A Visit to the Malamulo Mission
By R. C. Porter
LEAVING the Tsungwesi Mission, I had planned to meet Sisters E. Edie and Mary Long at Beira, and accompany them to the mission station. On reaching Beira, I learned that their steamer would not arrive until ten days later. I therefore took passage on the German steamer that was leaving Beira for Chinde the day of my arrival. Reaching Chinde the next morning, I was fortunate in making close connections with the river steamer "Princess." There was nothing of special interest en route up the Zambesi and Shire Rivers, save two crocodiles, some hippopotamuses, and a sugar plantation. At the plantation our steamer made a short halt. The sugar plant was running steadily day and night, turning out three hundred tons of refined sugar a week. Nearly all the work is done by the natives under white supervision. The pulp and stalks are used for fuel, thus furnishing heat, gas, and steam sufficient to operate the plant. We passed the old Chipange Mission, which we were told had been operated on the industrial training plan for over one hundred years. Here Mr. Livingstone's wife lies buried. On the gravestone is represented a native bearing to her flowers in token of native respect for her labors of love for them in the pioneer days of mission work in Africa. On account of the drought the water of the rivers was low, and I was obliged to ride twelve hours in a house-boat propelled by natives with spike poles before reaching Port Herald. On the Shire River only were we troubled with mosquitoes. The house in which I slept the night I stayed at Port Herald was undergoing repairs, and in consequence I caught a slight cold. The next day I was met at Luchenza by Brother G. A. Ellingworth and some native carriers with two riding donkeys. It was late in the afternoon when we left for the mission station, and we traveled the twenty-three miles to the mission by nine o'clock that evening. When we started, it was so hot that we removed our coats. At sunset it grew much cooler. In climbing the hills we perspired freely, and in crossing a river on a native's back I got my feet wet. By the time we reached the mission, I was having the worst chill I had ever experienced. The next day my temperature was one hundred two, and later I was informed that I was having a slight run of fever. I was up and about part of every day, and did not know that I was having the fever until well on the road to recovery. Had I known it, I might have kept my bed and imagined myself more ill. It was wise strategy not to inform me till I was well over it. I had a theory that I should escape the fever on this trip as I did13before, as I was taking, apparently, all necessary precautions; but, like many others, I learned that a little exposure to either heat or cold spoils many a theory in this country. I was thoroughly impressed with the need of a road out from the mission farm to the main road, and also the need of a bridge over the river, so that our workers can come and go without so much exposure. When one looks upon the surroundings from the mission farm, which overlooks Mt. Cholo to the northwest, Mt. Milanji forty miles to the northeast, and a beautiful range of hills and valleys, interspersed on every side with rippling rills and sparkling streams, with no stagnant pools anywhere, one has great difficulty in believing that there is any possibility of malaria lurking beneath such scenes. Still from time to time the reality of the deadly malady demands recognition. With all this beauty and grandeur, and the apparent healthful atmosphere, the deadly germ is there. During the last year the tsetse fly made its appearance among our dairy herd at Malamulo Mission. Dairying is our chief industry, and fifteen head of our best cattle died within five months. These were nearly all cows, and some among them were very valuable, being thoroughbred and high-grade milkers. By removing the cattle kraal to higher ground, changing the feeding-grounds from the river to the highlands, and clearing the jungle brush along the streams, it is hoped that the present difficulty with the tsetse is overcome. This will not be determined before another rainy season, for it is at this season that its work is largely fatal. The mission still has forty-two cows and heifers, twenty small heifers, thirty-four calves, one bull, nineteen oxen, and twenty-three small oxen. This leaves the total number of cattle now in the herd one hundred thirty-nine. They have four good donkeys, twenty-eight native sheep, and fifty good fowls. Mantandane station also has a good start in stock.