FIGHTING THE DREAD SCOURGE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10580, 8 October 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

FIGHTING THE DREAD SCOURGE.

(By Georgo G.'Musgrave.)

A Housa proverb says "When the Reaper is l>iib\ the priest battens. -> and when the sickness started in Annainboe there were some in the council : who would have given every :"ju ju" i in. the district entertainment in the Castle until the trouble was over. Governors of dependencies are. rigidly instructed by regulations, but it;is not always easy to define ■ the line between the faith of, the people, which' is inviolate, and,''noxious practices." ' And. the new governor, having come from the charge of two million brown .'men w-ho revered him as a,- father, waa striving to rule less civilised black men by the same paternal "standards. So the fetish flourished, also the sickness. .; The prolonged rainy season-.had first filled the hospitals, civil, military, and mission. The white wards on Conner's Hill> had reached their quota (if officers from pestiferous frontier posts along the Prah, and looting Ashantis sniped the Housa guards with Dane guns, aiding the procession of iiammocks;,throiigh the mire and 'tangle of the great north road. Smallpox .was the climax.. - A Kahara peddler who' had wandered through the hinterland from the desert, brought the disease to the Gold Coast. His.- sickness developed at. his<"lo.dging in the house of Kwafirmin, the" coppersmith, a'nd he would have laid ungentle in the gutter, ' thus reaching the hands of the proper"authorities, had his pack been less glutted with ga,udy trivialities. Coveting Iris toys, beads, Kanoware, and charms, and philtres of Kaaba, the household successfully invoked the four spirits many days before the pauper burying. When the disease smote them they,strove to exercise the curses which they had glibly invoked, and finally Afoogu, chief fetish priest and doctor of the Fanti, was brought from seclusion in Dompassi to paint the bodies of the sufferers. Vastthrongs swept through the house during the "ceremony, and the 6eeds of thedisease were swept broadcast-, until the spectre garnered a harvest" from Foit ■ Napoleon to the Saltponds, and nortliward to the boundary of the Busoni Prah.

