 our horses wei^ie inspanned, and by walking 
 up the hills we managed to drive the greater 
 part of the way. Eventually we left our 
 cart at a kraal, and walked, amid grand and 
 wild surroundings, to the little mission-house, 
 perched on a ridge, with a rocky drift in 
 front and a deep dark canon behind. 
 
 " For long Mrs. Forsyth lived in a Kafir 
 hut, but owing to the strong wishes of her 
 friends she consented to the little mission- 
 house being built. It had only one good 
 room, the other two, which opened off this 
 middle one at each end, being very small. 
 True to her constant practice that God and 
 His work must come first, Mrs. Forsyth had 
 given up her one bright room entirely as a 
 class-room, the mud-and-wattle schoolroom 
 close by being quite inadequate to contain 
 the children who come to be taught. The 
 two little rooms she had for herself were bare 
 and destitute even of very ordinary comforts, 
 but her six little native maidens, who lived 
 with her, and whom she was training for 
 God, kept them scrupulously clean and tidy. 
 There was not even a garden round the 
 mission-house, because, not being properly 
 
154 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 enclosed, the pigs ate up everything she tried 
 to grow. 
 
 " The church, a simple structure, was 
 close by. It, too, was lacking in sufficient 
 accommodation for the people who attended. 
 
 " One of the Christians we saw interested 
 us very much, a bright girl of thirteen. This 
 child, after she had confessed in the heathen 
 kraal that she loved Jesus and meant to 
 serve Him, was chased out of the kraal and 
 over the ridges by her father, whip in hand. 
 She took refuge in the mission-house, and 
 after a time the wrath of the father so abated 
 that she was allowed to go home. 
 
 " I shall always be glad that I heard Mrs. 
 Forsyth pour out her heart in prayer to 
 God in the Kafir tongue. I could not under- 
 stand or follow the petitions, but I shall 
 never forget the nearness of the Divine 
 presence in that httle room, or the shining 
 face of His devoted messenger as we rose 
 from our knees. 
 
 "In the morning the Christians had met 
 to pray for rain, and shortly after a thunder- 
 storm broke. Rain was still falling heavily 
 as we started again to traverse the ten miles 
 of wilderness lying between Xolobe and 
 Mbulu. Dark clouds made the deep chasms 
 look deeper still, and added a grandeur to 
 
VISITORS FROM SCOTLAND 155 
 
 the wild rocky heights, but away in the west 
 was a gleam of wonderful light. It seemed 
 as we looked ,the picturing forth of the 
 blessing that was surely coming to dark 
 Xolobe." 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth was equally impressed by 
 Mrs. McLaren, and wrote of her as possess- 
 ing a " wonderful personality." The corre- 
 spondence which followed the visit was a 
 source of help and comfort to the solitary 
 missionary, and the extracts from her letters 
 which Mrs. MXaren inserted in the Women's 
 Missionary Magazine made her known to a 
 wider circle. 
 
 The ecclesiastical crisis which occurred a 
 few years later made no difference in South 
 Africa, all the missionaries adhering to the 
 United Free Church. " I hope," Mrs. For- 
 syth wrote, " no one at home will be unduly 
 troubled by what has happened. God will 
 provide for the Church both at home and 
 abroad. How often have we experienced 
 that God is able to make all thing work 
 together for good to those who love Him." 
 
XVII 
 
 A BIGGER HOUSE OF GOD 
 
 In 1905 the Greenock ladies arrived at the 
 conclusion that the usefulness of their As- 
 sociation had reached its limit. The natives 
 whom they had been assisting were now 
 sensible of the advantage of higher education 
 and willing to pay for it, and it was felt that 
 they should be left to their own resources. 
 With this decision the missionaries on the 
 spot agreed; the time had come, they 
 thought, when the principle of self-support 
 should be put into operation. Mrs. Forsyth 
 remarked that she was still quite able for 
 the work of training the boarders, and there 
 was never any lack of applicants, but the 
 need was not so pressing and few required 
 help. She added, " Your Society has done 
 good work in Africa for God, and what it has 
 done for me will be held in everlasting 
 remembrance. Greenock Schoolhouse and 
 the churches and the children you have 
 
 166 
 
A BIGGER HOUSE OF GOD 157 
 
 helped will not be forgotten here or before 
 God." 
 
 Ida was then home from Emgwali for 
 the hoUdays, a bright capable girl of excep- 
 tional promise, and Mrs. Forsyth, looking 
 upon her, was moved to ask the Association, 
 before disbanding, to make provision for 
 completing her education and enabling her 
 to carry out her desire to become a teacher. 
 This was readily agreed to and a sum was 
 laid aside for the purpose. Ida gained a 
 good conduct certificate, passed out success- 
 fully, and obtained an assistantship first at 
 Mbulu and then in a Wesleyan School. 
 
 After sixty-four years of faithful and 
 successful service the Society dissolved, to 
 live again, however, in an informal way; 
 for the ladies could not bear to break the tie 
 with Mrs. Forsyth so suddenly, and they 
 continued to take an interest in her doings 
 and to support a native assistant for the 
 purpose of living with her and attending 
 to her needs. 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth, accordingly, went on with 
 her practice of sending the ladies regular 
 reports regarding the progress of the work. 
 The character of these may be gathered 
 from the heading she always placed upon 
 them— "The Lord's Work." There was 
 
158 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 never anything in them about her service. 
 As one of her correspondents remarked, 
 " She never wrote much about herself; it 
 was her work that stood first with her." 
 She very seldom used the personal pronoun, 
 preferring the word " we." Her reports 
 were records of the personal history of her 
 people, accounts of individual awakening 
 and conversions, or relapse and restoration, 
 of baptisms and marriages, and narrations 
 of the trials, sorrows, and temptations of 
 the women and girls. So simple and un- 
 eventful was the story they told that she 
 expressed the hope the ladies would not find 
 them too " dreich." When missionaries 
 who knew her were informed of these reports 
 they said: "Mrs. Forsyth will never give 
 you any real idea of her work or its results. 
 She would not do so if you saw her face to 
 face." 
 
 It was not long before the ladies had the 
 opportunity of giving practical expression 
 to their interest. The church, used also as 
 the day school, was becoming too small for 
 its purposes. There were over fifty members 
 in full communion, and the congregation felt 
 the discomforts of overcrowding. " Can we 
 not have a bigger House of God ? " they 
 asked* 
 
3 > 
 
 MARRIKD WOMEN OUTSIDE THEIR HUT 
 
A BIGGER HOUSE OF GOD 159 
 
 The matter was talked of but there had 
 been a succession of bad seasons and poverty 
 was widespread, and nothing was done. 
 Then action was hastened by a threat from 
 the Government Inspector. " The school is 
 becoming too cramped," he said, " I must 
 close it if better accommodation is not 
 provided." This was not to be thought of. 
 There was an attendance of over eighty and 
 the school was second best in the district. 
 Mrs. Forsyth and Mr. Davidson laid their 
 heads together and planned an ambitious 
 scheme. They would build a substantial 
 brick church with stone foundations, iron 
 pillars, and verandah, which would cost 
 about £500 and be worthy of the Master's 
 ca.use. The elders, headman, and counsellors 
 heartily supported the idea. Where the 
 money was to come from neither the unrtfun- 
 disi nor the White Mother knew, but they 
 had the simple faith which moves mountains. 
 
 Mr. Davidson came up and called a meet- 
 ing to start the movement, but that day all 
 the heathen population were at a dance, 
 the culmination of a two-months' bout of 
 immorality, and only the Christians appeared. 
 Still, when the preliminary gifts were 
 gathered in — £12 : lis. in money, 11 sheep, 
 6 goats, 1 heifer, and 1% bags of grain — ^it 
 
160 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 was remarkable that the largest donations 
 came from the " red " inhabitants who also 
 offered free labour to quarry the stone and 
 bring the material from a station two days' 
 journey away. 
 
 When the Greenock ladies heard of the 
 project they hastened to send their aid. A 
 first instalment of £100 was sent out and 
 lodged in the bank, and Mrs. Forsyth pro- 
 ceeded with the arrangements. It was a 
 task which proved one of the most trying 
 and harassing she had ever ventured upon. 
 Drought came and weakened the oxen to 
 such an extent that they were unable to 
 draw the material and many died. The gang 
 of native workmen were lazy and incom- 
 petent, requiring the firm management which 
 she was too gentle and forbearing to exercise. 
 The brickmakers forsook their work and 
 others broke their promises. Mr. Davidson 
 had now retired at the age of seventy- 
 six after forty years' service and she was 
 without ministerial guidance and support, 
 but she went bravely on fighting her difficul- 
 ties. 
 
 It was, however, with profound rehef 
 that she welcomed a new face on the scene. 
 This was the Rev. George S. Stewart, who 
 had come out from Scotland to be minister 
 
A BIGGER HOUSE OF GOD 161 
 
 at Emgwali. He was one who could ap- 
 preciate the noble work going on at Xolobe, 
 and he rode over occasionally to see Mrs. 
 Forsyth and b^^came her warm friend and 
 helper. One of the first matters he had to 
 put right had given her much pain. The 
 headman, Matole, had charge of the local 
 contributions for the new building and had 
 embezzled them. Mr. Stewart gave him the 
 option of restoring the funds or being 
 reported at headquarters, and he chose the 
 former course. 
 
 The idea of a church entirely of brick 
 was abandoned, and iron, lined with brick, 
 and an inner lining of wood, substituted. 
 From Emgwali Mr. Stewart brought a native 
 carpenter and two other experienced trades- 
 men and set them to work. It was interest- 
 ing to Mrs. Forsyth to watch the bearing 
 and industry of these men and note how 
 Christian training influenced the character 
 of their workmanship. Along with the wagon 
 drivers they held worship every evening. 
 
 Among those who carried the bricks was 
 a girl whose stunted appearance drew 
 Mr. Stewart's attention. " That is Celani 
 Nopina," said Mrs. Forsyth, "or rather, 
 Nagiwe Nkuhlu is her name now. She used 
 to be one of my best boarders." 
 
162 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 It will be remembered that Celani left 
 the school and returned to the mire of heath- 
 enism. While in company with a " red " boy 
 on the way to participate in some vile custom 
 a thunderstorm came on and her companion 
 was struck dead by lightning. The incident 
 seemed to impress her but she continued to 
 avoid Mrs. Forsyth. Now, however, a change 
 had come over her; she haunted the mission- 
 house looking miserable and unhappy, and 
 was given any odd work to do. One day, 
 while she was attending to the garden, Mrs. 
 Forsyth asked her if she remembered the 
 Scripture she had learned in her youth, and 
 she replied that she did, and the missionary 
 was confident that she would win her back. 
 
 When completed the church was a sunple 
 little building, but the people were as proud 
 of it as a more cultured race would have 
 been of a cathedral. They had contributed 
 £lOQ towards its erection whilst the friends 
 in Scotland had sent out £200. Mr. Stewart 
 presented a water-tank to remind all of the 
 promise of Christ to those who drank of the 
 living water, and it remains to this day, a 
 memorial of his interest and lovingkindness. 
 "I can never," Mrs. Forsyth says, *' be 
 thankful enough for his aid." 
 
XVIII 
 
 MR. STEWART'S PEN-PICTURE 
 
 Mr. Stewart was one of the missionaries 
 supported by the children of the United Free 
 Church, and occasionally he sent them a 
 letter which was printed as a leaflet and 
 circulated amongst the Sunday Schools. In 
 one of these he wrote about Mrs. Forsyth 
 and the life she led. The description, in its 
 simplicity and charm, brings Xolobe and its 
 White Mother more vividly before the reader 
 than a more elaborate delineation, and here 
 it is given: 
 
 "About forty miles from Emgwali, far 
 over the Great Kei River, there is a beautiful 
 big valley called Xolobe Valley. Along both 
 sides of it are great hills, steep and rocky, 
 with huts dotted along the lower slopes, and 
 woods here and there full of beautiful birds. 
 Near the end of the valley there is a rocky 
 ledge and a precipice with trees growing out 
 of the cracks of the rocks, and on the top 
 of this ledge there is a tiny brick house and 
 
 163 
 
164 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 a school, with galvanised iron roofs which 
 you can see from miles away glittering in 
 the sun. All along the slopes are many 
 huts, and this one house stands alone. 
 
