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ARTHUR DOUGLAS 
 
THE REV. ARTHUR JEFFREYS DOUGLAS 
 
ARTHUR DOUGLAS 
 
 MISSIONARY 
 
 ON LAKE NYASA 
 
 THE STORY OF HIS LIFE 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 B. W. RANDOLPH, D.D. 
 
 CANON OF ELY 
 
 SOMETIME PRINCIPAL OF 
 
 ELY THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO 
 
 CENTRAL AFRICA 
 
 9 DARTMOUTH STREET, WESTMINSTER 
 
 1920 
 
"HE BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH " 
 
 LOAN STACK 
 
SV3fc2 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Very nearly a year has passed away since the subject of 
 this memoir met his death on the shores of Lake Nyasa at 
 the hands of a Portuguese corporal. 
 
 Arthur Douglas was out in Africa as a Christian mission- 
 ary. The only " offence " which he committed was that of 
 protecting some native girls from the unruly lust of another 
 white man. 
 
 It is certainly not straining language, therefore, to say 
 that he died a martyr's death. 
 
 At the kind request of his brothers and sisters and of 
 the Universities' Mission I undertook this memoir, and its 
 compilation has been a labour of love. 
 
 It has been my object to let the letters tell their own 
 story, and it will be seen that they do, in no small degree, 
 give a vivid picture of Douglas' life in Africa first at Kota 
 Kota, then at Likoma, and lastly at S. Michael's College, 
 while the letters themselves are supplemented here and 
 there with recollections of their author which have been 
 kindly sent to me by several of his fellow-workers in the 
 Mission. 
 
 In the earlier chapters especially, and indeed throughout, 
 I have been greatly helped by those who were nearest and 
 dearest to him. 
 
 The two golden threads which run through his whole 
 career are, I think, dutifulness and prayerfulness. Coming 
 from an almost ideal home he had early learnt the lesson of 
 implicit obedience to duty ; and as soon as he arrived at 
 Ely the habit of prayer, which he had no doubt in the same 
 way formed in childhood, began to grow and deepen. How 
 beautifully these two threads wove themselves into his after 
 life this little volume abundantly shows. 
 
 I pray God that the perusal of these letters may suggest 
 
 149 
 
the question to more than one reader — Am I too called to 
 this blessed work, the work of Christ in Central Africa ? 
 
 B. W. RANDOLPH. 
 
 Clergy House of Rest, 
 
 West Malvern. 
 Translation of King Edward the Confessor, 191 2. 
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 Nearly ten years have passed since Arthur Douglas was 
 murdered on the island of Likoma, November 10, 191 1. 
 
 *' His death," wrote Bishop Fisher, *' was a real martyr- 
 dom. . . . Native opinion, which is shrewd in its grasp of 
 essentials, is quite clear that he died for them." 
 
 It is nine years since this memoir was first published. It 
 has been out of print for a long time, and only the war and 
 the inevitable rise in the cost of paper and of everything 
 relating to the work of publishing have delayed the issue of 
 another edition. 
 
 At last the Universities' Mission has seen its way to 
 republish the book. 
 
 The changes in this edition are very slight. There are a 
 few corrections, some of the illustrations have been omitted, 
 and the last chapter has been to some extent re-written as 
 fuller light has been thrown on the circumstances connected 
 with the martyrdom. 
 
 For the rest the book remains the same. It is largely a 
 collection of Douglas' letters, and it is these letters which 
 really make it worth while to republish the memoir, for they 
 give (according to competent judges) a very vivid picture of 
 the life of missionaries in Central Africa. 
 
 They have thus been the means of drawing others to take 
 an interest in the work of the Mission and, I believe, also of 
 leading some to follow in the steps of Arthur Douglas by 
 ofEering themselves for work in Central Africa. 
 
 B. W. RANDOLPH. 
 
 The Almonry, 
 
 Ely. 
 Fgast of St. Alban, 1920. 
 
 vi 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter 
 
 I. 
 II. 
 
 m. 
 
 IV. 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 FAGK 
 
 Preface ........ v 
 
 Home and Early Life, 1871-1885 . . . i 
 
 Marlborough, Oxford, Ely, 1885-1894 . . 7 
 
 Salisbury and Salwarpe, 1895-1901 ... 16 
 
 The Call to Missionary Work, 190 i ... 28 
 The First Spell of Missionary Work, Kota Kota, 
 
 1901-1904 ....... 49 
 
 The Second Spell of Missionary Work, Likoma, 
 
 1904-1907 . . . . . . .123 
 
 The Third Spell of Missionary Work, S. Michael's 
 
 College, 1908-1911 ..... i8i 
 
 The Passing (November 1911) .... 271 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Retreat Addresses : 
 The Mountain of the Transfiguration . . . 285 
 
 Ventures of Faith 290 
 
 S. Peter's Denial 396 
 
 The Great Commission . . . . . .301 
 
 MAPS 306 
 
 INDEX .308 
 
 VII 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Rev. Arthur Jeffreys Douglas 
 
 Arthur Douglas, aged 3, 5, and 9 years 
 
 Arthur and Gerald Douglas, 1885 
 
 Arthur Douglas, 1894 • 
 
 Salwarpe Rectory 
 
 Salwarpe Rectory and Group 
 
 Salwarpe Church (Exterior) 
 
 Arthur Douglas, 1901 
 
 KoTA Kota School-boys 
 
 Kota Kota Church (East End) 
 
 Kota Kota Church (West End) 
 
 Mr. Douglas mending his Boots 
 
 Mr. Douglas on his Donkey . 
 
 LiKOMA Cathedral . 
 
 Football at Likoma 
 
 Sunday at Likoma . 
 
 Mr. Douglas leaving Likoma, 1907 
 
 Mtonya 
 
 S. Michael's College Students 
 S. Michael's College Chapel 
 
 Maps 
 
 East Central Africa 
 Lake Nyasa . 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
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 Vlll 
 
ARTHUR DOUGLAS 
 
 THE STORY OF HIS LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HOME AND EARLY LIFE, 187I-1885 
 
 Arthur Jeffreys Douglas was born at Salwarpe Rectory 
 near Droit wich on October 9, 1871. His father was the 
 Rev. William Douglas and his mother was a sister of Bishop 
 Walsham How. 
 
 Arthur was the youngest but one of a very large family. 
 His birth is entered by Mrs. Douglas in her Diary in the 
 following terms : " Our 15th child and 6th boy was born 
 about one o'clock " ; and his baptism she records a few weeks 
 later, on Sunday, November 12. Two little stories are told 
 of Arthur when he was quite young, both of which illustrate 
 the gentleness and courtesy and care for other people's 
 feelings which were characteristic features of his later life. 
 
 When he was eight years old he had a bad illness ; during 
 its course his mind wandered at times, but even in this 
 condition his innate courtesy did not desert him, for on one 
 occasion when he was unconscious he said to his aunt 
 who was nursing him, " Would you be so very kind as to 
 help me lift the coal-box ? " 
 
 Another day, when he and his brothers and sisters 
 
were skating, and one of them had to be sent back to fetch 
 a gimlet, Arthur called after him, " Don't run up the drive 
 for fear mother should think there has been an accident." 
 It was his mother who taught him and his brothers before 
 they went to school, carefully grounding them in Latin and 
 other subjects. In 1881, when he was nine years old, he was 
 sent to Mr. Lloyd's preparatory school at Hartford House, 
 Winchfield. 
 
 The following letter, written to one of his sisters soon 
 after his arrival, refers to the choir and schools at Salwarpe, 
 which were to be such an interest to him in later years : 
 
 Hartford House, Oct. 23, 1881, 
 
 " Thank you very much for your jolly letter. I am 
 top in my class for the exam., which I did not expect to 
 be at all. ... It is most awfully cold getting up in the 
 morning now ; we get up at half-past six on week-days 
 and at half-past eight on Sundays. ... I suppose you 
 have not got surplices for the choir yet — has anything 
 more been said about them ? How are the new schools 
 getting on ? I wonder when they will be finished. I wonder 
 whether they will be finished before the holidays. ..." 
 
 The following letter illustrates his fondness for riding 
 and his interest in football : 
 
 Hartford House, Feb. 12, 1882. 
 
 " I am so very sorry that I forgot your birthday. I am 
 looking forward to to-morrow, when I shall see father and 
 mother — it will be awfully jolly. I had such great fun 
 yesterday. One of the masters came up into the play- 
 ground, which is altogether about the size of the ' Long 
 Meadow,' on Mr. Lloyd's horse, and asked me if I should like 
 to have a ride. Of course I said I should, so I got on, and he 
 let me go four times round. It's such an awfully jolly horse, 
 so very big, and he let me canter about by myself — he is so 
 awfully jolly. . . . We are going to have the Wellington 
 match next Saturday, it will be awfully exciting as our 
 fifteen has grown much worse because of D. going ; before 
 
 2 
 
ARTHUR DOUGLAS, AGED 3, 5, AND 9 YEARS 
 
we used to beat them always, but now I'm afraid it is rather 
 a bad look out for us. . . ." 
 
 There is at least one point in one of his childish letters 
 to which attention may be drawn. He is writing from 
 school when nine and a half years old to his brother Gerald, 
 aged five and a half, and he asks anxiously what he (Gerald) 
 thinks of the Report ! 
 
 " I wonder if you have had my report yet ; I did not do 
 quite so well as I expected. . . . Mind to tell me whether 
 you think my report good or bad. I'm afraid it will not 
 be so good as last time. ..." 
 
 The following extract was found in one of his letters 
 written about this time to his father : 
 
 " On the way to the Lord's house be thoughtful and 
 silent or say but little and that little good. Speak not of 
 other's men's falts but think of your own of which you are 
 going to ask forgiveness. When you reach the church never 
 stay outside go in at once. Time spent within is exceedingly 
 precious. In church kneel down very humbly and pray. 
 Spend the time that remains in holy thought. In prayer 
 remember the awful Presence in which you have come. 
 Never look about to see who are coming in for any cause 
 whatever. It matters not to you what others may be 
 doing attend to yourself. Fasten your thoughts firmly 
 on the Holy Service miss not one word. This need a severe 
 strugle. The Blessed Sprit will strenthen you if you 
 persevere. When service is over remain kneeling and pray. 
 Be silent and speak to know one till you are outside. Do 
 not cover your head untill you have left the porch. The 
 church is God's house even when prayer is over. On going 
 home be careful of your talk. The world will soon slip back 
 into your mind. Love prayer and praise best. Preaching 
 is but the help of that heavenly work." 
 
 The explanation of the above has been kindly given by 
 Mr. E. W M. Lloyd, Arthur's former headmaster. The 
 paper is, he says, " a copy of a notice, framed and glazed, 
 
hanging up in the entrance porch of our church here (at 
 Winchfield). The author's name is not given, nor do I 
 know who it was — possibly George Herbert or Jeremy 
 Taylor — but these are only guesses on my part. I had no 
 idea that any of my boys had ever copied it out. It is very 
 touching to think that Arthur did so. I think he must 
 have got another boy to read it aloud to him while he wrote 
 it, otherwise the mistakes in spelling would not have 
 occurred." Mr. Lloyd adds : " Arthur was one of the very 
 best boys I ever had in my school, and I was so grieved to 
 hear of his sad death ; and yet it was a glorious death, 
 that of a martyr." 
 
 There is nothing of special importance in these early days 
 to chronicle ; but the following account, written by one of 
 his sisters, gives a picture of the happy home life of the 
 large family at Salwarpe. 
 
 " All through our nursery days there are few moments 
 that I can recall with any clearness, a fact which points to 
 the even, happy, uneventful life of those years spent in that 
 ideal nursery, whence, through barred windows, we looked 
 across the lawn to the beautiful old church tower and to 
 the rookery in the elms to the left of it. The nursery walls 
 were bright with pictures out of the Christmas numbers of 
 illustrated papers, and on the floor was a gay worsted-work 
 carpet,worn threadbare in places, so that one of our favourite 
 indoor occupations was to work over the bare canvas with 
 brightly coloured wools, pattern and colour being left to 
 our own choice. 
 
 " We loved games of all kinds, and time never hung 
 heavy. Our chief delight was in ' dressing up,' and from 
 those early days onwards Arthur took the keenest delight 
 in acting. He was a nervous little boy, but nervousness and 
 shyness were forgotten at such times, and this dramatic 
 gift was his all through life ; his preaching, his letters, his 
 teaching was always graphic. He was a peculiarly sensi- 
 tive little boy, and this sensitiveness made him remark- 
 ably considerate of the feelings of others. An instance of 
 this stands out clearly : One of us had been given a large 
 
ARTHUR AND GERALD DOUGLAS, 1 885 
 
pot of lemon marmalade, which was to be shared by the 
 whole schoolroom party ; schoolroom fare was of the 
 simplest, and we had looked forward eagerly to this unusual 
 treat. But, alas ! the owner of the pot dropped it on the 
 floor, and bitter was her grief. Arthur, quite a tiny fellow, 
 seeing the accident, came quickly upstairs to find one of his 
 sisters, and to beg her not to take any notice of what had 
 happened. 
 
 " He was nervous and timid, two years younger than I 
 was, and I remember his terror of a broken-off elm branch 
 with which I used to chase him, making it spring along the 
 lawn like an uncanny beast. I remember too how, when 
 I would have trespassed into a field in spite of the warning 
 notice-board, he hung back, fearing to break the law : and 
 again, when for the first time in our lives we were allowed 
 to go on a short journey by ourselves, he begged me not to 
 get out at the station (though we both knew it was the 
 right one) until we had seen the name on the station board. 
 
 " But in spite of this natural timidity, he was plucky and 
 courageous, and early learnt to discipline himself and to 
 exercise self-control. He was fond of riding, cricket, and 
 football : whatever he did he did with his whole heart in it, 
 and this determination to do the right whatever the cost 
 must have been always noticeable. He loved country life, 
 and was a very keen little botanist. 
 
 " From the time that he went to school he became a 
 hero in my eyes. For his first home-coming for the holidays 
 coloured handkerchiefs tied on sticks were hung out for 
 him from the windows. How proud we felt, as we walked 
 from the station with him, and how grown-up and loud 
 I thought his voice had become, though he certainly never 
 gave himself any school-boy airs. 
 
 " Always for the last day or two of the holidays a deadly 
 feeling was in the air, and though I never remember anything 
 being said, we knew that he was fighting against an over- 
 whelming longing not to return to school ; when older he 
 owned to having longed as a small boy that he might break 
 a leg so that the dreadful day should be postponed. It is 
 comforting to know that he was quite happy when once the 
 
hew term had started ; he loved both his schools, and made 
 many friends, and often invited them to spend part of the 
 holidays with him at home. 
 
 "Up to the time that he went to school, Arthur, like 
 the rest of his brothers, was taught by our mother, who 
 grounded him well in Latin. 
 
 " He was very fond of music, but it was not until he went 
 to Marlborough that he made up his mind to learn the violin. 
 He had a good ear, and though he had not a very strong 
 treble voice he sang carefully and with all his might : he 
 loved the choir practices, and when quite a little fellow 
 sang solos at the parish concerts. 
 
 " Through his boyhood as in his later years his reverence 
 was always very marked. As he grew older no joke and no 
 story bordering on the flippant could ever be told when he 
 was in the room, without the teller regretting it : his silence, 
 and perhaps a passing look of pain, made one immediately 
 realise the flippancy if one had not done so before. But all 
 other jokes he loved, however small, for his sense of humour 
 was very keen." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MARLBOROUGH, OXFORD, ELY, 1885-1894 
 
 In September 1885 Arthur went to Marlborough, where he 
 had gained a Foundation scholarship. In the following year 
 he was confirmed at Salwarpe, his mother noting in her 
 Diary, under date May 2 : "In the afternoon the Bishop 
 came for the Confirmation, 36 candidates, 20 being our own , 
 among them dear Arthur." 
 One of his sisters writes : 
 
 " Arthur was the only brother, I think, confirmed at 
 home ; it was on the first Sunday after Easter, May 2, 1886. 
 He was in the choir in his surplice, and I was sitting at the 
 west end of the church and saw his face either as he re- 
 turned to his seat or as he came with the choir in procession 
 leaving the church. It had the most intensely earnest look 
 on it, as if he were almost overwhelmed with what had 
 happened, and was resolutely set on being the faithful 
 soldier and servant unto his life's end." 
 
 On May 3, writes his mother in her Diary, " Early 
 Communion. Arthur made his first Communion, and left us 
 for Marlborough." 
 
 " Douglas," writes Mr. A. C. Champneys, who was at 
 that time a master at Marlborough, " was a boy who 
 could be trusted to do his work or anything else that was 
 his duty. He was very cheerful and friendly, and with a 
 decided sense of humour. He was rather small for his age 
 
 7 
 
all the time that he was at school, which handicapped him in 
 games, but I remember his special pluck and determination 
 as ' back ' in the House matches, which, considering his size, 
 impressed his House and others as much as it did me. He 
 was head prefect of his House before he left, and I remember 
 his trustworthiness and good sense in a position which was, 
 I fancy, none too easy. ... He was in the House known 
 as B2 having the crescent for its badge ; it is curious that 
 G. W. Atlay, also in the Universities' Mission, and who was 
 killed in Nyasaland, in 1895, was in the same House." 
 
 He appears to have been, as a boy and also in later life, 
 naturally very sensitive, but this did not make him morose 
 or touchy, but very careful of the feelings of others. His 
 obedience and his deep sense of reverence were strong points 
 in his character, and as he grew up he looked with great 
 disfavour on anything approaching irreverence. 
 
 His love for the beautiful is shown in his letter written 
 from Marlborough, in which he describes the opening of the 
 new Chapel, dated October 3, 1886. 
 
 " I have just come in from Chapel," he writes, " so 
 will have some time to write to you before dinner. First 
 of all, I must tell you about Wednesday. The day was very 
 fine here. The service was at eleven o'clock. The choir, 
 prefects, masters and clergy, with the Bishops of Salisbury 
 and Bath and Wells, formed in procession and walked round 
 the outside of the Chapel singing hymns. After the keys 
 had been handed to the Bishop and the petition for consecra- 
 tion had been read by the Earl of Devon, the procession 
 entered and walked up the aisle chanting the psalm, ' Lift 
 up your heads, O ye Gates.' The hymn Veni Creator was 
 then sung to a beautiful tune, the first [verse] being sung 
 as a solo. Dr. Bradley, Dean of Westminster, preached a 
 very nice sermon. 
 
 " Of course Archdeacon Farrar was there and read the 
 Gospel. The offertory amounted to £104 odd, besides £60 
 for a painted window. The service lasted about two hours 
 and a half. I cannot describe how beautiful the Chapel 
 itself is. The seats are oak, facing one another to the north 
 
 8 
 
and south, with an aisle up the middle. The reredos is very 
 tall, made of carved stone with groups of figures in it. I 
 don't much care for the windows, though I believe they are 
 good, nor for the pictures underneath the windows, though 
 they are exceedingly costly. There is a gallery at the west 
 end beautifully decorated and finished off. Try and see the 
 Graphic for this week as that gives you some idea of Marl- 
 borough. The floor of the Chapel is of polished wooden 
 bricks which scarcely make any noise at all. The ceiling is 
 magnificently decorated, and I don't think the whole inside 
 of the Chapel could be more costly, though it is not quite 
 finished yet." 
 
 He goes on to ask if he may attend a course of lectures 
 on mammals, &c., by Professor Bell of the British Museum. 
 
 He spent five more years at Marlborough which passed 
 happily and uneventfully. At the end of 1889 he tried 
 for a scholarship at Keble, as the following letter will show : 
 
 The College, Dec. i, 1889. 
 
 *' I don't believe I have written to you since we last saw 
 each other ; so I shall begin a letter now before dinner. I 
 hear you have begun a debating society at Ivy Bank, and 
 that K. and J. spoke at the first debate. I should have 
 liked to have heard them. Were they very gesticulative 
 and did they wave their arms about ? 
 
 " I daresay you know that I go up to Keble on the 9th — 
 to-morrow week, and between ourselves I shall be very glad 
 when it is over ; perhaps it would make it even worse, if I 
 thought I had more chance of getting a scholarship ; but 
 they only give one classical scholarship and one exhibition. 
 They put me up and feed me in college, which is rather a 
 comfort, for the moderate sum of 25s., during the time of the 
 examination. 
 
 " Every Sunday afternoon I go to Mr. Pollock's musical 
 ' at homes.' You know who I mean, don't you ? I enjoy 
 them immensely, though, perhaps, hardly as much now as I 
 used to, because he found out a month ago that I played the 
 fiddle a little, so has since that always asked me to bring it. 
 However I think I am getting over my nervousness of 
 
playing before people. I find there is nothing like reading 
 the lessons in Chapel to get rid of nervousness. 
 
 " Did you hear of me being ' honourably mentioned ' 
 for the Buchanan School Reading Prize ? The prize is open 
 to the whole school. I had no intention of going in for it, 
 till Mr. Champneys asked me to. After the first day's 
 competition twelve of us were selected to read again, and 
 on the first list the judges brought me out third. The first 
 two got the prizes and I was ' hony. '^rd.' ; I should very 
 much have liked to have got one of the school prizes, and 
 being so near it was the more aggravating. However 
 being a bad reader-out-loud, I was not a bit worth it. It 
 was rather a terrible ordeal, as the reading was held in a big 
 hall, open to all the school to come and hear. 
 
 " I have just received an august visitor, viz. Mr. Bell, 
 who brought Mr. Arthur Ingram ^ up to see his old study, 
 and the latter recognised me for a Douglas. I don't think 
 I should have known him. He preached in Chapel this 
 morning." 
 
 He was not successful at Keble, but later he gained 
 a Classical Exhibition at Lincoln College, Oxford, and 
 entered there in October 1890. 
 
 His first impressions of Oxford are described in the 
 following letter to one of his sisters : 
 
 Lincoln College, Oct. 19, 1890. 
 
 " I told W. that I would write to you when I got settled, 
 so as I have a very long evening before me I will tell you of 
 my first week in Oxford, and really there is so much to tell 
 that I don't know where to begin. At present I feel in a 
 most dissipated condition ; and when I am not at lectures 
 my time is mostly taken up with breakfasts, teas, and coffees 
 in other men's rooms and in returning calls, the latter of 
 which so far take up all time from 4 to 6 in the afternoon. 
 It isn't etiquette for freshmen to leave cards, so they have 
 to go on calling till they find the occupants of the rooms 
 * in.' I should think I have been to some rooms a dozen 
 
 * Now Bishop of London. 
 10 
 
times, but at last I am thankful to say the majority are done, 
 although I expect a good many more will come. In one way 
 it is rather exciting calling, as one doesn't know in the least 
 what sort of a man has been to see you, as the seniors make 
 a point of calling when you are out, so that they may simply 
 leave their card. Everybody is so pleasant and friendly 
 here, and by this time I have got to know most of the nicest 
 men, though I see most of the ' freshers,' who seem a specially 
 sociable lot. 
 
 " Yesterday I had the honour to play football for the 
 College against Exeter, whom we beat — unexpectedly as 
 they are supposed to be good. As I was commended at the 
 end of the game, I hope I shall be asked to play again. It 
 was my first game of football this season. I was specially 
 glad to be asked to play as I have so got to know some of the 
 leading men in the College. After playing I went to see 
 Reggie Chesshire who had called on me. Of course I have 
 seen a very large number of O.M's. Here there are two 
 others beside myself. Chambers and a son of the town 
 doctor at Marlborough, Morrice by name. The way I 
 mostly spend my days is — Chapel at 8 o'clock, breakfast 
 in my own or somebody else's room at 8.30, lectures or 
 private reading from 10 to i, lunch 1.30, dinner at 7 o'clock, 
 and as a rule, coffee in somebody else's room afterwards. 
 Thus you see at present I am having a thoroughly lazy time, 
 but I hope in another week I shall have sobered down, and 
 certainly so far, I have seen the pleasant side of Oxford life. 
 
 " I went down to the boats on Thursday to be trained in 
 rowing, but this term I shall play as much football as 
 possible, though I believe it is difficult to get a game unless I 
 play for the College. 
 
 " I have joined the Union, the big club and debating 
 society up here. I find almost everybody joins, especially 
 at colleges like Lincoln where there is no common-room. 
 I have also been asked to join the Union Musical Society, 
 and I think possibly next term, if not this, I shall do so. It 
 is specially useful for fiddlers, as there are special classes 
 free of extra charge for practising quartettes, &c. There 
 are several very musical men I know who have strongly 
 
 II 
 
advised me to join. Thete is one other fiddler in college 
 besides myself. I went to play in his rooms a few nights ago. 
 He is going to take a musical degree. 
 
 " I haven't told you how I spend my Sundays. The 
 times of the services appear to a freshman rather incon- 
 venient. There is the ordinary morning service, without 
 sermon, and a Celebration at 8 o'clock, and Evensong at 
 5 o'clock in the afternoon. We only have two sermons a 
 term, one to-day, being Hospital Sunday, from our Rector. 
 
 " There is a College Debating Society which holds its 
 meetings every Sunday evening. I expect it is one of the 
 best ways of spending Sunday evening here especially 
 as it is a very long evening. Dinner on Sunday is at 6. 
 I went to debate last Sunday, but to-night did not feel 
 inclined to, so have been writing to you instead. It was so 
 jolly having F.^ for an afternoon. I have got very small 
 rooms, but the porter told me I should be able to change 
 them at the end of the term or at any rate two terms, and 
 now I have made them quite comfortable." 
 
 A college friend writes to one of Arthur's sisters : 
 
 " Your brother Arthur was the closest of my friends 
 during all the four years we were together as undergraduates 
 at Lincoln College, 1890-4. The first of my many reading 
 parties was when we went off together with two others of 
 our year in our first long vacation to Lynmouth. Many 
 Sunday mornings, too, in term time we came together, he 
 bringing his violin to my rooms, and against all College 
 rules we played together for an hour or so, despite long- 
 suffering Dons. When he went down, and I stayed on at 
 Oxford, out of all my friends I missed no one quite so much. 
 And our correspondence together spread over twenty years. 
 If it grew less frequent towards the end, that was due to my 
 laziness and his manifold activities. Of him and of one 
 other, also a Marlburian who has since passed away, I 
 preserve the most lively and regretful memory. At college 
 he was universally liked and esteemed. We drifted in 
 
 * His eldest sister. 
 12 
 
different directions, he to the football field and I to the 
 river, for four years. But tidings of his pluck as ' Full-back ' 
 used to greet me many a winter afternoon. And this same 
 pluck he carried with him to Africa. In one of the last 
 letters I had from him there, he spoke with joy of his boys' 
 football almost with as much delight, it seemed, as of the 
 building of his Cathedral at Likoma. His triumphant 
 death in defiance of oppression was worthy of him, and we 
 may well be proud of him at Oxford, and especially we 
 ' Lincoln men.' " 
 
 His life at Oxford passed happily : his chief recreations 
 were football and cricket, and he steadily went on with his 
 violin playing which he had begun as a small boy. His love 
 of music never deserted him, and his knowledge in this 
 direction stood him in good stead in Africa, where he had to 
 train the native boys and girls in singing. 
 
 He read steadily, and in 1894 he obtained a third class 
 in the school of LittercB Humaniores, taking his Bachelor's 
 degree in October of that year. 
 
 From the first it appears that he never thought of any 
 other career than that of a priest. Accordingly, as soon as 
 he had become a graduate he went to Ely Theological 
 College for a year's special training, entering on his life there 
 on October 26, 1894. 
 
 In a letter to his sister just after his arrival he says : 
 
 Theological College, Ely, Nov, 11, 1894, 
 
 " There is half an hour before supper, which I may as 
 well employ in giving you my first impressions of my new 
 abode. I have only been here just over a fortnight, but al- 
 ready I feel at home with the men, the place, the regulations, 
 and general manner of life. Of course it was all very strange 
 the first few days, and arriving just in time for afternoon tea 
 the first day I was awfully shy, but summoned up courage 
 to introduce myself to the Vice-Principal. ^ During the first 
 two days there was, as I think I told you, a retreat ; Dr. 
 
 1 Rev. H. V. S. Eck, now Vicar of Ardeley. 
 13 
 
Gore gave the addresses, which I thought were awfully 
 good, extremely practical and useful for the would-be 
 parson, and not at all high-flown. The regulation of silence 
 during meals and other times was advantageous to me in 
 more ways than one, as I had not a chance of feeling ' out of 
 it ' with the others, and I and they got to know each other by 
 sight before we had a chance of talking. Now, however, I 
 know all the men well and I could not possibly want a nicer 
 set ; and here the collegiate life is so close that niceness is 
 a most necessary quality. There is so much in common and 
 one is always having to do with every other individual. 
 There is one of the inevitable family of Mertens here, a 
 second term man, whom I like particularly. 
 
 " There are three authorities in the college, Principal, 
 Vice- Principal, and Chaplain. I know the Principal best so 
 far, and I have had several conversations with the Vice. 
 Of course it is too early to say anything about the teaching 
 here, but what does strike me at first sight is the wideness 
 of view held by the heads of the college, and their absolute 
 unwillingness to thrust any new ideas down one's throat, and 
 I do fully realise the importance of taking no new step of any 
 kind without much consideration. Thus I write to my two 
 Godparents, knowing what an interest both you and W. 
 take in my future career. I have already had two sights of 
 Gerald ^ this term. 
 
 " Yesterday week I found a large number of our men 
 were going into Cambridge, so I went with them to see 
 Cambridge for the first time ; it is less than twenty miles 
 journey. Gerald was in very good form ; he and I had just 
 finished lunch when my Bishop * put his head into the room 
 and told us that Lady Alwyne with Miss Gordon and Miss 
 Soulsby (of Oxford High school) were in King's Chapel, so we 
 joined them and afterwards the whole party and my friend 
 Emery came to tea with Gerald. Originally I had not 
 meant to go to Cambridge till yesterday, but it was fortunate 
 that I went the week before as Lady Alwyne had already 
 settled to ask Gerald and myself to lunch at the Palace for 
 
 * His youngest brother, then a scholar of King's G)llege, Cambridge. 
 
 * Lord Alwyne Compton, then Bishop of Ely. 
 
 14 
 
ARTHUR DOUGLAS, 1 894 
 
yesterday, so that brought Gerald here and he stayed the 
 night with me, going back this evening. I took him to 
 breakfast with the Principal, and to lunch with Archdeacon 
 Emery and family. 
 
 " The Palace people have been very kind to me, as, 
 besides lunch yesterday, I dined there near the beginning 
 of the term. The Bishop and Lady Alwyne are both so very 
 nice and, I find, easy to get on with. 
 
 " This letter is already much too long, but it will show 
 you how happy I am here. In the afternoon I play much 
 football, Rugby with the Grammar school-boys. Association 
 with the other college men ; there is also tennis, boating 
 and church -bell ringing, at which I am not an adept. 
 
 " I want very much to hear all about you ; I have heard 
 nothing as to the spread of the epidemic." 
 
 When he was a student at Ely, I can recall his seriousness 
 of purpose and his devotion to duty. These were, I think, 
 the two most marked features of his character. He was very 
 regular in his prayers and meditations, and we could always 
 depend on his steadfastness and loyalty. He thought out 
 things for himself carefully and prayerfully, and was 
 thoroughly interested in theology. He was very methodical 
 in all he undertook and made his way step by step towards 
 the definitely Catholic standpoint which became habitual 
 to him in later life. 
 
 He always seemed a little old (in manner) for his years, 
 but this did not at all prevent him taking his full share in 
 the games and recreations of the place. He played as he 
 worked, with keenness and perseverance. 
 
 He became devoted to the college and anxious that his 
 youngest brother Gerald should come there too as a student, 
 which happened in due course. ^ 
 
 1 Rev. Gerald W. Douglas, afterwards Vice -Principal for nearly nine 
 years; Rector of Christ Church, St. Leonards-on-Sea, 1912-1920; joined 
 the U.M.C.A. Staff in 1920. 
 
 15 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SALISBURY AND SALWARPE, 1895-I9OI 
 
 After a year's training at Ely, Arthur was ordained Deacon 
 on September 22, 1895/ by Bishop John Wordsworth, at 
 S. Edmund's, Salisbury, the church which he was to serve 
 as Assistant Curate. 
 
 ^ Canon Morrice, who was the Rector of S. Edmund's, speaks 
 of the " reality and intensity of his religious convictions. 
 To him," he says, " * to live was Christ.' The Holy Eucharist 
 was indeed the sacrament of his life and made itself felt in 
 all that he said and did. I should put next his absolute 
 devotion to duty. * To do the next thing ' was always his 
 rule — preaching, visiting, teaching in weekday or Sunday 
 schools, boys' clubs, and games. He lived, I believe, a 
 very strongly disciplined life, but he was very sympathetic 
 with the sorrow and sins of others. . . . Even those of his 
 parishioners who were out of sympathy with his church- 
 manship felt and generously recognised the reality and 
 simplicity of his faith, and his high standard of living, and 
 there are not a few who thank God for the work he did at 
 S. Edmund's." ,r 
 
 A little more than a fortnight after his ordination he 
 writes to his sister : 
 
 Salisbury, Oct. 7, 1895. 
 
 " I daresay you want to know first hand about my 
 beginnings in parochial work. I have been splendidly busy, 
 
 » At 8 A.M. 
 
 16 
 
so that the time has flown and every day seems to bring 
 fresh duties. To-night I am due at our Lads' Temperance 
 Society of which I hear I am ' Warden ' ; in fact I nearly 
 always have something on in the evening. On Thursdays 
 I am responsible for our youths' club, and last Thursday I 
 spent most of the time from 7 to 10 playing ' Tap-it,' which is 
 in great vogue here, and an equally intellectual game called 
 ' Donkey.' Most of my work, except the afternoon visiting, 
 is among boys and youths ; twice a week I try to teach 
 70 to 100 boys in school ; then I am also moral-tutor to the 
 choir, warden to the lads' temperance, and besides seeing 
 something of the evening club I also have a Sunday class, 
 aged from about 17 to 20. So I am brought into individual 
 contact with all ages up to my own, and so far as I can tell 
 at present they are a nice lot. In the afternoon I am hard 
 at work visiting, and I think it is only then, when I am 
 brought into contact with all sorts and conditions, including 
 the sick and dying and even the dead, that I realise what the 
 Ely training was meant to do for me in preparing me for the 
 ministerial life." 
 
 The following letter to his brother Gerald shows how 
 quickly he had come to feel at home in the parish, and both 
 the letters testify to his great love for Ely and how greatly 
 he valued his training there. 
 
 Salisbury, Nov. 26, 1895. 
 
 " It was jolly to get your letter, and I have so often 
 wondered lately whether you had found your way over to 
 Ely yet. How I envy you ! But the next best thing to 
 being there is to hear of some one else being there and how 
 well I picture your day. ... I wonder if you told the 
 Princeps which R.'s wedding day is. I ought to have written 
 to Ely, but now even if I did write to-day the Princeps 
 wouldn't get the letter till after the day's Eucharist. M., 
 J.^ and I are probably going to S. Martin's at 7.45 to- 
 morrow morning and we shall spend an hour together at 
 S. Margaret's in the evening from 9 to 10, when our 
 
 1 Two of his sisters. 
 
 17 C 
 
respective works are over. The parish goes on much as 
 usual, though I feel quite an old stager by this time. 
 I am at last beginning to see my way to the end of my first 
 round of visiting, and in another fortnight I ought to have 
 been to almost every house in my district, though in some 
 cases I have found people ' out.' I do look forward to the 
 time when I shall know the people and their ways better. 
 I expect I have been hopelessly taken in time after time. . . . 
 but I suppose in time I shall learn better discrimination. 
 Some of the courts are very bad. The Rector has asked me 
 if I can see my way to starting some elementary service in 
 one of the biggest courts. I am very keen to do so, as these 
 sort of people scarcely ever dream of coming to church ; 
 but at present the difficulties seem very great. If it was 
 only summer, I could of course have it out of doors. The 
 younger boys of the parish I am getting very fond of, 
 especially the choir — I only hope I shall be able to keep 
 them in good order. To-night we have got our monthly 
 Communicants' Guild Meeting, and Lord Nelson is going to 
 address us on Home Re-union. Next Friday is the day of 
 Intercession for Foreign Missions. Besides services, I hope 
 we shall be able to keep up continual intercession in church 
 most of the afternoon, each person being responsible for a 
 quarter of an hour's private prayer in church, and on 
 Sunday the sermons and offertories are to be for missions. 
 We have a strange preacher in the morning and / have 
 got to preach the evening sermon. It is a dreadful thing 
 to say, but I really feel less capable of preaching on mis- 
 sions than on any other subject. Will you remember 
 me at the Sunday Eucharist, and pray that my sermon 
 may be found acceptable ? . . . We have a concert on 
 December i6 ; I do wish you could have come down here 
 for it ; you might sleep on the floor, even if there is not a 
 bed in the house." 
 
 " I once," writes a sister, " went with him to visit an old 
 woman during his time at Salisbury. She had been bed- 
 ridden for years and was a pattern of cheerfulness. She 
 belonged to the Salvation Army, and Arthur's sympathy 
 
 i8 
 
with her over her many birthdays was very characteristic 
 of him. He wanted her to tell me her story, so he kept 
 drawing her out by saying, ' We kept your birthday when you 
 gave up the drink, didn't we ? And your other birthday 
 when you gave up the snuff/ 
 
 " I think he had a great sympathy with all kinds of 
 people. The men of the parish made real friends with him 
 and felt, as one of them said thirteen years afterwards when 
 he heard of his death, He was a man. 
 
 " The boys loved him and he had perhaps a special 
 sympathy with them. 
 
 " I remember J. finding him in his rooms at Salisbury 
 full of excitement when the first uniform for the Church 
 Lads' Brigade arrived. He was a great believer in the 
 C.L.B., and very soon his company became particularly 
 smart. Then the mothers in the parish were very fond of 
 him and never forgot him ; and he was very happy also 
 with little children. 
 
 " Our own little niece, Molly Douglas, died quite suddenly 
 at the Godolphin School. She was only ill a few hours, and 
 he was wonderful with her during the night when every 
 human effort was made to save her life. When it became 
 clear that she was dying he helped to keep her perfectly 
 happy, and at the same time, though she was only eight 
 years old, he made it plain to her that she was going to God. 
 She asked for the hymn ' Around the Throne of God,' and 
 passed away quite peacefully." 
 
 His stay at Salisbury, however, was not destined to be 
 a long one. 
 
 On February 19, 1898, Arthur's father, the Rev. 
 Canon William Douglas, died, and the living of Salwarpe 
 consequently became vacant. It is a family living in the 
 gift of Canon Douglas's eldest son, who offered it to Arthur. 
 He had scarcely been ordained more than two years, and he 
 must have had great searchings of heart as to accepting the 
 appointment. Doubtless the fact that his going there 
 would enable his mother to continue living at the Rectory 
 weighed much with him in coming to a decision, and those 
 
 19 
 
who knew him will be quite sure that he did not decide 
 without prolonged and earnest prayer for guidance. He 
 must have felt his youth and inexperience, but it looked 
 like a plain call to carry on his father's work and to make a 
 home for his mother. So on March 5 he writes to his eldest 
 brother, Archibald, this characteristic little letter : 
 
 " After much thought, and feeling the tremendous 
 responsibility, I have decided to do my best at Salwarpe, 
 and can only pray that to make up for my lack of experience, 
 God will give me an ever-increasing supply of grace." 
 
 The die was cast ; he left Salisbury after a ministry there 
 of two and a half years, and became Rector of Salwarpe, 
 his mother noting in her Diary under date June 24 : 
 
 " Arthur's induction. The Archdeacon came and we 
 had a very impressive service at 6.30 p.m. A large 
 congregation." 
 
 And again on June 26 we find the entry : 
 
 " Arthur took all the services for the first time ; read 
 out the 39 Articles instead of morning sermon ; Children's 
 Service. Preached at Evensong from S. Luke vii. 28. "^ 
 
 It has been remarked before that he had as a young man 
 a manner older than his years, and I remember his mother 
 telling me that this fact was a real help to him in the parish 
 where he had to take such a responsible position at such a 
 comparatively early age. 
 
 It is certain that he did remarkably well as Rector : he 
 drew the people round him ; he attracted old as well as 
 young ; and he built carefully and zealously on the founda- 
 tions which his father had so well and so wisely laid. 
 
 One of his sisters has kindly allowed me to print the 
 following account of his life at Salwarpe. 
 
 " R, K. and I were naturally the ones who saw most of 
 Arthur during the time he was Rector of Salwarpe. There 
 was so much in his life during that time which should be an 
 
 * " I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there is none 
 greater than John : but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater 
 than he." 
 
 20 
 
inspiration to us. First, his very strong sense of duty. I 
 remember when he first took up his duty there, his asking for 
 help to write down the houses in the parish, and then he 
 began at once on that regular visiting which formed a 
 most distinct part of his daily life. I think few people can 
 have taken more care of the moments of time than he did. 
 He forced himself to be very methodical, and one could tell 
 almost to a moment when he wo\ild leave the house to go 
 across to church for his half-hour there alone before 8 o'clock 
 Matt ins ; also just when he would be starting out for his 
 visiting. Owing to his high standard of thoroughness and 
 the great value he set upon time, his days were very fully 
 occupied with work, including of course the times set apart 
 for prayer. I think he was inwardly habitually conscious 
 that he was on duty ; for instance, it was a very rare thing 
 indeed for him to accept an invitation to an afternoon party ; 
 he used to send the simple and truthful excuse that he had 
 not time. Likewise he would quietly leave the room very 
 speedily and return to his study when others were still 
 chatting over afternoon tea. He was tremendously indus- 
 trious, and when on board ship would spend a long time in 
 his cabin away from interruption, reading and studying. 
 
 " His was bound to be a strenuous life, however 
 apparently small his sphere of work might seem, but you 
 know how it was combined with a delightful serenity and 
 brightness of spirit. His deeply affectionate and sensitive 
 nature made him have the tenderest regard for the feel- 
 ings of others ; he could not bear that they should be 
 unnecessarily hurt. 
 
 " A holiday was an immense delight to him, when it 
 came ; he was a splendid companion, entering with light- 
 hearted joy into the fun and adventures of the moment. 
 
 " He loved teaching, and was much interested in his 
 work as Assistant Diocesan Inspector. In his own school, 
 the teachers and elder children were, I think, specially drawn 
 to him by the deep and sympathetic interest he took in their 
 work, and the half-hour he devoted to instructing the pupil 
 teachers in his own study on the mornings he was not 
 teaching in school was, I am sure, a time much enjoyed and 
 
 21 
 
Valued, and the Sunday Catechism service was one of the 
 things he took very special trouble about. Also he started 
 a Bible class for men, which was held at the Rectory during 
 the autumn and winter months, when the household might 
 be made well aware of what was going on by the vigorous 
 singing of the hymns. 
 
 " I suppose the strong discipline which ruled his own life 
 was partly the secret of his being able successfully to dis- 
 cipline others. Disobedience, from his earliest childliood, 
 was entirely contrary to his character, and though his rule 
 was essentially a rule of gentleness and love, the great value 
 he set upon reverence, respect, and obedience soon made its 
 impression upon others. Down to the smallest or liveliest 
 choir-boy, those coming into contact with him in church or 
 vestry could not fail to know something of what he felt, and 
 what he would quietly insist upon in such matters. His 
 own example was a convincing proof. His intensely deep 
 sense of reverence was quite constantly striking those who 
 lived with him. This, combined with great strength of 
 purpose and self-control, made us feel how absolutely he 
 was to be depended on, to be true and consistent to his 
 principles in this respect. For example, it was practically 
 an unheard of thing for him to criticise or disparage a 
 clergyman ; this was clearly an absolute rule for himself, 
 indeed unnecessary criticism of anyone was scrupulously 
 avoided. He shrank with extreme sensitiveness from the 
 very slightest approach to anything which seemed to him 
 even to border on a lack of reverence. 
 
 ** He had a real gift for understanding and dealing with 
 boys, and had an intense love and sympathy for the boy 
 nature. 
 
 " It was just like him to quietly suggest to choir-boys 
 at the beginning of a long day's trip, that as he thought it 
 was possible they had omitted to say their prayers that 
 morning at home before making such an early start, he 
 would say them aloud for them in the railway carriage — a 
 suggestion which was quite simply and quietly accepted by 
 the boys. 
 
 " I always think it was partly at least his reverent mind, 
 
 22 
 
combined with a well-trained self -discipline, which made us 
 aware that he consistently avoided the least expression of 
 annoyance on account of the weather ; neither do I ever once 
 remember his writing depressingly about the heat or any 
 other discomfort which naturally confronted him in Africa. 
 Though blessed with so much freshness and buoyancy of 
 spirit, delighting in giving pleasure to others and intensely 
 capable of being interested in many subjects, which made 
 him a most pleasant and sociable companion, one knew that 
 under it all was his own strict rule of life for himself, which 
 made his principles so strong and consistent. His care in 
 letting nothing if possible interfere with the devotional 
 duties of the day, came to me forcibly when he was invalided 
 back from Africa last time. As we neared Southampton 
 we arranged that I should come to his cabin for Mattins 
 at an earlier hour than usual, but we were not early 
 enough and were constantly interrupted by bangs at the 
 door asking if the luggage was ready to be taken on 
 shore. Arthur repeatedly replied that we were not ready, 
 and when at last the service was finished, he calmly re- 
 marked that we must see if there were any porters left to 
 attend to us ! 
 
 " Sunday at Salwarpe was a very full day, as he was of 
 course single-handed. This meant four and sometimes five 
 services in the parish church, superintendence of the morning 
 Sunday school and an evening service at the far end of the 
 parish, cycling down again just in time for Evensong in the 
 church. 
 
 " He was naturally anxious to give his people every help 
 possible in their spiritual life, and he was pleased and struck 
 at the way they responded. 
 
 " Being troubled however that Ascension Day was not 
 better kept, though clearly seeing the difficulties in the way 
 in a country parish, he arranged for the first Celebration 
 that day to be at 5 a.m., thus giving the farmers and workmen 
 a chance of attending." 
 
 His gift of sympathy attracted people to him ; an old 
 woman at Salwarpe wrote not long ago to his sister saying, 
 
 23 
 
** My heart was drawn towards him when he came to see 
 me about my boy Jim." 
 
 The following account of the Rector was written 
 by one who is now an assistant teacher in Salwarpe 
 School. 
 
 " My recollections of Mr. Douglas begin with the time 
 when he came to Salwarpe as the young successor of 
 his father. Canon Douglas. We were just beginning our 
 studies as pupil teachers, and so saw much of him, as he 
 was constantly at the school and took great interest in 
 our work. 
 
 " From the first he always made it a point to open 
 school, and before long we elder children used to stand on 
 tiptoe to watch for the first glimpse of him coming over the 
 bridge from the Rectory. If anything prevented him from 
 coming blank disappointment always prevailed. 
 
 " Every day in the week except Monday found him 
 teaching Scripture in school for the first half-hour, and I 
 never knew better attention paid than when he was giving 
 the lesson. Not only was he an excellent teacher, but a 
 disciplinarian whose rule was both firm and kind. No 
 child ever dreamed of giving him trouble, and it was worth 
 a great deal of hard work to see his whole face light up at 
 a really good and thoughtful answer. He was responsible 
 for two of the subjects set for the annual Scripture examina- 
 tion, and if we could answer his questions we felt able to 
 face any inspector, so thorough and earnest was he in going 
 through the work. 
 
 " The three pupil teachers were taught part of their 
 Scripture in the study at the Rectory on Wednesday 
 mornings. Those were happy times. I never have occasion 
 to go there now without vividly recalling the book-lined 
 room on some pleasant morning, with its windows wide 
 open to let in the fresh sweet air, the green lawn bordered 
 by flower-beds, and in the background the beautiful old grey 
 church, just as it all used to be. Inside were four busy 
 people gathered round the table, the Rector especially alert 
 and energetic in the early morning. We worked hard and 
 
 24 
 
SALVVARPE RECTORY 
 ROBERT, ARTHUR AND GERALD DOUGLAS WITH CANON RANDOLPH 
 
 SALVVARPE CHURCH 
 
happily, the notes we took afterwards being learned by heart, 
 and a searching examination set on them. 
 
 " Succeeding pupil teachers have used the same notes, 
 but they could never be made to understand the happy 
 memories that clung around those decidedly shabby exer- 
 cise-books. 
 
 " I often had occasion to go to the Rectory on some 
 errand or other, and was never allowed to knock. ' The 
 study is always open to you girls ' was our passport, and we 
 felt we were welcome visitors. 
 
 " A few of the elder girls were members of the Young 
 Communicants' Class held in the dining-room at the Rectory, 
 when we were carefully taken through a preparation for our 
 next Communion. We have often in later years missed 
 those classes and felt how helpful they were. 
 
 " Then on Sunday afternoons there were the Catechisms 
 when we had a short bright service, with the blackboard 
 up in church, and we all took notes of the lesson given by 
 the Rector. We afterwards wrote analyses, for which 
 prizes were given monthly. The address was often a story, 
 and so interesting and instructive were these services that 
 many grown-up people attended them regularly, and 
 followed the courses with keen attention. 
 
 " I have known the Rector find time in the week to 
 go through the whole of the previous Sunday's lesson again 
 for the sake of a child who had been unavoidably absent. 
 
 " But he never was too tired to do anything for us ; if 
 any part of his work was especially dear to his heart, I think 
 it must have been ' feeding the lambs.' 
 
 " He would walk home with the children who happened 
 to be going his way, and next day we others would hear of 
 fairy-tales he had told and games he had played with the 
 delighted little ones, apparently as much to his own satis- 
 faction as theirs. There was no child in the school whom he 
 did not know and love. Each one was prayed for by name, 
 and each one's home was visited frequently. No matter 
 in what condition were pinafores, hands and faces, the 
 children must be produced when he came or there was 
 disappointment on both sides. 
 
 25 
 
** As an older girl I well remember how pleasant it was 
 when we entered church, no matter how early, to find the 
 Rector already kneeling in his place ; it seemed a silent 
 welcome to the House he loved. Some of us, I think, came 
 earlier on purpose to share the quiet vigil ; it was so fitting 
 a preparation for the following service. 
 
 ** When at last he made known to us that he felt called 
 to Africa, we were deeply grieved, feeling at first that we 
 really could not do without him. 
 
 " But he was very brave and cheerful, and I remember 
 how in his last sermon he cheered us by reminding us of the 
 great, ever-near and changeless Friend * Jesus Christ, the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' 
 
 " Yet the parting was a grief to him also ; at our last 
 Rectory lesson he said as we went out, ' Remember us 
 in your prayers, dear girls. It is a great wrench to leave 
 Salwarpe.' 
 
 " We know now how much his life inspired and helped 
 us. All that he undertook was carried through with such 
 unflagging energy and zeal — ^he never shirked, never spared 
 himself. 
 
 " There was unfailing sympathy with us in our troubles. 
 He always went as near to the brink of the dark river as any 
 human friend can go with a dying parishioner, staying hour 
 after hour at the bedside. 
 
 " And it was the same in work and play, he shared it all, 
 comforted, encouraged, praised and gave us bracing criticism, 
 all with the keenest interest. 
 
 " His enthusiasm and sense of humour naturally 
 endeared him to young people. He knew the * joy of 
 living,' I think, better than the majority of people, and I 
 love to remember that when I saw him last his face was 
 brightness itself. 
 
 " We cannot doubt that he has been called away to 
 higher spheres of service. That thought gradually soothed 
 the first deep grief when we heard, to use S. Paul's words, 
 that ' we should see his face no more.' 
 
 " Such affection as he felt for us has not waned or died 
 out ; where he is now he knows and loves us still, and 
 
 26 
 
perhaps is permitted to help us in ways we cannot under- 
 stand. 
 
 ** I have expressed badly what I feel deeply, but perhaps 
 a verse from one of the hymns for S. Barnabas' Day will 
 sum up better than I can what our Rector was to us — truly 
 one of — 
 
 ** ' Those true helpers, patient, kind and skilful. 
 Who shed Thy light across our darkened earth. 
 Counsel the doubting and restrain the wilful. 
 
 Soothe the sick bed and share the children's mirth ' " 
 
 27 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE CALL TO MISSIONARY WORK, IQOI 
 
 How does the call come to the Mission field ? Who can 
 say ? *' The wind bio wet h where it listeth ... so is 
 everyone that is born of the Spirit." 
 
 It would have been possible for Arthur Douglas to settle 
 down at Salwarpe and stay there for many years as his 
 father had done, and no one would have thought of blaming 
 him ; but he was destined for other work. God willed to 
 send him '* far hence unto the Gentiles." 
 
 While at Salwarpe Arthur had become Secretary of the 
 Worcester Branch of the Junior Clergy Missionary Associa- 
 tion. This is, of course, an indication that he was interested 
 in foreign missions, as any good parish priest must needs be, 
 but he had not, so far, thought of offering himself for the 
 Mission field. 
 
 He had, however, a great friend, Frank Zachary, who had 
 been with him at Lincoln College, Oxford, and who had 
 preceded him by one year at Ely. 
 
 This friend had joined the Universities' Mission to Central 
 Africa, in 1899, and had died at Masasi on April 16, 1901. 
 It is possible and even probable that Frank Zachary was the 
 magnet which drew Arthur to the Mission field. Arthur 
 had written to him ^ some time before telling him that he 
 thought he would have to become a missionary himself in 
 
 * It is not certain that this letter was addressed to Mr. Zachary, but 
 most probable. 
 
 28 
 
ARTHUR DOUGLAS, I90I 
 
order to be properly interested in missions. It is most 
 likely that he felt at times that the life at Salwarpe was too 
 easy a life for a young priest in vigorous health and that 
 he was on the lookout for a more self-denjdng or self- 
 sacrificing life. 
 
 His mother died on December ii, 1899, and this 
 occurrence would set him free from the duty of providing a 
 home for her. 
 
 We cannot tell, but it is clear from the letter to his 
 eldest brother, printed below, that he had thought of giving 
 himself to missionary work at least a year before he actually 
 offered himself to the Universities' Mission. The idea once 
 presented to his mind was not lightly to be abandoned 
 altogether, though at the time he says that he put it from 
 him, feeling that another change would be bad for the 
 parish ; yet a year later he felt certain that he had had a call 
 to which he must needs respond. 
 
 So he writes to his brother Gerald, who had now become 
 Vice-Principal of Ely : 
 
 Salwarpe, May 22, 1901. 
 " Here is a very big surprise. I am most seriously 
 thinking of going to Nyasa, if medically fit. I wrote a long 
 letter to Uncle C, ^ and this morning I got his reply, which 
 clearly indicates ' Go.' Before anything can be settled I 
 must be punched and sounded by the U.M.C.A. doctor, and 
 as Uncle C. suggests coming here on the 30th (to-morrow 
 week), I have written to the U.M.C.A. office to know if I can 
 be medically examined before then. It would be very jolly 
 if (supposing the doctor can see me Monday, Tuesday, or 
 Wednesday next week) you could run down and meet me 
 in town. . . . Another friend of mine, Fred Folliott,^ has 
 offered himself for U.M.C.A. and hopes to sail in July. I 
 will not add more, as I should like you to think about the 
 matter without further comments of my own. But please 
 tell the Princeps* and Chaplain* of the possibility." 
 
 1 Canon Palmer of Hereford. 
 
 2 Died at Kota Kota, November 10, 1901. 
 
 ' Canon Randolph. * Rev. A. H. McChcane. 
 
 29 
 
To his eldest brother he writes : 
 
 Salwarpe, Whit-Monday night, 1901. 
 
 *' This little note will come to you as a great surprise. I 
 am intending to go up to town to-morrow to be medically 
 examined by Dr. Oswald Browne, to see whether I am 
 physically fit for work in Central Africa (the Universities* 
 Mission). There is no need to worry about the future, until 
 we know whether I have passed the very searching medical 
 investigation. When I know this I will write to you more 
 of a letter. But for the moment you will please pray that 
 the doctor may have a right judgment, as the Whitsuntide 
 collect says. 
 
 " To you I think I should add that I have not taken even 
 this initial step without being aware of many apparent 
 inconveniences and difficulties ahead. Dr. Oswald Browne 
 is the authority on Central African health. I told Uncle C. 
 about ten days ago, but it was useless to worry most people 
 so long before the doctor's examination." 
 
 And again, a few days later, to the same : 
 
 " I have got back from my medical examination by Dr. 
 Oswald Browne. After a very thorough investigation, the 
 doctor said, ' Sound as a bell.' This verdict means a great 
 deal, as I believe 70 per cent, of applicants for service in the 
 U.M.C.A. fail to pass the doctor's test. Of course I told him 
 all I could about all former ailments I have had, and also 
 about mother's weakness of heart and Elspeth's^ and Harry's^ 
 deaths. He questioned me closely about family health. 
 I have still to go before the whole medical board on June 11, 
 but they will not alter Dr. Browne's verdict. Also I may 
 have to be examined, and get a paper filled up by one of 
 our local doctors. 
 
 " As to the whole matter of my going, it is rather a serious 
 upset to family arrangements, and of course we specially 
 think of the three sisters at home and of you to whom it is 
 
 * His sister who was a Sister of the Community of S. Peter's, Kilburn ; 
 she died July 14, 1891. 
 
 • His brother who was in the Navy and died September 3, 1890. 
 
 30 
 
rather of considerable convenience to have some of the family 
 living on the estate. 
 
 " As to the parish — when the advisability of seeking work 
 abroad has hitherto entered my head, especially about a 
 year ago, I put the idea from me as I felt strongly that 
 further change would be bad for the parish. During the 
 last year, however, everything has been going quietly, and 
 I think I could slip away without causing much trouble, and 
 my successor would, I hope, find things fairly ship-shape. 
 I am, however, bound to the parish till the successor is 
 found. As to having let matters run on quietly up to the 
 present, F. and E. have both told me they feel sure it was 
 best to wait for any change until now. 
 
 " I want you to understand that it is only a very strong 
 sense of a call to this new work that has turned me into so 
 inconvenient a brother." 
 
 His uncle. Canon Palmer of Hereford, writes : 
 
 " I had some talk with him when the critical point came 
 of his leaving Salwarpe, and I had, as I thought, to place 
 before him many considerations, more with regard to his 
 brothers and sisters, and the parish where he was working 
 so efficiently, than to himself. One never can venture to 
 throw difficulties in the path, when a call to higher work 
 comes across it, and we shall all think and believe that he 
 was right in following the call — even to the unlooked for 
 but we may add glorious end. He had a fund of singular 
 fitness for mission work which one had hardly realised, but 
 which was drawn forth by the circumstances in which he 
 found himself^ — so much patience and self-control, with 
 great cheerfulness in his intercourse with those around him. 
 His quiet perseverance and deep sense of duty made him 
 an excellent teacher as well as an example to those whom 
 he taught. There always seemed to me, from what I heard 
 and saw of him, a strong reserve of spiritual force making 
 him ready to act at any moment of crisis and giving him 
 undaunted courage in speaking and acting as conscience 
 led him. Such an influence in the Mission at Nyasa must 
 have been great, and it will not be easily forgotten," 
 
 31 
 
The medical question being settled, everything else was 
 soon arranged. Not one member of the family tried to 
 turn Arthur from his purpose. On the contrary, they all 
 encouraged him. Three of his sisters had made their home 
 with him at Sal war pe, but they did not think of themselves. 
 They acted with entire unselfishness, and bade their brother 
 God speed in his reponse to what all believed to be a Divine 
 call ; and so it came about that Arthur, who loved his 
 old home passionately, turned his back on it, and for Christ's 
 sake left his comfortable Rectory and his brethren and 
 sisters and passed out into the Mission field. 
 
 It is well, I think, to insert here a letter from one who 
 joined the Mission as an engineer, and eventually set out for 
 the Lake in Arthur Douglas' company. The letter illustrates 
 some beautiful traits in Arthur's character. The writer 
 says, " I should like to tell you how, through him, I joined 
 the Mission." 
 
 *' My home was only about two miles from Salwarpe 
 and often on Sunday evenings we walked to Salwarpe to 
 church. One Sunday I walked there alone and after church 
 met Douglas in the churchyard. We strolled into the Rectory 
 garden together, and then to my great surprise he told me 
 that he had offered himself to the U.M.C.A. and hoped to 
 leave for Nyasa in the autumn. 
 
 " We talked for a long time of the Mission, of Frank 
 Zachary, a connection of mine who had lately died in Africa, 
 and of other mutual friends in the Mission, and he told me 
 how he was going out with a large party and mentioned at 
 the same time that with the exception of an engineer, who 
 was still urgently needed for the new steamer, the immediate 
 needs of the Mission in the way of men had been fulfilled in 
 a wonderful way. All my walk home I was turning over 
 what he had said, and I wondered why, considering his 
 keenness, he had not thought of me in connection with the 
 vacant engineer's post. Then the idea came to me that 
 perhaps it was intended that I should go. I had not before 
 ever had the slightest intention of ever joining that or any 
 
 32 
 
other Mission ; indeed I had never considered the matter. 
 Frankly, I did not want to go or to consider the possibility 
 of going, and I tried to put it out of my head as a fantastic 
 notion. 
 
 " I went back to work on Monday but couldn't get rid of 
 the idea, and worried more and more about it through the 
 week, so that the following Sunday I went again to Salwarpe 
 and told Douglas what was in my mind and how troubled 
 I was. He told me then, what he said he had not felt 
 justified in saying before, that for some time he had had me 
 in his mind, that he had prayed much about it, and, as it 
 seemed to him, I had come over that Sunday evening in 
 answer to his prayer ; that still he had felt he must not tell 
 me so for fear of unduly influencing me, and for that reason 
 he had been careful to avoid giving me any idea that he had 
 any special reason for being glad to see me there. Then and 
 not till then I began to feel certain that I couldn't refuse 
 without deliberate shirking. Together we went into that 
 quiet little church and knelt up in the chancel before the 
 altar, and before we left he prayed out loud for ' a right 
 judgment in all things ' ; and so I went. 
 
 " I did not really know him intimately up till that time, 
 but I got to know him and to love him very sincerely after- 
 wards. On the Lake he was at Kota and I on the steamer, 
 so that I saw him very seldom, and then only for a few hours, 
 but he has always been a means of strength and help to me 
 as I know he was to so many others, black and white." 
 
 Arthur left Salwarpe in the first week in October, 1901. 
 On his departure the parishioners very generously presented 
 him with a beautiful gold watch. 
 
 On October 6 he wrote the following characteristic 
 and touching letter to his three little nieces, and two days 
 later he started for Central Africa. 
 
 " My dear Gladys, Rita, and Kathleen, —You see I 
 am going to write another Httle letter to the two brothers, so 
 that is why they are not included in this letter and that 
 is also why you need not send on this letter to them. What 
 a very, very delightful surprise ! I thought my presents were 
 
 33 D 
 
at an end, but not a bit of it ; there was a lovely compass 
 waiting to be unpacked when I got in from church this 
 morning. Thank you ever so much ; you have added an 
 extra special piece of happiness to my last Sunday before I 
 leave England. It was jolly to find that my nephews and 
 nieces have been thinking of me. And now I hope that they 
 will go on thinking of me. Please make up a little prayer 
 about me and say it next Tuesday. I expect you would 
 feel funny if you were just going to start on my long 
 journey. I wonder whether black boys and girls are 
 anything like white boys and girls. I hope they are. 
 Good-bye means God be with you and make you very good 
 girls." 
 
 The party went across the Continent and joined the ship 
 Konig at Genoa. 
 
 From the Mediterranean he writes to a sister under date 
 Eve of S. Luke (October 17), 1901 : 
 
 " Some time to-night we expect to reach Port Said. 
 Letters have to be posted by 9 p.m. Though Port Said is 
 in quarantine, I hope letters will be allowed to pass through. 
 The sea during the last day has been about as smooth as 
 the canal. I suppose the ordinary voyager at this particular 
 spot has anticipatory visions of the Suez Canal, but the 
 canal can have only one meaning to the Salwarpian. ^ . . . 
 The days pass very quickly, thanks to Chinyanja, which 
 generally takes up about four hours. There are a number 
 of different sorts of missionaries on board, U.M.C.A., C.M.S., 
 Berlin missionaries bound for North Nyasa, and last but 
 not least an American Methodist Bishop. We (U.M.C.A.'s) 
 are a delightfully happy party ; Mattins, 9 ; Evensong, 5 ; 
 Compline, 9 p.m." 
 
 And the next day from the Suez Canal : 
 
 *' I can only afford the twenty-five minutes before dinner 
 for letter-writing, as I have a sermon hanging over me for 
 Sunday (the day after to-morrow). We U.M.C.A. party 
 
 1 The reference is to a canal which runs through Salwarpe close to 
 the Rectory. 
 
 34 
 
are to be responsible this next Sunday for public Mattins 
 and I am to preach, whilst Mr. Marsh reads the office and 
 I hope Mr. Suter the deacon will play the piano. Don't 
 you think that the little helm which turns about the whole 
 ship ought to be an appropriate text ? Possibly it is a very 
 common text for board ship ; you may remember that last 
 Lent course of Sunday morning sermons at Salwarpe was 
 on the tongue. Well, here we are on the Canal — about 
 fifty yards wide or perhaps more, but it looks very shallow 
 near the edges and there are only fixed places where large 
 vessels can pass. . . . We did not get to Port Said till 5.30 
 this morning. . . . We in our cabin had to be up betimes 
 as we were to have the Holy Eucharist in the cabin, so that 
 I was on deck as we were being tugged into port. . . . 
 Our Eucharist this morning should have been a very solemn 
 service — ^held at the moment when we first touched Africa. 
 Marsh celebrated and said as the Introit, * Thou Whose 
 Almighty Word. ' It is such a good thing that we have got so 
 roomy a cabin, as there is some difficulty about services. On 
 Sunday early mornings, except when the American Methodist 
 Bishop takes the services, we shall, I hope, be able to join 
 with the C.M.S. in the first-class ladies' saloon. . . . Yester- 
 day I got introduced to the captain and first officer and asked 
 whether we could have any place for weekday celebrations 
 or Sunday celebration if the bishop (!) is in possession of the 
 saloon. The first officer was very kind and showed us a 
 railed-off portion of the deck, which he said we could use. 
 So I expect we shall try this on the first Sunday when 
 necessity turns us out of the saloon ; but for weekday 
 Eucharists (perhaps two per week) we shall probably use 
 the cabin, as we find it is most decently feasible. For next 
 Saturday evening Philip Young and Nurse Minter are 
 getting up a sing-song, chiefly for the benefit of third-class 
 passengers, Saturday night being the special night for going 
 on the drink." 
 
 The following letter contains an interesting account of 
 his first actual contact with the Mission at work. His 
 description of Zanzibar — the town, the island, and the 
 
 35 
 
various Mission centres — is very vivid, and he gives his first 
 impressions of the Cathedral. 
 
 Konig, Indian Ocean, between Zanzibar and Mozambique, 
 
 Nov. 6, igoi. 
 
 " Your birthday is, I believe, in the early part of next 
 month, so this conveys to you special love and good wishes . 
 . . . Now I must tell you all I can about Zanzibar. We 
 got our first sight of the island at 5 o'clock on Saturday, and 
 reached Zanzibar town about 7.30 ; as it was dark we could 
 see from the ship nothing of the town except the lights, 
 those of the Sultan's palace being especially conspicuous. 
 In my letter to G. I said we did not know whether the Mis- 
 sion houses would be able to put us up, but we had got our 
 handbags ready on the chance ; so that when a goodly party 
 of the missionaries from the town greeted us on board and 
 told us we were to come off with them, they found me at 
 least quite prepared. You can imagine the excitement of 
 Nurse Minter (who was for some months herself at Zanzibar) 
 trying to spot the Mission boat and its occupants among 
 the host of other small craft which gathered round the 
 steamer in the dark, as soon as we anchored. We saw 
 them before they saw us, and though we yelled the names 
 of ' Brother Moffat ' and ' Baines ' (two of those whom 
 Nurse recognised in the boat) there was too much noise for 
 them to hear us. Brother Moffat (belonging to Father 
 Kelly's community) is treasurer and man-of-all-work. We* 
 left him on board that he might follow with Miss Moles- 
 worth's luggage, whilst all the rest of us got into the boat, 
 and off we went to the shore. There we had to separate 
 according to our different destinations. Mr. Baines took 
 Philip Young to his house outside the town. . . . Miss 
 Molesworth went to her own quarters, the ladies' house ; 
 Nurse Minter and Miss Nixon-Smith were put up in the 
 hospital, and the rest of us. Dr. Howard, Marsh, Suter, 
 Ladbury, and myself, were taken to the men's quarters, 
 where we received a most genial welcome from Mr. Bishop, 
 the priest-in-charge of the town of Zanzibar. I have, I see, 
 incidentally mentioned the three chief Mission buildings 
 
 36 
 
(besides the Cathedral) within the town, namely the men's 
 house, the ladies' house (chiefly for the lady teachers and 
 workers among the women), and the hospital, the head of 
 which is Miss Brewerton. The hospital is a most palatial 
 building. It is not quite the same trouble to make up a 
 bed in Central Africa as it is in England, as the bedding out 
 here consists of a thin mat on the top of a springy wire 
 mattress (if it was not wire it was something equally springy), 
 a rug, a blanket, a pillow, and a mosquito net — ^no sheets 
 are used. The town of Zanzibar is an amazing place . . . 
 an impossible place for a new-comer to find his own way 
 about. The population is said to be 100,000, and it lives 
 in a squashed mesh of native huts, interspersed by innumer- 
 able little streets varying from one to three yards in width. 
 Of course this is all most picturesque, but it is also most 
 smelly. I suppose that the lecturer on hygiene would say 
 that the town of Zanzibar ought not to be allowed a day's 
 further existence. Yet, in spite of appearances, events 
 have proved that the town makes a very fairly healthy 
 Mission station, and I was surprised to find that the drinking 
 water of the place was very good. Ours at Nyasa is boiled, 
 except the lake-water, which is remarkably pure. A story 
 (doubtless a story in more senses than one) is told how at 
 the high-table of a certain Oxford College the two drinks 
 offered to the guests are ' Water, sir, or Toast and water ? ' 
 At the high-table of the Zanzibar Mission the two drinks 
 are water and cocoanut -water. The latter is our old friend 
 the milk of the cocoanut, only in its unripe condition. The 
 top of the cocoanut is cut off and the liquid poured straight 
 into a tumbler — enough liquid to fill a large tumbler. When 
 this has been done the cocoanut itself, being unripe, is 
 thrown away ; but the loss is not a great one, as a cocoanut, 
 liquid and all, costs one farthing ! The cocoanut palm 
 with the fruit grows in great profusion in the island. I also 
 came across a very curious custom connected with another 
 fruit ; I walked through a native cemetery and found it is 
 the regular custom to plant pine-apples on the graves. 
 The pine-apple tree is like the cactus, about two feet high 
 and the fruit growing on the top ; some graves had four such 
 
 37 
 
trees, one at each corner ; it was so strange to see this pro- 
 fusion of growing pine-apples, any one of which might fetch 
 2s. 6d. in the EngUsh market. My pine-apple walk was on 
 Sunday afternoon, when Dr. Howard and I, escorted part 
 way by Brother Moffat, visited some of the Mission stations 
 which lie outside the town ; Brother Moffat was carrying 
 the mail-bag with the letters which came by our steamer 
 for the outlying stations. There are five stations outside 
 the town, each one of which has its own special purpose. 
 They are Ziwani, the new industrial boy's home ; Kiungani, 
 the college for training native teachers ; Mazizini, the 
 college for training candidates for ordination, i.e. the 
 native theological college ; Kilimani, the small boys' home ; 
 Mbweni, the girls' home. Mbweni, the furthest away, is 
 four miles from the town ; we were content to visit the first 
 three. . . . From the doctor's point of view the chief interest 
 in our walk lay at the industrial boys' home, the windows 
 of which have been fitted with mosquito-proof copper nets. 
 Dr. Howard has a very strong belief in the mosquito-malaria 
 theory. The copper netting is certainly wonderfully trans- 
 parent, and being as fine as ordinary mosquito netting, it 
 should, if never removed from the window, do a great deal 
 to keep the house free from these venomous little beasts ; 
 but though the air can freely pass through the netting, it is 
 not so pleasant to contemplate the impossibility of ever 
 putting one's head out of the window ; however, I told the 
 doctor that if ever he saw his way to introducing the system 
 into the Nyasa houses, I would be willing to be victimised. 
 It was on this same walk that I had my first sight of real 
 Nyasa boys, two of whom had come to Zanzibar for further 
 training and holiday (Leonard and Arthur). Now I have 
 told you something about the Mission houses in the town 
 and out of the town, but I have said nothing about the most 
 important House of all. The Cathedral stands on the site 
 of the old slave-market, the High Altar being, I believe, 
 just where the whipping post formerly stood. I am a very 
 bad hand at describing buildings, but even the heathen 
 must be awe-struck at the beauty of this one, its exceeding 
 loftiness and its richness. It has no side aisles or transepts ; 
 
 38 
 
the pillars which help to support the roof are close against 
 the walls, so that every worshipper has full view of the 
 stately altar, with its glittering mosaic front. The east 
 end is a large apse with seats all the way round it, where 
 the clergy sit when in chapter. The altar stands sufficiently 
 far forward for there to be a large space behind it, and it is 
 here that we were able to say a prayer beside Bishop Steere's 
 grave. The great Swahili Sunday Eucharist was at 6.45 ; 
 what would not I have given to have been able to share the 
 joy of it with some more of you ! It was much more than 
 worth all my other Zanzibar experiences put together. 
 Suter and I sang in the choir ; I sat next a native deacon, 
 who precented with a very fine voice. The choir boys are a 
 heterogeneous lot. I did not dare to look down on the con- 
 gregation for some time, but when I did, it was a sight to 
 convert the most antagonistic missionary critic — this big 
 church seemingly cram full, men on one side and women 
 (a wonderful mass of coloured shawls) and children on the 
 other. The singing was not artistic, but very, very lusty 
 and strong, a magnificent roar of sound ; of course everything 
 was in Swahili, but I found no difficulty in singing the 
 Swahili words to the familiar old tunes — ' Our Blest Re- 
 deemer,' ' For all the Saints,' ' Who are these like stars 
 appearing ? ' ' Above the clear blue sky,' and others. Mr. 
 Bishop was celebrant and also preacher ; the service was 
 dignified and elaborate, but without any fussiness. It lasted 
 an hour and a half. I was permitted to celebrate the English 
 Eucharist after the Swahili one. . . . Well, so much for my 
 first impressions of the Cathedral, of which as I read in 
 a U.M.C.A. record book on Sunday afternoon, ' Douglas ^ of 
 " the London " helped to take down the scaffolding.' 
 Notices about Harry came chiefly in letters written by Mr. 
 W. Lowndes when he was in the Mission at Zanzibar. He 
 calls him ' Douglas, son of Canon Douglas of Salwarpe.' 
 Another notice says how Douglas stayed to English Evensong 
 and a number of Mission boys escorted him back to the 
 shore. But more interesting than these printed mentionings 
 
 1 A brother, thirteen years his senior, died 1890. He was an officer on 
 board H.M.S. London and in close touch with the Mission at Zanzibar. 
 
 39 
 
of his name was my conversation with Miss Thackeray, who 
 has been in the Mission for about twenty-five years. The 
 very fact that though during his time on the * London ' she 
 was stationed out of the town — yet she remembers him well — 
 proves how intimate he must have been with the Mission. 
 I was told that the boilers of his old ship are still lying on 
 the shore ; I looked for them with the help of Uncle M.'s 
 field-glasses, and I saw what may have been them, but I am 
 not certain. Hurrah ! we hope to get to Chinde about next 
 Saturday. I shall post this at Mozambique." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 
 The junction of the rivers Zambesi and Shir^, near to 
 Mount Morambala, Nov. 12, 1901. 
 