"Ekswair is speakings" shrieked. Afoogu in the bathing place, "Ekswair is speaking and Afoogu is his [voice," re-echoed; his: satellites- ,at; the (street corners. The priest's, drum was; sounded in the highways, his gruesome emblems were paraded through the bywajs. and the people flocked in thousands to his tocsin during his • vigorous crusade Wre-estah'lish the sway which had been his before the law had curtaiio.l his power, and the missionaries had :unat»rmined his dogma with creeds which relieved the people from the avaricious omnipotence of his esoterical spirit?. The hand of pestilence lay heavy ;on Ihe land, ancL under the spur of fear : aiavij barbarism rose steadily from beneath the veneer of civilised conviction.' Laboring bravely to stem the tide, the missionaries found to their sorrow how much- of tlie seed had fallen, in stony places, with some unexpected instances of supreme faith for recompense. < - 'For a decade the feast of the "roch Tahara had been dwindling to insignificant proportions. But Afoogu's vainglorious proclamation spread like wildfire, and vague whispers reached the Castle relating to the sacrifices! to be -made-to stay the sickness. The governor did proclaim this gathering as liable to spread disease, and violently rose the storm of protest from the City. The native press reviled the authorities,for interference with the national religion, : and the priest, defrauded of the great material offering which would have been placed on the rock to the names of the township's ancestors, preached open sedition to his following. ■ _'■ The colonial surgeon was working day and night with an-intemperate "coast" doctor and four African students to help with seven emergency hospitals and growing hundreds on the list of outside cases., His order for vaccination had gone out in four dialects, and until the supply of vaccine was exhausted, the people had rallied under their chiefs, and marched in state to the Castle courtyard. But while the cables implored -Sierra Leone to rush -surgeons. and medical supxslies, Afopgu was exhibiting the corpses of a vaccinated child in the market place, asking [if the Fantis were slaves, dogs, before the white skins who were pricking the arms of the people and performing an evil fetish to depopulate the land for; their pale "sons of the sea." i Warburton, senior subaltern of the Queen's Houses, heard the speech, and turned his pony toward ihe '''ju ju" who was soon flying iguominiously before the uplifted riding crop. But when the officer tried to reason with the disciples, showing the vaccination marks on his owii arm, the mob replied with stones, and had to be dispersed by the bayonets of his red-fezzed Mohammedans. And the priest's words were beyond recall. Fresh cases were no longer reported, when new supplies arrived the chiefs brought glib excuses in lieu of folr lowers, and fierce riots broke out when the constabulary tried to enforce quarantine and corral the uninoculated. The dead lay in the streets, and despite maitial law. and the logic of simple reason, tho thnty white men made little headway against the pcisistent folly ofthiit\ thousand. Viewed in the light of the setting sun, the city looked strangely peaceful to tho passengcis of the Aighan Pi nice, as the steamer cautiously felt her way toward tho reefs which fringe the harborless shore! The Portuguese line had altered its Cape Verd schedulo without notice, because a kindergarten tcacher for the American mission at Corisco, and two Jesuit padies, did not offset ,i prollered coast cargo. And the princely ti.imp had conti acted to land the passcngeis on the route ot the AVcst African mailboats. To tho girl, tho suddenly opened vista of the tropics appealed a' paiadise. Tho rams had broken temporal lly and m the moist warm air the sunset had. an added beautj. The spray, as it dashed over the castle outworks, caught the mdescence, and the foam which boiled from reefs to shore, was tinted with a full deep crimson. The towcis and battlements of the castle bioko snow white through masses of palms which fringed the city of multicolored houses, Moorish in tint and outline, spiawhng over banks ot brick red sand 01 nestling m picturesque lrrcgulauty tuidei tho palm gloves. For background, tho gieat African forest called the environs and spread away into the surrounding distance, sweeping over the hills w lth a brdhanco and multiplicity ot color achieved only m .the unspeakable humidity ot "Western Africa. « Tlio minors of tho sunset bugles drifted seaward as the ship rolled impatiently, signalling the shore, and the pietuie'was completed by a vermilhon suif boat which shot through a gap m the rocks and danced seaward * before the lusty strokes of native paddlors who chanted wieldly as they came. ' From childhood the stories ol missionary and cxploier had fned tlio girl's imagination, shaping the trend of her later desiro to scivc suffeimg humanity. Her vague feais vanished before the lure ot this mysterious and w ide horizon, which appeared so perfectly to fill the measure of. her anticipation. i "No vew tule, this ain't heali offical naw Kiisstums, dis heah flag is Brawn's Hotel, Healf official sick,- go ijor die, pleanty sick, go for die. Gettm dark, all- ashore for de sure, at three bob each." Seven feet of superb' muscle and insolence was smiling at the passengers as the surf boat tossed at the gangwaj. , . , "Always is plenty of sickness, in this sink. They .have everything lon the calendar so. neither of us need)s a bill of health and I can't wait here after dark for the health officer. Good-bye, "Miss, luck! padres l'\ Tlie captain raised Ins Land, ia gong, clanged, and as the steamer swu,'ng back to her course, twelve oiled bodies bent to their paddles and shot the travellers shoreward. -j Formalities are lax on a coast where there are nojiarbors, and steamjers wait Ibeyond the reefs'for boats from towns .orHrstding stations. But a carew-orn of--fi'cial, yellow and shaking with fever, '"was fuming' on the beach as thev landed "Black-listed a week ago, tho vellow'flag fljing, and then a bl mdeiinc 'lime-juicer', sends Europeans ashore V' The Afghan Pr-ince however, was a blui in tho gatlicimg darkness. ■Dutv tied the colonial secretary to quailers m tlie castle, and his house on tho hillside, witli a motherly West Indian housekeeper, proved a not unpleasant prison while futile efforts were made to send Corisro its teacher. Then a babel of children's voices led the girl to break her parole for exercise on the