 " If you were to ride there — you could 
 not drive, the road is so steep — you would 
 be met at the door by a kind-looking Scottish 
 lady with very gentle eyes, named Mrs. 
 Forsyth, who would welcome you in heartily. 
 Before you had time to tell who you were 
 she would go away and come back in a 
 minute or two with a cup of tea to refresh 
 you after your long, hot ride. Then you 
 would not be five minutes in the house till 
 you felt that you were very much at home, 
 and that this was an old familiar friend who 
 was talking with you. For you would find 
 this lady make you so welcome, and heap 
 such kindness on you as no mere stranger 
 could do. 
 
 " And as you sat and watched, you would 
 see black men and women and boys and 
 girls come in dressed in their red blankets, 
 and all would get a kind word and a welcome, 
 and many who had come from far would get 
 food. And though you could not tell what 
 was being said in the musical Kafir speech, 
 it would be easy for you to tell that this 
 lady was much beloved by these half savage 
 
MR. STEWART'S PEN-PICTURE 165 
 
 folk. Some of the women would have little 
 black babies tied on their backs, with big 
 dancing eyes and such soft velvety skins, 
 and every baby, too, would get a kind word 
 or a loving touch from this gentle lady of 
 that little lonely house in Xolobe Valley. 
 
 "When the night came, she would leave 
 her own bed for your comfort, and would 
 sleep on a chair or anywhere, only she would 
 never tell you that; you would need to find 
 it out. But I don't think you would sleep 
 much at night. All the night through you 
 would likely hear, from some of the huts 
 nearer or farther away, great shouting and 
 chanting of strange wild voices, and clapping 
 of hands. You would hear too, on many a 
 night, voices crying out in strife, and the 
 loud rattle of the sticks as the people fought. 
 And you would wonder at a lady living alone, 
 save for two little Kafir girhes, among such 
 wild scenes and sounds. You would be 
 afraid, for often blood is shed, and often men 
 are wounded and sometimes men are killed. 
 
 "And if you went visiting among these 
 huts, you would sometimes be afraid too, 
 for after these long nights of drinking and 
 of dancing or of fighting, the men and 
 women are often sulky and cross, and often 
 there are fierce dogs at the huts. Only a 
 
166 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 short time ago, while this lady was going 
 from hut to hut, trying to tell the people 
 ahout Christ, a dog sprang out at her and 
 bit her in the face. But nothing will keep 
 her from going. 
 
 "And she has long rough ways to walk, 
 steep and stony, and the African sun burns 
 like a flame of fire. A lonely place and a 
 wild people, and hard, hard work. What 
 keeps a lady there? 
 
 " If you asked this lady why she lived 
 there, she would tell you she loved to live 
 there. And if you still asked 'Why,' she 
 would tell you, as she tells the wild people 
 round, of the great love of God that gave 
 Jesus to us, and of the love that led Him to 
 the Cross. She would tell you of the love 
 that sent Him to seek the lost, over stony 
 ways, and through hunger and thirst and 
 under burning suns. And she would tell 
 you how that love burned in her heart till 
 she felt compelled to rise up and follow Him 
 to the huts and the steep paths of the Xolobe 
 Valley in heathen Africa. 
 
 " And she would tell you how she did not 
 feel lonely, for Jesus was her companion on 
 these long, hot paths, and how she was not 
 afraid, for God watched her home through 
 the wild African nights. And she would tell 
 
MR. STEWART'S PEN-PICTURE 167 
 
 you how she did not shrink from the rude, 
 sulky drunkards, for she loved them, and 
 pitied and wanted to help them. 
 
 "And she would tell you how God was 
 working miracles still in that great valley, 
 and turning these dark souls to the bright- 
 ness of the Lord. 
 
 " I want you all to know her and to love 
 her, and to pray for her. She lives such sl 
 brave, happy, suffering life, that it will do 
 all you bairns good to know even a little 
 about her. Pray for her sometimes in the 
 bright mornings, as you think of her walking 
 down the steep hill paths in the burning day, 
 to carry Christ's Gospel to those who are 
 glad to hear and to those who turn away. 
 Pray for her as the darkness comes, when 
 you think of her toiling home at night, tired 
 and hungry, while the dark woods mutter 
 and whisper, and the drunken call and the 
 drunken song ring along the valley. Pray 
 for her, as you think of her alone in that 
 wild place, a place often like the dark valley 
 of the shadow. And as you think of her and 
 try to see her, listen as her lips open, and 
 hear her words : ' Yea, though I walk through 
 the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
 fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod 
 and Thy staff they comfort me.' " 
 
XIX 
 
 THE NEW UMFUNDISI AND HIS 
 SISTER 
 
 The Rev. William Auld, M.A., a son of the 
 Rev. James M. Auld of Columba Station, 
 was appointed to succeed Mr. Davidson at 
 Paterson. Born at Emgwali, and educated 
 at Cape Town and Glasgow, he was inspired 
 with true missionary zeal. As he was un- 
 married he brought his sister. Miss Etta M. 
 Auld, to keep house for him. It was a happy 
 circimistance for Mrs. Forsyth. Miss Auld 
 was a warm-hearted capable girl. Both she 
 and her brother had known the missionary 
 from their earliest days; the story of her 
 work was familiar to them, and as they grew 
 up they frequently met her when visiting 
 the Davidsons. 
 
 After they settled at Paterson they made 
 it their business to look after her welfare and 
 comfort. Mr. Auld treated her with all 
 the consideration of a son, and would often 
 go up and assist her and adjust knotty 
 
 168 
 
THE NEW UMFUNDISI 169 
 
 points that arose in the course of her work. 
 Miss Auld came more intimately into contact 
 with her, " and," she says, " I learned to 
 love her for her noble life of devotion and 
 self-sacrifice which she did not count a sacri- 
 fice but a joy." 
 
 The girl often spent days at Xolobe, and 
 the two would take a rug and a couple of 
 cushions and go out and sit at the point 
 where they had the best view of the beautiful 
 valley, and there they would indulge in 
 long talks, and the visitor would hear stories 
 of the missionary's earlier days, of the par- 
 ents who had died when she was a child, of 
 her brother and sisters, and of episodes, both 
 sombre and glad, in her later career. It was 
 clear to Miss Auld that she had drunk deep 
 of the bitter cup of sorrow, and that she 
 had learnt through suffering to understand 
 and sympathise with and help others. 
 
 And then, dismissing her memories, the 
 missionary would accompany the girl down 
 to the stream, and with light heart take off 
 her stockings and shoes and paddle gaily 
 in the water like any child. 
 
 With Miss Auld let us walk up to the unpre- 
 tentious httle mission-house on the hilltop: 
 
 " You stepped into what she called the 
 ' schoolroom,' a bare apartment with a table. 
 
170 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 a couple of forms, and a desk. Here she 
 met with all who came to see her. Here, 
 also, morning and evening prayers were held, 
 as well as the weekly prayer-meeting and 
 the Women's Manyano (Association), whilst 
 on Sunday morning the first early comers 
 were wont to gather in it for a class. 
 
 " At the end of this room was a door which 
 opened into her bedroom. It was simply 
 furnished like the rest of the house. There 
 was a single bed, from which if you raised 
 yourself you could command, through the 
 window, a view of the new church and the 
 valley. A packing-case, with a drape over 
 it served as a toilet-table. A small corner 
 bracket, on which stood her travelling clock 
 and a few photos, a small table at the window, 
 a large native basket for soiled linen, a small 
 washstand, and a couple of cabin trunks com- 
 pleted the furnishing of the room. 
 
 " Stepping back into the schoolroom you 
 found another door leading into the dining- 
 room, which contained a table, two or three 
 easy-chairs — all old pensioners — a folding bed 
 which often did noble service, and a small 
 table used as a sideboard, above which hung 
 a bookcase with her few well-read and much 
 treasured books. 
 
 "A door to the left as you entered led 
 
THE NEW UMFUNDISI 171 
 
 into a small pantry, while another with a 
 glass upper half led you on to the verandah 
 where you could always obtain a view of the 
 valley. At the right end of the verandah 
 was the kitchen with a small room attached 
 often occupied by her servant. Along the 
 front verandah ran a rough trellis over which 
 vines were trained, these giving cool shade 
 and abundance of fruit in the season. 
 
 " In a small patch of ground, enclosed by 
 a fence of aloes and thorn bush in front of 
 the house and along the side, she cultivated 
 all the vegetables she used and a few fruit 
 trees. A mealie field took up part of the 
 enclosure between the church and the house, 
 but as the soil was stony and of no great 
 depth she never reaped a satisfactory crop, 
 and most of the mealies she required for 
 household purposes she bought from the peo- 
 ple around." 
 
 Another of her friends from this time on- 
 wards was Dr. J. Victor Hartley, the Dis- 
 trict Surgeon, who writes of her: 
 
 "As District Surgeon of Tsomo with 
 26,000 natives living in it, I learnt to realise 
 the great value of her work. Those in the 
 vicinity of her home were among the most 
 backward and wild unsophisticated children 
 
172 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 of nature, practically untouched by civilisa- 
 tion, indulging in their native customs and 
 rites — many very immoral — and beer-drink- 
 ing feasts, with the resultant affrays, and 
 steeped in superstition, affording a happy 
 hunting-ground for heathen doctors and doc- 
 toresses, many of whom in secret still prac- 
 tised witchcraft — raw material of the toughest! 
 But she had little sense of fear. Her force 
 of character was such that the raw native 
 in his wildest moments of unrestrained pas- 
 sion or fury, whether at a dance, a beer- 
 drinking, or ill-using his family, always 
 showed her respect. 
 
 " Quiet, steady, unassuming, she was very 
 active, never content unless at work. No 
 hill was too steep, no distance too far if a 
 native called for advice or aid. When on 
 duty in the Kei Hills I would often meet 
 her alone wending her way on foot up and 
 down the steep, rough footpaths on errands 
 of mercy to some sick native man, woman, or 
 child. On casually questioning the natives, 
 their replies made me realise what a power 
 for good her lonely life had been." 
 
XX 
 
 TOILING AND REJOICING 
 
 The years passed quietly away in patient 
 and lowly service, her influence spreading 
 and deepening, like leaven, in the life of the 
 district. 
 
 The services on Sunday were well at- 
 tended; in the noon Bible Class — that fas- 
 cinating but anxious bit of work — ^were half 
 a hundred girls; the prayer-meeting early 
 on Wednesday morning was a favourite with 
 the people, and " it is a good sign of the 
 warmth of a church," she wrote, "when the 
 prayer-meeting is well attended." There 
 was always a goodly number of candidates 
 under training or ready for admission to the 
 membership. Sometimes the wives of a 
 polygamist would come to the classes de- 
 siring earnestly to join the fellowship of 
 believers. To arrange such matters was 
 always a little difficult, and Mrs. Forsyth was 
 often sorry for the women. One for whom 
 
 173 
 
174 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 she had much regard became depressed at 
 her position and a look of sadness settled 
 upon her face. Naturally in such a state of 
 society odd complications cropped up in the 
 development of the infant church. One of 
 her ablest helpers, for instance, was a convert 
 with three heathen sons, two of whom were 
 married to Christian women. 
 
 There continued to be numerous conver- 
 sions. Even the witch-doctors were attracted 
 by what was more wonderful than their 
 " magic," and not a few abandoned their evil 
 practices and became converts. One woman 
 who had held grimly out for nineteen years 
 against 'Smoyana's entreaties came at last to 
 her with a broken and contrite heart. She was 
 never elated when such victories were won; 
 she was only humbly grateful, giving thanks 
 to God. Many a meeting of thanksgiving she 
 held for all that was being done in the district. 
 Not that she was ever satisfied with what 
 was achieved. She wanted not "drops," 
 but " big showers " of blessing. Her vision, 
 too, had expanded. It used to be confined 
 to Xolobe; then she took in Africa; now 
 her range swept over the entire world. She 
 exhorted her friends to the same service. 
 "Pray," she wrote, "for Xolobe. Pray for 
 Africa. Pray for the world." 
 
TOILING AND REJOICING 175 
 
 She never sought, however, to hide the 
 dark side of the picture. Black hours she 
 had in abundance. Women would be forced 
 back into heathenism. There would be sus- 
 pensions from the membership. Promising 
 girls would be tempted and fall away. An 
 epidemic of beer-drinking would undo months 
 and even years of laborious toil. She would 
 go into a hut and find children in the agony 
 of some disease and the girls in attendance 
 lying drunk. 
 