 *' The above heading will, I expect, mean little to you 
 unless you are willing to expend the sum of fourpence in 
 requesting the Secretary of U.M.C.A., 9 Dartmouth St., 
 Westminster [id.), to send you the little paper map of Nyasa 
 (2d.) for which you enclose a stamped big envelope (i^.). 
 I certainly advise anyone who wishes to know where the 
 places are which I shall mention from time to time in letters, 
 or which are mentioned in the Central African magazine, 
 to get one of these maps. By-the-bye, there is a very good 
 little magazine for children published by the U.M.C.A. about 
 the work. I ought to know it better than I do, but some 
 people think it is more entertaining than its grown-up sister 
 * Central Africa.' Well, it is certainly quite time that a 
 letter should be on its way from me to yo^^, and I am so 
 anxious that you should all get my Christmas greeting too 
 soon rather than too late that I think this had better convey 
 my seasonably affectionate embrace to all the brothers and 
 sisters and nephews and nieces down to the last but (I'm 
 sure she will agree with me) by no means the least of your 
 own illustrious house. . . . Tell my godchild I am blowing 
 a perfectly gigantic kiss from my cabin on the African river 
 to the tip of her little ugly pug nose. I heard a rumour 
 before leaving England of how the different members of the 
 family were hoping to gather round two or three hospitable 
 centres. The dear old home will be much in the minds of 
 
 40 
 
us all. I daresay we shall weep a few tears, but they will 
 not really be tears of unhappiness. I hope I shall get letters 
 at Nyasa before Christmas Day. My letter last Sunday 
 was to J., posted at Chinde, where we said good-bye to the 
 vessel Konig and got on board this river boat, by name 
 The Polypode. If her name implies that she deliberately 
 chose many legs to long legs, I congratulate her on her choice. 
 Long legs, reaching far down beneath the water's surface, 
 would be absolutely fatal to a Zambesi boat, for they would 
 be constantly striking the bottom. As it is, our boat draws 
 only twenty inches of water, and yet we get periodically 
 stuck on sand-banks and have to be shoved off by means of 
 reversing the wheel and the combined efforts of the crew, 
 who in emergencies work at the side with long bamboo poles. 
 The river is especially low at this season — that is, just before 
 the rain begins — and though we have not met with any 
 serious obstacle so far, it seems quite possible that there may 
 be difficulties in navigation ahead. But let us not prophesy 
 evil. We ought to get to Chiromo in two days' time ; there 
 we and our cargo leave this boat and take a smaller steamer, 
 or more probably a house-boat, to Katunga's. There we 
 get off the river and have four days of overland travelling, 
 halting at Blantyre, a Scotch Mission station, on the way. 
 This overland business is accomplished partly on our legs, 
 partly in hammocks, and possibly in mule-carts. At a 
 place by name Gwazas we strike the river again, and get on 
 to another steamer which will take us up to the Mission. 
 Our present steamer has something the same appearance 
 as a house-boat, with a barge along each side of it, one to 
 carry fuel, one to carry our cargo, and both to bear the brunt 
 of unexpected collisions with the river banks. We are here 
 in the lap of comfort and I like it ten thousand times more 
 than the noisy Konig. Our party are the only passengers. 
 . . . The last two days' journey has been full of animal 
 sights. Now and again a gun goes off from our boat, which 
 means that the engineer or Philip Young is ' potting ' 
 crocodiles or hippopotamus. I have seen a number of 
 crocodiles — once I saw about half a dozen lying lazily 
 together on the sand ; the gun sent then skedaddling as fast 
 
 41 
 
as they knew how into the river. The hippopotamuses stand 
 stoUd in the water, showing their heads from time to time 
 above the surface. Then there are the birds in marvellous 
 profusion, especially near the mouth of the Zambesi — 
 great flocks of herons, storks, pelicans, black geese, fish- 
 eagles, and so many others of which of course I do not know 
 the names. It was their profusion which astounded me 
 most, just as at Zanzibar it was the profusion of pine-apples 
 and cocoanuts. Alas ! nearly all these good things come to 
 an end long before Nyasa is reached. If you want a really 
 good dish, let me commend to your notice * mango fool.* 
 We have passed swarms of locusts. They are bigger than 
 I expected. The doctor caught one on the boat, which is 
 about two inches long. All manner of flying insects and 
 creeping things display themselves at night. Higher up the 
 river I am told they make the soup tureen their bathing- 
 place ; but again it is their profusion which has entirely 
 hardened me to the sight and feel of them. Lastly, there 
 are the mosquitoes, which I am thankful to say up to the 
 present have been most conspicuous by their absence. The 
 river is said to be a very bad place for them, but I am only 
 conscious of having had three or four bites. Of course we 
 use mosquito nets at night. All our party are very well. 
 One reason why the low-river season is chosen for travelling 
 is that it is also the healthy season — ^the doctor feeds us on 
 quinine pills morning and evening. Yesterday was an 
 eventful day to me as I said public Mat tins (except psalms 
 and lessons) for the first time in Chinyanja. We work at 
 the language a good many hours a day. Indeed, if it were 
 not for this necessary occupation, life on board ship would 
 be intolerable. The day on the river steamer begins early — 
 about 5.30, when a black boy brings a cup of tea and biscuits 
 to each bunk. Breakfast number two is at 7.30 ; luncheon 
 at II ; afternoon tea at 4 ; dinner at 7. The main difficulty 
 is not to eat too much. The steamer ties up for the night 
 and the boys jump ashore, light their fire and cook their rice ; 
 one of them discourses sweet music on a native instrument ; 
 then sleep, and off we go again at sunrise. . . . We shall 
 see Bishop Mackenzie's grave at Chiromo, probably on 
 
 42 
 
Thursday. We hear that Bishop Hine has already left 
 Nyasa, going the cross-country route, via Masasi where 
 Zachary died, to Zanzibar ; so till our new Bishop arrives 
 (of whose consecration we long to hear) we shall be bishop- 
 less. I have no idea which will be my future station. I am 
 glad to say that all my boxes are so -far safe. . . . 
 
 " P.S. — One of the crew has just declared he could see a 
 lion, but my spy-glasses did not reveal it to me. Lions are 
 fairly plentiful along these banks. At a station we passed, 
 I hear that over twenty-four boys were killed by lions 
 within a twelvemonth. 
 
 " N.B. — Yesterday's thermometer in the afternoon was 
 107 degrees in the shade. 
 
 " Have you realised the heterogeneous character of our 
 party ? We are eight in number, comprising two priests, 
 one deacon, one doctor, one engineer, one storekeeper, one 
 nurse, and one lady teacher. I hope that henceforth nobody 
 will think that in the Mission field there is only work for 
 parsons." 
 
 Less than a month later the party had reached Lake 
 Nyasa, and Arthur wrote to his brother from Mponda's, 
 December 6 : 
 
 "This is quite a good place to be at and my experience 
 here has been a useful beginning to missionary life, but it is 
 unsettling not to know when I am to be off, and I do want 
 to see Likoma Island and Kota Kota on the way." 
 
 Having landed Arthur safely at the Lake, this chapter 
 may fitly close with the following reminiscences of Miss 
 Nixon-Smith. 
 
 " I was in Mr Douglas' party when he first went out in 
 1901. There were nine of us, nearly all scattered now. Mr. 
 Marsh, Mr. Suter, Mr. Young, Mr. Ladbury, and myself 
 were all new. Dr. Howard and Miss Minter and Miss 
 Molesworth of Zanzibar were returning after furlough. 
 
 " I remember Mr. Douglas suddenly saying in the train, 
 * It's my birthday to-day.' We had Mattins and Evensong 
 
 43 
 
every day ; on Sunday we had a Celebration in the first-class 
 saloon, and twice on weekdays we had a little Celebration 
 for ourselves. Every morning on board the Konig we had 
 lessons in Chinyanja from Dr. Howard and Miss Minter — I 
 remember as early as this his arranging that the prayer of 
 consecration should be read by one of the clergy when we 
 came to it in translation. 
 
 " He was wonderfully diligent and keen. It was impos- 
 sible to detect any sign of fault in his character. Later on 
 I came to understand the secret of it. I suppose everyone 
 of us in the Mission would say that his standard of life was 
 very high, and further, that he lived up to it, and that not 
 intermittently but habitually. He did not allow himself 
 any lapses. 
 
 " One knew that his temper was naturally quick, but it 
 was in marvellous control. I once saw him sorely tried and 
 saw him master himself in a moment almost. No one of us 
 all could for a moment doubt his absolute sincerity. It was 
 transparently evident as one of the daily facts of his life, 
 and it told on everything ; in him the priest dominated the 
 manhood and enriched it. He was the most accessible of 
 men, and at everyone's service. I never saw anyone whose 
 routine of holy practices was more rigidly kept to. I should 
 imagine that he never under any circumstances missed 
 making his meditation. But his routine was as instinct with 
 life as a child's playing. And his rendering of the Divine 
 Office in English was always vivid ; even when he knelt away 
 from us and was not celebrating or assisting you could feel 
 the tenseness of his own worship right across the little 
 chapel. It was apparent in the way he knelt up straight, 
 in the expression of his face and in the way he went to the 
 altar. All this spiritual strength he would give out at a 
 moment's notice. The natives said of him, *' Padre Douglas 
 angali kulema — te te te ' (' Mr. Douglas does not know 
 what it is to be tired, he is always at it '). 
 
 " It was said in reference to the long hours he would 
 spend in church helping souls — and it was a true comment — 
 he would go through the very exacting discipline preceding 
 the great festivals for long hours together and come away 
 
 44 
 
and show no sign of weariness. And this was not because 
 he had taken it lightly ; on the contrary everyone else's 
 spiritual needs were vital with him, but he never put himself 
 forward in the least. 
 
 " During his last Lent he came over on the Friday evenings 
 to Likoma, returning on the Saturday. I remember Bishop 
 Fisher saying, ' Let him rest when he is here unless you want 
 to use him for spiritual aid.' He gave an address at the 
 Saturday Eucharist in that Lent and was absolutely superb. 
 I think Bishop Fisher at once detected his great power, but 
 indeed none could remain ignorant of it. ' We all felt he 
 was the most ready to go,' said one of us. I think we felt 
 that too when we heard. He would have no packing-up to 
 do, so to speak, he would open immediately when the Master 
 knocked. 
 
 " I remember sympathising with him when he was 
 suddenly ordered to bed for weeks and his work stopped 
 literally at a moment's notice. His reply was, ' It's not the 
 sort of thing that troubles me.' Miss Armstrong said of him 
 then, ' He never wants cheering up.' 
 
 " He used to know where all his papers were and had a 
 most methodical mind. One day he said to me, 'I've had 
 such a busy morning I have not had time even to say my 
 usual prayers.' 
 
 " He took on the training of the theological students, and 
 I used to go to him every day to read aloud Rackham's 
 ' Acts of the Apostles.' He did not consider that he could 
 excuse himself careful preparation for the students. 
 
 " Before he came to Likoma as priest-in-charge I 
 remember Mr. Glossop saying how glad he was that he was 
 coming as priest-in-charge. At this time Mr. George showed 
 me a letter which he had written to him ; he said, ' Pray 
 for me every day.' 
 
 " He believed entirely in intercession. He asked me, 
 no doubt for this purpose, for the names of all the Likoma 
 women who were at various stages of spiritual disability, 
 who had ' milandu' ' as we should say. I believe he prayed 
 day after day for my sister. She was recovering from a long 
 illness, and I sought his aid for her when we were both home 
 
 45 
 
on furlough, in the absence of her own priest, and he came 
 right out of his way to us in Holy Week to help us. 
 
 " He was in charge when Mr. Partridge died. I remember 
 his saying to me out in the quad, early one afternoon : * An 
 awful blow ! Partridge has died at the College, they 
 are just bringing him up.' He was in charge then ; and 
 also when Mr. Philipps died he said the last prayers for 
 him. 
 
 " He was very strict about fasting, and encouraged it by 
 word and example. The Lent he was in charge we knocked off 
 afternoon tea. I would recall one or two sermons of his : 
 one, a really great one on joy, preached at English Evensong 
 one Sunday at Likoma. I remember he said that joy ought 
 to be in our voices when we were teaching. Another sermon 
 preached at an ordination on the text, * Mine own vineyard 
 have I not kept.' I heard him preach to the College boys 
 and others on the first Sunday in 191 1. He spoke of our 
 Lord as a present Deliverer. I came out feeling, ' That is 
 exactly what he want.' 
 
 " That same Sunday I asked him to find me a tune 
 for a hymn for infants. At first he said he could not 
 think of one that would do, then he came and called me 
 to his room and sang through a tune which I think he had 
 made ; he sang it two or three times. ' They will like that 
 high note,' he said. He taught the tune to his own teacher 
 and he taught it to my infants. This incident seems to 
 show his great kindness in little things. 
 
 " He had a great feeling for authority ; he would yield 
 his own judgment easily and felt that he ought to. 
 
 " I once asked a class, ' Mr. Douglas speaks the truth, 
 doesn't he ? ' to get the disconcerting and unanimous 
 answer, ' Not about steamers.' Of course this only means 
 that the steamers were uncertain, not Mr. Douglas' reli- 
 ability ! 
 
 " He wrote to me in England after his illness : ' 1 hope to 
 go back to Africa this year, but that must be as God wills.' 
 God did will, and we started back again a large party on 
 S. James' Day, 1908. 
 
 " He was wonderfully good to me when I was working 
 
 46 
 
under him. I can recall occasions when he might have been 
 put out, but he never was. One could rely absolutely on his 
 goodwill. 
 
 " He was very keen on his baptismal classes. One year 
 he put the classes at 12.15 noon, the lunch hour, and had 
 lunch alone afterwards. This went on every day for some 
 weeks. 
 
 " I was once present when a priest complained to him 
 about some particularly difficult matter that had to be dealt 
 with in the College ; he said, ' It is impossible to do it with 
 no authority at the back of one ' {i.e. no civil authority). 
 Mr Douglas' answer I remember to this day, ' That is just 
 what we have to do,' said very simply, out of his own quiet 
 peace in God. 
 
 " From where he lay when he was ill he could just get a 
 glimpse of the Lake through one of the little panes in the 
 window, and it was a great happiness to him. 
 
 " The first time he told me to take the women to him 
 before one of the festivals he said, ' Tell them it's not I that 
 want them but God.' He said this just coming away 
 from lunch. There was never anything incongruous in 
 his breaking out into this kind of observation. One time 
 he said, ' I believe that God can do everything.' 
 
 " It was obvious to us all that Archdeacon Johnson was 
 very much attached to him. We looked on at what was 
 evidently a strong and strengthening friendship. I think 
 the Archdeacon would let me pay this tribute to Mr. Douglas' 
 memory, as time does not permit of his contributing his own 
 reminiscences. 
 
 " I remember his admitting a half-witted woman to the 
 catechumenate ; it was useless to attempt to ask her the 
 ordinary questions. He improvised instead at the time of 
 admission. I can never forget how what he said pierced 
 right through to the woman's soul and made her answer 
 straight out of her heart. It was a great lesson to me. 
 
 " He was very much attached to Dr. Liddon's books. I 
 remember once his pounding through a very long sermon at 
 Evensong out of one of Dr. Liddon's books ; he was not in 
 the least tired of it himself. 
 
 47 
 
" He said to me once that he thought that fear comes 
 before love in the knowledge of God, and no doubt there was 
 an element of severity in his own religion. It came out 
 sometimes in his dealings with boys. He could punish 
 severely when he thought it desirable. But he certainly 
 never punished in anger. 
 
 " He had no idea that he was very often amusing. 
 I recall vividly his rendering of ' For he's a jolly good 
 fellow/ — sung in the hall when Dr. Howard was going away 
 — ^his singing it like a hymn, with as much enjoyment and 
 about the same amount of gesture. 
 
 " He gave singing lessons in the girls' school when I was 
 in charge. He had not the least idea that they were 
 amusing. He stood on the top of a large table in his 
 cassock, taking infinite pains. If a girl sang wrong he 
 jumped down swiftly and made his culprit sing alone, 
 bending his ear down close to her. The girl's reluctance, 
 to which he never gave way, and the intense interest of 
 everyone else — perhaps I may add my own intense enjoy- 
 ment of the situation — made those lessons memorable. 
 
 " He had a sense of humour too. I remember catching 
 his eye just after some one had said, ' I like All Saints' 
 for the name of a church, it is so sociable.' 
 
 " He was terribly sensitive to the slightest irreverence 
 or to any quoting of Scripture that lent itself to amusement ; 
 he would have none of it. 
 
 *' He was extremely anxious about the little Christians, 
 and spent a great deal of time over them ; he constantly 
 insisted that they were a most important part of our work, 
 a first-charge on time and attention. 
 
 " He took infinite pains with the baptism of infants ; 
 he would interview the parents, the grandparents, and the 
 godparents, and always loved taking the service himself. 
 Once I recollect his changing his stole in the middle with 
 the remark, ' Now we have done with all that is black.' He 
 had a way with him of making artless observations in 
 church, but in a sort of way which only did good." 
 
 48 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE FIRST SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK, KOTA KOTA, 
 I9OI-I904 
 
 We have seen that Arthur Douglas and his party reached 
 the Lake early in December 1901. 
 
 He stayed at Mponda's eleven days waiting for a steamer 
 to take him to Likoma. 
 
 He was at present a little uncertain where he would have 
 to work, but he expected first of all to be sent to Likoma, 
 so as to get better acquainted with the methods of missionary 
 work at headquarters, and then to be put in charge of 
 Kota Kota. The steamer, however, stopped at Kota Kota 
 on its way up the Lake, and there, for reasons given in 
 the letters which follow, Arthur stayed for some twelve 
 days before going on to Likoma. This was in reality a 
 gain to him, for it gave him an insight into the working of 
 the station of which he was soon afterwards put in charge. 
 
 He describes the beautiful new church at Kota Kota, 
 built by Mr. George, the architect of Likoma Cathedral, and 
 he incidentally mentions how he himself learnt the art of 
 making bricks. 
 
 (To a sister) 
 
 First Impressions 
 
 I 
 
 Kota Kota, Lake Nyasa, Dec. 12, 1901. 
 
 " My few words of scribble whilst the Lake steamer 
 was waiting for me at Mponda's must not count as a letter — 
 
 49 E 
 
much less as a birthday letter. Very many happy returns 
 of the day, whichever day in February it happens to be. 
 After I had waited eleven days at Mponda's, not knowing 
 when I might have to leave, an African Lakes' Company 
 steamer at last called for me ; at least a small launch called 
 to take me off to the steamer which was anchored about a 
 mile from Malindi, the Mission station at the southern end 
 of the Lake and itself about nine miles from Mponda's. That 
 all happened last Saturday afternoon. Most fortunately 
 the steamer was going to take in wood at Malindi on Sunday 
 morning, so I was able to get ashore there early on Sunday 
 in time to hear the native teacher finish his sermon at the 
 Eucharist, at which Mr. Marsh was officiating, and so also in 
 time for my own Communion. Then I had breakfast and 
 Mattins with the Mission party and left Malindi on the 
 steamer about midday. It was very delightful at Malindi 
 last Sunday morning to have the whole of our own special 
 travelling party, with the exception of Mr. Suter, who was 
 at Mponda's. Marsh, P. Young, Nurse Minter, Miss Nixon- 
 Smith, and Dr. Howard are quartered at Malindi for some 
 weeks ; Mr. Ladbury had walked over to Malindi the 
 previous day and spent the night there ; I turned up on the 
 steamer, so there we all were once more together, barring 
 Mr. Suter. My steamer was not a Mission boat ; on the 
 contrary I was let in for a considerable argument with one 
 of the engineers who professed a general disbelief in missions 
 and particularly in the Universities' Mission. ... As you 
 already know, I left Mponda's with the intention of going 
 up to Likoma, merely touching at Kota Kota on the way. 
 From Malindi to Kota is only one day's journey, and it is 
 another day's journey on from Kota to Likoma ; so the 
 steamer reached Kota on Monday afternoon. As I got 
 near to Kota, of course I speculated how much of the Mission 
 I should have time to see ; the captain could not tell me 
 whether he would leave too early for me to sleep on shore. 
 As we dropped anchor off Kota, a sailing boat came up to 
 the steamer ; among others it contained three of our 
 missionaries, Mr. Stokes (priest-in-charge). Miss Lyons 
 (nurse), Mr. George (architect). They were on their way 
 
 50 
 
for a picnic with the girls* school when they sighted the 
 steamer and came up to us. The poor girls lost their picnic 
 and returned to the shore in a barge with the European 
 teacher, Miss Jameson. And then ! ! All my speculations 
 and plans were turned head over heels, and the long and 
 short of it is, here am I, settled at Kota Kota, and no likeli- 
 hood of being at Likoma for many a day. 
 
 " Several facts contributed to make this sudden change 
 in my operations. First, I found that Mr. S. fully expected 
 me to stay and help him and was very sad at the idea of my 
 leaving him. That, of course, would not have been enough 
 to keep me, as my previous orders (vague as they were) 
 seemed to point to my going to Likoma, anyhow for a few 
 weeks. Then I found that Mr. S. was a good deal run down 
 and was anxious to get away on furlough as soon as possible. 
 He has been at Kota about three years, so he is considerably 
 overdue at home, and probably if Mr. FoUiott had lived he 
 would have started home directly after Christmas, if not 
 before ... so that (as I am to be his successor) I thought 
 I had better not lose time by going on to Likoma, but had 
 better start work here straight away. Even now, of course, 
 it is very uncertain whether I shall be sufficiently well up in 
 the language and in the details of the work here to under- 
 take a Lent by myself, and very likely Mr. S. may have to 
 stay till after Easter. . . . Even this would not have 
 persuaded me to stay here, if a message had not reached 
 Mr. S. from the priest-in-charge at Likoma (acting Deputy 
 Bishop) to the effect that Dr. Howard and one priest were 
 required at Likoma. The former orders were that all the 
 new clergy were to go there before dispersing to their several 
 stations. This finally decided me, for it had already been 
 practically settled that Marsh should be the new priest to 
 work at Likoma, whilst my station should be Kota Kota. 
 So here I am, and already begin to feel settled. The present 
 staff of missionaries here number five — Mr. Stokes, Nurse 
 Lyons, who is said to be a most able nurse, and Miss Jameson, 
 formerly head-mistress of a board school in England. Then 
 there is Mr. George, the architect. For my sake I am sorry 
 he is very soon going back to Likoma. Now I must tell you 
 
 5^ 
 
about this place, but first I must go and open school, as the 
 bell has rung. The feature of Kota Kota is the new church. 
 It is magnificent and an immense credit to Mr. George, by 
 whose design and under whose direction it has been built. 
 It is built of stone and brick and looks very solid. It is 
 133 feet long from the west end to the east end of the spacious 
 apse, and it is 28 feet wide. At the entrance there is an 
 antechapel, part of which will be fitted up as a Lady Chapel. 
 There is a good wooden screen between the apse and nave, 
 also much native wood carving. To English eyes the 
 exterior looks odd with its great thatched roof. It is a 
 great privilege to have so beautiful a church to worship in. 
 
 " That is as far as I had written when a telegram arrived 
 here from Likoma this morning to say that after all I am to 
 go on there by the next steamer. There is of course no 
 telegraph from Likoma to the mainland, but this morning's 
 message must have been sent by boat to the mainland, and 
 despatched by wire from there. The next boat is not likely 
 to leave Kota for another nine days ; that will be one of 
 our own Mission steamers bringing up our big party from 
 Mponda's and Malindi, so that after all I shall probably 
 arrive with them at Likoma. I am very glad to have had 
 these preliminary days at Kota, as it gives me time to see 
 what are the difficulties of the station, and knowing what 
 they are, I can now go to experienced heads at Likoma and 
 get advice from them, and then, perhaps, come back here in 
 a better position for helping Mr. S. and directing the station 
 after his departure. 
 
 " A nice temporary wooden cross has been put up over 
 Mr. FoUiott's grave ; he died the very day the new church 
 here was opened. The next but one grave to FoUiott's is 
 Sim's. When I first read some of his ' Life and Letters,' I 
 had about as little idea of being at Kota Kota as in the 
 moon. Bishop Maples is buried under the High Altar in the 
 new church. My servant boy has just been into my room to 
 begin preparations for my bath. All our water here is 
 carried from a boiling hot spring about a mile and a half 
 away, and there are special water boys who have to make 
 a good many journeys a day. The water is too hot for a 
 
 52 
 
bath even after its return journey. The usual and best plan 
 is. to have the daily tub in the latter part of the afternoon. 
 1 am most particular about ' changing ' after getting at all 
 hot. Mr. S. has been away for the last two days on a round 
 of visits to outlying stations, so I have been in charge. This 
 is an amusingly topsyturvy letter, but in spite of the various 
 changes of plans which herein find a place, I may as well 
 send it to show how out here we must be ready for any 
 emergency. By-the-bye, I am learned in the art of making 
 bricks. Mr. George has shown me all the tips in case a 
 house should be needed where there is no more efhcient 
 artificer on the spot." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 II 
 
 Kota Kota, Lake Nyasa, British Central Africa, 
 
 Dec. 17, 1901. 
 
 " If you want to know why I am at Kota, you must read 
 my letter to N. The long and short of it is that, touching 
 here on my way to Likoma I found a variety of inducements 
 to stop here, chiefly the poor health of Mr. Stokes, priest- 
 in-charge, and a message sent through him from the Deputy 
 Bishop at Likoma to Dr. Howard to the apparent effect that 
 only one of the new priests was wanted at Likoma. How- 
 ever, I have since had a telegram telling me to go on to 
 Likoma by the next boat. The next boats will probably 
 be our own two mission steamers, the Charles Janson, and 
 Philip Young's new steamer, the Chauncy Maples, respec- 
 tively known in the vulgar tongue of the Mission as the 
 C.J. and CM. We expect one or both of these boats in the 
 early part of next week, so it seems very doubtful where I 
 shall spend Christmas, whether here at Kota or at Likoma 
 or at one of the smaller Lake-side stations which are worked 
 by the steamer. That is the chief purpose of our steamers, 
 viz., to go up and down the Lake, touching at the lesser 
 stations of the Mission where there is no resident priest, but 
 only a native teacher or, possibly, a native deacon. During 
 the steamer's stay, the schools are investigated, and the 
 priest celebrates the Eucharist for the people. 
 
 " I am enjoying my time at Kota, not knowing whether 
 
 53 
 
I shall return here and make it my permanent station after 
 my visit to Likoma. But I am especially glad to be going 
 to the headquarters of the Mission, not merely because I 
 want to see Likoma Island, which means and (I believe) 
 is Beautiful, but also because it will give me the chance 
 of getting a talk with the senior clergy, Mr. Smith and 
 Mr. Glossop. There are so many difficult native questions 
 (especially in regard to marriage) about which I need 
 advice, as they frequently crop up. 
 
 ** The Mission work at this particular station has been 
 lately passing through a crisis, and a puzzling one too. The 
 boys, who are generally, outwardly at least, well-behaved, 
 have been very unruly. Many, including some pupil- 
 teachers, have left the school ; they have stayed in the village 
 at night instead of coming in to sleep in the Mission dormitory ; 
 but at last, I believe, the real cause of all the upset has been 
 discovered and removed, for a plot has been discovered which 
 had for its object the establishment of a supreme chief. 
 Some of the lesser chiefs invited a Mohammedan from 
 (probably) somewhere on the coast to come here and 
 organise a revolt against the British Central African Govern- 
 ment. He came and for some months has been at work in 
 the villages, but information was brought to the English 
 Government official here, Mr. Swann, and after letting the 
 plot grow to a proper size, he one day called up the chief 
 culprit and all his accomplices, and detailed to their 
 astonished ears the whole of their secret machinations. At 
 first he gave the would-be king a month to quit the country, 
 but last week two of the loyal chiefs came to Mr. Swann, and 
 said that they feared they were going to be poisoned, as the 
 others believed that they were the tell-tales, so Mr. Swann 
 changed his mind and gave our Mohammedan friend twenty- 
 four hours to bundle out of the country, and out he has gone. 
 That is a more or less true account, I believe. His speedy 
 departure is, I believe, already beginning to take good effect 
 on our Christians, as two have come to Mr. Stokes to say they 
 want to return to the Mission. Of course it was nominally 
 not so much a revolt against Christianity as against the rule 
 of the British Government. 
 
 54 
 
" Our Mission buildings here form a quadrangle some- 
 thing like this : 
 
 Boys' Schoolroom. 
 
 Grass which, with the new rain, begins 
 to look green. 
 
 & 
 
 
 Missionaries' Private Room 
 
 
 " Last Sunday as Mr. Stokes was not well I had the 
 management of the services, but it was a very easy day. 
 
 7.0. — Catechumen's Litany, followed by Holy Eucharist. 
 
 8.15. — Breakfast, followed by 
 
 9.0. — Matt ins. 
 
 10.30 — ^Hearers' service in school, chiefly preaching. 
 
 12.0. — Sext. 
 
 12.15. — Lunch. 
 
 1.45. — Walk with teachers to little school for preaching. 
 
 3.30— Tea. 
 
 4.30. — English Evensong, at which / was to have 
 preached, was omitted, as there was no congregation except 
 Mr. George and Miss Jameson. 
 
 5.30. — Evensong. 
 
 " I did no preaching ; the two head teachers discoursed 
 at the schools. The Christians' sermon comes at the early 
 
 55 
 
celebration, but as Mr. Stokes was seedy they had to go ] 
 
 without it. ; 
 
 " Stokes is out and about again now." ', 
 
 (To a Friend) 
 III 
 
 U.M.C.A., Second Sunday in Lent, Feb. 23, 1902. 
 
 "After leaving England, I got to Nyasa at the be- 
 ginning of December, and since then I may safely say that 
 for no one day have I been out of sight of this great Lake, in 
 length 300 miles. But that does not mean I have been 
 quartered during these ten weeks at one place, far from it ; 
 somebody made nasty remarks to me the other day about 
 the habits of the rolling stone. If you would but squander 
 twopence in providing yourself with a small map from 
 9 Dartmouth Street, Westminster, you would be better able 
 to understand the vagaries of the past weeks. I spent some 
 days first of all at the south end of the Lake, and from 
 there took steamer for Likoma, the headquarters of the 
 Mission. But on the way I was unexpectedly stopped at 
 Kota Kota, where a dear friend of mine, FoUiott, who had 
 preceded me from England by a few months, had just died. 
 After twelve days there I had to go to Likoma, which I 
 reached on the last Sunday in Advent, and so just in time to 
 help in the Christmas services. It was a magnificent sight to 
 see the vast congregation on Christmas morning. Christians 
 and catechumens (who came into church for the first part 
 of the service) must together have numbered about 700, 
 and I was allowed to preach my first Chinyanja sermon to 
 this big number of black folk all squatting on the ground. 
 The choir alone sit on benches. That first Chinyanja sermon 
 was, I need scarcely say, fully written out, but since then, 
 I have summoned up courage to preach without writing. 
 Doubtless it is rummy Chinyanja and hard * to be under- 
 standed of the people,' but I am really thankful to have 
 got on even thus far. Since Christmas I have spent my 
 time partly at Likoma and partly in joiurneying on foot 
 from village to village of the mainland. A short while ago 
 
 56 
 
I had a walk of ten days, during which time I saw no white 
 man except for about half an hour, when our Mission steamer 
 touched at the village where I was spending the day. Of 
 course I went without any other missionary because I 
 wanted to have no chance of talking English. 
 
 " Most of the villages I visited are supplied with church, 
 school, and house for any European passing through. 
 The European's house consists of two small rooms ; in the 
 front one he sits and sleeps, and (for want of a table) has 
 his meals spread on his bed. Here also he interviews the 
 people of the village ; often the old chief will squat on 
 the ground, and so pay his respects. Like the rest of the 
 folk, his only clothing is generally a dirty bit of cloth, but 
 you can generally pick him out as the chief, as, if he has 
 little other clothing, he nearly always carries a stick. 
 
 " The back room is given up to the baggage, the live 
 fowls and the bit of dead goat, and is also the sleeping- 
 room of the two servants." 
 
 The next letter finds Arthur at Likoma ; but its main 
 interest is in his description of his first plunge into itinerating 
 missionary work — his walk southwards on the mainland 
 opposite Likoma and his return to Utonga with the idea 
 of taking temporary charge of the college for native 
 teachers, S. Michael's College, of which, later on, he 
 became Principal. 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 
 Visit to some Lake-side Stations 
 
 Likoma, Lake Nyasa, Feb. 7, 1902. 
 
 ** . . . Now I will try to tell you a little about my doings 
 during the past fortnight. It was arranged with very much 
 approval that I should cross from Likoma to the mainland 
 and do a little Lake-side village visiting by myself, that is, 
 without the company of any other European. Of course 
 I stipulated this, as I wanted to have no chance of talking 
 English and to mix with the natives only. So Mr. Marsh 
 and I crossed to the mainland in the C./., and slept to- 
 gether on the Monday night, and then he began a walk 
 
 57 
 
northwards and I went southwards. Of course on all such 
 journeying one needs a caravan, consisting of a cook and 
 a boy who remain throughout, and carriers of baggage who 
 are generally hired at each separate halting-place. I think 
 I had about eight such beasts of burden ; my cook was 
 very good in most ways, although he would try to overfeed 
 me ; my boy was new to me — I had to surrender my former 
 boy, Mattayo, in order that he might go to the college to 
 be taught ; my new boy I hope will do well. The Mission 
 pays him four shillings a month, but if he continues well, 
 he ought soon to receive live shillings. Of course also one 
 has to carry money on a journey to pay for provisions, fire- 
 wood, and carriers. In fact a part of the burden for which 
 carriers are needed consists of the money which itself takes 
 the form of cloth, salt, beads and soap. All these different 
 kinds of money are measured in terms of cloth — a fathom, 
 a yard, a hand (half a yard). Thus for a chicken you pay one 
 hand, but almost certainly the actual money paid is not half a 
 yard of cloth but the equivalent price in soap or salt — a hand 
 of soap being thus in reality about two inches, whilst a bar 
 of soap (a foot in length) is two fathoms, and a yard of salt is 
 a few cupfuls. Well, before starting on this journeying, 
 Mr. Smith asked me whether I felt I could take charge of 
 the college perhaps till Easter. Just think what this charge 
 means. The college is on the mainland opposite Likoma, 
 quite close to Utonga, marked in the map, and Likoma 
 is in frequent communication with it, and can, if necessary, 
 be communicated with in two hours unless the Lake is ex- 
 ceedingly rough. But at the college the priest is the only 
 European there. . . . Besides the supervision of the boys, 
 the priest at present, for want of a'layman or an exceedingly 
 efficient native foreman, has to do all the serving of tables' 
 part of college life — seeing to the daily provisioning and 
 buying and selling. . . . Well, when Mr. Smith asked me 
 to go to the college to take De La Pryme's place, I said I 
 could not immediately, as I did not know the language. 
 So it was settled that I should cross to the mainland and 
 walk slowly through the villages southward, until (after 
 about a fortnight) the C.J, should pick me up and carry 
 
 58 
 
me down the Lake to Malindi on the oft -postponed steamer 
 trip, and after that I should know better whether I could 
 go to the college. Imagine then my surprise and amaze- 
 ment when a boy walked into my little resting-place at one 
 of the villages and gave me a note from Mr. Smith, saying 
 that the steamer had gone south already, and asking me to 
 go straight back to the college. So I had to retrace my 
 steps. In the next three days I walked (and it was 
 mostly very rough walking) altogether about eleven hours, 
 getting up before sunrise, so as to get the walk over before 
 the greatest heat. I was very well on the journeying. So 
 now the proposed plan is that next Monday I take up work 
 at the college and Mr. De La Pryme will remain with me 
 perhaps for a fortnight until I feel slightly more efficient. 
 How is the Chinyanja progressing ? People out here say 
 pretty well — on the journeys I managed to give very short 
 little addresses in church without having written it out 
 beforehand. But I still find it very hard to understand the 
 native, unless he speaks very slowly, which most of them 
 cannot do. Perhaps I shall remain at the college till 
 
 Easter and then perhaps Kota Kota ... I am 
 
 most thankful for the missionary prayers at Worfield on 
 S. Andrew's Day and the Saturday intercession at Salis- 
 bury. If possible tell those responsible for them. Such 
 things are of value unknown to us because surpassing 
 knowledge." 
 
 (To a By other) 
 First Attack of Fever 
 
 steamship C./., Lake Nyasa, March 9, 1902. 
 
 " I think my last letters were sent to F. and A. That 
 seems a long time ago and certainly much has happened 
 since then. In the first place since then, and now, I have 
 had the novel experience of feeling the common or gaiden 
 fever. If I had been in England I should have called it 
 the ' Flu ' ; the aches were very similar. I had been rather 
 proud of having escaped the plague longer than most 
 others of the new-comers, but pride comes before a fall ; 
 
 59 
 
however 1 am feeling very fit again now. In my last letter 
 I told the astonishing news that I had been asked to take 
 the immediate charge of the college until Easter, where 
 about thirty of the young would-be teachers are in course 
 of training. My first fever at Likoma delayed my crossing 
 to the college (on the mainland five miles from Likoma) 
 for a few days, and then when I had got over there with 
 innumerable boxes, and was just beginning to realise the 
 big responsibility of the post, and the difficulty (owing to 
 the elementary condition of my Chinyanja) of controlUng 
 the many departments of the work, my plans were again 
 changed for me, and it was arranged that instead of spend- 
 ing Lent at the college, I should help Mr. Smith, our senior 
 priest out here at the present time, in working Lake-side 
 villages from the steamer. So I and my boxes, which the 
 boatmen were by this time getting to know by sight 
 and weight, returned to Likoma to make preparations for 
 getting on board the C.J. Perhaps it may amuse you to 
 know the variety of duties which fall to the priest-in-charge 
 (the only European at the college). First there are the 
 students to be looked after, and with the help of two native 
 teachers, to be taught the ordinary subjects of a most 
 elementary English school. Then besides the oversight 
 of the teaching and the daily services, the priest-in-charge 
 has to look after the different servants of the establishment, 
 dole out beads and salt, &c., to the men who go out by boat 
 to buy food in the neighbouring villages (in bad seasons 
 they may have to go twenty or thirty miles), and it is an 
 education in itself to learn the native scale of prices. Then 
 there is the oversight of the women who pound the corn,, 
 and beside all the multiplicity of other duties connected 
 with the running of the college establishment the priest- 
 in-charge is also responsible for two villages close by — thus 
 having some parochial work to do, and being the only 
 European in the neighbourhood he has constantly to act 
 as arbitrator in native quarrels. So you see I was very 
 thankful when I heard that after all I was to be relieved 
 of these responsibilities, which are far too great for a new- 
 comer. . . . 
 
 60 
 
" Monday. — Since writing the above a night has passed. 
 I spent the first part of it sleeping in my bedding on the 
 deck table, but the wind and rain drove me below into the 
 cabin which (already full up with the doctor and Mr. Smith) 
 gave accommodation to myself and four of our servant boys. 
 Instead of going right up to Likoma on the steamer, I have 
 been put ashore this morning on the mainland, with the 
 intention of celebrating the Holy Communion for the 
 Christians here to-morrow. Then either to-morrow or the 
 next day I expect to reach Likoma. I shall now probably 
 stay about near Likoma till Holy Week, when it is arranged 
 that I shall take the services at the college. After Easter 
 it seems really probable that I shall get settled down at Kota 
 Kota. I am very glad indeed to have had these months 
 of knocking about and constant change, as it has given me 
 an insight into all the branches of the Mission work, but I 
 shall be quite ready for a more stable life when the time 
 comes. I have also had the opportunity of getting to 
 know our two native deacons. This is the village where 
 one of them lives, and I spent some days last week at 
 the village of the other ; their names are Eustace and 
 Augustine. 
 
 " Now good-bye. I hope the Christmas dance was a great 
 success, but of course it was. Much love to M. and the Babe. 
 I know what a heap of letter-writing you have, so I will 
 be generous and say I will not expect a long letter in reply 
 to this. 
 
 " Please remember me to the masters. 
 
 " Please remember me most kindly to Thomas and Mrs. 
 L. and tell Mrs. L. to give Charlie and Willie a lump of 
 sugar each from me ! " 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter written by 
 one of the Mission staff : 
 
 " Douglas is in bed to-day with a touch of fever. He 
 is the first patient in the new hospital. We have just all 
 had tea with him — such a festive tea — ^the invalid in tiptop 
 spirits. He will be up again to-morrow. He is such a 
 
 6i 
 
jolly old chap, everyone is fond of him, and he is just dead- 
 set on his work. There is no chance of his going home 
 next year unless other men volunteer." 
 
 In the letter which follows he describes his life at the 
 college, and especially the first days of Holy Week there ; then 
 his Good Friday experiences at Mataka's when he went to 
 take the Three Hours' service ; and his Easter at Likoma. 
 He is expecting soon to be established at Kota Kota, but is 
 most thankful for the experience he had already gained in 
 other parts of the Mission. 
 
 {To a Brother) 
 
 steamship Chauncy Maples, Lake Nyasa, 
 Easter Monday, 1902. 
 
 " Here am I, sitting at one table whilst the doctor 
 sits at the other in the * saloon ' of this very gorgeous new 
 steamer, the CM. . . . Well, I had what I ought to 
 consider the great privilege of spending the first half of 
 the Holy Week at the college. I got there on the preced- 
 ing Thursday and remained there till Maundy Thursday. 
 During nearly all this time the priest-in-charge (De La 
 Pryme) was away, preparing the villages for their Easter 
 Communion ; so I was in charge of the college and was 
 allowed to arrange the services as I thought best for the 
 boys. It was really hard work, as I gave nine addresses to 
 the boys in five days. This was our day's programme : 
 
 6.45. — Holy Eucharist and address. 
 
 8.30-10., 10.30-11.30 — Boys in school. 
 
 11.30 — Mattins. 
 
 12.0 — Boys' food. 
 
 5.30 — Evensong. 
 
 6.15. — Boys' second meal. 
 
 8.0. — 51st Psalm ; address ; Compline prayers. . . . 
 
 " The quiet of these days, when for a whole week I don't 
 think I found time to walk further than from my house to 
 the schoolroom, was a greater help to me in realising Holy 
 Week than the journeying from village to village would 
 have been, and (in case I forget to say so later) I have been 
 
 6s 
 
in splendid health. Certainly I feel considerably less 
 tired at the end of this Lent than I used to feel at the end 
 of Lent at Salwarpe. Then on the afternoon of Maundy 
 Thursday a boat took me from the college to a village 
 called Mataka's, where I was to be for Thursday night and 
 the Three Hours' services. ... I had already heard how 
 wonderfully well Good Friday is always observed in this 
 diocese, and I knew that at Likoma (a European station) 
 silence was observed till after the Three Hours, but I was 
 certainly not prepared for the blessed experience which 
 was in store for me at this native village station. Besides 
 the people of Mataka's, three other neighbouring villages 
 (that is, the Christians and catechumens therein) came 
 to that one centre, and thanks to the energetic folk of one 
 of these other villages my experience of a Nyasa Good 
 Friday began at a very early hour. I was sleeping in the 
 school with my door open on to the sand of the Lake shore, 
 when I was woke up by the noise of many voices outside, 
 and looking out I saw in the dim light many figures passing 
 my door. I thought ' how early the people are about.' 
 I got up, and on looking outside I found that all these 
 figures were beginning to lie down, wrapping themselves 
 up in their blankets, and then I saw that the light was not 
 from the dawn but from the moon, which I think pointed 
 to about three o'clock. So these were the folk from the 
 village some miles off, who had made a midnight walk for 
 it, and were now settling down to get some sleep. At about 
 5.30 the bell went round the village, calling people to 
 Mattins, when the church looked very full, and I wondered 
 where the people from the other two villages — ^who had not 
 yet arrived — ^would find room at the later service. I 
 suppose we were out of Mattins by 6.30, and from that 
 time up to twelve o'clock, when the Three Hours' Service 
 began, I heard scarcely one word spoken. The silence was 
 intense and I was amazed. Of course nobody this year 
 had told the people not to talk ; it has simply become a 
 custom. The majority of the people sat about singly, 
 perhaps a couple of yards from each other ; others sat in 
 groups, but without a word spoken ; some stayed in church, 
 
 63 
 
and many of the boys who can read were reading their 
 Bibles and Prayer-books. The native has a vast capacity 
 both for talking and sleeping ; as they denied themselves 
 the first, it is scarcely to be wondered at that very many 
 had a sleep during the long time of waiting. Before noon 
 the people from the other villages arrived, but these also 
 appeared to walk in absolute silence one behind the other. 
 And then at last on the first stroke of the twelve o'clock 
 bell, all the people got up and walked into the church, 
 which was of course crowded, every available spot being 
 occupied, even up to and round about the altar. Of course 
 you know that there are no seats, my small travelling chair 
 being the only one. After the Three Hours' service the 
 boat took me over to Likoma. Then came two most 
 delightful days — ^Easter Eve and Easter Day — ^at Likoma, 
 not less delightful because free from all preaching. Half 
 the Christians on the island communicated on Easter Day 
 and half to-day (Easter Monday). Glossop officiated at 
 Saturday Evensong and was celebrant to-day ; I was 
 celebrant at the splendid Easter Day service, and also 
 officiated at the Evensong. . . . The CM. left Likoma with 
 me on board, and I shall spend the next few days on the 
 mainland, where the people have not yet received their 
 Easter Communion. Mr. Smith and Marsh are also some- 
 where about. On the steamer's return from Kota, prob- 
 ably Wednesday, it will pick me up again, and by the end 
 of the week I expect to look in again at Likoma, and then 
 at last I really believe I shall be off to Kota to stay ; so 
 that I shall be surprised if this day three weeks doesn't 
 see me fixed up in my station. The plan is for the CM. 
 to drop me at Kota (where Stokes is now in charge) on her 
 way down to the south end of the Lake. There she hopes 
 to find the new bishop and those who are coming out with 
 him. On their way up to Likoma they will put in at Kota 
 to consecrate the church, to hold a confirmation, and, I 
 expect, to take Mr. Stokes away, so that I shall be left 
 in charge. Stokes will come on with the party to Likoma 
 and witness the double event of the bishop's enthronement 
 and the dedication of the CM., and then it is high time 
 
 64 
 
r 
 
 for him to go to England. I am most deeply thankful that 
 instead of being planted down at Kota on my first arrival 
 at the Lake, I have had these months of sight-seeing 
 and (I hope) of gaining experience in other parts of the 
 Mission. . . . 
 
 " I have just had a deputation of some of the boys on 
 the steamer {i.e. at about 11.15 p.m.) to know why Adam was 
 turned out of the garden." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Arrival of Bishop Trower 
 
 CM., Lake Nyasa. About an hour's run to Mponda's, 
 
 April 15, 1902. 
 
 " The above address is I hope sufficient to tell you that 
 I am writing on the Chauncy Maples, which has almost 
 reached her anchorage at the south end of the Lake. To- 
 day she has done her longest run under the supervision of 
 engineers Young and S winner ton. This morning at six 
 o'clock I went ashore and celebrated the Eucharist at one 
 of our smaller Mission stations and was aboard again by 
 about 7.30, since which time we have been going right 
 away down and shall be in before sunset. When I last 
 wrote home I certainly did not expect to be brought 
 into this neighbourhood so soon, but since that letter to 
 G. a very interesting event has unexpectedly changed my 
 plans, though I hope only for the space of a week. I 
 believe I told G. about my most happy Easter at Likoma, 
 so I must continue from Easter Monday. On that day I 
 and some more walked from the chief Mission station at 
 Likoma to the other European station which Mr. Smith 
 looks after. There was a large adult baptism and we went 
 over to witness it. Since then I have myself officiated at 
 a similar function, so I will tell you what / did and not what 
 Mr. Smith did. Having spent the best part of two days 
 examining the candidates (some of whom I accepted, while 
 other poor things I rejected) and in further preparation, I 
 baptised about sixteen during Evensong. We had Evensong 
 and the first part of the baptismal service in church, and 
 
 65 F 
 
then, before the moment of the actual baptisms, we walked 
 in procession, singing hymns, down to the Lake. There I 
 sat in a native canoe, and the candidates came into the 
 water to me one by one. After each one had been baptised 
 we reformed in procession to the church, and then at the 
 door of the church I read the formula of admission into the 
 congregation, signing each one with the sign of the Cross, 
 and so one by one they passed into the church through 
 the western portion where the catechumens sit, and for 
 the first time took their places among the Christians. That 
 will give you an idea of an adult baptism out here. Often 
 at the moment of admission into the church, each of the 
 newly baptised is given a lighted candle to remind him 
 he is now a child of light ; but I feared that the native 
 teacher might not do his part properly, and that confusion 
 would be the result, so I dispensed with the candles. 
 
 " It was on Easter Tuesday that the little C.J. dropped 
 me on the mainland for the purpose of these baptisms, 
 and I was by myself on the mainland until Saturday, one 
 day doing a stiff hill walk for the celebration of a Eucharist. 
 Alas ! I would have enjoyed these days much better had 
 it not been for the very many animalculae. In previous 
 journeys I have sometimes wondered why I did not meet 
 more of them, but here they were in real earnest, and I 
 blessed my boy who had most stupidly forgotten to put- 
 my big deck chair on the steamer with a view to its being 
 taken to Kota Kota with the rest of my baggage. As he 
 forgot to put it there, I had it with me on the mainland, and 
 (though not itself entirely innocuous) it made a most 
 welcome shelter from bedclothes. Here is my dream on 
 one such night ! I had waked up in bed, and for obvious 
 reasons lighted a candle, with the help of which I engaged 
 in a magnificent hunt with great results. When the hunt 
 was over, I retired to my armchair for the rest of the night. 
 I dreamt that I was entertaining Mr. Ames, Master of the 
 Foxhounds ! So much for occasional discomforts, which 
 however, as I remarked before, are extraordinarily rare. 
 Do you remember my telling you about the row between 
 the natives and the Portuguese who are in occupation of 
 
 66 
 
the east side of the Lake ? Well, for many weeks nothing 
 has occurred, although there have often been rumours that 
 the Portuguese were going to start on a punitive expedition. 
 But during these last days of mine on the mainland an 
 expedition really took place, and the Portuguese have 
 burnt three of the villages where we have Mission stations, 
 although of course no resident European missionary. Some 
 Mission buildings have, I believe, been burnt with the rest 
 of the huts, whilst in one village, at least, our church and 
 European huts seem to have been purposely saved. A 
 number of natives passed through the village where I was 
 quartered, armed with antique guns, assegais, and bows, 
 and making a great to do ; of course they said they were 
 going to fight, but they are not a fighting people, and they 
 all returned in the evening without striking a blow or 
 firing a shot. We do not know whether * the war ' is at 
 at end, or whether the Portuguese mean to take further 
 steps. The steamer CM. was to have picked me up on 
 Friday, but owing to the war, I was not very much surprised 
 that she did not arrive at my '^^ village. I was however 
 dismayed to see her on Saturday (on coming out of Mattins) 
 gaily steaming past me down the Lake, and though I waved 
 my surplice in one hand, and white umbrella in the other, 
 she was too far from the shore to notice. I instantly sent 
 off a messenger to the nearest European station (the College) 
 to ask if Mr. De la Pryme, who is in charge there, knew 
 what the steamer was up to, but before getting his reply, 
 the steamer to my great joy re-appeared. The fact was 
 they had forgotten what village I was at. When I got on 
 board I was greeted with the news that we were going to 
 cross the Lake to Kota Kota that same day. The plan 
 was that I should be dropped at Kota for good, and that 
 after spending Sunday at Kota the CM. should go down 
 the Lake with Mr. Smith (deputy Bishop), the doctor and 
 others on board to meet our new Bishop at Mponda's and 
 bring him up in state. But who ever heard of any plan 
 on Lake Nyasa reaching its expected conclusion ? And 
 Sunday last was no exception to the universal law of change, 
 for as the doctor and Young and myself were rowing ashore 
 
 67 
 
in time for the Eucharist in Kota church, we spied another 
 steamer in the harbour, which to our immense surprise 
 turned out to be the C.J. The C.J. according to all calcula- 
 tions should have been at the north end of the Lake, where 
 she had gone for purposes of repair. What could she be 
 doing in Kota harbour ? She could not have broken down, 
 for if so she would have found anchorage on the other 
 side of the Lake ; and then our heart almost leapt into our 
 mouth as the thought suggested itself. Can she have had 
 the cheek to bring up the Bishop and should we find him 
 already at Kota ? All doubt would be at an end when 
 we once could see the Mission buildings, for the Bishop's 
 special flag would certainly be flying. At last we sighted 
 the Mission and there sure enough was the white flag with 
 the red central cross which only flies where the Bishop is 
 staying. 
 
 " We had only reached Kota on Saturday in the dusk, so 
 the Mission people had not seen the steamer, but amidst the 
 natural excitement of the Bishop's arrival it was very nice 
 to find the hearty welcome which a number of the Mission 
 boys gave me, knowing that I was to be Mr. Stokes' suc- 
 cessor, their priest. Mr. S. was in bed seedy. He had only 
 managed to get up to welcome the Bishop. After seeing 
 Stokes I went to the Bishop's room, where I found him in 
 the middle of his toilet ! Owing to Stokes' seediness the 
 Bishop had said he would be the celebrant at the Sunday 
 Eucharist. It would have been his first time of officiating 
 in Chinyanja, and I think he was glad that I should take 
 his place. Thus I gave the Bishop the Blessed Sacrament 
 on his first Sunday in his diocese. Well it was delightful to 
 see him. All through the day he was so genial and kind 
 to me, and I had a good deal of talk with him, certainly 
 more than I could have expected, considering how many 
 new European members of his flock were there, with all 
 of whom, especially with Mr. Smith, he wished to speak. 
 At the end of the day the chief impression left on the minds 
 of us all was that our new Bishop means to rule with a 
 strong hand and for that, I, and I believe all of us, are 
 devoutly thankful. It was intended that he should wait 
 
 68 
 
at Mponda's until the CM. arrived in all her glory, instead 
 of which up the Bishop comes on his own hook in the little 
 C.J. which had not a single European missionary on board, 
 and on Monday up he went still further to Likoma, probably 
 getting there late on Monday night or early on Tuesday. 
 Imagine the dismay of the poor people of Likoma, of 
 course not a sign of bunting or other festivity visible ! 
 Such is the story of the event to which we have been looking 
 forward for months, and I am sincerely thankful for the 
 somewhat unique start which the Bishop has made. As in 
 all dioceses which are without a bishop, there have been 
 too many semi-chiefs, and too many fingers in the organisa- 
 tion pie. As the Bishop decided to go to Likoma on the 
 C.J. Mr. Smith and Suter transhipped from the CM. to 
 join him, and I, instead of staying at Kota, took Mr. Smith's 
 place as priest on the CM, However, this is to be a very 
 quick trip and I expect to be back and settling at Kota 
 by Saturday, April 19. I cannot be too thankful for the 
 splendid insight into all parts of the Mission work which I 
 have been allowed during this first four months, but I shall, 
 of course, be glad to get to my own station. Probably 
 the Bishop will pay a visit to Kota and consecrate the 
 church, and hold a confirmation in about a month's time, 
 after which I think Mr. Stokes will go and I shall be priest- 
 in-charge I have finished writing my letter in the very 
 room at Mponda's station where I wrote to you more than a 
 third of a year ago. I get the Graphic with the rest of my 
 mail." 
 
 By May he had reached Kota Kota and on Mr. Stokes' 
 departure he became priest -in-charge of that station, where 
 he was to remain for a good year and a half, till he was 
 ordered home. 
 
 " Douglas (writes Archdeacon Johnson) stepped off the 
 platform of a public school, of an English Rectory, on to our 
 Nyasa platform, bringing a bit of England with him ; none 
 the less English for being consecrated. You felt his indivi- 
 duality — it was that of a prophet. We saw him, at the start, 
 hurrying keenly into the new life ; again later, we watched 
 
 69 
 
the individual heart following up the individual boy, 
 perhaps into the big old ramshackle slave village ; or play- 
 ing * Up Jenkins ! ' with his African boys as he had played 
 it in England. The man told — ^the atmosphere was a casket. 
 . . . Compline, immediately after dinner at Kota Kota 
 outside the dining-room, always seems a happy thing to me, 
 because he felt it to be' worship,' a.nd that the best time and 
 place. There was the quiet unobtrusive miracle — ^an in- 
 fluence acted on. I seem to hear his voice in chapel and 
 see his mouth — I am no judge of the harmony, but it recalls, 
 in its degree. Canon Liddon shouting a psalm out over a 
 wild cliff, as he praised God, and felt He reigns. 
 
 Settled at Kota Kota 
 
 Mission, Kota Kota, 3rd Sunday after Easter, 1902. 
 
 " Now that I am at last fixed up at Kota, I fully 
 expect to have more frequent opportunities of send- 
 ing news home, for all the steamers call at Kota. The 
 steamer, with Philip Young at the engines, made a very 
 speedy trip, and we entered Kota harbour on last Fri- 
 day night. That was a good day's work for the CM. 
 We had anchored on Thursday evening at a village where 
 I intended to have the Eucharist on shore on Friday 
 morning ; but finding there were no confirmed Christians 
 there except two teachers and a wife, I told them to be on 
 board by 5.30, and we had our service in the beautiful chapel 
 of the steamer. This facilitated an early departure, and 
 we were off before seven o'clock and steamed steadily for 
 eighty-four miles to Kota. By-the-bye, steamer ' shop ' 
 reminds me that this week we hope to have an addition 
 to our staff of two Brixham trawlers. Isn't that splendid ? 
 Some years ago there was a Brixham trawler in the Mission 
 who did magnificient work. Of course you understand 
 that they and all mechanics join the Mission on exactly the 
 same terms as the rest, i.e. board and lodging, and if required 
 £20 a year. 
 
 " Well I am most truly thankful for my first four months' 
 experience in the Mission. I doubt whether any member 
 
 70 
 
of the Mission has had a more varied experience in his first 
 few months than I have had ; and now at Kota which has 
 the reputation of being rather cut off from the rest of the 
 Mission (barring the steamers' visits) I am able to picture and 
 to enter into the Hfe of the brethren at Likoma and on the 
 opposite mainland. But I am glad that the time has come 
 for settling down. There is a great deal more for me to learn 
 here from Mr. Stokes before he leaves here. He expects 
 to stay here until after the consecration of the church 
 and a Confirmation, i.e. I expect we shall be together for 
 about a month. 
 
 " Here is a list of my Church doings to-day : 
 
 7 A.M. — Celebrated at the sung Eucharist — Stokes 
 preached. 
 
 9.30 — Said Matt ins. 
 
 10.45 — ^Preached to the ' hearers ' m school. 
 
 2. — Walked to an out village and preached same dis- 
 course to 'hearers.' 
 
 5.30. — Sung Evensong. 
 
 " I had never preached to ' hearers ' before and I 
 liked it. After hearing for two years they may become 
 * catechumens ' and after another two years they may be 
 ready for baptism." 
 
 The Marriage Question 
 
 Kota Kota, June 10, 1902. 
 
 " , . . By the departure of Mr. Stokes and Miss Jameson, 
 we three new-comers, viz. Miss Minter, Miss Mann, and 
 the new priest -in-charge plus Miss Newton were left alone in 
 our glory. The two new ladies were very busy getting 
 into their proper rooms after they had been most properly 
 cleansed (according to Dr. Howard's telegraphed injunctions) 
 from Mr Stokes' small-pox. That reminds me to say I 
 have been revaccinated. . . . Our quartette had only had 
 two days in which to quarrel before the dear doctor him- 
 self arrived. He has come to build a European's hospital, 
 native hospital, and dispensary. There is also the church 
 at Kasamba to be rebuilt and a school at Sani. Kasamba 
 is four miles off and Sani eight. The European hospital 
 
 71 
 
will be stone, the other buildings mostly bamboo. We have 
 already about forty workmen on the place and I have ordered 
 a hundred more. That sounds a big order ; fortunately 
 they are not paid more than three shillings each per month. 
 Their first month's pay goes to discharge their hut-tax, 
 which is three shillings, if they can show that they have 
 worked for a European — otherwise six shillings. To-day the 
 men have been fetching stones and making a tremendous 
 noise over the job. I think the stone is about a mile away 
 (perhaps less), and as they carry it to the Mission, each with 
 his bit of stone on his head, they all sing and shriek in a way 
 that makes me pity the poor teachers in our school. . . . 
 Now I must tell you about last Sunday. It had been 
 originally planned for the Bishop to come to Kota with the 
 doctor, but there was a delay in our own steamers, and 
 the doctor came alone by a steamer of the African Lakes' 
 Company. We did not know then whether the CM. would 
 come to Kota at all on her journey north, or whether we 
 should have to wait three weeks for the Bishop's coming. 
 However, I was going into church on Saturday afternoon 
 when Miss Minter said, * The CM. is in sight and they have 
 just hoisted the Bishop's flag.' And sure enough on coming 
 out of Evensong I was met by the cheering sight of Philip 
 Young. After a hurried dinner I walked to the Lake and 
 took the boat to the steamer. There was a splendid 
 company of Europeans on board this trip — ^the Bishop, 
 the Archdeacon, Marsh, De La Pryme, Yoimg, and 
 the two new Brixham lads. Partridge and Brimecombe. 
 Hence, with our own five, we were a party of eleven or 
 twelve for all meals at the Mission on Sunday, so our house- 
 keeper Miss Minter had a hard time, and especially hard 
 because both the boy-cook and the lady who washes up 
 were confirmed on that day ! The Confirmation was to 
 have been held some weeks ago, but was put off. I knew 
 that the Bishop would hold it on his return this time, so 
 that I had the candidates in a certain amount of readiness. 
 But thinking it improbable that the Bishop would be here 
 for another three weeks, I had rather a hard job to collect 
 the candidates and prepare them for three o'clock that 
 
 72 
 
afternoon. Four males were confirmed and seven females. 
 Alas ! bright days are liable to have some dark cloud, 
 and I was terribly distressed to hear that one of these girls 
 had not slept in her dormitory that very night of her Con- 
 firmation, and we found next day that she had gone off 
 with the man to whom she was engaged to be married. 
 The marriage question is of course an immense difficulty 
 out here. It may interest some of you at home to know 
 the course I took in this particular case. The man was 
 a catechumen, the girl of course a Christian (one of the only 
 two unmarried Christian girls at Kota). On the next day 
 I called them both to my room and first made sure that 
 they had not been properly married even according to 
 heathen ritual. Finding out that in this particular case 
 nothing had been properly done, I sent for the two sureties, 
 the man's and the woman's (whose consent to the marriage 
 is all-important). They arrived, and there they all sat 
 in my room — ^the two sureties, the girl's mother, the girl 
 and her would-be husband and my head teacher to interpret 
 when necessary. The end of it was that I made the sureties 
 promise that the marriage ceremonies should be properly 
 carried out, and until then that the girl should sleep at her 
 mother's house. Well, that is only one instance of many 
 such difficulties and grievous disappointments, to brave 
 which we have constantly to remember who these people 
 are for whom we are working. The whole idea of relation- 
 ship out here is very puzzling. 
 
 ** Good-bye. I have been very well in body since my 
 arrival here." 
 
 [To a Sister) 
 Illness of Archdeacon Johnson — Retreat at 
 
 LiKOMA 
 
 Kota Kota, July 22, 1902. 
 
 " Oh how odd it is to think that when you get this 
 letter a whole year, bar perhaps a fortnight, will have 
 passed since the good-byes were said on October 8. My 
 letters will at least have told you one thing, that this year 
 
 73 
 
has been to me brimful of happiness, or if we cannot say 
 brimful when, in addition to one's own sinfulness, those one 
 is learning to love out here are also full of sin, at least, it 
 has been happy far beyond what one had any right to 
 expect. So much for moralisation. 
 
 " It must be more than a fortnight since I sent off a 
 letter to Will, for I feel sure that I did not mention to him 
 the serious illness of the dear Archdeacon. Since his return 
 to the Lake in Eastertide he has been very active and for 
 him very well, but last Sunday fortnight we were dis- 
 mayed by the sudden appearance of Phihp Young on the 
 ladies' verandah where we were at tea. He said that the 
 CM. had brought over the Archdeacon very ill indeed, and 
 that the doctor and nurse must go instantly on board. It 
 seems that on the Saturday night the Archdeacon had 
 gone ashore alone at one of our east Lake-side stations in 
 order to celebrate the Eucharist the next morning ; that 
 the steamer stopped about eight miles off at another station 
 where Mr. Marsh took the Sunday service. The Archdeacon 
 had gone off in capital spirits and full of chaff. He had 
 arranged to walk to the steamer on Sunday, but on the 
 Saturday night he must have been taken suddenly and 
 violently ill. On Sunday morning he sent a message to 
 Young, who, of course, brought the CM. They found the 
 Archdeacon utterly prostrate and scarcely able to speak, 
 and in that condition he arrived at Kota on the same 
 afternoon. The doctor afterwards pronounced his illness 
 to be dysentery. His recovery has been slower than the 
 doctor had hoped, but I believe he will be well enough to 
 begin his work again in another week. But he has not been 
 niu-sed here during all these three weeks. He was here for a 
 week, and then the CM. returned here to take Miss Minter, 
 the doctor and myself to Likoma for a two days' retreat, 
 followed by an informal conference. The CM., especially 
 when at anchor, is a very good place for nursing a patient. 
 There is a sick-cabin on the top deck, and there during our 
 stay at Likoma the Archdeacon was nursed. 
 
 " Poor Miss Minter ! She had been so looking forward 
 to the quiet of a retreat, but as you may suppose there was 
 
 74 
 
no retreat for her. The CM. before it called for the Kota 
 Kota contingent had already picked up Mr. Philipps and 
 Mr. Davies from Mponda's and Malindi, and before we 
 reached Likoma we had on board besides these two, the 
 Archdeacon, Marsh, De La Pryme, Fitzgerald, and myself 
 (priests), our two native deacons, Augustine and Eustace, 
 also, of course, Philip Young and Partridge who run the 
 ship, and Miss Minter. Altogether we were about twenty 
 in retreat, including our one native priest, Yohana Ab- 
 dallah. The only three who could not come to Likoma 
 were Mr. Ladbury, who had to stay to look after a store 
 at Mponda's, and my other two ladies. Miss Mann and Miss 
 Newton. I was so sorry that these latter two could not 
 go, but I dared not leave this station in its present critical 
 condition without any Europeans. The boys are in the 
 middle of coming back to school, and the numbers in the 
 dormitory are about double what they were about two 
 months ago. There are now about fifty boys sleeping in the 
 dormitory, but this means that things are in a very unsettled 
 state. So, also, the girls, few in number, are up to any 
 amount of mischief if Miss Newton is not with them — our 
 native teacher (female) seems to have no influence with them ; 
 and then in addition to this business of looking after our 
 own Mission people, the doctor did not like to leave his large 
 number of workmen unless there was at least a lady left, 
 who, by sitting on her verandah, might exert a soothing in- 
 fluence on these 150 vagabonds. As a matter of fact most of 
 these workmen were sent out into the country to cut timber 
 while we were away. It takes forty men five days to go out 
 and cut and bring back one small tree. Well, of course, 
 it was delightful to see Likoma again, and then on Saturday 
 we left Likoma and I got up to Kota Mission station just 
 on midnight. It seems my fate to arrive under somewhat 
 difficult circumstances. You may remember that my 
 previous arrival was late in the evening when I had to 
 house a lot of women for the night and stuffed them all 
 into the girls' dormitory. This time I arrived up at the 
 Mission at midnight with a lot of men (workmen for the 
 doctor), and some wives. Well, I stuffed all the women 
 
 75 
 
into an empty house, and all the men into another, and 
 told them they could sort out their own wives next day. 
 Altogether we have about fifteen native houses on the 
 Mission ground. I mustn't forget to pay the tax on them — 
 three shillings per house per annum. 
 
 " I did one very good stroke of business at Likoma by 
 procuring a good native foreman to come back here with 
 me and superintend the rebuilding of Kasamba Church. 
 And to-day I and the doctor walked over to Kasamba to 
 arrange the work. I hope everything will go smoothly. 
 The church will be the same size as the old one whose roof 
 has fallen in — about 55 feet long by 18 feet wide. As we 
 shall be able to use a good deal of the old material, the doctor 
 says the new church ought not to cost more than £5. Of 
 course, it is not stone or brick, but walls of wooden poles 
 with bamboos and reeds all covered with mud outside and 
 in, and the roof is grass. To-morrow I intend to go by 
 machila to Sani to look at the new school which is nearly 
 finished. To-morrow I am sorry to say, is to-day, so the 
 clock tells me — so a late good-night. Don't think that I 
 often sit up to this hour." 
 
 The following letter was written to one who had been a 
 boy in the school at Salwarpe, and who is now a teacher. 
 It illustrates how keenly Arthur kept up his interest in 
 his old parish, and it gives a good picture of the boys' life 
 at Kota Kota. 
 
 Kota Kota, Lake Nyasa, August 12, 1902. 
 
 " My dear a. 
 
 " You are beginning to think that I am never 
 going to answer your very jolly letter ; but don't think so. 
 I will always answer the letters from Salwarpe children and 
 I was very much pleased to get yours. 
 
 *' Now I will tell you what I am doing at the present 
 moment. I am sitting in my house, but my house is one 
 room ; really it is the class-room of the school, and in school 
 hours I can hear a great deal of ABC. Pinned to the 
 wall there is a photograph, taken by Mr. Edward Douglas, 
 
 76 
 
of the Salwarpe cricket-field, church, rectory and big elm- 
 tree. In one corner is my bed hung round with netting 
 to keep out the mosquitoes. I am as fond of my mosquito 
 net as my grandmother was of her hot water-bottle. Inside 
 my mosquito net I can defy all bats and rats and lesser 
 beasts which may happen to live with me. But, as a matter 
 of fact, my room is remarkably free from such creatures. 
 
 " If you looked into my room in the evening, you 
 would very often find some of my new black children, 
 whom I am getting to love very much indeed. They have 
 wool on their top ; but really they like to shave off all 
 their hair and have perfectly bald heads. By good luck 
 I brought out an old razor with me, and this I lend out 
 to the boys to shave their tops with. I am very glad that 
 it is the fashion to wear either no hair or hair only a quarter 
 of an inch long, as it keeps their heads nice and clean. 
 They have bare toes, but please don't think that they cover 
 the rest of their bodies with shirt, waistcoat, tie, coat, collar, 
 knickerbockers and braces ; their only bit of clothing very 
 often is a small cloth tied round their waist ; if they are 
 in luck's way they also cover their bodies with a thin vest. 
 It is quite easy to tell whether a boy has washed himself in 
 the morning. If he has, his skin is a beautiful shiny black ; 
 if he has not, his skin is a nasty dull colour. In most of 
 the villages on Lake Nyasa the boys love to bathe, and from 
 early childhood they swim like fishes ; but I am sorry to 
 say that my Kota Kota boys are not so fond of a lake bath, 
 and the reason is that there are a great many crocodiles 
 in the water at this place. You will be surprised to hear 
 that my bath water is brought from a spring two miles 
 away ; it is a boiling-hot spring, and even when it has been 
 carried these two miles and poured into my bath, the 
 water is too hot for me to get in, without adding some cold. 
 
 " Since beginning my letter to you, I have got rid of 
 my eight kids on the floor. They have gone to bed and so 
 have another forty. About fifty Mission boys sleep in a 
 large room in the Mission ground. At a quarter past eight 
 in the evening one boy rings a bell all round the village to 
 call the others to bed ; then at nine o'clock we all say 
 
 77 
 
prayers together and then they lie down on their sleeping- 
 mats, and if they don't stop talking jolly quick, I pounce 
 in on them and address them in my most impolite Chinyanja. 
 The offender sometimes betrays himself by starting an extra- 
 special loud snore when he hears me come in ! Then in 
 the morning the church bell rings at half-past six and all 
 the boys are expected to come to church. At eight o'clock 
 another bell goes round the village to call the children to 
 school. We have about eighty boys on the register and 
 twenty girls, but many of them are very irregular and they 
 have no idea of punctuality. After the first hour's school 
 one of the boys or pupil teachers goes again round the 
 village to bring in stragglers. The other day when heaps 
 of boys were late, I went through the village in search of 
 offenders, and I made a pretty good haul. Thanks to a 
 very good lady teacher we have at Kota Kota, the numbers 
 in the school have increased well during the last two months. 
 " Remember me to everybody at school and especially 
 to the choir boys. I was so pleased to hear that Mr. G. 
 thought the choir boys behaved well. Also remember me 
 kindly to your uucle and aunt." 
 
 " Ever your affectionate friend, 
 " A. J. Douglas." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 Machila Travelling — Troubles at Kasamba 
 
 Kota Kota, Sept. 4, 1902. 
 
 "... Alack ! I have let a mail go by without sending 
 anything home. It was not altogether my fault, as I had 
 to go and get the firewood. Our firewood is bought at Lozi 
 (where we have an out -station) ten miles off. Douglas 
 of the African Lakes Company store sends his barge to 
 fetch it, Lozi being on the Lake ; but his barge being other- 
 wise occupied, we have been approaching a firewood famine 
 for the last month. At last Grindlack of the German store 
 said his boats should fetch it, so off they went, but only to 
 return with the news that some beastly steamer had been 
 and gone and bagged all our poor little lot of Mission fire- 
 
 78 
 
wood. Their plea was that they wanted firewood, and it 
 was the only dry wood they could find. So the next day 
 off I trotted in my machila to Lozi, and being determined 
 that there should not be firewood famine for some months 
 to come, I ruined the Mission by buying about forty-five 
 cubic yards. So now Miss Minter, our housekeeper, and the 
 boy cook smile on me once more. 
 
