HOW A MISSION WORKS 161 
unwise division of work, the evangelist takes part in 
the superintendence of the station, and the Head of the 
station goes travelling. 
On the Head of the station falls the work of the ser- 
vices in the station and in the nearest villages, together 
with the superintendence of the schools and of the 
cultivated land. He ought really never to leave the 
station for a day ; he must have his eyes everywhere, 
and any one ought to be able to speak to him at any 
time. His most prosaic business is conducting the 
market. The foodstuffs which we need for the school 
children, the labourers, and the boatmen of the station, 
we do not have to buy with money. Only when the 
natives know that they can get satisfactory goods of all 
sorts from us, do they bring us regular supplies of 
manioc, bananas^ and dried fish ; so the mission must 
have a shop. Two or three times a week the natives 
come with the product of their plots and with fish, and 
barter what they have brought for salt, nails, kerosene, 
fishing materials, tobacco, saws, knives, axes, and 
cloth. We do not supply rum or spirits. This takes 
up the Head’s whole morning, and then what a time it 
takes him in addition to send off his European orders 
correctly and at the right time, to keep the accounts 
accurately, to pay the boatmen and the labourers their 
wages, and to look after all the cultivated ground ! 
What losses are entailed, too, if he fails to have necessary 
material in hand when it is wanted ! A roof has to be 
put on, and there are no raffia leaves ready, dried and 
sewn into sheets ; there is some building to be done, 
and there are no beams and no boards ; or the best 
time for brickmaking has been allowed to pass unused ; 
or he has postponed too long the re-smoking of the 
P.F. M 