 One woman nearly broke her heart. She 
 had a son who became a good scholar and 
 could read the Kafir Bible. When he ex- 
 pressed a wish to become a Christian his 
 mother went about the district saying scan- 
 dalous things against the saint in the mission- 
 house. Then she engaged a Kafir igqira to 
 doctor her boy, with the result that he 
 plunged into sin and became one of the 
 wildest and most reckless youths in Xolobe. 
 Three other children came to the school and 
 showed a bias towards the new way. The 
 mother withdrew them at once and burned 
 the clothes of the eldest, making her go 
 naked. " Is it not enough for you to go to 
 hell," said 'Smoyana bitterly, " but you 
 must drag down your children with you ? " 
 Nevertheless she continued for years to go 
 
176 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 to the woman's hut, only to be received with 
 rude and impertinent words. 
 
 One day she asked her, "What is taking 
 the place of God in your heart ? " 
 
 To her surprise the answer was, " God 
 has the chief place, Ma." 
 
 " How can I believe that," replied 'Smo- 
 yana incredulously, " when I see that charm 
 round your neck, and those brass rings on 
 your arms ? " 
 
 Next time she went to the hut the orna- 
 ments were gone. 
 
 " We are praying every night," the woman 
 said, " and saying grace before meals." By 
 and by she surrendered herself completely. 
 
 She was very downcast when, having 
 sought to win some heathen heart, she failed. 
 Her nearest neighbour on the heights above 
 the mission-house was a heathen. He be- 
 came very ill. But he would not see her, and 
 refused the help she wished to render him. 
 " I want to have nothing to do with your 
 Jesus," he said. He was attended by a 
 witch-doctor who spoilt both mind and body. 
 " It is one of the saddest sights I have ever 
 seen," she declared. 
 
 Natural visitations continued frequently 
 to impede the work. 
 
 Drought wrought havoc with the pros- 
 
TOILING AND REJOICING 177 
 
 perity of the cultivators, and Xolobe was 
 quarantined for two years on account of the 
 ravages of East Coast cattle fever. When 
 rain failed prayt^r-meetings were organised, 
 and they never seemed in vain. Her oldest 
 elder — still after twenty-five years' service 
 as true and staunch as ever — used often to 
 take the leading part. "We are just like 
 little birds in a nest," he would say, " sitting 
 with open mouths waiting the coming of the 
 mother-bird to receive." 
 
 During a dust-storm, followed by heavy 
 rain, a woman took refuge at the mission- 
 house. It was her old boarder Ida, who had 
 been on a journey and had been caught in 
 the storm some miles away. Mrs. Forsyth 
 was pleased to see her looking so bright and 
 cheerful. She had married a Christian young 
 man, a Wesleyan teacher and preacher who 
 came of fine stock, and continued to teach in 
 his school. She was now on her way to 
 visit his people, who were very fond of her. 
 " She is quite a credit to the ladies," wrote 
 Mrs. Forsyth to Greenock. 
 
 The greater part of her day was taken up 
 with visiting from kraal to kraal. Soon after 
 breakfast she made ready. The dinner was 
 prepared and set on to cook and then left to 
 look after itself. Carrying a large black 
 
178 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 sunshade — on which she sometimes fixed a 
 white cover — and a bag over her arm con- 
 taining her Bible and hymn-book, she set 
 out, either alone or accompanied by her 
 servant. Whenever on the steep tracts she 
 met a man, woman, or child she acted, 
 unconsciously, the part of the Ancient 
 Mariner and constrained them to stop and 
 listen. Under the spell of that calm face and 
 those bright eyes they could not choose but 
 hear. 
 
 It was the same in the huts where the sick 
 and the aged were her special care. After 
 a few words of kindly enquiry she read a 
 portion of Scripture; then came an earnest 
 talk, followed by hymn and prayer. She 
 would then direct her maid to prepare a cup 
 of tea of the small packet she had brought 
 for the invalid. With more kind words she 
 said farewell and went on to the next kraal. 
 
 Here she would find all the adults away 
 at a heathen dance or beer-drinking, and 
 only the boys and girls about. These she 
 would gather together, teaching them a 
 hymn or making them repeat the Lord's 
 Prayer, and telling them about the gracious 
 Saviour who loved little children. 
 
 And so the day would pass. In the late 
 afternoon she would return tired and hungry 
 
CHRISTIAN FINGO GIRLS 
 Ida is on the extreme left. 
 
 A HEATHEN FAMILY 
 
< < , I 
 
TOILING AND REJOICING 179 
 
 to find the fire out and the dinner cold, and 
 her black cat — which considered itself the 
 most important member of the household — 
 yawning with eniiui. 
 
 " On one occasion," writes Miss Auld, 
 " after Presbyterj'' meetings at Paterson, 
 before the missionaries had scattered, I rode 
 up with two of them — my Father (Mr. Auld 
 of Columba) and Mr. Hunter of Gillespie — 
 to see Mrs. Forsyth. We had not told her we 
 were coming, and when we reached the house 
 we found it closed. We heard from a man 
 passing that Mrs. Forsyth had gone to visit 
 some sick person about a mile away. We 
 followed. When we rode up to the hut we 
 saw her seated inside on a stump of wood, 
 deep in conversation with the old sick 
 heathen man. She looked tired and very 
 heated after her uphill walk, but she was all 
 smiles of welcome as soon as she saw us. 
 She came out and we sat at the side of the 
 hut in the shade chatting. Then she asked 
 the missionaries to go into the hut and have 
 a few words of prayer with the old man. As 
 we mounted our horses she started out for 
 home carrying her bag of books and leaning 
 heavily upon her stout staff. She looked a 
 lonely woman." 
 
 Many would have counted her life grey 
 
180 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 and monotonous, but she never felt it to be 
 so because she was doing the work, not for 
 her own gain or profit, but for her Master, 
 and her toil was lightened and irradiated by 
 her love for Him. Service in this spirit is 
 always happiness. 
 
XXI 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 In manner our heroine was quiet and gentle, 
 with a gracious humility of demeanour 
 blended with the dignity of a shy reserve. 
 " There was no pose or pretence about her," 
 says one who visited her; "no one would 
 dream of believing that she would box any 
 one's ears." Neither her long years of loneU- 
 ness nor her contact with the vilest elements 
 in primitive nature had made her any less 
 a gentlewoman in thought and action. 
 
 " Mrs. Forsyth," remarked a trader's 
 wife, " is a marvellous woman, living all alone 
 Eke that; it is wonderful what some people 
 will do for a hobby ! " 
 
 She was not, however, lonely in the higher 
 sense. When she was asked if she never 
 found the isolation and lonehness oppressive, 
 she quietly replied, " I am never alone." 
 Her Master was very real and close to her; 
 He was her intimate companion and coun- 
 
 181 
 
182 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 sellor, and she turned to Him as naturally 
 as to a living friend. When baffled by 
 opposition and difficulties, " we just go and 
 tell Jesus about our troubles," she said. 
 
 Prayer to her was nc formal or stated 
 experience; it was perpetual communion; 
 the atmosphere in which her soul lived. She 
 believed in petition and answer as simply as 
 a child, and hence her intercession was of the 
 most definite character. One of the reasons 
 why she went into details so minutely, and 
 mentioned so many names in her letters and 
 reports, was that her friends in Scotland 
 might pray for individual cases, and she had 
 implicit faith in their supplications. Once 
 she was solicitous about two heathen woman. 
 They came to a prayer-meeting, and there 
 suddenly made public confession. This, she 
 noted with delight, was on the day set apart 
 for Africa by the Prayer Union of the 
 Church at home. She was a member of the 
 Union and a firm believer in its silent and 
 potent influence. It was interesting to visitors 
 to note that when giving thanks at meals, or 
 at family worship — and often in conversa- 
 tion — she would in her absorbed moments 
 drop from English into Kafir as if it better 
 expressed her emotion. 
 
 Her attitude of independence made her 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 183 
 
 grateful for the least gleam of sunshine that 
 fell across her path. She saw God's hand 
 in every little ^.vent, and was continually on 
 her knees praising and rejoicing. One day 
 she sent two girls a message. A thunder- 
 storm, tropical in its intensity, came on, and 
 the river rose. They could not cross. Seizing 
 waterproof and unbrella 'Smoyana went to 
 their aid and actually endeavoured to ford 
 the raging water, but could only go far 
 enough to throw them a plaid. She thought 
 they would be washed away and turned to 
 make another attempt when two natives 
 appeared and got them over. " How good 
 God is ! " she exclaimed. " What a grateful 
 trio gathered round the family altar that 
 night to return thanks ! " 
 
 Her interest in the doings of the world 
 was always keen and kept her mind fresh 
 and active. She read the papers and maga- 
 zines sent to her from the first cover to the 
 last, her special favourites being The Record, 
 and Women's Missionary Magazine of her 
 own Church, the British Weekly, the Life of 
 Faith, and the Quiver. She followed the 
 continued stories in the Quiver with great 
 zest, for she had a romantic strain in her, 
 and a very human and womanly liking for 
 the tender side of life, and she was never 
 
IM CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 happier than when aiding and abetting some 
 love affair. She saw romance even in a native 
 wedding which to others appeared only the 
 settlement of a painfully prosaic bargain, a 
 mere matter of buying and selling. She 
 would give up the entire mission-house to 
 the parties and treat them as honoured 
 guests. And if the ring had been forgotten, 
 or if it dropped and rolled away, or if the 
 gifts were not of the kind usually presented 
 at a marriage she kept her countenance — 
 though not without difficulty. 
 
 For she had that indispensable quahty in 
 a missionary, a saving sense of humour. 
 She saw the light side even of her troubles 
 and would smile them away. Often her 
 eyes would dance and her whole body shake 
 with laughter so that others would be in- 
 fected by her spirit and join in the merriment. 
 She enjoyed fun even when it was at her 
 own expense, and her very simphcity of 
 nature laid her open to pleasantry. Once 
 when she was unwell. Miss Auld, with 
 thoughtful kindness, sent her up some scones, 
 bottled fruit, and a bottle of home-made 
 lemon syrup. Next day a note came down 
 thanking her for the gift and especially for 
 the medicine. " I am taking it," she said, 
 " and I am finding it is doing me good." 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 185 
 
 The next time Miss Auld saw her she asked, 
 "What medicine was that you referred to 
 in your note?/' Thereupon she produced 
 the bottle which had contained the lemon 
 syrup saying, " There were no directions on 
 it so I took a spoonful after each meal I " 
 " You took it as it was — neat ? " exclaimed 
 Miss Auld in an awed voice. "Just as it 
 was; and I felt the better of it." Miss Auld 
 declared that it was a clear case of faith- 
 healing ! 
 
 Her charity was equal to her simplicity. 
 She was the living embodiment of the thir- 
 teenth chapter of First Corinthians. Kind- 
 ness she found to be the best key to imlock 
 the hearts of an affectionate people, and 
 ridicule a more powerful weapon than abuse. 
 In her judgment of the native character she 
 was just without being severe, and was 
 ready with excuses for dehnquents, never 
 being better pleased than when she could 
 relate some incident to their credit. She 
 used to tell of an old man whom she knew. 
 In his household were a son and grandson. 
 Then came a daughter and daughter-in-law 
 and five children. Three friends from Cape 
 Colony arrived on a long visit. Next a 
 brother died, and the hut in which he had 
 stored all the food was burned down. The 
 
186 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 old man at once brought his sister-in-law 
 and her five children to his home. This 
 made eighteen persons to cater and work 
 for, but the old gentleman bore his burden 
 bravely and never grumbled. "And he was 
 a heathen," said Mrs. Forsyth. 
 
 Overflowing with a kindness unrestricted 
 by thought of self, spending nothing on her 
 own comfort, her life was a perpetual effort 
 to serve others. Her bounty knew no limit, 
 and her hospitality was often starthng in 
 its prodigality. If you were a visitor you 
 would be welcomed from afar, and her kind 
 hands would be held out to draw you into 
 the shelter of the house. You would find 
 the table groaning with provisions, and you 
 were no friend of hers if you did not do jus- 
 tice to the fare. Strangers were usually 
 warned at Paterson to partake liberally when 
 they arrived. On one occasion after soup and 
 a course of fowls and vegetables a baked 
 custard was brought to the table in a huge 
 enamelled bedroom basin, and proved to be 
 as delicious in quality as it was prodigious 
 in size. She never failed to have a cup of 
 tea ready for visitors when they arrived after 
 the hot journey over the hills. At the 
 annual meeting of the Women's Christian 
 Association, of which she became President, 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 187 
 
 she would kill a sheep or pig and entertain 
 the members to a generous feast. 
 
 When alone; however, she lived sparingly. 
 She was a good housekeeper, economical in 
 her methods, and baked her own bread. 
 " That is one thing I can boast of," she 
 would say with a smile. " I am a fine baker." 
 
