Hi II. B. Mlm nm. 
 
 LEBANON, PA. 
 
 Division, 
 
 No. 
 
 - ^p-"-^ 
 
 Teachers and Parents should impress upon the 
 Scholars the importance of observing;-- 
 
 1 That this Book must be returned on the 
 next Sunday after it is received. If the Scholar is 
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 before the opening of School. 
 
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 for or replaced.
 
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 Master-Missionaries. 
 
 Chapters in pioneer lEffort tftrousftout 
 t\)t SHorltr. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER HAY JAPP, LL.D., 
 
 F.R.S.L., F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S., F.S.A. 
 
 "Ye are the salt of the earth." 
 
 Matl. V. 13. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 
 
 530 Broadway. 
 1881.
 
 ©rtiiration 
 
 TO 
 
 DONALD MACLEOD, D.D., 
 
 EDITOR OF " GOOD WORDS." 
 
 Running my eye over certain letters of yours — letters 
 that at the time made Red-letter days to me, and in a 
 sense do so still — I find that in one of them, dated on 
 a certain 14th of October, you wrote thus: — "I am so 
 glad to hear of certain movements in the firm in so far 
 as you are concerned. I am sure nothing will tend 
 more to strengthen its influence ; for, while no man is 
 perfect, except such ' as dwell at home at ease,' yet 
 some are both efficient and to be loved by all decent 
 fellows like yours ever, D. Macleod." And again, later, 
 on a certain 19th June : — "The very possibility of your 
 parting company fills me with anxiety. No fellow could 
 take your place and be to me as you have been. Simply, 
 it must not be.''' With such sentences and such assur- 
 ances as these before me — so fragrant of hope and pro- 
 mise — what better can I do than dedicate to you this book, 
 containing some sketches which received from you in their 
 briefer form, — and more especially the opening one, — the 
 warmest and most appreciative practical welcome ? 
 
 ALEX. H. JAPP. 
 London, September 30, 18S0.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE AND GEORGIA . . • . . I 
 
 DAVID ZEISBERGER AND THE INDIANS , ... 82 
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH AND THE HINDUS II3 
 
 WILLIAM ELMSLIE AND KASHMIR I45 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER AND THE CONVICTS . . 163 
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT AND SOUTH AFRICA 226 
 
 DR. JAMES STEWART AND LOVEDALE 255 
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK AND LIVINGSTONIA .... 274 
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC . 294 
 
 JOHN G. FEE AND THE FREEDMEN OF AMERICA . . 363 
 
 APPENDIX 375
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE AND GEORGIA. 
 
 ONE day in November 1732 a little craft weighed 
 anchor in the Thames at Gravesend, with a freight 
 as precious, and an object as heroic as determined the 
 sailing of the fabled Argo. After the " Mayflower," with 
 her cargo of pilgrim-fathers, going forth to seek freedom 
 to worship God according to their conscience, and to find 
 more than they sought in the founding of a great empire, 
 this little craft comes next in order as an early maritime 
 link between England and America. We may well love 
 to think of those Argos of Anglo-American history, 
 whose very names may be held as guarantee of a love 
 never to be effaced between the old country and the 
 new, notwithstanding little differences that may arise 
 now and then from conflicting interests. Yet there was 
 no romance about the little vessel She was but an 
 ordinary-looking, roughly-built schooner, somewhat dingy 
 and dark in aspect, and had certainly no high-sounding 
 designation. The " ' Annie,' Captain Thomas, 200 tons 
 burthen," is the register she would have in official lists. 
 She cairies no armament ; for peace hath her victories
 
 2 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 as well as war. She has on board one hundred and 
 twenty passengers, a chaplain, two men as industrial 
 teachers, and the leader of the expedition, who, by dint 
 of indefatigable labour and resource, has carried his 
 great philanthropic idea thus far towards realisation and 
 success — an anticipatory impersonation of the idea of the 
 "Captain of Industry," for whom a great English his- 
 torian has more recently sighed through many elaborate 
 pages. His name is James Oglethorpe, and he is a man 
 of culture, refinement, and great practical benevolence. 
 He has already served his country well in the field and 
 in Parliament, where even now he has a seat; and it 
 might seem indeed as though all his previous life — even 
 in its minor details — had been providential preparation 
 for the great work he has now taken in hand. He is 
 tall, stately, soldierlike in aspect, neatly arrayed in the 
 accepted fashion of that time ; he looks in every point 
 one accustomed to command, yet his features, somewhat 
 sharp and stern, can soften into a smile of the sweet- 
 est paternal attractiveness. Honesty of purpose, great 
 decision, and generous concern for others are written 
 on every movement and expression. As the result of a 
 careful study of old newspapers, Government reports, 
 and pamphlets, as well as of his more systematic 
 memoirs — English and American — by Mr. Wright and 
 Dr. Harris, we here purpose briefly to tell the story of 
 Oglethorpe's long and remarkable life : how his earlier 
 years and the interests that engaged his mind prepared
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 3 
 
 him for his great enterprise of founding the colony of 
 Georgia, which was more a benevolent and missionary 
 enterprise than anything else ; of his work there and the 
 spirit in which he did it ; and lastly, the tenor and the 
 fine influence of his declining years. 
 
 I. 
 
 James Oglethorpe was the son of Sir Theophilus 
 Oglethorpe, of Godalming, in Surrey. His mother was 
 the daughter of an Irish gentleman. There has been 
 some difference of opinion about the exact date of his 
 birth, which even registers do not wholly set at rest ; but 
 the first of June 1689 may be taken as approximate, 
 since he was baptized on the 2d of that month. To his 
 mother, it is evident, he owed not a little. His father 
 was precise, methodic, a shrewd and practical country 
 gentleman ; she imparted something of elevated ideal 
 and of poetry to the household. She was a woman of 
 rare intellect, as well as of refinement. " Lady Ogle- 
 thorpe," says Mr. Wright, *' seems to have had consider- 
 able influence in the court of Queen Anne, and was on 
 intimate terms with Swift. She was a thorough Jacobite, 
 and appears to have been a match for the time-serving 
 parson, who in allusion to some party intrigue, with his 
 usual coarseness, represents her as * so cunning a devil ' 
 that he believed she could find a remedy if they would 
 take her advice."
 
 4 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 By the aid of imagination, we can in some measure 
 realise the childish days of Oglethorpe ; the prim and, it 
 may be, over-methodic instruction, the lectures, the drill 
 of trivial etiquette, book in hand, pursued with too little 
 regard for instincts that craved contact with things as well 
 as with words. Luckily the associations of the beautiful 
 scenery and the daily round of out-door observance would 
 do much to compensate. His youth was spent amid the 
 deep domestic peace and prosperity of the reign of Wil- 
 liam and Mary, and there was then little at home to excite 
 the military ambition of a boy's heart. But news from 
 abroad supplied that which was lacking, and which home 
 history in the earlier portions of the century had 
 abundantly presented. Marlborough's victories were the 
 theme of talk everywhere, and doubtless Oglethorpe, as 
 a lad, listened attentive, open-eyed, and admiring, while 
 his elders discussed the details of Blenheim and Ouden- 
 arde and Malplaquet. We know, at all events, that from 
 early years his liking lay towards a military life, not- 
 withstanding a fine taste for literature which was early 
 developed. We are therefore hardly surprised to learn 
 that, although in 1709 he was admitted a member of 
 Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he did not find a life of 
 study to his taste, any more than two of his brothers had 
 done; and that in 1710 he joined the army, as a gentle- 
 man volunteer, not very long afterwards assuming the rank 
 of ensign, which he held till the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. 
 Shortly after this he became attached to the suite of the
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 5 
 
 Earl of Peterborough, then Ambassador of Sicily and 
 other Italian States, and is believed to have travelled 
 southward in the company of the famous philosopher, 
 Berkeley, whose views on colonisation and philanthropic 
 reforms already developed, were of a kind to have met 
 with response from such a mind and heart as that of 
 Oglethorpe even then. But we have no definite accounts 
 of their intercourse. 
 
 In 1 7 14 he was transferred to the Queen's Guards, 
 holding the post of Captain-lieutenant to the first troop ; 
 and we learn that, by his fine bearing and grace of 
 manner, he soon made so favourable an impression on 
 the Duke of Marlborough that he was recommended to 
 the Prince Eugene, to whom he became secretary and 
 aide-de-camp. This position enabled him to establish 
 his character for military knowledge and resource. He 
 speedily gained the highest praise of his general for his 
 conduct in the campaign against the Turks. It will be 
 remembered that, though they had already suffered 
 severely, the Turks determined to renew the war. The 
 forces of Prince Eugbne were again in motion, and a blow 
 was struck at the very heart of their power by the siege of 
 Belgrade. The Turks came to its relief, and besieged the 
 Prince in his camp ; but while he was almost given over 
 he made a sally, fell suddenly on the enemy, defeated 
 them with great slaughter, and took their cannon, 
 baggage, and military stores, after which Belgrade at once 
 surrendered. On "the 1 6th of August 1717 the capitu-
 
 6 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 lation was signed ; the Imperialists took possession of 
 the gate and outworks, and on the 2 2d the Turks quitted 
 the city. This was the closing scene of that bloody and 
 disastrous war. Oglethorpe was in active command at 
 the siege and the battle, and conducted himself in such 
 a manner as to have been reported in the most flattering 
 way. When peace was declared he was offered rank and 
 station in the German service, but he declined it. There 
 were no very definite prospects of active duty, and a 
 soldier's life in barracks had lost all its attractions for 
 him. He returned to England. 
 
 In 1722 he succeeded his brother in the estate at 
 Godalming, and was fortunate in being able very shortly 
 after to secure a seat in Parliament as member for Hazle- 
 mere — a place which he held by successive elections for 
 the long period of thirty-two years. It could never have 
 been said of Oglethorpe what was said of Burke, that " he 
 gave up to party what was meant for mankind." From 
 the first we can easily detect, in going over the very slim 
 and wholly inadequate reports of his earlier speeches 
 which have been preserved, that he felt the irksomeness 
 of party-ties, and was often in great difficulty on account 
 of what they implied. He was always on the side of 
 liberty and progress ; and a fresh and vigorous philan- 
 thropic tone makes itself felt more and more. His first 
 speech was against the banishment of Atterbury, and was 
 worthy in many respects of a great cause. Smollett says 
 of another speech on the King's Speech in 1731 —
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. Jr 
 
 "Mr. Oglethorpe, a gentleman of unblemished char- 
 acter, brave, generous, and humane, affirmed that many 
 other things related more immediately to the interest and 
 honour of the nation than did the guarantee of the Prag- 
 matic Sanction. He said he wished to have heard that 
 the new works at Dunkirk had been entirely razed and 
 destroyed ; that the nation had received full and complete 
 satisfaction for the depredations committed by Spain ; that 
 more care was taken to discipline the militia, on whose 
 valour the nation chiefly depend in case of invasion ; 
 and that some regard had been shown to the oppressed 
 Protestants in Germany. He expressed his satisfaction, 
 however, to find that the English were not so closely 
 united to the French as formerly, for he had observed 
 that when two dogs were in a leash together the stronger 
 generally ran away with the other ; and this, he feared, 
 had been the case between France and Great Britain." 
 
 The cause of the persecuted Protestants of Germany 
 lay very near his heart ; and he brought the case of the 
 distressed Moravians several times before Parliament 
 with effect. These poor people, whose only offence was 
 that they wished to reform society by beginning very 
 deep down with the individual soul and heart, and were, 
 by their creed, indifferent to many points of form, and 
 opposed to certain requirements of warlike states, enjoyed 
 no rest in their native country. They looked wistfully to 
 America, but the new colonies were more or less martial 
 in their character ; in this only too like the political con-
 
 8 JAMES OGLETHORrE. 
 
 stitutions of the Old World, though they had the excuse 
 that they needed them to defend themselves against the 
 wild Indians by whom they were surrounded. The con- 
 science of the Moravians revolted at the thought of that 
 military service. When a petition was presented to 
 Parliament to relieve them from such service it was 
 warmly supported by Oglethorpe, who explained to the 
 House of Commons the social system, the Church, and 
 the great missionary efforts of the Moravian community, 
 showing how important it was to encourage the emigra- 
 tion of persons of such pure conscience and high char- 
 acter, because of the influence for good which they could 
 not but exercise, more especially upon the members of 
 a society as yet only half formed, and tempted by the 
 inevitable primitiveness of the life they led into uncon- 
 scious relapse in many points into a semblance of half 
 savagery and indifference. 
 
 Every humane and noble cause exercised his heart 
 and head, and received from him more than mere sym- 
 pathy. He was essentially practical. He investigated 
 every question for himself, taking no fact at second hand. 
 Whether it was the question of the Porteous Mob, or the 
 relief of persecuted religionists, he spoke with the spirit 
 of a man ahead of his time. Social improvement, he 
 clearly saw, lay m appealing to the higher self interest of 
 the people ; and this is well proved by the part he took 
 in one particular work. 
 
 In the year 1707 a company had been started in
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. f 
 
 London for the purpose of lending money to the poor on 
 small pledges, and to prosperous men on good security, 
 with the general aim of affording aid to the deserving. 
 After an apparently successful career of several years, 
 the cashier and two of the chief officers were guilty 
 of defalcation, and absconded. Out of the vast sums of 
 money which had been entrusted to their charge, only 
 some ;^3o,ooo remained ; but it was found that those 
 who had connived at their villany and had profited by it, 
 were moving about safely at home. Oglethorpe exerted 
 himself powerfully in Parliament to have the matter 
 thoroughly investigated, and to have those men brought 
 •to justice. Speaking in support of the motion, he said — 
 *' For my own part, sir, I have always been for encour- 
 aging the design upon which this corporation was first 
 established, and looked upon it as a provident act of 
 charity to let necessitous persons have the opportunity 
 of borrowing money upon easier terms than they could 
 have it elsewhere. Money, like other things, is but a 
 commodity, and, in the way of dealing, the use of it is 
 looked upon to be worth as much as people can get for 
 it. If this corporation let persons in limited circum- 
 stances have the use of money at a cheaper rate than 
 individuals, brokers, or moneylenders would be willing 
 to do, it certainly was a beneficent act. If they had 
 demanded more than was elsewhere given, they would 
 not have had applicants, and the design would not 
 have proved good and useful. But the utility of it
 
 lo JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 was most evident ; and ttie better the design, and the 
 more excellent the benefit, the more those persons deserve 
 to be punished, who, by their frauds, have curtailed, if not 
 wholly cut off, these sources of furnishing assistance to the 
 industrious and enterprising, and disappointed the public 
 reaping of the benefit which might have accrued by an 
 honest and faithful execution of so good an undertaking." 
 It has been well said that a man's character is best 
 ascertained from knowing the sources in which he 
 finds his pleasures. Oglethorpe's pleasures were all in 
 benevolent enterprises ; and accident or providence, all 
 through his life, as through the lives of many others, was 
 constantly giving indications of new paths of activity. 
 His great practical forecast, and his determination, 
 enabled him to connect together what, in the hands of a 
 less capable man, might have been only dissipating to 
 his powers. The next spur to his energies was of a very 
 decided kind. A gentleman named Robert Castell, who 
 had showed much ingenuity in mechanics and skill in 
 architecture, had been subject to losses, and was at last 
 cast into the debtors' prison of the Fleet He was by 
 and by carried to a sponging-house in connection with 
 the prison, kept by a man named Corbett, an underling 
 of Bambridge, the warder. After a time, and so long as 
 any fragment of his means remained, or friends were 
 inclined to come thus far to his aid, he enjoyed the 
 liberty of the rules ; but, all resources failing wherewith 
 to bribe Bambridge further, he was ordered to be recom-
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. rr 
 
 mitted to Corbett's, where at the time the small-pox 
 raged with great intensity. In vain poor Castell urged 
 that he had never had the .small-pox, and was sure to 
 become infected. He was removed, and in a very short 
 time died in Corbett's house. Oglethorpe, who knew 
 Castell and had visited him, heard the story and was 
 greatly moved by it. He resolved, in his usual way, 
 quietly to see things for himself ; and finding that one 
 with whom he had had some acquaintance was now in 
 confinement there, he resolved to make a visit to this 
 gentleman a pretext for seeing the prison and of so far 
 examining how matters stood. It was indeed a revela- 
 tion to him. Numbers of men who had formerly been 
 in good positions were now to be seen here in most 
 miserable plight, ragged, filthy, half-starved, and often in 
 heavy chains. In some instances their reason had gone 
 or was beginning to fail. The only channel of escape from 
 such treatment was through bribes, by which Bambridge 
 and his minions were rapidly enriching themselves. 
 
 The wardenship of the Fleet, as it was afterwards 
 proved, had been regularly put up for sale. It had been 
 bought from the great Lord Clarendon by John Higgins 
 for ;!C5°o°> ^"d ^t ^^^ '^cen sold by Higgins to this 
 Bambridge for the same sum in 1728; and these men 
 were accustomed, in addition to the large emoluments of 
 their office, to exact heavy fees from the prisoners, and to 
 avenge themselves upon those who were unable or unwil- 
 ling to pay them by the utmost excesses of brutality.
 
 12 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 The condition of Sir William Rich, whom Oglethorpe 
 had ostensibly gone to see, was as bad as any. He was 
 loaded with chains, deprived, not only of ordinary com- 
 forts and decencies, but even of the necessaries of life, 
 and treated in ever}'thing as a common malefactor, and 
 ^orse — far worse — than the worst malefactor would be 
 treated in our time. Oglethorpe determined to make a 
 movement for reform, to demand investigation, and the 
 dismissal and the punishment of those who were guilty 
 of such abuses, cruelties, and base breaches of trust. 
 He brought the matter before Parliament in speeches 
 that displayed not only tact but eloquence, "many 
 of his sentences going straight to the heart." His 
 motion prevailed; a commission was appointed to 
 inquire into the condition of the prisons. Oglethorpe 
 was named its chairman, and right well did he do 
 his work. 
 
 Sir William Rich was one of those summoned before 
 the commission to give evidence ; and the daring of Bam- 
 bridge was afterwards shown in an extraordinary manner. 
 Rich had appeared in chains, put on because of some 
 difference with Bambridge ; and these the commission 
 ordered to be taken off. No sooner, however, did the 
 commission withdraw, than Bambridge, in defiance of 
 their order, put them on again. For this, on Ogle- 
 thorpe's representation, he was committed to the charge 
 of the serjeant-at-arms. 
 
 The sufferings undergone in these prisons were literally
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 13 
 
 beyond description. Women were left without beds, 
 without attendance or nourishment, till they died of 
 neglect \ men were tortured by thumbscrews and other 
 engines of torment. One poor Portuguese had been for 
 two months under irons so heavy that he could not rise. 
 Another prisoner had lost all memory and the use of his 
 limbs. One brave soldier had been falsely accused of 
 theft, and though he was acquitted by the jury, he was 
 seized and imprisoned as a debtor because he could not 
 discharge the jail-fees claimed on account of his deten- 
 tion. It was calculated that at this date there were over 
 24,000 debtors languishing in prison, and that one man 
 out of every four men died annually. 
 
 Oglethorpe was indefatigable, continually engaged in 
 visiting prisons, examining and receiving reports. The 
 corrupt practices and the base treatment of prisoners 
 which had been so common were traced home to many 
 of the guilty parties, who were prosecuted with the utmost 
 rigour. But Oglethorpe felt that the work was not fin- 
 ished. He knew that in all such cases the tendency to 
 relapse was great, and he took care to provide against 
 this by such effective means as only an energetic practical 
 mind such as his was likely to devise. Progress in this, 
 as in all such matters, was slow ; and in the meantime 
 jail-fever was sending its own reports from the provinces. 
 So late as the year 1730, jail-fever broke out. In that 
 year Chief Baron Pengelly, Serjeant Shippen, and many 
 others were killed by it, when attending the Dorsetshire
 
 14 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 Assizes, and the High Sheriff of Somerset perished 
 through the same cause. 
 
 One result of Oglethorpe's efforts was that numbers of 
 those who had suffered especially in the debtors' prison 
 were set free, and it was a difificult matter to reinstate 
 them in society or to find suitable work for them. While 
 Oglethorpe was earnestly engaged in this work, he became 
 Deputy Governor of the Eoyal African Company, of 
 which he had been for a short time a director. The 
 knowledge which he gained through this office excited 
 in him a keen interest in the native races with which, 
 through our passion for colonising, we were then, as now, 
 brought continually into contact, and also suggested that 
 in some points the ordinary methods of dealing with 
 them were neither the wisest nor the most profitable. 
 
 One incident seems to have had a powerful effect 
 later in determining Oglethorpe's energy in certain 
 directions. He became the friend of a man — once a 
 prince in his own country — who had been carried into 
 slavery, and escaped and was cast into prison. His 
 demeanour there attracted the notice of the officials. 
 He was observed to write on scraps of paper, and through 
 the kindness of the prison officials he was enabled to 
 gratify his desire to write to his father to " tell what con- 
 dition he had fallen into." One of these strips of paper 
 was sent home to the Governor of the Royal African 
 Company, who gave it to Oglethorpe. He sent it to 
 the University of Oxford to be translated, and was so
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 15 
 
 Struck by the piteous tone of it, that he at once wrote out 
 instructing the agent for the African Company to free 
 Job — for that was the man's name — and to pay the 
 expenses of his voyage and accommodation to England. 
 Job was gifted and intelligent, and grateful for the care 
 and kindness extended to him. His knowledge of 
 Arabic rendered him of service to Sir Hans Sloane, who 
 employed him in translating Arabic manuscripts, inscrip- 
 tions on coins, &c. His native place was Bunda, a city 
 of Galumbo, in the kingdom of Futa in Central Africa, 
 opposite to Tombuto. Ibrahim, Job's grandfather, was 
 founder of the city, and to his dignity Job succeeded on 
 returning home after these romantic wanderings. The 
 lessons that he had learned — more especially the kind- 
 nesses and the counsels of Oglethorpe — were not forgot- 
 ten; and certainly the lessons of Job's story were not lost 
 on Oglethorpe, but bore fruit in the additional interest 
 he was led to take in native races, and his desire to im- 
 prove their condition, as well as in his hatred of slavery, 
 which was so pronounced that he might well be named 
 a precursor of Clarkson and Wilberforce. 
 
 These were the questions which were pressing them- 
 selves on Oglethorpe's mind, when there happily arose 
 upon him the idea of founding a colony in America 
 which should especially afford a refuge for distressed 
 debtors and for persecuted German Protestants, and 
 which should also, in effect, present the conditions for a 
 more systematic effort than had yet been made to con-
 
 16 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 vert and to civilise the Indians. He had also resolved 
 that it should prove the possibility of carrying on profit- 
 ably the work proper to it without the aid of slave- 
 labour. Oglethorpe's efforts to get the proper patronage 
 and support for his scheme were unremitting. He 
 worked night and day; he waited by the doors of 
 influential Members of Parliament and Ministers of the 
 Crown ; he petitioned the Bank of England and powerful 
 Corporations ; he sought interviews with wealthy philan- 
 thropic men and with the heads of distinguished societies. 
 But earnest as were his appeals, and feasible as he had 
 proved his project to be, objectors were not wanting. 
 I'o answer them in pamphlets and otherwise he stirred 
 up his friends ; his own inclinations lying towards work in 
 other directions, though neither was his pen wholly idle. 
 Mr. Benjamin Martin, who was a kind of secretary to 
 Oglethorpe, and afterwards Secretary to the Trustees of 
 Georgia at home, in this respect did good service in his 
 "Reasons for Establishing the Colony of Georgia." An 
 argument which has often been heard in recent years 
 was then raised even with reference to imprisoned 
 debtors. By such emigration schemes you take away, 
 it was said, from their own country those whose labour 
 is wanted at home, and thus the price of labour must 
 be unnaturally raised. To this Mr. Martin aptly 
 replied — 
 
 " Those at all events who are shut up in prison are 
 certainly doing no service either to their country or to
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE, 17 
 
 themselves. They are thrown among associations whose 
 vile influence would mortally deprave them, while 
 poverty and despair were the only portion they could 
 give to their wives and children." 
 
 Mr. Martin agreed with Dr. Samuel Johnson, in 
 estimating that the number of men thus lost to their 
 country and to their families was no fewer than four 
 thousand a year. 
 
 Oglethorpe had urged a more philanthropic aspect of 
 the proposal — 
 
 " They who are oppressed with poverty and misfortune 
 are unable to be at the charge of removing from their 
 miseries. Those are the people intended to be relieved. 
 Let us cast our eyes on the multitude of unfortunate 
 people in the kingdom, of reputable families, and of 
 liberal, or at least, easy education; some undone by 
 guardians, some by lawsuits, some by accidents in 
 commerce, some by stocks and bubbles, and some by 
 suretiship. But all agree in this circumstance, that they 
 must either be burdensome to their relatives, or betake 
 themselves to little shifts for sustenance, which, it is ten 
 to one, do not answer their purpose, and to which a 
 well-educated mind descends with the utmost constraint. 
 What various misfortunes may reduce the rich, the 
 industrious, to the dangers of a prison, to a moral 
 certainty of starving ! Those are the people that may 
 relieve themselves, and strengthen Georgia, by resorting 
 thither, and Great Britain by their departure.
 
 |8 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 "I appeal to the recollection of the reader — though 
 he be opulent, though he be noble ; does not his own 
 sphere of acquaintances furnish him with some instances 
 of such persons as have been here described? Must 
 they starve ? What honest heart can bear to think of 
 it ? Must they be fed by the contributions of others ? 
 Certainly they must, rather than be suffered to perish. 
 I have heard it said, and it is easy to say so, ' Let them 
 learn to work ; let them subdue their pride, and descend 
 to mean employments ; keep ale-houses or coffee-houses, 
 even sell fruit or clean shoes, for an honest livelihood.' 
 But, alas ! these occupations and many others like them 
 are overstocked already by people who know better how 
 to follow them than do they whom we have been talking 
 of. As for labouring, I could almost wish that the 
 gentleman or merchant who thinks that another gentle- 
 man or merchant in want can thrash or dig to the value 
 of subsistence for his family, or even for himself; I say 
 I could wish the person who thinks so were obliged to 
 make trial of it for a week, or — not to be too severe — for 
 only a day. He would then find himself to be less than 
 the fourth part of a labourer, and that the fourth part of 
 a labourer's wage would not maintain him. I have 
 heard a man may learn to labour by practice ; 'tis 
 admitted. But it must also be admitted that before 
 he can learn he may starve. Men whose wants are 
 importunate must try such expedients as will give im- 
 mediate relief 'Tis too late for them to begin to learn
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. rg 
 
 a trade when their pressing necessities call for the 
 exercise of it." 
 
 A general interest was awakened, and twenty-one 
 associations petitioned for an Act of Incorporation, which 
 was granted by letters-patent on the 9th of June 1732, 
 for the reason that many of his Majesty's subjects were 
 in want of employment, reduced to distress, and would 
 be glad of the opportunity to cultivate the waste lands 
 in America, where they might earn a subsistence for 
 themselves, and aid to extend the trade, navigation, and 
 wealth of England. The trustees were vested with the 
 powers of legislation for twenty-one years, after which a 
 permanent form of government was to be established, 
 corresponding with the British laws, by the King or his 
 successors. Lord Perceval was elected president of the 
 corporation. As large expenditures were necessary, the 
 trustees set an example of liberality by their private 
 subscriptions ; the directors of the BanTc of England 
 followed their example ; the friends of humanity ex- 
 pressed their interest in the work by numerous gifts ; 
 the House of Commons, sharing the general enthusiasm, 
 made a grant of nearly ten thousand pounds ; * and the 
 
 * The grant for that Bermuda College which Bishop Berkeley had 
 so persistently aimed at establishing, and in which he would no doubt 
 have succeeded but for the indifference of Walpole — in which, as 
 Swift told Lord Carteret, "he most exorbitantly proposes a whole 
 hundred pounds a year for himself, fifty pounds for a fellow, and 
 ten for a student," adding, " his heart will break if the Deanery be 
 Bot taken from him, and left to your excellency's disposal " (Prof 
 Fraser's Berkeley's Life and Works, voL iv. pp. 102, 186) — strangely
 
 so JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 whole sum collected almost without solicitation amounted 
 to thirty-six thousand. The trustees, to their credit, 
 urged that a clause should be put into the Charter 
 restraining them or their successors from accepting any 
 salary, gift, or perquisites whatever ; not even permitting 
 them to receive a grant of land under any circumstances 
 in the settlement proposed. Well may Mr. Peabody say 
 that the perfect disinterestedness of their conduct 
 distinguished the enterprise from all others of the kind 
 yet recorded in history. * 
 
 " No wonder," as one writes, " that great Numbers of 
 poor Subjects, who lay under a Cloud of Misfortunes, 
 embraced the Opportunity of once more tasting Liberty 
 and Happiness ; that Jews, attracted by the Temptation 
 of Inheritances, flocked over; that Germans, oppressed 
 and dissatisfied at Home, willingly joined in the Adven- 
 ture, some as Settlers, and others as Servants to the 
 Trustees ; and, lastly, that great Numbers of Gentlemen 
 of some Stock and Fortune, willingly expended Part of 
 
 enouc^h comes in here to connect Berkeley and Oglethorpe. Par- 
 liamentary influence soon after diverted the grant into another chan- 
 nel. The land in St. Christopher's produced ^^90,000. Of this 
 ^80,000 was granted as the marriage portion of the Princess Royal, 
 on her marriage with the Prince of Orange. General Oglethorpe 
 induced Parliament to vote the remainder for his new colony of 
 Georgia, in America, after obtaining Berkeley's consent to this 
 application of the money. (See Journals of the House of Commons, 
 May 10, 16, and 17, 1732.) St. Christopher, or St. Kitts, was one 
 of the Caribbee Islands, obtained by us in a dispute with the 
 French. 
 
 * Sparks' Library of American Biography, vol. xii. pp. 228-9.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 2i 
 
 the same in purchasing Servants, Tools, Commodities, 
 and other Necessaries, to intiile them to such respective 
 proportions of land as the Trustees had thought proper 
 to determine." * 
 
 While one committee of the trustees was engaged in 
 visiting prisons for the purpose of examining and select- 
 ing the most suitable men for the enterprise, another was 
 concerned to see that those who had been chosen were 
 put through military drill and instructed in such things 
 as might be most profitable to them in their new 
 sphere of life. Oglethorpe, having resolved to give 
 up ease at home and to accompany his proteges to 
 Georgia, was named Colonial Governor. It adds to 
 our respect and reverence for him, that he made it a 
 strict condition that he should receive no payment in 
 any form. 
 
 The following sentences are not drawn from the writ- 
 ings of enthusiastic friends and admirers of Oglethorpe, 
 but from the State documents of the neighbouring State 
 of South Carolina : — 
 
 "The benevolent founders of the colony of Georgia 
 perhaps may challenge the annals of any nation to pro- 
 duce a design more generous and praiseworthy than that 
 they had undertaken. They voluntarily offered their 
 money, their labour, and time for promoting what 
 appeared to them the good of others, leaving them- 
 
 * A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia in 
 America, pp. 26, 27.
 
 «2 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 selves nothing for reward but the inexpressible satisfac- 
 tion arising from virtuous actions." * 
 
 It is of these heroic labours of Oglethorpe that Thom- 
 son writes in his poem Winter in " The Seasons " — 
 
 " And here can I forget the generous hand, 
 Who, touched with human woe, redressive searched 
 Into the horrors of the gloomy jail, 
 Unpitied and unheard, where misery moans, 
 Where sickness pines, where thirst and hunger burn. 
 And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice ? 
 While in the land of liberty, the land 
 Whose every street and public meeting glow 
 With open freedom, little tyrants raged : 
 Snatched the lean morsel from the starving mouth } 
 Tore from cold wintry limbs the tattered weed : 
 Even robbed them of the last of comforts, sleep; 
 The freeborn Briton to the dungeon chained. 
 Or, as the lust of cruelty prevailed, 
 At pleasure marked him with inglorious stripes ; 
 And crushed out lives, by secret barbarous ways. 
 That for their country would have toiled and bled, 
 O great design ! if executed well. 
 With patient care, and wisdom-tempered zeal : 
 Ye sons of mercy ! yet resume the search ; 
 Drag forth the legal monsters into light. 
 Wrench from their hands oppression's iron rod. 
 And bid the cruel feel the pains they give ! 
 Much still untouched remains in this rank age, 
 Much is the patriot's weeding hand required. 
 The toils of law (what dark insidious men 
 Have cumbrous added to perplex the truth 
 And lengthen simple justice into trade), 
 How glorious were the day that saw them broke, 
 And every man within the reach of right ! " 
 
 • Historical Collections of South Carolina, vol. i. p. 289.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 23 
 
 Matters being brought to this favourable footing, it 
 was but the work of careful administration to secure a 
 vessel and make all the necessary preparations — details 
 which, in Oglethorpe's hands, were accomplished with 
 marvellous despatch ; and so, as we have seen, the little 
 craft set sail from the Thames in November 1732. 
 
 11. 
 
 The " Annie " reached the harbour of Charlestown on 
 the 13th January 1733. The emigrants were kindly re- 
 ceived by Governor Johnson, who invited them to settle 
 down to rest for a time until Oglethorpe himself should go 
 forward to explore the country. Governor Johnson was 
 fully aware of the advantages of protection and intercourse 
 that would arise to Carolina from this new colony, and 
 he assisted and encouraged Oglethorpe in every way. 
 Provisions, hogs, and cows were presented to the Geor- 
 gian settlers by wealthy and kind-hearted Carolinians. 
 William Bull, a man of knowledge and experience, agreed 
 to accompany Oglethorpe and to assist him in the work 
 of exploration. After a good deal of wandering and 
 adventure, they found a high and pleasant spot of ground 
 situated on a navigable river, and here they fixed the 
 destination of the settlers. The locality for the first 
 town having been agreed on, the colonists with their 
 possessions were conveyed thither, and were speedily 
 engaged in erecting houses.
 
 24 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 To explain in some measure the view that the Caro- 
 linians would be likely to take of this effort at Georgian 
 colonisation, it may be remarked that the Transatlantic 
 colonies existing in 1733 were nothing more than a mere 
 fringe skirting the eastern coast of America. The Span- 
 iards — by no means friendly, and inclined to threaten all 
 settlers — were in Florida ; the English in Georgia, the 
 Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New 
 England ; the French in Canada. This was all Excep- 
 ting these few colonial settlements, the whole of the 
 imnoense continent was one vast wilderness, rich but wild, 
 the home of countless thousands of birds and beasts, and 
 sparsely peopled by Indians. 
 
 The province of Georgia, we may further explain, is 
 watered by three great rivers, which rise in the moun- 
 tains, namely, the Alatamaha, the Ogechee, and the 
 Savannah ; the last of which is navigable six hundred 
 miles for canoes and three hundred miles for boats. 
 The coast of Georgia is defended from the rage of the 
 sea by a range of islands. The extensive territory south 
 of the river Savannah had long been a kind of border- 
 land between the settled possessions of England and 
 Spain in North America. Spain claimed it, as indeed 
 she did all America, by virtue of the Pope's donation, 
 and was not willing to lose hold upon it, by and by re- 
 attempting to make good her claim. New towns, such as 
 that Oglethorpe was engaged in establishing, would throw 
 so many new impediments in the way of any effective
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 2$ 
 
 advance of the Spaniards. In a letter written from the 
 spot, Oglethorpe thus described the site chosen — 
 
 ** The river here forms a half-moon, around the south 
 side of which the banks are about forty feet high, and on 
 the top a flat, which they call a bluff. The plain high 
 ground extends into the country about five or six mhes, 
 and along the river for about a mile. Ships that draw 
 near twelve feet of water can ride within ten yards of the 
 bank. Upon the river side, in the centre of the plain, I 
 have laid out the town, opposite to which is an island of 
 very rich pasturage, which I think should be kept for 
 the trustees' cattle. The river is pretty wide, the water 
 fresh, and from the quay of the town you see Its whole 
 course to the sea, with the island of Tybee, which forms 
 the mouth of the river. For about six miles up the 
 country the landscape is very agreeable, the stream being 
 wide and bordered by high woods on both sides." 
 
 The town of Savannah, which was here laid out, took 
 its name from the river that flows by it. A small fort 
 was erected on the banks as a place of refuge, and some 
 guns were planted on it for defence. The people were 
 set to work in felling trees and building huts. Oglethorpe 
 took part in all labours, exposing himself to all the hard- 
 ships which the settlers were called to endure. He 
 formed them into a company of militia, appointed officers 
 from among themselves, and supplied them with arms 
 and ammunition. "To show the Indians how expert 
 they were at the use of arms, he frequently exercised
 
 26 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 them, and as they had been trained before by the 
 Serjeants of the guard in London, they went through 
 their exercises in a manner little inferior to regular 
 troops." * 
 
 The administration of the town was very strict. 
 Strong drink was discouraged; only an English beer 
 being allowed. Three bailiffs were appointed, whose 
 duty it was to supervise the work, and to see that each 
 did his due share ; the laws were administered by the 
 Recorder and Registrar of the Town Court ; no lawyers 
 were to be employed, but every one was to be heard in 
 his own cause. Each freeholder was at once allotted fifty 
 acres of land — five of which were near Savannah, and 
 the rest farther off. The chief produce was to be wheat 
 and flax, hemp and silk. A rent of twenty shillings was 
 to be paid on every hundred acres of land ; no settler 
 could assign or transfer his lands (the whole was to 
 revert to the trustees Avithin a given time) ; and (a 
 condition Avhich turned out unfortunately) if a man died 
 without heirs male, his daughters could not inherit — the 
 property was forfeited, and liable to be granted to other 
 hands. As Mr. Peabody remarks, "there is surely no 
 sufficient reason for considering it a crime in a man not 
 to have sons, nor for imposing a penalty on daughters." f 
 Though a power was lodged in the hands of the Govern- 
 
 * Historical Collections of South Carolina, vol. i. pp. 289, 
 290. 
 t Sparks' Library of American Biography, vol. xii. p. 239.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 27 
 
 tnent for dispensing with this requirement in special 
 cases, still it was felt to be a source of dissatisfaction. 
 
 Great encouragement was to be given to the silk 
 industry, one of the industrial teachers being Mr. 
 Amatis, a Piedmontese, who had been engaged chiefly 
 to instruct the colonists in rearing silkworms and in the 
 art of winding silk. They had learned that the climate 
 of the province was favourable to the silkworm, and 
 that the mulberry grew wild. Though they knew that 
 the industry of the men would be required for severer 
 labours, they thought that the attention requisite during 
 the feeding of the worms might be given by the aged 
 and infirm, by women and children, without interference 
 with any other duty. 
 
 It appears from Dr. Stevens' "Brief History of the 
 Culture of Silk in Georgia " that the subject had engaged 
 the attention of emigrants to Virginia as early as 1609; 
 and in a pamphlet then published it is said, " There are 
 silke-worms and plenty of mulberries, whereby ladies, 
 gentlewomen, and little children, being set in the way to 
 do it, may be all emploied, with pleasure, making silke 
 comparable to that of Persia, Turkey, or any other." 
 
 Mr. Oglethorpe was before long visited by three or 
 four gentlemen who had made a canoe voyage from 
 Charlestown to Savannah. One of them published an 
 account of what he saw, and in it is the following : — 
 
 " Mr. Oglethorpe is indefatigable and takes a great 
 deal of pains. His fare is but indifferent, having little
 
 28 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 else at present but salt provisions. He is extremely well 
 beloved by all the people. The general title they give 
 him is Father. If any of them are sick, he immediately 
 visits them, and takes a great deal of care of them. If 
 any difference arises, he is the person that decides it. 
 Two happened while I was there, in my presence ; and 
 all the parties went away, to outward appearance, satisfied 
 and content with his determination. He keeps a strict 
 discipline. I never saw one of his people drunk, nor 
 heard one of them swear, all the time I was there. He 
 does not allow them rum, but in lieu gives them English 
 beer. It is surprising to see how cheerful the men go to 
 work, considering they have not been bred to it. There 
 are no idlers there. Even the boys and girls do their 
 part. There are four houses already up, but none are 
 finished ; and he hopes, when he has got more sawyers, 
 to finish two houses a week. He has ploughed up some 
 land : part of it he has sowed with wheat, which has come 
 up, and looks promising. He has two or three gardens, 
 which he has sowed with divers sorts of seed, and planted 
 thyme, sage, pot-herbs, leeks, skellions, celery, liquorice, 
 &c., and several trees. He has done a vast amount of 
 work for the time, and I think his name justly deserves to 
 be immortalised."* * 
 
 One of the great objects with which Oglethorpe had 
 adventured in the colonisation of Georgia was, as we 
 have said, the improvement, education, and religious 
 
 * South Carolina Gazette, April 23, I733.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 29 
 
 instruction of the Indians. He lost no time in devoting 
 himself to this work. He was desirous that his friendly 
 intentions should be speedily made known, as mischief 
 might easily arise from delay. But he set about the 
 task in a truly characteristic manner. He heard of 
 an Indian woman, Mary Musgrove, who had married a 
 trader from Carolina, and who could speak both the 
 English and Creek languages. Finding that she had great 
 influence with the Indians, and might be made useful as 
 an interpreter in forming treaties of alliance with them, 
 he sent for her and drew her to him in friendship by 
 presents, and afterwards settled on her an annual small 
 allowance. By her assistance he summoned a general 
 meeting of the chiefs at Savannah, in order to procure 
 their consent to the peaceable settlement of the colony. 
 
 Two widely-contrasted views of the American Indian 
 have hitherto been the fashion. There is the romantic 
 view, fed by the novels of Fenimore Cooper and others, 
 and by poems innumerable, in which he stands not only as 
 a picturesque, but as a noble, calm, and stately presence, 
 high-minded, heroic, hospitable to a fault, and falling 
 before civilisation to the loss of humanity and the regrets 
 of those who knew him by most intimate contact. The 
 other, which professes to be that of sober fact, regards 
 him as greedy, cunning, idle, filthy, and deceitful ; with 
 the reserve of the diplomatist and the coolness of the 
 paid assassin, able to plot to take your life even while 
 entertaining you with all the aspect of placid and ingenu-
 
 30 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 ous friendliness. If this were true, it was strange why 
 the Indians at first perished so pathetically under the 
 treatment of the first adventurers and gold-hunters. 
 Probably the truth lies between the two reports. Ogle- 
 thorpe's experience, at all events, proves that they were 
 susceptible of gratitude and faithful to pledges if treated 
 with uprightness and honesty, and the great William 
 Penn had already found them the same. 
 
 While Mary Musgrove was arranging the conclave, 
 Oglethorpe was once more on the way to Charlestown, 
 where he addressed the Assembly and received formal 
 promise of support. Thomas Penn of Pennsylvania also 
 came to his help, expressing the very deepest interest in 
 the scheme and promising every aid he could ; besides 
 subscribing one hundred pounds himself, he was active 
 in soliciting subscriptions from others. 
 
 Oglethorpe made no longer stay at Charlestown than 
 courtesy demanded, and on his return he found the chiefs 
 of the Lower Creeks in attendance at Savannah, for 
 the purpose of forming a treaty with the colony. The 
 deputation, which consisted of about fifty chiefs and 
 leading warriors, was received with the utmost respect 
 and kindness. Oglethorpe represented to them the great 
 power, wisdom, and wealth of England, and the many 
 advantages that would accrue to them from a connection 
 and alliance with the English people. As they had 
 plenty of lands, he hoped that they would freely resign a 
 share of them to his people, who were come for their
 
 James oglethorpe. 31 
 
 benefit and instruction to settle amongst them. He 
 assured them that his intentions were only friendly to 
 them, as he trusted the future would make clear; and 
 expressed the hope that they would not only be friends, 
 but always have the true interests of each other at heart. 
 Ouechachumpa, an old chief, rose and replied in a 
 friendly speech. He said that they were firmly per- 
 suaded that the Great Power which dwelt in heaven 
 and all around (and then he spread out his hands and 
 lengthened the sound of his words), and which had 
 given breath to all men, had sent the English thither 
 for the instruction of them, their wives, and children. 
 They therefore gave up freely their right to all the land 
 which they did not use themselves. That was not only 
 his opinion, but the opinion of the eight towns of the 
 Creeks ; each of which, having consulted together, had 
 sent some of their chief men with skins, which is their 
 wealth. He then stopped, and the chief men of each 
 town brought up a bundle of buck-skins, and laid eight 
 bundles from the eight towns at Mr. Oglethorpe's feet. 
 He then said those were the best things they had, and 
 therefore they gave them with a good heart. 
 
 A treaty was soon concluded, by which the Indians 
 ceded lands on the Savannah River as far as the 
 Ogechee, and all the lands along the c/asts between 
 the Savannah and Alatamaha Rivers, including all the 
 islands, and extending west as high as the tide flows. 
 A reservation was made of two or three islands, and a
 
 32 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 small tract on shore, the former for bathing and fishing, 
 the latter for an encampment when visiting the country. 
 The presents on the part of the English consisted of a 
 laced coat, a hat, and a shirt to each of the chiefs, a gun 
 with powder and shot to each of the war captains, and a 
 mantle of coarse cloth to each of the men who accom- 
 panied them. The Indians departed, well pleased with 
 the attention which had been shown to them. A special 
 friendship was formed with one of the chiefs, Tomo 
 Chichi, which, for reasons which will soon appear, must 
 be made specially prominent. This Tomo Chichi, 
 though he was only the chief of a small tribe established 
 at Yamcraw, three miles from Savannah, was hereafter to 
 exercise great influence. In a short time Oglethorpe 
 is able to report to the trustees — 
 
 " The Lower Creek nation is within a short distance 
 of us, and has concluded a peace with us, giving us the 
 right of all this part of the country ; and I have marked 
 out the lands which they have reserved to themselves. 
 Their king comes constantly to church, and desires to 
 be instructed in the Christian religion, and has given me 
 his nephew, a boy who is his next heir, to educate. 
 The other two nations are the Uchees and the Upper 
 Creeks ; we agree so well that they have referred to me 
 a difference to determine, which otherwise would have 
 occasioned a war." 
 
 And later we find Oglethorpe writing, after further 
 inquiry and exploration —
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 33 
 
 "The province is much larger than we thought, being 
 one hundred and twenty miles from this river to the 
 Alatamaha. I'he Savannah has a very long course, and 
 a great trade is carried on by the Indians, there having 
 above twelve boats passed since I have been there. 
 There are some respects," he said, " in which the Indians 
 are already exemplary. Theft is a thing unknown among 
 the Creeks, though not uncommon among the Uchees. 
 They abhor adultery, and do not approve a plurality of 
 wives." 
 
 They were thus treated with such kindness that they 
 were disarmed of the wish, not to speak of the power, to 
 injure, and indeed were made to serve as a strong safe- 
 guard against other foes. The capacity to perceive 
 the good points in savage peoples, and successfully 
 to appeal to them, is one of the very rarest gifts in 
 the class who regard themselves as called to be ex- 
 plorers ; and much of the misery of colonisation has 
 undoubtedly sprung from this. The extinction of the 
 Red men and of the Maories is in great part due to 
 it. In the historical documents of South Carolina we 
 read — 
 
 "This generous and kind method of treating bar- 
 barians was better policy than that of overawing them by 
 force, and was attended, as might have been expected, 
 with the happiest consequences. To strengthen the 
 frontiers of Carolina and promote the colony of Georgia, 
 nothing could have been conceived more useful and
 
 34 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 effectual than a friendly intercourse with the savages of 
 the neighbourhood."* 
 
 The combination of far-sighted statesmanship with 
 lofty benevolent views, has seldom been better illus- 
 rated than in Oglethorpe's principle of dealing with the 
 Indians. 
 
 Small parties of emigrants had been sent out from 
 time to time, and, in June 1733, the whole number 
 amounted to one hundred and fifty-two, ten being 
 Italian and eleven German Protestants. 
 
 IIL 
 
 Having seen the colony advanced to such a state of 
 order, and a fair prospect of prosperity before it, Ogle- 
 thorpe left it for England, with a view the better to 
 arrange various matters with the trustees. Tomo Chichi, 
 the Mico or chief of a branch of the Creek nation 
 already referred to, was with him, as well as his wife and 
 nephew and some other natives, whose appearance in 
 England, it was hoped, would tend to increase the 
 interest felt in the colony. Oglethorpe visited New 
 England on the way, and was warmly received. Con- 
 gratulatory addresses were voted to him by the Assembly 
 of the province. On reaching home he found that the 
 set of public opinion was in his favour. His supporters 
 increased ; the newspapers recognised in him a hero and 
 
 * Historical Collections of South Carolina, vol. i. p. 293.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 35 
 
 public benefactor. The following letter from the vener- 
 able Samuel Wesley, accompanying a copy of his work on 
 the Book of Job, may be taken as an indication of the 
 
 state of feeling towards him : — 
 
 " Epworth, July 6, 1734. 
 "Honoured Sir, — May I be permitted, while such 
 crowds of our nobility and gentry are pouring their 
 congratulations, to press with my poor mite of thanks 
 into the presence of one who so well deserves the title 
 of Universal Benefactor of Mankind. It is not only 
 your valuable favours on many accounts to my son, late 
 of Westminster, and myself, when I was not a little 
 pressed in the world, nor your more extensive charity to 
 the poor prisoners ; it is not these only that so much 
 demand my warmest acknowledgments, as your dis- 
 interested and immovable attachment to your country ; 
 by your raising a new colony, or rather a little world of 
 your own, in the midst of wild woods and uncultivated 
 deserts, where men may live free and happy, if they are not 
 hindered by their own stupidity and folly, in spite of the 
 unkindness of their brother-mortals." . . . 
 
 Though now within a short period of his decease, 
 Samuel Wesley took such an intense interest in the 
 Georgian colony, that he declared that, if he had been 
 ten years younger, he would gladly have devoted the 
 remainder of his life and labours to the emigrants, 
 and in acquiring the language of the Indians among 
 whom they had to live. Among others who had gone
 
 36 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 to Georgia with Oglethorpe and had returned with him, 
 was John Lyndal, one of Samuel Wesley's parishioners, 
 of whom the venerable rector earnestly inquired whether 
 the ministers who had migrated to the infant colony 
 understood the Indian language, and could preach with- 
 out interpreters. 
 
 Tomo Chichi went to court and presented eagle 
 feathers to George II. Poems were written in 
 many journals, and the " Gentleman's Magazine " 
 offered a prize for a medal to commemorate Ogle- 
 thorpe's benevolence and patriotism. Tomo and his 
 friends were also presented to the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, and to him Tomo expressed the wish of 
 his people for religious instruction. The visit of the 
 Indians had the result intended. Fresh interest was 
 awakened. Parliament continued its benefactions, the 
 King expressed the deepest interest in the province 
 that bore his name, and often inquired of his ministers 
 respecting it. And when, after a stay of four months 
 in England, the natives went home, it was inevitable 
 that they should do good by spreading abroad among 
 their brethren the impression they had formed of 
 English greatness, and power, and culture, and kind- 
 ness. 
 
 But success and appreciation did not lead Oglethorpe 
 to lessen his activity. The cause of the colony was ever 
 present with him. Scarcely had he landed when he 
 was arranging for another relay of settlers. Some dis-
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 37 
 
 contentment had been felt by certain of the emigrants 
 at the embargo which had been put on the importation 
 of rum and spirits, and avowedly on this ground a few 
 had left the colony for other parts in America, efforts 
 to smuggle in drink not having succeeded. In spite 
 of this, we find the trustees firmly adhering to their 
 policy. 
 
 While Oglethorpe was in England they passed an 
 Act at once for preventing trouble with the Indians, 
 and for preserving the health and morals of the people. 
 It was entitled " An Act to prevent all importation of 
 rum and brandies into the province of Georgia, or any 
 kind of ardent spirits or strong waters whatsoever." A 
 writer of the day makes this remark : " At the same time 
 the trustees endeavoured to supply the stores with strong 
 beer from England, molasses for brewing beer, and 
 with Madeira wines; which the people might purchase 
 at reasonable rates, which would be more refreshing and 
 wholesome for them." 
 
 The news from Georgia continued to be encouraging. 
 In September 1734 the trustees learned that Savannah 
 was in a prosperous condition, and that the people had 
 already reaped a crop of Indian corn, which produced up- 
 wards of a thousand bushels. The trustees also received 
 a curious despatch from the Indians, expressing their 
 sense of the greatness of the British nation, their thanks 
 for the attentions shown to Tomo Chichi and his com- 
 panions, and their attachment to Mr. Oglethorpe.
 
 38 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 Meantime the colony had been swelled by new 
 arrivals ; for which the general had done his best to pre- 
 pare before leaving. A body of Salzburgers — Bavarian 
 Protestants who had been compelled to flee their country 
 in the depth of winter, owing to the harsh treatment of 
 their government — reached Savannah on the loth of 
 March 1 734 — a Sabbath day — and as they lay off the shore 
 they heard the birds singing so sweetly that it seemed to 
 them, after their many sufferings, that they had been 
 conducted at last to a resting-place and a home. They 
 were received with kindness by all ; and the colonists 
 provided for their wants according to the instructions 
 Oglethorpe had given before he left. Some miles up 
 the river from Savannah they found an attractive spot 
 for a settlement, and with the Bible in their hands they 
 marked out the boundaries, and significantly named it 
 EbeJiezer. The spot chosen was surrounded by vast 
 forests of cedar, walnuts, cypresses, and oaks, with wild 
 vines running to the top of the highest trees. As for 
 game, there were eagles, turkeys, roebucks, goats, deer, 
 wild cows, horses, hares, partridges, and buffaloes without 
 number. The Salzburgers built tents made of the bark 
 of trees, constructed roads and bridges, set up rehgious 
 services, were furnished with domestic utensils and with 
 cattle, and were soon a prosperous community, A short 
 time later a band of Moravians were received, who 
 fared equally well at the hands of the settlers ; and later 
 Still, a yet more remarkable population, who far out-
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 39 
 
 numbered the discontented who had removed to Caro- 
 lina and other places. The proposal of the trustees 
 had excited such interest in Scotland and been received 
 with such favour that, in Inverness and its vicinity, no 
 fewer than a hundred and thirty Highlanders and their 
 famiUes had been enrolled for emigration. These, with 
 wives and children, making in all a party of about 200, 
 arrived in Georgia in the month of January 1735 ; and 
 with them came several private grantees, with their 
 servants. The Scots were destined to settle on the 
 frontiers, for the protection and defence of the province. 
 After staying a few days at Savannah, they proceeded 
 southward in periaguas ; and, ascending the Alatamaha 
 River about sixteen miles from St. Simons, they pitched 
 upon a suitable settlement. Here they raised a little 
 fort and mounted four pieces of cannon. They also 
 built a guard-house, a store, and a chapel ; for, with 
 characteristic piety and foresight, they had brought a 
 pastor with them— a Mr. Macleod, " a very good man, 
 who is very useful in instructing the people in religious 
 matters and will intermeddle with no other affairs." 
 The district, at their desire, was called " Darien ; " while 
 the town was named " New Inverness," which, however, 
 in later years was changed. It is refreshing to read — 
 
 " The costume of the Highland clansman, his cap and 
 plume, his kilt and plaid, soon became very dear to the 
 red man of the woods ; they mingled in their sports, and 
 hunted the buffalo together ; — for the woods of Georgia
 
 40 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 were then as full of buffaloes as the plains of Missouri 
 are now ; and the writer of this notice was told when a 
 boy, by General Lachlan M'Intosh, that when a youth he 
 had seen ten thousand buffalo within ten miles of New 
 Inverness." * 
 
 Meantime Oglethorpe was busy at home. He carried 
 many measures for the future benefit of the colony. His 
 concern for the Indians led him to interest the trustees 
 in their moral and religious condition, and his proposi- 
 tion that efficient Christian teachers be engaged for the 
 colony, some of whom should specially devote them- 
 selves to the Indians, was warmly supported. 
 
 They at once began to look round for fit persons 
 to undertake this work. At the suggestion of Dr. John 
 Burton, a member of the Board, they turned their attention 
 to John Wesley, then a young man of great promise as a 
 preacher. Wesley took counsel with his brother Samuel ; 
 asked the advice of William Law, and went to Manchester 
 to consult his friends Clayton and Byrom. Thence he 
 proceeded to Epworth, and laid the proposal before his 
 widowed mother, who replied, " Had I twenty sons, I 
 should rejoice if they were all so employed." f His 
 decision was soon taken, and in a short time we find 
 him writing to his friend Mr. Benjamin Ingham: 
 " Fast and pray ; and then send me word whether you 
 
 • J. Spalding's Memoir of M'Intosh, in "Portrait Gallery of 
 Distinguished Americans," 1836, vol. iii. 
 + Tyerman's Wesley, i. p. 105.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE, 41 
 
 dare go with me to the Indians." After a time Ingham 
 answered fthat, though he had, on first getting the 
 proposal, fancied that " we had heathen enough at 
 home," the call had been made clear to him as he had 
 dwelt on the prospect, and that he would go.* 
 
 Mr. Benjamin Ingham, above referred to, was a young 
 Yorkshireman of great promise, and, as we have seen, he 
 went to act as Wesley's assistant ; while Charles Dela- 
 motte, who was the son of a wealthy London merchant, 
 was so devoted to Wesley, that, in face of opposition from 
 his family and the finest chances in business, he decided 
 to go to Georgia as Wesley's servant. Another passenger 
 at this time was the venerable David Nitschmann — the 
 Moravian bishop — who, as Wesley said, "adorned the 
 Gospel of our Lord in all things." 
 
 The ships were specially fitted out to carry the emi- 
 grants, and Oglethorpe would sail in company with them. 
 The Government had offered Oglethorpe a vessel for his 
 own accommodation ; but this he declined, preferring to 
 sail with the emigrants and to live as they did. The 
 "Symond " and the " London Merchant," each about 220 
 tons, were the vessels that had been chartered ; and they 
 sailed from the Thames on the 21st of October 1735, 
 but, owing to contrary winds, Cowes was not left till the 
 loth of December. 
 
 The Moravians went to join their brethren who had 
 gone out the previous year. Most readers will remember 
 
 • Oxford Methodists, pp. 64, 66, 67.
 
 42 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 something of the influence which was brought to bear 
 on Wesley through his relationship with them on this 
 voyage. Mr. Ingham describes them as " a good, 
 devout, and heavenly - minded people. Almost the 
 only time you know they are in the ship is when 
 they are harmoniously singing the praises of the great 
 Creator, which they constantly do twice a-day. Their 
 example was very edifying. They are more like the 
 primitive Christians than any church now existing, for 
 they retain both the faith, practice, and discipline 
 delivered by the apostles. They have regularly ordained 
 bishops, priests, and deacons. Baptisms, confirmation, 
 and the Eucharist are duly administered. Discipline is 
 strictly exercised without respect of persons. They all 
 submit themselves to the pastors in everything. They 
 live together in perfect love and peace, having for the 
 present all things common. They are more ready to 
 serve their neighbours than themselves. In business 
 they are diligent, in all their dealings strictly just ; and 
 in everything they behave themselves with meekness, 
 sweetness, and humility." 
 
 In a storm that made many scream out for fear, and 
 caused Wesley to tremble doubting if he were fit to die, 
 the Moravians were perfectly calm and sang their hymns. 
 "Are you not afraid ? " Wesley asked one of them. He 
 replied, "I thank God, no." "Are your women and 
 children not afraid?" "No; our women and children 
 are not afraid to die." No wonder that Wesley was
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 43 
 
 deeply influenced by their conduct and the spirit of 
 their life, having his idea of what a religious community 
 should be elevated and spiritualised. 
 
 Oglethorpe, in preparing for the voyage, had given 
 attention to the most commonplace details, — preparing 
 tools, provisions, clothing, and other stores for the 
 voyage ; and that not with any reference to himself, 
 for we are assured by a fellow-passenger that, while he 
 laboured incessantly at these preparations, he paid the 
 passage of the gentlemen who were with him and his 
 servants, and scarcely ever ate anything but the common 
 provisions of the ship. We have a fuller account of 
 this voyage than of any of the others, because of the 
 attention of Messrs. Wesley and Ingham to their diaries, 
 and from that of the latter we may make an extract 
 si)ecially throwing light on Oglethorpe's character. Mr. 
 Ingham writes under date — 
 
 '■'•Friday, December 19, Messrs. Wesley and I, with 
 IMr. Oglethorpe's approbation, undertook to visit, each 
 of us, a part of the ship, and daily to provide the sick 
 people with water-gruel, and such other things as were 
 necessary for them. At first we met with some diffi- 
 culties, but God enabled us to persevere in the constant 
 performance to the end of the journey. Mr. Oglethorpe 
 himself went several times about the ship to comfort 
 and encourage the people ; and, indeed, he had never 
 been wanting in this respect. He is a pattern of fatherly 
 care and tender compassion, being always ready, night
 
 44 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 and day, to give up his own ease and conveniences to 
 serve the poorest body among the people. He seldom 
 eats above once a day, and then he usually chooses salt 
 provisions (though not so agreeable to his health), that 
 he might give the fresh to the sick. But more will 
 appear from the following instance. One Mrs. Welch, 
 who was believed to be at the point of death, being big 
 with child, in a high fever, attended with a violent 
 cough, was, by Mr. Oglethorpe's order, removed into his 
 own cabin, which was the best in the ship, he himself 
 lying several nights in a hammock, till another cabin 
 was got ready for him. He also constantly supplied her 
 with all the best things in the ship. Some of the gentle- 
 men seemed disgusted at this ; but that made him only 
 the more resolute. Yet, notwithstanding all possible 
 care was taken of her, human means failed ; the doctor 
 gave her up, everybody thought she would die ; Mr. 
 Oglethorpe only continued in hope. Nay, he said, he 
 was sure God would raise her up to manifest His glory 
 in her. She had a desire to receive the Lord's Supper 
 before she died ; and lo ! from the moment she received 
 it, she began to recover, and is now safely delivered of 
 a daughter, and in perfect health. ' Gracious is the 
 Lord and merciful, long-suffering, and of great goodness ; 
 the Lord is loving to every man, and His mercy is over 
 all His works.'" 
 
 The voyage from Cowes to the Savannah River was 
 made in fifty-seven days. Oglethorpe seems to have
 
 JAMES OGLETIIOKPE. 4^ 
 
 always acted with great kindness. On one occasion, 
 when some of the officers and gentlemen on board took 
 liberties with Wesley and his friends, Oglethorpe indig- 
 nantly exclaimed, " What mean you, sir ? Do you take 
 these gentlemen for tithe-pig parsons ? They are gentle- 
 men of learning and respectability. They are my 
 friends, and whoever offers an affront to them insults 
 me." 
 
 They had experienced a tempestuous voyage and 
 had a rough passage, but now the weather was fine ; the 
 land breeze refreshed them as the ships lay quietly 
 moored, and they hailed with delight the land of pro- 
 mise where, as Wesley said, " the groves of pines along 
 the shores made an agreeable prospect, showing, as it 
 were, the verdure and bloom of spring in the depth of 
 winter." 
 
 The ships which bore this large accession to the 
 colony passed the bar at Tybee, on the 5th of February 
 1736, and came to anchor. This island is at the mouth 
 of the Savannah River; is five miles long, and three 
 broad ; and is the most easterly land in the State. 
 Oglethorpe went immediately on shore, to see what had 
 been done towards raising the beacon on the island, for 
 the construction of which he had given orders. " It 
 was to be an octagon building of squared timber; its 
 dimensions twenty-five feet wide at the bottom and ten 
 at the top ; and its height ninety feet, with a flagstaff on 
 the top thirty feet high. When completed, it would be
 
 46 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 of great service to all shipping, not only to the vessels 
 bound to this port, but also to those bound for Carolina ; 
 for the land of the coast, for some hundred miles, is so 
 alike, being low and woody, that a distinguishing mark 
 is of great consequence."* To his disappointment and 
 regret this most desirable enterprise had not been carried 
 forward as he had hoped. The work had been neglected 
 owing partly to unfaithfulness and partly to want of 
 energy on the part of the contractors. But Oglethorpe's 
 forecast and administrative talent is seen in his plans 
 and in his future decision, for before a few months had 
 passed the lighthouse was completed. 
 
 Oglethorpe was as much surprised as gratified to see 
 the progress that had been made in his absence. The 
 town now extended to nearly two miles in circumference. 
 The ground on which it stood had only two years 
 before been covered with dense woods. Two hundred 
 comfortable dwellings occupied the space, some of them 
 two or three stories high. To guard against the spread 
 of fire, the houses were detached, each standing in its 
 own lot of ground, sixty feet in width by ninety in 
 length, and fenced in by stout palings. Each freeholder, 
 in addition to his town-plot, had five acres outside the 
 common, to serve as garden, orchard, &c. The streets 
 were wide, and large squares were left at proper 
 distances. A large public garden was now laid out 
 under cultivation, which, beautiful as it was (and Ogle- 
 
 * Moore's Voyage, p. i8.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE, 47 
 
 thorpe was a great garden lover), had other claims to 
 admiration. It was meant to be a nursery for mulberry 
 trees, many of which were already planted in it 
 
 IV. 
 
 During Oglethorpe's absence some difificulties had 
 arisen with a family of Indians respecting boundaries ; 
 and, in consistency with the principles on which he had 
 from the first acted, he at once set himself to the settle- 
 ment of this dispute. For this purpose he travelled a 
 great distance through a trying country, hardly allowing 
 himself ordinary rest or refreshment ; but he arranged 
 matters to the satisfaction of all parties without delay, 
 making it clearly understood that no colonist on the 
 slightest pretext must seem to overreach the natives. 
 And, truly, Oglethorpe was no laggard. No sooner had 
 he settled this matter, than he started to visit the Salz- 
 burgers, and having stayed with them for a day or two, 
 he went on to see how the Moravians were proceeding 
 with their works, and then southward to Darien. " He 
 found the Scotchmen under arms," we are told, " dressed 
 in their uniform of plaid, equipped with broadswords, 
 targets, and muskets." Oglethorpe says they made a fine 
 appearance ; a remark in which perhaps he was the more 
 justified that, in compliment to them, he wore their 
 costume all the time that he was with them. They had 
 provided him a soft bed, with hoUand sheets and plaid
 
 48 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 curtains ; but he chose to lie upon the ground and in 
 the open air, wrapped in his cloak, as did two other 
 gentlemen ; and afterwards his example was followed by 
 the rest of his attendants. Fortunately such self-denials 
 did not greatly try Oglethorpe. His constitution was 
 hardy ; he required little sleep ; he could go a long 
 time without food, and not feel any inconvenience or 
 serious results from it. What would have killed many a 
 man had hardly any effect upon him. A gentleman, who 
 accompanied him on this and several other tours, says 
 in a letter written on the 24th of February 1736 — 
 
 "What surprises me beyond expression is his ab- 
 stemiousness and hard living. Though even dainties 
 are plentiful, he makes the least use of them ; and such 
 is his hardiness, that he goes through the woods, wet or 
 dry, as well as any Indian. Moreover, his humanity so 
 gains on all here, that I have not words to express their 
 regard and esteem for him." 
 
 The record of Oglethorpe's travels fully justifies what 
 has been cited above. Scarcely had he seen how 
 matters were at Savannah when he set forth again, as the 
 following passage from Wesley's life shows : — 
 
 " Ingham and Charles Wesley went off with Oglethorpe 
 to lay out the town of Frederica; and Wesley and 
 Delamotte, having no house of their own to live in, 
 lodged, during the first month, with Spangenberg, Nitsch- 
 mann, and other Moravian friends. Thus, from morning 
 to night, were they mixed up with these godly people, and
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 49 
 
 had ample opportunity to observe their spirit and be- 
 haviour. Wesley writes : " They were always employed, 
 always cheerful themselves, and in good humour with 
 one another; they had put away all anger and strife, 
 and wrath, and bitterness, and clamour, and evil speak- 
 ing ; they walked worthy of the vocation wherewith they 
 were called." 
 
