ARTHUR DOUGLAS
WORKS BY
B. W. RANDOLPH, D.D.
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LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., 39 PATERNOSTER Row, LONDON, E.G.
THE REV. ARTHUR JEFFREYS DOUGLAS
ARTHUR DOUGLAS
MISSIONARY
ON LAKE NYASA
THE STORY OF HIS LIFE
COMPILED BY
B. W. RANDOLPH, D.D.
CANON OF ELY
SOMETIME PRINCIPAL OF
ELY THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE
UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO
CENTRAL AFRICA
9 DARTMOUTH STREET, WESTMINSTER
1912
HE BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH "
PREFACE
VERY nearly a year has passed away since the subject of
this memoir met his death on the shores of Lake Nyasa at
the hands of a Portuguese corporal.
Arthur Douglas was out in Africa as a Christian mission-
ary. The only " offence " which he committed was that of
protecting some native girls from the unruly lust of another
white man.
It is certainly not straining language, therefore, to say
that he died a martyr's death.
At the kind request of his brothers and sisters and of
the Universities' Mission I undertook this memoir, and its
compilation has been a labour of love.
It has been my object to let the letters tell their own
story, and it will be seen that they do, in no small degree,
give a vivid picture of Douglas' life in Africa first at Kota
Kota, then at Likoma, and lastly at S. Michael's College,
while the letters themselves are supplemented here and
there with recollections of their author which have been
kindly sent to me by several of his fellow-workers in the
Mission.
In the earlier chapters especially, and indeed throughout,
I have been greatly helped by those who were nearest and
dearest to him.
The two golden threads which run through his whole
career are, I think, dutifulness and prayerfulness. Coming
v
from an almost ideal home he had early learnt the lesson of
implicit obedience to duty ; and as soon as he arrived at
Ely the habit of prayer, which he had no doubt in the same
way formed in childhood, began to grow and deepen. How
beautifully these two threads wove themselves into his after
life this little volume abundantly shows.
I pray God that the perusal of these letters may suggest
the question to more than one reader Am I too called to
this blessed work, the work of Christ in Central Africa ?
B. W. RANDOLPH.
CLERGY HOUSE OF REST,
WEST MALVERN.
Translation of King Edward the Confessor, 1912.
VI
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE . . . . . . v
I. HOME AND EARLY LIFE, 1871-1885 i
II. MARLBOROUGH, OXFORD, ELY, 1885-1894 . . 7
III. SALISBURY AND SALWARPE, 1895-1901 16
IV. THE CALL TO MISSIONARY WORK, 1901 ... 28
V. THE FIRST SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK, KOTA KOTA,
1901-1904 ....... 49
VI. THE SECOND SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK, LIKOMA,
1904-1907 123
VII. THE THIRD SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK, S.
MICHAEL'S COLLEGE, 1908-1911 . . . 181
VIII. THE PASSING (NOVEMBER 1911) .... 271
APPENDIX
RETREAT ADDRESSES :
THE MOUNTAIN OF THE TRANSFIGURATION . . . 285
VENTURES OF FAITH ....... 290
S. PETER'S DENIAL ....... 296
THE GREAT COMMISSION ...... 301
MAPS 306
INDEX 308
Vil
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE REV. ARTHUR JEFFREYS DOUGLAS . . Frontispiece
ARTHUR DOUGLAS, AGED 3, 5 AND 9 YEARS . to face page 2
ARTHUR AND GERALD DOUGLAS, 1885 . . ,, 4
MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE CHAPEL . . ,, 8
LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD . . . . ,, 10
ELY THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE CHAPEL . . . ,,12
ARTHUR DOUGLAS, 1894 . . . . . ,, ,,14
S. EDMUND'S, SALISBURY . . . ..,,,, 18
SALWARPE RECTORY . . . . 20
SALWARPE CHURCH . . . . . . ,, 22
SALWARPE RECTORY AND GROUP . . . ,, 24
SALWARPE CHURCH (EXTERIOR) . . . . ,, 24
ARTHUR DOUGLAS, 1901 . . . . . ,, ,, 28
SALWARPE RIVER AND CHURCH . . . ,, ,,32
CHIROMO, RIVER SHIR& . . . . ,, ,,40
KOTA KOTA . . . . ,';'.. , 54
THE MISSION STEAMER " CHAUNCY MAPLES " . ,, ,, 62
GIRLS DRILLING OUTSIDE CHURCH, KOTA KOTA ,, ,, 72
KOTA KOTA SCHOOL-BOYS . . ' . . ,, ,,82
KOTA KOTA CHURCH (EAST END) . . . ,, ,,92
KOTA KOTA CHURCH (WEST END) . . . 92
MR. DOUGLAS MENDING HIS BOOTS . . . ,, ,,112
MR. DOUGLAS ON HIS DONKEY . . . ,, 112
LIKOMA ISLAND . . . . . . . ,, 130
LIKOMA CATHEDRAL . . , . . ,, ,,146
NATIVE HOSPITAL, LIKOMA . . . . ,, ,,156
FOOTBALL AT LIKOMA . . ... ,, ,,164
SUNDAY AT LIKOMA . . . , 176
MR. DOUGLAS LEAVING LIKOMA, 1907 . . ,,176
ON THE RIVER SHIRE . . . . . . ,, 186
MTONYA . . . ..... . ,, 190
S. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE STUDENTS . . . ,, ,, 206
A MISSIONARY TRAVELLING ....,, 234
POUNDING CORN . . . . . . ,, 256
S. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE CHAPEL . . 272
CHAPEL ON THE " CHAUNCY MAPLES " 276
MAPS
EAST CENTRAL AFRICA page 306
LAKE NYASA ......... 307
viii
ARTHUR DOUGLAS
THE STORY OF HIS LIFE
CHAPTER I
HOME AND EARLY LIFE, 1871-1885
ARTHUR JEFFREYS DOUGLAS was born at Salwarpe Rectory
near Droitwich on October 9, 1871. His father was the
Rev. William Douglas and his mother was a sister of Bishop
Walsham How.
Arthur was the youngest but one of a very large family.
His birth is entered by Mrs. Douglas in her Diary in the
following terms : " Our I5th child and 6th boy was born
about one o'clock " ; and his baptism she records a few weeks
later, on Sunday November 12. Two little stories are told
of Arthur when he was quite young, both of which illustrate
the gentleness and courtesy and care for other people's
feelings which were characteristic features of his later -life.
When he was eight years old he had a bad illness ; during
its course his mind wandered at times, but even in this
condition his innate courtesy did not desert him, for on one
occasion when he was unconscious he said to his aunt
who was nursing him, " Would you be so very kind as to
help me lift the coal-box ? "
Another day, when he and his brothers and sisters
were skating, and one of them had to be sent back to fetch
a gimlet, Arthur called after him, " Don't run up the drive
for fear mother should think there has been an accident."
It was his mother who taught him and his brothers before
they went to school, carefully grounding them in Latin and
other subjects. In 1881, when he was nine years old, he was
sent to Mr. Lloyd's preparatory school at Hartford House,
Winchfield.
The following letter, written to one of his sisters soon
after his arrival, refers to the choir and schools at Salwarpe,
which were to be such an interest to him in later years :
Hartford House, Oct. 23, 1881.
" Thank you very much for your jolly letter. I am
top in my class for the exam., which I did not expect to
be at all. . . . It is most awfully cold getting up in the
morning now ; we get up at half-past six on week-days
and at half-past eight on Sundays. ... I suppose you
have not got surplices for the choir yet has anything
more been said about them ? How are the new schools
getting on ? I wonder when they will be finished. I wonder
whether they will be finished before the holidays. ..."
The following letter illustrates his fondness for riding
and his interest in football :
Hartford House, Feb. 12, 1882.
" I am so very sorry that I forgot your birthday. I am
looking forward to to-morrow, when I shall see father and
mother it will be awfully jolly. I had such great fun
yesterday. One of the masters came up into the play-
ground, which is altogether about the size of the ' Long
Meadow,' on Mr. Lloyd's horse, and asked me if I should like
to have a ride. Of course I said I should, so I got on, and he
let me go four times round. It's such an awfully jolly horse,
so very big, and he let me canter about by myself he is so
awfully jolly. . . . We are going to have the Wellington
match next Saturday, it will be awfully exciting as our
fifteen has grown much worse because of D. going ; before
2
ARTHUR DOUGLAS, AGED 3, 5, AND 9 YEARS
we used to beat them always, but now I am afraid it is rather
a bad look out for us. . . ."
There is at least one point in one of his childish letters
to which attention may be drawn. He is writing from
school when nine and a half years old to his brother Gerald,
aged five and a half, and he asks anxiously what he (Gerald)
thinks of the Report !
" I wonder if you have had my report yet ; I did not do
quite so well as I expected. . . . Mind to tell me whether
you think my report good or bad. I'm afraid it will not
be so good as last time. ..."
The following extract was found in one of his letters
written about this time to his father :
" On the way to the Lord's house be thoughtful and
silent or say but little and that little good. Speak not of
other men's falts but think of your own of which you are
going to ask forgiveness. When you reach the church never
stay outside go in at once. Time spent within is exceedingly
precious. In church kneel down very humbly and pray.
Spend the time that remains in holy thought. In prayer
remember the awful Presence in which you have come.
Never look about to see who are coming in for any cause
whatever. It matters not to you what others may be
doing attend to yourself. Fasten your thoughts firmly
on the Holy Service miss not one word. This need a severe
strugle. The Blessed Sprit will strenthen you if you
persevere. When service is over remain kneeling and pray.
Be silent and speak to know one till you are outside. Do
not cover your head untill you have left the porch. The
church is Gods house even when prayer is over. On going
home be careful of your talk. The world will soon slip back
into your mind. Love prayer and praise best. Preaching
is but the help of that heavenly work."
The explanation of the above has been kindly given by
Mr. E. W. M. Lloyd, Arthur's former headmaster. The
paper is, he says, " a copy of a notice, framed and glazed,
3 B 2
hanging up in the entrance porch of our church here (at
Winchfield) . The author's name is not given, nor do I
know who it was possibly George Herbert or Jeremy
Taylor but these are only guesses on my part. I had no
idea that any of my boys had ever copied it out. It is very
touching to think that Arthur did so. I think he must
have got another boy to read it aloud to him while he wrote
it, otherwise the mistakes in spelling would not have
occurred." Mr. Lloyd adds: " Arthur was 6ne of the very
best boys I ever had in my school, and I was so grieved to
hear of his sad death ; and yet it was a glorious death,
that of a martyr."
There is nothing of special importance in these early days
to chronicle ; but the following account, written by one of
his sisters, gives a picture of the happy home life of the large
family at Salwarpe.
" All through our nursery days there are few moments
that I can recall with any clearness, a fact which points to
the even, happy, uneventful life of those years spent in that
ideal nursery, whence, through barred windows, we looked
across the lawn to the beautiful old church tower and to
the rookery in the elms to the left of it. The nursery walls
were bright with pictures out of the Christmas numbers of
illustrated papers, and on the floor was a gay worsted- work
carpet, worn threadbare in places, so that one of our favourite
indoor occupations was to work over the ,bare canvas with
brightly coloured wools, pattern and colour being left to
our own choice.
" We loved games of all kinds, and time never hung
heavy. Our chief delight was in ' dressing up,' and from
those early days onwards Arthur took the keenest delight
in acting. He was a nervous little boy, but nervousness and
shyness were forgotten at such times, and this dramatic
gift was his all through life ; his preaching, his letters, his
teaching were always graphic. He was a peculiarly sensi-
tive little boy, and this sensitiveness made him remark-
ably considerate of the feelings of others. An instance of
this stands out clearly : One of us had been given a large
4
ARTHUR AND GERALD DOUGLAS, 1885
pot of lemon marmalade, which was to be shared by the
whole schoolroom party ; schoolroom fare was of the
simplest, and we had looked forward eagerly to this unusual
treat. But, alas ! the owner of the pot dropped it on the
floor, and bitter was her grief. Arthur, quite a tiny fellow,
seeing the accident, came quickly upstairs to find one of his
sisters, and to beg her not to take any notice of what had
happened.
" He was nervous and timid, two years younger than I
was, and I remember his terror of a broken-off elm branch
with which I used to chase him, making it spring along the
lawn like an uncanny beast. I remember too how, when
I would have trespassed into a field in spite of the warning
notice-board, he hung back, fearing to break the law : and
again, when for the first time in our lives we were allowed
to go on a short journey by ourselves, he begged me not to
get out at the station (though we both knew it was the
right one) until we had seen the name on the station board.
" But in spite of this natural timidity, he was plucky and
courageous, and early learnt to discipline himself and to
exercise self-control. He was fond of riding, cricket, and
football : whatever he did he did with his whole heart in it,
and this determination to do the right whatever the cost
must have been always noticeable. He loved country life,
and was a very keen little botanist.
" From the time that he went to school he became a
hero in my eyes. For his first home-coming for the holidays
coloured handkerchiefs tied on sticks were hung out for
him from the windows. How proud we felt, as we walked
from the station with him, and how grown-up and loud
I thought his voice had become, though he certainly never
gave himself any school-boy airs.
" Always for the last day or two of the holidays a deadly
feeling was in the air, and though I never remember anything
being said, we knew that he was fighting against an over-
whelming longing not to return to school ; when older he
owned to having longed as a small boy that he might break
a leg so that the dreadful day should be postponed. It is
comforting to know that he was quite happy when once the
5
new term had started : he loved both his schools, and made
many friends, and often invited them to spend part of the
holidays with him at home.
" Up to the time that he went to school, Arthur, like
the rest of the brothers, was taught by our mother, who
grounded him well in Latin.
" He was very fond of music, but it was not until he went
to Marlborough that he made up his mind to learn the violin.
He had a good ear, and though he had not a very strong
treble voice he sang carefully and with all his might : he
loved the choir practices, and when quite a little fellow
sang solos at the parish concerts.
" Through his boyhood as in his later years his reverence
was always very marked. As he grew older no joke and no
story bordering on the flippant could ever be told when he
was in the room, without the teller regretting it : his silence,
and perhaps a passing look of pain, made one immediately
realise the flippancy if one had not done so before. But all
other jokes he loved, however small, for his sense of humour
was very keen."
CHAPTER II
MARLBOROUGH, OXFORD, ELY, 1885-1894
IN September 1885 Arthur went to Marlborough, where he
had gained a Foundation scholarship. In the following year
he was confirmed at Salwarpe, his mother noting in her
Diary, under date May 2 : "In the afternoon the Bishop
came for the Confirmation, 36 candidates, 20 being our own,
among them dear Arthur."
One of his sisters writes :
" Arthur was the only brother, I think, confirmed at
home ; it was on the first Sunday after Easter, May 2, 1886.
He was in the choir in his surplice, and I was sitting at the
west end of the church and saw his face either as he returned
to his seat or as he came with the choir in procession leaving
the church. It had the most intensely earnest look on it,
as if he were almost overwhelmed with what had happened,
and was resolutely set on being the faithful soldier and
servant unto his life's end."
On May 3, writes his mother in her Diary, " Early
Communion. Arthur made his first Communion, and left us
for Marlborough."
" Douglas," writes Mr. A. C. Champneys, who was at
that time a master at Marlborough, " was a boy who
could be trusted to do his work or anything else that was
his duty. He was very cheerful and friendly, and with a
decided sense of humour. He was rather small for his age
7
all the time that he was at school, which handicapped him in
games, but I remember his special pluck and determination
as ' back ' in the House matches, which, considering his size,
impressed his House and others as much as it did me. He
was head prefect of his House before he left, and I remember
his trustworthiness and good sense in a position which was,
I fancy, none too easy. . . . He was in the House known
as B2 having the crescent for its badge ; it is curious that
G. W. Atlay, also in the Universities' Mission, and who was
killed in Nyasaland in 1895, was in the same House."
He appears to have been, as a boy and also in later life,
naturally very sensitive, but this did not make him morose
or touchy, but very careful of the feelings of others. His
obedience and his deep sense of reverence were strong points
in his character, and as he grew up he looked with great
disfavour on anything approaching irreverence.
His love for the beautiful is shown in his letter written
from Marlborough, in which he describes the opening of the
new Chapel, dated October 3, 1886.
" I have just come in from Chapel," he writes, " so
will have some time to write to you before dinner. First
of all, I must tell you about Wednesday. The day was very
fine here. The service was at eleven o'clock. The choir,
prefects, masters and clergy, with the Bishops of Salisbury
and Bath and Wells, formed in procession and walked round
the outside of the Chapel singing hymns. After the keys
had been handed to the Bishop and the petition for consecra-
tion had been read by the Earl of Devon, the procession
entered and Walked up the aisle chanting the psalm, ' Lift
up your heads, O ye Gates.' The hymn Veni Creator was
then sung to a beautiful tune, the first [verse] being sung
as a solo. Dr. Bradley, Dean of Westminster, preached a
very nice sermon.
" Of course Archdeacon Farrar was there and read the
Gospel. The offertory amounted to 104 odd, besides 60
for a painted window. The service lasted about two hours
and a half. I cannot describe how beautiful the Chapel
itself is. The seats are oak, facing one another to the north
8
and south, with an aisle up the middle. The reredos is very
tall, made of carved stone with groups of figures in it. I
don't much care for the windows, though I believe they are
good, nor for the pictures underneath the windows, though
they are exceedingly costly. There is a gallery at the west
end beautifully decorated and finished off. Try and see the
Graphic for this week as that gives you some idea of Marl-
borough. The floor of the Chapel is of polished wooden
bricks which scarcely make any noise at all. The ceiling is
magnificently decorated, and I don't think the whole inside
of the Chapel could be more costly, though it is not quite
finished yet."
He goes on to ask if he may attend a course of lectures
on mammals, &c., by Professor Bell of the British Museum.
He spent five more years at Marlborough which passed
happily and uneventfully. At the end of 1889 he tried for
a scholarship at Keble, as the following letter will show :
The College, Dec. i, 1889.
" I don't believe I have written to you since we last saw
each other ; so I shall begin a letter now before dinner. I
hear you have begun a debating society at Ivy Bank, and
that K. and J. spoke at the first debate. I should have
liked to have heard them. Were they very gesticulative
and did they wave their arms about ?
" I daresay you know that I go up to Keble on the gth
to-morrow week, and between ourselves I shall be very glad
when it is over ; perhaps it would make it even worse, if I
thought I had more chance of getting a scholarship ; but
they only give one classical scholarship and one exhibition.
They put me up and feed me in college, which is rather a
comfort, for the moderate sum of 255., during the time of the
examination.
" Every Sunday afternoon I go to Mr. Pollock's musical
' at homes.' You know who I mean, don't you ? I enjoy
them immensely, though, perhaps, hardly as much now as I
used to, because he found out a month ago that I played the
fiddle a little, so has since that always asked me to bring it.
However I think I am getting over my nervousness of
9
playing before people. I find there is nothing like reading
the lessons in Chapel to get rid of nervousness.
" Did you hear of me being ' honourably mentioned '
for the Buchanan School Reading Prize ? The prize is open
to the whole school. I had no intention of going in for it,
till Mr. Champneys asked me to. After the first day's
competition twelve of us were selected to read again, and
on the first list the judges brought me out third. The first
two got the prizes and I was ' hony. yd.' ; I should very
much have liked to have got one of the school prizes, and
being so near it was the more aggravating. However
being a bad reader-out-loud, I was not a bit worth it. It
was rather a terrible ordeal, as the reading was held in a big
hall, open to all the school to come and hear.
" I have just received an august visitor, viz. Mr. Bell,
who brought Mr. Arthur Ingram 1 up to see his old study,
and the latter recognised me for a Douglas. I don't think
I should have known him. He preached in Chapel this
morning."
He was not successful at Keble, but later he gained
a Classical Exhibition at Lincoln College, Oxford, and
entered there in October 1890.
His first impressions of Oxford are described in the
following letter to one of his sisters :
Lincoln College, Oct. 19, 1890.
" I told W. that I would write to you when I got settled,
so as I have a very long evening before me I will tell you of
my first week at Oxford, and really there is so much to tell
that I don't know where to begin. At present I feel in a
most dissipated condition ; and when I am not at lectures
my time is mostly taken up with breakfasts, teas, and coffees
in other men's rooms and in returning calls, the latter of
which so far take up all time from 4 to 6 in the afternoon.
It isn't etiquette for freshmen to leave cards, so they have
to go on calling till they find the occupants of the rooms
'in.' I should think I have been to some rooms a dozen
1 Now Bishop of London.
10
times, but at last I am thankful to say the majority are done,
although I expect a good many more will come. In one way
it is rather exciting calling, as one doesn't know in the least
what sort of a man has been to see you, as the seniors make
a point of calling when you are out, so that they may simply
leave their card. Everybody is so pleasant and friendly
here, and by this time I have got to know most of the nicest
men, though I see most of the ' freshers,' who seem a specially
sociable lot.
" Yesterday I had the honour to play football for the
College against Exeter, whom we beat unexpectedly as
they are supposed to be good. As I was commended at the
end of the game, I hope I shall be asked to play again. It
was my first game of football this season. I was specially
glad to be asked to play as I have so got to know some of the
leading men in the College. After playing I went to see
Reggie Chesshire who had called on me. Of course I have
seen a very large number of O.M's. Here there are two
others besides myself, Chambers and a son of the town
doctor at Marlborough, Morrice by name. The way I
mostly spend my days is Chapel at 8 o'clock, breakfast
in my own or somebody else's room at 8.30, lectures or
private reading from 10 to I, lunch 1.30, dinner at 7 o'clock,
and as a rule, coffee in somebody else's room afterwards.
Thus you see at present I am having a thoroughly lazy time,
but I hope in another week I shall have sobered down, and
certainly so far, I have seen the pleasant side of Oxford life.
" I went down to the boats on Thursday to be trained in
rowing, but this term I shall play as much football as
possible, though I believe it is difficult to get a game unless
I play for the College.
" I have joined the Union, the big club and debating
society up here. I find almost everybody joins, especially
at colleges like Lincoln where there is no common-room.
I have also been asked to join the Union Musical Society,
and I think possibly next term, if not this, I shall do so. It
is specially useful for fiddlers, as there are special classes
free of extra charge for practising quartettes, &c. There
are several very musical men I know who have strongly
ii
advised me to join. There is one other fiddler in college
besides myself. I went to play in his rooms a few nights ago,
He is going to take a musical degree.
" I haven't told you how I spend my Sundays. The
times of the services appear to a freshman rather incon-
venient. There is the ordinary morning service, without
sermon, and a Celebration at 8 o'clock, and Evensong at
5 o'clock in the afternoon. We only have two sermons
a term, one to-day, being Hospital Sunday, from our Rector.
" There is a College Debating Society which holds its
meetings every Sunday evening. I expect it is one of the
best ways of spending Sunday evening here especially
as it is a very long evening. Dinner on Sunday is at 6.
I went to the debate last Sunday, but to-night did not feel
inclined to, so have been writing to you instead. It was so
jolly having F. 1 for an afternoon. I have got very small
rooms, but the porter told me I should be able to change
them at the end of the term or at any rate two terms, and
now I have made them quite comfortable."
A college friend writes to one of Arthur's sisters :
' Your brother Arthur was the closest of my friends
during all the four years we were together as undergraduates
at Lincoln College, 1890-4. The first of my many
reading parties was when we went off together with two
others of our year in our first long vacation to Lynmouth.
Many Sunday mornings, too, in term time we came together,
he bringing his violin to my rooms, and against all College
rules we played together for an hour or so, despite long-
suffering Dons. When he went down, and I stayed on at
Oxford, out of all my friends I missed no one quite so much.
And our correspondence together spread over twenty years.
If it grew less frequent towards the end, that was due to my
laziness and his manifold activities. Of him and of one
other, also a Marlburian who has since passed away, I
preserve the most lively and regretful memory. At college
he was universally liked and esteemed. We drifted in
1 His eldest sister.
12
different directions, he to the football field and I to the
river, for four years. But tidings of his pluck as ' Full-back '
used to greet me many a winter afternoon. And this same
pluck he carried with him to Africa. In one of the last
letters I had from him there, he spoke with joy of his boys'
football almost with as much delight, it seemed, as of the
building of his Cathedral at Likoma. His triumphant
death in defiance of oppression was worthy of him, and we
may well be proud of him at Oxford, and especially we
' Lincoln men.' '
His life at Oxford passed happily : his chief recreations
were football and cricket, and he steadily went on with his
violin playing which he had begun as a small boy. His love
of music never deserted him, and his knowledge in this
direction stood him in good stead in Africa, where he had to
train the native boys and girls in singing.
He read steadily, and in 1894 he obtained a third class
in the school of Littera Humaniores, taking his Bachelor's
degree in October of that year.
From the first it appears that he never thought of any
other career than that of a priest. Accordingly, as soon as
he had become a graduate, he went to Ely Theological
College for a year's special training, entering on his life there
on October 26, 1894.
In a letter to his sister just after his arrival he says :
Theological College, Ely, Nov. u, 1894.
' There is half an hour before supper, which I may as
well employ in giving you my first impressions of my new
abode. I have only been here just over a fortnight, but
already I feel at home with the men,the place, the regulations,
and general manner of life. Of course it was all very strange
the first few days, and arriving just in time for afternoon tea
the first day I was awfully shy, but summoned up courage
to introduce myself to the Vice-Principal. 1 During the first
two days there was, as I think I told you, a retreat ; Dr.
1 Rev. H. V. S. Eck, now^Recior of Bethnal Green.
13
Gore l gave the addresses, which I thought were awfully
good, extremely practical and useful for the would-be
parson, and not at all high-flown. The regulation of silence
during meals and other times was advantageous to me in
more ways than one, as I had not a chance of feeling ' out of
it ' with the others, and I and they got to know each other by
sight before we had a chance of talking. Now, however, I
know all the men well and I could not possibly want a nicer
set ; and here the collegiate life is so close that niceness is
a most necessary quality. There is so much in common and
one is always having to do with every other individual.
There is one of the inevitable family of Mertens 2 here, a
second term man, whom I like particularly.
" There are three authorities in the college, Principal,
Vice-Principal, and Chaplain. I know the Principal best so
"far, and I have had several conversations with the Vice.
Of course it is too early to say anything about the teaching
here, but what does strike me at first sight is the wideness
of view held by the heads of the college, and their absolute
unwillingness to thrust any new ideas down one's throat, and
I do fully realise the importance of taking no new step of any
kind without much consideration. Thus I write to my two
Godparents, knowing what an interest both you and W.
take in my future career. I have already had two sights of
Gerald 3 this term.
" Yesterday week I found a large number of our men
were going into Cambridge, so I went with them to see
Cambridge for the first time ; it is less than twenty miles
journey. Gerald was in very good form ; he and I had just
finished lunch, when my Bishop 4 put his head into the room
and told us that Lady Alwyne with Miss Gordon and Miss
Soulsby (of Oxford High School) were in King's Chapel, so we
joined them and afterwards the whole party and my friend
Emery came to tea with Gerald. Originally I had not
meant to go to Cambridge till yesterday, but it was fortunate
that I went the week before as Lady Alwyne had already
1 Now Bishop of Oxford.
2 Rev. A. L. M. Mertens, now Rector of Klipdam, Cape Colony.
s His youngest brother, then a scholar of King's College, Cambridge.
4 Lord Alwyne Compton, then Bishop of Ely.
14
ARTHUR DOUGLAS, 1894
settled to ask Gerald and myself to lunch at the Palace for
yesterday, so that brought Gerald here and he stayed the
night with me, going back this evening. I took him to
breakfast with the Principal, and to lunch with Archdeacon
Emery and family.
