Barotseland Mission, South Africa
By R. C. Porter
A Visit to the Out-Stations
ABOUT nine o'clock in the morning we reached the first out-school, and after breakfasting we visited with the teacher and his assistant and learned of their work. The Fubwa school, where the teacher lives, is small; but he goes into the villages and conducts schools in the native kraals as well, by arranging for different hours at the different places. In this way about twenty-five natives are receiving the benefit of an education, and the light of the gospel is shining amid the gross darkness of heathenism. The government is now grouping these scattered kraals into larger ones. This will be an advantage to the mission work, both for the school and for evangelistic effort. This out-station has a grant of one hundred acres of good land with plenty of water on it for stock. As it is not far from the mission, they have forty head of cattle and sixty head of sheep, which they keep for the mission. At 3 P. M. we were again inspanned for a half-way drive toward the Bwengua out-school. All passed off pleasantly until an hour after dark, when the leader-boy lost the way, and it was with difficulty that Elder W. H. Anderson, after a half-hour's search by the aid of a lantern, found a native path leading in the direction we were traveling. We again started, hoping to find the wagon road as we proceeded, but after driving for two hours we found that our path was taking us farther and farther into the bush. Brother Anderson inquired of the native driver where we were, and he replied, "We are lost!" Unwilling to give it up, Elder Anderson took the lantern, and walking ahead of the leader-boy, led the way for about two hours. One of our wheel-oxen, in an attempt to avoid falling into a hole, dodged under the wagon pole, and we were obliged to outspan and get him back in place. Next, the cart caught on a tree as we made a turn in the bush. The only way out was to cut down the tree, or outspan and pull off backward. We decided that the quickest way out was to cut down the tree. Again we pushed on until about ten o'clock, when we were confronted with a thick bush through which it was impossible to pass unless we should cut our road. We then became convinced that we were lost in the bush, and there was no other way but to camp and wait for daylight. As the Big Dipper was before us, and the Southern Cross in the rear, I assured them that we were between the north and south poles, but that was all I knew of our whereabouts. Knowing that we were in the lion district, we took good care to arrange our camp as compactly as possible, and sent out our native boys to gather dry branches and wood for the camp-fires. For the first time in my life I realized how one could lie down and sleep in the bush with little protection from camp-fires, trusting that angel sentinels would guard the camp. Weary and lost, we committed ourselves to that all-seeing One who never slumbers, and lay down and slept undisturbed until daybreak. As soon as it was light, we inspanned and changed our course from north to east. After trekking through the bush, and through grass from four to eight feet high for about four miles, we reached the road we had missed at the very point we had intended camping for the night. Here we outspanned and took breakfast, then inspanned at once to complete our journey to the Bwengua out-school. We had gone but a short distance when we saw a beautiful eland cow lying near our path. It had just been killed that morning by a lion. We halted and looked back through the tall grass where the lion had lain in wait by the path and sprung suddenly upon its unsuspecting prey. After slaying his victim, which weighed about seven hundred pounds, the lion had dragged it a distance of twenty-five rods to a large tree surrounded by tall grass. Here he had taken his first meal and left the rest in hiding, to be eaten as his appetite should demand.