INDIA AND MALAYSIA. BY BISHOP J. M. THOBURN, THIRTY-THREE YEARS A MISSIONARY IN INDIA, CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & CURTS. NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON. 1893. Copyright By CRANSTON & CURTS, 1892. PREFACE. IN May, 1888, the writer of the following pages was elected to the superintendency of the missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India and Malaysia. He had spent most of his life in India, and had enjoyed better opportuni- ties for seeing all parts of the empire than fall to the lot of most missionaries, and yet a very brief experience in his new sphere of duty impressed him with a sense of the mag- nitude of the field and of its splendid opportunities for suc- cessful missionary work, which seemed to come upon him with all the force of an unexpected discovery. In making frequent tours he found but few workers who seemed to take broad views of the situation, or were alive to the emergency of the hour. With rare exceptions, Christians throughout India seemed to be unaware of the value of their magnificent heritage. They were not indifferent, but very many of them seemed despondent, and only here and there did the hope seem to be cherished that God was preparing the way in India for the greatest triumphs which had ever crowned the efforts of his Son to save the human race. Missionaries, and Christian workers generally, did not seem to understand the situation. They did not, in short, seem to know India. They saw missionary work only in glimpses, and seldom saw or heard of any marked token of victory. Returning to America for a few months in 1890, the writer was at once struck with the inability of even intelligent persons to understand him when he spoke of the vast extent 3 515238 UBSET. 4 PREFACE. of his field. " We do not get a correct view," said one friend, " when you speak of India and Malaysia. "We see it all in one perspective, and only in barest outlines at that." India was universally spoken of as an Asiatic country, like Corea or Japan, but without any appreciation of the fact that it was a vast group of countries, and contained within its borders almost one-fifth of the human race. This surprising want of information would matter less if the Christians of America stood in no particular relation to the people of India; but inasmuch as all the great Protestant Churches have planted missions in India, it is of the highest importance that the character of the empire and its people be intelligently understood. Not a little valuable labor, as well as money, has already been lost by working blindly ; but this need not be repeated. If missionary work is worth do- ing at all, it is worth doing well. Every Christian who supports the work should do so intelligently. Every pastor should be able to tell his people about the great mission- fields of the Church ; while it goes without saying that every one on whom official responsibility rests should acquaint himself with his duties. Mr. Froude related some years ago an authentic story of Lord Palmerston, who was trying to form a new ministry. All had been arranged except the Secretaryship for the Colonies, for which post no suitable man could be found. At last Lord Palmerston said, half in earnest and half in jest : " I think I shall have to take that myself;" and, turning to a secretary, added : " Come over in a day or two, and bring with you a good map of the world, and show me where the Colonies are." It is to be feared that not a few who strive for responsible posts in Boards, General Committees, and Secretariats, have never PREFACE. 5 taken one lesson on a missionary map. " The times of this ignorance " the Church has too long winked at, and it is to be hoped that a better day is at hand. During the visit to America mentioned above, the idea was first suggested of writing a book on India and Malaysia large enough to give the most needful information on so vast a region, and yet concise enough to satisfy the wants of the great mass of readers who have not time to study all manner of details. Accepting the advice of many trusted friends, the task has been undertaken in the hope of bringing India nearer to the mind and heart of American Christians. No attempt has been made to treat any one subject exhaustively, but rather to give a series of sketches of the country, people, resources, religions, and other institutions, and especially of the more practical aspects of the great missionary enterprise as illustrated in India and Malaysia at the present day. It is hardly necessary to remark that the book has been written by a missionary from a missionary stand-point, and for those interested in missions. It is also written in the interest of the Society which the writer represents, though not by any means confined to the missions of that Society. The great work of India's redemption is one that transcends all de- nominational interests and all ecclesiastical boundary-lines. The Church which the writer represents has in this field en- tered upon the most gigantic enterprise which has ever been attempted in Methodist history, and this book is sent forth in the hope of aiding to set before that Church the true character of the stupendous enterprise to which she stands committed before the world. Many works on India have been published during the past quarter-century, including not a few of a missionary 6 PREFACE. character. One of these, Dr. "NV. Butler's " Land of the Vedas," is an able and elaborate work, and treats of the same denominational interests as the present book; but the field has expanded to such vast proportions since Dr. Butler's book was published that, although it still maintains its position as a recognized authority, it no longer fully represents the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India, and of course fails to take in Malaysia. The recent work of Bishop Hurst is exhaustive, and written in full sympathy with the great missionary enterprise, but in the main is a work of more general character, and only treats of missionary interests as one of a long list of subjects which demand attention. The object and scope of the present work are wholly different, and do not bring it into either rivalry or contrast with the works of these two distinguished writers. The present is a critical period in the history of Chris- tian missions throughout the world. The Church of Christ stands upon the threshold of the second century of this great enterprise, and practical Christians in both Europe and America are beginning to ask, in a tone which brooks neither evasion nor denial, What are the results of the past, and what the outlook for the future? questions which demand the most full and frank answers. The following pages have been written with the honest and earnest desire of putting the situation as it now exists in India and Malaysia before the Christian public of America, and thereby contributing, in some small measure at least, to an increase of the faith, zeal, and devotion of the supporters of the missionary enterprise an enterprise which, a century hence, will have been recog- nized as the absorbing movement of the age, the mightiest movement on the globe. J. M. T. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE. INDIA, 13 CHAPTER II. THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, 27 CHAPTER III. THE EMPIRE OF INDIA, 42 CHAPTER IV. INDIA AND ENGLAND, 57 CHAPTER V. THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA, 71 CHAPTER VI. HINDUISM, 83 CHAPTER VII. BUDDHISM, 97 CHAPTER VIII. MOHAMMEDANISM, 112 CHAPTER IX. INDIAN DEVOTEES, 124 CHAPTER X. NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, 141 CHAPTER XL EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA, 153 7 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. PAGE. ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN INDIA, 161 CHAPTER XIII. PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA, 175 CHAPTER XIV. FRANCIS XAVIEK, 190 CHAPTER XV. WILLIAM CABBY, 206 CHAPTER XVI. THE FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSION IN INDIA, 219 CHAPTER XVII. THE TASK IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM, 235 CHAPTER XVIII. THE TASK IN ITS LARGER PROPORTIONS, 249 CHAPTER XIX. THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK, 263 CHAPTER XX. THE SECOND STAGE OP PROGRESS, 279 CHAPTER XXI. CROSSING THE INDIAN RUBICON, 291 CHAPTER XXII. HIDDEN RESOURCES, 303 CHAPTER XXIII. ENGLISH WORK, 316 CHAPTER XXIV. MISSION-SCHOOLS, 329 CONTENTS. 9 CHAPTER XXV. PAGE SUNDAY-SCHOOLS IN INDIA, 341 CHAPTER XXVI. THE WOMEN OF INDIA, 355 CHAPTER XXVII. EDUCATION AMONG WOMEN, 369 CHAPTER XXVIII. MEDICAL WORK FOR WOMEN, 380 CHAPTER XXIX. WOMAN IN THE CHURCH, 389 CHAPTER XXX. THE DEPRESSED CLASSES, 398 CHAPTER XXXI. OPEN DOORS, 412 CHAPTER XXXII. THE PANJAB AND WESTERN ASIA, 425 CHAPTER XXXIII. BENGAL, 434 CHAPTER XXXIV. BURMA, 443 CHAPTER XXXV. CENTRAL AND SOUTH INDIA, % . . . 455 CHAPTER XXXVI. LIFE IN INDIA, 463 CHAPTER XXXVII. INDIAN Music, 473 CHAPTER XXXVIII. MALAYSIA 483 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXIX. PAGE. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, . - 505 CHAPTER XL. THE MALAYSIAN MISSION, 520 CHAPTER XLI. THE LATEST REPORT, 537 CHAPTER XLII. PENDING QUESTIONS, 553 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN INDIA, Frontispiece. A HINDU MELA, OR FAIR, 82 A HINDU DEVOTEE, 127 FRANCIS XAVIER, 190 WILLIAM CAREY, 207 WILLIAM BUTLER, D. D., 224 OUR EARLY MISSIONARIES IN INDIA, 234 THREE INDIAN PRESIDING ELDERS, 262 BISHOP WILLIAM TAYLOR, 296 LUCKNOW CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, 328 Miss LILAVATI SINGH, B. A., 337 MOHAMMEDAN YOUNG WOMEN, 354 Miss ISABELLA TIIOBURN, 356 Miss ELLEN D'ABREU, B. M., 374 MRS. SOPHIA D'ABREU THOMPSON, B. A., 375 Miss CHANDRA MUKIII Boss, M. A., 377 Miss C. A. SWAIN, M. D., 380 LUCKNOW CHRISTIAN SCHOOL-GIRLS, 388 A GUJARATI GROUP, 424 A MARATHA GROUP, 431 A BURMESE WOMAN, 446 A TELUGU FAMILY, 458 A TAMIL GROUP, 460 A MALAY FAMILY, , 491 THE SULTAN OP JOHORE, 509 GROUP OP DYAKS, 531 DYAK WOMEN, 533 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Chapter I. INDIA. IF a line were drawn from the city of Atlanta to the middle of the southern boundary of Oregon, and if along this line a range of lofty mountains were reared up, covered with ever- lasting snow and buttressed with gigantic peaks rising from twenty to twenty-nine thousand feet into the sky, this mount- ain range would represent the vast boundary-wall of North- ern India. If another line were drawn from Atlanta to Lake Erie, and thence a third line to a point in British Columbia, and this again connected with the point first named in South- ern Oregon, and the space thus inclosed, amounting to a million square miles, elevated fifteen thousand feet above the sea-level, it would represent that extraordinary elevation in Central Asia sometimes called the " roof of the world," which has through uncounted centuries helped to shut in both India and China from the rest of the world, and which has contrib- uted in a marked degree to give India, especially, some of those peculiarities of season and climate for which it is noted. If, now, an irregular mass of lower but still lofty mountains be thrown in between Atlanta and the Gulf at one extremity of this line, and the Oregon terminus and the Pacific Ocean at the other extremity, the northeastern, northern, and north- western boundaries will be complete, and it only remains to fill in to the southward a vast peninsula extending to a point nineteen hundred miles south of Oregon, making a large, pear- 14 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. shaped region nearly as large as all the United States lying east of the Rocky Mountains, and containing a million and a half square miles, to present a territory corresponding to his- toric India. This comparison will strikingly exhibit the small area of North America as compared with that of Asia. On the map of Asia, India looks like one of a dozen countries, and does not extend half-way across the continent. On the map of North America, not only would its northern boundary need to be pushed northward, but its outlying mountain spurs would touch two oceans, and a vast region have to be filled in to the south to complete its area. The name India has been applied to this region since a very early day. It would seem that the early Aryans, who entered India through the northwest passes, applied the Sanskrit word Sindhus (ocean) to the great river Indus, which they found probably flowing in the rainy season in a volume which would remind them of the sea. This name, in the lapse of time, was also applied to the people who lived on the upper 'banks of the river, and still lingers in India in the province of Sindh, at the mouth of the river, and in the Sindhi people, who are its chief inhabitants. The Zoroastrian branch of the ancient Aryans, who, at an early period, lived side by side with those who migrated into In- dia, softened the initial sibilant of the word Sindhus into 7i, and have been followed in this change by both the ancient and modern Persians. The Greeks, in turn, further soft- ened the word by dismissing the Persian aspirate altogether, and thus in time the name India has come into use through- out all the "Western world. In more recent times the Per- sians have applied the word Hindustan to that part of India lying north of the Vindhya Mountains, meaning the place or country of the Hindu. Strictly speaking, neither the word Hindustan nor India applies to that part of the em- pire south of the Vindhya Mountains, but in all past ages this distinction has been lost sight of by those at a distance; and since the various nations and tribes of this region have ITS GEOGRAPHY. 15 been welded into one vast empire by the British power, the term India has been applied to the whole region without any attempt to limit its application. AVriters on India frequently divide the country into three sections, the first including the mountains of the Himalaya range ; the second, the plains of Northern India ; and the third, the table-land of Central and Southern India. This division, however, is somewhat arbitrary, and does not con- vey a very clear idea of the actual configuration of the country. Immediately south of the snow-line of the Him- alayas is a belt of lower mountains, with an average width of perhaps one hundred miles, inhabited by various tribes of mountaineers, and furnishing valuable supplies of mountain products to the plains below. The great rivers of Northern India, which are fed by the snows of the Himalayas proper, and the plateau lying to the northward, have brought down an immense alluvial deposit, which is spread over the whole of Northern India and down the valley of the Ganges, making one of the richest and best cultivated plains of the world. At a distance of several hundred miles from the mountains the country begins to rise, and long before it reaches the Vindhya Mountains, a range which crosses India from east to west about the middle of the country, the land has be- come an elevated plateau. Immediately south of this mount- ain range is a rich valley through which the Nerbudda River flows westward, dividing the greater part of the country into two somewhat distinct sections. South of this valley is an- other range of mountains called the Satpuras, which forms the northern boundary of a triangular plateau known as the Deccan, or South Country. This plateau has an average ele- vation of nearly two thousand feet, and is hemmed in on the west by a line of mountains running parallel with the ocean from the northwest to the southeast, A similar but somewhat lower range shuts in the plateau on the eastern side. These two ranges are called respectively the Eastern and Western 16 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Ghats, the former having an average height of about fifteen hundred feet, and the latter of three thousand. The great rivers of India are chiefly those which have their sources in the Himalayas. It is a singular fact that all these streams except the Ganges take their rise, not in India proper, but on the northern side of the Himalayas, in Thibet. The Brahmaputra not only takes its rise to the northward of the mountains, but flows for the greater part of its course at a great elevation along a valley between the Himalayas proper and another snowy range which lies in Thibet to the north. Of all these rivers, the Indus, Ganges, and Brahma- putra take the precedence. The Indus is a very large stream ; but throughout nearly all its lower course, like the Nile, it flows through a desert, and hence it is only on its upper course, near the mountains, or indeed among the mountains, that the tremendous volume of water which it discharges into the sea can be appreciated by a spectator. The Ganges has many tributaries, one of them, indeed the Gogra being larger than the Ganges itself at the point of union, and hence it carries down to the sea an amazing volume of water. The Mississippi, when its banks are full, discharges 1,200,000 cubic feet of water every second ; the Nile, 362,000 ; the Ganges, 1,800,000. The Brahmaputra is unknown to India until it suddenly sweeps around the southeastern base of the Himalaya range, and bursts forth into the Assam Valley in all its strength. It was formerly considered larger than the Ganges, but it has been ascertained that in the rainy season its discharge per second is only a little more than 500,000 cubic feet. This, however, still gives it a prominent place among the great rivers of the world. Only two rivers of any size flow westward into the ocean the Nerbudda, spoken of above, and the Tapti, which flows parallel with it, and at but a short distance from it. Three rivers of considerable size discharge their waters into the Bay of Bengal on the eastern side of India the Godavery, the Kistna, and the Kaveri. The rivers of India are not well adapted to steamer traffic. ITS GEOGRAPHY. 17 The force of their currents, and the treacherous nature of the sands which they all bring down from the mountains, make it difficult for steamers to ply for traffic, as is so common on American rivers. An immense traffic, however, is carried on by native boats, some of them of considerable size, but most of them very small. On the Ganges, boats may be constantly seen, sometimes carried upward by the force of clumsy and often ragged sails, but very often slowly drawn by the boat- men walking on shore and tugging with ropes. The down- ward passage, of course, is made more easily. The immense delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra for the two rivers unite before reaching the sea and have a common delta is intercepted by numberless natural canals and estuaries, on which a constant traffic is carried on. Some little idea of the vast extent and activity of this river-traffic can be formed from the statement that at the city of Patna, on the Ganges, 61,000 boats have been registered as passing up or down in the course of a single year. At Hugli, a town about twenty- five miles above Calcutta, 124,000 boats of all sizes and kinds passed in a single year. The river-borne trade of the city of Calcutta amounts to no less than $100,000,000 a year, and when it is remembered that nearly all of this is carried on clumsy native boats, some idea can be formed, not only of the number of these river craft, but of the vast number of boat- men employed in the service. The rivers of India are noted perhaps beyond those of any other part of the world, unless it be Africa, for the amount of silt which they carry down to the sea. If it be true that the Nile has made Egypt, it is equally true that the Ganges has made Bengal, while every river flowing into the sea has in like manner built up its own delta. The Ganges and Brah- maputra carry down more silt than the Indus, the Brahma- putra taking the lead in this respect. It has been estimated that it would require 240,000 steamers, each of 1,400 tons burden, to carry the amount of deposit which is brought down by the Ganges alone during the four months of the rainy sea- 1 8 INDIA AND M. //../) 'SI. I. son. The mind fails to realize how vast this yearly accumu- lation must be, and yet it is not perceptibly noticed at the mouth of the river. It is true that thousands of acres are thrown up each year, not only in the delta but at many points in the upper course of the stream; but while new land is thus constantly forming, large slices of cultivated land are swept away from time to time, so that the poor native does not notice that the river makes much amends for the loss which it so often inflicts upon him. Nevertheless, the land is stead- ily gaining on the ocean ; and as the silt which is brought down is of the richest possible quality, those who cultivate near the river not only often have their lands fertilized by the deposits left by the floods, but also at times secure new fields thrown up in the course of a few weeks, which furnish fruitful farms for years to come. I have myself seen wheat growing, rich and green, in the month of December, on fields where I had seen the water flowing fifty feet deep six months before. In speaking of the rivers of India, the canals must not be overlooked. The Indian Government has conferred a very great benefit upon a country liable to a precarious rain-fall by constructing a large number of canals, chiefly for irrigating purposes. Those in connection with the Ganges and Jumna Rivers include no less than 1,564 miles of main line, with 6,000 miles of smaller distributing channels. Throughout the whole of India, nearly 30,000,000 acres of land are irrigated by these Government canals. The value of these to the country can be estimated when it is stated that this includes 14.8 per cent of all the cultivated land in India. It may not be gen- erally known that the Californians and other residents of the Pacific Coast have given special attention to the system of irrigation adopted in India, and are rapidly pushing forward similar works in those parts of the country west of the Rocky Mountains where the rain-fall is insufficient. It is not generally known to the outside world, especially in America, that India has an excellent system of railway RAILWAYS. 19 communication, which is even more deserving of notice than her canals. A few years before the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, a plan had been formally adopted for building a few great trunk- lines connecting the chief cities of the empire, but the work was necessarily interrupted for a number of years by the Mutiny and the financial stringency which followed it. That great crisis in the history of the empire, however, had the effect of showing how absolutely necessary it was, for mili- tary purposes if for no other reason, to have India thor- oughly provided with an efficient railway system. The work was taken in hand with great vigor about thirty years ago, and has been carried forward with as much speed as could have been expected in view of the peculiar difficulty of such an undertaking in a country like India. The whole num- ber of miles in operation is about 16,000. Other lines have been projected in various directions, and no doubt a vast extension of what are called " feeder lines " will be carried out before many years. These railways have been constructed in three different ways. The first plan adopted was that of offering a Govern- ment guaranty of five per cent on all the capital invested by any company which would undertake the building of a line approved by the Government. Thirty years ago even this liberal offer barely sufficed to bring to India the capital necessary for building the main lines which now connect the great cities of Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, and Delhi. The success, however, of the first attempts at railway building was such as to encourage capitalists in England to make fur- ther ventures, and a number of important lines have since been constructed by private companies without any guaranty whatever. Other lines, again, have been built by the Gov- ernment without any assistance from private parties, and are known as State railways. In like manner, a number of the rulers of native States have constructed similar railways within their own territories. It is worthy of note that the Government, with a far-seeing wisdom which might be irm- 20 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. tatod in more favored lands, when giving a guaranty of five per cent interest on all investments in Indian railways, re- served the right of taking over the entire railway after a certain term of years if it should be found convenient to do so. This right has already been exercised in the case of several leading lines, and thus the Indian Government is now possessed of valuable properties which must, as the years go by, yield a constantly increasing revenue. Amer- ican statesmen might profitably take a leaf out of this chap- ter of Indian history. The American people have been strangely reckless in throwing away valuable franchises of this kind, especially in the great cities. The American rail- way system, if properly controlled, might easily be made to pay all the expenses of the various State Governments, and thus relieve the people of the heavy burden of direct taxa- tion under which they are becoming somewhat restive. In a region so large as India it could not be expected that the climate would be uniform, and yet it presents cer- tain features which may be spoken of as peculiarly Indian. Throughout the whole empire, with the exception of the southern end of the peninsula, the year may be divided into three seasons cold, hot, and dry. The cold season begins in Northern India about the first of October. At Calcutta aod Bombay it is hardly recognized as having begun before November. With the exception of about a week near the close of December, it seldom rains during this season. In all Northern India, from October to March, the weather is delightful, and the'sky, for the most part, cloudless. People can make their arrangements months beforehand, without any fear of having their plans broken up by bad weather. At points as far south as Lucknow or Benares, a white frost sometimes forms in late December or early January, and a very thin coating of ice may sometimes be seen on the water if it is exposed in a shallow vessel and in a damp place. In Calcutta and Bombay frost is never seen. Houses are never built with chimneys, and fire is rarely introduced into any CLIMATE, 21 dwelling. In North India, on the other hand, during the three or four months of the cold season, a fire in the evening is found very comfortable, although many persons do not avail themselves of the luxury. As the cold season advances, a steady, and sometimes strong west wind begins to blow, and the signs of the approaching hot season become unmis- takable. The evenings and nights still continue cool, even as late as March. In Calcutta and Bombay, however, it is usually quite warm before the middle of March. By the month of April the west wind has become a hot wind; with the excep- tion of fruit and forest trees, vegetation has wholly disap- peared; not a blade of grass is to be seen ; every day the hot west wind blows with increasing intensity, and people take refuge from it as they do from cold in more northern climes. The month of May is a trying month, on account of the ex- treme heat especially in North India. It is a common mis- take for persons in America to suppose that the farther north they go in India, the cooler they will find it; and young mis- sionaries very frequently make the mistake of asking for a station in North India, on the ground that they can not very well endure heat, and do not wish to risk their health by ex- posure to the hot winds of Southern India. The rule works in exactly the opposite way. The nearer one is to the equator, the cooler it % seems. At Rangoon it is found to be much hotter than at Singapore, which is only ninety miles from the equator; in Calcutta, again, it is much warmer than in Ran- goon, while as we pass northward the thermometer rises in the hot months until it actually stands, at Delhi and Lahore, in the far north, at a figure that is never reached in Calcutta and Bombay. By the month of June the heat has become intense. About this time, to use the phrase commonly adopted in India, the "monsoon bursts." All over the empire there is intense anxiety to hear of the approach of the rains. About the first of June sometimes a little earlier the telegraph announces that the monsoon has burst on the western coast 22 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. of Ceylon and along the extreme southwestern coast of India. Each day the rains creep northward. In a week or so they have reached Bombay, and by the 20th of June they have usually extended throughout all India. A marked change of temperature follows the advent of the rains. The thermometer will perhaps fall fifteen to twenty degrees at the first down-pour. The whole landscape, which has been utterly desolate for three months, and which at last looks as if it had been sprinkled over with ashes, is clothed in richest green in the course of three or four days. Vegetation of every kind springs into wonderful activity; the birds seem as if filled with new life ; multitudes of frogs come from no one knows where, and revel in every pond and puddle to be seen over the level fields. The people come out of their hamlets with light and happy step, and all nature seems revived. During the next three or four months India is a beautiful country, clothed everywhere in richest green, and filled with every form of active and joyous life. It does not rain constantly, but one or more showers may be expected every day. The evenings and mornings are delightful, and in no land do the clouds present a grander spectacle than when banked up along the western sky at sunset, with great billowy edges upturned toward the setting sun, and glowing in the rich light with which the evening sun bathes a tropical landscape. Not every one, however, enjoys this season. The air, if cooler, is more sultry, and the houses become damp, and to some people uncomfortable. Sickness is apt to be more prev- alent than when the heat is greatest. As in northern climes the cold is little felt and inflicts little injury on invalids when the atmosphere is perfectly dry, so in India the excessive heat is not felt as an affliction so long as the air is per- fectly dry. The average rain-fall varies greatly in different parts of India. In the stations on the outer ranges of the Himalaya Mountains it reaches a point which in America would be con- sidered very excessive. At Naini Tal it is a little more than CLIMATE. 23 91 inches ; at Mussoorie, farther west, it is 94 inches ; at Simla, 71 inches; while at Darjeeling, far to the eastward, it reaches 120 inches. On the plains the fall is, of course, lighter, and in the western part of the Punjab it does not exceed 7 or 8 inches in the year. Throughout the plains of North India, including the eastern half of the Punjab, the rain-fall averages from 25 to 45 inches, while in Bengal the average rises to 67 inches. Throughout the Madras Presidency the average is 44, and in Bombay 67 inches. On the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal the rain-fall is very heavy, ranging from 212, the highest average recorded, to 174. The lowest average rain-fall in what was recently British Burma, is 47 inches. Throughout Assam, the name of the great valley of the Brahmaputra, the rain-fall is the heaviest known in the world. At Cherra Poonjee, a station in Assam, the average annual rain-fall is no less than 481 inches, and in the year 1861 it actually rose to 805 inches ! During that year, in the month of July alone, there was a rain-fall of 366 inches. The reader can hardly realize what such a record means. In that one month of July, 1861, more than thirty feet of water fell in that one region, while throughout the year the rain- fall was sufficient to have covered the entire province 67 feet deep with water. Even in an average year enough rain falls to flood the whole country to a depth of more than 40 feet. This, however, is exceptional. In various other parts of India, especially among the mountains and higher hills, ex- ceptional rain-falls have been registered ; but taking the country throughout, the average fall is less than a stranger would be led to suppose from an occasional view of a tropical rain-storm. The rains begin to abate usually early in September, al- though the season differs somewhat in different parts of the country. The most sickly season of the year is then close at hand. The air is still and steamy, and decaying vegetation is almost sure to produce more or less malaria. The ueat also becomes for a short time very oppressive, and it is not 24 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. until the west wind begins to blow again which, throughout Northern India, it usually does in October that much com- fort is found by those who li\ 7 e in India like exotics in a sheltered garden. The three seasons, however, have now run their course. The cold season is close at hand, and all strangers in India are more than ready to give it an eager welcome. India has long been famous throughout the world for its supposed wealth, especially of the precious metals and gems. This reputation, however, has not been at all deserved. On the other hand, India, as compared with other great regions on the globe, is comparatively poor. It has a productive soil in the northern plains; but throughout all the great plateaus the soil, though rich on the surface, is very shallow and not capable of producing very heavy crops. As for sil- ver and gold, it is probable that in very remote ages gold was found in considerable quantities; but diligent search during the English period has only brought to light a few mining regions, in which it barely pays to mine for gold, with all the appliances which modern science is able to bring to the miner's assistance. Traces of silver are still more rare. Diamonds and other precious stones are found at a few points; but it is a great mistake to suppose that India, or any province of it, is a rich Golconda, where one has only to turn up the earth to find gems of every kind in abundance. Iron abounds, and the ore is said to be of excellent quality in many places ; but owing to the absence of coal, very little use has been made of it. It is much cheaper to import iron from Europe than to get it from the Indian mines and either bring it to a place where fuel can be found, or take the fuel to where the iron is located. Copper-mines have been worked in the Himalayas to some little extent; but such as are now known can not compete with the richer mines of other coun- tries. Various deposits of coal have been found in recent years, and these have proved of more value than all the gold and other metals that have been sought for so diligently for PRODUCTIONS. 25 ages past. The coal is good, though not of superior quality, and is not only of great value to the railways, but no doubt will prove a most important factor in the manufacturing era which must come to this country at no distant day. Lead has also been found in small quantities, and a few other minerals, but none of them in quantities which would give any promise of profitable returns to the miner. Very valuable deposits of salt are found in some parts of the country; but these are rig- idly preserved as Government monopolies, and hence prove of but little value to the people at large. Saltpeter has long been a valuable article of export from India. The forests of India have always been valuable, and are now becoming increasingly so, under the enlightened system of forest-preservation which has been introduced by the Indian Government. During the past twenty-five or thirty years various large tracts of land have been set apart for the growth of forests, the whole amounting to an area larger than that of the State of New York. Officers who have been thor- oughly trained in forestry are placed in charge of these tracts, and the trees are cut under a system which provides for the steady replenishing of the forest from year to year, so that not only is the value of each tract preserved, but it is constantly enhanced. Here again the Americans might learn a lesson from the Indian Government. It has been remarked a thousand times, in vain, that the next generation in America will bitterly lament the want of foresight of those who are now suffering the magnificent forests of the United States to be destroyed. With regard to the field, orchard, and garden products, little need be said beyond the remark that nearly all the pro- ductions of the tropical world may be found in India. In the northern half of the empire, wheat, barley, Indian-corn, and in some places oats and rye, grow in the cold season. Throughout the whole extent of the empire, rice of more than fifty kinds is cultivated, while varieties of the millet family are found in great abundance in every part of the country. 26 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. The pulse family also is well represented in India, and cot- ton, indigo, jute, hemp, flax, and other field products too numerous to mention, abound in regions suited to their growth. In short, India, though not a rich country, is capa- ble of supporting a vast population and providing liberally for its wants, and, as a matter of fact, at the present time af- fords a home to one-fifth of the human race. Chapter II. THE PEOPLE OF INDIA. IF it is difficult to make persons of average intelligence in Europe and America form correct notions of the vast ter- ritorial extent of India, it is still more difficult to get them to understand that it is not a country inhabited by a single race. tl What kind of people are the natives of India ?" is a question constantly asked of the Indian missionary who re- turns for a season to his native land. As well might an Indian ask what kind of people the natives of Europe are. India is, in fact, an Asiatic Europe, about equal in area to all Europe west of Russia, and containing more distinct and separate na- tions than Europe does. These nations differ even more widely than those of Europe not only in language, but in physique, temperament, and general character. It is very true that some able writers have protested against the application of the word "nation " to any of the distinct peoples found in India, on the ground that the people of India themselves do not grasp the national idea in the sense in which it is received in Europe. But this distinction is more ideal than real. Garibaldi's phrase, "nationality," would perhaps more properly apply to the various peoples of India, who, unfortunately, in their past history have seldom had opportunities for developing those national feelings which are common to all races and tribes of the human family. Large groups of people are found in India as in Europe, separated by all those marks which distinguish nations, unless it be separate political existence ; but this has not uniformly been maintained by all the nations of Europe. From time immemorial successive invasions of India, sometimes by the passes of the northeast, but more frequently 27 28 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. through those of the mountains on the northwest, have fol- lowed one another, each one pushing the inhabitants found in the country up into the mountain regions, or farther and farther to the south. The common term "aborigines" is applied to large numbers of tribes and castes in different parts of the country, but often with more or less uncer- tainty as to whether the term belongs to the people in ques- tion or not. In some remote parts of the empire a few wretched wild tribes are found, living in a state of very low civilization, who may possibly be the descendants of the ear- liest inhabitants of the country. This, however, is only con- jectural. Other tribes, however, more civilized and in every way superior to these wild men, are found in many parts of the country, and are more popularly known as aboriginal tribes. Some of them are sufficiently numerous to rank as small nations, numbering one or two millions of inhabitants each. Other tribes are smaller, and widely scattered. It is now generally conceded that the first great invasions of the country were composed of Turanian immigrants, some of them from Central Asia, and some from the region north of Burma.* The terms Kolarian and Dravidian have been ap- plied respectively to the immigrants from the northeastern and northwestern passes, but the latter seem to have invaded the country in larger numbers, and to have held together much more successfully than those from the northeast. As more powerful tribes followed, these Dravidian settlers were from time to time forced farther southward, until at last they succeeded in establishing themselves in four different regions, and no doubt for many centuries in earlier times constituted independent and somewhat powerful kingdoms. The Aryan invaders, who have become well known since the discovery of the ancient Sanskrit literature as members of the great Indo-European family, entered India at least ten centuries before Christ, but for many generations they worked their way very slowly towards the east and south. It is evident from their most ancient literature that they found everywhere THE PEOPLE. 29 a thickly settled country and encountered hostile enemies. In time they learned to live on more friendly terms with these unknown inhabitants of the country, who gradually be- came incorporated into their body politic, and now form the great mass of the people of the country. Who these people were who thus encountered the Aryan invaders can not now be known with certainty. They may or may not have been remnants of the great Dravidian invasion. In very remote ages there seem to have been frequent intermarriages be- tween them and the Aryan settlers; but they are still, for the most part, quite a distinct people from their conquerors. The pure-blooded descendants of the Aryan invaders are com- paratively a mere handful of the people of India. The Brah- mans and Rajputs together, who constitute almost the whole of these pure-blooded Aryans, do not number much more than 20,000,000 persons out of the 284,000,000 found in India. The great mass of the people of India living north of the Dravidian nations are those of uncertain origin. It is a sin- gular fact, however, and one worthy of notice, that after a struggle of perhaps thirty centuries, the pure Aryans and the pure aborigines are found in about equal numerical force throughout the empire at the present time. Of the distinct nations to be found in India it will not be necessary to mention more than eleven, the smallest of which has a population of about 2,225,000. Beginning at the extreme southern end of the peninsula, we find the Mal- ayalam people, numbering about 5,000,000, and speaking one of the Dravidian tongues. North and northeast of them, in- cluding the city of Madras, live the Tamil people, numbering 14,500,000. The Tamil language is said to be the most dif- ficult one in India for a European to learn. Its literature is more copious and more valuable than that found in any of the other languages of Southern India. West and northwest of the Tamil people, including the well-known province of Mysore, are found the Kanarese people, numbering 9,500,000, while north and northeast from the Kauarese region live 30 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. the Telugus, 19,000,000 strong. These four Dravidian nations do not have very many points of resemblance, and are easily distinguished by any one who has seen much of Southern India. The languages are kindred tongues, and yet differ as widely among themselves as French and En- glish. Coming up the west coast to the city of Bombay, we find the Marathi people, who inhabit the coast and mountains, and part of the plateau beyond to a point about midway across the peninsula. They are about equal to the Telugus in number. Going on northward about two hun- dred miles from Bombay we reach the Gujarati people, where 10,000,000 of a new and entirely distinct race are found. Passing on to the northwest, at the mouth of the Indus we find the Sindhi people, numbering about 2,500,000. Then proceeding up the Indus to the country of the "Five Rivers," called the Punjab that part of India known to Alexander we find 16,000,000 people speaking the Punjabi language. East of this region, and far down the valley of the Ganges and its tributaries, we find 95,000,000 Hindustani-speaking peo- ple, while on the plains and delta of the lower Ganges we find 45,000,000 Bengalis. Southwest of these, and occupy- ing the coast region between the Bengalis and the Telugus, are the Uriyas, numbering about 8,000,000 souls. It is proper to remark that these numbers can only be given approximately. The successive census reports differ more or less, according to the rules laid down by those in charge of the census operations. Besides, it is always diffi- cult to attain anything like accuracy in a region where three or four different languages are spoken side by side, and are constantly intermingling at some points, and overflowing at others, in such a way as to make it extremely difficult to decide what language the people of a given village speak. In addition to these eleven nations, there are many other tribes and clans, some of them of no little importance to the country, but most of them living in remote regions and exert- ing no appreciable influence on the empire at large. Among THE PEOPLE. 31 the most important of these are the Parsees of Bombay aud Surat. These enterprising people are descendants of a small colony of ancient Persians who settled at Surat some centu- ries ago, when driven out of Persia by Mohammedan perse- cution. They are an extremely enterprising and aggressive race, but are numerically too weak to exert much influence on India. The people of the eleven nationalities enumerated above speak eleven distinct and separate tongues. Of these, seven are of Aryan and four of Dravidian extraction. The most re- cent of these languages is probably the Bengali, while the Punjabi and Marathi would probably come next in order. The well-known Sikhs of the Punjab, and the Bengalis, are probably the most recent people who have appeared in In- dian history. The Hindus of Northern India, as well as the Dravidians of the South, are undoubtedly a very ancient peo- ple, many of them, in all probability, living in the same vil- lages in which their ancestors dwelt twenty-five centuries ago. While distinct lines of demarkation can be drawn between the various nationalities of India, yet, on the other hand, there are not a few points of resemblance which seldom fail to attract the attention of tourists, and naturally lead to the mistaken notion that the people of India constitute a common nationality. In complexion they must be numbered with the dark races, although many of them are very fair. In North- ern India descendants of Mohammedan invaders of a com- paratively recent period may sometimes be seen with blue eyes and auburn hair, and it is said that a large number of comparatively fair women have always been found among the harems of India. Many of the most exclusive castes of the Brahmans are also comparatively very fair, while, on the other hand, large numbers of not only the aborigines, but of per- sons occupying respectable positions in society, are quite as' dark as recently imported Africans in our Southern States. It is certain from references found in the most ancient hymns of the Yedas that the Aryans, when they first invaded India, 32 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. were as white as modern Europeans; and if any evidence were needed to show the effect of climate on complexion, at least in India, it can be found in the fact that the descendants of early Jewish settlers are now nearly, if not quite, as dark as the average Indians among whom they live. The constitution of society throughout India has many features which are alike peculiar to all the different nations and tribes. Some of these are owing to peculiar religious usages, while others have been handed down from remote ages, apparently unchanged amid all the great revolutions through which the people of India have passed. The family system is the same in all parts of the country, and retains many of the patriarchal features which we find in the history of Abraham and his immediate descendants. The joint sys- tem prevails almost universally, the sons remaining under the ancestral roof, or at least in a building immediately adjoining, through the life-time of the father, who retains authority over the entire household, while all the family is supported out of a common purse. Child-marriage has prevailed since very early times, although it does not seem to have been a feature of Aryan society at the time the more ancient Vedic hymns were composed. Widowhood is also everywhere not only re- garded as a misfortune, but the hapless widow is obliged to suffer many forms of penance which, in a stranger's eyes, seem very much like cruel persecution. Among all the orthodox castes, with the exception of some of the lower classes, the rule of perpetual widowhood is rigidly enforced ; and when it is remembered that children are often legally married when but a few years old, the hardship of this rule becomes more apparent. A little girl may be left a widow before she is six years of age; but if so, the law makes no ex- ception in her behalf. She is treated as a semi-outcast all the rest of her days, and is never permitted to contract a legal marriage. As might be expected, such a custom is equally blighting to the happiness and the morals of its victims. Cremation is the usual method of disposing of the bodies of THE PEOPLE. 33 the dead, although to this also there are some exceptions, as in the cases of some classes of devotees, and persons of very low standing, or outcasts. The people of India, like the Chinese, are extremely con- servative, and in some respects do not seem to have changed in the slightest degree during the past three thousand years. All manner of innovations are at first sight rejected, although the immense progress which has been made in the country during the last thirty years in the way of introducing tele- graphs, railways, machinery of all kinds, new medicines, and new methods of medical treatment, with the rapid spread of education, are beginning to produce a marked change in this respect, at least among the more intelligent classes. It must not be supposed for a moment, as it too often is sup- posed in America, that India is not a civilized country. On the other hand, it has a civilization which is at least as an- cient as the time of Solomon, and which probably at that early period placed the Eastern Aryans in advance of any other section of the great Indo-Germanic family. Never- theless, this civilization seems to have become petrified at a very early period, and has changed very little through all the centuries since. No new inventions of any kind are ever made, and one searches in vain for any trace of progress in agriculture or science, or in the methods of labor adopted by the various classes of artisans. The Patent Office at Wash- ington contains no less than six thousand models of improved plows, which have been deposited there by American invent- ors. In India, on the other hand, the peasant's plow is practically the same implement which was in use two or even three thousand years ago. The same remark would hold true, no doubt, with regard to the people of China ; and in- asmuch as we do not find men's inventive genius alive and awake anywhere except in Christian lands, it may be as- sumed that when India becomes a Christian country her people will no longer be found apparently destitute of this valuable gift. For the present, however, the tenacity with 3 34 INDIA AND MALA YSfA. which they cling to old methods of labor and to old cus- toms of every kind, stands very much in the way of their improvement and progress, and forms one of the most pow- erful barriers which meet the missionary when he attempts that most difficult of all tasks, to induce people to change their religion. As a people the Indians are very poor. Taking the whole empire together, they might be divided into three classes. In the first place, we find a few who are very rich, and who live in a style corresponding more or less with the popular notions entertained in Western lands of the " In- dian nabob." Next after these we find a larger number of persons who live in moderate comfort, but who in England or America would never be called rich. In the large cities and larger country towns, many of the tradesmen would be- long to this class, and also owners of city property, or per- sons more or less directly engaged in trade. Scattered all over the country, also, we find a class of land-holders who are much better off than the ordinary peasants, and consti- tute, at least in their own immediate neighborhood and in their own humble way, an inferior class of country gentry ; but putting all these classes together, the number is very small when compared with the multitudes of those who are poor. The cultivators have very small holdings, not only in those districts where they directly own the land which they cultivate, but also in those provinces where they rent the land from landlords. The average size of an Indian farm has been estimated at five acres. I have known, however, hard-work- ing men to cultivate less than one acre, and when it is re- membered that these toiling peasants must pay a high rent, either to the Government or to their landlords, it can easily be seen that the ordinary farmer must at best be classed among the poor. A man who owns five acres probably has a yoke of oxen and a few cows, while a man with fifteen or twenty acres occupies a very good position in his ancestral village, and is regarded by his neighbors as a very prosperous man. THE PEOPLE. 35 Those, however, who cultivate but an acre or a half-acre usually do it without any assistance from oxen or plow. I have known such a man to cultivate his little holding with his own hands, and without any kind of implement excepting a small tool resembling a common curved pick. I But when we leave these comparatively independent cul- tivators, and turn to the great mass of laborers, including not only those who work in the fields, but the weavers, shoe- makers, leather-dressers, and others engaged in various forms of unskilled labor, we find a condition of things to which only one term can be applied, and that is poverty. Millions belonging to these lowest classes live in a state of wretchedness and poverty which it is almost impossible for a person who has never been out of America to realize. Even the ordinary farmer is too poor to eat bread made from the wheat which grows in his own little fields. He sells his wheat because it commands a higher price, and buys millet, or some other cheaper kind of foodj for himself and family. The people generally eat but two meals a day, but the very poor are not always able to indulge in so much luxury. When in America, I have always noticed that the people seem to listen in utter bewilderment when I attempt to tell them about the extreme poverty of India. It is something which can not be understood until it is seen, and very often those who have lived in the country for many years fail to comprehend it. In most parts of the country, at least outside the large cities and towns, a man will work ^faithfully for wages not exceeding five or six cents a day, and on this pitiful sum he probably has to support a wife and from two to six children. To his credit, let it be said, he always does it without grumbling. The people of India, indeed, are among the most patient creatures to be found in the world. Dr. Hunter, who has only recently left India, and who is recognized as one of the best informed authori- ties on Indian subjects, affirms that there are more than forty millions of people in India who habitually live on insuffi- 36 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. cient food. I should be inclined to put the number much higher; but leaving it at forty millions, it is a startling and indeed awful statement to make, and one which makes us think seriously about the present condition of our race. So far as my own observation has extended in ludia, I have been led to believe that not more than half of the people ever eat to repletion, but that, on the other hand, they pro- vide two meals each day as well as they are able, and con- tent themselves with such food as they can procure, whether it be absolutely sufficient or not. They spend very little in clothing, and literally live from hand to mouth the whole year round, so that their life is one long struggle against absolute want. The moral condition of the people of India is a subject which would call for a longer discussion than the plan of this book will admit of. It is a subject full of anomalies and contradictions, and one which can only be understood by persons who have learned how to recognize all the vari- ous elements which enter into the character of a community or a nation. Among the best nations of the world hideous developments of evil can be found by those who know where to look for them ; and, on the other hand, among the least favored nations features of social and religious life may be found by those who have the moral discrimination to dis- cern them, which relieve, to some extent, the blackness of the dark picture which is usually drawn when an attempt is made to describe the moral condition of a non-Christian nation. The people of India are by no means wholly bad, and the terms " pagan " and " heathen," at least in the sense in which they are popularly used in Western lands, can hardly be applied to them with any justice. Intelligent mis- sionaries never use these terms in India, and it is one of the signs of the times that the more advanced Indians them- selves strenuously object to being called heathen. As a peo- ple, they are possessed of many virtues domestic, social, and, I will add, religious. They are very true to their THE PEOPLE. 37 obligations to relatives ; and, in this respect, could teach Christian nations some valuable lessons. They are a relig- ious people ; and, when converted, make excellent Chris- tians. They are also strong in their personal attachments, naturally affectionate, and well able to appreciate kindness. Nevertheless, it must be admitted, even by those who wish to speak as kindly of them as possible, that they bear many of the marks which always accompany a religion which de- nies the immediate authority of God, or at least severs the individual from a personal allegiance to God as the Supreme Ruler. After conceding all that can possibly be granted, some very ugly facts remain, which can not be hidden out of sight. In a country where polygamy is not only tolerated, but where it has been unchallenged for many centuries; where child-marriage is not only the rule, but where nearly all classes unite in w r arrnly defending it ; where widow re- marriage is forbidden ; where a mythology full of unclean traditions, and an idolatry with many images of unclean dei- ties meet one everywhere, it ought not to surprise any one to find indications of a low moral tone, such as it is difficult to realize in a Christian land. It is not very long since the horrible custom of burning widows with their husbands' corpses was abolished ; and we have only to remember that when that great reform was enacted it met with fierce oppo- sition from the leaders of the society of that day, to realize to what an extent the conscience of the country had become debased by the false religious system in which the people had been educated. Even less than twenty years ago, when one of the most prominent of Hindu statesmen, Sir Jung Bahadur, the prime minister of Nepal, a statesman who had been knighted by the Queen, when this well-known man died, inasmuch as his death occurred within territory over which the Indian Government had no jurisdiction, four of his widows were burned with his corpse on his funeral pyre. This one event shows what the spirit of Hinduism still is, if it only were at liberty to assert itself. Then, too, it is only a 38 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. few years since the horrible custom of hook-swinging was abolished in Calcutta itself. On a certain festival-day wretched men, sometimes stupefied with drugs, and some- times with the free use of their faculties, would submit to have steel hooks inserted in the muscles of their backs, by which they were suspended from beams which were made to swing round and round in such a way as to exhibit the suffer- ing creatures to the enthusiastic multitude below. It is not pleasant to dwell on such scenes, and I should be very sorry to remind any Hindu here in India of such an event, or to suggest that it was the natural fruit of his religious system ; but it ought to be mentioned as an indication of the actual nature of idol- worship in the best form in which our world has seen it during the past two thousand years. One other mark of a low moral standard has very recently been brought before the Indian public in a way which has at- tracted attention as few public events have recently done. I have spoken of the universal custom of child-marriage. The legal marriage takes place oftentimes at a very early age, but the little bride remains with her parents till she is older before going to live with her husband. Sometimes the husband is also a child at the time of the marriage; but very frequently a man of years, sometimes even an old man, will marry one of these little child-brides and take her to his own house at a very early age, say from ten to twelve or thirteen years. This outrageous custom had long been known ; but with the strange indifference which all people so often manifest to abuses which have been long established, little attention was called to it until last year, when a horrible death of a little child-wife in Calcutta, and the trial and conviction of her husband, produced a storm of indignation, not only among Europeans, but among the more intelligent classes of the In- dians themselves. A bill was introduced into the Governor- General's Council to fix the age of consent on the part of wives at twelve years, and, incredible as it may appear, a violent opposition was raised throughout all India to this THE PEOPLE. 39 very slight advance in the direction of reform. If the Gov- ernment had fixed the age at fourteen years it would have made little difference, and could not have excited greater opposition. The reader in America will say at once that it ought to have been sixteen years, and perhaps denounce the Indian Government for its timidity; but unfortunate!}' the Americans can not take up the first stone in this case, owing to the defective laws in some of their States. A great indignation meeting was called to protest against this law in Calcutta, and no less than fifty thousand persons turned out in the park to take part in the proceedings. The mere men- tion of this fact is sufficient to show that a non-Christian country has a conscience that is neither quick nor tender. In no part of India can it be said that the people are noted for truthfulness; and I fear it must be admitted that, taking them generally, they rank in morals about with the Chinese and other non-Christian nations. When it is remembered that the most of them are very poor, it is hardly necessary to add that they have the vices which very poor people in all parts of the world are always found to possess. They are not cruel, and are seldom violent. The brutality so often exhibited by the vicious classes in England and America, especially in connection with intemperate habits, is some- thing which the Indian finds very difficult to understand; and the too frequent spectacle of a drunken, brutal Euro- pean knocking down and kicking every poor creature who stirs up his wrath, has had the effect of creating a wide- spread impression in India that the people of Europe are naturally much more wicked than those of India. Crimes of violence are very much less frequent in India than might be supposed ; and yet, as remarked above, it must be always remembered that strange contradictions can be found to nearly every one of these statements. I myself once lived in a village a few weeks, during which time I incidentally discovered a recent murder, and became almost an eye-wit- ness of a gross crime of violence in that one little commu- 40 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. nity. It would have been very easy to assume that every village in India was of the same kind, which would have been doing great injustice to the people. On the other hand, a recent home paper announces more than a dozen murders in the city of New York and vicinity in a single Sunday, and if we are to take this as an illustrative text, it would be easy to show a state of morals in America compared with which nothing in the heathen world would be so startling. Mak- ing allowance for all extreme statements and exceptional events, it will, perhaps, suffice to say that the moral condi- tion of the people of India is very unsatisfactory, while some of its features are particularly deplorable. Mentally, if not physically, the people compare very favor- ably with those of Europe. The average physique of a laboring man is very much below that of an English laborer, but in many cases would compare favorably with the lower class of Italians. Mentally, however, the Indian can hold his own with people of any other part of the world. He has a very re- tentive memory, and hence, when put in competition with English children, a native boy in an Indian school will very often come out ahead. They can memorize most success- fully. In fact, this one faculty has been developed through so many long generations that it may be said to constitute the sum and substance of an Indian education, at least ac- cording to the traditional view. They do not succeed so well, however, in generalization, and hence are not always able to make so much use of an education when they have received it as those who have received a more practical drill in other lands. As a curious illustration of this power of memory, I may mention an incident which occurred in the Calcutta Medical College not many years ago. The examination papers of a Bengali student were found to contain more than a page taken word for word from one of the text-books of the med- ical course which had been studied. It was assumed at once that the student had been guilty of dishonestly copying from a book which in some way had come within his reach. When THE PEOPLE. 41 brought before the authorities for trial he proposed to write an answer to any other question that might be given him, in the language of the same text-book, and when the book was turned over at random and a question suggested, he at once wrote a correct reply to it, written wholly from memory, but literally following the copy without the omission of a single word. The principal of the college, when telling me this as an illustration of the wonderful power of memory which some of the young men possess, added the remark: "He can an- swer any question I ask him about any of the books which I have put into his hands, and yet I should be very sorry to trust my life to him if I were dangerously ill. He can col- lect and retain knowledge, but can not apply it." This re- mark, however, will not apply to the people generally. The colleges of India are producing some men of very great abil- ity, and it may be safely assumed that in the years to come they will be able to seize and hold a worthy place in the great arena of nations in which they must be ultimately called to contend. Ct>apber III. THE EMPIRE OF INDIA. T NDIA is not a conquered country held in subjection by a 1 distant European power, as Mexico was once held by Spain, or as Cochin China is held by France at the present day, but, on the other hand, is a great empire \vith a pow- erful Government of its own. With a population greater than that of the five " great powers " of Europe put together, with a revenue exceeding $350,000,000, with a foreign com- merce worth $768,000,000 annually, with a standing army 230,000 strong, more than two-thirds of which is composed of native soldiers, with a drilled police force of more than 150,000 men, with a code of laws in many respects superior to those found on the statute-books of European countries, and with courts of justice as impartial and as faithfully ad- ministered as any to be found in the world, India may well claim a place among the great empires of the present era. In his work on the " Expansion of England," Professor Seeley, of the University of Cambridge, called attention in a very striking paragraph to the common mistake made by persons in Europe in assuming that India had ever been con- quered by the English, or that it was held in subjection by the British Government in any proper sense of the word. In all history no more extraordinary movement has ever been witnessed than the organization and development of the great power now known as the Empire of India. Not only were the directors of the old East India Company utterly hostile to the idea of establishing any semblance of political power in India, but the first agents of the Company, if not equally opposed to such a project, would have regarded it as utterly 42 THE EMPIRE. 43 impracticable had it been suggested to them. When the En- glish leaders in India first began to make their conquests they had no thought of subjugating any Asiatic power, but were really animated by hostile feelings towards the representa- tives of other European nations who had settled near them and were commercially their rivals. It was this jealousy among Europeans, and not any designs upon the natives of India, which first provoked the wars during which the first foundation of English power was laid. Clive, Warren Hast- ings, and the other great leaders of the last century, were men who built more wisely than they knew. They were abso- lutely incapable of foreseeing to what gigantic proportions the political fabric which they hastily began to build would afterwards attain. The people of India were successively subjugated, not by foreigners, but for the most part by their own countrymen, or at least by Indians of neighboring na- tionalities. The Indian Empire, as we see it to-day, is not the creation of the English nation, or of the Imperial Gov- ernment which sits in London, but is rather an empire built up by a few Englishmen in India. Their great work was begun without design, and from first to last carried on as if by the power of an invisible destiny, rather than by the de- liberate purpose of the empire-builders. Again and again attempts were made to stay the march of events, and put limits to the expansion of the empire, but all in vain. Even in very recent years the policy has been solemnly proclaimed of making no more annexations, only to be followed by new accessions of territory. How are we to explain this extraordinary phenomenon in history? If the founders and builders of the Indian Em- pire have not been crafty, ambitious, and unscrupulous men, if their work has not been a work of deliberate design, how are we to explain their extraordinary success? The believer in Providence will say that God had, and still has, great and gracious designs in connection with this and all other great political changes, and that time will reveal His pur- 44 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. poses; but meanwhile, if we look carefully at the factors in- volved, we may see that the great result was only what might have been anticipated. The traditions and political institutions of England, the ideas which prevailed, the very character of the people, made it inevitable that a body of determined Englishmen, set down alone on a distant shore, and suddenly confronted with the most formidable responsi- bilities, should have acted precisely as the founders of the Indian Empire did act. The English as a race have a gen- ius for organization, and they could not have remained in India and acted otherwise than as they have acted. The times were ripe for their coming, and they built with the materials which they found ready to their hands. They never tried to conquer India, but they found warring nations and tribes, discordant elements of every kind, all India toss- ing like a troubled and stormy sea, and they proceeded to lay the hand of authority on one hostile power after another, until now at last all India rests in peace, and many mill- ions of her middle-aged people have never seen a regiment of troops or perhaps even a single soldier. It may be said that frequent acts of injustice have marked the growth of the Indian Empire, that very often the inno- cent have suffered cruelly, and that in many cases a foreign domination has been set up over very unwilling subjects. This and much more must be granted; but that is but another way of saying that the empire has been built up in the midst of wars and Oriental rivalries. The English leaders in India have not all been saintly men, but, on the other hand, they have not been worse than men of their class in other parts of the world. Taking them as a whole, and viewing them as they have appeared during the past century, they do not suffer by comparison with any other body of Englishmen in official life. England herself has been built up into her present great- ness, not without bloodshed, and amid scenes of cruelty and injustice such as no historian finds pleasure in portraying. The history of India has many a page which affords painful THE EMPIRE. 45 reading to every Christian ; but when we take into consider- ation all the circumstances which surrounded the actors, whether foreigners or Indians, the marvel is that so little in- justice has marked the growth and progress of this great Eastern empire. The Government of the Indian Empire is administered by a Governor-General, or, as he is now more commonly called, a Viceroy, who is assisted by a Council of six mem- bers. The Viceroy is appointed by the Queen, and is usually chosen from the ranks of the nobility. Sir John Lawrence, afterwards Lord Lawrence, is the only instance during the present century in which an Indian civilian has been chosen for this high office. The members of the Council are in reality members of the Viceroy's Cabinet, and each one is a minister in charge of a department of the Government. Un- like the American Cabinet, these members of Council are not secretaries, but a secretary is connected with the department of each, without, however, having any voice in the adminis- tration of the Government. The six departments over each of which a member of Council is placed, are Finance and Commerce, Home, Military, Public Works, Legislative, and Revenue and Agriculture. The Secretary attached to each one of these departments holds a position somewhat anal- ogous to that of an Under-Secretary of the Government in England. He prepares all the business of his department, and puts it before the Governor-General or the member of Council in charge of his department, and is permitted to write an opinion ; but beyond this he has no authority whatever. The members of the Viceroy's Council are ap- pointed by the Crown, and usually hold their offices for five years. The Viceroy holds his office for the same term, but frequently, in recent years, Indian Viceroys have resigned before serving their full term. Of the six members of Council, three must have served in India at least ten years, and one of these must be a military officer. The acts of the Viceroy are officially termed Orders of the Governor-Gen- 46 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. eral in Council ; but in addition to his Executive Council there is what is commonly called the Legislative Council of India. This is composed of the Executive Council, with not less than six or more than twelve additional members, nominated by the Viceroy. Of these, one-half must be per- sons not holding offices under Government; and of these again, some are always natives of India. Strictly speaking, there is but one Council, which sometimes meets for exec- utive and sometimes for legislative purposes; and in the latter capacity it has a larger membership than in the former. It will be noticed that the official element in the Council has such a preponderance that there is no possibility of the Government ever being left in the minority; and even if such a contingency were to occur, the Viceroy has an ab- solute veto upon all that is done. As a matter of fact, the Council, whether executive or legislative, is an advisory body rather than one invested with independent powers. The meetings of the Legislative Council are always open to the public, but do not usually attract much interest. The Supreme Government has its seat nominally at Cal- cutta, but, as a matter of fact, spends only two or three months in that capital. Early in April the Viceroy, with all the members of his Council, secretaries of departments, goes up to Simla, a station in Northern India, on the spurs of the Himalayas, and remains there till the middle or last of October. Simla thus becomes not only the summer capital of India, but in reality is much more the real capital than Calcutta. When the Viceroy sets out on his return to Calcutta, he nearly always turns out of his way to pay visits to important places in India ; and in this way it frequently happens that much of the cold season is occupied, so that Calcutta sees very little of the Queen's representative. The whole Empire of India is unequally subdivided into provinces and districts, some of them almost of imperial ex- tent, while others are very small. At first, under the old East India Company, there were three Governors one at THE EMPIRE. 47 Calcutta, one at Madras, and a third at Bombay. One of these at an early day was made Governor-General, and as the empire extended its area from time to time, additional prov- inces have been set apart under Lieutenant-Governors in Bengal, the Northwest Provinces, and the Punjab. The orig- inal title of Governor has not been taken away from the temporary rulers of Madras and Bombay, and a Legislative Council, similar to the one attached to the Supreme Govern- ment, is allowed to each of these officials. These two Gov- ernors are also appointed by the Crown, and consequently take a little higher rank than the Lieutenant-Goveruors, al- though the latter are, as a matter of fact, intrusted with greater responsibilities, and, perhaps it might be added, are usually abler men, owing to the fact that they are chosen directly from the Indian Civil Service, and are not untried men sent out from England. The Governor of Madras rules over 35,500,000 subjects, the Governor of Bombay over 18,- 800,000, while the Lieuteuant-Governor of the Northwest Provinces has nearly 47,000,000 under his jurisdiction, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab 20,800,000, and the Lieu- tenant-Governor of Bengal very nearly 71,000,000 within the limits of his province. It will thus be seen that while the Governor of Bombay outranks the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal in his official standing, his responsibility is trifling when compared with that of the latter. Next to these Gov- ernorships and Lieutenant-Governorships, another class of subordinate rulers, called Chief Commissioners, is found. There are at present three of these in India, one in charge of a large district in Central India, known politically as the Central Provinces, with a population of 10,761,000 ; another in charge of Assam, with 5,400,000 people under him ; and another in the more important post of Chief Commissioner of Burma, with a population of about 7,500,000 under him. In addition to these, there are three Commissioners in charge of small and unimportant districts, which, for special reasons, Lave never been merged into the larger provinces. A Chief 48 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. Commissioner does not differ much from a Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, excepting in official rank and the amount of salary. Going on down the scale, the next subdivision which we find is the district. The whole of India is divided into 235 districts. A number of these are usually grouped together, with a Commissioner appointed as a kind of general super- visor over them; but -in each district an official, known in different parts of the country by the titles of Collector, Senior Magistrate, or Deputy Commissioner, is placed in charge, and for all practical purposes is the immediate ruler of the district. This official, as has been often pointed out, is the real administrator of the Government. He is, as a matter of fact, within his own little realm, very much what the ancient Raja was to the people ; and although the District Judge nominally holds a higher rank and draws a higher sal- ary, he is always a person of much less official importance to the people than the district officer. The 235 officials who have charge of these districts are hard-working and, as a body, able men ; and upon them, perhaps more than upon any others, depend the welfare of the people and the peace and prosperity of the empire. Their jurisdiction varies -in different parts of the country. In one or two cases a dis- trict officer rules over a territory 14,000 square miles in extent, while others have less than 1,000 within their juris- diction. Some of these districts contain a population of not more than 250,000, while others rise as high as 3,000,000. The general average of the population of each district throughout the whole of the empire is about 800,000. It will thus be seen that the district officer is an official upon whom more responsibility rests than upon the average American Governor. The Governor of an ordinary American State has, as a matter of fact, but little real responsibility, whereas the administrator of an Indian district holds nearly all the interests of the people in the hollow of his hand, and, in the nature of the case, must be a power for good or evil through- out the whole of his administration. THE EMPIRE. 49 Among the many mistakes which Europeans and Amer- icans make in thinking of India is to assume that it is an uncivilized country, without the benefits of a well-recog- nized code of laws. Both the Hindus and Mohammedans have always given much attention to their laws, and when the English took over the provinces, one after another, they followed the invariable custom of leaving the people in the undisturbed exercise of all their religious, domestic, and social customs, including obedience to their respective legal codes. This wise tolerance, however, can only be allowed within certain limits. The Hindu and Mohammedan are alike undisturbed iu the laws of inheritance, religion, mar- riage and divorce, and social regulations generally. But wherever any question arises which affects the followers of all religions alike, it is necessary to have a common code to which there can be an equal appeal from all parties. Hence the Indian Government, at an early period, began to give attention to the subject of providing a good code of laws for the empire; and in 1834 no less a man than Lord Macaulay was sent out to India as legal member of the Gov- ernor-General's Council, for the express purpose of framing a penal code for the use of the Government of India. He did his work well, although many years passed before the code which was prepared by him was formally sanctioned and made applicable to all India. For twenty-two years it was neglected or postponed from time to time; but at last, in 1860, after successive revisions by able men, it became law, and in 1861 it was followed by a code of criminal pro-, cedure. Sir James Stephen, well known as one of the ablest writers on legal subjects in England, has pronounced this code to be " by far the best system of criminal law in the world." The same writer adds that " it is practically impos- sible to misunderstand the penal code ; no obscurity or am- biguity worth speaking of has been discovered in it." It has been said that a few generations hence, of all his remark- able writings, this code of laws will be accepted as the most 4 50 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. enduring monument to the fame of Lord Macaulay. Since 1860 the Legislative Council of India has, from time to time, enacted many wise laws, as necessity has seemed to call for them ; and recently it has been said by Sir Henry Maine that " British India is in possession of a set of codes which approach the highest standard of excellence which this species of legislation has reached. In form, intelligibility, and com- prehensiveness, the Indian code stands against all compe- tition." The laws of India are administered by courts of justice, perhaps as impartial, if not as able, as any to be found in England or America. At Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, and Allahabad, High Courts have been established, to which ap- peals can be made from subordinate judges, magistrates, or other judicial officers. These courts have also the power of ordering the proceedings of any subordinate court to be sent up for revision a rule which is not infrequently acted upon, and which exerts a most healthful influence upon all the magistrates of the country. It would be too much to say that all the petty magistrates of India are above suspicion ; but charges of bribery against judges and all magistrates in high position are very seldom heard or even thought of. This re- mark applies to Indian judges and magistrates quite as much as to Europeans. A few years ago, when a fierce feeling of race antagonism had been stirred up, owing to an issue being unfortunately put before the public as to whether Europeans should be tried by native magistrates, many writers, heated by the controversy of the hour, made grave charges against the probity of native magistrates ; but I think, in a cooler moment, every candid European in India will be ready to admit that the average Indian magistrate is a man of integ- rity, who tries to render impartial justice to those who come before him. This very brief sketch of the Indian Government would be incomplete without explaining the relation of the Viceroy and his Council to the British Parliament and Crown. That THE EMPIRE. 51 relation, at every point, is theoretically one of absolute sub- ordination, although, as a matter of fact, not only the Vice- roy, but all his subordinates down to the district officers, enjoy a measure of freedom which allows them to administer their affairs with all proper vigor. In the days of the East India Company the Governor-General was subordinate to the Directors of the Company in London ; and when the gov- ernment of India was transferred to the Crown, an arrange- ment somewhat similar to this was made, by which a Secretary of State for India was provided for, with a Council of fifteen members, a majority of whom must have served in India for ten years. This Secretary with his Council in Londan cor- responds in many, respects to the Viceroy and his Council in India. The Secretary, like the Viceroy, is not absolutely bound by the action of his Council, but he wields his great power very moderately. He can veto any measure enacted by the Government of India, and can also take the initiative in any measure which the Imperial Government might wish the Viceroy to carry out. It may seem, at first glance, that such an arrangement would seriously hamper and weaken the administration in India; but such is not the case. In recent years it has happened once or twice that the Viceroy found the instructions of the home Government such as he did not wish to execute; but differences of this kind only arise under peculiar circumstances, and have not been at all frequent. To all practical intents and purposes the Viceroy is the actual ruler of India. In speaking of India, a distinction must always be drawn between what is strictly British India and those native States which still retain a greater or less degree of independence, and are ruled by their own hereditary princes. These are usually called Feudatory States, and number "several hun- dreds." It would seem from the loose way in which all writers speak of these States that more or less doubt exists in the case of some of them as to whether they should be classed under British rule, or regarded as in some vague sense inde~ 52 INDIA AND MALA YSTA. pendent. Many of them are insignificant, both in territorial extent and in financial and political importance. Only twelve contain over a million inhabitants. The largest of these is Hyderabad, with a population of about ten millions; and the next Mysore, with a population of four millions. The name Feudatory, has come into common use in recent years, and de- fines pretty accurately their relation to the Supreme Govern- ment of India. The only native State within the territorial limits of India proper, which is in any real sense independent, is Nepal, a large kingdom occupying a part of the Himalayas, with some of the adjacent lowlands, east of Oudh and North- ern Bengal. For some reason the Indian Government has made a special concession to this native power, which, how- ever, has always maintained a semi-Chinese exclusiveness; and although it is certain that no ruler of Nepal would be al- lowed to disturb the general peace of the empire, yet so long as no trouble is given to outside parties the Nepalese are left to themselves. The Feudatory States are scattered over North, Central, and Southern India, and differ very much both in the char- acter of the people and of their rulers. Some of the Indian princes are intelligent, cultivated men, and make good rulers; but this remark by no means applies to the majority of them. The traditional policy of the Indian Government has been for the Viceroy to appoint a British " Resident," an officer of high rank, who resides at the capital of the Indian prince, and not only discharges the duties of a minister at court, but acts also as an adviser in behalf of the Indian Gov- ernment of the prince to whose court he is accredited. This Resident has the whole power of the Indian Government at his back, and consequently the temptation is always a very strong one for him to give his advice in a tone which is more or less authoritative, and which, it is easy to believe, often be- comes irritating. When the native prince is a man of dissolute character as happened in the case of the last king of Oudh, and more recently in that of the ruler of the State of Baroda THE EMPIRE. 53 he may wholly disregard the advice of the Resident, in which case the relations between them become so strained as sooner or later to call for interference on the part of the Viceroy. If the prince gives way, and actually corrects the abuses which were pointed out to him, all is well; if not, the Vice- roy may hesitate for a season, but, when the emergency be- comes urgent, does not shrink from deposing the prince and putting a successor on the throne. Before the Mutiny the usual policy was to annex such a State to British territory; but that policy has been abandoned, and probably will not be resumed. It is true, Burma has been recently annexed, but the circumstances were very exceptional. Not only had the prince proved himself utterly incapable, but grave fears were entertained that another European power might gain access to the country if it were not annexed. The total population of the Feudatory States, by the last census, is 64,123,230. Opinions differ very widely as to the soundness of the policy of maintaining these semi-independent States scattered about in different parts of the great Indian Empire. Some able men have maintained that it would have been better if they had all been swept away long years ago, and the whole empire placed under a single administra- tion, with the same laws and usages in operation from one extremity of the country to the other. Others, again, regard these States as invaluable, not only to the Indian Govern- ment, but to the best possible development of the empire and improvement of the people. Beyond all doubt, they have proved a bulwark in time of danger to the British power in India. When the great Mutiny brought on a crisis such as had never before confronted the Indian Government, the rulers of these States, with scarcely an exception, stood loyally by the imperiled English power, 'wisely foreseeing that the overthrow of the English in India meant that many of them must share the fate of the falling empire. This fact alone would probably suffice to make the policy of retaining these States in their present condition permanent; but, aside 54 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. from this, there are other reasons why they should be main- tained, if not exactly in their present form, at least under a purely Indian administration. They serve as training-schools for Indian statesmen such as can not, under existing circum- stances, be found in British India. Young men who are na- tives of India may sometimes rise to very prominent positions in Bombay or Calcutta, both social and official ; but they can never find such a career in either of those cities as is open to them in some of the native capitals. A Bengali has for years occupied a seat upon the Supreme Bench of the Cal- cutta High Court; but this is a poor prize to be won in com- parison with that of being Prime Minister at one of the native courts. When it is remembered that all India is, or ought to be, a great training-school for the people of the land, the value of these Feudatory States to the rising youth of the country can hardly be overestimated. On the other hand, it must be frankly admitted that their government is, in many instances, very unsatisfactory. Roads and public works of every kind are neglected, oppression often becomes very grievous, and the intolerable abuses with which all Asiatic countries have long been familiar are tolerated in open day. This must be conceded ; but to all this the apologist of the Feudatory States will reply that the people seem to love to have it so. Any one who thoroughly understands human nature can be- lieve this to be possible. Men love good government, no doubt, in all parts of the world, and the poor are fond of pro- tection and justice; but nevertheless it must be conceded by every one who understands, not merely the people of India, but the great human family of which he himself is a member, that ordinary human beings would rather be governed un- justly by their own rulers than have their affairs administered with justice by strangers. With few exceptions, writers on India have taken the po- sition that the India of to-day can never become a homo- geneous empire, and permanently take its place as such among the great powers of the world. In one of his great speeches on THE EMPIRE. 55 India, John Bright is reported to have said that no man, with even a "glimmering of common sense," could look upon such a result as a possible contingency of the future ; and this remark has been quoted with approval by Sir John Strachey, who has a thorough knowledge of India, both past and present. Nevertheless, I venture to take a place in the ranks of the small minority who look upon the Empire of India as a permanent factor in the final adjustment which is to be made among the great powers of the earth. Geographically, India was made in the first place to be the home of one great nation ; and He who marks out the boundaries of all human habitations certainly seems to be conducting the people to the very destiny which leading statesmen of the present day pronounce a permanent impossi- bility. It is true that India is divided into many diverse nationalities, that her people speak many different languages, and that race antipathies and religious differences are as sharply defined within the bounds of the empire as anywhere else in the world. Added to this, all the traditions of the people seem to point in the direction opposite to final im- perial union under a single government, while the caste di- visions of the people, which have so long paralyzed all tend- encies toward union, are not only powerfully felt at the present day, but are believed by many to be inseparable from the very instincts of the people. But, on the other hand, new influences are at work which have never been felt before. The bonds of caste are certainly growing weaker, while the people are being drawn together, not only by the influence of the English education common alike to all, but by common political interests, which are appreciated in precisely the same way by all the educated classes of the empire. Added to this is a consideration which hardly any writer on the subject seems to have thought it worth while even to mention : India is destined to become a Christian empire, and before many generations will have only one religion. When that great change takes place, an active, vigorous Christianity will do 56 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. more in a century to weld all the diverse peoples of the peninsula into one great nation than all other influences combined have done in the past thousand years. During a residence of more than thirty years in the country, I have distinctly noticed among the more intelligent classes a slowly evolving but steadily growing feeling of Indian nationality; and looking at the question purely as one of probabilities, I do not hesitate for a moment to express my opinion strongly in favor of the permanency of the empire. This remark is made without any reference whatever to the permanency of English rule. This phase of the subject will be discussed at greater length in another chapter. For the present/ suffice it to say that the only thing which can prevent India from taking her place among the great empires of the world before the lapse of many centuries possibly before the lapse of many generations would be the premature withdrawal of the En- glish power from the country. Chapter IV. INDIA AND ENGLAND. IN the last chapter it was pointed out that England did not seek for permanent possessions in India, and that the En- glish people, at nearly every period of the past, have been opposed to further extension of territory in the East. To all remarks of this kind, however, the reader, especially in America, is at once tempted to reply : " Why, then, does Eng- land continue to hold India? If she has not conquered the people, in the strict sense of the word, if India is not a subju- gated country, nevertheless she is, beyond doubt, a country forcibly retained under the authority of another and a distant power. Why do not the English people at once release their distant dependency, and allow the people of India to manage their own destinies according to their best wisdom and best ability?" Questions like these very naturally suggest themselves, especially when prompted by incorrect statements made by hurried tourists, or by writers who have never taken the pains to ascertain what the exact relation of India to England really is. In the first place, if any one lightly asks the ques- tion, "Why does England continue to hold India?" it might almost suffice to answer, "How can she let go her hold?" It was not very difficult for Clive, by the aid of his genius and with the gallant body of soldiers at his back, utterly to shatter, at a single blow, the power of the Mogul Viceroy in Bengal ; but from the hour that Bengal was won, it became a very difficult task indeed for Clive, or any one else, to give up the conquest which had been made. There never has been an hour since the day that the first foundation of British power 57 58 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. in India was laid, when the English people could have left India without incurring a fearful responsibility for which history would never have forgiven them. If this was diffi- cult at the outset, or if it were more difficult a half century ago, it becomes simply an impossibility at the present day. No living statesman, knowing the circumstances, would take it upon himself to withdraw the authority which now holds the vast Indian Empire in the embrace of peace, and let loose from the four winds all the elements of discord and rivalry, of ambition and avarice, of war and rapine, which must in- evitably follow the departure of the last English r^uler from the shores of India. Nor could any living statesman for a moment think of arresting the progress which is now im- printing its traces upon every part of the vast empire, and, turning back the hands upon the dial of time, bid the sev- enteenth century resume its reign over one-fifth of the human race. I do not for a moment pretend to say that England gains nothing by her present connection with India. She gains very much in many ways, but not in the way that the first English adventurers in India hoped or expected. She gains chiefly in her commerce, not for the enriching of a few monopolists, but of the great English nation ; and this, of course, adds to her power. She gains also in her political prestige and power throughout the whole earth. Whether the Indian soldier, marching side by side with European comrades, is ever destined to take an honored place on the battle-fields of Europe may possibly be doubtful ; but it can not be questioned that the simple fact that the great Empire of India, with its standing army of 230,000 men, is a de- pendency of England, with its vast army moving in obedi- ence to the commands of the Crown, must give to the Brit- ish Empire an importance in the eyes of all nations far be- yond what it would otherwise enjoy. Another advantage which is sometimes referred to in an unfriendly spirit, is the opportunities for employment which India offers to young INDIA AND ENGLAND. 59 Englishmen. It is but natural that the Indian should look upon every English youth who comes out to take up work in India as something more than a rival ; as, indeed, an un- just supplanter of the children of the soil ; but in these days of freedom, when Germans are pressing to India in large num- bers and competing with Englishmen on equal terms, this objection loses much of its force. In official position the Englishman has undoubtedly the preference, and in all the higher positions this preference practically amounts almost to a monopoly ; but these posts, after all, are somewhat lim- ited in number, and although the Indian gains very slowly upon his European rival, yet as the years go by he will con- tinue to gain, and it is only a question of time when he shall have won many positions which are now beyond his reach. But perhaps the greatest benefit which India confers upon England is in the outlet which it furnishes for English cap- ital. This is a feature of the case which Clive and Warren Hastings never could have foreseen. But for this resource the great material progress which has been witnessed in India during recent years could never have been accom- plished. The railways have been built almost exclusively with English capital, and while it is very true that England will ultimately gain a large return for the capital invested, it is none the less true that India gains, not only the use of the capital itself, but the material progress which these invest- ments make possible. It is probable, too, that we have only seen the beginning of this outflow of capital from England to the East. Indeed, it is one of the great marvels of the age how money accumulated at the great centers of modern civili- zation is beginning to flow to the utmost ends of the earth, and seek investment in all manner of material enterprises. This, indeed, bids fair to serve as a relief to what would otherwise be a state of financial congestion in a few of the great cities of the world ; and it is a pleasing thought that, at a time when ordinary figures no longer suffice for reckoning up tiie accumulated wealth of the great Christian nations, 60 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. God in his providence seems about to direct the use of this wealth in such a way that it shall serve a great purpose in hastening the civilization of the human race. If, now, we ask what India gains by her connection with England, the answer is not so difficult to give. Her first great gain can be stated in a single word peace. That Avhich she had hardly known in a thousand years, a state of peace throughout all her widely extended borders, has now come to be the normal condition of the empire. Here and there, it is true, on the distant frontiers, a little war is heard of now and then, but not of more importance than the Indian wars with which the American people have always been familiar, while throughout the country at large peace holds her uninterrupted sway. In the next place, India gains the advantage of a wisely administered and, on the whole, just Government. This, also, is something new to every part of the empire. Among the great Mogul rulers there was one, and only one, who was not only a great ruler but a good one Akbar the Great. Among the many Hindu rulers of different parts of the country, here and there we may read of one who was relatively a good and just man; but the ex- ceptions have been very few, and none of them have been such as could have influenced the empire at large. At pres- ent the people of India have a Government adapted to their present condition, and perhaps, all things considered, as good a Government as any other country in the world en- joys. Lastly, India now has a chance in the race of prog- ress. Beyond all doubt, the country, taken as a whole, has entered upon a new career. The vitality and elasticity which one sees everywhere in a new country like the United States, as might be expected, seems almost absent in a lethargic country like India; but none the less it may be said of India as Galileo said of the world it moves. Her progress may be slow, but it is a great thing for such a country to make progress at all, and it is certainly not too much to say that every step of this progress would have been utterly impos- INDIA AND ENGLAND. 61 sible but for the presence and protection which the Govern- ment of India has been able to extend to the people. It may be proper here to correct some wrong impres- sions, or rather to answer some unjust accusations, which from time to time have been been brought against the Indian Government in American periodicals. A missionary return- ing to America, and moving about freely among the people, very often meets with persons who seem to be laboring under the impression that the British Government of India is simply an organized tyranny ; that the poor millions of the empire are ground down to the very dust; that the country is held by the English solely for purposes of gain ; and that the empire is constantly drained of its wealth for the benefit of the people of a distant nation. Even in India itself it not unfrequently happens that persons are found laboring under the impression that the people are cruelly taxed, and that especially the poor cultivators are robbed of nearly all their earnings in order to meet the exactions which the Govern- ment makes upon them for their lands. All overdrawn pictures of this kind do injustice, and nothing but injus- tice, not only to the English people, but to the Indian Gov- ernment. As a simple matter of fact, the people are not taxed half so heavily as they were in the days of the best of the Mogul rulers. In those olden times harassing taxes of many kinds were imposed such as for weddings, trees, religious assemblies, horses, and cattle while it is recorded among the archives of one of the Mogul emperors that a poll- tax of five dollars was imposed upon every adult male person who did not profess the Mohammedan religion. It seems in- credible that such a tax could ever have been collected, espe- cially when it is remembered that this would consume the earnings of an ordinary laborer for two months. It must also be remembered that money in the days of Akbar and his suc- cessors had more than double its present value. It need hardly be said that no such taxes are imposed at the present time. The great mass of the people are practically exempt 62 INDIA AND MALA YSJA. from taxation altogether, and it has been pointed out that if an ordinary laborer abstains from alcoholic drinks, the only tax that will really reach him will be in the shape of the high duty which is imposed on salt. It will have to be conceded, however, that a large revenue is collected by the Indian Government from the land, and this is not explained so easily to an American reader as to an Englishman. Every person brought up in Great Britain is familiar with the idea of a farmer paying a large part of his income to a landlord; and to the ordinary English mind it is quite sufficient to say that the Government takes the place of the landlord, and as such deals very generously with the cultivator, in order to satisfy him that there is no injustice in the case. Even radical writers, such as the late Professor Fawcett and John Stuart Mill, have pointed out that there is really no land-tax in India at all; that the money taken by the Government is simply so much money that would go into the pocket of the landlord if not given to the Govern- ment, and hence that the cultivator has nothing to complain of. This logic, however, often seems misty to the American reader. Nevertheless, it will surprise most persons who carefully investigate the subject, to find how very generously the Indian Government, in its character as landlord, deals with the people. While carefully drawing a distinction be- tween a tax and what is called land-revenue, the Govern- ment nevertheless deals with the people in collecting the land-rent in a most liberal spirit. The people of India have always been familiar with this method of collecting rev- enue, and when the English power was first established in India, the old-time policy was continued ; but the rates have been reduced from time to time, go that the average land-rent is now hardly more than half what it was fifty years ago. In theory, the State is supposed to receive one-third of the produce of the land, but in practice this is never carried out. Of the gross produce of the land, the amount received by Government averages from three to eight per cent, that Is, INDIA AND ENGLAND. 63 upon the total crop. The highest amount in North India is sixteen per cent, while in some cases it amounts to no more than three per cent. This is owing to the large reductions which are made on account of bad land, uncertain rain-fall, destruction by insects, and other possible injuries, which are all thrown together and a general average drawn, so as to make the reduction quoted. In the Northwest Provinces of India the land-rent amounts, if we put it in the shape of a tax, to about eighty cents per acre, while in the Punjab it is not more than fifty. In Madras it is about eighty-two cents per acre, and in Western India perhaps a little higher. In connection with what has been said above, it ought also to be borne in mind that all the money which is exacted from the people of India is in reality used for India. The British Government, as such, gains no direct revenue from India. All these taxes, and all the public revenues, go directly into the treasury of the Indian Government, and consequently the people of India are maintaining their own Government, not an English Government, and spend their own money in providing for their own welfare. The Amer- ican missionaries in India, to a man, will bear witness that the Government is administered in the interests of the people, and it can not be sufficiently regretted that grave charges against the character of the Government should sometimes be made by persons who lightly assume that the grinding pov- erty of the people is wholly owing to the cruel taxation under which they groan. If any charge can be justly brought by the people of India against their rulers, in connection with taxation, it might, perhaps, be found in the peremptory way in which the policy of free trade has been introduced into the country. When cotton-mills first began to be established in India, alarm was quickly manifested in Manchester circles lest, with the cheap- ness of labor in her favor, India might wrest from Man- chester the supremacy which she enjoyed in cotton manufac- tures. For some years the Indian mills, although very 64 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. prosperous, did not attempt to produce any of the finer qual- ities of cotton goods; but as time passed, it began to be more and more apparent that ultimately India would learn how to compete with all the rest of the world on most advan- tageous terms, and put into the market goods equal in every respect to those sent out from Europe. This prospect pro- duced such a clamor in England that pressure was, it is believed, brought to bear upon the Viceroy of the day, and after one or two attempts at reduction, the broad policy was finally announced, in 1882, of practically making India a free-trade country, and abolishing, not only the duty on cotton goods, but on nearly everything else. The only im- portant reservations were fire-arms, alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and salt. The last-named exception was a most unfortunate one. Salt is a necessity to the poorest people, and from per- sonal observation I long since became convinced that mill- ions of the people in India are not able to buy as much salt as they need. It seemed like a harsh measure, and one not dictated by the most enlightened statesmanship, to throw away a large source of income such as the cotton goods afforded, and cling to the duty on salt, which ultimately must be collected from the most wretchedly poor of all the millions of the land. At this point it must be admitted the Indian has some ground for complaint; but the Indian Gov- ernment would no doubt reply that the error, if committed, was one which aimed at a more liberal policy. A question which is constantly asked, not only in Eng- land and America, but very often in India itself, is one that pertains to the feelings of the people toward their English rulers. " Are the people of India loyal to the British power ?" u As you go among the people, especially in re- mote districts, how do you find them affected towards the English Government ?" " Do you think that at heart the people like us ?" The first of these questions is frequently asked in America; the last two are very often heard in India. If we use the word loyal in a strict sense, it can hardly INDIA AND ENGLAND. 65 be said that the people of India are loyal to the British Government ; but, on the other hand, it would be still more incorrect to say that they are disloyal. The feeling of the great mass of the population a feeling which may be said to have been almost inherited is one of quiet acquiescence, rather than of active support. The great mass of the people of India live in rural villages, and with them the question which always takes precedence of every other is that of quiet and protection from violence and oppression. In olden times they were constantly harassed by raids from robbers, attacks from neighboring chiefs or other hostile villages, and the uncertainty which attends the progress of interminable wars. Thirty years ago, all over North India could be seen flimsy mud walls erected around small towns and villages as a de- fense against unexpected attacks from robbers or other hos- tile bands. But these marks of chronic disorder are rapidly being effaced from the country. Whatever else the people may be deprived of, they certainly enjoy the blessings of peace and quiet. Robberies still take place; but, as a general rule, they are attended with no more violence than when sim- ilar crimes are committed in European countries. The peo- ple who live in villages appreciate the peace and quiet which they now enjoy, and, without an exception, they attribute it to the power of the Government whose protection they enjoy. I have lived among these village people a great deal, and talked with many of them who knew that I was not an Englishman, and also who had sufficient confidence in me to speak with freedom, and I believe I am correct in saying that the general feeling is one of cheerful acquiescence in the present state of affairs. They are satisfied with the British Government, and if the question were put to a vote would, no doubt, choose it permanently rather than run the risk of finding other masters who might not deal so gently with them. To understand this feeling the reader must remember that the great mass of the people in India have always been familiar with the rule of strangers, and it does not occur to 5 66 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. them that it is within the range of possibilities that they should ever govern themselves. The question inevitably presents itself to their minds somewhat in this shape: "Our rulers must be aliens in any case. Shall we be satisfied with the English, or can we hope to find better masters if we ac- cept a change ?" When put to them in this way, nine out of every ten of the country people will reply that they prefer their present rulers. It must be remembered, however, that over fifty millions of the people of India are Mohammedans. A great many of these, certainly more than half, are purely Indian by birth and association, and are probably about as well satisfied with En- glish rule as their Hindu neighbors. It is very different, however, with the more prominent Mohammedans, many of whom can remember the kings of Oudh and the palmy days of Lucknow, and all of whom have heard from their fathers of the good old times when the Mussalmans were the ruling race throughout all Northern India. The special privileges which they enjoyed in former times have all been taken away, and now they must meet the Hindu on equal terms, not only in the courts of justice and in public service, but in the great arena where all the people of the land must contend alike for whatever success they may win. Many of the better edu- cated Mohammedans are enlightened and liberal-minded men, and are as well disposed toward the British Government as their Hindu neighbors ; but all who know the followers of Islam as a people will agree that an undertone of hostility to their Christian rulers, not always carefully suppressed, prevails among them. Of such men it may be truly said that at heart they are disloyal, and probably only await their opportunity for manifesting their feelings in hostile acts. Among the younger class of educated Hindus, also, a feeling of more or less pronounced hostility to English rule is indicated with a freedom which would surprise an outside observer. The press of India is as free as that of England, and the newspapers discuss the policy of the Government of INDIA AND ENGLAND. 67 the day very much after the example set them by the news- papers of England. Indeed, it is unfortunate that by copy- ing too faithfully the spirit and style of their English con- temporaries, the Indian papers have fallen into a habit of indiscriminate praise or censure, and of unrestrained expres- sions of feeling which often does them great injustice. The private thought of the writers is probably to the effect that as in England statesmen and editors say all manner of harsh and violent things about their opponents without meaning more than half of it, so in India they must denounce where they are expected to criticise, and condemn where they ought to inquire. If a stranger from India or China were to take up an ordinary daily newspaper, either in New York or London, and read the fierce attacks made in its columns upon the Government of the day, he might be led to suppose that the writer was bitterly hostile to the Government under whose protection he lived, and even ready to take up arms to assist in its overthrow. If we judge a large and increas- ing class of young men in India who talk and write after this style, it will undoubtedly appear as if they were disloyal to the British Government, and cherished bitter and hostile feelings against it. To some extent it must be admitted that such an accusation would be just, but in the strict sense of the word it would be going very much too far to assume that these men are really disloyal. One cause of the discontent of the educated classes 'is found in their disappointment at not finding employment 'under Government when they complete their education. Eor some reason, all pupils in Indian schools persist in cherishing the notion that they place the Government under an obliga- tion to themselves when they consent to accept an education, and when ready to enter upon active life they feel bitterly disappointed if no door of employment is open to them. In the nature of the case, Government service can not be given to more than a very small minority of all who secure even a good English education, and as the schools and colleges of 68 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. the country are pouring forth a constantly increasing multi- tude of fairly well educated young men, many of whom earn a precarious living by working for nominal wages, while many more can not find any employment at all, the blame is at once, however unjustly, laid at the door of Govern- ment, and a spirit of discontent is thus fomented, which may at a future day become more serious than it is at present. There is also a certain amount of discontent and ill-feel- ing among a somewhat limited class of respectable natives, especially in rural districts, who do not enjoy the local pres- tige which was freely accorded them or their fathers in olden times. The higher classes in India, especially if they be- long, not only to a higher class, but to a higher caste, are the last people in the world to look with complacency upon the leveling process which English rule, even with all its limitations and reservations, is constantly carrying out. I have often met with singular, and sometimes amusing, illus- trations of the ill-feeling which lurks in the minds of some of the people who feel that their former prestige has been ruthlessly destroyed. One example will suffice to show how strangely our modern ideas of equality before the law are viewed by Hindus of this class. I was once spending a day in a remote travelers' bungalow among the mountains, when an elderly native, who belonged to a family of much local distinction, called on me, and, in the course of a long conver- sation, begged permission to speak with all freedom about public affairs. He told me that he understood fully that I was not an Englishman, and wished me to give him my views as to the relative merits of the Russian and English Govern- ments. He then proceeded to speak with some bitterness of the wrongs which men of his class had to endure under the Indian Government, and when I called his attention to the fact that there was much better public order and much more progress and prosperity in the province in which we were both then living than in the little native State west of us, he at once took issue with me. I could not convince him that INDIA AND ENGLAND. 69 the people tinder British rule were in any respect better off than those in the native State. I then appealed to his knowledge of the country previous to the advent of the Brit- ish. It happened that the little province in which we were had been overrun by the Nepalese, and the people suffered so cruelly from their conquerors that a new adjective has been incorporated into their language gurkhaK the word being simply the tribal name of their conquerors, but now in com- mon use made to mean cruel or tyrannical. My visitor did not for a moment hesitate to say that he would prefer even the Nepalese to the peaceful rule of the English. I pressed my point by referring him to the courts, and said : " The poorest man in the province can go down to Srinagar and make his appeal to the magistrate against any one who tries to oppress him or do him wrong. All are equal before the law, and the magistrate will render as impartial justice as you can possibly ask or expect." So far from pacifying my old visitor, this remark simply added fuel to the flame, and he replied with great energy : " That is just what I complain of. In the days of our native Rajas, if any man without a well-established character ventured to go into court and lodge a complaint against a respectable person like myself, if he did not make good his accusation he knew very well that he would probably have both his ears cut off and be turned out of court. Hence, in those days no such men ever ventured to make a complaint or show their faces in any place near a court ; but now see how it is ! Any low-caste man in this province can not only go down to the English court at Sri- nagar and lodge a complaint agains.t me, but he can compel me to meet him in open court face to face, and answer his questions, and defend myself as if I were a common man of no standing whatever ! It is this that we complain of. There is no honor, no sense of right, no justice left. That which you call justice and impartiality is really wrong and oppression." I could not convince niy indignant visitor that he was taking the wrong view of the case, and he 70 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. went away apparently confirmed, rather than shaken, in his opinion. It is easy to see that it will be a long time before the peo- ple of India, taken as a people, will be able to appreciate all the benefits of the Government under which they seem des- tined to live. As said in a previous chapter, it is altogether probable that they would prefer a bad Government of their own to a good Government administered by strangers, if they believed that the possibility of a choice was within their reach. They are simply human beings with the common instincts of other men, and would undoubtedly prefer to have rulers of their own; but a long and painful history has made them familiar with the idea of being ruled by strangers, and hence they not only accept the inevitable, but I think are persuaded that, all things considered, their present Gov- ernment is the best they can hope to have, and one with which they have reason to be satisfied. Ctjapfc^r Y. THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. IN the imperial census of India for 1881, fourteen religions are recognized as belonging to the empire; namely, the Hindu, Mohammedan, Aboriginal, Buddhist, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Satnami, Kabirpanthi, Nat-worship, Parsee, Jewish, Brahmo, and Kumbhipathia. These names are ranged in the order of the numerical strength of the several religions, from which it will be seen that Christianity stands fifth in the list, and if Burma is left out and only India proper con- sidered, Christianity takes the fourth place. The above di- vision, however, is not very accurate. Contrary to the gen- eral impression in Christian lands, there are not only gods many but also sects many in India; and hence several of the so-called religions enumerated in the above list are, strictly speaking, nothing more than parts of the great composite structure known as Hinduism. It is very often made a sub- ject of lament in England and America that missionaries should retain their denominational names after going to In- , dia, as they must thereby bewilder the simple people, and make it impossible for them to understand how the strangers can be messengers of the one God, and followers of one and the same Saviour. As a practical matter of fact, however, this difficulty exists only in the minds of those who are fond of making such lamentations. During a missionary experience now nearing a third of a century, I have never in a single instance experienced any difficulty from this source. The people of India are perfectly familiar with divisions and sub- divisions in every religious system with which they have been acquainted. An intelligent Mohammedan once told me 71 72 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. that there were at least a thousand different minor sects among the Mohammedans of India. Be that as it may, they certainly are divided into two great camps. As for the Hindus, the whole system is but a conglomeration of divis- ions and subdivisions. It is only when the missionary comes in contact with the intelligent natives who have learned the objection from European friends, that he hears any one pro- fessing to be bewildered by the sectarian or denominational differences of missionaries. Keeping these facts in mind, we may at once eliminate from the above list at least three of the so-called religions; namely, the Satnami, Kabirpanthi, and Kumbhipathia. Even the Brahmos, a modern theistic sect of reformed Hindus, are popularly regarded by the peo- ple as a Hindu body. The mass of the people of India may be separated into two great divisions, Hindus and Mohammedans, in the pro- portion of four-fifths of the former to one-fifth of the latter. The term Aboriginal, used above, is merely a word to indi- cate the inability of the census officers to find any special term which could be applied to the religion of the aboriginal tribes. About seven millions of them are so distinct and separate in all that pertains to religious ideas and worship that they can not properly be included under the term Hindu. Perhaps the utmost that the word can be taken to mean is that these people can not properly be classed among either the Hindus or Mohammedans. A better division could be made by strik- ing off from the list of both Hindus and Mohammedans a large number of ignorant and superstitious people who in point of intelligence and civilization do not rise very high above the aborigines, and including the whole of them under the term demon-worshipers. The missionary constantly en- counters this peculiar cult wherever he goes among the peo- ple, and so far as my own observation has extended, I incline to the opinion that it assumes a more decided and repulsive character among a certain class of Mohammedans than among the Hindus. If I were asked to give an account in a few RELIGIONS. 73 words of the prevailing religions of India, I should say that the Hindus take the lead, followed at a great distance by the Mohammedans, while the third class of religionists are demon- worshipers, numbering, probably, not less than forty or fifty millions of the people. The Nat- worship, which is spoken of in the census report as peculiar to Burma, is but another form of this same demon-worship. Sometimes the worshipers of a demon are Hindus in the observance of caste, and of many of the forms of Hindu-worship; but, to their minds, the idol be- fore which they present their offerings is the representation, not of a god, but of a demon. Multitudes of the more igno- rant people believe in a kind of possession very much, in some of its forms, like that spoken of in the New Testament, but more frequently assuming phases peculiar to spiritist me- diums. The Mohammedans have received through their Ko- ran a more definite idea of Satan, as the prince of devils and the ruler of the powers of darkness, than the Hindus have ever acquired, and hence devil-worship proper is found in a more openly avowed form among them than among the Hin- dus or aborigines. In some form or other, however, this kind of faith, or misfaith, is exceedingly prevalent in India, and is strangely interwoven, not only with the ordinary re- ligious ideas of the people, but with many mischievous prac- tices which, in other nations and in various past times, have been known as witchcraft, necromancy, and various forms of the black art, and last, although never to be called least, modern spiritualism, or, more correctly speaking, spiritism. In subsequent chapters a brief account will be given of the leading religious systems of India ; but before attempt- ing that task it may be proper to speak of a few points of very general agreement among the people in their religious notions. The first remark which I shall make is one which will, no doubt, surprise many readers, especially if they have never been beyond the pale of Christian lands. A common impression prevails in England and America that all persons brought up in what are called heathen countries are abso- 74 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. lutely ignorant of God. I am frank to confess that when, in early youth, I came to India as a missionary, I was under the impression that after learning the language my first work would be to convince the people that there was a God, the Creator of heaven and earth ; and hence it was a surprise to me to find, when able to talk to the people, that when I spoke of the great Being who had made all things, nobody was ever disposed to dispute my statement. Through all the years which have passed since, I believe I have never once found a human being who denied the existence of a Supreme Deity, the Creator of all things unless it was a person edu- cated in England or Germany or the United States ; and in every such case I believe it will be found, on examination, that the man who accepts atheism is one who has been edu- cated into this view. The people of India, it is very true, act and talk and seem to think, as if they did not accept the ex- istence of God as a matter settled beyond all question. Nev- ertheless, whatever the experience of others may be, I can say that, while I have often penetrated to villages and hamlets where no other Christian had ever been seen or heard, and while I have talked to men and women who never could have had an opportunity of hearing from any one about even the simplest of the doctrines of Christianity, yet everywhere, when I have spoken of Him who made the heavens and the earth, who reared up the mountains and put the stars in their places, and made the earth to bloom and blossom and bear fruit for man, all my hearers at once have fully agreed with me, without any hesitation or reservation. Whence have they received this idea? According to the popular theory of the day, it will be said, no doubt, that it was brought into India by the Aryan ancestors of the present Brahmans, or if not brought with them, developed by them ; but this assumption is not only a mere guess, but, in view of all the facts of the case, is positively incredible. For instance^ the Nat- worshipers of Burma are a people who never could have received the slightest impression of any kind from the RELIGIONS. 