" The Palace people have been very kind to me, as,
besides lunch yesterday, I dined there near the beginning
of the term. The Bishop and Lady Alwyne are both so very
nice and, I find, easy to get on with.
" This letter is already much too long, but it will show
you how happy I am here. In the afternoon I play much
football, Rugby with the Grammar school-boys, Association
with the other college men ; there is also tennis, boating
and church-bell ringing, at which I am not an adept.
" I want very much to hear all about you ; I have heard
nothing as to the spread of the epidemic."
When he was a student at Ely, I can recall his seriousness
of purpose and his devotion to duty. These were, I think,
the two most marked features of his character. He was very
regular in his prayers and meditations, and we could always
depend on his steadfastness and loyalty. He thought out
things for himself carefully and prayerfully, and was
thoroughly interested in theology. He was very methodical
in all he undertook and made his way step by step towards
the definitely Catholic standpoint which became habitual
to him in later life.
He always seemed a little old (in manner) for his years,
but this did not at all prevent him taking his full share in
the games and recreations of the place. He played as he
worked, with keenness and perseverance.
He became devoted to the college and anxious that his
youngest brother Gerald should come there too as a student,
which happened in due course. 1
1 Rev. Gerald W. Douglas, afterwards Vice-Principal for nearly nine
years ; now Rector of Christ Church, S. Leonards.
CHAPTER III
SALISBURY AND SALWARPE, 1895-1901
AFTER a year's training at Ely, Arthur was ordained Deacon
on September 22, 1895,! by Bishop John Wordsworth, at
S. Edmund's, Salisbury, the church which he was to serve
as Assistant Curate.
Canon Morrice, who is still Vicar of S. Edmund's, speaks
of the " reality and intensity of his religious convictions.
To him," he says, " ' to live was Christ.' The Holy Eucharist
was indeed the sacrament of his life and made itself felt in
all that he said and did. I should put next his absolute
devotion to duty. ' To do the next thing ' was always his
rule preaching, visiting, teaching in weekday or Sunday
schools, boys' clubs, and games. He lived, I believe, a
very strongly disciplined life, but he was very sympathetic
with the sorrow and sins of others. . . . Even those of his
parishioners who were out of sympathy with his churchman-
ship felt and generously recognised the reality and simplicity
of his faith, and his high standard of living, and there are
not a few who thank God for the work he did at
S. Edmund's."
A little more than a fortnight after his ordination he
writes to his sister :
Salisbury, Oct. 7, 1895.
" I daresay you want to know first hand about my
beginnings in parochial work. I have been splendidly busy,
1 At 8 A.M.
16
so that the time has flown and every day seems to bring
fresh duties. To-night I am due at our Lads' Temperance
Society of which I hear I am ' Warden ' ; in fact I nearly
always have something on in the evening. On Thursdays
I am responsible for our youths' club, and last Thursday I
spent most of the time from 7 to 10 playing ' Tap-it,' which is
in great vogue here, and an equally intellectual game called
' Donkey.' Most of my work, except the afternoon visiting,
is among boys and youths ; twice a week I try to teach
70 to 100 boys in school ; then I am also moral-tutor to the
choir, warden to the lads' temperance, and besides seeing
something of the evening club I also have a Sunday class,
aged from about 17 to 20. So I am brought into individual
contact with all ages up to my own, and so far as I can tell
at present they are a nice lot. In the afternoon I am hard
at work visiting, and I think it is only then, when I am
brought into contact with all sorts and conditions, including
the sick and dying and even the dead, that I realise what the
Ely training was meant to do for me in preparing me for the
ministerial life."
The following letter to his brother Gerald shows how
quickly he had come to feel at home in the parish, and both
the letters testify to his great love for Ely and how greatly
he valued his training there.
Salisbury, Nov. 26, 1895.
" It was jolly to get your letter, and I have so often
wondered lately whether you had found your way over to
Ely yet. How I envy you ! But the next best thing to
being there is to hear of some one else being there and how
well I picture your day. ... I wonder if you told the
Princeps which R.'s wedding day is. I ought to have written
to Ely, but now even if I did write to-day the Princeps
wouldn't get the letter till after the day's Eucharist. M.,
J. 1 and I are probably going to S. Martin's at 7.45 to-
morrow morning and we shall spend an hour together at
S. Margaret's in the evening from 9 to 10, when our
1 Two of his sisters.
17 c
Respective works are over. The parish goes on much as
usual, though I feel quite an old stager by this time.
I am at last beginning to see my way to the end of my first
round of visiting, and in another fortnight I ought to have
been to almost every house in my district, though in some
cases I have found people ' out.' I do look forward to the
time when I shall know the people and their ways better.
I expect I have been hopelessly taken in time after time . . .
but I suppose in time I shall learn better discrimination.
Some of the courts are very bad. The Rector has asked me
if I can see my way to starting some elementary service in
one of the biggest courts. I am very keen to do so, as these
sort of people scarcely ever dream of coming to church ;
but at present the difficulties seem very great. If it was
only summer, I could of course have it out of doors. The
younger boys of the parish I am getting very fond of,
especially the choir I only hope I shall be able to keep
them in good order. To-night we have got our monthly
Communicants' Guild Meeting, and Lord Nelson is going to
address us on Home Re-union. Next Friday is the day of
Intercession for Foreign Missions. Besides services, I hope
we shall be able to keep up continual intercession in church
most of the afternoon, each person being responsible for a
quarter of an hour's private prayer in church, and on
Sunday the sermons and offertories are to be for missions.
We have a strange preacher in the morning and / have
got to preach the evening sermon. It is a dreadful thing
to say, but I really feel less capable of preaching on mis-
sions than on any other subject. Will you remember
me at the Sunday Eucharist, and pray that my sermon
may be found acceptable ? . . . We have a concert on
December 16 ; I do wish you could have come down here
for it ; you might sleep on the floor, even if there is not a
bed in the house."
" I once," writes a sister, " went with him to visit an old
woman during his time at Salisbury. She had been bed-
ridden for years and was a pattern of cheerfulness. She
belonged to the Salvation Army, and Arthur's sympathy
18
r Photo, H. C. Messer
S. EDMUND S CHURCH, SALISBURY
with her over her many birthdays was very characteristic
of him. He wanted her to tell me her story, so he kept
drawing her out by saying, ' We kept your birthday when you
gave up the drink, didn't we ? And your other birthday
when you gave up the snuff.'
" I think he had a great sympathy with all kinds of
people. The men of the parish made real friends with him,
and felt, as one of them said thirteen years afterwards when
he heard of his death, He was a man.
" The boys loved him and he had perhaps a special
sympathy with them.
" I remember J. finding him in his rooms at Salisbury
full of excitement when the first uniform for the Church
Lads' Brigade arrived. He was a great believer in the
C.L.B., and very soon his company became particularly
smart. Then the mothers in the parish were very fond of
him and never forgot him ; and he was very happy also
with little children.
" Our own little niece, Molly Douglas, died quite suddenly
at the Godolphin School. She was only ill a few hours, and
he was wonderful with her during the night when every
human effort was made to save her life. When it became
clear that she was dying he helped to keep her perfectly
happy, and at the same time, though she was only eight
years old, he made it plain to her that she was going to God.
She asked for the hymn ' Around the Throne of God/ and
passed away quite peacefully."
His stay at Salisbury, however, was not destined to be
a long one.
On February 19, 1898, Arthur's father, the Rev.
Canon William Douglas, died, and the living of Salwarpe
consequently became vacant. It is a family living in the
gift of Canon Douglas's eldest son, who offered it to Arthur.
He had scarcely been ordained more than two years, and he
must have had great searchings of heart as to accepting the
appointment. Doubtless the fact that his going there
would enable his mother to continue living at the Rectory
weighed much with him in coming to a decision, and those
19 ca
who knew him will be quite sure that he did not decide
without prolonged and earnest prayer for guidance. He
must have felt his youth and inexperience, but it looked
liked a plain call to carry on his father's work and to make a
home for his mother. So on March 5 he writes to his eldest
brother, Archibald, this characteristic little letter :
" After much thought, and feeling the tremendous
responsibility, I have decided to do my best at Salwarpe,
and can only pray that to make up for my lack of experience,
God will give me an ever-increasing supply of grace."
The die was cast ; he left Salisbury after a ministry there
of two and a half years, and became Rector of Salwarpe,
his mother noting in her Diary, under date June 24 :
" Arthur's induction. The Archdeacon came and we
had a very impressive service at 6.30 P.M. A large
congregation."
And again on June 26 we find the entry :
" Arthur took all the services for the first time ; read
out the 39 Articles instead of morning sermon ; Children's
Service. Preached at Evensong from S. Luke vii. 28." l
It has been remarked before that he had as a young man
a manner older than his years, and I remember his mother
telling me that this fact was a real help to him in the parish
where he had to take such a responsible position at such a
comparatively early age.
It is certain that he did remarkably well as Rector : he
drew the people round him ; he attracted old as well as
young ; and he built carefully and zealously on the founda-
tions which his father had so well and so wisely laid.
One of his sisters has kindly allowed me to print the
following account of his life at Salwarpe.
" F., K. and I were naturally the ones who saw most of
Arthur during the time he was Rector of Salwarpe. There
was so much in his life during that time which should be an
1 " I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there is none
greater than John : but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater
than he."
20
inspiration to us. First, his very strong sense of duty. I
remember when he first took up his duty there, his asking for
help to write down the houses in the parish, and then he
began at once on that very regular visiting which formed a
most distinct part of his daily life. I think few people can
have taken more care of the moments of time than he did.
He forced himself to be very methodical, and one could tell
almost to a moment when he would leave the house to go
across to church for his half-hour there alone before 8 o'clock
Mattins ; also just when he would be starting out for his
visiting. Owing to his high standard of thoroughness and
the great value he set upon time, his days were very fully
occupied with work, including of course the times set apart
for prayer. I think he was inwardly habitually conscious
that he was on duty ; for instance, it was a very rare thing
indeed for him to accept an invitation to an afternoon party ;
he used to send the simple and truthful excuse that he had
not time. Likewise he would quietly leave the room very
speedily and return to his study when others were still
chatting over afternoon tea. He was tremendously indus-
trious, and when on board ship would spend a long time in
his cabin away from interruption, reading and studying.
" His was bound to be a strenuous life, however
apparently small his sphere of work might seem, but you
know how it was combined with a delightful serenity and
brightness of spirit. His deeply affectionate and sensitive
nature made him have the tenderest regard for the feel-
ings of others ; he could not bear that they should be
unnecessarily hurt.
" A holiday was an immense delight to him, when it
came ; he was a splendid companion, entering with light-
hearted joy into the fun and adventures of the moment.
" He loved teaching, and was much interested in his
work as Assistant Diocesan Inspector. In his own school,
the teachers and elder children were, I think, specially drawn
to him by the deep and sympathetic interest he took in their
work, and the half-hour he devoted to instructing the pupil
teachers in his own study on the mornings he was not
teaching in school was, I am sure, a time much enjoyed and
21
valued, and the Sunday Catechism service was one of the
things he took very special trouble about. Also he started
a Bible class for men, which was held at the Rectory during
the autumn and winter months, when the household might
be made well aware what was going on by the vigorous
singing of the hymns.
" I suppose the strong discipline which ruled his own life
was partly the secret of his being able successfully to dis-
cipline others. Disobedience, from his earliest childhood,
was entirely contrary to his character, and though his rule
was essentially a rule of gentleness and love, the great value
he set upon reverence, respect, and obedience soon made its
impression upon others. Down to the smallest or liveliest
choir-boy, those coming into contact with him in church or
vestry could not fail to know something of what he felt, and
what he would quietly insist upon in such matters. His
own example was a convincing proof. His intensely deep
sense of reverence was quite constantly striking those who
lived with him. This, combined with great strength of
purpose and self-control, made us feel how absolutely he
was to be depended on, to be true and consistent to his
principles in this respect. For example, it was practically
an unheard of thing for him to criticise or disparage a
clergyman ; this was clearly an absolute rule for himself,
indeed unnecessary criticism of anyone was scrupulously
avoided. He shrank with extreme sensitiveness from the
very slightest approach to anything which seemed to him
even to border on a lack of reverence.
" He had a real gift for understanding and dealing with
boys, and had an intense love and sympathy for the boy
nature.
" It was just like him to quietly suggest to choir-boys
at the beginning of a long day's trip, that as he thought it
was possible they had omitted to say their prayers that
morning at home before making such an early start, he
would say them aloud for them in the railway carriage a
suggestion which was quite simply and quietly accepted by
the boys.
" I always think it was partly at least his reverent mind,
22
combined with a well-trained self-discipline, which made us
aware that he consistently avoided the least expression of
annoyance on account of the weather ; neither do I ever once
remember his writing depressingly about the heat or any
other discomfort which naturally confronted him in Africa.
Though blessed with so much freshness and buoyancy of
spirit, delighting in giving pleasure to others and intensely
capable of being interested in many subjects, which made
him a most pleasant and sociable companion, one knew that
under it all was his own strict rule of life for himself, which
made his principles so strong and consistent. His care in
letting nothing if possible interfere with the devotional
duties of the day, came to me forcibly when he was invalided
back from Africa last time. As we neared Southampton
we arranged that I should come to his cabin for Mattins
at an earlier hour than usual, but we were not early
enough and were constantly interrupted by bangs at the
door asking if the luggage was ready to be taken on
shore. Arthur repeatedly replied that we were not ready,
and when at last the service was finished, he calmly re-
marked that we must see if there were any porters left to
attend to us !
" Sunday at Salwarpe was a very full day, as he was of
course single-handed. This meant four and sometimes five
services in the parish church, superintendence of the morning
Sunday school and an evening service at the far end of the
parish, cycling down again just in time for Evensong in the
church.
" He was naturally anxious to give his people every help
possible in their spiritual life, and he was pleased and struck
at the way they responded.
" Being troubled however that Ascension Day was not
better kept, though clearly seeing the difficulties in the way
in a country parish, he arranged for the first Celebration
that day to be at 5 A.M., thus giving the farmers and workmen
a chance of attending."
His gift of sympathy attracted people to him ; an old
woman at Salwarpe wrote not long ago to his sister saying,
23
" My heart was drawn towards him when he came to see
me about my boy Jim."
The following account of the Rector was written by
one who is now an assistant teacher in Salwarpe
School.
" My recollections of Mr. Douglas begin with the time
when he came to Salwarpe as the young successor of
his father, Canon Douglas. We were just beginning our
studies as pupil teachers, and so saw much of him, as he
was constantly at the school and took great interest in
our work.
" From the first he always made it a point to open
school, and before long we elder children used to stand on
tiptoe to watch for the first glimpse of him coming over the
bridge from the Rectory. If anything prevented him from
coming blank disappointment always prevailed.
" Every day in the week except Monday found him
teaching Scripture in school for the first half-hour, and I
never knew better attention paid than when he was giving
the lesson. Not only was he an excellent teacher, but a
disciplinarian whose rule was both firm and kind. No
child ever dreamed of giving him trouble, and it was worth
a great deal of hard work to see his whole face light up at
a really good and thoughtful answer. He was responsible
for two of the subjects set for the annual Scripture examina-
tion, and if we could answer his questions we felt able to
face any inspector, so thorough and earnest was he in going
through the work.
" The three pupil teachers were taught part of their
Scripture in the study at the Rectory on Wednesday
mornings. Those were happy times. I never have occasion
to go there now without vividly recalling the book-lined
room on some pleasant morning, with its windows wide
open to let in the fresh sweet air, the green lawn bordered
by flower-beds, and in the background the beautiful old grey
church, just as it all used to be. Inside were four busy
people gathered round the table, the Rector especially alert
and energetic in the early morning. We worked hard and
24
SALWARPE RECTORY
ROBERT, ARTHUR AND GERALD DOUGLAS WITH CANON RANDOLPH
SALWARPE CHU
happily, the notes we took afterwards being learned by heart,
and a searching examination set on them.
" Succeeding pupil teachers have used the same notes,
but they could never be made to understand the happy
memories that clung around those decidedly shabby
exercise-books.
" I often had occasion to go to the Rectory on some
errand or other, and was never allowed to knock. ' The
study is always open to you girls ' was our passport, and we
felt we were welcome visitors.
" A few of the elder girls were members of a Young
Communicants' Class held in the dining-room at the Rectory,
when we were carefully taken through a preparation for our
next Communion. We have often in later years missed
those classes and felt how helpful they were.
" Then on Sunday afternoons there were the Catechisms
when we had a short bright service, with the blackboard
up in church, and we all took notes of the lesson given by
the Rector. We afterwards wrote analyses, for which
prizes were given monthly. The address was often a story,
and so interesting and instructive were these services that
many grown-up people attended them regularly, and
followed the courses with keen attention.
" I have known the Rector find time in the week to
go through the whole of the previous Sunday's lesson again
for the sake of a child who had been unavoidably absent.
" But he never was too tired to do anything for us ; if
any part of his work was especially dear to his heart, I think
it must have been ' feeding the lambs.'
" He would walk home with the children who happened
to be going his way, and next day we others would hear of
fairy-tales he had told and games he had played with the
delighted little ones, apparently as much to his own satis-
faction as theirs. There was no child in the school whom he
did not know and love. Each one was prayed for by name,
and each one's home was visited frequently. No matter
in what condition were pinafores, hands and faces, the
children must be produced when he came or there was
disappointment on both sides.
25
"As an older girl I well remember how pleasant it was
when we entered church, no matter how early, to find the
Rector already kneeling in his place ; it seemed a silent
welcome to the House he loved. Some of us, I think, came
earlier on purpose to share the quiet vigil ; it was so fitting
a preparation for the following service.
" When at last he made known to us that he felt called
to Africa, we were deeply grieved, feeling at first that we
really could not do without him.
" But he was very brave and cheerful, and I remember
how in his last sermon he cheered us by reminding us of the
great, ever-near and changeless Friend ' Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.'
" Yet the parting was a grief to him also ; at our last
Rectory lesson he said as we went out, ' Remember us
in your prayers, dear girls. It is a great wrench to leave
Salwarpe.'
" We know now how much his life inspired and helped
us. All that he undertook was carried through with such
unflagging energy and zeal he never shirked, never spared
himself.
" There was unfailing sympathy with us in our troubles.
He always went as near to the brink of the dark river as any
human friend can go with a dying parishioner, staying hour
after hour at the bedside.
" And it was the same in work and play, he shared it all,
comforted, encouraged, praised and gave us bracing criticism,
all with the keenest interest.
" His enthusiasm and sense of humour naturally
endeared him to young people. He knew the 'joy of
living,' I think, better than the majority of people, and I
love to remember that when I saw him last his face was
brightness itself.
" We cannot doubt that he has been called away to
higher spheres of service. That thought gradually soothed
the first deep grief when we heard, to use S. Paul's words,
that ' we should see his face no more.'
" Such affection as he felt for us has not waned or died
out ; where he is now he knows and loves us still, and
26
perhaps is permitted to help us in ways we cannot under-
stand.
" I have expressed badly what I feel deeply, but perhaps
a verse from one of the hymns for S. Barnabas' Day will
sum up better than I can what our Rector was to us truly
one of
" ' Those true helpers, patient kind and skilful,
Who shed Thy light across our darkened earth,
Counsel the doubting and restrain the wilful,
Soothe the sick bed and share the children's mirth.' "
CHAPTER IV
THE CALL TO MISSIONARY WORK,
How does the call come to the Mission field ? Who can
say ? " The wind bloweth where it listeth ... so is
everyone that is born of the Spirit."
It would have been possible for Arthur Douglas to settle
down at Salwarpe and stay there for many years as his
father had done, and no one would have thought of blaming
him ; but he was destined for other work. God willed to
send him " far hence unto the Gentiles."
While at Salwarpe Arthur had become Secretary of the
Worcester Branch of the Junior Clergy Missionary Associa-
tion. This is, of course, an indication that he was interested
in foreign missions, as any good parish priest must needs be,
but he had not, so far, thought of offering himself for the
Mission field.
He had, however, a great friend, Frank Zachary, who had
been with him at Lincoln College, Oxford, and who had
preceded him by one year at Ely.
This friend had joined the Universities' Mission to Central
Africa in 1899, and had died at Masasi on April 16, 1901.
It is possible and even probable that Frank Zachary was the
magnet which drew Arthur to the Mission field. Arthur
had written to him 1 some time before telling him that he
thought he would have to become a missionary himself in
1 It is not certain that this letter was addressed to Mr. Zachary,, but
most probable.
28
ARTHUR DOUGLAS,
order to be properly interested in missions. It is most
likely that he felt at times that the life at Salwarpe was too
easy a life for a young priest in vigorous health and that
he was on the lookout for a more self-denying or self-
sacrificing life.
His mother died on December n, 1899, and this
occurrence would set him free from the duty of providing a
home for her.
We cannot tell, but it is clear from the letter to his
eldest brother, printed below, that he had thought of giving
himself to missionary work at least a year before he actually
offered himself to the Universities' Mission. The idea once
presented to his mind was not lightly to be abandoned
altogether, though at the time he says that he put it from
him, feeling that another change would be bad for the
parish ; yet a year later he felt certain that he had had a call
to which he must needs respond.
So he writes to his brother Gerald, who had now become
Vice-Principal of Ely :
Salwarpe, May 22, 1901.
" Here is a very big surprise. I am most seriously
thinking of going to Nyasa, if medically fit. I wrote a long
letter to Uncle C., 1 and this morning I got his reply, which
clearly indicates 'Go.' Before anything can be settled I
must be punched and sounded by the U.M.C.A. doctor, and,
as Uncle C. suggests coming here on the 30th (to-morrow
week), I have written to the U.M.C.A. office to know if I can
be medically examined before then. It would be very jolly
if (supposing the doctor can see me Monday, Tuesday, or
Wednesday next week) you could run down and meet me
in town. . . . Another friend of mine, Fred Folliott, 2 has
offered himself for U.M.C.A. and hopes to sail in July. I
will not add more, as I should like you to think about the
matter without further comments of my own. But please
tell the Princeps 8 and Chaplain 4 of the possibility."
1 Canon Palmer of Hereford.
2 Died at Kota Kota, November 10, 1901.
3 Canon Randolph. 4 Rev. A. H. McCheane.
29
To his eldest brother he writes :
Salwarpe, Whit-Monday night, 1901.
" This little note will come to you as a great surprise. I
am intending to go up to town to-morrow to be medically
examined by Dr. Oswald Browne, to see whether I am
physically fit for work in Central Africa (the Universities'
Mission). There is no need to worry about the future, until
we know whether I have passed the very searching medical
investigation. When I know this I will write to you more
of a letter. But for the moment you will please pray that
the doctor may have a ' right judgment/ as the Whitsuntide
collect says.
" To you I think I should add that I have not taken even
this initial step without being aware of many apparent
inconveniences and difficulties ahead. Dr. Oswald Browne
is the authority on Central African health. I told Uncle C.
about ten days ago, but it was useless to worry most people
so long before the doctor's examination."
And again, a few days later, to the same :
" I have got back from my medical examination by Dr.
Oswald Browne. After a very thorough investigation, the
doctor said, ' Sound as a bell.' This verdict means a great
deal, as I believe 70 per cent, of applicants for service in the
U.M.C.A. fail to pass the doctor's test. Of course I told him
all I could about all former ailments I have had, and also
about mother's weakness of heart and Elspeth's l and Harry's 2
deaths. He questioned me closely about family health.
I have still to go before the whole medical board on June n,
but they will not alter Dr. Browne's verdict. Also I may
have to be examined, and get a paper filled up by one of
our local doctors.
" As to the whole matter of my going, it is rather a serious
upset to family arrangements, and of course we specially
think of the three sisters at home and of you to whom it is
1 His sister who was a Sister of the Community of S. Peter's, Kilburn ;
she died July 14, 1891.
2 His brother who was in the Navy and died September 3, 1890.
30
rather of considerable convenience to have some of the family
living on the estate.
" As to the parish when the advisability of seeking work
abroad has hitherto entered my head, especially about a
year ago, I put the idea from me as I felt strongly that
further change would be bad for the parish. During the
last year, however, everything has been going quietly, and
I think I could slip away without causing much trouble, and
my successor would, I hope, find things fairly ship-shape.
I am, however, bound to the parish till the successor is
found. As to having let matters run on quietly up to the
present, F. and E. have both told me they feel sure it was
best to wait for any change until now.
" I want you to understand that it is only a very strong
sense of a call to this new work that has turned me into so
inconvenient a brother."
His uncle, Canon Palmer of Hereford, writes :
" I had some talk with him when the critical point came
of his leaving Salwarpe, and I had, as I thought, to place
before him many considerations, more with regard to his
brothers and sisters, and the parish where he was working
so efficiently, than to himself. One never can venture to
throw difficulties in the path, when a call to higher work
comes across it, and we shall all think and believe that he
was right in following the call even to the unlocked for
but we may add glorious end. He had a fund of singular
fitness for mission work which one had hardly realised, but
which was drawn forth by the circumstances in which he
found himself so much patience and self-control, with
great cheerfulness in his intercourse with those around him.
His quiet perseverance and deep sense of duty made him
an excellent teacher as well as an example to those whom
he taught. There always seemed to me, from what I heard
and saw of him, a strong reserve of spiritual force making
him ready to act at any moment of crisis and giving him
undaunted courage in speaking and acting as conscience
led him. Such an influence in the Mission at Nyasa must
have been great, and it will not be easily forgotten."
The medical question being settled, everything else was
soon arranged. Not one member of the family tried to
turn Arthur from his purpose. On the contrary, they all
encouraged him. Three of his sisters had made their home
with him at Salwarpe, but they did not think of themselves.
They acted with entire unselfishness, and bade their brother
God speed in his response to what all believed to be a Divine
call ; and so it came about that Arthur, who loved his
old home passionately, turned his back on it, and for Christ's
sake left his comfortable Rectory and his brethren and
sisters and passed out into the Mission field.
It is well, I think, to insert here a letter from one who
joined the Mission as an engineer, and eventually set out for
the Lake in Arthur Douglas' company. The letter illustrates
some beautiful traits in Arthur's character. The writer
says, " I should like to tell you how, through him, I joined
the Mission."
" My home was only about two miles from Salwarpe
and often on Sunday evenings we walked to Salwarpe to
church. One Sunday I walked there alone and after church
met Douglas in the churchyard. We strolled into the Rectory
garden together, and then to my great surprise he told me
that he had offered himself to the U.M.C.A. and hoped to
leave for Nyasa in the autumn.
" We talked for a long time of the Mission, of Frank
Zachary, a connection of mine who had lately died in Africa,
and of other mutual friends in the Mission, and he told me
how he was going out with a large party and mentioned at
the same time that with the exception of an engineer, who
was still urgently needed for the new steamer, the immediate
needs of the Mission in the way of men had been fulfilled in
a wonderful way. All my walk home I was turning over
what he had said, and I wondered why, considering his
keenness, he had not thought of me in connection with the
vacant engineer's post. Then the idea came to me that
perhaps it was intended that I should go. I had not before
ever had the slightest intention of ever joining that or any
32
other Mission ; indeed I had never considered the matter.
Frankly, I did not want to go or to consider the possibility
of going, and I tried to put it out of my head as a fantastic
notion.