 " Machila travelling is a terrible snare and delusion. 
 In the days of my greenhood I used to think that with 
 twenty miles of road before me I should do a nice long 
 read and prepare sermons, but, as I have remarked before, 
 those were the days of my greenhood, and now, though I 
 still go through the form of stocking my machila with many 
 books, I know quite well that within the first half-hour I 
 shall be slumbering peaceably, only waking for the moment 
 when the machila gives me an extra and special jar. For 
 a ten miles' journey each way, that is, when I go to Sani 
 or Lozi, I take about ten men ; they take it in turn by pairs 
 to carry the machila and they run or shuffle along at a fast 
 walk, and if they are up-to-date machila carriers, they 
 shriek and yell, and the two carriers play a dialogue, some- 
 thing after this sort — Front man to back, ' Are you there ? ' 
 Back man grunts. Back man to front, ' Are you there ? ' 
 Front grunts. Back grunts, front grunts, back shrieks, 
 front shrieks — then together, ' Oh Mother, Mother, Mother ! ' 
 {this, if the occupant of machila is especially heavy). Then 
 all sing a machila song with chorus (generally very pretty), 
 or one man extemporizes, his theme generally being the 
 unfortunate bwana whose European ears can catch next 
 to nothing of the praise or blame bestowed upon him ; then 
 comes the finale — ' Prize mine, prize mine ; salt mine, salt 
 mine ' ; and so home is reached, and they are not in the 
 least astonished to learn that neither is salt nor any other 
 prize forthcoming. We are comparatively quiet on the 
 station now, as it is holidays, and a great many of the 
 dormitory boys have gone away to visit their relations. 
 It is rather a blessed relief, as it gives me time to do other 
 things. Notably I am trying to get a Chinyanja lesson 
 most days from our head teacher James. I have thus 
 
 79 
 
been able to refresh my memory of ' Androcles and the 
 Lion.' The holidays are also especially acceptable, as 
 I have had lately more than the usual number of 
 disagreeables to settle up. This is the sort of thing : — 
 Letter from the teacher at Kasamba to say that only four 
 boys out of twenty-four have come to school. I send back 
 word that I will come to Kasamba next day and shall expect 
 to find all the boys in school. I go to Kasamba — find 
 only about half the school present. I send word to the 
 other boys in the village that if they don't come in double 
 quick time I shall take away their crosses — that is, depose 
 them from being catechumens. In an astonishingly few 
 minutes the boys appear, and then we sit round in solemn 
 conclave and discuss the case. Why had they not turned 
 up at school ? Because they had been late in coming up 
 to the Mission dormitory at bed-time, and teacher had hit 
 them. Then it was my turn to pass judgment, which was 
 to the effect that the teacher had probably done right to 
 whack them, but that for the future, as I go to Kasamba 
 every week, the teacher can bring any case before me, and 
 I would do the whacking if necessary. Did they think that 
 my words were good ? Oh yes, it was passed nem. con, 
 that my words were very good indeed. So we parted ; but 
 two days later I returned to Kasamba. A full attendance 
 of boys at school : I told them how pleased I was. But, 
 alack ! when they had all dispersed, the teacher told me that 
 on the previous night a dozen of them had joined in one of 
 the bad village dances, and they had only returned about 
 midnight. It is a very serious offence, but, alas ! at Kota a 
 very common offence, for our Christians and catechumens 
 to take part in the dances, which are essentially evil. So 
 what must I do but call all these young offenders together 
 again, and there and then give them the whacking which 
 two days before they had agreed I should give them if I 
 thought it necessary. I believe it has done them good, and 
 they know that I dislike corporal punishment as much as 
 they do, and that is saying a good deal. Thefts have also 
 been dreadfully numerous lately, and I have lately saved 
 two of our Christian boys from prison, by promising their 
 
 80 
 
masters I would give them a very big thrashing. Three 
 other of our boys are in prison for the same offence, and I 
 was rather disgusted to find one of them playing football 
 with his hand-cuffs on against our boys, when the head of 
 the prison asked our boys to go up and play at his house. 
 And the worst of it was that the offender didn't seem in 
 the least ashamed of being seen. Then there is another 
 class of boy who has no idea of keeping a promise. I 
 especially have in mind one young villain (we will call him 
 John). Over and over and over again he shirks church or 
 school, or he goes off for a few days' tour without leave. 
 When it pleases him he returns, and I see him in the play- 
 ground and call him into my house. ' Well, so you've 
 offended again.' Yes, he has offended again. ' But don't 
 you remember I told you you were to ask leave if you 
 wanted to go away ? ' He replies, * I forgot.' ' Oh now, 
 you know you didn't really forget.' Yes, he allows he didn't 
 really forget. ' So you've offended very badly.' Yes, he 
 allows he has offended very badly. * Well, do you mean 
 to live well now ? ' Oh yes, he certainly means to live 
 well now. ' And you mean to come to church and sleep 
 in the Mission and not to go away without leave ? ' Cer- 
 tainly, he will come to church and sleep in the Mission and 
 never go away again without leave. And so, I go to bed 
 and think that John is after all a cherub. Alas ! in the 
 morning where is John ? Not in church, not in school, and 
 when I go to ask his mother, she tells me that the cherub has 
 gone to fish far, far away. ' Well, will he come back to- 
 day ? ' Oh yes, he will come back to-day and sleep at the 
 Mission. But alas ! again in calling over the boys' names in 
 the dormitory to-night, I have called John in vain ! . . . I 
 have talked so much about the boys that I have almost 
 forgotten to say there has been a sudden and remarkable 
 increase in the number of girls who have been coming to 
 school. I have been wondering whether this increase can 
 have been due partly to prayers offered at home for this 
 object, or whether my letter telHng of this sad want of girls 
 has not yet reached you. . . . 
 
 " / want [a) Common small fish-hooks, 300 ; (h) 
 
 81 G 
 
Parlour games which the boys can play in the schoolroom 
 in the evening instead of their stopping in the village, e.g. 
 picture cards, fish ponds, &c. You may spend about £2 
 on these games, as I can then let them out gradually. 
 Perhaps fifty or seventy boys may want to be amused." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 
 The Catechumenate — Dedication of Hospital at 
 kota kota 
 
 Kota Kota, Oct. 13, 1902. 
 " I am beginning this, which must be my birthday 
 letter to you, in the boys' schoolroom, which (inasmuch 
 as it is not the time to ' read ' but to play) might for the 
 nonce be more appropriately called the boys' club-room. 
 It is a new experiment which we are making in the hope 
 of drawing the boys to spend their evenings in the Mission 
 instead of the village at the village dances, which at Kota 
 are of the worst possible type. Up to this week Miss Mann 
 and I have allowed the boys to look at pictures and to play 
 in our own rooms, and I have sometimes had more than 
 twenty squatting on my floor. But now we are experi- 
 menting with the schoolroom, and Miss Mann and myself 
 take it in turns to be responsible. Miss Newton meanwhile 
 looks after the girls . Just now we never get tired of playing 
 ' Up Jenkins,' that gentleman being generally invoked as 
 ' Up Jenkiss,' or, in the most exciting crises, as ' Up Binks.' 
 We also play ' Tiddly winks ' and ' Snap,' and we piece 
 together a puzzle chart of English sovereigns from William I 
 to our late gracious Majesty. But I already begin to wish 
 that the letter I wrote last mail asking for more games had 
 been written six months ago. These happy conversaziones 
 certainly have a taming influence on the youths of Kota. 
 By-the-bye, I quite forgot to say that I want large wall 
 pictures (probably sacred), such as I can either hang up 
 in the school or trot out on Sunday evenings for the boys' 
 benefit. . . . Now I must tell you about last Saturday. 
 It was a great day for our Sani Mission station, for I arranged 
 to give the Cross to (i.e. admit to the catechumenate) the first 
 
 82 
 
KOTA KOTA SCHOOL-BOYS 
 
batch of Sani hearers. There were twenty-seven candi- 
 dates, seventeen males and ten of the inferiors. All but 
 two of the males go to school, but of these fifteen several 
 are married and many of them are hobbledehoys. Some 
 of the Kota Kota boys asked leave to go with me and of 
 course I let them, teUing them to get their Saturday morning 
 work finished as quickly as they could. The Saturday 
 morning work consists in sweeping and dusting the 
 station. 
 
 " Only catechumens and Christians may enter the 
 church, so whilst the others sweep the rest of the station, 
 the catechumens do the church, and the Christians poHsh 
 the altar ornaments. One small Christian was so exceed- 
 ingly zealous, that I found him seizing on the altar cross 
 before we had begun our EngHsh Eucharist. Being Satur- 
 day, a non-school day. Miss Mann was able to accompany 
 me to Sani. We got into our machilas at 8.30, and off 
 we went on our two hours' ride. Between us I suppose 
 we had twenty carriers. We had not gone many yards 
 before my back-carrier let me down with a big bang on my 
 head. It might have seriously incapacitated me, but I 
 managed to blow the man up and my headache away all 
 in the same breath. I was further comforted in the evening 
 by learning from Miss Mann that she had been dropped on 
 the way home, and no wonder, for on the return journey 
 our men were in uproarious spirits, each machila team 
 trying to rush in front of the other and take the lead 
 on the narrow footpath, and then racing abreast down 
 precipitous hills when the road widened out. Altogether 
 our day at Sani was a very happy one. At first I was afraid 
 that I should not be able to give the Cross to some of the 
 old women candidates, as they did not say their prayers to 
 me well ; in fact I told them they must wait ; and then I 
 told the teacher to take them in hand whilst I went out of 
 the room. On my return there was so much improvement 
 that my heart relented and they received admittance with 
 the rest. But I told the teacher he must never let a lesson 
 go by without making them repeat their prayer. How 
 strange it must be of these old people to kneel down and 
 
 83 
 
pray. It is not as if they had even been idol- worshippers 
 previously. You would have been impressed by the service 
 of admittance to the catechumenate — not perhaps by the 
 building which is our newly erected mud and reed school- 
 room, but by the perfect quiet and reverence of the candi- 
 dates, especially the boys. It made one's heart very 
 thankful to see how earnestly each knelt and received his 
 cross as I passed from one to another and placed the string 
 with the cross attached round his neck. Their teacher 
 assures me that the Sani Mission boys do not go in for the 
 evil village dancing. Alas ! that could not be said of all 
 our Kota Kota and Kasamba Mission people. The regular 
 punishment for a Christian who commits this sin is to sit 
 among the catechumens for a month. At this moment at 
 Kasamba, out of about twenty Christian boys, eleven are 
 undergoing this penance. Isn't that terribly sad ? To 
 keep oneself from over-distress, one has constantly to 
 recollect the others who, in spite of the many past years 
 when they lived the ordinary village life ad lib., and the 
 constant temptation to relapse in the present, are yet 
 trying to be really good Christians. I should like to keep 
 my letter open till to-morrow, as we are hoping to have an 
 important function — the dedication of our hospital buildings. 
 From the date at the head of this letter you might not be 
 able to surmise that to-morrow is the Feast of S. Luke 
 the physician. You have, I know, realised that Dr. Howard 
 has been living here for some months and has superintended 
 the whole work. There are three buildings to be dedicated, 
 a new stone European hospital and a new stone dispensary 
 (both with splendid verandahs), and a native reed hospital 
 which was formerly the girls' school. The new buildings 
 are the doctor's own design, and suffice it to say that a 
 prominent member of the Administration who paid a visit 
 to the Mission yesterday, said that the hospital was the 
 nicest house he had seen in these parts. It has two rooms, 
 20 feet by 20 feet and 17 feet by 12 feet respectively. The 
 larger is the patient's room. It has a delightful bay window 
 where he will lie and watch the Lake, and speculate what 
 steamer it is that is coming to anchor, whether an Adminis- 
 
 84 
 
tration or an African Lakes' Company or the German boat ; 
 but — provided that the patient is a missionite — he will hope 
 beyond all things that, the steamer being big, it will be the 
 CM., or, the steamer being small, it will be the C.J. The 
 smaller room will make convenient quarters for the nurse, 
 when the patient needs night attendance. Of course she 
 will keep her own rooms as heretofore in the ladies' house. 
 Every effort has been made to set white ants and mosquitoes 
 at defiance. Soldered zinc was laid above the foundations, 
 and again between the walls and the roof — so much for the 
 white ants. The doors and windows will be double, those 
 on the outside being of wire netting, which will not shut 
 out the air but may shut out the mosquitoes. Moreover, 
 supposing a wily mosquito finds its way in, there are two 
 yet more wily ventilators up aloft which will allow the 
 mosquito exit. I don't understand the ins and outs of 
 these ventilators, but the doctor says they are the latest 
 up-to-date dodge ; so of course it's all right. Well, the 
 civil function took place last Wednesday ; an ox was killed ; 
 the carpenter had two legs, the masons the other two, 
 forty other workmen divided the body, and who got the 
 head,/ don't know, for the cowman came to me with bitter 
 lamentations that he had not got it. And the religious 
 function is fixed for to-morrow. We shall have a Chinyanja 
 Eucharist, and after the sermon the whole congregation will 
 go in procession, singing a hymn. We shall stand outside 
 the native hospital and say part of the Litany for the sick 
 from the Priest's Prayer-book, and other prayers ; then 
 whilst the congregation waits outside but within ear-shot, 
 I with the servers shall enter each of the three buildings 
 and say a prayer of blessing ; and so we shall all return to 
 church for the rest of the service. . 
 
 " Yesterday immense delight — two boxes arrived for 
 me, my vestments and the footballs." 
 
 85 
 
(To a Brother) 
 Leopards and their Ways 
 
 Kota Kota, ist Sunday in Advent, 1902. 
 
 '* If I scrawl more than usual, you must forgive me ; 
 I am writing in my easy-chair with my legs stretched out 
 on another, the reason for such extreme laziness being that 
 this afternoon I have walked to Kasamba and back for the 
 purpose of ' opening ' the new church there. Kasamba 
 Church will, I hope, stand for several years, perhaps five, 
 perhaps less, perhaps more. The last church stood for 
 less. It is built of a framework of poles filled in with 
 bamboos and plastered inside and out with mud. The roof 
 of course is thatched, the floor of course is mud, but we 
 have got a brick altar and brick steps up to it. The FoUiotts 
 have sent ornaments for the church in memory of their 
 brother, and altogether you can have no idea how nice it 
 looked to-night for the dedication service. I must send 
 home a photo of it. I have done so little at present with 
 my camera, not for want of the will, but — I fear it is not a 
 new excuse — for want of time. The days are so chock 
 full of business that when I have a spare half-hour in the 
 daytime I am glad to devote it to sleep ! Perhaps it is 
 thanks to these spare half-hours that I am in my present 
 blooming health. 
 
 " It is almost inconceivable that more than a year has 
 passed since I wrote you a letter for Christmas from the 
 Zambesi. I think I then told you of the various beasts 
 we were seeing on the river. This last week I was uncom- 
 fortably near to meeting a leopard in our Mission quarters. 
 We woke up one morning to find clear footprints mostly 
 round about our ladies' house ; the natives said they were 
 undoubtedly the marks of a leopard. That night I happened 
 (don't think that this is my favourite custom) to be walking 
 about at 1.30 a.m. I had my lantern with me and it would 
 have been quite in accordance with a leopard's manners to 
 have run away from the light ; but, on the other hand, it 
 might have changed its manners just for my sake, and I 
 am very pleased that it accomplished its visit either before 
 
 86 
 
or after 1.30 and not at that particular hour. But the 
 tragic part of the tale has yet to come, for the next night 
 being in my room, I heard a loud scratching seemingly on 
 my verandah and then I thought it was on the door itself. 
 I had a bright light burning in my room and I thought it 
 would be an extra special bold leopard that would venture 
 in under the circumstances. But the loud scraping con- 
 tinued and I waited and waited and didn't dare to move. 
 Then I heard some people coming along the road by my 
 house and I rather wondered (shall I say hoped ?) whether 
 the leopard would give them a turn ; but the loud scratching 
 still went on. And then I began to think that the sound 
 came from inside my room in a corner by the door, so I 
 took off my shoes (still for fear of the leopard) and I 
 crept nearer the door till I got to a large basket on the 
 floor ; and then I felt sure that the noise came from under 
 the basket, and I began to think that whatever other manners 
 a leopard has it is not his manner to come up through the 
 floor. So I crept back again and seized my shoe, and with 
 no other defence I returned to the basket. I lifted it and 
 out rushed the beast ; I brought my shoe down like a 
 sledge hammer, the beast escaped but left gory marks 
 behind. It was something about an inch long, perhaps a 
 baby mouse or spider which, whilst I was pondering on 
 the leopard, had been scraping away the bottom of the 
 basket with a rapidity which must have ruined his digestion 
 for the remainder of a life which I venture to think was a 
 short one, thanks to my fell blow. This is my leopard 
 story, but Miss Minter has a really creepy story to tell. 
 " When she was at Kota two years ago, she had a cat 
 with her kittens sleeping in her room. She was awoke 
 by a tremendous hullabaloo in her room ; she lit a candle 
 and found the poor cat double its ordinary size with rage 
 and terror and two of the kittens decapitated ! In the 
 morning distinct marks of leopard's claws were found on 
 the window-sill (as well as round about the house) permitting 
 of no doubt that a leopard had really paid Miss Minter a 
 visit in her room where she was snugly packed up inside 
 her mosquito net. 
 
 87 
 
" [Later.) Since writing the first pages of this letter 
 our leopard has made two more night peregrinations 
 round the Mission. When the doctor returns (this or 
 next week) perhaps we shall set a trap ; it sounds 
 rather a large order, doesn't it ? Leopards are the only 
 large wild beasts about Kota, although about sixty miles 
 off, the young tax-collector (a Lincoln College man like 
 myself) was sitting in his enclosure when a lion jumped in 
 over the fence, seized a goat and jumped out again. I saw 
 my first puff-adder last week. I met our neighbour, Mr. 
 Douglas of the African Lakes' Company, on the Mission 
 premises with his gun. He said Miss Minter had called him 
 to shoot a puff-adder, which had been seen among some 
 bricks outside our girls' dormitory. Although it is a very 
 deadly beast, a few of the boys went boldly to work to pull 
 down the pile of bricks, and Miss Minter, who seems to fear 
 nothing except rats, got a long stick and tried to poke it 
 out. At last it was found and its head blown to pieces by 
 the gun ; but the catch proved a particularly fortunate one, 
 as in the course of the next hour eleven little puff-adders were 
 bom and as speedily despatched. 
 
 " To-day (I am finishing this letter a fortnight after 
 it was begun ; just think of it — this very Sunday last 
 year I was at Kota Kota) — well, to-day I feel especially 
 tranquil, as I have no ' milandu ' on hand. ' Milandu ' 
 are matters of all kinds (but generally impromptu law 
 cases) which need to be settled, and Mission milandu are 
 nearly always brought to the pries t-in-charge for settle- 
 ment. A short time ago I had a serious milandu with our 
 school-girls, which may well be set out as a warning to my 
 dear godchild.) The girls had appropriated to themselves, 
 without asking leave, a bit of ground which belonged to 
 the Mission. Miss Minter found them hard at work digging 
 it and sowing their rice-seed. But the girls got it into their 
 heads that their native teacher had told on them, which as 
 a fact she ought to have done but had failed to do. So this 
 was the manner in which the children greeted their teacher 
 the next morning. ' Oh you slave ' (most pathetically true 
 of the poor woman's past liistory, although she obtained her 
 
 88 
 
freedom years ago) ' oh you slave — what reward did she 
 think she would get — oh she thought she would get a pound 
 — ^but never mind, there's no reward for telling tales ! ' So 
 spake the girls one to another as their teacher passed their 
 door. And hence a big milandu, which it took days to 
 settle as the girls hed and lied and lied again. But I think 
 their milandu has cleared the school atmosphere. Boys' 
 quarrels bring on many milandu. A heap of boys came to 
 my house a few days ago with much anger within and no 
 little gore without, and in my room they remained for 
 about an hour whilst the case was tried. In trying milandu 
 witnesses have nearly always to be called, and often they 
 are away in the village, and all this takes time. But — and 
 this is what I want to warn your boys about — be very 
 careful never to call your schoolfellow a fool, much less 
 insinuate that his mother is another ; for if you do, you 
 will certainly have to pay a chicken in compensation. 
 That was the judgment (gratefully accepted by the offender) 
 1 passed on the Httle boy who said ' Mafundi is a fool and 
 his mother's another.' By-the-bye, it is curious to find 
 in this heathen land the word ' fool ' so exactly synonymous 
 in significance with the * Thou Fool ' of the Bible. 
 
 " Here are two words of injunction as to behaviour, one 
 for your girls and one for your boys. I really must end 
 with one more for C. At a late hour the night before last, 
 a man and his wife arrived on my verandah. I said to him, 
 * What do you want ? ' He replied, * I want you to ask 
 her whether she has forgotten her marriage vows.' That 
 sounded very serious ; however the offence was found to 
 be that having finished cooking food for him, she had refused 
 to cook food also for his brother. Judgment was passed 
 that it certainly behoved her to do this work of mercy, whilst 
 it equally behoved him to take jolly good care that the 
 brother was not again late for dinner. ..." 
 
 89 
 
{To a Sister) 
 Christmas at Kota Kota 
 
 Kota Kota, Holy Innocents' Day, 1902. 
 " Well, to-day is the first Sunday after Christmas and 
 I have got a great deal to say — chiefly about Christmas pre- 
 sents. First of all, the Christmas presents from the brethren 
 at home. Bwanas,i Eyre and George got out of all patience 
 with their luggage and left it to follow them the last stage of 
 the journey as it best knew how. I hope by this time it and 
 my box among it may have reached Mponda's and it will find 
 its way here shortly. If it is packed up in Mr. Eyre's baggage, 
 it will have to wait till he gets down again to Mponda's. I 
 have however got the packet containing tablecloths and the 
 splendid assortment of engravings from E. Very many 
 thanks for them. Next I must tell you about the more bulky 
 Christmas presents which we at Kota most unexpectedly 
 received. We were a httle bit sold but (considering the 
 amount of work to be got through on the other side) not 
 very much surprised that neither the CM. nor C.J. had 
 paid us a visit in the week before Christmas. For one thing 
 our housekeeper. Miss Minter, was crying out that she 
 wanted her stores. My days before Christmas were too full 
 to think much about CM., CJ., or anything else except 
 my own native flock.- All the same it was a magnificent 
 surprise on Christmas Eve, when, half an hour late for lunch, 
 I at last reached the dining-room, to be met by Miss Mann 
 with * Everybody's gone mad ; the CJ. is in and the doctor 
 and nurse have rushed off to greet her.' It certainly was 
 almost too good to be true that we should have any other 
 of the brethren with us on Christmas Day, but it still 
 remained to be seen who the brethren were. Needless to 
 say, / being a sober-minded person, did not ' rush off ' 
 anywhere, but neither could I settle to any other work, for 
 I had a hope that it might really be dear old Bwana Eyre 
 himself who had come to pay us a Christmas visit on his 
 return to the Lake. It seemed unUkely, because I thought 
 he was sure to spend his Christmas at some of his own 
 » Mr. — the title of respect. 
 90 
 
more special villages on the other side, and even now I expect 
 the Archdeacon will open his eyes rather wide when he hears 
 that Eyre spent Christmas in the west instead of the east ; 
 but, nevertheless, facts remain, and there he was sure enough 
 on the road shaking hands with doctor and nurse and in 
 another minute with mine own self, just the same as ever. 
 Certainly he looks extemely well after his holiday. He 
 brought with him a new member of the Mission, a carpenter, 
 by name Crabb. I enjoyed showing Crabb all the beauties 
 of the church and station and then took him to the ladies' 
 verandah for tea. There I heard some talk about the 
 CM., so I innocently remarked, * Where do you think the 
 CM. is spending Christmas ? ' Upon which a chorus of 
 voices repHed, ' Don't you really know ? ' I answered, 
 ' No, I don't.' * Why,' said the chorus, ' the CM. is here ! ' 
 Well, the CJ. was a pretty big Christmas present, but the 
 CM. was a bigger. But I had scarce time to wonder, for 
 in a few minutes there was dear old Philip Young standing 
 on the verandah. Of course they had left the Archdeacon 
 and Mr. Marsh on tlie other side, but Young had set his 
 heart on spending his Christmas Day at Kota. So up to 
 midday on Christmas Eve we thought we were going to be 
 just our four selves, Nurse Minter, Miss Mann, Dr Howard 
 and myself, and by teatime we were additionally Eyre, 
 Brimecombe and Crabb by the C.J. , and Young and Part- 
 ridge by the CM. To give the finishing touch to the 
 chapter of delightful surprises, Young said, ' Please I want 
 to stay here till next Monday if you will have me.' And I 
 found that he had so arranged it with the Bishop and Arch- 
 deacon, that whilst Partridge took the CM. across to the 
 Archdeacon after Christmas Day, Young should have a few 
 extra days' holiday, remaining here till the C.J. or CM, 
 comes to fetch him away. Philip has had hard work on the 
 CM. and a few days' rest will do him a lot of good. Of 
 course I had additional reason to be thankful for Mr. Eyre's 
 presence, as he was able to help me give the people their 
 Christmas Communion. 
 
 " Our services — the Christmas Eve solemn Evensong 
 and the great Eucharist on Christmas morning — were 
 
 91 
 
magnificent. There were about 140 communicants (rather 
 more than 100 of my own flock, the rest being from the 
 steamers), and besides these Christians, there were of 
 course a very large number of catechumens who come into 
 church for the first part of the services. The processions 
 of all the Christians round the church was a very striking 
 sight and done without any fuss. The catechumens — poor 
 things — mayn't process, as they are not supposed to enter 
 the Christians' part of the church. Our church has got 
 an ambulatory round behind the high altar ; I suppose the 
 altar stands out ten feet from the east wall which is apsidal. 
 So the congregation mount the steps to the sanctuary and 
 process round the altar and then down the steps again and 
 along the south wall of the nave. After the long church 
 service the boys were quite ready for amusement . . . they 
 were ready to play football the whole day long, until they 
 entered church again for Evensong. In the evening we had 
 a magic-lantern in the school. At Christmas Day dinner 
 we sat down twelve, for Messrs. Swann the tax-collector, 
 Armbruster the postmaster, and Deuss the German store- 
 keeper joined us. The only other white man, Douglas of 
 African Lakes' Company, could not come. 
 
 Troubles with the Boys 
 
 Kota Kota, Jan. 30, 1903. 
 *' . . . Alas ! it is just as I feared ; the mail bag is shut, 
 and my letter may have to wait another fortnight, but at least 
 it gives me the opportunity of telling you about last Sunday, 
 or rather the story begins many months back, last July, 
 when a large store at the homa ^ was set on fire. To this 
 day it is not known who did it , but rightly or wrongly one 
 of the two biggest chiefs in Kota was accused of being at 
 the bottom of it, and he was accordingly banished to Zomba, 
 the head quarters of B.C.A. About Christmas time Mr. S. 
 told me that he thought the old chap would be allowed 
 to come back, and back he came last Sunday. I heard 
 a tremendous row in the village, but thought it was only 
 
 * Residence of a European Commissioner. 
 92 
 
KOTA KOTA CHURCH 
 
 KOTA KOTA CHURCH, WEST END, SHOWING CATECHUMENS BARRIER 
 
a big dance. It was a small Mission boy, whom I waylaid, 
 thinking he was off to the dance, who first told me that 
 Chigwe had arrived ; well, the whole place, or rather half 
 the place (for he is not on speaking terms with the other big 
 chief), turned out to do him honour. It was a marvellous 
 sight and sound. I and some other of our Mission party 
 stood by the road along which the procession passed — a 
 black mass of people — many hundreds, possibly thousands. 
 First came a crowd of women, many of them with their heads 
 powdered with flour, whilst his chief wife is related to have 
 rolled in the dust, as an extra special mark of gladness of 
 heart. Then came the men, getting more and more excited 
 as they came rushing along, tearing off boughs of the trees, 
 and waving them in the air. Of course, another procession 
 was in one's mind at the time — a triumphal entry with 
 probably many points of similarity ; only with all the 
 singing, one did not hear Hosannah, and old Chigwe had 
 no ass. Not knowing the old fellow by sight I said to one 
 of my boys, ' Mind you tell me which is Chigwe,' but there 
 was no need for him to tell me, for as a number of old 
 gentlemen — the village corporation — passed by me, out 
 of the midst ran old Chigwe himself, and seized my hand, 
 ending his salutation by fervently kissing his own hand 
 which had grasped mine, whilst I can answer for it that I did 
 my best to copy him. It was a sight one is not likely to see 
 twice in a lifetime , perhaps you will not see it even once ! 
 1 wished I could have got my camera ready in time for a 
 snapshot. 
 
 " Life within our little Mission world goes on much as 
 usual. An ever-increasing amount to be thankful for. 
 Kasamba school, after going down and down for the 
 last two years, has taken a fresh lease of vitality since 
 the Christmas hoUdays. Instead of two dozen and often 
 less than that, there are now between fifty and sixty children 
 in school, about thirty coming from an outlying district 
 where I and the teacher began preaching a few months ago ; 
 a most blessed result. I hope there will be no falling away. 
 Both at Kasamba and at Kota I am preparing candidates 
 for baptism, and trust they will be ready by Easter, and 
 
 93 
 
still more one ought to pray that they may not be baptised 
 till they are ready. On the other hand the shadows in 
 Mission life seem to be darker than usual, but one learns by 
 experience — especially out here where characters, or rather 
 moods, seem to change so rapidly and unaccountably — 
 not to be despondent about lapses. One of my young 
 pupil teachers told me that M., L., and C. had gone to 
 ' vinyao.' This is a heathen funeral ceremony ; one of 
 the performances is a sham menagerie ! Great beasts are 
 made up out of skins and half a dozen men get inside and 
 dance the creature about. What more fascinating entertain- 
 ment ! Can you wonder that three little catechumens wished 
 to spend the night at vinyao ? But my teachers tell me that 
 the singing at vinyao is very evil, and moreover the offering 
 of flour and food at the grave is, of course, gross heathen 
 superstition. So that first night I sent two teachers to call 
 M., L., and C. out of vinyao, and back to the Mission ; and 
 back to the Mission they came. I said, ' You can go to 
 bed now, and I shall call your parents (rank heathen) to- 
 morrow.' But on the morrow I was told that M., L., and C. 
 had again gone off to vinyao, and with them were T. and A. 
 Well, that night I let them be, and to my joy on the evening 
 after they all five returned to the Mission to sleep. Seeing 
 them all standing in a row in my room, I said, ' You know 
 you have been very bad, and because you agree with me you 
 will, of course, also agree to be punished. I do not mean to 
 beat you, I shall give you another punishment to-morrow/ 
 So the next day they turned up punctually as clockwork, 
 and I gave them a good large bit of hoeing to do, and I told 
 them I would return at noon to see how they were getting 
 on. So back I went to my house feeling happily contented, 
 but, lack-a-day ! I had not been five minutes in my house 
 when my boy hurried in to say, * They have run away.' 
 A. had said to them, ' Let's run away.' And there sure 
 enough were their hoes carefully restored to the outside of 
 my house. Oh dear 1 this is a long story ; I should not 
 have begun it if I had known it would take so long to tell, 
 but now I must go through with it, and perhaps it will help 
 you to understand or to realise the difficulty of understanding 
 
 94 
 
these dear kids. Well that night, of course, none of the five 
 turned up. So I called a boy, and said, ' Where are those five 
 little fools ? ' He said, ' They are in the houses of their 
 mothers/ So with him as guide and with one of the teachers, 
 off I trudged to go the round — about lo p.m. Of course, 
 everybody was asleep. First to C.'s mama, but no C. 
 Then to M. I banged and banged at the door, and then to 
 my joy I heard a sleepy voice say, ' M., M.,' and M. was 
 aroused and produced. Then on to L.'s mama, but no L., 
 but only an exceedingly loud-voiced mama, who I thought 
 would wake the whole town up. Then on to T.'s mama, but 
 no T. I asked my boy guide where A. was sleeping. He 
 said, ' Perhaps he is at Katutula's house.* On arriving I 
 told the teacher to call A. For a long time dead silence, and 
 then loud gigghng inside, and then again dead silence. The 
 teacher went into the outer room from which it was quite 
 apparent that A. and K. had just escaped, and taken refuge 
 in the inner room, the door of which I felt inclined to break 
 open, but I managed to restrain myself, otherwise I might 
 have been locked up in the boma for housebreaking. Well, 
 with only one fish caught out of the five I thought my tour 
 had been no great success. But as I began to return to the 
 Mission imagine my joy when I found C.'s papa hurrying 
 after me with his precious kid in his arms, and shortly 
 afterwards L.'s papa came up, having found his unfortunate 
 offspring somewhere in the reeds, and in another minute T. 
 appeared, having been captured in an outlying part of the 
 village. (This reads like the trick of the four knaves.) 
 I feel inclined to give huge presents of gratitude to these 
 old heathen pa's and ma's, who got out of their slumbers and 
 went in search of their children. Under ordinary circum- 
 stances they would not have been in the least disturbed by 
 their children sleeping elsewhere, as boys do not usually 
 sleep in their parents' house. So once again the Court of 
 Justice had to pass sentence, and this time it had to be 
 whacking. That was Saturday night, and again I went to 
 bed feeling contented, barring the fact that A.'s whack was 
 still of the future and not of the past. But on Sunday 
 morning again I thought last night's efforts had been in 
 
 95 
 
vain ; for I opened my door, 6 a.m., just in time to see M. and 
 L. once again trotting off gaily to the village, so I wasn't 
 surprised to find none of the four at church. At night, 
 however, and each night since then, M., L., and C. have 
 arrived at bedtime, and are on the most friendly terms with 
 me. You would not suppose they had any remembrance 
 of midnight invasions. A. has not yet returned. His friend 
 T. is keeping him company in the village, but I have no 
 doubt they will soon be back in the Mission. These boys 
 have a very keen sense of justice which helps us over 
 difficulties ; on the other hand, if they think they have been 
 treated unjustly they never forget it." 
 
 {To a Sister) 
 Difficulties at Kasamba 
 
 Kota Kota, Feb. 15, 1903. 
 
 " This is Sunday night ; the station is delightfully quiet ; 
 the boys are all in their dormitory, bar two, who haven't 
 turned up. I suppose they will tell me to-morrow that they 
 feared the dark walk up to the Mission from their mothers' 
 houses. . . . 
 
 *' Well, though it is Sunday, it has not been altogether a 
 day of rest. First, there was the big Eucharist. Instead 
 of preaching myself, I had given notes to one of my teachers, 
 and all through his sermon I was in the fidgets, as he per- 
 sisted in missing all the points, and evidently thought that 
 my notes would carry him safely through the Parable of 
 the Sower, without any digestion on his part. Then we had 
 an unusual number of muddles over the hymns ; I missed 
 out the first one altogether ; I gave out as the last one one 
 which they had never learnt, and when I altered it to one 
 which they knew, Miss M. , who starts the singing, didn't hear 
 aright and launched out into yet another. Fortunately, 
 it takes a great deal more than this to upset the equilibrium 
 of the native. After the Eucharist came breakfast. 
 
 . . . After breakfast I had to have a long talk with the 
 Kasamba teacher about ' ructions ' there among the elder 
 
 96 
 
Christian youths. When I was paying my usual Thursday 
 visit there last week, I heard that a number of the Christian 
 youths and Mission followers had again lapsed into village 
 dancing. I called one of them, who seemed really sorry, 
 and he said he would call the rest to meet me at Kasamba 
 the following Monday, that I might pass Church sentence 
 on them. That very evening, however, they were again 
 leading the dance, and then they began to quarrel among 
 themselves, and they said, ' Let us fight it out to-morrow ' ; 
 and on the morrow they fought it out with such a vengeance, 
 that one party (I suppose the defeated) appealed to Mr. 
 Swann at the homa, and, when he sent police to fetch the 
 other party, the three Christians among them could nowhere 
 be found, and (for all the teacher knew) they had not been 
 found by this morning. That's a nice Christian scandal 
 for the outsiders to get hold of, isn't it, and a nice example 
 for the younger Christians and catechumens to follow ? 
 Most thankfully do I relate that for months they have 
 (almost without an exception) been kept from following it, 
 either by supernatural grace or by natural fear of punish- 
 ment, or, more probably, by a combination of the two. 
 " After hearing this tale of Kasamba woe, we had 
 Mattins — I suppose half an hour later than usual — but that 
 again is a matter of no concern to the native. After 
 Mattins various private interviews, until the catechumens 
 and hearers had lolled up from the village, and were ready 
 to be preached to in the school. After the preaching I 
 had to console a newly-married husband, whose wife 
 (within a few days of their marriage) went back in the sulks 
 to live in her mother's house. That brought us to Sext and 
 lunch. Soon after lunch it is time to walk with a teacher 
 to the preaching at Chiganga, about a mile from here. He 
 preached, but I have to do most of the gathering of the 
 people. Just now very many are in the fields, and our 
 attendance is small. Oh dear ! it requires some patience 
 and sobriety of temper ; for the people of Chiganga are 
 not noted for good manners. Some of the children run for 
 their very life when they see me ; others run for twenty 
 yards, and wait till I nearly walk up to them, and then on 
 
 97 H 
 
they go for another twenty yards — a sort of tantalus game. 
 But the women are the most exasperating. I boldly go up 
 to one party and say, ' I want you to come along with me 
 and hear good words ' ; to which they all rejoin, ' Yes, come 
 along, come along,' in a tone of voice which clearly shows 
 they have no intention of coming. Others say, 'We're 
 coming, we're coming,' but, when I return to call them 
 after a quarter of an hour, they are sitting exactly where I 
 left them. However, there are a * nice few ' who ' hear ' 
 regularly now at Chiganga. 
 
 " After Chiganga comes, first, a change of clothes, then 
 tea, and then English Evensong and sermon. Lastly, at 
 8.30, Chinyanja Evensong. 
 
 " Monday. — One of the two offenders who were not at 
 dormitory prayers turned up later, having been a walk of 
 twenty miles ; the other did not turn up, but at the present 
 moment he is squatting on the floor of my room, labouring 
 to write out many times on a slate ' Vecha tauko,' which, 
 being interpreted, means ' Obey the law.' . . . You will 
 be pleased to hear that ' John ' (mentioned in a previous 
 letter) is once again in the bosom of the Mission. He was 
 afraid to return, because he knew that he had not yet paid 
 the penalty for past misdoings ; but I also knew that, if 
 once the penalty was paid, he would be glad to have been 
 restored — though at the time against his will — to the 
 family circle. So one evening I said to a boy, ' We will go 
 and call " John." ' So off we went to the village. But a 
 number of boys knew where we were going, and I was afraid 
 ' John ' would get wind of my coming ; so I said to my 
 guide * Bustle along ' ; he bustled so well that I soon found 
 myself twenty yards from * John.' He sa\y me, and made 
 a bolt for it, but I knew I could catch him ; so I did what 
 I had never done before ; I girt up my loins, otherwise 
 I hitched up my cassock, and sprinted, and in a few seconds 
 ' John ' was yelling at my feet, and I was speaking to him 
 and those about him soothing words. Eventually, I told 
 his two elder brothers to come back with us to the Mission. 
 We were a rummy quartette in my room ; there was I, a 
 Christian priest, and in front of me a naughty little Christian 
 
 98 
 
boy, and I was making one of these elder brothers, who is a 
 Mohammedan, and the other, who I think * goes nowhere,' 
 stand sureties for ' John's ' performing his proper punish- 
 ment on the morrow. This they readily agreed to ; so, on the 
 morrow, ' John ' was plunked down in the middle of the 
 boihng hot lawn to do weeding and hard labour. 
 
 " Last week was certainly a full week, as, out of the 
 ordinary routine, I paid a visit to our station at Lozi, ten 
 miles north of Kota. I had tried to get there the previous 
 week by hammock, but a flooded river, and the mark of a 
 croc's bed just where my path entered the water turned us 
 back. So, last Friday I hired a barge, and as soon as the 
 Chinyanja Eucharist and breakfast were over, off I started, 
 taking bed and baggage, not knowing whether or no I 
 should spend the night there. I have since Christmas had 
 to make a change of teachers at Lozi, and I had heard 
 that the new teacher had fallen foul of his boys ; so I wasn't 
 altogether surprised to find that, instead of a vigorous school 
 of forty, many of them big youths, as under the previous 
 teacher, there were only seven or eight present when I 
 entered the school last Friday. Also I learnt that the 
 grown-up ' hearers ' were hearing almost not at all. . . . 
 After luncheon I walked to a village five miles off — a most 
 lovely woody walk with streams, over which the boys 
 carried me. There I collected the school children who had, 
 or had not, given up coming to school at Lozi. (If the boys 
 do not like the ten miles' daily walk, I have given them leave 
 to sleep at the Mission at Lozi.) We said our words together 
 seated by the roadside, to the edification of passers-by ; 
 and then we returned to Lozi. I sent a bell round the village 
 to call together all adherents of the Mission, men and women 
 hearers, and all who read at school. Some of the men and 
 some of the women turned up, but the bell-boy brought back 
 word that the school-boys ' refuse.' That, of course, they 
 could not be allowed to do, so more boys had to be sent 
 out to summom the rest by name, and, to my joy, the whole 
 lot of boys on the books, almost without exception, 
 arrived, and then we all — boys, teachers, and the Bwana — 
 said our words, a great many of them. I was very glad I 
 
 99 
 
had got there, as I found much sickness of heart among the 
 boys, and the teachers didn't go the right way to heal it. 
 But I quite hope that the boys will now come back. This 
 new teacher came from Likoma, where the Mission is 
 literally lord of the isle, and where education can be almost 
 compulsory. But here, of course, it is not so, and if a boy 
 doesn't choose to go to school, there is no one to make 
 him. Our many words were spoken in the small school by 
 the light of my lantern, and with my bed and mosquito-net 
 already rigged up for the night. But the capitao of the 
 barge was waiting outside to tell me that they had finished 
 shipping my firewood, which is always brought by barge 
 from Lozi, and that the contrary wind had dropped, and 
 that I could go back to Kota by night if I liked. And I did 
 like, partly because I thought Lozi and I had seen about as 
 much of one another for the time being as was profitable, 
 and partly because there was a gorgeous full moon, and I 
 knew the Lake would be lovely. So off we went at a quarter 
 to nine, and got up to my own house at 12.30. It was such 
 a wonderful scene on the Lake — the eight black puntsmen 
 standing out in the moonlight on the top of the sides of the 
 barge, and your own dearly-beloved seated in his comfort- 
 able arm-chair on the top of the firewood, eating two 
 mince-pies. So I got home 12.30 midnight, and was in 
 church, as usual, at half-past six." 
 
 A Day at K a samba — Native Dances 
 
 Kota Kota, Feb. 26, 1903. 
 
 " This is Thursday, my day for Kasamba, and this has 
 been the day's diary : 
 
 6 A.M. — Enter boys' dormitory to rouse them from 
 slumber, more especially the boy who rings the Angelus, 
 the kitchen boy, the carpenter boy, and my own boy. 
 
 6.30. — Chinyanja Mattins, followed by English Eucharist. 
 
 Breakfast. — Am trundled off in machila ^ (one hour's 
 run) to Kasamba — forty-nine boys (very good) and two 
 girls in school. 
 
 10.30 to 12. — Scripture lesson and choir practice (' Forty 
 
 * Hammock. 
 100 
 
days ' and ' Christian dost thou see them ? ' Of course 
 Chinyanja). 
 
 Lunch. — Potted meat sandwiches. 
 
 Private interviews — First, boy who got slack ; second, 
 boy who desires to become engaged, his and her name to be 
 written down in the engagement book ; third, boy who has 
 to have Church censure put on him, and to be weaned back 
 to sleep in the Mission ; fourth, the head teacher whose 
 wife ran away two days ago. 
 
 " Afterwards I put in an appearance at the catechumens' 
 class, and told them if they didn't come to be taught, there 
 was no baptism for them. Later on, a little tour into the 
 village to find boy who left Kasamba months ago in dis- 
 grace. I heard he had just returned to the village but not 
 to the Mission. A most unsatisfactory creature, but I hope 
 a long talk with him will have the effect of bringing him to- 
 night to the Mission dormitory. Then time for Evensong. 
 After Evensong, where are the machila men ? My boy 
 Daudi goes to seek them. Eventually they stroll up. Off 
 we go to an outlying part of Kasamba where we have 
 preaching under a tree. I act as whipper up, and teacher 
 Da vies preaches. Abram's prayer for the sinful cities. 
 The old chief arrived half way through and squatted down 
 beside me. It is this preaching that has more than doubled 
 the number of boys at Kasamba school. After the preaching, 
 into the machila again and back to Kota just in time for 
 dinner. After dinner, Compline on the grass outside, talk 
 on school matters with Miss Mann. Boys come for games 
 in school. To-night it was dominoes and the target game. 
 I appoint a captain of the different games and return to 
 my room. Boy enters (he is only a hearer) to plead for the 
 hundredth time that he may be prepared for the catechu- 
 menate. Boys' call-over time ; dormitory prayers. I send 
 Daudi to village to bring back missing boy ; he appears, 
 his naughtiness quite out of proportion to his diminutive 
 size. I tell him that if he ' reads ' to-morrow at school and 
 afterwards performs manual labour, I will only tell his elder 
 (much to be stood in awe of) brother that the case is satis- 
 factorily squared up. 
 
 lOI 
 
" 10. P.M. — I go to lock up the church ; find the mats have 
 not been rolled up, so go to the boys' dormitory, ruthlessly 
 awake the responsible boy and trundle him off to perform 
 his duty — a duty most necessary because of white ants. 
 So about 10.30 I sit down and begin a letter. It is only 
 fair to add that in spite of this variety of odd jobs to-day, 
 there really has been time for some quiet. 
 
 " That was a pleasant er visit to Kasamba than the pre- 
 vious one. For at Kasamba there had been serious ructions. 
 To start with, after several months (I hope) of good living, 
 there had again been a bout of the evil dancing among the 
 youths. It had been going on for several evenings when 
 another Christian boy returned home after many months, 
 and his heathen father, to celebrate his son's return, in- 
 vited his friends to a dance at his house. Perhaps you 
 don't know that the universal and only instrument to 
 accompany the dances is a drum. Its sound carries for 
 several miles, and any native can say at a distance what the 
 dance is, by hearing the rhythm of the drum. Well, at 
 this particular dance a friend of the prodigal son was drum- 
 ming a harmless tune when the company arrived. The 
 company, seemingly without company manners, said 
 * What are you playing that nonsense for ? let's have the 
 proper thing.' At which the instrumentahst, not un- 
 naturally, took offence, and the long and the short of it was 
 that both sides, headed by members of the Mission, said : 
 ' Let us go and do our field work to-morrow morning, and 
 when we come back we will fight it out.' And they fought 
 it out with such a vengeance that one party afterwards 
 appealed to Mr. Swann at the Boma, who had the whole 
 lot flogged — two Christians have got six months in prison 
 and one Christian has been sentenced to transportation 
 elsewhere for a year. Please don't think I felt about this 
 scandal as lightly as my account might seem to imply. 
 Anyhow I summoned all Christians and catechumens to 
 meet me at Kasamba, and I told them what an absolutely 
 meaningless thing the Mission must appear to the heathen 
 who saw Mission followers doing these shameful deeds ; 
 and to show the outsiders (as well as for their own sakes) 
 
 102 
 
that all members of the Mission felt the disgrace and did not 
 acquiesce in their brethren's wrong-doings, I advised the 
 next day should be kept as a day of mortification and a 
 fast strictly observed till 2 p.m. I wanted to bring the 
 shame really home to the hearts of the people through their 
 bodies. 
 
 " Talking of fasting, last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. 
 In a big fast-day it is customary for the native to take his 
 first food at 3 p.m. Indeed anything less than that is no 
 fast for him, for they habitually breakfast at midday. . . . 
 I must tell you of one httle catechumen's fast. I saw him 
 in the playground at two o'clock, and he said to me, ' May I 
 go to the village ? ' meaning his mother's house. I said, 
 ' Of course you may, why shouldn't you ? ' And then I 
 bethought me that he had in his mind not so much his 
 mother as his mother's larder. So I told him he could go 
 and fill his little tummy straight away if he wanted to, but 
 on the other hand, if he liked to hold out till the usual hour, 
 he could sit on my verandah and look at pictures. This he 
 thought would be very nice, so I left him with pictures 
 whilst I went into my room. I meant to call him in half an 
 hour, but the sleep of the just crept over me, and it was after 
 three when I again saw him still absorbed in pictures. 
 
 1 The following extract from a letter of Miss Mann to Miss Douglas 
 throws a beautiful sidelight on the part Douglas himself took in the fast- 
 day which, whether on this or some other occasion, he instituted as a 
 penance for the grievous wrong-doing of his boys, and of the impression 
 which his own self-humiliation made on his converts. 
 
 West Bank, Bakewell, Sept. i, 1912. 
 "... If I remember aright a large number of the Christian Kota 
 Kota boys and elder Christians had been taking part in some heathen or 
 Mohammedan dance, and that day he did fast all day together with the 
 culprits. It made a tremendous impression on them, that one who had 
 not sinned should accept its punishment ; and I remember the almost 
 passionate appeal he made in his sermon on Sunday that they were all 
 his children and how it hurt him when they thus fell — and hence how 
 it must hurt Gk)d Who was much more their Father. ..." 
 
 103 
 
(To a Sister) 
 Adult Baptisms 
 
 Kota Kota, Monday in Holy Week, 1903. 
 
 " I hope a steamer will come up to-morrow going south, 
 and that this will be ready to go by it. As you may perceive, 
 I am writing in Holy Week. Last Holy Week I was at the 
 college, giving addresses and looking after the students until 
 Maundy Thursday, when I took boat and spent Good Friday 
 at one of our bigger Mission stations. Since then that 
 station with all those anywhere near it has been wrecked by 
 the Portuguese ; I am uncertain whether any work has 
 been restarted there. I feel more and more thankful that 
 I did not settle at Kota before I had a good insight into the 
 Mission hf e of the opposite coast and its tremendous difficul- 
 ties. You will like to know that our big Baptism was 
 administered last Saturday. Our font is not worthy of the 
 name. It is a zinc box about a yard square and six inches 
 deep, and it is sunk into the floor so that its cover is flush 
 with the floor. Of course we want a real good tank with 
 steps, where the candidates can be properly immersed. 
 As it is, I had to have a table by my side with a decent basin 
 on it, from which I shelled water over the candidate as 
 he knelt in the box. There were twenty-nine candidates 
 from Kota and Kasamba — all varieties from aged women 
 to young boys. . . . The service was very impressive,' The 
 Bishop is here, so was able to take part in the ceremony. 
 I baptised them ; then they went to put on their white 
 clothes, the women wearing a white cloth with a large red 
 cross on it, and when they came back again, the Bishop — 
 standing at the catechumens' barrier — received them into the 
 congregation, whilst as they passed through the barrier I 
 gave each a lighted taper to signify they had become children 
 of hght. The service ended with a fine procession of all the 
 Christians round the church, the newly baptised carrying 
 their lights. Now the difficulty is to remember to call them 
 by their Christian names. Before their baptism and even 
 afterwards some of the candidates (of course chiefly the 
 old ladies) could not remember their own new names ; they 
 
 104 
 
thought they never would be able to get to pronounce them ; 
 they used to come and ask me or Miss Minter what their 
 names were. ... Oh how I do hope that they will all go 
 on from grace to grace. Within a fortnight of their con- 
 templated baptism I had to reject five candidates. The 
 baptisms were on Saturday ; the next day was Palm 
 Sunday. The boys had been cutting palms previously. 
 I had never seen a procession of palms before. Of course 
 we sang ' All Glory, Laud and Honour/ each Christian 
 having received his palm from me and carrying it in pro- 
 cession. One old woman was so afraid of losing hers that 
 when she got back to her place she shoved it under Miss 
 Minter 's, thinking it couldn't come to any harm there. . . . 
 I have just had a scene in my room which interrupted my 
 letter ; a scene between three generations, to wit, a little 
 catechumen boy, his mother, and his grandmother. The 
 little boy had struck against sleeping in the Mission and it 
 required the combined efforts of Mama and Granny to bring 
 him weeping up to the scratch. 
 
 " Later. — The episode of the little catechumen has 
 a sequel, or at least another chapter can be added ; 
 I don't know what the finale will be. Mama and 
 Granny (both of them heathen, though I believe one 
 of them sometimes ' hears ' on Sunday) had departed, 
 and I had left the kid safe in his dormitory. But when 
 I went back there, the kid (we will call him A.) was not to be 
 seen. So off I had to trudge to Granny's house again (the 
 best part of a mile) and there I found Granny and Mama, 
 and A. sitting on his mat. So back I had to trundle him, or 
 rather a good part of the way (as his feet were so bad with 
 jiggers) I carried him on my back, whiling away the happy 
 moments with blood-curdUng suggestions of what a shepherd 
 should do when he has an out-of-the-way naughty sheep. 
 I said to him, ' I suppose you thought Bwana would be 
 tired of going after you ' ; he replied, * Yes ' ; I said with 
 emphatic solemnity, * Bwana is never tired by day or by 
 night ' ! I think he was impressed by what to him in his 
 present mood was a most unpalatable piece of news. Talk- 
 ing of jiggers — Miss Minter one day told me she must have 
 
 105 
 
taken more than a hundred out of one boy's feet, but she 
 thought that at last they really were all out. The same day 
 out of the same pair of feet she took out forty more, which 
 had grown to a manageable size in the night ! Now I must 
 go to sleep. I think we shall have a very happy Holy Week 
 and Easter. The first days we sing the ' Story of the Cross * 
 and I catechise the Christians and catechumens on the 
 events of the day. I expect I and my head evangelist 
 Leonard will share the addresses on Good Friday." 
 
 (To a Pupil Teacher at Salwarpe) 
 Sunday at Kota Kota 
 
 Universities' Mission, Kota Kota, Lake Nyasa, 
 British Central Africa, June 14, 1903. 
 
 ** What have you been saying about me for the last year ? 
 Nothing very polite, I'm afraid. I am really very sorry that 
 I have not answered your last letter ; it seems so ungrateful 
 and it was a very nice letter. Now I am going to make 
 amends, partly because I want to get another letter out of 
 you telling me what you are doing, because by this time 
 your examination is over ; also it is ages since I heard any 
 
 news of ; I beUeve her people are in Kent. Has 
 
 she given up thinking of being a teacher, or where is she 
 working ? So much for questions which you have got to 
 answer. 
 
 " This is Sunday ; I have just finished preaching an Eng- 
 lish sermon to my two ladies. I live here with two trained 
 nurses. There was a third lady, a school teacher, but she 
 has started to go home on furlough. I will tell you what 
 my Sunday is like. The big Chinyanja Eucharist, which is 
 always choral and with a sermon, is at seven o'clock. After 
 breakfast comes Mattins, and at the same time hand-bells go 
 round the village (population 5000) to call the catechumens 
 and hearers to come to their preaching. I think you know 
 that hearers are the heathen who have begun to hear the 
 Word of God ; they are taught almost exclusively the Old 
 Testament ; it is no good to teach them much about a 
 
 106 
 
Redeemer until they have got some idea of sin and of the 
 need of the Redemption. Catechumens are those who have 
 passed out of the hearers' stage and are allowed to come into 
 church for the first part of the service, sitting by themselves 
 at the west end, which is cut off from the rest of the nave by a 
 low wooden barrier ; of course they hope eventually to be 
 baptised. The hearers' preaching is not generally over much 
 before noon. In the afternoon, at one, I and a teacher walk 
 to an outlying district where there is more preaching. 
 Very many of the people in this part are Mohammedans, but 
 of course the majority go nowhere. I am here to teach them 
 to go to the true God. Soon after this preaching we have 
 English Evensong, generally just myself and two or three 
 other missionaries. (I have no men missionaries.) 
 
 " Our Chinyanja Evensong on Sundays is quite late, 8.15, 
 by which time the village people have finished their evening 
 meal ; the younger catechumens and Christians, i.e. all who 
 are not married, are expected to sleep on the Mission 
 premises, so that as soon as Evensong is over they are ready 
 to go to bed. The boys (about fifty of them) sleep in three 
 dormitories ; the girls have their room close to the ladies' 
 quarters. It seems sad that we cannot get more girls to come 
 to the Mission. They fight very shy of it, the reason partly 
 being that the Mission teaching goes dead against the horrible 
 customs of village Hfe. If we chose to lower the standard 
 of the Christian rehgion, I suppose we could get very many 
 more adherents, but their adherency would be much worse 
 than nothing. 
 
 " I am finishing this letter whilst on a little hoHday at 
 another Mission station about seventy miles inland from the 
 Lake. I came here with a hammock for my carriage. We 
 had to camp out two nights on the way. The second night 
 the men made a barricade of boughs as a protection against 
 lions, as there are a number of lions in this district. Herds 
 of zebra and elephants, all sorts of beautiful buck, and un- 
 beautiful wild pig, and hyenas and baboons abound here. 
 At the Lake at Kota Kota hons are scarcely ever seen, but 
 leopards are not uncommon, and we have had a good many 
 visits from them in our garden at the Mission at night. But 
 
 107 
 
I have never seen one alive out here. I have Set a trap to 
 shoot them, but without success. 
 
 " Now I must not write more. Give my love and kind 
 regards to your Father and Mother and beUeve me. ..." 
 
 Holiday and Village Preaching 
 
 Kota Kota, July 13, 1903. 
 
 " You will probably get this about three weeks after your 
 birthday ; I'm not quite sure whether that is my fault or 
 the steamer's ; anyhow it is a dreadfully long time since 
 my last letter and much has happened in the meantime. 
 The chief event has been the Retreat and Conference at 
 Likoma. The CM. having already picked up the brethren 
 from the south end of the Lake, reached Kota on a Saturday, 
 and for that Sunday we were a party of fourteen European 
 missionaries and one native deacon, so Miss Minter, our house- 
 keeper, had her work cut out for her. . . . We slept one 
 night on the opposite side at a village of particular interest 
 to me, as I had taken a big baptism there more than a year 
 ago. The Bishop after more than a year's work in the coun- 
 try had only just finished his first fever, but he was able to 
 conduct the Retreat. One result of the Conference is that 
 I am on a committee for arranging a uniform syllabus of 
 work for the schools throughout the diocese — not a very easy 
 job, especially when one member of the committee lives at 
 the south end of the Lake, and another at Kota on the west, 
 and another at Likoma and another peregrinating on the 
 steamer. There is no likelihood of the committee meeting 
 again en bloc till the next conference. We did what we 
 could during one long afternoon's sitting and the rest will 
 have to be done by correspondence. I spent the Sunday 
 following at the college, where you will remember I lived for 
 some weeks in the antediluvian ages. . . . Every member 
 of the Mission in the country was at the conference — viz. 
 one Bishop, one Archdeacon, nine other priests, including 
 one native, three native deacons, eight ladies. ... I 
 wish the women and girls at Kasamba had someone to look 
 after them. I went over to Kasamba this morning in 
 
 108 
 
machila at 6.30 to give the Holy Communion to a white- 
 haired old woman in her hut — a tiny round hut in which 
 my head could knock against the ceiling. Her bed took 
 up one half of the room ; I and the teacher squashed into 
 the other half and there was a fire in the middle, of course 
 without any outway for the smoke except through the 
 door. When I came out I had the unpleasant task of 
 summoning a number of catechumen women and girls and 
 also three Christian women, who had taken part in some of 
 the most evil native customs. ... At Likoma the Bishop 
 and Nurse Minter made a little plan for me and arranged that, 
 if I was agreeable to it, I should go for the inside of a fort- 
 night to stay with a certain gentleman. Dr. Prentice (I 
 think of the Scotch Mission), who lives with his wife at 
 Kasungu. I was very doubtful whether I ought to go, but 
 Nurse has at length persuaded me. One of the arguments 
 she brought to bear on me will, I fear, be uncongenial news 
 to you ; it was to the effect that it does not seem likely that 
 I can get home this year. . . . However, if I stop out longer 
 than the usual two years there is the double consolation of 
 knowing (i) that I am quite indispensable ! (2) That my 
 symptoms sugashuate (sic) so favourably that there seems 
 no sufficient medical reason for my immediate return. 
 Well, the months fly by at such a tremendous pace that 
 really this year or next year does not make much difference. 
 So that helped me to decide on my holiday to Kasungu. 
 It will be an eighty miles' journey, by machila which means 
 two nights' camping out. I expect to enjoy the whole 
 thing tremendously ; the actual journey will be made more 
 pleasant by the fact of my carriers being either Mission boys 
 or at least frequently in Mission employ. I was rather loth 
 to leave Kota as we are doing a good deal here just now ; 
 candidates for confirmation ; candidates just about to be 
 chosen for baptism, and candidates for the catechumenate. 
 I have also just started two afternoon preachings in the 
 village at different centres. I have told the people that I 
 shall visit the village on these weekdays, but they must 
 return the call at the Mission at the time of the preaching on 
 Sundays. The village preachings have begun well with 
 
 109 
 
large numbers of people. I hope the numbers will increase 
 yet further, but one has to bear in mind that these people 
 are terribly good hands at seeking after a new thing and 
 then getting tired. However I always feel that if anyone 
 has ' heard ' even once, he may not perhaps come again 
 for a year, but some time he will come back. They have 
 very Httle idea of persistent effort. That is certainly the 
 case with the school children ; a boy will turn up to school 
 every day for a fortnight and then will refuse to come near 
 the place for the next three months. You will be pleased 
 to hear that the big scripture pictures you sent me are put 
 into use at the village preaching. I should have liked you 
 to-day to hear the graphic account rendered by my teacher 
 Petro of Joseph sold to the merchants. The conversation 
 between the brothers and the merchants began with the 
 regular Swahili greeting equivalent to ' How do you do ? * 
 * Very well, thank you.' The subject was only beaten for 
 vigorous treatment by the account of the flood when the 
 people in the water kept calling to Noah to rescue them — 
 Noah ! Noooah ! ! 
 
 " This preaching in the open spaces of the village is of 
 course shy work, but one has to be brazen about it. I am 
 preceded by a gong or a bell ; Miss Matthew says I remind 
 her of the muffin man. The work of choosing candidates for 
 baptism also — though in another sense — taxes my courage. 
 A year ago I chose a boy but afterwards had to reject him, 
 in consequence of which (so he said) he left the Mission for a 
 time. He came back again and he knew I was willing to give 
 him another chance ; but to-day I felt bound to tell him that 
 again I could not choose him. I feared that he might go off 
 to the village as before, so I was reheved when after a few 
 minutes he came back and asked for a pencil and paper to 
 write a letter ! So apparently he owes me no ill-will and 
 realises that he has only himself to blame. I have no room 
 to tell you how at Likoma we laid the foundation-stone of the 
 new cathedral. It is to be 280 feet long. . . . 
 
 P.S. — This week a calf died. A few days afterwards our 
 cowman came running with — as I thought — another sick 
 calf in his arms ; but no — it was the dead calf's skin stuffed 
 
 no 
 
with grass, and sticks in its legs. You stand it upright, 
 and the mother Hcks it whilst she is being milked — it 
 keeps her quiet." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Anticipations of Furlough 
 
 Kota Kota, Nov. i, 1903. 
 " A letter written on All Saints' Day ought with luck 
 to reach you at Christmas. I wonder where you will spend 
 yours. I suppose I shall spend mine (my third on Lake 
 Nyasa) at Kota, but really by that time I shall have begun 
 thinking very seriously of the terrible business of packing up, 
 and there will be no sisters to do it for me. I always tell 
 my brethren that nobody entered the Mission with less 
 trouble than I did. Notably at the critical moment of 
 sending off my boxes I went into retreat, only broken by a 
 telegram from E. to ask whether I had not forgotten my 
 nightgowns or something equivalent ! I heard a few days 
 ago from the Bishop, saying he quite expected that I should 
 be in England for August, so that sounds all right for the 
 family holiday. I am still very hazy as to when Mr. Piercy 
 leaves England, but I should think that six weeks after 
 his arrival at Kota should see me on the move. In my last 
 letter I told F. that we were looking forward to a visit from 
 a very old Zanzibar missionary, who has now resigned, 
 Mr. Madan, one of a famous family of Marlborough scholars. 
 He has now been and gone, with a vague intention of study- 
 ing inland languages. As soon as I had shaken hands with 
 him he asked me if I was the brother of the Douglas who 
 was so kind to the Mission in Zanzibar when ' The London ' 
 was stationed there. The lasting impression which Harry ^ 
 made on the Zanzibar missionaries of that date is very re- 
 markable. Nearly all of Mr. Madan's stay with us was 
 spent in bed with fever, and the last fortnight my brethren 
 have been a very feverish lot. For a few days I was the only 
 one about. Nurse Minter and Miss Bulley being in bed 
 besides Mr. Madan. Nurse is pretty fit again, and she could 
 1 See pp. 30 and 39. 
 Ill 
 
not entirely lie up any one day, as she had a very bad native 
 case in hospital, a man whose arm was snapped off by a 
 hippopotamus. I wish I could bring home a hippo's skull 
 and tusks to give you an idea of its tremendous power. 
 Hippos are plentiful in the Lake, but they very seldom 
 hurt a human being. I, by the way, have been keeping 
 splendidly well. One great blessing is that I sleep every 
 night hke a top. Talking of sleep I have given the boys 
 leave to sleep out of doors, partly because of the little beasts 
 in the dormitory which bite and partly because of the heat. 
 It is the hottest time of the year, just before the rains. The 
 singing of the evening psalm and the vesper hymn by the 
 sixty or so boys out of doors at night sound so good. I do 
 so hope that the village people are impressed by it, and also 
 Mr. Swann, the collector, who must be able to hear it. . . . 
 Talking of worries a U.M.C.A. missionary is at least saved 
 from some, notably getting engaged to be married. I was 
 reminded of this by the fact that within the last half- 
 hour two boys have revealed to me minds sadly disturbed. 
 The one has just come back from college and finds his girl 
 has gone to settle at Likoma. I have told him I will let 
 him go by the steamer once a year to see her. The other, 
 living a few yards from me, writes me a letter, which being 
 interpreted says, ' Dear Bwana, greeting. I have a little 
 news I wish to . . . Please, Bwana, I want one thing of you ; 
 I say that if you can get me this thing I shall be happy. 
 This thing is this ;' I want to be engaged to one girl here ; 
 her name is Rahel. I have heard she is unmarried, and so I 
 want her. If you can get her for me, good, for I want her. 
 I want you to speak to her ; I have been afraid to speak 
 to her, and I want you, Bwana, to ask for me. I am your 
 son. . . .' So you see I am not after all free altogether 
 from matrimonial complications. And the unfortunate 
 part of this business is that I don't at all want this youth to 
 marry this girl. He is not a Kota boy, and this is the 
 only Christian girl who is not engaged, so she is a verj' 
 precious article, and clearly ought to be given to a very nice 
 Kota boy. 
 
 " Everything seems scarce at Kota ; Christian girls are 
 
 112 
 
MR. DOUGLAS MENDING HIS BOOTS 
 
 MR. DOUGLAS ON HIS DONKEY 
 
scarce, so apparently is work, to judge from a little boy's 
 account of himself in the village this evening. His com- 
 panion told me that the boy had been to Fort Jameson, and 
 got work there. I said, ' What work ? ' With considerable 
 pride the little boy replied, ' Tennisy.' He had trudged to 
 Fort Jameson, 150 miles away, and had then entered on the 
 work of picking up the tennis balls at the back of the court ! 
 The small boys are always pestering me for work to buy 
 themselves a bit of cloth, and though I assure them re- 
 peatedly that at the Mission we don't care about good 
 cloths, but only about good hearts, the answer does not 
 always satisfy. ..." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 Building a Teacher's House 
 
 Kota Kota, Nov. 15, 1903, 
 " It is ages since T wrote to you, and you are such a brick 
 in not getting tired of writing to me time after time letters 
 that remain unanswered. And now I ' ve got a most ungrate- 
 ful sounding bit of advice to give you and all my numerous 
 correspondents at home — please don't trouble to write to 
 me any more for a long time ; it is likely to be entirely mis- 
 placed kindness and waste of labour. The fact is that at 
 afternoon tea to-day I said to Miss Minter, who acts as the 
 mental faculty of all the rest of us, * Supposing I leave Kota 
 in the middle of February, when ought my dear brethren 
 at home to cease writing to me here ? ' and she repHed, ' At 
 Christmas.' Then said I, ' And how soon ought I to write 
 and tell them to cease writing to me here ? ' and she replied 
 * Last month ! ' which under the circumstances was a very 
 sensible reply. Please act upon it. Two riders may, how- 
 ever, be added : (i) It will be worth while to risk several 
 pennyworths of letters addressed to me c/o African Lakes 
 Company, Chinde, and you may write as many letters and 
 send as many papers as you like, addressed to me Univer- 
 sities' Mission, Zanzibar (' to await arrival '). (2) I don't 
 really know when I shall get off from Kota ; Piercy should 
 be at the Lake at the beginning of January, and I hope that 
 
 113 I 
 
in at least five or six weeks, he will be competent to take 
 on ' the charge.' On the other hand, if I found that he 
 really felt that I oughtn't to go before Easter, I might have to 
 stop ; but the Bishop does not contemplate that. I very 
 much hope that Ladbury will accompany me home, but I 
 have not yet heard of his intentions — only I know that two 
 Lichfield evangelist brothers are on their way out (perhaps 
 they have arrived), one of whom is to stop at Mponda's 
 and learn Ladbury's store-work. Well, it does seem very 
 wonderful to be making these home plans. Of course I am 
 thinking much of the next Ely festival and have been finding 
 out what date is the first Tuesday after Trinity Sunday. 
 We are again a quartette, as the CM. dropped Bwana Eyre 
 to recruit here. He is very much run down ; indeed for 
 many months he has not been like his old energetic self, 
 such as it was when he and I walked about the villages on 
 the opposite side. And lately he has been quite unfit for 
 work. I hope his rest here will set him up again. . . . 
 I rejoice to say that the dear old doctor is coming up 
 from Malindi and intends to spend Christmas here. I 
 hope he will bring a saddle for our donkey. The 
 donkey is really a splendid acquisition, and of course 
 much cheaper than a machila, which needs ten two-legged 
 donkeys for any long distance. I ordered the saddle from 
 Fort Johnston several months ago. . . . Fort Johnston is 
 the European settlement adjoining the native village of 
 Mponda's where, as you will have already gathered from this 
 letter, the Mission has its store. I am specially in need of the 
 donkey just now in my capacity of school architect. I am 
 building two new schools at villages where we have previously 
 had nothing more than Sunday ' under the tree ' preaching. 
 Then at Chiganga, where there has been a school for two 
 years kept by the Kota Kota teachers who walk there in the 
 afternoon, I am now building a dormitory for the boys. 
 Although they are already school-boys, they are under no 
 discipline out of school, and I don't suppose they have given 
 up any bad village customs. So the other day I told them 
 that if they wanted to go the whole hog of Mission life, they 
 must make up their minds to come under some discipline, 
 
 114 
 
and besides building a dormitory for them, I would give them 
 a teacher to live among them and teach them the way they 
 should go. So these new schools and dormitory mean also 
 three new teachers' houses. In planning a teacher's house, 
 all I do is to put in four stakes for the four corners, making 
 the house, say, twenty feet long by seventeen wide. 
 Then I leave the teacher himself to fill in the interior as 
 he likes best. Probably he will cut it up into two or three 
 rooms with a passage. Of course every house has a verandah, 
 which adds to its dignity. Then for a dormitory I say. 
 If twenty boys want to sleep there, and each boy's mat is 
 three feet wide and six feet long, and there is a three-foot 
 passage down the middle, and provided that one boy does 
 not object to sleeping in the doorway, how big must the 
 dormitory be ? and my menthol (so my head teacher writes) 
 arithmetic answers thirty feet long by fifteen wide. You 
 will understand that I go in for right-angled parellelogram 
 (otherwise called oblong) houses. The native generally 
 prefers a circular mansion. I wonder whether it was man 
 or nature that taught him to stick up a central pivot and 
 describe a circle round it, as good as any that Euclid ever 
 drew. But, alas ! out here house-building is heart-breaking. 
 The new church at Kasamba was dedicated only last S. 
 Andrew's Day, and already many of the timbers are nothing 
 but a block of mud encased by a wooden shell no thicker 
 than this paper — tumbUng to pieces ; so much for white 
 ants in Kasamba church. But they don't leave even 
 beautiful Kota Kota church alone. I am thankful to say 
 that I don't see any signs of them in the walls, but for many 
 months they have been constantly raising mounds in the 
 floor on the top of the tiles in the open space behind the 
 high altar. A few weeks ago I determined to have a good 
 hunt for the queen ant — a loathsome looking object two 
 inches long, quite incapable of any movement — just a hor- 
 rible machine for turning out the babies. Well, we upped with 
 the tiles, and the boys dug and dug, and the big soldier ants — 
 unlike the rest of the clan inasmuch as they have eyes and 
 are bigger, very like earwigs with the pincers in their heads — 
 fought a bit and defended every inch of the way. So badly 
 
 115 
 
had they hollowed out the ground, that it gave way a foot 
 and a half under one boy's weight. Well, at last we had to 
 give it up, as the channels seemed to run right away under 
 the foundations of the east wall. We left the hole, and I 
 thought our plan now was to try and suffocate them with 
 sulphur, the fumes of which might reach the queen. But 
 stupidly we did not set about the job for several days, and 
 when at last I returned to the hole armed with packets of 
 sulphur and bits of candle, not a vestige of a channel could 
 I find. The wily beasts bad sealed them all up and the 
 ground seemed hard as rock. Well, I hoped we had given 
 the ants a sufficient fright to keep them away, but no sooner 
 had I filled up the chasm than up came the ants again in 
 another part of the floor. So now I shall wait till some fellow 
 labourer arrives who has the energy to do the digging more 
 effectively than myself. ... I wonder what you will 
 think of my general appearance when we meet. I expect 
 the ant troubles have aged me, and to-day Miss Minter made 
 me out to be eight stone thirteen pounds on the scales, so I 
 have not much superfluous flesh." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 The Heat — Difficulties of Building 
 
 Kota Kota, ist Sunday in Advent, 1903. 
 
 *' My first Sunday on the Lake two years ago ! I spent 
 it, of course, at Mponda's, and I preached a S. Andrew's 
 Day sermon to the English community at Fort Jameson. 
 It is intensely hot ; we are longing for the rain. . . . The 
 Lake is iri an absolutely abnormal condition ; it doesn't look 
 as if it ever could fill up again. Indeed for years it has 
 baen sinking. ... I think we have all found the heat more 
 trying this year than last ; even crowned by my large hat 
 (may it last till I get home !) and a white umbrella, I funk 
 the sun in the middle of the day. It is quite a fallacy to 
 suppose that the natives do not feel the sun. True, they 
 have been providentially given a black pigment in their 
 skin (so says the doctor) as a protection against him, but 
 they do say he is very fierce about the head and feet. The 
 
 116 
 
burning sand scorches their feet ; to get from one place to 
 another, they dodge from one verandah to the next, 
 so as to keep as much as possible in the shade. This month 
 a large number of the natives are wearing self-made clogs, 
 and my two teachers, who walk every day to Chiganga, have 
 launched out into boots ! Well, any day we may get the 
 first big emptying of the heavens, and then almost in a 
 night-time, the earth, bleached white except where it is 
 burnt black, will become a gorgeous juicy green. . . . All 
 things come to those that wait. On Sunday, the date of 
 writing the above, we were waiting for the rain, and at 
 midnight it came — a magnificent thunderstorm. The first 
 rain tests the condition of one's roof. I lay in bed, and 
 wondered whether I should hear the pat pat of the drops on 
 my mosquito-net, followed by the drip drip on my blanket ; 
 but I'm thankful to say my fears were groundless. I'm 
 surprised, because daylight is very visible through my ceiling. 
 However, in case there are leakages, I have got a store 
 of grass ready cut outside my front door (puzzle — to find 
 the back door), and an extra layer of thatch is only the 
 work of a few minutes. The natives thatch by merely 
 laying the grass on, quite loose. I thatched my houses too 
 soon this year, and the winds came and blew the grass off 
 again ; but when once the first rains come there is nothing 
 more to fear ; it settles down snugly by its own sodden weight. 
 ... I don't mind inventing houses, and measuring trees 
 and counting bundles of grass, as long as everything goes 
 reasonably smoothly between myself and the work-people, 
 but this morning I really felt rather overwhelmed by news 
 from a village * Kumtuntumala,' where I am building a 
 school. At the beginning, I arranged for so many — perhaps 
 twenty — men to build the school for three shillings apiece. 
 Having put up half the building, and having cut the rest of 
 the material, they came to me on Saturday and said, * We 
 want to have part of our wages.' I said, ' All right : how 
 much do you want ? ' They replied, ' Three shillings.' 
 I said, ' That's impossible ; you promised to complete the 
 house for three shillings.' ' But we've worked for five 
 weeks, and three shillings is the ordinary pay for four 
 
 117 
 
weeks.' I replied, ' Yes, and if you had worked properly, 
 you could have finished the house in four weeks. But, if 
 you choose to be idle, and spend six weeks over the house, 
 I agree, only, you still get but three shillings. And, if you 
 choose to be very idle and spend eight weeks over the house, 
 I agree, only you will still get but three shillings.' So 
 eventually I paid them two shillings, and told them they 
 would get another shilling when the house was done. I had, 
 however, not finished congratulating myself on this brilHantly 
 successful contract, when, this morning at 6.A.M., a boy gave 
 me a letter from my teacher at Kasamba (near Kumtun- 
 tumala) to say that all the men had stopped working, and 
 that a large amount of trees and grass had been stolen in the 
 night. This was seemingly by way of retaliation. So I 
 told the teacher that I would go with him to the village this 
 evening. Accordingly, I mounted the donkey, and arrived 
 at Kumtuntumala. I expected to have a most unpleasant 
 and wearisome interview. Imagine my joy when I found 
 that the strike was at an end, and the men, with a very few 
 exceptions, were at work again. I said to the foreman, ' So 
 you stopped work yesterday ! ' He made the truly native 
 reply, ' Yes, our hearts ' (hear he lays his hand on the said 
 organ) ' were sore, but to-day we have considered it again.' 
 Then I felt in a position to show royal magnanimity ; I 
 said, ' Now, if you are quick to finish the building, I will 
 give each man a prize, but — if you are sulky, no prize.' 
 So I left the village amidst loud and joyous acclamations, 
 and at the present moment, I am continuing to congratulate 
 myself on this brilliantly successful contract. ... I am 
 finishing this at io.p.m. Some of the boys and two teachers 
 have just asked leave to go and do a night's fishing. It is a 
 gorgeous full moon, and to-morrow, being Saturday, there 
 is no school, and so nothing to stop them. I am always 
 so thankful when the teachers are on fishing terms with 
 the boys." 
 