 She rose at six and at seven had break- 
 fast, which consisted usually of bread and 
 butter and eggs. Dinner was nominally at 
 one, but as this was the best time of the day 
 for visiting the kraals she was seldom in to 
 eat it; the courses were soup and mealies 
 and milk, with sometimes pudding in addi- 
 tion. At five she had tea with bread and 
 scones. She partook of no supper and retired 
 at eight, but often later. 
 
 About dress she cared little and was a 
 law unto herself so far as fashion was con- 
 cerned, her first consideration being her own 
 comfort. There were so shops to tempt her 
 and no critics to please, and her attire was 
 as plain as she could well make it. Her 
 boots, several sizes too large for her, were an 
 eyesore to Miss Auld, who pleaded in vain 
 for the adoption of a neater pair. 
 
 Her homely motherliness made her the 
 idol of the people. Every one, " dressed " 
 or "red," was welcome at the school-house. 
 
188 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 She was never too busy to see and talk to 
 those who called. Women came at all hours 
 to pour out their troubles to her, or to 
 ask for assistance. One Sunday morning at 
 five o'clock there was a knock at the door. 
 She sprang out of bed and answered it. It 
 was a heathen woman with a little child. 
 " 'Smoyana," she said, " I want a dress for 
 my little one. I want her to go to church." 
 She received it. Passers-by would come 
 and ask for water to quench their thirst, or 
 an ash to light a pipe, and would have their 
 requested granted and go away with a word 
 or two of kindly counsel. Children brought 
 their slates and books and left them with her 
 to be called for next morning on their way to 
 school, and they never went away without a 
 slice of bread or a handful of cooked mealies. 
 She was naturally so open-handed, so 
 generous, and so confiding that she never 
 learnt to suspect others or to safeguard her 
 own interests, and was consequently often 
 taken advantage of, but this she did not 
 mind. Even in little things her faith re- 
 ceived many a mild shock. Once she re- 
 ported a " leakage " of cups and saucers, 
 knives and forks. " Perhaps," she said, " I 
 have been to blame myself as I 'trusted' 
 and did not lock up anything." 
 
XXII 
 
 A VISION OF SOULS 
 
 One night, twenty-five years after she had 
 begun her task in Xolobe, Mrs. Forsyth sat 
 alone in her little dwelling on the hill-top, 
 her Bible on her lap, her mind meditating 
 quietly on her work. Methodical in habit 
 she knew the exact extent of it — ^the number 
 of those in the fellowship of the church, the 
 membership of the various classes, the size 
 of the day school. She knew also how 
 many of the heathen still remained to be 
 won. But what could statistics tell of the 
 real successes and failures ? 
 
 Her thoughts began to turn back and 
 wander over the years. Memories came 
 crowding upon her. She saw, in long array, 
 men, women, and children whom she had 
 prayed for, and influenced and saved. She 
 also saw others who had gone their own way 
 despite all her endeavour. It was a gallery 
 of souls, and as she paused before each she 
 
 189 
 
190 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 smiled or grew sad as she recalled their 
 histories. Vivid little portraits they were, 
 vignettes, so to speak, of heathen life and 
 conditions, giving the real colour and feehng, 
 the humour and the pathos, which figures 
 could never supply. 
 
 Here are some of the pictures she saw in 
 vision that night as the mists were gathering 
 in the valley and as the shadows were 
 setthng down upon her own life. 
 
 The Reformation of Qualini 
 
 The senior elder was at one time a wander- 
 ing ne'er-do-weel about Xolobe, always 
 drunk, and given over to heathen practices. 
 He was found sleeping on the edge of a preci- 
 pice overlooking the church. Influenced by 
 Mrs. Forsyth he gradually reformed and was 
 baptized and took the name of John, becom- 
 ing known thereafter as John Mbanga. He 
 brought in his wife and all his family into 
 the church. An earnest and impressive 
 preacher, he became Mrs. Forsyth's principal 
 helper in the work for thirty years. 
 
 A Fine Record 
 
 Gungubele was one of the better type of 
 heathen lads; he was a boy of twelve when 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 191 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth first met him at his father's 
 kraal. When he grew up he married a 
 heathen wife and they had a beautiful child, 
 a girl, who entwined herself round their 
 hearts. Her death was a severe blow, and in 
 his grief the father turned to that God whom 
 he had hitherto despised, and found comfort. 
 A touch of ambition sent him to learn to 
 read. His books were beside him morning, 
 noon, and night; he even went to the school, 
 and sat amongst the children, whom, owing 
 to his determination and diligence, he soon 
 outstripped. His Bible became his constant 
 companion. When he was received into the 
 fellowship of the church he chose the name 
 of Joseph. He exercised an immense influ- 
 ence over the heathen, and his wife soon 
 became one in mind with him. Not content 
 with being a silent witness to the truth, he 
 became a worker in the church, and succeeded 
 in bringing no fewer than twenty-seven of 
 his relatives to Christ, including his father's 
 two widows and his three sisters. Drawn to 
 Johannesburg by prospects of better work, he 
 returned at Mrs. Forsyth's request and was 
 elected an elder and preached alternately 
 with Mbanga. 
 
192 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 A Model Family 
 
 Another elder was Siyo Jonas, who came 
 to Xolobe a widower, and a bold wild heathen. 
 He was converted while at work, and cast 
 in his lot with the Christians and joined the 
 church. Marrying a Christian girl, who 
 made him an excellent wife, he studied hard, 
 and was soon able to read the Bible fluently 
 and preach with great power. He was 
 ultimately made the evangelist for the dis- 
 trict. His daughters attended the Sunday 
 School and took many prizes, and one went 
 to Lovedale to study to be a teacher. One 
 day three came quietly to the candidates' 
 class and gave themselves to Christ. Jonas 
 was a great help to Mrs. Forsyth. His 
 example might have influenced his two 
 brothers at the same kraal, but they preferred 
 their old ways. 
 
 From Lion to Lamb 
 
 One of the most reckless and uproarious 
 characters of Xolobe was Myanga; none so 
 rough and noisy as he on his way to the 
 heathen orgies of a Saturday evening. Sud- 
 denly the spell of the gospel fell upon him; 
 the lion was transformed into the lamb; 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 193 
 
 none now so meek and gentle as he. He 
 became an earnest witness to the truth, 
 preaching by word and example, and was 
 greatly helped by his wife, a fine girl from 
 the Sunday class, who brought up her 
 young family as carefully as the strictest 
 Scottish mother could have done. 
 
 A Notable Transformation 
 
 Another notable case was that of Maza- 
 wazi, a woman of great force of character 
 and energy, but considered the most hardened 
 sinner in the district. " Never was any 
 other woman so haughty and contemptuous 
 of all who approached her with the gospel," 
 says Mrs. Forsyth. She was converted and 
 became a changed woman, and her heathen 
 neighbours gazed at her and marvelled. 
 
 Back to Red Clay 
 
 Lolo was 'Smoyana's near neighbour, a 
 heathen, proud and obstinate, who hated 
 the new way of life and would have nothing 
 to do with it. He refused even to speak 
 with her about it; whenever she began he 
 either kept silent or put her off in one way 
 or another or walked away. Let her talk 
 
194 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 about any other subject and he was voluble 
 and agreeable, but let her trend on his 
 customs and superstitions and his mouth 
 snapped obstinately and he remained dour 
 and unapproachable. 
 
 His wife was even worse, and with her the 
 patient missionary had often a bad time. 
 
 Once their little girl was ill and at the 
 point of death. Impatiently the wife cried 
 to her eldest daughter, " Take that child 
 out of my sight. I cannot bear her cough- 
 coughing." The girl lifted the child up, 
 swung her on her back, and tramped to the 
 hut of an aunt who was a Christian. The 
 aunt, and a daughter-in-law who was there 
 at the time, looked in pity on the wasted 
 form of the sick child, and the latter knelt 
 down and prayed earnestly that she might 
 be spared. From that moment the girl 
 began to recover, and in a few months was 
 able to return to her home. Clad in a pink 
 print dress which her friends had given her, 
 she was an attractive girl, but when she 
 arrived at the hut her mother looked askance 
 at her, demanded why she was wearing the 
 Christian dress, and ultimately persuaded 
 her to throw it aside and resume the red clay. 
 
 Her sister was of a different temperament. 
 The Bible lessons from the teacher, Jonathan 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 195 
 
 Koyanas, in school had made her a Christian, 
 and despite the strenuous efforts of the 
 family she kept to her resolution and walked 
 her own way. She became engaged and 
 went to a Christian home, but her parents 
 and the rest of the family remained in their 
 semi-savage state. 
 
 The Discarded Wife 
 
 Matshoba was a typical heathen with two 
 wives and a large family. One of the wives 
 appeared at the station. " I want clothes," 
 she said; "I want to be a Christian." That 
 she was in earnest was proved by her changed 
 life. Her example so impressed her husband 
 that he also discarded his heathen beliefs, 
 and by and by the whole family became 
 disciples. When Matshoba, according to the 
 law of the church, had to make the choice 
 between his wives he married the second, 
 who was young and pretty. But the elder 
 woman showed the reality of her faith by 
 continuing to minister to the family, and 
 the eldest son was particularly kind and 
 gentle towards her in her enforced widow- 
 hood. 
 
196 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 The Dumb Boy Who Spoke 
 
 Matshoba had a nephew called MaUwe, 
 a wild boy, deaf and dumb, who was not 
 wanted by his friends. Mrs. Forsyth em- 
 ployed him to bring milk to the station and 
 found him clever, wilUng, and trustworthy. 
 As he sometimes came when she was out she 
 was in the habit of leaving the door open in 
 order that he might deposit it inside. Once 
 the can did not look clean, and when Maliwe 
 appeared for it she took up some earth and 
 flung it into the vessel to signify that it was 
 dirty. He began to labour under the stress 
 of some strong emotion, and to her surprise 
 exclaimed, " y-Inhwenkwe " — " it was the 
 boy." It was the first time he had spoken, and 
 he never afterwards uttered another word. 
 
 So attached did he become to 'Smoyana 
 that he indicated his wish to leave his 
 heathen friends and embrace Christianity. 
 The Paterson umfundisi and teacher both 
 questioned him by signs and were satisfied 
 as to his sincerity and put him on probation. 
 The outward and visible indication of his 
 inward change was the donning of a white 
 nightgown and a big waterproof cloak, but 
 later, when Mr. Davidson admitted him to 
 church fellowship, he was more respectably 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 197 
 
 attired. He proved a faithful disciple. By- 
 watching the teacher pronouncing the letters 
 he had some notion of the alphabet, and at 
 worship he prayed in his own fashion, 
 endeavouring to speak, but making strange 
 sounds. " But," as Mrs. Forsyth observed, 
 " it is not with the hps but with the heart 
 that prayer is made to God." 
 
 Maliwe, like many another native, was 
 drawn into the life and work of the mines, 
 and did not long survive the experience. 
 
 Self-exiled 
 
 When a native became a Christian he was 
 subjected to a good deal of ridicule and 
 persecution at the hands of his unregenerate 
 neighbours and friends, and, not unnaturally, 
 he sought to find a new sphere where he 
 could live at peace. This was the case with 
 Lalapi, a fine character who heard the gospel 
 from Mrs. Forsyth, and accepted it, and 
 whose wife soon followed his example. His 
 land was not very productive and, this 
 providing an excuse, he removed to Cape 
 Colony, where he got on well. Mrs. Forsyth, 
 however, thought that Christian natives 
 should remain where they were and try to 
 influence their neighbours. 
 
