ScwiBla&-Iiulian6^ 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/annacoopeskypiloOOcooprich 
 
Anna Coope and her pupil, Loonie Powers. 
 
ANNA GOOPE 
 
 SKY PILOT OF THE 
 SAN BLAS INDIANS 
 
 an Hutobiograpb? 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 PARK AVENUE AND 40rH STREET 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
Copyright, 1917, by 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 

 FOREWORD 
 
 This is a remarkable book, and for the rea- 
 son that it is born out of a remarkable, and, in- 
 deed, an almost unprecedented experience. 
 The author's life is spent daily and hourly in 
 communion with the Creator and Heavenly 
 Father. God is always near, always reveal- 
 ing His love, and manifesting His protection 
 and deliverance. The book is especially 
 timely in these days when God is held by so 
 many to act only through the established laws 
 that control the physical universe. It is in- 
 spiring and uplifting to be in the atmosphere 
 even for a short time of a faith that believes 
 in God every moment, and trusts Him for all 
 things, realizing that He is present in the 
 smallest details of our daily life. The book 
 is published under the strong conviction that 
 it will strengthen the faith of all who read it, 
 and bring the believer into closer touch with 
 the Eternal Father and Omnipotent Saviour. 
 
 JuDsoN Swift. 
 
 tii 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I Girlhood Days in England .... i 
 
 II New Life in a New Land 20 
 
 III To THE West Indies and Home Again . 30 
 
 IV Up the Orinoco to San Isidro ... 43 
 V Work Ended in Venezuela . , . . 67 
 
 VI My Adventures in a Launch ... 79 
 
 VII Back to Colon 89 
 
 VIII At Rio Diablo 104 
 
 IX Hindrances and Progress 120 
 
 X Some of My Boys 132 
 
 XI ** The Chief Man OF THE Island " . .149 
 
 XII Some Customs of the San Blas Indians 165 
 
 XIII GoD*s Leadings 176 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Anna Coope and her pupil, Loimie Powers . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 The first school was a native house with palm-leaf 
 
 roof and bamboo walls 22 
 
 "I feel very big towering over some of the women, 
 
 who stand under my arm" 22 
 
 San Bias women in native dress. The crowning 
 feature of the costumes are the heavy strings 
 of beads of all colors on the neck, arms and 
 legs, and nose rings 44 
 
 Miss Coope's "up-stairs tenement'* at Rio Diablo. 
 
 Native grass houses on the left 60 
 
 A nearer view of the author's home. The first floor 
 is the schoolhouse and mission. Chief Robin- 
 son has on a black derby hat 60 
 
 Map showing location of San Bias Islands and coun- 
 try round about 80 
 
 Chief Robinson's House. Open door leads to store. 
 The American as well as the Panama flag forms 
 part of the decorations 100 
 
 The *'San Bias" — the Panama government steamer 
 
 which plys up and down the north coast . .100 
 
 Boys from the schooL Andrew Ferguson is third 
 
 from the left 134 
 
 vii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACE 
 
 Beads for the legs. Dame Fashion is as tyrannical in 
 
 San Bias as in other parts of the world . . .134 
 
 The main street on the island of Rio Diablo. Na- 
 tive woman carrying her husband's canoe. 
 Cross indicates the last rum shop, now closed . 154 
 
 A Panamanian policeman with some native boys and 
 girls. The steps to the new government public 
 school are in the background 154 
 
 vm 
 
ANNA COOPE 
 
ANNA COOPE, 
 
 SKY PILOT OF THE SAN BLAS 
 INDIANS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 GIRLHOOD DAYS IN ENGLAND 
 
 I HAVE often been asked to write the story 
 of my life, showing how God has led me 
 and provided for every need as I walked by 
 faith in his promises. What God has done 
 for me He can do for others, and if the read- 
 ing of these chapters will help some one to 
 step out by simple faith on His promises, every 
 one of which is Yea and Amen in Christ Je- 
 sus, I shall be glad that I have tried to tell 
 the story in my simple way. 
 
 In Bolton, Lancashire, England, a large 
 manufacturing town of about two hundred 
 thousand inhabitants, on Tuesday, May 31st, 
 1864, I first saw the light of day. I was not 
 
2 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 very warmly welcomed because I was a girl, 
 poor me! Although I was the express image 
 of my father, he was not particularly fond of 
 me, so I became mother's girl. For some time 
 she cherished a grudge against me because I 
 had blue eyes and flaxen hair like my father, 
 but after a while, mother-like, she became 
 reconciled to my defects and loved me in spite 
 of them. 
 
 I was the first-born, which has been a com- 
 fort to me, for God has said: "The first-born 
 are mine." The second child came two years 
 later and was a boy. Mother and father were 
 very happy, but the baby did not stay long, 
 only three months, and from that time I was 
 the only child. 
 
 When I was vaccinated I became a great 
 deal of trouble, for something was wrong 
 with the vaccine and my arm became so bad 
 that the doctor said it would have to be ampu- 
 tated; but mother said she would not bring 
 up a one-armed child, and he must either 
 kill me or cure me with two arms. To be 
 a girl was bad enough, but to be a one-armed 
 girl was unendurable! 
 
 Finally the arm healed, and then there 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS 3 
 
 came a growth in my nose which no one 
 seemed to be able to name. One doctor said 
 it was a polypus, another contradicted this; 
 but whatever it was it gave me pain. My 
 mother went to one doctor after another, some 
 saying that I was too young to be operated 
 on. At last she became desperate and said, 
 "Operate at once, whatever the result, and let 
 us know the worst; she cannot go on suffer- 
 ing in this way." The operation was per- 
 formed and I lived, but with a pug nose that 
 was to be all my life my thorn in the flesh. 
 I did not mind being a girl, but to be called 
 "Pug-nose" by thoughtless children in school, 
 was hard to bear. 
 
 I can see that God allowed this trouble for 
 a purpose. Because of it I kept aloof from 
 other children, and as I was an only child I 
 stayed much in the house and learned all that a 
 girl ought to about housekeeping, was the com- 
 panion of my mother and grandmother, and 
 began to read at an early age. I was very 
 fond of reading out loud and my parents en- 
 couraged it, so I was getting my first lessons in 
 a life of service for others. 
 
 I mention my "thorn in the flesh" because 
 
4 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 I know that many are unhappy because they 
 are not beautiful in face. But God has said 
 in Isaiah : ^^How beautiful are the feet of him 
 that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth 
 peace." So I am glad that I have "beautiful 
 feet," and that G6S. chose me to carry the mes- 
 sage of salvation to many of His neglected 
 ones. "Man looketh upon the outward ap- 
 pearance, but God looketh on the heart." If 
 I had not had the "thorn" given me, I would 
 have looked like other girls and quite prob- 
 ably would have married, so my whole life 
 would have been different. I believe God 
 allowed that disfigurement to come into my 
 life to keep me for a particular work, there- 
 fore that operation was the first lesson in my 
 missionary training. 
 
 My parents were hard-working people; 
 neither one had had much schooling. My 
 father went to work when he was seven years 
 old and was apprenticed to learn the mule- 
 spinning trade. My mother also began work- 
 ing at an early age. Both of them were 
 members of large families, and they had to 
 assist in filling the family purse. My father 
 was very fond of reading and was ambitious 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS 5 
 
 to have me learn, so he put me in a girls' pri- 
 vate school v^hen I was five years old and I 
 stayed there until I was nine. I was always 
 very fond of telling others what I had learned 
 myself, so I began in those early days to teach 
 my mother when I came from school, and I 
 was sure that she and my grandmother were 
 wonderfully edified! My father encouraged 
 me to read and bought me books as rewards 
 for good reading. He guarded me against 
 what he termed ^^boshy fairy tales," and later 
 on against novels, examining every book that 
 I brought into the house, even from the Sun- 
 day-school library. He threatened what he 
 would do if he ever found me reading love 
 stories. 
 
 When I was nine my father took me from 
 the private school, saying that I knew more 
 than he did at my age and that I must now 
 go to work. The law then would not allow 
 a child to work all day long in any factory 
 until it had passed the fourth standard, so I 
 was put in school for half a day and the other 
 half I had to work in a hot cotton factory. 
 Here was another preparatory lesson in the 
 school for missionary training; I was learn- 
 
6 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 ing how to live in a tropical climate. I was 
 not allowed to speak to the boys or men who 
 worked for my father or near him. When 
 passing them and wanting to speak, I seemed 
 to feel the keen blue eyes of my father pierc- 
 ing even my back. He punished me once 
 when he thought I had talked with a boy who 
 worked near by, and the only sympathy that 
 I got from mother was, "You must obey your 
 father." I did after that, you may be sure; 
 for years I would not look at or talk to a boy. 
 Although my father was not a professing 
 Christian, and never took me to the house of 
 God nor read the Bible in his home, and was 
 bitter against me when at the age of seventeen 
 I accepted Jesus as my Saviour, he had had 
 the training of a godly mother who had 
 prayed much for her nine children. She was 
 what they called a Strict Baptist, and my fa- 
 ther had been a good Sunday-school boy, so 
 my aunt told me, but like many boys had 
 stopped attending when he thought he was 
 getting to be a man. My mother was partly 
 brought up a Roman Catholic. Her mother 
 was of French descent, but marrying an Epis- 
 copalian, their house was divided and only 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS 7 
 
 one of their eight children clung to the Cath- 
 olic Church, the others going to the Church 
 of England. So my mother never taught me 
 the religion of her childhood, but her oldest 
 sister, the one Catholic in the family, tried her 
 best to make me a convert of Rome, and 
 would have succeeded if my father had not 
 kept such a strict watch over me. He finally 
 forbade her coming to the house. Here again 
 is an evidence of God's overruling hand, for I 
 was very receptive to religious influences and 
 was just at the age to be easily moulded. 
 
 When I left the private school my first 
 Bible was given to me, and I well remember 
 my cousin saying to me that I must put it 
 away and keep it clean, as he did. He was 
 ten years older than I and his Bible was as 
 clean as when he received it. He never read 
 it; oh, no, the Bible was to have and to hold 
 occasionally, and to keep nice. I don't re- 
 member reading it in the private school, but 
 in the new Episcopal parochial school to 
 which I went, we often read the Bible ; and one 
 of the teachers asked me to come to the Sun- 
 day-school and be in her class. My father 
 reluctantly consented, saying that he didn't be- 
 
8 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 lieve much in religion; it made folks crazy. 
 I was allowed to go occasionally and was very 
 glad indeed, but not until I was eleven years 
 old did I go regularly. I remember going 
 with a neighbor's child, a girl of my own age, 
 when about seven or eight years old ; and there 
 I heard a lady tell of the children in India 
 who had no Sunday-school, who did not know 
 how to sing these beautiful hymns and who 
 knew nothing about Jesus who loved little 
 children. I said, "Why doesn't somebody go 
 and tell them? I would go if I were big, and 
 when I get big I will go!" That settled it! 
 I was marked for a missionary to Indians 
 somewhere from that day; that was my star, 
 my goal, henceforth. 
 
 But now a new experience came into my 
 life. One day while playing on the outer cir- 
 cle of an open-air Methodist meeting, I heard 
 a boy of about fourteen say that he knew his 
 sins were forgiven and he was very happy. I 
 had never heard any one talk like that before. 
 My mother's mother had told of Jesus dying 
 on the cross for sinners, but sinners were old 
 folks, not a boy like that or a girl like me! 
 Yes, grandmother did tell me that I "had a 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS 9 
 
 temper," but she never said that I was a sin- 
 ner. This boy said that he was "a sinner," 
 but that Jesus had forgiven all his sins and 
 that he was happy because he knew it. 
 
 Now if I had dared to speak to that boy I 
 would have questioned him pretty closely, but 
 I did not dare, so I had to puzzle over the 
 matter without getting much satisfaction. 
 God had used that boy to fix my attention on 
 spiritual things. I wanted to know how he 
 knew that he was forgiven. I had been go- 
 ing to the Sunday-school and the church and 
 was learning new things both from the Bible 
 and the Catechism, but this was the newest. 
 The Catechism said that I was "a member of 
 Christ, a child of God," but I knew that in my 
 heart I did not feel this to be true, and there 
 came over me a great longing to be saved and 
 to know it. 
 
 I tried to get to a cottage prayer-meeting 
 held not far from my home, but it was held 
 at night and I was not allowed to go out after 
 dark, so there was no help in that direction. 
 I made up my mind that I would read my 
 Bible more than ever and pray, and that was 
 really the beginning of my searching to find 
 
lo ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 out God. How I groped in the dark! I felt 
 better when I prayed much, but I was not sat- 
 isfied. I asked God to tell me that my sins 
 were forgiven and I would tell it to every- 
 body. I thought I must be confirmed, but my 
 father vetoed that. Then I planned to go to 
 a Methodist Sunday-school, and my mother 
 forbade that; she didn't like "too much reli- 
 gion" any more than my father. 
 
 I grew desperate. Here I was seeking to 
 get what I was sure was the best thing in the 
 world, and those who ought to be helping me 
 were keeping me back for fear I'd go crazy. 
 Crazy? I felt as though I really should go 
 crazy if I didn't get religion, and the kind 
 that boy talked about, that made him glad. I 
 knew that I was not glad, and I knew that 
 my parents were not either; so I went on 
 struggling, endeavoring to be a Christian. It 
 was all endeavor; there was no Christian in 
 it. 
 
 So I went on struggling. But the Lord 
 has wonderful ways of helping those who are 
 seeking him, and he opened a way for me in 
 the dark. Just at this time my father sub- 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS ii 
 
 scribed for a monthly paper, The Life and 
 Explorations of David Livingstone. He 
 read it because he was interested in the ex- 
 ploration scheme, but I read it because David 
 Livingstone preached Jesus to the poor Afri- 
 cans. What did I care where the source of 
 the Nile was? I wanted to find the source 
 of salvation! Livingstone became my hero, 
 and I looked forward eagerly to the coming 
 of those papers. I determined that I would 
 be a missionary after I had found out how 
 I myself could be saved. The source of life 
 eternal was my quest and as a guide-book I 
 read my Bible constantly. 
 
 In talking to one of my friends who had 
 been confirmed I asked her if she knew she 
 was a Christian. She said, **I think so." I 
 was dreadfully disappointed, because she did 
 look so sweet in her white dress and confirma- 
 tion cap that I thought somehow she must 
 have been changed, but when she said, "I 
 think so," I exclaimed, "Oh, dear me, I want 
 to know! That boy said he knew; why don't 
 you?" She said that was not to be known. 
 "The minister didn't teach us that in the con- 
 
12 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 firmation class. He said to be good and to 
 try every day to do right, and that Jesus would 
 help us." 
 
 I resolved then and there that I would never 
 be confirmed until I had a different feeling 
 than this, until I knew surely that I was saved. 
 
 I was about sixteen now, and a new battle 
 was being fought out in my heart. At times 
 I wanted to go to dances; my feet fairly 
 tingled to dance music. I grew desperate 
 and said that I wouldn't try any longer to be 
 a Christian; I would be like my father, who 
 made no profession and who never went to 
 church. I knew professing Christians who 
 danced, but I felt in my own heart that if I 
 ever became a Christian I would not want to 
 dance, and the reason why I wanted to now 
 was because I was a sinner, "a miserable sin- 
 ner," as the Prayer Book said ; we chanted it 
 every Sunday in the Litany, and I knew that 
 it was true of myself. I made up my mind 
 that I'd not struggle much longer. If I 
 didn't come to know soon that I was saved it 
 was no use pretending; I'd give up trying and 
 go to the dance and the theater and have a 
 grand good time! Why not? If it had not 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS 13 
 
 been for fear of my father I would have done 
 these things ; and I resolved that when I was 
 of age I would do them, if I was not a Chris- 
 tian before that time. So I went on strug- 
 gling and trying and finding no real peace. 
 
 In the Lenten season of 1882 a minister of 
 the Church of England came to our town to 
 hold what is called a Mission for forty days. 
 He spoke in the Sunday-school, and his 
 words, his manner, his spirit were so differ- 
 ent from anything that I had come in contact 
 with before that I made up my mind that he 
 was a Christian, and I wanted to hear him 
 preach. I could get hold of what he said, or 
 something got hold of me, and I trembled. 
 The Sunday night that I heard him first he 
 preached about the second coming of Christ, 
 and it was so vivid that I expected Jesus to 
 come before he got through preaching; and 
 to cap it all he asked this pointed question: 
 "Is every one in this church ready to meet 
 Jesus and go with him if he comes now?" 
 Oh, it was like a thunderbolt in my soul ! I 
 trembled, and it seemed to me that I could 
 hear my soul cry out in agony: "No, I am not 
 ready 1" 
 
 / 
 
14 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 At the close of his sermon the preacher 
 asked all who wanted to talk with him to go 
 into the vestry, and the choir sang, "Yet There 
 Is Room." I sat fixed in my seat. I wanted 
 to go and yet I could not seem to take the first 
 step. Alternate waves of chill and of fever 
 swept over me, and I cried and trembled. 
 One of my friends said, ^'Annie, what are you 
 crying for? You are a good girl. If I were 
 like you I'd not cry." 
 
 "Oh, Emma," I cried, "don't talk like that! 
 I'm not good; I'm a miserable sinner, and I 
 know it!" 
 
 She said, "I will go with you into the ves- 
 try," but I preferred to go alone; I did not 
 want such a poor helper. 
 
 I did manage somehow to get into that ves- 
 try and the room was full. I took a seat at 
 the door, and my agony was so great that I 
 sobbed aloud. The preacher's wife came to 
 me and wanted to know why I cried.. I said, 
 "I'm not ready if Jesus comes to-night!" 
 She talked to me kindly about being good and 
 believing on Jesus. "Oh," I exclaimed, "I 
 have tried to be good, but trying does not 
 make me a Christian. I want to know that 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS 15 
 
 I am one." The good woman could not en- 
 lighten me much, and I said to myself, "I see 
 that it is only God who can help me; I shall 
 have to talk to him." I got up from my knees 
 with the grim determination that I would be 
 a Christian and the "know so" kind; there is 
 no other kind but the "know-so's." 
 
 I went home and to my room and shut the 
 door and cried and prayed, and became so ex- 
 hausted that I fell asleep only to wake up the 
 next morning in agony. But I prayed again 
 and cried, and my grandmother asked me if I 
 were sick. Yes, I was, but a dose of her 
 wormwood did not cure that sickness. 
 
 Finally on Wednesday, March 29, 1882, at 
 three o'clock in the afternoon, I was really 
 saved. It was while on my knees praying in 
 the kitchen before a low rocking-chair — down 
 low in every sense of the word — that the light 
 broke on my soul and I felt my burden of sin 
 roll off. I had never read Bunyan's "Pil- 
 grim's Progress," but I had the same experi- 
 ence that Pilgrim had of the burden rolling 
 away. I rose to my feet like one on air, with 
 these words ringing like bells in my soul: 
 "Certainly I will be with thee," and oh, I 
 
i6 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 was happy I I danced for joy, and in a few 
 minutes was on my way down the street to the 
 home of my Sunday-school teacher to tell her 
 the good news. She said she was glad; that 
 she had prayed for me, because she wanted 
 all her girls to be confirmed 1 Confirmed? 
 That might be another step, but it was enough 
 for me now that I knew that I was Christ's 
 and he was mine. I replied, "Oh, I don't 
 think my father will let me be confirmed, but 
 I know that I am a Christian now, and I am 
 happy." 
 
 I almost walked on air after that testimony; 
 and I was eager to have an opportunity of tell- 
 ing my friend who sat beside me Sunday 
 night. I met her on the street, and grasping 
 her arm cried: "Oh, Emma, I know I am a 
 Christian now!" 
 
 "How do you know?" she asked; "I do 
 not, and I have been confirmed and you have 
 not." 
 
 True, I had not been confirmed ; but I had 
 been so convicted of sin that, like David, my 
 bones waxed old through my groaning. Now 
 God had spoken — "Certainly I will be with 
 thee" — and I knew the voice ; it was not that 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS 17 
 
 of a human being; and my whole soul was 
 flooded with light; I had the joy of assurance. 
 Blessed assurance! My mouth was opened 
 that I might tell it out to others. It was no 
 more "hope so," "think so," but "I know"! 
 
 My friend said : "Don't go crazy telling that 
 story!" 
 
 "Oh, no, I won't be crazy," I replied; "but 
 ril tell it to everybody!" 
 
 That afternoon I told my grandmother, 
 who had been visiting a friend. She said: 
 "Well, Fm very glad to hear it Now if you 
 are a Christian, when I ask you to leave your 
 books and wash dishes you'll do it without 
 stamping your feet and banging the doors." 
 
 You see grandmother had not much confi- 
 dence in my "Christian endeavor" life and 
 wanted to see the real thing. But her remarks 
 did not cool me off; I was a Christian and I 
 knew it. 
 
 When my father came home — ah, here was 
 the test of my courage! But I had something 
 to tell and I went at it straight as a die. He. 
 growled, than said in an indirect way, not 
 speaking to any one in particular: "H'm, it's a 
 whim she has ; it will soon pass off." Well, 
 
i8 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 thirty- four years have gone by and the "whim'' 
 is still on. He did not understand, neither 
 did mother, who simply said: "I hope so,'' 
 when I told her. 
 
 But none of these things moved me. I was 
 living in a new world ; I was born again. I 
 was "a new creature in Christ Jesus," a child 
 of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of 
 heaven. I never again repeated that part of 
 the Litany which says that we are "miserable 
 sinners," for I did not feel that I was. I knew 
 that I was a forgiven sinner, and it made me 
 very happy. My girl friends called me 
 "saint" and "too religious," because I refused 
 to go with them on their Sunday afternoon 
 strolls but would go with my Sunday-school 
 teacher to visit the sick. I gave as my reason 
 that I wanted to be a missionary, so I must be- 
 gin to take my training. 
 
 A candidates' class for confirmation had 
 been formed during Lent, and I had twice 
 asked my father to let me join it, only to be 
 refused. But about two weeks before its close 
 I asked once more, to receive the answer: 
 "Well, your grandmother says that you are 
 
GIRLHOOD DAYS 19 
 
 better. If you keep on like that you may do 
 as you please." So I joyfully made prepara- 
 tion to be confirmed on May i8th, just thirteen 
 days before my eighteenth birthday. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 
 
 TWO years after my conversion we left 
 England for the United States, landing 
 in New York, then going on to Providence, 
 Rhode Island. My rector had given me a let- 
 ter to present to any Episcopal clergyman 
 where I might settle. 
 
 We lived only two months in Providence; 
 then father and I got work in the Turkey Red 
 Dye Works at Belief ont, near Auburn, Rhode 
 Island. In this establishment I learned to 
 weave damask tablecloths ; and at every oppor- 
 tunity I bore testimony to Jesus who had 
 saved me and day by day kept me. We lived 
 in old Elmville until the Roger Williams 
 Park Association took the land, the Wextend 
 Park grounds, etc., when we purchased a lot 
 and built a cottage in Edgewood and made 
 that our permanent home. 
 
