The Awakening Coast: An Anthology of Moravian Writings from Mosquitia and Eastern Nicaragua, 1849-1899

26. A New Mission at Sandy Bay, 1897

26 A New Mission at Sandy Bay, 1897 “The New Station at Sandy Bay,” Periodical Accounts Relating to the Foreign Missions of the Church of the United Brethren 2 (1897): 319–22. The Periodical Accounts editor used multiple letters from missionary Ernst Paul Colditz to produce this article. Colditz was born in Germany in 1863 and trained as a cabinetmaker before coming to Mosquitia with his wife in 1889. The couple was at Wounta Haulover in the early 1890s and founded the Sandy Bay Station in 1896. Colditz provides paraphrased text of the “heart-stirring” oratory messages of Miskito converts and suggests that their speeches were clearly “understood by the people.” By all accounts, including the experiences of Offen, Miskito public-speaking skills can be quite captivating, an essential trait to gain traction with Miskito audiences.1 The advent of uniting Miskito oratory skills with Christian symbolism within the metaphorical Miskito language was an important step toward generating acceptance of Moravian Christianity within Miskito society. Three aspects of this article help illustrate our thesis that, from the villagers’ point of view, the Moravians came to play roles associated with new sukias in Miskito society. Colditz notes that the Miskito provided the missionaries with gifts but expected medicine in return, the same quid pro quo relationship the Miskito shared with sukias. Meanwhile, on Easter Sunday, villagers woke Colditz up at 3 a.m. to hold service at “the burial ground,” exactly where isingni (annual ascending spirit) rites are overseen by sukias. Finally, Colditz notes that after Sunday services members of the congregation often come to his house to look at pictures and “obtain medicine,” acts that many Miskito likely saw as an inseparable extension of the service itself. A New Mission at Sandy Bay | 299 The new station at Sandy Bay has been opened, and Brother and Sister Colditz report hopefully of the work of the Lord. They arrived at Dakura, the nearest already established station, last September, and whilst his family remained at that station, Brother Colditz took in hand the building of the mission-house at Sandy Bay. “During the three months,” he writes in one of his letters, “in which the building of the house was going on I was mostly present, joining my carpenters in their daily exercises. Times of building are always troublesome, and this was the case here also. Besides that, intense heat prevailed, and no shade whatever could be found in the open savanna. To quench our thirst, we drank great quantities of water, and it did not hurt us. Many an evening I felt so tired that I could scarcely walk the short distance to the riverside, in order to take a bath. But having bathed, all my tiredness was gone, and I felt quite revived. In spite of all the hardships in connection with the building, I enjoyed better health then than during my whole time hitherto on the Moskito Coast. When Sunday came round, I kept services in the school-house, which had been built a couple of weeks before. The people were glad to get a missionary at last, and they lent many a helping hand in landing the lumber and pushing on the building operations.” The Indians Built the School-house The above-mentioned school-house was built by the Indians and opened by Brothers Gebhardt and Colditz on the fourth of October last year. The Mission gave two thousand feet of boards towards it; all the rest, such as beams, the leaf-roof, free labour, &c, was given by the Indians under the superintendence of a Mr. Hurlston, who has been a teacher in our service for some time.2 Three services were held on the opening day; for, we must remember, this school-house was to serve as chapel as well as school until a proper place of worship could be erected. It was a day of great blessing to many. A large number of Indians assembled for each service, eager to hear the gospel preached to them at their own station. Their faces showed the joy that filled their hearts, and lively and edifying, although rather flat, was their powerful singing. 300 | A New Mission at Sandy Bay Native Oratory In the afternoon meeting two Indians also addressed the congregation, and what they said was excellent and to the point. The first speaker, Duma Wisslat, spoke somewhat as follows: “You know how that the Christians across...