Life aj\d Letters of
 
 54} Sim (Rev. A. Fraser, Life and Letters, 
 *
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Priest in the Universities' Mission to Central Africa 
 
 WITH A PREFACE 
 
 P.Y THE 
 
 REV. CANON BODY, D.D. 
 
 Canon Missioner in the Diocese of Durham 
 
 SECOND THOUSAND 
 
 PUBLISHED EY THE 
 
 UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA 
 9 DARTMOUTH STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W 
 
 1897
 
 BUTLER it TANNF.R, 
 
 THE SEI.\VOOD PKINTINC; WORKS, 
 
 FROME, AND LONDON.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 I HAVE been asked to preface this book, and most readily do 
 so. The request comes to me as a command, made impera- 
 tive by my love for Sim ; and I obey it in the hope of being 
 allowed to make his influence still more widely felt, especially 
 among the younger clergy of the Church of England. 
 
 My first real knowledge of him was gained at the time of 
 his Ordination to the Priesthood. For many years it has been 
 my privilege to minister to such of the ordinands in this 
 diocese to the Priesthood as desire such aid as a retreat can 
 give. Some of the dearest friendships of my life have been 
 made in these retreats, and links have been formed knitting 
 my heart to many which I believe will be eternal. Happy, 
 blessed days how precious their memories are ! It was in 
 one of these retreats, in 1887, that I first came into close 
 contact with Sim, in the confidence of such a time. The 
 connection then formed between us continued to the close 
 of his life on earth, and, as I believe, lives on within the veil. 
 Dear Sim ! he is to me no memory, but a felt presence still. 
 And as of one living I would write now; not with the purpose 
 of drawing out admiration for him would I write. I dare not 
 do so in my knowledge that he would forbid this, but for the 
 honour of Him " who is to be glorified in His saints and 
 admired in all them that believe." Sim's beauty of character 
 as a Christian man and as a Priest was not of himself it was 
 the creation of the grace of God. 
 
 In him God gave us a revelation of the true ideal of a 
 Priest's life and character I do not say that Sim fully
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 expressed that ideal ; but I do say that he did so in such 
 a measure as to reveal it in an arresting degree. 
 
 The real purpose of a Priest's mission as towards men is 
 to exercise spiritual influence. Sim certainly had that power 
 of influence. To influence those he was brought in contact 
 with for God and His Church was consciously the deliberate 
 and sustained purpose of his ministry. This record of his life 
 will show how he succeeded in using widely and deeply this 
 conscious influence. But I believe the unconscious influence 
 he exercised was far more extensive and powerful than the 
 influence he consciously sought to bring into play. It was his 
 life and character that was the secret of his power. In the 
 times of his greatest abandonment he had the recollection of 
 a true Priest. He was real and genuine ; he was strong ; he 
 was a man of spiritual power because he embodied his creed 
 in his life "a living epistle, known and read of all," an epistle 
 " written by the Spirit of God." 
 
 He exercised this influence in his ministry because it was 
 begun, continued, and ended in God. 
 
 He went into the Priesthood, to my knowledge, quite clear 
 as to his vocation of God ; and in the strength of that vocation 
 and the mission given him of God in his Ordination he lived 
 and ministered. " I am not come of myself : He sent me "- 
 and with this came a definite belief in the grace of Holy 
 Orders. He knew that his Priesthood was to be the minister 
 of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, and that He who had sent 
 him to his ministry had not sent him forth undowered for it. 
 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me : He has anointed me." 
 Three characteristics of that ministry were strength, love, and 
 disciplined sobriety. To say this is to say that he lived in 
 the power of the three pastoral virtues, the creation in the 
 spirit of the Priest of the grace of Holy Orders, " power, love, 
 and sober-mindedness." In his work and life, in a very real 
 sense, he walked with Clod in the sphere and work of the 
 ministry. 
 
 This ministerial walking with God rested on an abiding in
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 the peace of God. This was the secret of that brightness 
 which fascinated all who really knew him. It was more than 
 a natural brightness of disposition : it was that brightness 
 taken up into God and transfigured by His grace. How dear 
 is the memory of that sunlit countenance ! To my mind this 
 face was like that of Stephen " like the face of an angel." 
 The angels' faces shine because they see God's face. The face 
 of Moses shone though he wist not that it shone because 
 he saw God's face. The face of Stephen shone because he 
 saw Jesus at the right hand of God. And Sim's face shone 
 in its brightness because, living in God's peace, he saw God's 
 glory in the face of Jesus Christ. He lived in such a simple, 
 childlike belief in the love of God, he was at home in it, he 
 walked joyfully in the light of God's countenance. His own 
 personal union with God, through the inner witness of the 
 Holy Ghost, was just a simple fact to him. His own con- 
 tinued forgiveness of God was to him abidingly clear. I say 
 this again of personal knowledge. So his life was lived in 
 gratitude to God for His love. He loved Him with a respon- 
 sive love. He yielded his heart to God, who took possession 
 of it by His Spirit, and shed abroad in it the love of Himself. 
 Sim knew that this responsive love itself was God's gift, and 
 so without pride, but in true gratitude he could and did say, 
 " Thou knowest that I love Thee." 
 
 This love expressed itself in entire consecration, at least in 
 will and purpose, to God in the Priesthood. The model of 
 the Priest is Jesus, who, " being come a High Priest, offered 
 Himself." So Sim, by God's grace, in His light, and of His 
 love, laid himself, at his Ordination, wholly and unreservedly 
 as a living sacrifice on God's altar. How touching is his own 
 record of how that offering was made ! At his Ordination he 
 had heard a voice, as distinct as any human voice, say, " Go 
 and suffer for Me." Our familiar name for him was Peter. 
 Ah ! did he not, then, hear the call of Christ to Simon Peter 
 handed on to him: "When thou wast young, thou girdedst 
 thyself and walkedst whither thou wouldest ; but when thou
 
 x PREFACE 
 
 shall be old another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither 
 thou wouldest not. This spake He, signifying by what death 
 he should glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He 
 saith nnto him, Follow Me." The nature of his call was thus 
 clear to him when, in response to it, he gave himself to God 
 in the sacrificial self-oblation of Ordination. And -from that 
 day until his death he consecrated himself to the Lord without 
 reservation. His life was one long act of self-oblation. He 
 was zealous for the Lord. 
 
 Underlying this peace and zeal was a deep humility. His 
 low estimate of himself and his powers finds frequent expres- 
 sion in this work. The expression is true to his character. 
 He did not talk about it conventionally : he was lowly in his 
 own eyes. Not only had he a lowly opinion of his power but 
 he had also the humility of a true penitent. All the years I 
 knew him his life was one of abiding and deepening contrition, 
 and by the guidance of this virtue he entered more and more 
 into the penitential life of the Church. The prayers of humble 
 access in our Communion Office express with truth the spirit 
 in which he lived. Like a true Priest, he ministered before 
 God, clothed with the vesture of humility. 
 
 And from this humility came an evident purity of intention. 
 He had no selfish ends in life, neither personal nor ecclesi- 
 astical. No one could say of him he was playing off his own 
 bat. Those among whom he worked knew that he sought not 
 theirs, but them. Their good was his longing, and that not 
 only for their sakes but for God's. By seeking His people's 
 welfare and happiness as God's Priest, he was promoting God's 
 glory, and to do all to the glory of God was the principle of 
 his life. Beneath that outer life, with its varied interests and 
 employments, this was present. .For this he trained the boats' 
 crews, amused children, took interest in recreative and social 
 movements, as well as did his work as a Priest in the sanctuary 
 and in the parish. The sustained beauty of a life which purity 
 of intention gives were seen in him so clearly. Wherever you 
 met him he was one and the same with a beautiful simplicity.
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 And underlying all was a life of communion with God. He 
 was very regular in his life of private devotion. The three 
 acts of devotion, the practice of which he enjoined on the 
 congregation of St. Aidan's in his last sermon to them, viz., 
 prayer, Holy Communion, and meditation, were helps of which 
 he well knew the power by the regular using of them. 
 
 And crowning all there was in him the great priestly virtue 
 of obedience. His obedience to the Will of God revealed to 
 him immediately by His Spirit is seen by his response to His 
 call ; conspicuously in his Ordination, and in his going to 
 Africa. His mediate obedience to God, as shown in submis- 
 sion to those set over him with God's authority was sustained 
 from his Ordination to the end of his ministry. What golden 
 words are those of his, " We must be ready to sacrifice a good 
 deal of personal convictions, at least we do not sacrifice them 
 because we are not responsible, and then I feel sure our 
 sacrifice of personal feelings will bear fruit in the long run, and 
 we shall be rewarded for giving up these by a very real return 
 of active, real work and energy, and much fruit which we have 
 no right to expect." He gave himself to serve God in 
 obedience, and did so unto death. Zeal he had up to the 
 measure of not counting his life dear unto himself; but it was 
 a zeal purified from self-will, kept in discipline by obedience 
 grounded in humility. He was never a law unto himself. He 
 was a true Catholic. Obedience is an arresting feature in the 
 Catholic character, and this of necessity ; without it the ideal 
 of Catholicism cannot find expression. Its ideal of Christian 
 life is that of a life lived in the associated unity of the Church ; 
 but this can only be when life is ruled by common laws in 
 obedience to constituted authorities by whom those laws are 
 interpreted and made effective; and if this is true of all states 
 of life in the Church, it is specially so of the Priesthood. Sim 
 saw this clearly, and so his life was one of zeal, disciplined by 
 obedience, and loyalty to the virtue of obedience led him 
 along a path of self-sacrifice crowned by the glory of its end. 
 
 I have sketched a beautiful character in which self-oblation,
 
 xii PREFACE 
 
 love, humility, purity of intention, devotion and obedience, 
 blend harmoniously. But I have sketched Sim as I knew him, 
 and as he lives in my memory, for he was a thing of beauty. 
 I have never known a young man more beautiful than he, and 
 in him beauty of character found its true setting in the beauty 
 of his priestly life. Like an " apple of gold in a casket of 
 silver " was he in it, and that not of himself, but by the grace 
 of God. 
 
 In this work "he being dead, yet speaketh," as to all who 
 shall read it, so specially to our younger clergy. May the word 
 of his life and letters be blessed of God to raise up a fruitful 
 offspring in whom his character may be reproduced and his 
 work at home and abroad perpetuated. This is the memorial 
 I pray may be reared in this church of Durham to the memory 
 of Arthur Fraser Sim. 
 
 GEORGE BODY, 
 Canon Missioner of Durham. 
 
 THE COLLEGE, DURHAM, July 28, 1896.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 LIFE . i 
 
 LETTERS 47 
 
 APPENDIX A 271 
 
 APPENDIX B 277 
 
 APPENDIX C 278 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM, 1894 ..... Frontispiece 
 
 ARTHUR FJRASER SIM, 1872 i 
 
 CHELTENHAM COLLEGE ........ 2 
 
 THE "Bio CLASSICAL," CHELTENHAM COLLEGE ... 3 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM, 1879 6 
 
 CHELTENHAM COLLEGE BOAT, 1879 7 
 
 PEMBROKE COLLEGE HALL AND CHAPEL ..... 9 
 
 PEMBROKE COLLEGE 13 
 
 AUCKLAND CASTLE AND CHAPEL ...... 17 
 
 INTERIOR OK AUCKLAND CASTLE CHAPEL ..... 19 
 
 GROUP IN ST. JOHN'S PARISH, SUNDERLAND . . .21 
 
 ST. AIDAVS CHURCH, WEST HARTLEPOOL .... 25 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM, 1892 29
 
 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 AUTHUR FRASER SIM, 1895 40 
 
 A BRANCH OK THE ZAMBESI 84 
 
 STEAM P.OAT ON THE ZAMKESI 86 
 
 A MACHILA ........... 88 
 
 THE PREACHING TREE AT LIKOMA 95 
 
 THE BISHOP'S PALACE AT LIKOMA 104 
 
 FoOTliALL AT LlKOMA ......... 1O5 
 
 SKETCH OF A. F. SIM'S HOUSE AT KOTA KOTA . . . 132 
 SKETCHES OF PROPOSED MISSION BUILDINCS . . . .141 
 
 SECTIONAL DRAWINGS OF A. F. SIM'S HOUSE .... 142 
 
 WORK-PEOPLE AT KOTA KOTA ....... 149 
 
 VIEWS OF A. F. SIM'S HOUSE 163 
 
 SKETCH OF KOTA KOTA -AND LAKE ...... 167 
 
 CIUWALI PALM 174 
 
 SECTIONAL DRAWINGS OF PROPOSED CHURCH AT KOTA KOTA. 177 
 
 GROUND PLAN OF MISSION BUILDINGS AT KOTA KOTA . . 197 
 
 MISSION HOUSE AND GROUP AT KOTA KOTA .... 217 
 
 NATIVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT 226 
 
 SECTIONAL DRAWINGS OF KOTA KOTA CHURCH . . . 242 
 
 FACSIMILE OF A. F. SIM'S SERMON NOTES .... 277 
 
 GRAVE OF A. F. SIM, KOTA KOTA . ... . . . 276
 
 A SKETCH OF THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 MISSION PRIEST 
 
 AT KOTA KOTA, CENTRAL AFRICA 
 Obiit 0<.l. 2<)l/i, 1895
 
 A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM was 
 born on the 2nd November, 
 1 86 1, at Madras, where his 
 father was Senior Member of 
 the Madras Council, and one 
 of the most eminent men in 
 that Presidency. 
 
 The first seven years of 
 his life were spent in India, 
 with the exception of a visit 
 home for six months in 1865, 
 and during these early years 
 it seemed as if he were de- 
 stined to inherit that constitu- 
 tional delicacy which is prevalent 
 among Anglo-Indian children. At 
 a very early age he suffered a good 
 deal from asthma, and his parents regarded him as a delicate 
 child who would require more than an ordinary amount of care 
 if he were to grow up a robust and healthy man. In disposi- 
 tion he was quiet, but very determined. When very young he 
 evinced that pluck which in later years formed a marked trait 
 in his character. An instance is related how that when he 
 was five years of age, as he and his sisters were one evening 
 about to be driven to the beach at Madras in a little pony 
 
 B 
 
 ARTHUR F. SIM. 
 
 Cheltenham, 1872.
 
 2 ARTHUR FRASK SJM 
 
 dogcart, and before they had all been lifted into the trap, the 
 pony made off. Arthur, who was sitting behind, clambered 
 over the rail to the front, seized the reins, and managed to 
 stop the pony till the servants appeared on the scene. 
 
 In March, 1869, the family came to England, and settled 
 for a year at East Sheen. Then, in the following year, when 
 their parents returned to India, the younger children were left 
 at home, and Arthur began his school life at the Rev. R. H, 
 Cooke's Private School in Cheltenham. Several of his elder 
 
 CHELTENHAM COLLEGE. 
 
 From Bath Road. 
 
 brothers were at the same School, and were, like him, lovable 
 and good fellows, very affectionate as brothers, and great 
 favourites with all. At Cheltenham all signs of asthma or 
 delicacy happily disappeared ; so that when Arthur went to 
 Cheltenham College after the midsummer holidays in 1875, he 
 was as strong and healthy as most boys. 
 
 He soon found himself coming to the front both in his 
 House and in the College, though he was still a small boy
 
 SCHOOL LIFE 3 
 
 and not yet fourteen. This was due to the fact that his elder 
 brothers, who had preceded him at Christowe, 1 had earned a 
 great reputation for the name of Sim, to his own singular 
 charm of person and manner, and to his keenness and skill 
 at most games and athletic exercises. 
 
 In spite of his having no exceptional intellectual gifts, he 
 was diligent in his studies, and progressed steadily in the six 
 years that he was at the College from the eighth class to the 
 second division of the first class. He had a natural taste 
 
 THE " EIG CLASSICAL," CHELTENHAM COLLEGE. 
 
 and aptitude for botany and drawing, and in later years he 
 rejoiced that he had had the opportunity of cultivating these. 
 
 There does not seem to have been any particular period in 
 his school life which can be regarded as a crisis in his faith ; 
 he did not neglect the training received from his mother, and 
 his spiritual life was one of steady growth, which was unaffected 
 by his increasing popularity, deepened by his Confirmation, 
 
 1 Chvistowe Boarding House.
 
 4 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 sustained by his regular Communions, and strengthened by 
 Miss Drummond's l influence, and by his close intimacy with 
 one whom henceforward he regarded as an elder brother. 
 
 Humanly speaking it was mainly due to his intercourse with 
 this School friend that his wish to devote his life to God's 
 service in the Priesthood grew till it became a fixed determin- 
 ation. Even in those days they used to discuss with deep 
 interest what their work should be in Christ's Church, first at 
 home and afterwards in the mission field. They hoped that 
 this friendship begun at School would be still more closely 
 cemented by at least a year together at Cambridge, whither 
 his friend had gone -in 1878. Consequently it was a great 
 disappointment to both when, in the midsummer holidays of 
 1880, it was decided that Arthur Sim should remain a year 
 longer at Cheltenham. Of this decision he himself wrote at 
 the time : " I do not doubt that I should learn more in a 
 year at Cambridge than I should at School, nor that it would 
 be a more useful knowledge ; but I am sure that another year 
 at School would make me much more fit to begin such an 
 education. My great failing now is groundwork, and a year 
 
 under is, I am sure, the best way of remedying this. 
 
 . . . But, putting aside all question of work for I should 
 not go back for that only I cannot help feeling sure that a 
 similar opportunity of doing good will never occur to me 
 again. Next term I should be Senior Prefect. . . . Do you 
 
 1 Miss Ella Drummond was an invalid lady of saintly character, who 
 suffered continuously for the last twenty years of her life. Her room over- 
 looked the College playground, and in it she received and welcomed a 
 number of boys on Sunday evenings, or, as she was able, during the week. 
 Her character and influence were such that no boy left her presence without 
 a blessing, and to her Arthur Sim felt that he owed more than he could say. 
 
 " I think of her, whose gentle tongue 
 
 All plaint in her own cause controll'd ; 
 Of thee I think, my brother ! young 
 In heart, high-soul'd. 
 
 That comely face, that cluster'd brow,- 
 That cordial hand, that bearing free, 
 
 I see them still, I sec them now, 
 Shall alwavs see ! "
 
 SCHOOL LIFE 5 
 
 think that a year spent in trying to do good among so many 
 young and forming characters will be a year lost from all those 
 that, please God, we shall spend together in His work after 
 leaving Cambridge ? This is not all. Hitherto I have never 
 held anything but a secondary position in the School, and I 
 cannot help feeling that my character, which, God knows, is 
 now weakness itself, would be formed in a mould which, from 
 all the influences that would then surround me, could not but 
 be a mould of strength. You say that School is only a means 
 to an end. This is, of course, true ; but I feel sure that the 
 opportunity of using this means to the full should be seized. 
 It is not one, you know, that is offered to every Schoolboy, 
 especially under such circumstances as it is offered to me. I 
 do not yet seem to have said half enough about this point 
 with me it is, of course, the chief but I think I have said 
 enough to make you understand clearly what I feel." 
 
 In his earlier years at Christowe there were special difficul- 
 ties, both in the House and in the College, which had to be 
 faced and overcome ; and without putting himself forward in 
 any way he was invariably on the side of right principle, and 
 his example was a strength to boys of weaker character, even 
 though in some cases they were his seniors. Later, when he 
 became a leader in the College athletic world, this unseen but 
 strongly felt influence became more marked and widespread. 
 As may be gathered from the letter quoted above, he was 
 keenly alive to responsibility, both as a Prefect and as an 
 ordinary Schoolboy, and yet he never went out of his way to 
 report things he could himself correct or amend. A very 
 interesting feature in his School life was the affectionate and 
 unselfish way in which he treated his younger brother, who 
 was several years his junior, going even so far as to act as 
 his banker and a very liberal one he proved, too. Yet his 
 brotherly affection was never allowed to interfere with his 
 duties as a Prefect. On one occasion, finding his young 
 brother had been out of bounds, he gave him the usual impo- 
 sition, and insisted upon its being done.
 
 6 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 He took the very keenest interest in all kinds of games and 
 sports, in most of which he himself excelled, for what he 
 lacked in bodily weight he made up by sheer pluck and 
 honest hard work. As an oar he probably established a re- 
 cord as the stroke of his School-boat for four years in succes- 
 sion. As a forward in the College Fifteen he could always be 
 relied on for hard work in the scrimmage, and for making the 
 most of his opportunities in running or dribbling. In athletics 
 he was a good long-distance runner, and carried off several 
 
 AKTI1UK F. SIM. 
 
 Cheltenham, 1879. 
 
 prizes for distances varying from Haifa mile to two miles. He 
 was a strong swimmer, and fair gymnast. As a sportsman, in 
 shooting he could more than hold his own, while he was no 
 mean fisherman. 
 
 Only in such games as cricket, racquets, and fives, where 
 quickness of vision was essential, he did not excel. This was 
 clue to the fact of his being long-sighted, so that he could not 
 follow the flight of a quickly-approaching object. Yet even of
 
 ATHLETIC PROWESS 7 
 
 these games he probably knew more than the average boy, 
 and his opinions and criticisms were always those of a close 
 and sagacious observer. Ere he left the School at midsummer, 
 1 88 1, he occupied the unique position of Senior Prefect, 
 Captain of the College Boat Club, and Captain of the College 
 Football Fifteen ; and by masters and boys alike he was uni- 
 versally esteemed as almost an ideal type of what a Schoolboy 
 should be. 
 
 CHELTENHAM COLLEGE BOAT. 
 
 Winner of Public Schools Challenge Cup at Henley, 1879. 
 Stroke, A. F. SIM. 
 
 In October, 1881, he entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, 
 where several of his greatest friends had already preceded him, 
 and where others were to follow. He was not destined to take 
 honours, not having attained special distinction in any branch 
 of study at School ; but he came up with a definite aim, 
 namely, to seek Holy Orders, and in his social life and in his 
 reading he kept this high aim constantly in view. Rowing, 
 which he took up keenly from the first, was to him more than
 
 8 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 a pastime, more than healthful bodily exercise it was a moral 
 discipline. In the regular and hard exertion he found a 
 valuable safeguard for his purity ; in training he learnt lessons 
 of self-control ; in the multitudinous corrections of " coaching" 
 he developed patience, and as first-boat Captain he realized his 
 responsibility to others, and most faithfully and diligently 
 served the interests of his Club and College. 
 
 He did not take a prominent part in any of the religious 
 meetings got up by undergraduates, but he was regular in his 
 attendance at the College Chapel, especially at the early Cele- 
 bration on Sundays. Though always reserved in speaking 
 about religion, he warmly welcomed an earnest talk with a 
 friend in private, and on such occasions always spoke about 
 himself depreciatingly and of others charitably. Clinging to 
 the great facts of the Christian Faith, he never seemed to be 
 troubled with intellectual doubt or speculation. He " trusted 
 in God and made no haste." 
 
 His principal friends were those with whom he was daily 
 associated in the rowing, and he seemed to make no enemies. 
 He stroked the College first boat for four years 1882 to 1885 
 inclusive the boat being ninth upon the river when he came 
 up, and fourth when he went down. 
 
 In the autumn of 1883 he was selected to stroke one of 
 the University trial eights, and rowed pluckily and well, but 
 was not considered heavy enough for the Putney course. 
 The " Cambridge Review" in describing the Bumping Races, 
 June, 1884, says: "Pembroke, though weak in the bows, 
 showed themselves a good crew, and being admirably stroked 
 by Sim, caused First Trinity trouble after entering Long 
 Reach. Here Pembroke drew up, and before long were 
 overlapping a trifle. First Trinity had an excellent coxswain, 
 who staved off more than one shot by good steering. Sim, 
 however, was not to be denied, and his men, rowing pluckily, 
 lowered the colours of First Trinity near the Railway Bridge 
 amid much excitement." 
 
 This was Sim's crowning achievement, perhaps, on the river.
 
 COLLEGE LIFE II 
 
 The College Boat Club showed their appreciation of his 
 services by presenting him with an oar specially painted, and 
 publicly thanked him for the careful and painstaking manner 
 in which he had discharged his duties as first-boat Captain. 
 
 Of all kinds of rowing he most enjoyed that in a coxswainless 
 light pair. With one friend in particular, a Fellow of the 
 College, did he delight to row, and, when some six years 
 after they had left Cambridge they unexpectedly met there 
 in the May week, it was not long before they, were out on 
 the river together. Sim afterwards, when recounting his 
 various doings in that week, spoke of his surprise and joy 
 at the way that boat travelled on a perfectly even keel, as 
 one of his pleasantest reminiscences of a very enjoyable 
 holiday. 
 
 His might seem an uneventful College career ; but the 
 powerful influence of his gentle spirit is still felt by many, and 
 his subsequent career showed that Cambridge had been to 
 him a training ground for bearing greater responsibilities and 
 doing nobler deeds. 
 
 On his taking his B.A. degree (Third Class, Special Exam- 
 ination in Theology) at Midsummer, 1884, the Master of 
 Pembroke College gladly and affectionately commended him 
 in high terms to Bishop Lightfoot, and he became one of 
 the students at Auckland Castle. Among his contemporaries 
 at Bishop Auckland were two old Schoolfellows, who rejoiced 
 at the prospect of the renewal of their former friendship with 
 him. In one of his letters he gives a brief sketch of his life 
 there : 
 
 " One has an indefinite amount of work to do, so I will 
 give you a sample of the way we spend the day. Breakfast at 
 7.45; chapel, 8.15; lectures, 9 till n; reading, n till i; 
 lunch at 1.15 ; then in the afternoon we visit three times a 
 week and read the other three days. I generally get a game, 
 and sometimes two, of football in the week by way of exercise. 
 My district is a sort of cosmopolitan one. I visit the parents 
 of the Institute lads. The Institute was built by the Bishop,
 
 12 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 and it is a sort of club for young men and lads from fifteen 
 years upwards. There are about two hundred in it, so there 
 is lots to do. I generally go there in the evenings and sit and 
 talk with the lads, and I am teaching one of them to read a 
 slow process ! I have a Bible Class on Sunday, and I read 
 the lessons at the Parish Church. 
 
 Occasionally I have to preach in a Schoolroom some three 
 miles out in the country, but more often in a tiny little room 
 in the town, where my congregation consists of about four to 
 twelve old women and a lot of children. The latter are never 
 quiet, and to have one of them squalling in one's ear is rather 
 disconcerting, though not to the mothers who are accustomed 
 to it. . . . I have a dear old invalid woman here who 
 reminds me very much of Miss Drummond, and I conse- 
 quently go in to see her pretty often. She is not such an 
 
 invalid as Miss D , as she can get about her room with 
 
 a little help ; but she has something of the same patience, and 
 is so obviously glad to see one." 
 
 Perhaps it was only to be expected that under the influences 
 which surrounded him at Bishop Auckland, and especially 
 that of Bishop Lightfoot, his character would develop more 
 rapidly than hitherto. Such was the case, and he himself, nine 
 years later, recalls the fact : "How happy," he writes, " those 
 old Auckland days were ! If I have any steadiness or staunch- 
 ness of purpose, God gave it to me there." 
 
 For the month immediately preceding his examination for 
 Deacon's Orders he and three fellow-students formed a reading 
 party at Lake Windermere; and the others felt that it was due to 
 his example and companionship that the visit proved so profit- 
 able and enjoyable. While on this reading party at the Lakes 
 he invited an old College friend, whom he knew to be passing 
 through a time of spiritual difficulty, to come and see him. So 
 great was the trouble, that his friend had all but decided to 
 relinquish the thought of taking Holy Orders, upon which he 
 had previously set his heart. But in the course of conversa- 
 tion Arthur Sim was enabled to clear away the doubts and
 
 ORDINATION 15 
 
 difficulties, and so inspired his friend with his own simple, 
 strong faith that in the end he was ordained, and has always 
 been remarkable for his earnestness and zeal in Christ's 
 service. 
 
 On September zoth, 1885, he and four fellow-students were 
 ordained Deacons in the Parish Church at Barnard Castle by 
 Bishop Lightfoot. He had already accepted a title to St. 
 John's Parish, Sunderland, a parish of which it has been said 
 that, as regards squalor and poverty, it has not its equal in the 
 Diocese of Durham. But the hardship and distastefulness of 
 such surroundings, which would have proved a burden to 
 other men, were to him only a greater opportunity for the 
 exercise of his love and self-denial. He rejoiced, too, in the 
 prospect of being once more united in the closest companion- 
 ship with his old School friend, and it was arranged that as 
 their spheres of work were in a sense contiguous, they should 
 live in the same house. 
 
 At Trinity, 1887, he was ordained Priest by Bishop Light- 
 foot in St. Andrew's Church, Bishop Auckland, the Church in 
 which he had acted as reader while a student at Auckland 
 Castle. 
 
 Of his work in Sunderland, his Vicar, the Rev. J. W. 
 Willink, writes : 
 
 " To speak of Arthur Sim's work at St. John's is no easy 
 task ; it was many-sided and very varied in its nature, and 
 every part of it was full of life and energy and love to a 
 most unusual degree. We commenced our work together 
 early in October, 1885, I on my Institution as Vicar, on 
 October 4th, and he as a young Deacon ordained to the 
 curacy at the preceding September Ordination. From the 
 very first he threw himself with boundless energy into the work, 
 and won all hearts by his bright smile and winning ways. 
 Nothing could exceed the attraction of his personal character 
 or the charm of his manner. I remember hearing again and 
 again the same expression used of him by those whose lives 
 he brightened by his visits when weighed down by chronic
 
 1 6 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 suffering or by the feebleness that old age brings ' He's like 
 a beam of sunshine wherever he goes.' His first address in 
 the Parish was a delightful one a carefully prepared speech 
 in answer to an address by one of the wardens at our Welcome 
 Tea. It began well and happily ; but shortly hesitation came, 
 then confusion, and then complete and utter breakdown. But 
 with it came a confession of his failure, so delightfully ' taking ' 
 and so entirely natural, and following after came so simple and 
 unaffected a speech, that nothing could exceed the impression 
 produced or the warmth of the delighted applause that greeted 
 him when he sat down. The hold he won that night, though 
 to him the address was an apparent failure which much 
 mortified him, he never lost ; and in the homes of the people, 
 by the bedside of the sick and suffering, in the Schools, and, 
 above all, in the Young Men's Club, he established an in- 
 fluence as deep as it has proved lasting, and as real in the 
 days that followed his departure as it was enthusiastic while 
 he was present in the Parish. 
 
 His influence over the very rough class of young men and 
 lads that abound in the East end of Sunderland was extra- 
 ordinary, and his powers of organization and continued 
 maintenance of night school classes and of periodical concerts 
 and gatherings for the lads were very great indeed only 
 equalled by their answering love and reverence. One great 
 element that contributed largely to his unbounded influence 
 was his splendid health and great physical strength and skill in 
 many branches of outside activity. His powers as a swimmer 
 in the open sea were the theme of wondering admiration, while 
 a very plucky dive into the River Wear from the Quayside to 
 save a drowning child, which he achieved most gallantly in the 
 face of great difficulty, was rewarded not alone by the Bronze 
 Medal of the Royal Humane Society (and oh ! how distasteful 
 the public presentation of that medal was to him !), but by the 
 respect and deep admiration of the whole of the riverside 
 population. 
 
 One great hobby of his was the Lantern as a means of
 
 FIRST CURACY I 9 
 
 devotion and instruction, and the use he made of it was very 
 great. The experiments he carried out, and the improvements 
 he was continually adopting, showed how highly he regarded 
 it as an instrument for work among the very poor ; and cer- 
 tainly in St. John's his enthusiasm for its use was fully justified 
 by results. 
 
 Of what he was to me personally it would be impossible to 
 
 AUCKLAND CASTLE CHAPEL. 
 
 speak. The unfailing brightness of his sunny nature, the 
 unaffected manliness of his piety, the quiet, deep, true work he 
 was ever doing, his comradeship and brotherly sympathy, and 
 above all, the lofty spirituality of his life, can never be effaced 
 from my recollection. I shall always have cause to thank God, 
 and for more reasons than I can ever tell, that He permitted 
 me to know the joy and blessedness of work for Him with a 
 comrade so true and so helpful, with a brother so loving and
 
 2O ARTHUR FRASEfi SIM 
 
 so loved as he ever was from the first day to the last of our 
 most happy and unclouded association together in the work of 
 St. John's, Sunderland. He is one of those of whom it may 
 be said, ' He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a 
 long time ' ! " x 
 
 His Vicar has alluded to his great dislike of the " fuss " that 
 was made of him after he rescued the boy from drowning in 
 the Wear. A striking incident in connection with this showed 
 the true character of the man. At that time he was living 
 with his fellow-Curate, and they were on terms of very close 
 intimacy. On the morning after the boy had been rescued, 
 some man accosted this Curate, and asked him if he had 
 jumped into the river and pulled a boy out. He replied that 
 he knew nothing about it. Soon after, meeting Arthur Sim, 
 the Curate told him of the man's question, but he passed the 
 matter off in some way, and it was only on the following day 
 (two days after the incident] that he found out that it was Sim 
 who had jumped in, and had gone home followed by a crowd 
 of small boys. And later it was with the greatest reluctance 
 that he accented the Royal Humane Society's Medal. 
 
 Another illustration of the way in which he kept in the 
 background anything that referred to himself was alluded to in 
 '.he sermon at the memorial Service in St. John's Church. On 
 his leaving School a number of his friends, wishing to give 
 nim some tangible token of their high regard, presented him 
 with a silver watch, suitably inscribed on the inside case with 
 the circumstances under which the gift was made. During 
 the ten years that he lived in the North, not more than two 
 or three persons had any idea that this watch had anything 
 of special interest attached to it. 
 
 The same reserve was still further illustrated by the fact that 
 neither at Sunderland nor at West Hartlepool were any of his 
 cups or pri/es for rowing or athletics to be seen about his 
 rooms. As a matter of fact, lie gave them all away before his 
 Ordination. The only thing of the kind that he retained was
 
 ST. JOHN'S PARISH, SUXDERLAXD 
 
 21 
 
 his Pembroke College oar, which he regarded as testifying to 
 the prowess of his College boat rather than to any skill or 
 merit of his own. 
 
 ALLEY AXD GROl'P IN ST. JOHNS PARISH, SUNDERI.AXD. 
 
 In spite of the press of work in his Parish, he managed to 
 find time when at Snnderland, and e\vn after he left, to coach 
 the crew of the Amateur Rowing Club to victory, and no other
 
 22 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 Clergyman in the place had such an influence on the young 
 men who rowed there. His efforts on their behalf were 
 recognised and marked by the members of the club electing 
 him a life member, making a presentation to him on his 
 leaving the town, and naming one of their boats the " A. 
 F. Sim." So, too, the St. John's Institute lads named their 
 boat the " A. F. Sim,'" concerning which the remarkable 
 coincidence is related that on October zgth, 1895, the 
 day of Arthur Sim's death, this boat went down and was 
 lost. 1 
 
 Perhaps one of the most characteristic features of his work 
 at St. John's was the round of Christmas festivities for the lads 
 which he organized year by year. For a fortnight from before 
 Christmas Day until after the New Year he had some enter- 
 tainment and either tea or supper for the boys every night, and 
 kept them with him till after eleven when the public-houses 
 closed. Most of them signed and kept the pledge for that 
 fortnight. For some time before they had been learning 
 carols, and on Christmas Eve he was out with them all night, 
 singing at the houses of the different helpers. On one sucli 
 occasion, a gentleman who knew him intimately went down 
 about 3 a.m. to give the boys some apples and money, and 
 until Arthur Sim spoke, he thought he was one of the lads, with 
 his cap tied down over his ears like the rest ; and a happy 
 group they looked in the clear night air with their lanterns. 
 Another work which he arranged among the boys was a 
 Sunday evening instruction class five minutes' instruction 
 and then a hymn, and so on. This was for those who never 
 went to Church. Often, too, when the classes were over, late 
 at night he would find somebody very ill, and would come 
 back to the Institute, and ask the caretaker to give him 
 some supper as he found he must sit up. On one occasion, 
 when the seamen's Chaplain was sitting up all night with a 
 Naval Reserve man who was dying, Sim got up and came to 
 
 1 ThU coincidence was not generally known till nearly three months 
 after the actual event.
 
 CHAXGE OF SPHERE 23 
 
 them at 5 a.m. to cheer them, and remained to join with 
 them in the Holy Communion. 
 
 It was generally thought, by those who knew him best, that 
 the ties with St. John's Parish were so intimate that he could 
 not be induced to change his sphere of work ; but, in the 
 autumn of 1889, when he was invited by an old Schoolfellow, 
 whose life had been closely linked with his, to help him in 
 working up a new Parish and Church in West Hartlepool, he 
 left the decision in Bishop Lightfoot's hands, stating that he 
 would work where he was most needed. The Bishop, in no 
 way undervaluing the needs of St. John's, but recognising that 
 it had had a long period of more or less settled Church life, 
 whereas the district which was to form the new Parish of St. 
 Aidan had been greatly neglected, represented to him that the 
 change would have his approval ; and so after much prayer 
 and many heartburnings he decided to help his friend in West 
 Hartlepool. When as yet the matter was sub judice, he wrote : 
 " I don't know how I shall face the awful rupture of leaving 
 St. John's. I trust that if it is right I shall be given courage 
 to do so. ... May God guide us in this, and make His 
 Will all in all to us ! " 
 
 Hence it could not fail but that the renewed consecration 
 of his life should bring him corresponding spiritual power and 
 energy for the wide field of work that lay before him. 
 
 Previous to his coming to St. Aidan's in January, 1890, the 
 work of the district had been carried on in a Mission Room ; 
 but the Church was approaching completion, and consequently 
 all the machinery and organization for the new Parish had to 
 be thought of and arranged for. In addition to this there 
 were sad arrears, caused by long years of neglect, to be made 
 up. The difficulties to be faced and the responsibility thrown 
 upon his shoulders were considerably increased by the long 
 illness and enforced absence of his Vicar ; so that, had it not 
 been for his wonderful power of organization, his ripe judg- 
 ment and unremitting devotion, this period would have proved 
 verv critical in the life of the new Parish. As it was, he showed
 
 24 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 himself equal to the demands made upon him, and, in spite of 
 his having to preach more in those first six months at St. 
 Aidan's than during the whole period of his ministry at St. 
 John's, the work grew under his watchful guidance and care ; 
 consequently, when the Church was consecrated in the follow- 
 ing autumn, it fell little short of the high ideal which he had 
 set before him. At the time of the consecration and after- 
 wards many kindly expressions were volunteered as to the 
 orderly and reverent manner in which the Services were con- 
 ducted a result mainly due to the indefatigable way in which 
 he had arranged and rehearsed everything beforehand. It was 
 a source of much satisfaction and joy both to him and his 
 Vicar that their old School and College friend was able to be 
 with them, and to preach the sermons during the octave of 
 consecration. On the opening of the new Church old ties had 
 to be cemented and further developments conceived and 
 carried out ; and into both these spheres of work he threw 
 himself heart and soul, so that the prejudices of the older 
 worshippers, who had grown accustomed to the simple Services 
 of the Mission Room, were soon laid aside when they found 
 the more beautiful Service of the Church conducted with the 
 same earnestness and spirituality as hitherto. 
 
 In his district he had the visitation of some 3,000 souls a 
 work which he carried on with the greatest regularity, diligence, 
 and perseverance, and wherever he went his attractive manner 
 and cheerful presence ensured him a hearty welcome. Having 
 one Sunday School and the Band of Hope under his immediate 
 control, he did his utmost to make them as perfect as possible. 
 The choice of suitable lessons was always a subject of deep 
 thought to him, and every help was given to his teachers in 
 ordur that their work might be effective. His devotion to the 
 scholars was very real, and was reciprocated by a very warm 
 affection on their part. A touching illustration of this was 
 furnished in the case of a little fellow of five, who, having heard 
 that Mr. Sim in his new home in Africa had no sugar, was dis- 
 covered the following day filling his missionary box with sugar
 
 (From a f holograph by A. F. Suit.)
 
 ST. AIDAN'S PARISH, WEST HARTLEPOOL 2"J 
 
 to send to him. In another way, scholars of all ages evinced 
 their regard for him by the numerous letters which they wrote 
 to him in Nyasaland. Of the children he himself wrote : 
 "They are continuous sunshine in the streets." 
 
 As at St. John's, so at St. Aidan's, the lads seemed to 
 occupy the warmest place in his heart, and he was continually 
 devising some new attraction for them. At first he began 
 with a Saturday night " At Home " at the Clergy House, where 
 he would keep them week by week thoroughly amused and 
 interested with books and parlour games for some two hours. 
 Later, when the new Parish Hall was built, he helped to 
 organize a company of the Boys' Brigade with which a gym- 
 nasium was connected. Afterwards he learnt book-binding 
 and wood-carving, in order that he might teach and interest the 
 lads ; and even if he were busy with some other duty he would 
 invariably look in before going home to see how they were 
 getting on. For the lads in his own class in Sunday-school 
 his care was unremitting. Rough and undisciplined they 
 were in many cases, but he loved them, and they knew it. 
 One of them had been for some time an inmate of Durham 
 gaol. When it was proposed that the summer treat should be 
 there and the lad remarked that he had seen Durham too often, 
 he felt keenly for him. Another, whose fiery temper had 
 brought him into trouble, and on whom he knew prison dis- 
 cipline was likely to produce a hardening effect, was saved by 
 his care from imprisonment ; and ever afterwards the lad's 
 welfare was a subject of the deepest interest to him. 
 
 For the men in his district, which was some distance from 
 the Parish Hall, he took a house, fitted it up, and organized a 
 Working-men's Club, which had a very successful, though un- 
 happily too short a life. In connection with this he arranged 
 a number of delightful and instructive lectures on popular 
 subjects, with limelight illustrations, and several Social Even- 
 ings such as had not been known in that part of the town 
 within the memory of man. A summer trip also in connec- 
 tion with this Club, organized by him, and for which he
 
 28 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 curtailed a short holiday in the South of England, is re- 
 membered still as a red-letter day by the men and their 
 wives. 
 
 But these more secular organizations were only steps to win 
 those who participated in them to higher and better things, 
 and he proved their usefulness by the hold he had upon the 
 lads who came to his Bible Class, and by the way in which 
 he was able to gather them round him for preparation for 
 Holy Communion on the great festivals. Into his dealings 
 with men and lads when preparing them for Confirmation he 
 threw such an amount of earnestness, affection, and direct- 
 ness, that he won their entire confidence, and was enabled to 
 give them such a grasp of Divine truth as to make their Con- 
 firmation very real. This work was a great joy to him, and he 
 was deeply grateful for the opportunities it afforded him. Of 
 the Confirmation of 1891 he wrote: "We have so many 
 adults ; it is such a privilege helping them, and they are so 
 earnest." That of the previous year was held on a Saturday 
 afternoon, and he realized the great danger there was of some 
 of the candidates, especially the lads whom he had prepared 
 and who were very dear to him, being tempted to visit places 
 of amusement of a more than questionable character. As a 
 counter attraction he arranged a Lantern Service for them in 
 the Parish Hall. The subjects were sacred ones, most of 
 them being scenes in our Lord's life. One of exceptional 
 beauty formed the text for a short address. It represented 
 "The Ciood Shepherd who giveth His life for the sheep." 
 The lion, which would have attacked the flock now feeding in 
 safety, was slain, but at the cost of the Shepherd's life. The 
 love of Him " Who loved them and gave Himself for them " 
 was spoken of with an earnestness which could not fail to take 
 effect. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to his use of the Lantern 
 at St. John's, and his experience and skill in this direction 
 were highly valued, not only parochially but by his brother 
 Clergy in West Hartlepool, so that he was in constant request
 
 WORK IX ST. AIDAN'S PARISH 2Q 
 
 to illustrate addresses and lectures. His knowledge of every 
 detail connected with lantern work was complete, and his skill 
 and taste as a photographer enabled him to make a large 
 collection of valuable slides. He mastered the intricacies of 
 modern cameras and lanterns. Before he left for Africa he 
 had devised and constructed an oil lantern without any fixings 
 
 ARTHUR F. SIM. 
 
 West Hartlepool, 1892. 
 (From (i photograph by T. Braybrook.} 
 
 of leather or wood, so as to defy the ravages of the white 
 ants. The subsequent success of this lantern was a source 
 of great satisfaction and delight to him, and he looked for- 
 ward to its proving a useful adjunct to his work among the 
 natives. His method of conducting these Services was always
 
 3O ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 reverent and impressive. He refrained as far as possible from 
 using words of his own, and adhered closely to the inspired 
 word of Scripture, supplemented with suitable collects and 
 hymns. 
 
 The taste and skill which he exhibited in work of this de- 
 scription found further expression in the decoration of the 
 Church for the great Festivals ; and it was in a large measure 
 due to his direction that the result invariably proved so 
 pleasing. Although he himself would never admit that he 
 possessed any decorative ability, or that he was an authority 
 upon such matters, yet those who worked with him were always 
 glad to defer to his opinion ; and the harmonious colouring 
 and simple dignity of St. Aidan's Church are a lasting witness 
 to the correctness of his judgment. Whatever decorations 
 were in hand whether for some Festival in Church, or for 
 some tea or entertainment in the Parish Hall, he was always 
 at the beck and call of those engaged, and so busily would he 
 be kept occupied that sometimes he would go without his 
 evening meal. 
 
 He was himself of such an essentially buoyant and cheerful 
 disposition that he seemed always to be intent upon making 
 others happy. When, through illness or some other cause, his 
 Vicar was what he would call " dowley," he would lay himself 
 out to cheer him up. And with what energy and zest he 
 would strive to make the treats and trips of the children and 
 lads as bright and as happy as possible ! Yet no one enjoyed 
 those occasions more than himself, till the next day, when 
 he was often sore and stiff with the exertions he had 
 made. 
 
 His large fund of general information, his knowledge of 
 natural history and of architecture, his cheerfulness, equable 
 temperament, and unselfish interest in everybody and every- 
 thing around him, made him at all times a most delightful 
 companion, but especially so on any holiday trip ; as, for in- 
 stance, when JJishop Lightfoot took him and his two oldest 
 friends to Norway in the summer of 1887.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS 3! 
 
 For him certainly, 
 
 " All things were fair, if we had eyes to see 
 
 How first God made them goodly everywhere." 
 
 He had a large fund of quiet humour which generally found 
 its expression in harmless chaff, and he enjoyed the fun as 
 much as others if the laugh was against himself. Occasionally, 
 however, it would take a more practical shape, as for instance, 
 when he would snapshoot with his camera some friend in a 
 ridiculous position, or when, as once happened, he materially 
 increased his Vicar's score by making his little terrier run off 
 with the cricket ball from the fielder. 
 
 A failing of his not a very serious one absent minded- 
 ness, used often to afford him and others considerable amuse- 
 ment. If he went out with a walking-stick and called at any 
 house, he invariably came home without it. An umbrella he 
 never used it would have been too expensive. On one 
 occasion he found himself in Church without his sermon ; and 
 on another he put on two surplices, one over the other, thinking 
 that the topmost one was his hood. 
 
 Though knowing little himself of bodily suffering, he was 
 always deeply touched by any sign of it in others, and it quickly 
 called forth his earnest sympathy. 
 
 " The quiet happy face that lighted up 
 As from a sunshine in the heart within, 
 Rejoicing whomsoever looked on it, 
 But far more whomsoever it looked on." 
 
 These words might well be applied to him in the homes of 
 the sick and the sorrowing. This sympathy of his encouraged 
 his people to tell their troubles to him, and many a careworn 
 heart found relief in doing this. His care for their bodily 
 needs was no less real than for their spiritual good. None that 
 were really in need of help ever applied to him in vain ; even 
 those whose distress was the result of their own wrong-doing 
 were relieved in sickness, and so tender-hearted was he that not 
 infrequently he was imposed upon. To this day tramps call
 
 32 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 at St. Aidan's Clergy House and ask for Mr. Sim, with the tale 
 that they " knew him at St. John's, Sunderland." 
 
 His watchful care for those who were tempted was that of 
 one who felt the awful responsibility of his priestly office. 
 When he knew of young girls in danger of being led astray, 
 who in their own homes were unlikely to learn anything of 
 what was pure, and over whom he imagined a woman's in- 
 fluence would be most powerful, he would ask those whom he 
 trusted to look after them. 
 
 In the autumn of 1891, a Sunday scholar, who had always 
 been delicate, became seriously ill. She was prepared for 
 Confirmation, and the rite was privately administered by the 
 Bishop. His care for her bodily and spiritual needs was 
 unremitting books, pictures, and delicacies to tempt the 
 capricious appetite were taken or sent, and very few days 
 passed without a visit from him. On the last night of her 
 life he stayed beside her for hours, soothing and cheering her, 
 for she was very restless, until the end came about midnight. 
 A dreary walk homeward through drifting snows brought on 
 a severe attack of influenza ; but his kindness made a deep im- 
 pression on the heart of the mother, hardened though it was 
 by poverty and the cruelty of her husband, and she presented 
 herself as a candidate for the next Confirmation. 
 
 Early in 1892 he was asked to visit a young girl in the 
 Parish who was dying of consumption. She was very beautiful, 
 and seemed the embodiment of Ruskin's ideal of English 
 maidenhood the loving helper at home, and the kind friend 
 of those in distress. Eor three months he ministered to her 
 constantly, teaching her until death was looked upon as the 
 "Gale of Life Immortal.'' In Easter week the end came, 
 and for the last time he visited her. The distressing cough 
 had ceased, and all noisy grief on the part of those to whom 
 she had said good-bye was checked by her calm, peaceful face. 
 Then in the quietness his voice rang out : " 1 am the resur- 
 rection and the life," "I am the Good Shepherd," "Yea 
 though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
 
 SYMPATHY 33 
 
 will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." Then followed the 
 Commendatory Prayer, and in a few minutes all that belonged 
 to this mortal life was over, and he went back to a meeting of 
 young happy girls without any sense of incongruity, only re- 
 alizing more intensely the closeness of the unseen world. 
 
 Very different from this was the scene in another house 
 where he ministered. A man, who went to his work in a state 
 of intoxication and who was warned of the danger he incurred, 
 was killed. The son had that morning been sentenced to a 
 month's imprisonment for theft, and when the father's remains 
 were carried home the wretched wife had gone to the theatre. 
 Yet even in such an atmosphere his presence was welcomed, 
 for words of loving sympathy for the bereaved were spoken. 
 And now the widow, dying herself, speaks of him with the 
 deepest gratitude. 
 
 Nothing could exceed his care for the poor and aged mem- 
 bers of the congregation. Everything that could brighten 
 their lives was done at any cost to himself, and after he left 
 the Parish very few mails arrived without some kind remem- 
 brance being sent to them. 
 
 Two old women, both earnest Christians though not mem- 
 bers of the Church, were for two or three years the objects of 
 his care, and his visits were looked upon as the bright spots 
 in their lives. Another old woman, a cripple, hardened by 
 cruel usage from a brutal husband, and who for nearly forty- 
 years had never entered a Church, declared that she would do 
 so in order that she might hear his last sermon. A wonderful 
 tribute surely, for she was wretchedly poor, and could only 
 walk by the aid of two crutches. 
 
 So deep was his joy in ministering to the suffering and 
 sorrowful, a joy which he first felt in the quiet of Miss 
 Drummond's sick room at Cheltenham, that he regarded the 
 blessedness of helping others as one of the sources of truest 
 comfort in time of sorrow. This he used to teach, and one of 
 his workers, who in a time of bereavement was urged by him 
 to visit and help a poor fever-stricken woman, tells how she 
 
 D
 
 34 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 proved then, and in times of deeper sorrow, the efficacy of his 
 teaching and the truth of the words, 
 
 " A child's kiss set on thy sighing lips shall make thce glad ; 
 An old man helped by thee shall make thee strong ; 
 A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich ; 
 
 Thou shall be served thyself by every sense of service which them ren- 
 derest." 
 
 As a preacher, there were some who were inclined to criti- 
 cise him adversely because occasionally he lacked fluency, but 
 he always possessed that first essential of a good preacher, 
 namely, earnestness. His sermons were carefully, thought- 
 fully, and prayerfully prepared, and as a rule written out in 
 full, after which he would make an outline and preach from 
 that. But whether the subject matter were good or indifferent 
 it was never bad one invariably felt the truth of what 
 Bishop Lightfoot once remarked : " Let Sim go where he will, 
 his face will be a sermon in itself." 
 
 On the last Easter Day in the old Mission Church, when the 
 room had been tastefully decorated in a way that satisfied 
 even his artistic ideas, and the Services beautified so as to 
 welcome the Day of Resurrection, there was a large crowd of 
 earnest worshippers, for during the preceding week the love 
 of Him, (i Who liveth and was dead," had been set forth in 
 earnest words, and it was a glad thanksgiving. The sermon, 
 preached from the text "That I may know Him and the 
 power of His resurrection,'' was an inspiration. No one who 
 heard it and knew his life could doubt that the words were 
 those of one who had that knowledge and power. 
 
 During Lent, 1893, the life of the prophet Elijah was taken 
 as the subject of his addresses. The grandeur and faithfulness 
 of the strange mysterious life were beautifully shown ; nor was 
 the human weakness lost sight of, and God's call " What 
 doest thou here, Elijah ? " was both an incentive and a warn- 
 ing. 
 
 In the autumn of the same year he gave a course of addresses 
 to the Girls' Guild on the Holy Communion. This he looked
 
 PREACHING 35 
 
 upon as the mainspring of its work. The last of these ad- 
 dresses was given on the evening of his return from a Retreat, 
 and was unequalled in its deep spirituality. 
 
 Unless away from home he always took the children's 
 addresses at the monthly Services in Church. His "last one 
 was on April 22nd, 1894, when they were urged to make 
 " Jesus only " the aim of life. 
 
 On March i8th he preached the last of his course of Lenten 
 addresses. The subject was " Perseverance." To attain this 
 grace the means recommended were : Looking to Calvary for 
 courage, to heaven for confidence, within for humility, to God 
 for sanctity. 
 
 On April i5th he preached his last sermon in St. Aidan's. 
 His text, " Christ is all," was surely the key to his own life. 
 He spoke, to use his own words, "as one who in all proba- 
 bility would never stand there again," of his own sorrows, the 
 deepest being the fewness of the regular communicants ; and 
 of what to him had been the greatest helps Prayer, Holy 
 Communion, and Meditation. 1 
 
 Referring to the Farewell Service on April 26th, when the 
 intensity of his feeling was such that he could barely finish 
 reading the first lesson (Isa. Ixi.), a working-man afterwards 
 remarked " That was the best sermon Mr. Sim ever preached 
 in St. Aidan's Church." The reply was " No ; the best 
 sermon he ever preached was his life here during the last four 
 years." 
 
 The great aim of his life seemed to be that God in all things 
 should be glorified, and that those under his care should be 
 helped. To do this no trouble on his part was spared ; his 
 time was cheerfully given, and those who worked under him 
 were encouraged and helped. Every effort was made to bring 
 the Services to the highest state of perfection. It was his 
 desire that the one great Service, the Holy Communion 
 should be magnificent, and he believed that it would be best 
 
 1 See Appendix.
 
 36 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 to set it before the congregation in all its glory rather than 
 wait until they were ready for it. 
 
 In a way it was a great trouble to him that he could not 
 devote his whole time to parochial work, but when he felt it 
 to be his duty to be otherwise occupied, he ungrudgingly gave 
 the time. Thus it was due to his devotion and unceasing 
 labours as Honorary Secretary that the local branch of the 
 Missions to Seamen Society was pulled through a very critical 
 period. 
 
 In a similar way, as local Honorary Secretary for two years 
 of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, he gave a tre- 
 mendous impetus to the interest in, and work for, that Society 
 throughout the town. 
 
 As Chaplain to the Stranton Lodge of Freemasons and 
 Grand Provincial Mark Chaplain he exercised a wide and 
 healthy influence over those with whom he would not other- 
 wise have been brought in contact. 
 
 Upon two occasions he took part in special Missions. The 
 first was in November, 1889, at St. John's, \Veymouth. His 
 share of the work there was the Meditation at the Daily 
 Celebration and all the Children's Services. These latter he 
 managed admirably, and they were a great feature of the whole 
 Mission. He also took a certain number of dinner-hour 
 addresses, and visited many sick parishioners. In this Mission 
 he assisted his Vicar most readily and willingly, in the absence 
 through illness of another, on the shortest notice and almost 
 without any time for preparation. Those associated with him 
 remember it as a very happy time in every way. 
 
 The second occasion was in January and February, 1894, 
 shortly before he started for Africa, when, among the Seamen in 
 the Liverpool Mission, he assisted his oldest friend. He was 
 appointed to undertake the work at Garston, one of the out- 
 lying Seamen's Mission-rooms on the Mersey. In reply to a 
 letter of welcome sent before his arrival, he wrote : " I am a 
 poor, weak man. I have no gift of speech. I am not eloquent, 
 and feel very unable in myself to undertake so great a work.
 
 SPECIAL MISSIONS 37 
 
 But having been selected by others, I feel that it is a call from 
 God, and that therefore I shall have all my wants supplied by 
 Him who calls me to this great work." During the Mission 
 he and the Lay Missionary at Garston were closely associ- 
 ated in the work, and became staunch friends. Of Arthur 
 Sim the latter writes : " The moment I saw Mr. Sim I felt 
 sure I was in the presence of a man who lived much upon 
 his knees ; and the longer I knew him the more I loved him, 
 for of him I could say ' He is a man after God's own heart.' 
 When having tea at my house I asked ' When do you intend 
 returning from Africa?' He looked at me over the table and 
 said with a smile ' Never ! I have been called by God to go 
 out to Africa, and there I intend to remain until I am called 
 hence.' I was much struck with his patience while listening 
 to the story of sorrow and sin which some of the seamen had 
 to tell him, and his cheerfulness under difficulties. On one 
 occasion our oil lantern would not burn, and do what we 
 could the pictures would not come out. I was very much 
 put out about it, but he only said ' Do not be concerned ; we 
 can talk about Jesus in the dark without the picture ' ; and he 
 did so. When the congregation had dispersed and the gas 
 was turned up, we saw ourselves as black as sweeps, for our 
 faces were covered with soot from the lantern. On seeing this 
 Mr. Sim laughed until he could scarcely move, and as there 
 was no time to wash, he went to Liverpool by train as he was. 
 His first sermon at Garston was very simple, but it won the 
 hearts of his hearers. He said ' I have nothing new to tell 
 you. I have come to you in the name of the Lord, and of 
 Him only do I wish to speak.' Mr. Sim said of the Garston 
 congregation that they were the most attentive people he had 
 ever seen, and that he felt sure God was blessing the work 
 there." 
 
 The Rev. Edgar Lambert, who worked with him in this 
 Mission, writing of his great helpfulness to him personally, 
 adds : " His instructions and conduct of the Intercession 
 Service and Sunday Bible Classes at Hanover Street Seamen's
 
 38 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Church were all done with a power which struck me as being 
 greater than he had been able to exercise in Sunderland days, 
 and his whole tone was one of deep spirituality." 
 
 He himself regarded these two Missions as two of the hap- 
 piest and most spiritually helpful experiences in his life. 
 
 But so great was his devotion to the work of St. Aidan's 
 that he wrote during his last holiday : " I am enjoying myself 
 immensely here, but am longing to be back with you all." 
 And shortly before his departure, when he had been obliged 
 to go away unexpectedly for a few days, he wrote expressing 
 the deepest regret that he w r as unable to be present at the 
 Band of Hope Meeting. This devotion on his part made the 
 indifference of others a source of deep regret, and he felt 
 profound pity for those who, merely for the sake of some 
 worldly advantage, would give up work to which they were 
 called. 
 
 If there was one thing that disturbed his equanimity during 
 the time he was at West Hartlepool, it was the number of 
 tempting invitations to important spheres of work elsewhere 
 that fell to his lot. As he himself repeatedly said, he had no 
 ambitions in that direction, and he was so contented and happy 
 in his work at St. Aidan's that he would not contemplate the 
 thought of leaving till he was sure of God's call. In the end 
 that call came to him with no uncertain voice to devote his life 
 to God's service among the heathen in Central Africa. He 
 had been greatly impressed and influenced by the words of the 
 late Bishop Smythies when he gave an address, in 1890, in 
 West Hartlepool, on the work of the Universities' Mission. 
 From that time forward he studied the history, methods and 
 principles of the Society with ever-increasing interest and 
 enthusiasm. Another thing that helped him to realize the 
 call was that at his ordination lie had heard a voice, as distinct 
 as any human voice, say " Go and suffer for Me " ; and he 
 felt that so far his ministry had been singularly devoid of 
 hardship and suffering. Referring to his decision to offer 
 himself to the Universities' Mission, he wrote : " I only feel
 
 CALL 70 FOREIGN SERVICE 39 
 
 that I am doing here " (at St. Aidan's) " what many other men 
 could do who could not go out to the Mission Field. I do 
 not for one moment feel a bit worthy of being a missionary 
 rather, I feel exceedingly presumptuous in making the offer ; 
 but I believe I have a good constitution, and I think I shall 
 be ready to fill any menial position. ... I have no am- 
 bition to have a living of my own, and no desire to settle 
 down ; and in the meantime one's youth is slipping by, and 
 I should like to make the most of it that one can in God's 
 service. Thus it was that the strong drawing I have long felt 
 towards the Universities' Mission took a definite shape ; not 
 that I don't feel that such work as I have at St. Aidan's is 
 just as grand as any other; yet, if God has marked out another 
 sphere for me, it is not the grandest for me. One is always 
 preaching about self-sacrifice, and this seems a call to put 
 one's theories into practice." 
 
 As the time drew near for his departure, it was characteristic 
 of the man that his one desire was "to slip away without fuss 
 of any kind " ; and when it came to his knowledge that the 
 congregation were getting up a presentation to him he per- 
 sistently refused to receive it. Consequently for a time there 
 was a deadlock, till at last he yielded so far as to accept silver 
 Communion vessels for his future Church, and a cheque to be 
 devoted towards forwarding his work in Nyasaland. 
 
 Then as for the actual departure what, in a sense, could be 
 more thrilling than the Parish Hall packed with those whom he 
 knew and loved best, assembled to hear his last words ? What 
 could be more touching than those few workers assembled in 
 the railway station in the early morning to give him one last 
 grip of the hand, and to wish him farewell in silence? What 
 could hearten him better than the sight of those men and lads 
 among whom he had worked, lining the railway wall at the 
 ironworks and blast-furnaces as the train passed ? Yet the 
 feeling stirred by these incidents was in a degree superficial 
 compared with the deep solemnity and impressiveness of the 
 Farewell Services in St. Aidan's Church. Certain it is that no
 
 40 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 more soul-inspiring Services have ever been held in that 
 Church. From the oldest to the youngest all were deeply 
 moved at the spectacle of that true Priest of God offering to 
 
 ARTHUR F. SIM. 
 Kola Kola, 1895. 
 
 his Master at His altar, in a more literal sense than he had 
 ever done before, " himself, his soul and body, to be a reason- 
 able, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Him.'' 
 
 Of his wearisome journey and his life and work in Africa
 
 AFRICA 41 
 
 extending over a period of eighteen months, a record is fur- 
 nished in the most interesting and graphic letters which follow 
 this brief sketch. Perhaps it goes without saying that those 
 who read them will do so with mixed feelings on the one 
 hand of intense admiration for his marvellous devotion, his 
 simple reliance upon the Will of God, his realization of the 
 Divine Presence, his deep humility, his righteous wrath at the 
 hypocrisy and injustice around him, his wondrous sympathy 
 with the downtrodden native, his large-minded grasp of im- 
 portant administrative questions, his cheerfulness, and his 
 varied ingenuity and skill ; and on the other hand of pity for 
 that lonely life cut off almost completely from those of his own 
 colour and blood and from all sources of direct personal sym- 
 pathy, stricken again and again with sickness, and finally 
 yielded up to his Maker when his hopes seemed brightest. Of 
 a truth, it was for him throughout a very real taking up of the 
 Cross, and nothing but the belief that it was the call of God to 
 him would have induced him to undertake it. 
 
 Of all his letters perhaps none contains more cheerful allu- 
 sions to himself than his last, in which he speaks of his " cast- 
 iron '' constitution, and the prospect of a temporary alteration 
 in his plans owing to the illness of some of the staff, and the 
 deaths of Bishop Maples, George Atlay, and Joseph Williams. 
 He had already passed, as he thought, fairly well through the 
 worst months of the year, and was beginning to consider him- 
 self more or less acclimatized. After this letter a few weeks 
 intervened. Then, on Jan. i5th of the present year, came a 
 rumour of his dangerous and hopeless illness nearly three 
 months before. It was indeed hard at first to believe (for he 
 himself had been so explicit and careful in arranging for any- 
 such news to be cabled home), even when the authorities at 
 Zanzibar telegraphed asking if the report of his death had been 
 confirmed. But two days later no room was left for hope or 
 even doubt, and every one who had known Arthur Fraser 
 Sim " sorrowed for the word that they should see his face no 
 more."
 
 42 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 " Death takes us by surprise, 
 
 '., w And stays our hurrying feet ; 
 
 "^. The great design unfinished lies, 
 
 Our lives are incomplete. 
 
 But in the dark unknown 
 
 Perfect their circles seem, 
 Even as a bridge's arch of stone 
 
 Is rounded in the stream. 
 
 Alike are life and death 
 
 When life in death survives, 
 And the uninterrupted breath 
 
 Inspires a thousand lives. 
 
 Were a star quenched on high, 
 
 For ages would its light, 
 Still travelling downward from the sky, 
 
 Shine on our mortal sight. 
 
 So when a great man dies, 
 
 For years beyond our ken, 
 The light he leaves behind him lies 
 
 Upon the paths of men." 1 
 
 The following week particulars of his last illness were re- 
 ceived from his fellow-worker, Mr. J. G. Philipps. On October 
 1 8th he had an attack of jaundice ; later, an attack of fever 
 supervening, his condition became hopeless, and he passed 
 away in the very early morning of Oct. 2cjth, 1895, within four 
 days of completing his thirty-fourth year. 
 
 " To me the thought of death is terrible, 
 Having such hold on life. To thee it is not 
 So much even as the lifting of a latch ; 
 Only a step into the open air 
 Out of a tent already luminous 
 Will) light that shines through its transparent walls. 
 
 pure in heart ! " ' 
 
 Throughout his illness he was nursed with the most solici- 
 tous care by Messrs. Swarm and Philipps, and his native 
 teacher, William Kanyopolea ; and every effort was made to 
 secure the services of a doctor, but without success. 
 
 1 LoiiL r fellow. " Longfellow's Colifcn Liquid.
 
 i.isr ILLXESS 43 
 
 He is said to have spoken but little during those last sad 
 days of suffering, but his last .words were "Wash my feet," 
 which he repeated several times. Doubtless his mind was 
 dwelling upon that scene in the upper chamber in Jerusalem, 
 where our Lord washed His disciples' feet on the night before 
 His crucifixion. Reading these words however in the light 
 of a sermon he had preached in St. Aidan's, they were the oft- 
 repeated prayer of a true penitent for a cleansing from whatever 
 sin might shut out the clear vision of God. The following 
 verses, referring to these words, were very familiar to him : 
 
 " Many waters go softly dreaming 
 
 On to the sea ; 
 
 But the River of Death floweth softest 
 To thee and me. 
 
