Mary wrote again and again, trying to persuade the Board to let her start
work at Akpap. At last the Mission Board agreed to let her start work
there. They promised to build a mission house and a boathouse for her
steamboat.

Mary did not wait for the house to be built. In 1896 she built a two-room
native shed. Here she began her work. The house was not as good as the
first house she built in Ekenge. This did not bother Mary. She was more
concerned about bringing the Gospel to the heathen.

The work here was like that in Ekenge. The chiefs came with the troubles
they were having in their tribes. They wanted her advice. The people came
with their family problems and wanted her to tell them what to do. There
were many heathen people who came from the jungle to visit her. Mary taught
her classes. She conducted Sunday services. She was busy all the
time. Then one day the smallpox sickness broke out.

"You must all be vaccinated," said Mary to the natives. "I will scratch
your arm with this medicine and the smallpox will stay away from you."

Hour after hour, far into the night, day after day, Mary vaccinated the
natives. When her medicine ran out, she took blood from the arms of those
who had been vaccinated to use as vaccination medicine.

One day a man came running to the house where Mary was living in Akpap. He
had run a long way. He was scratched up and sweating. He had run through
the jungle without stopping.

"Ma, Ma," he cried, "the smallpox sickness has come to Ekenge. Chief
Ekponyong and Chief Edem are sick and many, many more. Come quick, oh,