" I went back to work on Monday but couldn't get rid of
the idea, and worried more and more about it through the
week, so that the following Sunday I went again to Salwarpe
and told Douglas what was in my mind and how troubled
I was. He told me then, what he said he had not felt
justified in saying before, that for some time he had had me
in his mind, that he had prayed much about it, and, as it
seemed to him, I had come over that Sunday evening in
answer to his prayer ; that still he had felt he must not tell
me so for fear of unduly influencing me, and for that reason
he had been careful to avoid giving me any idea that he had
any special reason for being glad to see me there. Then and
not till then I began to feel certain that I couldn't refuse
without deliberate shirking. Together we went into that
quiet little church and knelt up in the chancel before the
altar, and before we left he prayed out loud for ' a right
judgment in all things ' ; and so I went.
" I did not really know him intimately up till that time,
but I got to know him and to love him very sincerely after-
wards. On the Lake he was at Kota and I on the steamer,
so that I saw him very seldom, and then only for a few hours,
but he has always been a means of strength and help to me
as I know he was to so many others, black and white."
Arthur left Salwarpe in the first week in October, 1901.
On his departure the parishioners very generously presented
him withVbeautiful gold watch.
On October 6 he wrote the following characteristic
and touching letter to his three little nieces, and two days
later" he started^for Central Africa.
" MY DEAR GLADYS, RITA, AND KATHLEEN, You see I
am going to write another little letter to the two brothers, so
that is why they are not included in this letter and that
is also why you need not send on this letter to them. What
a very, very delightful surprise ! I thought my presents were
33 D
at an end, but not a bit of it ; there was a lovely compass
waiting to be unpacked when I got in from church this
morning. Thank you ever so much ; you have added an
extra special piece of happiness to my last Sunday before I
leave England. It was jolly to find that my nephews and
nieces have been thinking of me. And now I hope that they
will go on thinking of me. Please make up a little prayer
about me and say it next Tuesday. I expect you would
feel funny if you were just going to start on my long
journey. I wonder whether black boys and girls are
anything like white boys and girls. I hope they are.
Good-bye means God be with you and make you very good
girls."
The party went across the Continent and joined the ship
Konig at Genoa.
From the Mediterranean he writes to a sister under date
Eve of S. Luke (October 16), 1901 :
" Some time to-night we expect to reach Port Said.
Letters have to be posted by 9 P.M. Though Port Said is
in quarantine, I hope letters will be allowed to pass through.
The sea during the last day has been about as smooth as
the canal. I suppose the ordinary voyager at this particular
spot has anticipatory visions of the Suez Canal, but the
canal can have only one meaning to the Salwarpian. 1 . . .
The days pass very quickly, thanks to Chinyanja, which
generally takes up about four hours. There are a number
of different sorts of missionaries on board, U.M.C.A., C.M.S.,
Berlin missionaries bound for North Nyasa, and last but
not least an American Methodist Bishop. We (U.M.C.A.'s)
are a delightfully happy party : Mattins, 9 ; Evensong, 5 ;
Compline, 9 P.M."
And the next day from the Suez Canal :
" I can only afford the twenty-five minutes before dinner
for letter-writing, as I have a sermon hanging over me for
Sunday (the day after to-morrow). We U.M.C.A. party
1 The reference is to a canal which runs through Salwarpe close to the
Rectory,
34
are to be responsible this next Sunday for public Mattins
and I am to preach, whilst Mr. Marsh reads the office and
I hope Mr. Suter the deacon will play the piano. Don't
you think that the little helm which turns about the whole
ship ought to be an appropriate text ? Possibly it is a very
common text for board ship ; you may remember that last
Lent course of Sunday morning sermons at Salwarpe was
on the tongue. Well, here we are on the Canal about
fifty yards wide or perhaps more, but it looks very shallow
near the edges and there are only fixed places where large
vessels can pass. . . . We did not get to Port Said till 5.30
this morning. . . . We in our cabin had to be up betimes
as we were to have the Holy Eucharist in the cabin, so that
I was on deck as we were being tugged into the port. . . .
Our Eucharist this morning should have been a very solemn
service held at the moment when we first touched Africa.
Marsh celebrated and said as the Intro it, ' Thou Whose
Almighty Word.' It is such a good thing that we have got so
roomy a cabin, as there is some difficulty about services. On
Sunday early mornings, except when the American Methodist
Bishop takes the services, we shall I hope be able to join
with the C. M.S. in the first -class ladies' saloon. . . . Yesterday
I got introduced to the captain and first officer and asked
whether we could have any place for weekday celebrations
or Sunday celebration if the bishop (!) is in possession of the
saloon. The first officer was very kind and showed us a
railed-off portion of the deck, which he said we could use.
So I expect we shall try this on the first Sunday when
necessity turns us out of the saloon ; but for weekday
Eucharists (perhaps two per week) we shall probably use
the cabin, as we find it is most decently feasible. For next
Saturday evening Philip Young and Nurse Minter are
getting up a sing-song, chiefly for the benefit of third-class
passengers, Saturday night being the special night for going
on the drink."
The following letter contains an interesting account of
his first actual contact with the Mission at work. His
description of Zanzibar the town, the island, and the
35 D2
various Mission centres is very vivid, and he gives his first
impressions of the Cathedral.
Konig, Indian Ocean, between Zanzibar and Mozambique,
Nov. 6, 1901.
" Your birthday is, I believe, in the early part of next
month, so this conveys to you special love and good wishes.
. . . Now I must tell you all I can about Zanzibar. We
got our first sight of the island at 5 o'clock on Saturday, and
reached Zanzibar town about 7.30 ; as it was dark we could
see from the ship nothing of the town except the lights,
those of the Sultan's palace being especially conspicuous.
In my letter to G. I said we did not know whether the Mis-
sion houses would be able to put us up, but we had got our
handbags ready on the chance ; so that when a goodly party
of the missionaries from the town greeted us on board and
told us we were to come off with them, they found me at
least quite prepared. You can imagine the excitement of
Nurse Minter (who was for some months herself at Zanzibar)
trying to spot the Mission boat and its occupants among
the host of other small craft which gathered round the
steamer in the dark, as soon as we anchored. We saw
them before they saw us, and though we yelled the names
of ' Brother Moffat ' and ' Baines ' (two of those whom
Nurse recognised in the boat) there was too much noise for
them to hear us. Brother Moffat (belonging to Father
Kelly's community) is treasurer and man-of-all-work. We
left him on board that he might follow with Miss Moles-
worth's luggage, whilst all the rest of us got into the boat,
and off we went to the shore. There we had to separate
according to our different destinations. Mr. Baines took
Philip Young to his house outside the town. . . . Miss
Molesworth went to her own quarters, the ladies' house ;
Nurse Minter and Miss Nixon-Smith were put up in the
hospital, and the rest of us, Dr. Howard, Marsh, Suter,
Ladbury, and myself, were taken to the men's quarters,
where we received a most genial welcome from Mr. Bishop,
the priest-in-charge of the town of Zanzibar. I have I see
incidentally mentioned the three chief Mission buildings
36
(besides the Cathedral) within the town, namely the men's
house, the ladies' house (chiefly for the lady teachers and
workers among the women), and the hospital, the head of
which is Miss Brewerton. The hospital is a most palatial
building. It is not quite the same trouble to make up a
bed in Central Africa as it is in England, as the bedding out
here consists of a thin mat on the top of a springy wire
mattress (if it was not wire it was something equally springy),
a rug, a blanket, a pillow, and a mosquito net no sheets
are used. The town of Zanzibar is an amazing place . . .
an impossible place for a new-comer to find his own way
about. The population is said to be 100,000, and it lives
in a squashed mesh of native huts, interspersed by innumer-
able little streets varying from one to three yards in width.
Of course this is all most picturesque, but it is also most
smelly. I suppose that the lecturer on hygiene would say
that the town of Zanzibar ought not to be allowed a day's
further existence. Yet, in spite of appearances, events
have proved that the town makes a very fairly healthy
Mission station, and I was surprised to find that the drinking
water of the place was very good. Ours at Nyasa is boiled,
except the lake-water which is remarkably pure. A story
(doubtless a story in more senses than one) is told how at
the high-table of a certain Oxford College the two drinks
offered to the guests are ' Water, sir, or Toast and water ? '
At the high-table of the Zanzibar Mission the two drinks
are water and cocoanut-water. The latter is our old friend,
the milk of a cocoanut, only in its unripe condition. The top
of the cocoanut is cut off and the liquid poured straight
into a tumbler enough liquid to fill a large tumbler. When
this has been done the cocoanut itself, being unripe, is
thrown away ; but the loss is not a great one, as cocoanut,
liquid and all, costs one farthing ! The cocoanut palm
with the fruit grows in great profusion in the island. I also
came across a very curious custom connected with another
fruit ; I walked through a native cemetery, and found it is
the regular custom to plant pine-apples on the graves.
The pine-apple tree is like the cactus, about two feet high
and the fruit growing on the top ; some graves had four
37
such trees, one at each corner ; it was so strange to see this
profusion of growing pine-apples, any one of which might fetch
2s. 6d. in the English market. My pine-apple walk was on
Sunday afternoon, when Dr. Howard and I, escorted part
way by Brother Moffat, visited some of the Mission stations
which lie outside the town ; Brother Moffat was carrying
the mail-bag with the letters which came by our steamer
for the outlying stations. There are five stations outside
the town, each one of which has its own special purpose.
They are Ziwani, the new industrial boys' home ; Kiungani,
the college for training native teachers ; Mazizini, the
college for training candidates for ordination, i.e. the
native theological college ; Kilimani, the small boys' home ;
Mbweni, the girls' home. Mbweni, the furthest away, is
four miles from the town ; we were content to visit the first
three. . . . From the doctor's point of view the chief interest
in our walk lay at the industrial boys' home, the windows
of which have been fitted with mosquito-proof copper nets.
Dr. Howard has a- very strong belief in the mosquito-malaria
theory. The copper netting is certainly wonderfully trans-
parent, and being as fine as ordinary mosquito netting, it
should, if never removed from the window, do a great deal
to keep the house free from these venomous little beasts ;
but though the air can freely pass through the netting, it is
not so pleasant to contemplate the impossibility of ever
putting one's head out of the window ; however, I told the
doctor that if ever he saw his way to introducing the system
into the Nyasa houses, I would be willing to be victimised.
It was on this same walk that I had my first sight of real
Nyasa boys, two of whom had come to Zanzibar for farther
training and holiday (Leonard and Arthur). Now I have
told you something about the Mission houses in the town
and out of the town, but I have said nothing about the most
important House of all. The Cathedral stands on the site
of the old slave-market, the High Altar being, I believe,
just where the whipping post formerly stood. I am a very
bad hand at describing buildings, but even the heathen
must be awe-struck at the beauty of this one, its exceeding
loftiness and its richness. It has no side aisles or transepts ',
38
the pillars which help to support the roof are close against
the walls, so that every worshipper has full view of the
stately altar, with its glittering mosaic front. The east
end is a large apse with seats all the way round it, where
the clergy sit when in chapter. The altar stands sufficiently
far forward for there to be a large space behind it, and it is
here that we were able to say a prayer beside Bishop Steere's
grave. The great Swahili Sunday Eucharist was at 6.45 ;
what would not I have given to have been able to share the
joy of it with some more of you ! It was much more than
worth all my other Zanzibar experiences put together.
Suter and I sang in the choir ; I sat next a native deacon,
who precented with a very fine voice. The choir boys are a
heterogeneous lot. I did not dare to look down on the con-
gregation for some time, but when I did, it was a sight to
convert the most antagonistic missionary critic this big
church seemingly cram full, men on one side and women
(a wonderful mass of coloured shawls) and children on the
other. The singing was not artistic, but very, very lusty
and strong, a magnificent roar of sound ; of course everything
was in Swahili, but I found no difficulty in singing the
Swahili words to the familiar old tunes ' Our Blest Re-
deemer,' ' For all the Saints,' ' Who are these like stars
appearing ? ' ' Above the clear blue sky,' and others. Mr.
Bishop was celebrant and also preacher ; the service was
dignified and elaborate, but without any fussiness. It lasted
an hour and a half. I was permitted to celebrate the English
Eucharist after the Swahili one. . . . Well, so much for my
first impressions of the Cathedral, of which, as I read in
a U.M.C.A. record book on Sunday afternoon, ' Douglas 1 of
" the London " helped to take down the scaffolding.'
Notices about Harry came chiefly in letters written by Mr.
W. Lowndes when he was in the Mission at Zanzibar. He
calls him ' Douglas, son of Canon Douglas of Salwarpe.'
Another notice says how Douglas stayed to English Evensong,
and a number of Mission boys escorted him back to the
shore. But more interesting than these printed mentionings
1 A brother, thirteen years his senior, died 1890: He was an officer on
board H.M.S. London and in close touch with the Mission at Zanzibar.
39
of his name was my conversation with Miss Thackeray, who
has been in the Mission for about twenty-five years. The
very fact that though during his time on the ' London' she
was stationed out of the town yet she remembers him well
proves how intimate he must have been with the Mission.
I was told that the boilers of his old ship are still lying on
the shore ; I looked for them with the help of Uncle M.'s
field-glasses, and I saw what may have been them, but I am
not certain. Hurrah ! we hope to get to Chinde about next
Saturday. I shall post this at Mozambique."
(To a Brother)
The junction of the rivers Zambesi and Shire, near to
Mount Morambala, Nov. 12, 1901.
" The above heading will, I expect, mean little to you
unless you are willing to expend the sum of fourpence in
requesting the Secretary of U.M.C.A., 9 Dartmouth St.,
Westminster (i^.), to send you the little paper map of Nyasa
(2d.). for which you enclose a stamped big envelope (i^.).
I certainly advise anyone who wishes to know where the
places are which I shall mention from time to time in letters,
or which are mentioned in the Central African magazine,
to get one of these maps. By-the-bye, there is a very good
little magazine for children published by the U.M.C.A. about
the work. I ought to know it better than I do, but some
people think it is more entertaining than its grown-up sister
' Central Africa.' Well, it is certainly quite time that a
letter should be on its way from me to you and I am so
anxious that you should all get my Christmas greeting too
soon rather than too late that I think this had better convey
my seasonably affectionate embrace to all the brothers and
sisters and nephews and nieces down to the last but (I'm
sure she will agree with me) by no means the least of your
own illustrious house. . . . Tell my godchild I am blowing
a perfectly gigantic kiss from my cabin on the African river
to the tip of her little ugly pug nose. I heard a rumour
before leaving England of how the different members of the
family were hoping to gather round two or three hospitable
centres. The dear old home will be much in the minds of
40
us all. I daresay we shall weep a few tears, but they will
not really be tears of unhappiness. I hope I shall get letters
at Nyasa before Christmas Day. My letter last Sunday
was to J., posted at Chinde, where we said good-bye to the
vessel Konig and got on board this river boat, by name
The Polypode. If her name implies that she deliberately
chose many legs to long legs, I congratulate her on her choice.
Long legs, reaching far down beneath the water's surface,
would be absolutely fatal to a Zambesi boat, for they would
be constantly striking the bottom. As it is, our boat draws
only twenty inches of water, and yet we get periodically
stuck on sand-banks and have to be shoved off by means of
reversing the wheel and the combined efforts of the crew,
who in emergencies work at the side with long bamboo poles.
The river is especially low at this season that is, just before
the rain begins and though we have not met with any
serious obstacle so far, it seems quite possible that there may
be difficulties in navigation ahead. But let us not prophesy
evil. We ought to get to Chiromo in two days' time ; there we
and our cargo leave this boat and take a smaller steamer,
or more probably a house-boat, to Katunga's. There we
get off the river and have four days of overland travelling,
halting at Blantyre, a Scotch Mission station, on the way.
This overland business is accomplished partly on our legs,
partly in hammocks, and possibly in mule-carts. At a
place by name Gwazas we strike the river again, and get on
to another steamer which will take us up to the Mission.
Our present steamer has something the same appearance
as a house-boat, with a barge along each side of it, one to
carry fuel, one to carry our cargo, and both to bear the brunt
of unexpected collisions with the river banks. We are here
in the lap of comfort and I like it ten thousand times more
than the noisy Konig. Our party are the only passengers.
. . . The last two days' journey has been full of animal
sights. Now and again a gun goes off from our boat, which
means that the engineer or Philip Young is ' potting '
crocodiles or hippopotamus. I have seen a number of
crocodiles once I saw about half a dozen lying lazily
together on the sand ; the gun sent them skedaddling as fast
as they knew how into the river. The hippopotamuses stand
stolid in the water, showing their heads from time to time
above the surface. Then there are the birds in marvellous
profusion, especially near the mouth of the Zambesi
great flocks of herons, storks, pelicans, black geese, fish-
eagles, and so many others of which of course I do not know
the names. It was their profusion which astounded me
most, just as at Zanzibar it was the profusion of pine-apples
and cocoanuts. Alas ! nearly all these good things come to
an end long before Nyasa is reached. If you want a really
good dish, let me commend to your notice ' mango fool.'
We have passed swarms of locusts. They are bigger than
I expected. The doctor caught one on the boat, which is
about two inches long. All manner of flying insects and
creeping things display themselves at night. Higher up the
river I am told they make the soup tureen their bathing-
place ; but again it is their profusion which has entirely
hardened me to the sight and feel of them. Lastly, there
are the mosquitoes which I am thankful to say up to the
present have been most conspicuous by their absence. The
river is said to be a very bad place for them, but I am only
conscious of having had three or four bites. Of course we
use mosquito nets at night. All our party are very well.
One reason why the low-river season is chosen for travelling
is that it is also the healthy season the doctor feeds us on
quinine pills morning and evening. Yesterday was an
eventful day to me as I said public Mattins (except psalms
and lessons) for the first time in Chinyanja. We work at
the language a good many hours a day. Indeed, if it were
not for this necessary occupation, life on board ship would
be intolerable. The day on the river steamer begins early
about 5.30, when a black boy brings a cup of tea and biscuits
to each bunk. Breakfast number two is at 7.30 ; luncheon
at ii ; afternoon tea at 4 ; dinner at 7. The main difficulty
is not to eat too much. The steamer ties up for the night
and the boys jump ashore, light their fire and cook their rice ;
one of them discourses sweet music on a native instrument ;
then sleep, and off we go again at sunrise. . . . We shall
see Bishop Mackenzie's graye at Chiromo, probably on
42
Thursday. We hear that Bishop Hine has already left
Nyasa, going the cross-country route, via Masasi where
Zachary died, to Zanzibar ; so till our new Bishop arrives
(of whose consecration we long to hear) we shall be bishop-
less. I have no idea which will be my future station. I am
glad to say that all my boxes are so far safe. . . .
" P.S. One of the crew has just declared he could see a
lion, but my spy-glasses did not reveal it to me. Lions are
fairly plentiful along these banks. At a station we passed,
I hear that over twenty-four boys were killed by lions
within a twelvemonth.
" N.B. Yesterday's thermometer in the afternoon was
107 degrees in the shade.
" Have you realised the heterogeneous character of our
party ? We are eight in number, comprising two priests,
one deacon, one doctor, one engineer, one storekeeper, one
nurse, and one lady teacher. I hope that henceforth nobody
will think that in the Mission field there is only work for
parsons."
Less than a month later the party had reached Lake
Nyasa, and Arthur wrote to his brother from Mponda's,
December 6 :
' This is quite a good place to be at and my experience
here has been a useful beginning to missionary life, but it is
unsettling not to know when I am to be off, and I do want
to see Likoma Island and Kota Kota on the way."
Having landed Arthur safely at the Lake, this chapter
may fitly close with the following reminiscences of Miss
Nixon-Smith.
" I was in Mr. Douglas' party when he first went out in
1901. There were nine of us, nearly all scattered now. Mr.
Marsh, Mr. Suter, Mr. Young, Mr. Ladbury, and myself
were all new. Dr. Howard and Miss Minter and Miss
Molesworth of Zanzibar were returning after furlough.
" I remember Mr. Douglas suddenly saying in the train,
' It's my birthday to-day.' We had Mattins and Evensong
43
every day ; on Sunday we had a Celebration in the first-class
saloon, and twice on weekdays we had a little Celebration
for ourselves. Every morning on board the Konig we had
lessons in Chinyanja from Dr. Howard and Miss Minter I
remember as early as this his arranging that the prayer of
consecration should be read by one of the clergy when he
came to it in translation.
" He was wonderfully diligent and keen. It was impos-
sible to detect any sign of fault in his character. Later on
I came to understand the secret of it. I suppose everyone
of us in the Mission would say that his standard of life was
very high, and further, that he lived up to it, and that not
intermittently but habitually. He did not allow himself
any lapses.
" One knew that his temper was naturally quick, but it
was in marvellous control. I once saw him sorely tried and
saw him master himself in a moment almost. No one of us
all could for a moment doubt his absolute sincerity. It was
transparently evident as one of the daily facts of his life,
and it told on everything ; in him the priest dominated the
manhood and enriched it. He was the most accessible of
men, and at everyone's service. I never saw anyone whose
routine of holy practices was more rigidly kept to. I should
imagine that he never under any circumstances missed
making his meditation. But his routine was as instinct with
life as a child's playing. And his rendering of the Divine
Office in English was always vivid ; even when he knelt away
from us and was not celebrating or assisting you could feel
the tenseness of his own worship right across the little
chapel. It was apparent in the way he knelt up straight,
in the expression of his face, and in the way he went to the
altar. All this spiritual strength he would give out at a
moment's notice. The natives said of him, ' Padre Douglas
angali kulema te te te ' (' Mr. Douglas does not know
what it is to be tired, he is always at it ').
" It was said in reference to the long hours he would
spend in church helping souls and it was a true comment
he would go through the very exacting discipline preceding
the great festivals for long hours together and come away
44
and show no sign of weariness. And this was not because
he had taken it lightly ; on the contrary everyone else's
spiritual needs were vital with him, but he never put himself
forward in the least.
" During his last Lent he came over on the Friday evenings
to Likoma, returning on the Saturday. I remember Bishop
Fisher saying, ' Let him rest when he is here unless you want
to use him for spiritual aid.' He gave an address at the
Saturday Eucharist in that Lent and was absolutely superb.
I think Bishop Fisher at once detected his great power, but
indeed none could remain ignorant of it. ' We all felt he
was the most ready to go/ said one of us. I think we felt
that too when we heard. He would have no packing-up to
do, so to speak, he would open immediately when the Master
knocked.
" I remember sympathising with him when he was
suddenly ordered to bed for weeks and his work stopped
literally at a moment's notice. His reply was, ' It's not the
sort of thing that troubles me.' Miss Armstrong said of him
then, ' He never wants cheering up.'
" He used to know where all his papers were and had a
most methodical mind. One day he said to me, ' I've had
such a busy morning I have not had time even to say my
usual prayers.'
" He took on the training of the theological students, and
I used to go to him every day to read aloud Rackham's
'Acts of the Apostles.' He did not consider that he could
excuse himself careful preparation for the students.
" Before he came to Likoma as priest-in-charge I
remember Mr. Glossop saying how glad he was that he was
coming as priest-in-charge. At this time Mr. George showed
me a letter which he had written to him ; he said, ' Pray
forme every day.'
" He believed entirely in intercession. He asked me,
no doubt for this purpose, for the names of all the Likoma
women who were at various stages of spiritual disability,
who had ' milandu ' as we should say. I believe he prayed
day after day for my sister. She was recovering from a long
illness, and I sought his aid for her when we were both home
45
on furlough, in the absence of her own priest, and he came
right out of his way to us in Holy Week to help us.
" He was in charge when Mr. Partridge died. I remember
his saying to me out in the quad, early one afternoon : ' An
awful blow ! Partridge has died at the College, they
are just bringing him up.' He was in charge then ; and
also when Mr. Philipps died he said the last prayers for
him.
" He was very strict about fasting, and encouraged it by
word and example. The Lent he was in charge we knocked off
afternoon tea. I would recall one or two sermons of his :
one, a really great one on joy, preached at English Evensong
one Sunday at Likoma. I remember he said that joy ought
to be in our voices when we were teaching. Another sermon
preached at an ordination on the text, ' Mine own vineyard
have I not kept.' I heard him preach to the College boys
and others on the first Sunday in 1911. He spoke of our
Lord as a present Deliverer. I came out feeling, ' That is
exactly what we want.'
" That same Sunday I asked him to find me a tune
for a hymn for infants. At first he said he could not
think of one that would do, then he came and called me
to his room and sang through a tune which I think he had
made ; he sang it two or three times. ' They will like that
high note,' he said. He taught the tune to his own teacher
and he taught it to my infants. This incident seems to
show his great kindness in little things.
" He had a great feeling for authority ; he would yield
his own judgment easily and felt that he ought to.
" I once asked a class, ' Mr. Douglas speaks the truth,
doesn't he ? ' to get the disconcerting and unanimous
answer, ' Not about steamers.' Of course this only means
that the steamers were uncertain, not Mr. Douglas' reli-
ability !
" He wrote to me in England after his illness : ' I hope to
go back to Africa this year, but that must be as God wills.'
God did will, and we started back again a large party on
S. James' Day, 1908.
" He was wonderfully good to me when I was working
46
under him. I can recall occasions when he might have been
put out, but he never was. One could rely absolutely on his
goodwill.
" He was very keen on his baptismal classes. One year
he put the classes at 12.15 noon, the lunch hour, and had
lunch alone afterwards. This went on every day for some
weeks.
" I was once present when a priest complained to him
about some particularly difficult matter that had to be dealt
with in the College ; he said, ' It is impossible to do it with
no authority at the back of one ' (i.e. no civil authority).
Mr. Douglas' answer I remember to this day, ' That is just
what we have to do/ said very simply, out of his own quiet
peace in God.
" From where he lay when he was ill he could just get a
glimpse of the Lake through one of the little panes in the
window, and it was a great happiness to him.
" The first time he told me to take the women to him
before one of the festivals he said, ' Tell them it's not I that
want them but God.' He said this just coming away
from lunch. There was never anything incongruous in
his breaking out into this kind of observation. One time
he said, ' I believe that God can do everything.'
" It was obvious to us all that Archdeacon Johnson was
very much attached to him. We looked on at what was
evidently a strong and strengthening friendship. I think
the Archdeacon would let me pay this tribute to Mr. Douglas'
memory, as time does not permit of his contributing his own
reminiscences.
" I remember his admitting a half-witted woman to the
catechumenate ; it was useless to attempt to ask her the
ordinary questions. He improvised instead at the time of
admission. I can never forget how what he said pierced
right through to the woman's soul and made her answer
straight out of her heart. It was a great lesson to me.
" He was very much attached to Dr. Liddon's books. I
remember once his pounding through a very long sermon at
Evensong out of one of Dr. Liddon's books ; he was not in
the least tired of it himself.
47
" He said to me once that he thought that fear comes
before love in the knowledge of God, and no doubt there was
an element of severity in his own religion. It came out
sometimes in his dealings with boys. He could punish
severely when he thought it desirable. But he certainly
never punished in anger.
" He had no idea that he was very often amusing.
I recall vividly his rendering of ' For he's a jolly good
fellow,' sung in the hall when Dr. Howard was going away
his singing it like a hymn, with as much enjoyment and
about the same amount of gesture.
" He gave singing lessons in the girls' school when I was
in charge. He had not the least idea that they were
amusing. He stood on the top of a large table in his
cassock, taking infinite pains. If a girl sang wrong he
jumped down swiftly and made his culprit sing alone,
bending his ear down close to her. The girl's reluctance,
to which he never gave way, and the intense interest of
everyone else perhaps I may add my own intense enjoy-
ment of the situation made those lessons memorable.
" He had a sense of humour too. I remember catching
his eye just after some one had said, ' I like All Saints'
for the name of a church, it is so sociable.'
" He was terribly sensitive to the slightest irreverence
or to any quoting of Scripture that lent itself to amusement ;
he would have none of it.
