[F.M.S., Kasengu, probably
May 30 1914. incomplete - missing first page]
You didn’t say whether Cora was still with
you or not but I take she was still there or you would have
said so but no doubt is back again by this time, at any rate I
am sending her letter there. How nice to get such a nice lot
of eggs. We have quite a collection of eggs from our white
hens but none want to set. The nice big hen that we brought
from Faradge with the kitten, somehow disappeared - either a
hawk got her or some one stole her. Sorry too for she had only
laid an egg or two and they were spoiled before we had a
chance to set them.
Glad you had some pigs to sell, don’t
suppose many had any left did they? I haven’t heard from Cora
Mae for such a long time - but it is my fault as I didn’t
write to her. Now I must get ready for dinner for John is
working around here and we can have an early one - it has
cleared up and is fine sunshiney now so I have put out some
corn to dry so we can have some corn bread. Haven’t had any
for a long time and we are so fond of it also of the cornmeal
mush.
Now Lora I’ll answer some of those
questions - or all of them if possible. Got no letter from you
last mail so that’s all I have to answer from you this time.
This is dated Feb. 3 and you were watching for Mr. and Mrs.
Pehrens and the rest and the last report was they had not yet
reached there - they certainly are a long time in getting
there. You enclosed a kerchief for my birthday. Think I
mentioned that I received the other two and now the one for my
birthday is so pretty and Miss Harland is hard up for
kerchiefs so I am going to give it to her with another one or
two that I have and have never used for her birthday on June
23rd. There were several pieces of light calico
that I had brot out with me and that others had given me and
at Api the ants got into the box and ate along the edges and
that of course made holes allover so I made an apron of one
piece - that is made the apron of four pieces or gores, only
tiny of course and put a white ruffle around it and it is
fairly respectable - I may give that to her too.
John is staying abed this afternoon as he
feels pretty badly - I am glad we aren’t on the way to Kilo
now. We have spoken and rehearsed the probabilities and
possibilities about the boys and have decided that they must
have left the Congo via Boga and then into Uganda. At any rate
we will wait until we get an answer to the letter written to
the man at the place they would land and see what he says.
You say you read my diary letter for the
second time - that’s doing pretty well for it was “some”
length as I remember it.
I can’t believe that I was wrong about
Chas’s age - isn’t he 40 this year? I know you are always
right when it comes to ages but I thot surely Chas’s birth
year was 1874. Mama enlighten me please, for of course Lora
can’t remember when he was born!!!
Yes I suppose that paper would have been
more easily handled when cut. Don’t know why I didn’t only
thot it better as a book and often I wrote under such peculiar
circumstances and conditions that I had hard work to write at
all and somehow managed better with it double - the impression
paper staid in place better, guess that was it.
Yes baking powder bread is like the
biscuits only in bread form and the recipe varies according to
the materials on hand. Seldom use much fat but often put in
eggs.
We used to make yeast as you do at Rumuruti
and at Kijabe Mrs. Myers made it and we bought from her when
we wanted some but since we are up here the yeast seems to
sour so quickly that we take the liquid like you do and then
make cakes by stiffening it with cornmeal and rolling it out
thin and drying all in a day. These are then good for at least
two months and sometimes more. We get white flour from Nairobi
made from wheat raised in the country and ground in mills at
Nairobi and it makes lovely bread - is like the flour at home;
but just now there is a shortage and we are using flour that
comes from India which is not very good - this last smells and
tastes musty, but makes eatable bread. The natives here don’t
raise any wheat, only the sugar cane seed that they call “bel”
and the common name or Swahili is “matama”. That is usable
like cornmeal for hot breads but one soon tires of it and I
don’t believe there is much nourishment in it.
The bananas are sweet and nice when ripe
but when green there is not much taste only a --- well, green
banana taste - now can you understand? There is a bit of acid
taste that always makes me think they are spoiled. We got so
we like them very well; in fact John likes them better than
potatoes - perhaps because our potatoes are not very nice.
They are really very much like potatoes only we think they are
more nourishing. The native food used by porters is of quite a
variety and depends in what part of the country you are
traveling. Beans - that red variety of which I sent some home
one time used in British East Africa and all over that I have
ever been; but they don’t usually want them only but they like
best to use them with this “bel” flour which they cook into a
stiff paste and take in chunks and dip it into cooked beans
which are all mashed and are the consistency of thick gravy.
Then they eat green bananas too only usually just lay them
into the fire with the skins on and bake them black and eat
them so hot you can fairly see the steam come out of their
ears and usually eat one at a bite.
Putties are a long strip of heavy woolen
cloth - broadcloth or even heavier sometimes - usually about 4
to 6 inches wide and a yard and a half long and these are
wrapped around the legs beginning at the ankle and ending
under the knees - white men wear them a lot but John doesn’t
like them and has never worn them. I have worn them when I
wore ordinary shoes on safari but with these high topped ones
I don’t as they are of course warm and bunglesome.
On safari we set the kettles on three
stones and build a fire under them but sometimes the stones
are scarce then the boys fix up the wood so as to build fire
under and around and some places between here and Aru the wood
is very scarce so we had to have things that did not take so
long to cook. We used to put the beans into a kettle that was
carried on the folding table and then we’d put the beans to
soak in the morning while they were being carried and then we
often had several hours in camp and would boil them all the
time there was and if necessary boiled them again the next
morning. Or other times we soaked them over night and put them
on first thing in the morning and boiled them til we were
ready to start and then put them on again the first thing we
got into camp and had them for supper – I wonder sometimes how
we managed to keep so well when we ate so many beans but we
had such terrible appetites that it took a good feed to make
us feel comfortable to go to bed on. Mr. Gribble always said
that beans were the best safari food there was and it really
seemed it was good for us.