 I found that there were two churches in 
 
 20 
 
NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 21 
 
 Auburn, which was very thinly populated at 
 that time — one Baptist and the other Adven- 
 tist of the American Pre-millennial Associa- 
 tion. A young woman who worked near me 
 in the factory offered to take me to Sunday- 
 school, which she said she attended when she 
 had something new to wear. So I went to the 
 Baptist church in the morning and the Sun- 
 day-school in the afternoon, but was so dis- 
 appointed that I cried when I went home. I 
 told my mother that the preacher was uninter- 
 esting and nothing that he said touched the 
 heart. I had expected something different 
 from the church to which my grandmother 
 belonged, but this church was probably an ex- 
 ception. The Sunday-school was no better; 
 the girls seemed giddy, and the teacher was not 
 able to hold their attention. There was more 
 display of jewelry than I had seen among the 
 wealthiest ladies of the church at home in 
 England, and I was actually homesick for my 
 old church. 
 
 This went on for several Sundays when a 
 neighbor, talking with my mother at the well, 
 invited mother to go with her to her church 
 the following Sunday evening. She thanked 
 
22 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 the one who invited her, but said that she did 
 not care to go to church; that her daughter 
 might, however. I had heard this other one 
 called "the little church," and I looked for- 
 ward with hope that it might be simple and 
 quiet and meet my need. It did. As I en- 
 tered the door I felt at home. The bell- 
 ringer was also deacon, janitor, Sunday-school 
 superintendent and Bible class teacher. He 
 shook my hand so that I remembered it; there 
 was no doubt of my welcome. The one- room 
 building was so simple in its arrangement and 
 color-tone that I was rested at once. When 
 the other members of the congregation came 
 in, my escort and I were introduced and made 
 to feel welcome. I felt that I had found my 
 church home, and it proved to be that for thir- 
 teen years. 
 
 The preacher, the Rev. F. O. Cunningham, 
 who is still alive and preaching in the New 
 England States, was a fine singer and the 
 whole assembly sang heartily. The hymns 
 were new to me, so I listened. I remember 
 one in particular: "IVe reached the land of 
 corn and wine." Ah, yes, that was just what 
 I had reached, and I was going to stay if 
 
■-chool was a native house uith p.ilui-lcaf hhA 
 and bambco walls. 
 
 'I feel very big toweling over some of the women, who 
 stand under my arm." 
 
NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 23 
 
 they would let me, but I wondered how I was 
 to join such a church, which in England 
 would be called a Dissenting church. 
 
 The singing and the prayer uplifted me; 
 but the sermon was wonderful. It was on the 
 second coming of Christ, which was presented 
 in such a way that I sat spellbound. I had 
 never heard a sermon like that in all my 
 twenty years. The preacher who spoke the 
 night that I was converted had talked of the 
 Lord's coming in judgment, and I was terri- 
 fied because I was not ready to meet Him. 
 But this was a different phase of His coming. 
 I did not lose a word, and I turned to the ref- 
 erences in my Bible so that I could read them 
 again. Tears rolled down my face. I was 
 fed; I was happy; my hungry heart was satis- 
 fied. 
 
 When the service was over the preacher 
 came to me and said: "A stranger, but you 
 are welcome." I said : **Oh, can I come here 
 always?" Of course I could I That night I 
 literally skipped down that lane, and my 
 friend laughed to see me so happy. I kept 
 saying: *7^sus is coming back, and I must be 
 ready for Him. But do you have such Bible 
 
24 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 readings as that always? It was almost all 
 Bible 1" Even my mother was pleased to find 
 I was satisfied and happy. 
 
 I united with that church by baptism on 
 Sunday, June 7th, 1885. The pastor left in 
 about eight months, and we had various sup- 
 plies for some time. It was during this 
 period that I received the "second blessing," 
 or, as it is often called, "sanctification." It 
 came about in this way. I read in the reli- 
 gious notices of a "Holiness" meeting to be 
 held in South Providence, and I decided that 
 I would like to attend it. I was not well 
 enough acquainted with Providence to know 
 where to find the place, so I spoke to one of 
 the members of our church about going with 
 me. "What is a Holiness meeting?" I 
 asked. "It sounds good to me." Sarah 
 shrugged her shoulders and advised me not 
 to go at the risk of being thought queer; but 
 all that she said only made me more deter- 
 mined, and at last she promised to accompany 
 me. 
 
 As we neared the place of meeting that 
 Sunday afternoon the singing was inspiring — 
 "You may have the joy bells ringing in your 
 
NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 25 
 
 heart'' — and the music seemed to fill me with 
 such joy that I felt that I was getting a new 
 experience already. As the room was seem- 
 ingly full, seats were found near the door. 
 Everything impressed me favorably. There 
 were about three hundred present and their 
 faces were shining with intelligence and spir- 
 itual power; there was no display of dress or 
 jewelry ; I felt that I was among my own, and 
 I was ready to listen to the word that pro- 
 ceeded from such wholesome sensible peo- 
 ple. 
 
 The preacher opened his Bible. That was 
 right; I opened mine too. We read the 
 twenty-third verse of the fifth chapter of 
 First Thessalonians : "And the God of peace 
 himself sanctify you wholly; and may your 
 spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, 
 without blame at the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." As the preacher emphasized 
 the word sanctify the people responded, and 
 I said to myself that this must be the key- 
 note of holiness. I marked all the verses that 
 the speaker gave us; it was really a Bible 
 reading on the subject. I was delighted. 
 New visions were opening to me out of the 
 
26 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 old Book that I loved so well. Why had I 
 not seen these things before? Had I been 
 blind? Jesus said them; John, Peter, James 
 and Paul had preached them and had written 
 them for my benefit; and I had been in the 
 family of Christ for four years and had not 
 seen them. Why, the preacher was giving us 
 the very honey and cream of heaven; and I 
 was so hungry that I was just swallowing it 
 down. 
 
 As soon as the speaker finished my friend 
 and I left the hall, as I had to lead the young 
 people's meeting that night and we had about 
 three miles to walk. We had only gone a 
 few streets, and were now in Adelaide Grove, 
 when Sarah said : "What do you think of the 
 Holiness people?'* I was not thinking of 
 people just then, but of the truth which I 
 had heard, so precious, so real, so true that 
 its power was coursing through my being in 
 electric quivers, and I said: "Sarah, on my 
 seat in that hall I accepted Jesus as my Sanc- 
 tifier. I believe this is a second definite, posi- 
 tive work of the Holy Spirit in my soul. I 
 knew when I was born again ; now I have seen 
 advanced truth; I am sanctified by faith in 
 
NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 27 
 
 Jesus just now." As I finished my testimony 
 the Holy Spirit flooded my soul, and I cried, 
 "Praise the Lord, it is in his Word!" We 
 stood still in that grove while I poured out 
 my belief and my praises, and Sarah said, 
 "Annie, I do believe God has done something 
 for you, for your face shines." But, like 
 Moses, I did not know it. 
 
 I could hardly walk home ; I longed to fly 
 to tell our people what God had done for 
 me. My friend had to go home, as she had 
 an aged mother to care for ; but I went on to 
 the church. I was a few minutes late, which 
 was unusual for me; and the young people 
 came to meet me. As they saw me they ex- 
 claimed: "Miss Coope, how beautiful you 
 look! Where have you been? Tell us 
 quickly." I thought: "Can this be true? If 
 it is it only proves the Scripture: ^He will 
 beautify the meek with salvation,'" Psalm 
 149 : 4. I felt the beauty within uplifting me. 
 
 I cannot recall all that I said, but I poured 
 out my soul to them ; and I had them all turn 
 to their Bibles to verify the things which I 
 was telling them. While thus talking the 
 deacon who supplied as pastor came in so 
 
28 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 quietly that I did not notice him, and after 
 listening for a time he came forward and said 
 to the young people ; "All that our sister has 
 been telling you is true. I have longed for 
 such an experience myself : let us kneel down 
 and pray that God may give us this blessing 
 now." We then had an altar service, the first 
 that I had seen in the church. While we 
 were on our knees the older members of the 
 church came for the evening service, and find- 
 ing a manifestation of the Holy Spirit re- 
 mained also to pray. Many were blessed that 
 night. 
 
 All these things were only preparing me 
 for service. I was learning to know God 
 for myself, to find out through His Word what 
 he would have me do. I continually kept 
 before my own mind the thought that God 
 wanted me to be a witness for Him to those 
 who sat in darkness, and from this time my 
 purpose was fixed though the way did not 
 open directly. I was greatly interested in 
 Sunday-school and young people's work, mis- 
 sions, and open-air services, and thus step 
 by step my training was being carried on 
 though I went to no training school 
 
NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 29 
 
 Several American missionaries from the 
 West Indies had spoken in our church, and 
 as a result my interest was turned definitely 
 in that direction. Theirs was a work of faith. 
 They were under no Board, but went out 
 trusting God to supply every need for body 
 and soul, and I felt that this was just what 
 I would like to do. I had read the life of 
 George Miiller of Bristol, England, and his 
 great faith encouraged me to step out on the 
 promises of God. Belief in divine healing 
 came to be a part of my life, and I have al- 
 ways carried any sickness to Him rather than 
 to a physician. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 TO THE WEST INDIES AND HOME AGAIN 
 
 IT was in the fall of 1897 that I took my 
 first definite step toward the foreign field. 
 Some of the missionaries from the West In- 
 dies had spoken of the need for workers there, 
 and I decided to go with them. Their condi- 
 tions were absolute trust in God for all things ; 
 and that met with my approval. So after get- 
 ting clearly the mind of God in the matter, 
 I announced in the church that I was going 
 to the West Indies by the first boat that I 
 could catch. I knew nothing of the cost; 
 I never asked the superintendent of the mis- 
 sion one question about money matters, for 
 ail the workers had said that those who felt 
 called of God to labor with them must trust 
 God to supply the means. So I was trust- 
 ing. I had felt the "Woe is me if I preach 
 not the gospel," and I was going to do it. I 
 went from that service and began that night 
 
 30 
 
TO THE WEST INDIES 31 
 
 to look over my wardrobe to put it in order 
 for going away. 
 
 It may be asked if I had not saved enough 
 money to at least start me on my trip. True 
 I was called a good weaver and had earned 
 excellent wages; but, English fashion, had 
 given every cent of it to my mother except 
 the Lord's tenth. I took that out before her 
 eyes, saying: ^^Mother, this is God's money, 
 not mine and not yours." She said that I was 
 a crank, and I answered : *^ Yes, I am a crank, 
 turned by Bible truth and Holy Ghost 
 power." 
 
 Mother heard before I reached home, of 
 my declaration in church, and she at once 
 asked : "Where are you going to get the money 
 to go on your wild-goose chase?" 
 
 "From God," I answered; "He has called 
 me to go, and He will pay all the expenses." 
 
 The following Sunday a young woman 
 member of the church put a five-dollar bill 
 into my hand, saying: "I believe God has 
 called you to go to the foreign field, and I 
 want to share in your blessings." It felt very 
 strange for me to take it, and I thanked her 
 with mingled feelings. I had nerer received 
 
32 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 money from any one before, not even as 
 Christmas or birthday gifts ; and here five dol- 
 lars had been given by a young woman who 
 worked hard for it, keeping boarders. It 
 meant sacrifice for her. I felt that God was 
 very near; that this was a token of His ap- 
 proval and an earnest of what was to come. 
 I was very glad that God had let a poor work- 
 ing girl help me first. 
 
 On the same Sunday, at night, one of the 
 deacons, Daniel Potter, a godly man and the 
 richest one in our church from every point 
 of view, rose and said: "I will be responsible 
 for our sister Anna's expenses to the West 
 Indies." 
 
 What more did I need? God had pro- 
 vided, and that right quickly! I did not even 
 handle the money; the ticket was given to 
 me, and that sufficed. I did not talk of my 
 needs; I never do. I am to be about my 
 Father's business and He takes care of me. 
 "I'm the child of a King," and no beggar; my 
 Father can speak better for me than I can for 
 myself, so I let Him. 
 
 I packed my trunk, quite delighted with 
 God's arrangements for me; and my mother, 
 
TO THE WEST INDIES 33 
 
 helping me, did not raise an objection. Some 
 of the neighbors came in to act as Job's com- 
 forters, saying: ^'How can you let your only 
 child go away so far? Why don't you stop 
 her? She ought not to leave such a good 
 home," and similar remarks. 
 
 But mother was staunch in her defense. 
 "You can talk all you like about her going 
 away," she said ; "and while I don't want her 
 to go if I could have my own way, still I 
 would far rather see her go than marrying 
 such men as you are giving your daughters 
 to! No, I have confidence in my girl; she is 
 doing right and is going to help others to do 
 right. I'm not right myself, but that is my 
 own fault." 
 
 That was talk that went right home, and 
 the neighbors did not bother her any more. 
 
 Then there was my father to be reckoned 
 with. He said that I was a fool, with an 
 oath before and after, and blamed mother be- 
 cause he said she was helping me in my fool- 
 ishness. All the mother in her rose to the 
 occasion. "Harry, you have been threaten- 
 ing for years to put Annie out of the house be- 
 cause she had religion. Now she is going 
 
34 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 herself, and you will be well rid of her and 
 her preaching. Let her go I" 
 
 For years my father had been angry with 
 me, often locking the door at night and or- 
 dering my mother not to wait for me to come 
 in, though I was rarely later than nine o'clock. 
 Mother would listen for my footsteps and 
 slip down and let me in, frequently bring- 
 ing down a storm upon her head for doing 
 so. I was often advised to leave home be- 
 cause of his treatment; but I felt that I must 
 bear opposition patiently: that it was really 
 a part of my training for service; if I could 
 not bear unsympathetic and unkind treat- 
 ment at home, how could I bear what I would 
 have to meet on the mission field? Besides 
 I really loved my father and prayed for him, 
 and I had the assurance that some day he 
 would be saved. The road from our house to 
 the church was a very lonely one, and father 
 often said that he wished I would be attacked ; 
 but his wishes were never fulfilled. I was 
 God's child and the angel of the Lord en- 
 camped about me and delivered me. For 
 thirteen years I had a special guard, a body- 
 guard, and I rejoice as I look back over those 
 
TO THE WEST INDIES 35 
 
 experiences, for through them I learned to 
 walk by faith, to know God as a personal com- 
 panion and to lean on Him for help. God 
 was very close to me during my three weeks 
 of preparation for my journey, though my 
 father never spoke to me during that time nor 
 did he say good-by to me. 
 
 I sailed from New York on October 2nd, 
 1897, and stopped at several of the West In- 
 dian Islands, holding meetings and distribut- 
 ing tracts. When we arrived at Martinique, 
 where this party of missionaries had opened 
 the first Protestant mission to the French 
 Catholics on the island, the superintendent 
 asked me to stay for a time. I could not 
 speak a word of French, but I did hand out 
 tracts and speak a few times, one of the mem- 
 bers of the mission interpreting. I saw the 
 first Protestant converts baptized here. What 
 ignorance, wickedness and idolatry there were 
 in that city I It is little wonder that God 
 overthrew it I 
 
 After six weeks' stay in Martinique I went 
 to Barbadoes, and in January, 1898, there was 
 an annual convention of the workers in the 
 islands. All the native workers who could 
 
36 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 come did so. One young woman came from 
 Bolivar, Venezuela, South America, and she 
 told of the Indians living in huts on the 
 banks of the Orinoco River, of their pov- 
 erty, their sad, dejected appearance and their 
 appeal for some one to come and teach them. 
 Her story touched my heart, and I said: 
 "Lord, if you v^ant me to go to the Indians of 
 South America, make it plain to me." Like 
 Gideon I laid down my fleece before Him, 
 asking that He would show me by my abil- 
 ity to learn the Spanish language whether I 
 had the fitness to go there. After a long talk 
 and prayer with the missionary who had 
 brought the tidings of this neglected people, 
 I went out and bought a small book called 
 "Spanish at a Glance" and began to study it. 
 I certainly did not learn the language at a 
 glance — far from it! — but I was enthusiastic 
 from the start, and my teacher soon declared 
 that I was getting beyond her. I had not 
 much time for study, but I improved every 
 spare moment; my book and I were insep- 
 arable. I considered that this was a leading 
 from God, because I had never before been 
 able to tolerate a foreign language. My 
 
TO THE WEST INDIES 37 
 
 teacher stayed only a few weeks, and I was 
 obliged after that to get on as best I could 
 alone; but I loved the language and stuck 
 to it. 
 
 I remained in Barbadoes for two years or 
 more, when a party of us started for Porto 
 Rico soon after the close of the Spanish- 
 American War. I was the only one in the 
 party of four who could speak Spanish, and 
 I was kept busy for two months holding open- 
 air meetings, visiting from house to house and 
 distributing tracts and Gospel portions to 
 those who could read and reading to those 
 who could not. 
 
 At the end of this time I received a letter 
 from home saying that my mother could not 
 live and that I was needed at home at once. 
 I left by the next steamer, glad to go where 
 the Lord called me, but sad because of the 
 thousands in darkness whom I was leaving be- 
 hind me. 
 
 I found my mother still alive but beyond 
 human aid, and still unsaved. She was very 
 glad to see me again and we talked much that 
 night, mostly concerning her soul's condition. 
 She brought forward as her defense her mo- 
 
38 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 rality and her good deeds, while I did my 
 best to show her the way through Jesus' blood 
 as the only heaven-appointed way. A new 
 birth, a complete surrender of all that we 
 think we are, belief in the Lord Jesus Christ 
 and confession of sin, with the witness of the 
 Holy Spirit, were the truths that I brought 
 before her continually for two weeks, and 
 many were praying for her at the same 
 time. 
 
 At last, under the fire of such Catling guns 
 of heaven, she surrendered; and oh, what a 
 change! She was indeed a new creature, and 
 for three weeks she preached Jesus to all who 
 came to see her, telling them that if she had 
 died depending on her own respectability to 
 plead for her she would have been lost She 
 urged my father to repent; but he was so 
 grieved at the thought of losing her that he 
 did not pay any attention to his own souPs 
 need. 
 
 In my mother's rejoicing over her new 
 vision of spiritual things she exclaimed : "Oh, 
 Annie, is this what you have been talking 
 about all these years! I thought sometimes 
 that you were crazy, but I am so glad that 
 
TO THE WEST INDIES 39 
 
 you were true to God and persevered in do- 
 ing what you felt called to do. If I had 
 known this fifty years ago I would have been 
 a missionary and gone everywhere to tell 
 about Jesus. I did think you were foolish to 
 leave a good home and go out to work among 
 black folks, not knowing how you would be 
 treated, but now I understand it all. Go 
 again when the way opens. You will have 
 a hard time with your father, but it won't be 
 for so very long. Do what God tells you. I 
 am going home, but I shall be watching for 
 you." 
 
 Mother went to be with her Saviour Sep- 
 tember 24th, 1900, and I could only rejoice in 
 her triumphant death. 
 
 Now there was another complete change in 
 my life, for plainly my duty now was with 
 my father. For more than six years I re- 
 mained at home with him, working at my 
 trade of weaving to support us both, as he 
 was now over seventy. We owned our home 
 and were very comfortable. Father worked 
 in his garden and among his chickens and was 
 quite well for years ; then he had a stroke and 
 was unable to leave his bed, but was perfectly 
 
40 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 conscious during the last four weeks of his 
 life. 
 
 Nine days before he died he called to me 
 early in the morning: "Annie, bring your 
 Bible and teach me the way to heaven!'^ 
 
 I was so filled with joy that I can't tell how 
 I got hold of the blessed Book and hurried to 
 his side. God had answered prayer. Here 
 was a helpless old man seventy-eight years of 
 age, who had turned from God all his life, 
 now wanting to be shown how to come to Him ! 
 Surely our God is longsuffering! I quoted 
 John 3:16 to him thus: "God so loved 
 Henry Coope that he gave his only-begotten 
 Son, that if Henry Coope believeth in Him 
 Henry Coope should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life," and Isaiah i : 18: "Though 
 Henry Coope's sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
 as white as snow; though Henry Coope's sins 
 be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 
 As I finished he said: "Pray for me!" 
 
 "Oh, no," I answered; "it is your turn to 
 pray now. I've prayed for you for twenty 
 years ; your mother prayed ; your wife prayed ; 
 now you must pray." 
 
 "I don't know what to say." 
 
TO THE WEST INDIES 41 
 
 I told him to tell God that he was a sinner, 
 and he said: "God knows I am." 
 
 "Yes, but the Bible says: *If we confess our 
 sins He is faithful and just to forgive us.' You 
 want Him to forgive you: tell Him so. Do 
 you feel happy?" 
 
 "No, I feel bad, miserable." 
 
 "Then tell him so." 
 
 "Why, doesn't He know all that?" 
 
 "Yes; but He said, *Come, let us reason to- 
 gether,' so you see He wants you to talk to 
 Him. Tell Him everything that is in your 
 heart that is hurting you and making you mis- 
 erable. He will cleanse you. Do it now." 
 
 He began slowly: "God, be — mer — ci — ful 
 to m — e, a sin — ner," holding on to his words 
 and repeating them again. Suddenly he 
 cried, "Oh, it is done!" 
 
 "What is done?" 
 
 "God has forgiven me! I know it! I 
 know it!" His face was illumined ; he looked 
 fairly beautiful. 
 
 I was so happy that I fairly danced through 
 the house, and I felt that the angels were re- 
 joicing with me. Talk of joy! Indeed the joy 
 of the Lord is our strength. It was four o'clock 
 
42 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 in the morning, and I at once sat down to 
 write the good news to some of my friends. 
 One letter was to a preacher in the West In- 
 dies who had criticized my staying at home 
 with my father, saying that I was wasting my 
 time when I had a call to the foreign field; 
 that I ought to leave him in a Home for 
 the Aged and go and preach. I told him that 
 though this man was my father I knew he was 
 a great sinner, and I felt that God had given 
 me this heathen at home to convert before I 
 could go to the Indians ; that this was a part 
 of my training for future work and that if I 
 wanted God's blessing I must do the duty that 
 lay right before me. 
 
 My father began to preach to our nearest 
 neighbor that same morning at eight o'clock, 
 thus proving that "with the heart man believ- 
 eth unto righteousness and with the mouth 
 confession is made unto salvation." For nine 
 days he lived to tell the story that Jesus had 
 saved him. He said he was like the Prodigal 
 Son, but the Heavenly Father had taken him 
 home, and he just rested with childlike confi- 
 dence on the promises of God. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 UP THE ORINOCO TO SAN ISIDRO 
 
 IN a month after my father's death I had 
 disposed of the property and furniture and 
 was at liberty to go where I was called. Part 
 of the money that came from the sale I sent 
 to India and Japan to work where I could 
 not go, for I could trust God to supply my 
 needs. I spent a few months in the home of 
 a friend, one of the founders of the Christian 
 Mission to the West Indies, doing church 
 work, and a few months more in Rescue Mis- 
 sion work in Providence, R. I., and Brockton, 
 Mass. Then in November, 1907, I started to 
 find my Indian mission field, in company with 
 several missionaries who were to settle in the 
 various islands of the West Indies. 
 