 With the exception of one sharp attack of fever, when for 
 a few days he was seriously ill, Arthur had kept remarkably 
 well during his first two years in Africa. It was, however, 
 
 Ii8 
 
time for him to come back for a rest. Consequently in 
 January 1904 he started home, and reached England on 
 March 18, just two and a half years since leaving. One of 
 his fingers had become diseased in some way/ and during 
 his stay at home he had it amputated. 
 
 The following letter from Mr. (now Archdeacon) Eyre 
 shows the impression which Douglas' life and work had 
 already made on one of his fellow- workers. 
 
 " Douglas will have to go home the end of this year. We 
 have no suitable man to take his place. 
 
 "If you see Miss Douglas or her brothers, tell them that 
 their brother at Kota seems to stand the climate well, and 
 that we shall be very sorry when he has to go home. He 
 was, I know, a great loss to the old country, but men of his 
 stamp are very much needed here, and it was a right decision 
 he made, when he tore himself away from so much that was 
 dear to him and came here where the need was so much 
 greater. So many who are really fitted for this work 
 seem to think the needs of home so much more important, 
 forgetting that everyone in England has an opportunity to 
 learn about God and worship Him, and so many here are 
 dying as heathens, and no one to help them. People in 
 England can get all the administration and means of grace 
 if they Hke. People here cannot. So much ground still 
 unoccupied and so few priests even to supply those who are 
 baptised. I am sick of the cry of paucity of clergy in 
 England, and you see often two and sometimes three in one 
 church, and here perhaps one in a church once a month, 
 except at European stations, and three days in a village to 
 prepare people for Easter, &c., where one needs a fortnight." 
 
 Miss Minter (now Mrs. Howard) gives the following 
 sketch of Douglas' life and work at Kota Kota. 
 
 " On arrival at the Lake after a short stay at Mponda's, 
 he went on to Kota Kota where he expected to be stationed, 
 but after a few days' stay there he was summoned to Likoma 
 
 ^ The disease was tuberculosis. 
 119 
 
and began his work in the Mission as one of the staff of the 
 C.J. That meant being cast ashore on the Portuguese 
 mainland, visiting the villages, inspecting the schools, 
 holding services, administering the sacraments, being picked 
 up from time to time by the steamer and taken either to 
 Likoma or to some other village on the mainland. The ex- 
 perience so gained, though somewhat painful in the gaining, 
 was invaluable to him later when he was put in charge of 
 Kota Kota. This was an extremely difficult post. Small- 
 pox had been raging there, and the greater number of the 
 boys had either had it, or had run away from fear of it, so 
 that the school was altogether disorganised. Kota Kota 
 is a very large and straggling town, and Mohammedan 
 influence was at that time just beginning to wake up. There 
 had been a mosque there for years, but Islam had been 
 almost quiescent ; now it began to see that Christianity was 
 getting a hold and standing in the place, and it awoke and 
 began to make ready to withstand it. 
 
 " Only those who worked with Mr. Douglas during the 
 next eighteen months can fully appreciate what he did to 
 further his Master's cause in that time. How he nursed the 
 school, and watched over the boys, never despairing in spite 
 of grievous falls and bitter disappointments ; never too 
 tired to answer to any call on his time and patience ; full 
 of sympathy with the elder Christians ; an inspiration to the 
 catechumens ; an infinite attraction to the hearers. The 
 whole parish loved and trusted him and he dealt tenderly 
 and strictly with each individual soul. Each member of 
 the congregation felt that he was an important person in the 
 eyes of the priest-in-charge, and most of them responded to 
 the love and sympathy he showed them. And to us his 
 fellow-workers he was inimitable. We felt one and all that 
 the work on which we were engaged was one ; each part of 
 the work interdependent on every other part and just as 
 important. We were expected to assist the priest-in-charge 
 at any hour with our intercessions (it was quite a common 
 thing to receive a note asking one to spend a few moments 
 now in praying that he might judge aright, or that some- 
 one's heart might be softened, &c., &c.), and he for his part 
 
 120 
 
was always ready to help us in every possible and impossible 
 way. 
 
 " He took it as a matter of course that we should pray 
 daily by name for every candidate for baptism or for the 
 Cross, and early published Hsts for that purpose. He worked 
 harder than any of us, but was always ready to play, and 
 was the most cheerful and merry of the party. I think I 
 have never met anyone who was so full of faith. With the 
 most worrying problems to be solved next morning, after 
 a day of grievous disappointment and discouragement, 
 when most people would have lain tossing sleepless all 
 night long, he had the power of putting everything aside, 
 saying his prayers and sleeping like a child till morning. 
 He was a delightful patient, and loved to be nursed. In- 
 convenient as it always is to be ill it never seemed to upset 
 his equanimity, and the moment he was told that he must 
 go off duty he came into hospital content to be laid aside 
 for a while, and careful for nothing but to get well again 
 as soon as possible." 
 
 On his way home Arthur made a point of visiting Rome, 
 which he had never seen. When within a day or two of 
 Naples he wrote the following little letter to his brother. 
 It is of some interest, for it reveals his affectionate disposition 
 to a remarkable degree. Though always there, he seldom 
 allowed it to find expression so freely and fully. 
 
 Mediterranean, one and a half days off Naples, 
 Thursday, March lo, 1904. 
 
 " My very dearest Gerald, 
 
 " Let us be quite calm and collected — very hard 
 work under the circumstances. 
 
 " Really these two and a half years have sped. Every 
 incident of the last few days in England is most extra- 
 ordinarily clear in my memory. 
 
 " Well, now, this is what I hope. Reach Naples Friday 
 II P.M. — Rome Saturday afternoon. Stay in Rome till 
 Wednesday evening, i6th, when leave Rome crossing by 
 Boulogne, and Folkestone, and reach Charing Cross, Friday 
 
 121 
 
afternoon, i8th, at 3.45. Miss Abdyof U.M.C.A., Zanzibar, 
 is travelling with me. I have told F. that if I do not 
 get any other instructions at Charing Cross I shall spend 
 Friday night at Cromwell Crescent and (after reporting my- 
 self to the Mission doctor in London) get down to The Lowe 
 sometime on Saturday. I wonder whether any relation 
 will manage to meet me at Charing Cross. The rules of 
 Ely are strict and you may not think it advisable. 
 
 " Heaps of love to the dear Princeps and Chapper. 
 
 " Your loving brother — loving almost to the pitch of 
 crying at the thought of seeing you. 
 
 " A. J. Douglas." 
 
 122 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE SECOND SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK 
 LIKOMA, I904-I907 
 
 By the autumn of 1904 Douglas had started again for Nyasa : 
 this time he was destined to take charge of the island of 
 Likoma, the headquarters of the diocese. On his journey 
 out he writes to a sister. 
 
 Prinzregent, Indian Ocean, S. Luke's Day, 1904. 
 " I never expected to be run in to do nurse duty on 
 board a civilised ocean liner, though in barbarian Nyasaland 
 one may reasonably expect to play at hospital nurse, as well 
 as at Lord Mayor of Likoma, under emergencies. Yet here 
 I am at the present moment closing my ' watch ' over the 
 sick wife of one of my fellow-passengers. Practically Dr. H. 
 is looking after the case, but theoretically the ship's doctor 
 is in charge, and he, being, I presume, a misogynist, has 
 forbidden any woman to come to the sick-cabin : hence 
 I and Mr. Ladbury relieve the husband from most of day 
 duty. The ship hospital is a nasty little cabin among the 
 third-class passengers and animals. I am sitting with the 
 door open to get air, but it is rather smelly air, as there is 
 a row of fourteen mules, beginning about five yards from 
 the nose of the invahd, and as many horses facing them on 
 the other side of the deck. The space between mules and 
 horses is filled up by a most picturesque, dirty swarm of 
 humans, Arabs, Blacks, Italians, ship's crew, &c. I saw 
 
 123 
 
one black lying among the horses' hay, and smoking a 
 cigarette ; it looked as if (with the canvas awning) the whole 
 ship might any moment be one gorgeous fire-work : so I 
 sent a steward to stir the culprit up. 
 
 ** I think it was the days after Aden that we came across 
 a dhow in distress for want of food and water. They had 
 been becalmed. Of course we gave them water and ship 
 biscuits, but I wished it had been more. Two large buckets 
 of water didn't seem likely to last long, and there must 
 have been a dozen or more on board. 
 
 " To-morrow evening or early next morning we ought 
 to reach Mombasa ; I hear that we shall there exchange 
 the fourteen mules and so many horses for abour 400 native 
 troops (King's African Rifles). 
 
 " I have made considerable progress in tonic sol fa : 
 a passenger wanted to know whether it was deaf and dumb 
 language. I chant it to the winds and waves every day after 
 luncheon to keep myself awake." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 A Mohammedan Convert 
 
 Tanga Harbour, October 21, 1904. 
 " We have said good-bye to our four White Fathers. 
 They are dehghtful men ; three were French and one was 
 Egyptian ; the latter, who spoke much the best EngUsh, 
 is a convert from Islam, and was immensely interesting. 
 He says that the upper class nominal Mohammedans in 
 Egypt are to-day simply rationalists : they do not profess 
 any beUef in their religon. He himself was sent, like most 
 other Egyptian gentlemen's sons, by his Mohammedan 
 parents to a school kept by a Christian religious community 
 (at least I think it was a community) ; but he used to go 
 on saying his Mohammedan prayers and performing Moham- 
 medan duties. He openly became a catechumen in the 
 church when he was seventeen, and was baptised when 
 he was about twenty-one. He says it is impossible to con- 
 
 124 
 
vince Mohammedans by argument. I asked him how he 
 came to be convinced himself, e.g. how he came to accept 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, which to Mohammedans is the 
 first absurdity, and he said that he was convinced by the 
 good lives of the Christian ' reHgious,' their sobriety and 
 charity, and especially he had been influenced by the sight 
 of * Sisters of Charity.' Isn't that immensely interesting 
 and helpful ? 
 
 " If you want to convince an unbelieving world, live 
 the Christian life systematically in the eyes of the world. 
 That ought to be such a consolation to us, who haven't 
 got brains for arguing, much less for writing argumentative 
 pamphlets. Only let your light so shine before men that 
 they may see your good works, and then they will come to 
 glorify the Father." 
 
 On his arrival at Blantyre he sends the following : 
 
 {To a Brother) 
 On the way to Nyasa 
 
 African Lakes' Company Boarding House, Blantyre, 
 
 November 7, 1904. 
 
 " We left Chiromo about 8 p.m. in machilas (hammocks 
 slung on poles), and so we journeyed through the night 
 through what is known as the Elephant Marsh. It is a great 
 place for big game of all kinds, but I think our members were 
 sufficient to keep lions off our track. If a lion had come 
 across us, he would have found me comfortably asleep. 
 Our numbers, reckoning sixteen men to each machila, and 
 a few extras, must have amounted to over fifty. At 4 a.m. 
 we reached the base of a big hill, and rested for an hour, 
 and then we had a very stiff climb of an hour and a half to the 
 top. The first part of the climb, we were lighted by the 
 moon, and the last half by the sun. Needless to say, we 
 had mercy on our machila men, and did not ride up the 
 hill. Two hours more brought us to the house of a planter, 
 who looked after us sumptuously. . . . After luncheon 
 we set out again in our machilas towards Blantyre, but 
 before we had gone many miles we found a cart with four 
 
 125 
 
mules which had come out from Blantyre to meet us, and 
 so we transhipped from machila to mule-cart. The mules 
 went at a break-neck speed, undeterred by ditches or rocks 
 or (the last part of the way) by the darkness of the night. 
 The cart hadn't a vestige of a spring, but I soon found that, 
 by keeping a sharp look-out ahead, I could see when the 
 next ditch or rock had to be crossed, and so lessened the 
 jar by rising from my seat at the critical moment. So, 
 with the aid of machila and mule-cart, we found ourselves 
 at Blant57re, between seventy and eighty miles from Chiromo, 
 within twenty-four hours. . . . Blantyre is a large place 
 as places go out here. There must be loo Europeans — 
 nearly all Scotch, and it is the centre of a Scotch Mission." 
 
 A few days later he writes : 
 
 " Instead of going back to my old station at Kota Kota, 
 I am to be in charge of Likoma Island. In some ways I 
 shall find it hard not being at Kota, as the boys there have 
 got hold of a very large bit of my heart's affection." 
 
 The following letter will show that his sense of humour 
 had not deserted him. Perhaps this precious gift is even 
 more observable in his later letters than in the earlier 
 ones. 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Visit to a Chief 
 
 Malindi, Lake Nyasa, November 28, 1904. 
 
 " You will be surprised to see that I am still stationary 
 at the south end of the Lake : I have been pottering about 
 here now for eighteen days, waiting for the C.J. to finish 
 being repaired. . . . 
 
 " Here at Malindi we are a tremendous big party . . . 
 so I use the deck of the C.J. as my bedroom, and most 
 delightful it is ; no need of stuffy mosquito curtains, or 
 mosquito-proof windows and doors ; there has moreover 
 been a gorgeous full moon to give the finishing touch to the 
 joys of night-time. . . . Injspite of the heat, Miss Schofield 
 
 126 
 
walks off every morning to her school about a mile away, 
 and in the afternoon she often visits in the village. I settled 
 to pay her school a visit one morning on the donkey ; I 
 had passed a big wattle and daub building the day before, 
 which I understood was the school. So to that building I 
 went, and on the way I thought to myself, ' I will give the 
 children (not to mention their teacher) a pleasing surprise, 
 by riding into the school upon the ass.' And so I did : 
 I and the ass trotted gaily through the doorway, expecting 
 to find the place full of ABC. But instead of any school 
 paraphernalia, children and Miss Schofield, silence reigned 
 around, and I thought to myself, ' This is very rummy, and 
 it's not my idea of a school, and I think I had better trot 
 out again.' So out we trotted, I and the donkey, and out- 
 side I asked, ' What is this house ? ' They said, ' It is the 
 new house of the chief.' I replied, ' Then let us make 
 tracks as fast as we can, and please show me the way to the 
 school.' I had only been at the school a few minutes, when 
 a polite message reached me to say that the chief had now 
 returned to his house, and would like to welcome me. So 
 once more I retraced mine and the donkey's steps, and, this 
 time leaving the donkey on the right side of the verandah, 
 I shook hands with the old chief. I didn't allude to my 
 former visit, leaving him to suppose that it was a special 
 mark of respect and European etiquette to ride in at the 
 front door on your beast — be it ass or horse — when you go 
 paying calls. As he couldn't talk Chinyanja and I couldn't 
 talk his tongue — Chiyao — and the teacher who came to 
 interpret was bad at the job, time hung rather heavy on 
 our hands, but I couldn't go, as I knew he had sent his boys 
 to catch fowls as a ' prize ' for me. At last one fowl arrived 
 on the verandah, and I said, * Now, Mfumu (chief), I must 
 take my leave.' He said, * Wait a bit, there are some more 
 fowls coming.' So again time hung heavy. Then arrived 
 two more fowls, and I breathed again. I said, ' Thank 
 you for your handsome present, and now I must take my 
 leave.' He replied, * Wait, there is one more chicken 
 coming.' I tried to breathe out a ' Really your generosity 
 is something too — too,' and once more I sat down nearly in 
 
 127 
 
despair, till the fourth and last chicken arrived. On 
 arriving home, I had without delay to send word to Brother 
 
 S , storekeeper, * Chief has given me a handsome present 
 
 of four chickens ; please send back the return present,' 
 and consequently the chief soon found himself in possession 
 of eight pennyworth of salt. Sometimes he himself suggests 
 (without being asked) what form he wishes the return 
 present to take." 
 
 The next letter he writes as priest-in-charge of Likoma, 
 but its chief interest is his description of the visit he paid 
 to his old station of Kota Kota as he travelled up the Lake. 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Visit to Kota Kota 
 
 Likoma, December 4, 1904. 
 
 " My first letter as priest-in-charge of the islands of 
 Likoma and Chizumulu ! 
 
 *' We left Malindi last Tuesday morning on the C.J. under 
 the charge of Mr. Lyon (engineer) and steamed right away 
 to Kota Kota. . . . The Kota people had been expecting 
 us for many days, and had begun to think we had cut them, 
 and gone straight up to Likoma. There they were, down 
 on the shore ready to welcome us. Nurse M., Miss M., and 
 a crowd of boys and girls. Many of them had got small 
 flags, and with these they waded into the water to meet me 
 in the C.J.'s little boat ; and so we all marched up to the 
 Mission (about a mile) gathering up others on the way, and 
 singing the Chinyanja version of * The British Grenadiers,' 
 just as they did ten months ago, when they sent me away. 
 We walked through the Mission by the way of the beautiful 
 new stone native hospitals for men and women. . . . 
 
 " As Mr. Lyon was good enough to land us at Kota so early 
 in the morning, I was able to get a whole twenty-four hours 
 there, and oh ! how I did enjoy myself ! With a certain, 
 though blessedly small, amount of lapses, &c., there was an 
 immense deal to make one so thankful ; the school-boys and 
 girls seem to be doing especially well, and I had many nice 
 talks with them. . . . Then there were the old Christian 
 
 128 
 
women — dear old bodies ; they seemed really glad to see 
 me. . . . There happened to be a special Advent service in 
 church that night, so I was able to preach them a little 
 sermon. . . . 
 
 *' We got to Likoma midnight of Thursday, Dec. i, and 
 so, at 5.30, when the Mission boys were coming down to the 
 Lake for their morning dip, they met their new father making 
 an unostentatious entry into his domain, and the first that 
 many knew of him was the sight and voice of him conducting 
 Mattins in the old Cathedral, just as if he had been there 
 day by day for years past. . . . 
 
 " Not content with giving me the charge of this place, 
 the Bishop has told me to be his examining chaplain ; also 
 sub-editor of the Likoma quarterly paper. ... I am the 
 only priest on this island, and also have to look after Chizu- 
 mulu, but I foresee that up to Christmas I shall have to 
 stick to this station in preparation for Christmas. The 
 work will be very heavy. Everybody here is exceedingly 
 helpful, and of course I am very happy." 
 
 One of the staff at Kota Kota writes : 
 
 Dec. 3, 1904. 
 " Mr. Douglas reached us on S. Andrew's Day after 
 breakfast — the children gave him a royal welcome on land- 
 ing and accompanied him to the Mission with repeated 
 * Hurrahs,' songs and clapping — the most enthusiastic 
 impromptu demonstration that I have seen ! He seemed 
 very well and bright, and spent the day in paternal talks 
 with his old children, and preached at 8 o'clock Evensong, 
 celebrated at the English Eucharist next morning, and left 
 us again at 10. a.m. for Likoma. His visit seemed to speak 
 just one simple little word, and to express its power — Love. 
 He calls out the best that is in people just because he loves 
 them. He was pleased with our work on the whole I think, 
 and considered it * vigorous.' " 
 
 In the following letter he describes the condition of the 
 new Cathedral built on " the place of burning " of witches, 
 just as the Cathedral at Zanzibar is built on the site of the 
 old slave-market. 
 
 129 K 
 
(To a Sister) 
 The New Cathedral 
 
 Chipyela, Likoma, December i8, 1904. 
 
 " These two weeks have gone apace, and that (the 
 first two weeks in a new place) is enough to show that they 
 have been extra special busy weeks. . . . The great pres- 
 sure has been the preparation of the Christians throughout 
 the island for their Christmas Communions. . . . After 
 Christmas I must get across to my other island, Chizumulu, 
 and I must keep a second Christmas over there. . . . 
 
 " We have just had about nine inches of rain in two and 
 a half days. This beautiful (from a gardener's point of 
 view) damp heat is suiting my new seeds admirably : they 
 were only put in about a week ago, and the zinnias and 
 convolvuluses are already three inches high. I mean to have 
 a hanging garden round the verandah in front of my door. 
 . . . Likoma station, and indeed the whole island, has 
 practically no grass, so that the experiment of keeping 
 mission cattle has signally failed. Two cows have died 
 since I have been here ; their death reduces the number to 
 one bull and two calves ; up to the present the priest-in- 
 charge has made himself reponsible for the cattle's welfare, 
 
 but I'm thankful to find that Nurse M is both willing and 
 
 anxious to take charge of them. She thinks she will get 
 more milk, though how she expects to get any milk at all 
 now that the last cow is defunct, don't ask me. You 
 mustn't suppose that we are consequently without milk ; 
 there are some goats and a few cows left belonging to the 
 natives, and we have an old factotum who gets together 
 a good many spoonfuls of salt's worth of milk per diem. . . . 
 
 " I have omitted to mention the two most important 
 buildings on the station, the old and the new Cathedrals, 
 the latter having a race to get built before the other tumbles 
 down. I scarcely know whether to marvel most at the 
 wonderful way in which the old church is still standing, 
 looking about as sound as it did three years ago, with the 
 assistance of innumerable props, or at the rapidity with 
 which the walls of the new chancel have reached completion, 
 
 130 
 
Here is a beautiful little story of piety ; a deputation of 
 native workmen came to Mr. Glossop to say that they 
 thought they ought to pray that Mr. George may keep his 
 health, so that he may be enabled to finish the building. 
 I can't yet describe the Cathedral ; externally it already 
 stands well, even without its two western towers and pin- 
 nacle. . . . The interior of the chancel is exceedingly 
 dignified. . . . 
 
 " I am very much looking forward to the other side of 
 Christmas, when I shall be able to find my way into the 
 villages dotted about the island, and see the outschools 
 and synagogues, i.e. the native rooms which answer the pur- 
 pose of mission rooms, where the teachers take daily even- 
 song, &c. On Sunday, the Christians from all parts of the 
 island come to this central place of worship, Chipyela ; it 
 means ' the place of burning,' so-called because the witches 
 were formerly burnt there. This is the Likoma story cor- 
 responding to the Zanzibar story of the Cathedral on the 
 site of the old slave market. . . . 
 
 " I preached my first Chinyanja sermon in this church 
 Christmas Day three years ago." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 The Offertory at Likoma 
 
 Likoma, December 29, 1904. 
 " The choir here is something too perfectly indescribably 
 awful — or rather, the singing as a whole is so, and the choir 
 have been as bad as the congregation ; but we had grand 
 practices in the evenings almost every day for the three 
 weeks before Christmas, and really the change is already 
 very striking ; some of the boys have already developed 
 quite excellent head-notes, instead of yelling like street 
 arabs. The people made their Communion according to 
 their villages on Christmas Day at 6 and 7.30, and on 
 Monday there were many more, altogether between five 
 and six hundred. The High Eucharist was at 7.30, and 
 as I had already officiated at the earlier service, I was able 
 to sit with the choir and start the singing : we use no sort of 
 
 131 
 
instrument. I think externally it was the most enthusiastic 
 service I ever remember ; the Cathedral was crammed — 
 poor old Cathedral, so very much on its last timbers. The 
 Christmas offertory was a miscellaneous jumble of native 
 food, 133 eggs, brass coins and bone coins which pass for 
 money on the island, a large number of cardboard tickets 
 representing so many days' work done for the new Cathedral 
 without payment, 120 farthings, as well as other English 
 coins. I was very thankful that the whole day passed off 
 without unseemly proceedings : I haven't heard of any- 
 one being drunk that day : at Mattins of that day and also 
 on other days, a large number have taken the pledge, 
 for periods varying from six months to * until death.' 
 At Evensong we sang carols. 
 
 " I find the ' elders/ one appointed for each village, a 
 great assistance to me. If I want to know any particulars 
 about persons and past histories, or wish my words to be 
 made known in the villages, or desire that wives should 
 be brought back to their husbands, I can generally work 
 through the elders. . . . Goats play a very considerable 
 part in village life at Likoma. The payment of goats is 
 the customary fine. Yesterday I told a certain A. that he 
 must pay one goat to a certain B., whose head he had helped 
 to break open. A., according to native etiquette, retired 
 from my house in an overwhelming passion, but returned 
 again in half an hour's time highly pleased with himself, 
 and leading the required goat, which was tied to a tree 
 within a few yards of my house, whence B., with a bandage 
 tied round his head, that he might look his part every bit, 
 fetched it. Another goat story — a youth came to my 
 verandah with a goat and a torn cloth. The goat had torn 
 it, and so the goat's owner must pay the fine. I said, * Whose 
 goat is it ? ' He replied, ' It is the Mission's goat.' So I 
 honourably stumped up two bone coins (value 2|^.) ; 
 he retired in the worst of humours, and shortly afterwards 
 came back to say that he was very much astonished at only 
 receiving 2f f^. ; it was customary to receive a whole fathom 
 (8^.), and therefore he would refuse to take the 2^d. I 
 said, ' So much the better for me.' He didn't return them, 
 
 132 
 
and, when he met me ten minutes afterwards, he said that 
 he would Hke to give one of the two bones as his Church 
 offering and he would keep the other for himself ! " 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 Infant Baptisms 
 
 Likoma, Jan, 15, 1905. 
 
 " We are experiencing just now something that helps 
 us to reaUse to a small extent what ' the plagues ' were like. 
 Ours is a plague of flying bugs ! I think they don't bite, 
 and if you want to be polite you might call them ladybirds, 
 exaggerated to the fourth degree. As I came out of church 
 to-night, I was met by a strong smell of bug, but they 
 chiefly prefer the dining-room. Last night the tablecloth 
 was black with them, and one's clothes and the floor also 
 were liberally supplied with them. 
 
 " Since my last letter home, I have paid a visit to Chizu- 
 mulu. She is the little sister of Likoma, both islands being 
 under my charge. . . . Chizumulu, compared to Likoma, is 
 very untamed ; the people continue all sorts of heathen cus- 
 toms, and the two villages, at each of which we have a 
 church, are at constant war. The night I got there, I was 
 just going to leave the station to go back to the steamer 
 (to sleep) at 11.30 p.m., when I found a party of men seated 
 on the mission ground. They were so gory that their ex- 
 planation that they had been fighting was quite unneeded. 
 I heard that the fight was concluded by the middle of the 
 following day, when each side had successfully carried off 
 each other's goats. . . . My visit to Chizumulu practically 
 brought Christmas festivities to an end for me, and, since my 
 return to Likoma, I have had time to go about the island 
 looking into schools, dormitories and synagogues. . . . 
 The custom here is for everyone who wishes to communicate 
 on Sunday to give in their name to the priest-in-charge on 
 Saturday, and to receive from him a ticket, which they put 
 in a plate as they go up to the Altar : so undesirable people 
 are prevented from communicating. . . . 
 
 " As for the infant baptisms, mothers with babes on their 
 
 133 
 
backs began to besiege me as soon as I set foot on Likoma ; 
 to each of whom I used to reply, ' I can hear no words about 
 Baptism till the other side of Christmas.' But, now we have 
 reached the other side, we must go through with the business 
 boldly. So I first proclaim in church : ' Perhaps there is 
 some mother who thinks that her baby might be baptised : 
 if so, she may go to Donna N. S., who undertakes to write 
 down all the news about the babe, and then I will investigate 
 the news, and judge accordingly.' The ' news ' consists in a 
 description of the status of the mother, father, uncles and 
 grandmother of the babe, whether they are Christian, 
 catechumen, hearers, or rank outsiders, as also whether 
 their conduct is satisfactory, and whether they have elder 
 children, whom they do or do not send to school regularly — 
 that is to say, whether there is a good likelihood of the child 
 being brought up a Christian. I was not altogether sur- 
 prised when Miss N. S. told me she had applications from 
 about eighty mothers." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Infant Baptisms 
 
 Likoma, January 31, 1905. 
 
 " Among many other things, it has been pay-day, and 
 old women water-carriers, men and women school teachers, 
 sweepers of dormitories, lighters of lamps, house boys, 
 dining-room boys, washer-uppers and bell-ringers, &c., &c., 
 to say nothing of our old factotum ' Charlie,' who from time 
 immemorial has been our general buyer of chickens, eggs, 
 and milk — all come to be paid. . . . 
 
 " You may be pleased to hear that since my last letter 
 we have got thirty-six new baby Christians. Their baptism 
 was really most impressive. I had about eighty mothers 
 petitioning during the previous weeks, and it means many 
 hours' work, finding out those who seem to have a good 
 enough chance of being brought up in the Christian manner 
 of life. It is horrid to refuse mothers, but generally they 
 bear the refusal with praiseworthy equanimity. When I 
 had selected those whom I considered to be eligible, I 
 summoned the elders of the Church, and they sat on my 
 
 134 
 
Verandah, whilst I called up the belongings of the babes, 
 i.e. their parents, uncle, grandmother, and sponsors, to 
 drum into them their obligations. Say each child had seven 
 belongings, and picture 252 folk swarming round about my 
 verandah in sweltering tropical sun. Then on the day of 
 the Baptism, everything was beautifully ordered, the parties 
 concerned being arranged in fours, the mother and babe in 
 front, the sponsors behind. I had told one school-boy, 
 who had been chosen as a sponsor, that he had himself 
 shown so stubborn a heart in the previous week, that he 
 couldn't be allowed to make himself reponsible for anybody 
 else's heart ; but the parents of the babe were never told, 
 so the school-boy turned up, and, as it was too late to choose 
 anyone else, I had to content myself with asking him in the 
 presence of the multitude whether his own pride had de- 
 parted ; and, hearing that it had quite departed, he is now 
 a Godfather." 
 
 [To a Sister) 
 Good Friday at Likoma 
 
 The Patience, April 29, 1905. 
 
 " To write or not to write on a very rollicking sea, that 
 is the question. I am half-way between Chizumulu and 
 Likoma — at least I ought to be half-way, but the wind is 
 dead against us, so alas ! Chizumulu still looks quite near, 
 and Likoma quite far. I wanted to reach Chipyela by 
 noon, so as to be in time for the people to give their names 
 to me for to-morrow's Communion ; but I suppose there 
 won't be a large number of communicants on the octave 
 of Easter Day. There was very much indeed to be thank- 
 ful for during Holy Week and Easter. The people came 
 in large numbers to the daily Eucharist with an address 
 on the events of each day, i.e. from Monday to Thursday, 
 the Cathedral looking almost as full as it does on Sundays ; 
 but at Likoma big week-day congregations are easy to 
 manage, as it is the rule for work on the station to be sus- 
 pended during church-time, so that all can come to church, 
 and there are now a very large number of hands being 
 employed on the building of the new Cathedral. . . . 
 
 135 
 
" I had never formerly been at Likoma for Good Friday, 
 at least not until the evening, and I was anxious to com- 
 pare the conduct of the people at this central station with 
 other villages. I began by being rather unfavourably 
 impressed ; at least, there was certainly more talking on 
 the station than I had been used to out here, although it 
 really didn't amount to much (mostly old ladies !). On the 
 other hand, the attentiveness of the enormous congregation 
 during the Three Hours' Service was most beautiful. The 
 native can stand any length of service, but then he Hkes 
 to go out and take an airing in the middle, but there was not 
 any sort of flocking to the door on Friday. 
 
 " On Easter Monday the Chipyela girls' school had its 
 prize-giving. Since Christmas it must have had a daily 
 attendance of about two hundred. The Bishop gave the 
 prizes, and I interpreted for him. . . . 
 
 " On Easter Monday afternoon we Europeans, instead 
 of going to bed, went for a picnic ; I only stipulated that 
 I might go in a boat, and take a cushion ; both requests 
 were granted, and I enjoyed it very much. . . . 
 
 " On Tuesday afternoon Mr. L. took me over to Chizu- 
 mulu in the C.J, and there I have been for the last four 
 nights very busy preparing for and keeping Easter over again. 
 The Christian men were conspicuously absent, an extra- 
 ordinarily large number of them having gone to seek work 
 in distant lands, as far as Fort Salisbury. It must be a big 
 eye-opener when they get into those civilised lands, and 
 see horses and carriages, and other strange beasts. 
 
 " This next week I must get my large Baptism class into 
 working order, with a view to a Whitsuntide Baptism. . . . 
 
 " The singing on Easter Day was fine — and that re- 
 minds me of another work in front, viz. the forming of a 
 proper choir. Oh dear ! we are still only half-way between 
 the two islands, and it is 12 o'clock. But I learn disciphne 
 by sitting in a boat ; foolish Europeans shout at the crew, 
 but it is useless, and the capitao resents it. So, even though 
 we had a temporary breakdown just now, and had Uterally 
 to undergird the ship, I kept a praiseworthy mumness. The 
 sun is also warm, but F. is holding a white umbrella over 
 me — F. is a small Christian school-boy, who has been this 
 
 136 
 
holiday with me ; you see he serves a purpose, and more- 
 over he sends you (my sister) his salaams : so also does W., 
 who is lying on the bench the other side of me, and woke 
 up on purpose to tell me. ... W., you know, is my own 
 boy : I picked him out of village life, and he really is doing 
 very well." 
 
 The following letter, describing his first meeting with 
 a Portuguese official, has a pathetic interest in view of the 
 manner and cause of his death some six years later. 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Meeting with a Portuguese Official 
 
 Likoma, May 28, 1905. 
 
 " I formed the excellent resolution of doing a little 
 serious reading this (Sunday) afternoon, partly to justify 
 my position as examining chaplain to Gerard Likoma, 
 but alas ! though I selected a kitchen chair to sit in, I very 
 soon began to nod, and the only remedy for nodding is a 
 letter home. I hope there never will be another examining 
 chaplain who opens as few books as I do ; but I really 
 don't think it can be helped, and therefore I suppose it 
 doesn't matter. . . . 
 
 " We have had a huge excitement this last week, the 
 sight of two European children : they were Portuguese. 
 The father is the head Portuguese official on the Lake. 
 One of his bomas is opposite Likoma, and the Bishop found 
 him there, and told me to send a boat over to convey him 
 and his wife and the two children (the children of a relation) 
 to Likoma : so, you see, he is not their father after all. 
 He talked Enghsh intelligibly, and we got on all right. 
 ... It was nice to find them really keen on seeing the 
 church, and he asked me whether my ladies had got a little 
 crucifix which they could let his wife have. But, if she 
 was shy, Edmund, aged eight, and Georgina, aged six, were 
 not shy ; from the moment of their landing, they took 
 possession of the island, marching up in front of us all 
 from the Lake. . . , 
 
 " When we went to watch the boys play football, 
 
 137 
 
Georgina rushed about the football ground at the utmost 
 peril of her life. As a matter of fact, their rushes always came 
 to a timely end through the assistance of their stockings ; 
 their foster-parents apologised for the fact that the children 
 had no boots, but, instead of boots, they each wore a pair 
 of huge grey stockings, the feet of which draggled out behind 
 them ; but they are really delightful children, full of fun, 
 and very friendly, and quite nicely behaved. . . . 
 
 ** I don't think I have written home since I began my 
 duties in the Infant School ; we muster any number up to a 
 hundred, baby Christians, catechumens, and heathen. The 
 opening of school is rather a long business, as each of the 
 three conditions of infant says different prayers. The 
 Christians come in first, they are only about twenty, and 
 they say the Lord's Prayer and Creed ; then the catechumens, 
 and then the rabble. If I had no other work to do, I really 
 could get the school into order : as it is, we go on very 
 happily, and the children really learn a wonderful amount ; 
 so, at the present time, my morning after breakfast is 
 divided between infants and preparation for my big class 
 of Baptismal candidates which I have daily, i.e. j&ve times 
 a week midday. I must have it at midday, as many of the 
 candidates are working on the Cathedral, and midday is their 
 time for rest. I have about ninety candidates in this class, 
 and altogether, at Likoma and Chizumulu, there must be 
 one hundred and twenty-five being prepared. . . . 
 
 " I hope that the Baptisms will be on Trinity Sunday. 
 ... Of course the choosing of candidates causes much heart- 
 burning among those who are not chosen, and a good deal 
 of my time the last few weeks has been taken up with an- 
 swering the question, ' Why have you not chosen me ? ' . . . 
 There are disappointed school- boys who stop away from 
 school for three days by way of protest, and the boy who 
 sends me his blanket and mat with the message that he 
 has departed to the village (he has already requested the 
 restoration of himself and property). Talking of blankets, 
 this last week we had a grand distribution of remnants 
 (a blanket is a red rug) to thirty Httle boys, who had each 
 swept a dormitory for five days : the blankets were obviously 
 too worn out for dormitory wear, but by no means too worn 
 
 138 
 
out to be snipped and cut and squared and oblonged, and 
 presented as cloths to little boys, who had never before 
 worn any dress half as large as this bit of paper. I am 
 doing a good deal of teaching just now, as, after the Baptism 
 class and luncheon, I generally teach Enghsh to the class 
 of fifteen boys, who are anxious this year or next to go to 
 the College ; after that, there are generally many interviews 
 and cases, but I try and get time for a little quiet in church 
 before Evensong, if I haven't managed to do so in the morn- 
 ing. To-morrow to Wednesday is Rogationtide, and on 
 Wednesday we shall have our procession to bless the fields ; 
 we shall assemble down by the Lake, and first ask a blessing 
 on the Lake and fishing, which forms so very important a 
 part of Likoma daily life, and we shall sing * Fierce raged,' 
 and then we shall walk through the fields of cassava, and 
 end off in the station quadrangle." 
 
 {To a Sister) 
 Adult Baptisms 
 
 S. Michael's College, June 22, 1905. 
 
 " Now I will tell you how I come to be writing in the 
 guest room at the College : the reason is, that last Sunday 
 saw the big Baptism at Likoma really an accomplished fact, 
 most blessed and most thankworthy — 123 more Christians, 
 all having arrived at riper years. The preparation classes 
 which I took almost daily for the whole lot during the 
 previous six weeks, were of great interest to me, and, though 
 the candidates came from all parts of the island, I should 
 think that there was not an average of one absent per diem. 
 Nkwazi village was an exception, as, till the last week or so, 
 the candidates there were mostly taught by the native 
 teacher James ; then the final week for the emptying out of 
 all the evil of their heathen lives, with the promise that the 
 Baptism would be for the remission of sins (their actual as 
 well as original). The Baptisms themselves were on Trinity 
 Sunday at 3.30, and the arrangements required much thought. 
 . . . All the Europeans, as well as some of the native teachers, 
 had their separate duties to perform, so that all might be 
 done decently and in order. Of course all the new names, 
 
 139 
 
generally common Christian names with outlandish phonetic 
 spelling, Esta, Lusi, &c., as well as the 123 witnesses, had 
 already been settled ; and then there were the 123 Baptismal 
 white cloths to be distributed to the witnesses for them to 
 keep till after the immersion. . . . For all the first part of 
 the service, the candidates and witnesses were arranged in 
 the catechumens' portion of the church, i.e. between the 
 catechumen barrier and the west end : then, before the 
 prayer for blessing the water, I walked up by myself from 
 the catechumen barrier to the font, which many hands had 
 helped to fill on the previous day. The font is about four feet 
 deep, and the priest stands in a little dry hole on one side ; 
 all the same, the candidates made such a splashing, that I 
 was very soon soaked to the skin, and your poor white stole 
 suffered dreadfully ; however, you won't mind that in such a 
 cause. Then, after the blessing of the water, during a hymn, 
 the male candidates filed out of door i and into the transept 
 of the font by door 3, and the females filed out by door 2, 
 and in again by door 4. (Doors i and 3 are on the south, 
 doors 2 and 4 are on the north side.) As soon as I had 
 begun to baptise, the Bishop, with his Httle procession, left 
 his seat by the altar, and took up his position at the cate- 
 chumen barrier, and so received into the congregation each 
 of the newly-baptised as they came back into church in 
 their white cloths, and so, with their symbolical tapers 
 lighted, they took their places in front of the rest of the 
 congregation. The last person to be baptised was a woman 
 with a wooden leg, but she was really clever about getting 
 down the steps into the water and then out again. I had 
 finished the Baptisms long before the Bishop had finished 
 the receptions, and was able to watch nearly all the girls 
 being signed. Oh ! it was a very blessed day, and in the 
 morning I had already been made very thankful by a very 
 large percentage of the candidates taking the pledge to 
 abstain from the native beer. . . . The candidates only 
 took the pledge for six months or for a year : short pledges 
 generally seem to answer best out here • they can always 
 be renewed. During these days at the College, I am advising 
 my four Likoma students, Basil, Wilfrid, Archie, and, Stefano, 
 
 140 
 
to begin their career as teachers by taking the pledge. 
 Well, now you see partly why I am at the College : I went 
 on Sunday night to the Bishop, and said : ' I am tremen- 
 dously well, but, all the same, I doubt for my sake and 
 theirs whether I had better go straight on to Chizumulu, 
 and prepare the Baptismal candidates, who are waiting for 
 me there, without a little easy : ' the Bishop said : ' You 
 had better go to the College for a few days, and you can 
 take my rifle and go up into the hills/ I replied that I 
 would rather take the books on which I have to set examina- 
 tion papers for Mr. C.'s priest's orders, but, even so, the 
 College would be a most delightful change, and so it is, and 
 I am enjoying it enormously." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Native Marriages 
 
 Likoma, August 6, 1905. 
 
 '* Sunday afternoon, and my private flag is posted up out- 
 side my house ; it signifies that all the pains and penalties 
 which the Lord Mayor is capable of inflicting will be inflicted 
 on anyone who dares to say * hodi ' at his door. Whosoever 
 sees the flag supposes that I am lying down. So I have 
 been for about half an hour, looking at some newly arrived 
 5^A^r^s which contained T.'s most delightful picture of dear 
 old Uncle B. 
 
 " This morning I was busy. 7 a.m. the big sung 
 Eucharist ; I preached as usual, and started the singing, 
 led the Creed and Confession, which the congregation say 
 sentence by sentence after the Choregus ; the Bishop was 
 Celebrant ; Padre Wilson also assisted, and there were 
 about 130 Communicants. Since these last Baptisms, 
 we must expect that number most weeks. Then break- 
 fast, followed immediately by Mattins, when I also offi- 
 ciated. Immediately after Mattins a big lot of people — 
 mothers, fathers, uncles, grannies, sponsors — in front of 
 my house, perhaps 120 in all, to be preached to on their 
 responsibilities, as a preliminary to about twenty infant 
 Baptisms, which I administered immediately afterwards. 
 
 141 
 
Then the marking of the Communicants' register in the 
 vestry, and that brought us to luncheon. After luncheon 
 more people waiting on my verandah. Two boys whom 
 I am going to marry to their respective girls to-morrow, 
 and who had to be warned that the Holy Matrimony of the 
 morning was not to end in a heery revel in the afternoon ; 
 and then various people who want to know whether I 
 can take them with me on the C.J. to Nkamanga. 
 
 " The last two businesses need some explanation. Alas ! 
 like my predecessor Mr. Glossop, and like most others of us 
 who think anything about it, I funk the marriage day out 
 here. The natives would say that a marriage without mo a 
 (beer) was not to be accounted a marriage, and Mr. George 
 would have said a few months ago that he would always 
 expect to find some of our young boys drunk in the evening. 
 Well, all I can do is to warn the boys beforehand, and I 
 depute one or two trustworthy men (elders of the Church or 
 otherwise) to superintend the marriage festivities ; but I am 
 not happy till I know that the mo a jugs are empty. 
 
 " I am afraid Nkamanga does not come into any map of 
 U.M.C.A., but it is the stretch of mainland opposite Likoma 
 on the west side of the Lake, i.e. north of Kota Kota. It 
 is the province of the Scotch (Bandawe) Mission, but during 
 the last few years so many of our Christians have migrated 
 there that we try to visit them and give them their Com- 
 munion about once a quarter. As a matter of fact I have 
 only once got over there (soon after Christmas) . Now I have 
 made all arrangements for going to-morrow by the C.J. 
 which was due at Likoma yesterday. But she has not ap- 
 peared ; so I do not know what my movements this week 
 will be. She is probably delayed by what is a sad disap- 
 pointment to us all. Mr. Ladbury, who has been wexy seedy 
 at Likoma for weeks, was taken down by the C.J. last trip 
 to see the Government doctor at Fort Johnston (because 
 Dr. Howard is away in the hills) and there at the south end 
 of the Lake he developed the bad kind of fever ; now we hope 
 he is safely past the crisis, but he will have to go home to 
 England immediately. Brother Sargent (Lichfield Evan- 
 gelist), whose furlough was in any case nearly due, will go 
 
 142 
 
home with him to look after him. Ladbury is a very great 
 loss to us — a most excellent lay-worker, store-keeper. Since 
 he came back with me in November, he has been at Likoma 
 looking after the carpentry and (to me a most tremendous as- 
 sistance) he has run our station accounts. The thought of 
 these accounts — on the whole we won't depress ourselves 
 unnecessarily by thinking of them this afternoon — I know 
 they nearly drove Glossop mad. Afternoon tea gong has 
 just * cried ' and after tea comes English Evensong and 
 sermon by the Bishop. 
 
 " In another two months the Bishop will, I suppose, really 
 have started homewards. He is only waiting for the dedi- 
 cation of the Cathedral — as much of it as will be finished — 
 that is, all except the lady chapel and vestries, and the 
 two western towers and the central turret. Certainly, 
 Mr. George is a marvel. When I reached Likoma eight 
 months ago, though the chancel and transepts were nearly 
 finished, the walls of the nave were scarcely begun, and now 
 they are putting on the roof. I must try and find time to 
 take some photos of it, but I am generally working from 
 6.30 A.M. to bedtime and nearly always working at high 
 pressure. But it seems to suit me. 
 
 " Another coming interest is the Theological College which 
 is to be started at Nkwazi on Likoma Island. The CM. 
 has been tried and (for a Theological College) it has been 
 found wanting. Mr. Wilson will be principal of the College. 
 Our two native deacons, Augustine and Eustace, who for 
 the last two years have been on and off the steamer, trying 
 to prepare for the priesthood, will make a fresh start at 
 Nkwazi, and Mr. Wilson will also have some others to prepare 
 for readerships — and after that I hope some will go into 
 Holy Orders. I shall be glad to have Augustine and Eustace 
 on the Island, to assist at services and to preach ; but my 
 chief assistant will probably be Mr. Winspear who, as a new 
 deacon, is due out here some time this year. I shall be 
 especially glad to see him, as our printer, Willcocks, is soon 
 going home on furlough, and I shall probably have to boss 
 the printing office ! I shall practise printing when I come 
 home. Since my last letter home, we have had a visit from 
 
 143 
 
Nurse Minter. It was so jolly seeing her, and we talked a 
 great deal of Kota Kota shop. 
 
 " When Miss Minter was here, the Bishop got her to trans- 
 late three hymns into Chinyanja for the Cathedral dedication, 
 and I am busy practising them with the unmarried portion 
 of the Christian Community, and then I shall have to collect 
 the elderly portion for practices during their midday rest 
 hour." 
 
 The following letter was written to Mr. H. E. Ladbury, 
 a worker in the Mission who was seriously ill : 
 
 Likoma, August 7, 1905". 
 
 " I know you have long ago just asked the good God to do 
 with you whatever He pleases, because what He pleases is 
 bound to be best, and so you will often be thinking over the 
 old hymn, * Thy way not mine, O Lord,' and now the words 
 strike home to you, dear old chap, with a new and a big force ; 
 and you will need all their force at this time when physical 
 weakness and the thought of what you have got to leave 
 behind, and of difficulties which may be in front of you tempt 
 you to despond. But instead of desponding, you will just 
 lie quietly and thankfully in the arms of the Father, because 
 you know by actual experience how He has always loved 
 you, always up to to-day, and you are quite certain that He 
 will always go on loving you from to-day. 
 
 " I really don't think it much matters where we are, at 
 least it only matters that we are where God means us to be." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 Building the Cathedral 
 
 Likoma, August 16, 1905. 
 
 " Not a single person on my verandah ! Up to the 
 present, I have as usual had a continual stream of visitors, 
 including school-boys asking for holiday work at 4^. a week, 
 some of which their conscience returns as an offering towards 
 the building of the new Cathedral ; other boys asking for 
 sleeping-mats as theirs have been eaten by the white ants ; 
 two other boys getting, if not asking, a whacking ; various 
 
 144 
 
matrimonial arrangements to be seen to ; a widow wanting 
 to know where she is to sleep, as her home has fallen down, 
 and she fears the afiti (witches, body-snatchers, &c., who 
 are supposed to abound on the island), and so on. . . , 
 " I wish you could look in at Likoma station at the present 
 moment, and see all the workers at work on the Cathedral. 
 The Bishop intends to dedicate as much as will be ready on 
 Michaelmas Day, and I have been busy preparing the form 
 of service, and also teaching the congregation the special 
 dedication hymns. The Cathedral, when completed, will 
 be nearly as long as Worcester Cathedral. . . . This island 
 is made of stone (so much the worse for my boots), so there 
 is no lack of material ; on the other hand, all the timber 
 has to be brought over from the mainland ; the iron, &c., 
 has come out from England. This last week the natives, who 
 are continually having eye-openers, have had their first sight 
 of stained glass windows. We have got about seventy skilled 
 masons, as well as a host of unskilled labourers, and now, in 
 the hohdays, the building is flooded with children. Out here, 
 nobody can carry anything except on their heads ; so picture 
 thirty or forty infants solemnly walking one behind the 
 other, each with a pebble secured firmly by both hands on 
 the top of their noddles. Last week I had a nice little trip 
 to the west mainland, to look up some of our Christians, 
 who have settled there. The C.J. took me. ... Do you 
 reaHse that we get really big seas on Nyasa, and this time 
 of year it is nearly always rough ; but the C.J. can stand 
 any weather — much better than / can." 
 
 {To an old Friend) 
 Picture of Missionary Work 
 
 Likoma, August 20, 1905. 
 " Sunday afternoon — you won't find many parish priests 
 in England who have time to write letters on the Sabbath. 
 My letter to you is in Heu of a sermon by the Bishop, he 
 has got neuralgia and is unable to preach to our select 
 Enghsh congregation of four males and four females. The 
 Bishop thinks it well for us to have one Enghsh service on 
 
 145 L 
 
Sunday, so in addition to the regular services in Chinyanja 
 (language of Nyasa or the Lake) we have Evensong in our own 
 vulgar tongue. Our big native service is at 7 o'clock a.m. 
 when the old, dilapidated Cathedral looks packed — some 
 six hundred all together on the ground. I nearly always do 
 the preaching. We have now a new Cathedral, to be 
 dedicated — as much of it as is ready — on Michaelmas Day. 
 Likoma, which by the way is an island, whereof I am not 
 only priest-in-charge but also Lord Mayor, there being no 
 civil authority, is made of stones (so much the worse for my 
 boots), so there is no difficulty about material for building. 
 
 " When completed, the Cathedral will be 280 feet long — 
 what is the length of Eton Chapel ? — (150 X 40). 
 
 " But you are — I see it in your letter, for which I thank 
 you, my very many thanks — in an obvious and not unnatural 
 funk that our mission work consists entirely in making the 
 native attend chapel and wear more clothes. As to the 
 latter, I really don't think you could accuse our U.M.C.A. 
 natives of prodigality. Last Monday I was at a distant 
 part of my parish (another island, by name Chizumulu), 
 and though it was a gala day, with the Bishop coming to 
 confirm, there was uncommon little cloth to relieve the 
 monotony of black bodies and black legs. As a matter of 
 fact we are almost entirely successful in keeping the native 
 simple in his costume. One of my sumptuary laws runs thus, 
 ' No trousers are allowed in church.' And if one of the 
 boys has borrowed a pair of boots from some elder brother 
 who has been down to Fort Sahsbury, he knows better than 
 to show himself in them on my verandah. Of course it is 
 true that we aren't sent here to Europeanise the African but 
 to Christianise him. 
 
 " Then you ask me about industrial work : well, the new 
 Cathedral has been built entirely by the hands of our natives, 
 under the superintendence of our missionary architect and 
 missionary carpenters. We have now got about seventy 
 skilled masons — anyhow more or less skilled — also on this 
 station there are the carpenter's and printer's shops where 
 there is always great competition for admission to ap- 
 prenticeship. Then as Likoma is an island, we have to 
 
 146 
 
employ a good many boys in the boats which go daily to the 
 mainland, five miles off, and there are the regular crews for 
 our two mission steamers, which are always on the go, up 
 and down the Lake. A good deal of the mission work — I 
 mean the visiting of villages — is done from the steamer, 
 the Chauncy Maples. So if a boy is really keen about 
 learning a regular trade, he stands a very good chance of 
 being taken on. At the same time we don't want to teach 
 the boys to despise the ordinary village life in so far as it is 
 healthy. I am always glad when any rather superior 
 teacher comes to me to buy a hoe with which he may dig 
 his field. The chief employment (outside the hoeing season) 
 is fishing. They do the whole business, from the planting 
 the shrub from which they make the string with which they 
 make their big nets, to the eating of the fish, which, with a 
 greasy yellow porridge, is their almost invariable daily 
 portion. Fishing-nets are a fruitful subject for quarrels 
 and lawsuits. If you have a grudge against your neighbour, 
 you either steal his goats, or his fishing-nets, or his canoe, 
 and hold them as surety till he has made you proper satis- 
 faction. Oh these quarrelsome natives ! I wish my Lord 
 Mayoralty was at Jericho. A good many cases I send to be 
 settled at the Court of one of the petty village chiefs, but 
 sometimes they only make confusion worse confounded. 
 A few weeks ago there was a fight between two villages. 
 It began by some silly asses of one village calling a respectable 
 old gentleman and his wife — of the other village — slaves ; 
 which there is no denying they had been in years gone by. 
 I didn't suppose it was a very serious matter and so I sent the 
 parties to a head-man in a neighbouring village that he 
 should square the matter up. Imagine my dismay when 
 shortly afterwards there came pouring into the Mission 
 station a howling and infuriated and bludgeoned-armed 
 mob, some of them largely decorated with gore. I found 
 that the head-man had funked and refused to hear the case 
 and that the parties had accordingly set to, supported by 
 their adherents ; it had been taken up as a general village 
 affair ; everybody was much too excited to allow the matter 
 to be settled that day, so I told them they must go back to 
 
 147 
 
their respective villages ; and they departed with many 
 mutual imprecations. I then told two of the most trust- 
 worthy of them (native Christians) to go that evening one to 
 each of the villages and find out the tempers of the villagers, 
 whether they still wished to fight or to settle the matter as 
 respectable citizens. One set of villagers was reported to 
 me the next morning as being in a most proper frame of 
 mind ; that even if their adversaries tried to annoy them 
 ever so much they would themselves be patient. My other 
 messenger told me that the youths of the village whither 
 I had sent him still wished to fight. So I had to send him 
 back again with the further message that I should be pleased 
 to see the sober-minded head-men of the village at my seat 
 of justice, but that I refused to see anyone who didn't know 
 how to behave himself ; and, moreover, that fighting on 
 Likoma island was out of the question ; that the people of 
 Likoma might choose between a mission authority or a 
 British Government authority, and that I had only to raise 
 the tip of my little finger to call in English magistrate and 
 police and six shillings hut tax. To this message I received 
 the satisfactory reply that the bloodthirsty youths had 
 been disarmed of their bludgeons which were safely stored 
 in an elder's house, and that only the head-men would come 
 to the hearing of the case. It was, by-the-bye, a Rogation 
 Day, and we follow the old custom of processioning through 
 the fields and asking a blessing on the crops. 
 
 " Well, as priest-in-charge I led the procession through 
 the fields from the Lake to the Mission, and then in the open 
 I gave the Blessing ; and then as Lord Mayor I said, ' I am 
 ready for the Court.' The law court is generally on the 
 verandah of my house. It was obvious that youths of 
 village A. had no business to call a respectable old gentleman 
 of village B. a slave, even if he had been one, and so I was 
 about to pass judgment that village A. must pay a goat to 
 village B. for using offensive language. But fortunately 
 there sat beside me a wise old councillor — his name, Yakobo, 
 and Yakobo said, * Excuse me, Bwana, but I would say my 
 thoughts, and my thoughts are that whilst the youths of 
 village A. most surely sinned in using abusive speech, the 
 
 148 
 
youths of village B. inflicted with their bludgeons the deepest 
 wounds. Therefore let village A. pay a goat to village B. 
 for offensive speech, and then let village B. pay back to 
 village A. a goat for the bloody wounds.' 
 
 " From the gentle clapping of hands with which the as- 
 sembly greeted the judgment of Yakobo it was obvious that 
 he carried the mind of both parties with him, and I as 
 Lord Mayor passed formal sentence to that effect and blessed 
 Yakobo in my heart. And so we have lived happily ever 
 after. I used the opportunity, however, for rubbing in a 
 prospect of a hut tax, if by their evil doings the natives of 
 Likoma should be so unwise as to invite the British Govern- 
 ment to occupy the island ; I called the principal old chief 
 and said, ' How many huts have you, Mzungu ? ' (a hut is 
 equivalent to a wife) ; Mzungu said, ' Five.' I replied, 
 ' That will mean for you to pay shillings six, six, six, six, six. 
 I expect you're keen for the Government to step in here, 
 aren't you ? " 
 
 " As a matter of fact the natives of the island scarcely 
 ever give trouble, and on that occasion what began in almost 
 nothing ended in nothing at all. A goat for a goat. 
 
 " It wouldn't be worth gassing to you Uke this, only I shall 
 be glad if you and Alington understand a little the sort of 
 life I live out here. It is a rummy kind of mixture. When 
 I want to be refreshed I look in at the Infants' school. 
 Picture a hundred infants, the majority of whom have never 
 learnt what it is to obey anyone. They are perfectly dehcious, 
 and when one is naughtier than usual I lay him across my 
 knee and smack him in a motherly spirit. Just now it 
 is holidays, and about four hundred children are assisting or 
 hindering the building of the Cathedral at 4^. per week. 
 So two weeks' work enables them to buy a cloth, and 
 the third week's work can be given as their offering to 
 the Cathedral. 
 
 " The boys play football with bare toes and zeal, when- 
 ever they can get one." 
 
 149 
 
{To a Sister) 
 Dedication of the Cathedral 
 
 On board C.J. at Nkata Bay, October 17, 1905. 
 
 " My dear friend Captain Lyon has been hunting the ship 
 from end to end (about sixty-six feet, he has just measured 
 her with a three-foot rule for your benefit), but no pen is to 
 be found. 
 
 " First of all this is to wish you many happy returns of the 
 day, and, secondly, it is to tell you about the annual meeting 
 of missionaries at Likoma for Retreat and Conference, and 
 the dedication of the Cathedral ; Monday and Tuesday, 
 September 25 and 26, were the days for the assembly, and 
 by Tuesday evening when we went into retreat we mus- 
 tered about forty. Barring those on furlough in England, 
 the only two absentees were Mr. Glossop who got to the 
 south end of the Lake just too late to catch the CM., and 
 the native deacon Leonard, who arrived on the Saturday, 
 having walked about 160 miles. Poor housekeeper ! she had 
 collected two sheep and one cow from different parts of the 
 Lake, but even so it is colossal work to feed forty bodies 
 for more than a week. However, she managed splendidly, 
 and everything went so smoothly that, when she retired to 
 bed with fever on the Saturday, her absence was scarcely 
 felt. The Bishop instructed me that I was to consider myself 
 a guest during the retreat, that is, to have no responsibility, 
 hut, though we sent the school-boys to their villages to be 
 out of the way, the station was full of stranger boys, Nyasas 
 and Yaos by nationaUty, who had been brought by the Euro- 
 peans as their servants, — of course all these had to be housed 
 and fed and kept in good temper, and, most difficult task of 
 all, prevented from making an outrageous hullabaloo during 
 our retreat, so on the whole I think I shall not consider 
 that I have been in retreat. I shall go off for a little private 
 retreat to the College or elsewhere one of these next months. 
 Glossop's absence was a great disappointment, and it meant 
 my having to preach at the dedication of the Cathedral, as 
 well as at the ordination of the deacons on the following 
 Sunday. The last service of the retreat was the dedication 
 
 150 
 
service itself on Michaelmas Day. Michaelmas now is 
 certainly very full of big memories to me — Harvest Festivals 
 and ' sticked ' apples from my very childhood ; then our 
 last Sunday at Salwarpe ; then my last day at Worfield, 
 when I celebrated at the end of this last furlough ; and now 
 the dedication of the Cathedral for which we have all been 
 working hard. I need not tell you about the service, itself, 
 for you can read about it in the Likoma quarterly. I sent 
 Canon Randolph a copy of the service. The rubrics at 
 least are in English. I hope everybody found the service 
 edifying — I think it was very dignified. The Cathedral is 
 very good for sound, so that the singing showed up to 
 advantage. After breakfast that same day we — that is the 
 missionaries and native clergy ( one priest and three deacons) 
 went into conference and said many words. The conference 
 continued next day, but I absented myself, partly as I was 
 laying up for myself a little gentle temperature, and partly 
 because I had to prepare for the next day's ordination 
 sermon. I was not sure how I should feel next day, so I 
 took precaution in writing my sermon, which had to be in 
 EngUsh for the edification of the new EngHsh deacon, whilst 
 teacher Arthur interpreted it into Chinyanja for the benefit 
 of the general congregation. Our brethren dispersed on the 
 Tuesday, and I had the luxury of a few days in bed — most 
 enjoyable and restful. Mr. Glossop turned up at Likoma 
 last week and is staying there in charge of his old flock (he 
 worked ten years on this island), till I return in two days' 
 time ; then he goes to his new charge at Kota Kota. Mr. 
 Piercy goes home on furlough. 
 
 " The Bishop has really gone, said good-bye to Likoma on 
 Monday, the same day that I came here. I am on the C.J. 
 and he is going down the Lake on the CM. 
 
 " The other departure which affects me closely is that of 
 Mr. Willcocks as I shall have to look after the printing office 
 during his furlough. I passed through my apprenticeship 
 in about two hours. If the next number of the quarterly is 
 not quite so beautiful as usual, don't put it down to the 
 sub-editor (Bishop is editor) or printer-in-charge. 
 
 October 19. — Back again in Likoma and Ink. I had a 
 
 151 
 
Very restW time at Nkata and have brought back several 
 of our young Christians who were baptised at Likoma in 
 infancy, but who have from their babyhood been Hving on 
 the mainland, west side of the Lake. One is a boy, James 
 Robert, fifteen years old, in whom Bishop Maples took special 
 interest. Now I hope we shall keep him at Likoma, and 
 that he will be confirmed on the Bishop's return. Yesterday 
 the C.J. took me to another village a few miles from Nkata, 
 where I transacted business of all sorts in a tent which must 
 have had a temperature of about 130, and then I had a two 
 hours' sandy and rocky walk back to Nkata under a grilling 
 sun. Then this morning very early the steamers went back 
 to the same village, and brought the Christians from there 
 to Nkata. I celebrated the Eucharist for them on board. 
 The Government steamer with its Mohammedan crew was 
 anchored a few yards from us. I wonder what they thought 
 of us. Now I must make up the mail, as owing to Mr. 
 Willcocks' departure I am for the time being Postmaster. 
 " You will see from the U.M.C.A. magazine that the 
 Zanzibar diocese is having a bad time — plague at Zanzibar 
 and raid at Masasi." 
 
 [To a Brother) 
 Gardening 
 
 Likoma, November 20, 1905. 
 
 " I have just proclaimed that I will not talk to anyone else 
 and I have shut my door, all because I want to write to you. 
 This afternoon seems to have been frittered away, and yet, 
 as a matter of fact, it has been one continuous talky talk 
 with almost no moments of half-time from ten o'clock till 
 five. 
 
 " My last letter, written nine days ago, was sent to Robin 
 before I knew of this most interesting news of his Change of 
 station. Now I shall have to go home by the south route. 
 He and I might meet half-way and have a picnic at the Vic- 
 toria Falls. Why did you not join the British Association 
 just for the year ? This, being Monday, is the weekly sale — 
 hence the hullabaloo. (Our head female native teacher once 
 said the difference between a native and European was that 
 
 152 
 
the former speak loud and the latter speak soft). The 
 former really only speaks loud when he is excited, but then 
 it takes almost nothing to excite him, and two yards of 
 beautiful blue cloth is enough to upset the equihbrium of 
 the most sober-minded. Mr. Crabb looks after the sale and 
 he is assisted by the great Charlie, head captain of Likoma 
 station. 
 
 " Of course I very much want to know how much of his 
 company my Bishop gives to Ely. Of course he will be at 
 the festival. I wish he could find someone at home who 
 would come out and be his examining chaplain. I am just 
 attacking ' Driver's Deuteronomy.' What in the world 
 does ' parenetic ' mean ? The two deacons Augustine and 
 Eustace are very happy with Wilson at Nkwazi, and on 
 Sundays one of them always comes in to Chipyela to assist 
 me at the Eucharist and sometimes to preach. . . . 
 
 " The oracle out here is generally a bit of leather, which 
 the seer smells and otherwise works. I am told that at Fort 
 Johnston the Government has called in all oracles, and 
 whips anyone who has one in his possession. The rains 
 have arrived, and the station which last week was a barren 
 wilderness has quickly become green with seedlings and soon 
 we shall have the place a gorgeous blaze of zinnias — zinnias — 
 zinnias — almost nothing but zinnias. If we want anything 
 else to grow on this beautiful island, the soil to make the bed 
 has to be brought by boat from the mainland. Last year 
 my own garden was rather a failure. I thought of having a 
 hanging one round my baraza, but the pots never got hung 
 and then the blight got to the convolvulus ; but this year I 
 mean to do better, only I know that somebody must do it 
 for me, otherwise it will never be done. Mr. George, my 
 nearest neighbour (houses about ten yards apart), has a 
 lovely oasis all the year round. I wish I had the Princeps 
 here to plan out my garden for me.^ The C.J. has just 
 whistled, which means that I must stick this letter in the 
 mail bag and send it on its long journey. 
 
 " I am very well — the rain has freshened us all up." 
 
 1 The reference is to Rev. Canon Randolph, and his garden at Ely 
 Theological College. 
 
(To a Sister) 
 Native Disputes 
 
 December 27, 1905. 
 
 *' Everybody is at the wedding this afternoon and that 
 may account for my being able to write to you. Of course, I 
 mean at the festivities in the villages which have succeeded 
 this morning's weddings. There were seven couples : three 
 of the couples were partially catechumens, and so were 
 married with a shorter service at the catechumens' ' barrier,' 
 but the other four were altogether Christian. I married 
 them, and the marriage service was followed immediately 
 by the sung Eucharist for S. John's Day. Out of all the 
 seven girls there were only two who could sign their names 
 afterwards. Outside the church there were the usual rejoic- 
 ings : damsels with their black wool powdered with flour ; 
 youths with antique guns (we had three of them this morning); 
 pages who hold umbrellas over the brides, and ancient 
 dames who make a shrill * tremolo ' whistle by wagging 
 their tongues at lightning speed from side to side of their 
 mouths. It is one of the accompHshments of our Bishop ; 
 if you ever see him, get him to do it. With a little practice 
 you or K. or L. would manage it all right, at least the 
 waggle, but I never knew any European who could do the 
 whistle. Then, after I had sent off the wedding parties and 
 had breakfast, I had a great overhauling of all the boys' 
 blankets, which will be kept in store during the Christmas 
 hohdays, when the boys go to sleep in their villages. Last 
 holidays I let the boys take their blankets with them to 
 their homes, but I found that they were used largely as day- 
 clothing for their sisters and their mothers and their aunts ; 
 so I told the boys at these holidays, however much they loved 
 Mama, they must find some other way of showing their 
 love than by lending Mama the blankets, which are precious 
 Mission property. 
 
 " My last letter home was a nasty scrubby one to N. 
 I could not finish it off properly ; I was in the thick of a 
 serious law case, having just had to lock up one of our 
 Christians, a man who in a fit of passion had thrown a stone 
 
 154 
 
at his own elder half-brother, the chief of his village ; the 
 man died in our hospital from the effects of the wound, a 
 fracture of the skull. So I had to send A.B. to Kota Kota 
 to be tried by Mr. Swann there for manslaughter. He 
 sentenced him to two years' hard labour, but six months of 
 that time will be remitted, on my informing Mr. Swann that 
 the head of the family has made to the representatives of 
 the dead man a payment, which is judged by me, acting in 
 consultation with some native chief, to be sufhcient to 
 comfort them. That is how Mr. Swann combined the EngHsh 
 and the native system of justice ; the EngUsh say ' send 
 to gaol,' and a native says ' pay.' As a rule, if a man is 
 killed, payment goes to his mother's relations ; but the diffi- 
 culty in this case was that both parties had the same mother ; 
 so that, according to native ideas, there could be no big 
 payment. It is simply the question if the head of the family 
 would be willing to give a consolation present to the sister 
 and father of the dead man, he and A.B. having different 
 fathers. So I gathered together five of the wise men of the 
 island (and these old heathen chiefs really have a vast deal 
 of this world's wisdom) and I asked them their opinion. 
 They were unanimous in saying that A.B.'s chief, by name 
 Mzungu, ought to give presents to the sister and father of 
 the deceased ; the father's name is Kabutu. He is also the 
 head-man of his village. Then we asked Mzungu whether 
 he would give the presents. Yes, he would console the 
 sister, but not one jot or tittle would he send to Kabutu. 
 Hadn't Kabutu refused to send him anything when somebody 
 else died ? Sly old villain, he knew that anything he gave 
 to the sister would really remain in his own family, she being 
 on his mother's side, but anything he would give to Kabutu 
 would go clean away into another village. At last he said he 
 would go back to his village and think it over ; the result 
 was that the next day he arrived back on my verandah with a 
 really fine she-goat with which he was willing to comfort 
 Kabutu. I told him he could go back to his village and 
 leave the goat with me, and I would again call my advisers, 
 and ask whether the one she-goat was in their opinion 
 sufficient. Again their unanimous mind was that, whereas 
 
 155 
 
Kabutu might have been satisfied, as a matter of fact he 
 would stick out for something more than the one goat ; and 
 therefore I should tell Mzungu to add on two fathoms of 
 cloth, the price of a he-goat, whereas the she was worth five 
 fathoms. * But, Bwana,' said the worldly wise, ' don't you 
 go and show the extra fathoms ; first go off to Kabutu, 
 only show him the she-goat, and afterwards, if he is stubborn, 
 trot out the fathoms.' Then a happy thought struck me : 
 Mzungu' s brother had been to me the day before about a 
 beastly goat of his which somebody else had borrowed years 
 ago, and which he could not recover. I now sent him post- 
 haste to the village, and in an hour's time there was that 
 goat on my verandah, and its former owner. (As a matter of 
 fact it was a different animal, but that does not matter.) So 
 I carefully explained to its owner that if it had not been for 
 me he would never have got back his goat, and now of course 
 he would be willing to add on this goat to Mzungu's she-goat 
 so that he might help his brother out of his troubles. The 
 second goat was likewise she, and her owner said he couldn't 
 leave her, but he would send a he, and as my learned advisers 
 were agreed that a he would suffice I agreed also, and so that 
 night there were lodged in my goat pen she and he, wherewith 
 to dazzle the eyes of Kabutu on the morrow. 
 
 " So on the morrow my counsellors again assembled, and 
 I sent for Kabutu. He arrived with his sons, and I explained 
 how that by the pressure we had laid upon him, the chief, 
 Mzungu, had brought a fine she-goat to my verandah with 
 the desire of consoling the bereaved father, and I and my 
 counsellors for our part hoped that Kabutu would accept 
 and be comforted. But Kabutu had many words to say, 
 and he said all his, about wanting a cow, and my learned 
 brethren said all theirs, and meanwhile I was keeping a 
 sharp look out along the road for my boy whom 1 had sent 
 to fetch the pair of goats. When I saw him it was time to 
 close the case ; so I told Kabutu that whereas we were agreed 
 that a fine she-goat was no mean present, my counsellors 
 knew how hurt he was by his son's death, and they therefore 
 had voted that Mzungu's family should add on the he-goat to 
 the she, but that was our last word on the subject, and if 
 
 156 
 
Kabutu did not accept this, he would not get anything. By 
 that time both goats were on my verandah and old Kabutu 
 was quite unable to conceal his satisfaction. He chuckled 
 away (not like Mzungu's chuckle), and he called for ' fire,' 
 which means matches, and I gave not one match but half a 
 dozen, box and all, and he lit his pipe and puffed away in 
 highest good-humour and we all enjoyed the joke together. 
 So it was with me externally at least, and inside I had been 
 very anxious about the issue of this case : if we had not been 
 able to get the payment made and accepted, it might have 
 meant a village feud for years. So I was very thankful. 
 
 " These — which appear to outsiders temporal business 
 matters — have the effect of compelling me to feel the need of 
 Divine guidance. The priest-in-charge at Likoma certainly 
 needs a sort of Solomon's wisdom, and meanwhile, whilst I 
 was hobnobbing with these old heathen folks about goats and 
 cloth, I knew that there were many of my Christians waiting 
 for me in church that I might help them also as well as I 
 could. 
 
 " We had a very happy Christmas Day, nearly 600 
 communicants in the Cathedral. Three priests : Mr. Smith 
 celebrated in English soon after midnight ; Mr. Wilson 
 celebrated at the first Chinyanja service at 6 o'clock for the 
 nearer villages ; and I myself at the sung Eucharist at 7.30, 
 when there were about 400 communicants. The CM. 
 arrived about midday of the festival, and we all had tea on 
 board, and the resident Europeans on board returned the call 
 at dinner-time, and afterwards we had a great phonographic 
 performance in the school. 
 
 "In two days' time I hope to go to Chizumulu that I may 
 keep Christmas again there." 
 
 {To a Sister) 
 Umbrellas 
 
 Likoma, 2nd Sunday in Lent, 1906. 
 
 " 1.30 P.M. and before starting to write I have had to 
 light a candle. Ominous rumbles overhead, and I wonder 
 how far I shall have got in this letter before we have a 
 
 157 
 
deluge. My own boy will enjoy the deluge because I gave 
 him leave to take one of my umbrellas to his village, and the 
 deluge will give him an opportunity of showing it off — I 
 mean showing himself off under it. I have four umbrellas ; 
 I often wish there were five, because there are four out-schools 
 to which monitors or teachers go daily from this centre, so 
 in the rains one of the four umbrellas has to go to each out- 
 school. I find, however, that a bath towel over my helmet 
 does very well for my own trotting about from breakfast 
 room to printing office, and printing office to schools, and 
 schools to church, and church back again home. I suppose, 
 as to breakfast and all meals you do realise that the meal- 
 room is a house all by itself whither we all congregate from 
 our own private huts. I am in a happy condition of mind 
 (here's the rain !) this afternoon for several reasons. In the 
 first place, everybody's temperature is normal or sub-normal. 
 Mr. George having departed to the college yesterday to keep 
 Padre Marsh company, I am at the present moment, and I 
 suppose shall be to-morrow, monarch of all the male depart- 
 ments. I shall start to-morrow by calling the head mason 
 and liberally giving all the builders a holiday. I find that 
 is a capital dodge if we become short handed — I mean if 
 we missionary overseers are not up to full strength. For 
 the same reason I rather encourage, than otherwise, the 
 printer apprentices asking a fortnight's leave to hoe in 
 their fields, or to seek their long-lost mothers on the main- 
 land. You know that every native has a pile of mothers : 
 he has his big mother and probably several little mothers, 
 as well as the mother that brought him into the world. 
 So it is not improbable that a boy may ask leave to go 
 to the funeral of his mother to-day, and make the same 
 request a few months hence. Another reason for a happy 
 condition of mind is that whereas three boys after being 
 whacked * did pride ' and departed to their villages, two 
 of them appeared on my verandah this morning after 
 Mattins, and * did humility,' and I have little doubt that I 
 shall see the third before long. The Likoma island boys, 
 having been under Mission discipline so long, give very little 
 trouble this way, so when a boy, after gentle punishment for 
 
 158 
 
talking after lights are out (metaphorically so) leaves my 
 room singing in a lusty voice, ' Good-bye, good-bye, good- 
 bye,' it causes the Padre painful, and his comrades a possibly 
 gleeful, surprise. At least, I think I should have felt some 
 glee, if I had been a comrade instead of a Padre. Then there 
 is another source of much happiness to-day. Did you see a 
 letter I wrote to Ted with a description of my attempt to 
 restore a lady to her husband ? The lady wished to be 
 restored, but papa (a heathen chief) refused to let her go. 
 Well, after months of pigheadedness on all sides the matter 
 was finally settled yesterday, and hubby and wife are once 
 more under the same roof, albeit their baby, who was with 
 its mother on the mainland, is likely to die from want 
 of Nurse Armstrong's medicine. We have had a good 
 beginning to Lent, except on Ash Wednesday itself, when 
 the people came shockingly badly to church. They had two 
 excuses : first, it was a very rainy morning, although the rain 
 cleared off in time for service ; second, they had not taken 
 in the notice. It is quite useless to give out a church notice 
 here as you would in England. A notice to these people, if it 
 is to produce any impression on them, should begin in this sort 
 of way : * Listen to this, all of you listen to this word about 
 a big day. Next Wednesday, when we have slept three 
 days, on Wednesday at ii o'clock when the sun is so high ' 
 (here point up to the roof of the Cathedral to the place where 
 you might expect the sun to be at the appointed hour), and 
 so forth. However, neither excuse could be considered 
 sufficient, so that afternoon I sent a message to a large 
 number of defaulters that I wished to see them, and the next 
 day saw them in troops coming to my verandah, to whom 
 I drove in shame for their bad beginning. The next 
 Wednesday (the special service will be weekly) there must 
 have been about 600 Christians and catechumens in the 
 Cathedral. Instead of preaching I tried catechising, making 
 the congregation repeat the answers and texts in their four 
 divisions of school-boys and girls, and adult men and women. 
 I do not know whether the Christians have been catechised 
 like that before ; it took the adults by surprise and they 
 were shy, but they may be less shy another week. We are 
 
 159 
 
looking forward with considerable joy to Miss Bulley's 
 return and Mr. Winspear's first appearance. Both ought to 
 be here before Easter. He is the deacon for Likoma, and I 
 shall be glad to have his help. Poor Chizumulu has had to 
 go a dreadfully long time without a pastoral visit ; I have 
 simply not been able to get over there. Our one great grief 
 has been the death of Mr. Partridge, one of our two young 
 Brixham trawlers ; he had just been landed at the college 
 from the CM. in order to keep Mr. Marsh company and look 
 after the outdoor labour and students' food. Mr. Marsh 
 brought his body straight over to Likoma in a boat, and we 
 buried him that afternoon in the cemetery. The one who 
 will feel his death very deeply is Brimecombe, his mate out 
 here." 
 