 We have trod the sands of the desert 
 
 Under a burning sun ; 
 Oil ! sweet will the touch of the waters be 
 
 To feet whose journey is done ! 
 
 Unto Him Whose love has washed us 
 
 Whiter than snow, 
 We shall pass through the shallow River 
 
 With hearts aglow. 
 
 For the Lord's voice on the waters 
 
 Lingereth sweet : 
 ' lie that is washed needeth only 
 
 To wash his feet. ' " l 
 
 So closed the earthly life of this true saint of God a life so 
 natural and simple, and yet so full of a deep reserve that Bishop 
 Lightfoot's words at his Ordination were amply verified. 
 "There are depths in Sim," remarked the Bishop, "that I 
 cannot fathom.'' He was a Christian so loving that his heart 
 went out instinctively to all men, with the result that he was 
 loved by all. Clergyman and layman, rough seaman and well- 
 bred gentleman, trader and commissioner, found him to be just 
 whit his best friends knew him. 
 
 1 Ezckicl and other Poems.
 
 44 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 He had such steadfast faithfulness, and so strong a sense 
 of responsibility, that one always felt that these characteristics 
 would have carried him through actual martyrdom without a 
 flinch. He seemed the embodiment of the text : " In quiet- 
 ness and confidence shall be your strength." No talk, no 
 show, just quiet strength all through. He was never given to 
 bemoaning the wickedness and weariness of this world, but 
 rather he was wont to dwell on its beauties and goodness, and 
 to enjoy both : 
 
 " He loved each simple joy the country yields, 
 lie loved his mates " 
 
 He had an implicit belief in the existence of good in all, 
 dormant though it might be, alike in professed atheist and 
 degraded savage ; and if it was impossible to say a good 
 word for a fellow-creature, then he remained silent. 
 
 Words written of St. Aidan in a short sketch of his life, pre- 
 pared at the time of the consecration of St. Aidan's Church, 
 might be written with equal truth of Arthur Fraser Sim : " He 
 was a man of the utmost gentleness, piety, and reasonableness, 
 and full of zeal towards God. ' He left a splendid example to 
 the clergy of temperance and purity. His life was absolutely 
 consistent with what he taught ; and this commended his 
 teaching to all men.' l He did not seek or love this world's 
 wealth. . . . The saint, whose memory those who wor- 
 ship in this Church will ever hold in reverence, will be best 
 honoured by the determination to imitate the example he set 
 of a simple, devoted Christian life, full of zeal for the Lord, 
 and full of love to the brethren." 
 
 To few men is it given to have such an abiding realization 
 of the Divine Presence the natural result of his habitual 
 purity of heart and mind. Of this purity his life-long friend 
 has written: "I cannot remember one single occasion on 
 which any unclean or profane utterance fell from his lips. I 
 shall always think of him as one of the purest souls possible." 
 
 The presence of God was in him a living power, sanctifying 
 1 JtcJc III. 5.
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 45 
 
 him and making him patient and strong for labour, sorrow 
 and suffering. It was the source of his constant cheerfulness 
 and contentment in varying circumstances ; and it preserved 
 him from all fretful anxiety about the future. Hence death was 
 to him a thing in no sense to be dreaded ; it was the drawing 
 aside of the veil which hid the sinless beauties and glories of 
 the unseen world ; it was the opening of the gate to a life of 
 greater joy and fuller activity where the Priesthood begun on 
 earth would be continued through eternity. 
 
 " ' He is not dead,' but only lieth sleeping 
 
 In the sweet refuge of his Master's breast, 
 And far away from sorrow, toil, and weeping. 
 ' He is not dead,' but only taking rest. 
 
 What though the highest hopes he dearly cherished, 
 
 All faded gently as the setting sun ; 
 What though our own fond expectations perished, 
 
 Ere yet life's noblest labour seemed begun ; 
 
 What though he standeth at no earthly altar, 
 Yet in white raiment, on the golden floor 
 
 Where love is perfect, and no step can falter, 
 He serveth as a Priest for evermore. 
 
 O glorious end of life's short day of sadness ! 
 
 O blessed course so well and nobly run ! 
 O home of true and everlasting gladness ! 
 
 O crown unfading, and so early won ! 
 
 Though tears will fall, we bless Thee, O our Father, 
 For the dear one for ever with the blest, 
 
 And wait the Easter dawn when Thou shall gather 
 Thine own, long parted, to their endless rest." 
 
 Sfe asket) life of {Thee, cmb hou gavest \)\m, along hfc 
 even for ever anb ever."
 
 LETTERS OF 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 " Letters are the best materials for history, and to a diligent reader the 
 best histories in themselves." 
 
 BACON.
 
 I saw a Saint. How canst thou tell that he 
 
 Thou sawest was a Saint ? 
 I saw one like to Christ so luminously 
 
 Ey patient deeds of love, his mortal taint 
 Seemed made his groundwork for humility. 
 
 And when he marked me downcast utterly 
 
 Where foul I sat and faint, 
 Then more than ever Christ-like kindled he ; 
 
 And welcomed me as I had been a saint, 
 Tenderly stooping low to comfort me. 
 
 Christ bade him, ' Do thou likewise.' Wherefore he 
 
 Waxed .zealous to acquaint 
 His soul with sin and sorrow, if so be 
 
 He might retrieve some latent saint : 
 ' Lo, I, with the child God hath given to me ! ' " 
 
 C. G. ROSETTI. 
 
 (Printed by kind permission of the S. P. C. A" )
 
 LETTE RS 
 
 THIS and the following letter give A. F. Sim's views re- 
 garding the work of the two Parishes in each of which 
 he ministered for over four years. 
 Letter to T. C. G , dated, 
 
 Sunderland, August nth, 1888. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I must just write a line to you to say how glad I am that all 
 is settled, and that you are coming to us in October. When you 
 come we must have many consultations as to the division of labour. 
 Last winter almost the whole of every evening was taken up by 
 my lads in a Night School. I got part of Monday for a Band of 
 Hope, and Thursday for Service and Choir practice. Yet both on 
 Monday and Thursday I had to get away from these before nine 
 to be in time for prayers at the Gymnasium. Now I consider that 
 the lads are the pleasantest feature of our work, and I feel I should 
 be selfish to keep it all to myself ! I think we might go partners 
 in it. I need not give you a long account of it. Next winter we 
 are going to amalgamate the work among the lads, at what went 
 by the name of the '' British Workman." Last year we had two 
 places going, with the result that one was neglected. Alterations 
 are going to be made, to make the " Workman " (or " Church 
 Institute," as we shall call it) suitable for its new requirements. 
 Subscriptions to the amount of ^60 have been collected for this 
 purpose. We purpose having a Night School there, a weekly 
 Concert, and a Bible Class (rather a lot to fit in). It means some 
 one there every night. There is another little organization (grow- 
 ing, I trust) among the lads, viz., a Communicants' Guild, once a 
 month. 
 
 Among the children of course we have Sunday Schools and a 
 Band of Hope. These want careful supervision. The Sunday 
 
 49 K
 
 .-jO ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Schools are not at all satisfactory. In short they want looking 
 after thoroughly. This one of us must do. Hitherto I have had 
 a Bible Class on Sunday afternoon, which prevented my taking 
 any part in Sunday School work ; but I have left that off now, and 
 intend when the winter comes to start one on a week-night. The 
 Band of Hope I think might be made a useful organization. You 
 see all we do among the children is done in Day School (mighty 
 little), and on Sunday afternoon. Well, I think the Band of Hope 
 might be an extension of Sunday School work on two week-nights 
 for an hour on each. 
 
 Then there is the Temperance work. I agree with what I 
 imagine your sentiments to be in regard to Temperance, from 
 something the Vicar let drop. I am not bigoted ; I am an ab- 
 stainer, but have taken no part hitherto in Temperance work. 
 
 That has been B 's line. I could not do it because of want of 
 
 time. I am positive you won't be many weeks here without reali- 
 zing the need of special means to meet a special disease and sin. 
 Drink is the curse of almost every house. Last winter our Temper- 
 ance work was poor meetings small, pledges few, corporate union 
 unrealized. Something must be done, and you and I must do it ! 
 Perhaps we can invent some new method something after the 
 manner of a " Fathers' Meeting," social intercourse a sort of con- 
 versazione every Saturday night. Tea and coffee ! All the better 
 if we can. I don't think much of the old sort of Temperance 
 meetings. They are very slow, to my mind, and not adapted to 
 the needs. Now Band of Hope work and Temperance work ought 
 to be done by laymen ; but they are so hard to get. Then there 
 
 is a heap of work to be done among the soldiers. That was B ! s 
 
 department, and I know nothing about it ; but there it is, and 
 there is enough for one man to do in barracks alone. We have an 
 excellent Scripture reader there, who is half butler to the Vicar 
 an old soldiers servant. 
 
 Then there is work among the girls corresponding to work 
 among the lads. We have a lot of splendid ladies who help us in 
 this. I think however more might be done. There ought to be 
 an institute for them, which they might use every night. They 
 are very rough worse than the boys, far ! I think it is mostly on 
 the surface, and that they have an innate sense of modesty which 
 forbids them proceeding beyond certain limits ! Now we cannot 
 expect the Vicar to undertake any work that needs his continuous
 
 LETTERS 5! 
 
 superintendence and presence. His hands must be free ; he is the 
 general. 
 
 And now about the Church Services. First of all, you know 
 how unfortunately our Church is seated. It would cost ,1,000 
 to reseat facing East, because any such scheme would be incom- 
 plete unless it included considerable alterations in the Chancel and 
 the removing of the organ. I myself would rather see this done 
 than anything else. However, there it is, and we must make the 
 best of it. Of course, as long as the choir is in the gallery, we 
 cannot have any (or, at all events, much) dignity of worship. The 
 Services are hearty, at least. I myself should like a daily Service, 
 and so would the Vicar ; but I don't think many would come to it, 
 and hitherto it has not seemed possible. I think it is his ambition 
 to have it yet doubtless where the arrears are so great we must 
 be patient and content to move slowly. As to the evening Com- 
 munion, I don't like it, as I told you. I consider that as a memo- 
 rial feast it may be celebrated in the evening ; but we hold it to 
 
 be more than that, do we not ? However, I know W is aware 
 
 of my views, and I do not hold myself responsible. I am afraid 
 we must not expect this to be changed, at all events in the imme- 
 diate future. We must be patient. I think we must be ready to 
 sacrifice a good deal of personal convictions. At least we do not 
 sacrifice them, because we are not responsible, and we have made 
 known our mind on the subject. And then I feel sure our sacrifice 
 of personal feelings will bear fruit in the long run, and we shall be 
 rewarded for giving up these by a very real return of active, real 
 work and energy, and much fruit which we have no right to 
 expect. 
 
 Then there is the Church Army. I will not say anything about 
 it, except that to be really efficient it needs close clerical superin- 
 tendence. 
 
 There, now I have done something to unburden my mind ! I 
 did not intend to write so long a letter. But having begun I had 
 to go on. 
 
 1 am sure I have not frightened you by the list of what lies 
 before us : but rather my purpose has been to show you that I am 
 determined to work shoulder to shoulder with you ; indeed, if we 
 do otherwise, we shall fail altogether. I look forward very much to 
 having you as a fellow-worker. How much better a " fifteen ;: plays 
 the men are well together ; and a boat's crew well together is
 
 52 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 a different thing from a scratch crew, is it not? And so I look for- 
 ward to next year's work, because I am confident that we shall be 
 able to work together. Knowing this, " Courage rises with danger," 
 and I begin to feel eager for the fray ! 
 
 Ever yours sincerely, 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to R. H. M. C. about coming to St. Aidan's as the 
 new Curate, dated, 
 
 West Hartlepool, Feb. 2yd, 1894. 
 MY DEAR, 
 
 I must write and tell you from my point of view what I 
 think about this Parish and the work here. 
 
 (1) My Vicar is an old Cheltenham friend of mine, and we live 
 together on the most intimate terms. . . . Bishop Lightfoot 
 sent him here nine years ago to make a new Parish ; and with 
 great difficulties to face he has succeeded, and the new Church is 
 three and a half years old. 
 
 (2) About the work. The population is almost entirely artisan, 
 most intelligent men the pick of the artisan class. They are 
 awfully kind and warm-hearted people, and I think very receptive. 
 
 The children are my delight very quick and intelligent and I 
 think we have them well organized, and under fairly good dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 What I think is the charm of it all, is the fact that the work is 
 developing. No old-fashioned prejudices hamper you. The people 
 have not been overdone, not " Gospel-hardened," ready and glad 
 to receive you, and grateful for help and sympathy. It is not quite 
 impossible to learn to know them all. I have got round two or 
 three times to nearly all the houses in my district since I have been 
 here, besides other visitation. This gets harder every year, it is 
 true. 
 
 There is ample scope for fresh work, and fresh development of 
 old work, but you will be quite free to work on your own lines a 
 Mission Room, a working-men's Club in a district with a bad name, 
 but full of good and nice people, about a mile from the Church, 
 where wo have a Day School, which, in spite of the class of people, 
 has got the " Excellent Merit Grant " for ten years. 
 
 Development in the way of Communicants' Guilds for men (we 
 have a strong one for young women), and one for married women
 
 LETTERS 53 
 
 improvements in the Sunday School, and in the catechising of 
 the children all these want attention in the future. There is 
 plenty of material to go upon, but you must remember that we are 
 young, and that the Church has fearful arrears to make up in this 
 town, and especially in this Parish. 
 
 A beautiful (though plain) brick Church with much stone facing, 
 a very satisfactory choir very sweet in tone--a hardworking 
 choirmaster who is a great treasure to us these make Sunday a 
 perpetual delight, and to be away a sorrow ! With charming and 
 easily pleased people to work among during the week, and children 
 who are a continuous sunshine in the streets, you will wonder how 
 I can leave such a paradise, and I often wonder myself. I have 
 been iiery happy here, and know that it will be a tearing of the 
 heart strings when I go. You know I have offered for the Univer- 
 sities' Mission to Central Africa. I have done so under the convic- 
 tion that it is God's call, and so I must bear the parting among 
 other tokens of the Cross. . . . 
 
 However do come and stay for two or three days. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L., dated June igth, 1893, announcing his in- 
 tention of going to Central Africa. 
 
 MY DKAR , 
 
 It has long been on my mind to offer for Foreign Mission 
 work. This has been more and more with me of late until I feel 
 it to be a call from C/od, and I should be doing wrong to put it 
 away from me. I have been now two years Secretary here for the 
 U.M.C.A., and I have a great admiration for that Mission. My 
 place here, with plenty of notice, could be rilled, as far as the work 
 
 goes, pretty easily. Of course it might be more difficult for M 
 
 to get a personal friend. There is nothing on my sisters' account 
 that need keep me at home. I am painfully aware of how little 
 I have to offer in so grand a cause the best is an iron constitution 
 for that trying climate. Acquaintance with their work leads me to 
 imagine that it is eminently pastoral work, looking aftei children 
 in the Schools, and extending the work by persuasion and personal 
 influence into the neighbouring country. It is work of the first 
 importance, and there are few so little hampered by home ties 
 as I am there are comparatively few who can go out and there-
 
 54 ARTHUR FRASER 
 
 fore to those who can, it is an imperative duty. I am rilling no 
 post another could not fill in England. I know it is a grand am- 
 bition to have a Parish of one's own to live for, and, if necessary, 
 die for ; but there are plenty to do this, and there seem to be few 
 enough to go abroad. One is not a grander or nobler work than 
 the other both are in God's service, and that makes both grand. 
 For myself, I have no ambition to settle down to a " living," and I 
 could work on here contentedly to the end of my days. But others, 
 who cannot go out, can do all that needs doing here could take 
 up the work where I leave it, develop it, start afresh, and do more 
 than I can. I should hate the parting with all here, and even more 
 the fuss that it seems to make when a man goes out, but that 
 would not last long. I have tried to count the cost, but it seems 
 impossible to do so. I know that at least it means personal de- 
 votion. The heat, the climate, the fever, all must mean doing- 
 work under difficulties. The language is said to be a very easy 
 one men have learnt it to preach in it in six months. 
 
 I am very grateful for the time I have spent here, and I feel that 
 the experience gained in these last three years will make a great 
 difference in my character. . . . You see the thought has been 
 with me for a long time now, and latterly is seldom from my mind. 
 Will you write me all that strikes you about the matter, and will 
 you pray over it ? Farewell, dear old boy, 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Bishop Hornby, dated November 9th, 1893, 
 offering himself for work in Nyasaland. 
 
 MY DEAR BISHOP , 
 
 Two, getting on for three years ago, I made up my mind even- 
 tually to offer my services to the U.M.C.A. About four months 
 ago I mentioned the subject to P. M. Wathen, when he was here 
 speaking ; and then when I was in London this summer I saw Travers 
 and the Doctor. Of course \Yathen and Travers don't know much 
 about me ; they said that my services would be acceptable. The 
 Doctor said the Mission ought to be glad to have so strong a man. 
 You knew me a little in Sunderland. Since those days of many 
 mistakes, I feel I have made, by God's grace, some progress, and 
 now it is my sincere wish to devote myself to Him and His 
 Church more whole-heartedly. I know that there is more than I
 
 LETTERS 55 
 
 Can do to be done here, but not more than others can do who 
 would fill my place, while so many others have home ties which I 
 have not, which make it hard or impossible for them to go out. 
 So it comes to this I have offered my services to the Mission. I 
 have told my people at home, and now the Parish knows all about 
 it. For a long time I was quite unsettled as to my destination, 
 not knowing that it was necessary for me to make the choice. I 
 am willing to go where I am most needed, and thought I should 
 be sent to Bishop Smythies to be sent where he thought fit. But 
 Wathen and Travers say that if I want to go to Nyasa I must offer 
 myself to you" this is why I am writing. These men both say 
 Nyasa is more in need of men ; so I write to ask you will you 
 have me ? You know me a little, and I know myself a little, and 
 that little is quite enough to convince me of my utter unworthi- 
 ness of so great a task. And this feeling long held uppermost 
 place in my mind and prevented me offering myself before now. 
 I have no gifts devotional or mental to bring, but I have a strong 
 carcase, and a placid, easy-going temperament, which I imagine to 
 be of some value in the tropics. 
 
 Now you will legitimately want to know my convictions on 
 matters of Churchmanship. Here our teaching goes further than 
 our ritual. I would not die for a point of ritual I regard it as 
 the greatest of external helps. First comes the Truth as to the 
 Presence of the Divine Head of the Church and the Power of His 
 Holy Spirit, and ritual is an essential to us for the clothing of 
 these deep truths, In itself it must be dignified and understanded 
 of the people. I enter into this in order to assure you that . . . 
 Church was never in my rawest days the ideal of worship, and also 
 because I know how essential a mutual understanding is, where 
 men have to work together. I feel that 1 could render you complete 
 and implicit obedience as I feel in turn that you would be a help 
 and a guide and a true Bishop to me. For myself I have long felt 
 the paramount importance of the Lord's command, " Go ye and 
 teach all nations " it can be fulfilled by those who must stay at 
 home but I should not have a quiet conscience if I did not at 
 least offer myself to Him for its literal obedience. The U.AI.C.A., 
 its principles and its sphere and I may add, its men, for I know- 
 several has long been a great attraction to me, and for two years 
 I have acted as correspondent for this Deanery. I don't pretend 
 to realize at all what the work is like, or what the difficulties are.
 
 56 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 I suppose much isolation and much fever are the sacrifice one has 
 to make ; but it seems useless anticipating them. I have prayed 
 for the spirit of obedience. I anticipate also much counter- 
 balancing happiness and joy in the progress of truth and light, 
 and in the visible fruit of work. 
 
 Will you write to me, and (if you can) say you accept my ser- 
 vices, for I long to be settled as to my future ? And, if you can 
 do this, will you say something about outfit ? How many books 
 to take is my chief difficulty. Of course all my books are at your 
 service, and perhaps I had better make a list of them and let you 
 scratch off what are useless. Will you say also something about 
 the route I should take (of course I should like to see Zanzibar on 
 my way and all the well-known work there). As to date next 
 
 summer is the earliest date M expects me to be off. I want 
 
 to associate this Parish as much as I can in my movements ; I 
 must not therefore leave in bad odour, by leaving my place un- 
 filled and a double share of work behind me. This is to be my 
 English home all that I leave behind, I shall leave here and if 
 ever I return, I shall come here first. I can't say how deeply at- 
 tached I am to these people ; and, from the way many of them 
 cried when they heard of my intention, I believe they are attached 
 to me. I could willingly and gladly stay here all my life ; but I 
 don't think I should be obedient if I did so. I am busy with 
 Swahili, which I presume is essential wherever one goes. 
 
 Tell me if there is anything I can do for you, or (if I come) any- 
 thing I can bring with me for you. Pardon the unlimited use of 
 the first person singular it is almost necessary in a letter of this 
 kind. 
 
 If you see cause to refuse my offer, you must consider the 
 letters that follow as if they had not been written. 
 
 Ever yours in our Lord, 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter from London, dated, 
 
 April 2S//f, 1894. 
 MY DI.AR TKACHKUS, 
 
 I cannot refrain from writing you a line, which I hope will 
 reach you to-morrow, Sunday. You will not miss me half so much 
 as I shall miss you. I am very homesick, and my constant 
 thought is of the dear friends I have left. I had to speak for the 
 Mission at a meeting in Cambridge on Fridav night. But how
 
 LETTERS 57 
 
 Could I speak of what lies before me, with a heart so full of what 
 I have left behind ? I think my words had for their text " Go 
 and work in the North if you want to know what happiness is ! ): 
 A poor advocate I made for the Mission ! The good Bishop 
 Selwyn, late of Melanesia, was there, and gave me his blessing 
 and much kind encouragement and advice. 
 
 Cambridge was looking its best every tree out in its freshest, 
 greenest, spring clothing, the lilac in blossom, and nightingales 
 singing at mid-day ! But it only made me sadder. I yearned for 
 the black trees and black roads and warm hearts of my home. 
 And yet, ought I not to thank God that there is so much to give 
 up ? Far better this, than having neglected God's bidding, to 
 spend a longer time with you and forfeit His blessing. I know I 
 shall be repaid a thousand-fold by increased faith in Him, and de- 
 pendence upon Him, and I trust deeper knowledge of Him. Of 
 
 course I saw Mr. K in Cambridge. He was very full of his 
 
 time at St. Aidan's, and it was a comfort to pour out one's woes 
 into a sympathising North Country ear ! 
 
 And so I have filled almost my whole letter with myself. I don't 
 
 think I need ask you to give Mr. C a hearty welcome. After 
 
 all it is not the man who sits in the big desk for whom you work. 
 It is One higher than he who commits His little ones to you for 
 teaching which they would never get at home. 
 
 And the Vicar you will rally round him, and support him in 
 every way, and make the work easy for him I know you will do 
 this. If God has taken me away from you, I know He will not 
 let the work go back or suffer in any way. I should so much like 
 you to feel that you are sharing in my work. I know your kind 
 hearts feel my going, and so we have a common ground to start 
 from. We each take a share in a sacrifice and to me that is the 
 real, the only sacrifice the leaving the Parish. I shall meet with 
 nothing compared with it in the future, I am quite sure. 
 
 And now give my love to those dear children. How much I 
 shall think of them and miss them. 
 
 Ever your affectionate friend, 
 
 ARTHUR F. SIM. 
 
 Worthing, April jo///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 You must let me write you a line, as it is a great comfort 
 to me to do so. I am feeling the parting more than I can tell.
 
 5^ ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Perhaps I did not sufficiently count it in the cost. I do not expect 
 to get over the pain till I have settled down to work again among 
 my new people. I celebrated at eight yesterday, and was with 
 you all in heart, as I believe you were with me, and all through 
 the day my heart was full of you. I do feel God's goodness in 
 this especially, that He has given me so much to give up again to 
 Him, and I believe I am not presumptuous in thinking that some 
 of you feel my going, and, if so, can share in the " sacrifice." I do 
 not feel that I have left St. Aidan's, and I should like to feel that 
 you have permitted me to go, and have given me to God for this 
 work. I go out from a very dear home. 
 
 Yes, I am confident that God will repay me by added faith and 
 dependence upon Him, and in many other ways no one can help 
 being the gainer by doing His will. To neglect His bidding can 
 only mean in the long run to forfeit His blessing, and. that would 
 be misery indeed. Among His blessings to me, I count most 
 precious the friendships He has given me all through life ; and I 
 count your friendship, and may I say it perfectly honestly, your 
 example, as among His greatest gifts and privileges. I feel it 
 would be ungrateful not to acknowledge this to you. And now 
 I know I need not remind you that I depend upon your prayers 
 to help me to meet and fight the temptations of a tropical climate 
 and the consequent lassitude. With very kind remembrances, 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 ni, 1894. 
 MY DEAR - , 
 
 I return to town at 4.30 this afternoon, and spend most of 
 Ascension Day with Mrs. R - -, I shall try and sec P -- to- 
 morrow. This is the inscription I have had put on the Communion 
 vessels: "To the Glory of God, The Gift of St. Aidan's, West 
 Hartlepool, in memory of February, 1890, to April, 1894." 
 
 A. F. S. 
 
 I found a perfect bundle of letters awaiting me here from those 
 dear people. I could never have believed how home-sick I should 
 feel. I doubt if I shall get rid of the feeling till I get to definite 
 work again. I am rather unsettled as to my departure now, owing 
 to a hint of the C -- ; s coming home on the 8th, in which case 
 I shall not start till the loth, and see them in town.
 
 LETTERS 59 
 
 To-day C is making his way North. I do trust the people 
 
 won't sicken him by quoting me. Tell him to have patience. I 
 will write to him. I am sure he will make his way in time, and 
 his work will be thorough, and if only in the Schools much 
 more valuable than mine has been. I ought to write a line to the 
 Day School teachers, for I never got a chancs of thanking them, 
 though, of course, I am not supposed to know that they took any 
 part in the " Present." 
 
 I wonder if you have stored away my books yet. I shall regret 
 the George Eliots, and when you have time I should like you 
 to get them out, and such devotional books as Pjody's " Life of 
 Temptation and Justification? and " School of Calvary" and send 
 them. 
 
 My brother, a practical man, is now employed in showing me 
 how to make bread in a saucepan ! He has made me a present 
 of a lot of tabloids, also dentists' forceps and books relating to life 
 and expedients in camp. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 London, Ascension Day, 1894. 
 
 MY DKAR , 
 
 I leave London, via Folkestone, for Paris, on May Sth. Life 
 seems changed for me now. It is hard amid the bustle and leave- 
 taking to realize the missionary aim and spirit. I trust to find 
 time on board ship for quiet contemplation. This part of the going 
 forth is very unpleasant and horrid. I have just received yours 
 written yesterday. Do not let what I said about "your example" 
 pain you. It is not what one is, but what one is trying to be, 
 which is the inspiration of life, and the influence in example. 
 How far short we come ! And yet it is easy to see the far-off look 
 in the eye of one whose aim is where Christ sitteth at the right 
 hand of God. Browning is often very fine. He says : 
 
 " What I aspired to be, and was not, comforts me ; 
 A brute I might have been, but would not sink the scale." 
 
 If I may venture to advise you, let me pray you not to dwell too 
 much on the failure to attain the great ideal. Look onwards and 
 upwards, and not at your feet. If one could do this more, no 
 doubt our pathway to the goal would be more direct, and our foot- 
 steps less faltering. \Ye ought to regard as nothing what others
 
 60 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 see in us and say of us. If the aim is true, the inspiration of Our 
 lives will be strong and pure ; and if the aim is Christ, our humility 
 will be real and true, and contrition abiding. But melancholy and 
 despair and lack of glorious hope are wrong and out of place in 
 the Christian's life. 
 
 I am just off to St. Peter's, Eaton Square, for High Celebration 
 I was with you this morning at eight. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Paris, May y//i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 You see I am on my way now. I can't realize what it 
 means at all, and it is no good trying. I am in God's hands, and 
 I must leave the future to Him. I saw Bishop Hornby in London. 
 He wishes me to go to Unangu the new station fifty miles from 
 the Lake. There I shall have my wish for complete pioneer work. 
 But of course this may be changed when I get there. There is 
 some fear of the Mission being turned out "neck and crop," 
 because the slave dhows of the chiefs on the Lake are being inter- 
 fered with by the gunboats. 
 
 I left London at 1 1 a.m. yesterday. Most of my relations were 
 down to see me off. Here I am with friends, and we are "doing" 
 the place ; but when I have time to think I have to confess to 
 a homesick feeling. I doubt if this will wear off till I get settled 
 down to work. 
 
 We saw Notre Dame this morning and the Sainte Chapelle. In 
 neither was I much impressed, but that is the way with such 
 prejudiced Britishers as I am ! What is meant for the gorgeous 
 is tawdry to my eye ! This afternoon we went for a drive in the 
 Bois de Boulogne, which I enjoyed very much. It seemed like 
 miles of Surrey woods, and it was so warm and bright. 
 
 To an outsider and a complete stranger it seems as if religion 
 were at a very low ebb here ; but it is impossible to judge. I 
 believe that the long and the short of it is that the Priests are 
 uneducated and rather despised. I imagine things arc different 
 in country parts, such as Normandy and Brittany. A man told 
 me to-day that the best Priests are the Jesuits they are more 
 educated. An Englishman naturally despises a foreigner ; but I 
 must confess that the young men seem somewhat despicable very 
 fat and lazy-looking ! The best-looking are the artisans. The
 
 LETTERS 6l 
 
 women are painted and powdered ! This as a matter of course ; 
 but my taste is very insular. Give me the dear old North Country 
 for freshness and energy and life and enthusiasm. 
 
 On Tuesday morning I went down to St. Matthew's, West- 
 minster, for my last Communion in England. The Bishop of 
 Nyasaland celebrated, and gave me his blessing. The Bishop 
 of Lincoln communicated, and I knelt next to him, but I did not 
 
 recognise him till I was coming away. Mr. L also spent the 
 
 previous night in town, and communicated on Tuesday morning. 
 How good God is to me ! There are such good men who have 
 not this privilege. The truth is, that work is work wherever our 
 lots are cast, and some are called to one sphere and some to 
 another ; but it is all work for God, and may not be compared one 
 sphere with another. 
 
 If ever your lot brings you to London, let me commend St. 
 Matthew's to your notice. It is an ideal Church two daily Cele- 
 brations (7 and 8) a large staff of Clergy, who live in the adjoining 
 Clergy-house, and some slum work. It is in Great Peter Street 
 behind the Army and Navy Stores. What charmed me was that 
 they bind ""Central Africa" with their Parish Magazine. It is the 
 London home of the Mission. I hope you will get a Report ; it 
 is very interesting. 
 
 Remember me most kindly to the teachers and every one, and 
 give my love to the children. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter dated, 
 
 Marseilles, May \2t/t, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 Just a line of adieu to Europe ! I shall be with you to-mor- 
 row hoping to have a Celebration on board. The news of Bishop 
 Smythies' death is a terrible blow to us all. God knows best. It 
 is doubtful if the doctor will permit Bishop Hornby to return. 
 Remember us ; it is a heavy cloud under which we start. I am 
 very well, as are all our party, five in number. I am very happy, 
 considering ; but I feel lonely and strange sometimes. Time goes 
 very quickly with Swahili, and letters and thoughts. I don't try 
 to realize what it all means time enough for that later on. One 
 has to leap in the dark when He bids us, and I know He is here 
 and there as well as with you. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 62 ARTHUR t'RASER SIM 
 
 Marseilles, May \2th, 1894. 
 
 Here I am all safe after a night's sleeplessness in the 
 train from Paris. I don't want to analyse my feelings. I look 
 forward to having plenty to do on board. I know nothing of the 
 passengers, as none have turned up yet. Our party is as " Central 
 Africa" described it very nice. Others are coining belonging to 
 the Consulate at Zanzibar. 
 
 It is a terrible blow to Miss Mills to hear of Bishop Smythies' 
 death. We are awaiting a telegram confirming the news in answer 
 to one from me at eleven o'clock this morning, 
 (jive my love to all my friends. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SlM. 
 
 Whit Monday, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I had better begin a letter to you, and then I shall have 
 something ready at Port Said to send off. We are very comfort- 
 able on the whole, and not at all crowded. I have only a boy in 
 my cabin, which gives us two empty berths, consequently I have 
 unpacked almost all I have with me. Yesterday did not seem like 
 Sunday still less like Whit Sunday. It was too rough for Service, 
 and we had no Celebration. They won't allow Service on board. 
 There are four French Fathers, and even they are not allowed. So 
 we are dependent upon one of the ladies' cabins a pretty big 
 one and that means their clearing out in good time ; hence, it 
 they are ill we are " up a tree.'' And they were all ill on Sunday 
 except Miss Mills who is an exceedingly good sailor as good 
 as I am. 
 
 This morning, however, we managed a Celebration, and though 
 it was rolling a little, all turned up, and all happened without acci- 
 dent. Mr. C , S.l'.Ci. missionary at Madagascar, celebrated, 
 
 and we used my big Vessels. Our time was 8.30, which would be 
 about 7.30 with you. The clock is puzzling just now. Our party, 
 
 as you know, consists of Miss M , Miss C , Miss F , 
 
 Sister I) , and myself. Mr. C 's party consists of a Miss 
 
 K and a Miss N , both going to Zanzibar to be married. 
 
 There is another English girl bound for Kurrachi, and one or two 
 oilier Englishmen. I don't think there are more than six or eight 
 first-class passengers, and of them only one couple and two men
 
 LETTERS 63 
 
 are English. My French is wonderful. Three of our party can 
 speak French, and as they have all been mostly hors de combat, I 
 have been interpreter in general ! And now I am going on deck 
 for a breath of fresh air. As you know, the French meals are at 
 extraordinary times : 6.30 a.m., cafe coniplet ; 10 a.m., dfjeuner ; 
 and 6 p.m., diner. They rather suit this lazy board-ship life. We 
 have had such a struggle for our cabin boxes. They were all 
 shoved as they came into the luggage hold, and my boxes were 
 at the very bottom, so I spent most of Sunday morning "down- 
 pit," hot and dirty. ! spoiled one of my only pair of European 
 trousers ! 
 
 These good ladies keep me on the move fagging for them ! But 
 I have silently struck, as I intend, if possible, not to let this time 
 pass in utter laziness. 
 
 We passed the Lipari Islands this morning, and saw Stromboli 
 to the North of us. We get through the Straits of Messina about 
 5 o'clock this afternoon. 
 
 I can't help thinking about you all, and what you are doing at 
 
 different times of the clay. Tell A. D how useful I find her 
 
 little pen. I had a patent ink-pot given me in London, and with 
 
 that and A : s pen I am quite furnished. So with E. A 's 
 
 card-case. I have carried my tickets in it all the way from London, 
 or I should certainly have lost them. I am very comfortable, and 
 should be very happy, but that I feel rather like a stranger among 
 strangers. This is, 1 am sure, very good for me. Those people 
 would have spoiled me very quickly. I think some of even the 
 best men are a little in danger of this, and you can see it in their 
 constantly talking of themselves. And this I am doing I find. I 
 fear I have always been given that way. 
 
 Will you give my sisters my news? I have told them to write 
 to you and let you know where they are. If they are moving about 
 very much I can't write to them, so I should like you, if not too 
 much trouble, to send my letters on to them. "Skipper" might 
 like to see them. If I can cut down the number of letters I write 
 I shall probably be able to write better ones. I suppose Mr. J 
 
 has left you now. I should like to hear that Mr. D was settled. 
 
 I think he had better come out to me. He would enjoy this part 
 of the business, the bright sun and the deep blue sea. Sitting on 
 deck is a perfect delight, but it is rather a snare. I can't work 
 there, or even read. I shall take this up again to-morrow. This
 
 64 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 time last year (Whit Monday evening) we had just returned from 
 
 Mr. L 's field with the Band of Hope children. I wonder if 
 
 you have any such fun going on to-day. I have an impression you 
 have a cricket match on. Now I am just going to say my Office 
 on deck, and then off to bed. 
 
 Whit sun Tuesday. Absolutely nothing to say out of sight of 
 land 300 miles yesterday, and 304 to-day. We saw the coast of 
 Italy yesterday, and very pretty it was. The atmosphere here is so 
 clear, and the sea so blue ! I have plenty to do, writing letters 
 and learning Swahili and eating ! I don't think I shall do much 
 novel-reading. 
 
 Thursday. We are due at Port Said this evening, and letters 
 have to be posted this afternoon, so I will sit "tight" and finish 
 this and a few others I am writing. We had hoped to meet Mr. 
 Travers at Port Said. He was with the Bishop when he died; but 
 I hear that we passed the " Petho"' last night, and so our hopes are 
 vain. I am longing already for letters from the Parish. If you 
 write, as you must, don't consider any detail too trifling to tell me. 
 And now remember me to all those dear people the children, the 
 teachers, the choir, the lads. I am so glad to hear of the success 
 of the Rummage Sale, and I am glad that my old things came in 
 useful. I wonder how the Library is getting on. I hope it will be 
 a success. Tell me whether you are using two bookcases or only 
 the one. How does the Londoner settle among the Northeners ? 
 I hope to see him looking quite young again when I come home. 
 
 Give him my love. One of the ladies, Miss F , knows his 
 
 people, and has an uncle at, or near, Tadcaster. 
 
 Yours, etc , 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L , dated, 
 
 s.s. " Amazonc? May ]$//i, 189.}. 
 
 MY DF.AR, 
 
 Time goes very quickly, and I have plenty to do between 
 writing and doing Swahili and thinking of you all. I should be 
 very happy, and I am. I feel rather a stranger among strangers, 
 but J im old enough not to mind that very much. We are a good 
 number of English, and all are nice. . . . We have the run of 
 the deck, anil are well treated. Dejeuner at 10 and diner at 6 
 is rather a long interval, and 1 wish I had a private store of bis- 
 cuits. 1 ran't describe what we have seen the country about
 
 LETTERS 65 
 
 Marseilles was very pretty, and the sea is so blue, and now it is 
 smooth. The peep at Corsica was very fine, and Italy at the 
 Straits of Messina very pretty. The brilliant colouring was quite 
 a revelation to me, and it interprets a good many pictures one sees 
 in galleries, e.g., Moore's sea pieces, and those vivid landscapes, 
 green and blue and white and red. . . . Bishop Smythies' 
 death is a sad blow. Who will be found ready to occupy what 
 seems to be so dangerous a post ? A young man, and yet wise and 
 very strong. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 s.s. "Amazon?," May 2U/, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 It is awfully hot 94'" under double awnings, and not a 
 breath of wind. It is behind us (the wind), and consequently we 
 are breathless. I have on cricket flannels, my thinnest shirt, and 
 your silk jacket. Still I don't mind it very much, and don't feel 
 very stupid and lazy ; but it is stifling downstairs, and I am writing 
 
 on deck with a pair of blue spectacles on which Mr. C gave 
 
 me, and A. D 's pencil. We had great fun at Port Said. It 
 
 was dark when we arrived. W T e had a few things to buy, such as 
 biscuits, to keep the life in us between 10 and 6, and some cigar- 
 ettes. The bargaining, at which C is an adept, was great fun, 
 
 but I fear I shall make a bad hand at it. It seems that you have 
 to pretend you don't want the thing at all, and go out of the shop, 
 and then after an interval the seller follows you to another shop 
 where you may be, and offers you your thing at a lower price. 
 \Ve got some excellent cigarettes at 3 fr. per hundred. The 
 coaling was done with wonderfully little dirt or inconvenience of 
 any kind. Suez we did not reach till the evening of the next day, 
 having many delays in the Canal. There we did not go ashore, 
 nor were the merchants allowed on board. The new Consul- 
 General of Zanzibar came on board at Suez. He is a very nice 
 fellow, very young looking, speaks most languages under the sun, 
 including Russian and Arabic. He has brought a horse and two 
 men on board. He is an Eton man, and so we know a good many 
 men in common, including H , P , D , etc. 
 
 Yesterday we got leave to have Service. We had two Celebra- 
 tions in the ladies' cabin, at 8 and 8.45, and at 11.30 we had 
 
 F
 
 66 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 Matins, three hymns, a sermon out of Aubrey Moore's book, and 
 a collection for the Sailors' Widows' and Orphans' Society. So it 
 was more like Sunday. The ^Romans had their Service in the 
 same place early, and the Captain said if the Mahommedans asked 
 him he would let them also have the same place. In the evening 
 (Sunday) the Frenchmen got up a sort of concert, which however 
 they conducted on the third-class deck. One of the gar$otts re- 
 marked that we each amused ourselves in our own way. I per- 
 spire sitting still ! We are all grinding at Swahili, and it is a 
 grind. We saw plenty of flying-fish yesterday. We are due at 
 Aden on Wednesday about 3 a.m., but we stop at Obok on the 
 
 way. I wonder if I shall see E. B . 
 
 May 22nd. We had the most awful swelter last night. A 
 strong wind sprang up, and they closed the ports some of the men 
 slept on deck. They begin swabbing the decks at 3.30, and they 
 won't allow you to bring your mattress up. So I concluded that 
 I would try the cabin, and the result was that I was in a bath of 
 perspiration all night, but I slept like a top. This morning the 
 hot, strong wind has gone down, and we have just a breath, which 
 is much better. I think to-night if it is so hot again I shall try 
 the deck. Everybody says we are very lucky not to have it much 
 hotter here. I don't feel the heat very much, but the question of 
 dress is occupying my mind rather now. I was very much taken 
 with the Arab garment at Port Said a long sort of gown from the 
 neck to the heels, like a cassock. Like a duffer I have not kept 
 out any white "ducks," except one of your pairs, and they are so big 
 for me that I can't wear them. However for the present I am 
 luxuriating in your tussa silk jacket and a pair of cricket flannels 
 an awful spectacle, but every one else is the same ! I shall post 
 this at Obok. I wonder when you will get it. I doubt if there is 
 any good trying to find my sisters ; they will be off by the time 
 this reaches England. Please remember me to all my old friends. 
 There is absolutely no news, but you will see from this that I am 
 still alive and kicking. Have I told you that my boat leaves 
 Zanzibar on June 2nd ? So if we are up to time I shall only have 
 three days in Zanzibar, as I think I ought to push on. Any delay 
 would mean a month at least, and I suppose they will be short- 
 handed at Nyasa, so I had better get on as quickly as I can. I 
 .shall feel rather an incubus at first I fear, not being able to talk 
 the language. I was told that Swahili is no use at Nyasa, but I
 
 LETTERS . 67 
 
 have no other books to learn anything else, and at Unangu, where 
 Bishop Hornby thought I ought to go, they speak Yao. However 
 I think I can't do wrong in learning Swahili. I often look at my 
 choir photo and think of you. At about 9 p.m. with us on Sunday 
 you were just going to Church, gathering up in the choir vestry. 
 Tell me when you write all about the cricket, and what you and 
 the others are doing. Don't forget that I am anxious to know 
 
 who is E 's successor and T 's, and who is to take B 's 
 
 place, and what B is going to do, and any other changes that 
 
 may be in contemplation. Remember me to old C , and 
 
 E too if he is not gone. I will try and write my impressions 
 
 of Zanzibar, when I am there, for the Missionary Association. I 
 shall leave a little money (for I have very little) with Miss Mills 
 or one of the others for African curiosities. I wonder what the 
 carriage will come to. I' had best direct them to you. With all 
 best wishes, 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 S.S. " Atnasone" May 2\th, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 We got to Aden at six yesterday night. It was rather an 
 eventful time. First we had to attend a wedding ! The lady was 
 to have been married at Zanzibar, but her impatient fiance met 
 her at Aden, and having arranged matters before our arrival he 
 wired to her at Obok, and on our arrival we had to go off straight 
 to the Church, which we reached about 6.20. The bride mean- 
 while changed her dress at the hotel. We had a long, long wait ; 
 finally, at a little after eight, when all interested had read through 
 every possible law relating to such marriages in British Colonies, 
 the happy event took place, and the girl we knew when we started 
 
 as Miss K is now Mrs. C . The elder C 's brother is 
 
 the bridegroom ; he is a Vice- Consul in Zanzibar. 
 
 Well, after the wedding I went up to the R.A. Mess and sent a 
 message in to E. B , Esq. They were at Mess, and I am afraid 
 I robbed the poor chap of half his dinner. I was quite too disrepu- 
 table to make my appearance at the table, so we sat in the ante- 
 room and talked. What an awfully slow place ! He keeps life 
 going by dreaming of a shooting expedition to Somaliland, whither 
 he intends to make his way about July if he can get leave for two
 
 68 . ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 months. His ambition has been fired by the success of a brother 
 officer there, who slew two lions and an elephant, besides count- 
 less other game. So I trust you won't be minus a nephew before 
 the end of the year. The rest of the party meanwhile had gone 
 
 back to the hotel to drink the bride's health. B saw me back 
 
 to the steam-launch at 10.30. Aden is relieved from utter destitu- 
 tion and absolute misery by being very beautiful. You have seen 
 it. We saw it in sunset colours, and it was very lovely. I have 
 unpacked my cabin-boxes entirely, and, as you can imagine, my 
 bunk is a litter. I always was tidy, wasn't I ? So I am going to 
 begin packing. I shall commence by sewing up my dirty clothes 
 in the old canvas which covered one of my boxes. We hope to 
 reach Zanzibar on Tuesday the 29th, a day before our time. My 
 
 party and Mr. C -'s party are the only English in the 2nd class 
 
 saloon, and the Consul-General the only Englishman in the 1st ; 
 all the rest have left us for Bombay, etc. You can see from my 
 writing the state of collapse I am in ! It is hotter than ever I 
 think, though we are promised a cool night. 
 
 May 25/>i. We have just got round Cape Guardafui (look it out 
 on your map), and are heading a little West of South. It is much 
 cooler, and we are enjoying the beginning of the monsoon, which 
 means that the boat is pitching a little. It will probably increase, 
 and very likely our ladies will have to seek the seclusion that a 
 cabin grants. But it is such a mercy it is cool. I think no one is 
 overcome yet, though two or three have retired from active life. 
 W T e are off the Somali coast. I believe there is a good future for 
 Somaliland, but now the people are very jealous of strangers. 
 
 May 26th. We are having some rather dirty weather. It is the 
 monsoon. It is such a pity, for all the ladies are ill, and it means 
 no Celebration or Service to-morrow ; it also means that the ports 
 are closed, and the cabins are awfully stuffy. I'm afraid we shall 
 not get into Zanzibar till Wednesday or Thursday. I hear there 
 is a." Union :) boat going to the Cape ten days after we are due, 
 perhaps I shall go on in that. It will give me more time in Zan- 
 zibar. 
 
 May 2&(/i. Yesterday was very rough and only the best sailors 
 survived, which, for my reputation's sake, I am glad to say in- 
 cluded myself. We had no Services. To-day it is better. On 
 Saturday we only did 225 miles, yesterday 240, and to-day 247. 
 We are nearing the line, expecting to cross it about 6 o'clock to-
 
 LETTERS 69 
 
 night. The evening begins at 6 prompt. I miss the jolly English 
 twilight which you are enjoying. I often sit and think what you 
 are doing. I shall be thankful when this time of inactivity is over. 
 The hours on board this ship are very funny. We have what 
 amounts to two enormous dinners each day, at 10 and 6. I am 
 quite accustomed now to go starving between the two very bad 
 for one I think. I sometimes long for a decent cup of tea and a 
 hunch of cake ; I haven't tasted any since I left England. The tea 
 is horrid on board, and the milk is condensed and therefore sweet. 
 The women -folk fare worse than I do. 
 
 May 3o///. We are off Pemba now, and hope to land at 
 Zanzibar to-night. The old ship had to stop for an hour early 
 this morning, something got heated. We have been putting on 
 the speed in order to land to-day. It is absolutely calm and we 
 have varied the entertainment with tropical rains. It did come 
 down. I sat in my mackintosh, as we all did, under a double awn- 
 ing ! I wish I had Mr. F here to pack for me ! You will 
 
 imagine I am awfully gloomy from the tone of this letter ; it has 
 been rather hard to be cheery. Snap-shots are out of the question 
 under the awning. I shall post this on board and write again in 
 Zanzibar. We have seen the usual flying-fish, a whale and a 
 grampus, a sun-fish, etc., etc. Will you make any use of this you 
 like ? Give my love to all at St. Aidan's. I do so long for 
 letters ; I wonder if I shall get any ! 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SlM. 
 
 Letter to St. Aidan's Parishioners, dated 
 
 Mbweni, June is/, 1894. 
 MY DEAR PEOPLE, 
 
 I hasten to write to you before all the novelty has worn off. 
 We arrived at Zanzibar on the 3oth. It was quite dark, except for 
 some lights on shore and on other ships, and the Sultan's electric 
 light predominating all, so that I have no impressions as to what 
 the harbour is like. I was heartily thankful to leave shipboard 
 life. It is enough almost to damp all one's zeal to have three 
 weeks of that sort of inactivity. I read nothing but my Swahili 
 books ; but it was always difficult to concentrate one's attention 
 to work. Five or six of the missionaries and the ladies came on 
 board. We sent them all ashore, and I waited wit'i Mr. Faulkner
 
 7O ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 (the General Manager of such things) to get out the luggage and 
 take it ashore. This took us nearly two hours. When we got 
 ashore the luggage was all piled up on the sandy beach, and por- 
 ters carried it up to Mkunazini, about ten minutes' walk. In the 
 meantime we sat on the boxes until the first party of carriers had 
 gone and returned. When I got up to the Clergy House the 
 ladies had gone to their separate abodes. Mr. Brough came in 
 from Mbweni (4 miles) on his bicycle, and he took charge of me. 
 I was told off to stay at Mbweni (where I am at this moment). I 
 got something to eat at Mkunazini, and then rode out here on Mr. 
 Brough's bicycle, while he borrowed another (Mr. Faulkner's), and 
 we rode together. It was pitch-dark, and except that the road is 
 perfectly pure white I should not have known which was road and 
 which not. It was the strangest ride I have ever ridden. The 
 streets (!) in Zanzibar are about six feet wide. They wind about 
 at their own sweet will, and are not lighted except by the shop 
 lamps. Everybody seems to live in public ; every house is wide 
 open to the street with no glass. Of course we led our iron horses 
 through these streets. Eventually we mounted. Mr. Brough's 
 bicycle has not been oiled since it came out ! So off we went. 
 How am I to describe the strange sounds ? The road and the 
 neighbouring scrub were alive with fireflies, and the air full of 
 sound frogs croaking, crickets, etc., chirrupping, an occasional 
 owl hooting : one, a cricket, makes a sound like a phantom 
 bicycle bell (old-fashioned sort !). Well we reached our destina- 
 tion safely, calling at Kiungani on the way to leave letters which 
 had come by our ship. The rains have begun, and the road was a 
 quagmire in places ; but we had no light and could not pick and 
 choose, so we rode through everything. Immediately we got in a 
 perfect deluge came down. We came straight to the Clergy 
 House here, fifty yards from the Girls' School and Home. Mr. 
 Key is in charge. He is the only married Priest in the Mission. 
 Mrs. Key gave us (J. Brough and me) cocoa, and we went to bed. 
 It is the cool season and is really very pleasant. Of course I am 
 wearing my white " ducks," and when I want to look decent, I put 
 on a white cassock ; it covers all blemishes in my attire ! The 
 least exertion makes me perspire as I never have done before. 
 The ride simply bathed me ! I know now something of what the 
 puddlers feel, but I never suffer from thirst. There are always 
 oranges and bananas and lime-juice ('very different from that
 
 LETTERS 71 
 
 bottled stuff you buy in England) to be had. I have not had a 
 headache since I left home, and don't intend to ! How am I to 
 describe this lovely place ? Oh, how I wish I could transplant 
 you here ! What a place for a Sunday School Trip ! What 
 flowers (and it is not the flower season) and what butterflies and 
 trees ! You can't see forty yards for trees cocoa-nut mango, 
 cassarina, acacia, oleander, and countless others that I don't know 
 
 the names of. If Mr. L wants to keep the boys out of his 
 
 fields, let him plant a cactus hedge six feet high and spikes from 
 the very ground ! A boy who has just left Eton, and is going for 
 two years into the Chartered Company's Police in Mashonaland, 
 joined our ship at Aden, and he is waiting for the same ship as I 
 am. I am going to get him here next week. I shall make a 
 butterfly net, and we will make a collection to send you. And 
 now I must tell you about the Mission here ; and first you must 
 understand that the photos you have seen give you no idea of the 
 place. That of the Church is good. The prevailing colour in- 
 side is a yellowish white. The present Church was only meant to 
 be the chancel of the future Cathedral. It is smaller than it looks 
 in the photo ; I should not think it held more than 400. The 
 choir wear red cassocks, which set off their black faces and bare 
 feet altogether very nice. The singing well, it is hearty ! I 
 
 don't know what Mr. D would say to it ! They shout, and 
 
 don't know much what a "head-note" means, and yet it is tune- 
 ful. Of course they sing in Swahili. The English Services are 
 led by an English choir of the residents here. It is all very wonder- 
 ful to think that twenty years ago thirty thousand slaves were sold 
 annually on that very spot ! Such merry children they are, always 
 laughing, not a bit " haclden doon," so reverent in Church, and yet 
 when they grow up sometimes so disappointing. Their idea of 
 the marriage tie is so slack. It is the one problem. In Zanzibar, 
 round the Church is the Clergy House, with Miss Mills' boys 
 (about forty), and next door the Industrial Boys (thirty-eight), under 
 Mr. Lister, and then the Hospital a beautiful little place. In a 
 few days Miss Mills' boys are going to be moved. Mr. Brough 
 has built her a lovely house at Mbweni. Then the Clergy House, 
 which has been threatening to tumble down for the last twenty 
 years, is going to be pulled down and rebuilt. They are building 
 another house and Chapel in the native quarter to be worked by 
 tv/o men : they will meet Mahommedanism mostly, as well as
 
 72 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 much heathenism. This won't be ready for some time yet. Then 
 there is Kiungani, a mile and a half out of Zanzibar on the coast, 
 where, you know, all the boys are, and where Samwil Mhesa * was. 
 (By the bye, I am going to send him a present, a lamp I think, 
 and a knife, and one for his future wife !) A party is going up to 
 Magila next week. 
 
 Archdeacon Jones-Bateman is at Kiungani, and until a new 
 Bishop is appointed he is the head of the Mission. I hope to stay 
 over Sunday at Kiungani. And then there is Mbweni (which 
 means "The Girls' Home") remember it is an estate (S/iamba^ 
 I was going to say of hundreds of acres. There is a village of 
 natives about three hundred freed slaves, who work for wages 
 for the Mission. Building is the principal work, which means 
 also lime-burning, carrying sand and stone, quarrying, etc. There 
 are carpenters' shops, such as a contractor in England like Mr. 
 H - requires. The villagers also till the ground foi them- 
 selves, and grow rice, maize, mahogo (like tapioca), sweet potatoes, 
 and such like. They live in native houses one or two rooms 
 thatched from roof to floor. They have their own Church and Parish 
 School for boys ; the girls go to the big School. Then there is 
 the Girls' School a boarding School of course. I think most of 
 the girls are freed slaves. Some are Shamba (village) children. I 
 haven't been over the School yet, though 1 hope to go this after- 
 noon. They have a Chapel attached to the School where they have 
 a daily Celebration English and Swahili on alternate clays. This 
 is at 6.45. Mr. Brough built the Chapel. 
 
 I am staying at the Clergy House, about fifty yards fiom the 
 School. Mr. and Mrs. Key live here and Mr. Brough. Then the 
 Clergy and others in the town use it very much as a place of rest, 
 if they feel fever at all or are done up. One of them, Mr. Fir- 
 minger, walked out with me last night and intends to stay till 
 Saturday evening. 
 
 \Ve have just had lunch (11.30), and I am sitting in the baraza, 
 or open-air sitting-room, over the porch. It has a roof of corru- 
 gated iron and then thatch on the top of that and is of comse 
 delightfully cool. About twenty yards from me is a bush eighteen 
 feet high a mass of magenta flowers bougainvillea ; another to 
 
 1 A native boy, whose maintenance is undertaken by the scholars cf St. 
 Aiilarrs Church, West Ilartlepool.
 
 LETTERS 73 
 
 the left of mauve ; right opposite, an oleander, and on all sides 
 crotons of a thousand variegated leaves. Flying all about are 
 Java sparrows, much more cheeky than English sparrows ; and 
 now and then one gets a glimpse of a brilliant little bird one a 
 coppery black, with a brilliant scarlet shirt front, cut in fashionable 
 proportions ; another with a yellow breast and shiny green back. 
 The flowering bushes are thronged with butterflies of every hue. 
 
 The Shamba is extended by Miss Thackeray's purchase of Sir 
 John Kirk's estate. It is of course her own property,. but every 
 one regards it as Mission property. She has a good many freed 
 slaves living on her Shamba. The sea is immediately below us. 
 I could flip a pebble into it from where I am sitting, about forty 
 or sixty feet down a steep slope covered with greenery. The 
 children were bathing a few minutes ago. Their ordinary gar- 
 ment is a sort of bathing-gown, so they just walk in, and such a 
 row they make ! How their dress dries I don't know ! Perhaps 
 it just dries on them. 
 
 The road out to Mbweni goes a little further to one of the Sul- 
 tan's palaces. The present Sultan has only one wife, but all 
 previously had many, and these palaces were then useful. The 
 road is the only one out of Zanzibar, and was made by the Mission 
 in Bishop Steere's time. The Mission keeps it in repair and the 
 Sultan pays for it. It is a very good road fourteen feet wide, 
 very smooth and white. 
 
 I went into town yesterday to unpack my things, with a view to 
 re-arranging them. The Miss Nicoll, who came out in our ship, 
 was married at three in the afternoon. Then in my efforts to find 
 
 young Mr. S (of whom I have spoken before as coming out 
 
 here next week for a few days), I came across a sailor who hailed 
 from \Yest Hartlepool a Greek married to a Seaham Harbour 
 woman, and living in Christopher Street. It was just a little 
 breath of home. He was as much pleased as I was, and ex- 
 pressed a wish that he was walking down to the Park instead of 
 in the streets of Zanzibar ; in which I agreed, though I should 
 prefer Stockton Road on my way to Longhill ! My ship leaves 
 on the gth. There may be an invalid with me until I get out at 
 Chinde ; then I shall be alone. I am going on by the Union line. 
 I have had no letters yet from home since I left Marseilles, and I 
 don't know when I shall get any. 1 need not say how much I long 
 for them. The French mail i'South\ is expected in to-day ; letters
 
 74 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 of course will not come by it, but they are expected by the British 
 India boat. 
 
 June ~2.nd. I went in again to town yesterday to do some shop- 
 ping, and then in the evening I tried another mode of progression 
 to bring me home, viz., a donkey ! Mr. Brough and I rode out 
 together. It was great fun as the donkeys were quite willing to 
 go. It is not so warming as the bicycle. I confess I would rather 
 ride a horse ; I was in mortal dread of landing over the donkey's 
 head ; however the stirrups were a great help. 
 
 Now I have told you nothing of my impressions of the actual 
 missionary work here. How can I pretend to judge of it in 
 these few days ? All a stranger can see is the School work and 
 the rows of happy boys' and girls' faces. The Industrial Boys' 
 School is in splendid hands under Mr. Lister, and it has I should 
 think a great future before it. The work on the Island is mainly 
 educational preparing teachers, etc., for the Mission stations on the 
 mainland. There is preaching in the streets, and there is this new 
 work in the native quarter about to be set on foot. The Services 
 are really beautifully rendered in the Cathedral ; the attendance 
 is of course chiefly that of the staff and Schools. There are 
 English Services on Sunday and sermons in English ; of them I 
 shall be able to judge to-morro\v. I think the work suffers from 
 the constant and unavoidable changes in the staff, through fever. 
 Men are always wanted and taken from their proper work to 
 undertake that of some sick man who has had to go into the 
 hospital. For myself I would rather go to Nyasa than stay here. 
 What I long for is real mission work. The Priest-in-charge at 
 Mbweni has something more like Parish work at home, only his 
 parishioners are black. 
 
 I have no doubt a missionary's life is full of endless little duties : 
 almost everything he does he must do himself, or at least superin- 
 tend. I intend spending some time over my boots with a rag and 
 some grease this morning ! When I am about to leave the haunts 
 of civilization (not before) I shall get the Treasurer (Mr. Daven- 
 port) to cut my hair. There is a good deal of "cut" about his 
 work, but there is little hair left to tell the style ! It has the 
 advantage of being cool ! 
 
 The French mail is in, and so this letter must go almost at once. 
 You will see from what I have written that I am very happy. I 
 shall be much more content when I am at work. I am afraid I
 
 LETTERS 
 
 /O 
 
 shall be very useless for some time, because even the little Swahili 
 I have learned will be almost useless at Nyasa, where they speak 
 Chinyanja or Yao. 
 
 When shall I write again I wonder. I will try and send a line 
 to tell you whether I reach Chinde in safety. In the meantime I 
 know you remember me in prayer, as I do you every day. 
 Ever your affectionate Friend, 
 
 ARTHUR F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L. , dated 
 
 Mbweni, June 4///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 I spent Sunday at Kiungani, but saw only a little of the 
 Archdeacon. I communicated at the Swahili Celebration, and 
 then went into Zanzibar for the English Service. There are very 
 few English residents ; most of them seemed to be there. It is 
 rather awful the way everybody gets fever. You can make no 
 certain arrangements, for you can never count on any one being 
 well two days together. Dr. Palmer is Priest-in-charge at Mkuna- 
 zini (in the town) ; he had fever on Sunday, but had to take work 
 with his temperature at 102. One of the ladies from Mbweni has 
 been taken into the hospital to-day, and half a dozen others are on 
 the verge of, or just out of fever. In Zanzibar there are three 
 places : i. The hospital (new) for natives and the staff no room 
 and no time for any others. There is another good hospital in the 
 town. 2. Then there is the Clergy House, and forty little boys 
 under Miss Mills. 3. The Home for Industrial Boys (thirty-eight) 
 under Mr. Lister, a layman. These are apprenticed to tradesmen 
 in the town, and so they have trades a few to use in the service of 
 the Mission, others to get their own living afterwards. Then of 
 course there is the Church. At Kiungani there is the Boys' School 
 (a mile and a half South of Zanzibar), one hundred and thirty boys ; 
 four miles South of Zanzibar is Mbweni, the Girls' School ; and 
 fifty yards from it the Clergy House, where I am staying. To- 
 morrow there are four weddings coming off, between three boys 
 of Kiungani and one of the Industrial boys and girls at Mbweni. 
 On the mainland there is a settlement at Dar es Salaam (eight 
 hours by steamer) of the people from the Mbweni freed slave 
 village. Mbweni is three-quarters by half a mile, but it is too 
 small to support all the people. They are employed in building,
 
 76 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 etc., by the Mission ; but for the most part they ought to be able 
 to grow enough food to feed themselves and their families. It is 
 hoped that ground may be got in English territory on the main- 
 land where superfluous families may be transplanted. We have a 
 native Deacon working at Dar es Salaam, who is doing very well. 
 June 6th. The weddings came off in great style yesterday ; all 
 was very nice. The newly-married and a few friends communi- 
 cated. I have never seen an English wedding so reverent and 
 orderly. The Church was packed. One can't speak too highly of 
 the work that is going on here. Much has to be left undone for 
 want of funds, and much is half done by reason of the constant 
 sickness of the men. The poor fellow who preached on Sunday is 
 in hospital now, dangerously ill. I hear that Wimbush has been 
 sent home very ill ; this is the last of the Sunderland lot (seven 
 men). I offered to wait here for a month to take Dr. Palmer's 
 work ; he had proposed a holiday journey to Magila, but Tyr- 
 whitt's illness prevents it. However they think I ought to go on to 
 Nyasa. I am quite fit and in no way disappointed with the work 
 on the contrary. But it will require a wise man to be Bishop ; the 
 problems of heathenism are so fearful, and the question as to the 
 development of the work requires the greatest wisdom and fore- 
 sight. . . . Pray for us. I can imagine it is hard to say one's 
 prayers properly here sometimes, owing to lassitude. Farewell. 
 
 (jive my love to M and the bairns. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Union s.s. " Pretoria" June g//t, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 I am now on my way to Chinde from Zanzibar. I left on 
 June gth, and expect to reach Chinde on June 14th ; then I put 
 myself into the hands of the Lakes' Co., and trust eventually to 
 reach Nyasa in a month's time. 
 
 I was glad to see the life in Zanzibar, though it was rather 
 horrid being so idle while men and women were being knocked up 
 all round one with over-work. While I was there Miss Willion, a 
 nurse in the hospital, died after three days of great anxiety. She 
 died at 6.30 p.m., and was buried at 9 a.m. the next morning. It 
 was a very solemn thir.g. I was present at the early Celebration. 
 One felt rather the risk to life ; so many were either on the verge
 
 LETTERS 77 
 
 of fever, or in the hospital, or just out. Miss Willion had been out 
 only a year. The Clergy and nurses suffer most : perhaps both 
 are over-worked. The laymen are perhaps more sensible ; and 
 yet they all, even the healthiest of them, bear their scars. Two of 
 them have had a temperature of 107, and one of 108, and live to 
 tell the tale ! 
 
 Before leaving I heard that Wimbush was on his way home, so 
 perhaps I shall never get to Unangu, but have to stay in Likoma. 
 At any rate either will be better than Zanzibar I mean more of 
 the real thing. The only post I covet in Zanzibar is Priest-in- 
 charge at Mkunazini (town). I would make the men take more 
 care of themselves, and the nurses too. I think it is such a pity 
 they should be teetotalers there. I would make them drink a 
 light wine. At present they only drink under doctor's orders. I 
 feel sure that high living is the secret of long living there. 
 
 June i^th. At Quilimane. We stopped at Mozambique at 
 twelve on Monday, the nth. After tea I went ashore with the two 
 
 first-class passengers, Mr. H and Mr. S , who joined the 
 
 " Ainazone" at Aden, and have come on in this boat. The latter 
 is going to Mashonaland and the former to England. We walked 
 round the island, and came to the cemetery at the far end where 
 Ellis Viner and Pollard are buried. Such a barren, bleak place 
 about one and a half miles by half a mile all sand, and an old 
 fort at one end. We took the Portuguese Bishop and a Priest on 
 board there ; they gave him a salute of fifteen guns ! Here we 
 are anchored twenty miles from Quilimane. A tender takes pas- 
 sengers and cargo ashore, and then takes the Chinde passengers 
 and cargo, and we (two passengers) spend a night on board the 
 tug. Chinde, forty miles from Quilimane, at the southern mouth 
 of the Zambesi, is the head-quarters of the Lakes' Co. I believe 
 they take charge of me, and in time hand me over to the Zambesi 
 mosquito and the hippopotamus fly ; the latter has patent pinchers 
 warranted to go through any clothes ! 
 
 And now farewell again. It is more than a month since I have 
 
 heard from any one, except old K . I got a letter from him, 
 
 dated May nth, at Zanzibar. I long for news. How is all going? 
 Remember me affectionately to all old friends. 
 