75 Aryan invaders of India ; nor is there reason to believe that they owe anything to any people more advanced than them- selves in any part of the world. Mr. Bourdillon, one of the census officers in India, a gentleman of ability, writes of these people that " their worship is the first form of religion that primitive society has developed. They possess neither creed nor dogma, neither churches nor teachers, and there runs through them all the idea of a great Spirit who is to be worshiped in his various forms or manifestations in the world of nature, and of inferior deities, harmful or beneficent, whose wrath must be averted or favor secured." Here we find a primitive people, with the process of evolution in its first stages, and yet they have underlying their crudest notions a belief in a Supreme Spirit; and as often as we go back to the earliest stage of society and to the most primitive standard of human thought so far as India, at least, is con- cerned we everywhere meet this idea of one great Supreme Being. Whatever the explanation of this may be, it can not be accounted for by saying that the Aryans brought the idea with them. They found it in India when they came, and to this day it lingers everywhere in the land; and I believe that careful examination will show that it is found every- where in the world. But while all agree in recognizing the existence of a Supreme Being, this idea is everywhere over- laid by the common error that, for all practical purposes, this Supreme Being is beyond their reach ; and hence inter- mediary beings of all kinds and classes are provided by the imagination, or by crafty priests, and the simple people made to believe that they must depend upon all manner of visible and invisible lords and masters, rather than upon Him who claims the supreme allegiance of all hearts. Another word needs to be added to complete what has just been said about the general belief in a Supreme Being. When I first became a missionary, I fully expected that, after learning the language of the people, it would be necessary for me first to teach them the existence of a God, and next 76 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. to unfold the idea of a revelation of his will. In my sim- plicity and ignorance, I fully expected that, after persuading the people to accept God's revealed word, it would be neces- sary for me, from that word, to teach them the difference be- tween right and wrong; but after learning the language, I found that the great essential lines of demarkation between good and evil, between right and wrong, between justice and injustice, were recognized by them not as clearly, perhaps, as among Christians, and yet distinctly recognized. I have never found it necessary to use a single word of argument to convince any native of India that lying, stealing, adultery, cruelty, murder, drunkenness, covetousness, dishonoring parents, false witness, and other such sins, were sinful. In some way that distinc- tion has been written upon the heart and conscience of the great mass of the people. Here and there the lines may be a little obscured, and the missionary everywhere quickly perceives that the moral standard recognized by the people is one which conforms much more closely to the patriarchal than to the Christian code, even when emasculated by the later in- fluences which, to so great an extent, have crept into the Christian Church. Nevertheless, these two great facts are not only striking in themselves, but worthy of the most careful thought and inquiry on the part of all Christian students, while at the same time they afford a basis of opera- tion for the missionary when he begins his great work, the value of which he appreciates more and more as the years go by. God has not left any of the people whom he has created and placed in this world in such absolute spiritual darkness as has too generally been supposed. The people of India, without regard to creed, are almost universally believers in fatalism in some form or other. It forms an important dogma in the creed of the Mohammedan, and is accepted universally by every Hindu. Pious Hindus believe that each child, on the sixth night after its birth, has its destiny for good or for evil imprinted upon its forehead; and they believe that the convolutions of the brain, if examined, RELIGIONS. 77 would show exactly what the fate of the little one is to be. It need hardly be said that a belief in fatalism, so universal and unquestionably received by all classes of the people, has a benumbing effect upon their character, and not only makes them ready to yield to discouragement, under the impression that fate is against them, but prevents them from attempting any great achievement, especially of a moral character. It no doubt has contributed much to give them the patience and quiet endurance for which they are somewhat distinguished; but this does not for a moment counterbalance the evil in- fluences of this wrong notion. It is worth something to a man for him to be able to die in apparently stolid indifference, simply because he believes that the manner and time of his death have been written on his forehead in his infancy ; but this is a poor compensation for the paralyzing of his energy and the spiritual lethargy which settles permanently upon him, when he is taught to believe that his destiny is in no sense whatever within his own control. Another popular form of error, which has rested like a blight upon the Indian mind for untold ages, is their well- known belief in pantheism. In some form or other, not only the orthodox Hindus, but nearly all classes of the Indian people seem to be under the spell of this illogical but strangely fascinating doctrine. It may be stated by different schools of religious thought in different language, or even de- nied altogether by some ; but practically it is the same thing rising to the surface wherever one goes, and asserting itself in all manner of direct and indirect ways. The most ignorant idolater, who bows down before a rude image made out of baked mud, will excuse himself by saying that it is not the mud which he worships, but the god which is in the mud, or, possibly, the god of which this mud is a manifestation. Others, more philosophical, or at least more mystical, have been taught to state the case somewhat differently, and say there is nothing in the universe but God, and that the idol, and the trees, and the stars, and all external things, are bufc 78 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. illusions of the senses. But a little inquiry will show that it is essentially the same delusive notion that is in the mind of both parties a confounding of the Creator with the creat- ure, and the practical denial of a Supreme Being, under pre- tense of making every object not simply an evidence of God's handiwork, but a visible manifestation of God himself. This very ancient belief may not seem so very harmful at first sight to ignorant people, like the mass of the natives of India; but, as a matter of fact, it leads to endless mazes of error, and inevitably lowers their moral standard. The average mind can not draw distinctions which may be clear enough to the philosopher, and with the multitude it is but a single step from the deification of nature to the sanctification of sin. No notion is more persistent in the Hindu mind than that sin can not be attributed to power; and when a whole people can be persuaded that wrong is not wrong when God is the actor, religion at once sinks into utter moral debasement, and all moral standards become obscured. The mind is dark- ened, and the fine edge of the conscience dulled by this per- nicious system ; and when its extraordinary hold on the Indian mind becomes fully known, wonder need no longer be expressed that people gifted with such good intellects have made so little progress during the past two thousand years. The first three chapters of Genesis, brief and fragmentary as they are, can only be fairly appreciated when their influence upon human thought and moral conduct is fully considered. One has to live in India a third of a century to be able to 'appreciate the simple story of creation and man's first ex- perience in Eden. More vital religious truth, and more of those truths which primitive people need, are crowded into those three chapters than can be found in all the sacred books of all the ancient and modern nations of the earth. The ex- istence of God, his spirituality, personality, supreme author- ity ; the absolute subordination of matter; the nature of sin, of temptation, of guilt, of alienation from God, of man's free moral agency, including the direct personal responsibility of RELIGIONS. 79 each individual, all these vital truths are taught by word and illustration so simply and so clearly that peasant and philosopher alike comprehend them. Whether Moses wrote the story or not, whether it was all written at once or col- lected from different countries and different ages, the extraor- dinary fact remains that those three chapters have cut out the channels in which the best thought and purest convic- tions of the race have flowed for ages upon ages past. But for them, modern civilization, modern thought, and modern progress must have been forever impossible. But for them, the Anglo-Saxon intellect would to this day be struggling vainly to free itself from the interminable cobwebs of error which have, through all the long years of its history, obscured the vision of the Indian branch of the Aryan race. While no attempt is made in this chapter to give, even in outline, an account of the popular religious systems of India, it may not be amiss to insert here the latest religious statis- tics of the empire, as furnished by the census taken in Feb- ruary, 1891. The aggregate population indicated in this table is larger than that furnished by the general table in which population alone is given; but for practical purposes these figures may be accepted as sufficiently accurate to indicate the relative strength of the religious divisions of the people. The small but influential body known as Parsees, not given in this table, numbers only 90,000. 80 INDIA AND MALA YS1A. Ct>apber VI. HINDUISM. IT would require a volume much larger than this to contain even an abridged account of the rise, progress, and present condition of the gigantic religious system popularly known by the name of Hinduism. It would require, for instance, a history dating back at least three thousand years, a sketch of a series of philosophical systems which touch at many points the speculations of many of the ablest thinkers of ancient and modern times, of a ritualism more elaborate than that of the Levites, of a social system the most complex and cumbersome ever known, and of a polytheism which touches at one or more points every other form of polytheism known among men. Sir Monier Williams very truthfully remarks that "no description of Hinduism can be exhaustive which does not touch on almost every religious and philosophical idea that the world has ever known." No elaborate description of such a religion can be attempted in the present volume, writ- ten as it is for the special purpose of putting the India of to- day before the American Christian public ; hence I shall only speak briefly of that religious system called Hinduism, which the missionary encounters when he begins his work in India. In the first place, the missionary, on his arrival, is puzzled and disappointed. He does not find the Hinduism of which he has read ; and perhaps for years he struggles in vain to get a clear idea of the religion of the people among whom he lives. Very few of them, even of the more intelligent, can give him much light. They are accustomed to accept life, with all its incidents, as they find it, and never pause to ask the reason why, unless when some new course of action is preseuted to 83 84 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. them. They are found worshiping one idol to-day, and another to-morrow; attending one festival this week, and another of a very different character a month or two hence, without clearly understanding why they go to one or the other, or what the original character or ultimate purpose of either festival is. The idea of systematic religious truth is as foreign to their minds as it is to the outward faith which they profess by word and worship. As often as the missionary tries to reduce what he sees before him to some kind of order, he loses himself in interminable mazes of sacred writings, popular tradition, and outward forms of wor- ship, which baffle all his attempts to reduce them to intelli- gible order. I can not do better than to quote again from Sir Monier Williams : "Starting from the Veda, Hinduism has ended in embracing something from all religions, and in presenting phases suited to all minds. It is all-tolerant, all-compliant, all-comprehensive, all-absorbing. It has its spiritual and its material aspect, its esoteric and exoteric, its subjective and objective, its rational and irrational, its pure and its impure. It may be compared to a huge polygon, or irregular multi- lateral figure. It has one side for the practical, another for the se- verely moral, another for the devotional and imaginative, another for the sensuous and sensual, and another for the philosophical and spec- ulative. Those who rest in ceremonial observances find it all-suffi- cient; those who deny the efficacy of works, and make faith the one requisite, need not wander from its pale; those who are addicted to sensual objects may have their tastes gratified; those who delight in meditating on the nature of God and man, the relation of matter and spirit, the mystery of separate existence, and the origin of evil, may here indulge their love of speculation. And this capacity for almost endless expansion causes almost endless sectarian divisions, even among the followers of any particular line of doctrine." It is usual to explain the present extraordinary compre- hensiveness of Hinduism by beginning with the ancient Vedas, and tracing up to the present day the gradual devel- opment of the system which now admits without challenge all truths and all errors, all virtues and all vices, and only HINDUISM. 85 insists that all shall wear its brand. But it is not strictly correct to speak of the Vedas as in any proper sense belong- ing to Hinduism. Of the Vedic religion it can only be said that it was once professed by the ancestors of the present Hindus, and that reformers in the present time try in vain to draw the popular mind back again to what they believe a purer collection of sacred books than those of more recent date. For many years no one knows how many the an- cient Aryans, with a more or less distinct recognition of one Supreme Deity, worshiped the chief powers of nature, and maintained and lived a simple, patriarchal kind of life. At a later period, a class of priests make their appearance among them, to whom, in due time, the name of Brahman is assigned. It is not clearly known, and probably never will be known, how these priests originated. We only know that at an early period the Brahman is found in a prominent place, and persistently pushing his way, not only to a recog- nized position as a religious teacher, but to other posts ot authority wherever an opportunity was offered him. In the course of long years the well-known system of caste grew up, and the Brahrnau was found at the head of the social scale. The soldier naturally took the second place, and at certain periods it would seem, from references in the sacred books, that he even compelled the Brahman to recognize his superiority. The third caste, which used to be stated in all books on India as that of the merchants, was really the farmer class, which, in time, was made to include the simple traders of early times ; while a large class called Sudras, or servants, who were held in utter subjection, were probably the descendants of conquered tribes, who were incorporated among the Aryan settlers, and permitted to live very much as the Gibeonites of old were granted a precarious existence among the ancient Hebrews. The evil principle of caste was incorporated into this first division; but in the nature of the case it would have been impossible to have preserved this fourfold division unbroken through many generations. 86 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Alliances whether irregular or with the sanction of marriage, we can not trll were undoubtedly formed, from time to time, between higher castes and lower; and these, each in its turn, gave rise to new castes, until, instead of the original four, it would now be impossible to state even approximately how many castes there are in India. While the ancient chief di- visions remain, each in its turn has been divided and subdi- vided, while others, again, from the great masses of outlying people, have been incorporated into the Hindu system, so that now it would be no exaggeration to say that there are many thousands of Hindu castes. The rise of caste among the Hindus marks a most im- portant point in the development of the system. It is the one vital issue which the Hindus never lose sight of, and meets the missionary everywhere. The admission of a new caste into the general community does not in any way affect those already in existence. It merely means that a certain number of persons, for reasons satisfactory to themselves, have united in a new brotherhood, or social guild, and sub- jected themselves to the restraints which the general caste system imposes. So long as they do this of their own accord, no one cares, and the general body of Hindus is in no wise affected by their action. But if they attempt to form such an organization, and at the same time ignore caste altogether, it becomes a very different case, and by that one act they put themselves utterly without the pale of the general Hindu community. In like manner, Brahmanism has survived all the changes which, in the course of hundreds and even thou- sands of years, have passed over the people, and maintains its position as rigidly as ever. These two points are cardinal to the system a recognition of caste, and a recognition of Brah- mauism. No man can be orthodox, in the popular sense of the word, and retain an unchallenged position in the Hindu community, who refuses to respect the Brahman, or to regard the sanctions of caste. Some centuries before the Christian era, Buddhism took HINDUISM. 87 its rise in India, at first in the guise of a great relig- ious reform. It has been well pointed out that it was, in reality, a great Hindu heresy. It affected most profoundly the development of Hinduism for a long period, and in some parts of the country seemed to have well-nigh overthrown it. When, however, after many centuries of varied fortunes, Hin- duism permanently gained the ascendency, it won, and finally retained the lead, by forming what would seem to have been almost an avowed alliance with every form of gross idolatry with which India was at that time filled. The popular tra- ditions and superstitions of the people were incorporated without hesitation into the Hindu system, and in this way many of the most popular deities in the modern Hindu pan- theon were really borrowed from the ignorant and gross idol- aters of the country, who had been utterly despised by the Brahmans in their more palmy days. It will thus be seen that the Hinduism of to-day is comparatively a modern re- ligion. It is but remotely connected with the ancient Vedic religion, and in many of its forms could not be traced back even to the Brahmauic period. In one of the quotations given above, Hinduism is spoken of as a tolerant religion. This statement, however, needs to be qualified. The missionary, when he begins his work in India, does not find Hinduism by any means a tolerant re- ligion, and is bewildered for a time when he is told that it is more tolerant than Christianity. Many superficial writers in Christian lands play with the words " tolerant " and " toler- ation " in such a manner as to make it appear that Christian- ity is the most intolerant system in the world ; but, as a mat- ter of fact, it is the only religion that really understands the principle of true toleration. The Hindu, when he speaks of toleration, means that if you let him alone he will let you alone; that if you will let him maintain his religion in peace, and not attempt to teach his boys any other religious truths than those which were known to his ancestors, he will let your boys alone, and not attempt to proselyte them. He 88 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. assumes, as an axiom never to be questioned, that all people are to remain in the religious household in which they are born; and very graciously consents to let all other people live in the same peace which he enjoys, so long as there is a truce to religious proselytism. Mohammedans, in like manner, will often concede as much. If it is distinctly understood that no Mohammedan is to be allowed to change his faith, they are often willing to allow Christians all manner of privileges, and have often been applauded in public magazines for their ex- traordinary toleration. But the true test to apply to a Mo- hammedan or to a Hindu is for one of his sons to venture to take the liberty of changing his religious views. In a second the toleration of the father is at an end. He understands nothing whatever about the freedom of the conscience or the religious rights of the individual. Hence the Hindu has ad- mitted one horrible and revolting form of idolatry after another into his system, but always with the understanding that there is to be no proselytism, and that the people thus incorporated into the Hindu body politic will never fail to maintain rigidly the standard rules of caste, by which they bind themselves not to eat, or drink, or smoke, or intermarry with people of other castes, and also to retain and manifest a proper respect for the omnipresent Brahman. This is not tol- eration in any proper sense of the word, as the reader can easily see. Modern Hinduism, then, is simply a religious name which is applied to all the forms of idolatry which were found in India during the two or three centuries following the fall of Buddhism, all incorporated together under a common name, and subjected to the rules of caste, and to an outward respect for the authority of the Brahmans as the religious leaders of the community. It is a system which necessarily includes some very evil doctrines and practices, accepting, as it unhes- itatingly does, men who believe all possible forms of truth or error, as the case may be. The atheist and the fetich wor- shiper are equally at home in a system which makes every- HINDUISM. 89 thing of outward conformity to artificial tests, and cares nothing for individual beliefs or practice. Even reformed sects, which originally started in direct opposition to caste and Brahman domination, have not been able to separate themselves wholly from the Hindu community, because they have not been brave enough to take a position of absolute in- dependence. The reader can see at a glance how these facts must affect the position of the Christian missionary. He comes to India to teach certain absolute truths, and he has learned to reverence truth to such a degree that he can not for a mo- ment compromise with error; nor can he tolerate error, in the proper sense of the word. He is willing to tolerate the vic- tim of error, and to allow him to teach his error with all freedom; but he can not condone it, or accept it as prac- tically equal to that which he regards as truth, but must op- pose it, and expose it, by turning in the light of God's word upon it, so that its hideous outlines may be distinctly seen, and the people persuaded to forsake it. In like manner he sees at a glance that no man can be, in the best sense of the word, a man, in the free use of his mind and in free obedi- ence to his conscience, unless he can be induced to trample on the system of caste. He also sees that Brahman suprem- acy is a stifling, crushing burden, which rests upon the people, and must be thrown off before there can be any real progress toward a better religious and social existence in the land. The result is, that the Hindu almost instinctively recognizes the missionary at first as a foe, and always as a religious op- ponent; and for a long time it is impossible for him to com- prehend how a man can be opposed to caste and to Brahman domination, and yet be tolerant of the existence of both. In other words, the Hindu assumes that the missionary must use unfair means of some kind in the prosecution of his mission; and as he has never in his life acted on the principle of per- fect religious freedom, he is incapable of 'understanding what the missionary means when he says he will leave the whole 90 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. matter to the free choice of the old and young whom he teaches. To propose to a Hindu that men are to be allowed to choose for themselves, and that no man is to interfere with them when they make their choice, is to introduce a rule which seems to him a thousand years ahead of the age. He can not understand it, and for many years the missionary has patiently to bide his time, until one illusion after another passes away, as the people begin to turn to Chris- tianity and exercise the freedom which God, in his provi- dence, has placed within their reach. While the utmost diversity of opinion prevails among the Hindus, there is a very general agreement among them in relation to a few most important doctrines, all of which are founded upon radical error. With very few exceptions, they all believe in the transmigration of the soul after death. The men of to-day have lived before, either in a higher or low r er state, and they will live again after death. The bad man will be born again in a degraded form, and thus pun- ished for his sins, while the good man will be born with a nobler nature, and thus rewarded. The serpent or the jackal of to-day may have been a human being ages ago, and is now undergoing punishment for past sins. The Christian idea of heaven and hell is hardly perceived by the Hindu. He, too, believes in a heaven and a hell, but each is a mere episode in the long and dreary progress of the soul towards its ulti- mate destiny. Neither is final, and not every soul is des- tined to enjoy or suffer the one or the other. The missionary needs to understand this well, else much of his gospel will be misunderstood. The Rev. S. Knowles, of Oudh, said, some years ago, that after many years of preaching to the Hindus he was finally surprised to discover that he was not under- stood by them at this point, and that a new interest was at once evoked when he began to proclaim that Jesus Christ, at a single stroke, could deliver the soul from all its wander- ings, and give it rest and peace in God. To hold out to a Hindu the hope of escape from future transmigration, is very HINDUISM. 91 much the same as to offer the hope of deliverance from a future hell, aud eternal felicity in heaven, to one accustomed to Western modes of thought. Another pernicious error found everywhere among the Hindus is, that the union of the soul with the body is neces- sarily evil, and the source of constant evil to every one. This is true of every such union that is, of every birth in the present and coming ages. It is a striking fact that while such an opinion would be instantly denied by every intelli- gent person in England or America who bears the Christian name, yet, practically, very many people seem to assume that this doctrine is true. Practically, very many persons, if not indeed a large majority, assume that the evil of life in the present world can be traced to our union with a material body. The thought is not thus expressed, but this is the practical outcome. Every one hopes to be all right when he gets out of this world, assuming that the body which con- nects him with this world is the connecting link between him and all his miseries, and forgetting that good or evil is found in ourselves, and not in the house of clay in which, for a time, we chance to dwell. In India, however, the universal acceptance of this religious tenet leads to all manner of mis- taken notions and practices. The body is regarded as an enemy, and treated accordingly. If enfeebled by fasting, punished by painful austerities, and its dissolution hastened by neglect, it is all, in the eyes of the pious Hindu, working out the best interest of the individual. This also tends powerfully to support the fatalism spoken of in a previous chapter, naturally leading the individual to assume that while in the body he can not help himself, and must accept the evil that comes to him as a part of his inevitable fate. Hinduism is well known in Western lands for its doctrine of incarnations a doctrine which very naturally has created no little interest in the minds of Christians, who recognize the absolute importance of a divine incarnation to their own sys- tem. Thus far, however, students of Indian mythology have 92 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. not found very much in the Hindu doctrine of special value to Christian theologians. The incarnations of Vishnu are ten in number, nine of which have already taken place, while the tenth is believed to be still future. These incar- nations are now admitted by nearly all Indian students to have been comparatively modern, and little trace of the doc- trine is found in the more ancient Hindu writings. Various theories have been proposed to account for the origin of such a belief, and for the free use that has been made of it in the domain of mythology; but thus far conjecture is the only aid which the student finds when searching for the rise and progress of this now prominent and very popular belief. ^Ve only know that in other countries than India and Judsea, a similar belief has often been 'entertained, and may very easily assume that a felt want of the soul found expression in some past age of Hinduism, probably by the aid of one of the many devotional thinkers, or speculators, who from time to time, in past ages, appeared in Hindu society, and gave new turns to religious thought and worship. The coming incarnation, which is to be the last of the series, is popularly known in North India as the " sinless incarnation." He is announced to appear in the city of Sambhal, in Rohilkhand, although in other parts of India this tradition does not seem to be known, or at least not generally accepted. All agree, however, that when he comes he is to put an end to the present age, destroy the wicked, and establish righteousness upon the earth. All creation is to be renewed, and the world of the future is to be one of beauty and purity and joy. Some missionaries and many native preachers make much use of this tradition by proclaiming that the sinless incarnation has already come; and in some cases they succeed in not only attracting hearers, but stirring up a very lively spirit of in- quiry concerning the character and history of the great in- carnation of the Christians. The well-known belief of the Hindus in a sacred Triad, known as Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and HINDUISM. 93 Shiva the Destroyer, has led many to suppose that the Chris- tian doctrine of a Divine Trinity is faintly reflected in this feature of Hinduism; but a close examination of the Hindu system quickly dispels this idea. There is no real unity in the Hindu trinity. It is a triad, but not a trinity. Vishnu and Shiva are often represented as antagonistic, and bitter, long- standing feuds have often occurred between the votaries of the two deities. It is very true that in popular phrase, and ac- cording to philosophic tradition, the three deities are spoken of as Trimurti that is, three-formed, or triply manifested but in the strife of rival sects this idea is utterly lost. No one thinks of Vishnu and Shiva as standing in any more special relation to one another than Neptune and Pluto occupied in classic mythology. The idea of a supreme Triad was evidently evolved somewhat slowly, and certainly seems to illustrate the necessity for such a manifestation of the invisible God as we find in the Father, Son, and Spirit, revealed in the Bible ; but all analogy ceases at the point of origin of the Hindu deities. Brahma, the so-called Creator, stands wholly in the back- ground in the popular mind, and is said to have only one temple in all India. He is seldom worshiped, and has but few avowed followers. Vishnu, the Preserver, is brought into great prominence by his numerous incarnations, and is probably the most popular member of the Triad. Shiva, however, is the most universally revered, probably owing to the fact that in some of his forms he becomes an object of terror to his votaries, and fear, added to superstition, is a great motive power in the Hindu mind. In India the " De- stroyer " is not known by the name Shiva. His earlier name was Rudra, who was a veritable destroyer ; but in time he became known in another form and with another name Shiva, the Reproducer thus taking up, in part at least, the work which originally had been assigned to Brahma. As Shiva, he restored what he, as Rudra, had destroyed. Next he assumed the form of a great ascetic, with a naked body smeared with ashes, wearing matted hair, and forming a 94 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. repulsive object, which is faithfully imitated by multitudes of devotees to the present day. A fourth form, supposed to be of modern origin, is that of a malignant destroyer in fact, a demon rather than a god. In this character he bears the name of Bhairava, and wears garlands of serpents and a string of skulls for a necklace, and in every respect forms as repulsive and malignant a character as the active Oriental imagination can depict. He appears in still another charac- ter, somewhat the reverse of the last, as a mountain god, fond of pleasure, devoted to dancing and drinking, and sur- rounded by troups of dwarfs. In this last character his wor- ship is the most degrading and immoral known in India. The wife of Shiva in his various characters is known by dif- ferent names, the most popular of which is Kali. In this character she excels her husband in her love of wanton de-. struction, and her image is perhaps as revolting an object of worship as can be found anywhere in the world. It so hap- pens that the great Hindu temple in the suburbs of Calcutta, to which all travelers are conducted, is devoted to the wor- ship of this goddess, and hence most persons who are permit- ted to catch a glimpse of the disgusting image go away w r ith a much more unfavorable idea of Hinduism than a wider acquaintance with the system would give them. At her best, however, the consort of Shiva is a wretched deity, and no one who comprehends even faintly the blighting effect upon the heart and mind which the adoration of such an object must cause, can think with indifference of the manner in which millions prostrate themselves before this revolting object. The successive changes of character given to the third member of the Triad illustrates in a striking way the rapid declension of modern Hinduism. The latest manifestation ot Shiva is the lowest and most degrading. The same remark is true, in a general way, of popular Hinduism everywhere. Its latest phases are its worst. If any process of evolution has at- tended its progress, it has been an evolution of evil, and not of HINDUISM. 95 good. The ancient Aryans, in their original home in Central Asia, no doubt held in common with their brethren who sub- sequently became the Persians of history, a belief in one Su- preme Being, the Creator and Lord of all men. It seems very probable that the disruption which originally occurred between these two branches of the great Aryan family was over a religious question. The Indian Aryans made their first downward step by adopting certain of the great powers of nature as objects of veneration. From that point on, their religious progress has been steadily downward, until now the cow is more venerated than the ancient god of storms, and the serpent especially the cobra held more sacred than any un- seen being whatever. The monkey is almost equally an ob- ject of veneration, while the elephant and the peacock, and a hundred other creatures which might be named, are every- where recognized as objects worthy of the adoration of the human heart. The cow is more sacred to the ordinary Hindu than most men of his own race, and always much more sacred than persons of the lower castes. To kill an out-caste is a venial offense in comparison with killing a cow; and to such an extreme do they carry the notion of the guilt of cow-killing that I once knew a poor peasant to be fined twenty dollars because one of his cows chanced to fall over a precipice, and died from the effects of the fall. His fellow- castemen assembled, gravely tried the case, and inflicted what was to the poor man a very heavy fine, which they proceeded to collect on the spot. Hinduism, as a religion, can not make progress in any good direction, and contains in itself many elements of decay and death. But it is by no means near its end. New temples are built every year, and many signs of activity, if not of vi- tality, appear from time to time among its votaries; but none the less, Hinduism is in a state of hopeless decline. It will linger long in remote districts, and cling desperately to its historic shrines; its traditions will be fondly cherished by the multitude ; and long after it has ceased to be the acknowledged 96 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. faith of the people of India, its spirit will appear and reap- pear in a thousand forms among the contending forces which a new era and a new civilization will bring upon the stage of popular life. No religion was ever rooted so deeply in the history, traditions, social life, and prejudices of any people as Hinduism is among the people of India ; and it will be strange indeed if it does not affect in many ways and for many gen- erations the Christianity which is soon to supplant it. Chapter VII. BUDDHISM. is an Indian religion, although it is no J ) longer a religion in India. A few Buddhists are found in some of the districts bordering on Thibet, and a few Bur- mese and Chinese Buddhists have settled in Calcutta; but aside from these, scarcely any one bearing the name of Bud- dhist can be found in India proper. I might therefore well pass over the subject of Buddhism in writing of the India of the present day; but such an extraordinary interest in every- thing pertaining to Buddhism and its founder has been ex- cited in Western lands, especially since the publication of Sir Edwin Arnold's " Light of Asia," that probably no book on India would be considered complete which wholly omitted the subject. It has been well said that the interest created in certain circles in America by Sir Edwin Arnold's remark- able book amounted almost to a craze. Many intelligent persons were led to form exaggerated notions of the charac- ter of Gautama, of the reforms inaugurated by him, and of his influence upon the Asiatic mind. It suited the temper of the times to believe that Christianity was only one of several Asiatic forms of faith, and less effective on its own soil than the system of truth founded by the great Indian reformer. A similar craze took possession of many minds above a gen- eration earlier, when the popular translations of the Sanskrit sacred books began to appear. It was then supposed, if not hoped, by many, that a rich mine of sacred truths was about to be uncovered, and that the Bible would no longer retain its prominence, even in Christian lauds. That dream has long since vanished, and the present illusion will disappear in like 7 97 98 INDIA AND MALA YSTA. manner. The founder of Buddhism was a great man, and the religion which grew out of his teachings forms an in- teresting subject of study; but he shed little light upon the Asiatic world, and his religious system has proved a gigantic failure. Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was born about 500 years before Christ. His father was a prince of a tribe of people called Sakyas; and hence the name Sakya Muni, by which he, is sometimes popularly known, means nothing more than the Sakya sage. The young prince must have been a very gifted youth, and no doubt received the best culture which that re- mote age afforded. He grew up as a Hindu, and as he was a man of a marked religious temperament, no doubt made himself well acquainted with the prevailing Hindu doctrines and ceremonies of the period. Indeed, he never renounced Hinduism ; although he at times defied many of its more im- portant tenets, and he probably died unconscious of the fact that he was to figure in history as the founder of a religion in many respects diametrically opposed to that which he professed. He must have been a man of very marked ability. All such founders of great movements may be accepted without question as natural leaders of their race. Gautama grew up to manhood a popular, happy, and hopeful young prince. He had married according to Hindu custom, and had been for- tunate in the character of the wife selected for him, and was also the happy father of a promising son. His career, how- ever, as a prince was destined to come to an abrupt and somewhat rude termination. Tradition says that his atten- tion was called to the sights of suffering and death around him; and when all his questionings concerning the origin or possible termination of the evils of the present life failed to find any satisfactory answer, he determined to forsake a life which was sure, sooner or later, to bring him many troubles, and which offered in return very little which he could prize. Trained as a Hindu, he naturally thought that the first and only proper step for him to take was to forsake the life BUDDHISM. 99 which he was then leading, and separate himself from his own kind. A touching story is told of the manner in which he left his sleeping wife and babe in the still hours of the night, and stole away from his palace and from all the gilded glory of ihis royal life, to seek for light and peace for his troubled mind. He rode for some distance upon his own favorite horse, then dismounted and sent him back, and was left en- tirely alone. Seeing a mendicant passing along the road, he exchanged clothes with him, and thenceforth began a long and painful course of life as a religious devotee. He first placed himself under the tuition of two Brahmans, who at- tempted to teach him, according to their own dreamy notions, certain pantheistic tenets which they thought ought to satisfy his wants. They failed, however, utterly and somewhat quickly; and the troubled youth next attempted to find peace by practicing well-known austerities, as taught by the Brah- mans even of that early period. Joining himself to five or six other devotees, he spent some time according to most authors, as much as six years in practicing severe austerities, among which fasting occupied a prominent place. "Sitting down, with his legs folded under him, on a raised seat, in a place unsheltered from rain, wind, dew, and cold, he grad- ually reduced his daily allowance of food to a single grain of rice; then, shutting his teeth and holding his breath, he har- assed and macerated his body ; but all in vain." * Such is the description given of the long-continued course of self-torture 'pursued by this earnest man; and although the description must be accepted as a little exaggerated at least in regard to the amount of his food yet it is a very accurate descrip- tion of what may be seen in India at the present day, in the case of thousands of earnest but misguided men. After six years, however, of continuous effort, the un- happy man became convinced that he was suffering in vain, *SirM. Williams. 100 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. and wisely abandoned a course of life which yielded him no rest for his troubled soul. He broke away from his compan- ions, and, removing to another district, sat down under a sa- cred tree, called the Pipal, and still regarded as sacred all over India to the present day. Here he entered upon a course of deep meditation, by which he hoped to attain mystic union with the Deity. This was not an original experiment of his own, but, like his previous efforts, was borrowed from the popular Hinduism of the day. This custom also has sur- vived down to the present time. It is considered a work of greatest possible merit to abstract the mind from all sur- rounding objects, and think only of God, or of some divine being, and continue in this state of mental abstraction as long as possible. Minute directions are given as to the manner in which this duty should be performed. The devotee sits perfectly still on a seat made from a certain kind of sacred grass, and as far as possible keeps his eyes fixed upon the tip of his nose. No thought of any external thing is to be al- lowed to enter his mind. If he can continue in this state long enough he will attain to union, or communion, with the divine spirit which he seeks. As a matter of fact, by pursu- ing such a course as this, certain devotees at the present day have the power of throwing themselves into a kind of trance; and it is no wonder that those who witness their procedure have the utmost confidence, not only in the sincerity of the devotees, but in the reality of the communion of which they speak. Those who have given much attention to the study of religious catalepsy in its various forms will not be sur- prised at the statement. In times of intense religious excite- ment in Christian lands, instances are frequently seen of per- sons, with or without any special conviction from the Holy Spirit, going off into a more or less ecstatic state of seeming unconsciousness; and I have known persons in America who had so cultivated this power as to be able to throw them- selves into a trance state, almost in a moment, by the mere exercise of the will. BUDDHISM. 101 For some time Gautama pursued his meditations with intense earnestness, but with no success. Traditions tell of the fierce temptations he endured while undergoing this pro- cess, but he held out firmly against all feelings of discour- agement and all temptations to give up the struggle, until one bright morning he professed to find sudden and complete deliverance. He spoke of the change as if light had dawned upon him, and thenceforth was called the Buddha, or the En- lightened. It is very difficult, however, to understand from all the traditions handed down by his followers what the character of the change which passed over him really was. His own explanations are exceedingly obscure; and while from this time forward he pursued a fixed course, and taught settled doctrines, and was undoubtedly delivered from some of the mistaken notions which had oppressed him before, yet it does not appear that he received anything like a revela- tion, or anything corresponding to a marked change of char- acter. It is not at all improbable that what really happened to him was one of those singular forms of catalepsy men- tioned above. The same remark might be applied to Mo- harnmed, who undoubtedly was familiar from time to time with an ecstatic state of the mind, which he unquestioningly accepted as a revelation from God. To a man in Gautama's condition, worn out and almost in despair, struggling for some manifestation in the soul, such a condition of trance would come as a wonderful deliverance out of all his dark- ness and all his trouble. The truth which he announced as having been discovered by him was not by any means all new. It was, in the first place, a simple restatement of the Hindu doctrine of trans- migrations, to which he added that existence necessarily in- volved suffering, and that suffering can only be prevented by self-restraint and the extinction of desires and lusts. Of all desires, he held that none was more inseparably connected with our sufferings and troubles in this life, than that of con- tinued separate existence. Sir Monier Williams gives the 102 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. following summary of the cardinal doctrines taught by him at the beginning of his public ministry. He laid down four great truths and what he called an eightfold path, and these constituted the key to his whole doctrine : "First: All existence that is, existence in any form, whether in earth or heavenly spheres necessarily involves pain and suffering. Second: All suffering is caused by lust, or craving of desire, of three kinds for sensual pleasure, for wealth, and for existence. Third: Cessation of suffering is simultaneous with cessation of lust, craving, and desire. Fourth: Extinction of lust, craving, and desire, and ces- sation of suffering, are accomplished by perseverance in the noble eightfold path; namely, right belief or views, right resolve, right speech, right work, right livelihood, right exercise or training, riglit- mindfulness, right mental concentration." ! These doctrines seem simple enough in statement, but their real meaning does not lie on the surface. The word "right" is to be understood as meaning practically in accord- ance with Gautama's directions.' " Right belief," for instance, refers solely to belief in Gautama and his teachings; "right resolve" means the resolve to abandon one's family; "right livelihood" is living by alms, as a mendicant does; and so on. Instead of a lofty ideal of doctrine, or a noble standard of living, the four great truths and the "eightfold path" hardly rise above the level of puerility. The reformer had struggled hard and bravely to reach the light; but his mind was still befogged by the errors in which he had been trained, and he had by no means found a pathway by which to lead his countrymen out of the deep darkness in which they had so long been groping. Very soon after attaining what he called his enlighten- ment, Gautama, or, as from this time he was called, the Buddha, began to preach, and very speedily won converts from among his hearers. We need not wonder at his suc- cess when we remember that up to that time the religious teachers of India spoke in an unknown tongue, so far as the masses were_ concerned. Guatama, on the other hand, used BUDDHISM. 103 the language of the common people, and by the aid of fa- miliar illustrations succeeded in making himself thoroughly understood. He also appealed to all classes, without distinc- tion of caste; and, understanding perfectly as he did the prevailing religious ideas of the people, he had no difficulty whatever in finding hearers or in winning converts. All his converts, however, at first became monks. This was in ac- cordance, not only with the popular Hindu ideal, but with the example with which all were familiar. A man in that early day, as well as in all the ages since, who gave himself up to a life of religious service, was expected to separate himself from the world, and even from family and friends, and be- come, in some form or other, a religious recluse. It is prob- able that Gautama had no more ambitious thought at first than that of gathering out earnest men from the careless world in which he lived and moved, and teaching them how to live the life which he himself had adopted. His first dis- ciples were all men of high rank, and necessarily must have commanded a wide influence wherever they went. Soon after beginning his long public ministry, he sent out bands of monks to preach the doctrines which they had learned from him. This was something entirely new in India. Preaching seems to have been little practiced, and possibly up to that time had not been known. It is no wonder that a form of teaching so new, and in many respects so attractive, every- where arrested attention, and that converts increased and multiplied. The Buddha at first made no attempt to organ- ize his followers. His converts became monks, but not priests. They assumed no priestly functions, and exercised no authority save that of a teacher. Gautama was, in fact, a kind of Indian Tolstoi, who acted at once and in a most literal sense upon his convictions, but who had neither inclination nor ability to build up a new organization, or follow what might seem to be a pathway of personal aggran- dizement. For forty-five years the gifted monk pursued his calling, 104 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. living in the most simple style, but practicing no austerities, and disregarding the elaborate ceremonial duties of the Brah- mans around him. He wrote nothing; but his teaching, no doubt repeated over and over at different places, was either taken down at the time or remembered by his disci- ples. In this respect he reminds us of the method pursued at a later day by our Saviour. It was, in fact, the common Asiatic method, and is illustrated by many religious teachers in India at the present day. It may be accepted as not only probable, but certain, that our Saviour repeated his discourses, either in whole or in part, scores of times, as the record itself plainly shows, and thus his disciples became familiar with his teachings. Some little time after Gautama's death, about five hundred of his monks assembled together for the purpose of collecting his sayings in written form. This took place about four hundred years before Christ. Twenty years later a second council of seven hundred monks met at a place near Patua, and continued in session eight months, engaged in making a fuller and better arranged collection of his teachings. A third council was called about 250 B. C., during the reign of a powerful king named Asoka, who has been called the Con- stantine of Buddhism. This monarch extended his kingdom over all North India, and sent out large numbers of mission- aries, who met with great success in winning converts. At these councils the canon of Buddhist scriptures grad- ually took shape, and various changes were introduced into the system. Ancient Buddhism, however, was very different from that of later years, or of the present day. As popularly known, it was in many respects a protest against Brahman- ism. It did not reject caste, but it ignored it by appealing to all on equal terms. It made light of religious austerities, and rejected the elaborate ceremonies of the Brahmans. It spoke in the language of the common people, and by contrast with Brahmauism it must have seemed liberal indeed. It made much of the ills of the present life, which all keenly BUDDHISM. 105 feel, and held out hope of final escape from earthly woes by entering the state of Nirwan, beyond which there can be no further birth, if, indeed, any further existence. But Bud- dhism at its best was a cheerless system. It knew no God in any real sense, and was practically atheistic. It believed per- sonal existence in itself to be a source of evil, and hence could have no real hope of conscious immortality. It took a wholly pessimistic view of life, and, by breaking up the family, made war on the holiest instincts of the race. It taught men to trust in their own efforts wholly, and to look for no help from without. It exacted works of merit, and burdened its votaries with useless duties. It ignored prayer, and knew nothing of faith, hope, or love. In fact, it offered a dismal escape from a dismal but mistaken view of human life. Before the death of Buddha, an important change was made by the admission of what were called lay brethren not to the full rights of discipleship, but to a position which re- minds one somewhat of the "proselytes of the gate" among the ancient Hebrews. These lay brethren were simply re- quired to pronounce a certain formula, and assume the duty of performing good works, chief of which was that of serv- ing the monks. If any one refused to do this, the penalty was simply to forbid him performing any works of merit, which, by the great mass of Buddhists, is valued above any other privilege. They were also required to observe the usual rules of morality which had been laid down by the Buddha. It ought to be said, to the credit both of Gautama and of the religious system which grew up out of his teach- ings, that it had a code of morality which was in some respects in advance of any code which had previously been recognized in India. It has been summarized as including five prohibi- tions: First, killing any living thing; second, stealing; third, adultery; fourth, lying; fifth, drinking strong drink. The prohibition against killing was made to include the killing of animals for sacrificial purposes, a thing which the Brahmans 106 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. have always tolerated. Such a code as this is of great value in any non-Christian land, although its first and most prom- inent prohibition in practical life has a tendency to exalt the value of insect life, and diminish that of human beings. It is a strange peculiarity of Hindu thought to the present day, that it seems utterly incapable of distinguishing between the value of human life and that of animals and insects. At a very early day, Buddhism was torn by dissensions, and no less than eighteen different sects have been enumerated as existing previous to the time of King Asoka. In the course of time it was divided into two great sections, known as the Southern and Northern, respectively. The head-quarters of the former were in Ceylon, and of the latter in Thibet. Each Buddhist country, however, has modified the Buddhism which it adopted, so that national peculiarities are easily distin- guished, not only in its forms of service, but in its doctrinal teachings. Strangely enough, the Buddhism of Thibet bears a curious resemblance to many of the peculiarities of the Roman Catholics. Attention was first called to this fact by the celebrated Roman Catholic traveler, M. Hue, and his ob- servations have been confirmed by other travelers since. Not only does the Grand Lama bear a singular resemblance to the Pope, both in the pretensions which he assumes and in the estimation in which he is held; but many other peculiar- ities, such as the celibacy of the priesthood, fasting, confession, saint-worship, holy water, bells, processions, rosaries, miters, crosiers, sacred images, the worship of relics, lamps and illu- minations, the practice of austerities, etc., are almost identical as witnessed in Rome and in Lhassa. Sir Monier Williams quotes M. Hue as follows : "The cross, the miter, the dalmatica; the cope which Grand Lamas wear on their journeys, or when they are performing some cer- emony out of the temple ; the service with double choirs, the psalm- ody, the exorcisms; the censer for incense, suspended from five chains, and opened or closed at pleasure ; the benedictions pronounced W Lamas by extending the right hand over the heads of the faithful ; BUDDHISM. 107 the chaplet, ecclesiastical celibacy, spiritual retirement, the worship of the saints, the fasts, the processions, the litanies, the holy water, all these are analogies between the Buddhists and ourselves." Who is debtor and who creditor in this remarkable com- parison of accounts? Christians and Buddhists in China are said to dispute the point very warmly ; but it must be ad- mitted that the Buddhists were in the field long before Romanism had an existence. It is an established fact that one of the Popes actually canonized the founder of Buddhism, under the name of Josaphat. Professor Max M tiller, in the Contemporary Review of July, 1870, has given the evidence on this subject at length, and Sir William Hunter accepts it as practically proven that one of the Popes did actually can- onize the celebrated Buddha on the authority of Saint John of Damascus. Sir William Hunter says : " The name of Josaphat is itself identified by philologers with that of Bod- dhisattwa, the complete appellation of Buddha." This whole subject of the similitude existing between the Papacy of Rome and the Lamaism of Thibet is worthy of careful study, and no doubt in the fullness of time the points of resemblance will be traced to their correct origin. For the present, how- ever, it unquestionably places the Roman Catholics in a very compromising position, as upon the testimony of their own writers their public worship is found to correspond strikingly with practices which almost certainly existed before any Pope reigned in Rome. As indicated above, it must always be remembered that later Buddhism in all countries not only differs widely from the system taught by Gautama, but in most respects has be- come diametrically opposed to it. Sir Monier Williams, in- deed, says very truthfully that the Buddhism of later times is in reality a recoil rather than a development of earlier doc- trine. The Buddhism taught by Gautama was, in many re- spects, in necessary hostility to the instincts of the race; and the result has been that in the lapse of centuries the pro- fessed followers of Gautama have, in many important 108 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. respects, wholly departed from his teaching, and are now found acting and teaching in singular contradiction to their own supposed principles. I can not do better than quote again from Sir Monier Williams: "Buddhism, we know, started with the doctrine that all idea of marriage or a happy home-life was to be abandoned by wise men. . .. . Of course, an immediate result was that, although according to Buddha's ordinance any one who aimed at perfect sanctity was bound to lead a celibate life, the rule was admitted to be inapplicable to the mass of human beings. The mass of the people were, in short, offenders against the primary law of Buddhism. There is even evidence that among monkish communities in northern countries the law against marriage was relaxed. It is well known that at the present day the lamaseries in Sikkim and Thibet swarm with children of monks, though called their nephews and nieces. It was the same in regard to the unnatural vow of poverty. Monasteries and lamaseries now possess immense revenues, and monks are often wealthy men." If Gautama did not deny the existence of a God, he cer- tainly ignored it. His early disciples were taught to depend on no being higher than themselves. The recoil from this position has been that the Buddha himself has been converted in popular esteem into a deity, and now bears the title of "the chief god of all the gods." He also taught his disci- ples not to believe in any supernatural revelation, as no such thing was needed. All enlightenment was to come from within, and every man was to find this for himself. So far from adhering to this transcendental notion, the great body of Buddhists at the present day attribute infallibility to Buddha's own teaching, and not only accept his law as di- vine, but as a visible embodiment of himself, and insist as earnestly upon believing in a revelation as any other relig- ionists in the world. Gautama left no place in his system for prayer, and denied that any good could come from such an exercise ; but now, of all living men, the Buddhists have the most superstitious regard for prayer, and not only have faith in the prayer-forms, but have a superstitious reverence for BUDDHISM. 109 the very letters and syllables with which the prayer is written. I am writing this in Darjeeliug, a Himalayan station on the borders of Thibet, and every time I go out I see men by the wayside, patiently turning hollow cylinders containing writ- ten forms of prayer, under the impression that each time the cylinder revolves the prayer has been once said, and so much merit accumulated. Gautama rejected a priesthood, and made no provision in his system even for religious teachers, save as all monks assumed that character; but now we find his followers, at least throughout all Central Asia, in more ab- ject bondage to a heartless priesthood than perhaps can be found among any other people living. Gautama rejected idols aud idol-worship; but now it may be truthfully said that in Buddhist countries idols are more numerous than among any other idol-worshiping people in the world. The same re- mark is true of the worship of relics of all kinds, the most ignorant and superstitious of the Roman Catholics themselves not equaling the devout Buddhists in their eager desire to possess themselves of any sacred relic, even though it be but a hair of a deceased saint. In short, Buddhism, much vaunted as it has been in re- cent years by men who regard themselves as persons of ad- vanced thought, is one of the most heartless and helpless systems of religious belief the world has ever seen. Its ten- der regard for life in all its forms, and the worthy teachings of its founder in regard to gentle dealing towards all men and other living creatures, have not tended, as is often pop- ularly asserted, to make its votaries either kind or humane. Burma is, and throughout its whole historical era has been, a Buddhist country, and yet its people are less humane and much more cruel than the Hindus of India. It is only four or five years since crucifixion was abolished in Upper Burma. Our Saviour, by his tragical death upon the cross, did more to create feelings of genuine humanity in the hearts and minds of those who accepted his teaching, than has been accomplished by all other influences combined in all 110 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. the history of the world. The Burman Buddhists to-day can see no special objection to putting an ordinary thief to death, either by impalement, or by a cruel crucifixion upon a bam- boo cross. Their religion ^utterly fails to show them the bar- barity of the spectacle. In like manner, all their punish- ments are barbarous, and all their tender mercies are cruel ; and yet the Burman is by no means a worse man than his neighbors. Buddhism is no longer a religion in India. For many years it was supposed that the Buddhists had been expelled from the country, or else forcibly converted to Hinduism in the course of a long series of desolating wars. This view, however, is now abandoned. It is abundantly evident that Buddhism slowly gave way before the unremitting assaults of a revived Hinduism. For many centuries Hinduism had lapsed into a condition of apathy and weakness which greatly facilitated the rapid advance of its rival; but at a remote period, probably about the eighth century before Christ, a great revival of Hinduism took place, and step by step the Brahman gained the ascendency over the Buddhist, until at last the Buddhist faith ceased to be professed throughout India. The Brahman was aided in winning this great victory by his skill in borrowing from Buddhism whatever would help him in the contest. What he could not uproot, he quietly accepted as his own, and finally went to the extent of accepting Gautama himself as an incarnation of Vishnu, whereby, no doubt, large numbers of eager but ignorant fol- lowers of the Buddha were induced to accept Brahmanism, under the impression that they were not really giving up their religion. Buddhism still retains a foot-hold in Ceylon and Thibet, Burma, Siam, and other Indo-Chinese countries, and throughout China and Japan. Its numerical strength, however, has been greatly exaggerated. So far from being the leading religion of Asia or of the world, it probably stands third or fourth in the list. Its supposed preponder- ance has been made to appear by assuming that all the people BUDDHISM. Ill of China are Buddhists, which is by no means the case. Christianity undoubtedly is the leading religion now of the world. Hinduism, in its varied forms, probably stands second, while Mohammedanism and Buddhism must dispute between them for the third place. Chapter YIIL MOHAMMEDANISM. r I ^HE faith of Islam was introduced into India, as, indeed, 1 into all other countries in which it has ever gained a foot-hold, by following in the wake of a conquering army. Mohammedanism is constantly spoken of as one of the mis- sionary religions of the world; but, as a matter of fact, it would be difficult to point to a single nation in the world which has been converted to Islamism by a purely mission- ary process. It is essentially a warlike system, and can not possibly preserve an aggressive attitude throughout a long period of peace. As soon as the soldiers are sent away to their homes, the Mohammedan missionary feels that his op- portunity, for the time at least, is lost, and his zeal begins to abate. In all probability no effort would ever have been made to establish Islamism in India had it not been for the ambition of the successive Mohammedan leaders who invaded India from the Northwest. No impression was made upon the religion of the people during the earlier invasions, for the simple reason that they were not permanent; but as soon as these invaders determined to hold permanently the regions which had submitted to their arms, Mohammedanism struck its roots into the soil, and from that time forth became one of the established Indian religions. The earliest date at which it can be said to have thus gained a permanent foot- hold in India, was about the close of the eleventh century. From the first the two chief means employed in winning the people of India to the faith of Islam were, force on the one hand, and rewards on the other. It is as natural for Mohammedans, when invading a foreign country, to call upon 112 MOHAMMEDANISM. 1 1 3 the people to accept the religion of their prophet, as it is for a Christian missionary to preach the gospel of Christ. Hence, in ancient times it often happened that when a vast army was approaching a given district, devastating the country with fire and sword, and spreading terror far and wide, the despairing people made haste to avow themselves ready to accept the re- ligion of the invaders, on condition that their lives and prop- erty should be spared. In no part of the Eastern world, however, did the Mohammedans find any people so unwilling to accept their religion, as a condition of being spared, as in India. The Hindus have always been adepts in the art of passive resistance, and when unable to longer oppose the Mohammedan invaders, they quietly submitted to whatever fate awaited them ; and although in many instances they were savagely put to death, yet after a time their conquerors learned that they could not be proselyted by force, while, on the other hand, to put them all to death would simply ruin the country which they wished to hold as a valuable posses- sion. At the same time they began to employ, with great skill, the policy of richly rewarding those who accepted their religion. A confiscated village, for instance, would be given to a poor man, who would thereby acquire the right to settle as many of his friends in it as he could induce to become apostates like himself. Offices of all possible grades under the Government are always eagerly sought in India ; and these, again, were bestowed upon apostates from the Hindu faith with such skill that constant, if not large, accessions were made in this way to the ranks of Mohammedanism. The mass of these converts were, as might have been ex- pected, received from the ranks of the poor. Hinduism had not only neglected, but in many cases grievously oppressed, large numbers of the lower classes, who saw at once a chance for bettering their condition ; and as might have been ex- pected, having but slight bonds to hold them in allegiance to the popular religion of the country, and the strongest pos- sible incentives to men as poor as they were to adopt that of 8 114 fXDLi .-ixn ^r.lL.lYSf.l. the invaders, they easily passed over from a nominal allegiance to Hinduism to a devoted attachment to Islamism. Probably the most valuable converts made by the Mohammedans during their earlier history in India came from these lower classes. As the successive waves of invasion swept on to the south and southeast, they seemed to lose their force in a measure, so that when they reached Bengal, while the number of con- verts won from Hinduism seemed to increase, the quality rap- idly deteriorated. The Mohammedans, indeed, throughout all the country districts of Bengal, are only semi-converts to the present day. During the great Hindu festivals they may be seen mingling freely with their idolatrous neighbors in celebrating the honors of heathen gods, while at best they pay but slight regard to the tenets of the Koran. The total num- ber of Mohammedans in India, according to the last census, is 57,325,432 ; but of these it may safely be assumed that at least one-third are only Mohammedan in name. The reader, however, must not suppose for a moment that the Mohammedans of India, taking them as a class, and esti- mating their character as would be done in the case of any other great community by that of their leaders, are wanting in attachment to their own religion. On the other hand, the universal testimony of intelligent Europeans who have spent any considerable time in India, will be to the effect that they are remarkably devoted to their religious faith, and manifest a zeal for it which, if not always according to knowledge, at least reflects credit on their sincerity. History affords many illustrations of the curious fact that persons who have been forcibly compelled to exchange one religion for another, not only become reconciled to their new faith, but often become its most devoted adherents. A striking instance of this is found in the case of the famous Mamelukes. From the first, the leading apostates from Hinduism became Mohammedans not only in name, but in the fierce zeal for which the followers of that religion have always been noted; and to the pres- ent day no more earnest and determined followers of the MOHAMMEDANISM. 1 1 5 faith of Islam can be found in any part of the world than in India. In addition to the conversions from Hinduism noted above, it must be remembered also that a very large number of zealous Mohammedans who entered India, either as sol- diers or among the irregular followers of the great invading armies of former centuries, became permanent settlers upon Indian soil, and thus added an important element to the Mo- hammedan population of the empire. It has been denied by some recent writers that these settlers were sufficient in num- ber to make any perceptible impression upon the general community; but any one who has paid close attention to the distinctions which are noticeable among the people of North- ern India, can not have failed to observe a very marked ad- mixture of foreign blood among the Mohammedans. Blue eyes and auburn beard, and sometimes a veritable red shock of hair, unmistakably mark a man in India as a descendant of some of the invading hordes which came down from the Northwest in former centuries. The physiognomy marks vast numbers of the people no less unmistakably, and the general character of the Mohammedans of the country has undoubtedly been largely influenced by this foreign element. Another important foreign element, which has reached Western India especially, has come from Arabia. Indeed, two streams of Arab emigration are constantly flowing in upon Western India, one from the mouth of the Red Sea, and the other from the Persian Gulf. An important question presents itself at this point as to what the general influence of Mohammedanism upon the people of India has been. It has had abundant time to work out whatever results it is capable of producing; and upon the whole, in no part of the world has it had a better oppor- tunity of developing its own inherent strength or weakness than in this populous corner of the globe, where for centuries it has been shut in by itself to work out its own destiny as 6est it could. 116 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. It is possible that, as a Christian missionary, I write under the influence of a certain measure of more or less unconscious prejudice; but I certainly can not give a very favorable re- ply to the above question. Mohammedanism has had a rare opportunity in India, but has improved it very badly. If I answer the question at all, I must be permitted to say that such benefits as have been conferred upon India in the Mo- hammedan name have been bestowed by Mohammedans, rather than by their religion. In other words, the people have been better than their religion in many respects, and have not lived all these centuries in the country without im- proving it, in some respects at least. It may be said, for instance, that they conferred a great benefit upon India by giving the people, for the first time, what might be called the imperial idea. The great Emperor Akbar who, by the way, was by no means a typical Mohammedan during his long reign was perhaps the most powerful monarch on the globe. He, for the first time, showed the people of India what their country was capable of becoming when molded into one great empire. He did not succeed, it is true, in extending his sway over the whole of the peninsula, but nevertheless he first clearly presented the ideal before the people, and some of his successors struggled desperately, though unsuccessfully, to realize his ideal. The reader may possibly fail to appreciate the value of a mere scheme for creating a vast empire; but if a native of India, he would perhaps look at the subject from a different point of view. India has yet to take her place among the great empires of the world, and every son and daughter of the soil ought to grasp and fully master this idea. The caste system made it impossible for the earlier Hindu rulers to assume anything like an imperial policy. The Mo- hammedans w r ere able to aspire to it, but failed to realize it. It remained for the English to put it fully into practice, and it now remains for coming generations to work out the grand possibilities which the presence of a central imperial Govern- ment places within their reach. MOHAMMEDANISM. 1 1 7 The Mohammedans did not introduce many improvements into India. Their greatest boast, perhaps, will be that they brought with them the Saracenic style of architecture, and have left behind them some of the finest structures in the world. They also, in some parts of the country, introduced a slightly higher grade of civilization than that which the Hindus had enjoyed. This is notably the case in Rohilkhand, where the Rohillas, when expelled by the King of Oudh, with the co-operation of Warren Hastings, left behind them more towns with paved streets, and more and better artisans, than can be found in any other part of the country. The same remark applies, to some extent, to nearly all of North- ern India; but when we consider the centuries during which the Moguls held absolute sway, and the unlimited resources at their disposal, it must be conceded that they did very little in advancing the civilization of India. One great benefit conferred upon India by the Moham- medans has been the infusion of a more vigorous element into the national character. The general character of the Hindu people is one which, in many respects, does them credit ; but they lack, to some extent, that measure of vigor which is nec- essary to constitute any people a great people. The Moham- medans have supplied this deficiency, at least to a very nota- ble extent. The original invaders were not only men of great vigor, but their subsequent career in India undoubt- edly influenced the great multitudes who rallied round their standard, in such a way as to create and foster an enterpris- ,ing spirit, which is but another name for personal vigor. It is probable, also, that they introduced among the people of India a governing ability which had previously been some- what wanting in the national character, and which has since been illustrated in the successful career of many great leaders in all parts of the empire. I am aware that many intelligent Hindus would question this statement; but the general im- pression prevails among those well acquainted with India, that the Mohammedans of the present day have more ability 118 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. of this kind that is, more ability as leaders and governors than the Hindus. A few generations of training under dif- ferent circumstances might possibly make this difference much less apparent than it is at the present day ; but there is little in Hinduism which will develop such a trait in na- tional character, and I think it will have to be conceded as one of the not very numerous merits of Mohammedanism, that it has wrought a measure of improvement in this direc- tion among the people of India. On the other hand, has Mohammedanism taught the people of India any bad lessons, or produced any effects which, upon the whole, must be regarded as unfortunate and hurtful? I fear this question will have to be answered in the affirmative. In the first place, the reader in America will be surprised to hear me say that they lowered the moral tone which they found among the people of India on their first arrival. It is constantly said by persons who have not studied this question in the light of personal observation, that a pure theism, such as that held by the Mohammedans, must have produced a powerful effect upon the polytheistic people of India. The facts, however, point in the opposite direction. It is doubtful, indeed, whether the theism held by the Mohammedans is worthy to be called a pure theism. St. Paul never used a more striking expression than when he spoke of holding the truth in unrighteousness, as one of the deplorable sins of bad men. It is much better for a nation to have no knowledge of God whatever, than to believe in his existence and in his supreme government of the world, and yet to hold this truth in unrighteousness. Mohammed taught the Arabs that there was only one God, which was a great truth; but he added to his popular formula the words, "and Mohammed is his prophet," which was a great falsehood. He also taught them, and illustrated the teaching by his own sin- ful life, that in one or two cases God sanctified outrageous sin for the sake of his beloved prophet. The theism taught by him was thus coated over with falsehood, to say nothing of MOHAMMEDANISM. 119 flagrant sin, and as such never ought to be quoted as a pure theism. The people of India, it is true, were accustomed to think of their gods as indulging in all manner of immoral- ities; but this was like child's play when compared with the unspeakable enormity of bringing down Jehovah himself al- most to a level of one of the gods of Hindu mythology. Be the cause what it may, as a matter of fact the Mo- hammedans brought with them into India one or two name- less sins, which the Hindus to this day affirm had never been known in their country before. As a general rule, their moral standard is a little lower than that of the Hindus, and the same remark will have to be made with regard to their general reputation for morality. Many good and sincere men, no doubt, are found in the Mohammedan ranks; but when we speak about the people as a great community, and compare them with their Hindu neighbors, the advantage certainly seems to rest with the latter. In fairness I ought to say that some of my missionary friends in India take issue with me on this point. Some of them believe and maintain that the Mohammedans are quite as good as, if not better than, the Hindus ; but I believe I express the opinion of the majority and a very large majority when I say that the Hindus stand higher in point of moral character than the Mohammedans, and that they have suffered rather than benefited, from a moral point of view, by the introduction of Mohammedanism into the country. Intelligent Hindus, without exception, affirm that the custom of secluding their women was never known before the Mohammedan invasions. They say that it became necessary as a means of protecting their wives and daughters when they went abroad. If comely in looks, they were in danger when- ever they appeared in public ; and hence the custom was bor- rowed from the Mohammedans themselves, of either shutting their wives and daughters up at home, or keeping them closely veiled when going abroad. The latter custom in time fell into disuse, while to the present day all who can possibly 120 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. afford to do so, keep the female members of their families closely secluded in narrow quarters at home. The Hindus also affirm that their custom of child-mar- riage grew up in consequence of the danger to which they were exposed from their Mohammedan neighbors. They say that so many cases of outrage had occurred, in which a beau- tiful daughter would be forcibly taken from her parents and married to a Mohammedan, that they adopted the custom of child-marriage, so that the girl would have a legal hus- band almost from infancy, and in this way be protected from Mohammedan violence. I am not prepared to say that this charge can be satisfactorily proved, but that it has some foundation in fact admits of very little doubt. In any case, it can hardly be maintained that the Mohammedans have in any manner improved the condition of woman in India; nor is there anything in the Mohammedan system to which a woman can appeal with any interest or hope. Hinduism, it is true, is bad enough, so far as the position of woman is con- cerned ; and yet, when an appeal is made to its earlier history, the Hindu woman of to-day can point to a golden age, when women were allowed a measure of liberty almost equal to that enjoyed by the men. The points of identity between Mohan* medanisin and Christianity are many; but it should always be borne in mind that it was from Judaism, rather than from Christianity, that Mohammed drew most of the teachings which are usually supposed to be common to his system and our own. His knowledge of pure Christianity seems to have been exceed- ingly meager, while on the other hand he had, no doubt, been frequently associated with Jews, and felt naturally drawn towards them by reason of his common descent w r ith them from Abraham. He accepted most of the Old Testament without question ; and the Mohammedans to the present day readily admit that the law, prophets, psalms, and four gospels are inspired productions. They usually deny, however, that the integrity of these books has been preserved, and often, in MOHAMMEDANISM. 121 disputing with missionaries, affirm that the Christians, many centuries ago, so corrupted and changed their Scriptures as to render them no longer of any value. The Mohammedans, however, strenuously deny nearly all the grand foundation truths of the Christian system. The divinity of Christ is not only repudiated by them, but the very mention of it is usually enough to provoke their hostility. They deny not only the atonement of Christ, but the possibility of any atonement ; deny the necessity of any mediator between God and man ; and even deny the very fact of the crucifixion, affirming that in the supreme crisis an invisible angel snatched the Lord Jesus from the cross, and substituted a stranger in his place, who actually died and was laid in the tomb without the spectators noticing the substitution which had been effected. They, of course, deny the resurrection of Christ, and, so far as the Holy Spirit is concerned, they are, for the most part, unable to understand even the statement of his divinity as made by Christians. The greatest defect in their religious system is in its want of spirituality. While they speak, with more or less freedom, of the Spirit of God, they never attach the meaning to the phrase which Christians do. In most of these respects they differ from the Hindus, and, surprising as it may seem to the Christian reader in America, I incline to the opinion that Hinduism has more in common with Christian- ity than popular Mohammedanism. The Hindus are familiar with the idea of a divine incarnation, however defective their conception of it may be. They are also familiar with the idea of an atonement ; and their religious ideas prepare them to receive the spiritual teaching of the New Testament much more readily than the Mohammedans. They are a more spir- itual people, and, while hopelessly bound hand and foot by the ceremonial system which they have inherited, yet are per- haps less formal than the followers of Islam. The Mohammedans have been much less affected by the rapid advance of the modern world than the Hindus. Their system is hopelessly antagonistic to everything new and 122 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. everything progressive. The Hindu system, on the other hand, is flexible at many points ; and the result has been that since the advent of the English the Hindus have outstripped their Mohammedan rivals in the educational race. This is not wholly owing to the obstructive character of the Moham- medan religion, but in part, no doubt, to a certain uncon- scious pride both of religion and of race. For several centuries they had been the rulers of India. The Hindus had been held in utter subjection by them, and their own promotion had never depended upon their proficiency in learning the language of an alien people, a literature which they despised, and modern sciences which, in their eyes, probably seemed more or less profane. This pride, however, if it should be called by this name, is rapidly giving way; and of late years many leading Mo- hammedans have bestirred themselves in the most praise- worthy manner in trying to rouse their fellow-religionists to an appreciation of the danger in which they stand of wholly losing their prestige as a people. If they remain stolid and indifferent for another generation, the Hindus will have left them hopelessly in the rear. It is not likely, however, that they will remain inactive much longer. As a people, they are capable of great things if freed from their trammels and rightly directed. No men in India, if indeed any men in the world, can excel an educated Mohammedan gentleman of the liberal class in courtesy and liberal dealing. They are gen- tlemen in the best sense of the word, refined in manner, pro- gressive in their ideas, and capable of playing a worthy part in any sphere of life to which they may be called. Relig- iously, however, but few of them retain a conscientious ad- herence to the faith of their fathers. It would be impossible for them to do so. Islam admits of no compromise; and when a young man begins to acquire knowledge, he must choose between the faith of his fathers and the general agree- ment of the modern world in the great principles of progress which are more and more received by all nations. MOHAMMEDANISM. 123 Christianity has much to hope from the Mohammedans in India. Hitherto they have been our most unrelenting op- ponents, and most missionaries would probably hesitate to express much confidence in them as a people, even if they should become Christians. I could not, however, join in such a verdict. I believe, on the other hand, that when truly converted, the Mohammedan makes not only a devoted Christian, but in some respects will make a superior leader. Leadership is a great want in every mission-field, and the Mohammedans of India have the material, if it can only be won for Christ and sanctified to his service, out of which splendid workers can be made in the Master's vineyard. Chapter IX. INDIAN DEVOTEES. AMONG all the nations of the earth, India may truly be called the home-land of the religious devotee. Both Mohammedanism and Hinduism are represented in all parts of the country by men of this class ; but the followers of Islam properly called fakirs, as distinguished from the Hindu devotee who adopt this mode of life are compar- tively few. The idea of such a life is essentially Hindu, and devotees of various classes seem to have abounded in the country since the earliest period. The land was full of them at the time that the founder of Buddhism began his search for mental and spiritual rest; and no doubt, if we could catch a glimpse of India as it was a thousand years before his day, the devotee would be seen occupying a familiar if not prominent place. The idea of such a life is based upon two mistaken no- tions. In the first place, the ascetic flatters himself that he can, by his penances* of various kinds, accumulate merit. The word penance, in his mind, conveys no idea of repent- ance whatever, but solely that of a means of acquiring per- sonal merit. In the next place, he is possessed with the idea that matter is inherently evil, and that, since his union with a material body is the source of most of his misfortunes, he must make war on the body in order to liberate the soul. In these two mistaken notions may be found rooted all the errors which cluster around the practice of asceticism in India or elsewhere. The various expedients to which men of this class resort in order to realize their ideal are countless in number, 124 INDIAN DE VO TEES. 125 and as diverse in character as possible. With the vast ma- jority, however, the discipline selected is by no means a severe one. It is only in exceptional crses that we find men enduring positive pain and privatk n, or subjecting themselves to practices which must be utterly revolting to the most ordinary human instincts. Beyond a doubt large num- bers of both sexes choose a life of asceticism because they find it the simplest and easiest way of securing their daily bread. I have personally known parties who, after trying various plans to secure a livelihood, deliberately adopted the garb and wandering life of the devotee. In one case a native Christian, whose moral character was not particularly objec- tionable, was persistently averse to manual labor ; and when one kind of work after another had been given him to no purpose, he was told that he must work or starve. He declined to do either, and deliberately made a profession of faith in Hinduism, threw a saffron-colored sheet loosely around his shoulders, and, taking his wife and child and de- parting three or four miles from the village where he was known, began the wandering life of a devotee. While thus engaged, he chanced to meet a recruiting officer collecting coolies to send to Demarara. He listened to the advantages of the proposed emigration to a land where wages were high, and without much hesitation threw away his yellow robe, and, taking wife and child, embarked for Demarara. This man was undoubtedly a fair sample of multitudes who are sup- posed to be holy men and women, who have separated them- selves from the world and are pursuing a life of religious contemplation and personal devotion. Not all the devotees of India, however, are of this harmless and worthless class. Many of them show abundant evidence that they are sincere in their purpose, and persist, through long lives of severe suffering and privation, in faithfully following the course which they have chosen. At nearly every great fair a number of men will be seen going through the self-inflicted torture of what is called the " five fires." Four fires are kept 126 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. burning constantly around the devotee, while the sun, which makes the fifth, pours down his burning rays upon the head of the sufferer. Others, for months at a time, never allow themselves to lie down to rest, but permit themselves to be supported in a half-reclining position, or sometimes sus- pended upon a cushion, with their feet dangling down at a dis- tance from the ground. Some sleep on beds made of broken stone, others on spikes ; while others, again, seek torture for the body by abstaining from sleep altogether or at least re- duce their sleeping hours to the narrowest possible limits. The well-known custom of holding the hand erect until it becomes shriveled and helpless, and retains its position during the rest of the sufferer's life, is not so common as is generally supposed in England and America; and yet such men are to be found in most parts of the country. I myself have only seen a very few, and have conversed with only two in more than thirty years. There can be no doubt whatever about the reality of the suffering of such men. One poor creature sat down beside me, and described at some length the manner in which he had kept his arm in this position until it became rigid. He told me he had suffered excru- ciatingly for six months, after which the arm ceased to give him pain. His arm, which was held perfectly upright, had been kept in this position for a number of years if I re- member correctly, eight or nine and had shriveled to about half its natural size. The nails had grown to such a length that they had twined themselves all around the hand, giving it a hideous appearance. Recently I had occasion to publish a notice in the Indian Witness asking parties who knew of such men to report them to me ; and it is a singular fact that only four responses were received. This indicates that the number of such persons in the country is comparatively small.* * The accompanying picture shows a man with both hands held per- fectly upright till they are as rigid as two pieces of wood. It is copied from a photograph taken at Ajinere, about six months ago. He is faithfully served by the attendants who may be seen beside him. A HINDU DRVOTKE. INDIAN DE VO TEES. 1 29 AL very common mode of practicing asceticism is that of eating revolting food. The complete course of training adopted by a Hindu devotee, if carried to its full extent, involves one period of discipleship during which the devotee is obliged to eat everything which is offered to him. I might say here that, according to strict rule, an ordinary Hindu who wishes to take a full course is obliged to pursue six different kinds of asceticism, each for a term of twelve years, making seventy-two years in all. As he proceeds in his course, pass- ing from one degree to another, somewhat after the manner of a Hindu Masonic system, the usual rule of the sinner's reward follows him. The more faithfully and unreservedly he devotes himself to the discipline prescribed, the more re- volting does his life become, and the more terrible his re- ward. During one period of -this course he is not only allowed to eat everything which is offered him, but is com- pelled to do so. If he refuses anything, no matter how re- volting, he thereby forfeits the respect and confidence of the credulous people around him, and with it all the merit which he has accumulated by his previous asceticism. If I had not been in India, I could not believe that much which I know these men to do could possibly be practiced by human beings. The poor creatures can reject nothing; and when a devout Hindu perhaps a wealthy princess, who has sent a thousand miles for a famous devotee wishes to obtain a special favor through his works of merit, she will almost certainly assure herself of his sanctity by requiring a horrible test of some kind from him, from which he dare not shrink. Many years ago an old devotee lived in the city of Najibabad, in Rohilkhand, who had acquired a great reputa- tion for sanctity. His house, which was on the outskirts of the city, was decorated with human skulls. His companions were dogs; and his life, although a quiet one, was destitute of everything attractive to human life in a world like this. He affirmed that he had gone through the entire list of austerities prescribed in the seventy-two years' course. His 9 130 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. eye was undimmed and his hair unsilvered, and I always doubted whether he was really as old as he supposed himself to be. It is very common for elderly Hindus to add ten, twenty, or even more years to their age, without intending to deceive. They pay very little attention to accuracy in such matters; and yet this old man affirmed over and over that he had taken the whole course of the six degrees, em- bracing seventy-two years of asceticism, and the oldest peo- ple of the city affirmed that he had been known to them all their days, and that he had been reckoned an old man when they first knew him. He was a man among a thousand, who would have arrested attention in any company or among any people. He was early impressed by the preach- ing which he heard in the city, and was actually baptized as a believer in Christ. He did not, however, leave his home, nor put away his dogs, although, if I remember correctly, he removed the skulls, and gave up the revolting part of his life. This old man told me, with the utmost particularity, that he had eaten pieces of flesh cut from dead bodies which he' at times would find floating down the river, and this one disgusting act did more to raise him in the estimation of the credulous people of the city than anything else he had ever done. This, however, was only half the story. I can not put in print other things which he told me, which I find it impossible to doubt. I have known missionaries who, in similar cases, were eye-witnesses of the same disgusting rites which he professed to have performed. The reverence of the common Hindus for all classes of devotees is very great. A man with a shriveled arm held erect is an object of con- stant adoration as he walks along the road. Large numbers prostrate themselves at his feet, and that man would be dar- ing indeed who hesitated a moment in obeying any com- mand he might receive from such a saint. This power over the multitude would be a dangerous weapon in the hands of better men than the devotees ; but when it is stated that large numbers of these fellows are the veriest scoundrels that \valk INDIAN DE VO TEES. 131 the earth, the reader can well understand how much oppres- sion they can practice without endangering themselves in any way. In former years they were undisguised tyrants; but for many years past the Indian Government has ceased to pay them any deference whatever. If one of the most sacred of these men violates the law of the land, he is pun- ished precisely as another man ; and this has done much, not only to protect the people, but to break the spell which enabled 'the devotee through long ages to oppress them with impunity. The Hindu devotee and the Mohammedan fakir are both much given to practicing various juggling arts, as well as to fortune-telling and the selling of charms to ward off all manner of evils and secure all manner of blessings. Men of this class are generally without moral principle, and Europeans sometimes act most unwisely in allowing them to amuse their children. A poor Christian woman, daughter of European parents, who had lost her character, and been overtaken by grievous misfortune, once told me that the original source of all her misery had been the plausible teaching of one of these wandering fortune-tellers. He practiced his little arts upon her when a child only five or six years of age, and made his misfaith seem to her so much more real, direct, and positive than the true faith of her parents, that she was practically led to abandon Christianity in her early childhood. The blighting effects of the teach- ing of the tens and hundreds of thousands of these devotees who are wandering over India the whole year round, must be a source of untold evil to this hapless empire. The num- ber of such devotees is very great. Mr. Ward, in his work on the Hindus, estimated the number in his day at one-eighth of the entire population. Such an estimate would be much too high for the present; but as no census will ever correctly report all the various shades and grades of the people known as devotees, it is impossible to arrive at anything like cer- tainty in such a matter. The whole body of these men is divided into two classes, the one embracing the followers of 132 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Vishnu, and the other of Shiva. The latter has much the more numerous following. These Shivaites, again, are divided into a large number of diverse orders. The Rev. T. Phil- lips, in his " Missionary Manual," gives a list of seventeen different classes of ascetics belonging to the Shivaite school. Among these classes are found men of a certain order who profess to have so far subdued the body as to be insensible to physical pain. These men are generally among the most tyrannical to be found in the country. In one somewhat remote district, the first Commissioner who was placed in authority when the English took over that part of the country from the Hindu prince who had formerly ruled it, continued to main- tain the former regime in every particular. The customs of the people were not interfered with in any respect. This was all well enough so far as the customs were in themselves in- offensive; but from the first the English in India have found it impossible to maintain the entire Hindu system in all its integrity. Some of its features are so outrageous in their operation, that the most conservative magistrate who ever sat upon an Indian bench could not uphold them without at least some reservation. In the district under notice, how- ever, the first Commissioner thought it best not to interfere in any way with the wandering devotees, who chanced in that particular district to be among the very worst of their class. The precedent thus established was continued for some years; but finally a Commissioner assumed charge who determined to put a stop to the extortion and oppression of the whole devotee tribe, w r ho were popularly known in that district as Jogis. This word, by the way, which is sometimes applied to a better class of men, and which in its rigid sig- nification is distinctive of only one class of devotees, is popularly used in many parts of the country to describe all the half-naked WTetches who wander over the country, whether belonging to one class or another. The Com- missioner issued a notice, and had it distributed widely throughout the district, to the effect that hereafter all the INDIAN DE VO TEES. 1 33 Jogis would be punished for their crimes in precisely the same way as other criminals. Shortly afterward, while a villager was driving in his cows from the pasture, one of these men went up to a cow, seized her by the tail, and, with a stroke of the short sword which he carried, cut off the tail and took it home to prepare it for his supper. The outrage was a grievous one ; for every Hindu regards the cow as a sacred animal, while the owner of the cow is often made to suffer for any mishap which occurs to the animal. The Jogi wished to show that he was able to eat anything, no matter how re- volting or how sacred it might be. The owner of the cow, notwithstanding his reverence for the holy man, entered a complaint against him for the outrage. He was brought into court, and sentenced to twelve lashes. The bystanders were startled and shocked at the idea of so holy a man being punished. "You may beat me," he said to the magistrate, " but it will make no difference to me. I never feel pain. My body has long since ceased to feel any pain whatever." " That makes no difference," said the magistrate, " you will receive twelve lashes all the same." They were given on the spot. When the flogging was over, the devotee said, in a de- fiant way: "You have flogged me, I suppose; but I know nothing about it. I have not felt a stroke of the lash." " Very well," said the magistrate, " since you have not felt any pain, you will not object to taking twelve more," which were ordered to be inflicted at once. The devotee remained as defiant as before. " You may have flogged me, but if so I did not feel it. I never feel pain. I have overcome that altogether." " Very well," said the magistrate, " it will make no difference to you; so you shall have a third dozen," which were at once ordered to be given. The devotee per- sisted that he felt no pain ; but when the order for the fourth dozen was given, he gave in, and begged to be released. The spell was broken. The poor fellow had not suffered in vain, when it became known that the supposed holy men were, after all, men of flesh and blood like others. 134 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. The severe and public example made of this poor man did not suffice, however, to impress the rest of the brother- hood with a sense of the terrors of the law. A little later another member of the fraternity, with matted hair and with his almost naked body smeared all over with ashes, entered the leading street of the town, and began to assess a tax. or fine of two rupees upon each shop. He had fixed upon a certain sum of money with which he wished to buy a horse, and having always been accustomed to the exercise of un- questioned tyranny, he determined to raise the money by levying a forced tax upon the shop-keepers of the town. His process was exceedingly simple. Taking some filth in his hand, he threatened to pollute the doorway of each shop, and thereby destroy the value of everything in it to the caste-observing people, unless the money demanded were in- stantly paid by the owner. When the story of his extortion reached this same magistrate, he at once ordered the man's arrest. The devotee, nothing daunted, appeared in the magistrate's court, and at once admitted the truth of the charge laid against him. As he was defiant in manner, and his offense had 1 been a very grave one, he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment. " Very well," said the defiant devotee, "you may send me to prison if you choose, but I warn you beforehand that I shall never eat or drink after entering the prison. I shall die of starvation, and with my dying breath I shall curse you, your wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, all of whom will bear the curse of a dev- otee while they live." Nothing could have been more ter- rible, in the estimation of the common people of the town, than a threat uttered by such a man, and couched in such language as this. " You may curse away," calmly replied the magistrate, "as long as you please. That is a matter of indifference to me. But whether you curse or not, you .shall go to prison for one year." He was sent off accordingly and locked up ; but day after day the jailer brought word that he was adhering to his purpose, and rigidly abstaining from food INDIAN DEVOTEES. 135 and drink. The magistrate paid no attention whatever to the daily reports brought him, until at last, on the eighth morning, the jailer came to say that the old devotee seemed near his end. " He has tasted neither food nor drink," he said, " since the moment he entered the prison, and he adheres to his purpose. He told me only this morning that he will curse you with his dying breath, according to his threat." The mag- istrate calmly called for pen and paper and wrote an order in the dialect of the place, which the jailer could read, in which he directed the proper officer of the prison to take the body of the devotee as soon as he died, have it wrapped in a cow's hide, carried out by low-caste men, and buried outside the city walls. This was an order hardly less terrible than the threats of the devotee. In the first place, the Hindus, with few exceptions, burn instead of bury their dead. In the next place, the touch of a cow's hide would be contaminating; while, lastly, the indignity of being carried to his grave by low-caste men carried with it indelible disgrace. The jailer returned to the famished and almost dying devotee, and not only reported the result of the interview, but showed him the order. He glanced at it a moment, and then said : " Get me something to eat quickly, before I die." His spell also was broken, and no more was heard of his threats or his curses. One or two more examples put an end to the outrageous conduct of this class of men, and now they are as amenable to the laws of the land as any other people of the province. Every year or two a story goes the rounds of the Ameri- can papers to the effect that some of these wonderful dev- otees of India are able to make themselves unconscious, or rather inanimate, and in this state be buried alive and left in the grave for days, and even months, after which they are restored to life again. I quote the following from the New York Mail and Express: "Much has been written of late about the capacity of frogs to live for years in rocks. Of much greater interest, however, is the fact that human beings can also lie for months buried under ground 136 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. and then be brought to life again. Such phenomenal beings are not, of course, found on this continent or in Europe, but in India, that veritable realm of wonder-working. A German writer has recently written a very interesting essay on the capacity, often proved, of Indian fakirs to let themselves be buried for longer or shorter ^periods, and to come to life again, smiling, after the ordeal." I have repeatedly met with statements of this char- acter ; and some years ago Dr. Buckley, who takes a special interest in researches of this kind, wrote to me to know how far my own observation had corroborated stories of the kind. I had in a general way heard such stories, but never have met with a single case, well attested or otherwise. I began at once to make inquiries, and was repeatedly told that such cases did actually occur; but after trying in vain to run down even one of the floating stories which reached my ears, I gave up the task as hopeless. The man who is able to do it always lives a good many hundred miles distant. The name of his town or village can never be given. The exact place and time at which he performed the semi-miracle are never known. In short, there is never anything but the most vague of shadowy rumors on which to build such a story. So far as the stories which reach Europe and America are con- cerned, they may one and all be traced to the history of a man named Hari Das, who belonged to Cashmere, or possi- bly the Tanjab, and submitted himself to be buried alive in the presence of Ranjit Singh, in the year 1837. The author- ity almost invariably quoted for this statement is Dr. John Martin Honiberger, formerly physician at the court of Ranjit Singh, then ruler of the Sikhs. I was personally acquainted with Dr. Honiberger about thirty years ago, and had every reason to esteem him as a man of veracity and integrity. He was at that time very old, but with a retentive memory and clear judgment. So far as his testimony to an occur- rence which he had seen is concerned, I should not hesitate for a moment to receive it without question ; but when I ex- amine the story itself, I find it far from satisfactory. Dr. INDIAN DEVOTEES. 137 Honiberger never witnessed anything of the kind. He says that he returned from a furlough in Europe in 1839, and on the voyage out he had as a traveling companion General Ven- tura, who was at that time in the service of Ranjit Siogh. In the course of the voyage General Ventura told him that during his absence some wonderful things had taken place at Lahore; that, among other things, a fakir from the mountains had been able to place himself in a state re- sembling death, and while in this condition was buried, and when disinterred returned to life again. Dr. Honiberger says, after speaking of Hari Das as having thrown himself into a hypnotic or unconscious state: "He was wrapped in the linen on which he was sitting; the seal of Ranjit Singh was stamped thereon, and it was placed in a chest, on which the Maharaja put a strong lock. The chest was buried in a garden outside the city, belonging to the minister; barley was sown on the ground, and the space inclosed with a wall and surrounded by sentinels. On the fortieth day, which was the time fixed for his exhumation, a great number of the authorities of the durbar, with General Ventura and several Englishmen from the vicinity, one of them a medical man, went to the inclosure. The chest was brought up and opened, and the fakir was found in the same posi- tion as they had left him, cold and stiff. A friend of mine told me that had I been present when they endeavored to bring him to life, by applying warmth to the head, injecting air into his ears and mouth, and rubbing the whole of his body to promote circulation, etc., I should certainly not have had the slightest doubt as to the reality of the performance. The minister, Raja Dhyam Singh, assured me that he him- self kept this fakir four months under the ground when he was at Jummoo in the mountains. On the day of his burial he ordered his beard to be shaved, and at his exhumation his chin was as smooth as on the day of his interment, thus furnishing a complete proof of the powers of vitality having been suspended during that period." 138 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. The same story is related by one or two other writers ; but it is worthy of note that we have it only as hearsay. Dr. Honiberger himself did not witness this wonderful scene. It is also stated that the man Hari Das had a bad reputation, and that his moral character was of the worst de- scription. There is nothing incredible in the statement that he threw himself into a state which resembled death. That can be done by many men, both in India and elsewhere. Nor is it incredible that he was buried in the presence of Ranjit Singh. There, however, the admissions must cease. It is perfectly credible that the body was removed from the grave almost immediately after the guard had been set. Large numbers of these devotees are accomplished jugglers; but we need not assume that any real deception was used in this case. A very moderate bribe would accomplish all that was neces- sary. The story of the barley being sown over the ground was probably a later addition to the original statement. So also with regard to the interment lasting four months. The statement was made to Dr. Honiberger by an officer of Ranjit Singh ; and even if we assume that this gentleman intended to tell the truth, he was no doubt credulous to the last de- gree, and perhaps noticed that he had a sympathetic hearer in the person of Dr. Honiberger. The weak point in the whole story, however, is found in the fact that a little later an English officer proposed to Hari Das that he try an experiment by allowing himself to be locked up in a strong box, suspended from the ceiling of a room, so that the white ants could not possibly reach the box and endanger his safety, and remain for a specified time in the box, while the officer in question held the key. To this Hari Das would not for one moment consent. The key, no matter what happened, must be in the hands of his chosen friends. Dr. Honiberger states that many Englishmen lost confidence in his pretensions, because of his unwillingness to have the experiment tried with reasonable safeguards to test its reality. When we remember that the whole occurrence INDIAN DE VO TEES. 1 39 took place more than fifty years ago, that all India has been searched over and over in vain for another man who can ac- complish the same wonderful feat, and that only one case has yet been located so that even the most cursory examina- tion of the alleged feat could be made, the reader will no doubt hesitate to believe so extraordinary a story. From the first the Indian jugglers and the Indian devotees have been practically one and the same, and it is from this ex- tremely doubtful source that Theosophy has drawn most of its wonders and all its traditions. Our friends in America need not trouble their minds about people in India having learned how to bury themselves alive, and remain in the grave four months, forty days, or any lesser period. Thus far the assertion that such a wonder has actually occurred rests upon an exceedingly slender foundation. As intimated above, the moral tone of the Indian dev- otees, taking them as a class, is very low. It could not be otherwise when so many of those who adopt this kind of life as a profession are insincere in their lives, and given to vari- ous modes of deception. Many of them, under the im- pression that they must separate their minds and hearts as far as possible from all worldly things, adopt a listless manner, which makes them seem simple almost to the point of idiocy. In conversation they try to appear as artless as little children, and carefully avoid showing any of the wisdom of this world, even with regard to the most ordinary affairs. Some men of this class are very harmless, while others are much less artless than they seem to be. Many, again, are given to the use of opium and other drugs peculiar to India. It is probable that most of these are driven to the use of in- toxicating or stupefying drugs for the sake of lessening phys- ical pain or weariness. The poor creatures are [often almost naked, even in the coldest weather of North India. At other seasons they are exposed to the burning rays of the sun all day long; and at all seasons, when upon their long pilgrimages, or when enduring any of the many forms of 140 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. physical discomfort to which they subject themselves, they must be sorely tempted to seek relief in the opium which dulls their senses or puts them to sleep, or in various drugs which produce the effects of ordinary intoxication. And yet, while the general character of the devotees as a class by no means stands high, I have long since become convinced that many of them are not only sincere, but, according to their light, blameless and harmless in ordinary life. From among these we occasionally succeed in winning Christian converts, some of whom have become valuable preachers of the Word. When I lived in Xorth India, about twenty years ago, I had for some time two most valuable preachers who had formerly been wandering devotees. Both of them had been led in the first place, in their approaches to Christianity, by a sincere desire for the truth ; and one of them affirmed that he had been directed by a remarkable dream, in which a stranger clad in white appeared to him, and bade him go to the missionaries in Moradabad, and seek the truth as they would point it out to him. He had six disciples, all of whom accompanied him; but when they began to learn what a Christian life meant, and what would be required of them if they became Christians, the whole six took summary leave of their master. The leader, however, remained steadfast, and after many years of faithful labor, died at his post as a preacher of the gospel. CJ>apber X. NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS. THE combined influence of missionary teaching and English education, together with constant contact with Western ideas, at an early day began to shake the confi- dence of educated men in India, especially young men, in their old religious systems, and create a spirit of more or less earnest inquiry among them. These causes are still in .opera- tion, and every day the number of those who have cut loose from their ancient moorings, and who avow themselves " ad- vanced/' " progressive," " educated," or " liberal " Hindus increases. This constant tendency, of course, prepares the way for a better defined and wider movement in the future, but thus far has only crystallized in two well-defined and organized efforts to construct a religious system better than Hinduism, and yet distinct from Christianity. The Brahmo Somaj of Bengal, and the Arya Somaj of North India, have both secured public attention, and are trying to provide India with an Indian religion better suited to its peculiar wants than Christianity, and even better than Christianity itself. The Hindu Tract Society of South India might pos- sibly be mentioned as a third organization of the same kind ; but both in its aims and animating spirit it falls so far be- low the North India movements as to be unworthy of men- tion in the same connection. The Brahmo Somaj of Bengal has become well known, not only in India, but in Europe and America, chiefly through the writings and published addresses of the late Keshub Chunder Sen. It owes its original foundation chiefly to the well-known Ram Mohun Roy, a cultured and able Bengali 141 142 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. gentleman of the last generation, who was one of the first Indians to visit England and secure a large degree of atten- tion in that country. He began his career early in the present century, and for the most part kept nearer to the Christian standard than most of his followers have done. When in England he identified himself so closely with the Unitarians that he has often been claimed by them as one of their own number. A few extracts from his letters or writings have been produced from time to time which indicate that at heart he was, at times at least, practically a Christian both in his belief and feelings. As a matter of fact, however, he never made a formal profession of Christianity, and died as he had lived, a professed Hindu. He believed that a great deal of truth was found in the Vedas, the most ancient of the Hindu writings, and before his death gathered round him a few followers in Calcutta, who discarded the later accre- tions of the Hindu system, and tried to establish their re- ligious faith upon the foundation of the more ancient and purer teachings of the Vedas. The chief man among these early followers of Ram Mohun Roy was a devout and able Bengali gentleman named Debendro Xath Tagore, who became the leader of the little flock, and for a long time remained its most active and in- fluential member. Under his direction an attempt was made to form a national creed, and the movement assumed a more definite form as distinct from Hinduism, instead of still re- taining a formal connection with it. The earnest but too sanguine men. who joined in this undertaking hoped to lead a great reform movement, which in time would supplant Hinduism altogether, and give back to India the simple faith of the earliest Aryan settlers. In order to succeed in this attempt, they adopted a kind of religious eclecticism, pro- fessing to draw from all religious freely whatever was needed to complete their own creed. About the time that Theodore Parker was at the zenith of his fame and influence in Boston, his teachings through some source reached these ardent NE W RELIGIO US MO VEMENTS. 143 reformers in Calcutta, and for a period of perhaps ten years influenced them very profoundly. The writings of F. "W. Newman, of England, a man of kindred spirit with Parker, also fell into their hands, and indeed Mr. Newman himself was at one time in personal communication with them. I once read a letter which he had addressed to them as a body, in which he warned them solemnly and earnestly against the missionaries, who would mislead them if listened to, and urged them to look for the light and inspiration which they needed in their own hearts and minds. From these teachers the reformers in Calcutta learned some good, and also some very dangerous lessons. Among the latter, the error which led them ultimately into the most serious mistakes grew out of the transcendental idea of inner illumination, by which they understood much more than Mr. Parker would have deliberately taught them. They were made to believe that all men were alike illuminated by the Spirit of God; but the word illumination was never defined to them with sufficient clearness, and in the minds of many soon became a mere synonym for fancy. The word "Somaj" in Bengali literally means an as- sembly, and is equivalent to the Greek term which we trans- late by the English word "church." The term "Brahmo" may be taken as meaning " divine." Joseph Cook has trans- lated the two words as meaning "God Society," but in se- lecting the word "Somaj," the early founders of the system no doubt sought for an exact equivalent of the English word church, thereby affording a curious illustration of the manner in which they unconsciously borrowed from Christianity nearly everything that pertained to their organization as a church. In their own writings, especially in more recent years, they constantly use the word church, giving it almost the same signification which Christians do, save that they apply it to an organization which is not Christian. While for the most part denying that they are indebted, to any ma- teria? extent, to the Christian missionaries for any of their 144 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. doctrines, or for any part of their organization, yet, as a matter of fact, they have unconsciously been walking in the reflected light of Christianity since the very first. In the year 1859 a young man began to assume a promi- nent place in the Somaj at Calcutta, who was destined to af- fect its fortunes more directly than any one else who had ap- peared in its history. This young man of twenty-one was the well-known Keshub Chunder Sen. He was a man sin- gularly gifted in many respects, having a fine personal pres- ence, a most amiable and winning disposition, a clear and cultured mind, a warm and affectionate heart, and gifted with a power of popular eloquence which placed him in the very front rank of all modern Indians. He was at once surrounded by a band of devoted followers, and became the leader of a reform party within the Somaj itself. Heretofore, while in words condemning caste, child-marriage, enforced widowhood, and other wrongs of the Hindu system, no de- termined effort had been made to free the members of the Somaj themselves from personal connection with these abuses. The young reformers began to demand immediate action, and themselves set the example by breaking caste, and openly protesting against all the ancient abuses of the Hindu sys- tem. They were possibly a little more zealous than wise in their efforts ; but be that as it may, a rupture soon occurred ; and in 1860 Mr. Sen, w r ith a large majority of the whole Somaj, withdrew and organized what was called the Brahmo Somaj of India. With the organization of this new body, Mr. Sen at once became a prominent leader, and from that time till his death in 1884 no man in India was more promi- nently before the public, especially the religious public, and none exerted a wider influence among the better educated classes. Mr. Sen and his followers were extremely sanguine of success when they organized the Brahmo Somaj of India, and sincerely believed that by the aid of their free eclecticism they had laid down a basis upon which all earnest servants NE W RELIGIO US MO VEMENTS. 