132 Wanderings in Eastern Africa. 
with the bread of life." Possibly there may be indi- 
viduals answering to this caricature in the ranks of 
missionaries, — men who think a great deal more of 
their own " millinery/' their creature comforts, their 
ministerial or clerical dignity, than of devoting them- 
selves heart and soul to meet the stern necessities of 
human life in all its phases. Yet, on the other hand, 
there are those of the Oberlin type, the Williamses, 
the Moffats, the Livingstones, the Vanderkemps, the 
Krapfs, the Patesons — men of sterling stuff, who do 
not care what they are, what they do, or what they 
suffer, so long as they can alleviate human misery 
in whatever form it may present itself to them. We 
want more men of this type, and such only are the 
men to meet the wants of Eastern Africa. 
In taking up a position in a place such as that of 
Ribe, one is first struck with the novelty of the situa- 
tion, and all is intensely interesting. You find your- 
self surrounded with a new class of circumstances ; 
you see all natural phenomena under new aspects ; 
and you feel yourself to be, as it were, in a new 
world. These sensations, however, cannot, in the 
nature of things, remain with you long. Novelty is 
an air-bubble, you see it dancing before your eyes in 
full-blown proportions and beautiful colours ; but ere 
you have had time to gaze and admire, it suddenly 
bursts, or gently floats away on the air and disappears. 
The novelty gone, a feeling of inexpressible desolation 
creeps over you — a feeling of exile ; country, home, 
friends, social intercourse, religion, civilization, are all 
left behind, and you have nothing in return but a 
dreary wilderness, strange suspicious people, unplea- 
sant broodings over contrasts, barbarism everywhere, 