 I stopped at the island of Trinidad to wait 
 for a steamer bound for Venezuela on the 
 mainland of South America, but as yellow 
 fever and the bubonic plague were on the 
 
 43 
 
44 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 island no steamer could leave there, so I went 
 to Bridgetown, on the island of Barbadoes, 
 for several months, believing that God would 
 open up the way in time. In the meantime 
 I received a letter from one of the missionaries 
 who had been in Venezuela a few years, trav- 
 eling up the Orinoco River as a Bible colpor- 
 ter. He said that in his travels he came to 
 an Indian village whose chief kindly enter- 
 tained him for three days, and after listening 
 to the old, old story of Jesus, bought a Span- 
 ish Bible, saying: "I cannot read, but I will 
 get some one to read it to me." As he took 
 the Book he said: "Gracias a Dios por este 
 libror "Thank God for this book!" When 
 I read that letter I resolved that I would go 
 to this chief, and I prayed God to help me and 
 to convert him. 
 
 But my faith was to be tested again. For 
 months every vessel for Venezuela was quar- 
 antined, so that no passenger from Barbadoes 
 was allowed to go. Many said that it would 
 be better to stay in the islands, but my heart 
 was set on work among the Indians, and this 
 colporter's message seemed to me to be God's 
 way of directing me. I managed to get a let- 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 45 
 
 ter through telling the colporter that I was 
 coming, and he wrote back saying that he 
 would take me to the Indian village, although 
 it was five years since he had been there him- 
 self, and urged me to come at once if pos- 
 sible. 
 
 But now came another testing time for me. 
 Before leaving the United States I had noticed 
 a lump or swelling on my tongue, but thought 
 lightly of it. When I had reached the West 
 Indies I found it was larger, and later on it be- 
 gan to give me some pain. I thought seriously 
 of visiting a physician, and finally did so. 
 He told me the swelling needed attention, and 
 the sooner the better. I decided, however, 
 to talk to my Saviour, the Great Physician, 
 and carried my trouble to Him in earnest 
 prayer. I did not speak to any one of the 
 pain I suffered, nor did I try to think the pain 
 was imaginary. I, however, experienced a 
 strong faith that God would help me, and ere 
 long I noticed that the swelling was disap- 
 pearing, and in a short time was entirely gone. 
 As a consequence, I felt in my heart a great 
 joy, and told the glad news to all the house- 
 hold and to all my friends, realizing that what 
 
46 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 I had experienced was an evidence of God's 
 goodness, faithfulness and power. 
 
 At last one morning one of the members of 
 our band came into the house saying excitedly, 
 "There is a steamer in the bay now which is 
 not quarantined and is bound directly for Bol- 
 ivar City, Venezuela. It is a cattle boat, but 
 perhaps it will take passengers." 
 
 I urged him to go at once and secure pas- 
 sage for me if possible, for I was all ready 
 to start, and he was able to secure a place for 
 myself and the two colored women who were 
 going with me, though only after a long dis- 
 cussion with the agent, who said that the cat- 
 tle ship was no fit place for a white woman. 
 Finally he put the responsibility on the cap- 
 tain, saying that if he would take me it would 
 be all right, and getting this much assurance 
 we packed our belongings and went aboard, 
 believing that God would make a place for 
 us. We carried food for the three days' voy- 
 age and expected to eat it on deck, picnic fash- 
 ion, but it turned out that we were even better 
 provided for than we had expected. 
 
 The three days were happy ones. I had 
 my folding organ and we played and sang for 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 47 
 
 the pleasure of all. The captain, a Nor- 
 wegian, said that it was like having church 
 all day. He told us about himself, his fam- 
 ily and his plans, and we talked of Jesus and 
 His power to save us now from all sin. He 
 told us that this was an ill-fated vessel and 
 never made a voyage without having a death ; 
 but I told him there would be no death on it 
 during this voyage, and there was not. He 
 told us that if he got that load of cattle to 
 its destination in Bolivar City and the ship 
 back to one of the West Indian Islands, he 
 would return to his family. We urged him to 
 accept Jesus as his Saviour; but, though he 
 said he wished he could have the assurance 
 and the comfort that I had, and seemed 
 moved, he did not really yield, though he said 
 he "would try to serve God." He was most 
 courteous to us, for instead of letting us sit 
 in a corner and eat our food from lunch-boxes, 
 he had good meals cooked and a waiter to 
 serve us at table. We, like brother Paul, had 
 command, under God, of that ship. 
 
 The poor captain did not live long after 
 that. He went to a town about three miles 
 away on business and contracted yellow fever 
 
48 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 and died before he had gotten his cargo. We 
 heard this from one of the crew whom we met, 
 who would not go back to the steamer, and 
 he said that the captain asked several times 
 for me, but they did not know where to find 
 me in the city. 
 
 We were now ready to start up the Orinoco 
 River when we found a boat to take us, and 
 after seven days of waiting and looking we 
 found a man who owned a small boat who was 
 willing to undertake the journey. He and a 
 young boy did the rowing. They worked 
 steadily all day and at sunset tied up the boat 
 in a little cove and we all went ashore. We 
 were so crowded in the little boat that it was 
 out of the question to think of sleeping there, 
 and we were weary from the long journey in 
 such cramped quarters with the sun beating 
 down upon us, so that it was a relief to get 
 out on the white sandy bank and be able to 
 move about. We must sleep somewhere, but 
 the question was where, and we were to make 
 an early start in the morning. 
 
 After a little supper I suggested that we lie 
 down on the sand, and the captain, a Span- 
 iard, kindly offered us some tarpaulin; that, 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 49 
 
 spread on the ground, would be a protection 
 from sand-fleas. My girls declared that they 
 would not lie on the ground; they preferred 
 to sit up all night ; but I was glad to rest lying 
 down even if it was on the sand, and I slept 
 for perhaps half an hour when I was awak- 
 ened by the excited twittering of some birds 
 in the bushes near by. The sun had set, so 
 I knew that the birds ought to be asleep, and 
 I felt that there was trouble. I sprang to my 
 feet crying: "Look out! there is some danger 
 near!" The captain came running to the 
 spot and exclaimed: "Ahi un cuebra aqui!" 
 — "There is a snake here!" Of course we 
 were all wide awake by this time, and sure 
 enough, in a moment a great yellow and 
 black striped snake glided near. "Look for 
 a stick or a stone; screaming won't kill 
 him!" I exclaimed; but instantly the cap- 
 tain had whipped out his knife and struck 
 at the snake's head and he was soon dis- 
 patched. 
 
 After that adventure there was no thought 
 of sleeping for my three girls — another 
 young colored woman who could speak Span- 
 ish had joined our party. But I said, "A 
 
50 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 dead snake can't harm us and I am going to 
 sleep." 
 
 "But its mate may come to see where the 
 other one is;" objected the frightened girls. 
 
 "Well, if it does, the birds will notify us. 
 God has special guardians around us. Trust 
 Him and go to sleep ; you need the rest." 
 
 The girls were not willing to lose conscious- 
 ness, but I slept sweetly until about three in 
 the morning, when we were called to start on 
 our journey again. 
 
 The next night we beached in another shel- 
 tered cove, cooked our evening meal and wer^ 
 preparing to sleep on the beach again when 
 a party of Spaniards came running toward us 
 and asked the captain if he had any rum to 
 sell. One of the men wanted to know what 
 I was doing here in this black crowd, and I 
 told him that I was going to the Indians to 
 tell them of Jesus who died to save all who 
 would believe, and I talked of Jesus to these 
 men. They said that the Indians were of no 
 account; I ought not to waste my time on 
 them. Would I not come and live in their 
 house and teach them English? They in- 
 vited us up to their house and treated us very 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 51 
 
 civilly, saying that we could hang our ham- 
 mocks in the house and inviting us to play 
 cards to pass the evening. We could see that 
 they did not know Jesus, and I so turned the 
 conversation on heavenly things that there was 
 no card-playing that night. 
 
 We hung our hammocks on the piazza, as 
 the house was saturated with their everlast- 
 ing cigar smoke. The girls could not sleep 
 there either; but I committed myself into my 
 Father's hands and slept. The next morning 
 the Spaniards gave us all the milk we could 
 drink and a few pounds of home-made cheese. 
 See how the Lord provides I These men 
 looked ferocious with their pistols in their 
 belts, their unkempt hair and rough clothing. 
 But they had hearts that responded to kind 
 words and they listened attentively to the story 
 of Jesus. 
 
 The third day's journey took us through 
 a beautiful country that would have de- 
 lighted the heart of an artist, and I enjoyed 
 every moment of this succession of lovely 
 views, praising God that He had made such 
 a beautiful world. We went ashore about 
 five o'clock. There were still thirteen miles 
 
52 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 to be traveled before we reached San Isidro, 
 the place for which we had started, and this 
 part of the journey would be by land. The 
 first thing to be thought of for the night was 
 a place to sleep. There was an adobe house 
 near the shore where the traders lived and 
 stored their hides on their trips from the in- 
 terior. It was empty now, for the men were 
 away buying hides, so our belongings were 
 taken to the house. 
 
 I said that the house was empty, but we 
 had no sooner entered than we found that its 
 roof of palm leaves was inhabited by snakes, 
 bats, spiders, and other crawling things un- 
 known to us. There was one room with two 
 doors and no windows, but one of the doors 
 was so strongly fastened that we could not 
 force it open. However we made a fire to 
 try to smoke out the tribes, but without suc- 
 cess; they were quite used to smoke I The 
 bats still hung up, the whip-snakes only 
 twined in and out to show us that they were 
 yery much alive, and the other inhabitants 
 evinced similar activity. There was a house 
 near by, and I asked the Spaniards there if 
 these things were dangerous. "Esta nada;" 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 53 
 
 they replied, which meant ^'That's nothing," 
 so I said to the girls: "I don't believe in being 
 afraid of nothing. I am going to sleep"; and 
 in spite of their remonstrances I proceeded to 
 stretch my cot and have a good rest, American 
 style I 
 
 We had to wait there two days for the 
 coming of the traders who were to guide us 
 further on our journey, and we improved the 
 time by visiting the two Spanish families near 
 us, playing and singing in Spanish for them 
 and giving them Gospel portions and tracts. 
 One man could read ; we heard him reading to 
 his family and others, so we felt that we had 
 done a little missionary work. 
 
 On the third day toward evening the trad- 
 ers, who had come down with a load of skins 
 the day before, told us that they were leav- 
 ing, as it was a full moon and it was cooler to 
 travel by night, and I thought that a moon- 
 light trip would be delightful and that we 
 would be in San Isidro by morning. But 
 they had evidently planned differently, for 
 after we had gone about two miles they came 
 to a stop at a large adobe house. The owner 
 of it was an old man who had a large cattle 
 
54 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 ranch, several wives and many retainers. We 
 found that it was he who owned the house 
 where we had spent two nights, and he wanted 
 us now to stay here for the night. As the 
 men were unhitching the oxen from the 
 carts, we knew that there was nothing else to 
 do. 
 
 As we neared the dwelling and saw several 
 women about we expected to find that the 
 feminine touch had made that dwelling a 
 home. But we were disappointed. Such 
 filth I had never seen! We had to pick our 
 way oter piles of refuse, through swarms of 
 flies, pigs, dogs and pools of tobacco juice. 
 Whew! this was worse than bats and lizards 
 and snakes! As we went into the house the 
 pigs — ^fourteen of them — almost tripped us 
 up. Everybody, men, women and children, 
 was smoking. What an atmosphere for the 
 old man, who was very sick! I counted the 
 next morning, when I could see, sixteen per- 
 sons, twelve dogs and fourteen pigs, all of 
 whom did their best to entertain us. The 
 mosquitoes and flies swarmed ; lizards jumped 
 across our laps to catch flies — everything 
 seemed to think we were one with the crowd. 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 55 
 
 On the rafters was a gruesome sight — a coffin 
 just waiting for that old man to die! 
 
 In the midst of that filth and confusion we 
 were invited to hang our hammocks! I 
 thanked them for their kind invitation but 
 told them that we preferred to sleep outside, 
 it was so nice and cool, and we did so. 
 
 The next morning all were astir early. 
 The sick man wanted to talk with us again. 
 He asked how much money we were going 
 to get for coming up this way. We told him, 
 "A hundredfold in this life, and in the world 
 to come life everlasting." We asked him if 
 he understood that. He said, "Oh, yes, yes," 
 but for fear he did not we explained that God 
 loved the world and gave Jesus His Son to die 
 for us; that we believed in Jesus and knew 
 that our sins were forgiven; and that as Jesus 
 had said that His disciples were to go into all 
 the world to preach His gospel, that was why 
 we were coming this way to tell the Indians, 
 and he added: "And me." "Yes, you;" we 
 replied. We told him that we had not bar- 
 gained with God for money, and as no man 
 or society had sent us we did it for love. He 
 said: "Good! good!" 
 
56 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 One of the women brought us a calabash of 
 milk. It is true that as she carried it, her 
 thumbs were in the milk and in one hand she 
 held a long black cigar, but she smiled as she 
 offered the "lordly dish." The bowl was so 
 greasy that I had to put my thumbs as hooks 
 to hold on to it, and there were islands of 
 fertilizer floating on the top of the milk, but 
 there was nothing else to do, so I blew them 
 aside as well as I could and put my lips di- 
 rectly into the milk instead of against the bowl 
 and drank it My girls were horrified and 
 would not touch it themselves, but my host- 
 ess was delighted to see me enjoy her hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 We left that place about eight o'clock and 
 started for our eleven-mile walk. I sug- 
 gested that we follow the wagons of the trad- 
 ers, but our guide said that he could take us 
 a better and shorter way, so we tramped up 
 hill and down, wading rivers and so getting 
 beautifully cooled off, for four hours, when 
 we could see the top of a house here and there 
 in the distance. There was no well-beaten 
 track, the grass grew in humps and the walk- 
 ing was hard; but we were nearing our In- 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 57 
 
 dians, which rejoiced our hearts; and as we 
 had been so cramped for three days on the 
 boat this was good exercise for a change. 
 
 About two o'clock the man said that he had 
 evidently gotten out of the way; and as one 
 of the girls was very much exhausted, I told 
 him to go on alone and perhaps he could find 
 the road again. We prayed the Lord to di- 
 rect the man, who was now very uneasy about 
 us, because the wagons held all our food and 
 belongings, and we might have to stay in this 
 spot all night; then we put up our umbrellas 
 to form a tent and I slept sweetly for three 
 hours. 
 
 When we thought it was about time for the 
 man to come back we began to sing in order 
 to guide him, and by-and-by he appeared, ac- 
 companied by two Indian boys and a donkey 
 for the white lady to ride on, a gourd full 
 of water and some cassava bread. We just 
 praised the Lord to see them all. The man 
 said that the carts were unloaded and the 
 whole village was waiting to welcome us, and 
 that the chief had sent the donkey. I had 
 never ridden any animal, but the Lord had 
 evidently provided this donkey for the girl 
 
58 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 who was so lame. She knew how to ride and 
 mounted, the boy leading the animal and the 
 rest of us following them. The water tasted 
 delicious and we nibbled the bread as we 
 walked, for we did not want to lose time, it 
 was so nearly sundown. We soon reached 
 the river which separated us from the village, 
 and the Indians began to carry our things 
 over. We would have to be carried over also, 
 as the river was too deep to wade and none 
 of us could swim, so while we were waiting 
 the girls made a fire and boiled some cocoa 
 and we had a good feast of bread and cheese 
 before we went on. 
 
 Once over the river, the chief's wife greeted 
 us warmly, took off my hat and tried it on, 
 examined me thoroughly, took my hair down 
 and untied my shoes; I had a real massage 
 treatment. It rested my head to have it 
 rubbed, so I let them go on. I laughed and 
 they laughed, and so we became acquainted. 
 
 We were shown our new home by moon- 
 light. It was simply a huge umbrella, with 
 no walls and so of course no windows; we 
 could have the air freely! One of the In- 
 dian3 wanted to know what wa$ in the black 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 59 
 
 box which formed a part of our baggage, so I 
 opened it and began to play. Oh, joy, what a 
 delight that was ! One of the women made us 
 a lamp by taking a leaf, rubbing some kind 
 of grease on it and hanging it on the door-post 
 of our house. Its flickering light made the 
 whole scene weird enough to suit the most ro- 
 mantic nature. 
 
 It was Saturday night. I played and sang 
 until hoarse, and then we knelt down and 
 prayed for these people among whom we had 
 come, then I told them to go home and 
 come again to-morrow. But they never 
 moved I I counted seventy- five men, over 
 fifty women and some children. When they 
 made no move to go away I had them put 
 out our cots and I lay down on mine. I had 
 not been undressed for six nights, but another 
 night would not matter. The girls said: 
 "You surely won't try to sleep with this crowd 
 around!" But I said: "Yes, I am through 
 business for to-night; I can't hold my head up 
 any longer. You may entertain them if you 
 want to keep awake, but as for me, I am going 
 to sleep." 
 
 About daylight I opened my eyes, and there 
 
6o ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 stood my friends of the night before as mo- 
 tionless as wooden men and women. "Girls," 
 I called; "are you asleep?" 
 
 "Asleep!" they answered with such disgust 
 in their tones that I laughed and laughed till 
 even the Indians grunted and some of them 
 showed their teeth in a smile. "Do you think 
 we could sleep with these wild Indians stand- 
 ing over us?" 
 
 "Have they really been here all night?" I 
 asked incredulously. 
 
 "Yes, indeed, all this time they have stood 
 over you like that, and here we have sat with 
 our hearts in our throats fearing that they 
 would kill you and scalp us." 
 
 Then and there I preached a sermon to my 
 Christian helpers about trusting in God. 
 "Don't you see," I said, "how God has 
 guarded us every step of the way since we 
 came into this land? He has protected us 
 from snakes and all hurtful things, has raised 
 up friends where we had not looked for them, 
 and now has let these men stand guard over 
 us all night to protect us from we do not know 
 what danger. Where is your faith? We 
 

 Miss Coope's "up-stairs tenement" at Kio Diablo. Native jrrass 
 houses on the left. 
 
 A nearer view of the author's home. The hr&t Hoor is the school- 
 house and mission. Chief Robinson has on a black derby hat. 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 6i 
 
 are on business for the King, and has He not 
 promised to take care of us?" 
 
 "Yes, we know that, but — " 
 
 "You seem to ^but' so much against things 
 that come in your way that the buts are rob- 
 bing you of your needed rest through fear of 
 man. Our God neither slumbers nor sleeps, 
 and we can trust ourselves with Him." My 
 experience for thirteen years along that lonely 
 country road back in my home came to my 
 mind, and I praised God for my training. 
 
 While the girls prepared breakfast I played 
 the organ, for the first words my Indian au- 
 dience said to me after my morning greeting 
 were: "Blanca senora, toca la musica" — 
 "White lady, play the organ;" so they had 
 evidently waited all night for that. I played 
 for some time, then we ate our breakfast and 
 prayed, and then I told the people that this 
 was the Lord's day and God had commanded 
 that we should not work on th^t day. We 
 ourselves did as little work as possible. 
 
 My first call was on the chief, who was very 
 sick. I asked him if he had the Bible which 
 he had bought of the colporter. He said he 
 
62 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 had not; that some Spaniard had taken it to 
 read and had not returned it. He said he was 
 glad that we had come to his village, and I 
 answered, "I have come to live here and teach 
 you and your people about Jesus." 
 
 "Ah, white lady," he said; "that is good, but 
 why did you not come sooner? It is too late 
 for me : I am dying." 
 
 I hardly knew how to answer that poor dy- 
 ing Indian, but I put up a petition to God 
 for wisdom and told him that I had come as 
 soon as I heard about him. That seemed to 
 pacify him somewhat, but here was another 
 question : "Did your people know this a long 
 time ago? Why did they not come? My 
 people have died and did not know; no one 
 came from your land to tell us." 
 
 I was smitten with grief at the backward- 
 ness of our people and could say nothing. 
 What would you who read these words have 
 said? What will you say at the Judgment? 
 
 The chief was so weak after our talk that 
 it seemed as though the end was near. Here 
 I had come to tell this man more about Jesus 
 and his salvation, and he was going to die 
 right before my eyes, in the dark, with only 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 63 
 
 reproaches on his lips that we had not come 
 sooner. I felt a wave of faith sweep over me, 
 and said to the chief's brother: "Oh, let us 
 pray! This man must not die yet; he is not 
 saved! He must be saved, and I believe God 
 will raise him up for that purpose." 
 
 I knelt down by the side of his hammock 
 and told him that I was going to pray to God 
 to heal him so that he might live and hear 
 the gospel of Jesus. He nodded his head 
 feebly. I laid my hands on him and prayed 
 and he broke out in a perspiration. I left 
 him and went to visit others, returning home 
 about five o'clock. We had just started a 
 song service when the chief's wife came run- 
 ning to the place of meeting, crying: "Oh, 
 white lady, the chief is better, is better, is bet- 
 ter!" She said that he slept after I left, for 
 two hours, the first in two weeks, and when 
 he woke he asked for a drink of milk and it 
 had stayed on his stomach ; now he was sleep- 
 ing again. I told the wife to praise God, for 
 He had done this. God surely answered my 
 prayer, for in a few days the chief came to see 
 us and accepted Jesus that very day. 
 
 On Monday I asked the Indians to build 
 
64 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 a wall of bamboos around one corner of our 
 house so that we could have a bedroom, and 
 we made the cots up with clean linen, hung 
 up towels and arranged our belongings as 
 tastefully as we could. When we had fin- 
 ished our new home looked delightful to us, 
 and to the poor Indian women who watched 
 every movement, talking volubly over every 
 arrangement, it must have seemed like a bit 
 of fairyland. They exclaimed over every- 
 thing and touched things as if they were 
 afraid they might be alive. 
 
 After I put up a piece of burlap to form 
 a door they did not seem to think they could 
 go past it, so I called one who seemed very 
 anxious to look and took her inside. I showed 
 her my looking-glass, and she ran toward the 
 others with childish delight to let them see 
 their faces; some were afraid of the self that 
 they saw in the glass. After that exhibition 
 she wanted to go in again, so I took her. This 
 time she noticed the red and yellow cot cover 
 one of the girls had, and taking it off of the 
 cot she put it around her Indian fashion, 
 slipped her feet into a pair of red carpet slip- 
 pers, then taking down my hat and putting it 
 
UP THE ORINOCO 65 
 
 on she walked out again wondrously arrayed. 
 Her companions were delighted. 
 
 I next showed the woman my cot, and she 
 examined the springs and motioned to me to 
 get in, which I did and drew the mosquito 
 netting down. She thought that was fine; 
 and when I got up she got in, and that was 
 still finer! She brought all the women in to 
 see the things from far away, and it was a 
 great day for them. 
 
 There were three brothers who lived eight 
 miles from us who had lived with a Spanish 
 family and learned to read. When they 
 came to see us I gave them a New Testament 
 and had them read to us and we read to 
 them. They were so happy that they spent 
 the day with us, and soon they accepted Jesus, 
 and visited us often to learn more about the 
 way of life. I often found them in the other 
 houses talking of Christ and His love for all 
 men. 
 