145 of God could unite. They denounced dogmas and creeds, and seemed honestly unconscious of the fact that in doing so they were laying down a definite creed, and teaching dogmas which their followers would tenaciously hold for generations to come. They denounced sectarianism constantly, and made this one of the most prominent points in their public ad- dresses, unconscious all the time that they were introducing one new sect into Brahmoism, and one new sectarian body into the religious world. In this respect they were neither better nor worse than many honest Christians, who, while constantly preaching against sectarianism, and withdrawing from all other religious associations in order to protest against it, succeed merely in forming one additional sect, and often a very insignificant and useless one at that. It is a- curious comment upon the mistake into which these earnest men fell at that period, that Brahmoism has already divided into no less than four different bodies, each of which, unfor- tunately, must bear a sectarian name before the public. In the course of time, Mr. Sen made rapid changes in his own views, and began to introduce so many new features into the Brahmo Church that no little ferment was occa- sioned among his followers. He wholly rejected Parkerism after a very few years, and seemed to perceive very clearly what was deficient in Mr. Parker's teaching. He became more spiritual and more earnest in denouncing the great wrongs of the Hindu system. His influence with the Indian Government enabled him to secure the enactment of .a mar- riage act, which was essentially Christian in its features, for the Brahmo people. It was the enactment of a practical protest against child-marriage and enforced widowhood. This reform, however, was not secured without determined opposition, and soon indications appeared that another rup- ture in the community might occur at any time. Mr. Sen had unfortunately accepted, without any qualification, the doctrine of immediate inspiration ; and drawing no distinc- tion whatever between this and the ordinary illumination of 10 146 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. the Spirit which is given to all, he regarded himself as an in- spired man, not only in respect to points of doctrine, but in regard to all ordinary conduct. It is easy to see that only one step remained between the acceptance of this dangerous belief and the assumption of practical infallibility. Now and then Christian men of very considerable culture fall into the same mistake, and hence we should not judge Mr. Sen too harshly. All our charity, however, can not explain away the fact that at a critical moment, when called upon to de- cide a question of the utmost importance both to himself and to the Indian public, he had recourse to prayer, and, believ- ing that he had received a direct order from God, he made a decision which most of his followers regarded as wrong, both on moral and legal grounds. This led to an immediate se- cession of a very large body, including some of the best Brahmos in the community. Strangely enough, another rupture followed on the death of Mr. Sen himself. Mr. Mozumdar, who visited America some years ago, and who is still remembered favorably by many in the United States, had just returned from a trip around the world; and, as the most prominent of Mr. Sen's followers, he expected to suc- ceed to the leadership. In this he was opposed, and when he attempted to occupy the pulpit which Mr. Sen had for some years held, he was ejected from it ; and having follow- ers of his own, the consequence which might have been ex- pected quickly followed. The Somaj again divided. Since the death of Keshub Chunder Sen the Brahmo movement has been in a quiescent state. Its chief strength is now in the hands of what is called the Sadharan Somaj ; that is, the conservative body which withdrew from Mr. Sen at the time he fell into the error noted above, assuming that he was guided directly by the Spirit of God. The original body has dwindled down almost to nothing. The future of the movement is very uncertain. If another leader arises, with sufficient ability and skill to manage the somewhat dis- cordant elements of which the body is composed, Brahmoism t NE W RELIGIO US MO VEMENTS. 147 may get a new lease of life, and possibly attain to the dimen- sions of a great movement. Numerically it is by no means a strong body. It has not nearly so many adherents now as it had fifteen or twenty years ago. The many sharp col- lisions which have occurred among its members has had the effect of alienating many young men who, without identify- ing themselves directly with the Somaj, had accepted its doc- trines, and even avowed themselves as its followers. For several years past comparatively few accessions have been made to its ranks. It is very difficult to speak accurately of Mr. Sen. I knew him well, and might almost say intimately, and yet have always regarded his career as an enigma difficult to solve. That he was sincere I never doubted, but at the same time I always felt painfully that he had mistaken his mission, and was led constantly by false lights which he mistook for the clear illumination of the Spirit of God. He unhesitat- ingly believed that God, from time to time, in all the past, had raised up special leaders to reform the nations, and that these leaders had been the subjects of peculiar and excep- tional inspiration. He drew but slight distinctions in the character of these men, or of the inspiration which they en- joyed, putting Confucius and Socrates, Zoroaster and Buddha, Christ and Mohammed, Choitonya and himself, together in one category as men called of God and inspired for a great purpose. In his later years he would have hesitated to as- sign to our Saviour a common place among these inspired men. His own language, indeed, concerning Christ was so very equivocal that it is impossible to decide in what light lie held him. One thing which alienated him from the con- fidence of Christian missionaries, and which, indeed, irritated some of them exceedingly at times, was his constant habit of using Christian words and phrases in a sense peculiar to him- self; that is, he used these terms and phrases with a reserved right to apply any meaning to them which he chose. The same criticism applies, to some extent, to all the Brahmos. They 148 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. borrow Christian phrases as well as Christian usages very freely, and in the employment of them constantly mislead Western readers. Mr. Sen, however, was undoubtedly honest in his belief, and claimed the right of using words in what- ever sense suited his purpose. He believed beyond a doubt that he had been raised up as a man chosen of God to give the people of India a new and purer faith than they had ever known. During the last year of his life his implicit faith in his own inspiration led him to adopt some extreme vagaries, and both in his writings and public teachings he often reminded me of some phases of religious fanaticism which appear from time to time in Christian circles. Had he died a year or two earlier, it would probably have been better for his fame. The Arya Somaj of North India is a body corresponding in some respects to the Brahmo Somaj of Bengal. The latter, after its more perfect organization by Keshub Chunder Sen, sent out missionaries and established branches in all parts of North India; but these subordinate bodies were nearly all confined to the small colonies of Bengalis found in the lead- ing cities. The movement seldom gained any foothold among the North India people ; and hence a clear way was left for a distinct movement, for which, indeed, the soil was somewhat well prepared. The movement known as the Arya Somaj is the outcome of the teachings and organizing ability of Dyanand Saraswati, the son of a Gujarati Brahman, born in Dwarha, a sacred city of Gujarat, in the year 1825. He was thus thirteen years older than Keshub Chender Sen, but did not enjoy the advantages which the. latter received. Being a youth of a strongly marked religious temperament, he de- voted himself at an early age to the study of the Vedas; but his earnest and inquiring mind soon led him to doubt many things which a follower of the popular religion was expected to accept without question. When sixteen years of age he was deeply impressed by the death of an uncle and an only NE W RELIGIO US MO VEMENTS. 1 49 sister; and as often happens among the people of India, when dissatisfied or disappointed with the world as it presents itself to persons with strong religious desires, he determined to adopt the life of a devotee. When hindered by his father, he quickly resolved to escape from home, which he did in the year 1847. He was at that time twenty-two years of age, and for more than a dozen years he wandered from place to place in the society of devotees, changing once or twice his outward garb as he advanced from one stage to another. By the year 1854 he had become a Saniyasi, the fourth degree of the dev- oteeship which he had chosen. This was a high proficiency for one so young as he was at that time. In the process of time, however, he found that he was making little headway in fol- lowing such a life; and when about thirty-five years of age he became profoundly impressed that he had a mission to his own people, and resolved to devote himself to the task of re- storing them to the state of former happiness which he be- lieved they had enjoyed. All the great religions of the world, except the Christian, point to the past as their golden age. A few Christians, unfortunately, have fallen into the same mis- take; but it is the glory of the Christian system that its golden age is in the future. It has undertaken to lead the world to a better destiny than it has ever known. The ardent and hopeful Dyanand thought he might bring back again the golden age of his people, and resorted to various expe- dients with that end in view, without, however, achieving any marked success. At last, about the year 1875, he re- solved to follow the precedent set him by the Bengali Brah- mos, and establish Somajes, or religious societies, throughout North India, each of which was to be the center of an earnest work of religious reform. As soon as he began to carry out this plan, his work assumed a definite shape, and his influence became felt far and wide through Western and Northern India. The name, Arya Somaj, was given to this new organiza- tion, and has been significant of the character and progress of 150 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. the whole movement. The followers of Dyanand differ from their brethren of Bengal in several respects, not alto- gether to their own advantage. They are less liberal, and have made less progress in the direction of reform than the Brahmos have done. They are more partisan in their feel- ing, and adhere more closely to the ancient Vedic system. In other words, they have only advanced to about the point which the Brahmos had reached twenty-five years ago. They are more hostile, also, to Christianity, and especially to Chris- tian missionary effort in India. Owing to this, most of the missionaries in North India regard them as, upon the whole, hostile rather than friendly, and decline to co-operate with them in even those ordinary reform movements in which all should join. Many of them undoubtedly have good reason for so regarding them; and it is to be regretted that the Aryas, as they are popularly called, or the Dyanandis, do manifest a spirit of hostility, not only to Christian mission- aries, but to Christian truth, which is far from creditable to any men. who wish to bear the name of reformers. At the same time, they are everywhere recognized as the opponents of popular idolatry, and many of them are warmly enlisted in favor of the abolition of child-marriage, enforced widowhood, and other deeply rooted abuses. As has happened among the Brahmos, so we may anticipate that, in the course of time, dis- sensions and divisions will occur among the Aryas also. Some will advance, while others will stand still or recede; and the missionaries will be wise if, instead of wasting time in fighting them, they co-operate with them as often as oppor- tunity is afforded them, and conciliate them wherever such a policy is possible. Some, however, are too bitter in their feelings, and too hostile to the Christian faith, to be of much use to any Christian missionaries in connection with reform movements. It would hardly interest the reader to give an outline of the leading religious tenets held by the members of the Arya Somaj. Suffice it to say that they still hold many of the NE W RELIGIO US MO VEMENTS. 151 popular errors of the Hindu system, while, however, formally denouncing the later sacred writings of the Hindus. They are trying to adhere to the original Vedas, and have yet to give up some of their most fatal errors. They believe, or at least many of them do, in transmigration. Like the Brah- mos of Bengal, they have adopted the exceedingly fatal no- tion that God 6an not forgive sin. Forgiveness has no place in their creed. They believe that sin entails suffering, and that, either in this life or the next, it must be atoned for by the actual suffering of the transgressor. They also ad- here to the ancient Hindu notion of merit, and, as a conse- quence, their prayers are for the most part merely formal. In this respect they are far behind the Brahmos, being much less devotional, and using much less direct prayer in their worship. Like the Brahmos, they borrow freely and largely from the Christians in their public services. Their meetings are for the most part held on Sunday ; not because they have any peculiar reverence for the day, but because it chances to be a Government holiday, and they have more leisure for worship than on any other day of the week. The ordinary service consists of prayer, usually, however, read, chanting of a hymn, sometimes in Sanskrit and sometimes in a modern tongue, and one or more public addresses. The Arya Somaj has a much larger following than the Brahmo Somaj. This is probably owing to their greater laxity both of faith and practice. If they continue to make progress, in time, no doubt, a secession of the more earnest and progress- ive members will occur, in which case there may be a thin- ning of the ranks, as has happened among the Brahmos in Calcutta. I am not able to state what the present strength of the body is, but well-informed persons in North India es- timate it at from twenty to twenty-five thousand. I have spoken of the Hindu Tract Society of Madras. This is a body of a very different kind, whose animating spirit seems to -be simply hostility to Christianity, and 152 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. especially to Christian missionaries. The Hindus of South India have become alarmed of late by the rapid progress which missionaries are making in winning over the lower castes of the community. Through all the ages past Hin- duism has never lifted a finger to aid the despised out- castes; but now that Christianity is coming to the front and befriending them, not a few intelligent Hindus perceive that, before very long, not only will these despised people become Christians, but they will be rapidly elevated in the social scale, and work a veritable revolution in the social condition of the whole community. These men are far-seeing, but not wise. In order to counteract the efforts of the missionaries, a society has been organized, called the Hindu Tract So- ciety, and some of its operations are really ludicrous when it is considered that what they wish to do is not to elevate the poor, but to keep the Christians from doing it. In the neighborhood of Bangalore, where our missionaries had gath- ered large numbers of the children of the poor in Sunday- schools, this society put its agents to work in opposition, and actually paid small bribes to the children to keep them away from Sunday-school. They have also made a few feeble efforts to found schools for the Pariahs, as the out-castes are popularly called, and in their papers and public meetings have discussed the most practical ways and means of counteracting missionary influences. They have also published and circu- lated tracts in opposition to Christianity, and from this feature of their work the society takes its name. The whole move- ment, however, is hardly worthy of serious notice, and I only mention it as an illustration of the influence which Christian missions are exerting upon the people. A few other movements, somewhat akin to the two Somajes mentioned above, have taken place in different parts of India, but not on a wide enough scale, or with sufficient success, to call for further notice. Chapter XL EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA. INDIA is so well known as the greatest mission-field of 1 the modern Church, that it will be a surprise to many readers in America who have not given special attention to the subject, to learn that Christianity has had a foot-hold in one part of the empire since a very early period, probably as early as the beginning of the second century. It is probable, although not certain, that Christian merchants and other adventurers, if not also Christian missionaries, penetrated through Central Asia as far as the Indian passes during the first and second centuries; but no authentic records remain to show to what extent churches were organized in India proper. It does not appear, however, that any considerable Christian population was ever recognized in North India. In South India, on the other hand, probably through the efforts of Christian merchants and other travelers following a well- known route of commerce down the Red Sea and around the Persian Gulf, Christianity gained a permanent foot-hold, which it has retained ever since. An endless number of mythical stories have been put in circulation in more recent times with regard to the planting of these ancient churches in Southern India ; but very little is known on the subject with historical certainty. When the Portuguese made their first settlements on the Malabar Coast, and found a large Christian population oc- cupying a portion of the main-land, it became of the utmost importance to them to prove that all the Christian churches of India had been founded by the Apostle Thomas, and hence originally belonged to their own communion. It is true that they found the name of Thomas held in the highest venera- 153 154 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. tion among all the Indian Christians, and the opinion every- where accepted that the Thomas who had become famous among them was none other than Thomas Didymtis, of the original twelve apostles. It seems a well established fact that two distinguished leaders were known among these Chris- tians, one in the third century and one in the eighth, both bearing the name of Thomas. Both these men performed distinguished services for their fellow-disciples, and it would be the most natural thing in the world for their grateful fol- lowers especially after the lapse of a generation or two to confound them with the older traditions of the Apostle Thomas himself. It has also been suggested that the Apostle Thomas who figures in the universal tradition of the prim- itive Church as a most enterprising and laborious missionary evangelist, pushed his way into the far East, preaching iu - the countries lying east of Persia, which at one time formed the ancient Bactrian kingdom of the Greeks. The name India in those days was very commonly applied to all that region, neither the Persians, Greeks, nor Romans having any clear idea of the geographical boundaries of India, or being very particular in their use of geographical terms. In this way the Apostle Thomas would come to be regarded through- out Europe as an apostle to the people of India; and when the name of Thomas was subsequently discovered in South- ern India, it needs afford us no surprise that in those old times, when accuracy of date was little thought of, Christian writers generally should fall into the mistake of confounding three different men who chanced to bear the same name. The first authentic mention which we have of this com- munity of Indian Christians is given by Eusebius in an ac- count of a zealous Christian named Pantaenus, of Alexan- dria, who had previously been well known as the head of a celebrated school of Stoic philosophy in that city. About the year A. D. 190, Pantaenus heard from merchants who had returned from India of the existence of a Christian com- munity in that distant land. In those days a. Roman fleet EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 155 went regularly once a year from a port on the Red Sea to India, and it is well known that Jews going out from time to time by this route finally effected a settlement on the western coast of India, and descendants of these Jews are well known in Bombay to the present day as Bani Israel. It is extremely probable that Christians also would find their way to India in the same way as the Jews did, and probably they, too, founded a colony, or perhaps preached the gospel to the natives of the country, and organized them into Churches. It is evident that the Romans carried on a very extensive trade at that period with India. About fifty years ago a col- lection of silver coins was discovered at Coimbatore, in South India, 522 in number, of which no less than 135 were coins of Augustus, and 378 of Tiberius. A few years later another discovery was made, near Calicut, of several hun- dred coins dating from Augustus to Nero, but none later than Nero have been discovered. The presence of so many of these coins clearly indicates that a very active and extensive trade must have been carried on between the people of the Mal- abar coast, and Roman merchants from some point westward. Pantsenus set out from Alexandria with a resolute pur- pose to visit his Christian brethren in India an enterprise, in that age, of no little difficulty ; and although his reports have been doubted to some extent, it seems reasonably cer- tain that he succeeded in reaching India. So far, however, from finding any evidence that the Apostle Thomas had been there before him, he was surprised to discover that some of the Christians were acquainted with the Gospel of Matthew, and reported that Bartholomew, one of the apostles, after preaching to them, had left them this Gospel in the Hebrew language. It is worthy of -note that Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, early in the third century, also assigns the conversion of India to the Apostle Bartholomew, while to Thomas he gives the credit of evangelizing Persia and the Bactrian re- gions of Central Asia. He also adds that Thomas suffered martyrdom in India, at a place called Calamina. 156 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. It is abundantly evident that the early Christians were men of very great activity in their efforts to spread the gos- pel over the world. While the New Testament is wholly silent concerning the later labors of most of the apostles, it is reasonable to suppose that those unnamed in the Book of Acts were quite as zealous in propagating the faith as Peter or John, or even Paul; and it is quite credible that both Bartholomew and Thomas actually preached the gospel in India. It is quite as probable, however, that other Chris- tians, living a generation or two later, and bearing the same names, were confounded with the original apostles. In any case, incidental evidences like those mentioned above are of extreme interest to students of primitive Christian history. It would seem that not only were there zealous and able Christian leaders during the first and second centuries, who pushed the work of evangelization far and wide, but that the rank and file of believers went forward, preaching the word, and thus set an example to the Church of modern times which has, up to the present date, not been fully imitated. When the Portuguese Catholics gained a foot-hold in Southwestern India, they at once entered vigorously upon the task of bringing the Christians whom they found there under the authority of the Pope, and consequently became zealous advocates of the tradition that the original founder of the Indian Church was none other than the Apostle Thomas, An expedition was accordingly sent to Madras, where tradition said the apostle had been put to death as a martyr, together with a local prince who had been converted through his efforts. Those in charge of the expedition, trusting to the easy credulity of those times, brought back with them two skeletons, which they affirmed were those of the apostle and the prince, and these were deposited with all due solemnity in the cathedral at Goa, where they still re- main. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church is now so fully committed to the tradition of the Apostle Thomas, that it is difficult for its historians to treat the subject candidly. EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 157 It seems quite certain, however, that these ancient Chris- tians were Nestorians. in common with nearly all the other Asiatic Christians of the nine or ten centuries succeeding the age of Nestorius himself. They have been universally known as Syrian Christians, and, century after century, received their bishops from the Nestorian Churches of Autioch. Their con- dition varied from time to time, according as they chanced to encounter the friendship or enmity of surrounding princes. Sometimes they were reduced to great straits, and driven into the mountains, where, it seemed, they must soon either lapse into the polytheism of surrounding tribes, or in some other way abandon their ancient faith. It was at such a time of great depression that the Armenian Thomas found them near the close of the eighth century, and through his efforts they were relieved of their disabilities, and not only restored to their former privileges, but placed in a position of great favor under the rule of several powerful princes. When the Portuguese found them, they were existing as a separate oaste, a position which every separate community in India quickly assumes ; and hence we may conclude that they had, to a serious extent, lapsed from the higher plane of Christian life which the early Christians throughout the Roman Empire so resolutely adopted and maintained. In India the extraordinary influence of the caste system tends powerfully to drive every new sect, or organized body of any kind, into the position of a mere caste or social guild, with the inevitable result of preventing the growth of the com- munity except by the natural increase of population. This Christian caste had gained a position of unquestioned re- spectability, and strangely enough was known as a military caste. Its soldiers occupied the position of honor in the armies of the reigning princes, and were known as skillful soldiers and brave men. The community was in a prosper- ous condition, and seemed to have gained a vantage-ground which it would not again lose. It is abundantly evident, however, that, as a Christian 158 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. community, India had little to hope from these people. Their religious services were conducted in the Syrian tongue, and, while they rejected many of the errors of Rome, they do not seem to have possessed any spiritual vitality, or to have taken any pains to give a knowledge of the word of God to their own people, much less to extend it among the Buddhists and Hindus of India. They occupied a remote corner of the empire, and their influence was but little felt beyond their own immediate neighborhood. They were very imperfect exemplars of the Christianity of the New Testament, and were utterly unfitted for any work as evangelizing agents in extending a knowledge of vital Christianity among the peo- ple of India. When the Portuguese discovered these people, they at once attempted to induce them to recognize the Pope, and place themselves in line with what they regarded as the Catholic Church. The Syrian Christians, however, at once per- emptorily refused to take any step of the kind, and, in con- sequence, were annoyed and persecuted with as much rigor as the unfortunate Hindus who lived under Portuguese authority. Roman Catholic missionaries co-operated with the vigorous arm of the secular power in incessant efforts to induce them to accept the authority of the Pope or, as it would be euphemistically expressed in modern phrase, to be " reconciled to the Church " until at length, in the year 1599, a synod, called the Synod of Diamper, was held held under the presidency of the Archbishop of Goa, and the liturgy of the Syrian Church was purged of what was called its Nestorian heresies, and in this amended form the Syrian Christians were permitted to continue its use. For about half a cen- tury the Syrian Christians continued to yield an unwilling submission to their Catholic rulers; but in 1653 they for a time revolted and rejected the authority of their Jesuit bishop. They were brought back again, however, by what were called "vigorous measures," in 1666; but very soon after the Dutch, then at war with the Portuguese in India, changed EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 159 the face of affairs by the capture of Cochin, and the practical overthrow of the Portuguese power in India. Large numbers of the Syrian Christians at once reaffirmed their spiritual inde- pendence; but as nearly two generations had now grown up under the influence of the Jesuits, the majority of the people continued to adhere to the Roman Catholic communion. The Dutch took no part in the conflict between the two parties, save to see that fair play was accorded to both. The inter- ference by the temporal power with the Church from this time ceased. Both parties maintain their position to the present day. The singular device which the Portuguese had adopted to compel the Syrian Christians to place themselves under their jurisdiction, was that of prohibiting the import of bishops from Antioch. The Syrian Christians in India had, from the first, been accustomed to have their bishops sent out to them from Persia or Syria an arrangement which, in the end, proved a source of great weakness, as the sequel will show. The Portuguese had absolute control of the sea, and shrewdly con- cluded that the best way to destroy the independence of the Indian Church would be to deprive them of their bishops, and accordingly they issued orders that no ecclesiastic com- ing out from the Nestoriau Church should be permitted to land in India. The poor Syrian Christians were now re- duced to great straits, and, as might be expected, questions affecting the validity of ordinations and other like matters soon began to trouble them. When, however, the Dutch re- stored religious liberty to them, they lost no time in sending for a bishop; but, unfortunately, the Patriarch of Antioch sent them a Jacobite bishop, instead of a Nestorian of the old school, to which they had been accustomed. The bishop was not rejected on his arrival, but he would have received a- more cordial welcome from the community at large had he not belonged to the sect known as Jacobites. As it was, about one-third of the community adhered to him, the re- mainder retaining their allegiance to the Church of Rome, 160 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. qualified, however, by the concessions which had been made to them. The division between the two parties has been rigidly maintained ever since the arrival of this Jacobite bishop. A good deal of vigor is manifested by both parties; but their relative strength has not materially changed. Efforts have been made by Protestant missionaries to revive the Jacobite party, by introducing among them a more evangelical type of Christianity; but thus far the success achieved has not been very marked. It is a difficult task at best to inspire a Church half dead, especially one that has learned to trust in the tradi- tions of ages, with new spiritual life, and the Syrian Church of South India has thus far formed no exception to the gen- eral rule. Chapter XII. ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN INDIA. THE introduction and progress of the first Roman Catholic missions in India are so closely identified with the ad- vent of the Portuguese, that the same date may be fixed for the planting of the political power of the Portuguese, and the ecclesiastical rule of the Roman Catholic Church in In- dia. The passage around the Cape of Good Hope was first discovered in 1498, and the year 1500 has been fixed upon as the date of the founding of Roman Catholic missions in India. The kings of Portugal in that era avowed in the most open manner their purpose not only to subdue king- doms, and extend their political power in all quarters of the globe, but also to subdue all forms of religious error, and plant the flag of the Papacy, if not the banner of truth, wherever the standard of Portugal should wave. The first missionaries who arrived from Portugal belonged to the Franciscan order. They were zealous men, and probably more worthy than history has given them credit for; but they were so identi- fied with the brutal policy adopted by the Portuguese to- ward the natives of the country, that it was impossible for them to exert much good influence in any direction, and they encountered what must be admitted to have been a very nat- ural hostility, and no little danger, whenever they ventured beyond the protection of the Portuguese authorities. For some time their missionary work was confined almost ex- clusively to the Portuguese settlements. In 1514 the Do- minicans appeared on the ground, and the first bishop of India belonged to that order. A Franciscan was the first bishop of Goa, the capital of Portuguese India. 11 161 162 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. It is needless to say that great progress was made in the work of nominal conversion within the bounds of the Por- tuguese settlements, but not much had been effected beyond the limits of the Portuguese power before the arrival of Francis Xavier, the first of the Jesuits, in the year 1542. A sketch of his life and labors will be found in another chapter. Seven year later a number of martyrdoms were reported in Tinnevelli and other parts of South India, and marvelous details of signs and wonders accomplished in connection with the work, are found in letters written by some of the fathers of that period to friends in Europe. The conversions, how- ever, were mostly on the wholesale order, and superficial in the extreme. Large numbers of the converts were infants, who were baptized either by stealth or on the near approach of death, while adults were not required to change either their moral code, or many of their outward observances, so that it is impossible to judge accurately of the value of the work reported. The Jesuits began to plant missions on the eastern coast of South India in the year 1606. They occupied stations in the districts of Madura, Trichinopoli, Tanjore, Tinnevelli, Salem, and adjacent regions. Among the most distinguished names of the Jesuits working in those missions are those of Robert de Nobili, the founder of the work ; John de Britto, a martyr; Arnauld, Calmette, and Beschi, an illustrious scholar who achieved distinction as a linguist. These mis- sionaries have left a better reputation behind them than their Portuguese brethren on the western coast; but their success in purely missionary work w r as not so great as has been usually affirmed. They deserve credit, however, for a liter- ary activity which was unusual in the history of Jesuit mis- sions in that age. They also fostered the cause of education to an- extent which was unusual among Roman Catholic mis- sionaries, and printed books of more or less value in various languages. It was by a few of these missionaries that the celebrated ROMAN CA THOLIC MISSIONS. 163 attempt was made of thoroughly mastering the language and religious cermoniale of the Brahmans at a distant point, and then presenting themselves suddenly among the people, where no word of their previous knowledge of Hinduism could have reached, as Brahmans of a new and higher rank than any others known in the country. It has been affirmed a hundred times over that this audacious fraud was not only courageously attempted, but successfully executed; and, in- deed, it is very common in England and America to hear intelligent persons speak of this experiment as the fixed policy of Roman Catholics in heathen lands. As a matter of history, such an attempt. was actually made; but it ought to be stated, in the interest of truth, that it proved a failure, as it ought to have done, and as any one acquainted with the people might have known it would do. This attempted fraud, perhaps more than anything else, has given currency to the statement, which is constantly made in Protestant lands, that the Roman Catholics excel Protestant missiona- ries, by adapting themselves more carefully to the customs, habits, and even prejudices, of the people among whom they labor. Dr. W. W. Hunter, for instance, in his " History of Early Jesuit Missions in India," says: "Their priests and monks became perfect Indians in all secular matters, dress, food, etc., and had equal success among all castes, high and low." This statement is true only in a very qualified sense. Neither in those ancient times nor at the present day, do Roman Catholic missionaries become " perfect Indians," in 'any practical sense. That the attempt was made, as above stated, is true enough, but the great mass of the missionaries wore their own distinctive garb, and retained their own habits; nor can it be said that they "had equal success among all castes." Their success depended upon the vigor with which they were supported by the secular power; and in no instance- have they ever succeeded in India in winning converts of all castes with equal facility, unless when they have conceded everything to caste prejudices and customs. 164 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. It is but just to the Roman Catholic missionaries of India to point out that their early history is quite .distinct from their more recent movements. Taking their mission- ary history, from its inception in 1500, down to the overthrow of the Portuguese power, their work can not but be regarded as a gigantic failure. Dr. Hunter states the case very forcibly, as well as accurately, in the following paragraph : " The Lusitanian conquest of India had a deeper fascination, and appeared at the time to have a deeper moral significance to Christendom, than afterward attached to our matter-of-fact operations. Their prog- ress formed a brilliant triumph of military ardor and religious zeal. They resolved not only to conquer India, but also to convert her. Only by slow degrees were they compelled in secret to realize that they had entered upon a task, the magnitude of which they had not acknowledged, and the execution of which proved to be 'altogether beyond their strength. All that chivalry and enthusiastic piety could effect, they accomplished; but they failed to fulfill either their own hopes or the expectations Tvhich they had raised in the minds of their countrymen at home. Their Viceroys had to show to Europe results which they were not able to produce, and so they were fain to accept the shadow for the substance, and in their oificial dis- patches to represent appearances as realities. In their military nar- ratives every petty raja, or village chief, who sent them a few pump- kins or mangoes, became a tributary rex, conquered by their arms, or constrained to submission by the terror of their name. In their ecclesiastical epistles the whole country is a land flowing with milk and honey, and teeming with a population eager for sacramental rites." Portugal retained an unchallenged supremacy in the Eastern seas throughout the whole of the sixteenth century. It is a remarkable fact, little known, or at least certainly little appreciated at the present day, that the insignificant kingdom of Portugal should have been the great maritime power of the world throughout the whole of that century, as Holland was during the succeeding century. The Portu- guese also held an entire monopoly of the European trade with India, and were the only Europeans personally known ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 165 to the Indians of that day. Throughout this long period of political supremacy the Catholic missions were actively aided by the secular power in every possible way. The Inquisition was introduced into Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, in 1560, and for more than two hundred years it was made to do its horrible work in suppressing heresy, and probably in helping forward the work of nomi- nal conversion by the terror which it inspired. Very scanty records of the Inquisition have been preserved, and it is impossible to tell to what extent it was employed throughout the greater part of this long period. It is known, however, that the building at Goa had two hundred cells for the prisoners confined within its walls. Authentic records have been preserved of seventy-one autos-da-fe be- tween the years 1600 and 1773. It is impossible to tell how many victims suffered on these occasions, but Dr. Hunter, who uses mild language in speaking of the Inquisi- sition at Goa, and deprecates what he calls the " vividly colored " letters of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, somewhat naively remarks that, at " a few of the autos, 4,046 persons were sen- tenced to various modes of punishment, of whom 3,034 were males, and 1,012 females. These punishments included 105 men and 16 women condemned to the flames, of whom 57 were burned alive, and 64 in effigy." It is to be feared that English and American Christians, in our tolerant days, when they speak in terms of horror of the cruelty of burning Hindu widows with the dead bodies of their husbands, too willingly forget that persons bearing the Christian name, and professing to be, in a sense, Christian missionaries, had been engaged in the terrible work of burning deserving per- sons at the stake, long years before Europe had heard of the terrible sati performed by Hindu widows. The inquisition at Goa was suspended by the Portuguese Government in 1774, but renewed again four years later. It was finally abolished in 1812, and in 1820 the building occupied by it was pulled down, and no trace of it now remains. 166 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. In the meantime dark days had come to the Jesuits in India. Their power, meddlesome and inquisitorial to the last degree, had become intolerable, and, in 1759, the Portu- guese Government not only suppressed the order throughout all its territories, but confiscated the property of the Jesuits. France did the same in 1764, and in 1773 Pope Clement XIV suppressed the society altogether, thus affording an- other of the many instances in which one Pope curses what another has blessed, or blesses what another has cursed. la the meanwhile the Portuguese had been overthrown by the Dutch, who appeared upon the scene early in the seventeenth century, and, after a number of victories, wrested the city of Malacca from the Portuguese, thereby giving the latter power a blow from which it never recovered in the East. All the Portuguese settlements on the Malabar Coast that is, the southwestern coast of India, where the Catholic mis- sions had become most firmly rooted were captured by the Dutch between 1661 and 1664. Practically, the Portuguese supremacy in Southern India continued for about a century and a half, since which time they have held only a few un- important possessions, such as Goa, Daman, and Diu. Dr. Hunter says of their career since their overthrow by the Dutch : " The further history of the Portuguese in India is a miserable chronicle of pride, poverty, and sounding titles." Soon after the suppression of the Jesuits, the French Revolution broke upon Europe like the sudden burst of a cyclone upon a sluggish Eastern sea, and still darker days began to brood over the Roman Catholic missions of India. Throughout the era of Napoleon they were either neglected altogether, or paralyzed by the misfortunes which fell, not only upon the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, but upon the Pope himself. Native princes were not slow to take advan- tage of their opportunity, and bloody persecutions broke out in several places. The famous Tipu Sultan, of Mysore, com- pelled twenty thousand Kanarese Christians to submit to the rite of circumcision at the peril of their lives; and vast mul- ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 167 titudes of weak creatures, who had only accepted Christianity nominally, did as might have been expected under such cir- cumstances, quietly returned to the faith of their fathers. In 1814, after the first fall of Napoleon, measures were taken to re-establish missionary work in India ; and since that time the Roman Catholic missions have been conducted with a good measure of energy, and in some places with success. In more recent years the Jesuits have become increasingly prominent; and, although the various orders are all at work in various parts of the empire, it seems probable that the Jesuits will maintain the lead which they have secured. Up to the present day, however, the main strength of the Roman Catholics is in the far South. In Bengal, twenty thousand or more Roman Catholic Christians live in a dis- trict east of Calcutta, and also in the neighborhood of Chit- tagong, about three hundred and eighty miles east of the Hoogly. These people have a singular history. They have all along been under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese priests, and have been supervised by a Vicar Apostolic sent from Goa. They are the descendants, however, of pirates, who were none the less Roman Catholics in the days when their very name was a terror all along the coasts of Burma, and around the mouths of the Ganges. Their allegiance to the Church is held very lightly, and never at any time have they differed very much from the Hindus among whom they live, excepting in the name which they bear. They have, of course, given up their piratical habits since they fell under the jurisdiction of the English Government, and the great mass of them are not aware that their ancestors were ever addicted to such a life. I may mention, as an evidence of the slight hold which the Roman Catholic Church has upon them, that a large number of their leading men waited upon me some years ago, stating that they represented a community of four thou- sand persons, all of whom had authorized them to say that they would unite with the Methodist Episcopal Church if I 168 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. would receive them. Suspecting some ulterior motive, I made diligent inquiries, and became satisfied that if I received them they would expect me to aid them in an important suit which was soon to come on before the Calcutta High Court; and not being able to discover that they felt any interest whatever in spiritual matters, I declined their overtures. Throughout the whole of North India that is, north of a line drawn east and west through the city of Calcutta the Roman Catholics are doing comparatively little missionary work. They give a great deal of attention to the European and Eurasian communities, providing costly and well-equipped schools for their children, and neglecting no possible means of gaining a permanent influence over them. In this respect they are wiser in their generation than many Protestants. Both in England and America it is common to hear loud protestations against missionaries doing anything for Euro- peans or Eurasians in India, simply because they chance to bear the Christian name already. This is a very short-sighted view, as I shall try to show in another chapter. In some parts of Southern India the Roman Catholics continue to make converts from the heathen ; but, for the most part, their efforts are now confined to attempts to make proselytes from the various bodies of Christians that have been gathered out of heathenism by Protestant missionaries. This, indeed, I regret to say, is somewhat characteristic of all sacerdotal missionaries. The Christian world is practically dividing into two great camps, one of which is sacerdotal, and the other evangelical. The term Roman Catholic no longer suffices to define that large body of persons bearing the Christian name who hold what are popularly known as Roman Catholic views. A large number of missionaries are now found in India, as in other parts of the w r orld, who eschew the name Protestant, and yet decline to be called Roman Catholics. They are sac- erdotalists, and hold a theory which logically leads them, whenever an opportunity is afforded, to gain possession of any body of Christians not belonging to the Church with ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 169 which they chance to hold fellowship. Very recently a small body of unworthy and schismatic Christians connected with a German mission in Western India, were induced by some of these men belonging to one of the sacerdotal orders which are becoming so common in England, to unite with the Church of England; whereupon their new leaders published to the world that these converts had become "reconciled to the Church." In Burma, in Eastern Bengal, in Chota Nagpore, and in the Maratha country above Bombay, mis- sionaries of this class in each case, I am sorry to say, with the approval of an Anglican bishop have taken advantage of quarrels among the converts of Protestant missionaries to draw off large bodies of the people, and induce them to unite with their own Church. Their theory is, that the Church is the " body of Christ ;" and nearly all men of this class sincerely believe that every Christian who is outside the pale of what they call the true Church, is thus separated from Christ him- self; and hence they think they are doing the best possible work when they are making divisions among. Christ's dis- ciples, by enticing believers to separate from their brethren. I need hardly say that the missionaries belonging to the Church Missionary Society, the leading Protestant Missionary Society of the world, have no sympathy whatever with this doctrine, or with this deplorable practice. The Roman Catholics, as is well known, are more numer- ous in India than the Protestants; but it should always be remembered that they had been at work very nearly three centuries before the great Protestant movement of the pres- ent day commenced. Thus far the Protestant missions in India have made steady progress, and have never been ad- vancing so rapidly as at the present day. The Roman Cath- olics, on the other hand, have suffered very great losses, not only in India, but in other parts of the world. During the Portuguese era their missionaries reported 100,000 converts in Burma alone. Of this vast number no trace remained at the time that Dr. Judson began his work on the Burmese coast; 170 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. and when, some years later, the miserable remnant of these converts was found in Northern Burma, the whole commu- nity numbered but a few thousand souls. In Ceylon there are only about half as many Roman Catholics as there were a century ago. The well-known Abbe Dubois, writing in 1815, says: "There is not in the country [South India] more than a third of the Christians who were found in it eighty years ago, and the number diminishes every day." From every point of view the early Roman Catholic missions in India, and in the entire East, must be regarded as a failure. It is unhappily but too true that vast numbers of the Catholic converts in India, especially such as are descendants from the nominal converts of the earlier missions, show no signs of moral or religious progress whatever, and are, in fact, little more than semi-pagans. They retain many of the superstitious customs of their ancestors, and their public pro- cessions, as well as many of their peculiar religious ceremo- nies, are in reality little more than Christian imitations of pagan rites. Caste is not only tolerated, but carefully pro- tected. Priests from the lower castes are educated and trained for service among their own castemeu, while an en- tirely different order of priests are trained for service among the higher castes. Christianity has nothing to hope for from so-called converts like these. The only possible use that they can serve is to furnish figures for the census tables, which show a progress which is in a large measure fictitious. Education is grievously neglected in all those sections where the mass of the people have become Roman Catholics, as indeed is the case all over the world." It is a striking fact that while in non-Catholic countries the Roman Catho- lics are very active in all manner of educational work, they almost wholly neglect it, so far as the education of the masses is concerned, in those countries where they have everything to themselves. At a time when the people of Rome itself were deprived of the blessings of a liberal edu- cation, Roman Catholic colleges were built and sustained all ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 171 over the Protestant world, as well as in non-Christian lands. It needs hardly be added that Bible knowledge is scarcely im- parted to these converts at all, and that, in consequence, they are deplorably ignorant of even the elements of Christian truth. Their priests have always taught the people with commendable diligence such traditions and formularies as they deemed necessary for faithful members of the true Church; but nothing like an attempt to give a correct and full knowledge of the teachings of the Bible to all the peo- ple is ever made in any Roman Catholic mission-field. One result of this neglect to give a liberal education to their converts has been, that the Roman Catholic missiona- ries have been unable to raise up any converts of command- ing influence in India. Even when we go back to the be- ginning, and look over the history of their missions during almost four centuries, we fail to find any native Indians who have risen to distinction, or who have exerted any marked influence upon their own countrymen. It is very differ- ent, however, with the converts of Protestant missions. They are found here and there in prominent positions, and are cheerfully recognized by the Hindus as representative men. If it be said that the number of these prominent converts is but few, the explanation is that the total number of converts is at least comparatively small, and that it is only within very recent years that the children of the first converts have grown up with the advantages of a good edu- cation, and have thus found an opportunity to show their ability in public places. Not many years ago, during a time of great excitement in Calcutta, growing out of the imprison- ment of a Bengali editor for an alleged contempt of court, an immense mass-meeting of the Bengali people was called in the northern part of the city. Three speakers and a chairman were selected for the occasion, and it was a very noteworthy fact, which attracted no little attention at the time, that of the four persons thus honored, the chairman and one of the speakers were Protestant Christians. Other 172 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. instances have occurred from time to time, clearly showing that the India of the future has much to hope for from the Protestant converts scattered through the empire, and that she will not hesitate to make them her leaders whenever occasion calls for their help. This prominence, which has been achieved so easily and so naturally by Protestant con- verts, becomes the more striking when we remember, not only that the Roman Catholics are vastly more numerous, but also that they have had the whole field to themselves through nearly four centuries, a fact which makes their com- parative failure much more conspicuous, and the success of the Protestants much more creditable. We very often hear it said in England and America, that Roman Catholicism must be much more attractive to the people of India, as well as of other non-Christian lands, from the fact that its public services are so imposing, and that its ceremonies are such as must almost inevitably at- tract a people who pay much attention to the outward forms of religion, and understand little about spiritual things. This impression, however, so far as India is concerned, is founded upon a very great mistake. As a matter of fact, the people of India are not attracted in any special manner by the impressive ceremonies which they witness in Roman Catholic churches, or in any properly conducted Roman Catholic procession. On the other hand, the Catholic mis- sionaries have, from the first, found it necessary to adapt their service to the tastes of the heathen, having utterly failed to win them by their service and ceremonies, as wit- nessed in strictly Roman Catholic countries. As remarked above, the observer in India is much more struck with the heathen element in the Catholic exhibitions which he wit- nesses in India, than with their strict conformity to Roman Catholic doctrine and usage. The people of India are fond of show of a certain kind, but not of elaborate ceremonies. These have a charm for Brahmaus and those fond of myste- rious rites, but with the mass of the people the case is quite ROMAN CA THOLIC MISSIONS. 1 73 different. If they have a public exhibition of any kind, it must be very simple in plan and execution. It may be at- tended with noisy demonstrations, with a great display of gaudy color, and with a general manifestation of enthusiasm among the people; but a carefully arranged and slowly exe- cuted ceremony of any kind will in every case fail to attract. Hence, as a matter of fact, in Roman Catholic missions the ignorant heathen are not won by the form of service which they see. They are much more easily reached by simple, direct teaching than by any ceremony whatever. Their hearts are open and their minds sufficiently inquisitive to give them an interest in the message which is brought to them, if it is presented with even moderate skill and fidelity. Simple teaching in their own tongue, with simple Christian hymns, sung to simple native airs, will be found vastly more effective in winning and holding the attention of the people, than the elaborate and imposing ceremonies which are popu*- larly believed to be a chief source of the success of Catholic missionaries. It is strange, indeed, how many mistakes have gained currency in England and America concerning the relative value of the methods adopted by the Catholic and Protestant missionaries. As a simple matter of fact, so far as India is concerned, in nine cases out of ten the Protestant has the advantage. His message is more intelligible, his method is more direct, and the open Bible in his hand is an unfailing source of power, which sooner or later makes itself felt among the people. With regard to Catholic and Protestant missions through- out the whole world, mistakes like those mentioned above are very prevalent. It is supposed, for instance, that the Roman Catholics are far in advance of the Protestants in almost all countries where they have planted missions; but such is by no means the case. The Catholics were in the field first, and indeed had been engaged in their work for nearly three centuries before the great Protestant movement of modern times began. But so far from the Roman Catholic 174 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. missions being in advance of the Protestant, there are more Protestant missionaries at work in the world than Roman Catholic, the former numbering about 3,500, while the latter, according to the authority of the " Missiones Catholicce," published in 1886, numbered only 2,800 Euro- pean missionaries, with 700 natives ordained in their various foreign mission-fields. The whole number of adherents in all the Roman Catholic missions of the world, according to the above authority, was 2,800,000, with 7,500 churches and chapels, 4,500 schools, and 110,000 pupils. Of the above adherents, no less than 1,180,000 w r ere credited to India. The total number of adherents to Protestant missions at the present time is about equal to that of the Roman Catholics, while they have more than three times as many schools, with a correspondingly greater number of pupils. They are carrying the word of God with them to all the kingdoms and peoples and tribes and nations to which they go, having during the present century translated the Bible into nearly three hundred different tongues. From whatever point of view this subject is examined, it will be seen that the Prot- estant missions of the world are more successful, and infinitely more deserving of support, than the Roman Catho- lics, whether they be considered as a whole or taken for the purpose of comparison from their very best fields. Chapter XIII. PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA. THE Danish Government deserves to be held in lasting honor for its generous and liberal, as well as wise and sensible, policy in dealing with the missionary question in its Eastern possessions. While England was openly hos- tile to everything bearing the name of missionary; while France manifested the narrow bigotry which has always marked its treatment of Protestant missions; while Portugal disgraced the Christian name by its cruelty and intolerance, and Holland was either hostile or ready to subordinate the missionary work to its own policy, Denmark alone pursued a liberal policy, a century in advance of the age. As early as even the beginning of the eighteenth century the King of Denmark openly supported the missionary enterprise, and di- rected the governors of his settlements in India to assist the missionaries in all lawful ways. It ought to be said, to the credit of George I, of England, that personally he was in full sympathy with the King of Denmark in this matter, BO much so that he sent an autograph letter to the Danish mission- aries who went out to Tranquebar in 1705 : but, unlike the King of Denmark, he did not make his own views the policy of his Government; and in succeeding years the English Government, as we shall see, was led to assume an open and avowedly hostile attitude toward the missionary enterprise in India. The first Danish missionaries sent out to Trauquebar in 1705 were Messrs. Ziegenbalg and Plutschau. These pioneers, as well as their successors, were good men, and some of them attained distinction as translators and promoters of education 175 176 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. and literature. Their work also, as missionaries, was pros- perous, and was extended to the neighboring kingdom of Tanjore, and subsequently to Tinnevelli. Many towns and villages were occupied, and finally their work extended up the coast as far as Madras. So far as can be gathered from the records, they seem to have gathered around them about fifteen thousand Christians; but for various reasons, some of which we can readily understand, and others which can only be conjectured, their work did not prove permanently suc- cessful. In the first place, they tolerated caste, and this of itself was sufficient to hinder anything like permanent suc- cess. Missionaries of the present day are sometimes cen- sured for the persistency with which they oppose the introduc- tion of Hindu caste into the Christian Church; but those who find fault with them do not seem to be aware that many ex- periments have been made in the direction of caste toleration, but always with lamentable results. While the caste system is perfectly adapted to such a religion as Hinduism, it is in- herently and hopelessly at variance with the very spirit of Christianity, and every attempt to tolerate it ends in trouble and disaster. It is probable, however, that the chief cause of the decay of the Danish mission in the extreme South was political, rather th'an social or religious. The Danish Government did not succeed in making its settlements permanent, and the missionaries somewhat naturally left one point after another, when the protection of their Government was withdrawn. They were supported to some extent by English Christians, and more largely by the Germans, and might have main- tained their ground permanently had they never learned to depend upon the active support of their Government. In the mission-field, as in Christian lands, the support of Csesar ia very apt to prove a snare to the Church of Christ, however fairly the support may seem to be offered, and however plau- sibly the policy may be defended. Be the cause what it may, this early mission of the Danes did not prove permanent, and PRO TEST A NT MISSIONS. 177 it must be added that the large number of Christians collected by them seem to have been scattered abroad, or at least failed to become the founders of a great Christian organiza- tion. Nevertheless, the mission was by no means a failure. It was the forerunner of the great movement of the nine- teenth century. It proved o: <*reat value to Carey and his associates in England, when about to begin their work, by drawing the attention of the Christian public to the possi- bilities of missionary work in India. It was a John the Baptist to the great missionary movement which is spread- ing its network of evangelizing agencies over the Indian Empire to-day ; and the missionary who would speak lightly of the good men who labored in the Danish mission in the last century, understands very little of the general situation, and much less of the good men who began the work in Tranquebar. First and forever foremost among the Danish mission- aries was the renowned Schwartz. This great and good man was undoubtedly a model missionary in the spirit in which he worked, and, for the most part, in the wise policy which he pursued. If he erred in tolerating caste, he simply fell into the error of his age; and many who might lightly condemn him now, would doubtless have pursued the same course if they had landed in India a century earlier, and found the work as it existed when Schwartz took it up. He was everybody's friend and helper, and, while beloved by the poor, was also the trusted counselor of the native princes within whose territories he labored. The story which used to be related in the school-books of a Raja's request, when a certain demand was made upon him by the English Govern- ment, that the missionary Schwartz might be sent to him, because he could trust him and could rely upon both his wisdom and his generosity, is perfectly authentic. It is also true that when a certain prince was near his death, he sent for this good missionary, to request his advice with regard to the policy to be pursued by his son. And when Schwartz 12 178 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. himself died, the Raja of Tanjore wept like a child by his bedside, and himself carefully and tenderly covered the corpse with a golden cloth. The name of Schwartz will al- ways occupy a conspicuous place in the annals of the mis- sionary enterprise ; and if the early Danish mission of the last century had accomplished nothing more than to give ^o India and to the Christian world the illustrious example of this great and good man, it could not be said to have been planted in vain. As intimated elsewhere, however, the actual beginning of the present great Protestant missionary movement in India takes its date from the arrival of Dr. Carey in Calcutta, in 1793. Schwartz was still living, and his death did not occur till five years later. The remnants of the Danish mission were gathered up and cared for by English societies chiefly those of the Anglican Church early in the present century; but so slight was the impression made upon the public mind in India and England by that work, that the beginning of the work in Bengal by Dr. Carey was universally looked upon as the initiation of the new movement. The Danish missions were scarcely noticed; and as the Churches, one by one, took up the work, and sent out their missionaries, for the most part, to the field which had been opened by Dr. Carey, the great missionary enterprise of the present century took its shape, and assumed its important position in the eyes of the Christians of Europe and America. It is extremely difficult to account for the early hostility of the British East India Company to missionary work in India. This company, as is well known, was really the governing power of the infant Indian Empire, but it re- flected faithfully the feelings and policy of the actual En- glish rulers of the day, including some of the greatest names in English history. The younger Pitt faithfully supported the representatives of the Company in Bengal ; but while its defenders were for years in a hopeless minority, it ought to be said in honor of Clive that he never shared the fears and PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 179 misgivings of the great Indian leaders of that day. He saw no impropriety in boldly trying to plant Christianity among the Hindus, and certainly felt no danger in view of the pres- ence of a dozen obscure missionaries in different parts of Bengal. He knew India better than perhaps any one else who enjoyed the confidence of the Government, and it must have seemed to his sturdy English nature an absurd and al- together discreditable thing to make so much ado about the proceedings of men like Dr. Carey and his humble fellow- workers. Be the cause what it may, the humiliating fact re- mains that for many years missionaries were treated with unconcealed hostility by the English authorities in India, and Dr. Carey himself, one of the grandest representatives England has ever had in the East, was obliged to seek an asylum at Serampore from his own hostile countrymen, under the never-failing protection of the King of Denmark. It needs hardly be added that while the East India Company ultimately failed in its attempt to keep Christian missionaries and Christianity itself out of India, at least so far as the na- tives of the country were concerned, yet, for the time being, the work was hindered and hampered in many ways, and perhaps years of successful labor were thus lost to the gen- eral enterprise. This should always be taken into account when studying the missionary question as it has practically been before the public during the present century. It was not until 1833 that the last restrictions were removed, and every Christian missionary in the empire clothed with the freedom which is now enjoyed by all persons bearing the Christian name. A careful examination of the process by which a mission is established in a heathen land will show that, as a general rule, it requires about one generation to get the laborers fairly settled and at work. So much time has to be oc- cupied in learning the language and becoming acquainted with the peculiarities of the people, and so much time is often wasted if the terra wasted can properly be applied 180 INDIA AND MALAYSIA in such a case in what might be called experimenting; that is, in trying one plan after another, most 01 them prov- ing failures, until at last the workers get settled down to their task, and are prepared to go forward with it. if, is not enough that the workers themselves must learn how to perform their duty, but a mission is never planted and fairly at work until it has secured a corps of converts, and has taught some of them to take up the work which must ulti- mately pass into their hands. Keeping these facts in mind, it will be seen that the present century must have been well advanced before the Protestant Churches of England and America had really grappled with their gigantic task in India. The English Baptists entered the field in 1793. The Congregationalists, or Independents of England, represented by, the London Missionary Society, followed in 1798. The Church Missionary Society, which represents the evangelical wiug of the Church of England, and which is at present the strongest Protestant missionary society in the world, took up the work in 1807. The American Board, which repre- sents the Congregationalists of the United States, followed in 1812, and the American Baptists, by adopting Dr. Judson as their missionary, came upon the scene in 1814. The Scotch Presbyterians did not unfold their banner in India till 1830; while the American Presbyterians did not send out their first missionary till 1834. The English Methodists sent out Dr. Coke with a band of six young men in 1814; but the Amer- ican Methodists were not represented in India until 1856. Other smaller societies have sent out missionaries at various dates, but the majority of them not until after the middle of the century. Taking the work as a whole, it has hardly been on trial more than half a century, or, at most, two generations. Some of the most vigorous and successful mis- sions in India to-day have been planted since the middle of the century. What are the results thus far attained 'I It needs hardly PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 181 be said that the whole work has again and again been branded as a practical failure. Tourists, in their hasty flight around the world, are constantly reporting in the home lands that the missionaries are either deceiving themselves, or de- ceiving the Christian public at home, by reporting a success which has no existence ; and plenty of intelligent men and women can be found in India who look upon the whole movement with the utmost contempt. It is perfectly natural and reasonable, in view of reports and accusations of this kind, that many Christians in England and America, with the best and kindest feelings towards the missionaries, and with not only a willingness but an intense desire to believe in their work, should doubt whether it is really prospering in any practical sense, and whether it holds out any prospect of ever attaining so magnificent a result as the conversion of one-fifth of the human race to Christianity. Before speaking of the facts as they exist in India, it might be well enough to remind all persons who have such misgivings, that both England and America abound with critics and opponents who talk in precisely the same way about Christian labor at home in its best form in both town and country. In fact, we never cease hearing it said that Christianity has lost all its vigor ; that churches in the home cities are little more than social clubs; that the Christianity of those lands is un- able to grapple with the great forms of vice which prevail there; and that, in short, failure is branded upon everything which bears the distinctive mark of Christian work. It ought to be always remembered that only Christians can ap- preciate Christian work. That which a good man calls suc- cess, an unbeliever may regard as failure. Very little that a good man does can be appreciated by a thorough man of the world. Paul's life was regarded, no doubt, as a lament- able failure, not only by the Jews of his age, but by every polished Greek with whom he came in contact. Our Saviour himseli, as he hung upon the cross, was no doubt regarded as a man who had lived and died in vain. The critics of 182 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Indian missions are neither better nor worse than other men of the same kind. Most of them are persons who could not ap- preciate Christian work in its best form if they saw it; but, as a matter of fact, very few of them have such tastes as lead them into those associations where they could see Christian work if they wished to examine it. Even good men may rashly fall into mistakes in reporting on such matters. A prominent Christian of England, in a published book, at- tempted to compare, or contrast, the work of Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries in the city of Singapore; and, in doing so, told how he had visited a Presbyterian Church, spoke of its missionaries and their work, and failed to discover that one of the most vigorous and remarkable missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church had its head- quarters within rifle-shot of the very church which he criticised. The largest mission-school for Chinese in any part of the world was almost within hearing of this good man ; and yet he left Singapore without discovering that it had any exist- ence, and w r eut on his way to report in England that the Roman Catholics had seven thousand converts in the Straits Settlements, of which Singapore is the capital, while the Protestants had but a mere handful. The good man not only failed to discover the existence of our own mission, but omitted to mention that the Roman Catholics had reported tens of thousands of converts in that region more than two centuries before, and that, instead of prospering, as he repre- sented them, they were really decaying, their tens of thou- sands having dwindled down to the comparative handful of seven thousand. As a matter of fact, a large body of native Christians have grown up in the empire during the present century. It must be admitted that at first the conversions were few, and that for more than half a century the rate of progress was slow. Nevertheless, from the very beginning the growth has been constant, never for a single year meeting with an interruption. It should also be noted that the ratio PROTESTANT MISSIONS. .183 of increase has thus far been a rising one. This is contrary to the usual rule, and while we can not anticipate that it will continue, yet it undoubtedly indicates that the general condition of missionary work in India is healthy and pros- perous. Every possible effort has been made to secure the latest statistics of Protestant missions in time for insertion in this chapter, but up to the hour of going to press the ex- pected material has not been received. A census is taken by the missionaries themselves every ten years, and presented at the meeting of the Decennial Conference, which takes place at the close of the second year of each decade. This report is now almost due, and possibly some of its data may be re- ceived in time for insertion near the end of the volume. The same difficulty stands in the way of more copious ex- tracts from the Government census of February, 1891. The earliest trustworthy enumeration of Protestant Chris- tians in India (native) was made in 1851. Beginning at that date and counting by decades, we have the following evi- dence of steady and rapid growth. 1861. 1861. 1871. 1881. 102,951 213,370 318,363 528,590 The above figures represent the whole population of con- verts. The following will show the number of communi- cants at the same dates. In both .tables Burma is not in- cluded in the enumeration for 1851. 1851. 1861. 1871. 1881. 17,306 47,274 78,494 145,097 It will be said, of course, that the mass of these converts are wretchedly poor, having been gathered for the most part from the very lowest castes, and that they do not now, and never can be expected in the future to, exercise any percep- tible influence upon the mass of the people. It is readily admitted that the great majority of these Christians are poor, and also that they are gathered from the lowest classes, but 184 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. it is by no means true that the Indian Christians, as a body, do not wield an important influence in the country. The Hindu, an able paper published in Madras, an avowed organ of the Hindus, in a recent issue, speaks as follows of the native Christians: " The progress of education among the girls of the native Christian community, and the absence of caste restrictions, will eventually give them an advantage which no amount of intellectual precocity can compensate the Brahmans for. We recently approved the statement ot a Bombay paper that the social eminence that the Parsees so de- servedly enjoy at the present moment, was due to these two causes, namely: their women are well educated, and they are hound by no restrictions of caste. These two advantages slowly make themselves felt among our native Christian brethren, and it is probable that they will soon be the Parsees of Southern India. They will furnish the most distinguished public servants, barristers, merchants, and citizens among the various classes of the native community." The paper from which this extract is taken advocates an enlightened policy, and, as will be seen from the extract, is able to appreciate the advantages which Christians enjoy. But after reading this one extract, it is idle to say that the native Christians of India are exercising no influence upon the public mind. As a community they are rising rapidly, and what the above writer says is perfectly true; they will become the leading men and women of the country at an early day, unless the Hindus and Mohammedans themselves take the warning which events are giving them, and trample upon or throw away forever the restrictions by. which they are now hampered. In every university examination, and in every other pub- lic examination of any kind held in India in which all classes compete on equal terms, the Christians, in proportion to their numbers, take the lead. This has been true for a number of years, and will become more strikingly true as time passes. When it is acknowledged that many, even o/ those who attain comparative distinction, have risen from PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 185 very humble circumstances, it does them the more credit, and at the same time affords substantial ground for hoping for still better success in the future. For some years I have noticed that leading members of the Indian Christian com- munity discuss public affairs, not ouly with an ability equal to that of any of their countrymen, but with a certain free- dom which is almost impossible on the part of Hindus and Mohammedans. The time is near, also, when these Indian Christians will be able to gain the ear of the Christian pub- lic in England more successfully than is now possible, and in nearly all matters pertaining to political progress or re- form in India, the people have learned to look to England as the ultimate source from which all their effectual help must come. Beyond all doubt the Christians will speedily assume an importance which no equal number of Hindus or Mohammedans can ever hope to attain; and it seems certain that when the Christian community in India numbers ten millions, it will wield a greater influence on the destinies of the empire than all' the great mass of Hindus and Moham- medans combined. This remark, however, may seem to some like looking forward to a period indefinitely distant, and hence of no practical value. That day, however, is not far distant. Ten years hence the Protestant Christians of India will number a million, if not more; and when this mile- stone is reached, the rest of the journey will prove very much shorter than its earlier stages. Probably more than half of those who read these pages will live to see the day when ten million Indian Christians will lift their voices in grateful praise to God, and take their stand on the side of Christian liberty and progress among their countrymen. It is usual for most persons to estimate the success or failure of missions according to the number of converts re- ported at a given time ; but this would be a most inadequate test to apply in the case of missionary work in India. The indirect results of the presence of missionaries in the empire are more striking, in some respects, than even the goodly 186 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. array of converts described above. In the first place, the Protestant missionaries in India have from the first been the advocates of reform in the broadest sense of the word. The abolition of widow-burning and of infanticide, as it existed a century ago in Lower Bengal, was perhaps more largely owing to the efforts of the missionaries than of all other par- ties combined. These good men were able to influence pub- lic opinion in England, and in this way they have often in the past secured the favorable action of the Indian Govern- ment. It will be said, of course, that it was the Indian Government alone which effected the abolition of the horrible practice of widow-burning, and that the credit should be given to it. This is true ; but it is forgotten, at this late day, that a long and most animated battle had to be fought in In- dia, and to some extent in England, before the Indian Gov- ernment was moved to action. The missionaries did not ac- complish all that was done in all these cases, but it may truthfully be said that but for their advocacy not one of these reforms would probably have been carried out to this day. They are the men who faithfully blew the trumpet, by pointing out the danger and the shame of a Christian Govern- ment tolerating such unspeakable enormities; and when any great evil is persistently held up in the clear sunlight of pub- lic opinion, it becomes only a question of time as to how long it will be permitted to endure. The prohibition of child- marriage has not yet been accomplished, but it is an inevitable reform of the not distant future; and while the missionaries already have the co-operation of many enlightened Hindus, yet when the great consummation is reached, they will justly be entitled to a large, if not the largest, share of the credit due for so great an achievement. To the Protestant missionaries of India is also due the steady and healthy improvement in public morality and pub- lic opinion which has taken place during the past half cen- tury. The earlier English residents in India, with but few exceptions, adopted the standard of morality which they PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 187 found in the country. The harem was an ordinary appendage to the foreigner's residence, and the presence of its inmates was not esteemed any more disgraceful in the eyes of the pub- lic than if the owner had been a Mohammedan or a Hindu. Such conduct was hardly supposed to be classified under the ordinary term immorality. The reader of the life of Henry Marty n will remember how fiercely his rebukes of sin, or indeed his very presence, was resented at an ordinary dinner- table, and will perhaps be led to suspect that he was too irri- tating in the tone of his conversation, or in his methods of reproof. To understand the hostility which such a man en- countered, the reader must remember that the society in which he moved was one which had practically adopted a heathen standard of morality. Other causes have no doubt contributed to bring in a better state of things in India gen- erally ; but every one who knows anything about the early history of the Europeans in India, will admit that the Chris- tian missionaries of the empire have contributed a large share toward the reformation of public manners in the European community. Their quiet example, their persistent protests, and at times their courageous rebukes, have from the first ex- erted a profound influence upon the Europeans generally, and done much to command the respect of the Hindus and Mo- hammedans. The Christian missionaries of India have from the first arrayed themselves on the side of all progressive measures. They have been known for years by their almost instinctive willingness to come forward as protectors of the poor. In India the masses of the people are very poor, and very fre- quently the hand of the rich is made to rest very heavily upon them. In Bengal, more than a quarter of a century ago, a great agitation was occasioned by what was affirmed to be oppression on the part of European indigo-planters settled in various parts of the province, and using the labor of the peasants around them. The missionaries as a body arrayed themselves on the side of the peasants, and one of their num- 188 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. ber, the Rev. J. Long, of the Church Missionary Society, was harshly sentenced by a Judge of the High Court to three months' imprisonment for an alleged slander of the European community. It needs hardly be said that the Bengali people to a man applauded his course, and to this day gratefully re- member what he did in their behalf. For the time being the missionaries were the losing party, and were placed under the ban of what was called public opinion; but the peasants vir- tually won the case. Laws were" enacted protecting them ; and now that the bitterness of partisan feeling has been for- gotten, the missionaries as a body may look back with grate- ful pride upon the action of their brethren of that day. It is still true, and will be true to the end, that the Protestant missionaries of India are the friends of the poor. Other struggles, more severe perhaps than any witnessed in the past, are probably in store for them ; but no one who knows them as a body will for a moment feel any misgiving as to their course when the emergencies arise. This fact, perhaps more than any other, has helped to convince the more intelli- gent people of the country, not only that Christian mission- aries are their friends, but that the people of India have much to hope from Christianity itself. A remarkable change in public opinion has been witnessed during the past quarter of a century. When the Mutiny closed, the people of India generally were disposed to hold aloof from missionaries not because they personally disliked them, but because they were representatives of the Christian religion. Recently, however, on two or three very prominent occasions, the mass of the Hindus have thrown the whole weight of their influence in favor of missionaries and their cause. A few years ago, when the Commissioner of Police in Calcutta issued an order forbidding public preaching in the streets and squares of the city, on the ground that it was cal- culated to cause breaches of the peace, the natives, to a man, arrayed themselves on the side of the missionaries. Three of the latter refused to obey the Commissioner's order, and were PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 189 arrested for preaching in a public square. The case was tried by a bench of four magistrates, of whom one was a Moham- medan barrister, another a Hindu barrister, and the remain- ing two Europeans. After hearing all the evidence for the prosecution, the four magistrates told the lawyers conducting the case for the defense that they need not say anything, as they were convinced that there was no case, the Commissioner having exceeded his powers in attempting to prohibit the preaching. This decision, which was of the utmost value to the missionaries iu a country where nine-tenths of the preach- ing must be done in the open air, was hailed with great satis- faction by the entire Hindu community of Calcutta. Space will not permit me to speak of other direct and in- direct results of missionary labor in India. Of popular ed- ucation it might be said that the missionaries laid its first foundations; and although the movement has now largely passed out of their hands, their achievement is none the less notable and praiseworthy. It could not be expected that they would retain so vast a work as this in their own hands ; but their influence is still actively exerted in connection with the general interests of education, and for many years to come the Government will, no doubt, continue to look to them for assistance in the field in which they can do so much. So far as the education of women is concerned, the Protestant mission- aries of the country may justly claim the entire credit for what has been done. They have been not only the pioneers in this grand field, but in many places they struggled long and hard to make such a work possible. They have led the way thus far; but this, too, is proving too vast a work to be controlled by any one agency. Every Christian should feel devoutly grateful for such a result. The missionaries, as a body, can not control the education of a whole people, and should be only too thankful that a movement which was so difficult to start should so rapidly pass beyond their possible control. Chapter XIV. FRANCIS XAVIER. FRANCIS XAVIER is at once the typical saint and the typical missionary of the Roman Catholic world. The annexed portrait, although defective enough as a work of art, gives, nevertheless, a striking representation, of the ideal which everywhere i n the East is sug- gested to the devout Roman Catholic mind by the mention of his name. His feme as a saint has gone out into all the earth, and the purity of his mo- tives, as well as the exalted sanc- tity of his char- acter, have been freely acknowl- edged by Protes- tants in all parts of the world. His success as a missionary has also been conceded very generally; and it has been by far too common to hear Protestant missionaries chided because 190 FRANCIS XAVIER. FRANCIS XA VIER. 191 they do not cultivate his spirit, imitate his methods, or achieve a success at all commensurate with his. It is an un- grateful task at any time to correct impressions which have been almost unchallenged for centuries; and especially so when the subject of criticism has taken rank among the great and good men of the earth. Justice to the cause of truth, however, and especially justice to the great cause of modern missions, call for a frank statement of the character of the work accomplished by St. Xavier, and a candid inquiry into its results. Was he, in any proper sense of the word, a suc- cessful missionary ? Does his fruit abide, in any good sense, to the present day ? A brief review of his life will perhaps shed some light upon these questions. Francis Xavier was born at the Castle of Navarre, April 7, 1506. He was related on his mother's side to the royal family of Navarre, and to the house of Bourbon. In his early youth he was for a time brought to some extent under the influence of Protestant teaching, but in one of his letters he gratefully acknowledges the influence of Ignatius Loyola in extricating him from what he considered the dangerous toils of a great heresy. He became wholly devoted to Loyola, and was one of the little company who laid the foundations of the Order of Jesuits. It is not generally known that this famous order took its first beginning from a compact formed by seven young men to devote themselves to the work of con- verting the heathen world to Christianity. Had they been able to follow out their first intention of going immediately into foreign lands, it is quite possible that the world would have heard less of Jesuits, and Europe have escaped from their malign influence. It so happened, however, that only a few of the seven were sent abroad, and those who remained in Europe began at once to devote themselves ostensibly to the great work of withstanding the rising power of the Ref- ormation, but in reality of building up their own order, and extending its influence until it became almost superior to the power of the Papacy itself. It fell to the lot of Xavier to go 192 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. abroad. Portugal was at that time the leading power east of the Cape of Good Hope. It was the golden age of Portu- guese history. The discovery of the passage around the Cape of Good Hope had almost equaled the achievement of Colum- bus in discovering America, and had in reality opened a way to a region vastly richer than anything that was discovered in the Western world. John III, the King of Portugal, be- came warmly interested in the scheme of the young men, and in a short time fell so completely under their influence that he was prepared to do anything in his power to further their purposes. The Pope had given him a title to all the world east of the Cape of Good Hope ; but his knowledge of ge- ography was so imperfect that he included in his grant Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and China, together with India and the islands of the archipelago. After numerous delays, such as were almost inevitable in those days of imperfect navigation, Xavier was at last per- mitted to set sail. The Viceroy of Goa, who accompanied the fleet in which he had arranged to sail, not only gave him quarters on his own ship, but insisted that while on board he should be his guest. Certainly no young missionary ever set out for his distant field under circumstances so propitious as those which surrounded Xavier. He was going out to India as guest of the Viceroy of the most powerful king at that time known in the Eastern world. He had also been ap- pointed Papal Nuncio, with "all the powers which the Church of Rome could give for the propagation of the faith." He carried a letter from the King of Portugal to David, King of Ethiopia, the hazy ideas of geography of the former king having apparently led him to suppose that the missionary could stop on his way to India, and see the Ethiopian mon- arch. In addition to this, he was provided with another general letter to all princes and governors between the Cape of Good Hope and the River Ganges. King John also gave a general order to all his officers in the East to supply the wants, not only of Xavier himself, but of the missionary FRANCIS XA VIER. 1 93 party which accompanied him. To crown all, the king gave him his own royal authority to be used at his discretion in his work. In short, nothing seemed to be wanting which, from a worldly point of view, could have contributed to his success. Authority, money, distinguished birth, personal sanctity, fame, both ecclesiastical and worldly, and the active support of every civil and military officer of the King of Portugal, all were his in full measure. What more any human being could ask when about to enter upon an arduous undertaking, it would be difficult to imagine. Xavier arrived at Goa, in Western India, May 6, 1543. He was then thirty-six years of age, a man of finished cul- ture, of intense ardor in the pursuit of every object which he set before him, of great force of character, and unflinch- ing courage in the face of all manner of danger and perse- cution. At this point we turn to the pages of his biogra- phers for information concerning the character of his work, and the measure of success achieved, but are soon baffled by seeming contradictions and at times manifest exaggerations. It does not often happen that a perfectly impartial history of any man is written ; but if we desire to ascertain the exact truth, we can not be very far amiss if we let the subject of the biography tell his own story. This has been done by Rev. Henry Venn, in his " Life of Francis Xavier." With great care he collected the letters written by the great mis- sionary from different points in the East, and thus was able in 1862 to give the world a connected story, not always com- plete, it is true, but at the same time faithful to the actual facts, especially in all their main features. On his way to India the fleet in which Xavier sailed touched at the island of Socotra, in the Arabian Sea. The people of the island were partly Christian and partly Mohammedan. Soon after his arrival, Xavier was walking on a public road when he chanced to see two children, whom he at once laid hands on and was about to baptize ; but the little ones fled for protection to their mother, who was near 13 194 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. by, and she complained to the governor that her children were about to be baptized by force. Strangely enough, the nominal Christians of the island objected on the ground that they did not wish such despised people as their Mohammedan neighbors to become Christians. Here a peculiarity of the Catholic faith of that day, and in most mission-fields of the present day also, became apparent. Xavier was anxious throughout his whole life to baptize as many children as possible; and when we read of his success in making converts, we must always remember that the infants baptized by him were included in the general list of converts reported from time to time. With regard to these infants he was accus- tomed to remark, that a very large proportion of them died almost immediately after baptism, from which it may be in- ferred that the parents consented to the rite at the last moment, in the hope that the lives of their children might be thereby prolonged. The Catholic saints of those days, how- ever, put another interpretation upon the event. According to their view, God miraculously preserved the little ones from death until the rite of baptism could be administered, and then, when their eternal salvation had been secured, they were permitted to die. Xavier's first duty on his arrival at Goa was to take up vigorously the work of reform among the Portuguese Chris- tians. At every point where he found the Portuguese settled throughout the East, his eyes were greeted by a spectacle of appalling vice and profligacy. While a great ado was made 'about religion, 'imposing churches and cathedrals erected, and the outward forms of Roman Catholic worship duly ob- served, the mass of the people had abandoned themselves to every form of riotous living, and the very name of Christ had been profaned among the heathen far and near by the ungodly lives of those called Christians. To the honor of the young missionary it may be said that he never shrank from rebuking sin in. high places or in low when it dared to confront him. He at once adopted a custom, which he main- FRANCIS XAVIER. 195 tamed in other places throughout the rest of his life, of either in person taking a bell, or hiring a bellman for the purpose, and going through the streets, often attended by a large crowd, he called upon the people to come out to his meetings, attend the confessional, pray for souls in purgatory, and, in short, take up their religious duties in earuest. It can not be doubted that he effected much good by his peremptory style of preaching, enforced as he was able to do it by the arm of secular authority. After a year or more spent in this kind of work, he went, by the advice of the Viceroy, to the pearl-fisheries at the extreme southern point of India, where he found a large number of native Christians. It should be remembered that Xavier was not by any means the pioneer missionary of the Roman Catholics in India. He found large numbers of Christians at nearly every place which he visited. The various orders of priests, chiefly Franciscans and Augustinians, had been at work for some years, and through their efforts many thousands had already made a nominal profession of Christianity. The Portuguese rulers did not scruple for a moment in using both rewards and punishments to influence the natives in favor of accepting the gospel, in the imperfect form in which it was presented by these priests. Shortly after the people engaged in the pearl-fisheries off the coast of Ceylon, and along the shore of the main-laud, had embraced Christianity, they were attacked by a fleet of Mohammedans, the descendants, of whom are known as Moormen in Ceylon to the present day. The Christians were quickly subdued, and reduced to a state of virtual slavery. The Viceroy of Goa, however, interfered in their behalf, sent a fleet which completely destroyed the Mohammedans, and not only were the Christians restored to their former rights, but many of the captured boats were presented to them, and a monopoly of the pearl-fishery was formally granted them. Xavier was sent among these peo- ple, and although he was better adapted to another style of work, yet he at once entered upon his labors with all his 196 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. energy. The manner of working which he adopted here he seems to have maintained wherever he went during the re- mainder of his life. He did not master any Eastern tongue, not even sufficiently to preach imperfectly in it; but after some lessons in pronunciation and a slight acquaintance with the construction of the language, with the aid of native scholars, he prepared a few lessons, including the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Ave Maria, and, collecting the people, he read these over, and had them re- peat them after him word for word. Large numbers of boys would quickly memorize the lessons, and through these he succeeded in teaching this very rudimentary body of doc- trine to the majority of his adherents. Beyond this he does not seem to have gone; and when we remember that his knowledge of the various languages in which he labored \vas extremely imperfect, we can well believe that his followers understood but little of what he taught. He had success among the fishermen, but not so great as has been repre- sented by most of his biographers. So nearly as can be gathered from his letters, the people of thirty villages became Christians and were baptized. An oft-quoted paragraph in one of his letters has given the impression that he baptized great multitudes, until at last his arm grew weary with the work; but this seems inconsistent with other statements found in letters written subsequent to this time, and jt seems probable that the paragraph was inserted in the body of a letter by a copyist, and was never written by the saint himself. At the end of a year Xavier had become discouraged, and began to think of forsaking India and trying Ethiopia. The character of the work and its extent were alike unsatisfactory to him. He seems to have had but vague ideas concerning Ethiopia, and throughout his life was frequently subject to fancies in favor of distant fields, such as Ethiopia must have presented to his vision at that time. Not finding his way open in that direction, he next became possessed with the idea o converting native " kings," and the word " king " FRANC 'IS XA VIER, 1 97 seems to have had a charm for him throughout the rest of his life. His theory was that if he could bring one of the native princes over to Christianity, the prince would use not only his influence, but his authority, to induce his people to follow him, and Xavier never seems to have doubted the rightfulness of kings using their regal authority for such a purpose. While pondering this new line of policy, he found a very tempting opening in an island off the coast of Ceylon, called Jaffnapatam, and also on the opposite coast. Two brothers were rival claimants for the same throne, and were engaged in war, as frequently happens in the Oriental world. One had been worsted, and driven out of the little kingdom. Xavier made advances to this prince, and proposed to se- cure the assistance of the Viceroy to expel the brother and put the fugitive upon the throne, in return for which the prince promised to become a Christian, and easily persuaded Xavier that he could induce his subjects to do likewise. The Portuguese Viceroy, however, while not opposing the scheme, was apathetic, and Xavier did not hesitate to secure his removal by making complaint directly to the King of Portugal. This illustrates the extraordinary power which he possessed a power which made him wholly unlike any missionary of the present day in any part of the world. Ar- rangements were made at last for a military expedition to put the exile upon the throne of the kingdom ; but unexpected difficulties arose, and the expedition was abandoned. Xavier was not only disappointed, but utterly disgusted, and at once resolved to leave India. In 1545 he sailed for the Spice Islands. He had heard glowing reports of the willingness of the people in those dis- tant islands to become Christians. He knew very little about the islands or the people; but in those days there seems to have been a peculiar fascination in the public mind in connection with that far-off region. The islands were supposed to be gems of beauty and filled with treasure. The imagination of Xavier took fire at the prospect, and he 198 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. thought he saw before him new and wider doors than he could find elsewhere. On his way he stopped at Malacca, and, wishing to proceed at once to Macassar, he calmly asked the Viceroy of Malacca to fit out a ship for him, and place it at his disposal for the voyage. Here again we see how little like a modern missionary this great man of authority was. The missionary of to-day may be seen flitting about among shipping offices trying to obtain a passage at a re- duced rate, or perhaps taking a second-class passage, or even putting himself among the poor emigrants in the steerage ; but never, since the beginning of the present century at least, has any missionary been known to ask an earthly ruler to fit out a special ship for his convenience. The Viceroy did not refuse, but skillfully found an excuse which justified postponement. Other missionaries had already been in the islands, and one man of note had but a short time before been sent to Macassar, and the Viceroy politely suggested that it would be in better taste to wait until this brother should be heard from before proceeding to take up work to which he had already gone. Xavier consented to wait, and in the meantime began among the people at Malacca the same kind of work which he had so faithfully performed at Goa. Malacca was at that time a brilliant capital, and here flagrant vice was as unblushing and defiant as in the other Portuguese settlements. The good man had recourse to his bell and to a troop of boys, who accompanied him in the street, and at once began to summon the people to repair to the churches and engage in prayer for the souls of their friends in purga- tory, and in reporting the proceeding he quaintly remarked that this proclamation produced an immense impression on the city. It does not seem, however, that anything like 2 spiritual reformation was accomplished here or elsewhere. Finding an opportunity to proceed to some of the other islands, Xavier determined to omit Macassar from his plan for the present, and proceeded to Amboyna, where he spent three months. He afterward visited the Moluccas and other FRANCIS XA VIER. 199 islands, including Macassar. Wherever he went he found converts, and he does not seem to have had much success except in the work of baptizing infants. He did much good, however, among the Portuguese, and especially among the sailors of a fleet which visited one of the islands during his stay. In one of the Moluccas a princess was baptized by him, and he does not omit to mention, in speaking of the fact, that he recommended her at once to the King of Portugal for a pension. He secured a similar provision for a nobleman in one of the islands, and tried hard to win a Mohammedan prince, who gave him much encouragement for a time, but finally refused to become a Christian. He remained about a year among the islands, and then returned to India, where he remained fifteen months, reorganizing the work which he had commenced during his previous visit. This work seems to have been in large part that of perfecting the organization of the Jesuit order. Wherever he went he seems to have had no scruple whatever in trying to get possession of the various institutions founded by the Franciscans, Augustinians, and other orders, and, as might naturally be supposed, he en- countered no little opposition from time to time in carrying out such purposes. He succeeded, however, wherever he went. As royal commissioner, he held all civilians in the hollow of his hands. It was a dangerous power for any ec- clesiastic to possess, and in his hands it was often badly used. It was impossible for such a man to remain very long amid the scenes oi his former labors in India, and hence we are not surprised to find him, on the 25th of April, 1549, sail- ing for Japan. He had heard of certain islands to the east- ward oi Asia while in the Spice Islands, and at once became wholly absorbed in a scheme for winning the people of these unknown islands to the Christian faith. He received abundant encouragement,, and after leaving India proceeded to Malacca to complete his arrangements. Here again we find him, while busy in the work of preparation, assuming a character 200 L\DIA AND MALA YS/A. which reminds us least of all of a missionary of Christ. He was supported by the Viceroy of Malacca to 'the utmost of his power. He was provided with costly presents for the Emperor of Japan, and his expedition was more like that of a great ambassador of an earthly king than a simple mes- senger of Jesus Christ. He had found among the islands a native Japanese, a man of influence in his native city, who had already become a Christian. This man he further in- structed, and took with him to Japan. He arrived in the city of Cangoxima on the 15th of August. This city seems to have been the port of the city of Kewsew, and belonged to the southern island of the Japanese group. He soon found it would be impracticable to see the Emperor, but de- termined to attempt the next best thing, and obtained inter- views with local " kings." These so-called kings were probably rajas, or native princes, some of them perhaps pos- sessing considerable power, but all of them ruling over petty states. The Japanese convert who accompanied him had ob- tained a beautiful picture of Mary and the Babe, which he showed to the governor of the province to which he belonged. It is said that the governor was so impressed with the beauty of the picture that, falling upon his knees, he immediately began to worship it, and commanded all present to do the same. The mother of the governor was equally impressed, and at once requested that she might be instructed in the chief articles of the Christian religion. This seems to have been the singular means of first opening their way among the people, and after a short time they began to receive converts. In one kingdom one hundred persons were baptized, and from this time forward we read of frequent converts in connection with the labors of Xavier and his associates. His work in Japan was undoubtedly, the most interesting and most worthy of such a man, of any part of his Eastern labors. He devoted some time to getting acquainted with the people, seems to have been impressed by their character, and to have been compelled to yield them a certain measure of respect, which FRANCIS XA VIER. 201 seems to have been absent in his dealings with all the other Oriental people with whom he was associated. Space will not permit anything like a full history of his stay in Japan. He at times encountered opposition, and here, as everywhere he went, was familiar with privation and suffer- ing ; for he was an ascetic in the strictest sense of the word, and courted rather than shrank from bodily discomfort and pain; but the same restlessness which had characterized him everywhere else soon began to appear again in the midst of his success in Japan. He naturally heard much of China from the Japanese, and his vivid imagination quickly began to pic- ture greater victories among the uncounted millions of that great empire than any that the world had ever before seen. He could not immediately proceed, but determined to return to India, and make preparations for his visit to China, which should transcend all he had attempted, or even dreamed of, in reference to his mission to Japan. He had spent a little more than three years in Japan, during which his success had, in some respects, been marked ; and he left many Chris- tians behind him when he sailed. The tragical fate of these Christians is but too well known to the Christian world. Xavier, from the first, courted the friendship and support of the rulers of this world. He pursued this policy everywhere. He taught his associates to avail themselves of the support of the secular power wherever they could, and, by example if not precept, instilled in their minds the policy of meddling in political affairs wherever they could in any way profit by doing so. He thus sowed to the wind; and when, ninety years later, the Japanese rulers became exasperated with the meddlesome leaders of the Roman Catholic party, and exter- minated the whole body of Christians by a cruel massacre, the harvest of whirlwind was reaped of which Xavier had unwittingly scattered the seed. After his return from Japan, Xavier lost no time in pre- paring for what he hoped would prove the crowning enter- prise of his life. He affirmed that God had distinctly and 202 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. clearly called him to undertake a mission to China, and re- paired to Malacca for the purpose of making suitable prepa- rations for so great an undertaking. Here, however, he encountered an unexpected obstacle in the hostility of the Portuguese Viceroy, who absolutely refused to give him any as- sistance, or even to permit him to proceed in the semi-official character which he had assumed. Xavier was greatly exas- perated by this unexpected opposition, and did not hesitate to threaten the Viceroy with excommunication. He pro- duced his authority from the Pope as apostolic legate, and carefully took measures to see that the excommunication should be publicly announced. This, however, does not seem to have produced any effect, and he was obliged to sail in a private vessel, with but slender resources, and with no assur- ance that he would gain admission to China on his arrival in that empire. His temper seems to have utterly given way at this crisis; and no part of his life in the East reflects so little credit upon his Christian character as the bitter resentment in which he allowed himself to indulge against the hostile Vice- roy. He was in too great haste, however, to await the issue of an appeal to the King of Portugal, but determined to go forward at once, and in due time arrived at the small island of Sanchiau, near the city of Canton. Here he was pros- trated by a severe fever, from which, however, he partially recovered in a short time, and resumed his work. He built a small hut upon the shore, and daily celebrated divine serv- ice as long as he was able to do so. A number of Portuguese merchants, with their attendants, were temporarily stopping at the island, and he found abundant work in ministering to their wants. He sought for an interpreter to accompany him into China, and was busy night and day until overtaken again by the fever in a more severe form. He died Decem- ber 2, 1552, alone, among strangers. Mr. Venn says: "No companion was near, to whom he could breathe out his dying thoughts ; no priest gave him the last offices of the Church, or committed his body to a Christian grave." FRANCIS XA VIER, 203 Some Portuguese merchants found him just a short time before he breathed his last; and from these strangers he re- ceived a burial, with such attendant honors as they were able to confer. His body was placed in a box partly filled with unslaked lime, and when disinterred by a Jesuit brother some mouths later, it was found not to have become decom- posed. It was carried first to Malacca, and interred in the cemetery there; but a year or two later was removed to Goa, where it has been regarded as a sacred relic ever since. It has been taken out for public exposition from time to time, on which occasions vast multitudes of Roman Catholics flock to the ancient Portuguese capital, and not only gaze rever- entially upon the shriveled corpse, but devoutly kiss the feet, exposed for the purpose, and indulge in such idolatrous prac- tices as are common among Roman Catholics of the more superstitious class. One of these expositions took place only a few months ago. A friend Avho was present writes as fol- lows: "The whole church compound was laid out with booths arranged in rows intersecting each other at right angles. These included gambling-booths, a Hindu theater, eating-houses, beer, wine, and liquor shops. Everything was in full blast, although it was Christmas-day. In the center of the church was a raised platform about three feet high, on which was a glass case containing the body, which looked about the size of a child of ten. Many, as they passed the feet, which were not covered, kissed them."* The body is shriveled and dried, and is probably very much like one of the blackened, shrunken bodies which tourists so often see in the crypts of the churches of Southern Europe. One arm of the corpse was cut off many years ago, by order of one of the Popes, and parts of it distributed in various parts of the world. The public exposition of the body is shocking, if not really disgraceful ; and the Times of India expressed a com-, mon feeling when it said, in a recent issue, " It is time for that ghastly performance to cease." *Rev. A. W. Prautch. 204 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. More than three centuries have passed since Xavier died, and the world has had ample time to study his work and ex- amine its results. With all his devotion, his missionary policy was of the earth earthy, and as he identified it every- where with the Portuguese civil power, his work decayed and disappeared precisely as the Portuguese power with which it was interwoven disappeared from most parts of the Eastern world. We may search to-day carefully in every place where the great pioneer Jesuit labored, without finding one vital spark of spirit- ual life to testify to the abiding character of his ministry. Indeed, before his death Xavier himself regarded his work as a practical failure. Writing to a brother missionary he says : " If you will, in imagination, search through India, you will find that few will reach heaven, either of whites or blacks, except those who depart this life under fourteen years of age, with their baptismal innocence still upon them." In another letter he says that the natives abhor the Christian religion, and to "ask them to become Christians is like asking them to submit to death ; hence all our labor is at present to guard those who are now Christians. . . . Hence, -since there is not the least need of my labors in these parts, I have determined to start for Japan as soon as possible." He also wrote to the King of Portugal proposing, in elaborate terms, to change the policy of the work, and to have it wholly committed to the civil power. He proposed to the King that all his servants, from the Viceroy down, should be made re- sponsible for the conversion of the heathen, and that those who failed to show good returns in the shape of numerous converts, should not only be reprimanded, but actually pun- ished for neglect of duty. He thus writes to the King: "I very earnestly desire that you should take an oath, invoking most solemnly the name of God, that in case any governor thus neglects to spread the faith, he shall, on his return to Portugal, be punished by close imprisonment for many years, and all his goods and possessions shall be sold and devoted to works of charity In order that none may flatter themselves FRANCIS XA VIER. 205 tbat this is but an idle threat, you must declare as plainly as possible that you will accept no excuses that may be offered ; but that the only way of escaping your wrath and obtaining your favor, is to make as many Christians as possible in the countries over which they rule. ... So long as the Viceroys and governors are not urged by the fear of disgrace and fine to make many Christians, your Majesty must not hope that the preaching of the gospel will meet with great success in India." It was not his purpose to release the ecclesiastics from all responsibility, but he dis- tinctly stated that their part of the work was to be sub- ordinate, and the main responsibility was to rest upon the civil rulers, without whose aid he believed the task of con- verting India must prove a complete failure. The fame of Francis Xavier rests not upon his success as a missionary for this was really very equivocal but upon his reputation as a saint, and especially as an ascetic. The Roman Catholic biographers dwell more upon his asceticism, than upon any other part of his character or of his work. His high social rank, his great talents, his imperious will, his tireless labors, and his unquestioned devotion, all crowned as they were by the pathetic circumstances under which he died, have from the first given him a rank among the Roman Catholics generally, and especially in the powerful order of Jesuits, which has not been correctly interpreted by the Prostestant world. Xavier was a great man, and, according to his light, a good man, but by no means a model saint, a meek Christian, or a successful missionary. Cbapber XV. \ . * WILLIAM CAREY. THE most illustrious name in the annals of Protestant missions is beyond doubt that of William Carey. Other men may have been more prominent during their day, or more brilliant in some particular line of work or study, but William Carey has throughout the whole of the present century been recognized everywhere as, above and beyond all others, the most representative man to be found in the great missionary body of the Protestant Churches. His early life, his entrance upon the Christian ministry, his adoption of the missionary calling, and his career in the foreign field, were all as unlike as possible to the corresponding stages in the life of Francis Xavier. He was the son of a weaver, born in an obscure English village named Paulersbury, on the 17th of August, 1761. His father was unable to do anything for him, and at an early age he was sent into the fields to work, and in all human probability would have spent his days as a common field laborer, had it not been for a peculiar weakness in his constitution which made him unable to endure exposure in the open air of the raw English climate. At the age of six- teen his father apprenticed him to a shoemaker, and, like Bunyan before him, he lived to make his humble calling il- lustrious, rather than to bear the plebeian taint which, in the eyes of weak persons, is supposed to attach to a lowly occupa- tion. He worked quietly at this trade for twelve years. At the age of eighteen he was awakened, and in due time ob- tained a clear religious experience, upon which foundation he built the magnificent Christian character which, throughout the rest of his life-time, made him a prince among men. Very 206 WILLIAM CAREY. 207 soon after his conversion he began to speak in quiet meet- ings, and at once attracted attention, not only by his earnest- ness, but by the evidences of elevated thought which were conspicuous in his simple discourses. If a man is really a preacher called of God, the common people are those who will be the first to make the discovery, and hence it was not long before William Carey had received this recognition of his heavenly calling. The common people heard him gladly. WILLIAM CAREY. When twenty years of age he was led into two steps which were to bring him trouble in subsequent years. On the death of his master he attempted to take up and carry on the business, which involved an amount of responsibility to which he was not equal. He also married a young woman who was singularly unfitted for the position which she was to occupy. She seems to have been a simple peasant girl, prob- 208 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. ably fitted well enough for life in a quiet little village in England, but with a tendency to melancholy, which in later life developed into unmistakable insanity. Mr. Carey was thus involved in serious domestic and business troubles at the very threshold of his public life, and, although the dis- cipline may have produced its salutary lessons, yet it is im- possible to read of his struggles without a feeling of pity that one so gifted should have been so heavily weighted at the beginning of his race. He, however, seems to have main- tained a brave heart under all circumstances throughout his entire life. He set manfully to work, and toiled early and late to meet his obligations, while at the same time not neg- lecting such opportunities as were offered him for direct Christian work. Over his humble door in the little village of Hackleton he put up the sign which was destined to become historical : SECOND-HAND SHOES BOUGHT AND SOLD. At the age of twenty-five he received an offer from a small congregation in the town of Moulton to serve them as preacher, on a salary of fifteen pounds per annum. He gladly accepted the offer, and for a time was able to increase his income to the amount of thirty-six pounds by teaching. The class, however, which he taught, belonged to another, who returned again to his place, and Mr. Carey was obliged to betake himself again to the shoemaker's bench in order to provide for himself and family. During the early part of his ministry in Moulton he became very singularly impressed with the missionary idea. It came to him like a new dis- covery that the Christians of the world were living in utter neglect of the direct and very plain command of the Saviour to preach the gospel to all nations. He saw constantly before his mind the vast nations of the world living in absolute spiritual darkness, while scarcely an effort was made anywhere to give them the gospel. No one seemed to think WILLIAM CAREY. 209 of such a thing. No one seemed to be aware that the Lord Jesus Christ had given his people, as his solemn farewell commandment, a commission to go into all the world and to tell every creature of the Saviour who had come into this world to save the human race. Thinking and praying upon this subject, the young minister became more and more im- pressed with the conviction that the mighty task of giving the gospel to the heathen must be immediately taken in hand ; and it needs not surprise us to learn that before long he felt a distinct conviction that he himself must bear an important part in the work. He was too consistent then and ever after, to advocate a work of this kind in which he was not willing himself to bear a share of the responsibility. But in those early days, and especially in the circle in which he was moving, there were very few prepared to sympathize with him in such a conviction. England, it is true, had been slowly awaking through the century from the extraordinary spiritual torpor into which she had sunk, and, as the event proved, when once the project was clearly put before the public mind, there were many prepared to receive it favorably. Mr. Carey, however, at the beginning, was an obscure man, living in an obscure part of the country, and was not in a position to appeal to the better class of the Christian public of England, and hence it fell to his lot to suffer many rebuffs and discouragements before friends began to rally round him and offer him their support. It was in the year 1786 that he received the rebuke which has become historic, at a meet- ing of Baptist ministers in the town of Northampton. When he ventured to rise in his place and propose that the meeting take up the subject of the evangelization of the heathen, the good .man who occupied the chair peremptorily requested him to take his seat, telling him that the project was not one which called for their interference. He still, however, persevered, year after year, and slowly added to the number of those who learned to believe in him and in his missionary project. 