 {To a Sister) 
 Boys and Books 
 
 2nd Sunday after Easter, 1906. 
 
 " I have just finished a long talk about the daily round 
 with Mr. Winspear, my new curate. I am soon to go and talk 
 to Miss Bulley about h<3r daily round, but in between the 
 two I shall start a letter for home. I am responsible for 
 Chinyanja Evensong later on, when the boys have come back 
 from their villages. Before I say anything else, please I 
 want you to thank everybody for the hosts of good things 
 which I got just at Easter. 
 
 " Then there were the kisibatis, with K.'s letter in which 
 she supposes they will reach me about Christmas. She 
 must thank everybody for making them who was concerned 
 in the making of them. They are more than ever acceptable 
 as we have been very destitute of them. It is really appal- 
 ling the length of time goods take in coming out from home. 
 The chief reason is that the poor old Shir6 is nearly dried up. 
 
 " We had a very happy Holy Week and Easter ; one of 
 the native deacons, Eustace, who is reading at the Theo-. 
 logical College at Nkwazi at the south end of the Island, gave 
 the address at the long service. I received rather a shock 
 after the Three Hours' Service was over by finding that a 
 
 160 
 
quantity of the boys had, during the morning of silence, ran- 
 sacked the Ubrary and taken out books to read, and in some 
 cases not even returned them. The Hbrary is our European 
 hbrary, and is as much out of bounds for the native as any 
 of our private houses, and I had never known the natives 
 to go into it without leave ; so I was annoyed to find that 
 about fifty boys must have gone in, and equally amazed to 
 find that they really did not think that they had done wrong. 
 I issued an order that all who had gone into the library 
 must meet me in the school-room that evening, and I asked 
 them why they had chosen to go into the European library 
 instead of into the Bishop's house : they had as much right 
 to go into one as into the other, and the books were as much 
 theirs in the one as in the other. After I had finished my 
 jobation I said : ' Now stand up, those who really did not 
 think they were doing wrong to go into the library and carry 
 off the books,' and every jack-boy in the school-room stood 
 up, and I honestly believe it had not been against their 
 conscience, and even when books were not returned, I 
 believe it was apiece of native carelessness, and not deliberate 
 theft ; very likely a boy took a book on to a hill and when 
 he got tired of it might simply leave it there and not bother 
 about bringing it back. Black boys are even more casual 
 than white boys about properties which are not their own 
 or their master's. Anyhow I do not think the boys will 
 take French leave in the hbrary again. 
 
 " Easter Day was very defightful. There were about 
 630 communicants in the Cathedral that morning, and a few 
 more during the octave, and the singing was tremendous. 
 There were six clergy present : three priests, Mr. Smith, 
 Wilson and myself : and three deacons, Mr. Winspear and 
 the natives Augustine and Eustace. 
 
 '* Easter Monday Mr. Smith and I went over to Chi^u- 
 mulu to keep Easter there. On the previous Christmas 
 Day they had had a village fight, so before Easter I sent my 
 greeting to say that I hoped they would rejoice at Easter 
 without too much beer, which is nearly always at the bottom 
 of a row ; and really in this Easter visit everybody seemed 
 to try their very best to make me happy, and I had almost 
 
 161 M 
 
no quarrels to settle and not one broken head brought up 
 before me. Chizumulu keeps two churches, and I stopped 
 at the one village ' Same ' and Mr. Smith at the other 
 * Chiteko,' so that the two Eucharists were celebrated on the 
 Wednesday morning ; and I had to bustle back as fast as 
 the boat would let me go to Likoma, as I had a class of 
 baptismal candidates awaiting me in the afternoon. The 
 Easter adult baptisms were on the following Saturday. 
 They were the first adult baptisms in the new Cathedral. 
 There were forty baptised that morning. It shows some 
 perseverance that they are willing to come from all parts of 
 the Island (two or three miles) almost every day for eight 
 weeks for their special instruction. You probably know 
 by this time that the previous instruction has lasted four or 
 five years, i.e. two years (if regular) as hearers, and two more 
 as catechumens. 
 
 " No sooner were the baptisms over, than on the follow- 
 ing Monday I went over to Nkamanga (on the west mainland) 
 by the C.J. to keep Easter yet again with our Christians 
 who have settled there. During that week the steamer 
 took me eight hours north to spend a day and night at 
 Kondowe, which is the headquarters of the Scotch Mission. 
 I stopped with Dr. Laws, who has been out here over thirty 
 years. 
 
 " Kondowe throws poor old Likoma (bar the Cathedral 
 and hospitals) quite into the shade. Kondowe is at the 
 top of a hill ; the road from the Lake to the top is twelve 
 miles long, but there is a telephone if you please, by which 
 I was able to insinuate that the good folks at the top 
 might send a machila to meet me. Then near the top we 
 passed the great turbine which works the electric light and 
 machinery in the workshops, and the workshops are quite 
 tiptop. Obviously a very great work is being done there 
 spiritually, intellectually, manually, and I feel how much 
 this Presbyterian Mission may teach us." 
 
 162 
 
{To a Brother) 
 Classes for Christians 
 
 Chipyela, June lo, 1906. 
 
 " To-day ' Chipyela ' {i.e. the place where undesirable 
 people are burnt) is the Cathedral and its surroundings, 
 and to-day there are no worser faggots than those which 
 are boihng the kettle for afternoon tea, and on this blessed 
 Sunday afternoon there is not even the ubiquitous undesir- 
 able imp ; he has gone to his village. I am having a more 
 than usually quiet Sunday and a lazy one, as Padre Eustace 
 Malisawa, one of the native deacons, preached the Chinyanja 
 sermon this morning, and my curate, Winspear, a new arrival, 
 is going to preach to us in English this afternoon. 
 
 " The days at Likoma are so chock full of doings that 
 I really cannot remember much what I have been doing. I 
 know I have given some special addresses to our band of 
 female native teachers — they are really a very intelligent 
 set ; and I have been examining the native students at the 
 Theological College in their * Bishop's exam.,' and I remem- 
 ber that I blew the whistle at a great football match betwjeen 
 Likoma and the training college for native teachers. So 
 you see we have two colleges, the Theological College on the 
 Island of Likoma, and the Training College for teachers on 
 the mainland opposite. Lately we have achieved a great 
 triumph, inasmuch as Likoma and the training college have 
 lately played two football matches, both of which have 
 ended without a free fight. The second match was played 
 at the college ; we went over there in one of our boats ; 
 I think we were about fifty in the boat as well as my arm- 
 chair. I very much wish you could have seen the game. 
 They gird up their loins, and play with enormous zeal, and 
 urge on their companions in the fray by shouting out : 'Your 're 
 tired, you've got no strength left ' ; and then, when a goal is 
 got, the winners sing a chant and clap their hands in rhythm, 
 and have a graceful httle dance and pick up pinches of dust 
 and throw it into the air, and their supporters among the 
 spectators do likewise. 
 
 " This last month we have started Bible classes for 
 
 X63 
 
Christian men in the villages. Generally speaking, there 
 are such a big herd of heathen to be looked after and taught, 
 that the Christians are forgotten ; and strange as it sounds, 
 these Bible classes for Christian men are quite a new experi- 
 ment. But I very much wish that you also could look in on 
 us in the village synagogue at my class on Friday evening. 
 1 am astounded at the intelligence and thoughtfulness of a 
 large proportion of the men. They are evidently very keen 
 to understand, and they ask all manner of questions. These 
 are some of the questions which they have asked me during 
 the last month, ' The comparative merits of the English, 
 Scotch, and Roman churches ' : ' What was the name of the 
 tree of which Eve ate the fruit, and whether the tree was in 
 existence to-day ? ' * How do painters and sculptors know 
 what our Lord looked like ? ' One man said, ' Bwana, I 
 think it was in this way. People used to cut letters in stone 
 long ago, and I think that they also cut faces of men in stone.* 
 I think he must have heard of a very ancient medallion of 
 our Lord which I believe exists, but I forget the story. Of 
 course the features are traditional. The classes are certainly 
 a great help in getting into the minds of these people." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 Arrival of the Fiddle 
 
 steamship Charles Janson, Lake Nyasa, Sept. 12, 1906. 
 
 " I do not know whether the waves and general racket 
 of the steamer will allow me to write, but I will have a try. 
 I have been spending two nights on the west side of the 
 Lake where we have a small colony of native Christians. 
 That is really their ancient home, but many years ago, I 
 suppose before white men had been seen on the Lake, there 
 was tribal war and these people fled from their home and 
 settled at Likoma. In recent years, however, now that 
 peace reigns everywhere, there has been a tendency to return 
 homewards, and so the Mission has to follow them. This 
 has been rather a smart little tour, as I only left Likoma on 
 Monday morning at sunrise, got across the Lake to Bandawe 
 >yhere we dropped some passengers — it is about forty 
 
 J64 
 
miles from Likoma to the Bandawe coast ; then we steamed 
 up the west side about twenty miles to Chizi, where I put 
 out everything that belonged to me except myself ; then 
 on to the next village, Nkata Bay, where I interviewed as 
 many Christians as I could till sundown ; and then the pony 
 carriage — I mean the steamer — trblled me back again to Chizi, 
 and returned itself with Wilson, the other priest who had 
 come to help me, to Nkata. So Wilson and I were able to 
 divide the work ; to-day he celebrated at Nkata and I at 
 Chizi ; and now the steamer has picked me up again with a 
 wonderful medley of passengers, including a young stowaway, 
 and we are on our way back to Likoma. The stowaway 
 is placid and contented, and he is the younger brother of a 
 Likoma boy, so I suppose he will not be left on my hands to 
 be fed. It is a most harassing job to decide which natives 
 to give ' passages ' to, and which natives to refuse. A 
 number of youths wanted to be taken across to Likoma, but 
 I refused on the ground of no room, and they immediately 
 set off to walk down the coast to Kota Kota, about loo 
 miles, in hope of getting on the steamer there. On the other 
 hand, there are folks who don't want to be taken on board, 
 but whom I would bring over if I could. There is one youth 
 married ; the last vision I had of him this morning was as of a 
 hundred yards sprinter making for the hills, lest I should 
 compel him to come back to his wife at Likoma. School- 
 boys are of course a special cause of vexation of spirit. 
 I am always weak enough to carry some over to Likoma 
 to see their sisters or their mothers, and one or another 
 always runs away. To-day I have safely brought back one 
 of last trip's runaways and left one of this trip's, so I feel 
 quits, but I think the stowaway may be counted as some- 
 thing extra to the good. I wish you could have been at this 
 morning's service. We had it in the hut of a native Christian. 
 The altar was made up of my camp chair with a tin box on 
 the top of it, and on the top of the box my ' Cowley Altar,' 
 which you helped to give me. When I opened it I found that 
 some of the linen was soaking in water and badly stained ; 
 I suppose it was water from a boat three days ago. How- 
 ever, we learn to take those sort of disasters philosophically 
 
 165 
 
— much more so than runaway legs round the corner — and 
 nothing else in the box was hurt. There were about thirty 
 people present, and we were all squashed quite tight together ; 
 babies as usual ad lib. on their mamas' backs. You would 
 have liked it all very much except the heat ; the hut was 
 nearly pitch dark except for the two candles on the altar. 
 
 " Before I forget, I must expatiate upon the fiddle. It 
 arrived last week, G string and D string still intact, and I 
 played ' S. George,' and had to imagine the ' ground bass.' 
 It really was rather pathetic, and I did not dare to play 
 without the mute. But it was quite a joy even to tune it, 
 and find that I could still play harmonics. I have almost 
 forgotten how to put on the strings. I do believe, however, 
 that I shall use it for helping the choir up their scales. 
 The other thing I have to expatiate upon is the bacon ; that 
 arrived with the fiddle, but I cannot expatiate upon it at 
 the same length, as — unlike the fiddle case — it has not yet 
 been opened. 
 
 " I am in this cheerful mood because the waves instead of 
 increasing in volume are subsiding. I do not suppose you 
 have any idea what tremendous big seas there constantly 
 are on the Lake during this time of year. Till one knows 
 how wonderful are her sea-going powers, it seems to one 
 almost impossible that the httle C.J. should right herself 
 when a big wave sends her slap over on her side. I do not 
 enjoy it, but I am scarcely ever seasick. At the present 
 moment I am watching a phenomenon which I believe is 
 unique, not known elsewhere, but almost daily to be seen 
 on the Lake. It looks like clouds of smoke on the Lake, 
 sometimes rising like a pillar to a tremendous height. 
 It is really clouds of tiny flies called Nkungu which rise out of 
 the Lake. The natives catch them and make flat cakes of 
 them, like black pikelets. Mr. Shannon, captain of the C.J., 
 who is sitting on my right, is a born naturalist. Whilst 
 I think of it, the violin strings which came with the beast 
 itself, will not in all probabiUty last very long. I suggest 
 that somebody should send me out a quarterly supply in a 
 little round sealed tin by parcel post, and say on the outside 
 what they are. 
 
 i66 
 
" Don't give up writing ; the longer 1 am away from 
 England, the more I shall need letters for my health's 
 sake." 
 
 {To a Brother) 
 A Choir Outing 
 
 steamship C.J., Oct. i, 1906. 
 " Here I am on board the C./. in the middle of a choir 
 outing. When I got fixed up as a missionary in * darkest 
 Africa ' (the sun is glaringly dazzling), I certainly thought 
 that I had left choir trips behind, but we are getting horribly 
 parochial. However this seems Hkely to be the very jolhest 
 outing of the kind I have ever indulged in, and we have begun 
 it by having a grand funeral at sea ; they have just prepared 
 the corpse, rather a long one, about ten feet, and perhaps 
 five feet round, partly to be accounted for by the fact that 
 it is really a double corpse — there is an outside corpse and an 
 inside corpse ; the inside corpse was a poor little goat, and 
 the outside is a most villainous looking old crocodile ; all 
 the more villainous looking because the bullet went bang 
 through one eye. That was yesterday. The goat was 
 drinking by the Lake, and accidentally on purpose, the ' croc' 
 drank the goat ; then Mr. Shannon came along and so the 
 ' croc' did not have time even to get a stomach ache. 
 To-day the croc, was hauled on board and we have taken him 
 out to sea and tied great stones to him, and now he has been 
 dropped overboard. It does not do to let dead crocs, lie 
 about anyhow, because they contain a most deadly poison 
 which natives are fond of extracting for medical purposes. 
 Oh I wish a hundred times that you and a lot of others were 
 coming this choir trip. Of course we are going to the 
 mainland, to a village Ngofi, about an hour and a half's run 
 by steamer. We, as you are not here, are Mr. Winspear, 
 Mr. Shannon (captain) and myself, choir and servers, about 
 three dozen of us. The boys have got food for two meals — 
 rice porridge, with a bit of goat for rehsh (not the croc's 
 goat !). I shall dole out pinches of salt all the way round, 
 also a fish-hook to each boy. We shall be across by midday ; 
 
 167 
 
before sunset I intend that we shall have Evensong in the 
 little church, and then start back by moonlight. I hope it 
 will all turn out as good as it looks on paper. I have not 
 been to Ngofi since my first six months on the Lake, when I 
 walked there along the coast with Mr. Eyre ; that was just 
 after the natives had burnt the Portuguese quarters there. 
 I have left a large party of missionaries at Likoma, as 
 besides the ordinary set there are the two new priests, 
 Russell and Clarke, ordained on Michaelmas Day, and De la 
 Pryme, who came over to assist at the ordination. I had to 
 examine them both for the second part of their priest's exam., 
 * Driver's Deuteronomy ' and ' Illingworth's Personality.' 
 After January, as far as I can see, there will be a lull in 
 deacons' and priests' exams. The two native deacons, 
 Augustine and Eustace, will, I hope, be ordained in Decem- 
 ber, and Winspear, I beheve, in January. These native 
 padres will have had more than a year's training under 
 Wilson at S. Andrew's Theological College, and before, they 
 had been working with the Archdeacon on the steamer. Our 
 one native priest, Yohana Abdallah, has just returned from 
 a visit to Jerusalem. I expect that he will turn up at Likoma 
 for Retreat and Conference in November, so that we shall 
 have an opportunity of hearing what his impressions of the 
 Holy Land are." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Native Christians Killed 
 
 Likoma, Dec. 4, 1906. 
 " I have cut my Catechism class in school for the express 
 purpose of getting a letter off to you by the C.J., which is to 
 leave this morning for the south with the Bishop on board. 
 He wants to go to Zomba, the Government headquarters. 
 Then, on his way back he will hold Confirmations at the 
 C.M.'s villages. But this will possibly mean his having to put 
 off the day of the ordination which was fixed for S. Thomas'. 
 Last week was principally taken up by me with the candi- 
 dates' examination. There are three of them, Augustine and 
 
 168 
 
Eustace, who, after many years in the diaconate, are to be 
 ordained priests, and Leonard Kangati, who was my head 
 teacher at Kota Kota, is to be made a deacon. This will 
 bring up our staff of black clergy to three priests and two 
 deacons (both deacons being Leonards). We heard yester- 
 day that our other priest, Yohana Abdallah, had just had 
 an exciting and unpleasant experience. Last Saturday 
 week he was going back with other natives from Likoma to 
 his home at Unangu, when, on Sunday morning as they were 
 preparing for the Eucharist at their camping ground en 
 route, they were attacked by raiders belonging to a powerful 
 chief, Mahnganile. The chief unfortunately was in the rear, 
 and did not know that Yohana was there, so two of 
 Yohana's men — Christians — were killed. Then up came 
 Malinganile, and when he saw Yohana they shook hands. 
 At present we have only got the news from three other of 
 Yohana's men who ran back to the Lake shore, and have 
 gone to report the matter to the Portuguese headquarters at 
 Mtengula ; we have had no news direct from Yohana, but 
 we hope he has been able to get back all right to Unangu. 
 But with two men killed and others probably wounded (a 
 third boy was killed, a printer apprentice going to Unangu 
 for his holiday), it was a very sad ending to his ' Retreat and 
 Conference ' week at Likoma. I wonder what the Portuguese 
 will do. Generally their efforts are quite futile. Only about 
 three weeks ago they made an attack on Malinganile' s 
 village, but Mahnganile and his men simply ran away and 
 remain to fight another day. The other big chief who hves 
 near Yohana is called Mataka (not the old one of the same 
 name), and Yohana nearly fell foul of him as he was 
 journeying across country from the East African coast after 
 his visit to the Holy Land. Mataka had heard that Yohana 
 was leading an army of Germans against him, and it was only 
 after Mataka's scouts had ascertained for certain that there 
 were no white men with Yohana that Mataka allowed him 
 to go through his district, and not only so, but (as Yohana 
 told me) he stayed three days at Mataka's village, and 
 Mataka gave him a present and was altogether very civil. 
 Fortunately, Yohana is not only a Mission padre, but he 
 
 169 
 
Comes of a very good stock, so that the old heathen chiefs 
 do not disdain him. 
 
 " The week of Retreat and Conference was very deUghtful. 
 I mean especially it was very delightful seeing everybody 
 from the other stations, Kota Kota, Mponda's, Malindi, 
 Mtonya, as well as those who work on the steamers. Miss 
 Mann was in good force and very keen about her work at 
 Malindi, an especially difficult station, where, in spite of 
 many years of work, they have not yet got a single woman or 
 girl to become a catechumen. At least I beheve that is so, 
 but now things really seem to be looking up. Some of the 
 padres brought up large contingents of native boys that they 
 might see the Cathedral. I was rather dismayed at first 
 at this unexpected addition, as my chief aim during the 
 Retreat is to keep the station quiet as far as possible, and 
 even as it was, the first night of Retreat I had to drive away 
 a quarrelsome youth, and send him to sleep down by the 
 Lake. But really everybody behaved beautifully and the 
 visitors had brought their own cooks, so were no trouble." 
 
 {To a Sister) 
 Want of Rain 
 
 Likoma, ist Sunday after Christmas, 1906. 
 " As you see, my big Christmas is over, but I am expect- 
 ing to keep two more during these next two weeks, to-morrow 
 going by boat to Chizumulu, where I expect to stay over 
 next Sunday, and then going by the C.J., if she appears at 
 Likoma between now and then, to the west mainland, which, 
 as you know, I visit about once a quarter for the purpose of 
 seeing our Church Christians who have settled over there. 
 We have as usual had a Christmas with very much to be 
 thankful for — just about 600 natives of the island have 
 made their Christmas Communion in the Cathedral. I 
 myself celebrated in English at 5 A.M. so as to get a little 
 quiet before the bustle of the day. I was also able to take 
 the Blessed Sacrament from the altar to Arthur, our head 
 native teacher, who has for months been ill ; I have very 
 little doubt that he is consumptive. Before going into 
 
 170 
 
church I had already sent boys with bells to the nearest 
 villages to call those who were to come to the first Chinyanja 
 service when Mr. Wilson was celebrant. In spite of their 
 being about 250 communicants at that service, it was over 
 by 7.30 and then the people streamed into the Cathedral 
 for the sung service when the Bishop officiated. Edith says 
 in her last letter, * I daresay you will be very busy teaching 
 the choir the Christmas music' Alas, I had no time ! 
 For a fortnight before the festival we hadn't a single practice, 
 and the boys just now are very weak, not a single good voice 
 among them, whereas a year ago there were three good 
 voices ; so our singing this Christmas has not been beautiful. 
 Moreover, Christmas comes to us at the very most piping 
 sweltering time of the year, and the African chorister, though 
 he is not exactly obstinate like the beloved A. H., simply 
 thinks it silly to sing when he doesn't feel inclined. Talking 
 of heat, the natives are wanting rain badly ; we reckon our 
 rainy season from December to May, but at present we have 
 scarcely had a drop. As I came up from my Christian men's 
 bible-class which I have in a village on Friday nights, one of 
 the men asked whether we might not start praying for rain 
 in church. I said we certainly will if you and some of the 
 other men come to me and tell me to-morrow that it is the 
 general wish. However, they haven't been yet." I expect, 
 however, we ought to start praying, especially as the heathen 
 (I hope no Christian) villages have begun using their charms 
 and consulting the oracle with a view to rain. I haven't 
 yet sown my own garden, but I hope Miss Bulley will do it for 
 me next week when I am away at Chizumulu. If you see 
 Mr. Frank George during his stay in England, ask him to 
 tell you about my garden. He left Likoma a few days 
 before Christmas and I miss him almost more than it is 
 possible to miss anyone out here — I mean that people come 
 and go, and one hasn't time to think who is here and who 
 isn't. But George's house is only ten yards from mine, 
 and I do miss him very much. He is a wonderful power on 
 the island. He is not very big in body, but he is huge in 
 his influence among the men and boys. His verandah is the 
 general gossip ground of the school-boys, and he is (to put it 
 
 171 
 
mildly) perhaps the only person whose judgment of boys* 
 character I trust above my own ! ! And in his own work as 
 architect of the Cathedral, as the Bishop says, George has 
 only to throw a bit of dirt at the building to make the men 
 see exactly what he wants them to do, and they do it; Mr. 
 Winspear (my curate) has moved into George's house. He 
 too is a treasure, and his work (chiefly in looking after the 
 out -schools on the island and superintendence of village 
 dormitories) is very thorough, but of course the natives don't 
 know him well yet. But talking of curates and Mission 
 staff, the Bishop told me a very delightful bit of news some 
 days ago, namely that Dennis Victor has definitely volun- 
 teered for this diocese. Moreover, if he can come very soon, 
 I believe he will work at Likoma." 
 
 A Village Fight 
 
 S. Michael's College, January 8, 1907. 
 " I have accomplished my visit to Chizumulu, but have 
 not been to the west coast as the C] . hasn't turned up, 
 so I have come over here instead for a week's holiday, 
 and very delightful it is. The students are away at their 
 homes, so it is quiet. Mr. Marsh (Principal) is here, and 
 so is Mr. Taylor, who looks after the catering. I got here 
 yesterday (Tuesday) and mean to be here till Monday, leaving 
 the Bishop and Mr. Winspear (deacon) in charge of Sunday 
 at Likoma. Nurse Armstrong made a special pilgrimage 
 to the Bishop's room to say that she thought I had better 
 be at the college here for Sunday. I can't remember ever 
 having a Sunday free from responsibility since I have been 
 in charge at Likoma. I had a great time at Chizumulu. 
 The Chizumuluites are the strangest of people.' Living on 
 an island only about three miles long, they spend a large part 
 of their time fighting between the villages. A year ago they 
 fought on Christmas Day ; this year they waited to fight 
 till I had got there ; then we had two days of it. On the 
 first day I knew nothing about it till it was over ; but on the 
 second day I girt up my cassock, and ran to the field of 
 action, where they were pelting one another with stones. 
 
 172 
 
And there I stood on a little mound of earth between the 
 combatants and shouted, ' You shameless people, how dare 
 you defy the law ? Every jack-man that is a Christian 
 among you — you'll just sit in disgrace among the cate- 
 chumens ; M.L., there have I been preparing you this 
 very morning for your first Communion — drop that stone 
 this instant.' To which command M.L., who a few minutes 
 previously had been sitting at my feet in church, a nice 
 earnest young man to all appearances, answered, ' No, 
 Bwana, no,' and off went the rock he was carrying in the 
 direction of some enemy's head. Then everybody thought 
 it was time to stop, and we pioneered the party that were 
 on the offence back to their village ; and then I called the 
 ringleader (a heathen) into my room privately, where he sat 
 gentle and submissive as a lamb whilst I talked to him ; and 
 then I talked to the few offenders who were Christians, in the 
 school, and afterwards I told poor M.L. that, as he didn't 
 seem yet to have learnt the first elements of Christian living, 
 he had better think it over during this next month, and I 
 would help him again next month to prepare for his first 
 Communion. What I tried to show the Christian youths 
 was that a man can't be two people, a thorough-going 
 Christian in church, and a thorough-going heathen outside, 
 and that's what they try to be. I don't know how far they 
 grasped the idea, but I know that they arrived at the con- 
 clusion that ' Padre doesn't like a noise ! ' Sunday at Chizu- 
 mulu (Feast of the Epiphany) was a wonderful day. There 
 are two Mission stations on the island, but, as I couldn't 
 be at both, all the Christians and catechumens of the island 
 came to Chiteko, the station where I was sleeping. The 
 church was nothing like big enough to hold the whole crowd, 
 so we first of all had Mattins for everybody out of doors, 
 when I preached of course about the light having now reached 
 even to the Gentiles of Nyasa. It is, by-the-bye, rather touch- 
 ing how the natives commonly speak of their heathendom 
 as the time when they hved in ' darkness.' Then we sent 
 the catechumens home, and the Christians came into church 
 for the Eucharist, when there were 140 communicants. I 
 still expect to go to the west coast next week. We are 
 
 173 
 
dreadfully short of steamers. The CM. is laid up for two 
 months and the C.J. is playing truant." 
 
 In January 1907 Arthur began to complain of pain in his 
 right leg. It got rapidly worse for five days, and he became 
 very lame, and finally had to take to his bed. 
 
 The following letter explains the situation : 
 
 {To a Sister) 
 A Bad Leg 
 
 Likoma, Jan. 22, 1907. 
 " The steamer is going to leave here in an hour's time, 
 and I finished my mail for it weeks ago. This, however, is a 
 medical P.S. to it. Since writing to F. I have been to Nka- 
 manga (west side of the Lake) as I hoped, but though I was 
 able to get through my work I did so under difficulties, 
 as I was bothered with what I put down as rheumatism in 
 one leg ; most happily we had to go to the Scotch Mission 
 station at Bandawe with an invitation from our Bishop 
 to the Scotch doctor there, asking him to come over and 
 pay a visit to Likoma. He and the Bishop had travelled 
 out together from England. So the doctor came with us 
 to Likoma and his advice to me is this : ' It is quite im- 
 possible to say at present whether the pain in your hip was 
 caused by rheumatism or not, but taking into consideration 
 your finger with its tuberculosis, you had better lie up for a 
 time ; whether it is rheumatism or not, a lie up won't do 
 you any harm, and then when Dr. Howard arrives (in six 
 weeks' time) he can decide. . . .' So I am going to rest in 
 bed for the next few weeks, and whilst Mr. Wilson will do 
 my work, I shall do his to the extent of teaching (lecturing !) 
 three or four students in preparation for their * Readership.* 
 It will be a very good thing to have something light like that 
 whereby to pass the time. I have absolutely no pain in my 
 leg now and there is no reason to be doleful. I don't feel in the 
 least doleful ; perhaps I shouldn't even have troubled to 
 write this P.S. only you may hear from other sources that 
 I was laid by and you might wonder what was the matter. 
 
 174 
 
In any case I shall stop quiet like this till Dr. Howard's 
 arrival — he is very careful." 
 
 Dr. Howard first saw him in March when he had been in 
 bed about eight weeks. He was kept in bed another 
 fortnight and then allowed to get up and to walk a Httle. 
 
 On April 2 he had to return to bed as he still suffered 
 pain. It was clear that any attempt to return to his work 
 and walk about freely over rough country was out of the 
 question, and it was determined that he must leave on 
 furlough . 
 
 Ordered Home 
 
 Likoma, April 14, 1907. 
 
 " I suppose this may be my last letter home from Likoma 
 Island for many a long day. I wonder whether you will be 
 surprised or not, when you get my cable which I mean to 
 send off by the Government steamer if it calls here this 
 week. . . . 
 
 " Well, my own feeling is that Dr. Howard is a very wise 
 man. From his first examination, about the middle of 
 Lent, he said that my leg was very nearly in a normal con- 
 dition. I felt no pain at all by any upward pressure from the 
 foot which I was bound to have felt if there had been any- 
 thing much wrong with the hip-joint, and I could move my 
 leg about with considerable freedom ; the two faults to find 
 were a little grating in the joint, and an occasional spasm if 
 I moved my leg thoughtlessly, especially in my sleep. So 
 the doctor kept me in bed till the Wednesday in Holy Week, 
 when he let me get up to try my leg, and I found I could walk 
 about quite comfortably. Of course the doctor would not 
 let me do much, but about Easter Tuesday I felt my leg not 
 quite so comfortable, so the doctor sent me back to bed 
 again, and then he began to tell me that he didn't think that 
 the leg would be strong enough to stand the strain of being 
 pries t-in-charge for a good long time to come, and we are 
 agreed that if I can't be in full working order it is useless to 
 attempt half measures. 
 
 " For myself I feel very thankful for the doctor's decision, 
 
 175 
 
and now it is decided for me to take my furlough this year, it 
 seems almost too good to be true that I really shall soon be 
 eating roast beef again ; I had meant to say something 
 more sentimental, but that will do instead. 
 
 " I am going to travel from Fort Johnston down the 
 rivers, and by machila to Chinde with Mr. Wilson, and so 
 also on with him to the Cape. We shall have to leave Fort 
 Johnston about June lo, and our boat leaves Chinde on 
 July 3 (so I beheve). We have to change boats at Durban, 
 and have five days there in a comfortable hotel. I wish 
 someone had been going on furlough (before Wilson) with 
 whom I could have travelled; but it would be rather awkward 
 going by myself, looking after luggage, &c., so I am glad to 
 have him, even though we don't leave the Lake for nearly 
 another two months. 
 
 " But I am going to spend these next weeks very 
 pleasantly. At the doctor's own suggestion I am going 
 down by the Chauncy Maples (leaving here in ten days' 
 time) to Malindi at the south end of the Lake. There I 
 shall have a month which 1 expect thoroughly to enjoy. I 
 know they will all make one comfortable, and there is a 
 charming hospital looking out on to the Lake. 
 
 " It is two and a half years, i.e. from November 1905, 
 since I have seen any European station of our Mission off 
 Likoma Island (except Mr. Marsh's college for teachers) ! 
 The natives at Malindi talk Chi-yao, so I think I shall amuse 
 myself by learning a new tongue. 
 
 " Well, after Durban (I have of course planned it all out 
 with Dr. Howard), we arrive at the Cape, and so I am pro- 
 posing to Robin that I shall stay with him for a few weeks, 
 exactly how many I can't say. I think there may be a 
 chance of one of the sisters coming out from England and 
 possibly travelling home with me from there." 
 
 176 
 
srMjA\ A I I.I 
 
 MR. DOUGLAS LEAVING LIKOMA, APRIL I907 
 
{To a Sister) 
 
 Likoma, Trinity Sunday, 1907. 
 
 "It was truly delightful to get the cable saying ' Sister 
 Capetown Edith/ I expect my cable made you think that I 
 am much less self -capable than I really am, but when you 
 see me hale and hearty with an enormous appetite — all 
 serene except for a leg which has to be remembered — I hope 
 that you will enjoy your time at the Cape all the more. . . . 
 I am carrying with me a very full explanation of myself 
 written by Dr. Howard, and this I am to show to anyone who 
 shall further examine me. Dr. Howard wants me to see a 
 Capetown doctor, so that any change in my condition may 
 be notified. . . . Dr. Howard has every hope of my whole 
 self becoming quite sound again if I rest. So I spend my days 
 something after this sort — lying down nearly the whole day ; 
 sitting up for meals ; I walk about the room when necessary, 
 and have my bath like a reasonable creature, and walk on to 
 the verandah, where it is quite delightful to lie and read. 
 Occasionally I go to church, and sit down for most of the 
 service. 
 
 " This is what I find suits me best. Walking causes me 
 no trouble at the time, but, if I get the least tired, my leg 
 begins to ache." 
 
 One of his sisters did come out to the Cape to meet him, 
 and he arrived in England in August 1907, and was laid up 
 for some months.. 
 
 In September he was lent a bungalow in the New Forest, 
 and there he carried on the open-air treatment which he had 
 been recommended, and became very much better. The 
 bungalow was called " Little Hatchett." One or other of 
 his sisters and various friends stayed with him there from 
 time to time. 
 
 " Here I am," he writes on October 11, " back again in 
 England, ' invalided ' home for the time being. From 
 January to June I lay, and then started home, reaching 
 England in August. 
 
 " Now I am doing open-air cure business in a bungalow 
 
 177 N 
 
in the most charming part of the New Forest ; a lake with 
 swans, which make a noise Uke a flying ship, at my front 
 gate ; three miles of heather and gorse (alas ! not in blossom) 
 all round, mixed up with golden bracken, and then oak and 
 beech and pine forest. Beaulieu Abbey in ruins a mile 
 beneath me, and everywhere a hurricane of fresh air, so 
 healthy and, ugh ! so cold, especially for the poor Central 
 Africander. As a letter will take (until I return to African 
 Utopia) one day to reach me, instead of eight weeks, write 
 quickly." 
 
 On November 24 he writes to his sister : 
 
 " I have suggested to Dr. Sandwith that I should hke to 
 pay him a visit before Christmas, and that it might now be 
 a good thing to see a surgeon — and I mentioned to him 
 December 3, as I thought then I should have a good excuse 
 (being as near to Cambridge as London) for going on to 
 Cambridge for the great U.M.C.A. meeting in the Senate- 
 house, which is to commemorate Livingstone's speech there, 
 December 4, 1857, which gave the start to the Mission. And 
 now, at the meeting of December 4, 1907, a new diocese west 
 of Likoma is to be inaugurated. I got Dr. Sandwith's reply 
 yesterday saying that, after consulting with Dr. Oswald 
 Browne (another of our medical board) he had arranged with 
 Mr. Clutton, senior surgeon at S. Thomas's Hospital, that 
 I should meet Dr. Sandwith at Mr. Clutton's house at noon 
 of December 3. . . . Of course the whole question of my 
 finger will be fully taken into account. I want particularly 
 to ask Mr. Clutton whether he advises any other form of 
 exercise to work off whatever stiffness remains, and to 
 strengthen the leg. He will no doubt also tell me whether he 
 thinks I should go on with the outdoor treatment. I shall 
 have had three and a half months of it, so I expect he will 
 say I can return to a more normal existence. I don't in the 
 least know whether, after this interview with the surgeon, the 
 doctors will give me more definite hopes of returning to 
 C. Africa. There is plenty of time to think about that ; 
 what I chiefly want now is to get surgeon's opinion as to 
 
 178 
 
the best way of getting the leg perfectly free and strong 
 in its action. . . . 
 
 " The Emperor (of Germany — three motor-cars) passed 
 our front gate an hour ago. I was in the garden close to the 
 house, so could not distinguish faces, and all the cars were 
 more or less shut up." 
 
 Early in 1908 Arthur had become quite strong again, 
 and there was soon no doubt that he would be able to return 
 to work in Africa. 
 
 This chapter may fitly close with the following ap- 
 preciation of him by Miss Schofield : 
 
 " I was a worker under U.M.C.A. 1899-1906, and during 
 the latter years had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Douglas 
 four times. What impressed me most was his eagerness 
 about things pertaining to the schools, and his joyousness. 
 
 " I well remember our first meeting. We, from Malindi, 
 were on our way to Likoma, and had put in at Kota Kota 
 to pick up workers there. As soon as we had exchanged 
 greetings Mr. Douglas plunged into school work. He was 
 anxious to know how far I was able to apply English methods 
 (I am a certificated teacher) to my African work ; what 
 plans were being adopted at Malindi for getting and keeping 
 the children in school, and what had been abandoned on 
 account of failure. In the welfare of the girls he was 
 especially interested ; and also, if I remember rightly, as to 
 the advisability of teaching boys and girls together. Where 
 one's failures were concerned one felt how really he sym- 
 pathised, and his bright manner cheered one wonderfully. 
 
 " Our next meeting was when he was starting his fur- 
 lough. Arrived at the south end of the Lake, he had to wait 
 for a river steamer, and came from Mponda's to pay a call 
 at Malindi. He rode the donkey (Snowball ?), and on his 
 way had to pass through Chindamba's village, where was a 
 Mission school. He thought that it would be a nice little 
 surprise for the children and for me, if he were to ride in un- 
 announced. So coming to a large oblong hut which he 
 felt sure must be the school, he left the road, and rode 
 towards it. He was a little surprised at the absence of 
 
 179 
 
* ABCha'-ing or other chanting in unison, and when inside 
 beheld an empty room. A man suddenly appeared and in- 
 quired if he wished to see the chief, as that was his house, 
 which had only just been fiurnished. Mr. Douglas explained 
 his mistake, and the school was pointed out. He dismounted , 
 told me the story, and was laughing heartily about it when 
 a messenger came to say that the chief was ready to receive 
 him. So he returned to the new house where Chindamba 
 was sitting in state — in a deck chair — on his verandah. The 
 usual poUte greetings took place, and then I think Mr. 
 Douglas had to leave or send something in the shape of a 
 present, according to the native custom. He said it served 
 him right, and we had many a laugh over it. 
 
 " As I said above, he seemed to have a fund of joyousness 
 and to be happy and merry the few times I saw him ; 
 and I used to think that ' the Peace of God which passeth 
 understanding ' was shown in his face." 
 
 i8o 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE THIRD SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK 
 S. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE, I908-I9II 
 
 Arthur made a good recovery and started out again in 
 July 1908. His plan was to see something of his brother at 
 Rondebosch in Cape Colony and go up the country by rail, 
 joining his ship again at Beira. The following very interest- 
 ing letter describes his experiences. 
 
 [To a Sister) 
 Across Africa 
 
 Illovo (Aberdeen Rennie Line), one day south of Beira, 
 
 August 26, 1908, 
 
 " My trek up country from the Cape to Delagoa Bay 
 is over, and now I must tell you all about it, because it was 
 quit^ one of the most interesting experiences of my life. 
 I left Capetown on Monday evening the 17th, and two nights 
 in the train brought me to Bloemfontein. All my journeying 
 was very comfortable and thanks to my tea-basket and some 
 of the good eatables which you all provided me with, my 
 food bill on the train dining-cars was not a very expensive 
 itemx. As I was getting out of the train at Bloemfontein on 
 the Wednesday morning a cheery voice greeted me, ' Let me 
 take your bag, Arthur.' I expect I had not seen E. Short 
 since he was at Malvern Link, so that of course I should not 
 
 181 
 
have recognised him. He looked after me splendidly, both 
 on the Wednesday morning when I had only half an hour 
 at Bloemfontein station, and on my return from Modder- 
 poort on the following Friday. I was waiting for the train to 
 Modderpoort when up trotted a lady from S. Michael's with 
 a note from Miss Edwards, inviting me to their seven o'clock 
 Eucharist at S. Michael's on the Friday, and to breakfast after- 
 wards ; then off I went on my pilgrimage to Modderpoort, 
 reaching the station there at half -past two in the afternoon. 
 A young Father belonging to the Society of the Sacred Mission 
 met me at the station and brought me up to the community 
 house ; you can imagine what my feelings were like when 
 I reached the beautiful garden, of which the aunts love to 
 speak, and then the house, and close to the house Uncle 
 Jem's grave.* It Hes between the grave of Father Beckett 
 and the later grave of Brother Arthur. Father Drake, 
 the present head of the community, arrived at the house 
 soon after me, and he gave me a most kind welcome, saying 
 among other things how grateful he was for the aunts' 
 continued interest in Modderpoort. After tea he took me 
 through the graveyard and garden to the farm. 
 
 " I took several photographs of Modderpoort. 
 
 ** I slept in the community house in a Uttle room next 
 door to the library in the same passage as the library 
 refectory. The church is, as you know, new and very beauti- 
 ful (except the iron roof) ; the vestry has an inscription 
 carved in the stone outside ' In memoriam Jacobi Douglas.' 
 On the following morning I had the privilege of celebrating 
 the Eucharist, and then soon after breakfast Father Drake 
 drove me over to Ladybrand in the very cart which Uncle 
 Jem used on his long treks ; at least the body of the cart is 
 the same. One hour's drive brought us to Ladybrand, and 
 then, whilst Father Drake went to examine the coloured loca- 
 tion school, I was handed over to Father Hilde, the member of 
 their community who is in charge of Ladybrand. The new 
 church of S. James at Ladybrand is in memory of Uncle 
 Jem, and after I had had a Uttle talk with the caretaker, 
 Mrs. B., who was in Ladybrand in R.'s 2 time, though not an 
 » Father James Douglas. • Arthur's brother, the Rev. Robert Douglas. 
 
 182 
 
official, 1 went into the church. Father Hilde told me rather 
 a good story about the British commander in the district 
 during the war, how he told the then superior that he must 
 commandeer the church for use as a hospital ; but going into 
 the church he found the windows would not open (an essential 
 for a hospital), and saying it would be a shame to break 
 the beautiful stained glass he agreed not to commandeer 
 the church after all. The beautiful stained glass consists of 
 coloured paper pictures gummed on ordinary glass ; of course 
 the discreet Father kept quiet. I think it was Father 
 Saunderson, but I am not certain. I also saw the little 
 old church which Uncle Jem and Robin used, but it is now a 
 carpenter's shop. Then Father Hilde trotted me round the 
 town. . . . 
 
 " You can imagine how very hearty everybody was and 
 how they wanted to know about the aunts, &c. Then Father 
 Drake drove me back to Modderpoort in time for midday 
 dinner, and in the afternoon I pottered about in the garden 
 and saw Father Beckett's cave and the bushmen's paintings 
 on the rock. At eleven o'clock that night I had to say good- 
 bye to the beautiful place and the kind people, and Father 
 Drake walked with me to the midnight train which landed 
 me at Bloemfontein the next morning at 5.30. I walked 
 to S. Michael's Home and at a few minutes to seven I boldly 
 clanged the very loud front door bell, and my clanging 
 brought the Mother Superior out of Prime to welcome me. 
 . She had been told by Miss E. of my coming, and indeed I 
 afterwards found that it was she, the Mother Superior, who 
 was most kindly going to act as hostess at breakfast in her 
 own rooms, the breakfast party consisting of herself and 
 Miss E., Edward, and myself ; but first there was the beautiful 
 service in the chapel, the celebrant being the chaplain, Mr. 
 Pinel, an old Ely man. Edward walked back with me to 
 the train for Johannesburg, leaving Bloemfontein 8.45. One 
 of my travelling companions was Mr. Rice, the new six-foot- 
 four priest in charge of the Railway Mission. 
 
 " In the latter part of the afternoon the train crossed the 
 Vaal river, and so from the Orange River Colony I entered 
 the Transvaal and reached Johannesburg about eight o'clock 
 
 183 
 
that evening, and was met at the station by a lay brother of 
 the Community of the Resurrection whose acquaintance 1 
 had made this spring at Mirfield ; and so within twenty-four 
 hours I had been in the chapels of three different communi- 
 ties, joining in Compline at Modderpoort and Johannesburg 
 and being privileged to make my Communion at Bloem- 
 fontein betwixt the two extremes. I had no time to see 
 the cathedral at Bloemfontein. You know that I was not 
 able to spend any longer time at Bloemfontein, as I was all 
 the time trying to overtake my party at Delagoa Bay. 
 And in fact I made up my mind that if by leaving Johannes- 
 burg on Saturday, the day after I got there, instead of 
 Sunday, I could better hit off my party at Delagoa Bay, 
 I must do so, and give up having my Sunday morning with 
 my Nyasa boys at Johannesburg ; so T was of course very 
 thankful and very pleased when I received a wire from 
 Delagoa to say I should be in time if I left Johannesburg at 
 noon on Sunday, so I had the whole of Saturday, and the 
 most important part of Sunday at Johannesburg. After 
 supper on the evening I got there, I had a long chat with the 
 Likoma man who has been acting as catechist to the Nyasas 
 at Johannesburg, though I know him far better as one of our 
 best boatmen at Likoma. On Saturday he and I took the 
 train to a station on the rand, the whole way being lined 
 with mines, and I looked up another Likoma boy who was 
 acting as cook at a little boarding-house. I also went into a 
 compound and saw the kind of way the mine boys live and 
 sleep. By the time we got back to the community there 
 were half a dozen more Nyasas who had come to sleep and 
 to see me and to join with me in a Chinyanja celebration the 
 next day. As a matter of fact there happened to be fewer 
 Nyasas than usual at Johannesburg, but I was very thankful 
 to be able to do even what I did. Of course it was the first 
 time there had ever been a Chinyanja celebration in the com- 
 munity chapel, and though we were only a small company we 
 sang everything just as it is sung up at the Lake. By a 
 curious coincidence, four Nyasas had been baptised by a 
 priest of the community only on the preceding Sunday ; and 
 so on the Sunday after the Baptism they were able to be 
 
 184 
 
present at a Eucharist in their own tongue. After breakfast 
 my time was largely taken up with receiving money (gold 
 and silver) from the boys to take home for their wives, 
 and to buy clothes for their children. Some of them had 
 not been back to Nyasa for six years, a terribly long time to 
 be away from home. I did what I could to persuade them 
 to return quickly. I was busy up to the last minute before 
 the cab came to take me to the midday train for Delagoa 
 Bay, so that I could not go to see Father Shaw ; I was so 
 sorry. So on Sunday at noon I left Johannesburg and, 
 vid Pretoria, I reached Delagoa Bay on the next morning at 
 half -past seven, not a whole seven days since I said good-bye 
 to Rondebosch. Though I had wired to my party to expect 
 me by that train, none were at the station to meet me, for 
 the best of reasons ; four were keeping S. Bartholomew's 
 morning at the church of the Lebombo Mission, and one 
 was seedy in bed. That same morning we left Delagoa 
 Bay ; yesterday we stopped at Mhambane, where I 
 visited another Lebombo Mission station, and to-morrow 
 morning we ought to reach Beira, where we must tranship 
 into a little steamer to take us on to Chinde." 
 
 {To a Sister) 
 Improved Travelling on the Shir^ 
 
 Houseboat on River Shir6, Sept. 3, 1908. 
 " Snodin, Tom Hallson, and I, who are inhabiting one 
 houseboat, have just finished a couple of games of 
 ' patience ' ; the three ladies. Miss Murton, Miss Newton, 
 and Miss Nixon Smith, are in another houseboat a few 
 hundred yards ahead of us. So we have reached the 
 punting stage, and I have been taking snapshots out of the 
 rear window of this little house at the helmsman, and out 
 of the fore window at the punters. One is really almost 
 ashamed to travel up the Shire nowadays in this luxurious 
 fashion, whilst dear people at home are picturing the poor 
 missionaries having the same rough time they had twenty 
 years ago. As a matter of fact, the comfort of travelling 
 up the Shire has improved enormously since even I first 
 
 185 
 
Came out. Of course it is very hot, and I daresay the 
 thermometer in this room would be well over a hundred, 
 but whereas the little cabin, which I remember in old days, 
 was only high enough to creep into and sit down in, this 
 cabin I can easily stand up in ; it has a good opening at each 
 end, and room enough inside for three camp beds and a little 
 table, altogether adapted for playing ' patience.' More- 
 over, it does add very largely to one's happiness in travelling 
 when one has learnt to understand punters' habits, and can 
 talk to them in an impressive way. Till one can understand 
 their habits and language, one is always supposing they are 
 pulling the ignorant European's leg, and resting when they 
 ought not to rest, and so forth, but now all goes with 
 beautiful smoothness. Of course these river boys are not 
 Lake boys, but they can talk the Lake dialect sufficiently for 
 us to understand each other ; for example, when I came out 
 of the cabin at 5 a.m. this morning and shouted to them 
 slumbering on the bank * Sonka mo to,' they all knew that it 
 was my order to light a fire and make tea. At Beira we 
 found the little Beira-to-Chinde coasting steamer waiting 
 for us, so we did not even go ashore at Beira, but transhipped 
 straight away, and were off in the coaster within three hours 
 of reaching the Beira harbour.' The thirty-six hours from 
 Beira to Chinde was much the least pleasant part of the whole 
 journey. The little coaster was just like a cork on the top 
 of the water, and went much slower than usual owing to 
 having a big barge tied on behind her ; but no matter — 
 thirty-six hours is only thirty-six hours, and at Chinde we 
 recovered our spirits (our ghosts as the German doctor once 
 said to me) on finding that the Zambesi steamer was all in 
 readiness to take us on board. ... In spite of the fact that 
 it was nearly dark by the time we reached Chinde, and that 
 we were there only a couple of hours, I saw a wonderful 
 number of our Nyasa boys. They had got wind of the fact 
 that' we were coming, and some were ready to welcome us 
 when we reached the harbour, and others kept turning up 
 afterwards. Some of them were boys whom I knew very 
 well. Several brought parcels of clothes which they asked 
 me to take to the Lake for their wives and friends. . . . The 
 
 186 
 
Zambesi steamer, fiat-bottomed, was a delightful boat, and 
 to my mind a very nice change from the ocean steamers. 
 . . . We left Chinde August 28, and reached the junction of 
 the Zambesi and Shire on the following Tuesday morning, 
 but the Shire is at a low ebb, and so the steamer had to 
 disgorge us the next day into these two houseboats. I do 
 wish you could have been with me yesterday evening, or still 
 better, at night, as there is a half moon, and the boys were 
 punting up till nearly midnight. I stood for a time outside 
 the cabin and watched the river banks by moonlight and 
 the numberless fireflies, and of course the boys themselves, 
 and when we passed a village the people made bonfires, and 
 the banana trees in front stood out against the glow. 
 Altogether, in spite of the raucous singing of the punters, 
 there was a wonderful peace in the air. The natives tell us 
 that we shall reach the end of our houseboat journey this 
 evening, our destination being Port Herald, where is the one 
 terminus of the new railway. A passenger train from Port 
 Herald to Blantyre only runs twice a week ; the next train 
 leaves Port Herald on Saturday, and reaches Blantyre that 
 same evening, so by the use of the train we can now do 
 within one day what used to be reckoned at least three days' 
 trek. Letters from the Lake tell me that the CM. is due at 
 Mponda's for Kota Kota, Likoma, &c., on the loth. H all 
 goes as we hope, we should be there by the lothor nth ; I 
 must send a wire to Mponda's to tell the steamer to wait for 
 us. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Snodin is wondering whether we are going to call a 
 halt for afternoon tea : that must depend on our ladies who 
 are ahead and not even in sight. Of course secondarily it 
 depends on the punters : if they have no food of their own 
 on board, they will probably prefer to punt on to the sweet 
 end, which is Port Herald and their home." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Meeting Old Friends 
 
 steam wheeler Monteith, Lake Pamalombe, Sept. 9, 1908. 
 " Lake Pamalombe is a marshy widening out of the Shir^ 
 river, and is chiefly remarkable for the amount of explosive 
 
 187 
 
gas which is contained in the water, so much so that it is 
 really dangerous to strike matches close to the surface ; but 
 from the point of view of weary travellers, Pamalombe is 
 really much more important as constituting part of actually 
 the last day's journey before we reach Mponda's ! Actually 
 we expect to be having a late afternoon tea to-day with 
 Padre Ker, &c., at Mponda's Mission station. So our 
 journey to the Lake comes to an end ; after that, there 
 remains the voyage up to Likoma, but that ought to be 
 almost unmitigated joy, only tempered physically by lake- 
 sickness (at least I fear that the rough season will not be 
 over), and morally by the news of relapses and disappoint- 
 ments among natives in whom one is interested. However, 
 there are, of course, very numerous causes for thankfulness. 
 We reached Port Herald September 3, and had to remain 
 there — not an attractive place — till early Saturday morning, 
 when the bi-weekly train took us from Port Herald to 
 Blantyre. The distance by rail between these two places is 
 about no miles, and we took thirteen hours over it. Blan- 
 tyre is in the Shir 6 highlands, very high, so the poor old 
 engine had a hard pull, and in one place she had to make 
 three attempts before she could get round a corner. More- 
 over the embankments are very steep, and look as if the first 
 heavy rains would wash them away, so no wonder that the 
 Government engineer has refused under present conditions 
 to ' pass ' the railway as a safe concern. However, it is of 
 course a great boon to Europeans and to natives ; moreover 
 the carriages are comfortable, the feeding on the train is 
 excellent, and the scenery among waterfalls was, I am told, 
 most beautiful during the morning hours — I unfortunately 
 was asleep. Another sign of civihsation is the telegram. 
 I received one at a station about 8 a.m. from Mr. Shinn at 
 Blantyre, asking me whether I could have a Celebration at 
 Blantyre next morning (Sunday). I was able to wire back 
 ' Yes.' The telegram was specially convenient, as we did 
 not get into Blantyre till 7.30. p.m., when it would have been 
 very difficult to make arrangements for the next morning ; 
 whereas, on receipt of my reply wire, Mr. Shinn was able to 
 send notice to all the English Church communicants. Mr. 
 
 188 
 
Shinn is in the telegraphic department. We had a dehghtful 
 Sunday at B., stopping as usual at the very comfortable 
 boarding-house of the African Lakes Co. We had an 
 English Eucharist in the public hall ; there were ten com- 
 municants in addition to some of our own party. . . . On 
 Monday morning we left Blantyre in six machilas, each 
 machila having sixteen men ; there were also twelve more 
 men for our light baggage, whilst our heavy baggage went on 
 separately, so our party must have been responsible for about 
 150 men to carry ourselves and our baggage. We had two 
 long days in machila, sleeping at night in a very good rest 
 house ; in the two days we covered sixty-four miles. That 
 brought us yesterday, 6 p.m., to a place on the upper Shire 
 called Liwonde, where a little steamer came down from Fort 
 Johnston to meet us. At Liwonde we met with a very 
 delightful surprise. I asked a native boy whether he knew 
 if the steamer was coming for us. He replied, * I don't know, 
 but perhaps Mr. Jenkin does.' I said, ' What Mr. Jenkin ? ' 
 He replied, ' Mr. Jenkin wa Mission ' ; so that's how I learnt 
 that, by a delightful chance, Padre Jenkin, who does the 
 river Mission work, happened that very afternoon to be at 
 Liwonde. He might have been anywhere else either on this 
 part of the river, or forty miles away up in the hills. So I 
 searched out his tiny houseboat and found him therein. He 
 had no idea that we were anywhere near. It was great luck, 
 as when I found him he was just starting off for another 
 village, but he thought our advent was a sufficient excuse for 
 altering his plans, so he had a jolly evening with us. Padre 
 Jenkin is able to use a motor bicycle for much of his work 
 which lies round about European Government settlements, 
 where the roads are kept in good order. His usual plan is to 
 sleep in his houseboat, and then, in the morning, go off on 
 his bicycle and visit villages, and then meet his boat again in 
 the evening at some appointed place whither it will have 
 been punted in the course of the day. The ' jolly evening,' 
 you will understand, was last evening ; then down came the 
 steamer from Fort Johnston, and we got on board. But oh ! 
 the mosquitoes, and oh the nets ! My net was passable, and 
 by plugging up a few small holes with paper and sticking 
 
 189 
 
stamp paper over one larger hole, I kept the mosquitoes out. 
 But Snodin and Hallson had shameful nets, full of holes, and 
 the mosquitoes swarmed. I was able to comfort my youths 
 in the morning by telling them that the mosquitoes were too 
 large and openly vicious to be the fever mosquito, which 
 generally does its work very quietly and unsuspectedly. 
 
 " A. J. Douglas." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 Arrival at Lake Nyasa — Future Plans 
 
 September 17, 1908. 
 
 " It's difficult to head my letter with any locality. I am 
 sitting in the little mud-plastered rest house built by Arch- 
 deacon Eyre at Che Mapunda's village. Che Mapunda him- 
 self, the ancient chief of the village, has already paid me two 
 visits in this Httle hut although I haven't been here more 
 than two hours. On his first visit he gave me a letter which 
 Archdeaon E3Te has sent to me care of Che Mapunda ; on his 
 second visit he brought me a present of a fowl and some native 
 flour, whilst I had to get one of my boys, acting as interpreter, 
 to convey to the chief as delicately as possible that my boxes 
 (and consequently my return present) are still on the road 
 some miles behind me. The fact is that, as usual in Africa, 
 the unexpected has happened. I told N., in the letter I 
 wrote just as we were reaching the Lake, that though I had 
 not received any official communication from Archdeacon 
 Johnson (the acting Bishop), I quite expected to be going 
 direct to Likoma. At Mponda's, however, I got his letter in 
 which he asked me to choose between several alternatives, 
 but the one which he obviously favoured was a month's 
 visit to Archdeacon Eyre at Mtonya. 
 
 " This Mtonya trip seemed to me an excellent idea . . . 
 both because it was reported that Archdeacon Ejre was 
 very seedy, and also because it seemed rather a doubtful 
 good to send Tom Hallson, the new gardener, to start life 
 for himself at Mtonya with a seedy Archdeacon. So from 
 every point of view it seems best for me to go up to Mtonya 
 with Hallson, and do what I can to give him a good shove 
 
 190 
 
off, and also see how the Archdeacon is. So these are the 
 reasons why Hallson and I are sitting at Che Mapunda's 
 village within twenty miles of Mtonya. We are making it a 
 five- days' machila journey from Malindi to Mtonya. We two, 
 in company with brother Sargent, left Malindi on Monday 
 and soon began a long cHmb into the hills behind Mahndi, 
 and during the whole journey we have been in the high- 
 lands, working up northwards and keeping a distance of 
 twenty miles from the east Lake shore, and sometimes we 
 have caught a glimpse of the Lake far below us. From 
 Mahndi to Mtonya is all the country of the Yaos ; that is 
 why I have to speak to the old chief through an interpreter 
 who knows Chinyanja as well as Chi-yao. I am finishing 
 this letter at Mtonya, having covered the last nineteen miles 
 of the journey from Che Mapunda's by ii o'clock this 
 morning. We have had a splendid time right away through 
 from Malindi — more than ninety miles. Hallson was vac- 
 cinated at Malindi the day before we started, so it hasn't 
 been a very comfortable time for him. Just now there is 
 a good deal of small-pox in the country. This is about the 
 driest time of the year, so the country was not looking its 
 best. It can look perfectly gorgeous in the rainy season ; 
 but even as it was, nothing could take off from the magnifi- 
 cence of the great granite mountains through which we 
 passed, whilst, though there were almost no flowers, many of 
 the trees had already put on their brilliant red spring foliage. 
 All the new spring shoots out here seem to start with being 
 either pink or red. We had a grand reception at Mtonya, 
 the school-boys coming to meet us headed by a flag, and one 
 boy had his set speech all ready in Enghsh ; ' O Dear Padre 
 Douglas, we are very glad to see you here ' ; and then, of 
 course, there was dear old Archdeacon Eyre with his white 
 cassock tucked up round his waist. I like the look of the 
 Station very much ; there is no brick or stone about the 
 houses, but they are built prettily, with plenty of room. I 
 am living in a three-roomed house which was built for one 
 of the ladies ; Miss Minter had it, and there is another close 
 to it which was Miss Medd's. It is rather sad that these 
 two houses should be generally empty ; I wonder when 
 
the ladies will be able to return ; you know that they left 
 because an unruly chief made a raid near the Mission, and 
 it was thought to be unsafe for them. The air up here is 
 splendid ; it seems an ideal sanatorium. I hope that Hallson 
 will be able to get the vegetable garden in order. Mtonya 
 is about twenty-seven miles from the Lake, and my plan 
 for the future is to stop here two and a half weeks, and then 
 go down to the Lake at the nearest point, in time to be 
 picked up by the CM. ; so up to Likoma for the latter part 
 of October for the purpose of examining the would-be 
 deacons at S. Andrew's Theological College, and giving 
 them a Retreat. Then for November I expect to be at 
 Kota Kota. 
 
 "... then during December I must be at Likoma to 
 help Glossop in preparing the Christians for Christmas, and 
 in January I suppose I shall go to take charge of S. Michael's 
 College. One of the bits of news which met me at Mponda's 
 when I reached the Lake was that a large part of the college 
 had been burnt down. That is not really so bad as it sounds, 
 for most of the buildings which have been burnt down are 
 those which, in the natural order of African buildings, would 
 have sat down of themselves, or for safety's sake have been 
 taken down in another year's time ; and the new chapel 
 and dormitory have not been burnt. But Padre Marsh's 
 own house has been burnt except the walls, which were brick, 
 and many of his own goods must have been destroyed. I am 
 very sorry for him, but for me it means that I shall have 
 nice new buildings." 
 
 S. Michael's College is the college for teachers which 
 was then on the mainland at Kango opposite Likoma Island. 
 It was in Portuguese territory, and that fact added to the 
 difficulties of the work. Arthur was to spend a month or 
 two at Kota Kota. and then to take charge of S. Michael's 
 College in January 1909. In looking foward to his work 
 there he writes ; " Mine will be a very difficult work and 
 I shall need your very many prayers." 
 
 192 
 
{To a Sister) 
 Anticipations of College Work 
 
 Likoma Island, Oct. 26, 1908, 
 
 " During most of the day the thermometer in the shade 
 of my verandah sticks at 90°, and even now at 11 p.m. it is 
 at 79°, and not a breath of wind. My verandah for the time 
 being is the verandah of Likoma hospital, where I spent a 
 considerable time before my furlough. It is not acting as a 
 hospital for me now, but only as a very comfortable guest 
 chamber. We have been a very big party here during the 
 last few days, so that all the houses have been full. One 
 night at dinner we sat down a party of ten men and four 
 ladies — and one other, Mr. Marsh, sick in bed. I posted 
 my last letter home at Kota Kota, which we reached on a 
 Saturday evening. I had a most delightful two days there : 
 the CM. on which I was travelling spent an unusually long 
 time there, as Archdeacon Johnson, who was also travelling 
 on her, had to give a series of addresses ashore to native 
 teachers. I gave them an address on the Sunday evening, 
 and also preached in English to the brethren on Sunday 
 afternoon. Most of the boys around the station there are 
 the same whom I knew — only they are five years older. The 
 people there were very affectionate, and at Likoma since 
 my arrival there last Thursday, they have been perfectly 
 delightful. I have got the same boy to look after me who 
 took care of me when I was ill — ' James Yonah.' My other 
 old boy, Jeffreys Mwaraba (M.'s friend), has also maintained 
 a good character since I went away. I went to watch the 
 drill this morning. . . . The school drill is in charge 
 of a native soldier lately come from Zanzibar ; I think 
 he must have kept them at it for a specially long time 
 this morning for my benefit. Anyhow when it was over 
 they went to Mr. Glossop to ask if they might go down 
 to bathe. . . . The Cathedral has got on a good deal 
 since I saw it ; one west tower is finished and its twin 
 is half up. The eight bells which can only be chimed 
 and not ' rung ' (as they are shaped like saucers stuck 
 up on edge) are in their places in the tower, and there 
 
 193 o 
 
is to be a clock which strikes the quarters ! Mr. Marsh is 
 now well again, and intends to return to his duties at the 
 College to-morrow. I intend to accompany him in order to 
 take stock of school material and native food and see what 
 needs to be ordered. Most of the College was burnt down 
 two months ago, including the native food store. That was 
 the most serious loss ; otherwise the fire did good by clearing 
 away a good many old rickety reed houses, which stood 
 between the priest's house and the Lake, and blocked the 
 view. Now the view is opened out and it is exquisitely 
 beautiful. The College stands on the top of a hill over- 
 looking the lake with Likoma in the distance. . . . Mine 
 will be a very difficult work there and I shall need your very 
 many prayers — for myself and the native teachers and the 
 students and the villages, which will also be under my 
 charge." 
 
 He was, however, kept a few weeks at Likoma by his 
 work as Examining Chaplain to the Bishop, and in the 
 following letter he mentions the friendly terms he was on 
 with the Portuguese official on the mainland, who was ill 
 and whom Dr. Howard attended. 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 
 S.s. Charles Janson, Nov. 17, 1908. 
 
 " The Lake is beautifully smooth, so I shall have no 
 excuse for not getting a letter ready for the C.J. to carry, 
 down to Fort Johnston en route for England, after she has 
 dropped me at Kota Kota. I have had a very pleasant 
 though a very hot and thirsty month at Likoma ; my chief 
 business there was the examining of native candidates for 
 Holy Orders. ... I hope I was also able to make myself 
 useful to Mr. Glossop who has been pries t-in-charge of 
 Likoma since I left Likoma invalided. 
 
 " He has lately been without his proper curate, so has 
 found it very difficult to get away from the Cathedral main 
 station to visit his outlying districts. But my stay at 
 Likoma gave him the opportunity. Since I was invalided 
 
 194 
 
home there has been an addition to our fleet of Mission 
 sailing boats, Glossop having got one of his own, in which he 
 took me one afternoon for a sail. He is able to do a good 
 deal of his parishing by means of his boat. The object of our 
 journey that afternoon was to see whether the Christians in a 
 village had ' finished to put ' up a hut for a sick and needy old 
 lady ; money for providing the materials foi the hut had 
 been provided by the Church collections, but the erection 
 was to be by the goodwill of the Christians in the old lady's 
 village. However when we got there, we found that the 
 goodwill had only carried them forward such a very small 
 way, that Mr. Glossop there and then issued a proclamation 
 that if the hut was not finished in four days all people from 
 that village who were getting employment from the Mission 
 would be sacked from their work. 
 
 " The proclamation had a stimulating effect upon their 
 goodwill, and within the stipulated four days old J.'s house 
 was perfected. We are finding it necessary to teach 
 strenuously the law of charity and almsgiving. As to the 
 majority of mankind, so even to the Central African, the law 
 of tithes is not naturally acceptable. It is good in theory 
 but inconvenient in practice, especially when food on the 
 island of Likoma is dear. To-day I and the C.J. are 
 travelling over precisely the same ground or rather the same 
 patch of the Lake that we travelled yesterday. I said all 
 my good-byes at Likoma yesterday morning, but this 
 morning, i o'clock a.m. saw us puffing back into Likoma 
 harbour again, and another set of good-byes had to be gone 
 through to-day. The reason for all this pother was that 
 yesterday afternoon when we were getting near the end of 
 our day's run, we called at the head Portuguese official's 
 residence to pick up Archdeacon Eyre who had been helping 
 to keep the Portuguese King's birthday, and we found the 
 official in such a state of nerves and temperature that we had 
 to run all the way back to Likoma to fetch Dr. Howard. 
 As I write tihs we have just got back to the Portuguese and 
 have sent Howard ashore to comfort him. This Portuguese 
 really seems to be a good sort — anyhow superior in educa- 
 tion to most that come out here. He talks English quite 
 
 195 
 
well, having been partly educated at an Anglo-Indian Roman 
 Catholic College with a view I believe of taking Holy Orders. 
 I was introduced to him yesterday and told him, that after 
 Christmas I hoped to be one of his subjects — S. Michael's 
 College being in Portuguese territory. . . . They had a very 
 large * do ' here in honour of the Portuguese King, the 
 natives assembling from thirty or forty miles round. 
 
 " Archdeacon Eyre was the sole representative of the 
 Mission. I think eleven white men sat down to the state 
 dinner. The festivities in honoiu: of the King of England 
 had been the previous week at the British headquarters on 
 the Lake, Fort Johnston, and the head British and Portu- 
 guese Government officials paid each other the compliment 
 of attending each other's dinner. I expect to be landed at 
 Kota Kota to-morrow and to stop there till after Christmas. 
 
 ** The work at Kota Kota has extended very largely since 
 I was in charge there ; it must now embrace a district with 
 radius twenty-five miles, Kota Kota proper being its centre. 
 Then as soon after Christmas as may be I want to settle into 
 my work at S. Michael's Training College. My chief fear 
 is that the students' food will run short there. Food can 
 only be bought at certain periods of the year, and what with 
 the ravages of white ants in the rice store, weevils in the 
 flour, the overflow of unexpected students and general 
 miscalculation on the part of the overworked pries t-in- 
 charge, there seems every probability of arriving at the last 
 food bag without knowing where you are or what to do next. 
 That is the universal experience of other principals-in-charge, 
 and I have no particular reason to think that my education 
 will raise me superior to the rest as a housekeeper.'* 
 
 {To a Sister) 
 Mohammedanism 
 
 Kota Kota, Dec. 9, 1908, 
 
 " There is actually a weekly post now from Kota Kota, 
 Mr, Clarke, the priest-in-charge of Kota Kota, is having a 
 
 196 
 
little jaunt on the C.J. to Likoma, so here I am in my old 
 place, the only white man on the station. Yesterday I 
 borrowed the Government official's donkey in order to revisit 
 vSani, an outstation where I made the first catechumens six 
 years ago. Miss Thompson, the Mission nurse, also went for 
 the purpose of vaccinating ; she went by machila, and I am 
 sorry to say that, both going and returning, the machila 
 beat the donkey ; in fact what with my own impatience, 
 and that of the machila as well, the donkey altogether got 
 a good deal beaten. However, all's well that ends well, and 
 I and the donkey accomplished the journey (eight miles 
 there and eight miles back) with no worse mishap than a 
 broken girth — which the one-eyed donkey-boy re-sewed by 
 the light of his one eye — and a partially bashed-in helmet 
 which collided with a tree branch and thereby saved my head. 
 Sani is quite one of the prettiest places I know out here, 
 and of course it was delightful to find even a few of my old 
 boys. But most of the boys I knew best are away from the 
 district, and all the buildings on the Mission station are new 
 since my day. In six years they would have tumbled 
 down in the natural order of African houses, but as a matter 
 of fact many of them met with an unnatural death at the 
 hands of the Mohammedan villagers who set them on fire — 
 Mohammedanism is more than usually aggressive to us there. 
 The teacher there was telling me yesterday that he wanted 
 to leave because the Islamites disliked him so much and 
 gave him a bad time. I told him of course that he must 
 expect nothing else and that it would be very astonishing if 
 the Islamites didn't dislike him. The majority of boys here 
 when they want to get much money find their way to Fort 
 Salisbury. It takes them about thirty-five days to walk 
 there. I am told that Nyasa boys have got such a footing 
 there now in the employment of Europeans that when one 
 Nyasa wants to return home he tells his master that he knows 
 another chap — one of his own tribe — who would like to 
 take his place. So now, outside Salisbury there is a little 
 colony of Nyasa boys. But although they get what our 
 people think are very big wages they don't bring very much 
 back with them as a rule I was asking one of my old 
 
 197 
 
Kasamba boys a few days ago whether he had brought much 
 wealth back with him from Fort SaUsbury. He repHed, 
 ' Oh dear no, I ate it all down there ! ' So if a boy borrows 
 a shilling from you and you ask for it back again after you 
 have slept many days, he will possibly reply, ' I am sorry to 
 say that I have eaten it.' Even if he had spent it on cloth 
 he might still say he had eaten it. . . ." 
 
 (To an Aunt) 
 Boy Seized by a Crocodile 
 
 Kota Kota, December 15, 1908. 
 
 " I had only written four lines of this letter to you this 
 afternoon, when one of the Mission ladies came running to me 
 with the most tragic news that a young Christian school-boy 
 had just been drowned in the Lake. She knew no particulars, 
 so she hurried down to the Lake with the brandy, whilst I 
 sent off men with a slung hammock to fetch our nurse, who 
 had gone to a school a mile away ; we didn't know whether 
 there might be a chance of reviving him. Then came the 
 truer account that the little chap had been seized by a croco- 
 dile, and that his body was not to be found. When I got 
 down to the Lake, there were twelve canoes searching the 
 water of the lagoon, for Kota Kota is on a lagoon, very shal- 
 low. I believe the canoes put out from shore with splendid 
 rapidity. The crocodile was seen in the act of taking the 
 boy, and the canoes were after it in an instant. This evening 
 the boy's body was found, and it is now laid in the church. 
 We shall have the requiem in the early morning. It is a 
 nice custom at Kota Kota for the Christian lads to dig the 
 graves of their comrades ; there are sure to be plenty of 
 volunteers to-morrow. The boy has only got two near 
 relations, a mother, who cannot walk, and a school-girl sister ; 
 poor girl, she was lying on the sand quiet and exhausted 
 after her violent weeping, when the canoes were making 
 their search. For her sake and for the mother's sake I'm 
 
 198 
 
glad the body was found. You know that Kota Kota was 
 the first place where I was in charge, and after six years of 
 separation from my first love, except for an occasional 
 glimpse, it is a very great interest and pleasure to me to be 
 back here over Christmas, and as the other priest will be 
 away till about Christmas Eve, I shall have the work of 
 preparing or helping the Christians here to prepare for their 
 Christmas Communion. But sometimes it is almost agonis- 
 ing work, and perhaps not the less agonising if one remembers 
 that their grossest acts may probably be, in God's judgment, 
 not worse than one's own acts of omission. But there is very 
 much to make one thankful, and some of those who were 
 the worst young scaramouches six years ago, are to-day 
 reputed paragons of diligence. It is most awfully nice 
 to find a little catechumen chap, whom I carried from the 
 village in my arms because he didn't mean to walk to the 
 Mission at proper bedtime, to-day serving me at the altar, 
 and getting the prize last year for top attendance at school. 
 
