MARY SLESSOR

OF CALABAR

PIONEER MISSIONARY

BY

W. P. LIVINGSTONE



PREFATORY NOTE


_Life for most people is governed by authority and convention, but
behind these there lies always the mystery of human nature, uncertain
and elusive, and apt now and again to go off at a tangent and disturb
the smooth working of organised routine. Some man or woman will appear
who departs from the normal order of procedure, who follows ideals
rather than rules, and whose methods are irregular, and often, in the
eyes of onlookers, unwise. They may be poor or frail, and in their own
estimation of no account, yet it is often they who are used for the
accomplishment--of important ends. Such a one was Mary Slessor._

_Towards the end of her days she was urged to write her autobiography,
but was surprised at the proposal, and asked what she had done to merit
the distinction of being put in a book. She was so humble-minded that
she could not discern any special virtue in her life of self-sacrifice
and heroism; and she disliked publicity and was shamed by praise. When