 On January 19, 1737, Oglethorpe was able to tell the 
 directors that during the past year, not only had Augusta, 
 Darien, and Frederica been founded, and that a new 
 town called Ebenezer had been laid out for the Salz- 
 burgers, but that there were several villages settled by 
 gentlemen at their own expense. He was further able 
 to give them the pleasing intelligence, that the remoter 
 Creek nations, to a distance of some 700 miles, now 
 acknowledged his Majesty's authority and traded with 
 the settlers. As illustrative of the rough mode of Hfe 
 to which Oglethorpe gladly accommodated himself, the 
 following passage from Mr. Ingham's diary must be 
 given — 
 
 ^^ Monday, February 16, 1736. — About seven this even- 
 ing, I set forward with Mr. Oglethorpe and some others 
 in a ten-oared boat, for the Alatamaha River, the 
 southernmost part of Georgia. At eleven we arrived 
 at a place called Skiddowa, where we went ashore into 
 the woods and kmdled a fire under a lofty pine-tree. 
 Having written some letters, and eaten something, we 
 
 lay down to sleep upon the ground, without either bed 
 
 D
 
 so JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 or board, having no covering besides our clothes, but a 
 single blanket each, and the canopy of heaven. About 
 eight next day we set forward again, passing several 
 marshes, beset on both sides by trees of various sorts, 
 whose leaves, being gilded with the glorious rays of 
 the sun, yielded a beautiful prospect. About twelve the 
 wind blew so high that we were driven upon an oyster- 
 bank, where we could not get a stick to make a fire. 
 Here we dined very comfortably. Near two we set 
 forward again, and with great difficulty crossed over the 
 mouth of the river Ogechee. The wind was exceed- 
 ingly high, and the water very rough. Almost every 
 wave drove over the side of the boat, so that every 
 moment we were in jeopardy of our lives ; and, truly, if 
 Mr. Oglethorpe had not roused up himself, and struck 
 life into the rowers, I do not know but most of us might 
 there have made our exit. Towards six we got to a 
 little place called Boar's Island, where we encamped all 
 night, round a roaring fire, in a bed of canes, where the 
 wind could not reach us. Here also we came up with a 
 large boat, called a pettiangur, loaded with people for the 
 Alatamaha, who had set out before us. Next morning 
 after prayers, Mr. Oglethorpe, considering that our own 
 boat was overladen, and also that I might probably be 
 of some service to the people, asked me if I was willing 
 to go on board the pettiangur, whereto I readily con- 
 sented. Here, during the remainder of our passage, I 
 read to the people, and instructed them as I had oppor-
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. %\ 
 
 tunity. This evening we lay upon St. Catherine's, a 
 very pleasant island, where we met with two Indians 
 a-hunting. I took one of them on board the pettiangur, 
 and gave him some biscuit and wine, and he in return 
 sent us the greatest part of a deer." * 
 
 Difficulties had already arisen in various forms upon 
 Oglethorpe, — some of them, it may be said, in a measure, 
 incident to such an undertaking, and others of a more 
 special kind. 
 
 A proportion of the settlers had proved as idle and 
 useless members of society in America as they had been 
 in Great Britain ; and as their material wants had been 
 supplied from the common store, they felt no stimulus 
 to industry and frugality. The trustees, as we have 
 seen, had therefore begun to look round for a better 
 class of emigrants. But still there were periodical 
 expressions of discontent ; now it was the exclusion of 
 spirits ; again the deprivation of slave-labour, the preva- 
 lence of which in the neighbouring colonies was held 
 to put the Georgians at great disadvantage. Then, 
 the mode of settlement, it must be allowed, though 
 devised with the best intentions, did not give the settler 
 a sufficiently close and permanent interest in the land he 
 cultivated. Here, in Georgia, more than a century ago, 
 the same principle was found at work as certain later 
 educationists have dwelt on f — that unless associated 
 
 * Mr. Tyerman's Oxford Methodists, p. 76. 
 
 t See Dr. Rigg's Essay on National Education, passim.
 
 5a JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 with a fair prospect of free proprietorship, the education 
 and moral advancement of the working classes must be 
 slow, because they have really no fixed locality or home. 
 It was an error of the trustees not to have given more 
 of personal interest to the settlers. If any man could 
 have overcome the disadvantages of such a settlement, 
 we believe that Oglethorpe would have done it, and 
 indeed he almost overcame them, but not quite. 
 
 We read in an official report : " By this time the 
 colonists of Georgia had become fully convinced of the 
 disadvantages of that plan of settlement framed by the 
 trustees. However well intended, it was found to be 
 ill adapted to their circumstances, and likely to prove 
 ruinous to the settlement. In the province of Carolina 
 which lay adjacent, the colonists discovered that there 
 they could obtain lands, not only on better terms, but 
 also liberty to purchase negroes to assist in clearing and 
 cultivating them. They found labour in the burning 
 climate intolerable, and the hardships and dangers to 
 which they were subjected wholly unbearable. Instead 
 of raising commodities for exportation, the Georgians, 
 by the labour of several years, were not yet able to 
 raise sufficient provisions to support themselves and 
 families. Under such discouragements, numbers retired 
 to the Carolina side of the river, where they had better 
 prospects of success." 
 
 It was, above all, necessary that strong colonies should 
 be planted along the frontiers. The service rendered by
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 53 
 
 tlie Scotch people in virtue of their very position in the 
 south was unspeakable ; but detachments of the Germans 
 on several occasions declined to move to the south to 
 settle on the frontiers, on the very ground of possible 
 trouble from the Spaniards, varied with excuses that 
 they could not forego the enjoyment of the ministerial 
 services at Ebenezer. This was unavoidable, perhaps, 
 but it was in some sense a peril and a drawback, even 
 though their steadiness and frugality and industry enabled 
 them to plant new and flourishing settlements nearer to 
 Savannah. As we may imagine, this was a delicate and 
 trying circumstance to Oglethorpe in many ways. 
 
 The necessity of a stringent military service was 
 another difficulty that increased just in the measure 
 that the trustees were successful in finding the better 
 class of settlers that they wished. The Scotchmen at 
 Darien, it was true, were good settlers, and did not 
 object to military exercises, but rather liked them ; this, 
 however, was not the case with the Salzburgers and 
 Moravians, and their exemption from service out of 
 respect to their principles was an apple of discord that 
 became more and more obtrusive as time went on. 
 For the Spaniards had not failed intermittently to 
 annoy the colony ; they had endeavoured in many ways 
 to draw the Indians from their allegiance, and, failing, 
 they had committed cruel outrages. It was necessary, 
 therefore, that a force should be in readiness in case of 
 any more effective demonstration being made. Skir-
 
 54 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 mishes both on land and water were frequent ; and forts 
 and drillings became more numerous and more neces- 
 sary, as the events of the next few years fully proved. 
 
 In spite of the money invested and the time that had 
 been spent, the silk industry did not succeed. Every- 
 thing possible had been done to encourage it. But 
 the climate did not prove so friendly as was anticipated. 
 Sudden transitions from heat to cold destroyed great 
 numbers of worms. Suitable labour, too, it was difficult 
 to hire j and as the colonists found that rice-culture and 
 afterwards cotton required less labour and paid better, 
 as a natural consequence they devoted themselves to 
 these. 
 
 It was found hard, too, to keep out the drink. Drink- 
 ing increased precisely as the schemes of the colonists 
 failed. Such ingenuity was exercised to import it 
 secretly as, had it been applied to legitimate trade, would 
 have blessed the colony. The very same difficulties 
 were experienced then as are being felt by many philan- 
 trophic legislators now, the chief being the rebound 
 against an enforced sobriety and morality. One of the 
 Indian chiefs, when urged to listen to the doctrines of 
 Christianity, and become a convert, keenly replied, " Why 
 these a-re Christians at Savannah ! These are Christians 
 at Frederica ! " and then exclaimed, " Christians drink ! 
 Christians beat men ! Christians tell lies ! no, no; me 
 no Christian 1 " 
 
 In addition to the treaty which Oglethorpe was con-
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 55 
 
 fronted by, there now came all too decisive limits of 
 discontent at the condition of the settlement in high 
 quarters at home. " Misfortunes come not single spies 
 but in battaHons," Oglethorpe now fully verified. 
 
 From a letter which Wesley wrote to him on February 
 24, 1737, we learn that Sir Robert Walpole had turned 
 against the general, and parliament had resolved to make 
 a strict scrutiny into Georgian affairs.* Oglethorpe had 
 been charged with misapplying monies, and with abus- 
 ing his entrusted power. Wesley adds : " Perhaps in 
 some things you have shown you are but a man ; perhaps 
 •I myself may have a little to complain of; but, oh, what 
 a train of benefits have I received to lay in the balance 
 against it ! I bless God that ever you were born. I 
 acknowledge His exceeding mercy in casting me into 
 your hands. I own you generous all the time we were 
 at sea and since. I am indebted to you for a thousand 
 favours here. Though all men should revile you, yet 
 will not I." t 
 
 Though Wesley had been willing to consider the whole 
 of the Georgian settlements as his parish, he was in some 
 degree fettered in his work of ministering to the Indians 
 through the unexpected absence of the Rev. Mr. Quincy in 
 England. This made it necessary for him to stay and 
 preach to the English at Savannah ; and this circumstance 
 
 • Walpole would appear to have been moved by some personal 
 dislike to Oglethorpe ; for he uniformly ti ies to depreciate him. See 
 LecUy's " History of the Eighteenth Century," vol. ii. p. 501. 
 
 t Tyerman's Wesley, vol. i. p. 136.
 
 56 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 was perhaps unfortunate. His high-church views and his 
 severity in several respects before long came into conflict 
 with the feelings of many of the settlers, while meantime 
 his one desire was to devote himself wholly to the In- 
 dians, as he had hoped to do when he left England. He 
 was by and by joined by his brother Charles, who, with 
 Mr. Ingham, did noble work both among the Indians 
 and the settlers. By the Indians especially Mr. 
 Ingham was received with much favour. They gave 
 him a plot of fruitful ground, in the midst of which 
 was a small round hill; and on the top of this hill a 
 house was built for an Indian school. The house was 
 named Irene.* The devotion which this group of men 
 showed to those whom they had come to teach and to 
 befriend shines out very cheeringly athwart difficulties, 
 misunderstandings, and some imprudences it may be 
 prompted by zeal. All were prepared to illustrate their 
 teaching by example even in the minor details of hfe. 
 Some of the boys in one of the schools went barefooted, 
 and those who were shod looked down upon them. 
 Wesley asked his friend to change schools with him for 
 a time. He astonished the boys that had sneered at their 
 barefooted brethren by himself coming to school bare- 
 footed ; and bare feet soon ceased to be a mark for scorn, 
 Ingham was sent to England in the end of 1736, the 
 chief purpose of his mission being to procure more 
 help for the colonists. He faithfully executed the com- 
 • Wesley's Works, vol. i. p. 6i.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 57 
 
 mission ; but he never returned to Georgia. He after, 
 wards made himself a famiUar name among the Metho- 
 dists as the "Yorkshire EvangeHst." He was only 
 twenty-three when he went out to Georgia. 
 
 V. 
 
 In 1737 Oglethorpe, at the request of his brother- 
 trustees, returned to England, in order mainly to 
 represent personally to the British Ministry and those 
 concerned the real causes of discontent, and also the 
 "necessity for a stronger force than the colony could 
 furnish, or had been furnished, against the Spaniards. 
 He urged his points well ; showing, with respect to the 
 latter question, that not only did the question concern 
 Georgia, but Carolina and other colonies also. He 
 returned in the end of 1738, with a commission to erect 
 additional forts, and with certain supplies and aids. His 
 calculations and his demands for yet more effective 
 military organisation, were fully justified by the event. 
 
 There were now in Georgia the following settle- 
 ments : — Frederica in St. Simon's Island, one hundred 
 miles south of Savannah ; Darien, at a distance of about 
 eighty miles ; New Ebenezer, about nineteen miles ; 
 Highgate and Hampstead, four or five miles south-west; 
 and Thunderbolt, some six miles south-east. 
 
 Unfortunately, in some respects the discontent arising 
 out of the necessity of increased military service had led
 
 58 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 to further departures from the colony, thinning the 
 numbers of the Moravian brethren, every way good 
 settlers ; and these were soon to be followed by other 
 departures. We read in a good and really unimpeach- 
 able authority — 
 
 "As the exemption from military service embittered 
 the minds of the people against them, some of the 
 brethren in 1738 left all their flourishing plantations, 
 having repaid all the money which had been advanced 
 towards their passage and settlement, and went to 
 Pennsylvania. The rest were left undisturbed for a while ; 
 but in 1739, when the troubles of war broke out afresh, 
 being again molested on account of military service, they 
 followed their brethren in the spring of 1740, and after- 
 wards begun the colonies of Bethlehem and Nazareth,"* 
 
 Oglethorpe's care for the Indian people never lapsed ; 
 and proofs of it were continual. We may notice one or 
 two in this place. Dr. Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and 
 Man, who had had some conversation with Oglethorpe 
 while in London in 1737, promised to complete a simple 
 manual which might be translated into their language. 
 This was not accomplished till 1741, when we find the 
 bishop's son sending to Oglethorpe a copy of the manual 
 which had been published by the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The bishop, after 
 mentioning in his preface the circumstance in which the 
 book was undertaken, says — 
 
 • Cranz's History of the United Brethren, pp. 193-229.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 59 
 
 " Mr. Oglethorpe's great and generous concern for both 
 the present and the future interest of these nations, and his 
 earnest desire and endeavours, so well known, to civilise 
 them first, and make them more capable of instruction 
 in the ways of religion and civil government, and his 
 hearty wishes that something might be done to forward 
 such good purposes, prevailed with the author, however 
 indifferently qualified for such a work, to set about the 
 following essay for propagating the Gospel among Indians 
 and negroes." * 
 
 In the midst of the most arduous labours, Oglethorpe 
 always found time carefully to consider any request or 
 complaint from the natives, and was ready to under- 
 take the most troublesome journeys for their good. On 
 the 17th of July 1739, we read that he set off on an 
 expedition to Coweta, to hold a conference with the 
 Creek Indians. On his journey, computed to be over 
 three hundred miles, he and his attendants met with 
 many and great hardships. They were obliged to 
 traverse a continuous wilderness without roads, through 
 tangled thickets and deep and broken ravines, across 
 swamps and bogs where the horses sank and plunged to 
 the great danger of the riders. They had to pass large 
 rivers on rafts and cause horses to wade and swim, and 
 to ford others. During most of the way Oglethorpe was 
 
 * The Knowledge and Practice of Christianity made Easy to 
 the Meanest Capacity; or, an Essay Towards the Instruction of tlie 
 Indians. London, 1740. i2ino.
 
 €o JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 under the necessity of sleeping in the open air, wrapped 
 in his cloak or a blanket, and with his portmanteau for 
 a pillow ; or, if the night- weather was uncomfortable 
 or rainy, a covert was constructed of cypress boughs 
 spread over poles. For two hundred miles there was 
 not a hut, not a human face to be seen, unless that of 
 some Indian hunter traversing the woods. At length 
 they arrived at Coweta, one of the principal towns of the 
 Muscoghe or Creek Indians, where the chiefs of all the 
 tribes were assembled, on the nth of August. "Thus 
 did this worthy man, to protect the settlement, which 
 with so much pecuniary expense and devotedness of 
 time he had founded, now expose himself to the hazards 
 and toils of a comfortless expedition, that would have 
 proved insurmountable to one of a less enterprising spirit 
 and steady resolution." 
 
 We are not surprised when we learn that General 
 Oglethorpe ingratiated himself highly with the Creeks by 
 his great consideration for them exhibited in such a 
 manner. The attitude of the Spaniards became only 
 more and more threatening. It was evident that more 
 help must be procured from the home country, else all 
 might be lost. So serious did the crisis seem, that 
 Oglethorpe — a man not apt to surrender to despondency, 
 but to act with cool bravery and decision — gave orders 
 that all who fancied they could better themselves by 
 leaving the colony should do so. It speaks highly for 
 the opinion — which in spite of some discontentment — the
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 6l 
 
 emigrants had formed of Oglethorpe, that not one availed 
 himself of the offer,* 
 
 At length, in December 1739, the smouldering fire 
 burst into flame. Oglethorpe had received orders from the 
 Home Government to attack Florida, and would have 
 done so had he been able to raise a sufficient force ; 
 but the Spaniards by an attempt upon the settlement of 
 Amelia — in which they shot at and killed several un- 
 armed Highlanders, aiterwards hacking and mutilating 
 their bodies — made this inevitable as an act of retaliation. 
 Oglethorpe now determined, as soon as he could collect 
 a sufficient number of boats, to make an incursion into 
 Florida. With such a contingent as he could muster, 
 he soon embarked and made his way to St. John's. 
 Having taken and destroyed all the boats he found in 
 that river, he landed and proceeded a day's march in 
 the direction of Augustine. A troop of Spanish horse 
 and a company of foot showed themselves preparing 
 to attack, but the Indians advancing with the war-whoop 
 drove them off. The war once begun went on with 
 varying success, Oglethorpe's vigilance only sufficing to 
 stave off disaster. 
 
 While these agents of disturbance were at work, 
 Oglethorpe's wisdom and goodwill had supplied many 
 counteracting elements. He had infected the better 
 classes of emigrants with a complete trust in him, and 
 such an enthusiasm for the objects he had at heart, as 
 • Harris's Memorials, p. 203.
 
 6s JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 enabled them to undergo many deprivations. The 
 Indians too maintained towards him their first attitude, 
 in spite of many endeavours on the part of the Spaniards 
 to alienate them. One of his greatest disappointments 
 had arisen from the conscientious manner in which he 
 had endeavoured to provide for religious teaching. 
 John Wesley, after a period of most devoted ministration, 
 unfortunately became involved in a difference with some 
 persons, who raised an action against him in the local 
 court for defamation of character; and this led to his 
 leaving Georgia, in circumstances that were not well 
 calculated to further the end for which he had gone 
 thither. He had shown zeal and self-denial more than 
 prudence. He left Georgia in December 1737, and 
 reached England in February 1738. Whitefield had 
 left England for Georgia before Wesley's arrival. He 
 reached Savannah in May, and for a time devoted him- 
 self energetically to the work which Wesley had begun. 
 He sat by the deathbed of the chief Tomo Chichi, 
 preached at Savannah, visited Frederica and other 
 places. He sailed for England in about a year to 
 receive priest's orders, and to obtain money for an 
 Orphan Home on which he had set his heart. The 
 vessel was caught in a storm, the officers lost their 
 reckoning, and provisions failed. The daily rations 
 were reduced to an ounce or two of salt beef, a pint 
 of water, and a small cake made of flour and skimmings 
 of the pot. Whitefield acted nobly : he was a power
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 6^ 
 
 in comforting and cheering others. His diary tells 
 of the calm Christian spirit his sufferings bred in him. 
 Here is one passage — 
 
 " Blessed be God for these things ; I rejoice in them 
 daily. They are no more than what I expected, and 
 I know they are preparations for future mercies. God 
 of His infinite mercy humble and try me, till I am rightly 
 disposed to receive them. Amen. Lord Jesus, Amen. 
 It pities me often to see my brethren, lying in the dust 
 as they have done, these many weeks, and exposed to 
 such straits ; for God knows both their bodies and souls 
 are dear to me. But thanks be to God, they bear up 
 well, and I hope we shall all now learn to endure hard- 
 ships like good soldiers of Jesus Christ." 
 
 His return to Georgia was delayed, owing to the great 
 religious revival which originated in his preaching at 
 Kingswood; but in 1739 he returned to the colony, and 
 preached and worked there with much success till the 
 autumn of 1741, so that he was a witness to some of 
 the most difficult and exacting labours the general 
 underwent in a time of war, and his testimony has its 
 own value. We find him writing thus to Mr. Ingham 
 on March 28th, 1740: "How glad I should be of a 
 letter from dear brother Ingham. When shall my soul 
 be refreshed with hearing that the work of the Lord 
 prospers in his hand ? I suppose before now you have 
 received my letters and seen my journal. I believe 
 God is yet preparing great things for us. Many at
 
 64 JAMES OGLETHORPE, 
 
 Charlestown lately were brought to see their wants of 
 Jesus Christ. The Orphan Home goes on bravely. I 
 have forty children to maintain, besides workmen and 
 their assistants. The great Householder of the world 
 does, and will, I am persuaded, nobly provide for us 
 all. The colony itself is in a very declining way ; but 
 our extremity is God's opportunity. Our brethren, I 
 trust, go forward in the spiritual life." 
 
 The ebb and flow of the wave of Spanish invasion it 
 would be wearisome for us to follow out in full detail 
 Forts had to be raised, scout-boats kept perpetually 
 afloat, to intercept Spanish cruisers bent on stopping 
 the supplies of grain and other materials to Georgia. 
 Even in the short intervals during which peace was 
 maintained, efforts were constantly made to secure poli- 
 tical advantages. We read that at one period the 
 jealousy of the Spaniards was so inflamed, that through 
 their ambassador they demanded that Oglethorpe should 
 be recalled from Georgia. The " London Daily Post " 
 of date says — 
 
 " If this be the fact, and there is no doubt of it, we 
 have a most undeniable proof that the Spaniards dread 
 the ability of Mr. Oglethorpe. It is, of course, a glorious 
 testimony to his merit, and a certificate of his patriotism 
 that ought to endear him to every honest Briton." 
 
 Seeing that no dependence could be placed on any 
 pledges, the trustees petitioned his Majesty that a regi- 
 ment might be raised for the defence and protection of
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 65 
 
 the colony. This was granted. Oglethorpe was em- 
 powered to raise this regiment, and was appointed 
 General and Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's forces 
 in Carolina and Georgia. 
 
 " This regiment he raised in a very short time, as he 
 disdained to make a market of the service of his country 
 by selling commissions, but got such officers appointed 
 as were gentlemen of family and character in their 
 respective counties ; and, as he was sensible what an 
 advantage it was to the troops of any nation to have in 
 every company a certain number of such soldiers as had 
 been bred up in the character of gentlemen, he engaged 
 about twenty young gentlemen of no fortune to serve 
 as cadets in his regiment, all of whom he afterwards 
 advanced by degrees to be officers, as vacanies happened ; 
 and was so far from taking any money for the favour, 
 that to convey them he gave, upon their advancement, 
 what was necessary to pay the fees of their commissions, 
 and to provide themselves for appearing as officers."* 
 "He carried with him also," says another writer, "forty 
 supernumeraries at his own expense ; a circumstance 
 very extraordinary in our armies, especially in our planta- 
 tions ; and with a view to create in them a greater interest 
 in the colony and to induce them to become settlers, 
 every man was allowed to take with him a wife, for 
 whose support additional pay and rations were offered.! 
 
 * London Majjazine for 1757, p. 546. 
 + Gentleman's Magazine, vol. viii. p. 164. 
 
 B
 
 66 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 This was in view of the expedition against Florida, 
 which led to the unfortunate affair of St. Augustine. 
 In a manifesto issued by Oglethorpe on April i, 1740, he 
 says — 
 
 " And I do further declare that whatever share of 
 plunder shall come to me as general and commander of 
 the said forces, I will apply the same totally towards the 
 relief of such men as may happen to be maimed or 
 wounded in the said expedition, and towards assisting 
 the widow sand children of any of the said force that 
 may happen to be killed in the said service ; and for the 
 rewarding of such as shall perform any distinguishing 
 brave action. No Indian enemy is to be taken as a 
 slave, for all Spanish and Indian prisoners do belong 
 to his Majesty, and are to be treated as prisoners and not 
 as slaves." 
 
 In spite of the utmost care and bravery the attack on 
 St. Augustine's did not succeed, and Oglethorpe's forces 
 had to withdraw. For his conduct in this matter Ogle- 
 thorpe has been most unjustly blamed and criticised. 
 He failed mainly because Carolina did not act in 
 conformity with her pledges to supply a contingent of 
 800 men. Instead of 800 veterans, 400 raw youths were 
 sent under Colonel Vanderdupen, from whom no 
 efficient aid was derived. Those who had shared 
 the " burden and heat of the day " in that unfortunate 
 expedition, were the most forward to defend their
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 67 
 
 general. We may listen to one witness and then leave 
 this part of the subject : — 
 
 " The great cause of the Miscarriage was the Fewness 
 of our Numbers, the Want of Pioneers, a proper train of 
 Artillery and other Materials, which were promised by 
 the Government of Carolina, but never sent. I may also 
 very safely add the Badness of the Forces of that Pro- 
 vince, among whom, I am very sure, there were not 250 
 Men fit to bear Arms, and even these all raw and undis- 
 ciplined, and very often inclined to be mutinous, most 
 of their officers, like themselves, being only Planters, 
 ■and in Carolina on an equal footing." * 
 
 We have abundant testimony that Oglethorpe's 
 statesmanship did not fail whilst he was overwhelmed 
 with these military and other difficulties. In order 
 that the burden of these harassing conflicts with the 
 Spaniards should press more lightly on the settlers, 
 he set himself resolutely to retrench wherever it was 
 possible. He disbanded the troop of Rangers, who 
 guarded the country on the land side, though they 
 offered to serve without pay ; but he deemed it improper 
 that they should be on service without remuneration. 
 The garrisons were relieved by the regiments, so that 
 that expense ceased. He aimed to reconcile the dis- 
 
 * The Spanish Hireling Detected : Being a Refutation of the 
 Several Falsehoods and Calumnies in a late Pamphlet entitled "An 
 Impartial Account of the late Expedition against St. Augustine under 
 General Oglethorpe. By George Cadogan, Lieutenant in General 
 Oglethorpe's Regiment. 1743.
 
 68 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 affected by his good offices. With very timely charity 
 he assisted the orphans, the widows, and the sick ; and 
 contributed towards the relief of the most destitute. 
 As the most efficient testimony that could be cited, we 
 may quote a letter written by the German pastor, M. 
 Bolzius, at New Ebenezer, to the Rev. Dr. Francke at 
 Halle, dated 23d July 1741 — 
 
 "The present War and the Burden of it hath not 
 affected us yet, and we don't feel the least of it ; and in 
 the great Dearness the Colony suffered last Year, we 
 have not been in want of necessary Provisions. As to 
 the present Year, we have a very hopeful Prospect of a 
 good Harvest, every Thing in the Fields and Gardens 
 growing so delightful, as our Eyes have seen in this 
 Country before. If Isaac, by the Blessing of the Lord, 
 received from what he had saved an Hundredfold, I 
 believe, I daresay, to the great Mercy of God over us, 
 our Salzburgers will get a thousandfold, notwithstanding 
 that the Corn, when it came out of the Ground, was 
 eaten quite up two or three Times by the Worms. . . . 
 Wheat, Rice, and other Grain must be sowed very thin, 
 because each Grain brings forth fifty, an hundred, or 
 more Stalks and Ears. The land is really very fruitful, 
 if the Sins of the Inhabitants, and the Curse of God for 
 such sins, doth not eat it up, which was formerly the 
 unhappy Case of the blessed Land of Canaan. And I 
 am sorry to acquaint you, that I don't find in some of the 
 Inhabitants of the Colony, a due Thankfulness for, and
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 69 
 
 Contentment with, the many Benefits bestowed on them 
 for several Years together; although those who are 
 industrious, and will labour for their Maintenance, live 
 contentedly and subsist under the Blessing of God."* 
 
 While Oglethorpe was thus ardently labouring for the 
 public good, the malcontents of Savannah, under the 
 leadership of a worthless but clever adventurer, Dr. 
 Tailfer, were as busily endeavouring to ruin the province. 
 Their schemes were chiefly directed to the obstruction 
 of a respectable population in the colony, until the 
 trustees should be forced, by its dwindling into weakness 
 and insignificance, to gratify the eagerness of the most 
 worthless of the people for slaves and spirituous liquors, 
 so that they might indulge to the extent of their wishes 
 in idleness and dissipation. 
 
 The difficulties with which General Oglethorpe now 
 had to contend were peculiarly onerous and perplexing, 
 not only with the Spanish foes, — with the restless 
 Indians, — with the clamorous settlements, — with dis- 
 contented troops, — with meagre supplies, — with the 
 defection of Carolina, — with the protest of his bills, and 
 with the refusal of a just naval protection; but the 
 officers of his regiment were at enmity with him and 
 with each other, and crimination and recrimination 
 followed, disturbing the peace, and weakening the 
 efficiency of the military corps. 
 
 * Historical Tracts and other Papers relating to the Colonies in 
 Nortli America. Collected by Peter Force. Vol. i.
 
 70 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 For the unrest caused by the rumours of Spanish 
 invasion still continued. Oglethorpe was making another 
 great effort finally to attack and disperse the Spanish 
 forces that hovered about the borders and the coasts of 
 Georgia, when welcome news arrived that they had 
 become dispirited and disunited under his well-main- 
 tained defence. The troops of Cuba and those of St. 
 Augustine had fallen out and refused to act together, 
 and this led to the complete withdrawal of the Spanish 
 troops in 1742. The Spanish fleet had on one occasion 
 approached very near to Frederica, but by admirable 
 readiness, order, and organisation, was beaten back. 
 Though there were rumours of a renewal of the war in 
 1 743, nothing further came of them. 
 
 Thus we see that Oglethorpe, by unceasing vigilance, 
 and by the skilful disposal of small forces, kept the 
 Spaniards at bay. He knew the points at which alone it 
 was possible for them to make entry and overrun the 
 province, and he skilfully concentrated strength on these. 
 For several years amid such obstacles as would have 
 wholly overpowered a weaker man, he withstood assaults 
 without and divisions within ; and at length the Spaniards, 
 baffled, wearied out, and wasted in their long-continued 
 efforts, withdrew from the contest, greater losers even 
 than those they had endeavoured to overthrow. 
 
 Whitefield writes on this point : " The deliverance 
 of Georgia from the Spaniards is such as cannot be 
 paralleled out of the Old Testament. I find the
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 71 
 
 Spaniards had cast lots, and determined to give no 
 quarter. They intended to have attacked Georgia; 
 but they were wonderfully repelled, and sent away 
 before our ships were seen."* 
 
 In 1744 Oglethorpe was summoned home to answer 
 an impeachment from one Lieutenant-Colonel Cook, 
 relating to his conduct of the war with the Spaniards. 
 Under pretence of requiring witnesses from Georgia, 
 Cook secured delay after delay, much to the trouble of 
 Oglethorpe. When at length the trial did come on, the 
 court sat only two days ; and, after a strict scrutiny into 
 the complaint article by article of the nineteen specific 
 charges, the board were of opinion that the whole and 
 every article thereof was groundless, false, and malicious. 
 On the presentation of the report to his Majesty, he was 
 pleased to order that Lieutenant-Colonel Cook should be 
 dismissed the service. 
 
 "When I reflect," says one who was an eyewitness of 
 the scenes at the siege of St. Augustine, " upon General 
 Oglethorpe's great Qualities, and his indefatigable Zeal in 
 serving his Country ; his many hazardous and painful 
 Expeditions (particularly that of the Siege of Augustine, 
 in which he was betrayed and neglected by the mean 
 CaroHna Regiment, and many of the Men of WV) ; and 
 his late Glorious Defeat of the Spanish Invasion of 
 Georgia: When I reflect on his breaking a good and 
 vigorous Constitution, to render the Persons under his 
 • Whitefield's Letters, vol. i. p. 467.
 
 72 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 Command easy and happy ; his extending his compas- 
 sion to the miserable of all Sorts, and in short his Posses- 
 sion of every Civil and Military Virtue ; I am shock'd, 
 that Envy itself dare mean to taint his Character with its 
 foul Blast. But what Merit is Proof against some foul 
 Tongues and fouler Hearts, when God Himself cannot 
 escape them ? . . . From an impartial survey of his 
 actions, the Tendency of which I have perhaps had 
 more Opportunities than most others to contemplate, I 
 can't forbear to say with Addison, only with the varia- 
 tion of the Person, — 
 
 • Oglethorpe's Acts appear divinely bright 
 And friendly shine in their own native Light, 
 Raised of themselves, their genuine Charms they boast, 
 i^nd those who paint them truest, praise them most.' " * 
 
 And companion verses appeared at the time in the 
 •' South Carolina Gazette " — 
 
 " The fame of tyrants should, if justice swayed. 
 Be howled thro' deserts their ambition made ; 
 But Oglethorpe has gained a well-earned praise, 
 "Who made the heirs of want the lords of ease : 
 The gloomy wood to plenteous harvests changed, 
 And founded cities where the wild beasts ranged. 
 Then may the great award assigned by Fate 
 Crown her own wish to see the work complete." 
 
 * A Relation and Journal of a late Expedition to the Gates of 
 St. Augustine in Florida, conducted by the Hon. General James 
 Oglethorpe. By a Gentleman Volunteer in the said Expedition. 
 P. 34.
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 73 
 
 VI. 
 
 Having performed such conspicuous service — done 
 more than any other man to curb the power of Spain in 
 America — Oglethorpe returned home, not to rest and 
 to honour, but to new labours and trials, in order to 
 relieve himself from the encumbrances brought on his 
 estates by the liabilities he had so generously incurred 
 in the public service. 
 
 On the 15th of September 1744 he married a 
 daughter of Sir Nathan Wright, Bart., of Charham Hall, 
 Essex, and would probably have retired from the army 
 and devoted himself to his own affairs, had not the 
 rebellion of 1 745 made occasion for his services. He 
 took the field at the head of four companies of cavalry, 
 which, out of respect to his former grand achievements, 
 were called " The Georgian Rangers." Especially was 
 he concerned in an engagement near the village of 
 Clifton, where, owing to his failing to force an advance, 
 it was said that he was the occasion of loss, though his 
 friends urged on his behalf that he had only exercised 
 a proper prudence ; that if he had advanced in the cir- 
 cumstances, it would only have shown rashness and led 
 to needless bloodshed. This was the view taken of the 
 affair by the court-martial before which Oglethorpe was 
 brought in 1 746. The decision, after the most careful 
 consideration, was, as might have been expected, that
 
 H JAMES OGLETlTOnPE. 
 
 the necessities of the halt were evident ; that it was 
 clear an attack, under the circumstances, would have 
 implied both inhumanity and rashness ; and the General 
 wa3 honourably acquitted. And not only honourably 
 acquitted of the charge which enemies had tried to 
 fasten upon him in order to clear themselves, he was 
 promoted in the army in 1747, sufficiently showing that 
 his superiors and the crown did not cherish any grudge 
 against him. When the British Herring Fishery was 
 established in 1750 he took an active part in it and 
 became one of the council. 
 
 He never forgot the causes which, in earlier days, had 
 engaged his mind and heart. He succeeded, in 1749, 
 in carrying a bill through Parliament exempting the 
 Moravians in England from the necessity of violating 
 their religious sentiments by taking oaths or bearing 
 arms. 
 
 In spite of his honourable career and his great useful- 
 ness, his public life was brought to a close in 1754 by 
 his being defeated in a contest for the representation of 
 Haslemere, which he had represented in Parliament for 
 the long period of thirty-two years. 
 
 In February 1765 he received the rank of General of 
 all his Majesty's forces, and for many years before his 
 death was the oldest general on the staff. 
 
 The spirit of Oglethorpe's last days was quite in 
 keeping with his earlier life, though now he moved on a 
 less conspicuous stage. He sought out and relieved
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 75 
 
 many who needed aid; he was the intimate friend of 
 the best and wisest men of his day. He exercised a 
 genial and benignant hospitality, and was ready, as he 
 had been in younger days, to aid the ascent of genius 
 striving amid difficulty and discouragement. This, in- 
 deed, was one of the ties which bound him in brotherly 
 regard to Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was wont to speak 
 of him with the utmost love and reverence. Boswell, 
 in his own characteristic, gossipping way, tells us of the 
 first kindly contact of Oglethorpe with Johnson — 
 
 " One of the warmest patrons of this poem [' London '] 
 on its first appearance was General Oglethorpe, whose 
 strong 'benevolence of soul' was unabated during the 
 course of a very long life, though it is painful to think, 
 that he had but too much reason to become cold and 
 callous and discontented with the world, from the 
 neglect which he experienced of his public and private 
 worth, by those in whose power it was to gratify so 
 gallant a veteran with marks of distinction. This extra- 
 ordinary person was as remarkable for his learning and 
 taste as for his other eminent qualities ; and no man 
 was more prompt, active, and generous in acknowledging 
 merit I have heard Johnson gratefully acknowledge, in 
 his presence, the kind and effectual support which he 
 gave to his ' London,' though he was then unacquainted 
 with its author."* 
 
 We have many glimpses of Oglethorpe in the course 
 * Boswell, vol. i. p. 140.
 
 76 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 of Boswell's Johnson, and in all of them he appears 
 in the most flattering aspect. Johnson, it would seem, 
 was never tired of asking him questions about his earlier 
 experiences in field and camp, as well as about Georgia ; 
 and indeed seemed exceptionally anxious to have had it 
 in his power to write a memoir of him. How different 
 might have been Oglethorpe's fame if Dr. Johnson had 
 overcome the General's reserve, and been favoured with 
 those materials for which he asked ! 
 
 Boswell tells of one meeting, that "Johnson urged 
 General Oglethorpe to give to the world his Life. He 
 said, *I know no man whose Life would be more in- 
 teresting. If I were furnished with materials, I would be 
 very glad to write it.' The General seemed unwilling to 
 enter on it at this time," adds Boswell in a footnote \ 
 ** but upon a subsequent occasion he communicated to 
 me a number of particulars which I have committed to 
 writing ; but I was not sufficiently diligent in procuring 
 more from him, not apprehending that his friends were 
 so soon to lose him ; for notwithstanding his great age, 
 he was very healthy and vigorous, and was at last carried 
 ofl" by a violent fever, which is often fatal at any period 
 of life." — Bosivell, p. 296. 
 
 This is a specimen of the anecdotes with which 
 Oglethorpe was wont to regale the meetings at Dr. 
 Johnson's — 
 
 " The General told us that when he was a very young 
 man, I think only fifteen, serving under Prince Eugene
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 77 
 
 of Savoy, he was sitting in a company at table with the 
 Prince of Wirtemburg. The prince took up a glass of 
 wind, and, by a fillip, made some of it fly in Ogle- 
 thorpe's face. Here was a nice dilemma. To have 
 challenged him instantly might have fixed a quarrelsome 
 character upon the young soldier ; to take no notice of 
 it might have been considered as cowardice. Ogle- 
 thorpe, therefore, keeping his eye upon the prince and 
 smiling all the time, as if he took what his highness had 
 done in jest, said, ^ Mon Prince' — I forget the French 
 words he used; the purport, however, was — 'that's a 
 good joke ; but we do it much better in England ; ' and 
 threw a whole glass of wine in the prince's face. An 
 old general, who sat by, said, *// a bienfait, mon Prince ; 
 vous Favez commence;' and thus all ended in good 
 humour. 
 
 ** Dr. Johnson then said, * Pray, General, give us an 
 account of the siege of Belgrade ; ' upon which the 
 General, pouring out a little wine upon the table, 
 described everything with a wet finger : * Here we were ; 
 here were the Turks,' &c., &c. Johnson listened with 
 the closest attention." * 
 
 With Edmund Burke, Goldsmith, and Dr. Warton, 
 
 also, he was on terms of intimacy. Pope devoted to his 
 
 praise some well-known lines — 
 
 " One driven by strong benevolence of soul 
 Shall fly, like Oglethorpe, from pole to pole." 
 
 * Boswell, vol. iii. pp. 217, 2x8,
 
 78 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 Hannah More, in a letter to her sister, thus celebrates 
 her introduction to Oglethorpe, in 1784 — 
 
 " I have got a new admirer ; it is General Oglethorpe, 
 perhaps the most remarkable man of his time. He was 
 foster-brother to the Pretender, and is much above 
 ninety years old; the finest figure you ever saw. He 
 perfectly realises all my ideas of Nestor. His literature 
 is great, his knowledge of the world extensive, and his 
 faculties as bright as ever. He is one of the three 
 persons still living, who were mentioned by Pope ; Lord 
 Mansfield and Lord Marchmont are the other two. He 
 was the intimate friend of Southern, the tragic poet, and 
 of all the wits of that time. He is, perhaps, the oldest 
 man, of a gentleman, living. I went to see him the 
 other day, and he would have entertained me by quoting 
 passages of Sir Eldred. He is quite a preux chevalier, 
 heroic, romantic, and full of gallantry." 
 
 She remarks of another meeting that Mr. Burke 
 talked a great deal of politics with General Oglethorpe. 
 
 Dr. Warton, speaking of Oglethorpe, said, " I had the 
 pleasure of knowing him well;" and, in reference to 
 Pope's well-known couplet, he remarked : " Here are 
 lines which will justly confer immortality on man, who 
 well deserved so magnificent a eulogium. He was 
 at once a great hero and a great legislator. The 
 vigour of his mind and body has seldom been equalled. 
 The vivacity of his genius continued to great old age. 
 The variety of his adventures, and the very different
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. 79 
 
 scenes in which he had been engaged, made me regi-et 
 that his life has never been written. Dr. Johnson once 
 offered to do it, if the General would furnish the 
 materials. Johnson had a great regard for him, for he 
 was one of the first persons who, in all companies, 
 praised his ' London.' His first campaign was made under 
 Prince Eugene against the Turks, and that great general 
 always spoke of Oglethorpe in the highest terms. But 
 his settlement of the colony of Georgia gave a greater 
 lustre to his character than even his military exploits." 
 
 General Oglethorpe was, in some respects, advantage- 
 ously distinguished from common philanthropists ; who 
 are too apt to fix their whole attention on a single point, 
 failing to see it in its relation to others, and exaggerating 
 it to such a degree that humanity itself takes testimony 
 against them and refuses to accept their well-meant 
 panacea. Oglethorpe's practical education saved him 
 from this. He has been blamed for irritability and 
 impatience ; but he belonged to the class of rapid, 
 originating intellects, who never can keep pace with the 
 purposes that seem to be easily realisable. To such 
 men some impatience may well be forgiven in view of the 
 impulses they impart to others, which else were wanting ; 
 and surely the man who showed such contentment amid 
 circumstances of trial and hardship, and carried his 
 great purpose in face of such overpowering odds, cannot 
 be denied some share of the quality of genius which Mr. 
 Carlyle has called patience.
 
 So JAMES OGLETHORPE. 
 
 "His great powers," says one, "could not fail to make 
 a deep impression even on those who did not understand 
 his lofty self-consecration and devotion to others. Neither 
 could they help respecting the apostolical zeal which 
 enabled him to despise all ordinary comforts — fording 
 rivers, crossing swamps, sleeping on the ground, and 
 exposing himself to all kinds of hardship for the good 
 of others." 
 
 Oglethorpe died in 1785, at the ripe age of ninety-six. 
 
 History has been figured as a great Morgue, where 
 the dead lie waiting recognition and an impartial 
 verdict. A few names dwell unchallenged on the lips 
 and the minds of men. They sum up, as it were in 
 abstract, the element, the quality, the great event ; some 
 phase of truth is, so to speak, polarised in them, and this 
 suffices for the general need. But the careful inquirer 
 soon finds that, however great, no man stands by 
 himself; that his path was prepared for him; that he 
 cannot be seen completely save in a perspective, which 
 is formed by the figures that surrounded him or went 
 before him. From this arises one of the great difficulties 
 of biography — to isolate, and yet not to isolate too much 
 — to fetch the chief figure forward, and yet not wholly to 
 ignore the influences to which he was indebted a«nd 
 which enabled him to play the precise part that he did. 
 There were reformers before Luther; John Howard 
 and Elizabeth Fry had their forerunners, who, in effect, 
 made their work possible. Oglethorpe was one of
 
 JAMES OGLETHORPE. gi 
 
 these — one of the most prominent and essential of 
 these ; and, though it is not intended to lessen by a 
 leaf the laurel of later heroes, yet it is claimed that 
 Oglethorpe deserves more recognition than he has got, 
 and ought to have a fitting monument — the tribute of 
 loyal remembrance — in English minds and hearts. He 
 was politician, soldier, reformer, and founder of a 
 colony, and in all of these capacities he did his country 
 signal service; but in neither aspect would he have 
 claimed the regard we crave for him had he not 
 been first and foremost a philanthropist and prison- 
 reformer.
 
 C 82 ) 
 
 DAVID ZEISBERGER AND THE INDIANS. 
 
 VERY few, we believe, beyond the circle of the 
 Church of the Moravians, or Bohemian Brethren 
 — the " Unitas Fratrum," as it still loves to style itself — 
 have read, far less studied, those " Periodical Accounts 
 of Missions among the Heathen," which are regularly 
 issued in the easily-recognisable dingy-blue paper covers. 
 Yet, beyond most reports, they are richly interesting, 
 and beyond most they carry the imagination to distant 
 places and scenes, fragrant with Christian associations. 
 Before any of the modern missionary societies now 
 in successful operation had been instituted, or British 
 Christians generally had awakened to the necessity of 
 taking practical action in the matter, the Moravian 
 Brethren had established missions in both hemispheres. 
 Their mission to the West Indies was undertaken as 
 early as 1732, and in 1733 the first missionaries went 
 to Greenland. The name and work of Leonard Dober 
 yet survives in several of the West Indian stations, and 
 Greenland still has its New Herrnhut, making us think
 
 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 83 
 
 of many heroic labours. There are stations also in 
 Labrador, in South Africa, in South America, on the 
 Mosquito Coast, among the Indians, in Australia, and 
 in Central Asia — all carried on by men who inherit much 
 of the apostolic spirit which imbued the first founders 
 of the Church. What is perhaps the most remarkable 
 trait in the Moravian missionaries, is the power they 
 have to adapt themselves to the most trying conditions 
 of life, labouring with their own hands as they yearn 
 and strive to bring those around them within the fold 
 of Christ. Wherever they have set foot, they have 
 called beauty and fruitfulness out of sterility, frequently 
 triumphing over the very elements. Mr. Andrew 
 Wilson, in his " Abode of Snow," eloquently tells how 
 the Moravian missionaries have created an oasis amid 
 the wilds of the lower Himalayas. They have made 
 the wilderness (Lahaul is literally ' Wilderness ') to 
 blossom as the rose, materially as well as spiritually. 
 Out of the barrenest tracts they have created blooming 
 farms and gardens, and have produced such effects 
 upon the people as, he avouches, are not to be judged 
 by the number of their converts. The immense work 
 done in the far North, as in the far East, with such 
 scanty means and with on the whole so little stir, would 
 be almost incredible did we not know the traditions 
 which they have inherited, and the training which they 
 have undergone. The men of to-day, though not bound 
 hard and fast by dead rules, yet do abide by certain
 
 84 DAVID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 principles long ago developed, applied, and found worthy. 
 Hence, in a great measure, the secret of their success. 
 If we are at all right in this, it cannot be unprofitable to 
 glance for a little at the life of one of their earliest and 
 greatest missionaries — from which we will see how the 
 seeds of the harvest that are now being reaped in many 
 latitudes were sown in the first mission-fields cultivated 
 by the Moravians. 
 
 Among the band of devoted men and women who for 
 conscience' sake fled from Moravia, in many cases 
 sacrificing worldly wealth, to seek shelter in Count 
 Zinzendorf's Herrnhut, or " watch of God," were a 
 worthy couple, David and Rosina Zeisberger, who 
 carried with them several young children. The Saxon 
 Government, ill-advised in this regard, soon began to 
 look with such disfavour on the religious settlement, 
 as made its maintenance doubtful, and the Zeisbergers 
 were of the party who went with the noble Nitschmann 
 to Georgia, where, a Church having been founded, our 
 own John Wesley was present to witness the ordination 
 of their pastor, Anthony Seyfert, and thought himself 
 transported back to the times of the apostles, by the 
 impressive simplicity of the act. 
 
 The Zeisbergers left behind them a little boy, David, 
 whose diligence and love of study had attracted the 
 attention of his superiors, m order that he might the 
 better finish his education ; and this circumstance may 
 be said to have determined to a great extent a very
 
 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 85 
 
 remarkable history. When fifteen years of age, David 
 Zeisberger, having gained the favour of Count Zinzendorf, 
 was taken by him to Herrndyk, a Moravian settlement 
 in Holland, where he was employed as an errand boy. 
 But the rigid rules, the want of sympathy, and the mis- 
 trust showed towards him, rendered him very unhappy. 
 
 He was sometimes beaten for acts of which he was 
 innocent, and, notwithstanding his resolve to bear with 
 the injustice rather than run the risk of grieving his 
 parents, matters were brought to a crisis by a circum- 
 stance which deserves to be fully told, as it is very 
 characteristic both of the rulers of Herrndyk and of the 
 young errand lad. One day a gentleman of rank visited 
 the place, and wishing a guide to Ysselstein, Zeisberger 
 was sent with him, and so won his good opinion that, 
 when parting, he offered the lad a present. David had 
 been forbidden to accept presents, and therefore declined 
 it. "You must take it," said the gentleman. " Keep it 
 to yourself, it is yours ! " and pressing the gold into the 
 boy's hand, rode away. Zeisberger was now in great 
 perplexity. " If I conceal this occurrence," he said to 
 himself, "it will be an act of disobedience; if I make 
 it known, and deliver the fee, my story will not be 
 credited." At last he concluded to keep one half, and 
 to carry the other to his employers. But the very 
 suspicion he thus thought to avert, was aroused. " No 
 stranger," said the frowning brethren, "ever gives so 
 large a reward to an errand boy ! You have not come
 
 86 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 by that money honestly. Hold ! we will expose your 
 wickedness ! " Two persons took him back to Ysselstein, 
 to find if there was anything in the story. But the 
 gentleman had left ; no one knew where he had gone ; 
 and Zeisberger returned to Plerrndyk, stigmatised as a 
 liar and thief. And, though he had bravely borne the 
 beating with rods, he was determined not to brook this 
 treatment. An opportunity ere long arose for his acting 
 on this resolution. 
 
 In these days — that is^ in 1737 — news did not travel 
 fast; but Zeisberger somehow learned a fact that 
 suddenly settled what had become a pressing problem 
 with him. He had only remained at Herrndyk for some 
 time past, because he did not know where to go, and 
 had no means of transit. It seems that, in spite of 
 what he had undergone, any other place than a Moravian 
 colony never suggested itself to his mind ; and to get to 
 his parents in Georgia he regarded as wholly hopeless. 
 The fact he now learned threw light on his mind, and 
 determined his future. General Oglethorpe, who, as we 
 have seen, had a few years before carried his motley band 
 of broken-down debtors and other hopeless persons to 
 Georgia, and had by this time founded not only Savannah, 
 but several other towns, under sanction of the Charter of 
 George II., was then back in England for the second time, 
 arranging various matters respecting the new colony.* 
 
 * The General had shown more than ordinary sagacity in laying 
 Ottt the plan. To the fortunate arrangement of wide streets, houses
 
 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 87 
 
 Zeisberger, once aware of this, lost no time, but with 
 another lad, who, like himself, was discontented, set out 
 for England to beg General Oglethorpe to aid them in 
 getting a ship for Savannah. On hearing their story, the 
 General must have been interested in them, for he 
 procured them passages. 
 
 Landing in America, Zeisberger took up his abode 
 with his parents. Many were the privations which he 
 endured here, many the adventures in which necessity 
 compelled him to share, for the settlers lived more like 
 backwoodsmen than aught else ; but of still more 
 importance was the influence which Peter Boehler, now 
 the pastor, exercised over the young Zeisberger, as he 
 had done over John Wesley. For months Zeisberger 
 was his only companion in a mission to the negroes in 
 Carolina, and we can well imagine how Boehler would 
 combine practical work with pious inspiriting converse. 
 War caused the Moravians to break up their settlement 
 in Georgia, and a section, the Zeisbergers in it, went to 
 Pennsylvania, where, with Whitefield, they engaged in 
 improving a tract in the " Forks of the Delaware." 
 Bishop Nitschmann shortly after returned from Europe 
 with a commission to buy land in Pennsylvania, and a 
 tract was selected some miles to the south of Whitefield's. 
 The name of Bethlehem was given to the new settle- 
 built at a pretty large distance from each other, with great squares 
 at proper spaces, the town owes its beauty to-day. See the opening 
 sketch, "General Oglethorpe," p. 46.
 
 88 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 ment, and it has been ever since the chief seat of the 
 Moravians in America. Chosen to accompany Count 
 Zinzendorf to Europe, young Zeisberger was full of 
 regrets, because the idea of becoming a missionary to 
 the Indians had already risen in his mind. Just as the 
 vessel was about to sail, the Count noticed his dejection 
 and questioned him, and finding the young man's heart 
 set on so noble an object, he was sent ashore, and im- 
 mediately made known his determination. From hence- 
 forth he was as truly the Apostle of the Indians of the 
 West, as John EUot had been of those of New England. 
 
 The Indian till recently had maintained much of his 
 original simplicity. He was a hunter, a warrior, full of 
 superstitions, and often given to cruelty, yet with a cer- 
 tain frankness and love of truth, which, it is mournful 
 to think, were soon so largely lost by contact with the 
 white man. France already claimed to have control 
 over no less than one hundred and three nations, com- 
 prising sixteen thousand four hundred and three warriors, 
 and eighty-two thousand souls, and this claim and the 
 effort to extend her influence led to difficulties ere long. 
 The steady advances of the ** pale faces " had caused the 
 Indians to retreat deeper and deeper into the recesses 
 of the western wilderness. 
 
 " Around the western head of Lake Erie, in Canada, 
 and Ohio, lived a remnant of the Hurons, or Wyandots ; 
 about Saginaw Bay the Ojibways had their wigwams ; 
 the waters of Lake Michisran reflected the council fires
 
 DA VI D ZEISBERGER. 89 
 
 of the Ottawas and Potawatomies on the east, and of the 
 Menomonies, Winnebagoes, and Kickapoos on the west ; 
 the Chippeways — a powerful nation, mustering many 
 braves — were scattered in Canada, along Lake Huron, 
 and south of Lake Superior j the towns of the Sacs, 
 Foxes, and Ottigamies lay between Lake Michigan and 
 the Mississippi, and farther down the river were domiciled 
 the Illinois." 
 
 Rome had sent missionaries amongst them, who had 
 worked with but little result. Eliot and Rauch had 
 been more successful; but they had only touched the 
 outer fringe. Zinzendorf had made journeys into native 
 territory, and lodging in a bark hut at Shekomeko, had 
 baptized ten persons — Mohicans or Wampanoags — and 
 had thus formed the nucleus of the first native IMoravian 
 Church. Very soon the membership increased ; and 
 when Zeisberger, who had described himself as '* destined 
 to be a messenger to the heathen," arrived there on his 
 way to the Mohawk valley to perfect himself in the 
 knowledge of the Mohawk tongue, the Church had in- 
 creased to some sixty-five souls, to whom he preached. 
 Passing onwards, the suspicions of the garrison at 
 Williams Fort were aroused, and the party were detained 
 and questioned, but finally allowed to proceed. At 
 Canajoharie they were well received by the chief of the 
 Mohawks, but had only enjoyed his aid and instruction 
 a few days, when constables arrived bearing the warrant 
 of the mayor of Albany to apprehend them. They were
 
 90 DA VID ZEISBERGER, 
 
 brought back, examined before the magistrates, and 
 remanded to jail, where Zeisberger devoted the time 
 to the study of Mohawk. "We count it a great 
 honour," he writes, "to suffer for the Saviour's sake, 
 though the world cannot understand this." At length, 
 on the arrival of papers, they were released ; and a pro- 
 ject having been set on foot to transfer the mission at 
 Shekomeko to the valley of Wyoming, Zeisberger was 
 appointed assistant to Bishop Spangenberg, on a visit to 
 Onondaga to negotiate with the Iroquois or Six Nations 
 to whom the territory belonged. This embassy was 
 successful ; the Sachems said they were glad to renew 
 their compact with Count Zinzendorf and the Brethren, 
 and they gave their consent. Returning by a new route, 
 the missionaries encountered several dangers, which gave 
 Zeisberger experience in travel, as his contact with the 
 Indians added to his knowledge of their manners. But 
 to their surprise the Indians of Shekomeko refused to 
 move to Wyoming. They were as loath to leave their 
 pleasant homes at the foot of the Stissing, as they were 
 afraid of the savages of the Susquehanna. The animo- 
 sity of the settlers so increased, however, that a removal 
 was made inevitable, and a tract of land on the Mahony 
 Creek was selected as a permanent settlement. The 
 charge of the mission of which this was to be the centre, 
 was given to Mack, and he, with Zeisberger and some 
 others, proceeded there to lay out a town, which became 
 the historical Gnadenhiitten, or "tents of grace."
 
 DAVID ZEISBERGER. 91 
 
 This accomplished, the board devoted its attention to 
 the founding of a mission at Shamokin, which, with its 
 smithery, had become a kind of centre for the Indians 
 since they had begun to adopt firearms. Zeisberger's 
 fluency in the Mohawk language led him to be appointed 
 assistant there. With others he made explorations in the 
 branches of the Susquehanna, and found the natives being 
 decimated by smallpox and by famine — their sorrow 
 only deepened by their helplessness to render effectual 
 succour. After spending a couple of months at Bethle- 
 hem, Zeisberger once more devoted himself to labour at 
 Shamokin, but drunken revelries and bloody brawls were 
 so frequent that he was much discouraged, and on the 
 meeting of the board it was arranged that he should go 
 as interpreter to a Council of the Six Nations at Onon- 
 daga, to arrange for sending a mission into the country. 
 
 While the Sachems — hindered by the intoxication of 
 some of their brethren — were deliberating, the mission- 
 aries resolved to visit the Senecas, and taking a trail west 
 by north, they entered a fearful wilderness full of swamps. 
 Here Bishop Cammerhoff fell ill of fever, and while Zeis- 
 berger ministered to him in a village, he was summoned 
 to a conference of the Indians, who, he found, were 
 drunk here also. When he left them, they followed him, 
 and came trooping, yelling, and dancing round the hut 
 where the sick man lay. It needs not to be said that 
 Zeisberger, at risk even of bodily injury or of death, 
 boldly urged them to give up strong drink — but with
 
 92 DAVID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 small result ; and as soon as Bishop Cammerhoff was 
 able to crawl, they anew set forth for the capital of the 
 Senecas. Drunken revelry reigned here also ; Cammer- 
 hofif's fever increased, and the prospect was, indeed, 
 terrible. They were assailed not only by men, but by 
 women, drunk and infuriated. As no good could be 
 done, they escaped, secretly creeping forth from the 
 village during a heavy fog, though Cammerhoff was 
 hardly able to walk. The story of their return is a 
 series of remarkable escapes, as thrilling as any ever 
 chronicled. 
 
 "Without provisions and unable to find any game, 
 for it seemed to have disappeared from these hunting- 
 grounds, they suffered greatly from hunger. In attempt- 
 ing to wade across the outlet of Lake Seneca, they 
 missed the ford and were carried into deep water, 
 struggling for their lives. After superhuman exertions, 
 Zeisberger gained the shore ; Cammerhoff, whose 
 strength the fever had greatly reduced, sank, and re- 
 mained so long immersed that his companion gave him 
 up as lost. At last he rose, and almost by a miracle, 
 himself could not tell how, he reached the land. Barely 
 sustaining life on a pheasant which Zeisberger shot, they 
 proceeded to Onondaga." 
 
 Arrived there, the news was not encouraging — various 
 difficulties were raised; but, finally, the Six Nations 
 agreed to let any two of their Church come among them 
 and learn their languages. This settled, through many
 
 DAVID ZEI.'-BERGER. 
 
 93 
 
 difficulties, they made their way back to Bethlehem, 
 having travelled more than sixteen hundred miles on 
 horseback, on foot, and in their canoes. 
 
 Notwithstanding the frightful ravages drink had made 
 among the Indians, the settlement at Gnadenhiitten 
 began to have its own effect. A spirit of inquiry had 
 sprung up among the Delawares and other tribes along 
 the Susquehanna ; many visitors had come to hear the 
 Word of God, and heathen Indians had even assembled 
 voluntarily to talk of Christ. Zeisberger's one wish was 
 to take advantage of this condition of affairs, and to 
 follow up the news these visitors carried to their own 
 tribes, by penetrating still farther into the wilderness. 
 But various complications led to his being sent at this 
 stage to Europe, where he remained for some time. On 
 his return he found that Cammerhoff was dead, never 
 having recovered from the fever of the swamp. Without 
 loss of time he set off for Shamokin, preaching the 
 Gospel wherever opportunity offered, as he went thither. 
 At Shamokin he laboured for a while, but his heart was 
 with the Six Nations, and as soon as possible he arranged 
 to go back to Onondaga — this time not to study lan- 
 guages chiefly, but to teach and preach. He soon con- 
 ciliated the Sachems, and so thoroughly secured their 
 goodwill in his work, that great progress was made. His 
 biographer may well say — 
 
 "Considering the inordinate pride of the chiefs of 
 the Six Nations, and the suspicion with which the
 
 94 I^A VJD ZEISBERGER. 
 
 aborigines regarded every attempt of the white men to 
 gain a foothold in their country, the results of the council's 
 deliberations were remarkable, and proved the high 
 esteem in which the Church of the Brethren was held at 
 Onondaga, and the personal influence which Zeisberger 
 had acquired among the same tribes, whose favour the 
 Colonial Government purchased with much difficulty 
 and by constant presents of great value." 
 
 Here Zeisberger had full opportunity for studying the 
 ways of the Indians, and, as one wise for God, he made 
 good use of his time. He gained more and more 
 influence over the Sachems, and through their help was 
 able to finish his Iroquois dictionary. He was even 
 adopted into the nations, receiving the name of Thanera- 
 quechta. He made various journeys into the territory 
 of other Indians, in one of which he was severely 
 wounded ; the Indians having been encouraged in their 
 onset by a Dutchman, who fancied the missionaries were 
 rival traders, — so that we see similar difficulties to those 
 of our times were sometimes met with then. After a 
 short stay at Bethlehem, made necessary in various ways, 
 Zeisberger returned to Onondaga, where a famine before 
 long broke out. The missionaries took a large share in 
 bringing supplies from a distance, and when, owing to 
 bad food and neglect, various diseases spread, their 
 knowledge of simples stood them in good stead, in spite 
 of the tricks of the native doctors. After a short absence 
 at Bethlehem to attend a great congress, Zeisberger
 
 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 95 
 
 returned, and, with the cordial help of the- Indians, 
 succeeded in erecting a large loghouse for the mission. 
 Meanwhile the war with the English broke out, and the 
 Moravians were accused of secret understandings with 
 the French. This idea was made use of, and fomented 
 by agents, till some Indians were led to make an attack 
 on the premises at Gnadenhiitten, while Zeisberger, who 
 would most probably have been killed had he been 
 found, was providentially absent. He at once made his 
 way to Bethlehem, reporting this attack, in which the 
 buildings were burned, ten persons killed, and one 
 woman carried away captive. 
 
 This was but the prelude to a new series of horrors ; 
 the fatal Indian wars followed. During a lengthened 
 period no missionary work could be done, but Zeisberger 
 devoted himself to study, going here and there to stir up 
 an interest in the Indians. 
 
 After these wars came the dawn of a new epoch to 
 America and the world. England had been victorious, 
 and America was hers, from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
 ice-fields of the Arctic lands. But the wars had in effect 
 swept away most of the stations that had been founded 
 at cost of so much labour and anxiety. Zeisberger was 
 now despatched on another journey to the Indian 
 country as envoy to Sir William Johnson and Governor 
 Hamilton. It was winter, and the snow lay on the 
 ground. He preached to several settlements of Dela- 
 wares with decided effect, for he did not cease to be a
 
 96 DA VW ZEI BERGER. 
 
 mission^y when he became an envoy, and his heart was 
 strangely stirred within him at once more seeing the 
 Indians. Before returning home he visited two of the 
 stations — Nain and Wechquetank, and from there passed 
 over the Broad Mountains to Wyoming, and from that to 
 Machiwihlusing, where we note that he preached with 
 more than his usual fervour; and that whilst so engaged, 
 one John Woolman, a Quaker evangelist, arrived. A 
 council was called to receive this Quaker missionary, 
 whose name will not soon die. He spoke to the people 
 at first by the mouth of an interpreter, but afterwards 
 feeling his mind covered with the spirit of prayer, he 
 expressed a wish that the interpreting should be omitted. 
 Divine love was shed over the meeting ; and when he 
 left he prayed that the great work which Zeisberger had 
 undertaken might be crowned with success. 
 
 The meeting of these two men, and the spirit in which 
 they regarded each other's work, their tolerance and 
 goodwill and true Christian fellowship, are such that we 
 may well pause over it, in view of many of the divisions 
 and jealousies of our day. 
 
 Before Zeisberger left, the whole town gathered to 
 a solemn assembly, when one Papunhank, "the first 
 prophet Zeisberger had brought into the Church," and 
 another were baptized. But even while these things 
 were being done, what was called the Pontiac Con- 
 spiracy broke out with its bloodshed and woe, and led 
 Zeisberger to be recalled, as already Pon;iac's spies were
 
 DA VI D ZEISBERGER. 97 
 
 visiting the town. He was soon once more in Bethlehem. 
 The war spread, and tribe after tribe were involved in 
 it ; so that, though he as soon as possible left Bethlehem, 
 and took up his abode at Christiansbrunn, little mis- 
 sionary work could be done. The settlers "breathed 
 vengeance against the ' Moravian Indians,' as the 
 converts were called, and blamed them for being in 
 league with the savages." These converts had to claim 
 the protection of the governor, which he promised ; and 
 for some weeks after he had issued articles to that effect, 
 they were undisturbed ; but a band of Christian Indians 
 — men, women, and children — were at last cruelly set 
 upon and murdered, which was the signal for new 
 attacks and outrages of all kinds. Terror and surprise 
 were the rule ; there were mobs in the towns — the panic 
 spread, and there seemed no way to end the frightful 
 distress and bloodshed. Zeisberger betook himself to 
 Province Island, where he acted as minister and super- 
 intendent, going between it and Bethlehem, and doing 
 all he could for the Indians who, escaping after him, 
 sought his succour. The Assembly voted one thousand 
 pounds to protect the Indians, and it was determined to 
 devote this sum to sending them under escort to Phi- 
 ladelphia. But unforeseen difficulties arose from the 
 authorities of the provinces, through which they must 
 pass, refusing to receive or to recognise them. " This 
 unprecedented pilgrimage of nearly three weeks, under- 
 taken by the Indian Mission and its teachers, through
 
 98 DAVID ZETSBERGER. 
 
 one of the most thickly populated parts of the country, 
 seems to have been permitted by God, in order to 
 establish the glory of His Gospel The bearing of 
 the converts was so extraordinary, so humble, and yet 
 manly, so clearly the result of the Christian faith which 
 they professed, that the reviler forgot his revilements, 
 and the scoffer looked on amazed. Even their escort of 
 soldiers, among whom were such as had been at Detroit 
 during the siege, and hated Indians with all the bitter- 
 ness of their past experience, began to show them 
 respect." 
 
 Their return was simply the signal for fresh outbreaks. 
 Riot followed riot — Pontiac's cruel warriors were still 
 identified with patient Christian men and women, who 
 had given such testimony of incapacity for the brutal 
 deeds of Pontiac's followers : and the settlers refused to 
 be convinced. The war went on for a while longer; 
 but expectations of French aid were not realised, and 
 without that, the inducements to carry it on were greatly 
 weakened. In March 1765, Governor Penn proclaimed 
 that the way to their own country was now open to the 
 Christian Indians. They accordingly set forth, after 
 having passed sixteen months in Philadelphia, and after 
 having borne nearly one-half their number to Potter's 
 Field. Zeisberger here as always showed all that zeal 
 and prudence which, brightened by Christian self-denial, 
 illumined his life. His one aim now was to keep the 
 Christians together, so that they might not be exposed
 
 DA VJD ZEISBERGER. 99 
 
 to the special perils likely to beset those who were 
 but recently heathens in habit and belief, suddenly set 
 free to find homes where they would. It was therefore 
 resolved to found a mission settlement at Machiwih- 
 lusing, near to which lay extensive hunting-grounds, with 
 several tracts already cleared. The converts themselves 
 had suggested the choice of this site ; and, to their 
 inexpressible joy, Zeisberger was appointed resident 
 missionary, with Schmick for his assistant. Now began 
 his true work, for which he had undergone such 
 thorough preparation. After many difficulties in the 
 journey, through thick woods and swamps, where no 
 greater rate of progress than five miles a day was 
 possible — their journey from Nain having occupied five 
 weeks — they at length reached their destination. With- 
 out loss of time, Zeisberger, Schmick, and Papunhank, 
 of whom we have already heard, proceeded to lay out a 
 town. The permission of the Iroquois Sachem at 
 Cayugu Town had been accorded, and though some 
 difficulties arose by and by, these were soon overcome by 
 Zeisberger's signal tact. 
 
 " The new town which came into existence rang with 
 the melody of praise even while it was being built. In 
 every place the feelings of the people burst into song. 
 And when they went out to the chase, or fished in the 
 rivers, when they roamed through the woods gathering 
 roots or herbs, the game that they found, the fishes that 
 they caught, and everything that grew upon the ground,
 
 ICO DAVID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 seemed given to them by a special act of Providence. 
 ' Behold,' says Zeisberger, as he saw this general happi- 
 ness, and heard some of his own Delaware hymns echoing 
 through the forest, ' this is making good use of their 
 liberty! Beginning their work in this way, God will 
 richly bless them. Under such circumstances it is joy 
 to be among the Indians.'" 
 