now deserted hill drive, and in a disused storehouse she found Warburton's nursery. Seriously\ embarrassed, the big lieutenant escorted her through the sorry menage, and she inspected everything from the tent-, to the tiude feeding bottles impioMsod toi the charges. Tl"ou<.'!i Aioi.mi .s inioC. local would «cio . U.nd to help. In tho inter* .lis oi .nduou*- dut\, with two Kroo girls, ,i l.ncii' pam, and a pitiful held ol ge.Us, the officer was keeping ho'i'-e uu thnv hundred waifs of pestilence, aging lioni nine down to the cot loads of .stolid African babies, whimpering vei\ <=ottlv Itom the punishment of vaccinated arms. The tiny babies often died, but the camp was saving some, and precaution and rigid quarantine had kept the from these brands plucked fioin'its ravages. Regret for Corisco, and plague-fear vanished before a great flood of sympathy as the little teacher to this clarion for a aid. knowledge gained .in settlements work Gratefully the authorities. 'accepted her offer. The "round fort ori thei hill was garnished,- the military stores gave up their sorry best,' ( and helped, with the at home,- she/organised "a .new- isolation for all children, orphanecL- or, who could be,legally sent from,the stricken areas. The busy weeks| crept to .jnonths, the rains gave place to;,dark steaming heat, and with v untiring-zeal, she maintained 'an „oasis .of life and hope while the pestilence raged below all its hor-

rors. The Housas worshipped , "little miss," and daily learned lessons of womanhood taught neither by the Koran nor by Sheik,-Othman, their prophet of the Prophet., And the tiny Africans of all sizes and degrees lavished upon her the affection which lies strong but latent in little black hearts. But the rigid quarantine now kept even Warburton from the fort, there was no white woman on the entire coast to i give counsel or encouragement,, and in time isolation demanded its -tribute.

There is, in West Africa a loneliness which sweeps from the forest at night, a sense of elemental solitude, an evening terror which creeps with the miasma from the swamps and causes even fearless soldiers to tremble. At twenty also the word "homo" looms large despite real love for black humanity.- and the consciousness that a great ideal of human service is in process of fulfilment.

