In Bonacca by J. Garfield Smalley

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 6, 1906

In Bonacca

By J. Garfield Smalley

J. GARFIELD SMALLEY

“To come to Bonacca is like going into a new world. Our island is about twelve miles long, and from three to five miles in width, separated into three distinct divisions, as you will see by the map. A number of the inhabitants live on keys, situated to the south of the island. A few of the keys are large, and of some value, while others are small and insignificant, except as they serve to enhance the general interest of the scenery.”

To reach the Tranquila Industrial School, we must ascend about twelve hundred feet above sea-level, in a distance of two miles, over a narrow, winding path. I think we have learned the experience of the hare and the tortoise, so we do not use all our energy at the beginning.

One who has not climbed our mountains knows little of the beauties of this island. The cloud, the silence, the gloom; the visitations of heaven’s lightning, darkness, thunder; the rainbow of promise bordering the side of the mountain, right at one’s feet; spicy odors of flowers and shrubs; fresh, spirit-elating breezes sounding through the dark pine wood and cocoanut walks; parrots, humming-birds “with their long bills, suspended in the air as if set there to fan the flowers”—all this is an expression of God’s creative handiwork for the enjoyment of his children, who can see his power reflected everywhere on sea, sky, and land. When I look at these heaven-built mountain walls, I think of the refuge just such places have been for the rich and poor, the feeble, and the little child all through the ages, in the Eastern hemisphere, when worldly power and thus cruelty were ready to swallow them up.

One of the interesting scenes of the island is Bonacca Falls. About one hundred yards below the junction of the two mountain streams, the water leaps over a chasm beneath overarching vines,—sparkling, eternal freshness upon all around,—and then sinks, foaming, into a rocky basin, only to fall again some thirty feet in foam and spray. On the other side of the stream a rocky crag rises from two hundred to three hundred feet, sparingly covered with tropical shrubs and vines. One afternoon I explored the path of the stream for perhaps one-half mile below the falls last mentioned. I succeeded in passing two more falls, about thirty feet in height, but before me was one I dared not undertake. At this place the water falls more than one hundred and twenty-five feet.

In taking such a journey, it is necessary for one to provide himself with a machete (this is the agricultural implement serving as ax, bush-hook, scythe, and sword), to cut his path through the jungle and tall grass. And then, too, he may run across a “yowler,” a serpent from six to eight feet long, for which his machete will come into good play.

FIRST HOME OF BROTHER WILLIAM EVANS IN BONACCA

Sometimes during the rainy season it rains for weeks, at night or during the day. However, I enjoy the sound of the water on the roof of my pole-elevated cottage as much as when in early boyhood I slept at home beneath the rafters.

Perhaps you think I have entered Eden, in all of its Edenic beauty as it stood on earth before the fall of man; and perhaps to the minds who do associate divine truth with the things around them, this may be true. To my mind “we have as fine a mixture of paradise and purgatory,” as one expressed it, as one might ask for. It all lies within one’s self as to what it shall be made. But when the planter sees armies upon armies of ants, destroying tree after tree that he has so patiently cared for; the serpents, as large as the rim of one’s hat, stealing the fowls that have been so long protected from the vermin that was ready to devour them as soon as they were hatched; tarantulas and scorpions in places that would make one shudder to recall, then it is that one sees something less attractive, unless, like the seer Job, one is able to rejoice even amid affliction.

Bibles and books must be scattered like the leaves of autumn. God has a people here that must be gathered in. This Satan knows; and although he will try his best to stop the power of God, yet when God is with us, Satan is powerless. Now is the time to work, that the Israel of God may be gathered out; for it will not be long until his kingdom will come.