 In spite of illness and weakness, brought on by anxiety 
 and the great efforts he had made, Zeisberger no sooner 
 saw the loghouses built, than he began to devote himself 
 to the Indians that visited the settlement, or to those 
 whose grounds lay near it. " It often happens, while I 
 preach," he says, " that the power of the Gospel takes 
 such hold of them that they tremble with emotion and 
 shake with fear, until consciousness is nearly gone, and 
 they seem to be on the point of fainting. As soon as 
 such a paroxysm is over, they generally begin to weep 
 silent tears. We have many candidates for baptism." 
 A code of municipal laws was drawn up, which forbade 
 heathen Indians who came merely for the sake of 
 outward advantage, to build lodges in the town, or 
 traders to stay longer than three days. The appropriate 
 name of Friedenshiitten, or Tents of Peace, was given 
 to the new settlement. Friedenshiitten very soon excited 
 the admiration of every visitor. It embraced twenty- 
 nine loghouses, with windows and chimneys like the 
 homesteads of the settlers, and thirteen huts, forming 
 one street, in the centre of which stood the chapel.
 
 DA VID ZEISBERGER. loi 
 
 thirty-two by twenty-four feet, roofed with shingles, and 
 having a school-house as its wing. Opposite, on the left 
 side of the street, was the mission-house. The converts 
 had large herds of cattle, and hogs and poultry of every 
 kind. They devoted more time to tilling the ground 
 than to hunting, and raised plentiful crops. They did 
 a considerable trade with the heathen Indians in corn, 
 •maple- sugar, butter, pork, &c. 
 
 A report having reached the settlement that the 
 Iroquois Council had declared the grant of the site made 
 by the chief Togahaju null and void, Zeisberger was 
 despatched to represent the matter to them. He was 
 received with great honour, assured that the report was 
 utterly false, and invited to visit them at Onondaga 
 again. His work done, he then went to Bethlehem, 
 having concluded that as Schmick could now manage 
 the settlement at Machiwihlusing, he was free to prepare 
 for another exploratory tour on which his heart had long 
 been set. Anthony, a recent convert, and Papunhank, 
 consented to accompany him. Crossing the Susquc 
 hanna, they proceeded up the Chemung to its confluence 
 with the Tioga, when they followed it to the mouth of 
 the Cowanesque Creek. Up this they proceeded a day's 
 journey, and then entered a dense swamp. They forced 
 their way through the underwood to the head waters of 
 the Alleghany, through well-nigh impenetrable spruce 
 forests, into regions till then untrod by white men, and 
 even now largely waste. The Senecas here were at first
 
 102 DAVID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 inclined to treat the "pale faces" with suspicion, but 
 whenever Zeisberger said, " I am Ganousseracheri," their 
 whole demeanour changed; showing how widely the 
 news of his goodness had already travelled. When he 
 told the Seneca chief that he meant to- make his way to 
 the Indians at Goschgoschuuk, the old man gravely 
 shook his head and said, " They bear a bad character, 
 they are sorcerers, and will not hesitate to murder you. 
 Go not thither." But to this Zeisberger replied, "No 
 harm can befall me if my God, in whom I believe, does 
 not permit it. The wickedness of the Indians there is 
 just the reason why I ought to go and preach to them." 
 And with the chiefs serious warnings in their ears they 
 pressed forward. 
 
 It is one of the greatest tributes to Zeisberger's 
 influence, that already the news of his work and his love 
 of the Indians had been carried far and wide. In the 
 most remote villages his name was known. In the next 
 Seneca town to which they came they found two old 
 acquaintances, Onondagas, who welcomed them there, 
 and they preached to the people with great acceptance. 
 Even at Goschgoschuuk, which they reached in the 
 month of October, they found friends of Papunhank, 
 who were ready to entertain them. At the earliest 
 moment Zeisberger appointed a religious service, when 
 he spoke with great eloquence and earnestness, telling 
 them that he brought to them the same Gospel as their 
 friends at Friedenshiitten had received, and had been
 
 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 103 
 
 made happy by receiving. We are told that his hearers 
 — men who were, above all the Indians, superstitious, 
 wicked, and bloodthirsty — were spell-bound. "Never 
 yet," he himself writes, "did I see so clearly depicted 
 on the faces of Indians both the darkness of hell and the 
 world-subduing power of the Gospel." Next day all the 
 three villages were represented, and a yet more powerful 
 effect produced. In spite of the efforts of some, Zeis- 
 berger was warmly invited to establish a mission settle- 
 ment there. Nothing had as yet produced a deeper 
 impression on the board than his success in this enter- 
 prise. It was necessary for him to return to Bethlehem 
 to report and make arrangements with the board, who 
 deemed it expedient that he should spend the winter at 
 Christiansbrunn. But to show that the impression had 
 not vanished from the minds of the people of Gosch- 
 goschuuk, in April runners reached Friedenshutten to 
 inquire if the teachers that had been promised were 
 coming. A few days later Zeisberger arrived at 
 Friedenshutten, and, naturally, on account of this 
 message, he hurried on the more quickly to his 
 destination. 
 
 In spite of some marked changes for the worse durmg 
 his absence, Zeisberger set himself resolutely to work, 
 raised a log-building, twenty-six by sixteen feet, about 
 half a mile from the town, round which the converts 
 were to rear their cottages. But they were not allowed 
 to proceed long without difficulties of a special kind.
 
 104 ^^ VID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 All the Indians, as we have said, were much given to 
 sorcery; but the Seneca chief was right in saj'ing that 
 the Indians of Goschgoschuuk surpassed all the rest. 
 Zeisberger, who was not " inclined to start at shadows," 
 was compelled to allow the depth of their degradation 
 and superstition. " Some existed," he said, " by whom 
 Satan himself worked, with all powers and signs and 
 lying wonders." He said that he disbelieved the stories 
 he heard of what they could do until several of them 
 were converted. These unfolded to him things from 
 their own past experience, which forced him to acknow- 
 ledge the reality of Indian sorcery, and to adopt the 
 opinion, which was universal among the early Church 
 Fathers, that the gods of heathenism were not visionary 
 beings represented by idols, but satanic powers and 
 principahties, to worship whom was to worship demons 
 and be under demoniacal influences." 
 
 The sorcerers of Goschgoschuuk, like the image- 
 makers of Ephesus, felt that if Zeisberger thus went 
 on gaining influence with the people, their source of 
 wealth and power would be gone. They therefore 
 declared that worms would destroy the crops because 
 there were white teachers in the town, and sent abroad 
 many similar rumours. Other tribes rose up, threatening 
 also. The meetings were disturbed ; Zeisberger was 
 threatened and watched by bands of young people, 
 resolved to injure or to murder him. Nevertheless, he 
 and his friends went on preaching, and he even managed
 
 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 105 
 
 to get the people to agree to prohibit the bringing of 
 *' fire-water " to Goschgoschuuk. 
 
 " Nor was it less an evidence of Christian power in so 
 notorious a nest of murderers that, after the second 
 attempt had been made on Zeisberger's life, those Mon- 
 seys who attended his preaching held a council, and 
 appointed two of their number to administer a public 
 reproof to the young men engaged in the plot. That 
 God's word was not proclaimed in vain its most vindic- 
 tive opponents had to acknowledge. Goschgoschuuk 
 separated into a Christian and heathen party. At first 
 the former timidly succumbed to every persecution. 
 By and by, however, it gained courage, and stood forth 
 openly on the side of the Gospel, whilst several of its 
 adherents built themselves huts around the mission- 
 house. The accession of Allessrewi and of Gendaskund, 
 a distinguished head-man, was the crowning triumph of 
 this party." 
 
 More and more the Christian party separated them- 
 selves from the heathen ; and when the hunters of the 
 clan returned from their autumnal chase, they nearly all 
 joined the mission, and the wrath of the heathen was 
 thus excited anew. Feasts and all kinds of attractions 
 were set on footJjy them to wile the converts away, but 
 without effect. The persecution at length grew so bitter 
 that Zeisberger determined to remove the mission 
 premises to Lawunakhanck, some three miles farther 
 up the river, not far from a petroleum spring, which was
 
 lo6 DA VW ZEISBERGER. 
 
 found to be of great value. The Christians removed^ 
 the heathens at Goschgoschuuk lapsed deeper into 
 drunkenness and all kinds of wickedness ; but Zeis- 
 berger did not despair of converting some, and lost no 
 chance of appealing to them, being energetically aided 
 in these efforts by Anthony, of whom Zeisberger at this 
 time wrote, " Anthony is as eager to bring souls to Christ 
 as a hunter's hound is eager to chase the deer." The 
 friendship of a chief, Glikkikan, who had great influence 
 at Goschgoschuuk, proved of signal service now ; and in 
 union with other two chiefs, Zeisberger was invited to 
 found a mission at Kaskaskunk, on the Beaver River 
 in Ohio, whither he went. There he founded a town 
 Friedenstadt, or City of Peace, which soon became a 
 centre of great changes. Chiefs who had lived in life- 
 long feud became reconciled, " one haughty war-captain 
 weeping publicly at thought of his past deeds in the 
 presence of his former associates." Zeisberger writes, 
 "This is marvellous ! Thus the Saviour, by His word, 
 breaks the hard hearts and humbles the proud minds of 
 the Indians." One of the greatest achievements of the 
 missionaries at this settlement was the appointment of 
 an umpire to settle all differences between the Christian 
 Monseys and the rest, Zeisberger being at the same 
 time enrolled as a Monsey. The Church increased day 
 by day ; but in the midst of his success he was sum 
 moned to Friedcnshiitten, where difficulties had arisen. 
 It had been found that the land granted by the Iroquois
 
 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 107 
 
 Council to the Susquehanna converts formed part of 
 the tract sold to Pennyslvania at the treaty of Fort 
 Stanwix, and Zeisberger, after much consideration, came 
 to the conclusion that the proximity of settlers would be 
 detrimental, and suggested to the board that the unre- 
 claimed wilderness of Ohio would form the best field for 
 the future operations of the Church, and advised the 
 removal of the whole body of converts to that country. 
 Very shortly he was on his way with the first detach- 
 ment, five families, numbering twenty-eight persons. 
 Having committed the mission on the Beaver to the 
 charge of Jungman, he now went on hopefully with the 
 building of the first Christian town in Ohio. The dis- 
 trict chosen was fair and fruitful ; the chief had made a 
 grant near the " Big Spring " of all the land from the 
 Gekelemukpechunk northward to Tuscarawas; and in 
 an incredible short time things were in such order that 
 Zeisberger, in spite of the return of ill-health, felt himself 
 free to resume his explorations, in which he took much 
 delight. He visited the Shawanese of the Muskingum, 
 and was well received, though they were one of the 
 most superstitious and perfidious tribes. The religious 
 interest spread even to the Delaware capital. Eckpala- 
 wehund, a noted chief, became a convert, and exercised 
 a wise and beneficial influence over his people. Zeis- 
 berger at this time made sundry translations of passages 
 of Scripture, and of a liturgical service. Shortly after 
 be accompanied one of the chiefs to New Orleans. In
 
 ■N. 
 
 108 DA VID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 spite of the outbreak of Dunmore's war — a mere pretext 
 for extension of territory, which did great mischief — and 
 the self-interest of the chiefs who had favoured the settle- 
 ment in the Tuscarawas, in the hope of adding to their 
 influence, and having learned as much as they wanted, 
 now wished to get rid of the teachers, the missions 
 prospered. The chiefs were caught in their own toils, 
 one of their number, " White Eyes," so far the superior 
 of the others that they could not do without him, having 
 resolved to stand by Zeisberger. This chief undertook 
 a circuit of visitation to his brother chiefs, to represent 
 to them the real objects of the missionaries, and to beg 
 for a proper recognition of the Christian converts. He 
 even developed a great scheme of union. So the villages 
 on the Tuscarawas increased, and not only so, but 
 exhibited more and more the lofty ideal of the mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 "They were remarkable not merely as towns built 
 with surprising regularity and neatness, but also as com- 
 munities governed without the aid of colonial magistrates, 
 by a complete code of laws. In order to administer 
 these, a council was set over each village, consisting of 
 the missionaries and national assistants or ' helpers,' as 
 they were called. In such a council, the influence of 
 the white teachers properly and necessarily continued 
 supreme ; but a native element was, at the same time, 
 brought out that reconciled personal liberty, which the 
 Indian prizes so highly, with restrictions tending to the
 
 DAVID ZEISBERGER. 109 
 
 common good. But, from one point of view., perhaps 
 the most remarkable feature of these towns will appear 
 in this, that they were centres of agriculture, and not 
 'a collection of hunting-lodges. The chase was by no 
 means abandoned, but it had become a secondary 
 object To raise grain, cattle, and poultry formed the 
 principal employment of the converts. Their plantations 
 covered hundreds of acres along the rich bottoms of the 
 valley ; herds, more numerous than the West had ever 
 seen, roamed through the forests or were pastured in 
 the meadows ; while few farmyards in Pennsylvania 
 had poultry in greater variety. Men of judgment and 
 distinction coming from the eastern colonies were often 
 filled with astonishment when they here beheld Indians 
 not only civilised, but changed in all their habits, and 
 growing rich." 
 
 Though the revolution was now drawing near, and 
 disturbances were already felt all over the land, Zeis- 
 berger went on with his work unmoved. His next 
 great enterprise was the founding of a mission at Lich- 
 tenau, on the Muskingum. Papunhank, who had 
 formerly assisted him well in such work, had passed 
 away at a ripe age ; but new helpers sprang up, and 
 though " White Eyes " for a time yielded himself to 
 ambitious projects, he soon awakened to his blunder. 
 More distressing and injurious to the mission work 
 were the efforts which the British now made to stir 
 up the Indians — a policy so persistently pursued that
 
 IIO DAVID ZEISBERGER. 
 
 by and by the mission stations were nearly all broken 
 up. When all the others, save himself and Edwards, 
 had been withdrawn from Lichtenau, Zeisberger wrote in 
 a letter to the board — 
 
 " My heart does not allow me even so much as to 
 think of leaving. Where the Christian Indians stay, I 
 will stay. It is impossible for me to forsake them. If 
 Edwards and I were to go, they would be without a 
 guide and would disperse. Our presence gives authority 
 to the national assistants, and the Lord gives authority 
 to us. He will not look upon our remaining here as 
 foolhardiness. I make no pretensions to heroism, but 
 am, by nature, as timid as a dove. My trust is alto- 
 gether in God. Never yet has He put me to shame, but 
 always granted me the courage and the comfort I needed. 
 I am about my duty, and even if I should be murdered, 
 it will not be my loss, but my gain ; for then will the fish 
 return to his native element." 
 
 They were equal to the position. Zeisberger went 
 from place to place, counselling the Indians to be at 
 peace, to refrain from declaring war, and to be guiltless 
 of bloodshed. As soon as the position of affairs would 
 admit of it, he set forth to found three new missions, 
 as the inrush to Lichtenau had overcrowded it. This 
 accomplished, he went to Bethlehem to confer with the 
 board, and found on his return that both Goschgoschuuk 
 and Lichtenau had been destroyed by Colonel Broad- 
 head's .'■soldiery. With immense labour the settlements
 
 DA VI D ZEISBER GER. 1 1 1 
 
 were restored. But Zeisberger, though now patriarchal, 
 would not rest. He was in danger of death from 
 heathen sorcerers more than once, was more than once 
 taken prisoner, and always displayed the same high 
 heroism. It would be -mpossible to recount all his 
 brave deeds — his wanderings in peril and solitude, and 
 his constant witness, borne amid all manner of threaten- 
 ings and privations, to the Gospel of his Saviour. One 
 of the most touching episodes of his later days was 
 the massacre at Gnadenhiitten by the heathen Indians, 
 in which twenty-nine men, twenty-seven women, and 
 thirty-four children were barbarously murdered. 
 
 "Their death was the beginning of the decline of 
 the mission, but it was also the most illustrious exempli- 
 fication of what the Church and Zeisberger had accom- 
 plished among the aborigines. Their very murderers 
 confessed that by their faith and patience, by their 
 fearlessness and resignation, they had glorified God. 
 Even at this late day the traveller, as he passes through 
 the blooming valley of the Tuscarawas, stops to see the 
 spot where they suffered." 
 
 From this date the fire of Zeisberger's zeal began to 
 decline, though he still fouglit on nobly. He visited 
 the Chippeways, and began a mission amongst them, and 
 led his own remnant farther westward to find a new and 
 a safer home, only, however, to gain further experience 
 of massacre, the horrors of which were implicitly 
 confessed to by Congress when it " made a grant of land
 
 T 1 2 DA VI D ZEISBER GER. 
 
 to the Christian Indians," as an indemn.ty. He planted 
 new towns at Detroit, and founded Fairfield in Canada, 
 and Goschen in Ohio ; he rallied the scattered converts, 
 and pled their cause before those in power. Though 
 the infirmities of age had crept on him — his hearing 
 being impaired and his eyesight dim — he still abode 
 with the Indians and ruled them, dealing decisively with 
 intemperance and rebuking it. As the weakness in- 
 creased, he felt death was not distant, and, sitting up 
 in bed, in spite of the cramp in his bowels, solemnly 
 bade the mission family farewell. He lingered a i^w 
 days more, suffering great pain, then passed away peace- 
 fully, responding to the singing of the converts by signs 
 expressive of his joy and peace. He died in 1808, at 
 the patriarchal age of 82. 
 
 He was learned as well as brave. He translated 
 many works into the native tongues, and composed 
 many hymns and tales. His idea of weaning the 
 Indians from their wild mode of life and attracting 
 them to the labours of agriculture, and settling them 
 in Christian communities, well deserves note, as from 
 the process he followed hints may still be drawn for 
 our missionaries who labour among certain savage 
 peoples. Not only bold, daring, and self-denying, 
 t)Ut discreet, sagacious, and reticent, never acting pre- 
 cipitately, and yet never found wanting in a crisis, 
 Zeisberger deserves to rank amongst the very greatest 
 Christian missionaries of his own or of any age.
 
 H 
 
 a. 
 
 K
 
 "3 ) 
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH AND THE HINDUS. 
 
 ON Christmas Eve, in the year 1831, the students 
 at the Basle Missionary Institute were surprised 
 in midst of a distribution of Christmas gifts, by the 
 somewhat unceremonious advent of an important looking 
 but rather roughly-attired visitor. He had come right 
 from Finland, where he had successfully discharged 
 responsible duties, in superintending a large estate and 
 a factory, to undergo training for missionary work. He 
 had for some time regarded himself as destined to this 
 field ; but one thing after another had arisen to hinder 
 him ; and now as he looked round on those who were 
 to be his fellow-students, he must have been struck by 
 their youthfulness compared with his own maturity, as the 
 good Director Blumhardt introduced him to them as 
 "Dear Brother Hebich." Some men might have been 
 so vexed and disappointed at the sight as to feel that 
 it was too late for them to persevere. But Samuel 
 Hebich at no time was afraid to be singular, and in his 
 
 earliest, as in his latest days, was noticeable for inde- 
 
 H
 
 114 SAMUEL IJEBICH. 
 
 pendence and decision of character. He was the fourth 
 son of a Lutheran pastor at Nellingen, a good man, 
 but more eccentric than evangeUcal, who had caught 
 hold of rationalistic ideas, but believed it well for the 
 sake of the common folk to keep to the old teaching, 
 and who probably exhibited more of the real spirit of 
 his life than he was aware of, when, after his son 
 Samuel's confirmation, he gave him the present of a 
 tobacco-pipe ! 
 
 The boy was sent in his fourteenth year to an elder 
 brother who had succeeded in business at Lubeck, that 
 he might assist him. Young Samuel did his best to be 
 useful to his brother, and to learn the business ; devoting 
 his evenings to make up for deficiencies in school- 
 learning. After three years thus spent, he was bound 
 to a merchant for four years. During this time he 
 became subject to deep religious experiences — underwent 
 Bunyan-like struggles, till suddenly when out walking 
 during a popular festival in 182 1 great peace fell upon 
 him. Finding much in the preaching of Pastor Geibel, 
 of the Reformed Church, he left the Lutherans and 
 joined that congregation, and his close study of 
 Scripture, and what his brother regarded as religious 
 vagary, soon brought painful protests. 
 
 " Samuel's brother was not a little put out at finding 
 him spending every available quarter of an hour in 
 poring over the Bible. He said he would not put up 
 with all this hypocrisy ; and there was a great to-do in
 
 SAMUEL HEBICFT. 115 
 
 the house. Nor was the father less displeased : amongst 
 others, he wrote what his son calls ' a terrible letter : ' 
 ♦Son, thou hast chosen the downward path,' &c., and 
 finished by subscribing himself 'faithfully your father, 
 a respected Lutheran clergyman, neither a tailor nor a 
 cobbler.' Samuel, who dearly loved his father, had now 
 been parted from him for four years, and was on the 
 point of returning home. As he read this letter, all that 
 he had received from God seemed in a moment gone, a 
 Jheavy weight oppressed him, and the language of his 
 heart was, ' You foolish lad, you ! Barely twenty years 
 old, while your father is over seventy, a learned and 
 experienced clergyman, your brother held in universal 
 esteem, can it be that both these are mistaken and you 
 only right ? Surely not ! ' He adds : ' Sorely I grieved, 
 the day was wild and stormy, I could yet show the spots 
 where, on my way home through the market place, I 
 seemed to hear a voice, ' If thou lovest father or mother 
 more than Me, thou art not worthy of Me.' At once 
 I knew what I had to do ; all my father's and brother's 
 reproaches fell off from me like the rain which was then 
 falling." 
 
 It should be said, however, that when the lad paid 
 that expected visit shortly afterwards, the father saw that 
 he was really in earnest, and said that he would not 
 maintain his opposition. Samuel was now seized with a 
 strong desire to devote himself to missionary work, and 
 became a member of the Lubeck Missionary Society;
 
 ii6 SAMUEL HE ETCH. 
 
 but a friend, whose prudence he trusted, advised him 
 meanwhile to remain at his business ; and his indentures 
 having expired, in 1824, he became clerk and traveller 
 to another mercantile house in Lubeck. It was whilst 
 on a business journey for this house, that he made the 
 acquaintance of Madame Lefren, a Christian lady, who 
 by-and-by invited him to undertake the management of 
 some estates of hers in Finland. In this position he 
 met with great success ; but Madame Lefrdn sympathised 
 with him in his yearnings towards missionary work, 
 notwithstanding that she was likely, by his obtaining it, to 
 lose a good steward ; and she backed his applications to 
 Inspector Blumhardt, by an offer to bear the expense of 
 his training at the Basle Institute. From one cause or 
 other, however, his acceptance was still delayed for more 
 than a year — the desire deepening as his prayers grew 
 more earnest. Thus it came about that the students 
 at Basle, on Christmas Eve, 1831, were set wondering 
 at the advent of a man of the ripe age of twenty-seven, 
 who had come direct to them from Finland. 
 
 He was not very successful as a student, we are told. 
 " Hebich has little aptitude for grammatical studies," 
 said his teacher ; " probably he would pick up languages 
 more readily, colloquially ; he shows, however, much 
 maturity of spiritual judgment, and his conduct and 
 demeanour are excellent." These qualities had soon 
 opportunities for showing themselves — particularly when 
 confederate troops occupied the town, in the strife
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 117 
 
 between town and country. Hebich showed the officers 
 who visited the mission-house through the museum, and 
 took occasion to speak earnestly to them of Christ. In 
 short trips here and there, he was always ready to bear 
 his testimony — to speak or to preach. " In Geneva he 
 heard the preachers Bost and Malan. The latter, at 
 the close of his sermon, came up to Hebich and 
 inquired, 'Who are you? Why do you wish to join 
 us at the Lord's table ? Do you love the Lord Jesus ? ' 
 to which Hebich replied, * The Lord Jesus is my only 
 hope, my all in all' Whereupon Malan took him by 
 the hand, saying, ' Be thou heartily welcome, brother ! ' 
 and kissed him." Hebich continues : " We afterwards 
 spent three hours with him, in intimate conversation ; we 
 spoke of the only foundation of all blessedness, and 
 enjoyed sweet communion of spirit The believers of 
 Geneva have done quite right in separating themselves 
 from the National Church, for the rulers (or, which in 
 this case is the same thing, the State clergy) had 
 forbidden them to preach the Divinity of our dear 
 Lord." 
 
 In August 1833 the Act for the renewal of the 
 Charter of the East India Company passed through 
 Parliament, granting the right of entry into India, and 
 residence there, to Europeans of all nations, with the 
 privilege of holding land. This decided Hebich's 
 choice of a field of work, and all that now caused 
 delay was the question of funds. Fortunately, Prince
 
 ir8 SAMUEL IlEBICIT. 
 
 Victor of Schomberg had been led to interest himself 
 in the condition of India, and in 1834 he gave ten 
 thousand thalers towards the founding of a school for 
 catechumeni. Hebich and two other Basle students, 
 Lehner and Greiner, were selected to open this new 
 field. Hitherto the Basle Society had had no intercourse 
 with India, and were so little acquainted with it, as to 
 be unable to assign a definite station to these pioneers ; 
 but they set forth full of hope, with instructions to avail 
 themselves of any suitable offering on the borders of 
 any of the older mission districts in South India ; their 
 thoughts more particularly turning to the neighbour- 
 hood of the successful Tinnevelly mission. On his way 
 through London, Hebich attended the May meetings, 
 and, owing to some differences between two societies 
 already established in India, representations were made 
 to the Basle Society, and he was instructed to fix 
 upon " some healthy town, between Cochin and 
 Bombay." 
 
 Accordingly, Mangalore was chosen as the best point 
 where they might settle and learn the Canarese tongue. 
 During the voyage Hebich's ministrations to the crew of 
 the " Malabar " were so highly beneficial and so much 
 appreciated that we are told the mate, who was after- 
 wards made captain, on his visits twice a year to 
 Cannanore, always gave Hebich the opportunity of 
 carrying on his work of dealing with men, officers, and 
 passengers on board his vessel up to the last moment.
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 119 
 
 And in that form of prayer, which, though unwritten, 
 had become by force of usage as stereotyped to him 
 aUnost as a liturgy, Hebich always remembered that 
 ship every Sunday. 
 
 On the 14th of October they reached Calicut, and 
 were warmly welcomed by Mr. Nelson, then judge there, 
 who procured them a boat to their destination. There 
 they found a true friend in Mr. Finlay Anderson, the 
 sub-collector, to whom Mr. Nelson had recommended 
 them. The whole coast from Bombay to Cochin was as 
 yet unoccupied ; and, looking inland, Bangalore, Bellary, 
 Belgaum, were the nearest stations, each between one 
 and two hundred miles distant All these stations were 
 within the Canarese-speaking district, and they therefore 
 opened correspondence with the brethren of the London 
 Missionary Society who were stationed there. Greatly 
 did they rejoice, we are told, over the cordial letters of 
 welcome, and over the first Canarese tract received from 
 these stations in reply. 
 
 They found the races so mixed that they decided it 
 would be necessary for them to master another language 
 besides Canarese. It was therefore agreed that Lehner 
 should devote himself to Konkani. In December they 
 entered a hired house on the hills, where they worked 
 away undisturbed, with two native teachers. The popu- 
 lation of Canara at that time was estimated at 20,000 
 Roman Catholics, 651,000 Hindus of various castes and 
 sects, and 46,000 Mohammedans. The English in the
 
 120 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 station itself numbered about i8; they were visited 
 twice in the year by a chaplain from Cannanore ; so they 
 begged to have divine service on Sundays. 
 
 Hebich soon found himself at home in his new sphere ; 
 but he was sadly dismayed when he was told that he had 
 better not begin anything for two years. Never, perhaps, 
 was the patience of man more severely tried; he was 
 consumed with pity for the idolaters around him, and 
 was eager to speak to them of Christ. The Roman 
 Catholics, he says, were in almost as deplorable a condi- 
 tion as the heathens, having retained caste and most of 
 their heathen habits. The Bible was absolutely for- 
 bidden to them. It was, therefore, very hard for him to 
 wait Action of some kind had always been necessary 
 to him, and never more so than now. He hit upon a 
 happy way of relieving his depression. 
 
 Correspondence with the brethren of the English 
 mission stations led him to desire to see their work; 
 and he therefore set out in October 1835, travelling in 
 a palanquin. He first visited Cannanore, then Mysore, 
 Bangalore, and Bellary, where Mr. Hands had founded 
 the first Canarese mission in 18 10. Here he spent 
 three happy weeks, and then pursued his way towards 
 Harrihar, which had been recommended to him as 
 very suitable for a mission ; but he preferred Hubli, 
 the next station to Dharwar. 
 
 What he had seen made him sure of one thing — that 
 they must "go out among the people." This was now
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. xrt 
 
 his aim, and, accordingly, a house was taken near to the 
 bazaar, which was constantly visited. Then a Canarese 
 school was built, and the parents were waited on and 
 urged to send their children. It was uphill work ; but 
 Hebich writes — 
 
 " What a joy it is, when we feel all the difficulties of 
 our way, and remember that it leads heavenwards ! In 
 all the press of work that comes upon us, all seems at 
 times only darkness before me, but I press on in the 
 Lord's name, and lo ! a ray of light shines through my 
 night, and with that light come strength and courage for 
 the contest. Many consider me a fool or an enthusiast ; 
 others say, nay, but I am a pious man. But what avails 
 the judgment of men unless we have the seal of God, 
 the witness of His Spirit in ourselves ? The Lord ac- 
 knowledges my weak efforts, and that humbles me." 
 
 The work was persevered in faithfully ; but he needed 
 all the heartening and strength to be derived from such 
 considerations as the above extract refers to, as our 
 readers will acknowledge in thinking over the follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 "*We do not want you here,' a high and mighty 
 Brahman once said to the missionary. Pelting with 
 stones or with filth became almost a matter of course, 
 till one day Hebich roundly rebuked a lazy policeman 
 who was looking on unconcerned, and after much con- 
 sideration, Mr. Anderson gave a hint to the police that 
 when they happened to see such disorderly conduct
 
 122 SAMUEL HEBICir. 
 
 they were to put a stop to it. It would have been too 
 unreasonable to tell the police that they were to be on 
 the look-out for such disorders. When the Brahmans 
 asked whether the Government had ordered them to 
 preach, Hebich replied, ' No ! but the God of heaven 
 and earth alone has commissioned me to do it.' Then 
 a Brahman held up four nails which he happened to have 
 at hand, exclaiming, ' A God who was nailed to a cross 
 with nails like this ! ' a piece of wit which was rewarded 
 by loud applause from the crowd. But when Hebich, 
 in full earnest, threatened them with the wrath of God, 
 telling them that they were deceivers of the people, and 
 calling heaven and earth to witness that he was only 
 speaking the truth, which they themselves would have 
 to acknowledge when perhaps too late — these wiseacres 
 and witlings shrunk away home. From this time forth a 
 certain intimacy was established between the missionary 
 and the inhabitants of Mangalore. They were freely 
 visited by men of the highest castes, and on the other 
 hand they found their way into the cottages of poor 
 palm-climbers and fishermen. . . . Meanwhile the 
 English residents induced Hebich to undertake a new- 
 line of work; they had a poor-fund, with a monthly 
 income of about eighty rupees, of which he became the 
 manager. This involved a weekly distribution of rice 
 to paupers; and the care of a number of lepers and 
 cripples, gathered in a poorhouse near the gaol; these 
 opportunities weie used for preaching the Gospel to
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 123 
 
 them. Hebich divided his evenings between bazaar- 
 preaching and the schools ; thus, as much as his know- 
 ledge of Canarese would allow him, dealing in one case 
 with those still far off, and in the other, by lamplight, to 
 those who had already been drawn somewhat nearer," 
 
 A reinforcement of four brethren having been sent 
 out from Basle, Hebich at once proceeded vigorously to 
 dispose of them by planting them at the points most 
 available. With H. Mogling from Wurtemberg, he 
 proceeded by Goa to Dharwar, where he began a great 
 work, which necessitated his very soon being joined by 
 two of those who had come out from Europe with him. 
 One trait, which in spite of some eccentricity and 
 reserve in council, Hebich had in common with most of 
 the great organisers and leaders of men, was the gift of 
 discerning what a man was fit for. His judgment in the 
 settlement of Mogling amply justified itself, in spite of 
 one error on Mogling's part, which shall be referred to 
 by and by. With them, before returning home, Hebich 
 visited Hubli, and decided that very soon it must 
 become the centre of a new mission. 
 
 " Hebich," we are told, " set out alone to travel 
 slowly towards Mangalore, preaching to the heathen 
 by the way. He received a letter from the collector of 
 Dharwar, warning him of possible danger, and begging 
 him to be very guarded in his intercourse with the 
 natives; but he did not allow this to hinder him in 
 delivering his message. The collector in his letter urged
 
 124 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 him to be particularly careful not to speak of the vanity 
 of the heathen gods. His comment was — ' Poor fellow ! 
 he knows nothing about what I preach; but I have 
 God's Word to declare, and I d'are not keep silence. 
 Amen.'" 
 
 The insurrection, which shortly after this arose, filled 
 Mangalore with soldiers. Hebich became only the more 
 convinced of his call to declare God's Word to English 
 as well as to heathens. Some friends represented to him 
 that there was great danger of falling into by-paths, and 
 that to the heathens only should he look. 
 
 " Am I a servant of God for the heatnen only, and 
 not rather for all men ? " he urged in reply. *' I feel that 
 the British have claims upon me ; first, because our way is 
 opened to the natives by the fact that God has committed 
 this country to them ; secondly, because God bestows 
 upon us unnumbered benefits through their rule ; thirdly, 
 because our mission could never have attained its 
 present state but for their liberality. And shall nothing 
 be done for them in return ? In their case it has been 
 found true that we ourselves have been the first to enjoy 
 the fruits brought forth by our own kindness. . . . 
 Yet we may well be thankful for the warning against all 
 wandering in by-paths. If, at a station where there is no 
 chaplain, we missionaries give the English a weekly 
 service, it is no more than we ought to do. If the 
 heathen have a mind to be saved, there is no lack of 
 opportunity for them to hear the word. 01 course, we
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 125 
 
 must not allow such occasional services to keep us back 
 from preaching-tours. For myself, so far as I can 
 perceive the Master's will, I should not grudge to give 
 up a month or two every year to work among the 
 English." 
 
 In the end of 1836 several men of lower caste were 
 baptized; in the beginning of 1837 there were twenty- 
 two boys in the orphanage ; building operations went on 
 vigorously ; and the brethren were ceaselessly itinerating 
 and preaching in country places. In July, to Hebich's 
 great joy, both the Canarese teachers and three palm 
 cultivators asked for baptism and broke caste, in spite of 
 what they had to suffer from their relatives. The new 
 station at HubU had to be organised, and thither Hebich 
 went. He even prevailed on Mr. Mills, the collector, to 
 grant a site, and preparations went on apace. Mean- 
 while, at the festival of the goddess at Sandidi, he 
 camped out, like the rest, in the open field, living among 
 the people as he had never done before. Here he 
 preached and conversed, and produced a powerful effect 
 Returning to Hubli, and finding that building could 
 not commence for some time, he set out on another 
 missionary tour, going to Puttoor, Coorg, Chinnapatam, 
 Bangalore, and Chittoor. In the course of this journey 
 various remarkable adventures befell him, and he had 
 some original encounters both with Europeans and with 
 natives. At Mercara we learn that his horse fell with 
 him.
 
 126 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 " The accident might have been serious, but from that 
 moment, even when in suffering, he was able to testify 
 boldly. His principal opponent was an officer of 
 engineers, who, denying any freewill in man, sought to 
 cast on God all the responsibility of sin. Hebich one 
 day forced him down into a chair, saying (to convince 
 him that he had the power to sit or rise), ' Sit you 
 there ! ' A lady once said to him, in the presence of her 
 husband, a surgeon and philosophist, 'You do preach 
 such terrible things ! ' to which the husband remarked, 
 
 * Well, I am able to laugh at all Mr. Hebich tells us.' 
 
 * Yes,' said Hebich, ' you laugh now. Wait till you come 
 to your deathbed, and then tell me where the laugh is.' 
 Thus, in the houses of the gentry, he had what he styles 
 
 * lively encounters,' but he was also diligent in seeking 
 to lead the ill-educated half-castes into the doctrine of 
 justification, on which important doctrine he says he 
 found the people very badly grounded. He had the 
 joy to baptize a few of these in the regiment stationed 
 there, who had been moved to earnestness by his 
 ministry, and thus to constitute a little church, which he 
 put under the care of the apothecary." 
 
 At Chittoor he hired a bullock-cart, and in it he 
 passed slowly from village to village, declaring the glad 
 tidings. 
 
 "In this fashion he reached Nandidroog, where he 
 was exposed to a peculiar danger. A Mohammedan 
 state-prisoner was confined in a hill fort at this place,
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 127 
 
 ■who invited Hebich to visit him. During the interview 
 the missionary taxed the Koran with falsehood ; where- 
 upon the Mohammedan first threw his slippers at him, 
 and then ran at him with a drawn dagger ; a precipitate 
 retreat over the slippery gran-ite rocks alone saved his 
 life. On another occasion he was pelted with stones ; 
 but these were rare exceptions ; for the first declaration 
 of the truth generally met with a glad hearing : at times 
 also only with a stare of stupid astonishment." 
 
 At Toomkoor Hebich learned that Mogling, who had 
 gone to Mangalore to take his place, had bsen caught in 
 the toils of self-will, and that the mission was threatened 
 with danger. Warnings from another quarter had, how- 
 ever, sufficed to bring Mogling to a sense of his danger 
 before the evil was irremediable. Hebich hurried to 
 Dharwar, and, like a true bishop and missionary, wrote 
 to him from there such a letter as not only restored its 
 old harmony and prosperity to the mission, but brought 
 Hebich and Mogling into yet closer union. 
 
 Far from being an ascetic, Hebich had frequently to 
 protest against a tendency to it in his fellow-workers. 
 When he first began to fear that there was too great a 
 bias that way amongst his associates at Dharwar, he 
 wrote to them in the most sensible terms. They were 
 thinking of purchasing a house, and had, as he thought, 
 underrated or ignored considerations of their own health 
 and comfort, and thus he protests — 
 
 " I would certainly not do without the verandah ; and
 
 128 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 especially do not cramp j'ourselves too much for room, 
 it will only be a loss in the end. I have learnt some 
 lessons from my own experience in building ; I often 
 wax warm over it ; but when my courage is ready to fail» 
 the Lord lifts me up again, and the work goes on all the 
 more cheerily. Even in such dull work He ever makes 
 me ' more than conqueror.' Again I hear that you deny 
 yourselves the Lord's good gifts, such as butter, milk, 
 sugar, &c. Now I do not mean to lord it over you ; do 
 as you judge right ; let me only say. Be wise, enjoy with 
 thankful hearts any refreshment you can fairly attain to ; 
 our Master is not so poor as to grudge these things to 
 His servants; in India a more strengthening diet is 
 needed than in Europe : I write this only out of affection, 
 so forgive me ! " 
 
 His stay in Mangalore was now drawing to a close. 
 He felt that the mission there would be left in good 
 hands, and that he could move to a new field. His 
 attention was therefore turned to Cannanore, whither he 
 went, and repeated, with some variations, the Mangalore 
 story. The town, which lies along the sandy beach of 
 the bay, east and south from the fort, is solidly built, but 
 the streets are narrow and dirty. The population, as at 
 Mangalore, is very mixed ; but there is here a large pro- 
 portion of Mohammedans — a peculiar tribe of Mapilas, 
 the chief men of which are merchants, claiming princely 
 authority. Up till this time Cannanore had been looked 
 after by brethren from the Basle mission stationed at
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 129 
 
 TelUcherry, who paid monthly visits ; but no great 
 result had followed, and matters had fallen into confusion, 
 when Hebich began duty in it. At first he was com- 
 missioned only for a few months to set things in order; 
 but, seeing that a great work had been begun, all con- 
 nected with the missions agreed that it would be well for 
 him to stay. Very soon he had drawn converts from 
 various classes. His apt replies, his affability, his 
 unwearying endeavours, his original and quaint way of 
 illustrating spiritual things, captivated the natives. 
 
 " One of the devices by which he sought to explain 
 to them the incarnation of Christ, was to use a large 
 copper coin and a silver rupee of the like size. He 
 covered the silver coin with the copper one, and held it 
 up to view. Naturally each one judged that it was 
 copper only, of no great worth ; but then he slipped the 
 copper aside and showed what was underneath it — the 
 silver, the Divine nature. The same coins served also to 
 show the justification ; the sinner's worthlessness being 
 covered by the righteousness of Christ. Then the silver 
 only could be seen, the great value of the Divine nature, 
 though behind it ever was the old copper, the still sinful 
 and worthless human nature. And he never rested till 
 the poor obtuse Tamul women, full of notions of the 
 law and of their own righteousness, began to see some- 
 thing of the mind and counsel of God." 
 
 In this way he wrought hard amongst the native 
 population, not forgetting Portuguese and Indo-Britons,
 
 >30 SAMUEL HEBICII. 
 
 who, he declared, " need help, and whose influence on 
 the people is not inconsiderable." He sought so to 
 preach in the little Tamul church as that it should grow 
 both in mind, power, and in members. He had not 
 often the privilege of baptizing any of the Malayalas; 
 yet, from that caste sprang a Nayer youth named 
 Krishna, about eighteen years of age, who afterwards 
 became his much-beloved Timotheus. Among the 
 inmates of the poorhouse were many Malayalas, to 
 whom he constantly preached, and some of whom were 
 baptized. Of that work he records, " There is nothing 
 there to please men." A Malayahm school, which was 
 tried, was filled with one hundred children or more, and 
 prepared the way for access to the people of the land. 
 
 One trace of his influence with the English residents 
 we get in the following paragraph : — 
 
 " He strongly urged the importance of the women being 
 taught to read as well as the men, and tried to make a 
 beginning, but was soon brought to a stand. He found 
 the people so filthy, that he had to give most of the 
 women a garment in which they might decently appear 
 at divine service. An English friend supplied the 
 necessary funds for this, A chapel, at no great distance 
 from the European barracks, was also given to him for 
 the use of the mission. The chaplain added the gift of 
 a small schoolhouse. It was arranged that, under the 
 supervision of Mr. Gundert from Tellicherry, two 
 catechists, who had been sent from Tinnevelly, would
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 131 
 
 have the care of the church and school ; but they were 
 very inefficient, and had ultimately to take to other 
 employments." 
 
 Hebich was therefore once more thrown on his own 
 resources, without any efficient aid. But he did not fall 
 down hopelessly because others failed in rendering the 
 assistance he had expected of them. He visited the 
 bazaars, preached in the streets, had preaching-stations 
 in the bullock-lines among the artillerymen. "Poor 
 fellows, weary of the service of sin," he says, " came in 
 ever-increasing numbers to the chapel, which was so 
 invitingly near to the barracks." 
 
 Many came at first to the services out of sheer 
 curiosity and idleness, and indulged in a good laugh at 
 the strange pronunciation and unusual manner of the 
 preacher. But yet many also found an attraction in 
 him — found that they could learn from him and be 
 interested in him. His biographer tell us that — 
 
 "A Scotchwoman, a soldier's wife, declared that she 
 had never understood any one so well since she left 
 Scotland. Men hitherto known as drunkards and 
 debauchees were converted, and became changed char- 
 acters; and soon Hebich's name was in all mouths. 
 . . . The English soldiers once asked him to preach 
 at their anniversary temperance meeting. He thought 
 this marked out his duty, to forego the use of beer and 
 ■wine. It must be remembered that he often had to do 
 with drunkards ; and he found that in their case total
 
 132 SAMUEL HEBICII. 
 
 abstinence was the only way to keep them from back- 
 sliding. He also strongly recommended his 'children,' 
 whether officers or priv^ates, not to hesitate about giving 
 the only example that could be easily understood in this 
 matter. He kept to this so long as he remained in 
 India, and found the advantage of it." 
 
 One of the pleasures of his life was to pay a visit 
 to the brethren at Tellicherry. "When Hebich felt 
 some burden heavy upon him he would often ride over, 
 sometimes even in the night, to talk matters over. More 
 frequently he sent over boys and girls who had come 
 under his influence, for the advantage of the Tellicherry 
 educational establishments. At first he had not been 
 careful to add schools or any means for regular instruction 
 to his own station." And he adopted very politic and 
 effective measures to stop the fatal impurity that prevailed 
 both among Europeans and natives. He had been so 
 successful in training natives to assist him in the work 
 that we find him, in 1843, writing to the Home Com- 
 mittee, that "not only were he and his native helpers 
 equal to maintain this peculiarly constituted station, but 
 that he could even extend his line of work — and was he 
 not even doing so at that moment in the direction of the 
 fishery village of Tai ? In so confined a field a second 
 missionary would find it hard to work by his side. For 
 his part he was now so bound in spirit to these dear souls, 
 that he could no longer undertake distant journeys. 
 Should he die at his post, one of the older brethren
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 133 
 
 should take his place. A novice would never get on in 
 work among the mob of this place." 
 
 But in spite of this, before another year, he was 
 earnestly engaged in the establishment of out-stations, 
 into which he went with all his wonted vigour, making 
 deep impressions, and having conversions to record in 
 many places; then he devoted himself to a course of 
 visitations of the heathen temples at the times of festival • 
 he instituted a mission at Angerakandi, and another at 
 Palghat, where he was when the mutiny arose. Indeed, 
 as the direct results of his labours, a great revival broke 
 out in one section of his district, of which much might 
 be said. 
 
 The following extracts will give an idea of Hebich's 
 trials during these visitations — 
 
 " At a place called Cherukunu, near the high road to 
 Mangalore, a steep hill, crowned by a temple dedicated 
 to Kali, rises out of an extensive plain. On the 15th of 
 April 1846 — that is, just in the hot season — Hebich, 
 having sent on his servants to pitch his tent during the 
 night, arrived there. He was suffering much from boils 
 at the time. The early devotions of the little Christian 
 band were disturbed by angry shouts. A man came, 
 and angrily declared that Hebich had no business to 
 pitch his tent on the sandy spot which had been chosen 
 for the purpose ; it was his property. The head man of 
 the village was sent for to settle this dispute, but he 
 could nowhere be found. It was with difficulty that
 
 J 34 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 the peace was kept till mid-day. Afterwards, when 
 Hebich, standing under a tree, began to preach, the 
 youth of the place tried to drown his voice with their 
 yells. They next began to pelt him with sand; then, 
 suddenly the whole crowd rushed at the tent, cut the 
 ropes, and tried to trample it and the Christians it 
 sheltered in the dust. With difficulty the tent-pole was 
 held upright, while the crowd without were shoving and 
 striking it. This combat around the tent lasted for two 
 hours. At six o'clock the tom-tom sounded, and some 
 guns were fired, calling to the great sacrificial procession. 
 An elephant took fright and shied at the tent, and the 
 crowd went off after him. But Hebich had had enough 
 of it No sooner thus left to himself than he packed up 
 hastily, and made the best of his way home to Can- 
 nanore, where he arrived at eleven o'clock at night. 
 He truly rejoiced in bearing the cross. Though, as he 
 called himself, ' a dull and unskilful and sinful scholar in 
 the school of Christ,' he counted it all joy to be allowed 
 to suffer shame for the Holy One. However, he never 
 again visited this ' devil's place.' 
 
 "Once in 1847, while Hebich was praying, prepara- 
 tory to preaching during a minor festival at Cherikal, the 
 people attempted to drive the village cattle violently against 
 him ; but they failed in their effort, the cattle running off 
 in all directions. The collector of Malabar, at that time, 
 was a noble-minded man, anxious to prepare the way 
 of the Gospel ; though also, and naturally, anxious to do
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 1 35 
 
 SO with all caution. Hebich spoke to him about all 
 these interruptions, saying that should he even be killed 
 during his ministry he did not personally wish that any 
 one should be held responsible for it ; that none of the 
 collector's pohce could prevent this, unless God Himself 
 restrained the people. All that he desired was that the 
 ringleaders should be sharply cautioned ; for, in all these 
 cases it was invariably one or two rascals who, exciting 
 the mob, were really to blame. This the collector con- 
 sented to do, and, thanks to a few private hints to the 
 lower officials, things went on much more quietly at the 
 principal festivals." 
 
 Hebich, after a time, had had so often to lament the 
 languidness of the native catechists that we are not 
 surprised to meet with this record in 1845: "I must 
 confess that even the best catechists do very little. They 
 have not as yet sufficient courage or push to go boldly 
 among the heathen, or even to visit them in their houses. 
 The natives have a rough manner, as though they would 
 devour the catechist ; and will not listen to him, and he 
 is at once silenced. Yet, keen and unscrupulous as the 
 natives are in the things of this world, no sooner are 
 they converted than they stand as frightened, helpless 
 sheep. It is only the actual presence of the missionary 
 that gives a native catechist any courage." 
 
 Mogling, in order to meet the difficulties that had 
 arisen from this cause, had set himself to inaugurate 
 a system of European training which should have the
 
 136 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 effect of instilling more of independence into the native 
 converts. This idea seems to have suggested to Hebich 
 the possibility of making use of some of his European 
 converts, more especially those in the several regiments 
 that had visited Cannanore. He would so far as he could 
 transform them into natives, and thus have an order 
 of genuine assistants with European persistency, but with 
 native habits and modes of thought, to preach and to 
 itinerate. It was a bold idea, but not in every respect a 
 prudent one. It is surprising that it turned out so well 
 as it did. •' If he," said Hebich, referring ^o that plan 
 of Mogling's, "is about to turn an able native into a 
 European, why should not I seek out Europeans of a 
 suitable spirit and turn them into natives?" He had 
 already, as he thought, the proper material : two 
 soldiers, who had recently been converted, and who had 
 devoted themselves, body and soul, to the service of the 
 German Evangelical mission. These he now made to 
 bind themselves even in case of sickness, not to return 
 to England, or to go elsewhere, but to die where God 
 had placed them ; never to aspire to be aught but a 
 Christian catechist ; to marry, if they did marry, from 
 among the native sisters ; and to live in every respect as 
 natives in food, dress, &c. 
 
 The discharges of these two — an Englishman, Joseph 
 Searle, and an Irishman, George O'Brien — were accord- 
 ingly bought, and they were set apart for this work, and 
 others by and by were added to their number.
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 137 
 
 Some of these failed and went back — as, in midst 
 of so many temptations, was to be almost expected — but 
 O'Brien was firm and true. For years he worked in 
 Palghat and obtained great influence. We read that, on 
 one of his visits there — 
 
 " Hebich was pleased to notice that this warmhearted 
 and somewhat impulsive Irishman of his was able to find 
 admission without reserve into all circles. With nice 
 tact he attended scrupulously to the minutiae of Malay- 
 ahm etiquette; using in his addresses to the higher 
 classes those titles to which each rank considered itself 
 entitled. O'Brien worked the station well. He was in- 
 defatigable, travelling about from market-town to market- 
 town, to preach to the inhabitants. He was, however, 
 not sufficiently careful about his own health. During the 
 first year of his stay in Palghat, he had to be invalided 
 at Coimbatore hospital for liver complaint. His desire 
 was so strong to be out among the thousands who were 
 still ignorant of Christ, that he was slow to adopt the 
 necessary precautions against an Indian climate. As 
 the congregation consisted largely of Tamul domestic 
 servants, he learned that language from his brother-in- 
 law, to be able the better to minister among them. He 
 quite won the affections of the drummers and musicians 
 of the regiment. One of the officers tried to counteract 
 this by getting up a cricket-club ; but this had only 
 a very partial success. He even gained access among 
 the Roman Catholics. From his childhood he had been
 
 135 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 familiar with Romanism; but meeting one day a pro- 
 cession carrying an image of St. Sebastian, to avert an 
 outbreak of cholera, he was stirred to protest vehemently 
 against the undisguised idolatry of Romanism in India. 
 Of course, the priests warned their flocks against asso- 
 ciating with the heretic ; yet not a few from their fold 
 appreciated the better pastures to be found in the 
 interdicted pages of the New Testament." 
 
 Another of these soldier-catechists v/as Stocking. 
 He had served in the 94th Foot, and was settled in 
 Taliparambu; and prosecuted with considerable result 
 many tours in the regions round about. A savage 
 tribe, known as Mavilars, was especially taken in charge 
 by him. To him, in a large degree, was due the marked 
 change which by and by appeared in Taliparambu, and 
 justified Hebich's strong conviction that "the richest 
 harvest among the Malayalim people would be gathered 
 in here ! " The heathen soon began to feel and to 
 acknowledge that ground was being gained. " One 
 day," we are told, "a Brahman, after standing awhile 
 watching the progress of the new building, exclaimed 
 to the catechist, 'Well, we have stirred up everything 
 to oppose your padre, but he has conquered. But now 
 if you come to live here among us we will meet you on 
 friendly terms, and deal fairly by you, but you must not 
 tell us to become Christians.' " 
 
 But of all the European converts undoubtedly the 
 most notable was Gompertz, a young ofidcer of the loth
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 139 
 
 Regiment, which came to Cannanore in 1850. Gom- 
 pertz, who was of Jewish parentage, heard Hebich 
 preach, and good impressions that had been left on 
 hearing Bishop Dealtry were confirmed, and his resolu- 
 tion strengthened for the Christian life. After that, his 
 ■whole heart was with the mission — he devoted all his 
 spare time to aid it. Hebich's biographer may well head 
 the chapter describing him as " a worthy son," for he was 
 devoted to Hebich, and was prepared to sacrifice time, 
 comfort, and money for his sake. The chapter on 
 Gompertz reads like a passage from some religious 
 story. 
 
 '* To that of his words he added the testimony of a 
 happy, simple, childlike walk — not, however, lacking 
 manly firmness. Even unwilling observers were taken 
 with it His comrades would say, almost peevishly, 
 ' We should like well enough to be like you, but it 
 is not so easy for us. With you, you have but to will, 
 and all goes smoothly.' Yet how little did even those 
 ■who saw most of him really know him. What knew 
 they of the battles won in the secret of his inmost 
 heart? of the yearning desire ever to stand faithful 
 and pure before his God, that he might ever present 
 himself as a reasonable sacrifice to his God ? To 
 such as were truly in his confidence, he often confessed 
 how pained he ■was at his own inconsistent walk : 
 'Though the world may not perceive it,' said he, *I 
 see it every minute that I live.'
 
 140 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 He carefully avoided intruding upon what appeared 
 to him only appropriate work for those regularly in the 
 recognised ministry of the Church. It was only in his 
 later years, and when circumstances seemed specially to 
 point it out to him, that he would hold meetings for 
 edification. He preferred confining himself to simple 
 reading of the Word and prayer. In familiar conversa- 
 tion, all flowed from him so simply, freshly, and affec- 
 tionately, that no one could accuse him of sermonising. 
 If others had so much to say about horses and dogs, 
 about military manoeuvres, about politics, why should he 
 have nothing to say about that one subject which was 
 of the greatest importance to himself and to his hearers ? 
 He seemed by a special instinct to find those who were 
 groping towards the truth, and would encourage them 
 onward and upward. Many a one will thank him 
 through eternity that he so patiently and perseveringly 
 cared for his soul. An officer, who began his military 
 career in Cannanore, writes, * I can truly say that 
 I never met an officer who maintained so holy and 
 consistent a walk, none who so adorned in all things 
 the doctrine of God his Saviour, as dear Gompertz. 
 Under God, he was the means of bringing me to a 
 saving knowledge of Jesus. I have cause to thank God, 
 as long as I live, that I ever met with him.' " 
 
 At Maliapooram Hebich made so many converts 
 amongst the officers and men of the 39th Madras Native 
 Infantry, that the regiment came to be called " Hebich's
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 141 
 
 Own." Colonel Budd, Captain Sweet, and Captains 
 Kerr and Hart, are names that particularly figure in the 
 accounts we have of the work. In reviewing the year, 
 Hebich whites — 
 
 "This year, 1853, has been especially fruitful in the 
 conversion of officers and ladies, and perhaps it has been 
 the most remarkable in this way of any year of my 
 ministry. Some were won to the Lord only on their 
 passage through the place, as, for instance, a lady 
 passenger in the ship * Owen Glendower,' while the ship 
 lay at anchor in our roads. Then a lady (Mrs. S.) was, 
 with her daughters, awakened by the sudden death of 
 her husband. The reports, too, from ' French Rocks ' 
 sound well. During a visitation of cholera the brethren 
 engaged one of our people to preach constantly in their 
 own chapel and in the streets, so as to take advantage 
 of the solemnising impression while it lasted. Counting 
 the drummers, there are thirty-eight of them, and all in 
 the fervour of their first love." 
 
 We are told further that when Bishop Dealtry visited 
 French Rocks about this time he was agreeably surprised 
 at the life and activity he found prevailing in the school. 
 " He had imbibed no little prejudice against Hebich and 
 his doings. He had been told that Hebich called the 
 Church of England a ' Devil's Church.' (This originated 
 in Hebich's manner of characterising as ' the Church 
 Devil,' that spirit which he found in so many, which, 
 under cover of a certain churchiness, resisted the simple
 
 142 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 following of Christ.) Invited to the mess dinner, the 
 bishop found that, spontaneously and quiet naturally, 
 the conversation took a religious turn. Even those 
 ofificers ^'-ho were unconverted, respectfully gave in to 
 the prevailing tone. At the close of the evening, a 
 Bible was laid before the bishop, with the request that 
 he would read the Scriptures and pray with them. He 
 asked whether this was always done, and was surprised 
 to learn that it was the regular custom. With a beam- 
 ing face, he exclaimed, * This is indeed somethiq^ quite 
 new in any part of India.' " ' Jl/ 
 
 At length, Hebich found Cannanore in such a condi- 
 tion that he felt free to devote himself to itinerating. 
 Travelling from place to place he found to be exactly 
 the work for him. All the rest thought the same, and 
 Mogling wrote a very touching letter, expressing his 
 delight that Hebich had yielded himself completely to 
 this mode of evangehstic labour. In 1856, when he took 
 a retrospect of his work, this he records as his own 
 conviction. But he had to acknowledge at the same 
 time that he had no longer the abiUty to be constantly 
 on the move. He now felt often weary and unstrung; 
 so that after each journey, rest seemed the more 
 welcome. He continued to persevere, however; and 
 year after year making more unmistakable upon him 
 the tokens of age and weakness. 
 
 In i860 he had to acknowledge that he was waxing 
 too weak for work in India, and reluctantly returned to
 
 SAMUEL HEBICH. 143 
 
 Europe. He was employed for some time preaching to 
 the Germans at various famous watering-places, and was 
 in London on that work during the Exhibition in May 
 1862. Before long, he found that even this told too 
 severely upon him ; he elected instead to receive a small 
 pension, and to be free to preach or not as he might feel 
 equal to it. But after this we find him now at Stuttgart, 
 now in the Rhine provinces, and again in Switzerland, 
 where he never grew weary of proclaiming Christ ; and 
 whenever opportunity offered, he would urge the claims 
 of his scheme for an establishment for training itinerant 
 preachers for India and Africa, collecting considerable 
 sums by this means. So he went on, ripening day by 
 day, like a shock of corn, till in May 1868, having been 
 seized with pain in the liver, he passed peacefully away. 
 As his mind wandered the night before he died, he 
 fancied himself still preaching to the Hindus. 
 
 We have aimed less at giving an exhaustive and 
 detailed account of his labours — which indeed was im- 
 possible in our space — than at conveying to the reader 
 some idea of the spirit which actuated him. In this 
 we hope we have so far succeeded. He was bold, 
 zealous, single-minded in the service of the Master. 
 Well did the " Madras Times " speak of him even in 
 1844 as "that indefatigable man, who by his affability 
 makes substantial progress," for his great idea was to 
 be as one of the people to win some. Like William 
 Burns, and one or two other great missionary pioneers,
 
 144 SAMUEL HEBICH. 
 
 he liked to work alone rather than in association, and 
 did not always give to those associated with him the 
 impression of running smoothly in harness with them ; 
 but he struggled bravely to overcome this defect And, 
 as has been said, it must not be supposed that he was 
 cold and ascetic in temperament. He was the very 
 reverse ; but he had subdued all passions and impulses 
 to one aim. He had foregone marriage, not because he 
 had never loved, or was incapable of passionate attach- 
 ment — for his early love-story is striking in that respect 
 — but because he felt that for him and for his work the 
 celibate life was best. Others were blessed and cheered 
 with the thought of loved ones to follow them, and he 
 never looked sourly on such hopes — nay, when the 
 hopes had become realities, he accorded to the wives of 
 his fellow-workers the kindest consideration and often 
 tender aid. But for him, he was wedded to one service 
 — to preach the Gospel was the one duty and the one 
 call of life ; and his biography is memorable because it 
 shows how consistently he struggled, and how near he 
 came to realise his ideal.
 
 { r45 ) 
 
 WILLIAM ELMSLIE AND KASHMIR. 
 
 IN the year 1840, a little boy of eight might have 
 been seen running along a London street, with 
 tears in his eyes, and now and then stopping eagerly to 
 ask a passer-by a question. His Scotch tongue does not 
 help him. But he is resolute in what seems a hopeless 
 quest, and does not give over because of one or two 
 rebuffs. At length one man listens to him patiently, 
 and questions him with care; the joyful result being 
 that he is directed to the place of which he is in search. 
 It is a doctor's house. Both father and mother — who 
 had only recently come to the great city from Aberdeen, 
 and are consequently strangers — have fallen ill of fever ; 
 the one servant girl has run off in terror, and the boy is 
 seeking to find the doctor who had been at the house 
 before, though he does not so much as know his name. 
 He returns successfully, however ; and the parents are 
 prescribed for. But the boy himself is next taken ill, 
 and, only after terrible trials, do the little family, minus 
 the savings they had taken Londonward with them, re-
 
 146 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 
 
 turn to their native place. This incident of the search 
 for the doctor indicates a great amount of seriousness 
 and resolution in a mere child, and no doubt the recol- 
 lection of it had also its own effect. At all events, his 
 after life was so wholly in keeping with it — so full of 
 quiet self-help, self-consecration, and high regard for 
 the good of others — that we are quite sure our readers 
 will agree that, though Dr. Elmslie died ere half the 
 tale of his years, he deserves to rank among model 
 missionaries. 
 
 His father was a shoemaker, and, on his return to 
 Aberdeen from London after that unfortunate fever, 
 seems to have so wholly lost heart, that, instead of 
 endeavouring to put the boy to school, he insisted on 
 his being set down beside him, while still only nine, to 
 learn his trade. The mother, however, saw in her boy 
 some promise of talent, and encouraged him so far as 
 she could in his aspirations after learning. ** She often 
 read aloud to him, and got others to read, and in the 
 evenings young friends frequently gave him a share of 
 what they were picking up at school." But he was 
 determined that he would not disappoint his father's 
 hopes, and soon became so expert at his craft that " he 
 was able to turn out a greater quantity of first-rate work, 
 in a given time, than almost any competitor." Gradu- 
 ally he thus secured not only a little leisure, but a little 
 money, wherewith to purchase books or to borrow them ; 
 and the more he read, the more strengthened he became
 
 WILLIAM ELMSLTE. 147 
 
 in the resolve to get through a course at college. In 
 1848 he was successful in being entered as a pupil at the 
 Grammar School of Aberdeen under that Arnold of the 
 North, Dr. Melvin, of whom, like so many others, he 
 never ceased to think save with gratitude and reverence. 
 Here he attended for four sessions, all the time helping 
 his father in his work. " He used to fix his book in the 
 'clambs' (an instrument employed for holding the 
 leather), and placing these conveniently in front of him, 
 he learned to pick up right quickly a sentence from 
 Zumpt, or a line from Homer, or any other book, and 
 thus he stitched and studied for long weary years." 
 
 In November 1853 he became a student of King's 
 College, Aberdeen. But it must not be supposed he 
 was yet free from arduous labour for bread. His father 
 grew feebler, and the more responsibility fell on him to 
 provide for the household. A companion of these days 
 tells us — 
 
 *' William's work was harder than mine, for his father's 
 failing health and eyesight made him now more and 
 more dependent on his son's exertions. On this account 
 he undertook an engagement to teach in a school in 
 Aberdeen, and he had also several private pupils. We 
 were students of the same year, and I shared the room 
 with him in his parents' house. We both worked hard. 
 It was no unusual thing for us to restrict ourselves to 
 five hours' sleep. We engaged a watchman to waken us 
 at three o'clock every morning, and we took it in turns
 
 148 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 
 
 to rise first, kindle the fire and boil the coffee, which 
 Mrs. Elmslie had made ready the night before." 
 
 In spite of the varied drawbacks of the position and 
 attacks of ill health brought on by severe application, he 
 was so successful in his studies that " before he had 
 reached the end of his Arts' course he had gained five 
 prizes in various classes," Aspiration and a sense of 
 duty seem reconciled in this young worker j he will 
 mark out a course for himself, but without doing despite 
 to the claims of those near to him. Perhaps this would 
 not have been possible if, along with all, there had not 
 gone the elevating and hallowing influences of religion. 
 Each morning the young, toilsome students knelt down 
 together, and besought God's blessing on the day and 
 its work ; and though, in moments of illness, doubts 
 sometimes visited Elmslie, they never long abode with 
 him. 
 
 Having taken his degree in arts, William Elmslie 
 went to Italy as a tutor, and thus saw a little of the 
 world, taking now and then the English service for those 
 with whom he had become friendly in the course of his 
 travels. His intention up till this time had been to 
 study for the ministry, and on his return he competed for 
 and won a bursary, which enabled him to enter the Free 
 Church Divinity College. But during this first session 
 there his attention was drawn to the mission-field, and a 
 consideration of the place which heaUng had held in the 
 pl^inting of Christianity, led him to resolve to become
 
 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 149 
 
 a medical missionary. This seemed merely courting 
 difficulties, and so some of his best friends viewed it. 
 
 " To face four years of study, with winter and summer 
 courses, besides the heavy expense of a medical educa- 
 tion, seemed madness to his friends, and they vehemently 
 opposed him in his resolution ; but hitherto the Lord 
 had helped him, and to be a workman thoroughly 
 furnished for the Master's service seemed to him worth 
 any amount of effort and self-denial. Accordingly he 
 braced himself up to his work. Again he taught in the 
 Academy, received private pupils, stitched the * uppers ' 
 of boots and shoes, and pored over his books. Sixteen 
 hours of work daily was the rule in those busy years, 
 study was a relaxation rather than anything else. Long- 
 continued custom had begotten a love for it, and 
 obstacles seemed to add a certain zest to his pursuit of 
 knowledge. But during this preparation period there 
 were seasons when the cares of poverty pressed heavily ; 
 and faith, hope, and patience required to be in fullest 
 exercise." 
 
 Thus, in face of difficulties which would have pro- 
 strated most men, he managed to get to the last year of 
 his medical course, and the Medical Missionary Society 
 of Edinburgh, having already relaxed its rule and given 
 him, though studying in another city, a grant-in-aid of 
 ;^i5, he came south to be an inmate of their Home in 
 the Dispensary in 1862, The present writer has cause 
 to look gratefully back to that old Dispensary in the
 
 I50 WILLIAM ELMSLJE. 
 
 Cowgate. Dim and dingy, and far from brilliant in itself, 
 yet light went out from it, and often transfigured the 
 moral gloom that reigned around. He had friends 
 among the students of certain years there, and has 
 accompanied them sometimes in their rounds up the 
 long, dark, winding stone stairs, where aforetime gay 
 feet only trod, but now trodden only by the most mean 
 and miserable. At these times he has seen instances of 
 tender devotion and quiet and homely heroism, such as 
 in his mind atone for nearly all the recklessness and vice 
 charged against medical students as a class. In a school 
 like this such an one as William Elmslie could not but 
 profit, and we can well believe that in the '* household 
 visitation of his patients he soon became a great 
 favourite," no less than with the class of boys whom he 
 had gathered round him from the lowest quarters for 
 religious instruction, and whom at first he found rather 
 unruly. Various circumstances led to his remaining 
 an extra year in Edinburgh, but in August 1864 he 
 successfully took his medical degrees there ; and soon 
 afterwards, notwithstanding that he was a Presbyterian, 
 he was appointed a lay agent of the Church Missionary 
 Society at Kashmir. He sailed for India in the ship 
 "Poonah" in September 1864, and landed at Calcutta 
 on the 28th October, having got a glimpse of Egypt and 
 of Malta en voyage ; but what is yet better, having minis- 
 tered spiritual comfort to his fellow-passengers, especially 
 to a young Dutch lady, left at Malta too ill to go farther.
 