 We had a service every afternoon, as that 
 seemed the best time to reach the people. 
 The Indians go to bed early and rise early 
 as a rule. They stopped work about three 
 o'clock, and we had our service from four to 
 
66 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 six usually and retired at sundown. This was 
 really the most practical thing to do, for the 
 mosquitoes came out in droves about that time 
 and we were glad to get under the shelter of 
 our nets. The netting did not shelter us from 
 the snakes in the roof nor from the larger ones 
 that sometimes came into our houses ; but God 
 protected us and we were never bitten. 
 Every morning we visited each house in the 
 village, talking, reading, praying and sing- 
 ing, and so, with the afternoon services and 
 the morning round of visits, we kept in touch 
 with both the men and women in a public way 
 and in their home life. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 WORK ENDED IN VENEZUELA 
 
 FOR four months we lived in San Isidro. 
 The chief sent men to the woods to cut 
 logs to build us a house, and we picked out a 
 lot high and dry and were planning to settle, 
 when the chief became ill. He was appar- 
 ently not seriously sick and was only a few 
 days in bed. I called on him and talked of 
 Jesus, and he seemed cheerful and did not 
 speak of dying until the last day, when I said 
 to him: "You are not going to leave us so 
 quickly, are you?" and he replied; *^Oh, no, 
 sister, but if I do I shall go to Jesus. He has 
 forgiven my sins and I am glad." 
 
 After talking with him I visited other 
 houses, finding several sick, and then went 
 home. Soon the wife of the chief's sister 
 came running to me crying: "The chief is 
 dead ; he has gone to Jesus 1" I could scarcely 
 believe the news and went at once to the 
 
 (^1 
 
68 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 house. He had died two hours after I left 
 him. His body was rolled in a sheet and laid 
 in his hammock, with his hat, sandals and gun 
 laid on top. Every one was weeping. I 
 went to the widow and put my arm around 
 her and wept with her. I could only say, 
 *^Gone to Jesus 1" and she nodded understand- 
 ingly. 
 
 Two other persons died that same week, 
 and a fear came upon the rest that some dis- 
 ease was going to carry them all off. After 
 four days of mourning, weird singing and 
 dancing around the chief's body, they carried 
 it eight miles away to bury it. I went to the 
 funeral. After that was over they burned the 
 chief's house and many other houses, and the 
 men came to tell me that they were going to 
 the mountains; they had no chief, and until 
 they appointed a new chief they would not 
 live together again, and never on that spot, for 
 death was there and they must go. 
 
 "I will go with you," I said; "for I don't 
 want to live here without you all. I have 
 come to teach you and I will stay." 
 
 "Oh, no, white lady, you go back to your 
 people I The mountains are no place for 
 
WORK ENDED 69 
 
 you; in the rainy season there is much sick- 
 ness. We are glad you came to tell us about 
 Jesus, and will not forget, but we are going 
 far, far away." 
 
 About that time an old man who had traded 
 for years along that territory, going by mule- 
 back with a pack of cloth, tobacco, etc., came 
 to the village and saw the condition of things 
 and talked with me. He said that this break- 
 ing up was their custom, and he showed me 
 the charred logs of a once large village where 
 this tribe had lived. There had been small- 
 pox, many had died, and wisely they had 
 burned the houses and the dead to stop the 
 disease. Then they had scattered, and about 
 eight years ago had built this present village 
 of about thirty houses, "which they will now 
 desert," he said, "and live here and there scat- 
 tered until they rally around a man in confi- 
 dence to make him their chief." 
 
 I have not spoken of these traders, but there 
 had been several of them at the village while 
 we had been there, and there were some inci- 
 dents of our work that were brought about 
 by their coming. They always brought rum 
 and tobacco, and we had witnessed several 
 
70 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 sprees as the result of their visits. They were 
 really thieves, for they robbed the poor In- 
 dians shamefully. One of the industries of 
 the village v^as the raising of cassava. The 
 men cultivated it and the women grated, 
 pressed and dried it, then made it into cakes, 
 which were sold for ten cents apiece in the 
 city. They made a great many daily, and 
 when the traders did not come to rob them 
 in exchange for liquor and tobacco, the men 
 took the cakes overland on the backs of their 
 donkeys and sent them by boat to the city. 
 
 But often five or six men would come up 
 with a load of rum and give the Indians 
 enough to make them drunk, when they would 
 take the cakes in "payment" for the liquor. 
 That night two or three of the men would go 
 off with a load of cakes, and the next morn- 
 ing when the Indians were sober there would 
 be a reckoning, when the traders would claim 
 that they had not been paid or paid enough, 
 and then more cakes had to be made to pay 
 their "debts." In order to coax them to do 
 this the traders would give them more liquor, 
 thus robbing them wholesale. The chief was 
 wise and did not trade with them, and he and 
 
WORK ENDED 71 
 
 some of the others told me about the robbery 
 that went on. I told them that the next time 
 a band of traders came the men must come to 
 my house and not take any of the ^'treats" of 
 rum offered to them. 
 
 One afternoon a party came up and there 
 was a great display of bottles. I sent one of 
 the men to call all the village to my house 
 and we kept them until sundown. During 
 that meeting two of the Spanish traders came 
 in, one with his machete, a long sword-like 
 knife, and the other with a revolver in his 
 belt. One sat behind me, the other sat in 
 front. I spoke to them and they turned their 
 heads. The girls, always fearful, said: "Miss 
 Coope, let the Indians go. These men are up 
 to something bad; the one behind you will 
 stick his knife into you." 
 
 "Oh, no, he won't;'' I answered. "You 
 pray and trust God and He will keep us from 
 harm." 
 
 This conversation went on while I was find- 
 ing another hymn, and we started to sing 
 "Down at the Cross." As we sang the man 
 in front of me took out his revolver and 
 pointed it only about a foot from my face. 
 
72 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 I heard the girls exclaim, but I sang on and 
 looked at him, and then one of the Indians, 
 who, thank God, was sober, as were all the 
 rest of them, sprang at the man and struck 
 his arm from my face, while another caught 
 him by the scrufif of the neck. They made 
 him fire his revolver six times into the air and 
 held him while he unloaded all his ammuni- 
 tion, and while this was going on the man 
 with the machete slipped away. The service 
 went on, and every man of the village except 
 the two who were taking care of the would-be 
 murderer stayed until sunset, when they 
 quietly marched single-file to their own 
 homes. There was no spree that night, and 
 the traders, defeated, left early the next morn- 
 ing, threatening to kill us because we had pre- 
 vented the Indians from buying their rum. 
 But I rejoiced in the words of David: 
 
 "In God have I put my trust, I will not be 
 afraid; 
 What can man do unto me?" 
 
 I was threatened with death another time, 
 and it came about in this way. A- Spaniard 
 
WORK ENDED 73 
 
 came to the village with a woman to whom 
 he was not married. He could read, and I 
 talked to him of Jesus and read to him and 
 gave him a Testament. He went to the home 
 where they were staying for a few days, and 
 God's Spirit took such hold of him that he 
 could not sleep. He got up and read the 
 New Testament and was convicted of sin. 
 He told the woman that he was a sinner, and 
 God would punish him and her too ; that they 
 must separate; he would send her home in the 
 morning. She vowed that she would kill me, 
 as I had made all the trouble, and she started 
 out with that intention. Her countenance 
 was fierce as she entered my house, but I 
 smiled, and as we were at family worship I 
 gave her a seat and asked her if she could 
 read, and as she said she could I gave her a 
 Testament. She held the book, but kept 
 looking at me, so, wondering if she really 
 could read, I asked her to read a verse. She 
 did it, and from that moment her attention 
 seemed riveted to the book. Then as we 
 were about to pray I told her so in order that 
 she might understand our next move, but she 
 began at once to talk about herself. She said 
 
74 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 that she was going to the city; that "her man'' 
 was sending her back; and she began to cry. 
 
 "Why, is he not your husband?" I asked. 
 
 "No," she answered; "and it is all through 
 reading that book that he has turned against 
 me." 
 
 I saw that here was my "woman at the 
 well" who needed the water of life, and I 
 spent the morning talking, reading and pray- 
 ing with her, letting my usual visiting pass 
 for that time. She confessed that she had 
 come there to kill me, but added: "I can't do 
 it, for you are a good woman. I am bad, but 
 I will read this book and pray to God to help 
 me." She left in peace. The man remained 
 a few days longer, then went farther into the 
 interior, carrying his Testament with him. 
 Truly the entrance of God's Word giveth 
 light! 
 
 The very day that I was planning to leave 
 for the city this man returned to the village. 
 That morning before daybreak I had prayed 
 very definitely, "Lord, what shall I do?" and 
 this scripture came forcibly to me: "Rise, 
 and enter into the city, and it shall be told 
 thee what thou must do." I just thanked the 
 
WORK ENDED 75 
 
 Lord, for with that scripture there came into 
 me a "Go ye" spirit, and soon after I rose, this 
 man went by the house. I called him and 
 told him that I was going to leave and asked 
 him if he could get word to the man with the 
 ox-wagons to come and take my things and he 
 said that he would. We had a long talk, 
 and he showed that he was very happy in his 
 new life and said that he read the Testament 
 daily. 
 
 Another conversion made glad our hearts 
 during our stay in the village. A young 
 Spaniard of intelligence called on us. He 
 had come to buy sugar and cakes from the 
 chief and was told that there was a white lady 
 in the village. He said that he could hardly 
 believe it and he came to see if it were true. 
 I told him that our reason for coming was to 
 teach the Indians about Jesus, and he seemed 
 to think that we were wasting our time. I 
 quoted Jesus' command: "Go ye into all the 
 world;" adding that this was a part of the 
 "all," and that we had come at His command 
 and because we loved Him. That opened the 
 way to ask the young man about his own soul's 
 condition and I gave him a Spanish Testa- 
 
76 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 ment. He was glad to get a new book and sat 
 there and began to read it at once. 
 
 This young man lived about sixteen miles 
 from the village with his father and mother, 
 two sisters and a little brother, and he an- 
 nounced that he would bring them to see me. 
 The following Sunday the father and mother 
 came, riding in style mule-back. They 
 brought milk and fresh meat and spent the 
 day with us, and we told them of Jesus. 
 They invited me to their home, but as I had 
 no mule, and there were several rivers to ford, 
 I never was able to visit them. 
 
 The young man came to see us twice a 
 week, however, eager to read and to question 
 about the great things of salvation. The fa- 
 ther was worried, asking when he came over 
 one day: ^Will any one go crazy from read- 
 ing God's Book? My son tells my family so 
 much about the Book that you are teaching 
 him that I am afraid they will all b£ crazy. 
 They sit up all night to read and talk." I 
 told him that it would never make them crazy 
 if they obeyed what they read, but if they dis- 
 obeyed when they knew the truth it might 
 make them crazy. I urged him to pray to 
 
WORK ENDED 77 
 
 God in Jesus' name to help him and all of 
 them to believe what they read and to obey 
 it, and they would be made new creatures by 
 the power of God coming into their hearts. 
 
 I was not able to stay to see the results of 
 this preaching of Christ; but I believed that 
 God would take care of the seed sown in their 
 hearts, and having given a testimony there 
 among the Indians and seen the results, I 
 could leave with the consciousness that I had 
 done what I could and was ready now to go 
 on to another field if it was God's will. 
 
 Once more we packed up our belongings, 
 said good-by to those whom we had lived 
 among for four months, and started toward 
 the river again. On our return trip we 
 stopped at the home of the sick man on the 
 cattle ranch where we had spent the night on 
 our way up, swinging our hammocks in the 
 porch. The man was much better and walk- 
 ing around. We told him what God had 
 done for the Indian chief of San Isidro and 
 he asked us questions about heaven. I gave 
 the family a New Testament that they could 
 read for themselves, and they gave us milk 
 and fruit. We did not spend a night at the 
 
78 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 landing-place, as the boat arrived almost im- 
 mediately and we left. The boat was larger 
 than the one we came up on, so that we slept 
 on it even though there was not much room. 
 It suited the girls better than lying on the 
 beach and they were able to sleep. 
 
 On my arrival at Bolivar City I found a 
 quantity of mail waiting which the colporter 
 had sent by some Indians that he knew lived 
 in San Isidro. In one of my letters was a 
 clipping from a religious paper about a 
 woman missionary in Colon, Republic of 
 Panama, who was going to the Panamanians, 
 asking prayers for her. On the margin of the 
 paper the sender had written : "This may be 
 of interest to you." I wrote at once to the 
 missionary and also made preparations to go 
 back to Barbadoes, for my girls were not will- 
 ing to go through any more experiences 
 among Indians. We left Bolivar City May 
 1st, 1909, having been in Venezuela exactly six 
 months. I went first to Trinidad, where I la- 
 bored two months in the Christian Mission, 
 and then returned to Barbadoes. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 MY ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 
 
 AFTER two months at Barbadoes I started 
 for the Isthmus of Panama, and not hav- 
 ing received any answer to my letter to the 
 missionary inquiring about the Panamanians, 
 I wrote to some of the members of the Chris- 
 tian Mission inquiring if they knew of any 
 Indians around there to whom the gospel had 
 not been preached, and they replied that they 
 had seen some walking along the streets of 
 Colon, barefoot and poor looking, who evi- 
 dently had not been reached by any mission- 
 ary. 
 
 When I reached Colon I found that the 
 woman to whom I had first written had been 
 sent to Jamaica for her health, which prob- 
 ably accounted for my not hearing from her. 
 Inquiring further, I found a Methodist min- 
 ister in Panama City who said that he had 
 had six men in his house from the San Bias 
 
 79 , 
 
8o ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 coast, one a chief and the other an ex-chief, 
 who had pleaded with him to send a teacher 
 to them, a woman, because no white man was 
 allowed to stay on their islands over night. 
 The ex-chief, John Davis, had left his boy 
 of eleven with the minister, and as he brought 
 him to me I spoke to my first San Bias Indian. 
 
 At last I had found Indians who wanted a 
 teacher, and more than that a woman teacher! 
 I was ready to go at once, but there was still 
 a delay. I had difficulty in getting a passage 
 on any of the traders' vessels. Their plea was 
 that their boats were not fitted for passengers. 
 One man said that the missionaries would 
 spoil his trade. 
 
 ^^Spoil your trade I" I exclaimed. "We are 
 not traders; what could we do to hurt your 
 trade?" As he did not answer I added: "Of 
 course if you sell rum to the Indians I shall 
 certainly do my best to spoil that trade." 
 
 He made no answer again, because he was 
 guilty. He took it by barrels to sell to those 
 people. That trade has been stopped now, 
 however, I am thankful to say. 
 
 I finally secured passage to Nombre-de- 
 
ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 8i 
 
 Dios on the American tug that went there 
 daily for sand for the foundation of the Gatun 
 Locks. While waiting there for further 
 transportation I preached Jesus and scattered 
 tracts to a few who could read. This roused 
 the ire of the Roman Catholic priest, who 
 stood afar off one day when I was holding an 
 open-air meeting. Some of his flock were in 
 danger! He took the tracts and tore them up, 
 scattering them along the street 
 
 At the end of a fortnight a small gasoline 
 launch going up the coast stopped at Nombre- 
 de-Dios and I secured passage on it. When 
 the priest found that I, a Protestant, was go- 
 ing to the Indians with that dreadful book, 
 the Bible, going where some of his brethren 
 had tried in vain to enter, he was furious. 
 He tried to persuade the captain not to take 
 me, but as my things were already aboard the 
 launch and several were there to see me off, 
 I said to the captain: "You'd better not touch 
 my baggage! Those people around us are 
 Americans; and Americans can do things!" 
 
 He laughed and said: "Well, the padre does 
 not want you to go up to the Indians." 
 
82 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 "Never mind the padre;" I said decidedly. 
 "I am going up on your launch to those peo- 
 ple because God wants me to!" 
 
 There was much palavering between him 
 and the priest, but I kept quiet and prayed, 
 going aboard the launch and taking my seat 
 next to the priest because there was no other 
 place to sit. Still the boat did not go ; they 
 were waiting for me to change my mind. 
 But there was no prospect of that! The 
 Americans who had watched the proceedings 
 thus far came up to the launch and said: "So 
 you are going!" 
 
 "Yes, Fm off." 
 
 "It really doesn't seem safe:" "Look out for 
 that man ; he is very angry." "That priest will 
 harm you if he can." These were some of the 
 comments ; but as they were in English, which 
 the priest did not understand, he did not get 
 their meaning unless he judged by actions and 
 looks; while as for me, my mind was made 
 up and there was no turning back, whatever 
 the danger might be. Finally they started, 
 with me on board! 
 
 We stopped at several small villages on 
 the mainland and slept that night on the 
 
ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 83 
 
 launch. The next forenoon we arrived in 
 the vicinity of two islands near the mouth of 
 Rio Diablo, the Devil River, in the Depart- 
 ment of Colon. The chief of the smaller 
 island came on board the launch. He could 
 speak a little English and asked me where I 
 was going. I told him to Mona, which is 
 about forty miles farther west in the Depart- 
 ment of Panama. 
 
 "Why will you not stay here and teach us? 
 We want to learn English ;" he said. 
 
 "But you have the priests here;" I reminded 
 him. 
 
 He said that the priests did no good, and 
 yet he bowed to my fellow-passenger and 
 kissed his hand. He said that the priests had 
 been on the island for several years, but none 
 of their children could read or write; they 
 only taught them to pray to the saints. 
 
 I told this chief that John Davis wanted me 
 to come to Mona, and I asked him about the 
 chief on the other island as we lay anchored 
 in the bay between the two islands. He said 
 that he was his nephew, that his name was 
 Charles J. Robinson, and that he was away 
 on the mainland working on his plantation. 
 
84 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 so I did not meet him. The chief with whom 
 I talked was Joe Harding. 
 
 The priest who had come up the coast thus 
 far with us remained at Harding's Island, but 
 he engaged two Indian men to go on with us to 
 Mona, giving them rifles from a box of twelve 
 which he had with him. The last words 
 which he said to them as he rowed away from 
 the launch were: *Telear por mi," "Fight 
 for me," and some of the men said: *^These 
 Indians will kill you ;" telling me what they 
 had heard him say. I said: "Never mind; I 
 trust in God and He will keep me safely." 
 The captain swore and said that I was going 
 to get him into trouble ; he wished he had not 
 brought me. 
 
 We left the bay in the afternoon and ar- 
 rived at Mona about five o'clock the same 
 day. The Indians of course got a boat and 
 were taken to shore before I was, and as soon 
 as I could get a man that understood Spanish 
 or English — I used either language as the case 
 demanded — I inquired for John Davis. One 
 of the men pointed him out on the beach and 
 rowed me to him. As John could speak good 
 English we were soon chatting eagerly. I 
 
ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 85 
 
 gave him the photograph of his son which 
 the Methodist minister in Panama had sent 
 by me, and he seemed glad to see it and asked 
 about him. 
 
 While John Davis and I were talking the 
 two Indians who came up on the launch had 
 called the people into the chief's house and 
 we were summoned to come there too. There 
 was a great crowd; it looked as though the 
 whole island was there. I was seated by the 
 side of the chief, while John Davis, being an 
 ex-chief — now second chief — sat at my left. 
 The crowd was in front of us, the two messen- 
 gers, each with a rifle, at the front looking 
 very important and trying to impress me with 
 their importance. But I was very busy look- 
 ing at the women and babies and refused to 
 be properly impressed. There seemed to be 
 an endless chain of women and girls, each 
 with a baby on her hip. 
 
 When everybody came to order John Davis 
 spoke. He told the chief that I had come to 
 teach them the Bible and how to read and 
 write in English, as they wanted that lan- 
 guage. With every few words the chief 
 grunted, as did everybody after him, and 
 
86 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 finally the tension was getting so great that 
 I grunted too and felt better! I do not know 
 whether the whole story was told, for it seemed 
 to me that in the middle of it there was a sud- 
 den break, the two men jumping to their feet 
 and crying: "Pelear! pelear! pelear!" Every 
 one took up the cry, and I felt like doing the 
 same, so great was the excitement, only I felt 
 that I must watch proceedings, so I sat still, 
 as did also the two chiefs. When the con- 
 fusion stopped I asked John what it all meant. 
 
 "Oh, white lady;" he said, "I am sorry, but 
 you cannot stay here. The padre has told 
 these two men that you are a bad woman and 
 we must not let you stay." 
 
 I had no thought of being sent away in this 
 peremptory fashion without at least a protest. 
 I understood the influence at work and how 
 these simple-minded people had been influ- 
 enced against me, but I would not go without 
 a plea for them to hear me, so I asked John 
 Davis if he could not quiet the people so that 
 they would listen to what he had to say about 
 me. The Indians were gathered in clusters 
 and were all talking at once, here, there, and 
 yonder. It was very interesting and exciting. 
 
ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 87 
 
 The women were talking too, of course, though 
 what their attitude was I did not find out 
 until later. 
 
 While waiting for the decision I was rest- 
 ful regarding the whole matter and prayed 
 to God to overrule. Finally John said : "You 
 had better go! These two men will kill you 
 if you do not." 
 
 He had hardly spoken the words when one 
 of the willing-to-be murderers caught me by 
 the wrist and pulled me from my seat and 
 pushed me forward. Then I found out with- 
 out any questioning what the women's atti- 
 tude toward me was. They screamed when 
 I passed them, pulled the children out of my 
 way as if I would contaminate them, spit at 
 me and made faces. I could not help think- 
 ing of the way many so-called Christians treat 
 a woman of the street, shrinking from even 
 the touch of her clothing. These Indian 
 women are made up of the same sinful tend- 
 encies and can show them when they are 
 under provocation. They were not going to 
 be contaminated by the touch of such a one 
 as I! 
 
 In the midst of all this turmoil, instead of 
 
88 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 having fear I was very conscious of the pres- 
 ence of God, and said to myself : *^This must 
 be one of the ^all things' that I can bear 
 through Jesus' help. I did not understand, 
 but I could trust God and I did. 
 
 As the man who was leading me put me into 
 the canoe he was so excited that he tipped it 
 in such a way that it filled half full of water, 
 so there I sat up to my shoe-tops in water. 
 As there was no accommodation on the launch 
 except to sit in one place day and night, I 
 could do nothing but sit still and let my cloth- 
 ing dry as it could. But there are worse 
 things than that, and I did not catch cold or 
 have the fever, as some of the crew said I 
 would. The captain frankly said he hoped I 
 would die from the exposure; but the sinner's 
 hopes are vain. My hope was in God, and 
 He did not fail me. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 BACK TO COLON 
 
 THE launch which had brought me thus 
 far had to go up the coast three days' 
 journey, and as there was no other boat by 
 which I could return to Colon I had to go on 
 also. When I went aboard at Nombre-de- 
 Dios I had carried only a little luncheon in 
 my bag, for I expected to be at my destination 
 in a few hours, but it took the better part of 
 two days. The second day I had asked for 
 some of the rice and freshly caught fish that 
 the crew were cooking only a few feet from 
 me, but they would neither give nor sell any 
 of the food, so I was hungry yet not suffering. 
 I had part of what my Father had promised 
 me to keep up my strength, namely, water, 
 so I drank that and thanked Him, feeling sure 
 that the bread would come later, because God 
 has said: *^His bread shall be given him; his 
 waters shall be sure." Not having had the 
 
 89 
 
90 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 privilege of unloading any of my boxes from 
 the launch when we stopped at Mono ; and the 
 chief and John Davis not having had time to 
 entertain me even if they had felt so disposed, 
 I had no food that day or that night. But 
 "He giveth unto His beloved sleep," so I had 
 that rest and refreshment. We went on all 
 the next day, coming to a large island toward 
 evening, and I had nothing to eat that day 
 either. 
 