 Dominus Vobiscum. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 78 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 African Lakes' Co., Chinde, June 2U/, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 Here I am waiting again. I suppose on the whole I ought to 
 consider myself lucky eight days in Zanzibar, five days in Quili- 
 mane, seven or eight here, and who knows how many at Blantyre 
 or elsewhere on the way. It is horrid waiting. Even at Zanzibar, 
 where one was among one's own people, I felt useless and out of 
 place ; and here they are all Presbyterians, but they are very kind. 
 Frorn Zanzibar I have had a companion. He is the most in- 
 sufferable bore I have ever met, and I consider my life a burden 
 until I shall have seen the last of him at Mandala. He is the 
 worst of all bores, a religious one, and starts the most solemn 
 and- sacred questions in the presence of those who take no interest 
 in religious matters ! It is at least a capital lesson in patience. 
 At Quilimane, forty miles from here, we were handed over to a 
 small tug-boat. This was on Thursday last, June I4th. And from 
 the "Pretoria" which anchored outside the bar, we were taken into 
 Quilimane (twenty miles), and there we remained till the following 
 Monday. Imagine my sentiments on being transferred to this 
 little dirty tug-boat passengers and crew living and sleeping in a 
 cabin aft not quite as big as my study ! Ten of us in all ; the 
 table and floor were called into requisition! The captain was a 
 dear old man. The chief engineer delighted my ears the first 
 night with a choice selection of "Billingsgate" and worse, and tHe 
 crew giggled at his coarse jokes. But he never uttered another 
 coarse word after the first night and we lived on the best of terms 
 and played a rubber or two of whist and now he has the loan of 
 some of my books. He is a type of the man who comes out 
 here. What good word can you expect for Missions from such 
 men ? And they tar them all with the same brush, dealing out 
 accusations of all kinds with a lavish hand. The pity of it is 
 they get such ready credence at home. One of the passengers, 
 who lives at Chiromo (in the Zambesi Flotilla Co.), accused the 
 Blantyre Mission of all kinds of villainies. I do not believe one 
 word of it. 
 
 Saturday, June i^rd. I expect to get off on Monday. Once I 
 reach Likoma, I feel it will take horses to get me away with this 
 tedious journey before me. I haven't told you how we came here. 
 Last Monday, the i8th, we left Quilimane in the tug-boat " Union." 
 Oh, that Quilimane bar ! We left at 7 a.m., and reached here at
 
 LETTERS 79 
 
 5 p.m. (forty miles). I did not think I should ever know what sea- 
 sickness was. I. was not sick, but was not far off it. Three of the 
 crew were worse than I was ! The whole time we had water 
 swilling round on the decks, and constantly one or other gunwale 
 was under water. I have never experienced such a queer business, 
 and could not have believed a boat could live through it ! Well, 
 we got here all right, and the skipper comforted us by saying it 
 was nothing to what it is sometimes ! Here we are lodged in a 
 grand house specially built for passengers by the African Lakes' 
 Co., but there are no appliances. So I have been very busy, with 
 another man, doctoring, building, digging, carpentering, etc., etc., 
 and just now cooking. 
 
 Really there is no time to do all there is to be done ! Doctor- 
 ing ! Both the African Lakes' Co.'s men living in this house have 
 been ill with fever no doctor ; the temperature of one was 106, 
 of the other 105, and we can't get it down at all. He is so sick. 
 Three men in the tug " Union " I had to doctor ! I haven't had a 
 pain in even my toe yet, but I fancy the journey up will try me it 
 does most people. Chinde is an awful place. The British have a 
 concession of a square mile from the Portuguese. The Portuguese 
 are very much in the background, but all goods are taxed. It 
 would be a good thing if they could be bought out. Chinde is all 
 sand loose, fine sand such a labour to walk in ! Nothing will 
 grow except in the marsh. There are perhaps fifty white men and 
 a growing village of blacks. The Lakes' Co. is the biggest, 
 but there are two or three other trading Companies. Everything 
 is fearfully dear here owing to Portuguese taxation. Last night I 
 dined with the Consul, and met the captain of the " Blonde " cruiser 
 and the naval lieutenant, who came on a visit to Chinde and 
 
 nearly got drowned crossing the bar in their pinnace. Capt. F 
 
 was captain of the "^r/V/,"and lunched once at 31, Norfolk Street 
 
 in 1886 ; he remembered F- , W , L , etc. He talked 
 
 twenty to the dozen, and I enjoyed the evening not the less for a 
 rubber of whist. To-morrow I am to take Service on the " Mos- 
 quito'' 1 gunboat, at 9.30 a.m. I am glad of the chance of meeting 
 a few "shell-backs." I don't brood much, but when I begin think- 
 ing of home there is a sort of longing for the old familiar faces. 
 It is a capital discipline this. One is nobody here as one ought 
 to be only those dear old people in a big town somewhere in 
 the North tried to make one think differently. While I am writ-
 
 8O ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 ing you are just drawing stumps ; it is striking six. I am writing 
 in my bedroom by the help of a flickering candle. It is quite dark 
 at 6 p.m. 
 
 The sermon I preach to-morrow will be my first since leaving 
 home ! I am yearning for news from you. The last news I have 
 heard was the Derby winner and Mr. Mundella's retirement ! Is 
 the Church disestablished in Wales ? Is the Government still un- 
 changed ? What has happened in West Hartlepool ? What is 
 happening at St. Aidan's ? Have you forgotten my existence ? 
 Next week you will all be at Auckland. I left a telegram to be 
 sent in time. I hope Mr. Davenport won't forget it. I also wrote 
 to the Bishop, but he won't get it till too late, I fear. And now, 
 good-bye again. God bless you a hundred times. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L , dated 
 
 Chincle, June 24^/1, 1894. 
 
 My DEAR , 
 
 This morning I took Service on one of the gunboats ; the 
 Consul and a few other English came on board, and I am to 
 take Service here (at the African Lakes Passenger House) this 
 evening at 7.30. I enjoyed meeting the "shell-backs'' very 
 much. . . . On Friday coming over the Chincle bar the steam 
 launch of the ''''Blonde'' 1 was pooped and her fires put out ; she 
 had to anchor for two hours and relight them. 
 
 It is shocking the way Europeans treat natives, and worse the 
 way they speak of any good work among them. I am afraid it 
 must be confessed that the native is lazy and stupid ; but he has 
 not been accustomed to work, and I think half his stupidity is 
 due to his not understanding the orders given to him, and he is 
 flurried and bothered by the Englishman's hasty temper. I hope 
 Bishop Hornby will be able to get a man for the river to work 
 among the English. It was not what I came out for ; but the 
 Bishop was just sounding me I think, and yet it is important 
 work. 
 
 June 2y//i. I went to breakfast with Capt. Carr, of the " J/os- 
 ijuito? this morning. It was a comfort to hear him speak well 
 of the two boys he has had for a year from the Mission in Zanzi- 
 bar. ... I still maintain rude health, and have had no reason
 
 LETTERS Si 
 
 to complain of the African climate yet. I am comforted by the 
 anticipation of a bad bout when I do get the fever ! I hope I 
 shall get some shooting on my way up the river. Buffalo, 
 lions, and buck abound at Chiromo. One of the officers on the 
 ''Herald'' 1 gunboat shot five lions the other clay. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 H.M.S. "Mosquito? Chinde,/?/;^ ^ot/t, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 Mail day will always be a mixed pleasure ; it ,makes me 
 think of home in rather a depressing way. The officers on board 
 this gunboat got their letters yesterday (there are only the captain 
 and the doctor), and both of them were very quiet all the evening, 
 talked of retiring from the service, and so on. It is not time for 
 me to begin complaining yet. I expect when my first three years 
 are up I shall long for home too much to resist the temptation of 
 a visit to the old folks. Alas ! What changes there will be ! If 
 only one could find things just as one left them. Well, I can't tell 
 you anything yet of missionary work. My time seems just to 
 have been spent in constant delays, of which I am thoroughly sick, 
 though this little time on the " Mosquito " has been very pleasant. 
 Both doctor and captain are very nice men. 
 
 Of all the many missionaries who pass through Chinde the only 
 ones I have heard a good word for are our people. Of course that 
 may be in consideration of my presence. However people are not 
 sparing of condemnation. But if missionaries are doing no good, 
 the ordinary trader does a great deal of harm. I am not going to 
 give my "well-considered opinion" of the native till I think I 
 know something of him. But from the little I have seen of him, I 
 am afraid he is a low character ; still that is no reason for desert- 
 ing him. At any rate the children ought to be redeemable. . . . 
 You will be glad to know, as I daresay you guessed before, that 
 the Mission is worked on Catholic lines. It is astonishing to find 
 the ritual so reverently and carefully carried out as it was in 
 Zanzibar. The language, on the whole, rather lent itself to such 
 purposes, I thought. Xo one here speaks Swahili. The little I 
 knoxv is quite useless ; a fe\v words are the same, and the con- 
 struction is similar, but otherwise I have to set about learning a 
 new language from the very start. And now I have said enough
 
 82 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 about myself. I do miss you all more than I can tell, and some- 
 times faithless regrets come into my mind. One is so apt to 
 forget that one works for Eternity. Except for my friends, what 
 have I given up ? In Africa one has to lay hold of every luxury 
 that conies in one's way. Poor living is specially productive of 
 sickness, and I believe that even absolute teetotalism is bad for 
 one. I cannot feel that I have chosen poverty ; all my wants are 
 supplied ; I even have a gun and a rifle, and have already shot 
 at hippopotami without success ! Please tell me all about the 
 people whenever you write, who is sick, and who is well, and if 
 any die. And please remember me to all my Longhill friends. 
 
 Often I wish I had one of those boys with me, G. T , for 
 
 instance ; we could talk about old times, and one would not be 
 so lonely. There are such a lot of people I ought to have said 
 good-bye to before I left, but there was no time. If only I could 
 have had these wasted days there instead of here ! I do hope the 
 Sunday School is keeping up. The Band of Hope is of course 
 over. Remember me if you will to . , but it would take up 
 all my paper if I named them all. I never forget them, and often 
 sit in a "brown study" thinking of the dear old place. 
 
 Yours, etc.. 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Chinde, B.C. A. ,Jitly 2nd, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I am to leave Chinde to-day and it may be some time before 
 you hear from me again. I am still on board the "Mosquito." 
 Capt. Carr has been awfully kind to me. I have been his guest 
 since last Wednesday. I have been here nearly three weeks. It 
 seems an interminable time since I left Zanzibar. I long to reach 
 the end of my journey. This is an awful hole, though I daresay 
 that is because I have nothing to do. There is a cement tennis- 
 court, and a level place in the roughest field imaginable, which in 
 the wet season is a marsh, where they pitch a wicket and play 
 cricket. They are ambitious and intend to level the whole field. 
 I still maintain my resistance to the fever and I hope I shall long 
 do so. Indeed I never felt better than I do now, but I am living 
 like a lord here. 
 
 I was awfully glad to get some letters here, and your two papers 
 the " Strand"' and the " Picture Magazine?
 
 LETTERS 83 
 
 I expect I shall reach Likoma about the beginning of August ! 
 I have in other letters described the various beauties of this 
 place. I have had a shot at hippo from the boat and seen 
 crocodile ; hippo-shooting when they are in the water is literally 
 snap-shooting with a rifle, and generally at a hundred yards. So 
 it is no wonder that we did not "bag :! the wily hippo. The whole 
 ship's company were armed ; it was a perfect fusilade. I have 
 taken some photos, but have no chance of developing or printing 
 them till I get to Likoma. 
 
 The doctor reports a case of blackwater fever on board this 
 morning. This seems to be the most deadly form of fever. The 
 skipper at this moment is getting his hair cut by a bluejacket. 
 My hair was scientifically cut by one of the laymen at Zanzibar, 
 and I shall go till I can get a bluejacket on the Upper Shire to do 
 it for me. It is funny to think of you looking forward to winter ; 
 at least it is past midsummer, and probably it will be August 
 before you get this. When you write please send me plenty of 
 gossip. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 On the Zambesi, July $//i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 At last I am on my way from Chinde. We started yester- 
 day at 2.30 p.m., and got as far as where the Chinde river branches 
 from the Zambesi. This morning we have been delayed till 10 
 o'clock by fog. I am on a stern-wheeler, fairly fast, and would be 
 comfortable if we were not so crowded three ladies and five men ! 
 The ladies have one cabin to themselves about the size of a pill- 
 box, and we take the saloon, which, with five of us, is pretty thick ; 
 but I have what I consider the best place, across the door in my 
 camp-bed. Indeed it was rather cold this morning. I wished I 
 had another blanket. It is quite a mistake to think Africa is 
 always broiling. I am so thankful for my Norfolk jacket, which 
 you remember I was nearly leaving behind. In fact once I was 
 reduced to wearing my thick great-coat. It is getting hot now 
 (io.3O\ but the breeze is cool. The presence of the ladies involves 
 manoeuvring to get a "tub.'' I think shaving is a superfluous 
 luxury. Here we are on the Zambesi (about a mile broad) with
 
 8 4- ARTH UR FRA SER SIM 
 
 two native pilots to pick out the channel, which winds about the 
 whole breadth of the river. Hippos and crocodiles are on every 
 sandbank, but they disappear when they see us. 
 
 July "]th. It will take us ten or eleven days from Chinde to 
 Chiromo, where we tranship into house-boats, and get paddled up 
 as far as Katunga's ; thence we go by land to Blantyre, and thence 
 by land again to Matope ; then the lake journey begins. Our 
 
 party consists of Dr. and Mrs. L , Miss S , for Bandawe, 
 
 opposite Likoma, Mr. I and Mrs. V , for Tanganyika 
 
 (they are of the London Missionary Society, I think) and a Mr. 
 C , a sportsman who distinguished himself last year by shoot- 
 ing two white rhinoceros, which are very rare. There are a lot of 
 natives on board too. The English crew consists of the captain 
 and the engineer. We are towing two lighters. Though we are 
 
 A BRANCH OF THE ZAMEUSI. 
 
 all going up under the auspices of the African Lakes' Company, 
 this boat belongs to the Zambesi Flotilla Company. I think it is 
 faster than any other boat on the river, except of course the gun- 
 boats. Business is not very solid here. Everybody is .waiting for 
 the coffee, of which great things are expected. Sugar too is a 
 good thing, and there is one very big concern, with electric light 
 plant and a miniature railway, at Mopea, near Yiccnti, which last 
 we expect to reach to-day, and where we shall lose Mr. C 
 who is a very nice fellow. The river here is about a mile or a 
 mile and a half wide, but sandbanks arc very frequent, and our 
 course is consequently a zig-zag one. On these sandbanks cioco-
 
 LETTERS 85 
 
 diles frequently lie. We shoot at them, and they immediately 
 wriggle into the water. I feel sure they are often hit, but they 
 are such a pest that it is almost a duty to try and exterminate 
 them. Hippos too are rather numerous, but they are hard to kill, 
 so \ve scarcely ever shoot at them. We burn wood in these 
 steamers, and consequently our clothes often get burnt by a falling 
 spark. I have a hole as big as half a crown in one of my karkec 
 
 coats. Mrs. L 's umbrella had half of one side burnt and the 
 
 white cover too. Every morning we have been delayed by mist 
 till about 10.30. This morning the mist cleared about 8 o'clock, 
 and we got away early. We draw into the side every night at 
 sunset, about 5.45. The boys go ashore to sleep, lighting fires and 
 making a lot of noise. You can't imagine how cold and wet the 
 mist is in the morning. The decks are as wet as if it had rained 
 heavily, and it is bitterly cold. I have taken to sleeping in the 
 wheel-house ; the saloon is too crowded for my taste. This is a 
 very badly-fitted boat. All the glass is out of the wheel-house 
 windows, and so I stuff them up with anything I can find handy, 
 generally spare sail-cloth. We have just passed the " Henry 
 Henderson" the Blantyre Mission boat. She is engaged in traffic 
 as much as in Mission work, and carries passengers for the Laket' 
 Company. We are in sight of the Morambala Mountains. They 
 are about 4,000 feet high I believe ; otherwise the horizon is as 
 flat as it can be. All that we see of the banks is a fine sand. I 
 daresay it is mud at the bottom of the river, but even the sand 
 seems most fertile. 
 
 Sunday, jth after Trinity. Another Sunday on my journey. I 
 spend much of my time on Sundays thinking of you. To-day we 
 put into a wooding station, so after saying Matins to myself I 
 went ashore and executed the enclosed sketch, 1 which you may 
 send to next years Academy if you like. 
 
 The boat, or rather the upper deck of it, is in the foreground. 
 I am sitting on a high bank, and looking down upon it. Mrs. 
 
 L and some others are distinguishable to an artistic eye, and 
 
 in the distance are the Morambala high lands. That part of the 
 picture I consider good. Now we have put off again, and are just 
 going to have breakfast (11.15 a-m.). We have tea and bread and 
 jam at 7 or 8 a.m., afternoon tea at 3, and dinner at sunset. We 
 haven't stuck on a sandbank yet. There is a monkey and a 
 1 Sec next page.
 
 86 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 mongoose on board ; they are great fun, but monstrous full of 
 fleas. 
 
 Monday, July 9///. We reached Misongwe (above Vicenti) last 
 night, and slept there, though it was early to anchor ; but we had 
 finished all our bread, and so waited to get palm-wine yeast to 
 bake fresh bread with. Mr. C - left us there. Isn't it funny, 
 when we were talking last night, he said : " Do you know any- 
 thing of Cheltenham ?" and it turned out he was at school there 
 from 1884 to 1887. Then he was in the Bechuanaland Border 
 Police, and through the Matabcle Campaign. I believe there are 
 several old Cheltonians out here. So we talked about the old 
 School till late at night. We put a half-caste passenger ashore at 
 Misongwe against his will. He had stolen a bottle of whisky and 
 
 "* ^ * ^r ' ' * -^*%j&' 
 S2^il8liiJRIK 
 
 ., 
 
 H^f"'Hf^r 
 
 a pair of new boots ; so he will have to make the best of it on a 
 desert shore (more or less). 
 
 July \"- 3 tli. We arc ncaring Chiromo now, which, is the furthest 
 limit which this boat can reach, owing to the lowness of the water. 
 We have been aground a doxen times to-day, perhaps more. Once 
 all the black boys were sent into the water to find where the 
 channel was. The country is hilly here ; nothing very high, but 
 reminding one of the Perthshire hills. All seem to be clothed 
 with trees to the top. To-day I have my firbl experience of fever.
 
 LETTERS 87 
 
 Three of us are seedy ; mine is very slight, a bad headache and 
 aches in the bones, very like the " Flu." I am not surprised at 
 having it, the broiling day and the bitterly cold mist at night 
 drenching everything, clearing up between 8 and 10 each morning. 
 
 I post this at Chiromo, which is a British station. There is a 
 lot of life in this river hippos, crocodile, ibis, crane, kingfisher, 
 fish-eagle, etc., etc. 
 
 I think of you people many a time, and wonder what you are 
 doing. I shall be at Likoma I daresay at the bey inning of 
 August. 
 
 July I5///. 8//i Sunday after Trinity. Another Sunday on my 
 journey ! This makes five since I left Zanzibar, and only Com- 
 munion once. I feel a heathen. Ever since landing at Chincle I 
 have been among Presbyterians. My touch of fever is still on me, 
 chiefly in the head ; temperature 102 J . I shall take fifteen grains 
 of antipyrine to-night and sweat it out of me. We are off the 
 boat now. It is a comfort not sleeping on the floor with sore 
 bones ! Tell me all the news. Love to all of you. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Miss H. A. S , dated 
 
 Mandala, Blantyre, July 2yd, 1894, 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 The river journey is a roughish business, and one only has 
 the barest necessities in the way of clothing, etc. Everything else 
 is stowed away in lighters towed alongside. I may well say that 
 I am more than half way now. I expect to leave this very soon, 
 and then the last stage of my journey will have begun. 
 
 Zanzibar arrived May 3ist, left June gth. 
 
 Quilimane June i-jtb, ,, ,, iSth. 
 
 Chincle iSth, July 4th. 
 
 Chiromo July I4th, ,, ,, i6th. 
 
 Katunga's iQth, 2ist. 
 
 Mandala ,, 2ist. 
 
 Now my next stage is thirty-five miles by macJiila in one day ; 
 then up the river in a house-boat to Fort Johnston, six or seven 
 clays from here, and there our own steamer meets me. Ouilimane 
 was a roughish experience eight of us in a little cabin in a tug-
 
 88 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 boat for four nights doing nothing ; and that delay wasted a fort- 
 night for me, for I just missed a steamer coming up. . . . We 
 came to Chiromo in ten days nine passengers, and two English- 
 men to work the boat. It was too crowded ; three ladies made a 
 great difference in such cramped conditions. The cabin was so 
 full that after the first night I slept in the wheel-house, which was 
 exactly my length, on the floor ; the cork mattress came in most 
 handy. It was awfully cold and unwholesome, so that when we 
 reached Chiromo four of us had a touch of fever. . . . We 
 slept a couple of nights at Katunga's, delayed by the rain. How- 
 
 TKAVELUNG IN A MACHII.A. 
 
 ever we stalled on Saturday at 11.30 and reached here at 8. The 
 utachila is a hammock slung on a bamboo a not very comfortable 
 mode cf travelling, especially if the boys let you down a few times. 
 You lie flat and two men carry you ; eight men go to one machila, 
 They do the twenty-eight miles between Katunga's and Mandala 
 in about eight hours. However I did not like being carried, 
 so I got out and walked most of the way, and felt thoroughly 
 tired out when I got in here in pitch darkness at 8 p.m., but 
 very much better for my walk, for I had a headache all the way 
 from Chiromo, solely from want of exercise. You can't imagine
 
 LETTERS 89 
 
 what a civilized place this is, and it is quite cold. It is funny that 
 no one ever told me to provide warm clothing. It was very cold 
 on the river in the early morning, and it is always cold here as 
 cold as English spring weather about April. There are fir trees 
 growing, wide roads, some brick houses, and wood fires all day 
 long ; pine apples (not ripe yet), papai, coffee, guavas, oranges, 
 lemons, limes, mangoes (not ripe), cabbages, etc. I believe any- 
 thing would grow. Everybody is mad on coffee it is the coming 
 thing. . . . Everybody is Scotch here. This is the centre of 
 the Scotch Established Church Mission, and very civilized. It is 
 also the head station of the African Lakes' Company. They are 
 the principal, in fact fan; the only trading Company. Of course 
 English things are very dear ; labour is cheap, and that is all. 
 The best food, besides fruit, is tinned ; it is really very good. The 
 African fowl is the staple food ; what a beast it is, tasteless and 
 tough ! All African meat is the same ; it is only eatable in rissoles 
 and done up. The native eats no meat, but only rice and maize. 
 
 July 241/1. There are sixty or seventy Europeans here. I 
 dined at the Manse last night quite an English home, charming 
 people. Fancy a sale of work here on Wednesday taking ^140, 
 and a concert in the evening. I dine with the Administration 
 Agent to-night, by name McMaster ; he says he is remotely con- 
 nected with the Vicar. . . . 
 
 The road to Matope, i.e., the thirty-five miles ahead from here, 
 is rather disturbed. It often happens that men with loads are 
 fired at, and yesterday a man was seized by a lion. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 On the Mission boat u Shcrriff" on the Upper Shire, 
 
 July jo///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 It is 7.30 ; we stopped at 6, put into the bank, lit a fire, 
 boiled soup and water, and now I have finished dinner at the 
 fashionable hour of 7.30. No one ever felt so like Robinson 
 Crusoe as I at this moment. I am monarch of all I survey, having 
 parted from the rest of my fellow-travellers at Blantyre. They 
 went on ahead of me while I waited for the Mission boat. 1 
 have a crew of ten boys ; all but two are Christians, and they are 
 catechumens. I have a teacup and pot (Mr. F 's gift), a
 
 90 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 saucepan, and a slop-bowl. In the latter each course is served. 
 I have also a knife, fork, and spoon all in one. My provisions lor 
 a week consist of four tins of soup, two tins of corned beef, two 
 of condensed milk, tea, butter (in a tin), cocoa, sardines, sugar, 
 and salt. I bought eight eggs this morning for two boxes of 
 matches, and at the British Central African Administration Station 
 exchanged a box of sweet biscuits for half a tin of water ditto, 
 half a loaf of sodden bread, and a piece of cake. So I am now 
 luxuriating in fresh bread ! I am sitting in my shirt. It is chilly 
 early in the morning, but very hot here in the daytime a change 
 from Mandala, which was never oppressively hot. The boat is 
 about eighteen or twenty feet long. My house in the stern is 
 thatched with reeds and grass. I can sit on my chair in it, but 
 cannot stand upright. I spread my bed on the bottom boards, 
 and have my bath and all my meals in it of course each in its 
 
 turn. I doirt know what I should do without Mr. S ; s filter. 
 
 Oh, the mosquitoes ! ! ! Each clay I boil water, and have tea and 
 biscuits about 6, then prayers, and off about 7 (prayer in Chinyanja 
 with the boys). They know morning and evening prayer by heart. 
 My part is that of a worshipper in a foreign language. I could 
 take prayers, but the only Prayer-book has most of the leaves torn 
 out ! What remain I take. The Scripture consists of the first 
 nineteen chapters of the Acts. None of the boys speak English, 
 so I make them talk slowly while I look out each word in a dic- 
 tionary ! I want to reach Fort Johnston on Thursday. There 
 I expect to meet Madan on his return from a visit of inspection, 
 and Matthews, skipper of the " Ch<irlcs Janson^'' who is ill, suffer- 
 ing as Wimbush was in the legs ; he is almost paralysed. Seeing 
 therefore that there was a sick man in the case, I felt justified in 
 starting from Matope on Sunday afternoon. I left Mandala on 
 Saturday at 7.30, and reached Matope in a machila at 4.20, thirty- 
 six miles (good travelling I think). 
 
 July 3 1\/. I have just finished an alclermanic dinner gravy- 
 soup, fowl, tomatoes, and bread (the same old bread, it won't float 
 in soup, but perhaps that is the soup's fault) and jam. We called 
 at a village; to day where there were two or three catechumens, 
 and one old man caught a fowl and presented it to me aiivc of 
 course. In return I gave him a handful of '"baccy." The fowl 
 remained alive till hull an hour or le.^s before I ate part of 
 him ; the boys got the rest. I ate him off the top of a biscuit tin
 
 LETTERS Qt 
 
 to the tune of a hippo grunting like a gigantic pig a little distance 
 off. 
 
 About ten this morning we passed Madan and Matthews, who 
 were in one of the African Lakes' Company barges, which was 
 towed by the gunboat " Dove." I am sorry not to have had a talk 
 with Madan ; we could only shout at each other for a moment in 
 p assing ; but it is much better as it is, for they have plenty of room, 
 which is indispensable for a sick man. I don't know how they 
 would have done in this little boat. 
 
 Now we have had food and prayers, and are putting out again 
 in the dark to reach another village a little further on to sleep at. 
 The boys probably know where they can get a good reception and 
 an empty house to sleep in. Last night the house was small, and 
 four of them had to sleep on the boat rather a hard bed on the 
 top of iron-bound boxes. It is too dangerous here to sleep ashore ; 
 many man-eating lions are about. The only game I have seen 
 are crocodiles, at which I have fired with varying success, and 
 rats, which for cheek beat English rats and mice hollow. They 
 spend sleepless nights within a few inches of my head, and no 
 doubt would examine me if it were not for my mosquito net. The 
 mention of the net makes me think of Mis. C - and all her 
 kindness to me. I am reserving myself for a letter to her when 
 I reach Likoma. I hope many letters are on their way to me. I 
 have not had a chance of getting any yet except those few at 
 Chinde, but I expect them. The boys are singing such a funny 
 chorus. They always sing these catches, or chants, whenever 
 they are on a journey. No doubt it is to while away the time and 
 keep their "hearts up," but also no doubt to fr'ghten away beasts. 
 I seem to be sitting in a cloud of gnats and other insects, not to 
 speak of mosquitoes ; no doubt my candle attracts them. I wonder 
 what some timid people I know would say of the beasts of the 
 night here spiders seven inches long (and they sting) hornets of 
 various kinds, jiggers which bury themselves in your feet and legs. 
 I have escaped the worst of these charms so far. 
 
 August n/. The boys went on so late last night that I spread 
 out my bed and went to sleep. They were making such a row, 
 singing and talking at the top of their voices, that I had to tell 
 them to stop, and then the next thing I remember is 6 a.m. this 
 morning, when we were moored along the shore, but all the b >ys 
 were sleeping on board. I don't know how they can manage to
 
 92 ARTHUR FRASER 
 
 sleep in such hard beds ! We went on immediately, and did not 
 stop till 9 a.m. In the meantime I shot an enormous bird, stand- 
 ing four or five feet high on stilts, with a huge beak, red and 
 black and yellow. I have preserved the beak, and the boys have 
 eaten the bird. I can't use my shot-gun, as I have no cartridges 
 loaded : otherwise there are plenty of birds to shoot duck, geese, 
 waders and divers of every kind, pigeons, enormous fish-eagles, 
 hawks, vultures, and kingfishers. The game is extraordinary, but 
 you have to go for it, and that I have no chance of doing. We 
 are now in a very wide part of the river called " Pamalombe 
 Lake." The hills on either side are lovely : one might be on a 
 Scotch loch, only it is more magnificent. The black boys and the 
 hippos and ibis, etc., make it different. 
 
 August ind. We reached Fort Johnston last night. The boat 
 is still my home. 
 
 Sunday, August +>tJi. I am still at Fort Johnston waiting for 
 the " Charles Janson? With affectionate remembrances to all, 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Fort Johnston, August jt/i, 1894. 
 
 MY DKAR , 
 
 I am yearning for letters from the Parish. Yours dated 
 May 23rd I have just received. How I long every Sunday just 
 to be in my old place for a few minutes. In my letters I have 
 mentioned very few by name, because they are so many, and I 
 could easily occupy the whole letter with messages ; but I presume 
 you want to know what I am doing. I have purposely been most 
 egotistic, but I know you will understand. I should like you to 
 keep my letters after they have gone the round. But never mind 
 about it. I should rather like to read them when I get back, if 
 ever ! Tell my old pals to write to me, C about the Parish ; 
 
 E , if you sec him, about his new work ; C , but I fear that 
 
 is too much ; T , G , C , and C , if he would. Let 
 
 them ventilate Missionary ideas. Also make my old friends in 
 the Parish write. Remember however that what costs you ?\d. 
 costs us 6<Y. postage. But I will try and answer all letters I get. 
 And now farewell. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 LETTERS 93 
 
 On board the Mission boat " Sherriff? 
 
 Fort Johnston, August 7///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I posted my last letter to the Vicar on Sunday, August 5th, 
 from here, so I must tell you about my stay in this place. I might 
 have gone on by the s.s. " Domini " to Likoma last Saturday, but 
 I asked the price of the passage. ^15, if you please. The African 
 Lakes' Corporation has a monopoly, so I determined to remain 
 here until the " Cliarles Jansou " turns up. She has been undergoing 
 repairs, hence the delay ; but I hear that she is ready for sea now, 
 and I am expecting her any day. There are three general boats 
 on the Lake besides the two gunboats and the " Charles Janson" 
 two belonging to the African Lakes' Company, and one to the 
 Germans, half gunboat and half trader. The German boat is in 
 now, and sails again on the I2th. I think if the " Charles Jan son " 
 does not turn up by then I shall take passage in the " Wissmann? 
 In the meantime here I am. My house is a reed and grass roof 
 over the stern sheets of this twenty feet boat at least four feet 
 high in the highest part, and six broad at the broadest. However 
 I can get my chair in and my bed. I lie along the bottom boards 
 at night. I am quite a Robinson Crusoe, and my meals are 
 rather scratch. I am moored at the Mission Station at Mponda's 
 opposite the Fort. The two officers at the fort or Boma, Captain 
 Robertson and Dr. Harper, are awfully kind and give me the run 
 of their house ; and I have had a good many meals with them on 
 the strength of their hospitable treatment at Likoma. I have had 
 boiled fowl twice, eggs, and bread. Such bread ! I have no oven, 
 and native pot gives the bread a wonderfully unbreadlike taste. 
 I have tinned things as well. To-day I went out shooting with 
 Dr. Harper. We got one difficult shot each, and came home with 
 nothing. Such walking grass eight and ten feet high, scattered 
 trees, stalking on hands and knees. There is evidently plenty of 
 game if it were only visible. The heat was very great. This 
 evening I tried to get some duck, but saw none. I shall try again. 
 I go down or rather up to the Lake about two miles, and trust 
 to getting overhead shots. Alas ! I have lost a precious box. 
 
 Mr. H made it to hold my despatch box. It has all my little 
 
 treasures in it, and among others, my caps. So at present my 
 shot-gun is useless, though the doctor is going to give me two 
 hundred caps. I am in wonderfully good health. Except for that
 
 94 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 little touch of fever at Chiromo, I have scarcely had a headache. 
 Mponda's is a big village or town, with perhaps 5,000 inhabitants. 
 The Mission keeps two teachers (native) here, but the people at 
 present have just got in their grain crops, and are employed in 
 drinking pombe and dancing ! So the teachers have no scholars. 
 The buildings consist of a School and two teachers' houses. The 
 crew of the boat, eleven boys, sleep in the School. One of these 
 boys is my cook, but his ideas of cooking are very hazy. I think 
 he has been appointed cook because he understands most English ! 
 Oh, his bread ! He blossomed out in what he called scones to- 
 night. He was going to make them of flour and water in a frying- 
 pan which I have borrowed. I persuaded him to add a couple 
 of eggs and some baking-powder. It turned out a sort of pancake 
 half an inch thick. If I haven't indigestion soon it is good testi- 
 mony to my digestive organs ! The fowl is invariably killed just 
 before he is cooked, consequently he is very solid eating ! I have 
 never managed more than the wing as yet. To-day one of the 
 teachers got me a few bananas. Alas! that "scone" it taxes 
 even my internal arrangements. We have had School for a few 
 boys while I have been here. I can't say they are clever. It is 
 just an infants' class for married men ! Alphabet and words of 
 one and two syllables ! On Sunday we had Service. Of course I 
 was no use. A few heathen came when the bell had been sent 
 round the town. I spoke through one of the teachers' interpre- 
 tation. It was a new experience. I won't express any opinion 
 of the Mission work until I know more of it. My estimable cook 
 at this moment, 10 p.m., is fishing off the bout. I occasionally 
 hear struggles, as of some mighty fish being landed. I hope he 
 won't tumble in. There arc many crocodiles here. They keep 
 out of sight in the day, but sneak up to the watering-places at 
 night. Many people have been taken in this way. The "dug- 
 outs " (canoes) are rather cranky vessels ; it reminds one of being 
 in a lightship again. Yesterday, going across the river, an old 
 crocodile was swimming alongside of the canoe about twenty yards 
 aft. I had no gun with me. No doubt it would have been a 
 dangerous experiment to have shot at him ; one flap of his tail 
 would have upset the canoe. 
 
 Aiegusf <)f/t. The " Charles Janson '' came in last night, and all 
 in a hurry I came on board, so I must close tin's in the same haste, 
 as the letters are go.ng ashore almost immediately, and we are
 
 LETTERS 
 
 95 
 
 off. From what Mr. Johnson says I am bound for Unangu, remain- 
 ing a few days at Likoma, and then the Archdeacon goes with 
 me to Unangu. I am glad of this. It will be real Missionary 
 work, and not all school work. It is rather a squeeze for three 
 passengers on board, but I am heartily glad to be practically at 
 the end of my journey. However I feel that my holiday is over. 
 I am glad of it. This sort of do-nothing life is most demoralising. 
 And now " farewell " till I get to Likoma. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SlM. 
 
 People waiting to sell food and fn wood. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. G , dated 
 
 Mv DF.AR- 
 
 Likoma, August , 1894. 
 
 Here I am, very happy in tbe prospect of plenty of work, 
 and very well. Fever of course comes, but unless it is serious 
 no one takes any notice of it. ... Tin's station is a bright, 
 happy place. The Archdeacon is very nice, full of fun and kindly
 
 96 ARTHUR PHASER SIM 
 
 chaff, wholly given up to his work, and we all get on very well 
 together. . . . 
 
 Most of our work is in German or Portuguese territory. In- 
 deed the Germans offered Bishop Smythies a price to clear 
 out ; but he realized his indebtedness to this people, and of 
 course such a thing could not be dreamt of. The Church here 
 is temporary, with stone walls and mud for mortar ; but it is 
 seemly and reverent ; no seats in the nave, two or three forms in 
 the choir and a harmonium. There is a picture of it in the May 
 ' Central Africa" . . . You don't know what a languid, care- 
 less sort of person an Oriental is no energy, so leisurely. I 
 suppose one must go slowly. I am learning Arabic characters. 
 What Swahili writing is done is written by an Arab clerk in Arabic 
 characters. I suppose I must expect and rejoice if I get opposi- 
 tion from the Mahommedans. It will I think be better than the 
 listless callousness of the pure heathen. . . . I have three little 
 chaps sitting on the floor by me here looking at the pictures in 
 the " Century" I think a few picture-books would be useful for 
 these youngsters. A picture of a big town calls forth the exclama- 
 tion, '^ Siteaimr !' : the steamer being their idea of wonderful things. 
 . . . Remember me most kindly to all my friends. Tell the 
 ladies that if only they could see these poor people I think they 
 would work hard for them. Perhaps it is our prayers they need 
 more than anything else. Ignorance and superstition not more 
 than two or three years ago they burnt four women alive for witch- 
 craft not a mile from here. The Archdeacon only knew of it after 
 it was done. Yesterday a great palaver was held about witchcraft, 
 some men demanding payment for an alleged case of witch- 
 craft. The Archdeacon dismissed them summarily. Now, please 
 remember us in your prayers. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. C , dated 
 
 Likoma, August \^tJi, 1894. 
 
 MY DKAR , 
 
 I shall try and gather a few curios here for the 
 Parish Hall, as I think you ought to have a Missionary Museum ; 
 but the cost of sending things is very great, and the natives make 
 nothing very original. . . , No one can take an interest in
 
 LETTERS 97 
 
 Missions until they know something about them. I have experi- 
 enced, even in my short time, what reliance to put in travellers' 
 tales about Missions. Most outsiders know nothing about the 
 work, have no sympathy with it, and often live such lives as will 
 not bear the light which Christian Missions throw upon them. 
 . . . The Makanjira business is rather misrepresented in Eng- 
 land. They have certainly been routed, but they have fled to the 
 hills, and are I believe quite capable of giving plenty of trouble 
 still. Of course if the English had been driven off trouble would 
 have resulted, but Jumbe's death is a matter of much greater 
 importance. It was he who supplied Makanjira and Kalanji with 
 slaves. Now the fear is that the Yao chiefs on the East side of the 
 Lake, now that the source of supply is stopped, may take to raiding 
 the lake shore villages where most of our work lies. In fact there 
 have been some cases of seizure and robbery, both of people and 
 of cattle. . . . 
 
 Here at Likoma each man has his separate house, but we all 
 have our meals together. Prayers every morning at 6.30. ; Holy 
 Communion every Thursday, and some other mornings, at 6 ; 
 breakfast at 7 ; lunch at 12 (generally rice-pudding) ; tea at 4 ; 
 dinner at 7. So we don't do badly when there are any stores in 
 hand. These sometimes run out, and now we are very short of 
 sugar and salt. It is a pity Europeans can't do with less of these 
 home-made luxuries. 
 
 Please remember me most kindly to the ladies at the Sewing 
 Meeting, and remember how much I value letters. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SiM. 
 
 Likoma, August \$//i, 1894. 
 MY nt.\R , 
 
 I am completely happy at the prospect before me ; 
 whatever it is, it will lie somewhere to the " Front. 1 ' ... I 
 have opened my letters, and my thoughts are too full of the clear 
 old place and faces to think about anything else. I am full of 
 thankfulness about the parish news. I think I see the Parish 
 going ahead. The Rummage Sale and the Bazaar are good news. 
 
 Poor Longhill ! I do hope Mr. C will do better work there 
 
 than I did. Oh, if only one could look back at one's ministry with 
 satisfaction ! What a humiliating retrospect it is ! May God
 
 9 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 give me strength to be braver for Him here ! I rather dread 
 the language difficulty. If I go to Kota Kota I shall have to 
 know three languages, and at Unangu two. Chinyanja is easy, 
 Yao is hard, and Swahili is rather hard ; but the difficulty will be 
 not to confuse them. . . . 
 
 What a pleasure it is getting back to settled Church life ! The 
 journey up the river was long and tedious, and very demoralizing ; 
 I feel I have reached a haven of rest. The mail makes me feel 
 a little home-sick again, but I am very happy, and I feel I am 
 wanted here. The work at Likoma is very prosperous on the 
 whole ; the School work is specially bright, and the children are 
 very affectionate ; I think I shall get to like them. . . . 
 
 I am sorry to say that the doctor seems to be suffering in the 
 same way in the legs as Mr. Wimbush and Mr. Matthews. The 
 Archdeacon too has numbness in his legs. Is it not a strange 
 form for malarial fever to take ? I find, I confess, everything most 
 comfortable here. Certainly the houses are airy, and it is cold in 
 the mornings and evenings. This is the healthy season it is true, 
 but I feel as well here as I ever did in England. . . 
 
 Remember, me most kindly to all the teachers, and to the chil- 
 dren also. Xew faces will begin to creep in, and soon I sha41 be 
 a stranger to most of them ; never mind, I shall not be jealous. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Likoma, August l8///, 1894. 
 
 MY DKAR , 
 
 . . . Now about Kota Kota. We went over there, the 
 Archdeacon and I, by the " Charles Janson? We started on Thurs- 
 day, called for a ship-load of wood, picked up Mr. (ilossop, dropped 
 Mr. Johnson at Msumba and slept there ; then off at 6 a.m., and 
 reached Kota Kota at 2.30 (we had to anchor nearly a mile from 
 the shore owing to shallows). We made our way up to Mr. Nicholl's 
 house (British Central African Administration Agent\ some way 
 from the shore, at Jumbe's old house, and found him with his 
 Sikhs and many old chiefs and head men of the town (Jumbc's 
 brother among them) seated in his bara/a. We talked with Mr. 
 Nicholl about our business, and found that the Scotch Mission's 
 plans were rather vague still. So we called the headmen together; 
 the future chief came too (after some delay, as " he was saying his
 
 LETTERS 99 
 
 rather delicate-looking man, very shy. But 
 Mr. Nicholl said the real man of power was and would be the old 
 chief's brother ; he seemed a kindly, good-natured old fellow. Mr. 
 Nicholl and Mr. Glossop left us to have our talk ; the natives were 
 very nice, except perhaps one man. We did not ask for an answer 
 until the new chief was "enthroned," but they were well inclined 
 at least so we thought. Jumbe had frequently asked Likoma to 
 send a teacher. He seemed to prefer the "Bishop's people" to 
 any others. And so, after looking at prospective sites, we came 
 away, leaving Mr. Nicholl a bundle of papers, etc. One of Jumbe's 
 youngest sons, a child of four or five, attached himself to my big 
 finger, and when we got to the boat he wanted to step in too, 
 much to the people's amusement. And so it is at present settled 
 that I am to go over when the German steamer returns on Sep- 
 tember 3rd (or before, if an opportunity occurs). It turns out that 
 Swahili and Chinyanja are the two languages required there. If 
 only this scheme can be carried out, I shall be a remarkably lucky 
 person, and a privileged person too, to get such an interesting 
 and important place to work up. I like the idea of starting from 
 the beginning. 
 
 Saturday, August iS//i. We returned last night, or rather 3 a.m. 
 this morning, from Kota Kota, travelling through the night. 
 There was a brilliant moon a lovely scene so we sat on deck 
 (the Archdeacon and I) till we fell asleep, and about twelve went 
 below, and I did not awake till 5.30 a.m. I spent Saturday pre- 
 paring a sermon for the English inhabitants of the station, and 
 took a walk with Mr. J. Williams at 4 o'clock. The island is very 
 pretty, the Lake so blue, and the opposite shore four to six miles 
 away and so clear. You can see the hills on the West side, thirty- 
 five miles away, so clearly sometimes that they seem not more 
 than five miles off. I am anxious to develop my photos, but I 
 daren't just now while the moon is so bright ; you can't keep the 
 brightness out you see. Saturday night I had just a slight touch 
 of fever, and on Sunday felt that I was still human ! 
 
 Sunday, August \<)th. The programme for to-day is : Holy 
 Communion, 7 a.m. ; breakfast, classes, heathen preaching, Chris- 
 tian Service (Matins) ; lunch, 12 ; catechising, 2 ; tea, 3 ; English 
 Evensong, 4.30 ; dinner, 6 ; and Chinyanja Evensong. Pretty full 
 day for two Priests. 
 
 September \otJi. It is nearly a month since last I wrote in this
 
 ARTH UR FRA SER SIM 
 
 diary a month more or less uneventful so far, spent in packing for 
 Kota Kota (I seem to have done little else than pack and unpack 
 since I came to Africa), learning Swahili, spending some time in 
 bed with fever, which last has taught me to be careful. But the 
 great event of the month to me is my coming here (Kota Kota). 
 I left in the German steamer on Sunday, September 2nd, after 
 Communion, with William, a native teacher, and a native cook 
 and his wife. We arrived before sunset 4.30 p.m. and here I 
 have been since, living with Air. Nicholl, sharing expenses and 
 sleeping in a native hut, living in the open air under a grass shelter 
 from the sun. Again I am waiting, learning Swahili, native habits 
 and patience. Jumbe II. is enthroned, and they are holding a 
 seven days' pandemonium in the village, half a mile away. When 
 this is over I shall approach Jumbe with my petition, and I hope 
 to buy a site and begin building at once. The old men (or elders) 
 say it will be easy to get a school, but not to " wash with water " 
 (or baptize). We shall see. No doubt a long, weary waiting lies 
 before us. This place is much under Arab influence. Old Jumbe 
 was a half-caste Arab. There is a mosque here and an Arab 
 School. I purpose beginning the School at once, and as soon as 
 possible begin itinerating work in the many villages around. This 
 is a big Parish ; for sixteen miles to the South, with but few 
 breaks, villages continue, owning Jumbe's chieftainship, and there 
 are many thousands of people. Last Friday Jumbe, a young man, 
 was enthroned. Mr. Nicholl and I were present. We went to his 
 private house and waited till twelve o'clock, Jumbe retiring about 
 a quarter of an hour before to be robed. Then we proceeded 
 very informally to an old tomb, the resting-place of one of his 
 forefathers really an old house, for they bury great men in their 
 houses here. In the baraza, or verandah, was set the throne, a 
 saddle-back chair presented by Mr. Nicholl for the occasion. The 
 new Sultan approached, robed in a long white kaimi. First, the 
 Arab Sheik, or holy man an old rascal who will shortly find him- 
 self in durance vile said Mahommedan prayers, to which the 
 people responded. Then the \\~aziii, or Prime Minister, old 
 Jumbe's brother, took up the ceremony, first clothing him in a 
 long black Arab "jo/io" or coat, embroidered with gold ; then a 
 coloured cloth over his left shoulder ; then a fex and turban each 
 with some words as a kind of ceremonial. Then followed an un- 
 merciful pulling of his right ear with words to the effect that he
 
 LETTERS IOI 
 
 was to have neither eyes nor ears for any but his head men ; and 
 finally a speech by the " Installing Master," or Waziri, in which 
 the new Jumbe was reminded of his predecessor's example never 
 to turn even a child away from his baraza, never to listen to any 
 one who smoked " bhang " or drank " poi/ibc? and to remember 
 the honour due to grey hairs. Mr. Nicholl congratulated him on 
 his accession, and shook hands with him in the name of the 
 English people; and after he had given him a present of two 
 trusses of calico (,15 cost price) we departed, but not before I 
 got a photo of them all. 
 
 And here I am waiting, and learning Swahili, and enjoying Mr. 
 Nicholl' s company. He is one of the oldest and most experienced 
 Africans in British Central Africa a well-read man and thoroughly 
 conversant with native manners and politics. We see something 
 of the slave trade. A few have taken refuge here. Really the 
 Government is powerless to stop it while the road to the coast lies 
 through Portuguese territory. One, a woman with a baby, clung 
 to my skirts as we were going into the village the other day. Mr. 
 Nicholl sent her up to the Boma, or fort, which is becoming a 
 City of Refuge. Another came in a slave-stick ; five women fled 
 here from a neighbouring chief who was going to put them to 
 death. 
 
 Now I have written as much as will go for 6d. We expect the 
 " Doinira" soon. She will take our letters down to Fort Johnston. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. F , dated, 
 
 Likoma, August 2yd, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I don't think I can say I enjoyed the voyage. It may serve 
 to make me more contented with my lot now ! Likoma is a 
 desert island as far as vegetation goes, sandy and stony, and yet 
 not so bad as I was led to expect. It is only four miles from the 
 Last coast. We have two boats manned by native Christians con- 
 stantly running to and fro, so our own barrenness is supplemented 
 from the mainland. We can never well starve, since we can get 
 supplies from any part of the Lake by means of our own steamer or 
 the German steamer which calls every month. No account of 
 Nyasa would be complete without mention of the work of the
 
 102 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 steamer " Charles Janson:' 1 She is simply and solely a missionary; 
 she only brings up our passengers and loads from Fort Johnston 
 because she has to call there in any case. And her work is end- 
 less and unremitting. T\vo Priests are on board, Mr. Johnson and 
 Mr. Glossop. They visit the lake shore stations, sometimes remain- 
 ing a few days at one or another, preaching, taking classes, and 
 superintending the school work and the teachers. How thankful 
 I am that our Mission sets its face against dabbling in native 
 politics. The only cases we consent to hear are those relating to 
 Christian discipline. I hate to hear people talk of Missions as 
 forerunners of English civilization ; they may be this, indeed they 
 can't help instilling a regard for the English name, but it is very, 
 very secondary to mission work. Don't you think so ? The 
 truth is there is no time for the missionary to civilize, except only 
 as the Message of Peace and Love civilizes. Better preserve 
 our people as good Africans than make them bad Englishmen. 
 We have no time for improving the breed of sheep, or intro- 
 ducing Cochin China fowls, and so on, and we must be content 
 with the barest necessities to which we have been accustomed in 
 England. What we have to do, as I conceive it, is to educate a 
 Christian people and a Christian standard of right and wrong, and 
 eventually a Christian Native Church, remembering our heritage 
 as a Catholic Church and handing it on to them. Don't be 
 frightened, we are not fearful ritualists here ! 
 
 I hope to get what building there is to be done completed by 
 Christmas, when the rains will begin. In the meantime I shall 
 work very hard at Swahili. No doubt I shall be able to begin 
 preaching through an interpreter at once. I am promised a very 
 clever boy (or rather man) as teacher ; he speaks English very wellj 
 and Swahili and Chinyanja are his native tongues ; he was in 
 England for eighteen months, which spoils any but the very best 
 characters. 1 won't say anything yet about the Africans as a 
 whole. I know I shall feel the responsibility of the work tremen- 
 dously. In England character is formed by the atmosphere one 
 lives in, and the result is at least not utterly negative or evil. 
 Here the Christian teacher has to create the atmosphere ; all 
 outside his gate is heathen, bad, weak, indolent, selfish, irrespon- 
 sible. No one I am sure can quite count the cost of the life of a 
 missionary among savages ; so you see how we need your prayers 
 and sympathy, and in what lines we need them. . .
 
 LETTERS IO3 
 
 It is too much I fear to ask you to write once a month, isn't' 
 it ? I should so much like to hear Sunderland news regularly, and. 
 your letters are so chatty. Good old Sunderland ! I got the 
 account of Durham regatta from Mr. McM . Please con- 
 gratulate any .you see who belong to the crew or Club. 
 
 If you see any St. John's folk remember me to them, and give 
 
 my heartiest congratulations to Mr. M . And now farewell. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Likoma, August 26///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . Mr. Nicholl is an old African and an interesting 
 man, a bit of a naturalist, fond of growing things for experiment. 
 To be in touch with the only European at Kota Kota will be of 
 importance. He is a Scotchman I believe, and he understands 
 the native. The oldest Anglo- Africans are the most ready to 
 confess how difficult it is to understand Africans. . . . 
 
 I am but human I find, and have to be ridiculously careful about 
 chills. I suppose one must go easy at first and be careful. I 
 daresay Kota Kota in the wet season will try me anyhow I mean 
 to try it ! ... 
 
 Jumbe's funeral was not over when we were at Kota Kota. He 
 had been dead two or three months. They bury people in their 
 houses ; the women do the mourning, and abstain from washing 
 all the time ! The houses are afterwards burnt down. 
 
 August 27///. Joseph Williams, 1 a dear old layman and one of 
 the oldest members of the Mission, is going back to LJnangu, 
 having been here partly on a holiday, and partly for stores. So the 
 school yard is a scene of bustle. He has about forty loads, goes 
 across in a boat, and starts from immediately opposite this. . . . 
 
 I want some saccharine. Sugar - is very dear here and we 
 almost do without it. Can you get saccharine in powder? a few 
 ounces will last a long time. . . . 
 
 You did not tell me if my wire from Zanzibar arrived at Bishop 
 Auckland on St. Peters Day. I left it to be sent in time, but of 
 
 1 Joseph Williams and Bishop Maples were drowned in Lake Xyasa 
 through the capsizing of the " Sherriff, " on Sept. 2nd, 1895. 
 
 - A St. Aidan's scholar, five years of age, having heard that Mr. Sim 
 had no sugar, was found by his mother filling Ins missionary box with it 
 to send to Kota Kota.
 
 io 4 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 course I was far away at Chincle then. I wrote at the same time 
 and the Bishop would get my letter shortly afterwards. 
 And now farewell. Remember me to all. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 Letter to R. T. , dated, 
 
 Likoma, August 27 //i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 We want a bricklayer, builder, and mason very badly here 
 
 lilSIIDI-S I'ALACE AT LIKOMA. 
 
 Where A. F. Sim stayed. 
 
 now. The Archdeacon intends starting- soon to build the pcr- 
 mr.nont Church. Our mortar is made from mud taken from white 
 ant heaps. It hardens, but won't stand rain, anil so houses have 
 to have wide eaves. I don't know if the Church is to be built like 
 this. Lime can be got at Unangu, a long way off. Of course 
 there is plenty at Zan/.ibar ; there everything is built in Oriental 
 style. . , . Zanzibar is beautiful, but most relaxing and un-
 
 LETTERS 
 
 105 
 
 healthy. Mbweni is lovely such trees and flowers and butter- 
 flies and fruit ! This is a barren desert in comparison ; really 
 very little will grow here. . . . 
 
 1 can't tell you how I rejoice at being sent to a new place ; it is 
 just my dream. Kota Kota is a large town, with 2,000 or 3,000 
 people perhaps, a good deal of Mahommedanism, a mosque I 
 believe, and an Arab Sheik, or sacred man. . . . 
 
 One has to be awfully careful, especially about bathing. The 
 
 Likorm, looking eastwards towards the mainland with part of the Archdeacon s house, 
 
 houses are open three feet from the eaves, and the walls are only 
 reeds, so they are little protection against the wind if it blows. I 
 shall build differently at Kota Kota. 
 
 Water I think will be a difficulty there. The only place I 
 shall be able to live at is a long distance from the Lake, and there 
 it is very shallow, and I expect, owing to there being a large town, 
 somewhat unwholesome ; but I believe water can be got in wells.
 
 106 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Won't it be interesting starting from nothing, and doing every- 
 thing with one's own hands almost? My place must be out of 
 the town ; I could not live in health in it, but I shall have a 
 preaching shed in the centre of the town. It will be best also for 
 the School to be away from town influences. . . . 
 
 Likoma is quite a village with between twenty and thirty houses. 
 Each European has a separate house. The Church, a dining- 
 room, school, dormitory, carpenter's shop, printing office, store, 
 two hospitals (European and native), library, store for combustibles 
 like lamp oil, large new industrial house, and the ladies' part for 
 girls in a walled space adjoining these make up a large village. 
 
 Let me break it to you gently ! You see one must give up some- 
 thing in the Mission field, so with many struggles, and many 
 inward questionings, and many fallings away, I have now definitely 
 and decidedly broken off the habit of shaving ! Yes, it is more 
 than a week old now, thick, brown, stubbly, and promising well 
 in fact, I can pull it ! ... Remember me most kindly to all 
 the lads and children. How I wish I could have two or three of 
 you people out here ! I expect great things of Kota Kota ; would 
 that I were more worthy of so great a work ! Give my love to all 
 the teachers, and to all my old friends among the men. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. C , dated, 
 
 Likoma, August jO//i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , . , . 
 
 It is no good being too enthusiastic. The people at Kota 
 Kota do not want us. I don't think they would put up with us, if it 
 were not for secondary considerations. In old days, when they 
 were raw heathen, they would welcome the missionary much more 
 readily than they do now. It may be a long weary time before I 
 get any hearing. . . . Swahili is the court language, but I 
 expect the common people, formerly slaves, and still slaves to all 
 intents and purposes, will speak the Lake language, Chinyanja. 
 
 September ()///. I am now writing from Kota Kota. I am 
 sleeping in a native hut and living in the open air under a grass 
 thatched shelter from the sun ; rain, of course, there is none at this 
 time of year. The native hut shelters myself and teacher, as well
 
 LETTERS lOJ 
 
 as sundry other beings, less human, but who "owe their existence 
 to human negligence ! " However I am alive and well. I had a 
 touch of fever at Likoma, which has taught me to be careful. All 
 the ills of Africa are due to chill. I imagine the pores of one's skin 
 must be intensely sensitive here. The sun has a peculiar burning 
 heat, almost smarting. This and the next two months are the 
 hottest in the year. The rains come in December, and April and 
 May are the unhealthy months. . . . 
 
 I am staying with Mr. Nicholl, who here now watches the course 
 of political events. . . . 
 
 How strange it seemed early this morning, when in my native 
 hut I was celebrating Holy Communion with my three native 
 Christians, to hear shouting, singing (so tuneless), dancing, and 
 firing of guns all the time ! Can you picture it ? I think not ; 
 and yet this drumming is a characteristic of native life. One 
 wants a phonograph more than a camera to reproduce Africa to 
 the English mind. 
 
 Sounds are never absent human beings, insects, birds, and at 
 night beasts join to make a continual buzz. The animal world is 
 only silent when the sun is at its height. This (Kota Kota) is an 
 interesting place a flat plain with a few hillocks at the back of 
 the village and a range of hiyh mountains two or three days' 
 journey to the West. ... I am thankful to find that my teacher 
 is a good joiner and has a straight eye most wonderful in an 
 African. I get up about 6.30, have a cup of tea, dress, have 
 prayers with my three natives, breakfast at 9.0, read, write, do 
 Swahili, or some useful work till lunch at i.o, go on doing ditto 
 till tea at 4.0, then a walk and dinner at 7.0, a smoke and bed at 
 10.0 or even u.o. Among all this comes in every day a baraza, 
 or audience, when most of the headmen come and sit and talk to 
 or stare at us. Sometimes they have things of state importance to 
 discuss. They are very nice old fellows though rather a nuisance, 
 of which I shall not get rid till I build my house. I pick up Swahili 
 sounds, though, by listening, and I can generally follow what is 
 said more or less. 1 am thankful to be well here ; what would 
 it be to be boxed up all day in my hut in a bed ! but my native 
 teacher is a brick and ready to do anything for me. We have 
 peace to-day as Mr. Xicholl gave out that Sunday was our sacred 
 day, and this they quite appreciate. To eat we have soup, fowl 
 done with curry powder or native onions roasted, a pudding of
 
 108 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 
 
 rice, cornflour, or ground rice, an occasional cake, pancakes, and 
 bread made with hops (boiled and left to ferment). Biscuits, salt, 
 sugar, tea, fruits (there are very few native fruits here), these are 
 all imported. We have too tinned meats, jams, soups, potted 
 meat, etc., but tinned thing's we avoid as long as possible. . . . 
 
 My hair is cropped like an escaped convict's no brushes, no 
 razors, no looking-glass ! 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L., dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, September yth, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 Here I am in a large perhaps the largest and most import- 
 ant town in Nyasaland. Jumbe is dead ; long live Jumbe ! The 
 original old Jumbe fifty years ago was a coast Arab, conquering 
 the place and enriching himself with the profits of the slave 
 trade. . . . This is a most interesting" place. Jumbe, com- 
 pared with his purely native neighbours, was an enlightened man. 
 He planted many trees, even cocoanut, thereby breaking down the 
 superstition that cocoanuts will only grow near the sea. A single 
 mango tree of Jumbe's planting exists in the village. . . . 
 
 I have seen some tusks of ivory more than six feet high, weighing 
 more than 100 Ibs., and measuring round the curve more than 
 seven feet. These are in the possession of an old Arab here, a cour- 
 teous old rascal, and a thorough -paced slave dealer. There are 
 many such in the town, but as they can't get leave to cross the 
 Lake their stings arc drawn. Their slaves are afraid to report 
 themselves. ... If only the African Lakes' Company would 
 make it worth the Arab's while to take his ivory down to the coast 
 by the Zambesi ! Instead of which this Company has descended to 
 being a kind of big agency for European travellers and missionaries. 
 Their prices are enormous, and everything bought out here is 
 purchased at a premium of seventy-five per cent. The route up 
 the Zambesi and Shire is practically in their hands, and here too 
 they charge exorbitantly /35 from Chinde to Likoma for passen- 
 gers, and I don't know how much per ton. The price from 
 Southampton to Zanzibar by the Cape second class in the Union 
 boats is 3$. I should think that the future of these parts is in 
 their hands. . . . 
 
 I went down to the '' palace " yesterday and had a talk with
 
 LETTERS, IOg 
 
 Jumbe, and told him the purpose of our coming here. He 
 was very nice about it all, and promised to help me in every- 
 thing, and to name a price to-day. He is being led by the nose I 
 feel sure by an oily money-grubbing headman, whom we have 
 both had reason to suspect of f&rcing prices. So this man came 
 up to offer the site for 1,000 rupees quite an exorbitant price. 
 One could buy quite a large coffee estate for this in the Shire 
 Highlands. I have told him I can't and won't give more than 300 
 rupees. 
 
 They cannot realize at all one's disinterested motives, and it is 
 no good attempting to make them understand them. We are very 
 fortunate in Central Africa in the administration of the country. 
 Not a drop of liquor is permitted to be introduced, and people 
 will not be spoilt in that way. . . 
 
 Mr. Nicholl and I generally read a bit of the Swahili New Testa- 
 ment at night. He knows the liible thoroughly, and is by no 
 means sceptical as so. many of the laymen out here are, or pretend 
 to be. My general reading is Scott's poems, Tennyson, Shake- 
 speare, and an occasional novel from Likoma. In this picnic state 
 of existence I have not thought it wise to open my book box yet. 
 White ants have already attacked my Gladstone bag and boots, 
 and if I had many things lying about I should certainly lose some 
 of them. . . . 
 
 Kota Kota grows a lot of rice, and that is its main source of 
 revenue. The people work in the rice fields for the five months 
 of the wet season, and then they have done work for the year. 
 They never work hard, but they do grow their rice. Women hoe, 
 men helping them when it suits their majesties ; and when the 
 rice is ripening all the children in the place are occupied in driving 
 away the birds. Will you send me some seeds ? I should like to 
 try and grow some English vegetables vine seeds, tomatoes, 
 wheat, oats, barley, Jaffa orange, turnip, radish, Spanish onion, 
 cabbage, cauliflower, beetroot, and almost any flower seeds to ex- 
 periment on. They should be well dried, or they will combust on 
 the way. The soil is I suppose sandy. Are there such things 
 as potato seeds ? They would certainly grow here I think. . . . 
 
 Do not forget to pray for me. I need your prayers I can assure 
 you. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 I1O ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Kota Kota, September I2//1, 1894. 
 
 My DEAR- 
 
 I don't think the day will ever come when I shall be able to 
 wean my thoughts from the old place and old friends. Remember 
 me always most kindly to all the Longhill teachers, and the chil- 
 dren and the people at Longhill that ask after me. I am sitting 
 in the open air with an oil lamp wired together where it is broken, 
 and threatening to blow out now and then ! Mr. Nicholl and I are 
 living in native huts, out of which he has bought the original in- 
 habitants (human I mean certain others refuse to budge !). My 
 hut, into which I have almost to crawl, is divided into two my 
 native teacher sleeps in the outer portion and I in the inner. Can 
 you imagine what a point the life and noises around me gave to my 
 intercessions last Sunday morning, my first here, as I celebrated ? 
 But I never forget the Eucharistid Conjitncti. It seems more real 
 I think among these surroundings. . . . Mahommedanism 
 holds sway here ; I don't mean that they are good Mahommedans, 
 even from their point of view ; but they think that they are serving 
 God very well as it is, and they are at least permitted to have 
 many wives and a few slaves, if they can keep the latter from the 
 British Agent's eyes. This place is important owing to the fact of 
 its being the natural starting-point of the ferry across the Lake. 
 Here Arabs came with ivory and slaves and went across in dhows ; 
 and, once across, they were safe, being in Portuguese territory. 
 Such a thing as liberty, as we understand it in England, is quite 
 unknown here. Their ideas are altogether Oriental. Liberty of 
 thought, or action, or speech, is an idea that has never entered 
 their heads. A sort of feudal system I should say exists. The 
 serfs, for the most part, are those captured in war. This means a 
 system very different from what we understand by the " slave 
 trade," and, until Christianity introduces the system we are accus- 
 tomed to, I doubt if a better one than the feudal could exist. It 
 keeps a people, unacquainted with law except in a rudimentary 
 form, under obligations which at least answer to the restraints of 
 law. The heads of the government under the chief are the 
 " IVazec" or elders, or headmen, each of whom is responsible for 
 order, etc., in his part of the village, or community. But slaves 
 there are in the bad sense ; some, three women and one man, have 
 taken refuge here. One came in a slave stick ; another hung on 
 to my "skirts " when we were walking down the village last week ;
 
 LETTERS III 
 
 five women came the other day under fear of death for some crime 
 they were accused of. They were wives of a chief living two or 
 three days' journey from here, and next morning one of them 
 wanted to marry one of Mr. Nicholl's boys, pleading as one desper- 
 ately in love ; the boy is about sixteen, and she perhaps seventeen. 
 Death, selling into slavery, fines, and sometimes cutting off ears, 
 are the only punishments practised here. Mr. Nicholl is going to 
 build a Boma, or fort, with a ditch and stockade round it on this 
 spot, a little raised above and commanding' the town. Here there 
 will be a garrison of forty soldiers, Sikhs and Makuas (natives). 
 To-day the crews of four dhows have come up to be registered. 
 They will in time be given a British flag, and so be liable to search, 
 etc. What seems to me to be the weak point politically here is 
 the fact that for the Arab merchant the only road to the coast lies 
 through Portuguese country, and this with the Zambesi and Shire 
 offering, one would imagine, every facility for cheap and rapid 
 delivery to the coast. Arabs get ivory away to the west of this, 
 bring it here, cross the Lake, carry their ivory to the coast by 
 means of slaves, and perhaps sell their slaves when they are done 
 with them. Such men are in the town now, but one of them, who 
 has paid ^120 customs on his ivory, has three hundred people with 
 him. Are they slaves or not ? He calls them his "children,'' 
 ivatoto. They know they can leave him and take refuge here if 
 they want to. I imagine they are dependents of his, slaves if you 
 like, or serfs. He treats them well, goes slowly, does not over- 
 burden them, feeds them, and defends them. They in turn carry 
 his ivory, feel no sense of degradation, and are quite contented 
 and happy. They come from a country two or three months' jour- 
 ney from here, South West, of which this Arab is the chief, and 
 with which the British have some sort of treaty of long standing. 
 