 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 151 
 
 After a short time spent at Calcutta with Mr. 
 Vaugh.in, of the Church Missionary Society, and Dr. 
 Robson, Free Church medical missionary, he proceeded 
 to Lahore, where it was arranged he should remain some 
 time before proceeding to Kashmir. This was advisable, 
 both on account of the study of the language, and the 
 fact that, for a certain portion of the year, the mission- 
 aries could not remain in Kashmir. He immediately 
 took a class in Mr. Forman's school, and busied himself 
 in other Christian works. He writes home to his 
 mother — 
 
 " How I long to see hills ! This country of India is 
 just a dead level — as smooth as the table of your best 
 room. When journeying from Calcutta, I saw some 
 hills, though diminutive ones ; my heart was gladdened 
 within me, they reminded me so much of Deeside. 
 . . . I shall soon see higher mountains than you or I 
 have ever yet beheld — the great Himalayas, in the 
 midst of which lies cradled my future home, or per- 
 haps I should say my field of work. The books which 
 I find give one the most interesting information are 
 Jacquemont's Travels, Moorcroft's, and Vigne's ditto. 
 If God spare me, I purpose writing a book more com- 
 prehensive than any of them, as I shall have valuable 
 opportunities for gathering information if spared to 
 remain for a sufficient time in the valley. . . . You 
 would laugh many a time, dear mother, at the significant 
 looks and smiles of my little brown-faced charge at the
 
 1 52 WILLIAM ELMS LIE, 
 
 mission school, when I attempt to launch out, and make 
 blunders in the language in so doing. I never mind, 
 but hold on my way, for some direct mission-work I 
 must do, however feebly. When I go to Kashmir I 
 shall have a new language to learn, and it will be much 
 more difficult to acqaire, because there are no grammars 
 or dictionaries in Kashmiri. Those I must make for 
 myself, and I have already done something towards this 
 work" 
 
 It was proposed that he should go to Kashmir along 
 with the Bishop of Calcutta, who was to spend a month 
 in the valley for the benefit of his health, but he was 
 afraid that were he to reach his destination in company 
 with one on whom the natives looked as a high public 
 functionary, this might lead to their regarding him also 
 as a servant of the Government. He therefore set forth 
 alone. The romantic ideas we might associate with 
 the name of Kashmir somewhat vanish on contact with 
 the people. The country, a succession of vales opening 
 out from a greater vale into each other, and ever un- 
 folding new attractions, is a panorama of beauty ; but 
 the people are miserable, chiefly through the excessive 
 exaction and tyranny of the native rulers, to whom it 
 was turned over by England at the time of the Sikh war. 
 " At one swoop half of every man's produce goes into the 
 Government treasury. Half of everything, not merely 
 of his grain, but even of the produce of his cattle, or 
 whatever he has ; so that from each cow he must give
 
 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 153 
 
 every second year a calf to Government, and from 
 every half dozen of his chickens three to the all- 
 devouring Sirkar. More than this even, his very fruit- 
 trees are watched by Government, and half taken for 
 the Maharajah." 
 
 Mr. Grant Duff, in his account of a tour in Kashmir, 
 thus sketches the beauty of the country: — "Jummoo 
 is, as you know, the winter capital of the Maha- 
 rajah, whose territory extends over some 25,000 square 
 miles — is, therefore, about the size of Scotland, less the 
 counties of Perth and Inverness. The famous shawls 
 are chiefly made in the neighbourhood of his summer 
 capital Srinigar, the chief town of the vale of Kashmir, 
 which is separated from Jummoo by about 1 25 miles of 
 mountain. We dined, of course, by ourselves, but from 
 time to time the Maharajah sent us native dishes, some 
 of which were excellent. Then we had fireworks. The 
 night was perfectly still and very propitious to them. 
 Seven fire balloons floated high in the air, and got ex- 
 actly into the position of the Great Bear and the Polestar. 
 I called the attention of one of my companions to this, 
 who, pointing it out to the Maharajah, said, ' It is only 
 your Highness who can add to the number of the con- 
 stellations.' When the fireworks were over, we took 
 our leave, and very picturesque was the ride home under 
 the crescent moon, through the dark silent streets, with 
 our attendants clamouring in front to drive the sacred 
 bulls and camels out of the way. This morning we
 
 154 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 
 
 Started soon after sunrise, accompanied by the son of 
 Kirpa Ram and others. Just as we came in sight, 
 through the city gate, of the woodland which I de- 
 scribed yesterday, the troops presented arms, and the 
 band struck up 'God save the Queen.' Then we 
 slowly descended the steep declivity on which Jummoo 
 
 is built. As we were crossing the river, General B 
 
 called out to me, ' It would take a fine reach of the 
 Rhine to beat this,' and so it would. Some half an 
 hour passed, however, before we saw the full glories of 
 Jummoo. We had crossed most of the woodland, and 
 had descended from our elephants, when we reached a 
 point where, in the clearer morning, the mountains 
 stood out in all their beauty. On the left stretched the 
 mighty snowy chain of the Pir Punjal — rising, I suppose, 
 to about 17,000 or 18,000 feet. Then, in the middle 
 of the background, came an outer range, not snowy, 
 somewhat lower than Taygetus, and rather like it; 
 lastly, far to the right, another snowy range on the 
 borders of Thibet. Between us and the mountains lay 
 Jummoo, with its white pyramidal temples shining in 
 the sun, and surrounded by a near landscape which 
 wanted nothing to make it perfect. It was the most 
 beautiful land view I ever beheld. The Maharajah is a 
 lucky man, with heaven for his winter and the seventh 
 heaven for his summer capital." 
 
 But here, as in many other of nature's most favoured 
 spots, the poet's words come to the mind, " Man alone
 
 %vrLLIAM ELMSLIE. 1 5 5 
 
 •is vile." The Maharajah may be a good host, as Mr. 
 Grant Duff would seem to have found him ; but he is 
 hardly a good ruler. Not only are the poor people 
 overburdened by the heavy taxation, but large sections 
 of the industrial population are little less than slaves. 
 Laws have been passed which prohibit them from mov- 
 ing from place to place ; and the sanitary conditions of 
 the towns are of the very worst. We read in a good 
 authority : *' The shawl-weavers get miserable wages, 
 and are allowed neither to leave Kashmir nor change 
 their employment, so that they are nearly in the position 
 of slaves ; and their average wage is only about three- 
 halfpence a-day." 
 
 It is only to be expected that, among such a com- 
 munity there should be much ignorance and vice and 
 suffering. Of the four hundred thousand Kashmiris, 
 five-sixths are Mussulmans, and the other sixth Hindus. 
 Diseases of various kinds are rife, some of them arising 
 from the exceedingly filthy habits of the people. Very little 
 had been done for them prior to Dr. Elmslie's arrival. 
 The Rev. W. Smith of Benares, and the Rev. R. Clark, 
 of Peshawur, had visited Kashmir in the spring of 
 1863; but Mr. Smith returned to his own station, 
 and Mr. Clark, after a brave attempt to remain over 
 the winter, and after his wife had established a dis- 
 pensary, was compelled by the authorities to leave* 
 Dr. Elmslie took with him from Lahore two promising 
 boys from the missionary orphanage there, and a
 
 156 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 
 
 Kashmiri catechist, Qadir Bakhsh. At each town or 
 village on the way, intimation was made that a doctor 
 had come who would be happy to see and treat all 
 the sick people ; and when they were gathered together 
 Qadir read the Scriptures to them, and addressed them 
 simply and suitably before the examination was begun. 
 So by Chikote and Uri our missionary journeys on, 
 catching sight of Srinigar, the summer capital, on the 
 4th of May. He finds a suitable bungalow after some 
 difficulty, and, losing no time, on the 9th opens his 
 dispensary; then he institutes the Saturday itineration 
 among the neighbouring villages, and begins a system 
 of visiting and tract-distributing in the city. On the 
 1 6th he has as many as thirty patients, mostly Sepoys, 
 which makes him fear the Kashmiris will thus be kept 
 away. On the 24th the British Resident calls and 
 plainly tells Dr. Elmslie not to ask or to expect any 
 support from him. On the 30th the patients have 
 increased to fifty-three, seventeen of them being 
 women. False reports that Qadir, in his addresses, 
 had spoken evil of the Maharajah, leads the British 
 Resident to request that Dr. Elmslie desist from 
 itinerating ; but he will not do more than promise 
 not for a season to return to Hazrat Bal, whence the 
 false report had come. On the 31st of May a small 
 hospital, with five beds, is opened, and has ere long 
 some cases ; persons of influence and in official position 
 begin to take advantage of the missionary's skill, and
 
 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 157 
 
 the feeling begins to grow among the Kashmiris that 
 the medical mission is a great boon and blessing, 
 though as yet there is no token whatever of spiritual 
 good. Especially are his surgical cases successful, 
 though "in operating my difficulties are legion, having 
 no one to assist me." In midst of this it must have 
 been very disheartening to learn that the Sepoys and 
 people had been prohibited from coming to him, and 
 that a watch had actually been set upon his movements. 
 So, amid mingled joy and pain, he got through his 
 first season, the circumstances of which we have 
 already spoken making it needful for him to remove to 
 Amritsar, where he worked as hard, opeiiing classes in 
 chemistry, &c., and staying from October 1865 till 
 April 1866. 
 
 His second year's work in Kashmir was marked 
 by great progress — the number of patients largely 
 increased, and in a few cases there were hopes of 
 religious impressions having been made. Even the 
 Maharajah now began to send his Sepoys suffering 
 from diseases which required surgical operations. An 
 offer was actually made to Dr. Elmslie of a thousand 
 rupees a month if he would enter the Maharajah's 
 service, and give up the mission element in his work 
 To this, of course, he would not listen ! and, in chagrin, 
 the Maharajah again placed Sepoys at the different 
 avenues leading to his house to prevent the people 
 from coming. About this time, the mission lost the
 
 158 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 
 
 little it had through the failure of the Agra Bank; 
 but Sir John [later Lord] Lawrence, the Governor- 
 General, sent two hundred rupees, and assistance came 
 from other quarters. Dr. Elmslie writes — 
 
 "You will be happy to hear that, in a medical point 
 of view, at least, my work in Kashmir is prospering. 
 In spite of opposition on the part of the local authori- 
 ties, the work continues to progress. A few days ago 
 I had as many as one hundred and eighty-three patients, 
 and at this moment a fine-looking, elderly Mussulman 
 of rank, from the east end of the valley, has called 
 to ask my advice. Many of my patients come from 
 a great distance; and never a day passes without one 
 or two surgical operations. The result is, that I am 
 becoming more and more expert in this department. 
 At present three men are living in my tent who were 
 totally blind, but now they see. As to spiritual fruit, 
 I wish I had something more definite to say." 
 
 The Rajah of Chamba — a territory lying to the 
 south-east of Kashmir — having made an offer of two 
 hundred rupees a month, free house, dispensary, and 
 hospital buildings. Dr. Elmslie resolved to go there 
 during the ensuing cold season. Here a great work 
 was also begun and successfully carried on, notwith- 
 standing that difficulties arose with respect to the 
 complete freedom of operation that had been promised 
 by the Rajah. At the close of the season Dr. Elmslie 
 writes —
 
 WILLIAM ELMS LIE. 1 59 
 
 "The Rajah is most favourably disposed towards 
 the mission, so that my stay here has been extremely 
 pleasant, although not free from difficulty. I have 
 had some of the most serious operations to. perform, 
 and God, up to this time, has made all things go well 
 with me in this respect. Two men who have been 
 attending the dispensary for some time, called on me 
 to-day privately to speak about the wonderful story 
 of the cross. I have great hope of them." 
 
 The work of the third year went on in face of 
 unusual opposition, and was ominously varied by an 
 outbreak of cholera both among the civil community 
 and the troops, and though Dr. Elmslie's offers of ser- 
 vice were at first declined, he ultimately found ways 
 of being useful and of extending his influence. At 
 last it was deemed needful to draw a cordon sanataire 
 round the European quarters, and, as the dispensary 
 was situated there, it put a stop to the work. *' When 
 it was intimated to the suffering and sick that they 
 were not to return to the dispensary until they should 
 receive intimation to do so, the scene can be more 
 easily fancied than described. It would have melted 
 a heart of stone." This only set the doctor free to 
 visit among the cholera-stricken and others. 
 
 On the approach of cold weather Dr. Elmslie paid 
 a visit to Calcutta; but in the beginning of January 
 1868, we find him back in Amritsar, working hard 
 in the dispensary there. Then, at the wonted season,
 
 i6o WILLIAM ELMS LIE. 
 
 he is once more in Srinigar, where the common people 
 throng to him in greater numbers than ever ; no opposi- 
 tion is now offered him, and no fewer than two thousand 
 patients are treated in two months, and the fifth year 
 fitly continued the work. In the early part of 1870, 
 Dr. ElmsHe returned home for a brief furlough, but 
 his heart was bound up in Kashmir. He worked so 
 laboriously at the compiling of a Kashmir vocabulary, 
 as to bring on an illness, from which he never com- 
 pletely rallied. He returned to India along with his 
 newly-wedded wife in 1872, and resumed his work 
 full of hope. But his old disease ere long returned 
 to him, and, though he stuck to his post bravely, he 
 was compelled at length to start for Madras. It is 
 said that the Maharajah had never forgiven him for 
 some strictures on the Government procedure during 
 that cholera epidemic, and was not sorry to see him 
 go. Mr. Andrew Wilson even hints that his grudge 
 against the missionary took more active shape. He 
 writes thus — 
 
 " Dr. Elmslie was a devoted medical missionary, who 
 did an immense amount of good in Kashmir, and 
 had published a valuable vocabulary of the Kashmiri 
 language ; but he had also published letters complain- 
 ing of the carelessness of the Government in regard 
 to a visitation of cholera which had carried off large 
 numbers of the people, and pointing out that sanitary 
 measures might save the lives of thousands every year
 
 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. i6\ 
 
 from smallpox and other diseases. The Srinigar 
 rumour was that his servants had been offered so 
 much to poison him within the Kashmir territory, and 
 so much more if they would do so after he got beyond. 
 Unfortunately Dr. Elmslie, like Lieutenant Thorpe, died 
 rather suddenly shortly after he had got beyond the 
 Kashmir borders, and, it seems, also of heart disease." 
 
 However it may be with respect to the attitude of 
 the Maharajah at the last, Dr. Elmslie passed away at 
 the early age of forty, on the i8th of November 1872. 
 
 His patience, prudence, and tact — formed as they 
 had been among early trials of no ordinary kind — 
 combined with his independent judgment, engaging 
 manners, and his depth of sincerity, made him a 
 missionary of a high order. In the course of his 
 biography, we get many hints of his capacity to take 
 broad and comprehensive views, as witness his remarks 
 on the training of native medical missionaries, and on 
 the desirability of the medical missionary not receiving 
 wages from a heathen prince, as, among a heathen 
 people, the credit of what he does will then go to 
 heathenism and not to Christianity. Altogether a 
 brave and beautiful character, that under such diffi- 
 culties as in most cases would only embitter and harden, 
 grew more pure, sensitive, and self-denying, William 
 Elmslie may be said to have died for Kashmir as he 
 lived for it ; so that there will be a peculiar fitness in 
 the " Elmslie Hospital and Dispensary " at Srinigar,
 
 ^62 WILLIAM ELMSLIE. 
 
 the shape which the Lord Bishop of Calcutta suggested 
 that the memorial proposed by a conference of mis- 
 sionaries in the Punjaub should most fitly take. " The 
 name of William Elmslie, endeared as it is to the present 
 generation of Kashmiris, may thus be permanently 
 associated with the great work which he has been 
 mstiumental in beginning."
 
 Master Missionaries. P- 1®'-
 
 ( 163 ) 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER AND 
 THE CONVICTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 VOLTAIRE'S visit to the country residence of 
 Andrew Pitt, a retired Quaker merchant of 
 London, is a notable incident in the Ufe of a remark- 
 able man, and in the history of a remarkable sect. Its 
 object was to satisfy the curiosity by which the keenest 
 intellect of the age had become possessed as to the 
 nature of the Quaker religion. Its result was that 
 Cowper's " brilliant Frenchman " was almost persuaded 
 to be a Quaker, and that Howard's "favourite sect" was 
 for once described from without, almost as if by the 
 pen of a Christian. 
 
 " My dear sir, are you baptized ? " was the first ques- 
 tion which Friend Pitt was expected to answer — it was 
 the question which good Catholics were accustomed to 
 put to the Huguenots. His reply was, of course, nega- 
 tive. " What ? morbleu ! " Voltaire asked, " are you 
 not Christians then ? " " My friend," answered Andrew,
 
 i64 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 ** swear not ; we are Christians, but we don't think that 
 Christianity consists in throwing water and a little salt 
 on an infant's head." " Have you forgotten that Christ 
 was baptized ? " inquired Voltaire. " Christ," replied 
 Andrew, " received baptism from John, but He never 
 administered baptism. We are not disciples of John, 
 but of Christ." " How about the Sacraments ? " was the 
 next article of the sceptic's catechism. " We have 
 none," was the Quaker's response ; and on this head he 
 referred to Barclay's " Apology " for the sect, which he 
 declared was one of the best books that ever came from 
 the hand of man, and was shown to be excellent by the 
 fact that their enemies agreed that it was dangerous. 
 An allusion to Barclay naturally led Andrew to offer 
 his own apology for the Friends. He excused himself 
 from responding to his polite visitor's bows and compli- 
 ments without taking off his broad brim. He explained 
 the literal and spiritual significance of the Quaker use of 
 the second personal pronoun singular. He had some 
 remarks to make about Quaker dress. He expounded 
 the objections of the Friends to the use of oaths and 
 their opposition to war, being careful to state that this 
 latter peculiarity was not due to any deficiency of 
 courage, but to a becoming recollection of the fact, "We 
 are neither wolves, nor tigers, nor dogs, but men, but 
 Christians." 
 
 After attending a First Day meeting of the Friends 
 at their " church '' near the Monument, Voltaire had
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON V/ALKER. 165 
 
 some more questions to propound, in reply to which he 
 obtained information as to the pecuUar forms of worship 
 approved by the sect, as to their rejection of " new pres- 
 byter and old priest," and as to their doctrine of the 
 inward light — a doctrine of which it seemed to him that 
 he had heard before, and with reference to which he 
 exclaimed, " Voilk le pere Malebranche tout pur." 
 
 Thus interrogated in the person of Andrew Pitt before 
 a friendly inquisition, the Society of Friends gave an 
 account of itself in which all its well-known character- 
 istics are to be seen at a glance. One thing only was 
 overlooked, but that was more important than every- 
 thing else, viz., the fact that among Christian sects the 
 sect of the Quakers is eminently Christian, at any rate in 
 its practice. It did not occur to Voltaire that there was 
 anything to be gained by pursuing the line of inquiry 
 which was started in the question, " Are you not Chris- 
 tians, then ? " and thus, whilst it did not escape his 
 notice that Andrew Pitt's pocket-flaps were superfluously 
 ample, he missed the discovery in regard to the Quaker's 
 religion, that its genius, according to the testimony of 
 history, is displayed rather in the clothing of the naked 
 than in wearing of phylacteries. 
 
 No sect has ever identified itself with purely philan- 
 thropic causes in the way in which the Quakers have 
 been associated with Anti-Slavery, Abolition of Wars, 
 Prison Reform, Treatment of the Insane. It is alleged 
 that the Scciefy has seen its best days ; that it now
 
 i66 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER, 
 
 shows signs of decrepitude and decay, at any rate, in 
 England. Some years ago prizes were offered for an 
 essay on the subject of the numerical decHne of the 
 Friends, and it would seem probable that the competitors 
 for those prizes might have assumed it to be a fact that 
 the prosperity of the sect is on the wane in this country. 
 If this be so, the whole history of the fraternity, its rise 
 and progress, and now its decline and fall, may, perhaps, 
 be justly said to turn upon the peculiarity of the Quaker 
 religion, which escaped the notice of Voltaire, and which 
 made Quakers " the favourite sect " of John Howard. 
 Verily, the latter end of the peacemakers is peace. The 
 Quakers have now no enemies, unless possibly it be 
 among themselves. If the Quaker society is doomed, 
 the reason is not, perhaps, so much that a great deal of 
 its earlier testimony is now growing antiquated, as that 
 its one great testimony, that which it has borne to the 
 truth, that Christianity means peace on earth, good-will 
 among men, has been superannuated by being generally 
 accepted. If it be true that it is time now for the 
 Society to which Elizabeth Fry belonged to chant its 
 " Nunc dimittis," it is because it has seen the salvation 
 of God arrive in the form of all Christian sects learning 
 to make some profession of that philanthropy which 
 was long the glory of one. History will probably record, 
 with regard to the Society of Friends, almost alone 
 among Christians sects, not that it outlived its influence 
 and then died hard, but that it lived till the principles
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 167 
 
 for which it contended ceased to be those of a sect or a 
 party, and then, at peace with the world which it had 
 conquered and blessed, gave up the ghost. 
 
 The Quakers, in the course of a unique career of 
 beneficence, have had much to do with convicts. Those 
 meekest of the meek of the Christian world who, when 
 they are smitten by an enemy on the one cheek, turn to 
 him the other also, have been more intimately associated 
 than all other Christians with burglars, horse-stealers, 
 highwaymen, wife-beaters, and murderers. Since long 
 before the days of Elizabeth Fry, the amiclioration of the 
 state of criminals has been one of the things with which 
 the Society of Friends has most persistently occupied 
 its philanthropic energies. They were called Quakers, 
 as everybody knows, by a judge who was only too happy 
 to give their founder, George Fox, a taste both of the 
 prison and the lash. Their refusal to take oaths in 
 courts of justice, as well as the stiffness of their general 
 nonconformity, and their preaching of the Gospel of 
 peace in an aggressive manner, gave thousands of them 
 an acquaintance with the interior of prisons, and with 
 jail-life, which could not be entirely without effect upon 
 the traditions and tendencies of the sect. But be this 
 as it may, it will not be denied that the cause of the 
 prisoner (at least till a comparatively recent period) has 
 been almost made exclusively their own by the disciples 
 of George Fox, that cheerful culprit, who, as Voltaire 
 puts it, when he had received his proper share of the
 
 i6S GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 lash, begged for a " double dose " for the good of his 
 soul. 
 
 George Washington Walker, of whose life and labours 
 it is proposed to give a brief account in these pages, was 
 an excellent specimen of the Quaker fraternity, both on 
 the score of its general philanthropy, and its special de- 
 votion to the cause of the prisoner. His name, though 
 revered in the Society, and not forgotten in the colony 
 in which he spent his later years, is all too little known 
 in England ; and for this reason a slight sketch of his 
 career may have an interest for some readers, such as 
 could not be easily imparted to the biography even of 
 more celebrated ornaments of the sect. Like many of 
 his brethren, with all his taking of Scripture literally 
 where it would have been easier to take it otherwise, he 
 took in that way its philanthropy, and especially the 
 precept, " Let not your left hand know what your right 
 hand doeth." He was one of those friends of humanity, 
 perhaps exceptionally numerous among Quakers, who do 
 good by stealth, and who do not take the same pains, or, 
 it may be, enjoy the same facilities, as those of other and 
 more powerful sects in the way of keeping the outside 
 world informed as to what they have done and are going 
 to do for its benefit. 
 
 George Washington Walker's fame has suffered in this 
 way. It has suffered still more, perhaps, from what is 
 rather an accident to which good men of all sects are 
 posthumously hable than a rule of their Society, which
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 169 
 
 bears heavily on the best of deceased Quakers. His 
 Hfe has been written in one of those bulky volumes in 
 wliich the memory of the just is destined to perish. Any 
 chance that there was of his renown extending beyond 
 the bounds of the Society, and of its being perpetuated 
 to a distant age, was abolished by its being entombed 
 in a large octavo, published by the Society. So that if 
 *' Ne quid nimis " is a rule which ought to be strictly 
 applied in biography as in other literature, our good 
 Quaker's memory has suffered from the breach of that 
 rule in more ways than one ; as, according to their 
 custom, there was most likely too little said of him by 
 the Friends while he lived, so by an exceptional con- 
 formity to the customs of an evil world, they have had 
 too much to say of him since his death to admit of his 
 being known as he ought to have been. 
 
 A great part of the Society's bulky life of him is 
 occupied by his journals and letters, "written during the 
 period of his travels in Australia and in Africa. Though 
 written with Quaker gravity and simplicity and stiffness, 
 and though relating to countries which have been visited 
 by troops of missionaries since his day, these journals 
 and letters are by no means dull reading. It is especi- 
 ally amusing as well as edifying to note in them how 
 extremes of human character meet, and in their meeting 
 display towards each other a courteous behaviour — tlie 
 benefactor of his kind, purist even in his speech and 
 in his dress, conversing amicably in the penal settle-
 
 I70 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 ments of Australia with compatriots who had left their 
 country for their country's good, thouing and theeing 
 scoundrels converted by inhuman punishment into 
 fiends, and at least in one case receiving from them 
 what would thus seem to be a possibility of any con- 
 ceivable state of sinners — a complimentary address : 
 *' We, the prisoners of the Crown, embracing the tehets 
 of the Protestant faith," &c. 
 
 Walker was born in London in 1800, the son of 
 Unitarian parents, of whom one died when he was very 
 young, and the other, when he was five years old, re- 
 moved to Paris, leaving him to the charge of his grand- 
 mother at Newcastle-on-Tyne. At the age of fourteen, 
 after having been baptized by a Unitarian minister and 
 confirmed by the bishop of the diocese, he was appren- 
 ticed to " a professor of religion," who was, nevertheless, 
 "a very inconsiderate man, at whose death, his appren- 
 ticeship not having expired, he was transferred to the 
 drapery establishment of Hawden Bragg," an upright 
 and consistent member of the Society of Friends. After 
 Hawden's death, his widow asked James Backhouse, of 
 York, a leading member of the Society, and not one of 
 its least brilliant ornaments, to assist her in the valua- 
 tion of the stock. On this occasion Backhouse and 
 Walker met for the first time, and their meeting at the 
 stock-taking in a Newcastle draper's shop was the 
 commencement of a friendship which was cemented by 
 much travel, and by much co-operation of another than
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 171 
 
 the commercial sort. The immediate result of this 
 acquaintance was the conversion of young Walker from 
 the faith of his fathers to that of Mary Bragg and James 
 Backhouse. He began to attend the meetings for wor- 
 ship of the Friends, and in 1827 was formally received 
 into the Society. 
 
 During his residence with the Braggs, an attachment 
 sprang up between him and their daughter Mary, to 
 which a melancholy end was put by her death. This 
 episode in a life devoted to the sternest duties of philan- 
 thropy is not without a touch of poetic beauty. Poor 
 Mary Bragg, for a year or two before her death, was 
 afflicted with blindness, and in reference to this calamity 
 her Quaker lover writes to her in a strain which would 
 throw the audience in a law court on certain occasions 
 into fits of laughter, but which here, perhaps, may be 
 read not without a sigh. " I have thought much of the 
 declaration of Ruth to Naomi, and with my whole heart 
 and soul I can address thee in the same manner. No 
 language of my own can convey a more genuine tran- 
 script of my heart as it relates to thee than the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth verses of the first chapter of Ruth, 
 which thy dear mother will read to thee." 
 
 Mary's death was followed by a memorable crisis in, 
 his life. His friend Backhouse " had for many years 
 had an impression on his mind that it would be required 
 of him to pay a religious visit to some parts of the 
 southern hemisphere ; and in this impression he was
 
 172 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 confirmed by the judgment of the Society, which took 
 the matter into consideration at its regular monthly, 
 quarterly, and yearly meetings. After settling his 
 affairs and leaving York, Backhouse waited in London 
 for some weeks in the hope of a companion turning up. 
 While he waited he prayed, and one evening, having as 
 usual petitioned that a travelling companion might be 
 assigned to him, he retired to rest, with the feeling 
 strong in his mind that any doubts as to his mission 
 which still lingered about him would be set at rest if that 
 supplication were successful. "Towards morning," he 
 says, " before I was thoroughly awake, I was considering 
 who there were in various places who might be suitable 
 for such a service, when the words. Now look northward^ 
 were distinctly and powerfully impressed upon my mind, 
 and in a moment Newcastle and my friend G. W. Walker 
 were set before me." 
 
 When this fact was communicated to Walker, he was 
 brought "under close exercise of mind." He had not 
 anticipated any call from being behind the counter in 
 Newcastle to " ministerial duty " in the southern hemi- 
 sphere. The oracular form in which it came to him did 
 not, irrespective of the inward Hght, settle the question 
 whether he should accept it. After much hesitation he 
 did accept it, judging, in the first place, with character- 
 istic sagacity and modesty, that the way to overcome 
 tendencies to evil, of which he was conscious, was to 
 avail himself of the opportunity to do good ; and also
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 173 
 
 that some indication of his duty had been given him in 
 the fact that he was not hindered by domestic and social 
 ties from devoting himself to the service of humanity. 
 
 Accredited to "the southern hemisphere" by a cir- 
 cular epistle from the Newcastle meeting of Friends, 
 Walker and his companion sailed from London for 
 Tasmania in 1831. Some Chelsea pensioners, who had 
 "commuted their life pensions for an advance of four 
 years' payment,' were their fellow - voyagers, and with 
 these drunken and disorderly steerage passengers the 
 Friends had much to do on the side of peace and of the 
 captain. In the course of the voyage, Walker became 
 impressed with the belief that he had a commission to 
 preach the Gospel as well as his companion, who was 
 frequently moved to address the ship's company. His 
 courage, however, failed him ; " through fear and human 
 weakness " the few remarks which occurred to him were 
 suppressed, and he turned again to the lighter and less 
 formidable duties of separating pensioners who were 
 fighting with each other, and of supporting T. B. and the 
 captain in their efforts to suppress mutinies always 
 breaking out afresh, either in the steerage or in the 
 forecastle, on the subject of the daily dispensation of 
 grog. How far the influence of goodness may extend, 
 even v/hen that influence is circumscribed by the fear and 
 human weakness which suppress the tendency to preach- 
 ing, was seen on this voyage on several occasions in 
 Walker's case ; and more especially when, on his inter-
 
 174 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 posing in a quarrel in which blows were going, one of 
 the bystanders clasped him round the waist, and en- 
 treated him to let others mediate in a case in which 
 there was so much risk of personal injur}'. 
 
 The ship having touched at the Cape, the Quakers 
 visited the jail at Cape Town, thus beginning work in 
 South Africa, in which they were destined some years 
 afterwards to earn for themselves and for the Society 
 an honourable name. In one of the condemned cells 
 there was a prisoner whose case deeply stirred their 
 sympathies. He was under sentence of death, having 
 been convicted of murdering his wife in a fit of drunken- 
 ness. A Hottentot and a Mohammedan, he had since 
 his confinement been converted to Christianity, by the 
 efforts of Dr. Philip, of the London Missionary Society, 
 who, it was reported, finally gained his object by suggest- 
 ing to the prisoner that he should ask the Mohammedan 
 "priest" who visited him whether any provision was 
 made in his religion for the pardon of sin — a question 
 at which, so to speak, the Moslem theologian was 
 obliged to surrender at discretion. At the same time, 
 however, that he noted this triumph of the Christian 
 divine over the priest of the false prophet, our Quakor 
 missionary, with characteristic fairness, records a fact, on 
 the strength of which the defeated Mohammedan might 
 perhaps, if he had chosen, have prolonged the contest 
 with his adversary, viz., that the prisoner's brother, also 
 a Hottentot and a Mohammedan, had subjected himself
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 175 
 
 to confinement in order to be near him, and was con- 
 verted along with him. Before they left Cape Town, a 
 prayer meeting was held in the Mission Chapel, under 
 the presidency of Dr. Philip, which the Friends " be- 
 lieved it right to attend," and they heard there what 
 pleased them much, of the unity that prevails among 
 spiritually-minded Christians " in essentials." 
 
 The Quakers, on their arrival in Tasmania, stayed 
 three months in the capital, Hobart Town, which was 
 then about a third of its present size, having a population 
 of a little over eight thousand. During this time they 
 arranged their plans for carrying out their mission, which, 
 as described in a letter of Lord Goderich, the Secretary 
 of State, introducing them to the Governor, Colonel 
 Arthur, was "to promote the moral and religious welfare 
 of the colony, especially of the convicts." More par- 
 ticularly defined, their object was to preach the Gospel 
 everywhere, among prisoners and colonists ; to inquire 
 into the state of the aborigines ; to inspect penal settle- 
 ments, jails, schools, and public institutions ; and lastly, 
 to oppose the rampant evil of intemperance. Governor 
 Arthur, no red-tapist, though something of a martinet, 
 was ready to second their efforts, and his patronage was 
 of course an invaluable help to philanthropists whose 
 hat-brims were over the regulation breadth, and whose 
 commission was only from Newcastle Friends to all 
 whom it might concern. 
 
 In regard to the aborigines, the Quakers found that
 
 176 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 their mission was as nearly as possible not to the quick 
 but to the dead. Before their arrival, most of the few 
 remaining Tasmanians had been benevolently decoyed 
 by George Augustus Robinson into a convenient corner 
 of the country, from which they were transported to 
 Flinders Island, in Bass's Straits, with the view of being 
 civilised. The experiment failed. A tardy effort to 
 improve the race was not attended with the success that 
 had crowned earlier endeavours to exterminate it, and 
 since then the last of the Tasmanians, an old woman, 
 has paid the debt of nature — paid it, or, perhaps, trans- 
 ferred it to the score of our national liabilities in relation 
 to humanity. 
 
 George Augustus Robinson's story has been often 
 told. The Quakers heard it from his own lips, and 
 were much moved by it. It was, in fact, a story such 
 as a Quaker might have loved to tell to Quakers. 
 Robinson took up his abode with one of the tribes, or 
 "mobs," as they were commonly called, on Bruni Island, 
 and having established himself in their favour and con- 
 fidence, he persuaded some of them to accompany him 
 on a tour through the country in the capacity of 
 interpreters. His hardships, and those of his black 
 companions, were extreme. Such had been the effect 
 of intimate acquaintance with the colonists and their 
 convict servants on the minds of the natives, that every 
 white man was to them an enemy. Most of the tribes 
 were hostile to each other, and they were all at deadly
 
 GEORGE IVASm.VGTOX WALKER. 177 
 
 feud with the Christians, free and bound. To approach 
 a native encampment, therefore, in the character of 
 peacemaker, was attended with the same consequences 
 as to challenge it to fight ; and from these consequences 
 Robinson's interpreters were in the habit of running 
 away, leaving him to encounter them the best way he 
 could. In spite, however, of all difficulties and dangers, 
 he succeeded in collecting about a hundred savages, and 
 in inducing them to remove with him to Flinders Island, 
 to be protected from Christians and to be civilised and 
 Christianised. 
 
 Their interest in the aborigines, as well as their desire 
 to till neglected spiritual ground, led the Quakers to 
 court acquaintance with a party of sealers from one of 
 the small islands in Bass's Straits who chanced to visit 
 Hobart Town, and with regard to whom shocking 
 rumours were in circulation as to their appropriation of 
 native women and their treatment of their offspring. 
 G. W. Walker and his friend, with the characteristic 
 bent of Quakers towards practical philanthropy, under- 
 stood that they had been sent as missionaries, not to 
 convert the converted, but to save the lost, and here 
 there seemed to be an excellent opening for their efforts. 
 When the sealer party was brought before Governor 
 Arthur to be subjected to a sort of patriarchal catechisa- 
 tion (with the cat-o'-nine-tails in the background), the 
 Quakers who were present and all attention, expected 
 to hear the most revolting evidence produced as to the
 
 178 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 ignorance in which the young sealers were allowed to 
 grow up by their rude and lawless parents. They were 
 agreeably disappointed to find themselves present at an 
 examination in religious knowledge which would have 
 eflcited the approbation of a School Inspector. A sealer's 
 so-called wife was asked if she had any children. The 
 answer was, that she had two, both of them at the door, 
 and ready to be called in for inspection. His Excellency 
 had both introduced to him, and proceeded to catechise 
 them. The elder, nine years of age, repeated the Lord's 
 Prayer and the Creed, and in answer to the Governor's 
 questions showed "that he had correct notions of a 
 future state." The younger boy, little more than six 
 years old, in spite of an impediment in his speech, 
 acquitted himself under examination no less admirably 
 than his brother. As their father had been represented 
 to be one of the worst of a bad lot, G. W. Walker's 
 reflection on the occasion was to the effect, " that care 
 is requisite in listening to reports prejudicial to indi- 
 viduals or communities " — a remark the far-reaching 
 justice of which may be taken as an excuse for its 
 Quaker-like simplicity. He and his companion after- 
 wards exhibited their sympathy for the sealer in his 
 lonely life, and his supposed devotion to the care of his 
 offspring, by cruising among the islands in Bass's Straits, 
 at no small risk to their lives. In the meantime they 
 were moved by pity for a calumniated class of men to 
 be se<'tarian for once. In parting with three of the
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTOX WALKER. 179 
 
 sealer friends they showed them, from the example of 
 the Society, how worship might be maintained on Gun 
 Carriage Island and other places, with a population of 
 eighteen souls or thereabouts, without the presence of 
 "a minister of human ordination." 
 
 If there was little to be done for the aborigines when 
 the Quakers arrived in Tasmania, their mission to the 
 convicts was not so ill-timed. As a home for prisoners 
 Van Diemen's Land was then at the height of its dismal 
 prosperity, and a better idea of Paradise colonised from 
 its exact antipodes, could scarcely be got than from the 
 pages of G. W. Walker's journal, descriptive of what he 
 saw of the island. A few days after his arrival he went 
 on board a ship which had just arrived in harbour with 
 a cargo of two hundred and sixty male convicts, 
 apparently a homogeneous load, but in reality mis- 
 cellaneous, as was shown by the fact that the "magi- 
 strates were engaged in taking down a description of 
 each as to character," &c. It was necessary, or at any 
 rate useful, to take note of shades of reputation, though 
 none of the very finest were to be looked for, inasmuch 
 as the system of assigning prisoners as servants to the 
 colonists was then in full vogue ; and this cargo of 
 villany, like many a previous shipload of the same sort, 
 was destined for distribution over the colony, and among 
 people of various tastes in the matter of character. 
 Some colonists wanting a servant might prefer a burglar 
 to a poacher ; others might prefer a bigamous tailor to a
 
 l8o GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 larcenous shoemaker. IMr. Prinsep, a colonist, wrote 
 to his friends, " In our small fuhiage our cook has com- 
 mitted murder, our footman burglary, and the housemaid 
 bigamy," Mr. Prinsep's neighbour perhaps chose to 
 have his estabUshment differently furnished in respect of 
 moral character. Different tastes had to be suited on 
 the part of colonists, and accordingly the first thing done 
 with a cargo of convicts was to classify them according 
 to their quality as regards breaches of the ten command- 
 ments. After being thus classified they were informed 
 (sometimes by his Excellency himself, who was a capital 
 preacher as well as a genuine statesman) of their 
 prospects in the land of their probation. They were 
 told that being assigned as servants to respectable 
 colonists they would get food, clothing, and bedding, in 
 return for their whole labour ; that, as the result of good 
 conduct, ticket-of-leave, conditional pardon, and even 
 free pardon, were within their reach ; that if they 
 relapsed into crime there was first the watchhouse 
 before them, then the prison or the chain-gang, then the 
 scaffold, or, as a worse alternative, transportation to a 
 penal settlement like Macquarie Harbour. 
 
 G. W. Walker and his companion began their labours 
 among their countrymen, to whom a new start in life was 
 thus offered on the part of the Government, by a visit to 
 a party whose prospects had been exceptionally bad 
 from the first, or had been marred by a relapse into old 
 habits. This was a chain-gang, consisting of one
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. iSi 
 
 hundred and fifty men, employed on the construction of 
 a road across the Derwent by means ot" piers and a 
 drawbridge. An undertaking of enormous magnitude 
 and difficulty, this Bridgewater causeway, as the Quakers 
 had probably heard before visiting it, had witnessed 
 many strange and some terrible scenes, to which survivors 
 of chain-gangs might be heard alluding in mysterious 
 hints as to the material used being human agony and 
 blood. The place, however, could scarcely have 
 witnessed a stranger scene than was added to the 
 memories connected with it by the visit of the Quakers. 
 The prisoners, with their irons attached to the ankles, 
 were drawn up in their barrack yard. A file of soldiers 
 was stationed on an elevated position so as to hear, and 
 perhaps also to see. In attendance upon the Quakers 
 was a servant of the Governor in his livery. Backhouse 
 read the eighth chapter of Matthew, in which it will be 
 remembered there are several references to possession 
 by devils and a solemn allusion to the last judgment, 
 and, after a pause, expounded what he had read, urging 
 "these poor criminals who had been condemned at the 
 bar of an earthly tribunal," to prepare for a greater assize 
 so as to be in no danger of condemnation. Very 
 remarkable scenes indeed must have been witnessed at 
 Bridgewater, if this was not one of the most memorable 
 ever transacted in its neighbourhood. Never surely 
 were missionaries farther from home than were Walker 
 and his companion, thus preaching the Gospel at the
 
 1 82 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 antipodes to those who even there, as belonging to the 
 chain-gang, were far off. Nor was the genius of Chris- 
 tianity as a missionary, as a universal religion, ever 
 perhaps so strikingly illustrated in the adventures of 
 Christian emissaries in heathen lands among savages 
 and wild beasts, as by the disciples of George Fox, 
 offenders against law and usage only, if at all, by 
 opposition to war and oaths and all manner of violence 
 in word and deed, standing at the very ends of the 
 earth, before the chain-gang, victims of double crime 
 and accumulated punishment, and reasoning with them 
 concerning temperance and righteousness and judgment 
 to come. 
 
 II. 
 
 After preaching to the chain-gang in Van Diemen's 
 Land, there was possibly just one step further which 
 Christian philanthropy could carry the Quakers on 
 their religious mission to the southern hemisphere, and 
 that step was taken when they proceeded to call Mac- 
 quarie Harbour and the other penal settlements in 
 Australia to repentance. Convicts for whom the society 
 of the chain-gang was too good, select criminals who had 
 attained a bad eminence at home, or had earned dis- 
 tinction after being transported, were consigned to these 
 settlements when it was not found advisable to hang 
 them. It is not altogether irrelevantly that the gallows 
 and the penal settlement are here mentioned together.
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 183 
 
 Between the two, at any rate according to the views 
 of those principally concerned, there was very little to 
 choose, and if any choice was possible, it was to be 
 given, in their opinion, in favour of the former. It might 
 be, as Sydney Smith suggested fifty years ago, that " a 
 London thief, clothed in kangaroos' skins, lodged under 
 the bark of the dwarf eucalyptus, and keeping sheep 
 fourteen thousand miles from Piccadilly, with a crook 
 bent into the shape of a picklock, was not an uninterest- 
 ing picture," or a picture of an unenviable lot ; but there 
 was a counterpart to be found to such a view of the con- 
 dition of convicts in Australia, which miglit have been 
 made use of to calm the fears of people at home lest 
 their condition should be made too agreeable and 
 attractive ; and the counterpart was the penal settlement 
 like Macquarie Harbour, to escape from which the 
 London thief would often break into "the bloody house 
 of life," so as to make sure of being hanged. 
 
 If it were determined to establish a penal colony in 
 the wilds of the Western Highlands of Scotland, or on 
 the western coast of Ireland, in a situation contrived to 
 make solitude horrible and escape impossible ; if such a 
 situation were discovered on a rock in the middle of a 
 loch like Torridon or Ewe ; if instead of being accessible 
 from places along shore, or from the interior of the 
 country, this island jail, a prison inside of prisons, were 
 separated from the nearest abodes of men by a hundred 
 miles or more of insuperable difficulty in the shape of
 
 i84 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 mountain and forest and jungle and fordless river ; if to 
 this place of the doubly condemned there were conveyed 
 a few hundreds of the most desperate criminals now in 
 Portland or Dartmoor, and if everything were done by 
 conscientious officers of her Majesty's service to main- 
 tarn among its inmates an unbroken monotony of 
 misery and despair, it would have some resemblance to 
 Macquarie Harbour. 
 
 No nation, perhaps, which has yet obtained a con- 
 spicuous place in the world is in danger of losing its 
 place through the sin of pride, unless while remembering 
 its victories by sea and land it forgets its treatment of 
 poor relations, especially the poorest of all, that large 
 section of the criminal class who, as the result of 
 imperious social conditions, are left morally naked, and 
 are sent to the hulks for not being clothed. Any one 
 who reads what our good Quakers have to say of our 
 penal settlements in Australia, at the commencement of 
 her Majesty's reign, must confess that England, as well 
 as other nations, is not without cause for blushing in this 
 respect. Nor is it only perhaps in recalling the past 
 that occasion might be found for such a display of 
 humility on the part of our victorious country. If it be 
 true that even at the present day discharged prisoners, 
 as a rule, leave jail (possibly after a term of years) 
 penniless and friendless, and thus with the temptation to 
 crime redoubled ; and if it be true that in many cases 
 they re-enter respectable society wearing a suit of clothes
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. ' 185 
 
 which in its excessive shoddiness is a lesson in rascality, 
 and by its pattern is an advertisement of " Who's who," 
 addressed to the police and to the public — if this be 
 true, the treatment of our poor relations is still so little 
 to our credit that even Waterloo should hardly serve to 
 support our pride. 
 
 Macquarie Harbour, on the west (the uninhabited) 
 coast of Tasmania, when it was visited by the Quakers, 
 though shorn by that time of some of its atrocities, was 
 a disgrace to civilisation and to Christianity, such as the 
 world has rarely witnessed. If it had existed in his 
 time, Dante might have drawn from it, for his Inferno, 
 hints of some quaint and some tremendous horrors. 
 Those who approached it by " Hell's Gates," an almost 
 impossible bar at the entrance, forgot the profanity of the 
 name in thinking of its truth. Sarah's Island, nearly 
 thirty miles from these gates, and three miles from the 
 mouth of a river called the Gordon, closely resembling 
 the Styx in colour, and also in the character of its 
 noxious exhalations, was the place chosen for the settle- 
 ment by Governor Arthur's predecessor. Such was the 
 settlement as to justify Mr. West, the historian of 
 Tasmania, in saying of the island, " Nature concurred 
 with the objects of its separation from the rest of the 
 world to exhibit some notion of a perfect misery. There 
 man lost the aspect and the heart of a man." 
 
 This insular Tartarus, a rock half a mile long by a 
 quarter of a mile broad, accommodated from two to
 
 l86 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 three hundred prisoners in wooden barracks, through 
 which groans and oaths, the sound of the lash, and 
 the clanking of chains reverberated with horrible effect ; 
 and in a jail the cells of which were narrow and dark, 
 and noisome to a degree, calculated to brutalise any 
 known variety of human disposition and character. 
 Two neighbouring rocks completed the accommodation 
 required for the settlement : the one was Halliday's 
 Island, where the wicked who ceased from troubling 
 found earth to cover them ; and the other was Grum- 
 met's or Pilot Island, where the wicked who were too 
 troublesome to be endured were consigned to an un- 
 heard of solitude. In the sides of this latter island 
 there are caves, which have a tale to tell of former days 
 that seems barely credible, but the truth of which is 
 attested as if by the oaths of Quaker witnesses before a 
 Quaker judge and jury. Into these caves men clam- 
 bered up out of the surf when they were tossed out of 
 the boat which had brought them and their oarsmen 
 from Sarah's Island, and, thus provided with a lodging, 
 were left for days or weeks "to add their yells to the 
 scream of the sea-birds and the moan of the western 
 wind." 
 
 The Quakers were philanthropists who, instead of 
 preaching too much, kept accounts, and kept them 
 accurately. With a view to practical results they were 
 careful to note facts with draper-like precision. Walker 
 spent much time over his journals "writing out at night,
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON -WALKER. 187 
 
 in a clear and beautiful hand," what he had seen during 
 the day. Here at Macquarie Harbour, there was much 
 to be done by him in that way. 
 
 What with crimes of violence and accidents occurring 
 to gangs of labourers, which could only have happened 
 to convicts under the charge of convict overseers, it was 
 almost three to one at this Australian settlement that 
 death should result from other than natural causes. Of 
 eighty-five deaths, only thirty were in the course of 
 nature. In three years two-thirds of the population had 
 had distributed among them six thousand two hundred 
 and eighty lashes, or about thirty per man. The diffi- 
 culty, or rather the impossibility, of escape did not deter 
 even craven spirits from attempting the desperate enter- 
 prise. In the course of ten years a hundred and sixty- 
 nine men attempted to get away, of whom sixty or 
 seventy perished in the woods, fifty-seven were recap- 
 tured, and only six lived to tell the tale of how difficult 
 is the ascent from the under world. As for the rest 
 their fate is doubtful, or if anything is certain with regard 
 to their end, it is that they were murdered to be eatea 
 " It is a horrid but indubitable fact," as the Quakers 
 report, ** that on several occasions when a party of men 
 had determined to take to the bush, some unsuspecting 
 simple man was inveigled into the conspiracy, for the 
 express purpose of furnishing food ; " and as we need 
 hardly have been told upon other authority almost as 
 good as the Quakers', it is an equally undoubted fact
 
 i88 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 that when such a man had to be chosen it was a point 
 in favour of the guileless man if he happened to be 
 neither too old nor too lean. Or if this should be 
 deemed an incredible horror, its historical character 
 may perhaps be supported by the fact that when escape 
 through the bush failed or was considered impossible, 
 even with the help of the guileless fat man, there was 
 one exit which was taken advantage of by many. If one 
 man was murdered, several were delivered, at least for 
 a time, from Tartarus. The murdered man's release was 
 instantaneous and complete. His murderer's was sure 
 to come soon. The witnesses, if not also emancipated 
 by the gallows as accomplices, were certain, at any rate, 
 of a holiday in being taken to Hobart Town to give evi- 
 dence. So something in lieu of a coin was often tossed 
 up to decide by an appeal to the fates how a life was to 
 be taken — who was to be murdered, who was to murder, 
 and who were to have a holiday as witnesses. "The 
 blow would be struck," says a historian of Marquarie 
 Harbour; "one would be hanged, and two or three 
 would exchange for a few weeks the pine shore of one 
 prison for the stone floor of Hobart Town jail." 
 
 Such was the field of work and observation into which 
 the Quakers entered, taking that one step which it was 
 possible for Christian philanthropy to take beyond the 
 Australian chain-gang. They were here at the ends of 
 the earth on their benign errand; the force of charity 
 could no farther carry them away from home. They
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 1S9 
 
 did not travel so far altogether in vain. Their visit to Mac- 
 quarie Harbour and to other Australian penal settlements 
 had undoubtedly the effect of helping to accelerate changes 
 in the treatment of prisoners, which make it possible now, 
 without looking beyond the bounds of the British empire, 
 to look back upon forty or fifty years ago as a period of 
 barbarism. They were amply rewarded, in their ov/n 
 opinion, for the dangers and privations which they in- 
 curred on this mission, by discovering that even among 
 felons, to whom murder was a recreation, there were 
 " human " hearts on which sympathy was not wasted, 
 and by which religious conversation was properly and 
 indeed intensely rehshed. It is the sobriety (as distin- 
 guished from stolidity) of Quaker Christianity, however, 
 which is perhaps its most notable feature here at the 
 ends of the earth. It appears as free from excitement at 
 Macquarie Harbour as if the occasion and the place were 
 a First Day meeting at Newcastle or York. Under circum- 
 stances to induce hysteria, it preserves its resemblance to 
 common sense, adheres to its preference for "guarded 
 expression," notes deficiencies in the scale of rations, at 
 the same time that it points the way to heaven; and, while 
 not refusing to credit marvellous instances of conversion 
 among convicts of the worst class, recognises in regard to 
 their history and their future the operation of the law 
 of cause and effect — that law by which it is guaranteed 
 to men and nations that whatsoever they sow that shall 
 they also reap. Other missionaries may sometimes be
 
 190 GEORGE WASUINGTON WALKER. 
 
 carried a\Yay by a generous enthusiasm, so as to an- 
 ticipate from a very small amount of Christian work 
 enormous results, such for example as the civilisation 
 of a continent like Africa in half a century, or the 
 evangelisation of a populous South-Sea Island between 
 one Christmas and another. Our good Quakers at 
 Macquarie Harbour are of the number of those resolute 
 and rational friends of humanity who anticipate no 
 greater results from their greatest labours than to see 
 the evil of to-day, which has existed for ages, a little 
 lessened before to-morrow. 
 
 There was at least one Quaker to be found among 
 convicts before our missionaries visited Van Diemen's 
 Land. After their return from Macquarie Harbour to 
 Hobart Town, a Quaker meeting was established, and 
 convicts were among the first to become Quakers. 
 Walker and his companion always and everywhere, in 
 the most earnest manner that Friends are capable of 
 assuming, disclaimed sectarian motives in their religious 
 procedure. They prayed fervently to be strengthened 
 against all temptations by which their human weakness 
 was assailed and might be overcome on the side of 
 sectarianism. And their sincerity was demonstrated 
 when convicts were invited into Quaker fellowship — 
 when the disciples of Fox showed themselves disciples 
 of Him who sat at meat with publicans and sinners. 
 Their meeting before long was joined by colonists like 
 Robert Mather (destined to be Walker's father-in-law),
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 191 
 
 'svhose presence would have done honour to any church 
 in Christendom. 
 
 Walker's journals are worth reprinting. If they were 
 reprinted they might be illustrated, and if illustrated it 
 might be by the pencil of an artist alive to the touch of 
 the humorous and the grotesque, which often accom- 
 panies the sublime and serves to heighten its effect. 
 Such an artist would find scenes in almost every chapter 
 to suit his taste. There is something which tickles the 
 fancy, as well as something which moves the heart, in the 
 idea of Quakers turning both cheeks to the smiter, and 
 lifting up their testimony on that subject in presence of 
 the bruisers and murderers of the chain-gang or of Mac- 
 quarie Harbour. It is another sort of scene certainly 
 than that of Faust and Mephistopheles in Auerbach's 
 cellar at Leipzig, but it is perhaps not much less dramatic 
 — our Quaker missionaries figuring on Flinders Island 
 among the few remaining natives of Van Diemen's 
 Land. Forty-four men, twenty-nine women, and five 
 children had been here collected by G. A. Robinson — 
 the last relics (except perhaps about as many still at 
 large in the bush) of a race which was appointed to die. 
 Many points of extremely great interest emerge in the 
 Quakers' account of this now extinct variety of our 
 genus, but it is impossible to glance even at the most 
 interesting. Their sympathy for the " children of 
 nature" on this occasion cost Walker and his com- 
 panion no little hardship, and exposed them more
 
 192 GEORGE WASHIA'GTON WALKER. 
 
 than once to serious danger, and yielded on the 
 whole results which tended rather to melancholy than 
 to philanthropic joy. They listened with pious satis- 
 faction to stories illustrative of the goodness of the 
 natural black man, and for what they heard of 
 his occasional exhibitions of human frailty in the 
 way of domestic peevishness and tyranny they had 
 various grave and kindly apologies to offer. They 
 were struck with the humane arrangements made for 
 the dissolution of a species of the human race, so that 
 its latter end should be as decent and comfortable as 
 possible. But, on the other hand, they were undeceived 
 as to their pious sealer friends in regard to their relations 
 with native women, and any doubts they may have had 
 as to the way in which the aborigines were treated 
 before their removal to Flinders Island were dispersed 
 by proofs that the worst stories ever told were but too 
 true. 
 
 The Quakers were of opinion that the peculiar free- 
 dom or movement which they enjoyed as compared 
 with most missionaries was in their favour, the free 
 exercise of individual intelligence on the part of the 
 friend of humanity being of more account in his work 
 than any system or method of benevolence, however 
 perfect Be this as it may, their work as missionaries 
 was done in a workmanlike manner in whatever field 
 they entered. They had to return to the home of 
 the aborigines in Bass's Straits, Flinders Island, a
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER, 193 
 
 year after their first visit, and they were received with 
 shouts of welcome from a black mob assembled to 
 witness their landing. If their errand was known, 
 the reflections of heathen minds on the subject must 
 have been such as would have formed, had they been 
 recorded, a curious epilogue to the history of a vanished 
 race. Walker and his companion came this time, as 
 before, in the capacity of peacemakers ; but whereas 
 formerly their authority was from heaven, and their 
 errand was to the blacks, now they came from his 
 Excellency the Governor, and their mission was to 
 the whites. In a word, the commandant and the 
 resident missionary were at war, and as a last effort 
 in favour of peace the Governor had sent the disciples 
 of Fox to deprecate the continuance of hostilities 
 between English Christians and gentlemen in presence 
 of black men. 
 
 During the period of their stay in Tasmania, which 
 extended to nearly three years, the comprehensive 
 plan of work which the Quakers had sketched for 
 themselves on their landing in the colony was wonder- 
 fully accomplished. Apart from Hobart Town and 
 Launceston, centres of population separated from each 
 other by the whole length of the island, the inhabitants 
 of Tasmania were thinly distributed over country, of 
 which one mountainous district vied with another in 
 forbidding travel except on urgent business. " No 
 
 road, except on business," might have been seen 
 
 N
 
 194 GEORGE IVASHINGTOX WALKER. 
 
 notified east, west, north, and south, by travellers who 
 were not disposed to incur fatigue or not impelled to 
 run the risk of losing themselves in almost pathless 
 forests. East, west, north, south, the Friends trudged 
 forth on their benign and, to them, urgent business. 
 It was of no use intimating, in the largest capitals, to 
 such travellers, "No Thoroughfare." They were of 
 the right sort of fighting Englishmen — those who fight 
 difficulties for less than a shilling a day, and don't 
 know when they are beaten. If no better accommoda- 
 tion could be found for weary limbs, they slept where 
 they halted, with the sky for a canopy. Walker blistered 
 his feet, and then only came to the conclusion that it 
 was hardly practicable to go any farther. He and his 
 companion were seen in places where no missionary 
 had been heard of before, and left wholesome impres- 
 sions of their sincerity, good sense, and goodness upon 
 the minds of men who had considered themselves 
 abandoned, alike of God and man, to solitude, and 
 blasphemy, and drink. There were many colonists 
 and many convicts (some of them possibly still alive) 
 who for years afterwards dated all events with reference 
 to the visit of the Quakers. 
 
 In a land containing 15,000 convicts they met with 
 one solitary rebuff, and it came from a person with 
 regard to whom they remark quaintly, that he seemed 
 to be "one of those persons who are described by an 
 inspired penman as 'fools that make a mock of sin.'"
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 195 
 
 In regard to the chief object of their mission they 
 were indefatigable during those three years spent in 
 Van Diemen's Land. Subsequently to their visit to 
 Macquarie Harbour, and in compliance v.ith his 
 Excellency's request, they addressed a series of reports 
 to the Governor respecting the condition of convicts, 
 pointing out reforms which were urgently required, 
 especially adverting to the evils of the system of 
 assigned servants, and conclusively demonstrating that 
 punishment was least efficacious where, as in the chain- 
 gang and at Macquarie Harbour, it was most revolting 
 and inhuman. It may be that they came to the colony 
 with opinions on the subject already formed, but if so 
 it was to have their convictions strengthened by much 
 careful observation and much painful experience. Fla- 
 gellation, the chain-gang, excessive doses of solitude and 
 darkness, all the worst horrors of an antiquated penal 
 system, they denounced to the Governor, with refer- 
 ences to the law of Moses, which did not perhaps 
 appear to his Excellency perfectly conclusive, and with 
 appeals to reason and experience, which seem to have 
 been not altogether fruitless either in the colony or at 
 home. In reference to flagellation their protest was 
 couched in terms of -eloquent indignation. *' It is 
 calculated," they wrote to his Excellency, " to increase 
 desperation of character; it is a part of that abstract 
 system of vengeance which man is not authorised to 
 inflict upon man."
 
 196 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 Besides Macquarie Harbour they had visited Port 
 Artnur, which was shortly to take the place of the 
 former as the chief penal establishment of the island. 
 They had inspected the jails of Hobart Town and 
 Launceston \ they had made acquaintance, in various 
 places besides Bridgewater, with the chain-gang ; they 
 had had more than one meeting with Nottman's gang, 
 consisting of one hundred and thirty select ruffians, with 
 regard to whom the overseer informed them that as a 
 rule they had no belief in a future state of rewards and 
 punishments. It was not, therefore, without having 
 been at pains to know the truth, if they fell into an 
 error in protesting to Governor Arthur that to inflict 
 " abstract " vengeance was a blunder worse than a 
 crime. 
 
 On leaving Hobart Town the Quakers sailed for 
 Botany Bay, to begin in New South Wales a course of 
 labour like that which they had just finished in Van 
 Diemen's I-and. Their experience in the one colony 
 was to a large extent a repetition of their career in the 
 other, with perhaps some additional trial of their faith and 
 patience in the form of miasmal fever, excessive heat, 
 mosquitoes, and extended views of human degradation 
 and misery. The oldest colony of the Australian group, 
 though now best known by its capital, Sydney, and its 
 harbour, more beautiful than the Bay of Naples, was 
 in those days famous for a bay the name of which 
 is Botany. In New South Wales then our Quaker
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. tgj 
 
 missionaries, as far as their business was with convicts, 
 had arrived at head-quarters. In coming from Tasmania 
 to this colony the scale of their labours was altered 
 from that of an island to that of'a continent — from 
 that of Ireland to that of a third of Europe. The 
 penal settlement, the chain-gang, the system of assigned 
 servants, flogging in large jails, suffocation in small 
 lock-ups, were all in full swing here as in Van Diemen's 
 Land, only on a larger plan and cumbering more ground 
 called Christian. 
 
 Our Quakers began their labours with the penal 
 settlement — one of the most remarkable and most 
 famous establishments of the sort on which even an 
 Australian sun has ever shone. Norfolk Island has 
 been heard of on this side of the world, and is now 
 known as the home of the Pitcairn islanders; but it 
 is only in Australia, and among the survivors of a time 
 when transportation was a crime committed to punish 
 crime, that the name retains anything of the terrible 
 significance which it once had. It is one of the loveliest 
 of the lovely islands of the Pacific, a green and glorious 
 Eden, the marvellous beauty of which could not fail 
 to attract the attention of a government which, in 
 transplanting crime, made a point of giving over to 
 an ugly weed only the fairest scenes. Still more 
 than in the case of Botany Bay or Van Diemen's- 
 Land, an island which combines rare grandeur and 
 loveliness with the perfection of climate, what sin did
 
 igS GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 when Norfolk Island was made a penal settlement, was 
 to enter into Paradise and take possession of it in the 
 name of the British Government. Norfolk Island had 
 one thing besides its beauty to fit it for being the abode 
 of crime and m.isery — escape from it was impossible. 
 More than a thousand miles distant from the Australian 
 shore, and surrounded by a reef in which there was but 
 one opening, and that a narrow and dangerous one, it 
 was the Macquarie Harbour of New South Wales in 
 point of dread security as well as other terrible 
 aspects. " It was Macquarie Harbour over again," 
 so the Quakers tell us, " with an extra shade of dark- 
 ness superadded." 
 
 Everything was done on Sarah's Island, Macquarie 
 Harbour, to give to the life of the prisoner a dull, 
 monotonous, depressing hue, like that of the sombre 
 hills and forests by which he found himself surrounded. 
 On Norfolk Island the art was understood and exercised 
 of making the misery of man's evil days an effective 
 contrast to the beauty, and glory, and luxuriance with 
 which he was encompassed. *' Where every prospect 
 pleases, and only man is vile," had an application to 
 Norfolk Island such as never presented itself to Heber's 
 imagination, such as Ceylon with its " spicy breezes," or 
 Africa with its " sunny fountains," never furnished. All 
 vegetation was tropical ; tropical, too, was the growth of 
 the ugly weed sent over seas by the British Government 
 to Botany Bay, and then transplanted afresh to the soil
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 199 
 
 of this island. All that was good for food and pleasant 
 to the eye abounded to excess ; superabundant, too, was 
 the profusion of all that is .hateful and horrible in the 
 form of sin and misery. It was found impossible to 
 extirpate the orange-tree, though the attempt was made 
 to deprive a harsh fate of the alleviation which its fruit 
 afforded. It is impossible to allude to the fruits of that 
 forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into 
 the world, which were here as plentiful as oranges. As 
 had happened to them on their visit to Macquarie 
 Harbour, so on their arrival at Norfolk Island the 
 Quakers found that they were just too late to witness 
 the last point to which inhuman severity could be 
 carried out at a penal settlement. They were in time> 
 however, to see and to hear enough of the island to be 
 able to understand why, in spite of its spicy breezes, its 
 name had become "infamous." Just before their visit, 
 one of the colonial judges before whom prisoners came 
 for sentence involving transportation to Norfolk Island, 
 made this public declaration, " That it brought tears to 
 his eyes when a Norfolk Island convict brought before 
 him for sentence, said, 'Let a man be what he will, 
 when he comes here he will soon be as bad as the rest ; 
 a man's heart is taken from him, and there is given him 
 the heart of a beast.' " 
 
 " Evil, be thou my good," was the language of Norfolk 
 Island, as of a place to which it might be supposed to 
 bear only too close a resemblance. Evidence on this
 
 20O GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 point was given before a committee of the House of 
 Commons by Dr. Ullathorne, Roman Catholic priest of 
 Sydney, which Walker was careful to preserve in his 
 "clear and beautiful hand." Good men, whose con- 
 science did not suffer them to conform to universal 
 custom as regards the use of the second personal 
 pronoun plural, the Quakers, heard at Norfolk Island of 
 a perversion of language which argued an immeasurable 
 depravity of mind. A convict, in Dr. UUathorne's hear- 
 ing, called another convict a good man. The priest was 
 surprised, and asked a question, which elicited the 
 information that in general, and according to the ethics 
 of the island, a bad man was called good, and a man 
 who was ready to perform his duty, or any part thereof, 
 was called a bad man. " There was a whole vocabulary 
 of terms of that kind, which seemed to have been in- 
 vented to adapt themselves to the complete subversion 
 of the human heart." 
 
 This was a fact which it was incumbent upon Friend 
 Walker to record with care in his best style of penman- 
 ship. There was much of the same sort of information 
 to be had with which to enrich the pages of his journal. 
 Here, as at Macquarie Harbour, death in another than 
 the. Christian sense was gain ; here, even more thoroughly 
 than in the Tasmanian settlement, the ruflSan whose 
 crimes were monstrous was at one with the saints and 
 heroes of Christian history in his longing to depart. The 
 most horrible scene that the good priest, whose name
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 201 
 
 has been mentioned, ever saw, was one which he 
 witnessed on Norfolk Island, and it was a scene, so to 
 speak, not of murder, but of deathbed resignation and 
 departing ecstasy. Twenty-four men (perhaps because 
 it was convenient to reckon by dozens) were sentenced 
 to death as mutineers. The priest was sent from Sydney 
 to administer the consolations of religion to thirteen of 
 these, and to inform the rest that they were reprieved. 
 As the names were read out, not the eleven who were 
 reprieved, but the thirteen who were to die, dropped 
 down, man by man, upon his knees and gave thanks to 
 the Eternal Mercy that His salvation had visited them. 
 
 Down with this fact in thy journal. Friend Walker, 
 and let it remain there for a testimony — against whom 
 need not be said — but, at anyrate, against man's in- 
 humanity to man. 
 
 It was at Norfolk Island, at the end of a visit of two 
 months' duration, that the Quakers received the address 
 to which allusion has been made, beginning, " We, the 
 prisoners of the Crown embracing the tenets of the 
 Protestant faith." Partly, perhaps, because with all 
 their gravity they were not devoid of humour, the 
 Friends would fain have been spared this testimony to 
 the worth and success of their labours ; but they were 
 gentlemen, and lest they should seem to slight a kind- 
 ness, which was all that Protestantism in reduced cir- 
 cumstances had to offer them, they accepted it. It 
 had cost them a disagreeable voyage of three weeks'
 
 202 GEORGE WASfllXGTON WALKER. 
 
 duration to reach the island. They had a narrow 
 escape from drowning, as they swung in their boat on 
 the edge of the reef which guarded the approach to 
 an ocean prison, whose walls were inaccessible basaltic 
 cliffs. Not without much fatigue and hardship, perhaps 
 not without blistered feet, certainly not without aching 
 hearts, they had followed the prisoners of the Crown 
 embracing the Protestant faith into the depths of the 
 narrow and sultry valleys winding among the mountains 
 of which the island consists, and had noted how the 
 vertical sun under which they worked had obliged them 
 to dispense with clothes, and imparted to their skins 
 a hue resembling that of negroes. They had seen 
 the flower and crown of forest loveliness, the Norfolk 
 Island pine, flourish along the ridges of hills the sides 
 of which were covered with a jungle of fruit-trees, the 
 orange, the lemon, the guava; and these features of 
 a paradise in the Pacific had only served to deepen in 
 their minds the sadness of the reflections which were 
 suggested by the fact of Protestants not being allowed 
 the use of knives and forks, and being restricted to the 
 use of spoons, lest they should murder each other with 
 any weapon except the regular hoe. Here, however, in 
 this complimentary address from the almost negro-hued 
 Protestantism of the island, was their reward ; as much 
 of a reward, perhaps, as the friends of humanity have 
 any right to expect; a sign that possibly earnest and 
 faithful work has not been altogether thrown away ; a
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 203 
 
 token that possibly the day is yet coming when the 
 wilderness shall somehow blossom as the rose. 
 
