The Tanganyika Mission, Africa
By J. C. ROGERS
WE returned Oct. 29, 1914, from an eight days’ trip among the villages where we intend to locate our mission station. On this tour we traveled one hundred and fifty miles by bicycle and on foot. In some places we found the paths too rough and crooked for the bicycle; but for seventy-five miles on the Boma road, we found the going good. We hope to secure a site on or near this road, so that it will not be necessary for the mission to build its own roads. I was glad to find cattle in some of the villages, indicating that the locality is free from tsetse. The district is well watered. There have been no rains for five or six months, yet we crossed many fine streams. In one place, which is the best site I have yet seen, there is a splendid little stream rising in the midst of a fine clump of trees two or three acres in extent. A little waterfall from this stream could be heard for a half mile in the still morning as we passed. In July I spent several days in this neighborhood, examining this site. East of the spring an open, rolling plain extends for two miles, where we saw plenty of game grazing. It is a fine place for cattle. North and south are large belts of timber, where the soil is good for cultivation. The timber is small and easily cleared. The only objection we could find to start this place is that the population is not as large as we should like to see. There are ten or twelve villages within a radius of seven miles, but they are not large villages, averaging only about one hundred and twenty-five persons each. Twelve miles north is a village of six hundred, and another of five hundred ten miles away. The two chiefs of the districts were friendly, and would favor our locating near them. We spent one night in each of their villages. The people of the village nearest the site just described begged my wife to locate there. The women of this village had never seen a white woman, and were at first afraid to come to our tent. Next morning they all came and asked for a school. The first heavy rain of the season fell on the day of our return. We found the temporary house we had been occupying flooded; but we are now putting on new thatch, which we hope will keep out the next rain. We are making some gardens for vegetables and corn. Some seeds that we planted before starting on our trip are now growing nicely. While out this time we found a kind of wild fruit like a plum that is quite good eaten from the tree, and its juice makes good jelly. But sugar at a shilling a pound forbids much jelly making. I intend making one more trip alone during November, probably traveling about three hundred miles. On this trip I shall find whether there is any suitable site where the population is more numerous. We believe that many of our people are praying that God will direct us to the proper site, and we believe that their prayers with ours will bring the desired help in this important matter. Mporokoso, North Rhodesia.