198 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Out of the Furnace 
 
 One day Mrs. Forsyth was tramping over 
 the hills when she saw a strange-looking 
 creature sitting in the grass. It was a 
 youth called Jongelanga. His face was 
 painted white, and he wore a whitened 
 sheepskin; he had been taking part in the 
 initiation ceremony which ruins so many 
 for life. Some time later she saw him at the 
 services and prayer-meeting, and it was not 
 long before he repented and decided to throw 
 in his lot with the Christians. Big as he was 
 he attended school and learnt to read and 
 delighted to pore over the Bible. Anxious 
 to marry a fine-looking girl, he went away 
 to work to earn a dowry and on his return 
 they were wedded. She died leaving him 
 with two children and he married again, 
 another school-girl, a member of the church. 
 He became a deacon and joint treasurer 
 and preached with great simplicity and 
 earnestness. One of his self-imposed tasks 
 was to improve and beautify the church- 
 grounds, 
 
 MiEiAM^s Stand 
 
 Lolo Pama, a heathen, took his daughter 
 Miriam from school in order that she might 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 199 
 
 take part, along with an older sister, in the 
 degrading ceremony which initiates girls 
 into womanhood. Protests and prayers 
 seemed of no avail. " If she does not go 
 into the custom," said her father, " she will 
 die." Her clothes had worn out and he 
 refused to huy more. Just then a box 
 arrived from a Girls' AuxiUary at home and 
 she received what she required to maintain 
 her self-respect. A few weeks later Mrs. 
 Forsyth was dehghted to be told that all 
 the efforts of her parents and friends had 
 failed to make Miriam "red"; she was so 
 good and brave and industrious that they 
 had left her alone, and her father had even 
 bought her Christian clothes. Then her 
 young sister was taken seriously ill with 
 inflammation of the lungs. " I do not want 
 to see her die," said the mother; "take her 
 to her aunt." Miriam carried her to this 
 woman, who was a Christian, and prayer was 
 offered on the child's behalf. She recovered. 
 When her mother saw her again she ex- 
 claimed, " Take off her red clothes and put 
 them in the fire. Here is a shilhng to buy 
 a dress." More money was added, and the 
 girl appeared in church wearing a pretty 
 pink print. 
 
200 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 The Leg of Mutton 
 
 One day looking down the valley Mrs. 
 Forsyth saw a little child weighed down 
 with some kind of burden toiling up the 
 steep ascent. When she arrived the load 
 turned out to be a leg of mutton which she 
 had brought as a gift to 'Smoyana. Deliwe, 
 as the girl was called, was a heathen from a 
 heathen town, with a mother who was kind 
 enough but hable to violent fits of temper. 
 She continued at the school until she was 
 twelve. Though of an affectionate and docile 
 natm-e she did not change her ways, and 
 when she married it was to a " red." Only 
 when her eyes began to trouble her and she 
 was threatened with loss of sight did she 
 remember the teaching she had received and 
 became a Christian. From that time her 
 eyesight improved. A younger sister in the 
 school became a Christian and took her place 
 in the choir. After baptism she received 
 the name of Elizabeth and married well. 
 
 SiSTEK AND BrOTHEE 
 
 Elizabeth had an inseparable companion 
 called Mildred, the only daughter of a witch- 
 doctor, a lovable girl whose apparently mild 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 201 
 
 disposition belied her strength of character. 
 She made great progress in school and was, 
 like Elizabeth, a fine sewer and baker. When 
 she resolved to join the Christians' lot her 
 parents, who were very fond of her, could 
 not find it in their heart to oppose her wish. 
 Her situation, however, was not a happy- 
 one, and Mrs. Forsyth was often sorry for 
 her. At the beer-drinkings she would sit 
 apart, lonely and shunned, until the festivi- 
 ties were over. She was received into the 
 church at the same time as Elizabeth. 
 
 Mildred's brother also passed through the 
 school and obtained the prize for Bible 
 knowledge. Troubled like many about his 
 deeper life he consulted Mrs. Forsyth. " I 
 have two people within me," he said. " One 
 urges me to do bad things, and the other 
 urges me to do good things." 'Smoyana 
 explained how it was and begged him to heed 
 the prompting of the Divine spirit. Know- 
 ing something of what was passing in his 
 mind his heathen mother called in a witch- 
 doctor who used all his craft and strangled 
 his good inclinations. After he left school 
 he became a wild and reckless youth. 
 
202 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Suiting the Action to the Word 
 
 Mlonyeni came with his aged grandmother 
 to reside in Xolobe. He was one of the 
 rawest and most ignorant of men. Soon he 
 came under the influence of the white woman. 
 " Teach me to pray," he said to her. She 
 looked at him and the words of the beautiful 
 Psalm came to her mind: ''Hide Thy face 
 from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. 
 Create in me a clean heart and renew a right 
 spirit within me" She began to repeat it 
 as the best prayer he could utter. 
 
 " Hide thy face." 
 
 "Yes, mum," he said, covering up his 
 features — ^he thought this was a preliminary 
 requirement. 
 
 He was baptized along with his grand- 
 mother and made a good recruit, sometimes 
 accompanying 'Smoyana on her rounds of 
 the huts and praying fervently. 
 
 The Live Coal ,., 
 
 " Can I not take just a little beer ? " asked 
 a heathen woman who attended the services 
 in her "red" clothes. " WeU," was the 
 reply, " if you take a very little live coal 
 into your bosom will it not burn you ? " 
 She saw the force of the argument and 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 203 
 
 resolved to give up beer altogether. A 
 beautiful woman with a gentle nature she 
 became a regular attender at church and 
 was the soul of lovingkindness to every one. 
 Her sister, on the other hand, was bold and 
 bad. At every beer-drinking she was the 
 worst and the most violent of the company. 
 She, too, was influenced by 'Smoyana in so 
 marked a degree that her very face changed, 
 and she became notable for her meek and 
 attractive expression. 
 
 A Scene at Sunrise 
 
 The scene is a Kafir hut on a summer 
 morning at sunrise. The floor is well swept, 
 the hearth is tidy, there is a neat rack for 
 knobkerries, a coil of newly-made grass rope 
 hangs on the wall, and everything bears the 
 unusual mark of a cleanly and industrious 
 home-maker. Sitting on some tastefully- 
 made rush mats are the White Mother and a 
 company of Christian women quietly engaged 
 in praying for the gentle and refined house- 
 wife who lies on her death-bed. After some 
 comforting words are spoken the low feeble 
 tones of the woman are heard, " Oh God, I 
 plead for mercy. Do not despise me although 
 I am a poor heathen. I cast myself on Thee." 
 
204 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 The gathering breaks up but she continues 
 in prayer and passes away murmuring, " I 
 am going home." 
 
 RORELA 
 
 Rorela was the daughter of a hardened 
 heathen. A friendly school-girl brought her 
 to the mission-house and asked for a frock 
 that she might be able to come to school. 
 Her happiness in her new possession was 
 short-lived, for her mother tore it off when 
 she returned and despatched it back to the 
 school-house. She grew up a heathen and 
 married a heathen. Mrs. Forsyth pleaded 
 with her to send her girl, a bright child, to 
 school. Rorela went off in a rage. Not 
 long after she gave in and became a disciple. 
 
 A Brave Girl 
 
 This is in Mrs. Forsyth's own words: 
 " One of our girls, Martha, was enticed by 
 her guardian to go with him to Tsitsa. He 
 hired a wagon to take her and her sister 
 there against my wishes. I objected for 
 two reasons: first because she was leaving 
 her aged grandmother who had brought her 
 up, and whom her guardian did not recom- 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 205 
 
 pcnse as he ought to have done; second, 
 because she was not going to a Christian 
 home. When Martha got there she found a 
 red man, ready with a large dowry of cattle 
 expecting her hand in marriage. The first 
 condition was that she must renounce her 
 Christianity and put on red clay. This 
 Martha refused to do. They tried to compel 
 her; but although they stole her clothes, 
 she told them she would go home just as she 
 was. A respectable young man from Xolobe 
 helped her. She had to return on foot 
 and cross several rivers on the way. The 
 journey took ten days. Weary and footsore 
 she arrived safely at home, guided through 
 each perplexing path, and sheltered beneath 
 the covering wings." 
 
 Asked of God 
 
 Noventi Nkuhlu was in great sorrow. All 
 her children, with a few exceptions, had 
 died at their birth. One, born after she was 
 converted, was spared and she named him 
 Pendulu, or " Answered." She asked her 
 heathen husband to have a thanksgiving 
 service at the kraal and he consented. The 
 day was cold and stormy, but the large hut 
 was filled with women, both Christian and 
 
206 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 " red.'* Many fervent prayers were offered, 
 and there was a general opinion that the 
 child should be dedicated to God. When 
 the father came to the mission-house to 
 register the birth he asked cautiously if the 
 baptism cost anything. " No," was the 
 reply. " Then," he said, " I give the child 
 to you." "Not to me," replied Mrs. For- 
 syth; "to God." "All right— give him 
 his name." The one appropriately chosen 
 was Samuel. 
 
 Lalapi 
 
 When Mr. Buchanan visited Xolobe, 
 amongst the school children who sang a 
 sweet Kafir hymn was a heathen boy named 
 Lalapi. He was later taken away, but Mrs. 
 Forsyth saw him occasionally. Marrying a 
 heathen girl he made his home in a solitary 
 spot in the mountains. One day Mrs. For- 
 syth saw a stranger in church and afterwards 
 found it to be Lalapi. He had been con- 
 verted and wished to learn to read in order 
 that he might be able to con the Bible for 
 himself. 
 
A VISION OF SOULS 207 
 
 Hard Hearts 
 
 Kas Nkuhlu was a heathen who always 
 rose and walked away when 'Smoyana ap- 
 proached his place, and never listened to 
 Christian preaching if he could help it. He 
 hugged his heathen pleasures and would not 
 give them up, and she could make nothing 
 of him. And yet he had a Christian woman 
 for his chief wife. 
 
 For seven years 'Smoyana visited an aged 
 heathen once a week, but his heart was like 
 flint. When he was about ninety years of 
 age he attended a beer-drinking where his 
 excesses made him so ill that he was taken 
 home in a cart. He lived on many years and 
 died as he had lived. One of his sons was a 
 witch-doctor and was stabbed to death; 
 another, also a witch-doctor, died suddenly 
 when absent from the district; a third, who 
 followed the same calling, lost his foot in an 
 accident and died soon after. 
 
PAKT III 
 EVENTIDE 
 
 Age 67-74 
 
COMPLETELY SHUT IN 
 
 When Mrs. Forsyth ceased her visits to 
 Paterson the only link she had with the outer 
 world was snapped. She had been in the 
 habit of going there every quarter for Com- 
 munion, but latterly she began to feel that 
 her strength was not sufficient for the long 
 and rough pilgrimage. One of her last 
 journeys indicated that the time had come 
 when she must relinquish what had always 
 been a pleasant break in her life and a 
 stimulating spiritual experience. 
 
 She set out from Xolobe on Saturday 
 afternoon. A strong wind was blowing and 
 dark clouds were looming up in the sky. She 
 had not proceeded far when a severe thunder- 
 storm burst over the land, the rain lashing 
 down in torrents and forcing her to take 
 shelter in the nearest kraal. When she 
 started again the long wet grass and the 
 muddy paths completed her discomfiture, 
 
 211 
 
212 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 but she trudged steadily on until she arrived 
 at the hut of a Christian woman with whom 
 she had arranged to stay the night. Here 
 she disposed of her soaked garments and 
 was made comfortable. 
 
 A little old native woman slipped in and 
 lay on the floor. She was an invalid with a 
 weak back who had also come to the hut to 
 remain overnight on her way to Communion. 
 " It is my first," she said, " but I am afraid 
 the elders won't accept me. I haven't been 
 able to attend the candidates' class very 
 regularly." 'Smoyana assured her that they 
 would not take this into account, but in 
 any case she would explain matters to them. 
 
 Her first thoughts on the lovely Sunday 
 morning were ones of hope and thanksgiving. 
 The invalid and she set out early, walking 
 slowly in and out of the mealie fields, the 
 Kafir corn being sometimes a foot above their 
 heads. Very pleased was the old native 
 woman that her coipipanion often paused to 
 admire things and to rest, but she did not 
 know that 'Smoyana, watching her with her 
 deep kind eyes, noticed how trying the 
 walking was for her, and purposely made 
 occasion to linger for her sake. 
 
 The sweet tones of the church bell were 
 ringing out over hill and valley as they 
 
COMPLETELY SHUT IN 213 
 
 approached Paterson, and when they entered 
 the building they found fourteen elders on 
 the platform and a bright and happy congre- 
 gation. Her thoughts went back to the year 
 1879 when she first saw the people, and she 
 contrasted their clean and well-clad appear- 
 ance now with their ragged clothes and 
 uncouth demeanour then. Her old friend 
 was received into fellowship with nineteen 
 others. After the service many of the 
 members came to greet her, and then she 
 returned as leisurely as she had come, 
 pondering over the solemn service, and recall- 
 ing the words of a great Scottish preacher: 
 "We are permitted to ascend to the gate of 
 heaven that we may descend to the depths 
 with the blessings received in order that we 
 may bless others." 
 