14 210 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. It was not, however, till he was thirty-one years of age that he succeeded in securing the definite organization of a missionary society. This great event the organization of the Baptist Missionary Society of England took place on the second of October, 1792, at Kettering. The meeting at which the organization was effected was humble enough in its way, and no one present, probably, anticipated how vast and far-reaching its results were destined to be. It was to be the pioneer of other similar meetings, and this first so- ciety was to be one of many which were soon to take up the magnificent idea of the humble shoemaker, and send forth messengers of God to all the ends of the earth to carry out the Saviour's great commission. Many were the difficulties and delays experienced by Mr. Carey before he was at last permitted to sail. For a time his wife refused to accompany him. His father discouraged him to the utmost of his power, as did many others of his dearest friends. It was not to be expected that he would meet with public favor from any quarter, while, to add to his difficulties, the East India Company, which then, under the crown, ruled India, was unwilling to admit missionaries to any part of India under its control without a special license, which at that time could not be obtained. At one time a passage had been secured ; but when the time for sail- ing arrived, the captain of the vessel refused to receive the missionaries as passengers. At last, however, at sunrise on the thirteenth of June, 1793, Mr. Carey, with his family, went on board the Danish Indiaman " Krou Princessa Maria," and, after a quiet and uneventful passage, reached Calcutta on the eleventh of November. He was now in his thirty-third year. He was accom- panied by John Thomas, a surgeon, who had previously been in India, and who, it was hoped, would not only prove of service to Mr. Carey, but himself make a successful mis- sionary. Unfortunately, however, this hope was not realized. While at heart a good man, and zealous in his Master's WILLIAM CARE Y. 211 work, he lacked certain qualifications, without which no mis- sionary can be permanently successful, and Mr. Carey was hindered much more than helped by his unwise colleague. His position on arrival in Calcutta was a very trying one. He was a pioneer in every sense of the word. He was the first ordained English missionary who had appeared in India, and in all Bengal and North India he was the first mission- ary of any kind who had actually been sent out in that char- acter. The Government of the day would not have welcomed him ; but, as his biographer remarks, he seemed so much like an " obscure vagrant" that no one cared to disturb him. He was almost penniless, and soon found himself embarrassed by the debts of his colleague. In this emergency he determined to retire to a quiet place among the jungles of the great forest called the Sunderbuns, about fifty miles east of Calcutta, and take up his abode in the simplest possible style among the village people. Here, with his family, he remained some little time, and, as the presence of an Englishman afforded a measure of protection, a large number of simple natives flocked to the spot, and erected huts around the mission-house. The next year, however, he received an offer to take charge of an indigo factory in the province of Malda, north of Cal- cutta ; and as it was a cardinal point in the policy which he had adopted to make his work self-supporting, he accepted this offer as providential, and at once proceeded to the place. When the news of his arrival in India reached England, it produced a profound impression, not only in the Baptist community, but throughout the country at large. A mis- sionary party had actually been sent to India to inaugurate the great work of the conversion of the millions of that then far-off empire. A report of their arrival and the commence- ment of their work seemed to fall upon the English ear like a summons from afar to send forth more laborers into the field. The organization of the London Missionary Society soon followed, and in many places, both in England and Scotland, an intense interest was manifested in the new 212 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. enterprise. The missionary era had been fairly ushered in, and among the great achievements of this "consecrated cobbler," perhaps none were more important than that of thus arousing the Christians of England to a sense of their duty toward the heathen world. For several years Mr. Carey remained in Malda, quietly pur- suing his work, and applying himself diligently to the study, not only of the Bengali, but of other Oriental languages. While he continued in the employ of an Englishman who was con- nected with the Government he was undisturbed ; but as he wished to enlarge his operations, and as other missionaries were coming to join him, a collision with the Government^, seemed unavoidable. It is difficult for persons at the present day to comprehend the extraordinary feeling of opposition which was cherished by the first generation of Anglo-Indians toward the missionaries. The Government in England, even under so enlightened a statesman as the younger Pitt, reso- lutely persisted in opposing the admission of missionaries to India. The leading politicians of the day were all of one mind on the subject. The rulers sent out to India, and the fashionable society, such as it was, which then held sway in Calcutta, were bitterly hostile to all forms of missionary en- terprise. This long-cherished hostility was alike discred- itable to the courage and intelligence of those who manifested it. One has to live in India a long while before such a phenomenon becomes intelligible. In those days, and even down to the present time, intelligent men may be found who are, in popular phrase, said to be " Brahmanized;" that is, they fall under the influence of the prevailing tone of thought among the high-caste people, and so yield to an invincible conservatism as to be opposed to almost every- thing that is new. Such men really know very little about the natives, and have always been foremost among those who have misinterpreted the drift of native opinion. How- ever, for a long generation men of this class controlled pub- lic opinion, both in India and in England, to such an WILLIAM CARE Y. 213 extent that missionaries were only tolerated on sufferance, and at times were promptly deported from the country when they attempted to land. In order to avoid this annoyance, when Mr. Carey was joined, in 1800, by his two famous col- leagues, Marshman and Ward, he resolved to abandon En- glish territory, and take refuge in the little Danish settle- ment of Serampore. In those days, when travel was by boat, Serampore was eighteen miles distant from Calcutta; and here the missionaries not only enjoyed the hospitable protec- tion of the enlightened Danish king, who instructed his gov- ernor to welcome them and to afford them every assistance in their work, but were also near enough to Calcutta to carry on various forms of Christian work in that rising city. From this time forward Serampore became the great center of mis- sionary operations in India. Here the first converts were gathered. Before the close of the year 1800, ten adults had been baptized and were organized into a Christian Church. The first one to confess Christ was a humble carpenter, and it seemed a fitting thing that the great work which was being inaugurated should win its first convert from among the lowly. From this time onward the work made uniform progress. It had passed its experimental stage, and its suc- cess was now an accomplished fact. By the year 1810 the work of this mission had become greatly extended. Mr. Carey had early formed a plan for planting mission-stations all over the country. His first policy was to make these stations as nearly as possible self- supporting. He had missionaries sent out from England, and also picked up and educated such men as he could find in the country. It was in the year 1810 that he obtained consent from the Governor-General to send a man to Agra the first movement of the kind in all North India. He had then five missions in operation ; namely, in Bengal, Bhutan, Burma, Orissa, and the new mission in Agra. By the year 1817 he had thirty missionaries at work, and stations had been opened, not only in other parts of India, but far down 214 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. in Malaysia, his own son having been sent to Amboyna in the year 1817. He had also, by this time, seven converted Hindu preachers on his staff of regular workers. From the first he had given attention to education, and founded schools both for boys and girls. These at the outset were unpreten- tious enough ; but it was an era in the history of India when the first attempt was made to teach girls, however infor- mally. The schools established were of different grades, but the educational work finally culminated in a vigorous college at Serampore. This institution received a royal charter from the King of Denmark ; and by special treaty with England, when Serampore was transferred to the latter power, the charter was left unimpaired in the hands of the college authorities. Although at a later day Dr. Duff acquired, in an important sense, the reputation of the founder of English education, yet in this, as in nearly every other department of missionary work, Carey was the real pioneer. But the great work of "William Carey was that of trans- lation. As soon as he had mastered Bengali, he began the translation of the Bible into that vernacular; and by the year 1796 we find mention of his work as being already somewhat advanced. It was not finished, however, till 1809. It was a difficult work to translate such a book as the Bible into such a language as the Bengali then was. Dr. Carey has been called the Wickliffe of the East, and the future will probably show that he has done for Bengali what the early English translator did for the English language. Until he estab- lished his press at Serampore, the Bengali language had no printed literature, and but little literature of any kind. Such as existed was in manuscript, and, of course, inaccessible to the people. Not only was the Bible published in the lan- guage of the common people at Serampore, but also other publications of various kinds, including the first newspaper ever issued in the vernacular ; and thus was laid the founda- tion, not only of the Bengali literature of the present day, but, to an important extent, of the Bengali language itself. WILLIAM CAREY. 215 At an early period in his missionary life, Dr. Carey* formed a plan for translating the Bible into as many of the great Asiatic languages as possible. With his own hand he made a complete translation of the Bible into Bengali, San- skrit, Hindi, and Marathi. He also, in connection with his missionary brethren, supervised the translation into other tongues, until twenty- eight versions of the Scriptures were sent out from the Serampore press before his death. It has been objected that much of this work was very immature. This need surprise no one. It could not have been other- wise. Dr. Carey himself always maintained that his work was that of a pioneer; and while it is very true that not many of his versions are now in common use, yet every man who has labored in this great field of Bible translating would, no doubt, cheerfully testify that he owed much to the work of those who went before him. Space will not permit further mention of many interesting particulars in the life of this extraordinary man. To write his life is to write the history of the missionary enterprise during its first stage in India. He encountered much obloquy and no little hostility in the course of his career; but he lived to become not only respected, but honored by the Gov- erment which at first refused to receive him, and for a time was his avowed enemy. He was appointed by the Gov- ernor-General of India Professor of Sanskrit in the College of Fort William, at a time when he was one of the only two Englishmen in India who could speak Sanskrit with the ease of an Indian pundit. He was even invited into counsel by the Governor-General, and for a long period was a trusted adviser of successive Governors-General. He was bitterly denounced both in India and in London, misrepresented and unjustly treated in many ways; but, as he always lived supe- rior to such annoyances, they never permanently affected his reputation. His unaffected modesty, not to say humility, * He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Brown Univer- sity, in 1806. 216 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. not only adorned his life, but served as a protection to him in the midst of the scorn and contempt with which he was sometimes treated. At a dinner-table a gentleman said to him : " Is it possible, Mr. Carey, that in early life you were a shoemaker?" "No," was the modest reply, "not a shoe- maker ; only a cobbler." On the ninth of June, 1834, this great and good man entered into rest. He had never quitted his post, but for forty-one long years had worked patiently and cheerfully in the field to which God had called him. He had not only been the founder of modern missions, but had proved himself a great benefactor of India in many ways. He had been among the very first to demand the abolition of widow-burn- ing and infanticide, and he was a pioneer in every reform movement. His fame as a botanist was only second to his reputation as a linguist, and he devoted himself as cheerfully to improving the horticulture of Bengal as he did to creat- ing its literature or advancing its education. In short, he was wholly devoted to India and its people; and had he been a less extraordinary man, it would have been impossi- ble for any one so devoted to live and die in vain. More than half a century has passed since Carey's death, and now it may be truly said that his works do indeed fol- low him. The mission-station founded by him at Serampore has declined in importance, chiefly owing to local changes, but his work has spread far and wide, and shows no signs of decay. His work had all the elements of permanency. It is, in brief, the work of Christian missions in India and the East. It put no trust in any arm of flesh, and hence has never been forsaken. It built upon no artificial foundations, and hence abides in strength. It sought out the hearts of the people, and hence has never witnessed the great ebb- tides which followed the movements of Xavier and others of his class. The work of Bible translation, of creating a Chris- tian literature, of education, of heart-conversion, of Church WILLIAM CAREY. 217 organization, of planting new missions, of educating mission- aries, all these have gone forward steadily, and seem to gain in vigor and strength with each advancing year. I may close this very imperfect sketch of the great mis- sionary by a brief extract from an address which I delivered in America a few years ago: Long before his death his Master had vindicated his servant, even in the eyes of the world. He lived to be an honored guest and a trusted adviser in the vice-regal palace from which the edict of banishment had once been issued against him. He won the confidence of the people for whom he lived and labored, and gained the esteem of his countrymen, among whom he moved as a venerated saint of the Most High. As old age drew near, honors began to cluster thickly around him, but he was still a simple missionary of Jesus Christ. On his tombstone he directed that this couplet should be engraved : "A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall." And the words expressed the spirit of the man. Long years have passed since the death of William Carey, but each year has only added luster to his fame. The very names of his former persecutors, once leaders in Calcutta society, would have long since perished but for their connection with this great man. The epithet coined by Sydney Smith will prob- ably survive every other word and phrase written by that popular satirist, who in future centuries will only be remem- bered as the man who ridiculed William Carey. During a residence of a dozen years in Calcutta, I met many tourists from England and America. Among them all I recall but one who wished to see the house in which Macaulay had lived; one asked to see the house in which Thackeray had been born ; and two or three inquired for the residence of Warren Hastings. But literally scores upon scores have 218 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. asked to be led to the grave of William Carey, and the little bury ing-ground in the old Danish settlement of Serampore has become like a pilgrim's shrine, to which Christian men and women come from all parts of the world. No man ever entered a more despised service, and no man was ever more signally honored and rewarded by the service to which he gave himself. Chapter XVI. THE FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSION IN INDIA. IT was for many years felt by intelligent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, that the long delay of the American Methodists in entering the foreign mission-field, presented a just cause of reproach when contrasted with the active efforts of the other leading Churches of the country. Although for many years numerically the strongest Church in the United States, and well known from the first as among the most vigorous and prosperous, yet she was the last of the leading religious bodies of the country to enter the foreign field. The Cougregationalists, Baptists, Presbyte- rians, Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, and other smaller bodies, were all represented in foreign lauds before the first mission- ary of the Methodist Episcopal Church had been sent to the heathen proper in any foreign country. The usual explana- tion which has been offered for this delay has been that the Methodist Episcopal Church, more than any other, threw all her energies into the work of home evangelization, especially in the new fields of the great West. That she has done a notable work in that field, all the world can testify ; but this is not the real explanation of her seeming delay in entering the foreign field. In order to account for her absence from the great mission-fields of the world during the first half of the present century, it needs only be stated that the Church herself had only been fairly organized at the opening of the nineteenth century, and was in no wise prepared to take up so great a work as that which even a single foreign mission involves. At the time Dr. Carey was busy in helping to 219 220 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. organize the first modern missionary society in England, Bishop Asbury was engaged in organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. The English Baptists were thus ready to begin their foreign work at about the same time that the American Methodists began to be a people. All the other leading religious bodies of the country had been organized and at work for periods ranging from a century to a century and a half before the Methodist Episcopal Church was formally organized in 1784. After that organization had been effected, a whole generation elapsed before this newly created body was prepared for anything like aggressive work in foreign lands. This one fact affords explanation sufficient for what seems to an outside observer like an un- reasonable delay. During the first generation of American Methodism the leaders of the Church were so absorbed in completing its or- ganization, and in pushing the work of evangelization in the West and South, that it does not seem that it ever occurred to any of them that God might have a great work for the Church beyond the seas. This oversight, strangely enough, seems to have been common to all the leading Churches of both England and America. The first call to work among the heathen seems to have come in nearly every case from unexpected quarters, and by the lips of com- paratively obscure persons. The first trumpet-call which the American Methodists received was from an illiterate and ob- scure colored man living in Marietta, Ohio, named John Stewart. Soon after his conversion, in 1816, he began to speak of strange voices which seemed to beckon him away toward the Northwest, and he felt impelled to follow on, persuaded that some people, living he knew not where, were calling for his help. It is not strange that such a man, with so brief a Christian life to recommend him, failed to impress those around him by such a story; but not taking further counsel with flesh and blood, he set out alone through the wilder- ness, and traveled on, day after day, until he reached a tribe FIRST METHODIST MISSION. 221 of Indians in Northern Ohio. He at once began to preach to them through an interpreter, and extraordinary success at- tended his work. Many were converted, and a work began among these wild children of the forest which arrested the attention of the Church, and profoundly moved many leading Methodists of Ohio to organize a movement for the support of the work. This extraordinary call from the wilderness was the means used by the Holy Spirit to initiate the move- ment which led to the organization of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Unfortunately, the formal organization was effected in New York, far from the scene of this good man's activity, and by men who, though able in other respects, knew very little about the kind of work to be done. The whole Church was familiar with home evangelization ; but when the new Missionary Society had been organized, people generally were at a loss to know what to do with it. For a time its funds were employed in Bible distribution and other work in America; and, although the Society was organized in 1819, it was not till 1832 that the first missionary was sent to a foreign field. Perhaps no other Church in America would have delayed so long; but we can account for this easily enough by considering that the Church was steadily moving West and South with increasing momentum, and that its leaders really did not comprehend the character of the new movement which had been inau- gurated. The real inspiration of the movement was the suc- cessful preaching of the gospel to the heathen that is, to men who had no knowledge of the gospel whatever by John Stewart; and if the leaders had at once proceeded to send men to other heathen tribes, or to heathen nations abroad, no doubt the work would have proceeded with grand success from the first. The mission to Liberia was not properly a mission to the heathen at all. A colony of Negroes, most of whom had been slaves in America, was planted on the western coast of Africa, and while it was hoped that this colony might be 222 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. used as a base from which to reach the heathen tribes of the interior, yet, as a matter of fact, the missionaries sent to Li- beria confined their labors, for the most part, to the colonists, and for many years the mission was limited almost exclu- sively to men who had been Christians before leaving Amer- ica. The next mission-field occupied was in South America; but here, too, the same strange reluctance to grapple with the real problem which God was setting before the Church was for a long time manifested. At Buenos Ayres a Church was maintained for many years; but it w r as practically a Church supported by English-speaking Protestants, and for a long period many of its supporters were positively hostile to any effort being made among the Spanish-speaking Roman Catholics of the city. In the meanwhile, after what now seems to us extraordinary delay, the thought finally began to impress itself upon our people that God's first great call to them was to do their part in fulfilling Christ's great com- mission to give the gospel to all the nations of the earth ; and at last, in 1847 that is, sixty-three years after the Church had been first organized, and twenty-eight years after the Missionary Society had been organized the first missionaries were sent to found a mission in China. This was really the beginning of our work in heathen lands; and from this time forward the conviction began to be more generally realized that the Church must take up this great work, and perform a part worthy of her position and numerical strength in the years to come. A few years after the first mission had been planted in China, at Foochow, Dr. Durbin, who had recently become Secretary of the Missionary Society, became impressed that the Church should plant a strong mission in India. He saw clearly that India was not only at that time, but for a long period in the future must continue to be, the leading mission- field of the world ; the great battle between Christianity on the one hand, and Islamism and heathenism on the other, must be fought out in that empire. Although the field had FIRST METHODIST MISSION. 223 been occupied by so many societies, and so many workers bad been sent out to it from Great Britain, Germany, and America, yet vast regions in different parts of the empire re~ mained unoccupied; and Dr. Durbin lost no time in formally proposing to the General Committee ot the Missionary So- ciety to select one of these unoccupied fields, and establish a mission in it worthy of the work to be done and of the Church which proposed to undertake it. His proposal met with much favor, and in 1852 the first appropriation was made for money to send out a missionary, and the Bishops were requested to select a proper man for superintendent. Four years, however, elapsed, during which this appropriation of $7,500 was kept standing, before any one with proper qualifica- tions could be found willing to assume the responsible task of founding a great mission in India. It would surprise our people at the present day if the whole truth were told about the search for a superintendent of the proposed mission in India between 1852 and 1856. The whole story will prob- ably never be told, for it is not likely that any record of the search has been preserved ; but incidentally I have heard of so many men who were asked, and who for various reasons were unable to accept the post, that I incline to the opinion that no other prominent post in all the history of our Church was ever declined by so many nominees. At last, in 1856, William Butler, of the New England Conference, was asked to accept the post, and, after a brief but earnest consideration of the proposal, he consented. He had many qualifications for the work of founding such a mission, especially in India. An Irishman by birth and early association, educated in England, and with an experi- ence of some years in ministerial work in America, he pos- sessed a knowledge at once of American Methodism and English governmental ways which fitted him peculiarly for founding an American mission in a country under English administration. He was still in his early prime, with robust health, indomitable energy, and unquenchable enthusiasm. 224 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. He sailed promptly with, his family for his field, and on the 25th of September landed at Calcutta. After spending a few months in consultation with leading missionaries, he chose for the mission-field of the Church which he represented the little province of Rohilkhand, included between the Upper Ganges and the Himalaya Mountains, and the western half WILLIAM BUTLER, D. D. of the better known province of Oudh, making a compact little territory, in which he proposed to organize a mission with a working force of twenty-five American missionaries. This had been designated by Dr. Durbin as one of the fields which he should examine, and, for many reasons, it seemed the best which was open to him. No other missionary was then af work in any part of Oudh or Rohilkhand, and it was considered peculiarly fortunate that the new mission could FIRST METHODIST MISSION. 225 thus have a field wholly to itself. In those days a great deal of importance was attached to this consideration. The no- tion which is still popular with many was then universally accepted that missionaries should avoid contact with one an- other as much as possible. It was taken for granted that jealousy and rivalry would produce the same unhappy fruits in mission-fields as in other departments of human labor, and hence missionaries shunned one another's presence, rather than sought it. Having chosen his field, Dr. Butler fixed his residence in the city of Bareilly, the head-quarters of the political district known as Rohilkhand, and wrote home for re-enforcements. Two missionaries were at once dispatched to his assistance, and intimation given that a larger re-enforcement would fol- low the succeeding year ; but the earnest pioneer of the mis- sion had hardly become comfortably settled in his new home when the Sepoy Mutiny broke out, and, on the 31st of May, 1857, the English residents of Bareilly were all either killed or dispersed abroad by the mutiny of the Sepoys at that sta- tion. Dr. Butler escaped with his family to Naini Tal, a station in the Himalayas, about seventy-five miles distant, and for some time disappeared wholly from the outer world. The new mission seemed to be broken up, and the field, which had a few months before seemed so peculiarly favor- able for mission-work, was now one vast scene of anarchy and bloodshed. The Church at home knew nothing of the fate of its missionary. Dr. Duff, whose weekly letters from Calcutta were published in Scotland, and widely republished in America, reported that he had fled from Bareilly, and it was hoped that he was safe in the mountains, although his friends could not help fearing the worst for him. The story of Dr. Butler's peril and of his flight with his family to the mountains, produced a profound effect on the Church in America, and was overruled in the providence of God to enlist the sympathy of our people in the new mis- sion to an extent which could not have been anticipated. In 15 226 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. like manner God has repeatedly used singular providences of this kind to arrest the attention of great Christian com- munities, and commit them to the work of sending the gos- pel to heathen nations. The career of Henry Martyn, and his lonely death, at once romantic and tragic, produced a powerful effect upon the minds of the evangelical wing ol the Church of England, and became a powerful factor in the full organization of the Church Missionary Society, which is at present the leading Protestant Society of the world. The death of Dr. Coke at sea, when, in his old age, he was leading the first band of English Methodist missionaries to India, pro- duced a similar impression upon the minds of the English Methodists, and more fully committed them to the work of India's conversion than all the eloquence and zeal of that great leader had been able to accomplish. The extraor- dinary manner in which Dr. Judson was led to change his views on baptism, and while in a strange land, without friends and without support, to identify himself with the American Baptists, was singularly overruled in committing that great body of Christians to the support of the work in India which has so greatly prospered in their hands. The struggles of Dr. Duff in trying to reach India, having been shipwrecked no less than three times on the voyage, produced also a profound impression upon the Presbyterians of Scot- land, and, instead of hindering the w r ork to which he had committed himself, was overruled in such a way as to put him more prominently before the Church, and make him an object of love and sympathy to an extent which he otherwise would not have been able to secure in the course of long years. Thus, too, when the story of Dr. Butler's peril and escape was told in America, it had the effect of rousing the Church and concentrating its attention upon the new mission- field in India, and also not only stimulating many to give for its support, but suggesting the thought to many young men of going to the rescue. On the very day that the mutiny broke out at Bareilly, FIRST METHODIST MISSION. 227 two missionaries, Ralph Pierce and J. L. Humphrey, with their families, sailed from Boston, and in due time landed at Calcutta, to learn that the first mission-house had been de- stroyed, and that their field was for the present closed against them. As soon as the country was sufficiently pacified, they proceeded to the Northwest, and Dr. Butler, having in the meantime left his family in safety at Naini Tal, joined them at Meerut, and accompanied them, by a circuitous journey through the mountains, to Naini Tal, where they arrived on the 16th of April, 1858. The whole missionary body remained in this mountain retreat throughout the summer of that year; but when, near its close, the country below had become suffi- ciently pacified, Bareilly was reoccupied, and the station of Moradabad taken up by the Rev. J. Parsons, an English missionary who had joined Dr. Butler in Naiui Tal, while a little later Mr. Pierce proceeded with Dr. Butler to Luck- now. The real work of the mission may be said to have begun in 1859. During 1858 the missionaries had practically done little more than reach their stations. There were now five men in the field another Englishman, the Rev. S. Knowles, having in the meantime joined the mission and the four stations of Naini Tal, Bareilly, Moradabad, and Lucknow were formally occupied. While the way was thus cleared in India for entering upon the work of the projected mission at the beginning of 1859, an eifort which at that not very remote day was con- sidered extraordinary, was made to send out a re-enforcement of six men. Up to that time no such missionary party had ever been sent abroad by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and seldom had such a party been sent out by any of the great missionary societies. It was still comparatively the .day of small things in missionary enterprise, and a profound impression was made throughout the Church when, early in the year, it was announced that six men had actually been secured and were ready to sail. The first appointed and oldest member of this re-enforcement was the Rev. James Baume, of 228 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Evanston, who, with his family, at once sailed for England, wishing to visit friends there on his way to his distant field. The other members of the party were C. W. Judd and Mrs. Judd, of the Wyoming Conference ; J. W. Waugh and Mrs. Waugh, of the Southern Illinois Conference; E. W. Parker and Mrs. Parker, of Vermont ; J. R. Downey and Mrs. Downey, of Indiana ; and J. M. Thoburn, of Ohio. Ar- rangements were speedily made for the departure of these missionaries, and on the 12th of April they sailed from Bos- ton, and arrived in Calcutta on the 21st of August. Their going forth deepened the impression which had been made upon the Church, and it began to be felt among our people generally that they were at last fully committed to perform a worthy share in the great work of winning the heathen world for Christ. It may seem strange at the present day that the departure of six missionaries for a distant mission-field should have received more than an ordinary notice in the news- papers, but it is difficult to realize in these better days how backward the Church had been in everything pertaining to her missionary duty. It is worthy of note that five members of this missionary party still survive, and are found at their posts of duty in India. Mr. Baume holds a prominent position as pastor in the great city of Bombay, which is becoming more and more the gateway to the whole empire. Dr. Waugh is general treasurer of the Missionary Society for all India. Dr. and Mrs. Parker, after thirty-three years of exceptionally vigorous work, are still rendering as effective service as ever, the former as presiding elder of the Oudh District, and the latter abundant in labors among the women, and active in the in- spection of schools in her husband's district. The writer of these pages was the sixth member of the party, and, like the other survivors, feels that his work is still unfinished, and hopes for other years of usefulness in the great empire of India. It is seldom that any missionary party has been so graciously preserved through so many long years of toil in the Indian FIRST METHODIST MISSION. 229 climate, which does not always deal kindly with foreign laborers. In anticipation of the arrival of the new missionaries, Dr. Butler had announced the first formal annual meeting of the mission to take place at Lucknow, where the meeting was convened on the morning of the 4th of September, 1859. The missionary party from Calcutta had arrived late in the evening of the 3d, and, after a Sabbath's rest, at once entered upon their life-work by formally taking their places as mem- bers of the annual meeting. Thirteen names were entered upon the roll, although only nine of these were ordained missionaries from the United States. Messrs. Parsons and Knowles, of whom mention has already been made, were present, and also a young man named Cawdell, an English Scripture reader, from Calcutta. One native of India was present in the person of Joel T. Janvier, a faithful Christian preacher, who, although for some years past stricken with blindness, is still a member of the North India Conference, a faithful Christian, and a valuable worker. Mr. Parsons, before the close of 1859, severed his connection with the mission, and Mr. Cawdell's connection with the mission also did not prove a permanent one. The brethren remained to- gether for a full week in earnest discussion, and then separated, to go to the different posts to which they had been assigned. One of them, J. R. Downey, never reached his station. He was taken ill the day after the meeting ad- journed, and after five days suffering entered into his eternal rest. The India mission was now fairly equipped with workers, although most of them were as yet unfamiliar with the language of the people, and may be said to have entered fairly upon its career. The missionaries in the field, as well as the Church in America, looked upon this work as a mission in India rather than as a mission to India. The term " India " was to the American people in those days a mere geographical expres- sion. No one ever thought of its imperial interests, or of 230 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. its possible destiny among the great empires of the world, or of the character and interests of the various peoples of which the empire was made up. The idea was that a certain task in India had been assigned to a great Church in America, and, however small relatively the field chosen may have seemed, it certainly appeared large enough both to the young missionaries and to their supporters in the United States. No one dreamed of any extension of the field for years and generations to come. No one was sanguine enough or wild enough to suppose that a time would come when the infant mission would rise up in the possession of unsuspected energy, and strengthen its stakes and lengthen its cords until its operations were extended, not only to the most remote parts of the Indian Empire, but iuto vast regions beyond its boundaries regions which at that time were but little known. The missionary idea a generation ago was, as compared with the present, a very contracted one. The popular thought was not wide enough to take in the many far-reaching in- terests which must always be associated with a successful mission among a great people. In fact, even at the present time comparatively few people in Europe or America can comprehend the idea of a non-Christian people being other than half-civilized, half-clad idolaters, without much social coherence, without any great national bonds to hold them together, and without those great interests which in Christian lands are always recognized as being held in common by the high and low of every country and every nationality. It does certainly seem as if the missionaries assembled in Lucknow in September, 1859, might have been wiser in their generation than to have contented themselves with the contracted view which they then entertained. But those of the number who still survive are able fully to realize what it is to be wise after an event. They were as far-seeing, probably, as the average of their fellow-men, but they were in a field in which everything was new to them. They had no past experience to guide them ; and among all the missionaries FIRST METHODIST MISSION. 231 then in India, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to find one who had learned how to familiarize himself with imperial missionary views. The common idea then was that so many heathen were to be converted, and that as many missionaries as could be found should be sent to them to teach them the truths of Christianity. Some time in the future probably in the very distant future great movements might be expected to take place ; but the men of the present were not to trouble themselves with thoughts of this kind. They were to do their portion of the work. It is true that the field, small as it was, which had first been selected by Dr. Butler, with the approval of the authorities in America, had already been enlarged by the addition of the mountain province of Kumaon. This itself seemed providential enough. The missionaries had not designed to have it so, but having been led to Naini Tal as a place of refuge, they began to work among the people whom they found there, and for various reasons, which seemed eminently satisfactory, de- termined to extend the area of their field so as to embrace this mountain district. It was, of course, wise and proper that they should follow providential leadings ; but it did not occur to them that the same or similar providential leadings would again change the borders of their field. Such, how- ever, proved to be the case. At the close of 1864, when Bishop Thomson visited the new mission, and organized the first Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India, the borders of the mission-field were again ex- tended so as to take in Southern and Eastern Oudh, and also the mountain district of Garhwal, lying between the head- waters of the Ganges and Kumaon. In connection with this increase of territory, the three new stations of Gonda and Roy Bareilly in Oudh, and Paori in Garhwal, were added to the list of appointments of the Conference, and a mission- ary sent to each. The mission had now a compact territory embracing the two hill districts of Kumaon and Garhwal, and the ancient provinces of Rohilkhand and Oudh, the whole 232 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. included in a triangle, bounded on the west by the Ganges, on the east and southeast by a line drawn from the city of Allahabad eastward to the Himalayas, and by the great snowy range on the north and northeast. These additions to the territory occupied by the mission were made for what seemed to be clearly providential reasons; but again the men on the field, like their friends in America, failed to perceive that in coming days other providential reasons might be ex- pected to arise, and that, great as the task which was then set before them seemed to be, the time would come when it would seem as nothing compared with the greater and grander op- portunities which God would give them for doing their full share of the great work of bringing back a rebel world to its allegiance to the King of kings. The field selected and now occupied at important points was a magnificent one for missionary purposes. It contained a population of about 17,000,000, all speaking the same lan- guage, and easily accessible to the missionary and his agents. We need not wonder that the first pioneers among these mill- ions did not think of enlarging the borders of their allotted field, or adding to the task which God and the Church had set before them. The magnitude of that task they were be- ginning to realize, and instead of seeing more work they were ready to cry out, " Who is sufficient for these things?" OUR EARLY MISSIONARIES IN INDIA. E. V.". PARKER. MRS. L. S. PARKER. JAMES BAUME. J. W. WAUGH. J. M. THOBURN. XVII. THE TASK IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM. IT is very generally supposed in Christian lands, even by intelligent people, that a missionary's work among the heathen, however trying and distasteful it may be in some respects, is by no means difficult. Nothing is more common than to hear it said that gifted and cultured men and women are thrown away when sent to such countries as India, China, and Africa. Ordinary teachers of moderate ability are supposed to be quite well enough qualified for work among people who are almost wholly illiterate, and in many cases not lifted far above the plane of savage life. The popular ideal of missionary life is that of a good but simple man, with a faithful and devoted wife, settling himself near a village of ignorant idolaters, and teaching them patiently day after day the first elements of reading and writing, and the first principles which are supposed to underlie Chris- tianity. Nothing could be easier or more simple than to teach ignorant boys and girls to read and write, and cer- tainly nothing could be more delightful than to gather the parents and children together under the wide-spreading branches of some tropical tree, and tell them of the God who rules on high, who created the world, and who watches over all his creatures by day and by night, and thus step by step to lead them on from one truth to another, until they at last are enabled to grasp the story of Christ and his salva- tion, and become humble and faithful disciples of the Lord and Master of the world. All this is simple enough and beautiful enough ; but it is purely a picture of the imagina- tion, and finds but small place in the missionary's actual life. 235 236 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. His work is a difficult work at every stage so difficult, indeed, that men and women of brains and culture and of the highest devotion are needed in the mission-field, if they are needed anywhere in the wide world. The missionary, when he reaches his field, is confronted, in the first place, by the formidable task of having to master a strange language, and not infrequently more than one strange language. With very few exceptions, this proves a difficult task to the young missionary. Now and then a man or woman may be found with a special gift for learning lan- guages ; but where one such genius is found, ten others will appear who, so far from having a peculiar aptitude for learn- ing languages, are peculiarly lacking in that gift, and to whom the learning of a new language is the most severe in- tellectual task that could possibly be imposed upon them. I think, too, it will have to be admitted that Americans have perhaps less aptitude for learning strange languages than Europeans. In their own country they hear little but En- glish. Around them, it is true, are representatives from nearly every European land ; but no American makes any effort whatever to master the European languages for the purpose of ordinary conversation in his own country. In Europe, however, it is very different. Nothing is more com- mon than to meet men who can speak in half a dozen differ- ent tongues; and when a young man has learned even one new tongue, the study of language becomes to him a compar- atively easy task. Those who have gone far enough to learn to speak in three or four languages may be expected to pick up half a dozen more, if the opportunity is afforded them, in any part of the world. The average missionary in India is able to speak with comparative freedom, at the end of two years, in any Indian tongue to which he may have applied himself; but it takes long years of patient study and constant practice, to enable him to speak with half the freedom which the average preacher feels in the use of his own language in an American pulpit. A man may speak in a foreign tongue THE TASK IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM. 237 with apparently great fluency, so long as he keeps within a certain range of thought ; but not one missionary in twenty ever acquires so complete a knowledge of the language of the people among whom he spends his life as to take up any topic of conversation in any department of science, for in- stance that may chance to be presented, and carry on a con- versation with the same readiness which he would show in the use of English. The missionary who arrived in India thirty years ago ex- perienced much greater difficulty in gaining access to the people than those who come out to that field at the present day. At the close of the Sepoy Mutiny, one of the most bloody and tragical wars of modern times, the people throughout all North India were left in a state of absolute submission to the military power of England, with a pro- found respect also for the justice of the English Government, but at the same time with a certain prejudice against every- thing foreign, and a peculiar fear of everything pertaining to the Christian religion. The mutiny had been stirred up in the -first place by designing men, who created a panic among the Sepoys by spreading abroad a rumor that their caste was to be destroyed by the use of cartridges greased with tallow or lard. When peace was restored, this, or some other cause, seemed to have left among the people everywhere a grave apprehension that they were to be /entrapped into a profession of Christianity by some means, fair or foul. For several years after my first arrival in India, I found the people of all castes and classes under the influence of this fear. Along with this was a deep-seated, unreasoning, and ignorant prejudice against everything which bore the name of Christian. Not one in a thousand could tell of anything bad in the nature of Christianity, or give an intelligent reason for opposing it; and yet the prejudice against every- thing bearing the Christian name was universal, and stood in the way of the missionary to an extent which, in these more enlightened days, can hardly be realized. The question of 238 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. caste was, of course, mixed up with this prejudice and fear; but it by no means constituted the sole root of the trouble. The very lowest castes, and even the out-castes, dreaded the name of Christian. The missionary was made to feel, as he moved about among the people, that, while he was respected because of his race and position, and perhaps also because of his personal character, yet that he was constantly shunned like a leper. After I had been in the country several years, I once visited a village in company with a Hindustani preacher. A number of the more respectable villagers came out to meet us; but when they saw that we were turning aside to a group of huts in which some low-caste people lived, they at once abruptly left us. When we reached the huts of the low-caste people, these also began to shun us, and we were obliged to pursue our way. The Hindustani preacher said to me, with what seemed a sad smile: "The high-caste people utterly hold aloof from these low-caste folks, and yet these lowest of all hold aloof from us. We are less than the least among the people here." Another formidable barrier which has from the first stood in the way of the missionary in India a barrier, too, which is seldom expected by the stranger is that which is found in the compact, massive force of the millions upon millions who are arrayed against the truth. India, it is true, is divided up by the caste system into hundreds and thousands of dis- tinct communities, separate in many respects in their interests and tastes, and yet, when the question of Christianity is brought before them, they stand like a living wall in opposi- tion to the truth. The popular idea of missionary work is, that the missionary deals with units, and that he has nothing to do but to sit down at the foot of a palm-tree which, by the way, affords the least shade of any Indian tree and call some poor heathen to him, and quietly teach him until he persuades him to forsake his idols and accept Christ. Unfor- tunately, however, the missionary is confronted everywhere and all the while by a solid mass of humanity, pervaded every- THE TASK IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM. 239 where by an intense attachment to the many forms of error recognized in India, and an unfailing dislike and dread of Christianity in all its forms and phases. To segregate from this mass one or two persons, and make them disciples of Jesus Christ, is perhaps the greatest task which is anywhere jiii the world set before any Christian worker. At the outset, missionary labor takes this form. The missionary can only win converts as single individuals, or, at most, as families; and while we have now reached a point when the solidarity of heathenism is giving way here and there, yet it is only after long years of patient and unremitting labor that this result has been reached. Another obstacle which is recognized readily enough, and often exaggerated in Christian lands, but the full force of which is not understood, is the low moral tone of the people. For many years I have avoided everything which might seem to partake of a denunciation of the morals of a whole people. Long residence among the people of India has given me a feeling of friendship, and even affection, for them, which makes it a most uncongenial task for me to depreciate their character. I have found many traits in that character to ad- mire and imitate ; but at the same time, fidelity to the truth requires me to say that the average Christian worker in aqy part of India is confronted at this point by an obstacle which, in the same form at least, seldom meets the worker in Christian lands. The moral sense of the whole community in non-Christian countries is dull. The conscience, though by no means slumbering, does not respond to ordinary appeals in behalf of the right or in opposition to the wrong. The aspi- rations of the people are earthward, and the sinfulness of sin is nowhere recognized in the sense in Avhich evangelical Christians understand the term. The idea of purity is re- ceived with limitations; but the word holiness, as used in the New Testament, is removed to a plane above the ordinary conception of the people. The religious teacher does not find his task a weary one when he has to instruct impressible 240 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. minds; but the case is widely different when those who re- ceive the lessons seem to listen for days and months and years without the slightest change being made upon the heart, or the slightest conviction affecting the conscience. Missionaries in India, as elsewhere, while adopting every form of useful labor within their reach, generally give the greatest prominence to preaching and education as the most efficient agencies for accomplishing good among the people. With very few exceptions, every missionary is supposed to be a preacher. Lay workers are comparatively rare, and w r hile here and there a professor in a college, or a teacher in a high-school, may be found who seldom occupies a pulpit or lifts up his voice anywhere as a preacher, yet, in the main, all missionaries do their part, to a greater or less extent, as preachers. Not a few confine themselves to this one branch of the common work. Theirs is by no means an easy work. Every successful public speaker understands that his task is a light or difficult one in proportion to the sympathetic re- sponse which he is able to elicit from his audience. Many men who have acquired a reputation for eloquence can only speak successfully when they can keep their hearers en rap- port with themselves as they proceed with the discussion of their subject. It is often supposed that the orator stirs up the enthusiasm of his hearers and makes them share his feel- ing; but, as a "matter of fact, it is quite as often true that the audience puts the enthusiasm into the speaker, and inspires him, rather than is inspired by him. The missionary preach- ing to an audience in India, however, knows nothing of this kind of inspiration. He is supported and strengthened by no responsive sympathy from his audience, except, perhaps, on rare occasions. He feels, not indeed that he is preach- ing against a dead wall, but that he is constantly holding up against an invisible but persistently opposing force; and hence his work as a preacher almost inevitably wears out both mind and body much more rapidly than the same amount of physical or mental labor would wear out a THE TASK IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM. 241 preacher in a Christian land. If he permits the interruption, he will be called upon to answer dozens of questions in the course of an hour's discourse, and his attempted sermon will degenerate into a wrangling debate, or possibly have a more disagreeable ending. If he understands his business, how- ever, he will avoid all manner of public discussions. The average native of India intends no disrespect when he chal- lenges an assertion made by a missionary in a sermon. If he is in a public bazaar, or in any other public place, he assumes that he has perfect liberty to speak at any time. The mis- sionary, however, can parry his attacks, if he so chooses, and all experienced workers in India learn to do this. Paul rea- soned in the market-place ; and while it is true that the mar- ket-place spoken of was not exactly the Indian bazaar, yet it is probable that his reasoning partook somewhat of the same character as may often be heard in Indian bazaars. For many years I have felt that too many missionaries fail by insisting too literally upon preaching in the conven- tional sense in which that word is used in England and America. Indeed, the young missionary who comes to In- dia should dismiss nearly all his ideals of religious work and worship, and prepare to adapt himself to the new exigencies which he may meet. The word preach suggests to an Occi- dental mind the idea of a man standing up before an audi- ence, declaiming with more or less vigor, reasoning, exhort- ing, entreating, and displaying in turn the various phases which are popularly supposed to belong to religious oratory. The New Testament ideal, however, is very different from this. The greatest sermon ever preached in this world was delivered by a Preacher who sat on the grass, and talked with the people who were grouped on the grass of the slope below him. The second greatest sermon that was ever preached was delivered by the same Preacher, as he sat on a shaded well-curb, with an audience consisting of one woman, and she by no means the most reputable of those living in the adjacent village. The discourse was completed after other 16 242 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. hearers bad gathered around the place, just as happens in scores of instances in India, where a dozen or a score of new hearers may come up after the first talk has been concluded. Another great sermon of infinite interest to missionaries was preached by that magnificent evangelist, Philip, as he was seated in an Ethiopian chariot, with an audience composed of a single hearer. Paul preached a great sermon which, however, is not reported at length to a dozen men in Ephesus. And thus it would seem that the modern ideal of a man standing erect in the presence of an audience seated in the most or- derly and formal manner, and listening with perhaps more good manners than attention, was almost unknown in the early days of Christianity. On special occasions,. such as the day of Pentecost, or in the presence of the Jewish Council, when the first martyr was on trial for his life, great orators delivered great sermons; but the rule was the other way. In India our more recent experience leads us to the conclusion that the formal sermon will have less to do, and the more private discourse or conversation, as it may be, will become more and more prominent. Thirty years ago we all preached, for the most part, in the bazaars and at the great melas, or fairs. At that time it was difficult to work in any other way. The people did not receive us privately with the same cordiality which they now show ; and we were objects of suspicion and scorn to an extent which is now unknown. Now, however, the most successful workers are comparatively obscure Hindustani preachers, who go and sit down at the doorstep of a native hut, or perhaps in a court-yard into which a number of humble little dwellings open, and talk with the people, sing, if permitted to do so, and possibly en- gage in prayer with them. The converts are often won after long personal intercourse, one by one, by these workers. In other words, our preaching in India seems to be drifting back more and more toward the New Testament standard; and yet there are occasions when large audiences are ad- dressed by eloquent men, with a religious earnestness and THE TASK IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM. 243 power which remind us vividly of the notable efforts we have witnessed on the part of great orators in America. The popular idea of a mission-school is that of a half- dozen children of both sexes collected under a thatched roof, and patiently taught the meaning and use of letters, until they are able to read and write. So far as savage people are concerned, this idea may be correct enough; but when the young missionary arrives in India he discovers that, instead of teaching an alphabet to the children of the soil, he must first master two or three alphabets with which they are already familiar. He is the chief pupil in the school instead of the teacher. The Hindus of Northern India use an ex- cellent alphabet, which is constructed for the most part on phonetic principles, and which is better adapted to its pur- pose, and more perfect in its arrangement, than the English alphabet. The Mohammedans employ an alphabet which is sometimes called the Persi-Arabic, but which varies in its form, and, as it nearly always omits the short vowels, is diffi- cult -to master. Then, when the missionary has acquired a moderate use of the language, and mastered one or both of the alphabets in use, he finds that the Oriental idea of a school is wholly different from that with which he has been familiar in his own country, and he will probably spend a year in bungling efforts to get his school in order before he is really prepared to conduct, or even superintend, a school. His difficulty does not end here. Instead of finding little savages who can not comprehend the use of letters, he is constantly meeting young men of his own age who speak English with- out hesitation, and many of whom are equal to himself in scholarship. He learns, to his surprise, and perhaps to his dismay, that if he enters the educational field he must pro- vide schools all the way up, from those of the most element- ary grade to the full-fledged college. The term "an educa- tional missionary " means a great deal indeed in a country like India, and the young men and women in the United States who lightly dream of going to India to spend their 244 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. lives in teaching the heathen, would do well to pause and examine themselves to see if they are prepared for a kind of labor which only well-educated people at home would think of attempting. But the real work of the young missionary begins when he makes his first convert. In a moment a score of questions confront him to which he has perhaps not given a thought, but which involve him in a labyrinth of difficulties from which he at times sees no way of escape. Christians in America have little or no idea of the difference between the fundamental and the accidental peculiarities of American Christianity. Much which they accept as a part of Chris- tianity itself is in reality only the outgrowth of its American phases. Christianity differs from all other religions in that it is able to adapt itself to all the nations and kingdoms and tribes of earth. But in so doing, it changes its outward form to a greater or less extent, and adopts or rejects peculiarities of the various people who become subject to it, as may suit their special character or wants. The Christian in America, however, expects that the first convert of the young mission- ary will at once become in outward life, if not in inward taste, the counterpart of an American Christian. He ex- pects him to accept the American Sabbath in an hour, without having accustomed himself to its obligations, and without re- gard to the overwhelming disregard of the day which every one encounters in a heathen land. He expects him to join in public worship precisely in the way in which it is con- ducted at home, and with a full and hearty appreciation of everything connected with the service. He expects him to change a hundred customs, some of them very trifling, and some of them of the utmost importance in the convert's eyes, without hesitation and without misgiving. He expects him to adapt his appetite to new articles of food and to new modes of living, and, in short, to become a respectable Christian like those usually seen in American churches. The convert, on the other hand, can not possibly comprehend such a THE TASK IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM. 245 standard of Christianity. He has never eaten beef or pork, and his appetite loathes such food. He looks upon various articles as unclean, but does not dream that in doing so he is reflecting upon other Christians who use them freely. He shaves his head in whole or in part as fancy or necessity may dictate to him, and is utterly unconscious that in doing so he is giving himself an uncouth appearance, which would excite laughter in any Christian congregation in England or America. He takes off his shoes when he wishes to show reverence to a place of worship, and kneels down before God having his head covered with a turban, which is perhaps skillfully arranged by wrapping thirty yards of linen around his head. He has much to learn, and much to unlearn ; but the things of importance to him are not things such as those just mentioned. If the missionary is wise, he will from the very outset dismiss all thought of training his con- vert according to the American ideal. But he is not always wise. Most young missionaries going to a new field, without the experience of older workers to guide them, are apt to cherish the American ideal until repeated failures teach them that it can not be realized in an Oriental country. I am writing these lines at a station among the North- ern Himalayas. A few days ago I was passing along a shaded road, when my attention was arrested by the once familiar sight of a green chestnut-burr lying on the road before me. It recalled old associations of my youth and boyhood in a very peculiar manner, and I instinctively looked up to see from what tree this unexpected object could have fallen. Above me I saw chestnut-leaves, which I rec- ognized in a moment ; but, instead of a stately tree, I saw at the side of the road a group of stems, eight or ten in num- ber, growing from a common root, and looking altogether like a huge chestnut-bush, instead of a chestnut-tree. The sight was disappointing to me. It would have pleased me much if I could have seen a large chestnut-tree overhang- ing tne road ; but I was obliged to accept what this Hima- 246 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. layan climate and soil presented to me. An English chest- nut had been planted here; but when it sprang into life and lifted its head above the soil, it refused to assume the form of an English chestnut-tree. I find the same change in the ap- ple, pear, apricot, and plum trees, which I see in the gardens around me. Each tree preserves its own special character, and yet puts on Indian peculiarities instead of retaining those of Europe. So it is with Christianity; we may plant it in India and it will assume its own peculiar Indian phase, and refuse obstinately to adopt the outward appearance of the Christianity which is found in England, America, or Ger- many. So will it be in China, in Japan, and in each foreign country. We could not expect it to be otherwise ; and we ought not, and certainly need not, desire it to be otherwise. The new convert has everything to learn, and, however sincere and earnest he may be, it will require, in most cases, no little time to give him the drill which he needs. The people of India have no conception whatever of public wor- ship in the sense in which it is understood by Christians. They never meet together for prayer, and rarely meet in re- ligious assemblies of any kind. The Mohammedans may sometimes be seen in large numbers performing their devo- tions at stated hours ; but these consist merely in the repeti- tion of forms of prayer, often in an unknown tongue, and never heeded by any considerable number of those who utter them. Now and then a Mohammedan preacher may be found who addresses public audiences; but never after the manner of a preacher in a Christian church. Neither Mohamme- dans nor Hindus ever sing in connection with any form of public worship. The voice of song is the peculiar heritage and glory of the Church of Jesus Christ. Infidelity in all its forms, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and every form of paganism, seem alike pervaded by a strange influ- ence of some kind which drowns the voic.e of song. Prayer in the Christian sense is practically unknown, except among Christian people. Hence the new converts have to learn THE TASK IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM. 247 everything, so far as worship is concerned. They learn readily enough, it is true; but in a country where all have to be learners, where the teachers are few, where the model which is found everywhere in America is not only more rare, but also apt to change more or less, it is no little part of the missionary's task to introduce, direct, and control public worship among the people who first become Chris- tians. In a few large cities congregations of Indian Christians can be found seated upon comfortable benches, well-dressed and quite as orderly, in every respect, as similar congrega- tions in English and American cities. This, however, is by no means a correct picture of the ordinary Indian congrega- tion. Nearly all missionaries at first try to provide churches. Many of them build in such close imitation of similar build- ings at home, that their structures seem almost grotesque in the midst of their Oriental surroundings. They at first also try to provide comfortable seats, the old-time pulpit, with perhaps an American organ, with everything arranged accord- ing to the pattern shown to them in their native land. Very soon, however, every practical missionary is only too willing to give up this vain attempt to reproduce American churches upon Indian soil. In the towns and villages, in which the chapels or other simple places of worship are found, the peo- ple, for the most part, sit upon the floor, which consists sim- ply of the beaten earth, covered with very cheap matting. There may be a raised platform at one end, upon which the preacher stands, with a small table beside him ; but it is more probable that the place will be wholly destitute of furniture. The people enter, for the most part, in their bare feet. The custom of uncovering the head is becoming more common, and is much insisted on by some missionaries. For my own part, I have never attached the slightest importance to this custom. The directions of Paul, which have been so fre- quently misapplied in American churches, would create much greater inconvenience if literally carried out in Ori- 248 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. ental lands, and should be accepted here, as elsewhere, in their practical spirit, rather than in the misleading letter. The present chapter would have to be greatly extended if all the difficulties which confront missionaries in a new field were to be stated. The mere mention of woman placed in her new position a position higher and more ennobling than anything she has ever known opens a new field of dif- ficulties, which would require much more space than can be afforded in the present chapter. The whole subject will be fully treated elsewhere. Suffice it to say that the most. per- plexing and difficult part of the missionary's work in organ- izing a Christian church in a heathen land, and wisely ad- justing it to its hostile environment, is found in con- nection with the female members. To them everything is new, and, as might be expected, many of them are found too timid for the new duties and privileges which are set before them, while others are tempted to take undue ad- vantage of their new position, and to fall into the same er- rors which are so sharply rebuked by Paul in his epistles to some of the early churches. Woman is at her worst in non- Christian lands, and hence it needs surprise no one that, among the first converts, it often happens that she is much less prepared for her new duties than her husband and brothers. It thus happens that the most bitter and persist- ent opposition to the giving up of bad or doubtful customs, and the adoption of new modes of life in the family and in the outer life, comes from the women. All converts are more willing to give up idols than certain forms of superstition, some of which are interwoven with the spirit of idolatry itself in such a way as to be utterly contrary to the Christian idea. To sift carefully the habits and customs of the people, casting away everything which is harmless, and peculiar to the customs and taste of the people, is a task which calls for the highest wisdom and ripest experience which can be found in the mission-field. Chapter XYIII. THE TASK IN ITS LARGER PROPORTIONS. WHEN Dr. Butler, with his band of missionaries, began work in his chosen district, it was impossible to antici- pate the proportions which the work might ultimately as- sume. Among all departments of human effort, there is absolutely no kind of work which has such far-reaching results as that of direct Christian labor, not only in found- ing churches in heathen lands, but ia planting all manner of institutions for the men now living, and for generations yet unborn. The little mission church in India, Africa, or China may prove the nucleus of a great Christian empire, and the mission-school may grow up to be a bulwark of an enlightened civilization for long centuries in the future. The work before these missionaries in North India, even in its day of small things, was laid out upon a larger scale than was at that time customary in mission-fields. It was in- tended that no less than eight missionaries should be located in the city of Lucknow, and four in each of the cities of Bareilly and Moradabad. Two other cities were to have three missionaries each, while the remaining stations cb.open were each to have two missionaries. This distribution of the workers, however, was never actually accomplished. From the very first the pressure for help in new fields was felt so acutely, that it was found impossible to strengthen the work- ing force in the principal stations according to the original plan. As time passed, it began to be apparent that this original plan never could be executed, and that perhaps it would "not be best to attempt it. All missionaries, at the outset, naturally look upon the labor to be accomplished as 249 250 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. \\\ a peculiar sense their own, and do not make sufficient allowance for the indigenous help which, under God's bless- ing, is to be raised up on the field. Instead of three, four, or eight missionaries in a single station, experience led these devoted men, in time, to appoint but one man to most of the stations, and only on rare occasions has the spectacle been witnessed of four missionaries living in the same city. It seemed to the Church in America, as well as to most missionaries in India, that the plan of locating twenty-five men in one comparatively small section of the great Empire of India was an exceptionally wise one, and that such a mis- sion would, in proportion to its extent, be among the most strongly manned in all the country. Relatively, this view may have seemed correct enough; but when we compare, or contrast, this force with that which was sent into the South Sea Islands at the beginning of the great work in that region, the Indian Mission will seem weak enough. In certain groups of those islands, containing a population of about 250,000, fifty-two missionaries were stationed, and not deemed too many for the work. Those missionaries were good men, and their labors were abundantly rewarded. In nearly every case they were successful in turning the people from the worship of idols, and giving them the knowledge of the living God. They ought to have succeeded; for, on an average, each man had only about 5,000 persons of all ages to whom to devote himself. In this new mission in India, however, the missionaries were distributed in the proportion of one for every 680,000; that is, each missionary had a task assigned him more than two and a half times as large as that of the whole of the fifty-two men in the southern seas. Instead of looking upon the missionary force of twenty-five men as an exceptionally large one, it ought to be understood that a thousand workers would not have been sufficient to engage in the task with the same chances of success which existed in many of the best-known mission-fields of the last generation. A force of no less than 3,400 missionaries THE TASK IN ITS LARGER PROPORTIONS. 251 would have been required in order to enter the field on the same scale, and to carry on the work with the same thoroughness which was witnessed in the islands of the South Pacific. When we look at those twenty-five mission- aries and it must be remembered that the Missionary So- ciety did not actually succeed in its attempt to put so many men on the ground and then glance at the mighty multi- tude numbering more than seventeen millions of Hindus and Mohammedans, we may readily exclaim, " What were these among so many?" One part of the task which, perhaps, gave these early missionaries at first little concern, soon began to loom up before them in most formidable proportions. Like mission- aries generally, they at first had little idea of what was im- plied by the term, " founding a new church." Their first thought was that of bringing the people to Christ, and properly training their converts; but in every age and in every land a body of converts means the organization of a church. This fact is but dimly realized in Christian lands, and even by those most familiar with missionary operations. It is too commonly supposed that converts from heathenism are simple creatures who require the careful supervision of superiors, but who can not be intrusted with responsibility in the church, and who need not be consulted in respect to such a step. People who indulge in a fancy of this kind might as well assume that ignorant men and women in non- Christian lands are uprepared to assume the responsibilities of parents, or domestic duties of any kind. They forget that there is such a thing as society in every community, and that there are great laws of social organization which will shape themselves inevitably according to the influence surrounding the people. They forget that it is as natural for Christian converts in China or India to assume their proper places in the church, and to take up, not only the ordinary duties of membership, but in proper cases the responsible duties of official position, as it is for converts in Christian countries to 252 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. do the same. It is a part of God's law, written upon the hearts of all Christians, that they should associate themselves together in churches, and take up the responsible duties which come to them in such a relationship ; and no greater mistake can be made than to neglect wholly, or even treat lightly, a subject of such vital importance to missionary work. But just here some kind and well-meaning Christian brother is sure to rise and protest that the missionaries who go to heathen lands have nothing to do with the organiza- tion of churches, that it is their duty to evangelize, and not to organize, and that, above all things, missionaries should leave all their preconceived notions, prejudices, and, to a great ex- tent, doctrinal beliefs, behind them when they sail from their native land. Such talk reflects more honor, perhaps, upon the goodness of the protester's heart than upon the clearness of his intellect. Whatever the missionary is, he is not ex- pected to be a fool. Like other Christians, he has a clearly defined belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and he can no more lay these aside and substitute what is called a naked be- lief in Christ, leaving his mind like a blank sheet of paper, than he can put himself back to his condition in infancy. Nor can he persuade himself, when converts begin to gather around him, that he has nothing to do with their organiza- tion. He sees at a glance, and feels the conviction deep within him, that it is as much his duty to care for these con- verts and to direct their organization into a Christian church or Christian churches, as it is for him to care for his own children, and direct them how to use their responsibilities as they increase in stature and wisdom. Some one has said that charity is the highest of all virtues, but that this does not mean that she must needs be a fool. It would be a supreme act of folly for any sensible missionary to throw aside his own experience, smother, or at least conceal, his own religious views of Bible truth, and leave his converts to flounder as best they can through the difficulties which will b^set them in Bible study, and to blunder to any extent that circum- THE TASK IN ITS LARGER PROPORTIONS. 253 stances may permit, when they attempt the difficult task of organizing a Christian church. In these days a great deal of very plausible, and yet very cheap and unwise, talk is heard about the narrow bigotry of missionaries who carry the peculiar theological notions of Western Christianity, and the still narrower ecclesiastical polity of their respective sects or denominations, into heathen lands. Every now and then a protest appears, sometimes in hostile journals, and sometimes in the columns of earnest but often narrow Christian periodicals, against the folly of trying to reproduce the sects of Europe and America in India and China. The writers seem sincerely to believe that the Pres- byterians, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, Lutherans, and others, are striving with might and main to introduce and perpetuate, not only their respective systems of theology and of church government, but even their very names, in India. It needs hardly be said that all such criticisms areas unjust as they are mistaken. What such critics ask of the missionary is, that he should ignore his own training, his own experience, and his own adaptation to Christian work. A man who has been brought up in a Christian land to work in a certain way, who is familiar with a certain form of church organization, and who has accustomed himself to a certain kind of armor in which he can best fight in spiritual warfare, will not lightly throw away all these advantages when he is suddenly placed face to face with hostile forces of the most formidable charac- ter. A Methodist may not be a better or a wiser man than a Presbyterian or an Anglican, or a better worker; and yet if he has been trained to work according to the usual methods pursued by Methodists, and in the spirit most cherished by them, he will prove most successful in his new sphere of labor by continuing to work as a Methodist. He is precisely like David, when he declined the stronger and heavier, but to him more cumbersome, armor of Saul. Each man fights best when wearing his own armor and pursuing the methods with which he is most familiar. 254 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Apply this to the problem of church organization, and it will be seen at once that the missionary only follows what ought to be regarded as the natural course, for him, when he proceeds to organize his converts according to the plan which commends itself to his judgment, and is most in accordance with the standards with which he has been most familiar. It is true, however, he will seldom be able to use the machinery with which he has been familiar in his home-land in all its entirety. He is compelled, as remarked in a previous chap- ter, to adapt it to the circumstances in which he is placed ; and if he is a wise man, he will have already learned to use only those methods and those forms of organization which are sufficiently flexible to be adapted to unexpected circum- stances, such as meet him in his new field. He remains a Presbyterian, a Methodist, or an Anglican, as the case may be, but remembers that he is in a strange land ; and while he preserves the main features of his own familiar system, he does not put it in an iron mold which admits of no modifica- tion whatever. Adopting these views in the main, Dr. Butler and his as- sociates were in a few years brought face to face with some weighty responsibilities. Almost immediately they felt the necessity of a church organization, so fully fledged as to be able to meet every exigency as it might arise. The author- ities in America at first felt somewhat impatient when the missionaries began to put forth their demands for an Annual Conference, forgetting that under the Methodist system it would be impossible to maintain for many years a vigorous, growing mission in a distant corner of India, without provid- ing for the various emergencies which, in any country and under the best possible conditions, might be expected to arise. For instance, a minister could not be put upon his trial with- out transferring the case to America, which is tantamount to saying that he could not be fairly tried at all. Candidates for the ministry had to be admitted on trial into Annual Con- ferences in America; and their reception or rejection, as well THE TASK IN ITS LARGER PROPORTIONS. 255 as the subsequent step of receiving them into full member- ship, would depend upon influences which might be brought to bear on the other side of the globe in such a way as to de- feat the purposes and wishes of those on the field. The or- ganization of an Annual Conference, however, marked but one stage of a long road. As time passed it began to be felt more and more that the existence of a great church in one of the great empires of the world implied, in the very nature of the case, something very nearly equivalent to autonomy, and this, in turn, implied the construction of an ecclesiastical frame-work which called for the ripest wisdom, the clearest foresight, and the most profound devotion which could be found in any church. At this point another question of the utmost gravity be- gan to present itself. As remarked in another chapter, the idea of the authorities in New York, when they determined to establish a mission in India, was that of simply planting a mission in India, rather than for India as a whole. Instead of thinking of the great Indian Empire, they thought of a vast Eastern region occupied by various tribes and national- ities, somewhat after the manner of America when peopled by the various tribes of aborigines. To plant a mission in an Indian tribe never meant at any time more than trying to evangelize that particular body of people. The Indian tribes of America had no coherency among themselves, and at no period in their history did they ever look upon themselves as a single people. In India the situation is wholly different. The people are firmly welded together, at least politically, by the power of the Indian Government, backed as it is by that of the British Empire. Thirty years ago there was much less of coherency among the people of the various sections of India than exists at the present day ; but even then the great trunk railways which have since been built had been marked out, and as these were constructed the people began to move about by thousands, and literally by millions. The empire, for a generation past, has been steadily becoming more and more 256 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. consolidated. The people are feeling more and more that they hold many interests in common, and the missionary who has lived among them the greater part of his life, in many cases discovers, to his surprise, that he has become Indian- ized himself. He feels more interest in the public concerns of India than in those of his native land. He expects, in many cases at least, to spend all his days in India ; and more and more he interests himself in all that concerns the wel- fare of the people, not only in one particular section, where he may chance to reside, but in every nook and corner of the empire. These influences led our missionaries at an early day to look beyond the boundaries of the comparatively small field in which they had been located, and to anticipate a larger share in the work of making India a Christian empire, than the founders of the mission had foreseen. In earlier days many attempts were made by the leading missionary socie- ties in India, to parcel out the country in such a way as to give to each mission a special field of its own. All workers were expected to observe what are called the rules of mis- sionary courtesy, and not to trespass into a province which had been taken up by another society. This policy had some good features, but was only defensible on the ground of pro- viding such a division of labor as would most speedily bring all the vast fields under cultivation. Unfortunately, how- ever, this was seldom the reason put forward for adopting the policy. The real object of its promoters was, in most cases, that of preventing collisions among the missionaries. The policy can hardly be said to have proved successful. Many have been led to think that it created more suspicion, and fomented more painful divisions, than it ever prevented. In any case, the missionaries, with their advancing work, have outgrown it, and every year it seems to be felt more and more that the unwritten rules of comity which prevail in Christian lands must, in the main, be relied upon to work out the same results in India which thev do elsewhere. THE TASK IN ITS LARGER PROPORTIONS. 257 While most Protestant missionaries, by their own consent and with the hearty approval of their own judgment, thus fenced themselves off from large sections of the empire, mis- sionaries of two great organizations succeeded in planting themselves in almost all the leading cities and provinces of the empire. The Roman Catholic priest, on the one hand, knew of no restricting boundary-lines. He is found almost everywhere in India to-day, if not as an active missionary, at least as an officiating priest, looking carefully after the in- terests of the great organization to which he belongs. The chaplains and missionaries of the Anglican Church, on the other hand, are also found almost everywhere, as might be expected in an organization which is recognized as the Estab- lished Church of the country. In the first place, the chap- lains occupy nearly all the large cities and stations. Then, the Church Missionary Society, a very powerful organization, has its missionaries in many parts of the country, while the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which usually represents the sacerdotal wing of the Anglican Church, oc- cupies other fields. Where these three classes of workers are not found, it often happens that a missionary of the Ad- ditional Clergy Aid Society is stationed, thus bringing four classes of workers, but all belonging to the same Church, into the field. When our own work began in India, Methodism was hardly known in the empire. The English Methodists had confined their labors to the extreme southern part of the pen- insula, and not a Methodist minister or missionary of any kind was to be found north of Madras. The great cities of Bombay and Calcutta had no Methodist preaching; nor had any missionary penetrated to any part of the great region north of those cities. It may be said, and it may truly seem to many, that the mere absence of Methodist missionaries from nearly the whole of this great empire ought not to have occasioned either surprise or alarm ; but, on the other hand, when we consider the important part which the Methodists, 17 258 INDIA AND AT A LA YSIA. as a people, are playing in all parts of the English-speaking world, and when we remember that God has raised up each one of the great Christian organizations of the present day, in some sense at least, for a special part of the common work to be done, it becomes certainly worth while to inquire if the Methodists themselves had not been somewhat to blame for neglecting their share of the great work to be accom- plished in India. Certainly no others can be blamed, and no other view of the case has ever been put forward. When, therefore, our missionaries in North India began, twenty years ago or more, to feel a wider interest in Indian Chris- tianity, and to ask themselves if it might not be that God wished them to assume a larger share of the work to be done, they had no other thought than that of meeting their own responsibilities more fully, and helping all other brethren, of whatever name, to hasten forward to the goal which all were alike anxious to reach. It will be said at once, no doubt, and probably with a measure of warmth : " But why rush into distant regions be- fore you have finished the task undertaken in Oudh and Rohilkhand ? Finish the task in hand before you attempt another. While millions and millions around you remain unevangelized, why seek distant fields, where the prospects are no more inviting than in the districts within your imme- diate reach ?" Many of us in India have been obliged to answer ques- tions of this kind over and over again during the past twenty years. It ought to suffice to say that at no time in the his- tory of Christianity have successful Christian workers, espe- cially evangelists, acted upon the policy here indicated. Bar- nabas and Saul set out from Antioch to go to regions beyond, although only a handful of the people of that great city had been converted. They pressed on from city to city, sowing precious seed, but never in a single instance waiting until the task which they had seemed to take up was finished. It will be impossible to point to a single instance in all Chris- THE TASK IN ITS LARGER PROPORTIONS. 259 tian history where successful laborers, especially evangelists, have tarried in one place until all the people were converted. Such a thing has never been done, and I trust never will be done, until first the gospel has been carried where its sound may fall upon all human ears. In fact, this cry of finishing all the work to be done in a given field before going else- \\here, is identical in spirit with that other cry which has so often been raised in Christian lands about seeking the heathen at home before carrying the gospel to those who live abroad. The very genius of Christianity is entirely foreign to any such idea. Its inspiration is that of the angel flying in mid-heaven, with the everlasting gospel to preach to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. The mission- aries of India will never be fitted for the gigantic task which God has given them until they rise superior to some of the scruples which have hampered their action in the past, and bring themselves more fully into harmony with the spirit of the gospel which they are called to proclaim. In another chapter the story will be told of the remark- able manner in which God led us forth beyond the bound- aries of the comparatively small field at first selected, and by successive steps planted our workers in nearly all the great cities of India. Suffice it to say that, as the years have gone by, one point after another has been occupied in the regions beyond, until now, instead of having a field carefully hedged in near the source of the Ganges in North India, our workers are found at many points from Lahore in the north to Madras in the south, and from the Indus, and even be- yond the Indus, on the northwest, to Singapore and Borneo in the distant southeast. Instead of seventeen millions of people to be evangelized, God has called upon us to do our share in the evangelization of the 284,000,000 of India, and the 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 of Malaysia. The task which at the first seemed large enough to absorb the energies of the whole Christian world, calling for a missionary force of more than three thousand men, has thus been so changed as 200 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. to give us, not by any means the whole of these three hun- dred and odd millions to be evangelized by ourselves, but our share of this common work, which God has committed to all his people of whatever name or nationality throughout the world. Instead of a province, we are thrust out into the midst of one of the world's great empires, and, passing beyond its limits, we have entered the gateway of what is destined to be the great island empire of the Eastern seas. THREE INDIAN PRESIDING ELDERS. HASAN RAZA KHAN. ZAHUR-UL-H AO.Q. ABRAHAM SOLOMON. Chapter XIX. THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK. THE missionaries descended from their retreat in Naini Tal in the closing months of 1858; but, as has been re- marked in a preceding chapter, their actual work may be said to have commenced with 1859. The first Annual Confer- ence in India was organized at the close of 1864, six years from the beginning of active work a period which may be regarded as the first stage in the history of the new mission. During these six years the workers had many lessons to learn, some trying perplexities and sharp trials to encounter, their first victories to win, and, as seemed to them, an endless series of difficulties to meet and overcome. Each missionary at once began the work of preaching in his station, either personally or through the Hindustani helper sent to him. At the close of the Mutiny, when peace and general security began to prevail throughout Oudh and Rohilkhand, a number of native Christians drifted up from the South, whither most of them had fled for safety, and from among these a few suitable men were found to take the place of assistants in the new work. They were so few in number, however, that it was not found possible to supply even one to each missionary. As compared with the Hin- dustani preachers of the present day most of them would be regarded as men of inferior worth, but in those early times they proved valuable helpers indeed. In fact, any man who was able to speak the language of the people, and who knew enough of Christianity clearly to comprehend the object of the missionaries, was invaluable to the strangers beginning their work in a strange land. The preaching and religious services 263 264 IXDIA AND MALAYSIA. of those days, however, were exceedingly unpretentious, al- though such as only could have been expected in a day of small things. For the most part, the missionary looked to the bazaar; that is, the business street of the cities and towns, with its open shops of every variety ranged along either side. In India the buying and selling is nearly al- ways conducted at the door of the shop, the purchaser stand- ing in the street, and the whole street thus becomes a market- place in the most practical sense of the word. The mis- sionary, if not able to preach himself, would have his Hin- dustani brother by his side, and perhaps his own part would consist simply in reading a few verses from the Bible, and by his presence drawing curious people together to stare at him, or to see what the strange procedure was going to be, while the burden of the preaching was left to the native brother. With few exceptions, however, the missionaries of those days were able to bear a more or less important part in the work of preaching by the close of their first year in the country. In addition to preaching in the open street, it- was also held to be a sacred duty to maintain the customary Sabbath services. At an appointed hour a room would be prepared, which, in the absence of chapels and school-rooms, was apt to be one of the apartments in the mission-house. The audience almost invariably consisted of the family of one or two native preachers, or rather assistants, and the servants of the household. Nothing could have seemed more unpromising to an ordinary observer than such a con- gregation, consisting perhaps of not more than ten or twelve persons in all, one-half of whom w r ere present only because it was the pleasure of their employer that they should come. Nevertheless, every such service had its value. It was a constant witness to the people that the Christian religion had come among them, that one day in seven had been set apart for God's service, and that Christianity hereafter was to hold a permanent place among the religions of the empire. THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK. 265 Schools were also opened ; but, for the most part, these were of the most elementary character. In the course of a very short time, however, two or three of these schools, in which English was taught, began to make rapid progress, the boys everywhere being anxious to acquire a knowledge of the language, and their parents willing to assume all risks of their conversion in their great hope to have them acquire the language of their rulers. It was everywhere seen clearly that the only hope of promotion for ambitious boys must rest upon their knowledge of the English tongue. All over India, missionaries since the time of Dr. Duff have taken ad- vantage of this desire to acquire English, and have thus suc- ceeded in bringing tens of thousands of promising boys and young men under their influence through the medium of mission-schools conducted in the English language. The greater number of the schools in those days, however, as at the present time, were of a very different character. In some stations it was thought desirable, if for no other pur- pose, to maintain a little school on the same principle that the Sunday service was kept up ; that is, as a testimony to the people. The missionaries were there to teach, and they wished to impress it upon the minds of all the people that children should learn to read and write. The little school virtually proclaimed to those who saw it that the days of India's darkness were forever past, and that a brighter era had dawned upon the land. At times the care of one of these little schools, with perhaps five or six little boys in it, was a little trying to the patience of the missionary. He himself, as a general rule, did not do the teaching; but the whole work seemed so utterly unpromising that at times the thought could not but present itself that it might as well be given up. No one, however, ever yielded to such a sugges- tion. The work went on, each little school slowly gaining in numbers and efficiency, each little Sunday congregation very slowly but steadily increasing in attendance, and the prospects very slowly indeed, and yet certainly brightening. 266 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Here and there a convert was picked up from time to time, one of the earliest of whom was a very intelligent Mohamme- dan in the city of Bareilly, named Zahur-ul-Haqq, who heard Dr. Humphrey and his Hindustani associate preaching in the bazaar, was impressed by the word, and followed them home to make further inquiries. In due time he was converted and baptized, and after a long term of faithful service became the first Hindustani presiding elder in India. Every earnest missionary feels oppressed in the earlier stages of his work by the difficulty of reaching the people as a people. They come to him as individuals, and now and then he wins a convert, but they always seem like so many stragglers. The missionary is made to feel that he is in the position of an attacking party, trying to make a break in the ranks of the opposing force, but never succeeding in doing more than picking up an occasional straggler. He can not capture even an isolated detachment. In our own case this difficulty was experienced everywhere, excepting in the Moradabad District, in Western Rohilkhand. In that re- gion a class of people called Mazhabi Sikhs, numbering four or five thousand, were found in small groups scattered through the villages. They had come from the Panjab originally, and were of low origin as to caste, but had em- braced enough of the tenets of the Sikh religion to entitle them to the Sikh name, but only as to religion. The Sikhs of the Panjab have a double title to the name which they bear, first as to race, and second as to their religious belief. A large number of low-caste people have embraced enough of their peculiar religious tenets to give them a more or less valid claim to the honorable title of the great Sikh people. The word mazhab means religion, and the term mazhabi is simply an adjective form, the whole meaning that these people are Sikhs by religion, if not by race. They themselves began to come to the missionaries at Moradabad, and a few of them were baptized early in 1859, or possibly even before the close of 1858. The importance of such an opening was not THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK. 267 at first realized by the missionaries, although a very practi- cal interest was taken in them from the first. They occu- pied a very low social position, and large numbers of them had been professional thieves, and were known as such at the time that our work commenced among them. Had we been wiser in our generation, and known at that time how val- uable such an opening is to a missionary that is, the open- ing of a door not to an individual or two, but to a whole class, or caste, or tribe we would no doubt have seized the opportunity much more eagerly and effectually than we did. As it was, some years went by before we gained a really firm and permanent hold upon them; but in the meantime some of their boys and young men had been educated, and, having been received as teachers and preachers into the mis- sion, began to prove themselves very efficient workers. By and by the work among them spread still farther, until, when the census of 1881 was taken, the official in charge reported that the Mazhabi Sikhs had virtually disappeared from Rohilkhand. The gentleman in question was not able to ac- count for their disappearance ; but in the same report called attention to the increase of Native Christians, which chanced to be about the same in number as the decrease in the number of Mazhabi Sikhs. As remarked above, not a few of these people had been professional thieves. In India, where the original idea of caste includes that of hereditary employment, the position of a thief, whose profession is hereditary, is not looked upon with such utter scorn as in Christian lands. Only the other day a writer in a Calcutta paper called attention to the fact that some of our missionaries in Northern India were, even now, bringing a reproach upon the Christian name by bap- tizing professional thieves and receiving them into the Christian Church. This, however, is no reproach. For years after our first converts had been baptized in the Mora- dabad District, they were annoyed by Mohammedan officials arresting them in the most wholesale manner after any theft 268 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. had occurred, on mere suspicion, and sometimes holding them for days while the case was investigated. Our people, how- ever, have outgrown that humiliation, and for quite a num- ber of years past no attempt has been made to arrest them in this arbitrary manner. It seems to be forgotten that they ever were known as thieves, and so far from seeing anything wrong in admitting other members of such a fraternity into our churches, our missionaries would gladly welcome a thou- sand such men any day if they stood knocking at our doors. In the midst of such a community the workers of to-day can appreciate the admonition of Paul, writing to the early 'Chris- tians : " Let him that stole, steal no more." As converts began to rally round the missionaries, it was felt that several advanced steps must be taken. One of the first of these was to establish orphanages one for boys and one for girls. The care of the orphan is made the impera- tive duty of God's people, in every age and in every land a duty, by the way, which has been gravely overlooked in some Christian lands, and perhaps more so in America than in any other country. The prosperity of the American peo- ple in the past has led them to assume far too readily that in such a country every one is able to take care of himself; and hence the ears of even good people have not been sufficiently open to the cry of the orphan and the widow. In a country like India, however, where the majority of the people are not only poor, but very poor, and where Christian converts are for the most part drawn from the ranks of the poor, the care of the orphan becomes at once an imperative duty which can not be set aside. In addition to this duty, however, it was wisely thought that the education of several hundred boys and girls would in the end develop a class of valuable work- ers of both sexes, and the result of the experiment has proved that this expectation was by no means a vain one. A great famine occurred in 1860, and large numbers of children were left to perish by the roadside, their parents either having died, or having been compelled to forsake them because THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK. 269 unable to give them food. Several hundred of these were gathered into the two orphanages, and many of them lived to become useful men and women, some of whom are able preachers of the gospel at the present day. At an early period in those days it was felt that a mission press would be needed, and was even then needed, to meet the literary and educational wants of the growing work. A dozen of the missionaries pledged the sum of one hundred rupees each, with which to purchase the first press ; and Dr. Waugh, then a young missionary stationed at Shahjahanpore, and having a practical knowledge of printing, was transferred to Bareilly, and put in charge of the new enterprise. This press has since been removed to Lucknow, and has been greatly enlarged, until it is at present one of the largest, if not indeed the largest, Christian publishing agency in the empire. The question of finding employment for our converts con- fronted us at the outset, and became a problem more difficult of solution with each year of our progress. Most of the con- verts were extremely poor, and in those early days there was no Christian community into which they could be merged, and among whom employment of some kind could be found, as would happen in a Christian land under like circum- stances. The highest and the lowest alike were excluded from their respective castes, and subjected to a rigid process of boycotting, which made it impossible for them to continue in their former employments, or, in most cases, even to con- tinue in their former homes. The mass of the people in In- dia being very poor, seem naturally to look up to any leaders, religious or otherwise, who may chance to stand in any rela- tion to them whatever, for support and guidance. One of the most familiar titles by which they address Europeans is that of "Ma-bap," which literally means "mother and father." For a short time the missionaries were able to find employment for the converts, either as domestic servants or assistants in some humble capacity, or perhaps laborers upon 270 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. new buildings; but in a short time it became apparent that something must be done on a larger scale to provide for such necessitous cases as they arose. One plan, which suggested itself in the beginning, was that of securing a large tract of laud and founding a Christian vil- lage on which converts might be settled. Quite a number of attempts were made to plant colonies on a small scale, but without success. In 1862, Dr. Butler having secured a grant of 5,000 acres of waste land in Northeastern Oudh, an at- tempt was made to plant a Christian colony and found a Christian village upon the land. The soil was extremely fertile ; but we did not understand in those days, as we have since been taught by dear experience, that a tract of fertile waste-land in India means a locality in which wasting fever, or some other sickness, marks the presence of bad water or pestilential air. The Rev. E. \V. Parker, then in the full vigor of his early manhood, was appointed to the charge of the village, and, with his energetic wife, made a heroic at- tempt to plant colonists upon the land and carry forward the enterprise to ultimate success. A village was laid out, and a goodly number of families settled upon the land ; but with the advent of the rainy season it was soon discovered that the whole region was most unhealthy, and at the end of the year the missionary and his wife came away in sadly shattered health, leaving behind many of their converts sleeping in un- marked graves. Some years later a more successful effort was made upon a tract of land which w r as purchased near the city of Shahjahanpore. The place proved sufficiently healthy, but the ground was much less productive than the plot which had been abandoned in 1862. The enterprise, however, did not meet the expectations of the missionaries. It does not seem to be God's plan to gather out the converts from among their countrymen, but rather to encourage each man to re- main in the place where the providence of God has placed him, and thus scatter the good seed of Christianity among the people, rather than plant it all in one remote garden-plot. THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK. 271 Failing in the attempt to gather the Christians together in one or more Christian villages, other attempts were made to provide work for them ; but these, in most cases, proved un- successful. For several years a large industrial school was maintained in the city of Bareilly, where excellent furniture was manufactured, and other mechanical trades taught; but the Christians of mature years learned new kinds of work very slowly, and, as a consequence, their labor did not prove very profitable. It was not much better in the case of boys; although, perhaps, with the added experience of all the years which have since passed, an attempt of this kind might now result more successfully. I can not do better, in trying to explain the case, and the difficulties which we encountered in these various attempts to help the people, than by insert- ing an extract from a book written by myself some years ago : * " It is among these extremely poor people that most of the vil- lage converts are found. A few are better off, and own oxen and plows ; but at the outset the vast majority are very poor, and, as might be expected, one of the first cares of the missionary is to im- prove their condition. This, however, is by no means a simple or an easy task. A very little money would make an immediate difference in their daily bill of fare ; but money alone will not elevate a peo- ple, and its unconditional gift paralyzes thrift, instead of fostering it. Our first efforts, therefore, were directed to plans for securing better employment for our converts, and while their number was few this was easily done ; but when they began to multiply by scores and hun- dreds, it became very quickly impossible to make special provision for each case, and we were thus led to attempt various expedients in the midst of the people in their village homes. The people of India rarely live in detached houses, but maintain the primitive village system of the earliest times. The whole country is dotted over with small villages or hamlets, as numerous in many sections as the farm- houses in Ohio and Illinois, and the land around is divided up into small farms, which are cultivated by the more prosperous of the people. The cultivators are the well-to-do-class ; but a large number of laborers, weavers, shoemakers, and other artisans, with a few scaven- 'My Missionary Apprenticeship," pp. 220-226. 272 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. gers, may be found in every village. Our problem was that of tak- ing people belonging to this poorest class, and elevating them to a position of comparative comfort, in which their improvement would be brought within the range of possibility. The first and most ob- vious plan was that of securing land for them to cultivate ; and some fifteen years ago we were constantly busying our heads with plans for getting possession of a village in which a settlement of Christians could be formed. One such attempt in the mission has proved suc- cessful, but other efforts signally failed. A year or two before my arrival in Moradabad the missionaries had rented a village, and, at their ojrn risk, had gathered together some Christians as cultivators; but the experiment ended in serious loss to the missionaries, without any tangible gain to the Christians. " It was next determined to try some plan which would make it possible for the people to help themselves, without, however, spoiling them by taking all financial responsibility off their shoulders. Ac- cordingly, an Industrial Association was formed, with a capital of seven hundred and fifty rupees, held in shares of ten rupees each. A large number of the better class of native Christians were induced to take shares, and the experiment was inaugurated with great en- thusiasm. The plan was to give a small advance of money, on ap- proved security, to enable a weaver to buy his yarn in advance, on better terms than when he purchased on the security of the cloth; to enable the cultivator to purchase seed, or oxen, or a plow, so as to get in his crops on terms which would not be ruinous to him ; and to help the common laborer to buy a cart, or some tools, or to make some other petty investment which would give him remunerative em- ployment. The presiding elder was made business manager of the association not because this seemed a fitting arrangement, but be- cause it was found necessary in order to give the people confidence in the undertaking. Unfortunately for me, this organization had been made just before the care of the district fell upon my shoulders,^ and one of the most perplexing of my duties was that of looking after the many little investments which had been made, and trying at once to save the money from waste and the labor of the people from failure. " The experiment was not successful. With very few exceptions the people were found too weak in character, too much like impa- tient children, to bear any sudden improvement in fortune. Those who took advances for the purchase of seed could not resist the temptation to turn the grain into bread before the time of sowing THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK. 273 came around. The weavers did well for a time; but the temptation to buy dainty kinds of food instead of cotton yarn overcame them, and in due time I found that their prosperity was leading them into debt. A huckster did well for a month or two; but in spite of all warnings and injunctions, he would sell on credit, and soon he had empty baskets, with nothing to show for them but worthless bills. Two men bought carts and oxen, and were able to earn about twenty cents a day above expenses by haul ing goods between Moradabad and the Ganges. This was regarded as a splendid opening, and the for- tune of the two enterprising men was regarded as made for life; but their brilliant prospects quite turned their shallow heads, and the old snare of making haste to be rich proved fatal to them both. They would not give their oxen enough to eat ; they drove them too fast and too far in a day; they cut their feet by making them draw the carts over the rugged lumps of limestone with which the middle of the road was macadamized, and they injured the wooden wheels of their carts in the same way. The result was, that in less than a month the cart and oxen had been sold, and the two enterprising men were bankrupt. But I need not go on with, the story of each case of experiment and failure. The end came soon. The affairs of the association were wound up without any loss to the native members, and with the profit of a most valuable lesson to the missionary manager. "'But had the people no principle of honesty?' asks some as- tonished reader. Yes; they were honest after their manner; but to put money in their hands under such conditions, and expect them to deal with it as men of the business world are expected to do, was like giving a plate of cherries to a dozen children five or six years ofr.age, and expecting them to play with them all day long without putting a single cherry in their mouths. The vast majority of these simple villagers are the merest children on some sides of their char- acter, although old enough in many other respects. They can not be elevated in a day, or a month,* or a year, and my further experi- ments convinced me fully that the efforts of the missionary toward the material improvement of the people must be of the most indirect kind. After winding up the association, I next attempted to gather together a half-dozen lads and teach them a trade. An English engineer kindly gave me his assistance, and offered to provide a place among his men lor them to learn the trade of bricklaying. In six months they could be taught enough to enable them to earn good wages ; but they had not the patience to wait,"and after a few weeks 18 274 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. of discontented labor they threw down their tools and left. Mean- while a serious famine was impending, and many of our Christians were upon the very verge of absolute starvation. Determined to ex- haust my utmost efforts in trying to better their condition, I secured a contract for forty men to work in a brick-yard. The work was not hard, the wages were the best any one among them had ever earned, and to protect them from any annoyance or unfair treatment, a reso- lute Christian overseer was placed over them. All went well for two or three days ; but as soon as their stomachs were well filled, and they had a little surplus money in hand, they became insubordinate, made unreasonable demands, and finally left in a body and went back to their village homes. "At last, however, I was able to do a little among the Bashta converts, of whom mention is made in the last chapter. Zahur-ul- Haqq, who had warmly seconded all the efforts which ended in fail- ure, was the first to perceive the weak spot in the whole policy. One day he said to me: 'If we wish to do these people any good, your hand must not be seen in what is done. They think your money can never be exhausted, and that there can be no failure while you stand behind, and hence they are reckless. Whatever is done must be done through their own brethren. Let me put a little money in the hands of the two head men at Bashta, and I will take security in our way by taking brass utensils belonging to them, and keeping them till the money is repaid. They will look after it as we can not, and no one will ever know that you have anything to do in the matter.' A small beginning was made in this way, and it proved entirely successful. Some families were put in the way of helping themselves, and they have gone on and prospered ever since, and the condition of the whole community is said to be steadily improving. " Miss Ellice Hopkins has well said, in her admirable little book, ' Work Among Working-men,' that it is not poverty that keeps the lowest classes from rising, but sin. We may help these very poor village Christians in many ways, and ought to do so in every pos- sible way; but, after all, the only way of lifting them up into a new social life is to put the elements of such a life into them. When they begin to live the Christ-life in the low depths of their present poverty, they will rise as if by the power of a natural law. No artificial method will materially affect their condition. They must be lifted up by the natural laws of growth, and ou first care must be to implant the elements of life and growth within them." I 1860 33 t 1861 .... 96 I 1862 . . . 89 i 1863 .... 121 I 1864. .117 THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK. 275 Year by year the new mission strengthened its position, while its converts increased in numbers and advanced in grace and knowledge. The progress made, if not rapid, was at least steady and healthy. The following statistics will in- dicate the rate of increase during the first six years : Members. Probationers. Total. December, 1859, 11 32 43 34 67 82 178 97 186 66 187 92 209 These figures do not tell the whole story of these six years of hard work and oppressive anxiety. The baptism of six converts in those days stirred the hearts of the workers more than the baptism of six hundred does now, and when they began to number their Hindustani brethren and sisters by the hundred, it seemed indeed as if the seed sown by them was springing up, and giving promise of a mighty harvest in the years to come. When the General Conference of 1864 met in Philadel- phia, an earnest memorial was presented from the India Mis- sion, asking for the organization of an Annual Conference in their field. The matter had been discussed with much freedom in the papers, and, although the leaders of that day hesitated to grant what seemed to them a premature request, yet it was felt that something must be done. Up to that time no Annual Conference with full powers had been or- ganized in any foreign country, and the creation of such an ecclesiastical body was looked upon as a future and some- what distant contingency. When brought face to face with the proposal, there seemed a general disposition to shrink from committing so great a responsibility to a small body of missionaries on the other side of the globe, especially in view of the fact that recent converts from heathenism would probably be admitted into the body, and in due time form a 276 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. majority of its membership. After a brief discussion, the petition of the missionaries was granted, but with the im- portant reservation that the Conference should only exercise its functions with the consent of the Bishop presiding. This action created no little stir in the mission-field, and was re- sented by the missionaries with a warmth which astonished their friends at home, and which even at this late day may, in the eyes of many candid persons, seem to have been unreason- able ; but those missionaries were building more wisely than they knew. Subsequent events have clearly shown that the policy which they advocated was the right one. It was God's plan, and in fact the only plan which was at all feasible if the foreign missions of the Church were to prove successful. In each country the Churches should be placed upon such a basis that they can administer their own interests freely, not by a kind of irregular sufferance, but under their own direct authority, and with the same freedom which every Church accords to its members in every part of the world. The creation of this Annual Conference in India, by which each missionary and each native member of the Con- ference was clothed with the same rights and privileges which appertain to every minister of the Church in the United States, was the establishment of a great principle which has proved invaluable to the missionaries in other parts of the w r orld. The misgivings with which the measure was at first viewed, have entirely disappeared. For a few years, it is true, it was felt by most of those in authority that the operations of the Missionary Board in New York were somew T hat hampered by the creation of ecclesiastical bodies, empowered with all the functions of Annual Conferences, in the various mission-fields. This was true enough ; but the objection weighed as nothing when put in the balance against the necessity for a healthy and normal development of Chris- tian Churches among the converts gathered in distant lands. In due time other Annual Conferences were created, while the two Mission Conferences which had previously existed THE FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK. 277 were clothed with the full powers accorded to the organiza- tion in India. The surviving missionaries who bore a part in the controversy of that period do not, perhaps, look back with unraingled satisfaction upon all they said and did ; for in the heat of controversy, missionaries, especially in their more youthful days, will sometimes write unadvisedly with their pen, as well as speak unadvisedly with their lips. Hap- pily, however, the disagreeable features of all such contro- versies are speedily forgotten, and the good results achieved stand out as permanent monuments of whatever measure oi wisdom, piety, and good sense those interested may have possessed. The little Conference organized in India with seventeen members was the first of the great sisterhood of Conferences scattered over the world, all of which are doing a good work, and helping the toilers in their several fields to conserve the invaluable interests which God commits into their hands. Had the appeal for the organization of this Conference failed, and the old policy been perpetuated, be- yond a doubt the work in India would have been seriously retarded, and never would have attained anything like the colossal proportions which it seems destined to assume be- fore many years shall have passed. Bishop Thomson, soon after his election to the episcopal office, visited India and China; and on his way eastward or- ganized at Lucknow, on December 6, 1864, the India Annual Conference. He was admirably adapted for the difficult and delicate work assigned him, and perhaps more than any other Bishop who has ever since visited India, laid the foundation of the ecclesiastical structure which has since been steadily rising in larger and better defined proportions. By the earnest advice of Bishop Thomson, the missionaries voted to enlarge their field, as mentioned in another chapter, by plant- ing a mission in the province of Garhwal, another at Gonda in Eastern Oudh, and a third at Roy Bareilly in Southern Oudh. By this action, the field first chosen by Dr. Butler was extended so as to include the whole of Oudh, and also 278 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. the additional district of Garhvval. At this point the open- ing era of the Methodist Episcopal mission in India reaches a fitting close. Upon the organization of the new mission into an An- nual Conference, Dr. Butler felt that the special work for which he had been called to India was accomplished, and ac- cordingly resigned his position and returned to America. Both labors and honors awaited him there. He filled im- portant positions for several years, and was then sent to Mexico to repeat the work which he had done in India; and after seeing a mission planted, and an Annual Conference or- ganized in that country, he again returned to his New Eng- land home, where he still lives in quiet retirement, enjoying the love and esteem of the Church in full and rich measure. He has won a prominent place among the most illustrious Methodist leaders of his generation ; and long after he shall have rested from his labors, his works will follow him in abundant measure on both sides of the globe. XX. THE SECOND STAGE OF PROGRESS. AT the beginning of 1865 the missionaries found them- selves more fully equipped for their great task than they had previously been, and entered upon their work with new hope, and with all the ardor and enthusiasm of youthful mis- sionaries. They were all still comparatively young. They had spent just long enough time on the field to make them appreciate their responsibilities, as well as their opportunities, and had achieved sufficient success to inspire them with new confidence for the future. The organization of their An- nual Conference as an ecclesiastical body had very naturally made them realize somewhat vividly the momentous charac- ter of the work which they were undertaking. The enlarge- ment of the field, also, by the addition of three new stations, each representing a large tract of country and a very large mass of humanity, inspired them anew with that constantly expanding feeling of Christian love for a perishing world which is borrowed by personal contact with Him who died for mankind, and which should always prove the great mo- tive power in the missionary enterprise. Every Christian, if at all alive to his responsibilities, and in sympathy with his Master, will feel constrained by the love of Christ ; but the missionary, above all men, should feel that this love is wide enough and deep enough to embrace whole tribes and kindreds and nations, and, if need be, worlds. Among the three new stations occupied at that time, one namely, Paori was situated among the lower Hima- layas, eight days' journey from Naini Tal, and four days' journey from the point where the nearest road from the 279 280 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. plains reached the foot of the mountains. The station itself was about a mile from the residence and court of the En- glish magistrate in charge of the province of Garhwal ; but this official, being obliged to travel from place to place, was not often found in his own home. Garhwal was formerly a large mountain district, situated on both sides of the Upper Ganges; but early in the present century, when it was taken from the Nepalese, the part lying east of the Ganges was ap- propriated by the Indian Government, while the remainder was set apart as an independent native State, and a Hindu Raja placed upon the throne. In this way the province of Kumaon, with that part of Garhwal retained by the British, was made a compact mountain district, lying between the Ganges and the head-waters of the great River Gogra. In area, Kumaon contains about 7,000 square miles, and Garhwal 5,500. The population of the former is about 600,- 000, and of the latter 400,000. As explained in a previous chapter, this mountain region is immediately south of the great snowy range of the Himalayas, and is composed throughout of high and, in many places, rugged mountains, with occa- sionally a fertile valley of moderate width between them; but more frequently with very narrow valleys, and often with none at all. The first range of the snowy mountains is included within British territory, the water-shed of this region lying for the most part to the north of these snowy peaks. The scenery throughout both of these districts is the grandest to be found in the world. Garhwal excels Kumaon some- what in the possession of the highest and most imposing of these gigantic snowy peaks. I can not do better, in trying to convey to the reader even an imperfect idea of these great mountains, than to quote from Sir John Strachey, who, in his earlier days, spent many years in Kumaon and Garhwal : " The mere fact that the ranges of the Himalayas are often twice as high as those of the Alps, gives no idea of their relative magni- tude. You might almost as reasonably, when the Scotch or Welsh hills are white with snow, compare them with Mont Blanc and Monte THE SECOND STAGE OF PROGRESS. 