" He was extremely anxious about the little Christians,
and spent a great deal of time over them ; he constantly
insisted that they were a most important part of our work,
a first-charge on time and attention.
" He took infinite pains with the baptism of infants ;
he would interview the parents, the grandparents, and the
godparents, and always loved taking the service himself.
Once I recollect his changing his stole in the middle with
the remark, ' Now we have done with all that is black.' He
had a way with him of making artless observations in
church, but in a sort of way which only^did good."
48
CHAPTER V
THE FIRST SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK, KOTA KOTA,
1901-1904
WE have seen that Arthur Douglas and his party reached
the Lake early in December 1901.
He stayed at Mponda's eleven days waiting for a steamer
to take him to Likoma.
He was at present a little uncertain where he would have
to work, but he expected first of all to be sent to Likoma,
so as to get better acquainted with the methods of missionary
work at headquarters, and then to be put in charge of
Kota Kota. The steamer, however, stopped at Kota Kota
on its way up the Lake, and there, for reasons given in
the letters which follow, Arthur stayed for some twelve
days before going on to Likoma. This was in reality a
gain to him, for it gave him an insight into the working of
the station of which he was soon afterwards put in charge.
He describes the beautiful new* church at Kota Kota,
built by Mr. George, the architect of Likoma Cathedral, and
he incidentally mentions how he himself learnt the art of
making bricks.
(To a Sister)
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I
Kota Kota, Lake Nyasa, Dec. 12, 1901.
" My few words of scribble whilst the Lake steamer
was waiting for me at Mponda's must not count as a letter
49 *
much less as a birthday letter. Very many happy returns
of the day, whichever day in February it happens to be.
After I had waited eleven days at Mponda's, not knowing
when I might have to leave, an African Lakes' Company
steamer at last called for me ; at least a small launch called
to take me off to the steamer which was anchored about a
mile from Malindi, the Mission station at the southern end
of the Lake and itself about nine miles from Mponda's. That
all happened last Saturday afternoon. Most fortunately
the steamer was going to take in wood at Malindi on Sunday
morning, so I was able to get ashore there early on Sunday
in time to hear the native teacher finish his sermon at the
Eucharist, at which Mr. Marsh was officiating, and so also in
time for my own Communion. Then I had breakfast and
Mattins with the Mission party and left Malindi on the
steamer about midday. It was very delightful at Malindi
last Sunday morning to have the whole of our own special
travelling party, with the exception of Mr. Suter who was
at Mponda's. Marsh, P. Young, Nurse Minter, Miss Nixon-
Smith, and Dr Howard are quartered at Malindi for some
weeks ; Mr. Ladbury had walked over to Malindi the
previous day and spent the night there ; I turned up on the
steamer, so there we all were once more together, barring
Mr. Suter. My steamer was not a Mission boat ; on the
contrary I was let in for a considerable argument with one
of the engineers who professed a general disbelief in missions
and particularly in the Universities' Mission. ... As you
already know, I left Mponda's with the intention of going
up to Likoma, merely touching at Kota Kota on the way.
From Malindi to Kota is only one day's journey, and it is
another day's journey on from Kota to Likoma ; so the
steamer reached Kota on Monday afternoon. As I got
near to Kota, of course I speculated how much of the Mission
I should have time to see ; the captain could not tell me
whether he would leave too early for me to sleep on shore.
As we dropped anchor off Kota, a sailing boat came up to
the steamer ; among others it contained three of our
missionaries, Mr. Stokes (priest-in-charge) , Miss Lyons
(nurse), Mr. George (architect). They were on their way
50
for a picnic with the girls' school when they sighted the
steamer and came up to us. The poor girls lost their picnic
and returned to the shore in a barge with the European
teacher, Miss Jameson. And then ! ! All my speculations
and plans were turned head over heels, and the long and
short of it is, here am I, settled at Kota Kota, and no likeli-
hood of being at Likoma for many a day.
" Several facts contributed to make this sudden change
in my operations. First, I found that Mr. S. fully expected
me to stay and help him and was very sad at the idea of my
leaving him. That, of course, would not have been enough
to keep me, as my previous orders (vague as they were)
seemed to point to my going to Likoma, anyhow for a few
weeks. Then I found that Mr. S. was a good deal run down
and was anxious to get away on furlough as soon as possible.
He has been at Kota about three years, so he is considerably
overdue at home, and probably if Mr. Folliott had lived he
would have started home directly after Christmas, if not
before ... so that (as I am to be his successor) I thought
I had better not lose time by going on to Likoma, but had
better start work here straight away. Even now, of course,
it is very uncertain whether I shall be sufficiently well up in
the language and in the details of the work here to under-
take a Lent by myself, and very likely Mr. S. may have to
stay till after Easter. . . . Even this would not have
persuaded me to stay here, if a message had not reached
Mr. S. from the priest-in-charge at Likoma (acting Deputy
Bishop) to the effect that Dr. Howard and one priest were
required at Likoma. The former orders were that all the
new clergy were to go there before dispersing to their several
stations. This finally decided me, for it had already been
practically settled that Marsh should be the new priest to
work at Likoma, whilst my station should be Kota Kota.
So here I am, and already begin to feel settled. The present
staff of missionaries here number five Mr. Stokes, Nurse
Lyons, who is said to be a most able nurse, and Miss Jameson,
formerly head-mistress of a board school in England. Then
there is Mr. George, the architect. For my sake I am sorry
he is very soon going back to Likoma. Now I must tell you
51 E 3
about this place, but first I must go and open school, as the
bell has rung. The feature of Kota Kota is the new church.
It is magnificent and an immense credit to Mr. George, by
whose design and under whose direction it has been built.
It is built of stone and brick and looks very solid. It is
133 feet long from the west end to the east end of the spacious
apse, and it is 28 feet wide. At the entrance there is an
antechapel, part of which will be fitted up as a Lady Chapel.
There is a good wooden screen between the apse and nave,
also much native wood-carving. To English eyes the
exterior looks odd with its great thatched roof. It is a
great privilege to have so beautiful a church to worship in.
" That is as far as I had written when a telegram arrived
here from Likoma this morning to say that after all I am to
go on there by the next steamer. There is of course no
telegraph from Likoma to the mainland, but this morning's
message must have been sent by boat to the mainland, and
despatched by wire from there. The next boat is not likely
to leave Kota for another nine days ; that will be one of
our own Mission steamers bringing up our big party from
Mponda's and Malindi, so that after all I shall probably
arrive with them at Likoma. I am very glad to have had
these preliminary days at Kota, as it gives me time to see
what are the difficulties of the station, and knowing what
they are, I can now go to experienced heads at Likoma and
get advice from them, and then, perhaps, come back here in
a better position for helping Mr. S. and directing the station
after his departure.
" A nice temporary wooden cross has been put up over
Mr. Folliott's grave ; he died the very day the new church
here was opened. The next but one grave to Folliott's is
Sim's. When I first read some of his ' Life and Letters/ I
had about as little idea of being at Kota Kota as in the
moon. Bishop Maples is buried under the High Altar in the
new church. My servant boy has just been into my room to
begin preparations for my bath. All our water here is
carried from a boiling hot spring about a mile and a half
away, and there are special water boys who have to make
a good many journeys a day. The water is too hot for a
52
bath even after its return journey. The usual and best plan
is to have the daily tub in the latter part of the afternoon.
I am most particular about ' changing ' after getting at all
hot. Mr. S. has been away for the last two days on a round
of visits to outlying stations, so I have been in charge. This
is an amusingly topsyturvy letter, but in spite of the various
changes of plans which herein find a place, I may as well
send it to show how out here we must be ready for any
emergency. By-the-bye, I am learned in the art of making
bricks. Mr. George has shown me all the tips in case a
house should be needed where there is no more efficient
artificer on the spot."
(To a Sister)
II
Kota Kota, Lake Nyasa, British Central Africa,
Dec. 17, 1901.
" If you want to know why I am at Kota, you must read
my letter to N. The long and short of it is that, touching
here on my way to Likoma, I found a variety of inducements
to stop here, chiefly the poor health of Mr. Stokes, priest-
in-charge, and a message sent through him from the Deputy
Bishop at Likoma to Dr. Howard to the apparent effect that
only one of the new priests was wanted at Likoma. How-
ever, I have since had a telegram telling me to go on to
Likoma by the next boat. The next boats will probably
be our own two mission steamers, the Charles Janson, and
Philip Young's new steamer, the Chauncy Maples, respec-
tively known in the vulgar tongue of the Mission as the
C.J. and CM . We expect one or both of these boats in the
early part of next week, so it seems very doubtful where I
shall spend Christmas, whether her-e at Kota or at Likoma
or at one of the smaller Lake-side stations which are worked
by the steamer. That is the chief purpose of our steamers,
viz. to go up and down the Lake, touching at the lesser
stations of the Mission where there is no resident priest, but
only a native teacher or, possibly, a native deacon. During
the steamer's stay, the schools are investigated, and the
priest celebrates the Eucharist for the people.
" I am enjoying my time at Kota, not knowing whether
53
I shall return here and make it my permanent station after
my visit to Likoma. But I am especially glad to be going
to the headquarters of the Mission, not merely because I
want to see Likoma Island, which means and (I believe)
is Beautiful, but also because it will give me the chance
of getting a talk with the senior clergy, Mr. Smith and
Mr. Glossop. There are so many difficult native questions
(especially in regard to marriage) about which I need
advice, as they frequently crop up.
" The Mission work at this particular station has been
lately passing through a crisis, and a puzzling one too. The
boys, who are generally, outwardly at least, well-behaved,
have been very unruly. Many, including some pupil-teachers,
have left the school ; they have stayed in the village at night
instead of coming in to sleep in the Mission dormitory ; but at
last, I believe, the real cause of all the upset has been dis-
covered and removed, for a plot has been discovered which
had for its object the establishment of a supreme chief.
Some of the lesser chiefs invited a Mohammedan from
(probably) somewhere on the coast to come here and
organise a revolt against the British Central African Govern-
ment. He came and for some months has been at work in
the villages, but information was brought to the English
Government official here, Mr. Swann, and after letting the
plot grow to a proper size, he one day called up the chief
culprit and all his accomplices, and detailed to their
astonished ears the whole of their secret machinations. At
first he gave the would-be king a month to quit the country,
but last week two of the loyal chiefs came to Mr. Swann, and
said that they feared they were going to be poisoned, as the
others believed that they were the tell-tales, so Mr. Swann
changed his mind and gave our Mohammedan friend twenty-
four hours to bundle out of the country, and out he has gone.
That is a more or less true account, I believe. His speedy
departure is, I believe, already beginning to take good effect
on our Christians, as two have come to Mr. Stokes to say they
want to return to the Mission. Of course it was nominally
not so much a revolt against Christianity as against the rule
of the British Government.
54
" Our Mission buildings here form a quadrangle
something like this :
Boys' Schoolroom.
<"
Grass which, with the new rain, begins Q
to look green.
O
Missionaries' Private Room.
" Last Sunday as Mr. Stokes was not well I had the
management of the services, but it was a very easy day.
7.0. Catechumen's Litany, followed by Holy Eucharist.
8.15. Breakfast, followed by
9.0. Mattins.
10.30. Hearers' service in school, chiefly preaching.
12.0. Sext.
12.15. Lunch.
1.45. Walk with teachers to little school for preaching.
3.30. Tea.
4.30. English Evensong, at which / was to have
preached, was omitted, as there was no congregation except
Mr. George and Miss Jameson.
5.30. Evensong.
" I did no preaching ; the two head teachers discoursed
at the schools. The Christians' sermon comes at the early
55
celebration, but as Mr. Stokes was seedy they had to go
without it.
" Stokes is out and about again now."
(To a Friend)
III
U.M.C.A., Second Sunday in Lent, Feb. 23, 1902.
" After leaving England, I got to Nyasa at the be-
ginning of December, and since then I may safely say that
for no one day have I been out of sight of this great Lake, in
length 300 miles. But that does not mean I have been
quartered during these ten weeks at one place, far from it ;
somebody made nasty remarks to me the other day about
the habits of the rolling stone. If you would but squander
twopence in providing yourself with a small map from
9 Dartmouth Street, Westminster, you would be better able
to understand the vagaries of the past weeks. I spent some
days first of all at the south end of the Lake, and from
there took steamer for Likoma, the headquarters of the
Mission. But on the way I was unexpectedly stopped at
Kota Kota where a dear friend of mine, Folliott, who had
preceded me from England by a few months, had just died.
After twelve days there I had to go to Likoma, which I
reached on the last Sunday in Advent, and so just in time to
help in the Christmas services. It was a magnificent sight to
see the vast congregation on Christmas morning. Christians
and catechumens (who came into church for the first part
of the service) must together have numbered about 700,
and I was allowed to preach my first Chinyanja sermon to
this big number^of black folk all squatting on the ground.
The choir alone sit on benches. That first Chinyanja sermon
was, I need scarcely say, fully written out, but since then,
I have summoned up courage to preach without writing.
Doubtless it is rummy Chinyanja and hard ' to be under-
standed of the people,' but I am really thankful to have
got on even thus far. Since Christmas I have spent my
tune partly at Likoma and partly in journeying on foot
from village to village of the mainland. A short while ago
56
I had a walk of ten days, during which time I saw no white
man except for about half an hour, when our Mission steamer
touched at the village where I was spending the day. Of
course I went without any other missionary because I
wanted to have no chance of talking English.
" Most of the villages I visited are supplied with church,
school, and house for any European passing through.
The European's house consists of two small rooms ; in the
front one he sits and sleeps, and (for want of a table) has
his meals spread on his bed. Here also he interviews the
people of the village ; often the old chief will squat on
the ground, and so pay his respects. Like the rest of the
folk, his only clothing is generally a dirty bit of cloth, but
you can generally pick him out as the chief, as, if he has
little other clothing, he nearly always carries a stick.
" The back room is given up to the baggage, the live
fowls and the bit of dead goat, and is also the sleeping
room of the two servants."
The next letter finds Arthur at Likoma ; but its main
interest is in his description of his first plunge into itinerating
missionary work his walk southwards on the mainland
opposite Likoma, and his return to Utonga with the idea
of taking temporary charge of the college for native
teachers, S. Michael's College, of which, later on, he
became Principal.
(To a Sister)
VISIT TO SOME LAKE-SIDE STATIONS
Likoma, Lake Nyasa, Feb. 7, 1902.
"... Now I will try to tell you a little about my doings
during the past fortnight. It was arranged with very much
approval that I should cross from Likoma to the mainland
and do a little Lake-side village visiting by myself, that is,
without the company of any other European. Of course
I stipulated this, as I wanted to have no chance of talking
English and to mix with the. natives only. So Mr. Marsh
and I crossed to the mainland in the C.J., and slept to-
gether on the Monday night, and then he began a walk
57
northwards and I went southwards. Of course on all such
journeying one needs a caravan, consisting of a cook and
a boy who remain throughout, and carriers of baggage who
are generally hired at each separate halting-place. I think
I had about eight such beasts of burden ; my cook was
very good in most ways, although he would try to overfeed
me ; my boy was new to me I had to surrender my former
boy, Mattayo, in order that he might go to the college to
be taught ; my new boy I hope will do well. The Mission
pays him four shillings a month, but if he continues well,
he ought soon to receive five shillings. Of course also one
has to carry money on a journey to pay for provisions, fire-
wood, and carriers. In fact a part of the burden for which
carriers are needed consists of the money which itself takes
the form of cloth, salt, beads, and soap. All these different
kinds of money are measured in terms of cloth a fathom,
a yard, a hand (half a yard) . Thus for a chicken you pay one
hand, but almost certainly the actual money paid is not half a
yard of cloth but the equivalent price in soap or salt a hand
of soap being thus in reality about two inches, whilst a bar
of soap (a foot in length) is two fathoms, and a yard of salt is
a few cupfuls. Well, before starting on this journeying,
Mr. Smith asked me whether I felt I could take charge of
the college perhaps till Easter. Just think what this charge
means. The college is on the mainland opposite Likoma,
quite close to Utonga, marked in the map, and Likoma
is in frequent communication with it, and can, if necessary
be communicated with in two hours unless the Lake is ex-
ceedingly rough. But at the college the priest is the only
European there. . . . Besides the supervision of the boys,
the priest at present, for want of a layman or an exceedingly
efficient native foreman, has to do all the serving of tables'
part of college life seeing to the daily provisioning and
buying and selling. . . . Well, when Mr. Smith asked me
to go to the college to take De La Pryme's place, I said I
could not immediately, as I did not know the language.
So it was settled that I should cross to the mainland and
walk slowly through the villages southward, until (after
about a fortnight) the C.J. should pick me up and carry
58
me down the Lake to Malindi on the oft-postponed steamer
trip, and after that I should know better whether I could
go to the college. Imagine then my surprise and amaze-
ment when a boy walked into my little resting-place at one
of the villages and gave me a note from Mr. Smith, saying
that the steamer had gone south already, and asking me to
go straight back to the college. So I had to retrace my
steps. In the next three days I walked (and it was
mostly very rough walking) altogether about eleven hours,
getting up before sunrise, so as to get the walk over before
the greatest heat. I was very well on the journeying. So
now the proposed plan is that next Monday I take up work
at the college and Mr. De La Pryme will remain with me
perhaps for a fortnight until I feel slightly more efficient.
How is the Chinyanja progressing ? People out here say
pretty well on the journeys I managed to give very short
little addresses in church without having written it out
beforehand. But I still find it very hard to understand the
native, unless he speaks very slowly, which most of them
cannot do. Perhaps I shall remain at the college till
Easter and then perhaps Kota Kota ... I am
most thankful for the missionary prayers at Worfield on
S. Andrew's Day and the Saturday intercession at Salis-
bury. If possible tell those responsible for them. Such
things are of value unknown to us because surpassing
knowledge."
(To a Brother)
FIRST ATTACK OF FEVER
Steamship C.J., Lake Nyasa, March 9, 1902.
" I think my last letters were sent to F. and A. That
seems a long time ago and certainly much has happened
since then. In the first place since then, and now, I have
had the novel experience of feeling the common or garden
fever. If I had been in England I should have called it
the ' Flu ' ; the aches were very similar. I had been rather
proud of having escaped the plague longer than most
others of the new-comers, but pride comes before a fall ;
59
however I am feeling very fit again now. In my last letter
I told the astonishing news that I had been asked to take
the immediate charge of the college until Easter, where
about thirty of the young would-be teachers are in course
of training. My first fever at Likoma delayed my crossing
to the college (on the mainland five miles from Likoma)
for a few days, and then when I had got over there with
innumerable boxes, and was just beginning to realise the
big responsibility of the post, and the difficulty (owing to
the elementary condition of my Chinyanja) of controlling
the many departments of the work, my plans were again
changed for me, and it was arranged that instead of spend-
ing Lent at the college, I should help Mr. Smith, our senior
priest out here at the present time, in working Lake-side
villages from the steamer. So I and my boxes, which the
boatmen were by this time getting to know by sight
and weight, returned to Likoma to make preparations for
getting on board the C.J. Perhaps it may amuse you to
know the variety of duties which fall to the priest-in-charge
(the only European at the college). First there are the
students to be looked after, and with the help of two native
teachers, to be taught the ordinary subjects of a most
elementary English school. Then besides the oversight
of the teaching and the daily services, the priest-in-charge
has to look after the different servants of the establishment,
dole out beads and salt, &c., to the men who go out by boat
to buy food in the neighbouring villages (in bad seasons
they may have to go twenty or thirty miles), and it is an
education in itself to learn the native scale of prices. Then
there is the oversight of the women who pound the corn,
and beside all the multiplicity of other duties connected
with the running of the college establishment the priest-
in-charge is also responsible for two villages close by thus
having some parochial work to do, and being the only
European in the neighbourhood he has constantly to act
as arbitrator in native quarrels. So you see I was very
thankful when I heard that after all I was to be relieved
of these responsibilities, which are far too great for a new-
comer. . . .
60
" Monday. Since writing the above a night has passed.
I spent the first part of it sleeping in my bedding on the
deck table, but the wind and rain drove me below into the
cabin which (already full up with the doctor and Mr. Smith)
gave accommodation to myself and four of our servant boys.
Instead of going right up to Likoma on the steamer, I have
been put ashore this morning on the mainland, with the
intention of celebrating the Holy Communion for the
Christians here to-morrow. Then either to-morrow or the
next day I expect to reach Likoma. I shall now probably
stay about near Likoma till Holy Week, when it is arranged
that I shall take the services at the college. After Easter
it seems really probable that I shall get settled down at Kota
Kota. I am very glad indeed to have had these months
of knocking about and constant change, as it has given me
an insight into all the branches of the Mission work, but I
shall be quite ready for a more stable life when the time
comes. I have also had the opportunity of getting to
know our two native deacons. This is the village where
one of them lives, and I spent some days last week at
the village of the other ; their names are Eustace and
Augustine.
" Now good-bye. I hope the Christmas dance was a great
success, but of course it was. Much love to M. and the Babe.
I know what a heap of letter-writing you have so I will
be generous and say I will not expect a long letter in reply
to this.
" Please remember me to the masters.
" Please remember me most kindly to Thomas and Mrs.
L. and tell Mrs. L. to give Charlie and Willie a lump of
sugar each from me ! "
The following is an extract from a letter written by
one of the Mission staff :
" Douglas is in bed to-day with a touch of fever. He
is the first patient in the new hospital. We have just all
had tea with him such a festive tea the invalid in tiptop
spirits. He will be up again to-morrow. He is such a
61
jolly old chap, everyone is fond of him, and he is just dead-
set on his work. There is no chance of his going home
next year unless other men volunteer."
In the letter which follows he describes his life at the
college, and especially the first days of Holy Week there ; then
his Good Friday experiences at Mataka's when he went to
take the Three Hours' service ; and his Easter at Likoma.
He is expecting soon to be established at Kota Kota but is
most thankful for the experience he had already gained in
other parts of the Mission.
(To a Brother]
Steamship Chauncy Maples, Lake Nyasa,
Easter Monday, 1902.
" Here am I, sitting at one table whilst the doctor
sits at the other in the ' saloon ' of this very gorgeous new
steamer, the CM. . . . Well, I had what I ought to
consider the great privilege of spending the first half of
the Holy Week at the college. I got there on the preced-
ing Thursday and remained there till Maundy Thursday.
During nearly all this time the priest-in-charge (De La
Pryme) was away, preparing the villages for their Easter
Communion ; so I was in charge of the college and was
allowed to arrange the services as I thought best for the
boys. It was really hard work, as I gave nine addresses to
the boys in five days. This was our day's programme :
6.45. Holy Eucharist and address.
8.30-10., 10.30-11.30 Boys in school.
11.30. Mattins.
12.0. Boys' food.
5 . 30 . Evensong .
6.15. Boys' second meal.
8.0. 5ist Psalm ; address ; Compline prayers. . . .
" The quiet of these days, when for a whole week I don't
think I found time to walk further than from my house to
the schoolroom, was a greater help to me in realising Holy
Week than the journeying from village to village would
have been, and (in case I forget to say so later) I have been
62
in splendid health. Certainly I feel considerably less
tired at the end of this Lent than I used to feel at the end
of Lent at Salwarpe. Then on the afternoon of Maundy
Thursday a boat took me from "the college to a village
called Mataka's, where I was to be for Thursday night and
the Three Hours' services. ... I had already heard how
wonderfully well Good Friday is always observed in this
diocese, and I knew that at Likoma (a European station)
silence was observed till after the Three Hours, but I was
certainly not prepared for the blessed experience which
was in store for me at this native village station. Besides
the people of Mataka's, three other neighbouring villages
(that is, the Christians and catechumens therein) came
to that one centre, and thanks to the energetic folk of one
of these other villages, my experience of a Nyasa Good
Friday began at a very early hour. I was sleeping in the
school with my door open on to the sand of the Lake shore,
when I was woke up by the noise of many voices outside,
and looking out I saw in the dim light many figures passing
my door. I thought ' how early the people are about.'
I got up, and on looking outside I found that all these
figures were beginning to lie down, wrapping themselves
up in their blankets, and then I saw that the light was not
from the dawn but from the moon, which I think pointed
to about three o'clock. So these were the folk from the
village some miles off, who had made a midnight walk for
it, and were now settling down to get some sleep. At about
5.30 the bell went round the village, calling people to
Mattins, when the church looked very full, and I wondered
where the people from the other two villages who had not
yet arrived would find room at the later service. I
suppose we were out of Mattins by 6.30', and from that
time up to twelve o'clock, when the Three Hours' Service
began, I heard scarcely one word spoken. The silence was
intense and I was amazed. Of course nobody this year
had told the people not to talk ; it has simply become a
custom. The majority of the people sat about singly,
perhaps a couple of yards from each other ; others sat in
groups, but without a word spoken ; some stayed in church,
63
and many of the boys who can read were reading their
Bibles and Prayer-books. The native has a vast capacity
both for talking and sleeping ; as they denied themselves
the first, it is scarcely to be wondered at that very many
had a sleep during the long time of waiting. Before noon
the people from the other villages arrived, but these also
appeared to walk in absolute silence one behind the other.
And then at last on the first stroke of the twelve o'clock
bell, all the people got up and walked into the church,
which was of course crowded, every available spot being
occupied, even up to and round about the altar. Of course
you know that there are no seats, my small travelling chair
being the only one. After the Three Hours' service the
boat took me over to Likoma. Then came two most
delightful days Easter Eve and Easter Day at Likoma,
not less delightful because free from all preaching. Half
the Christians on the island communicated on Easter Day
and half to-day (Easter Monday). Glossop officiated at
Saturday Evensong and was celebrant to-day ; I was
celebrant at the splendid Easter Day service, and also
officiated at the Evensong. . . . The CM. left Likoma with
me on board, and I shall spend the next few days on the
mainland, where the people have not yet received their
Easter Communion. Mr. Smith and Marsh are also some-
where about. On the steamer's return from Kota, prob-
ably Wednesday, it will pick me up again, and by the end
of the week I expect to look in again at Likoma, and then
at last I really believe I shall be off to Kota to stay ; so
that I shall be surprised if this day three weeks doesn't
see me fixed up in my station. The plan is for the CM.
to drop me at Kota (where Stokes is now in charge) on her
way down to the south end of the Lake. There she hopes
to find the new bishop and those who are coming out with
him. On their way up to Likoma they will put in at Kota
to consecrate the church, to hold a confirmation, and, I
expect, to take Mr. Stokes away, so that I shall be left
in charge. Stokes will come on with the party to Likoma
and witness the double event of the bishop's enthronement
and the dedication of the CM., and then it is high time
64
for him to go to England. I am most deeply thankful that
instead of being planted down at Kota on my first arrival
at the Lake, I have had these months of sight-seeing and
(I hope) of gaining experience in other parts of the
Mission. . . .
" I have just had a deputation of some of the boys on
the steamer (i.e. at about 11.15 P.M.) to know why Adam was
turned out of the garden."
(To a Sister)
ARRIVAL OF BISHOP TROWER
C.M.y Lake Nyasa. About an hour's run to Mponda's,
April 15, 1902.