 As the launch stopped in the bay I spoke 
 to some of the Indians and found a few who 
 could understand English a little. I told 
 them that I would like to see the chief, but 
 they said it was too near sundown; that no 
 foreigner was allowed on shore when the sun 
 set. I promised that I would come back as 
 quickly as possible, so they took me to the 
 chief's house. He received me very gra- 
 ciously, bowing low, and I bowed slightly 
 and was made to take a seat of honor at his 
 right. By means of several of the chief's men, 
 some of whom understood a little English 
 and some a little Spanish, I made them under- 
 stand that I wanted to come and start a school 
 among them. They talked together volubly 
 
BACK TO COLON 91 
 
 for a time and finally told me that they did 
 not want a school. They were Indians, and 
 no Indians learned to read or write; it was 
 not good. Then with a very gracious bow 
 from the chief I knew that I was dismissed, 
 and I turned to go to the launch, being es- 
 corted by a curious crowd. The women cen- 
 tered their attention on my clothes, with an 
 interest quite similar, only differently ex- 
 pressed, to that of women of more enlightened 
 countries when something new comes before 
 them. They felt the texture of my garments, 
 and touched my hat and my hair and my shoes 
 in such a way that I exclaimed: *'Oh, vain 
 woman, everywhere the samel Color does 
 not change the natural curiosity and vanity." 
 The men on the launch had somehow man- 
 aged to get some rum. I knew that the water 
 tank was empty, and I asked one of the black 
 men to have it filled. He turned to another 
 man more intoxicated than himself, who said 
 in a maudlin way: "We drink rum; we don't 
 drink water." I said nothing, but tried an- 
 other man, who finally put in about a pailful. 
 That was far better than none and I thanked 
 the Lord for it. I asked the captain to let 
 
92 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 me get a box that had food in it from the hold, 
 but he refused to open it up, saying I could 
 "go to '' 
 
 "Oh, no, thank you ;" I replied ; "I am going 
 to heaven." 
 
 The brains of the crew were so befuddled 
 with drink that instead of anchoring for the 
 night they determined to sail out by moon- 
 rise. They said that through me they had 
 lost so much time that they must now make 
 it up! We had not sailed more than half an 
 hour before the boat ran into a sand-bank; 
 and I praised the Lord, for I felt that it was 
 a deliverance from something worse, as the 
 crew were all so intoxicated. 
 
 We lay quite still that night, and the next 
 morning many Indians came with ropes in 
 their canoes to help pull the launch off of the 
 bank. But in order to get the boat off they 
 had to lighten it by opening the hold and tak- 
 ing out the things, and in this way I was able 
 to secure one of my boxes that had food in it! 
 I slid it under the seat and covered it with my 
 dress. When we were off the bank and they 
 were refilling the hold, I opened up my box 
 and had a good meal of condensed milk and 
 
BACK TO COLON 93 
 
 soda crackers. They tasted delicious, and I 
 found that I was certainly hungry. But the 
 dear Lord had kept me from the gnawings 
 that hunger brings. I had cocoa also in the 
 box, and I asked the cook to let me have some 
 boiling water, but he refused me. I did not 
 mind very much; I was getting used to being 
 refused. 
 
 We went on our journey quickly that day, 
 arriving at Port-o-Baldia before sunset, and 
 on the following morning leaving there on 
 our return trip. Four passengers for Colon 
 were taken on, two being policemen and one 
 a prisoner. Their provisions ran short and 
 they eyed my box of soda crackers and wanted 
 to buy. But I was glad to heap coals of fire 
 on their heads, and it was a real delight to see 
 the change that came over many of them when 
 I shared the crackers and gave with them a 
 message of love for Jesus' sake. 
 
 When we arrived at Rio Diablo the padre 
 who had sent the two Indians up the coast 
 with me came aboard the launch ; he was go- 
 ing to Colon. We only stayed in the bay a 
 little while, and I sat in the boat and looked 
 at the two houses built by the padres and the 
 
94 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 Indians, little dreaming that in both of them 
 there would some day be Bible schools and 
 that I would write this story in the room in 
 one of the houses which the padre used for his 
 bedroom. It never entered my thoughts that 
 the houses built by the enemies of the truth 
 would one day be under my control and be 
 used for spreading God's truth; but we walk 
 by faith, not seeing the path ahead but trust- 
 ing all to our Heavenly Father. I did have 
 faith that I should come back there again, 
 but God in bringing me back has done the 
 "exceeding abundantly" above all that I asked 
 or thought. 
 
 We had not sailed more than three hours, 
 cramped up in the launch so closely that our 
 knees touched, when the padre spoke to me. 
 I had been sitting all this time with my Bible 
 in English and Spanish open on my lap, and 
 the priest could not help seeing it and reading 
 it if he cared to. 
 
 "Do you speak Spanish?" he asked, and I 
 replied courteously: "Yes, sir," not of course 
 using the title "father." 
 
 Then he opened the battery of his abuse. 
 He said that I was no good; that I had no 
 
BACK TO COLON 95 
 
 faith, no religion ; that I did not eat the body 
 of the Lord Jesus, so I had no life. He said 
 that I had no business to come up to the In- 
 dians ; that he and his associates had come to 
 give them the true religion and that I must 
 not interfere. He was so excited, so angry 
 evidently to find me alive after my trip up 
 the coast, that he went over and over his state- 
 ments and denunciations, not knowing how to 
 stop. 
 
 Finally I asked the priest if he had fin- 
 ished ; that if he had I had something to say ; 
 and then I lifted up my heart to God in prayer 
 to help me to speak wisely, to wield the Sword 
 of the Spirit so that my listener might feel 
 its power. Holding the Book out toward him, 
 I said: "Sir, I come to these Indians to teach 
 them to read God's Word, whose entrance 
 bringeth light." As I held it out I gripped 
 it tightly, fearing that he would lift his hand 
 to throw it into the water. He did throw out 
 his hand toward it, exclaiming scornfully, 
 "El Protestante!" 
 
 "Yes;" I said, "this Book does protest! It 
 protests against many of the doctrines of your 
 Church. It forbids the making and worship- 
 
96 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 ing of graven images. You lift up the Vir- 
 gin, the Pope, scapulars, rosaries, holy water 
 and a wafer god. We preach Jesus Christ, 
 the Saviour of the whole world. Jesus him- 
 self said: ^I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
 will draw all men unto Myself.' He did not 
 say that His Mother would do this, or Saint 
 Peter or Saint John. They are dead, but 
 Jesus is alive forevermore. His blood 
 cleanseth from all sin. He says: *I am the 
 way and the truth and the life : no one cometh 
 unto the Father but by Me.' 
 
 "Now, sir, if you would read God's Word 
 and obey it you would have this life in you. 
 You say that I do not eat the body of Jesus. 
 It is true that I do not put a wafer in my 
 mouth, nor let any man deceive me by doing 
 it, and then call that a god. It may be your 
 god, but my God is in heaven, and by faith 
 in the atoning blood of Jesus shed on the cross 
 for me I have the life of God now in my soul. 
 And this news is too good to keep to myself; 
 I have for years been telling to Englishmen, 
 Spaniards and Indians that Jesus only can 
 save. No Church, no creed, no ceremony, 
 no saint, no water, no wafer, can do it; it is 
 
BACK TO COLON 97 
 
 Jesus only. I came to these Indians to tell 
 them this, and you have done your Best to 
 prevent me. But, sir, mark my words, be- 
 cause I believe God I shall be back here again, 
 with this Book, to teach this people. I shall 
 be in and you will be out!" Truly this was 
 a prophetic utterance, for it has been fulfilled 
 to the letter, with more added. Now I am 
 in and he is out. 
 
 The padre squirmed and twisted, but there 
 was no chance to get away. He did stand up 
 as if to pass me, and I would have had to move 
 sideways in order to let him, but I did not; I 
 stood up too, and with the Word of God open 
 in my hand I quoted passage after passage. 
 I felt a special unction in my soul; this was 
 my hour to glorify God, to lift up Jesus to this 
 man; he had a chance to receive the light if 
 he would. He tried to get by me to go to 
 the hold, but I kept on quoting Scripture to 
 him, and when he did sidle by me and peer 
 down into the dark hole as if very anxious 
 about his luggage, I followed and talked 
 earnestly. My soul seemed to be on fire for 
 God, and I gave him a clear, straight exhor- 
 tation; he could not get away from it. I 
 
98 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 heard that he afterward returned to Spain 
 and died there. God's word does not return 
 to Him void, so that the seed sown on that 
 launch may have borne fruit to his saving; 
 I do not know. 
 
 I told the padre that I should report his 
 treatment of me to the President of Panama, 
 and I did when I reached the city, and had 
 his sympathy. I did not go to him for sym- 
 pathy, however, but to get a letter as an offi- 
 cial passport which would let me go into any 
 part of the Republic in safety. The Presi- 
 dent — who is now dead — said that the padre 
 did not do right in threatening me and send- 
 ing the men to thwart my plans, and that he 
 would be glad to give me a letter of com- 
 mendation, but that I needed no passport; the 
 Republic was free. 
 
 "I know that," I replied, "but some other 
 people do not seem to know the rights and 
 privileges that belong to a free republic, and 
 I want a letter to teach them." 
 
 He smiled and said: "Brave little woman 1 
 But why do you want to go among the In- 
 dians? They are very treacherous; I would 
 not go up there for anything." 
 
BACK TO COLON 99 
 
 "I want to go and tell them of Jesus who 
 died for them," I answered; and though I 
 had told him the whole story of my desire to 
 teach the Indians, he seemed so interested that 
 it had to be re-told. Then I preached 
 Jesus to him and told him how God's Word 
 is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. 
 "We all need it. You need it as President in 
 guiding the affairs of this Republic. God 
 wants to save you ; if you read His Word and 
 obey it He will save you now." 
 
 He seemed interested, and I just praised 
 God for this privilege of being brought be- 
 fore rulers for the truth's sake. He told me 
 that if a certain official would write such a 
 letter as I wanted he would sign it, and I was 
 ushered into the presence of one of Rome's 
 emissaries, I felt sure. The President sent 
 one of his servants to tell this important per- 
 son my errand, so I was invited to tell him 
 the whole story. 
 
 "Do you not know," he said as I finished, 
 "that the education of Panama is under the 
 Roman Catholic Bishop?" 
 
 "Oh, then I see!" This was an explanation 
 in a few words of a power I had to combat. 
 
loo ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 *Tes, and if you want a letter you must go 
 to him." 
 
 *^Indeed! Then Rome has its foot on the 
 neck of the Panama Republic so that it is not 
 free after all!" 
 
 ^'Religiously, no. The religion of Panama 
 is Roman Catholic." 
 
 ^Then do you think the Bishop would give 
 me a letter?" 
 
 ^^No." 
 
 *Then why do you send me to a man who 
 you know will refuse my request when it is 
 in your power to grant it, and the President 
 said that he would indorse the letter if you 
 wrote it?" 
 
 I felt that it was a plan on the part of both 
 to put me off, but it gave me an opportunity 
 to speak to them about Jesus and to magnify 
 the Word of God. 
 
 "We will neither help you nor hinder you 
 officially," was his answer. "If you want to 
 go to the Indians you must fight your way 
 through." 
 
 "Thank you, sir, I will," I replied; "but I 
 won't carry rifles or pistols, but the Sword 
 of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." 
 
Chief Robinson's House, Open door leads to store. The Ameri- 
 can as well as the Panama flag forms part of the decoratioDS. 
 
 The "San Bias" — the Panama government steamer which piys up 
 and down the north coast. 
 
BACK TO COLON loi 
 
 I left feeling encouraged in God, rejoicing 
 that I had unloaded another cargo of heavenly 
 ammunition for Him. 
 
 When I went to the home of the Methodist 
 minister who had given me the directions for 
 my journey he was surprised to see me. He 
 supposed that I was all settled down in my 
 new home, and was planning to send Philip 
 back, as he and his family expected to return 
 to the States in a few months. I told him 
 that I had learned some very valuable lessons 
 that I was going to use as stepping-stones to 
 greater victories for God. He did not think 
 it would be wise or worth while to try to go 
 back while ihat priest was there to influence 
 the Indians, but I assured him that the priest 
 was going to be put out and I was going to 
 have the privilege of going in; I felt that God 
 was going to do it. 
 
 After laboring for a few months with the 
 Christian Mission (colored) on the Isthmus, 
 I received an invitation to go to a party of 
 missionaries in Mexico, so I waited on the 
 Lord for the money for the journey if He 
 wanted me to go. I did not give up hopes of 
 returning to San Bias, but the way surely was 
 
I02 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 not open at present, so I started for Mexico 
 in August, 191 1 ; labored there four months, 
 and then went on to California, where I stayed 
 two months with friends in Los Angeles, in 
 all my travels never once mentioning money 
 to any one; my Father supplied every need. 
 
 While in the home of two young mission- 
 aries who were under a Board I learned many 
 valuable lessons, and I had to say to them: 
 "Truly the way of faith is the best." Many 
 times when things ran short they had to hope 
 that the Board would send their money on 
 time so that they would not be too much in- 
 convenienced. They wondered how I got 
 along, not being under a Board. "Oh," I 
 said, "I am not under; I am on top, for *un- 
 derneath are the Everlasting Arms.' " 
 
 In January, 191 2, I sailed to San Francisco, 
 God providing the means in the same way 
 that he had done for years, "according to 
 your faith." Faith is not air; I did not walk 
 on air, but on the promises of God, and I have 
 not yet walked to the end of any one of them. 
 
 I visited friends and cousins in different 
 States, speaking in many churches and mis- 
 sions of God's love and leading, and requesting 
 
BACK TO COLON 103 
 
 prayers of faith for the entrance into the San 
 Bias territory on my return to the Isthmus. 
 I believed that God wanted me there and that 
 He would in His own good time open the way. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AT RIO DIABLO 
 
 1 STAYED ten months in the States, visit- 
 ing Canada by way of the wonderful Ni- 
 agara Fall?, which I had longed to see from 
 my childhood days. Father had planned to 
 take mother and me to see them, but his plans 
 failed. But my Heavenly Father often gives 
 me the desires of my heart, even as He has 
 promised to do to all of His children if they 
 delight in Him. All through my trip I met 
 God's chosen ones, had my faith strengthened 
 by their faith ; and the change of air, scenery 
 and food all helped to build me up, so that I 
 started out again with renewed vigor. 
 
 Again I sailed by the West Indian passage, 
 stopping off at several of the islands, telling 
 how God had led me and asking all the rich 
 in faith to pray, reminding them of Jesus' 
 words: "All things whatsoever ye pray and 
 
 104 
 
AT RIO DIABLO 105 
 
 ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
 shall have them,'* Mark 11:24. 
 
 Sailing for the Isthmus, I landed in Colon 
 August 24th, 19 1 2, having been away just two 
 years, during all of which time I had not 
 ceased to believe that a door would be opened 
 to the Indians. Remembering the two islands 
 at the mouth of Rio Diablo, where I had 
 stopped when I went by launch to Mona, and 
 the wish of Joe Harding, the chief of the 
 smaller island, to have me stay there and 
 teach, I decided, if it were possible, to meet 
 Charles J. Robinson, Harding's nephew, who 
 was chief of the other island. Knowing that 
 the Indians came to Colon with their boat- 
 loads of cocoanuts, I went to the wharf where 
 they landed, hoping to see him among them. 
 I asked every Indian that I saw about Chief 
 Robinson, but many understood neither Eng- 
 lish nor Spanish, and for some time I made 
 no headway. But, searching in this way, I 
 made the acquaintance of an Indian who had 
 married a light-colored negro and they lived 
 in Colon. He could speak English well, and 
 he said he would let me know if he heard that 
 the chief was coming to the city. 
 
io6 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 While I was waiting for news I gathered 
 in my room a class of young lads who wanted 
 to learn English, one of whom could speak it 
 very well and acted as interpreter; his home 
 was only six miles from Chief Robinson's 
 island, and he was watching for the chief. I 
 talked of Jesus, and the young man said, 
 "The Indians have their own religion; they 
 do not want to learn about yours; they only 
 want you to teach them to read and speak 
 English so that they can make plenty of money 
 like the Americans." 
 
 "Is that so indeed?" I replied. "Well, if 
 they will listen to me and learn about Jesus, 
 some day they will walk on golden streets 
 and have more than any Americans can give 
 them." I talked earnestly to the lads every 
 time they came; that was my business for my 
 King. 
 
 In January, 1913, I was told that Chief 
 Robinson would be in on the 17th, so in the 
 morning I was down at the wharf, and I saw 
 him and two other men just going across to 
 the Government Building to get a pass on the 
 railroad to visit Panama City. My heart 
 beat fast for joy; this was my hour! Going 
 
AT RIO DIABLO 107 
 
 up to the leader, for they walked single file, 
 I asked if he were Chief Robinson of Rio 
 Diablo. 
 
 "Yes, I am." 
 
 "Do you want a teacher to come to your 
 island and teach your people the Bible and 
 English?" I asked. 
 
 "Yes, I do. When can you come?" was the 
 prompt reply. 
 
 That was business and rejoiced my heart, 
 and I answered : "Now." He smiled and said 
 that would be all right. 
 
 "I will go back with you if you say so," 
 I suggested, anxious to seize the opportunity. 
 
 "You could not very well, for my canoe 
 will be so loaded," he answered. "You had 
 better come on one of the large schooners." 
 
 I said that would be quite satisfactory to 
 me, and we talked together for a few minutes. 
 He said that he been taken by the captain of 
 one of the trading vessels when he was nine 
 years old to a place called Old Providence, 
 near Jamaica. The captain's name was Rob- 
 inson, so he named the boy Charles Julius 
 Robinson. He sent him to school for three 
 years, so that he learned to read, write and 
 
io8 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 speak English, and at the age of twelve he 
 went to sea, traveling on the schooners to New 
 York, Nova Scotia and other places. When 
 about twenty-five he returned to his home, 
 was married, settled down, and was soon 
 afterward appointed second chief, then chief 
 at the death of the old chief, Henry Clay. 
 
 During the reign of Chief Clay the Roman 
 Catholic priest came and somehow got in. 
 Many were against him, but Chief Robinson 
 was one who was in favor of having him stay 
 because he wanted his children to be educated. 
 The people helped him to build the very 
 house that I now occupy, the priest supplying 
 the galvanized iron for the roof and sides and 
 the Indians cutting down trees and hauling 
 most of the wood, each helping a little in gifts 
 and in free labor. 
 
 "We are sorry that we ever let the priest in, 
 however," said the chief. "Our children 
 have not learned anything but to chant to 
 images, saints and the Virgin. I was taught 
 to read the Bible and I want my children to 
 learn to read it. I am glad that you will 
 come." 
 
 We parted then and I went to my room to 
 
AT RIO DIABLO 109 
 
 begin packing, my heart singing for joy. One 
 morning a week later I was awakened early 
 by a knock, and on opening the door I saw 
 three Indians, one of whom pushed an en- 
 velope into my hand. I opened it and read: 
 
 San Jose Nargana, Feb. 2nd, 19 13. 
 Dear lady I sent my 3 Indians to Bring you up 
 to San Bias Coas to my country My people like 
 to see you Dear lady if you can By A B C Book 
 Engles and Bring your Piano up with you no 
 more for Present. Mr. Charles J. Robinson. 
 
 How much that letter meant to me! and 
 here were the three living red Indians waiting 
 for me to speak the word! Had not our God 
 answered prayer? 
 
 I hastily strapped and roped things with the 
 aid of the Indians, then to the canoe we went. 
 It was the largest canoe the chief had, but 
 was very small for us to weather heavy seas 
 in, and I had heard much about the roughness 
 of the sea at this season. But I believed that 
 God would overrule the sea and everything 
 else. However, my friend in Colon came 
 down to the wharf just as we started out and 
 called to the men not to take me, the wind 
 
no ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 was so changeable. So we put back to shore 
 and the men put off one of my trunks, a deck 
 chair and a box of canned foods, then they 
 went on. I waited two weeks and then se- 
 cured passage on the two-masted schooner the 
 ^^\gnes E." 
 
 We were nine days getting from Colon to 
 the first group of the San Bias Islands, and as 
 the captain had business to attend to of course 
 I had to wait until it was finished. But I was 
 quite comfortable and simply felt that I could 
 rest for a little. We were now about fifteen 
 miles from Rio Diablo. During the day the 
 Indians came aboard, and I opened my ^'pi- 
 ano" — the folding baby organ — and played. 
 The captain and crew who could speak Eng- 
 lish sang the Moody and Sankey hymns and 
 we spent a pleasant time. But the news 
 spread that a white woman was on board who 
 was going to Chief Robinson's island, and 
 early on the morning of the tenth day out we 
 were awakened by the splash of oars and a 
 voice calling: *^Ai es the Missi ar?" 
 
 "Yes," I answered in Spanish; "I am here," 
 for I was quite sure that I was the Missi who 
 was meant. One of the men could speak Eng- 
 
AT RIO DIABLO in 
 
 lish (I have since found that he was one of the 
 two who dragged me off from Mona Island), 
 and he said, "Chief Robinson sent us for you; 
 come now," so I just stepped off of the 
 schooner into the canoe and we were off like 
 a shot. A few hours' sailing and we landed 
 safely at home! 
 
 Of course the whole village was out, and I 
 was graciously received by the chief and his 
 brother Alfred, who also could speak Eng- 
 lish. I sat in the store, for, by the way, Chief 
 Robinson had and still has quite a grocery and 
 dry-goods store, and for two hours was, I 
 might say, on exhibition. The chief had an 
 old iron stove in which he burned logs when 
 he wanted to cook after the white man's style, 
 and here my dinner was prepared, or rather 
 my breakfast, for although it was now after- 
 noon I had not eaten. But then I must suffer 
 some inconveniences, even as these people were 
 doing to have me there in their home. After 
 a meal of something fried in grease and soup 
 of some kind, and some eggs fried till they 
 resembled sole leather, and some kind of 
 black liquid to drink, all of which I took, 
 "asking no questions for conscience' sake," I 
 
112 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 felt better able to walk, as I was expected to 
 do after that feast, to see the sights of the 
 town. Then I was taken to my new home, a 
 native house with palm-leaf roof and bamboo 
 walls. The chief had said to me, ^We have 
 no house for you to live in," and I had an- 
 swered, "Oh, the same kind of house that the 
 natives live in will do for me." 
 