 Isolated before, she was now completely 
 shut in. Apart from the Aulds she rarely 
 had a white visitor. Only once, in 1912, 
 do we get a glimpse of her. This was when 
 a hurried call was made by the Rev. Robert 
 Mure, the missionary at Ross, Umtata, who 
 writes : 
 
 " I started on horseback one bright, hot 
 summer's day from Paterson in company 
 with the Rev. William Auld. There seemed 
 no direct cart-track, only a sheep-track. 
 
214 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 After an hour's riding the path became too 
 precipitous and difficult for horseback, and 
 we dismounted and led our horses on foot 
 for a quarter of an hour. Another hour's 
 riding brought us to Xolobe out-station. It 
 is nothing to boast of, nothing to look at. 
 The country round about is mountainous 
 with patches of bush here and there. While 
 not very picturesque it has a certain grandeur 
 and variety of scenery. Xolobe itself con- 
 sists of a tin school-house, a few Kafir huts, 
 and Mrs. Forsyth's smaU two-roomed house, 
 little better than many Kafir houses, though 
 quite clean and tidy and comfortable enough 
 in a plain way — no amenities, no trees, no 
 gardens, nothing but the veld and the Kafirs 
 and the burnt grass and the glaring sun. 
 
 "We dismounted at the door and she 
 was there to welcome us. The homely 
 frankness, the honest truth-speaking face, 
 the open, clear, direct discourse, all with a 
 strong Scottish flavour, was most impressive 
 and striking, especially in that spot full of 
 subtle and too often false-tongued Kafirs. 
 
 " How direct the questions, how simple 
 and to the point I The exact place from 
 which I had come; my field of labour; my 
 health; was I married; how many children ? 
 Then a few simple expressions of thanks for 
 
COMPLETELY SHUT IN 215 
 
 the privilege of a visit in this remote place 
 from a minister, nay, two ministers. There 
 was no talk of shop, no comparing of notes 
 about conversions among the heathen. 
 
 " A cup of tea was served to us. Then I 
 conducted family worship. A handshake, 
 and we were off into the veld again and she 
 was left alone — a white woman among the 
 blacks." 
 
II 
 
 HER INDEPENDENCE 
 
 There were kind hearts in Scotland always 
 solicitous for the welfare of the lonely 
 missionary. The Greenock ladies never 
 ceased to think of her and plan for her. 
 Without the advantage of personal touch 
 with the people in whom they took an 
 interest, with nothing but quarterly state- 
 ments of bare facts to stimulate them, they 
 yet gave regularly to her work, not grudg- 
 ingly but liberally and with enthusiasm. 
 
 Others also thought of her and sent her 
 help — ^many who knew nothing about her 
 save that she was a lonely pioneer of the 
 gospel bravely struggling amidst a heathen 
 people. Gifts came from a band of young 
 working women. Twelve shillings came from 
 two poor girls " with real prayerful interest 
 and love." A box of napery, blankets, and 
 wearing apparel for her personal use arrived 
 
 216 
 
HER INDEPENDENCE 217 
 
 from the members of her old congregation at 
 Cairneyhill. 
 
 This wealth of effort, this outpouring of 
 sympathy, so unselfish, so loyal, was in its 
 way almost as wonderful as her own service. 
 The Greenock ladies were but types of 
 that great multitude of honourable women 
 throughout Scotland who are continuously 
 busy with the self-imposed task of ministering 
 to the needs of missionaries abroad. Little is 
 publicly made known about their gracious 
 activities; the work is accomplished quietly, 
 almost privately, within the sphere of work- 
 parties. Sabbath Schools, and girls' classes, 
 and by families and circles of friends. It is 
 all done in the spirit of Christ, gladly and 
 lovingly, and for His sake who did so much 
 for Women. 
 
 However generous the intentions of the 
 ladies were they were often at a loss how to 
 minister to her comfort. Whenever South 
 African missionaries came home on furlough 
 the first question put to them was: "What 
 can we do for Mrs. Forsyth — is she needing 
 anything ? " They were well aware she 
 would not accept money for her own use. 
 On one occasion they sent her a generous 
 gift and afterwards saw the amount acknow- 
 ledged in the Record of the Church as a 
 
218 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 contribution from her towards a special 
 missionary effort. " She is the most un- 
 selfish and independent person imaginable," 
 said Miss Macfarlane. 
 
 But now and again they endeavoured, 
 almost surreptitiously, to send out little 
 articles that might conduce to her well-being. 
 When Mrs. Stewart was home she suggested 
 a table-lamp, and this she herself conveyed 
 out, though with more and more misgiving 
 as she approached Kafraria. They also con- 
 sulted Miss Auld when she was in Scotland, 
 and on her recommendation resolved to 
 despatch a bath and an easy-chair to Xolobe. 
 On Miss Auld's return to Paterson she 
 dropped a casual hint as to what was coming, 
 whereupon Mrs. Forsyth reached hastily for 
 pen and paper and wrote to Miss Macfarlane : 
 
 " We have excellent bathing facilities 
 here, and an easy-chair would be a cumber- 
 some thing to get here, as there is no traffic 
 by wagon, so if you would not be offended I 
 would rather not receive them. We have 
 an excellent water-supply within five minutes' 
 walk of the house." 
 
 Later, however, when she grew feebler, 
 and was unable to go to the river, she pro- 
 posed to buy a bath. Miss Auld hurried one 
 up from Paterson for her use until she could 
 
SMOYANA'S BATHING-PLACE 
 
• c fee 
 
HER INDEPENDENCE 219 
 
 procure another, on behalf of the Greenock 
 ladies, from the nearest store, and congratu- 
 lated herself on at last having achieved a 
 distinct victory over the scruples of her 
 friend. And when she was actually per- 
 mitted to sit beside 'Smoyana and darn her 
 stockings she felt that the citadel of inde- 
 pendence, hitherto so impregnable, had fallen 
 at last ! 
 
 Every penny received was accounted for. 
 With the proceeds from the boxes of goods 
 sent out — she sold the clothing to the 
 natives — donations were given to needy 
 causes in the neighbouring fields. When 
 she left there was a balance of £25 to her 
 credit in this connection, and she handed it 
 over for repairs to Xolobe church. Once 
 when she had a sum of 10s. in hand she was 
 at a loss what to do with it, and then wrote 
 to Miss Macf arlane : "I will get boots for 
 Su-pi, a poor girl who is usually first at the 
 early prayer-meeting, even on stormy morn- 
 ings. All the girls have boots, Su-pi has 
 none, and her feet are swollen with cold." 
 Su-pi, it will be recalled, was the grand- 
 daughter of Taki. 
 
 She was latterly much troubled by the 
 thought that she had accepted money from 
 the Greenock ladies in support of her native 
 
220 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 servant. The understanding in her mind 
 was that the servant was also to be a Bible- 
 woman, and her scrupulous conscience now 
 made it appear as if the disciple had obtained 
 greater service than her Master. In distress 
 she informed Miss Auld that she must pay 
 back £51 to the ladies. 
 
 " You must not do anything of the kind," 
 exclaimed Miss Auld. " The first desire of 
 the ladies is that you should have efficient 
 help and be well served in your declining 
 years. I know that this is their wish, and 
 they will be very vexed if you offer to send 
 them back any of their money." 
 
 " But I am sure that the pains and 
 rheumatism I suffer from are God's hand 
 upon me for having taken this money under 
 a mistake," Mrs. Forsyth persisted. 
 
 *' No ! no I So far from being God's 
 hand of chastisement upon you, they are the 
 natural outcome of a life spent strenuously in 
 His service. At your age, and lacking all 
 care and comfort, you cannot expect perfect 
 health." 
 
 By degrees Miss Auld's practical wisdom 
 prevailed, and assurance and peace came 
 back to the gentle old missionary. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE SHOCK OF THE WAR 
 
 In view of her advanced age and the hard 
 and strenuous life she had lived, her relatives 
 in Scotland thought she might now very 
 well rehnquish her work and settle with 
 them at home. The approach of the cen- 
 tenary of Dr. Livingstone, in which she took 
 much interest, seemed an appropriate oppor- 
 tunity for persuading her to make up her 
 mind on the point, and one of her nephews 
 without her knowledge applied to the Foreign 
 Mission Committee of the Church for a 
 passage for her that she might return and be 
 present at the celebrations. When she heard 
 of this arrangement she cancelled it. 
 
 "I am just like Miss Slessor," she wrote 
 to Miss Macf arlane ; "I cannot tear myself 
 away. Often in my dreams I am at home, 
 and I invariably say, *Why did I leave 
 Africa — ^how can I get back ? ' " 
 
 Rheumatism crippled her, and she suffered 
 
 221 
 
222 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 from painful outbreaks on the feet and 
 ankles, but she would not give in. The only 
 concession she made was to stop her walks 
 to the more distant kraals. She continued 
 all her other activities, though she was 
 noticeably much quieter and more medita- 
 tive. Her Bible was her constant companion, 
 and, as ever, her source of inspiration and 
 strength. 
 
 Into the orderly calm of her days in 
 1914 came disquieting rumours of trouble in 
 Europe, like the first tremors which denote 
 a distant earthquake. The shock of the 
 early news of the war told heavily upon her. 
 She visualised the sufferings of the young 
 men in the trenches, the greater agonies of 
 the battle-field, their supreme sacrifice — and 
 wept. She thought of their splendid heroism 
 and of the self-sacrifice and unity of the 
 people — and rejoiced. And her faith never 
 wavered. " The Lord God Omnipotent 
 reigneth," she said, "and He is able to 
 restrain the wrath of man. However dark 
 the outlook may be He can bring light out 
 of the darkness and order out of confusion." 
 
 Comforting stricken ones at home she 
 wrote: "I have heard it said that when a 
 storm beats fiercely at sea and the billows 
 rage, there are depths undisturbed beneath. 
 
THE SHOCK OF THE WAR 223 
 
 May it be so with your souls in this time of 
 trouble." 
 
 As she read of the long lists of " killed in 
 action," she said, " it was almost like the time 
 in Egypt when there was not a house where 
 there was not one dead." 
 
 At first the work was not affected. The 
 Inspector of Schools failed to appear — ^but 
 he was a German. The natives were quiet 
 and unperturbed. As time went on, how- 
 ever, they grew a little restive and trouble- 
 some, and food-stuffs went up in price. She 
 had to eke out her flour with mealie meal 
 made from maize. " But," she said, " how- 
 ever long the war lasts, and however trying 
 it may prove, the Lord will provide." 
 
 Despite her strong will-power the strain 
 affected her waning vitality. In October she 
 reached her seventieth birthday, and came 
 to the realisation that the end had come. 
 " I have passed the allotted span," she told 
 her friends, " and I do not think it fair to 
 occupy a place without being able for the 
 duties." She mentioned to Mr. Auld that 
 she would Uke to retire, but he informed her 
 that the Foreign Mission Committee of the 
 Church wished all missionaries to remain at 
 their posts until the war was over. " So," she 
 said, " I will wait until God opens the way." 
 
224 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 The tragedy of the tremendous struggle 
 entered her own life, her nephew, Lieutenant 
 Moir, 1st Black Watch, being killed at Loos. 
 " He was almost the only man I have seen," 
 wrote out his sister, "who was really keen 
 to go back to the front. His one fear when 
 he was home was lest his platoon should get 
 into action without him. He knew perfectly 
 well, too, what he was facing. He did not 
 consider he had the faintest chance of coming 
 through alive in a regiment which was 
 always in the hottest of the fighting, but he 
 would not for a moment have wished himself 
 elsewhere." 
 
 The blow stunned and wearied her, but 
 she fell back on the unseen source of strength 
 which had never failed her yet. " She is a 
 wonderful woman," said Mr. Auld, " and 
 keeps bright and happy under all circum- 
 stances. She is a saint." 
 
 Another fragment of news affected her 
 sadly. " So," she writes, " poor Miss Slessor 
 has been called home. What a loss to our 
 mission I I hope God will raise up some one 
 J» fill her place. I do not think there was 
 another missionary in the world to equal 
 her. Her heart was full of lovingkindness 
 and tender mercy." When the story of 
 Miss Slessor's life by the present writer was 
 
THE SHOCK OF THE WAR 225 
 
 published, Mrs. M*Laren sent her out a copy 
 and she read it with delight. "I sat up all 
 night until I finished it," she said. " I hope 
 it will be an incentive to me to labour more 
 abundantly and to endure hardness " — and 
 she was seventy years of age I 
 
IV 
 
 SADNESS OF FAREWELL 
 
 When^ in 1915, Miss Auld returned from a 
 visit to Scotland, she was grieved to notice 
 the change in her old friend. She had aged 
 perceptibly and was much thinner. Both 
 she and her brother urged her to come and 
 make a home with them at Paterson, where 
 they would surround her with every comfort 
 and bestow upon her the care and attention 
 she needed. She would not hear of it. She 
 preferred, she said, to end her life at Xolobe, 
 in the behef that by her death amongst the 
 people she would do more good than she had 
 done in her life. 
 