" The above address is I hope sufficient to -tell you that
I am writing on the Chauncy Maples which has almost
reached her anchorage at the south end of the Lake. To-
day she has done her longest run under the supervision of
engineers Young and Swinnerton. This morning at six
o'clock I went ashore and celebrated the Eucharist at one
of our smaller Mission stations and was aboard again by
about 7.30, since which time we have been going right
away down and shall be in before sunset. When I last
wrote home I certainly did not expect to be brought
into this neighbourhood so soon, but since that letter to
G. a very interesting event has unexpectedly changed my
plans, though I hope only for the space of a week. I
believe I told G. about my most happy Easter at Likoma,
so I must continue from Easter Monday. On that day I
and some more walked from the chief Mission station at
Likoma to the other European station which Mr. Smith
looks after. There was a large adult baptism and we went
over to witness it. Since then I have myself officiated at
a similar function, so I will tell you what / did and not what
Mr. Smith did. Having spent the best part of two days
examining the candidates (some of whom I accepted, while
other poor things I rejected) and in further preparation, I
baptised about sixteen during Evensong. We had Evensong
and the first part of the baptismal service in church, and
6 5 *
then, before the moment of the actual baptisms, we walked
in procession, singing hymns, down to the Lake. There I
sat in a native canoe, and the candidates came into the
water to me one by one. After each one had been baptised
we reformed in procession to the church, and then at the
door of the church I read the formula of admission into the
congregation, signing each one with the sign of the Cross,
and so one by one they passed into the church through
the western portion where the catechumens sit, and for
the first time took their places among the Christians. That
will give you an idea of an adult baptism out here. Often
at the moment of admission into the church, each of the
newly baptised is given a lighted candle to remind him
he is now a child of light ; but I feared that the native
teacher might not do his part properly, and that confusion
would be the result, so I dispensed with the candles.
" It was on Easter Tuesday that the little C.J. dropped
me on the mainland for the purpose of these baptisms,
and I was by myself on the mainland until Saturday, one
day doing a stiff hill walk for the celebration of a Eucharist.
Alas ! I would have enjoyed these days much better had
it not been for the very many animalculae. In previous
journeys I have sometimes wondered why I did not meet
more of them, but here they were in real earnest, and I
blessed my boy who had most stupidly forgotten to put
my big deck chair on the steamer with a view to its being
taken to Kota Kota with the rest of my baggage. As he
forgot to put it there, I had it with me on the mainland, and
(though not itself entirely innocuous) it made a most
welcome shelter from bedclothes. Here is my dream on
one such night ! I had waked up in bed, and for obvious
reasons lighted a candle, with the help of which I engaged
in a magnificent hunt with great results. When the hunt
was over, I retired to my armchair for the rest of the night.
I dreamt that I was entertaining Mr. Ames, Master of the
Foxhounds ! So much for occasional discomforts, which
however, as I remarked before, are extraordinarily rare.
Do you remember my telling you about the row between
the natives and the Portuguese who are in occupation of
66
the east side of the Lake ? Well, for many weeks nothing
has occurred, although there have often been rumours that
the Portuguese were going to start on a punitive expedition.
But during these last days of mine on the mainland an
expedition really took place, and the Portuguese have
burnt three of the villages where we have Mission stations,
although of course no resident European missionary. Some
Mission buildings have, I believe, been burnt with the rest
of the huts, whilst in one village, at least, our church and
European huts seem to have been purposely saved. A
number of natives passed through the village where I was
quartered, armed with antique guns, assegais, and bows,
and making a great to do ; of course they said they were
going to fight, but they are not a fighting people, and they
all returned in the evening without striking a blow or
firing a shot. We do not know whether ' the war ' is at
an end, or whether the Portuguese mean to take further
steps. The steamer C.M. was to have picked me up on
Friday, but owing to the war, I was not very much surprised
that she did not arrive at my village. I was however
dismayed to see her on Saturday (on coming out of Mattins)
gaily steaming past me down the Lake, and though I waved
my surplice in one hand, and white umbrella in the other,
she was too far from the shore to notice. I instantly sent
off a messenger to the nearest European station (the College)
to ask if Mr. De La Pryme, who is in charge there, knew
what the steamer was up to, but before getting his reply,
the steamer to my great joy re-appeared. The fact was
they had forgotten what village I was at. When I got on
board I was greeted with the news that we were going to
cross the Lake to Kota Kota that same day. The plan
was that I should be dropped at Kota for good, and that
after spending Sunday at Kota the C.M. should go down
the Lake with Mr. Smith (deputy Bishop), the doctor and
others on board to meet our new Bishop at Mponda's and
bring him up in state. But who ever heard of any plan
on Lake Nyasa reaching its expected conclusion ? And
Sunday last was no exception to the universal law of change,
for as the doctor and Young and myself were rowing ashore
67 FZ
in time for the Eucharist in Kota church, we spied another
steamer in the harbour, which to our immense surprise
turned out to be the C.J. The C.J. according to all calcula-
tions should have been at the north end of the Lake, where
she had gone for purposes of repair. What could she be
doing in Kota harbour ? She could not have broken down,
for if so she would have found anchorage on the other
side of the Lake ; and then our heart almost leapt into our
mouth as the thought suggested itself, Can she have had
the cheek to bring up the Bishop and should we find him
already at Kota ? All doubt would be at an end when
we once could see the Mission buildings, for the Bishop's
special flag would certainly be flying. At last we sighted
the Mission and there sure enough was the white flag with
the red central cross which only flies where the Bishop is
staying.
" We had only reached Kota on Saturday in the dusk, so
the Mission people had not seen the steamer, but amidst the
natural excitement of the Bishop's arrival it was very nice
to find the hearty welcome which a number of the Mission
boys gave me, knowing that I was to be Mr. Stokes' suc-
cessor, their priest. Mr. S. was in bed seedy. He had only
managed to get up to welcome the Bishop. After seeing
Stokes I went to the Bishop's room, where I found him in
the middle of his toilet ! Owing to Stokes' seediness the
Bishop had said he would be the celebrant at the Sunday
Eucharist. It would have been his first time of officiating
in Chinyanja, and I think he was glad that I should take
his place. Thus I gave the Bishop the Blessed Sacrament
on his first Sunday in his diocese. Well it was delightful to
see him. All through the day he was so genial and kind
to me, and I had a good deal of talk with him, certainly
more than I could have expected, considering how many
new European members of his flock were there, with all
of whom, especially with Mr. Smith, he wished to speak.
At the end of the day the chief impression left on the minds
of us all was that our new Bishop means to rule with a
strong hand, and for that, I, and I believe all of us, are
devoutly thankful. It was intended that he should wait
68
at Mponda's until the C.M. arrived in all her glory, instead
of which up the Bishop comes on his own hook in the little
C.J. which had not a single European missionary on board,
and on Monday up he went still further to Likoma, probably
getting there late on Monday night or early on Tuesday.
Imagine the dismay of the poor people of Likoma, of
course not a sign of bunting or other festivity visible !
Such is the story of the event to which we have been looking
forward for months, and I am sincerely thankful for the
somewhat unique start which the Bishop has made. As in
all dioceses which are without a bishop, there have been
too many semi-chiefs and too many fingers in the organisa-
tion pie. As the Bishop decided to go to Likoma on the
C.J. Mr. Smith and Suter transhipped from the C.M. to
join him, and I, instead of staying at Kota, took Mr. Smith's
place as priest on the C.M. However, this is to be a very
quick trip and I expect to be back and settling at Kota
by Saturday, April 19. I cannot be too thankful for the
splendid insight into all parts of the Mission work which I
have been allowed during this first four months, but I shall,
of course, be glad to get to my own station. Probably
the Bishop will pay a visit to Kota and consecrate the
church, and hold a confirmation in about a month's time,
after which I think Mr. Stokes will go and I shall be priest-
in-charge. I have finished writing my letter in the very
room at Mponda's station where I wrote to you more than a
third of a year ago. I get the Graphic with the rest of my
mail."
By May he had reached Kota Kota and on Mr. Stokes'
departure he became priest-in-charge of that station, where
he was to remain for a good year and a half, till he was
ordered home.
The next letters describe his life there and speak for
themselves.
I have only ventured to indicate the chief topic in
each of them.
69
SETTLED AT KOTA KOTA
Mission, Kota Kota, 3rd Sunday after Easter, 1902.
" Now that I am at last fixed up at Kota, I fully
expect to have more frequent opportunities of send-
ing news home for all the steamers call at Kota. The
steamer, with Philip Young at the engines, made a
very speedy trip, and we entered Kota harbour on last
Friday night. That was a good day's work for the C.M.
We had anchored on Thursday evening at a village where
I intended to have the Eucharist on shore on Friday
morning ; but finding there were no confirmed Christians
there except two teachers and a wife, I told them to be on
board by 5.30, and we had our service in the beautiful chapel
of the steamer. This facilitated an early departure, and
we were off before seven o'clock and steamed steadily for
eighty-four miles to Kota. By-the-bye, steamer ' shop '
reminds me that this week we hope to have an addition
to our staff of two Brixham trawlers. Isn't that splendid ?
Some years ago there was a Brixham trawler in the Mission
who did magnificent work. Of course you understand
that they and all mechanics join the Mission on exactly the
same terms as the rest, i.e. board and lodging, and if required
20 a year.
" Well I am most truly thankful for my first four months'
experience in the Mission. I doubt whether any member
of the Mission has had a more varied experience in his first
few months than I have had ; and now at Kota which has
the reputation of being rather cut off from the rest of the
Mission (barring the steamers' visits) I am able to picture and
to enter into the life of the brethren at Likoma and on the
opposite mainland. But I am glad that the time has come
for settling down. There is a great deal for me to learn
here from Mr. Stokes before he leaves here. He expects
to stay here until after the consecration of the church
and a Confirmation, i.e. I expect we shall be together for
about a month.
" Here is a list of my Church doings to-day :
70
7 A.M. Celebrated at the sung Eucharist Stokes
preached.
9.30. Said Mattins.
10.45. Preached to the ' hearers ' in school.
2. Walked to an out village and preached same dis-
course to ' hearers.'
5.30. Sung Evensong.
" I had never preached to ' hearers ' before and I
liked it. After hearing for two years they may become
' catechumens ' and after another two years they may be
ready for baptism."
THE MARRIAGE QUESTION
Kota Kota, June 10, 1902.
" . . . By the departure of Mr. Stokes and Miss Jameson,
we three new-comers, viz. Miss Minter, Miss Mann, and
the new priest-in-charge plus Miss Newton were left alone in
our glory. The two new ladies were very busy getting
into their proper rooms after they had been most properly
cleansed (according to Dr. Howard's telegraphed injunctions)
from Mr. Stokes' small-pox. That reminds me to say I
have been revaccinated. . . . Our quartette had only had
two days in which to quarrel before the dear doctor him-
self arrived. He has come to build a European's hospital,
native hospital, and dispensary. There is also the church
at Kasamba to be rebuilt and a school at Sani. Kasamba
is four miles off and Sani eight. The European hospital
will be stone, the other buildings mostly bamboo. We have
already about forty workmen on the place and I have ordered
a hundred more. That sounds a big order ; fortunately
they are not paid more than three shillings each per month.
Their first month's pay goes to discharge their hut-tax,
which is three shillings, if they can show that they have
worked for a European otherwise six shillings. To-day the
men have been fetching stones and making a tremendous
noise over the job. I think the stone is about a mile away
(perhaps less), and as they carry it to the Mission, each with
his bit of stone on his head, they all sing and shriek in a way
that makes me pity the poor teachers in our school. . . .
71
Now I must tell you about last Sunday. It had been
originally planned for the Bishop to come to Kota with the
doctor, but there was a delay in our own steamers, and
the doctor came alone by a steamer of the African Lakes'
Company. We did not know then whether the CM. would
come to Kota at all on her journey north, or whether we
should have to wait three weeks for the Bishop's coming.
However, I was going into church on Saturday afternoon
when Miss Minter said, ' The C.M. is in sight and they have
just hoisted the Bishop's flag.' And sure enough on coming
out of Evensong I was met by the cheering sight of Philip
Young. After a hurried dinner I walked to the Lake and
took the boat to the steamer. There was a splendid
company of Europeans on board this trip the Bishop,
the Archdeacon, Marsh, De La Pryme, Young, and
the two new Brixham lads, Partridge and Brimecombe.
Hence, with our own five, we were a party of eleven or
twelve for all meals at the Mission on Sunday, so our house-
keeper Miss Minter had a hard time, and especially hard
because both the boy-cook and the lady who washes up
were confirmed on that day ! The Confirmation was to
have been held some weeks ago, but was put off. I knew
that the Bishop would hold it on his return this time, so
that I had the candidates in a certain amount of readiness.
But thinking it improbable that the Bishop would be here
for another three weeks, I had rather a hard job to collect
the candidates and prepare them for three o'clock that
afternoon. Four males were confirmed and seven females.
Alas ! bright days are liable to have some dark cloud,
and I was terribly distressed to hear that one of these girls
had not slept in her dormitory that very night of her Con-
firmation, and we found next day that she had gone off
with the man to whom she was engaged to be married.
The marriage question is of course an immense difficulty
out here. It may interest some of you at home to know
the course I took in this particular case. The man was
a catechumen, the girl of course a Christian (one of the only
two unmarried Christian girls at Kota). On the next day
I called them both to my room and first made sure that
72
they had not been properly married even according to
heathen ritual. Finding out that in this particular case
nothing had been properly done, I sent for the two sureties,
the man's and the woman's (whose consent to the marriage
is all-important). They arrived, and there they all sat
in my room the two sureties, the girl's mother, the girl
and her would-be husband and my head teacher to interpret
when necessary. The end of it was that I made the sureties
promise that the marriage ceremonies should be properly
carried out, and until then that the girl should sleep at her
mother's house. Well, that is only one instance of many
such difficulties and grievous disappointments, to brave
which we have constantly to remember who these people
are for whom we are working. The whole idea of relation-
ship out here is very puzzling.
" Good-bye. I have been very well in body since my
arrival here."
(To a Sister)
ILLNESS OF ARCHDEACON JOHNSON RETREAT AT
LIKOMA
Kota Kota, July 22, 1902.
" Oh how odd it is to think that when you get this
letter a whole year, bar perhaps a fortnight, will have
passed since the good-byes were said on October 8. My
letters will at least have told you one thing, that this year
has been to me brimful of happiness, or if we cannot say
brimful when, in addition to one's own sinfulness, those one
is learning to love out here are also full of sin, at least, it
has been happy far beyond what one had any right to
expect. So much for moralisation.
" Poor dear things ! I am so glad to hear that at last
you have had another letter from me ! What can the
mail have been doing ! to allow K. to write ' five weeks
to-morrow since your last.' I hope you will never again
have to go so long unfed. At Kota I should have the
chance of sending a letter at least once a fortnight. It
must, however, be more than a fortnight since I sent off a
73
letter to Will, for I feel sure that I did not mention to him
the serious illness of the dear Archdeacon. Since his return
to the Lake in Eastertide he has been very active and for
him very well, but last Sunday fortnight we were dis-
mayed by the sudden appearance of Philip Young on the
ladies' verandah where we were at tea. He said that the
CM. had brought over the Archdeacon very ill indeed, and
that the doctor and nurse must go instantly on board. It
seems that on the Saturday night the Archdeacon had
gone ashore alone at one of our east Lake-side stations in
order to celebrate the Eucharist the next morning ; that
the steamer stopped about eight miles off at another station
where Mr Marsh took the Sunday service. The Archdeacon
had gone off in capital spirits and full of chaff. He had
arranged to walk to the steamer on Sunday, but on the
Saturday night he must have been taken suddenly and
violently ill. On Sunday morning he sent a message to
Young, who, of course, brought the CM. They found the
Archdeacon utterly prostrate and scarcely able to speak,
and in that condition he arrived at Kota on the same
afternoon. The doctor afterwards pronounced his illness
to be dysentery. His recovery has been slower than the
doctor had hoped, but I believe he will be well enough to
begin his work again in another week. But he has not been
nursed here during all these three weeks. He was here for a
week, and then the CM. returned here to take Miss Minter,
the doctor and myself to Likoma for a two days' retreat,
followed by an informal conference. The CM., especially
when at anchor, is a very good place for nursing a patient.
There is a sick cabin on the top deck, and there during our
stay at Likoma the Archdeacon was nursed.
" Poor Miss Minter ! She had been so looking forward
to the quiet of a retreat, but as you may suppose there was
no retreat for her. The CM. before it called for the Kota
Kota contingent had already picked up Mr. Philipps and
Mr. Davies from Mponda's and Malindi, and before we
reached Likoma we had on board besides these two, the
Archdeacon, Marsh, De La Pryme, Fitzgerald, and myself
(priests), our two native deacons, Augustine and Eustace,
74
also, of course, Philip Young and Partridge who run the
ship, and Miss Minter. Altogether we were about twenty
in retreat, including our one native priest, Yohana
Abdallah. The only three who could not come to Likoma
were Mr. Ladbury, who had to stay to look after a store
at Mponda's, and my other two ladies, Miss Mann and Miss
Newton. I was so sorry that these latter two could not
go, but I dared not leave this station in its present critical
condition without any Europeans. The boys are in the
middle of coming back to school, and the numbers in the
dormitory are about double what they were about two
months ago. There are now about fifty boys sleeping in the
dormitory, but this means that things are in a very unsettled
state. So, also, the girls, few in number, are up to any amount
of mischief if Miss Newton is not with them our native
teacher (female) seems to have no influence with them ; and
then in addition to this business of looking after our own
Mission people, the doctor did not like to leave his large
number of workmen unless there was at least a lady left,
who, by sitting on her verandah, might exert a soothing in-
fluence on these 150 vagabonds. As a matter of fact most of
these workmen were sent out into the country to cut timber
while we were away. It takes forty men five days to go out
and cut and bring back one small tree. Well, of course,
it was delightful to see Likoma again, and then on Saturday
we left Likoma, and I got up to Kota Mission station just
on midnight. It seems my fate to arrive under somewhat
difficult circumstances. You may remember that my
previous arrival was late in the evening when I had to
house a lot of women for the night and stuffed them all
into the girls' dormitory. This time I arrived up at the
Mission at midnight with a lot of men (workmen for the
doctor), and some wives. Well, I stuffed all the women
into an empty house, and all the men into another, and
told them they could sort out their own wives next day.
Altogether we have about fifteen native houses on the
Mission ground. I mustn't forget to pay the tax on them
three shillings per house per annum.
" I did one very good stroke of business at Likoma by
75
procuring a good native foreman to come back here with
me and superintend the rebuilding of Kasamba Church.
And to-day I and the doctor walked over to Kasamba to
arrange the work. I hope everything will go smoothly.
The church will be the same size as the old one whose roof
has fallen in about 55 feet long by 18 feet wide. As we
shall be able to use a good deal of old material, the doctor
says the new church ought not to cost more than 5. Of
course, it is not stone or brick, but walls of wooden poles
with bamboos and reeds all covered with mud outside and
in, and the roof is grass. To-morrow I intend to go by
machila to Sani to look at the new school which is nearly
finished. To-morrow I am sorry to say is to-day, so the
clock tells me so a late good-night. Don't think that I
often sit up to this hour."
The following letter was written to one who had been a
boy in the school at Salwarpe, and who is now a teacher.
It illustrates how keenly Arthur kept up his interest in
his old parish, and it gives a good picture of the boys' life
at Kota Kota.
Kota Kota, Lake Nyasa, August 12, 1902.
" MY DEAR A.,
" You are beginning to think that I am never
going to answer your very jolly letter ; but don't think so.
I will always answer the letters from Salwarpe children and
I was very much pleased to get yours.
" Now I will tell you what I am doing at the present
moment. I am sitting in my house, but my house is one
room ; really it is the class-room of the school, and in school
hours I can hear a great deal of ABC. Pinned to the
wall there is a photograph, taken by Mr. Edward Douglas,
of the Salwarpe cricket-field, church, rectory and big elm-
tree. In one corner is my bed hung round with netting
to keep out the mosquitoes. I am as fond of my mosquito
net as my grandmother was of her hot water-bottle. Inside
my mosquito net I can defy all bats and rats and lesser
beasts which may happen to live with me. But, as a matter
of fact, my room is remarkably free from such creatures.
76
"If you looked into my room in the evening, you
would very often find some of my new black children,
whom I am getting to love very much indeed. They have
wool on their top ; but really they like to shave off all
their hair and have perfectly bald heads. By good luck
I brought out an old razor with me, and this I lend out
to the boys to shave their tops with. I am very glad that
it is the fashion to wear either no hair or hair only a quarter
of an inch long, as it keeps their heads nice and clean.
They have bare toes, but please don't think that they cover
the rest of their bodies with shirt, waistcoat, tie, coat, collar,
knickerbockers and braces ; their only bit of clothing very
often is a small cloth tied round their waist ; if they are
in luck's way they also cover their bodies with a thin vest.
It is quite easy to tell whether a boy has washed himself in
the morning. If he has, his skin is a beautiful shiny black ;
if he has not, his skin is a nasty dull colour. In most of
the villages on Lake Nyasa the boys love to bathe, and from
early childhood they swim like fishes ; but I am sorry to
say that my Kota Kota boys are not so fond of a lake bath,
and the reason is that there are a great many crocodiles
in the water at this place. You will be surprised to hear
that my bath water is brought from a spring two miles
away ; it is a boiling-hot spring, and even when it has been
carried these two miles and poured into my bath, the
water is too hot for me to get in, without adding some cold.
" Since beginning my letter to you, I have got rid of
my eight kids on the floor. They have gone to bed and so
have another forty. About fifty Mission boys sleep in a
large room in the Mission ground. At a quarter past eight
in the evening one boy rings a bell all round the village to
call the others to bed ; then at nine o'clock we all say
prayers together and then they lie down on their sleeping-
mats, and if they don't stop talking jolly quick, I pounce
in on them and address them in my most impolite Chinyanja.
The offender sometimes betrays himself by starting an extra-
special loud snore when he hears me come in ! Then in
the morning the church bell rings at half-past six and all
the boys are expected to come to church. At eight o'clock
77
another bell goes round the village to call the children to
school. We have about eighty boys on the register and
twenty girls, but many of them are very irregular and they
have no idea of punctuality. After the first hour's school,
one of the boys or pupil teachers goes again round the
village to bring in stragglers. The other day when heaps
of boys were late, I went through the village in search of
offenders, and I made a pretty good haul. Thanks to a
very good lady teacher we have at Kota Kota, the numbers
in the school have increased well during the last two
months.
" Remember me to everybody at school and especially
to the choir boys. I was so pleased to hear that Mr. G.
thought the choir boys behaved well. Also remember me
kindly to your uncle and aunt.
" Do you ever see or write to Willie Brooks ?
" Ever your affectionate friend,
" A. J. DOUGLAS."
(To a Brother)
MACHILA TRAVELLING TROUBLES AT KASAMBA
Kota Kota, Sept. 4, 1902.
"... Alack ! I have let a mail go by without sending
anything home. It was not altogether my fault, as I had
to go and get the firewood. Our firewood is bought at Lozi
(where we have an out-station) ten miles off. Douglas
of the African Lakes Company store sends his barge to
fetch it, Lozi being on the Lake ; but his barge being other-
wise occupied, we have been approaching a firewood famine
for the last month. At last Grindlach of the German store
said his boats should fetch it, so off they went, but only to
return with the news that some beastly steamer had been
and gone and bagged all our poor little lot of Mission fire-
wood. Their plea was that they wanted firewood, and it
was the only dry wood they could find. So the next day
off I trotted in my machila to Lozi, and being determined
that there should not be firewood famine for some months
to come, I ruined the Mission by buying about forty-five
78
cubic yards. So now Miss Minter, our housekeeper, and the
boy cook smile on me once more.
" Machila travelling is a terrible snare and delusion.
In the days of my greenhood I used to think that with
twenty miles of road 'before me I should do a nice long
read and prepare sermons, but, as I have remarked before,
those were the days of my greenhood, and now, though I
still go through the form of stocking my machila with many
books, I know quite well that within the first half-hour I
shall be slumbering peaceably, only waking for the moment
when the machila gives me an extra and special jar. For
a ten miles' journey each way, that is, when I go to Sani
or Lozi, I take about ten men ; they take it in turn by pairs
to carry the machila and they run or shuffle along at a fast
walk, and if they are up-to-date machila carriers, they
shriek and yell, and the two carriers play a dialogue, some-
thing after this sort Front man to back, ' Are you there ? '
Back man grunts. Back man to front, ' Are you there ? '
Front grunts. Back grunts, front grunts, back shrieks,
front shrieks then together, ' Oh Mother, Mother, Mother ! '
(this, if the occupant of machila is especially heavy). Then
all sing a machila song with chorus (generally very pretty),
or one man extemporizes, his theme generally being the
unfortunate bwana whose European ears can catch next
to nothing of the praise or blame bestowed upon him ; then
comes the finale ' Prize mine, prize mine ; salt mine, salt
mine ' ; and so home is reached, and they are not in the
least astonished to learn that neither is salt nor any other
prize forthcoming. We are comparatively quiet on the
station now, as it is holidays, and a great many of the
dormitory boys have gone away to visit their relations.
It is rather a blessed relief, as it gives me time to do other
things. Notably I am trying to get a Chinyanja lesson
most days from our head teacher James. I have thus
been able to refresh my memory of ' Androcles and the
Lion.' The holidays are also especially acceptable, as
I have had lately more than the usual number of
disagreeables to settle up. This is the sort of thing :
Letter from the teacher at Kasamba to say that only four
79
boys out of twenty-four have come to school. I send back
word that I will come to Kasamba next day and shall expect
to find all the boys in school. I go to Kasamba find
only about half the school present. I send word to the
other boys in the village that if they don't come in double
quick time I shall take away their crosses that is, depose
them from being catechumens. In an astonishingly few
minutes the boys appear, and then we sit round in solemn
conclave and discuss the case. Why had they not turned
up at school ? Because they had been late in coming up
to the Mission dormitory at bed-time, and teacher had hit
them. Then it was my turn to pass judgment, which was
to the effect that the teacher had probably done right to
whack them, but that for the future, as I go to Kasamba
every week, the teacher can bring any case before me, and
I would do the whacking if necessary. Did they think that
my words were good ? Oh yes, it was passed nem. con.
that my words were very good indeed. So we parted ; but
two days later I returned to Kasamba. A full attendance
of boys at school : I told them how pleased I was. But,
alack ! when they had all dispersed, the teacher told me that
on the previous night a dozen of them had joined in one of
the bad village dances, and they had only returned about
midnight. It is a very serious offence, but, alas ! at Kota a
very common offence, for our Christians and catechumens
to take part in the dances, which are essentially evil. So
what must I do but call all these young offenders together
again, and there and then give them the whacking which
two days before they had agreed I should give them if I
thought it necessary. I believe it has done them good, and
they know that I dislike corporal punishment as much as
they do, and that is saying a good deal. Thefts have also
been dreadfully numerous lately, and I have lately saved
two of our Christian boys from prison, by promising their
masters I would give them a very big thrashing. Three
other of our boys are in prison for the same offence, and I
was rather disgusted to find one of them playing football
with his hand-cuffs on against our boys, when the head of
the prison asked our boys to go up and play at his house.
80
And the worst of it was that the offender didn't seem in
the least ashamed of being seen. Then there is another
class of boy who has no idea of keeping a promise. I
especially have in mind one young villain (we will call him
John). Over and over and over again he shirks church or
school, or he goes off for a few days' tour without leave.