 So this was my home! One corner was ar- 
 ranged for my sleeping room, and there the 
 Indians hung my hammock. They cooked 
 for me until the schooner came up four days 
 after bringing my household effects. 
 
 I arrived on the island on Friday, Febru- 
 ary 28th, and started school the next morning. 
 Before sunrise I was awakened by voices call- 
 ing my name. Here were my scholars ready 
 for school! so we began at once and continued 
 for eight hours ; then the chief said that they 
 wanted night school, so for another four hours 
 we recited and sang A, B, C, and went through 
 all kinds of exercises, until I dreamed of hands 
 and feet and faces all mixed up with letters 
 and red Indians. 
 
 The next day being Sunday, I taught them 
 John 3: 16. That, and: '^Onward, Christian 
 
AT RIO DIABLO 113 
 
 Soldiers," was the order of exercises that first 
 Sunday in San Bias. We marched and coun- 
 termarched around the schoolroom; the 
 earthen floor was humpy, but it did not mat- 
 ter 1 My school was composed of all ages. 
 There were tottering old men ; Olibebeah, the 
 chief's grandfather, was said to be over a hun- 
 dred; and wrinkled grandmothers, and mid- 
 dle aged and young married women also, each 
 with a child straddled on her hip. Logs 
 were brought in, and they sat on these when 
 they were not marching; but I kept them 
 pretty lively, and they were equal to the oc- 
 casion. Shirtless boys came in to march; we 
 had great times in those early days! A par- 
 rot came every day and learned to sing, "On- 
 ward, Christian Soldiers." After he had 
 sung he would laugh at his own smartness, 
 and of course we laughed too. I used him to 
 spur the boys on by saying, "Dear me, the par- 
 rot has beaten all of you!" 
 
 The chief came to the school every day 
 to tell the scholars what I wanted them to do, 
 and I learned a few Indian words so that I 
 could make them understand some things, 
 and so for three months we had school three 
 
114 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 times a day seven days in the week. On Sun- 
 day night it was different. Then I had the 
 chief interpret the stories in the Gospels of 
 Jesus and His love, and the people learned 
 many hymns. The organ was a great attrac- 
 tion. I only played it on Sunday nights, 
 partly to help make the service interesting, 
 and partly because when I was teaching there 
 was no room to move my arms, the space was 
 so limited. 
 
 During the first three months of my stay 
 the house which the priests had formerly used 
 was occupied by a man whom they call a 
 Christian Brother, not a priest, but a mem- 
 ber of one of their orders who teaches. He 
 had a few boys every day, but as my school 
 grew in popularity his twelve boys left and 
 came to me, and before long the Brother left 
 the island. 
 
 In June I went down to Colon on a new 
 gasoline launch that had just begun to run up 
 this coast The captain very kindly oflfered 
 to take me down and bring me back in ten 
 days, and this was too good an offer to be re- 
 fused. The chief asked me to take his eldest 
 boy, Charles, who was about seven years old. 
 
AT RIO DIABLO 115 
 
 with me, that he might see the city and hear 
 English spoken all the time. I bought many 
 things for school use and also a new three- 
 burner oil-stove with an oven. 
 
 This oil-stove created a sensation on the 
 island. Again and again I had to demon- 
 strate the lighting of that wonderful fire-box. 
 Chiefs and their body-guards came from far 
 and near to see the stove — and the lady who 
 owned it, perhaps! — to hear the children sing 
 in English, and to listen to the organ. If I 
 had had a moving picture machine I certainly 
 could have gotten some interesting scenes. 
 
 In a couple of weeks the chief had sent for 
 an oil-stove just like mine. He told me that 
 all the women said the evil was in it. They 
 were afraid of it and preferred to sit on one 
 end of a log while the other end cooked the 
 fish, regardless of the smoke and dirt. All 
 my dishes, forks especially, were carefully ex- 
 amined ; they wondered what a fork could be 
 for. When I was cooking they would come 
 in and smell around the pan, and if it was so 
 that they could dip a finger into the concoc- 
 tion they would do so, and in every case they 
 were disgusted with the white woman's food. 
 
ii6 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 Two months after the Roman Catholic 
 teacher had left, as the house was standing 
 empty, the chief said that they would pull it 
 down. I went in to look it over. It was a 
 large building about twenty-five feet by 
 thirty. There were three rooms downstairs 
 and five rooms above. The largest room 
 downstairs had been used for religious serv- 
 ices only; its walls were hung with pictures 
 of saints and the Virgin, and there were 
 wooden statues. The confessional box was 
 there, which I have found very useful as a 
 library, and the baptismal font. 
 
 About this time a Panamanian official came 
 up to see my school, and was so well pleased 
 with it that he advised me to leave the grass 
 hut and go into the large house. I told him 
 that the priests had built it and I wanted no 
 trouble with them by occupying their prop- 
 erty. He said that it would be all right; that 
 they would not return, and that it would be 
 better for me to go into it at once, adding: 
 *^This house is no fit place for a woman.'' I 
 told him that I was very happy and felt that 
 God who led me here was keeping watch over 
 
AT RIO DIABLO 117 
 
 me continually, and to have His approval sat- 
 isfied me; that I was never lonely or afraid. 
 
 When the rainy season was on, which lasts 
 from May to the first week in November, 
 there certainly was much to be desired in the 
 way of comfort in my grass house. Often my 
 floor was in such pools that I had to wear my 
 rubbers all day, but I hoped for better things 
 when the dry season came, and endured the 
 discomfort. But one morning in August 
 when my floor seemed nothing but one great 
 puddle, I decided that perhaps it would be 
 wiser for me to move into the house. The 
 Indians had not torn it down, so I told the 
 chief that I wanted them to open it up, clean 
 it and make it ready for me. They went to 
 work at once, and the next day, Saturday, I 
 was moving into my upstairs tenement. 
 Wasn't it fine! I had doors that I could 
 shut and thus have a little privacy; I had a 
 good board floor to walk on upstairs and a 
 smooth cement one downstairs. There were 
 three long desks that would seat six at a pinch, 
 and the men made me three more; so with 
 six benches our room was soon looking like a 
 
ii8 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 real schoolroom. I took down the pictures 
 of the saints and other paraphernalia of my 
 predecessors and put up pictures of flowers, 
 birds and animals that I cut from the maga- 
 zines and pasted on white paper, and we ail 
 felt proud of our new quarters. 
 
 I kept one of the images to use as an object 
 lesson, and when the boys recited the 115th 
 Psalm I touched each part of the image as 
 they recited: ^They have mouths, but they 
 speak not; eyes have they, but they see not," 
 etc., and questioned them about it. When 
 we had finished I laid the image down and 
 stepped on it, asking: ^^Can it feel, can it help 
 us, can it hurt me, can it get up?" One of 
 the boys, who was very bright and could speak 
 Spanish well, and had lived with the priests 
 as their errand boy, said: "Miss Coope, I knelt 
 before that wooden man sometimes two hours 
 at a time, and kissed it, and always bowed my 
 knee when I passed it. But I see now that 
 it cannot help us. I will never worship an 
 image again." 
 
 I can only pray that Joe may be kept in the 
 knowledge of God and that the word may 
 prove a savior of life unto life in his case. 
 
AT RIO DIABLO 119 
 
 He was the son of the chief of Mona Island 
 from which I had been ejected, and had been 
 sent to school on this island, living with Chief 
 Robinson. But even before the Catholic 
 Brother left he had come to my school, and 
 for a year he was with me, professing to ac- 
 cept Jesus as his Saviour. He learned to 
 speak Spanish well, and when the Spanish 
 official who told me to go into the big house 
 saw him he took a great fancy to him and 
 took him to Panama City, where he is putting 
 him through school. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 
 
 ONE of the great hindrances to the recep- 
 tion of Christ and the uplift of the In- 
 dians on the island was, as it is everywhere, 
 liquor. There were ten rum-shops for a pop- 
 ulation of 800. They had bottles of Balboa 
 beer on their shelves, and they built a special 
 cubby-hole of wood with a thatched roof 
 which was set apart as a shop, and this was 
 owned by the chief, or, as he said, by his 
 brother. The traders brought up demijohns 
 of rum, so they all '^sold this, the "Chriss- 
 tians' " liquor — the captains and sailors all 
 called themselves *^Chriss-tians" when talking 
 to the Indians — and they had their own home- 
 made rum; so liquor was plentiful, and every 
 week during the first year that I was there 
 they had what is called a "chee-chee," which 
 really is a drunken spree over a girl's coming 
 
 to maturity. It was the woman's day. The 
 
 120 
 
HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 121 
 
 girl was bathed three times a day for four 
 days by the women, and during that time the 
 father was in the woods shooting game of any 
 kind and up the river catching fish, and the 
 mother was cooking on a large scale and mak- 
 ing the rum, which was put into large earthen 
 jars. 
 
 When all was ready they fired a gun to 
 notify all to come, for the feast was to begin. 
 The girl passed around to the guests portions 
 of meat, fish, vegetables and other things, and 
 they in turn presented her with rings, beads, 
 and cloth. Then they drank and sang. They 
 have a special song, and if the singer does not 
 finish it in two days the feast must go on, and 
 of course he does not finish until he sees that 
 there is no more rum. Sometimes the feast 
 has gone on for five days, and I cannot de- 
 scribe the howling and yelling; it is hell let 
 loose 1 All the men are drunk, and all the 
 women, especially those of the girPs family, 
 screaming night and day. The men walk the 
 streets with bottles under their arms, asking 
 every one they meet to drink with them. The 
 "babblings, the wounds without a cause," the 
 bloodshed were terrible 1 One morning when 
 
122 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 I went to the door of my grass hut there were 
 great spots of blood before the door. The 
 boys said: ''Men fight— drunk!" The chief 
 came by and told me not to come out; it would 
 not be safe. He was sober, and sober in more 
 ways than one. He was acting as policeman, 
 for all his four policemen were drunk. There 
 was a big fight on, and he had tied them all 
 to a post and was walking around my house to 
 guard me. 
 
 After that terrible spree was over — it lasted 
 from one Sunday morning till the following 
 Sunday — the chief came to me and said : "This 
 is too much!" He felt ashamed to have me, 
 the first foreign woman that had ever lived 
 on their island, see how beastly they were. 
 When I had talked to him of Jesus as a per- 
 sonal Saviour, he would say, "I am not a sin- 
 ner; I believe in Jesus; I am all right," and 
 yet he kept a rum-shop and allowed their 
 sprees to go on. 
 
 But matters had reached a climax now. 
 When the people had sobered up he called a 
 meeting and told them that this thing must 
 stop. Many were up in arms against him. 
 They said it was their custom and they could 
 
HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 123 
 
 not and would not stop; the *'white devir' 
 must leave ; it was she who had put the chief 
 up to this move; he had never stopped them 
 before she came. 
 
 As a result of the chief's stand the women 
 refused to come to school ; not a girl came for 
 several weeks. But the boys all rallied 
 around the chief and said: ^'Miss Coope is 
 good; she not drink rum and fight; we 
 ashamed of our mothers." I told the chief 
 that he ought to accept Jesus as his Saviour 
 if he wanted to help his people; that Jesus 
 would guide him by his Holy Spirit in this 
 fight for the right; that his idea was to stop 
 these drunken bouts, but he kept his own rum- 
 shop and so how was he better than his peo- 
 ple? When I spoke of that he said that the 
 cubby-hole was his brother's. 
 
 "But you sit there and drink and smoke 
 with the rest," I said ; "so they think if drink- 
 ing is right for you it is right for them. You 
 can't tell them to stop drinking rum while 
 you go on drinking, selling and encouraging 
 your brother to take their cocoanuts for your 
 liquor." 
 
 Chief Robinson talked with his brother, 
 
124 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 who was so vexed that he took his wife and 
 daughter and left the island for a long visit 
 to his wife's brother on another island. In 
 the meantime the chief tore down the cubby- 
 hole and gave orders that all others should do 
 the same. If they wanted to drink they must 
 go somewhere else to do it ; he wouldn't allow 
 it here. So when a girl was to have her 
 "coming-out'' feast, as we may term it, for 
 she is then brought before the public as of 
 marriageable age, they took her to another 
 island for the festivities. For a few months 
 after, if they could only afford one or two 
 days' feasting, they would beg the chief to let 
 them have "a little drunk" ; they would be so 
 good if he would let them have just a little 
 one ! and he did, so that for a year and a half 
 or more we had the "chee-chees" at intervals, 
 but never so bad as that one terrible one and 
 the others previous to it. 
 
 The other island, which was so near to us 
 that we could halloo to each other, still kept 
 up the feasts, and many from our side went 
 over there. The chief, Joe Harding, of 
 whom I have spoken, was an old man. He 
 said that his nephew, Chief Robinson, was do- 
 
HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 125 
 
 ing wrong; that all the Indians got drunk at 
 such times, and God made the rum; the cap- 
 tains, the Chriss-tian captains, had told him 
 so; and if the men wanted to drink he'd let 
 them. I used to go and visit him and talk to 
 him of Christ. He was ill all the time ; had 
 one foot in the grave. He wanted me to come 
 and live on his island ; then, he said, his peo- 
 ple would be good like Charley's. 
 
 "I can't very well teach two schools at 
 once," I told him; "but as you and your peo- 
 ple visit us and I visit you and tell you just 
 what I tell my people, why won't you ask 
 God to forgive your sins, make your heart 
 good, and teach your people by His Holy 
 Spirit?" 
 
 "I do," he answered. 
 
 When I had been teaching a little over a 
 year a lady came out to me from my own 
 church in Providence, R. I. I had often 
 written letters to our church, and she had 
 heard one; her heart was touched by God's 
 voice, and she came. I told the chief on the 
 other island that this lady would come over 
 to his side and teach, but he shook his head, 
 saying that the priest was coming back and 
 
126 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 he couldn't let her come; he would let me 
 come, but nobody else. My chief said that 
 his uncle was ^^a terrible liar." 
 
 Finally, about five months after my friend 
 came, a priest did visit our island; he spoke 
 to me in Spanish. He smelled so of beer that 
 the boys held their noses. I said: *^Do you 
 want that man to teach you?" and the answer 
 in chorus was: ^'No, no!" Whether he was 
 one of the many who had visited these islands 
 before, I do not know. He went into what 
 was once their chapel, but it was greatly 
 changed in appearance; "the gods had come 
 down." He asked if I taught school, and 
 when I said: "Yes, sir," he looked at me 
 blackly and went hastily out, leaving the 
 fumes of his beer and cigarettes behind him. 
 He went over to the other island where he 
 would find "no Protestants," and looked into 
 the empty building with its walls covered 
 with pictures and images. It was the hiding- 
 place of bats, lizards and all kinds of creep- 
 ers. The chief was flattered by the bottle 
 fumes and the cigarette, and soon spread the 
 news which was received with expressions of 
 delight, that the "padre" was going to open a 
 
HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 127 
 
 school. He was a fine man, he said, and he 
 was going to give him money. 
 
 When I heard that news I said to my friend : 
 ^'Let us pray over this matter. I feel that we 
 must do something unusual. If we expect 
 God to do unusual things we must fall into 
 line." After we had poured out our hearts 
 before God I rose from my knees with a de- 
 termination to conquer. I said: *^Come, we 
 will close our school and go over and talk 
 with old Joe and find out if these reports are 
 true." 
 
 We went, and found old Joe lying in his 
 hammock smoking; the priest had left for 
 Port-o-Baldia after staying only a few hours. 
 I asked if what I had heard was true, and he 
 said yes, the padre had said that he would 
 open the school again when he came back. 
 
 "See here, Joe," I said; "you have been ask- 
 ing me to come here for over a year. Now 
 I have an assistant who would have been here 
 five months ago if you had said the word." 
 
 "I want you," was his reply. 
 
 "All right; do you want me now?" 
 
 "Well, wait till the padre comes back; I'll 
 talk to him." 
 
128 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 "Do you want me now!" 
 
 He wavered and I saw my chance. I said: 
 "I am coming over to-day to open up the 
 house." That night we slept there. 
 
 While I was talking with the chief, two 
 young men who had been coming to my night 
 school said : *^Yes, we want Miss Coope," and 
 their word seemed to have a good deal of in- 
 fluence with the old man. He called in the 
 second chief and they had a smoking consul- 
 tation. While that was going on I mar- 
 shaled my forces, sending every canoe that 
 I could get over to bring the things that we 
 needed for the house. 
 
 The next morning early we two started the 
 school. I told Chief Robinson that I'd give 
 my school a vacation, and many came over to 
 the other island to see the starting of another 
 Bible school. We held the fort until the 
 priest passed back to Colon, chagrined, out- 
 witted by a woman. I stayed a week, work- 
 ing hard with the children and helped by sev- 
 eral of the big boys who had been in my other 
 school. The chief was delighted to see all 
 his children so enthused, and feeling that the 
 crisis was past I returned to my island, while 
 
HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 129 
 
 the sister remained to carry on the work and 
 is there to-day. I went over every week to 
 hold gospel services until the old chief died. 
 The new chief, who can speak a little Eng- 
 lish, is a very different character, truthful, in- 
 dustrious and kindly disposed, so that we have 
 had no trouble under him. The population 
 is about 400; the school registers 50, with an 
 average attendance of 40 daily. My school 
 registers 107, with an average attendance of 
 90 and many of kindergarten age who come 
 because big sister comes. The "big" sisters, 
 from six to eight years of age, carry the littler 
 ones on their hips so much that it is no won- 
 der the two-to-five-year olds expect to be car- 
 ried back and forth to school, so I have over 
 120 at times. The girls were very backward 
 for over a year, but have begun to speed up, 
 and many are gaining on the boys, who at 
 first did very well, but owing to sickness and 
 having to work have fallen behind some. 
 
 One day while I was living in the grass hut 
 two men walked in. There was nothing un- 
 usual in that; I received callers at all times. I 
 shook hands with the first one who came to- 
 ward me, saying: "New-a-dee?" which is the 
 
I30 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 Indian "How do you do?" As I put out my 
 hand to the second one he held it and looked 
 me straight in the eye, saying in good English, 
 "Don't you know me? I am John Davis." 
 So he was, but I did not recognize him. How 
 glad I was to see the dear old man! His 
 companion was the chief of Mona Island and 
 the father of our little Joe, who had been in 
 school about two weeks. So here were the 
 two chiefs who had wanted me two years and 
 a half ago, and had seen me dragged out by 
 two men who came from this very island 
 where I was now teaching! Both John 
 Davis, the ex-chief, and the chief himself had 
 a boy in school, and the children of the men 
 who dragged me from Mona were in my 
 school also. Here we all were together again, 
 but under such different circumstances! 
 How marvelous are God's ways, truly past 
 finding out! 
 
 John had aged greatly; his hair was now 
 almost white, and he said he suffered greatly 
 from a cough which seemed to tear him to 
 pieces, that he had rheumatism, and that he 
 was poor. I had a long talk with him, urg- 
 ing him to accept Jesus now. He prayed 
 
HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 131 
 
 and said that he believed and asked me when 
 I could come to his island, but I could not 
 give him any promise, as I was so busy right 
 here on these two islands. 
 
 Both of the men said that they were sorry 
 they had not let me stay on Mona, and asked 
 me to write to America for another lady to 
 come out to them. Before they finished their 
 two days' visit to our chief I did write a let- 
 ter to the church at home telling them of 
 John's request and his earnestness and asking 
 them to pray for him and also that some one 
 would be led of God to volunteer for this 
 work, walking by faith. The letter stirred 
 several in the church, but only one was led 
 to step out definitely. She came after months 
 of waiting on God to be sure that He wanted 
 her; but in the meantime John Davis died, 
 and his son Philip came to tell me that he 
 would have to go home, for he was the only 
 man in the house and would have to go to 
 work. I trust I shall meet John Davis in 
 glory. The chief of Mona often visited the 
 school, was delighted to hear that his boy was 
 so smart, and wanted me to send him to the 
 United States for further education. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SOME OF MY BOYS 
 
 ON May 31st, 1914, three of my boys ac- 
 cepted Jesus in the Sunday-school. 
 One was little Joe Harris, the son of the chief 
 of Tupeelee; the second was Lonnie Powers, 
 about twelve years old ; and the third Andrew 
 Ferguson, who is, I think, about sixteen or 
 serenteen. That Sunday as we read in the 
 New Testament class of boys of Jesus' com- 
 mand: "Go ye into all the world and preach 
 the gospel to the whole creation," I explained 
 what it meant, telling them as simply as I 
 could the love story of Jesus; that when we 
 believe in Him with all our hearts we want 
 to tell some one else; that it was He who had 
 sent me to tell the San Bias Indians about Him 
 and His love for them. "Now you can read 
 it for yourselves. If you will believe, God 
 will save you and then send you to others;" 
 I said. Little Joe's eyes were full of tears. 
 
 132 
 
SOME OF MY BOYS 133 
 
 I drew in the net. *Who of you will take 
 Jesus now for your Saviour, to save you from 
 sin and fill your heart with His love and the 
 Holy Spirit?'' 
 
 "I will believe in Jesus now!" Joe said, and 
 struck his chest with such earnestness that 
 we all looked at him. His face was eager, 
 his body trembled. 
 
 "Let us all pray now," I said, for every boy 
 in the class was deeply moved, and each one 
 prayed. 
 
 "Jesus, make me thy child — good now — so 
 I preach," was one prayer made brokenly. 
 Another prayed: "Good Jesus, I want good 
 preach. I love preach good. Amen." A 
 third: "I believe you Jesus me for died. 
 Make heart good. Amen." One boy said: 
 "Jesus, make Indian good heart now, my 
 good. Amen." Joe said, "Jesus, I believe 
 you died for me. Make me good now; I lore 
 you. Amen." I led them all in prayer, and 
 at its close each one said: "I feel good now." 
 
 Two of these boys have developed wonder- 
 fully. Lonnie Powers was always very 
 bright in his lessons; he craved knowledge 
 and rapidly passed every boy in the school, 
 
134 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 always crying for more work, more informa- 
 tion. He was just as loving and obedient as 
 he was bright, and I became convinced, watch- 
 ing his progress in spiritual as well as intel- 
 lectual things, that God had a work for him 
 and wanted him to have a wider training than 
 I could give him. My thought was to send 
 him to the Academy at Nyack, New York, 
 and after much prayer I got the assurance 
 that God would have him go. I had often 
 written about him to my church people at 
 home and now I wrote again telling them how 
 I felt about him. I did not know who was 
 to be the honored one to pay his expenses 
 through school, but I knew that God was 
 talking to some one, for a week after I had 
 laid the matter before the Lord and was sure 
 in my soul that Lonnie was to go, I received 
 in my mail, which had been seven weeks on 
 the way, a letter from a man, almost a 
 stranger, who said that he had had a talk with 
 me at Old Orchard Beach, Me., about five 
 years before. I had told my experiences 
 with the Indians and he had gone to hear me 
 speak. "Now a few days ago," he added, "I 
 was led to send this five dollars to you. I 
 
Boys from the silmol. Andrew Ferj^usoii is third from the left. 
 