 September l^th. To-day we went down to the village at 7a.m. 
 to see Jumbe let out of "Coventry." He and his wife sitting on a 
 kibanda, or couch he with a very English and old umbrella over 
 his head, and she fanning him were carried round the place fol- 
 lowed and preceded by a howling mob. I got a few snap-shots. 
 . . . Farewell 1 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM,
 
 112 ARTHUR fRASER SIM 
 
 Kota Kota, September I4///, 1894. 
 My DEAR 
 
 . . . The place is practically Arab, though I don't think 
 many are earnest Arabs. The people are \vcll disposed towards the 
 British Administration, and specially towards Mr. Nicholl, who man- 
 ages them very well. How strange it seemed when celebrating", in 
 my native hut yesterday (Sunday morning), to hear the sounds of 
 drumming" and shouting and firing guns going on all round us. 
 Nor could one help making the future of this place the intention of 
 one's intercession. Do remember how much I long for letters, and 
 do not let a mail go by without writing", or getting some one to 
 write. I do like the newspaper cuttings. If I have money enough 
 in your hands for it I should like an occasional novel new ones I. 
 mean, which people arc talking about. I wrote you a letter with 
 some wants in it last opportunity. I hope you will send saccharine. 
 Is salt concentrated in any way? These things are almost neces- 
 sities to me, and we are always running short of them. 
 
 Sunday, September \6//i. Now I am bargaining with Jumbe for 
 the land. He asks 1,000 rupees. I am not going to give more than 
 300 rupees, and that is too much I think ! Jumbe is nice enough, 
 but he has a "go-between," who is an unmitigated money-grubber. 
 I hope to get it settled early this week, and then I shall begin to 
 build at once. It is very hot about 90" now and it will be hotter. 
 I find that a white cassock is a convenient garment in a hot climate. 
 
 Monday, September \*ith. I have concluded my bargain to-day 
 for the land about what I should consider twenty acres for 300 
 rupees. It is dear as things go out here. I daresay I might 
 have got it for less if I had bargained ; but I want to have the old 
 men on my side ; and besides I paid half in calico at a fathom a 
 rupee, which is a gain to us. I have to draw up a written agree- 
 ment or title-deed in Swahili about it. ... 
 
 I am getting an inconvenient reputation as a doctor. We were 
 told this afternoon that an old fellow was dead, and this evening a 
 man came up to say he wanted medicine ! I went down just now, 
 after dinner, with William, anil gave him brandy and opium and a 
 blister of oil of peppermint, so I expect that the report will be 
 true to-morrow that he is no more ! His house is a round hut 
 about the size of your study, divided into two, and nine people 
 were in it. By-the-byc, I suppose he is our rival. He is the 
 Mahommedan teacher in the place.
 
 LETTERS 113 
 
 They all say that our medicine is better than theirs, and so they 
 attribute the advantages of European civilization to our superior 
 medicine ! 
 
 September i8/7i. All the morning has gone, and I have done no- 
 thing yet. I daresay a hundred people have been up here this morn- 
 ing, and among them an Arab with a lot of people to be registered as 
 not slaves. They are no doubt domestic slaves, but that is really 
 a different matter. Anyhow they know they can get liberty and 
 protection if they wish. 
 
 No ! the old fellow is still alive, and, strange to say, better, and 
 wants more medicine. . 
 
 Now please give my love to all my old friends. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to S. F. S , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, September 2$//i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR- 
 
 My memory is playing me tricks ; it is the way of Africa to 
 do so, but I hardly expected it yet, so I cannot remember whether 
 I have written to you recently or not. I attribute it to a slight 
 attack of fever I had at Likoma. One goes to bed and imagines 
 oneself in another world, only to awake and find that some things 
 of the old original have escaped one ! Let me, before I go on to 
 other things, tell you how useful I have found your filter. The 
 other day one of the men found a kind of leech in the drinking 
 water, about six or seven inches long and the thickness of fine 
 wire. \Ve bottled it in " Hennessy Three Star" ! . . . 
 
 I am going to try and get volunteers to build my house ; but 
 one of the principal headmen has been allotted to do my work. A 
 sort of contractor he becomes, but he has no idea of time ! I have 
 drawn plans, and that must come to something ! I wish I had 
 you to help me. My house is of course to be built of mud and 
 reeds and trees and chkcali, or the midribs of the raphir palm, 
 with grass for roof, and bark rope for nails. Bad weather is ex- 
 perienced from North and South. The West faces a beautiful view 
 of the village and Lake. The baraza will be at first my School. I 
 have a beautiful tree for a preaching tree. The site is at present 
 occupied by a village. I am inclined to keep the village, as it may 
 help to form a nucleus for my work and also for workmen. . .
 
 114 ARTHUR PHASER SIM 
 
 Trees are expensive here, as men have to go a day's journey to 
 get them ; and for a 12 ft. wall I shall want at least a 16 ft. tree. 
 The population here is countless, but I am very hopeful of ultimate 
 success. I am amusing myself just now with a charming little 
 monkey a few weeks old, but monstrous full of fleas ! I paint him 
 with paraffin now and then, but they soon come again. William, 
 the teacher, has an aviary full of young birds. . . . 
 
 Tell me about digging wells. I propose beginning with a square 
 pit, 8 ft. by 8 ft., and as deep as necessary ; if very deep, go down 
 with a smaller hole. Oh, if I only had you and your men and 
 machinery ! I don't think the water is very far down, but I 
 expect no pressure, as there are no springs here. It will be a rope 
 and bucket business, but it will be cleaner than the public water- 
 holes. The only water-springs arc hot and slightly sulphurous ; 
 we soft boiled an egg in one in seven minutes. They arc about a 
 mile from here among a beautiful grove of trees, so you may ex- 
 pect to hear of Kota Kota becoming in the distant future the 
 Harrogate of Africa ! The people bathe and wash clothes in the 
 water. In one place it springs out from a crack in the solid rock, 
 and the rock is almost too hot to bear your hand upon it. In all 
 probability I shall not have time to dig a well until after the wet 
 season, which will give you time to send me instructions. In 
 digging I have hopes of coming upon a marble, which might 
 make good lime. It would be a tremendous boon to the whole 
 Lake-side if we could get lime to build with. I have seen chips of 
 a white opaque stone, which looks like marble, but I dare not build 
 hopes too high upon my scanty knowledge. One never gets such 
 a thing as a plank here all solid trees. Imagine the value pack- 
 ing cases have in consequence ; tables, shelves, everything level is 
 made of them. We have made a draught-board out of a box-lid, 
 and eventually used ink for the black squares, after trying Condy's 
 fluid and pencil. Our draughtsmen are rupees and pennies. Mr. 
 Nicholl is better at the game than I am ; we get intensely ab- 
 sorbed in it. Mr. Nirholl is in much the same predicament as I 
 am about building, only he has been here three months. I helped 
 him to make out his Fort to-day, about 100 yards square. One of 
 his men shot a guinea-fowl to-day, which we hope to have for to- 
 mornnv's dinner. We feed very well on the whole, and our cook 
 .an make really decent bread ; it is best toasted however. Xo 
 African meat has any fat upon it, so we have to use tinned fat
 
 LETTERS 115 
 
 from England. Flour, sugar, and salt are the luxuries which 
 generally run out. When I arrived at Likoma they had no sugar 
 and salt, and very little flour, so they mixed native meal with what 
 they had. This might be bearable in England, but here it is 
 dangerous to lower one's diet. Perhaps some of the sickness there 
 of late is due to this. My own stores are getting very low, but I 
 expect more by next week or the week after. I should be quite 
 happy if the building were begun. I have a crowd of patients 
 were, but I can do them very little good; yet still they come. One 
 very bad arm I managed to cure with iodoform and carbolic. But 
 more frequently their diseases are incurable. It is rather an in- 
 convenient reputation to have, especially as my store of medicine 
 is rapidly diminishing. This letter has had rather a disturbed 
 progress. We have killed two scorpions, and watched a batch of 
 ten houses on fire. I should say there are at least two fires in the 
 village every week ; this alone makes it impossible to build there, 
 . . , I am rather seedy, in bed, and can't finish. 
 September 2$t/i. Temperature 105 and going down. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, September 26//1, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 I am still learning patience. I told you I had bought my 
 land ; it is the very best site in the whole place I think, though I 
 fancy 300 rupees was more than I need have given. And now I 
 am waiting for building materials. Things are managed strangely 
 here. A headman is appointed to look after your work, to squeeze 
 what he can out of you I suppose. Mr. Nicholl's man and 
 mine have both left the town, ostensibly to cut trees and chiwali ; 
 I believe my old fellow is off on a smuggling expedition. It is 
 curious that he timed his departure at the moment his dhow was 
 blown North to his village, instead of coming in here to discharge. 
 Never mind, I have drawn some beautiful pictures and plans, and 
 of course that is the first step. . . . 
 
 Michaelmas Day. So far I had got when I was seized by the 
 " enemy " and put to bed with a temperature of io5'4 and rising. 
 My fevers don't last long. I feel rather pulled down to-day, but 
 my temperature is very nearly normal. It is very like a sharp 
 attack of influenza, but the effects are not the same.
 
 Il6 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 October "2nd. I think that last remark was rather previous ! I 
 have been back and forward to bed, and can hardly hold my head 
 up now. I thought I could write a little, but my very arms seem 
 too weak. I suppose it is the first real fever I have had, though I 
 have been to bed with fever twice before. I have eaten nothing 
 for four days, and of course I am weak. There is very little com- 
 fort in a native hut under these circumstances ; but William is a 
 capital and most willing attendant, and one doesn't want much 
 except drink- lukewarm water and tea tasting strongly of the 
 very strongly-flavoured milk of these parts. There are cows here, 
 but their milk is very tasty ! My head is still singing with the 
 effects of the quinine, and I can't write straight, so I shall stop for 
 the present. 
 
 October 5///. Pardon the above complaining spirit. I am quite 
 well again to-day. Events move suddenly here. The gunboats 
 captured three dhows from this place, containing 240 slaves and 
 2,000 Ibs. of ivory ; so they have taken away Mr. Nicholl, who -is 
 a magistrate to try the case, and I am left alone. The officers 
 thought there might be a disturbance here, and advised the Likoma 
 people to send me off; but I apprehend no danger, and the ''Charles 
 Janson? which came in here for me this morning, has gone away 
 again without me. Alas ! they have taken William to interpret in 
 this case for Capt. Robertson. I very unwillingly let him go, but 
 it is in a good cause, and perhaps the delay won't be very great. 
 It is a serious question this slave capture. I don't know who is 
 implicated in it. I hope not Kalanji of Unangu, as it might be the 
 cause of unpleasantness. Dr. Hine is in a difficult place. Unangu 
 seems to be a station on the route to the sea-coast, and no doubt 
 Kalanji levies taxes upon all passers-by. So I am absolutely alone 
 here for a few days ; it is a good thing for my Swahili I have no 
 doubt. Of course I have Mr. Nicholl's servants and the Sikhs, but 
 without William I cannot get on with my building. Mr. Glossop 
 has had a mail more than I have, and gave many hints of interesting 
 news, including the Bishop's resignation. Personally I am very- 
 sorry, but it is as we expected. There is good news of Mr. Wimbush ; 
 i.e., it is not his spine which is affected, which also reflects credit 
 upon other -people's spines whose legs were affected in the same 
 way. By the way, I am in the middle of a long and interesting (!) 
 letter to the " Jl/m'/." I think I will write a second later on telling 
 about this place. It will interest some of my friends who do not
 
 LETTERS II 7 
 
 hear my news through you. It is funny to think of your reading 
 now my news from Chincle how long ago that seems to me now ! 
 
 I hope you have given me a full account of the reunion on 
 St. Peter's Day. I haven't even heard of that yet ! The very last 
 news here is the birth of Prince George's baby ! And now you 
 will be making ready for the Confirmation. It is to be in St. 
 Aidan's I suppose, and by the Bishop of Durham. We shall some 
 day be able to telegraph to you. A bit of the line is complete ; 
 this is Mr. Rhodes' business. It will certainly come here when it 
 does get as far, and then on to Bandawe, Tanganyika, and so on, 
 starting of course from the Cape. One or two of our Likoma 
 boys are already engaged as operators between Blantyre and 
 Chiromo. Then it goes into Portuguese territory ; and that is 
 
 where Lord made a blunder in letting the Portuguese fix it 
 
 up. It may be the cause of disturbances yet. I think I had better 
 send you my effusion to the " Mail" and then you can correct my 
 mistakes. 
 
 Sunday, October "jth. How can I thank you sufficiently for your 
 budget, and especially for the scheme of monthly correspondents. 
 It was a coincidence getting the news of the Consecration of 
 St. Aidan's Gateshead on the day it was fixed for. I was enabled 
 to be with them in spirit, and to-day they are holding high festival. 
 
 Dear M too, his waiting is over. I had a grand letter from 
 
 \V , giving a full account of the choir trip, and a drawing of 
 
 Middleham Castle and antiquarian researches. Altogether I had 
 nineteen envelopes and crowds of papers. What a lot I have to 
 answer ! I hope they will all be patient. The mail somehow has 
 stirred me up ; I don't feel so homesick as it generally leaves me. 
 After all those letters one feels as if the eyes of Europe were upon 
 one, and nerved to do desperate things. 
 
 You ask for subjects for intercession. After the appointment of 
 the new Bishop (and pray that he may be first and last a saintly 
 man, able to stir us up to a sense of our real privileges), for myself 
 I would have you pray that I may have zeal and grace to love 
 these poor savages. It is a very hard spiritual combat, deprived 
 as one is of all the adventitious aids which have surrounded one 
 so long. Except for a couple of Sundays, or three, at Likoma and 
 two at Zanzibar, how long is it since I have worshipped in a Church, 
 and how long since I have clone so in a language I understood ! 
 And now I am spelling out the Holy Eucharist in Swahili, and
 
 118 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Matins and Evensong in Chinyanja, in a circular hut divided into 
 two, 12 ft. in diameter, and 9 ft. in the centre, and walls 5 ft. in 
 height. But I do feel the sense of the Eucharistia Conjunctt, 
 and that little Service every Sunday morning is my greatest joy. 
 (Last Sunday I was too ill to celebrate.) For the work, pray for 
 these semi-Mahommedans ; how hard to reach them, so wrapped 
 up are they in the sense of their own excellence ! 
 
 Most of the people think I am in the midst of a famine. There 
 is plenty here, and plenty of locusts too, but they are too late to 
 hurt the crops. They haven't been known here in the memory of 
 man. 
 
 And now the Bazaar is on the top of you. May it be a great 
 success ! And the Harvest Festival, that may be to-day, the first 
 Sunday in October. Who are your preachers ? I wish I could 
 look in upon you. 
 
 Now cricket is over and football beginning, and the sun here is 
 vertical at midday ! All those people are constantly in my mind, 
 tell them ; but it would fill the letter to name them all ! Don't 
 
 forget Capt. and Mrs. L , and Mr. and Mrs. B . I find the 
 
 former's telescope most useful in spying out which steamer it is 
 coming in. I shall be able to see better still from my new site. 
 Remember me to the choir. What a jolly trip ! What would I 
 give for a dive now ? I daren't here ; it would certainly bring on 
 fever. I have done so though with no ill effects. Henley Re- 
 gatta must have been grand this year. I have sealed up the 
 children's letter, so I enclose the scorpion, a very small one, in 
 this ; show it to them. My village is cleared of native huts now. 
 I hope to begin building at once. With affectionate remembrances 
 to all. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter addressed to one who was working under a sense of 
 spiritual loneliness. 
 
 Kota Kola, September 3O///, 1894. 
 
 . . . Honestly speaking I do think a missionary must at 
 least make up his mind to bear the cross of loneliness. I don't 
 want to be hard on you, but I want to be straight. Do you not think
 
 LETTERS 119 
 
 there is a little of the "spoilt child" about your spirit of viewing 
 things ? I treat it the more seriously in view of the confession you 
 make to me of spiritual deadness which you feel. I am not afraid 
 of lack of spiritual perception, especially out here, but I am fright- 
 ened at running loose, lack of self-discipline and self-restraint. The 
 vocation of God should ever be before our hearts to restrain us ; a 
 lack of discipline leads to coldness. Are you getting any moments 
 apart, alone with God ? Are you preparing faithfully for your 
 Communions ? Without this no one can be recollected. I would 
 in all humility recommend you to get a quarter of an hour daily 
 about noon before lunch in your own room, or in CliurcJi, and if 
 you have to make a sacrifice to get it so much the better. I would 
 at least use part of the time for intercession ; take your list with 
 you ; add to it, if necessary ; especially remember those who have 
 gone before. This helps one to realize the Communion of Saints, 
 that infinite spiritual temple of which ours is so small a niche. 
 This is the only antidote I know for loneliness. 
 
 Well, now, I don't think you will be angry with me. You have 
 given me your confidence, and I should not be dealing fairly with 
 you if I did not put before you what I feel. I am not scolding, 
 and what I say, I say with all the solemn responsibility of the 
 Priesthood committed to me. I know well, and deeply deplore, 
 the lack of spiritual provision made for white people out here ; but 
 that places a responsibility upon the individual to supply the 
 deficiency. . . . 
 
 There now I have said more than you ever bargained for. 
 Remember however that I speak in all kindness. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to F. C. M , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, October *,//i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 The spirit moves me to write you a line to congratulate you 
 on your accomplished work. I wonder if it is envy I feel, waiting 
 here delayed by a hundred causes, the principal one being the 
 shilly-shallying way of these old ruffians who puH the strings here. 
 I expect I am feeling something like what you felt in the days you 
 had to wait and wait. I am building too, but it is only a mud
 
 120 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 house. How far off is the day when a Church shall be built here 
 too, and though probably a mud one, yet one from which voices 
 and hearts may join in the hymn of praise which is now going up 
 from St. Hilda's ? Do write me a letter and tell me all about it 
 yourself. I celebrate every Sunday for myself and three Christian 
 natives; but it is in a mud house, in which I can just stand upright, 
 with all the village heathen sounds around drums and shouting 
 and dancing and guns. " Oceano divisi :> indeed, but " EiecJiaristid 
 conjuncti" . . . 
 
 As to the new Bishop O for a saintly man ! that is what we 
 want. It is the most demoralising place, this Central Africa. 
 Patience, trust, xeal, love for these poor lust-eaten savages how 
 hard it is ! A man to encourage and raise his Priests in spiritual 
 things would of all others be the man for us. And who for Zanzi- 
 bar ? It is a difficult berth, and wants a firm and sympathetic 
 man with an iron constitution. . . . 
 
 The so-called slavery here, at its best, is but the old feudal sys- 
 tem, but its worst feature even then is that the slaves, or serfs, are 
 content with their position. In English law here the position of a 
 slave is disregarded, and he obtains the same justice as a freeman. 
 Mahommedanism makes rascals of men \vho would otherwise be 
 simple savages. Smooth-faced and smooth-tongued, they are 
 untrustworthy to the core. They don't drink, but that is their one 
 virtue. Anyhow there is no ^/r//-drinking in any part of Africa 
 that I have seen. " Poinbc'^ is very light muddy beer, rather sweet. 
 It seems to have no ill effects beyond making people silly and sleepy 
 and stupid while under its influence. No, not drink but lust is the 
 African's crime. ... I am sure you will enter into our diffi- 
 culties, and pray for us especially in the Eucharist, and ask one or 
 two of your faithful people to do so too. I expected to find the 
 life difficult, and I am not disappointed that it is so ; and yet was 
 it not difficult in England? How much of one's religion is senti- 
 ment only after all? Here it is rugged and bare, stripped of all 
 sentiment. Perhaps one mistakes this for difficulty. The atmo- 
 sphere too how much docs one unconsciously depend upon 
 atmosphere? Here what an atmosphere it is! Heathenism, 
 cruelty, deceit, lust, greed. Atmosphere must be made round 
 about each Christian station trustfulness, love, chastity, unselfish- 
 ness it is a big burden for unworthy, weak shoulders to bear. 
 
 What a miserable picture I have been drawing ! I am rather
 
 LETTERS 121 
 
 "dowley" to-day, all by myself, and only just recovering from a 
 rather bad attack of fever, having been ill for a week. I will try 
 and write more cheerfully to-morrow. 
 
 October 6tk. The mail has come (such a splendid one, nineteen 
 letters for me !), and consequently I am set up. I have told you 
 how I rejoice at your good news, and though mine is a mud hut, 
 and yours a late Early English Church, God above is the same to 
 both of us. 
 
 I have spent this morning entertaining some Arabs, among 
 them Selim bin Nassur, who has come here to cross the Lake with 
 at least ,2,000 worth of ivory, and how many slaves ? I know he 
 is a murderer, yet he is so pleasant and so meek and so polite, 
 butter wouldn't melt in his mouth ! And so they all are, these 
 Arabs, the greatest ruffians unhung when they have the power in 
 their hands, but to speak to, the politest of gentlemen ! What 
 material for Christ is this ! What a regeneration is needed here ! 
 Alas ! most of the headmen are the same. Though pure blacks, 
 or half-caste, they are thorough-paced hypocrites and humbugs. 
 " O generation of vipers ! " My hope is in the bairns and the raw 
 heathen. . . . 
 
 Abdallah Nakaam is waiting to be ordained. His case is 
 an interesting one. He is the son of a Christian chief, Barnaba 
 Nakaam of Chitangali on the Rovuma, a Yao. To Barnaba 
 Kalanji of Unangu has sent a message of peace. Abdallah is 
 of course a free boy, and has volunteered for work at Unangu, 
 knowing what difficult work it is. This is as it should be. A few 
 others are coming on, and these are the hope of the Mission. 
 They are picked men, and are carefully trained and subjected to 
 the hardest tests, under which a man soon shows what he is made 
 of. Fancy, there are two girls at Mbweni who have declared their 
 determination never to marry, but devote themselves to the work 
 of God. To those who know the African, and the African woman 
 especially, it is almost incredible. They are quite women now, 
 not mere girls, and would in the ordinary course of events have 
 married long ago. 
 
 . . . Tell me all the Sunderland gossip. Those men must 
 have rowed well to win the "Grand" at Durham. Please give 
 them my respects, and clap them on the back. It did me good to 
 hear of it. No rowing here. The "dug-out" (canoe) is a mon- 
 strosity, heavy as lead, and as cranky as a lightship. They mostly
 
 122 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 pole them along, like a Thames punt, when the water is shallow 
 enough. The dhow sails best right before the wind. I have 
 never been in one, and shall take my smelling salts if ever I do go 
 aboard ! 
 
 . . . October \2th. I have just got over another attack of 
 fever, not very bad temperature about 104. It knocks one's 
 feeding arrangements astray, and I am getting a most gracefully 
 slim figure. . . 
 
 I have made a bargain for 300 trees and loo bundles of bam- 
 boos and grass for j icy. for my .house. This is all the building 
 material I want. I think it is fairly cheap. Labour will come to 
 a shilling a week, or one fathom of calico. ... I have seen 
 some tusks of ivory 150 Ibs. weight and 7 ft. long. Fancy carry- 
 ing a tooth like that in your head, and fancy having toothache in 
 it ! ... 
 
 I am getting so fussy and anxious to have the building finished. 
 I spent most of to-day over at the site. How hot it is ! The sun 
 has not the same effect as it has in England. My hands are red 
 and blistered with prickly heat. The sun is too hot to brown you ; 
 it boils you ! Some of the mothers work with their children tied to 
 their backs. I saw one to-day, fast asleep, a mass of flies. . . . 
 
 Good luck to you, and God bless you in your new advance. 
 Give the boating men my love. I saw a Tyneside man when I 
 was at Chinde who rowed against our second boat at Durham. 
 He is the son of the old boy who rushes about the bank at the 
 Regatta always. I forget his name, but he is, or was, secretary. 
 He has a sort of working-man's job. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, October 5///, 1894. 
 
 Mv DF.AR , 
 
 I don't think I am homesick, though you people are always 
 in my thoughts, and sometimes when I have fever I think of 
 what a home-coming would lie like. This waiting is such depress- 
 ing work, so you must put down my grumbling to it. I expected 
 to find Africa a hard life, and I am not disappointed. It is not 
 the roughing I mind ; I don't know that it is so very rough always, 
 but it is a life in which much grace is needed. You see one is 
 deprived of so many supports sympathy (direct sympathy at
 
 LETTERS 123 
 
 least), atmosphere, surroundings ; but perhaps these formed too 
 much of one's religion at home. Here it is bared of all adventi- 
 tious aids. I know it ought to be a grand discipline, and by God's 
 grace I hope it will ; but how easy to fall short ! St. Paul is a 
 help. What an example for a missionary ! An example always 
 to be kept in mind. 
 
 And so Bishop Hornby has resigned. I am very sorry, but it is 
 as we expected. May his successor be a saintly man to stir us 
 Priests up to a due sense of our privileges ! This is what we 
 want. No Retreats out here, no spiritual bracing we are apt to 
 become self-dependent and self-absorbed. Self is more present 
 in the desert than among men. Pray that we may have grace to 
 keep self under and turn away to God. 
 
 . . . Fancy, you will be getting this at the end of December, 
 the wet season here. I shall (D.V.) be in my house, with a thriv- 
 ing School, and the beginnings of evangelistic work in hand. Very 
 hot and wet it will be I am told. Then the trying season follows, 
 with cold and malaria March, April, May the season for black- 
 water fever and all horrors. . . . We are just as short-handed 
 as we can manage now. I was in mortal terror that the " Charles 
 Janson" was coming to take me to Likoma to take up the reins 
 there, but they have left me alone, and I am intensely relieved not 
 to be away for some one else's work. . . . 
 
 You are in Church at this moment. I often think of this, especi- 
 ally on Sundays, and I ask God to hear your prayers for me, which 
 I know are not infrequent. Perhaps you are decorating these days 
 for the Harvest Festival. I wish I could hand in some of these 
 grand palm branches which grow here, and of which we partly 
 build our houses. How grand they would look about the altar 
 and font '. 
 
 Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. The " Doinira " came in last 
 night, and brought me such a budget of letters. How grateful I 
 am I can't tell you. I am feeling quite stirred up by the sympathy 
 and kindness of everybody, and not at all homesick now. ... I 
 wish I could tell more of actual missionary work. It will be long, 
 long, weary sowing I am sure. I expect most from the children, 
 who are especially bright here. The Swahilis are tinged with 
 Mahommedanism, and will listen and assent, but that is all. The 
 actual heathen aborigines are better material than they. These 
 last outnumber the Swahilis, and are the despised among the
 
 124 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Swahili people. St. Paul made most progress among the despised 
 and poor. . . . How am I ever to tackle the girls here ? Yet 
 how necessary it is. It is a problem of the future. I shall never 
 try and persuade any one to come out here ; God only can do this. 
 It is too great a responsibility. How trying it is I can't tell you. 
 Perhaps to a young man who has few ties in England it may be 
 different ; but the misery of finding one had made a mistake would 
 
 be too great to bear. ... A letter from inspirits me ; it 
 
 always has had that effect. And at this moment you are in Church. 
 Oh, for a glimpse of you all ! 
 
 October Zth. Makanjira has not come in. In fact a Safari 
 (caravan) of his is at Mwasi's, three days' journey from here, with 
 ivory and gunpowder, the sinews of war, from the Portuguese on 
 the Zambesi. Mr. Nicholl hopes to catch this man at the head of 
 the caravan, as he once tried most treacherously to kill Lieut. 
 Maguire. The latter only escaped miraculously. I expect he 
 will get away unless the gunboats keep a sharp look-out. Mwasi 
 sends assurances that he will keep him, but I expect he is like the 
 rest an old humbug, getting presents from both sides ! 
 
 And now farewell. Continue your prayers, especially for grace 
 for me, and for wisdom to do God's will in the Mahommedan 
 problem. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to the Editor, " The Northern Daily Mail? 
 
 Kota Kota, October y///, 1894. 
 
 DKAR SIR, 
 
 It is not my habit to " rush into print," but, since I have no 
 one to find fault with and only friends to listen to me, I feel it in 
 some measure a duty, but more a pleasure, to write in a few lines, 
 which you may care to insert, the impressions gathered during my 
 short experience of Central Africa. And first let me protect myself 
 by saying that I do not hold myself to any expressions I may use. 
 I shall probably change my mind about many hastily gathered 
 ideas ; in fact the oldest Anglo-Africans confess the most ignor- 
 ance as to native habits and character. 
 
 First, as to my own movements the journey. It is enough to 
 make one forswear England altogether. The time in my case was
 
 LETTERS 125 
 
 three months and five days ; but this is variable. It has been done 
 in two months and a half. Nearly two of my three months were 
 spent from Chinde to the Lake. The Zambesi, like all African 
 rivers, is very shallow and very wide. As it approaches the sea 
 it branches into many mouths, and in course of time these vary, 
 each wet season causing some change in one or other of them. I 
 believe I am right in saying that during the last thirty years the 
 navigable mouth has changed three times. In Dr. Livingstone's 
 time it was to the South of the present one ; a few years ago 
 Quilimane, to the North, was the only port ; and now Chinde, be- 
 tween the two, has replaced Quilimane. I have seen all three 
 mouths, thanks to the kindness of Capt. Carr, of the " Mosquito " 
 gunboat. At the first there is but one Portuguese house left, occu- 
 pied by a half-caste Goanese trader, or he may be a Portuguese 
 Government official. If so, I beg his pardon. 
 
 Quilimane is rapidly being deserted by all but its Portuguese 
 inhabitants, and Chinde is growing in importance every day. Of 
 these however Quilimane is still the most pretentious, with its 
 beautiful verdure and its stone or rather concrete houses. Of 
 course all these are in Portuguese territory, and herein lies the 
 weak point of British Central Africa. At Chinde the British 
 have a concession about a square mile in area, part of which is 
 a "transit concession," where goods lie in bond awaiting transit. 
 Chinde I ought to know particularly well, as I was kept wait- 
 ing there more than a fortnight, until a steamer came in to 
 take me up the river. At least in my own opinion I know 
 more than enough of it. A sand spit (sand silted up by the 
 river, and six inches deep of loose sand) makes the most un- 
 pleasant road material I know of. One's progress is almost 
 like that of the boy who had to go to School backwards. But 
 my time at Chinde was made as pleasant as possible by Captain 
 Carr, who made me his guest on board the " Mosquito? and took 
 me for a trip, as I have said, to the Kongoni or southernmost 
 navigable mouth of the Zambesi. The gunboats on the Lower 
 River, as we call all that part below the Alurchison Rapids on 
 the Shire, arc intended for all emergencies in connection with 
 the presence of the Portuguese, and also such contingencies as 
 may arise with the natives in our own sphere below the Rapids. 
 They are stern wheelers, drawing eighteen inches or two feet 
 built at Yarrow's on the Thames, as, indeed, all the Portuguese
 
 126 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 gunboats also were. The latter has seven gunboats on the Zam- 
 besi. Besides these there are perhaps seven or eight English 
 trading boats running passengers and cargo up the Shire as far as 
 the shallows will permit. In my case this was as far as Chiromo, 
 the first British station on the left bank of the Shire*. The journey 
 up the Zambesi, where the banks were far away on either side 
 for the most part, with nothing to be seen except one continuous 
 line of tall grass and reeds hiding a perfectly flat country, was 
 the slowest part of the whole. It seemed that during the days 
 we spent in Portuguese territory we were passing a country de- 
 serted by human beings. But this changed when we passed the 
 boundary between Portuguese and British country ; and one 
 evening, when we put into the bank to sleep, two of us strolled up 
 to what looked like a superior native village. It turned out to be 
 the home of a Russian who had been some years at Tete, but 
 according to his story he had been robbed of everything he had, 
 and turned out of the place by the Portuguese. I heard after- 
 wards he had killed one of his men in a fit of temper ; but then he 
 only spoke French, and I may have misunderstood him. He was 
 a hunter, a trader, and a Polish officer. Of course you will agree 
 with me in my conclusion a banished patriot. 
 
 I think one reason for my dislike of the journey up the Lower 
 River, at least, was the way the native was treated and spoken of. 
 He gets credit for no virtue, and generally the chikoke (hippo-hide 
 thong) for every vice. Talking of hippos or their hides, we saw 
 many hundreds of the owners of these ; indeed in the Upper 
 River they are a source of danger to traffic when the steamer is 
 exchanged for a small boat, and if interfered with they will follow 
 and attack such a boat. Crocodiles too are countless. We con- 
 sidered it a duty to fire at all within range, and between us ac- 
 counted for perhaps eight. By the bye, as far as Misongwe, a 
 trading station six or seven days up the Zambesi, we had a hunter 
 with us who, a year or two ago, killed three white rhinoceros, and 
 brought home their skins and skeletons. One is to be seen in the 
 Natural History Museum, South Kensington, and one at least in 
 Mr. Leopold Rothschild's natural history collection. He had been 
 sent out by a syndicate to obtain specimens and make observa- 
 tions. He started from Misongwe to reach Mashonaland and 
 Matabeleland, and so beat round to the North-East. He was the 
 more interesting to me as having been at my old School. We
 
 LETTERS 127 
 
 had therefore much in common, and had a long talk the night he 
 left us. 
 
 Enterprising young folk who see this will want to know some- 
 thing of the prospects of British Central Africa as a place to 
 emigrate to. And so, with all the presumption of a new comer, I 
 will proceed to give my views. You see I do not consider myself 
 a full-fledged missionary yet, so I am not begging nor recounting 
 my interesting cases ! Well, as to "prospects" ; even a new comer 
 can see that this is not a place for a poor man yet. The only 
 prospect is coffee, and for that a man must have capital, and he 
 must have patience to wait three or four years for any return. 
 And after all the district in which coffee is successfully grown is 
 limited, and I suppose land will be going up in price. I believe it 
 is true to say that plenty of labour is to be had if properly sought 
 for. All the hopes for the future of British Central Africa, from a 
 trader's point of view, are centred in coffee. A few years now will 
 settle this question. Sugar and tobacco for local consumption are 
 grown by one or two enterprising men, but I don't believe they will 
 repay the cost of transport. Only one man is known to have made 
 money, and he has been nearly twenty years in the country. His 
 land he bought " for a song." The present rates for transport 
 down the river are almost prohibitive. 
 
 This alone seems to me to be suicidal in those who are respon- 
 sible ; but here of course I can only speak as an amateur. I 
 know nothing of the other side of the ledger. But apart from the 
 opening up of the country to European trade, the whole question 
 of the slave trade in these parts might almost it seems have been 
 settled long ago, if only the managers of these Companies for 
 transport had seen their way to divert the ivory trade from its 
 present route, and had opened up a cheaper method of transport 
 to the sea down by the Shire and Zambesi water-way. At present 
 I think I am right in saying that no ivory, save only such as is 
 paid in Customs duty, goes down by this route. I have no doubt 
 I should be doing a great injustice to those responsible for this 
 state of things if I left the matter here. One cannot help thinking 
 that this is a cause worthy of the sympathy and help of our home 
 Government. Freights are exorbitantly high, because the capital 
 laid out on the still meagre plant has been enormous. And the 
 Zambesi is a closed highway ; and this water-way, which seems to 
 a novice like myself the very solution of the slave traffic difficulty,
 
 128 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 in an enormous district whence slaves are annually taken in large 
 numbers, is useless, all for want of timely help from the home 
 Government. Sir, I hope you don't belong to the " Little England 
 Party." If you want to continue a supporter of it, let me advise 
 you never to leave little England. But here you will say I am 
 trenching on politics. If however Commissioner Johnston gets all 
 he wants in England, perhaps it is not too late yet to divert the 
 native trade down the Zambesi, and so put an end to the raison 
 d'etre of the traffic in slaves. 
 
 Well, I have run on in advance of my subject, and I must re- 
 trace my steps to Chiromo, and when I come to tell you about 
 Kota Kota, I will perhaps revert to the slave question, but that 
 will probably be in a subsequent letter. Chiromo is on the North 
 bank of the Ruo at its confluence with the Shire, with Bishop Mac- 
 kenzie's grave on the South bank, and a post office and by this 
 time I suppose a telegraph office on the North ! One could not 
 help contrasting the picture drawn in Bishop Harvey Goodwin's 
 " Life of Bishop Mackenzie " of that sad, lonely death scene, and 
 the picture which I saw before me. But thirty years work many 
 changes in new countries, and in thirty years more Cook's agents 
 will perhaps be bringing brain-tired invalids from West Hartle- 
 pool to the hot springs of Kota Kota. I was glad to leave Chi- 
 romo, impatient as I was to reach my destination, and perhaps my 
 first touch of fever there made me the more glad to get away. 
 But what a place it is for game countless buffalo and all kinds of 
 buck. There the record number of lions shot in a single clay was 
 beaten by Lieut. Hunt of the ''Herald" gunboat five all with- 
 out moving from his place. They had scented out a buck which 
 he had shot, and surrounded him while he was resting and waiting 
 for carriers to take his buck home. It was good luck, perhaps, but 
 it was also good shooting and pluck. 
 
 From Chiromo we had another four days of discomfort in what 
 was termed (on the Incus a non hiccndo principle, I suppose) a 
 " house-boat." The u house" (a straw- thatched covering in the 
 stern, in which none of us could sit upright) was supposed to hold 
 three at night, asleep. We were only once under this shelter 
 together, compelled by rain. Fortunately one of the three had a 
 tent, and so we forgot our discomfort, though the poor owner of 
 the tent hail high fever all the way. But let us forget the past. 
 Kalnnga's. the end of the "Lower River" journey, brings back
 
 LETTERS 129 
 
 visions of drenching rain and a disconsolate party of travellers 
 making the best of it over a smoky fire, roasting peanuts and 
 reading papers dated 1893. Then we went on to Blantyre, starting 
 too late in the day, owing to the rain, to arrive before sunset 
 twenty-eight miles up hill, perhaps 2,000 feet. The journey to 
 Blantyre is made in inachilas (hammocks slung on poles), but I 
 had such a bad " crew " that I preferred shanks' aid to theirs, 
 when once a few humiliating obeisances to mother earth had 
 taught me their worth. But Mandala repaid all the discomfort. 
 I was last I think to arrive. Imagine my feelings when I found 
 a group gathered round a blazing fire in a brick house with a 
 real chimney, the first I had seen in Africa, a long table laid with 
 a clean cloth, and the promise of good things to follow. After 
 falling upon our host's wardrobe, I soon set to work upon his larder. 
 
 Blantyre (Mandala is a part of Blantyre) requires description. 
 Blantyre is the name of the Scotch Established Church Mission 
 Station. Mandala is the name given originally to Mr. Moir's 
 house, and now appropriated to that part occupied by the African 
 Lakes' Trading Corporation. Situated in the Shire Highlands, 
 2,800 feet above the sea level, you can imagine what a pleasant 
 change it is to a river-wearied traveller. Bracing and cool, it re- 
 minded one of the old country, and the unlooked-for rain and wind 
 did not lessen the illusion. It is the oldest English station in 
 British Central Africa, and has had I suppose the best chance. 
 Here are roads and brick houses, and a really ambitious and 
 picturesque brick Church, the work of Mr. Scott, the Scotch 
 Established Church Missionary, himself its architect, builder, 
 contractor, foreman-bricklayer, clerk of the works, and all. 
 Here will you believe it? I saw with my own eyes a dog-cart 
 and a tandem of handsome Arab ponies, and to prove it I photo- 
 graphed them ! Here during my stay the Mission people had 
 a sale of work, and cleared ^140 in the afternoon, besides further 
 orders. And in the evening a concert was held at the " Boma," 
 or fort, and the " new song '"' was " Mrs. 'Enery 'Awkins ! " Fancy 
 people in dress clothes, if you please ! I went to the magistrate's 
 to dine. He answers to the respected name of McMaster. Both 
 he and his charming wife come from the sister isle. 
 
 Blantyre is famous for good fellowship and civilization. It is 
 regarded as the metropolis of Central Africa. But to me its chief 
 charm consisted in its bracing atmosphere, its trees, its gardens,
 
 I3O ARTHUR FRAisER SIM 
 
 its roses these last blooming all the year round the loveliest 
 "gloire cle Dijon" I have ever seen. Surrounded by hills clothed 
 with verdure to their summits, except where here and there rugged 
 granite rocks peeped out, it reminded me of parts of Scotland, and 
 the nationality of most of its inhabitants went far to maintain the 
 resemblance. 
 
 Nearly everybody is Scotch out here. Blantyre is the centre 
 of the coffee plantations. The Shire Highlands as yet are the 
 only lands opened up by the planters. A fund of continual in- 
 terest to me was the experimental garden of the Lakes' Company, 
 full as it is of all manner of fruits and flowers, many of them 
 familiar old English friends, as well as many Eastern and tropical 
 trees and plants. The blue gum grows prolifically there intro- 
 duced of course and many pines and firs and cypresses. Blan- 
 tyre is a busy place. The hum of work is continuous. "Hum" 
 is not the word. Such noisy workers as the Atonga and Angoni 
 make more than a hum. They cannot go a walk without singing. 
 Their song is after the fashion of a sailor's chanty, and, like him, 
 the more they sing the better they work. The song, somewhat 
 tuneless, consists of a refrain or rather a recitative, which is taken 
 up rhythmically by the rest in a chorus. The sounds of Africa are 
 as characteristic as the sights. The drum, the dance, the songs 
 at night are incessant. They must be a merry people if one could 
 only get at their inner life. 
 
 And now my " few lines" have become enough for two insertions 
 already I fear. I wonder what your readers will gather from these 
 impressions. Xot a very attractive picture I think. Well, I don't 
 mean it to be. To the missionary this has no great weight. I 
 would not be responsible for drawing any one out here by glowing 
 accounts of the country. There arc one or two favoured spots, of 
 which Ulantyrc is one. And yet what would I not give to have as 
 companions and helpers here one or two whom I know in West 
 Hartlepool ? Perhaps I am "cutting my own throat" by drawing 
 a somewhat gloomy picture of this place, but unless he is called to 
 it by the voice of One greater than man, as I say, 1 would not 
 undertake the responsibility of persuading any one to come out 
 here. May I conclude with the heartiest of good wishes to the 
 place where I have left a big (the biggest) part of my heart, and 
 remain Yours faithfully, 
 
 A Kill UK F. SIM.
 
 LETTERS 131 
 
 Kota Kota, October 7///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR BOYS AND GlRLS, 
 
 I don't want to keep you waiting a long time till I can 
 answer all your kind and jolly letters separately, so I shall write 
 immediately to you all, and then perhaps I shall be able to polish 
 you off one by one. How nice it was to hear from you I can't 
 tell you. I read and re-read your letters and try and think I am 
 back again among you all. How jolly to think of those trips ! 
 Edith I see has not lost her love of mischief; fancy hiding be- 
 hind the bushes and nearly getting lost ! No wonder boys are 
 easier to manage than girls. I see you want me back to keep you 
 in order ! Well, here I am, writing in the open air under a grass 
 thatch ; but it is late, and the sun isn't shining, so I am using a 
 candle ; and the table I made myself how those joiner boys 
 would laugh at it ! It was straight when I made it, but it has a 
 strong inclination to the East now ! Its legs are young tree 
 stumps, and its top packing cases with the old name still printed 
 on, and the old nail holes in the middle and at the edges. All my 
 tables will have to be like this ; what a good thing I watched 
 joiners at work in England ! I would rather have some of you 
 boys to do my joiner work for me, then you couldn't laugh, and 
 you girls to do my sewing and washing. I haven't an iron, so 
 nothing ever gets ironed ! I marked one of my white cassocks the 
 other day on the outside of the collar, so now any one can see what 
 my name is, but no one can read here ; they most likely think it 
 is an ornament, or a badge of honour at the back of my neck, or 
 a charm against stiff neck ! 
 
 My house 1 is mud with a straw roof; its door is so low I have 
 almost to crawl in. There is a door-way, but no door. I and my 
 teacher, William, and a small boy live in it. It is our Church too ; 
 we have prayers there morning and evening, and on Sundays I 
 celebrate Holy Communion there ; how different from St. Aiclan's! 
 Yes, but it makes us remember that God is the same. The people 
 here are mostly Mahommedans, and they will be very hard to win 
 for God, so you must pray for them all the more earnestly. I have 
 such a big Parish sixteen miles South, four days' journey West, 
 and seventy miles if I like North. I daresay I could go more 
 than seventy miles South and not find a white man. You see I 
 have not gone to Unangu, and I am glad. I would rather have 
 1 See other side.
 
 132 
 
 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 all my own work to do, but this place is in frequent communi- 
 cation with Unangu. 1 sent a letter to Mr. Williams the other 
 day, and wonder if he will ever get it. The children are very 
 nice here, and one or two old fellows with sores, which I have 
 healed with iodoform and carbolic acid, are attached to me. I 
 think I shall get them to come and live with me when I have 
 built my house. I shall build a beautiful big house twenty feet 
 
 {From sketches by A. !". SIM.) 
 
 high in the middle, forty-five feet long, and sixteen feet wide with- 
 out the verandah. 
 
 The verandah will be the School at first. Inside it will be 
 divided into three ; one end my bedroom, the middle my sitting- 
 room, dining-room, etc., and the other end will be the Chapel. 
 Then I hope I shall have a big school next year, and be able to 
 build a School separate from the house. I have a lovely play- 
 ground for the boys, and a splendid " preaching-tree." The 
 village is just below it, and behind the tree 1 shall have my garden.
 
 LETTERS 133 
 
 There are thousands of people here. They seem to do nothing ; 
 only the women work. And they all sing and dance in the even- 
 ing, especially moonlight evenings ; and they blow off gunpowder 
 in guns and out of guns. One of the men, who came to me with 
 an awful arm, had it blown up with gunpowder his gun burst. I 
 thought it would never heal, but it is quite better now in only 
 three weeks. The explosions of gunpowder often wake me up at 
 night ; I think the place is being attacked. I wonder where they 
 get it all from. I don't think they drink very much here ; but 
 they do a little, I know, and there are two " pombe'^ shops (native 
 beer), like public-houses. The people are not poor, and would buy 
 anything useful if some one would start a shop here. They have 
 bought miles of calico from Mr. Nicholl, the magistrate. He is 
 away now. Of course it is not my business, or I could sell the 
 clothes off my back at a good profit if I liked. They love biscuits 
 and tea and sugar and, strange to say, soap ! Even little toddlers 
 will sometimes beg for soap. It is two rupees a box of yellow 
 soap here. I don't know what it is in England. All our sugar 
 and salt and flour come from England, and sometimes even since 
 I have been here we have to do without all these. I'm so glad 
 I don't like sugar in my tea, but I think it is an improvement in 
 puddings. Butter is a rare luxury ; we get salt butter from Eng- 
 land in tins. I used to hate salt butter, but I like it now ! Bread 
 is not made with yeast, but with native beer. Flour is mixed with 
 " poinbe'' 1 and water and put out in the hot sun, and it rises as if 
 it were made with yeast, but it has a funny, bitter taste. How- 
 ever we are glad when we can get it at all. We have no oven ; the 
 cook makes it in a big cooking-pot like a bread jar ! 
 
 This place is not like Zanzibar for flowers or trees. I fancy you 
 would think it rather desolate. But there are more trees here 
 than at Likoma. There are some cocoa-nut trees, and one mango 
 tree, and plenty of bananas, but no apples or cherries or plums or 
 strawberries. I intend to grow some pine-apples though. I shall 
 enclose a few photos in this, some by myself, and one or two by 
 Miss Palmer, at Likoma. I have taken a lot, but have no paper to 
 print them on. I will enclose a tiny scorpion. I killed two on 
 the table last night. Full-sized ones are two and a half inches 
 long, and they sting with their tails worse than a hornet. I think 
 they fall down from the roof of this shed where I am writing ; I 
 hope one won't fall on my head some day.
 
 134 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Monday ', October S//i. I have spent most of the morning getting 
 jiggers out of my toes. They are like tiny little fleas, and lay their 
 eggs in your feet, and it is very hard to get them out ; you must 
 get all the eggs out or they will make such a sore place. They 
 leave a hole behind them as big as a pea. I have wrapped my 
 toes those where the jiggers were in carbolic acid, and 1 hope 
 that will kill them if any are left behind. The natives call them 
 " Matakenya" This morning I had a visit from some Arabs who 
 are staying here. Selim bin Nassur is a great chief in his own 
 country, and has come here with thousands of pounds' worth of 
 ivory. And 1 suspect most of his people are slaves, but they 
 daren't say so. His visit was a friendly visit, but I expect h'e 
 came to see what goods the " Doinira ;! had brought. The people 
 here are honest I think. I expect a visit to-day from the Sultan 
 and a lot of men from Marambo's country, a month's journey 
 from here. They want to go across the Lake. I wonder how 
 many of them are slaves ! They must wait till Mr. Nicholl comes 
 back. People who travel here are never in a hurry, and don't 
 mind waiting ever so long. Sometimes a runaway slave comes up 
 here, but generally they are afraid to say they are slaves. Their 
 masters might put an end to them. Most of the people are slaves, 
 or rather serfs, here. I asked an old man the other day how many 
 slaves he had, and he answered without the slightest hesitation 
 that he had forty. When the owner of slaves goes about and a 
 slave meets him, the slave kneels down to let his master go past. 
 This will only be put an end to slowly and gradually, and not 
 completely till the people become Christians. 
 
 I have also been cutting my hair this morning and my beard 
 with Eva and Ida H 's scissors. 
 
 And now, dear boys and girls, good-bye for the. present. 1 will 
 try and write to you each separately. Do not forget to pray for us 
 out here. 
 
 By-the-by, there is no famine here. Plenty of locusts, but they 
 are too late to do much harm. 
 
 Ever your affectionate friend, 
 A KTH UK F. SIM.
 
 LETTERS 135 
 
 Letter to E. L , dated 
 
 Kota Kota, October gth, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 You ask me to tell you of my spiritual combat rather than 
 the details of my work. Well, it is a difficult life, and needs all the 
 grace prayer can win. Prayer itself is difficult. Perseverance is 
 a strain in this relaxing- climate. One never gets the spiritual 
 bracing of a grand Service, or the sympathy of steadfast souls, 
 except when the mail comes, and last mail has braced me won- 
 derfully. But I think God is nearer to me, and somehow I feel 
 nearer to those who have gone before, who have influenced my 
 life and led me indirectly to this step. And now it is slow work 
 learning a barbarous tongue, building houses, and bargaining for 
 materials with people who only want to " squeeze :) you. But I 
 am encouraged in my Swahili work. I can carry on the ordinary 
 conversation now almost. I look out a word in the dictionary 
 when I am puzzled. The people are surprised when I do so, and 
 when one word reveals the meaning of a whole sentence, I think 
 they regard it as magic. The other day, when talking with my 
 building " contractor." one of the headmen, I asked if white ants 
 were numerous here, and he said, "Yes, but the white man will 
 overcome them." All the machinery of civilization is daiva to 
 them. They have little or no ambition to reproduce it among 
 themselves. The Arab alone has civilized the raw heathen as 
 far as he is raised above his normal animal life, and the Arab's 
 civilization means added lust, and cruelty, and deceit. . . 
 These are the people with whom I have to deal here. " Who is 
 sufficient for these things ? " The " lad with five barley loaves and 
 two small fishes ;; comforts me. . . . 
 
 How can the missionary take the same care of himself as other 
 Europeans? Granted, if he could rise at nine and breakfast at 
 ten, keep indoors during all the heat of the day, take a stroll in 
 the cool of the evening, and feed on unlimited luxuries from Eng- 
 land, then he would not so often have fever. When I have been 
 the guest of such people I too have felt well. But .the missionary 
 must be up at daybreak, and work whether he feels well or not, 
 putting off bed till his temperature is 104 sometimes. Don't be 
 afraid for me ; I am intent upon living and not dying. My hard 
 tune has not come yet, and I am taking life easily, and still I get
 
 136 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 fever ; but so does everybody. Germs accumulate and break out 
 at intervals. No one escapes it. There is not much at Blantyre 
 because it is so bracing there ; but here there is nothing to brace 
 you. 
 
 And now farewell. I need your prayers, and I know you need 
 mine so I don't forget. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. Sl.M. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. C , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, October n//i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 I seldom spend a whole evening without writing at least 
 a line to some one of my many dear friends in the dear old place. 
 The steamer has gone, and I had only time to write a few (nine) 
 letters by this mail. . . . 
 
 There is work here for a large staff of mission workers. It is 
 an enormous district, but of course I must cut my coat to my cloth, 
 and begin with a native teacher and myself. I hope to do a great 
 deal to influence people by visiting them in their houses, talking 
 to them of the things of God, gathering families together round 
 me, and so on. . . . 
 
 How many changes will there be when I return ? How many 
 old faces gone, and new ones in their place, say, in five years' time, 
 if God spares me ! If I keep my health I do not wish to return 
 before I have really done some work here. Three years (the three 
 first) are not enough to settle people in our holy faith. Nor could 
 I willingly leave unless there were some one to take my place ; but 
 it is premature to talk about returning. . . . 
 
 Each slave has to do a certain amount of work for his master, 
 such as hoeing and sowing (perhaps for a month in the year 
 building), or bringing trees or other material for building. In return 
 for this the master provides his slave with a wife and such security 
 of tenure as he has. In the hands of a good master the burden 
 is not great, and the best masters are those who have most slaves, 
 for then the work required is spread over the greater number. 
 I hit in the hands of a la/.y or avaricious man, who has only a few 
 >laves, I can imagine it is very galling. For instance, the other 
 day in Mr. Nicholl's absence I was paying his men for work clone.
 
 LETTERS 137 
 
 and the master of one man (an utter rascal, who owes a debt of 
 eighty rupees to the Administration for one of his shady trans- 
 actions), when his slave was paid, seized all the twelve fathoms of 
 calico without a word of remonstrance on the part of the poor 
 man. However I let the big man know my mind, and told him 
 that in England he would be put in prison for such a thing. One 
 cannot, on the other hand, judge of all these cases, as the man 
 may be his debtor, and may have pawned himself to this master 
 until the debt was paid. The poor fellow's abject face was the 
 thing I fear which stirred my indignation. 
 
 It is very difficult in this intense heat to settle down to really 
 hard work. I shall so enjoy going round preaching and talking 
 to the people when I am able. It is far better than a sedentary 
 life. I hope I shall be able to stand the sun as time goes on. I 
 had a threatening of fever again, for the third time since I came 
 here, the other day, but I took thirty-five grains of quinine and felt 
 quite well next morning. I wish you could see some of my patients ; 
 they have the most awful sores I can possibly imagine. Poor 
 things, it is little I can do for them except to make them wash 
 them in carbolic acid and water. If ever I return to England I 
 should like, above all things, to go through a medical course. . . . 
 April and May are the unhealthy months ; if I get through them 
 I hope I shall be in a fair way towards acclimatisation. But there 
 are other tortures prickly heat, that torture of tortures, the jigger, 
 which gave me two festered toes for nearly a month, and flies and 
 mosquitoes. Value a letter, please, according to the cloud of flies 
 which surround one as one writes, and you will treasure it indeed ! 
 I have many visitors, whom I turn to account by reading Swahili 
 to them, and thus practising upon them. The completion of my 
 building is my present horizon. Then all my woes come to an 
 end. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to C. H. B , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, October I4///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 How better can I employ an hour on this blessed Sunday 
 morning, devotions being ended, than to sit down and write to and 
 think of you, while you in turn are just preparing for morning Ser-
 
 138 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 vice somewhere? I am sitting under a grass shelter, and over that 
 a vertical sun, for it is midday here. No, I have no fixed roof 
 over my head yet, and if these wretched people delay much longer 
 the rains will find me in a proper fix. ... A small mite sits 
 at my side on the floor, watching me with wonder, and awfully 
 pleased to run an errand now and then. Yes, I can get fond of 
 them. I can hardly believe how rapidly and how entirely the 
 prejudice against the black skin disappears, and the faces of these 
 people are by no means hideous. Many have the sweetest expres- 
 sions, and then one cannot help feeling the intensest pity for them. 
 . . . The dear Bishop how proud I felt (and always feel to 
 belong to the Durham diocese) to see the estimate of his work in 
 the " Manchester Guardian " .' . . No one actually escapes 
 the fever. If you are strong it does not bring other complications 
 with it as a rule. A weak heart or liver or anything wrong with 
 the spleen means death after one of these attacks of fever sooner 
 or later. There was a good deal of fault to be found with the 
 houses at Likoma, but that is being remedied now. . . . 
 
 October iSth. Here is a small crowd of patients, mostly with 
 horrible sores of long standing. One man wants a sheet of paper 
 to make daii'ii (medicine), />., to write or get written texts from 
 the Koran, and tie it round his neck ! How long I shall be able 
 to go on I don't know, as my iodoform is rapidly diminishing, and 
 my bandages were finished long ago. . . 
 
 To work this district properly there ought to be two Priests, and 
 some ladies for the girls and women. I believe that would be the 
 Roman Catholic method. I always rather regret that we do not 
 come across any of their Missions out here. A party of eleven 
 six men (including a Bishop) and live sisters went up the other 
 day, but I did not see them. Their station is somewhere on the 
 high plateau between Nyasa and Tanganyika. I should like to 
 have a personal acquaintance with their methods. They arc 
 generally accused of buying slaves to start work upon. ]\'c get 
 them for nothing, but our experience has been that freed slaves 
 form the worst material. 
 
 I am preparing for hard times in the rainy season, having con- 
 cluded a bargain to-day for a ton of rice, which I intend to store 
 against these rainy days. Some men brought in a rum beast to- 
 day, after the coon sort, awfully shy and wild. I have kept it 
 knowing Mr. XiHioll's fondness for curiosities of this sort. 1 hope
 
 LETTERS I3Q 
 
 to effect some mission work by gathering clans together. People 
 are very clannish here, and the town is divided up into clanships 
 with an elder at the head of each. I want to make Jumbe dis- 
 contented with his indolent, lustful life, and I mean to urge him 
 to build a house out of the slums of the town, and make a garden. 
 His predecessor had three hundred wives. Most of these by right 
 descend to his successor, but for some reason they refused, and 
 I suppose they will be scattered among the villages in time. 
 Doubtless most of them are slaves. My gang of labourers, let me 
 triumphantly remark, are free. Witness the amount of work they 
 have done ! My attache (Wadimayu) calls them heathens, he 
 being a self-righteous Moslem. Wadimayu has a good eye for 
 the main chance ; but he has energy the only man among them 
 who has. I employ him therefore, though I daresay he will "do" 
 me. I simply must hurry on with the work, teacher or no teacher, 
 or the rains will be upon me. Then it is impossible to build, and 
 still more impossible to live without a building. . . . Much 
 of most days is spent in entertaining strangers, e.g., an Arab mer- 
 chant here ; the headman, Baruku by name, an old rascal, slaver, 
 smuggler, etc. ; Msusa, an honest old ruffian, who does not beg, 
 and is generally somewhat of a North country man ; Alwenge 
 Kombo, a fat old clown, with little or no influence, but a first-class 
 eye to No. i (I think he poses as court jester, with any amount of 
 energy, but no brains to direct it properly) ; old Marengo, whose 
 village is further South three miles from here ; then there is dear 
 old Mwenge Waziri, old Jumbe's brother, who used to have great 
 influence in the old man's time, but is quite deposed now. He 
 spent a whole day with me lately, and I gave him lunch. I think 
 the old fellow, for whom I have no little pity, is quite fond of me. 
 Then there are other younger men, and Jumbe himself the 
 Sultan, as he is styled not a great person, but rather sharp and 
 clever. Perhaps in time the missionary may be able to help these 
 people to sec that life was given them to make use of, and is 
 worthy of nobler uses than they put it to. You see I have the 
 cntrc into "the ''ighest sassicty" when I am ready to make use 
 of it. I could now read to them, but it wants more than that. It 
 wants a firm treatment of sin. 
 
 October 24//t. Still alone the building progressing, rain threat- 
 ening. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 140 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 Letter to W. W , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, October 2oth, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I enjoyed your description of the choir trip more than I can 
 say. It went far to set me on my feet again when I was very seedy 
 and despondent. I wish I had you here to help me to build. Site 
 lovely ; close enough to the town, yet raised above it 80 or 100 
 feet ; about twenty acres, with a fine clump of trees on it right in 
 the middle ; bounded North and South by gullies filled with water 
 in the rainy season : East slopes down to the village, North an 
 imaginary line marked out by ant hills. My house and teacher's 
 house I am now starting with. Mine walls, trees three feet into 
 ground, with fork at top to carry wall-plate, eleven feet high, 
 trees crossed by bamboos tied with bark ; in between filled with 
 mud, and plastered outside and inside, making wall more than a 
 foot thick. The wall-plate will consist of the straightest trees I 
 can find, cutting short lengths, if necessary, and joining them with 
 wooden pegs. This is to carry roof joists. Such wood it is, with 
 grain like a wire rope. And there is no wood big enough to make 
 a plank of. The adze and axe are the only tools to work this iron 
 wood with. Roof beams I don't want uprights in the middle of 
 the house if I can help it, so will these do ? They are crossed with 
 
 O 
 
 (/>< m a sketch by A. F. SIM.) 
 
 bamboos, and have grass for slates. I have now made the draw- 
 ings. I know you would demand cloisters and lavabo ; the latter 
 is impossible for want of water, but the former is not impossible 
 as School and place of merchandise, etc. There are no shops here ; 
 people bring things to sell. If ever I do build a Church I shall 
 think seriously of a grass cloister for heathen Services and hearers'
 
 LETTERS 
 
 classes. Hearers are those whose earnestness is being tested, 
 while for a year they arc being taught the elements of Christianity.
 
 142 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 The store-room will come under South end of verandah probably, 
 and I shall change the Chapel to North end. Of course there is 
 no glass for windows, only something to keep the wind out. The 
 
 A. F.Sir.t.) 
 
 doors will be patent I expect ! I hope to get hinges from Likoina. 
 
 Rain does not and must not touch the walls owing to the verandah. 
 
 Well, there is still plenty to say about the building and tools 
 
 and materials. 1 have over 100 people working at my site now -
 
 LETTERS 143 
 
 ii men, 36 women, 47 boys, and 21 girls 105 all told, ages varying 
 from 5 to 60 ! They do as much as half a dozen English boys 
 would do in the same time. The men have hoes and hoe up the 
 ground, and the women and children carry the soil on their heads 
 in baskets to the site of my house to make a false foundation. 
 This they will eventually trample down and beat with rammers 
 until it is as hard as a brick and smoother. Into that I stick 
 my uprights 3 feet deep. Hoes are the only implements in use 
 yet. I may introduce a pick and a spade next week, and even a 
 crowbar. If I had gunpowder, I think it would expedite matters 
 in the way of blowirrg up an ant-hill or two, or at least loosening 
 the ground, which is as hard as bricks now. As to my joiner work, 
 I spent $ on tools before I left London, and thankful I am to 
 have them. I wish I had a grindstone. My square is in a box 
 which has not arrived yet. I should like a blacksmith's rig out. 
 There are blacksmiths here, but they only make knives, and 
 spears, and arrowheads, and native axes. I don't yet know where 
 they get their metal from. I am preparing furniture for my new 
 house tables, and chairs, and wash-hand-stand. While I write 
 I can hear a hyena howling about a hundred yards off, and some- 
 times I can hear the hippopotamus in the Lake, nearly a mile 
 away. . . . 
 
 October 2.2nd. The building operations are going on, and they 
 have nearly finished the ground plan of my house ; then they will 
 begin watering it and beating it down, dig the holes for the trees, 
 and make the walls. I have a bad time with jiggers ; two toes are 
 festered, and I can hardly walk. The site is nearly a mile from 
 here, and the road is rough. I am puzzled how to make a chair. 
 You will say make a Glastonbury one, but how am I to work the 
 wood ? Here's a tip for getting up in the morning : Get a laying 
 hen to make her nest under your bed, and if she is a robust person 
 with strong maternal instincts and a broken voice, I am sure you 
 won't sleep much after that hen wakes ! I have tries! it. At day- 
 break (6 a.m.) she began, so I heaved a tin match-box and hit her 
 on the head, but she came back ; a slipper almost dislocated her 
 wing, but still she returned ; a boot, which nearly went through the 
 mud wall, everything at hand went, even a tobacco pouch, but she 
 got the best of it, and eventually I got up. Try it ; it is worthy of 
 the Patent Office. Besides she provided me with part of my break- 
 fast two mornings running. The same hen haunts me during the
 
 144 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 day, but I keep a collection of clods handy, and when she comes 
 round she gets one. I know her among a hundred. She filled 
 me first with pity, then admiration, now I marvel at her ! 
 
 October 2&//i. Mr. Nicholland my teacher came back on Thurs- 
 day, and very glad I was to see them. The latest news of the 
 slaving case is that thirteen slaves were released ; no more would 
 say they were slaves ; no doubt many more were, but that is their 
 business. All three dhows were confiscated. We expected some 
 unpleasantness or a row here when the news came, but somehow 
 these people are peaceful enough. If they had been Yaos I have 
 no doubt there would have been a row. Fortunately Kalanji's 
 dhow was not in it. If it had been confiscated, possibly Dr. 
 Hine and J. Williams in Unangu (of which place Kalanji is chief) 
 might have had a bad time of it. 
 
 By the same token Kalanji's dhow brought over a cargo of gun- 
 powder the other day, all German made. A good deal of this 
 Mr. Nicholl has taken to keep in bond lest they should sell it in 
 the interior, contrary to the Brussels Treaty. Staying as I am up 
 here with the magistrate, I get a good insight into all these affairs, 
 and a fair idea of the people's character who are concerned in 
 them good old rascals most of them, though they don't mean it, 
 and know no better. . . 
 
 The trees are coming in for the houses. What an awfully 
 crooked eye these people have ! I make them use a line, and 
 still they go zigzag to the end. They have dug the holes for the 
 trees all crooked ! They dig the holes with a bit of stick, water- 
 ing the mud and soil to soften it, and then with a pointed stick 
 digging it out, and emptying the hole with their hands. They 
 get a fathom of calico for a week's work worth here about a 
 shilling. I used to think this was "sweating," but working as 
 they do I am changing my opinion. I scarcely think it is worth 
 more. For two fathoms we can get .forty pounds of rice, so 
 that it is wealth to them. There is a tremendous demand for 
 sugar and salt here. They have none, though they can grow 
 rij.'lendid sugar-cane. They use it for their drink, "sherbet" not 
 the fizzy sniff you get in England, but a still, syrupy stuff, which 
 1 have ^een but not tasted. They also grow tons of ground nuts, 
 of which beautiful oil can be made, and with which olive oil is 
 adulterated in Europe. They also grow sesame seed, which 
 makes splendid oil. Castor oil and cotton grow too, but they
 
 LETTERS 145 
 
 make nothing of the latter. I should like to have the means of 
 developing these industries here. They would pay to export, but 
 there is plenty of ivory in the country, and many of the natives 
 want these things. . . . The sun is scalding here ; it does not 
 brown me, but raises blisters on such parts as are exposed to it, 
 I am a mass of bites too from various insects. . . . 
 With all best wishes. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, October 24///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 I have found immense pleasure in re-reading those letters 
 that came by last mail and the papers. I think I know more 
 politics than I ever did in England. . . 
 
