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Very shyly he came up to "Ma" and offered her a handful of money, asking her to buy provisions for herself, as he did not know what kind she liked. Two short years before, the place and people had been known only to traders. Up in Arochuku similar progress was being made. Her first long stay there, spent in a hut without furniture with not even a chair to sit on was a happy and strenuous one.
I know so little about the tribes, except those who come to Calabar or send their girls to our Institute." "The Aros clan are a wise but tricky people. They live in thirty villages near the district of Arochuku, where I would like to begin a mission. They are strong and rule the Ibo tribe because of their trade and religion. They trade slaves, which their religion furnishes.
The troops were moved into Arochuku by way of the Creek, and the forces of civilisation encountered the warriors of barbarism in the swamps and bush that edge the waterway. When the troops entered the towns they found juju-houses everywhere, and in almost every home were rude images smeared with the blood of sacrifice.
This brought the whole matter of extension to a definite issue, and a forward movement was unanimously agreed on by the Council the ladies being specially anxious for this any developments to take place by the way of the Enyong Creek. A committee was appointed to visit Arochuku and to confer with Mary.
"I am praying every day that the Mission Board will let me work in your country." Mary and her friends now went to Amasu to see the Gospel work that was being done there. Then they visited the villages around Arochuku where the Long Juju was. Then they started back to Akpap. They visited many very small villages on the way back. Everywhere the people said to them, "We want to learn book."
The journey was by launch to Itu, by steel canoe up the Enyong Creek, thence by foot or hammock to Arochuku and Bende. He stated that Bishop Johnston of the Church Missionary Society was already in Bende prospecting. When she received his letter she said to herself, "Shall I go?" She did not wish to compromise the mission in any way, and proposed to go about the matter quietly, at her own expense.
He can get on quite well without you though you can't get on without God. Ay, you have that lesson to learn yet." At Arochuku it happened to be Egbo day, and the place was astir with naked people, who came and stared at them as they ate. One man, who was dressed in a hat, a loincloth, and a walking-stick, sat in a corner and received a lecture from "Ma," which lasted the whole meal.
They had heard about the good things she had done in the jungle. "O God," prayed Mary, "I want to bring the Gospel to these man-eaters for whom Christ died. Please, dear God, make the home church and the Mission Board see the great need here so that they will let me win this part of the country for Christ." Mary promised the people of Arochuku she would come again and open a school.
What a great change the Gospel had made! Only two years before the people were wild savages. Mary had to hold services at Arochuku out-doors, but now the people built a church and a schoolhouse. At other villages along Enyong creek congregations were organized, and churches and schoolhouses were built. In 1905 Mary had to go to the Mission Council meeting at Calabar.
If I go now we shall be the first in the field, and it will not be discourteous to the Roman Catholics as it would be if we came in afterwards." Before the end of the journey she consented to go. When she arrived at Arochuku she found herself in the old slave centre of the Aros, a densely populated district, some 80,000 people living within a radius of a few square miles.
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