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There were two stations on the west of the Cross River Ikorofiong, which, however, was really an Efik trading town, and higher up, Unwana, which was a back-water and unfit for a base for inland work.
She knew that, away on the other side of the river, some hours distant, another missionary was working. "You must go across the river to Ikorofiong for more medicine." "No, no!" they said, "we dare not go. They will slay any man who goes there." She was in despair. Then someone said, "There is a man of that country living in his canoe on the river. Perhaps he would go?"
The stranger was the Rev. Dr. Robb, one of the ablest missionaries in the Mission, then stationed at Ikorofiong. The boy never forgot the incident. But he grew up a heathen, and went to the cannibal feasts at Arochuku.
But there was no alternative, and, arraying herself in the rags, she went forth to meet the critical gaze of the crowd. The medicine she had brought had proved insufficient, and more must be obtained; many lives, she knew, depended upon it. To go back to Ekenge was out of the question. Was there, she asked the people about her, a way to Ikorofiong? The Rev.
Rattray of the Mission staff was attached to it as medical officer. The Aros did not wait for the advance; they raided a village only fifteen miles from Ikorofiong, and, as a precaution, all the missionaries upriver were ordered down to Duke and Creek Towns.
"I don't have enough of this medicine with me," said Mary. She knew that away on the other side of the river another missionary was working. She knew he had some of the medicine. She went to the men of the village. "You must go across the river to Ikorofiong for more medicine," said Mary. "No, no, we cannot go," said the men of the village. "Our enemies are on the other side of the river.
Missionaries had been here for thirty years, but there weren't many of them. They worked chiefly in Duke Town, Old Town, and Creek Town three towns at the mouth of the Calabar River. They also had opened a station at Ikunetu and Ikorofiong on the Cross River. One day Mary was at one of the stations with another missionary.
God blessed my work, and He can protect me in this strange new land of the cannibals. I do hope the Mission Board will let me go and work among the Aros and Ibos." The missionaries in Calabar wanted Mary to work at Ikorofiong and at Unwana, which were two towns farther up the Cross River from Akpap. But Mary did not think these were good places for her work.
The staff, however, had never been very large; of Europeans at this time there were four ordained missionaries, four men teachers, and four women teachers, and of natives one ordained missionary and eighteen agents; and efforts were confined to Duke Town, Old Town, Creek Town, Ikunetu, and Ikorofiong all on the banks of the rivers or creeks with several out-stations.
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