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Updated: June 2, 2025
The task had not become easier for her, for the new trade with Calabar had brought about a demand for Okoyong yams, and the people were so busy planting at their farms that she was unable to hire labour.
Fortunately there was one lady missionary in Calabar who had the courage to prefer Okoyong to quieter stations-Miss Wright of the Girls' Institute, who asked the local Committee to send her there as assistant to Miss Slessor; and although the Committee approved, the matter was referred to the Women's Committee at home.
Goldie's letters to a friend at this time there is a delightful touch. "I am at Okoyong," he wrote, "and am not sure of the date." Her womanly sympathy and tenderness were never better exhibited than in her relations with her dark sisters about her. She entered into their lives as few have been able to do.
She was going into a wild country. She was going to go ahead of the other missionaries to find a place where they could build a mission house and church. When King Eyo Honesty VII heard of it, he came to see Mary. "So you are going into the wild country, to Okoyong," he said. "Yes, and I am so happy. Those people need to have their hearts and lives changed.
She resolved to do what she had never done before, send down to the Consulate at Duke Town and seek the assistance of the Government not only to rescue this particular victim, but to end the evil throughout the length and breadth of Okoyong.
In the darkness and silence, when all were asleep, she would hear the faint words, "Mem, Mem, Mem!" the child's name for her and the wee hand would be held up for her to kiss. Early one Sunday morning she passed away in her arms. Robed in a pinafore, with her beads and a sash, and a flower in her hand, she looked "like an angel child." The event caused a strange stir in Okoyong.
In Travels in West Africa she gives the following considered view of the missionary: This very wonderful lady has been eighteen years in Calabar; for the last six or seven living entirely alone, as far as white folks go, in a clearing in the forest near to one of the principal villages of the Okoyong district, and ruling as a veritable white chief over the entire district.
Every now and then we come across such remarks as these: "a Calabar palaver," "a chapter of Calabar history," "a picture of Calabar outside the gospel area," "this happens in Okoyong every day." Her own experience helped her to understand the story of these primitive civilisations, and her annotations on this part of the Bible have always the sharpest point.
As she had foreseen, they had now less time for palavers, and less inclination for useless drinking, and still more useless quarrelling and fighting. The story of the settlement in Okoyong and of the building of the hut and hall was related by Miss Slessor in the Missionary Record of the Church for March 1889.
That way you can get well and come back to work here at Okoyong." "You are right," said Mary. "Much as I hate to leave my work here, I know I must go. I will ask for a furlough at once." For three years Mary had worked in Okoyong. But already there was a change among the heathen people. The Gospel of Jesus has a wonderful power to change hearts and lives.
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