 Stick to St. Aidan's, old chap, till I come back, and I will be 
 your Curate if you will give me the price of grub and a new cas- 
 sock once a year ! Life after all only begins at thirty. Stick on, 
 and perhaps I shall be back again some clay, and we'll have good 
 old times again. 
 
 I am determined to carry on the school work here in Swahili. 
 Mr. W. P. Johnson for some reason has a great prejudice against 
 Swahili. 
 
 It is exceedingly hot here now about 100" in the shade, \vith 
 often a hot wind blowing. Our drinking water, which we cool 
 by evaporation, won't go below 71'', and that feels icy to our heated 
 palates. . . . 
 
 I am single-handed, and I hope people will remember that. 
 I think I have been an almost exemplary correspondent. What 
 do you think ? . . . 
 
 One of my patients died last week. Ulcers and sores are many 
 and dreadful, and my daisa is giving out. I asked one old man 
 how he got his finger twisted out of its proper place, so that it 
 sticks out of the back of his hand. He said, ''(iod sent it.'' 
 Another a woman I asked how her sores came, and she said 
 she had been very wicked. On my way to the site from here I 
 have to pass a point where three roads meet. There is always 
 a collection of broken cooking pots there. They are filled with 
 something trifling for somebody who is sick ; it is daw a. Many, 
 indeed most of the people wear charms, which generally take
 
 I-J ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 the form of some nonsense written on paper, and folded up and 
 sewn in cloth, anil tied round the neck, head, arm, or affected 
 part. I was surprised at the number of people who came to ask 
 for writing paper, and only discovered the other day that they 
 wanted it for daw a. One boy writes some bosh in Arabic on bits 
 of paper like this and sells it for a fowl. That young man will 
 make his mark some day ! . . . 
 
 The Archdeacon is to go home early in December. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, November 2nd, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 This is the first day of the thirty-fourth year of my life. 
 What an awful thought ! How long to have lived and clone so 
 little ! . . . 
 
 Now I am writing placidly surrounded by Jumbe and his 
 courtiers, with an old coast man ostentatiously telling his beads 
 on the other side of the table no doubt wondering what he can 
 make out of us. Jumbe is sitting on a chair and the rest on the 
 ground, sixteen all told. It is a breach of etiquette for any to sit 
 on chairs in Jumbe's presence. This does not apply to Europeans 
 of course. Those who are accustomed to Arabic writing are 
 always astonished at the rapidity with which we write. They talk 
 of the "pen flying" ! These people come up here, Mr. Nicholl's 
 place, out of courtesy, and sit for hours sometimes. We simply 
 go on with whatever we arc doing. They arc terribly patient. I 
 trust they will not favour me in quite the same way when I am in 
 my own place. . . . 
 
 Well, the walls of my house are up, but not muddcd yet, and we 
 are rather short of trees, which come in slowly. Next week I 
 hope to have the roof joists on, and some of the mudding done. 
 If ail goes well a fortnight should see it finished. . 
 
 A sad affair has happened here in the death of Dr. Mackay, 
 of ihe gunboat "Pioneer" He was killed by a lion horribly 
 mangled and buried at Likoma. No doubt the November 
 number of the " Nyttsa /\Vr,'.f " will give an account of it. 
 
 A'07'cmber n///, i^th Sundny after Trinity. Mr. Nicholl, magis- 
 trate of the South of the Lake, has gone to Likoma to settle some 
 feuds among the heathen there. I do not expect him back till
 
 LETTERS 147 
 
 about the 2oth. William has had a bad attack of fever ; so the 
 native is not free from it you see. And at this moment I have 
 a temperature of 102, but I trust to a strong dose of quinine to 
 ward off anything higher. The framework of both houses is just 
 finished. I hope to begin mudding to-morrow, and to finish it 
 by the end of the week. Mr. Nicholl too is busy with his house, 
 which will, as it should, be grander than mine. Mine would be 
 half the size but for the Chapel. . . . 
 
 I cannot write under this restraint. The men from the " Doinira " 
 are here, and are going to stay to dinner with me, and my head 
 is buzzing with quinine. I feel I shall make a poor host, I hope 
 it does not sound very fearful all that I say about fever. It is the 
 natural order of things, and nobody thinks anything about it out 
 here. Water is very scarce. The lake water is not drinkable 
 here owing to its shallowness and the large town that washes in it. 
 Our drinking-water comes slowly filtering up in deep holes dug 
 by the people. It is the colour of milk, but is said to be very 
 good. . . . 
 
 And now the Bazaar is over and the Harvest Festival, and I 
 suppose you are preparing for the Confirmation. I am glad to hear 
 
 about the schools. Remember me most kindly to Mr. L- and 
 
 indeed to all the day school teachers. And now farewell. Re- 
 member me to all my old friends. This is only a line to say I am 
 well and flourishing. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, November \()t/i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 When this boat comes I expect it to bring a cook, William's 
 wife and two children, and possibly Mr. Corbett as well as Mr. 
 Nicholl on his return. The rains are beginning ; for two nights 
 we have had rain, and it threatens again. The first night we were 
 all unprepared, and I got a ducking in my bed, so you can imagine 
 how anxious I am to have a solid roof over my head. We have 
 been much delayed by want of trees, etc. Mr. Nicholl has been 
 very ood to us, and given us everything we wanted ; but that is 
 unsatisfactory, and I don't like taking from him. It is the way of 
 these people, they know nothing of punctuality, or the sacredness 
 of contracts ! There are some at home something like them, are
 
 148 ARTHUR FRASER S/J/ 
 
 there not ? There are some rather disquieting rumours in this 
 place just now. Jumbo seems to have been seized by a frenzy; 
 he lias already killed five innocent men who had been friends of 
 his predecessor's ; and this morning he tried to take his brother's 
 life with a revolver, which Mr. Nicholl had given him. Mr. Nicholl 
 is away at Likoma still, though I expect him back by this boat, I 
 think to-morrow at the latest. There are many problems and 
 complications to be worked out here, by reason of the change of 
 circumstances through the coming of the English power. Jumbe 
 is a young man, and is surrounded by a lot of young men, like 
 Rchoboam of old. These youngsters ape the Swahili, or Arabised 
 coast-man, in a life of indolence and lust. In old days the slave- 
 trade was their source of wealth, and fighting their only occupation. 
 Now they have neither wealth nor occupation. The present Jumbe 
 is not at all satisfactory to my mind. He has treated the old men of 
 his father's court with scant ceremony. He scems.little inclined to 
 follow Mr. Nicholl's advice, though he owes all to him. I hope 
 Mr. Nicholl will try him and depose him, and I think rule in the 
 interregnum himself with a few more soldiers. Uaruku is the 
 richest and most powerful chief in this town, more so than the 
 Jumbe I believe. Two or three days ago he went off with all his 
 goods and people to another place belonging to him, Una, as if in 
 disgust, and in the middle of the night. As he had to pass my 
 site, some of my people saw him, and thought it was war, and made 
 ready for flight. To-day I hear he is back again with a lot of 
 Angoni, his friends. Now the Angoni are the scourge of this 
 part of the country, a warlike tribe of Zulu origin. 
 
 Noi'cinhcr '2yd. Here is the steamer. Yesterday the Angoni 
 chief came to see me such a wholesome contrast to the Swahili 
 a big man, with a head-dress like a top hat, five inches high, all of 
 his own hair. He has promised to come up and give a war-dance 
 outside here. Poor Mr. Nicholl, lie will have a bad time of it when 
 he faces Jumbe' s sins, as I hope he will do firmly. The future will 
 be beset by difficulties if he doesn't do something to teach Jumbe 
 lha. he cannot do just as he likes. He has besides seized an Arab 
 here, and refuses to let him go except for a ransom of ten women ! 
 When he treats a powerful man, as this Aral) is, like this, he is 
 guilty of a grave error of policy, because these men bring the ivory 
 to the place, and arc its principal merchants. 
 
 I am very lit indeed just now except for prickly heat. It is very
 
 LETTERS I _J() 
 
 hot ; there is ;i strong wind blowing, though I think it only makes 
 it hotter. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, November 6f/i, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR BOYS AND GlRLS, 
 
 I don't know how I am ever to answer your letters one by 
 one ; but because I write to you all in one letter, you must not 
 give up writing to me separately. I can't tell you how much I long 
 
 WORKPEOPLE AT KOTA-KOTA. 
 
 (From a photograph by A. F. SIM.) 
 
 lor letters out here ; and it is so nice to sit night after niyht with a 
 budget of home letters, to read and re-read them till I almost 
 know them by heart, and think of what you are doing. You 
 know that the sun comes to us here two or two and a half hours 
 before it comes to you, so when you arc going to bed I am snoring 
 in my bed, and when you get up I have liimhed breakfast and 
 am busy with the work of the day. \YelI, my house is not finished 
 yet ; I hope in a fortnight it will be. I am longiny for it to be
 
 I5O ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 finished, for I can't do any missionary work here, nor much other 
 work, there are so many interruptions. People come every day in 
 threat numbers to see the magistrate ; they sit and talk, or do 
 nothing but stare and watch us ; it is not easy to do anything then. 
 I go every day to where I am building and give directions, and 
 sometimes, nay often, I have to lend a hand. I should have to be 
 there all the time if I had not a capital "foreman " in my teacher 
 William Kanyopolea. He is there all the day. My work-people 
 would do nothing if some one did not watch them, and even then 
 they rest more than they work. But they only get a shilling a 
 week for what they do : I don't think it is worth more ! I had 
 a " strike " the other day for more pay ; but I was glad to get rid of 
 all my women and children, for I had nothing more for them to do. 
 So now I have about twenty men left. The mud floors are finished, 
 and all the trees in the walls are up, and now we are to make the 
 roof. Then comes the putting the mud on the walls, and the grass 
 on the roof, and then my house will be finished. Such a beau- 
 tiful mud house, with walls II feet high but I have told you all 
 about that, haven't I ? The place I have chosen is such a lovely 
 spot. I like it more and more every day I see it, and Mr. Nicholl 
 is quite envious of it. My poor little monkey has left me. The 
 captain of the German steamer took a fancy to him, and begged 
 for him ; and as he has two others I thought it would be happier 
 with its friends. He was the funniest little mortal. He had no 
 other monkeys to teach him how to do things. I used to feed him 
 with a spoon when he first came. When he got bigger I gave him 
 a cup full of milk ; his only idea of drinking it was to stick his head 
 right down to the bottom of the cup, and then he would come up 
 again half drowned. Mr. Nicholl and I used to laugh at him till 
 we cried ! One day the men brought in such a funny beast. Mr. 
 Nicholl said it was a lemur. It was bigger than a cat, with a long 
 tail and grey woolly fur, large round eyes, and hands shaped like 
 a man's all four. It was so wild and savage. At last he escaped 
 from his cage, and I was rather glad. Are you fond of rats? 
 Come out here if you are. They are so cheeky they don't mind 
 you a bit, but will come and sit and stare at you. I caught one in 
 my hand last night, or rather it ran into my hand. 
 
 Tins is November 8th, and 1 am alone once again, only I have 
 William with me this time. He takes all the building work off my 
 hands, so that I haven't to be out in that scalding sun all day long.
 
 LETTERS 15! 
 
 Mr. Nicholl lias gone to Likoma to try some people who have been 
 shooting at each other, and stealing cattle. They are not Chris- 
 tians, but heathen. 
 
 We have to be our own doctors and dentists here. The other 
 day Mr. Nicholl would not let me pull out one of his teeth, but 
 pulled it out himself ! If ever I have to do that I shall do it with 
 a piece of string and a red-hot poker. You know how, don't 
 you ? All the best dentists do it that way I am told ! And now 
 good-bye. Here is the steamer, and I have no time to write any 
 more. 
 
 Ever your affectionate Friend, 
 
 ARTHUR F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. P , dated 
 
 Kota Kota, November \2th, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . Likoma is four miles from the eastern shore, about five 
 miles long by two and a half broad and of irregular shape. Its prin- 
 cipal products are mahogo (tapioca), stones, large and small, one 
 palm-tree (borassus), and many baobab trees, which always testify 
 to a poor soil. The population, about one thousand in scattered 
 villages along its shores, live on fish and mahogo. The Mission 
 station is built in proximity to the only harbour, a capital one, and 
 faces the eastern mainland. Two small islands block in the 
 harbour, which is consequently almost land-locked, and the view 
 from the Mission station, which is on high ground, is very 
 pretty. . . . 
 
 November ijf/i. To-day the boys and William are having their 
 first lesson in football, and by the shouts and excitement I should 
 imagine they appreciate it. I hear them shouting " goal ;) and 
 " touch," so I fancy they are also making progress. May they 
 make similar progress in other things ! . . 
 
 What changes there are in West Hartlepool ! It makes me sad 
 to think of them all. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. Si.M.
 
 152 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Letter to A. E. A I , 
 
 Kota Kota, November 12//1, 1894. 
 Mv DKAR DOCTOR, 
 
 It has been long in my mind to write you a line, and now I 
 am more or less settled it is time I did so. You will be interested 
 to know something of my movements, and what I can tell you of 
 the natives and my prospects, their diseases and my diseases, etc., 
 etc. I have been a good correspondent on the whole I think ; but 
 most of my letters have gone to West rather than to Old Hartlepool, 
 and once, not long ago, I made so bold as to write a letter to the 
 "J/<z//," thinking that there might be some who would care to hear 
 about me and this out-of-the- world country. In steering clear of 
 missionary work, of which I don't know enough yet to speak, and 
 in trying not to be too personal, I felt I had made rather a bosh of 
 that same letter. I am very, very fond of West Hartlepool, and I 
 should be exceedingly sorry to be forgotten by my old friends in 
 the town. My feeling has always been that it is my home, and I 
 shall always do what I can to maintain my connection with the old 
 place. I am so thankful always for those nine years of English 
 parochial work, not only for what it has taught me, but for the 
 deep friendships it has made for me. I pity from my heart the 
 Missionary who comes out here immediately on his Ordination. 
 He has none of those ties which only spiritual contact can make in 
 England ; and here, how many years will it be before one can look 
 for such sympathy as one gets from the spiritually-minded at home ? 
 I have heard of men .such as these going wrong out here. De- 
 tached from what is spiritual, and without roots in hearts elsewhere, 
 without the force of a hundred prayers offered almost daily for him, 
 I cannot be surprised that some men (no, I know of none in our 
 Church, and no ministers in any other Church, only teachers, etc.) 
 should fall away. I can feel a deep pity for and sympathy with 
 the layman trader, administration agent, or what not all alone, 
 and surrounded by Heathenism. So many of them find refuge in 
 what they are pleased to call Agnosticism, and that I fear becomes 
 a cloak for evil living. And yet we have much to be thankful for 
 in I'.ritish Central Africa. No liquor is allowed to be sold to the 
 natives, and on the whole the Knropean example might be worse. 
 'There are some exceedingly nice men, and some with the real
 
 LETTERS 153 
 
 interest of the native at heart. Some, it is true, seem quite unable 
 to see any good point in the native, and curse him and kick him 
 for what is really their own fault, for the simple reason that they 
 can't make themselves understood. In his own way a native is 
 very self-dependent. Every one of them can build a house, saw- 
 very neatly, and' so on, and if treated properly, will serve his 
 master like a dog ; but when he comes into contact with cork-screw, 
 table knives, forks, table-cloths, and napkins, a dozen different 
 sauces, tinned meats, and fish, what wonder if he makes some 
 mistakes ? Sugar and salt are temptations to him, but he is 
 honest on the whole very. He has no little self-respect, and keeps 
 himself clean ; he loves soap, and hates a tear in his cloth. But 
 European civilization is not fitted for the African native, it gene- 
 rally spoils him. The Arab has a far greater affinity for him, and 
 his Oriental manners suit him far better. The native can never 
 hope to be a white man, but he can aspire to Arab ways. The 
 Arab is his ideal of a native gentleman. The European (A'lsu/igii} 
 is a great bully, who bustles him about and introduces all manner 
 of strange implements and habits. He (the native) hates regular 
 work. The Mzungifs bell goes at seven, and twelve, and two, and 
 five ; he would prefer to begin at daybreak, and go on leisurely 
 all day long, bothered by no bells, eating when he felt inclined, 
 and resting when he wished. There are one or two tribes that 
 seek work with the European. They are the best workers from 
 our point of view. They "sign on" for six months with the 
 Europeans at Blantyre with coffee planters and trading com- 
 panies. They get four fathoms of calico a month and their food ; 
 and for that they work pretty hard I think. A fathom of calico is 
 supposed to be worth a shilling out here, and of course the native 
 can buy a great deal more with it than we could in England with 
 ten times its value : and after all, native labour is but slow, poor 
 stuff. An English apprentice-boy could do as much as six of 
 these fellows in the same time I think. Well, I am like all new 
 comers, only too ready to form opinions and express them. The 
 truth is native races differ very much, and what is true of one does 
 not hold of all. I am here in the midst of an Arabiscd town, 
 where the autocracy aspire to Mahommedanism and Swahili, or 
 coast civilization a civilization the result of Arab influences. 
 There is nothing good to be said for it as it exists in its native 
 perfection cruelty, guile, indolence, lust. It is no doubt some-
 
 154 ARTHUR FKASKK .S/J/ 
 
 what picturesque. \\'hat is to come to these people ? The abso- 
 lute heathen is much better off, because, though despised by the 
 Swahili for it, he has a certain amount of work to do. Indolence 
 is the mark of the Swahili gentleman. He will fight to get posses- 
 sion of slaves and the produce of the field, but work he will not. 
 His slaves do his work, plant his fields, build his houses, etc. If 
 in battle he gets possession of slaves, he sells them ; and this has 
 been the curse of Africa. And now what is to be done ? The 
 problem is to be worked out here. Things are changed ; the 
 Mzungu has come with his soldiers, fighting is put an end to ; 
 already three out of four dhows have been confiscated for carrying 
 slaves. The Swahilis' source of wealth is gone; he lias not the 
 acumen to find out any other source of wealth, and so the Swahili, 
 conservative slave-trader, the rich, indolent gentleman, hates the 
 Mzungu. The downtrodden, timid, stupid, superstitious aboriginal 
 is benefited. For him there is a hope where a firm government 
 can protect him. Will he ever rise to independence, and shake off 
 his timid cringing to the Swahili (but not exchange it for an 
 European yoke) ? These are problems for the future. There are 
 plenty of signs of the Swahili's hatred of us. They quite recognise 
 that our coming is their going. They meet our workmen cutting 
 trees, and chase and threaten to kill them. Irresponsible ones 
 among them taunt our people, and say they will kill the Mzungu 
 and all his people. 
 
 I feel I ought to say something about your line of business, 
 though the steamer which will take this has already cast anchor. 
 
 The fever no one is quite free from it. I imagine it is malarial. 
 One's perspiration when in the throes of fever reeks of the same 
 smell which the marshes have ! Temperature rises very rapidly ; 
 in a couple of hours one goes up to io6 J . I have had only 
 one attack like that, though I have had several days in bed with 
 it. \\'lien I leel it coming on, which is generally at night, I take 
 twenty grains of quinine, and sweat all night, and generally wake 
 up quite free from it, but with a buzzing in my ears, the result of 
 quinine. Sometimes however the fever gets the better of me ; 
 but even after the worst attack i have had, with my temperature 
 100', I was perfectly well in a week. It is very like a sudden 
 burst of influenza, which comes and goes and leaves no effects 
 apparently like influenza does. 
 
 The people who come to me are those who have ulcers and
 
 LETTERS 155 
 
 wounds of every description. At present I am out of medicine. I 
 am using permanganate of potash and vaseline. 
 Farewell. I had better send this oft" when I can. . . . 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to C. H. R , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, November, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR - , 
 
 I can't tell you how much I appreciate letters ; they give 
 me back-bone. As you can understand, one lives upon them ; 
 they are the only breath of sympathy that reaches one. No, ex- 
 cept for the thought of all you people at home, this is not a hard 
 life. Perhaps hardships may be in store for one, but hitherto, ex- 
 cept the lack of sugar, salt, and tobacco, it has not been hard 
 living. No milk often enough, and nothing but the tough African 
 fowl for meat, and a mixture of flour and native meal once for 
 bread, are things one forgets as soon as they are over. No, the 
 only hardship I have yet experienced is an occasional " go '"' of 
 homesickness. Even the frequent fevers have their counterbalanc- 
 ing boon one feels so jolly thankful when one is free from them. 
 The mosquitoes and flying and creeping things are a little grue- 
 some. . . . 
 
 A whole year is generally calculated as time spent in starting 
 upon missionary work, and I daresay I shall be quite that before 
 I can speak at all fluently. It is a horrid language to understand, 
 for these people talk so fast ; and it is monstrous to read, because 
 so many vowels come together and each must be pronounced. . . . 
 
 A man whom I have employed, a servile kind of chap, has sold 
 the same woman four times. Each time she has run away from 
 her new master and returned to the original. Eventually she 
 made a complaint to the Mzungu (European). In .Air. Xicholl's 
 absence that was myself, so I let him out on bail till the magis- 
 trate's return. To-day 1 have been receiving customs for imports 
 calico and gunpowder. . . . 
 
 The Swahili, even more than the Arab, is the enemy of all pro- 
 gress, and consequently the enemy of the English in the country. 
 The two cannot exist together, as his whole idea of life is to possess 
 slaves, and slaves are his revenue. . . .
 
 l- 3 () Ah'THUR 7-A'.l.S7sA' S/.)/ 
 
 My toucher's house is finished but not dry yet. Twice a pait of 
 the wall has fallen because white ants have eaten the bark rope, 
 and the mud, being wet, has fallen out. White ants arc every- 
 where. They have destroyed my Gladstone bag, and they started 
 on my shoes. It is simply impossible to put anything that is not 
 tin upon the ground. But, worse than this, they almost invariably 
 attack seeds and young trees, especially if you water them. Tell 
 
 S I am going to see if wheat will grow here, but I have no seed 
 
 yet. Nothing grows at Likoma ; they get even their firewood from 
 the mainland. Here the soil is richer, but scarcely rich enough for 
 wheat I fear. . . . The " former" rains have begun, and the 
 whole face of the country is changed as if by magic. I have found 
 some lovely white and scarlet lilies. 
 
 I have quite lost the odium for a black skin, and I can fondle a 
 black child as readily as I could a white one. I forget people are 
 black, and the features of those here are seldom after the ordinary 
 negro type. Many boys are nice looking. I have a jolly little 
 fellow for a servant at three fathoms of calico a month and food, 
 and a jolly Christian boy full of fun for a cook. How they go for 
 a football ! . . . 
 
 Oh ! How hard to realize Christmas ! It is cool, about 70' to 
 80' ; this is because of the rain, but there are no Christmas cards 
 or parties. I must begin to think of a Christinas pudding ! How 
 you fellows will fill my mind ! I shall think of the New Year's 
 party at the Vicarage last year. How shockingly rude we (M 
 and I) were ! There are times when the thoughts of the old 
 place and the dear old folk and the beautiful Church and Services 
 fill me to overflowing ; but I know I shall get interested in this 
 work. If 1 may be permitted to see some fruit in changed lives, 
 then I know I shall become absorbed in it. ... 
 
 There is no escape from fever it is like the white ant. About 
 once in three weeks is my average, but it is nothing to be alarmed 
 at. I am sound in vital parts, and it has nothing to attack 
 yet. . . . 
 
 In developing native industries the Aral) has a great pull over 
 the European. He takes what he finds and improves it ; but the 
 Englishman despises what he finds and introduces impossible 
 luxuries, such as glass windows, beds, mattresses, and count- 
 less other things, which the native could supply if he only knew 
 how.
 
 LETTERS 157 
 
 Tell S they do grow wheat on high levels. At Blantyre 
 Buchanan grows a lot. The Archdeacon had a contract with him, 
 but sometimes it fails. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, November 2O///, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . Some thirty of the Angoni (who are Zulus) are in the 
 town on a friendly visit to Baruku. They brought a letter from the 
 Scotch missionary of their place merely a letter of introduction 
 to any European who might be in charge here. It got about that 
 this letter was from the Mzungu, warning us that Jumbe had 
 called these Angoni to help him to fight the Wazungu. So I have 
 had Jumbe up here to-night in a great state of mind to know 
 whether the letter really said so ! Our people are often taunted 
 with being \Yazungus, and a party of them was attacked and 
 frightened out in the country, where they were cutting trees. . . . 
 
 The Angoni are famous for their dancing, and as they are going 
 to dance this afternoon I think I shall go down and see them. If 
 they are all decked like their chief, it will be a weird sight. . . . 
 
 My medicine is finished, and so is my tobacco ; my watch has 
 stopped, and I have lost my calendar ; but I am well, and it is 
 wonderful how easy it is to do without these things when you have 
 to. I shall begin keeping a tally of the days on a stick soon. 
 Farewell. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. Sim. 
 
 Kota Kota, December is/, 189.). 
 
 I am conscious of the fact that St. Andrew's Day brings 
 Foreign Missions specially before the minds of Church people at 
 home, and what a power that knowledge is to me it is hard to 
 tell. I have quite a congregation of Christians here, for when the 
 (icrman steamer came she brought two carpenters and their wives, 
 and another cook for myself, and William's wife and two children. 
 That iv.akes nine natives besides the two children. The car- 
 penteiV wives arc only catechumens as yet. \Ye had Matins at 
 6.30 a.m., and Evensong at 9 p.m. On Sunday we are to have 
 Service twice in this house with Mr. Nicholl. Of course we shall
 
 158 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 have the Celebration in the hut as before. Prayers are said in 
 a mixture of Chinyanja and Swahili, as there is a dearth of 
 Prayer- Books. . . . 
 
 During all the excitement with Jumbe I had a rather bad turn 
 of fever temperature io5 - 4 and I am only feeling quite fit again 
 now. This is the third high temperature I have had here, and I 
 suppose it is a fair share. . . . 
 
 December \itJi. I have written a letter to the Archdeacon, which 
 will reach him in England, beseeching him to go North and visit 
 my dear old Parish. Oh, that in time, as this station develops, I 
 might have two ladies here ! I am sure that there is work for them. 
 Poor girls, how much they need a sister's sympathy and guidance ! 
 They are for the most part mere articles of furniture. The late 
 Jumbe had three hundred so-called wives most of them taken in 
 war and torn from what they call their homes. Then there are 
 minor difficulties to be faced. Other knowledge than teaching is 
 mostly gained in a short time ; cookery (especially invalid) and 
 yet how different cooking is here, with no kitchen ranges, no lard, 
 no fat, no yeast ; surgical knowledge bandaging, treatment of 
 ulcers, use of syringes, poultices, carbolic acid, iodoform, and how 
 to make a very little go a long way ; further how not to worry 
 or overwork, and how to think nothing of fever ; hardship there 
 is no great hardship only when one's heart is at home, that is 
 my only real hardship. Otherwise the journey out has been the 
 only hardship to me ; but mine was exceptionally long and tire- 
 some. . . 
 
 My old friends are too numerous to mention, but I think of them 
 all very much, and often bring them to mind as I in imagination 
 pass my eye down the congregation in Church from the pulpit. 1 
 see them all again, and it does me good. . . . 
 
 It will be hard to keep Christmas with no Church furniture, but 
 we must do our best ; and, deprived of all associations, perhaps 
 Christmas will not be robbed of its real joy. I wish I could 
 send you some of these lovely lilies for your decorations. I have 
 discovered the loveliest vermilion lily I have ever seen a large 
 cluster of small flowerets, bigger than a cricket ball. When it 
 seeds I shall transplant it and send some seed home. Ho\v lovely 
 it is here sometimes ! And it is always picturesque. To-night I 
 sat outside ; the full moon had risen and was hidden behind the 
 clouds, but it was reflected in the water with the deep shadows of
 
 LETTERS 159 
 
 the trees below us as a foreground and the silver lake and the moun- 
 tains on the opposite side as a background. The atmosphere is 
 most wonderfully clear. Those hills must be forty miles away, and 
 yet one can see every crack and fissure, almost every tree. . . . 
 I have a swarm of bees on my " Estate," and the other day one 
 of them was ungrateful enough to sting me where do you think ? 
 On the very tip of my nose. Well, I rubbed earth on it, and felt 
 little or no inconvenience. ... I wish you a most happy New 
 Year in the real sense. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, December isf, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 Great things have been happening here since my last letter 
 to you. I think I told you of Jumbe's little jokes, and how he had 
 killed five strangers who came to the town in the late Jumbe's 
 time, and how he also attempted to take his brother's life, missing 
 five shots at him with a revolver. Well, when Mr. Nicholl returned 
 that same evening, yesterday week, he tied up the young man, and 
 sent the German steamer, which had just brought him in, to call 
 the ''Pioneer" which happened to be at the other side of the Lake. 
 And so on Saturday morning at ten the " Pioneer' 1 ' 1 steamed in, and 
 the villagers in a fright streamed out of the town. On Monday 
 morning the Jumbe and his principal adviser were carried off to 
 Zomba to await his trial, and he will probably find amusement for 
 his lazy hands at Chincle eventually. Now an interregnum has 
 been declared, and Mr. Nicholl is Jumbe for the time being. There 
 was little fuss. Of course everybody seized some weapon ; my ride 
 and gun (loaded with empty cartridges) were both called into re- 
 quisition, but not a single attempt was made to rescue the prisoner. 
 Mr. Nicholl was quite wise and cool and allowed a certain amount 
 of access to him ; but the young Jumbe was too unpopular to ex- 
 cite much sympathy. The old men are glad he is gone. . . . 
 
 December (ith. Since I wrote last Mr. Nicholl has been very ill. 
 It has been a most awfully trying few days. . . . Finally the 
 German steamer came in, and he went off to Bandavve, seventy 
 miles from here, to put himself under the doctor there. Next day 
 I took to my bed for a bit with a little touch of fever. I am all 
 right again to-day (December 7th).
 
 I6O ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 December S//t. Again a heap has happened in my small world. 
 First the mail on the 6th. Such a splendid budget again ! 
 Enough to cheer one on one's way for quite a month. More of 
 this hereafter. Then, as I have said, getting Mr. Nicholl off at 5 
 a.m. on the yth. Then at sundown in comes the " Charles Janson " 
 with Archdeacon Maples on board, not without warning. 1 was 
 on the look-out for them. Then just at dusk, most unexpectedly, 
 in comes the " Domira " on her way South, and I had not a single 
 letter ready. I don't think I shall actually have missed a mail, 
 because my last letters only left a fortnight ago. Poor old chap, 
 
 I fear all the changes will distress you fearfully, especially C 's 
 
 loss. They are distressing enough to contemplate from a distance 
 like this. Shall I recognise the old place again when I return? 
 . . . All the English residents out here arc awfully sorry Bishop 
 Hornby has had to resign. They liked him immensely. . . . 
 The Confirmation is over. What an anxious time it is ! I trust 
 you are pleased and gratified with at least apparent results. . . . 
 If I were to get a year at home any time I wonder if I could go 
 through a course of elementary surgery. Can you send me a book 
 on anatomy and physiology? I might do something in the way 
 of reading out here. Remember me to the choir men and lads, 
 
 and to Mr. II . Oh, for another sing with them, or I would 
 
 as soon sit and listen ! . . . 
 
 Let me retract all the nasty tilings I have said about Africa. It 
 is lovely now. The waste places are green, and there are a few 
 such flowers lovely lilies. When they seed I will send some to 
 you for hothouses. I have nine Christians in my lot hero. On 
 Sunday afternoon (December 9th) we went for a picnic to the 
 hot-water springs. I thought we might find some lilies or other 
 flowers. And didn't we, with their bulbs two and a half feet below 
 the surface ! A few ferns too ; liiies with masses of huge white; 
 (lowers in bunches ; another with a lovely round head of small 
 vermilion floweir, bigger than a cricket ball ; another with a single 
 huge violet (lower like an iris, only very short, and a much bigger 
 (lower : some other lovely (lowering shrubs too, and many labiates 
 of ;ill kinds. And yet I don't suppose this is a very rich country 
 for (lowers. With the rams I have put in seeds turnip, onion, 
 potatoes, sunflowers, etc., etc., and melons. Many are already 
 showing above ground, but, alas ! there are many locusts about, 
 which may cause us trouble. This is a great rice-growing centre,
 
 LETTERS l6l 
 
 and it would be a terrible calamity if we had the locusts later on. 
 1 have taken the precaution to buy a ton of rice ! . . . 
 
 Now a word about the Archdeacon's visit. He is on his way 
 to England about the Bishopric. They want him to be Bishop, 
 and so do we, but he himself is very loth. He called here to see 
 me, and for a final talk on his way South. He was pleased with 
 what I had done (more than I am), but the principal thing he said 
 was that I should be undisturbed here, unless the worst came' to 
 ihe worst, and no one was left at Likoma. I am very thankful to 
 rind myself more or less secure here. I hope when he returns I 
 shall require more help. My ambition is, when I know both lan- 
 guages, to move about a great deal. I have a very wide district 
 2,000 square miles. I have not begun preaching yet, and don't 
 think I shall till I get into my house and begin the school work. 
 Even then it must IDC by interpretation, for these people are dis- 
 tinctly bi-lingual. I believe it will be intensely interesting work. 
 The Archdeacon and Mr. Corbett came ashore about 8 p.m. They 
 came up here, and we talked till 4 a.m. Mr. Corbett felt the mos- 
 quitoes, and he went under my curtain and fell asleep. Then the 
 moon had gone down, and by starlight we tried to find the boat. 
 We naturally lost ourselves, and had to knock up some one, and 
 when we found the boat, the boys had gone ; so we went back to 
 find William, and there were the boys with oars and rowlocks ! 
 They got off after one hour and a half hunting about in the dark. 
 I could not persuade them to remain till daylight. . . . 
 
 So a good deal has happened in my little world. Another thing, 
 which I have forgotten to tell you, is that we have moved into a 
 house with a roof on it and walls. It was very roughly built for 
 the Sikhs, who are under a temporary shelter in their tents. Mr. 
 Nicholl's house is only in the rib stage. He is using palm *rees 
 (borassus). I could not run to that. Perhaps I shall when I bui!:l 
 my Church. This house is about forty feet long. Mr. Nicholl's bed 
 is at one end, and mine at the other ; but big as it is it is lumbered 
 up with Jumbe's treasures, which seem mainly to consist of mat- 
 tresses. With William almost all the building bother is taken off 
 my shoulders. He is there all day comes over at 6.30 a.m. and 
 9 p.m. for prayers, and sleeps there in a house he bought for a 
 fathom of calico ! For one hoe, without handle, we can buy forty 
 loads of grass '. A load at its big end is a good six feet in circum- 
 ference, and about seven or eight feet long, tapering to nothing. 
 
 M
 
 1 62 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 I am sadly in want of Altar ornaments (cross I have), candlesticks 
 and vases. My little Chapel shall have the best I can make out 
 for it. I should like a Longfellow. I shall never bring myself to 
 beg in the pages of " Central Africa." ... I am abashed, and 
 blush at the circulation my letters have ; being at a good distance, 
 and with a flowing beard and moustache (!), perhaps you don't 
 notice my blushes. . . . 
 
 I can't say how much good a large packet of home letters does 
 me. It makes me feel as strong as a horse in no time. You ask 
 me what my difficulties are. At present the enervating, zeal- 
 sapping delay is my chief difficulty. And of course the absence 
 of sympathy here I feel very much more than I can tell. And 
 yet your letters bring warm hearts very near to me. I have been 
 here more than three months now, and am still some distance from 
 a starting-point. I fear I have failed to send you any Christmas 
 cards this year. There is a poor choice of them here ! I wish I 
 could send you a cartload of these lilies for decorations ! Wouldn't 
 they be lovely ! One bunch would fill one of the vases. I shall 
 send you some seed later on when it is ripe. . . . 
 
 I wish you could see the lightning here. It is magnificent 
 almost every evening. Sometimes at night a deluge comes down 
 a good portion through the roof and then I have to get up and 
 cover everything destructible, and myself too. But I have moved 
 my bed, and trust I may escape a dripping to-night. I cannot 
 wonder at having a cold in my head with this. Here is the rain, 
 a deluge, and it can rain out here. I wish I had a rain-gauge 
 to measure it. It is just coming down in sheets. In a moment 
 I expect it to be dripping in on my head. It is a strange sight to 
 see the clouds of the kungu fly on the lake. They look like dense 
 clouds of black smoke. The natives eat them, baking them in 
 little cakes. They are feasting on locusts here, boiling them and 
 drying them. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, Christ inns Day, 1894. 
 
 AlY DKAR , 
 
 I must write you a line, if it is only a line, to wish you a 
 Happy New Year, if I am too late for Christmas wishes. How 
 strange it is here ! Can you imagine Christmas among my sun
 
 LETTERS 
 
 163 
 
 roundings? I am trying to picture you getting up with a sore 
 head, having been kept awake half the night by the bands and 
 waits ! Perhaps snow on the ground, probably one of those jolly 
 old slushy, sleety days, which one only knows how to relish when 
 you have little else than sunshine and a dry, baked desert under 
 your feet ! Well, we have done our best. Last night Christmas 
 Eve we had carols (fancy carols !), "While shepherds watched," 
 
 E N D VIEW. 
 
 SIDE VIEW. 
 
 (Sketches by A. f.,Sim.) 
 
 "Hark, the Herald Angels," and "Once in Royal David's City," 
 in Swahili, to the old tunes. And William, who has had eighteen 
 months in England, turned up with an armful of Christmas presents 
 for Mr. Nicholl and myself. Then this morning at 7 a.m. we had 
 our Celebration, when we had the Christmas hymns to the dear 
 old tunes, still in the old round native hut. The Christmas tunes 
 alone reminded me of Christmas more than anything else. Then 
 I sent William and the carpenter boys with my rifle and Mr.
 
 164 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Nicholl's to shoot in the country ! And now I am expecting them 
 back every moment. They took some of my workmen with them, 
 and a lot of biscuits and a tin of jam ! The plum-pudding ! It 
 wasn't half bad. Only it was served up for breakfast as if it were 
 a cake ! Poor Mr. Nicholl is much distressed because he cannot 
 touch it. Indeed he is very seedy, and has spent all the day in 
 bed. Altogether it is the strangest Christmas I have ever spent. 
 It has been fine nearly all day with very hot sunshine. . 
 Among other things I sowed some peas and French beans, and 
 the melons are doing splendidly. Potatoes too are coming up, 
 and so are the sunflowers ; but we have a terrible lot of locusts. 
 People are getting very anxious for their rice crop, which of course 
 is the staple food, and indeed wealth here. I have kept a certain 
 number of people at work to-day, who, poor things, know nothing 
 of Christmas Day and what it means yet. I trust in three days' 
 time my walls will be finished. Then I shall light big fires and 
 try and dry them, so as to get into my house by January 4th. 
 Then, please God, my active missionary and school work will 
 begin. Really my house is a beauty. I am awfully pleased with 
 it. ... 
 
 The doors and windows will be rather primitive. Uoors here 
 are made of the chituali palm, the section of which is like this : 
 
 These are cut the length of the door and fitted together like 
 this :
 
 LETTERS 165 
 
 The left-hand end one is a tree stem, and the ends of it are pivots 
 which fit into a socket top and bottom, and so it forms an ex- 
 ceedingly strong and useful hinge. The chiwalis are strung on a 
 bamboo, which passes through each (vide dotted line) and which 
 is wedged into the wooden upright at the left of picture ; fasten- 
 ings are primitive. I don't see why I should alter this. They are 
 capital doors, not beautiful, but easily and quickly made, and very 
 fairly light considering 1 their thickness. People here have no 
 windows ; indeed, their houses inside are pitch dark except when 
 the door is open, or they stifle themselves with a fire. So I have 
 no native precedent to go upon. My house will have big windows, 
 and I shall try and make shutters out of old boxes to shut at night. 
 Perhaps if I take to photography very vigorously I shall in time 
 have enough spoiled plates to make a glass window or two ! The 
 nights are cold; and you must keep the night air out or risk fever. 
 I have had a cold in my head almost since the rains began, and 
 can't get rid of it. ... 
 
 January ^th. We have had a lot of excitement here. Mr. 
 Xicholl has taken over the entire government, and announced that 
 there are to be no more Jumbes, so the excitement has been great. 
 I think the people are pleased. Feudal government continues. 
 Slaving capturing, buying, selling will probably end in hanging. 
 Mivavi, or poison test, is to be treated as homicide in future if a 
 man dies of it. Messages of peace, ambassadors, etc., etc., are 
 coming in and going out. We might be a great nation ! At the 
 Baraza yesterday ambassadors from Unangu said they wanted 
 a present for their chief. Mr. Nicholl said, " Let him come and 
 take it," only a little more politely. However he satisfied them 
 with friendly messages and promises of help in the matter of the 
 ferry. We hear that many caravans are in Kalanji's country, 
 afraid to cross as they hear we are in an uproar here ! The report 
 is that Mr. Nicholl is a fierce man ! It is the dhow business that 
 has given him that name no doubt, though he did his best to get 
 them restored. However, a little patience will I think show them 
 what is good for them. 
 
 Dr. Hine is a very widely read man. He has Abdallah 
 Nakaam, a native Deacon, with him now ; he is a Yao, and an 
 excellent preacher ; I am told he ought to be a great help. The 
 Yaos are a very difficult, insubordinate, cheeky people to get on 
 with. My cook was with Dr. Hine some time ago, and he says
 
 1 66 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 they used to have about ten boys and three or four grown people ! 
 It must be very heartbreaking work. I told you the books had 
 arrived, but I haven't taken them out yet ; we have no room here. 
 
 And so farewell, dear old chap. God bless you and your work 
 and your people this New Year. Keep your heart up. Separations 
 are only temporary. Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Miss H. A. S , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, December 251/1, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 A merry Christmas to you from me and the mosquitoes. 
 The latter are so keen on their message that they will rapidly 
 drive me to bed. O for a good shiver in a warn? overcoat ! O 
 for a good old storm of snow and sleet ! . . . 
 
 One hears of strange superstitions here. At every cross-road 
 you find broken pots, which sick people place there, with flowers 
 in them, for their betterment. Graves are marked by these broken 
 cooking-pots. To break one is a great calamity, and to do it pur- 
 posely means that you wilfully break up your home and all its ties. 
 I think the cooking-pot has belonged to the dead man or woman. 
 To-day they sacrificed a bullock to get rid of the locusts. Mahom- 
 medanism certainly winks at native superstitions. They are indeed 
 very deeply rooted, and are entwined with all the details and 
 relations of life. There are also some curious customs, e.g., the 
 lip-ring, a bit of brass tube or cartridge, or a solid round thing 
 half an inch or more stuck into the upper lip ; also the nose-ring, 
 stuck into the side of one of the nostrils ; ears too are pierced 
 even in men ; women when very stylish have six or seven studs
 
 LETTERS 
 
 167 
 
 in their ears. Then there are the tribal marks. The mark of 
 these people is two long cuts on both sides of the face from the 
 temple to the chin. The birds here are decidedly interesting 
 more so than the flowers. All the crows have a pure white breast 
 and neck. The moths and butterflies are, many of them, lovely. 
 But oh, what creeping, and crawling, and flying things ! Mos- 
 quitoes in the evening are the bane of one's life. . . . 
 
 I have told you not to think of my fever ; the attacks take me 
 very gently. I shall quite get over them soon, and I have not 
 had any since the last ! . . . 
 
 It is very interesting to watch the oil of English justice mingling 
 with the vinegar of Swahili semi-civilized savagery, or rather not 
 mixing, but trying to make the best of it. Mr. Nicholl goes to 
 Fort Johnston to try Jumbe, and in his absence I shall be a sort 
 of Vice-Sultan. His collecting witnesses has been rather trying, 
 as his principal witness, who escaped when her three companions 
 were killed, has gone off to a place seventy miles away, and all the 
 time she was supposed to be safe. However he has plenty of 
 evidence to convict the young man upon. . . . 
 
 No African meat has fat, not even the pigs ; only elephants and 
 hippos have, and as we don't get them every day we have to 
 depend on tinned stuff from England. It is these things that make 
 living expensive here. Fowls are 2d. or ^d. each, but one eats 
 three or four a day, including soup. . . . 
 
 Farewell. A Happy New Year to you all. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 (Sketch of Koto. Kota and Lake by A. F. SIM.) 
 
 I have not finished enclosed picture, as I did not put in the
 
 1 68 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 opposite mountains. It is rather a fancy picture, as I wanted to 
 get all the eye full upon one sheet of paper, and I could not see 
 the middle distance from where I was sitting. It was raining all 
 the time, as it is most times now. The trees on the left are an 
 " impression " of my site as seen from here. The native huts and 
 a woman pounding corn with a wooden pestle and mortar are seen 
 everywhere, and the man is usually reclining. I have not got any 
 paper to paint on, though I have my paint-box. 
 
 Letter to A. D and E. C , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, December 31 .?/, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR - , 
 
 I have so many letters to write, and so little time to write 
 them in, that I must answer both your letters together. I want to 
 wish you both, and all your two families, a Happy New Year. . . . 
 Oh, these mosquitoes ! There are five trying for the same place 
 on my nose, and I am sitting with my legs in a mail bag like a big 
 sack. I am afraid I shall be driven to bed, where I sleep under a 
 muslin curtain, as every white man has to do. . . . 
 
 We had a picnic the other day with the eight or nine Christian 
 natives whom we have here from Likoma. It was to a very beautiful 
 place, where there are hot water springs so hot that once I boiled 
 an egg in them. We took biscuits, coffee, jam, and tinned fruits ; 
 but they liked the sugar best, and did not care for the tinned fruit 
 a bit. After tea we hunted for lilies such beautiful white lilies, 
 very large, and so sweet to smell. The boys made a fire by rub- 
 bing two dry sticks together. We had no matches, and it took 
 them half an hour to get fire. 
 
 The people here have such funny superstitions. The other day 
 Mr. Xicholl was very ill, and they said he had been bewitched. He 
 had a big white stone witli a lot of Arabic on it, which they insisted 
 was the cause of all the mischief, so they took it away. Some time 
 ago Mr. Xicholl was away, and at that time Jumbe had an evil 
 conscience, and was not at all anxious for his return. So he tried 
 to prevent it by throwing a charm into the Lake to stop the steamer 
 returning ; but unfortunately it came in that very night, and Jumbe 
 found himself in prison, and now he is sent off to be tried for mur- 
 dering some people. So now Mr. Xicholi is Chief, or rather, as he
 
 LETTERS 169 
 
 says, the Queen is Chief, and he is Viceroy. Jumbe meant to have 
 attacked the white men, and had half a ton of gunpowder hidden 
 away, which Mr. Nicholl has seized. The Mahommedans have no 
 conscience, and would kill every white man in the country if they 
 were strong enough. They think us fools for being kind, or honest, 
 or just. These are the people I am going to try and win for Christ, 
 so I do need your prayers. It is only God who can win them. 
 
 We have some funny cookery sometimes, though on the whole 
 we do very well. Fowls constitute our principal meat, but they 
 are not English fowls. Thrice my men, who go out to cut trees 
 or bamboos for my houses, have brought in a hartebeest, as big as 
 a calf, not very nice to eat, but a change. Sometimes too we 
 have had a guinea-fowl. It is very difficult to get about now, as 
 all the streams are full of water. I am building a bridge at my 
 place. The rain makes the country look very pretty, and the grass 
 is six, eight, or ten feet high ; but in the dry season the country is 
 
 like a desert. Thank F for his nice letter. I was so glad to 
 
 hear he was going to be confirmed, and I pray that he may become 
 a constant communicant and a firm and steadfast Christian lad. 
 I know he will have many temptations in the shops, but I hope 
 that he will show a good example. 
 
 Please remember me to all in your two families and to all my 
 dear friends. I am not often but always thinking of you all. 
 
 I beg leave to introduce you to some of my tormentors. Please 
 look at their noses, long and sharp, made of specially tested steel 
 for sticking into you ! Good-bye again. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, January is/, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 The first time I write that date this year let me greet you 
 and wish you all blessing and happiness for the year. . . . 
 
 The young Jumbe, who has just been deposed, had an elaborate 
 scheme for restoring the old state of things (i.e., killing and slaving) ; 
 to do which of course he would have to get rid of the Wazungu. 
 However he began a little prematurely by killing four or five men
 
 IJO ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 when Mr. Nicholl was at Likoma. These things are very hard to dis 
 cover here, and had it not been for my teacher we should not have 
 known of them ; for however much the people may wish to side 
 with the whites, they would never tell about anything like this. 
 So in the case of the gunpowder, it was discovered by a mere 
 accident by one of Mr. Nicholl's workmen, who belonged to a dis- 
 tant tribe friendly to the white man. Though the whole town 
 almost surely knows of everything that passes (for they are the 
 veriest gossips and they talk openly in a crowded baraza of all 
 that is doing), the white man never gets to know anything. In 
 the killing case one of my employe's told my teacher, who, of 
 course told me, and I told Mr. Nicholl directly on his return. The 
 young Jumbe was sent for, and when faced with it drew his dagger 
 and tried to escape ; but a sentry was posted at the door, and 
 collared him very cleverly. . . . 
 
 The young man's scheme depended upon our ignorance or folly, 
 or he would never have come up to the Boma when sent for. He 
 was going to get out of the town and, with this half-ton of gun- 
 powder, attack the station. Some damage no doubt would have 
 been done, as there are only fourteen soldiers here and no defences. 
 If he had succeeded in killing us or driving us away, he would have 
 gained his end. But if he had failed he would have gone up into 
 the mountains, as Makanjira and two other recalcitrant chiefs have 
 done, and this would have led to a lot of trouble and fighting. So 
 you see there was something providential in his capture, as a 
 number of little "accidents," so called, point out. His capture was 
 effected quietly and without resistance, partly because the young 
 fellow was unpopular with the headmen, and partly because Mr. 
 Nicholl threatened to shoot him if any violence were shown or 
 offered. I was in a raging fever all this time, with a temperature 
 of 106'. But there was little or no excitement, though all the sol- 
 diers were under arms three days and nights, and all who could 
 armed themselves with guns. . . . 
 
 The Administration, while forbidding buying and selling and 
 capturing people, recognises a kind of feudal system. Each head- 
 man has his people, and he is responsible to the Government for 
 their good order, etc. They pay him certain dues (a percentage 
 of their crops) and he can call on them when he wants a certain 
 piece of work done. This is not liberty as we know it, but without 
 a lar^e force of soldiers and much expenditure no other way of
 
 LETTERS iyi 
 
 governing the people is possible. Peace and security are assured 
 to the " common people," and that they have never had before. 
 To do away with this feudal system would be to revolutionise the 
 country, and might lead to serious outbreaks. Probably the first 
 case of slaving that occurs after this will end in hanging. So, but 
 for the friendship of the two principal headmen, we might have been 
 living here in some danger. The young Jumbe had it in his mind 
 to kill all the old headmen who had been his predecessor's sup- 
 porters and councillors. With such peace and security assured, 
 these people might in time develop some trade in rice. . . . 
 
 I tried to vaccinate myself to-day, but the vaccine had coagulated 
 and would not run, so I made holes in my arm to no purpose. 
 There is plenty of small-pox at Fort Johnston, Blantyre, and 
 Bandawe, North and South of us, but only one case so far here 
 that I know of. The careless way in which these people go in 
 and out of the house and to other people's houses is enough to 
 spread the disease through the whole town. "We shall have to 
 take measures for isolating these cases. All my little Christian 
 flock have been vaccinated recently, and some of Mr. Nicholl's 
 servants. I think, if the disease spreads, we shall make a fever 
 hospital, and nurse these poor things the best way we can, using 
 all those who have been vaccinated as nurses. If it comes, it 
 may be a God-sent opportunity for making the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity known among these people. At present I think they place 
 us in the same category with the Arabs, etc., and look upon us as 
 a grasping lot owing to the imposition of taxes, which, between 
 ourselves, I think are pretty heavy. . . 
 
 In a week I hope to be in my house ; then, please God, active- 
 work will begin, both school and preaching, and when 1896 comes, 
 what will be the effect ? I know you will pray for this place this 
 year perhaps specially for the Mahommedan element ; for the 
 British Administration, that it may have wisdom ; for me, that I 
 may have tact, and zeal, and health ; for my teacher, that he may 
 have increase of the missionary spirit. Pray too that my coming 
 here may really draw me closer to God. I often wonder if I have 
 made a " sacrifice " at all ; certainly it is only in the friendships 
 and sympathy left behind. And yet the letters, unexpected, 
 affectionate, thoughtful, and the number of them, fill me with 
 happiness, and in some measure supply the lack of sympathy here. 
 
 I wish the bairns could have seen some of the stolid old fellows
 
 1 72 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 this morning dancing and greeting Mr. Nicholl as their new 
 Governor, or Jumbe, with branches of trees in their hands and 
 shouts. They were most grotesque, though solemn all the time. 
 I suppose their actions and postures meant something, though 
 they conveyed nothing but the ridiculous to my mind old fellows 
 whom one would never suspect of such frolicsomeness. Fancy 
 Mr. Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, and so on, betokening their rejoic- 
 ings by dancing wildly along Piccadilly ! . . . 
 
 I hope you are going to send me some seeds from home ; but I 
 trust I shall never get like some missionaries here who seem to 
 become mere farmers and improvers of the material fields, instead 
 of sowing and watering the true harvest fields. It cannot fail to 
 interest one the planning and laying out a new station, reclaim- 
 ing the waste places and making all kinds of shifts without the 
 necessary tools, but I trust that interest may be only very 
 secondary. Dr. Hine has a native deacon, a Yao, to help him 
 at Unangu. The Yaos are the most troublesome and unplea- 
 sant people to get on with, but when won they seem to make 
 fine Christians. We have the most to do with them in our Rovuma 
 stations and at Unangu. The lake shore people are Nyasas, dif- 
 ferent from Yaos, and very much bullied by the latter. The Yaos 
 are the most numerous tribe in Central Africa. The people here 
 are Wa Nyasas, and their rulers are coast Swahilis. . . . 
 
 Farewell, and a Happy New Year to you and yours ! 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. P , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, January 5//, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 ... I am busy now preparing my first Swahili sermon. I 
 have to write it out in English, translate it into Swahili, get William 
 to correct it, and when I preach it in Swahili he translates into 
 Chinyanja. As you can imagine, I look forward with some degree 
 of trepidation to this first venture. I shall go round to the different 
 barazas and preach that same sermon, gathering as many people 
 about me as possible. I expect February will be here ere I begin 
 my School . . . William has been simply invaluable to me for 
 my building work. Of course I could not have done without him,
 
 LETTERS 173 
 
 or at any rate it would have cost me three times as much. He 
 and his family wife and two bairns are in their house now. 
 Hitherto we have been content with Daily Prayer and Celebration 
 on Sunday. . . . 
 
 To-day I have made out the papers for a dhow, sailing to- 
 morrow, with eighty-three souls on board, and I have paid over a 
 hundred men their wages for nine weeks. It took me all the 
 afternoon till dark. Poor fellows ! I thought they looked a 
 downtrodden lot. They are all slaves few of them but will have 
 to give all or part of their wages to their owners ; all or most of 
 them were taken in war long ago. This state of bondage can- 
 not be changed all at once, as these poor fellows are not ready 
 for freedom yet. They would cease work altogether, and famine 
 would be the result. . . . 
 
 I really think the old open slave trade is dead. There is some 
 done still, but compared with the old state of things it is nothing. 
 Xo doubt a slave would still fetch here thirty or forty rupees, but 
 there would be immense risk in transporting him owing to the 
 gunboats. One of the confiscated dhows has been sent to ply as a 
 ferry-boat between here and the opposite shore with passengers 
 and ivory. So there are only two dhows sailing from here, both 
 under pretty strict surveillance. . . . 
 
 January igth. Mr. Nicholl came back on the I5th, and to-day 
 we have had a trial, a case of attempt to poison some Germans. 
 One of the Likoma boys was wanted as a witness, so they brought 
 the case over here to Mr. Nicholl . . . 
 
 And now farewell. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to W. \V. , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, January 8///, 1895. 
 
 MY DKAR , 
 
 ... I am not in my house yet. I never expected to be so 
 long out of it, but I have had endless delays in getting material to 
 build with. Well, now the door and window frames are going in 
 such warped and twisted things made of quite green wood. Still 
 they are mortised and tennoned. My teacher has taught one or 
 two handy men how to make them. They first use the adze, then
 
 174 
 
 ARTHUR FRA SER SIM 
 
 a jack-plane, and though they may be straight and smooth tit first 
 they soon warp out of shape. I shall begin storing wood for my 
 Church and School so that it may be seasoned some day. Of 
 course I have no glass in my windows, but I shall have shutters 
 
 SECTION OF c H i w A LI PALM. 
 
 made of the midrib of a palm tree leaf called chiivali. Some of 
 them are thirty feet long, very strong and light, with wiry nbrous 
 grain. I have used them entire for my roof. I have only made 
 use of four of those couples I spoke of in my last, and two uprights 
 
 springing from the partition walls. A roof tree runs along and 
 chiwalis are tied with the bark of a tree to this after having been
 
 LETTERS 
 
 175 
 
 notched. The roof tree is made of three trees joined with nails 
 and iron hoops off the boxes and bales we get our things in. The 
 walls have trees for uprights about two feet apart, then bamboos 
 nailed and tied (I dare not trust the bark tying owing to white 
 ants, so I sent to Likoma for nails) on both sides of the uprights, 
 and between these stones and mud, plastered with mud outside 
 and inside. 
 
 [I si D E vi e w 
 
 jf'io 
 
 Including the baraza, my house is just forty feet wide eighteen 
 feet inside measurement without baraza. It is thoroughbred pure 
 native, except such improvements as windows, tables, and chairs, 
 and they are native made under my direction. . . . 
 
 January loth. This afternoon I put on my mackintosh and a 
 pair of leggings and went for my usual constitutional. Alas ! my 
 poor mackintosh has all the collar and part of the tail eaten by 
 rats. The women have done a big bit of the verandah with a last 
 coating of mud, and I have great fires lighted in the rooms to 
 dry the mud as soon as possible. I generally find a little crowd 
 round each, doing nothing but keeping each other and the fire 
 warm. They are awfully lazy beggars, although there are excep- 
 tions ; but what more can one expect for six feet of calico a 
 week ? 
 
 January i$th. It is rather my style I fancy that the very first 
 new year in these foreign parts I should find myself without a 
 calendar. I have had to make one for myself, with tables of 
 lessons, etc. We do our best to make Sunday as like Sunday 
 as it may be. We have a Celebration at 7 a.m., using half a 
 native hut for the purpose. Then we have Matins and Evensong 
 with plenty of hymns and chants, of which you will be glad to 
 know "Kelway" is generally one. This morning "Hail to the 
 Lord's Anointed" was our hymn. I expect in days to come this 
 hymn will be our favourite processional through this slave town, 
 as the third and fourth lines run :
 
 176 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Who conies to set free, to make all free, 
 
 To break the fetters of sin, to do justice only." 
 
 I was just going to boast that we managed to keep pretty quiet 
 on Sunday, when, behold, here conies a whole ship's crew of one 
 of the dhows to get their che'i, or sailing papers. Of course I 
 shall send them away with a " flea in their ear," as it is supposed 
 to be generally known that this is " God's day." A dhow is about 
 the size of a rather small fishing smack. It has one sail, and 
 carries about ten or twelve sailors and a passenger list of about 
 eighty. The last passage one of them made, she sailed about 
 8 a m. with such a cargo, met head winds, anchored about eight 
 
 ~ ROOF TREE 
 
 miles off, and the last I saw of her she was being enveloped in a 
 thick, drenching rain, which quickly hid her from our eyes. The 
 rain lasted all night, and they had no awning what a terrible 
 time they must have had, poor things ! 
 
 Please set to work at once to draw me plans for our Church, 
 and reckon upon uprights or pillars not more than twenty feet 
 high above ground and no wood you can make a decent joint 
 with. 
 
 I should get palm-trees for the pillars a foot in diameter. Then 
 we might square these for the crossbars, and mortise and tennon 
 the second upright which carries the roof-tree. Give me an apse
 
 LETTERS 
 
 T77 
 
 at both ends (for I think that is the simplest form of ground plan), 
 a chancel at East end long- enough for a choir, at least four steps 
 higher than the nave and not more than twenty feet wide, and 
 a baptistry at West end. You need not give us a tower or an 
 organ chamber ; and one straight line for roof of nave and chancel 
 will do. I want to build the chancel soon, perhaps next dry 
 season ; but the School will have to come first I think. . . . 
 And so fare well i Write often. 
 
 My letters are my friends out here. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, January u//t, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 . . . I daresay I shall make a habit of enclosing other 
 letters in yours, because if, as I have often done, I write eight or 
 ten letters a fortnight, this comes to 5^. or los. a month ! And 
 as the Mission pays for stamps perhaps one ought to have some 
 consideration for their funds. . . . 
 
 The town is very quiet. Most people are away at their shambas 
 hoeing. We have not had a great deal of rain yet. I thought 
 it would have poured every day of the rainy season. One great 
 difficulty in sowing here is that when the sun comes out after 
 rain the ground gets baked at the top, and it takes a sturdy 
 plant to push its way through such a hard crust. I planted 
 many seeds which have not shown themselves, and I think they 
 are done for. We are still fearing evil days from the locusts. 
 I hear that at Fort Maguire the Administration are feeding the 
 people ; still there may be other reasons for this. The war 
 frightened all the people away, and as they are returning in 
 considerable numbers now doubtless the food supply is scarce. . . . 
 
 For myself I am well, though I don't like to boast, for if I say 
 I have not had any fever lately (which is the case;, I am sure
 
 1 78 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 to have an attack to-morrow. But I have had to have consider- 
 able recourse to chlorodyne of late ! The immortal jigger isn't 
 dead yet. I had one taken out of my foot yesterday. In the 
 meantime I am getting on with Swahili and beginning to think 
 of my course of preaching. My door and window frames are 
 rapidly approaching completion ; the kitchen, cook's house, etc., 
 are in course of building. I might have been feeding on pine- 
 apples all this time but for the symptoms which I have mentioned 
 above. Dr. Prentice sent me a basketful, but I have had to give 
 most of them away. 
 
 I am writing to your nephew, E. B . He seems very keen 
 
 to try this part of the country. Expense and time will be against 
 him. There is plenty of game. I don't hear of many lions, 
 though there must be plenty not far away. Mr. Nicholl has sent 
 out four parties of elephant hunters ; besides bringing ivory they 
 are to get a present for every young live wild animal they bring 
 in. So in a short time I may be having a lively time of it ! 
 There isn't a chain in the place, let alone a cage ; I sincerely 
 hope they will not succeed in this latter scheme ! I had a present 
 sent me the other day of the side of a fine young hippopotamus. 
 I could not bring myself to eat it, but the natives about the place 
 disposed of it soon enough. Before I forget, let me say or suggest 
 a thing which has long been on my mind. I don't like to see the 
 Magazine cover without my name, as if I had entirely left the 
 
 Parish. Would it be ridiculous to put me down under C 's 
 
 name as Missionary in Central Africa ? I daresay it is sentimental 
 and egotistical. However I throw it out as a suggestion of my 
 own wishes, for I don't feel at all as if I had cut all connection 
 with the Parish ; on the contrary, being far away seems to draw 
 me in spirit much nearer than ever. 
 
 January \6f/i. The above matter I leave to you. If you think 
 it is a bit of sentimental nonsense don't say anything about it : 
 but if you think it will serve any good purpose by helping to 
 keep up people's interest in Foreign Missions well and good. 
 
 Well, the day before yesterday the "Domini" returned, and to 
 my surprise brought back Mr. Xicholl, whom I didn't expect for 
 three weeks or more. Whenever he goes he leave matters more or 
 less in iny hands. I have had to administer martial authority 
 tying up a Sikh and two Makua soldiers for fighting. I have 
 passed a dhow through the customs' house and taken about 40 in
 
 LETTERS 179 
 
 customs. I have also had to administer justice in another case. 
 One man stole another man's wife and ten goats and four hoes, 
 and tied him up ; so I got the man and made him restore all and- 
 pay a fine ! I am so thankful Mr. Nicholl returned, for yesterday 
 a Makua soldier was murdered in the town. The murderer has 
 run away, as indeed we hear all the men in that part of the 
 town have, so little do they know of our idea of justice. But the 
 right man, who is well known and has a large following, will 
 certainly be hanged. Well, I should not have liked all this 
 business on my hands. 
 
 In the meantime Jumbe has been convicted of misrule and 
 sent as a prisoner to Zanzibar outlawed in fact. . . 
 
 January 18^/2. Poor William is suffering from a bad foot, very 
 bad, and so the building suffers a little. I have sent three of my 
 best men with the shooting party. I am expecting some of the 
 blue-jackets up to tea this afternoon, and have had a big cake 
 made specially for them. The murderer hasn't been caught yet. 
 It is a good thing the gun-boats are in on the whole. They 
 serve as a wholesome reminder to the youngsters who are mal- 
 content. People wonder we haven't had our throats cut here ; 
 we have no fort. Mr. Nicholl has just begun it. But it is really 
 quite quiet and safe. Perhaps another man than Mr. Nicholl 
 might have made a row. . . . The gunboat officers have gone 
 off shooting for two or three days. There are only two out of 
 four left. Poor Mackay, as I told you, was killed by a lion, and 
 Captain Lyons died of fever. I do trust no accident will happen 
 to these two. They are such nice fellows. I went on board the 
 gunboats this morning to see the men ; they seem a really nice 
 lot. I hope I shall be able to have Service with them on Sun- 
 clay. . . . 
 
 Later. The German steamer brings news from Likoma of 
 poor Butler's death on Tuesday. It is very sad a few days' 
 illness. But Dr. Robinson had told him he ought to go home, and 
 he refused. He was, in his line, a most able and useful man 
 the schoolmaster at Likoma. All of them write under the sense 
 of a great shock, poor Miss Palmer especially. Thinking he was 
 much better they all went to bed leaving three native boys to 
 watch him young men rather than boys and they came to say 
 he had " finished to breathe." And so he died, as Pearson did, 
 in his sleep. The houses at Likoma cannot altogether be blamed
 
 I SO ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 for his death, as his house was mudded up to the very roof; it is 
 an unhealthy time of the year. 
 
 Well, dear boy, I wish I could tell you more of mission work 
 done. I can't say how much I long to get to it, and this waiting 
 time is very trying, not to my health but to myself internally. 
 I cannot think that I could possibly have begun any sooner. . . . 
 Of course if 1 had been at Likoma or even Unangu I should have 
 had something to do in the missionary line, but here all has had 
 to begin from the beginning. . . . 
 