281 Rosa, as compare anything in the Alps with Nanda Devi and Trisul. If, preserving the form of its great obelisk, you could pile the Matter- horn on the Jungfrau, you would not reach the highest summits of the highest Himalaya, and would have a mountain less wonderful than the astonishing peak of Dunagiri. "Among earthly spectacles I can not conceive it possible that any can surpass the Himalaya, as I have often seen it at sunset, on an evening in October, from the ranges thirty or forty miles from the great peaks. One such view in particular that from Binsar in Ku- maon stands out vividly in my remembrance. This mountain is 8,000 feet high, covered with oak and rhododendron. Towards the north you look down over pine-clad slopes into a deep valley, where, 6,000 feet below, the Sarju runs through a tropical forest. Beyond the river it seems to the eye as if the peaks of perpetual snow rose straight up, and almost close to you, into the sky. From the bottom of the valley to the top of Nanda Devi you see at a glance almost 24,000 feet of mountain. The stupendous golden or rose-colored masses and pinnacles of the snowy range extend before you in un- broken succession for more than 250 miles, filling up a third part of the visible horizon, while on all other sides, as far as the eye can reach, stretch away the red and purple ranges of the lower mountains. 'In a hundred ages of the gods,' writes one of the old Sanskrit poets, ' I could not tell you of the glories of Himachal.' " It is true that the great peaks ot Mount Everest and Kinchinjunga lie far to the southeast of this region; but, apart from a few of those notable peaks, the scenery of the Eastern Himalaya is not equal to that of Kumaon and Garhwal. Lying for the most part in the latter province, is a section of mountain landscape about thirty miles square, within which no less than thirty-three peaks are found rising to a height of more than 20,000 feet, while four of the num- ber rise above 23,000 feet above the level of the sea. The reader in America can never comprehend what these figures mean, and even when brought face to face with this stupen- dous spectacle, the observer can hardly realize that the stain- less mountains before him are actually from three and a half to four miles high. The people inhabiting the Lower Himalaya, among whom 282 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. our missionary work is carried on, are quite distinct from those of the plains. Their origin is somewhat obscure, al- though it is generally accepted that they belong to what is called the Khasia race, which is represented in other parts of India, in the plains as well as the hills. They are of some- what fairer complexion than the people living on the plains below them, shorter of stature, and are usually supposed to be less advanced in civilization. This remark, however, hardly does them justice. They live in better houses than any others I have seen in India. In some parts of the Ap- ennines I have seen Italian villagers who did not appear in any respect to be more advanced in civilization than many of the villagers of Kumaon and Garhwal. The houses are built of stone, and very often are two stories high. The people do not enjoy many of the luxuries of life, and yet there are fewer evidences of poverty than can be found in any other part of India. I am at present among the Kumaon hills, and never go out without seeing the mountain-sides half covered in places with a species of hawthorn, which at present is laden with ripe, red berries. The hillmen now and then stop to eat them, but seem to care little for them. Were these ripe berries placed within the reach of any vil- lage in any other part of India, the poorer classes would turn out and devour them with the utmost eagerness. In school the hill boys, in most of their studies, make about as good progress as their rivals on the plains, while in arithmetic and other mathematical studies they excel them. Slavery existed among the people until the advent of British power, and, in some forms, survived till a later period, although the bond- men could have found their liberty if they had attempted to gain it. In their extreme ignorance many were long in com- prehending that they could be free. The slavery in which the lower castes were held was more like Russian serfdom than the Southern slavery with w r hich Americans used to be familiar. Girls were sold freely ; but when it became known that the price paid for them could not be recovered in case THE SECOND STAGE OF PROGRESS. 283 they left their first owner, even if he stood to them in the nominal relation of husband, this kind of traffic in a large measure ceased. Nominally all the people of these hill-tracts are Hindus; but large numbers of them, especially of the lower castes, are in reality worshipers of demons, or of local deities not recognized in the Hindu pantheon. Two of the great shrines of Hinduism are located in Garhwal, close up to the line of perpetual snow. One of them is under the shadow of the mountain Kedarnath, and the other one near the better known peak of Badrinath, the former being devoted to the worship of Shiva, and the latter to that of Vishnu. Pilgrims come from all parts of the empire to these shrines, and the never-ceasing procession of these devout but mis- taken people may be seen every summer passing along the narrow roads which have been made for them on the banks of the Upper Ganges, or over the mountains near the sources of that stream. Mission-work was commenced in Garhwal in 1865, and since that day has made fairly good progress in both prov- inces. Additional stations have been opened at Pithoragarh in Eastern Kumaon, and Dwara Hat, near the center of the province. Out-stations under native helpers have also been opened in Garhwal. Another of the new stations occupied at this time was Gonda, east of the river Gogra. This river, which is but little known outside of India, and indeed scarcely known in all parts of India itself, is a larger stream than the Ganges, and one of the greatest of Indian rivers. It stands related to the Ganges very much as the Missouri does to the Mis- sissippi. The religious reverence in which the Ganges was early held gave it a prominence which it has retained to the present day, and hence the stream which reaches the sea, is known as the Ganges all the way down ; but as a matter of fact the Gogra, which flows to the eastward, is nearly twice as large as the Ganges at the place where the two streams respectively leave the mountains, and retains its superiority 284 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. until they meet. The smaller, however, is allowed to swal- low up the name and fame of the larger, and hence the Gogra is comparatively unknown. Between this river Gogra and another large stream called the Rapti, still farther eastward, is a rich and populous territory in the midst of which the little town of Gonda, the head-quarters of the Government officials of a district bearing the same name, was selected as the site of a new mission. It was not in- tended, however, that this one station should confine its operations to this single district; and when the Rev. S. Knowles, the first missionary sent there, took up his abode and began his work among the people, he was really the pioneer of all missionary work throughout a populous region equal to three or four American States. Mi. Knowles, who is still found working successfully at Gonda, has not spent all the intervening years in that terri- tory ; but, after having been removed to various places, he drifted back again to his original work, and has always seemed the man best adapted to the peculiar opportunities found in that region. It was in that part of the country that the founder of Buddhism was born, and the great shrine of Ajyudhiya is only about thirty miles from the mission-station of Gonda. Here are annually held some of the greatest melas, or religious fairs, to be found in the empire, and the opportunities for reaching the people, not only from all the surrounding country, but from all manner of distant places, is as good as could be desired. It was in this region, under the preaching of Mr. Knowles and his Hindustani associates, that were witnessed the first baptisms of converts in the most public manner at the great melas, and in the open streets of towns and villages. This was something new in the history of missionary work every- where in India. Previously people of all castes and classes had shrunk from baptism, as well as from an open adherence to the Christian religion, as from leprosy or death ; and when it was stated that men of various castes had come forward in THE SECOND STAGE OF PROGRESS. 285 the most public manner, apparently moved by deep and earnest religious conviction, and avowed their faith in Christ and received baptism, an intense interest was manifested in many missionary circles to know what was the true char- acter of this work, and wheretmto it was likely to grow. Mr. Knowles has since become prominently identified with this movement, and has year after year baptized converts immediately on their coming forward in this public way, and avowing their faith in Christ, and accepting the obligations of Christians. The movement has been criticised very se- verely, and, no doubt, in some cases justly ; but it must be borne in mind that in this, as in every other new procedure, much had to be learned by actual experience. The chief difficulty with this kind of work has been that the converts, for the most part, live in distant villages, and seldom chance to live together in any considerable number. Returning to their homes they are immediately confronted by hostile neighbors, and large numbers of them have been found un- able to endure the pressure to which they are constantly sub- jected. In other cases Hindustani preachers have admin- istered baptism unwisely, and I fear in some instances in a manner deserving of immediate and severe repression. Vil- lagers, again, who in large numbers had been baptized, with ap- parently every mark of sincerity on their part, have been fright- ened by crafty devotees, of whom they have always lived in great awe, into a denial of their faith, and thus in various ways a great deal of public discredit has been thrown upon this work. Conceding, however, the worst that can be alleged against it, the fact remains that some very precious fruit has in this way been gathered, while many of the failures are so clearly traceable to causes which might have been avoided, that it seems to be the part of wisdom not rashly to reject the whole movement as ill-advised, but rather to see the hand of God in it, and learn the lessons which it clearly teaches. Beyond a doubt these baptisms have marked an advance in the general work in which we are engaged in 286 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. India. The people generally are becoming familiarized with baptism, and in the future it seems certain that, when all due precautions are taken and all wise measures adopted in deal- ing with the converts, this kind of work will prove as pro- ductive as its most sanguine friends believed and hoped for when it was first commenced. The third station occupied was that of Roy Bareilly, which represented a vast region in Southern Oudh. This station was first occupied by the Rev. P. T. Wilson, M. D., who entered upon the work with his accustomed zeal ; but after a very few years was compelled by ill-health to seek a change to the mountains, and from there was compelled to go to America. He has since been very successful as a worker in Rohilkhand, but, unlike Mr. Knowles, has never been able to return to his original station. Our progress in this section has been less marked than in any other part of the original field occupied by us. A few valuable workers, however, have been obtained among the converts, and in due time, no doubt, God will make this field as fruitful as any other which we occupy. For a number of years the work throughout the whole field went steadily forward, and the missionaries continued to feel the impulse which had been given them by the better organization which the Annual Conference afforded. Changes gradually began to appear, both in the manner of work and in the progressive organization of the workers and churches. Instead of confining their public preaching almost exclu- fsively to the noisy bazaars, the missionaries and Hindustani preachers began to find their way into more quiet places. In all the cities, as well as in the country villages,. the people are often found settled in small groups, like so many sep- arate quarters of a town. A group, for instance, of two or three dozen houses will be found on the outskirts of the town, inhabited exclusively by Chumars, or leather-dressers; another by Chuhras, a very low caste of laborers, and so on. Going into one of these quarters, called in India mohullas a THE SECOND STAGE OF PROGRESS. 287 word which among missionaries is slowly being Anglicized the workers began to hold meetings in a more formal way than was possible in the bazaars. They would sometimes sing for half an hour while the people came together, when one or more of the brethren would preach, and this would some- times be followed by a prayer-meeting. This kind of preach- ing was in every way more satisfactory than the work in the bazaar had been, and much more fruit was gathered from such meetings than it had previously been possible to secure in any part of the work. No kind of Christian work in any land could be more delightful than some of these evening meetings proved to the missionaries. In a quiet moonlight night a large audience would sometimes be gathered under a tree, or perhaps under the open sky, with most of the audi- tors squatted on the ground or leaning against the mud walls which shut in the little village street. The little group of Christian workers sometimes tarried literally for hours, singing, praying, talking, preaching, arid frequently producing a deep and lasting impression upon the minds of those present. With the development of this new kind of work a val- uable discovery was made with regard to the social organ- ization of the people. I say discovery, for, although the facts in the case had been well known from the first, only expe- rience could have taught the missionaries the importance of following the peculiar lines which the caste system of the country had marked out among the people. On the side of a hill the reader may have sometimes seen the different strata of coal, limestone, potter's clay, iron, or other minerals, lying horizontally in regular order, one above another. The miner understands his work well enough to follow each stratum, or " vein," as he would say, along its own level, without regard to the layers above or below ; and hence, at one point in the hill an opening leads to galleries from which large quantities of iron ore have been extracted ; another opens a way for taking out coal; a third, potter's clay; and so on. In India 288 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. society is stratified in the most elaborate manner by the sys- tem of Hindu caste. A thousand people may live in the same village, in which all the houses are huddled as closely together as they can be built, and yet the inmates of these houses are separated by dividing lines so distinctly marked that in no possible case will any confusion ever occur in dis- tinguishing one from the others. Some interests of the whole village are held in common ; but in other respects a move- ment may be in progress in one caste without affecting the other castes at all. When a straggling convert was picked up here and there, no place could be found for him in such a community. He was alike disowned by all, and became an ob- ject of aversion, if not of fear, wherever he went. When, however, the meetings spoken of above began to result in the conversion of one or more families in a given caste, it nat- urally produced a great agitation in the caste concerned, and sometimes the excitement would spread throughout the whole village ; but quite as frequently the other people paid little attention to what was going on, especially if the converts be- longed to a low and despised part of the community. This, however, quickly led to the discovery that much greater progress could be made by following family and caste lines than by the more general effort to reach a whole community ; and the progress which has been since achieved has nearly all followed from this recognition of a very simple fact in Indian social life. When one family is converted, it is always found that six, or perhaps a dozen, other families are related by marriage or otherwise to the new converts. These relatives invariably belong to the same caste as the converts, as inter- marriage with other castes is not permitted ; and when they, in turn, are brought under Christian influence and converted, each family opens the way to as many more, and thus the circle of Christian influence widens rapidly. In this way, following family lines, a steady advance from family to family has led our workers in some instances for fifty miles across the country, with the result of establishing a line THE SECOND STAGE OF PROGRESS. 289 of what might be called Christian settlements, or at least Christian families in a large number of Hindu villages. With the increase of converts, there was also a steady increase of workers. A large proportion of the converts were em- ployed either as teachers in schools, or preachers, or colpor- teurs, and every possible attempt was made to improve the character of these workers, not only by giving them the most careful Christian culture, but by teaching them in the ordi- nary branches of education. As time passed, it was found, somewhat to the surprise of the missionaries, that men of very slight culture could be made very useful. In fact, it was discovered in India, as it had been in England and America generations before, that it was possible to educate a man so as to separate him from his fellow-men rather than bring him nearer to them. In Christian work, only those men can be permanently successful who keep in constant touch with the community which is to be reached ; and from that early day in our work in India, up to the present hour, it has been found that those who bring forward the most converts for baptism are simple, and sometimes almost illiterate, men. As these workers of various grades increased in number, it was found that another step would have to be taken to per- fect the organization of the mission. The Annual Conference served a good purpose; but only three native preachers were admitted to its membership as probationers at the first organ- ization, and comparatively few were found suited for its re- sponsibilities in later years. For the rank and file of the native preachers and other helpers, it was found necessary to devise some other scheme. For two or three years, district associations were held, each having a simple constitution, and following the pattern of similar associations as they existed in the United States at that time ; but this plan did not suffice, and after a few years a formal organization of what has since been called a District Conference was effected. A somewhat elaborate constitution was drawn up, and, with such changes as have been suggested by the progess of the work since, 19 290 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. remains in force to the present day. This was before the Dis- trict Conference was authorized by the Church at home ; and it is not generally known that the plan adopted by the Gen- eral Conference, and which has its place in the Discipline of the Church to-day, was in a large measure borrowed from the little organization first effected in India. An outline of the Indian plan was published in a home paper, and was appro- priated freely by those who devised the scheme for the Dis- trict Conference which afterwards received the sanction of the General Conference. Six years had passed, and the missionaries began to realize, as they had not at first done, the magnitude of the task which they had undertaken. New phases of the work were con- stantly developing, the most important of which was the care of the female converts, who were annually coming into the Church in increasing numbers. It was found impossible to give the Christian women especially those gathered imme- diately from heathenism the amount of careful attention which they needed, while all the pastoral care and nearly all the education devolved upon men. The necessity for a woman's department of the work began to be felt; and at the end of this second term of six years the first two lady mission- aries sent out by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society arrived upon the field. The first appointee of the Society was Miss Isabella Thoburn, and the second, Miss Clara Swain, M. D., who was the first medical lady ever sent as a mission- ary into any non-Christian country. Both of these workers 'are still in the field, although Dr. Swain has for some years been working independently of the Society, but still retain- ing her connection with the Church, and doing a good work in a very remote and needy field. At this point we reach the termination of what may be considered the second stage of progress in our work. Chapter XXI. CROSSING THE INDIAN RUBICON. FOR a year or two prior to 1870, a conviction began to be entertained by a number of our missionaries, that it would be impossible for us to confine our efforts permanently to the comparatively small field which had first been chosen for us. The new railways had been pushed up into North India, and were being spread like a network all over the empire. All along these lines of rail, at distances of one hundred or one hundred and fifty miles, stations had been opened, where ten, twenty, fifty, or sometimes one hundred families of English-speaking people were settled. The con- ditions of life and labor were constantly changing. New activities were being introduced in every direction. The newspapers of the day began more and more to speak of all public interests as common to the whole empire, and it was impossible for men who were beginning to discover, in some cases to their own surprise, that they had become attached to India and were making it their own country, deliberately to reconcile themselves to the thought of living behind a Chinese wall, which must forever shut them out from the rest of the magnificent empire to which God had brought them. While viewing the matter in this general way, some of the workers also began to feel a deep conviction that God had special work for them beyond the Ganges; that He whose providence had brought the representatives of so many churches to India, had probably purposes of his own which transcended the plans formed by man's wisdom ; and while the Christian worth of every other worker and every other society was fully recognized, it was thought that possibly 291 292 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. there were kinds of work to be done, which, as in England and America, could be accomplished better by us than by others. This question became a subject of frequent discussion up to the year 1870, by which time a number had become con- vinced that we could not much longer confine ourselves to our then existing bounds. It was not easy, however, to make a move forward. The belief in the rules of what was popularly known as mission- ary courtesy was almost universal. The Ganges separated us on the west from our Presbyterian brethren, with whom we had always maintained the most fraternal relations, as we do to the present day. If we crossed the stream, it might seem as if we were trespassing upon territory which they had set apart for themselves ; and this would be viewed as a tres- pass, not only by them, but by missionaries generally in other parts of the country. Hence we hesitated long, and knew not when or how God in his providence would bid us go forward. In the hot season of 1 870 I was living in Lucknow, and it so chanced that on a certain Sunday I was left with nothing to do. The preaching appointments had been ar- ranged by others, and for the first time in years I found myself with a prospect of an idle Sunday before me. On Saturday I had an errand at the railway station, and while standing on the platform I was accosted by a gentleman of the city with an open telegram in his hand, who asked me if I knew any one who could go to Cawupore the following day, and preach for a small congregation there. I told him that I knew no one excepting myself, and that as I chanced - to be disengaged I should be happy to go. An arrangement was immediately made, and a telegram sent to the parties in Cawnpore, notifying them that I would come over in the evening. Cawnpore, however, was on the western side of the Ganges, a little less than fifty miles from Lucknow, and was thus beyond the limits of our field. I accordingly went, and was cordially received by a Baptist brother, who explained CROSSING THE INDIAN RUBICON. 293 that they had rented a small building in which union serv- ices were held, and that they had secured preachers for two Sundays of every month. He urged me to help them out by providing for one, if not both, of the remaining Sun- days. I preached on Sabbath morning and evening to a small but interesting congregation, and was received so kindly, and importuned so strongly to return, and especially to help them to effect a permanent arrangement, that, after prayerful consideration, I promised to see that the remaining two Sundays were filled. Very shortly after this the Bap- tist missionary, who had been going once a month to the place, wrote me relinquishing his part of the work, and sug- gesting that it could be more easily filled by myself. This practically left the responsibility of the service resting upon me, and I thus found myself on the western side of the Ganges, outside our Chinese wall, with a work which had come into my hands in such a way that I could not doubt that God was leading me in what I had done. But while it is easy enough to write these few lines, the decision which I was obliged to make at the time caused me an amount of anxiety which it is not easy now to realize. Crossing the Ganges was to me indeed the crossing of a Rubicon. I knew beyond a doubt that if we planted ourselves in Cawnpore, we could not stop there. If we crossed the Ganges at all, the same guiding hand which led us to the first city on its west- ern bank might assuredly be expected to lead us on to other cities. Once beyond the barrier, there could be no second boundary-line drawn. When we met in our Annual Conference at the close of the year, the whole bearing of this movement was carefully and prayerfully discussed ; but even then very few of those present were able to realize whereunto this would grow. It seemed impossible, in that day of small things, that we should be able to do much except on our own immediate border. Cawnpore, however, was a large and growing city, and was then, as it still is, commercially the most important inland 294 INDIA AND MALAYSIA, city of the empire. While some doubt of the wisdom of going farther than that one point was entertained, the opin- ion was almost unanimous that we were perfectly justifiable in taking up a work which had thus been so unexpectedly thrust upon us. This work was among Europeans, it is true ; but it was recognized then, as it has been ever since, that it is impossible to maintain a living Christian church among Europeans in a country like India, without at the same time doing something at least for the teeming masses of Hindus and Mohammedans among whom the Europeans live. We were practically committed to missionary work on the western side of the Ganges. We might tarry at this one point a year or ten years ; but unless we ceased to be active evangelists, we could not be expected to tarry there per- manently. Just at this crisis appeared in our midst the renowned William Taylor, at that time known as " California Taylor." He had come to us from Australia, after, however, receiving earnest invitations, not only from myself, but from the Rev. James Smith, a Baptist brother of Delhi. His purpose in coming to India had been to spend a season merely as an evangelist among the Wesleyan missions in the South, and our own missions in North India. He tarried for some time in Ceylon, waiting till arrangements could be made for him by the Wesleyan brethren in Madras ; but not finding an immediate opening in that direction, in response to repeated and urgent telegrams from myself, he went up the western coast to Bombay, and thence proceeded to Lucknow, where he began his work. The coming of this world-renowned evangelist marks an era in our progress. Our thought in inviting him, and his thought in coming, were simply that he might kindle a new flame among us, and set in motion an evangelistic work which should go forward among the masses of the people. We thought he might do this in the course of a few months, in the same way in which he had done so great a work in CROSSING THE INDIAN RUBICON. 295 South Africa. But God's thoughts were not as our thoughts, and his plans differed from ours very widely indeed. The evangelist met with his usual success when preaching among the Europeans in Lucknow, and, after a short stay, went over to Cawnpore, where our little congregation had in- creased till the room was filled to its utmost capacity, and repeated his good work there. He then devoted himself to the natives of Lucknow, and subsequently went among the native Christians of Rohilkhand. Wherever he went good was effected; but upon the whole, his work among the Hindustani people was a disappointment both to himself and us. The success which had been achieved in South Africa failed to appear in India. With our riper experience we can understand this now ; but missionaries, like other people, have many lessons to learn, which can only be mastered in the school of experience. God's plan for his servant was not our plan. The evangelist spent the rainy season of 1871 in Naini Tal, and then, after a short tour in North India, proceeded to Bombay, where the peculiar work, which for some years bore his name, began. Bishop Taylor in those days was physically, mentally, and spiritually, in his best prime. His erect form, unusual stature, patriarchal beard, kindly but piercing eye, gave him an appearance which would arrest attention anywhere, but which was peculiarly impressive to an Oriental people. His sermons were often, and indeed for the most part, rambling, and much more didactic than hortatory. He soon learned to depend upon quiet work, with small audiences, or often but a single family, to labor with, rather than to move heaven and earth by trying all manner of expedients to get a large crowd. The result was, that he gained an extraordinary in- fluence over his converts. He knew them intimately, he had labored with them personally, had seen them almost constantly in their homes, bowed with them at their family altars, and acquainted himself with all their domestic troubles and anxieties. He won many friends in Bombay, most of 296 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. whom were Europeans or Eurasians, and in a short time organ- ized them into a Methodist Episcopal Church. His organiza- tion was exceedingly thorough, and the most permanent fruits of his four years' labor in India are still found in that city. From Bombay he proceeded to Poona, and repeated his work there. In the meantime one of his converts had BISHOP WILLIAM TAYLOR. commenced holding meetings in Secuuderabad, a military station adjoining Hyderabad, the capital of the Nizam's territories. This work also became permanent, and was or- ganized in connection with our Church. The following year the evangelist proceeded to Calcutta, where he remained thirteen months. His success in this city was not equal to that achieved in Western India, and he frequently remarked CROSSING THE INDIAN RUBICON. 297 that it was the hardest field he had ever tried to cultivate. He succeeded, however, in laying a foundation upon which a successful work has since been built. Going thence to Madras, he achieved his greatest success in India, so far as the number of converts was concerned; but as he only tarried among them for a few weeks, the organization was not per- fected as it had been in Bombay, and the results proved very much less permanent. From Madras he proceeded to Bangalore, where his success was equally marked; after which he revisited some of his old scenes of labor, and then left India. He had not accomplished what he had hoped, and yet he had, during his four years' stay, made an impression, not only upon our own work, but upon India at large, which is felt to the present day, and will continue to be felt for many years to come. The organization of these widely separated churches in the leading cities of India excited attention in both India and America, and created no little controversy as to the final outcome of the movement. From the first the evan- gelist disavowed all intention of founding an independent Church ; and when Bishop Harris visited India in December and January, 1873-4, with the cordial approval of Bishop Taylor, he organized his scattered churches into what was ecclesiastically called a mission, which was formally recog- nized by the General Committee at its regular meeting in New York. The work, however, continued to spread, and other churches were organized, until the session of the General Conference of 1876, which authorized the organiza- tion of a second Annual Conference in India. In the absence of a better name, inasmuch as the first Conference was located in North India, the title of South India was given to the new organization a title which for many years seriously misled the public mind in America. Even to the present day, some of the stations of the Conference which bears the original name are among the most northern of the empire. 298 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. By the organization of this Conference we were formally and legally authorized to look upon all India as our field of labor. In a way which no human mind would have antici- pated, we had been led on from one point to another, until now we found our missionaries working in the three great cities which had formerly been known as the capitals of the three presidencies into which India had been divided. "We had men stationed also at one or more points in nearly all the great provinces, and every one gifted with ordinary fore- sight was even then able to foresee that it would be im- possible for us to tarry permanently in these cities which we had occupied. In the very nature of the case, if our de- tached churches lived and prospered, they must take up missionary work among the people; and if they did this, it could not but happen that we would in time find ourselves confronted with responsibilities, compared with which all which had gone before would seem almost like child's play. But few persons, it is true, seemed to realize this at that early day, and in America for many years it was impossible to get any one seriously to consider the probability of a great Methodist Church, embracing the whole of the vast region known as India, ever becoming a practical reality. The work, however, continued to go forward. In 1879 a church was organized, and a mission planted in the city of Eangoon, 750 miles southeast of Calcutta, and we were thus committed to bear a share in the great work of evangelizing Burma. A foot-hold had also been secured at Lahore, the capital of the Panjab. The city of Karachi, at the mouth of the river Indus, had been entered long before. The work had also taken root at Nagpore and Jabalpur, in the Central Provinces of India, and at Ajmere, in Rajputana, or, as it is more generally represented on the maps, in Central India. In other smaller places, east, north, west, and south, our people have since been steadily pushing on their way, as God in his providence has led them. With this steady advance in so many different directions, CROSSING THE INDIAN RUBICON. 299 a new anxiety began to be felt, especially by those who were intrusted with the responsibility of leading in India. An- nual Conferences in such a country can not exist as they do in America. The country is so immensely large, the inter- ests so varied, the experience of the workers so different in many important respects, that it was felt that some bond was needed to hold together the scattered workers with their several organizations. The great work must be unified, and, if possible, so directed that it could be everywhere wisely conserved. Hence, in 1880, after much correspondence and careful discussion, a memorial was sent to the General Con- ference, asking for the authorization of a central body, em- powered to deal with such questions as might be common to our churches and missions in India. On the face of it the proposal looked very much like asking for an Indian Gen- eral Conference, and we can now clearly see that such a pro- posal was well calculated to excite alarm. The memorial, however, was received with much favor by many influential men, but never came before the General Conference in such a shape as to be put to the test of a vote. Four years later, however, a new measure, differing very slightly from the orig- inal one, and containing nearly every provision which the mis- sionaries had asked for, passed the General Conference with but slight opposition. A general supervising body, called a Central Conference, was authorized, and the following year formally organized by Bishop Hurst. The creation of this Central Conference marked the beginning of another era in our work. It has proved invaluable to us in the years that have since passed, and has justified the wisdom, not only of its first projectors, but of those who assisted in securing for it favorable action from the General Conference. The advance movement which led to the extension of our work into the most remote parts of the empire was at first confined exclusively to English-speaking people; that is, either Europeans, directly from Europe, or the children of Europeans and Eurasians, with a slight sprinkling of 300 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Indians who had become familiar with the English lan- guage. Very great hopes were entertained at the outset that these people, especially those who had been born in India and had more or less familiarity with the Indian lan- guages, would prove invaluable in opening doors of access to the great native communities among whom they had prov- identially been placed. As in the first century, when Barna- bas and Saul began their great work, it was found that the scattered colonies of Jews, at that time found in every con- siderable city and town in the Roman Empire, were always conveniently present to introduce the strangers, and, even though hostile to them, served as so many doors of access to the Gentiles; so it seemed in India that God had scattered abroad all over the vast empire, along the railway-lines and in the chief cities, little colonies of 4 Europeans or of persons who had adopted European habits, and both used the En- glish tongue and professed the Christian religion. These little settlements, it was hoped, would prove like so many starting-points for a new r missionary movement; and in many places those who were gathered into the little Churches formed in that day were at once initiated into some form of missionary work. It must be confessed, however, that the hopes at first entertained in this direction have not been realized. What might have been done under better manage- ment, it is difficult to tell. As it was, the efforts made were somewhat desultory, and, for the most part, no proper direc- tion was given to the work. Of all those who composed the South India Conference at the time of its organization, only two can fairly be said to have had actual experience in mis- sionary work. For the most part, each missionary was left to work for himself, and it ought not to surprise us that in many cases in nearly every case such isolated laborers failed to learn an Indian tongue, or to engage in labor among the Hindus and Mohammedans, while at the same time ful- filling the somewhat arduous duties of English pastors. Bishop Andrews visited India during the cold season of CROSSING THE INDIAN RUBICON. 301 1876-7, and a few days after his arrival at Bombay he for- mally organized the South India Conference,as he had been em- powered to do by the General Conference held in May preced- ing. This body at first was composed of twenty-one members and probationers. Its members were full of zeal and hope, and both in India and in the United States many watched the progress of the new Conference with prayerful interest, and were inclined to hope that the outcome would affect most favorably our missionary interests in the country. The re- sult, however, while not by any means wholly unsatisfactory, has not met the sanguine expectations which were cherished at the outset. The general value of this work, and the bear- ing of some of its peculiar features upon our general mis- sionary work, will be discussed in one or more succeeding chapters; but for the present suffice it to say that the greatest result, and probably the providential purpose which God had specially in view at the outset, was that of fully and finally committing us to the great work of doing a full share of the evangelization of all parts of the great Indian Empire. Whatever other result was not attained, this much was cer- tainly done. When a Central Conference had been organized, with Annual Conferences possessing, in some respects, inter- ests subordinate to this central body, and when converts be- gan to be enrolled, although but few in number, in Bengal, South and West India, Central India, and the Panjab, it was felt not only that we had been wonderfully led from place to place, but that God had laid upon us a responsibility from which, in the future, there could be no further shrinking. Every one seemed able to read the common duty, written as it clearly was by the Spirit and providence of God, in charac- ters which no longer could be mistaken. All India became our field. We were not to antagonize any one, not to oc- cupy in any place the position of rivals, not to waste time or labor in trying merely to maintain a given position among our brother missionaries, but in the fear of God to take up that part of the work which, in his providence, might fall to 302 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. us, and make full proof of our ministry in every nook and corner of the empire to which he might send us. We had indeed crossed our Rubicon. We were at last able fully to realize how much had been involved in the apparently inci- dental acceptance of an appointment to preach on a certain Sunday in the city of Cawnpore. One step had led to another, and each door, as it opened its portals before us, only dis- closed another in advance, which must open in like manner; but even then we did not know that God intended to lead us to regions still further on. Nor is it probable that even now we understand, even in a slight degree, the stupendous proportions of the task which God, in his own vision, sees looming up before us. We can only stand with our loins girded about, ready to move forward as we are summoned from on high, and meet our responsibilities as God himself lays them upon us. Chapter XXII. HIDDEN RESOURCES. IN most non-Christian lands the missionary is wholly de- pendent upon the society which sends him forth. Under ordinary circumstances it would be too much to expect any people professing a non-Christian faith, to contribute to the support of men and women who avowedly come among them to overturn their religious institutions, and undermine their ancestral faith. Every Christian missionary who understands the true dignity of his calling, feels instinctively that com- mon honesty demands of him an open avowal of his purpose in taking up his abode among a strange people. He may use ordinary prudence, it is true, as to the time and place of making his avowal ; but if he attempts to conceal his pur- pose at the outset, it is sure to lead to trouble in after days. He must answer all questions with transparent honesty, and those who know him must understand from the beginning that he comes as a messenger of the living God, summoning all persons, without respect to age, sex, or condition, to re- ceive the message which he brings, and yield their hearts to the King of all nations and the Father of all men. It has sometimes happened that a missionary thus avowing his pur- pose has been received kindly, and assisted to a greater or less extent by the people whom he wishes to convert; but such instances must, in the nature of the case, always be ex- ceptional. The various missionary societies which send forth their workers, accept it as an invariable fact that they must provide for those who go forth in their name. India, how- ever, forms in some respects an exception to the general rule. As mentioned in a previous chapter, little colonies of Euro- 303 304 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. peans and Eurasians are found in all parts of the empire, and as these people invariably profess the Christian religion, a small measure of support at least may justly be expected from them in aid of the missionary enterprise, which in many cases they see carried on before their eyes. In the larger cities, and sometimes in the smaller stations where a few Christian officials may chance to have been grouped together, very material aid has been given to missionary work from the first ; but nevertheless, taking the empire as a whole, the rule has been that the work can only advance in proportion to the amount of assistance sent from Christian lands. In our own case, when we had crossed our Rubicon, as noted in the previous chapter, we were confronted with op- portunities which seemed tempting enough ; but the time was not opportune for expecting any material support of an advance movement from our friends in America. The pros- perous years which followed the close of the Civil War were drawing to a close, and indications of great stringency were appearing on the financial horizon. Moreover, it had been accepted from the first by the Missionary Board that money sent to India could not justly be used for any purpose except in more or less directly trying to secure the conver- sion of the non-Christian people. Indeed, we had been at times peremptorily notified that no money should be used in what was called English work. This rule was applied more rigidly than wisely. Had the same rule been applied in many parts of the United States, it would have made a differ- ence of $100,000 in the appropriations to the home-field. Nevertheless, no one in India felt like finding fault with the policy which had been laid down, and hence it did not occur to any one to ask for money in aid of an advance move- ment among people who even nominally professed the Chris- tian religion. By the time, however, that we were ready to advance, all possibility of changing the policy, at least for many years, had vanished. The great financial panic, which had been anticipated for a year or two, had at last burst upon HIDDEN RESOURCES. 305 the country. The Missionary Society found itself over- whelmed with an enormous debt, and most seriously em- barrassed in its efforts to maintain the work to which it was already pledged in foreign fields. It would have been cruel to ask, and most certainly would have been impossible to ob- tain, assistance from missionary funds for such a work as we were then inaugurating among the English-speaking people of India. It seemed to us that we ought to enter the open doors before us, and yet we had not a dollar in the shape of finan- cial resources. What were we to do? It has been assumed too often that at this crisis a new plan was devised, which has been popularly presented before the Church under the very equivocal name of self-support ; but as a matter of fact we devised nothing new whatever. We simply fell back upon the old plan which had been adopted by Francis Asbury and his associates before we were born. It was primitive Methodism applied to an emergency to which it was found to be admirably adapted. The missionary who went to a people speaking English and professing the Christian re- ligion, proceeded precisely as hundreds of Methodist preach- ers had done in earlier days all over the Western States. If I may refer to myself as an example, I entered this work in 1874, but in doing so preceded upon precisely the same lines which I had been taught to follow when a youth of twenty-one in Ohio. Indeed, so far as any hardship con- nected with the work was concerned, I had learned the secret of self-support in Ohio at a greater personal cost to myself than that which I was called upon to assume in India. When a youth, leaving college, I was asked by a presiding elder to go to a circuit concerning which I knew nothing whatever except its name. I went as a perfect stranger, with an as- sured salary of $100 a year. I found that I was expected to purchase a horse, keep myself decently clothed, provide my- self with books, and live as best I could. One resource upon which I was able to trust without a shadow of mis- 20 306 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. giving was the hospitality of the people. In India we simply fell back upon this old method. A man who can preach successfully enough to win the attendance of the people will find hospitality in any part of the world, and all he has to do is to follow the Saviour's direction and accept hospitality in the spirit in which it is given. Then if he works among a people who are willing to entertain him, he is absolutely sure of winning their hearts for Christ ; and men who have been utterly changed in heart and life are always willing to pluck out their eyes for the man who leads them to the Saviour. This is the New Testament plan of proceeding under ordinary circumstances, where men work in their own country and among their own people; and when we began to apply this rule, as several of us had learned to do in America, we found it perfectly applicable to the English-speaking peo- ple in India. They received us kindly, proffered us a boun- tiful hospitality, and thus relieved us of any financial care. The application of this simple rule in our case amounted to the discovery of hidden resources of inestimable value. We were able to plant our Church in nearly all the great cities of India so quietly that our friends in America would hear nothing of it till the work was done. We were led from one point to another by various indications of the prov- idence of God, some of them very surprising and wonderful in their character, and some of them very simple and ordi- nary ; but in every case we were made to feel that a power above and beyond human wisdom was leading us forward. We also soon began to discover that these hidden resources would be equal to more than the mere support of a certain number of missionaries. Churches and chapels began to rise unexpectedly in the cities occupied, and soon the par- sonage would follow. A year or two later, and schools began to take shape ; and thus it came to pass that a vast net-work of agencies was organized, spread all over the em- pire, steadily gaining in stability, and giving promise of a permanency which could not easily be shaken. Mistakes HIDDEN RESOURCES. 307 were made, of course, but these may be expected wherever human agency is employed ; and although we may naturally look back upon some of these mistakes with regret, we have no right to regard them as in any peculiar sense surprising, or as marking any radical defect in the work itself. Take Calcutta as an illustration of what was done. We entered the city without a dollar in the shape of financial resources. We had not a member in all that great city to receive us. Bishop Taylor, who first began the work there, spent many long months preaching in a chapel which had been kindly placed at his disposal by a Baptist missionary in the suburbs of the city; but his labors were for the most part confined to private houses. We held on, and step by step our work took shape and developed, until now we have the largest place of worship, not only in Calcutta, but in India, and also the largest congregation. We have missions among the natives in three different languages Bengali, Hindustani, and Ooriya each of them represented by an organized church of Christian believers. We have adjoining our church one of the finest school-buildings in the city, which accom- modates one of the best organized and most largely attended girls' boarding-schools in Bengal. We have a boys' school rapidly advancing to a like position, and resources have re- cently been put within our reach which will enable us to erect a similar building for this school. We have a mission press in active operation, a mission to seamen, a Deaconess Home, an organized work among women ; and, in short, we have a powerful missionary agency at work in this city, nearly all of which has been developed from resources which a few years ago were hidden from our view. In more recent years we have been aided by missionary funds from America, but these funds have been sent out to aid in work which had already taken shape, and the amount received has been com- paratively small. It is doubtful if throughout the whole United States any instance can be found of a new work, wholly dependent upon the resources which it can develop, 308 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. which has ever met with more satisfactory progress than this extensive missionary work in the city of Calcutta. As an illustration of the rapid development of this work in Calcutta, I may cite the case of the two churches located in that city. The best success in any kind of Christian work is usually dependent upon the willingness of the workers to begin to build on the most humble foundations. If they wait till somebody else achieves success for them, they will never prove capable of carrying on the work put into their hands ; and if they hesitate until a very wide aud open door is set before them, without any obstruction whatever in the way, they will wait till the end of time before finding one wide enough to suit their notions. Bishop Taylor had worked in the city nearly a year before he succeeded in renting a small plot of open ground in an obscure part of the city, called Zigzag Lane. The name of this lane was exactly descriptive of its tortuous windings, and in all Calcutta it would have been hard to locate a chapel in a place so difficult to find. It was, however, our best alternative at that time. The house, a picture of which is placed as an object-lesson in the frontispiece of this book, was built in the most primi- tive style, bamboos being freely used in its construction. This chapel, or tabernacle, as it was called, soon gave place to a larger chapel, and this again to the present place of wor- ship. One church succeeded another so rapidly that the third and last of the series was finished only three years after the completion of the first building. Very unfortunately, however, at an early period a serious mistake was made in connection with what was called the new policy of self-support. As said above, it was not really new, and should have been accepted as the ordinary Meth- odist policy of the fathers, and applied without any remark to the emergency which confronted us in India. "We should have planted ourselves firmly upon this basis, and maintained that we were attempting nothing new, and hence deserved neither praise nor censure for doing that which we had learned HIDDEN RESOURCES. 309 in the school of our fathers. The success, however, which attended our eiforts led us into the serious mistake of assum- ing that there was merit, or virtue of some kind, in the policy itself, which would make it succeed under all circum- stances wherever and whenever tried. We forgot that there is no inherent power in any policy; and no greater mistake can be made than to assume that policy is another name for power, just as it can never be assumed that a law can en- force itself. Hence, on the one hand, we had the unfortunate spectacle of a party of earnest men, both in India and Amer- ica preaching what was supposed to be a new doctrine of self- support ; while opposed to them another party soon came to the front, denouncing and opposing what they did not clearly un- derstand, and what they assumed was hostile to the Missionary Society in America. This discussion, which even now has hardly ceased, was unfortunate from the beginning. It was to a great extent based upon a misunderstanding, and at an early day began to bear fruit which neither its friends nor opponents anticipated. The term self-support has been used and abused until it has become almost impossible to employ it without being misunderstood. Almost everything now goes under the name of self-support. Men engaged in secular employment, and who have dropped all semblance of trust- ing in the providence of God according to the Saviour's di- rections, are loudly professing to be the special advocates of the system. There is such a thing as industrial support, which is praiseworthy in its place, and in many instances has proved successful in helping forward missionary work. There is, again, such a thing as pastoral support, which does not differ from the same term as used in England or America; there is educational support, which depends upon the income of schools ; and, lastly, there is the support of the evangelist, such as that described above, which means nothing more than that the man who goes alone, preaching among strangers, and thrusts himself upon their hospitality, is so guided by God's hand that he finds a home and shelter when he needs 310 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. it, and is able, while doing his work among the people, to realize that his bread and his water are assured to him. The term, however, has been so misunderstood, and has be- come so complicated by its forced association with all manner of schemes and plans and policies, that it can hardly be used at all, and might as well be dropped so far as it applies to our work in India. It must not be assumed, however, that this feature of our work has vanished from India. It has left its influence permanently upon the whole of our vast field, and its spirit is still breathed by many of our best workers. When the somewhat heated controversy which grew up in connection with the term shall have been forgotten, the influence of the blessed spirit of devotion which was evoked at the time above mentioned, will continue to be felt in every part of our wide field. We still have men and women in India who receive no financial aid from any foreign land, and are dependent upon resources found in the country, and we shall have them in increasing numbers as the years go by. We have discovered resources here, the value of which we have learned too well ever to throw them lightly away ; and no one henceforth should ever say that the missionaries of India have abandoned a principle which they once loudly pro- fessed. They have merely learned how to apply the princi- ple in a practical way, without warping it, or trying to con- fine it in a cramped and iron-bound system which would destroy its practical worth. The progress of our work in India has brought us face to face with another emergency even more pressing than the one noted above. Of late years our converts from Hin- duism have been steadily and rapidly increasing, until, as I now write, they are literally coming to us at the rate of more than a thousand a month. The baptism of one hundred con- verts in any foreign mission invariably entails an increase of expenditure, as additional schools and preachers, or assistants of some grade, must be provided for them, especially when, HIDDEN RESO URCES. 3 1 1 as usually happens, they live in different towns or villages. For many years the Missionary Society gradually increased its appropriations to our work in India, so as to enable us to keep pace with the growing demands which were made upon us as our converts increased in number and became more widely scattered over the country. Of late, however, great difficulty has been experienced in obtaining the funds needed to meet the constant expansion of the work, until now it seems impossible to expect the Missionary Society to keep full pace with it any longer. After simplifying our methods, and reducing the expenditure to the lowest possible point, we are confronted by more pressing necessities than we have ever before known. A thousand converts coming to us in a single month may be expected to live in twenty or thirty different villages. A point must soon be reached, if indeed it has not already been reached, beyond which we can not de- pend longer on money from America. What are we to do ? The feeble, untaught converts must be looked after and care- fully instructed in all that pertains to Christian doctrine and Christian living. How are we to meet this demand ? We must clearly look around us carefully for hidden re- sources. As yet no one has been able to point out a way which is not beset with difficulties of some kind ; but when- ever God leads his people into a narrow strait between two impassable barriers, with a rolling sea in front, he has the gracious design in view of causing the waters to divide, and tracing out a safe and sure pathway through the deep. Am- ple resources will be found and will be found in India and the duty of the present hour is to look carefully while God guides us to them. If we turn to the converts themselves, and try to apply the policy which proved so successful in our work among English-speaking people, we are at once baffled by difficulties found nowhere else among Christians who speak our own language. The mass of our converts, like the mass of the na- tives of India generally, are very poor. Indeed, the word 312 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. " poor " does not convey any idea of their condition to the reader in America. If, for instance, in an ordinary village congregation, or in a public assembly in one of the streets of a great city, a collection were asked for, the contributions would consist largely of cowries. A cowrie is a small shell used as currency, and which, at the ordinary rate of exchange, is equal in value to about one eighty-fifth of a cent. If a village pastor lived on eight cents a day, it would require hundreds of people who use such currency to support him. In the face of such poverty as this indicates, most mission- aries and missionary societies have practically given up all hope of making converts from the poorer classes self-sup- porting. When it is considered that they must not only be provided with pastoral oversight, but must also have schools, and be supplied with books, the idea of expecting any ma- terial help from them seems utterly wild. And yet these poor people are numbered by tens of millions, and the most sanguine friend of the missionary enterprise can hardly hope that the churches of England and America will be either able or willing to supply funds sufficient to meet all the wants of these millions when they become Christians. Re- sources must be found somewhere, and, according to the gospel spirit and to all the indications found in the New Testament, we are forced to look even to these very poor people for resources which up to the present day remain strangely hidden. I ought not to use the word " hidden," at least in an ab- solute sense; for, to some extent, God has already shed light upon this dark problem. Even among the poorest of these people there are resources, although they do not exist in the form of gold and silver currency. In the first place, they can furnish labor. They can, for instance, build their own simple chapels. When in America a year ago, a benevolent preacher, who wished to help the people in providing village chapels, was perplexed and bewildered when I assured him that in very many cases a small sum of money say twenty HIDDEN RESOURCES. 313 or twenty-five dollars, would suffice to give the village Chris- tians a place of worship. He asked me what was the price of bricks, and was astonished when I told him that in very few of the villages had such a thing as a brick ever been seen. " What then/' he asked, " is the material which they use in building? Do they use stone, or wood?" I assured him that they depended on nothing so permanent as these. The material used in erecting all kinds of village buildings is, nearly everywhere, simply mud. A place is sought where clay is exposed near the surface, and this is dug up and mixed with water; but instead of molding the mud thus formed into bricks, and either drying them in the sun or burn- ing them over a fire, it is built into the wall with the hand in the most primitive style, and the wall thus constructed is left to dry in the sun. Almost any man can lend a hand at such work as this. The buildings are covered, for the most part, with thatch, and here again any villager can be of use, if not in thatching the house itself, at least in collecting or carrying the grass. A few bamboos to support the roof, and a small quantity of twine for binding the thatch, will com- plete all the material needed in erecting a village chapel. In many places better buildings than these are erected; but it is becoming plainer to us every day that, in the long run, nine-tenths of the people must be expected to worship God in the most primitive little mud chapels, and in such cases the people will, no doubt, as they become more and more zealous and devoted to their Master, be found equal to the task of erecting their own places of worship. It must be remembered, also, that all their giving needs not consist in currency of some kind, not even in the cowries mentioned above. In some places in Bengal I have found a singular, and indeed touching, custom prevailing by which a very considerable amount of help is given to the support of native pastors. Each housewife, in the morning, when she takes out the rice for the day, puts aside about a table- spoonful toward the support of her native pastor. This is 314 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. kept in a bag by itself, and, although a small spoonful put in every morning may seem to be a very humble contribu- tion, yet, at the end of the month, it will be found an offer- ing not to be despised. While very many of our converts are too poor to contribute so liberally as this, yet those who are cultivators will, in most cases, be able to do a little in this way. Others, again, who are fishermen, will give a cer- tain quantity of fish weekly ; and so with mechanics of va- rious kinds. Each will be able to contribute a trifle ; so that, after all, the people will not be found so absolutely helpless as may at first appear. It must be remembered, too, that by and by the Christians will be found in overwhelming num- bers all over the plains of India, and when these all stand shoulder to shoulder, and contribute of their very slender means for any one purpose, they will be able to do more than at first seems apparent. For instance, if six, eight, or ten villages are found within a radius of three or four miles, each of them containing fifty to one hundred Christian fam- ilies, the aggregate would amount to at least five or six hun- dred families. These all contributing in their various ways, and according to their limited means, would be able to sup- port a pastor in what, according to their notions, would seem moderate comfort. This pastor could go from village to vil- lage, performing the usual duties of a Christian pastor, while unpaid class-leaders, who are really sub-pastors in the several villages, would look after the details of the work. This is a mere outline of what some of us hope to see realized in the early future. For my own part, I see nothing impossible about it. I ought to say, however, that while in prosperous provinces, like Burma, even better things than these have been realized up to the present time, the whole problem remains, in a large measure, unsolved so far as the poorer people of India are concerned. The problem of the present hour, so far as our own work in India is concerned, is to know how to develop whatever resources there may be among our converts. With few HIDDEN RESO URCES. 315 exceptions they are so very poor that the missionary feels his heart sink within him when he attempts to mention the sub- ject of their contributing, out of their extreme poverty, for the work which he is trying to carry on among them. And yet he knows that something of this kind must be done before Christianity can become indigenous to the country, and before their own best Christian life can be developed. "We shall all be wiser a few years hence, no doubt; but while we are pondering and experimenting and thinking, God in his providence is leading us forward, and perhaps the people themselves, when they become fully awake to the difficulties of the situation, will be able to show us that they have resources which we have never discovered, and of which we have hardly dreamed. XXIII. ENGLISH WORK. THE above title is placed at the head of this chapter, not because it is grammatically accurate, but simply for want of a better. Reference has been made in previous chapters to the manner in which missionary work, designed in the first place wholly for the natives of the soil, interlaces itself at times more or less with the interests of the English resi- dents in the empire. These, of course, are nominally Chris- tians, and it is but natural that persons in England and America should wonder that missionaries whose sole work in life is supposed to be that of inducing Mohammedans and Hindus to become Christians, should turn aside to preach to those who already profess to be followers of that religion. The missionary himself, however, especially if he remains in the country long enough to identify himself with its inter- ests, soon discovers that the letter of the New Testament, as well as the spirit of the gospel which he preaches, refuses to acknowledge any distinctions which are, or under any cir- cumstances may be, merely nominal. The New Testament deals with humanity as one whole, and the messenger of Jesus Christ is not authorized to know Jew or Gentile, Greek or Barbarian, but simply man as man. Hence in a hundred ways the missionary who comes in contact with English-speaking people in India, discovers that he can not dissociate himself wholly from them, nor logically limit his gospel in such a way as to ignore them. The term " English," as popularly used in connection with missionary work, is made to include, not only the English people who have come out from Europe, either as Govern- 316 ENGLISH WORK. 317 ment servants or on private business, but also the descend- ants of Europeans of past generations. Not a few such families are scattered all over the empire. They are pure Europeans by descent, but their fathers and grandfathers, and in some cases great-grandfathers, have been born in India. In addition to these, the Eurasians, who are scattered every- where, and who constitute a large proportion of the English- speaking people, are included in what is called English work, so far as missionary phraseology is concerned. These peo- ple are more numerous than those of pure European parent- age. Their influence in the country has been a subject of no little dispute. Some writers are inclined to put it down as nil. Others, animated perhaps by unconscious prejudice, do not hesitate to affirm that the influence of the Eurasian com- munity is against, rather than in favor of Christianity. An oft-quoted but very unjust assertion is put forward in nearly every such discussion, to the effect that the Eurasian that is, the offspring of European and Asiatic parents combines the vices of both races, without having the virtues of either. Others, again, affirm that as a people the Eurasians have virtues of their own, with which any church capable of ap- preciating them would be enriched, and that these people, who in any case must be an important and permanent factor of the English-speaking population, ought to be utilized to the utmost possible extent, in not only missionary work, but in the promotion of every other cause which good men have at heart. As a class they have much cause of complaint. While employed freely in Government service they have, for the most part, been kept wholly in subordinate positions. They are debarred from military service; they are subjected to a certain kind of social contempt not very formidable, it is true, and yet of such a character as often to irritate, and sometimes to injure, those who are made its subjects. Edu- cated as they have been, and hedged about by adverse in- fluences as they are to the present day, it is not strange that comparatively few of them have achieved distinction. As a 318 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. community, however, they deserve much more credit than has ever been given them, and are capable of doing valuable service in the great work to which God is calling all his peo- ple in India. In addition to the Europeans and Eurasians in India, a few representatives of purely Indian races, composed of persons who have acquired a familiar use of English, may be iound more or less closely identified with the Christian com- munity. A few of these will be found in almost every con- gregation, attending the ordinary Sunday evening service. In large cities like Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, such per- sons are sometimes present in considerable numbers, and from among them, from time to time, conversions to Chris- tianity occur. Of late years not a few Indians are adopting the ordinary European costume, and when away from home are frequently mistaken for Eurasians. Such persons have no objections whatever to identifying themselves with the Euro- peans, unless too closely pressed in the matter of caste or re- ligion. The whole European and Eurasian population of India is not only relatively very small, but scattered everywhere over the empire. Only in a few of the larger cities can a large congregation be collected, and but few of our English-speak- ing churches have more than a hundred communicants. This one fact presents a very formidable obstacle, especially in the eyes of young missionaries, to our success when preaching among these people. A young minister fresh from the United States finds it difficult to regard any church or con- gregation as of any special account unless it has a large congregation present at the Sabbath service. India is the last country in the world to which a young preacher who aspires to popularity should come. The missionary must be able to look deeper, and see more clearly the ultimate result of such work as he is called upon to perform in the English churches. As a matter of fact, most of the young missionaries who have engaged in this department of our work, have ENGLISH WORK. 319 become dissatisfied with it. " It has no outcome," says one. " It offers us no future," adds another. " It amounts to nothing, and never will amount to anything," chimes in a third. " If I have to preach in English," says a fourth, " I shall return to my own country." " I did not come all the way to India," adds still a fifth, " in order to find a little congregation of people to preach to in English. I can get plenty of congregations in my own country." And so on, one objection follows another, until, as a matter of fact, this kind of work does not at present stand in very high favor among us. Several reasons may be mentioned which account, in part at least, for this unfavorable judgment of not a few young missionaries. In the first place, these young brethren, when they begin their work, encounter an adverse social current, such as they have never known, and perhaps never could know, in their own country. In a few of the larger cities our ministers feel the force of a current somewhat similar, but not so powerful as that which is encountered in India. I refer to the presence in every city, town, and remote country station, of an Established Church. The Roman Cath- olics and the Anglicans divide between them perhaps four- fifths of the English-speaking people in India. A Methodist missionary from America, coming among these people, is ut- terly unconscious of the deep attachment which they, with few exceptions, feel for the church in which they have been born. They may not care much for religion in itself, and are perhaps free enough to go and hear a stranger preach ; but the thought of separating themselves, even nominally, from the church of their fathers, is startling enough to many of them. Then, there is the general impression that it is not altogether respectable to be connected with a dissenting church. Only those Americans who have visited England, and have become acquainted with the various phases of re- ligious thought and feeling in that country, can understand how much it costs a Churchman to identify himself with a 320 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. dissenting body. This feeling extends almost with equal force to all the English-speaking people of India; and the young missionary has some not very pleasant lessons to learn before he can understand its meaning. I have myself been called out of bed twice in the same night to visit a small- pox patient, by friends who seemed to appreciate what I was doing very highly, but who, after the death of the patient, refused to let me officiate at the funeral because I was a dis- senter. This kind of treatment is not pleasing to the flesh ; but sensible men must learn to accept it as inevitable, and pay no more attention to it than they do to the prejudices of Hindus or Mohammedans. It indicates nothing wicked in itself; and if we would do the greatest possible amount of good in this world, we shall have no time to worry about the weaknesses of men and women who have not, perhaps, en- joyed the best advantages. Another discouragement to a missionary preaching to an English congregation is found in the fact that the people are constantly changing. Many of them hold official positions, either under Government or in railway service. It is not un- common for a man to be removed two, three, or even four times in a year. Others, again, are constantly returning to Great Britain after a term of service in India, and their places must be refilled. It is a well-known fact in all our English churches, that the membership must renew itself every five years, or else it will become extinct. It requires a plucky pastor to work successfully and cheerfully, year after year, in the midst of a people who are thus apparently always slipping away from him. Add to this another embarrassment which he is pretty sure to encounter, if he retains an active interest in missionary work. Some of his weaker members, noticing from time to time that he takes an active interest in the natives of the soil, begin to feel themselves slighted, and complain that they are neglected, and so on. If the pastor is sensible and moderately shrewd, he can avoid bringing slight evidences of hostility to ENGLISH WORK. 321 a head ; but sometimes unfortunate issues are raised, and for years the church, which it is hoped will prove a great help in missionary work, remains practically arrayed against it. At such times the missionary can hardly be blamed if he feels like washing his hands of all such work, and saying, in the language of Barnabas and Saul, " Lo, I turn to the Gentiles." Probably few men in India have given more attention to this whole subject than myself, and certainly very few have had more experience in this kind of work in all its various phases. I began to preach to the English people at Naini Tal, when I first arrived in the country. I personally experienced most of the adverse influences enumerated above; and, like other young men who in more recent years have tried this kind of work and given it up, I, too, reached a point where I resolved to have nothing more to do with it. For four years I carefully and conscientiously refrained from preaching in English, but, in the providence of God, was led to see my error, and for many years afterward preached quite as much in my own tongue as in Hindustani. My later convictions remain unchanged to the present day. For the following reasons I believe we ought to carry on an active work among the English-speaking people of the empire, and, regarding this department of our work as permanent, proceed to fortify our position as rapidly and strongly as possible. In the first place, the English are here. India belongs to the British Empire, and whatever God's ultimate designs concerning these people may be, for another century at least the predominating influence in India will be English; and even if we were to be assured that the great British Empire would bestow independence upon India a century or two hence, or something equivalent to independence, it would not change the fact that the controlling influence would be English rather than Indian. This being the case, the im- mense influence of everything English ought to be appre- ciated by the missionary from the outset. Even though the people be few, though the English papers have a small cir- 21 322 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. dilation, though the English congregations, even in the Es- tablished Church, may be small, yet the ultimate influence of these people, and of the churches, newspapers, and schools, will be unspeakably great. Hence the preacher who looks at his little congregation, and longs for the more attractive church in which he might be preaching in his native land, is anything but a far-sighted man. The man who preaches to one hundred people in India is exerting a greater influence, so far as future years are concerned, than the one who preaches to a thousand people in Chicago or Cincinnati. Any one of the American Churches might sink out of sight, and its influence would be but little felt; but the extinction of a church of one hundred members in an Indian city would be felt as a calamity for years and years to come. A single little tallow candle burning in a very dark place, is of more value than any one of a thousand electric lights which glare and flash in the midst of the nightly illumination of a great city. The importance of this work becomes still more apparent when we consider the religious situation as it is among the English-speaking people of India. As said above, a very large proportion of them are Roman Catholics, especially in the southern part of the country. Of the remainder, the great majority are Anglicans, nominally ; but during the past twenty years the Church of England has so far fallen under the influence of the Ritualistic party, that thousands of its members in India refuse to attend longer on its ministra- tions. Their protest, however, is not likely to be permanent. People become reconciled to whatever is customary, and, so far as the present outlook is concerned, I am forced to believe that the future Christianity of all the English-speaking classes of India will be either Roman Catholic or Ritualistic, unless an evangelical work is introduced and vigorously pushed for all the years to come. Some may say that this would make little difference ; but a very slight observation of the influences of existing churches admonishes us other- ENGLISH WORK. 323 wise. In every great city it is easy to perceive that the In- dian Christians are fashioning their churches and all theii institutions after the model of the Europeans who live among them. If the English churches are ritualistic, the native churches will be so likewise ; and if ritualistic notions pre- vail without challenge among all the English-speaking peo- ple, we may as well give over the future Christianity of India to the care of the sacerdotal party at once. It is our duty not only to found Christian churches in India, but to provide for their future welfare. Hence I regard it as a sacred duty one from which there can be no possible shrinking that vital evangelical Christianity be not only established all over India, but that it be made like a city set upon a hill, which can not be hid. Another consideration which should not be lost sight of, and which has been hinted at above, is the fact that the na- tives of India are rapidly becoming Anglicized. This change has become increasingly apparent in recent years, and will almost certainly proceed with increasing rapidity as time goes by. The better educated classes, when alone, do not converse in their, mother tongues, but speak exclusively in English. Public meetings composed of natives exclusively are ad- dressed in English, and in very good English at that. Houses are beginning to be furnished in English style, and English literature is more and more finding its way, not only into public reading-rooms, but into the homes of the better educated people. In view of this fact, it would be un- fwise in the last degree to turn our backs upon what we are accustomed to call our English work. We must have En- glish preachers in every city, and expect that as the years go by the number of our English congregations will increase rather than diminish. These churches, however, must be of a very high order. We can not put an eloquent man in every pulpit; but we must exhibit a clear type of pure Christianity before the people. We must show them that we are not contending for a dogma, but for a life. We 324 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. must have such churches that it will be not only easy, but safe, for the native Christians to accept them as ecclesiastical and spiritual models, and we must expect that in all the years to come this department of our work will be kept in the van- guard of spiritual progress. One important part of this English work, and perhaps the most important, is that of our English schools. We were led, in the first place, to open these schools because of the difficulty of finding education for our people where their children would be removed from sacerdotal influences. The English public schools throughout the empire, for the most part, fell under ritualistic influences more rapidly than the pulpits. All of them are more or less directly subject to the local chaplain, and some of these gentlemen, although undoubtedly sincere and good men, have mistaken notions about their own preroga- tives, as well as the rights of parents and children. When we began to organize English churches, it frequently hap- pened that parents would come to us, saying that their chil- dren could no longer attend aur Sunday-school, under pen- alty of dismissal from the day-schools which they chanced to attend. We were forced either to provide a school of our own, or see our children thus forcibly taken from us; and in the face of such an alternative our decision was soon made. We now have nine large boarding-schools for boys and girls, in which not only the children of our own people are receiv- ing an education, but large numbers of others, sometimes in- cluding the sons and daughters of Roman Catholics, and even, in a few cases, of Buddhists. These schools have given us much anxiety, and, as we have been chiefly dependent upon Indian resources in building them up, the struggle to maintain them has been a severe one from the first. Slowly, however, they are gaining ground, and in time will, I trust, be placed upon firm foundations. Their influence will be very great for centuries to come, not only in our own com- paratively small community, but in strengthening our posi- tion and enlarging our usefulness in other circles. The boys ENGLISH WORK. 325 and girls who are educated in these schools go out from us to take up the duties of life in remote places, and not a few of them will doubtless prove like so many missionaries sent to towns, or even provinces, to which we can not go our- selves. The schools are worthy of the most generous support of our friends in America, and I have no hesitation whatever in commending their interests to the Christian public. From time to time missionary authorities, both in Eng- land and America, manifest a somewhat unreasonable hostility to work of this kind. In some cases peremptory orders have been sent out to the missionaries who have been engaged in English-speaking work, to desist from it altogether. " What have we to do with sending the gospel to our own country- men?" asks an indignant supporter of missions in England. "You have everything to do with it," is my reply. "You represent a gospel which is broad enough to embrace all hu- man interests, and it is not for you to limit the commission which the Master has given to all his servants." As a mat- ter of fact, however, the English-speaking people of India, scattered, as they are, so widely that it is impossible for any preacher to reach them, and being thus deprived of the re- ligious privileges which are so freely enjoyed in England and America, are but poor exemplars of the life which Christians are expected to live. I do not join for a moment in the wholesale denunciations which have sometimes been poured out upon them as a class; but I speak the mournful truth when I say that God's name has too often been profaned among the heathen in India, as Ezekiel said it was in olden time, and it becomes an imperative duty of Christians, both in England and in America, to see that their countrymen in India receive that measure of Christian care which they not only personally deserve, but which the religious situation in India makes absolutely imperative. Some of the blindest work I have ever known to be done by good Christian men, has been accomplished in this illogical effort to keep mis- sionaries from helping their own countrymen in India. I am 326 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. glad that in our mission a wiser policy has prevailed in re- cent years; but it has cost us more than one contest to main- tain it. Our policy has not met with the uniform approval of all our friends, either in America or in India. I am per- suaded, however, that in this work we have been led from on high. As indicated in a previous chapter, our work among these people has not only been a blessing to them, but it has been overruled so as to be made a great blessing to our cause in India. Whatever others may do, there will be, I trust, no retreat so far as we are concerned. We must main- tain this department of our work throughout the empire, and maintain it strongly. XXIV. M1SSION : SCHOOLS.* THE mission-school in some form is inseparable from or- dinary missionary work. However widely the mission- aries themselves may differ concerning the best school policy, they one and all admit that sooner or later the mission- school must have an important claim upon their labor and care. For a dozen years past a very earnest controversy has been carried on both in India and in the home lands, es- pecially in Scotland, with regard to the proper educational policy for missionaries to pursue. The Scotch have always taken the lead in school-work, especially in its higher de- partments, and as they have not reaped as rich a harvest of converts as some other missions which have pursued a differ- ent policy, not a few of their supporters at home are begin- ning to protest against making school-work so prominent, while some go to the extreme of opposing it altogether. Dr. Duff, who, taking him altogether, was, perhaps, after the death of Dr. Carey, the most prominent man in the mission- ary world, was best known as the founder of an educational policy which has been closely followed by many good and able men ever since he clearly pointed out the way. Arriv- ing in Calcutta in 1830, he quickly and clearly perceived that the reading and thinking men of the future, not only in Calcutta, but throughout the empire, would use the English language, and he at once resolved to found an edu- *A few statements made in a subsequent chapter, written by an- other hand, are repeated in this chapter; but they are brief and unim- portant. 329 330 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. cational institution of a high grade, in which the best pos- sible English education should be given, but so thoroughly saturated with Christian doctrine that it would be impossible for boys and young men to pursue the course without ac- quiring a thorough knowledge of Christianity. All the world has heard the story of Dr. Duff's success, so far as his schools were concerned. For a time, also, he succeeded in making converts; but at a later day the work of conver- sion was arrested, owing to causes, however, which lay alto- gether outside of the schools themselves. Similar schools and colleges were founded in other cities, and nearly all missions have followed more or less closely in Dr. Duff's footsteps whenever they have attempted to establish schools of a high grade in connection with their work. In opposition to this policy, it is affirmed by many that the school should follow the evangelist, and not the evan- gelist the school, and that the same amount of labor which is bestowed upon these schools and colleges, if directed to the simple work of preaching the gospel, would result in perhaps a hundred-fold more conversions than have been witnessed in educational work. As always happens in such controversies, a few extreme men are found who oppose all schools excepting those of the most elementary character, which are to be introduced after the people are converted, chiefly for the purpose of teaching them how to read the word of God. The truth of this controversy, as in all similar controversies, is found midway between two extremes. In most cases, of course, the evangelist should precede the teacher, but in some notable cases he finds it to his advan- tage to follow him. Dr. Duff undoubtedly did a great work for India, not only as a missionary, but as an educationalist; and in all the thirty-three years which I have spent in the country, I have constantly met with illustrations of the far- reaching influence which that good man exerted upon the people. He also proved a valuable coadjutor to the Govern- ment in its efforts to introduce education into India. Tak- MISSION-SCHOOLS. 331 ing him altogether, he may be regarded as, in an important sense, the founder of English education in the country. At the same time, it would be a fatal mistake for any mission to trust exclusively, or even in a very large measure, to edu- cational work. In many places it is found absolutely neces- sary to introduce schools in order to gain the ear of the people; and while nothing better can be done, every wise missionary will use the school as the best agency within his reach. The best missionary policy is that which avails itself of every agency out of which anything good can be wrought. A point, however, is always reached, in the progress of any successful mission, where it becomes absolutely necessary to do less and less for schools for non-Christians, and more and more for the sons and daughters of Christian converts. In some of the missions in India, including our own, this stage of progress has already been reached, and it becomes a grave question whether we should any longer maintain schools ex- clusively for non-Christian pupils. In the beginning, in many cases, we opened these schools, and with difficulty pre- vailed upon the boys to enter them. All manner of expe- dients were adopted to win their confidence and secure their attendance. That state of things, however, has long since passed away ; and now, while our converts are multi- plying rapidly, even though they belong mostly to the de- spised classes, we can place our schools upon a better footing. We open every school as a Christian school of the most un- mistakable character. We admit Christian boys as pupils, and all the instruction given is such as would be expected in a school of the most thoroughly Christian character. If, after we have founded such an institution, Hindu or Mo- hammedan boys wish to attend, we receive them gladly and thankfully, but they understand from the-first that they con- fer no favor upon us by their coming. We accord them a privilege, and this one fact gives us a vantage ground in ap- proaching them, which is worth everything in our efforts to 332 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. set Christianity before them in a favorable light. They place us under no obligation in any case, while we have it in our power to benefit them, both for this world and the next. In fact, it may be accepted as settled that the mission- school of the future, so far as our own field is concerned, will occupy a ground far in advance of that which it has held in the past. Turning now to the organization of our mission-schools, we find them differing very widely indeed in many respects. The Government schools throughout the empire are graded with the greatest care, and the raission-schools, especially such as are aided from Government funds, are usually organ- ized upon the same or a similar model. Throughout North India the Government schools are divided, in the first place, into lower primary and upper. After this comes the middle school, which is carefully graded info seven different classes. After this comes the high-school, and lastly the college. The lower primary school, even when under the direction of a Government inspector, is often a r ery elementary school indeed. In fact, if the children in remote and illiterate neighborhoods learn to read and write a little, and possibly add a knowledge of the simple rules of arithmetic, the in- spector is satisfied. The teachers employed in such school? are themselves, if not illiterate, at least untaught, and know nothing about the improved teaching of modern times. The boys are exceedingly poor, and in many cases are not able to pay for school-books or even pencils. Those who can afford it, have a wooden slate ; that is, a thin board carefully smoothed on both sides, and in size and shape resembling an ordinary slate, on which the boys write, if able to procure ink, wash- ing off the ink after the board is once filled. A still more common practice, however, is that of heaping up a small quantity of sand beside the pupil, who lifts a little of the sand with his hand, and sifts it lightly over the board. He then proceeds to write with his finger, rubbing out mistakes when they occur, and sifting more sand upon the board. If MISSfON-SCHOOLS. 333 unable to procure a board for the purpose, the boy simply sprinkles a little of the sand on the hard ground before him, and proceeds to write and cipher as cheerfully as if provided with pencil and slate. In our elementary Christian schools we are obliged some- times to dispense with nearly all formality, and, in the absence of a school-room, hold our little schools, either in some shel- tered corner among the village houses, or, perhaps, under an adjacent tree. Most of our converts come from the lowest classes, whose children are never permitted to enter Govern- ment schools at all. I say never permitted ; I mean, not that there is any Government order to exclude them, but that such an uproar would be created if they attempted to take their places among the boys of the higher castes, that the school would have to be given up. The teachers do not de- sire such pupils; but even if they did, they would not be able to, protect them in the school. The poor boys have been ac- customed to take the lowest place from their infancy, and count it no hardship to be excluded from the village school. When a Christian school, however, is opened, they can attend freely, and although at first all the higher caste boys will stay away, the school is none the less interesting and prosperous. As soon as possible a mud-walled hut is procured, which serves a double purpose of school and chapel. But in the absence of any building, both the day-school and the Sunday- school are often held under a tree, or even under the open sky. We have hundreds of these little schools scattered all over the country among the remote villages, and, as might be expected, many of them are not in a very satisfactory con- dition. We do not; however, feel discouraged on this ac- count, having abundant reason to be satisfied so long as we know that the young people will learn to read and write. Even so limited an education as this will enable them to com- mand respect among their fellows, and place their feet upon the first round of the ladder up which they may climb to a better position. We hope in time, and I trust very soon, to 334 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. systematize this school-work so that qualified inspectors may be appointed to go among the schools, examining the work of the teachers, helping them by pointing out improved meth- ods, and in a general way developing and superintending the whole work. I Some years ago Dr. Goucher, of Baltimore, well known as a fast friend of missions to the heathen, undertook not only to support about one hundred village schools, but also to give a scholarship to the most promising boy or girl from each school, entitling the pupil to go to a central school at Moradabad, and receive an advanced education. This plan has worked admirably, and already a large number of our best w r orkers have gone forth from these schools. As we year by year perfect our work, I hope to see a plan somewhat similar to this adopted everywhere. The education of the converts who are flocking to us will never become satisfactory until we not only teach the masses to read and write, but give the more promising boys and girls an advanced education, so that they may become leaders to their brethren and sisters. The Woman's Missionary Society first enabled us to test this kind of work by supporting a boarding-school for girls in the city of Moradabad. The girls were brought from villages in the surrounding district, and after being thoroughly drilled for two or three years, were sent back to their village homes at the time that they entered upon their married life. Very many of these girls are now useful women in their villages, and their influence has been found to be so marked that many .of them might be regarded as veritable missionaries, sup- ported without cost to anybody, and yet doing a valuable work in their respective villages. In establishing boarding-schools, both English and Hindustani, we are obliged to recognize the different grades of society which exist in India, and provide schools which will be accessible to all classes. First of all, we have orphanages, in which hapless little children who otherwise would be left to wander, if not to perish, on the highway, are MfSSfON-SCHOOLS. 335 gathered in, fed, clothed, and educated. They are, of course, supported on the cheapest possible basis, and although they are always well fed, and according to the standard of India well clothed, yet even the poorest of our Christians do not care to send their children to be associated with them. Some reasons exist for their aversion to doing so, and whether we regard them as satisfactory or not, we are forced to recognize them. The people wish boarding-schools apart from the orphanages, in which their children may secure what in India is regarded as an advanced education. We accord- ingly provide a second grade of school, a little above the orphanage, and yet, as a matter of fact, not differing from it so far as the quality of the food or clothing is concerned. The children, however, are more respectable, and nearly all are sent to the school by their parents, although most of them are supported by funds from America. The best schools of this grade which we have are in the city of Mo- radabad. The one for girls contains about 150 boarders, who are supported at an average cost of about $1.50 a month for each pupil. This sum covers all expenses, including food, tuition, books, washing, servants, etc. The similar school for boys in Moradabad is a little more expensive, but does not materially differ from the girls' school. Next above these institutions we have in the city of Lucknow two high- schools, each of which has recently been advanced to the college grade. The charge in these institutions is about $2.50 a month, and the style of living is correspondingly higher than in the Moradabad schools. The reader in America may impatiently exclaim against making these distinctions, but we have long since learned that it is useless to fight against either wind or tide. The people of India, like the people of America, will send their children to schools which are near- est to their own social level. The very poorest can not send to the more expensive school, and those who are compara- tively well off will not send to the cheaper school. It is best for us to recognize facts, and push ahead, and do our work 336 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. without stopping to attempt the impossible task of making them all go together. Next above the Lucknow schools we have a grade of English boarding-schools, in which the charge is sixteen rupees a month. The schools of this grade are chiefly pat- ronized by European and Eurasian parents; but a few of the native Christians who are able to afford it, send their children also, and from year to year, I doubt not, the number of such will steadily increase. Then above these we have a still higher grade, so far as the style of the school is concerned, In which the charges are from twenty-five to thirty rupees a month. If we would reach all India, from the lowest to the highest classes of society, we must make a provision some- what after this style. Our friends in America need not trouble themselves with the thought that we are thereby add- ing greatly to the expense of our educational work ; for our schools, if properly conducted, receive all the pupils they can provide for. We would have to have the same number in any case. I have spoken of the two colleges at Lucknow. That for boys is called the Lucknow Christian College. It existed first as a Christian boarding-school, then became a high- school, and in 1887 was affiliated with the Calcutta Univer- sity as a college. Dr. Waugh had charge of the high-school for two years during its earlier history ; but the institution has been for the most part identified with the life and labors of the late Dr. B. H. Badley. His work as a missionary, in- deed, was largely interwoven with the interests of this col- lege. It was the child of his prayers, and of his constant thoughts, and of his unremitting labors; and as long as the college endures his name will be associated with it. This college should be liberally sustained, and its resources in- creased without delay. The highest welfare of our Church in India depends, in a large measure, on the success of this institution. The Woman's College in Lucknow is the outgrowth of a MISSION-SCHOOLS. 337 girls' boarding-school, which was founded by Miss Thoburn in 1870. At that time there were very few schools of a high grade for Christian girls in India. The impression pre- vailed widely, even in missionary circles, that native girls did not need more than a very elementary education. The opening of a boarding-school in which a good English edu- cation was to be given at once attracted attention in our part of India, and the school prospered from the first. Indeed, at that time there was only one similar school north of Cal- cutta the excellent boarding - school at Dehra Dun, under the care of the Amer- ican Pre sbyteriau Mission. The school was affiliated with the Allahabad Univer- sity in 1886. Its school department is thronged, and a large entrance class has recently been en- rolled that is, can- didates for admis- sion to the freshman class. The College Department has but few pupils, owing to the fact that very few Indian girls remain unmarried long enough to pursue a college course, as well as to the other fact that hitherto it has been considered altogether exceptional, if not indeed impossible, for a young woman to pursue a college course. Among the teachers in the College Department is Miss Lilavati Singh, B. A., who 22 MISS UIvAVATI SINGH, B. A. 338 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. was educated in the school, but subsequently took her de- gree of Bachelor of Arts in Calcutta. AVe hope to see her occupying the position of a professor in the college at an early day. I may add that this college is the first Christian woman's college ever established in Asia. While speaking of these colleges, it may be proper to give a brief account of our theological seminary and normal school at Bareilly. The need of such an institution had been felt from the first; but we were not able to make a begin- ning until 1872, when* a timely donation of $20,000, given by the Rev. D. "W. Thomas, made the founding of such an institution possible. A small house, which had been built for a native preacher's family, was made to furnish lecture-rooms, while some cheap buildings that had been erected for native Christians were utilized for students' dormitories. Four years later Mr. Philo Remington, of Ilion, New York, gave five thousand dollars to aid in the erection of more suitable build- ings; and with this sum duplicated by the Missionary Society, " Remington Hall " was completed and furnished. It is a brick structure, consisting of a central cruciform hall, sur- rounded by four class-rooms, filling out the building as a square, with a large library and reading-room on the top. To the left of this building, in 1890, a structure of one story, uniform in style, and consisting of two lecture-halls, was completed. The plan now is to build a similar one to the right as soon as funds can be secured. The three years' course of study pursued in this school is substantially that of any theological seminary in the United States, except that not so much is made of Hebrew and Greek. The institution has sent out 198 Indian missionaries and 48 Christian teachers.' These workers are widely scattered among a population equal to that of the United States. The present attendance in the school is 66 in the Theological Department, and 23 in the Nor- mal Department, making a total of 89. The teaching staff consists of one American missionary, assisted, to some extent, by an American missionary stationed in Bareilly, and five MISSION-SCHOOLS. 339 Indian teachers. It has been felt for some time that an ad- ditional missionary ought to be given to this work. The present endowment of the institution is about $50,- 000, with buildings valued at $16,500. At least $50,000 more should be added immediately to the endowment. A large part of the income from this endowment is used in sup- porting the students, over half of whom have no resources of their own. Young men in India can not resort to the various expedients which are so commonly employed by stu- dents in America when working their way through college. Labor is so cheap, and the labor market so overstocked in every direction, that it would be vain for students to make such an attempt. Liberal Christian friends in America could not do a better work than add to the endowment of this ex- cellent and indispensable institution. Dr. T. J. Scott has been principal of our theological sem- inary throughout nearly all its history, and has become so closely identified with it, that it may be regarded as, in an im- portant sense, his own. He has been wholly devoted to this one work for many years, and is admirably adapted to the position. He has a more thorough knowledge of Hindustani, and a more correct and fluent use of it, than is common among missionaries, while his theological and general train- ing make him an invaluable man in any missionary capacity, but specially fits him for the principalship of a theological school. I can not close this chapter without noticing a peculiar adjunct to this theological school in the shape of a training- school for the wives of the students. This feature of the seminary might possibly be copied with advantage at least in one of our theological schools in America, where a large pro- portion of the students are married men. Mrs. Scott takes charge of a woman's training-school, and perhaps is accom- plishing as much good in this exceptional way as even her husband, who instructs the young men. While these young men will fill the leading pulpits of our Hindustani Church 340 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. in coming years, their wives will have very much to do, not only in molding the character of the congregations, but in influencing the characters of the preachers themselves. In any country such training would be invaluable to the wives of Christian ministers; but in India especially, where the peo- ple have so much yet to learn about family virtues and the Christian home-life in its best aspects, the value of such a school can not be too highly estimated. At the present time forty-five women are receiving instruction in Mrs. Scott's school. Some of these are women of rare character, and give promise of great usefulness in future life. Cl>apber XXV. SUNDAY-SCHOOLS IN INDIA. IN the earlier days of our missionary work in India it was difficult, and in most cases impossible, to do much Sun- day-school work, owing to the lack of juvenile material. The native Christians were few in number, and while in every station where a dozen of their children, or even of the older people, could be collected, we organized Sunday-schools, yet for the first ten years or more these schools were all small, except in the stations where we had orphanages on which we could draw for attendance. It frequently occurred to us that a very great expansion of the work could be made if only the Hindu and Mohammedan boys could be induced to attend. As for girls, the habits and prejudices of the coun- try were such that we accepted it as settled that little or nothing could be done for them during the present genera- tion. It was difficult enough in some places to induce boys to attend a day-school, especially if it were known that read- ing the Bible was an unvarying condition of attendance. When, however, the little fellows became familiar with our school methods, and listened without fear or suspicion to the opening prayer, and joined not only in reading the Bible les- son, but in studying it carefully, and memorizing verses of Scripture, they were able to draw a clear line between this procedure and anything which partook exclusively of the character of Christian teaching or worship. They were fa- miliar with our Sunday services, not only from hearsay, but from occasional visits. Many of them would at times drop into the mission chapel to listen to the singing, or to see our manner of conducting Christian worship. They were pres- 341 342 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. ent, however, solely as spectators, and in every instance where an attempt was made to induce them to take any part in the singing, or to become regular attendants, it always ended in a panic which did more harm than good. We had all, there- fore, come to the conclusion that the Sunday-school, "however valuable an agency it might prove in the future, was beyond our reach for the present, except so far as the little Christian community was concerned. In the year 1868 I was placed in charge of the mission in Garhwal, and established a boarding-school for boys at Paori, our central station in that province. These boys were all Hindus, and, in order to preserve their caste distinctions intact, arranged for their own food, and lived in buildings erected by the mission. They were separated for the time from their friends, and were thus directly under our influ- ence. Nearly all of them had come from remote villages, and had never seen or heard anything of Christianity until taking up their residence with us. In opening the school, I assumed at the outset that the Sunday-school was a part of the ordinary routine of the institution, and, without com- manding the boys to be present, quietly assumed that they would come. Without an exception, they all put in an ap- pearance, and during the two years in which I was in charge of that station, the Sunday-school embraced not only the Christians, but also all the boys of the boarding-school. This example was suggestive ; but the circumstances were so exceptional that it was not thought best to repeat that ex- periment elsewhere. A great change, however, was close at hand, and early in the year 1871 we discovered, on the one hand, that the -extreme timidity and suspicion of the people had been giving way to an extent which we had not realized, and, on the other, that we ourselves had all along been pay- ing more respect to this timidity than it really deserved. The great Sunday-school work in which our missionaries have since been engaged, so far as the incorporation of non- Christians into the schools was concerned, took its origin in SUNDA Y-SCHOOLS. 343 a very simple way. Bishop Taylor was then holding meet- ings in Lucknow as an evangelist. He knew nothing of In- dia, and was wholly unable to appreciate the extreme aver- sion of the people to anything which might seem to commit them to a participation in Christian worship. One day, when a number of school-boys were in one of his meetings, where he was about to preach through an interpreter, he dis- covered that some of the boys understood a little English. He accordingly began to sing a simple hymn to them, and, after repeating a few couplets a number of times, it was ob- served that a number of the boys were beginning to sing with him. Thus encouraged, he went on, urging the boys, from time to time, to sing; and while the spectators were both interested and very much amused, a discovery was made which proved to be of the utmost importance to our work. That discovery was the fact that non-Christian boys could be induced to sing Christian hymns without creating a panic either in our schools or among the people outside. It so chanced that the Rev. Thomas Craven had recently arrived from America, and was just entering upon his work as a missionary in the city of Lucknow. Mr. Craven, like Bishop Taylor, knew little or nothing of the prejudices of the people, or of the extreme caution which had previously been observed lest these prejudices might be aroused. He was present when the boys made their first attempt to sing in the meeting mentioned above, and at once resolved to act upon the discovery which was then made. Going out into the street, he began to gather a few little fellows around him wherever he could, and interested and amused them by sing- ing simple couplets of Christian hymns to some of their own familiar Hindustani tunes. Both boys and older people were pleased and interested to hear a European singing in this manner, and very soon he would be surrounded by boys eager to hear him. Little by little he induced these boys to join in singing, and as the tunes were not foreign, but their own familiar airs, they saw no harm in singing them. The 344 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. language, in many cases, was such as could be used by Hindus as well as Christians. In a week or two Mr. Craven, who chanced to have charge of our Sunday-school work in Lucknow, began to hold Sunday-schools in the rooms oc- cupied by our day-schools in different parts of the city, and by taking a few boys who could sing, he secured, not only the attention of the older people of the neighborhood, but their favorable consideration. The whole thing was new to them, and presented itself as apparently but another phase of the ordinary school-work which they knew was carried on in the buildings throughout the week. As a matter of fact, a large measure of the success which Mr. Craven achieved during that eventful year was owing to his own ignorance of the prejudices of the people. We had all been standing too much in awe of this on the one hand, perhaps, not observing carefully enough the change in public sentiment which had been going on, and, on the other, not trusting enough in the power of Christian effort when courageously undertaken on the simple lines which Christian workers are usually called to follow. Before the close of 1871 we had, perhaps, a dozen Sunday- schools organized and in successful operation in the city of Lucknow alone. These Sunday-schools were, however, little more than Christian singing-schools of the most elementary character. In fact, song was almost everything at first. "We cared little for the conventional routine of Sunday-schools in Christian lands, provided we could get the boys to attend and secure a favorable hearing for the message which we gave them. From the first, however, each school was opened with the Lord's Prayer, and closed by a short address from the superintendent. This address, especially when the super- intendent had a familiar use of the Hindustani, would often take the form of a brief sermon, and as the doors and win- dows of the school-rooms were always crowded with adults eager to see the novel spectacle within, the superintendent had an excellent opportunity for preaching. As time went SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 345 on, a better organization of the schools was effected, and they became more worthy in every respect of the name which they bore. The good work was extended also to the girls, as far as circumstances would permit. Not only in the zenanas of the city, where small schools had been carried on, but among the lower classes in a more open way, wherever a day-school had been held a Sunday-school was established, and as many women and girls gathered into it as possible. Then as now, however, these schools for girls were relatively not only few in number, but much smaller than those for boys. This is a difficulty which can only be overcome by time. With the exception of very small children, parents will not permit their girls to go very far from their own doors to attend a Sunday-school, or any other gathering, no matter how attractive it may be. At that time our English church in Lucknow had a mem- bership which perhaps did not exceed fifty persons. These persons were, however, Christians in the best sense of the word, and many of them engaged in the new Sunday-school work which had been opened in the city with a zeal and suc- cess which I have never since seen equaled in India or else- where. By the close of the second year we had more than a thousand children in Sunday-school in the city of Lucknow alone, and the superintendence and most of the teaching of these schools was the voluntary work of the members of our English church. At that time we had just commenced our outward movement among the English-speaking people of India, and as I looked at what was done in Lucknow, I was led to cherish the brightest hopes for the future of our work in India, when English churches of like character should be established in every city, and all the people thus enlisted in direct missionary work. These hopes, I regret to say, have not been realized, nor has the good work that was commenced by the members of our English church in those early days been kept up, as we had fondly expected. A few of those same members who yet linger among us are still found at 346 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. their posts, but unhappy controversies sprang up in later years, and the good feeling which at first prevailed, was in- terrupted more than once by influences which perhaps were inevitable, but which were none the less deplorable. I still, however, cling to the hope and belief that when all the Eu- ropean Christians of India, who are really true believers, are led to see their opportunity and their duty in this matter, they will rise up in their strength and do wonders in giving the gospel to the millions of Hindus and Mohammedans among whom they live. From Lucknow, as a center, this new Sunday-school work spread throughout the North India Conference, and in a very few years began to attract the attention of mission- aries in all parts of India. In every station the schools were commenced in much the same way, but in the course of years became more thoroughly organized, and were so used as to become not only a means of doing good to the boys who attended, but were made a powerful missionary agency among the adults without. The informal manner in which many of these schools have always been conducted, has, as might have been expected, exposed them to no little criticism; but the m^n on the spot, who understood what they were doing, and who perceived clearly the far-reaching influence of this work, wisely paid little attention to the criticism, or even censure, which was leveled at them by per- sons who, owing to distance, could not correctly estimate the value of such a work. The gospel "sounded forth" from each school in a manner which had not been anticipated, and yet which proved very effective. Whatever else the boys failed to learn, they all learned to sing our Christian hymns, and in the towns and villages at all hours their voices would be heard by hundreds and thousands who otherwise would nevfr have listened to a gospel sound. It has been said of our Methodist people all over the world that they have never learned their theology, but that it has been " sung into them." In an important sense this remark will apply to SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 347 hundreds of thousands of the people in North India. They have never heard a word of gospel truth excepting as it has reached them through the medium of the simple Christian hymns which they have heard the Sunday-school boys sing- ing. Older people sometimes learn these hymns from their children, being attracted by the native airs with which they have been familiar from their childhood. Then, again, these boys are taught to memorize verses. A small ticket is given them, with a verse of Scripture on it, and each boy is required to memorize this before the following Sabbath. All children in India are exceedingly fond of memorizing, and the only idea which the people generally have of learning, consists in the one accomplishment of memorizing what is put before them. In school they invariably read at the top of their voices, as used to be the custom three-quarters of a century ago in the United States. A boy in a village wishing to memorize his verse will go down the street repeating it at the top of his voice, perhaps a hundred times in the course of a few minutes. He continues the process as he sits by his mother's door in the evening, or as he watches the cows and goats at pasture in the fields. In this way thousands upon thousands are hearing precious words of truth, repeated, it is true, in the most careless manner possible, but yet so repeated that the words will fix themselves in the memory of the hearer, and where they can not but in time produce an im- pression. Still another good effect of this work is that the people are made familiar with what is substantially an act of Chris- tian worship. In earlier days most of them stood in terror of anything of the kind, fancying, in their superstitious ig- norance, that all manner of evils might come to them if they ventured to come in contact with Christians engaged in an act of religious worship. It is worth more than the reader in America can appreciate to have hundreds of thousands of the people become familiar with the spectacle of a congregation gathered together, joining in prayer, singing songs of praise 348 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. to God, and otherwise going through the routine of ordinary Christian worship. Some good people, however, have objected to this work upon this very ground. To them it seems too much like degrading our worship, or making it a too familiar exercise, so that the people will learn to look upon it with indifference, if not with contempt. Others, again, object that boys who are not Christians are taught to repeat the Lord's Prayer, which they regard as altogether improper, if not morally wrong. The average Christian of modern times is more of a Jew than people generally suspect. A great deal of ancie.nt Judaism has filtered down through the ages, and affects even intelligent Christians at the present day to an extent which sometimes hinders their usefulness, and keeps no little light from shining into their own minds. The word " heathen," on the lips of the average Christian in England or America, to say nothing of India, is often a mere syno- nym for the word " Gentile," as used by the ancient Jews ; and hence good people are sometimes troubled at the thought of heathen boys that is to say, boys who, in their own homes, worship idols joining with Christians in repeating the Lord's Prayer. The whole procedure seems to them too much like taking the children's bread and casting it to dogs. I need hardly say that this faint reflection of Jewish preju- dice should have no place in a missionary's heart. We place all these dear little folks, boys and girls, Hindus, Mohamme- dans, and Christians, upon exactly the same basis. We teach them that God is their Father in heaven, and do not pause to qualify the statement in any way whatever. We teach them to look up to him and say, " Our Father," without the slightest hesitation. We teach them to sing songs of praise to him, believing that he looks down with pleasure upon every such gathering of little folks, without regard to their name, language, race, or religious profession. We have not the slightest scruple in teaching every human being to begin at once to look heavenward, and say, "Our Father who art in heaven." We believe that thousands of SUNDA Y-SCHOOLS. 