 " I wonder whether you saw the pamphlet for the day of 
 Intercession by Bishop Weston of Zanzibar. I expect it 
 was very helpful. 
 
 " Almost immediately after Christmas I expect to 
 take up the work of Principal of the training college for 
 male teachers. 
 
 " Mind you find time to pray for S. Michael's College. 
 I expect to be the only white person at the College, and beside 
 the fifty or sixty boys, there are the surrounding villages to 
 look after ; but Likoma is only six miles off across the 
 water." 
 
 A Wedding 
 
 Kota Kota, December 22, 1908. 
 
 " To add to my other business this week, I had a wedding 
 suddenly sprung upon me at 6.30, S. Thomas's Day, last 
 Monday. The last banns had been published on Sunday, 
 but I never thought of the pair wanting to be married till 
 
 199 
 
after Christmas Day, so the first notification of the wedding 
 was when the bridegroom appeared in all his finery on my 
 verandah at 6.30. a.m. Moreover the wedding feast was 
 all prepared in the village. I discovered that by going 
 over to the ladies' quarters in order to ask whether the girl, 
 who was sleeping in the girls' dormitory, was expecting to 
 be married that day. As I was talking to Miss Newton, 
 who had charge of the girls, Miss Thompson, who has charge 
 of the kitchen, put her head out of the door and said, ' Is 
 the wedding to-day ? ' 
 
 '* I replied, * What makes you think so ? ' 
 
 " She replied, * Because the goat's liver has just arrived.' 
 Therein is an excellent marriage custom which I have met 
 nowhere else than at Kota Kota ; when the goat is killed 
 for the marriage feast, the liver is sent to the Mission kitchen 
 as the parson's fee. 
 
 " On Christmas afternoon there are to be sports for our 
 Mission people. I must get my camera ready. I believe 
 the grown-up women's race is a most glorious sight. They 
 run with buckets of water on their heads. 
 
 " On the following night we have our Christmas dinner, 
 we shall be too tired to eat largely on Christmas evening. 
 We have asked the other resident Europeans at Kota to 
 dine with us. The possible maximum to accept our invita- 
 tion would be three, but of these three, two will probably 
 be away, so our guests will piobably number one. 
 
 " I am waiting to plant my seeds till I get to S. Michael's 
 College ; it will be a splendid time to plant them, just in the 
 middle of the rains. I have procured from the Government 
 official here some red and yellow canna seeds, which I sowed 
 in boxes, and they have come up successfully. Also I 
 bribed the boys here with a little salt to bring me the roots 
 of a large red lily which grows wild in great abundance here. 
 It has a very big round spiky bloom, a mixture of a hedge- 
 hog and a red sea-anemone. Altogether these will fill quite 
 a number of boxes, and Miss Fage has given me lots of pots 
 of variegated-leaf plants, so I must put the captain of the 
 Charles Janson in a specially good temper before I venture 
 to bring my garden on board with me." 
 
 200 
 
(To a Brother) 
 Christmas at Kota Kota 
 
 Kota Kota, December 27, 1908. 
 
 " It has been a great pleasure to me to spend Christmas 
 at my old station, and of course Christmas time has brought 
 me into specially close contact with many of my old friends. 
 But the Christian community here to-day is double what it 
 was when I was in charge. Then I suppose there were about 
 a hundred baptised, but on this Christmas Day about two 
 hundred made their Communion, the service lasting from 7 
 to 9 A.M. Then to-morrow there is to be a special service 
 for the catechumens in the district, and I am to preach to 
 them, but these, of course, will for the most part be un- 
 knov/n to me, at least if any of these were catechumens in 
 my day they must have been jolly lazy not to have gone 
 forrader in this five years' time. 
 
 ''After the Christmas morning services were over, we 
 had athletic sports for the natives. I very much wish you 
 and your boys could have seen them. The very small kids 
 were, of course, the most delightful, and keen as nails with 
 their loins girt up ; but the bigger boys' jumping was also 
 good, considering that they had not practised beforehand. 
 I took some snap-shots. The natives turned up very well 
 again for Evensong, and then after dinner we had a grand 
 performance of my phonograph in the big school before a 
 mixed audience, including the hospital patients and blind 
 school. This latter is a really fine institution. There are 
 now about two dozen blind boys and girls, and they are 
 taught to read Braille, and to make mats, baskets, &c. So 
 altogether Christmas was a very happy day, and even the 
 sports passed off without a single wrangle. 
 
 " I expect on Tuesday to go a little expedition to an 
 outstation fourteen miles away and spend the night there. 
 
 " Then the Charles Janson is coming here on Saturday, 
 and on Monday I must say good-bye to Kota Kota, and 
 get back to Likoma, and thence to S. Michael's College to 
 prepare for my first term. At present I am studying the 
 
 201 
 
map of Europe and practising dumb-bell exercises for the 
 future benefit of the students. 
 
 " Besides the work of the College, with its fifty or sixty 
 students, there are four villages of which I shall have the 
 charge. Two of these are quite close, that is, within a mile 
 of the College, another is about three miles off, and the 
 fourth is a day's journey away right up in the hills. This 
 latter I shall only be able to visit in the holiday time. 
 
 " The College year is divided into two terms, each of 
 about five months, with the hohdays at Christmas and July . " 
 
 The following letters describe Arthur's impressions of 
 S. Michael's College as he found it. It will be seen that he 
 was bent on having a good garden from the first, and for 
 this purpose he constantly asks for seeds from England. 
 
 Life at the College 
 
 S. Michaers College, February 4, 1909. 
 
 *' I don't know where to begin when I want to tell you 
 all about the beginning of our term. However, I will start 
 by saying that the Charles Janson brought me and my Kota 
 Kota garden (done up in bags and tins) to the College in the 
 first week of 1909. Then I had only two hours in which to 
 put the garden into the ground. What a rush we had ! 
 Mr. George was with me, and there were a few stray men 
 about the place who all helped to dump the plants into the 
 ground. I didn't like to keep them any longer in bags, and 
 then the steamer whistled, and that same morning I was at 
 luncheon with the big party at Likoma. There I stayed for 
 three days, and then, with all my household goods, boxes 
 innumerable, I came over to the College to stop. The place 
 was in a most astonishing mess. 
 
 " On mounting the little hill on which the College is built, 
 I was confronted with a long row of burnt ruins, about seven 
 houses, the old schools, dormitories, church, stores, which 
 had all been burnt to the ground last August by an accidental 
 fire . . . really the fire did a great deal of good. . . . When 
 
 202 
 
1 arrived, there were two young Likoma carpenters still at 
 work fitting the windows into my own house, for that, like 
 most of the rest, had been burnt out, leaving only the stone 
 walls. There is a second European house which was in a 
 considerably worse plight, so that a mason was woiking 
 there, pulling down walls and building them up again, during 
 my first, fortnight. But the school took the cake for 
 pigginess. There was scarcely a single piece of furniture 
 whole. In one class-room there were about three tons 
 (literally) of flour, rice and beans, with which the white ants 
 were having a grand time, as the bags had mostly been piled 
 on the floor without any tin underneath to keep the ants off. 
 The school was also the sleeping place of the cocks and hens, 
 and also of our one calf, whilst the four elderly cattle slept in 
 another little reed store, through the walls of which the bull 
 used to put his head and make his escape at night. So one 
 of our first works had to be to turn all the native food out of 
 the school and separate it from the ants and ant-mud, and 
 sew up the broken bags again, and then build up all the bags 
 again on a proper metal foundation in the only thief-proof 
 place we had, one room of the aforesaid second European 
 house, where the mason had finished his work. The school 
 itself had really only ' finished to be cleaned ' about the day 
 before the students arrived. Needless to say, now cows and 
 calf and cocks and hens have all their nice new little houses. 
 
 ** I have been hard at work in school ; the day's business 
 has included overseeing English translation, then a lesson on 
 the Prayer-book, then sol fa, and this afternoon lessons on 
 how to read in church, how to keep a register, and physical 
 drill. That brought me to 4 p.m., since when I have been 
 looking after the various workpeople, and paying wages in 
 money, soap, salt, and cloth. 
 
 " Well, we have had a very delightful beginning to our 
 term ; we are now getting to the end of our first fortnight, 
 and everything has gone with a blessed smoothness. The 
 students (fifty- three with two more to come) have played up 
 splendidly, and accepted the extra discipline I have laid on 
 in the way of a little hard manual work and evening school. 
 Now we are in for a dose of learning from January to June. 
 
 203 
 
The boys vary very much in age, a few are married and look 
 twenty-five, the youngest are, I suppose, about fifteen. So 
 far the College work has taken up my time so fully that I 
 have done very little with my villages. Before the students 
 came back the village school-boys used to spend a good part 
 of their time playing football and helping me to get the place 
 in order, and they really were very useful, but now their 
 holidays are over and the College term has begun, so they 
 are not quite so much in evidence. 
 
 ** The villagers come up to the College for the Sunday 
 Eucharist, otherwise they have their services in their own 
 little churches, under the superintendence of the village 
 teachers. 
 
 " Now I must tell you about my real garden, because 
 after all my Kota Kota plants are only a very small part of 
 it, and at present there seem to be almost no signs of them ; 
 I hope they may reappear next year. But my Sutton seeds 
 give most excellent promise ; I was rather behindhand in 
 planting them, but now there are about a dozen boxes on my 
 verandah full of seedlings. I think the sunflowers will be 
 ready to plant out in a few days, and I think all the various 
 kinds of seeds have come up. My flower garden will, of 
 course, be close to my house, but down at the bottom of this 
 little rise (and consequently close to the Lake where the soil 
 is good), I am renovating what was once a fruit garden. It 
 was a devastated and burnt wilderness when I arrived, but 
 under the hand of a really good native gardener, the under- 
 growth is being cleared away, and many pineapple plants 
 are coming to light, whilst the many lime-trees and guavas, 
 which had their branches killed by the fire, are beginning to 
 sprout again from the bottom, and I have even had two 
 feeds of mulberries, a small kind, but very good." 
 
 {To A. C. Champneys, Esq.) 
 II 
 
 S. Michael's College, Nyasaland, Septuagesima, 1909. 
 
 " It really is splendid of you to have time to write to me, 
 and I shall try to get a letter ready to be put on board the 
 
 204 
 
Chauncy Maples, which is due to call here during the week. 
 She calls for home-bound letters about once a month. 
 Since my return to Nyasa, I was doing all sorts of odd jobs 
 up to Christmas ; first spending a month at our hill station in 
 Yaoland, helping our young gardener, who came out with me, 
 to find his footing among the Yaos. Then I was at Likoma 
 Cathedral station, examining some native candidates for the 
 diaconate and one for the priesthood ; then I spent six very 
 jolly weeks at Kota Kota, where I was in charge five years 
 ago. In spite of lapses among some of my old friends there, 
 I was made very happy by the great advance there has been 
 in the work in that district ; and some of those whom I 
 remember as young ruffians are now holding places of honour 
 as servers, &c., in the church. Then at the beginning of this 
 year I got to my new work here as ' Principal ' of S. Michael's 
 College for the training of native teachers. When I got here, 
 the students were away on their Christmas holidays, I'm 
 thankful to say ; as the place was in a pigsty-mess it took me 
 all my time during the first fortnight to get things decent. 
 
 " There was a big fire some months ago here which burnt 
 down all the old wood and mud buildings. Fortunately the 
 schoolroom and dormitories and chapel — all of which had 
 been newly built — were untouched by the fire ; but, for 
 lack of other accommodation, the cocks and hens, one calf 
 and about three tons of native flour, beans, &c., were 
 all living in the school. But though the students were 
 away, the school -boys from the neighbouring villages, of 
 which I also have the charge, were during the holidays 
 more than usually in evidence on the College football 
 ground, and they were capital helpers. You would 
 have been amused to see these kids shouldering the heavy 
 bags of flour and helping me to transport the whole 
 over to another house — the only place which seemed 
 to be not only ant-proof but proof also against human 
 thieves. 
 
 " They have now been back a fortnight — fifty-five of 
 them, aged from about fifteen to twenty-five, and we have 
 made a very happy start. 
 
 *^ The day's routine — Chapel 6.30, but, before that, I can 
 
 205 
 
see the boys sleepily sloping down to the lake, hugging their 
 coloured blankets round them, for their morning dip. 
 
 " It is, I confess, rather an inadequate dip, a sort of toes 
 and fingers business, but there is plenty of opportunity for a 
 proper bathe later in the day. Then school 8.30-12 ; then 
 their first meal — porridge, beans and salt ; then school again 
 2.0 to 4.0, the last three-quarters of an hour being given to 
 physical exercises, either dumb-bell exercises, of which I have 
 got a very complete scheme, or else hoeing the ground. 
 Then at 4.0 o'clock they are free for football or anything else 
 that is going. Alas ! my football bladders have lately been 
 bursting like fireworks. I sat up one night, trying to mend 
 five holes with seccotine and patches from another bladder 
 worse than itself. What a pathetic appeal ! — especially to a 
 man who once sent me two footballs, for which I didn't thank 
 half as soon as I ought. Then a jolly good bathe in which I 
 often join. Oh ! if only your hoys could tumble into that 
 glorious blue lake instead of the L.C.C. paid-out baths. 
 Then Evensong ; then their second meal — porridge, beans 
 and salt ; then three-quarters of an hour's school, followed 
 by one hour in which to rot about ; then prayers and to bed, 
 and woe be to the boy who kicks up a row in his dormitory. 
 Doesn't that sound an ideal sort of life ? — and certainly a 
 well-filled day is the way to keep these lads happy and 
 disciplined. 
 
 " I read with interest a letter of yours in the Church 
 Times. I understand that the Education Bill is defunct." 
 
 Ill 
 
 S. Michael's College, March 8, 1909. 
 
 *' My large lambs have gone to bed. They sleep in 
 three dormitories, two dormitories for Nyasas and one for 
 Yaos. There are fifty-six lambs this term. 
 
 '* To make writing a letter possible there are two neces- 
 sities : (i) that the students should have gone to bed ; and 
 (2) that the mosquitoes should not have got up. By a happy 
 chance, this being the night before the steamer, both neces- 
 sities are realised. We have Compline at quarter to nine, 
 and, though I don't want to enforce strict silence after 
 
 206 
 
Compline (for after all the lambs are not strictly theological 
 but only pedagogic lambs), yet by half-past nine all ought to 
 be asleep, and so they generally are. I would like you to 
 know more of my daily time-table. If it is a fine morning 
 the boys, hugging their blankets round them, are straggHng 
 down the steep path, this time of year with high grass each 
 side of it, to the Lake by about six o'clock. They don't 
 have a real plunge at this early hour, but only paddle and 
 dabble ; the real bathe comes at midday after their meal, 
 or later still before Evensong, when I often bathe with them. 
 Then by half -past six we are ready for the Eucharist. I told 
 the students at the beginning of the term that I hoped to have 
 the Eucharist, but that, as they had not been used to a daily 
 attendance at it, attendance would of course be quite volun- 
 tary. I really expected that eight or ten would be about 
 the average number present, but since the first day of the 
 term, six weeks ago, up to the present, I think that scarcely 
 any student has been absent once, and this, though the 
 Mattins which follows immediately after it is compulsory as in 
 English schools. I am very thankful for this readiness of 
 the boys to use the Eucharist, and we should pray that they 
 may not slack off. A special feature of each day's Eucharist 
 is the recital by me, after the Consecration Prayer, of the 
 names of village schools and teachers belonging to one of the 
 districts of the diocese. The boys have helped me to collect 
 the names of all such villages in their own districts, so that 
 by this means we are enabled to go steadily and methodically 
 through the diocese from one end to the other in our Euchar- 
 istic intercessions : and these boys when they leave the 
 College will be glad to feel that they and their work are 
 mentioned in proper turn at their old College Altar. 
 
 " Another devotional exercise which, after the Eucharist, 
 I think I should be most anxious to use at the College and 
 to see in use through the diocese, is the informal prayer 
 meeting, but I haven't ventured upon that ; just because 
 of its informal character, I beheve it wants very careful 
 management. 
 
 " Did you see what this quarter's Missionary intercession 
 paper said about the power of prayer meetings ? 
 
 207 
 
" Well, Eucharist and Mat tins last just about sixty-five 
 minutes ; remember Chinyanja phraseology is longer than 
 English. Then, whilst some boys, according to routine, 
 sweep the dormitories, the rest rot about ; only these days, 
 some will be rushing down to the lake again to see if they 
 have had any luck with their fish-baskets, made after the 
 manner of a lobster pot, easy to get into, and impossible 
 to get out of. I see the boys reserving large balls of their 
 porridge to act as bait. 
 
 " Then, school from 8.30 to 12, with a half-time break. 
 There are two native teachers ; I teach English, singing, 
 geography, ' method,' dumb-bell, some arithmetic. Prayer- 
 book, and S. John's Gospel — the latter is much the hardest. 
 They are much entertained at the dumb-bell exercises. 
 I got a book full of them from the Kota Kota lady. Miss 
 Jenkyn, who is a professional teacher of physical exercises. 
 The students didn't know at first whether to hke the un- 
 usually large amount of energy which the dumb-bells entail. 
 I heard one of them mutter to himself when he was under- 
 going some bodily contortion, ' Madness.' I'm not sure 
 whether it wasn't ' Madman,' if so, let us hope that he 
 wasn't looking further afield than his own self. 
 
 " After school, which has been going on again from two to 
 four o'clock, they bathe, or football, or borrow axes or knives 
 from me to cut bark-rope or reeds which they can sell at 
 Likoma for cloth ; then Evensong before sunset ; then their 
 second meal (porridge and beans, just like the midday 
 meal, except that sometimes one meal is rice and monkey 
 nuts) ; then at seven o'clock another bit of school, followed 
 by an hour's froHcing, and so CompHne. It sounds very 
 delightful, doesn't it ? — and so it is, only it leaves the one 
 European precious Uttle time for doing his own reading. I 'm 
 thankful to say that I haven't got quite so many workmen and 
 women on now, as I have had when we were putting build- 
 ings into order. The big garden was a mass of undergrowth, 
 but now that we have got that cleared away, I think that 
 the gardener with two assistants ought to be sufficient. 
 It has got lots of lime-trees and guavas and quantities of 
 pineapples, and we are increasing the stock of mulberries 
 
 208 
 
(a species which bears almost as soon as you plant it), 
 and Cape gooseberries, and now vegetable seeds which I 
 brought from home are doing splendidly. To-night I had 
 better French beans than, so far as I remember, I have 
 ever had before in Africa, although the seeds were only put 
 in the ground six weeks ago, and the lettuces have come up, 
 and I shall soon have tomatoes. My flowers too are going 
 to do, though I was late in planting them, but the large 
 bull, belonging to my herd of four cows and two calves, 
 went partially mad a few days ago, and rolled in my bed 
 of balsam seedlings. I stood by and watched it doing so — • 
 imagine my feelings. The cowman from a safe distance 
 hurled brick-bats at it. 
 
 " I have had a jolly visit during the last two weeks from 
 Glossop, priest-in-charge at Likoma. A few weeks ago two 
 of the laymen came over for the week-end, and I think that 
 the Likoma staff will like to come over in that sort of way, 
 when they see that I enjoy having them. But more than 
 that, I have actually been over to Likoma this week for a 
 night to talk to the Bishop about College plans, system of 
 entrance exam., the problems connected with the com- 
 mixture of Nyasas and Yaos, &c. After my special Lenten 
 service for the village Christians in the College chapel on 
 Wednesday afternoon, the Likoma sailing boat took me 
 over and I had a satisfactory and helpful talk with his 
 lordship." 
 
 Holiday Tramp to Man da 
 
 Likoma, Low Sunday, 1909. 
 
 " You see I am writing from Likoma ; I am here for two 
 reasons — first because my own College lambs have got a 
 week's holiday, so the College is deserted, and secondly, 
 because this is a very great day at Likoma, the ordination 
 this morning of two natives to the diaconate and one to the 
 priesthood. They had their examination in Passion Week, 
 so that I had the correcting of their papers in addition 
 to the other work of Holy Week at the College. It was a 
 great pleasure to all most closely concerned when on Easter 
 
 209 p 
 
Eve I was able to send word over to Likoma to the Bishop 
 and Padre Wilson, the head of the Theological College, 
 that I thought they could all three be ordained, so on Easter 
 Day there was special joy in the land. My special duty 
 to-day was to preach the ordination sermon. Thus there 
 now are four native priests and three native deacons in the 
 diocese. 
 
 " We had a very nice Good Friday and Easter at the 
 College. The students made their Communion at an early 
 hour on Easter morning, and then we had at seven o'clock the 
 sung service at which the villagers made their Communions 
 to the number of about 210. They are by nature very 
 patient about the length of services and were quite content 
 to sing hymn after hymn whilst the one priest was com- 
 municating them. It was wet on Easter afternoon, so my 
 phonograph was in evidence, and much to the delight of 
 the students, for the first time they heard their own voices 
 reproduced. Further joy awaited them in the evening, 
 when they had goat instead of beans, and then the large 
 contingent, more than half the College, who were going to 
 walk to their homes or their friends' homes in the Msumba 
 direction came to say good-bye to me, as they meant to 
 start as soon as the moon got up, I think about three o'clock 
 in the morning. So when I got up I found the College 
 more than half deserted — the rest all went off in the course 
 of the morning, a goodly number going over by boat to 
 Likoma. These last went armed with bags of rice, as food is 
 very scarce on the island, and it is not fair to land a dozen 
 hungry youths and expect them to be fed for a week by the 
 Likoma station caterers. The boat which came over to fetch 
 the students — no, it was another boat, but no matter (you 
 see our abundant means of communication) — brought 
 to the College two of our laymen. Shannon and Snodin, 
 armed with guns with which they intended to shoot game 
 in the afternoon. They returned in the evening having 
 shot nothing, but I gave them an excellent dinner and sent 
 them back to Likoma at night. 
 
 " On Tuesday I mounted the hills to my outstation at 
 Manda, four and a half hours' tramp. It would be a more 
 
 210 
 
beautiful walk in the season — now the flowers are over — 
 but parts of it are very grand. The chief lent me a house 
 to sleep in, but I had my own bed and bedding. In January, 
 after I had only been at the College a week or so, I got a 
 letter to say that all the Mission buildings had been burnt 
 down at Manda, these included the Church school and 
 teacher's house, and two private houses. I was afraid at 
 first that they must have been burnt on purpose, but there 
 was nothing to prove it, and indeed I expect now it was an 
 accident. But I told the chief that I could not build up 
 both the Church school and the teacher's house again, but 
 if he would be responsible for having the Church school 
 built without Mission money, I would, if satisfied that his 
 job was properly finished, then have the teacher's house 
 built with Mission money. He agreed to this, and when 
 I went up there last week I was pleased to find what a very 
 good new Church school his people had put up, so then I 
 agreed with him about wages for building the teacher's 
 house, and also a dormitory for the school-boys. This was 
 the estimate we agreed on : 
 
 " For teacher's house six men to receive three fathoms 
 
 (two shillings) each ; 
 " For dormitory two men to receive three fathoms each, 
 
 and thirteen boys (Christians and catechumens) to 
 
 receive one fathom (eight pence), their extra work 
 
 being given as a Church offering ; 
 ** Ten women to receive two fathoms each for cutting 
 
 grass for the roofs, and one fathom each for 
 
 mudding the walls and floors ; 
 " Total estimated cost of teacher's house and boys' 
 
 dormitory, I2 4s. 8d. 
 " My return journey next day to the College was a 
 wonderful experience of rain. It began to rain when I had 
 left Manda three-quarters of an hour ; the rain caught me 
 just as I was in the middle of crossing a most perilous river, 
 and I wondered whether I should reach the opposite bank, 
 about four yards away, before I was wet through. It really 
 would not have mattered in the least if I had not done so, 
 for in a very short time I was soaked through and through. 
 
 211 
 
In a few minutes every hill path was a rushing stream and 
 the only alternative to the paths was high grass, of course 
 sopping ground underneath oozing with water. So in a 
 short time I made up my mind that it was pleasanter to 
 go splash, splash through the flooded path than brush, brush, 
 and squash, squash through the grass ; the result was that 
 after about three hours' tramp when I was near the College 
 and walked through a river three feet deep with a rushing 
 current, I felt no wetter than before. On reaching the 
 College I comforted myself with a hot bath, lots of still 
 hotter cocoa, and a beautiful rich cake, my Easter present 
 from Nurse Minter. No ill-effects followed. 
 
 " Mr. Winspear was at the same time holding a retreat 
 for the three ordinands at the College, but the retreat ended 
 next morning, and we all crossed over together to Likoma. 
 We are an enormous party of Europeans here at the present 
 moment : the Bishop, Archdeacon Johnson, four other 
 priests, eight laymen and five ladies. The laymen include 
 our four steamer-engineers^ who are engaged in putting the 
 two steamers to rights. The Charles Janson was the first 
 to be laid up, then the Chauncy Maples floated on to the 
 rocks and damaged her bottom, so for the last month the 
 engineers with the assistance of four hundred men have been 
 trying to pull her on to dry ground. But it has been a very 
 difficult job, as the wire ropes have constantly proved unequal 
 to the strain, and have snapped, and they have only managed 
 to haul her up a foot or so each day. I went to see her, poor 
 old thing, last Friday ; she looked so forlorn, half out of the 
 water. Now, however, the engineers have settled not to 
 attempt any more hauling, but to mend her as best they 
 can, as she is. So I hope she may soon be running again ; 
 and when she can run again, she will be able to bring up 
 the material needed for mending the C./., who was simply 
 worn out with old age and hard work. Her ribs, poor 
 thing, were in a most distressful state. 
 
 " I am finishing off this letter on Monday ; to-morrow I 
 return to the College, and I hope to see all the students 
 back before the evening." 
 
 212 
 
Visit from a Machecheta 
 
 S. Michael's College, 5th Sunday after Easter, 1909. 
 
 " You will see by the accompanying little bit of exercise 
 book paper that I am suggesting to you that the Coral League 
 should adopt Mwenyezari as their friend. As he received the 
 Cross at Pentecost, 1908, he ought, if all goes well, to be 
 baptised in the first six months of 1910. 
 
 " I and Mwenyezari ought to meet every Sunday morning, 
 when I teach the catechumens after the Eucharist. I shall 
 be very keen to hear, and so will he be, whether he has got 
 what he asks for, and has become friends with the Worfield 
 children. If so, the ne^xt step in the friendship should be for 
 one or two Worfield children to write him a letter. I do 
 hope they will write sometimes to their boy here. 
 
 " Our two excitements at the College lately have been 
 two species of wild beast. The first beast is called a mache- 
 cheta, and the other is called msonkos. First the story of 
 the machecheta. I was just thinking of going to bed when 
 there suddenly, without the slightest warning, began a most 
 horrible row at the cowhouse a hundred yards from my house, 
 the poor cattle terrified out of their wits. The night watch- 
 man came rushing across to me, shouting, ' Padre, wild beast, 
 wild beast ! ' There was certainly no doubt about it, nothing 
 else could cause such a commotion, and equally certainly it 
 must be a beast of no mean size ; the only alternatives ap- 
 peared to me to be a leopard or lion. So I really felt utterly 
 helpless. Though there was a rifle, there wasn't a cartridge 
 on the station, and if there had been I did not know whether 
 the watchman could shoot, and to my knowledge I had only 
 let off a gun once in my life on High Park Hills, where we 
 put up a bit of paper as a target ; moreover this was night, 
 so I said to the watchman, * I don't see that we can do 
 anything, so I think under the circumstances you had better 
 come into the house ' ; so in he came. But it was really very 
 horrible to hear the poor cattle, there were four full-grown 
 ones and three calves. As a matter of fact a bolder spirit 
 than myself would probably have lit a large torch of grass 
 and have gone out in hopes of scaring the beast away, 
 but unfortunately, or possibly fortunately, I am not bold. 
 
 213 
 
When the general rumpus had subsided, or yet not so en- 
 tirely subsided, but that I had the consolation of knowing 
 that some cattle were still alive and hearty, I went to bed. 
 In the morning the watchman woke me with the news that 
 though the four big cattle were all right, all the three calves 
 had disappeared. The cattle-house is built of trees and the 
 calves slept in a side partition ; this had been broken into. 
 And then we began to find remnants of calf, the largest 
 remnant was the remains of the biggest calf which had been 
 dragged another hundred yards or more away to a dry river 
 bed. It was then that I heard of this beast called a 
 machecheta, a kind of large, fierce hyena ; the natives 
 said that they thought the damage must be the work of a 
 machecheta, or probably two, as if it had been a lion it would 
 have killed one calf and left the others. So that evening, 
 with the assistance of some native soldiers of the Portuguese, 
 who had rifles and catridges, we set two gun traps, baited 
 with calf, one in the dry river bed, and one outside the cow- 
 house. If a beast came and touched the bait it would pull 
 the trigger and shoot itself. The next morning when I 
 woke up I said to the watchman, * Did the gun go off at 
 night ? ' He said ' No ! ' None the less, when I had just 
 finished my toilet, one of the soldiers came along very quietly 
 and whispered that there was a wounded beast in the grass 
 near the cowhouse. So much formy watchman, who sleeps 
 so soundly that even a rifle shot near by won't wake him up. 
 So there was, of course, great excitement. Other gunners 
 an ived and the beast was killed as soon as might be. And 
 sure enough it turned out to be a machecheta, which had, 
 as we anticipated, come back to finish its last night's meal, 
 or perhaps in the hopes of finding something fresh. 
 
 " I sent the skin to Mr. Shannon, who is a very keen 
 naturalist, and that's the end of the first beast, but alas, 
 alas ! it is also the end of my three calves. 
 
 " The other beast which is causing much wider and more 
 serious trouble among the natives at the present time is 
 called msonko. It attacks every house without exception, 
 and poor women leave their houses, and at night hide in the 
 woods for fear of it. 
 
 214 
 
^* Mr. George told me that a few days ago he saw a woman 
 with a baby on her back creepmg along on all fours. Msonko 
 was pursuing her, and the men who were with Mr. George 
 said that if the baby didn't cry she would probably escape, 
 but if the baby made a noise she would be caught. 
 
 " Msonko 's other name is Tax. I wonder how many 
 women there are hiding in the woods to-night to escape 
 their tax payn:ient. 
 
 " The Portuguese native employees make raids on the 
 huts in the villages at night, and when they find anyone 
 who has not paid their tax they carry him or her off to the 
 Portuguese headquarters. If there is a married couple in 
 the hut, they carry off the wife as a pledge, leaving the man 
 free to search the country for the four shillings necessary 
 to redeem his wife. It is really more of a poll-tax than a 
 hut tax, because, except in the case of a married or an 
 engaged couple, where one payment does for the two, every 
 person, except young children, has to pay tax. 
 
 " There is a girl working in my garden who has first paid 
 her mother's tax and then her own, although she sleeps in her 
 mother's house. 
 
 " Eleven of the College students were arrested last week 
 as they were walking past the Portuguese quarters, and I 
 had some difficulty in redeeming them. Of course the people 
 are very stupid and utterly improvident ; the tax has now 
 been in force about seven years, and they know it is coming, 
 and they know just what will happen if they don't pay. 
 In a good many cases, probably, they really could not get 
 the necessary four shillings, but even where they could, they 
 don't. They put off the evil day, and then when the 
 msonko beast is on the prowl, they come to me with the 
 really lamentable tale how wife or sister is hiding in the 
 woods. 
 
 " As to the demand for tax payment from the College 
 students it is a new demand, and therefore I have sent full 
 particulars to the Bishop, who is on his tour round the 
 diocese, so that if he thinks it advisable, he can call at the 
 Portuguese headquarters and come to some agreement." 
 
 215 
 
(To a Sister) 
 The Principal's Garden 
 
 S. Michael's GDllege, June 2, 1909, 
 
 " Mr. George sent me a messenger this morning to say 
 that he is on the mainland to-day, and that he expects to 
 reach the College sometime this evening. So I shall get a 
 letter written for him to take over to Likoma to be put 
 on board the Chauncy Maples. Poor old Chauncy Maples, 
 not so very old either, she has not been running about the 
 Lake quite so long as I have, her first trip was during my 
 first month or so. Well, I know that I have already told 
 some one that during last Lent she dragged her anchor when 
 she was in harbour, and so sat down on some rocks, hence 
 for the last three months she has been in hospital herself, 
 dragged up on Likoma beach. And now I hear that the 
 engineers have managed to make her sound again and that 
 she is back in the water, and is meditating a journey to the 
 south end, which means a chance of sending a mail. The 
 running power of the Chauncy Maples is a matter of gravest 
 interest to the College students, because in June (this very 
 month) they are due to go home for their bi-yearly holiday. 
 If all goes on now as well as I hope it may do, the second 
 journey of the Chauncy Maples ought to take the students ; 
 they come, of course, from all directions, and the worst of it 
 is, that by the time some get home it is almost time for them 
 to come back again. We only expect to ' rest ' for one 
 month. I also am expecting to voyage round the stations 
 on the Chauncy Maples for the purpose of examining can- 
 didates for entrance to the College. So far as is possible 
 I shall try to have them collected at centres. I don't know 
 whether you understand that we cater for two quite distinct 
 tribes, Nyasas and Yaos. As their name implies, the 
 Nyasas are mostly near the Lake, the Yaos are more in their 
 hills and at the south end of the Lake. So I have written to 
 the padres in charge of the two chief stations, Unangu and 
 Mtonya, to say that I hope that their candidates will come 
 down to the nearest point on the Lake, thereto be put on 
 
 216 
 
board and carried down to Malindi to be examined with the 
 south end boys. Unfortunately it is just the nastiest time 
 on the Lake, the south wind doth blow, and we shall have 
 many comfortless moments. At this moment, looking out 
 of my window, I see great white horses on the Lake, so as 
 Mr. George has only come acrbss in a cockle-shell of a boat, 
 I hope he will be prudent and wait till the white horses have 
 gone. My plants on the verandah look very much agitated 
 in the wind. 
 
 " The garden is really being a great success. My cannas 
 have been, and still are, gorgeous and capable of being spread 
 out next year over a larger space. Do you know a canna 
 when you see it ? It stands about three feet high and has 
 flowers, great large blossoms, which Archdeacon Johnson 
 liked so much, because he could unmistakably see them, of 
 all shades of yellow, orange, red, some of them striped red 
 and yellow together. Of the flower seeds which I brought 
 out from home, the zinnias and balsams did splendidly, the 
 former have been a great stand-by for church decoration. 
 The nasturtiums were scarcely given a fair chance, planted 
 out in the sun too soon, or not deep enough in the ground ; 
 so though they tried hard to flower, they soon gave up the 
 attempt, but I think I shall try them in boxes, on my 
 verandah, and keep them so another year in the shade. 
 
 " Just as I was writing about my garden, up came my 
 gardener Davis to have a look at my verandah, and I have 
 given him the last of my tomato seeds. The tomatoes are at 
 their best now, and both yellow and red grow to a great size, 
 so I think I had better herewith ask for an order from 
 Sutton ; tomatoes, beans, lettuce (I don't think I got hold 
 of a very good kind of lettuce ; of course, the climate is 
 against them, but mine were either very flabby or bitter, 
 so another kind might be tried) ; then I want to try potatoes 
 and cabbage, radishes, onions, and any other kind of 
 vegetables ; we might give them a trial. I feel rather 
 conceited when I can send over my vegetables to Likoma. 
 The doctor has given me a lot of flower seeds, so I don't think 
 I need ask for any from home, except a packet of nasturtiums 
 (not dwarf), and perhaps two packets of geranium ; I have 
 
 217 
 
one geranium with lots of leaves. I bought some point- 
 settias from Kota, and they, at least two, are in flower, 
 although they are only a foot high. [More commissions 
 follow.] And 120 reels of white cotton, if possible at \d. 
 each. The students pester the life out of me for cotton to 
 sew their cloths with, but they would gladly do a halfpenny- 
 worth of manual labour if they had the chance of buying a 
 reel. If \d. reels of cotton don't exist, I must have sixty 
 penny reels ! " 
 
 The letter which follows finds Arthur in the middle of 
 his summer holidays which he spent largely in examining 
 candidates for admission to the College. He ends the letter 
 by referring to an experience of Archdeacon Johnson which 
 will be read with interest. 
 
 The Long Vacation 
 
 S.s. Chauncy Maples, July 5, 1909. 
 
 " I am writing to you in the little saloon of the Chauncy 
 Maples ; in a day and a half we ought to be at the south end 
 of the lake, and so my letter will be considerably nearer 
 home than when I have to catch the post at S. Michael's 
 College. 
 
 "The College has gone down for its half-yearly vacation. 
 Nearly all the students who were within walking distance of 
 their home chose to walk home (although for some it meant 
 about 100 miles), rather than wait at the College for the 
 steamer to com'e and take them. I took the opportunity 
 of going up north into German territory by the steamer. It 
 was the first time I had seen the north-east of the Lake. It 
 is only in the last few years that the Mission has spread into 
 that district ; the people there are more primitive and talk 
 quite a different language to the Nyasas. Then we came 
 back again to Likoma and picked up the College remnants, 
 and so we are journeying south. 
 
 " The last two days I have been enjoying myself at Kota 
 Kota. My principal reason for risking my health on the 
 
 218 
 
Chauncy Maples in this exceedingly blustery period of the 
 year is that I may complete the examination of candidates 
 who want to come to college. When I have finished I shall 
 have examined about loo boys from all over the diocese. 
 The majority of them (seventy) managed to walk to the 
 College for a joint exam, near the end of the term. It made 
 a deal of work, but was really great fun. 
 
 " The Bishop came to the College for the end of the term 
 and expressed himself pleased with things in general. 
 
 " It ought to be really good for the native Christians to 
 know that the Mission is really hard up. I'm sure thej^ think 
 that Mission shillings and cloth and soap reach to infinity. 
 
 " Dr. Howard and Miss Minter expect to leave us in 
 September and get married in Zanzibar, and then go home 
 for a honeymoon before they return to Zanzibar to settle 
 down. I wish we could hear of another doctor willing to 
 come here and do his work even half as well as Howard has 
 done it. Among his other good works he has trained a 
 couple of native boys as medical students. One of them 
 always travels on the steamer and gets a large number of 
 patients from the villages where we touch. I was very much 
 impressed by his skill and coolness a few days ago when a 
 fellow we had on board bashed another three times with a 
 hammer on the top of his head. Each time the wound was 
 right down to the bone, and I quite thought his skull must 
 be fractured. Fortunately it was not fractured, but it was 
 bad enough. However, our skilled native practitioner got 
 out his forceps, and dug down and got the broken artery, and 
 had the bleeding stopped in no time. But the incident put a 
 sudden finish to our northern trip, as we felt bound to hurry 
 straight back to Likoma, and hand over the sore head to 
 Dr. Howard. 
 
 " As we are on such a disagreeable subject, I may as well 
 tell you that as we sat at breakfast this morning Archdeacon 
 Johnson told us that this was where he sat one day from 
 5 o'clock till 9.30 with a knife, for a part of the time at least, 
 held to his throat. His native cook was killed. It was in 
 the early days of the Mission, and for some reason the natives 
 of the village were in a state of unrest. Late in the evening 
 
 219 
 
the natives cooled down and left the Archdeacon unmolested. 
 However, they had stolen the ship's boat (the ship, the 
 Charles Janson, was in the harbour), so the Archdeacon got 
 into a small native canoe (thinking each moment he would 
 be stopped again), and, with a grass reed as his only paddle, 
 reached the steamer. Archdeacon Johnson hardly ever 
 speaks of his own past experiences, and I had never heard 
 this story before." 
 
 (To a Friend) 
 Holiday Football 
 
 S.s. Chauncy Maples, July 6, 1909. 
 " I am having a trip round on the Chauncy Maples, 
 as the College has gone down for the half-yearly hohday. 
 Most of the students chose to walk down (although for some 
 this meant a walk of about 100 miles) rather than wait for the 
 steamer to take them. The remnant who did not walk I 
 left at the College in charge of the head native teacher, whilst 
 I took the opportunity of going north by the steamer into 
 German territory. It was the first time I had seen the 
 north-east of the lake ; the natives talk quite a different 
 language to the Nyasas who live around Likoma. You know 
 that in this diocese we work under three European flags — 
 British, Portuguese, German. . One has to consider when 
 one goes to church which of the three kings — ^Edward, 
 Manuel, or William — ^has to be prayed for. 
 
 " Well, my primary reason for writing to you is to tell 
 you that your football arrived at the very right moment, 
 at the end of the term, enabUng the boys who were left at 
 the College to have a good time whilst they were waiting 
 for the steamer to take them to their homes. . . . Also, 
 almost at the same time as the football, your letter arrived, 
 telling me you are sending out some mending apparatus. 
 Thank you so very much for all — letter and football, and 
 the prospect of having something more serviceable than 
 seccotine. 
 
 " I am spending part of my holiday in going round the 
 
 220 
 
diocese examining candidates for entrance to the College. 
 Before I have done I shall have examined about a hundred, 
 and, as there are only some twenty-five vacancies for this 
 next year, many will be the disappointments. The majority 
 of the candidates I managed to collect at the College — 
 about seventy of them. It was great fun, as there was 
 plenty of food. We had to have two halls, one after the 
 other, as at some Oxford colleges, as these candidates for 
 the time being more than doubled our numbers. 
 
 " To-morrow we ought to reach the south end of the Lake, 
 where boys are Yaos. Nyasas and Yaos fit in very happily 
 together at the College, although I give the Yaos a dormitory 
 to themselves. Of the two tribes, the Yaos are the more 
 dominating and look down on the Nyasas. Locally the 
 Yaos live mostly in the hills and the Nyasas near the lake. 
 
 " I look forward with pleasure to seeing your new book. 
 I read a notice of it in some paper. Thank you for sending 
 itr" 
 
 A New Ceiling 
 
 Likoma, August 2, 1909, 
 
 " I have not many minutes to write, as the steamer, 
 which was due to leave here to-morrow, has just arrived, and 
 has pubHshed her intention of going off again in an hour's 
 time. I also arrived here at Likoma about a couple of hours 
 ago, and I mean to spend the last week of the College 
 hoHdays here. You will have seen from previous letters that 
 I spent the first part of the holidays in traveUing about the 
 Lake from almost very north to veriest south, and examining 
 candidates for entrance to the College. By that means I 
 have seen almost all the Europeans of the diocese, as well as 
 the country up north, where we have been working in 
 German Protectorate for the last six years. They talk a 
 different dialect, indeed two different dialects, entailing two 
 new translations of the Church services. There is a print- 
 ing press on board the Chauncy Maples, and Archdeacon 
 Johnson, with the help of natives, was hard at work on this 
 translation during most of my journey. 
 
 221 
 
" Then I got back to the College and spent the next 
 Sunday (S. James's Day) at my hill station ; then I got back 
 to the College again, and performed the examination of my 
 village schools — at least two of them. And now for three 
 days (Sunday excluded), I have been hard at work making a 
 beautiful ceiling for my own house. A ceiling is useful for 
 two reasons — (a) it prevents the clouds of dust with which 
 the insects, called borers (primarily because they bore — ^not 
 me — ^but the wood of the rafters), smother books, tables, and 
 clothes ; (b) a properly-adjusted ceiHng, which fits on the 
 top of the walls, helps to keep out mosquitoes. In fact I 
 shall feel myself nearly mosquito-proof now, as I have got 
 wire gauze to all windows as well as the beautiful ceiling, 
 of which I am really very proud. The ceiling is made of the 
 backbones of long palm leaves (eighteen feet long), set 
 square-shaped, and over these are laid long plaited mats of 
 split reeds golden in colour. I am glad it is finished, as, 
 though I let others do the climbing about the roof, it is very 
 tiring work looking up at your ceiling for three days and 
 wondering how soon a black foot will come plunging through 
 the gold. 
 
 " I shall return to the College before Sunday ; the 
 students return the following Tuesday, but the steamer 
 which brings them also brings all the Europeans to Likoma 
 for the annual Retreat and Conference. So I shall have to 
 leave the College in charge of the head native teacher, 
 Germano, for the first few days of term. At the Conference 
 I am hoping to propose that the College course should be 
 extended — first two years at the College, a third year of 
 practical work in some school under a good teacher, and then 
 a fourth, final year back at College before the student gets 
 his teaching certificate. I think it ought to be workable 
 although it means if possible a second European at the 
 College if there are to be these advanced fourth yearers. I 
 wish and I wish that we had got a trained lay master. They 
 have got an excellent lay schoolmaster at the Training 
 College at Zanzibar. 
 
 " This morning I forced my gaze from the golden ceiHng 
 for the purpose of looking through the camera at Mwenyezari 
 
 222 
 
and his two brothers. As the steamer leaves in a few 
 minutes I haven't had time to develop, but if the photos are 
 good I will send copies by next mail. 
 
 " Miss Minter has presented me with an English farm- 
 yard — one cock, one hen, five chickens ; they look so large by 
 the side of the native fowls." 
 
 ' Beginning of Term 
 
 Boat, Chikulupi, August 31, 1909. 
 
 " I am sitting in this nice sailing boat, waiting for my 
 boy who has had to run back for the mail bag ; when he 
 arrives with it I hope to be blown over to Likoma. 
 
 " I am going up to ' town ' for two reasons : (i) to get my 
 hair cut — ^I shall get that done by the dispensary boy if he is 
 to be found ; (2) to have a tooth out — I shall get that done by 
 the doctor. Dear Dr. Howard, it will probably be our last 
 happy little bit of comradeship together at Lake Nyasa; 
 most pathetic. If the doctor and nurse really depart 
 to-morrow I shall see their send-off. We (the staff) have 
 done quite the proper thing and given them an ' Address,' 
 most exquisitely illuminated by Mr. George, that most 
 remarkable man. He calls it ' the bit of paper ' ! 
 
 " Mr. George came over to see me one day to put up a 
 church and a school. He put up the school from 8.30 to 
 10.30, and the church in a different village from ii.o to 12.30, 
 and then went back to Likoma after lunch ! What he really 
 did do was to put up the entire framework of the one, and 
 only grumbled because the workmen at the other hadn't got 
 quite enough material for him to finish putting up the frame- 
 work of the other. After the framework, the building only 
 needs to be filled in with bamboos and reeds and grass. 
 
 " One of the dispensary boys told Miss Minter that he is 
 going to give her a sheep for her wedding ! 
 
 " We have had a capital beginning to our new term — 
 sixty- two students this term — and I feel that I have got a 
 more methodical time-table for them this term than last. 
 They are, taking them all together, an unusually old lot of 
 
 223 
 
boys ; their average age must be nearly twenty, the ages 
 varying, I suppose, between fifteen and twenty-eight. 
 
 " The Conference, following the Retreat for members of 
 the diocesan staff, was delightful. I mean, what was 
 specially delightful was the meeting with everybody. In my 
 position as ' Principal ' I am really more lucky than most 
 people in the probability of having an annual tour round 
 the stations and so seeing the brethren, he's and she's. I had 
 called on most of them in June, but it was still delightful to 
 see them again. 
 
 ** The steamer which brought up most of the staff (e.g. 
 from Mponda's, Malindi, Kota Kota, Msumba, Lungwena, 
 and the River), also brought back most of the College 
 students ; they landed at the College in the dark of Monday 
 evening. The Retreat did not begin till Tuesday evening, 
 so I was able to have one night with the students before I 
 had to leave them for a week in charge of Germano, my head 
 teacher. Archdeacon Eyre was with me at the College 
 having walked from Mtonya overland (perhaps in ten days). 
 On the Sunday, the last day of our gathering, who should 
 turn up at Likoma but Sir Alfred Sharp, the Governor of 
 British Nyasaland. We found him waiting for us when we 
 all came out from the Eucharist. It was, perhaps, good that 
 he should see our staff en bloc, and he had breakfast with us 
 before he went off again. He is a particularly pleasant man 
 to talk to." 
 
 The College Garden 
 
 S. Michael's College, November 9, 1909. 
 
 " We are getting hotter and hotter, and shall I suppose 
 continue to get hotter still for another six weeks, till the 
 rains come. I suppose you have scarcely ever felt the sen- 
 sation of sitting down after the smallest fragment of walking 
 and feeling the perspiration trickUng down back and face. 
 That is about what we have come to to-day, and there are 
 those dear students playing football through it all. I 
 can hear the thump, thump of the ball on the iron-hard 
 
 224 
 
ground. But it is not the energy of the footballers nor the 
 heat qua heat which makes me so irritable at the present 
 moment. The crows are the real cause of vexation, and 
 with the crows, the chickens. My chickens, looking about 
 for morsels of green stuff, espied my little oasis of green 
 juicy potted plants, and have had a real good tuck in at the 
 leaves. But that is nothing to the crows. For the last 
 few days the students have been sowing millet seed all 
 about the College acres. I got my first inkling that some- 
 thing was wrong from the little cow-boy who told me that he 
 had seen the crows eating the seed, but I tried to make light 
 of it, and replied that if the crows did take a few seeds I 
 supposed there would be plenty left. Next day the cook 
 told me the same tale, but I still tried to be light-hearted ; 
 but when yesterday the students came and said that the 
 crows had dug up and eaten every jack-seed which they had 
 planted, I couldn't be light-hearted any more. However, 
 my spirits are rising again, as I have despatched a message 
 to Likoma with a request for a shot-gun. I believe, if you 
 blow off a gun, even without hitting anything, and continue 
 to do so for a fortnight it has most beneficial results, and 
 if there should happen, after so much blowing off of gun, 
 to be a dead crow, then if you tie it to a string and let it 
 waggle in the wind, I'm told the effect is tremendous. 
 As for my own little juicy oasis, Davies, the gardener, has 
 hedged it round and stretched a fishing-net over the top, 
 and now I am only hoping the chickens will come, I think 
 they will look rather sick. But alas ! there again the chickens 
 are only half as many as they ought to be. There is a 
 creature almost two feet long, like an enormous lizard, which 
 is partial to chicken. A fortnight ago the cook found, I 
 really forget how many, but almost a dozen small chicks, 
 the children of the European hen given me by Miss Minter, 
 missing, and a nasty little tell-tale hole at the bottom of 
 one of the walls, where the mwanzi had got in. 
 
 " Mwenyezarihas arrived, and so my letter is interrupted. 
 For the sake of the uninitiated Mwenyezari is the small 
 boy who has struck up a friendship with the Worfield school- 
 children's ' Coral League,' and this last mail has brought 
 
 225 Q 
 
him a letter from two of the Worfield boys, so he has come 
 up to the College from his village, a mile away, to receive 
 his letter and have it interpreted. By next mail I hope 
 he will have found both time and courage to write a suitable 
 reply. It was jolly to see his pleasure at getting a letter. 
 He has been doing well since I sent my last report of him. 
 I think he will be baptised next year, and if so, I won't 
 forget that his name, or one of his names, is to be Thomas, 
 or as he will spell it, Tomaso. The natives have strong likes 
 and dislikes about names. I expect he will cotton on to this 
 one all right. Tomdso is a common name here, but in 
 any case, he can choose a second name to join on to it if 
 he likes. 
 
 " I have planted seedlings of flowering red and yellow 
 dwarf acacias. The oleanders planted last year have 
 flowered strongly ; then there is another yellow flowering 
 shrub whose name I have never heard, but I have planted 
 lots of it, and I have one frangipani (?), very sweet, which 
 I was given in a pot two years ago, but it is growing quite 
 big now. My flower garden and shrubs are all round about 
 the College buildings, but the vegetables and fruits are at 
 the bottom of the hill close to the water. Just now we have 
 more mulberries than we can eat, mulberry and pineapple 
 tart is not bad. Our ladies use pineapple in the Christmas 
 mincemeat, instead of (I suppose) ordinary apples. 
 
 " By-the-bye, not a sign yet of my Christmas plum- 
 pudding ! It is probably sitting somewhere on the 
 banks of the river Shire waiting to be moved on. Just 
 now, with the water very low, things move dreadfully 
 slowly. . . . 
 
 " About four hundred girls attend the girls' school on 
 Likoma Island." 
 
 In the following letter to an old college friend, Arthur 
 describes his work at the College ; he speaks of the departure 
 of Bishop Trower, who left the Mission at the end of 1909 to 
 take up the bishopric of North- West Australia. The spiritual 
 phenomena of which Douglas speaks towards the close 
 of his letter is very remarkable, but is in entire agreement 
 
 226 
 
with what many another missionary has experienced in 
 Africa and elsewhere. 
 
 {To Rev. C. R. McDowall) 
 
 December 27, 1909. 
 
 " If I wrote my to-day's address, I should have to say 
 * Somewhere in the highlands two days' walk from the Lake/ 
 Holidays ! Blessed word ! My students were carried 
 away — some on their legs, some by our two steamers — 
 to their homes in different parts of the Lake a week before 
 Christmas ; then I had a busy week helping my village 
 Christians to get ready for Christmas ; and then, after I had 
 communicated about 220 of them on Christmas morning, I 
 fled — albeit a toilsome fly — to another of my villages up in 
 the hills, getting there on Christmas evening, helping the few 
 Christians to spend their Christmas on S. Stephen's Day ; 
 and so this morning I really turned my back on all work and 
 am writing to you outside my tent which my boys settled and 
 pitched in a Uttle bit of a village — quite gloriously out in the 
 wilds. ... I am intending to walk to Unangu where one of 
 our three native priests has his station. I expect to get 
 there after another three or four nights — ^taking it very 
 leisurely — only about four or five hours' walk each day ; 
 from Unangu I hope to go on a couple of days farther to a 
 European station (Mtonya), there to sit down for several 
 weeks and prepare mind and body for next term. 
 
 *' I am instigated to write to you through having received 
 last mail a very pleasant letter from you. I do so very 
 much like hearing from you. At S. Michael's College, where 
 I am the only European, I am, I'm thankful to say, never 
 white-man-sick, but possibly letters are more than ever 
 valuable. There are about sixty boys at the College — aged 
 from fifteen to twenty-five — all of them hoping to become 
 teachers ; naturally they are fellows with rather more 
 intelligence than the ordinary run of natives ; you will 
 understand better than I can tell you the intense interest of 
 — (letter interrupted by an old Johnny of the place wanting 
 to know whether he can do a deal with me in honey in 
 exchange for a shilling). 
 
 227 
 
" January 14. — Two and a half weeks since the honey 
 interruption. If I recollect aright I refused to buy the 
 honey ; but you don't get rid of a native as easy as all that. 
 Being unable to sell me the honey, he returned to me with it 
 as a present. Now none can refuse presents ; natives give 
 innumerable presents to us foolish Europeans, but alas, 
 nearly always on the unexpressed understanding that a 
 return present will be forthcoming of double the original's 
 worth. But I was so harassed by my honey present, 
 (beastly stuff, not like English honey, and with no pot to put 
 it in), that I determined on equity rather than liberality, so 
 I sent the old chap two pennyworth of salt. Well, really 
 that was not worth writing, but having begun the honey 
 story two and a half weeks ago I had to finish it. 
 
 " I got to Unangu, as I prophesied, in four more days ; I 
 spent three days there, and then on to this delightful spot 
 Mtonya — ^another two long days. My good resolution of only 
 doing four or five hours' walking a day entirely broke down ; 
 thenceforth I nearly always did over six, and once between 
 eight and nine hours. 
 
 " I reckon that from S. Michael's College to this place I 
 have walked about 130 miles, and I have got another eighty 
 to bring me down again to the south end of the Lake, but I 
 mean to use a slung-hammock for part of the way. There 
 I shall wait for the steamer Chauncy Maples to take me 
 back to College, picking up the students at different places 
 en route. I wish very much indeed that you could have been 
 walking with me, especially at one point when the path took 
 me 4000 feet above lake-level, with glorious mountains in 
 all directions except in the direction of the Lake which was 
 plainly visible ; but there again, across forty miles of water, 
 I could see the hills on the opposite side, so extraordinarily 
 clear is the atmosphere at this time of the year when the rains 
 have just begun. The lake-level is stifling at Christmas 
 time, a perpetual bath of perspiration ; up here, though the 
 thermometer doesn't go below 60° at night, I have the 
 blessing of a log fire to keep me warm. Meanwhile I am 
 laying in a stock of rude health and useful lecture-room 
 information for my lambs next term. I began to tell you 
 
 228 
 
about my sixty lambs, and I told you that the youngest 
 looks about fifteen, and the eldest about twenty-five ; of 
 course I can only say ' looks.' It is only the babies of to-day, 
 bom under the star of the U.M.C.A., that begin to know 
 really how many years they have been born. I have never 
 up to this past year had very close dealings with youths. 
 My closest acquaintance has been either grown-ups, or young 
 (private school age) boys ; and I rather doubted whether 
 I could raise as much interest in hobbledehoys ; but doubts 
 are rather rot and perhaps the best proof of my keenness 
 about the College students is that I never get white-man- 
 sick, as I remarked before. Now there is one very peculiar 
 thing about black boys — ^I always think of them as more 
 Marlburians or Etonians than as ploughboys. I don't 
 know why it is, but it's a fact. Perhaps one reason is that 
 there are practically no social distinctions in a native tribe 
 and therefore one is permitted to treat them all as gentlemen. 
 Another good reason is that the natives of the Lake (not 
 those of the hills) bathe per week fourteen times oftener 
 than the English ploughboys and probably oftener than 
 you and I in our most zealous summer terms. Taking all 
 things into consideration my chief wonder is why, in spite of 
 a daily sweeping, their dormitories should always swarm with 
 biting creatures ; my dormitory at Marlborough never did. 
 But then twice a week we used to get asphyxiated with 
 brimstone, and I can't run to the expense of brimstone out 
 here. At present the College course for getting a teacher's 
 certificate is two years. But at our last diocesan conference 
 I made a bold suggestion for extending the course for four 
 years, viz. two years at the College, a third year of practical 
 training away from College in a village school, the fourth 
 year back at College. But one big difficulty is that such 
 an extension of the course, with a compulsory increase of 
 students from sixty to ninety, absolutely necessitates a 
 second European at the College. (Besides the College 
 work I have four villages with schools and churches for 
 which I am responsible.) So, when you pray for S. Michael's 
 College, think of this new scheme and of the need of a 
 European teacher — lay or clerical. We have lady teachers 
 
 229 
 
— quite first-rate, and the supply seems unlimited — from 
 imiversity, high school, and elementary school ; but we 
 have not one professional master ; well now, I want one 
 badly. Of course he must be in sympathy with our Mission 
 Church views ; otherwise he would probably not be either 
 happy or useful. As a matter of fact our Bishop who has 
 just resigned always said that he didn't want a school- 
 master, but even he would allow the need now. 
 
 " We are bishopless — another matter of prayer and really 
 a very, very urgent matter. We want a man strong and 
 tactful in deaUng with civil government (British, Portuguese, 
 German). A man of clear vision for the development and 
 extension of the native Church ; and a veritable father to 
 the natives and to the European members of his staff. 
 Our Bishop is leaving us and going to start a new diocese 
 in North- West Australia. 
 
 " In your letter you ask me about obvious signs of the 
 activity of spiritual forces of evil or good. Your questions 
 brought to my mind what the Bishop told me twice about his 
 experiences on a long tour he made through a heathen 
 district. He said that he felt the evil spirits all about 
 him. They pestered him with horrible thoughts which 
 he in no way liked ; and this went on till he got down to 
 the Lake again into the midst of Mission life, when his life 
 resumed its normal condition. He told me that he always 
 noticed the same thing — the extraordinary power of the 
 spirits of evil — whenever he was walking through heathen 
 parts. 
 
 " On the other hand I think that many of us are at times 
 permitted a wonderful consciousness of the other side — of 
 good in the spiritual life — more particularly a consciousness 
 that others at home are praying for us ; and then again and 
 again how marvellously the greatest perplexities become 
 unravelled in our own bits of work ; when I haven't had, 
 and even by prayer don't seem to get, the slightest idea 
 of what is the right course of action in a difficulty, I seemed 
 forced into doing what afterwards seems the obviously 
 right thing. I only say this to you because you more or 
 less ask me ; nor do I mean to say that such experiences 
 
 230 
 
are necessarily more common here than among workers at 
 home. 
 
 " You mention Goathland ; so can I. Four of my last 
 weeks at home — summer 1908 — ^I lodged at Goathland 
 with some of my family. 
 
 " We lodged at a farm beyond the church. I routed out 
 Mrs. W. and family ; she keeps swagger new lodgings near 
 the station. We had a glorious tea with her. I regret to 
 say that you, Alington, and Evans have brought our reading 
 party into everlasting notoriety. The details of the bed 
 crisis are still clear in the mind of Mrs. W., and she has 
 educated her family in the knowledge of the same. 
 
 " Yet more again : this past year some of my sisters again 
 were at Goathland, and a friend of theirs happened to be 
 lodging at the W.'s and Mrs. W. (now that I am safely out of 
 the way) regaled the ladies with the most monstrous fabrica- 
 tions of evil tales — notably that the four young gentlemen 
 at night used to light their candles down below and then 
 have a race upstairs, and whoever got to the top first used to 
 hurl his candle down below on the heads of his brethren. 
 Now I am powerless to refute such stories. What can I do ? 
 Write to the Chitrch Times and ask ? To say nothing of a 
 meek little missionary, could a revered head of a great 
 public school and an equally honoured pedagogue at the 
 Eton seminary for young gentlemen possibly be guilty of 
 such conduct ? Besides if it had been true it would have 
 been far too good a game for me to have forgotten that I 
 ever played it." 
 
 A Walk on the Mainland 
 
 Mtonya, January 15, 1910. 
 
 " Here I am at Mtonya, having had a fine walk of about 
 130 miles from S. Michael's College. The students went 
 home a week before Christmas, then I had a hard week, 
 helping my village Christians (about 200 of them) to prepare 
 for their Christmas Communion, so after the Christmas 
 morning Eucharist my one desire was to fly from the College, 
 
 231 
 
and I accordingly flew up the very steep hill behind the 
 College to Manda, my furthest village three and a half hours 
 walk from the Lake. There I spent a second Christmas 
 with the Mission people, and then on Monday with my 
 cook and boy and nine porters I started on my long tramp 
 to Unangu, getting there very stiff, but very well, on the 
 following Friday afternoon. I reckon that my path from 
 the College to Unangu was about eighty-five miles, and 
 it is forty-five miles on from Unangu to Mtonya, so, as I 
 have already remarked, the total walk so far has been 
 130 miles. I started with the excellent intention of not 
 walking more than about five hours a day, but after the first 
 two days, good intentions failed and I generally did over 
 six hours a day, and from Unangu to Mtonya (forty-five 
 miles) I only slept one night on the road. It was at noon on 
 the last day, when only a couple of hours from Mtonya, that 
 I told my boy, as we had reached a stream, to light a fire and 
 make some tea. I still had some very uninviting bread and 
 marmalade left in my portable larder, but no sooner had I 
 sat down than up came an unknown gentleman, who planted 
 a large basket in front of me and said, * From Bwana (Mister) 
 Archdeacon,' and in the basket were all sorts of deHcacies 
 from dear old Archdeacon Eyre : new bread, butter, cheese, 
 cake, a Httle packet of tobacco and a bottle of milk. He 
 didn't much expect me to turn up till the next day and 
 intended his hamper to meet me half-way between Unangu 
 and Mtonya ; but what was almost the best part of the 
 hamper (you must pardon the * almost ' under these 
 particular circumstances) was a splendid home-mail just 
 arrived at Mtonya ; the treasurer at Mponda's had thought- 
 fully sent up my letters, knowing that I was bound for 
 Mtonya, so I walked the last two hours in the company of 
 my brothers and sisters, really very enjoyable indeed. 
 Unangu and Mtonya He very high, the thermometer here has 
 only been about seventy degrees, so that some days I have 
 indulged in a log fire, whereas at the Lake we have been 
 living in a perpetual Turkish bath. To get to Unangu I had 
 to climb over a ridge 4000 feet above the level of the Lake, a 
 glorious panorama of mountains all round, except in the direc- 
 
 232 
 
tion of the Lake which was clearly visible with the hills on 
 the opposite side. The atmosphere at this season is extra- 
 ordinarily clear ; this was my first visit to Unangu, Padre 
 Yohana Abdallah's station. I was there from Friday to 
 Monday, and preached on Sunday through an interpreter. 
 The people along all these hills are Yaos. . . . 
 
 " We made out that Yohana and I were born the same 
 year, but he does not know the month of his birth. The 
 natives have a great respect for him, and he has a great 
 respect for his own office. . . . 
 
 " I rather hope that we European missionaries with the 
 vastly improved health of the Mission are getting to use the 
 machila less and trusting to our legs, but I must not brag, 
 as when I set out again on Monday on the last part of my 
 land tour, I mean to be lazy and go in a machila for the j&rst 
 two days, and then, sending it back here I ought to have a 
 fairly easy last two days' walk down to Malindi. That will 
 have brought my trip to about 210 miles. At the south 
 end of the Lake I shall divide my time between Malindi and 
 Mponda's till the Chauncy Maples arrives to take me back 
 to the College, and we shall pick up the students at various 
 places en route. I expect to get one night at Kota Kota ; 
 I don't expect to get many days at the south end before 
 the steamer arrives. 
 
 " Doesn't all this sound a very delightful holiday and such 
 a thorough change ? All the same I am being pretty busy 
 in preparing work for next term. We have two holidays 
 per annum at the College, with possibly a week's break at 
 Easter. 
 
 " I hope we shall not be left very long without a Bishop. 
 I expect you are praying frequently for a right appointment. 
 We expect to have a visit from Bishop Hine about March. 
 I think I must try to get my adult Baptisms over by Easter 
 so that he can confirm." 
 
 A Village Raided 
 
 steamship Chauncy Maples, February 3, 1910. 
 
 " My last letter home told about my capital walking tour, 
 beginning at noon on Christmas Day. It is 210 miles from 
 
 233 
 
M tony a in the hills to the south end of the Lake, but as I 
 lazily went in a hammock for the first two days, I had only two 
 days' walking at the end, winding up with the most awful 
 scramble down a dry precipitous river-bed over which I au- 
 dibly groaned ; but what must it have been for my men who 
 were carrying loads up to forty or fifty pounds ? To travel 
 comfortably I want nine carriers : two for tent, one for bed- 
 ding, one for camp-bed, table and chair, one for provisions, one 
 for pots and pans, and so on. The capitao generally carries 
 nothing but his own dignity and my gun ; so far I have 
 always borrowed some one else's rifle, but I have a good one 
 on its way out from home now. It is always as well to have 
 a rifle in the party when travelling, and on one's Mission 
 station when one is at home. But so far I have never seen 
 a wild beast of any size ; one came at night to the College 
 before I had got any cartridges and ate my three calves, 
 but that is an old tale. On one of my journeys I could not 
 see any game, so I stuck up a cartoon of Punch and had 
 pots at that. I am just awake to the fact of a general 
 election at home, but have heard no particulars. I think 
 there will be a considerable increase to the Mission staff 
 at my College within the next few months. First, I hear 
 good rumours that a real schoolmaster is coming out. 
 Nobody seems to know anything about him, except that 
 his name is said to be Peek. Well, if he comes, I shall 
 have first claim on him. Then another wonderful addition 
 will be effected by the arrival of two ladies. Poor things ! 
 it is only by a sort of accident that they have got to be 
 planked down on our bachelor establishment. They were 
 to have gone to Mtonya (the place where I have spent most 
 of this holiday) to be with Archdeacon Eyre and a young 
 layman, but there has lately been a raid on a village quite 
 close to Mtonya, so that we are all agreed that ladies must 
 not go up there at present. We had an out-school at the 
 village which was raided ; our teacher there was wounded in 
 the leg, and a Christian school-boy was killed, so also was the 
 old chief himself. Our Mission buildings were burnt ; in fact 
 it seems to be the custom of raiders, who of course come 
 when the villagers are asleep, first to set fire to the huts, and 
 
 234 
 
then shoot the poor people who come out, and carry off as 
 many of the women as they can. This is how our teacher 
 got shot, but he is now well again. His wife was carried 
 off by the raiding party, but the Mtonya people came up 
 splendidly and chased the raiders, with the result that, 
 whereas only a very few of the villagers were killed, they 
 killed about thirty-five of the raiders, and the teacher's 
 wife got safely home. Hallson, the young layman, was 
 the only European missionary at our Mtonya station. 
 The watchman woke him up about 4 a.m. saying * War.' 
 He had heard the first gun. 
 
 " The village which was raided was about an hour's walk 
 from our main station. Hallson wisely sent all the school- 
 boys, and any others who liked to go, straight down to the 
 Lake twenty-five miles off. A few hours afterwards, when 
 the raiders had been chased off he went to look after the 
 wounded. As soon as a man is down the enemy cuts off his 
 head, and Hallson met people carrying heads slung together 
 on a pole. Altogether I think Hallson did very well. Whilst 
 the fighting was going on his right place certainly was on 
 the Mission station, looking after it. He is only a young 
 gardener's boy, so no wonder that when it was all over he 
 got his nerves a bit out of order and was sent for a trip on 
 the steamer to put him right. So that is why the ladies 
 are going to be at S. Michael's College, temporarily at least, 
 instead of going to Mtonya. 
 
 " Now we are just reaching Kota Kota. I shall try 
 and get up to my dear old first charge in time for dinner." 
 
 The letter which follows is interesting as it gives Douglas' 
 first impressions of Mr. Peek, who had joined the Mission 
 as a schoolmaster. As will be seen by successive letters 
 he and Arthur got on extremely well together, and his 
 premature death a few months later was a very real loss 
 both to the Mission and to the College, 
 
 Likoma, March 30, 1910. 
 
 " After a busy Lent and very happy Easter, I am having 
 a few days* rest at Likoma. The College has undergone a 
 
 235 
 
wonderful transformation this last month, by the arrival of 
 a schoolmaster and two ladies. I am going to turn Miss 
 Medd on to teaching the students German for German terri- 
 tory, and Portuguese for Portuguese territory. I should 
 like to find time to attend the Portuguese class. Mrs. 
 Williams, when she is not dispensing medicines, spends her 
 time as housekeeper between admiration of my cook and 
 despair of the kitchen range, which indeed is only a flat bit 
 of iron spread on the top of the fire. I implore her not to 
 make the cook discontented by suggesting an oven. 
 
 " The schoolmaster Peek seems likely to prove just what 
 we want. He was educated at one of the lower grade 
 Woodard schools, but for the last three years has been teach- 
 ing in Romsey National School. He is only about twenty- 
 one, so I shan't be shy about giving him my best advice, 
 and he, as a professional, is rightly somewhat critical of our 
 amateur methods, particularly of the old dented cow-bell, 
 which takes the place of the sprightly gong of the school- 
 master's desk at home. The boys have taken well to him, as 
 he plays football with them ; he was the captain of Boy 
 Scouts in his parish at home, so is well up in drill. If he can 
 stand the climate (he doesn't look strong), he will be, I 
 think, a most valuable acquisition and a tremendous help 
 at the College. On Easter Monday I left him overseeing 
 the whitewashing of his shanty whilst I went up to my hill 
 school and down again the next day. The walls of the 
 ordinary shanty are made of posts filled in with reeds and 
 then the whole is plastered with mud. 
 
 " I wish you could have seen my flower garden this last 
 month, the cosmos has been its chief glory. Will cosmos 
 grow out of doors in England ? I suppose it is a kind of 
 large single daisy, growing four feet high, with blossoms all 
 shades of pink and red. The zinnias and sunflowers have 
 been a fine show, and now the cannas are just coming on, 
 and they are the grandest flowers of all. Some of the 
 vegetable seeds sent out from home are, I believe, doing very 
 well — onions, carrots, radishes, and even cabbages — so Mrs. 
 WiUiams tells me, although it is almost too good to be true. 
 One longs for what the late Bishop would have called a good 
 
 236 
 
old smiling cabbage. Lately, also, we have had almost 
 more mulberries than we could eat. They are much smaller 
 than, and not very like, English mulberries, but the trees 
 have the great virtue of bearing fruit the year after they 
 are put in the ground. I have also planted quite a lot of 
 flowering shrubs — ^pointsettias, oleanders, hybiscus, red- 
 blossoming acacias. My best pointsettia was hacked to 
 pieces by the students when they were hoeing the ground. 
 A flowering shrub is to them the same as a weed, or, at the 
 most, as an amazing whim of the European ; it is something 
 the watering of which may bring in pennies for themselves." 
 
 Biblical Questions 
 
 S. Michael's College, April 20, 1910, 
 
 " As I have just finished Compline with the students, 
 which means it is nine o'clock, this may not be a very long 
 letter. Nine o'clock at home seems early, but then you 
 don't expect to be up at 5.30 every morning. To-morrow 
 I must be up about that hour, as before six o'clock I have 
 got to see to all Mrs. Williams' paraphernalia of luggage, as 
 well as herself, and a very ill student who will have to 
 be carried down to the steamer. 
 
 '* Peek, the new young schoolmaster, is shaping very well, 
 and he and I get on very well together. His discipline causes 
 the students considerable surprise and, I fancy, admiration 
 as well. I am very glad that he was an elementary school- 
 master. He has made a good start in the actual teaching 
 in school, but at times I have to act interpreter. Next 
 week I have got to interpret ' Interest ' sums for him, 
 which will tax my linguistic powers. I particularly want 
 the students to learn about interest now, as we are hoping 
 to start a native self-supporting sustentation fund which 
 is to bear interest in a bank. I know it will be a difficult 
 job to persuade the natives that when £ioo have been 
 subscribed and only £2 J can be produced, that we Europeans 
 haven't * eaten ' the other £97^. 
 
 " Miss Medd is principally busy with the girls' schools and 
 village women, but she has German and Portuguese classes 
 
 237 
 
for the students. I told the boys they could choose which 
 they would rather learn, but that they must not learn both ; 
 about three-quarters of them chose Portuguese, the rest 
 chose German. That is a very fair division, as we have of 
 course far more work in Portuguese territory than in the 
 German Protectorate, where we only began to work about 
 five years ago. 
 
 " I am specially glad just now to be freed from so much 
 of the College teaching, as I have just begun preparing 
 Candidates for Baptism. We ought to have a big adult 
 Baptism this year in the villages belonging to me. I think 
 there are about thirty candidates. One of them is Mwenye- 
 zari, the Worfield Coral League's boy. He is to be called 
 Tomaso after a school-boy who died in Worfield. Mwenye- 
 zari and his elder brother, aged fourteen, both ought to be 
 baptised, and the baptisms should be in the first half of June. 
 
 " I very much enjoy taking the school-boys in their bap- 
 tismal preparation ; I told them yesterday that though 
 there were many things in religion that we could not under- 
 stand, yet we can believe them. * In Europe there are 
 carriages with people in them that fly about in the air ; 
 you can't understand it, but as I tell you it is so, you can 
 beHeve it, can you not ? ' A general reply of * No.' I 
 felt floored, and could only rejoin, * Then I fear you think 
 Padre is a liar.' The students also are very interesting 
 in the bibhcal questions they ask. Two lots of students 
 came to me last night, one set wishing to know about the 
 sons of God and daughters of men, and the other set wishing 
 to know whether Jephtha really burnt his daughter to death. 
 I had to get old Bishop Wordsworth to help me out with 
 the latter difficulty ; as to the former, I told them straight 
 that I thought it was one of the things in the Bible which 
 we could not understand, and they might as well give up 
 thinking about it. 
 
 " During Lent I started having five minutes' Chinyanja 
 intercessions (volimtary attendance) at midday, and I hope 
 to keep it as a permanent institution. We want our teachers 
 to get into the habit of a few minutes' midday prayer, but 
 I think that for the young ones Sext is not quite the right 
 
 238 
 
thing. I want attendance to be quite voluntary, and 
 thereby become one test of possible vocation to something 
 beyond the teachership. 
 
 *"* In the Zanzibar diocese there is a guild for the purpose 
 of fostering vocation ; I think we may have something of the 
 same kind in this diocese. 
 