When it pleases him he returns, and I see him in the play-
ground and call him into my house. ' Well, so you've
offended again.' Yes, he has offended again. ' But don't
you remember I told you you were to ask leave if you
wanted to go away ? ' He replies, ' I forgot.' ' Oh now,
you know you didn't really forget.' Yes, he allows he didn't
really forget. ' So you've offended very badly.' Yes, he
allows he has offended very badly. ' Well, do you mean
to live well now ? ' Oh yes, he certainly means to live
well now. ' And you mean to come to church and sleep
in the Mission and not to go away without leave ? ' Cer-
tainly, he will come to church and sleep in the Mission and
never go away again without leave. And so, I go to bed
and think that John is after all a cherub. Alas ! in the
morning where is John ? Not in church, not in school, and
when I go to ask his mother, she tells me that the cherub has
gone to fish far, far away. ' Well, will he come back to-
day ? ' Oh yes, he will come back to-day and sleep at the
Mission. But alas ! again in calling over the boys' names
in the dormitory to-night, I have called John in vain ! . . . I
have talked so much about the boys that I have almost
forgotten to say there has been a sudden and remarkable
increase in the number of girls who have been coming to
school. I have been wondering whether this increase can
have been due partly to prayers offered at home for this
object, or whether my letter telling of this sad want of girls
has not yet reached you. . . .
" / want (a) Common small fish-hooks, 300 ; (b)
Parlour games which the boys can play in the schoolroom
in the evening instead of their stopping in the village, e.g.
picture cards, fish ponds, &c. -You may spend about 2
on these games, as I can then let them out gradually.
Perhaps fifty or seventy boys may want to be amused."
81 G
(To a Sister)
THE CATECHUMENATE DEDICATION OF HOSPITAL AT
KOTA KOTA
Kota Kota, Oct. 13, 1902.
" I am beginning this, which must be my birthday
letter to you, in the boys' schoolroom, which (inasmuch
as it is not the time to ' read ' but to play) might for the
nonce be more appropriately called the boys' club-room.
It is a new experiment which we are making in the hope
of drawing the boys to spend their evenings in the Mission
instead of the village at the village dances, which at Kota
are of the worst possible type. Up to this week Miss Mann
and I have allowed the boys to look at pictures and to play
in our own rooms, and I have sometimes had more than
twenty squatting on my floor. But now we are experi-
menting with the schoolroom, and Miss Mann and myself
take it in turns to be responsible. Miss Newton meanwhile
looks after the girls. Just now we never get tired of playing
' Up Jenkins,' that gentleman being generally invoked as
' Up Jenkiss,' or, in the most exciting crises, as ' Up Binks.'
We also play ' Tiddlywinks ' and ' Snap/ and we piece
together a puzzle chart of English sovereigns from William I
to our late gracious Majesty. But I already begin to wish
that the letter I wrote last mail asking for more games had
been written six months ago. These happy conversaziones
certainly have a taming influence on the youths of Kota.
By-the-bye, I quite forgot to say that I want large wall
pictures (probably sacred), such as I can either hang up
in the school or trot out on Sunday evenings for the boys'
benefit. You might send some of the cartoons which I
got for Salwarpe, published by the Sunday School Society,
and there are several other very good publications of
sacred pictures. I wonder whether you could send out
fifteen or twenty of such pictures on canvas. Perhaps there
is also a good set of smaller pictures hung on a rod, calendar
like, one behind another. Anyhow. I want pictures. . . .
Now I must tell you about last Saturday. It was a great
82
KOTA KOTA SCHOOL-BOYS
day for our Sani Mission station, for 1 arranged to give
the Cross to (i.e. admit to the catechumenate) the first
batch of Sani hearers. There were twenty-seven candi-
dates, seventeen males and ten of the inferiors. All but
two of the males go to school, but of these fifteen several
are married and many of them are hobbledehoys. Some
of the Kota Kota boys asked leave to go with me and of
course I let them, telling them to get their Saturday morning
work finished as quickly as they could. The Saturday
morning work consists in sweeping and dusting the
station.
" Only catechumens and Christians may enter the
church, so whilst the others sweep the rest of the station,
the catechumens do the church, and the Christians polish
the altar ornaments. One small Christian was so exceed-
ingly zealous, that I found him seizing on the altar cross
before we had begun our English Eucharist. Being Satur-
day, a non-school day, Miss Mann was able to accompany
me to Sani. We got into our machilas at 8.30, and off
we went on our two hours' ride. Between us I suppose
we had twenty carriers. We had not gone many yards
before my back-carrier let me down with a big bang on my
head. It might have seriously incapacitated me, but I
managed to blow the man up and my headache away all
in the same breath. I was further comforted in the evening
by learning from Miss Mann that she had been dropped on
the way home, and no wonder, for on the return journey
our men were in uproarious spirits, each machila team
trying to rush in front of the other and take the lead
on the narrow footpath, and then racing abreast down
precipitous hills when the road widened out. Altogether
our day at Sani was a very happy one. At first I was afraid
that I should not be able to give the Cross to some of the
old women candidates, as they did not say their prayers to
me well ; in fact I told them they must wait ; and then I
told the teacher to take them in hand whilst I went out of
the room. On my return there was so much improvement
that my heart relented and they received admittance with
the rest. But I told the teacher he must never let a lesson
83 02
go by without making them repeat their prayer. How
strange it must be to these old people to kneel down and
pray. It is not as if they had even been idol-worshippers
previously. You would have been impressed by the service
of admittance to the catechumenate not perhaps by the
building which is our newly erected mud and reed school-
room, but by the perfect quiet and reverence of the candi-
dates, especially the boys. It made one's heart very
thankful to see how earnestly each knelt and received his
cross as I passed from one to another and placed the string
with the cross attached round his neck. Their teacher
assures me that the Sani Mission boys do not go in for the
evil village dancing. Alas ! that could not be said of all
our Kota Kota and Kasamba Mission people. The regular
punishment for a Christian who commits this sin is to sit
among the catechumens for a month. At this moment at
Kasamba, out of about twenty Christian boys, eleven are
undergoing this penance. Isn't that terribly sad ? To
keep oneself from over-distress, one has constantly to
recollect the others who, in spite of the many past years
when they lived the ordinary village life ad. lib., and the
constant temptation to relapse in the present, are yet
trying to be really good Christians. I should like to keep
my letter open till to-morrow, as we are hoping to have an
important function the dedication of our hospital buildings.
From the date at the head of this letter you might not be
able to surmise that to-morrow is the Feast of S. Luke
the physician. You have I know realised that Dr. Howard
has been living here for some months and has superintended
the whole work. There are three buildings to be dedicated,
a new stone European hospital and a new stone dispensary
(both with splendid verandahs), and a native reed hospital
which was formerly the girls' school. The new buildings
are the doctor's own design, and suffice it to say that a
prominent member of the Administration, who paid a visit
to the Mission yesterday, said that the hospital was the
nicest house he had seen in these parts. It has two rooms,
20 feet by 20 feet and 17 feet by 12 feet respectively. The
larger is the patient's room. It has a delightful bay window
84
where he will lie and watch the Lake, and speculate what
steamer it is that is coming to anchor, whether an Adminis-
tration or an African Lakes' Company or the German boat ;
but provided that the patient is a missionite he will hope
beyond all things that, the steamer being big, it will be the
CM., or, the steamer being small, it will be the C.J. The
smaller room will make convenient quarters for the nurse,
when the patient needs night attendance. Of course she
will keep her own rooms as heretofore in the ladies' house.
Every effort has been made to set white ants and mosquitoes
at defiance. Soldered zinc was laid above the foundations,
and again between the walls and the roof so much for the
white ants. The doors and windows will be double, those
on the outside being of wire netting, which will not shut
out the air but may shut out the mosquitoes. Moreover,
supposing a wily mosquito finds its way in, there are two
yet more wily ventilators up aloft which will allow the
mosquito exit. I don't understand the ins and outs of
these ventilators, but the doctor says they are the latest
up-to-date dodge ; so of course it's all right. Well, the
civil function took place last Wednesday ; an ox was killed ;
the carpenter had two legs, the masons the other two,
forty other workmen divided the body, and who got the
head I don't know, for the cowman came to me with bitter
lamentations that he had not got it. And the religious
function is fixed for to-morrow. We shall have a Chinyanja
Eucharist, and after the sermon the whole congregation will
go in procession, singing a hymn. We shall stand outside
the native hospital and say part of the Litany for the sick
from the Priest's Prayer-book, and other prayers ; then
whilst the congregation waits outside but within ear-shot,
I with the servers shall enter each of the three buildings
and say a prayer of blessing ; and so we shall all return to
church for the rest of the service. . . .
" Yesterday immense delight two boxes arrived for
me, my vestments and the footballs." . . .
(To a Brother)
LEOPARDS AND THEIR WAYS
Kota Kota, ist Sunday in Advent, 1902.
" If I scrawl more than usual, you must forgive me ;
I am writing in my easy-chair with my legs stretched out
on another, the reason for such extreme laziness being that
this afternoon I have walked to Kasamba and back for the
purpose of ' opening ' the new church there. Kasamba
Church will, I hope, stand for several years, perhaps five,
perhaps less, perhaps more. The last church stood for
less. It is built of a framework of poles filled in with
bamboos and plastered inside and out with mud. The roof
of course is thatched, the floor of course is mud, but we
have got a brick altar and brick steps up to it. The Folliotts
have sent ornaments for the church in memory of their
brother, and altogether you can have no idea how nice it
looked to-night for the dedication service. I must send
home a photo of it. I have done so little at present with
my camera, not for want of the will, but I fear it is not a
new excuse for want of time. The days are so chock
full of business that when I have a spare half-hour in the
daytime I am glad to devote it to sleep ! Perhaps it is
thanks to these spare half-hours that I am in my present
blooming health.
" It is almost inconceivable that more than a year has
passed since I wrote you a letter for Christmas from the
Zambesi. I think I then told you of the various beasts
we were seeing on the river. This last week I was uncom-
fortably near to meeting a leopard in our Mission quarters.
We woke up one morning to find clear footprints mostly
round about our ladies' house ; the natives said they were
undoubtedly the marks of a leopard. That night I happened
(don't think that this is my favourite custom) to be walking
about at 1.30 A.M. I had my lantern with me and it would
have been quite in accordance with a leopard's manners to
have run away from the light ; but, on the other hand, it
might have changed its manners just for my sake, and I
am very pleased that it accomplished its visit either before
86
or after 1.30 and not at that particular hour. But the
tragic part of the tale has yet to come, for the next night
being in my room, I heard a loud scratching seemingly on
my verandah and then I thought it was on the door itself.
I had a bright light burning in my room and I thought it
would be an extra special bold leopard that would venture
in under the circumstances. But the loud scraping con-
tinued and I waited and waited and didn't dare to, move.
Then I heard some people coming along the road by my
house and I rather wondered (shall I say hoped ?) whether
the leopard would give them a turn ; but the loud scratching
still went on. And then I began to think that the sound
came from inside my room in a corner by the door, so I
took off my shoes (still for fear of the leopard) and
I crept nearer the door till I got to a large basket on the
floor ; and then I felt sure that the noise came from under
the basket, and I began to think that whatever other manners
a leopard has it is not his manner to come up through the
floor. So I crept back again and seized my shoe, and with
no other defence I returned to the basket. I lifted it and
out rushed the beast ; I brought my shoe down like a
sledge hammer, the beast escaped but left gory marks
behind. It was something about an inch long, perhaps a
baby mouse or spider which, whilst I was pondering on
the leopard, had been scraping away the bottom of the
basket with a rapidity which must have ruined his digestion
for the remainder of a life which I venture to think was a
short one, thanks to my fell blow. This is my leopard
story, but Miss Minter has a really creepy story to tell.
" When she was at Kota two years ago, she had a cat
with her kittens sleeping in her room. She was awoke
by a tremendous hullabaloo in her room ; she lit a candle
and found the poor cat double its ordinary size with rage
and terror and two of the kittens decapitated ! In the
morning distinct marks of leopard's claws were found on
the window-sill (as well as round about the house) permitting
of no doubt that a leopard had really paid Miss Minter a
visit in her room where she was snugly packed up inside
her mosquito net.
" (Later.) Since writing the first pages of this letter
our leopard has made two more night peregrinations
round the Mission. When the doctor returns (this
or next week) perhaps we shall set a trap ; it sounds
rather a large order, doesn't it ? Leopards are the only
large wild beasts about Kota, although about sixty miles
off, the young tax-collector (a Lincoln College man like
myself) was sitting in his enclosure when a lion jumped in
over the fence, seized a goat and jumped out again. I saw
my first puff-adder last week. I met our neighbour, Mr.
Douglas of the African Lakes' Company, on the Mission
premises with his gun. He said Miss Minter had called him
to shoot a puff-adder, which had been seen among some
bricks outside our girls' dormitory. Although it is a very
deadly beast, a few of the boys went boldly to work to pull
down the pile of bricks, and Miss Minter, who seems to fear
nothing except rats, got a long stick and tried to poke it
out. At last it was found and its head blown to pieces by
the gun ; but the catch proved a particularly fortunate one,
as in the course of the next hour eleven little puff-adders were
born and as speedily despatched !
" To-day (I am finishing this letter a fortnight after
it was begun ; just think of it this very Sunday last
year I was at Kota Kota) well, to-day I feel especially
tranquil, as I have no ' milandu ' on hand. ' Milandu '
are matters of all kinds (but generally impromptu law
cases) which need to be settled, and Mission milandu are
nearly always brought to the priest-in-charge for settle-
ment. A short time ago I had a serious milandu with our
school-girls, which may well be set out as a warning to my
dear godchild. The girls had appropriated to themselves,
without asking leave, a bit of ground which belonged to
the Mission. Miss Minter found them hard at work digging
it and sowing their rice-seed. But the girls got it into their
heads that their native teacher had told on them, which as
a fact she ought to have done but had failed to do. So this
was the manner in which the children greeted their teacher
the next morning. ' Oh you slave ' (most pathetically true
of the poor woman's past history, although she obtained her
freedom years ago) ' oh you slave what reward did she
think she would get oh she thought she would get a pound
but never mind, there's no reward for telling tales ! ' So
spake the girls one to another as their teacher passed their
door. And hence a big milandu, which it took days to
settle as the girls lied and lied and lied again. But I think
their milandu has cleared the school atmosphere. Boys'
quarrels bring on many milandu. A heap of boys came to
my house a few days ago with much anger within and no
little gore without and in my room they remained for
about an hour whilst the case was tried. In trying milandu
witnesses have nearly always to be called and often they
are away in the village, and this all takes time. But and
this is what I want to warn your boys about be very
careful never to call your schoolfellow a fool, much less
insinuate that his mother is another ; for if you do, you
will certainly have to pay a chicken in compensation.
That was the judgment (gratefully accepted by the offender)
I passed on the little boy who said ' Mafundi is a fool and
his mother's another.' By-the-bye, it is curious to find
in this heathen land the word ' fool ' so exactly synonymous
in significance with the ' Thou Fool ' of the Bible.
" Here are two words of injunction as to behaviour, one
for your girls and one for your boys. I really must end
with one more for C. At a late hour the night before last,
a man and his wife arrived on my verandah. I said to him,
' What do you want ? ' He replied, ' I want you to ask
her whether she has forgotten her marriage vows.' That
sounded very serious ; however the offence was found to
be that having finished cooking food for him, she had refused
to cook food also for his brother. Judgment was passed
that it certainly behoved her to do this work of mercy, whilst
it equally behoved him to take jolly good care that the
brother was not again late for dinner. ..."
89
(To a Sister)
CHRISTMAS AT KOTA KOTA
Kota Kota, Holy Innocents' Day, 1902.
" Your birthday will be a very long way past by the
time this letter enters at The Lowe. It does seem rummy
to think of all that it has got to go through first ; I wonder
whether any of our letters have been lost in the post, or
whether they have all managed to weather successfully
their two months' travelling. Well, to-day is the first
Sunday after Christmas and I have got a great deal to say
chiefly about Christmas presents. First of all, the
Christmas presents from the brethren at home. Bwanas, 1
Eyre and George got out of all patience with their luggage
and left it to follow them the last stage of the journey as it
best knew how. I hope by this time it and my box among
it may have reached Mponda's and it will find its way here
shortly. If it is packed up in Mr. Eyre's baggage, it will
have to wait till he gets down again to Mponda's. I have
however got the packet containing tablecloths and the
splendid assortment of engravings from E. Very many
thanks for them. Next I must tell you about the more bulky
Christmas presents which we at Kota most unexpectedly
received. We were a little bit sold but (considering the
amount of work to be got through on the other side) not
very much surprised that neither the C.M. nor C.J. had
paid us a visit in the week before Christmas. For one thing
our housekeeper, Miss Minter, was crying out that she
wanted her stores. My days before Christmas were too full
to think much about C.M., C.J., or anything else except
my own native flock. All the same it was a magnificent
surprise on Christmas Eve when, half an hour late for lunch,
I at last reached the dining-room, to be met by Miss Mann
with ' Everybody's gone mad ; the C.J. is in and the doctor
and nurse have rushed off to greet her.' It certainly was
almost too good to be true that we should have any other
of the brethren with us on Christmas Day, but it still
remained to be seen who the brethren were. Needless to
say, / being a sober-minded person, did not ' rush off '
1 Mr. the title of respect.
9
anywhere, but neither could I settle to any other work, for
I had a hope that it might really be dear old Bwana Eyre
himself who had come to pay us a Christmas visit on his
return to the Lake. It seemed unlikely, because I thought
he was sure to spend his Christmas at some of his own
more special villages on the other side, and even now I expect
the Archdeacon will open his eyes rather wide when he hears
that Eyre spent Christmas in the west instead of the east ;
but, nevertheless, facts remain, and there he was sure enough
on the road shaking hands with doctor and nurse and in
another minute with mine own self, just the same as ever.
Certainly he looks extremely well after his holiday. He
brought with him a new member of the Mission, a carpenter,
by name Crabb. I enjoyed showing Crabb all the beauties
of the church and station and then took him to the ladies'
verandah for tea. There I heard some talk about the
CM., so I innocently remarked, ' Where do you think the
CM. is spending Christmas ? ' Upon which a chorus of
voices replied, ' Don't you really know ? ' I answered,
' No, I don't.' ' Why,' said the chorus, ' the CM. is here ! '
Well, the C.f. was a pretty big Christmas present, but the
CM. was a bigger. But I had scarce time to wonder, for
in a few minutes there was dear old Philip Young standing
on the verandah. Of course they had left the Archdeacon
and Mr. Marsh on the other side, but Young had set his
heart on spending his Christmas Day at Kota. So up to
midday on Christmas Eve we thought we were going to be
just our four selves, Nurse Minter, Miss Mann, Dr. Howard
and myself, and by teatime we were additionally Eyre,
Brimecombe and Crabb by the C.J., and Young and
Partridge by the CM. To give the finishing touch to the
chapter of delightful surprises, Young said, ' Please I want
to stay here till next Monday if you will have me.' And I
found that he had so arranged it with the Bishop and Arch-
deacon, that whilst Partridge took the CM. across to the
Archdeacon after Christmas Day, Young should have a few
extra days' holiday, remaining here till the C.J. or CM.
comes to fetch him away. Philip has had hard work on the
CM. and a few days' rest will do him a lot of good. Of
course I had additional reason to be thankful for Mr. Eyre's
91
presence, as he was able to help me give the people their
Christmas Communion.
" Our services the Christmas Eve solemn Evensong
and the great Eucharist on Christmas morning were
magnificent. There were about 140 communicants (rather
more than 100 of my own flock, the rest being from
the steamers), and besides these Christians, there were of
course a very large number of catechumens who come into
church for the first part of the services. The processions
of all the Christians round the church was a very striking
sight and done without any fuss. The catechumens poor
things mayn't process, as they are not supposed to enter
the Christians' part of the church. Our church has got
an ambulatory round behind the high altar ; I suppose the
altar stands out ten feet from the east wall which is apsidal.
So the congregation mount the steps to the sanctuary, and
process round the altar and then down the steps again and
along the south wall of the nave. After the long church
service the boys were quite ready for amusement . . . they
were ready to play football the whole day long, until they
entered church again for Evensong. In the evening we had
a magic-lantern in the school. At Christmas Day dinner
we sat down twelve, for Messrs. Swann the tax-collector,
Armbruster the postmaster, and Deuss the German store-
keeper joined us. The only other white man, Douglas of
African Lakes' Company, could not come.
TROUBLES WITH THE BOYS
Kota Kota, Jan. 30, 1903.
"... Alas ! it is just as I feared ; the mail bag is shut, and
my letter may have to wait another fortnight, but at least
it gives me the opportunity of telling you about last Sunday,
or rather the story begins many months back, last July,
when a large store at the boma l was set on fire. To this
day it is not known who did it, but rightly or wrongly one
of the two biggest chiefs in Kota was accused of being at
the bottom of it, and he was accordingly banished to Zomba,
1 Residence of a European Commissioner.
9 2
KOTA KOTA CHURCH
KOTA KOTA CHURCH, WEST END, SHOWING CATECHUMENS' BARRIER
the headquarters of B.C. A. About Christmas time Mr. S.
told me that he thought the old chap would be allowed
to come back, and back he came last Sunday. I heard
a tremendous row in the village, but thought it was only
a big dance. It was a small Mission boy, whom I way-
laid, thinking he was off to the dance, who first told me that
Chigwe had arrived ; well, the whole place, or rather half
the place (for he is not on speaking terms with the other big
chief), turned out to do him honour. It was a marvellous
sight and sound. I and some other of our Mission party
stood by the road along which the procession passed a
black mass of people many hundreds, possibly thousands.
First came a crowd of women, many of them with their heads
powdered with flour, whilst his chief wife is related to have
rolled in the dust, as an extra special mark of gladness of
heart. Then came the men, getting more and more excited
as they came rushing along, tearing off boughs of the trees,
and waving them in the air. Of course, another procession
was in one's mind at the time a triumphal entry with
probably many points of similarity ; only with all the
singing, one did not hear Hosannah, and old Chigwe had
no ass. Not knowing the old fellow by sight, I said to one
of my boys, ' Mind you tell me which is Chigwe,' but there
was no need for him to tell me, for as a number of old
gentlemen the village corporation passed by me, out
of the midst ran old Chigwe himself, and seized my hand,
ending his salutation by fervently kissing his own hand which
had grasped mine, whilst I can answer for it that I did my
best to copy him. It was a sight one is not likely to see
twice in a lifetime ; perhaps you will not see it even once !
I wished I could have got my camera ready in time for a
snapshot.
" Life within our little Mission world goes on much as
usual. An ever-increasing amount to be thankful for.
Kasamba school, after going down and down for the
last two years, has taken a fresh lease of vitality since
the Christmas holidays. Instead, of two dozen and often
less than that, there are now between fifty and sixty children
in school, about thirty coming from an outlying district
93
where I and the teacher began preaching a few months ago ;
a most blessed result. I hope there will be no falling away.
Both at Kasamba and at Kota I am preparing candidates
for baptism, and trust they will be ready by Easter, and
still more one ought to pray that they may not be baptised
till they are ready. On the other hand the shadows in
Mission life seem to be darker than usual, but one learns by
experience especially out here where characters, or rather
moods, seem to change so rapidly and unaccountably
not to be despondent about lapses. One of my young
pupil teachers told me that M., L., and C. had gone to
' vinyao.' This is a heathen funeral ceremony ; one of
the performances is a sham menagerie ! Great beasts are
made up out of skins and half a dozen men get inside and
dance the creature about. What more fascinating entertain-
ment ! Can you wonder that three little catechumens wished
to spend the night at vinyao ? But my teachers tell me that
the singing at vinyao is very evil, and moreover the offering
of flour and food at the grave is, of course, gross heathen
superstition. So that first night I sent two teachers to call
M., L., and C. out of vinyao, and back to the Mission ; and
back to the Mission they came. I said, ' You can go to
bed now, and I shall call your parents (rank heathen) to-
morrow.' But on the morrow I was told that M., L., and C.
had again gone off to vinyao, and with them were T. and A.
Well, that night I let them be, and to my joy on the evening
after they all five returned to the Mission to sleep. Seeing
them all standing in a row in my room, I said, ' You know
you have been very bad, and because you agree with me you
will, of course, also agree to be punished. I do not mean to
beat you, I shall give you another punishment to-morrow.'
So the next day they turned up punctually as clockwork,
and I gave them a good large bit of hoeing to do, and I told
them I would return at noon to see how they were getting
on. So back I went to my house feeling happily contented,
but, lack-a-day ! I had not been five minutes in my house
when my boy hurried in to say, ' They have run away.'
A. had said to them, ' Let's run away.' And there sure
enough were their hoes carefully restored to the outside of
94
my house. Oh dear ! this is a long story ; I should not
have begun it if I had known it would take so long to tell,
but now I must go through with it, and perhaps it will help
you to understand or to realise the difficulty of understanding
these dear kids. Well that night, of course, none of the five
turned up. So I called a boy, and said, ' Where are those five
little fools ? ' He said, ' They are in the houses of their
mothers.' So with him as guide and with one of the teachers
off I trudged to go the round about 10 P.M. Of course,
everybody was asleep. First to C.'s mama, but no C.
Then to M. I banged and banged at the door, and then to
my joy I heard a sleepy voice say, ' M., M.,' and M. was
aroused and produced. Then on to L.'s mama, but no L.,
but only an exceedingly loud-voiced mama, who I thought
would wake the whole town up. Then on to T.'s mama, but
no T. I asked my boy guide where A. was sleeping. He
said, ' Perhaps he is at Katutula's house.' On arriving I
told the teacher to call A. For a long time dead silence, and
then loud giggling inside, and then again dead silence. The
teacher went into the outer room from which it was quite
apparent that A. and K. had just escaped, and taken refuge
in the inner room, the door of which I felt inclined to break
open, but I managed to restrain myself, otherwise I might
have been locked up in the boma for housebreaking. Well,
with only one fish caught out of the five I thought my tour
had been no great success. But as I began to return to the
Mission imagine my joy when I found C.'s papa hurrying
after me with his precious kid in his arms, and shortly
afterwards L.'s papa came up, having found his unfortunate
offspring somewhere in the reeds, and in another minute T.
appeared, having been captured in an outlying part of the
village. (This reads like the trick of the four knaves.)
I feel inclined to give huge presents of gratitude to these
old heathen pa's and ma's, who got out of their slumbers and
went in search of their children. Under ordinary circum-
stances they would not have been in the least disturbed by
their children sleeping elsewhere, as boys do not usually
sleep in their parents' house. So once again the Court of
Justice had to pass sentence, and this time it had to be
95
whacking. That was Saturday night, and again I went to
bed feeling contented, barring the fact that A.'s whack was
still of the future and not of the past. But on Sunday
morning again I thought last night's efforts had been in
vain ; for I opened my door, 6 A.M., just in time to see M. and
L. once again trotting off gaily to the village, so I wasn't
surprised to find none of the four were in church. At night ,
however, and each night since then, M., L., and C. have
arrived at bedtime, and are on the most friendly terms with
me. You would not suppose they had any remembrance
of midnight invasions. A. has not yet returned. His friend
T. is keeping him company in the village, but I have no
doubt they will soon be back in the Mission. These boys
have a very keen sense of justice which helps us over
difficulties ; on the other hand, if they think they have been
treated unjustly they never forget it."
(To a Sister)
DIFFICULTIES AT KASAMBA
Kota Kota, Feb. 15, 1903.
" This is Sunday night ; the station is delightfully quiet ;
the boys are all in their dormitory, bar two, who haven't
turned up. I suppose they will tell me to-morrow that they
feared the dark walk up to the Mission from their mothers'
houses. . . .