You ask about Mr. C.T. Studd - Don’t you
remember my writing about him coming from Eng. with a party
who were to be the English division of the Africa Inland
Mission. Long ago he and six others made up a band that were
called “the Cambridge Seven” and went to China - John says he
remembers reading about them when he went to College. Well he
was in China for awhile sort of independent - then as he could
not get on with anybody he came home and went to India in work
and his health gave out and has now for some years been out of
regular work but has traveled some - had a large fortune which
he gave to the C.I.M. but still lives pretty well and has
quite a lot of influence at Cambridge. Well he wanted to come
out here - he is an old grey haired man now and very poorly so
that he has to smoke a good deal and also uses drink some and
drugs - but before he got out here or just as soon as he got
here he decided not to stay with the mission and made his
plans known to the rest of the party - Mr. Morris, Mr.
Batstone, Mr. Buxton and Mr. Rampley.
None of them would agree with him but Mr.
Buxton who is engaged to his daughter. He even thot Mr. S.
wasn’t doing right but of course it wouldn’t do to break with
him. Before Mr. Hurlburt left Eng. he decided with Mr. Studds
committee that we would take the East half of the Azandi tribe
and Mr. Studd the West half and when Mr. Hurlburt was coming
up here he wanted to go to see Mr. S. about territory but Mr.
S. said that he was going where the Holy Spirit led him which
was only a nice way of saying he was going where ever he
pleased and didn’t care what arrangements had been made by his
committee. Mr. Buxton is a fine young fellow and was such good
friends with the other two Morris and Batstone and it did seem
such a pity to see him under the influence of Mr. S. who is so
much drugged most of the time that he doesn’t mean half he
says. Mr. B’s father is a miss. in Japan and feels awful badly
about it all and told Mr. Hurlburt that he’d give anything if
Alfred, his son, hadn’t gone in with Studd. They call
themselves the H.A.M. - Heart of Africa Mission. I don’t think
you got the right impression - we didn’t want to meet them
socially but feared we would and they did get to Dungu two
days after we left and treated our workers awful. We knew we
could not fix matters up any by meeting them and likely it
would only have meant a squabble - and they left here after a
month with us but it hadn’t been all love and honey. Mr. Studd
is very decided in his views and they differ from any body
elses so much that he is always arguing. He writes to us
occasionally and we to them but there is not much
correspondence between them and the workers at Dungu for Mr.
S. seems to blame Mr. Morris for the whole thing and so loves
very little - it does seem too bad but Mr. M. has tried to
make up over and over again but Mr. S. gets more angry every
time so Morris has just let things drop. We are the last
station until Dungu which is 200 miles away. As to what
mission has most stations in the Congo I don’t know but think
it is the Baptists. Haases have gone to Rambili and are out of
the mission - he is one like Gribble - no authority for them
they go as they please. Makes it awful hard to work with them.
I don’t think Gribbles are coming back in this mission either
- at lest so Mr. H. spoke. I don’t know whether they have been
told or not. We still have some correspondence with Haases as
they had their money in our bank account and they are still
having things come through here. Not any of the cuttings we
got on the trip are growing.
The strawberries we got at Dungu are doing
fine - we had only two plants but they have increased that we
have now several dozen and they have berries on too and they
do taste more like home than anything we have had in a long
time.
You speaking of getting Frankfurters in
M.W. order makes me think how much John enjoys the Cambridge
Sausages we can get tinned here but are so expensive. How
often do you order? and do you get yur flour and all
provisions from M.W.? We can get bran from Nairobi and I
intend to order some by this mail. I know we will like it for
John likes anything coarse like that.
I am getting pretty tired of this clicking
and seems I can’t spell right any more so I shall stop soon
and then add a little more just before mailing. But I must
tell you all about some jam I have been making. We get a
little native fruit here called “hillibo” [loquat?] and it is
very acid - about as big as a good sized sloe only yellow like
a apricot and mostly skin and seed but awful sour and I boil
it and rub through the seive then add sometimes bananas, ripe
or squash or even green tomatoes and sweeten with honey and
put plenty of ginger in and it is very nice jam and so much
cheaper than the bought. Have quite a lot on hand now of green
tomatoes as the girls had their garden cleared. sent a lot of
them for me to take care of.
I finished the history that John was
writing and sent it off to Mr. Hurlburt in last mail. It took
a lot of time to rewrite it all and I seem to get awful tired
of the typewriter since running it so much for that. And this
old thing makes so many slips that it uses all ones patience
to run it.
In the sewing line I am now at fancy work
if you please. My pillow slips are just about gone and I have
sent for some pillow tubing but it hasn’t come yet but Miss
Harland gave me some old sheets - that is they have never been
used and are very strong and made the pair of one sheet and am
hemstitching one and the other I will embroider if I get at
it. Any body got any suggestions for the tubing when it comes?
The other sheets I am keeping for use on the bed that you mama
will use when you come. You see your bed is already.
We have language class every morning from 7
to 8. John is leader and it is very interesting. We have never
done real downright hard work at the language and we find it
very necessary.
Now I’ll stop and get the supper over so we
can have a long walk. I think it will do us all good - come
along all of you - you’ll never see anything nicer than the
scenery here.
Heaps and heaps of love to all from us all
Flo & the rest.
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