 III. 
 
 Inclusive of their visit to Norfolk Island, the mission 
 of the Quakers to New South Wales (of which Queens- 
 land and Victoria were then outlying portions) occupied 
 them over two years. The thoroughness with which 
 their work was done was not altered by the scale of their 
 labours being changed from that of an island to that of 
 a continent Wandering not among the ruins of empire, 
 but among the foundations of cities and commonwealths 
 just rising above ground, they were known by their broad- 
 brims and their zeal for human wellbeing as far north 
 as Moreton Bay, as far south as that part of the bush 
 which is now the city of Melbourne, and to almost every 
 settlement, large and small, and nearly every lonely hut 
 between these points. As in Tasmania so in New South 
 Wales, their idea of visiting the colony was to enter not 
 only into every town and village, but, as far as possible, 
 into every house. They did not finally take leave of 
 Sydney, which has now a population of one hundred 
 thousand, and was then a considerable city, until they 
 had gone from door to door giving notice of their meet- 
 ings. Their object being to call the city and the colony 
 to repentance, not to extend the influence of a sect, the 
 primitive practice of a household visitation recommended
 
 204 GEORGE WASHINGTON IVALKER. 
 
 itself to them as preferable to more sensational and less 
 laborious methods of making their object known. To 
 their credit, as well as not a little to the honour of the 
 colonial clergy, when they entered into other men's 
 labours, as was to a certain extent unavoidable in Sydney 
 and other places, they did so without provoking any 
 jealousy or wrath. As in other cases, so in the instance 
 of G. W. Walker and his companion, it was noticeable 
 that Quakers, whose differences with the rest of the Pro- 
 testant world could be shown to be greater than those of 
 any one part of it with any other, had no difficulty in 
 establishing friendly relations with the representatives of 
 sects between whom there was the bond of an almost 
 identical creed, and the antipathy which too often accom- 
 panies that bond. Either as the reward of their having 
 suffered much in past times for righteousness' sake, or as 
 the result of their peculiar garb and speech being identi- 
 fied rather with prison reform and humane treatment of 
 the insane, than with disputes about infant baptism or 
 the eastward position of the celebrant, the Quakers 
 would seem to have the privilege of differing with all 
 churches, and, indeed, in a mild way, of excommunicat- 
 ing them all, and at the same time of being permitted 
 peaceably to do what they can to benefit mankind. It is 
 doubtful if there ever was in appearance a more pro- 
 vincial figure than that of the disciple of George Fox 
 before the days of his conformity to the world — the 
 Quaker of preceding generations, with his broad-brim.
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 205 
 
 and his jargon more uncouth than his hat. Yet in virtue 
 of his consistent and determined bearing as a friend of 
 humanity, amenable in his conduct and activity to the 
 rule of reason as well as that of the Scriptures, the old- 
 fashioned Quaker, with his coat cut in the style of 
 William Penn's and his pigeon EngHsh, would seem to 
 be the most cosmopolitan character in religious history. 
 Walker's journals, especially his entries relative to 
 Sydney, suggest some such reflections as to the Friends 
 and their relation to other Christians. 
 
 Old Samuel Marsden, the father of Church missions 
 in Australia, famous for his labours and adventures and 
 successes in New Zealand, still held his post of colonial 
 chaplain, and still, it is to be presumed, retained those 
 scruples about meeting convicts in society, for which he 
 was mercilessly chastised by the wit of Sydney Smith. 
 But even old Samuel Marsden, like the rest of the 
 colonial clergy of all denominations, in spite of the 
 connection, historical and actual, between Quakers and 
 convicts, had a hearty welcome to give the Friends, and, 
 indeed, did much to further their mission, especially 
 by fostering the interest taken in it by his Excellency the 
 Governor of New South Wales, 
 
 A serious and resolute attempt to conquer an empire 
 rather than a province for pure and undefiled Chris- 
 tianity, for righteousness, temperance, and peace, the 
 mission of the Friends in New South Wales is a fact 
 the historical interest of which is in some respects
 
 2o6 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 unique. When the epoch of village politics, in which 
 the question of dividing the village common is para- 
 mount, has come to an end in the Australian colonies, 
 and when the laws that govern the intercourse of nations 
 have superseded the legislative tricks and reprisals of 
 parochially-minded parliaments, Australia will undoubt- 
 edly have to be reckoned among the great empires of 
 the world. It will be curious then, no doubt, for the 
 historian of Australia to recall to mind the fact that 
 two unpaid missionaries in Quaker garb undertook the 
 task of perambulating it. New Testament in hand, from 
 north to south, and from east to west, and accomplished 
 their undertaking. No Christian nation in the world, 
 perhaps, can look back to a time when it was treated as 
 a parish, and when every inhabitant of the parish was 
 known to have been personally canvassed for his vote 
 and influence in favour of peace on earth, good-will 
 among men. Australia, when it attains the fulfilment 
 of its destiny as the United States of the southern hemi- 
 sphere, will be able to refer to such a period in its 
 history. When that time comes, if the memory of 
 James Backhouse and G. W. Walker is revived, as no 
 doubt it will be, the fact, perhaps, will not be over- 
 looked that their mission was, above all, to the outcasts 
 from the Christian society of the Old World, the acknow- 
 ledged failures of Christian civilisation in Europe ; and 
 the remembrance of the fact may perhaps help to guide 
 the course of civilisation and of Christianity under the
 
 GEORGE IVASHIXGTON WALKER. -zo^ 
 
 southern cross. A new empire, in which the mission of 
 Quakers to convicts is an important date, may possibly 
 have an example to show to older Christian communities 
 of how to treat criminals, and, it is to be hoped, may 
 have something to teach them, in regard to crime, in the 
 way of substituting prevention for punishment. 
 
 The year 1835, in which the Quakers began their 
 labours in New South Wales, saw Batman, and after him 
 J. P. Fawkner, arrive at Port Phillip from Tasmania, and 
 unconsciously found the colony of Victoria and its 
 splendid capital, Melbourne. With Batman, Walker 
 and Backhouse had made acquaintance during their 
 travels in Tasmania, and it was no doubt rather the 
 interest which they took in the proceedings of a friend, 
 than any anticipation of the future of Port Phillip and of 
 Melbourne, which led them to record in their journals 
 ** the following rare example of justice in deahng with 
 the aborgines " : — " In the * Sydney Herald ' of the 6th 
 inst. it is mentioned that J. Batman, with the assistance 
 of three Sydney blacks, whom we saw at his house, has 
 purchased from a native tribe in the vicinity of Port 
 Phillip a tract of land of about five hundred thousand 
 acres. The payment consisted, in part, of one hundred 
 blankets, tomahawks, knives, flour, &:c., and it was agreed 
 that a certain quantity of food, clothing, and arms was to 
 be paid each year to the amount of about ;^2oo sterling. 
 This novel example of equitable arrangement with the 
 aboriginal possessors of the soil will be hailed with satis-
 
 2o8 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 faction by every friend of humanity." Perhaps the 
 reader of this entry in the Quaker's journal may be 
 pardoned for being less struck with the equity of the 
 arrangement than with the fact that it was made only 
 some forty years ago, and that since then the hunting- 
 grounds of the aborigines of Port Phillip have become 
 the Brightons and Folkestones of the wealthy citizens of 
 Melbourne. 
 
 In the year 1835 there must have been, in the " sailor- 
 king's" navy, ships sometime out of commission, from 
 which it would not have been difficult to select one 
 for a voyage to the Antipodes. There must have been 
 in that year in England a great many officers of the 
 army and navy on half pay, ex-diplomatists, sinecurists, 
 non-resident clergy and bishops of small dioceses, of 
 whom one or two might have been appointed to sail 
 in that vessel, and to see how the experiment of calling 
 a new world of criminals into existence to redress the 
 balance of the old was going to succeed. But, as if 
 to show how much room the noblest political organisa 
 tions in the world, and the best ecclesiastical institutions, 
 will always leave for the friend of humanity to occupy 
 on his own account and at his own expense, it was left 
 to Hawden Bragg's apprentice and his companion to 
 discover in the southern hemisphere more than one 
 Black Hole of Calcutta the property of his Most 
 Gracious Majesty, "At Campbell Town, a village in 
 the midst of beautiful English-like scenery," they came
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 209 
 
 upon a jail such as it would be difficult to match among 
 government properties in despotic or even barbarous 
 countries. Walker had his yard-tape with him, 
 measured the principal ward, and noted the dimen- 
 sions in his journal, 2o\ feet by i2|, height 8 feet. 
 A wine-vault beneath the police-office or court-house 
 had been converted into a prison which consisted of 
 this dungeon and five solitary cells, lighted and venti- 
 lated only with a few small air-holes opening on the 
 road, and only to be explored in the daytime with a 
 lamp. Here as many as sixty persons being confined 
 at one time, the effect on certain occasions, when the 
 climate of Campbell Town was more than usually like 
 that of Calcutta, was that the magistrates, sitting above, 
 were driven away from the seats of justice, while the 
 suffocated prisoners had to be carried out at intervals 
 to have a chance of recovery, which it was almost a 
 doubtful act of humanity to give them. 
 
 The huts of the chain-gang working on the road were 
 surrounded with a wooden fence, and hence the name 
 of stockade applied to a cluster of these huts. At 
 Maitland the Quakers visited the Iron Gang stockade, 
 Walker with his measure and note-book in hand. This 
 roadside bastile consisted of huts set on wheels, and 
 intended to accommodate twenty men each. Their 
 measure was taken, and it was found to be 7^ feet by 
 14, with 6 feet of height, thus allowing one foot and a 
 half of space for each of the twenty inmates as they lay
 
 210 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 side by side on wooden shelves. In the judgment of 
 our unpaid inspectors of penal establishments, confine- 
 ment in these cages from six in the evening till six in 
 the morning, especially during hot Australian weather, 
 must have entailed "a considerable amount of distress." 
 Whether the amount of distress was in excess of the 
 demands of justice was a matter which was not nicely 
 calculated with regard to the stockade any more than 
 with respect to the penal settlement. It was not dealt 
 out by weight at either place like the daily rations. On 
 the whole, Walker concluded that if there was excess it 
 was greatest on the side of the stockade. " Were I a 
 prisoner," he says, "and had my choice between a 
 stockade and a penal settlement, I should decidedly 
 prefer the latter;" which reflection, considering he had 
 sailed through the Gates of evil name into Macquarie 
 Harbour, and that he had seen Norfolk feland, may 
 be taken to mean that it was time for the friend of 
 humanity to appear at the Iron Gang stockade with his 
 yard-tape and his note-book. 
 
 Among chain-gangs in New South Wales, one at 
 Marulan held the place which was conceded to Nott- 
 man's in Tasmania — for incorrigible wickedness. The 
 Quakers walked twenty-three miles one day in the month 
 of February, probably a day too warm for the comfort 
 of travellers, and found the men of this gang drawn 
 up before the hut on religious parade. It was a 
 " relieving season of labour " to Walker's mind, though
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. an 
 
 the audience seemed almost as little hopeful as any he 
 had seen. The lieutenant in command mentioned that 
 in a gang consisting of seventy men two hundred and 
 sixty cases of flagellation had occurred in the course 
 of sixteen months, or about four weekly. One back 
 had received nine hundred lashes. The Quakers were 
 much impressed with what they heard, and still more 
 with what they saw. They had noticed often before 
 the malformation of the heads of prisoners. Here it 
 was more marked than they had ever before seen it. 
 And perhaps this helped to make the occasion of his 
 visit a "relieving one" to the mind of a friend of 
 humanity like G. W. Walker. Idiocy has no other 
 pleasing effect, but it does serve to soften the harsh 
 features of crime. 
 
 The Quakers, in fulfilling their mission to convicts, 
 were struck with the resemblance between the heads 
 of the criminals and those of idiots. Philanthropists, 
 whose mission has been specially to the insane, have 
 been impressed with the same family likeness. Sir 
 Robert Officer, of Tasmania, to whom the Quakers 
 refer in terms of grateful respect, will pardon an old 
 friend for naming him as one of these philanthropists, 
 one who, from his long official connection with the 
 Colonial Hospital for the Insane, has been obliged to 
 devote a keen intelligence to the study of the heads of 
 madmen, and who has had rare opportunities in Van 
 Diemen's Land of comparing the outward lineaments
 
 212 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 of idiocy and of crime. His testimony, given from the 
 side of the hospital, is emphatic as to the truth of the 
 testimony deUvered by the Quakers from the interior 
 of the jail. Neither science nor humanity has spoken 
 its last word as to the connection between crime and 
 insanity. 
 
 The patronage of the Governor of New South Wales 
 was invaluable to the Quaker missionaries, especially 
 as regards their journeys and voyages to the more 
 remote districts of the colony. INIoreton Bay, then a 
 small penal settlement which was to grow into Brisbane, 
 the capital of Queensland, was the hmit of their travels 
 northward. They were allowed a passage and rations 
 on board the Government schooler going to the settle- 
 ment, and the vessel, for their sole convenience, was 
 ordered to call at Port Macquarie, another penal 
 establishment on the way. On board the schooner 
 the friend of humanity's measuring tape was once more 
 found to be an indispensable part of his equipment. 
 There were forty-one convicts on board, linked together 
 by a long chain passing over the fetters of the ankles, 
 and confined to a jail in the hold, in a nearly tropical 
 climate, at the hottest season of the year, without water 
 and almost without room to change their position. 
 This floating Black Hole, carrying the meteor flag of 
 England, was found to measure 18 feet by 16 feet. 
 Walker, in recording the fact, ventures to express the 
 opinion that "the debasing effect upon the mind" of
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER, 213 
 
 confinement in such a place was not likely to be the 
 smallest part of the mischief attending it. 
 
 About four hundred prisoners constituted the principal 
 part of the population of the capital of Queensland, and 
 the treadmill was the principal object of interest to 
 visitors. Here again the Quaker inspectors of jails 
 found that punishment was meted out to crime rather 
 with profuse liberality than with nice discrimination. 
 They found the climate outside the treadmill tropical, 
 and learning that the chain-gang inside had to lift their 
 feet three thousand eight hundred and forty times with- 
 out change, they could not help considering that the 
 sufferings of fat men must be excessive. Men of the 
 type of Cassius might be the greatest villains on the 
 wheel, but their punishment in sultry weather was hght 
 compared with that of corpulent felons, whose misdeeds 
 were comparatively trivial. 
 
 One journey on which Walker and his companion had 
 to endure much fatigue, was that which they made in 
 the direction of WelUngton Valley, two hundred miles 
 north-west of Sydney, the seat of a mission to the 
 natives. The former suffered severely on the road 
 from cramps, which he had too much inward light or 
 common sense to regard in any other way than as a 
 gentle " rebuke " for breaking the laws of health by 
 excessive exertion. Walker and his companion did 
 not readily credit accounts of the total depravity of 
 human nature. They saw reason, as they fancied, to
 
 214 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 distrust such accounts in the instance of the most 
 hardened convicts. But what they heard and saw of 
 the blacks at Wellington Valley convinced them that 
 something • very like utter depravity was possible. 
 What has been the history of almost every attempt to 
 civilise the natives of Australia repeated itself here, 
 with perhaps some aggravations of disappointment to 
 the philanthropist. A party of native youths would 
 assemble at the mission house to be taught reading and 
 instructed in the Christian faith. "They would eat 
 voraciously of the provisions set before them, smoke 
 as much tobacco as they could get," receive as little 
 education as possible, and in a few days get tired of 
 civilisation and Christianity, and find an excuse for 
 decamping into the bush, either in a friend's illness 
 or an important engagement, or, not unlikely, in the 
 missionary's refusal to supply Billy or Bob with a new 
 pipe. 
 
 Much more pleasing and satisfactory than the visit to 
 Wellington Valley was that which the Quakers made to 
 an outlandish place midway between the Green Hills 
 and Newcastle. Their object on this occasion recalls the 
 parable of the lost sheep in yet another form than any in 
 which the story of their travels may already have brought 
 it to mind. An elderly man who had once been a 
 Quaker was here in the position of an assigned servant. 
 This old convict paid a compUment to the Christianity 
 of his brethren which not every form of Christianity has
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 215 
 
 deserved by its treatment of the fallen, if he expected 
 that any of them would leave the society of the ninety 
 and nine respectable Quakers, who needed no salvation, 
 and would come into the wilderness to see whether he 
 could not be brought to repentance. But whether unex- 
 pectedly or not, the satisfaction of finding that he was 
 not forgotten by the fellowship to which his career had 
 been no credit, was in store for him. The missionaries 
 had much friendly conversation with their erring brother, 
 and at a meeting of assigned servants to which they 
 preached the gospel of forgiveness and charity, he was 
 moved to make *' a feeling allusion to the solemnity of 
 the occasion," and to signify to his fellow-servants that, 
 in his opinion, it was good to refrain from evil. Walker's 
 final entry with regard to him in his journal is not with- 
 out pathos. *' The wanderer above alluded to accom- 
 panied us some miles, and at parting we had a solemn 
 season as we extended some counsel in a few words, 
 under the renewed feeling of the love of our Heavenly 
 Father, which would gather all into the garner of rest 
 and peace." Perhaps, on one not untenable view of the 
 meaning of the parable of the lost sheep, and of much of 
 the primitive gospel, it might appear to have been worth 
 while for the Newcastle Quaker to travel to the Anti- 
 podes, and into a aesert place between Newcastle and 
 the Green Hills, only in order to share this "solemn 
 season " with a fallen brother. 
 
 Gross evils connected with the system of disposing of
 
 2i6 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 convicts as assigned servants came under the notice of 
 the Quakers in New South Wales, as formerly in Tas- 
 mania. Drunkenness and all manner of vice and crime 
 were skilfully promoted by a regulation permitting 
 masters to pay prisoner- servants a third of their wages 
 in drink. In case the solitude of bush life should have 
 any tendency to repress criminal instincts and to check 
 criminal habits, convicts were required to attend a 
 monthly muster, at which it was certain that drink and 
 evil communications would have the result of providing 
 fresh material for the chain-gang and the penal settle- 
 ment. In the fewest instances were any pains taken by 
 settlers to encourage prisoner-servants in well-doing. 
 As a rule, the effect of families being served by ticket- 
 of-leave was the rapid deterioration of character on 
 both sides. Walker writes that the colonial youth whom 
 he saw at more than one place were not of a hopeful 
 aspect as regards physique, intelligence, or morals. He 
 was disposed to attribute the fact partly to climate and 
 much more to intercourse with a class of servants with 
 regard to whom, as has been seen, "the malformation 
 of the head " was a constant subject of remark on his 
 part and on that of his companion. 
 
 With their experience of upwards of two years' travel 
 in New South Wales, added to their intimate knowledge 
 of convict life in Tasmania, the Friends were able to 
 speak with an authority all their own in regard to trans- 
 ported felons. On that subject it may be safely asserted
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 217 
 
 that no two men living were better qualified to give 
 advice to the British Government than James Backhouse 
 and George Washington Walker. Their advice was 
 actually in due form imparted to Parliament, and was 
 not, it may be assumed, without effect upon the course of 
 legislation. Returning for a brief period to Tasmania, 
 after once more and finally subjecting Sydney to house- 
 hold visitation in the interest of righteousness, temper- 
 ance, and peace, they found a new governor in power 
 in the colony, and, of course, a new private secretary 
 attending the governor. The former was Sir John 
 Franklin ; the latter. Captain Maconochie, the prison 
 reformer; and from both of these distinguished men 
 the Quakers received a cordial welcome. Captain 
 Maconochie, in drawing up the well-known report on 
 the subject of convict discipline in the colonies, which 
 was presented to the House of Commons, was indebted 
 to the Quaker missionaries for valuable assistance, of 
 which he made acknowledgment in these terms : " The 
 well-known and highly-respected Quakers, James Back- 
 house and George Washington Walker, who have been 
 above five years in the penal settlements, observing 
 closely the operation of their existing constitution, not 
 only cordially agree with the views which I have here 
 attempted to explain regarding it, but also with those 
 I entertain for its amelioration. They have accordingly 
 given me a testimony to this effect, which I subjoin, 
 and also placed their MS. journals and reports in my
 
 2i3 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 hands that I may select whatever passages I may find 
 in them to my purpose. I feel extremely indebted for 
 this kindness, and avail myself of it gladly." 
 
 A royal commission existing for the same number of 
 years, travelling over the same ground, and performing 
 the same work, would have cost England a good deal 
 more than the rations on board a convict schooner with 
 which the Friends were several times provided at the 
 expense of the State. It would have cost more, done 
 less, done it not so well, and yet perhaps would have 
 received the thanks of both Houses. But the Quakers, 
 serving another Master than that to which a commission 
 would have looked for pay and praise, were well pleased 
 that, as the reward of their five years' services, it was 
 permitted to them to lift up their testimony in the 
 British Parliament in favour of a more humane treatment 
 of prisoners. Neither John Bright nor William R 
 Forster was then in the House, and though it was four 
 years since Joseph Pease, upon his affirmation, had been 
 admitted a member, probably he was the only Quaker, 
 as he was the first, who had a seat within its walls. Did 
 any member, except Joseph Pease, remember, on read- 
 ing the report in which the testimony of the Quakers 
 was quoted in favour of the humane treatment of con- 
 victs at the Antipodes, that one of the earliest public 
 appearances of the Quaker fraternity was when they 
 stated in Parliament, in 1659, that two thousand of their 
 number had suffered imprisonment in Newgate, and
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 219 
 
 when one hundred and sixty-four Friends in good health 
 reported themselves by name to the Government as 
 desirous of being imprisoned, in place of an equal 
 number whose term of confinement illness threatened 
 to cut short? If the report of 1837 did thus carry the 
 mind of any M.P. back to 1659, he must have reflected 
 that a long and intimate connection had existed between 
 Quakers and convicts, to the advantage of the one, and 
 not to the discredit of the other. 
 
 "On the third of the eleventh month," 1837, six 
 years and two months after leaving home, Walker and 
 Backhouse set sail from Tasmania for Melbourne. 
 From this point, at which the main interest of their 
 mission no longer lies among convicts, it is only pos- 
 sible to mark the direction which they took in their 
 wanderings. All that lends to Walker's formal, un- 
 adorned record of their travels in Australia, Mauritius, 
 and Africa, a deeper interest than belongs to all but a 
 very few of the best stories ever told of missionary toil 
 and adventure and observation, must be left in the 
 bulky biographical sepulchre to which the memory of a 
 good man has been consigned. 
 
 Melbourne was found by the Friends to consist of 
 about one hundred weatherboard huts, helping the 
 eucalyptus to shade ground gently sloping to the Yarra 
 Yarra. Adelaide, to which they proceeded from Mel- 
 bourne in the year one of both cities, supplied them 
 rather with recollections of numerous ill-conditioned
 
 223 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 natives than of thriving English colonists, such as 
 welcomed the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869. Excessive 
 heat, mosquitoes, sand-flies — " bless you, a heart-break- 
 ing country " to look at — all the plagues which have 
 made Western Australia a place of punishment to 
 British soldiers and settlers as well as to convicts, did 
 not deter the Quakers from completing the round of 
 the colonies by a visit to Albany, Perth, and Freemantle. 
 Sand and blight were in his thoughts as Walker made 
 the last entries in his journal — the sand which was 
 described as beautiful grass in advertisements relative to 
 Western Australia ; the blight which had been found to 
 pervade all the colonies alike, and which was due, not to 
 climate, but to drink. 
 
 Anxious to enter upon the field of work in South 
 Africa, of which they had obtained a passing glimpse on 
 touching at Cape Town, the Quakers spent only two 
 months and a half in Mauritius — too short a period, as 
 they felt, for making satisfactory acquaintance with the 
 state of an island in which Quakers, as anti-slavery 
 Christians, had much to observe. After seeing a good 
 deal of a strangely mongrel population, and making the 
 best possible use of their slender stock of French in the 
 way of preaching the Gospel, they left the island, enter- 
 taining the modest hope that, "in connection with 
 other sources of evidence," the knowledge which they 
 had obtained might be made to subserve the general 
 interests of humanity. The abolition of slavery was too
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 221 
 
 recent an event, the prevalence of Parisian morals, not 
 improved by exportation, was too palpable a fact, to 
 admit of their indulging any more sanguine expecta- 
 tion. They were prevented by circumstances which they 
 much regretted from seeing the grave of "Paul and 
 Virginia ; " but had they accomplished their purpose of 
 visiting the spot, the web of reflection which would have 
 been woven under their broad - brims would certainly 
 have been of very mixed texture, and included some- 
 thing belonging to a French idyl, much appertaining to 
 a Parisian Sunday, and something also connected with 
 the prospect of a kingdom of God eternal upon earth. 
 Their faith in this kingdom, apart from the results of 
 their individual efforts on its behalf, and apart from the 
 existence of the religious body to which they belonged, 
 was characteristically firm ; it was only staggered for a 
 moment, not shaken, by Macquarie Harbour, Norfolk 
 Island, the Mauritius. 
 
 Their destination on leaving Mauritius was South 
 Africa, where they spent two years and three months, 
 and where their travels extended beyond the limits of 
 Cape Colony, to within a few days' journey of Port 
 Natal in the east, to Motito in the north, and across 
 the Orange River into the Great Namaqualand on the 
 west Eighty mission stations at the time represented 
 European Christianity in its beneficence and also its 
 numerous divisions. The Friends paid a visit to every 
 one of the eighty. Every town and village within the
 
 222 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 limits of the colony made acquaintance with their zeal 
 for the promotion of temperance and righteousness 
 and peace. In the course of their wanderings from 
 south to north and from ocean to ocean, they travelled 
 six thousand miles by waggon or on horseback. Start- 
 ing from Cape Town, to follow the line of the East 
 Coast, and afterwards to strike across country, they did 
 not behold the Atlantic from the Great Namaqualand 
 without having toiled and suffered in the service of 
 humanity, under an African sun, as other missionaries 
 in the same regions have toiled and suffered. Many of 
 the best books of travel in existence relate to the ground 
 over which Walker and his companion travelled on their 
 errand of peace. Walker's journal will bear comparison 
 with the best of them in point of interest and even 
 entertainment. It is amusing as well as instructive to 
 note in its pages the effect upon familiar African scenes 
 and characters, of being looked at from under a broad 
 brim and through Quaker spectacles, and of being set 
 down, as much without exaggeration as without malice — 
 described with the austere simplicity of the book of 
 Genesis, yet not without the shrewdness of a Newcastle 
 " canny " man. A special interest perhaps attaches for 
 the moment to many passages in the Quaker's journal, 
 referring to scenes in which the marks of the Kaffir War 
 of 1836 were still fresh. 
 
 Sneers at Christian missions in Africa, which have 
 been elaborated by wits at home, and which have
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER, 223 
 
 received countenance from too credulous missionaries 
 and too censorious travellers, have not been without 
 effect upon the hopes of the Christian world in regard 
 to the annexation of the countries of the Kaffir and the 
 Hottentot. As an antidote to these sneers, nothing 
 better than Walker's journal of his tour of inspection 
 among Christian missions was ever pubhshed. The 
 same faith in God as good, and in man as not altogether 
 bad, which our Quaker missionaries found to be the 
 strength of their hearts and the force of their sermons 
 at Macquarie Harbour and Norfolk Island, enabled 
 them with singular success to overcome the world where 
 the world consisted of the dominion of rival Christian 
 sects often at war, and of heathen tribes seldom at 
 peace. They had to record at the end of their travels 
 in Africa, that they had been received as friends and 
 brothers, not only by persons of different religious per- 
 suasion and country, but of different colour and language. 
 Quaker Christianity, consisting only of a very little of 
 breadth of brim, and much of warmth of heart, was the 
 best passport they could have carried with them on their 
 journey. If their waggon, as it creaked upon its rude 
 axle and jolted over stray boulders, in the Great 
 Namaqualand, could have been pointed to as that 
 which was conveying to the heathen the knowledge of a 
 peculiar use of the personal pronoun, or of the impor- 
 tance of correct views respecting infant baptism, its 
 approach might have been regarded with indifference, or
 
 224 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 
 
 have called forth hostility at some mission stations 
 and at various native kraals. But wherever they went it 
 was understood that their errand was peace and good- 
 will, and on that errand they were everywhere welcome. 
 
 Moshesh, the famous Bechuana chieftain, hearing 
 what was done in the name of Christ in the territories of 
 some of his neighbours, once set out from his kraal, with 
 a thousand head of cattle driven before him, intending 
 to buy a missionary. He would have been fortunate if 
 chance had thrown in his way a missionary like G. W. 
 Walker or James Backhouse. Wonderful might have 
 been the results if Quaker Christianity, often persecuted 
 in Europe, had been for once established by law in 
 Africa. Problems of deep interest in Church and State, 
 which perplex European statesmen, and are the gage of 
 battle between European sects, might have been shown 
 by the Bechuanas to be capable of solution. It is 
 certain that if G. W. Walker, or his companion, or any 
 missionary of the same spirit as theirs, had been 
 intrusted with the direction of religious affairs in the 
 dominions of Moshesh, the spectacle would have been 
 exhibited there which has been rarely seen in England 
 and in Europe, of a Christianity not too good for the 
 world — not too studious of perfection in regard to its 
 dress and ornaments to attend to the work of clothing 
 the naked, and casting out devils, and turning spears 
 into ploughshares, and swords into pruning-hooks. 
 
 On quitting Africa the Quaker missionaries parted,
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON WALKER. 225 
 
 after nine years of fellowship \n toil and in the peace 
 of God, never to meet again. Backhouse went home 
 to York. Walker returned to Tasmania, married, and 
 settled in that colony. In Tasmania he commenced 
 business as a draper, and succeeded well enough to 
 satisfy his modest ambition, though he rather restricted 
 his trade by refusing to sell lace and other vanities for 
 which his lady customers were in the habit of making 
 anxious inquiries. Then he was appointed to a post in 
 the savings bank, and in the occupancy of that office 
 he died at a comparatively early age. It may well be 
 supposed that such a missionary as we have made 
 acquaintance with in him was not idle as a philan- 
 thropist after he took to trade. The colony owes 
 Hawdon Bragg's apprentice as much gratitude, perhaps, 
 as is due from it to any man that ever set foot upon its 
 shores. Every good work proposed by anybody else 
 was heartily seconded by him. Many a good work 
 owed its commencement and its success to his almost 
 unaided labour. His advocacy of temperance in par- 
 ticular, his warfare against drunkenness, was crowned, as 
 it deserved to be, with splendid results. When he died it 
 was not a class, or a sect, or a city, but a people, a colony 
 of a hundred thousand English men and women, that 
 lamented the loss of a brave, devoted, noble maa The 
 lesson of his life does not need to be pointed out in these 
 pages. It is that a good life, even if it begin in a draper's 
 shop and end at a clerk's desk, may have imperial issues.
 
 ( 226 ) 
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT AND SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 LIKE some great citadel, the interior of Central 
 Africa had for ages defied the endeavours of 
 civilised man to make a breach and enter in. It was an 
 unknown land, — some thought it a desert, others fancied 
 it was a fruitful country. The Portuguese, full of adven- 
 ture, and fired by the love of gain, had managed to 
 find points of settlement on the outermost borders, both 
 east and west, and as the outpost of an army will some- 
 times make exchanges of handy commodities with the 
 enemy's outpost, they had contrived to enlist the tribes 
 with which they came into contact in the most nefarious 
 traffic. They set the one tribe to prey upon the other 
 for the purpose of obtaining slaves. At other points, 
 here and there, adventurous merchants had advanced so 
 far as to enable them to barter the showy productions of 
 European industry, for the ivory and the skins of the 
 interior. But the great heart of the continent was still 
 untrodden of the white man's foot : and it was reserved 
 for a poor Scotch lad who, self-taught, had managed to
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 
 
 Master Missionaries. 
 
 p. 226.
 
 ROBERT MOFFA T. 227 
 
 scramble forward to a university, and to study medicine 
 and theology whilst he lived almost on beggars' fare, to 
 penetrate far into the interior and open up to the 
 civilised world a new and most extraordinary region, 
 likely at no very distant time to be the centre of a 
 mighty commerce. Dr. Livingstone is the great ex- 
 plorer of Central Africa; but his way was, in a sense, * 
 prepared for him. The names of Moffat and Livingstone 
 must hereafter be linked together in all future histories 
 of missionary enterprise and exploration. Moffat was 
 the first to put a foot forward, and the romance of 
 Central African discovery may be said to begin with him. 
 Before his settlement at Kuruman, the Dutch missions 
 in Africa had been mere preparations. He connects the 
 first great missionary enterprise in that region with the 
 last one ; and his recent home-coming makes a sketch 
 of his work not unfitting at the present moment. 
 
 When Robert Moffat, with the consent of his pious 
 Scotch parents, left his gardening and set sail for the 
 Cape of Good Hope, on the last day of October 18 16, 
 he was only twenty years of age — a mere stripling. But 
 he was a mature man in self-possession and in Christian 
 faith ; and these are the main qualities required in 
 missionary enterprise. He had devoted himself to the 
 cause without wavering, and he entered on his arduous 
 work with self-reliant hope. His first battle was not 
 with the heathen, however, but with the British Governor, 
 who was loath to give his sanction to missionaries
 
 228 R OBER T MOFFA T. 
 
 proceeding outside the Cape Colony, as it was feared 
 that, through want of discretion, they would get the 
 tribes of the interior into broils and misunderstandings. 
 He was as firm in his representations and applications 
 as the Governor was in his refusals; and, during the 
 delay, he made good use of his time in getting instruc- 
 tion in Dutch from a pious Hollander with whom he 
 had taken up his abode, so that he might be able to 
 preach to the Boers and their servants. As a means of 
 meeting his demands half-way, he was offered the post of 
 Resident with one of the Kaffir chiefs ; but he declined 
 to mix up political duties with his preaching of the Gospel, 
 and would either go untrammelled or not at all. 
 
 Permission at length was granted him, and he at once 
 set out for the Orange River, to try to convert the noto- 
 rious Africaner, who had made his name a terror by his 
 maraudings and murders. On the way, Moffat preached 
 to the Hottentots, wherever he could get opportunity. On 
 all hands he was warned against approaching Africaner. 
 One old motherly lady, wiping the tear ' from her eye, 
 bade him farewell, saying, " Had you been an old man, 
 it would have been nothing, for you would soon have, 
 died, whether or no ; but you are young, and going to be 
 eaten up by that monster ! " 
 
 That Moffat was accompanied by the missionary 
 Ebner, who had some time before been a resident at 
 Africaner's kraal, was not much in his favour ; for Ebner 
 apparently had left on bad terms with the chiefs
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 229 
 
 brother. But the party went on — over desert plains, where 
 sometimes the oxen would sink down in the sand from 
 sheer fatigue, and where the want of water was a terrible 
 infliction ; and over rocky mountains, where the exposure 
 to the scorching heat of the hot season was like to induce 
 fever every moment. 
 
 Africaner's welcome was not warm ; and the old mis- 
 understanding between Ebner and the chiefs brother 
 soon issued in a quarrel. On this Ebner had to flee, 
 and Mofiat was left alone to deal with the remorseless 
 chief and his bloodthirsty people as best he might. He 
 dealt with them wisely, and won a victory which is 
 memorable. If you look at Robert Moffat's portrait, what 
 will most probably strike you at the first is the mixture 
 of firmness, shrewdness, and tact that predominates in it. 
 He was a born manager of men. You can see that in 
 his eye. If it had not been that the grace of God soon 
 took possession of his heart, he would no doubt have 
 been a most successful man of business. But the grace 
 of God does not kill man's natural faculties ; it only con- 
 secrates them. Moffat 7vas a successful man : he proved 
 himself a wise master-gardener for God ; he was prudent 
 for the souls of men, as plants of rarest beauty and of 
 untold value. So, in spite of the barrenness of the 
 country, the want of water, and the thinness of the 
 population, he began his work. " He commenced 
 stated services, opened a school, and itinerated amongst 
 the neighbouring * werfs ' or villages. His food was
 
 230 ROBEK T MOFFA T. 
 
 milk and meat. He would live for weeks together on 
 one, and then, for a while, on both ; but frequently 
 he had recourse to the ' fasting girdle.' After a day's 
 occupation, he would often, in the stillness of the 
 evening, silently retire to the rocky boulders in the 
 neighbourhood of the station, to commune in sorrow 
 and joy with Him in whose service he had embarked ; 
 sometimes, too, to think over the past, and of the home 
 and friends he had left behind, perhaps for ever; and 
 occasionally to draw from his violin some favourite 
 sacred melody, or the loved airs of his native country."* 
 
 So Moffat laboured for years. Often it seemed to 
 him as though he was " beating the air ; " and his heart 
 sank. It was lucky for him that he had outward as well 
 as inward resources. He could put his hand to any- 
 thing ; and that gained him respect from the Namaqua- 
 men more than his learning. " My dear old mother," 
 he tells us himself, " to keep me out of mischief in the 
 long winter evenings, taught me to knit and to sew. 
 When I would tell her I meant to be a man, she would 
 say, * Lad, ye dinna ken whaur your lot may be cast.' 
 She was right ; for I have often had occasion to use the 
 needle since." 
 
 He was not unfrequently in sore straits for his daily 
 food ; but he only found himself the more disposed for 
 
 * " A Life's Labours in Soutli Africa ; being the Story of the 
 Life-work of Robert Moffat, Apostle to the Bechuana Tribes." 
 Published by John Snow & Company. A most interesting little 
 work.
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 23 1 
 
 meditation. He wandered, and taught, and preached 
 
 without faltering ; and at length the blessing came. 
 
 Africaner himself was the first convert. The change 
 
 that came over the chief was marvellous. The wild 
 
 Namaqua warrior was gentle as a child. And he was 
 
 very solicitous for the temporal welfare of his friend — 
 
 intently watchful that the missionary should want for 
 
 nothing that he or his people could give him. The man 
 
 who hitherto had only had one ambition — to lead his 
 
 people to war and plunder — now directed them to build 
 
 a house for the missionary, made him a present of cows, 
 
 regularly attended the services, was assiduous in the 
 
 study of the Scriptures, and sincerely mourned over his 
 
 past Ufe. His love for Moffat was deep and abiding. 
 
 He nursed the missionary through the deUrium of a 
 
 bilious fever; and when his friend and teacher was 
 
 compelled by circumstances to visit Cape Town, nothing 
 
 would content Africaner but to be allowed to accompany 
 
 him thither, even at great risk, for a price had years 
 
 before been set upon his head. His appearance with 
 
 Moffat in Cape Colony produced a very deep impression, 
 
 as may be conceived. Whilst there it was proposed 
 
 that Moffat should not return to Namaqualand ; but 
 
 should proceed to the Bechuana country, which lies to 
 
 the north-east of Namaqualand, and found a mission 
 
 there. To this Africaner consented, as he had some 
 
 hopes of removing, with his people, to a district not far 
 
 distant from where Moffat now proposed to settle. So
 
 232 ROBERT MOFFAT. 
 
 the missiohary, with his newly-married wife, set forth for 
 the new country, much strengthened by his success 
 with Africaner and his people ; and encouraged by the 
 thought that the " station he was to occupy was one of 
 the foremost posts in heathen soil, and that beyond it 
 there were regions thickly populated by races who had 
 never seen the face of a white man, and to whom 
 Christianity and its attendant blessings were as yet 
 unknown." 
 
 This is very characteristic of Moffat. He had in him 
 not a little of the explorer. But he found it very back- 
 ward work with Mothibi's Bechuanas. That chief had 
 actually desired that a missionary should be sent among 
 his people. But it soon became clear that the people 
 had more notion of trading and bartering than of hear- 
 ing about the Gospel When they found that Moffat 
 had no goods, they were disposed to yoke the oxen to 
 his waggons and send him back again. Moffat was 
 often in great trouble. He did not know the language, 
 and had to speak to the people through interpreters ; 
 and he soon began to despair of making any impression 
 by this means. The one way was to master the lan- 
 guage, and this was a very slow and difficult process. 
 Besides, the missionaries had to build dwellings for 
 themselves, to enclose gardens, and make furrows to 
 irrigate the soil, so that some grain might be reared for 
 food. " Standing at the saw-pit, labouring at the anvil, 
 treading clay for making bricks, preaching to the motley
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 233 
 
 few who would attend their temporary place of worship 
 — such were the duties of each recurring day." The 
 natives shamelessly stole from them, not only tools, but 
 food and grain also. And when a great drought came, 
 and the rain-makers failed to bring rain, the missionaries 
 were assailed as the cause of the drought, and were told 
 to leave the country. Moffat at once faced the chief 
 and his attendants, said they might do with him as they 
 would, but he would not leave their country. "Our 
 hearts are with you," he said; "you may shed my blood, 
 or you may burn our dwelling, but I know that you will 
 not touch my wife and children; and you will surely 
 reverence the grey hairs of my venerable friend " (point- 
 ing to Mr. Hamilton). "As for me, my decision is 
 made; I do not leave your country." Then, throwing 
 open his waistcoat, he stood erect and fearless. " Now, 
 then," he proceeded, " if you will, drive your spears to 
 my heart, and when you have slain me, my companions 
 will know that it is time for them to depart." " These 
 men," said the chief, turning to the attendants, " must 
 have ten lives. When they are so fearless of death, 
 there must be something in immortality." 
 
 From this time the hearts of the people began to 
 turn to the truth. MoiTat showed them that he had 
 no interests apart from theirs. When they were threat- 
 ened by another warlike tribe, he went out at great 
 risk to try and make peace, and brought back such 
 news as enabled them to escape injury ; for he himself
 
 234 ROBER T MOFFA T. 
 
 went to Griqua-town for assistance against the common 
 enemy. The Mantatees were now mercilessly slaugh- 
 tered by the Bechuanas ; so that Moffat had to ride into 
 the field and intercede for the women ; who, seeing 
 mercy was shown them, would bare their bosoms, ex- 
 claiming, " I am a woman ! I am a woman I " The 
 self-sacrificing conduct of the missionaries so moved the 
 chief, that he aided them in the laying out of the new 
 station at Kurumah, which was for so long Mr. Moffat's 
 head- quarters. 
 
 From Kuruman Moffat made many journeys. He 
 visited Makaba, king of the Bauangketsi, some two 
 hundred miles further north, and was received with 
 favour, though at first the king was not disposed to 
 converse on religious matters. But a favourable im- 
 pression was then made on some of the courtiers. 
 On returning from this visit to Makaba, he nearly- 
 fell into the hands of the Mantatees, who had surged 
 onward in their devastating course into the interior. 
 Vague reports of danger reached Mrs. Moffat, who 
 remained in a fever of suspense with her two children. 
 Moffat, however, reached home safely, though he had 
 been much delayed and in great danger. 
 
 It was not till the year 1828 — seven years after their 
 arrival — that the Moffats began to see some signs of the 
 fruit of their labours. A church and schoolhouse were 
 erected ; the morals of the people rapidly improved ; 
 for the greasy skins, decent raiment was now substituted.
 
 ROBERT MOFFA T. 233 
 
 Some knowledge of the arts of civilised life took the 
 place of savage ignorance. Moffat was able now to 
 pursue his work of translating the Scriptures into the 
 Sechuana tongue ; and he was day by day busy at the 
 printing-press. The natives would watch the sheets 
 go into the press white, and come out a moment 
 after covered with black characters, to their unspeak- 
 able wonder. 
 
 News of the great work of the missionaries at Kuru- 
 man was soon carried far into the interior. A very 
 notable event was the appearance of two messengers 
 from the Matabele king, Moselekatze, who wished to 
 know more of the work of the white men. This 
 potentate ruled a large portion of the territory now 
 known as the Transvaal Republic, was a great warrior, 
 and a terror to all the surrounding tribes. Moffat 
 received these ambassadors with great kindness, and 
 showed them as much of civilised appliances as he 
 could. Owing to some risk they ran from the tribe 
 through whose territory they must pass on their return 
 home, he himself accompanied them on their way. 
 Having gone so far with them, they urged that he 
 should go on and see the king. And so, at last, he 
 agreed to do. Moselekatze took kindly to the missionary, 
 and showed himself capable of gratitude. Placing his 
 hand on the missionary's shoulder one day, he addressed 
 him by the title of ** Father," saying : " You have made 
 my heart as white as milk. I cease not to wonder at
 
 236 KOBER T MOFFA T. 
 
 the love of a stranger. You never saw me before, 
 but you love me more than my own people." Moffat 
 did not leave until he had got the king's consent 
 that a mission should be established there, A party 
 from the American Missionary Society were sent. But 
 the missionaries were very unfortunate. They were 
 much tried with fever, and one of their wives died 
 soon after reaching the station. And then the 
 Matabele were set upon by another tribe and had 
 to flee, and all that the missionaries could do was 
 to throw themselves on the mercy of the victors. 
 
 In I S3 2 Moffat had completed his translation into 
 Sechuana of the Gospel of Luke. He went to the 
 Cape, and got liberty to use the official press; but 
 who was to supply him with compositors? He had 
 simply to set to work himself, under the direction 
 of the official printer. He " set up " the matter with 
 his own hands, and was soon able to return in triumph 
 to the station with copies of Luke's Gospel and his 
 own hymns, together with the press, which Dr. Philip 
 had presented to him, and some other gifts. By 1840 
 the translation of the New Testament was completed, 
 and before 1S43 thousands of copies had been dis- 
 tributed, Moffat having superintended the printing in 
 London during a short visit home. 
 
 And at this point Moffat's story gets interlaced with 
 that of Livingstone, who went out with him at this 
 time, together with some other missionaries. While
 
 ROBERT MOFFA T. 237 
 
 Livingstone was wandering among the Bakwains, in 
 retirement at Lepeloli, or labouring at Kolobeng, 
 Moffat was pushing on with his translation of the 
 Old Testament, amid ill-health and much loss of 
 power. He worked without pause ; for the cause 
 of the Gospel was prospering, and each fresh proof 
 of its power was with him only a new incentive to 
 effort. 
 
 The attacks of the Transvaal farmers on Livingstone's 
 station at Kolobeng forced him to think of setting out 
 to try and find a new field for his people further to 
 the north. In God's good providence this was the 
 beginning of Livingstone's missionary explorations. He 
 saw so much, and was tempted further and further on 
 until, as the result, the famous journey across the 
 continent of Africa was undertaken. And that the 
 reports of Moffat's good work had already travelled 
 far into the unknown countries, was proved by the 
 fact that, while Livingstone was on the Zambesi, he 
 learned from the natives there that the English had 
 come to Moselekatze and told him that it was wrong 
 to fight and kill ; and that since the English had come 
 he had sent out his men not to kill and plunder, but 
 to collect tribute of cloth and money. There can be 
 no doubt that this rumour, spreading further and further 
 inland, prepared the way for Livingstone's extraordinary 
 journeys. 
 
 And whilst Livingstone was thus engaged, Moffat
 
 238 R OBER T MOFFA T. 
 
 was planning how to help him. His health had 
 suffered from the close application, continued now 
 through years, to the translation of the Scriptures. 
 'He was urged to go home for a time. Instead, he 
 resolved to recruit himself by a trip to the Limpopo 
 district, several days' journey to the north of Kolobeng, 
 where Moselekatze and his people had settled when 
 they were driven from their old quarters. Moffat's 
 visit was of singular interest. He was kindly received 
 by the king, now grievously ill of dropsy, and, after 
 some time, obtained permission to preach to the people. 
 He also prescribed for the king's ailment, and secured 
 his interest in Livingstone's travels, getting him to 
 forward men with letters and supplies to Linyanti, 
 on the Chobe river, two or three hundred miles further 
 to the north, which letters and supplies, as we know, 
 were received by Livingstone from the Makololo people, 
 who had taken them in charge, nearly a year afterwards. 
 As for Moselekatze, he was loath to let Moffat leave 
 him, pleading that he had not yet shown him sufficient 
 kindness. And as for Moffat, he returned greatly 
 restored in health, and full of hope that very soon 
 Christianity would be regularly introduced among these 
 people. 
 
 Livingstone's visit to England in 1856 had the effect 
 of wondrously reviving the interest in African missions, 
 the London Society resolving to establish missions 
 among the Matabcle and Makololo. Naturally Moffat
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 239 
 
 v^as overjoyed at receiving this news. It was what he 
 had for forty years been working for. His translation 
 of the Scriptures into the Sechuana tongue — dialects 
 of which, not varying much from each other, are 
 spoken over almost the whole of South Africa as far 
 as the equator — could now be cast abroad to do its 
 work. The undertaking had been a very trying one 
 in the circumstances, and Moffat's health had suffered 
 from the close application which for many years had 
 been required from him. But now the task was finished 
 — a task which of itself would have been enough to 
 give Moffat a place among the greatest of human 
 benefactors, even had he not been the adventurous 
 missionary he was. " No evidence," writes the learned 
 Seiler, "can be produced that the whole of the Scrip- 
 tures was, by any one person, rendered into Saxon. 
 Even Wickliffe had the help of many persons ; much 
 more Coverdale. Bede was translating the Gospel of 
 John at the time of his decease. But Robert Moffat, 
 who began with the Gospel of Luke, has lived to 
 translate the whole Bible into the barbarous dialect of 
 South Africa, and will, we trust, live to see it circulating 
 among the natives, who both speak and in many instances 
 can read it." 
 
 Moifat himself has given a very remarkable instance 
 of the power of the Scriptures over the heathen mind — 
 an instance which forms quite a romantic episode. " In 
 one of my early journeys with some of my companions,
 
 240 ROBER T MOFFA T. 
 
 we came to a heathen village on the banks of the Orange 
 River, between Namaqualand and the Griqua country. 
 We had travelled far, and were hungry, thirsty, and 
 fatigued. From the fear of being exposed to lions, we 
 preferred remaining at the village to proceeding during 
 the night. The people at the village rather roughly 
 directed us to halt at a distance. We asked water, but 
 they would not supply it. I offered the three or four 
 buttons which still remained on my jacket for a little 
 milk; this also was refused. We had the prospect of 
 another hungry night at a distance from water, though 
 within sight of a river. We found it difficult to reconcile 
 ourselves to our lot ; for, in addition to repeated rebuffs, 
 the manner of the villagers excited suspicion. When 
 twilight drew on, a woman approached from the height 
 beyond which the village lay. She bore on her head a 
 bundle of wood, and had a vessel of milk in her hand. 
 The latter, without opening her lips, she handed to us, 
 laid down the wood, and returned to the village. A 
 second time she approached, with a cooking vessel on 
 her head, and a leg of mutton in one hand, and water 
 in the other. She sat down without saying a word, 
 prepared the fire, and put on the meat. We asked her 
 again and again who she was. She remained silent till 
 affectionately entreated to give us a reason for such 
 unlooked-for kindness to strangers. The sohtary tear 
 stole down her sable cheek when she replied, 'I love 
 Him whose servants ye are ; and surely it is my duty to
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 2^t 
 
 give you a cup of cold water in His name. My heart 
 is full ; therefore I cannot speak the joy I feel to see 
 you in this out-of-the-way place.'" She was a lonely 
 disciple indeed, and her only means of keeping the 
 spiritual life awake within her was a copy of the Dutch 
 New Testament which she had got from Mr. Helm when 
 in his school years before, previous to removing with her 
 relatives far up-country. 
 
 And so, realising the great opportunity that was now 
 given to spread the knowledge of the Gospel, and to 
 distribute the Word of God, in the interior, Moffat 
 declined to seek the rest he so much needed in retire- 
 ment, or in a trip to England, as he had been recom- 
 mended to do. In spite of the risks of African travel 
 and his advanced years, he resolved to visit his old friend 
 Moselekatze again, in order to further the proposed 
 settlement of missionaries. When there on a former 
 occasion, Moffat had set forth to the king the simple 
 principles of Gospel truth, and urged upon him to receive 
 Christian teachers. But the king would not hear of any 
 "teachers" coming unless Moffat would come with 
 them. Moffat was this time received with great enthu- 
 siasm both by king and people ; they had been longing 
 for another visit from him. The king was willing to 
 receive the teachers, if Moffat would only stay with 
 them. " You must come too," the king urged. " How 
 shall I get on with people I don't know, if you are not 
 with me ? " But after awhile he said enthusiastically,
 
 242 ROBERT MOFFA T. 
 
 " By all means bring teachers. You are wise ; you are 
 able to judge what is good for me and my people better 
 than I do. The land is yours; you must do for it what 
 you think is good." And so the king agreed to give 
 the missionaries a spot of ground on which to settle, 
 Moffat having made him understand clearly that they 
 were not to trade, nor to look to him for their food, as 
 they would themselves dig, and plant, and sow, and 
 purchase whatever they required. Moffat, however, 
 urged on the king to do all that he could to open up a 
 trade with the tribes on the Zambesi. 
 
 It was during this visit that Moffat's influence wifh 
 Moselekatze was so clearly shown by his obtaining the 
 release of Macheng, the son of the late king of the Ba- 
 mangwatos. Macheng's father had been killed in an 
 engagement, and the child had been taken prisoner 
 some time afterwards, when he was under the care of a 
 Bechuana chief, Sechele. He had been so kept for 
 several years. Moffat accompanied him to his own 
 country. There were great rejoicings over the deliver- 
 ance of the young chief. " Is it not through the love 
 of God that Macheng is among us to-day ? " said Sechele. 
 "A stranger, one of a nation — who of you knows its 
 distance from us ? — he makes himself one of us, enters 
 the lion's abode, and brings out to us our own blood." 
 One of the Matabele, who had accompanied Moffat and 
 Macheng, now assured the assembled multitude that 
 Moselekatze desired nothing but to Hve in amity with
 
 ^ OBER T MOFFA T. 241 
 
 them. Sechele and his people were overjoyed to hear 
 such words from the representative of a tribe which, 
 though distant from them, had been till now a terror to 
 them both by night and by day. 
 
 Moffat now proceeded to Cape Town to meet Living- 
 stone, who was on his way to the Zambesi They had 
 not seen each other for six years. The joy of the meet- 
 ing may be imagined. There would be much to speak 
 of and discuss. But Livingstone's halt was short. He 
 proceeded on his great expedition ; and in a few months 
 more Moffat was once again at Cape Town, welcoming 
 the new missionaries, among whom was his own son, 
 John Moffat. At Kuruman they divided into two bands. 
 One party went under charge of Mr. Helmore, who had 
 been for many years stationed at Likatlong, northwards 
 to the land of Makololo ; the other went forward, in the 
 care of Mr. Moffat, to Moselekatze's country. Here 
 they were not only received kindly, but met with a sort 
 of triumphal reception. An epidemic had broken out 
 among the missionaries' oxen. Moffat advised the king 
 respecting it, but he was willing to run the risk. The 
 missionary, however, had more consideration for the 
 vast herds of the Matabele, and still hung back. The 
 king, therefore, sent word to return the oxen, and men 
 were despatched to drag the waggons to their destina- 
 lion, which in spite of many obstacles was accomplished. 
 Thus auspiciously the missionaries reached the settle- 
 ment of the Matabele.
 
 244 ROBER T MOFFA T. 
 
 This mission has been very successful. Moselekatze 
 died some years after the settlement ; but his successor, 
 Lobengole, was as favourably disposed towards the mis- 
 sionaries as he was. The Makololo mission, however, 
 did not fare so well. A series of misfortunes awaited it, 
 whose story has been told very graphically, though with 
 full details, by the Rev. John Mackenzie in his volume, 
 "Ten Years North of the Orange River." We must 
 turn to him and his companions for a little space. 
 
 It had been one of the inducements to the establish- 
 ment of these missions that the chief of the Makololo 
 had agreed with Dr. Livingstone to shift from the swamps 
 of Linyanti to the north bank of the Zambesi, on mis- 
 sionaries being settled amongst them ; whilst, at the 
 same time, it was believed that Mr. Moffat's influence 
 with Moselekatze was so strong as to be trusted to induce 
 him to desist from any kind of armed inter/erence with 
 the Makololo. The missionaries, Mr. Helmore, Mr. 
 Price, and Mr. Mackenzie, of course, anticipated diffi- 
 culty in the accomplishment of the plan (for the removal 
 of a tribe is a hard matter, even though the chief has 
 promised), just as they looked forward to many sufferings 
 in their journey ; and, indeed, it is doubtful whether they 
 would have been brave enough to have set out at all, 
 had it not been that Dr. Livingstone had promised to 
 meet them at Linyanti, and to make them known to the 
 people. 
 
 The journey proved trying beyond all their expecta-
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 245 
 
 tions. They had due share of disappointments and 
 hindrances between Cape Town and Kuruman ; but the 
 last stage was little short of being only a succession of 
 misfortunes. Owing to sickness, it was found necessary 
 that IMr. Helmore and Mr. Price should at once go 
 forward, in case they should miss Dr. Livingstone at 
 Linyanti, and that Mr. Mackenzie should follow them 
 in a few months. Durings these months at Kuruman, 
 Mr. Mackenzie devoted himself to the study of Sechuana, 
 and by mixing as much as possible with the people, was 
 soon able to preach in their language. His spare time 
   was given to the study of medicine. In May i860, he 
 started in the wake of Messrs. Helmore and Price, with 
 supplies which a native had failed to take on, as he had 
 agreed to do. When they had gone forward through 
 the desert, so as to get news of Mr. Helmore's party, 
 they found that they had suffered much from want of 
 water in passing through it. Mrs. Helmore wrote: 
 " I felt anxious at the thought of spending another day 
 like the past ; and was looking out in distress, when I 
 saw in the bright moonlight a figure at a distance coming 
 along the road. At first I could not make it out, it 
 looked so tall ; but on coming nearer, who should it 
 prove to be but my servant girl Kionecoe, eighteen years 
 of age, carrying on her head an immense calabash of 
 water. On hearing of our distress she volunteered to 
 aid us. She had walked four hours. Another servant 
 had set out with her ; but as he had driven the sheep
 
 246 ROBER T MOFFA T. 
 
 the day before a great distance, without either food or 
 water, he became so exhausted that he lay down under 
 a bush to rest, and on the girl came, in the dead of 
 night, in a strange country infested with lions, bearing 
 her precious burden. Oh, how grateful I felt to her ! 
 Surely woman is the same all the world over ! She had 
 only lived with me since June, was but an indifferent 
 servant, and had never shown any particular attachment 
 to the children ; but this kind act revealed her heart, 
 and seemed to draw us more closely together, for her 
 conduct since has been excellent. I made a bed for 
 her beside me in the fore part of the waggon, the 
 children having slaked their thirst in the deliciously cool 
 water. We all slept till six o'clock. I made coffee, and 
 offered some to Kionecoe and her companion, who had 
 now come up. At first they declined it, saying the 
 water was for me and the children. I had now the 
 happiness of seeing the children enjoy a meal of tea and 
 biscuits ; and then once more filling up my two bottles, 
 I sent the calabash, with the remainder of its contents, 
 to my husband, who by this time stood greatly in need 
 of it. The distance was about twelve miles. I afterwards 
 found that we were about the same from the water." 
 
 Through Bushmanland, where on more than one 
 occasion the track was lost, they proceeded slowly ; now 
 waiting for guides, now in terror of lions, now delayed 
 by the breaking of waggon-wheels, the sinking of the 
 waggons in the sand, or the want of water. " A mis-
 
 ROBERT MOFFA T. 247 
 
 sionary," as Robert Moffat says, " must be able to put 
 his hand to anything." "I had to exercise my skill as 
 a waggon-mender," says Mr. Mackenzie. *' I had to put 
 in a false nave in one of the wheels, which, with my 
 materials, was a most difficult undertaking. A shoemaker 
 or a cabinetmaker making and inserting a set of false 
 teeth v.'ould be in a position somewhat analogous to 
 mine." 
 
 Now and then, owing to the fact that in some districts 
 in the hot season there may be no water for hundreds 
 of miles, the party had frequently to take very indirect 
 roads. " One does not mind a roundabout road," said 
 good old Mebalwe when a new route was proposed, 
 "provided we have water on it" This expresses the 
 whole character of travel in the African interior. Often 
 there were difficulties with the guides. They would 
 disappear in search of water for themselves at the most 
 critical points, and all that was then left for the party 
 was simply to unyoke the oxen and take such rest as 
 they could. In a little time the defaulters would come 
 back; and, on being asked the reason of their sudden 
 disappearance, they would say that "the sun had killed 
 them, and they had gone on to drink." Nevertheless, 
 the guides were on the whole faithful, and disinterestedly 
 considered in most cases what was best for all the party. 
 Instead of recriminating on them when they returned, 
 Mr. Mackenzie acknowledges that the party were always 
 deeply relieved to see them again.
 
 248 ROBERT MO IF AT. 
 
 When they reached the Zouga, they were warned 
 against proceeding towards Linyanti because of the 
 tsetse, whose bite is so fatal to the oxen ; and they were 
 told that all the teachers who had gone last year to 
 Makololo were dead save one. Not believing these 
 reports, they went on ; and while moving along the banks 
 of the Zouga they were met by Mr. Price returning, 
 who confirmed the report ihey had heard. Dr. Living- 
 stone had not come forward to introduce them to the 
 people, having been detained on the lower parts of the 
 Zambesi. The chief had compelled the missionaries to 
 live with him, and would not consent to their going to 
 seek out a healthy place of settlement for themselves. 
 
 " He refused to remove to the highlands of Tabacheu, 
 and objected to the missionaries going to reside in She- 
 sheke, insisting that, as they had come to teach them, 
 they should live where he lived. The missionaries soon 
 saw that whatever influence Dr. Livingstone on his 
 arrival might be able to exert upon Sekeletu and the 
 Makololo, in his absence there was no hope of removing 
 to the highlands north of the Zambesi." But the mis- 
 sionaries began to preach and to teach, crowds coming 
 to hear them, till, unfortunately, fever broke out amongst 
 them. The children went first, then Mrs. Helmore fell 
 asleep, and in a few days Mr. Helmore followed her. 
 The people did not seem to care whether they died or 
 lived. The property of the mission was openly stolen 
 whilst Mr. Price lay prostrated with fever. When he
 
 / 
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 249 
 
 recovered, the same rapacity was practised, and it was 
 evidently encouraged by the chief. In fact, he came to 
 Mr, Price's quarters himself, and carried away several 
 things, guns and ammunition amongst others, Mr. Price 
 was not allowed to go away till he was completely robbed. 
 He urged that if they did not let him go away soon they 
 would have to bury him beside the others. The reply 
 was, that he might just as well die there as anywhere 
 else. After a good deal of talk and representation he 
 was allowed to proceed. " Already," he says, " they had 
 taken all my bed-clothing with the exception of what 
 was just sufficient for one bed. But before my oxen 
 could cross the Chobe, I had to deliver up one blanket. 
 Every grain of corn which I had for food for the men 
 they had taken; and I did not get even a gcat for 
 slaughtering on the road. These were my prospects for 
 a journey of upwards of a thousand miles to Kuruman." 
 Mr. Price had suspicion of foul play and of poison 
 having been given — a suspicion which Mr. Mackenzie does 
 not countenance, preferring to believe charitably. But 
 there can be little doubt, we imagine, that the Mambari, 
 or half-caste Portuguese, who were in the habit of trading 
 with the Makololo for ivory and for slaves, would use 
 every means in their power to poison the minds of the 
 Makololo against the new missionaries and Dr. Living- 
 stone. Their interest lay in doing so ; and such wretches 
 as these will always act for their own interest. Mr. Price 
 thus summed up his personal experiences at Linyanti : —
 
 250 ROBERT MOFFAT. 
 
 *' If suffering in mission work is doing anything, then I 
 have done something ; if not, then I have done but 
 little." 
 
 There was now, therefore, nothing for it but that the 
 missionaries should turn their backs on Linyanti. They 
 preached in various Makoba villages on their way, some 
 of which had been before visited by missionaries ; Lechu- 
 latebe, the chief of the Batowana, urging that a " teacher" 
 should be sent among his people, as he had before gladly 
 heard the truth, though it had now almost died away 
 from the memories of him and his people. After some 
 trials from fever, Kuruman was reached on the 14th of 
 February, and Messrs. Mackenzie and Price were glad 
 to find themselves once more in a Christian home under 
 the roof of Mr. Ashton, Mr. Moffat's able and trusted 
 coadjutor. 
 
 Just when another journey to Makololo-land was being 
 meditated by Mr. Mackenzie, on account of Sekeletu 
 having solemnly promised to remove to Tabacheu on 
 his arrival, the news reached Kuruman of that chief's 
 death. There was a contest for the chieftainship, and 
 much bloodshed followed. The tribe was so decimated 
 by internecine strife, that it soon became a prey to the 
 weaker neighbours, who had formerly been periodically 
 despoiled by it, and who now united to put an end to 
 the existence of the common enemy. Mr. Mackenzie 
 then settled at Shoshong, the capital of the Bamangwatos 
 country, on the borders of the Kalihari desert. Here he
 
 ROBER T MOFFA T. 251 
 
 was very successful. He then undertook a journey to 
 tlie Matabele, and remained there for five months. Not- 
 withstanding the liking Moselekatze had had for the 
 white man, it was clear that it is, above all things, diffi- 
 cult to do away with heathen practices in a warlike tribe, 
 trained as they had been, and to subdue their greed and 
 bloodthirstiness. Mr. Mackenzie was offered a site for ' 
 a mission and the same freedom as Mr. John Moffat and 
 the rest had at Inyate ; but Mr. Mackenzie fancied he 
 was bound to remain at Shoshong, and told the chief 
 that he could not decide till he had consulted his 
 superiors. This elicited the commendations of the chief : 
 " This is how the white men prevail \ by the obedience 
 which they render to superiors," said he. 
 
 " When I last saw Moselekatze he was very ill, unable 
 to lift the cup to his lips," writes Mr. Mackenzie. " I 
 was heartily sorry for him, and was glad to be able 
 to say that his own missionaries would be able to help 
 him as to medicines, as they had done before. To 
 show the respect entertained by the chief for mission- 
 aries, and something akin to the dignity attaching to his 
 own character, I may mention that, as we entered the 
 yard previous to my final interview, we were informed 
 by an attendant that ' we must not be offended, the chiefs 
 heart was white towards us, but there would be no shaking 
 of hands that day.' We soon saw the reason ; the chief 
 had not power to move his arms from where he lay." 
 
 The ingrained military habit of the Matabele people
 
 252 ROBERT MOFFAT. 
 
 has been much against their thorough acceptance of 
 Christianity ; but a great change has been already 
 effected, which is, no doubt, only the evidence and 
 pledge of a still greater change. The missionaries have 
 always been regarded with favour; and in one of their 
 more recent battles under Lobengole, the successor of 
 Moselekatze, the missionaries were allowed to attend to 
 the enemy's wounded along with their own. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie returned again to Shoshong, where he 
 laboured, with much good result, till his return to 
 England in 1870; doing, little by Uttle, much for the 
 cause of truth in the interior of South Africa. The 
 work at Shoshong was left in the hands of a native 
 teacher — Khamane — in whom Mr. Mackenzie has great 
 confidence. He informs us that at the date of the 
 publication of his work he had had two letters from 
 Khamane, written by himself in his own language, in 
 which he states that all the recognised members of the 
 congregation continue to attend the weekly services ; but 
 that the members of the " outer circle " have fallen off 
 during Mr. Mackenzie's absence. But Mr. Mackenzie 
 can add these hopeful words : — " I am persuaded, how- 
 ever, that the new religion has taken such root at 
 Shoshong as that, with a supply of Christian literature, 
 it would not readily disappear, even if left to itself" 
 He has since returned to his field of labour. 
 