" Well, though it is Sunday, it has not been altogether a
day of rest. First, there was the big Eucharist. Instead
of preaching myself, I had given notes to one of my teachers,
and all through his sermon I was in the fidgets, as he per-
sisted in missing all the points, and evidently thought that
my notes would carry him safely through the Parable of
the Sower, without any digestion on his part. Then we had
an unusual number of muddles over the hymns ; I missed
out the first one altogether ; I gave out as the last one one
which they had never learnt, and when I altered it to one
which they knew, Miss M., who starts the singing, didn't hear
aright, and launched out into yet another. Fortunately,
it takes a great deal more than this to upset the equilibrium
96
of the native. After the Eucharist came breakfast.
. . . After breakfast I had to have a long talk with the
Kasamba teacher about ' ructions ' there among the elder
Christian youths. When I was paying my usual Thursday
visit there last week, I heard that a number of the Christian
youths and Mission followers had again lapsed into village
dancing. I called one of them, who seemed really sorry,
and he said he would call the rest to meet me at Kasamba
the following Monday, that I might pass Church sentence
on them. That very evening, however, they were again
leading the dance, and then they began to quarrel among
themselves, and they said, ' Let us fight it out to-morrow ' ;
and on the morrow they fought it out with such a vengeance,
that one party (I suppose the defeated) appealed to Mr.
Swann at the boma, and, when he sent police to fetch the
other party, the three Christians among them could nowhere
be found, and (for all the teacher knew) they had not been
found by this morning. That's a nice Christian scandal
for the outsiders to get hold of, isn't it, and a nice example
for the younger Christians and catechumens to follow ?
Most thankfully do I relate that for months they have
(almost without an exception) been kept from following it,
either by supernatural grace or by natural fear of punish-
ment, or, more probably, by a combination of the two.
" After hearing this tale of Kasamba woe, we had
Mattins I suppose half an hour later than usual but that
again is a matter of no concern to the native. After
Mattins various private interviews, until the catechumens
and hearers had lolled up from the village, and were ready
to be preached to in the school. After the preaching I
had to console a newly-married husband, whose wife
(within a few days of their marriage) went back in the sulks
to live in her mother's house. That brought us to Sext and
lunch. Soon after lunch it is time to walk with a teacher
to the preaching at Chiganga, about a mile from here. He
preached, but I have to do most of the gathering of the
people. Just now very many are in the fields, and our
attendance is small. Oh dear ! it requires some patience
and sobriety of temper ; for the people of Chiganga are
97 H
not noted for good manners. Some of the children run for
their very life when they see me ; others run for twenty
yards, and wait till I nearly walk up to them, and then on
they go for another twenty yards a sort of tantalus game.
But the women are the most exasperating. I boldly go up
to one party and say, ' I want you to come along with me
and hear good words ' ; to which they all rejoin, ' Yes, come
along, come along,' in a tone of voice which clearly shows
they have no intention of coming. Others say, ' We're
coming, we're coming/ but, when I return to call them
after a quarter of an hour, they are sitting exactly where I
left them. However, there are a ' nice few ' who ' hear '
regularly now at Chiganga.
" After Chiganga comes, first, a change of clothes, .then
tea, and then English Evensong and sermon. Lastly, at
8.30, Chinyanja Evensong.
" Monday. One of the two offenders who were not at
dormitory prayers turned up later, having been a walk of
twenty miles ; the other did not turn up, but at the present
moment he is squatting on the floor of my room, labouring
to write out many times on a slate ' Vecha tauko,' which,
being interpreted, means ' Obey the law.' . . . You will
be pleased to hear that ' John ' (mentioned in a previous
letter) is once again in the bosom of the Mission. He was
afraid to return, because he knew that he had not yet paid
the penalty for past misdoings ; but I also' knew that, if
once the penalty was paid, he would be glad to have been
restored though at the time against his will to the
family circle. So one evening I said to a boy, ' We will go
and call " John." So off we went to the village. But a
number of boys knew where we were going, and I was afraid
' John ' would get wind of my coming ; so I said to my
guide ' Bustle along ' ; he bustled so well that I soon found
myself twenty yards from ' John.' He saw me, and made
a bolt for it, but I knew I could catch him ; so I did what I
had never done before ; I girt up my loins, otherwise,
I hitched up my cassock, and sprinted, and in a few seconds
' John ' was yelling at my feet, and I was speaking to him
and those about him soothing words. Eventually, I told
98
his two elder brothers to come back with us to the Mission.
We were a rummy quartette in my room ; there was I, a
Christian priest, and in front of me a naughty little Christian
boy, and I was making one of these elder brothers, who is a
Mohammedan, and the other, who, I think ' goes nowhere,'
stand sureties for ' John's ' performing his proper punish-
ment on the morrow. This they readily agreed to ; so, on the
morrow, ' John ' was plunked down in the middle of the
boiling hot lawn to do weeding and hard labour.
" Last week was certainly a full week, as, out of the
ordinary routine, I paid a visit to our station at Lozi, ten
miles north of Kota. I had tried to get there the previous
week by hammock, but a flooded river, and the mark of a
croc.'s bed just where my path entered the water turned us
back. So, last Friday I hired a barge, and as soon as the
Chinyanja Eucharist and breakfast were over, off I started,
taking bed and baggage, not knowing whether or no I
should spend the night there. I have since Christmas had
to make a change of teachers at Lozi, and I had heard
that the new teacher had fallen foul of his boys ; so I wasn't
altogether surprised to find that, instead of a vigorous school
of forty, many of them big youths, as under the previous
teacher, there were only seven or eight present when I
entered the school last Friday. Also I learnt that the
grown-up ' hearers ' were hearing almost not at all. . . .
After luncheon I walked to a village five miles off a most
lovely woody walk with streams, over which the boys
carried me. There I collected the school children who had,
or had not, given up coming to school at Lozi. (If the boys
do not like the ten miles' daily walk, I have given them leave
to sleep at the Mission at Lozi.) We said our words together
seated by the roadside, to the edification of passers-by ;
and then we returned to Lozi. I sent a bell round the village
to call together all adherents of the Mission, men and women
hearers, and all who read at school. Some of the men and
some of the women turned up, but the bell-boy brought back
word that the school-boys ' refuse.' That, of course, they
could not be allowed to do, so more boys had to be sent
out to summon the rest by name, and, to my joy, the whole
99 H2
lot of boys on the books, almost without exception,
arrived, and then we all boys, teachers, and the Bwana
said our words, a great many of them. I was very glad I
had got there, as I found much sickness of heart among the
boys, and the teachers didn't go the right way to heal it.
But I quite hope that the boys will now come back. This
new teacher came from Likoma, where the Mission is
literally lord of the isle, and where education can be almost
compulsory. But here, of course, it is not so, and if a boy
doesn't choose to go to school, there is no one to make
him. Our many words were spoken in the small school by
the light of my lantern, and with my bed and mosquito-net
already rigged up for the night. But the capitao of the
barge was waiting outside to tell me that they had finished
shipping my firewood, which is always brought by barge
from Lozi, and that the contrary wind had dropped, and
that I could go back to Kota by night if I liked. And I did
like, partly because I thought Lozi and I had seen about as
much of one another for the time being as was profitable,
and partly because there was a gorgeous full moon, and I
knew the Lake would be lovely. So off we went at a quarter
to nine, and got up to my own house at 12.30. It was such
a wonderful scene on the Lake the eight black puntsmen
standing out in the moonlight on the top of the sides of the
barge, and your own dearly-beloved seated in his comfort-
able arm-chair on the top of the firewood, eating two
mince-pies. So I got home 12.30 midnight, and was in
church, as usual, at half-past six."
A DAY AT KASAMBA NATIVE DANCES
Kota Kota, Feb. 26, 1903.
" This is Thursday, my day for Kasamba, and this has
been the day's diary :
6 A.M. Enter boys' dormitory to rouse them from
slumber, more especially the boy who rings the Angelus,
the kitchen boy, the carpenter boy, and my own boy.
6.30. Chinyanja Mattins, followed by English Eucharist.
Breakfast. Am trundled off in machila 1 (one hour's
1 Hammock.
100
run) to Kasamba forty-nine boys (very good) and two
girls in school.
10.30 to 12. Scripture lesson and choir practice (' Forty
days ' and ' Christian dost thou see them ? ' Of course
Chinyanja).
Lunch. Potted meat sandwiches.
Private interviews. First, boy who got slack ; second,
boy who desires to become engaged, his and her name to be
written down in the engagement book ; third, boy who has
to have Church censure put on him, and to be weaned back
to sleep in the Mission ; fourth, the head teacher whose
wife ran away two days ago.
" Afterwards I put in an appearance at the catechumens'
class, and told them if they didn't come to be taught, there
was no baptism for them. Later on, a little tour into the
village to find boy who left Kasamba months ago in dis-
grace. I heard he had just returned to the village but not
to the Mission. A most unsatisfactory creature, but I hope
a long talk with him will have the effect of bringing him to-
night to the Mission dormitory. Then time for Evensong.
After Evensong, where are the machila men ? My boy
Daudi goes to seek them. Eventually they stroll up. Off
we go to an outlying part of Kasamba where we have
preaching under a tree. I act as whipper up, and teacher
Davies preaches. Abram's prayer for the sinful cities.
The old chief arrived half way through and squatted down
beside me. It is this preaching that has more than doubled
the number of boys at Kasamba school. After the preaching,
into the machila again and back to Kota just in time for
dinner. After dinner, Compline on the grass outside, talk
on school matters with Miss Mann. Boys come for games
in school. To-night it was dominoes and the target game.
I appoint a captain of the different games and return to
my room. Boy enters (he is only a hearer) to plead for the
hundredth time that he may be prepared for the catechu-
menate. Boys' call-over time ; dormitory prayers. I send
Daudi to village to bring back missing boy ; he appears,
his naughtiness quite out of proportion to his diminutive
size. I tell him that if he ' reads ' to-morrow at school and
101
afterwards performs manual labour, I will only tell his elder
(much to be stood in awe of) brother that the case is satis-
factorily squared up.
" 10 P.M. I go to lock up the church ; find the mats have
not been rolled up, so go to boys' dormitory, ruthlessly
awake the responsible boy and trundle him off to perform
his duty a duty most necessary because of white ants.
So about 10.30 I sit down and begin a letter. It is only
fair to add that in spite of this variety of odd jobs to-day,
there really has been time for some quiet.
"That was a pleasanter visit to Kasamba than the pre-
vious one. For at Kasamba there had been serious ructions.
To start with, after several months (I hope) of good living,
there had again been a bout of the evil dancing among the
youths. It had been going on for several evenings when
another Christian boy returned home after many months,
and his heathen father, to celebrate his son's return, in-
vited his friends to a dance at his house. Perhaps you
don't know that the universal and only instrument to
accompany the dances is a drum. Its sound carries for
several miles, and any native can say at a distance what the
dance is, by hearing the rhythm of the drum. Well, at
this particular dance a friend of the prodigal son was drum-
ming a harmless tune when the company arrived. The
company, seemingly without company manners, said
' What are you playing that nonsense for ? let's have the
proper thing.' At which the instrumentalist not un-
naturally took offence, and the long and the short of it was
that both sides, headed by members of the Mission, said :
' Let us go and do our field work to-morrow morning, and
when we come back we will fight it out.' And they fought
it out with such a vengeance that one party afterwards
appealed to Mr. Swann at the Boma, who had the whole
lot flogged two Christians have got six months in prison
and one Christian has been sentenced to transportation
elsewhere for a year. Please don't think I felt about this
scandal as lightly as my account might seem to imply.
Anyhow I summoned all Christians and catechumens to
meet me at Kasamba, and I told them what an absolutely
102
meaningless thing the Mission must appear to the heathen
who saw Mission followers doing these shameful deeds ;
and to show the outsiders (as well as for their own sakes)
that all members of the Mission felt the disgrace and did not
acquiesce in their brethren's wrong-doings, I advised the
next day should be kept as a day of mortification and a
fast strictly observed till 2 P.M. I wanted to bring the
shame really home to the hearts of the people through their
bodies.
" Talking of fasting, last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday.
In a big fast-day it is customary for the native to take his
first food at 3 P.M. Indeed anything less than that is no
fast for him, for they habitually breakfast at midday. . . .
I must tell you of one little catechumen's fast. I saw him
in the playground at two o'clock, and he said to me ' May I
go to the village ? ' meaning his mother's house. I said,
' Of course you may, why shouldn't you ? ' And then I
bethought me that he had in his mind not so much his
mother as his mother's larder. So I told him he could go
and fill his little tummy straight away if he wanted to, but
on the other hand, if he liked to hold out till the usual hour,
he could sit on my verandah and look at pictures. This he
thought would be very nice, so I left him with pictures
whilst I went into my room. I meant to call him in half an
hour, but the sleep of the just crept over me, and it was after
three when I again saw him still absorbed in pictures. 1
1 The following extract from a letter of Miss Mann to Miss Douglas
throws a beautiful sidelight on the part Douglas himself took in the
fast-day which, whether on this or some other occasion, he instituted as
a penance for the grievous wrong-doing of his boys, and of the impression
which his own self-humiliation made on his converts.
West Bank, Bakewell, Sept. i, 1912.
" . . . If I remember aright a large number of the Christian Kota
Kota boys and elder Christians had been taking part in some heathen or
Mohammedan dance, and that day he did fast all day together with the
culprits. It made a tremendous impression on them, that one who had
not sinned should accept its punishment ; and I remember the almost
passionate appeal he made in his sermon on Sunday that they were all
his children and how it hurt him when they thus fell and hence how
it must hurt God Who was much more their Father. . . ."
103
(To a Sister)
ADULT BAPTISMS
Kota Kota, Monday in Holy Week, 1903.
" I hope a steamer will come up to-morrow going south,
and that this will be ready to go by it. As you may perceive,
I am writing in Holy Week. Last Holy Week I was at the
college, giving addresses and looking after the students until
Maundy Thursday, when I took boat and spent Good Friday
at one of our bigger Mission stations. Since then that
station with all those anywhere near it has been wrecked by
the Portuguese ; I am uncertain whether any work has
been restarted there. I feel more and more thankful that
I did not settle at Kota before I had a good insight into the
Mission life of the opposite coast and its tremendous difficul-
ties. You will like to know that our big Baptism was
administered last Saturday. Our font is not worthy of the
name. It is a zinc box about a yard square and six inches
deep, and it is sunk into the floor so that its cover is flush
with the floor. Of course we want a real good tank with
steps, where the candidates can be properly immersed.
As it is, I had to have a table by my side with a decent basin
on it, from which I shelled water over the candidate as
he knelt in the box. There were twenty-nine candidates
from Kota and Kasamba all varieties from aged women
to young boys. . . . The service was very impressive. The
Bishop is here, so was able to take part in the ceremony.
/ baptised them ; then they went to put on their white
clothes, the women wearing a white cloth with a large red
cross on it, and when they came back again, the Bishop
standing at the catechumens' barrier received them into the
congregation, whilst as they passed through the barrier I
gave each a lighted taper to signify they had become children
of light. The service ended with a fine procession of all the
Christians round the church, the newly baptised carrying
their lights. Now the difficulty is to remember to call them
by their Christian names. Before their baptism and even
afterwards some of the candidates (of course chiefly the
old ladies) could not remember their own new names ; they
104
thought they never would be able to get to pronounce them ;
they used to come and ask me or Miss Minter what their
names were. . . . Oh how I do hope that they will all go
on from grace to grace. Within a fortnight of their con-
templated baptism I had to reject five candidates. The
baptisms were on Saturday ; the next day was Palm
Sunday. The boys had been cutting palms previously.
I had never seen a procession of palms before. Of course
we sang ' All Glory, Laud and Honour,' each Christian
having received his palm from me and carrying it in pro-
cession. One old woman was so afraid of losing hers that
when she got back to her place she shoved it under Miss
Minter's, thinking it couldn't come to any harm there. . . .
I have just had a scene in my room which interrupted my
letter ; a scene between three generations, to wit, a little
catechumen boy, his mother, and his grandmother. The
little boy had struck against sleeping in the Mission and it
required the combined efforts of Mama and Granny to bring
him weeping up to the scratch.
" Later. The episode of the little catechumen has
a sequel, or at least another chapter can be added ;
I don't know what the finale will be. Mama and
Granny (both of them heathen, though I believe one
of them sometimes ' hears ' on Sunday) had departed,
and I had left the kid safe in his dormitory. But when
I went back there, the kid (we will call him A.) was not to be
seen. So off I had to trudge to Granny's house again (the
best part of a mile) and there I found Granny and Mama,
and A. sitting on his mat. So back I had to trundle him, or
rather a good part of the way (as his feet were so bad with
jiggers) I carried him on my back, whiling away the happy
moments with blood-curdling suggestions of what a shepherd
should do when he has an out-of-the-way naughty sheep.
I said to him, ' I suppose you thought Bwana would be
tired of going after you ' ; he replied ' Yes ' ; I said with
emphatic solemnity, ' Bwana is never tired by day or by
night ' ! I think he was impressed by what to him in his
present mood was a most unpalatable piece of news. Talk-
ing of jiggers Miss Minter one day told me she must have
105
taken more than a hundred out of one boy's feet, but she
thought that at last they really were all out. The same day
out of the same pair of feet she took out forty more, which
had grown to a manageable size in the night ! Now I must
go to sleep. I think we shall have a very happy Holy Week
and Easter. The first days we sing the ' Story of the Cross '
and I catechise the Christians and catechumens on the
events of the day. I expect I and my head evangelist
Leonard will share the addresses on Good Friday."
(To a Pupil Teacher at Salwarpe)
SUNDAY AT KOTA KOTA
Universities' Mission, Kota Kota, Lake Nyasa,
British Central Africa, June 14, 1903.
" What have you been saying about me for the last year ?
Nothing very polite, I'm afraid. I am really very sorry that
I have not answered your last letter ; it seems so ungrateful
and it was a very nice letter. Now I am going to make
amends, partly because I want to get another letter out of
you telling me what you are doing, because by this time
your examination is over ; also it is ages since I heard any
news of ; I believe her people are in Kent. Has
she given up thinking of being a teacher, or where is she
working ? So much for questions which you have got to
answer.
" This is Sunday ; I have just finished preaching an Eng-
lish sermon to my two ladies. I live here with two trained
nurses. There was a third lady, a school teacher, but she
has started to go home on furlough. I will tell you what
my Sunday is like. The big Chinyanja Eucharist, which is
always choral and with a sermon, is at seven o'clock. After
breakfast comes Mattins, and at the same time hand-bells go
round the village (population 5000) to call the catechumens
and hearers to come to their preaching. I think you know
that hearers are the heathen who have begun to hear the
Word of God ; they are taught almost exclusively the Old
Testament ; it is no good to teach them much about a
106
Redeemer until they have got some idea of sin and of the
need of the Redemption. Catechumens are those who have
passed out of the hearers' stage and are allowed to come into
church for the first part of the service, sitting by themselves
at the west end, which is cut off from the rest of the nave by a
low wooden barrier ; of course they hope eventually to be
baptised. The hearers' preaching is not generally over much
before noon. In the afternoon, at one, I and a teacher walk
to an outlying district where there is more preaching.
Very many of the people in this part are Mohammedans, but
of course the majority go nowhere. I am here to teach them
to go to the true God. Soon after this preaching we have
English Evensong, generally just myself and two or three
other missionaries. (I have no men missionaries.)
" Our Chinyanja Evensong on Sundays is quite late, 8.15,
by which time the village people have finished their evening
meal ; the younger catechumens and Christians, i.e. all who
are not married, are expected to sleep on the Mission premises,
so that as soon as Evensong is over they are ready to go to
bed. The boys (about fifty of them) sleep in three dormi-
tories ; the girls have their room close to the ladies' quarters.
It seems sad that we cannot get more girls to come to the
Mission. They fight very shy of it, the reason partly being
that the Mission teaching goes dead against the horrible
customs of village life. If we chose to lower the standard
of the Christian religion, I suppose we could get very many
more adherents, but their adherency would be much worse
than nothing.
" I am finishing this letter whilst on a little holiday at
another Mission station about seventy miles inland from the
Lake. I came here with a hammock for my carriage. We
had to camp out two nights on the way. The second night
the men made a barricade of boughs as a protection against
lions, as there are a number of lions in this district. Herds
of zebra and elephants, all sorts of beautiful buck, and un-
beautiful wild pig, and hyenas and baboons abound here.
At the Lake at Kota Kota lions are scarcely ever seen, but
leopards are not uncommon, and we have had a good many
visits from them in our garden at the Mission at night. But
107
I have never seen one alive out here. I have set a trap to
shoot them, but without success.
" Now I must not write more. Give my love and kind
regards to your Father and Mother and believe me. . . ."
HOLIDAY AND VILLAGE PREACHING
Kota Kota, July 13, 1903.
" You will probably get this about three weeks after your
birthday ; I'm not quite sure whether that is my fault or
the steamer's ; anyhow it is a dreadfully long time since
my last letter and much has happened in the meantime.
The chief event has been the Retreat and Conference at
Likoma. The CM. having already picked up the brethren
from the south end of the Lake, reached Kota on a Saturday,
and for that Sunday we were a party of fourteen European
missionaries and one native deacon, so Miss Minter, our house-
keeper, had her work cut out for her. . . . We slept one
night on the opposite side at a village of particular interest
to me, as I had taken a big baptism there more than a year
ago. The Bishop after more than a year's work in the country
had only just finished his first fever, but he was able to
conduct the Retreat. One result of the Conference is that
I am on a committee for arranging a uniform syllabus of
work for the schools throughout the diocese not a very
easy job, especially when one member of the committee
lives at the south end of the Lake, and another at Kota on the
west, and another at Likoma and another peregrinating on the
steamer. There is no likelihood of the committee meeting
again en bloc till the next conference. We did what we
could during one long afternoon's sitting and the rest will
have to be done by correspondence. I spent the Sunday
following at the college where you will remember I lived
for some weeks in the antediluvian ages. . . . Every member
of the Mission in the country was at the conference viz.
one Bishop, one Archdeacon, nine other priests, including
one native, three native deacons, eight ladies. ... I
wish the women and girls at Kasamba had someone to look
after them. I went over to Kasamba this morning in
108
machila at 6.30 to give the Holy Communion to a white-
haired old woman in her hut a tiny round hut in which
my head could knock against the ceiling. Her bed took
up one half of the room ; I and the teacher squashed into
the other half and there was a fire in the middle, of course
without any outway for the smoke except through the
door. When I came out I had the unpleasant task of
summoning a number of catechumen women and girls and
also three Christian women, who had taken part in some of
the most evil native customs. ... At Likoma the Bishop
and Nurse Minter made a little plan for me and arranged that,
if I was agreeable to it, I should go for the inside of a fort-
night to stay with a certain gentleman, Dr. Prentice (I
think of the Scotch Mission), who lives with his wife at
Kasungu. I was very doubtful whether I ought to go, but
Nurse has at length persuaded me. One of the arguments
she brought to bear on me will I fear be uncongenial news
to you ; it was to the effect that it does not seem likely that
I can get home this year. . . . However, if I stop out longer
than the usual two years, there is the double consolation of
knowing (i) that I am quite indispensable ! (2) That my
symptoms sugashuate (sic) so favourably that there seems
no sufficient medical reason for my immediate return.
Well, the months fly by at such a tremendous pace that
really this year or next year does not make much difference.
So that helped me to decide on my holiday to Kasungu.
It will be an eighty miles' journey by machila, which means
two nights' camping out. I expect to enjoy the whole
thing tremendously ; the actual journey will be made more
pleasant by the fact of my carriers being either Mission boys
or at least frequently in Mission employ. I was rather loth
to leave Kota as we are doing a good deal here just now ;
candidates for confirmation ; candidates just about to be
chosen for baptism, and candidates for the catechumenate.
I have also just started two afternoon preachings in the
village at different centres. I have told the people that I
shall visit the village on these weekdays, but they must
return the call at the Mission at the time of the preaching on
Sundays. The village preachings have begun well with
109
large numbers of people. I hope the numbers will increase
yet further, but one has to bear in mind that these people
are terribly good hands at seeking after a new thing and
then getting tired. However I always feel that if anyone
has ' heard ' even once, he may not perhaps come again
for a year, but some time he will come back. They have
very little idea of persistent effort. That is certainly the
case with the school children ; a boy will turn up to school
every day for a fortnight and then will refuse to come near
the place for the next three months. You will be pleased
to hear that the big scripture pictures you sent me are put
into use at the village preaching. I should have liked you
to-day to hear the graphic account rendered by my teacher
Petro of Joseph sold to the merchants. The conversation
between the brothers and the merchants began with the
regular Swahili greeting equivalent to ' How do you do ? '
' Very well, thank you.' The subject was only beaten for
vigorous treatment by the account of the flood when the
people in the water kept calling to Noah to rescue them
Noah ! Noooah ! !
" This preaching in the open spaces of the village is of
course shy work, but one has to be brazen about it. I am
preceded by a gong or a bell ; Miss Matthew says I remind
her of the muffin man. The work of choosing candidates for
baptism also though in another sense taxes my courage.
A year ago I chose a boy but afterwards had to reject him,
in consequence of which (so he said) he left the Mission for a
time. He came back again and he knew I was willing to give
him another chance ; but to-day I felt bound to tell him that
again I could not choose him. I feared that he might go off
to the village as before, so I was relieved when after a few
minutes he came back and asked for a pencil and paper to
write a letter ! So apparently he owes me no ill-will and
realises that he has only himself to blame. I have no room
to tell you how at Likoma we laid the foundation-stone of the
new cathedral. It is to be 280 feet long. . . .
P.S. This week a calf died. A few days afterwards our
cowman came running with as I thought another sick
calf in his arms ; but no it was the dead calf's skin stuffed
no
with grass, and sticks in its legs. You stand it upright,
and the mother licks it whilst she is being milked it
keeps her quiet."
(To a Brother)
BUILDING A TEACHER'S HOUSE
Kota Kota, Nov. 15, 1903.
" It is ages since I wrote to you, and you are such a brick
in not getting tired of writing to me time after time letters
that remain unanswered. And now I've got a most ungrate-
ful sounding bit of advice to give you and all my numerous
correspondents at home please don't trouble to write to
me any more for a long time ; it is likely to be entirely mis-
placed kindness and waste of labour. The fact is that at
afternoon tea to-day I said to Miss Minter, who acts as the
mental faculty of all the rest of us, ' Supposing I leave Kota
in the middle of February, when ought my dear brethren
at home to cease writing to me here ? ' and she replied, ' At
Christmas.' Then said I, ' And how soon ought I to write
and tell them to cease writing to me here ? " and she replied
' Last month ! ' which under the circumstances was a very
sensible reply. Please act upon it. Two riders may, how-
ever, be added: (i) It will be worth while to risk several
pennyworths of letters addressed to me c/o African Lakes
Company, Chinde, and you may write as many letters and
send as many papers as you like, addressed to me Univer-
sities' Mission, Zanzibar (' to await arrival '). (2) I don't
really know when I shall get off from Kota ; Piercy should
be at the Lake at the beginning of January, and I hope that
in at least five or six weeks he will be competent to take
on ' the charge.' On the other hand, if I found that he
really felt that I oughtn't to go before Easter, I might have to
stop ; but the Bishop does not contemplate that. I very
much hope that Ladbury will accompany me home, but I
have not yet heard of his intentions only I know that two
Lichfield evangelist brothers are on their way out (perhaps
they have arrived), one of whom is to stop at Mponda's
and learn Ladbury's store-work. Well, it does seem very
in
wonderful to be making these home plans. Of course I am
thinking much of next Ely festival and have been finding
out what date is the first Tuesday after Trinity Sunday.