349 these children have learned to repeat the Lord's Prayer with sincerity, and to sing our hymns, not only with the under- standing, but at times with the spirit also. From the very first our chief hindrance in this Sunday- school work was that of finding suitable officers and teachers for the schools. In the beginning we had but few Hindu- stani Christians who were fitted for such work, while our English membership was also small, and not a few of the best of our people were unable to sing or even speak in Hindu- stani. In some cases a zealous Scotchman would be seen, with an interpreter at his side, managing the school as best he could ; while in another school an Englishman would per- haps be seen in charge, talking to the boys in broken sen- tences, such as would have provoked great mirth had the school been composed of American boys listening to a for- eigner, but which were listened to with all gravity by the little Orientals, who seldom laugh or even smile in the face of any one who blunders, no matter how seriously, in the use of their language. The work continued to spread rapidly, and was taken up in all the stations of our mission in Oudh and Rohilkhand. In order to meet the sudden and unex- pected demand for this kind of work, some of the mission- aries began to hold schools in two or three different places in the course of the same Sunday. As a general rule, in those days, not more than two or three officers and teachers were assigned to each school. These would go out, perhaps at six o'clock in the morning, and hold a school in the usual form; then proceed to another point, and hold a second school at eight o'clock. The same workers would sometimes go out again in the evening, and hold a school at five or six o'clock in a third place. In this way a vast amount of work could be done by a comparatively small force of workers ; but even by duplicating and triplicating the efforts of the teachers in this way, the demand for such schools could not be fully met; and after a time some of the missionaries began to hold Sunday-schools on week-days. This raised a somewhat amus- 350 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. ing, and yet very practical, question as to whether such schools were entitled to a place in the table of Sunday-school statistics, or whether they should be called Sunday-schools at all. They were conducted in precisely the^ same way as the regular schools held on the Lord's-day, and, so far as any one could judge, were quite as useful in every respect, unless it was in the single fact that they did not mark the Lord's- day as in any sense different from the other days of the week. As time has passed, however, workers have increased and multiplied with the increase of our native Christians, both in numbers and intelligence, so that it is probable that we shall soon have a sufficient supply of Sunday-school teachers. Another difficulty which was experienced almost at the outset was that of finding suitable buildings in which to hold the schools. The chapels, school-houses, and rented rooms which were used at first soon proved utterly insufficient for the thousands of boys who were eager to meet with us in Sunday-schools. The workers were not long in deciding how to meet this difficulty. In the absence of buildings, they as- sembled their boys under trees, and sometimes, in the early morning or late evening, under the open sky. The superin- tendent would take his cane and draw straight lines, about four feet apart, on the hard-baked earth, arranged in the same order as the seats in a church, with an aisle three or four feet wide separating the two rows of lines. The boys would crowd in, and seat themselves on the ground in their usual style, with their toes touching the line, so that they sat in perfect order. When all were seated, the superintendent would call on them to rise and sing a hymn, after which all joined in repeating the Lord's Prayer. Then they would sing again a number of hymns, after which, if enough teachers were present, they would resume their seats, and repeat the verse or verses which they had learned during the week. If sufficiently advanced, they would also receive a brief exposition of the lesson of the day, after which there would be some more singing followed perhaps by a general cate- SUNDA Y-SCHOOLS. 351 chizing of the school, and then an address from the superin- tendent. Some two or three years ago this kind of open-air Sun- day-school work was pushed with great energy in some sec- tions, to such an extent that these schools were at times held in the open squares of the cities and towns, and prosecuted with equal zeal on Sundays and week-days. Thousands of men and boys, and in some cases even women and girls, were enrolled, and thus publicly taught. This raised anew the old questions: What is a Sunday-school? How many oi these schools can legitimately be included in the Sunday- school statistics? The decision reached was, that such schools, held on ordinary days, were to be termed Bible-, schools, and reported separately. It was thought best to keep the Sunday-school, as far as possible, so distinct from everything else resembling it, that its character, not only as a school but a worshiping assembly, might not be lost. I had a few opportunities of examining this kind of work, and was surprised to find that boys of the most thoughtless and wild description, thus called together in the public street, could really learn a great deal ot precious truth in the course of a half-hour, provided the process was repeated two or three times a week. I was surprised, and both amused and saddened, on one occasion, when, on going through a public jail, I was addressed by five boys who had been imprisoned for some petty offense, and who assured me that they be- longed to our Sunday-schools. They proved their assertion by repeating hymns and portions of the Catechism, and seemed to have profited, intellectually at least, by the very meager opportunities which they had enjoyed. I saw noth- ing, discouraging in the fact that such boys had found a lodg- ment in the public jail. They were bright boys in their way, and the same acuteness which had drawn them to the open Sunday-school in the street, had also unfortunately lodged them in their prison home. We have to take both boys and men as they come, and it seemed to me that we ought to be 352 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. thankful that the poor little fellows had learned to sing a few hymns before being shut up within the dark walls of the public prison. What has been the result of this work ? As expressed in statistics it has far exceeded our anticipations. We have 1,374 Sunday-schools in operation in India, with more than 55,000 pupils. We have been led to give more attention to this department of our work than any other mission in In- dia, and consequently stand at the head of all the missionary organizations in the empire in our Sunday-school work. God has wonderfully led us in this department of our work, and we have no thought of slackening our efforts, but hope that, as the years go by, we shall not only increase the great army of Sunday-school workers and pupils which he has given us^ but that we shall reap rich harvests when the precious seed which has been sown through this agency shall have had time to spring up and bring forth fruit. MOHAMMEDAN YOUNG WOMEN. Chapter XXVI. THE WOMEN OF INDIA.* A FOREIGN visitor to the Centennial Exhibition asked why the peasantry did not appear among the multitudes thronging the gates. He had not before been in a country where there was no visible class distinction. That which is so conspicuously absent in America is the most striking characteristic of an Indian crowd. As no country in the world has so many caste distinctions, so no one presents such strongly marked differences in the appearance and dress of the people who represent its various races, religions, and oc- cupations. The women of India, having less intercourse with each other than the men, have for ages maintained these differences with little or no modification. If it would be possible to bring them all together in one great assembly, it would still be as easy to classify them as when we meet them in their own cities or zenanas. In features they are much like Europeans ; but there are as many types as among the western Aryans, and these differ from one another as plainly as the German differs from the Irishman, or the Swede from the Italian. There is the wide forehead, arched eyebrows, and olive skin of the Mogul, the oval face and well-set head of the Bengali, the small regular features of the Marathi, the efficient, business-like expression of the Parsee, *This and the two following chapters have been kindly written for this book by Miss Isabella Thoburn, Principal of the Woman's Christian College of Lucknow. A few slight changes have been introduced, but none of importance. Miss Thoburn's long residence in India, and in- timate association with Indian women of all classes, fit her in au eminent degree for the task which is here fulfilled. 365 356 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. the shrinking reserve of the Hindustani, the low-browed Madrasi, and so on down the list. As in countenance, so in costumes; and in a hundred varying peculiarities do the women of India maintain, gen- eration after generation, lines of distinction which never are effaced. The Brahmani of Hindustan, like the Bengali of MISS ISABELLA THOBURN. all castes, wears a "sari." This is one garment, about five yards long and a yard and a quarter wide, so arranged as to cover the whole person gracefully, and, to one initiated, re- quiring neither pin nor button. The right arm is left free and the right shoulder partially exposed. This costume is very pretty. It is generally white, but is sometimes colored, and often with a narrow woven border of blue, red, or yel- low. The Madras sari is differently arranged, and does not THE WOMEN. 357 cover the head. The Marathi puts hers on in still another way ; but the Gujarat! has the prettiest style of all, and her garment is often rich in colors and embroidery. The lower Hindustani castes wear skirts heavily trimmed with colored silk and tinsel braid, small jackets with short sleeves, and a " chadar," a garment which is two and a half yards long, and one and a quarter wide. One end covers the head, and the other is brought across in front, and thrown over the left shoulder. This chadar may be of any material plain or em- broidered, white or colored. It is often edged with gold or silver braid. The working-women are known by their woven skirts of dark gingham, either checked or striped, with a deeper stripe of the prevailing color at the bottom. The web is made the width and length of one skirt. These women often wear blue or red chadars, and a group of them at work among the wheat-fields heightens the beauty of an always bright landscape. The women of the mountains wear a jacket, with a pretty vest, in which another material of some bright color has been set, and the chadar falls back from the head so as not to hide this piece of finery. The skirts of Nepali women contain yards and yards of cloth, so full that they stand out as though hooped. Very different from all of these are the Mohammedan costumes, in which trousers invariably take the place of skirts. These are sometimes close-fitting a style which, it is unnecessary to say, is not at all pretty. The most com- monly worn fits closely at the hips, and is gored to a great width at the bottom, the number of gores and the width de- pending entirely upon the ability of the wearer. A hand- some pair would sweep the floor a yard behind ; but they are caught up in folds in front, and tucked in at the waist, hang- ing like large ruffles, and leaving anything but a pretty effect at the back. The jacket is a little vest-like thing, all embroidery and trimming, which leaves bare the arm and a hand-breadth of the body between its hem and the band of the trousers. The chadar is generally net, or some very thin 358 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. material which is often allowed to fall back on the shoulder. It is always heavily trimmed. The Mohammedans wear much more color than the Hindus; the order being reversed with them, the well-to-do classes wearing color, and the working-women white. All these women, of all classes, are loaded with jewelry; indeed, it largely constitutes the dress in their eyes. There are pendants falling on the forehead; as many ear-rings as can find place from tip to tip of the ear; nose-rings so large that they can sometimes be tied back to the ear-rings, or so small that they are mere buttons on the nostril a Mo- hammedan preference; necklaces in close bauds around the throat, and suspended in larger and larger circles to the waist; armlets above the elbows, and bracelets by the dozen below ; rings on the fingers, rings on the toes, anklets, and instep ornaments, and chains at the waist. Some of the toe- rings have little bells attached, and the bearer "makes music wherever she goes," or at least makes a jingle. With such loads to carry, it is a happy thing that these women have little walking or working to do; and yet the poor laborers, who can not afford the precious rnetals, array themselves in heavy pewter or earthenware ornaments. Shellac is made into very pretty bracelets of all colors and designs, and is much worn, with either gold or silver bands between. Gold is never worn on the feet of even the most wealthy. It is not only that Indian women like ornaments ' and jewels, but because they are a sort of deposit of money, that they are worn. If a woman has money to lay by, she has it made up into bangles, and puts them on her arms, or per- haps locks them in a box. When a time of need comes, they are either pawned or sold. "What will you do now?" was asked a Christian widow who had lost her employment for conscience' sake. " Eat these," she replied, holding out her arms to show a pair of heavy silver bracelets. She ate them, and when a new service gave her a surplus again, she had bracelets made for another rainy day. THE WOMEN. 359 A bride's dowry consists largely of jewels, which it is considered dishonorable for her husband to sell. A Moham- medan wife may sue her husband if he disposes of her jewels without her consent. Only well-to-do people are confined to the zenana,* and only those of some nationalities. In South India, women may go out much more freely than in the North. The Marathi women have much freedom, and the Parsees walk where they will, and even drive out with their husbands. The parda f system is more generally observed where there is most Mohammedanism, and most strictly in cities that were Mohammedan capitals. Islam is to blame for the system. Oriental women always lived more or less in the background, but Mohammed shut them within walls and turned the key. When his religion was brought to India this custom came with it. The invading kings and their courtiers forcibly added Hindu women to their harems, and, to protect their wives and daughters from such outrages, the Hindus kept them indoors. Gradually the Mohammedan zenana system came to prevail among them as among their conquerors, and in proportion to their natural reserve and timidity, it became much more strictly observed. In course of time seclusion became the Indian standard of respectabil- ity. If a man could afford to keep his wife and daughters in idleness, they were shut up in a zenana not unwillingly ; for they, too, aspired to the higher social position. This se- clusion is rigidly enforced in the cities; but in villages and remote towns the women only keep in the background, and * The word zenana is of Persian origin, and usually means the part of a house set apart for the exclusive use of the women. Some- times, however, the term is used to designate the inmates of women's apartments, and in missionary circles it is often applied, somewhat V)osely, to all forms of work among the higher classes of women, carried on in their own homes. In popular language, a " zenana woman " is one who lives in Oriental seclusion. t The parda, mentioned below, means, literally, the veil or screen, and is the common term used for the seclusion of women. 360 INDTA AND MALAYSIA. draw their chadars well over their faces when men are near. They would never, under any circumstances, enter into con- versation with a man. Among Hindus a woman is more careful to veil her face in the presence of her husband than of even remote male relatives; but a Mohammedan woman, except for a short time after marriage, looks her husband in the face, and talks to him freely. When she displeases him he reminds her with high disdain that he is a man; and if she is a pious Mussulmani, she will at once be meekly silent; if not, there will be an argument, in which she will have the last word at any cost. The Indian house of the better class is cheerless enough to outward appearance a four-walled prison, with one door and no windows but within it always contains an open court, into which the sun can shine by day and the stars look down at night. The rooms may be small and dark, but they open on verandas, and these open on the court, and the veranda is the family dwelling-place. They sleep in the little rooms in the coldest weather, and in the court in the warmest, or up on the flat roof, around which the outer wall extends high enough to form a screen. There are sometimes small windows in this wall if larger than pigeon-holes, they are closely latticed and through these the women may look into the street below. Not much of a view; for the dwelling-houses of respectable people are not on the bazaar, but in narrow lanes, where the outstretched hands may almost touch opposite houses. The court gener- ally contains a well, and sometimes a tree, and in large es- tablishments of the rich it expands into a small garden. Many a poor little place is made bright by a bed of mari- golds, or sacred by a carefully kept tulsi plant (an object of worship) ; but broken or unused househould utensils and furniture, and a sadly kept drain, often detract from this otherwise pleasant part of the house. In large zenanas there is often an inner court for the women and the household work; but the average Indian house contains a little ante- THE WOMEN. 361 room, sometimes used for a stable, sometimes for a pas c age only, with a small room to the right or left of this where the men sit and talk and receive their friends. Within, on one side of the court, is the kitchen and store-room, and on the other two sides the sitting and bed-rooms. The furniture of the same average house consists of beds which are light cots that can be be lifted in and out at pleasure, and the bed- ding of which is generally rolled up by day the boxes which contain the family clothing, a pan-box, a few pictures of wonderful many-armed and many-headed gods and goddesses, a low desk, if the master of the house has literary tastes, and a few mats, and perhaps cushions. In Mohammedan houses there is a wooden platform about a foot high, on which a cotton mat is spread, and here the women sit, or recline, much of their time. In fine houses a mat covers the floor, a white cloth is spread on this, and bolsters and cushions placed here and there to support head, back, or elbow, as the sitter may wish. The kitchen of a Hindu house is its most attractive part. It is small, but absolutely clean. The stove is of the rudest simply a little fireplace of clay or brick, built against the wall, and without a chimney. The fireplace and the wall behind and the floor in front, after each meal, are brushed over with a clay wash, which hardens and dries, and leaves a spotless surface. The brass plates, cups, spoons, and kettles, scoured until they shine like mirrors, are then leaned against the wall, to await their next service. The Mohammedans do not use brass, but copper, covered with a surface of tin ; and neither vessels nor kitchen are kept remarkably clean, but often the reverse. But there is not a plate and cup for each member of the family. The Indian home has no family table or family meal. The food is prepared, and a portion set before the master of the house, if he fe ready to eat, and, if they are present, the sons or other male relatives may eat with him ; then the women all together, if convenient, but otherwise as it suits 362 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. them, sitting near the hearth, or taking the plate to the plat- form, or the cot, which is a seat by day and a bed by night. If guests are invited, a table-cloth, or crumb-cloth for there is no table is spread on the floor and the food placed upon it, while the guests sit around, but not the family. Like Abraham, the prince of Orientals, the host serves his guests, standing meanwhile, or the hostess, if they be women. The meal consists generally of two dishes, with sometimes an ad- ditional relish of catsup or some hot sauce. The fast is broken in the morning with fruit or milk, or something kept over from the day before. The breakfast is taken at early noon, and the dinner in the evening. If a lunch is taken, it consists of a little sweetmeat; but even the well-to-do are temperate people, and not given to much eating; the poor can not afford it. Multitudes have only one cooked meal a day, and make the other of a handful of parched grain. A good Hindu wife cooks her husband's food with her own hands, although she may have servants in the house. She also prepares the food of an honored guest. Aside from such labors, Hindu women have little to do. If they wear the sari, it requires no sewing ; and the elaborate trimming of the skirts and jackets of other castes is generally done by a tailor. The same is true of the trousers of a Mohammedan lady ; very few make their own, and even the village women who work in the fields have their plain sewing done by a tailor. The Mohammedan woman who can afford to keep a servant does not cook for any one, and, except putting on and off her jewels, and preparing betel-nut and pan, she is abso- lutely idle. Sometimes she does a little embroidery, and keeps a piece to show her visitors. The pan-box contains an upper tray, on which the fresh leaves are placed. When this is removed, there is seen under it a number of little cups, containing the different articles used in the preparation betel-nut, cardamom-seeds, cocoa-nut, cloves, catechu, and lime. One or two leaves are laid on the palm, the lime and catechu spread on, the betel-nut cut in small pieces by a knife THE WOMEN. 363 made for the purpose, and cardamom and cocoa-nut added, and then the leaf is neatly folded over and pinned with a clove. The whole must be taken into the mouth at once, and what with the distended cheek and the red catechu on the lips and teeth, it in no way adds to the beauty of the face. It is slightly stimulating, perhaps equal to a mild cup of tea. It is always offered to a guest. It is taken after each meal. It is prepared for the men of the family when they come in or go out, taken as refreshment at any time of the day, and in process of time it becomes such a habit that elderly peo- ple men and women are seldom seen without a pan in their mouths. This is especially true of Mohammedan women, whose beautiful teeth in girlhood become quite spoiled by its use. As the women neither sew nor read, their daily re- ligious duties are, to many, their only occupation. Prepar- ing the flowers and sweetmeats, and performing the daily worship, is not only a pious act, but it is a relief from the monotonous idleness of the day. This is done in a little room set apart for the purpose. Another religious act is a relief from the four-walled seclusion in which they live. On all sacred days and full moons, and whenever there is special reason for the act, the elderly women of the family are per- mitted to go to the river to bathe. They put on a large outer chadar, much like a sheet, and draw it over the face so closely as almost to hide it, and take with them an offering according to their ability; it may be a handful of rice, or fruit, or sweetmeats ; if it is money, it is generally copper. They go into the water with one garment on, and on coming out a dry chadar is put round the shoulders, while the wet one is dropped on the ground, and afterward wrung out and carried home. The bath and change of garments is made with the utmost modesty and care. After coming up from the river, an offering is made to the priest, who sits con- veniently near; then some of the sacred water is taken home, for household use, in the little brass cup she has 364 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. brought for the purpose; and perhaps, also, some flowers from before the god are taken in exchange for those she has offered. Mohammedan women, if they are pious, pray five times a day, standing or bowing on their praying-mat, with their faces toward Mecca. They also fast rigidly during the Ramzau, and weep themselves blind during the Moharram, special mourning services being held in the houses ; but they seldom go to the mosques. The religion of Hindu women is obedience to priests and husbands, and superstitious reverence for all the rites, tra- ditions, and customs of their faith. This means more than any one can comprehend who has grown up free in thought and action. It enters into all the affairs of life, from birth to death. In eating and drinking, in sickness and health, in marrying and giving in marriage, in making and receiving visits, the gods, the stars, and all the elements are consulted, either through the priests or through signs that have come to mean good or evil, with a fear that nothing in reason can overcome. The cutting of a boy's hair is a religious observ- ance, and sometimes a pilgrimage is undertaken in order to perform it in a sacred place. Small-pox is a goddess who will be offended if she is treated as an unwelcome guest, and will send greater calamities upon those who are unwilling to receive her; therefore vaccination is resisted. All sickness comes from the displeasure of angry gods, or from the influ- ence of evil spirits, and these must be propitiated by charms and incantations, by feeding Brahmans, going on pilgrimages, and other difficult and expensive acts. Hinduism is not a religion of love, but of fear ; and the anger of the gods, which descends in curses upon those who offend them, is dreaded at every step. This anger is not manifested when their devo- tees commit sin as we understand it not for acts of false- hood, impuiity, or dishonesty; on the contrary, they could invoke the aid of the gods in these things but for omitting some rite, neglecting some gift to priest or temple, or break- ing a custom that time has made sacred. Next to the gods THE WOMEN. 365 they fear evil spirits. To keep these off, amulets are worn on neck and arms, and even tied to the hair, if the head aches. They may consist of relics brought from sacred places, the name of a god carved on camel ian or bloodstone, or a line of the Koran inclosed in a little silver box. Super- stition is by no means confined to the women ; but it is more marked among them, and especially in the villages its name is legion. Every poor, nervous, hysterical creature is thought to be possessed, and is often beaten, or burned with hot irons, to drive the demons away. There are no gentler, more kind-hearted, and unselfish women in the world than the women of India. The Hindu wife is not only devoted to her husband as a religious duty, but to him and her children, and all her friends, from the love of her heart. She can do nothing to show it but pre- pare their food when they are well, and wail over them when they sicken or die; and in her blind affection she is often the worst enemy of those dearest to her. She must have "them within sight and touch, although health, education, or pro- motion require their absence ; they receive her sympathetic approval when they are wrong, if the wrong should bring them into any trouble, and she has fierce wrath for all who think them guilty. She does not dream that she has anything to do in forming the character of her children. If she is angry enough to lose self-control, she punishes for the merest trifle ; otherwise no notice is taken of the gravest mis- demeanors, and falsehood and bad language are thought evi- dence of precocity, and praised accordingly. This is the untaught Hindu ; but the educated Christian mother of India has the virtues of the Christian woman of other countries. There are few American newspapers that have not pub- lished, in an item or editorial article during the past few years, a statement to the effect that there are 21,000,000 widows in India; of these, 670,000 are under nineteen years of age! Many of them are little children. An infant may be married, or even betrothed, and, if left a widow, can not 366 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. remarry. It is parental duty to get a daughter married, and that when she is a child; and so there are no unmarried women of a suitable age for a mature widower, and he must marry a child, even though he be an old man. A reform measure proposed by the last Indian National Congress was, that a man of sixty be forbidden to marry a girl under twelve ! Suttee was abolished by law during Lord Bentinck's ad- ministration, in 1829. Gradually the native States, led by their English-educated chief men, and acting under strong pressure from the English Government, followed the example set in British territory, until the last prohibitory law was made in Nepal a few years ago. It was honorable to die with her husband, and the widow thns won glory here and heaven hereafter; but to live was to bear continual reproach. The sacred books and laws of the Hindus never commanded suttee ; but they recommended perpetual widowhood and a life of privation as a means of attaining a better state hereafter, and release from the penalty of being born again as a woman. Except with little girls, this hard life is often accepted as a necessity of the widow's lot; and in many instances she subjects herself to more severe penances than her friends require, being guided by her priests and her own fears. The belief is that widowhood is a pun- ishment for some sin, either in this or a previous birth; and the woman who has offended her gods to the extent of de- serving such punishment, is deemed as unworthy as one whose known sin makes her an outcast from polite society in other countries. And yet there were, here and there, liberal-minded fam- ilies, even in the past, and one occasionally meets an aged widow who was saved from suttee by an orthodox Hindu father, and frequently, also, happy widows in homes where they have won for themselves affection and influence. They are, in such cases, what the maiden aunt or grandmother is in Christian families to be consulted and considered in all THE WOMEN. 367 important matters, and kindly cared for by those for whom they care in turn. It is a cause of thankfulness that the people of India are not all as bad as their systems. In 1856 the remarriage of widows was legalized by Lord Canning; but the law was for years after almost a dead letter. The feeling against it was almost too strong for a merely permissive law to overcome; and even now the man who marries a widow risks social ostracism, and must pay a large fee to the Brahman who performs the ceremony. A few years ago, each such case was loudly proclaimed, widely pub- lished ; but they are becoming, by slow degrees, more fre- quent and less notable. Like child-marriage, compulsory widowhood will pass gradually away. To overcome an age-intrenched Hindu custom is like leveling one of the Himalayas possible, but with infinite pains of effort and suspense. The reformers are now attack- ing child-marriage, but with such slow success that they would be discouraged if they had not the reformer's faith. The last Legislative Council passed a law forbidding mar- riage under twelve years a step that former administrations feared to take, believing that the empire was not ready for such extreme measures! They were right, if ready means pre- pared to accept them without protest or dissent. Mass-meet- ings were held all over the land while the act was pending, much talking was done, and many fiery appeals sent up to Government ; but when the bill became a law, the disturbance subsided to occasional low mutterings from the most conserv- ative. The extent of sympathy with the established order of things may be imagined when even the late Mrs. Joshee, ed- ucated and studying medicine in America, was unwilling to admit that child-marriage was an evil. Her own marriage, at nine, had been to a relative, her teacher and best friend; and with this experience, and the traditions of her people, she had been unconscious of the sufferings of others. She would have changed her opinion if she had lived to practice her profession in India. 368 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Mohammedan marriage customs differ from those of the Hindus in almost every particular except the expense at- tending the ceremony. Widow-marriage is as common as among English people, and child-marriage is not common; few Mohammedan girls are married before their teens, and many when they are quite women. But what they gain in these regards they more than lose in other abuses of the family relation. Among Hindus polygamy is very seldom practiced; it is the exception to find more than one wife in the family. Princes sometimes take more, and low-caste people; but among the better classes it is not approved by practice or opinion. But Mohammedans take as many wives as they can aiford. The Koran allows them four, and those who can support them generally enlarge their families to the limits of the law. Worse than this, their law permits un- limited divorce which, among Hindus, is unknown an abomination to the mind of a Hindu woman. That some castes in the hills turn their wives out and take others, does not alter the general fact. But the Mohammedan man or woman who wishes a divorce may obtain it by paying for it. A devout Mussulman may never have more than four wives at once, but he may be married twenty times. Dr. Murdoch mentions an Arab who had been married fifty times. It is also allowed to them to marry for a period of time a year, or six months, according to their pleasure. These customs have degraded every family instinct, and home-life and char- acter have suffered immeasurably. The women have less refinement and gentleness; their happiness, where it exists at all, is less secure; and the dissensions between rival wives are more fierce than between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. When the polygamous husband can afford the house-room, he sets up separate establishments, and thus avoids the strife of tongues. When child-marriage has been done away, in practice as well as in law, this barbarous abuse will still wait to be abolished. Chapter XXVII. EDUCATION AMONG WOMEN. FROM the beginning, missionary work among the women of India was of necessity, largely educational. Like the children that they are, they have to be led step by step, and receive line upon line. They have never presumed to question their false faiths; for they have been taught that they must not question anything that they must not have opinions. The Corinthian woman was told that she must ask her husband at home, if she wanted instruction ; but the Indian woman can not ask, and must not want to know. To wish to read was presumption, and an attempt to learn was punished by the gods with widowhood. The better class of Mohammedans generally have their daughters taught to read and write, and, compared with Hindus, they are " strong- minded women." Among the latter, perhaps one in a thou- sand has been taught by a liberal father, like Ramabai's, or by a husband who gave the lessons secretly for fear of the ridicule of the younger members of the family and the anger and prohibition of the elder. One reason given by the men for keeping the women in ignorance was, that there was noth- ing fit for them to read; but it never seemed to occur to them to write pure books, or expurgate their classic litera- ture for themselves or their families. Without books, with- out intelligent conversation, blind followers of blind guides, the women became mentally unfit to receive new impressions or to be reached by new influences. Indeed it was difficult to reach them at all, shut in by zenana walls, by the com- mands of their lords, and by their own fears and supersti- tions. This fear was the same among all classes. Mrs. Sale 24 369 370 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. says that when she tried to visit the women, in 1850, she found admittance to the zenanas impossible. She then " went to the villages among the poor cultivators of the land, but found the women in their lowly huts as fearful of allowing their faces to be seen by strangers as the dwellers in larger houses. They begged her not to come any farther ; they were cooking, and if her shadow but passed the cook-room door they would have to throw away all the food and break the earthen vessels." Gradually, here and there, by patient kindness and perseverance, Mrs. Sale, Mrs. Mullens, Mrs. Winter, and others, gained an entry into homes and hearts ; workers increased year by year; men began to observe and think, and, as a result, were willing to grant the same favor to women; prejudices weakened and gave way, until now we can speak of many of the old difficulties in the past tense, and find our most serious hindrance in the limited number of Christian women who are as willing to teach as these multi- tudes are willing to learn. In our own mission, as in most others, the first work was done in the orphanage. In a land of wars aud famines, of poverty and pestilence, homeless children wandered about little waifs whose near relatives had perished, or were them- selves so poor that they could not fill the mouths of their own children. The mutiny left many in wretchedness and want; and yet when an orphanage was opened in the latter part of 1858, there was so much opposition by both Hindus and Mo- hammedans that only thirteen girls were gathered in during the first two years. Then a famine visited the already stricken land, and the number trebled at once, and has gone on increasing until it has sometimes reached three hundred. Without restraint or fear, the little girls, brought in from the roadside or the desolated huts, were taught as they would have been in a Christian home or school; and during the years since then they have themselves been teachers in homes and schools, and now their daughters are bright and promising girls in all our classes. EDUCATION AMONG WOMEN. 371 Next to the orphanage came the " pice schools" little day- schools, where poor girls were paid a pice (three-fourths of a cent) a day for coming to be taught for a few hours. This was offered because their parents said they could n.ot spare them from the work that helped to win their scanty food. These were literally ragged-schools, and it was a pleasure to give anything to the half-naked and half-starved little things, who came to school just as they would have gone to carry stones or do any other coolie's work. They learned to sing and pray oftener than to read, being married too soon to make much progress in what their parents believed to be not only folly, but presumption. Hired pupils are not worth much, and these schools passed away as soon as more promis- ing work began. Zenana-schools were opened after many attempts and fail- ures. The same stories were told that are now used to excite opposition in China that the missionaries would kill the children and make medicine of their eyes, or that they would collect a ship-load and send them to America as servants. In our mission-field the Mohammedans were the first to yield, having less timidity and more curiosity than the Hindus. They did not open their houses to visits at once, but were willing to attend a school where the secular instruction was given by one of themselves in her own house. They did not refuse the Scripture-lessons given by the missionary lady in charge. There were a number of such schools in Luck- now and other cities; the girls were carried to and fro in a little curtained doli, swung on a pole that rested on the shoulders of the bearers, whose hire, like all other expenses, was paid by the mission. Neither fees, nor price of books, nor sewing materials could be collected from pupils. Through the acquaintance begun in the schools, visits were made in the course of time to the houses of the pupils, and through them to their friends and neighbors, until some years later this zenana visiting and teaching became more interesting than the schools themselves; but, judging from apparent 372 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. results, the whole work has been comparatively unprofitable. Three women were baptized in Lucknow in 1869; but soon after, when opposed and threatened, they fled from the city, and have never since been seen. Others have given a half- way assent to Christianity ; one was baptized, but after a few years recanted ; some confessed faith in Christ on their death- beds or during times of trial. The women so educated are weekly readers of the zenana paper; they are happier and wiser, their homes are cleaner and more quiet ; but they are not known as belonging to Christ, and are apparently as steadfast as ever in observing the fasts and feasts of Islam. Hindu schools were opened in the towns and villages, generally, but not always, among the lower castes. They were at first taught by pundits, or Brahman teachers, the girls being brought together daily by women employed for the purpose; but the place of the pundit was filled by a Christian woman as soon as one could be provided. Most of these schools were of the most elementary kind. To read and write, to count and add or subtract, and learn a little geo- graphy, is a good education in a country where only five women in a thousand can read, even now after years of mis- sion and Government instruction. Even this little makes a quickly apparent difference in countenance, speech, manner, ambitious, and efforts, which would be a reward if there were no other results. In 1869 another department of educational work began, which has increased in importance and interest with the growth of the Christian community. In the first published report of woman's work in the North India Conference, this passage occurs : " For ten miles around the city of Amroha there are many vil- lages, in which a few Christians live who are converts from an ig- norant class of people. There are no schools in any of these villages in which girls can learn to read, and the Christians are so scattered, and so few in each village, that we can not reach them through vil- lage schools. The only way, therefore, to educate the daughters of EDUCATION AMONG WOMEN. 373 these Christians is to have a boarding-school at some central point. Such a school has been opened at Amroha, and is under the charge of the Rev. Zahur-ul-Haqq and his wife. In this Christian family the girls are separated from heathen influences, are taught to read and write and work, and trained in everything necessary to fit them to take charge of a village school or to regulate a Christian home. There is good reason to believe that when these girls return to their homes they will, by their lives and words, become successful evan- gelists to,their people. There are now fifteen girls in the school," etc. The Amroha school was removed to Moradabad three years later, the latter place being more central, and contain- ing greater facilities for instruction. It has fulfilled the de- sign and expectation of its founders. Christian women at many places in Rohilkhand and the adjoining provinces learned how to live and work in the Moradabad school. It has now fine buildings, a high-school department, and a class preparing for entrance to the Calcutta University. A similar school had been opened in Paori, Garhwal, a few years before ; but some of the girls admitted were or- phans, and others Hindus, who cooked and ate apart. The next boarding-school was opened in Bijnour, in 1878, and in 1880 others were started in Budaon and Pithoragarh. The latter was begun when four girls, who attended the day- school, became Christians; there was no longer place for them in their Hindu homes, and a school-home was prepared for them by Mrs. Gray. It has now ninety pupils. Board- ing-schools of this kind were opened later in Sitapore, Gonda, I Shahjehanpore, and other centers, and, with the rapidly in- creasing number of village Christians, and the opening of new districts, many more will be required. These schools are supported by scholarships from Amer- ica; but fees are required from those able to pay them, ac- cording to the ability of the parents. They are carefully collected, even though not amounting to more than a dime a mouth ; some are not able to pay even so much. In April, 1870, a school of a higher grade and on a dif- 374 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. ferent basis was opened in Luck now. There were, here and there, Christians in good circumstances whose sons were studying in high-schools and colleges, reading and talking English, and living in touch with the new life of the empire. They asked for a school where their daughters might have like opportunities. Some were in remote places, and a board- ing-school was necessary.* They were not rich, but had money enough to pay boarding fees and all in- cidental expenses; the mission, with a grant from Government, has paid for teachers and buildings. This school has from the first re- ceived all pupils sent, without regard to race or language, and has combined in one happy family Hindustani, Ben- gali, Eurasian, and En- glish girls. All learn Urdu and English, and all are trained, as far as possible, to work for Christ. This school has now a collegiate depart- ment, and is affiliated MISS ELLEN D'ABREU, B. M. ' with the Allahabad Uni- versity. But while girls were admitted without regard to race, there were some who wished their daughters to live more ex- pensively, with European instead of Indian food and cus- * These two young ladies, whose portraits are given, are represent- atives of the Eurasian community. They began their studies at Luck- now and Cawnpore, and received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Medicine, respectively, at Calcutta and Madras. EDUCATION AMONG WOMEN. 375 toms. In 1874 a Eurasian gentleman, whose daughter at- tended the Lucknow school as a day-scholar, called to ask if she might be received as a boarder in the family of the lady missionaries and teachers. She had to be refused for lack of room ; but with the assurance that the matter would be kept in mind, and that, as soon as possible, a school would be opened for English-speaking girls. This was done a year later, at Cawnpore, and soon after at Calcutta.; next at Naini Tal, at higher rates, to cover the expensive living of the hills; and next at Rangoon, Poona, and Bangalore. Thus a field was entered which, for both sowing and reap- ing, had been largely in the hands of Roman Catholics. A class of people who will spend all their lives in India, and be identified with its good or ill, socially and religiously, are be- ing taught in a mission- ary atmosphere, and, when possible, trained for Christian work. They cost the Missionary Society comparatively little, and even begin to contribute to its expenses. The Naini Tal school supports nine orphan girls. The girls of the boarding-schools are from Christian families, unlike those of China, Japan, and other mission- fields. They are thus receiving advantages impossible for caste-bound, zenana-locked Hindus and Mohammedans, and MRS. SOPHIA D'ABREU THOMPSON, B. A. 376 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. the consequence is that the Christian community is rising above those of other faiths in intelligence even more rapidly than it is increasing in numbers. A large majority of the young women who have entered and passed through the universities are Christians. These universities were in advance of those of England in opening examinations and degrees to women. Their ad- mission was not questioned. Miss Chandra Mukhi Bose, the first candidate, was prepared in the Girl's School at Dehra Doon, in the American Presbyterian Mission, and passed her entrance examination in 1876. Passing through the full course of study, she received the degree of M. A., in 1884, and is now the principal of the Bethune Girls' College in Calcutta. Only one other lady has passed the highest ex- amination, and she, too, is a Christian* Fourteen have passed the B. A. examinations, of whom nine were Christians, the others members of the Brahmo Somaj. In all 470 girls have matriculated in the universities ; a large number when we remember that the first one appeared only sixteen years ago, and that candidates are subjected to a very thorough written examination. Only four ladies have taken the degree of M. B. all Christians but there are a number of licentiates from the university medical colleges. Degrees are only given to those who have passed the first examination in arts before com- mencing their medical studies. . . . It may be well to insert here a short extract from " My Missionary Apprenticeship," published eight years ago, in which the origin of the Moradabad boarding-school is ex- plained, and from which its providential mission will become more apparent. It now enrolls nearly one hundred and fifty boarders annually. In all our missions in India we have eleven hundred Christian girls in boarding-schools. "Just before Mrs. Parker left for America, she had made a small beginning in the way of a boarding-school for girls, and had received the first three pupils Her plan was to gather in the village MISS CHANDRA MUKHI BOSE, M. A. EDUCATION AMONG WOMEN. 379 girls, and, after giving them a simple education, send them back again to their homes, where they might he expected to act like so much leaven among the native Christians in the villages. Find- ing it impossible to arrange for these girls in Moradabad, Mrs. Parker had made them over to Mrs. Zahur-ul-Haqq, who lived in the city of Amroha. For a time the people held aloof, and were un- willing to send their girls away from home; but during these tours in the villages I succeeded in picking up a few pupils, and before the close of the year the school began to assume very respectable proportions. The next year the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society was most opportunely founded, and the school, having fallen under its fostering care, has had a career of wonderful prosperity. It now contains more than one hundred pupils, and the girls who have been taught in it are exercising the most wholesome influence all through the villages of that region. Natives of India, like natives of other countries, wish to see a strange thing done before attempting it themselves. A missionary might lecture to the village women for years without inducing them to change their ancient habits and superstitions; but a better way is simply to send a few intelligent and educated young women of their own class among them. What precept can not do, example easily accomplishes. I am more and more persuaded that Christian boarding-schools are to be most im- portant factors in the future development of Christianity in India. The boarding-school must follow close in the pathway of the evan- gelist. The school does not save the people ; but it takes up the work of their improvement, and aids in the development of a new life which the gospel brings to them." Chapter XXVIII. MEDICAL WORK FOR WOMEN. " F)REACH the gospel, and heal the sick," was the com- 1 mission to the Seventy ; and, although the modern missionary may not have heard the formal command in the beginning, yet he has always found the use of medicine an essential part of his work. Not only because he wishes to win the confi- dence and friend- ship of the "people to whom he has been sent, but as one of the suffering human race, he can not pass by on the other side, even to preach the gospel, and leave his fel- low-creatures in un- relieved pain. Nat- urally he has with him the simple rem- edies known in all households, and these gradually increase with his experience and knowledge, and the demands made upon him, until medicine often has the most important place in his traveling outfit when he goes among the villages. Often he is stopped in the road to look at a wen, a goitre, or MISS C. A. SWAIN, M. D. 380 MEDICAL WORK FOR WOMEN. 381 an abscess; or one comes running across fields to beg him to stop and advise about a burn, or the wound from an ox's horn, or a scorpion's sting. The fevers and ordinary com- plaints brought to his notice are legion, and the sick are sometimes carried to him on cots, as to his Master of old. But these are men. Within the walls of palace and hut alike, the women have for ages suffered according to their lot, relieved only by practitioners who judged their symptoms from hearsay, and who knew little of the anatomy or physiol- ogy of the human body except what they had learned from observation of cause and effect. Some of these men have natural gifts of healing, but the majority make sad mistakes when they do their best. It long since became apparent that the only doctors who could relieve these, the greatest sufferers in the land, must themselves be women. No one else could approach them, even if they were dying. It was hoped, too, that the desire to be relieved from pain would make those who kept in the most rigid seclusion willing to be visited, and that thus the way of access would be opened for the Bible, and all the gracious influences it carries with it, to hearts and homes. The first effort in this direction was made by Dr. Hum- phrey, a medical missionary of the North India Conference, who, in 1867, began training a class of young women from the Orphanage, hoping to send them where he could not go himself. Meanwhile the first lady medical missionary, Miss C. A. Swain, M. D.,* of Castile, New York, a graduate of * Dr. Swain enjoys the honorable distinction, not only of being the pioneer lady physician in India, but the first lady physician ever sent out by any missionary society into any part of the non-Christian world. After some years of .uccessful service in North India, she accepted an appointment as resident physician at the court of the Raja of Ketri, a small State in Rajpootana, where she still remains, doing a good work, and occupying a position of commanding influence. No restraint is put upon her work as a missionary, and her position offers a striking com- ment upon the constant assertions of certain officials that medical work among the women of India must be kept wholly apart from missionary agencies. 382 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia, was sent to India by the newly organized Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church. Another class in the Or- phanage had been taught English by Mrs. Thomas, and were thus prepared to receive lessons from Dr. Swain as soon as she arrived. Besides this, an interesting and successful prac- tice came into her hands at once. There had been fears in some minds that the women were too timid and superstitious to take treatment, even from a lady physician ; but from the beginning not only the poorer and middle classes came to the dispensary, but the high caste and wealthy were among the patients, coming to her in their closed conveyances, or send- ing for her to their houses. Zenana doors previously barred against missionary visits were opened, and opportunities for doing good were widened and increased. The need of a hospital was soon felt, and was met by the gift from the Nawab of Rampore, the ruler of a Moham- medan State near by, of a large, well-situated house, sur- rounded by ample grounds. To this building enlarged accom- modations were added by the Missionary Society, and in this first woman's hospital in India the second medical class was trained, and also compounders and nurses were taught the work they were to do in neighboring places. Other missionary societies were moving in the same di- rection, and ladies were sent from America and England as rapidly as they could be prepared for the work; but the need was so much greater than the possible supply from abroad, that admission for female students was asked in the Indian med- ical colleges. The universities, led by Madras, opened their doors to women medical students. They were welcomed and treated with uniform respect by students and professors, na- tive as well as foreign a fact gratefully recorded in view of the very different treatment women have received from West- ern medical colleges. The pupils from our few high-schools who were prepared to take the course of study, which was in the English language, entered the colleges ; and a vernacular MEDICAL WORK FOR WOMEN. 383 training-school, with a three years' course of lectures, was opened in Agra. Interest so increased that scholarships were offered by non-Christians as well as by missionary societies. Municipal Boards made appropriations, and princes promised student-support and after-salary to women on condition that .they would work a given number of years in their do- minions. Into the midst of this universal interest came the Dufferin movement, bringing with it Government influence, system, and combination of effort. The romantic story has been often told, and is given in full in Bishop Hurst's " Indika," of the English missionary who went from Lucknow to treat the Rani of Pannah, from whom she was charged to carry a message to Queen Victoria, begging her to do something for the relief of the suffering women of India. The Queen re- ceived the message and the little gift that accompanied it, and her kind heart was touched by the appeal. She passed it on to Lady Dufferin, the wife of the outgoing Viceroy, who ar- rived in India with her brain busy and her heart burdened with plans for the accomplishment of the work. The " Countess of Dufferin Fund " was organized soon after her arrival, in consultation with leading officials, missionaries, and philanthropists. The organization met with less prej- udice than anything else that could have been undertaken for women, and by many it received an enthusiastic response. Wealthy Indians had been accustomed to making large dona- tions for charitable purposes, and, with the stimulus of vice- regal approval united to their personal interest, they freely opened their purses for this cause. English officials have also given largely. During the seven years since the association was organ- ized, twelve million rupees have been spent in the erection of buildings, and over a million rupees have been invested as endowment. Nine lady doctors with English qualifications, and thirty-one certificated assistants, are now working under the Association, while 224 persons are studying on Dufferin 384 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. scholarships at the medical colleges and schools in the differ- ent provinces. There are a Central Committee, Provincial Committees, and again, under these, local committees, so that the benefits of the fund are reaching out to all the important cities and towns of the empire. Where lady doctors can not be obtained and they are still very few assistants work under the civil surgeons of the stations. The number of patients treated during the past year was 465,000. The objects of the Association are set forth to be : Medi- cal tuition, including the teaching and training in India of women as doctors, hospital assistants, nurses, and mid wives; medical relief, including the establishment of hospitals and dispensaries, to be under the superintendence of women ; the supply of trained nurses and midwives. The Association is philanthropic, but not missionary in any other sense. Its employees are pledged not to interfere in any way with the religious beliefs of the patients that come under their care. Missionary hospitals and dispensaries are invited to be affiliated with the National Association ; but as there are no benefits to be derived from such a union, they have generally preferred to remain apart. Their work has increased and prospered, and although they have been accom- panied by the Bible-reader and the evangelist, and have themselves spoken freely of the hope of a suffering, sinning world, they have had, not only free access to the homes of the people, but have won the grateful affection of many hearts. Medical missions, though begun by Americans, have been taken up with greater enthusiasm by the English societies. They have twice as many lady doctors in the field, with as- sistants more or less trained in general practice, midwifery or nursing. In all there are now more than fifty lady mission- ary physicians in India mission-work, nearly all of whom are in charge of hospitals or dispensaries. A few are independ- ent practitioners, but are none the less doing genuine mission- work. The medical work has been a spur to the higher educa- MEDICAL WORK FOR WOMEN. 385 tion of women. "What for?" was often asked by visitors to girls' high-schools, and even grammar-schools where En- jlish was taught. In a land where the masses were so ig- lorant, and where a woman's life had so many limitations, these critics failed to see the good that might result from these exceptional advantages to the few who were free to receive them. But here was a call to usefulness, and it brought with it promise of fair and, in the higher depart- ments, lucrative compensation. Indian women who have taken a full course of study are receiving two hundred rupees a month from the Duiferin Fund, and those in the lower positions are also well paid. The missionary societies in not give so much ; but even the salaries they pay are >rizes by those who wish to assist in the education of younger sisters, or the support of parents. The study of medicine requires a thorough previous education, and only those thus prepared can compete for the Dufferin scholarships. Can- didates must have passed certain examinations before they can be admitted to the schools, and must have received a degree in Arts before they can receive the degree of M. D., although a licentiate's certificate will be given if they pass the medical examinations of the five years' college course successfully. With the exception of a few Brahmans, not many women have had this education except those who have received it in Christian schools, and of these only the Chris- tians themselves are willing to take the comparatively public place required by a medical student. They have not been entangled in early marriages ; they are encouraged by friends, instead of being held back by the fears and prejudices of their parents. It thus comes about that the large majority of stu- dents in the Duiferin training-schools, and a still greater ma- jority in the university colleges, are Christians. In the Agra school seven-eighths of the students are Christians ; in Madras, of forty-two lady students now studying in the Medical College, only one is non-Christian. The three ladies who have taken the degree of M. B. in that university are all 25 386 INDIA AND MALAYSIA, Christians, and nearly all the licentiates are of the same faith. The Christians are largely in the majority in Lahore, Bombay, and Calcutta. Some of these, when they go out, will be independent practitioners; some will work in the missions, but the majority will be employed by the Dufferin Association all will be so employed who receive scholarships from that fund. It will thus be seen that the Dufferin As- sociation, secular as it is supposed to be, and supported largely by the money of Hindus and Mohammedans, must depend upon Christian women for its success. This gives an opportunity to show the capacity and trustworthiness of women to those who have not only doubted, but derided their claims to such virtues; it gives Christian womanhood a prominence which otherwise could not have been attained for years, and is one of the most active forces in bringing the whole Christian community to the front among the many classes, castes, and countries of the Empire of India. LUCKNOW CHRISTIAN SCHOOL-GIRLS. Chapter XXIX. WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. THE work of a successful missionary in a country like India, often illustrates important phases of Christian life and work in the primitive church. Society throughout the whole Oriental world has, since the earliest days, been so much alike in many of its features, that the modern mission- ary in India, Persia, or even China, frequently finds himself in the midst of associations which remind him of events re- corded in the book of Acts, or alluded to in Paul's epistles. This is notably true in matters relating to the position of women in the mission churches of India. Among converts from Judaism the early Christian women no doubt enjoyed a degree of liberty which the women of India have never known; but in the Greek and Roman cities, and more es- pecially in all regions farther east, the women were kept in a state very much resembling that in which their Indian sisters live at the present day. "Women have always held a strictly subordinate position in India, and hence it would be natural to expect to find them occupying a similiar posi- tion in the Christian church. This becomes the more in- evitable when it is remembered that women, with rare ex- ceptions, have never had opportunities for improving their minds, and are consequently much more ignorant than their husbands or brothers. They are also more superstitious, and much more strongly attached to their ancient religious systems, as well as to a great multitude of customs and tra- ditions which are more or less hostile to the Christian spirit. As might be expected under such circumstances, woman does not occupy a very prominent position in mission 389 390 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. churches as first organized in India. She is more unwilling, for instance, to give up the pernicious custom of infant mar- riage than her husband, and is more easily tempted to bring back an idol into her house and offer^to it the customary worship, especially in a time of temptation ; as, for instance, when a child is dangerously ill. She is wedded to all the ways of her ancestors, and shrinks, sometimes with timidity, but as often from sheer obstinacy, from giving up the cus- toms in which she has lived, or accepting those which are utterly foreign to her notions of right and propriety. The missionary in India finds no little light shed upon some of the perplexing counsels given by the Apostle Paul to some of his Greek converts, as he deals with the various questions which arise from time to time among his converts. It is amazing, and at the same time often amusing, to note how perplexed, not only the great commentators, but the rank and file of modern disputants as well, become ovei certain seemingly contradictory directions given Christian women by the great and good apostle to the Gentiles. One man seems to notice only that Paul commands the women to keep silence in the churches, while another makes prominent the fact that he gives direction as to the manner in whicl they are to pray and prophesy in the assemblies. The most extreme and absurd conclusions are drawn from these in- cidental directions, and attempts are made to lay down great principles, applicable to all ages and to all countries, al- though it is certain that the apostle had no such thoughts in his mind. In India, for instance, the wife occupies a position in the household very much like that of one of her children. She lives in absolute obedience to the law of her husband, and if the rod is used to enforce discipline, it is applied to her as readily and as severely as to one of her daughters. The right of a husband to punish his wife never questioned, and hence nothing could be more radical or more revolutionary than to introduce into a Hindu family the new principle that wives are not to obey their husbands, WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 391 inasmuch as both are equal in Christ. ' In India, as in the churches established by Paul and Silas, the new doctrine of liberty is sometimes liable to abuse, and it would be strange if some poor, weak women did not at times fancy that equal- ity with their husbands amounted in fact to superiority. Family discipline in such a case is at an end in a moment, and utter domestic chaos is sure to supervene. A sensible 1 missionary, who can take in the whole situation, will never hesitate to adopt the same line of policy which Paul pursued, and say to his converts: " Wives, obey your husbands." In a good 'sense, guarded and protected by Christian law and by the Christian spirit, this is good advice in every age ; but aside from questions of abstract right or wrong, among a people like the converts found in India, any contrary advice would produce inevitable and interminable mischief. In like manner, circumstances arise from time to time when it becomes prudent to forbid the Christian women to speak in certain assemblies. Some years ago I visited a mission station, and in the evening went out with a mission- ary and a party of Christians to a service in the bazaar. The party marched in procession, after the manner of the Salvation Army. Two or three grown-up girls were in the company, and not only joined in the singing, but stood on a stone platform in the street, and spoke somewhat briefly to the people. I walked in the rear of the procession, where I could see and hear to the best advantage, and also listened very carefully to all that was said by the people during the speaking. The result was that when I returned to the mis- sion-house, I earnestly advised the missionary and his wife not to let those young women join in the procession again, and especially not to permit them to speak or sing in the bazaar as they had done that evening. It was perfectly clear to me that it was improper for them to do so. At the same time, there were other occasions when I would have approved their speaking and singing in public, and, had I been present, would no doubt have ben quite ready to give 392 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. directions as to how they should engage in these exercises. It is very true that young girls in the Salvation Army do speak in the most public manner, not only in large rooms, but often in the open air, in the presence of rude and vul- gar men. I have often been present when they did so, and have given close attention not only to what the speaker said, but to the effect upon the audience. I do not doubt that such young women often do good by addresses of this kind, and yet, after a wide and careful observation, I have become convinced that there is a marked impropriety in women, and especially young women, engaging in that kind of work. At the same time I am equally free to say that these same Salvation Army women often do good by their public addresses, when the ordinary proprieties of society, according to the standard of the community in which they are working, are carefully observed. I have not only de- fended such speaking on their part under proper restrictions, but have often taken part in their meetings, and aided them both by my presence and voice. In Paul's time, there were occasions when the public meetings were such as women could not engage in, without doing violence to the notions of propriety which were entertained by the people of that age and of that part of the world. No man or woman of good judgment will ever outrage the sense of propriety en- tertained by the general public, and Paul simply advised his churches to observe the rules of ordinary propriety. It is much the same in India at the present day. The voice of woman is heard in our assemblies very frequently ; but there are occasions when it would be improper to allow women to occupy a conspicious place in the assembly, or to take a prom- inent part in the proceedings. It must not be supposed, however, that our Christian women in India are not worthy of the high position which Christ has assigned to his female disciples in the Universal Church. In the earlier stages of the work they are in a minority, and during the first generation their defective WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 393 education does much to keep them in the background ; but from the first we have had invaluable workers among our Christian women, and, as our field enlarges and our oppor- tunities increase, we find their help more and more indis- pensable. Much of the work among their own sex can be done by women only, and the great ingathering of recent years has convinced me that we must look to God for a great host of female evangelists, whose chief work shall be among the recently baptized converts. We can not reach them by any other means. I have seen large companies gathered together in country places, within easy reach of even the poorest, and yet in every instance the men outnumber the women at least four to one. Sometimes, indeed, hardly any women are present. It is useless to lament the fact ; we must simply accept it as we find it. No man of good sense will battle hopelessly against the timidity of women. Ac- count for it as you may, the simple fact is, that either the women are timid and will not go into the great assemblies where the men eagerly flock together, or that many of them are superstitious, or even hostile to the object of the meet- ing. In either case the logic of the situation remains the same. Instead of fighting hopelessly against these inevita- ble facts, the better way is to commission our more enlight- ened Christian sisters to go among them as messengers of the Lord Jesus, and give them the gospel in its simplicity and fullness. Already a few devoted Phebes and Priscil- las are engaging in this work, and I am persuaded that a great host will soon follow in their footsteps. The mere mention of this probability may possibly alarm some readers who dread as an unspeakable calamity the pos- sibility of women being inducted into the ministerial office. To all such I have only to say that there is no cause of alarm. The Church of Christ has never suffered from an honest and earnest attempt to obey the Master in making him known to every creature. The trouble with many per- sons is, that they are in bondage to notions which have sprung 394 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. up in modern times, and which are not found in the New Testament. One of these notions is an exaggerated idea of the sanctity of certain ministerial functions which in the New Testament are uniformly treated as incidental rather than vital, and which were never intended to hamper the Church of Christ, instead of helping her to fulfill her mission. Questions of law, order, and propriety can never be ignored or treated lightly without danger to the interests of the church ; but on the other hand, the freedom of the disciple to work in the Master's name must never be jeopardized. God never intended that the Christian church should be divided into " union " and " non-union " workers, and that, under the plea of respect for the ministry, the vast majority of the disciples of Jesus Christ should be forbidden to work in the Master's name. No little interest has been excited of late years in the question of the possible ordination of women to the office of the ministry, and it is a little unfortunate for us that both parties to* this discussion have turned toward India for illus- trations affecting the right or wrong of the question. Some of those who are eager to see women ordained ask from time to time if a necessity does not exist for an ordained female ministry, especially among the women who are secluded in the zenanas. I wish to answer this question frankly, and yet with a strict regard for existing facts. I do not like the unqualified use of the term " ordained," or of the phrase " the ministerial office," as applied to women. It is better for us to go back as near as possible to the New Testament stand- ard. Indeed, of late years I have been amazed more and more, as our work expands, to see how closely it conforms to the order which seems to have been adopted in the primitive church. As a matter of fact, I believe, beyond a doubt, that as soon as our work begins to advance with rapidity and power among the higher classes in the cities, it will be- come necessary to do one of two things either to authorize Christian women to enter the zenanas and administer bap- WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 395 tism and the Lord's Supper, or to tell converts who are confined in the zenanas that they must do without those or- dinances until such time as God providentially opens their way to receive them. For instance, in a case which occurred in Calcutta a very few years ago, a medical lady physician found the wife of an intelligent Hindu, who was suffering from an incurable disease, and felt it her duty to tell her that she must soon die. The poor woman had been instructed by a Presbyterian lady missionary, and at once said that if she died she wished to die a Christian. The husband was a tender-hearted and good man, and when appealed to replied that he had no objection whatever to his wife becoming a Christian ; but two things were impossible : In the first place, she could not go out to receive baptism in the church ; and, in the second place, he could not permit a man to enter her apartment to baptize her. He said it was not his own wishes or feelings that influenced him, but his regard for his relatives. Caste rules and the state of public feeling were such that it would greatly afflict his relatives, and he could not, for their sakes, suffer it. Cases like this may be ex- pected to turn up every year, and almost every day, espe- cially when our work begins to gain headway in the great cities. Now, what is to be done in such an emergency? For one, I do not hesitate to say that the lady missionary who carried the gospel to this poor dying woman should have been authorized to administer baptism to her. It is easy enough for a man in America with strong convictions, if not preju- dices, to say that she would get to heaven without baptism ; but such a reply is as unjust as it is cruel. A dying woman has a right to baptism, if she desires it, and no theologian or ecclesiastical politician has any right to deny her this privilege. It remains for the Church to decide on what terms it shall be given her. For one, I do not care to insist on the point of ordination. I prefer the word "authorization." We must not be in bondage to ordinances, and in a case of this kind it would be as wise as it would be Scriptural, if a Christian 396 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. woman formally authorized to do so were to administer the sacraments to a suffering disciple to whom no one else had access. Let no one be alarmed, however, by this frank statement, and assume at once that a radical innovation, amounting almost to a great revolution, is about to be introduced into India. We shall do nothing hastily. There are those in In- dia not members of our own Church who are more than ready to act in this matter, and very recently certain ladies have avowed their purpose to baptize converts in zenanas, with the consent of husband or father, as the case may be, whenever the emergency arises. These ladies would prob- ably be called Ritualistic by some of our own people, who shrink from the very thought of allowing a Methodist lady to exercise such a privilege ; but they are practical, far-see- ing, and earnest women, who have seen the unwisdom of trying to avoid the inevitable. For my own part, I have decided that there shall be no haste in the matter, and that no such baptisms shall take place until the circumstances are such that the whole world can see the absolute necessity of the course pursued. In other words, when God makes it clear that the duty should be performed, and so clear that no place for doubt remains, then the important step will be taken. This may or may not have an important bearing upon the ordina- tion of women to the Christian ministry. With regard to that subject, I beg to say that I am not careful to answer in such a matter. We are working and legislating for the sal- vation of the hundreds of millions of the Eastern World, and are only incidentally interested in the controversies which affect the Churches of the West. It is our fixed pur- pose to do nothing which will in any way make us parties to any controversy in America ; but, on the other hand, we are equally anxious not to be held back or hampered by the fact that parties on the other side of the globe are discussing questions which have more or less of a bearing upon our own situation. In other words, we view the whole subject WOMAN IN THE CHURCH. 397 from the most practical point of view, and seek only to know how we shall fulfill our mission in lifting the women of the East to the high position which Christ has prepared for them in his Church. In our mission-work in India we have, from the first, thankfully accepted woman's service in every form which promised any practical usefulness. Such service is usually rendered in quiet ways, and with the meek spirit which so peculiarly adorns a Christian woman ; but it is none the less effective and invaluable. The particular title which the woman bears does not matter much, and, as a matter of fact, does not by any means always define the nature of her work. " Bible woman " is a very common term applied to a Chris- tian woman who goes about among the women in their homes, with a Bible in her hand, which she reads and some- times expounds. When giving an account of their work, these simple women often say : " I visited so many families to-day, and preached in so many houses." They have never learned to use the word preach in its modern and limited sense, and do not know any better than to call every proc- lamation of the gospel, whether in a pulpit or on a well- curb, or by the door of a lowly mud hut, preaching. Other women are teachers, a smaller number are zenana visitors, a very few are evangelists, while many, especially all wives of preachers, are appointed to " woman's work " in a general way, the meaning being that they are expected to go among the women freely, and lend a helping hand at any time and in any way which may present itself. All possible pains are taken to introduce system and organization into the work of our Christian sisters, and every year this work is becoming more effective and satisfactory. Chapter XXX. i THE DEPRESSED' CLASSES. I BORROW the phrase which stands at the head of this chapter from the officer in charge of the Bombay census of 1881. The well-known caste system of the Hindus em- braces not only the three traditional higher castes, with all their minute subdivisions, but also those who are popularly known in the sacred books as Sudras. The reader in Amer- ica has no doubt been led to suppose that the Sudra is an out-caste; but such is by no means the case. Relatively speaking, he is usually a respectable person, although in early times he probably did occupy a position similar to that of the out-castes of the present day. In Bengal it is common to hear large classes of the poorer people spoken of as Nama-Sudras; that is, Sub-Sudras. This term describes several so-called castes or classes who compose the very low- est social strata, and are known in various parts of India by different names. They may have originally sprung from a common race, but it is more likely that similar circumstances in different parts of the empire at an early period in Indian history compelled them to take a position wholly outside the more powerful and respectable communities embraced by the rules of Hindu caste. In Southern India it is common to hear persons spoken of as caste-Hindus to distinguish them from those who are supposed to be wholly outside the pale of the caste system. In other parts of the country these lower classes are called out-castes, pariahs, sweepers, scav- engers, and other names. They themselves, however, by no means reject caste, but are divided and subdivided after the manner of the more respectable Hindus, and often are found 398 THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 399 as jealous of their caste privileges as any Brahmans in the empire. The census officer mentioned above applied the phrase "Depressed Classes" to these people, and it describes very accurately their condition as found in India at the present day. To understand the position of these people, one must be- come acquainted with the Hindu social system. As society is at present organized, it becomes a necessity for such an inferior people to be found in every village. An intelligent lady, who had been brought up in India, was once speaking to me about a certain tract of country in which she wished to have a mission established. I asked her if there were any low-caste people in the villages who were interested in Christianity. She replied that she did not know what par- ticular class of such people lived there, but that some such class would certainly be represented. " You are sure to find low-caste people everywhere in India. They are needed in every village, and the people of India could not get along without them. They may belong to one or another tribe, or one or another low-caste, but they are sure to be there." Many of these people are practically serfs, and in earlier days most of them sustained such a relation to their high- caste neighbors. At the present day millions of them are employed as common laborers by the petty village farmers, who pay them in cash perhaps five or six dollars a year to each family, with enough inferior kinds of grain to meet the demands of hunger. In every village, also, one or more shoemakers will be found, perhaps two or three carpenters, and a blacksmith, and other representatives of the commoner trades. Nearly all artisans belong to low-castes. The shoe- 'maker is very much lower, however, than the blacksmith ; and the blacksmith, again, than the carpenter. The lowest of all is the sweeper. He is the scavenger wherever found in India, and both in city and country village is regarded as an utter out-caste. The leading body of these depressed classes is that known 400 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. as the Chamars. They have been introduced to American readers frequently as leather-dressers, and the title belongs to them to this extent, that all Indians who work in leather are drawn from this class. The name also implies that in early times this was the occupation assigned to them as a people. As a matter of fact, however, comparatively few of them ever work in leather. They are farmers and day- laborers for the most part, and are found in all the villages of North India. The total number of Chamars in all India has not yet been reported by the latest census, but is prob- ably between eleven and twelve millions. In Northern In- dia these Chamars are very numerous. In fact they stand at the head of the list in the Northwest Provinces and Oudh ; that is, in the populous region embraced within the bounds of the North India Conference. They are almost a million in advance of the Brahmans, and more than two millions in advance of the Rajputs. The sweepers in the same ter- ritory number nearly half a million, while other castes, standing very little if at all higher in the social scale in the same territory, number about a million and a half. In Southern and Western India corresponding castes are known by various names, such as Malas, Madigas, Mhars, Dheds, etc. In the Panjab, again, another large class appears, reck- oned a little below the Chamars, and a trifle above the sweepers, known as Chuhras. It is impossible to gather from the census-tables a correct estimate of the whole number belonging to the depressed classes of India. Some census officers speak of them simply as belonging to aboriginal races. Others report them with local names, while others, again, confound mere occupation with caste. It is probable, however, that a careful reckon- ing would show that, leaving out the MohammedanSj not less than twenty per cent of the people generally known as Hindus belong to these different classes. By adding the aboriginal tribes, who, with a few exceptions, have similar religious notions, and occupy a social grade very little, if at THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 401 all, higher than that of the sub-castes among the Hindus, it would probably bring up the proportion to the figure men- tioned above. It is certainly a moderate estimate to place the total population belonging to the depressed classes at forty millions. It is needless to say that these people, with very rare ex- ceptions, are illiterate and subject to all the infirmities which are inseparable from popular ignorance. They are super- stitious, timid, subject to strong prejudices, like other Indians, and, for the most part, destitute of that manly ambition which forms an indispensable quality in every progressive people. Some of their habits, also, are very repulsive. With few exceptions they are, in most parts of the country, pop- ularly known as carrion-eaters. The term is more offensive than the facts in the case exactly warrant, and yet at best it reveals a standard of civilization among them which is certainly low enough. They can not be said to be carrion- eaters in the same disgusting sense that the jackal or the vul- ture is; but it must be admitted that they count themselves fortunate when they find an animal which has recently died, either by accident or of disease. The skin of the animal be- comes the perquisite of those who remove it, while the flesh is feasted upon with great eagerness, sometimes by a whole village. It may possibly seem to lessen the enormity of this deplorable weakness on their part if I state that, in some of the hill districts, Hindus of higher castes do not shrink from similar entertainments. I once had a sheep tied by the neck near the edge of a precipice, and while grazing the poor crea- ture suddenly stumbled over and was strangled. I gave orders to have it buried ; but before the carcass was removed a respectable Brahman came to me and begged it for himself. I was the more surprised because orthodox Hindus are not supposed to eat mutton under any circumstances. This in- cident occurred in the mountains, and I have since been told by Brahmans of the plains that the man who asked for the sheep would not be recognized in India proper as a Brahman. 26 402 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. The practice of carrion-eating is not only universal among these depressed classes, but one of the first problems which confronts the missionary who works among them is that of breaking up the habit. Abstinence from carrion is every- where made a condition of membership in the Christian church, and those who become Christians in time learn to abstain from it ; but only those who have lived in India and mingled with the very poor people, can understand how strong the temptation, in such a case, is at the outset. In- stances also occur in which the missionary can not but hesitate before giving a decision against the unlawfulness of a feast, in which the flesh which is served up is of doubtful quality. For instance, one of our preachers recently found himself in a village where the simple people were about to sit down to a feast which had been provided for them by an obliging tiger, which had killed a cow in the vicinity. This was a case of an animal which had not died either of disease or by accident; and yet it was not exactly meat which is sold in the shambles, and, consequently, hardly came within Paul's list of admissible articles of food. The preacher, on this oc- casion, thought it best for him, as a matter of expediency, to join in the feast and ask no questions ; but he paid a severe penalty for his indulgence. He had, in fact, never eaten the flesh of the cow before ; and the double recollection that he was eating not only a flesh he had always scrupulously avoided, but also that of an animal which had not been killed for the market, completely prostrated him. Many years ago it was found by the missionaries in Southern India that many of the people belonging to these depressed classes were peculiarly accessible to the Christian missionary. Most of the converts, indeed, in Southern India were drawn from this grade of people ; and more recently a similar work has commenced in various parts of North India. A question at once presents itself, which has occasioned no little inquiry in missionary circles, both in India and else- where, as to whether it is wise policy to devote much time or THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 403 attention to people who occupy so low a social status. It is alleged, on the one hand, that their motives can hardly be of the highest order ; that their character as Christians must be more or less unsatisfactory ; that it is impossible to raise them to positions of influence in the community; and that, so far from helping in the general work of converting India, they will probably become a barrier which will stand directly in the way of missionary progress. On the other hand, atten- tion is called to the fact that God manifestly seems to be leading the missionaries in the direction of these people ; that it is they who are coming to the missionary, rather than the latter who goes to them ; that their motives, if not always of the purest and highest order, are, all things considered, quite as pure as those of other people ; that it is impossible for such men to be blind to the fact that they can, by becoming Christians, improve their condition, and that there is no harm in their perceiving it; that they will not permanently stand in the way of access to the higher caste, while, even if they did, we dare not hold aloof from them on that account. Happily for all parties concerned, experience soon settles most of the questions raised in this controversy. As a matter of fact, these depressed classes are, in all parts of India, beginning to discover that Christianity has much to oifer them, and that in the Christian missionary they can find not only a spiritual guide, but an invaluable friend. They find that Christianity alone opens for them a doorway by which their children can enter the public schools ; Chris- tianity alone can secure for them any public employment worthy the name; Christianity alone can point out to them a way of escape from the long and weary condition of semi- bondage in which they and their forefathers have lived ; Christianity alone can remove the stigma of social degrada- tion which has been so cruelly imprinted upon them as a people ; and Christianity alone can give them the hope of a happier life in this world, and a better life in the world to come. In the Panjab, in the extreme part of South India, 404 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. in the eastern part of the Telugu country, among the Mhars of the Bombay coast, and in various districts of Central India, and throughout the Northwest Provinces, large numbers of these people are beginning to move steadily toward Chris- tianity. The missionary can hardly choose his course, even if disposed to do so. In the face of such a movement he may, if possessed by a doubtful spirit, hesitate for a short time; but unless recreant to his commission as a messenger of the world's Saviour, he is compelled to meet these people and give them a glad welcome to the great brotherhood of Christian disciples. It is by no means certain that the fact that the great ma- jority of Christian converts come from these depressed classes will prove a barrier to the reception of the gospel by the higher castes. So far as the experiment has been tried, it seems to be working in the opposite direction. When the Brahman and Rajput begin to discover that the despised Cha- mar or sweeper of their village has suddenly overtaken them in the race, and established his superiority as a man of character and intelligence, they can not but be impressed by the fact. I have been told that in the Telugu country, where the American Baptists have achieved such amazing success among these depressed classes, many leading Brahmans have become profoundly impressed by what they have seen, and begin to ponder the question of becoming Christians them- selves, with a new interest. No one needs feel surprised when told that even some missionaries in India, who have seen more or less of the daily life of these depressed classes, are inclined to doubt the possibility of elevating them either morally or socially after they become Christians. The simple statement that many of them have earned the appellation of carrion-eaters will suffice to destroy all hope of their social renovation in the minds of multitudes, even of intelligent people. But we are always prone to forget the social rock from which we our- selves have been hewn, as well as the pit from which our own THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 405 feet have been taken. Three centuries ago many of the an- cestors of the most cultured members of the Anglo-Saxon race were addicted to the practice of feasting upon puddings made of blood drawn from living cows. We forget, too, that three centuries ago there were sections of Great Britain in which the half-savage farmers knew no other method of plowing than that of tying the tails of their oxen to the plow. The use of harness was an innovation to them un- known. The descendants of these rude and utterly ignorant people conveniently forget many pages in the history of their ancestors which it would do them good to study. So far as the possibility of elevating these Indian people of low caste is concerned, I venture to affirm that the problem has already been solved. I have seen before my own eyes the second generation of Christians drawn from this class grow up to a new and nobler life than their ancestors ever knew. More than that, I have seen them overcome the prejudices of their high-caste neighbors to an astonishing extent, and not only win but command their respect without an effort. In regions where two or three generations ago it would have been considered an outrage for a man belonging to any one of these depressed classes to presume to learn to read or to seek an education in any form whatever, I have seen the Christian convert not only acquiring knowledge, but impart- ing it without exciting either indignation or surprise. Two years ago, when visiting a high-school in North India, my attention was called to a young man who was pronounced the most successful teacher in the institution. The principal of the school said to me that he passed more boys at the an- nual examinations than any other teacher; and when I was in his room I noticed among his pupils, not only Brahmans and other Hindus of high rank, but also Mohammedans of the better class. This successful teacher was the son of a sweeper, and his low origin was perfectly well known, and yet I saw him in the very act of preparing Brahman boys for admission to the university. This one illustration would 406 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. suffice to show what is possible in the way of revolutionizing, the position of these lowly people, but it is one among a hun- dred. We have probably now more than a hundred teachers at work in North India, all of whom belonged by birth to the depressed classes. A writer in a recent number of the Madras Times, in discussing this subject, says: "Twenty- five years ago I baptized a sweeper. That sweeper's son is now a successful school-master, and has coached more than a hundred Brahmans and Kshatrias through the difficulties of high-school examinations. The sons of sweepers are in Government offices, are pushing their way on the railways ; they are studying law and engineering, as well as theology and medicine." Another fact, which has been amply demonstrated in the history of our own mission, is the certainty that Christians drawn from the most lowly of the people not only sometimes rise as individuals, but also as a community. The native Christian in the villages of Rohilkhand to-day stands very much higher than he did twenty, or even ten, years ago. One thing which has contributed, perhaps, more to this re- sult than anything else, has been the remarkable influence exerted by educated native Christian women. Whatever may be true of the men, the most blind can not help seeing that the Christian women who have been educated, and in a measure refined, in the mission-schools, stand head and shoulders above all the other women in the villages. The men themselves can not but feel their own inferiority in the presence of such women. Not only can they read and write, but there is something about their self-respecting carriage which arrests attention and commands respect. The wives and daughters of both Mohammedans and Hindus are for the most part wholly illiterate, and if the men made no ad- vance whatever, the superior intelligence of the women would quickly raise the whole community in the estimation of the public. As an illustration of the manner in which a Christian, THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 407 especially if possessed of a fair degree of common sense and genuine modesty, can win his way in the esteem of the most haughty Brahman or Mohammedan members of the com- munity, is found in the case of one of our preachers in North India. When the Rev. F. M. Wheeler, now of the Puget Sound Conference, was a missionary in Moradabad, his at- tention was drawn to a boy belonging to the sweeper class, who was driving a buffalo attached to a conservancy cart. He seemed to be a bright boy, and Mr. Wheeler offered him a chance to secure an education. He quickly accepted the offer, and in due time became fairly well educated in his own language, and, after a preliminary service, was made a preacher. Some four or five years ago he was appointed to a town in which all the Christians were sweeper converts, and consequently held in the lowest estimation. It was probably known that he himself had come from the same despised class. When he went to buy any article in the common market, he was required to spread a sheet on the ground, on which the seller would place the articles pur- chased. They were never handed to the preacher as they would be to an ordinary purchaser. He would then lay the money which was to pay for the articles on the ground, and the seller would pick it up, refusing to be contaminated by taking even money from the hands of one so utterly degraded. The wise preacher never protested against such an indignity. When he had any business with the native magistrate of the town, he was required to stand at a distance and state his case, precisely as other sweepers would be. He always ac- cepted his lot without complaint, acting as if unconscious of any indignity. Time, however, began to work in his behalf. The people could not but respect him as they began to learn his worth. By and by he was no longer required to have the articles which he purchased laid upon a sheet at a dis- tance from the seller's shop. Then he began to be treated with more deference by the native magistrate and all other officials, and, after some two or three years, when he had 408 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. any business with the magistrate, he would not only be courteously received, but a chair would be set out for him, and he invited to take a seat. In other words, he was treated in all respects like a respectable native gentleman, and when the census of 1891 was taken he was made census officer for the whole town. This one case will illustrate the workings of the general law. If we make these people worthy of respect, they will receive all the social deference to which they prove themselves entitled. The change will not come in a day or a year ; but they are sure to rise in the social scale that is, provided we make them really, and not nominally, Christians. It has been truly said more than once in recent years that the Indian Brahmans of the future that is, the highest social class of the Indian future will be those who shall first have received Christianity in all its purity and integrity. No artificial scheme can ever do for any people what the simple faith of Christ invariably accomplishes when it is re- ceived in all sincerity. In some parts of India, it is true, the Christian community has not risen as rapidly as some of these statements would indicate ; but in all such cases it will be found that the fault lies either with the first teachers, who failed to give the people the right impetus, or that some mis- take, such as the neglect of education, or the toleration of caste practices, or drinking habits, or something else of the kind, has intervened to prevent the progress which otherwise would have been inevitable. The fact that not a few of our Indian Christians look with grave concern upon the present growing movement among the depressed classes in favor of Christianity, ought not to excite much surprise when all the facts of the case be- come known. The reader in America can hardly understand how very low in the esteem of the general public these de- pressed classes really stand. The contempt of the white population in the South for the Negroes in the days of slav- ery was not so great as that which is felt by the high-caste THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 409 Indian for his out-caste neighbors. Before the days of En- glish rule, in many parts of the country the out-castes were not permitted to walk on the public roads, or to carry um- brellas; and in some districts of Southern India, in compara- tively recent years, the missionaries encountered fierce oppo- sition from the higher castes when they attempted to teach their female converts to dress with ordinary modesty. For ages all women belonging to the lowest castes had been for- bidden to wear any covering on their bosoms, and when such women became Christians their high-caste neighbors felt per- sonally outraged because the missionaries encouraged them to dress with ordinary womanly modesty. The matter was appealed to the Government, and had to be tested in the courts before the Christian women could secure even this small measure of protection. The absurd thing about the whole procedure was, that the high-caste people regarded themselves as outraged by the impudence of the low-caste women. In some remote districts some of these customs still prevail. When I lived in Garhwal, in 1866-7, the school-boys frequently told me that I had for the first time introduced into that region the custom of allowing low-caste people the ordinary rights of the general community. To the present day, in remote parts of that mountain district, a low-caste man is required to leave the road when he sees a high-caste person approaching him. I remember on one oc- casion, when on an itinerating tour, I was passing a carpen- ter's shop, and, wishing to talk with the men who were at work inside, I entered and took a seat. A young Brahman who had been walking with me wished to follow; but before doing so he deliberately ordered the carpenters out of their own shop, and was obeyed in a moment. The poor fellow looked very foolish when I arose and followed the low-caste men out, telling him that it was them I came in to talk with, and that I cared nothing for his presence whatever. It tests the humility as well as the courage of ordinary Christians, not only to see people so despised admitted to the 410 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. general Christian community, but to see them coming by hundreds and by thousands, with the certain prospect of be- coming in a short time overwhelmingly in the majority so far as the whole Christian community is concerned. This humiliation is felt much more keenly in India than it would be in countries where the caste idea does not prevail, at least in the acute form in which it is found in India. Hence, if many who are opposing, or at least severely criticising, the present movement, were to state their feelings frankly and fully, they would admit that what they fear is that Chris- tianity will be degraded in public estimation, and soon be regarded as merely the religion of out-castes. Such a feeling is natural, but at the same time wholly misplaced and un- worthy of any persons bearing the Christian name. That it exists is certain, and for one I am not surprised to discover that it meets a certain amount of sympathy among even in- telligent persons in America. I have often been asked, in a tone which betrayed the most serious concern, if it were not true that the mass of our converts were drawn from the dregs of the population. To such a question I of course re- ply in the negative. The word "dregs," when used in a social sense, is sometimes equivocal. Mr. Spurgeon once aptly said that we have no more to fear from the dregs at the bottom, than from the scum that floats upon the surface of society. The most depressed people are by no means neces- sarily the worst people. Those who rallied around our Saviour himself when on earth were as heartily despised by the religious leaders of their day as the native Christians of In- dia are by the Brahmans of our own time. The missionaries of India would not have chosen to have the great majority of their converts taken from the lower classes if the question had been put to them at the outset; but God's ways are not man's ways, and he saw clearly that if the Christian church in India should at first be composed wholly of the wise and the great, according to the standard of this world, it would be ages upon ages before the lower THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. 411 castes would ever be reached. For a score of reasons it is better that Christianity should begin the great work of ren- ovating India from the very foundation of society. Here are multitudes who at once are the most needy and the most accessible. They will first be won, and when they have become Christians their position will be forever assured. The change will probably work a practical revolution in the empire, possibly within the next century. A very few of our Indian statesmen begin to perceive this, and look with anxiety to the great upheaval which must come when these depressed mill- ions begin to understand their rights as men and Christians. One Government official, a few years ago, in a report of the work under his jurisdiction, remarked that if the Chamars of his district became Christians in a body, it would work a rev- olution, the effects of which no one could foretell. He con- fessed that the very prospect filled his own mind with dismay. What this gentleman clearly perceived in his own particular district, holds true with regard to almost the whole empire. But it is needless to speculate with regard to popular con- tingencies of this kind. Not only India, but the world, is on the eve of more revolutions than we short-sighted mortals can possibly foresee. It becomes us only to do our duty, meet the demands of the present hour, and, like Daniel, stand in our lot till the end, whatever that end may be r which God has determined shall come. Chapter XXXI. OPEN DOORS. EVERY missionary who worked in our circle thirty years ago will have a vivid recollection of the manner in which every door of access to the people seemed then to be barred against us. Wherever the missionary turned in those days he was met by a social as well as religious barricade which challenged his progress, and it seemed to him a per- petual wonder that, haying come so far with the most im- portant message which any man could bear to his fellow-men, and to a people who were at heart kindly disposed towards every stranger, he could nevertheless gain but indirect access to the hearts and homes of those whom he wished to reach. If he found any earnest inquirer, he had to seek for him ; and when he succeeded in discovering one, he had to observe con- stant watchfulness lest some sudden obstruction should rise between him and the one whom he wished to benefit. In those days the missionary literally was obliged to go to the people, rather than have them come to him. He not only found it imperative upon him to go among them, and live within sight and hearing of the ceaseless multitude which passed before him, but also to search out every possible private pathway by which to gain more immediate access, not only to the community, but to the mind and heart of each particular person. Thirty years, however, have wrought a great change in this respect. Doors which seemed closed and double-barred in former days, are now swinging wide open ; and if access to some castes and classes is still practically closed, no missionary needs longer mourn because he can find no one willing to be led to Christ. 412 OPEN DOORS. 413 In former days, uncultivated fields could be found in abundance; but when the missionary entered his field of labor, although he found ample room so far as mere residence was concerned, he failed utterly to find any way of success- fully beginning his task. As stated above, there was no access to the people. They were hedged about by so many prejudices, fears, customs, and adverse influences of all kinds, that, although living and moving among them, he still was made to feel constantly as if he was separated from them by many weary leagues. Now, however, not only are ample fields still waiting for the reaper, but within each field im- mediate and easy access is found to multitudes of the people. As stated in other chapters, most of these new doors, which of late have been opened wide to all missionary workers, are among the lower castes; but if there is any disadvantage found in this fact, it is more than counterbalanced by the extraordinary opportunities found among these people. If a report were to reach the United States that a new island had been discovered in the Pacific Ocean, with 500,000 people living upon it, none of whom had yet received the gospel, and all of whom were sorely oppressed by false and cruel social and religious systems, under which they and their fore- fathers had been groaning for centuries, all the churches of America would at once rise with the utmost enthusiasm, and determine to send missionaries to these neglected people. But it is precisely a discovery of this kind which has re- cently been made in many parts of our field. In another chapter I have spoken of the discovery made some years ago that missionary labor could most successfully be prosecuted upon caste lines. Every year this discovery becomes of more practical importance to us. When we strike a particular caste, for instance, and find the people accessible, and re- ceive a few hundred, or a few thousand of them into the Christian church, we have made a discovery virtually of a great island in the social world of India, containing fifty, a hundred, or five hundred thousand persons, all of whom are 414 INDIA AND MALAYSIA, without the gospel, all of whom have long been groaning beneath heavy burdens bound upon them by false religious systems, and all of whom are more or less interested in the world's Saviour, of whom they have dimly heard. I have spoken of such a community as numbering perhaps five hun- dred thousand, but as a matter of fact some of these commu- nities far exceed that number. The Chamars, for instance, of the Northwest Provinces and Oudh number between five and six millions, and every year many of them are embracing Christianity.* Every new caste or class of the people among whom we gain a foot-hold is like the discovery of one of these great islands; and we are now not only successfully working among quite a number of the lowest castes, but have gained a very encouraging foot-hold among several of the higher castes, including a very important opening among the Rajputs, who rank next to the Brahmans. We have also in two different sections of the country found an open door among the Mohammedans, the people who of all others at first seemed most effectually shut off from our efforts. Thirty years ago we were obliged in every case to go to the people, but now the situation is changed and they are coming to us. In those days it was difficult to find people who would receive us ; now it is impossible to find mission- aries and other workers enough to receive the eager hun- dreds and thousands who ask us to baptize them, and not only admit them to the privileges of the Christian church, but teach them and their children to read the word of God, and to acquaint themselves with the knowledge that makes wise unto salvation. In some parts of our great field, it is true, we are still obliged to seek the people; but in other sections the rule has become reversed, and there is every reason to believe that before many years the extreme pressure which is now felt by our laborers in North and Central India will extend to our work in every part of this great empire. *One missionary writes that he expects to baptize one thousand of them before the close of the present year. OPEN DOORS. 415 NORTH INDIA. It is within the bounds of the North India Conference where the most marked progress has been made during the past four years. The territory embraced within the ecclesias- tical boundaries of that Conference might for convenience be divided into three sections. First we have the little province of Rohilkhand, of which I have spoken in previous chap- ters, with its population in round numbers of about five mill- ions. This one little field is in every respect more promising and hopeful than it has ever been before. There is no rea- son to anticipate that the work now going on will lose its momentum for many years to come, and experienced mission- aries in that region anticipate that for years it will be per- fectly practicable, if the Church in America sustains them, to gather in at least ten thousand converts every year. To the south of Rohilkhand is the ancient kingdom of Oudh, with an area of 24,246 square miles, and a population of more than twelve millions. In ancient times this was one of the most important parts of the empire. The founder of Buddhism was born in Eastern Oudh, and Rama, perhaps the best and most popular character in Hindu mythology, who was no doubt a veritable king in ancient times, was born at the ancient capital of the kingdom, now known as Ajodhya. In the time of Warren Hastings, Oudh was a powerful kingdom, holding only a nominal allegiance to the Mogul Emperor, and was then esteemed, as it had been for ages before, one of the richest provinces of all India. It is often called the Garden of India, but is less productive than Lower Bengal. It is a little behind Rohilkhand in civiliza- tion and in the intelligence of its people. Its Mohammedan rulers did very little for the people, but squandered its splendid resources in building palaces for themselves, first at Faizabad, and later at Lucknow. The city of Lucknow was for a long time the leading inland city of India, and at the time of the annexation of Oudh by the Indian Government 416 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. it was supposed to have a population of at least half a million. A very large proportion of these were mere parasites, either living upon the direct bounty of the court, or attached to hangers-on of various kinds. The condition of the country before the annexation was simply deplorable. The reigning king had become a mere puppet in the hands of worthless men, and had given himself up to a life of voluptuous pleas- ure, which made him insensible to all hopes of reward or fear of punishment. After repeated warnings the stroke fell, in the year 1856, when Oudh was annexed to British India, and the king deposed and banished to a palace built for him on the banks of the river Hoogly, below Calcutta. Our mission-work in Oudh has been much less successful than elsewhere, partly owing to causes which could be pointed out in the policy of the mission itself, but chiefly to the dif- ferent conditions of the people. One of our Hindustani preachers remarked some years ago that it was more difficult to make a low-caste man a Christian in Oudh than to con- vert a Brahman in Rohilkhand. Such was the popular be- lief for many years among our Hindustani workers. The people of Oudh had fewer schools, and were more timid and subject to prejudice than those farther north. They were also much more subject to the landlords of the province, and had not as fully escaped from the state of semi-serfdom in which they had formerly lived. At last, however, a better day seems to have dawned upon Oudh. During the year 1891 over a thousand converts were gathered in at the dif- ferent mission stations of the province, and the workers begin to feel that a success equal, if not greater, than that achieved in other regions may soon be expected, even in Oudh. If the work can be sustained, even upon its present basis, there is no reason to doubt that it will soon begin to assume proportions somewhat like those realized in Rohil- khand, and yield an annual harvest of not less than ten thou- sand souls. Indeed, we ought not to anticipate anything below these figures. The workers are sure to experience OPEN DOORS. 417 grave difficulties ; but they have already struck what miners would call rich " leads," and begin to discover that they have only to follow these up faithfully in order to achieve the success for which they have for years been longing and pray- ing. In some parts of the province particularly on the eastern side of the great Gogra river the prospects are es- pecially encouraging. In the Gonda district, of which men- tion has before been made, where the Rev. S. Knowles has labored for many years, many interesting openings present themselves; and in that region alone it is probable that a field equal to the whole of Rohilkhand may yet be found in the immediate vicinity of the historic cities where the great- est of the epic kings of the Hindu faith, as well as the founder of the great religious system known as Buddhism, were born and reared. A similar estimate might be made for the country called the Doab literally, two waters that is, the region lying be- tween the Ganges and Jumna rivers. In former years, while we restricted our labors to the region east of the Gauges, we received frequent intimations that open doors awaited us west of the river, among relatives of our converts. But in those days it was thought best for each church or society to confine its labors within a given field, and for some time little heed was given to the calls from that section. It was impossible, however, to persist in such a policy very long. Not only did some of our converts remove to the western side of the river, but from time to time parties living over there would visit their Christian relatives in Rohil- khand, and while among them be converted, and return to their former homes as Christians. In this way a scattered membership began to be reported in the annual statistics, some years before it was formally resolved to take up work on that side of the river. At last, however, the repeated and urgent calls from that section of country met with a re- sponse. At first only Hindustani preachers were sent among the people; but finally, as the work assumed an organized 27 418 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. form, it was determined to occupy the country in consider- able force. Cawnpore had become one of our stations in the south, and Mathra and Agra, important cities, were occupied farther north and west. Finally, at the Annual Conference of January, 1889, two presiding elders' districts were formed on that side of the river one with the Rev. J. E. Scott, Ph. D., as presiding elder, and the other with the Rev. Hasan Raza Khan, a convert from Mohammedanism, and a man of much energy and zeal, who had practically carved out the district over which he now presides. At the present time this section of our work is the most promising we have in India. Presiding Elder Hasan Raza Khan has repeatedly written to me and others that, in addition to the many con- verts whom he has received during the present year, he could baptize three or four thousand others if provided with workers to take charge of them after baptism. Dr. Scott also reports almost equally promising fields in parts of his work. The station of Ajmere, far to the west of the Doab, and belong- ing to Central India, has been attached to this district, be- cause nearer to its head-quarters than to any other part of our work. The Rev. James Lyon, missionary at Ajmere, has baptized large numbers of converts during the present year. At many points nearer to Mathra and Agra a similar work has commenced, and, taking this district as a represent- ative portion of the North India Conference, I have no hes- itation in saying that if the work could only be sustained, it also would yield permanently a harvest of perhaps ten thou- sand souls annually. Just here I might pause to explain a peculiarity con- nected with the expansion of our work. Friends in America constantly warn us, and sometimes even chide us for our headlong precipitancy in extending a work which already has outgrown our working force. We are told to be more delib- erate, and not to advance a single inch beyond the lines which have been already marked out for us. Persons who thus counsel us forget that such advice is practically impos- OPEN DOORS. 419 sible while we are working under our Methodist system. In an early chapter of this book, in speaking of the apparent necessity which was laid upon the first English leaders to found an empire in India, I pointed out the fact that all Englishmen had from childhood been familiar with what might be called an organizing instinct in the Anglo-Saxon character. Put down men of this race in any part of the world, and they will proceed with the work of organization as naturally as with that of tilling the soil. They have been trained to it, and recognize its necessity at once. A similar remark will apply to men who have been trained in the school of active Methodism. The idea of organizing and ex- tending their work becomes to them almost an instinct. Take, for instance, a young man to whom I might refer, now engaged in our work in another part of the country. Not long since I was sketching on a sheet of paper the cir- cuit which had been given him. It contained four or five appointments. As I went on sketching his circuit, a friend who was looking at the improvised map, remarked: "That young man is really carving out a presiding elder's district. Each appointment on his circuit is becoming the center of another circuit." "Yes," I replied, "it becomes perfectly natural for him to go on and build upon the model furnished to him. His circuit will be a presiding elder's district before many years, if it continues to expand as it is now doing." This is precisely what has happened in the case of our brother, Hasan Raza Khan. He was given a certain circuit in the Doab, and at once began to extend his work. Each one of his little appointments became the center of a group of villages in which Christian classes were formed, and within a very short time it began to be observed that his circuit was taking the shape of a presiding elder's district. When he had carved out the district, it was felt by every one that he was justly entitled to preside over it, and thus far the experiment tried in his case has proved more than suc- cessful. 120 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. In Rohilkhand, our third Indian presiding elder has won his position in the same way. I say Indian, although the brother in question is a Jew by race the Rev. Abraham Solomon. This brother also had a circuit which he held for a number of years, and, having achieved unusual success in winning converts, there grew up around him in the process of time a group of appointments, each of which became of sufficient importance to become the head of a circuit ; and when this zealous worker had thus furnished the material for making a new presiding elder's district, it seemed both nat- ural and just that he should assume charge of it. He also is doing well, and perhaps furnishing one of the few interest- ing illustrations we now have of the future expansion of our work among the millions of this great empire. These three men will illustrate a tendency which is com- mon to our work everywhere in India. That ecclesiastical system which is popularly called Methodism has now been in operation more than a hundred years, and those who have grown up and been trained according to its maxims can never stand still in any part of the earth, unless they bid farewell to success in their work. If they build at all, they must be expected to build according to the pattern showed to them in the Methodist mount more than a hundred years ago. They are not Congregationalists, or even Presbyterians, and their system, if worked in its integrity, in the very nature of the case will impel, or propel, them forward, and they will go on organizing, even as their fathers did before them, for all the years to come. It is utterly useless for parties in Amer- ica to sit down in their quiet homes and form plans for work- ers on the other side of the globe, w 7 hich embrace so impos- sible a condition as that of bodies moving and standing still at the same time. Methodism was never intended to illus- trate such an impossible policy. It must move forward, or else suffer spiritual paralysis. We may as well accept the conditions at once, and ought to feel no surprise when we discover that a wonderful system which has covered the OPEN DOORS. 421 whole United States and, indeed, all the British colonies, with a net-work of evangelizing agencies, continues to fulfill its mission when applied to so peculiar a people as are found in the Empire of India. In speaking of the North India Conference, I have omit- ted mention of the splendid mountain district included within its boundaries. Here, also, is a hopeful field, extending from the borders of Nepal on the east, to the head- waters of the Ganges on the west. Owing to an unfortunate but tem- porary connection of a part of North India with the Bengal Conference, the boundary-line on the west shuts off a part of North India, which would otherwise include the impor- tant station of Mussoorie, and the native state of Tiri. Add these to the three sections of the Conference spoken of above, and we have a region within which doors stand wide open to four or five important castes, with every human probability that the number will be increased almost with each return- ing year. We rejoice greatly at the present time over the probable baptism of ten thousand converts of all ages during the present year. I see no reason why the number might not be increased to fifteen thousand a year, and not allowed to fall below that figure for the next fifty years. In fact, it is impossible for any one in America to realize what is meant by an open door among a people who are counted by the million, and who are often accustomed to move in masses. The remark is often made among us that we fear, not that we shall fail to win converts, but that they may come more rapidly than we can care for them. But if we had nothing else in India at all ; if we could possibly do so, and were to return to the narrow boundaries of our former single mis- sion that of North India we might soon expect to have a great Christian church numbering not less than a hundred thou- sand members, and advancing with steady step if not, indeed, by leaps and bounds toward the final consummation of our hopes, the conversion of all these people to Christ. Only those who have known our day of small things can compre- 422 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. hend what such a prospect means. We often grieve that our dear friends in America seem unable to appreciate such a golden opportunity. Nothing like it has ever before been presented to any Christian church, and if our own people re- fuse to discern the signs of the times as God reveals them ; if they shrink from an opportunity which angels would eagerly grasp; if they content themselves with a mere nominal sup- port of a work which to them has little more meaning than that of a conventional religious term, they will do so at the peril of their own best interests, and perhaps earn the re- proach of generations yet unborn. I have spoken of these open doors in one part of North India. In a few brief chapters I shall now speak of other fields, in other parts of the great empire, to which God has called us, and, if possible, give the reader a glimpse, in out- line merely, of the many doors which God is setting before us, east, west, north, and south, any one of which affords more signs of promise than w T ere found in all parts of India and the East when I entered upon this great work thirty-two years ago. P. S. The above was written in August, 1891. A brief year has passed, and the march of events has thrown much light upon some of the estimates then made. In three places I have changed the estimate of annual increase from five thousand to ten thousand. One year ago we ventured to hope for fifteen thousand baptisms from heathenism during the year; but the actual number was over nineteen thou- sand. My estimate of fifteen thousand converts every year was then considered a sanguine, if not extravagant, calcula- tion ; but now few, if any, of our missionaries would fix on a lower number. I have not made an estimate of probable success during the past four years, which did not prove too low, instead of too high, when tested by the event. Chapter XXXII. THE PANJAB AND WESTERN INDIA. THE Panjab literally five rivers is the name given to the large and important province which lies in the ex- treme northwestern part of India. It contains about 142,000 square miles, and a population in round numbers of 25,000,- 000. Its Government is administered by a Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, but a number of feudatory States are included within its boundaries. The western part of the Panjab is the region which was conquered by Alexander the Great when he invaded India. No event in the career of that great conqueror added more to his fame than his invasion of the mysterious realm, at that time hardly known, which lay east of the Indus; but, as a matter of fact, it seems to have been a very unimpor- tant conquest. He was not able to penetrate as far as the Jumna, much less to the Ganges, and after a few unimpor- tant victories was obliged to retrace his steps. The Panjab is famous as the home of the Sikhs, one of the most recent races of India, and one of the finest races which has ever appeared on the stage of Indian history. The rise and progress of these people, as well as the character of their religion, would form an interesting subject, but would require more space than can be afforded in a book of this character. Among all the enemies whom the English have conquered in India, the Sikhs easily take the foremost place. Physically and mentally they are a fine race, and, occupying as they do a ground midway between Mohammedanism and Hinduism, may yet play a prominent part in the Christian- ization of the country. While the Sikhs occupy the most prominent place in the 425 426 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Panjab, both the Hindus and the Mohammedans are also very numerous. As a mission-field this part of India is perhaps not quite as ripe as some regions which have been longer under Christian influence, and yet it is altogether probable that before many years the Panjab will take high rank among the mission-fields of the empire. The American Presbyte- rians were the first to enter the province ; but were followed in force by the Church Missionary Society, and at a later day the Church of Scotland, the United Presbyterians of America, the Baptists, and Methodists, and perhaps one or two others have joined in the work. Both the Presbyterians and Church missionaries occupy important stations. The latter have adopted the policy of posting themselves on the frontier, where they can not only influence the people of the Panjab, but throw rays of light far into the outer darkness of Cen- tral Asia. We were led into the Panjab in our usual way by begin- ning to preach to the English-speaking people of Lahore. Our success up to the present has not been very great in that city. In fact, we have encountered many discouragements, and might possibly have withdrawn had that been the only point occupied by us in that particular kind of work. There, however, as elsewhere, we soon began to do a little among the natives, and, having once commenced, we always feel com- mitted to go forward rather than retreat. In 1889 we opened a mission at the capital of the native State of Patiala, by send- ing a Hindustani ordained preacher to occupy the place. This is an important State, and our Hindustani brother* has met with a measure of success which is very encouraging. He has already won more converts than all of our mission- aries in India did during the first three years of our mission history. The census reports more than a million people in the Panjab belonging to the out-caste tribe known as Chuhras. It is among these people that our work is chiefly * This dear brother, the Rev. Antone Dutt, has since been called to his reward. He died at Patiala, June 15, 1892, THE PANJAB AND WESTERN INDIA. 