 " The Rhodesian new diocese seems to be going to make 
 a good start at last. De La Pryme is going from this diocese 
 and the beloved Frank George is going after this year. He 
 offered his services to Bishop Hine months ago when we 
 had another new architect in the diocese ; then the latter left 
 the Mission, but as Bishop Hine has written to George 
 accepting him, George thinks he must keep to his promise, 
 and I expect he is right to go. 
 
 ' * Dennis Victor is enormously happy with his three candi- 
 dates for the diaconate and his parish of Nkwazi, and his 
 beautiful little church." 
 
 " Beasts " 
 
 S. Michael's College, May 8, 1910. 
 
 " The Government steamer, which calls at Likoma once 
 a month, is expected next Tuesday, so I shall get a letter 
 ready to send by her. I'm afraid my letters may for the 
 next months be fewer than ever, as Archdeacon Johnson 
 (in lieu of Bishop) has determined to knock off the Charles 
 fanson's trip in order to save expense. I think he is quite 
 right to do so ; likewise he has shut down the carpentry 
 business and nearly all the printing office work for a year, 
 the reason being that we estimated a total expense of the 
 diocese for this year at £13,000, and the Home Committee 
 can only give us £11,000, so we have to cut off £2000 some- 
 where. This move will give the new Bishop a better chance 
 of starting square and fair, and it is a good thing to show the 
 people at home that we don't want to kick over the traces. 
 Only a few young apprentices have been kept on in the 
 printing office, primarily for the sake of reprinting ' Esopo,' 
 otherwise ' ^Esop's Fables,' for ' Esopo ' is out of print, and 
 how can you expect to attain proficiency in the art of 
 
 239 
 
Chinyanja reading unless you have Chinyanja * Esopo ' for 
 a reading book ? Having just laid in a good supply of 
 new tables and chairs, I voted for the suppression of the 
 carpenter's shop with a good heart. 
 
 " In the daytime we go along very smoothly, but nights 
 have been made lively by beasts. A Hon walked along the 
 bottom of our garden, and killed three cows in their house a 
 mile from here. The next night my watchman came to my 
 window and woke me up. I said, * What's the matter ? ' 
 He said, * It's bad out here.' I replied, * What's the badness ? ' 
 He said, ' There's a beast ! ' ' Where's the beast ? ' * By the 
 dining-room.' However, by the time I could get my boots 
 on the beast had disappeared, but I thought it was then 
 time to put on a second watchman. Then the next night 
 just after dark, as the students were collecting for evening 
 school, there was a sudden uproar, and the watchman came 
 tearing over to my house for his gun, saying there was a beast. 
 I rushed out with mine, followed by Ayers, one of our 
 engineers, with a hurricane lantern. There was such a row in 
 the students' dormitory that I really thought the beast must 
 be in there ; great was my relief when I found only a lot of 
 frightened boys, and the beast, if it ever existed, had taken 
 its departure. I bravely fired off a cartridge into the air 
 just to show we weren't afraid of nothing ! However, really 
 and truly one poor man was killed last week in his hut by 
 the same kind of beast — machecheta, a large hyena — as that 
 which ate up my calves last year ; and Shannon, who 
 fortunately is a first-rate shot, met a leopard a fortnight 
 ago near here and slew it, so there's something in it after 
 all, although I expect foxes are responsible for some of 
 the scares. Schoolmaster Peek comes of a farmer family 
 and is rather a keen sportsman ; anyhow sufficiently keen 
 to get up after a fox at 3 o'clock in the morning. 
 
 " The only thing beside the watchman which has got me 
 up has been the comet. Even when the moon was half- 
 full and very bright, the comet looked a very decent comet, 
 but it will look a great deal finer when there is no moon. 
 I was surprised to find how very generally it had been 
 seen by the village natives. Even my women baptismal 
 
 240 
 
candidates had most of them seen it, as I learnt when 
 I was teaching them about the wise men. My class of 
 boy candidates are perfectly delightful. I never remem- 
 ber having such a nice class ; of course, these are 
 villagers, not Collegers, who have all been baptised and 
 confirmed before they are allowed to enter College. The 
 baptismal preparation is a pretty good test of keen- 
 ness, as for about two months they come to me 
 four times a week and go to their village teachers on 
 the off days, and some of them live nearly an hour's walk 
 from the College. 
 
 " On Ascension Day we had ' sports ' for the College 
 students and school-boys. The high jump was won at four 
 feet six inches, which, I suppose, is not bad, considering that 
 they scarcely practise at all beforehand. Beside the ordinary 
 events, we had some of the sports one sees on board ship, 
 such as bolster bar, and ' Are you there ? ' We had got to- 
 gether really a remarkably good set of prizes, nearly forty ; 
 knives with one big blade a la Salwarpe school treat, and 
 nobody said ' It ain't keen ' ; scissors for cutting their 
 wool, quite large at 6d. each ; gaudy belts, mouth organs, 
 whistles ; large red kerchiefs would have been another good 
 prize, only we hadn't any. And for quite the little boys 
 I gave fish-hooks, knives, scissors. I wanted some of the 
 Likoma staff to come over for the sports, but they were 
 already booked to go for a picnic. The footballs arrived all 
 right ; Peek is dismayed by the quickness with which both 
 bladders and covers burst out here. He played a lot of 
 footer in England, and has made an attempt to keep the 
 students to proper rules. Most fortunately I bought at 
 Johannesburg a printed book of rules, so I was able to show 
 that Peek had not devised the annoying restrictions out of 
 his own head. 
 
 The New Bishop 
 
 S. Michael's College, June 5, 1910. 
 " The years simply fly along ! 
 
 " Well, we have been offering many thanksgivings for the 
 appointment of Cathrew Fisher to be Bishop of Nyasaland. 
 
 241 R 
 
These past months have been a time of great anxiety, only 
 I felt pretty sure that it really would come right, and now I 
 feel pretty sure that it has come right. I hope he will see 
 his way to coming to us quickly. 
 
 " In my last letter I remember mentioning that I was in 
 the middle of preparing adults for Baptism, old women and 
 girls, youths and school-boys. The oldest old lady cannot 
 learn her words because, as she explained to me, her head is 
 dry. Her name is Apafika ; as she frequently does not turn 
 up in time for her class, and as the Chinyanja word for ' turn 
 up ' is Anafika, I feel entitled to enliven the occasion with a 
 pun. This morning, the last Sunday before their baptism, 
 I noticed the absence of the two biggest youths, and was 
 informed that they had been seized in war. On further 
 inquiry I found that they had been commandeered with 
 others to carry the little Portuguese, who has been collecting 
 taxes here, back to his headquarters at Mtengula, about forty 
 miles from here. This Portuguese and I have been on 
 excellent terms and I have no doubt that if he had known 
 the facts he would have let them off. However, they may 
 be back by Wednesday if they buck up. Except for this, the 
 Portuguese has done extraordinarily well. He has accom- 
 pUshed in fifteen days, without running in a single person, 
 the entire taxation of his district, whereas the people last 
 year had three months bad time, with continual night raids 
 by the police, and during that time our girls' schools were 
 practically closed, as the women and girls hide away, the 
 policy of the government official being to run-in the females 
 whilst their husbands and fathers look for their tax money. 
 But, as I say, this year the whole business round here has 
 been achieved in a wonderfully short time with really no 
 discomfort. One chief reason was that a very large number 
 of men have lately returned from their work at Johannes- 
 burg, so there has been a good supply of money in the 
 country. 
 
 " Only five more weeks of this term remain ; it has been 
 a very good term, but lately I have had much anxiety over 
 the scarcity of food. It has sometimes seemed almost to be 
 touch and go whether I should be able to keep the students ; 
 
 242. 
 
however, now the worst is over, and we have never reached 
 the straits Likoma station found itself in a week ago, when I 
 had a sudden visit from Mr. Willcocks, who looks after the 
 native store there. They had discovered, through what 
 misunderstanding I can scarcely say, that there was only 
 enough food to give one more meal to the boys who feed on 
 the station, and to the hospital patients. So they had 
 hurriedly to get rid of all the boys who could possibly get 
 to their homes, and then Mr. Willcocks came over here, and 
 we ransacked the stores for the very very little I could give 
 him. However, we reckoned that would be enough to keep 
 the hospital patients (about thirty) for the next two days, 
 and he, with the boat, went straight over to the opposite coast, 
 nearly fifty miles, to buy food ; leaving me at 8.30. p.m. on 
 Thursday he got back to Likoma with food at 3 a.m. on 
 Sunday morning. So that was touch and go. Among 
 Qther articles of food during the past fortnight I have been 
 bu5ring monkey-nuts, about £y worth. The natives bring 
 them, and then they have to be measured into a box ; one 
 box-full equals 8d., so you see by this time I have got to know 
 the look of that box. 
 
 " The steamer Chauncy Maples is expected here to- 
 morrow going down south ; her next trip down south 
 should take me on my annual tour of examination for 
 the College entrance." 
 
 Mr. Peek 
 
 A Lakeside Village, July 27, 1910, 
 " I am in the middle of my half-yearly holiday, but I am 
 spending most of it touring round on the Chauncy Maples, 
 examining schools and candidates for S. Michael's College. 
 For entrance to the College, I have already examined over 
 120 boys and there are only about thirty vacancies. 
 
 " At this moment I am sitting in a native house, roomy 
 and airy, with twelve Yao boys writing their Old Testament 
 examination. There are, of course, no desks in this room, 
 so they are writing in all manner of positions, most of them 
 kneeling with paper on the ground, or else lying on one side, 
 or else with their legs stuck out in front. Mr. Peek is the 
 
 243 
 
only other occupant of the room. He is really a very good 
 disciplinarian though the boys now and then get beyond 
 him in school. 
 
 " The second man at the station generally has rather a 
 hard time ; at any rate he has got to make his position for 
 himself, whereas the chief man on the staff has his position 
 assured to him by the fact that he is chief. Everybody 
 looks to the priest-in-charge to say the final word. Where 
 there are two Europeans at a station, missionary or civil, 
 they are always known among the natives as the big Bwana 
 and small Bwana. It was Archdeacon Eyre's one objection 
 (so he said) to travelling with the Bishop, that he found 
 himself transformed from the big into the small Bwana. 
 However, I give Peek practically a free hand in school, 
 making both students and native teachers look to him for 
 arranging details of school routine, and they all get on 
 capitally together. Poor man, but he has many shocks. 
 Judge of his estimation of native capabilities, by his asking 
 a fellow missionary on the journey out from home, whether 
 there was a laboratory at S. MichaeFs College. Whilst 
 the students are away, and I and Mr. Peek are travelling 
 round, I believe that Archdeacon Johnson is established 
 at the College with a number of German territory teachers, 
 for the purpose primarily of being taught German by Miss 
 Medd. 
 
 " This evening we hope to be picked up by the Chauncy 
 Maples. Whilst we are doing our exam, here, she has gone 
 on to a Portuguese government station in order to put on 
 board twenty tons of food for me, so you see I don't mean 
 to starve.'* 
 
 Catering for the College 
 
 S.s. Chauncy Maples, August 12, 1910, 
 
 " You know that I and Mr. Peek have been spending 
 our holiday so far in travelling round examining schools 
 and candidates for the College. We first went down south, 
 calling at Kota Kota both going and returning. Then we 
 got back to Likoma, and I had the job of seeing my students' 
 
 244 
 
food, twenty-one tons, unshipped at the College and stored. 
 I had about sixty women carriers, and the loads averaged 
 seventy pounds. It is very wonderful what the women can 
 carry on their heads. The only evil result to myself was 
 that for about three days my eyes were very sore, I suppose 
 with flour and dust. I was determined to get in enough fodder 
 for the students this year, as during the last six months I 
 had many an anxious time, wondering how I was going to feed 
 them. We can't buy food in any quantity near the College, 
 and have to depend on boats and steamer. Sometimes it was 
 really a case of ' If the boat doesn't come in to-morrow, 
 we're done. ' I get the big supply of food from the Portuguese 
 Government ; it is food that has been paid for hut tax. 
 Well, I hope it won't go bad, but I have no stone or brick 
 room to keep it in, as what was the native storeroom is 
 now Miss Thompson's bed and sitting-room. Since storing 
 the food, the steamer has taken us up north into German 
 territory. The natives there speak another dialect which 
 I don't understand. The trip up north has resulted in my 
 accepting five of these northern boys as students at the Col- 
 lege. They are the first batch that have ever come from so 
 far north, so it is a great event which will rejoice the heart of 
 Archdeacon Johnson, whom we left in hospital at Likoma. 
 The arrival of these boys (the first-fruits I hope of many 
 others from the same district) is bound to compHcate our 
 time-table — on second thoughts perhaps it won't ; I haven't 
 sufficiently considered, but anyhow circumstances will be 
 altered, as in these German territory schools English is a 
 forbidden subject, so they must come to College knowing 
 none. I must consider whether we ought to pile on the 
 German for them, making use of Miss Medd. The chief 
 reason for their learning English seems to be that some of 
 them may go on to become theological students, and then 
 they ought to be able to read English theological books. 
 
 " I am happy in leaving the College and College villages 
 so long, as Padre Clarke is staying there with a dozen 
 teachers who have been taken from their schools in 
 German territory, primarily in order to learn German 
 under Miss Medd, so there is a vacation term, Mr Clarke 
 
 245 
 
is, I hope, building more temporary storehouses, also 
 re-thatching my own house, and last, but not least, 
 building a new cattle stable. This last is necessary, as 
 we are, I hope, going to increase our herd. Our herd lately 
 has consisted of a bull, two cows, and three calves, but 
 I have long had my eye on the Mponda's herd which 
 probably numbers sixty or seventy ; and when I was 
 down there in January Mr. Craft, the treasurer, promised 
 me that I should have some, so I was determined on this 
 trip to get something more satisfactory than words out 
 of those in charge. (Mr. Craft is in England.) I settled 
 in my mind that I would have five or six ! Imagine 
 my annoyance when I was greeted on my arrival at 
 Malindi by hearing that Mponda's, in the generosity of 
 their hearts, had already dispatched on the road a cow and 
 calf for me. However, it was no good my pretending to 
 be very grateful, so I boldly told Padre Ker that I hoped for 
 about six. The result is that I trust that in slow stages 
 half a dozen beasts are walking the 170 miles, and the first 
 two ought to be at the College by now. But it seems largely 
 to depend on whether the Mponda's cowman will part with 
 the beasts. He is said to love them and weep over them, 
 and when Padre Ker and I wanted to pick out beasts for me, 
 though the cowman was told to be ready for us, he had 
 hidden himself and all the cattle and not a sign of himself 
 or a cow was to be seen. " 
 
 S. Michael's College, Sept. 26, 19 10. 
 
 "... We have had a very good beginning to our term, 
 a more than usually large number of new students — about 
 twenty-six. This means an extra special pressure of work, as 
 I Hke to give each new student about half an hour's private 
 talk. Some of them look very young, but that doesn't niatter, 
 as I hope that now four years instead of two will pass before 
 they finally become teachers. I can't think how I got on 
 before Peek's arrival ; what it really means is that less is 
 left undone both in College and villages, and I try to get a 
 little more time for private reading. Next Thursday is our 
 patronal festival, but I am doubtful how far we shall be 
 
 246 
 
able to use our church. Last year we had a very troublesome 
 business with the roof, and now it seems to be going badly 
 again, and yesterday it both looked so bad and gave out 
 such ominous creaks that I settled we must have service in 
 the school. Perhaps if we take the grass off the rickety 
 part, and so lighten the weight, we shall be able to use it 
 till it can be thoroughly repaired. Mr. Peek is splendid in 
 school, only he takes the native eccentricities in a very 
 serious way. He has just been in to me, to tell me that he 
 has been looking through the students' writing books and 
 finds them in a condition which he could not have allowed 
 in his first standard at Romsey. One boy has been doing 
 his cash accounts topsy-turvy in his modern language book ; 
 another has been fantastically decorating the marginal 
 line ; another has been writing his names (probably lots of 
 them, as they add on to their names ad lib.) on many suc- 
 cessive pages ; another has been writing ' This is the book 
 of Jones ; let no man steal it.' Peek says he finds it so 
 hard not to take these things to heart. However, I cheer 
 him by the promise that if he will select six of the most fan- 
 tastic, I will hold these up to the scorn and derision of the 
 whole college. I think he is really exceedingly happy 
 here, and the boys like him much, and now he is blossom- 
 ing out into Chinyanja. 
 
 " There was only one student who turned up late ; he 
 arrived a few days ago and told me gaily that he had had 
 smallpox, and that he had developed it about four and a 
 half weeks ago. He certainly seemed to be quite well, but 
 of course we promptly isolated him, and only waited for a 
 boat to carry him over to Likoma, as we had no proper 
 isolation place here. Then just as I was getting him into 
 the boat, he quite casually made a remark which showed me 
 that all that had happened to him was that he had been 
 properly inoculated (not vaccination). The inoculation, of 
 course, had had the effect of producing a very mild form 
 of the disease. However, we still thought it best that he 
 should be separated for a further time from the students, so 
 over to Likoma he went. But the report had already got 
 about the village that there was a boy who was dangerous 
 
 247 
 
through smallpox at the College, so the villagers even refused 
 to come to the dispensary." 
 
 In the next letter difficulties with the Portuguese are 
 foreshadowed ; difficulties in regard to language, and pos- 
 sible difficulties as to the attitude of an anti-clerical Re- 
 pubUcan Government towards mission work. As yet there 
 is no hint of the moral troubles which were yet to come and 
 which were to culminate in Arthur Douglas's death. 
 
 Portuguese Difficulties 
 
 S. Michael's College, Nov. 6, 1910. 
 
 "... The students, this Sunday afternoon, have 
 many of them cleared off to the village, and the rest seem 
 blessedly quiet, so altogether it is a good opportunity for 
 writing home. Not that there is anything very exciting to 
 say. Perhaps the most out of ordinary event lately has been 
 the sudden departure of Archdeacon Johnson for England. 
 He got a cable from the new Bishop calUng him to go at once 
 as he wanted to confer with him in England before he himself 
 left. His last furlough, after a very serious illness, was ten 
 years ago, and then he spent it in New Zealand or Australia. 
 It is twenty-eight or twenty-nine years since he first came 
 to the Lake, and that was after a period in Zanzibar. His 
 furlough throws a good deal of responsibility on me, as, 
 archidiaconally, I am responsible for his Archdeaconry as 
 Archdeacon Eyre is for his own, whilst diocesanally Arch- 
 deacon Eyre and I have to act together. 
 
 " Another event which touches us perhaps more closely 
 than you is the deposition of Manuel — you know that 
 S. Michael's College is in Portuguese territory. When I got 
 the news I did not know what to do about the Church 
 prayers, but for the present I am simply using the prayers 
 but without mentioning any name till we see how things 
 are shaping themselves at Lisbon. 
 
 " Talking of College being in Portuguese territory I fear 
 that there are very troublesome language difficulties ahead 
 of us and not so very far ahead. So far the Portuguese 
 
 248 
 
haven't bothered us about what we teach or how we teach 
 in the schools in their territory, but the head official who 
 is just now stopping in this district and paid a visit to the 
 College last week, told me that he thought the time was 
 coming when it would be not only good to teach Portuguese 
 in the College, but it will be necessary, and that native 
 teachers will have to pass an exam, in Portuguese before they 
 will be allowed by the Government to teach. They have 
 already arrived at that point in the Lebombo (Delagoa Bay) 
 diocese and a great nuisance it is for Bishop Edmund Smyth 
 and his staff. However, I can, of course, understand the 
 Portuguese point of view that it is unreasonable to expect 
 them to allow English to be the language taught in Portuguese 
 territory. Then if the German government makes similar 
 demands as to the necessity of teaching German, we shall 
 have a pretty tough nut to crack, but at least I feel thankful 
 that at the present time one of our two ladies here, Miss 
 Medd, is rubbing the elements of German and Portuguese 
 into the students, and though the ladies only came here as 
 a temporary resting-place till it should be safe for them to 
 go to Archdeacon Eyre in Yaoland in the hills eastward, it 
 really seems as if we must keep her for the language's sake. 
 " I fear that a republican Portugal being, as I suppose it 
 will be, anticlerical, may also be anti-mission, but if so, I hope 
 we may be stimulated to buck up all the more and meet the 
 difficulties." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 Halley's Comet 
 
 S. Michael's College, November 21, 1910. 
 
 " I have had an extra special rush this morning, but I 
 must get a letter started to you before going into school, 
 as the Chauncy Maples is expected here this afternoon. 
 
 " It seems rather out-of-date to talk about Halley's 
 Comet, but it struck me to-day that perhaps you really 
 haven't heard what a marvel it appeared to us. It used 
 to rise first of all about 4.30. When I first saw it, it must 
 have been about big enough to be covered by my finger at 
 
 249 
 
arm's length, then I saw it again when it reached from the 
 horizon about half-way up the sky. That was the most 
 striking sight, and one couldn't wonder that the ancient 
 folk had compared it to a great flaming sword. Then I 
 saw it again in a manner that still puzzles me. It reached 
 from the horizon right up beyond the zenith, cutting the 
 milky way in two, in fact it looked rather like another — 
 though more irregular — ^milky way. But what especially 
 puzzled me was that whereas on the previous occasions the 
 point of the comet was clearly defined, on this night when I 
 believe we were passing through it, though the wide part 
 spread out as usual below the horizon and gradually narrowed 
 till past the zenith, it then faded away and there was no 
 point. The sky seemed clear, but of course there may have 
 been a haze ; can you suggest anything else ? From the 
 following day onwards the comet was in the west after 
 sunset ; we used to see it when we came out of Evensong. 
 I certainly had no idea that a comet could really ever make 
 such a magnificent show. I wish you could have seen it ; 
 it seems to have been such a disappointment in England. 
 *' I hope you are having as good a term as we are. My 
 schoolmaster Peek is a splendid man. ... It is not the 
 college students but my village Christians who are my chief 
 trial. Just now in one village there is an awful lapse into 
 bigamy among a number of the Christian men. They 
 think that Baptism is a thing you can put on to-day and 
 take off to-morrow. In that village there is an excom- 
 municate Christian for the chief, and his example of course 
 causes a bad tone throughout." 
 
 The next letter records the very sudden death of Mr. 
 Peek, the schoolmaster, who had only been out a few months, 
 and whom Douglas had learnt to love and value much for 
 his character and efficiency. 
 
 Death of Mr. Peek 
 
 S. Michael's College, December 4, 1910. 
 
 " The Chauncy Maples arrived unexpectedly, and 
 leaves early to-morrow, and I have been much rushed. 
 
 250 
 
" You will have seen the news that my good helper, 
 Peek, has died. The blow is very great, both because it 
 was so sudden and because he was so very efficient. You 
 know how full my letters have been of such expressions as 
 * Peek is a treasure.' He began last Tuesday week with 
 ordinary malaria, but on Wednesday evening it developed 
 into blackwater fever, the one type of fever which is so often 
 fatal out here. As soon as Nurse Thompson told me, I 
 sent students to the village to hire a canoe in which they 
 paddled over to Likoma at night, getting there about ii 
 o'clock. I sent a letter to Miss Armstrong asking her to 
 come over immediately and she arrived by boat 2.30 a.m. 
 I had also sent a niglit runner to try to catch up the steamer 
 which had left the College only on the previous day, but the 
 steamer made a specially quick trip southwards, so that my 
 messenger, though he went splendidly, could not catch her 
 up. I had written to the Europeans on the steamer, that 
 they must go instantly in search of a doctor. As a matter of 
 fact this particular form of fever needs more nursing than 
 doctoring, provided that the nurses know the treatment, 
 and three trained nurses, who were with Peek from the 
 Thursday to the following Monday, when he died, acted 
 splendidly, not scrupling to use the drugs which they 
 knew to be desirable. Miss Armstrong, as I have said, 
 got over here at 2.30 on Thursday morning, and at 
 8 A.M. she told me she was sure that Peek ought to be 
 taken over to Likoma hospital. Miss Armstrong has had 
 several cases of blackwater to nurse, so of course I fell in 
 with her wishes. She and Miss Thompson went over with 
 him. The nurses were at first hopeful. I went up to my 
 hill station at Manda on the following Monday, but at 4 a.m. 
 Tuesday I was awakened by messengers with the news that 
 he had died on Monday evening. I celebrated the Eucharist 
 for the Manda Christians at 5 o'clock and then hurried down 
 to the Lake as fast as I could, getting there at 10 o'clock, and 
 I and Miss Medd and eight of the head students went straight 
 over to Likoma and were just in time for the funeral in the 
 cemetery ; the students acted as bearers, and I said the 
 prayers at the grave. This afternoon I have had to write a 
 
 251 
 
long letter to his father. ... It was a really very extra- 
 ordinarily beautiful character, very youthful and full of 
 excellent zeal, very adaptable to circumstances ; he turned 
 himself into a tinker, carpenter, and clock and watch mender 
 as soon as he arrived, though I fancy he had done almost 
 nothing of the kind at home. His praying was very remark- 
 able, most noticeable in the obvious earnestness and 
 strenuousness, with which he used to join in the opening 
 prayer at school, and the African boys caught on. It was 
 exceedingly beautiful. He had the curious habit of follow- 
 ing prayers said by the priest in church in a semi- audible 
 voice. Now we can't help feeling forlorn, but there is 
 everything to be thankful for. Yet he had worked us up so 
 well that we seem to need a schoolmaster far more than 
 ever. I have asked Mr. Travers to put an intercession for 
 the College into the monthly paper. 
 
 " The Chauncy Maples has brought up our new priest, 
 Austen. This is not a newsy letter, but I must go to bed. 
 
 "I am very well and the students are behaving very 
 nicely, but my villages are a great anxiety, so many of the 
 Christian men lapsing into polygamy. There is a great 
 and urgent need of prayer. What can be their idea of the 
 Day of Judgment ? They probably would allow that they 
 do believe in it." 
 
 Arthur Douglas' eldest sister died on January 26, 191 1. 
 She had never been at all strong and had latterly been very 
 much of an invalid. In so united a family the death of the 
 eldest sister was felt most keenly. Arthur's letter is entirely 
 characteristic of himself — sensible, prayerful and Christian. 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 On Hearing of the Death of a Sister 
 
 Likoma, Feb. 4, 191 1. 
 
 " My Dearest The cable reached me yesterday, 
 
 and to-day, by what seems a most kind chance, I am able to 
 have a day free from College responsibilities ; so I shall write 
 to you now, even though my letters cannot leave here at 
 
 252 
 
present. (P.S. (later). — An unexpected opportunity of 
 sending it to-day.) I am so very very glad that you cabled 
 to me, and so have enabled me to be one with you all so soon 
 in the sorrow and the peace and the prayers and the thank- 
 fulness and the blessed sense of God's overflowing gracious- 
 ness — ^you do feel all that, do you not, even now ? I mean 
 that when we are possessed for a moment by the sense of loss 
 and abject desolation — yon when you go into her room or 
 think of her sitting in the garden — ^yet by fixing our minds 
 on what God has done for our dear one, it is not hard to see 
 how exceedingly gracious He has been. 
 
 " My times of desolation are Hkely to be when the mails 
 come in and I receive no letter from her, or when I think of 
 her welcome at furlough time ; but there again the natural 
 man won't feel anything like the same desolation and 
 blankness as he would if he had not all your dear letters and 
 love. That sounds a low and a selfish hne of thought, but 
 indeed I don't think that any of us are really inclined to be 
 selfish at this time. We have only just to think of the life 
 which seemed Hkely to be in store for her — of bodily weak- 
 ness and, not infrequently, severe pain, her increasing ner- 
 vousness about herself, and the mental strain ; the very 
 infirmities of her spiritual being, so largely the result of 
 bodily infirmities ; and then as we regard what her Father 
 has done for her during this wonderful fortnight, ^ we can 
 thank Him and thank Him and feel very near to Him our- 
 selves. I opened the cable at what was otherwise a very 
 special moment. The CM. had arrived at the College with 
 our new Bishop and also with the College students returning 
 from Christmas holidays. The Bishop just came ashore, 
 and then I and the two College ladies had gone on board to 
 go over with the big party to Likoma to witness the Bishop's 
 arrival and the Enthronization. I had been talking to the 
 Bishop on deck, and when I had finished my talk good Mr. 
 Wilson put the cable privately into my hands. I was able 
 to go down into a cabin and have a few minutes' quiet and 
 prayer before we reached Likoma. The Bishop is to be 
 enthroned to-morrow (Sunday), so I and the students are 
 
 ^ It was really only a week. 
 253 
 
here, and hence my day away from College reponsibiUties. 
 I was not very surprised at the news, and should have been 
 less so if I had already read my mail which came up with the 
 cable. My two ladies and the few others whom I have told 
 have been so full of sympathy. Mr. Wilson remembe^rs 
 seeing F. at * The Lowe.' God bless you all exceedingly 
 and me also, though we are so undeserving of his Blessing. 
 " Your very loving brother, 
 
 " A. J. Douglas." 
 
 (To his Eldest Brother) 
 
 II 
 
 S, Michaers College, Feb. 19, 191 1. 
 
 " Dearest , — On the same day that I got the cable I 
 
 received a letter from you, in which you told me that you 
 were feeling especially anxious about our dear F. I expect 
 that you had all begun to feel that the operations had been 
 only very partially successful, and then our chief fear for her 
 would have been lest she should suffer great and prolonged 
 pain. God has been very merciful to her and, we may 
 rightly say, to us also ; for He has preserved us from the 
 anguish of knowing that a very dear sister is in acute 
 suffering. If we really love anyone, it is as hard (or harder) 
 to see that one suffering as to suffer the same oneself. Of 
 course we may be called to the discipline of seeing one of our 
 own brothers or sisters in physical agony, but if God does not 
 demand that discipHne from us, we may thank Him for that 
 mercy. I have been thinking of you in particular during 
 this past fortnight. When the eldest sister dies, one feels 
 that that means a greater loss to the eldest brother than even 
 to oneself. . . . 
 
 " Your very loving brother, 
 
 "A. J. Douglas." 
 
 (To an old Parishioner) 
 
 S. Michael's College, Likoma, British Nyasaland, Central Africa, 
 
 February 19, 191 1. 
 
 " Dear Mr. Bennett, — . . . I am exceedingly happy in 
 my work here. I am Principed of the Training College for 
 
 254 
 
native teachers and have about seventy in my charge. They 
 are as jolly a set of lads as one could find anywhere, and in 
 the matter of brains they are, of course, the picked boys from 
 the schools through the diocese. But I very badly want a 
 trained schoolmaster to help, especially as in addition to the 
 College, where I am the only European man, I have four 
 village churches and schools for which I am responsible. 
 So if you know of a young schoolmaster of the right sort, 
 send him along. We want him sharp. A fellow used to 
 elementary school work would be best- ..." 
 
 In the next letter Douglas speaks of the Bishop's desire 
 that S. Michael's College should be moved to Likoma 
 Island. The reasons for this step (which has since been 
 taken) were manifold, but the paramount reason was 
 doubtless in order to plant the College in English territory. 
 As long as the College was in Portuguese territory it 
 would be impossible to avoid difficulties — it is enough to 
 mention the " customs " difficulty — and there can be no 
 doubt that the Bishop has acted wisely in the matter. It is 
 impossible not to think of " what might have been *' if the 
 change could have been made earlier. Douglas's life would 
 not have been sacrificed, and he would have spent his 
 furlough in England during the summer of 1912, as he 
 foreshadows in the following letter. 
 
 Projected Move to Likoma 
 
 S. Michael's College, April 2, 191 1. 
 " We are all very full of the Bishop's scheme for moving 
 the College out of Portuguese territory on to Likoma 
 Island (British). If the scheme comes off in the course of 
 the next two years, I think it will be a good thing for the 
 College, but these villages attached to us will have to put up 
 with much rarer European ministrations. I suppose they 
 will have to fall into line with all the other lake-side villages 
 which receive a visit from the Chauncy Maples steamer and 
 one of its padres only about once a month. If the College 
 is planted on Likoma, I am very anxious that we should not 
 
 255 
 
get mixed up with the daily life of the big central station 
 there, or that anything should be done to lessen the corporate 
 life of the students. We should, of course, have our own 
 chapel, only going to the Cathedral on Sundays and other 
 high days. The Bishop quite agrees to this. I also bargain 
 for a place on rocky, hilly Likoma, where we can get a decent 
 football ground, and if possible, though the buildings should 
 be on high ground up from the Lake, we ought to have a bit 
 of shore to ourselves where there are not a lot of village huts 
 (that, however, is difficult to find), and of course we must 
 be within early-morning-dip reach, to say nothing of after- 
 football-dip reach of the Lake. We shall also want a field 
 where the students can plant monkey-nuts, and other such 
 foods as are suited to their extraordinary insides. Just 
 fancy if we lived, year in, year out, on nothing but enormous 
 masses of stiff porridge (of course not oatmeal), exactly of 
 the consistency of putty, with a little mess of beans, nuts, or 
 fish to help it down, all this only occasionally varied by 
 another mass of boiled rice. We hope to be able to build the 
 College thus permanently owing to a ^£2000 grant from the 
 Pan-Anglican Fund. 
 
 " Although to-night I supped with ladies only, we are 
 really a European quartette now at the College, the fourth 
 being the young gardener, Tom Hallson. He has left us for 
 two weeks in order to go to his former station (Mtonya) in the 
 hills ; he wants to fetch down fruit trees, &c., from there. 
 Here at the College he has two gardens to look after ; I fear 
 he may find it much more difficult to get vegetables to grow 
 at the lake level, but he seems in good spirits about it, and 
 Mtonya garden was too far from the lake to be able to keep 
 other stations supplied with its produce. 
 
 " The Bishop is very anxious to diminish our expenses in 
 tinned fruits and vegetables from England by getting all we 
 can out of the ground here, and we ought to be able to save 
 in jam as well. The freight for everything from England is 
 so enormous, and that reminds me to say that if my dear 
 relations should ever send out anything to me through the 
 office in the way of personal comforts, otherwise called side- 
 lights on missionary asceticism, it would, I think, be a great 
 
 256 
 
kindness if they would also send to the office the cost of 
 freight. If everybody's people would do that, the freight 
 bill would be considerably lessened. 
 
 " Now I have one really very interesting bit of news to 
 end up with. I have been looking ahead and talking to the 
 Bishop about the best time for my furlough, the result being 
 that I hope that at Eastertide next year I may be leaving 
 the College in charge of Victor, and be really turning home- 
 wards, so that I shall have the summer in England. That is 
 something very good to meditate on." 
 
 Coronation Day at Kota Kota 
 
 Mponda's, June 25, 191 1. 
 
 " You see I am writing from the south end of the Lake. 
 We finished our College term a week ago, and now I am on 
 my annual round examining candidates for the College, and 
 also enjoying myself very much. 
 
 " We — that is, the Chauncy Maples and all of us on 
 board — spent Coronation Day at Kota Kota ; it was my 
 second Coronation Day at that place. There was a splendid 
 assembly of Mission natives belonging to Kota Kota and 
 the neighbouring villages. There was a feast for about 600 ; 
 it consisted of rice, dried fish, and for dessert everybody 
 had about a yard of sugar-cane to chew. Sugar-cane is very 
 nice, but it makes a very nasty mess on the ground, as the 
 chewing consists of merely sucking the juice and then spitting 
 out the cane. The College boys got hold of some sugar- 
 cane, but I had to make a law that he who chews must also 
 sweep, and that not merely at the big weekly sweeping up 
 on Saturday, but if he chews on Monday, so also on Monday 
 must he sweep. The Kota Kota feast came between the 
 early morning service, when I celebrated, and the Te Deum, 
 which we sang with the prescribed Accession prayers, at 
 II o'clock. Then there was a wonderful clearance of 
 natives whilst the rest of the day we Europeans enjoyed 
 ourselves. Mrs. Williams, now housekeeper at Kota Kota, 
 fed us royally, and in the afternoon we walked to the nearest 
 river for a picnic. We had to have two picnics, because when 
 we got to the place we found teapot and tea had been left 
 
 257 s 
 
behind. Hot water and condensed milk was the only 
 substitute, but personally I preferred to suck oranges 
 (real more or less sweet oranges which had come from a 
 Dutch mission near). Then when we had all finished the 
 first picnic, a table boy, my own dear Chimange (now Enoch) 
 arrived breathless with teapot and tea, and without a pause 
 he put them down, and trotted back again to Kota Kota, so 
 then we had to have the second picnic. Mrs. WilHams had 
 been too tired to come herself and had eventually found that 
 the teapot had remained with her ; doubtless she also said 
 many words to Chimange about not idling on the way : 
 there was the evening dinner which he had to lay. Chimange 
 was the boy whom nine years ago I carried back to the 
 Mission when he was playing truant in his village." 
 
 (To a Sister) 
 Anticipations of Furlough 
 
 Mtonya, July 22, 191 1, 
 " I wrote your name, meaning to send you a birthday 
 letter, and now I remember that this will be a month too 
 late. Mtonya is in the Yao hills, about thirty miles from the 
 Lake and so cold that the thermometer goes down every 
 night under 50°. When the captain of the CM. saw my 
 bundle of bedding, which I desired to be rowed ashore from 
 the steamer in one of her boats, he seriously remonstrated. 
 It may seem odd to you that wherever one travels here, 
 even if one is going to visit one's dearest and most generous 
 friend, one always takes one's own bedding with one. At 
 least that is the rule. Archdeacon Eyre — aged 62 — our 
 dear old sea skipper, is in excellent form. I expect to be 
 here another ten days and then join the steamer on her way 
 up to Likoma. Before the students return to College, I 
 want to go to Likoma to pick out the site for our new 
 buildings. When you think of us during these next months, 
 you must try to remember to pray that we may act aright 
 in all that concerns this new and permanent building of the 
 College. We have by this mail got the news that a doctor 
 has offered for the diocese ; now we must go on hoping and 
 
 258 
 
praying that a schoolmaster will be found. The building 
 of the College ought to be begun next April, i.e. after the 
 rains are over ; so, though I shall have the principal say in 
 choosing the site and in acceptance of the plans, the actual 
 buildings will, I hope, be put up whilst I am on furlough. 
 You probably know that the Bishop really wants me to 
 leave the Lake directly after Easter, so I ought to be home 
 in the middle of June, and I shall have five months in 
 England. What an enormous lot I shall have to see — 
 G., J., E., K., and, I suppose, R., all in new quarters. I'm 
 very glad that there will still be some old quarters left. 
 I expect to have a very nice time." 
 
 The letters which follow were received after his death. 
 They are full of the thought of the new site for the College 
 at Likoma and of his time to start for England the following 
 Easter. 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 New Site for the College 
 
 S. Michael's College, August 29, 191 1, 
 
 " I am very much obliged indeed to you for the Income 
 Tax papers which I herewith return. I hope to leave here 
 immediately after Easter ; it is a very pleasant thought. 
 This last week is likely to prove of very great importance 
 in the history of the College, as I went over to Likoma 
 and helped in fixing the site for its rebuilding. Almost 
 before reaching his diocese, the Bishop settled to move the 
 College from this Portuguese side on to Likoma, which is 
 British territory, although only five miles from here. Our 
 new site seems admirably well fitted for its purpose. It has 
 a distinctly parklike appearance with its huge baobab trees. 
 On two sides, each five minutes' distance from the site, there 
 is the Lake ; doctors might like it to be a few minutes 
 farther away, owing to mosquitoes breeding round the 
 shore, but the site stands much higher than the Lake, and 
 further, the shore is singularly free of native huts, which 
 harbour mosquitoes. I hope the College boys will have one 
 
 259 
 
of the two shores entirely to themselves for bathing. Before 
 we finally settled on the site, two nurses went out to look at 
 it and approve. The College is planned for loo students ; 
 it will be of stone, Likoma Island itself being a great granite 
 rock. The roofing is probably to be of a patent composite 
 material called * polite ' or such name ; it is put on like 
 slates, and is lighter than corrugated iron, and more orna- 
 mental, as it has to be painted. The principal buildings 
 will be chapel, school, recreation room (I hope), dormitories, 
 probably little studies for the seniors, a wall-less, but roofed 
 dining-place, and a sick-room ; and for Europeans there are 
 planned houses for the Principal, for the lay schoolmaster 
 (not yet forthcoming), and for the Bishop, so that he can 
 visit us, and of course a common dining-room. The whole 
 thing will probably cost about £1500 ; the money comes 
 from * Pan- An.' We certainly couldn't afford to build a 
 new college out of our ordinary funds. The site is forty 
 minutes' walk from the Cathedral ; I think that I shall have 
 a donkey. This month the new Governor of Nyasaland, 
 Sir William Manning, and his new and quite young wife 
 paid a state visit to Likoma. They made their state entry, 
 he in all his plumes and feathers, at 9 o'clock on Sunday 
 morning. Practically all the inhabitants of the Island 
 were gathered to welcome them. The village chiefs were 
 presented to him, and then they attended a special 
 service in the Cathedral. They were very much impressed 
 with the largeness of the population, and I hear that 
 the Cathedral was very full for the service. We are, 
 I think, very fortunate in having him. I, of course, didn't 
 see him, as, though the College students were home for their 
 holidays, I always have villagers to look after. The students 
 return to-morrow — ^that is one reason why I had better now 
 go to bed. I have this evening received a home mail, 
 and I like the news of the Dulwich house for E. and K. very 
 much. I hope soon to hear that the landlord has been 
 squared all right. 
 
 " Very much love to all." 
 
 z6o 
 
{To a Sister) 
 The New College 
 
 S. Michael's College, Sept. 19, 191 1. 
 
 " My lambs have gone to bed and the villages also are, 
 I'm thankful to say, sufficiently quiet to-night to enable me 
 to write. Generally speaking, these villages round the College 
 compare very favourably with others in the matters of 
 drumming and dancing and beer-drinking, but just lately 
 there has been an unusual amount, and the sound of a drum 
 has the most extraordinary effect on my mental equilibrium. 
 In fact even any rhythmical beating on a box makes me feel 
 very uncomfortable ; there are so many evil associations 
 connected with it out here. I had a very interesting day 
 last Friday, as Mr. Crabb, our carpenter and builder, sent 
 an urgent message by a Likoma boat, asking me to go over 
 there and fix on the actual spot for the building of the 
 European houses which will be attached to the new College. 
 The ground of the site is on the whole fairly level, but at one 
 end there is a rocky rise of about twenty-five feet, on the top 
 of which the Bishop suggested the European houses might 
 be built. 
 
 " Mr. Crabb was averse to it as the ground there looks 
 impossible, being a mass of enormous boulders. However, 
 as he said that the ground could be made up, I settled we had 
 better stick to the Bishop's suggestion ; from a health point 
 of view it will be good to be above the level of the students' 
 quarters. I shall have a magnificent view on my little 
 perch, being able to command the whole station, as well as 
 having no houses on a level in front of me to block the 
 distant view. The foundation stone is to be laid on Tues- 
 day, November 14, or Wednesday, 15th, and the present 
 lot of College students are to come over to Likoma for it. I 
 shall already be at Likoma, as it is the time of our annual 
 Conference for all members of the Mission staff in the diocese 
 — clergy and lay. The CM. is timed to arrive with most 
 of the staff on Friday (loth). Sunday night and Monday 
 there is a ' Quiet Day ' — which I am to take ; Tuesday is the 
 consecration of the Cathedral, which hitherto has only been 
 
 261 
 
dedicated ; then the foundation stone ceremony for the new 
 S. Michael's College, forty minutes from the Cathedral, 
 follows (I believe) on the same afternoon. You will get this 
 letter near the very time of these events, and I shall like to 
 think that you are all praying for a blessing on the building 
 of the new College, and also on the words which I shall have 
 to speak to my brethren — ^male and female — during the 
 Quiet Day. I have never conducted that sort of thing 
 before. * Mr. Crabb has already been so energetic as to begin 
 the making of a decent path from the College site to the main 
 (Cathedral) station, and at the same time as I was fixing my 
 house's position, Mr. Glossop, as priest-in-charge of the 
 Island, was busy paying the different owners for the cassava 
 roots (native food), which have to be pulled up all along the 
 route of the new path — ^much as owners at home are com- 
 pensated for a new railway that cuts through their land. 
 When the new road is finished, I must consider what will be 
 best — a. solid cushioned bike or a beautiful donkey. Senti- 
 ment inclines me to the latter. I have received the splendid 
 illustrated papers of the Coronation functions. I believe 
 that you and E. and K. are chiefly responsible for them ; 
 but my first account of the actual accomplishment of the 
 ceremony was in Gerald's Daily Mail. Tell E. and K. that I 
 have also received a nice present of eatables. I am thinking 
 so very much of the move to Dulwich.^ It sounds very nice, 
 but however nice it is, I do feel exceedingly glad that 
 * S. Katharine's ' still exists. My very best love to Miss C. 
 How tremendously busy you and the Misses B, are being just 
 now with the Missionary Exhibition. Give my love to the 
 Misses Bellett." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 On the Eve of His Fortieth Birthday 
 
 S. Michael's College, Oct. 8, 191 1. 
 " This day ten years ago I was going across Europe with 
 Dr. Howard, Miss Minter, PhiUp Young, and others — my first 
 journey thiswards. I am a remarkably bad hand at dates, 
 
 * The addresses are printed at the end of this memoir. 
 
 * Two of his sisters moved from Worfield to Dulwich. 
 
 262 
 
but I can't help remembering that I had my thirtieth birth- 
 day in the train, and now I am on the eve of number forty. 
 That is a tremendously big thought, but one consolation is 
 that to-morrow many of you will be very effectively helping 
 to bear the thought with me. We are expecting the CM. 
 from the south in two days' time, so it is possible that I may 
 get some birthday letters, and I hear rumours that a baccy 
 pouch is on its way to me from Newcastle ; it will be most 
 acceptable. As to letters, I have to confess that I wrote a 
 letter to N. which was intended to go by last mail, but it got 
 mislaid, so she will probably only get it at the same time as 
 this reaches you. Miss Parsons, one of our nurses, daughter 
 of the late Rector of St. Mary's, Bridgnorth, is spending the 
 week-end with us, having come over from Likoma, so 
 yesterday we — that is, I and the three ladies — actually had 
 the energy to picnic in our Mission garden under the cocoa- 
 nut trees. That garden is not, strictly speaking, the College 
 garden, and it is about a mile from here. These are, I think, 
 the only cocoanut trees anywhere on the shore of Nyasa, so 
 we are very pleased with them. This steamer ought to bring 
 back Hallson who, for the last few weeks, has been escorting 
 the Bishop on his first up-country tour. I shall be very 
 glad to see Hallson back, as he not only looks after the 
 garden, but also sees to the students' food. The students 
 are really in a particularly argumentative frame of mind 
 to-night. Since beginning this letter I have had one in to 
 ask me a rather abstruse doctrinal point, and since he went 
 I have had two deputations on points of Church order! 
 There is much noise in their arguments, and much rejoicing 
 among those in whose favour I decide. 
 
 " We have, of course, just finished our patronal festival ; 
 I always like to be able to associate Salwarpe with it. 
 Glossop came over for Michaelmas Day. If I have been ten 
 years in the country he has been twenty, and he keeps 
 wonderfully fresh — all the better I think for his temporary 
 resignation. Archdeacon Johnson is just as he was before 
 this last furlough. On his arrival up the Lake, the villagers 
 here gave him a very enthusiastic reception, following him 
 up from the Lake to my house, where he made a 
 
 263 
 
characteristic little speech, * Thank you tremendously, you 
 people, for following me up like this — ^but what I say is, 
 Do let us altogether follow the Lord Jesus Christ.' He was 
 equally characteristic in his first conversation with me. 
 " Now to bed." 
 
 (To a Brother) 
 New Regulations at College 
 
 S. Michael's College, Oct. 24, 191 1. 
 
 " I got some footballs by last office box. Thank you so 
 much for sending them with such regularity. Even when I 
 come home on furlough, please go on sending them to 
 * The Principal, S. Michael's College.' My temporary 
 successor will probably be Dennis Victor. I have been 
 indulging in a few unusually anxious days at the College 
 this week, as there has been a * strike ' among the students, 
 on the ground of the proposed extension of the training 
 course. They have known about it for a long time, but have 
 only now begun to take the matter very seriously. When I 
 came out of the church on Monday morning, I saw the 
 students (all except the final-termers, who do not come 
 under the suggested new regulations) assembled outside my 
 house. When I asked them what their words were, their 
 spokesman said, ' The years.' I told them (of course they 
 already knew) what the extension was that we hoped, 
 although the final decision had still to be given by the 
 Bishop. They went off from my house quietly, but on 
 coming out of breakfast, I found that they had departed, 
 and my good native deacon Yohana had already gone after 
 one lot to try to get them back, but he then failed. Half 
 the college had gone, and the rest (except final-termers) had 
 only not gone because they could not well get home without 
 the steamer. I knew how very important it was at least to 
 get them back for the present, so at midday I sent the 
 deacon with a letter from me, after one lot northwards, and a 
 teacher with a similar letter after the other lot southwards. 
 I wanted to give them every chance of returning, so I wrote 
 
 264 
 
in Chinyanja something like this — ' To the students who have 
 run away ; I wish to tell you that the cause of your running 
 away is unworthy. I informed you this morning that the 
 Bishop had not finished to legislate in the matter of " the 
 years/' I now tell you that you should come back at once 
 and wait for the Bishop's words. If after hearing the 
 Bishop's words you cannot agree to them, do not do the 
 work of running away, but say good-bye to me properly. 
 It you return at once, I do not intend to punish you for this 
 morning's running away, but if you do not return at once, I 
 shall not call you again, and I cannot listen to the message of 
 someone who has said, " Call us when the Bishop arrives 
 back and we will not refuse to come." I write this letter to 
 give you counsel. I am your Father A. J. D.' 
 
 " One lot arrived back at nine o'clock that night and the 
 others, who had gone much further, arrived back two days 
 afterwards. When they came back, I simply told them to 
 go into school and do all the college work as usual. I am 
 enormously thankful that they are back, but the future still 
 needs much prayer and circumspect walking. I shall 
 probably get separate talks with them in a few days' time. 
 But already they are behaving exactly as if nothing had 
 happened — sitting about on my verandah, bringing me their 
 letters to post, &c. Of course when any of them does come 
 into my room, I do say a word in their private ear, but I do 
 not think the time has come to say much. Glossop, the 
 priest-in-charge at Likoma, with twenty years' experience 
 of the African, was over here yesterday, and was very strong 
 against giving in one jot, and I think he is right, even if it 
 should mean that very many of the present students do not 
 accept the regulations and consequently have to go, but I 
 hope very much that having had their strike, which seem- 
 ingly has fallen very flat, they will (at least the great 
 majority) take the higher line — the only line which is com- 
 patible with being much use as a teacher and preacher out 
 here. I wish you knew my native deacon Yohana. He 
 has a wife and two unmarried daughters, all of them with 
 their ' Women's Teaching Certificates. ' The women's certifi- 
 cates are managed by our professional lady teachers; no 
 
 265 
 
very high attainments are required for their certificates, but 
 it is very good, as giving the upper school-girls something 
 definite to work for, and a definite status. 
 
 " I hope to get ofi from here by the first steamer that 
 goes down the Lake after Easter. This will be my Christmas 
 letter home. 
 
 " Very much love to all." 
 
 I am allowed to print the following reminiscences of 
 Arthur Douglas written by Miss Constance M. Thompson. 
 
 *' S. Michael's College was pervaded by his personaUty. 
 Before sunrise his voice was to be heard calhng the students 
 to get up and go down to the lake to bathe. He did this on 
 his way to church, where he always made his morning 
 meditation before the 6.30 daily Eucharist, which service in 
 Chinyanja he had started on his first arrival at the College. 
 Although it was voluntary, by far the greater number of 
 students were always present, and it was rare for none to 
 communicate. They were obliged to attend Mattins, which 
 followed so immediately that Padre could never say his own 
 thanksgiving till after that Office. 
 
 " At the Eucharist, immediately following the Con- 
 secration prayer, he read out the names of some of the 
 past students, and the places where they worked as teachers, 
 getting through the whole number in two or three weeks by 
 rotation. He was very particular about this as a part of the 
 College Service, and who can tell what enormous gain it 
 was to many a lonely and desponding teacher far away ? 
 
 " Directly after breakfast the strenuous day began. It 
 w^s a matter of wonder to many how incessantly he kept on, 
 never apparently giving himself any time off except on 
 Sunday afternoon, when from early dinner to tea-time he 
 retired to a deck-chair with an illustrated paper and dozed 
 comfortably. If a member of the staff, priest or layman, 
 paid him a visit, he was the courteous host, and sat on his 
 verandah smoking with them, but otherwise it was steady, 
 unremitting, methodical grind, quite cheerful withal, and 
 free from fuss. Even then he said he never caught up with 
 
 266 
 
all there was to be done, but anything of real importance 
 always received attention. The first business after break- 
 fast was the giving out of food for the day for the whole 
 college. He felt this an important task. The lads were 
 working their brains very far beyond their usual habit, and 
 plenty of sustenance was necessary. Discontent with food 
 might soon have caused actual disturbance, and even when 
 he had a layman to help him, he never delegated this bit 
 of work to him. 
 
 " Of course the man-cook did the actual weighing out, 
 but Padre solemnly watched and counted every basketful 
 of flour, rice, and bran, and every score of small dried fish 
 strung together. By the time this was finished, the school 
 bell was ringing, and the students forming up into line, and 
 filing quietly into school. The Padre took a large share 
 in the actual teaching, but there were always native 
 assistants, and even for all too short a time, an English 
 schoolmaster. 
 
 " When not in school he was more than busy elsewhere, 
 for he was parish priest to several populous villages con- 
 taining a large number of Christians and catechumens. 
 Many were the disputes brought to him, and also many acts 
 of sinfulness brought to light and combated, besides happier 
 bits of work : advice given, work-people overseen and paid, 
 and correspondence ad lib. But on his busiest days — and 
 here appears the leading characteristics of the man — he 
 always found time for half-hours in church, where he would 
 be seen kneeling, with sheets of paper or note-books before 
 him, which one knew meant often lists of intercessions. 
 Probably each of his boys was remembered by name every 
 day, and he sent his staff to their prayers too. Once he came 
 across the quad to my house to tell me that a certain woman 
 was just coming for an interview with him, and that he 
 found she had fallen into grievous sin ; he finished by saying, 
 * And so now you can pray for her.' Another day, returning 
 from the village, he told me of another case of wrong-doing, 
 ending with the direction to * pray for them when you get 
 home.' Prayer came into everything, indeed was the very 
 essence of his life. 
 
 267 
 
" During quite six weeks before the large yearly Baptism 
 he would hold classes every day for as many of the candidates 
 as could possibly come ; and one weekly class he started 
 during the last year of his life, for communicants on Friday 
 at I P.M., when they gave in their names for Communion on 
 the following Sunday. One wondered how he managed to 
 give a really spiritual address at that hot hour. His boys 
 were naturally his first thought and special joy. During 
 their first term in college he had each for a private interview, 
 no doubt learning much of their individual character and 
 bias on those occasions. He entered into their whole life, 
 manual work, recreation, everything, and to hear him give 
 singing lessons was an education in itself. 
 
 " But he never for a moment relaxed strict discipline, 
 knowing well how fatal that would be. 
 
 " When lady- workers first joined the college staff, he 
 was a little doubtful as to how it would answer, chiefly on 
 account of the much restricted accommodation. But soon 
 he expressed keen appreciation of what they were able to do, 
 especially among the village women and girls, and no one 
 could have been more delightful to work under. 
 
 " The young EngHsh schoolmaster was a real boon and 
 joy to him ; fresh blood was brought in, and new up-to-date 
 ideas and methods. To Sydney Peek himself, Padre became 
 sincerely attached, but after a few months only, black water 
 fever cut short all the bright promises so far as this world was 
 concerned. 
 
 " The day following his funeral, in the second lesson at 
 Evensong occurred the verse : ' Except acorn of wheat fall into 
 the ground and die it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth 
 forth much fruit.' And at the end of the lesson Padre 
 spoke, evidently on the spur of the moment, of how these 
 words could be applied (besides their greatest meaning) to 
 the death they were all morning then, and of the fruit that 
 would surely come from the one young upright life laid 
 down. The boys first heard of Mr. Peek's death after they 
 had gone to their dormitories for the night. They were told 
 they could get up, and go into the church if they wished, and 
 many silently crept in there. 
 
 268 
 
" On the last S. Andrew's Day of Padre's life he told his 
 students that they would be held responsible for the day's 
 perpetual intercession for Missions, and he gave them a few 
 directions. 
 
 " They responded well, and indeed worked it in much 
 their own way. Three or four at a time came into church 
 and one read a Litany aloud, the others making the responses. 
 Then they had a few minutes' silent prayer, and then rose, 
 tinkled the bell and went out, others always being close 
 outside ready to take their turn. They were gradually 
 learning the habit of prayer, and after their Compline many 
 stayed on their knees for several minutes, perhaps ten, 
 before retiring in silence to bed. 
 
 " Silence after Compline was a strict rule for the whole 
 station. After Mr. Peek's death, the Padre's work was still 
 more strenuous until he was able to have the help of a native 
 deacon, Yohana Tawe, one of the best teachers in the 
 diocese. There was yet another advantage in the deacon's 
 arrival, for he could assist at the Communion of the people, 
 thus lessening the length of the Sunday Eucharist, which, as 
 it was sung and with a sermon, and possibly 130 communi- 
 cants even on an ordinary Sunday, was a great strain on the 
 Celebrant. 
 
 ' ' Padre's holidays were usually spent either in going round 
 the Lake in the Chauncy Maples examining boys at the 
 various schools, for the entrance examination to the college, 
 or else in visiting his hill stations and Likoma. This meant 
 change, but by no means idleness. 
 
 " One piece of work I have heard him express real 
 pleasure to be spared, and that was the Sunday morning 
 sermon. He usually spent most of Saturday afternoon 
 preparing it, sitting in church in order to be saved interrup- 
 tion, and no doubt, after the busy work he found it almost 
 a tax. On Sunday afternoon he visited one or other of the 
 little village churches, leaving the college to sing its own 
 Evensong with the native reader or deacon. He was very 
 anxious to get the village people to attend their own 
 small primitive churches in the evening, besides coming as 
 their obligation to the sung Eucharist at the college church. 
 
 369 
 
It was a check on the beer-drinking that often took place 
 on the Sunday, as it was a day of rest from field work. 
 
 " He hked everything in the college church to be of the 
 greatest simplicity, such as altar frontals and any orna- 
 ments. He said it should be a sort of pattern to the students 
 of what they might make for their own village churches, 
 wherever they might be stationed afterwards, and if things 
 were too European they could not copy them, in fact it was 
 far better for them to keep them as native as possible. 
 
 '* One of his students writing after his death said : 
 ' Oh what great sorrow when our Padre was killed. Great 
 mourning indeed ! He leaves us here on the earth, our 
 companion has gone before to God. Now he is in Paradise, 
 resting in peace, until the day of meeting above. He was a 
 man strong in all his work ; he did not tire, no ! He was the 
 comforter of all students, now we are all patient ; we do not 
 know how to think about it, we know that he is at rest.' " 
 
 270 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PASSING 
 (November 191 1) 
 
 ANYone who has read the letters in this book from Mr. 
 Douglas will have realised that S. Michael's College, of 
 which he had now been Principal for nearly three years, was 
 situated on the mainland opposite Likoma Island, and was 
 in Portuguese territory. More than once Mr. Douglas has 
 alluded to the difficulties which such a situation involved — 
 difficulties political, linguistic and moral, and Bishop Fisher 
 was anxious to remove the College to Likoma Island. 
 
 *' We have had a large gathering [writes Arthur Douglas, 
 on March 22, 191 1] of the priests in the diocese to confer 
 with the Bishop. . . . One of the chief subjects of discussion 
 at our conference was his proposal for moving S. Michael's 
 College to Likoma Island. Our present buildings, i.e. the 
 church and school and dormitories, and native teachers' 
 houses, are not fully built of permanent material ; they are 
 a mixture of brick pillars, fitted in with reeds, and the 
 Bishop is dead set against building permanently in Portu- 
 guese territory. We are, as a diocese, far too * stony 
 broke ' to build permanently out of our normal funds, but we 
 have a grant of £3,500 from good old Pan- Anglican, and 
 the Bishop is now applying for leave to spend the bulk of that 
 money in building the college permanently on the island 
 
 271 
 
(British territory). On the whole I am in favour of the 
 move ; only I beg that nothing will be done to lessen the 
 corporate life of the College, that is, I hope we shall not be 
 too near the Cathedral and its surroundings. We should 
 go to the big sung Eucharist at the Cathedral on Sundays, 
 but all other services should be in our own college chapel. 
 Also I hope that we shall look on to, and bathe in, some other 
 bay than that where all the traffic of the island comes. 
 
 " However, these are details which will have to be 
 settled after we have got leave so to use the Pan-Anglican 
 grant. We should in any case have had to enlarge, as we 
 have a scheme for making the time of training four years 
 instead of two, so we shall have to accommodate over a 
 hundred students. Anyhow I suppose the move can't take 
 place for one or two years." 
 
 But the move was to take place much sooner than he 
 anticipated ; for the difficulties with the Portuguese were 
 brought to a terrible and tragic climax by the death of Mr. 
 Douglas himself at the hands of the Portuguese officer at 
 his station on the mainland. 
 
 The first cable received at the office of the Mission was 
 from the Bishop on November ii, 1911, which contained 
 only the words, " Douglas died College, loth, particulars 
 later." 
 
 It was naturally assumed from this cable that Mr. Douglas 
 had died a natural death, and Mr. Travers went down to 
 Clapham to break the news to his brother Gerald, ^ who was 
 working at the Church of the Ascension, Lavender Hill. 
 
 *' It transpired, however, next day through the Times 
 newspaper that Mr. Douglas had been shot by a Portuguese 
 official in the presence of the Bishop. 
 
 " On November 16, in accordance with this information, 
 a second telegram was received from Bishop Fisher endorsing 
 the statement of the Times correspondent, and also stating 
 that there had been difficulties with the Portuguese official, 
 that Mr. Glossop and Mr. Ayers were also preseat when 
 
 * Now a member of the U.M.C.A. 
 272 
 
Douglas was shot, and that the matter was now in the hands 
 of the Government at Kota Kota : and further that the 
 ladies and Mr. Hallson had been removed to Likoma and 
 that S. Michael's College had been closed. 
 
 Since then, of course, fuller details have come to 
 hand. 
 
 The Portuguese officer who killed Mr. Douglas was 
 personally acquainted with him and they had even exchanged 
 hospitalities. 
 
 For some time relations between the Mission and the Por- 
 tuguese officer had been strained apparently on two grounds 
 — (i) Mr. Douglas had offered advice and protection to native 
 girls more than once, to prevent them from being used for 
 immoral practices. (2) The Likoma natives were suspected 
 of smuggling. The English store at Likoma was not un- 
 naturally a hete noire to the Portuguese. (It is needless 
 to say that the Mission neither smuggled nor abetted smug- 
 gling, though there is no doubt smuggling is an easy matter 
 on a long coast Une.) 
 
 The Portuguese officer on one occasion seized a boat, and 
 though he found nothing, imprisoned the crew and flogged 
 the captain. Feeling ran dangerously high in the matter 
 among the natives. Representations had been made by 
 the Mission to no purpose. The boat was also badly needed. 
 No definite charge had been made, and no evidence was to 
 hand. 
 
 At this stage the Bishop and Mr. Glossop went over to 
 Kango, and with Mr. Douglas, had an interview with the 
 Portuguese officer by means of an interpreter, the Portuguese 
 evidence being first translated into Chinyanja and then into 
 English. The Mission party gathered that the natives and 
 the boat should be released. The Portuguese officer states, 
 however, that he only agreed to refer the matter to Head- 
 quarters at Mtengula. There seems no doubt that there 
 was a real misunderstanding on this point. 
 
 The crew, who were merely confined behind a rough stock- 
 ade, called out to know if they were being left, and on being 
 told " No, it was all right," kicked open the door and 
 rushed out cheering. This upset the Portuguese officer, 
 
 273 T 
 
who summoned his native soldiers : these latter rushed up 
 excitedly to take their rifles and the Likoma natives, 
 quite reasonably frightened at the possibiUty of indiscrim- 
 inate shooting, took the Portuguese rifles to prevent them 
 being so used. In this there was some definite disorder, and 
 a member of the Mission party on being threatened drew 
 attention to the fact that he too was armed, showing a 
 small pistol. As the men came down the hill, the Bishop 
 called to them to bring the rifles to the Portuguese officer. 
 This was done, explanations followed, mainly in signs and 
 all seemed quiet again. As the officer now seemed to wish 
 to go to Mtengula at once, the Mission party offered him a 
 passage on the Charles Janson, if he cared to go with Mr. 
 Glossop to discuss the matter there. He appeared to accept 
 this, and came on board, the rifles which had been stacked at 
 his feet being at his request brought with him. After the 
 Bishop, Mr. Glossop, and the rest of the Likoma party had 
 come on board, the point was raised whether, if the Mission 
 steamer kept the rifles on board, there might not be misunder- 
 standings at Mtengula ; and eventually the Bishop told the 
 officer that the rifles must be sent back to the House. The 
 officer left the steamer with the rifles, leaving the Mission 
 party in doubt whether he meant to return. Mr. Douglas, 
 who had remained on the beach, met him as he landed, and 
 then went off in the direction of his own station. As the officer 
 did not return, the steamer began to put off for Likoma ; 
 shortly after doing so, however, they were startled to see the 
 officer running excitedly and shooting in the direction of the 
 College along the path where Mr. Douglas was walking back. 
 On this, the Bishop felt obliged to secure the safety of the 
 ladies and of Mr. Douglas himself, and ordered the steamer to 
 put back to the College, about half a mile from the Por- 
 tuguese station. On arriving there a boat was sent off under 
 Mr. Ayers, the captain of the Charles Janson. On seeing 
 the steamer put back, the officer with a guard came across the 
 College landing place to meet it. At the same moment Mr. 
 Douglas came down the hill from the College to meet Mr. 
 Ayers. The Portuguese officer, who was facing Mr. Ayers' 
 boat, turned, saw Douglas, raised his rifle, and shot him dead 
 
 274 
 
at a few yards' distance. Mr. Douglas was entirely unarmed 
 nor had the Mission party in the boat any arms. 
 
 The officer, having committed this atrocious act, at once 
 fled ; while the Bishop and Mr. Glossop landed, took off the 
 ladies and removed Mr. Douglas' body. All this happened 
 under the Bishop's eyes. 
 
 It is impossible not to ask what was the cause of this 
 apparently cold-blooded murder. It is possible that the 
 officer may have simply lost his head, but it is much more 
 than probable that the real motive may be found in the fact 
 of Mr. Douglas' interference on behalf of the native girls. 
 In this the officer had been thwarted by Douglas, and his 
 murder looks like an act of revenge. Arthur Douglas 
 has indeed " laid down his life for his friends." 
 
 " His death [wrote Bishop Fisher] was a real mar- 
 tyrdom, for there is no doubt that he, and not some one 
 else, was the victim, because it was he who had saved the 
 girls, and I think he knew all along that he was running risks 
 in the matter. Native opinion, which is shrewd in its grasp 
 of essentials, is quite clear that he died for them." 
 
 Miss BuUey writes from Likoma, November 12, 191 1 : 
 
 November 12, igii. 
 
 " Perhaps I may be able to tell you some things that 
 others will not, and that you would wish to hear about Mr. 
 Douglas's death. I will not say sad because, though we 
 are one and all saddened and cast into gloom by it, for 
 himself it must have been happiness unmixed. He had 
 saved several girls from being carried away to a life of sin 
 at the Boma and he had been gladdened by the fact that 
 they themslves had with their parents asked him to protect 
 them. In the old days they would have cared little, but it 
 was a real fruit of his teaching and he himself was surprised 
 at their steadfastness. In the morning, as always, there 
 had been a Eucharist, and just before he walked down to 
 the Lake he had once more gone into church for a moment's 
 prayer with the others. When he was half-way down to the 
 shore, he thought the ladies might be feeling nervous owing 
 
 275 
 
to some shots having been fired earlier, and sent back Mr. 
 Hallson to be with them, though no one had any thought of 
 danger. In the evening just after sunset we had the funeral, 
 half in Chinyanja and half in Enghsh so that all could join 
 in prayer for him who had so often helped us. To-morrow 
 is our retreat which he was to have taken, and our thoughts 
 will be all for a blessing on him. It happened that yesterday 
 morning was a solemn Requiem for members of the Mission 
 who had passed away. It was a wonderfully beautiful service. 
 He was over here last Sunday and Monday and went 
 over to see the buildings of the new college. He was 
 very cheerful, and we were so pleased to see him here. 
 I remember the first day I saw him at Kota Kota when he 
 took me into the church so that we might begin our work 
 together with a prayer. Yesterday we went to lay the 
 foundation stone of his new college." 
 
 Miss Cogan writes to one of his sisters : 
 
 Likoma, November 14, 191 1. 
 
 " You are so much in our thoughts at this tim.e that I 
 must write a few lines to you to try and express my sympathy 
 with you and your sisters and brothers in your sorrow. I 
 was on the station when that dreadful shot was fired on the 
 shore, for I had been working under your brother for some 
 months. I don't want to pain you though with a repetition 
 of details which you will hear from other sources. What I 
 do want to do is to try to pay a last tribute to his memory. 
 
 " They were wonderfully helpful months lived on his 
 station — ^helpful because his everyday life was so essentially 
 a Christian one. . . . Fearfully rushed sometimes, and yet 
 wonderfully patient through it all ; if anything unexpectedly 
 happened to increase his responsibility and his duties it 
 merely called forth extra cheerfulness and patience. Nothing 
 made him irritable, and in this climate where temptations 
 to worry over details beset one continually, one feels it was 
 because he lived always so near to God. He was, too, so 
 wonderfully patient in listening to other people's difficulties, 
 natives and the European staff, so that we felt his advice was 
 absolutely reliable and never given hastily on the impulse 
 
 276 
 
of the moment. . . . Your brother was able to rise above the 
 accidents of cHmate and surroundings, and toHve a Hfe of joy- 
 ful self-sacrifice. The Bishop, I believe, has told your brother 
 that Padre was praying in church to within a few moments of 
 his death. He did not seem to be fearing violence on the part 
 of the Portuguese. I think he was merely following his 
 daily practice of being part of the morning in church. One 
 cannot help feeling that death in the actual fulfilment of his 
 duty would be more acceptable to Padre than a tedious 
 illness. I felt that when we were struck down with grief 
 at our sudden loss, and also that he is now free for perpetual 
 contemplation of the Master he loved so dearly." 
 
 Particulars of the events following on this terrible 
 tragedy are given in a private letter from Bishop Hine dated 
 November ii. Bishop Hine had been invited by Bishop 
 Fisher to take part in, and to preach at, the consecration 
 of Likoma Cathedral. Owing to delays on the journey he 
 did not reach the island till the loth, the day of the murder. 
 
 " Yesterday [ he writes i] the steamer the Chauncy Maples 
 had got up to the college, which is on the mainland opposite 
 Likoma, when we met the Charles Janson (the other 
 mission steamer) with flag flying at half-mast. Bishop 
 Fisher was on board and sent off a boat to fetch me to see 
 Douglas, who had just been shot by the Portuguese official 
 whose residence is close by the college. He was quite dead 
 before I got there ; must have died instantaneously, shot 
 through the heart. 
 
 " Lots of people, ignorant of all this, stood waiting on the 
 shore to give us their usual welcome, full of rejoicing. But 
 the flag at half-mast was noted, and suddenly a hush 
 fell, and as soon as the meaning was carried ashore, silence 
 was complete over all the station. Douglas was carried up 
 to the hospital, and prepared for burial, vested in white 
 Eucharistic vestments, the Crucifix in his hands. He looked 
 wonderfully majestic and calm in death — one whom, we 
 all felt, knew indeed, to be ready at any time to pass into 
 the presence of God. 
 
 1 To Canon Randolph. 
 277 
 
" In the evening we buried him with solemn and beautiful 
 rites. In pace. 
 
 " He was one of the best and ablest men in the Mission, 
 well qualified himself some day to be Bishop ; one who had 
 done so much admirable work, one universally honoured 
 and beloved. . . . For us, it is only to ' weep not for the 
 dead, for he is at peace ' — ^the words which came so strangely 
 fittingly in the First Lesson last evening — and to thank 
 God for the life of one who has given his own Hfe for his 
 people." 
 
 A member of the staff, writes : 
 
 " On that morning, November lo, he (Mr. Douglas) was 
 in church very early as usual, and celebrated at 6.30 ; a 
 good many communicated as they knew he would be away 
 for the Conference before Sunday ; Mattins followed, then 
 breakfast, at which he asked us if we had any suggestions 
 as to a book to be read aloud at the Quiet Day he was to 
 conduct before Conference. 
 
 " He opened school as usual at 8.30. While I was giving 
 the first lesson the Charles Janson arrived with the Bishop 
 and Mr. Glossop, and he (Mr. Douglas) accompanied them 
 to the homa. Afterwards he returned, and said they 
 understood the Portuguese to admit he had no authority 
 from headquarters to seize Mission boats, and that he 
 had given back the Ousel peacefully. Later we heard 
 shots fired. Mr. Douglas did not believe they were fired 
 at the College, as the natives said, but over the Lake, and 
 he thought as an act of bravado. When he saw the steamer 
 he said, * I expect the Bishop is anxious, and coming back 
 for you, so you had better be ready.' We told him we were 
 ready, as we had expected to come into Likoma for the 
 Conference. He then asked us Europeans to come into 
 church, and prayed that the Mission might be guided to 
 act aright in these difficulties, and that the students might 
 not lose their head and do anything to provoke the autho- 
 rities. He sent back all who had not run away into school. 
 He told me he thought he must ask the Bishop to let him 
 remain and follow in a day or two ; as the students were so 
 
 278 
 
excited he did not think it would be fair to leave the native 
 deacon in charge alone. 
 
 " I think this was why he hurried down to meet the boat. 
 I am sure he did not think there was real danger. He did 
 not tell me he was going down, but returned to church, and 
 I went to the dispensary. Mr. Hallson tried to go with 
 him, but Padre sent him back, saying we should not be 
 left in the station alone at such a time. I do not think 
 if he had gone he could have done anything, as Mr. Ayers 
 was out of the boat and had nearly met Padre when the 
 Portuguese shot him without a word of warning. It was 
 on Mission ground. He and two native soldiers with him, 
 but they did nothing at all, and all three rushed off to the 
 boma." * 
 
 Bishop Fisher wrote as follows to his brother Gerald : 
 
 " We vested him in white Eucharistic vestments, and 
 put a Crucifix in his hands. The room in the hospital was 
 arranged with a little altar, and a watch was kept. This 
 was from 4.30 to 6 (in the afternoon). He was then carried 
 to the choir of the Cathedral, and rested there, while Vespers 
 were said and the first part of the Burial Service. Then 
 he was carried to the grave. He was carried by the two 
 English priests (Ker^ of Ely was one — the only Ely man 
 available, as Cox^ was taking the service with me, and 
 Victor* was away ; but we felt sure he and you would like 
 Ely to be there), two native priests, two English laymen, and 
 two native laymen (our senior churchwarden and his 
 senior college student). The service was simple and beauti- 
 ful, just at sunset. The Magnificat at Vespers, the Lord's 
 Prayer and the Committal were in Chinyanja, and after 
 the Grace, * Rock of Ages,' a very favourite hymn here, was 
 sung. There were thirty college boys who had escaped 
 here in various ways who were present and many island 
 Christians." 
 
 "If he had known [writes one who had worked with 
 
 1 Government Station. 2 R^y Charles Ker of Mponda's. 
 
 3 Rev. Harold Cox of Kota Kota. 
 
 * Rev. Dennis Victor, Principal of the Theological College. 
 