 As for Mr. Moffat, Kuruman was with him hence- 
 forth but a centre for many and varied journeys to
 
 ROBERT MOFFAT. 253 
 
 points of interest. His son, Mr. John Mofifat, who 
 came to Kuruman to act as his father's assistant in 
 preaching and printing when Mr. Ashton left, tells how 
 that his father, though then threescore and ten, shared 
 with him the labour of riding to distant villages to preach 
 01 hold prayer-meetings. But the untiring energy of 
 the old man could not hold out always; and in 1870, 
 he and Mrs. Moffat returned to England, after he had 
 served in the most trying portions of the missionary field 
 for upwards of fifty years. Looking back on his life, it 
 seems a very marvellous one. He himself is able un- 
 consciously to summarise the result of his labours thus : 
 — " Christianity has already accomplished much. When 
 first I went to Kuruman scarcely an individual could 
 go beyond. Now they travel in safety as far as the 
 Zambesi. Then we were strangers, and they could not 
 understand us. We were treated with indignity as the 
 outcasts of society, who, driven from among our own 
 race, took refuge with them. But, bearing in remem- 
 brance what our Saviour underwent, we persevered, and 
 much success has rewarded our efforts. Now it is safe 
 to traverse any part of the country, and traders travel 
 far beyond Kuruman without fear of molestation. 
 Formerly men of one native tribe could not travel 
 through another's territory, and wars were frequent. 
 Where one station was scarcely tolerated, there are 
 several. The Moravians have their missionaries ; the 
 Berlin Society, theirs. Others, too, are occupied in the
 
 254 ROBERT MOFFAT. 
 
 good work, besides many native gospel preachers. Very 
 prosperous is our advanced station at Matabele, who, I 
 quite expect, will one day become a great nation. They 
 sternly obey their own laws ; and I have noticed that 
 when men of fixed principles become convinced of the 
 truth of Christianity, they hold firmly to the faith and 
 are not lightly shaken." 
 
 In these few words we have Robert Moffat's biography 
 in essence and spirit. And what more needs to be 
 said ? Nothing ; save to express the hope that to the 
 aged servant of God there may yet be allotted many 
 years to see fruit growing up from the seed which he 
 himself in long-past days cheerfully planted in much 
 faith and hope. He is the centre of the missionary 
 history of South Africa — the connecting-link between its 
 various apparently disconnected parts ; and when Science 
 and Trade shall have carried their lamps through the 
 length and breadth of the vast continent, discovering all 
 its outs and inns, they will yet be compelled to cast a 
 generous and grateful glance back at Moffat as having 
 done more than any other man to make their many 
 triumphs possible.
 
 ( 255 ) 
 
 DR. JAMES STEWART AND LOVEDALE. 
 
 WHEN the proposal was being discussed, to 
 establish a monument to Dr. Livingstone 
 in the shape of a missionary settlement on the south- 
 western shore of Lake Nyassa, to be called after him 
 Livingstonia, the name of Lovedale was very frequently 
 introduced. The new mission-station, indeed, was to 
 be formed after the model of Lovedale ; and, not 
 unnaturally, we wished to know about Lovedale, its 
 origin, its mode of management, the work it has done, 
 and is doing. So we have gratified ourselves by putting 
 together all the information we could get ; and believe 
 that our readers will not be disinclined to receive an 
 epitome of it at our hands. 
 
 They may remember, then, that in the most interesting 
 papers, which were contributed to the pages of the "Sun- 
 day Magazine" by Dr. James Stewart, on "Dr. Livingstone 
 and the Zambesi," he tells us that his object in joining 
 Dr. Livingstone was to see for himself the possibility 
 of establishing a mission in Central Africa. For this 
 purpose he explored a large section of the Zambesi and
 
 256 DK. JAMES STEWART. 
 
 the Shire river. The members of the English Univer- 
 sities' Mission, in spite of the sad loss of their lamented 
 head, were still striving to establish themselves in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Lake Shirwa, on the mountain heights 
 to the east of the Shire. But their work looked only too 
 likely to collapse ; and when Dr. Stewart returned from 
 his adventurous expedition, the fate of that mission was 
 taken as a warning by those most interested. Dr. Stewart 
 himself was unshaken in his conviction of the possibihty 
 of such an enterprise; but, as decisive action at that 
 time — now over thirteen years ago — seemed hopeless, 
 he accepted Dr. Duft's advice to proceed to Lovedale, 
 to strengthen the mission seminary there. " I can 
 testify," says Dr. Duff, " that one of his difficulties was 
 the possible diversion from his favourite scheme of 
 invading Central Africa, which his acceding to such 
 a course might entail. On the contrary, I took it 
 upon me to assure him, that his going to Lovedale, 
 and helping to raise the institution there to a position 
 which might command the respect and confidence of 
 the Cape Colony abroad and the Church at home, 
 would be one of the surest means of enabling him to 
 realise his long and fondly cherished design." 
 
 And so it has proved. Dr. Stewart may be regarded 
 as the original proposer of the Nyassa Mission, and his 
 practical experience gained at Lovedale must greatly aid 
 him in making effective efforts for Livingstonia. 
 
 "Our intended position at Nyassa," says Dr. Duff, in
 
 DR. JAMES STEWART. 257 
 
 a graphic account of all the arrangements, " would be 
 closely linked, in many ways, to Lovedale — receiving 
 much help from it, and contributing something to it 
 in return — so that the two missions would be made 
 beneficially to act and react on each other. If the 
 proposed settlement on Lake Nyassa, by God's bless- 
 ing, succeeded, it was already Dr. Stewart's purpose, 
 when he went there about a year hence {i.e., about the 
 present time), to take fifty or sixty young natives with 
 him to Lovedale, train them there in industrial habits, 
 useful knowledge, and, above all, the truths of the 
 Christian faith, send them back as propagandists of 
 the useful arts and true religion, and continue to carry 
 on this reciprocal process until Livingstonia should 
 not only have its primary and secondary schools, but its 
 own higher gymnasium and collegiate institution too." 
 
 Though Livingstonia was planned originally by Scot- 
 tish Free -Churchmen, it has been cordially supported by 
 the Reformed Presbyterian Church, while the United 
 Presbyterian and other Churches have shown the 
 fullest sympathy, and indeed supplied some of the 
 mission staff. A mission at another point on Lake 
 Nyassa, founded by the Established Church of Scot- 
 land, is in friendly relationship and indeed in constant 
 communication with it ; boats and other things being 
 held as common property. Livingstonia is thus in 
 the best and highest sense non-sectarian; Dr. Stewart 
 having, as we shall see, learned by experience that it 
 
 R
 
 258 DR. JAMES STEWART. 
 
 would be disastrous to introduce the home divisions 
 among Africans ; and it is certain that by this feature 
 of its character also it will be the better and more 
 expressive monument of the manly, sympathetic 
 Christianity of him after whom it is rightly named. 
 In devoting himself to Lovedale, we thus see that 
 Dr. Stewart, after all, took the shortest and most 
 effective way to work, when the proper time arrived, on 
 an ever-widening circle, in the interior, thus realising the 
 old truth, that "Providence is the best preparer." While 
 we leave him on his way to Lake Nyassa, let us glance 
 for a little at the history of Lovedale. 
 
 Lovedale, named after the Rev. Dr. John Love, who 
 was for a long period energetic Secretary to the Glasgow 
 Missionary Society, is situated on the west bank of the 
 Chumie, about six hundred and fifty miles in a south- 
 eastern direction from Capetown. It is not, however, 
 the original settlement of that name ; the first mission 
 buildings having been destroyed in the war of 1834. 
 On returning to resume their work after peace had been 
 declared, the missionaries fancied they could make a 
 better choice. This they seem to have been successful 
 in doing, since Mrs. Dalziel in 1870 describes the 
 Lovedale Buildings as "prettily nestled among the 
 grassy hills, reminding us of Moffat." * The later deve- 
 lopments, which have made Lovedale more especially 
 
 * Quoted by the Rev. Robert Hunter in his "History of Free 
 Church Missions in India and Africa," p. 349. T. Nelson & Sons.
 
 DR. JAMES STEWART. 259 
 
 interesting, were not for several years thought of. It 
 was simply an ordinary mission-station, where earnest 
 and fearless men week by week proclaimed the truth to 
 a handful of converts — the number in 183 1 was only 
 eleven — and were ever making expeditions on this side 
 or that, among the native tribes around them ; founding 
 new preaching stations wherever circumstances would 
 permit In 1841, the Rev. William Govan, who had 
 been home on furlough, was sent out to establish a 
 seminary, as it was felt that the education hitherto given 
 to the children was too elementary. Natives and 
 . Europeans were to be associated on an equal footing in 
 school, and taught to regard each other with mutual 
 respect. It was hoped that, as in India, native teachers 
 and preachers would thus be raised up. One peculiar 
 fact was noted by Mr. Govan, and has been often 
 verified since : *' So long as the representatives of the 
 two races remained boys, they were almost equal in 
 mental power, as was shown by the fact that the prizes 
 gained by the members of each race were almost exactly 
 proportioned to the members of that race then in the class ; 
 but subsequently it was ascertained that when the boys 
 grew up to manhood, the superiority of the Europeans 
 became very marked." 
 
 In 1844 the stations of the Glasgow Missionary 
 Society were transferred to the Free Church of Scotland, 
 and amid changes and adversities of many kinds, the 
 work was pushed forward, so that in 1847 there were
 
 26o DR. JAMES STEWART. 
 
 thirty-seven communicants of various nations, and about 
 one hundred and sixty pupils — boys and girls. In 1849, 
 the Government, recognising the value of the institution, 
 gave it practical support, and promised to increase it. 
 The great Kaffir war by and by came on, and very much 
 impeded the work ; but in 1854, we read that the member- 
 ship at Lovedale had risen to one hundred and sixty. 
 In 1855, Sir George Grey, who was then the Governor 
 of Cape Colony, and appreciated highly the work that 
 was being done at Lovedale, suggested that an industrial 
 department should be added. Sufficient money for this 
 was soon forthcoming, and four trade-masters were 
 brought from England — a carpenter, a mason, a wag- 
 gon-maker, and a blacksmith. Suitable workshops were 
 built, and apprentices assigned to each. The Govern- 
 ment paid the masters — not interfering otherwise with 
 the direction of the seminary. This plan would have 
 wrought well, but after Sir George Grey had returned 
 home, the Government support was not continued. 
 
 The industrial department was not allowed to drop, 
 however. It was sustained with unflagging energy and 
 patience. The converts had now reached that point, 
 when they were able to give out of their small store. 
 They subscribed to build their own churches ; and 
 education began to be so appreciated that it became 
 evident they might by and by be able to pay to have 
 their children taught. In 1863, the number of com- 
 municants in the Lovedale district was t1:ree hundred and
 
 DR. JAMES STE WAR T. 26r 
 
 forty-five, and the average attendance nine hundred 
 and sixty-five. The whole sum contributed to the 
 mission during the seven years prior to 1863 was 
 ^2000, and of that no less than jQiTS^ by the people 
 themselves. So matters went on, till changes occurred 
 in the staff of the institution, and Dr. James Stewart, as 
 we have said, joined it in 1865, soon to become its 
 Principal. He at once set himself to work to improve 
 the domestic condition of the people in the district ; 
 managing to induce some of them to try the experiment 
 of "squaring the circle," i.e., building their houses or 
 huts square instead of round ; and he added to the 
 number of the trades in the institution, introducing 
 printing. He also added largely to a library, which had 
 been formed, and which he reorganised, so as to make 
 it more easily available for the public from fifty to 
 eighty miles round Lovedale as well as for the institu- 
 tion. The most notable change, however, that has 
 taken place since Dr. Stewart's advent, is the reorganisa- 
 tion and extension of the girls' schools — the funds for 
 this purpose having been collected by the Ladies' 
 Society for Female Education in India and Africa. The 
 great success of this school, first under Miss Waterston 
 and then under Miss MacRitchie, rendered necessary 
 the enlargement of the premises, and a commodious 
 building for the girls' schools has been the result. 
 But to get a clear idea of the work done, we must make 
 abstract of a few figures gleaned from recent reports.
 
 262 DR. J A MES S TE WA R T. 
 
 The total number of all at both institutions, including 
 both the educational and industrial departments, whose 
 names have been on the books within the year (1874), 
 is 432, compared with 393 the previous year — made up 
 of native boarders 240, European boarders 35, European 
 day pupils 32, apprentices 40. In the girls' institution 
 there are boarders 65, day pupils 20. The number 
 admitted was 112, and from many also going out, the 
 number actually present at any one time would be about 
 340. There are half-a-dozen white educated teachers 
 and half-a-dozen white artizans. The industrial training, 
 besides carpentering, waggon-making, and blacksmith 
 work, includes bookbinding and printing, telegraph 
 work, and farm work. There are thirteen native 
 apprentice blacksmiths and waggon-men, seventeen are 
 employed as carpenters and others, and all the rest 
 spend a couple of hours daily at farm work. The 
 .Kaffirs are so eager to get into the institution that they 
 pay £s a-head for their education, and the working 
 departments nearly sustain themselves. Ten transport 
 waggons, worth ;^i3oo, were turned out last year, and 
 five thousand copies of a Kaffir hymn-book were printed, 
 besides many other less important things. 
 
 The institution is in the best sense catholic. Young 
 men are sent by other Churches and very gladly 
 welcomed. In a recent report we read, "The object 
 of the mstitution is Christian. A consciousness of 
 belonging to this or the other sect is not encouraged
 
 DR. JAMES STEWART. 263 
 
 here, any more than antipathy of race; and whatever 
 may be the ultimate form of the South African Church, 
 we don't think it advisable that all the home sectarian 
 antagonisms should be reproduced on African soil." 
 
 The curriculum of education includes a collegiate 
 course, especially intended for those who may desire 
 to become teachers or preachers. It comprehends 
 an Arts Course, including Latin and Greek, history, 
 mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, 
 zoology, mental philosophy, and logic, moral philosophy 
 and political economy ; and a Theological Course, 
 which occupies three years. Judging from the text- 
 books and a specimen of the questions which we 
 have perused, it is clear that the examinations are no 
 such easy matter. There were twenty-one students in 
 the ordinary course, and twelve in the Theological 
 one, three having already finished their studies in 
 theology. There is also a preparatory teachers' class, 
 and a teachers' training class, which averages fifty-four, 
 of whom twenty-four had last year been selected for 
 special training. Two had passed the Government 
 examination, and ten had gone out during the year. 
 Besides teaching in the schools, the students hold 
 evangelistic services and supply pulpits in the district, 
 and sometimes of their own accord hold prayer-meetings 
 in the kraals. These services have been conducted in 
 English, Kaffir, and Dutch. There are large music 
 classes ; and an instrumental band has made rapid
 
 264 DR. JAMES STEWART. 
 
 progress. There are also literary societies, senior and 
 junior, well attended. 
 
 In the girls' department industrial work is combined 
 with teaching, as in the boys, and the total receipts for 
 work done during one year for sewing, washing, dressing, 
 &c., was jQdo. 
 
 Of the various industrial departments we have not 
 left ourselves room to speak particularly. They seem 
 to vie with each other in attaining good results ; only of 
 the printing we must say that the specimens we have 
 before us of the "Kaffir Express " — a newspaper started in 
 1 87 1, and half in English, half in Kaffir — show not only 
 good " composition," but really careful presswork ; amply 
 justifying Dr. Stewart's appeal to his fellow-missionaries 
 for any printing work they may have to give. We are 
 inchned to think that great wisdom was shown by Dr. 
 Stewart in the introduction of telegraphy some years ago, 
 before it had yet been thought of in many institutions 
 in the home-country. Several of the natives are now 
 adepts in manipulation, and others are being trained. 
 This is likely to prove a most advantageous industry, 
 as it has been found at home. We do not know if a 
 small class in photography would succeed there as it has 
 done at home in several instances. The natives, we 
 learn, are imitative and neat-handed, and might turn 
 out good photographers ; and such skilled craftsmen, we 
 presume, must be wanted already at Capetown, as they 
 will by and by no doubt be in other parts of South Africa.
 
 DR. JAMES STEWART. 265 
 
 We regret to observe that loss is sometimes sustained 
 in the farm work, there as elsewhere. But the loss 
 in one direction is so far counterbalanced by gain in 
 others ; and we are glad to observe that Dr. Stewart 
 can offer a good investment to capitalists at home. 
 
 "The loss of sheep and goats from the rains in 1874 
 was great — three hundred; but this result must be 
 ascribed to the necessity of farming without capital, 
 with which sheds might be erected. The want of 
 capital need be no mystery to those who compare our 
 income with our necessary expenditure, and probably 
 a single glance into the dining-hall at the dinner hour 
 will satisfy any one as to what the latter must be; 
 but we must either stop the work or get on in the 
 best way possible. Christian philanthropy might find 
 a favourable investment in the purchase of farm imple- 
 ments and other plant for Lovedale. The annual return, 
 for the good of so many African young men, would not 
 be less than twenty-five per cent." 
 
 The mixing of European with native youths in the 
 classes, &c., has been found to have a very good effect 
 On this point the Report for 1874 speaks well : — 
 
 " Some among our Europeans here are young men 
 of superior talent and great promise, and we would 
 be glad to have more of this higher class. They 
 have an excellent influence on the native youths. The 
 two races are separated entirely in boarding. They 
 meet in the classes and on the grounds. There is here
 
 266 DR. JAMES STEWART. 
 
 not the tithe of the danger which European youths may 
 incur at their own homes from contact with their father's 
 servants. The annual examination ought to show 
 whether there is not a healthy rivalry between the different 
 races in study. With the same sets of paper, the 
 printed lists, which give the percentage of marks, 
 show Europeans and natives mixed without any rule. 
 Five of these lists are headed by natives, who write 
 the papers in to them a foreign language. Europeans 
 have a good opportunity here of learning the Kaffir 
 language. Probably nothing so effectually prevents 
 Europeans from having any influence over the Kaffirs 
 as ignorance of their language." 
 
 The following paragraph will give a fair idea of the 
 daily life at Lovedale : — 
 
 "The first or lowest year begins with the junior 
 reader and simple rules in arithmetic, and they pro- 
 ceed onwards during the two succeeding years to 
 British history, student's Hume, geography, grammar, 
 and arithmetic to square and cube root. The earliest 
 classes begin at seven o'clock in the morning, for the 
 purpose of translation from English into Kaffir and 
 Dutch under native assistant masters. There are three 
 of these classes in Kaffir, and one in Dutch. Pupils 
 attend these classes for two years, as, after first entering 
 the institution, it has been found that without a knowledge 
 of English their subsequent progress is exceedingly slow. 
 At eight o'clock these classes are dismissed, and all
 
 DR. JAMES S TE WA R T. 267 
 
 assemble for worship and breakfast from the educational 
 and work departments. At nine o'clock all the classes 
 in the institution begin regular work. With the excep- 
 tion of the classes in the college department, the first 
 half-hour in each class is given for religious instruction, 
 based on the historical books of the Old Testament, 
 the Gospels, or the Acts of the Apostles. From half- 
 past nine a.m. till one p.m. the classes in the various 
 years go on with the work mentioned above. At a 
 quarter-past one they assemble for dinner. At two 
 o'clock, or three in summer, all those not engaged 
 in trades meet for two hours for work in the fields 
 or in the grounds about the institution. With the 
 exception of a few married men, and one or two 
 head men, who have come to the institution under 
 considerable disadvantages from having had to leave 
 their families or their employments, all the native 
 pupils are engaged in some kind of work." 
 
 When, four years ago, fees were introduced, it was 
 feared that the numbers would fall off. This, however, 
 has not been the case, the numbers having steadily 
 increased. At that time Dr. Stewart wrote — 
 
 "Education can never be greatly extended till the 
 natives themselves assist in the work, and therefore we 
 levy fees in Lovedale, and we should be glad to see all 
 similar places doing the same. It is not to press heavily 
 on the native that we propose this, but because the 
 benefit of education cannot be widely diffused till the
 
 268 DR. JAMES STE WA R T. 
 
 natives themselves assist ; because a fair proportion of 
 them are able to pay ; and because there is abundance 
 of employment in the country for those who are willing 
 to work." 
 
 Dr. Stewart at one place wisely remarks, *' Our 
 experience of 'civilising apart from Christianising the 
 native,' leads us to expect but small results from the 
 former alone." He is only verifying an experience 
 common to India, Africa, and the South Pacific, when 
 he writes as he does in this passage : — 
 
 "The class we find the most troublesome and the 
 least promising, are those whose views of things and 
 general mental attainment are as yet uninfluenced by 
 the habits and opinions of civilised life. There are 
 some who absorb the contents of school-books very 
 rapidly, and who are yet in all their sympathies, likings, 
 and beliefs little different from those who have had no 
 such advantages. We observe that it takes a good 
 many years before the influences and modes of civilised 
 thought come to be adopted by many who come here. 
 When the information contained in these books is only 
 received into the mind without influencing the views of 
 the individual in favour of Christianity and civilisation, 
 the result is generally a large amount of pride and self- 
 conceit, which renders many comparatively useless, and 
 effectually stops all further mental and moral growth." 
 
 With all drawbacks, however, it does speak highly for 
 the Kaffirs that they have shown so much self-denial and
 
 DR. JAMES STEWART. 269 
 
 self-help. And certainly Dr. Stewart is well justified in 
 claiming credit for them, as he does here : — 
 
 "During 1873, the Fingoes, Kaffirs, and other natives 
 have paid ;:{^8oo for education. For the new Industrial 
 and Educational Institution in the Transkei, ;^i5oo. 
 Total native payments during 1873, ;;^230o. It is 
 doubtful if any facts similar to these have occurred in 
 connection with any single institution in the mission 
 field in any part of the world during the past year." 
 
 The story of that Transkei institution deserves to 
 be made widely known, because it shows better than 
 almost anything else, the decision and hopefulness of 
 the people. 
 
 " Some short time ago the natives of a district known 
 as the Transkei, beyond the frontier of the Cape Colony, 
 asked that a branch of Lovedale Missionary institution 
 might be erected within their territory. Dr. Stewart 
 visited them, and at a meeting with their head-men, 
 said, * Probably that would be done if they would raise 
 at least ;,^iooo as a proof that they were in earnest.' 
 He recommended them to take the matter back to their 
 villages, and discuss the subject thoroughly among them- 
 selves, and give their answer to Captain Blyth, the 
 British resident in the Transkei. In a fortnight a large 
 meeting was held, at which more than a thousand 
 natives were present, and they agreed to undertake the 
 work. Five months afterwards Captain Blyth wrote to 
 Dr. Stewart, — ' Come up ; the money is ready.' A
 
 zyo DR. JAMES STEWART. 
 
 second meeting was then held, also in the open air. 
 On a small table were placed the contributions of the 
 people, in the shape of a heap of silver and gold — but 
 mostly the former — amounting to ^{^1484, increased to 
 _;!^i5oo before the close of the day. The proceedings 
 were short and business-like. The meeting did not last 
 more than an hour. The native speeches might all be 
 condensed into an expression used by one head-man. 
 Pointing to the heap of money, he said, ' Now, there are 
 the stones, go on and build." 
 
 Mr. TroUope, in his " South Africa," when treating of 
 Kaffir schools, gives a very good account of Lovedale, 
 presenting in a summary the facts we have given. He 
 is a witness not at all likely to err on the side of 
 sentimental admiration of such an institution, unless its 
 conduct is associated with elements not too frequently 
 met with in such work. He says : — 
 
 "Lovedale is a place which has had, and is having, 
 very great success. It has been established under 
 Presbyterian auspices, but is in truth altogether un- 
 denominational in the tuition which it gives. I do not 
 say that religion is neglected, but religious teaching does 
 not strike the visitors as the one great object of the 
 institution. The schools are conducted very much like 
 English schools, with this exception, that no classes are 
 held after the one o'clock dinner. There are various 
 masters for the different classes, some classical, some 
 mathematical, and some devoted to English literature.
 
 DR. JAMES STE WAR T. 271 
 
 When I was there, there were eight teachers, independ- 
 ent of Mr. W. Buchanan, who was the acting head or 
 president of the institution. Dr. Stewart, who is the 
 permanent head, was absent in Central Africa. At 
 Lovedale, both the boys and girls, black and white, are 
 mixed when in school without any respect to colour. 
 Lovedale at present owns a flock numbering 2000. 
 The native lads are called in to work two hours each 
 afternoon ; they cut dams and make roads and take 
 care of the garden. Added to the school are workshops 
 in which young Kaffirs are apprenticed. The carpenter's 
 department is by far the most popular, and certainly the 
 most useful. There they make much of the furniture 
 used about the place, and repair the breakages. The 
 waggon-makers come next to the carpenters in number; 
 and then, at a long interval, the blacksmiths. Two 
 other trades are also represented — printing, namely, and 
 bookbinding. 
 
 " This direction of practical work seems to be the best 
 such an institution can take. I asked what became of 
 these apprentices, and was told that many among them 
 established themselves in their own country as master 
 tradesmen in a small way, and could make a good 
 living among their Kaffir neighbours. But I was told 
 also that they could not often find employment in the 
 workshops in the country, unless the employers used 
 nothing but Kaffir labour. The white man will not work 
 along with the Kaffir on equal terms
 
 272 DR. JAMES STEWART. 
 
 " I do not imagine that a Kaffir printing-press will for 
 many years be set up by Kaffir capital and conducted by 
 Kaffir enterprise. It will come, probably, but the Kaffir 
 tables and chairs, and the Kaffir waggons should come first. 
 At present there is a ' Lovedale News ' published about 
 thrice a month. ' It is issued,' says the Lovedale printed 
 Report, ' for circulation at Lovedale, and chiefly about 
 Lovedale matters.' The design of this publication was to 
 create a taste for reading among the native pupils. * It 
 has been carried on through twelve numbers,' says the 
 Report, * with a fair prospect of success, and rather more 
 than a fair share of difficulties.' .... 
 
 " To see a lot of Kaffir lads and lasses at school, is of 
 course more interesting than to inspect a seminary of 
 white pupils. It is something as though one should visit 
 a lion-tamer with a group of young lions around him. 
 The Kaffir has been regarded at home as a bitter 
 and almost terrible enemy, who, since we first became 
 acquainted with him in South Africa, has worked us 
 infinite woe. The Kaffir warrior with his assegai, and his 
 red clay, and his courageous hatred, was a terrible fellow 
 to see. And he is still much more of a savage than the 
 ordinary negro to whom we have become accustomed in 
 other parts of the world. It was very interesting to see 
 him with a slate and pencil, wearing his coarse clothing 
 with a jaunty happy air, and doing a sum in subtraction." 
 
 The " Lovedale News," of which Mr. Trollope speaks, 
 is probably the "Kaffir Express," which has now
 
 DR. JAMES STEWART. 273 
 
 gone on for several years ; and is really a very note- 
 worthy sheet, both in respect to the attractive reading it 
 supplies, and as being in its practical aspect wholly the 
 product of Kaffir hands. It is as well printed as some of 
 our English weekly papers. 
 
 As to spiritual results, the reports and papers we have 
 read give many pleasing tokens. We cannot pause to 
 dwell upon them. The greatest anxiety of those at 
 the head of the institution is to see those in their charge 
 exhibiting the practical fruits of a Christian life. All else 
 is secondary to this; and we can say that a manly, 
 healthy Christian influence pervades all. When Love- 
 dales are multiplied a hundredfold over Africa, the day 
 of full deliverance will not be far oS.
 
 ( 274 ) 
 
 DR, WILLIAM BLACK AND 
 LIVINGSTOiNIA. 
 
 THE ashes of Livingstone sleep in Westminster, 
 and over them the sculptured stone speaks of 
 how he sought unswervingly, in sickness and in health, 
 to heal "the open sore of the world;" but a still more 
 eloquent memorial of his life and labours is to be found 
 in the East Central African Mission Station, Living- 
 stonia, which the enkindled enterprise of his country- 
 men has planted. PubHc feeling being deeply moved 
 by the untimely death of the great missionary, at the 
 suggestion of the Rev. Dr. James Stewart, of Love- 
 dale, Livingstone's old yoke-fellow, it was determined 
 in May 1874 to enter in and possess the wide and 
 effectual door of work which his labours had mainly 
 set open. The Church of Scotland and the Free 
 Church, with unanimous voice, embraced the idea, 
 and chose the great lake Nyassa as the site of the 
 proposed mission. Money — a sure pulse by which 
 to test the true from the spurious enthusiasm — flowed 
 in quickly and now the treasuries of the two Churches
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 Master Missionaries. 
 
 p. 274.
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 275 
 
 for this special object have received about ;^2o,ooo. 
 Other Churches, caught by the same wave of enthu- 
 siasm, have followed this example, and have selected 
 other parts of East Central Africa as fields of evan- 
 gehsation. The Church Missionary Society, with a 
 starting-fund of ;^i 2,000, has chosen as its sphere 
 the shores of the Victoria Nyanza ; while at Lake 
 Tanganika, intermediate between the two preceding 
 stations, the London Missionary Society, also with a 
 commencing-fund of ;!^i 2,000, has organised a third 
 new and distinct mission ; so that it would seem as 
 if the death of Livingstone has been as powerful as his 
 life to help mission work — the cause he at once repre- 
 sented and advocated as the hope of Africa. 
 
 In May 1875, the first or pioneer band of missionaries 
 was sent out by the Free Church to Lake Nyassa, It 
 was guided by Mr. E. D. Young, R.N., and Dr. Robert 
 Laws. They started on the latter half of the journey 
 from Port Elizabeth on 6th July ; and, putting together 
 the pieces of their little steamer, the Ilala, at the mouth 
 of the Zambesi, they steamed up that noble river and 
 its tributary, the Shird, into the great lake, the only 
 interruption to their steady progress being the for- 
 midable Murchison Cataracts. They entered Nyassa 
 on the morning of the 12th October at sunrise, and 
 joyfully hailed the sudden flood of glory as a propitious 
 emblem of the advent of the Sun of Righteousness upon 
 its sin-clouded and slave-peopled shores.
 
 276 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 From that day to this an unexampled prosperity has 
 been vouchsafed them. By friendly arrangement with 
 the neighbouring chief, Mapunda, a sandy bay with 
 adjacent territory has been secured upon Cape Maclear 
 as a permanent site, " having a western exposure, while 
 sheltered on the east by tree-clad mountains, and on 
 the south by three islands." Here a rough harbour 
 has been formed, a general building plan laid out, 
 and a native population has begun to settle under 
 the sheltering wing of their "fathers, the English." 
 A large reinforcement reached the station on 21st 
 October 1876, headed by Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale, 
 and Dr. Black, a young and promising missionary, 
 upon whom the leadership was meant to fall after 
 the withdrawal of Dr. Stewart. This second party 
 had been accompanied as far as the Murchison 
 Rapids by another band of mission-workers, headed 
 by Dr. Macklin and Mr. Henderson, and sent out by 
 the Church of Scotland. They selected a site near 
 Magomero, and called it " Blantyre," after the birth- 
 place of Livingstone. 
 
 At both these stations schools have been opened, 
 and scholars are now coming in plentifully, while 
 religious services on Sabbath and week-days are regu- 
 larly held. For this work the native volunteers trained 
 at Lovedale are of great assistance. Side by side with 
 the teaching, preaching, and healing of the sick, training 
 in husbandry, carpentry, masonry, weaving, and black-
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLA CK. 277 
 
 smith-work is being carried on by competent tradesmen 
 from home attached to both stations. Cattle, too, have 
 been introduced as beasts of burden, and, ultimately, 
 it is hoped, as a meat supply. But it is feared that 
 the dreaded tsetse may be in the district, and upon 
 the absence of this pestiferous fly may be said to 
 depend all possibility of agriculture on a large scale ; 
 and, what is almost as important, all possibility of 
 bullock-travelling when roads shall be made. So the 
 health of the cows and the calves is daily as anxiously 
 looked after as that of so many human beings threatened 
 with the plague. 
 
 The moral effect of the British flag upon the local 
 slave-trade has been most wholesome. Before the 
 mission was planted it was estimated that across the 
 ferries of the lake and along its southern shores slaves 
 were carried to the number of twenty thousand per 
 annum. This has now ^ been very largely decreased, 
 and could be entirely checked if a small armed party 
 were kept cruising about on the lake. Charged with 
 the duty of considering the desirability of this, and 
 with the survey of a new route to the coast from the 
 north end of the lake, it is cheering to know that her 
 Majesty's consul for Mozambique, Captain Elton, and 
 three others, are now probably at Nyassa, having passed 
 Mazaro on the Zambesi on i8th July last. 
 
 Already the possibility of opening up trade with 
 these rich island districts has had considerable atten-
 
 278 DR. WILLIAM BLACK, 
 
 tion. The existing route is, as we have seen, chiefly 
 by river, with Port Elizabeth as a basis. The Mur- 
 chison Cataracts form, however, a huge break in the 
 Hne of communication. Everything going up or down 
 must be at that point unshipped and undergo porter- 
 age for sixty miles over a rough broken pathway. 
 Besides this drawback, the Portuguese Government 
 have advanced claims to the exclusive right of steam 
 navigation of the Zambesi, on account of their settle- 
 ments upon it, and during the last two years they have 
 exacted high duties upon certain merchandise. How 
 far their right on both points has a solid foundation, 
 may well be questioned. But a friendly settlement of 
 differences seems to be near; and quite recently the 
 Lisbon Government have, we learn, reduced their tariff 
 upon duty-charged goods to a uniform rate of two and a 
 half per cent. This route, therefore, as at once the 
 easiest and least liable to interruption, is now being 
 perfected with a view to developing trade. A new 
 porterage-road at the Cataracts, connecting the upper 
 and lower Shire, and passing through Blantyre, has just 
 been surveyed, and its construction begun. The defray- 
 ment of the expense entailed will be solicited from the 
 International African Exploration Society, inaugurated 
 by the King of the Belgians. Mr. James Stewart, C,E., 
 of the Punjab, has most generously given up a year of 
 his furlough to undertake this and other road surveys in 
 connection with the new station.
 
 DR. WILLIAM black: 279 
 
 An entirely new route to the settlement is, however, 
 now in process of being opened up. It is meant to start 
 from Kilwa, about latitude 9°, in Zanzibar territory, and 
 strike the north end of the lake near the Mazitu settle- 
 ment of Ironga. The needful survey is, as we have 
 already said, being now undertaken by Captain Elton 
 and his party, who will work their way eastwards, via 
 Mesule and Lukose, to the sea-board terminus. Kilwa 
 has been chosen on account of its good harbourage, a 
 serious deficiency both at Quillimane and Zanzibar. 
 This route will be about three hundred and fifty miles 
 in length, and would meet equally well the necessities 
 of coast communication for Lake Tanganika, by a branch 
 road of one hundred miles more. Such a highway 
 would thus have command of about two thousand miles 
 of coast upon both lakes, and, besides, would keep up 
 communication with the vast territories beyond, towards 
 the Lualabo. Some Glasgow merchants have sent out 
 an experimental trading expedition to Nyassa, via Kilwa 
 and Mesule. It is in charge of Messrs. J. and F. Moir, 
 sons of a well-known physician in Edinburgh, and they 
 are accompanied by Mr. Maze, an engineer of much 
 practical experience. In all probability this expedition 
 and that of Captain Elton will meet one another about 
 half-way. 
 
 We have, in our wish to give a connected general view 
 of the prospects of Livingstonia, kept purposely back 
 any reference till now to the first black cloud cast over
 
 28o DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 the promising sky of the young mission. By the loss of 
 the mails of the " Cashmere," we are as yet without the 
 full details of the sad calamity. But the facts that 
 have been received are briefly these. In the beginning 
 of May, Dr. Black was prostrated by an eighth or ninth 
 attack of fever, which rapidly increased in intensity of 
 effect, and was accompanied by stupor and delirium, 
 from which he never rallied, in spite of every attention 
 lavished on him, and on Monday, the seventh of the 
 month, he "fell asleep in Jesus." 
 
 Thus ended, half a year after his arrival at the lake, 
 and in the thirty-first year of his age, the brief career of 
 a most devoted missionary, to whom the Church had 
 committed a great trust, because he had given promise 
 of great things. 
 
 The story of William Black's life is replete with interest. 
 Permeated as it was by one grand overmastering emotion, 
 which governed implicitly every energy and faculty, its 
 simplest events, to those in sympathy with him, attract 
 and command notice. 
 
 He was the first-born of his parents, and, like the 
 infant Samuel, was, before his birth, consecrated by his 
 mother's prayers to the Lord's service. His early life, 
 1846 to 1866, was spent at his birthplace, Dunbog, a 
 sparsely-peopled rural parish, prettily placed under the 
 shadow of Norman's Law, in the north-east district of 
 Fifeshire. Here he grew up a stirring, daring boy, whose 
 heart was much more in his play than his lessons. His
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 2S1 
 
 fishing-rod, his rabbits, and his pigeons sadly preoccu- 
 pied his mind, when it should have been centred upon 
 sums in proportion, and dates in history. And this 
 strong bias, which neither advising nor flogging was able 
 to alter, obstinately clung to him, as if in the blood. 
 Nature, not books, was his delight, and every farmer for 
 five miles round knew the bright-eyed, handsome face 
 of the schoolmaster's son, and generally connived at his 
 oft-repeated raids upon the trout, the peewit's eggs, and 
 the hawks' nests. The Saturdays were to him elysium, 
 for books could then be lawfully shelved, and long ex- 
 cursions indulged in without fear of consequences. 
 
 Such a life developed in him great self-reliance, de- 
 cision, and fearlessness, so that soon no errand was 
 thought too difficult for him to execute. In illustration 
 of this, when about ten years of age his mother was taken 
 suddenly ill, and the nearest help from relatives was at 
 Letham, a place six miles over the hills, and towards 
 which there was only an imperfect sheep-track. But to 
 this place, in the murk of midnight, Willie was the 
 appointed and ready messenger, passing dauntlessly in 
 his way a spot which, in local superstition, was haunted 
 by the ghost of a murderess. There are few men, not 
 to speak of boys, would have cared for such a walk, 
 weirdsome with the shuddering scream of the curlew, 
 and the noiseless spectre-flit of the heron suddenly be- 
 clouding the path as you proceed. 
 
 When about thirteen, his father, anxious for his more
 
 282 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 thorough education, entered him as a pupil in Cupar 
 Academy, and there the larger number of advanced 
 scholars of his own age roused him somewhat to emulate 
 their application, and he upon the whole made more 
 satisfactory progress in book-learning. His old love, 
 however, of deeds of daring still clung to him, and on 
 one occasion nearly caused him permanent bodily injury. 
 A narrow ledge on the second floor of the academy 
 runs externally from window to window, and along this, 
 in mere bravado, he was progressing one day, when he 
 fell heavily to the ground, where he lay for a while 
 bruised and stunned. But as no bones were broken, 
 the accident but sufficed to sober him for a week. 
 
 When fifteen he became enamoured of the calling of 
 an architect. His mother unceasingly hoped and sought 
 for him some sphere as a worker for Christ, but he 
 having as yet evidenced no change of heart, she allowed 
 him to follow his own decision. So, as a training to- 
 wards his aim, he engaged for a time in practical joinei^ 
 work While thus employed, about the age of nineteen, 
 he became deeply anxious about his religious condition. 
 No special circumstances led to this anxiety other than 
 a diligent use of his Bible, and his mother's earnest 
 prayers. His distress was deep and prolonged. With 
 strong crying and tears he sought for spiritual peace, 
 but, for many months, he found it not. The Lord was 
 thus, doubtless, leading him to deep heart-searching to 
 humble him, but also to fit him for after usefulness in
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 283 
 
 his service. A marked feature in his awakened state, 
 at this time, was the fear of being spoken to by others 
 on the subject of his personal interest in Christ. So 
 that he seemed to be at one and the same time anxiously 
 seeking, and yet dreading to find the light. It was, 
 perhaps, the conviction of—" I ought to know and rejoice 
 in the truth, but I don't, and am ashamed to say so." 
 There was one whom he specially shunned, the family 
 physician, Dr. John Lyell, a skilful and much-esteemed 
 practitioner in Newburgh. He was so well known for 
 speaking pointedly to others about their interest in the 
 Saviour, that when William saw his gig approach he 
 invariably went and hid himself. 
 
 Pursuing still his desire of being an architect, he in his 
 twentieth year entered a suitable office in Sl Andrews. 
 It was in this ancient city, while thus occupied, in 1867, 
 that he passed through the great crisis of his life, and 
 lost his doubts and fears by a clear apprehension of the 
 simplicity of salvation through faith in Jesus. As in the 
 case of many more, led like him through prolonged dark- 
 ness, the joy and comfort of assurance was such as 
 compelled him to proclaim it to all around. It seemed 
 to him that if he did not speak the very stones would 
 cry out. So, *' straightway he preached Christ " in the 
 streets, and became very bold in his appeals to the 
 consciences of the careless, insomuch that many reckoned 
 him "a pestilent fellow." Shortly before he left for 
 Livingstonia he had the great joy of coming on traces
 
 9.S4 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 of the fruit of such work. He had been speaking at 
 Stirling upon the subject of the mission, and at the 
 close a young man came up and shook hands with him, 
 saying, " I know you. You are the street-preacher of St. 
 Andrews ! " The truth then heard had impressed him, 
 and it had at length led to his conversion. Strange to 
 say, the same week he had a letter from another young 
 man in Columbia, U.S., telling of the blessing he had 
 got from his meetings in St. Andrews, and that he was 
 now himself working for Christ in the backwoods. 
 
 From this time onwards the work of grace in his soul 
 gradually deepened, and he began to long for a complete 
 consecration of all his energies and time in direct work 
 for the Saviour. The wish was at first but dimly shaped 
 in his mind, as the barriers toward its realisation, in the 
 shape of money and education, were apparently insuper- 
 able. But a mother's prayers had to be answered, and 
 so the missionary spirit took deeper root in his heart, 
 and the lions in the way lost their awe-inspiring appear- 
 ance as he was led up to them. 
 
 With characteristic fortitude he began at once to 
 revise and extend the studies that he had so slighted in 
 former years. Burdensome beyond idea was the work 
 he now went through, in rearing for himself a solid and 
 permanent basis of exact scholarship. But with un- 
 shaken determination he sternly girt himself to the work, 
 saying, " What has been done can be done, and why not 
 by me ? " But while these efforts were in time crowned
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 2S5 
 
 by a moderate success, he never shut his eyes to the fact 
 that many an aching head and sleepless night might 
 have been saved him, and better work been done, if he 
 only had, while a boy at school, been as diligent in 
 study as he had been in play. 
 
 Meanwhile, Dr. Lyell, of Newburgh, the family doctor, 
 had, in the providence of God, relinquished the ordinary 
 practice of his profession and become superintendent 
 of the Glasgow Medical Missionary Society. Knowing 
 Mr. Black's missionary longings, he in 1870 offered 
 him an assistantship in his dispensary. This was joy- 
 fully accepted, and the Christ-like work of the medical 
 missionary, as there seen by him from day to day, de- 
 cided him as to the branch of service for J esus to which 
 he ought to devote himself. His resolution was warmly 
 approved of and forwarded by Dr. Lyell, and the same 
 winter saw him enrolled as a medical student in Glassrow 
 University. Thus the difficulties towards the accom- 
 plishment of his object vanished as he went forward. 
 
 For about three years he continued helping in the 
 Medical Mission work, making the while steady progress 
 in the systematic study of the art of healing. He was 
 greatly liked by the poor, his generous and sympathetic 
 nature readily begetting their confidence and gratitude. 
 Not content with the opportunities of usefulness he 
 enjoyed at the dispensary, he started cottage meetings 
 in an out-of-the-way and remote corner of the city. His 
 memory yet lingers in the place, and to this day the
 
 2S6 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 Medical Mission receives more patients from tliat 
 locality than from districts as destitute situated much 
 nearer to its chief centre of work. In the college his 
 religion was not hid, and his fellow-students soon knew 
 that Black was a "revivalist." Occasionally they sought 
 to make him the butt of their ridicule ; but his quid pro 
 quo was usually so pointed that his would-be castigators 
 soon tired of their work. On one occasion his reply, 
 perfectly justifiable in self-defence, so exasperated his 
 tormentor that he lifted his hand to strike him. Black, 
 with that quiet impressiveness which, when he lost self- 
 consciousness, seemed his natural mood, placed his 
 large and firm hand gently upon the shoulder of the 
 passionate youth, and said, " Why, man, were I minded 
 I could strike you down at a blow ; but what's the 
 use ? " And with a few more words about the folly of 
 quarrelling, the enemy of the one moment, before he 
 quite understood how, became the friend of the next. 
 
 The Glasgow University Medical Students' Christian 
 Association was started at this time, and, through the 
 kindness of the Senate, the free use of one of the class- 
 rooms was given it for its meetings. Mr. Black, pro- 
 minent in its organisation, delighted greatly in its 
 Saturday gatherings, and during the last winter of his 
 studies became its president. These meetings still con- 
 tinue, and, while usually devotional, are varied about 
 once a month by an address from some senior member of 
 the profession.
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 287 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Black was selected as the Paterson 
 Bursar (a bursary restricted to students in training for 
 medical mission work), in itself a high testimony of the 
 esteem in which he was deservedly held. In 1873, 
 having resigned his assistantship at the Medical Mission, 
 as the hours of duty prevented lecture attendance, he 
 had the further honour of being chosen a district mis- 
 sionary to the Free Barony congregation, of which the 
 Rev. James Wells was then minister. Into his direct 
 duties in this office he threw himself with great zeal, 
 besides identifying himself with and helping all depart- 
 ments of the Christian work of the Church. His Sab- 
 bath evening Bible-class was one of his most attractive 
 and most useful works. The membership was of both 
 sexes, and not uncommonly a hundred and fifty were 
 under his instruction on such occasions. Over them he 
 exercised a kind of magnetic power, securing their rapt 
 attention, not by any novelty of style or matter, but by the 
 golden bond of a perfect sympathy. He came so along- 
 side of his hearers that he seemed to hold the hand and 
 speak in the ear of each. 
 
 Having very largely the gift of organising, and that 
 enthusiasm which begets enthusiasm, he had a wonder- 
 ful power of getting others to work. A band of some 
 thirty young men gave themselves up to his leadership, 
 and his own earnest spirit was soon largely infused into 
 them. Cottage meetings and district tract distributions 
 were never before so extensively undertaken as through
 
 288 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 them. Influenced, too, by his example, a number of 
 these are now working and studying towards various 
 departments of mission work. One of them, indeed, 
 has become the new Paterson Bursar, and will, in due 
 time, doubtless walk in his steps and devote himself to 
 the foreign field. 
 
 In this way the winter passed of 1873-74, In the suc- 
 ceeding one, he unfortunately decided to carry on simul- 
 taneously with his studies in medicine theological studies 
 at the Free Church College. The Paterson Bursary 
 enjoins on the acceptor that two years should be spent 
 in such studies before or after graduation in medicine. 
 He chose, and there can be no doubt imprudently chose, 
 to begin those new studies before he had finished the 
 others. So that at one and the same time he was a 
 student of medicine, a student of theology, and a district 
 missionary. This blunder was destined to bear its own 
 punishment. His health, by the excessive tax such 
 engagements made upon it, and by a reduction of the 
 hours of rest, became in the course of the session 
 seriously impaired, and he was thus compelled to abate 
 his unceasing application. One, however, while grieving 
 over his mistake and its disastrous result, cannot but envy 
 and admire that perfervid zeal which seduced him from 
 a sober judgment of his own powers of performance. 
 A burning desire for present usefulness and early com- 
 plete consecration to direct mission work consumed him. 
 He said in deeds what others have in words, "better to
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK, 2S9 
 
 wear out than to rust out;" forgetting, however, that 
 undiminished continuity of force, in both rehgion and 
 physics, is much more influential than momentary 
 intensity. 
 
 The severe strain upon Mr. Black's strength was at 
 this time such that often he could not get sleep but from 
 the use of opiates. Nor need we wonder at it when we 
 read from his own hand (in his *' Opus Dei," an occasional 
 diary) what he compressed within the compass of four- 
 and-twenty hours. We give the last entry in the book, 
 slightly abridged : — 
 
 "March 28, 1875. Sabbath. This has been a day of 
 great work. 
 
 "i. Among the young men at 8*30. Subject, 'The 
 unpardonable Sin.' 
 
 " 2. Among the Kirk Street children, 1 1 o'clock. 
 Some of the little darUngs wept when I told them that 
 this was presumably the last time I would be among 
 them as chairman. Most of the monitors, too, were 
 weeping. May God bless them all ! I feel very sorry 
 myseh to part with them. 
 
 "3. Afternoon. Went with Mr. Russel as a deputa- 
 tion for the Students' Missionary Association to Free 
 St Matthew's. Both of us received great attention. 
 Results, over ;^i3 to the Livingstonia fund. 
 
 " 4, My Bible Class at 5 "30. A large attendance, and 
 unusually attentive. Many cried, specially the young 
 women, when I said that I should likely not meet them
 
 290 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 again as their teacher. I shook hands with all of them as 
 they retired. May I meet them all in heaven. They wish 
 to give me some present before I sail for Bombay, but 
 I have no time to arrange a meeting. The question 
 was put to me, 'But if you don't come back, what 
 shall we do with the money ? ' I said, * Give it to Jesus.' 
 
 *' 5. I took the evening meeting in the hall. It was 
 crowded, and all the people were very attentive. My 
 subject was * Hid ' (Col. iil 3). Lord, make impressions 
 for eternity." 
 
 The reference to Bombay made above refers to the 
 medical advice which he had received, to take complete 
 rest and a thorough change. He accordingly, a few 
 days after the Sabbath's work just detailed, spent three 
 months as surgeon of the steamship Macedonia, making, 
 during that time, a voyage out to India and back. This 
 seemed thoroughly to recruit his shattered health, and 
 his worst symptoms, before he returned, seemed entirely 
 removed. 
 
 During the preceding year he had been introduced 
 to the Rev. Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale, the promoter of 
 the Livingstonia Mission, as a suitable head for that new 
 centre of evangelisation. And so greatly had his zeal 
 and general ability impressed those who knew him that 
 on their recommendation he was, before the completion 
 of his studies, appointed to be the head of the mission 
 under Dr. Stewart. This was an opening entirely after 
 his own heart. He coveted pioneer work. Indeed his
 
 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 291 
 
 great love of nature from boyhood, and his trade experi- 
 ence in early life, in addition to his other acquirements, 
 made him peculiarly suitable for the post. 
 
 His aim was in due time attained, and in the spring 
 of 1876 he had the pleasure of graduating in Glasgow 
 University as M.B. and CM. ; while a few weeks after- 
 wards he was ordained, by the Glasgow Presbytery of 
 the Free Church of Scotland, to the ministry, after an 
 abridged theological course, by special authorisation of 
 the Assembly. Numerous presentations, tokens of the 
 sympathy and approval with which himself and his work 
 were viewed, were showered upon him. So warm, in- 
 deed, was the ** God speed you " expressed by all, that 
 the young missionary felt that if the path to duty had 
 been toilsome and laborious, his achieved position, as 
 the Church's chosen herald, was worth it all ; and he 
 saw that he was being sent out strengthened and sup- 
 ported by her united prayers, and that no lukewarm 
 interest would be taken in his future career. He had 
 also the blessed consciousness of his mother's joy. The 
 long-cherished and oft-repeated desire of her heart, 
 that her first-born should be a worker for Christ, 
 was thus, in His own time and way, heard and 
 answered. 
 
 It will be remembered that early in 1875 the first 
 Livingstonia Mission party left. A reinforcement to 
 this first party now fell (May 1876) to be led by Dr. 
 Black ; and it was accompanied by another goodly band
 
 292 DR. WILLIAM BLACK. 
 
 of pioneer missionaries, sent out by the Church of Scot- 
 land, under Dr. Macklin, who, as we have already seen, 
 have occupied a new centre of operation at Blantyre, 
 near the Cataracts. This large company, after being 
 enthusiastically welcomed in Cape Colony, and receiving 
 an important native contingent from Lovedale, started 
 for Nyassa, accompanied by Dr. Stewart. The party, 
 on the 2ist of October, reached their destination with- 
 out serious mishap ; and Dr. Black, though prostrate 
 from fever, managed to crawl on deck and join in the 
 shout of triumph and psalm of thanksgiving that could 
 not be restrained as their little steamer glided towards 
 the mission settlement at Cape Maclear. Here, as we 
 already know, after six months of unwearied toil, so 
 joyfully endured, so heartily performed, was he sum- 
 moned home, by a fresh attack of fever, to receive from 
 his Master's loving hands the conqueror's palm ; and 
 from His gracious lips that welcome, more enviable than 
 the loftiest niche in the temple of fame, "Well done, 
 good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 
 Lord." 
 
 Our purpose is all but done. We have attempted to 
 show what was the calling and the training of the mis- 
 sionary which the cause of Livingstonia has lost. His 
 labours in that distant field we have indicated rather 
 than traced, for, brief as they have been, are they not 
 written in the chronicles of the Church ? But over his 
 boyhood and early years we have lingered more lengthily,
 
 DR. [VILLI AM BLACK. 293 
 
 and have tried to bring out that God's grace made him 
 what he was — a noble type of just such a missionary as 
 Africa needs ; a man with a Christ-hke spirit, an in- 
 domitable will, an unflagging zeal, and a consuming 
 passion for the salvation of souls.
 
 ( 294 ) 
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON AND THE 
 SOUTH PACIFIC. 
 
 THERE are some chosen lives which present a unity 
 of aspiration and effort such as is generally to 
 be found only in fiction. The life of John Coleridge 
 Patteson belongs to this class. His lamented death, at 
 the hands of the natives at Nukapu, filled England with 
 sorrow ; but it was wholly in keeping with the tenor 
 of his labours and his aspirations. Had he himself been 
 asked whether he would desire to die quietly in England 
 at home among his own people, or among the dusky 
 tribes he had gone forth to teach, and in such a manner 
 as to witness most effectually, in after times, to the great 
 cause he had at heart, he would assuredly have preferred 
 the latter. Though he cherished the most affectionate 
 remembrances of friends and of home, he had, in fact, 
 ceased in much to regard himself as " being from home " 
 amid the races of the South Pacific. His one purpose was 
 to civilise and to Christianise them, hold them as friends 
 and brothers, training up those who were most fit for
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESOKT. 295 
 
 helpers in his work, that he might send forth men of 
 their own blood to extend the field. While still a mere 
 youth, under the noble influence of his mother and the 
 friendship of Bishop Sehvyn, he had dedicated himself 
 to this object, never knowing secondary calls ; but he 
 had, as we shall see, not a few defects and faults to 
 contend against ; and one great lesson of his life, there- 
 fore, may lie in tracing out the way in which he subdued 
 them, and made them, in fact, become helps rather than 
 hindrances to him in his great work. The outward 
 results and the inner life, in this case, have a sustained 
 harmony, which gives the Memoir a soft and subdued 
 beauty that is only too seldom to be found in biography, 
 even missionary biography, which ought most liberally 
 to exhibit it. 
 
 John Coleridge Patteson was the eldest son of Sir 
 John Patteson, who, after a short but successful course 
 at the bar, was raised to the bench in 1830, and of 
 Frances Duke Coleridge, daughter of Colonel Coleridge, 
 elder brother of the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 
 The Patteson family thus stood in close relationship to 
 another family which has given judges of highest repute 
 to the English bench ; and the pathway to society and 
 to eminence in various walks of life was in this way 
 thrown open to any scion of the house. Coleridge, or 
 ** Coley " Patteson, as he was named by his family and 
 friends in boyhood, was born in Bedford Square, London, 
 in 1827. In his childhood he showed great thoughtful-
 
 296 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 ness as vvell as quickness, being able to read by his fifth 
 year — on his birthday receiving from his father the Bible 
 which was used at his consecration as bishop twenty- 
 seven years afterwards. We are told, "He read it 
 eagerly, puzzled his brains as to what became of the 
 fish during the Flood, and, when suddenly called to the 
 nursery, begged to be allowed 'to finish the binding of 
 Satan for a thousand years.'" Even from this early 
 period the desire to be a clergyman was cherished. 
 Saying the Absolution to people, he thought, must make 
 them so happy. And the purpose, we learn, was fostered 
 by his mother. "No thought of a family to be made, 
 and of his being the eldest son, ever interfered for a 
 moment. That he should be a good servant at God's 
 altar was to her above all price." The mother made the 
 religious instruction of the children her especial care, 
 reading the Psalms and the Lessons for the Day with 
 them every morning immediately after breakfast. " His 
 old nurse (still his sister's valued servant) remembers the 
 little seven-years-old boy, after saying his own prayers 
 at her knee, standing opposite to his little brother, 
 admonishing him to attention with, 'Think, Jemmy; 
 think.' In fact, devoutness seems to have been natural 
 to him." 
 
 When eight years old he was sent to school at Ottery 
 St. Mary, in Devonshire, with which the name of Cole- 
 ridge is so intimately associated; but in spite of the 
 various interests of the place, the beauty of the surround-
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 297 
 
 ing country, and the quaint grandeur of St. Mary's 
 Church, Coley longed for home. And this too, notwith- 
 standing that his grandparents lived at Heath's Court, 
 close by, and in the manor-house his uncle, Francis 
 George Coleridge, whose boys were just of the age to 
 be companions for him. His home-sickness was only 
 relieved, indeed, by boy-like failings, of which he has 
 once or twice to make confession. Probably this longing 
 for home had something to do with the " uninterested- 
 ness" which his biograper tells us marked his school-life 
 here; but youth is plastic, and easily learns to accom- 
 modate itself There can be no doubt that the liking he 
 at this time formed for outdoor games and sports had its 
 own result in the way of developing a healthy nature, 
 and modifying in many ways the self-conscious introspec- 
 tiveness to which we soon detect some tendency. The 
 companionship of his younger brother at school in the 
 latter period of his stay at Ottery, furnished him with an 
 interest, and fostered what was always a characteristic 
 trait — kindness and consideration for others. But this 
 consideration for others was accompanied even at this 
 early period with that utter bravery and power of 
 endurance, which is more often formed at a public 
 school than elsewhere. We are told that, "While at 
 Ottery, he silently bore the pain of a broken collar-bone 
 for three weeks, and when the accident was brought to 
 light by his mother's embrace, he only said that ' he did 
 not like to make a fuss.' "
 
 298 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 If he did not carry from Ottery the highest attain- 
 ments in scholarship, he was a strong healthy lad when 
 in 1838 he entered Eton, very soon to get glimpses of 
 the young Queen Victoria, in the first year of her 
 sovereignty, going to Salt Hill to make her youthful 
 contribution to the poor scholars, according to the old 
 custom. At Eton his career was not marked by any 
 special success; he had to guard himself against the 
 love of cricket, in which he continued to excel ; but his 
 affections and his spirit were already receiving the first 
 signal determinations towards the course which he finally 
 chose. He heard Dr. Selwyn, the newly-made bishop 
 of New Zealand, preach at New Windsor Chapel, and 
 wrote home : — 
 
 " It was beautiful when he talked of his going out to 
 found a church, and then die neglected and forgotten. 
 All the people burst out crying, he was so very much 
 beloved by his parishioners. He spoke of his perils, and 
 putting his trust in God ; and then, when he had finished, 
 I think I never heard anything like the sensation — a 
 kind of feeling that if it had not been so sacred a spot 
 all would have exclaimed, * God bless him ! ' " 
 
 And then, as Providence would have it, the impres- 
 sion was deepened by an appeal, which, as often as it 
 recurred to the memory of the lad, must have aroused 
 in him new resolution and hunger for spiritual helping. 
 Before the Selwyns left England, they paid a visit to the 
 Patteson family, when there was much conversation
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 299 
 
 respecting the prospects of the mission in the distant 
 Pacific, 
 
 " Coley did not happen to be then at home, but when 
 the Bishop took leave, half in earnest, half in playful- 
 ness, he said, * Lady Patteson, will you give me Coley ? ' 
 She started, but did not say no ; and when, indepen- 
 dently of this, her son told her that it was his greatest 
 wish to go with the bishop, she replied that if he kept 
 that wish when he grew up, he should have her blessing 
 and consent." 
 
 We are therefore not surprised to find him ready to 
 forego the pleasures of cricket rather than identify him- 
 self in any shape with what was coarse and degrading : — 
 
 *' On the occasion of the dinner annually given by the 
 eleven of cricket and the eight of the boats at the hotel 
 at Slough, a custom had arisen among some of the boys 
 of singing offensive songs on these occasions, and Coley, 
 who, as second of the eleven, stood in the position of 
 one of the entertainers, gave notice beforehand that he 
 was not going to tolerate anything of the sort. One of 
 the boys, however, began to sing something objection- 
 able. Coley called out, 'If that does not stop, I shall 
 leave the room,' and as no notice was taken, he actually 
 went away with a few other brave lads. Afterwards he 
 sent word that if an apology was not made he should 
 leave the eleven, but the feeling of the better style of 
 boys prevailed, and the apology was made." 
 
 Soon after Bishop Selw}'n's farewell, he was confirmed,
 
 300 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 and a further impulse to serious thought and self-con- 
 secration came that same year in the death of his mother, 
 whose teaching and example had been so benign. 
 
 He entered Balliol College, Oxford, in 1845, and fell 
 into an excellent circle, from which he derived much 
 good. Here he lost any love for general society he 
 might ever have had, and cultivated more and more the 
 companionship that favours full and frank expression of 
 deeper sentiments and convictions. A visit to Switzer- 
 land, Rome, and Venice in 185 1 gave him much to think 
 of; and in 1852 he obtained a fellowship at Merton 
 College, and went into residence there ', but in the long 
 vacation of that year he proceeded to Germany, that 
 he might study Hebrew and other languages more 
 favourably and cheaply. His letters to his family and 
 friends at this time breathe the most exquisite devotion. 
 While at Oxford he had listened, fascinated, to the 
 earnest appeals of Dr. Pusey, which were then stirring 
 many earnest minds ; but he still kept a questioning in- 
 tellect at work on some of the points involved in the 
 special doctrines presented — a trait which marked him 
 to the very close of life, notwithstanding that all the 
 influence of family tradition inclined to make him lean 
 to implicit acceptance of these views. This is proved by 
 the letters which he wrote to his father from Dresden, 
 where he was busy on languages, but also on theology 
 and points of Church policy 
 
 In languages he had real aptitude, and now he added
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE FATTESO.Y. 301 
 
 Arabic to his list, and soon was proficient in it. He 
 varies his studies with such things as a description of 
 Dresden fair, and long before the time of return home he 
 begins to select presents, acknowledging himself "con- 
 cerned about getting something for everybody." Return- 
 ing to Merton College, he remained there till the long 
 vacation of 1853, prosecuting his studies of theology 
 and languages, and forming friendships which till his 
 death remained unbroken. Mr. Roundell says that, by 
 this time — "Self-cultivation had done much for him. 
 Literature and art had opened his mind and enlarged his 
 interests and sympathies. The moral and spiritual forces 
 of the man were now vivified, refined, and strengthened 
 by the awakening of his intellectual and aesthetic nature." 
 And Principal Shairp thus succinctly indicates the 
 elements that, now prominent in him, gave him such 
 weight and practical influence : — 
 
 " It was character, more than special ability, which 
 marked him out from others, and made him, wherever 
 he was, whether in cricket, in which he excelled, or in 
 graver things, a centre round which others gathered. 
 The impressions he left on me were of quiet, gentle 
 strength and entire purity — a heart that loved all things 
 true and honest and pure, and that would always be 
 found on the side of these. We did not know, probably 
 he did not know himself, the fire of devotion that lay 
 within him, but that was soon to kindle, and make him 
 what he afterwards became."
 
 302 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON: 
 
 And truly the flame soon leapt forth when the man 
 came face to face with the practical duties for which he 
 had been prepared. He served a rigorous apprentice- 
 ship to pastoral work under Mr. Gardiner, in the parish 
 of Alfington, in Devonshire, before taking orders. He 
 found the parish in a mournfully low condition ; the 
 morals of the people were such as would only have 
 shocked and disgusted many a young man of high ambi- 
 tion and pure mind, and rendered him wholly helpless. 
 But Patteson's practical foresight and tact soon made 
 themselves felt, no less than a faculty for organisation 
 such as even his nearest friends had not suspected to 
 exist in him. And he took very decided measures when 
 he had once estimated the real need of the people. The 
 only efficient means he could light on as a first step 
 towards improvement was the establishment of homes 
 for boys and girls, where they could be preserved from 
 the contamination. His first effort was for a boys' home, 
 in which he had the support of all the more thoughtful 
 people. He thus gives his sister his idea of the 
 project : — 
 
 " I shall, of course, begin with only one or two boys 
 — the thing may not answer at all ; but every one, 
 Gardiner, several farmers, and one or two others, quite 
 poor, all say it must work well with God's blessing. I 
 do not really wish to be scheming away, working a 
 favourite hobby, &c,, but I do believe this to be ab- 
 solutely essential. The profligacy and impurity of the
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESO.V. 303 
 
 poor are beyond all belief. Every mother of a family 
 answers (I mean every honest, respectable mother of a 
 family) : ' Oh, sir, God will bless such a work : and it is 
 for want of this that so much misery and wretchedness 
 abound.' I believe that for a year or so it will exhaust 
 most of my money, but then it is one of the best uses to 
 which I could apply it ; for my theory is, that help and 
 assistance is wanted in this way, and I would wish to 
 make most of these things self-supporting. Half an acre 
 more of garden, thoroughly well worked, will yield an 
 astonishing return, and I look to Mary as a person of 
 really economical habits. It is a great relief to have 
 poured all this out. It is no easy task that I am prepar- 
 ing for myself. I know that I fully expect to be very 
 much disappointed, but I am determined to try it. I am 
 determined to try and make the people see that I am 
 not going to give way to everybody that asks ; but that 
 I am going to set on foot and help on all industrial 
 schemes of every kind, for people of every age. I am 
 hard at work, studying spade husbandry, inspectors* 
 reports of industrial schools, &c." 
 
 He remained and ministered as curate at Alfington 
 after his ordination, winning the hearts of the people, so 
 that they came to look upon him as peculiarly their 
 own; the wrench of parting being, of course, all the 
 more painful, when, on the arrival of Bishop Selwyn in 
 England for a short furlo'Jgh, all Patteson's aspirations 
 for missionary life were revived. Opening his mind to
 
 304 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESO^. 
 
 Bishop Selwyn on the matter, he proposed that he 
 should not leave England while his father lived. The 
 bishop answered, " You should not put off till you are 
 on in life. It should be done with your full strength 
 and vigour." His father's first exclamation on being 
 told of his son's desire was, " I can't let him go !" but 
 in a moment he added, '* God forbid I should stop 
 him ! " The matter was discussed by Bishop Selwyn 
 and Sir John, who, notwithstanding the comfort he 
 felt in having his son near him, said, at length, " What 
 right have I to stand in his way ? I may not live another 
 year." And when the conversation was ended the father 
 said, " Mind, I give him wholly, not with any thought 
 of seeing him again. I will not have him thinking he 
 must come home to see me." When told of this, the 
 young man said at once that he was ready to go now. 
 
 Seven months later he bade his family good-bye. His 
 sisters stood at the door till he was out of sight ; then 
 going in, they found the old Judge sitting silent, his 
 little Bible in his hand. Next day he wrote from 
 London : " I am, thank God, calm and even cheerful. 
 I stayed a few minutes in the churchyard after I left 
 you, picked a few primrose buds from mamma's grave, 
 and then walked on." 
 
 His family were not alone in feeling as though de- 
 prived of the near presence of a son and brother. The 
 Alfington people mourned as they had hardly done 
 before, "Ah, sir," was the schoolmistress's answer to
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 305 
 
 some warm words from Mr, Justice Coleridge in prai<;e of 
 Bishop Selwyn, "he may be, no doubt he is, a very 
 good man. I only wish he had kept his hands off 
 Alfington ! " And in this she spoke the feehngs of the 
 people, from the old and infirm, whom the curate had 
 attended solicitously, down to the Sunday-school chil- 
 dren, who wept when they heard he was about to leave 
 them. " Our Mr. Patteson," the people called him to 
 the last. 
 
 His uncle, Sir John Coleridge, writing of Coley's 
 first sermon, had said : " I bless God that he is what he 
 is, and that, at least for a time, if his life be spared, I 
 have secured his services for my poor people at Alfing- 
 ton. Many years I can hardly expect to retain him 
 there ; but I feel sure that so long as he is there he 
 will be a blessing to them." 
 
 On the 28th of March 1855 he sailed from England 
 in the " Duke of Portland " emigrant ship. The voyage 
 was not suffered to pass without its own profitable 
 occupations. Of course, Bishop Selwyn and the young 
 missionary were ready to minister in many ways to the 
 wants of those on board, Mrs. Selwyn taking her share 
 in the teaching of the young; but they had their me- 
 chanical pastimes too, carpentering being one of the 
 many quaUfications required in a missionary bishop. 
 It has been said, that if you wish to know a person, go 
 a long voyage with him. Many voyages went those two 
 
 together; and, during this first one, Bishop Selwyn set 
 
 u
 
 306 JOHN COLtLRIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 down what he would have warmly endorsed years there- 
 after : *' Coley Patteson is a treasure, which I humbly 
 set down as a recompense for our own boys left at home 
 at school. He is a good fellow, and the tone of his 
 mind is one which I can thoroughly enjoy, content with 
 the rl ail present, yet always aiming at a brighter and 
 better future." 
 