 And now good-bye, with all affectionate remembrances to old 
 friends. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, February 2nd, 1895, 
 
 My DEAR , 
 
 At last you have got my letters from Likoma. It is a ccm- 
 fort to hear from you in answer to something I have written. I 
 always unconsciously find myself living in the time your letters are 
 dated. Thus I often have to remind myself that it is February '95, 
 and not November '94. . . . 
 
 I trust that for certain I shall get into my house next week. 
 What has delayed me now has been William's illness. I dared 
 not go in until my windows were in, and these have taken time 
 to make ; only William or I could make them, being out of the 
 ordinary native run. So I have been making window-frames, 
 mortising, and tennon-cutting. The shutters are made of those 
 i'/n'-L'j/i palms I told you of split ; they look like Venetian blinds ! 
 Working with my sleeves turned up under the verandah (never in 
 the sun my arms where they were bare are quite red, as if sun- 
 burnt. The sun itself would have blistered them as it does my 
 hands. Silting as I am now in the cool of the evening writing, 
 the perspiration is pouring off me ! 
 
 One pound of saccharine ! It will last me till I die, if I live till I 
 am seventy! It must have cost a fortune ! Thanks very much indeed 
 lor it. I wish salt and tobacco could be done up in the same way ! 
 Common delf teapots arc 5.?. each with them (the African 
 I/ikcb' Co.}, S</. at home. Sugar is 8Y. a pound ; Hour, 8c/. ; tea, 
 i\. S.7. at home, is 4.^. (id. here; biscuits, 4.^. 6./. a small tin. 
 Freight on goods is reckoned by measurement, <".'., I got eighteen
 
 LETTERS iSl 
 
 bales of calico the other day, which weighed 1,087 pounds, but the 
 Mission is charged for 43 ft. 6 in., 10 17^-. 6c/., at ,10 a ton from 
 Blantyre. 
 
 By the way, this calico is for buying rice here for Likoma and 
 the East Coast stations, as they expect famine. We hear there is 
 famine at the North end of the Lake owing to locusts, and the 
 " Dotnira " has been here for the purpose of buying rice and maize 
 for the starving folk. They have rather spoiled my market, as they 
 have given twice as much as I am giving. I have more than three 
 tons however, and strange to say, some people are so friendly 
 that they preferred selling to us at two fathoms for 40 Ibs. to get- 
 ting four fathoms from the " Doinira " people ! . . . I have 
 built an excellent kitchen, but it isn't dry yet. The kitchen range 
 consists of three stones, on which rests the pot or pots. The 
 staple meat is fowl (not English, but African). Fowls cost about 3</. 
 each, and really are not bad if killed twelve hours before eating. 
 They are cooked in grease, which comes to us in tins, and is called 
 "cooking-fat." . . . But really we live very well, and now I 
 seldom open anything tinned. I have no great love for tinned 
 things. Dr. Grey of the "Pioneer'' says Atlay is in a bad way. 
 Butler is dead as I told you. Corbett is at Matope with the 
 "Charles Janson " repairing. Johnson and Glossop are on the 
 mainland, travelling from village to village. So, besides the 
 ladies, there is only Matthews to do everything at Likoma. I do 
 hope I shall not be called away. And yet, with such an account 
 from Likoma, perhaps I ought to be ready to go and oiler to go. 
 
 This place is like a pig-stye, and, tidy as you know me to be, I 
 cannot keep my things at hand. There is fighting down the river, 
 owing I fear to the white man's muddling. Some of the things 
 one hears make one's blood boil, but that is not very frequent. 
 Remember me to all, . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, February loth, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 This is the first line I have written in my new house. It is 
 the first Sunday I have spent in it, so that I take it as a good 
 omen that it is Septuagesima, and I hope I am adding to these 
 good auspices by writing my first letter to you. Altogether I am
 
 182 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 full of thankfulness and very happy in my prospects. I don't 
 think I have any reason to regret the delay, though it has been a 
 longer one than I dreamt of. It is exactly five months and one 
 week since I set foot in this place, and to-day I have been preach- 
 ing to my first heathen congregation in Swahili with some diffi- 
 culty I confess. But I had William, my excellent teacher, to 
 correct my deficiencies by translating into Chinyanja ; and often, 
 when I broke into English, he had to interpret. Still I was sur- 
 prised at my " fluency," and henceforth, please God, I shall go 
 ahead with my learning of the language. We had a congregation 
 of about seventy some Mahommedans, and a very few (about 
 eight) women. But I had not been able to go round at all to tell 
 the people to come. By next Sunday I hope to have my arrange- 
 ments more complete. \Ve had our preaching in the baraza, but 
 I think that soon we shall move to the shade under the big tree, 
 where we shall have more room. Our little Chapel is going to lie 
 very nice. I am making the Altar of mud and stones, about 5ft. 
 long by 2 ft. wide, and 3 ft. 4 in. high, with re-table and foot-pace 
 <S in. high. In front of the Altar I hope to be able to pick out a 
 Cross in the beautiful white quartz stones that lie about here. I 
 am so thankful for the gift of Vessels which the Parish made me, 
 and for the altar linen. . 
 
 It is very lovely here I think and there is plenty of life. Such 
 beautiful birds brilliant red auricles, yellow chaps with black 
 heads, bright green with long tails, little black and white wagtails, 
 so tame, which sing very like canaries, only softer. My furniture 
 is rough but effective ; most of it I made with my own hands. My 
 bookshelves are packing-cases ; one chair is an inverted box; the 
 other was made at Likoma, but I think I prefer the box. My bed 
 is native made, and cost one rupee. My table, very tine, was made 
 at Likoma. Other tables, and a cupboard with doors, to keep my 
 jam and sugar in, are made by myself. This week I shall turn my 
 hand to other things, and in time I shall be most comfortable. 
 There is no cause to pity us out here, as far as " roughing it :> 
 gres. I have experienced a little picnicing, but no really hard 
 times. It seems so strange often when telling the Story of our 
 Lord ; that for which martyrs laid down their lives among the 
 neathen one can tell without raising a murmur. I feel as if I ought 
 to expect stoning. I wonder how the Story strikes them. This 
 morning, what struck them most was that I said that the God of the
 
 LETTERS 183 
 
 heathen and the Mahommedan and the Christian was one and 
 the same God. They could not make it out, and asked many 
 questions. . . . 
 
 It is a matter of doubt among us as to how we are to make Sun- 
 day and preaching hours known. A drum, a gun, a dinner bell, 
 are all suggestions. I am thinking of a flagstaff with a particular 
 flag for Sundays. These people, as you can imagine, have but 
 vague ideas of time and days. We have, of course, from the 
 first differentiated between Sundays and other days, and on 
 Saturday those who work for me get a half-holiday, so some 
 know when Sunday comes. Talking of a flagstaff, I am a little 
 bit afraid of lightning here. The other day a pole in the fort was 
 shivered to bits by lightning, not eighty yards from where Mr. 
 Nicholl and I were sitting. Of course one's faith in God serves one 
 in good stead at such times ; and few things give one such a sense 
 of His providence and mercy I think as a thunderstorm. Both 
 our houses, Mr. Nicholl's and mine, are on eminences, and are 
 raised above the surrounding neighbourhood, and one would think 
 that they would attract lightning. At the same time wet straw 
 roofs cannot be good conductors. . . 
 
 February \ith. It is so nice being able to have prayers at 
 regular times. My oratory will be finished by Sunday I hope. I 
 am also making a little room where sick people can come and be 
 treated. Such sores and ulcers poor things, I wish I could do 
 more for them ; but they are mostly of such long-standing, that 
 even a doctor could not do anything more than dress them and 
 make them keep the place clean. I am also making two rooms at 
 the other end of my baraza, one for the Christian boys to use as a 
 reading and lounging room, and the other a workshop. I don't 
 know what magnificent impressions I maybe conveying to you. 
 These rooms are made in a clay ; the walls are reeds tied with 
 bark to upright trees and cross bamboos. They require no 
 windows, for plenty of light leaks through the reeds. . . . 
 
 I have been opening some boxes, at last, for the first time. One 
 box I opened, expecting to find some delights of my own, con- 
 tained only shirts for Mr. Johnson. The tin box alone belonged 
 to me ; anyhow it is an accession. This is the most disastrous 
 climate for keeping anything ; everything spoils, even if some 
 creature does not eat it. ... 
 
 February i6th. I have this week built a store-room, a surgery,
 
 184 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 a pantry, and a fowl-house, besides a kitchen-range (of mud, of 
 course). I have also made two roads on the property, and done 
 countless little jobs. Let me admit that I could not do any of these 
 things without William, my teacher. He is invaluable to me. . . . 
 
 My establishment consists of a cook from Likoma and three 
 house boys. One of the last is a very smart and hardworking 
 little chap. It is wonderful how little they smash. The English 
 kitchen-maid is not in it with them. The cook and three boys do 
 all the house-work, including washing. We are innocent of an 
 iron, so it is not so bad as it might be ; and we have soap, but 
 no blue nor starch. Well, as I never wear a collar, nor a white 
 shirt, starch is not wanted ; but an iron I require for the Church 
 linen. . . . 
 
 Good-bye. Pray for us. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, February i6//i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 ... I am in my new house now ; and though I have begun 
 regular heathen preaching, I have not begun any week-day work 
 yet, as there is so much necessary work still to be done. I am 
 pleased with the heathen preaching, which I hold in the baraza, 
 pleased with my efforts at Swahili, and pleased at the attendance, 
 seeing that it has not yet cost me any trouble to gather them 
 together. I trust I shall soon be able to get out on other days and 
 preach in the village. Yet I fear I shall only be half useful till I 
 know Chinyanja. I am so thankful to have got started with my 
 real work. And now the language will improve daily. I have got 
 beyond books, but I find that does not mean that one is able to 
 speak a language. . . . 
 
 None of the things you mention needles, pins, saccharine, fish- 
 hooks have reached me yet ; but that is not to be wondered at. 
 Many parcels and boxes which I have heard of have not reached 
 me one of them posted from Algiers October I2th. . . 
 What has kept me busy is the making of absolutely necessary 
 furniture, washhand-stand, cupboard, and five tables of a sort ; no- 
 thing except tin or iron can stand on the floor here, because of 
 the white ants. 
 
 I rejoice in having a few friends within two feet of my head as I
 
 LETTERS 185 
 
 write now all in a wire frame. ... I have unpacked my lantern 
 and tried it : it is a huge success. I am really pleased with it. Of 
 course I use oil, but I have never seen oil lanterns give such a good 
 picture as this one does. . . . 
 
 We are having heavy rains now almost every day. The roof of 
 my house is not water-tight, so I have to cover everything up when 
 it rains. I imagine we have had a very dry wet season so far, 
 though I believe other places have plenty of rain. We see but 
 little of the locust now, so I hope our fears are groundless. 
 
 We are using our little Chapel regularly now, though the Altar, 
 which is made of mud and stones, is not ready yet. I have had 
 one night of fever since I came into this house. I think I am 
 keeping very clear of it for this time of year. 
 
 And now, clear boy, I must close. . . . Remember me to 
 everybody. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 P.S. The "Wissmann" has brought my box, which I had lost. 
 I am so glad. And now I feel happy once again ! It contains two 
 volumes of Pusey's Life, Browning, 1st volume of Edersheim, and 
 countless treasures ; but what have I done with Hymns Ancient and 
 Modern ivith Tunes ? I thought I had it in this box, but I haven't ; 
 also your photo, rather damaged, but as large as life. I thought I 
 had lost it. They have sent me a "Churchman's Almanac" for 
 1895. The "Wissinann' 1 has also brought me some tobacco. We 
 are having a grand thunderstorm at this minute. I expect I shall 
 sit up most of the night. Mr. Williams is here on his way home. I 
 will give him a line to you and to my brother. He is a rough old 
 boy, but full of fun, and knows as much of the Mission as anybody. 
 , He says that the four men now at Likoma, Messrs. Johnson, 
 Glossop, Atlay, and Philipps will all have to go home soon on ac- 
 count of health. Mr. Williams has been out here seventeen years 
 in the Mission. 
 
 A. F. S. 
 
 Kota Kota, February 25///, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 , , . Another want of plan is having no dock at Likoma. It 
 was intended that the " Charles Janson" should go down to Matope, 
 where there is a dry dock, to repair. Now she is laid up she won't
 
 186 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 be able to go I suppose. We have engineers, and in Mr. Tulip 
 a first-class engineer. The truth is I think that we are learning 
 by sad experience, that what sufficed for actual pioneers will not 
 suffice for a settled Mission, where work is of a completely 
 different nature, taxing people even more than the work of pioneers. 
 
 It is difficult to explain what the wet season means, how every- 
 thing not hermetically sealed gets damp, and musty, and mouldy. 
 The atmosphere is full of moisture, and there is no keeping 
 it out. . . . 
 
 Three needles buy a fowl here ! There is a recognised parcel- 
 post here, and it is at least the speediest way of sending parcels, 
 though not the safest, perhaps, or least expensive. It would be 
 well to insure parcels, if you can. . . . 
 
 Mr. Nicholl's house is very fine, with its glass windows and 
 Zanzibar! doors, carved roughly, but effectively, on a site of my 
 choosing. It stands in a commanding position and looks very 
 well. He has made the same mistake as I have that of opening 
 both his doors into the dining-room. I shall know better another 
 time. I wish I could keep up my correspondence as I should like, 
 but I have so many letters that I can't answer them all. You 
 must ask people to be patient with me, and sometimes to be 
 content with a message through you. . . 
 
 Alas ! the photos I took the other clay are all spoiled by cock- 
 roaches (or rats). They have taken a fancy to the gelatine, and 
 eaten great bits of it off while they were drying. Isn't this a 
 nuisance ? How careful one has to be out here ; rats, cockroaches, 
 white ants, damp, heat, sun, rain, shade are all dangers ; every- 
 thing is so extravagant and excessive ! We hear lions at night 
 now, or did a few nights ago, and of course hyaenas and jackals. 
 
 Such thunder and lightning as we have ! It is awful ; I think I 
 told you how one day up at the " Boma," or fort, a pole, seventy or 
 eighty yards from the house in which Mr. Nicholl and I were 
 sitting, was splintered. . 
 
 I rejoice to hear of the condition of the Band of Hope and the 
 Guilds, especially of the Boys' Guild. I hope they will continue to 
 do good service for the Church. . 
 
 March \6f/i. We have begun school. It began with about fifty 
 boys and girls, and now is about one hundred strong. This is 
 of course only in one part of this big town, and during the wet
 
 LETTERS 187 
 
 season, when most of the people are out in their gardens. The 
 school is pretty informal, and will continue to be so as long as the 
 children know nothing at all. Then it will be a problem how to 
 differentiate them. We have also a flourishing Night School 
 about twenty-two men, including three petty chiefs. This I have 
 great hopes of. I have written to Likoma for another teacher, 
 who I hope may come by this steamer. I am building a shelter 
 for the preachings, but I have had trouble to get it straight. It is 
 on the site of our Church (I hope), and so I want to get it at its 
 best. I have left room at the East end for a chancel, which will be 
 the beginning of the Church, and may be begun next dry season. 
 I am very pleased with the school ; no doubt of the present num- 
 ber many will be weeded out. They only come from the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood, and that with very little canvassing, and no 
 coaxing or bribe. We are allowed to bribe the children with the 
 promise of kisibaus ; but I don't intend to mention this unless it be- 
 comes necessary. As soon as I can I shall begin to build a separate 
 School. I feel, or begin to feel, my position here perfectly se- 
 cure. People I think see that I don't tax them, that I have 
 nothing for them but friendship and help, nor anything to do with 
 the Government. I am so thankful that the times of waiting and 
 delay are over ; and now, please God, we shall begin to see 
 progress. 
 
 Early this morning I was awakened by the howl, or bark, or 
 whatever it is pleased to be called, of a Imena ; it seemed just 
 under my window such a fiendish noise. Yesterday a large cobra 
 was killed by one of the boys, near William's house ; such an evil- 
 looking beast, with a very pretty skin the first I have seen in 
 Africa. I have at present a great pet in a " clear gazelle." It is 
 thriving splendidly, and now holds the kitten at defiance. Wallace, 
 my cook, killed a puff-adder the other day near the house ; such a 
 brute to look at. 
 
 March \-]th. The "Wissinann''' is in. Mr. Nicholl and I dined 
 on board, and met Baron von Elz, the Governor in German Xyasa- 
 land, on his way home ; a nice fellow, rough, but kind I should 
 say. He is taking a little freed slave boy home with him to edu- 
 cate with his brother, who is a minister of some sort. . . . 
 
 I am well, and fit, and happy. Do not fidget about me. . . . 
 Good-night. Remembrances and love to all. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 1 88 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Letter to J. B , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, March ist, 1894. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . I find Lent rather a hardship here I confess, as we 
 have so little variety. Fortunately it comes in the fruit season. 
 How can one preach to these people about fasting, when they 
 never seem to do anything else? . . . All the headmen pro- 
 mise to send their children to my School. This is Rammathani 
 and there are plenty of so-called Mahommedans here, but very 
 few fast strictly. How easy it is to get out of their method of 
 fasting, though it sounds so strict ; and how hard to get out of 
 our Lord's injunctions on fasting ! . . . 
 
 You would laugh at my window-frames, as there is not a straight 
 line in them. How this unseasoned wood warps ! Some of them 
 I have made myself. I have made a mistake with the entrance, as 
 both doors, back and front, open into the sitting-room. They 
 ought to be separated . . . Then I have been busy with my 
 road-making, and very successful it is I think. My plan has been 
 to concentrate the roads upon the Church, the site of which I have 
 already chosen. . . . 
 
 I am thankful to say we have no burning now, and even trial 
 for witchcraft by poison has ceased. Of course it is forbidden, 
 but there was one case of it since Mr. Nicholl came. The wretched 
 man died, and was dragged round the village by his feet, and 
 then out of it a little way, where he was left for the crows to pick. 
 There was a skull and some bones lying just below my house when 
 I came, which were the remains of a man who had been killed by 
 the poison ordeal and left to rot. Mahommedanism does nothing 
 to stop this or any heathen custom. In fact here the Mahomme- 
 dans know nothing of their faith, only they are circumcised and 
 taught a few prayers, or rather expressions such as " God is 
 great," and " Mahommed is His Prophet," and that is all. 
 
 On the whole I see a good deal of European society, for the 
 steamers all put in here except the " Charles Jaiison" and the 
 officers and what passengers there are come ashore. There are 
 six steamers on the Lake, counting the " Charles Janson :> and the 
 two gun -boats. . . . 
 
 Poor Longhill ! How often I think of those people ! I should 
 like to hear that a little Mission-room was going to be opened up
 
 LETTERS 189 
 
 there, so few of the people ever come to Church. ... I must 
 stop, as I have fifteen letters to go by this mail. Keep your heart 
 up, and pray for us. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, March yd, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I cannot tell how touched I am by my letters from home this 
 last mail. What have I done to deserve such kindness and sym- 
 pathy ? Nothing ; it is God's goodness, whose goodness is again 
 reflected in your hearts. I do hope that by this time you have 
 grown accustomed to my fevers. I will try and get William to 
 " shoot " me with my camera, and then you will see that I am not 
 much pulled down. I wish I had said nothing about them, and in 
 future I shall be more guarded. . . . 
 
 The " Charles Janson " and Matope are to blame for our lack of 
 stores the " Charles Jansoit " because she is often hors de combat, 
 Matope because it is so far away. Then the mission boat, "Sherriff? 
 manned by mission boys, brings our stores up, consequently our 
 stores accumulate at Matope, and Likoma lacks. . . . 
 
 My fevers are frequent but slight. Do not please be anxious. 
 I am in God's hands, and if I were not prepared for this, I ought 
 not to have come. Besides, what if it be His will to take me? 
 Am I to grumble, or to shirk His call? Mr. Nicholl does not often 
 get fever, but he has been laid up ever so much more than I 
 have. He is laid up now by a fall from his donkey, and he must 
 have nearly broken a rib, as he was in the greatest pain. 
 
 Likoma is seventy miles, or eight hours, from here by steamer, 
 and I hear from them only once a month, so I might easily be in 
 my grave before help could come down from Likoma. There are 
 just two ladies at Likoma, and their hands are as full as they can 
 hold, Xo, indeed, I never forget the Eucharistid conjuncti . . 
 
 I have rigged up a cosy little nook for my "study,''' with a screen 
 made of calico and a window blind. One is so public here, and 
 the many doors and windows make one's room almost like the 
 open air. Here people have to look for me almost. If I have to 
 build another house for a European, I shall make the entrance 
 different. 
 
 Soa\e people are very shy about coming to the preaching,
 
 1 90 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 especially the women. These people are not at all to be judged 
 by other African races, such as the Zulus, Matabele, etc., as they 
 are very wanting in manly qualities. There is no "fight" in them, 
 and I do not find any keenness to hear about religious matters. 
 Yet how soon for me to form a judgment ! But I think this is at 
 the bottom of all their faults a nerveless acceptance of what they 
 are taught. The Nyasa tribes are industrious, not enterprising, 
 nor great drinkers. I imagine our true hope lies in the Yaos, on 
 the East side of the Lake, the most unpleasant people possible. 
 They drink, they slave deal, and do all sorts of abominations, but 
 they are of independent spirit, and the British Administration 
 know this to their cost. They alone of these tribes give any 
 trouble. . . 
 
 I have a lot of my old friends upon my walls now the choir, 
 and other groups. I count no less than forty-two separate photos 
 on my left hand about the level of my head, just by me as I write. 
 It is so nice looking at one's friends even in photos. . . . 
 
 March 17 th. The School numbers a few short of one hundred, 
 and the Night School twenty-two, including three petty chiefs. I 
 am very thankful, and I praise God for this beginning ; but it is 
 only the beginning. When it comes to discipline, the real tax 
 begins. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, March ~]tli, 1895. 
 Mv DEAR - , 
 
 . . . What a "grind "a new language is! It is so dif- 
 ferent from our modes of expression. I seem to have got to a 
 certain point in speaking and understanding Swahili, and to stick 
 there. Six months I have been here, and one could learn French 
 by staying six months in France. I think I am too shy to try my 
 hand at chattering with every Tom, Dick, and Harry about the 
 place. It is a difficult language to understand, because the accent 
 is so frequently changed in conversation, and words assume a 
 different aspect altogether, although one knows them in their simple 
 garb. . . .
 
 LETTERS IQI 
 
 Alas ! gardening is rather heart-breaking work ; what with a 
 vertical sun during the day, and deluges at night, which wash 
 whole beds away, while the sun bakes like a brick the surface of 
 those which escape the rain. It will come to growing the best 
 native things I expect. I am having shades made for some of my 
 beds. Some flowers however grow zineas, sunflowers, and 
 stocks. I have other plants (e.g., roses), but I cannot say much 
 about them. Tomatoes do very well, and there are many native 
 things which do well also. English potatoes I find only a middling 
 success. I have a lot of land, and I hope to be able to grow 
 enough for Likoma some day. 
 
 It is wonderful how cheap living is in Africa (except tinned 
 things, of which I use as little as I can). I am spending two 
 trusses of calico (equal to ^8), and a few beads and some salt a 
 month, and employing fifty men all the time at my building. The 
 only trees a native ever plants are around graves here; though in 
 this particular place the Swahili element has made itself felt by 
 planting many different kinds of fruit trees mango, cocoanut, 
 custard apple, lime, lemon, etc. I am trying to increase their 
 number, so in twenty years time some one may see my seedlings 
 big trees . . . 
 
 I must have exaggerated my difficulties terribly. In pioneer work 
 one has to take one's chance. What if Jumbe had carried out 
 his scheme of cutting our throats ? you could not have blamed 
 any one. I came prepared for these things, or I should have 
 stayed with my old St. Aidanites. . . . 
 
 People of a rather luxurious turn say that glass windows are 
 necessary ; but without going that length I think something fairly 
 air-tight is needful, not so much during the hot season, as now 
 during the wet. 
 
 I haveamost comical couple of pets a kitten and a young gazelle. 
 They play together in the most ludicrous fashion. The gazelle can 
 hold its own, but it generally ends up by butting the kitten vigor- 
 ously. It is about nine inches high. I have made a bottle to feed 
 it out of a spare ink-filler used for fountain pens. It sucks 
 grandly, and nearly bursts with milk. We have been troubled with 
 ants in this house. The white ant one has to take as an accepted 
 fact. The walls are already full of them. I can't leave anything 
 softer than tin on the floor. Even our mud and stone Altar in the 
 oratory is full of them, although it has only been finished about ten
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 days ; and the thatched roof is full of them too. They drop down 
 in showers at times, upon one's head, down one's back, into one's 
 cup or plate. They do not bite, and they always work under cover. 
 They build a mud tunnel as they go along. I have seen it in print 
 that one queen is responsible for thirteen million ants. Their 
 nests are under ground, and are divided into cells half the size of a 
 cricket ball. Each of these cells is filled with a sponge-like forma- 
 tion, which is alive with wee white ants. The only way to destroy 
 these pests is to get the queen, which is about three inches long ; 
 but they secrete her down in the earth, so that she is difficult to 
 find. But there is a more formidable ant, called in Swahili sidfu. 
 It is a brown colour, and millions of them issue forth on the war- 
 path like a black rope. They killed two of my pigeons, and several 
 chickens. It is very hard to get rid of them, or to get them to go 
 another way. They bite like fun, and if you put your foot in their 
 line of route for a second you find yourself covered with them, and 
 then it is necessary to change every particle of clothing. Cock- 
 roaches and rats too are a great nuisance. I think Africa must be 
 the natural home of the cockroach. . . . 
 
 Pray for me, for it is a big undertaking for such as I am. God 
 keep me faithful to it ! 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, March io///, 1895. 
 
 MY PEAR , 
 
 . . . I have hopes of growing some big trees, r.;;'., blue gums and 
 Lawsonian pines. Pride of India is successful, and I have planted 
 about eight of them, also three cocoa-nuts, four mangoes, and 
 some bananas. The latter is very plentiful in the town, and there 
 is one mango tree which does not bear, and ten or twenty cocoa- 
 nut trees, the fruit of which I sometimes taste. I have sown a 
 peach stone and two sweet almonds for posterity, but some grena- 
 dilla seeds and Cape gooseberries which I planted three weeks 
 ago are showing above ground. Several months ago I was given 
 four seeds which were labelled ''English melons," but the only 
 thing that came of them was a good old vegetable marrow. We 
 have plenty of maixe and rice. 1 often have '' muckacholem," but 
 I have no butter to make it palatable as I remember it. I have
 
 LETTERS 193 
 
 some English potatoes doing fairly well. I tasted a few the other 
 day, but I shall keep the rest for sowing again next year. . . . 
 
 We have a third Englishman here now, a man who was in the 
 Matabele war, and an ex-sergeant in the army. He is digging for 
 gold, and seems quite hopeful. There is however no gold visible 
 yet. 
 
 The other day I had the honour of being shown the dead 
 Jumbe's grave. He is buried in the inner room of one of his 
 houses. Hanging in the baraza is the heart and some of the in- 
 ternals of an old enemy of his, who was killed in a fight eighteen 
 months ago about four miles from here. The old house is just 
 as it was, and will be until it falls to pieces. It is the only tomb, 
 and the grave is as it was when it had been filled in. The heart 
 must have been dried in the sun, as it is shrivelled up to about the 
 size of a small apple. There are also bits of cloth hanging in the 
 baraza as offerings to the spirit of the dead. I was very much 
 surprised at being allowed to see it ; but I was with the sheik, 
 so I suppose it is all right. . . . 
 
 There are a few sheep here, such funny-looking creatures, brown 
 or black, with no wool and fat tails. They have no fat anywhere 
 else, and don't taste much like mutton. But if you can get them 
 tender they are a change from fowl. I use the fat of the tail for 
 cooking and it lasts a long time. . . . Farewell. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to R. E. P , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, March 2 5///, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 ... I am full of hope for this station, and yet what purging 
 must take place if it is to become wholly Christian ! The big chief 
 here is said to have a hundred wives, and vice and slavery are 
 upheld by Mahommedanism. One indeed feels helpless when one 
 thinks what conversion means to these people. God only can do it. 
 What wonder that slaves and the poor are, and ever were, the first 
 converts to Christianity ; they have less temptation to the villain- 
 ous lives of their superiors. We have a good, regular attendance 
 at the preachings of men who for the most part work with us during 
 the week, for we always send the lazy good-for-nothings about
 
 FA'ASEK SIM 
 
 their business. We teach a catechism to both young and adults 
 during" the week. Of course they learn it much like parrots ; but 
 it means that in coming to us they throw their lot in with us, and 
 understand that we teach them our religion, as well as to read and 
 write. 
 
 To-day, or rather to-night, ends Ramntathani, the fast month of 
 the Mahommedans, during which they are supposed to eat nothing 
 between* sunrise and sunset. So they are making a night of it, and 
 guns are going off in all directions (old flint-locks and cap-guns, 
 loaded up to the muzzle, and making a report like a cannon). We 
 have so many coming with gun accidents to be healed with 
 vaseline and iodoform, and we have made some wonderful cures. 
 
 We have lost two of our staff since the Archdeacon went home 
 Butler, a first-rate schoolmaster, and Tulip, a dear old North 
 Country man, who won my heart at once by his North Country 
 dialect and manners, and who was a first-class engineer. How- 
 ever other places and other people suffer, or have suffered, as 
 much as we have. The gunboats have lost three or four men 
 since I came, and they invalid men very readily. Traders suffer 
 too. The Bandawe and Blantyre people do not suffer much, as 
 they take such good care of themselves with brick houses with 
 glass windows, etc. . . 
 
 1 have just had a narrow escape from a scorpion ; when sorting 
 the wood on my fire I moved a bit of wood he was hiding in, and 
 just missed catching hold of him. I had the pleasure of seeing 
 him scorch himself. There arc many of them here, and I kill a 
 great many, but I am thankful I have not been stung yet. . . . 
 
 1 have a lire lighted every night to clear out the mosquitoes 
 (but they seem to get used to it) and for dryness. Everything gets 
 wet and mildewed in the rainy season. 
 
 With love and prayers, 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kola, MnrcJi 3U/, 1895. 
 
 MY IH;.\K , 
 
 I more nearly cried than laughed when I read my last 
 month smail; there were eighteen letters and as many papers. . . . 
 1 am looking at things rather gloomily to-day with just a. little fever
 
 LETTERS 195 
 
 and a smaller congregation than usual at the Sunday preaching, 
 but 1 have no reason for misgivings yet. The hearers meet nightly, 
 and do some "A B C," and then a Scripture lesson. I find some 
 American pictures on the early life of our Lord most useful. These 
 fellows say, "Now our eyes are open. :> Poor chaps ! I think it 
 will take some time to open them thoroughly. I wish more women 
 would come ; they are shy and timid about facing a lot of men. 
 One old lady who came to us months ago is very faithful, and now 
 we employ her for carrying water. 
 
 I have been busy this week sowing English seed as the rains 
 are nearly over and the cold weather is coming in ; but what with 
 goats that will get loose, and fowls that are never tied up, I am in 
 a despairing mood. I have had my little forest cleared, and it 
 reveals what looks like excellent soil. It is so pretty over the Lake 
 now-a-days. 
 
 I am rejoiced really by my letters from home to find that nothing 
 is going back, but all going forward. I do not think my coming 
 out has been in vain in that sense. But as for work here, no doubt 
 the prospects are good, but oh ! the patience and the long, long 
 waiting it will require ! Mr. Johnson writes from Mluluka, on the 
 opposite shore, and paints a weird picture of the slave trade and 
 the immorality of these half Mahommedan coastmen. As long as 
 he is here (the coastman) slaving will go on, whether we know it or 
 not. He cannot exist here without it. On Friday a fellow came 
 here with rather a weird history. It was the first. day of the new 
 moon after l\<i>niiiiit/iani, and the row drumming, gunfiring, danc- 
 ing, and shouting was all day and night in one's ears. This fellow 
 was bleeding profusely and half blinded, led by three others, injured 
 from what I immediately put down to a gun explosion, which, as 
 they load these old " Brown-bosses :; up to the muzzle, is not an in- 
 frequent occurrence. But it was not so in this case. The man had 
 been deliberately shot with intent to kill ; the gun fired was loaded 
 with sand and gunpowder mixed ! Sand here is as coarse as 
 buck-shot. You remember the murders for which Jumbc was out- 
 lawed. This man was the actual executioner, and has now to 
 bear all the evil will of people who think Jumbe's departure a mis- 
 fortune. And the man who fired the gun at him is a particular 
 pal of mine ; in fact because he married the dead Jumbe's wife he 
 is a big man now, and the chief of the part of the village in which 
 the station is situated. It is an example of the dreadful cruelty of
 
 196 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 these folk, and then they took it so calmly and as a matter of fact. 
 1 could have sent them all off to the magistrate, but I should spoil 
 my influence if I meddled with these matters. Instead I hope to 
 get this wretched murderer to my class, and teach him a different 
 spirit. 
 
 I am minus a cook these days, but I have a trustworthy heathen 
 who has been with us a long time, and with the excellent William's 
 help he does very well. To-night, being Sunday, I am going to 
 dine with Mr. Nicholl. It is almost a charity to do so, as he has 
 been, and is still, very seedy, and feels his loneliness much more 
 than I do. . . . 
 
 April is/. It is pouring with rain to-day, and after a few days' 
 drought it is very welcome, especially as I have just put in a lot of 
 English seed. I am quite the landscape gardener these days, 
 arranging the estate, planting trees, and looking forward into the 
 distant future and thinking where different houses shall stand ! 
 
 Love to all. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, April \st. 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR BOYS AND GlRLS, 
 
 . . To-day while you are all making "April fools" of 
 each other I am sitting indoors, and outside it is pouring- " cats 
 and dogs/' So there is no work doing and no school, because 
 of the pouring rain. How the time does fly out here ! Since 
 writing my last letter to you I have had answers to it. I did not 
 intend keeping you waiting" so long for another letter ; and if I have 
 time I intend writing another letter to the " J/<?//, :: though I quite 
 forget what I wrote about last time. Well, now all my troubles arc 
 over I think, and I have a big- house not a hut any longer to live 
 in, and a solid grass roof ever my head, and walls made of mud, 
 and trees ail round me. 
 
 The kitchen and bojv bedroom are about twenty yards from the 
 house on the South side. The class-room I meant to be a dispen- 
 sary, but now that I have niich a big school I have to use it for a 
 class-room for those boys who are beginning to write. The store- 
 room of course is necessary to keep my European stores in 
 flour, sugar, soap, etc. The pantry ! well, it's nothing to boast of,
 
 LETTERS 
 
 197 
 
 but the boys wash the dishes there, that's why I call it a pantry ! 
 As I have so few dishes the same plates are used for each course, 
 and so the washing- up is an important function. The carpenters 
 
 shop is not much to boast of either, but I have made a bench 
 three feet high and two feet six inches broad, with legs of small 
 trees and top of packing-cases. My tools were all given me, when 
 I left England, by a friend. They have been useful I can tell you. 
 Now we are making chairs like this 
 
 The cross lines are rope native rope made of the plaited leaves of 
 a palm tree. So now we need not use empty boxes any more ! You 
 don't know how comfortable these chairs are ! I am surprised how 
 fond these children are of coming to school. It is a good thing, 
 because we have no u kid-catcher " to get them to come, unless the 
 football is a 'kid-catcher" ; but they seem as fond of school as of 
 football, and some of them have been very quick to learn their 
 alphabet. A fortnight taught it to six of them, both big letters 
 and small, and now about fifteen are using slates. A few girls 
 come, poor little things, but they are not so quick as the boys.
 
 IQ8 .lA'/Y/r/i 1 /-'KASKK SIM 
 
 William drills the boys after school, but such stupids they are, 
 they can't number more than five, and none of them know their 
 right hand from their left. Well, all this has to be taught them. 
 Then we teach them Scripture with the help of pictures and a 
 catechism, which they learn very quickly, but like parrots. Any- 
 how it is the best way to teach them, for one can use the catechism 
 as a text ; it begins, " Who made you ?" " Nani aliye kiircmba? '' 
 I hope they repeat these things when they go home, it will perhaps 
 rouse people's interest in our teaching. We have had no one 
 wanting to cut our throats lately, and I think we arc fairly settled 
 down. Mr. Nicholl is in his house, which is much like mine, only 
 he has glass windows ; but I like my place much better than 
 his it is so much prettier. His place is three quarters of a mile 
 from mine, so I don't sec him very often, and, poor man, he is not 
 very well now. He never has fever, but he has boils and sores, 
 which come from the same source, malarial poisoning, which is 
 the long name they give it. He has much more sickness than I 
 have, although I do get fever sometimes. You will like to hear 
 that I have had no more jiggers in my toes to speak of one now 
 and then does not do much harm though the natives who go 
 about with bare feet get them still. We have heard lions roaring 
 now and then these nights, but they have not been nearer than 
 four miles. IIy;vnas come about us every night, and the other day 
 the boys had a great hunt for a civet cat, which had been making 
 ravages among the fowls in the long grass, which is ten feet high or 
 more, in front of my house. I am cutting this down now, and it 
 will make grand slates for my preaching house ; besides it hid a 
 beautiful view of the Lake. We have been planting a good many 
 seeds lately English seeds but I am afraid to expect very much 
 of them : radishes, turnips, beans, peas, cauliflower, and cabbage. 
 I have more hope of the native things sweet potatoes, and so on. 
 
 I got such a bit of good news from a friend in London. At one 
 of the big Churches there they have given me ^25 to spend just 
 as I like. It is so nice being poor, one can relish this gift so much 
 more ! What shall I do with it 1 wonder. I think you would 
 probably recommend me to buy an ice machine! I5ut I think a 
 living machine would be better, one that will go a hundred miles 
 an hour. 
 
 Xow the rain has stopped, and the boys have got out the foot- 
 ball. It seems so funnv to be writing to vou and watchin" these
 
 LETTERS 199 
 
 little almost naked black boys playing football with their bare 
 toes. 
 
 \Vc have over a hundred children, boys and girls (about ninety 
 boys), in school now. Very soon I shall begin to build a School. 
 The baraza is mud of course, like all our floors, and these scraps 
 sit on the floor and sing out their Ay, Bay, Chey, until they learn 
 it, just like the Infant school at home, and the big men do the 
 same at night. The Scripture lessons fill them with wonder, but I 
 don't think they understand them, although the men say " Now 
 our eyes arc open ! :) 
 
 The poor steamer, " Charles Janson? is laid up. She wants 
 something done to her plates and engines. Old as she is, she is 
 still the fastest and best weather boat on the Lake, but she is a little 
 too small ; sometimes the water washes right over her and floods the 
 cabin. The Lake is very stormy. The other day I saw a splendid 
 waterspout from here, towering high up into the clouds, and felt 
 glad I was not too close to it. ... 
 
 Very soon now it will be Easter, and then I shall wish I was 
 with you. These Festivals arc rather lonely when there arc only 
 three of you to keep them. Just William and his wife and two 
 wee children and I are the Christian congregation here. It will 
 be too late to wish you a happy Easter, but I shall remember you 
 and pray for you. May it be a very happy time to you all ! When 
 I see the state of these people, the promises of Easter the Resur- 
 rection from death, the power of the Holy Ghost bring me new 
 courage and hope. I can do nothing with them, but (Joel, Who 
 raised Jesus from the dead, can ; and He has said " Lo ! I am 
 with you always." 
 
 April \~]th. And now Easter is past, and still the steamer has 
 not come, though she was due last week. It is blowing half a 
 gale, and the Lake is very stormy, so that I can see white waves a 
 long way out ; perhaps the wind has delayed her. I am glad she 
 did not come in on Good Friday ; it would have been very awk- 
 ward. Well, we spent Easter very happily ; there were just three 
 of us, including myself, at our Easter Communion ; the Chapel was 
 as bright as we could make it with such flowers as we could get 
 fbut it's such a disappointing place for flowers) ; the mud Altar 
 was covered with a white linen frontal, which the ladies at Likoma 
 had made us, and we had the old Easter promises anil old Easter 
 tunes (but such strange, unfamiliar words'). It all made me think
 
 200 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 very much of the old place, and I think I lived over again some 
 of the dear old Easter days I remember in the old times, when 
 \ve were beginning to think of summer, and I could not help 
 hoping you were all as happy as you could be. 
 
 On Easter Monday and Tuesday we had games on Monday for 
 the men, and on Tuesday for the schoolboys and girls races, long- 
 jump, wide jump, egg-and-spoon races, with limes for eggs, and 
 three-legged races ; needles, and thread, and blue calico, and fish- 
 hooks for prizes. So I tried to make it like old days in Mr. 
 
 L 's field ! And the children were just as noisy and crowded 
 
 round one just as you used to do long ago, just as keen, and 
 the little tots as funny as ever, but the girls very quiet (a little 
 difference here, I think !). None of them had ever run a race 
 or jumped either high or wide before, and some of their efforts 
 were very funny. I think the thing they liked best was the Tug- 
 of-War. They pulled right well, with no jerking or tumbling. So 
 you sec we tried to think of old times, and do as we used to do 
 then. It was something like, but so different. We tried however 
 to make these poor little heathen boys and girls share in our 
 Easter joy, of which they know so little yet. Then on Easter 
 Monday we had a feast for the workmen, some of whom have 
 worked here since I began in November. It is not necessary to 
 tell them to bring their own pots ! They sit in groups round a 
 pile of rice and meat, and help themselves with their fingers. 
 Sometimes the rice was on a big dish or tray, but sometimes on a 
 mat only. . . . 
 
 . . . Now I must say ^ood-byc again. I hope you will have 
 a bright, warm summer, and lots of picnics and heaps of fun. I 
 wish I could send you some of our sunshine in exchange for a 
 little of your rain. 
 
 Ever your affectionate friend, 
 
 ARTHUR F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Miss V , dated, 
 
 Kota Kola, April blfi, 1895. 
 
 Mv DF.AR , 
 
 At last the parcel has come biscuits, sweets, and above 
 
 all a piece of Mrs. II 's wedding cake. I can assure you I ate 
 
 to lic'r health and prosperity. I enjoy the lemon drops, and so do 
 my boys the latter very often on the sly I think. Anything they
 
 LETTERS 2OI 
 
 fancy particularly goes with wonderful rapidity. I am really 
 puzzled how to grapple with this difficulty. . . . 
 
 I fancy mineral discoveries will bring a host of unwelcome visitors 
 here. The Swahili haven't machinery nor capital nor enterprise. 
 They will die out and so will the slave trade, for with the opening 
 of such industries all who haven't the above will have to tuck up 
 their sleeves or go to the wall, and I don't think I see these fellows 
 working. We have had a man here, a wretched fellow, who tried 
 to find gold, but I don't think he succeeded though he professed 
 to be highly satisfied. I suppose one ought to be glad to see the 
 country develop, even if it means a swarm of gold-diggers. I 
 wonder what your white ant was it certainly isn't the white ant 
 we suTer from if grease would stop its encroachments. I wonder 
 how many tons I should require for this house alone ! No, our ant 
 is a builder and never works, except under galleries of mud. It 
 climbs to the roof, working its way up with extraordinary rapidity 
 inside the mud walls ; but once it faces the open it begins its 
 tunnels of mud. Each ant brings its load and puts it on and 
 plasters it down and makes it even. Under cover of this out- 
 work it eats its way through everything softer than iron, tin, or 
 stone. It not only is in the mud walls of my house, but also in 
 the floor, so that a wooden box placed on the floor falls a prey to 
 it baskets, mats, etc., have to be moved every day. There is no 
 remedy, one must grin and bear it ! Only one has to take precau- 
 tions and raise anything that isn't tin off the floor. I have given 
 up the use of mats altogether. Of course tables, chairs, etc., which 
 have legs are safe enough, because there one can see the tunnel 
 being made and can destroy it from time to time, and besides 
 such things are always being moved. How many changes there 
 have been among the Clergy in the North ! These seem to come 
 at intervals, and when they come they come with a rush ; five 
 Clergy have moved from West Hartlepool since I left. I shall 
 scarcely know the place, if (or when) I return. The school chil- 
 dren arc tremendously keen. They come at all hours to the place 
 where the alphabet is hanging in the baraza, and go through their 
 paces ; it is a perfect delight to them to get a boy who knows his 
 alphabet to teach those who don't. About twenty know their 
 letters, big and small, and are now advanced to slates and syllables. 
 Isn't this rather quick ? This is the end of the fourth week, and 
 I think nearly all of them can go through their alphabet with only
 
 2O2 ARTHUR ERASER S/J/ 
 
 one or two mistakes. The preaching is a great problem to me. 
 One can only lay before them the life of our Lord ; that is I think 
 what St. Paul did mainly ; let it tell its own story so strange to 
 these folk who have no ideal beyond the satisfying of self. I don't 
 think it ever can have happened among them that one man should 
 have laid down his life for another. They have no literature of 
 course, and their oral tales are only a kind of "Uncle Remus" 
 jumble. Well, it's all very interesting, but oh, what patience one 
 will require! a long, long waiting time I expect, and even then? 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, April S///, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . The number of children in the School is rather more 
 than we can manage, because some are outpacing others and we 
 ought to divide them up into classes. William is an excellent 
 teacher, and I think he really enjoys teaching. The children make 
 a huge row chanting their letters and syllables, and take a great de- 
 light in it. Then too our little band of twenty hearers, grown men, 
 are a source of delight. All the children are drawn from the poorer 
 inhabitants of the town, and strangely too most of them are with- 
 out parents these have died or been killed. We could form an 
 orphanage here for little castaways, whose people do not care two- 
 pence about them. Now we have just about finished the Kibanda 
 for preaching, and we are making plans for building a School ; so 
 in time we 'shall be preparing to receive boarders. I have a freed 
 slave boy in my household now. He ran away from his master, 
 Selim bin Nassur, who crossed the Lake last week, having been in 
 the town for nearly a year. Is it not strange that all his people 
 have already passed before the magistrate once and declared that 
 they were not slaves, and that they wanted to j^o to the coast? 
 Now only this last week a hundred and twenty of these very same 
 men sought their liberty from Air. Nicholl. It is a great social 
 problem. Hundreds, almost thousands, have passed before Mr. 
 Xicholl and have, without exception, declared that they were not 
 slaves ; and yet I have no doubt that they were slaves all the time. 
 Perhaps as they gain confidence more will claim their freedom. 
 
 1 am reading " TItc Cuidcd Life '' this Holy Week. It is just
 
 LETTERS 203 
 
 what Canon Body is constantly preaching, and I have presumed 
 to preach it too from notes which I have from time to time taken 
 from his lips. It is so true that the gist of Christianity is union 
 with the Person of Jesus by the indwelling Spirit. How patient 
 and loving that guidance is we know, who, like obstinate children, 
 will not submit to it. What is more the guidance is not wanting 
 altogether in any of God's children, even in the heathen, though it 
 shines dimly, very dimly in them. . . . 
 
 Have I told you of Mr. Tulip's death ? It is strange what a 
 number of deaths and invalids we have had at Likoma in a year 
 Mr. Pearson, Mr. Cowey, Mr. Butler, Mr. Tulip but I do not 
 think that this is much more than our share if we take the average 
 for eighteen months. But if the number of those invalided home 
 is taken into consideration, I fear it is more than our share. I 
 took a great fancy to Mr. Tulip from the moment I saw him. 
 He was about fifty years of age, with all the bluntness and 
 straightness of a North countryman the sort of thing one gets 
 to love in them. He was a very clever engineer I believe. They 
 are very shorthanded at Likoma now, and to add to their troubles 
 the " Chat ~lcs Janson " is laid up, and requires extensive repairs. 
 I sometimes rather dread my letters from Likoma, lest I should 
 hear of some new illness or another death. . . . 
 
 How things grow in this rainy season ! Kaffir corn grows to 
 twelve or fifteen feet high, and grass almost as high. I often think 
 where this and that house is to be built when the work extends, and 
 when perhaps I may have a white companion. I have quite settled 
 on the site for the Girls' School, and all the different houses are 
 already situated in my mind's eye. In the meantime I wish I could 
 get on faster with the languages. It is a very different thing know- 
 ing it from books, and talking a language freely and readily as I 
 want to. ... 
 
 It is very nice and of course an enormous help that these 
 people should be so keen on getting on. I confess to get a little 
 tired of an everlasting " A B C " going on close to my head. 
 
 Our Scripture teaching is chiefly done by catechism. I hope 
 and pray that their knowledge will be something more than a head 
 knowledge. But the catechism is most useful, and each answer is 
 of course a text to hang a lot of teaching on. It begins : " Who 
 made you?" and follows much the same line as " A first Catechism 
 /'<>> Children of the Church."
 
 2O4 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Our poor old men complain that all the things they have to do 
 on the slates are alike, and when they look at them for a long- time 
 they all get mixed up. Isn't this natural ? They have no idea of 
 the difference between a straight line and a curve, as is demon- 
 strated sadly in my palings and ditches and beds for seeds. 
 
 To-day I had given me eight tiny seedlings of the date palm. 
 Mow I .do hope they will grow and flourish ! I see nothing of the 
 three cocoanuts I planted, nor anything of the mangoes. It is a 
 case for patience I am afraid. . . . 
 
 April i8///. I fear my letters will be very irregular in reaching 
 you these days ; but be sure of this, you will hear of my death by 
 telegram long before my letters cease to come in, so don't imagine 
 I am ill or anything like that. . . . The mail always makes me 
 feel a brute, as I get so much more thought and kindness than I 
 deserve. . . . Mr. Glossop is here on his way to Unangu, and 
 Dr. Hine is going to Likoma, as they must have a doctor there 
 these trying months. ... I don't forget the dear old place. I 
 wonder and am amazed that God has been so good to me as to fill 
 my heart with such affection and love. It is the brightest posses- 
 sion a man can have. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. Si\r. 
 
 Tuesday in Holy Week, April (jf/i. 1895. 
 
 MY DFAR , 
 
 . . . I am thinking a great deal of you this Holy Week. 
 May your Easter be a very blessed and happy one ! We number 
 three, myself included ; but "Where two or three arc gathered to- 
 gether" and here the promise holds as well as at home. What a 
 contrast our little Chapel, mud Altar, and congregation of three 
 with St. Aidan's, say, on Easter Day. Try and imagine our Good- 
 Friday Lantern Service ! How useful the Lantern is going to be ! 
 I could well have spent the 2$ on lantern slides, but 1 think the 
 other things I want more, and after all I have two hundred slides 
 which I have by no means exhausted yet. . . . 
 
 I have begun another letter to the " Mail:' Do you think they 
 do any good ? I know my first was very uninteresting ; but I 
 think a letter from here might be more interesting describing some 
 of the social problems, slavery, etc. 
 
 1 am getting rather a dab at slaying mosquitoes, however it
 
 LETTERS 205 
 
 makes no decrease in their numbers. Rats and mosquitoes, scor- 
 pions and the boring beetle are my nightly companions. I think 
 the rats are the worst, for they go on all night, climb my mosquito 
 curtain, rampage round the roof-beams, and make such a row that 
 often I wake with a start thinking that the house is coming down, 
 or that a thief is in (for I have no locks to my doors). . . . 
 
 The implements and materials we have tax one's ingenuity I 
 can assure you, 'and the number of patents we have invented 
 would do credit to Maxim. . . . 
 
 How I would like a run on the bicycle with Mr. L again to 
 
 Saltburn and back once more ! How I did enjoy that run ! That 
 sort of thing, so different from anything here, is a bright spot in 
 my memory the vigour one felt, the green hedges and fields, 
 and the big trees shall I ever experience it again ? Here in the 
 dry season the place is like a barren desert, and in the rainy season 
 the country is impassable. I want to go to see Bua, a place twelve 
 or sixteen miles from here, and as Mr. Nicholl talks of going over 
 in the dhow I shall go with him. It is in my parish, but the road 
 to it is well nigh impassable. . . . 
 
 I am very well. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L , dated, 
 
 Kola Kota, Easter Day, April itf/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 I must write to you to-day to say how much you have been 
 in my thoughts and prayers. I could not help feeling the contrast 
 a little bit between this Easter Day and last. Three of us in our 
 little Chapel made our Easter Communion together with the count- 
 less millions of the whole Catholic Church, and we tried to add 
 our little strain of joy and praise to that mighty harmony that 
 throughout the world ascends to the throne of God. We tried to 
 make the Chapel as bright as the wild flowers and zineas of my 
 own growing would permit. . . . 
 
 And we were happy. Who can help it with the glorious Easter 
 promise that puts to shame our doubts and fears ? God grant that 
 you and yours may have spent an Easter of abiding joy and re- 
 newed hope and strength !
 
 2O6 ARTHUR FRASEK SIM 
 
 Lent, well I could have wished for a little of the spiritual food 
 that one gets so accustomed to and almost to depend upon at 
 home ; but I made the best of it with my books and the Hook, 
 although it is trying to be thrown entirely upon oneself. How it 
 reveals one's lack ! Fasting is difficult (where is it not so ?) we 
 have so little variety. Holy Week was, alas ! rather spoilt for me 
 by a smart attack of fever, but I was all right by Good Friday. 
 Perhaps it was the best discipline after all, for it was God's. I 
 read Canon Body's " Guided Life" and on Good Friday we read 
 the account of the crucifixion in parallel gospels and sang hymns, 
 and had private prayer in between for the Three Hours. In the 
 evening we had a Lantern Service for the heathen, and told the 
 Story over again, and I am sure they were impressed ; but so cruel 
 themselves, will it appeal to them as it does to us ? And pictures 
 to those who have never seen a picture in their lives what do 
 they mean ? On the blackboard the men say one line is the same 
 as another, though one curves to the right and the other to the 
 left. But they once said, after seeing some simple pictures of our 
 Lord's birth, " Now our eyes are open." Oh, for the divine gift 
 of patience ! One book I read during Holy Week I think helped 
 me more than any other, and that was the little memoir of Bishop 
 Lightfoot, reprinted from the Quarterly Review, which M 
 gave me. How inspiring it is to read it and think of it all again ! 
 
 Now dear lad, good-bye. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. Snr. 
 
 Kola Kota, April i^th, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR - , 
 
 The " Doinira''' is running again after repairs, and brought 
 me a huge mail on the I7th twenty-four letters in all ! . . . 
 
 Seeds the most useful flower seeds are xinea, marigold, sun- 
 flower, especially the small kind. I expect the " composita- '' 
 generally would do, as most of the indigenous flowers arc "com- 
 posita:." Zineas and sunflowers anyhow do splendidly. I have 
 tried many others, but all have failed. What 1 have in the way 
 of seeds 1 got from Likoma and the gunboats. If Mr. Nicholl gets 
 any he shares them with me, and 1'ice versa. 
 
 1 also had heard that Zanzibar had been offered to , but
 
 LETTERS 2O7 
 
 not that he had refused. He was right to refuse. The truth is 
 we ought always to be able to choose a Bishop from our own 
 ranks. The difficulties of the language, the climate, the know- 
 ledge of the customs of these heathen necessary to a Bishop 
 all these ought to be mastered, and it takes years to do so. ... 
 
 You need envy no man his first year out here. The mastering 
 of one or two languages is not only a drudgery in itself, but one 
 feels so hopelessly incapable all the time. Here are the crowds 
 waiting for your message, and you can't deliver it. This oppresses 
 one. 
 
 Milk is my chief want now. An African goat gives about a 
 tablespoonful of milk, and most goats and cows have young 
 ones now. . . . 
 
 To-day is Sunday, 28th April. It was pouring with rain till 
 8 a.m., so I thought we should have nobody at the preaching ; but 
 to my delight, it was better than usual. 
 
 I reckon the kibanda I have built will hold about a thousand 
 people, so I have divided it and made a School at one end and 
 a preaching place at the other. I can't get the women to come 
 into the baraza. Next Sunday I hope to hold the preaching in 
 the kibanda, and on Monday to remove the school there. I sup- 
 pose we must make something like tables if we are to teach these 
 boys to write ! Some forty of them are getting on capitally, and 
 four or live arc reading short words ! They require constant 
 change first alphabet, then drill, then catechism, then sing-song 
 at vowels and consonants, then more drill, and so on. There is 
 nothing to bring them to school except the novelty of the thing 
 at present. We have a fairly steady average of seventy boys. . . . 
 I shall miss Mr. Xicholl when he goes ; he is very bright and 
 cheery when well. 
 
 He is so awfully kind. He is going to spend most of his holiday 
 in America, so probably you won't see him. But if he has any 
 time in England to spare he promises to look you up. His suc- 
 cessor, Mr. Swann, is I believe one of the best men as far as 
 administration work goes. I have had no "cases" since Mr. 
 Nicholl went, which is a satisfaction. But he has taken a retinue 
 with him consisting of the men most likely to come to me. . . 
 I have a horrid sore toe again ; a jigger got in at the quick, and 
 it has festered. 
 
 It has been very cold these last few days really cold, and cloudy,
 
 208 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 and sunless. This weather I am told is going to last till June. 
 It has rained considerably these last few days, but this won't con- 
 tinue. 
 
 Here's the '' Domira? and I must close. Love to everybody. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to W. W , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, April 2<)t/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 Thanks for your antiquarian notes of Hart and Hartlepool. 
 I only wish I were with you to benefit by your knowledge. You 
 know that my house is finished, and that I am in it. I have had 
 to have it re-thatched. Such rain as we have here will find its 
 way through anything. The couples I drew a picture of are hold- 
 
 ing well now. Did I tell you that once during building the whole 
 roof slid towards the South? We had to pull it straight with a 
 rope, and fix it into its place with a rope inside up to one of the 
 ends from the North partition. These like A are the couples, or 
 ties ; then from the two partitions (p p) 1 have a stay, or pro]) ; 
 that from the North slants to bear the thrust, for the roof seems 
 inclined to journey -Southwards ; and that on the South partition is 
 upright. Four couples and two props carry the roof beam, which 
 is three trees lashed and pinned together with wooden pins. The 
 lashing is hoop-iron off bales of calico. Most houses out here 
 have upright trees in the middle, which simplifies all this very 
 much ; but 1 doiv't like that fashion, as it breaks up your floor 
 space too much : besides at the tune I was building I had diffi- 
 culty in getting big trees. You will see that the ties or couples
 
 LETTERS 
 
 209 
 
 carry the roof-beam, and the roof-beam carries the roof. The 
 roof consists of chiwalis, twenty or thirty feet long, and very 
 light and stiff. These are placed as close as they will go, port 
 
 - R OF BEAN, 
 CC. C H I w A L I 
 B. E N a O r COU 
 
 and starboard alternately, and they are notched to fit over the roof- 
 beam. Then across these run reeds, called bangos, or malete. I 
 think they are better than bamboos in the roof, as the boring- 
 beetle does not touch them. We put them three or four together, 
 and tie them with bark rope to the chii^ali ; then on the top of 
 all this lies the grass roof. Lately I have had a pole put in between 
 the two partitions, which are upright trees diiven into the ground 
 about two or three feet apart, with bango reeds in between. On 
 the top of the trees runs another pole horizontally, fastened at both
 
 210 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 ends to the wall-plate. My new tree jambs these apart, and now 
 there are no more ominous cracks and noises when a strong wind 
 blows, and it has been blowing pretty hard. Of course if we were 
 liable to those Californian tornadoes, a house like this would go 
 to ruin in no time. We have gales but not hurricanes here. 
 Although it feels very cold now, it is not really so as the ther- 
 mometer goes, perhaps between 55 and 65 in a cold place out 
 of the sun. 
 
 Canon Greenwell's discovery is very interesting, although I 
 thought it had always been agreed that that was the old form of 
 the Norman chancel built by Carilef. I wonder if five hundred 
 years hence people of black skin and archaeological fancies will be 
 digging up the remains of the Kota Kota monastery, and wonder- 
 ing what was the plan some madman had built or tried to build 
 upon. Never mind. Fountains Abbey was built in wood once. 
 
 .5'' 
 
 Oh for a run over there again with you ! Now mind, that is an 
 engagement this time (or a little later) five years hence, in 1900. 
 Perhaps you will have forgotten altogether about me by then. I 
 hope you will be such a swell when I come home (a builder and 
 contractor) that I shall have to seek a new introduction to you. 
 
 1 have built a large rouh building, sixty by twenty-six feet, on 
 the site where I hope the Church will eventually stand. There I 
 have arranged a temporary School, and one half is for the Sunday 
 preaching. I have begun school there to-day, and I find I have 
 a classroom for women and girls, whom my teacher's wife is going 
 to take. I have built this with three uprights in the middle, twenty 
 feet high. These uprights are very strong, being trunks of the 
 borassus palm. They carry the roof-tree, and then the rest goes 
 as before. I have hopes of being able to get more of these for the 
 Church, when I shall make pillars of them, and spring the nave
 
 LETTERS 
 
 211 
 
 roof from them, leaving five feet of daylight between the spring 
 of the nave roof and the start of the aisle roof for a clerestory, 
 which would give sufficient light probably for the whole building. 
 But these palm-trees are scarce here. What am I to do with the 
 ends of the building ? Draw me plans, please Mr. Architect, 
 economizing these palms, and remembering we have no lime and 
 cannot build high walls. These palms are about twelve or eighteen 
 inches in diameter, and they are excellent for our purpose, if we 
 could only get plenty of them. Like all palms they grow from 
 the inside of the stem, so the outside is the hard part, and the 
 inside soft, therefore it does not do to cut them up. They are 
 a mass of fibres, and have no grain like other wood. My head 
 teacher (for I boast a second teacher now) is away in the country 
 with about fifty men superintending the cutting of treej, as I have 
 
 to build a married couple's house. These small houses we build 
 very quickly and easily first the uprights in the wall, then the 
 wall-plate, then a cross-tree from front to back wall-plate, and up 
 from this a prop which carries the roof-tree. With mud walls you 
 have to build wide eaves, so as to keep the rain off the mud. 
 And with most native houses, even the little round beehives, these 
 wide eaves form the day-room, where they sit in the heat of the 
 day and do nothing, or weave baskets, or make nets, or sew. The 
 weak point of our houses is in this cold weather the impossibility 
 of keeping out the cold wind both at night and in the daytime. 
 In the daytime one wants light, and that can only be had by open- 
 ing windows. Of course glass is the remedy, but in our Mission 
 we rather set our faces against luxuries of that kind. In fact at
 
 212 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Likonia they build walls merely of bango reeds, which are the 
 reverse of air-tight, and for window space they carry the bangos 
 only to within three feet of the wall-plate. So willy-nilly you 
 must have air, which is trying on a cold night, and also when you 
 are having your " tub." My house is far and away better than 
 these, but still I feel the disadvantage. 
 
 A word about my tools. I wrote for a bench-screw. I have two 
 vices with a grip of about three inches, and I am using these for 
 all my woodwork. I hope to be able to cut planks one of these 
 days, as I am told there are trees to be had with some difficulty, 
 so I have asked for a pit-saw. The screw-tap if it comes, and if 
 it will make a screw with a good, deep thread, will be very useful. 
 We have blacksmiths here, but they have no tools. They use 
 charcoal, and their bellows are made out of a goat skin, and to 
 keep up the continuous draught they use two bellows, working 
 them alternately. I have got them to make me hinges of this sort ; 
 
 they are pretty rough, but they answer their purpose for windows. 
 Also I had a trowel made from a broken hoe, but I used it for a 
 y-arden spud, as the ladies who do the mud plastering prefer their 
 lingers to any trowels. I also tried to get sickles made, but they 
 were a failure. For a saw-set we use a steel punch and hammer 
 to set our saws ; but the wood here wears saws out in a terrific 
 way, and it is generally so sappy that it is very hard to get the saw 
 through at all. I had ^5 worth of tools given me before I came 
 away, and I think 1 made a very happy selection, except for bring- 
 ing carving tools with me, which will be of very little use I fear. 
 These big trees I spoke of are like mahogany, a red wood without 
 quite such a " pernickctty " grain as mahogany has, but very hard. 
 I sec you are making arrangements to come and build my 
 ClHtrrh for me, so I will stop making plans. Yes, " Early African '' 
 is an excellent style for the country. " Crockety pinnacles ! '' I
 
 LETTERS 213 
 
 think you must mean crotchety builders. The place where the 
 cloister ought to be is the place where the boys at present play 
 football. I shall have to see about this, or no trees will grow 
 there ; but I think I can find them a good place when the grass 
 goes down ; it is about twelve feet high just now, but it (the grass) 
 makes good slates. I should like to know something about thatch- 
 ing, also something about brick-making. What a boon it would 
 be to have lime here ! It would be an effectual cure for white 
 ants. . . . 
 
 I3arro\vs and shovels ! The only implements they know of 
 besides their hoes are those with which nature supplies them in 
 the way of hands. They fill baskets with clay or mud, and carry 
 them on their heads. No doubt they would do the same with a 
 barrow. Grass-cutting is a slow job, as they use a hatchet about 
 three inches or less at the edge, and cut against a bit of wood. 
 They manage to cut about half a dozen stalks at a time. I am 
 sorry you don't appreciate my patent forgetting up in the morning. 
 Try it, and you will never miss that early train on Choir Trip days. 
 Talking of hens, I have great difficulty in getting any to eat now, 
 as I have run out of calico, and the people won't take anything 
 else for them. . . . 
 
 I think you had better pack up and come straight out here. I 
 want a companion badly, and if \ve can't do anything else we can 
 teach these folk " Kchvay? I have left my Hymns A. o- 5 J/. 
 behind, but I have my old chant-book with all the variations in 
 manuscript, and few things please me more than to sit and ponder 
 over it, and go over them all again. 
 
 April ^otk. You arc wrong about Likoma. It is the hottest 
 place on the Lake, because it is all stones and rocks, and the heat 
 is radiated from them. The boys just come from Likoma say 
 this is much colder ; also this is more exposed to the South-East 
 wind, which is our cold wind. It is a strange thing how one's 
 habit changes out here, If I were to take a dip in the Lake I 
 believe I would certainly have fever. I have to have a warm bath 
 every day ; I could not stand a cold one, although in England I 
 never missed my cold "tub" every morning. 
 