427 carried on at present, and on the eastern border of the prov- ince our missionaries have baptized many hundreds of them in the last two or three years. We are now fully com- mitted to this work, and if we had no other interest in India we could employ all our forces in pushing a great campaign among them, with the almost certain prospect of achieving a very large measure of success. When we speak of Western India every one in the East would understand the reference to be to Bombay and the country lying adjacent to that great sea-port. The city of Bombay is the second city in the British Empire, and in most respects is eminently worthy of the position which it has gained. As the gateway through which Europe enters India, the city will no doubt retain this prominence, at least for many long years to come. Its commercial position is one of the best ; its harbor equal to all possible demands which the ships of the world can make upon it; while its great lines of railway, reaching north, east, and south, serve as so many arms with which to gather in the produce of the great empire. The city of Bombay is the seat of government of what used to be, and is still, popularly called the Bombay Presi- dency. The government is administered by a Governor in- stead of a Lieutenant-Governor. This official ranks a little higher than the ruler of Bengal, for instance, although he has less than one-third as many subjects under his adminis- tration. The Province of Sindh, at the mouth of the Indus, is under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Bombay, and, in- cluding this district, the total population is about 28,000,000, living on an area of 206,000 square miles. This estimate, however, includes the important native State of Baroda, and a large number of petty States, most of them, however, almost directly subordinate to the Bombay Government. The province of Sindh is made up almost exclusively by the delta of the great river Indus. It is a small Egypt, and very much more like the original Egypt than Bengal, 428 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. i which is likened to it in another chapter. It comprises an area of 54,000 square miles, with a population of about 3,000,000. The surrounding region is for the most part an arid desert, and the little province is as dependent upon the Indus as Egypt is upon the Nile. The people of Sind have a language of their own, affiliated to the ancient San- skrit, and forming one of the seven branches which are pop- ularly said to have sprung from the roots of that ancient tongue. We were led to Karachi, the capital of the province and one of the rising sea-ports of the empire, long years ago, by a local preacher, who began to hold meetings in that city among the English-speaking people, chiefly soldiers, to whom he could gain access. A large number were converted, and at their request one of our missionaries visited the place and formally organized them into a Methodist church. The re- moteness of the city has always been a hindrance to our work. It is difficult to give the little church and mission which has grown .up in that place the supervision which it requires. During the present year an advance post has been established in the city of Quetta, a military station opened in Beluchistan and connected with Karachi by railway. Our friends in both Karachi and Quetta are eager, and almost clamorous, for a more vigorous support than we have here- tofore been able to give them. It will probably be found best for us to have either a presiding elder's district for- mally organized in that region, or the Province of Sindh set apart as a mission, somewhat after the manner of Korea or Bulgaria. North of Bombay we find the home of the Gujarati peo- ple, one of the leading Hindu races. They have a language and literature of their own, and are found in great force in the city of Bombay itself, where they divide with the Marathas the chief interests of the city. The number of Gujarati people is variously estimated, but does not probably fall below 10,000,000. More than fifteen years ago our work became rooted in the city of Baroda, in Gujarat, THE PANJAB AND WESTERN INDIA. 429 through a small community of English-speaking persons. Soon after, a number of natives were converted and bap- tized, but owing to the inexperience of our missionaries at that early day, we had no one who understood such work to put in charge, and the promising opening which was then presented to us came to naught. We can now see clearly, that had we followed the indication which God then gave us, a great work might have, been accomplished. More recently we have gained access to the Gujarati people through our missionaries in Bombay; and as many of these people return to their villages in Gujarat, they carry with them the gospel which they have received. We now have an organized Gujarati church in Bombay, and another in Baroda, and are planning to extend our work in that interesting province as rapidly as possible. Gujarat resembles North India more than any other region beyond the Gangetic plain. The lower castes are fully as accessible as any of the castes or tribes which we find in North India, and we have every reason to believe that a work carried on among them on the same lines which we follow in North India, would produce the same results. Many readers are already familiar with the history of our work in Bombay. It was here that Bishop Taylor made his first independent stand in the empire. It was here that he was joined by the saintly and venerable George Bowen, a man whose praise was in all the churches of the East, and who brought with him a commanding influence in the city of Bombay itself. It was from this point that our work ex- tended itself to the great city of Poona, the ancient capital of the Maratha Empire, and as far southward as the city of Hyderabad, the capital of the great Mohammedan State of that name. When Mr. Bowen united with the Methodist Episcopal Church he was an independent Presbyterian mis- sionary, but had been sent to India in the first place by the American Board. He of course continued the work which he was doing, and in this way it may be said that we have always 430 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. had a vernacular work in Bombay. This work was at first conducted wholly in the Marathi language. The Marathi is spoken by perhaps 20,000,000 people. As remarked else- where, it is impossible to ascertain with accuracy the number of people who speak any particular tongue, as the census re- ports must, in the nature of the case, always be more or less imperfect. Like the Hindustani, the Marathi overflows into adjoining provinces and districts. , The most careful estimate which I have been able to find, based on figures taken from the census of 1881, places the number of people using the Marathi tongue at 19,000,000. The increase during the time since then would no doubt bring the number up to 20,000,000. We have three churches in Bombay, and also a large building for work among the seamen. Our people, however, have found the struggle for existence in Bombay in some re- spects a hard one. The English-speaking population is smaller than in Calcutta, or even Madras; and, while wholly dependent upon their own resources, our members, although devoted and faithful in a high degree, have heavy burdens to carry. We need to strengthen our forces in the city at once and very materially. We need especially, as also in Calcutta, to organize a strong working force among the native popula- tion. In the great city of Poona, which lies to the southeast of Bombay, at the edge of the great table-land known as the Deccan, we have a vigorous English church and school for European boys and girls, and a well-organized and vigorous mission for the Maratha people. We also occupy two or three smaller stations in Marathi-speaking districts. Very recently quite a number of converts have been baptized in the vicinity of Bombay, and the few attempts which have been made to reach the lower castes, of whom there are large numbers, have met with a measure of success, which leaves no doubt in my mind that all we need in order to reproduce the success we have achieved in Northern India, is to apply the same meth- ods and a similar working force. In other words, I mean that if we could even moderately strengthen our work in THE PANJAB AND WESTERN INDIA. 433 the three provinces the Panjab, Gujarat, and the Maratha country it would be the most reasonable thing in the world for us to anticipate an ingathering of at least five thousand souls annually in each district; that is, we ought to anticipate such a measure of success at an early day. Looking to the years beyond, of course such figures would be altogether out of place. Here again our friends in America can see three wide-open doors clearly marked and easy of access. Each of these doors admits us not so much to a district as to an empire. If our church had no other calls in any part of the world, and were to throw her whole strength into any one of these three fields, she would find enough, and much more than enough, to test all her energies and to call forth all her resources. But here, as elsewhere, we do not propose to accomplish everything in a day. We only ask to be strengthened so as to make an advance, and create on the ground the resources by which future and greater campaigns shall be sustained. Christianity should especially be strengthened in every possible way, and in the best sense of the word, in the great city of Bombay. The power that holds Bombay must neces- sarily hold all Western India. This is as true of the religious as of the political situation. While Calcutta has thus far taken a leading position intellectually, and will probably hold it for many years to come, yet Bombay, so far as Western India is concerned, will, in every sense of the word, occupy a more commanding position. As one branch of our common Master's service, the Methodists must bear this fact in mind in all their plans for Western India. In order to sustain their work elsewhere in that region they must occupy Bom- bay in force. They should at once form plans on the broad- est basis, and provide schools, churches, and evangelizing igencies of every possible kind. Their action, too, should be not only vigorous but prompt. No time is to be lost in seiz- ing the present opportunity. Had we acted more promptly in the past, our position would have been greatly strengthened in Bombay and all Western India to-day. 28 Cipher XXXIII. BENGAL. THE name Bengal was formerly applied to all the vast region comprised in eastern, northern, and north- western India, which was then known as the Bengal Presi- dency. At the present time, however, it is used in a much more restricted sense, being applied to the jurisdiction of the local government of that name, and forming one of the twelve subordinate divisions which are comprised in British India. It is by far the most important of these local governments, containing, as it does, about one-third of the total population of the empire, and also yielding about one-third of the public revenue. It is ruled by a Lieutenant-Governor, and is sub- divided into four great provinces, known as Bengal proper, Behar, Orissa, and Chota Nagpore. The last named of these provinces is composed chiefly of a hilly tract to the westward of Calcutta, and inhabited for the most part by aboriginal tribes. Orissa is a comparatively small province on the sea-coast, southeast of Calcutta, and chiefly famous as the seat of the well-known temple of Jagannath. The people of Chota Nagpore, for the most part, speak the Hindi lan- guage ; but the inhabitants of Orissa, known as the Ooriyas, have a language of their own, somewhat akin to the Bengali. Bengal proper is the Egypt of India, the country having been built up by the alluvial deposits of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers. These two mighty streams unite their two deltas before reaching the sea, and in past ages have built up one of the largest and richest alluvial plains to be found anywhere in the world. Bengal proper has an area of about 70,000 square miles, and contains a population of 434 BENGAL. 435 about 37,000,000. The country is exceedingly rich, but the people for the most part, like the masses of India generally, live in great poverty. Their chief food is rice, although other grains are grown to some extent in the more northern parts of the country. For many centuries past Bengal has been known as one of the richest regions in the East. Its commerce, important even before the European era, has had an immense development, and has been the means of build- ing up Calcutta from a miserable village of mud huts, into one of the largest and most important cities in the British Empire. The Bengali people number about 40,000,000, or at least about that number speak the Bengali language. Some of these, it will be seen, live beyond the limits of the province, and are included, for the most part, in Behar, although col- onies of Bengalis have become settled in many of the cities of North India. The largest of these is at Benares, where pious Hindus from Bengal have been in the habit of going in their more advanced years, that they might die within the precincts of that holy place. The sanctity of the city and other inducements have drawn together a very considerable colony, which has become permanently established at this point. The Bengalis have a very distinctly marked physi- ognomy, and a character differing in several respects from that of all other Indians, so that they are as easily recognized, and perhaps more generally known throughout India than any other race of the empire. They have also secured more Attention in England than any other Indians, chiefly owing to the fact that those who apply themselves to the effort, succeed in mastering the English language more perfectly than is common in the East, and use both tongue and pen with an ease and skill which commend them to the favorable notice of strangers. I am bound to say, however, that they are not popular, either among Europeans or their Indian brethren of other races. They are popularly accused of a frant of courage, and are never found enlisted among the 436 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. sepoys of the Indian army. They are of an aggressive spirit, fond of criticising the Government of the day, and, both by their superior mental ability and success in seeking their per- sonal promotion, have created a feeling among their country- men of other races which is perhaps tinged more or less by popular jealousy. It must be conceded, however, even by their most severe critics, that they are, as a race, endowed with minds of a high order, and capable of easy and success- ful cultivation. They learn rapidly and eagerly. The schools of Calcutta are a standing evidence of their eagerness to se- cure a good practical education. The student -population of the city is very large, numbering not less than 15,000 youths. Thousands of these have come from different parts of the province, and push their way with indomitable perseverance until they pass the full university course, and return home with the degree of Bachelor or Master of Arts. I have my- self seen 1,400 students present in the General Assembly's Institution, a missionary college founded by Dr. Duff on his first arrival in India, before the separation of the Free Church from the General Assembly. This is the largest of the Cal- cutta colleges; but another has over 1,200 students, and two or three others about 1,000 each. The number of smaller institutions is very large, and although well acquainted with the city, I can not attempt to give even a list of them. The Bengali people are evidently destined to exert a most important influence upon the empire generally. I ought to say frankly that it is considered the correct thing in certain circles in India to speak of them contemptuously, to ridicule their pretensions, and scout at the very idea of their ever exerting a wide or permanent influence among their countrymen. As a matter of fact, however, that influence is already felt, and can not be overlooked. They have had for years past some able leaders, and wherever they have gone in the little colonies formed by them throughout Upper India, they have taken prominent places in the community. I have heard some experienced missionaries express the opinion that BENGAL. 437 in the fullness of time they will become most successful mis- sionaries of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They read more eagerly than most others in India, and in Calcutta they issue one daily paper in English, quite a number of weekly English papers, and a very large number of vernacular papers. To the north of Bengal proper lies the historic province of Behar. The city of Patna, which has for some time past been well known as the chief seat of Mohammedan influence in that region, was originally the capital of a powerful Bud- dhist kingdom. It was at this royal capital that the well- known Megasthenes lived for some years as ambassador from one of the Greek courts, and from his writings much valuable information has been gathered concerning the con- dition of ancient India. The province of Behar is situated between Oudh on the north, and Bengal on the south, and resembles both of these provinces in the richness of its soil, its climate, and its general productions. It contains about 44,000 square miles, and a population of about 24,000,000. The people, for the most part, speak Hindustani in a slightly modified form; but missionaries from Upper India find no difficulty whatever in preaching and carrying on the ordinary forms of missionary work among them. Thus far mission- ary work has not made much progress in Behar. A German Lutheran mission has been at work for more than half a cen- tury, chiefly on the northeastern side of the Ganges, which river runs through the center of the province. To the west and southwest the English Baptists have several stations ; but thus far neither they nor the German Lutherans have achieved any marked success in their work. For some reason which I have never been able to understand, this promising and most important region, with its vast population of 23,000,- 000, has been much overlooked by missionary bodies gener- ally. It lies on the highway between Bengal and Northern India, and can not have escaped notice ; but, as with the wounded -traveler who had fallen among thieves,-the journey- 438 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. ing missionaries seem to have passed by on the other side without pausing to inquire if they had any duty to perform for the people. Early in 1888 our own church sent its first missionary into Tirhoot, a district of Behar, lying north- east of the Ganges. The brother chosen was the Rev. H. Jackson, formerly of North India, but who had for a time retired from the field. He came out promptly on receiving his appointment, and has since been working, with his family, at the station of Mazafarpur. This one missionary family, however, must be looked upon as merely an advance guard. The field is as ripe for harvest, and gives as much promise as any other that I have seen in India. Returning now to Bengal proper, we find another mission- field of extraordinary promise. It is true that more mission- ary work has been done among the Bengali people than in Behar, and more also than had been done in Northern India until a comparatively recent period. All the great missionary societies of England are represented in Bengal, but only two American societies have yet entered the field. Neither of these is present in much force, and outside of the city of Cal- cutta the American missionary influence is but very slight. Although Dr. Carey began his great work in Bengal a century ago, and was followed at a comparatively early day by mis- sionaries of other societies, yet vast sections of the country can be found where no missionary is ever seen, and there are probably millions of the people who have never yet heard the name of Jesus Christ. When we consider the important position which Bengal occupies, politically, commercially, educationally, and, I may add, religiously, it is a marvel that our great missionary leaders have not seen more clearly the importance, if not absolute necessity, of putting forth more strenuous and better organized efforts for the conver- sion of the people. It might perhaps be said, by way of apology, that many stations have been established at impor- tant points throughout the province ; but this means very little. If, for instance, a district containing two millions of BENGAL. 439 people chances to have a central station at which one or two missionaries live and labor, it does not by any means follow that the people generally are placed within reach of the gospel. If two Buddhist missionaries were to determine to establish a mission for the propagation of their faith in Iowa, and select an ordinary county-seat as their mission-station, it would take them a long while to make themselves felt among the people of the State at large, even though they were to avail themselves of all the advantages which news- papers, lecture-halls, and easy and rapid locomotion could give them. In Bengal two missionaries among two millions of people find it still more difficult to make their presence felt. The railway does not carry them to the masses of the people in their quiet villages, nor are there any daily papers, lecture-halls, or other means of access to those whom they would willingly reach. As a sad matter of fact, there are millions upon millions of the people who are practically as much neglected, and as far from the sound of the gospel call, as their ancestors were when William Carey first landed upon Indian soil. In another chapter I have briefly told the story of our own entrance into Bengal. We were led to establish per- manent work in the city of Calcutta through the success which God gave us among the English-speaking people of that city. Very soon after organizing our church in Cal- cutta, Bengali Christians began to gather around us, at first in small numbers, but, as the years went by, slowly but steadily increasing. The native Christian community in that city, though not very large, has become very much like an ordinary community in England or America ; that is, it is composed of some earnest Christians, some who are comparatively in- different, and not a few who have thrown off the restraints of religion and are living lives of utter worldliness. It was among these last that our first converts were gathered. Nearly all of them had drifted into the city from country districts, where they had become Christians, and, being sepa- 440 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. rated from their earlier and better associations, they practically gave up not only their Christian integrity, but almost the very Christian name. After a time we began to make con- verts from Hinduism, chiefly through the agency of these people, and the work thus commenced in the city gradually extended itself into the country districts between Calcutta and the sea, in some sections of which many native Chris- tians are found. We have had more or less direct conver- sions from Hinduism in that region every year, but upon the whole the work has not been satisfactory. We do better in every way when we go among the heathen exclusively, and train our own converts from the beginning, instead of re- ceiving those who have perhaps, more than once in their lives, changed their religious profession. In like manner, a work among the Hindustani-speaking people of Calcutta began a number of years ago ; and, al- though its progress has not been so decided or satisfactory as that among the Bengalis, yet a Hindustani church with about a hundred members has been organized, and, considering all the circumstances, is doing fairly well. During the present year an opening has also been found among the Ooriyas that is, the natives of Orissa, the province mentioned above as lying to the southeast of Calcutta. A very large number of Ooriyas live in Calcutta permanently, and thus far very little has been done for them by any of the missionaries of the city. We hope to do what we can for them, although it is no part of our plan to establish separate missions in Orissa itself. The city of Calcutta is, for missionary purposes, beyond doubt the most important point in the East. Not only does it stand, like Singapore and Bombay, at one of the great Cross-roads of the nations, with a far-reaching influence in every direction, but in India proper its position, from a re- ligious point of view, is very commanding. More than any other city in the empire, it is constantly in full view of all the Indian people, and any great event which occurs in Calcutta, not only attracts more attention, but produces a BENGAL. 441 deeper and more lasting impression upon the public mind than if it took place elsewhere. A great religious movement beginning here would at once arrest attention everywhere throughout India, and the church or society which wishes to secure and permanently hold a strong position in India and the East, should be well represented in Calcutta. So far as our work among the English-speaking people is concerned, we have perhaps nothing to complain of, occupying as we do the largest church, and preaching to the largest congrega- tion in the city; but so far as our work among the Bengalis is concerned, we have not only failed to do our full duty in the past, but have now reached a point where it becomes imper- ative upon us to make a most vigorous and effectual advance. We should have a number of young men at once at work among the great college population of the city, and we should set them apart so exclusively for this work, that nothing in the future shall in any way interfere with their special duty. The work among the Bengali women also should be prose- cuted with new vigor. That field is peculiarly ripe, and a rich harvest may be regarded as near at hand if only reapers can be found to enter the field. Taking the whole region represented on the maps as Ben- gal, we are called upon imperatively to extend our lines and increase our working force immediately. If we create a pre- siding elder's district in Behar, corresponding in a moderate degree with a similar district in North India, and place not less than three new missionaries in that field at once, we may > confidently expect, after a few years of preliminary work, to begin to gather in converts as rapidly as we are now doing in Rohilkhand or the Doab. The same remark is true of Bengal. If we at once strengthen our position in the city of Calcutta, and send out three or four tried and true missionaries to im- portant centers in the country, we may as confidently expect an annual ingathering of five thousand converts here as in the North. In other words, if we attempt to do our duty to this vast dependency, including as it does one-third of the 442 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. population of India within its boundaries, we must confi- dently look forward to the not remote time when our mission- aries shall report ten thousand converts a year. I know, only too well, that many good men have an excessive dis- like of estimates of this kind; but the time has come for us to be practical, and if we can not engage in this blessed mission- ary work with even that small measure of confidence which an- ticipates moderate success at the end of a reasonable time, we may as well abandon our gigantic task altogether. Let the church at home understand fully that in Behar and Bengal we have two doors standing wide open, easy of access, and both leading to assured success. Our people can not neglect to enter in, and be guiltless. Chapter XXXIY. BURMA. HHHOSE who remember the lessons in geography which 1 they received in school forty or fifty years ago, may be able to recall the map of Asia, with a country called Hindu- stan, which represented the India of the present day; and to the southeast of this another country, called Farther India, which represented the kingdoms of Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Anam> and Tonquin. This region was wholly unlike India, and it is probable that the name, Farther India, was merely given to it by the map-makers in default of a better term. The countries in question are thoroughly Asiatic, but not in any special sense Indian. The chief among these was, and still is, Burma, which was an independent and somewhat powerful kingdom at the beginning of the present century. Its territory then extended far within the present boundaries of India proper, while it maintained an intermittent warfare with Siam and China in regard to its northern and eastern boundaries. The kings of Burma have always been absolute monarchs, and given to tyrannical ways, and early in the present century became involved with the Indian Govern- ment. This resulted in successive wars and annexations of territory, which finally included all the sea-coast and the richer part of the territory which is known as Lower Burma. From 1852 to 1886, a period of thirty-four years, the country was known, in its two divisions, as British and Independent Burma. In 1878 the last Burman king, Theebaw, ascended the throne. He had been educated in an English school, and it was expected that he would display better qualities as a ruler 443 444 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. than had been common among his predecessors. This hope, however, was grievously disappointed. He at once began a reckless career, and gave himself up to a life of cruelty and oppression. The British Resident was repeatedly insulted, and before the close of the first year of Theebaw's adminis- tration, withdrawn. True to the Oriental instinct, which in all past times has prompted so many tyrants when ascending a throne to destroy all possible rivals, Theebaw ordered the slaughter of nearly all his relatives. The Indian Govern- ment was at this time engaged in a serious war on its north- western frontier, and threatened with still more serious trouble from the Russians, and hence could not at once in- tervene in the affairs of Burma. Finally, in 1885, it was discovered that Theebaw was negotiating with the French, who were his near neighbors in Tonquin ; and this at once made it imperative upon the English to intervene. It would never have done to allow the French to gain a perma- nent lodgment in Upper Burma. An ultimatum was sent to the short-sighted Theebaw, which had only the effect of inducing him immediately to begin hostilities. He was quickly overthrown, and on the first of January, 1886, Lord Dufferin annexed all the remaining territory of Burma to the Indian Empire. The kingdom of Burma, which thus became a province of the Indian Empire, comprises a large tract of country con- taining nearly 200,000 square miles, but with the compara- tively small population of only 7,550,000. This population is composed of various races, the Burmans or Burmese, as they are sometimes called taking the leading place. They are a branch of the great Mongolian family, with a light yellow rather than a dark brown complexion, speak a tonal language, and show other marks of close affiliation to the Chinese. In ordinary intercourse they seem to be an ami- able, sprightly, and intelligent race, and are often called the Irish of the East. They are fond of gay colors, and are for the most part a gay people. They enjoy a good joke, even BURMA. 445 though it be at their own expense, and in this respect they are said to differ very much from the Karens who live among them. The men are not fond of work, and not only most of the work, but often the business of the family, is wholly left to the management of the housewife. The women are industrious, and said to be excellent managers. I was struck during my last visit to Rangoon with a remark made by our missionary there, when speaking of a woman who had become a Christian, and who, in consequence, would probably be deserted by her husband. I asked what could be done for her. " O, she will take care of herself," was the reply. " She can easily earn her own livelihood." When I asked in what way she could do so, I was told that she would adopt any one of half a dozen different callings in order to earn her bread, and that that part of the problem needed give no concern whatever. It would have been very different had the case occurred in India, where a woman thus cast upon the world is almost helpless. The zenana system of India is unknown in Burma. The women go abroad with the utmost freedom, never so much as wearing a veil. They have adopted the peculiar and by no means becoming habit of smoking huge cigars. The best dressed ladies in the street will be found with a cigar, some three or four times the size of an ordinary American weed. The accompanying picture will give at once a fair specimen of a good-looking Burmese woman, with her peculiar if not repulsive habit of smoking at all times, whether in season or out of season. The huge cigar is not composed wholly of tobacco leaves. The tobacco is wrapped up in an ordinary leaf, which resembles tobacco in appearance, but is as harm- less as so much paper. When in the mouth, however, it re- sembles an ordinary cigar so much in every respect, except- ing size, that the observer, if a stranger, would never sup- pose that it was composed of any other leaf. The Karens have long been known to the religious pub- lic in America by the remarkable story of the success of the INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Baptist missions among them. Every reader of the " Life and Labors of Dr. Judson " will be familiar with the story of the discovery of the remarkable people from the jungle, known as the Karens, and of the extraordinary manner in which their minds had been prepared for the reception of the A BURMESE WOMAN. gospel. They are found in different tribes, all resembling one another in certain important respects, and yet differing among themselves like the various tribes of American In- dians. They possess many fine qualities as a people, and since becoming Christians have advanced steadily and even rapidly in civilization and refinement. The Baptist missions BURMA. 447 are still largely confined to them, and their work among them continues to make steady progress. The ultimate conversion of the whole of these people is only a question of time, and probably of a very brief time. Farther to the north another people are found, called the Shans. These, like the Karens, are in different tribes, and speak different dialects. They also are an interesting and promising race. The gospel has made some headway among them, but they have not yet been found as accessible as the Karens were. The missionaries, however, regard the work among them as very hopeful, and find no cause whatever for serious discouragement in connection with it. Still farther to the north are found the Chins. These people occupy the border-land between Burma and China. Their civilization is lower, and their morals and social life more depressed, than those of the Shans and Karens. Polyg- amy is more prevalent among them, and they are also some- what given to predatory warfare. Only a few years before the overthrow of Theebaw an invasion of the Chins occurred in Upper Burma, during which the important town of Bhamo was wrested from the Burmese. The invading patty were assisted by an interpreter, who proved to be a Chinese Chris- tian that had been baptized by our own missionaries in Foo Chow. This man, when I last heard from him, was still in Upper Burma, and, although not living a satisfactory life, continued to profess the Christian religion. In addition to these long settled races, in more recent years Burma has received a considerable number of immi- grants both from China and India. The Chinese have come in part overland from the northeast; but most of those set- tled in the sea-port cities came by sea. They are here, as everywhere, an industrious people, and are rapidly becoming rooted in the soil. As they profess the same religion as the Burmese, the latter have no objection whatever to negotiating marriages with them, and the children of these mixed mar- riages grow up in the country, often speaking both Chinese 448 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. and Burmese, and becoming valuable members of society. The Chinese element in Rangoon is already a very powerful factor in the growth of the business of the city, and it is by no means improbable that now, since the country has become thoroughly settled, immigration from the northeast will proceed more rapidly, and in time a new nation grow up in Burma, conforming more nearly to the Chinese standard than the Burmese. The immigrants from India are not looked upon with very much favor by the people; but they receive high wages, and but for their drinking habits would quickly become at- tached to the soil, and form an important element in the pop- ulation. It is doubtful, however, whether they will keep pace with the Chinese in the race of progress. They are settled, for the most part, in the sea-port towns, or in their immediate vicinity. Many of them have become permanent residents; but the majority return to India as soon as they have accumulated enough money to justify them in doing so. The chief sea-port of Burma is Rangoon, a town which has risen very rapidly in commercial importance since the annexation of Lower Burma by the Indian Government. It is now the fourth sea-port of the empire in importance, if not indeed the third. Madras still surpasses it in popula- tion ; but the trade of Rangoon has for some years past been advancing by leaps and bounds, and the city will soon assume its place as third in rank among all the sea-port towns of the Indian Empire. It is laid out in regular streets, being the only city I have yet seen in the East which in this respect resembles an American town. The streets, however, are di- vided into three classes, only a few of which are wide enough for comfort and convenience. Some are so narrow as to merit only the name of alleys, or at best lanes. Only a very few thoroughfares, w T hich might more properly be called avenues, are wide enough to be worthy of so impor- tant a city. In Rangoon and vicinity are found a number of the BURMA. 449 pagodas for which Burma is famous. One of these, the Shwe Dagon, or Great Pagoda, is famous throughout the East. It stands on a slight eminence, in the rear of the city, about a mile and a half from the river, and is three hundred and seventy-five feet high from its base. It is a solid structure, made of brick, and richly covered with, pure gold. It is surrounded by shrines of various kinds, many of them being small pagodas about thirty feet high. Around each of the smaller pagodas are dragons, kneeling elephants, and altars for the reception of offerings. A constant stream of appar- ently devout people may be seen at all hours wending their way to these shrines. The pagoda is supposed to have been originally erected for the reception of sacred relics, but in itself serves no purpose except that of a monument. It is regarded, however, with great veneration by the people, and no doubt will be, in the ages to come, an object of curious interest long after the present traditions of Buddhism shall have vanished away. The chief exports of Rangoon are teak-lumber and rice. The mills for hulling the rice, and saw-mills for cutting up the teak-logs, line both sides of the river on which the city stands, and afford employment to large numbers of the peo- ple. Here for many years the curious spectacle of elephants patiently working in the saw-mills has attracted the atten- tion of strangers. These huge creatures are found to be ex- tremely useful when working among the logs, or drawing out the sawn timber preparatory to loading it on the ships in the river. Our own work in Burma was thrust upon us, rather than sought by us. When I began my own work in Calcutta, in 1874, I very soon came in contact with persons who had lived in Rangoon, and who lost no time in writing to their friends in that city of the new work which we were begin- ning in Calcutta. The result was that I received immediate and urgent invitations to go to Rangoon. These invitations continued from time to time, and constantly became more 29 450 INDIA AND MALA YSfA. urgent, until I could not but regard them as to some extent, at least, providential. Finally, after nearly five years of waiting, I determined to go and see if God had anything for us to do in Rangoon. About the same time some parties in America became much interested in this work, and, at the session of the Rock River Conference in 1878, money was collected with which to send a missionary to Rangoon. This alone seemed sufficient to decide our course ; but it was not until I received a telegram that a missionary and wife had actually arrived in the city, that I finally sailed for that place. The missionary was the Rev. R. E. Carter, of Ohio. Ran- goon is seven hundred and eighty miles southeast of Calcutta. I left in the early part of the rainy season, and found the Bay of Bengal in its very worst mood, the monsoon having just burst. The late Rev. F. A. Goodwin, at that time my colleague in Calcutta, accompanied me. We were kindly received by Baptist friends, and invited to use the small chapel in which, at that time, the Baptist missionaries held their English service. Previous to that time Dr. Stevens, of the Baptist Mission, had been preaching every Sunday evening to a small English congregation, and also holding a prayer-meeting on Wednesday evenings. The Baptist missionaries, however, had given themselves wholly to vernacular work, and had not found it practicable to at- tempt the organization of a regular church with all its usual appliances for the English-speaking people. I was much ex- hausted on arrival, and had only two weeks to spend in the city. The first evening I attended the usual Baptist prayer- meeting, at which it was announced that our meetings would begin the following evening. I continued to preach twice a day during the fortnight that I was able to stay in the city, and God wonderfully opened our way. I may here say that, in going to the city, we had no resources whatever except God's promises. We had to borrow money with which to pay for our steamer tickets, although furnished to us at greatly reduced rates. At the end of two weeks, however, BURMA. 451 we had not only money enough to pay for our passage up and down, but were in possession of a valuable plot of land at the corner of two main streets, on which to build a church and parsonage, We had an organized church of sixty or seventy members, a Sunday-school in operation, had held our first Quarterly Conference, had licensed one local preacher and two or three exhorters, had held our first class-meeting and love-feast, and had commenced street-preaching in three different languages. In other words, we had quickly and permanently become rooted in the soil of Burma. As remarked in another chapter, the opening of a work among English people, such as that "commenced in Rangoon, at once committed us to general missionary work among the people around us. It could not have been otherwise. The result in Rangoon has clearly illustrated this. Among the very first of those influenced by our meetings were men who spoke both Telugu and Tamil two of the Indian lan- guages represented in the city. These men began to preach in the language with which they were most familiar, and very soon a small membership began to gather around them. This work has gone on to the present day, and although its progress has been slow, owing to the constant return of con- verts to India, yet it gets a little stronger year by year, and becomes more and more rooted in the soil. The Burmese have heretofore not proved to be a very ac- cessible people to the Christian missionary. From the be- ginning, Dr. Judson found them not merely indifferent, but 1 actually hostile both to him and his message ; and up to the present day the Baptist missionaries in most parts of the country regard the Burmese as the least hopeful part of the community. The Karens offered the richest harvest, while the Shans, and even the Chins, take precedence of the Bur- mese so far as accessibility to the missionary is concerned. When I first visited Rangoon, I saw no indication of any special interest on the part of the Burmese people ; but in more recent years I have perceived a change which is unmis- 452 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. takable and certainly very remarkable. Early in 1889, when I arrived in Rangoon on my annual visit, I was met at once by a Tamil Christian, who asked me to go with him to a vil- lage on the Pegu river, some fifteen miles distant, and bap- tize a few Burmese converts. The request was an extraor- dinary one, not only because the converts were Burmese, but because they had been reached and influenced by a despised Indian. I went, however, taking with me the Rev. S. P. Long, at that time our missionary in Rangoon, and a num- ber of other Christian workers. None of these, however, could speak Burmese except a young girl of sixteen, belong- ing to our girls' boarding-school. This young disciple acted as interpreter; and when we reached the village and the people gathered around us, all eager to hear who we were and what our errand among them was, she did her part ex- tremely well. I soon perceived, as she went on talking to them, that she was not only giving them my words, but add- ing a good many of her own; and in the course of the day she had many long talks with them in which I was not re- quired to give any assistance. Before we left in the evening I baptized five persons, and in this way we gained a slight foot-hold in this one little village. A year later I went to the same place again, and on the way made the acquaintance of a young man who could speak English, and who had been brought up in the midst of Chris- tian associations. This man became interested, and was bap- tized by me on my return up the coast, a few weeks later. He opened a school for boys in the city, which has continued successfully to the present day. The strange feature about this school is, that not only do the boys pay fees enough to make it almost self-supporting, but a number of them have been converted and baptized without exciting either the fear or the hostility of their parents. Nothfbg of the kind has ever occurred in our school-work in India. It would be im- possible for any number of our school-boys to profess Chris- tianity without creating an uproar which, for a time, would BURMA. 453 break up the school. The parents also would be smitten with either anger or fear if they heard mention of such a thing. The Rev. Julius Smith, our present missionary in Rangoon, tells me that not only is this school going on suc- cessfully, but that he has received applications to establish others, with offers of liberal aid ; and it is his opinion that if we were only prepared for an organized work, we would find open before us a wide and effectual door of access to the Burmese people. I quite agree with him in his opinion in this case. One of the most interesting and promising fields that we now have before us in all the East is in Burma, and among the leading people of Burma. It is practically a new field; for, although the Baptist missionaries have long been preaching in that tongue, they have made comparatively few converts among the Burmese proper. Some of their oldest missionaries speak of this part of the work as utterly discour- aging. They are older and more experienced than we are, and possibly would speak in less hopeful terms than I do of the signs of promise which have lately appeared. Neverthe- less the field is there, the people invite us, and we can hardly refuse the offers they make us, and be guiltless. I can only state in barest details the present condition of our work in Burma. We have a small but energetic and devoted English Church in Rangoon. In all the Methodist world no church of equal membership can be found which has undertaken and accomplished more than has been done by this little band of Christian believers. They started an orphanage some years ago for European and Eurasian chil- 'dren, Burma being somewhat noted for the large number of the latter class who are found abandoned by European fathers, and with mothers unable to support them. They have a coffee-room and seamen's rest at a short distance from their church. They have four organized churches one for English-speaking people, one for Tamils, a third for Telugus, and a fourth for the Burmese. They have an ex- cellent girls' boarding-school, both for boarders and day 454 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. pupils. They are devising the organization of a boys' school of like character. They have never been aided very materially in their work, and have been compelled for the most part to depend upon their own resources. Both of our Missionary Societies should come to their aid quickly and in the most liberal spirit. God has a great work for us to do in that rising province, and we should lose no time in availing ourselves of the splendid opportunities which are now oifered to us. Ci>apber XXXV. CENTRAL AND SOUTH INDIA. THE region formerly known as Central India has for political reasons been recently divided into two large sections, one known as Central India, and the other as the Central Provinces. The former lies north of the Vindhya Mountains, and is for the most part composed of feudatory native States. It is a somewhat arid region, containing 75,000 square miles and about 9,500,000 inhabitants. We have only one mission within its borders, the station of Ajmere, which is included in the Agra District of the North India Conference. Mention of this mission has been made in a previous chapter, and needs not be repeated here. The Central Provinces occupy the actual center of the Indian Empire. The name is applied politically to a group of small provinces administered by a Chief Commissioner, who has his residence in the city of Nagpore. The provinces are divided into four divisions, each supervised by a Com- missioner, with eighteen smaller districts, having the usual quota of magistrates and other district officers. The Ner- budda River flows through the northern part of the Central Provinces, and the Nerbudda Valley District is the name of one of the presiding elder's districts of the Bengal Confer- ence. A railway connects the stations occupied by us in this valley, and aifords many advantages in the prosecution of our work. The Rev. C. P. Hard, the present presiding elder, has reported very encouraging progress during the present year. About 700 converts of all ages have been bap- 455 456 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. tized,* and new openings present themselves at many points in the valley. We occupy the cities of Jabalpur, Narsingh- pur, Harda, Khandwa, and Burhanpur; but our force needs to be greatly strengthened in order to make the district what it ought to be. South of the Nerbudda Valley the Satpura range of mountains runs east and west, and made until recently the boundary-line between the Bengal and South India Conferences. South of the Satpura range we occupy the two important cities of Nagpore and Kampti. Thus far our missionaries have not achieved much success among the natives; but the prospects are favorable, and there is no reason whatever to doubt that we can succeed as well in the regions south as in the north of the Satpuras. Thus far we have not been able to bring the same forces into action, and, in fact, have been doing little more than holding our ground so far as work among the natives is concerned. We were led into all this region by our work among the English-speaking people. We occupied Jabalpur and Nag- pore many years ago, and subsequently our evangelists pushed up and down the railways, and won many converts at different stations. We first attempted little more than to take care of these converts, but, as has happened everywhere else, such work inevitably leads to the prosecution, first on a small scale, of a simple work among the natives, followed in due time by a better organized and vigorous system. The whole field of the Central Provinces is a hopeful one, and will doubtless yield us a rich harvest if we are even moder- ately faithful to our opportunities. Leaving Bombay, and proceeding by railway toward the southeast, we enter the country known as the Deccan, or South Country, and twenty-four hours after setting out on our journey we reach the large and important city of Hy- derabad. Here we find many of the people speaking Hin- dustani; but this language is confined almost exclusively to *This number has since been largely increased. The Rev. T. S. Johnson, M. D., is the present presiding elder. CENTRAL AND SOUTH INDIA. 457 the city, and is chiefly spoken by settlers from North India, or the descendants of such. The mass of the people of the great Province of Hyderabad, better known as the Nizam's Dominions, speak Kanarese, Telugu, or Marathi. Im- mediately around the city of Hyderabad we find Telugu the prevailing tongue. A little west we encounter Kanarese, which is spoken throughout most of the region south and southwest of Hyderabad, until we reach the southern limits of the Province of Mysore. The Telugu is spoken to the eastward and as far north as the southern boundary of Orissa. Farther south we encounter the Tamil language. We thus find these three races in Southern India, each having its own distinct language. Our missionaries have long since been led into missionary work among all three of these races. We have been cautioned here as elsewhere not to extend our work too widely ; but fishermen might as well be told, when they cast their net into the deep, to be careful not to let it in- close more than one or two of the dozen different kinds of fish which swim in the waters. It is impossible, absolutely impossible, for Christian men and women to live among great surging masses of their fellow-beings, and succeed in winning some of them to Christ while carefully avoiding others. Thus far we have not done as much among the Telugu people as we should have done. They are the most numer- ous of these three southern races, numbering at present per- haps very nearly, if not fully, 20,000,000. They have been found thus far the most accessible of the three races, and it is among them that the American Baptists are making such wonderful progress. Our own missionaries have been led to attempt more among the Kauarese. We have two stations in the Nizam's Territory among the Kauarese, and also work among the same people at Bangalore. Last year the atten- tion of our Church was attracted to the important station of Kolar, in the Province of Mysore. Here an excellent English lady, Miss Louisa Anstey, had established, and Tor nearly 458 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. fifteen years maintained, an orphanage and mission among the Kauarese people. Finding it difficult to continue the work in the new proportions which it had assumed, this iady offered to make the whole mission over to us without charge of any kiud. We had no resources at the time ; but en- A TELUGU FAMILY. couraged by a few kind friends whom I met at Oil City, Pa., and trusting in God who had led us so wonderfully hitherto, I cabled to India to accept the offer. We have now two missionaries stationed at Kolar, a prosperous orphanage with several Christian settlements in the vicinity, and a Christian community of over five hundred. CENTRAL AND SOUTH INDIA. 459 We have done less among the Tamil people in their own country than perhaps among any other of the leading Indian races. We, have, however, Tamil work at Bangalore, and also in the city of Madras, which is practically a Tamil city. Our work here, as elsewhere, is inseparable from the work we are doing among the English-speaking people. Every year Tamil men are converted and unite with us, and we could not give up such work if we tried. We have only to extend the work, strengthen our forces, and apply the same methods which have been found successful elsewhere, in order to attain the measure of success among the people of these three great races which we have witnessed in other parts of the country. Strangely enough, we encounter the Tamil people speak- ing their own language at the distant ports of Singapore and Penang, and also at Rangoon and other towns in Burma. The Tamil language is regarded as the most difficult of the better known languages of the empire. It has a copious literature, and challenges the best ability which even our most cultured missionaries can put forth before it is mas- tered. The Tamil people thrive better as colonists, or at least seem more willing to go beyond the borders of India, than most of the other races. The northern part of the island of Ceylon is inhabited by people of this race, and it is from Jaffna, a mission-station of the American Board in Northern Ceylon, that we draw most of our Tamil preachers and teach- ers in the Straits Settlements. We have here an indication of the changing conditions which we already begin to dis- cover as the people of this lethargic East begin to move about more freely. Christianity will yet be carried to many a distant point by colonists, or by Eastern Christians moving from place to place in the ordinary course of their business engagements. When our Missionary Committee, a few years ago, after full deliberation, decided to support work throughout the vast region known at that time as the South India Confer- 460 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. ence, embracing the country as far south as Madras and Bangalore, a responsibility was assumed which probably few of those concerned were able to appreciate. It is forever too late for us to retreat, and one of the first great duties which awaits our missionary authorities is that of effectually A TAMIL GROUP. strengthening our work throughout the whole of South In- dia. Eight or nine American missionaries should be sent into that region at once. Whether they go among the Tamil, Kanarese, or Telugu people, they will find a most inviting field, and can enter upon their labors with assured hope of success. But we can not prosecute such a work by following CENTRAL AND SOUTH INDIA. 461 our present somewhat desultory methods, and we can not im- prove the methods until we have more men on the field adapted to such work, and with their lives fully consecrated to live and die for India. Three or four men should at once enter the Tamil part of the work. At least three should be stationed in the Telugu country, and two or three more be stationed among the Kanarese. If we were able at once to strengthen our forces and extend our lines in that region, we would soon be reaping as large a harvest among all three of these peoples, as any which has rewarded our labors in other parts of India. The city of Madras was at one time the most important post held by the English in India. It has declined in im- portance, however, since the rise of Calcutta and Bombay, and, owing to its lack of a good harbor, can never hold a first-class position as one of the great sea- ports of the empire. Locally, however, it will continue for all time as the center of a very important influence. Christianity has secured a stronger position, in some respects, in Madras than elsewhere, and the common people of the city have throughout the whole of the present century been brought into closer con- tact with Europeans than perhaps any other natives in India, with the result that most of them can speak, more or less im- perfectly of course, the English language. Servants from Madras are in demand all over India, because of their com- mand of the English tongue. This close contact with Euro- peans, however, has not in all respects proved salutary. The Madrasi Christians do not stand very high in public esteem, chiefly owing to the bad habits contracted in former days by their ancestors two or even three generations back. It is only in recent years that total abstinence has become in any degree popular in any part of India, and the Chris- tians of Madras have suffered more from intemperance than from all other bad habits combined. This has not only given them a somewhat questionable character, but all the Indian Christians have had to carry a share of their burden. 462 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Thousands of Europeans have no idea whatever of Chris- tian converts in India, except as they come in contact with these house-servants from Madras; and hence, when they return to Europe, they unhesitatingly affirm that all the Christian converts in India are notorious drunkards. The next generation, however, will probably be a great improve- ment upon the present. In any case, it will not be much longer true that people preferring Christian servants who are total abstainers can not find any who are deserving of that name. In the preceding five chapters I have, in addition to brief notices of other fields, sketched in bare outline thirteen vast regions, each capable of furnishing material enough to make a Christian empire, into which we have been led in the providence of God, and are fully committed to do our share of their evangelization. In five of these thirteen fields we have, during the past two years, met with a measure of suc- cess which is new, not only in the history of our Church, but of Methodism. There is no reason whatever to doubt that these successes can be extended to each one of the thirteen fields ; and I regard it as practically certain that within a very few years we could report an average of from five to ten thousand converts for each one of these fields every year, if we only prosecuted the work with that moderate degree of vigor, and with the same careful organization, which have characterized our work in the fields where we are now reaping a rich harvest. As repeatedly remarked before, we can not withdraw from one of these fields; we can not re- trace our steps at any single point. We are compelled to go forward. Never did the providence of God, working in harmony with the revealed word, and with the clear and widely-felt promptings of the Holy Spirit, call more clearly or in louder tones to any people to engage in any specific line of Christian duty. May God help our beloved Church to catch a clear view of these open doors, and to gird her loins at once for the gigantic task of entering in and doing her full share of the great work of saving India! XXXVI. LIFE IN INDIA. FT VERY returned missionary quickly discovers that his 1 / friends in the United States are not only surprisingly ignorant with regard to the kind of life he has been living in his mission-field, but also, with few exceptions, are eager to learn all manner of details concerning his every-day life in a country so little known as India. Two mistakes, each representing an opposite extreme, are met with everywhere. A few persons, and I am happy to believe a very few, have heard stories about the luxury in which missionaries in Asiatic countries live, and honestly suppose that European life in such a country as India is one in which the most elaborate forms, not only of comfort, but of luxury, abound in every home. A much larger number fall into the opposite error of supposing that every heathen land is a barbarous realm, in which few of the ordinary comforts of life can be found, and where every true missionary must, in the nature of the case, lead a life of extreme hardship, if not suffering. Both of these notions are mistaken, and, in the interest of the missionary cause, need to be corrected. In any and every country of the world life is very much what the individual makes it. Hardship can be found and endured if it is sought for; and luxury, being a product of artificial life, can be created, provided money is at hand in sufficient quantity. A missionary's life in India can be a very happy one. It may also be a very laborious and trying one, but it is by no means necessary that it should be a life of privation and hardship. In the first place, it should be understood from the outset by every European or American going to India, that he 463 464 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. must live the life of an exotic in a strange and some- what hostile climate. After saying the best that can be said for the climate of India, taking the empire as a whole, it must be conceded that the conditions of life are much less favorable to the average European than is common in more northern latitudes. Some foreigners can not live in India at all. Be the cause what it may, their constitutions will not endure the peculiarities of the Indian climate. With the majority, however, the case is otherwise. By ob- serving the conditions of health peculiar to the country, and by adapting himself to his immediate environment, an or- dinary European or American may live out his threescore years and ten in the enjoyment of a fair degree of health. Shortly after my first arrival in India, I met an English gentleman who had been sixty-one years in the country, without returning even once on furlough to his native land. He died in extreme old age, and I have since known numer- ous instances of persons of both sexes who lived to a very advanced age in various parts of the country. The stranger, however, must accept the fact from the hour he sets foot in the country, that he is to live the life of an exotic, and must accept all the conditions which such a life imposes upon him without murmuring, and without any attempt to ignore na- ture's inflexible laws. He must not, for instance, expose him- self to the sun as he has been accustomed to do in his native land. He must be careful about his food, his recreation, his hours of work, his bathing, and above all his sleep. An or- dinary man needs more sleep in the tropics than in the tem- perate zones. I have always strongly advised all missionaries who can possibly do so, to set apart an hour or two in the middle of the day, through the hot season at least, for a sound nap. A doze of fifteen minutes will not suffice. For many years I have made it a rule during the hot season to go to bed on Sunday about twelve or one o'clock, and have a sleep of two hours. When able to secure this refreshing rest, I am always as full of life and vigor at the beginning of the LIFE IN INDIA. 465 evening sermon as in the early morning. It is a bad habit in any country for a worker to allow himself to be fagged out until he is compelled fairly to drag himself to his various tasks, but in India it is almost suicidal. The home comforts of the average missionary are moder- ate and modest enough both in quality and quantity, and yet it often happens that visitors from the home-land carry away an impression with them that the missionary is in the enjoyment of a pretty full share of the good things which belong to a home. His house is probably a large one. The rooms are twice as high as those in an ordinary American parsonage. The doors and windows are large, and as they usually stand wide open, the whole house seems to be some- what on the palatial order; that is, when measured by the standard of an ordinary American parsonage. The furniture is seldom costly, but the thrifty housewife is apt to cover over and ornament cheap articles in such a way as to give the impression that her house is well furnished. The tables are wide, and often ornamented with a profusion of flowers, which cost little enough, but which sometimes convey to the visitor an impression of somewhat stylish living. Worst of all, one or possibly two servants stand around the table to wait upon the guests, and although these men, whether there be two or three of them, do less work and cost less money than one Irish or Swedish girl would do in America, yet the visitor is impressed with the idea that the family are keep- ing up a good deal of style. The reality, however, is far different from the impression made upon the stranger. In a book which has had a wide circulation in America, the author tells of a sofa on which he rested on a certain oc- casion, which I happened afterwards to see, and which proved to be made of reeds and covered with chintz, the whole affair not having cost more than two or three dollars. The rooms are made large for the sake of securing a plenti- ful supply of good air ; but they contain less of comfort and much less expensive furniture than will be found in an 30 466 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. ordinary American house. The food on the table is much the same as we get in the home-land. During the cold sea- son, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, and in short all the com- mon vegetables, abound. Beef, mutton, and fowls can be obtained in most parts of the country. Butter is more of a luxury than at home, but good bread can be obtained almost everywhere. The fruits of the land, if not equal to those of America, at least give abundant satisfaction to every one who has lived any length of time in the country. The diseases of India, which are so much dreaded by the friends of missionaries, especially when about to bid them farewell, are some of them formidable enough, and yet all missionaries who have lived any length of time in the coun- try smile at the exaggerated fears of their friends in America in reference to their deadly character. It is very true that India is the home of the cholera, and that this scourge is never wholly absent from the country. In many places* six months may elapse without a single case being reported ; but if one or more cases occurred every month, it would excite no special attention. It has been many years since a great epidemic of this frightful disease has swept over the country, such as were frequent many years ago. At best, however, it must be admitted that the cholera in its mildest forms is a terrible enemy; but, as a matter of fact, our missionaries have lived in constant contact with it for a third of a cen- tury without many of them having become its victims. So far as I can remember, four deaths have occurred among us from cholera during these years. Small-pox generally as- sumes an epidemic form once every year, and is sometimes very fatal. When it makes its appearance the authorities always insist on a general vaccination; but it seldom or never creates anything like a panic. AVe live in the midst of it without feeling any alarm whatever. In passing along the narrow streets I have often seen a dozen cases in a single morning, the children, or perhaps older people, covered with the eruption being seated on their door-steps, or perhaps LIFE IN INDIA. 467 even out in the narrow streets. During the past quarter of a century I have known of five cases in our missionary fami- lies, one of which proved fatal. Three of the other cases were very mild. Pulmonary diseases are less fatal in India than in America, and yet more deaths have occurred among us from consumption than from both cholera and small-pox. But if a few diseases are unusually prevalent, we are hap- pily relieved of the presence of two or three of the worst plagues of America. Scarlet fever, diphtheria, and spinal meningitis, if not wholly unknown, are very rare in India, and our little ones are thus exempt from what families in America find to be a constant source of danger. It would no doubt be found, in comparison, that the same number of families living in the United States have had more deaths among the children during the past third of a century from these three diseases, than have occurred in our mission fami- lies during the same period from cholera, small-pox, and fevers. Perhaps the most common source of dread in the minds of our friends in America, when thinking of the perils of life in India is associated with the frightful stories they have heard of serpents, scorpions, centipedes, and other venomous crea- tures. So many frightful stories have been told, and so active is the popular appetite for the marvelous, that many intelligent persons believe that life in India is attended by constant danger from the cobra, which is coiled up under every bed, or the scorpion which hides in e^ery boot, or the centipede which creeps under every carpet. It can not be denied that some of the serpents of India are extremely ven- omous. Indeed, the bite of two or three varieties is so fatal that it is doubted by many physicians whether recovery ever takes place after the poison has been fairly injected into the human system. It is also true that these serpents are found in all parts of the country, and in quite a number of in- stances I have known them to be found in our mission- houses. Scorpions also abound. I once lived in a house 468 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. where they seemed to be much more plentiful than spiders, and the latter were numerous enough. Centipedes, too, can be found without much searching. On the other hand, it may comfort many friends when I tell them that during a residence of thirty-three years in India, I have never known evon one European to be bitten by a venomous serpent. I have heard of two or three cases, but they were not well enough attested to be quoted in evidence. Nor have I known, in all these years, of even one instance of any human being, Euro- pean or Indian, being bitten or stung by a centipede. In fact, I have come to entertain grave doubts about the centi- pede, and sometimes think it is a badly slandered creature. I remember well that when I left New York in 1859, acting on urgent advice given to me, I bought some kind of med- icine to be applied in case of being stung by centipedes. As for scorpions, they are plentiful enough, and I am compelled to acknowledge that both Europeans and natives are fre- quently stung by them. Their poison, however, is not fatal, although their victims suffer acutely, and sometimes for many weeks, from its effects. The bite of the cobra, or the krait, is more fatal than that of any serpent known in Amer- ica or Australia, and many thousands of the natives die from snake-bite every year. The exemption of Europeans from being bitten is probably owing to their style of dress. Most of the natives walk about bare-legged, and multitudes of them sleep on the ground, often in the open air, and, when bitten, the serpent has every advantage over his victim. If he is walking, his bare leg is within easy reach of the cobra. If sleeping, his bare arm will probably be thrown out un- consciously while he sleeps, and this act being accepted as a challenge by the cobra, the fatal bite is given. The mission- ary, however, in his comfortable home, rarely ever thinks of the venomous serpents of the country as a source of danger. They are to him very much like the lightning. It is fatal enough in its effects, but it does not often strike ; and hence he soon learns to be indifferent to it. The monster serpents LIFE IN INDIA. 469 which are found in the jungles of India are very stupid and comparatively harmless. None of the large species of ser- pents are ever poisonous. In all my Indian experience I have only known one instance of a huge python attacking a human being, and in that case the victim was a little boy, eight or nine years of age. In India, as in Africa, the natives who are most familiar with the habits of these monsters have very little dread of them. It is a significant fact that of all the missionaries who, after having lived a term of years in India, have returned to America, hardly one can be found who is not anxious to re- turn to his Indian home and his Indian work. In some cases the exiles, while in India, long to return to their native laud, and fancy that they could be much more comfortable and happy among the associations of their youth aud in the midst of the comforts of Christian civilization ; but a very short experiment suffices to undeceive them. If the way were open, and health permitted, nearly every Indian missionary in the United States would at once hasten his departure for the scene of his former labors. No matter how much he may love his native land, or how strongly he may be attached to his country and friends, or how highly he may prize many of the blessings which are the peculiar heritage of the American people, yet India, with its mission-fields and missionary work, has a stronger attraction for him than any other part of the globe. I have spoken of the missionaries as exiles; but in the strict sense of that word they do not merit the title. To the great majority of them India is, in the best sense of the word, their own country and their own home. If they are truly called to their work, if they love it, and if their hearts' best sympathies are bound up with its interests, it becomes to them not only a land in which they can be happy and cheerful, but in very deed the land of their adoption, and the dearest spot on the globe to them during the brief term of their earthly pilgrimage. Much controversy has been stirred up during recent years 470 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. with regard to the style in which missionaries in countries like India should live. Long before the advent of the Salva- tion Army the question had been agitated in India, and not a few devoted men in different parts of the country had made attempts to conform as nearly as possible to the simple style in which the mass of the people live. This involved self-denial in the most practical sense of the word, and obliged the mis- sionary in every instance to live a life, not only of extreme frugality, but of actual poverty. So far as I have been able to observe, none of these experiments has ever produced any marked effect. They have added to the influence of the individual in some cases, and no doubt have done much to im- press some of the Hindus with the idea that Christianity, like Hinduism, makes a merit of self-denial ; but so far as winning converts is concerned, the devoted men and women who have made such experiments have been disappointed. The best plan for a missionary to pursue is to adopt what the people around him will regard as a natural style of living. He is in a country where Europeans are often seen, and where his man- ners and customs have nothing of novelty about them in the eyes of the people ; and hence he will make the best impression if he lives in the style of an ordinary European. He should cultivate, in the best sense of the word, the virtue of Chris- tian simplicity, and always be accessible to the people of all classes. He should be the last man to squander money in useless display, but at the same time he should avoid every form of privation for its own sake, and should take the best possible care of the sacred temple in which God calls him to live during his earthly career. Our own experience has convinced us that both the term of missionary service, and the life of the individual, can be prolonged by paying due attention to the laws of health and avoiding needless exposure. The roof of the mission-house should be thick enough to protect the inmates from the rays of a sun which, through the long tropical day, burns like a furnace in the sky above them. The walls should also be LIFE IN INDIA. 471 thick enough to form a protection from the heat, which at some seasons makes even the furniture inside hot to the touch. The food should be wholesome in quality and generous in quantity. If at all possible, every missionary should have a furlough of a month or six weeks during the hottest weather. Many do not avail themselves of this privilege; but it would be a good thing if all workers in all lands, in addition to their Sabbath rest, could have a holiday of some weeks once a year. Among the mountains of India are many sanitaria where the climate is almost equal to that of the Northern States of America during August and September, and both money and labor can be economized by sending missionaries to these retreats whenever the first symptoms of breaking down begin to appear. It costs a very great deal to send a missionary and his family to India, and maintain them until they are acclimated and acquire such a use of an Indian lan- guage as will equip them for service; and when one such family is in the field, and actually at work, it is the worst possible economy to suffer them to break down and leave the country, instead of permitting them to retire for a few months, or possibly even a year, to the bracing atmosphere of one of the mountain stations. All things considered, life in India has many bright fea- tures, and perhaps has its pathway darkened by shadows as little as would happen in other lands. Friendships formed among both Europeans and Indians are strong and abiding. Home has a quiet sweetness which often seems to be want- ing among the bustling, impatient people of the Western world. We enjoy a sense of freedom both indoors and abroad. Doors and windows stand wide open in midwinter. A sparrow is building its nest on the cornice, a crow is seated on the window-sill, flowers are blooming at every door and window, the veranda is one mass of rich foliage and gorgeous bloom, and the humble dwelling combines at once all the blessings of seclusion and the beauties of garden-life. I never revisit America, unless it be in the summer months, 472 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. and enter the close little rooms, with their baked atmosphere and high temperature, without longing for the sweet and pure air of our Indian homes. For one, I have no wish to live in a better country than India at least not until I find the country which is out of sight and I never hesitate to assure young missionaries about to leave their native land that they have much to gain, even though they have some- thing to lose, by making India the land of their adoption. Ct)apber XXXVII. INDIAN MUSIC. EUROPEANS in India, almost without exception, hold the music of the natives in very low esteem. Many of them, no doubt, if questioned on the subject, would say that it is beneath contempt; and yet the few who have given special attention to it, together with many missionaries who have had the good sense to use it in connection with their missionary work, will be ready to testify that it is by no means without merit, and in some respects seems admirably adapted to the wants of the people. One writer has spoken of the first im- pression made upon the foreign ear by Indian music as " little more than a dull wail or a timeless jargon, modulated according to the caprice of the performer, without harmony and without passion, except as it seems to afford relief to some pent-up feeling of weariness or woe, of fear or despair." The same writer, however, believes that this unfavorable im- pression is largely owing to a want of acquaintance with the music, and refers to the fact that the musical instinct is very prominent among the Indian people. He says : " They are so universally fond of music that they sing rather than read their sacred writings ; they put even their treatises on mathematics into verse, and chant the very alphabet itself; they sing to quiet their children, to entertain them- selves while traveling, to keep time with the oar, or the pestle, or the gravel-pounder, to the cadence of some plain- tive melody." Dr. T. J. Scott, who has published an inter- esting monograph on Indian music, points out that the merit of their music consists in the fact that it is nearer nature than the more elaborate European system, and quotes the apt 473 474 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. remark : " Catch nature, comb her hair, and wash her face, and you have the highest style of beauty." This writer main- tains that Indian music keeps close to nature's ideal, and that all it needs to make it more attractive is to remove a few of its more prominent defects, and supply their place by a few slight improvements which might easily be incorporated into the system. The educated people in India are surprised, and naturally a little indignant, when they hear foreigners assuming that their music is merely the natural expression of a rude and uncultured people, who have never received any musical training, and who have no idea of music as a science. They point to the fact that long before letters were known in England, Sanskrit scholars wrote able works on music, and that they have inherited from a very remote ancestry a mu- sical system of which they have no need to be ashamed. It is probable, and indeed almost certain, that the ancient In- dians were in advance of the Greeks in their knowledge of music. Abundant references to the flute in the writings of the ancient Sanskrit authors prove that the people of India were familiar with the use of that instrument before it had been introduced into Greece, and it is maintained that they anticipated all other nations, except perhaps Egypt, in the use of most of the ancient musical instruments. It happened unfortunately, however, in the case of music as in the case of the other sciences, that it fell into the hands of the Brahmans, and of course fared very badly under their treatment. Their teaching was, as might have been ex- pected, mixed up with mythological nonsense, and it is even affirmed by some defenders of Indian music that at an early day the subject was handed over to the treatment of writers who knew nothing whatever of either instrumental or vocal music. It is maintained, and with some show of probability, that for centuries the singers were distinct from the teachers of music, and differed from them in the fact that they practi- cally knew a good deal about the science, while the learned INDIAN MUSIC. 475 men who were supposed to explain its principles were writing ancl talking about things of which they were wholly ignorant. To such men, for instance, the Indians owe the tradition that the popular tunes of the present day were in the first place the direct offspring of the gods; that the first six of these tunes were each of them, as offspring of the gods, divine beings, and, being males, were provided with, some say five, and some six, wives each. Each of these wives represented a tune. The offspring of these strange unions were so many additional tunes, no less than eight being assigned to each divine father. The mere statement of this myth will suffice to show how little Indian music had to hope from its ancient teachers. The advent of the Mohammedans in India was un- fortunate so far as the cultivation of this science was con- cerned. The Mohammedans dislike music, and many of their most learned men utterly repudiate it and regard it as sinful. The Mohammedans in India never sing in connection with their worship, and the more pious among them never sing under -any circumstances. As might be expected, they are for the most part a gloomy and almost morose people. Some excuse may be made for them in the fact that music has been prostituted to such base purposes in India, and indeed in all the East, that good men might be excused for regarding it as the offspring of another power than divine. But whatever the original cause may have been, as a matter of fact, the Mohammedans repressed rather than encouraged the study of music in India, and it made but little progress from their accession to power until the advent of the English. The reason that Europeans so commonly fail to appreciate the music of the Indian people is owing to some of its pecu- liarities. Indian music differs from that of Europe in the fol- lowing particulars : 1. It has no harmony. The people of India, until trained, are utterly unable to detect the harmony in an English tune. The more cultivated among them, when questioned on the subject, affirm that there is melody in nature, but no har- 476 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. mony ; and it must be confessed that it requires a very in- tricate argument or illustration to prove the contrary. They are quite capable, however, of recognizing the harmony in an English tune after a short period of training. The same re- mark is true with regard to the Chinese. I have heard Chinese youths singing a correct and rich bass which they had picked up themselves, simply by listening to the sound of a cabinet organ once a week. No one had taught them or called their attention to the difference in the notes, but they simply detected it themselves, and began to sing the part which suited them, and soon sang it very well indeed. 2. Indian musicians have no idea of pitch. A tuning fork is an unknown instrument, and could not possibly be used by them if put into their hands. Each singer is sup- posed to pitch his song in the key that suits him best, and the widest possible variations are allowed. This is of course a disadvantage in some respects, but it falls in with the Indian idea, especially in solo singing, where the performer is allowed a latitude which is unknown in European music. This leads to another remark, that the singer, especially in solo singing, is not expected to adhere rigidly to the tune which may be set to the song he is singing. He is supposed to throw in as many embellishments and introduce as many changes as suits his fancy, and is also expected to display a good measure of both vocal and physical vigor while singing. It has been said that to a solo singer a tune is little more than what a thread is to the beads which are strung upon it. It is a mere line which is supposed to receive the slurs, roulades, shakes, turns, flourishes, and other ornaments which the performer attaches to it. When, however, a large congregation sings a hymn to one of these tunes, these ac- cretions must of course be dispensed with, and the tune be sung in its simplicity. 3. Another peculiarity of Indian music is the custom of keeping time by percussion ; that is, while some sing, one or more keep time by striking some kind of cymbals or other INDIAN MUSIC. 477 metallic instruments together, in a way which the European spectator at first regards as mere barbarous noise-making, but which, as a matter of fact, serves the purpose of beating time for the singers. Nothing could be more monotonous, and to the average European ear more distasteful, than the ceaseless thumping upon the little drum called the tom-tom, which is heard in every city, town, and village of India, sometimes keeping up its wearisome notes till an early hour in the morning. There is the least possible resemblance to music in the noise it makes, yet it is serving a purpose which can be appreciated by the simple people who are seated around the group of singers. 4. The Indian chorus always precedes the first stanza of a hymn instead of succeeding it. After the first verse, how- ever, has been sung, it is customary to repeat the chorus at the close of each succeeding verse. Most of the verses also are repeated at least once in the ordinary course of singing ; and this, with the continual repetition of the chorus, impresses the European hearer at first with a sense of monotony. However, after he becomes acquainted with the meaning of the words, and also learns to understand the tune, it im- presses him very differently. 5. Writers who have studied Indian music chiefly from a scientific point of view, lay most stress upon the extraordinary number of modes which it possesses. Instead of dividing all their times into two classes, known as major and minor, the Hindus lay claim to sixteen thousand modes; but, as a mat- ter of fact, only eighty-four of these come within the range of practical music, and these again are reduced to thirty-six, which have been sufficiently popularized to be in general use. The scale, with its seven tones, is the same as in English music; but the Indians, as is their wont, limit it to five or even a smaller number, if it suits them. It is considered no blemish for a singer to lengthen or shorten a note, as the case may be, but on the other hand it is regarded as an evidence of his skill or superior knowledge of music. The 478 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. seven notes of the scale are written thus: sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ui. 6. In Indian music the notes are lengthened or shortened according to the character of the vowel which they represent in the poetry. I quote from the Preface of the North India Tune-book, by Mrs. J. D. Bate, of Allahabad: "In Hindu poetry the number and accent of the syllables are not the standard of accuracy as they are in English poetry, but the number and value of them, which depends upon whether the vowels are long or short. A short vowel reckons as one, and a long vowel as two, in counting the number of beats, or instants, required to make up the line. The inherent vowel must always be counted, and a short vowel before a compound consonant is considered long. In singing, a close correspondence must exist between the long vowels in the poetry and the long notes in the music. For instance, in f time the long vowels are sung to the crotchets, and the short vowels to the quavers." 7. The utmost freedom is used in adapting the hymn to the necessities of the tune. A vowel is often inserted be- tween two consonants, or a compound letter is divided into its primary parts, and a vowel supplied to each consonant, or a vowel may be added to a word, or stricken out, if it is so desired. Any unimportant word may also be omitted; or, on the other hand, inserted, if the necessities of the music seem to call for it. This makes the language of the hymn often unintelligible to those who have not a very familiar use of the language. To give an illustration, if we were to adapt this kind of music to an English hymn, the familiar line, " From all that dwell below the skies," would appear somewhat like the following: "Furrom all that dawell below sakies." Changes of this kind are introduced with the utmost freedom. For many years the opinion prevailed in India that INDIAN MUSIC. 479 Indian tunes could not be harmonized successfully; but Mrs. Emma Moore Scott, of Muttra, enjoys the distinction of hav- ing, after long and painstaking effort, accomplished this dif- ficult task. A few years ago she published a collection of popular Indian tunes harmonized in the European style; and, although there was not an immediate demand for the book, it slowly worked its way, and a new edition is now called for. It seems very probable that this experiment will not only prove successful as a publishing venture, but that it will prove the beginning of a new era in the cultivation of Indian music, especially for use in Christian worship. I have myself heard the harmonized tunes sung fairly well by Hindustani congregations of very moderate culture. For some time past there has been a diversity of opinion among missionaries concerning the wisdom or otherwise of using Indian tunes in Christian worship. We are all more or less in unconscious bondage to habits and tastes which have been woven into the very fiber of our being from child- hood up, and none of these takes so deep a hold upon us as those which are rooted in our religious nature. Devout per- sons, no matter how intelligent, find it very hard to tolerate anything in connection with their worship which is not in keeping with their traditional notions, and especially with what seems to them religious good taste and propriety. When Bishop Kingsley visited India in 1869, I asked a few native Christians to come in one evening with a few of their rude musical instruments, and let him hear some Indian music. They sang simple Christian hymns, and played on their in- struments with great vigor and enthusiasm. The whole spectacle was interesting enough in its way, but as unlike anything bearing the name of Christian worship as could well be imagined. When the singers retired, I asked the good Bishop if he thought it would be wise for us to introduce that kind of instrumental music into our public services. He replied in the negative, with an emphasis which was not only decided but amusing, and deprecated in the strongest Ian- 480 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. guage any step on our part which should degrade Christian worship to so low a level. I was not surprised to hear him speak in this way, nor is it probable that any one of a thou- saud intelligent Christians from America, having listened to the singing and witnessed the playing, would have given a different answer. And yet, although I did not attempt to argue the question with the Bishop, I lield a very different opinion. A pair of rude brass cymbals and a little drum called a "tom-tom," are to the simple villagers of India all that a ponderous organ is to the refined worshipers in our city churches. We may smile, or w r onder, or feel disgusted, but the fact remains that music is simply a vehicle for the expression of thought and feeling on the part of worshipers, and that which serves its purpose most effectually is the best vehicle for the persons concerned. Methodists, of all people, should be the last to find fault with the people of any nation appropriating for the purpose of Christian song such tunes as they find popularized among the people. More than any other people in the modern world, the Methodists are responsible for the free use \vhich is now made in public worship everywhere, of tunes which in former years were wholly given up to the profane and worldly. If the people of India prefer their own simple or, if the reader pleases, uncouth tunes, by all means let them use them. Let them use that which they like best. If they prefer to ride in their rough, jolting carts, rather than in high-topped and frail-looking American buggies, let them have their carts. Whose business is it? The question is not yet settled by any means ; but beyond a doubt the party in favor of using native music is gaining ground. In fact, the question will take itself out of the hands of the foreign missionaries in the natural course of events ; for the people will sing when they once possess the joy of the Lord, and nothing can restrain them ; and when they sing they will give expression to their religious joy and hope in the way that is most natural to them, without much INDIAN MUSIC. 481 regard to the tastes or feelings of other people. At present the tendency seems to be to use European tunes in the cities and large towns, where the native Christians are brought in contact with Europeans; but in the more remote country districts the Indian music is more and more found in the ascendant. The popular airs commonly known in recent years as "Sankey tunes" are the general favorites among the better educated Indian Christians. In some parts of the country the missionaries have succeeded thus far in prevent- ing the use of Indian tunes altogether; but this is probably owing more to the fact that the people in those regions have very few good tunes for any purpose, than to the ef- forts of the missionaries to confine the singing to English tunes. It is highly probable that many of the current Indian tunes will be materially improved as they are brought into popular use in connection with Christian worship. None but Christians can breathe both life and spirit into music, and when the people of India, not only by thousands but by millions, begin to sing the praises of God to the simple tunes with which their forefathers were familiar ages ago, they will almost certainly put new life into them, and perfect them from time to time to such an extent that they will be- come practically new. In other words, Indian music will probably enter upon a stage of development such as it has never known, and a century or two hence may attain a per- fection which its critics of the present day regard as altogether impossible. I append two Indian tunes as specimens of those in most common use among Christians. Most tunes of Hindu origin are called Bhajans, while those borrowed from the Moham- medans are called Ghazals. A specimen of each class is given on the next page. I have often heard these two fa- miliar hymns sung with very great religious power, by de- vout congregations, both in remote country villages and among the more cultured Christians of the cities. 31 482 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. I>KI:I.I in:. BHAJAN. Moilerate time. Kau-na ka-re mo -hi pa- ra tu-ma bi-na kau-na ka- re mo - hi Mo - hi pa - ra mo - hi pa - ra, mo - hi i itr.Mt \i v pa - ra. Kau na ka - re mo - hi pa - ra Tu - ma Iti - na Fine. :b , _-K Mrr =r. _^_e=_ r= . .. P"! ix ">: 5^ kau - na ka - re mo - hi Tu - tl na - wa tu - fa - na hai sr\ l). s. I bha - rl, tu-fa - na hai bha-rl, Kai-se main u- tu-run pa - ra Freely translated, this very simple little song begins as follows : Refrain Who, save Thee, can land me safely on the other shore ? First Verse My boat is broken, the storm is wild ; how can I reach the other shore? GHAZAL. EEj^SEESEi -fv f f I I Ka-ra - ta hun tujh se il - ti - ja Yl-shu Ma-slh fa - ri - ya - da sun, Fin?. S I Qu-ra - ba - na te - re na - ma ke Yi-shu Ma-slh fa - ri - ya - da sun. Unto Thee do I make my entreaty; O Jesus Christ, hear my complaint. Expiation is through thy name; O Jesus Christ, hear my complaint. Chapter XXXYIII. MALAYSIA. THE name Malaysia is not often found in standard geog- raphies, and I can remember having seen it only once on a map. The region which it designates has neither natural nor political boundaries to separate it from ad- jacent countries; hence it is only in recent years that an attempt has been made to give it a distinctive name. It is the region inhabited by the Malay race and its many branches, and includes the Malay Peninsula, together with the larger half of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The term Malaya is frequently applied to this region ; but as Asiatic colonists are rapidly settling on both the islands and main-land, and in some sections intermarrying freely with the Malay people, the term Malaysia seems more appropriate, both with regard to the present and future population. The following pages are taken, with slight alterations, from an article written by me some years ago, and published in the Methodist Review of March, 1887. The average American finds it hard to forgive the Euro- pean who fails to appreciate the immense extent of territory embraced in the Great Republic; but when he himself passes from Europe over to Asia, he forgets in turn how very much larger that vast continent is than his own America. Let us suppose, for instance, that the Philippine Islands are men- tioned. He knows that there is such a group to the south- east of Asia, and that Manilla cigars and a valuable kind of hemp are produced there ; but he thinks of the islands as he does of the Bahamas, a few little green points rising out of the sea islets, rather than islands, and of little or no importance 483 484 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. to the world at large. He is as ignorant as a Chinaman of the fact that one of these islands is as large as the State of Ohio, that a second is as large as Indiana, and that the whole group contains an area almost exactly equal to that of Italy, and capable of sustaining, without crowding, a population of thirty millions. The Bahamas might be added to, or sub- tracted from, the Philippines without making any appreciable difference in the extent of the group. As with the Philippines, so with the vast archipelago of which they form a part. Lying between Asia and Australia, and covering a sea area thirteen hundred miles wide by four thousand in length, it is the most wonderful island region of the globe. After Australia (itself a continent), the largest and second largest islands in the world are found there New Guinea and Borneo, the former nearly one and one-half times as large as France, and the latter as large as the whole Aus- trian Empire. The land area of the whole group exceeds one million square miles, and this magnificent belt of islands is certainly entitled to take rank as one of the grand divis- ions of the globe, instead of a collection of barbarous islets in an almost unknown sea. In order to impress his English readers with a true conception of the vast extent of some of these islands, Mr. Wallace, in his work on the Malay Archi- pelago, published a small map of Borneo, with Great Britain and Ireland, and all their interjacent waters, put down in its center, where they were wholly surrounded by a sea of for- ests. This island has a coast-line of three thousand miles, omitting the smaller bays and headlands, while New Guinea, which is both larger and more irregular in shape, has a coast- line which, though not yet accurately measured, is longer very considerably. These islands, though constituting one group on the map, are divided ethnographically into two distinct families, the Malayan and the Papuan. The great islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo are separated from the Asiatic continent by seas so shallow that ships can anchor almost anywhere in MALA YSIA. 485 them; and it seems extremely probable that, at a not very remote period of the earth's history, these islands formed a part of the main-land. In like manner the Philippines, at probably an earlier period, were detached from the continent by a depression of the intervening surface. In precisely the same way New Guinea and other islands near the Australian coast were probably separated from the Australian main-land ; and thus we have in the great island group an Asiatic and an Australian section. The productions of the two groups strikingly sustain this theory of the origin of this division. The animals and birds found in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo are the same as those found in the Malay Peninsula, or with differences no more marked than is common in widely sepa- rated regions on the main-land. In New Guinea and adjacent islands, on the other hand, the peculiar marks of an Aus- tralian origin are found everywhere. The marsupial animals, for which Australia is famous the honey-suckers, lories, brush-turkeys, and other birds which have been supposed to belong only to Australia are found on these islands, and are never found beyond the deep straits which separate them from the Asiatic group, although so near to them. Borneo is not more unlike Australia than Java is unlike New Guinea, although in point of climate and general character the two islands are very much alike. The inhabitants of these two groups of islands differ no less unmistakably than their animals and birds. On the west we have the Malays, and on the east the Papuans ; and al- though many tribes and subdivisions may be found among both these ethnic families, the general distinction is every- where easily recognizable. The Malay is an Asiatic, and the Papuan is a Polynesian. The Malay is short of stature, with a reddish-brown complexion, beardless face, straight black hair, and broad and rather flat face. The Papuan is taller, with black frizzly hair and beard, dark and sometimes black complexion, with thin lips and broad nostrils, and looks as little like a Malay as an African resembles an American 486 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. Indian. In natural ability he is probably more than equal to his Malay neighbor; but the latter has had the advantage of a longer contact with civilization, and for the present, at least, stands higher in the estimation of the outside world than the Papuan. The Malays inhabit, or at least are the predom- inant race in, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, the Philippines, and part of the Moluccas ; and these islands, together with the peninsula, which is itself practically an island, constitute Malaysia proper. But even when thus restricted, the Malay has still a splendid home for his race. The land area embraced within its boundaries amounts to more than 700,000 square miles. The soil is nearly all productive, while the mineral resources are extremely valuable. The peninsula is the Golden Cher- sonese of which Milton sings, and from the remotest antiquity it has been famous for its gold and gems. Its mountains are stored with tin enough to supply the whole world. Sumatra is the richest of the islands in minerals; but, like all the large islands except Java, it has been but slightly explored, and the extent of its mineral wealth is imperfectly known. Borneo is known to be rich in minerals, and clothed in for- ests of valuable timber, while rumors of gold deposits, and of copper and iron, and last, but perhaps most valuable of all, of vast coal-beds, are exciting the interest and cupidity of the ever-increasing swarms of adventurers who wander up and down the earth. Throughout the whole region, with the exception of a few small tracts, the land is fertile, and adapted to the growth of all kinds of tropical products. The forests are rich in timber, the gardens in spices, the orchards in fruits, the fields in the many forms of tropical food produc- tions, and the whole region capable, if properly cultivated, of sustaining a vast population. If peopled as densely as Java is at present, Borneo alone would contain a population of more than 125,000,000 souls, and the whole region of Ma- laysia would contain not less than 250,000,000. Or, if it be objected that Java is an exceptionally rich island, and hence . MALAYSIA. 487 the estimate an unfair one, let the sleepy old island of Sicily be taken as the standard of comparison, and the result, if not so amazing, is still striking enough. If peopled only as densely as Sicily is at the present day, Borneo would still have a population equal to that of the United States, while the whole Malaysian region would have four times as many inhabitants as France. It is not necessary, however, to make any reduction of the higher estimate. Java, although sus- taining a large population, is not half so densely populated as some portions of the valley of the Ganges; and her 20,- 000,000 will no doubt become 30,000,000 at a not remote day, while the less favored islands around her will advance to a position at least equal to that which it now occupies. The capacity of tropical lauds for sustaining vast popu- lations of easy-going people is not easily appreciated by those who are familiar only with the highly artificial life of Europe and America. In some of these islands a single sago-palm yields enough food to support a man for a year, and the tree can be purchased and its pulp turned into food for the sum of three dollars. In the immediate vicinity of Singapore tapi- oca is found growing wild by the roadside, and its roots are so cheap in the market that many planters have abandoned its cultivation as no longer remunerative. Rice is very in- differently cultivated by the partially civilized natives of all the interior regions; but both soil and climate favor its growth, and a rice-producing country can support a much larger population than one producing maize or wheat. But it must not be supposed that the people who are thus boun- tifully fed get only food enough from the soil to sustain life. They can make all the nations of the world tributary to them ; and their spices and their fruits, their sugar, coffee, cocoa, hemp, tobacco, and other products, will give them ample means with which to purchase all the appliances of civilization which an advancing people need. If the poor cultivator can purchase his daily food for a nominal price, he can also find means for surrounding himself with much 488 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. of the world's luxuries. On the island of Singapore a sea- son's yield of a single duriau-tree, a favorite fruit, is sold for from fifty to seventy-five dollars while yet the fruit is half- grown upon the tree. The fact that nearly all this vast region is but sparsely populated is usually accepted as a proof that there is some serious drawback either in climate or soil, or in liability to pestilence or earthquakes. A long volcanic belt extends through the middle of the archipelago, from Sumatra to the Philippines ; but the frequent and violent earthquakes which occur in the vicinity of this volcanic region do not seem per- ceptibly to hinder the growth of the population. People soon learn not to be alarmed about such things, and Java, which is more scourged by earthquakes than any other part of the world, is not only the most prosperous of all the islands, but the richest tropical island on the globe ; while Borneo, in which volcanoes and earthquakes are unknown, is sparsely settled, and by a people in a low state of civiliza- tion. As to climate, this whole region is as healthful as the West Indies, and much more so than Central America. Here, as everywhere else in the tropics, low, marshy lands occasion malarial fevers, sometimes of a malignant character, but not worse in any respect than is common in similar re- gions in both the New and Old Worlds. The temperature is much more equable than in regions farther from the equator, and the heat is never so oppressive as during more than half the year in Northern India. In some places Europeans especially free livers will be apt to suffer from fevers ; but, taking the whole region together, no part of the tropics will be found more friendly to the European consti- tution. The true explanation, both of the sparseness of the pop- ulation and the backwardness of the people in civilization, is found in the fact that the Malays are a race of pirates, as were our own forefathers ; and for centuries past they have not only been averse to the quiet ways of civilized life them- MALA YSIA. 489 selves, but have hovered around the coasts of their beautiful islands like so many armed blockaders, sealing up every har- bor against the entrance of better and more peaceful people. The advent of the Europeans into the archipelago did not put an end to the depredations of these pirates, partly be- cause at first the Europeans were little more than pirates themselves, and at a later period they did not care to follow the little praus of the pirates into regions where they had no interests at stake, and no hopes of opening up a profitable commerce. Only recently have determined and successful efforts been made to put down piracy throughout the archi- pelago, and now for the first time this fair region is begin- ning to have a chance to take the place in the world to which its natural advantages entitle it. Added to the scourge of piracy on the coast has been the curse of interminable strife and misrule in the interior. Rival chiefs have been engaged in endless tribal wars, and with their jealousies and strife have stood in the way of civilization. Wherever a stable government has been established, with assured pro- tection to all races and all creeds, thither settlers have flocked in vast crowds, and have quickly demonstrated that these rich and beautiful islands only need the protection of a strong government to make them the homes of prosperous and mighty nations. At three points on the peninsula, and on the little island of Singapore, the English have estab- lished settlements, the whole being under the authority of a colonial Governor with a Legislative Council. The result is, that within the limits of these four settlements there is al- ready a settled and exceedingly prosperous population, num- bering no less than four hundred to the square mile. In the adjacent Malay territory, equally productive and equally attractive in its natural advantages, the population is esti- mated at but little more than nine to the square mile. The prosperity of Java under the firm but somewhat rough hand of the Dutch has already been referred to, and similar re- sults are very rapidly developing themselves in Sarawak, 490 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. where the nephew and successor of the famous Rajah Brooke is building up a strong and prosperous Malay State. If it were certain that the dark days of Malaysia are over, and a bright future assured to her, it would become at once a most interesting question to determine who and what the people are to be who shall possess this rich heritage. Those who know the Malays are not sanguine that, as a race, they will ever prove worthy of so magnificent an oppor- tunity as would then be set before them, and it is perhaps want of faith in them, rather than want of appreciation of their island home, which leads many thoughtful persons to speak doubtingly of the future of the archipelago. For the present the Malays are in possession, and in discussing the future of the islands their character becomes a leading and most important factor in the problem. Not very many years ago our children were taught in their school geographies that the human race was divided into five great families, among whom the Malay and the American Indian occupied the fourth and fifth places. The Chinaman was the typical Mongolian, and no affinity was suspected between him and the Malay. This system of classification was given up years ago; but ethnologists have been slow in assigning a new place to the Malay people. Tradition traces their origin back to a tribe that lived on the north coast of Sumatra, and migrated thence to the main- land near the site of Malacca, and it is generally admitted that the Malay language is spoken in greater purity there than in any other part of the archipelago. But beyond this slight trace nothing else has been discovered about their origin, and very little is known of their history. They are scattered very widely, and speak many languages and dia- lects, and different tribes are often mistaken for members of distinct races; but they are one as the American Indians, while differing as those differ in language and tribal peculiari- ties. The agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society at Singapore sells Scriptures in thirty-seven different languages, MALA YSIA. 493 most of which are spoken on the islands of the archipelago. While these numerous tribes and dialects are found scattered over the islands, the mass of the people may be separated into four great divisions : 1. The typical Malays, who inhabit the peninsula and the coast regions of Sumatra and Borneo; 2. The Javanese, who inhabit Java and parts of the numer- ous adjacent islands; 3. The Bugis, who inhabit the larger portion of Celebes; and, 4. The Tagalas, who inhabit the Philippine Islands. These four divisions are often spoken of as so many different races ; but they are all members of the same ethnic family, and they are themselves marked by lines of separation, more or less distinct, between various subdivisions. The Dyaks of Borneo, and other similar tribes, are often spoken of as aborigines, but they are thought by the best authorities to be but ancient branches of the com- mon Malay family. There has been more or less amalgama- tion with other races in some places, especially in the neigh- borhood of the Papuans on the east; and a few members of other and probably more ancient races are found scattered among the Malay masses; but still the population may be correctly said to be distinctly Malay in its character in every island, and up the peninsula as far as Tenasserim. Mr. Wallace is inclined to think, and his opinion is sup- ported by very weighty reasons, that the Malays were origi- nally Chinamen, with a later admixture of some foreign blood, and modified by a long residence in an isolated re- gion. A striking and indeed almost conclusive evidence in support of this theory was found in the appearance of a party of Chinamen on one of the islands, who had adopted the Malay style of dress, and who in this costume were so much like the real Malays that Mr. Wallace found some difficulty in distinguishing between the two. Future and more care- ful research will probably show that the leading races in southeastern Asia are all descended from the same original stock with the Chinese. It is not easy to write confidently of the Malay character. 494 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. For centuries they have been represented as treacherous, vindictive, and cruel, and not many apologists have come forward to speak in their favor. It is more than probable, however, that they are a much better people than the outer world has given them credit for. It is not to be expected that a people who have been known to the world chiefly as a race of pirates will be spoken of very highly ; and it is easy to understand how their character has been painted in too black colors. As to their treachery, a gentleman in Singa- pore said to the writer : " I have lived among them in their villages for months, having my family with me, and I assure you I never felt safer in my life." It may generally be taken for granted that indiscriminate denunciations of a whole peo- ple are exaggerated, if not groundless; and it may be assumed at once that the Malays have not a monoply of all the bad and base qualities which are claimed for them. At the same time, it may be freely admitted that they have furnished some grounds for the grievous accusations laid against them; but even when this is conceded it does not follow hopelessly that they are incapable of better things. Man is generally found poised midway between the character of a saint and that of a devil ; and the presence of startling evil in a member of the race is no proof that the possibilities of the highest vir- tues do not coexist with the evil. The Anglo-Saxon has in- herited enough treachery and cruelty to sink a dozen nations; and we are the last people to take up stones agaijost tribes and nations which have never enjoyed a tithe of our advantages. It is more than probable that the Malays, under a settled government and controlled by a firm hand, will rapidly settle down into a quiet and peaceable people, and quickly forget the bloody practices by which, in darker days, they earned their evil reputation. In many regions they are even now as orderly and peaceable, if not as indus- trious, as the inoffensive people of North India, who, less than a generation ago, went armed like so many assassins. Moral delinquencies, however, are not the only accusations MALAYSIA. 495 laid to the charge of the Malays. They are averse to hard labor and industrious habits ; are improvident and indolent in disposition; fond of cock-fighting and childish sports; are inveterately addicted to gambling; and altogether seem to lack those qualities which are absolutely indispensable to a people who would rise in the scale of civilization to a place of respectability among the great family of nations. Dr. W. F- Oldham says : "The Malay is lethargic because of the condition in which he finds himself. Life under the equator does not tend to activity. The sea is full of fish, the shores covered with cocoanut-groves, the rice-fields easily produce their crops. He builds himself a house on stilts on the margin of the sea, or on the bank of a river, so that when the tide comes in the water will flow under the house. The windows are built so that, leaning on his elbow, he can look out of them and fish, the kindly ocean bringing the fish to his very win- dow. Lying there he may catch enough for his wants. The cocoa- nut grove behind the hut, without any care from him, will produce its unfailing crop of nuts. The rice-fields need but little attention. Why should the Malay exert himself? You talk to him concerning the civilized life of other men, and the unceasing activity and tire- less energy of the West, and he looks at you through his large, soft eyes, shrugs his shoulders, and says a single word, ' Susa,' ' It is difficult.' " It must be confessed that the Malay does not seem a very hopeful member of the industrial world; but it hardly be- comes the descendants of the ancient pirates of the north of Europe to pronounce a hasty judgment upon the modern pirates of the East. The Malays may not rise rapidly as a people, but they are clearly not destined to perish rapidly from the earth. The Javanese are increasing rapidly, and are advancing moderately in civilization; and it is reason- able to expect that other sections of the common family may yet flourish in like manner. During recent years a new race-factor has been introduced into these islands, and one which is destined not only to be permanent, but to exercise a most important influence upon 496 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. the future of the country aiid the race. The Chinaman has made his advent in Malaysia, and has come to stay. He is the Anglo-Saxon of the tropics, and will push his way wher- ever laud awaits cultivation or mines invite exploration. In the whole history of the human race there have been few more curious or more interesting episodes than the modern opening of the gates of China, and the outpouring of her millions upon the rest of the world. They are overflowing, and will continue to overflow, East and South ; and no hostile legislation, and no opposition, can permanently arrest their course. The world has much to fear, but more to hope from their irruption. They are the men above all others who are to subdue the jungles of the tropics, and make the wilderness blossom as the rose. They will do for Malaysia what the present inhabitants can not do, and what no other people can be expected to do. They do not seek these beautiful islands merely to earn wages, and after a brief sojourn to return to their own laud ; but they make their homes in the new land to which they go, marry the daughters of the people, and identify themselves with all the interests of the country of their adoption. In both Singapore and Penang the Chinese already con- stitute a large majority of the population, and are beyond comparison the richest and most prosperous part of the gen- eral community. In both cities the second and even third generations of " Straits-born " that is, of Malaysia-born Chinese are found, and in both cities these are the leading people of the community. They cherish no dream of return- ing to the land of their ancestors, and they not only take pride in the fact that they are British subjects, but speak with unaffected contempt of " those Chinamen," as they designate the China-born portion of the community to which they be- long. Owing to the religious prejudices of the Mohammedan Malays, very few of these China settlers have married native wives ; but in other parts of Malaysia intermarriages with the natives are very common, as is also the case in Borneo, to MALA YSIA. 497 which country the Chinese are flocking in large numbers. Thus far nearly all these settlers retain the peculiar costume of their race ; but in other respects they imitate Europeans freely, and manifest a spirit of enterprise which augurs well for their future progress. What is witnessed in these two cities will probably be repeated, with modifications, all over the islands. The Chinese will penetrate everywhere; will take the lead in every form of industrial enterprise; will become, in time, amalgamated with the present inhabitants; and thus there will gradually rise up a new people, combining in their char- acter the patient power of application of the Chinaman with the pride and courage of the Malay. In other words, a new race will ultimately, and at no distant day, appear upon the stage, and enter upon a career of progress worthy of the splendid heritage which God in his providence appears to be preparing for it. In discussing the probable future of these commingling races, the question of language naturally presents itself, and sug- gests some curious and interesting phenomena.