 They arrived at Auckland on the 5th of July, and, 
 reaching the college some six miles distant, at once set 
 to work. Bishop Selwyn's scheme had been to collect 
 young lads from the distant islands of the South Pacific 
 — from Tanna and Nengone, from New Caledonia and 
 Lifu, from the Solomon and Banks Islands and other 
 accessible groups — and take them to New Zealand for a 
 period of the year for training at the college, returning 
 them again to their respective homes, in the mission 
 ship, during the season when the climate of New 
 Zealand, as it was found, was too trying for them. Of 
 the college, Patteson says : — 
 
 " It is really all that is necessary for a thoroughly 
 good and complete place of education : the hall all lined 
 with Kauri pine-wood; a large, handsome room, col- 
 legiate, capable of holding two hundred persons ; the 
 schoolroom eighty feet long, with admirable arrangement 
 for holding classes separately. There are two very cosy 
 rooms, which belong to the Bishop and Mrs. Selwyn 
 respectively, in one of which I am now sitting. . . . 
 Our rooms are quite large enough, bigger than my room
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PAITESON. 307 
 
 at Feniton, but no furniture, of course, beyond a bed- 
 stead, a table for writing, and an old book-case ; but it is 
 never cold enough to care about furniture. ... I clean, 
 of course, my room in part, make my bed, help to clear 
 away things after meals, &c., and am quite accustomed 
 to do without servants for anything but cooking." 
 
 In fixing the limits of his field of operations, Bishop 
 Selwyn had shown singular wisdom and breadth of 
 character. He had resolved not to preach in any place 
 already occupied by missions, so as not to confuse the 
 heathen with the sight of variations among Christians. 
 The properly Polynesian Isles had been all occupied 
 by the London Missionary Society, and a few islands 
 had been taken in hand by a Scottish Presbyterian 
 mission; but the groups which seemed to form the 
 third fringe round the north-eastern curve of Australia — 
 the New Hebrides, Banks Islands, and Solomon Isles — 
 were almost entirely open ground, and to these it was 
 that Coley Patteson should especially devote himself. 
 
 Some years were spent in preliminary work with 
 Bishop Selwyn, voyaging among the islands in the 
 " Southern Cross " (which, sailing from England on the 
 same day as the "Duke of Portland," had reached 
 Auckland exactly a fortnight after her), making ex- 
 cursions into the bush; teaching the boys at St. 
 John's College, and later at St. Andrew's, Kohimarama, 
 and learning, practically, the thousand outs and ins of 
 missionary life. A certain docility of mind and a happy
 
 3oS JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 temperament helped him vastly. He often thought of 
 home, and father, and friends ; but a second thought of 
 God's covenant care sufficed to calm and strengthen 
 him ; and whilst it seemed that distance and absence 
 only made him, if possible, more interested in all that 
 concerned home, he was able to apply himself to his 
 work with complete devotion and oneness of mind. 
 
 " I have very little time," he writes, " for indulging in 
 fancies of any kind now — I begin to get an idea of what 
 work is ; but in my walks out at night (if I am awake) I 
 think of dear mamma, of your dead father, and others 
 who are gone before, with unmixed joy and comfort. 
 You may be quite sure that I am not likely to forget 
 anybody or anything connected with home. How I do 
 watch and follow them through the hours of the day and 
 night when we are both awake and at our work ! I turn 
 out at 6.45, and think of them at dinner or tea ; at ten I 
 think of them at evening prayers ; and by my own bed- 
 time they are in morning church or busied about their 
 different occupations, and I fancy I can almost see them. 
 So it goes on, and still I am calm and happy and very 
 well, and I think I am in my place, and hope to be 
 made of some use some day. I like the natives in the 
 school very much. The regular wild, untamed fellow 
 is not so pleasant at first — dirty, unclothed, always 
 smoking, a mass of blanket, his wigwam sort of place 
 filthy, his food ditto ; but then he is probably intelligent, 
 hospitable, and not insensible to the advantage of hear-
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATl ESONl 309 
 
 ing about religion. It only wants a little practice to 
 overcome one's English feelings about dress, civilisation, 
 &:c., and that will soon come." 
 
 All his hardships and trials but drew forth his kind- 
 liness the more thoroughly There have been men who 
 have sacrificed themselves in such work as he under- 
 took, who were after all devoted merely to ideas, and 
 had but small power of attracting individuals. It was 
 not so with Bishop Patteson. He soon came to like 
 his New Zealanders and Melanesians as well or even 
 better than he would " English boys, up to all sorts of 
 mischief." " Savages," he said, " are all Fridays, if you 
 know how to treat them ; " and he soon came to see that 
 the "menial offices," as they would be called, which he 
 so cheerfully undertook, formed a practice such as could 
 not be matched for working beneficial changes upon 
 their habits. He would have confirmed the declaration 
 of the Maori — " Gentleman-gentleman thought nothing 
 that ought to be done too mean for him : pig-gentleman 
 never worked." He would often write in this strain — 
 
 *' Every missionary ought to be a carpenter, a mason, 
 something of a butcher, and a good deal of a cook. 
 Suppose yourself without a servant, and nothing for 
 dinner to-morrow but some potatoes in the barn, and a 
 fowl running about in the yard. That's the kind of 
 thing for a young fellow going into a new country to 
 imagine for himself. If a little knowledge of glazing 
 could be added it would be a grand thing, just enough
 
 3 TO JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON: 
 
 to fit in panes to window-frames, which last, of course, 
 he ought to make himself. Much of this cannot be done 
 for you. I can buy window-frames in Auckland, and 
 glass, but can't carry a man a thousand miles in my 
 pocket to put that glass into these frames, and if it is 
 done in New Zealand, ten to one it gets broken on the 
 voyage, whereas glass by itself will pack well. To know 
 how to tinker a bit is a good thing, else your only 
 saucepan or tea-kettle may be lying by you useless for 
 months. In fact, if I had known all this before, I 
 should just be ten times as useful as I am now. If any 
 one you know thinks of emigrating, or becoming a 
 missionary, just let him remember this." 
 
 And this from a man who had shown himself not only 
 willing, but singularly ready and versatile — apt at making 
 beds, and mending tea-kettles, and doing odds and ends 
 of joinery, as well as learning languages as if by instinct, 
 and with peculiar power of communicating knowledge 
 to others. He was indeed a typical missionary, and, 
 though what he says of training is true and valuable, his 
 experience sufficiently shows that when the whole heart 
 is in the work, everything yields to loving interest and 
 self-sacrifice. 
 
 The peculiar change of habits, the attempting to do 
 so many unaccustomed things, would have been found 
 by many to divert the mind from study ; but it was not 
 so in Patteson's case. On the 17th of January, some 
 six months after landing in New Zealand, he is able to
 
 jOnX COLERIDGE PATTESON. 311 
 
 compose and preach a Maori sermon, and soon there- 
 after he commits himself to extempore dehvery ; and 
 though he has already made some progress with the 
 tongues of the Pacific, his notes of books read are 
 indeed surprising. In all this discipline, hard though it 
 seemed, and though he sometimes confessed that his 
 sensibilities rebelled, he had the judgment to see clearly 
 that it was making him " something different from what 
 I was — ffiore of a man ; to say nothing of the higher and 
 religious side of the question," Seeing this was the spirit 
 he carried into his work, it is no wonder we find Bishop 
 Selwyn saying, in a note to Sir John Patteson, in 1857 — 
 
 " Coley is, as you say, the right man in the right place, 
 mentally and physically ; the multiplicity of languages, 
 which would try most men, is met by his peculiar gift ; 
 the heat of the climate suits his constitution ; his mild 
 and parental temper makes his black boys cling about 
 him as their natural protector ; his freedom from fasti- 
 diousness makes all parts of the work easy to him ; 
 for when you have to teach boys how to wash them- 
 selves and to wear clothes for the first time, the romance 
 of missionary work disappears as completely as a great 
 man's heroism before his valet de chambre." 
 
 Lady Martin, who had been absent from New Zealand 
 for three years, and saw much of him on her return, thus 
 gives her impressions : — 
 
 "It was very pleasant to see him among his boys. 
 They all used to go off for a walk on Saturday with him,
 
 312 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 sometimes to town, and he was as full of fun with them 
 as if they had been a party of Eton boys. He had none 
 of the conventional talk, so fatal to all true influence, 
 about degraded heathen. They were brethren, ignorant 
 indeed, but capable of acquiring the highest wisdom. 
 It was a joke amongst some of us that when asked the 
 meaning of a Nengon^ term of endearment, he answered 
 naively, * Oh, it means "old fellow.'" He brought his 
 fresh, happy, kindly feelings towards English lads and 
 young men into constant play among Melanesians, and 
 so they loved and trusted him." 
 
 But to make in any remote way clear the progress of 
 the mission, it is needful that we give some attention to 
 the efforts made, and the results of the work year by 
 year. Before he had time to receive the first letters 
 from home, he had found interesting work in classes, 
 up-country, and in the hospital. This is how he replies 
 to his sisters : — 
 
 "Your first letters upset me more than once as I 
 re-read them, but I think of you all habitually with real 
 joy and peace of mind. And I am really happy ; not 
 in the sense that happiness presents itself always, or 
 exactly in the way that I used to feel it when with you 
 all, or as I should feel it if I were walking up to the 
 lodge with my whole heart swelling within me. It is 
 much more quiet and subdued, and does not, perhaps, 
 come and go quite as much ; but yet, in the midst of 
 all, I half doubt sometimes whether everything about
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 313 
 
 and within me is real. I just move on like a man in a 
 dream ; but this again does not make me idle. I don't 
 suppose I ever worked harder, on the whole, than I do 
 now, and I have such anxious work at the hospital. 
 Such cases, Fan ! Only two hours ago I left a poor 
 sailor, by whose side I had been kneeling near three- 
 quarters of an hour, holding his sinking head and 
 moistening his mouth with wine, the dews of death on 
 his forehead, and his poor emaciated frame heaving like 
 one great pulse at each breath. For four days that he 
 has been there (brought in a dying state from the 
 ' Merchantman ') I have been with him, and yesterday I 
 administered to him the Holy Communion. He had 
 spoken earnestly of his real desire to testify the sincerity 
 of his repentance and faith and love. I have been there 
 daily for nine days, but I cannot always manage it, as 
 it is nearly two miles off. The responsibiUty is great of 
 dealing with such cases, but I trust that God will pardon 
 all my sad mistakes. I cannot withhold the Bread of 
 Life where I see indications of real sorrow for sin, and 
 the simple readiness to obey the command of Christ, 
 even though there is great ignorance and but little time 
 to train a soul for heaven." 
 
 In October 1855 he set forth with the bishop in his 
 first voyage in the " Southern Cross." How readily he 
 could adapt himself to the sea, and to new circum- 
 stances, is seen in the easy way in which he slips into 
 nautical language ; his happy ways, both with the sailors
 
 314 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON: 
 
 and the natives ; and his powers of swimming and 
 walking, which astonished them. At Waitoki, in Queen 
 Charlotte's Sound, he is left, while Bishop Selwyn goes 
 inland. This is a description of dinner Avhile on a 
 pedestrian journey through wilds and forests : — 
 
 "At noon we dined — biscuit and a slice of bacon, 
 which the two I^Iaories cooked by sticking a piece of 
 wood through the rasher, and putting it on the wood- 
 embers. Like a great light of old, we ate our dinners 
 first, and our plates afterwards, the plate being, of course, 
 a biscuit. The bishop went on at i p.m., and I started 
 back with a Maori guide, reaching the beach at 6.30. 
 The people at Waitoki were rather surprised when they 
 heard that I had been at Massacre Hill since seven, and 
 it was a good walk. The wood was fine, some trees 
 huge, the white pines especially. Small green parrots 
 flying actually in coveys, eight at a time, and perching 
 close to me; large red ones in numbers, pigeons in- 
 numerable, ducks, &c., not to forget the sandflies and 
 mosquitoes, which, indeed, take good care not to be 
 forgotten, though several of the crew are suffering more 
 from them than I am, and I hope to be mosquito-proof 
 some day." 
 
 The usual voyage to the Banks and Solomon groups 
 had, in 1855, been intermitted, owing to the bishop's 
 absence in England. Three months usually intervened 
 between the short voyage which was undertaken for the 
 purpose of returning these lads to their several homes,
 
 JOHN COLE RID GE PA TTESON. 3 r J 
 
 and the regular long missionary cruise which lasted from 
 five to six, or even seven, months, and during which, 
 of course, the college was directed by the bishop's 
 assistants, who had been carefully trained to the work. 
 This long voyage was always taken during the winter, 
 for the sake of the cooler weather, and to avoid the 
 dangerous hurricanes which often arise in the hotter 
 season, and are frequently so violent as wholly to alter 
 the appearance of the land. 
 
 The system of education at St. John's College com- 
 bined agricultural labour and printing with study, and 
 the authorities and the boys shared according to their 
 strength in both, for there was nothing more prominent 
 in the scheme than that the coloured man was not to 
 be treated as a mere hewer of wood and drawer of 
 water. 
 
 In 1856, Norfolk Island was visited, and Sydney 
 harbour was touched at ; then a landing was made at 
 Pitcairn Island, and finding that Mr. Nobbs, who had 
 been appointed pastor there, would be glad of help, 
 Mrs. Selwyn remained a short time. When the bishop 
 picked her up, he confirmed a large number of Pit- 
 cairners. Then they made for Anaiteum and the fatal 
 Santa Cruz, where the people at first presented arrows, 
 but afterwards became more friendly, and made presents 
 of yams. 
 
 " The people," says Patteson, " came out in canoes 
 with quantities of yams and taro, of which they knew
 
 3i6 JOHN COLERIDGE PATIESON. 
 
 the full value ; but the numbers were so large that no 
 ' quiet work ' could be done, and there was little to be 
 done but to admire their costume, armlets, necklaces, 
 plates of mother-of-pearl, but no nose ornaments. They 
 had strips of a kind of cloth, woven of reed, and ela- 
 borate varieties of head-gear, some plastering their hair 
 white with coral lime, others yellow, others red ; others 
 had shaved half the head with no better implement than 
 a sharp shell, and others had produced two lines of 
 bristles, like hog manes, on a shaven crown." 
 
 These Santa Cruz people were, however, very sus- 
 picious and unmanageable, with a confirmed bitterness 
 and dislike towards Europeans — the grim legacy handed 
 down for the manner in which, generations before, the 
 Spaniards had treated them. In spite of this, Mr. 
 Whytehead, the second mate of the " Southern Cross," 
 tells us, that Mr. Patteson was wont to say that he 
 was sure he could reach their confidences if he could 
 once induce one of them to spend six months with 
 him. 
 
 Bellona was next touched at, and here it was that the 
 bishop and Mr. Patteson had to take off their coats, and 
 with hatchets and adzes, or other things in their hands, 
 take a good header and swim ashore. But this never 
 dulled his eye for the beauty of the scenery, which he 
 ever describes with enthusiastic eloquence : — 
 
 " Oh, the beauty of the deep clefts in the coral reef, 
 lined with coral, purple, blue, scarlet, green, and white 1
 
 JOHN COLERID GE PA TTESON. 3 1 7 
 
 the little blue fishes, the bright blue star-fish, the little 
 land-crabs walking away with other people's shells. But 
 nothing of this can be seen by you ; the coral loses its 
 colour, and who can show you the bright line of surf 
 breaking the clear blue of this truly Pacific Ocean ; the 
 tropical sun piercing through masses of foliage which 
 nothing less dazzling could penetrate ? . . . I trod upon 
 and broke flowering branches of coral that you would 
 have wondered at." 
 
 But admiration of the beautiful scenery had to go 
 along with some degree of wariness amid the pleasant 
 exploits of swimming ashore in these regions. Some- 
 times groups of sharks, of half-a-dozen at least, would 
 be seen, as at Rowa, one of the Banks group, making 
 havoc among the leaping shoals of fish, large and small, 
 in v;ater about four or five feet deep. 
 
 Even here, too, the echoes of toils and strifes at home 
 from time to time reach him : we have significant record 
 of the manner in which they affected him in the following 
 letter : — 
 
 "My dear father writes in great anxiety about the 
 Denison case. Oh, dear ! what a cause of thankfulness 
 it is to be out of the din of controversy, and to find 
 hundreds of thousands longing for crumbs which are 
 shaken about so roughly in these angry disputes ! It 
 isn't High Church or Low or Broad Church, or any 
 other special name, but the longing desire to forget all 
 distinctions, and to return to a simpler state of things,
 
 3i8 JOHN- COLERIDGE EATTESOy. 
 
 that seems naturally to result from the very sight of 
 heathen people." 
 
 To Miss Neill, who had been his governess, he 
 shows the utmost regard and affection, writing to her 
 often the most touching letters. It is characteristic 
 that to her he speaks fully on some points on which he 
 is silent towards his own sisters ; but her keen interest 
 in him, which never abated, is another proof of the 
 power he had of attaching in closest bonds of affection 
 all with whom he came in contact. He writes to her 
 thus : — 
 
 "You ask me, dear Miss Neill, where I am settled. 
 Why, settled, I suppose, I am never to be : I am a 
 missionary, you know, not a 'stationary.' But, how- 
 ever, my home is the ' Southern Cross,' where I live 
 always in harbour as well as at sea, highly com- 
 passionated by all my good friends here, from the 
 governor downwards, and highly contented myself with 
 the sole possession of a cosy little cabin, nicely fur- 
 nished with table, lots of books, and my dear father's 
 photograph, which is an invaluable treasure and comfort 
 to me. ... Of course, wherever the * Southern Cross ' 
 goes, I go too, and am a most complete skipper. I 
 feel as natural with my quadrant in my hand as of old 
 with a cricket-bat. Then I do rather have good salt- 
 water baths, and see glorious sunsets and sunrises, and 
 starlight nights, and the great many-voiced ocean, the 
 winds and waves chiming all night with a solemn sound,
 
 lOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 319 
 
 lapping against my ear as I lie in my canvass bed, 
 six feet by two and a half, and fall sound asleep and 
 dream of home. Oh ! there is much that is really 
 enjoyable in this kind of life ; and if the cares of the 
 vessel, management of men, &c., do harass me some- 
 times, it is very good for me — security from such troubles 
 having been anxiously and selfishly pursued by me at 
 home." 
 
 It is very surprising, and sometimes it is touching, 
 to come on such confessions from such a man. But 
 now, as in youth, his distaste for mental exertion 
 was so great that only a sense of duty sustained him 
 in any effort requiring continued concentration of 
 mind. 
 
 In the voyage of 1857, he tells us "that they visited 
 sixty-six islands, and landed eighty-one times, wading, 
 swimming, &c. All were most friendly and delightful," 
 he adds ; " only two arrows have been shot at us, and 
 only one coming near, — so much for savages. I wonder 
 what people ought to call sandal-wood traders and slave- 
 masters if they call my Mclanesians savages," is the tone 
 in which he closes the record. The Banks Islands, as 
 usual, were the most hopeful, Santa Maria coming first. 
 Canoes came round the vessel, and the honesty of 
 the race showed itself, for one little boy, who had 
 had a fishhook given him, wished to exchange it for 
 calico, and having forgotten to restore the hook at the 
 moment, swam back with it as soon as he remembered it
 
 320 JOHX COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 This voyage of 1857 was further memorable for a 
 landing at Guadalcanar, or Gera, which is thus de- 
 scribed : — 
 
 " I slept on shore about three miles up the bay among 
 a number of natives, twenty-five or twenty-six in the 
 same room with me — at least, I lay down in my things, 
 which, by the by, were drenched through with salt and 
 rain water. They said I was the first white person that 
 had been ashore there. They treated me very well. 
 How, in the face of all this, could I run the risk of 
 letting them think I was unwilling to trust them ? " 
 
 The victory of this trustfulness had been proved in 
 the landing at this very place, when the mission ship 
 was, as if though providentially, saved from being 
 stoved on a reef, and where, coming near to the 
 natives, who were there in crowds, he had to choose 
 between standing close in, or letting go a kedge, 
 which might have made them feel " he does not trust 
 us." He declares that, though perhaps the bishop, 
 being an older hand, might think his action rash, the 
 result had fully justified it. "The natives behaved 
 very well. They gave me two pigs, about 500 or 600 
 cocoa-nuts, and upwards of a ton of yams, though 
 I told them I had only two small hatchets, five or 
 six adzes, a few gimlets, and empty bottles to give in 
 exchange." 
 
 In missionary work, as in more secular affairs, it may 
 therefore be said that bold adventure is a needful
 
 JOHX COLERIDGE PATTESON. 321 
 
 element to accompany firmness and caution. And still, 
 in the midst of all this labour and excitement, his study 
 of languages did not pause, Nengonese had become 
 almost as familiar to him as Maori, and his Sundays on 
 his return home in this year, 1857, were decidedly 
 polyglot ; since, besides a regular English service at 
 Taranaki, he often took a Maori service and preached 
 extempore in that tongue, feeling that the people's 
 understanding went along with him ; and there were 
 also, in early morning and late evening, prayers, partly 
 in Nengonese, partly in Bauro, at the college chapel, 
 and a sermon, first in one language and then repeated 
 in another. 
 
 Nor were the studies of the sacred text, or the results 
 of later learning in England, wholly neglected. To none 
 of these matters was he indifferent, as some enthusiasts 
 have been. He was' intent on being up to the time in 
 regard to the critical knowledge of the Word of God, 
 and all related questions. He plied his friends with 
 requests for books of value in this kind, and often wrote 
 such letters as the following : — 
 
 " Any really good book on the New Testament, espe- 
 cially dealing critically with the Greek text, I certainly 
 wish to have. I feel that the great neglect of us clergy is 
 the neglect of the continued study, most critically and 
 closely, of the grammatical meaning of the Hebrew and 
 Greek text. ... I fear I shall never be a good Hebrew 
 scholar ; I can't make time for it ; but a decent Greek
 
 322 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON: 
 
 scholar I hope to be. I work away, but, alas ! only by 
 fits and starts." 
 
 In 1858 he writes to his sister : — 
 
 " Things go on in a kind of routine. Two voyages a 
 year, five months in New Zealand, though certainly two- 
 thirds of my flock are fresh every year. . . . And you 
 know, Fan, I can't write for the world at large anecdotes 
 of missionary life, and swell the number of the ' Gems ' 
 and other trashy books. . . . The school is the real 
 work. Teaching adults to read a strange tongue is 
 hard work ; I have little doubt but that the bishop is 
 right in saying they must be taught English, but it is so 
 very difficult a language, not spelt a bit as pronounced ; 
 and their language is all vocalic, and so easy to put into 
 writing. 
 
 " But if you like I will scatter anecdotes about — of 
 how the bishop and his chaplain took headers, hand-in- 
 hand, off the schooner and round-house ; and how the 
 bishop got knocked over at Leper's Island by a big 
 wave ; and how I borrowed a canoe at Terriko and 
 paddled out yams as fast as the bishop brought them 
 to our boat, &c. ; but this is rubbish." 
 
 The question of the advantage of forming a school on 
 an island within the tropics was one which often sug- 
 gested itself to the bishop and Mr. Patteson. The 
 advantages and disadvantages were so nearly balanced, 
 that it was difficult to fix on a decided course of action. 
 First of all, there was the consideration of health — some
 
 JOIIX COLERIDGE PATTESON: 323 
 
 of the lads were much tried by a residence of any length 
 of time in the cold climate of New Zealand ; but then, 
 on the other hand, there was the consideration that 
 in the midst of civilisation the general influence itself 
 was educative. " I can hardly have quite the same 
 control," says Mr. Patteson, *' over lads brought to an 
 island itself wholly unconverted, as I can have over them 
 in New Zealand : but, as a rule, Melaneisans are very 
 tractable." 
 
 At the same time, however, it was thought best to try 
 the experiment, and Lifu was fixed upon in 1858. On 
 June 1 6th, accordingly, Mr. Patteson was landed there, 
 for residence, having with him twelve lads from the 
 north-west islands — from seven islands, speaking no 
 fewer than six languages. He and four boys slept in 
 one of the corner rooms, the other eight lads in another, 
 and the Rarotogan teacher, Tutoo, and his wife, in a 
 third. The central room was parlour, school, and hall, 
 and as it had four unglazed windows and two doors 
 opposite each other, and the trade winds always 
 blowing, the inconvenience may be conceived. Here 
 Mr. Patteson in every respect shared the life of the 
 natives — the main staple of food being yams, with only 
 now and then a fowl or bit of pig for dinner ; but, after 
 due trial, in which patience did all that patience could 
 do to overcome nature, it was found that English 
 strength could not be kept up on an exclusive diet of 
 yams. But the Loyalty Islands are not fruitful : " the
 
 324 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 soil is nothing, indeed, but rugged coral, upheaved, 
 bare, and broken, and here and there with pits that 
 have become filled with soil enough to grow yams and 
 cocoa-nuts." 
 
 On August 2, 1858, he preached his first two Lifu 
 sermons — " Rather nervous, but I knew I had command 
 enough of the language to explain my meaning." Con- 
 stant private teaching to individuals was carried on ; 
 250 copies of the Lifu primer had been dispersed 
 where thousands were wanted, and Mr. Patteson 
 wrote a little book of some sixteen pages, containing 
 a statement of the outlines of the faith, and of scrip- 
 ture history ; but this had to be printed in New 
 Zealand. 
 
 The many difficulties that had arisen — including those 
 with respect to variety of diet — might have been over- 
 come, had it not been that perplexities began to arise 
 through the French Government occupying New Cale- 
 donia, and the nearness of the Loyalty group becoming 
 tempting to them. More and more obstacles were 
 placed in the way of the work. Mr. Patteson soon 
 began to see that the station could not be continued 
 at Lifu, but he wrought on till the time fixed for the 
 appearance of the " Southern Cross." She was delayed, 
 however, owing to an accident which had befallen her, 
 and he thus vnrote while waiting anxiously for her 
 appearance : — 
 
 *' The interest of the work is becoming more and
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 325 
 
 more absorbing, so that, much as there is indeed going 
 on in your world to distract and grieve one, it comes 
 to me so weakened by time and distance, that I don't 
 sympathise as I ought with those who are suffering so 
 dreadfully from the Indian Mutiny, or the commercial 
 failure, or the great excitement and agitation of the 
 country. You can understand how this can be, per- 
 haps ; for my actual present work leaves me small 
 leisure for reflecting, and for placing myself in the 
 position of others at a distance ; and when I have a 
 moment's time, surely it is right that I should be in 
 heart at Feniton, with those dear ones, and especially 
 my dear father, of whom I have not heard for five 
 months, so that I am very anxious as to what account 
 of him the 'Southern Cross' may bring." 
 
 The "Southern Cross" had run on a reef, and had 
 to be re-coppered ; and owing to this delay, and the 
 bishop's arrangement to start on a confirmation tour 
 among the New Zealanders in November, only a few of 
 the seventy and odd islands could be visited ; but they 
 had no fewer than four Pitcairners and forty-seven 
 Melanesians on board, of whom three were young 
 married women, and two were babies— a very large 
 number for the size of the ship ; but all were kept in 
 excellent health and order by Bishop Selwyn's arrange- 
 ments for cleanliness, &c. Mr. Patteson thus describes 
 the style of life during the voyage : — 
 
 " One gets so used to this sort of thing that I sleep
 
 326 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 just as well as I used to do in my own room at home, 
 and by 6.30 or 7 a.m. all vestiges of anything connected 
 with sleeping arrangements have vanished, and the 
 cabins look like what they are — large and roomy. We 
 have, you know, no separate cabins filled with bunks, 
 &:c. — abominations specially contrived to conceal dirt 
 and prevent ventilation. Light calico curtains answer 
 all purposes of dividing off a cabin into compartments ; 
 but we agree to live together, and no one has found it 
 unpleasant as yet. We turn a part of our cabin into a 
 yura/xe'o at night for the three women and two babies 
 by means of a canvas screen. Bishop looks after them, 
 washes the babies, tends the women when sick, &c., 
 while I, by virtue of being a bachelor, shirk all the 
 trouble. One of these women is now coming for the 
 second time to the college ; her name is Carry ; Margaret 
 Cho is on her second visit, and Hearore is the young 
 bride of Kapua, now coming for his third time, and 
 baptized last year." 
 
 During the summers of 1857-8 and 1858-9, the 
 Loyalty Islanders mustered in great numbers at St 
 John's College. Mr. Patteson worked very hard these 
 years at translations, and there was an immense 
 enthusiasm about printing ; the Lifuites and Nengonese 
 striving each to get the most in their own language. 
 
 For the sake of the pupils from tropical islands, the 
 college was in 1859 removed to St. Andrews, Kohi- 
 marama, a sheltered bay opposite the entrance to the
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 327 
 
 harbour at Auckland, and Mr, Patteson devoted himself 
 with fresh energy to their training and welfare. A settle- 
 ment had likewise been made in the Banks group, on 
 Mota, or Sugar-loaf Island, which lies opposite to Port 
 Patteson — named, as it will be remembered, by Bishop 
 Selwyn after Sir John Patteson — and the "first home in 
 Melanesia " built here, " at least a hundred natives 
 coming to help in the building, and pulling down 
 materials from their own houses to make the roof." 
 
 Probably the considerations that more than any other 
 determined this settlement were the comparative health- 
 fulness and fruitfulness of the island — the bread-fruit 
 growing profusely — combined with the fact that, whilst 
 the Solomon Islanders were found to be the quickest 
 and most brilliant, they were far less steady and trust- 
 worthy and attachable than were the Banks Islanders. 
 But the three months' residence on Mota had its own 
 disadvantages, for, during that long period, Mr. Patteson 
 was entirely out of the reach of letters. 
 
 The days were laid out thus : — Morning school in the 
 village, first with the regular scholars, then with any one 
 who liked to come in ; and then, when the weather 
 permitted, a visit to some village, sometimes walking all 
 round, a circuit of ten miles, but generally each of the 
 two taking a separate village, talking to the people, 
 teaching them from cards and encouraging interroga- 
 tories. Mr. Patteson always had such an attraction for 
 them that they would throng round him wherever he went.
 
 328 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 He tells us :— '* We have seven Solomon Islanders — 
 five from a village at the north-west of San Cristoval, 
 and two from the south-east point of Guadalcanar or 
 Gera, a magnificent island about twenty-five or twenty 
 miles to the north-west of San Cristoval \i.e. Bauro]. 
 From frequent intercourse they are almost bilingual, a 
 great 'lounge' for me, as one language does for both; 
 the structure of the two island tongues is the same, but 
 scarcely any words much alike." From Nengond there 
 were four men and two women. 
 
 Here he found much of the rest and quiet of mind for 
 which he longed. 
 
 In 1859 he had written: — "With the languages of 
 four groups we are now fairly acquainted, besides some 
 of the distinguishing dialects, which differ very much 
 from one another ; nevertheless, I think that by and by 
 we shall connect them all, if we live ; but as some dialects 
 may have dropped out altogether, we may want a few 
 links in the chain to demonstrate the connection fully to 
 people at a distance." 
 
 Every day, indeed, afforded illustration of his remark- 
 able aptitude in following up difficulties in language ; 
 and had he been spared, there can be no doubt that he 
 would have made substantial contributions to philology. 
 As it is, he has done more than any other to compare 
 and co-ordinate the various tongues and dialects of the 
 South Pacific. 
 
 But amid all this his interest in home and his old
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 329 
 
 friends was, if possible, intensified by absence and 
 distance. How he loves to snatch a half-hour to think 
 of them and to write to them ! Scarcely a chance was 
 missed by him for sending a despatch home, and other 
 friends were often pleasantly surprised to find they were 
 remembered, by a note which was utterly unexpected. 
 Near the close of his life — a time of peculiar perplexity — 
 he wrote to Principal Shairp, thanking him for the 
 teaching embodied in his " Religion and Culture," &c. 
 His relations to his aged father were quite unique. He 
 was the eldest son, but no consideration that was in the 
 remotest alien to the work in which he was engaged was 
 allowed to intrude for a moment. The mutual renuncia- 
 tions of father and son, for the sake of Melanesia, from 
 first to last are indeed very beautiful to read of. How 
 the ties of kindred and affection seemed to grow closer 
 and closer the more that Mn Patteson became engrossed 
 in his work, affording him ' sweet relief in brief moments 
 of leisure or weariness ! and how, on the other hand, the 
 aged Judge became, if possible, more reconciled to his 
 son's absence the more that nature would have urged 
 the necessity of his having Coley beside him, to support 
 him in the midst of growing infirmities ! Thus the son 
 writes in July 1859 : — 
 
 "Of course it is useless to speculate on the future, 
 but I see nothing at all to make it likely that I shall 
 ever revisit England. I can't very well conceive any 
 such state of things as would make it a duty to giatify
 
 330 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESOJV. 
 
 my constant inclination. And, my dear father, I don't 
 scruple to say (for you will understand me) that I am 
 happier here than I should be in England, where, even 
 though I were absent only a few months, I should bear 
 about with me the constant weight of knowing that 
 Melanesia was not provided for. And, strange as it 
 may seem, this has quite ceased to be a trial to me. 
 The effort of subduing the longing desire to see you is 
 no longer a great one ; I feel I am cheerful, and bright, 
 and light-hearted, and that I have really everything to 
 make a man thankful and content. And if you could 
 see the thank 'ul look of the bishop, when he is again 
 assured that there is no item of regret or desire to call 
 me home on your part, you would feel, I know, that 
 colonial work does require an unconditional, unreserved 
 surrender of a man to whatever he may find to do." 
 
 And this was the tone in which, amid faiHng faculties, 
 the old man was wont to write concerning his son ; he 
 is addressing Bishop Selwyn : — 
 
 "You write most kindly touching him, dear fellow, 
 and truly I am to be envied, qui natum haberem tali 
 ingenio J>rceditum. Not for a moment have I repented of 
 giving my sanction to his going out to New Zealand ; 
 and I fully believe that God will prosper his work. I 
 did not contemplate his becoming a bishop, nor is that 
 the circumstance which gives me the great satisfaction I 
 feel. It is his devotion to so good a work, and that he 
 should have been found adequate to its performance;
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 331 
 
 whether as bishop or as priest is not of itself of so much 
 importance." 
 
 The reference to the bishopric is explained by the 
 fact that gradually, during the last two years, Patteson 
 had been more and more working independently, open- 
 ing up new paths, and attesting not only a power of 
 marking out available Unes of enterprise, but giving 
 ample proof of the desirability of having a fresh sphere 
 of labour, into which he would feel more free to carry 
 his remarkable organising gift. Not that he himself had 
 ever felt in any way hampered by his association with 
 Bishop Selwyn ; wholly the reverse. He was rather 
 inclined to regard himself as disqualified to assume a 
 position of authority, as the following quotation from a 
 letter referring to the very first hint of his appointment 
 to a Melanesian bishopric will show : — 
 
 "Seriously, I am not at all fitted to do anything but 
 work under a good man. Of course, should I survive 
 the bishop, and no other man come out, why, it is better 
 that the ensign should assume the command than to 
 give up the struggle altogether. But this, of course, is 
 pure speculation. The bishop is hearty, and I pray 
 God may be Bishop of Melanesia for twenty years to 
 come, and by that time there will be many more com- 
 petent men than I ever shall be to succeed him, to say 
 nothing of possible casualties, climate, &c." 
 
 But the counsel of others prevailed in this matter. 
 He was consecrated bishop on the 24th February 1S61,
 
 332 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 and on the aSih was installed at Kohimarama. No 
 sooner was the installation ceremony over than he wrote 
 thus to his father : — 
 
 " How can I thank you for giving me up to this work, 
 and for all the wise and loving words with which you 
 constantly cheer and encourage me? Your blessing 
 comes now to cheer and strengthen me, as work and 
 responsibilities are fast accumulating upon me. I thank 
 God that He enables us at the two ends of the world 
 to see this matter in the same way, so that no conflict 
 of duties arises in my mind. ... I almost fear to write 
 that I am a bishop in the Church of Christ. May God 
 strengthen me for the duties of the office, to which I 
 trust He has indeed called me ! . . . What some of you 
 say about self-possession on one's going about among 
 the poor people being marvellous, is just what of course 
 appears to me commonplace. Of course it is wTong to 
 risk one's life, but to carry one's life in one's hand is 
 what other soldiers besides those of the Cross do habitu- 
 ally ; and no one, as I think, would willingly hurt a hair 
 of my head in Melanesia, or that part of it where I am 
 known. 
 
 "How I think of those islands! How I see those 
 bright coral and sandy beaches, strips of burning sun- 
 shine fringing the masses of forest rising into ridges of 
 hills, covered with a dense mat of vegetation ! Hun- 
 dreds of people are crowding upon them, naked, armed, 
 with wild uncouth cries and gestures ; I cannot talk to
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TIES ON. 333 
 
 them but by signs. But they are my children now! 
 I^Iay God enable me to do my duty to them ! " 
 
 His next seven months' trip among the islands was 
 delayed owing to the difficulty of finding a craft to take 
 the place of the " Southern Cross," which during the 
 former voyage had run on a shoal called the Hen and 
 Chickens, at the head of Ngunguru Bay, and had speedily 
 broken up, after full five years' good service. There 
 was nothing to approach, not to speak of equalling, her. 
 "Vessels built for freight," says the bishop, "are to the 
 * Southern Cross ' as a cart-horse to a thoroughbred steed, 
 and we must have some vessel which can do the work 
 quickly among the multitude of the isles, and many 
 other reasons there are which we seamen only perhaps 
 can judge fully, which make it quite essential to the 
 carrying on of this peculiar mission that we should have 
 a vessel of a pecuUar kind." The best that could be 
 done meanwhile, however, was to charter the " Dunedin" 
 — a vessel not in the best repair, " the pumps going every 
 two hours," to carry them to Mota, after having under- 
 gone some preliminary "caulking." 
 
 At Erromango the bishop heard of the mournful 
 deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, the Scotch missionaries, 
 who had become victims to the wild superstitions of the 
 people. But Bishop Patteson had full faith in his own 
 safety. Indeed, very shortly after this, as we have been 
 informed by one who knows well, he landed on Erro- 
 mango, and made his way to the graves of Mr. and Mrs.
 
 334 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 Gordon, and read over them the funeral service as a 
 mark of his respect for these his brave and martyred 
 fellow-workers in the South Pacific. 
 
 Reaching Mota, and finding the home that had been 
 erected on a former visit all secure, he soon set out in 
 an open boat to pay a round of visits to the other islands 
 of the Banks group, returning to their homes such of 
 the Banks Islanders as he had had with him. *• As we 
 pulled away from Aruas," he tells us, " one elderly man 
 drew his bow, and the women and children ran off into 
 the bush, here, as everywhere almost in these islands, 
 growing quite thickly some twenty yards above water- 
 mark. The man did not let fly his arrow. I cannot 
 tell why this small demonstration took place." Probably 
 the reason that the man desisted as he did was simply 
 that the bishop, when an arrow was pointed at him, was 
 wont to look the archer full in the face with his bright 
 smile, and the look of cheery confidence and good-will 
 made the weapon drop. When another time, at Ambrym, 
 an incident of the same sort took place— a man raising 
 his bow and drawing it, then unbending it, and finally 
 bending it again, as others were apparently dissuading 
 him from letting fly the arrow — the bishop simply 
 regards this as a result of not landing oftener, and 
 writes : " We must try and make more frequent land- 
 ings." 
 
 H.M.S. "Cordelia," under Captain Hume, which took 
 him off Mota on this occasion, and carried him to the
 
 fOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 335 
 
 Solomon Islands, for his next visitation there, brought 
 him word of the serious illness of his father ; so that it 
 was hardly a shock to him when on reaching Norfolk 
 Island, on his return, he learned the first news of the 
 Judge's death from the Sydney papers. He took it 
 as though it had been long prepared for; and the 
 only evidence of change towards those about him was, 
 if possible, a greater sweetness in his manner and 
 ways towards them. 
 
 It was during this voyage that Bishop Patteson so 
 engaged the interest of Lieutenant Capel Tilly, R.N., 
 that that officer undertook to return to England with 
 the " Cordelia " to watch over the building of the new 
 " Southern Cross," and return again with her to the South 
 Pacific, to act as her commanding officer. 
 
 On his return to Kohimarama in the end of the year 
 the old life was resumed, and Lady Martin thus sketches 
 the settlement at the time : — 
 
 " The new settlement was then thought to be healthy, 
 and he and his boys alike rejoiced in the warmth of the 
 sheltered bay after the keenness of the air at St. John's 
 on the higher ground. The place looked very pretty ; 
 the green fields, and hawthorn hedges, and the sleek 
 cattle reminded me of England. As a strong contrast, 
 there was the white shelly beach and yellow sands. 
 Here the boys sunned themselves in play-hours, or fished 
 on the rocks, or cooked their fish at driftwood fires. On 
 calm days one or two would skim across the blue water
 
 336 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 in their tiny canoes. One great charm of the place was 
 the freedom and naturalness of the whole party. There 
 was no attempt to force an overstrained piety on those 
 wild fellows who showed their sincerity by coming with 
 the bishop. By five in the morning all were astir, and 
 jokes and laughter, and shrill, unaccountable cries, 
 would rouse us up, and go on all day, save when school 
 and chapel came to sober them. The bishop had not 
 lost his Eton tastes, and only liked to see them play 
 games, and the little, fat, merry-faced lads were always 
 on the look-out for a bit of fun with him." 
 
 Mr. Whytehead has given the following graphic 
 picture of the bishop and his scholars at this period, 
 which may well supplement Lady Martin's descrip- 
 tion : — 
 
 "On proceeding down to Kohimarama to join the 
 vessel, I found her moored off the station, and prepara- 
 tions being made for the voyage. Spars were being sent 
 aloft, gear was being rove, and sails bent. All day the 
 boats, manned by pupils in charge of teachers, were 
 bringing off stores, personal effects, &c. It was then 
 that I first saw some of the natives of the Western 
 Pacific. Very intelligent - looking, bright - eyed Uttle 
 fellows were these boys, and exceedingly nice they 
 looked in their loose shirts, straw hats, and canvas 
 trousers. They worked heartily too, and seemed to 
 enjoy the bustle of preparation, no doubt anticipating 
 the joys of once more seeing their friends and homes,
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON". 337 
 
 and relating the wonders they had beheld in the white 
 man's country. The first time I saw Bishop Patteson I 
 was struck with the wonderful power of attraction which 
 he seemed to possess. It was not in his face alone, but 
 in his whole manner that this force was to be found. I 
 was walking on the beach one evening after working 
 hours, a day or two after joining, when he came out of 
 his rooms, which formed part of the main building of the 
 school. The boys were all playing on the grass before 
 the doors, but his appearance was the signal for them all 
 to leave off their various little amusements and run 
 clustering round him. Some seized his hands, others 
 the skirts of his coat, and all had a word of happiness 
 at seeing him. The scene reminded me of nothing so 
 much as a hen gathering her chickens under her wings. 
 He passed each arm round the neck of one of the taller 
 boys, and with the rest tripping along like a body-guard 
 on all sides of him he slowly advanced towards the 
 beach. I stood smiling at the spectacle. The group 
 neared me, and the bishop, remarking my expression, 
 said that he supposed I had never seen anything of the 
 kind before. I confessed that I had not, but that it was 
 very delightful to see such intelligent and affectionate- 
 looking boys. He asked me how I liked the place, if 
 things were comfortable on board the vessel, and other 
 questions, showing that he took a kind and lively interest 
 in the comfort and happiness of every one of his party. 
 It was this kindness in little matters of detail which 
 
 Y
 
 338 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 always gained for Bishop Patteson the love of those with 
 whom he came in contact. I do not believe there was a 
 man belonging to the ship's company who would have 
 hesitated at anything to serve the bishop. He was 
 thoroughly respected and looked up to, and yet at the 
 same time he was loved by those around him in such a 
 way as few men ever have the happiness to be." 
 
 This was the summer of his year, during which he en- 
 joyed the peaceful sunshine of society with minds, so 
 far, congenial ; it was different when he was on his voy- 
 ages, exposed to all sorts of perils. He thus indicates 
 one class of these in writing to Mrs. Martyn : — 
 
 " Those nights when I lie down, in a long hut, among 
 forty or fifty naked men, cannibals — the only Christian 
 on the island — that is the time, Sophy, to pour out the 
 heart in prayer and supplication, that they — those dark 
 wild heathens about me — may be turned from Satan to 
 God." 
 
 The year 1862 was remarkable for a voyage in a 
 chartered vessel, the "Sea-breeze," in which various islands 
 of the Solomon and New Hebrides groups were visited, 
 and frequent landings made on the island of Santa Cruz 
 at points where they had not landed before. The natives 
 are very ingenious — carving elaborate arrows, and as 
 elaborately poisoning them ; but the bishop met only 
 with kindness and attention. 
 
 " Two or three of the men took off little ornaments 
 and gave them to me ; one bright pretty boy especially
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 339 
 
 I remember, who took off his shell necklace and put it 
 round my neck, making me understand, partly by words, 
 but more by signs, that he was afraid to come now, but 
 would do so if I returned, as I said, in eight or ten 
 moons. Large baskets of almonds were given me, and 
 other food also thrown into the boat. I made a poor 
 return by giving some fish-hooks and a tomahawk to the 
 man whom I took to be the person of most consequence. 
 On shore the women came freely up to me among the 
 crowd, but they were afraid to venture down to the 
 beach. Now, this is the island about which we have 
 long felt a great difficulty as to the right way of obtain- 
 ing any communication with the natives. This year, why 
 and how I cannot tell, the way was opened beyond all 
 expectation." 
 
 At Leper's Island and Malanta, at Misial and at 
 Ysabel, such pleasant days were likewise spent ; and even 
 at Tikopia, where the people are very powerful in person 
 and unmanageable in spirit, a good impression was made. 
 In November the bishop returned to Kohimarama, and 
 immediately set about the work there. He congratu- 
 lates himself on the increased openings for mission sta- 
 tions, and though he felt the lack of workers, he was full 
 of hope that the Banks Archipelago would soon supply 
 a working staff. One of his great ideas, indeed, was to 
 form centres for independent native missionary effort — 
 having become more and more convinced that the Mel- 
 ancsians would be the most efificient missionaries to each
 
 340 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESOX. 
 
 Other. Hence the concern with which he now warned 
 those at home about the " right men " for his staff, know- 
 ing that any false ideas imported from home would have 
 a very alien influence on the natives. Here is one 
 passage in which we gather up his oft-repeated convic- 
 tions on this head : — 
 
 "You know I have long felt that there is harm done 
 by trying to make these islanders like English people. 
 All that is needed for decency and propriety in the 
 arrangements of houses, in dress, &c., we must get them 
 to adopt, but they are to be Melanesian, not English, 
 Christians. We are so far removed from them in matters 
 not at all necessarily connected with Christianity, that 
 unless we can denationalise ourselves and eliminate all 
 that belongs to us as English, and not as Christians, we 
 cannot be to them what a well-instructed countryman 
 may be. He is nearer to them. They understand him. 
 He brings the teaching to them in a practical and in- 
 telligible form 
 
 " I solve the difficulty in Melanesian work by saying, 
 * Use Melanesians.' I tell people plainly I don't want 
 white men. ... I have no intention of taking any more 
 from England, Australia, or New Zealand. I sum it 
 thus : they cost about ten times as much as the Melane- 
 sian (literally), and but a very small proportion do the 
 work as well." 
 
 The carrying out of this principle of equality, however, 
 was one so surrounded with difficulties that only a man
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON: 341 
 
 like Bishop Patteson — patient, trustful, affectionate, and 
 winning men by his affection — could possibly have 
 succeeded in it ; and it was above all necessary, in view 
 of this, that he should be supported and assisted not only 
 by men like-minded, but men constitutionally gifted with 
 patience, prudence, and common sense, almost equal to 
 his own. Hence it was that, in writing home, he got 
 into a habit of discouraging the sending out of helpers ; 
 but still, at the same time, urging on his friends the pecu- 
 liar qualities required in any who should come. 
 
 In another place he thus signalises other qualities 
 most necessary in the men who should be chosen to 
 join such a work as his. And his words may be held to 
 have a value for all missionaries at work amongst the 
 heathen : — 
 
 " Men are needed who have what I may call strong 
 religious common sense to adapt Christianity to the 
 wants of the various nations that live in Melanesia, with- 
 out compromising any truth of doctrine or principle of 
 conduct ; men who can see in the midst of the errors 
 and superstitions of a people whatever fragment of truth 
 or symptom of a yearning after something better may 
 exist among them, and make that the poiJit d'appui upon 
 which they may build up the structure of Christian 
 teaching. Men, moreover, of industry, they must be, 
 for it is useless to talk of * picking up languages.' Of 
 course, in a few days a man may learn to talk super- 
 ficially and inaccurately on a few subjects ; but to teach
 
 3; 2 JOHN- COLERIDGE PATTESON, 
 
 Christianity a man must know the language well, and 
 this is learnt only by hard work." 
 
 He was harassed with the idea that his perpetual 
 voyaging from place to place was a great cause of loss 
 of influence with his boys ; and on this point he thus 
 touchingly expresses himself: — 
 
 " The main difficulty remains of retaining our hold 
 upon boys. Oh, that I could live permanently in twenty 
 islands at once ! But I can't do so on even one ; and 
 all the letter-writing and accounts, and worst of all, 
 the necessity for being trustee for matters not a bit con- 
 nected with Melanesia, because there is no one else, 
 interferes sadly with my time. I think I could work 
 away with the languages, &c., and really do something 
 with these fellows, but I never get a chance. I never 
 have two days together which I can spend exclu- 
 sively at Melanesian work. And I ought to have 
 nothing whatever to distract me. Twenty languages 
 calling for arrangement and comparison cause con- 
 fusion enough." 
 
 But in spite of all this, he is able to record as the 
 result of the work of 1862 : — 
 
 " We have never had so satisfactory a set of scholars. 
 Out of twenty-eight (exclusive of three native teachers), 
 only one, who has been an invalid almost all the 
 summer, is unable to read and write. The first class 
 (which indeed should, by rights, be subdivided) consists 
 of nine. All may be regarded as catechumens. I
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESOiV. 343 
 
 should not hesitate to baptize them at once, if attacked 
 with sudden illness, for example." 
 
 Another confession of a somewhat singular kind we 
 also came on at this time, of which some record may 
 here be made, for it is exceedingly characteristic of the 
 bishop. 
 
 '* I am less shy than I was, and with real gentlemen 
 feel no difficulty in discussing points on which we differ. 
 It is the vulgar, uneducated fellow that beats me. The 
 Melanesians, laugh as you may at it, are naturally 
 gentlemanly and courteous and well-bred. I never saw 
 a 'gent' in Melanesia, though not a few downright 
 savages. I vastly prefer the savages." 
 
 He found so many demands made on his time by 
 indifferent matters while in New Zealand, that already 
 he felt, as a strong inducement to transfer the school 
 from New Zealand within the tropics, the hope of 
 escaping from some of the unnecessary worry and con- 
 sultation. What he wrote later, in 1865, would so far 
 express the feeling that very often visited him now. 
 
 " Sometimes I do feel tempted to long for Curtis 
 Island, merely to get away from New Zealand. I feel 
 as if I should never do anything here. Everything is 
 in arrears. I turn out of a morning, and really don't 
 know what to take at first. Then just as I am in the 
 middle of a letter, down comes some donkey to take 
 up a quarter of an hour (lucky if not an hour) with 
 idle nonsense ; then in the afternoon an invasion of
 
 344 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 visitors, which is worst of all. That fatal invention of 
 ' calling ! ' " 
 
 Of his manner of life at Kohimarama at this time he 
 thus tells his sisters, with a little of the quiet humour that 
 he was wont to throw across dull and ordinary routine — 
 
 " Up at five, when I go round and pull the blankets, 
 not without many a joke, off the sleeping boys ; many of 
 the party are already up and washing. Then just before 
 prayers I go to the kitchen and see that all is ready for 
 breakfast. Prayers at 5.45 in English, Mota, Bauro, &c., 
 beginning with a Mota hymn, and ending with the 
 Lord's Prayer in English. Breakfast immediately after : 
 at our table, Mr. Pritt, Mr. Kerr, and young Atkin, who 
 has just joined us. At the teachers' table, five Norfolk 
 Islanders, Edward (a Maori), five girls, and two of their 
 husbands, and the three girls being placed at the table 
 because they are girls ; Melanesians at the other three 
 tables indiscriminately." 
 
 The new " Southern Cross," procured mainly by the 
 efforts of Mr. Keble and Dr. Moberly, arrived on the 
 28th of February 1863, and was found every way well 
 suited for her purpose. He thus announced her arrival 
 to Miss Yonge : — 
 
 " The ' Southern Cross ' arrived safely this morning, 
 thanks to God ! What it is to us even you can hardly 
 tell ; I know not how to pour out my thankfulness. She 
 seems admirably adapted for the work. Mr. Tilly's 
 report of her performance is most satisfactory : safe, fast,
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTE50N. 345 
 
 steers well, and very manageable. Internal arrange- 
 ments very good ; after-cabin too luxurious 3 but then 
 that may be wanted for sick folk ; and as it is luxu- 
 rious, why I shall get a soft bed, and take to it very 
 kindly." 
 
 It must have been a proud moment to the bishop 
 when he set out in his first trial voyage in the new ship, 
 bearing his own flag — the mitre and Southern Cross con- 
 stellation in gold on a blue field — an ensign the natives 
 soon began to know and welcome and look for. 
 
 But the joy that was felt over this event was soon 
 dashed by a distressing visitation which carried off 
 several of the native lads. Miss Yonge thus indicates 
 its nature : — 
 
 "Whether it was from the large numbers, or the 
 effect of the colder climate, or from what cause could 
 not be told, but a frightful attack of dysentery fell upon 
 the Melanesians, and for several weeks suffering prevailed 
 among them. How Bishop Patteson tended them during 
 this time can be better guessed than described. Arch- 
 deacon Lloyd, who came to assist in the cares of the 
 small party of clergy, can find no words to express the 
 devotion with which the bishop nursed them, comforting 
 and supporting them, never shrinking from the most 
 repulsive offices, even bearing out the dead silently at 
 night, lest the others should see and be alarmed. Still 
 no mail, except during the voyages, had ever left New 
 Zealand without a despatch for home ; and time was
 
 346 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 snatched in the midst of all this distress for greetings in 
 the same beautiful, minute, clear hand as usual." 
 
 In a letter home, at this trying time, he says : " Since 
 this day fortnight I have scarce slept night or day, but 
 by snatching an hour here and there ; others are working 
 quite as hard, and all the good points of our Melanesiaii 
 staff are brought out, as you may suppose." 
 
 Six of the children were taken thus — the last one 
 Soaiman, "a dear lad, one of the Banks Islanders, 
 about ten or twelve years old." By him, at the last, 
 Bishop Patteson knelt, closing the eyes in death. " I 
 can see his mother's face now," he writes. " What will 
 she say to me, she who knows not the Christian's life in 
 death ? . . . I washed him, and laid him out as usual 
 in a linen sheet. How white it looked ! So much more 
 simple and touching than the coffin— the form just dis- 
 cernible as it lay where five had lain before." 
 
 It can easily be imagined how severe would be the 
 trial of visiting the relatives of the deceased islanders 
 on the next voyage ; but that was got over with less pain 
 than might have been expected; for in the hearts of 
 most of them the seed of Christian faith had struck 
 root and grown — one father at Mota saying to him, " It 
 is all well, bishop \ he died well. I know you did all 
 you could ; it is all well." And fresh scholars came 
 from these islands in plenty. 
 
 "At Aruas, the small island close to Valua, from 
 which dear Sosaman came, it was just the same," he
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 347 
 
 tells US ; " rather different at the west side of Vanua Lava, 
 where they did not behave so well, and where (as I 
 heard afterwards) there had been some talk of shooting 
 me; but nothing occurred while I was on shore with 
 them to alarm me." 
 
 Their landings, never wholly without risk, now became 
 at some points so dangerous that many men would 
 have altogether desisted from going ashore. 
 
 The death of Sosaman and the other scholars practi- 
 cally re-opened the question whether New Zealand would 
 be a safe residence for the great body of Melanesian 
 youth, and it was decided in the negative. A visit to 
 Melbourne, Sydney, and other places, enabled the bishop 
 to make appeal for aid towards establishing another 
 station, which did not pass without response ; and plans 
 were formed to transfer the school to a healthy and 
 well-watered part of Curtis Island, east of Queensland. 
 This was mainly fixed on with the idea of native Aus- 
 tralians also being taken to the mission station. But 
 though Curtis Island was visited, it was not found pos- 
 sible to leave a party there then to try the experiment j 
 and the '* Southern Cross " sailed to Santa Cruz, to meet 
 that fatal attack in Graciosa Bay, which in its results 
 stands out a mournful episode in the life of Bishop 
 Patteson. The party were shot at, and three of them 
 severely wounded with arrows. 
 
 Mr. Whytehead thus describes the appearance of the 
 boat when it reached the vessel : —
 
 348 /C/AV COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 "Stretched beneath the thwarts, his face looking 
 deathly white, and with the broken end of a large arrow 
 protruding from his bare breast, lay poor Pearce, groan- 
 ing heavily. On one thwart sat Edwin Nobbs with 
 another broken arrow sticking in his cheek; whilst 
 Fisher Young tried to smile, in spite of the agony of an 
 arrow which had transfixed his wrist. Atkin and Chris- 
 tian, the uninjured ones of the crew, were working the 
 boat, whilst Bishop Patteson, a look of inexpressible 
 grief upon his beautiful features, was directing the pro- 
 ceedings." 
 
 Tetanus or lock-jaw supervened, and Fisher Young 
 and Edwin Nobbs died in great agony ; whilst Pearce, 
 whose wound had been the worst, completely recovered. 
 Young and Nobbs were Norfolk Islanders, "two of the 
 most beautiful characters," says Mr. Whytehead, " I ever 
 met ; and were to the bishop as the apple of his eye." 
 For the former, indeed, the bishop had all the affection 
 of a father; he loved all the scholars, but he loved 
 Fisher Young in quite a peculiar way, as he thus in- 
 dicates in a touching note to his sister : — 
 
 " But, my dear Fan, Fisher most of all supplied to me 
 the absence of earthly relations and friends. He was 
 my boy ; I loved him as, I think, I never loved any one 
 else. I don't mean more than you all, but in a different 
 way ; not as one loves another of equal age, but as, a 
 parent loves a child I can hardly think of my little 
 room at Kohimarama without him. I long for the sight
 
 TOIIN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 349 
 
 of his dear face, the sound of his voice. It was my 
 delight to teach him." 
 
 And shortly afterwards he wrote in this strain : — 
 
 "Oh, how I think with such ever-increasing love of 
 dear Fisher and Edwin ! How I praised God for them 
 on All Saints' day ! But I don't expect to recover 
 spring and elasticity yet awhile. I don't think I ever 
 shall feel so young again." 
 
 It was a relief to the bishop on this occasion to reach 
 home, to find some rest and recruitment ; for the un- 
 usual strain and incessant tax on his energies had tried 
 him greatly. And well pleased he must have been to 
 find that his helpers were always so assiduous in his 
 absences. During the year 1865 a great advance was 
 made in the industrial department of the mission work. 
 About seventeen acres of land were taken in hand and 
 worked by Mr. Pritt, with the Melanesian lads. "We 
 have our own dairy of thirteen cows," he says, "and, 
 besides supplying the whole mission party, numbering in 
 all seventy-seven persons, with abundance of milk, we 
 sell considerable quantities of butter. We grow, of 
 course, our own potatoes and vegetables and maize, &c., 
 for our cows. The farm and dairy work affords another 
 opportunity for teaching our young people to acquire 
 habits of industry." 
 
 In the end of 1865 an official offer of a station on 
 Norfolk Island was made ; and though Curtis Island had 
 not ceased to be thought of, the offer was all the more
 
 3SO JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 readily embraced in that the bishop's mind had for some 
 time been made up on the expediency of a change to a 
 place which was likely to suit both English and tropical 
 constitutions alike, and he hoped to make the experiment 
 the ensuing winter with Mr. Palmer and a small body of 
 scholars ; Norfolk Island being not only six hundred 
 miles nearer to the Melanesian Islands than Auckland, 
 but these the six hundred cold and boisterous miles that 
 must be weathered at the end of each return voyage. 
 
 This change to Norfolk Island was charged with great 
 issues for the mission ; and on going back there the 
 bishop must have been delighted to see the progress that 
 had been made in the way of clearing and preparing by 
 the party who had been left under Mr. Palmer : and, the 
 time being come, he proceeded on to the Mota settle- 
 ment, full of hope. Here he was absorbed in the 
 scheming out of a Christian village — a long-cherished 
 idea of his own, which had been happily met by a 
 suggestion of George Sarawia, one of the earliest and 
 best of the Banks pupils who had been ordained ; and 
 this was varied by quiet work of several kinds. " How 
 he read, wrote, or did anything, is the marvel, with the 
 hut constantly crowded by men who had nothing to do 
 but gather round, in suffocating numbers, to stare at his 
 pen travelling over the paper. ... It is useless," he 
 says, "to talk about it, and one must humour them, or 
 they will think I am vexed with them. The scholars, 
 neatly clothed, with orderly and industrious habits, were
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 35: 
 
 no small contrast, but I miss as yet the link between 
 them and the resident heathen people." 
 
 He has, however, one cause for gladness that might 
 well surprise students and dignitaries at home. He can 
 congratulate himself that now he does not need to take 
 any trouble about cooking, having got from England a 
 supply of preserved meats, which leaves him freer for the 
 pleasant occupation, for an hour or so each day, in 
 clearing away the bush, that in one year grows up 
 surprisingly here. But he adds quaintly, " I can make 
 myself all sorts of good things, if I choose to take the 
 trouble, and some days I do so. I bake a liitle bread 
 now and then, and flatter myself it is uncommonly 
 good." A beautiful property, between Veverao and 
 Maligo, of some ten acres, was chosen for the site of the 
 village; and the intricate affair of settling with some 
 sixteen different owners having been got over, the 
 business of clearing and building was set about ener- 
 getically. Then, having seen a start made, with George 
 Sarawia established as head of the village, he departs on 
 his voyage among the islands; and now we first get 
 definitive hints of the evils being done by that semi- 
 legalised slave-trade between the South-Sea Islands and 
 New Caledonia and the white settlers in Fiji. The 
 bishop writes : — 
 
 " I have made a little move in the matter. I wrote to 
 a Wesleyan missionary in Fiji (Ovalau) who sent us 
 some books. I am told ihat Government sanctions
 
 352 JOH\^ COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 natives being brought upon agreement to work for pay, 
 &c., and passage home in two years. We know the 
 impossibility of making contracts with New Hebrides or 
 Solomon natives. It is a mere sham, an evasion of some 
 law — passed, I dare say, without any dishonourable 
 intention — to procure colonial labour. If necessary, I 
 will go to Fiji or anywhere to procure information. But 
 I saw a letter in a Sydney paper which spoke strongly and 
 properly of the necessity of the most stringent rules to pre- 
 vent the white settlers from injuring the coloured men." 
 Though Bishop Patteson had followed his own 
 judgment on two decided points — the removal to 
 Norfolk Island, and the use of the Mota language 
 instead of English, and did not repent having done so 
 — yet still the being left with none to whom to look up 
 to as an authority was a heavy trial and strain on mind 
 and body, and brought on another stage in that pre- 
 mature age that the climate and constant toil were 
 bringing upon him when most men are still in the 
 fulness of their strength ; and this notwithstanding that 
 the party were in excellent health, and the land found 
 to be so productive that it was hoped they would 
 very soon have an export ; whilst as to the adoption 
 of the language of Mota, he could say that it was 
 beginning to be a very fair channel for communi- 
 cating accurate theological teaching, they having to 
 a large extent made it so by assigning deeper meanings 
 to existing words.
 
 JOim COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 353 
 
 Other departments of mission work did not pause. 
 In July 1868 — though an outbreak of typhus in several of 
 the islands had given great concern, carried off some of the 
 scholars, and tried the bishop much — he tells us " they 
 have now in Mota, in print, St. Luke and the Acts, and soon 
 will have St. John, which is all ready ; the Prayer-Book, 
 save some of the Psalms, and a few other small portions ; 
 and in manuscript they have a kind of manual of the 
 Catechism, abstracts of the books of the Old Testament, 
 papers on prophecy, &c. All this work, once done in Mota, 
 is, without very much labour, to be transferred into Bauro, 
 Mahaga, Mara, &c., as I hope, but that is in the future." 
 
 The stations on Norfolk Island and at Mota formed 
 excellent resting-points for the bishop, and lightened his 
 labours materially, so far as the sea-voyaging was con- 
 cerned. But he knew no real rest Wherever he was, 
 there were others to be cared for, and he was instant in 
 season and out of season. What ominously varies the 
 record of his work during the last two years, is that 
 running protest against the nefarious kidnapping which 
 went on more and more as the demand for labour 
 increased in Fiji and Queensland, and towards which 
 Government seemed to be supine, or indeed wholly 
 indifferent. In November 1869, the bishop writes : — 
 
 '* I know of no case of actual violence in the Banks 
 Islands, but in every case they took people away under 
 false pretences, asserting that tlie ' bishop is ill and 
 can't come, and he has sent us to bring you to iiim ;' or
 
 354 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 ' the bishop is in Sydney ; he broke his leg getting into 
 his boat, and has sent us to take you to him,' &c. In 
 most places, where any of our young people happened to 
 be on the shore, they warned their companions against 
 these men, but not always with success." 
 
 The knowledge of this must have added considerably 
 to the bishop's sense of danger ; but he had self-control 
 enough to exhibit no trace of fear, and went from island 
 to island with the same frank, trustful bearing as before. 
 Some time before this he had written these words, which 
 now required strictest practical illustration, though it was 
 wonderful how he still managed to restrain all show of 
 suspicion or timidity : — 
 
 " I must not forget that I have some islands to visit in 
 the next month or two where the people are very wild, 
 so that I, of all people, have least reason to speculate 
 about what I may hope to do a year hence. The real 
 anxiety is in the making up my own mind whether or not 
 I ought to lower the boat in such a sea-way ; whether or 
 not I ought to swim ashore among these fellows crowded 
 there on the narrow beach." 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever that the additional 
 anxiety which these circumstances caused him did much 
 to bring on such depression and ill-health as led his 
 friends, who deemed that his case was worse than he had 
 represented it, to urge him to come home to England for 
 a short furlough, that he might procure proper medical 
 aJvice. But to this he would not listen, and replies : —
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PAT TE SON. 355 
 
 "I should gain nothing by having medical advice 
 there. I am quite satisfied that I know what is the 
 matter with me, and the way to treat my malady ; and 
 the voyages and the life in England, and the climate, 
 would be all much against my health. And I get on 
 very well again now. Humanly speaking, I may do a 
 good deal of work yet, rather in a quieter way perhaps 
 than of old ; but then I need not have any more 
 adventures, except in one or two places, perhaps, like 
 Santa Cruz. That stage of the mission is past in a good 
 many islands, and I can devolve some part of it on my 
 really excellent and very dear friends and helpers in 
 the other islands. Brooke and Atkin (both in priests' 
 orders) spend three months in their respective fields of 
 work on the Solomon Islands, among wild fellows (still 
 practising, at times, cannibalism) ; and when you can 
 get fellows to do this cheerily and making nothing of 
 it, doing it as a matter of course, you may feel pretty 
 sure you have fellows of the right stuff." 
 
 So he went on, pursuing his regular round of work, 
 now at Norfolk Island, teachi ng theology and aiding in 
 the various crafts there practised ; again at Mota, and 
 helping in farm work, and once more moving from 
 island to island and reef to reef, bringing off his boys, 
 and later in the year landing them again ; whilst his 
 helpers were finding access to Tikopian giants, who had 
 visited them at Mota, and otherwise forwarding the 
 work. Santa Cruz caused him much concern ; but at
 
 356 JOHN COLERIDGE PAITESON. 
 
 Nukapu, in 1870, he is well received, the women 
 dancing in his honour and giving small presents. The 
 people, when they came on board, asked, "Where is 
 Bisambe?" He replies, "Here I am." "No, no," say 
 they ; " the Bisambe hiai (of old) : your maiua (father). 
 Is he below? Why doesn't he come up with some 
 hatchets ? " — showing that they well remembered Bishop 
 Selwyn and the former visit. 
 
 On October nth he makes this record : — 
 " A topsail schooner in sight between Ambrym and 
 Paama — one of those kidnapping vessels. I have any 
 amount of (to me) conclusive evidence of downright 
 kidnapping. But I don't think I could prove any case 
 in a Sydney court. They have no names painted on 
 some of their vessels, and the natives can't catch nor 
 pronounce the names of the white men on board." 
 
