New Britain herald., 1916-10-20

demar E. Toppenberg who has charge or the medical missionary operations or the Seventh Day Adventists sta tloned on the eastern shore of the Vlclofla Nyanza. Her report came rom Okerewe Island which formarly was part of German East Africa. w hen the war began,' she writes, at a stroke, we were set back to the middle ages. We had none of many thlngs we had to find substitutes for. we used bananas, native grains and
 nuhOgo for flour, wild honey for sugar, candles made of tallow for
 light. soap from wood ashes and
 lime. Clothes were also unprocurable,
 so we wore pants, etc., made of goat
 and gazelle skins, and made yarn of
 cotton and knitted our stockings.
 "Uproar among the natives was
 feared by the government people at
 the beginning of the war and we were
 instructed to inform the natives by
 our stations that there was no war
 between Europeans and natives, only
 soldier against soldier. Not long after the opening of the war, the
 Masias, a fierce and Marlike tribe east
 Of Busegwe, our oldest station, came swarming the country, robbing cattle, and at one time when they plundered in Usukuma by Kanadi one of our workers lost his life in defense of the people for whom he faithfully worked
 He was stabbed from behind by a spear.
 Early last June, the English oc- cVpied Ukerewe Island, where I am writing this and in July they took Muawza, the seat of the provincial commissioner of this province, in which all our stations on the German side are located. When the natives heard of this, they lost fear of the German officials and even openly dis obeyed orders, and it got worse when all the officials as well as military left Ikidzu, going south. Uproar started immediately by the natives in Ikidzu, killing the native police and They robbed the government property, and it was reported to us that the
 Christians who had been left behind
 by pr. Vasenius to watch mission property had been driven away, some Killed and their huts burned. I tried to send messa ges to them with words Of courage and instruction, but all re- turned With the letters because of the war raging everywhere. The uproar spread quickly from tribe to tribe, every day bringing new and startling reports.
 My family and I were the only Europeans left in the district as far south as the river Mbalageti. and we had been warned by the government officials that an uproar was to he ex- pected; also in the last word ve hoard from any of our missionaries MT Ohme wrote upon going to meet bis company that he feared an unrisin,- but that he did not know of anv G, fa place where he could advise us to on We could not very well, with fifteen months old baby, run around in tba unknown with the soldiers, an, whereas we expected that the Englis1,
 very soon would show up, we decided to wait on our station until wa should get some evident sign that we 1 ought to leave
 Native Painted Up For War. I've did what we could to protect i ourselves put in night watches, and | for the rest committed ourselves to 1 Gods protection. Finally the up-
 roar spread to Busegwe also. A chief and his sub -chief with women and , children had fled from Niagangi with
 their 150 head of cattle, but Busegwe