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Our West African Rest Home

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 2, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 18.

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Our West African Rest Home

By T. M. French

T. M. FRENCH
The establishment of a rest home in the Canary Islands indeed brings relief to our West African missionaries. It furnishes a retreat from the malarial West Coast, and will enable our workers to return to their work with new health and courage to battle with heathenism.
Last November Brother and Sister B. B. Aldrich sailed for the Canary Islands, with instructions to locate this rest home and begin work among the islanders. After looking over Grand Canary and Teneriffe, the latter was chosen as the better island for the new station.
The island of Teneriffe affords any desired altitude for recuperation, from the warm coast country to the snow-capped peak of Mount Teyde, which is 12,000 feet high. After spending months in the tropics, it is refreshing to get a view of this snow-capped peak. With a small camping outfit, our missionaries could find a cold, bracing climate near upon the summit of the peak for a few weeks.
Teneriffe is also very fertile, and a great variety of fruits and vegetables is grown in abundance. The green valleys and mountainsides make a very beautiful scene. In fact, the ideal climate and attractiveness of the island are drawing large numbers of European tourists here for the winter.
With seven principal islands and a population of nearly half a million inhabitants, the Canaries form a good mission field. And the Roman yoke, which is heavily felt throughout the islands, should stir us to earnest efforts to give this people the gospel in its purity.
Our mission home is at present located at La Laguna, the old capital of the islands, and the home of the Catholic bishop. It has a population of about sixteen thousand, and is two thousand feet above sea-level. Santa Cruz, the present capital and port, is easily reached by an electric tram car. La Laguna has a very pleasant climate during the summer, and is visited by many tourists.
Let us unitedly pray that this rest home may prove not only a blessing to our West African work, but that it may be a beacon-light in leading many souls to the light of present truth.