* The Malay language, as spoken in Northern Sumatra, Malacca, and Singa- pore, is the lingua franca of the whole region from Java to the Philippines, and from Penang to the Moluccas. It is a very simple language, in an elementary stage of develop- ment, without any proper inflections, and with but a very limited literature; and yet it seems to possess a wonderful power of making other tongues give way before it. The Chinese born at Singapore use it as their mother tongue, and in that city the singular spectacle is witnessed of a congrega- tion of Christian Chinamen meeting regularly to worship God in a tongue unknown to their ancestors. It is easily * The Kev. H. L. E. Luering, Ph. D., has kindly furnished me a list of fifty-seven languages spoken in Malaysia, and mentions the habitat of forty-three other tongues to which no distinctive names have been given. None of these are dialects of the Malay language, of which there are many. 32 498 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. learned, and is everywhere understood. It had been re- duced to writing by the Mohammedans before the advent of the Europeans, the ordinary Persi- Arabic letters being used with slight modifications. A Romanized alphabet has been introduced since the European era, and will no doubt be the character used by the people generally when they become a reading people. It is not to be supposed that all the other languages, particularly the Javanese and the Tagala, will be discarded quickly, and the Malay adopted in their stead; but it is extremely probable that the latter will prevail more and more as the people become Christianized and civilized, and that the less important dialects will disappear before it in a few generations. In the meantime the Malay language itself will no doubt undergo great changes, and ere it be- comes the common language of a hundred millions of people will probably assimilate to itself many new elements of strength, and become a polished and, possibly, even an elegant tongue. But, all speculation aside, it is an interesting and hope- ful fact, interesting alike to the missionary, the merchant, the scientist, and the statesman, that such a language exists, and can be used as a common medium of intercourse through all the vast extent of the Malay Archipelago. It simplifies the task which Christianity and civilization alike have set before them, to enlighten and elevate a mighty people it might almost be said one of the grand divisions of the globe. If this imperfect Malay tongue is not fitted to be all to the missionary of the present day that Greek was to Paul and his companions, it is nevertheless an invaluable aid to the evangelist who sets out upon voyages longer than any which Paul ever made, and among a people scattered over a sea nearly twice as large as the Mediterranean. When the vast extent as well as the rich resources of these islands is considered, it can not but excite surprise that they have been so long neglected, and that the early strife for their possession has so long given place to indifference and MALA YSIA. 499 neglect on the part of all European nations, with the single and very notable exception of Holland. Three centuries ago all Europe was filled with the fame of these islands. Their rich spices, their luscious fruits, their birds of para- dise, their gold and gems were found in every land, and for many years no richer East was known than that discovered by the early adventurers who first made their way into these unknown seas. The first to come were the Portuguese, who settled at Malacca as early as 1511, where they fixed the seat of what then bid fair to become a vast dependency of their empire. The Spaniards were the next to follow, and in 1565 they established themselves at Manilla, in the Philippines. The first English expedition which reached the islands, was that of Drake, in 1578, on his voyage round the world, and the first Dutch arrival was in 1594. In those unhappy days all such adventurers were little better than so many pirates. Their respective countries might be at peace in Europe, but it mattered little to the desperate men who sought wealth and fame in these ends of the earth. They not only made war against one another, but robbed and plundered with impunity, and seemed as little as possi- ble like the forerunners of the men who in later years were to teach the islanders the arts of civilization and peace. It would be a thankless task to try to give even a brief sketch of the many struggles which took place among these ancient rivals. Cities were taken and retaken ; islands were ceded to one, and then to another; change followed change, until after two and a half centuries Holland remains the rich possessor of an empire, Spain holds the Philippines, while England, as is her wont, keeps a firm hand upon the key position of the whole region. Portugal has retired altogether, and little trace of her former glory now remains. It is not generally known that the great East India Company was originally organized to trade, not with India, but with Malaysia, and but for an untoward event which took place at a critical moment the great company might 500 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. have worked out its destiny in another sphere than that of India. The early English adventurers did not set foot in India for twenty-seven years after their first arrival in Malaysia; and Bantam was the English head-quarters in the East until it was superseded by Madras in 1653. In those bitter days the Dutch and English were in a state of chronic feud, and vigorously opposed each other all through the East. It so happened that an English vessel, with a crew half En- glish and half Japanese, was seized by the Dutch of Amboyna, and captain and crew were alike cruelly put to death. This happened in the year 1623; and although the vessel was small, and the officers and crew few in number, the tragedy made a profound impression, and to this day is uniformly spoken of in the East as the " massacre of Amboyna." Its immediate effect, however, was such as no one could have anticipated. Dreading a similar fate, the English traders determined to turn toward India for a time, and in doing so quickly discovered a wider and richer field for their enter- prise than that which they had found so perilous. From that day the English trade was diverted in the direction of India, and very soon the foundations began to be laid of the greatest empire which Asia has ever seen. But for this hideous little tragedy happening in one of the most remote corners of the earth, and turning aside the current of what was yet to become a mighty and irresistible stream, England might to-day have been the possessor of the archipelago, while India would probably have been a French empire. The immense value of the Netherlands India to Holland is little known to the world at large, but is fully appreciated by the Dutch themselves. The amount of territory claimed by them is equal to the whole of Germany in area, and contains a population of twenty -five millions. Among co- lonial possessions held by European powers it ranks second only to British India. Its trade with Holland is equal to half the trade of India with England, while its ample revenue suffices not only to maintain an efficient army and a vigorous MALAYSIA. 501 government in the islands, but enriches Holland in a way and to an extent which is unknown in the relations of India with England. The policy of the Government of Netherlands India has been exceedingly conservative from the first. The rigid monopoly which was enforced by the British East India Company as long as public opinion in England permitted, continued uninterrupted in Netherlands India until very recent years, and some of its features are still preserved intact. This monopoly was not merely commercial, but em- braced the products of the land as well, and was carried to such an extent that when the Dutch assumed the monopoly of the growth of nutmegs, they deliberately cut down all the nutmeg-trees of the islands except what grew on the reserved lands of the Government. The price of the various kind of field products was fixed each year by authority, and the patient cultivators were obliged to sell to Government, not at the price which their products were worth, but at that which would enable their paternal rulers to realize a large profit in the general market. This system has been warmly advocated, even by English writers, as admirably suited to the condition of the people at their present stage of civiliza- tion; but a single glance will suffice to show that every such system must tend to foster abuses, while it will just as cer- tainly repress enterprise and hinder all healthy progress. There has been a vigorous agitation in Holland upon the sub- ject during recent years, and some radical reforms have been introduced, but even yet restrictions are laid upon settlers in those islands such as are unknown in British India, and such as would not be tolerated for a day if an attempt were made to enforce them. The appearance of the Germans a few years ago in the Eastern seas created great surprise throughout the world, and gave rise to no little discussion as to what ultimate designs the great Bismarck, then at the height of his power, cherished in his own mind. Under the orders of the great Chancellor, 502 IN&IA AND MALAYSIA. German troops were landed on the coast both of New Guinea and Borneo, and portions of territory on those islands were for- mally annexed in the name of the German Government. The Australians warmly resented the annexation of a portion of New Guinea, affirming that all the islands lying near their coasts properly either belonged to themselves, or were so far within what has been called their " sphere of influence," that no intruders from Europe should be allowed to meddle with them. This agitation has since subsided, and the Germans quietly maintain their footing in both the great islands with- out further question from any one. If, as seems quite pos- sible, a political union should be effected between Holland and Germany at any time in the future, these German settle- ments would naturally be incorporated into Netherlands India, which would then become German India. The Philippine Islands are situated so far to the northeast that they are frequently overlooked when the rest of Malaysia is considered; but the people properly belong to the great Malay family, and the islands form a part of the volcanic chain which runs through the center of the great group. The Spaniards made their first descent upon these islands in 1517, and with unimportant interruptions have held possession ever since. They have thus had nearly four centuries in which to show to the world what they can do under the most favorable circumstances, in developing the interests of a distant colony, and improving the civilization of a semi-barbarous people. The result of this experiment is not creditable to the Spanish Government, and much less so to the Roman Catholic hierarchy. In these islands the Roman Catholics have had their own way, with scarcely a challenge from any quarter. A Captain- General is sent out by the Spanish Government, but the real ruler is the Roman Catholic Archbishop, who is president of the " Board of Authorities." This Board is composed of lead- ing officers of the Government, and all important measures are referred to them for approval before being enforced, not excepting orders from the home Government. In all country MALA YSIA. 503 districts the priests are the magistrates, school inspectors, and practically the administrators of the Government. Under this arrangement the Archbishop becomes practically the ruler of the islands; and after three hundred and seventy-five years of trial the world can now examine the results, and see what the Roman Catholic Church is capable of doing for a people bound hand and foot and committed to its tender mercies. In the city of Manilla, which represents all that is most advanced in the islands, seventy-five per cent of the people are illiterate, not being able even to read or write. In the country districts no less than eighty-eight per cent are illiter- ate. This illustrates the real character of Romanism. If Protestant missionaries could be admitted to the islands, and proceed, as they undoubtedly would, to found schools and give the people a chance to improve themselves, Roman Cath- olic schools would at once spring up on every side. But where they are not, in a measure, thus compelled to give the people an education, nowhere in the wide world will it ever be found that the Roman Catholic hierarchy troubles itself about the intellectual elevation of the people. Nor is the case any better from a moral point of view. The present Archbishop has but recently arrived in the islands, and I have heard nothing for or against his charac- ter ; but his predecessor was well known as a man who led an irregular life. Two well-known ladies in Manilla have been recognized as his daughters, and little remark has been occa- sioned thereby. As for the ordinary priests, very few of them make any pretensions to leading pure lives. It is quite common for them to be fathers of families, although never husbands of wives. It would shock their moral sensibilities to the last degree if one of their number should legally and decently, as well as Scripturally, marry the mother of his children ; but so long as they abstain from Christian mar- riage, nothing is said of their irregularities. It will be said by apologists, no doubt, that these priests belong to the ob- scure and almost illiterate descendants of the early Spanish 504 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. settlers; but this is by no means true. Ninety per cent of them are directly from Spain ; and when, in conversation with a Spanish gentleman, I expressed surprise at this fact, he as- sured me that the case was little better iu Spain itself. The people are shocked by the scandalous lives of these priests, as even heathen would be; and when we remember that no other representatives of the gospel of Jesus Christ are tolerated on the islands, the state of religion appears deplorable enough. Nominally the inhabitants of the islands are nearly all Roman Catholics, as might have been expected. They have no op- tion in the matter. But while they have peacefully accepted the religion forced upon them, they still retain many of their old customs. They have among them their own native med- icine-men, who practice witchcraft, sorcery, etc., after the style of their ancestors. These islands present as needy a field for missionary effort as any of those farther south, where Christianity is wholly unknown. But for the present we have no access to them. An agent of the British and For- eign Bible Society, who was sent there two or three years ago, was promptly arrested and imprisoned for the crime, as it was defined at his trial, "of spreading doctrines contrary to the official religion." After a brief imprisonment he was released on bail, and permitted to leave Manilla. He has since not been able to return. This agent is a member of our own church, and well known to me as a man of excellent Christian character. It remains to speak of the position of the English in Malaysia, and of the probable extension of their power in the early future. This, however, will lead to a wide digres- sion, and must be reserved for a separate chapter. Chapter XXXIX. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. THE Straits Settlements is the name of a number of small but important English settlements on the Malay Penin- sula and a few small islands near the coast, governed under the colonial system, and having no connection directly with India. Correspondents in the United States seem to find it hard to understand this, and in sending letters to Singapore and Penang persistently add India to the address, and thus send them astray. In former days, when the very small posses- sions retained by the English in that quarter of the world were unimportant, their affairs were administered by the Government of India; but in 1852 a separate Government was established under the title of the Straits Settlements, and a Governor appointed from England to manage their affairs. As the Indian laws had been in force before the separation of these settlements into a colony, they were formally adopted by the first Governor and his Council, and hence the same code of laws is in force in India and the Straits Settlements. The administration of public affairs generally has also been continued upon the former lines, so that the Indian visitor in Penang or Singapore finds himself quite at home in all that pertains to public affairs. These settlements comprise the island of Singapore, the town and province of Malacca, the islands and adjacent main-lands of the Dindings, the island of Penang, with the Province Wellesley on the ad- jacent main-land, and the Cocos, or Keeling, Islands. The Governor of the Straits Settlements is also High Commis- sioner of the Territories of the British North Borneo Com- pany, Brunei and Sarawak, in Borneo. This, of course, 505 506 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. points to an ultimate incorporation of those territories into a single consolidated Government, with its capital at Sin- gapore. Of these settlements, Singapore is the most important. The city is built upon the southern coast of a beautiful little island, separated by a narrow strait from the main-land. One of the most common mistakes into which Americans fall in reference to tropical countries, is in supposing that the nearer one goes to the equator the higher the temperature rises. I frequently receive requests from young missionaries coming out to India to send them as far north as possible, hoping thereby to find a home in a cool climate. The hottest sta- tions'we have in all this great Eastern field are in Northern India. Singapore, on the other hand, which is only ninety miles from the equator, has a very equable climate, and is considered a healthy place. The highest range of the ther- mometer observed since 1869 was only 94 degrees. The lowest since the same date was 63 degrees. There is but little difference in the temperature from month to month, the changes being for the most part dependent upon local causes. The mean maximum temperature is 86.3 degrees. The mean minimum is 73.1. Storms are rare, and indeed almost unknown; but a little breeze is nearly always blow- ing in some direction, and so long as there is the slightest motion in the air the heat is not oppressive. A popular belief is entertained that in Singapore it rains every day in the year; but, as a matter of fact, the annual average of wet days is only 164. The highest number of wet days ever re- ported in a single year is 209. The total rain-fall is 90.55 inches, which is by no means excessive for a tropical climate. In the early morning the average temperature throughout the year is 77 degrees, and, as a general rule, it is not un- pleasantly hot in the open air before nine o'clock, even in sunny mornings. The nights are always cool. The island of Singapore is twenty-seven miles long and fifteen miles wide. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 507 The city was founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles, to whom it was ceded by the Malay Sultan of Johore. It was made the seat of government of the adjacent settlements in 1837. Sir Stamford Raffles had the eye of a statesman, and quickly perceived that the little island upon which the city is built occupied the key position to all that part of the East- ern World. All vessels sweeping around the long Malay Peninsula, on their way to China, have to pass this point. Every steamer which goes through the Suez Canal en route to China must also pass here. The growth of the town was exceedingly rapid, surpassing anything that had before been seen in all the Malay region. Within the first four months after the settlement was established, no less than five thou- sand Chinese colonists had settled there. In order to en- courage commerce at this point, Sir Stamford Raffles made Singapore a free city, and it has maintained this character ever since. The consequence has been that it is every year becoming more and more an emporium for all the great islands adjacent, and must permanently hold a leading posi- tion among the great commercial cities of the world.* Penang is situated on a small island, at the upper end of the Straits of Malacca, formerly called the Prince of Wales Island, but now better known by the name of the city. The island was ceded to the English Government by a native prince in 1785, for the small sum of six thousand dollars a year. It is only about two miles from the main-land, and is twelve miles long and nine miles wide. At a later day a small strip of land was taken possession of on the opposite coast* for the purpose of putting a stop to the piracy of the Malays, which was a standing menace to the commercial prosperity of the town. This strip of land is named the Province Wellesley, and was purchased for two thousand dol- lars, with an additional annual grant of two thousand dollars. *According to the census taken April 1, 1891, Singapore contained 184,554 inhabitants. Of these, 121,908 were Chinese, 35,992 Malays, 16,035 Indians, and 8,843 Europeans and Eurasians. 508 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. For many years the trade of Penang made it a leading East- ern port; but it has suffered severely in recent years by the cession on the part of the English Government of their pos- sessions in the island of Sumatra to the Dutch. The trade of that region, which formerly came to Peuang, has since been diverted elsewhere. As an indication of the large and rapidly growing trade of this region, it is sufficient to mention that the imports of Singapore two years ago were $88,683,000, while those of Penaug were $41,833,000. The principal ar- ticles of export from both cities are gambier, gutta-percha, coffee, hides, rattan, sago, pepper, tapioca, nutmegs, canes, gums of various kinds, stick-lac, oil-seeds, cloves, tin, and small quantities of other metals. But little of the land, even in the immediate neighborhood of these cities, is cultivated. On the small island of Singapore alone there are more than one hundred thousand acres of arable land which has not yet been touched by either plow or spade. The city of Malacca is situated on the main-land of the peninsula, about half-way between Singapore and Penang. It was formerly a well-known and very prosperous city the most prosperous, indeed, in all the Eastern World. Long before Calcutta, Bombay, Kangoon, Batavia, Hong Kong, or Manilla had attracted the attention of people in Europe, Malacca was a great emporium of trade, and the magnificent seat of Portuguese power. It was wrested from the Portu- guese in 1641 by the Dutch, who held it, without, however, keeping up its former prosperity, till 1795, when it was cap- tured by the English. It was restored again to the Dutch in 1818, but a little later was again and permanently restored to the English. It had declined steadily from the time that the Portuguese were expelled, not only from Malacca itself, but from all the adjacent seas; and when the Dutch took their departure, and the English established their head-quar- ters, first at Penang and later at Singapore, Malacca fell into rapid decay. In recent years, however, it has rallied, and is now said to be a prosperous town. Large numbers of iudus- THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 509 trious Chinese have settled there, and it will no doubt remain a local center of some importance. The Malay Peninsula is a long, narrow strip, which ex- tends from Burma southward to Singapore. The upper end of the peninsula nominally belongs to Siam ; but it is very THE SULTAN OF JOHORE. doubtful if the Siamese Government could assert its authority in any part of this territory if the people themselves objected to the arrangement. In former years the Siamese ruled over the whole peninsula; but from time to time they were obliged to release their hold upon one part after another, until now their rule in the North is little more than nominal. 510 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. In the meanwhile the English have extended their authority over a number of the small States of which the peninsula is made up. These States are, for the most part, ruled by Mo- hammedan princes known as Sultans.* Six of them have been formally proclaimed as " Protected States.' 5 The word " protected " may be accepted as equivalent to " prospect- ively annexed," and is somewhat similar to the phrase " sphere of influence," as used at the present time in Africa. The States thus protected at the present time are the following: Perak, Selangore, Rembau, Jelebu, Negri-Sembilam, and Pa- hang. For all practical purposes the government of these States is under the control of Residents appointed by the Governor at Singapore. Each Resident is the official ad- viser of the Sultan ; but in several of the States the admin- istration has, to a large extent, been placed in British hands. The whole of the peninsula will undoubtedly come under the direct administration of the Government at Singapore before very many years. The peninsula is popularly supposed to con- tain about ninety thousand square miles, and is rich in min- eral and agricultural resources. A range of mountains, which runs down the center of the peninsula, is supposed to be rich in its deposits, chiefly of tin, but also in some places of gold, copper, and other metals. The population is very sparse, and is composed for the most part of Mohammedan Malays, with here and there, in the remote interior, small tribes of aborigines. The Chinese, for some years past, have been flocking into the country, chiefly for the purpose of working in the tin-mines; but many of them are beginning to till the soil and engage in all manner of other occupations. It is abundantly evident that the future population of the whole peninsula will be Chinese. These settlers are sometimes very turbulent, and the raids and petty wars inaugurated by *The Sultan of Johore, a prosperous little State lying immediately north of Singapore, is the most enlightened of these princes. He is a man of fair culture, and makes a good and successful ruler. His por- trait is given on the preceding page. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS 511 them on the one hand, and the persistent piratical habits of the Malays on the other, have been the chief causes thus far which have led the English to interfere in the affairs of the native States. It is the old story over again of Christian civilization coming in contact with heathen barbarism. It will be no more possible for an enlightened British Gov- ernment at Singapore to refrain from meddling with the tribes to the northward, than for the Americans to pause in their westward march when they reach the confines of an Indian tribe. In addition to these settlements, the British possessions in the great island of Borneo, which have but recently been placed under the government of the Straits Settlements, will no doubt, in the early future, become very important settle- ments. The British North Borneo Company has taken pos- session of a valuable strip of territory, said to contain 30,000 square miles; but when it is added that it has a coast-line of 900 miles, it will be seen that there is a practically unlim- ited "sphere of influence" lying behind this line, in addition to the 30,000 square miles which have been more directly taken possession of by the company. The head-quarters of the government of this company are at Sandakan. The coast is supplied with good harbors, but the country is as yet very sparsely settled. The Chinese, however, have com- menced coming, and will probably increase rapidly from year to year. Sandakan is a thousand miles from Singapore, sixteen hundred from Port Darwin, in Australia, and twelve hundred from Hong Kong. Land is sold to settlers for three dollars an acre, and an annual tax of ten cents an acre collected from cultivators. If the settlers neglect to culti- vate the land, it reverts again to the Government. The State of Sarawak is better known as the creation of the somewhat famous Raja Brooke. It contains about 50,- 000 square miles, with a coast-line of 400 miles. Its popu- lation is estimated at 300,000, of various races, among whom the Chinese form an important factor. Sarawak and British 512 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. North Borneo are both on the northern coast of the island. The capital of this State is Kuching. The present Raja is a nephew of Sir James Brooke, and has been knighted as Sir Charles Johnson Brooke. He is a little over sixty years of age. The imports of the State amount to about $2,225,000 annually, and the exports amount to nearly $2,500,000. The principal sources of revenue are the licenses granted for opium and liquor shops, gambling, and other questionable practices. The mention of so disreputable sources of revenue as those which the State of Sarawak reports, will no doubt ex- cite the surprise of the reader; but I regret to say that the Government of the Straits Settlements itself is dependent to a very large extent upon an income from no more reputable sources. Singapore and Penang both being free cities, nothing can be collected in the way of customs duties. From the first, the Government of the Settlements has unfor- tunately depended chiefly upon the revenue derived from the sale of opium and spirits. This privilege is " farmed out," and the two " farms/' so far as Singapore and Penang are concerned, were sold in 1889, the former for $1,608,000, and the latter for $1,112,400. That is to say, the party or par- ties who agreed to pay this enormous sum at Singapore, re- ceived therefor the exclusive right to sell opium and spirits, and could at once proceed to sublet his privilege to as many shop-keepers as he found it best to employ. Other privi- leges of even more questionable character have at times yielded an important part of the revenue; but since the memorable vote in the House of Commons condemning the practice of licensing vice in the East, this custom has been happily abated. The future prosperity of all this region depends very largely upon the Chinese. As remarked in a previous chap- ter, it seems to be the destined mission of these people to drain the swamps and cut down the jungles of the whole of the Eastern tropical world. The reader in America will find THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 513 it difficult to realize how, actively this wonderful people are swarming around those distant Eastern shores. President Hayes, during the latter part of his administration, startled the American people by calling attention to the fact that not less than five millions of Europeans would probably settle in the United States within the decade following the year of his address. The event has proved that his estimate was none too high. But here, in this remote corner of the earth, the city of Singapore alone receives about 150,000 emigrants every year. These, it is very true, do not settle in the city where they are reported, but scatter thence, some to Sumatra, some to proceed up the peninsula, some to push on to Burma, while others, in large and constantly increasing numbers, are distributed among the great islands to the southeast. No doubt many of these will ultimately return to their native land; but out of so vast a host it may be safely assumed that at least two-thirds will become permanent residents in the islands to which they go. The 150,000 who are reported now will be 300,000 before many years ; and in all our esti- mates concerning the future of Malaysia it may as well be taken for granted at once that, whatever the future language of this region may be, the people will practically be Chinese. This fact must be borne in mind in order to appreciate the importance of the work which we are trying to do among the Chinese at Singapore, and also to guide us in all our plans for the future prosecution of missionary work in that region. As we near the equator we leave behind us the produc- tions not only of the temperate zone, but of the sub-tem- perate, and are more and more surprised to find that the grain-fields even of Central and Southern India no longer appear. Rice is cultivated to some extent under the equator itself; but even that product of the tropical swamp does not flourish at its best in the immediate neighborhood of the equator. What a more intelligent and higher civilization may yet be able to extract from that tropical soil still remains 88 514 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. to be seen ; but for the present the people are largely depend- ent upon the exchange which they make with their northern or southern neighbors. Malaysia will probably be for many years to come the great producer of the more precious spices. Its forests and its mines will contribute largely to the wealth of the world, and perhaps some new productions will be dis- covered which will in some measure take the place which the great family of cereals occupies in the temperate zones. For the present, however, both the garden and the field disappoint the stranger who visits that region. Not so, however, with the orchard. No part of the world can produce more luscious fruit than is found upon the table in Penang, Singapore, and Batavia. The pine-apple flourishes better, perhaps, than in any other part of the world. The banana, of course, is everywhere in its natural home. The mangosteen, a delicate fruit, looking, when the outer covering in which it is encased is cut open, like the most delicate new, white honeycomb, is often called the queen of all fruits, and for delicacy of flavor is certainly sur- passed by no other fruit in the world. The mango, although not at its best under the equator, is brought down the coast from both Burma and Siam. But the one notable fruit for which all the Malaysian region is famed is the durian, or, as it is sometimes written, dorian. This fruit belongs to the same family as the jack and bread fruit, but differs from those fruits in several very marked particulars. The durian- tree grows to a great size, and has smooth and almost white bark, which sometimes reminds one of the Western sycamore or buttonwood. The fruit when at its best is somewhat oval-shaped, about eight or ten inches in diameter, and covered with a thick shell, which is protected by sharp and hard spikes. When broken open, the stranger who draws near to look at it will probably fly in dismay. The fruit unfortunately exhales a perfume which is as little pleasing to the ordinary nostril as any other odor to be found in the world. If one can forget the odor, and make bold to taste THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 515 the fruit, he may become passionately fond of it at once, or he may find it as difficult to acquire a liking for it as a novice does in the use of tobacco. Habit, however, here as every- where, soon settles the case. As a matter of fact, nearly all European residents in Malaysia become very fond of the durian. Mr. Wallace, in his work on the Malay archipelago, calls it the king of fruits; and old residents protest vigor- ously, and sometimes indignantly, when they hear their favorite fruit disparaged. It is often amusing to see this fruit put upon a table when strangers are present. Some of the new arrivals will actually fly from the room. At hotels and on steamers, strangers have been known to protest against placing such an offensive fruit upon the table. On one steamer on which I traveled, the captain, to the extreme in- dignation of some of his passengers, had a durian put upon the breakfast-table. The following week I chanced to be upon another steamer in the same harbor, and, when a boat with durians for sale came alongside, the captain peremp- torily ordered the quartermaster not even to allow the boat to lie alongside, much less to permit any of the fruit to be brought on deck. The stranger from the North is surprised, on nearing the Eastern tropics, to notice the absence of everything like a rich floral display. Flowers indeed are found, but very few of them challenge attention by either their beauty or perfume. On the other hand, the foliage of many trees and creepers makes ample amends for the deficiency of display on the part fof the flowers. Everywhere the stranger is struck with the variety and beauty of the leaves, some of which are very large, while others again, though smaller, are no less delicate than beautiful in their array of color, which, like the lilies of old, far surpassed the raiment of the resplendent Solomon. Aside from the uncounted family of orchids, which in the depths of the jungles, as well as in the conservatories of the cities, appear at their best, the Malay Peninsula and adjacent islands can boast of but a small list of beautiful flowers. 516 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. The fauna of this region is, with a few exceptions, the same as that of India. The elephant, tiger, and other large animals no doubt belonged to the islands before the great submergence which separated them from the main-land of Asia. The bird of paradise is a notable, exception among birds, and the orang-outang literally "wild-man" in the Malay language among animals. The bird of paradise has a very limited habitat, and is found only among some of the smaller islands in the eastern part of the archipelago. There are many varieties of this bird, some of them differing very widely from the specimens with which Europeans are most familiar. AVhile probably the most beautiful of all known birds, this famous queen of the forest is not gifted in any other particular. Like other children of vanity, the bird of paradise has but a small stock of brains, and is so stupid that the most common method of capturing it is for a Malay to climb the tree upon which it is perched until he is within a few feet of the bird, when he shoots it with an arrow, while it is absorbed in strutting about on a branch above him, dis- playing its gorgeous feathers, very much after the manner of a peacock when similarly engaged. It is said that a dozen or more of these birds will be thus employed, strutting and making a noise w r hich has more of a frog's croak than a bird's music in it, and such is their want of intelligence that a number of them will be killed before the others take alarm. The stories of man-eating tigers in the neighborhood of Singapore, and of enormous serpents on the peninsula, are no doubt exaggerated. Nearly every globe-trotter who passes Singapore goes on his way to tell, during the rest of his life, that tigers abound in the jungles of the island of Singapore to such an extent that, on an average, one native is killed every day in the year. This story is simply a myth. It does happen at times that tigers swim across from the main- land, and give more or less trouble to the people on the THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 517 island, especially those whose duty it is to go into the jungles to cut timber; but it is much nearer the truth to say that a dozen natives are killed on the island in the course of a year, than three hundred and sixty-five. Tigers are dangerous denizens of any forest after they once acquire a taste for hu- man flesh. It is not that they prefer this kind of food to any other, but rather that they chance to make the discovery that man is not as well able to defend himself against such a foe as other large animals. In fact, no creature when face to face with a tiger is more helpless than a man, when he chances to be without weapons of any kind. Many years ago I knew of an old tigress near the foot of the Himalayas which killed more than one hundred and fifty persons before being killed herself. The creature was known by the fact that a number of the toes of one of her forefeet had been cut off in an encounter with a hunter, and her track in the sand was easily recognized. One such tiger as this could give a reputation to the island of Singapore which would not be effaced for a dozen years. Large pythons undoubtedly are found in the forests of the peninsula; but it is not probable that they are any larger or much more numerous than in the great forest tracts of India. The difference, if any, is probably owing to the fact that the jungles of the peninsula have not been traversed by armed hunters, and not only tigers and pythons, but all manner of wild animals and reptiles have been left to increase and mul- tiply. Stories are told of serpents having been shot twenty- five and even thirty feet long ; but I have not been able to authenticate even one such account. Occasionally, however, a python is captured from twenty to twenty-two feet in length. One of our missionaries, Dr. B. F. West, had an adventure a few years ago with one of these monsters, which he probably will not soon forget. He had gone to a point on the western coast, and was making a journey across the peninsula eastward, on a route which had, so far as was 518 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. known, never before been followed by any European. He was traveling on foot, and had just crossed a small stream and climbed up the somewhat steep ascent to a level piece of ground covered with high grass, through which he had to pass by a very narrow path, the grass being in many places as high as his head. In front of him was a small open space, on which some buffaloes, with their calves, were grazing. As Dr. West was leisurely walking along, he chanced to notice an enormous python stretched out close along the path, not more than six inches from his feet. The monster was probably waiting for the buffaloes to come down the path to get a drink at the river below, in which case he would, no doubt, have seized one of the smaller calves, and made his breakfast upon it. As Dr. West was telling me of the adventure, I asked him : " What did the python do ?'* " He simply raised his head a little," he replied, " but made no other motion." "And what did you do?" " I .raised every hair on my head, and got out of there as fast as I could." He probably had a narrow escape, although it is possible that the serpent, preferring to breakfast on a buffalo-calf rather than a man, purposely let him pass. The python, like all other large serpents, is a very stupid creature, and, unless approached suddenly in some way similar to the above, will never attempt to harm any one. No living creature could be more stupid. I have seen them put up in boxes for ship- ment to Europe, eight or ten big fellows being put in a single box. A few holes are bored in the lid to admit air, and the serpents lie perfectly quiet throughout the voyage. They are caught in the simplest possible manner. When the na- tives discover one lying quietly in the jungle, a man spreads a blanket upon a slight frame attached to the end of a long bamboo, and, approaching quietly, throws the blanket over THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 519 the python's head. Instead of drawing back, the big serpent attempts to raise its head, and thus muffles its own eyes. Two men, with a large open bag, are in readiness, and, seiz- ing the serpent's tail, they slip it into the bag ; and then, ad- vancing toward its head, they slip the whole body back into the bag, and by a quick jerk bring it up over the head, and tie it. The hideous but harmless captive is then taken to the city, and sold for export to Europe. Chapter XL. THE MALAYSIAN MISSION. OUR attention was first drawn to Singapore in the same way as it had been directed to Rangoon. By the steamer route down the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, Singapore is about 1,850 miles from Calcutta ; but, although so far away, when we began our work among seamen in the latter place we soon began to hear of the thriving city which was growing up almost under the equator, on the great ocean highway to China; and when, in 1879, we ex- tended our work to Rangoon, we began to receive occasional invitations to proceed farther down the coast, and preach in Singapore also. At that time I chanced to be the presiding elder of what was called the "Calcutta District," a geo- graphical expression, which included Bengal and as much territory down the coast as we might wish to occupy. For some time I gave no serious attention to such invitations, but at length began to feel a conviction that we should go to Singapore, and see if God had work for us in that city. As this conviction matured, and as I procured all possible information about the city, the people, and the vast region of which it must always be the commercial center, all doubt vanished from my mind, and I felt assured that God was beckoning us onward to one more advanced post. At length I became so impressed with the importance of the project, that, early in the year 1884, I published a letter in the Western Christian Advocate, calling for two young men to come out as volunteers, and occupy the distant outpost of Singapore. I had nothing to offer the volunteers except a great opportunity to do and dare for their Master. We had 520 THE MALA YSIAN MISSION. 521 not a dollar in the way of financial resources, and our plan was to do as we had done in so many cities of India preach to the Europeans and Eurasians, organize a self-supporting church among them, and then from this base work outward among the non-Christian people. The utmost I could prom- ise was that I would accompany the two young men, and help them make a start by preaching for a season and organizing the work for them. To this appeal there was an immediate response. About twenty young men came promptly forward and offered them- selves for what then seemed a very forlorn enterprise. It took time, however, to correspond with these candidates, -and while they proved to be good and true men, nti two among them were quite adapted to the very peculiar service re- quired of them. Two or three of the number, however, were accepted for service in India a year or two later. In the meantime, near the close of the year, Bishop Hurst was approaching India, after a prolonged tour in Europe. He had heard nothing whatever about our pro- jected mission in Singapore, and was not aware that a call for volunteers had already been made in America, or that young men were offering for the post. By an extraordinary coincidence, which every Christian will interpret as a clear evidence that God was moving in the matter, his mind had been strangely turned in the direction of Singapore. He had just authorized the opening of a new work in Finland, thus gaining access in the extreme north to a people within the territory of the great empire of Russia, and there seemed a poetic fitness in the thought that his next advanced move should be in the far south, almost under the equator itself. It was no such fancy, however, that directed Bishop Hurst's mind in this case. He had met with tourists, and, in one case, with a resident of Singapore itself, who had called his attention to that part of the world, and he had thus become impressed with its importance. But added to the interest thus created was a distinct conviction, which he felt was 522 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. from above, that he ought to do something to extend our work in that direction. When I met him, soon after his arrival in Bombay, the first question he put to me was, " What can we do for Singapore ?" I supposed he had heard of my appeal in the American papers, but was sur- prised to learn that he had received 110 intimation from any quarter that such a project had ever been mooted by any one else. He and I had been living and working on opposite sides of the globe, and yet our minds had been strangely led to the same conclusion, and our hearts had become im- pressed with the same conviction. W T e both felt that God would have us move in the direction of the far southeast. When the South India Conference met for its annual session in Haidarabad, in December, 1884, the proposal to found a new mission in Singapore was the most prominent question brought forward. Practically, it presented itself as a proposal to found a foreign mission, the first enterprise of the kind which had ever been undertaken by our Indian Methodists. Singapore was, both geographically and polit- ically, far beyond the boundaries of India proper, and to all intents and purposes would constitute a foreign mission, founded and directed by the Methodists of India. We had no financial resources whatever to fall back upon, but this gave us little concern. The one vital question to be con- sidered was that of finding the right man to put in charge ol the work. Up to that date no one with the peculiar qualifications needed for so difficult a post had offered in America, and we were obliged to look round among our own little band of workers for some one to send to the new and distant outpost. At once our thoughts turned in the direction of Wm. F. Oldham, a man who seemed in many respects peculiarly fitted for the difficult and, in some respects, hazardous undertaking. This was to be our first Indian foreign mission, and it was peculiarly fitting that we should put an Indian in charge of it. Mr. Oldham was of European parentage, but had been born in India and THE MALA YSIAN MISSION. 523 brought up there. He had been employed for a number of years in the survey service of the Indian Government, and had been thoroughly educated for that kind of work, but soon after his conversion he began to feel the need of a broader culture, and also became impressed with the con- viction that God had a work for him to do in connection with our church. His young wife, also born in India, shared his convictions, and the two determined to go to America, complete their education, and in due time return to India to devote themselves to missionary work among their own people. They were now on the ocean and nearing India, but without the shadow of a dream that their brethren in India were planning for them so complete a change in all their plans and expectations as that of sending them on beyond to distant Malaysia. It was impossible to consult them, and the brethren at Haidarabad could only act in full confidence in the loyalty, courage, and devotion of the two workers at sea. The decision was carefully and prayer- fully made, and when Bishop Hurst read the appointments, the name of Wm. F. Oldham was announced as missionary at Singapore. When Conference adjourned I hastened to Bombay to meet the Oldhams, and found them calm and resolute in the face of the unexpected and difficult enterprise which con- fronted them. They were startled and perhaps a little sad- dened, but not discouraged or depressed. Mr. Oldham said to me : "I had prayed for some days that God would make me willing to go to any post in all India to which I might be sent, and I at last had reached a point where I felt I was per- fectly willing for any place selected for me in all this empire ; but it never once dawned upon my thoughts that they would shoot me clear through the empire, and fifteen hundred miles out on the other side." We talked a little while about the best course for the future, and soon drew up a plan of action. We were going to plant a new mission in a place as far dis- tant from Bombay as Liverpool is from New York. We had 524 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. no financial resources whatever. We knew no person in Singapore, and had nothing to depend upon on arrival except the promises of God. We could not look to the Missionary Society ; for we were taking the initiative in this case, and it would have required a full year to send forward an applica- tion to the General Committee and secure an appropriation in the usual way. As a matter of fact, I had not money enough to pay our passage to Singapore and my own passage back again. It was decided that we should go there, begin to preach to the English-speaking people, organize a self- supporting church, and having thus planted our missionary in a new post, await the developments of Providence. Leav- ing Mrs. Oldham with her mother for the time being, we crossed India, and took passage from Calcutta for Rangoon and Singapore. As we expected to hold continuous services for several weeks, and needed help, especially in~conducting sing- ing, we took with us my wife and Miss Battie, who was at that time chorister of our Calcutta cougregation. We had barely money enough to buy tickets to Singapore, but noth- ing to pay our way back ; and thus we entered upon the for- midable enterprise of planting a new mission in the central city of the vast region known as Malaysia. Our first stop was at Rangoon, where we spent five days, holding meetings morning and evening, and assisting the de- voted and courageous little baud of workers who are sta- tioned in that city. There seemed to be an inspiration in the project on which we had embarked, and our people in Ran- goon were not only cheered, but greatly encouraged and ; filled with enthusiasm, at the idea of thus pushing our work into the regions beyond. At our last meeting a liberal col- lection was taken in aid of our enterprise, and we thus learned that God was not going to forget our needs. Our next stop was at Penang, where our steamer remained for twenty-four hours. We went ashore and visited the only Protestant mission in the place, under the care of the Reverend Mr. Macdonald. It was an independent mission, and had not THE MALA YSIAN MISSION. 525 made much headway among the people. I preached to a small congregation in the evening, and made such observa- tions as our brief stay enabled me to do. A single glance sufficed to show that a vast field was open to any mission which would begin a vigorous work in the place. Mr. Mac- douald was carrying on an independent work, but on narrow lines, which left most of the field practically open to any \ new-comers. Proceeding on our way, we entered the beau- tiful harbor of Singapore on the morning of the second day, and were kindly greeted by Mr. Phillips, superintendent of the Sailors' Home, a Christian brother who had repeatedly sent us kind messages and invited us to come and preach in Singapore. We were driven to the home of this good brother, and kindly entertained by him during our stay of three weeks. Singapore now lay wide open before us, and yet at the same time, in another sense, tightly closed against us. The people were all there, the utmost liberty was accorded to us, and no one was disposed to throw the slightest obstacle in our way; and yet we were strangers in a strange city, with- out resources, without prestige or influence of any kind, and it certainly seemed a most difficult undertaking to plant a mission on the basis which we had adopted. The European public of Singapore was not a large one, and at that particular time was not favorably inclined toward a work such as we proposed to establish. An unfortunate attempt to hold evangelistic meetings had just been made without success, conducted by a stranger whose zeal had not been wholly ac- cording to knowledge. No one could be sure that we would do any better, or that we would work upon a different basis, and hence we must first establish a reputation before we could expect to wield much influence. Only one way seemed open to us, and that was to invite the public to come out and hear the word which God had commissioned us to preach. The town hall was secured and notice given to the public that there would be preaching twice on Sunday, and each evening 526 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. of the week following. We could do no more, and, having circulated the notices as widely as possible, we awaited the issue with some anxiety, but without any fear. I can not do better at this point than to quote from an account written by Mr. Oldham of the inception of this work : "Sunday morning found us in the town hall. A little Estey organ the gift to Mrs. Oldham of her fellow-students at Mt. Hoi- yoke was unpacked and pressed into service. Miss Battie sat at the organ ; Dr. Thoburn sat on a small improvised platform at a table ; Mrs. Thoburn led the singing; while I played usher, and handed round the hymn-books. After singing and prayer, the text was an- nounced : ' Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord ;' and Dr. Thoburn proceeded to preach the first Methodist ser- mon ever preached in Malaysia. I listened with some wonder, if not doubt, as he told the people, among other things, that they would come again and again, that friends would come with them and some of them be deeply interested, and that among them would be found those who would seek forgiveness of their sins and peace for their souls. ' Within these four walls,' he said, ' men and women will be converted to God.' It seemed scarcely credible that such a result was close at hand, but it turned out precisely as the preacher said. The people returned again and again in larger numbers, and when, on the fourth evening, an opportunity was given for those who wished to seek God to express that desire, a stout, strongly-built Scotchman, with tears and strong emotion, begged that he might be prayed for. All through the room were others moved in the same way. Here was a slight Eurasian youth, yonder were two sisters holding each other's hands, and encouraging each other to come out publicly as seekers of salvation, and, best of all, were four Tamils, who had been taught in the mission-schools of Ceylon, but who, in the malarial moral atmos- phere of those islands, had lapsed into open idolatry, and were now stricken in conscience and deeply penitent and ashamed of their apostasy. The meetings were continued, and at the end of two weeks a considerable number had been converted, and their testimony was heard to the great help of the services." As I was obliged to leave at the close of the third week, we lost no time in organizing a church. The number of con- versions had not been large, but organization is a law of life THE MALA YSIAN MISSION. 527 and growth, and we lost no time in giving our new converts all the advantages which it confers. After stating our rules and conditions of membership, seventeen persons publicly cast in their lot with us, two of whom were at once admitted to full membership, having previously been connected with the English Methodists, while the other fifteen were received on probation. A Quarterly Conference was organized, but from among our little band there seemed only three who were fitted to serve as office-bearers in the infant church. I quote again from Mr. Oldham : " We proceeded to elect all the officers that were necessary for the administration of the church, and after we had named the same men over and over again for all the offices that Methodism knows, we finally came to a most important question: Who shall be the estimat- ing committee to estimate the pastor's salary? John Polglase was named. Dr. Thoburn then proceeded to explain to Brother Polglase and the other two brethren, F. J. Benjafield and Maurice Drummond, that the estimating committee's business was to tell how much they thought it would cost a preacher and his wife to live, and then devise means for obtaining that amount. John Polglase saw the difficulty of the situation. Brother and Sister Oldham were to be left with this little church, and were to be cared for by the stewards, and he was to tell how much it would cost and how the money was to be had. Dr. Thoburn looked at him with deep concern, and said, 'Brother Pol- glase, do you think it can be done?' and Brother Polglase, with a quiet twinkle in his eye, which you will find in all really useful men, turned to Brother Oldham and said, ' If Brother Oldham can stand it, we can ;' and with this arrangement it was settled that the church now begun should be continued." Two days later we took passage on our return to Cal- cutta, leaving our good Brother Oldham alone at his post. He occupied a most trying position. A small salary had been pledged for his support a little over seven hundred dollars, if I remember correctly but Singapore is a very expensive town, and the financial outlook was anything but cheering. The man, however, seemed made for the occasion, and reso- lutely went to work in a spirit which recognized no difficul- 528 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. ties and anticipated no failure. Among his members he was soon permitted to number one Chinaman, a Christian, who had some years before been baptized in another mission, and through this man he tried to gain access to the large Chinese community of the place. For a time he was unsuccessful in this effort. The ordinary European in those parts is accus- tomed to treat the Chinese with a certain hauteur, which prevents anything like intimate or confidential intercourse ; and hence, while the missionary was always treated politely, he felt that he was held at a distance, and had no close ac- cess to the people. At length, however, God opened his way in a most unexpected manner. Walking down a street in the Chinese quarter, his attention was one day drawn to a sign above a doorway : " Celestial Reasoning Association." On inquiry, he learned from his Christian Chinaman that a debating society was held in that place, where the young Chinese of the city were accustomed to meet and debate questions for the improvement of their English. The mis- sionary at once proposed to become a member of the club, but was politely informed that none but Chinese were ad- mitted to it. He then offered to deliver a lecture before the club, if he might be allowed that privilege, and his offer was immediately accepted. He chose for his subject, "Astron- omy," and provided himself with a blackboard and colored crayons, by which he succeeded in making his lecture intel- ligible to his hearers. The lecture was delivered, not in the club-room, but in the residence of one of the leading Chinese residents, and all the leaders of Chinese society , were present. A sumptuous repast was served up at the close, and the lecturer was treated with the most distin- guished consideration. At a single stroke he had won, not only the respect, but also the confidence of the men whose influence he most valued. The Consul-General of China pre- sided, and in an address at the close of the lecture, compli- mented the missionary in the most cordial manner, while all present made him feel that they appreciated the favor THE MALA YSIAN MISSION. 529 which he had conferred upon them. I can not do better than to quote again from Mr. Oldham : "That evening was laid the foundation of our mission-work among the Chinese. A day or two afterward, the host at whose house the party had been entertained, wrote and asked me if I would be willing to serve him as a private tutor. I was a self-supporting missionary, with a slim handful of members. I had been trying hard to get among the Chinese. Here was a Chinese gentleman offer- ing me good wages and the opportunity of personal intercourse. It seemed providential, and I promptly accepted the offer, and became the private tutor of the wealthy and influential gentleman, Mr. Tan Keong Saik. Some weeks after, at a great public dinner, when the Governor and the leading officials were present, Mr. Keong Saik made one of the speeches of the evening. It was exceedingly happy and very effective, and great credit was gained among the Chinese for their orator's tutor, and he immediately began to be in demand. I preferred, however, the teaching of the children to the tutoring of their fathers, and therefore proposed to the Chinese merchants that they should open a school, to which, not they, but their children, should come. They accepted the offer, and a house was selected in the heart of the city, and a teacher for the Chinese language secured. I myself taught in the English, and the school within a week num- bered thirty-six boys. It continued to increase until one day it was proposed by one of the Chinese that I build a house more centrally located, on a piece of ground which had already been given by the Government. The enterprise was at once taken in hand, and the cost of the building was paid by the Chinese, one gentleman heading the subscription with five hundred dollars. Soon after this it was thought advisible to open a boarding-school in connection with the day-school. This, too, increased so rapidly that it became necessary to buy a new property, and the proposal was made that the Chinese should contribute one-half of the amount if the Missionary Society ' in America would contribute the other half. The conduct of this enterprise was intrusted to an influential Chinese banker, Mr. Tan Jiak Kim, and the missionary had simply nothing to do except state the amount necessary to be collected. To my amazement and very great pleasure, in the course of six weeks Mr. Jiak Kim reported that the amount of six thousand two hundred dollars four hundred more than had been asked for had been collected among the Chinese, Mr. Jiak Kirn himself heading the subscription with a splendid 34 530 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. donation of fifteen hundred dollars. I cite these facts to show the new ideas of the cultivated Chinese, and their exceeding liberality where they have confidence in the missionaries." To the above testimony I ought to add that when our missionary, during the first year of his residence in Singa- pore, undertook the erection of a church for our English congregation, among the subscribers was one of these Chinese gentlemen, who actually gave five hundred dollars, which was the largest contribution given by any one for this enter- prise. This Chinaman, be it remembered, was what people in America would call a heathen, and if he wanted to come to the port of New York, he would not be permitted to land upon our so-called Christian shores. The wretched pol- troons who make laws for us at Washington, in their un- righteous and cowardly haste to win votes from the most worthless classes to be found on the Pacific Coast, have made it impossible for Chinese gentlemen, who are gentlemen in every good sense of the word, to be accorded the simplest rights of human beings when they visit the shores of our great Republic. Well did Senator Sherman remark that in the whole course of his connection with the United States Congress, he had never known a piece of legislation so vicious as the Chinese Exclusion Act. It is a shame and a scandal, and our country is disgraced every day that it re- mains upon the statute-book. Members of our mission have visited Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and parts of the peninsula, for the purpose of ex- amining the general situation, and prospecting for suitable stations to be occupied in the future. Two brethren, Drs. West and Leuring, pushed up a large river in Western Borneo to a region inhabited by the Dyaks, a race of peo- ple inhabiting the greater part of the interior of that great island. These are an interesting, but wild and somewhat savage people, and are noted for their notorious habit of " head hunting." No man is considered deserving of much esteem until he has killed at least one enemy; and the skull THE MALA YSIAN MISSION. 531 of every victim is carried home aud suspended under the roof, immediately above the family seated on the floor. The skulls are used to adorn nearly every hut, and bear a horri- ble testimony to the low moral state of the people. But these poor creatures must be reached; and, although we may GROUP OF DYAKS. have to delay for a little while, sooner or later we expect to be found doing our part in making Christ known to the Dyaks and other inhabitants of Borneo. Java is the most populous and prosperous island of the Malaysian group. Dr. Oldham visited Batavia a few years ago, by invitation of the Dutch and German missionaries, and 532 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. made careful inquiries about the opening for missionary work on the island, but his conclusion was that we were more urgently needed in Borneo, Sumatra, and on the pen- insula. It is a noteworthy fact, as showing the far-reaching influence of our Anglo-Chinese school at Singapore, that Chinese youths are sent to that institution from Batavia, as well as from Bankok, in Siam, and from Borneo, and other far distant points. More than half a century ago two American missionaries belonging to the American Board tried to enter Sumatra from the south, but perished in the attempt. I quote from " Mis- sionary Addresses," published in 1888 : " For some days all went well ; but one afternoon, as they were nearing a village, they were suddenly set upon by men who had been lying in ambush, and in a few minutes both were murdered. The body of one of them furnished a repast to the savages that evening, and the other was eaten the following morning. The mothers of both these young martyrs were widows. When the dreadful tidings reached this country, the mother of one of them, Henry Lyman, was alone at home. Henry had been the eldest born, and the other children were at school. The widow's brother called, and soon he was followed by her pastor, and only too soon she knew they were the bearers of heavy tidings. When she learned that her son was dead, the stricken mother was so prostrated that she threw herself upon a couch, and seemed like one utterly crushed. In the meantime the children had been called from school, and when they came in, the bereaved mother rose, gath- ered them around her, and asked that the letters be read. Up to this time she had supposed that her son had died at home, with his wife by his bedside, and that a green grave in that distant land would mark the spot where his ashes rested. But as the letters were read, the awful truth flashed upon her that her son had been murdered ; and as they read on, the horrible fact was added that his body had been eaten by cannibals. The poor suffering disciple of Jesus Christ, heart-broken and crushed as she was, ready to sink as she had seemed but the mo- ment before, after a groan of unutterable anguish, exclaimed: 'O, what can those poor people do without the gospel of Jesus Christ?' And when the reading was finished, and she was able to join in the conversation, she said : ' I bless God who gave me such a son to go to THE MALA YSIAN MISSION. '533 the heathen, and I never felt so strongly as I do this moment the de- sire that some other of my children may become missionaries, and go to teach those savage men who have slain Henry.' " During Dr. Oldham's visit to Java he met two Christian young men from Sumatra, belonging to the very tribe among DYAK WOMEN. whom these young men had lost their lives, and was cordially invited by them to their own Battak valley of Sumatra. The missionary smiled, and said to the young man: "Your people did not treat our missionaries very kindly when they first went there." " It is true," said the youth, " we did not treat them well, then; but that was a long time ago. If 534 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. you will come with me to the Battaks now, I will promise that we will not eat you." Space will not permit me to write the full history of our infant mission at Singapore, although its history possesses some extraordinary features worthy both .of record and of study. For several years the work was carried on without any aid whatever from the Missionary Society. The mission- aries were of one mind and of one heart in all they did, and for a time, like the primitive Christians, had all things in common, eating at a common table, drawing their allowances from a common purse, and working on a common basis. This practical devotion enabled them to accomplish wonders, and the visitor to Singapore is now amazed to see the evidences of progress which are found on every side. The Anglo-Chi- nese school has now an attendance of over four hundred and fifty students, and is said to be the largest Chinese mission- school in any part of the world. A spacious building for its accommodation will soon be erected. A printing-press has been founded, and is entering upon a career which gives promise of widely extended usefulness. A mission among the Tamil colonists has also been established, and is doing a good work. Conversions among the Chinese have been fre- quent during the past two or three years, and the Chinese church at Singapore is rapidly gaining ground. A mission has also been planted in the great city of Penang, where two missionaries are at work, and where an Anglo-Chinese school, established only a year ago, is making rapid headway. A Chinese preacher has been stationed at Malacca, and the pros- pects of his work are said to be encouraging. Preaching is regularly carried on in the Malay tongue, but up to the pres- ent time no special opening has been secured among the Malay people. As they are all Mohammedans in that region, we find them, as we have always found them in India, very much less accessible to the gospel than Hindus or Buddhists. Woman's work has also received due recognition. Miss THE MALAYSIAN MISSION. . 535 Blackmore, of Australia, was the first missionary appointed by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society to the charge of this work. She has laid good and strong foundations, and it is expected that a strong re-enforcement will join her in the course of a few months. One of our missionaries has been some months in Borneo, and made an attempt to establish a permanent work there ; but difficulties of various kinds stood in his way, and for the present he has been recalled. We are urgently invited to open a station in the great island of Sumatra, which lies nearer at hand, and we are also invited to establish stations at several points on the peninsula. In fact, invitations to open work among the Chinese have been received from various distant points, and it seems altogether probable that in the future our work among these interesting people will have a very wide extension. It would give me pleasure to state, even in brief outline, the work of the vari- ous missionaries who have taken part in this interesting mis- sion ; but space will not permit. At a later day, a full history of the development of this most interesting work will, no doubt, be written ; and when it does appear, it will furnish a record of rare devotion and most direct and practical Chris- tian effort, and of signal success in following the lines marked out by Providence. Mr. Oldham was obliged to return to America in 1890, owing to a serious failure of health ; but he expects to re- turn either to Singapore or some other part of the Eastern world in the early future. Two years ago he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Allegheny College, and wherever he goes he is most kindly received in the American churches. He has done a good and great work at Singapore, not the least part of which was his quick but thorough under- standing of the Chinaman's character, and his success in in- terpreting it to others. A little before midnight of the night before he sailed from Singapore, he was reclining on the steamer's deck when a Chinaman came to him, and asked 536 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. permission to speak. This being granted, he proceeded in the most delicate manner to ask the weary and sick missionary to accept a little present, and, slipping a hundred dollars into his hands, hastened away. And yet this man can not visit Dr. Oldham in our " free " and Christian America ! O Lord, how long? Cl>apbcr XLL THE LATEST REPORT. IT may be well to insert near the close of this volume the official report submitted by me to the General Conference at its session held in Omaha, May, 1892. This report covers the last four years, and gives a brief outline of the recent progress and present condition of the work. It is given without any amendment, except the omission of one brief paragraph. DEAR FATHERS AND BRETHREN, Before attempting to give an account of my stewardship as superintendent of your missions in India and Malaysia during the past four years, it may be well to sketch briefly the extent and nature of our work in those great mission-fields. The mere words India and Malaysia convey a very imperfect idea to the average observer in America, and in the case of our missions in those vast regions are very apt to mislead. The India of to-day is not the name of a single country, but of a mighty empire made up of various countries in southern Asia, and contain- ing one-fifth of the entire population of the globe. Malay- sia is a name given to the vast region peopled by the vari- ous branches of the Malay race, embracing the Malay pen- insula and the great islands of, and island groups in, the adjacent seas. We do not have a mission in each of these regions, but a series of missions, widely separated from one another, and operating among peoples of different nationalities and speaking different languages. To get a correct idea of the vast extent of our field, and the gigantic proportions of the task which we have tinder- 537 538 IXDIA AND MALAYSIA. taken, let me ask you to transfer in mind the work to Eu- rope, where you have a more familiar perspective. India proper is about equal to Europe west of Russia, aud contains more nationalities distinct in character and diverse in lan- guage than Europe. If, now, a work corresponding to ours were to be established in Europe, it would be necessary, in addition to existing missions, to open new missions in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia, and then to cross the Mediterranean and occupy Egypt to correspond to Burma, and next proceed far down the Afri- can coast to find a region to correspond to Malaysia. Our missionaries to-day are preaching in thirteen different lan- guages, and among their converts may be found representa- tives of as many great nationalities. Hence it would be more accurate, and certainly less misleading, if instead of speaking of our " mission in India," we spoke of our mis- sions in Southern Asia. But the magnitude of our task is very imperfectly indi- cated by the geographical extent of the field occupied, or even the immense population among which we are working. We preach in many tongues, and yet weld our Confer- ences together into one organic body. We win converts from many different castes, and yet induct all into the same church, aud teach them to be one in Christ Jesus. We en- counter cultured men of thought to-day and illiterate peas- ants to-morrow. We have schools in which the pupils write in the sand under a village tree, and colleges in which they pursue a course quite equal to that of your American univer- sities. We maintain our church organization and all the familiar features of our Methodism system, and yet adapt our machinery and methods to the practical wants of the most conservative people on the globe. We are called upon to create a literature in many tongues, to found and equip schools and colleges, to train preachers soon to be numbered by the thousand, to teach the poorest of all living men how to be self-dependent, and the most dependent of all Chris- THE LA TEST REPOR T. 539 tians to maintain self-supporting churches. We are building on imperial foundations, and need the highest wisdom which God's grace and human experience can impart. Whether we view our work in outline, glancing only at its magnificent proportions, or examine it in detail, we are alike impressed with the conviction that seldom, if ever, in the history of any church has a task so full of difficulty, and yet so full of prom- ise, been committed to any body of God's servants. I have referred to Europe for the purpose of comparison as to geographical extent and diversity of nationalities, but in one important respect the comparison fails. India is polit- ically and commercially one, while Europe is many. While it is true that some Indian rulers still sit upon the throne of their ancestors, yet their States are feudatory, and the Gov- ernment of the empire is everywhere recognized as supreme. Internal wars have ceased, probably forever, and the mighty armaments of Europe will never have their counterparts among the great nations in India, which are being welded together into one of the world's greatest empires. The lan- guage of the rulers, of the highest courts, of the legislative councils, and every public assembly in which men of differ- ent races meet together, is English. Living and working in such an empire, and in the midst of such influences, we are not only able to maintain a large measure of practical unity in our operations, but we are compelled to do so. Our brethren in Europe occupy a very different field. Sweden and Italy have little in common, and can have but little. Denmark and Bulgaria are as widely separated in interest as if an ocean rolled between them. In India, on the other hand, our work is one, and must be one. Our more intelligent converts in the most remote districts watch with intense interest every new development of the work in the empire, while one and all are bound together by a peculiar interest and affection which assure us that, as a people in India, we are and must continue to be one. Years ago many of our missionaries began to feel the need 540 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. of some peculiar central organization, adapted to our excep- tional situation, and designed to bind our scattered mission- aries more closely together, and foster the growth of such institutions as God in his providence might plant among us. The rapid and wide extension of our work during the decade of 1870-80 did much to deepen this conviction, and finally a plan was drawn up for what was called a Delegated Confer- ence, and a memorial sent to the General Conference of 1880, asking for its formal sanction. The proposal was a novel one, and, as might have been anticipated, created serious in- quiry, if not positive alarm, in the minds of many of our leading men. It looked like a General Conference in em- bryo, and to those who failed to realize our peculiar situation in India it seemed unnecessary, or at best wholly premature. Four years later, however, it was viewed with less disfavor, and under another name was formally authorized by the General Conference. The Central Conference of India is a body unique in Methodism ; but it has already more than vindicated its right to exist. It is not a General Confer- ence, but it deals with many interests which the General Conference would care for if India w r ere near at hand, and if your limited time was not already overtaxed. It has held four biennial sessions, and now seems as indispensable to our welfare as the Annual Conferences themselves. In addition to this Central Conference, w have three Annual Conferences and one Mission Conference, with sev- enteen presiding elders' districts and fourteen District Con- ferences. Connected with each Annual and District Confer- ence, we have a properly organized Woman's Conference, meeting at the same time and place, and taking full cogni- zance of all the varied interests of our woman's work. These Conferences of our faithful sisters have come into being, and have had their organization perfected from time to time, by the natural exigencies of the situation, rather than by the design of any person or party connected with our work. It would be difficult to determine the date of the first orgauiza- THE LA TEST REPOR T. 541 tion of the kind ; but when once planted, their growth be- came wonderful in its way, and their influence is becoming more marked and beneficial every year. They have courses of study adapted to the various grades of workers, and, from the missionary's wife to the humblest Bible-reader, every fe- male worker feels that her work is recognized by the church, and that she is responsible to the church for a right perform- ance of her duty. Perhaps I might be pardoned if I venture to say that nowhere else in Methodism, if indeed anywhere else in Christendom, is woman's work so fully recognized and so thoroughly organized as in the Methodist Episcopal Church in India. The District Conference in India occupies a much more important position than in the United States. The District Conference had been organized in India and had been in successful operation several years before it was formally in- corporated into the Discipline of the church. We had a large number of native workers who did not seem qualified for membership in the Annual Conference, and yet it was felt that they needed the advantages which organization al- ways bestows, and the District Conference was created chiefly for their benefit. It is, I believe, an historical fact not gen- erally known, that the District Conference, as it exists now in the Discipline, was in the first place borrowed from our Indian model. But the District Conference in India has boldly added to its functions as necessity has called for such action, and in some respects is a more important body than the Annual Conference. As agents of the Missionary Soci- ety, our local preachers and exhorters are all subject to ap- pointment and removal, and hence our itinerant policy is applied to members of the District Conference as rigorously as to the members of the Annual Conference. The appoint- ments are made by a cabinet composed of the preachers in charge and presiding elders the bishop, if present, presiding and the most obscure worker has his appointment as formally announced as if he were a presiding elder. A course of 542 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. study, extending over eight years, is provided for the ex- horters and local preachers, and the examinations are faith* fully exacted. The Annual Conference is numerically a much smaller body than an ordinary District Conference, and is composed of those who are, more or less, representa- tive men. Having thus given a brief sketch of our field and of some peculiarities of our organization, let me proceed to speak of the progress of our work during the past four years. The year 1888 was an important and, in some respects, a critical period in our history. The South India Conference, which at one time covered almost the whole territory of the empire, had made an earnest effort to plant missions among the heathen without aid from the Missionary Society, but, after ten years of heroic struggling, had yielded to the inev- itable, and at the beginning of 1888 received appropriations which were intended to furnish a permanent basis for a widely extended work. At the beginning of the preceding year Bishop Ninde, under the authority of the General Confer- ence, had divided the immense territory of this Conference into two Annual Conferences, known respectively as the South India and Bengal. At the same time the territory of the North India Conference had been enlarged to almost double its former dimensions, and we thus seemed to be organized and prepared for a vigorous prosecution of our vast work. Unfortunately, however, the General Committee of 1888, when confronted by a heavy debt, felt constrained to make a reduction of fifteen per cent in our appropriations, and con- tinued this reduction for three successive years. The North India Conference was in a measure prepared for such an emergency; but to the two new Conferences the reduction could not have happened at a less opportune time. They had assumed heavy obligations, had occupied new stations, received new missionaries, and were depending absolutely upon increased appropriations, instead of which they were compelled to reduce expenditures, and either retreat or hold THE LATEST REPORT. 543 their ground in comparative inactivity. I mention this fact, not by way of complaint, but as a just explanation of the comparative want of success which has attended the labors of some of our missionaries. Our missionary working force has been seriously reduced in both of the new Conferences. Instead of the thirty-seven American missionaries whom we had in these two new Conferences in 1888, we have now only twenty-eight, showing a reduction of nine men from this country, and indicating a contraction of our work in many places and in many directions. But notwithstanding this unexpected obstacle to our prog- ress, God has blessed our faithful workers, and I am most thankful to be able to report four years of steady growth and uninterrupted prosperity. The little Malaysia Mission Con- ference has trebled its membership since it was erected, with your sanction, into a separate mission in 1888; the Bengal Conference has doubled its membership twice over; the South India Conference has nearly doubled its membership; while the grand old North India Conference, the mother of all the growing Indian family of Conferences, has more than quad- rupled the large membership with which she entered upon the quadrenuium. We have now a Christian community in India of not less than fifty thousand souls, and a membership, in- cluding full members and probationers, of over thirty thou- sand. All through these past four years we have had inquirers coming to us in steadily increasing numbers, and the latest ad- vices indicate no signs of waning interest. We now receive more converts in a month than w r e used to receive in a decade. The sun which rose upon you this morning went down upon fifty converts on the other side of the globe, who had just ex- changed the worship of idols for the service of the living God, and every day you tarry here will witness the ingathering of fifty more. When I return to my field I shall expect to greet ten thousand new converts men and women who were wor- shiping idols four months ago as confidently as I shall ex- pect to find the mountains in their places, or the stars keeping 544 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. watch in the silent heavens. God is truly doing great things in our midst, and we call upon the whole church to rejoice with us in the signal tokens for good which he is giving us. Next to our church membership and the winning of con- verts from heathenism, the most encouraging feature of our work is found in connection with our Sunday-schools. For more than twenty years we have given special attention to the Sunday-school, and have spared no pains to adapt it to the peculiar wants of the people; and now, when our converts are rapidly multiplying on every hand, we find this agency inval- uable to us. At our last Conferences no less than 55,243 scholars were reported as connected with our 1,376 Sunday- schools, showing an increase of 673 schools and 28,658 pupils during the past four years. It is probable that we have more Sunday-schools and more scholars enrolled than all the other churches and missions in the empire combined. A few years ago the most of our scholars were Hindus and Mohammedans, but now one-third of the whole number are Christians; and probably at the end of another year the ratio will be one-half. No item in our recent table of statistics is more significant, and at the same time more encouraging, than the reported in- crease of 9,679 Christian children and young people in our Sunday-schools. It can not but happen when converts are coming to us in such large numbers that many of them will be found extremely immature ; but we need not despair of the general community so long as we find one-half of the whole number baptized during the past year, reporting them- selves promptly as pupils in our Sunday-schools. Education takes a very prominent place in every successful mission, and, as might be expected, we feel its importance in our work at the present hour more than ever before. God has signally blessed our educational efforts during the last four years, and, although greatly straitened by the reduction of our appropriations, we are able to report a very encouraging advance. Instead of 545 schools of all grades, as reported at the beginning of 1888, we now have 1,039; and instead of THE LATEST REPORT. 545 14,412 pupils we are now able to report 29,083. Here, too, we feel most perceptibly the influence of our great ingathering of converts. No less than 11,656 of the pupils are Christians, being more than three times the number reported four years ago. Most of these schools are of an elementary character, but we find it necessary to provide schools of all grades for pupils of both sexes. We believe Christianity must boldly assume and maintain a leading position in India, and hence try to fit these Christians, who have the proper qualifications, for any situation which may fall to their lot. We have eleven high- schools in successful operation, and also two colleges, one for men and one for women. As might be expected, we find it a most formidable undertaking to attempt to found two institu- tions of college grade in such a country as India, but we are profoundly convinced that we must have them, and look con- fidently to God and the Church for the means to place both of them upon a successful working basis. The selection, training, and proper employment of an in- digenous ministry are subjects which have received our most careful attention since the first beginning of our work. We have always fully appreciated the fact that the work of India's redemption must ultimately be accomplished by the children of the soil, and hence for years we have had a vigorous theo- logical seminary in our midst, from which many excellent and able men have gone out as ministers of the word. This insti- tution is every year becoming more and more important to our growing work, especially in view of the fact that our leaders must, for the most part, come from its halls. But the leaders must have followers, and I am thankful to report that God is raising up workers of all grades to supply our urgent needs. We have long since ceased to be able to supply a trained preacher for each new band of converts; but in the absence of an experienced helper, we take the best man to be found among the converts, and press him into service at once. Each of these leaders is expected to do the double work of teacher and preacher, and most of them are known as "pastor- 35 546 INDIA AND MALA YSI. 1. teachers." If some of those who arc thus pressed into service prove failures, others develop into splendid workers, and give promise of great usefulness in coming years. All of them are more or less formally connected with the District Con- ference, and receive their appointments annually in due form. In a field like ours, and especially at a time like the preseut, when the reaper is constantly overtaking the sower, we can not afford to neglect any worker who is able to wield a sickle, and by using every one who can work we are able to marshal quite a host for service. At the late sessions of the Annual and District Conferences, beginning on the first of last October and concluding in the third week of January, I formally appointed no less than 1,178 Methodist preachers to the work for the current year; and if it will not chill your enthusiasm, I will add that, during the same time and in the same formal manner, I appointed no less than 575 Christian women to various forms of Christian work in con- nection with the same Conferences. I trust that no one will be startled by either of the state- ments just made. The honored term, "Methodist preacher," is not usually applied to men learning their letters in mud- walled hamlets, but I have used the words deliberately be- cause they express my exact meaning. The man who can skillfully wield an ax in the forest is a woodman, no matter whether he be half-clad or robed like a king. The man who can persuade his fellow-men to turn from their idols to the living God, and from the service of Satan to the discipleship of Jesus Christ, is a true preacher of the word, is owned of God now, and will be owned again in the last day. I think it probable, if not certain, that nine-tenths of our converts are gathered in by these humble men, themselves recent converts, who succeed in reaching men of their own class as strangers never could do. We shall not lose sight of the importance of an educated ministry, but we shall be equally careful not to overlook the absolute necessity of raising up from the masses a ministry for the masses. Nor have we been rash in THE LA TEST REPOR T. 54 7 promoting illiterate men to positions of responsibility for which they are not fitted. Nearly every Indian member of our Annual Conference has passed examinations upon a course of study extending over twelve consecutive years. You may not all be aware that here in the United States a less careful policy was at one time pursued, and that, at the close of the war, men who could not read were ordained, and admitted to membership in Annual Conferences, and in not very remote years some of these men have voted for delegates to this body, although not able to read the names on the ballots which they cast. As for the appointment of women at the regular sessions of our Women's Conferences, I need say very little. We are not theorists, and have no time for the study of purely specu- lative questions ; but when we see a work to be done, and Christian women at hand to do it, we not only bid them take it up in God's name, but feel it our duty to give them every advantage which thorough organization and wise supervision can secure to them. Of woman and her advancement in modern times it may truly be said that she has worked her way. The women who achieve success by actual work are those who are doing most to elevate their sex, both in point of dignity and privilege, and we believe we are doing our uttermost for the future advancement of the women of India when we throw wide open to our Christian sisters every sphere of labor in which they can do their Master's work. We have long recognized the absolute importance of our publishing interests, and have done what we could to prepare for the inevitable demand, which must soon be made upon us, to provide a Christian literature for the coming millions of our Church in India. Our difficulties, however, are many and grave. The Missionary Society has never been able to give any substantial assistance to this department of our work. The Sunday-school Union assists to a limited extent, and the Tract Society would gladly help us most liberally but for the unfortunate policy or habit of most of our pastors and 548 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. churches, which forbids a bona Jide collection for this cause. We are pushing forward as best we can, and have now four publishing-houses, located respectively at Lucknow, Calcutta, Madras, and Singapore. We are printing in nine different languages, and as our converts multiply we must provide, not only periodicals, school-books, tracts, and other ephemeral pro- ductions, but build up a substantial Christian literature in every language in which we found Christian churches. We are now forming a plan which we hope will enable us greatly to extend our publishing work, and enable us to push it for- ward with increasing vigor; but in the absence of effectual help from the Missionary Society, and recognizing the fact that very little aid can be expected from the Tract Society, we are constrained to ask if the gigantic Book Concerns of the Church might not legitimately extend assistance to us in our extrem- ity. This is in their line of work, and it is for just this kind of work that they were created, and to this they chiefly owe their right to exist. I shall probably be expected to say something concerning the character of our Christians in India, especially those who have been recently brought in from the ranks of heathenism. As might have been expected, serious misgivings have been felt by many of our friends as to the wisdom of admitting so many thousands of untaught converts to membership in our churches, and both in India and America we have been com- pelled to hear the epithet "baptized heathen" applied to men who are our brethren beloved. We do not pretend to say that all our converts are model Christians, but we do affirm that they are Christian converts. Their future will depend very largely upon our fidelity in teaching them, and for this reason we have cried out without ceasing for help to enable us to in- struct more perfectly those whom we have baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The vast majority of them more than come up to the simple standard of religious conduct which James, while president of the council at Jerusalem, laid down for the Gentile converts ; and whenever we succeed in THE LATEST REPORT. 549 bringing them into genuine revival meetings they enter readily into the spirit of the hour, and large numbers of them are baptized with the Spirit and become spiritually minded Christians. It should be remembered that this work is something new in the history of our church, and before condemning our methods our critics should ask themselves how they would deal with thronging thousands of heathen inquirers. So long as our converts are few in number we can adopt any one of a dozen methods; but the case is wholly changed when the peo- ple begin to move in masses. If the teeming millions of earth are all to become Christians, we must enlarge our views, dis- miss our fears, and prejudices as well, and bid all the mill- ions come at once to Christ, and to our own hearts as well. We believe we are following closely the precedents of the New Testament, and as we expect other thousands to come we wish to be ready to receive them all. In due time all missions in heathen lands will be brought face to face with this problem, and then, beyond a doubt, the discussion will assume a new phase. This question with us is not, What is the best course to pursue with a heathen inquirer? but rather this: What is the best course to pursue when twenty thousand inquirers be- set our doors at once ? This is a new question, and should be discussed as such. We have met it boldly, and have grappled with its tremendous issues as best we could. We do not prer tend to have escaped mistakes ; but after making due allowance for blunders in policy and imperfection in results, we nrmty believe that we are following as God leads, and we are assured that out of the humble converts who are flocking to our altars God will raise up a church which will be a benediction to the empire long after the men of to-day shall have been forgotten. Our church in India has all the elements of a living, working, growing, and aggressive organization. Our preachers are full of zeal, and have the instinct of victory rooted in their hearts. They expect to win. They believe that God has given them a goodly heritage, and are persuaded that the church to which 550 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. they belong has a great and glorious work to perform in the great empire of India. Our delegates from India will present memorials to this body in reference to various interests, one or two of which I may be permitted to mention. Our Central Conference has served its purpose well, and is invaluable to our work; but a few amendments to its consti- tution are needed, and perhaps an enlargement of its func- tions might be made with great advantage to our general interests. Our Annual Conferences are too large in territorial extent for the practical work of such bodies, and we very greatly de- sire an increase of their number. It is quite a common thing for our brethren to have to travel two or three thousand miles in going to and returning from their Conference ses- sions, and this in the case of native brethren becomes simply prohibitive. We therefore venture to ask for at least five Annual Conferences in India proper, with an enabling act pro- viding for a sixth in Malaysia as soon as practicable. I can not close this brief and very imperfect report with- out urging upon you the necessity of preparing to sustain your work in southern Asia upon an immensely larger scale than that with which you have been familiar. Our day of small things has passed away forever. Among the highest classes and castes our success is steadily increasing, while among the lower, including especially the lowest, God has set before us an open door of opportunity such as has seldom been set before any church or people. In our great caste-ridden empire between 40,000,000 and 50,000,000 people belong to what are called the "depressed classes;" that is, persons be- low the line of social respectability. With few exceptions these people are excluded from the public schools, and hence have lived in dense ignorance, and have seldom manifested any desire to better their condition. Of late years, however, a marked change has been noticed among them. As before the war a vague and universal impression took possession of THE LATEST REPORT. 551 the slaves in the South that they were soon to be free, so among these multitudes of poor Indian peasants the whisper has been carried, no one knows how, that Christianity is to bring them light and freedom. In places two thousand miles apart these poor people are found stirred by the same new hope, and seeking help from the same source, the Christian missionary. In this country three million slaves felt the strange pulsation, but iu India more than forty millions are stirred by it. We would be fools and blind indeed if we could look upon such a spectacle unmoved, or if we failed to recognize the fact that God is calling us to such an oppor- tunity as has seldom been witnessed in Christian history. We dare not shut our eyes, we dare not stop our ears; and yet we can not gaze upon such a spectacle, or listen to the calls of such a people, without committing both ourselves and you to responsibilities which no one among us can fully measure. We have been reminded, I know, that all work of this kind is uncertain, and that the extraordinary movement of to-day may be the failure of to-morrow. We are told that the tide may turn, or at Jeast cease to rise, and that we ought not to reckon our success as assured until the work has stood the test of years. It is always well to be prudent; but it is not prudent to try to evade the inevitable, nor is it wise to be indifferent to the march of the stupendous events of this era of eras in the world's history. We do not know what will happen on the morrow, or during the next year, but we do know that the sun never sets in the morning, A glorious morning has opened its portals on India, and the golden beams of the Sun of Righteousness are lighting up regions over which darkness had reigned for more than thirty weary centuries. We hail the light without misgiving. We greet our new, bright morning with hearts swelling with gratitude to God and confidence in his promises. We expect our share of trouble and trial, but we seem to hear, as if ever whispered from the skies above us, "Thy sun shall no more go down." 552 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. The greatest victories of all the Christian ages are at hand. Dear fathers and brethren, will you suffer one who speaks for your exiled sons and daughters in the far-off East, to entreat you not to think lightly of this day of missionary visitation ? You have a golden opportunity, but with it comes a solemn responsibility. Expect victory; plan for it, legislate for it, and widen your vision in anticipation of it. If you are faith- ful to your trust, our thousands of to-day will become our hundreds of thousands in the early future. In November of 1890 I was permitted to give a brief address at a great meeting in Boston, in the course of which I ventured to say that I hoped to live till I should lead an assault upon the gates of hell with a hundred thousand Indian Methodists at my back. The remark was applauded and widely quoted ; but although made only a year and a half ago, I have long since become ashamed of it. If I were to make that address over again, I should deliberately say a million instead of a hundred thou- sand. How long it takes us to comprehend that Jesus Christ is in earnest in his efforts to save our race! The battle is joined, the struggle has commenced, the crisis is at hand. Your sons and your daughters in the front are in the thick of the fight, and now you must stand by this cause, as you stand by your faith in Christ and your hope of heaven. Cl>apber XLII. PENDING QUESTIONS. MISSIONAKIES, like other practical persons, find them- selves confronted from time to time by new questions of vital interest to the work in which they are engaged. While in its most essential features their work is practically the same in every age, yet some of its phases are liable to change with changes in the circumstances in which the workers may be placed. For instance, the recent movement among the lower castes in both North and South India has brought to the front a very practical question in relation to the baptism of converts. In earlier times the almost uni- versal rule among nearly all missionaries in India was to keep inquirers on trial for a considerable period, somewhat after the course pursued by the early Christians with their catechumens. This plan involved not only a more or less satisfactory test applied in the case of each convert, but also an obligation to instruct the inquirers until they had what was considered a sufficient knowledge of Christian doer trine. As might have been expected, this course of prelimi- nary training, especially when the inquirers came in large numbers, was apt to assume a somewhat perfunctory char- acter, particularly in the case of converts who are prepared for baptism by ordinary native preachers. It would happen, as might have been expected, that certain^ parts of the cate- chism, with the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and a few other formulae, would be memorized, without however, securing any satisfactory evidence that the applicant for baptism had ac- cepted the true idea of Christian life, or entered upon a gen- uine Christian experience. 553 554 INDIA AND MALA YSIA. A plan like the above may be pursued easily enough so long as the applicants for baptism are few in number; but in a country like India, where it is of the utmost importance that a sincere inquirer be rescued from the entanglements of the caste system as soon as possible, and where all manner of complications are sure to arise in a family in which all are not united in a desire to become Christians, it becomes prac- tically impossible to postpone baptism for a number of months, while the converts are being prepared by a system of catechetical instruction for a formal examination. In my own experience I encountered this difficulty long years ago, and on the very first tour in which I found any consid- erable number of inquirers, it became clear to my mind that it would be impossible to pursue the old method as a perma- nent policy. For instance, the husband wishes to be a Chris- tian, while the wife is somewhat fiercely opposed to such a step. While we are preparing the husband for baptism, in many cases the wife will leave him. taking the children with her, and thus permanently breaking up the family; or the neighbors will intervene, and by the use of many mischievous arts, well understood in heathen villages, will so entangle the convert as to make it practically impossible for him to main- tain his purpose; or the number of applicants may become so large that it is impossible, with the small number of workers available, to pursue the old-time course. The prac- tical question then presented to us is this : Shall we leave these persons, as nominal professors of the Hindu faith, to drift along as best they can until a period in the future when teachers can be placed over them, or shall we receive them at once on their profession of simple faith in Christ as their Saviour, and give, them the best instruction we can? In our mission, we have been led to pursue the latter course. We did not come to this decision hastily, but on the other hand reluctantly and very slowly; and yet the opinion is now almost if not quite unanimous, that what seems to have been the Scriptural course is the right and only course to pursue PENDING QUESTIONS. 555 when multitudes of the people begin to throng around us, and ask us to show them how to become Christians and live the Christian life. Just at present an earnest and somewhat warm contro- versy is in progress in India over this question. In popular phrase it is sometimes called the question of " quick baptisms." Many of the best missionaries in the empire maintain that it is wrong to baptize any convert until he is fairly well instructed in the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, while others, again, maintain that we should summon all the people to forsake their idols and their sins, turn to the living God as their Saviour, and, as soon as they are prepared to take the latter step, to be baptized in his name. On the one side it is maintained that we should instruct the people prior to bap- tism ; on the other it is affirmed that we should bring the people to the teacher as the very first step, that they may be taught in the school of Christ, and that baptism should initiate them into this school, rather than graduate them from it. In our own mission, of late years, our practice has become settled in favor of baptizing them at the outset, not on evi- dence of what is popularly called conversion, but at the point where we have reason to believe that the converts ac- cept Christ as their Saviour. We baptize them " unto " the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and not because we have reason to believe that they have received the Spirit's baptism. Space will not permit a full discussion of this question. The prec- edents of the New Testament are not uniform, and hence it can hardly be assumed that any uniform rule can be applied to all cases which may be presented to the missionary. Never- theless, from the day of Pentecost down, it would seem that every convert was baptized as soon as he believed, and cer- tainly, in Peter's great sermon, the promise was given that they should receive the Holy Spirit if they would believe and be baptized. As a matter of fact, in the progress of our work we encounter a state of things which seems very 556 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. much like that of the early Christians. Now and then we meet with a case where the convert has clearly received the Spirit's anointing before he is baptized with water ; but more frequently the outward baptism occurs first, and nearly all our revival meetings are held among those who have been bap- tized with water, and are now seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In some of our large camp-meetings I have known from one to two hundred persons to receive this holy anointing in the course of a single day, all of whom had first been baptized with water, some of them perhaps many months before. A similar meeting held in England or America would be called a revival, and of its subjects it would be said that they had been " converted," or experienced a " change of heart." The actual work wrought in their hearts would be the same in both cases. If, now, the reader in America, naturally attached to the usage with which he bas been familiar from his childhood, comes forward to object to our course, and to insist that we should wait until this change is effected before baptizing with water, we reply that in most cases we would have to wait for a long time, and often see the poor creature die without the change. As a simple matter of fact, we can not bring any considerable number of people so directly within the range of gospel influences as to secure their spiritual conversion before they are separated from the heathen en- vironment in which they have been brought up. At a most interesting and successful meeting held in the city of Chan- dausi a few years ago, I witnessed a very extraordinary movement among our baptized Christians. Two thousand or more of them were present. Meetings had been held nearly all day. Large numbers had come forward for prayer in response to invitations given at the meetings. As many as a hundred and fifty had presented themselves in a single meeting as earnest seekers, and at a late hour at night, when we were in the midst of a rejoicing assembly, where scores upon scores were bearing witness to the new experience PENDING QUESTIONS. 557 which they had found, Dr. Parker said to me, as he looked around upon the scene : " If we had waited until these peo- ple reached this point in their experience before baptizing them, not one of all in this congregation would have been here to-night." I saw at a glance the force of his remark. It was morally certain that had we pursued the old policy, these poor persons, instead of rejoicing with us in the con- sciousness of a new-found spiritual life, would have been in their distant villages serving idols and groping in hopeless darkness. The controversy now going on in India over this ques- tion will be solved by events. For the present it is perhaps the uppermost question in missionary circles. It is discussed everywhere, but, for the most part, in the very best spirit, and by men who are anxious to know the truth. It is possible that, with the progress of events and the multipli- cation of preachers and teachers, we may find it advisable to modify our present course in some measure; but we can not improve upon Scriptural methods, and it is not probable that we will ever again fall back upon the very unsatisfactory plan, pursued in earlier days, of testing converts by their knowledge of Catechism and Creed. Closely connected with this question of baptism is an- other, which has not become a subject of controversy, but which deserves more attention than it has thus far received. I refer to the administration of the Lord's Supper. As Methodists, we have been seriously remiss in our observ- ance of this solemn duty. Methodism is to some extent a reaction against extreme worldliness on the one hand, and ritualism on the other, and, as happens with every reaction, the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. While discarding the idea that either of the New Testament sacraments possesses in itself any saving efficacy, we have allowed ourselves, more or less unconsciously, to assume that these ordinances can be dispensed with without serious loss to the believer. In earlier times many of our people in 558 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. remote country districts in America did not have an opportu- nity of receiving the Lord's Supper more than once a year, and, in some cases, perhaps not for several years together. As these Christians seemed to get along very well, and never complained of the neglect of their pastors in this respect, the impression has perhaps grown upon us that this sacra- ment, being but an outward ceremony, has little vital impor- tance to the individual or the church. Such a notion in- volves a very serious mistake. I must confess that I myself never understood the full value of either baptism or the Lord's Supper until recent years, when my experience with new converts in India opened my eyes to the unspeakable power of both of these sacraments, both to present clearly, and keep alive, vital Christian truth among believers. Bap- tism, if properly administered, is in itself a presentation of the gospel. An unbeliever who sees a new convert baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and is told that in like manner as the missionary before him baptizes with water, so the un- seen Saviour of men, standing close by his side, baptizes with the Holy Spirit, has an object-lesson presented to him which will teach him mere in a few minutes than he could learn from fifty ordinary sermons. In like manner, the Lord's Supper contains in itself a whole system of doctrine, and a complete proclamation of Christian truth. The more it is studied in the light of practical experience, the more wonder- fully is it found adapted to the wants of simple Christian converts, such as we have in India. It contains, for instance, a fourfold idea. It is a testimony, a proclamation of a Saviour crucified, showing forth the Saviour's death until his coming again. It is a covenant, in which the believer again and again accepts the gracious terms which God makes with him, in an everlasting bond that never can be broken. It is a memorial service, keeping in tender recollection the death of Christ for the believer; and it is a feast, in which the recipient of the outward token learns to receive the liv- PENDING QUESTIONS. 559 ing bread that cometh down from heaven, to give life unto the world. The more this wonderful institution is studied, the more clearly will its value be perceived to all believers, but especially to such babes in Christ as we have in India. But just here a practical difficulty meets us. If we ad- here rigidly to the rules and regulations of our church system, it is found almost impossible to arrange for the proper administration of this sacrament among our scattered converts. Up to recent date large numbers of them had never once enjoyed an opportunity of partaking of this solemn memorial service and covenant feast. The recent General Conference at Omaha received in the most favorable light, representations made on this subject, and gave some relief by changing the rule of our Discipline so as to enable us to ordain a larger number of native preachers, and thus provided for the more frequent administration of the Lord's Supper, according to the authorized rules of the church. For this measure of relief we are very thankful; but I fear means adequate to meet the case can only be decided upon by experience. I trust, however, that in our missions and churches in India, as well as in the entire mission-field of the world, the absolute importance of making all converts familiar with this sacred ordinance may never be over- looked. Closely connected again with this question is that of a native ministry. It is extremely difficult for us to free our- selves from the associations of a life-time, and hence men and women who have gone from Christian lands to a country like India, having been familiar from childhood with an order of men who belonged to what is called the Christian minis- try men of culture, and to some extent leaders in society shrink from the idea of placing uncultured and almost illit- erate converts in the responsible place of pastors of Christian churches. And yet when the people of India begin, as they are now doing, to turn to God in large numbers, when bands 560 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. of Christian believers are found in all parts of the country, and when it becomes a physical impossibility for the educated and ordained ministers to reach one-half, or even one-tenth of these converts, every wise man ought to see that our old ideas of the ministry are destined to be somewhat rudely shaken, if not entirely overthrown, by the progress of events in the very early future. These scattered bands of Christian believers should be organized as so many churches, and placed under proper pastoral oversight, and all of them should re- ceive the Lord's Supper as regularly as their fellow-believers who worship God in marble temples in the great Christian cities of Europe and America. If it be said that no man should be ordained to perform so solemn and sacred a service until he has a respectable education, the obvious reply is that no man has a right to deprive these poor creatures of the common Christian privileges which God has freely bestowed upon all believers. It is not a mere question of culture, but rather of Christian privilege. The best men who can be found for the care of these congregations are manifestly those whom God has appointed for this duty, and we have no right to interpose objections about ministerial qualifi- cations, unless we can at the same time devise a method by which all these believers may be secured in the enjoyment of all their rights as Christians. The question of church organization in mission-fields is also claiming an amount of attention, which it certainly well deserves. In Japan, more than in any other field, this ques- tion has come to the front in a practical shape in recent years, owing probably to the fact that Japan occupies a more in- dependent position than any other non-Christian nation in the world. We may accept it as certain, beyond any shadow of doubt, that in every nation under the sun our Christian converts will want to assume the management of their own affairs as soon as they are permitted to do so. It is utterly useless to find fault with this disposition. It is inseparable PENDING QUESTIONS. 561 from our character as human beings, and we might as well quarrel with the fact that our converts will feel the natural sensations of hunger and thirst, as with their wish to manage affairs which they instinctively perceive to belong to them- selves. If we are unwise, it will be very easy to quarrel with the inevitable, and in every such contest those who take up the quarrel are sure to be worsted. We ought not to al- low ourselves to feel either surprise or displeasure when we discover that our brethren in Christ in other countries are led, as if naturally, to maintain a position which we never think of abandoning in our own case for a single moment; nor is it desirable that these converts should act otherwise. If we can not build up churches in foreign lauds with in- digenous resources and capable of self-government, we might as well abandon all our attempts to overthrow the false re- ligions of the nations and to make this earth a Christian world. Accepting, then, a fact so obvious as this, it requires the highest wisdom on the part of all missionary managers to co-operate with the natural tendency of events on the mission-field, and to develop an indigenous government of every Christian church as rapidly as possible. For a time and it possibly may be a long time the church in a mission- field must be more or less closely connected with the body , which has, under God, brought it into existence; but in order to secure its best and highest possibilities as rapidly as pos- sible, its local administration should be made autonomous at the earliest possible date, and this should be kept constantly in view. It would be rash and unwise in the extreme to cast off a foreign church at the very day of its organization, and no great change of this kind should ever be precipitated in such a manner as to imperil any important interest ; but on the other hand it is as short-sighted as it is vain for any church to assume that it can control the interests of another church on the opposite side of the globe, make laws for it, sanction or veto its measures, and administer its interests in all matters 36 562 INDIA AND MALAYSIA. great and small. In every mission-field it ought to be ac- cepted as a settled maxim that the foreign element, like the house of Saul, will wax weaker and weaker, while the in- digenous element, like the house of David, is to wax stronger and stronger, until at length the consummation to be desired by both parties is reached, and full autonomy given in every separate nation to the church or churches of the nation. (Ettb. INDEX. AJMERE, 418. American Methodist missions, 220. Andrews, Bishop E. G., 300. Anstey, Miss Louisa, 457. Army, Standing, 58. Arnold, Sir Edwin, 97. BADLEY, D. D., Rev. B. H., 336. Baptism of converts, 553-557. Baume, Rev. James, 227. Behar, Province of, 437. Bengal, 434. Bombay, 427, 429-433. Bose, B. M. A., Miss Chandra Mukhi, 376. Bowen, Rev. George, 429. Brahmans, Origin of, 85. Brahmans of the future, 408. Buddhism, a Hindu heresy, 87. Buddhism, Modern, 108. Buddhism, Monks of, 103-105. Buddhism, Rights of same as Roman Catholic, 106. Buddhism, Sects of, 106. Burma, 443. Burma, Hopeful outlook in, 452. Burma, People of, 435. Burma, Tribes of, 446, 447. Butler, D. D., Rev. W., 223. Butler, arrival in India, 224. Butler, Perilous escape of, 224. Butler, work of organization, 225- 232. Butler, Retirement of, 278. CALCUTTA, Methodist missions in, 439. Calcutta, Work in, 307. Carey, D. D., Rev. William, 206. Carey, call to missionary work, 209. Carey, arrival in India, 210. Carey, career in India, 211-215. Caste, Origin of, 85. Castes and out-castes, 398-403. Cawnpore, Preaching in, 292. Central provinces, 453. Church organization, 252, 560. Climate of India, 20. Code of laws, Macaulay's, 49. Colleges at Lucknow, 336. Conferences, Annual, 276, 297. Conferences, Central, 540, 299. Conferences, District, 291. Conferences, Woman's, 540. Courts, Indian, 50. Craven, Rev. Thomas, 343. DECCAN, or South Country, 456. Demon worship, 73. Denmark, Enlightened policy of, 115, 179, 213. Devotees, animated by double error, 124. Devotees, Blighting influence of, 131. Devotees, Home land of, 124. Devotees, Punishment of, 133. Devotees, Varieties of, 125. Discontent, Causes of, 66-68. 563 564 INDEX. District subdivisions, 48. Doab, Mission-work in, 418. Doab, region called, 417. Durbin, D. D., Rev. J. P., origi- nated India Mission, 222. EDUCATED CLASSES, 66. Elevating the poor, 269-274. Empire of India, Future, 55. English can not leave India, 57. English work, Meaning of, 316. Eurasians, Character of, 317. FATALISM, 76. Feudatory States, 51. Forests of India, 25. Free-trade in India, 63. GARHWAL, 280, 283. Gautama, 98. Gautama, Doctrine of, 102. Gautama, Preaching of, 103. Genesis, First three chapters of, 78. Gonda, 283. Goucher, D. D., Rev. J. F., Schools founded by, 334. Government of India, 45. Gujarat, People of, 428. HAQQ, REV. ZAHUR UL, 266. Himalayas, 280. Hinduism, Comprehensiveness of, 84. Hinduism, Two radical tests of, 86. Hinduism, tolerant and intoler- ant, 87. Home comforts, 465. Hunter, Dr. W. H. H., 163, 164. Hurst, Bishop J. F., 299, 521. Hyderabad, 456. Hypnotics, buried, 135. IMMIGRATION into India, 27. Incarnations. Hindu doctrine of. 91 . India not a conquered country, 42. Indian Christians, 184. Indian lady students, 385. Indians, Anglicizing of, 323. Inquisition at Goa, 165. JAVA, 531. Jesuits, Order of, 191. Jesuits under Xavier, 162. KANARESE, Language of, 457. Khan, Rev. Hasan Raza, 418. Knowles, M. A., Rev. S., 284. Kolar, 457. Kumaon, Province of, 281. LADY DUFFERIN FUND, 383. Lieutenant-Governors, 47. Lord's Supper, 557. Loyalty to England, 64. MADRAS, 461. Malacca, 508. Malay language, 497. Malay Peninsula, 509. Malaysia, Chinese colonists in, 496. Malaysia, European movements in, 499. Malaysia, Extent of, 486. Malaysia, import of name, 483. Malaysia, People of, 490-495. Marathi language, 430. Medical work for women, 380. Mission boarding schools, 372-379. Mission schools, 243, 265, 329-340. Mohammedanism, a militant faith, 112. Mohammedanism brought to In- dia by the sword, 112. Mohammedanism, its method of conversion, 113. Mohammedanism, Low morality Of, 118. INDEX. 565 Mohammedanism, mental status of Indian people, 40. Mohammedanism, missionaries as reformers, 181. Mohammedanism, moral stand- ard of Indian people, 36. Mohammedanism, Rigid conserva- tism of, 121. Movement among low-caste peo- ple, 403. Music, Indian, 473. Music, Mohammedan hostility to, 476. Music, Peculiarities of, 476-478. Music, specimen tunes, 482. NATIVE MINISTRY, 559. Nerbudda Valley, 455. New doors opening, 413. Newman, F. W., 143. North India Mission, 249. OLDHAM, D. D., Rev. W. F., 522, 526, 529, 535. Oriental tastes and customs, 244. Orphanages, 268. Oudh, New openings in, 416. Oudh, Province of, 415. PANJAB, Province of, 425. Panteenus, Visit of to India, 155 Pantheism, 77. Parker, D. D., Rev. E. W., 228, 270. Parker, Theodore, 142, 145. Penang, 507. Philippine Islands, 502. Poverty of converts, 311, 314. Poverty of the Indian people, 34. Preaching, Oriental model re- quired, 241. Press, First mission, 269. Protestant societies entering In- dia, 180. Protestant missions in India, 175. Protestant missions, Results of, 181, 189. RAILWAYS in India, 19. Rangoon, 298. Rangoon, First visit to, 449. Religious sects in India, 71. Rivers in India, 16. Rivers, Traffic on, 17. Roman Catholic Inquisition es- tablished, 165. Roman Catholic Jesuits under Xavier, 162. Roman Catholic missions in In- dia, 161. Roman Catholic religious orders in India, 161. Roman Catholics, Losses of, 169. Roman Catholics not making prog- ress, 168. Roy, Ram Mohun, 142. SARASWATI, DYANAND, 148. Schwartz, Danish missionary, 177. Scott, D. D., Rev. T. J., 339, 473. Self-support, 305, 308. Sen, Keshub Chunder, 144, 147. Sickness and health in India, 463. Singapore, 506, 520, 534. Singapore, Chinese in, 529. Somaj, Arya, 148. Somaj, Brahmo, 141. Soott, Mrs. Emma Moore, 479. Statistics of first six years, 275. Statistics, latest religions, 80. Style of living, 470. Sunday-schools, 341. Sunday-schools, Great expansion of, 352. Sunday-schools, New influence to, 343. Supreme Deity, Existence of ad- mitted, 74, 566 INDEX. Swain, M. D., Miss Clara A., 290, 381. Syrian Christians in India, 154-158. TAMIL PEOPLE, 459. Taxation, 62. Taylor, Bishop W., 294-296. Telugu people, 457. Theological Seminary, 338. Thoburn, Miss Isabella, 290, 337, 355. Thomas, traditional apostle to In- dia, 153. Tract Society, Hindu, 151. Transmigration, 90. Triad, Hindu, 92. WAUGH, D. D., Rev. J. W., 228, 269. Williams, Sir Monier, 84, 99, 102, 108. Wilson, M. D., Rev. P. T., 286. Woman's Foreign Missionary So- ciety, 290. XAVIER, Francis, birth and early life, 191. Xavier founding Jesuit Order, 191. Xavier mission to the East, 192. Xavier, career in Western India, 194. Xavier's stay at Malacca, 198. Xavier in the Spice Islands, 199. Xavier mission to Japan, 200. Xavier projected mission to China, 202. Xavier's death, and results of labors, 202-205. :INIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles lis book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-40m-7,'56(C790s4)444 DS 415 ____ Thoburn T35i India and Malaysia, q/v J^n UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL UBRARYFAOIJTY MAY 7 W! >e A 000 963 244 9 DS 1*13