 On April 27th, 1871, he started on his last voyage. 
 Mota was visited ; then came a cruise among the 
 islands of the New Hebrides t,roup ; after that a few 
 weeks back at Mota, baptizing children, &c. ; and then 
 on to the Santa Cruz group. Almost everywhere were 
 tokens of the kidnapper — some of the islands were half 
 depopulated ; and now the bishop began to realise the 
 necessity and the prudence of " not going near the 
 islands, unless we have a good breeze, and can get away 
 from the fleets of canoes, if we see reason for so doing." 
 As they approached Nukapu, that "lay with the blue 
 waves breaking over the circling reef, the white line of
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE P ATT 1. SON. 357 
 
 coral sand and the trees coming down to it," the bishop 
 liad spoken to them on the death of St. Stephen. He 
 had collected many presents to take ashore, and, going 
 into the boat, pulled towards the canoes. The men in 
 them seemed undecided what to do. When, however, 
 he offered to go ashore they assented, and the boat 
 having gone on to a part of the reef, some of the men 
 proposed to take the bishop into their canoe. As he 
 found the entering of their canoes a good means of dis- 
 arming suspicion, he complied ; but soon after he heard 
 the ominous word tabu, or warning, and yams and fruits 
 were presented to him, no doubt in the hope that he 
 vrould, according to their superstition, touch something 
 tabu, and thus justify their striking him. The bishop, hav- 
 ing waded through the surf, landed on the beach, and he 
 was lost to the sight of the crew of the boat, which was 
 now drifting about among the canoes. But suddenly a 
 man in one of the canoes stood up and shot one of their 
 yard-long arrows toward the boat, and his companions in 
 other two canoes immediately did the same, calling out 
 as they aimed, " This for New Zealand man ! This for 
 Bauro man ! This for Mota man ! " Before the boat 
 could be pulled back all were wounded, and with 
 difficulty they made their way to the ship. No sooner, 
 however, had an arrow-head been extracted from Mr. 
 Atkin's shoulder, giving him intense pain, than he, as 
 being the only one who knew the way by which the reef 
 could be crossed in the rising tide, went with some others
 
 358 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 in search of the bishop. As they were trying to cross 
 the reef a canoe came towards them, " with a heap in 
 the middle," and when they met it the two words " the 
 body " passed, and it was lifted into the boat, rolled in 
 the native mat. "The placid smile was still on the 
 face ; there was a palm-leaf fastened over the breast, and 
 when the mat was opened there were five wounds — no 
 more," — these having been given by clubs. 
 
 Joseph Atkin, the son of a settler, who was only 
 twenty-nine, but had already done great service, and 
 Stephen Taroniara, a native of Tanna, who was twenty- 
 five, followed their master ; but it was their lot, unlike 
 his, to pass through prolonged tortures before death 
 delivered them. 
 
 So passed Bishop Patteson and his followers; martyrs 
 to the woful cupidity of civilised men ! From the 
 wounds and other indications on the bishop's body, it 
 was clear that his death was the vengeance for five of 
 the natives carried away. But it may be that his 
 mournful death will further the Gospel in Melanesia 
 more than his life would have done. Year by year, the 
 scholars he taught will return to tell what his objects 
 were ; what he wrought and prayed and died for ; and 
 his story, in not far-distant days, when communication 
 between the islands shall have become easier, will work 
 as with a charmed power upon the hearts of the people. 
 " Poor Santa Cruz people ! " said Fisher Young when 
 dying ; and may we not say of the bishop what he then
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PA7TES0N. 359 
 
 said to his disciple, ** My dear boy, you will do more for 
 their conversion by your death than ever we shall by our 
 lives " ? And yet how can we but mourn the close ? 
 He seemed as if born for the work he had undertaken. 
 He was so patient, so humble, with such power to elicit 
 the best in those he came in contact with, and, above 
 all, so full of faith and hope. In him what is best in 
 the English gentleman had received consecration : he 
 was manly, catholic-minded, and with that pre-eminent 
 care and consideration for others, which, apart from 
 Christian influence, is so apt to degenerate into senti- 
 mental weakness. He was at once tender and self-reliant, 
 scorning all noise and pretence so sincerely that, though 
 *' they bothered him to put anecdotes of adventures into 
 his Reports, he could not do it ; " yet so appreciative 
 was he of good intentions in those by whom he was 
 surrounded, that soon in his honest conception they 
 came to surpass him. Any little narrowness that may be 
 detected in him, he may be said to have inherited, and, 
 with genuine Christian manliness, he rose above most of 
 these, realising an ideal of priestly service such as has 
 been exhibited by only a few men in any generation. 
 
 His character is not of the kind that tempts to 
 analysis. His greatness lay in a few very simple 
 elements. He was above all sincere, and whilst he 
 held the faith fast, he never subsided into the mere 
 dogmatist. His humanity was too broad, and his heart 
 too tender for tliat. His respect and love for the
 
 36o JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON. 
 
 missionaries — Presbyterian and other — wb® had found a 
 sphere in the islands of the South Pacific, and his 
 brotherly conduct towards them, will mark him out with 
 the greater honour the more that his contact with them 
 is made known. Besides his kind attentions to Mr. 
 Paton at Tanna, to Mr. Geddie at Anaiteum, and to the 
 poor bereaved women at Fate, which Miss Yonge has 
 recorded, there is that striking incident at Api which 
 surpasses them all Two Raratongan teachers and their 
 wives had been settled on that island, and had fallen 
 under the anger of the fierce shore tribes. The men 
 died or were put to death, and the women escaped to 
 the hills. Bishop Patteson, touching at the island and 
 hearing of their fate, made his way to the hills, and, in 
 face of risk and danger, found them out, offering them 
 a passage in his vessel. This they unwisely declined, 
 fearing that the crew of the John Williams^ when she 
 came, would be disappointed at not finding them. They 
 had suffered much already ; the bishop urged that they 
 might suffer more and worse trials : but they would not 
 go with him. And they did suffer. They Hved as they 
 could for a while on yams and taro or such fare as they 
 could find, and then they sold garment after garment to 
 the natives for food, till only one was left, and with that 
 they would not part, to go dressed in the mat of the 
 native women — they said they would die rather. They 
 were reduced almost to skeletons before they were 
 relieved by their own mission-ship.
 
 JOHN COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 36t 
 
 This incident brings out Bishop Patteson's rare sym- 
 pathy and fearlessness in the strongest light. To do 
 such a thing was with him a matter of every day, was 
 felt by him to be no more than duty, and it has found no 
 record in his life ; but it was a piece of heroism such as 
 has made many men famous, and such as there is but 
 occasional room for even in a soldier's life. 
 
 In thinking over the main details of such a life, filled 
 with constant effort and self-denial, one is apt enough 
 unconsciously to fall into the idea that much must have 
 been owing to mere strength of constitution — to good 
 spirits springing from abounding health and muscular 
 strength. But it may surprise some to know that in spite 
 of fine physical development, Bishop Patteson was never 
 what could be called strong. He often suffered ; and was 
 very sensitive to colds, as Miss Yonge incidentally tells 
 us in her very striking portrait of him : — 
 
 " He was tall and powerful of frame, broad in the 
 chest and shoulders, and with small neat hands and feet, 
 with more of sheer muscular strength and power of 
 endurance than of healthiness ; so that, though seldom 
 breaking down, and capable of undergoing a great deal 
 of fatigue and exertion, he was often slightly ailing, and 
 was very sensitive to cold. His complexion was very 
 dark, and there was a strongly marked line between the 
 cheeks and mouth, the corners of which drooped when at 
 rest, so that it was a countenance peculiarly difficult to 
 photograph successfully. The most striking feature was
 
 362 JOnx COLERIDGE PA TTESON. 
 
 his eyes, which were of a very dark, clear blue, full of 
 unusually deep, earnest, and, so to speak, inward yet far- 
 away expression. His smile was remarkably bright, 
 sweet, and affectionate, like a gleam of sunshine, and 
 was one element of his great attractiveness. So was his 
 voice, which had the rich, full sweetness inherited from 
 his mother's family, and which always exerted a winning 
 influence over the hearers." 
 
 The following sonnet from the pen of one of our 
 truest poets and most philanthropic women (now, alas ! 
 gone from us), may not unfitly close our sketch of this 
 great and earnest missionary : — 
 
 BISHOP PATTESON. 
 
 An angel came and cried to him by night, 
 
 *' God needs a martyr from thy little band ; 
 Name me the purest soul, that, closely scanned. 
 
 Still overflows with sweetness and with light, 
 That finds no limit till they reach the Land 
 
 Where their spring rose!" Weeping for what must be^ 
 He named them all, with love adorning each ; 
 
 And still that angel smiled upon his speech. 
 And, smiling still, went upward silently, 
 
 Not marking any name. Amazed he knelt. 
 Discerning not the truth. But when the stroke 
 
 Fell, not an angel, but the Master spoke 
 With words so strong that nothing else was felt, 
 
 " Thou art the man 1 Beloved, come to Me ! " 
 
 M. B. S.
 
 ( 363 ) 
 
 JOHN G. FEE AND THE FREEDMEN OF 
 AMERICA. 
 
 IN the year 1843 a young man, the son of a Kentuckian 
 slaveholder, ventured to question the riglit of a 
 Christian to hold slaves. He had been educated for 
 the Church, and a distinguished career seemed to await 
 him. Nothing but obloquy and loss was likely to result 
 to him from the adoption of such views. Nevertheless 
 he persisted in the course he had marked out for himself. 
 His father at first refused him the house, and finally 
 disinherited him. The public influence in Kentucky 
 was against him, and when, coincidently with his father's 
 ahenation from him, his consequent sorrow, and yet 
 more sacred devotion of himself to the cause of the slave, 
 he heard of the efforts that the Tappans and their friends 
 were making in the North to found a missionary society 
 chiefly to aid and to teach the bondmen, he gladly cast 
 in his lot with theirs. The American Missionary Society, 
 whose remarkable progress we now mean to trace, was 
 the result of the association. It was founded in 1846,
 
 364 JOHX G. FEE. 
 
 and shortly after its foundation John G. Fee, the disin- 
 herited, became its leading agent. He travelled from 
 end to end of the country, ceaselessly active in his 
 endeavours to stir up others to an interest in the good 
 cause. He wisely adopted the colportage plan, and 
 found proper agents ; and was certainly one of the main 
 instruments in making this society the great influence it 
 has become. That we are right in naming it " a great 
 influence " will be manifest by a very brief glance at the 
 facts. 
 
 When the American Missionary Society was founded, 
 the slaveholding interests were powerful enough to 
 modify political action in all directions. The slave- 
 holders seemed to have agents everywhere, and to 
 exercise a sort of ubiquitous revenge. It was no plea- 
 sant matter to be an anti-slavery man in the United 
 States then : life itself was sometimes endangered. The 
 stores of the Tappans were several times mobbed, and 
 the men themselves assaulted. Daniel Worth and Gerrit 
 Smith fared hardly better, and John Brown, an early 
 friend of the society, became a martyr to the cause. 
 And when at length, after great struggles, apparently 
 resultless, public opinion had ripened to such a degree 
 that it seemed as if the federal Government was about 
 to curtail the slaveholding power, the slaveholders them- 
 selves arose, as if by an irony of Providence, only to 
 precipitate the downfall of their system amidst unprece- 
 dented bloodshed. Two millions of men fell in that
 
 JOHX G. FEE. 365 
 
 grievous war : by it four and a half millions of men and 
 women who had been doomed to a worse than Egyptian 
 bondage — bought and sold like cattle in the market-place 
 — were set free. 
 
 " They came up poor, homeless, naked, and in want 
 "Tjf all things. It was a touching sight to see them 
 coming, in motley crowds, around the military camp, 
 mothers carrying a child, and not unfrequently two 
 children, in their arms ; strong men bearing the decrepid 
 and aged on their shoulders, believing that, as Israel of 
 old, they were to be led by the Lord through the wilder- 
 ness — to the promised land — to a higher and better life." 
 And then it was seen by what providential discipline of 
 patient waiting and working the American societies, but 
 more especially the American Missionary Society, had 
 been educated and prepared to cope with a result so 
 radical — as unprecedented, as but a short time before it 
 had been unexpected. There were not wanting at this 
 time (at what time have they been wanting since Nehe- 
 miah had to deal with them when he returned to build 
 up the walls of Jerusalem ?) good people to predict dark 
 things. They prophesied that the latter state of the poor 
 negroes would be worse than the first, that in their 
 freedom they would simply sink in grovelling idleness 
 and bestiality, and that the country would have cause to 
 regret their enfranchisement more than the most foolish 
 political measures any legislature had ever passed. They 
 had no power to govern themselves, it was urged ;
 
 366 JOHN G. FEE. 
 
 motives of self respect were lacking to them. And it 
 needs to be frankly acknowledged that from an a priori 
 point of view their opinion seemed not far wrong. Dark 
 races have so often succumbed under the freedom of 
 civilisation's blessings and vices. Race after race has 
 died out. The Indians of the Far West and the Maoris 
 of New Zealand are being decimated. The Tasmanians 
 have totally disappeared. But the Negro, if he has his 
 peculiar weaknesses, has also his peculiar strength, both 
 physical and moral, and this the prophets of evil did 
 not fully realise. That their direful prophecies have not 
 been fulfilled, but wholly falsified by the event, is owing 
 in great measure to the society best known in England 
 as the " Freedman's Aid Society," that being the name 
 given to its branch or auxiliary in our country, under 
 the presidency of Lord Shaftesbury. From the first, 
 attempts had been made by the Society to teach the 
 negroes, and to establish schools for them and their 
 children amidst unnameable difficulties. Regular day- 
 schools for freedmen had been started at several points, 
 the first being that at Hampton in Virginia, by the 
 Rev. L. C. Lockwood, in 1861. Its first mistress was 
 a coloured woman, the daughter of a white father by a 
 mulatto mother ; and though she herself had scarcely a 
 trace of colour, and was free-born, she had experienced 
 to the full the fatal prejudice which had excluded such 
 even as she was from the white schools. For never was 
 a cruel prejudice more cruelly enforced than this. No
 
 JOHN G. FEE. 367 
 
 ex-slave or child of a slave-mother was allowed to enter 
 any school where white children were taught Dr. White, 
 the secretary of the Freedman's Aid Society in this 
 country, tells us that he has seen the children of slave- 
 mothers with fair skin, light hair, and blue eyes, yet 
 these were hopelessly shut out from the white schools, 
 and doomed to the degradation of an alien race. And 
 so this first coloured school is historical. Almost on 
 the very spot where it stood, two hundred and forty 
 years before, the first slave-ship entered, and planted the 
 seed of that baleful harvest ; and that woman, the 
 representative of both races, "though by the bitter 
 logic of slavery classed with the oppressed, will be 
 remembered as the teacher of the first coloured school 
 in the slave States that had legal authority and the 
 protection of the national guns." She died within a year 
 after the school was opened, but not before many other 
 schools had sprung up over the land. 
 
 The moment emancipation was decreed, a new era 
 began. Soon the capacities of the negroes for education 
 were triumphantly demonstrated. The patient Christian 
 character which in slavery had been formed in many of 
 them presented a favourable soil on which to work. 
 They were eager to learn to read, chiefly in order that 
 the Scriptures might be opened to them, and soon the 
 more favoured intellectually began to be exercised by 
 thought of efforts for the more ignorant of their brethren. 
 The business of the society since then has rather been
 
 368 JOHN G. FEE. 
 
 to direct and to utilise a great enthusiasm than to stir it. 
 Schools and colleges have arisen over the land, and the 
 details of their work are not more interesting than some 
 of the characteristic stories told of those who by reason 
 of age cannot hope to be personally much benefited by 
 these institutions. Dr. White tells that one will often 
 see aged men and women bending over the Primer with 
 young children, studying till late at night by the light of 
 the pine-knots of the country, because they are too poor 
 to have any other light. One woman, eighty years of 
 age, worked for her board and went to school. "When 
 she had mastered the alphabet, she said, in the peculiar 
 dialect of her people, " Now let me spell de name of 
 Jesus, for it 'pears like all will be easier when I learn to 
 spell de blessed name." And it seems quite true, as Dr. 
 White says, that in the educated negro we have promise 
 of a new type of Christian character — strong in intuition, 
 simple, and full of a large-hearted practicality and hope- 
 ful faith. One anecdote that he tells will illustrate the 
 promise of this : — 
 
 In one of their churches, the poor old minister, who 
 had been a slave, and could not read, wanted some 
 deacons to aid him in his work. Two were found. 
 Then this man said, " If any one knows de reason why 
 dese bredderen may not be consecrated to dis office, he 
 shall tell of dat, and now object." An old slave man 
 rose to say, "I has to object." "What for dus you 
 object ? " says the minister. " Dem can't read," was the
 
 JOHX G. FEE. 369 
 
 reply. " Well," the minister continued, " can you read ? " 
 "No; but I wants to be led by dem dat knows more 
 dan I." The minister replied, "None of de members 
 knows to read ; dese is de best wes got, and we must 
 ask de Lord to bless dem, dat dey may help to lead de 
 people to a higher and better life." So the two knelt 
 before him, and this old sable servant of God laid 
 a hand on the head of each, kneeled down, and lifted 
 his eyes to heaven, while the tears were on his cheeks, 
 and said, " Massa Jesus, you knows wes just come out 
 of de house of bondage, dat wes a poor, ignorant, feeble 
 portion of de children of Adam, dat wes got no edica- 
 tion, but we wants to do what we can for de people, and 
 for de glory of de Lord. O dear King of de kings, now 
 help dese wes chosen for de office of deacons in dis 
 church. You knows dat dey can't read de blessed book, 
 but, Massa, deys de best wes got, and, derefore, we conse- 
 crates dem to dis office, and to de God ob de people." 
 What an appeal is in this for sympathy and aid from 
 those to whom God has given so many gifts richly to 
 enjoy ! There are thousands of these people, we hear 
 of, who are equally anxious to be prepared to do all in 
 their power for their own race, and for the cause of the 
 Master. Some of the pupils in the schools of the society 
 have reached the place of study, coming thinly clad 
 and barefooted across the frozen ground, day after day. 
 in the bleak season of the year. Often the tears will be 
 
 on their cheeks from actual suffering. Another anecdote 
 
 2 A
 
 370 JOHN G. FEE. 
 
 bearing this out is so touching that we must quote 
 it:— 
 
 Three young men, anxious to be prepared for their 
 great life-work among their own peojjle, walked four 
 hundred miles in the heat of the summer to one of the 
 colleges for coloured students, and asked to be permitted 
 to enter for a course of study. The president had to 
 tell them, with tears in his eyes, that he could not re- 
 ceive them, as there were more already in the college 
 than could be supported on the money given for that 
 purpose. They went away and consulted together, and 
 after a little came back. Then one of them said, " Take 
 this one in, and let him be educated, for he has the gifts, 
 and we will go out and work on the plantations to raise 
 the money to pay for it." But three gentlemen, having 
 heard of the case, asked what would be needed for them, 
 and when told, they furnished the money. 
 
 The manner in which the Fisk University has been 
 built and endowed, and the noble efforts of the Jubilee 
 Singers generally, are evidences known to the whole 
 wor\d of the desire of the educated negroes to benefit 
 their race. Schools and colleges of the highest class are 
 now springing up throughout the length and breadth of 
 the States, and the influence of this education is already 
 evident, socially, in the many men of colour who now 
 fill situations of trust and honour in America. The 
 society recently had at work over 60 missionaries, 200 
 teachers, and 24 matrons ; there were 56 churches in
 
 JOHN G. FEE. 371 
 
 the South, 2 among the Indians, and 7 in the foreign 
 field; it had 3601 church-members in the South, and 
 about 600 elsewhere; it had 32 schools in the South, 7 
 chartered institutions, and 17 other institutions; audit 
 had altogether nearly 10,000 pupils, while of pupils in 
 the South now taught by former pupils, there were 64,000. 
 There were nearly 5000 in the upper grades, from what 
 is designated normal, up through collegiate preparatory, 
 collegiate and law, to theological. And it is quite pos- 
 sible that the few years which have elapsed since these 
 figures were taken have seen a considerable increase. 
 
 It is clear that to carry on such a work as this a very 
 perfect machinery is required. We read in a recent 
 report, "It is estimated that from Great Britain more 
 than ;^2oo,ooo has been contributed, in money and 
 clothing, through various channels for the freedmen. 
 The American Missionary Society has shared largely in 
 the kind words that have come across the water. Its 
 representatives have been welcomed by the Congrega- 
 tional Union of England and Wales, the General Assem- 
 blies of Scotland, and also by the British and Foreign 
 Anti- Slavery Society." It is pleasant to read such words ; 
 and we hope that this country will not cool in its enthu- 
 siasm in the cause, or reduce the amount of aid that it 
 has given. Still more will be needed, and we know it 
 will be well applied in carrying forward yet wider enter- 
 prises of a truly cosmopolitan character. The movement 
 in America for the education of the negro is seen day by
 
 372 JOHN G. FEE. 
 
 day to have a more direct bearing on the great question 
 of the evangelisation of Africa. This is the way in 
 which God in His Providence works. He prepares a 
 field ; far distant from it He prepares also suitable 
 workers, and they come forward at the right moment. 
 The American Missionary Society, with the distinct pur- 
 pose of making the African a means to raise his race, 
 has in view an extension of its field by settlements at 
 places where it would be most hazardous for white men 
 to attempt it. At various points of entrance to the 
 great African field, the white missionary within a few 
 years seems almost inevitably to succumb to the climate. 
 The experience at Sierra Leone, for one place, attests 
 this. There the Church Missionary Society lost thirty 
 missionaries in twelve years ; the Wesleyan Society buried 
 forty in the same period; and ten out of seventeen 
 missionaries of the Basle Society died within two years 
 of entering on their work. The American Board, the 
 Presbyterian and Baptist Societies, have all suffered 
 severely in Africa, Hence the value of the work which 
 the American Missionary Society has done, and is doing. 
 Its aim is to send Africans to Africans — to train them to 
 true knowledge, aptness in handicrafts as well as in learn- 
 ing, and to make them the missionaries to their own race. 
 Dr. Moffat, than whom it would be hard to find a better 
 authority, said some time ago at a public meeting in 
 London, "It is utterly useless, humanly speaking, for us 
 alone to attempt to evangeUse Africa ; but in the trained
 
 JOHN G. FEE. 373 
 
 members of the African race we may look for glorious 
 results." To this conviction the missionary mind seems 
 to have conclusively come, and the character of such 
 missions as those at Lovedale and at Livingstonia suffi- 
 ciently attests it. A native ministry is the best, the 
 cheapest, and the only efficient one in such a climate. 
 And it is due to the American Missionary Society to 
 acknowledge that it was amongst the first to give practical 
 application to this idea. Every school and mission sus- 
 tained in the South not only attests the capacity of the 
 freedmen for fair intellectual acquirements, but is pro- 
 phetic of the importance that this people may become to 
 Africa as teachers and missionaries. The coloured man 
 of the South will do his part to carry the knowledge of 
 Christ across the sea. "The Little done, the Much 
 remains to do." Results so far are encouraging, and 
 show more and more clearly the best methods for the 
 future. Yet, when contrasted with the vast extent of 
 the field, but the outer borders seem to have been 
 touched. Only a few millions out of upwards of two 
 hundred millions have as yet been reached with the in- 
 fluences of Christianity. It is estimated that 75,000,000 
 in Central Africa alone have never yet heard of the 
 Saviour. Surely then, every Christian will heartily wish 
 success to the American Missionary Society, and its 
 branch best known to us, " The Freedman's Aid Society." 
 By way of a closing word, we may cite from a disin- 
 terested authority, who some time ago wrote in the New
 
 374 JOHX G. FEE. 
 
 York Nation, " I write from the feeling that, like myself, 
 the majority of the Republican rank and file at tlie 
 North have been taking too hopeless a view of Southern 
 problems. I write from that portion of South Carolina 
 which has the largest preponderance of negroes. The 
 extent to which these negroes, of all ages, have learned 
 to read and write, and their eagerness to acquire the 
 rudiments of knowledge, together with their industry, 
 docility, and their political sagacity, are no less gratify- 
 ing than surprising Under the patronage of the 
 
 American Missionary Association, normal schools of a 
 high grade, and largely attended, are maintained at nume- 
 rous centres. There is great progress in the coloured 
 churches, and they are founding theological schools of 
 their own."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 MORAVIAN MISSIONARY FACTS. 
 
 Our readers who have followed us with any interest through 
 our sketches of Oglethorpe and Zeisberger, may be interested 
 ih learning some further facts about the Moravian mission- 
 aries who have done such wonderful work with such 
 limited means. As we have said, the Moravians have 
 established missions in the West Indies, the Moskito 
 coast, Australia (among the natives), South Africa, Central 
 Asia, and Surinam, besides Labrador and Greenland, with 
 which they have been in a special sense associated. The 
 following general summary from the Year-book may here 
 be given by way of introduction to what is to follow : — 
 
 "Our Church maintained, in June 1878, ninety-six 
 mission-stations in various parts of the earth, which were 
 served by 327 mission/^.ries (of whom 34 were native) and 
 1504 native assistant?:. There were under our care 23,843 
 communicants, 49,327 baptized adults, candidates for bap- 
 tism, &c., making a total of 73,170. There were 222 Day 
 Schools, with 16,461 scholars, and 86 Sunday Schools, with 
 11,492 scholars. The income of our missions, for whicli 
 we are mainly dependent on the contributions of members 
 and friends, amounted in 1878 10^16,909, and the expendi- 
 ture to be met by this sum to ^20,298, leaving a deficiency 
 on the year's account of ^3388. The special appeal for 
 the deficiency in 1879 (;^4959) having produced .£3623, 
 there remained in December 31, 1878, a net deficiency of 
 
 A734-
 
 376 APPENDIX. 
 
 " The sums raised annually at the various stations towards 
 the support of the work (by contributions of the members 
 or by trade, as well as special donations for school purposes) 
 are estimated at about ;^25,ooo, including the interest of 
 capitals left for the support of specific missions, Government 
 aid, «&c. ; the actual expenditure of our whole Mission work 
 in the year 1879 reached a total of about _;i^48, 000. The 
 number of brethren and sisters employed in this service 
 from its commencement 147 years ago, is about 4000." 
 
 Over and above this the congregations at various places 
 devote themselves to special branches of Home-Mission 
 work, and the figures regarding these objects do not appear 
 in this summary. For example, we read — 
 
 " The German province carries on a work of its own, in 
 addition to undertaking a share in the general liability. 
 This consists in maintaining an evangelising agency, and 
 in supporting to a great extent an orphanage at Rothwasser, 
 containing 120 children, begun by Dr. Hattwiz, in 1869, 
 on his own responsibility. The liberal help given by 
 members and friends in all the provinces towards the 
 rebuilding of this orphanage, which was nearly destroyed 
 by fire on September 17, 1873, has been most gratefully 
 acknowledged by the committee. The total contributed 
 from one province for this purpose was ^240, and the 
 entire sum expended on the new building, ^600." 
 
 With regard to the individual fields our space will allow 
 us to give but the briefest report. First, of. Greenland. It 
 is somewhat saddening to read that, in spite of the devo- 
 tion which the Moravian Brethren have shown towards 
 Greenland, and the sacrifices they have undergone for it, 
 the work does not meet with the reward that might have 
 been expected for it. Of course, the field is a very back- 
 ward one — the people are so poor that it would almost be 
 too much to expect they should do much towards the 
 support of pastors, &c., but we were sorry to read the 
 following : — 
 
 " Externally the condition of the Greenlanders has not 
 improved^ as was hoped. Hard times have been of frequent 
 occurrence, epidemics carried off great numbers in the years
 
 APPENDIX. 377 
 
 187 1-2 and 1856-7, especially in the three southern sta- 
 tions. Multiplied facilities for procuring European articles 
 of food and clothing have fostered a taste for these things, 
 which is most prejudicial to the well-being of the natives. 
 The diminished number of able-bodied men, whose labour 
 provides food for the community, partly owing to accidents 
 at sea, partly to epidemics, is a very serious drawback to 
 the general prosperity. 
 
 " Spiritually the Greenlanders show no decided improve- 
 ment, in the opinion of the missionaries, and the number 
 of exclusions for gross immorality has rather increased. 
 Whether our Greenland congregations will ever attain to a 
 capacity for self-government and self-support, the future must 
 decide : progress in that direction is exceedingly slow. The 
 native ministers employed by the Danish mission are all 
 half-Europeans, in no case pure Greenlanders. 
 
 " In 1868 there were in this field 1734 souls in charge 
 of 24 brethren and sisters ; in 1878 there were 1526, and 
 the number of missionaries was 22." * 
 
 A later report in so far explains the position and accounts 
 for it : — 
 
 " The efforts to lead the congregations to a position of 
 greater independence have met with very slight success 
 during the last ten years. In spite of the training-schools 
 at New Herrnhut and Lichtenau with a curriculum extend- 
 ing through six winter terms, it has not yet been possible 
 to obtain a supply of natives able to take the place of the 
 missionaries in the direction and service of the consreu^a- 
 tions. With regard to self-support, although some volun- 
 tary contributions towards the extension of the kingdom of 
 God have been received, yet poverty prevails so generally 
 among the natives, and no less the custom of living from 
 hand to mouth, without a notion of providing against bad 
 times, that there is little prospect of ever bringing them so 
 far as to support the mission themselves. Entirely depen- 
 dent on sealing and fishing for their means of subsistence, 
 they used to find in the former an ample provision for food 
 and clothing. The facilities of trading have led them to 
 
 * From Report of the Directing Board to the Gener.il Syno<i of 1879.
 
 378 APPENDIX. 
 
 exchange the necessaries of life for such articles of food as 
 are not adapted to their circumstances, and to abandon the 
 old fur clothing, which enabled them to brave the rigours 
 of their Arctic climate. In former times there was no lack 
 of kayaks and women's boats, for the produce of the chase 
 remained in the country. The sad result of this change of 
 circumstances is the frequent appearance of severe epidemic 
 diseases among them. Thus in 187 1-2 and 1875-6, in 
 the congregations of Lichtenau, Igdlorpait, and Frederick- 
 sthal, one-tenth of the small population died. Frequent 
 disasters at sea also carried off useful men almost every 
 year. This is especially the case at Lichtenfels, and is the 
 more to be deplored, as it is entirely the labour of the men 
 that provides for the wants of the family." 
 
 In Australia, on the contrary, much fruit is ultimately 
 promised from the seed sown. 
 
 " It is a peculiar feature that our stations here are not on 
 land belonging to the mission, but on the native reserves, 
 the control of which is in the hands of the Government. 
 Here rations are supplied through the missionaries to those 
 natives who are unable to earn their own living. At 
 Ramahyuck promising arrowroot and hop-grounds have 
 been successfully worked by the blacks for the benefit of 
 the station, while for the same object at Ebenezer some 
 sheep-farming has been carried on. A Royal Commission, 
 recently appointed to inspect the aboriginal stations, and 
 ascertain whether their results justified their continuation or 
 enlargement, expressed the opinion that a distribution of 
 the native population among the whites was preferable to 
 their collection in separate villages or settlements. A con- 
 tinuance of our work in Australia in the same manner as 
 hitherto is, therefore, by no means assured. 
 
 " During the last ten years the number of converts has 
 almost doubled, and many a sheaf of ripe corn has been 
 gathered into the garden of the Lord from seed sown in 
 faith by our brethren in this trying but interesting field of 
 missionary labour. Looking at the blessing alone which 
 God has graciously bestowed here, we were strongly desirous 
 of accepting the repeated invitations, which we have received
 
 APPENDIX. 379 
 
 of late years, to extend our operations in Australia ; but the 
 difficulties connected with the direction of a work at so 
 great a distance, and the heavy expense, far exceeding our 
 means, induced us to decline the various invitations of 
 our Christian friends in Australia." * 
 
 A few months later we read : — 
 
 " This field has not been extended since the last Synod ; 
 the same two stations, namely, Ebetwzer in the Wimmera 
 district, and Ramahyjick in Gippsland, are still our sole 
 centres of activity. They have become neat little villages, 
 with pretty churches and clean and tidy dwellings ; a 
 cursory glance at the natives here shows that 'godliness 
 is profitable unto all things.' Many of the blacks, who 
 used to lead licentious lives in their camps, have by degrees 
 gathered at our station ; and while in earlier decades 
 mortality had greatly increased, this rapid dying out of the 
 race has of late been checked, if not stopped. Children of 
 Christian parents, born at our stations, are healthier than 
 others, and the number of births has exceeded the deaths. 
 But the nation as a whole is gradually dwindling away, 
 and all friends of missions are putting forth every effort 
 in order to bring all the remaining blacks under the 
 influence of the Gospel. Consumption, resulting in a 
 great measure from their former licentious life, is the 
 disease which carries off the natives. At present it is 
 estimated that the whole black population in the colony 
 of Victoria scarcely numbers one thousand persons. Many 
 children have been entrusted to the missionaries at both 
 stations to be educated by them, and suitable buildings 
 have been erected for their accommodation." 
 
 It would, we think, be a great pity were the work of the 
 Moravians to be curtailed, or altogether stopped, through 
 the action of Government, lack of funds, or the difficulties 
 arising from the great distance from headquarters. 
 
 From the South African stations there are cheering 
 news : — 
 
 "Towards self-support progress has been made, the 
 annual contributions from the district being about .^428. 
 
 • From Rrportof the Dirtctiiig Board lo the General Synod of 1S79.
 
 38o APPENDIX. 
 
 By utilising local resources, carrying on various businesses, 
 &c., this portion of the South African province is able to 
 meet all its expenses, except the charges for journeys to 
 and from Europe. The schools are much improved, and 
 many of the teachers have received a recognition of faith- 
 ful and efficient service in the shape of a pecuniary gratuity. 
 The work of building up the churches here has continued 
 in a satisfactory manner, in spite of the serious drawback 
 lying in the circumstance that many have to earn their 
 living by labour, which takes them out of the reach of the 
 missionaries and Christian instruction for several months 
 cf the year." 
 
 The work on the Moskito coast, in spite of the greatest 
 obstacles, is encouraging : —   
 
 '•Here our brethren minister in the Gospel to 1031 
 persons belonging to our Church, of whom 528 are Indians, 
 and the rest mostly Creoles. At Blewfields some 300 
 persons in addition attend regularly, but do not join our 
 Church.- Schools have made progress in the last decade. 
 There has been no marked pressing forward towards the 
 fold of the true Shepherd on the part of the Indians ; but at 
 some places a powerful interest in the Gospel has been 
 manifested, and has lasted for some time ; this was 
 especially the case among the Tungla tribe on the Prince 
 Apolca River, and at Ephrata with its adjacent station, at 
 Kukalaya and Karata. Both of these have been com- 
 menced within the last few years, the latter in consequence 
 of the generous gift of ;^iooo of our friend, Mrs. Hall, of 
 Bristol, who had previously devoted some years of her 
 life to missionary work in the Moskito territory in co-nnec- 
 tion with our brethren, 
 
 " Political disquietude, in consequence of Nicaragua's 
 attempts to obtain possession of the Moskito country, since 
 Great Britain withdrew from the protectorate, has marked 
 this decade, but the Lord has graciously warded off any 
 act of violence. A constitutional government has been 
 introduced, at the head of which was a young king* or 
 chief, whose early education was received in the house of 
 one of our missionaries. The good promise, which there
 
 to 
 
 APPENDIX. 381 
 
 was good reason for entertaining at his accession, has not 
 been fulfilled, as he has fallen a victim to habits of 
 intoxication. Another serious hindrance in the progress of 
 the work has been the continued evil influence of traders, 
 who frequent the* country in considerable numbers to 
 procure india-rubber, tortoise-shell, deer-skins, &c. 
 
 "In spite of tliese drawbacks, the brethren report that 
 the number of the real living Church members is on the 
 increase, and that the young people are showing more 
 longing for the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, and more 
 growth in divine knowledge."* 
 
 It will be inferred from what has been said that the 
 Moravians aim, not only at planting churches amongst the 
 native peoples, but at forming them into Christian com- 
 munities, directed according to strict rules and principles 
 by which good order and habits of industry are formed and 
 fostered. This kind of work, at centres from which no 
 great iclat can be expected, is precisely of the character 
 that should not only draw out the practical sympathy 
 of other Christian denominations, but the active and 
 substantial aid of governments in a far greater degree than 
 it has hitherto done. 
 
 Nor should we, in any account however summary, omit 
 mention of the Lepers' Hospital at Jerusalem, in which 
 an heroic work has been done. The annual cost amounts 
 only to about ^300. Of this sum we learn two-thirds 
 have been raised by English friends and one-third by 
 friends in Germany and Switzerland. In thirteen years 
 the brethren and sisters there have continued at their 
 repulsive " labour of love " unremittingly, till the health of 
 Brother and Sister Tappe broke down under the strain 
 — and little wonder. 
 
 We have been particularly depressed at the struggles 
 which the Brethren have had financially with an increasing 
 deficit for the past few years — a mere trifle of _;^4ooo — - 
 which, however, is enough to hamper them and greatly to 
 paralyse their activity. We gladly note a paragraph to 
 the following effect in one of the last reports : — 
 
 * From Report of the Directing Board to the General Synod of 1879.
 
 3!52 APPENDIX. 
 
 '* Very truly FINANCIAL RELIEF for our burdened Trea. 
 sury has recently been afforded us, for which we desire to 
 ask our friends to unite with us in praising God. Some 
 years ago a Christian nobleman in Germany, with princely 
 liberality, handed over a large sum ^f money for our 
 missions, in which he took great interest. A portion of 
 this amount was destined for the pensions of retired mis- 
 sionaries, but conditions were attached to this gift which 
 prohibited its being made use of until the present' year. 
 The interest on the capital, which has been accumulated 
 by the will of the donor, now amounts to more than ^looo, 
 and will appear for the first time in the financial statement 
 for the current year (1879)." 
 
 But abundant room will still remain for members of other 
 Christian Churches to extend some aid and sympathy to 
 this oldest of Missionary Churches, which, on the testimony 
 of impartial witnesses, including Mr. Andrew Wilson, author 
 of the "Abode of Snow" (and not even excluding Dr. 
 Rinek !) does so well deserve it. 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 SOME FURTHER FACTS ABOUT ZEISBERGER. 
 
 Zeisberger's method of dealing with the Indians, as we 
 have seen, involved two distinct ends : first, conversion to 
 the Christian religion, and next the establishment of settled 
 communities, separated as far as could be from heathen 
 influence. It has recently been urged against many species 
 of missionary work that baits of self-interest and ease are 
 held out to the heathen to be baptized, in order to swell 
 the agent's returns. It is evident that Zeisberger scorned 
 any such devices as these. A mere glance at the rules he 
 drew up for the government of Indian Christian com- 
 munities will show that there was little temptation put
 
 APPENDIX. 383 
 
 forward by him to the Indian in the direction of self-interest 
 or ease. Let our readers cast such a glance as we have 
 suggested over these Rules — 
 
 1. We will know of no other God, nor worship any 
 other, but Him who has created us, and redeemed us with 
 His most precious blood. 
 
 2. We will rest from all labour on Sundays, and attend 
 the usual meetings on that day for divine service. 
 
 3. We will honour father and mother, and support them 
 in age and distress. 
 
 4. No one shall be permitted to dwell with us without 
 the consent of our teachers. 
 
 5. No thieves, murderers, drunkards, adulterers, and 
 whoremongers shall be suffered among us. 
 
 6. No one that attendeth dances, sacrifices, or heathen- 
 ish festivals can live among us. 
 
 7. No one using Tschappich (or witchcraft) in hunting 
 shall be suffered among us. 
 
 8. We will renounce all juggles, lies, and deceits of 
 Satan. 
 
 g. We will be obedient to our teachers, and to the 
 helpers (national assistants), who are appointed to see that 
 good order be kept both in and out of the town. 
 
 10. We will not be idle and lazy, nor tell lies of one 
 another, nor strike each other ; we will live peaceably 
 together. 
 
 1 1. Whosoever does any harm to another's cattle, goods, 
 or effects, &c., shall pay the damage. 
 
 12. A man shall have only one wife, love her and pro- 
 vide for her and the children. Likewise a woman shall 
 have but one husband, and be obedient unto him ; she shall 
 also take care of the children, and be cleanly in all things. 
 
 13. We will not permit any rum or spirituous liquor to 
 be brought into our towns. If strangers or traders happen 
 to bring any, the helpers (national assistants) are to take it 
 into their possession, and to take care not to deliver it to 
 them until they set off again. 
 
 14. None of the inhabitants shall run in debt with
 
 3S4 APPENDIX. 
 
 traders, nor receive goods on commission for traders, with- 
 out the consent of the national assistants. 
 
 15. No one is to go on a journey, or long hunt, without 
 informing the minister or stewards of it. 
 
 1 6. Young people are not to marry without the consent 
 of their parents and taking their advice. 
 
 17. If the stewards or helpers apply to the inhabitants 
 for assistance in doing work for the benefit of the place, 
 such as building meeting and school-houses, cleaning and 
 fencing lands, &c., they are to be obedient. 
 
 1 8. All necessary contributions for the public ought 
 cheerfully to be attended to. 
 
 19. No man inclining to go to war, which is the shedding 
 of blood, can remain among us. 
 
 20. Whosoever purchases goods or articles of warriors, 
 knowing at the time that such have been stolen or 
 plundered, must leave us. We look upon this as giving 
 encouragement to murder and theft. 
 
 Many very striking anecdotes of rescue from danger 
 might have been added to those given in the text, room 
 must here be found for the following ; — 
 
 " On one of his journeys Zeisberger and his companions 
 experienced a remarkable preservation. They were kindly 
 entertained by a white trader who spread a quantity of 
 straw on the floor of an apartment for them to sleep upon. 
 He warned them that several barrels of gunpowder were in 
 this room, one or two of which were open ; and they retired 
 to rest, leaving the candle on the outside. A traveller, 
 however, who accompanied them prevailed on their host to 
 allow him the candle to examine and dress a wound in his 
 foot, promising to put it out as soon as he had finished his 
 operation. The missionaries reminded him to beware of the 
 danger, but, being much fatigued, lay down and fell asleep. 
 The traveller also, being weary, fell asleep and left the light 
 burning. In the morning Zeisberger called his brother 
 missionary out of the house into the wood, and showed him 
 the candle. ' My brother,' said he, ' had we not had on us 
 the eye of Him who never slumberetU nor sleepeth, we
 
 APFEIfDIX. 385 
 
 should all have this night been blown into the air, and no 
 one would have known how it happened. I slept soundly, 
 being extremely fatigued, and was in my first sleep, when I 
 felt as if some one raised me with a violent shake. I sat 
 up, and saw the wick of the candle hanging down on one 
 side in a flame, and the burning candle on the point of fall- 
 ing into the straw, which I was just in time to prevent. 
 After that I could not fall asleep again, but lay silently 
 thanking the Lord for the extraordinary preservation we 
 had experienced, one fit of shuddering after another seizing 
 my whole frame when I reflected on our danger." 
 
 In Heckewelder's "Narrative of the Mission of the United 
 Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians" we 
 find the following sketch of Zeisberger, which we here present 
 chiefly for the portrait, and the record of personal traits : — 
 
 " Having once devoted himself to this service, from the 
 most voluntary choice and the purest motives, he steadily 
 pursued his object — the glory of God and the good of his 
 fellow-men. Never was he so happy as when he had ground 
 for believing that his endeavours had been the means of 
 converting one sinner from the error of his ways, and lead- 
 ing him to the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. This, 
 in his estimation, was of far higher value than if he had 
 acquired possession of the whole world. It may be said 
 with truth that he watched over his Indian flock with the 
 solicitude of a parent and cherished them as a nurse doth 
 her children. He followed them in all their wanderings, 
 cheerfully bearing with them the heat and burden of the 
 day, and during the last forty years of his life he was never, 
 at any one time, six months absent from his charge. 
 
 *' He was blessed with a cool, active, and intrepid spirit, 
 unappalled by danger, and with a sound judgment and clear 
 discernment. He was therefore very seldom taken by 
 surprise, and was generally prepared to meet and to over- 
 come difficulties. If once convinced that he was in the 
 path of duty, he patiently submitted to every hardship, and 
 with firm fortitude endured the severest sufferings. In the 
 course of a long life spent among savages he was exposed 
 to many privations, and at times suffered persecution from 
 
 2 B
 
 386 APPENDIX. 
 
 the enemies of divine truth, who more than once sought his 
 life. But none of these things dismayed him ; they rather 
 increased his zeal in the Lord's cause, and in more instances 
 than one has he had the pleasure of baptizing Indians who 
 not long before had lifted up the hatchet to murder him. At 
 the same time he was of a humble and meek spirit, and 
 always thought lowly of himself. He was a most affection- 
 ate husband ; a faithful and never-failing friend ; and every 
 lineament of his character showed a sincere, upright, bene- 
 volent, and generous soul, with perhaps as few blemishes 
 as can be expected in the best men on this side the grave. 
 
 " In the evening of his days, when his faculties began to 
 fail him, his desire to depart and to be with Christ in- 
 creased. At the same time he awaited his dissolution with 
 uniform, calm, and dignified resignation to the will of his 
 Maker, and in the sure and certain hope of exchanging this 
 world for a better. His last words were, ' Lord Jesus, I 
 pray Thee come and take my spirit to Thyself ! ' And again, 
 • Thou hast never yet forsaken me in any trial, Thou wilt 
 not forsake me now.' A very respectable company attended 
 his funeral. The solemn service was performed in tlie 
 English, the Delaware, and German languages, to suit the 
 different auditors. Two sermons were preached from Rev. 
 xii. 1 1, and Prov. x. 7. 
 
 *' Zeisberger was a man of low stature, yet well-propor- 
 tioned, of a cheerful countenance, and endowed with a good 
 understanding. He was a friend and benefactor to man- 
 kind, and justly beloved by all who knew him, and who could 
 appreciate genuine worth. His words were few, and never 
 known to be wasted at random or used in an unprofitable 
 manner. Plain in his habits, temperate in all things, he 
 generally enjoyed good health, and lived to an advanced age. 
 
 " He made himself complete master of two of the Indian 
 languages, the Onondago and the Delaware, and acquired 
 some knowledge of several others. Of the Onondago 
 he composed two grammars, one written in English, 
 the other in German. He likewise compiled a dic- 
 tionary of the Delaware language, which in the manu- 
 script contained seventeen hundred pages. Nearly thewliole
 
 APPr^YDIX. 3S7 
 
 of the manuscript was lost at the burning of the 
 settlements on the Muskingum. A spelling-book in the 
 same language has passed through several editions. A 
 volume of sermons to children, and a hymn-book containing 
 upwards of five hundred hymns, chiefly translations from 
 the English and German hymn-books in use in the 
 Brethren's Church, have also been published in the Dela- 
 ware (or Lenape) language. He left behind him, in manu- 
 script, a grammar of the Delaware language, written in 
 German, and a translation into the same language of 
 Lieberkuehn's ' Harmony of the Four Gospels.' The former 
 of these works has since been translated into English for 
 the American Philosophical Society, by P. S. Du Ponceau of 
 Philadelphia ; and the Female Auxiliary Missionary Society 
 of Bethlehem undertook the publication of the 'Harmony.' " 
 As a curiosity in its own way, we may add here Zeis- 
 berger's translation of the Lord's Prayer into the Delaware 
 language : — Ki Wetochemelenk, talli epian Awossagame. 
 Machelendasutsch KtellewunsowoaganKsakimawoagan peje- 
 wigetsch. Ktelite hewoagan legetsch talli Achquidhacka- 
 mike, elgiqui leek talli Awossagame. Milineen elgisch- 
 quik gunigischuk Achpoan. Woak miwelendammauwineen 
 'n Tschannauchsowoagannene eliqui niluna miwelendam- 
 mauwenk nik Tschetschanilawequengik. Woak katschi 
 'npawuneen li Achquetschiechtowoaganiing, tschukund 
 Ktennieen untschi Medhickiing. Aloa Knihillatamen 
 Ksakimawoagan, woak Ktallewussowoagan, woak Ktallo- 
 wiliissowoagan, ne wuntschi hallemiwi li hallamagamik. 
 Amen 1 
 
 APPENDIX IIL 
 
 THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 Since our sketch of Dr. Moffat and his work was written, 
 the venerable missionary has given the following sketch 
 of the labours of himself and his fellow-missionaries among 
 the Bechuanas. We have much pleasure in reproducing it 
 here in a slightly condensed form: —
 
 388 APPENDIX. 
 
 IN BECHUANA LAND.— By the Rev. 
 Robert Moffat, D.D, 
 
 The name Bechuana or Bachuana, or, as latterly written, 
 Bechwana or Bachvvana, includes all the tribes speaking 
 the Sechuana language. There have been various 
 opinions as to its origin. Ba or Be is a personal pronoun, 
 when the adverb chivana is applied to persons, and thus, 
 according to some, they are alike or the same kind of 
 people. Others have supposed that the name is derived 
 from nchu, black, the diminutive of which would be chivana, 
 meaning a little black, and applied to a person, Mochvvana, 
 one dark-coloured — not blaclc. Mo is the prefix to the 
 singular numbsr, and Ba to the plural, when persons are 
 spoken of. All the tribes have the prefix Ba, whatever be 
 the name by which they are distinguished. Some are 
 named after certain animals, from which it has been 
 supposed that at some distant period they were addicted to 
 the worship of animals, like the ancient Egyptians. For 
 example, we have the Batlhapi, the tribe to which the 
 Gospel was first sent ; Ba-tlhapi, they fish, or, of the fish ; 
 Ba-khatla, they of the monkey ; JBakuena, they of the 
 crocodile ; Bataii, they of the lion. When an individual 
 is asked to what tribe he belongs, sometimes the question 
 will be. What do you dance ? The reply will be, Kea bina 
 kwena, or whatever the tribe may be. It is said they hate 
 these animals by which they are named, and dread killing 
 them. 
 
 The Bechuana tribes were first visited by missionaries at 
 the beginning of the present century. Many long years, 
 however, passed over before any important result was 
 attained. They did not want the Gospel — they hardly 
 wanted the missionaries, and sometimes wished to drive 
 them away. The customs and superstitions in which they 
 and their forefathers had been brought up, they did not 
 wish to abandon, for they considered them to be altogether 
 good. Their character, though bad, was no worse than 
 that of other tribes in South Africa. They were brave and
 
 APPENDIX. 389 
 
 proud, displayed a great love of independence, and with all 
 tlieir barbarousness were not without some noble senti- 
 ments. But their minds were very dark and their hearts 
 very cruel and wicked. 
 
 The Bechuanas had no idols, no temples, no altars, and 
 had no symbols or signs of any form of heathen worship.. 
 No fragments existed among them of former days, as 
 mementoes to succeeding generations, that their ancestors 
 ever loved, served, or reverenced a being greater than man. 
 A profound silence reigned on this subject. It is wonder- 
 ful, as showing to what depths the human spirit may be 
 degraded, that Bechuanas, Hottentots, and Bushmen seem 
 to have had every vestige of rehgious impression erased 
 from their minds, leaving them without a single ray to 
 guide them in the dark and dismal future, or a single link 
 to unite them with the skies. Thus the missionary could 
 make no appeals to them respecting God and immortality, 
 and to other religious ideas which mankind generally in 
 some form entertain. If they had ever had a religion, it had 
 entirely disappeared, like those streams in the wilderness 
 which lose themselves in the sand. To tell even the 
 gravest of them that there was a Creator, the Governor of 
 the heavens and the earth, that man had fallen and had 
 been redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ ; to speak to them 
 of the resurrection of the dead, of immortality and eternal 
 life, was to address them on matters which appeared more 
 fabulous and extraordinary than many of their own 
 extravagant stories about lions, hyenas, and jackals. The 
 influence of ** the rain-maker " over the people was 
 exceedingly great ; but although they recognised in his 
 agency what they supposed to be a mysterious power, yet 
 this in no sense could be regarded as of the nature of 
 religion. 
 
 In their intercourse with other tribes the Bechuanas 
 were vindictive and treacherous. Their expeditions 
 against the Bushmen especially were characterised by 
 intense ferocity and cruelty. They seemed to take a 
 pleasure in slaughter. Many of their wars were mere 
 predatory expeditions, undo; taken for the purpose of
 
 390 APPENDIX. 
 
 destroying the villages of their neighbours, of butchering 
 their inhabitants, and of carrying off their cattle. In their 
 persons they were very filthy, and lubricated their bodies 
 with grease and red ochre. Indeed, they could not under- 
 stand our habits of cleanliness, and were much amused at 
 our putting our legs, feet, and arms into bags, and using 
 buttons for the purpose of fastening bandages around our" 
 bodies, instead of suspending them as ornaments from the 
 neck or hair of the head. 
 
 A great obstacle to our work was polygamy. Any 
 innovation on this ancient custom was looked upon with 
 extreme suspicion. While war, hunting, watching the 
 cattle, milking the cows, and preparing furs and skins for 
 mantles, were the work of the men, the women had by far 
 the heavier task of agriculture, building houses, fencing, 
 bringing firewood, and the like. They were, therefore, the 
 drudges of their haughty and lazy husbands, who found 
 them too useful to part with any of their number. During 
 the greater part of the year they were constantly employed 
 in laborious work of many kinds, living on a coarse and 
 scanty fare, and having a baby frequently fastened to their 
 backs while they tilled the soil or performed other heavy 
 manual duties. 
 
 After remaining among the Bechuanas for more than six 
 years, we seemed to have made no progress at all. They 
 had by this time become perfectly callous and indifferent to 
 all instruction, except it were followed by some temporal 
 benefit. Moreover, they seemed to regard us as lawful 
 prizes, to be used and plundered at pleasure. They would 
 rob our houses, our smith's shop and garden, and would 
 carry off our cattle from the field, or through love of 
 mischief would drive them into a bog, and leave them to 
 perish there or to be eaten by wild beasts. Because of the 
 scarcity of grain and vegetables, we lived for the most part 
 on animal food. Our sheep were procured from a distance, 
 but before they reached us we generally lost a considerable 
 number which had been stolen from the flock on the way. 
 They would break their legs, cut off their tails, and 
 frequently carry them entirely off. Our saws, axes, knives,
 
 APPENDIX. 391 
 
 spoons, they especially coveted ; and very often, if we 
 went away from the spot where we were engaged at work, 
 even though not many yards distant, we had to take all our 
 tools with us. 
 
 Our duties at this time were exceedingly heavy, for we 
 had to do nearly everything with our own hands. We 
 built our houses and planted our gardens. But our 
 labours were constantly thwarted, for, when we had dug a 
 trench of several miles for irrigating our land, the water 
 which ran into it from the Kuruman river would be diverted 
 from its channel by the natives for their own fields, leaving 
 us without a drop either for garden or household purposes. 
 Mr. Hamilton and myself have had to watch in turn the whole 
 night in order to save the few vegetables growing in our 
 gardens ; and when, after all our vigilance and labour, we 
 had saved what was so necessary to our health, the natives 
 would steal them by day as well as by night, and, after a 
 year's toil and care, we scarcely reaped anything to reward 
 us. 
 
 During these earlier years the few people who attended 
 public worship did so from purely interested motives, either 
 to receive from us tobacco, or a tool, or our personal help, 
 or some other favour. They very often manifested the 
 greatest indecorum. Some would snore, others would 
 lausrh. while others would work or amuse themselves in 
 a manner very distressing to us to witness. Never having 
 been accustomed to chairs or stools, some, by way of 
 imitation, would sit with their feet on the benches, having 
 their knees, according to their usual mode of sitting, drawn 
 up to their chins. In this posture one would fall asleep 
 and tumble over, to the great merriment of his fellows. 
 Sometimes, when the missionaries were absent from their 
 homes at public worship, the opportunity would be em- 
 braced to pilfer their property. Mr. Hamilion and myself, 
 when we met in the evening, had almost always some tale 
 to tell of our losses, but never of our gains, except those 
 of resignation and peace, the results of prayer, patience, 
 and faith in the unchangeable purposes of God. 
 
 The prospects of the mission at this time were of the 
 
 &
 
 392 APPEXDIX. 
 
 gloomiest character, and, as we proceeded in our work, 
 appeared to become darker than ever. We were sus- 
 pected of befriending the Bushmen, who annoyed the 
 Bechuanas incessantly by capturing their cattle and 
 killing the men who watched over them. The ground 
 of the charge was, that when we sent our men to assist 
 in retaking the cattle driven away, we enjoined upon 
 them not to kill the Bushmen. They acknowledged that 
 we wronged no man, but at the same time regarded us as 
 the authors of many of their troubles, and as the causes 
 of the drought which afflicted the land. Everything 
 wrong done by a Griqua, while hunting in the country, 
 was thrown in our teeth ; and if any one of the natives 
 felt himself aggrieved during a visit to that people or to 
 the South, we were told that we ought to have prevented 
 it. To reason with them only tended to arouse their 
 passions. 
 
 But now heavy judgments came upon the land, which 
 were to be the prelude of brighter days. War and blood- 
 shed, drought and locusts, devastated the country and 
 tamed the people, making them more inclined than they 
 had hitherto been to listen to the preaching of the Gospel. 
 This was at first manifest by an increasing number of 
 natives coming to 'the mission chapel, and by the greater 
 attention which was paid to the words of the preacher, 
 as well as by the readiness with which many answered 
 the questions on the Bible which were put to them. 
 Towards the end of 1828, on the return of Mr. Hamilton, 
 who had visited the colony for a season, we were favoured 
 with the manifest outpouring of the Spirit from on high. 
 The moral wilderness was now about to blossom. Cheeks 
 bedewed with tears attracted our observation. To see 
 females weep was nothing extraordinary. According to 
 Bechuana notions, it was their province, and theirs alone. 
 In family or national afiflictions, it was the women's work 
 to weep and wail. But men would not weep. They 
 would sit in sullen silence brooding over deeds of revenge 
 and death. The simple Gospel now melted their flinty 
 hearts ; and eyes wept which never before shed the tear
 
 APPENDIX. 393 
 
 of hallowed sorrow. Our temporary little chapel became 
 a place of weeping ; and the sympathy of feeling spread 
 from heart to heart. The chapel became crowded with 
 anxious inquirers, and for some time it was impossible 
 to maintain order or even decorum among them. Those 
 imder concern for their souls held prayer- meetings from 
 house to house; so that the sounds predominant through- 
 out the village, instead of rioting and folly, as in former 
 times, were those of singing and prayer. When there 
 were none able to engage in prayer, they sang till a late 
 hour, and before morning dawned assembled again at 
 some house for worship, and then went forth to their 
 daily labour. 
 
 The first converts were baptized in the month of June 
 1829. They had given very satisfactory proofs of a 
 change of heart. After full examination separately, they 
 were found to possess a much larger knowledge of the 
 Scriptures than had been anticipated. Although they 
 had long listened with unbelieving hearts, and often with 
 disgust, their memories were retentive — a general charac- 
 teristic of such as never use memoranda. They exhibited 
 great simplicity of faith, and an implicit reliance on the 
 atonement of Christ, of which they appeared to have 
 a remarkably clear conception, especially when we re- 
 membered the darkness of their minds previously. The 
 new chapel and schoolhouse was crowded to excess on 
 the occasion, and the greatest interest was excited by the 
 ceremony. A sermon was preached on John i. 29, 
 and a suitable address was delivered to the candidates. 
 In the evening we united with them in celebrating the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper. It is impossible to 
 describe our feelings at that time. 
 
 Our joy was great. But we rejoiced with trembling, 
 for we knew that the heathen party was still very power- 
 ful, and would probably soon display a violent opposition 
 to the spread of the Gospel among the Bechuanas. 
 Being satisfied, however, that the work was of God, we 
 knew that it was under His guidance, and that He would 
 not sufi'er it to be impeded. There were many prejudices
 
 394 APPENDIX. 
 
 yet to be overcome. The relation in which the young 
 converts stood to their heathen neighbours would expose 
 their faith to trial. The excitement in the village would 
 gradually pass away, and might be followed by a re- 
 action. 
 
 Christianity brought with it civilisation — for those who 
 embraced the new religion were at once seized with the 
 desire to reform their personal habits and social usages. 
 Cleanliness began to be practised, and instead of be- 
 smearing themselves with grease they washed themselves 
 with water. Ornaments which were formerly in high 
 repute as adorning, but more frequently disfiguring, their 
 persons, were now turned into bullion to purchase skins 
 of animals, which, being prepared almost as soft as cloth, 
 were made into jackets, trousers, and gowns. For a 
 long period, when a man was seen to make a pair of 
 trousers for himself, or a woman a gown, it was a sure 
 intimation that we might expect additions to our inquirers. 
 Abandoning the custom of painting the body, and beginning 
 to wash with water, was with them what cutting off the hair 
 was among the South Sea Islanders, a public renunciation 
 of heathenism. Thus, by the slow but certain progress of 
 Gospel principles, whole families became clothed and in 
 their right mind. In their eagerness for improvement the 
 people sometimes arrayed themselves in grotesque garbs. 
 One would have on a coat of many colours; another would 
 wear a jacket with only one sleeve, because the other was 
 not finished, or cloth was wanting to complete it. The 
 people were now anxious to learn how to use the needle, 
 and to make garments ; and at first it was no easy matter 
 for them to do this, as the hands of many were hard and 
 horny from field-work, and the tiny needle was scarcely 
 perceptible to their touch. Our congregations became a 
 variegated mass of people of all descriptions, from the 
 lubricated wild man of the desert, to the clean, com- 
 fortable, and well-dressed believer. It was the work of 
 the men to sew and prepare garments. I never saw a 
 woman with a needle, or rather bodkin, with which the 
 men sew with great neatness and skill.
 
 APPENDIX. 395 
 
 Then came the desk* for improvement in their house- 
 holds. Formerly they had been contented with sitting 
 on the floors of their huts, eating their food by the light 
 of flickering wood embers, and lying down to sleep 
 wrapped in their mantles which they had worn during 
 the day. But now they wished to have, like ourselves, 
 chairs, tables, chests, candles, and other articles con- 
 tributing to the comfort of a house. These they came to 
 make under our direction, though of course very clumsily 
 at first. It is singular, however, what rapid progress in 
 the arts of civihsed life a people will make when once the 
 desire for reformation has taken thorough possession of 
 them. The Bechuanas were like men waking up from 
 a long sleep, and anxious to redeem the time they had 
 lost. They began to take great interest in field and 
 garden labour. In place of restricting themselves to 
 their native grain and a few vegetables, such as pumpkins, 
 kidney-beans, and water-melons, they thankfully accepted 
 the seeds and plants of grain and vegetables we had intro- 
 duced, namely, of maize, wheat, barley, pease, potatoes, 
 carrots, and onions, and planted fruit-trees wherever they 
 could irrigate. There was also a demand for ploughs and 
 spades for the proper tilling of the soil, and also for 
 bullock- waggons. The men were no longer too proud 
 to put their hands to the cultivation of the ground, but 
 set to work with a will ; and in a few years the country all 
 around was smiling with fertility. 
 
 The most pressing want of these awakened Bechuanas 
 was now the Bible in their own tongue. Having finished 
 a translation of the Gospel of St. Luke, in Sechuana, I 
 went all the way to Cape Town for the purpose of having 
 it printed. The Governor kindly allowed it to be printed 
 at the Government press. The paper was supplied by the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society. A small hymn-book 
 was also printed in the same language. While at the 
 Cape I learnt the art of printing ; and, returning to 
 Kuruman, brought with me not only an edition of the 
 Gospel and of the hymn-book, but also a printing-press, 
 and a supply of types, paper, and ink. Soon the press was
 
 396 APPENDIX. 
 
 put into operation, and catechisms, spelling-books, lesson- 
 books, and other works, were printed for the schools. This 
 was a new era in the mission, for the people were now 
 being taught to read, and were becoming thereby more 
 enlightened. The work of translation was a slow process, 
 being able to attend to it only at intervals ; and it was 
 not until aboirt the year 1840 that I had completed the 
 entire New Testament in Sechuana. Then followed the 
 Psalms ; and afterwards, at intervals, the books of Pro- 
 verbs, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah. In 1849 the "Pilgrim's 
 Progress " was in circulation among the Bechuanas in 
 their own language, and was read with wonderful avidity. 
 Many years elapsed before the entire Bible was completed. 
 I felt it to be an awful work to translate the Book of 
 God ; and, perhaps, this has given to my heart the habit 
 of sometimes beating like the strokes of a hammer. When 
 I had finished the last verse I could hardly believe that 
 I was in the world, so difficult was it for me to realise 
 the fact that my work of so many years was completed. 
 Whether it was from weakness or overstrained mental 
 exertion, I cannot tell ; but a feeling came over me as if 
 I should die, and I felt perfectly resigned. To overcome 
 this, I went back again to my manuscript, still to be 
 printed, read it over and re-examined it, till at length I 
 got back again to my right mind. This was the most 
 remarkable time of my life, a period which I shall never 
 forget. My feelings found vent by my falling upon my 
 knees, and thanking God for His grace and goodness in 
 giving me strength to accomplish my task. 
 
 Meanwhile the people of Kuruman and the neighbour- 
 hood made rapid progress in Christian knowledge as well 
 as in civilisation. My colleague, Mr. Edwards, who had 
 come up with me from the Cape, and his excellent wife, 
 had classes for instruction in reading. Out-stations were 
 established, and a rich blessing from above attended all 
 our labours at every place where the Gospel was read and 
 preached. The natives purchased waggons, and clothed 
 themselves decently. They also broke in oxen for labour 
 in the fields formerly performed by their wives. A new
 
 APPENDIX. 2^7 
 
 and spacious chapel was erected, and v\hen it was opened 
 in 1838 between eight and nine hundred Bechuanas 
 assembled together for the worship of Jehovah. In the 
 afternoon of the following Sabbath one hundred and fiity 
 persons united in commemorating the dying love of Him 
 who had redeemed them by His blood, and brought them 
 by His providence to participate in this heavenly banquet. 
 I was afterwards joined by Mr. Ashton, who rendered 
 valuable service to the mission in many ways ; but he, 
 after long service, was removed to the station at Lekat- 
 long. His place, however, was filled at Kuruman by my 
 son, John Moffat, who entered on his work there in the 
 year 1866, and who in turn has been removed to the 
 station once occupied by Dr. Livingstone, and latterly 
 by Mr. Price, now of the Ujiji or Tanganyika mission. 
 
 Formerly, travellers among the Bechuanas were exposed 
 to great danger. Now they may go for many miles in all 
 directions without fear of molestation. A considerable 
 trade has sprung up between these tribes and Europeans 
 from the Cape colony ; and foreign manufactured goods 
 of the value of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds are 
 annually imported into the country, and exchanged for native 
 produce. There was no commerce or barter carried on 
 between Europeans and the Bechuana tribes at the com- 
 mencement of missions among them, nor could they be 
 induced to trade, till through the Divine blessing converts 
 were made. These were the first to adopt a European 
 dress. During the previous years traders came as far as 
 the Kuruman mission station, bringing all kinds of tempting 
 articles which they displayed before the natives, who could 
 not be made to see either comfort or beauty in them. 
 These men, who had hoped to realise a profit by ostrich 
 feathers, ivory, cattle, &c., &c., could only dispose of a few 
 pounds of beads, and returned some hundreds of miles 
 sadly mortified. The example set by our first converts 
 approved itself to others, and it being entirely out of our 
 power to supply them with what was required, having but 
 a scanty supply for our own wants, they were instructed to 
 make dresses from skins prepared for the purpose, and in
 
 393 APPENDIX. 
 
 u'hich they made a very respectable appearance. They 
 had an example in Mrs. Hamilton and myself, who 
 generally wore parts of our dress of the same material. 
 It was soon found necessary to apply for a merchant to 
 come and settle on the station. 
 
 The Gospel has thus changed the moral aspect of a 
 large portion of the Bechuana tribes, and its gracious 
 influence has been felt among the Bakwaries, Baman- 
 guatos, as far even as the distant Matabeles ; and many 
 true believers in Christ are to be found not merely in 
 Kuruman, but also in many other parts of the country. 
 Heathenism still exists in some places, but it is gradually 
 dying out, and giving place to Christianity. Education is 
 spreading, and young men are being trained as preachers 
 and teachers. The people are very fond of their Bibles, 
 which they study most diligently, and also take great 
 delight in the singing of hymns. And they have never 
 lost the pleasure of attending the public services in the 
 mission chapels, where they assemble together with singular 
 regularity. But they need more depth of knowledge, which 
 1 trust they are gradually receiving.
 
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