Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1920-12-02
ON THE CONGO TRAIL.

Inc toIiowing interesting article,
written BY Rev. c. c. Bush, a former
resident of Jefferson county now serv-
ing as a missionary of the South Meth
odist Church in Africa, is taken from
the Charles Town Advocate:
AT daybreak on Wednesday. Angus,
18th, 1920, Mrs. Bush and the writer
started on ten days itinerary Of some
~ or more. miles, going ncr;hward
10 the Government Post at Lpia. east
ward TO Katoko Kombe, lhen south
Ward no our home at Wemoo Mama.
IL vas a Long, Long Trdii' for our
twelve young evangelists a..i twenty
i've porters TO make in ten day5.
The main purpose Of the tap was TO
ascertain the navigability of the Luke
nyi river TO Lola, the advisatility Of
establishing a new Mission Station
there, suitable villages for the placing
OF native preachers. TO herald the It'd
ings of salvation and TO gather recruits
for our Evangelistic Training School.
We found fairly good native bull,
rest-houses but that unpacking one day
and the folding of cots and repacking
the next day became wearsome to the
flesh. However, the rigors of the
journey were overcome by the good
which We believe was accomplished.
The first night was spent at the Viii
lage Of Otete where our native preach
er, Dimoke, with his genial smile and
helpful wife, is constantly winning tho
people for the Christian life. The
friendly chief of this village is youn
man of more than average intelligence
He sat with us in the church while one
of our Mission Boys preached and af-
ter the service he greatly enjoyed the
sport of kicking our football from one
end of his long village to the other and
half way back again. He owns a good
bicycle and dresses like Europeans.
In the morning when the first roos-
ter crew (lekeka lambeka lantundu) we
started onward reaching the village of
Okitadimba about noon which is 10
Gated near the southern limit of the Lu-
befu territory. Here we spent the night
but the chief and people were not as
courteous as in the other villages Wis
tied and only few gathered near our
open air evangeliSic service. After a
hard march the next day we reached
the big village of Weci Niadi AMI were
most cordially received. At once the
young, intelligent chief began to beg
} us to establish mission near his place,
saying "Kabengele and Mutumbe Kut-
Gle (Bishop Lambuth and Prof. Gil
BERT came to our village eight years
ago, selected place near a stream of
water. forest and red clay for brick,
wrote paper and gave L 10 my father
who was then living Inc paper has
been lost, for you were such a long
J time coming but | ask you not to for
sake me-" His pleaGincs to give him
, and his people chance were enough
to touch heart of stone.
Starting two hours before daylight
/. We crossed the Lukc1'i river On a
swinging vine bridge at sun up, trav-
elei through a part % tine great Eaua-
tGriai Forest and reached I.ola in the
early part of the afternoon, very much
fat.,.ued. We found that Mr.. Schlei-
der, with 800 native soldiers, had
started on the previous day to conquer
! the Basongo Memo and other fierce
tribes who are within six hours travel
from this Post. Mrs. Schneider, though
understanding no English, was very
, cordial and remarkably clever in COM
pretending our feeble efforts in French
conversation. We learned that the
wild tribes to the northwest and along
the Lukenyi river do not wish to pay
the Poll Tax, saying, "Why does the
white man asks us for francs when our
, own blacksmiths do not make them ?"
!, Can you beat that logic? But he Gov
eminent waves aside the argument of
the native and says, "you must pay
anyway" so the naive witch doctor
. concocts very strong portion which
is supposed to make the white man Wis
. ible and the black man invisible when
they approach each other. thus en-
abling the native to easily kill the white
man. Another system Of defense is
to dig pitfalls in the path and conceal
them by placing decayed sticks across
the top of the pit and covering these
sticks with leaves so skillfully that ii
takes a keen eye to discern the deadly
J trap as pointed poles are placed in the
bottom of the deep pit to impale the
unwary victim. Another scheme is to
place under the leaves in the path