Extracts of two letters from Rev. M. D. Herndon, circa 1860

Extracts from Rev. M. D. Herndon LITTLE BASSA We have two letters from this brother, who is stationed at Pleasant Hill, Little Bassa. He writes encouragingly of the progressive influence of his labors upon the surrounding nations. He is very urgent in his appeals for clothing for the native children under his charge. In one of his letters he writes: “Some Methodist brethren were traveling through the country, and came to Pleasant Hill to see me, and they were surprised to see my poor little boys sitting reading their little books, all naked but their little cloth on. They remarked: ‘your boys ought to have clothes on. You do not know how proud it makes them.’” He also refers to the necessity of a house of worship for the natives, and wishes to build one as soon as possible. Referring to a tribe, which he calls Puses, he writes: “When I called them together they told them that I was a god-man. The head man asked was I for true of the Bassa people. I said yes. So he sat a while and looked at me, and told the rest to get up. From that he broke out, and they all run as far as I saw them. Me call them, but all to no use. It seems that they never heard any thing about God. You may find by traveling among the Puses that they have been run so much by the Bassa tribe that it is very hard to get them to listen to what you say I sometimes go among them and they will walk off from me. They are a poor, harmless tribe. They think themselves not worthy of keeping the company of the other tribes; so they look cast down whenever you meet them.” HOME AND FOREIGN JOURNAL March 1861 p. 36