 279 
 
him 1] exactly what was going to happen, he would have 
 behaved exactly as he did. The very last act he did 
 was to go into the church again. It would have been so 
 different if one felt that his death had come in the middle 
 of some excited dispute. After asking for guidance, first 
 with the ladies in the church, and then again by himself, 
 no one can say his death was due to an accident. The 
 words of the lady who describes how he took them into the 
 church to ask for guidance reminds me so vividly of the 
 day when he took me into Salwarpe church for the same 
 purpose. We knelt up near the altar, and I dare say he 
 used the very same collect for his prayer. No one knows 
 how much I owe to him, and the manner of his death seems 
 now an inspiration to me, as his life was. No one could 
 wish for a more prepared moment to die — could they ? — 
 the more so that he so Httle expected death. Any other day 
 and moment he would have been in just the same frame of 
 mind. I think he was one of the people whom his friends 
 loved in proportion to their knowledge of him." 
 
 " I think we miss Mr. Douglas more day by day [writes 
 another worker *] ; one finds oneself thinking of referring 
 to him in one difficulty or another and then remembering 
 that is impossible ; one of the little girls that came to 
 him for protection is to be baptised here very shortly. 
 She is living here now ; in fact she is sleeping in our 
 dormitory during her baptismal preparation. I wonder 
 sometimes how much she realises of it all. 
 
 " We have had his addresses given to us ; it seemed to 
 me so exactly Uke hearing his voice again. It is one of the 
 things for which I am very thankful, that I had his help 
 when first I came to Africa." 
 
 Another writes from South Africa of the " pathetic 
 grief of the Nyasa boys here when they heard the very 
 terrible news of Father Douglas." 
 
 Another : ' " One does miss his prayerful Ufe in our 
 midst, but it will always remain an inspiration to us. And 
 
 * Mr. Philip Young. 
 
 « Miss BuUey (writing from Likonia) under date May ai, 19/2. 
 
 • Miss Cogan. 
 
 280 
 
when the conversation takes a criticising tone, one remem- 
 bers how he would either have tactfully changed the tone 
 by a joke — or if it were necessary — forbidden the topic." 
 
 " He was one of the best and most spiritually minded 
 men I ever met. His absolute unselfishness has often been 
 an inspiration to me, and I hope it will be now more than 
 ever." ^ 
 
 " I need hardly tell you [writes Mrs. Howard from 
 Zanzibar] that to us his loss is irreparable. He has from 
 the very first been to both my husband and myself a dear 
 friend, a constant inspiration, a brilUant and helpful example 
 of what an ideal missionary should be. He was such a 
 saint, and yet so deliciously human withal, it was impossible 
 to help loving him." 
 
 " He was [writes Miss Parsons from Nyasaland] one 
 whose spiritual life stands out as a bright example of the 
 practicabihty of living in the very busiest world, and yet 
 keeping the closest communion with the Unseen. As Mr. 
 Glossop put it on Sunday * hewing out of each full day's 
 routine the time for private devotion and meditation.' " 
 
 Another 2 of his fellow- workers writes : "No one, so far 
 as one can see, could have been more prepared for a sudden 
 death than he was. His whole life and atmosphere seemed 
 to be one of prayer. I have always felt that he was the 
 most spiritually minded man I ever met." 
 
 " One cannot help feeling [writes yet another ^j that 
 of us all no man was more ready for the call [of death] than 
 he. Hallson tells me that just before going down to the 
 Lake he had asked the other Europeans to come into the 
 chapel for a prayer, saying, ' You never know what may 
 happen,' so that he passed out to his unknown and un- 
 expected death with a prayer on his lips." 
 
 Certainly such testimony as all this shows that he 
 whose letters we have been reading was no ordinary man, 
 but one who ** being made perfect in a short time has 
 fulfilled a long time." 
 
 " I do not beheve [writes the Bishop of Winchester (Dr. 
 
 1 From Rev. G. H. Wilson. 2 Rev. H. A. M. Cox. 3 Rev. C. VJ. Ker. 
 
 281 
 
Talbot)] that the taking away of such a life is mere loss. 
 We may see — and whether we see it or not, it will be true 
 — that some great good is accomplished through it." 
 
 " There is no question as to the readiness, and as it 
 purely aKects himself, as to the happiness of his death 
 [writes Bishop Fisher to Mr. Archibald Douglas]. I have 
 not known more than four or five people in my life who 
 were ready in the same way ; it was not merely the 
 extraordinary high level of his general life — though that 
 apart from the rest was a very wonderful thing — ^but the 
 extraordinarily detailed care of each fraction of his time. 
 I see some one has said that had he known what was 
 coming he would have done exactly what he did : this is 
 absolutely true, but one can add to it (which means even 
 more) that had sudden death come to him at any other 
 moment in his life here, he would have been equally 
 ready. 
 
 " I have been told that he had a shrinking from a 
 lingering illness, and there was some reason to fear this 
 might have come to him, so it is conceivable that death 
 came to him with a quickness he wished and perhaps had 
 prayed for. At all events it is something to know that 
 it was, as Bishop Hine told me was absolutely certain, 
 quite painless and instantaneous. 
 
 " I suppose I beUeve that since it was allowed to 
 happen it is best for all of us, but it is difficult to realise 
 it. Work that he could have done and that no one else 
 can do in the same way cries out for him. and he had a 
 strength on which others relied." 
 
 Miss Medd sent the following account of Douglas to the 
 Likoma Chronicle ; I make no apology for inserting it here. 
 
 "... One's first impression of Mr. Douglas in social inter- 
 course was that he was always at work and little interested 
 in other things. This, however, was not really the case, 
 for, though his actual work was his first object, his know- 
 ledge and interests were of the widest character. Owing 
 to the pressure of daily duties this would only appear 
 
 282 
 
occasionally, andjmainly when he was away from his owil 
 station, but when one was with him under such circum- 
 stances one was surprised to find how much he had read of 
 general literature, and how many sides of life that he was 
 intensely capable of enjoying he had deliberately sacrificed 
 to his conscientious standard of thoroughness in daily work. 
 
 " He left those who worked under him a very free hand, 
 but he knew all that went on and, however busy, could 
 always be counted on to give a patient hearing and helpful 
 advice even as to details. At such interviews his knowledge 
 of the character of individuals struck one much ; he never 
 seemed to think of his people in classes but always as 
 individuals, and it was this probably which gave him such 
 a strong influence over them. The words ' The Spirit of 
 Discipline ' come into one's mind with regard to him. 
 His coming into a room to a meal was often suflicient to 
 check grumbling or unkind criticism ; he liked discipline 
 and would rebuke a fellow- worker for passing over a breach 
 of it. 
 
 " But above all else he was a man of prayer. The 
 amount of time he managed to secure for private devotion 
 was a subject of surprise to many of us. He was always up 
 and in church very early and was there long after anyone else 
 most nights, as well as using many opportunities during 
 the day. One remembers him at Likoma kneeling in the 
 still unfinished Cathedral undisturbed by the crash of tools 
 and other things dropped by workmen on the iron roof. 
 At the college he seemed when in church so absorbed in 
 devotion as not to mind the crying of children in our dispen- 
 sary, or the classes in college, or the shouting in the football 
 field, all of which places were quite close to the church. This 
 struck one the more as at other times he seemed pecuHarly 
 sensitive to noise, leaving the table at meals to send people 
 away who were talking at all loudly near the dining-room. 
 When the women workers first came to the college he 
 especially asked them to check the noisiness of the native 
 women and girls, and some months later said how glad 
 he was that they were so much quieter. 
 
 " He had a great behef in the power of intercession 
 
 283 
 
and especially liked the college custom of remembering 
 each former student by name at the altar as we prayed for 
 the work of the Mission in each district. It was his great 
 desire for the continuance of this custom that made him 
 anxious that the new college should have its own chapel 
 and separate daily services. Nor were the village Chris- 
 tians forgotten ; each month those on. ulendo were especially 
 prayed for by name. For his private use he had a book 
 which contained the names of each Christian, catechumen 
 and hearer in his district, and from time to time he would 
 ask for the names of new school-children down to the 
 smallest girl or boy to add to it. It was as natural to him 
 to ask a fellow-worker to pray for some new work or some 
 particular person, as to ask them to take another class. 
 One was given a scrap of paper with some names to remem- 
 ber, or a note came requesting one to intercede for some 
 special person for some days." 
 
 One of the students at S. Michael's College writes to a 
 friend in England. 
 
 *' We have been very sad because of our Father and 
 Principal A. J. Douglas, who was killed by the Portuguese. 
 That day we were sad, and we wept a great deal, for he was 
 very clever in all his work ; he was not weak, nor was he 
 ever late for his work. He was a great comfort and help 
 to us students, he loved all his boys, and he was loved by 
 his students. Also he was very clever in teaching and 
 everything. He was strong in his prayers, he knew us 
 well, he was very wise. He was known to all ; and now 
 we must be patient that our hearts may be comforted ; 
 we cannot know much, but we know he is in Paradise, he 
 sleeps in peace." 
 
 284 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The following addresses were found amongst the papers of the 
 late Rev. A. J. Douglas immediately after his death on Novem- 
 ber 10. 
 
 They had been prepared for the Quiet Day, which Mr. 
 Douglas was to have conducted, on November 13, in preparation 
 for the Consecration of the Cathedral and the Diocesan Conference 
 on the following days. 
 
 They have been printed practically as they stood, save for 
 obvious minor corrections and the translation of a few Chinyanja 
 expressions into English. 
 
 They are put out with the hope that something of his spiritual 
 force, which was such a strength to the Diocese, may be per- 
 petuated among us here, as we believe it is being exercised for 
 us in his life beyond the grave. 
 
 We are sure it will not be necessary to remind those who are 
 helped by his teaching of what, we know, would have been his 
 own wish, that he should be remembered at times of prayer, 
 and especially at the Holy Eucharist. Requiescat in Pace. 
 
 H. A. M. COX. 
 
 LiKOMA, 
 
 Passiontide, 191 2. 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN OF THE TRANSFIGURATION 
 
 There are two mountains with stories which stand out 
 prominently in the Gospel. There is the Mountain of the 
 Temptation, and there is the Mountain of the Transfiguration. 
 
 285 
 
Up the first the devil takes our Lord ; up the second our Lord 
 takes His three disciples. 
 
 My brethren, very much of our life in Africa has almost of 
 necessity to be spent on a mountain-top. You who are natives 
 of this land, of the true African ministry by education and 
 calling, cannot pass the day merely on the plain alongside of 
 others of your race. And we Europeans, most of us at least, hold 
 a position more isolated and therefore more conspicuous than 
 that which we should hold in England. There at home, we 
 should find our level alongside of many others of our own pro- 
 fession. There we should scarcely even reach up to our environ- 
 ment ; there we should be meeting with others far beyond us in 
 natural capability and spiritual graces. But here in Africa, at 
 least at our smaller stations, I am so often the priest, the layman, 
 the nurse, the school teacher ; it is I and so often no other, I on 
 my mountain-top. Yes, others have their mountain-top ; but 
 again, theirs are not the same as mine. 
 
 And therefore it is that this mountain must often be to me 
 the Mountain of Temptation. The position of isolation above 
 one's people means, of necessity, temptation. Satan is per- 
 suading us to use our position for ourselves. Influence, power, 
 popularity, aye, the hearts of our people, " all these may be 
 ours," so Satan persuades. But, my brethren, because we must, 
 whether we will or no, be so often on that Mountain of Tempta- 
 tion, therefore it also is that we so specially need the Mountain 
 of Transfiguration. Ah ! what a blessing this Quiet Day may be 
 to us whose business daily forces us to be looking down, down 
 into that over which we are placed. To-day gives us just what 
 we need, the opportunity to look up. If as we-look down, Satan 
 is giving us his thoughts, there in the Transfiguration, when 
 the Face shone as the sun and the raiment was white as the Hght, 
 we are reminded afresh that all honour and power and thanks- 
 giving and praise are not for us but for Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 I propose that during our Quiet Day we should keep very 
 close to S. Peter ; it seems natural to do so on the eve of the 
 Consecration of the Cathedral. We begin then by being with 
 S. Peter on the Mountain of the Transfiguration ; that of course 
 means also being with our Lord. That is the one essential to 
 the right spending of the Quiet Day. " It is good for us to be 
 here," just in so far as we are here with Jesus. There may be 
 many possible ways of using our time to-morrow. One may 
 think it best to make a self-examination ; another may think it 
 best to reconsider his daily time-table, or to re-order his inter- 
 
 286 
 
cessions and bring them up to date ; or, the time is so short, we 
 may think it best on the whole to do nothing that demands 
 concentrated and strenuous effort. In the sense of blessed 
 freedom from the burden of our station, it may be enough for us 
 merely to be saying with thankful hearts, " Oh, it is good for me 
 to rest here," but again, only good if we are resting with Jesus. 
 
 But however we spend the day, there are at least certain 
 dispositions of mind which we may hope for if we are quietly 
 spending the day with Jesus. And first, we may hope to be 
 spiritually awake, we may claim from Him to be roused out of 
 our natural spiritual sloth. Even on the mountain of Trans- 
 figuration, Peter and they that were with him at first were heavy 
 with sleep. But then they awoke and saw His glory. Let us 
 ask Jesus to force us out of our natural dulnessof spirit. And 
 at this time of great heat, we must ask Him to brace our bodies 
 as well. Don't grumble about the heat when you come out of 
 retreat ; you will probably lose grace if you do. Spending the 
 day quietly does not mean spending it sluggishly. Even if we are 
 only sitting on the hill or in our room, we must be awake to 
 the influence and presence of Jesus. 
 
 And the second disposition of mind which we must hope for 
 when spending the day consciously with Jesus is " Holy Fear." 
 
 The disciples " were sore afraid." Possibly theirs was natural 
 fear. For holy fear is only possible when the mind is quiet. The 
 deeper the stillness, the fuller the sense of awe. Try whether 
 that is not so as you kneel down to-night in the exceeding stillness. 
 Allowing not the slightest movement of body, and almost holding 
 the breath, cut off from all others, we become conscious of Jesus, 
 and of Jesus so awfully near. We feel, we see Him near. Dear 
 brethren, those most holy and awesome moments perhaps come 
 very seldom when up to the moment of going to bed we are 
 chatting with this one or with that, and busy about this thing 
 and that ; the mind, even as we kneel, is not quiet enough to / 
 permit the consciousness of this close personal lov'ijig Presence, 
 but in the quiet of to-night or to-morrow we may expcc\. it — 
 this holy sense of fear — so strange that we almost shrink from 
 it, almost refuse it when it comes ; so strange that we can only 
 just find words to say, " Oh, my Jesus, it is good for me to be 
 here." 
 
 Spiritual wakefulness, Holy Fear : and these seem to lead 
 naturally to a third disposition of mind that we may look for at 
 such a time as this ; I think that we may look for an increased 
 desire for communion with the spirit-world. " Let us make 
 
 287 
 
three tabernacles." S. Peter having had the vision longs that 
 it may remain with him ; he prays for a continuance of the con- 
 templation of the spirit-world to which Moses and Elias belonged. 
 My brethren, we know that that prayer of S. Peter was refused. 
 The vision was only for the moment, as our Retreat is only for 
 a day. There was work waiting for Jesus and His disciples on 
 the hard dry plain below, as there is much work waiting for us. 
 And yet there on the mountain-top our Lord is in fullest sym- 
 pathy with that desire for the spirit-world. Not only has He 
 chosen for His companions two of the saints that belong to that 
 world, but He is speaking with them of His own death. It is 
 His exodus, to use S. Luke's expression — His own exodus from 
 this world into the spirit-world beyond. To our Lord and the 
 blessed saints death is just a passing out. 
 
 How different this quiet sober contemplation of death from 
 the hasty violent outburst of S. Peter on this very subject only 
 a few days before. S. Peter had shrunk from the thought of 
 death. When our Lord had spoken of it down on the plain 
 below, S. Peter had dared to rebuke Him. But now on the 
 mountain-top out Lord is rebuking S. Peter, rebuking him by 
 allowing him to be witness of the manner in which those two 
 saints who, their own past exodus veiled as it was in mystery, 
 yet now as dwellers in the land beyond were able quietly and 
 soberly to speak with our Lord of His passing. /^^ 
 
 A retreat, a quiet day, is surely a time when we too may tune 
 our mind to the fact of death, facing the fact of our own death 
 as our Lord on the mountain-top shows us how to face it, quietly, 
 confidently. Death and the passing into the spirit-world so 
 often comes suddenly to workers in Africa, that we may be 
 especially glad of this quiet time, when we can speak to Jesus 
 of our exodus, praying that it may be simply when He will, and 
 as He will. 
 
 My brethren, that is all I would say with regard to the Quiet 
 Day itself. In it let us hope for and work for these three things : 
 an -nrreasein wakefulness, an increase in holy fear, an increased 
 realisation of death and the spirit- world beyond. 
 
 But I want our last thought to-night to be one not merely for 
 our use during the Quiet Day, but one that will, when the quiet 
 is over, send us back to the plain below with a recovered hope. 
 And the line of thought which leads from despondency to hope 
 is surely this, -fl'hink first of S. Peter's crushing disappointment 
 when our Lord spoke of His death — and such a death. It was 
 the utter collapse of S. Peter's dearest hopes. Now within a few 
 
 288 
 
days, when the disappointment must still have been taking all 
 the heart out of S. Peter (ah ! my brethren, we know those dis- 
 appointments, do we not ?), well, what does our Lord do ? He 
 takes S. Peter up into the mountain, and there He lets his God- 
 head blaze through that poor human Body. Yes, this Body, 
 by being crucified, seems thus to S. Peter almost to have turned 
 traitor to the cause of the Kingdom of Christ ; now S. Peter's 
 eyes are opened to see that, in spite of all, God is within that 
 Body, and, because the Godhead is within, that Body itself is 
 capable of Transfiguration. Ah, that is a long word. Let us 
 say as S. Luke says, because of the Godhead within, Jesus 
 " became other." '^''^ 
 
 My brethren, here is the hope, first for our own selves. What 
 is possible to the human Bod}^ of Jesus is spiritually possible to 
 each one of us that has God within Him. If God is within me, 
 I too can be transfigured, I can become other than I am. And 
 God is within me. At my Baptism He put His own Life within 
 me for this very purpose, that I might become another. In 
 Confirmation He made His Home in me to be my strength ; in 
 each Communion He enters into me to be my Food ; and again, 
 I say, all this He does in me that I may be transfigured. God 
 within me ; then, if I will, I can be " Perfect as the Father in 
 Heaven is perfect." Ah, now I know what that means ; at 
 least now I know how that is possible. It is by the Almighty 
 God within me making me what He is. 
 
 But Transfiguration is not something only of the inner life. 
 Jesus was Transfigured before His disciples. The change was 
 obvious, patent to the disciples. .-' Will you go back to your 
 people with the change obvious to those among whom you 
 work, with a new patience, a new humility, a new S3mipathy, 
 a new joyousness ; will you go back with the change in your life 
 so obvious that your people cannot doubt that within you 
 " there is God " ? 
 
 And the change which can be wrought in me can be wrought 
 in my people also, at least in those who, having received the Life 
 of God in Baptism, and not having deliberately rejected it, have 
 an honest desire, in spite of weakness and sin, to keep God 
 within them. My brethren, as we realise afresh that each one 
 of these has God Himself within him, shall we not even for the 
 least interesting of them feel a new and absorbing interest ; shall 
 we not feel toward each, even toward the least attractive, a new 
 respect, shall we not go back with a new and abundant hope for 
 all ? God has not put His life for nothing into that stubborn 
 
 289 U 
 
lad or silly girl, that ignorant woman or selfish man. The Life 
 is there, waiting for an opportunity to assert itself. God is 
 within, waiting in blessed patience till, it may be bj?- your help. 
 He can effect the Transfiguration. 
 
 This is what we are to carry back to our work ; the assurance 
 that God is within all that is called by His Name. Remember 
 this, and it will be not only persons but the things of God also 
 that will take on for you a fresh glory ; — yes, the seemingly 
 dullest of our Church services, those services which may other- 
 wise be a weariness to the flesh, a source of irritation. Ah ! but, 
 brethren, we may well be ashamed of our weariness ; there can 
 be no place for irritation, for when the service seems to go most 
 wrong, when the singing is bad and the people are inattentive, 
 and there is more than usual of going in and out at the door, we 
 can still throw ourselves back on God's promise. Where two or 
 three are gathered, there am I. If God is not in the service, it 
 is not the fault of an ignorant congregation, but of us few who 
 ought to know better. Remember, then, that God is within the 
 service, and that itself will bring to the service a new glory. 
 When things in the service seem going wrong, speak to God that 
 He may make His Power within the service to be felt. O my 
 God, steady us, quiet us, give us recollectedness, work a trans- 
 figuration ! 
 
 My brethren, S. Peter down on the plain, we in our villages, 
 in our services, our people and oiuselves, dwell in thought too 
 much upon the frail. Jesus on the mountain-top shows us that 
 the All-glorious God is still within the frail. 
 
 VENTURES OF FAITH 
 
 There are two incidents in the Gospel which tell us of seem- 
 ing danger on the Sea of Galilee. There is the stonn when 
 Jesus is asleep ; that is the one incident. But this morning 
 I want you to think of the other incident, when Jesus is walking 
 on the waves. There are many points of resemblance in the 
 two stories. In each case there is the same boisterous sea, in 
 each case a fear of sinking, though there it is the boat, and here 
 S. Peter by himself. In each case there are just the same words 
 of rebuke, ** ye of little faith I " Yes, certainly points of 
 similarity ; but now let us see where the stories differ — it is a big 
 difference. For when the ship is ready to sink in the waves, and 
 He is asleep, the disciples have done nothing to bring the danger 
 on themselves ; wishing to cross the lake, they have ventured 
 
 290 
 
nothing more than others had ventured daily — the danger came 
 on them quite unexpectedly ; it was in no way of their own 
 seeking, and therefore, in that case, Jesus of course kept them 
 safe in it, and brought them safe through it. 
 
 But the case of S. Peter in the water is different. Here the 
 ship is safe ; it is he who had deliberately flung himself into the 
 waves ; he is solely reponsible for his present trouble ; he has 
 of his own accord made the venture. 
 
 Many a time, my brethren, both these incidents have their 
 counterpart in our own experience. We have found ourselves as 
 those disciples on whom, with the Lord asleep, the storm came 
 sweeping down. An unexpected, almost overwhelming trouble 
 has fallen on us, a sudden temptation of appalling vehemence. 
 There has been no time for deliberate planning, no time to parry 
 the sudden danger, except by as sudden a cry from the heart, 
 " Save, Lord, I perish." That is the use of ejaculatory prayer, 
 the prayer shot out in a moment to meet the moment's unfore- 
 seen need. But to-day we are not thinking of the peril that 
 comes upon us whether we will or no : we are thinking of a 
 venture taken upon deliberation, something which S. Peter 
 has set himself to do after he has taken counsel of the Lord, 
 " Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee upon the waters " ; 
 something not undertaken until he has received the Lord's 
 sanction, " Come " ; we are thinking not of a venture which was 
 forced upon S. Peter — no one pitched him into the sea ; he 
 pitched himself in. It was a self-chosen venture. 
 
 And this also is easy to apply to ourselves ; there is not one 
 of us that has not made ventures in our life. Think of that 
 tremendous venture which a lad makes out here when he deter- 
 mines to shake himself loose of easy-going heathenism, and 
 throw in his lot with Christianity. Ah, that is a big venture, 
 though we Europeans forget to estimate it aright. Many have 
 made that venture in times past, but have sunk in the raging sea 
 of persecution. Many have come safely through, grasping the 
 hand stretched out to help. It was a venture, my brethren, 
 that we made when we settled on our profession. You may 
 remember S. Peter tells us first of all, that we must be sure that 
 Jesus Himself, and nothing else than Jesus, is in the businesss. 
 The apostles were marvellously loath to give our Lord credit for 
 being where He was. When they saw a strange phenomenon, 
 they would believe anything rather than the simple fact that it 
 was Jesus. After His Resurrection, though He had given them 
 every assurance that He would rise again, yet when He did 
 
 291 
 
appear amongst them they only thought it was a spirit. So, 
 too, now on the lake, when Jesus walked on the water, though 
 they had that very day witnessed His Divine Power in multiply- 
 ing the loaves, yet when they see this marvellous walking on 
 the water they only suppose it is a spirit, not even the Spirit of 
 Jesus. Jesus does not come into their thoughts. Jesus has to 
 force his Personality upon them, " It is I," and it is only then 
 that S. Peter says, still almost incredulously, " If it be really 
 Thou." The suggestion that should have come to their mind 
 in a moment, " It is Jesus," comes only amazingly slowly. Now, 
 my brethren, we need to give Jesus credit for being where He is, 
 and for actions where He is acting. Wonderful, splendid things 
 happen about us. One boy makes an extraordinary advance ; 
 a quarrel which has stuck suddenly melts into air. I remember 
 a case here at Chipyela, where, till midday on Saturday, both 
 sides were raging furiously, and suddenly the whole was settled, 
 and in an hour's time they came into Ghurch together to ask 
 leave to seal the compact in next day's Communion. Now we 
 say, How wonderful, how extraordinary, how truly African ! 
 Yes, but we had better own up straight and say, ^" How truly 
 Jesus." It was Jesus. 
 
 So, my brethren, those who would make successful ventures 
 must believe in the protecting Presence of Jesus, always at hand, 
 always watchful. They must cultivate that habit of thought 
 which gets behind all other causes, and is ready to say, "It is 
 Jesus." 
 
 But besides the general habit of mind which turns to Jesus, 
 which sees and feels Him near, we must make as sure as possible 
 that the particular venture is in answer to the call of Jesus. 
 Before S. Peter dared to fling himself into the water he had 
 heard our Lord saying, " Gome." Yes, though his loving, eager 
 spirit itself naturally incited him to the venture, he did not 
 venture until he had laid his desire before the Lord, and had 
 obtained His sanction. " If it be Thou, suffer me to come to 
 Thee on the water," there is the man's natural earnest wish; and 
 Jesus said unto him, " Gome," there is the Divine sanction. Was 
 it not Pusey, who, when consulted on any line of action, used to 
 say, " First let us see what Jesus thinks of it ! " that is our 
 preparation for a venture ; there is to be first the general dis- 
 position of mind that is ready to see Jesus Himself as the prime 
 mover in the life about us, and then the laying of the particular 
 venture before Him and listening for the answer, whether He 
 says Yes or No. But once the venture has been made, once the 
 
 : 292 
 
plunge has been taken, there is, my brethren, to be no faint- 
 heartedness, no regret, no wish that we had never left the boat, 
 no fear of the waves. 
 
 Ah, the waves and contrary winds are certain to meet us in 
 our venture. When you joined the Mission, the venture was 
 made doubly hard because the home wind blew contrary. When 
 things have been extra difficult out here, there may have come 
 the thought, " Why wasn't I content to stop with James and 
 John in the boat ? " When inside her, yes, there were difficulties 
 at times, but nothing like these waves roaring and raging round 
 my head. Or the venture has been of a different kind ; a new 
 scheme of work in my own department. I didn't begin it with- 
 out thought, I didn't begin it without prayer, but now I feel 
 that the fresh demand it makes upon my strength and time is 
 almost overwhelming ; some new class, some new scheme of 
 journeys through my district, some extra Sunday preaching, or 
 some special work of translation ; or else it is venture for my 
 own inner needs, some resolution about prayer or meditation or 
 Bible reading, or some piece of discipUne I set myself to overcome 
 an evil habit. It was not that I made the venture carelessly ; 
 I knew what I was doing ; I acted dehberately ; nay, I believe 
 now that I made the resolution in the Presence of Jesus, and in 
 accordance with the will of Jesus. Ah, my brother, do you so 
 believe ? then the resolution stands, the venture holds good ; 
 and ah, dear brother, there is nothing to fear. Art thou of so 
 little faith ? Jesus made Himself known to you at the beginning, 
 saying to you, " It is I, be not afraid " — Jesus sent back to you 
 across the water the clear, strong, short command, " Come." 
 You do not now, even for a moment, really think that the venture 
 is too much for you, or the resolution impossible to keep. Per- 
 haps we even have the advantage of S. Peter. He made the 
 venture then after prayer and conscious of the Presence of Jesus, 
 but with a heart upset. But we — when was it that you made 
 that solemn resolve ? almost certainly it was at a time when 
 you were soberly, quietly, imder the invocation of the Holy 
 Spirit, taking stock of your life ; it was as a result of a Retreat, 
 or preparing for Absolution, or in seeing with what desire for 
 your life you could best go to your next Communion. My 
 brethren, with regard to ventures on which we determined at 
 those quiet solemn times, now, though the difficulties seem 
 immense, we are not going to be faint-hearted. Throw yourself 
 back in memory to the moment when under the consciousness of 
 your Lord's Presence you yourself wished for the venture ; 
 
 "^293 
 
wished, that is, to bring your life nearer to Jesus when He sealed 
 your prayer with His " Gome." But in that very word " Come " 
 we get a further incentive to persevere. When He bids us to 
 a difficult task. He is not content to say, " Go " ; He says, 
 " Come." As Jesus was at the beginning of the venture, so is 
 He also at the end. WeU, then, in our venture we are not going 
 to the unknown ; for Jesus we know, and He is already standing 
 at the far side of the venture. Take a practical case. We have 
 formed the resolution of building S. Michael's CoUege on this 
 island. My brethren, if that resolution was made otherwise 
 than in the belief that Jesus Himself is very near to us in the 
 enterprise, and in the further belief that the rebuilding is accord- 
 ing to the will of Jesus, and in answer to a call from Him, of 
 course we deserve to fail. But if we do believe that the start is 
 being made because Jesus has given the order, then we have the 
 further immense satisfaction of knowing that Jesus is not saying 
 to us, "Go" to Makulawe,! but He is sa5ang, "Gome" to 
 Makulawe. Jesus is already there. He is not only in the 
 beginning ; He is waiting for us at the end. And not merely 
 waiting ; for as the hindrances multiply and difficulties nearly 
 overwhelm, there He is, with Hand stretched out to help ; there 
 He is, ready for each one of us as the spirit within us fails ; there 
 He is, ready for these lads of Africa ; they can find Him there 
 and feel the grip of the Hand. Yes, surely it is these lads and 
 young teachers who specially need to feel that a strong sustaining 
 Divine hold is on them. They have made their venture. They 
 have by their profession largely separated themselves from their 
 former comrades and from their old home life. Standing alone, 
 discouraged, tempted to despond, it is surely they that need the 
 grip of the Hand ; and if only in their faintheartedness they 
 will still keep their faces turned to Him and cry to Him, He will 
 bring them through safely to Himself. 
 
 For this is the last point I would have us consider. It was 
 the man who made the venture ; it was he who, in spite of faint- 
 heartedness, reached Jesus sooner than those who made no 
 venture at all. Let me repeat it. Venturesome Peter grasped 
 the Hand of Jesus sooner than those others who just sat in the 
 boat and made no venture at all. Ah, our blessed Lord loves 
 the venturesome soul, and draws it right through to Himself. 
 Then, my brethren, what are we venturing these days ? I ask 
 first, what are we venturing for the Church in the land ? When 
 
 * The site chosen for the new College. 
 294 
 
the Mission has been long established, is there still no venture to 
 be made toward a native self-support ? Of course the aura 
 popularis, of course native opinion, may blow contrary, but we 
 are not going to give up hope merely because of contrary winds. 
 No, if we haven't yet taken the plunge, it can only be that we 
 cannot yet see which way the Master calls. But some day 
 assuredly we shall make the venture, and the scheme which we 
 shall fling upon the waters will make its way, if it has the will 
 of Jesus at its beginning and the glory of Jesus as its goal. 
 
 Again, what ventures are we making — those of us whose work 
 Hes in districts mostly heathen ? The man who gets out to his 
 villages may feel disheartened by the indifference that meets 
 him, but Jesus will work with him sooner than with the priest 
 who sits complacent in his room at home. Again, my brethren, 
 Mohammedanism is dead against us ; so was the wind on the 
 Galilean Lake, but Peter made the venture. What ventures are 
 we making here ? Let us at least take the first step and tell 
 our Lord that whatever He would have us venture, that we will 
 try, and try with confidence, knowing that He Who could check 
 the violence of the wind can check the onrush of Islam. Yes, 
 but He did not check the violent waves until after S. Peter had 
 thrown himself into them and made his venture in their midst. 
 Perhaps I do not know altogether what we can venture against 
 Islami but at least we must make the possibility of a venture 
 a subject of prayer to our Lord. 
 
 And as with ventures in our v^^ork with others, so we may 
 expect to be called to fresh ventures in our own hidden life. 
 Why should it be otherwise ? we must go forward if we are not 
 going back. We look back on ventures in the past, ventures 
 that have brought us nearer to our Lord ; but can we come no 
 nearer ? This is the question for to-day. Is there nothing new 
 that I can venture to bring me nearer to Jesus, that is, to make 
 me more like Jesus ? Nothing further in the life of self -surrender 
 and sacrifice, of my time, my private income, my furlough ; no 
 further progress possible in the suppression of my own self or in 
 the acceptance of authority ; no further movement possible in 
 kind and courteous conduct toward those whom we have allowed 
 ourselves to think of as rather impossible ? My brethren, there 
 is for us the very great danger of our resting content on the fact 
 that we made one big venture when we offered ourselves to this 
 Mission. But what have we ventured further since we joined 
 the Mission ? In what are we nearer to Jesus now than when we 
 first set foot in Africa ? We all love the venturesome boy ; I 
 
 295 
 
think that' Jesus loves the venturesome Christian. Is there any- 
 thing which He would have you venture for His dear sake ? If 
 there is, now's the time to make the plunge, and when you get 
 back to your work, go straight ahead with the venture, there is 
 nothing to fear. The will of Jesus was at its beginning, and 
 Jesus is at its end. 
 
 S. PETER'S DENIAL 
 
 That act of venture of which we thought this morning was 
 typical of the man. In his love of the Master he flings him- 
 self into the water, and then he flounders, flounders terror- 
 stricken, only to be rescued by the Master's hand. 
 
 This afternoon we are to see the climax which such a character 
 can reach. Others have fled, but Peter plunges into the thick 
 of the dangers of Caiaphas' courtyard. But there, no sooner 
 has he plunged, than again he flounders ; ah ! flounders help- 
 lessly, only to be rescued by the Master Himself. When the 
 poor bound arms could no longer be stretched out to help, the 
 eye of Jesus was enough. Jesus looked on Peter, and Peter wept 
 bitterly. Ah, there was the rescue ! It is not the same story 
 over again, yet intensified in each point ? The plunge dehber- 
 ately taken, followed by the faithlessness, and then, by the grace 
 of our Lord, the Recovery. 
 
 My brethren, I suppose that we all have reckoned with our- 
 selves why it was that Peter fell, Peter so strong in his profession 
 of faith, so enthusiastic in love. It was, was it not, that in 
 S. Peter one thing was lacking — a knowledge of himself. He did 
 not know his limitations, he thought he was strong where he was 
 very weak. 
 
 Oh, how important is this old maxim, " Know thyself " ; and 
 this not merely that we may become penitents as we look back 
 on past sins, but that we may know where we need to safeguard 
 the future. Retrospection is only one half of the work of self- 
 examination ; the other, and perhaps the more important part, 
 is when we use that which is behind to make us wary for that 
 which may be in front. 
 
 And knowledge of self means that I know by experience what 
 is dangerous to myself and what / have to avoid. Whatever 
 others can do in a particular matter, I know that I with my 
 character cannot attempt it safely. 
 
 Now S. Peter knew that his companion S. John was inside 
 the door, and if S. John could be inside the door, why could not 
 
 296 
 
he ? It is a fatal counsel to give oneself. It is a counsel which 
 has probably presented itself to all of us in one form or another. 
 Others can go to theatres, so I can go too. Others can read 
 these books, so I can read them too. Or others can exhibit an 
 affection towards the boys or girls under their charge, surely I 
 can do the same. If S. John can do this, S. Peter can surely do 
 it too ? Ah, no ! that does not necessarily follow. My brethren, 
 it is just a matter of knowing oneself, knowing one's own moral 
 limitations, and at all costs abiding by them. S. Peter should 
 never have passed through that door. 
 
 Now let us look at a second apparent cause of S. Peter's 
 collapse. Having passed into the courtyard, he allowed himself 
 to sink to the level of his surroundings : he sat among the ser- 
 vants, perhaps rough soldiers. At least, when inside the yard 
 he must have realised that there was evil, and consequently 
 danger to himself ; oh, if only, even after that first lie spoken to 
 the girl at the gate, he had kept himself aloof, he might even 
 then have pulled himself together and recoUected what he was, 
 the chosen of the Lord, one who had been picked out to live very, 
 very near to Jesus, and had been taught to look at things as 
 Jesus looked at them. But instead of so doing, he sits with the 
 servants, and the next moment he is cursing and swearing like 
 any one of them, choosing to be on a level with his surroundings ; 
 and his fall is complete. 
 
 My brethren, I hope I am not pressing the point too far 
 when I find in this a warning for myself. But there is a real 
 and a frequent danger to our high vocation by almost uncon- 
 sciously living, not in word, but in our attitude of mind, on a 
 level with the thought of the natives around us. Take as a chief 
 example our attitude of thought towards sin. Are you not con- 
 scious again and again of regarding sin, the gross sins which you 
 hear in native trials, with very little more real horror than that 
 with which the natives themselves regard it ; and we priests, 
 are we not miserably content if the matter is satisfactorily settled 
 at the court ? If a theft is proved, are we not tempted to feel 
 such satisfaction that the criminal is caught, that there is very 
 little room for real and exceeding distress at the sin itself ? We 
 who have been chosen to live very near to Jesus in daily com- 
 munion with Him, let us try to think the thoughts of Jesus, try 
 to look at things as Jesus looks at them ; let us never sink to the 
 level of thought which we find around. S. Peter ran a terrible 
 risk to himself, and he rued it too, when he sat himself down 
 alongside of the servants. Here then are two causes of S.Peter's 
 
 297 
 
fall. First, he did not know his own limitations, and, secondly ^ 
 he did not try to keep himself above the level of his surroundings. 
 And to these two causes I would add a third, something 
 indeed which seems so small a thing to be reckoned a cause of 
 such a fall ; such a harmless little thing, how could it result in so 
 great a moral disaster ? And yet three Evangelists give it 
 a prominent place in the story of his fall. What is this third 
 cause ? It is just that which brought S. Peter among the ser- 
 vants. It is the bit of fire at which he warmed himself. Three 
 Evangelists call attention to the fire, and all call attention to the 
 fact that S. Peter is warming himself at it ; making himself 
 comfortable, indulging in just a little bit of luxury, when the 
 utter moral collapse occurred. Again I say, oh, if only S. Peter 
 had eschewed that bit of fire, if only he had denied himself that 
 seemingly innocent little pleasure, if only he had been content 
 to put up with some hardness on the day when his Master was 
 being crucified, he would have escaped the laughing jest which 
 drove him to final denial. Experience tells us how easily S. 
 Peter would have argued with himself. " What harm can a little 
 fire do me ? I can watch ' the end ' all the better if I am warm 
 and comfortable." But we know how it turned out. Denying 
 himself nothing, he came to deny his Lord. My brethren, I have 
 no intention of dogmatising on the subject of self-denial and 
 bodily discipline. I would only say two things : on the one 
 hand, if I am right in supposing that, though the air was cold, 
 the fire was not a necessity but a pleasant little luxury (as lads 
 will light a fire here at nights), then you will see I am in no way 
 suggesting that S. Peter should have done anything rash which 
 might have hurt his health ; on the other hand, his story does 
 emphatically warn us against pooh-poohing all little acts of 
 hardness and self-denial as silly, useless nonsense. 
 
 And yet once again, there is one other cause which I venture 
 to think may have sadly contributed to S. Peter's fall. He had 
 no one to support him in his trial. And yet, so far as we can 
 say, he might have had, for S. John was somewhere near. If 
 S. John had only stood by him, S. Peter, as it seems to me, 
 couldn't have lied, couldn't have cursed and sworn, would never 
 have sought the company of those rough fellows in the court. 
 Oh, why did S. John go and leave him ? Yes, I know that 
 S. John was probably standing very near to Jesus when S. Peter 
 was floundering ; but does it not seem to us that that was one of 
 those occasions when it might have been right, as we say, t6 
 leave Jesus for Jesus, to leave prayer when a brother or sister in 
 
 298 
 
trouble needs us. Our Lord will understand ; we need not 
 bounce out of His presence all in a fluster, and in annoyance at 
 being disturbed ; we have only to tell our Lord that Peter is in 
 great trouble and needs us, and Jesus will understand, and the 
 atmosphere, the calm and strength of Jesus will go with us. I 
 know, my brethren, that we have not a hint of this in the Gospel ; 
 it may seem mere conjecture, but somehow it does seem wrong 
 for Peter to have been left by himself whep his great friend, who 
 must have known S. Peter's weakness, might have stood by him. 
 
 However this may have been, at least what a responsibility is 
 ours to stand by these brethren of ours in Africa, those who are 
 so quick to fall. What a responsibility is ours not to lose touch 
 with anyone whom we know to be passing through a time of 
 trial ; what a responsibility is ours to do all we can to strengthen 
 those who are away from home. How careful we must be to 
 answer the letters of those who write to us from South Africa ; 
 how careful that our teachers feel our touch of sympathy. There 
 must be no native attached to our Mission who can feel that he 
 stands alone in trial ; each man and boy, each woman and girl 
 must feel that there is someone ready to help, strong to sym- 
 pathise. Yes, if only Peter could have had John ! S. Peter fell, 
 partly at least, because he was friendless, alone. 
 
 And yet, the very fact that S. Peter was alone in his^reat 
 temptation does remind us that each one is ultimately responsible 
 for his own collapse or his own victory. It does give a dignity 
 to the conflict, it does give a tremendous sense of responsibility, 
 this knowledge that no one can decide for me the issue of the 
 conflict. If I fall, I am responsible for the fall ; if I do not fall, 
 it is I who, by using God's grace, have won for myself the victory. 
 If S. Peter had remained firm, it would have been on S. Peter 
 alone that our Lord would have turned with a look of " well 
 done " ; just as it was on S. Peter, and S. Peter alone, that oiu: 
 Lord looked in intense sorrow. But, my brethren, as S. Peter 
 went out and wept bitterly, surely the sorrow in our Lord's 
 heart must already have turned into joy. They were tears of 
 penitence, and therefore of recovery. If it was the outstretched 
 hand of Jesus that saved Peter from the waves, it was the eye of 
 Jesus that saved him now. Yes, we are no longer thinking of the 
 causes of the fall ; we are reckoning now with the wonderful 
 blessed recovery. And here again, my brethren, I venture to 
 say that, as in the story of the Galilean lake Jesus was seen at 
 the beginning of the venture as well as at the end, so now we 
 trace the recovery from the fall, not only to the Eye of Jesus 
 
 299 
 
drawing him back from the depth, but to that most full and 
 blessed Communion which S. Peter had with our Lord only a few 
 hours before he took the plunge. Yes, Peter had made his First 
 Communion, and though his fall was terrible beyond words, the 
 power of that First Communion prevails. Let us dwell on this, 
 my brethren. Never has priest had such an awful crushing dis- 
 appointment among those to whom he has administered their 
 First Communion, as Jesus must have felt when His Body, the 
 apostles, a few hours after their communion, all forsook Him and 
 fled, those apostles who had made all the protestations that we 
 may expect from candidates for First Communion, — " Though 
 I should die with Him, yet will I not deny Him." Yes, what- 
 ever disappointments come to us from the failure of our com- 
 municants, we shall never meet the failure like that of those first 
 communicants, all failing, and all within a very few hours of 
 their leaving that Holy Table in the upper room. All failed, yes, 
 not only Judas — if we follow the Prayer Book in supposing that 
 Judas did communicate — but Peter and all the rest ; together 
 with Judas in failure, but separated from Judas in the matter of 
 recovery. And why ? This is the next point. Why did 
 S. Peter recover, and why did not Judas ? Surely because 
 S. Peter, however badly he failed after communion, had made 
 that commimion with a good intention, and Judas had not. 
 When Judas failed, there was nothing in him to counteract the 
 failure, nothing to turn the remorse into penitence ; but in 
 S. Peter there was the virtue of the Sacrament within him and 
 only waiting its opportunity to reassert itself ; and it found its 
 opportunity in the external circumstance of the Look of Jesus. 
 If there had been no virtue of the Sacrament within, the Look of 
 Jesus, the external look, might have driven Peter only into 
 remorse ; the inner virtue, Jesus Himself, prevented remorse, 
 and wrought a blessed penitence. My brethren, let me repeat 
 it, " The virtue of the Sacrament within awaiting its opportunity 
 to reassert itself." That is a great consolation for us who are 
 conscious of so much failure after communion. My brethren, if 
 the communion has been made with a good and honest intention, 
 we know that the virtue of that communion, the virtue of Jesus 
 Himself, has entered into us ; and in spite of our failures, in 
 spite of being upset, and in spite of the fit of temper in which I 
 could have, not indeed cut off, but at least have boxed young 
 Malchus's ear, in spite of being surprised into saying a lie, in 
 spite of giving way to that old bad habit which I thought I had 
 conquered — as I expect the cursing and swearing were a lapse 
 
 300 
 
into the habit of his fishermen's Ufe — ah, in spite of that act of 
 cowardice, when I ought to have shown myself on the side of 
 right but was kept back through fear of pubUc opinion, in spite 
 of all that may happen, and alas does happen to us when we 
 have, it may be, made our communion only a few hours ago, 
 my brethren, I say we may keep a good heart if only our com- 
 munion was made with the humility of Peter, " Dost Thou wash 
 my feet ? " with the devotion of Peter, " Lord, not my feet onty, 
 but also my hands and head." Ah, the virtue of such a com- 
 munion could not be lost. It was always within, it was refound, 
 it manifested itself when Peter went out and wept bitterly. 
 
 THE GREAT COMMISSION 
 
 When S. Peter went out and wept bitterly, we knew that 
 those tears meant a rescue, a blessed recovery. This evening 
 we will see how the recovery was publicly acknowledged by 
 our Lord. We have read to-night the reinstating of S. Peter 
 before the eyes of his companions ; a reinstating which takes 
 the form of a public commission to be shepherd of Christ's lambs 
 and sheep. 
 
 It is a commission to do pastoral work ; and therefore it must 
 have a special message for us in these days, when, by force of 
 financial circumstances, if for no other reason, our efforts are to 
 be concentrated less on those ventures which belong to pioneer 
 work than on the feeding and the tending of those who are 
 already within Christ's fold. 
 
 I said " if for no other reason," but surely there is another 
 reason ; for even though we had money and men for extension, 
 yet the very fact of the growing age of the Church in this diocese 
 makes the call to pastoral work each year more persistent ; 
 pastoral work both among the lambs and the sheep. Yes ; let 
 us follow the order given by our Lord. He first commits to us 
 His Lambs. What have not the last ten years wrought in the 
 lambs' fold in the Church in this land ! What an enormous, 
 almost alarming, almost overwhelming increase in the number 
 of the inf antly baptised ! This year, for the first time as far as 
 I know, there was a Confirmation exclusviely for those baptised 
 in infancy. But if that only goes to prove that even to-day 
 those inf antly baptised and now confirmed are not very numer- 
 ous, you who know the stations where work has been estabhshed 
 for many years, will agree that the number of Christian boys and 
 girls of six or eight years is enormous. That is most blessed. 
 
 301 
 
Ah, we may thank God for that ; and yet, even as we thank 
 Him, often we need to realise how very, very Httle idea there is 
 among the responsible Christian relations, parents, god-parents, 
 and native teachers, of the necessity even of teaching these little 
 ones their prayers. I can never forget how one native teacher 
 in a peculiarly high position, had not taught his son the Lord's 
 Prayer, though the lad was of an age to have known half the 
 Catechism. 
 
 One of my own teachers was obviously surprised when I told 
 him that if he ever had to choose between a class of infantly 
 baptised children and the usual Hearers' class, I thought that 
 the former was the more important of the two. It is not that 
 parents, or god-parents, or teachers intend to be slack in the 
 matter ; but the idea is new to them, because the phenomenon 
 of Christian children growing out of childhood is new to them. 
 Then, my brethren, upon us, to whom neither the idea nor 
 phenomenon is new, there does rest a tremendous responsibility 
 to keep close to our Lord's first commission, " Feed my lambs." 
 If we do not, what sort of a Christianity will it be here when 
 these children, who are allowed to do as they please to-day, 
 become the " go-as-I-please " lads and lasses of our villages ? 
 For these, surely, now is the day of salvation. Let us remember 
 one practical truth — that children, to be kept up to this mark, 
 need to be looked up in their homes when they have been absent. 
 The weekly looking-up of absentees is a regular part of any good 
 Sunday-school system in England. If I may venture to say 
 what we try to do at S. Michael's College for the infantly baptised 
 village children on Sundays ; the teacher brings me the register 
 during the week ; we pass over one week's absence without 
 comment ; but if a child has been absent for two Sundays, I 
 write a notice to the parents, " Your child has been absent for 
 two Sundays," and it is a regular part of the teacher's weekly 
 work to see those parents in their homes and deUver them the 
 notice. That is only possible where a priest is resident ; but in 
 any case, might not the inspection of an infant Christian's 
 register be as much a matter of course for the perambulating 
 priest as the inspection of the other registers ; even more — may 
 not these little ones be called to him on his monthly visit as 
 regularly as the classes for adults ? 
 
 And that brings us to the sheep. These, too, have to be fed ; 
 and, my brethren, do not let us teachers presume to think we 
 can feed our flock, whether of school children or of adults, with- 
 out taking trouble about the preparation of the food. Our 
 
 302 
 
teaching is to be simple in its elements as the flour and water of 
 the native daily meal ; but simple as that food is, the woman of 
 the house prepares it with much care ; she dare not serve it up 
 anyhow. Of course she may be called upon to cook all in a 
 moment, and then she will do her best and trust to luck. We 
 may have to preach at a moment's notice ; we will do it, and 
 trust to the Holy Spirit. But ordinarily we must not trust only 
 to God ; still less must we trust to our natural glibness of tongue. 
 If our teaching is to be simple, it is a truism to say that simplicity 
 is attained in proportion to the trouble we have taken in the 
 preparation. And, my brother Clergy, natives of Africa — you 
 who have that wonderful African gift of fluency of speech at 
 which we Europeans marvel — you know how that gift may 
 become a great snare to you, as certainly it is to many of the 
 native teachers. It becomes a snare to you if you trust to 
 natural ease of speech instead of to careful previous preparation. 
 
 My brethren, we have so far reminded ourselves of a few 
 matters concerning the nature of pastoral work ; now let us 
 consider what is to be the basis of our work — what is it which 
 will produce the best pastoral work in us ? First, it is the 
 remembrance that these lambs and sheep are not really ours but 
 our Lord's. The commission to S. Peter is, " Feed My lambs," 
 not feed your lambs ; " Tend My sheep," not tend your sheep. 
 We are to keep ouselves in the background and Jesus in the 
 front. We may say to the lad, " my son," we may speak of 
 " my people," but they are in truth the people of Jesus. Nothing 
 upsets our inner peace like jealousy, nothing spoils our work like 
 jealousy, and the only way to keep free from jealousy is to 
 remember that the child is neither mine nor hers ; the congrega- 
 tion neither mine nor his ; the child belongs to Jesus, the people 
 are the people of Jesus ; and if only the child and the people can 
 be brought to Jesus, it matters nothing whether they are brought 
 by me or by someone else. If we bear this in mind, we have found 
 a principal safeguard against petty jealousy amongst ourselves ; 
 and if we are to keep self in the background of our own thoughts, 
 and Jesus and His flock in the front of our own thoughts, 
 how careful we must be that it is Jesus and not my poor self 
 that is in the forefront also of the people's thoughts ; how fearful 
 we must be lest their thoughts should stop short at us and at 
 our wishes, and fail to reach the point of saying, " Jesus, Whose 
 I am and Whom I serve." 
 
 Some of you may have lately read an article in East and 
 West by the Bishop of Lebombo, on " Discipline on a Mission 
 
 303 
 
Station." Perhaps we do not agree with all that is there written ; 
 but at least the Bishop does point out a real danger of too many 
 Mission rules, and he does plead very effectually for the need to 
 throw our people's conscience back again and again on Jesus. 
 Don't let us think that all is well merely because the external 
 discipline is good. Of course we make our rules because we 
 want our people to be people of Christ ; but we need to test our 
 rules by asking how far does the thought of Christ, and a desire 
 to please their Saviour, enter into the people's observance of the 
 rule. But we have not yet reached the basis of good pastoral 
 work. Yes, to be affective, we must work in the knowledge that 
 the flock is the flock of Jesus ; we must love the flock as being 
 the flock of Jesus. But the true basis lies deeper ; it is found, 
 not in the words of the commission, " Feed My sheep, tend My 
 flock," but in the question which precedes it ; it rests not on my 
 love of the flock, but on my love for Jesus Himself. " Simon, 
 son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? " Before our Lord will give 
 S. Peter the pastoral commission. He must know whether the 
 love of S. Peter towards Himself is sufficient for the fulfilment of 
 the work. 
 
 My brethren, it is an awe-inspiring thought that I can only 
 be an effective worker among the lambs and sheep in so far as I 
 love the Lord Himself. We are so tremendously conscious of 
 this poorness of love that we instantly begin to fear poorness in 
 our work. Yes, we do well to fear ; but at least the colloquy 
 between S. Peter and our Lord on the subject of his personal love 
 is very comforting and very encouraging. Look at it close. 
 Our Lord first makes an exceedingly large demand on S. Peter — 
 " Simon, lovest thou Me more than these ? Dost thou love Me 
 beyond these others ; dost thou love Me more than thou lovest 
 John, and James, and the rest of thy companions ? " And 
 S. Peter dare not give the full reply ; he dare not say, Yea, 
 Lord, beyond all these. His answer stops short : " Yea, Lord, 
 Thouknowest that I love Thee." His answer is short of Jesus' 
 demand ; and yet our Lord accepts the answer, and is content 
 to frame His next question on that reply. " Simon, son of Jonas, 
 lovest thou Me ? " But even so, the Love of which Jesus speaks 
 is of a higher, nobler, more spiritual kind than any to which 
 S. Peter can lay claim, S. Peter answers again, but using again 
 the simpler, more everyday word that means the natural affection 
 which one man may have for another. He dare not profess the 
 higher spiritual love which Jesus demands. Again, then, the 
 answer^of the man comes short of the Christ's demand, but again 
 
 304 
 
there is infinite condescension of the blessed Lord ; the Christ 
 again condescends to accept this lower love of His disciple, and 
 in His third question he takes upS. Peter's own word for love, 
 and S. Peter is able to answer, " Lord, Thou knowest that I love 
 Thee." Poor and unworthy as the love is, utterly falling short 
 of Thy first demand, yet such as it is with it I love Thee. 
 
 And, my brethren, for ourselves, conscious as we may be that 
 even this profession of love is more than we can truthfully use, 
 at any rate always, though at times, perhaps very often, there 
 may seem to be no affectionate regard of .my soul for Jesus ; 
 though we dare not even say, " Lord, Thou knowest that I love 
 Thee,'* yet He who condescended in mercy to lower His bwn 
 first demand till it reached the level of S. Peter's capacity, will 
 be ready, may we not hope it, to condescend still further for our 
 sakes. My brethren, if we cannot yet say, " Thou knowest that 
 I love Thee," we can, each of us, truthfully say, " Lord, Thou 
 knowest that I want to love Thee." And if this be our honest 
 profession, we believe that Jesus will accept us — not for what 
 we are, but for that which we want to be. 
 
 305 
 

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LAKE NYASA 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abdallah, Rev. Yohana, 75, 168- 
 
 169 
 Ambali, Rev. Augustine, 61, 75, 
 
 143, 153, 168 
 Ants, 85, 115, 203 
 Armstrong, Miss, 45, 159, 172, 251 
 Atlay, Rev. G. W., 8 
 Austen, Rev. A. S. C, 252 
 Ayers, Mr. E., 240, 272, 274, 279 
 
 Baines, Rev. P., 36 
 
 Bandawe, 164, 174 
 
 Baptism, classes for, 47, 136, 139, 
 
 268 ; infants', 48, 133-135 ; 
 
 adults', 65-66, 104-105, 139-141, 
 
 162, 238; candidates for, no, 
 
 121, 138, 241-242 
 Beckett, Father, 182, 183 
 Bell, Rev. Canon G. C, 10 
 Bishop, Rev. W., 36, 39 
 Blantyre, 41, 125-126, 187-189 
 Bloemfontein, 181, 182-184 
 Bradley, Dr., Dean of Westminster, 
 
 8 
 Brimecombe, Mr. Alfred, 72 
 Brixham trawlers, 70 
 Browne, Dr. Oswald, 39, 178 
 Bulley, Miss, in, 160, 171 ; letters 
 
 from, 275, 276, 280 
 
 Cape, The, 176 
 
 Catechumens, dealing with, and 
 Christians, 80-81, 173 ; work of, 
 83 ; little, 103, 105 ; training of, 
 162, 213 ; preaching to, 201 
 Cathedral, see Zanzibar and Likoma 
 Central Africa magazine, 40 
 Champneys, Mr. A. C, letter from, 
 7 ; letter to, 204, 
 
 Charlie, 134, 153 
 
 Charles Janson. the, mission stea- 
 mer, 53, 85 ; bringing the 
 Bishop, 68-69 ; bringing friends, 
 90-91 ; travelling by, 126, 128, 
 145; stowaway on, 165; sea- going 
 powers of, 166 ; playing truant, 
 174, flag at half-mast, 277 
 
 Chauncy Maples, the mission 
 steamer, 53, 62 ; dedication of, 
 64 ; travelling by, 65, 67, 70, 176, 
 218-219 J bringing the Bishop, 
 72 ; as a hospital, 74 ; bringing 
 friends, 90-91 ; the work of, 147 ; 
 repair of, 212, 216 
 
 Che Mapunda, native chief, 190, 
 191 
 
 Chiganga, 97, 98, 114 
 
 Chigwe, native chief, 93 
 
 Chinde, 41, 113, 176, 186-187 
 
 Chinyanja language, study of, 34, 
 44» 59. 79 '' services and hymns 
 in, 42, 99-101, 106-107, 144' 208, 
 266 ; first sermon in, 56, 131 
 
 Chipyela, 131 ; girls' school at, 136 
 
 Chiromo, 125, 126 
 
 Chizi, 165 
 
 Chizumulu, under priest-in-charge 
 of Likoma, 129, 146, i6i ; 
 heathen customs of, 133 ; village 
 fight at, 172-173 ; Easter at, 136 
 
 Clarke, Rev. J. P., 168. 196, 245 
 
 Cogan, Miss, letters from, 276, 277, 
 280 
 
 Compton, Lord Alwyne, Bishop of 
 Ely, 14 
 
 Conference, 108, 150, 151, 169, 278 
 
 Cox, Rev. H. A. M., 279 ; letter 
 from, 281 
 
 308 
 
Crabb, Mr. A., 91. 153, 261-262 
 Crocodiles, 41, 77, 167, 198-199 
 
 Dances, village, 80, 82, 84, 97, 
 
 102-103 
 Davies, Rev. C, 75 
 Davies, native gardener, 217, 225 
 De la Pryme, Rev. A. G., 58, 59, 62, 
 
 67, 168, 239 
 Donkey, 114, 127, 197, 260, 262 
 Douglas, Arthur Jeffreys, birth and 
 childhood, 1-6 ; Confirmation, 7 ; 
 Marlborough, 7-10 ; Oxford, 10- 
 13 ; " Exhibition " at, 10 ; Ely, 
 13-15 ; ordination, 16 ; curacy 
 at Salisbury, 16-19 ; Rector of 
 Salwarpe, 20-27 > Assistant Dio- 
 cesan Inspector, 21 ; interest in 
 foreign missions, 28 ; volunteers 
 for U.M.C.A., 29-31 ; letter to 
 child-nieces, 33 ; voyage to 
 Zanzibar, 34, 35 ; description of 
 Zanzibar, 36-39 ; voyage up the 
 Zambesi, 40-42 ; reaches Lake 
 Nyasa, 43 ; first visit to Kota 
 Kota, 56 ; reaches Likoma, first 
 Chinyanja sermon, 56 ; Lake- 
 side visiting, 56-59, 65-67 ; Holy 
 Week at S. Michael's College, 62 ; 
 Good Friday at Mataka's, and 
 Easter at Likoma, 63-64 ; priest- 
 in-charge of Kota Kota, 69-121 ; 
 meeting with Bishop Trower, 68 ; 
 priest on the Chauncy Maples, 
 69; first furlough, 119; finger 
 amputated, 119 ; sails for Nyasa 
 the second time, 123 ; visits 
 Kota Kota, 128-129 ; priest-in- 
 charge at Likoma, 128-177 ; 
 examining chaplain, 137, 209, 
 210 ; describes native lawsuits, 
 147-149 ; preaches at dedication 
 of the Cathedral, 150-151 ; visits 
 S. Michael's College, 172 ; in- 
 valided home, 174-177 ; antici- 
 pates visiting a brother at the 
 Cape, 176 ; recruits in the New 
 Forest, 177-178 ; returns to 
 Africa, 181 ; journeys across S, 
 Africa, 181-185 ; voyage on the 
 Shir6, 185-186 ; Blantyre, 188- 
 189 ; arrives at Lake Nyasa, 
 190 ; visits Mtonya, 191- 192 ; 
 re-visits Kota Kota and Likoma, 
 193 ; examines candidates for 
 Holy Orders, 194 ; Christmas at 
 Kota Kota, 199-201 ; Principal 
 of S. Michael's Training College, 
 202-272 ; examines candidates 
 
 for the College, 218-219, 221, 
 243 ; visits German territory 
 N.E. of Lake, 218 ; hohday at 
 Likoma, 221 ; visits Unangu and 
 Mtonya stations, 227-234 ; visits 
 a College out-station, 210-212 ; 
 keeps Coronation Day at Kota 
 Kota, 257-258 ; anticipates fur- 
 lough, 258-259 ; helps to choose 
 site for new College, 259-262 ; 
 anticipates Conference and Re- 
 treat at Likoma, holding the 
 Quiet Day, and the laying of 
 foundation stone of the College, 
 261-262 ; anniversary of his 
 birthday, 263 ; death, 272-274 ; 
 funeral, 277-279 
 
 Douglas, Archibald, 19, 20, 30, 254 
 
 Douglas, Edward, 76 
 
 Douglas, Elspeth, S.C.S.P., 30 
 
 Douglas, Frances, 12, 252-254 
 
 Douglas, Rev. Gerald W., 3, 14, 15, 
 17, 29, 121, 272 
 
 Douglas, Gladys, Rita, Kathleen, 
 letter to, 33 
 
 Douglas, Lieut. Henry H., 30, 39, 
 III 
 
 Douglas, Father James, 182-183 
 
 Douglas, Molly, 19 
 
 Douglas, Mrs., i, 2, 6, 7, 19, 20, 29 
 
 Douglas, Rev. Robert Gresley, 17, 
 152, 176, 183 
 
 Douglas, Rev. Canon W. W., i, 19, 
 24, 28 
 
 Drake, Father, 182-183 
 
 Durban, 176 
 
 Elders, 132, 134 142 
 
 Ely, 17, 28, 29, 114, 122, 153 ; 
 
 Theological College, 13-15 
 Eyre, Archdeacon, 90-92, 114, 168, 
 
 190-191, 195-196, 224, 244, 258 ; 
 
 letter from, 119 
 
 Page, Miss, 200 
 Farrar, Archdeacon, 8 
 Fasting, 46, 103 
 
 Fisher, Bishop, 45, 241, 253, 255, 
 256, 259-261, 263-265, 271-273, 
 
 274, 275, 277, 281 ; letters from, 
 
 275, 279, 282 
 
 Folliott, Rev. F. W., 29, 51-52, 56 ; 
 
 memorial to, 86 
 Fort Jameson, 113, 116 
 Fort Johnston, 114, 142, 153, 176, 
 
 194, 196 
 Fort Salisbury, 136, 146, 197-198 
 
 309 
 
Gardens, 130, 153, 171, 200, 208- 
 
 209, 217-218, 225-226, 236-237 
 
 240, 256, 263 
 George, Mr. F., 142, 153, 202, 216- 
 
 217, 239 ; letter to, 45 ; architect, 
 
 49. 51-53. 131. 143. 171. 223, 
 Glossop, Archdeacon, 45, 54, 142- 
 
 143, 150-151, 194-195. 209, 262- 
 
 263, 265, 273, 275, 278 
 Good Friday observance, 63-64, 
 
 136 
 Gore, Bishop, 14 
 Gwazas, 41 
 
 Halley's Comet, 240-241, 249-250 
 
 Hallson, Mr. Tom, 185, 190-192, 
 235 256, 263, 279 
 
 Hearers, 55, 71, 83, 106-107, 120, 
 162 
 
 Hilde, Father, 182 
 
 Hine, Bishop, 239 ; letter from, 
 277-278 
 
 Hospital, 71, 84, 176, 193 ; ship, 
 123 
 
 Howard, Dr. Robert, 36, 38, 43, 71, 
 194-195, 219, 223, 262 ; superin- 
 tending building of Kota Kota 
 hospital, 84 ; medical adviser, 
 174-177 
 
 Howard, Mrs., letter from, 281 
 
 Intercession, practice and value 
 of prayer and, 45, 59, 1 20-121, 
 194, 199, 207, 229-230, 238-239, 
 252, 258, 262-263, 266-269, 278, 
 280. 283-284 
 
 Jameson, Miss, 51, 55, 71 
 Jenkin, Rev. A. M., 189 
 Jiggers, 105 
 
 Johannesburg, 183, 184, 242 
 Johnson, Archdeacon, 47, 69, 91, 
 
 168. 190, 193. 217, 239, 244-245 ; 
 
 illness of, 74 ; experience of, 
 
 219-220 ; furlough of, 248 ; 
 
 return of 263 
 
 Kamungu, Rev. Leonard, 106, 150 
 Kangati, Rev. Leonard, 169 
 Kango, 192 
 Kasamba, church at, 71, 76, 86, 
 
 115 ; troubles at, 80, 8i, 84, 97, 
 
 101-103 ; work at, 93, 104, 108- 
 
 109 
 Katunga's, 41 
 Ker, Rev. C. W.. 188, 246, 279 ; 
 
 letter from. 281 
 Kiuugani, 38 
 
 Kondowe, 162 
 
 Kota Kota, 43, 49-56, 59 ; arrival 
 at, 68 ; priest-in-charge at, 69- 
 121 ; church at, 49, 52, 64, 91- 
 92 ; difficulties at, 54, 94 ; 
 mission buildings at, 55 ; con- 
 firmation at, 72 ; dedication of 
 hospitals at, 84 ; Christmas at, 
 91, 92, 200-201 ; visits, 128- 
 129, 193, 196-202 ; wedding at, 
 199-200 ; sports at, 200-201 ; 
 Coronation Day at, 257-258 
 
 Kumtuntumala, 117 
 
 Ladbury, Mr. H. E., 36, 43, 50, 75, 
 142 ; letter to, 144 
 
 Ladybrand, 182 
 
 Laws, Dr., 162 
 
 Lebombo Mission, 185, 249 
 
 Leopards, 86-88, 107, 240 
 
 Liddon, Dr., 47 
 
 Likoma, island, " Beautiful," 54 ; 
 priest-in-charge at, 45, 126, 128- 
 177 ; Christmas at, 56, 170 ; 
 Easter at, 64, 161 ; Holy Week 
 at, 135-136 ; Rogationtide at, 
 139, 148 ; ordination at, 209-210 ; 
 Retreat and Conference at. 74, 
 108, 150, 170, 224, 261, 278 ; 
 Cathedral at, no, 129-132, 135, 
 143-146, 149-151. 193-194. 260- 
 261 ; choir at, 131, 136, 144, 167 ; 
 football at, 163 
 
 Lincoln College, 10-13, 28 
 
 Lions, 43, 88, 107, 125 
 
 Liwonde, 189 
 
 Lloyd, Mr. E. W. M., 2-4 
 
 Locusts, 42 
 
 London, Bishop of, 10 
 
 London, H.M.S., 39, in 
 
 Lozi, 78, 79, 99-100 
 
 Lyon, Mr. S., 128, 150 
 
 Lyons, Miss, 50-51 
 
 McDowall, Rev. C. R., letter to, 
 
 227 
 Machila (hammock), traveUing by, 
 
 78-79, 83, loo-ioi, 107, 125, 176, 
 
 189, 191, 197 
 Mackenzie, Bishop, grave of, 42 
 Madan, Mr. A. C, ni 
 Malindi, 50, 59, 126-128, 170, 176, 
 
 179, 191, 233 
 Malinganile, 169 
 Malisawa, Rev. Eustace, 61, 75, 
 
 143, 153, 160 163, 169 
 Manda, 2 10-2 11, 251 
 Mann, Miss, 71, 75, 82-83, 90-91, 
 
 loi, 128, 170 
 
 310 
 
Manning, Sir William, 260 
 
 Manuel, King, 248 
 
 Maples, Bishop, 52 
 
 Marlborough, 7-10 
 
 Marriage question, 73 
 
 Marsh, Rev. R. H., 35, 43. 5^5^. 
 57, 74, 160, 172, 192-194 
 
 Masasi, 28, 43 
 
 Mataka's, 62, 169 
 
 Matthew, Miss, no 
 
 Medd, Miss, 191, 236-237, 244-245, 
 249, 251 ; reminiscences by, 
 282-284 
 
 Minter, Miss, 35-36, 43, 71-72, 74* 
 79, 90-91, 105-106, 108-109, III, 
 113, 116, 144, 212, 219 ; animals 
 and, 87-88 ; reminiscences by, 
 119-121 ; see Howard, Mrs. 
 
 Modderpoort, 182 
 
 Moffatt, Brother, 36, 38 
 
 Mohammedans and Mohammedan- 
 ism, 99, 103, 107, 120 124-125, 
 197 
 
 Molesworth, Miss, 36 43 
 
 Mombasa, 124 
 
 Morrice, Rev. Canon 16 
 
 Mosquitoes, 38, 42, 85, 189, 190 
 
 Mponda's, 43, 49,52,69 114, 116 
 119, 188, 233, 246, 257 
 
 Msumba, 210 
 
 Mtengula, 169 
 
 Mtonya, 190-192, 227-228, 256, 
 
 258 
 Murton, Miss, 185 
 
 Newton, Miss, 71, 75, 82, 185, 200 
 
 Ngofi, 167 
 
 Nkamanga, 142, 162, 174 
 
 Nkata, 150, 152, 165 
 
 Nkwazi, S. Andrew's Theological 
 College, 143, 153, 160, 168, 239 ; 
 village of, 139 
 
 Nyasa, map of, 40 ; boys of, 38, 
 77-84, 88-89, 94-96, 184, 186, 
 197-198 ; as medical students, 
 219 ; girls of, 88-89, 179 ; Lake, 
 43. 47. 56, 194. 217 
 
 Oxford, 10-13 
 
 Palmer, Rev. Canon, 29-31 
 Pamalombe, Lake, 187-188 
 Pan-Anglican Fund, grant from, 
 
 256, 260, 271-272 
 Parsons, Miss, 263 ; letter from, 
 
 281 
 Partridge, Mr.fH., 46, 72, 75, 91, 160 
 
 Peek, Mr. Sydney, 235-237, 240- 
 241, 243-244, 246, 247, 250-252, 
 268-269 
 
 Philipps, Rev. J. G., 46, 75 
 
 Piercy, Rev. W. C, in, 113, 151 
 
 Pollock, Bishop, 9 
 
 Polypode, The, 41 
 
 Port Herald, 187-188 
 
 Port Said, 34-35 
 
 Portuguese territory, 120, 259, 271 ; 
 language, 236-238 ; difficulties 
 with, 248-249, 272-279 ; friendly 
 relations with, 137-138, 194-196 ; 
 taxes, 215, 245 
 
 Prayer, see Intercession 
 
 Randolph, Rev. Canon B. W., 14, 
 
 17, 29, 122, 151, 153 
 Retreat, 108, 150, 170 
 Rhodesia, new diocese, 239 
 Rondebosch, 181 
 Russell, Rev. R. A., 168 
 
 S. Andrew's Theological College, 
 see Nkwazi 
 
 S. Michael's Training College, 57, 
 60, 163, 176, 192, 194 ; visit to, 
 140-141 ; Principal of, 202-272, 
 examining for, 217, 219, 244-245, 
 257, 269 ; catering for, 196, 244; 
 246 ; scheme for removing, 255- 
 262, 271-272 ; students at, 209- 
 210, 216-219, 227-229, 264-265, 
 279 ; time-table, 206-208 ; foot- 
 ball at, 205-206, 220, 241, 264 ; 
 villages, 194, 202, 204, 210-21 1, 
 250, 252, 255, 261, 267 ; laying 
 foundation stone of new, 276 
 
 Salisbury, 16, 18-20 
 
 Salwarpe, i, 4, 19-26, 32-33, 76, 
 106, 151, 263, 280 
 
 Sandwith, Dr., 178 
 
 Sani, 71, 76, 79, 83, 197 
 
 Sargent, Brother, 191 
 
 Schofield, Miss, 126, 127 ; reminis- 
 cences by, 179 
 
 Shannon, Mr. A., 166-167, 210, 214, 
 240 
 
 Sharpe, Sir Alfred, 224 
 
 Shir6, River, 40, 160, 185-187 
 
 Sim, Rev. A. F., 52 
 
 Smith, Miss Nixon, 36, 50, 134, 185 ; 
 reminiscences by, 43-48 
 
 Smith, Rev. E. B. L., 54. 58-60, 
 64-65, 67-69, 157, 161, 162 
 
 Smyth, Bishop, 249 
 
 Snodin, Mr. O., 185, 187, 190, 210 
 
 311 
 
Society of the Sacred Mission, 182 
 
 Soulsby, Miss, 14 
 
 Steere, Bishop, 39 
 
 Stokes, Rev. F. W., 50-51, 53. 55- 
 
 56, 64, 68-71 
 Students, medical, 219 ; see S. 
 
 Michael's College 
 Suez Canal, 34, 35 
 Suter. Rev. W. B., 35, 36, 43, 50, 69 
 Swann, Mr., 54, 92, 112, 155 
 Swinnerton, Mr., 65 
 
 Tawe, Rev. Yohana, 264-265 
 Thackeray, Miss, 40 
 Theological College, see Nkwazi 
 Thompson, Miss, 197, 200, 245, 251 ; 
 
 reminiscences by, 266-270 
 Travers, Rev. Duncan, 252, 272 
 Trower, Bishop, 64, 72, 129, 137, 
 141, 143, 145. 146. 150, 151, 153, 
 154, 172, 174, 209, 210, 212, 230, 
 236 ; arrival at Kota Kota, 68 ; 
 at likoma, 69 
 
 Unangu, 169, 216, 227-228 
 Universities' Mission Jubilee Meet- 
 ing in Cambridge Senate House, 
 
 Utonga, 57, 58 
 
 Victor, Rev. Dennis, 172, 239, 257, 
 264, 279 
 
 Wild beasts, 213-215 
 Willcocks, Mr. L., 143, 151, 243 
 Williams, Mrs., 236-237, 257-258 
 Wilson, Rev. G. H., 143, 153, 165. 
 
 168, 174, 176, 210, 253, 254; 
 
 letter from, 281 
 Winchester, Bishop of, letter from, 
 
 281 
 Winspear, Rev. F., 143, 161, 163, 
 
 167, 168, 172, 212 
 Wordsworth, Bishop, 16 
 Worfield, 151, 238, 262 
 
 Yaos, 150, 191, 205, 209, 216, 221, 
 
 243 
 Young, Mr. Philip, 35, 41. 43. 5o. 
 65, 70, 72, 74, 91, 262 ; letter 
 from, 279 
 
 Zachary, Rev. F. E., 28, 32, 43 
 Zambesi, letter from, 40-43 ; 186, 
 
 Zanzibar, impressions of, 35-39 ; 
 hospital, 37 ; town, 37 ; Cathe- 
 dral, 38, 39. 129, 131 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed in Great Britain h Butler & Tanner, From: & lonirt 
 

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