 Beads for the legs. Dame Fashion is as tyraiiaical in ban Bias as 
 in other parts of the world. 
 
SOME OF MY BOYS 135 
 
 trust it will be helpful." So I saw that God 
 had begun to talk money matters to His own 
 children. I only sent my order to the Bank 
 of Heaven, and my Father cashed it through 
 various bankers. This five dollars was the 
 earnest of Lonnie's going through school; 
 more would come. When I received the 
 next mail all that was needed for his passage 
 and outfit came, with a letter from Emmanuel 
 Church saying that they would support Lon- 
 nie in school. 
 
 The next step was to gain the consent of 
 the parents and relatives, for Lonnie was 
 very eager to go. His mother and grand- 
 mother wept for two days before he left home, 
 saying that they would not see him any more, 
 and it seemed as though Lonnie's way would 
 be blocked. He said: "I do want to go, and 
 I keep praying that God will let me." Fi- 
 nally the father and older brother took the 
 reins of government into their own hands and 
 prepared Lonnie's clothes — for it is the men 
 who are the tailors in the San Bias Country 
 — packed the box, or rather threw the things 
 in, for they do not know how to fold or press 
 their clothes, and finally all was ready and 
 
136 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 he was to go. I was going to attend the 
 Latin-American Conference at Panama City 
 from February 10 to 20, 1916, and planned to 
 take Lonnie Powers and Andrew Ferguson 
 with me and to send Lonnie on to Nyack from 
 there. His mother and grandmother wept 
 before he left, but finally ended by submitting 
 to his father's wish. 
 
 While we were in Panama both of the boys 
 were baptized by the elder in the Christian 
 Mission, and their testimony in that Mission 
 Hall aroused many of the young people, who 
 had heard the gospel all their lives and had 
 not accepted Christ, to do so then. I arranged 
 for Lonnie to sail on the steamer Colon leav- 
 ing the dock at Christobal on Thursday, Feb- 
 ruary 24th, 19 1 6, and he was to arrive in New 
 York on March i, exactly three years since 
 I had started my school. He was one of the 
 first fruits of my work going to the United 
 States to be trained for a missionary to his 
 own San Bias Indians. 
 
 Andrew Ferguson, the other boy, has been 
 used of God since his return from Panama to 
 preach to his own people so that several men, 
 one woman and over sixty of my boys and 
 
SOME OF MY BOYS 137 
 
 girls have been prayed with and say that they 
 have accepted Jesus Christ; that he saves and 
 helps them now in their studies and all that 
 they do. There has been a great change in 
 their behavior. Andrew plans to go and 
 preach to the mountain Indians if God opens 
 the way. Meanwhile he has a great burden 
 for his family. His father is under convic- 
 tion and is giving up little by little and says 
 he wants to be a real Christian. Andrew tells 
 him that he must give up all, not his mouth 
 only to speak good words but his whole heart; 
 then God's Spirit will come in and bless him. 
 Andrew is my right-hand boy: his life is a 
 constant testimony for Jesus. Through his 
 example and pleadings many of the boys have 
 accepted Christ, and he is like a young shep- 
 herd, watching them, praying with them and 
 encouraging them. His manner of life is 
 simple. He works with his father on their 
 plantation, cocoanuts being their chief means 
 of support, and they raise cane, corn and 
 other vegetables. Their wants are few and 
 easily supplied. 
 
 One Sunday several men were getting 
 sand to put around their doorstep, and An- 
 
138 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 drew's father went to work with them. 
 While working he cut his foot, and when he 
 came into the house and showed it, Andrew 
 said : "Well, father, God says to remember the 
 Sabbath day to keep it holy. You forgot 
 God's command ; this is what the Devil gives 
 you for pleasing him." His father admitted 
 that he was right, and he came to the gospel 
 service that night and told me what Andrew 
 had said to him. 
 
 Before the priests came to the Island An- 
 drew's father wanted him to be a "Camdulay" 
 singer, one who sings at the chee-chee feasts, 
 and he had taken some lessons and had gotten 
 drunk too. But when the priests came his 
 father told him he must learn to sing with 
 them and to drink and smoke as they did. 
 But Andrew did not fancy the priests with 
 their shaven heads and long black robes and 
 did not learn their ways quickly. If the 
 priest had been awake to his opportunity An- 
 drew might have been trained for the priest- 
 hood, but he was not; God had his hand on 
 the boy and was holding him for His own 
 work. When I came his father was very anx- 
 
SOME OF MY BOYS 139 
 
 ious to have him in my school, and in a year's 
 time he gave his heart to Christ. 
 
 Joe Harris, the third boy who accepted 
 Christ at the same time, has had quite a dif- 
 ferent history from the other two. He came 
 to me after my school had been going about 
 two months. He had lived with the priests 
 and spoke Spanish well, and in a year from 
 the time he came to school he could speak 
 English very well. He is a bright, jolly lit- 
 tle lad and every one is fond of him, and he 
 is easily influenced by the company he is in. 
 A young man came from Colon who had 
 earned a few dollars there, and he celebrated 
 by "treating" his friends. Little Joe was with 
 him, and the next morning he came stagger- 
 ing past the door of the school at nine o'clock, 
 drunk. My heart fairly stopped beating at 
 the sight and I nearly fainted away. The 
 whole school received a shock. I could not 
 teach any more that day. I had never had 
 anything grieve me so. I closed the school 
 and went to the home of Chief Robinson, with 
 whom Joe lived, because he came from an- 
 other island where his father was chief, and 
 
I40 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 was here to attend school. I found that the 
 whole family had gone to one of the planta- 
 tions early that morning, and that Joe refused 
 to go because the young man wanted him to 
 stay and drink with him. 
 
 Some of the men said they would send Joe 
 home to his father, but the next day he came 
 to school repentant enough. As I talked with 
 him he cried and wanted me to pray for him. 
 He prayed too and told the Lord he would 
 not touch rum again. He said it was not the 
 first time he had been drunk. 
 
 He seemed very earnest after that. He 
 learned seven chapters in John's Gospel and 
 several Psalms, was an excellent reader and 
 speller and fine in arithmetic. Long Divi- 
 sion was his delight. He was full of fun : his 
 laugh was contagious, and he would have kept 
 the school in an uproar daily if left to himself. 
 He remained with me until May, 191 5, when 
 a Government ship came up to the island, and 
 one of the officials, seeing how bright he was 
 and how quickly he answered several ques- 
 tions, took a great fancy to him and took him 
 away with him. I was sorry to part with 
 him, but I was not consulted either by the 
 
SOME OF MY BOYS 141 
 
 official or the father and would not have 
 known he was going if the boys had not run 
 to say that Joe was packing up his clothes in 
 the chief's house. I went down to the boat 
 and gave him a New Testament in Spanish 
 and English. I had promised him one when 
 he finished learning the 119th Psalm. He 
 had not finished it, but he was going away 
 where he would speak only Spanish, and I 
 felt that he must have God's Word in both 
 languages. I have not seen him since, but 
 the man who took him gave a fairly good re- 
 port of him after eight months. I pray for 
 him daily. 
 
 Joe's father is quite an intelligent, good- 
 looking man about forty years old. He was 
 very eager to have a school, and now the Gov- 
 ernment has built one on his island. They 
 need the light of the Gospel; but as they do 
 not know their need we must carry it to them. 
 
 Many of the other boys are very interest- 
 ing; indeed all of them are, and very human 
 too. Sometimes it is very hard for them to 
 apply themselves to study. One boy told his 
 father he was too tired to go to school, and 
 he started to walk about the town; but his 
 
142 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 father said, "Oh, boy, if you are too tired to 
 go to school you are too tired to walk about 
 the town. You had better go to bed." That 
 settled it; he went to school, for what boy 
 wants to go to bed in the afternoon? 
 
 Eustace Farnum, about eleven, finds it very 
 hard to concentrate on his books, but if a crab 
 scratches its nose he hears it. He is very af- 
 fectionate, and if he can't keep in my good 
 graces by well-learned lessons he tries to smile 
 his way into my heart, and he is an adept at 
 that art. He does like to go fishing; but what 
 human boy could resist that temptation when 
 the fish are jumping up by the 'handfuls and 
 fairly begging: "Come and catch me!" I be- 
 lieve Eustace can fairly hear them whisper. 
 He complains of a headache sometimes, but 
 it all disappears when he gets a fish-line in 
 his hands. But he is not the only boy that 
 has the same disease and is as suddenly cured. 
 
 Everett Bertram is an excellent reader and 
 plans to be a missionary some day. 
 
 His father is very anxious to have him in 
 school regularly, so does not give him any en- 
 couragement to listen to the fish, and if he has 
 aches of any kind a dose of medicine is 
 
SOME OF MY BOYS 143 
 
 promptly administered and the order "To 
 bed" is given. His father is also a believer 
 in Solomon's remedy, and rod and moral sua- 
 sion go together. Not long ago Everett 
 stayed away from night school. On making 
 inquiry I found that his father had gone to 
 Colon: that was the secret. The cat was 
 away, and this mouse played truant. The 
 next night, however, he was the first one in, 
 and at the close of the session, when we all 
 pray, he asked God to forgive him for sitting 
 at home the night before. He had heard bad 
 words, and the "Devil's spirit" gave him bad 
 dreams ; he promised he would not do it again. 
 I was glad to know that he understood that 
 he had done wrong. I tell my boys that if 
 they will only remember the first Psalm and 
 ask God to help them, he will keep them from 
 bad company. 
 
 Ned Williams is the eldest child of the 
 chief of another island about eight miles 
 away. His father often comes to see how 
 Ned is getting on. When he was in the 
 Primer reading "A fat cat sat on the mat" 
 his father, pointing to a shelf of books, asked 
 if Ned could read all those! 
 
144 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 Ned's mother does not want her boy away 
 from her, and in order to get him home some 
 time ago she sent word that she was sick, so 
 he went home ; but as his mother began to get 
 better he wanted to return to school. She 
 tried to persuade him that he knew enough, 
 but no, he wanted more, and refused to eat 
 until his father brought him back to school. 
 I think he is about eleven or twelve; but the 
 boys and girls are so tiny that it is hard for 
 me to guess their right ages. Of late when 
 his father comes and Ned can interpret for 
 me, it is wonderful! The father begs me to 
 take him to New York with me when I go. 
 The fathers all say that there is nothing here 
 for their boys to do and they are eager to have 
 them go to New York, which is the goal of 
 their ambition. 
 
 When the San Bias boys marry they go to 
 their wife's home and work hard for her 
 family, so the parents are willing to give their 
 boys away but not the girls. Mr. Phillips 
 says that he will send his only girl, Agnes, to 
 an American school some day. He makes her 
 American style dresses; yes, he makes them, 
 for the men are great sewers. But when it 
 
SOME OF MY BOYS 145 
 
 comes to the question of Agnes' going away 
 it will have to be taken before the whole fam- 
 ily, of which he is only one member. He, 
 being in the home of his wife's mother and 
 father, has not the entire control of his chil- 
 dren. If his wife died and he married again, 
 he would not be allowed to take one of his 
 children with him to his new home — a blessed 
 relief from stepmotherism! There are plenty 
 of stepfathers, however, for if a man marries 
 a widow with children he has to work for 
 her children, but is not allowed to correct 
 them. Oh, no, there is no rule of the step- 
 fathers! 
 
 Here is Freddy Phillips, about nine years 
 old. His father speaks very good English, 
 for he was a sailor and visited many foreign 
 ports; and he is anxious to have his children 
 become good English scholars, offering to let 
 them go away to school. Freddy is one of 
 my pupil-teachers. He makes a fine report 
 of his scholars: "Miss Coope, my boys are 
 very good to-day. Clifford had one mistake 
 first time reading; second time none. Ed- 
 ward had no mistakes first time reading; sec- 
 ond time none," etc., until all the boys are 
 
146 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 reported on. With a bewitching snap in his 
 eyes he gives me his slate, and I read the re- 
 port to the whole school. Why not? Such 
 a helper as that must be encouraged. He 
 says he loves Jesus too, because he has for- 
 given him all his bad and made his heart 
 clean. He has learned the Commandments, 
 the Lord's Prayer, and eight Psalms and is 
 now working on the 119th Psalm. He is 
 Lonnie Powers' cousin, their mothers being 
 sisters. 
 
 Charles Robinson, the son of the chief, is 
 also a bright little helper. His father would 
 have sent him North with Lonnie if his 
 mother had not begged so strongly not to have 
 him go : he was so young, only nine years old. 
 He is the only one on the island who knows 
 his birthday. He likes to teach. 
 
 It is very amusing to hear the comments of 
 the class on their boy teachers : they are very 
 plain spoken: "Miss Coope, the teacher is 
 no good." 
 
 "Oh, dear me, how is this?" 
 
 "He does not open his mouth and speak 
 plainly." 
 
 Sometimes the teacher is discouraged — who 
 
SOME OF MY BOYS 147 
 
 would not be with such critics? — and says: 
 "Miss Coope, I won't teach any more." 
 
 "Oh, yes, you will, because you want to help 
 me; and you are going to open your mouth 
 the way I do: see?" 
 
 Then follows an exercise in mouth open- 
 ing, watched by the whole school with their 
 mouths opened ; then everybody is in good hu- 
 mor, and I have volunteer teachers in abun- 
 dance, all eager to show how they can open 
 their mouths; then follows another exercise 
 in keeping the mouths shut. 
 
 These are some of my boys, and you see 
 they are just as human as the boys in America. 
 Some people have an idea that if they could 
 only go to a far-away heathen land where the 
 people are so different from those at home, 
 they could do great things with them. But 
 let me say for the benefit of those people that 
 the heathen have as much knowledge of evil 
 as our educated teachers at' home, for the 
 fallen nature is theirs to contend with just as 
 much and it comes to the top in a remarkable 
 manner. The color of the skin does not hin- 
 der its manifestations, and education does not 
 eradicate it; only the blood of Jesus Christ 
 
148 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 can do that. We rejoice that we are called 
 to lift up Jesus as the only Saviour from the 
 power of the Devil, who is as busy out here 
 as elsewhere, and we are not ignorant of his 
 devices. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 "THE CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND" 
 
 FOR a long time after my coming to the 
 island I worked for the conversion of 
 Chief Robinson without his surrendering to 
 Christ. He resisted the Spirit, saying, when 
 brought almost to the point of surrender, 
 ''Some other time," but I prayed on and be- 
 lieved for him. Often when I interpreted the 
 gospel invitations to believe and accept Jesus 
 now, he would preach to himself, saying: "Yes, 
 it is true, and it is against me, but I will believe 
 soon." Then he would come to me for a talk, 
 and just when he seemed almost persuaded 
 some one would come and call him, and he 
 would go away still undecided. Often he 
 would avoid me by going to his plantation on 
 Saturday and returning on Monday, so that 
 for several Sundays I would not see him. 
 When we talked he would try to justify him- 
 self by arguing that all the old Indians be- 
 
 149 
 
I50 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 lieved that if they did not murder a man they 
 would go to heaven; that he was not bad; he 
 used to be when he was a sailor, but he had 
 turned over a new leaf! How like so many 
 with far greater light than he who try to 
 reason themselves into the belief that 
 they are not sinners needing to be bom 
 again 1 
 
 After he had stayed away from the Sunday 
 night services for three weeks, saying that he 
 had to work or he was sick, or some other ex- 
 cuse, I said to myself : "Yes, you are trying to 
 get away from God, but He will get you yet!" 
 Then he began to tell me of the trouble brew- 
 ing in the midst of the people. It seems that 
 they wanted a big "chee-chee." There were 
 four girls of marriageable age and they had 
 planned a bigger affair than ever. They 
 thought that they had obeyed the chief pretty 
 well for months now, and he ought to let 
 them have another spree. He was in a 
 quandary, and with his own heart's convic- 
 tions to battle against, he was having a hard 
 time. He stayed in my sitting-room for three 
 hours, and we talked of God and his power 
 to save, to help and to guide. He agreed that 
 
CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 151 
 
 all I told him was right, but pleaded: "Don't 
 I try my best to get my people to do right?" 
 
 Then I turned his own argument against 
 him. "Yes," I said, "you are trying, and be- 
 cause they refuse to see as you do you feel bad 
 about it. It is for their own good, and yet 
 they positively refuse to be helped. How 
 about you and God? You admit that I am 
 right, that I am giving you the best I know 
 of God's truth; and yet you refuse to obey 
 God, who is over you, and expect your peo- 
 ple to obey youl If you will surrender your 
 will to God he will teach you how to lead 
 others. You need God at this particular 
 time, but you must surrender first, then your 
 people will." 
 
 But he was not willing. After much per- 
 suasion, after he acknowledged that it was the 
 right thing to do, he jumped up as though he 
 had been shot and said, "Not to-night; some 
 other time," and left without saying good- 
 night. My heart was grieved, but I had 
 faith in God; I was not discouraged; I knew 
 that God was talking to him. 
 
 This was on a Thursday night. The chief 
 went away again on Saturday, returning on 
 
152 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 Monday, and again the week after, but had 
 to return Saturday night as quickly as he 
 could. He reached home at midnight and 
 was in agony the rest of the night with bodily 
 pain. Early Sunday morning he sent for me, 
 his boy saying, "Oh, come quick! My fa- 
 ther is very sick, vomiting blood." I went, to 
 find him rolling in his hammock in great 
 pain. As I went in he said : "Oh, Miss Coope, 
 do pray for me! Do pray now!" 
 
 "Oh, not now," I replied. "Some other 
 time will do. There is no hurry; go to 
 sleep." 
 
 "But I can't sleep; God is talking to me. 
 Pray for mel" 
 
 "No, you pray for yourself now. If God 
 is talking to you, you must talk to Him. IVe 
 done all I can ; I can't help you now. I can't 
 relieve you; only Jesus the .Saviour can do 
 that." 
 
 "I know it! I should have given Him my 
 heart long ago. He has been talking to me, 
 but I didn't want to obey. I will obey now." 
 
 "Well, then, confess your sins first Are 
 you a sinner?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 153 
 
 ^Then tell God and ask Him to forgive you 
 now." 
 
 Between groans he prayed, and when he 
 had confessed and asked God to pardon him, 
 I thanked God for convicting him and asked 
 Him to heal the sick man, that he might 
 glorify God and lead his people to know Him 
 for themselves. I then began to inquire 
 about his body; that was secondary; we had to 
 settle the spiritual sickness first. I had them 
 get me some eggs and gave him the whites of 
 eggs only that day and the next. The pain 
 in his stomach ceased and he slept. I stayed 
 up with him all night. His little boy of 
 three was sick also, and they were going to 
 chant some Indian nonsense over him, at the 
 same time waving a wooden image the length 
 of a man's hand, to drive away the bad spirit 
 that was making the child sick. I told him 
 to tell them to pray to God, and if the child 
 was to get better God would heal him. He 
 sent the message to them, and they did not 
 go through the incantations; the boy recov- 
 ered. 
 
 Meanwhile preparations for the great 
 feast were going on. The chief called a meet- 
 
154 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 ing and was carried downstairs into his 
 brother's house, where the men gathered to 
 hear him tell what God had done for him. 
 This was on Sunday. On the Wednesday fol- 
 lowing some of the men murmured against 
 him, saying that they would have the ^'drunk." 
 The chief sent his four policemen to gather 
 up every vessel that would be used for holding 
 rum. The men had gathered a great quantity 
 of sugar-cane and insisted that they must have 
 the feast now in order to use the cane. The 
 chief's answer was : "You can eat the cane or 
 use it in some other way, but you shall not 
 make rum!" and they didn't! The vessels 
 were all put in a pile in the house in front of 
 the chief's hammock and I was called in to 
 see the sight. It reminded me of what the 
 Ephesians did after hearing the preaching of 
 Paul: "Not a few of them that practiced 
 magical arts brought their books together and 
 burned them in the sight of all," Acts 19: 19. 
 The chief broke the vessels, and there has not 
 been a drunken feast on this island since that 
 day. 
 
 The date of Chief Robinson's conversion 
 was November 14th, 1914, and from that time 
 
The 
 
 ..a 
 the Island of 
 
 main street on tne island ot Rio Diablo. jMative woman 
 carrying her husband's canoe. Cross indicates the 
 last rum shop, now closed. 
 
 A Panamanian policeman with some native boys and girls. The 
 steps to the new government public school are in the background. 
 
CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 155 
 
 he has preached in the power of the Holy 
 Spirit. He did not regain his strength rap- 
 idly; it was three months before he could 
 work again; and during that time he learned 
 lessons of obedience. As the Mountain In- 
 dians visit him he spreads the gospel to them, 
 and my boys tell me that he often talks of 
 Jesus to them in the store. 
 
 During the chief's illness the leader of the 
 faction who had wanted the drinking feast 
 stirred up a revolt, urging the people to make 
 him chief. As the office is not hereditary, 
 but usually lasts until the death of the chief, 
 they tried to kill Chief Robinson by giving 
 him some fish that was a deadly poison. He 
 discovered it before he had eaten much, but 
 the little that he did take made him very sick. 
 God needed him, however, and he recovered. 
 The rebels went on holding meetings and 
 planned and carried out a spree on another 
 island, at which the leader made such a beast 
 of himself that the people on that island beat 
 him and he came home somewhat humbled. 
 
 But now a new element was introduced 
 into the situation. Before I lefft Colon to 
 come to this island I had called twice on the 
 
156 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 new President of Panama. The second time 
 I asked him for a letter as a passport, telling 
 him why I wanted it. He replied : "Oh, you 
 do not need a passport. This is a free coun- 
 try and you can go where you please and start 
 a school." I thanked him for that, and then 
 he asked me why I wanted to go to the In- 
 dians; he said they were a very treacherous 
 people; that the Government had to send sol- 
 diers to Port-o-Baldia to keep order, they 
 were so terrible. 
 
 I answered: "Mr. President, I am going be- 
 cause I feel that God wants me to tell them of 
 Jesus who loves them. I want to teach them 
 God^s Book." 
 
 "Are you not afraid?" 
 
 "No, because Jesus has said, *I am with you 
 always.' " 
 
 "But are you going alone?" 
 
 "Yes, alone, yet not alone. God has said, 
 'Certainly I will be with thee,' and I believe 
 God." 
 
 "Oh, surely, but I would not risk my life 
 going to them. They will kill you." 
 
 "No, they will not; I am not in the least 
 afraid of that" 
 
CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 157 
 
 "Well, you must be a brave woman, a very 
 brave woman !" 
 
 *^I get it all from God. I am not naturally 
 brave, but he makes me so, and I love to obey 
 Him." 
 
 "Then I wish you much success." 
 
 Two years and three months after that con- 
 versation in his house President Porras 
 knocked at my door in Rio Diablo. I never 
 was more surprised. Here we stood face to 
 face again, this time among the "treacherous" 
 Indians. He shook hands heartily, saying: 
 "I am so glad to see you, Miss Coope. You 
 are looking well." 
 
 "Yes, you see the Indians have fed me in- 
 stead of feeding on me," I replied. "But, 
 Mr. President, are you not afraid to come 
 here?" 
 
