King's Business - 1918-08

666 the rest of our party were safely landed on the tug. About 10:30 o’clock they located it, and as it came into view I never saw such a sight in my life. The life-boat was simply being driven by the wind and waves. They had no oars and if they had, they would not have had strength to use them. The boat was entirely under water and the people were sitting in water nearly up to their necks. Every few minutes a large wave would wash over them completely hid­ ing them from view. When they had drifted within a hundred feet of the tug a rope was thrown to them. Scarcely anyone had strength enough to grasp it. Some were exhausted and others were unconscious. It was soon learned that 19 had lost their lives from this life-boat. This was the saddest part of the whole thing. Their life-boat leaked so badly that the water got beyond their control and the wind and waves tipped over and of course they had nothing to keep the boat head on to the waves. They battled for their lives but some were lost each time the boat tipped over. The men worked heroically to save the lives of the women and chil­ dren. The two girls of our party were rescued and put back into the boat four times. They were the only two women who were saved from this boat, and one of them was taken out of the life-boat nearly dead. One whole family lost their lives. The father and two babies were found in the bottom of the boat dead. The mother and her other three children perished at sea with the rest who lost their lives. The oldest child was 15 years. This family were mis­ sionaries returning to India. One other missionary to India and three to Mad­ agascar were among those who lost their lives. We do not understand why the Lord took those who had been to the Held before and had the language learned and spared the lives of all of us who were new recruits. We shall never be able to praise the Lord for His goodness to us. He spared everyone of

THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS our party and not a missionary to Africa was lost. I do not know why the Lord saw fit to spare such a stick as I, but I know that He spared me for some pur­ pose here in Africa. We praise the Lord for 2 Cor. 1:10. It is an exper­ ience that I shall never forget, but I am not sorry that I passed through it. The Lord has become more precious to me than ever before and I have learned many lessons. We arrived in Cape Town about mid­ night and were taken aboard another large ship lying at anchor in the harbor. We were given something to eat. We were given beds on this ship, but it is needless to say that we did not sleep much. The next day as we walked the streets of Cape Town we were a strange sight. Some had hardly enough clothes on to appear on the street. In spite of all this we were happy. The people of Cape Town took us into their homes and boarded us free of charge. They gave us shoes, clothes and many other things. The business firms gave us shoes, clothes and anything we wanted up to a certain amount. The mayor started a fund which amounted to $50 each. The Lord raised up a host of friends for us and the Mission. We had many opportunities to witness and tes­ tify for our Lord. The Lord certainly got glory unto Himself from our ship­ wreck. People heard of the Africa' Inland Mission and its work who never knew of it before. We stayed in Cape Town 10 days until some of the girls of the party were able to travel, then went by train from Cape Town to Dur­ ban because some were too nervous to go on the water again so soon. It is a 1200 mile trip and requires 3 days and nights to make it. Upon our arrival at Durban we were taken to the Hitchcock Sisters Home where we stayed until our boat sailed for Mombasa. The Lord again supplied our needs In a wonder­ ful way. The mayor started a fund which paid the board of the entire party for ten weeks. We were forced to wait

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