 " She has led a primitive life among the 
 heathen so long," reported Mr. Auld to the 
 Greenock ladies, " that she dreads going 
 back to civilised life. She has never had 
 furlough, and is naturally reticent and shy 
 and retiring, and there would have to be 
 much sympathy of the silent kind shown for 
 
SADNESS OF FAREWELL 227 
 
 her, and due allowance made for her ways. 
 She spends far too little on herself and too 
 much on others. But that is just her all 
 through; her modesty, self-effacement, and 
 Christlikeness make us feel less than nothing 
 compared with her. She would require to 
 be cared for instead of caring for others as 
 she has done all her life. We would do 
 anything for her, and count it an honour, 
 but it is difficult to care for her under present 
 conditions." All that Mr. Auld could do in 
 the circumstances was to go to Xolobe more 
 frequently. His visits increased to one every 
 fortnight and latterly to one every week. 
 
 It was not to be expected that Nature 
 would suspend its inexorable process. 
 Though her moral energy was unimpaired 
 her physical strength weakened. " I am 
 breaking up," she wrote in 1916. An attack 
 of influenza left her prostrate for a month 
 and she recovered but slowly. She lost the 
 use of her voice. " I must give up," she 
 decided at last; "but it will be a great 
 wrench for me to leave my midday Sabbath 
 class — forty-nine dear girls were present 
 last Sabbath." 
 
 She could not trust herself to live at 
 Paterson so near the scene of her life-labours. 
 " If," she said, " I cannot end my days here. 
 
228 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 I must go right away to Scotland." Her 
 relatives, thankful to hear of her decision, at 
 once arranged for her niece. Miss Mann, a 
 nurse, to proceed to South Africa and bring 
 her home. It was characteristic of her 
 humility of mind that she wished to travel 
 third-class in the steamer, but, needless to 
 say, her friends would not hear of such 
 abnegation, and the Foreign Mission Com- 
 mittee of the Church saw to the payment of 
 her expenses. 
 
 It was pitiful to see her during the final 
 days. Miss Auld says it was like watching 
 a great tree being torn up by the roots. 
 Several times she murmured with a quivering 
 face, " It's not the place, it's the people I 
 can't bear to part with." To them the 
 parting was equally sore. " 'Smoyana," said 
 a deputation of women who came to see her, 
 " you are not white, you are black. Your 
 heart is black, you are just one of ourselves." 
 It was the highest compliment they could 
 pay; it meant that she understood their 
 real nature, and so was able to sympathise 
 with and help them in their peculiar needs. 
 
 Messages of farewell began to arrive. 
 From her old friend Mrs. Davidson came an 
 affectionate letter: "You have," she said, 
 "always been a very dear and good friend. 
 
SADNESS OF FAREWELL 229 
 
 and have been a strength and help in trouble 
 and sorrow. I can never forget your kind- 
 ness to me and mine.'* The native pastor, 
 the Rev. Candlish Koti, wrote: " 'Smoyana 
 and Xolobe are the two names that will be 
 always associated together for many genera- 
 tions to come." A brief note addressed 
 " Dear Mammy," and signed " Your loving 
 child, Ida," intimated that her former pupil 
 was hastening to Xolobe to say good-bye. 
 There was no time for the missionaries of the 
 Presbytery to do much, but they hurriedly 
 collected a sum of money and asked her to 
 accept it and purchase some article which 
 would remind her of their affection and 
 esteem. 
 
 Later, the Kafrarian Mission Council 
 placed on record its high appreciation of her 
 work. " Her faithful service, her complete 
 self -surrender, her utter self-effacement, and 
 her devotion to her Master, have been the 
 wonder and admiration of her fellow-mission- 
 aries and many others. She will live long in 
 the hearts of her people." And from Scot- 
 land, from the ladies on the Clyde, came, 
 through Miss Macfarlane, the kindest of 
 communications: "You are," they said, 
 "worthy of the D.S.O. of the highest rank 
 in Heaven," 
 
230 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Her last day at Xolobe was a trying one. 
 A farewell meeting was held to which came 
 every soul in the district, Christian and 
 heathen, as well as many from other out- 
 stations. Mr. Auld explained how, owing 
 to advanced age and failing health, 'Smoyana 
 was compelled to go back to her own land 
 and live amongst her own people. *' Never 
 let her life and work fade amongst you, let 
 it ever be a beacon-light showing you the 
 road to Christ." Several natives responded 
 saying they would never be able to forget 
 the love of their White Mother who had 
 come amongst them as a girl and had grown 
 old in the service of her Master. 
 
 Then for the last time she addressed them, 
 indulging in no personal reminiscences or 
 self-gratulation, making no reference what- 
 ever to herself, but reiterating with passionate 
 fervour the message which it had been her 
 duty and happiness to proclaim all these 
 years, and inviting them to come to the 
 Saviour, the only source of strength and 
 peace in this life, and the only hope for the 
 better life to come. 
 
 With her usual hospitality she had pro- 
 vided a sheep and two pots of mealies as a 
 parting feast. The crowd squatted on the 
 grass in front of the church, and whilst they 
 
SADNESS OF FAREWELL 231 
 
 ate she walked in and out amongst them, 
 shaking hands with each and saying kindly 
 words of farewell. 
 
 Suddenly a storm gathered, the clouds 
 broke in sheets of rain, and gathering up 
 the fragments the people rushed into the 
 church for shelter. Within an hour both 
 streams were " down " and impassable. " I 
 have never seen them rise so quickly or so 
 fiercely," remarked Mrs. Forsyth. 
 
 When the flood-waters abated the Aulds 
 returned to Paterson, and a lonely woman 
 spent the evening at Xolobe in prayer. 
 
BACK TO CIVILISATION 
 
 In the clear light of the early morning Mr. 
 Auld again rode over the hills to Xolobe to 
 see Mrs. Forsyth comfortably installed in 
 the wagon. She was conveyed to Paterson 
 by a circuitous and less rough way, Bekiwe, 
 her old scholar and helper, accompanying her, 
 and arrived in the evening tired and shaken 
 in body and mind. 
 
 Having lived the life of a recluse for thirty 
 years it was not surprising that she shrank 
 from re-entering the world. " You don't 
 know," she said to Miss Auld, " what an 
 ordeal it has been for me to brace myself up 
 even to come to Paterson." 
 
 At first she was depressed and thought 
 she would die ere she could reach Scotland, 
 but the unobtrusive ministrations of her 
 host and hostess soon made her feel at ease, 
 and after a few days the shadow lifted and 
 her spirits revived. 
 
BACK TO CIVILISATION 233 
 
 The process of social acclimatisation was 
 helped by a babe. The Rev. D. W. Semple, 
 M.A., then of Emgwali, and his wife and 
 child, were staying at the manse. Mrs. 
 Forsyth was much taken with the infant, 
 who seemed always eager to come to her. 
 This simple circumstance broke down the 
 natural feeling of restraint which she ex- 
 perienced, and paved the way for pleasant 
 intercourse with the parents. 
 
 One of Miss Auld's devices was to place 
 interesting story-books in her bedroom or 
 leave them lying casually in the corners 
 which she frequented. She knew that 
 'Smoyana cared no longer for light reading. 
 Some time previously when up at Xolobe 
 Mrs. Forsyth had given her a book then 
 popular in Scotland, with the remark, "A 
 friend at home sent this to me, but I am 
 past caring to read anything but the Bible 
 now." Miss Auld was therefore amused to 
 come across her deep in the books she had 
 left, with seeming carelessness, in her way. 
 One evening she found her sitting close up 
 to the window to catch the light of the 
 setting sun in order to finish The Lady of the 
 Decoration, which she pronounced " good." 
 
 There was a busy fortnight of preparation 
 for the overseas journey; then came a 
 
234 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 farewell to the people of Mbulu. A meeting 
 was held of the Women's Christian Associa- 
 tion, of which she was President. As already 
 stated this society was affiliated to the 
 Upward and Onward organisation, and she 
 had just received from Lady Aberdeen, 
 the President, a friendly personal letter. At 
 the gathering a collection was made as 
 umpako wendlela — food for the way — ^the 
 usual native way of presenting a parting gift. 
 It amounted to <£3 : 10s., one old woman, 
 almost eighty, bringing threepence and one 
 elder 2s. She was overcome by their kindness. 
 
 When all was over she sighed, and then 
 with the fine spirit of fortitude, which had 
 carried her through so many difficult years, 
 she faced, with quiet and steadfast gaze, 
 the dreaded plunge back into civilisation. 
 
 Leaving Paterson at 7 a.m. she and Miss 
 Auld were driven down to the Tsomo River 
 and across the drift in a wagon. On the other 
 side stood a motor-car. She had never seen 
 one before, but without hesitation and with- 
 out remark she stepped inside. On the 
 way her passport was secured. The filling 
 up of this had caused her considerable 
 amusement. "What is the shape of my 
 forehead ? What kind of nose and moutii 
 have I got ? " she asked helplessly. 
 
BACK TO CIVILISATION 235 
 
 Arriving at Blythswood, that " daughter 
 of Lovedale," a large training and industrial 
 institution, built largely by the gifts of the 
 Fingoes, the motor stopped, and Miss Auld 
 ran in and told the ladies of the mission 
 that Mrs. Forsyth was outside. These went 
 eagerly to greet her and endeavoured to 
 persuade her to stay the night, but she was 
 anxious to finish the first stage of her journey. 
 
 At Butterworth the two friends put up at 
 an hotel, and it was remarkable how quickly 
 and without apparent effort the missionary 
 dropped back into the methods of conven- 
 tional life. Every one was interested in her, 
 and she confided to her companion that she 
 had not found the first step into the world 
 so very dreadful after all. 
 
 There was shopping to be done. The 
 boots she wore were still an offence to Miss 
 Auld, and even more so after the remark a 
 lady made when they were put out to be 
 cleaned: " Surely, Miss Auld," she said with 
 a twinkle, "you have a very large husband 
 hidden away somewhere!" A neat com- 
 fortable pair was procured, and Miss Auld 
 felt a thrill of triumph when she noticed the 
 flicker of feminine pride which the staid 
 missionary evinced in the improved appear- 
 ance of her feet. 
 
236 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Next morning a lady walked suddenly in 
 upon them. It was Miss Mann. Aunt and 
 niece met for the first time, and Miss Auld, 
 watching the loving greeting, thanked God 
 that all was well. 
 
 *' I have motored up from East London," 
 said Miss Mann, " as the train service cannot 
 be depended upon because of troops, so you 
 have only an hour to spare." 
 
 But all that the two friends had to say to 
 one another had been said long before. 
 
 When the parting came the younger 
 woman stood and watched the brave, strong 
 figure pass out of her life, her fluttering 
 bonnet-strings being the last she saw as the 
 car sped swiftly down the street. 
 
 And then a picture came into her mind 
 of those thirty lonely years at Xolobe, so 
 quiet and filled with happy and fruitful 
 service; and then another of the future, 
 crowded with new faces and scenes and 
 exciting experiences, and she put up a silent 
 prayer that the aged saint might be dealt 
 with very tenderly and be kept safe and at 
 peace. 
 
VI 
 
 WAS IT WORTH IT? 
 
 As we watch her passing from the scene of 
 her thirty years' toil, one inevitably asks the 
 question, what does such a life and such a 
 service as hers amount to ? Were they, as 
 some might think, too restricted in scope ? 
 Was it worth spending so long a time wrest- 
 ling with a few hundreds of heathen ? What 
 she accomplished — did it justify the expendi- 
 ture of so much thought and energy ? 
 
 So far as visible results are concerned 
 they were neither meagre nor imimportant. 
 Though progress is steady. South Africa is 
 not, perhaps, so fruitful a mission-field as 
 other parts of the continent. A revival is 
 seldom experienced; converts are, as a rule, 
 few; the level of spiritual life is not high. 
 But Mrs. Forsyth had no reason to be dis- 
 satisfied with what was achieved in her 
 thirty years' sojourn at Xolobe. 
 