 St. Hilda's Church is very interesting. How strange that they 
 should have to buttress the tower in that fashion ! I suppose it 
 is true they had no foundation. In Hart Church how the organ 
 spoils the chancel ! Where organs ought to be placed is a real
 
 214 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 difficulty. On a screen, as at York, to my mind spoils the look 
 of the Church, breaking it up too much. Durham is the best 
 solution, but who can afford electric and pneumatic couplings, 
 etc. ? St. Aidan's is not satisfactory. The organ is a bit drowned, 
 and the organist altogether " obsquatulated." . . . 
 Good luck to you, old boy, and best wishes. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to A. E. M , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, April 3o///, 1895. 
 MY DEAR DOCTOR - , 
 
 I will begin about the fever and the tabloids. The fever 
 generally fetches me in the afternoon ; I feel disinclined to cat, drink 
 a little tea or lemon water, and then my temperature begins to 
 rise. When I get the pains and aches in my back, loins, and head 
 I go to bed, having taken 20 to 30 grains of quinine. Eventually 
 I go to sleep and perspire through everything. In the morning 
 generally I am normal, sometimes not quite. The highest temper- 
 ature I have reached has been 106, and that twice ; then a rather 
 high temperature lasted two days. The attack I had last Sunday 
 (the common sort) began about five o'clock, when I took 20 grains 
 of quinine. The pains came, so I lay down, but got up for Even- 
 song and went to bed afterwards without my dinner. I tried my 
 temperature out of curiosity, not thinking it would be much, but it 
 was 104. However on Monday I awoke normal, ate well, but 
 with that horrid mouth, and tongue nothing extra. I took 10 
 grains of quinine and a tonic tabloid or two quinine i grain, 
 ferri hypo 2 grains, arsenic -.\,- grain, strychnine ^ grain (I>ur- 
 roughs and Wellcome 1 think). To-day (Tuesday) I am quite fit, 
 but I shall take quinine again after lunch, which is about the time 
 it came on originally. I perspire with great case which is my sav- 
 ing ; but you see I am still in my first year and must expect a lot of 
 fever I fancy. I think it is most like an influenza kind of fever, 
 only influenza leaves more weakness and of course lasts longer. I 
 feel little weakness after these attacks, though sometimes I feel 
 a hankering for a good beefsteak and a glass of port-wine or 
 beer ! Neither of these are obtainable here, so I suppose that is 
 why I hanker for them.
 
 LETTERS 215 
 
 The tabloids I am glad to have the quinine, opium, paregoric, 
 Dover's powders, and in fact all of them, but there are plenty to 
 
 last a long time. M talks of sending more ; he must think 
 
 my capacity for swallowing medicine is enormous. I don't under- 
 stand what trinitrine is for a doctor here told me it was danger- 
 ous, being a compound of mercury ; it is said to be for peritonitis. 
 I hope I am not going to have peritonitis. Tell me too what salicy- 
 late of soda is good for. If I am in time to stop those other tab- 
 loids you might order me some more paregoric, tonic tabloids, 
 chlorodyne, and carbolised vaseline. 
 
 I wish you could see Dr. Robinson, who is in England now, and 
 have a talk with him about all our little troubles. He is a capital 
 fellow, and I should think a clever surgeon. 
 
 We have fearful ulcers among the women here. There is one 
 case of cancer old Jumbe's brother. And there has been a case of 
 small-pox, which ended in the patient disappearing in a moment 
 when his watcher slept. He has not been found since, which is a 
 good thing, for if he had died they would have buried him in his 
 house probably, and the disease would have spread like wildfire. 
 There has been much small-pox at Forts Johnston and Maguire ; 
 I don't think any Europeans died, though one or two got it. I was 
 vaccinated, but it did not take. It is very hard to get vaccine out 
 here, as it quickly congeals. 
 
 I am so glad to hear of the great success of your Boys' Brigade, 
 for now that your old boys are capable of becoming officers, you 
 have attained your highest point of merit. Of course they won't do 
 without superintendence, but still it is a great step. But best of all, 
 and without which anything else is unavailing, is what you say 
 about the moral and spiritual tone of the bigger lads, and specially 
 the communicants. It is grand ; and what an effect for good it 
 must have in the town ! Even if these fellows only cease to do 
 actual evil, it is so much cut off Satan's power in the yards and 
 shops. 
 
 Our success here is said to be great. I wish I could think so. 
 Anyhow they show a willingness to come, which is something. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 21 6 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Kota Kota, May is/, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR - , 
 
 My heart is at home at St. Aldan's, but I don't think this is 
 wrong, nor do I think it militates against effective work. Still it 
 is my main difficulty permanent difficulty I mean. The language 
 is a temporary one, which, please God, will soon be forgotten now, 
 but it is a very real one while it lasts. To have a message and not 
 to be able to deliver it is hard and depressing. . . . 
 
 I am picking up Chinyanja pretty well, but I have a multitude of 
 counsellors in the shape of four books, each representing a different 
 dialect, and none of them exactly that of this place. It is not half 
 the language Swahili is, but easier I suppose. . . . 
 
 When the " Domini " was here I had a lady visitor with her 
 husband, a Free Church missionary. It made me look round my 
 bachelor establishment ; I fear she must have thought it rather 
 untidy. It was such a change to have a lady to speak to, 
 even for a moment. It is only about seven months since I saw 
 ladies, but it seems years, though I had not thought of it before. 
 She was a great wonder to the natives, being the first English or 
 white lady I suppose that many of them had ever seen. I have 
 moved the school out of the baraza into the kibctnda. The latter 
 will I reckon hold one thousand people, so I have divided it, 
 and now one end forms the School- three rooms divided by reed 
 partitions. The numbers still keep up, and when the hot weather 
 returns I fully expect they will increase. Now with much sickness 
 in the shape of coughs, and many away fishing and hoeing, they 
 number eighty regular atlenders, beside a class of women, which 
 Monica, William's wife, and Kathleen, the cook's wife, take be- 
 tween them. Our School furniture is very inadequate one black- 
 board, one card of the alphabet, and twelve slates. The women 
 have a blackboard, home made, about the size of a sheet of letter 
 paper. I have written for more things to Likoma. About forty 
 boys are doing syllables now. The phonetic spelling is a great 
 boon and makes it easy for them. Some of the scholars too are 
 beginning to learn the multiplication table. They are so fond of 
 drill and singing (tonic sol-fa), but we have no modulator. I am 
 turning the drill to some use, as the elder boys are marched out 
 with baskets and do a good half-hours work collecting and laying 
 mud for the floors of the new houses. They seem to enjoy it al- 
 most as much as football, but of course they won't stick to it long.
 
 LETTERS 
 
 217 
 
 May \otli. I have had a disturbed time since I last wrote, 
 not through natives, but Europeans. The gunboat "Adventure" 
 has been here for Mr. Nicholl, who was away, so it waited till 
 he returned yesterday. It brought Mr. Swann to replace him. 
 These good officers have kept me going. Well, there is one result 
 anyway ; one of them is a keen photographer, and so he took the 
 house, several groups, and myself. Mr. Nicholl went up to Likoma 
 in a dhow. The magistrate of Kota Kota has Likoma under him, 
 and so Mr. Nicholl has had to go once or twice to settle matters 
 
 A. K. SIM S HOUSE AT KOTA KOTA. 
 
 With shadow of the bij " Preaching Tree" at 4.30 p.m. Rev. A- F. Sim, 
 Mr. Swann and Captain Rhodes in the foreground. 
 
 among the natives. This time he has brought away t\vo prisoners, 
 implicated I believe in sonic of that superstitious poison-drinking 
 to detect witchcraft, which is against the law in British Central 
 Africa. Mr. Nicholl had a great reception ; large parties of men 
 and women came up from the village and danced ; many pounds 
 too of gunpowder were blown oft". I shall miss him very much 
 when lie goes. He is kind and thoughtful. . . . 
 
 Please remember me most affectionately to all my old friends. 
 Give my love to the children. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 2l8 ARTHUR FRASER Sll\l 
 
 Letter to S. F. S - , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, May 2nd, 1895. 
 MY 
 
 . . . I have not yet had need of water, and having much 
 else to do I have not begun my well. 1 had occasion however to 
 dig a hole eight feet deep on high ground, and even at this depth 
 water percolated through a foot or two deep, but this was in the 
 rainy season. I can get a good many feet lower down to get a start 
 with the well, where in the wet season the water stands. Of course 
 I should build a wall (mud) and a shed over it to keep out dirty 
 water. I expect I shall find it necessary to timber the top while 
 the men are digging, as if left to themselves they are so inclined 
 to undercut. We have no bricks, but if I knew how I could of 
 course make them ; however as yet I don't want to spend time and 
 money on that. . . . 
 
 The movable railway was tried in the " Wissmann " (German) 
 Expedition, and for many reasons had to be given up, though I 
 don't know the whole story. . , . 
 
 May iS///. The German steamer brought in Mr. Corbctt from 
 Likoma on his way home after three years out here, and I had to 
 show him all the buildings, etc. He is the third Likoma person I 
 have seen since I came to Kota Kota, so you can understand we 
 generally have something to talk about. He has had most of the 
 building work to do at Likoma, consequently he is regarded as an 
 authority. He was good enough to compliment us on our build- 
 ings, but I shall take a hint he dropped about expenses and stop 
 building when I have finished two native houses. 
 
 The children here are awful beggars, and I have nothing I can 
 spare. They like soap, salt, and sugar ; but these are precious 
 things to me, more than they are to them. . . . 
 
 Remember me most kindly to all my old friends. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, May yd, 1895. 
 MY DEAR -- , 
 
 . . . Here is a gunboat with Mr. Swarm to replace Mr. 
 Nicholl, who is away, as I have told you in my last, but he is re- 
 turning. I expect him back overland to-morrow or Sunday, when 
 he will pack up and go as straight as circumstances will permit for
 
 LETTERS 219 
 
 England. I shall miss him sorely I am sure, although I shall get 
 on with Mr. Swarm well enough. . . - 
 
 May 5//;, Sunday. The gunboat is still here and I have been 
 busy entertaining the sailors. One man, the senior officer, an old 
 " P. and O." and R. N. R. man, is very nice indeed. The other, who 
 will captain the "Pioneer'' when she is ready, is quite nice, quiet, 
 and keen on stones ! Xo. i is keen on photography and is named 
 Cullen, so I made him take a " shot" at my beard ! To-morrow I 
 will develop it and see what it is like. No. 2's name is Rhodes. 
 Mr. Swarm seems very anxious to please, but he is quite different 
 from Mr. Nicholl. Captain Cullen came up at 7.30 to our Cele- 
 bration, which I Anglicised a good deal as he does not understand 
 either Swahili or Chinyanja ; but it was nice, and he is the first out- 
 sider who has ever done so here. He stayed to breakfast and I 
 have had peace ever since. I used the kibanda for preaching in 
 this morning for the first time. It was windy and cold as I have 
 no walls to it, but this week I think I will be able to mend that. 
 William, who was away last week cutting poles, has managed to 
 get about 250 poles, 300 chiwalis, and bark for tying purposes, so 
 this week is going to be a busy one. I shall start a married couple's 
 house, measure for a more permanent School, and make arrange- 
 ments for another house for Hamisi, my foreman of outside work, 
 who as a youth was with Livingstone. That will keep us going for 
 a bit ; other things, such as railways, etc., have to be done. Mr. 
 Nicholl is still away, and will be awfully grieved to leave this place 
 I know. I got a letter from him dated from Chingomanji's opposite 
 here April 231^!, on Friday, May 3rd. . . . 
 
 Two men, engineers, have come for Likoma I hear Mr. Crouch, 
 who was out before, and another, name unknown. I heard there 
 was a box for me waiting at Fort Johnston, and I am in a perspir- 
 ation to see it. There is another man I heard of as coming to 
 Likoma a carpenter named Sims. If he arrives I trust our letters 
 won't get mixed ! Mr. Crouch and the other man can hardly have 
 left on March 2nd, can they ? They went up from Fort Johnston 
 in the sailing boat. The Commissioner is expected every day. 
 I wonder if he will pay us a visit here ; I am very curious to see 
 him. . . 
 
 The East Indians here do not get on with the natives, and will 
 never settle nor put any money into the country. . . . 
 
 I think I must send you a specimen of the fibre these people
 
 22O ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 make their fishing net twine with. They have quite a different 
 knot from our netting it is a reef knot. They use no mesh, and 
 make an excellent net which only needs tanning (and in some 
 places they do tan it) to keep it. ... 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, Ascension Day, May 2yd, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 . . . The "baccy" came in splendid order. I have 
 written to thank Mr. Crouch for fetching it ... The seeds 
 I fear the apples and pears will come to nothing here, but I will 
 send some of them to Unangu. Don't they want grafting ? I 
 hope the raspberries, and possibly the gooseberries, may come to 
 something. Thanks also for the book, " Mr. Witt's Widow? and 
 the foreign note-paper. I still have a good deal left, but at my 
 rate of writing a big store soon goes. This I got when in England, 
 and yours came in time to replenish my original failing supply. 
 
 Mr. Nicholl left this morning in the " Ilala." . . . He has 
 been kindness itself to me. . . . He could tell you the latest 
 of me and of the Mission generally, in which, though not a 
 Churchman, he takes a personal interest. 
 
 My dear boy, what a dreadful time you are having in the matter 
 of Church Defence ; how it must bore you ! Don't commit your- 
 self. Come it must and will I believe. The question is, how and 
 when ? I think the historical argument may be pushed for more 
 than it really is worth. I believe in it, but it doesn't go for much 
 with voters I imagine. It requires a technical knowledge to appre- 
 ciate it. It is horrid having to take up a political question, but I 
 believe it is your duty. ... Is there any talk of co-operation 
 among the Schools of the diocese after the fashion of Box No. 13 
 at Alnwick in the Newcastle diocese? 
 
 Tools again. Probably if you could have sent me a grindstone 
 and handle we could have mounted it. ... I have only 
 glanced at the fruit-growing book ; it looks about as useful for 
 elephant rearing as far as this place is concerned. However I 
 may get lips about pruning (of which I know nothing) and per- 
 haps manure. ... I am awfully amused about W. D and 
 
 the sugar. Thank him for it, and tell him that it has come, and
 
 LETTERS 221 
 
 that now I have plenty. I am always touched by the children's 
 letters. I wish I could write to them all, but it is impossible ; in- 
 deed writing as much as I do will have to cease in some measure 
 soon. I have a huge number of letters to answer. I had such a 
 
 jolly one from M last mail, with many interesting enclosures 
 
 from Mr. L. J and boating men of Sunderland A.R.C. . . . 
 
 I am going to send you a pair of lion's claws (the lion was 
 killed near here after eating one or two men), and also a leopard 
 skin, if it can be properly cured, of which I am afraid, as it has 
 been badly shot by natives in this neighbourhood, where it was 
 killed. Leopards are an awful nuisance in some places, though 
 we are free from them here. 
 
 I am very glad to hear that Archdeacon Maples has accepted 
 the Bishopric. In my view of the situation here, Likoma is most 
 inadequate as the headquarters of our Mission. I can see nothing 
 to recommend it, except that it has a good harbour, and is free 
 from war scares. The impression is growing that it is unhealthy, 
 owing to its great heat. This is due to the stoniness of the place 
 and the radiation of heat. There is a very noticeable drop in the 
 temperature about 2 a.m. every night at least so I am told. The 
 people are not of a specially lofty character, and as a central 
 school it is said to be neither far enough from nor near enough to 
 the boys' own homes. No boy I believe going to Likoma from 
 the East shore stations takes to it, and they soon get homesick. 
 
 May 3 1.?/. We have had the excitement of having a gunboat in. 
 She brought the new Sikhs, and has to-day taken the old lot. It 
 seems a farce to send a force of seven Sikhs to a place like this. 
 They are useful as being well disciplined, and they can be trusted 
 to keep guard at night and so on, which the natives cannot. 
 
 We have had another excitement; a lion was killed on Monday, 
 and brought in to the Boma. I photographed it, and the doctor 
 on the gunboat carried off the skin. By the way, if you could send 
 a pound or two of arsenical soap, I could probably preserve some 
 of these skins for you. The native way of stretching them in the 
 sun and drying them spoils them for setting up in England. You 
 might also send some corrosive sublimate in tabloids. Alum is 
 good, but more bulky I should imagine than arsenical soap. A 
 few brushes like paint-brushes would be useful. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 222 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 Letter to E. F. E . , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, May 2<\t/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . We have lions about four miles from here, and two 
 men were taken a few days ago. I often wish I had the right 
 weapons ; but of course at this season of the year, with grass 
 10 or 12 ft. high, it would be a case of a large party and beaters ; 
 to go otherwise would be madness. My Martini-Henry sticks, as 
 nearly all seem to do the ejector won't act. . . . 
 
 The arrival of a steamer causes all the people to shout what 
 is supposed to be "Hip! hip! hurrah!" but they make it, 
 " Hupplah ! " I think the people here have learnt it from the 
 Atonga, who have come under the Bandawe missionaries' in- 
 fluence. The Atonga supply the labour market of I.ritish Central 
 Africa, and they are so far enlightened as to know the advantages 
 of leaving home and going to other places to obtain work and the 
 calico with which they are paid. They are, on the other hand, 
 the most lustful and bullying people of this part, unless you reckon 
 the coastmen, who do not belong to this part. . 
 
 May jis/. -The gunboat has departed to-day with the old lot of 
 Sikhs, whom she has replaced with new. . . . 
 
 One can buy here two fowls for a yard of calico (sixpence), and 
 eight or ten eggs for a dessert-spoonful of beads or salt it is not 
 table salt, but a darkish, coarse kind. . . . This is said to be 
 the unhealthy season ; but I find it agrees with me, as it is nearly 
 two months since I had any fever. . . 
 
 June yd. Yesterday we killed an enormous lizard, fully 14 ft. 
 long, which inhabits water, and sometimes comes about where 
 fowls are. It was a most exciting chase, as it got into the drain 
 which runs round my house. I am having it skinned, as it has such 
 a beautiful skin, and the fat is said to be good for sprains. Pro- 
 bably there is a little superstition attached to this. . . 
 
 And now farewell, 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 LETTERS 223 
 
 Letter to Mrs. F , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, May 28t/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . A box sent from Zanzibar in December has not 
 arrived yet ! You can imagine how it is that sometimes (really 
 wonderfully seldom) we run short of European eatables. I shall 
 be always content if I can get salt and flour. Tea too is useful, as 
 the water is not very safe to drink unless it is first boiled ; but 
 what with wars and lions and scares and thefts, it has been very 
 difficult to get carriers, and I believe there is a glut of goods at 
 Katunga, where the lower river journey ends. Talking of lions, I 
 went up to the Boma to see a lion this afternoon, which had been 
 killed to-day four miles from here. It had eaten a man and part 
 of a child, so they got the other part of the child and baited a trap 
 with it, and to-day the lion was found dead with two bullet 
 holes through his body one bullet went right through him from 
 end to end. What do you think of the bait ? Of course the 
 magistrate knew nothing of it till they told him after it was done. 
 Such a great brute very old, and with very little mane, and very 
 gaunt. I believe it is generally old lions that take to hunting men. 
 They find it easier work than stalking four-legged game. How 
 helpless one would be with such a beast it is not hard to imagine ! 
 I am going up to-morrow about daybreak to photograph him, and 
 then he will be skinned, though his skin isn't worth very much. 
 As to the bait, I don't suppose they would have caught him with 
 any other. I feel pretty confident now that all my troubles, as far 
 as the political situation goes, are over. There is a chance of 
 course that the Commissioner will not leave a magistrate here ; 
 but even then I should not contemplate any trouble myself, though 
 I might have to witness many barbarities and injustices which 
 might get me into trouble, if I felt it my duty to interfere in any 
 way. But from the point of view of stopping the slave-trade, I do 
 think it is important to occupy this place. I daresay from a 
 missionary point of view, if there was no Boma here, my posi- 
 tion would be better. In looking up some absent scholars the 
 other day I found that they were fully persuaded that they would 
 be sent to prison for having missed school. However after assur- 
 ances to the contrary, most of them have come back. We are 
 better supplied now with school materials, and can make school a
 
 224 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 little more varied and interesting to them. I feel as if I were be- 
 ginning to get the mastery over my fevers ; and though I have to 
 put in a saving clause about boasting, I think that in time I shall 
 be almost as well here as at home not so full of activity, but 
 feeling pretty fit and well. I am trying now taking quinine regu- 
 larly, about four or five times a week, ten grains each time ; and 
 though it is said to be the fever season, I have had no fever since 
 April 28th. I have never been so long without it, and then it was 
 very slight. 
 
 May 2g//i. Fancy, it is more than a year since I left England. 
 I don't know that it seems a short time ; but you see I have had 
 no winter, no Christmas trees, no particular holidays to mark the 
 flight of time. It is more strange than you can imagine, and it 
 seems to rob life of its reality somehow. To-day has been cold 
 enough for November in England, pouring rain, very little sun- 
 shine, and a gale of wind. How these poor people feel the cold 
 in their almost naked skins ! They look pictures of misery, and 
 hug themselves with their arms crossed from shoulder to shoulder. 
 The school too suffers considerably in such weather. I went up 
 before 7 a.m. this morning to photograph the lion, but it was eleven 
 before I got a chance, owing to the rain and no light. I can't say 
 the royal beast looked very dignified with his head propped on a 
 tin biscuit-box ! Here is a gunboat in sight, on the roughest day I 
 remember seeing here ! She is getting a tossing. The gunboats 
 are much too small for this Lake ; you can't imagine how rough 
 it is at times. They have been handed over from the Naval 
 Authority to the Foreign Office, i.e. the Administration ; and 
 now they arc manned, not with R.N. men, but with a couple of 
 R.N. Reserve officers, one of whom at least is very clever and 
 experienced, so perhaps he has come out this rough weather to try 
 the gunboat's paces. The sea is breaking a long way out, and 
 the whole hull of the boat disappears from sight. . . . 
 
 June lot/i. I am keeping awfully well this cold weather. At 
 that moment I believe we had a slight earthquake shock. It seemed 
 iike a slight tremor, and there was an unaccountable noise in the 
 roof, as if a sudden blast of wind had struck it ; but it is quite still 
 outside. I wonder if it was ; I believe they are frequent here. 
 The Randawc people often feel them seventy miles North of this. 
 I hear that one of the ladies with whom I travelled up the river, 
 belonging to the Scotch Free Church Mission at Bandawe. has
 
 LETTERS 225 
 
 become engaged to a doctor 1 in the same Mission. The poor 
 Blantyre people (Scotch Established Church) have been having a 
 bad time of it lately ; one of the principal missionaries died, and 
 the wife of the head of the Mission went out of her mind and died 
 on her way home at Zanzibar ; her husband was with her, very ill 
 himself. They have had war in the neighbourhood of their stations, 
 and the excitement and exposure is said to have caused the trouble. 
 
 How thankful I am that in our Mission, statistics have their 
 right place i.e. nowhere. They will be made up some day, but 
 that is not yet ! I wonder if people at home realize what con- 
 version is. Out here at a new station for instance, we seldom 
 baptize any who have not been two years under instruction. At 
 least we try and make sure that they are genuine cases. What 
 experiences you have had with the frost ! I at least shall never 
 get my main frozen ! I wish I could ; but I have always to send 
 for my water. . . . 
 
 And now with all good wishes and thanks, 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. Sitf, 
 
 Kota Kola, May 2tyh, 1893. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . I have one rose tree flourishing (it evidently enjoys 
 this cold weather), six guavas about a foot high, two fig-trees 
 and one hybiscus ; but my cocoa-nuts are a failure. 
 
 May 3U/. I have sown a lot of peas to-day; those I sowed 
 about a month ago are coming on splendidly, just coming into 
 flower. . . 
 
 I think you would be amused at the musical instruments the 
 natives use. The most common is a three-stringed affair, which 
 they play with their fingers. The sounding-board is made of 
 an enormous gourd, and the stem has three keys which they 
 finger to alter the notes. The music is most monotonous. Then 
 there is another instrument, the notes of which are composed of 
 
 1 News of the death of Dr. Steelu, referred to above, reached A. F. 
 Sim on the 3oth of June. " He wa.s going home for a holiday, when he 
 died of jaundice, a common cause of death among white men here, and an 
 awful death, I believe." A. I 1 . Si 
 
 Q
 
 226 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 bits of hard wood of various sizes, which rest on the stalk or stem 
 of a small banana-tree. Perhaps a whole octave is obtained in 
 this way. Two men play at it, sitting opposite to each other. 
 The tune is a kind of " chopstick " affair ; but they play very 
 
 tri: 
 
 quickly, striking the notes with sticks of hard wood. Some of 
 the notes arc a foot long. Then there is the interminable drum, 
 which never ceases. It is of various sizes, and each kind has a 
 different name. Some belonging to the chief are "spirit drums," 
 and are only used on very special occasions (I think perhaps 
 when they are conciliating the evil spirits). . . . 
 
 June yd. I have just had a jigger taken out of my toe. I fear 
 when the dry season comes they will be very bad here. The only 
 pet I have now is a cat ; it is indispensable for keeping down the 
 rats, which swarm especially in the roof. She is very fond of me ; 
 but the black boys, although she is a native herself, frighten her 
 dreadfully I expect from her old experience of their cruelty. The 
 cats are treated very badly in native houses. . . . 
 
 I wish you could see my accounts. I never was any good when 
 I had to keep them in s. d. ; but when it comes to calico, beads, 
 salt, hoes, and sometimes soap, I get into a hopeless mess. I 
 have been trying to unravel these awful things for hours, and I 
 cannot make them square. I think we ought to have a business 
 man here to keep us straight. . . . 
 
 1 wish I knew something of Kindergarten work ; I am sure it 
 would do splendidly with these children. . . . 
 
 I do believe that many of these people will in time come to love 
 Christ ; but there is no sense of sin yet nothing to appeal to. All 
 one can do is to preach a personal Lord, Who loves and calls for 
 love, and that every breach of II is commands is an injury to Him. 
 Alas ! they know so little of love. Family love, one is almost 
 brought to think, is wanting among them. These people are
 
 LETTERS 227 
 
 nothing- like the Uganda people, as they are also far removed 
 from the Matabele and Zulus a happy-go-lucky lot, fairly in- 
 dustrious, most peace-loving, and I think ease-loving and un- 
 ambitious. I am prepared to believe that the Yaos, who live on 
 the East side of the Lake (e.g., Unangu), are different. They are 
 cheeky, warlike, troublesome, with lots of push ; and I think we 
 are quite right to spend a lot of time and patience upon them. . . . 
 
 We have had a death among the children, and there is some 
 chickenpox about. This cold weather thins the school and the 
 preaching and the hearers' class. I don't wonder ; how can they 
 stand it when they are almost naked ? They are very fond of 
 football, and are quite as full of spirits as English children. . . . 
 
 The feeling of influenza is very like malarial fever ; but in its 
 effects, as far as I am concerned, influenza is much worse. Pro- 
 bably if I had to stay in bed ten days on end with fever I should 
 never get up. . . . 
 
 And now farewell. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to C. H. B- , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, June ^t/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 ... I believe I am getting fond of my life here. If only I 
 had some one to laugh with, 'or cry with (!) how different it would be ! 
 But it would be hard to get the right man, and one might be worse 
 off with the wrong one. You must not be too hard on us out here 
 for sending men alone. Dr. Hine is not alone, nor is Mr. W. P. 
 Johnson, nor of course are the people at Likoma ; mine is an ex- 
 ceptional case. We were in a Ir.irry to occupy this place, and there 
 has been a dearth of men at Likoma. Besides it was thought that 
 the magistrate's presence would count as companionship, and of 
 course all the time I was staying with Mr. Nicholl it did (except 
 when he was away). Now I do want another white man, because, 
 having finished my necessary buildings, I shall wait for the Bishop's 
 return before starting anything more, and in the meantime I want 
 to get out into my Parish of 2,000 square miles. . . . 
 
 If I had a free hand and plenty of help I should start Schools in 
 many places, and visit them frequently. They form a nucleus, and 
 the School is useful for gathering people together. They begin by
 
 228 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 working at it, and grumbling, and striking, and swindling until 
 they get to know one. 
 
 What nonsense it is for people in England to ask for a list and 
 statistics ! It is ghastly to think of having this sort of thing to 
 deal with. Conversion among these people is a gradual dawning 
 which may take years. They have no idea of sin ; they have very 
 little family love. What can one appeal to ? My idea is simply to 
 go on hammering out the Old, Old Story, and God in His own 
 time will reveal to them what love is. They are a cruel people ; 
 poor things, they have been brought to it by lives of persecution. 
 But the native proper is a peace-loving, indolent creature, living 
 from hand to mouth, cultivating with something like industry 
 during the proper season just as much as will suffice, and no more, 
 Sometimes the locust comes, and then he starves with a good grace, 
 and dies by hundreds. Thank God we have plenty of food here, 
 in spite of the swarms of locusts that passed over us. Now the 
 bairns are different. I think I see lots to hope for in them ; they 
 are so like our youngsters at home, full of fun and spirits, and they 
 come up here and gather together to play football and handball 
 with all the noise English boys are capable of. But I do think in 
 their homes they are quiet and subdued. They have good spirits, 
 but no enterprise. Whip-tops and kite flying so far I have found 
 indigenous, and handball, two games of which I have seen, one 
 with sides, which is a fearful romp (the only romp I have found yet 
 among them). Fancy coming upon the homely whip-top ! Generally 
 two boys whip the same top. Among the elders there is a game 
 something between draughts and halma, which they play on a big 
 board with holes in it, or in the ground with stones. But they 
 take to football like ducks to water, and quickly learn the rules of 
 Association and all the tips and points. A big shout fjocs up when 
 a goal is kicked. They have recognised leaders among them (who 
 rather bully their following), so I suppose there is a rudimentary 
 hero-worship. I don't know enough of the language to find out if 
 they have any historical heroes. They have no worship (except 
 the Mahommedans), only a fear of the spirits of the departed. I 
 think they have a dim idea of the Unity of God. They have lots 
 of stories of the '' Uncle Remits''' kind I shall try and collect 
 them some day. The funny part of their relation of stories is the 
 gesticulation and noises they make, and the click with their fingers. 
 I have seen images made of mud and baked in the fire ; I wonder
 
 LETTERS 229 
 
 what they use them for charms I expect. They have a great be 
 lief in charms. A man brought me a ball of lion's hair wrapped 
 up most carefully, which he wanted to sell for dawa, or a charm 
 against lions. . . . 
 
 When the children first came to school not one of them could 
 count more than up to Jive correctly. We are teaching them the 
 Swahili numbers and now they can count up to a hundred. Fancy 
 in Chinyanja consecutive numbers go only up to_/?W, and then begin 
 again ; six is five plus one (sano iidi inozi\ ninety-nine is inaknmi 
 sano ndi naie ndi sano ndi naie imagine what nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine must be ! It is a barbarous tongue. . . . 
 
 The steamer has come so I must close hurriedly . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota,y//;/^ iS///, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 . . . Dear old J. R. H . He will be a fearful loss to us 
 
 and to Cambridge, but a gain to the Church at large. It is a painful 
 process losing our brothers or parting with them ; but how like it 
 is to a family growing" up, and getting separated as each goes out 
 into a wider world. I am awfully sorry for Cheltenham that Dr. 
 James is leaving. In many ways I sympathise with the outcry 
 against clerical monopoly in Headmasterships. Plenty of most 
 able men as Headmasters must be lost in this way. Who will go 
 to Cheltenham ? . . . 
 
 Very soon you will be making arrangements for leaving the 
 
 Parish in C 's hands for three days, and spending them at 
 
 Auckland ; I wish I could wire greetings. My letter to the Bishop 
 will arrive too late. Anyhow, though I have the same difficulty in 
 remembering how long it takes letters to reach you at home as 
 you say you have, you will easily imagine that I shall be with you 
 in spirit on that day. Being on Saturday this year I wonder when 
 you will keep it. 
 
 I am awfully pleased to see my name on the front page of the 
 St. Aidan's Magazine again. It quite fulfills one of my theoretical 
 ambitions. Thanks for granting my request. Well now, if it is 
 possible, could you get the parishioners to do more to support this 
 work here ? You know my impression was that all should go to 
 the Common General Fund, but it seems that anything beyond 
 the most absolute necessities have to be begged for. Could they
 
 230 ARTHUR ERASER SIM 
 
 make me all the kisibaus I want ? Kisibaus always sounded like 
 " Miss Tooscfs Mission" sort of things, but you little know how 
 large a part they play in making a boy's character ! For instruc- 
 tions vide cover of " Central Africa'^ \ for materials use strong 
 unbleached calico. This is one suggestion. Another is, Altar 
 Frontals serviceable rather than ornate, the same size as St. 
 Aidan's, made by some volunteer. . . . 
 
 Welch off to Canada that is Welch Disestablishment and no 
 mistake ! . . . 
 
 I am glad to hear my letters arrive regularly ; I write by all 
 opportunities. Doirt believe I am dead till I tell you. I will have 
 
 it wired to you, and you wire to I) , and he can make it known 
 
 in the family ; though the alternative is to have it wired to the 
 Office ; and I gave them both your and D 's address. 
 
 The German steamer is very late now ; she has been undergoing 
 repairs. I am looking forward to her arrival as she may bring me 
 a companion. Things would lie so different then, for one can 
 never absolutely trust or possess the sympathy of even the best 
 native. . . . 
 
 My cook distinguished himself by picking a dishful of my 
 precious peas under the impression they were beans, and rutting 
 them up and cooking them like beans. They are not half-ripe yet, 
 and I have been watching these very pods, my first, with angelic 
 patience. . . . 
 
 We killed a water lizard four feet long the other day, whose skin 
 has gone to make a drum. He looked like a young crocodile with 
 a huge long tail ; he was after my fowls. The attendance at school 
 has been nearly halved by the cold. This morning I was shiver- 
 ing, and had to take a sharp walk to warm myself, with a shooting 
 jacket on over my white cassock. All the boys have colds ; how 
 they ran stand it in their naked pelts I don't know. This is one 
 reason why I want kisibaus. I want to get hold of a few boarders, 
 but I intend to go about it cautiously. I shall probably be asked 
 a price for them by their parents, after the fashion of a slave dealer ! 
 I have bought the dead Jumbo's widow's bracelets, or armlets, for 
 ten fathoms, equal to ten shillings solid ivory, nine of thorn. They 
 were the price of a slave in old days. I shall send them to you ; 
 perhaps they will go towards the Museum. If you care for it 1 will 
 buy curios for this purpose. . . . 
 
 It seems to be necessary for the members of the Staff in our
 
 LETTERS 231 
 
 Mission, if they want anything but the bare necessities of life, to 
 have to beg for it in the " Central Africa " Magazine. If I were to 
 do so (I have had no need at present) I know some in the Parish 
 who would not like it, and some who would volunteer to supply my 
 want, whatever it might be. Well if I want anything I shall write 
 to you. . . . 
 
 Directly I get a Church built, which won't be till after I have 
 seen the Bishop, I shall want an Altar Frontal, say eight feet by 
 three feet three inches, and a credence bracket ; but wait it would 
 be heavy and awkward to send, and I might be able, with my new 
 tools, to make a very decent one. Altar Frontal red (Sarum red) 
 serge, with simple stoles or orphreys ; cloth not velvet or silk. 
 Then when other needs are supplied we can talk about changes of 
 colours. I may some clay ask for a harmonium, so will you consult 
 those who know about the kind to stand damp ? 
 
 Last Monday when I ought to have taken my men's hearers' 
 class, I could not attend myself as my lord the Malarial Fever had 
 me by the leg ; but William tells me there were seven new men, 
 which makes me glad. It was a very slight touch of fever, and 
 I am hungrier than ever. . . . 
 
 June lyd. The gunboat "Pioneer" brought me some tobacco 
 from Mr. Nicholl. He is a most generous-hearted fellow. He 
 imagines I have a claim upon him for kindness, etc., rendered, and 
 there is nothing he can do for me which is too much or too extra- 
 vagant. He says he is sending me hams and a case of liquor ! I 
 have one letter from England a long type-written letter from the 
 Bishop Designate a copy of one written to Dr. Laws, the head of 
 the Bandawe (Scotch Free Church) Mission. From it I gather I 
 must go quietly, as the whole question of our occupation of Kota 
 Kota may be re-opened not that I for a moment expect it will be 
 given up. 
 
 Mr. Nicholl tells me he is to take up his headquarters at Kota 
 Kota eventually, and Mr. Swann is to go to Bandawe ; I am glad 
 and sorry. Mr. Swann is very nice, and getting on well with the 
 people here. Mr. Nicholl will be able to do more for the place. . . . 
 
 The " Ilala" is inhere to-day from the North. There is no news 
 
 as she has not been to Likoma. I expect to see Captain I) of 
 
 the same this evening. Your little parcel, with Clergy Mutual 
 Almanac and cuttings, has come ; thanks also for news of the Boat 
 Race ; they made a good light considering. I don't know what
 
 232 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 the state of affairs is at Cambridge now, but this time last year 
 they had a huge row observe no Third Trinity men in the boat ; 
 I imagine they have refused to row ; it practically means no Eton 
 men. Last year they were nearly all Third Trinity men. There 
 was a strike against Third Trinity after the race of '94, and 
 
 W. B. C was made President an ancient President of the 
 
 ;o's. . . . 
 
 I got a bite yesterday morning from a big spider ; it was in 
 my towel when I began to dry myself. I got him against my 
 shoulder ; it was sore all yesterday and is itching a good deal 
 now. We have chicken-pox or measles among our boys. School 
 is reduced by this and cold to about fifty. . . . 
 
 When the steamers come in, especially the gun-boats, I get 
 the right time. I was just an hour too fast this time ! I guessed 
 as much beforehand, for when I got up at sunrise I found my 
 clock at 7.30 always, or nearly. W T e have about eleven hours of 
 sun, but longer twilights than at any other part of the year. . . . 
 
 Remember me to everybody. Thank Mr. R for the obituary 
 
 card and S for the photo. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, June 2ot/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . I am so rejoiced to see my name restored to the 
 Parish Magazine cover ; it brings me a lot nearer home, as now I 
 feel I have a hdme and a^laim upon somebody, and not so much 
 the outcast I might have felt if many of my old friends left, or 
 died, or what not. . . . 
 
 I hear rumours of one of our lake shore villages, where most of 
 the people arc Christians, being raided by a Yao chief, and many 
 Christians carried off. What will be done I don't know. There 
 is no strong hand of law in Portuguese territory. . . . 
 
 June 3o///. Third Sunday after Trinity. I took the "lost 
 sheep " and " lost coin " for my subject to-day with the heathen, 
 ami they seemed very much interested in it. ... The right 
 way to preach in these Oriental tongues I am sure is to use 
 illustrations very largely, like our Lord's parables. I am not good 
 at this, but I must try and acquire it. ... 
 
 What with five steamers (including t\vo gunboats) on the Lake 
 I sec many passengers ; but the people I seldom if ever see are
 
 LETTERS 233 
 
 the Likoma people. The Mission steamer never calls here, and 
 consequently I feel isolated because so few fellow-Churchmen ever 
 come near me. . . . 
 
 For the last few days there has been a strange game or dance 
 going on, called Vinyau. It consists in making a few counterfeit 
 presentments of wild beasts. These are made a little distance 
 from the village by young men. Then the excitement consists in 
 bringing these wild beasts, ghosts, etc. (generally made out of 
 straw), into the town at night. There seems to me to be a trace 
 of what is found universally in Africa, namely, initiatory rites. 
 
 July ind. The raid to which I have referred above was by a big 
 Yao chief, the very man to whom I was within an ace of being sent 
 when I first came out (not at Unangu, but at Chisanga). This, as 
 Mr. Johnson feels, is probably the beginning of a new era in the 
 slave-trade on the East shore. This side has been practically 
 closed to them, and now they are beginning to find a supply for 
 their demand of slaves in the peace-loving and timid villagers 
 along the East coast of the Lake. If Mr. Johnson could get the 
 people to build Bomas, or strong stockades, and arm them, he 
 would be perfectly justified in doing so. There isn't a single 
 Portuguese in the country. Let us hope it may end in our 
 acquiring that strip of land. Nothing else will put an end to 
 slave-trade in these parts. . . . 
 
 Continue to pray for us. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SlM. 
 
 Letter to T. C. G , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, June 2i.r/, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 . . . I am quite sure that whatever are the faults of our 
 methods of sending out Missions, the results here justify the 
 existence even of the most European-civilization-running Missions. 
 To the Missions of East Africa we are largely indebted for the 
 exclusion entirely of liquor from those parts affected by the Brussels 
 Act. Natives here drink, but none of them know the taste of rum 
 or gin, or any other European drink ; and what drinking there is, 
 is but trilling in amount. The evils of civilization are not very 
 apparent, I am thankful to say, among the natives of these parts. 
 No, the problems that faced St. Paul and the Apostles of the
 
 234 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Gentiles were very different from those which face the missionary 
 in Central Africa. Yet if the forces of good government that are 
 coming in under British or European auspices were not present 
 (and remember they are Christian, modelled upon, and influenced 
 by the teachings and principles of Christ), no doubt these people, 
 as they became Christians, would learn to govern themselves by a 
 righteous law ; but it would take a long time of course. They 
 have no idea of justice ; they submit the most serious causes to 
 poison test. In places there are chiefs who exercise a despotic 
 power, and where they are strong enough they hear all cases. 
 
 But the introduction of European (i.e., Christian) force is essen- 
 tial in this part of the world, for the weak is more oppressed here 
 than in any country or in any time known to history. I don't 
 think the missionary can afford to refuse the help of its presence. 
 It saves him any amount of trouble and worry, and puts an end to 
 the question as to whether weapons in his hands are justifiable. 
 Of course there are many cases where a young, inexperienced, in- 
 capable, or even wilfully unjust administrator of the law does a lot 
 of harm and makes blunders ; and perhaps it is even true to say 
 that at present few only of our magistrates and collectors know 
 much of the native or native ways of thinking ; yet that is due to 
 the youthfulness of the enterprise. Of nearly all Central Africa I 
 think it is true that no European country, which has grabbed a 
 protectorate, will get her money's worth out of it, or at least for a 
 long time. I think and hope that it is an act of justice to the 
 downtrodden that Europe has stepped into African politics. As a 
 missionary, like any other property-holder, I am benefiting ; for 
 I have bought the site of our Church, School, houses, etc. (and 
 paid a good price for it 300 rupees), and the Administration steps 
 in and grants me a deed on behalf of the Mission, and I feel safe, 
 so that I need not bother my head any more about it. So with us 
 the problem of government (though not an easy one for the 
 Commissioner) as far as the welfare of the people is concerned, 
 is to my mind settled. When you hoar of the Government fight- 
 ing with native chiefs, you must remember that these chiefs are 
 really the curse of the people whom they tyrannise over. They 
 are responsible for much of the slaving and raiding and destruction 
 of their neighbours' crops. . . 
 
 1 lave you taken an interest in the correspondence in the " CJntrcli 
 Times" 1 on the question, " Why the Working-man does not come to
 
 LETTERS 235 
 
 Church " ? I notice the editor rather condemned the idea of start- 
 ing an organization after the Religious Order style. It seems to 
 me to lie all a part of our all-present difficulty the sudden growth 
 of population in towns out-growing the Church's organization ; and 
 added to that, the inheritance of a century of coldness and in- 
 difference and deadness. Nothing but work, work, work will get 
 the working-man, or any other man, to come to Church, and to 
 become a true Christian with the help of God. Nothing but this 
 will drive the spirit of scepticism out of him. . . . 
 
 I use the Sermon on the Mount a good deal in my heathen 
 teaching. With the " hearers " I am taking at present the Being 
 and Nature of God His Unity, Omnipotence, etc. They don't 
 ask questions or discuss ; they only grunt sometimes, which I 
 think is a kind of acquiescing surprise. They listen well I nv.ist 
 say. . . . 
 
 Farewell. Domimts tecian. Thanks for your prayers 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Miss G , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, June 2 is/, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 Let me begin business at once. Kisibaus did you say ? 
 Are you making yours for any one in particular, and if not, why 
 not for me ? I want them even now, and cannot get them from 
 Likoma. I should like them all of one kind, not coloured ; 
 strong, unbleached calico ; machine sewn ; sizes mostly small ; 
 measurement from back of neck to bottom hem, 15 in. and 19 in., 
 with sleeves 10 in. ; and 20 in. and 26 in., with sleeves 15 in. A 
 few coloured ones would not be amiss. You little know how 
 practical and useful an article they are, and how large a part they 
 form in making an African boy. He has some idea of himself 
 and a glimmering of self-respect when he has a kisibau on. 1 
 Scarcely a boy in school has escaped having a cough, and about 
 twenty are too ill to come to school. Poor little bairns ! they 
 come up hugging themselves with one hand on each shoulder, 
 
 1 " They (kisibaus) are most useful articles in the development of the 
 African boy, and by no means the useless thing one is inclined to imagine, 
 and so are blankets. We have not got so far as top hats and boots yet, 
 and \ve do u.\' a!/o:i' our people to wear trousers " ! A. F. S.
 
 236 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 looking the picture of misery from the cold. This is a very ex- 
 posed place, and now the wind from the South-East is very cold. 
 
 In a country like this if well-disposed people (philanthropists) 
 are sent out even hunters, if their standards are high it does 
 the people good. I daresay the people welcome them more than 
 they do us, for they spend more in the country. I think the 
 Society system is not theoretically perfect, but like many other 
 modern anomalies it has two sides, and for the present seems the 
 only way possible to us. 
 
 May I tell you one way in which I think you could confer a 
 boon on me personally ? Will you write out a few cooking recipes, 
 remembering how few articles we have milk puddings, eggs, and 
 what ways to cook them, stews, rissoles, cakes, rice cakes, drop 
 cakes, scones with soda ? We have sugar, currants, flour, eggs, 
 milk, rice ; we use tinned fat and we have tinned butter, which I 
 never use for table. Rice is practically my only "vegetable," and 
 I can get it very cheap (fc/. a pound). Lemons and limes I can 
 also get, and generally onions. A really useful cookery book for 
 Africa would be a rare boon. I never quite recalled how much 
 one is bound to the flesh until I had to do without salt and sugar, 
 and very occasionally flour. 
 
 Please remember me to any inquiring friends. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to W. W , dated, 
 
 Kota Kola, July 2iitf, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . I shall not take boarders on a large scale till I 
 build a proper School. I have first my own house which, let me 
 tell you, is a big success it houses not me only, but fifteen million 
 ants of different sixes, some millions of mosquitoes, some hundreds 
 of scorpions and cockroaches, which I have not counted, and a 
 cat. The jiggers are irregular in their attendance, so I don't call 
 their register. Besides my house then, which we may call the 
 "Noah's Ark," I have William's house, another teachers house, 
 and two more like it for my principal workmen. Also I have a 
 big thing, mostly roof, with walls of reeds, 60 ft. by 20 ft. inside, 
 which is School and Preaching-house combined. I am now add- 
 ing a spare room at the corner of my verandah for my white
 
 237 
 
 companion when he comes, though I shall probably go into it 
 myself. I cannot run to another house. . . . Mud is our only 
 mortar at present, as so far we have not discovered any lime. 
 There is some at Deep Bay at 2^. 6d. a c\vt., unburnt, carriage by 
 steamer ^6 or 8 a ton. The Universities' Mission carries most 
 or all of our goods from Matope, about 250 miles above the Rapids, 
 and saves a small fortune every year. 
 
 There are seventy-one boys in school this afternoon, divided 
 into four classes. We are going to buy some old canoes and make 
 tables of them, as they are flat-bottomed and more or less wall- 
 sided and of very hard wood. We shall be very well off then as 
 well as Likoma School, though a little rougher. They had proper 
 deal flooring-boards from England to make their tables, etc., out 
 of. We have made everything ourselves chairs for teachers, 
 small tables, blackboards, stands for ditto, etc., etc. You can 
 imagine their being rather rough. Our planes are worn into 
 awful shapes, as the men never sharpen them properly ; and when 
 they are so blunt you know what happens. An adze (of which we 
 have two) is one of the most useful tools ; it is an improvement on 
 .what the natives use themselves, so they get on pretty well with it. 
 One fellow, whom I have kept at carpenter's work, is quite decent 
 with a saw jolly hard work it is too, with wood like mahogany, 
 and green, unseasoned stuff. . . 
 
 I wish I knew how to make windows out of my spoilt photo- 
 graphic plates ! Will you, next day you have " off," run over and 
 show me ? . . . 
 
 Goodbye. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota,y///x nth, 1895. 
 
 MY DKAR , 
 
 . . . The gunboats came in late, after dark, on Tuesday 
 night ; and when I was fast asleep in bed a note came to me from 
 Mr. Swann, which gave me a fright, as I thought he was ill, saying 
 that the Commissioner and Major Edwards had arrived in the 
 " harbour." Well, I managed to go to sleep again under the burden 
 of such a piece of news, but was wakened up by the " Town Crier " 
 (meaning a horn, and a drum, and a loud-voiced man), shouting 
 that the Bwana inkubwa had come, and all owners of guns were 
 to go down in the morning to salute him ! Such is the paternal
 
 238 ARTHUR PHASER SIM 
 
 nature of our government out here. Well, when I had just finished 
 breakfast, and was preparing to go up to the Boma and see him, 
 they brought a man with his hand blown to pieces by an exploded 
 gun ; it almost invariably happens when these gunfirings go on 
 that some one is hurt by a bursting gun. It was a nasty sight, but 
 I did not feel a bit sick, as I rather thought such sights would 
 make me feel. I applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, dressed 
 it with iodoform and vaseline, and this morning he has gone in the 
 gunboat to Banclawe to see Dr. Prentice. The thumb, or per- 
 haps the hand, will have to come off. I was afraid he would 
 get tetanus. . . . 
 
 After finishing off this poor fellow I went up to pay my respects 
 to the Commissioner, and had a long talk with him about the 
 affairs of State, about the Chisanga raid, the future of the Eastern 
 shore, the Yaos, etc. I found he entirely agreed with me about 
 the position of Likoma as our head Station, and went so far as to 
 say if Mponda's were chosen he would guarantee the money to 
 build the Church. This of course was nothing to bind him to ; 
 but he would lend his name to begging for it in home papers. He 
 was quite nice about this site here, and said it would be made over 
 to the Mission under the Government seal, etc. lie came over 
 with me to see the place, and expressed himself delighted with it. 
 
 Major Edwards is commander of the armed forces out here. 
 There are several bullying chiefs that have to be wiped out, so 
 you will see his name in the papers probably. After lunch I saw 
 a big camera coming along, and somewhere in the rear was the 
 Commissioner. He is a small man and inclined to be stout, 
 with a little moustache and beard, very artistic, a really good painter 
 and drawer. He wrote,', among other things, " The History of a 
 .V/<Z7V," and illustrated it himself. He has also written the " Life 
 of Dr. Livingstone" \t\ the "Great Explorers " series. He is an 
 able little man. . . . 
 
 July \~tli. The " Ilala '' came in from the South on Sunday, the 
 141!), with a party of sportsmen, who had chartered her for a fort- 
 night very decent fellows they dined here. They had a letter of 
 introduction to me from Mr. Xicholl. That wretched man with the 
 hand blown oil' did not go to Ilandawe. I got the doctor who came 
 with the sportsmen to look at him. He fears tetanus, so do I, 
 as the silly fellow will not come up to have it dressed every day.
 
 LETTERS 239 
 
 If I had had all the knowledge I want, I should have cut off his 
 thumb at any rate. Even then it might have turned to tetanus ; 
 but we must do our best for him. . . . 
 
 W. W sends me full plans for building my Church ! But I 
 
 don't know if I can get the wood, etc., to carry them out. I think 
 it will have to be rather rougher than he contemplated. I don't 
 know yet what I shall do. I think a Church will be necessary 
 before next year ; and yet I don't want to go in for great expense 
 until the Bishop returns, because he has promised Dr. Laws to 
 reconsider our position here. I do not for a moment think we 
 shall give it up, but letters I have received from the Archdeacon 
 bid me not to launch out too far, and not to push beyond the 
 bounds of Kota Kota. . . . 
 
 My dear chap, if any one is in a generous mood and wants to 
 send me something nice, tell him to send me a roll of bacon ! I 
 had a taste of a piece sent from Likoma, and life assumed a 
 different hue ! I am sure it would reach me in splendid condition 
 packed in salt, as they send hams, and I could use the salt. Mr. 
 Nicholl, knowing how one yearns for these things sometimes, has 
 sent me a couple of hams. I haven't begun them yet. They are 
 sewn up in canvas and packed in salt. . . . 
 
 Patience must be my motto for some time to come. Kindest 
 remembrances to all my old friends. , . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to F. C. M , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota. July 2o///, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . To-day I have been making a flagstaff. The people 
 naturally don't know the difference between one day and another, 
 so for their benefit I am going to hoist a flag on Sunday, ana 
 another when they are to come to class. My big bell is cracker. 
 so badly that I cannot use it. I think the flagstaff is a great 
 success, forty feet long, with a topmast cross-tree, truck and all. 
 In a strong wind it bends like a fishing-rod. The flags are home 
 made out of calico. . . . 
 
 Mr. Swann and I are starting a slave village on my land. We 
 start with about ten families. This being till lately an emporium 
 for slaves, they still come in small numbers, and are still set free 
 to look after themselves. Natives must have some one to look up
 
 240 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 to, or their freed state is worse than bondage, as they go near to 
 starving and then pawn or sell themselves again. I want to let 
 them build round my place, and they and those who follow them 
 can look to me as their " Baba " (Father). This would not involve 
 trouble I think, seeing that we live under the shadow of the brave 
 old flag of England. All future freed slaves are to be added to this 
 settlement, so it will in time become a growing concern. . . . 
 
 It is all very well for you to talk about beards. Just set yourself 
 to grow one on the top of your head, and then I will tell you 
 whether it goes inside or outside the sheets sheets, no, I have 
 forgotten what they are. . . . 
 
 " Skipper " has gone ere now to Liverpool. It will be hard work 
 for him, poor old boy, but such a nice lot of men. I am so glad I 
 know them. I helped him (a little) in the Liverpool Mission 
 eighteen months ago. I am very glad, yet I can't help feeling 
 anxious for him ; I do hope Liverpool will agree with him. What- 
 ever it does for him, he will do Liverpool good. It is a grand 
 sphere, and no mistake. . . . 
 
 In reference to a Parochial Missionary Organization, I think it 
 is best to stick to one Mission, but to bring in another now and 
 then to talk about and perhaps give a little help to. People can't 
 become thoroughly interested in more than one, though they can 
 be made to understand there is more than one. . . . 
 
 If I were a philanthropist I could amuse myself with much profit 
 by making a big village refuge for the freed slaves ; but I should 
 have to be prepared for political troubles, and fight my people's 
 battles, etc., etc. However one white man is not really capable 
 of doing this, and I doubt if it would really succeed. We did it I 
 suppose with some success at Mbweni, in Zanzibar, and now those 
 people are spreading across to the mainland, where there is a little 
 colony of them near Kichelwe, with a native Deacon. . . . 
 
 Give my love to old pals, especially the boating men. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kola Kota,y///;' 2o//i, 1895. 
 
 MY I,KAR , 
 
 . . . I have just returned from my daily instruction of a 
 convicted murderer the man who killed a Makua soldier some 
 time ago, and who was sentenced to death when the Commissioner 
 called here. I have been up each day to see the poor fellow,
 
 LETTERS 241 
 
 and have taken William with me to ensure his understanding the 
 message. He listens, says he believes, and he knows the short 
 Creed, Duty to God and his neighbour, and the Lord's Prayer, so 
 I cannot take him so far without giving him the full privileges of 
 the Church on earth. . . . 
 
 July 25/7*. Yesterday the gunboat brought the Commissioner 
 on his return, and to-day I have celebrated my first Baptism in 
 Africa. At daybreak this morning, in the presence of three Chris- 
 tian boys, I baptized him, giving him the name " Jacobo," this 
 being St. James's Day. He died painlessly at 7 a.m., and now 
 I have buried him in the first Christian grave in our little God's 
 Acre. Is it not a strange firstfruit of one's stay here a penitent, 
 I believe so far as his knowledge went, really penitent murderer ? 
 I need not say how awful and solemn the days of teaching and 
 preparing him have been. I think he was brave at the last, and 
 seemed much comforted that he had friends about him, and, as we 
 assured him, a Friend above. . . . 
 
 The Commissioner was very kind to me, and when I showed him 
 the plans I had drawn for the brick Church he was quite enthus- 
 iastic. He believes, as I have come to believe, that wattle and 
 daub is as expensive (inorc in the long run I think) as bricks. . . . 
 
 Well, my determination, if God spares me, is to build a Church 
 worthy of His honour. I want it also to be an object lesson. I 
 shall use nothing (unless glass after a little time) but what comes 
 out of this soil and country ; and I am confident I shall be able 
 to build very cheaply, strongly, effectively, and more worthily of 
 our great cause. ... I want to do no more in the way of tem- 
 porary building, and when I begin again, I want my first building 
 to be the choir and chancel of a brick Church ; and so contribu- 
 tions, however large or small, will be thankfully received by my 
 "Commissary," the Rev. A. A. McMastcr, towards the permanent 
 Church of Kota Kota. I don't want to draw upon Mission funds, 
 so I am going to beg from my friends. ^50 will build the sanctu- 
 ary ; /8o, or ,100, will build the sanctuary, choir, and aisle 
 ends. This is the appearance I want the Church to have from 
 the East apsidal no ornamentation is required in that grand old 
 Norman work. Small windows suit this country, as they suit 
 Xorman architecture. I think with this we can get dignity and 
 effect. Chancel will be 15 ft. high to wall plate, aisle roof springs 
 15 ft., and the outside walls of the body of the Church 10 ft., or
 
 242 
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 9 ft. 6 in. Width of chancel 20 ft., nave 20 ft., aisles 10 ft. each, 
 length such as is necessary. The roof is of course my principal 
 difficulty, and I fear I shall have to content myself with a grass 
 roof, although, if I can make bricks here, I do not see why one 
 
 should not make tiles. An iron roof naturally occurs to one, but 
 the freight would be enormous ; even a ton would cost 20 or ^30, 
 and how many tons should I require? I shall not begin till next 
 dry season : in fact not till I see the Bishop on his return. Mr.
 
 LETTERS 243 
 
 Swarm is quite keen about it, and takes great interest in my soaring 
 ambition. The Commissioner said I could appeal to him for 
 "advocacy," but I hope to be able to do without that; in fact 
 among my personal friends I hope to be able to get enough to 
 build the chancel ; then I shall be content for a long time, though 
 probably when I get so far I shall be fired with further enthusiasm. 
 Whenever we have our Offices and Celebration in the little 
 oratory, I cannot help dreaming of a day when, please God, we 
 shall have a large congregation of communicants and a seemly 
 Church as far as the fabric goes. . . . 
 
 If I could get lime to make mortar and it is only a question 
 of cost of course the building would be ever so much more 
 permanent, and the walls would defy white ants. . . . 
 
 Mr. Swann came over this afternoon for a game of football, at 
 which he is very keen. Oh, how we do sweat, to put it in plain 
 English ! Some of the boys, two from Likoma, are too much for 
 us ; they never tire. It is doing wonders for them, as they are 
 naturally cowards ; but the football is making them more plucky, 
 and already they don't like to show that they feel a kick. One of 
 the gold prospectors came over too, a huge man, sixteen stone or 
 more. We could not persuade him to keep goal, but he stayed to 
 dinner. . . . 
 
 July 3IJ/. To-day there is a story of war to tell. A Yao chief, 
 on the other side of the Lake, butchered in cold blood some 
 people who lived under a neighbouring chief, for the sole reason 
 that they had paid customs due on ivory, which they had brought 
 through Kota Kota. So Kota Kota is going to be avenged on 
 him. The " Pioneer" which happened to come in the same day 
 as the news, steamed out again to fetch Sikhs and a gun (seven 
 pounder), under Captain Hamilton, who is coming back here for 
 the Kota Kota contingent of seven Sikhs and two hundred irregu- 
 lars (very irregular). They are going to surprise the good man 
 and burn his village. The people's glee at the prospect of an 
 assured victory and plunder is horrid to look upon. . . 
 
 August 2nd. The expedition found the man whom they had 
 gone to help in such a state of terror of his friends that he refused 
 to go with them. In fact he and his people fled and would not 
 come near them, so they had to spend the night cutting firewood ; 
 for on a lea shore with no firewood, they ran a good chance of 
 becoming a wreck if any wind had sprung up. They have had
 
 244 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 all their trouble for nothing, and now the man aimed at will say 
 that the white man came and went away because he was afraid. 
 
 I have been out here nearly a year (ten months), and have seen 
 only four of the Likoma people since I left Likoma last Septem- 
 ber ; three of these passed this place on their way home, and three 
 of the staff there I have never seen. In days to come communica- 
 tion will be much improved, as railways and telegraphs will mend 
 matters a little. . . . 
 
 The last time the " Domira ;) passed here she had on board a 
 white man as a prisoner six months' hard labour, if you please, for 
 cruelly beating a black servant. He had given him seventy-five 
 lashes with a hippo-hide stick, and then he rubbed salt in the raw 
 wales. The boy's wrong-doing was what we should call right- 
 doing, as he had reported his master's beastly lust and vice to the 
 Administration magistrate at Deep Bay. The white man was a 
 servant of the African Lakes Co., and I think he richly deserved 
 his punishment, don't you ? I am glad to see that justice is 
 sufficiently impartial out here to take that line with a white man. 
 
 I am about to build a room in my baraza for my white com- 
 panion, and Mr. Swann has given me 1,000 bricks to try my 
 hand with them ; but I have no trowels and no mortar, and none 
 of my men have ever seen a brick wall ! . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. F , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, July 2$//t, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 We have had a visit from Commissioner H. II. Johnston, 
 lie is one of those who takes an interest in our Mission, and 
 who is strongly impressed, as I think I told you I am, with the 
 inadequacy of Likoma to the needs of our Mission as its head- 
 quarters if our work is to grow and be a large organization. This 
 too is a dream I fear I shall scarcely see realized, namely, the 
 removal of our head station from Likoma to Mponda's village, 
 opposite Fort Johnston, which is on the main artery of the trade 
 nf this country. Being in the midst of a large, thickly popu- 
 lated country, it would give all those newly joined missionaries, 
 who of course at first congregate at the head station, a sphere
 
 LETTERS 245 
 
 in which to work off their zeal. The first year of a missionary's 
 life is his most trying time, and the zeal which burns brightly 
 when he first arrives has a chance of being extinguished when 
 he is set down to learn a language, and has nothing else to do 
 except looking after stores and counting the spoons and forks 
 once a week ! Have I told you that I am expecting a white com- 
 panion a Mr. Faulkner, who was working at Zanzibar when I 
 passed through ? I met him there, and liked what I saw of him 
 very much. He leaves England after his holiday in August, so 
 I may expect him in October or November. He is a practical 
 man and will be exceedingly useful, enabling me to get about 
 much more than I can do at present ; besides, if my dream of 
 building the Church comes true, he will be exceedingly helpful I 
 expect. I shall build another room in this house under the baraza, 
 which is 12 ft. wide ; this will do for one of us, and so we shall 
 both be under one roof, and there will be little or no expense. 
 The Commissioner on both occasions paid me a special visit, and 
 was most gracious. He compared this station most favourably 
 with Likoma. I have built a bigger and a stronger house than 
 any there. The initial cost may have been greater, but I expect 
 my house to outlast two of their kind, and when it begins to 
 tumble down, it will I think be time to build a brick house. 
 
 To-day is Saturday, July 2jt/t, a day of more or less peace 
 and quietness, when I prepare for Sunday, and the school has a 
 holiday ; but on this day the morning is made hideous by the boys 
 cleaning and sweeping my house out. Mud floors require much 
 sweeping, and there is a horrid dust while they are being done. 
 That is the only part the floor which I wish was brick. 
 
 An interesting question is arising here ; at this place especially 
 many slaves are released ; the question is what to do with them. 
 African customs and habits lend themselves to slavery in a 
 peculiar way. All ordinary natives live under the protection of a 
 recognised chief, or headman. He is the Father ; he protects 
 them, clothes them, and they in return cultivate his land for him, etc. 
 He also sells his people sometimes. The result is that no African 
 can live independently ; he must have some one in whom he can 
 recognise his Father. When slaves are released far from their 
 homes, they often voluntarily go into slavery again, simply because 
 they have no one to look after them. The question is brought 
 forward here by the release of 120 men who declared themselves
 
 246 ARTHUR FRASER SJJ\f 
 
 slaves. These men have again been beguiled into practical 
 slavery. But the man who has done this is now in durance vile, 
 and has been sent to Fort Johnston in irons. Now what is to be 
 done for them ? They want a home and ground to cultivate. I 
 am much tempted to put my finger in the pie and start a freed 
 slave village, and become in some measure their Father ! But I 
 think I might get into trouble, for no doubt it would cost some 
 money more than I have to spend upon such an experiment. 
 The magistrate here is greatly interested in the matter, and the 
 end will be that together we shall do what we can to provide for 
 them. But it is an interesting development the point at which 
 the spheres of the Administration and of Missionary work touch. 
 You will like to hear that our magistrates are fairly impartial out 
 here to black and white. 
 
 August 2nd. Since writing we have had exciting preparations 
 for war. News came from the East shore that one of the Yao 
 chiefs, living a few miles from the Lake shore, had killed three men 
 for the sole reason that they had paid Custom dues for their 
 ivory passing out of this country. So immediate preparations 
 were made, and the gun- boat " Pioneer" went down to Fort Maguire 
 and took sixty fighting men, including Sikhs, under Captain Hamil- 
 ton and Major Edwards, and made their way to this place ; but they 
 found the very people, whose cause had been espoused, in such a 
 state of terror that nothing but empty houses were left. So they 
 came away. It is so like a native he is completely at the mercy 
 of quick movements. Such consternation was spread by the gun- 
 boats that the rumours reached other villages and everybody lied 
 even the crew of a Government dhow which happened to be 
 over there. Well, nothing was done, and the guilty chief was not 
 punished, and it remains to be seen what he will do next ! It 
 was just the same here when young Jumbe was arrested ; the 
 "Adventure'' 1 came in to take him away, and everybody lied, 
 innocent or guilty. One old headman has become a fast friend 
 since then. And now he will even dare to go on board a gun- 
 boat ! Of course, this expedition was to have gone into Portuguese 
 territory, but there is not a single Portuguese there. 
 
 The Yao Chiefs, finding this side of the Lake closed to their 
 slave traffic, have begun to raid the Nyanja villages along the Lake 
 shore on the East side. Thus they are brought into immediate 
 contact with our Mission.
 
 LETTERS 247 
 
 Will you remember me most kindly and affectionately to all my 
 Sunderland friends, and especially to your own family? Thanks 
 again and again for the papers to which I look forward eagerly by 
 each mail. How I miss the trudges, and bicycle rides, and out- 
 ings, etc. ! Here the country is a blaze of grass fires grass 8 
 or 10 ft. high. It is getting on towards the very hot season. I 
 am extraordinarily well ; jiggers alone trouble me, and they are 
 numerous, but even to them I am getting accustomed. 
 
 Now farewell, with all kindest wishes. 
 
 Yours, etc. 
 
 A. F. SiM. 
 
 August $t/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 . . . The " Doinira'' passed here on Saturday, August 3rd, 
 with a large expedition ten white men with two Maxim guns 
 exploring for gold and taking up a concession in British Central 
 Africa of a territory of 600 square miles. Another similar party 
 
 is here under a cousin of F. L 's, of Pembroke College. He 
 
 gets ,1,000 a year and all expenses until the land is broken up ; 
 and then he is to get 10 per cent, of the profits and a fixed stipend 
 of ,300 a year I suppose as long as he likes to stick to it. 
 Another concession further South, just behind this, perhaps three 
 days' journey, has been floated for a million ! The shares were 
 sold in twenty-four hours. . . . 
 
 It is jolly to hear of the old hands coming back into the choir. 
 