Buimg the first weeks of the station the doctor fiom Sierra Leone, an ath letjc young idealist who had chosen hi work when a fashionable London prac free was calling, gave her help and com fort. But when a big distnct fell tc his charge, only special calls broughi him, fumigated and in new linen, anc as with this fellow volunteei, she liar found so much in common, his absence accentuated her loneliness. Her dajs had sixteen ciowded houu with little respite for thought. But at night, when her aching body rested sleep would not ahvajs come, and as the he-it mci eased, the spells of insomnia grew m frequency. Then the nights became penods ot terror, with the air, hot and fetid, • and the maddening buzz of insects at the screens an intolerable accompaniment to the dull throbbing at her temples. Shocked by hei appearance on his next visit, the doctor ordered a complete lest with a sternness belied by the wistfillness in his ejes as ho ofteied to spend his scant leisuic with hei charges while the secictaiy's house again afforded sanctuaij And while she lested, from .A ecu came news that the station cable ship, ictiiming to Liveipool to lefit, would bung up the accumulation of long undeliveied mail bags, and take home white', invalids. The Governor sent a note of gratitude foi hei services and begged her to accept a passage, the doctors argued and the colonial secietaiv pleaded. The temptation was stionir but rejected by the vision of a ciowd of expectant young faces watching foi "little miss," of a lecrudesccnce of the sway of 'Shi 113 d and Te.ndumba, for small black bodies and the little white souls within. The days of inaction. however, w-ere giving homesickness full play, and when the belated mail ai lived, her gencious share aggravated this to acute nostalgia. Fai into the night she poied over home-letteis bicaihmg the spnit of a -peaceful 'American Chiistmas, Temmiscent of cool an, cusp 1 snow and sleigh bells of the Church, the family gathering, and the one vacant chair. She read and re-read every missive, each clause painting its mental pictme, until hei tears blotted out the words Then she turned to the open jalousie and looked over the city reeking in the valley Fnes glowed dimlv, blurred in the stagnant an, cries_ and piotests arose from the destruction of infected lares; on the shore a lurid glare marked a more awful burning." The'.night, was hideous with the wail of the" stricken, and incantations from the fetish houses, punctuated In the lament of the diums which svmbolise the gamut of African sonow and jov The spuit of the land which had aroused in her pity and a desne to help its people, now spoke eloquentlj of a negative lace with no tiadition' to stn to emulation or achievement, without hopeful poitend for the tutuio An uncontiollable longing to breathe, puie air, to escape from these honors, swept over hei, and until dawn she stiuggled in voitices of indecision, her iveistiamed ideal of service, the only barnei to the path which led back to hei precious hentagc of vouth and unship The decisive instant came rt-hen the siien of the cable ship gave its warning, her waning power ot resistance collapsing befoie its insistent iote. Theie was not a moment to lose Mechanically, but hastilj, she gathered ler things—the call foi home had won' Oblivious of the gloiy of the sunnse vbich thicw a halo of bewildering raliance over the mfeino in. the valley, ,hc stood on the portico waiting for a ittei, conscious only of a potent falgue which numbed every motion. She loped to slip away unseen, to write a iast> faiewell from the steamer. But is the doctor galloped down the hill, a vave of tenderness and remorse swept iver her as she thought of his tireless levotion to an altruistic cause. "Not going," he cried, the lines m us tired face softening with relief "I ode down to tell -sou that you must akc this boat, I am glad you have delded so wisely. "Glad, -vet sony," lie added * rather ncoherently. "Glad foi your sake but ony because you are going out ot my ife,~ because voui friendship means so mich to me But I should like to write o vou, and peihaps you will wnte to ne sometimes, and when all this horror s over, wc may meet again " . Her answeis weie not enthusiastic, nit her heait was very full, and she loticed with a pang that he was worn ind unkempt, his face unshaven, his >yes sunken from lack of sleep, his isually aleit figure slouching in the addle. As thev talked, the sun buist ivei the tree tops, greeted by the glad lotcs of the leveille in the Housa lines. Tioni the fcmv mosque, the voice of.the Vlallam chanted the dav's first call to irayer, adding to the oithodos formula, atahstic admonition. /'Heed not the •rv of the heathen, my brother l It is leither the swbid nor, pestilence, but ate, that kills'" Fiorn the huts of the servants, came bhe hammock beaicis, running, with *the ytter. "" * *■"" ,5, , "You have not"a moment to spare ind I must not come to-theshore with cou, so this must be pood-bye,"; said the Doctor srmply, lifting his,helmet. "I hate to ..leave—l feel like a de serter, a coward to run You have helped me .so splendidly anc [ can never foiget y.bur", kindness. Be srrite often, tell me about' tbe,.clnldren lbout voui work.'\ Wondering, why h< stayed m the roadway,.she lan dowr bhe "steps" impulsively towardjum, bui le reined his horse savagely-(from hei Tiitstretclied "hand. „ , .. " "Vv ,- . "For God's sake, don't r touch, me Don't come »afe!" . - . , -"X *'"• VN Then . understandings ,came^«, to '.her ' And" you have been - afc the J fort al light ? So it has broken .out ,at las ifter all our precaution. Oh, tliosi joor children' And you did nob tel ne —would have sent me aw ay' Come vVo must go back instrntiv we wil icht it togcthci Quickh bo\s' Tr he fort'" . Expostulation and entreatv died Irom lis lips. Turning his horse, lie rode jack up the hill'beside her litter.