 When she arrived the people around her 
 
 287 
 
288 CHRISTINA PORSYTH 
 
 were pure heathen and as wild and hopeless 
 as any tribe in Africa. Xolobe is now a 
 fully organised mission-station with a fine 
 church building, a day school with four 
 teachers and an attendance of about 140, 
 Sunday services, Sunday School, a young 
 women's class, and a week-day prayer- 
 meeting, all carried on by the office-bearers 
 she trained. There is also a branch of the 
 Women's Christian Association, the members 
 of which visit the sick and aged from kraal 
 to kraal. Mrs. Forsyth, in short, civilised 
 the district, gave the people a knowledge of 
 God, and brought many scores to the feet 
 of Christ. She had been true to the signifi- 
 cance of her Kafir name. " Come . . . O 
 breath," said the prophet, " and breathe 
 upon these . . . that they may live. . . . 
 And the breath came . . . and they lived." 
 
 But neither figures nor organisations pre- 
 sent a true estimate of what she performed. 
 Miss Auld sums up the matter rightly 
 when she says : " I think we will never really 
 know the true extent of her work and prayer 
 till that day when all shall be revealed." 
 
 For the results attained Mrs. Forsyth 
 herself took not an atom of credit. She 
 held that she was only an instrument; the 
 power and the strength came from above. 
 
WAS IT WORTH IT? 239 
 
 " I desire," she says, " to give all the glory 
 to God for what He has done. Not unto us. 
 Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name be all 
 the glory." 
 
 The chief value of her story to those who 
 look on from afar is the example it gives of 
 a life utterly consecrated to the service of 
 Christ. Her abandonment of self, her sacri- 
 fice of everything which makes life enjoyable, 
 her humility of spirit, her faith and hope and 
 courage which never failed in the face of the 
 most baffling obstacles and worries, her 
 undimmed freshness of soul amidst the 
 spiritual loneliness and desolation of heathen 
 Africa — all make her stand out as one of the 
 rare and attractive personalities who move 
 and upUft hearts out of the common rut into 
 higher and nobler planes. Her influence 
 cannot die with the cessation of her work; 
 it will live on and spread beyond the confines 
 of Xolobe; it will inspire other wayfaring 
 and struggling souls ; it will stimulate and 
 nerve her sister-workers toiling in the mis- 
 sion-fields; and it may bring into a like 
 vocation and sphere some, at least, of those 
 who are, in these new days, dreaming of 
 heroic service. 
 
VII 
 
 AN ESTIMATE FROM THE FIELD 
 
 But a missionary in the field has perhaps 
 the best right to estimate the worth of 
 her character and service, and here is the 
 reasoned opinion of the Rev. Robert Mure of 
 Ross Mission: 
 
 " In one sense the contrast between Mrs. 
 Forsyth and other missionaries in the South 
 African field was very great. She had the 
 smallest sphere of any of us — just one 
 station, and even that was under the care 
 of her minister. We missionaries have many 
 stations — fifteen, twenty, even thirty or over. 
 We are superintendents. We ride about hke 
 bishops, ordaining, ordering, giving charges, 
 working late and early. No one can call it 
 easy work — and in a sense we are great men 
 in our districts. She was different, a humble 
 figure without charge or function or office 
 in any ecclesiastical sense, ranking as an 
 
 240 
 
ESTIMATE FROM THE FIELD 241 
 
 honorary lay missionary. She had no house 
 to speak of, only a but and a ben, no horse 
 or trap. She simply walked on foot and 
 visited the heathen in their houses close by, 
 and spoke to them of the way of salvation. 
 How different from the missionaries with 
 their large dioceses and much organisation 
 and much travelhng and heavy correspond- 
 ence. Yet, no doubt, she was the most 
 apostolic figure amongst us carrying on a 
 more apostolic work. 
 
 " She lived in a remote corner of Fingoland 
 far from the railway and the road and the 
 beaten track. There are tracks to her house, 
 as there are tracks to everywhere in South 
 Africa, made by the feet of savages and by 
 their flocks and herds searching for food, but 
 Xolobe is a dull and lonely spot for a white 
 woman. To live there alone among a few 
 black folk, in a house not much better than 
 theirs, and sharing largely their simple life 
 and simple fare — it was an eccentric thing, 
 perhaps, like that of the new Bush Brother- 
 hood in Australia, but in her case there was 
 no sense of spiritual pride because of ascetic 
 distinction or connection with a great con- 
 templative or historic Order in the Church. 
 She was simply a lone woman, separated by 
 no special function or training or qualifiea- 
 
242 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 tion, or churchly ritual, merely a decided 
 and sincere Christian with a great love of 
 souls in her heart, and a deep yearning for 
 the salvation of the heathen. They were in 
 hundreds around her. Heathen men and 
 women and children, likeable, even lovable, 
 in many ways, but grossly ignorant of the 
 best things in life, and without hope for the 
 next life. To her this was a great chance — 
 to be free to live amongst them, and day in, 
 day out, strive to teach them the better 
 way. 
 
 " Few can endure such loneliness as hers 
 for very long. Even the most isolated of 
 our unmarried missionaries has a certain 
 and unfailing social solace and variety, his 
 itinerations, his constant dealing with 
 churches and schools and mission agents, and 
 persons in trouble, or needing advice, who 
 visit him daily from one part or another of 
 his district. The missionary's life is really 
 not dull or lacking in intercourse with his 
 fellows by any means. 
 
 " But Mrs. Forsyth had none of those 
 social opportunities. She lived at Xolobe 
 for thirty years, month after month and year 
 after year, and daily set her face gladly to 
 the same hard work. She did not throw it 
 up disappointed after five years; she endured 
 
ESTIMATE FROM THE FIELD 243 
 
 it until age and health compelled her to 
 retire. It is unique in our South African 
 mission-field. It is a unique case of the 
 triumph of the soul over a comfortless and 
 heathen environment." 
 
VIII 
 
 REST TIME 
 
 By devious ocean ways and through sub- 
 marine-infested home waters Mrs. Forsyth 
 came back to her own land and her own city, 
 and looked upon friends and scenes she had 
 not seen for thirty years. From Glasgow 
 she went to Edinburgh to be received by the 
 Foreign Mission Committee of the United 
 Free Church, of which Sir Andrew H. L. 
 Eraser, K.C.S.I., is Convener. That quiet 
 book-lined room has seen many a missionary 
 welcomed home from the ends of the earth, 
 but it is doubtful whether a more interesting 
 figure ever appeared before the Committee 
 than this old lady of Xolobe, with the loneli- 
 ness of her self-imposed exile clinging to her 
 and giving her a curious air of aloofness. 
 
 On a subsequent occasion she was con- 
 voyed from Glasgow to Edinburgh by the 
 cousin mentioned in the first chapter, now 
 an active lady of eighty years of age. They 
 
 244 
 
REST TIME 245 
 
 missed one another on returning and Mrs. 
 Forsyth went back alone. In the long, dark 
 tunnel she heard a small voice singing softly 
 what seemed at first like some childish 
 rhyme, but by and by she caught the words, 
 " Lord, bless Thy little lamb to-night." It 
 was a little girl who was afraid of the dark- 
 ness and was singing to comfort herself. Such 
 ingenuous faith touched the heart of the 
 African missionary, and she too comforted 
 herself with the words. 
 
 She had much to learn and witness of 
 what had been achieved in the arts of life 
 during her long absence, so that her interest 
 in things was kept fresh and keen. But 
 often the kaleidoscopic scenes about her 
 grew dim, the multitudinous sounds drifted 
 into silence, and she was back in Xolobe 
 with the African sun blazing overhead, the 
 bronze forms of the Fingoes moving about 
 her, and the hum of the children in their 
 wattle-and-daub school murmuring in her 
 earis. • • • 
 
 " 'Smoyana,'* said the writer to her one 
 day in summer when she was sitting looking* 
 out upon the beautiful sunlit hills of the 
 homeland, " if you had the chance would you 
 
246 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 go back and live these thirty years over again 
 at heathen Xolobe ? " 
 
 " Yes," was the quick but quiet reply, 
 " I should like to do better than I have 
 done." 
 
 " But you have done a tremendous lot." 
 
 Her eyes filled with tears. 
 
 "I have done very httle," she said simply. 
 " I should like to do much more before I 
 die." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Africa, South, physical condi- 
 tions, 32; history of, 33 
 
 Auld, Rev. Wm., 168, 223, 
 226, 230, 232 
 
 Auld, Miss, 168, 179, 184, 187, 
 218, 220, 226, 228, 233, 234 
 
 Beer-drinking, 87 
 Bekiwe, 50, 114, 232 
 *' Bella Moir," 118 
 Bible Class, 97, 173 
 Buchanan, Rev. J., tribute to 
 Mrs. Forsyth, 121 
 
 Cairneyhill, 25, 26, 65, 217 
 
 Davidson, Rev. James, 39, 47, 
 64, 56, 58, 63, 71, 96, 107, 
 117, 129, 146, 159 
 
 Emgwali, 28, 43, 149, 157, 
 161, 233 
 
 Fingo race, origin of, 35; 
 character of, 72, 78, 84 
 
 Fingoland, 38 
 
 Forsyth, Christina, birth, 16; 
 conversion, 18 ; Sunday 
 School teacher, 19; love 
 story of, 20, 27, 65; at 
 Cairneyhill, 25; voyage to 
 South Africa, 28; at Em- 
 gwali, 43; teacher at Pater- 
 son, 47-64; marriage, 65; 
 return to Paterson, 68; ar- 
 rival at Xolobe, 74; adven- 
 tures, 80; opens day school. 
 
 93; siege of the chief, 89; 
 starts a Bible Class, 97; 
 help from Greenock Ladies* 
 Association, 112; the Green- 
 ock Schoolhouse, 116; Mr. 
 Buchanan's visit, 121; ar- 
 rival of Miss Lamb, 129; 
 burning of the church, 133; 
 opening of new building, 
 134; school taken over by 
 Government, 144 ; training 
 of boarders, 148; doctor's 
 opinion, 150; visit of Mr. 
 and Mrs. M'Laren, 152; new 
 church, 169; opening, 162; 
 Mr. Stewart's pen-picture, 
 163; advent of Mr. and 
 Miss Auld, 168; per sonar 
 traits, 181; last visit to 
 Paterson, 211; her inde- 
 pendence, 217; the war and 
 her work, 222; her nephew 
 killed in action, 224; retiral, 
 228; last day at Xolobe, 
 230; arrival at Paterson, 
 232; departure for East 
 London, 236; estimate of 
 her work, 237, 240; in Scot- 
 land, 244 
 
 Greenock Ladies' Association, 
 112, 127; winding up of, 
 156; ladies' interest and 
 gifts, 216, 217, 219 
 
 Greenock Schoolhouse, 117 
 
 Hartley, Dr., tribute, 171 
 
 247 
 
248 CHRISTINA FORSYTH 
 
 Ida, 120, 148, 157, 177, 229 
 Initiation ceremonies, 86, 140 
 
 Kafirs, origin of, 34; national 
 suicide, 37; characteristics, 
 40; language, 44 
 
 Koti, Candlish, 184, 229 
 
 Lamb, Miss, arrival at Xolobe, 
 
 129; resignation, 132 
 Laws, Rev. Dr., 47 
 
 Macfarlane, Miss, 113, 218, 
 
 219, 221, 229 
 M*Laren, Mr. and Mrs., visit 
 
 to Xolobe, 152; gift of 
 
 Mary 8 lessor, 225 
 Mann, Miss, journey to South 
 
 Africa, 228, 286 
 Moir, John (father), 16, 
 
 (son), 25 
 Mure, Rev. Robert, visit to 
 
 Xolobe, 213; tribute, 240 
 
 Persecution, 95, 99 
 Polygamy, 85, 173 
 Prayer, 64, 88 
 
 Prayer meetings, 54; for rain^ 
 60, 147 
 
 Sclater, Rev. John, 19, 39, 63 
 Semple, Rev. D. W., 233 
 'Smoyana, meaning of, 44 
 Stewart, Rev. George S., ar* 
 
 rival, 160; pen-picture of 
 
 Mrs. Forsyth, 163 
 
 Taki, troubles with, 100 
 Thompson, Newton O., opin- 
 ion of natives, 74; tribute 
 to Mrs. Forsyth, 124 
 
 Union of the churches, 151, 
 155 
 
 War, first news of, 222 
 Witch-doctors, 85, 108, 174 
 
 Xolobe, situation, 71, 75; 
 character of people of, 72, 
 84; Mrs. M'Laren's descrip- 
 tion, 153; Mr. Stewart'^ 
 pen-picture, 163 ; Miss 
 Aula's account, 170; Mr. 
 Mure's description, 214, 241 
 
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