 Tell W I will send him plans by next mail of my new brick 
 
 Church ! Tell him it is the kingpost couples I shall have to use, 
 as I understand the foot-beam can be divided in that style. If 
 any money comes in, will you pay it into the bank, and I can 
 draw by cheque out here ? . . . 
 
 The " Doinira " brought news of the death of the manager of the 
 African Lakes' Company. He has been out here eighteen years, 
 and was on his way home to get married. He was one of those 
 you would have considered quite inured to Africa, and he looked 
 as healthy as a farmer. He was universally respected and liked. 
 He started life as a blacksmith. . . . 
 
 My dear boy, if you want to get rid of the influenza, come out 
 here and listen to the boys doing the tonic sol-fa it is ex- 
 cruciating in its present stage. Though if we can teach them to
 
 248 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 sing head notes instead of bawling, there is some hope for them. 
 
 So farewell. With all kind wishes to yourself and old friends. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, August I4///, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 The heat is growing greater every day. I do not like it so 
 much as the cold weather ; and the country, and especially my 
 garden, is becoming a wilderness. . . . 
 
 I have made an experiment in bricks and mud, and am building 
 the spare room for my future helper. I am following a curve round 
 the outside end of the baraza to give an idea of what an apse will 
 turn out, and I am very pleased with it. It is a "mudlark" if 
 nothing else. We have no lime here, and so we have to be con- 
 tent with mud for mortar. The mud from the old ant hills is very 
 sticky, and hardens in the sun ; but it is a very dirty job, and you 
 may be able to imagine me a mass of mud from head to foot. I 
 find bricklaying, of which I have to do most myself, very heavy 
 work, as our bricks are ten by five inches. I wish I knew some- 
 thing about bricklaying, and carpentering, and thatching, and 
 gardening. Common sense is the only experience 1 have of any of 
 these things, but I confess I am often puzzled. . . . 
 
 August 2.oth. On Sunday I had two little freed slaves sent to 
 me by Mr. Swann ; they arc cheeky and as happy as the day is 
 long, though at first they were awfully frightened. One little fellow 
 delights to cheek the big boys and then run to the kitchen, which 
 is his present home, for refuge. The other is rather sickly I 
 expect it is whooping-cough, so I keep him separate from the 
 rest. . . . 
 
 What with building, carpentering, tinkering, writing, teaching, 
 and preaching, 1 have little time for reading, and but little to read, 
 except when the mail comes in. I have read every biography I 
 can lay my hands on, the last that of that extraordinary man, 
 Laurence Oliphant. I have also been reading Dickens' Life, and 
 two or three of his books over again in the light his Life sheds 
 upon them. It is as well to be busy, as otherwise one might have 
 time to think of fever. . . . 
 
 ] have had a do/en pine apples from my garden, and ten more 
 or so are coining on. They are the most satisfactory fruit to grow
 
 LETTERS 249 
 
 here, as they do so well in dry soil. I daresay I have a hundred 
 plants now. I am trying some pomegranate cuttings, but they 
 don't look up to much. I shall devote myself to getting cocoanuts 
 this next season, and planting as many as ever I can in every 
 direction. The two little mango trees are coming on well. I wish 
 I had orange seeds, but I can't get them, so please send me some 
 out of the next oranges you eat. Send only good seed ; try them 
 by floating them in water first. Mr. Swann has been very generous 
 to me. He made me a present of a cow and a calf last week, and 
 also two goats. It is strange to think that a goat costs less to kill 
 and eat than a tin of tongue or corned beef. The reason I kill so 
 few is that I can't get through them. I have one or two sheep, 
 and they are capital eating ; of course they are not much like 
 mutton, yet ever so much better than goat's flesh. . . . 
 
 September 2nd. It is a year to-day since I reached Kota Kota. 
 
 All best wishes. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, S. Bartholotneiv's Day, August 24^/1, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . To-day is a Festival in our Mission, commemorat- 
 ing the first Baptisms I believe, or something of that sort vide 
 Almanack, which I don't possess. So we begin a week's holiday 
 from school to-day. I am thinking of trying to see if I can hit an 
 elephant next week ; but it is difficult to get away when one is alone. 
 Last week we held an examination of the children (seventy-five in all), 
 and the Report is fairly good, seeing that what progress they have 
 made they have made from nothing. I gave three Scripture prizes, 
 and all the school received a bit of calico to wear. They are huge 
 s\vells to-day in their white calico. You can call this what you 
 please bribery, if you like. Anyhow those that have come hitherto 
 had no promise of anything, and did not expect it. Of course they 
 look upon it as wages for coming to school, just as if they had 
 been doing some work for me ! I can't help that ; we must 
 gradually get to a better state of things ; anyhow it is a great thing 
 to see the boys decently clothed. How long it will last I do not 
 like to predict. To-day we have a feast. T\vo goats, a gift from 
 Mr. Swann, are in the pot boiling, and also rice ; so we are bent 
 on having a good time. I expect when we begin school again the
 
 250 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 whole juvenile population will try and attend ! It is and has been 
 blowing a gale for the last few days. It is a rough time for the 
 boats I know. 
 
 The freed slave village is growing and will grow, sixteen or 
 eighteen houses now, and more in process of building. Last Sun- 
 day two little fellows were sent over by Mr. Swann, freed from a 
 caravan passing over. Nearly every caravan that passes brings a 
 few slaves. Mr. Swann is a capital hand at finding them out. He 
 takes them unawares by some apparently innocent question, and 
 it generally comes out that they have slaves. These are freed 
 and sent over to me, and their captors are put in chains for twelve 
 months or so. I am keeping these little fellows in the house. 
 
 I am busy making preparations for Mr. Faulkner. My building 
 operations are delayed for lack of more bricks, so I am engaged 
 upon furniture for him a writing table and a washhand- stand ! I 
 am looking forward keenly to having him. We shall be able to 
 double the work by extending our visits to parts of the village fur- 
 ther away. 
 
 The bell is just going for the feast. The food does not look 
 savoury, but filling. The children sit in rings with a round mat in 
 the middle, on which is piled the rice and a bowl of goat, and into 
 which they all dip their fingers. This is an idea for your Sunday 
 School feasts. When they have eaten their fill they think of 
 drinking, and each washes his fingers there is an Oriental sim- 
 plicity about it. 
 
 We are digging a well, which is rather an interesting bit of 
 work. I thought I saw gold once, but it was only yellow mica. 
 There is a peculiar blue clay, the formation in which, Mr. Swann 
 says, diamonds are found. So if I make a fortune out here, don't 
 say I didn't tell you about it. ... 
 
 August 25/7^. This is Sunday, just after the heathen preaching. 
 There was a large congregation, how many I can't say ; but I was 
 surprised as it is blowing a gale and very cold. I have been 
 blowing these lazy, do-nothing people up, calling them all sorts of 
 names, anything to stir them up to a divine discontent with their 
 surroundings. The freed slaves turned up well. . . . 
 
 It is so nice to see these youngsters decently clothed, wearing a 
 good large bit of white calico instead of a filthy little bit about two 
 inches wide. Now that I have given them calico I suppose I shall 
 have to give them soap to wash it with. Jk
 
 LETTERS 251 
 
 nuisance this dry weather. It is a matter of daily occurrence both 
 with Mr. Swann and myself to have one or two or even five taken 
 out of our feet. Sometimes they get into one's fingers. However, 
 I know the feeling so well now that I can generally spot them 
 when they first enter the skin, but even so they often choose tender 
 spots about the quick of the nail, and it is painful work to get 
 them out. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon we had a great game of football. Mr. Swann 
 delights in it and gets quite excited. We have two Likoma boys 
 who can knock the sparks out of both of us, even with our boots 
 on. We have great fun, and it is satisfactory to find the boys 
 getting a little more manly, and some of the little fellows will 
 stand up to one and charge the biggest boys. When you send me 
 the balls small balls we shall have to begin a course of cricket. 
 I want to rig up a gymnasium of a mild kind a swing, horizontal 
 bar, and so on anything to make the boys take an interest in 
 school life and to attach them to the school. 
 
 Mr. Swann has been particularly generous to me of late. He 
 gave me a cow and calf the other day, and two goats for the feast. 
 This he says is in return for some furniture I have made him 
 chairs and a table, both of a most primitive sort. Thus I have 
 milk of my very own now. I have always had plenty, as Mr. 
 Nicholl used to send me some every day, morning and night, and 
 Mr. Swann has kept it up. The people just here are by no means 
 pastoral. They know nothing about cattle, and I get very riled to 
 see them driving the cows at a canter. One of the little freed 
 slave boys " Feruzi " is his name is playing football like a 
 "good un." He at any rate feels himself at home. He has a 
 mother somewhere, but his father was killed in war some slave 
 raid I suppose. He belongs to a tribe at the back of the hills 
 behind Kota Kota, upon which the Angoni make constant raids. 
 It is from the Angoni that the Yaos and coast people buy most of 
 their slaves on this side of the Lake. It is very striking how 
 seldom these youngsters squabble among themselves. Some of 
 the smallest among them were the best attenders at school, and 
 got a fathom of calico for a prize. They cut the most comical 
 figures with this stuff wrapped round them nothing but their little 
 black heads and arms and legs appearing. They have such a 
 comical way when they are mutually pleased, or tickled with some- 
 thing, of shaking hands "Tip us a rlipper, old chap' 5 sort of
 
 252 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 thing. Old and young do it, and to see a couple of wee scraps 
 doing it is the best part of the joke I think. . . . 
 
 I should appreciate a big School or Church bell which could be 
 heard all over the village from the Mission. The flag-staff is a 
 huge success. In these heavy winds it bends almost like a fishing- 
 rod, but it is so light and strong that I have no fear of its break- 
 ing. I am rather afraid to leave it up when the stormy season 
 comes round. I wish you would make enquiries as to copper or 
 other metal for a lightning conductor. At Likoma the station is 
 in a hollow between hills and so they don't get the lightning as we 
 do. There is real danger of fire I believe ; houses more than 
 once have been set on fire at Bandawe, besides other accidents, 
 and there are few long residents in this part who don't number 
 such incidents among their experiences. At Bandawe they have 
 lightning conductors now. I wonder what would be the cost of 
 100 feet at least less than that of a new house. But I think the 
 Mission should supply me with this. Don't go further than making 
 enquiries as to price. Mr. Swann has offered to make me 60,000 
 bricks at los. per 1,000, and I have promised to take them ; so I 
 hope somehow or other I shall be able to pay for them ! I expect 
 my wisest course is to be patient about building my permanent 
 Church. I had better I think get my hand in over the School, 
 and teach one or two men the art of laying the bricks straight. 
 In this case I think I should have to be content to build a small 
 temporary chancel, outside of which I could build the permanent 
 brick chancel ; and yet I don't think this would be the cheapest 
 way. Only you see I have not a bricklayer at hand, and my 
 skill, as you can imagine, is limited, though I am not frightened 
 of trying. . . . 
 
 For the present Farewell, or " K\va keri," as they say here. 
 Ask for the rest of my news. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to E. L , dated, 
 
 Kola Kola, August 28t/t, 1895. 
 
 MY DKAR 
 
 . . . We have been digging a well, and it is a great success. 
 At twelve feet we came to solid bed rock, and the water stands
 
 LETTERS 253 
 
 at present about two feet deep. This is very fortunate, and it is 
 good water, so that I can now see the bottom of my basin when 
 it is full of the well water a thing I have not succeeded in 
 accomplishing for a long time. I think of bricking the walls up 
 to keep the mud from tumbling in. Those four men, who worked 
 down the pit, succeeded so well that they broke both crowbar and 
 pickaxe over the business and so we have had to stop. To have 
 this water near will be a great saving of trouble, as hitherto we 
 had to send a great distance for it, and it was only poor stuff 
 when we got it. Now that the freed slaves' village (eighteen or 
 twenty houses are now in process of building) is growing, and my 
 hearers' Classes number about eighty men and a hundred women, 
 when I have a helper I hope to be able to do much more work. 
 I have a plan simmering in my mind of starting a Girls' School, 
 separate from the boys, under my teacher's wife, who is a capital 
 scholar and motherly body. She was a freed slave, and was 
 brought to Zanzibar very young. It is a pity her training should 
 be laid aside. She has two children both girls. I do not care 
 about the girls learning very much, but they might get a little 
 humanised. A few come to the Boys' School, but I don't think 
 it will do them much good, and it can't go on for ever. . . . 
 
 August 2^fk was the festival of St. Bartholomew, and we have 
 a holiday for a week in commemoration of the first Baptisms at 
 Zanzibar. Previous to this I held an examination (in which 
 seventy-five boys took part) in Reading, Writing, and Scripture. 
 Arithmetic only extends to counting so far with most of the 
 scholars. On the whole I am well satisfied with their progress, 
 especially as they began from nothing. So I gave three prizes 
 for Scripture, and to each scholar a prize for attendance ; the 
 prizes consisted of calico. You may call it a jolly good bribe if 
 you like, or something done in the way of a corporal act of 
 mercy clothing the naked ; anyway the boys are great swells 
 these days. I want to encourage as much self-respect as will 
 make them keep themselves clean, for they are a dirty lot of little 
 urchins at best. I think there are even now a few of the best 
 boys and a few men and women whom I could present for ad- 
 mission to the Catechumenate. You can imagine this a step of 
 some importance in such a new state of things. Their ways of 
 thinking, etc.. are so different from ours, and ours so unintelligible 
 to them. We also had a feast for the scholars on St.
 
 254 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Bartholomew's Day a boiled goat and rice, followed by a game 
 of football as a digestive. The feast was a great success. 
 
 August igth. On Sunday I had a capital congregation, rather 
 to my surprise as there was a cold wind blowing. I should think 
 there were a hundred men and women, and a hundred children. . . . 
 
 Mr. Swarm like myself is in hopes of getting an assistant, so 
 we shall double our number of white men here this year. What 
 with old houses and those now building in the freed slave village 
 there must be nearly forty just outside my paling on the Mission 
 property. An old lady, who had escaped from a caravan of slaves 
 passing through, made her way up here with her child this 
 afternoon ; and so it will go on growing, house by house, until 
 there is quite a town here. It will be very interesting work to 
 watch, as they look upon me as their " Halm." It would of course 
 be impossible to do anything like this but for the magistrate here. 
 There is no such thing as a freed slave settlement except where 
 there is a European power to protect it ; and if any large 
 number of people attached themselves to a missionary, say in 
 Portuguese country, he would have to have an armed force to 
 protect them and look after them. The magistrate has the armed 
 force, and I look upon him as one would look to the Bench and 
 police in England to protect us and maintain order. Although 
 the country on the East shore, on which most of our stations are 
 planted, is painted Portuguese in the maps, it is as lawless and 
 slave raiding and slave dealing as any in Africa. It is a perfect 
 farce calling 'it protected by a European, or civilized power, in 
 any sense. Poor Dr. Hine has a hard time there at Unangu, 
 bullied by the chief, Kalanji. and with the insolent Yaos as his 
 neighbours and parishioners. 
 
 I am very anxious to see the Bishop, and to have a talk with 
 him as to my future policy. I wish all my boys might be boarders, 
 so as to take them out of heathen surroundings ; but how this 
 Ills in with our policy I don't know. I don't suppose we want 
 to break up family life, and our first duty to our neighbour is to 
 honour parents. We cannot teach them to despise their homes 
 and their elders. This seems a difficult and ticklish subject. The 
 Roman Missions out here started their work in an almost un- 
 inhabited country. They bought little slave boys in fact they 
 got Tippoo Tib to provide so many boys of a certain age at so 
 much a head, and with this nucleus they started a school, leaving
 
 LETTERS 255 
 
 adults practically alone. They also armed such adults as came 
 under them as workers or what not, and in fact started a new 
 nation or tribe, providing them with arms to defend themselves, 
 and such implements of civilization as they thought necessary or 
 useful, teaching them trades, etc. Thus they founded a centre, 
 and threw off from it ever increasing circles of villages and settle- 
 ments as their boys and girls grew up. Mr. Swann says that in 
 this way the whole of the West of Tanganyika will be Roman 
 Catholic. They are called Watii iva Msalaba (people of the Cross) 
 and own the Roman Mission as their chief a somewhat temporal 
 though very powerful sway, but one which we have always shrunk 
 from and which is scarcely primitive in its style. . . 
 
 There, dear lad, I have filled up six; pennyworth. I am very 
 well in every way, and happy, and deeply interested. . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, Ai/gitst jO//i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 The " Domirci " came in from the South with no mails, the 
 story being that a new sorter (a native) had been appointed at 
 Blantyre. He succeeded excellently till the bags were closed, 
 when he put the wrong labels on them, sending back the English 
 mail on its way home again, and the African letters were returned 
 to Fort Johnston ! Isn't this barbarous? It was a great disap- 
 pointment to me. I have not heard from home since the end of 
 May. Perhaps also my letters to you will be delayed in conse- 
 quence. . . . It is interesting to think that Bishop Stcere's 
 great idea of having a chain of stations in the direction of the 
 Rovuma is completed by the new station at Mtarikas it is seven 
 days from Unangu, and twenty from Masasi. So though the 
 chain is more or less complete the links are rather long ones. . . . 
 
 I fear the Bishop may look aghast at our freed slave village. 
 It has however cost me nothing. I shall give them all the 
 employment I can, and Mr. Swann too has promised to employ 
 them. When he and I first talked about starting this village, I 
 must say I thought it was rather a dream, and that it would be 
 difficult to accomplish ; but it has been no difficulty whatever, and 
 no expense. . . . Three more freed slaves have come in to- 
 day, and I have apportioned them '-'building sites" (bits of ground
 
 256 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 about as big as your sitting-room). The settlement numbers 
 about seventy souls, including children. . . . 
 
 September \st. It is a year to-day, the first Sunday in Septem- 
 ber, since I put foot in Kota Kota last year it was September 2nd. 
 What a different man I am in myself and all my surroundings 
 since then ! How thankful to God for all His mercies I ought to 
 be, and am ! Africa is a different place to me from what it was. 
 I begin to see a little of the habits of thought of the people, as I 
 begin to know more of their language. You see I had been ill- 
 prepared for the life out here by all the kindnesses and super- 
 fluities of home ; but I am more than content with God's dealing 
 with me now that I begin to see my way a little. These boys are 
 very lovable, and as I get to know them better, and they me, I 
 think I shall have a very happy lot. None can accuse them of not 
 being keen, and when well treated I think they will do anything 
 for one. I have been slow to encourage them too much think- 
 ing it best to get to know them a little at first, for of course they 
 differ the one from the other as English children do, and some 
 will take advantage of one. . . . 
 
 I have written to Mr. Nicholl to-day ; the news of Kota Kota 
 interests him very much. It has a charm of its own, although it 
 bears a very bad name. Mr. Swann and I are greatly pitied for 
 having to live here, but we laugh in our sleeves ! I think the 
 truth is this place is not "Anglicised," nor is it purely native. It 
 has the glamour of Orientalism about it. The people wear Arab 
 dress (the best classes at least) and the profuse manners of the 
 East still remain in minute degree here. To-morrow work begins 
 again with us, and I shall not be sorry ; living for a week like a 
 hermit, without a hermit's habits and graces, is not much to my 
 liking. 
 
 Mr. Swann sent me the first cabbage to-day from his garden, and 
 a bunch of radishes, which my cook at once began to boil. Try a 
 boiled radish, do ! Mr. Nicholl began a garden down in the town 
 in a kind of marsh, and this hot weather it has been a great success. 
 Fancy even wheat surviving and flourishing there, and potatoes, 
 hot-house melons, onions, etc. ; but none of these are ripe yet, and 
 there is many a slip betwixt cup and lip, or between the " shamba " 
 (garden) and the table. The moon here, though it is very bright, 
 does not scorch one. I believe it is very bad to sleep in its rays, 
 as it occasions blindness. I do not know the meaning of the
 
 LETTERS 257 
 
 passage in Psalm cxxi. 6. The Revised Version has " The sun 
 shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." May it 
 not be a purely poetic way of expressing God's guardianship ? 
 
 Will you tell my old friends I never forget them, though I treat 
 them so badly in the matter of letters ? I am sending ten letters 
 home by this mail, most of them longer than this, so I have little 
 time to spare, and there is a rather large correspondence to be 
 carried on locally. At least I do not forget them, and I pray for 
 all my old friends at home every day. . . . 
 With all best wishes . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 September 2nd. They have sent me Mr. Philipps, a young lay- 
 man who has not been long out here, as my companion. It is 
 rather strange that he should come here exactly a year to the very 
 day after I arrived. It is so hard to realize the first state of things 
 in those old days when we were living in little round nalive huts. 
 . . . There is a rumour of the murder of Mr. Atlay while away 
 from Likoma on a holiday, but do not mention this unless it is 
 corroborated. 
 
 Kota Kota, September $t/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 Poor Atlay ! We have not had final confirmation of his 
 fate, but I fear there is no ground for hope. He went from Likoma 
 to the mainland for a little shooting during his holidays, and 
 camped a day's journey from the shore, when it is said a party of 
 Angoni (Magwangwara) came upon him and his men. Atlay was 
 asleep in his tent about noon. The drift of the rumours point to 
 his being clubbed and stunned. Since then his boots, kettle, a 
 tin of flour, and a towel have turned up. Two of the boys who 
 were with him have not been seen since ; the rest returned, one 
 wounded. I am afraid our worst fears will be confirmed. Mr. 
 Crouch and others went up at once, and though they found the 
 things mentioned above, they could see no trace of Atlay. Conse- 
 quently Mr. W. P. Johnson has gone up to follow the track of the 
 Angoni, and of course it is a great danger to him. The men will 
 be desperate, but we have begun to think that he has a charmed
 
 258 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 life, and yet we cannot help feeling very anxious for him. We 
 here shall have no more news till the return of the German steamer, 
 a month hence. The Commissioner has been written to, but what 
 can he do, as the affair happened in Portuguese territory? . . . 
 
 They have sent me Mr. Philipps, a young layman who hopes to 
 be ordained, from Likoma. I am absolutely unprepared for him, 
 as 1 did not expect any one for some two months, so I have had to 
 set up my tent in the baraza and sleep there. I have given him 
 my room as both bedroom and sitting-room. Fortunately I had 
 table and chairs ready, and now I am making other furniture for 
 him. On the whole 1 think he is pretty comfortable. I do not 
 look on him as a permanent fixture, for, as you know, the Bishop 
 has other plans for this place, and if he brings Mr. Williams as far 
 as Nyasa, he will send him here. . . . 
 
 The book Mr. L sent me on " Building Construction'' 1 is 
 
 after all most valuable to me, even to the burning of bricks. I 
 am sadly coming to the conclusion that great doings in the way 
 of brick-building arc beyond my powers ; in fact, I could not leave 
 the work a moment. 1 still hope to be able to build a brick School, 
 but the Church will be a different thing. I must wait I fear till I 
 can get a practical man who can put in his whole time at that. . . . 
 
 September S//t. The grindstone which you sent me I have 
 set up, with a biscuit tin for trough, and soldered it with Mr. 
 
 R 's soldering irons, etc. Will you tell him how grateful I 
 
 am ? I feel ready to undertake furnishing and upholstering for 
 the commtifcity at large ! I have done so in a small degree. I 
 made six chairs for Mr. Swann, and six for a planter at Zomba, and 
 an armchair of my own patent. The credit side for these shows 
 one cow, a calf, two goats, a cheque for ,3 3-v., and a lot of seeds. 
 Now I can turn out better work, for with this vice I can cut a 
 decent mortise, and with these soldering tools I can set up a tin- 
 smith's shop. A blacksmith lodges outside in the freed slave 
 contingent, so here we are with all the conveniences of civilization. 
 I want a glazier, a bricklayer, a brick-maker, and perhaps soon a 
 telegraphist. The telegraph is complete to England now I be- 
 lieve from Blantyre. I paid a shilling as my contribution for the 
 first telegram to be sent by the Commissioner to the Queen. 
 
 My dear boy, if you knew the almost constant state of anxiety 
 we live in here you would wonder that my hair is not grey. After 
 what I have told you about Atlay, a report comes by native
 
 LETTERS 259 
 
 sources, which are very correct on the whole, that a boat belonging 
 to Likoma has been upset at Kajuro, three days South of this, in a 
 squall of wind, and that two white men were drowned. Yesterday 
 a large empty box covered with zinc and locked was brought to 
 the Boma ; some fishermen had found it a day and a half North of 
 Kajuro. Mr. Philipps says that we have many of these at Likoma, 
 and some new ones were expected. The natives on board the 
 boat were taken to Fort Maguire to be examined, as Kajuro is in 
 that district. We are living in fearful suspense. Who were the 
 two white men? I fear that this will prove true, as native rumours 
 fly very rapidly, and are, for the most part, well-founded. We are 
 expecting no one just now. The Bishop and Mr. Williams are 
 coming overland. Mr. Faulkner is coming with the ladies and is 
 not due here till the end of October. Why was the boat at Kajuro, 
 a long way out of her course to Likoma ? The wind then was 
 southerly. I don't think the boat can possibly have been going 
 South. It has been a week of very heavy winds from the South, so 
 much so that the " Wissuiann : ' had to put out two anchors, and 
 was delayed here two days. It was the hardest blow I remember 
 having experienced. 
 
 Later. We have seen this box that I spoke of above, and 
 Mr. Philipps recognises it as just like those at Likoma. It is an 
 anxious time waiting for news. I fear the worst almost, as report 
 says it was a Likoma boat. There are no others like those be- 
 longing to Likoma on the Lake, but I have heard that one of the 
 small traders was starting just such a boat. But who the two 
 white men are is a mystery until the German steamer brings news 
 on her return journey. Mr. Swann has sent men, under one of his 
 policemen, to do all they can to get news, and to gather up such 
 things as may wash ashore, and to find out all they can about the 
 bodies. At any rate, if news arrives at home about two men being 
 drowned in a Likoma boat, you will know it is not I. In fact 
 don't believe any reports about my death, for I have given instruc- 
 tions that a telegram should be sent to Mr. Travers, and you will 
 hear as soon as anybody, at any rate before letters could bring you 
 the news. . . . 
 
 We are all well here. The school is I think very flourishing. 
 The calico prize has had a good effect, as it serves as a uniform. 
 Now all our boys are quite recognisable in the town by their 
 white cloth. On Saturdays they go down to the Lake with one of
 
 26O ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 the teachers, armed with a bit of soap, and get their cloth washed. 
 A few new boys have come, and some old ones have returned. 
 Mr. Pliilipps is going to take an English class every day. It is a 
 difficult problem how best to teach English. They pick up such 
 a doggerel in the ordinary way, e.g., "box" is called " bokosi" and 
 even spelt so ; "slate" is called " silaii" ; "steamer," " siteanicr? 
 These they take as their own names, so you can imagine our roll 
 call is rather a funny one. . . . 
 
 I do wish I had a good practical all-round man like W 
 
 with me, for of course I cannot do everything myself. The 
 amount of carpentering we want is huge, and no one I have, ex- 
 cept perhaps William, is capable of measuring anything. Well, 
 anyway they have learnt to saw, and the adze is their natural tool, 
 and one man has learnt to plane in a rough way. On the whole, 
 so far we have been rather successful with our doors and window- 
 frames, tables, chairs, bookcases, etc. So love to all. Don't 
 believe I am dead till I let you know. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, September i$(/i, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 Perhaps you will know from other sources, before you receive 
 this, how only too true the news is, which I hinted- at in my last 
 letter to you. Bishop Maples and Mr. Williams are dead drowned 
 in Leopard Bay on their way to Kota Kota. On September 4th 
 we heard the first news, but did not believe it was one of our boats. 
 On September yth another token, or message, came in the shape 
 of a big wooden box, such as we use at Likoma for stores. Still 
 we thought it possible that some one else might have such a box. 
 At last on September i3th at about noon, after Sext, the message 
 came from the Boma that the crew had come in, having walked 
 from Kazembe (the chief's name) or Kajuro (his village). You can 
 imagine how hard it was to believe it until then. We expected 
 Bishop Maples by the mainland, and I did not look for him till 
 October or November, and no one dreamt of his sailing up to 
 Kota Kota ; but he was in a great hurry to get on as fast as he 
 could. . . . 
 
 The natives are steady, trustworthy fellows, but they know 
 nothing about sailing a boat with European sails. They had 
 lowered the mainsail, but kept on in a gale on the quarter under
 
 LETTERS 26l 
 
 foresail and mizzen an impossible rig. When the actual capsize 
 took place they were keeping the boat out to avoid the rocky point 
 that runs out at Kazembe's. She must have " broached to." They 
 passed Monkey Bay at 11.30 p.m. ; it was consequently pitch dark, 
 and none of the men knew that coast. I cannot tell you how much 
 we feel this blow. . . . These (including Atlay) are three of 
 our most experienced men, all taken from us in eight days. We 
 have Wimbush and Glossop at Likoma, and Dr. Hine at Unangu 
 is going home this year I believe, as he is not in a fit state of 
 health to remain any longer. But Mr. Faulkner is expected in 
 November, so we are not so short-handed as we might be. . . . 
 
 I have scarcely had a fever since I got into this house, and Mr. 
 Philipps is as well as possible, which he was not at Likoma. . . . 
 
 All the natives belonging to the crew were saved, but they had to 
 swim four to six miles, and were two hours in the water. . . . All 
 sailors on the Lake speak of Leopard Bay as a dangerous place. 
 Captain Cullensays the depth is from thirty to fifty fathoms quite 
 impossible to get down to, even if we had clivers. . . . 
 
 September 2"jt/i. I am thankful to say William was successful in 
 his search, and returned on September 2ist with the Bishop's body, 
 which was only identified by the few rags of clothing remaining on 
 it. He arrived at 4.30, and wd buried the Bishop's remains at 5.30. 
 I wish we could have by any means sealed up the body hermeti- 
 cally, and sent it to Likoma ; but it was almost unapproachable, 
 and we had no wood to make a coffin. We have buried him under 
 the spot where we intend the Altar of our Church to stand. I 
 intend almost at once to build a temporary chancel, on measure- 
 ments within those I sent home, so that we can start the permanent 
 building when we arc ready. . . . 
 
 Have you read Canon Scott Holland's speech at our Anniversary 
 Meeting? It is strange to read it now in face of another Bishop's 
 death, and he was present to hear it. We are crippled without our 
 Bishop ; I was waiting for him to endorse what I have done, and 
 to give me leave to go ahead. With Bishop Maples buried here, 
 I feel it to be a forecast of final success. We have not been allowed 
 hitherto to consider our occupation of Kota Kota as finally settled, 
 owing to the Free Church Mission claiming a first footing on the 
 West side of the Lake, though they had not touched Kota Kota ; 
 albeit they have gone to Lake Tanganyika almost, and South to 
 Livingstonia. Now our seal is set on this place. I aspire to having
 
 262 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 the whole Marimba country conceded to us, of which Kota Kota 
 may be called the capital. . . . 
 
 You will not omit to pray for us in our sore need. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, September ig/h, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 It is with a poor heart I bring myself to write my letters by 
 this mail. Before you get this you will hear of the terrible catas- 
 trophe that has fallen upon us. First there was the awful death of 
 Mr. Atlay. It is impossible to blame him for carelessness, for no 
 one would think such an occurrence possible nowadays ; and I 
 expect if we knew the natives' side of the story we should find it to 
 be some extraordinary accident on their part, although it does seem 
 so deliberate. Mr. Atlay happened to have built his temporary 
 shelter where the road passes, and to have closed the path of the 
 Magwangwara. This to the raiders was itself a challenge ; he was 
 equipped for a shooting expedition, and perhaps they thought he 
 was man-hunting. A raiding party of young irresponsibles is not 
 accountable for their actions, although they rarely kill a white man 
 in these days. Mr. Johnson and his party brought Mr. Atlay's 
 body to Likoma, and it has been added to the muster now grow- 
 ing in that little graveyard. 
 
 The other accident following in eight days makes one ask how 
 much we who are left, through our sins, contributed to it. It is 
 an awfully solemn thing to be entrusted with God's Gospel to the 
 heathen. Perhaps we deal with our opportunities too lightly. God 
 gives us many a hard, solemn lesson of how near our work is to 
 His heart, for He casts us upon Himself again and again ; difficul- 
 ties and losses are the stones of which the spiritual temple is built. 
 It is not any easier out here than it is at home to live a recollected 
 life. Xay it is harder, for sometimes fever and the climate dispirit 
 one. I have two hundred souls, young and old, upon my hands to 
 train in the knowledge of God. Is it not a great task ? You will 
 not forget to pray for us and ask others for their prayers, and have 
 many an Eucharist with missionary intention. . . 
 
 Snn<f(iy, September 22tnf. \Ye have found the Bishop's body. 
 
 . . I cannot tell you what a relief this is to us. It was almost 
 with joy that I heard that the body had been recovered. William 
 had wrapped the body up most carefully to carry it, and covered it
 
 LETTERS 263 
 
 with a flag with a red cross upon it, which he had taken with him. 
 . . . Is it not strange that the only bit of personal property be- 
 longing to the Bishop which has come to hand should be his holy 
 Vessels? One of the boys in the crew happened upon them in the 
 water when the boat sank, and brought them ashore. Tired and 
 worn as the boys were they would not leave the case containing the 
 Vessels, but brought it here when they came in. . . . The day 
 on which the crew arrived at Kota Kota was the )3th of the month. 
 It struck me at the time how appropriate to the occasion were the 
 first few verses of the evening Psalm, " Save me, O God ! for the 
 waters are come in, even unto my soul." William made it known 
 to all the villages he passed that a big reward would be paid to any 
 one who brought in or found Mr. Williams' body. And he also 
 made a complete search to the South of where the boat sank. . . . 
 It is inexpressibly sad to think of the Bishop's plans for the future 
 of the work out here. To-morrow (Monday) we are going to offer 
 a Requiem for all the three who have died by violent deaths. I am 
 afraid it will be a great shock to all our friends in England. . . 
 I had hoped Bishop Maples would have admitted a few to the 
 Catechumenate here. . . . The blow of these three deaths has 
 had a crushing effect at Likoma. It is heartrending to read all 
 their letters. . . . Poor Mr. Brooke, I hear, is another victim to 
 paralysis in the legs a disease almost peculiar to Likoma. Even 
 Mr. Philipps had symptoms of it while there. We are very well 
 here. All things are going well. I feel every day more and more 
 that God has called me to this work. I feel too that I can be a help 
 to these poor people, and in time perhaps a help in the counsels 
 of the Mission. You will I know pray for us at this time. It is 
 a sad time of trouble and anxiety. I trust none of us will lose 
 our heads, or lose heart, or courage. And now, farewell. . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to A. J. K , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, October \xf, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 . . . We have lost three of our oldest men in a week. 
 G. Atlay was not an old man in years, but he was so heart and 
 soul in the Mission that one associated him with the work almost 
 as much as the other two the Bishop and Williams, who had been 
 out here nineteen years. When at Blantyre, and talking about the
 
 264 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 death of some old Africans Mr. Fotheringham, of the African 
 Lakes' Company, in particular the Bishop was heard to say : 
 " Well, Williams, we have been in Africa nearly twenty years ; we 
 cannot expect to live very much longer out here ! " Poor Williams 
 went down in the boat without a word ; he was asleep at the time 
 in the cabin aft a temporary erection in the stern sheets. . . . 
 
 Nothing has been seen of Williams' body. The accident occurred 
 sixty or seventy miles South of this ; and, with the prevailing wind, 
 some things have been found eighty miles from the spot, i.e., sixteen' 
 miles North of this, but the Bishop's body was found among the 
 rocks almost at the spot where the boat went down. I have done 
 all that could be done by sending out search parties and offering 
 rewards. And now we must keep our heads cool and work on and 
 wait. . . . 
 
 Well, old chap, we have many faults and sins, and God teaches 
 us by many a hard lesson how solemn our work is. How near we 
 should live to Him ; but it is not easier out here than at home to 
 be recollected you will not be astonished to hear that it is harder 
 indeed. We have long times to wait for visible fruit two years 
 at least before any are made Christians. The classes are interest- 
 ing, and so is the school ; but, unlike the Uganda people, these 
 people do not evince the keenness for the Gospel or for " reading," 
 such as one hears is the case in Uganda. They are "sair hadden 
 doon," and all keenness about anything seems driven out of them. 
 To cat, drink, sleep, and dance contents them. To eat they must 
 cultivate, but it is not much trouble ; they never dream of manuriK b - 
 or dressing their gardens. They are scared out of their lives at 
 the very thought of war. It is not deeply interesting to have to do 
 with such sluggish people ; but they are God's creatures, and they 
 have waited long for the Gospel, and it is our work to preach to 
 them. . . . 
 
 My ideal head station is a community with an experienced 
 representative of every essential trade, e.g., carpenter, mason, 
 builder, and agriculturist. We have still the terrible consideration 
 of health with us daily ; but with brick, or stone, or even good 
 mud houses fever might almost be forgotten. Cultivation means 
 drainage, and good buildings mean an even temperature. . . . 
 
 My feeling about Kota Kota is that it will be considered an out- 
 station of little importance, because it is not among the Yaos. 
 The possibilities here arc I think very great. If I felt that a
 
 LETTERS 265 
 
 proper and adequate staff would one day be spared to come here, 
 I could work with a better will, for myself alone the work promises 
 to be overwhelming. At present we have our hands full with a 
 hundred hearers and over a hundred school children. I am quite 
 conversant now with Swahili, and getting on with Chinyanja ; the 
 two mix themselves up in my head rather, though Swahili comes 
 most readily to my tongue. . . . 
 
 To-day Mr. Swann has started upon a tour of inspection through 
 his district called the Marimba country, the whole of which I 
 should like to be able to reckon as my Parish a very interesting 
 one, the fountain head of the slave trade at one time. But what 
 could I do with all these people " by my lone" as the Vicar of 
 St. Aidan's would say ? They call us the people of the Bishop, as 
 opposed to the Presbyterians. . . . 
 
 It is hardly credible what a change the coming of the white 
 man here has wrought in a year. The down-trodden are holding 
 their heads up, and beginning to feel that they are as good as their 
 betters. The old influence is being scattered ; most of them have 
 gone to the coast. One of the most important Arabs who was 
 here when I came, with three or four hundred people presumably 
 most of them slaves is dead. About eighty of his people, who 
 ran away from him, now form the nucleus of a slave village under 
 my fatherly wing, with Mr. Swann in the background to support 
 me, and really take all the dirty work off my hands. It is an 
 interesting experiment, and indeed a necessary one, for if you 
 free slaves and do not provide them with homes, they are in a 
 worse case than formerly. It is very hot these days, and night 
 and day one is in a continual state of melting away. If this ceases 
 you get fever. Poor Mr. Philipps is not a very healthy subject ; 
 but it is still his first year, and one wants a year to get settled clown 
 to the perpetual melting. I expect at the end of this month we 
 shall have some rain, thunderstorms, etc. I look forward to the 
 rains to work a miracle among my trees, fruit, and other plants. 
 They are doing awfully well as it is. I hope in a year or two to 
 have some of all the best fruit that can be grown. Only I have no 
 oranges will you send me some seeds? They want grafting ; but 
 I think I could get grafts from Blantyre, or even Zanzibar. In 
 course of time I shall have avenues of limes, lemons, guavas, and 
 custard apples. Flowers are a disappointment. Some beautiful 
 lilies exist for a short time, but not for long ; and zineas and sun-
 
 266 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 flowers do well, and that is about all ! I have already had a dozen 
 pineapples, and another dozen are coming on. I have also cows 
 (two), and calves, and goats. I think of buying more cows and 
 sheep. All this I enjoy very much, and to see to them is my 
 principal recreation ; but I also think they are necessary to exist- 
 ence here. Our people are no good with cattle unfortunately. 
 
 I -wonder if I have told you anything interesting. I can't give 
 you missionary stories yet. The influence is only general as yet. 
 Hearts are still unquickened ; but by God's grace one will see light 
 entering if you will continue to pray for us. . . . 
 
 When these souls begin to have ideals it will be a hard task 
 for their Priest. I trust I have not made you think my life 
 arduous or difficult. I am very happy, arid have excellent helpers 
 in my two teachers, and some nice and clever boys coming on. 1 
 am indeed happy to have such capital health. As work increases 
 the interest will deepen. 
 
 Now let me close by wishing you and your wife a truly happy 
 Christmas. I can't send Christinas cards ! Give us a thought at 
 your Altar on Christmas Day, for you may be sure old friends will 
 be very present to us, if God spares us. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Letter to Mrs. F , dated, 
 
 Kota Kota, October $///, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 You have doubtless heard of our terribly sad losses. Bishop 
 Maples, George Atlay, and Mr. Williams the last a layman 
 all met their deaths in a violent manner within eight days. George 
 Atlay, on August 26th, was killed while out in the midsummer 
 holidays shooting, by a raiding party of Magwangwara (Angoni or 
 Zulu). On September 2nd, about midnight, Bishop Maples and 
 Mr. Williams were drowned coining from Fort Johnston to Kota 
 Kota in one of our sailing boats. 
 
 It is a hard lesson God is teaching us. May we by His grace 
 open our hearts to it ! Ours is a solemn work : we are very close, 
 the strongest of us, to the borderland between the work of this life 
 and that of the next. Our time for work is short. May He give 
 us grace to redeem our opportunities ! It is so easy to say that 
 each case was due to their own rashness. It does not minimise 
 our loss, and in each case I don't know that exceedingly great
 
 LETTERS 267 
 
 rashness can be proved. In Mr. Atlay's case, it is true he had 
 warnings, but they were vague ; and I doubt whether any one 
 would have felt ready to give up an expedition of that kind for 
 vague rumours of war, which are very rife and generally baseless. 
 
 In the Bishop's case, no doubt any sailor would have sought 
 shelter. In either case the immediate loss is ours, and it is very 
 sad to think of the Bishop's death, with all his new plans of -work. 
 He was never so full of good spirits and hope as when he came up 
 the river. He was in a fever of impatience to reach Likoma, and 
 had intended coming overland ; but something had prevented this, 
 and I think he was all the more anxious to get to Likoma at 
 once. Mr. Williams was a man about forty-five, a layman, who 
 had been in the Mission for eighteen or nineteen years, and was to 
 have come to me here to help me. The Bishop was not aware I 
 think that I had already got a white companion ; but I think he 
 would have consented to leave both of them here, for if I had a 
 really large staff I could immensely increase this work. 
 
 Mr. Atlay was a young man a Priest with I always thought 
 great promise of making an invaluable missionary. How long 
 shall we have to wait for a new Bishop ? These are the kind of 
 difficulties which I suppose a missionary's lot is always cast 
 among. It is of no use pretending that they are not trying. 
 
 You would be surprised to know how cold it is and has been 
 these last few clays. It is getting on for the very hot season, and 
 it has been raining a most extraordinary occurrence at this time 
 of the year. We are clothed in our warmest clothing. This is 
 the time one wishes we had glass windows ; for open windows 
 mean cold, and when they arc shut there is no light ! The school 
 keeps up to about a hundred still ; I think these children are on 
 the whole wonderfully keen about learning. I don't know what else 
 there is to bring them to school. The hearers too number over a 
 hundred when they are all present. I have four classes in the 
 week for them. Some are very regular ; but there is a fringe of 
 those who have to work in the gardens, etc., and are prevented 
 from coming regularly. How I would like lots of money to 
 develop this work. Once the outlay is made it can be carried on 
 for very little I am sure, labour is so very cheap. I long to build 
 a proper Boarding School, and have all or most of these boys 
 to live here constantly under one's eyes. I wish I could found a
 
 268 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 monastic establishment here lay brothers who would each have 
 his proper work to do, and a sisterhood for the girls and women. 
 By such means England, nay Europe, was Christianized, and the 
 plan is not effete or obsolete for such countries as this. It came 
 to an end in England because its day was over ; but in these 
 lands to be won from heathendom I fully believe the old monastic 
 system still has a work to do. 
 
 N.B. I believe Bishop Westcott is of the same opinion in a 
 modified sense. Besides the Gospel to preach and teach and the 
 education of the natives in letters, there are arts to develop 
 agriculture, building, farming. All these must be brought into 
 the natives' own lives to raise them out of their indolence and 
 animal-like sloth. I do not think the country is capable of 
 developing very much, and that must be very slowly ; but we are 
 doing very little in this direction. However simple our aim, yet it 
 will require properly trained and devoted teachers, for not in our 
 generation will any return be made. Alas, that we should want 
 for money ! But who does not? . . . 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM. 
 
 Kota Kota, October io///, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR M , 
 
 I am postmaster in Mr. Swann's absence. His patent, like 
 Mr. Nicholl's, for keeping the place quiet while he is away on a 
 tour of inspection, treaty making, etc., is to take all the trouble- 
 some ones with him. . . . 
 
 It is a bad job you don't improve faster. I can go up to 105 
 and back to normal all in about twelve hours, and be well in 
 thirty-six hours. 
 
 Well now, my news is that I may go to Unangu for the wet 
 season so as to allow Dr. Mine to go home. It is wrong to 
 allow him to remain out here, and there is no one else to send 
 (now) so well qualified as myself by reason of my cast iron con- 
 stitution and knowledge of Swahili. Dr. Iline would come here 
 in the meantime and be ready to take the steamer on the first 
 symptoms of fever. I have myself offered to do this. I am not 
 glad at the prospect. I don't pretend to be, but I hope I am 
 ready to do anything required of me. I believe that almost any 
 place is "livable" in, if you make it so. I shall only go for a 
 short time, and I shall still remain in charge of Kota Kota. I
 
 LETTERS 269 
 
 shall hope to return, if God wills, next year, after about six 
 months. I shall probably cross the Lake in a dhow, which is 
 safe, if slow, in the hands of its own crew. There is another 
 good serviceable boat here, the property of a trader. Anyhow I 
 will do the best I can by myself. Strange discovery at this period 
 Likoma is a bad starting place for Unangu. A letter of mine 
 reached Unangu in five days from here on one occasion. The 
 only thing I have to regret about it is the leaving this place ; 
 for not being properly in charge I can undertake nothing new 
 at Unangu, but simply go on Dr. Hine's lines. Alas, that our 
 new " health resort " should be unable to preserve even a doctor's 
 health ! . . . 
 
 I am very comfortable now. I have built Mr. Philipps a new 
 brick room and whitewashed it, and it has a brick floor. The 
 whitewash is made of a disintegrated stone almost like pure white 
 clay here, not lime would it were ! I have 20,000 first-rate bricks 
 in hand, and I am going to brick the dining-room and common- 
 room floors. I shall move the writing table, books, etc., into my 
 bedroom, making that my bedroom and study it is quite big 
 enough. I shall whitewash it to-morrow and Saturday. I have 
 been sleeping in my tent at the end of the baraza, and but for the 
 tent it would be exactly like a Likoma house the tent makes all 
 the difference. We shall have a spare room when the chancel is 
 built. 
 
 I trust the new Government at home will do some sober, decent 
 work for working people, the unemployed, and agricultural 
 labourers, e.g., the reform of land tenure, drink, etc. Can we not 
 expect more liberty for Convocation ? You see I am old fashioned. 
 I have got " Mcrric England? but I have not had time to read 
 it. ... 
 
 It is quite idyllic to be penniless, but a little awkward at times, 
 especially as the Mission is so poor. . . . 
 
 As time goes on we shall be able to get more stores out here. 
 Two men, one financed by Wiese, a big man who has started a 
 Company for ,1,000,000 to take up a concession, and the other an 
 old-fashioned trader, have gone shares, so far as this place is con- 
 cerned, and we, I think, will be the gainers. We can get most of 
 the things, for which we arc now dependent on Likoma, from 
 them. I think it will work if their prices are anything decently 
 within the limits of a millionaire, which the African Lakes'
 
 ARTHUR FRASER SIM 
 
 Company's are not. Fancy, the latter charges ^15 passenger 
 fare from Fort Johnston to Kota Kota two days' journey and no 
 night travelling cargo, 7 a. ton the same distance. The charges 
 on the German steamer are ^8 per passenger and ,5 per ton 
 cargo. 
 
 What wonder that we try and escape these by using our own 
 boats ! But the days of monopolies are drawing to a close ; more 
 traders and big companies are coming in. Some day a telegraph 
 wire will be here, and Kota Kota will have a post office. . . . 
 
 We have come to the end of our wholesome water, so I employ 
 a man to bring two buckets twice a day from the hot-water springs 
 excellent water, running as powerfully now as immediately after 
 the rains, and almost tasteless. . . . 
 
 I am going to try and get paint out here and a pit- saw before I 
 begin serious building. I see no difficulty in the way of plenty of 
 bricks at 8^. or los. per thousand. I believe 50 or 60 would 
 build us an excellent School. . . . 
 
 Mrs. R sent me " Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush." It is 
 
 charming. I cried over it. ... 
 
 The school numbers over one hundred now, and so do the 
 hearers. The children are very keen, and the attendance is good. 
 The slave village is growing every day. It is very hot just 
 now. . . . 
 
 It is rather like a battlefield out here. However safe one feels 
 oneself, there are those one cares for and looks up to falling all 
 round us. . . . 
 
 October \$th. The " Dointra" came in at 9.0 to-night, so that 
 is all this mail. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 A. F. SIM.
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 THE LAST SERMON PREACHED IN ST. AIDAN'S CHURCH BY 
 ARTHUR ERASER SIM. ST. AIDAN'S, Third Sunday after 
 Easter, 1894. 
 
 "Christ is all" (Col. hi. 11). 
 
 IN this text we find both the Christian's aim and his source of 
 strength. When he fails it is when he loses sight of Christ. 
 When he succeeds it can only be in the power of Christ. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S AIM. 
 
 To succeed in this who can do so here ? None perfectly ; yet 
 all can in measure. 
 
 It may be that I speak to you from this pulpit for the last time. 
 And with this in my mind, and fully realizing the relative import- 
 ance of last words, let me reiterate my earnest conviction that a 
 Christian's success is not measured by his wealth or his position, 
 or the name he has won for himself, but by his struggles after the 
 likeness of Christ. Christ is all, all to him, all that will last, all 
 that he cares to have. To lose Christ is to lose all. To win Him 
 by patient struggle with known sins, by the conquest of self, by 
 love for others to win Christ is his only aim. What matters 
 pain, what matters disease and sorrow, if Christ alone is your 
 aim ? What matters death itself, if by death we may win Christ ? 
 Nay, will not these things be welcomed, courted, triumphantly 
 borne, if they will but bring us nearer to our goal ? 
 
 " Nearer, my GOD, to Thee, 
 
 E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me." 
 
 True, good fortune may come to the Christian as to a man of 
 the world. Success in worldly enterprise comes not by chance.
 
 272 APPENDIX A 
 
 GOD alone can place it in our hands, and GOD alone can permit it 
 to be withdrawn. 
 
 True also that Christians are found in lowly walks in life, in 
 poverty, in sickness ; sorrow attends them as well as joy. 
 
 Be it the one or the other, yet not in these directly, but in the 
 slow, gradual, grinding discipline of life is Christ to be found. 
 Not by great deeds of heroism, not by great sacrifices, but by the 
 daily, hourly, constantly-repeated, unseen acts of self-denial and 
 self-conquest is Christ won. Not every one has the opportunity 
 to do great things, but every one can do little things. Nay, 'tis 
 easier to do something great, and so win the applause of men, 
 than to faithfully strive with the daily temptations as they arise, 
 and do the hourly duty and continual drudgery unseen and un- 
 applauded. Let us ever remember this it is greater heroism in 
 GOD'S sight to conquer selfishness by an hourly struggle than in a 
 moment of impulse to go to the stake. It is nobler to face the 
 offence of the Cross of Christ in the daily life, in the home, in the 
 shop, in the yard, than by fits and starts to awake up to some 
 gigantic effort and then relapse again into torpor. 
 
 I say this, brethren, because I want you to realize that we can 
 all be heroes though no man applauds us or all our acquaint- 
 ance revile us. It is better to give the angels cause for joy than 
 to win a name in a nation's history. Let us rather fear success ; 
 let us flee from men's applause. These are dangers ; they take 
 our eyes off from our failings. To the Christian Christ is all. If 
 he is not gaining a better knowledge of himself, and a firmer grasp 
 of Christ's comfort and peace and joy, success is not his though 
 men speak well of him. GOD grant us failure and disappointment 
 if only we may win Christ. The Christian's aim is Christ : no- 
 thing short of this to know Him, to grow in likeness to Him. 
 And though this aim may not be realized fully here, yet we may all 
 grow more like Him than we are, and know Him better than we 
 do. 
 
 And this is your aim and mine, and this is the purpose for which 
 GOD has put us into the world. This is the meaning of all our 
 surroundings this disappointment, that illness, this loss, that 
 sorrow, this friendship, that loss of a friend. 
 
 I think if our life is placed in pleasant places, it is perhaps be- 
 cause we are weak and GOD is gentle with us. Yet even in smooth 
 paths we must seek GOD'S will, and not impatiently try to tread a
 
 APPENDIX A 273 
 
 new and difficult way. GOD will show us His will for us in His 
 own time. His voice will be unmistakable, His guiding clear, His 
 command peremptory, and not to be set aside without terrible 
 danger to the soul. 
 
 The Christian's aim is Christ, and oh, how Christians fail, not 
 only in attaining that aim, but even in apprehending it ! And the 
 test question we must put to ourselves is this To me is Christ, or 
 self, the first object of my life ? And here, let me repeat it, the 
 choice comes not in great events, but in the daily, hourly dis- 
 cipline of life. It is St. Paul who gives the Colossians and us this 
 text for our life, and yet how does he advise it should be carried 
 out? Listen. Not "go to the stake," not "go and make a pro- 
 fession of your Christianity," but " Put on therefore, as the elect of 
 GOD, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies (or, as in R.V., a heart of 
 compassion), kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering ; forbear- 
 ing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a 
 complaint against any : and above all put on love, which is the 
 bond of perfectness." And then he goes on into the outward home 
 life : " Wives, be in subjection to your husbands. Husbands, love 
 your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your 
 parents. Fathers, provoke not your children, that they be not 
 discouraged. Servants, obey your masters. Masters, give unto 
 your servants that which is just and equal/' 
 
 Brethren, the world won't applaud many of these conditions of 
 winning Christ. Even a half-Christian world will call you a fool 
 for your humility, meekness, long-suffering, your forgiving spirit. 
 Yet this, the practical Christianity of your daily life, is the way to 
 win Christ. Without it, though you give your body to be burned, 
 or all your goods to feed the poor, you cannot win the Christian's 
 goal. 
 
 If Christ alone then is the Christian's aim, if the method is 
 self-discipline in daily habits, unknown and unnoticed, of self- 
 conquest what, then, are the means ? For we may be sure that it 
 is not enough to say, " Do this little thing or that ; develop this 
 habit or that " ; but, because these so-called " little things " are the 
 real battle of life, it is just here we need most the grace of GOD to 
 enable us not only to win the battle, but to undertake it at all. 
 What are the means ? And here again, brethren, if it were GOD'S 
 will that I should never preach to you again, after some years of 
 experience now let me put first what to me. and I am sure to
 
 274 APPENDIX A 
 
 every Christian who is making any fight against his sin must be 
 first the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. If by 
 GOD'S grace 1 have made any progress in my spiritual life during 
 these last few years, I am confident that the strength for the con- 
 flict with self has been drawn from this GoD-given food. If any 
 one is conscious of a besetting sin to be conquered, here he will 
 find strength to meet it. If any has difficulty in keeping up the 
 high standard of Christian endeavour, here failings may be con- 
 fessed, broken vows renewed, waning strength reinforced. If it 
 is a sorrow or a disappointment or anxiety that robs life of its 
 brightness, here, on the Lord's bosom, all may be poured out, and 
 His "Be of good cheer" will lighten the heavy heart, and bring 
 again the sunshine of a new fresh courage into the drudgery of 
 life. If it is a dear one's absence that fills the heart with disquiet 
 and a yearning for his safety or his return, here we may come to 
 Him in Whom absent and present are one nay, in Whom even the 
 dead are not lost. To Him we may confide the anxiety, to His 
 care leave all that is dearest to us on earth. 
 
 But, brethren, let us be careful how we approach GOD'S Altar, 
 and let us be careful when we are there. Remember Who is there 
 to meet us, and give Him the reverence due to the world's Creator 
 and mankind's Redeemer. Let us welcome Him into a heart pre- 
 pared to receive Him ; humbly, as all unworthy of so great a boon ; 
 with a clean heart, a heart cleansed by confession of sin, and 
 earnest prayer for the presence of Christ " none of self, all of 
 Christ."' The quiet hours spent at the Altar of this Church have 
 been to me the happiest of all these happy years, and I were un- 
 grateful not to confess it. But they have sometimes been clouded 
 with this sadness that more who, I know, are able to come, who, 
 I know, are desirous of conquering sin, do not seek here the 
 Divine strength for their trouble. And this sadness is intensified 
 when I remember that from this Holy Table goes forth the Leaven 
 that is to work a change in the world immediately around us. If 
 every worker in this Parish were a regular weekly communicant 
 (and this is the Church's standard a standard, I think, within 
 the reach of nearly all of us), if every worker were a regular 
 communicant, then I am confident we should make a greater 
 change in the lives of those around us, and the work of the Parish 
 would be better done, and when it was done it would be lasting. 
 For let us never forget that GOD has set us here as l> a city set on
 
 APPENDIX A 275 
 
 an hill," as a light in a dark place, and from tis men gather their 
 knowledge of Christ. By us, whether we will it or no, they judge 
 of our Lord's character. We are in a measure sacraments of 
 Christ outward and visible tokens of the Lord who dwells in- 
 visibly within us. 
 
 But the communicant's life must be a life of prayer and of 
 meditation. In these let us examine ourselves ; let us strive to 
 bring them up to the high standard of Christ. 
 
 Let our prayers be real ; let us take trouble with them. Let 
 each have his or her daily subject for prayer, taking pen and 
 paper, and using the same real thought as a tradesman uses for 
 his business. And meditation this I know is hard ; but in a 
 word, it is the devotional study of Holy Scripture, reading our 
 portion on our knees, asking GOD to enlighten our minds to behold 
 the beauty of His love, His truth, and His holiness. 
 
 Brethren, these are the means. We know them already ; we 
 have used them ; but we are very apt to accept a low standard. 
 Yet if we do not make the most of the means, how shall we ever 
 attain the end ? And if the level of our attainment in the use of 
 means be low, how shall we ever attain to Christ? However 
 much we assent to the fact that Christ is all to the Christian, yet 
 if we neglect prayer and the Holy Scriptures and Holy Com- 
 munion it is folly nay, is it not sin? 
 
 I have tried to realize that this probably is the last time per- 
 haps for years, perhaps for ever that I shall speak to you from 
 this pulpit, and I have tried to be practical and matter-of-fact. 
 I would, by GOD'S help, that my last words might help some one 
 here to attain more nearly to the Christian's ideal, which is Christ. 
 
 For myself I am convinced that the step I am taking is GOD'S 
 will for me. I have shrunk from it ; I have tried to count the 
 cost. But of all the difficulties or the possible dangers which in 
 that field I may have to face, there is none I fear so much as in- 
 creased temptation. If it is true that bodily strength is sapped in 
 a hot malarial climate, how much will that add to the power of 
 temptation temptation to despondency, for the work is a slow 
 one, temptation to lower the standard of Christian attainment, 
 even the temptation to sloth. These I fear, and if by personal 
 friendship or by ministerial contact I have any claim upon your 
 prayers, I ask that you should remember me and all missionaries 
 in our temptations. For if the battle is hard here, I think it will
 
 2/6 
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 be much harder there. I do not I think fear sickness, and I 
 think death may be faced as well by the Christian Priest as by the 
 tradesman or the sportsman ; but I do fear lest I be going into a 
 battle with sin too keen for my weak powers of resistance. 
 
 I know that work for Christ is the same, whether it is undertaken 
 at home or abroad ; and I beseech you not to imagine that this 
 work is nobler than work at home. It is not taking the step which 
 is the difficult task ; but it is there, as here, the slow daily discipline 
 under perhaps greater difficulties. It is the growing in grace, the 
 slow advance which wins Christ, which here as much as there will 
 try one's strength. Let me have your constant prayers in this. 
 
 And let my last words from this pulpit be this reminder : To 
 the Christian, whether abroad or at home, CHRIST IS ALL AND 
 IN ALL. 
 
 GKAVK OF A. V. SIM, KOTA KOT*.
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 *UL 
 
 *t Jc 
 
 The above is a foe simile of one page of the Sermon-notes found in A. F. Sim's Bible 
 L Kofn Kotn.
 
 278 APT EX nix c 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 EXTRACT FROM PARLIAMENTARY REPORT (1896) OF COM- 
 MISSIONER SIR H. H. JOHNSTON, K.C.B. 
 
 THE Universities' Mission. has had a chequered career in Nyasa- 
 land. . . . Its ill-luck culminated last year in the deaths of 
 Bishop Maples and Lay-Assistant Williams from drowning, of 
 the Rev. George Atlay, who was murdered by the Magwangwara, 
 on the mainland, and the loss of the Rev. A. F. Sim, who died 
 of fever at Kota Kota after a year's most successful work in the 
 Marimba district, on the south-west of Lake Nyasa. It appeared 
 as though Mr. Sim were going to build up in a short space of 
 time something like a native church, so great was his influence 
 among the natives and the personal affection towards himself 
 with which he inspired them. Kota Kota is an exceedingly 
 Muhammadan place, with several mosques and mollahs, but 
 even amongst the Muhammadans the death of Mr. Sim was 
 deplored with real feeling. . . . 
 
 No person who desires to make a truthful statement can deny 
 the great good effected by missionary enterprise in Central Africa. 
 There are some Missions and some Missionaries out here of 
 whose work nothing but praise can be uttered, though much just 
 criticism might be written on their mode of life, which in some 
 instances, is singularly and needlessly ascetic and uncomfort- 
 able. . . . 
 
 About Mission work in other parts of the world I have no direct 
 knowledge, but I can say of all mission work in British Central 
 Africa that it has only to tell the plain truth and nothing but the 
 truth to secure sympathy and support.
 
 PERIODICALS, LEAFLETS, PHOTOGRAPHS, 
 
 AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 TO BE OBTAINED AT THE OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION, 
 
 9 DARTMOUTH STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. 
 
 Books, Pamphlets, etc. 
 
 The following art kept on sale at the Office. The prices given are net 
 prices, and include postage. 
 
 The History of the Universities' Mission, 1859-96. 467 pp., with 
 numerous illustrations. %s. f)J. Superior edition, $s. ^d. 
 
 Memoir of Bishop Steere. By Rev. R. M. HEANLEY. 2s. <jd. 
 
 Livingstone : an interesting short biography by T. HUGHES. 2s. qtf, 
 
 Diary of a "Working Man : an interesting account of the beginning of 
 work on Lake Nyasa. By the late W. BELLIXGHAM. is. gd. 
 
 Autobiography of a Slave Boy. Edited by Archdeacon JONES BATE- 
 MAN. Fourth Thousand. z\d. 
 
 Mission Heroes. Bishop Mackenzie. \\d. 
 ,, ,, Bishop Steere. i^d. 
 
 ,, ,, Bishop Smythies. i\d. 
 
 An Heroic Effort. By H. RIDER HAGGARD, zd. 
 
 The Capture of the Slaver. By Rev. D. GATH WHITLEY. id. 
 
 CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 The Illustrated Monthly Magazine contains letters from the Missionaries 
 in Africa, articles on subjects bearing on the work of the Mission, and all 
 news of the Mission in Africa and at home. In it are also acknowledged 
 all contributions to the Mission Funds, and all parcels received at the 
 various Mission Stations. Full directions are given for the address and 
 despatch of letters and parcels to the Missionaries, a list of whose names, 
 with the stations at which each is working, is included. 
 
 Price id., by post l^d. ; special terms for quantities. 
 
 Bound volumes from 1883 may still be obtained, price is. yd. each. 
 
 Covers for binding the yearly volumes, jd. 
 
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 A CHEAP AND POPULAR ILLUSTRATED HALFPENNY MONTHLY. 
 
 Twelve copies post free for *]\d. ; special terms for quantities. Bound 
 volumes, is. 6d. Covers for binding; or reading cases, "jd. 
 
 Leaflets. 
 
 The Series of Illustrated Leaflets provides a cheap and interesting means 
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 mended for distribution in Church before a sermon or meeting, and for 
 circulation in parishes and schools. 
 
 279
 
 1. The Slave Gang. 
 
 2. Rescue of Slaves. 
 
 3. Slaves Released. 
 
 4. The Charles Janson. 
 
 5. "Work on Lake Nyasa. 
 
 5A. The Likoma Girls' School. 
 
 6. Our Schools in the Rovu- 
 
 ma District. 
 
 7. A Great Contrast. 
 
 8. Kiungani School and Col- 
 
 lege. 
 
 9. The Girls' School at Mbweni. 
 The Home for Little Boys. 
 
 and Dispensary 
 
 12. Industrial "Work. The 
 
 Printing Press. 
 
 13. Magila "Work. . 
 
 14. "Work at Mkuzi. 
 
 15. The Coral League. 
 
 1 6. A Short History of the 
 
 U.M.C.A. An 8 pp. Leaflet. 
 
 17. Present "Work. A large, 
 
 profusely illustrated Sketch 
 of the work. 
 
 21. The Newala Mission. 
 
 22. Kologwe. 
 
 23. Sacrifice and Success. 
 II. Hospital 
 
 Work. 
 
 PRICES : is. per 100 ; except 16 and 17, 2s. per 100. 
 
 Swahili Books. 
 
 A collection of Books of Devotion and School-books in Swahili, Bondei, 
 Chinyanja, and other African Languages may be seen and obtained at the 
 Office of the Mission. The following are a few of the principal Swahili 
 publications of general use and interest : 
 
 Msimulizi. The bi-monthly magazine. Edited and printed by the 
 
 Kiungani boys. 4^c/. 
 Swahili Handbook. 4^. yd. 
 Swahili Exercises. 2s. 
 English-Swahili Dictionary, js. yd. 
 Swahili Grammar, is. yd. 
 The Holy Bible. Old Testament. 2 vols. 2s. each. New 
 
 Testament, is. yd. 
 Book of Common Prayer. 3.?. $d. 
 Treasury of Devotion, is. yd. 
 
 Lantern Slides. 
 
 The following sets of slides may be borrowed for use at meetings on be- 
 half of the Mission if carriage to and fro is paid : 
 
 (a) Zanzibar and Slave Trade. 
 
 (b) Zanzibar and Magila District. 
 
 (c) Zanzibar and Rovuma District. 
 
 (d) General Set. 
 (c) Lake Nyasa. 
 
 At least three weeks' notice should be given to prevent disappointment. 
 A pamphlet containing description of the slides, to assist in the prepara- 
 tion of lectures, price (></. 
 
 The Report 
 
 is issued annually on May 1st, and contains an interesting record of the 
 year's work, with a complete account of the Mission Funds for the past 
 year. 
 
 Price 3-/., by post $d. Copies of t fie Report from 1860 may still 
 be obtained. 
 
 Butler & Tauter, The belwuod Printing Works, Frome, and London. 
 230
 
 58075.