 "Not now. Your bravery has encouraged 
 me. I dare to follow you. I need not ask 
 if you are well ; I see it. I have heard great 
 reports of your school and I appreciate your 
 good work." 
 
 It is safe to go where the banner of Jesus 
 has been raised, but it is blessed to go and lift 
 it for Jesus, He leading to the spot! 
 
158 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 Seeing how the school had affected these 
 ^^treacherous'' Indians, how clean their dress, 
 houses, and streets were, and hearing the chil- 
 dren sing the national anthem and gospel 
 hymns in English and Spanish, the President 
 was surprised and made arrangements with 
 Chief Robinson to have a school here sup- 
 ported by the Government in which only 
 Spanish should be taught. 
 
 Now the would-be chief and his followers 
 were not in favor of my Bible school, because 
 their wickedness was exposed by its teachings. 
 They would not send their children nor would 
 they attend the gospel services. Having had 
 the light, they shrank back into the darkness. 
 So when the President proposed the new 
 Spanish school to Chief Robinson he of course 
 had to call a meeting of his people. All were 
 eager to know what President Porras had 
 said, for a little of it had leaked out, and the 
 rebels wanted to know how the chief would 
 act now. If he had another school they were 
 surely going to kill him, and if they got into 
 power they were going to close my school. 
 So they came to the meeting for spite, with 
 murder in their hearts. 
 
CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 159 
 
 I was called to the meeting, although I un- 
 derstand very little of the Indian language; 
 and there in the midst of five chiefs and their 
 bodyguards and the leading men from the 
 other smaller island, whose chief is led by 
 Chief Robinson, with every man, friend and 
 foe of our noble chief, I sat, wondering, pray- 
 ing, watching the faces of the rebels, who sat 
 on the back seats as backsliders always do. 
 
 The chief stood up and told them all that 
 the President had said. There was perfect 
 stillness aside from an occasional grunt; then 
 like a bomb in their midst he dropped this 
 decision: "I have decided to resign as chief. 
 You can appoint a new one and settle with the 
 President." 
 
 He sat down, and the assembly were dumb- 
 founded. For several seconds there was not 
 even a grunt! Then the second chief here, 
 who was partly for the existing order of things 
 and partly for the new would-be chief, rose 
 and in a very determined manner declared 
 that they could not let him resign. 
 
 Such a hubbub as followed, all airing their 
 own views! After much palavering, during 
 which the chief sat and listened and I could 
 
i6o ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 only pray that the right might prevail and the 
 rebel party be broken up, several men stood 
 up voicing their decision to this effect: they 
 had unanimously voted to have Chief Robin- 
 son remain in office, and all the rebellious ones 
 would return under his leadership, and what- 
 ever his decision was concerning even another 
 school, they would abide by it! 
 
 Then the chief talked to them. He told 
 them that as they were citizens of the Re- 
 public of Panama they should be obedient to 
 its laws, its President, etc.; that as Indians 
 they would still be Indians, only with more 
 advantages (some had gotten the idea that if 
 they had an education they would cease to 
 be Indians), because they were hindered in 
 their business transactions by having to have 
 interpreters, and if they knew how to read and 
 write the Spanish language they could attend 
 to their own business; that the young people 
 ought to have a chance. He said that he ap- 
 proved of the new school, but that they could 
 send their children to either school or keep 
 them at home ; there was no compulsion ; that 
 they need not mix with the foreigners, as only 
 the teachers would be allowed to live on the 
 
CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND i6i 
 
 islands. (They have a great dread of the 
 white man taking their women.) He said 
 that he would not allow a priest or nun to 
 come as a teacher; that for his part he wanted 
 the Bible taught, not creeds or prayer-books, 
 images or crosses. 
 
 After this speech there were grunts and 
 grunts, and at times a man would get up and 
 take the floor. It was a very well ordered 
 meeting, and at the end of three hours we all 
 went to our homes. The President returned 
 the next day and was told the result of the 
 meeting, which held for three islands, for the 
 chief of Mdna was there, having learned a sad 
 lesson when he put me off his island. Al- 
 though his own son attended my school his 
 island was in ignorance. 
 
 So now there are three Government schools 
 on the three important islands, Rio Diablo 
 especially being called "the New York of San 
 Bias" by traders and visitors, and there has 
 been progress along all lines. The chief has 
 learned to bake bread, and now has a bakery 
 on the spot where he once had a saloon 
 and is selling daily all the bread that he can 
 make, using two three-burner oil-stoves. Four 
 
i62 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 other men, each of whom was formerly a rum- 
 seller, have ordered stoves also; and besides 
 this in their stores there are Bibles, hymn- 
 books, slates and pencils for sale. Praise God 
 for this wonderful change! This is a sample 
 of what God can do among "treacherous'* In- 
 dians I 
 
 Before closing this account of Chief Rob- 
 inson I must tell how staunchly he defended 
 me the first year that I worked on the island. 
 Chiefs from two of the other islands were 
 much against me for coming and opposed to 
 Chief Robinson for letting me in. The idea 
 that Indians should learn to read and write 
 was preposterous! No, they should never be 
 like the pale-face! After waiting impa- 
 tiently nine months for me to get weary and 
 go, they came over, one hundred naked red 
 Indians, in their canoes, with a red flag on the 
 prow. They had not notified Chief Robin- 
 son that they were coming, but as the old say- 
 ing is, "murder will out," and he heard about 
 it, and what he said was carried back to them. 
 He said that he didn't want any fights, but he 
 wanted his people educated and he was going 
 to have them educated, and the school teacher 
 
CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 163 
 
 would be protected by their lives. If Chief 
 Neegah wanted to fight he had better look 
 out, as he had plenty of ammunition, and if 
 they came it would be the worse for them. 
 
 After threatening a few times they did come. 
 The women on our island were so afraid that 
 the men came to my house and nailed up every 
 door but one, intending to put the women and 
 children in there. They believed in pre- 
 paredness! It was reported that the enemy 
 had passed in the night to gather forces from 
 another island, and that in the evening there 
 were two hundred coming. 
 
 Men with rifles walked around the town 
 and they fired off a cannon that the chief owns 
 to warn off intruders. It sounded like war- 
 times. The next day little Joe said: *^Miss 
 Coope, the mountain Indians and Neegah are 
 coming to kill you." 
 
 "Yes? Well, will you let them?" 
 
 "No, nol" 
 
 Then began a sham battle among my boys 
 to show how they would fight to defend me, 
 and Joe tumbled over four or five boys in the 
 fray, at which we had a great laugh. 
 
 At noon the enemy came. I saw twelve 
 
1 64 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 men get into a three-by-nine foot canoe and 
 paddle towards the island. Our men fired, 
 the cannon boomed, and one boat-load was 
 captured without a man being killed or 
 wounded. Our men soon hauled down that 
 red rag and dragged it on the ground. They 
 took the captives to the chief, who lay in his 
 hammock giving orders. He talked to the 
 prisoners and let them go, and they have 
 never visited us since. This battle was on 
 November 15 th, 1913. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 
 INDIANS 
 
 IT is always interesting to know something 
 about the family life and peculiar cus- 
 toms of any people, and the San Bias Indians 
 have their own rules of domestic government. 
 One of these is that a girl when married never 
 leaves the parental roof-tree. The man has 
 to come to her home and make it his as long 
 as she lives. If she dies and he marries 
 again, he goes to the home of the new wife, 
 but the children of the first wife stay with the 
 grandmother or aunts, so not many women 
 here have to fill the position of stepmother 
 and wait on and train the first wife's children. 
 Chief Robinson, however, had ideas of his 
 own and did not propose to follow the Indian 
 custom. He had been among white people 
 in various ports for several years, and he chose 
 to follow their way in this matter. He did 
 
 165 
 
i66 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 not want to be a slave to his wife's father or 
 her unmarried or even her married brothers, 
 for even though a son is married he is re- 
 sponsible for his sister's comfort if she is 
 single, and if she is married he watches his 
 brother-in-law. Although he may be a slave 
 to some other man, he does not show much 
 mercy to his sister's husband. 
 
 The chief did not want that kind of guard- 
 ianship ; but when he planned to take his wife 
 into a house built as the white man, or wah- 
 gah, builds it, he had not only her family 
 against him but the whole islands; he was 
 breaking their custom; it had never been done 
 before 1 His wife refused to go into the 
 house, which was not yet built, and her hus- 
 band, who was not yet chief, left her and for 
 a month they lived apart. Finally she de- 
 cided that he was a fine man, that he knew 
 something, and that he had a will of his own, 
 and she would accept that will for herself! 
 The custom is that all that the husband owns 
 is claimed by his family, so she wisely rea- 
 soned that if he built a house of his own, when 
 he died his family would claim it, and she, 
 having left her father's home, would then 
 
CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 167 
 
 have no home. She told her husband her con- 
 clusion, and he straightway made a will giv- 
 ing all his property to her and their children. 
 So the house was built directly opposite her 
 mother's home, a two-story structure with a 
 cement floor. The ground floor is used for a 
 store; upstairs they sleep. The wife lives 
 most of the time in the kitchen of her mother's 
 house, for of course they could not burn logs 
 in a ^*wah-gah" house, and she must cook! so 
 that relieves her. 
 
 I once asked John Davis what his wife's 
 name was, and he answered : "John Davis same 
 me." Although they do name their wives as 
 it suits them, they generally address them as 
 Homey, while the husband is Suey. 
 
 The San Bias marriage I have never seen, 
 but I have heard it I They marry at night, 
 and never on a moonlight night when I could 
 see. The chief told me that the father of the 
 girl makes the arrangement. He asks the fa- 
 ther of the man for his son. Sometimes the 
 son refuses at once; but if he is willing, or if 
 his father chooses to have him married, the 
 ceremony goes on. The girl is put into a 
 hammock; then several young married men 
 
i68 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 go to the house of the bridegroom-to-be and 
 carry him bodily to the girl's house. If he 
 does not know beforehand what is coming he 
 knows now, for as they carry him they yell, 
 "Suey! Suey! Sueyl" Then they put him 
 into the hammock, and if he does not want to 
 be married he jumps out and runs away. The 
 young men run after him and bring him back, 
 and again he runs away, sometimes into the 
 sea. The third time they bring him back, 
 and if he wants to be married he stays and his 
 friends go home and leave him. He is now 
 married. If he really does not want to marry 
 he jumps out of the hammock once more and 
 goes home, and they do not run after him; 
 they leave him until another moon, hoping 
 that he will change his mind. Sometimes he 
 does, and marries that girl, sometimes he does 
 not. But marry he must, and if he won't be 
 married when sober they will get him drunk 
 so that he can't run or resist; and when he 
 sobers up, often he is vexed and leaves the 
 girl and the island, taking a wife of his own 
 choice, arranging the matter with the girl's 
 father, as she is not to be spoken to by her 
 sweetheart. 
 
CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 169 
 
 The girl at her wedding gets no presents, 
 no feast, no new clothes ; these are given to her 
 when she is "chee-cheed," which is only a 
 short time before she is given in marriage. 
 
 Some of my girls are refusing to be married 
 so young; they say they want to come to school 
 and learn something; and the chief is persuad- 
 ing the parents to let their girls develop more. 
 The girls are only like little children when 
 they become mothers, which has much to do 
 with their dwarfed stature; few are taller 
 than I, and I feel very big towering over 
 some of the women, who stand under my arm. 
 They are very strong, however; the men guard 
 them and seem to think a great deal of them ; 
 they do not work in the fields. The women 
 go in canoes to wash their clothes in the river, 
 and they bring the drinking water in cala- 
 bashes and gourds. The men make their own 
 shirts and trousers and teach the boys to do 
 so ; the women do not sew for the men. 
 
 These people are peaceful and quiet, go- 
 ing to bed early and rising early and working 
 their plantations. Cocoanuts are the chief 
 product, and the traders do a big business 
 bringing rice, sugar, soap, tobacco, cloth and 
 
I70 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 much rum to exchange for them. The rum 
 importation has been stopped of late, how- 
 ever, so that when an Indian wants it he has 
 to go to Colon in his canoe and get a demijohn. 
 The people's needs are few — cloth for the 
 shirts and trousers of the men, beads and cloth 
 for the women, and a little extra when the 
 baby girl comes, not for clothing but for a 
 gold ring for her nose. The custom is to 
 pierce the nose and ears of the girls on the 
 third day. Since Andrew Ferguson gave his 
 heart to Jesus he says he has persuaded his 
 father and stepmother not to have the baby's 
 nose pierced. The chief's wife has had two 
 daughters since I came here, and neither one 
 has had its nose pierced, so that now several 
 of the baby girls have escaped that horrible 
 custom, which even the men approve, saying 
 it "looks pretty"! I told the chief he ought 
 to bore these men's noses! 
 
 I have the pleasure of naming the babies. 
 I keep a record of births, and give the mother 
 a paper; she is pleased to have the "letter," as 
 she calls it, and when I visit a home I am 
 often asked how old the baby is and what its 
 name is. They have a custom of naming a 
 
CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 171 
 
 baby according to what they see or what the 
 child does. If he eats plenty of rice he is 
 called Abahdoomah, Big-rice-eater; if he is 
 fair-skinned he is Me-me-see-puha, White 
 Baby; or if he is tiny he is called Pee-pee- 
 wah. Generally to boys they say Machee, 
 which is an abbreviation of Machee-malo, the 
 word signifying boy. To girls they say Puna, 
 which means girl; often to babies just Mee- 
 mee, which is baby, until he or she is named, 
 after our style of nicknames. 
 
 The San Bias Indians have a peculiar cus- 
 tom of "making a friend." This is done in 
 childhood days by both sexes. A boy will ask 
 another boy: "Will you be my friend?" If 
 the one asked says that he will, then the first 
 boy gives him a piece of cloth, enough to make 
 a shirt; then he boils an egg and cuts it in two 
 and they sit down and eat it together. Ever 
 after that they are friends. The next day or 
 week perhaps the second boy returns the com- 
 pliment by giving to the other a shirt and 
 boiling an egg; the girls do the same. I was 
 puzzled when I first came here and would 
 ask a boy regarding a companion whom I had 
 seen him walking around with, "How is your 
 
172 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 friend?" to have him answer, "He is not my 
 friend; John or Ned is my friend," and yet 
 he would not be with John or Ned. So they 
 explained their method of making a "friend," 
 saying that the companion whom they are with 
 is not necessarily their friend; they may not 
 associate with their "friend" very much, but 
 still he is their "friend." 
 
 The girls of San Bias are interesting as well 
 as the boys and I have had numbers of them 
 in my school. Some of them I call my New 
 Testament girls, and they are earnest Chris- 
 tians. Owing to their early marriages — for 
 there are no old maids or bachelor girls among 
 the San Bias — many of my pupils are mothers, 
 but that does not especially interfere with 
 their school life, for the baby can be left at 
 home with the grandmother while the mother 
 comes to learn to read and write. 
 
 The photographs which are reproduced in 
 this book show how the girls and women dress. 
 The skirts are not sewed; they are just a piece 
 of cloth put around the body and tucked in 
 at the waist. The yoke and sleeves of the 
 waist are of many colored strips, and over 
 the yoke is the bodice, which is very elaborate. 
 
CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 173 
 
 It is made of several pieces of bright-colored 
 calicoes put one on top of the other, and each 
 layer cut in figures or designs, letting the 
 next piece under show through. Often there 
 are six layers of cloth sewed on in this way. 
 They do not use a thimble in sewing, and they 
 push the needle from them. These tattooed 
 bodices are often quite artistic and are much 
 better than the African custom of tattooing 
 the body. 
 
 But the crowning feature of the costume 
 are the heavy strings of beads of all colors 
 on the neck, arms and legs and the nose-rings. 
 A girl does not wear finger-rings until she is 
 married, and then she has two on every finger 
 and often three and four. The beads are not 
 strung for a certain distance, so that only the 
 strings lie against the neck in the back, and 
 the beads, sometimes a hundred strings in one 
 necklace, hang in heavy masses in front. In 
 the photographs many of the beads appear 
 white, but they are not; the women are too 
 fond of bright blues and reds and yellows to 
 wear white. The beads for the legs are 
 strung on pieces of wood about the size of the 
 ankle but bound on so tightly that they stop 
 
174 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 the circulation and the flesh is in ridges. 
 Sometimes the girls tell me that they cannot 
 sleep because of the pain from that tight bind- 
 ing; but Dame Fashion is as tyrannical in San 
 Bias as in other parts of the world, and suf- 
 fering is endured if the wearer is conscious 
 of being in style. However many of the girls 
 and women are not now binding their ankles 
 and arms and a few have taken off the nose- 
 rings. 
 
 These Indians are sailors born. When the 
 traders come they depend on the Indians to 
 pilot their vessels. They have eyes like a 
 hawk, and often start to Colon at midnight, 
 moon or no moon; a good wind is all that 
 they wait for. If they have a good wind they 
 will be in Colon the next night by sunset, but 
 often a squall comes, upsetting their small 
 canoes. They lose much, but they say: "An 
 Indian can't drown; we never heard of an 
 Indian drowning." Their cargo is usually 
 cocoanuts, sometimes alligator pears and 
 mangoes. They buy to bring back cloth, 
 sugar, rice, and beads for mother, wife or 
 daughters ; they would not be Indians without 
 
CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 175 
 
 beads, though the men do not decorate at all; 
 that is reserved for the women. 
 
 We had a new thing last Christmas. I told 
 the boys to bring a flagpole and place it in 
 front of the schoolhouse. They did this and 
 then put one in front of every home in town. 
 Why not? Then every man, woman and 
 child made a raid on my Standard Diction- 
 ary to get patterns of the flags of all nations, 
 and to save my book I had to cut out the three 
 leaves of lithographed flags, and the making 
 of flags was entered into with enthusiasm. 
 There are now 105 flags on three streamers 
 from the schoolhouse pole and countless 
 others in town. No photographer could re- 
 sist taking a snapshot of us in our beflagged 
 condition. I have never used a camera my- 
 self and have to depend on tourists for the pic- 
 tures that we have. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 god's leadings 
 
 MANY have asked me how I came to 
 work among these Indians, and in an- 
 swer to that I can only point to God's lead- 
 ings. I have given each link in the chain, 
 each one seemingly small and unimportant 
 yet absolutely necessary to bring about the 
 thing that God had planned. He sent me 
 into a home where I was not wanted, where 
 I was not spoiled by doting parents; by a 
 facial disfigurement he saved me from van- 
 ity; he chose me from among the beautiful 
 and attractive and wise of my native land and 
 of America, my adopted land, touched my 
 heart, and I responded, obeyed and went. 
 That is the story in a nutshell. The results: 
 Honor for me and salvation from God for the 
 Indians. As I look out of my door as I 
 write these lines and see twenty-five of our 
 Christian boys and forty of our girls working 
 
 176 
 
GOD'S LEADINGS 177 
 
 in the burning sun, as they have done for two 
 days, to fill in the large holes washed out by 
 the sea at the foundation of my house, and 
 know that before they began the work they 
 met at the school at five o'clock in the morn- 
 ing to pray that God would help them to 
 make the foundation and the wall good and 
 strong and that none would quarrel and fight 
 — because, you see, they are human, and some 
 of the girls are not yet Christians — I can only 
 praise God for these trophies of His grace. 
 He has the power to save and civilize "treach- 
 erous" Indians a hundred miles from the won- 
 derful "Big Ditch" that slides and stops 
 traffic; and He is building canals through 
 which His grace is flowing unhindered, to the 
 glory of His great name and the joy of angels. 
 If any who read these lines would really 
 like to know God's will for them, I can only 
 say, Ask God. He will show you better than 
 any human being can. He will make diffi- 
 cult things stepping-stones and enable you to 
 do His will as he makes it known. See God in 
 everything and make everything work for His 
 glory. Do not think that God will send you 
 off to China or Japan or India at your first 
 
178 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 impulse to go. The impulse is good, and may 
 be one of the links necessary. But seek His 
 will, and He will let you know in His own way 
 what is best. Stay at home until He says: 
 "Go," and use the mop or the spade, the pen 
 or the typewriter, for His glory. When your 
 faith grows strong through every-day experir 
 ences He will promote you. Dish-washing is 
 a necessary part of a missionary's training, for 
 I have to do it between teaching and preach- 
 ing and leading precious souls to Christ. And 
 I scour my pans and clean just common barn 
 lanterns to light my school, and wash, iron 
 and press clothes — all common things that I 
 learned to do long ago. I bake bread and 
 have taught an Indian chief how to bake it 
 and fitted up the stove, for a knowledge of 
 tools is pretty likely to be required on a mis- 
 sion field. 
 
 Do you sing over your home work? Do 
 you pray over the common, everyday things 
 of life? Are you obedient to those over you, 
 whoever they may be? Jesus learned obedi- 
 ence "by the things which He suflFered." Do 
 not use human arguments or reasonings when 
 you come to God. Talk to Him, let Him talk 
 
GOD'S LEADINGS 179 
 
 to you, then obey, and you will be surprised 
 at the results. 
 
 I am surprised that God chose me to come 
 to this people so near to the spot where big 
 men were digging a big canal, the wonder of 
 the world. Big minds turned that way, and 
 one would have thought that big Boards that 
 do big things would have seen an opening to 
 get the gospel to these Indians. But the open- 
 ing was so small that they didn't see it, and 
 God let me in through the opening because I 
 believed. ^'Blessed is she that believed; for 
 there shall be a fulfilment of the things which 
 have been spoken to her from the Lord." 
 Luke 1 : 45. 
 
 If some one, after reading this simple ac- 
 count of what God has wrought, would step 
 out by faith on the promises and do something, 
 go somewhere, write, pray, sing for God, let 
 it be over the garden wall, in the kitchen, 
 across the street, in the field or factory, in 
 Sunday-school, mission hall or slums, God 
 will be honored, the doer will be blessed, and 
 souls will be saved. 
 
 In closing let me say that I have never been 
 lonely, sad or blue. I have so much to do 
 
i8o ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 
 
 that time seems to fly. Some ask me how I 
 have time to write letters. I take time. I 
 have no spare moments; I have busy moments, 
 each one a gem. While the water is boiling 
 for my cocoa perhaps I have two minutes, and 
 I take a piece of paper and write to this one 
 or that. I am kept by the power of God from 
 the assaults of the enemy and often from His 
 suggestions. I have learned to rest by change 
 of occupation. 
 
 The same God who enabled Daniel to pur- 
 pose in his heart to keep clean in morals and 
 in food is here in San Bias to keep me. The 
 same God who preserved David Livingstone, 
 who was over a year without letters or papers, 
 can and does keep me company. Oh, my 
 mouth is enlarged like Paul's when I begin 
 to speak of God's leadings. His presence. His 
 love and power! My soul is full of joy be- 
 cause Jesus, the Son of God, is my Saviour, 
 Sanctifier, Healer, and soon-coming King. 
 The saved ones here are looking for His return 
 with joy. Pray for them and for me, for I 
 am looking ahead for more land to be pos- 
 sessed by the saints of San Bias. We are 
 marching on by faith.