We are again a quartette, as the C.M. dropped Bwana Eyre
to recruit here. He is very much run down ; indeed for
many months he has not been like his old energetic self,
such as it was when he and I walked about the villages on
the opposite side. And lately he has been quite unfit for
work. I hope his rest here will set him up again. ... I
rejoice to say that the dear old doctor is coming up
from Malindi and intends to spend Christmas here.
I hope he will bring a saddle for our donkey. The
donkey is really a splendid acquisition, and of course
much cheaper than a machila, which needs ten two-legged
donkeys for any long distance. I ordered the saddle from
Fort Johnston several months ago. . . . Fort Johnston is the
European settlement adjoining the native village of Mponda's
where, as you will have already gathered from this letter,
the Mission has its store. I am specially in need of the donkey
just now in my capacity of school architect. I am building
two new schools at villages where we have previously had
nothing more than Sunday ' under the tree ' preaching.
Then at Chiganga, where there has been a school for two
years kept by the Kota Kota teachers who walk there in the
afternoon, I am now building a dormitory for the boys.
Although they are already school-boys, they are under no
discipline out of school, and I don't suppose they have given
up any bad village customs. So the other day I told them
that if they wanted to go the whole hog of Mission life, they
must make up their minds to come under some discipline,
and besides building a dormitory for them, I would give them
a teacher to live among them and teach them the way they
should go. So these new schools and dormitory mean also
three new teachers' houses. In planning a teacher's house,
all I do is to put in four stakes for the four corners, making
the house, say, twenty feet long by seventeen wide.
Then I leave the teacher himself to fill in the interior as
he likes best. Probably he will cut it up into two or three
rooms with a passage. Of course every house has a verandah,
112
MR. DOUGLAS MENDING HIS BOOTS
MR. DOUGLAS ON HIS DONKEY
which adds to its dignity. Then for a dormitory I say,
If twenty boys want to sleep there, and each boy's mat is
three feet wide and six feet long, and there is a three-foot
passage down the middle, and provided that one boy does
not object to sleeping in the doorway, how big must the
dormitory be ? and my menthol (so my head teacher writes)
arithmetic answers thirty feet long by fifteen wide. You
will understand that I go in for right-angled parallelogram
(otherwise called oblong) houses. The native generally
prefers a circular mansion. I wonder whether it was man
or nature that taught him to stick up a central pivot and
describe a circle round it, as good as any that Euclid ever
drew. But, alas ! out here house-building is heart-breaking.
The new church at Kasamba was dedicated only last S.
Andrew's Day, and already many of the timbers are nothing
but a block of mud encased by a wooden shell no thicker
than this paper tumbling to pieces ; so much for white
ants in Kasamba church. But they don't leave even
beautiful Kota Kota church alone. I am thankful to say
that I don't see any signs of them in the watts, but for many
months they have been constantly raising mounds in the
floor on the top of the tiles in the open space behind the
high altar. A few weeks ago I determined to have a good
hunt for the queen ant a loathsome looking object two
inches long, quite incapable of any movement just a horrible
machine for turning out the babies. Well, we upped with the
tiles, and the boys dug and dug, and the big soldier ants
unlike the rest of the clan inasmuch as they have eyes and
are bigger, very like earwigs with the pincers in their heads
fought a bit and defended every inch of the way. So badly
had they hollowed out the ground, that it gave way a foot
and a half under one boy's weight. Well, at last we had to
give it up, as the channels seemed to run right away under
the foundations of the east wall. We left the hole, and I
thought our plan now was to try and suffocate them with
sulphur, the fumes of which might reach the queen. But
stupidly we did not set about the job for several days, and
when at last I returned to the hole armed with packets of
sulphur and bits of candle, not a vestige of a channel could
113 i
I find. The wily beasts had sealed them all up and the
ground seemed hard as a rock. Well, I hoped we had given
the ants a sufficient fright to keep them away, but no sooner
had I filled up the chasm than up came the ants again in
another part of the floor. So now I shall wait till some fellow
labourer arrives who has the energy to do the digging more
effectively than myself. ... I wonder what you will
think of my general appearance when we meet. I expect
the ant troubles have aged me, and to-day Miss Minter made
me out to be eight stone thirteen pounds on the scales, so I
have not much superfluous flesh."
(To a Sister)
THE HEAT DIFFICULTIES OF BUILDING
Kota Kota, ist Sunday in Advent, 1903.
" My first Sunday on the Lake two years ago ! I spent
it, of course, at Mponda's, and I preached a S. Andrew's
Day sermon to the English community at Fort Jameson.
It is intensely hot ; we are longing for the rain. . . . The
Lake is in an absolutely abnormal condition ; it doesn't look
as if it ever could fill up again. Indeed for years it has
been sinking. ... I think we have all found the heat more
trying this year than last ; even crowned by my large hat
(may it last till I get home !) and a white umbrella, I funk
the sun in the middle of the day. It is quite a fallacy to
suppose that the natives do not feel the sun. True, they
have been providentially given a black pigment in their
skin (so says the doctor) as a protection against him, but
they do say he is very fierce about the head and feet. The
burning sand scorches their feet ; to get from one place to
another, they dodge along from one verandah to the next,
so as to keep as much as possible in the shade. This month
a large number of the natives are wearing self-made clogs,
and my two teachers, who walk every day to Chiganga, have
launched out into boots ! Well, any day we may get the
first big emptying of the heavens, and then, almost in a
night-time, the earth, bleached white except where it is
burnt black, will become a gorgeous juicy green. ... All
114
things come to those that wait. On Sunday, the date of
writing the above, we were waiting for the rain, and at
midnight it came a magnificent thunderstorm. The first
rain tests the condition of one's roof. I lay in bed, and
wondered whether I should hear the pat pat of the drops on
my mosquito-net, followed by the drip drip on my blanket ;
but I'm thankful to say my fears were groundless. I'm
surprised, because daylight is very visible through my ceiling.
However, in case there are leakages, I have got a store
of grass ready cut outside my front door (puzzle to find
the back door), and an extra layer of thatch is only the
work of a few minutes. The natives thatch by merely
laying the grass on, quite loose. I thatched my houses too
soon this year, and the winds came and blew the grass off
again ; but when once the first rains come there is nothing
more to fear ; it settles down snugly by its own sodden weight.
... I don't mind inventing houses, and measuring trees
and counting bundles of grass, as long as everything goes
reasonably smoothly between myself and the work-people,
but this morning I really felt rather overwhelmed by news
from a village ' Kumtuntumala,' where I am building a
school. At the beginning, I arranged for so many perhaps
twenty men to build the school for three shillings apiece.
Having put up half the building, and having cut the rest of
the material, they came to me on Saturday and said, ' We
want to have part of our wages.' I said, ' All right : how
much do you want ? ' They replied, ' Three shillings.'
I said, ' That's impossible ; you promised to complete the
house for three shillings.' ' But we've worked for five
weeks, and three shillings is the ordinary pay for four
weeks.' I replied, ' Yes, and if you had worked properly,
you could have finished the house in four weeks. But, if
you choose to be idle, and spend six weeks over the house,
I agree, only, you still get but three shillings. And, if you
choose to be very idle and spend eight weeks over the house,
I agree, only you will still get but three shillings.' So
eventually I paid them two shillings, and told them they
would get another shilling when the house was done. I had,
however, not finished congratulating myself on this brilliantly
115 * 2
successful contract, when, this morning at 6A.M., a boy gave
me a letter from my teacher at Kasamba (near Kumtun-
tumala) to say that all the men had stopped working, and
that a large amount of trees and grass had been stolen in the
night. This was seemingly by way of retaliation. So I
told the teacher that I would go with him to the village this
evening. Accordingly, I mounted the donkey, and arrived
at Kumtuntumala. I expected to have a most unpleasant
and wearisome interview. Imagine my joy when I found
that the strike was at an end, and the men, with a very few
exceptions, were at work again. I said to the foreman, ' So
you stopped work yesterday ! ' He made the truly native
reply, ' Yes, our hearts ' (here he lays his hand on the said
organ) 'were sore, but to-day we have considered it again.'
Then I felt in a position to show royal magnanimity ; I
said, ' Now, if you are quick to finish the building, I will
give each man a prize, but if you are sulky, no prize.'
So I left the village amidst loud and joyous acclamations,
and at the present moment, I am continuing to congratulate
myself on this brilliantly successful contract. ... I am
finishing this at 10 P.M. Some of the boys and two teachers
have just asked leave to go and do a night's fishing. It is a
gorgeous full moon, and to-morrow, being Saturday, there
is no school, and so nothing to stop them. I am always
so thankful when the teachers are on fishing terms with
the boys."
(To a Sister)
ANTICIPATIONS OF FURLOUGH
Kota Kota, Nov. i, 1903.
" A letter written on All Saints' Day ought with luck
to reach you at Christmas. I wonder where you will spend
yours. I suppose I shall spend mine (my third on Lake
Nyasa) at Kota, but really by that time I shall have begun
thinking very seriously of the terrible business of packing up,
and there will be no sisters to do it for me. I always tell
my brethren that nobody entered the Mission with less
trouble than I did. Notably at the critical moment of
116
sending off my boxes I went into retreat, only broken by a
telegram from E. to ask whether I had not forgotten my
nightgowns or something equivalent ! I heard a few days
ago from the Bishop, saying he quite expected that I should
be in England for August, so that sounds all right for the
family holiday. I am still very hazy as to when Mr. Piercy
leaves England, but I should think that six weeks after
his arrival at Kota should see me on the move. In my last
letter I told F. that we were looking forward to a visit from
a very old Zanzibar missionary, who has now resigned,
Mr. Madan, one of a famous family of Marlborough scholars.
He has now been and gone, with a vague intention of study-
ing inland languages. As soon as I had shaken hands with
him, he asked me if I was the brother of the Douglas who
was so kind to the Mission in Zanzibar when ' The London '
was stationed there. The lasting impression which Harry ]
made on the Zanzibar missionaries of that date is very re-
markable. Nearly all of Mr. Madan's stay with us was
spent in bed with fever, and the last fortnight my brethren
have been a very feverish lot. For a few days I was the only
one about, Nurse Minter and Miss Bulley being in bed
besides Mr. Madan. Nurse is pretty fit again, and she could
not entirely lie up any one day, as she had a very bad native
case in hospital, a man whose arm was snapped off by a
hippopotamus. I wish I could bring home a hippo's skull
and tusks to give you an idea of its tremendous power.
Hippos are plentiful in the Lake, but they very seldom
hurt a human being. I, by the way, have been keeping
splendidly well. One great blessing is that I sleep every
night like a top. Talking of sleep I have given the boys
leave to sleep out of doors, partly because of the little beasts
in the dormitory which bite and partly because of the heat.
It is the hottest time of the year, just before the rains. The
singing of the evening psalm and the vesper hymn by the
sixty or so boys out of doors at night sound so good. I do
so hope that the village people are impressed by it, and also
Mr. Swann, the collector, who must be able to hear it. ...
1 See pp. 30 and 39.
117
Talking of worries a U.M.C.A. missionary is at least saved
from some, notably getting engaged to be married. I was
reminded of this by the fact that within the last half-
hour two boys have revealed to me minds sadly disturbed.
The one has just come back from college and finds his girl
has gone to settle at Likoma. I have told him I will let
him go by the steamer once a year to see her. The other,
living a few yards from me, writes me a letter, which being
interpreted says, ' Dear Bwana, greeting. I have a little
news I wish to ... Please, Bwana, I want one thing of you ;
I say that if you can get me this thing I shall be happy.
This thing is this ; I want to be engaged to one girl here ;
her name is Rahel. I have heard she is unmarried, and so I
want her. If you can get her for me, good, for I want her.
I want you to speak to her ; I have been afraid to speak
to her and I want you, Bwana, to ask for me, I am your
son. . . .' So you see I am not after all free altogether
from matrimonial complications. And the unfortunate
part of this business is that I don't at all want this youth to
marry this girl. He is not a Kota boy, and tlu's is the
only Christian girl who is not engaged, so she is a very
precious article, and clearly ought to be given to a very nice
Kota boy.
" Everything seems scarce at Kota ; Christian girls are
scarce, so apparently is work, to judge from a little boy's
account of himself in the village this evening. His com-
panion told me that the boy had been to Fort Jameson, and
got work there. I said, ' What work ? ' With considerable
pride the little boy replied, ' Tennisy.' He had trudged to
Fort Jameson, 150 miles away, and had then entered on the
work of picking up the tennis balls at the back of the court !
The small boys are always pestering me for work to buy
themselves a bit of cloth, and though I assure them re-
peatedly that at the Mission we don't care about good
cloths, but only about good hearts, the answer does not
always satisfy. ..."
With the exception of one sharp attack of fever, when for
a few days he was seriously ill, Arthur had kept remarkably
118
well during his first two years in Africa. It was, however,
time for him to come back for a rest. Consequently in
January 1904 he started home, and reached England on
March 18, just two and a half years since leaving. One of
his fingers had become diseased in some way, 1 and during
his stay at home he had it amputated.
The following letter from Mr. (now Archdeacon) Eyre
shows the impression which Douglas' life and work had
already made on one of his fellow workers.
" Douglas will have to go home the end of this year. We
have no suitable man to take his place.
" If you see Miss Douglas or her brothers tell them that
their brother at Kota seems to stand the climate well, and
that we shall be very sorry when he has to go home. He
was, I know, a great loss to the old country, but men of his
stamp are very much needed here, and it was a right decision
he made, when he tore himself away from so much that was
dear to him and came here where the need was so much
greater. So many who are really fitted for this work
seem to think the needs of home so much more important,
forgetting that everyone in England has an opportunity to
learn about God and worship Him, and so many here are
dying as heathens, and no one to help them. People in
England can get all the administration and means of grace
if they like. People here cannot. So much ground still
unoccupied and so few priests even to supply those who are
baptised. I am sick of the cry of paucity of clergy in
England, and you see often two and sometimes three in one
church, and here perhaps one in a church once a month,
except at European stations, and three days in a village to
prepare people for Easter, &c., where one needs a fortnight."
Miss Minter (now Mrs. Howard) gives the following
sketch of Douglas' life and work at Kota Kota.
" On arival at the Lake after a short stay at Mponda's,
he went on to Kota Kota where he expected to be stationed,
but after a few days' stay there he was summoned to Likoma,
1 The disease was tuberculosis.
IIQ
and began his work in the Mission as one of the staff of the
C.J. That meant being cast ashore on the Portuguese
mainland, visiting the villages, inspecting the schools,
holding services, administering the sacraments, being picked
up from time to time by the steamer and taken either to
Likoma or to some other village on the mainland. The ex-
perience so gained, though somewhat painful in the gaining,
was invaluable to him later when he was put in charge of
Kota Kota. This was an extremely difficult post. Small-
pox had been raging there, and the greater number of the
boys had either had it, or had run away from fear of it, so
that the school was altogether disorganised. Kota Kota
is a very large and straggling town, and Mohammedan
influence was at that time just beginning to wake up. There
had been a mosque there for years, but Islam had been
almost quiescent ; now it began to see that Christianity was
getting a hold and standing in the place, and it awoke and
began to make ready to withstand it.
" Only those who worked with Mr. Douglas during the
next eighteen months can fully appreciate what he did to
further his Master's cause in that time. How he nursed the
school, and watched over the boys, never despairing in spite
of grievous falls and bitter disappointments ; never too
tired to answer to any call on his time and patience ; full
of sympathy with the elder Christians ; an inspiration to the
catechumens ; an infinite attraction to the hearers. The
whole parish loved and trusted him and he dealt tenderly
and strictly with each individual soul. Each member of
the congregation felt that he was an important person in the
eyes of the priest-in-charge, and most of them responded to
the love and sympathy he showed them. And to us his
fellow workers he was inimitable. We felt one and all that
the work on which we were engaged was one ; each part of
the work interdependent on every other part and just as
important. We were expected to assist the priest-in-charge
at any hour with our intercessions (it was quite a common
thing to receive a note asking one to spend a few moments
now in praying that he might judge aright, or that some-
one's heart might be softened, &c., &c.), and he for his part
120
was always ready to help us in every possible and impossible
way.
" He took it as a matter of course that we should pray
daily by name for every candidate for baptism or for the
Cross, and early published lists for that purpose. He worked
harder than any of us, but was always ready to play, and
was the most cheerful and merry of the party. I think I
have never met anyone who was so full of faith. With the
most worrying problems to be solved next morning, after
a day of grievous disappointment and discouragement,
when most people would have lain tossing sleepless all
night long, he had the power of putting everything aside,
saying his prayers and sleeping like a child till morning.
He was a delightful patient, and loved to be nursed. In-
convenient as it always is to be ill it never seemed to upset
his equanimity, and the moment he was told that he must
go off duty he came into hospital content to be laid aside
for a while, and careful for nothing but to get well again
as soon as possible."
On his way home Arthur made a point of visiting Rome,
which he had never seen. When within a day or two of
Naples he wrote the following little letter to his brother.
It is of some interest, for it reveals his affectionate disposition
to a remarkable degree. Though always there, he seldom
allowed it to find expression so freely and fully.
Mediterranean, one and a half days off Naples,
Thursday, March 10, 1904.
" MY VERY DEAREST GERALD,
" Let us be quite calm and collected very hard
work under the circumstances.
" Really these two and a half years have sped. Every
incident of the last few days in England is most extra-
ordinarily clear in my memory.
" Well, now, this is what I hope. Reach Naples Friday
ii P.M. Rome Saturday afternoon. Stay in Rome till
Wednesday evening, i6th, when leave Rome, crossing by
Boulogne and Folkestone, and reach Charing Cross, Friday
afternoon, jSth, at 3.45. Miss Abdy of U.M.C.A., Zanzibar,
121
is travelling with me. I have told F. that if I do not
get any other instructions at Charing Cross I shall spend
Friday night at Cromwell Crescent and (after reporting my-
self to the Mission doctor in London) get down to The Lowe
sometime on Saturday. I wonder whether any relation
will manage to meet me at Charing Cross. The rules of
Ely are strict and you may not think it advisable.
" Heaps of love to the dear Princeps and Chapper.
" Your loving brother loving almost to the pitch of
crying at the thought of seeing you.
"A. J. DOUGLAS."
122
CHAPTER VI
THE SECOND SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK
LIKOMA, 1904-1907
BY the autumn of 1904 Douglas had started again for Nyasa :
this time he was destined to take charge of the island of
Likoma, the headquarters of the diocese. On his journey
out he writes to a sister.
Prinzregent, Indian Ocean, S. Luke's Day, 1904.
" I never expected to be run in to do nurse duty on
board a civilised ocean liner, though in barbarian Nyasaland
one may reasonably expect to play at hospital nurse, as well
as at Lord Mayor of Likoma, under emergencies. Yet here
I am at the present moment closing my ' watch ' over the
sick wife of one of my fellow passengers. Practically Dr. H.
is looking after the case, but theoretically the ship's doctor
is in charge, and he, being, I presume, a misogynist, has
forbidden any woman to come to the sick cabin : hence,
I and Mr. Ladbury relieve the husband from most of day
duty. The ship hospital is a nasty little cabin among the
third-class passengers and animals. I am sitting with the
door open to get air, but it is rather smelly air, as there is
a row of fourteen mules, beginning about five yards from
the nose of the invalid, and as many horses facing them on
the other side of the deck. The space between mules and
horses is filled up by a most picturesque, dirty swarm of
humans, Arabs, Blacks, Italians, ship's crew, &c. I saw
123
one black lying among the horses' hay, and smoking a
cigarette : it looked as if (with the canvas awning) the whole
ship might any moment be one gorgeous fire-work : so I
sent a steward to stir the culprit up.
" I think it was the days after Aden that we came across
a dhow in distress for want of food and water. They had
been becalmed. Of course we gave them water and ship
biscuits, but I wished it had been more. Two large buckets
of water didn't seem likely to last long, and there must
have been a dozen or more on board.
" To-morrow evening or early next morning we ought
to reach Mombasa ; I hear that we shall there exchange
the fourteen mules and so many horses for about 400 native
troops (King's African Rifles).
" I have made considerable progress in tonic sol fa :
a passenger wanted to know whether it was deaf and dumb
language. I chant it to the winds and waves every day after
luncheon to keep myself awake."
Tanga Harbour, October 21, 1904.
" We have said good-bye to our four White Fathers.
They are delightful men ; three were French and one was
Egyptian ; the latter, who spoke much the best English,
is a convert from Islam, and was immensely interesting.
He says that the upper class nominal Mohammedans in
Egypt are to-day simply rationalists : they do not profess
any belief in their religion. He himself was sent, like most
other Egyptian gentlemen's sons, by his Mohammedan
parents to a school kept by a Christian religious community
(at least I think it was a community) ; but he used to go
on saying his Mohammedan prayers and performing Moham-
medan duties. He openly became a catechumen in the
church when he was seventeen, and was baptised when
he was about twenty-one. He says it is impossible to con-
124
vince Mohammedans by argument. I asked him how he
came to be convinced himself, e.g. how he came to accept
the doctrine of the Trinity, which to Mohammedans is the
first absurdity, and he said that he was convinced by the
good lives of the Christian ' religious/ their sobriety and
charity, and specially he had been influenced by the sight
of ' Sisters of Charity.' Isn't that immensely interesting
and helpful ?
" If you want to convince an unbelieving world, live
the Christian life systematically in the eyes of the world.
That ought to be such a consolation to us, who haven't
got brains for arguing, much less for writing argumentative
pamphlets. Only let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works, and then they will come to
glorify the Father."
On his arrival at Blantyre he sends the following :
(To a Brother]
ON THE WAY TO NYASA
African Lakes' Company Boarding House, Blantyre,
November 7, 1904.
"We left Chiromo about 8 P.M. in machilas (hammocks
slung on poles), and so we journeyed through the night
through what is known as the Elephant Marsh. It is a great
place for big game of all kinds, but I think our numbers were
sufficient to keep lions off our track. If a lion had come
across us, he would have found me comfortably asleep.
Our numbers, reckoning sixteen men to each machila, and
a few extras, must have amounted to over fifty. At 4 A.M.
we reached the base of a big hill, and rested for an hour,
and then we had a very stiff climb of an hour and a half to the
top. The first part of the climb we were lighted by the
moon, and the last half by the sun. Needless to say, we
had mercy on our machila men, and did not ride up the
hill. Two hours more brought us to the house of a planter,
who looked after us sumptuously. . . . After luncheon
we set out again in our machilas towards Blantyre, but
before we had gone many miles we found a cart with four
125
mules which had come out from Blantyre to meet us, and
so we transhipped from machila to mule-cart. The mules
went at a break-neck speed, undeterred by ditches or rocks
or (the last part of the way) by the darkness of the night.
The cart hadn't a vestige of a spring, but I soon found that,
by keeping a sharp look-out ahead, I could see when the
next ditch or rock had to be crossed, and so lessened the
jar by rising from my seat at the critical moment. So,
with the aid of machila and mule-cart, we found ourselves
at Blantyre, between seventy and eighty miles from Chiromo,
within twenty-four hours. . . . Blantyre is a large place,
as places go out here. There must be 100 Europeans
nearly all Scotch, and it is the centre of a Scotch Mission."
A few days later he writes :
" Instead of going back to my old station at Kota Kota,
I am to be in charge of Likoma Island. In some ways I
shall find it hard not being at Kota, as the boys there have
got hold of a very large bit of my heart's affection."
The following letter will show that his sense of humour
had not deserted him. Perhaps this precious gift is even
more observable in his later letters than in the earlier
ones.
(To a Sister)
VISIT TO A CHIEF
Malindi, Lake Nyasa, November 28, 1904.
" You will be surprised to see that I am still stationary
at the south end of the Lake : I have been pottering about
here now for eighteen days, waiting for the C.J. to finish
being repaired. . . .
" Here at Malindi we are a tremendous big party . . .
so I use the deck of the C.J. as my bedroom, and most
delightful it is ; no need of stuffy mosquito curtains, or
mosquito-proof windows and doors ; there has moreover
been a gorgeous full moon to give the finishing touch to the
joys of night-time. ... In spite of the heat, Miss Schofield
126
walks off every morning to her school about a mile away,
and in the afternoon she often visits in the village. I settled
to pay her school a visit one morning on the donkey ; I
had passed a big wattle and daub building the day before,
which I understood was the school. So to that building I
went, and on the way I thought to myself, ' I will give the
children (not to mention their teacher) a pleasing surprise,
by riding into the school upon the ass.' And so I did :
I and the ass trotted gaily through the doorway, expecting
to find the place full of ABC. But instead of any school
paraphernalia, children and Miss Schofield, silence reigned
around, and I thought to myself, ' This is very rummy, and
it's not my idea of a school, and I think I had better trot
out again.' So out we trotted, I and the donkey, and out-
side I asked, ' What is this house ? ' They said, ' It is the
new house of the chief.' I replied, ' Then let us make
tracks as fast as we can, and please show me the way to the
school.' I had only been at the school a few minutes, when
a polite message reached me to say that the chief had now
returned to his house, and would like to welcome me. So
once more I retraced mine and the donkey's steps, and, this
time leaving the donkey on the right side of the verandah,
I shook hands with the old chief. I didn't allude to my
former visit, leaving him to suppose that it was a special
mark of respect and European etiquette to ride in at the
front door on your beast be it ass or horse when you go
paying calls. As he couldn't talk Chinyanja and I couldn't
talk his tongue Chiyao and the teacher who came to
interpret was bad at the job, time hung rather heavy on
our hands, but I couldn't go, as I knew he had sent his boys
to catch fowls as a ' prize ' for me. At last one fowl arrived
on the verandah, and I said, ' Now, Mfumu (chief), I must
take my leave.' He said, ' Wait a bit, there are some more
fowls coming.' So again time hung heavy. Then arrived
two more fowls, and I breathed again. I said, ' Thank
you for your handsome present, and now I must take my
leave.' He replied, ' Wait, there is one more chicken
coming.' I tried to breathe out a ' Really your generosity
is something too too/ and once more I sat down nearly in
127
despair, till the fourth and last chicken arrived. On
arriving home, I had without delay to send word to Brother
S , storekeeper, ' Chief has given me a handsome present
of four chickens ; please send back the return present,'
and consequently the chief soon found himself in possession
of eight pennyworth of salt. Sometimes he himself suggests
(without being asked) what form he wishes the return
present to take."
The next letter he writes as priest-in-charge of Likoma,
but its chief interest is his description of the visit he paid
to his old station of Kota Kota as he travelled up the Lake.
(To a Sister)
VISIT TO KOTA KOTA
Likoma, December 4, 1904.
" My first letter as priest-in-charge of the islands of
Likoma and Chizumulu !
" We left Malindi last Tuesday morning on the CJ. under
the charge of Mr. Lyon (engineer) and steamed right away
to Kota Kota. . . . The Kota people had been expecting
us for many days, and had begun to think we had cut them,
and gone straight up to Likoma. There they were, down
on the shore, ready to welcome us, Nurse M., Miss M., and
a crowd of boys and girls. Many of them had got small
flags, and with these they waded into the water to meet me
in the C./.'s little boat ; and so we all marched up to the
Mission (about a mile) gathering up others on the way, and
singing the Chinyanja version of ' The British Grenadiers/
just as they did ten months ago, when they sent me away.
We walked through the Mission by the way of the beautiful
new stone native hospitals for men and women. . . .
" As Mr. Lyon was good enough to land us at Kota so early
in the morning, I was able to get a whole twenty-four hours
there, and oh ! how I did enjoy myself ! With a certain,
though blessedly small, amount of lapses, &c., there was an
immense deal to make one so thankful ; the school-boys and
girls seem to be doing especially well, and I had many nice
talks with them. . . . Then there were the old Christian
128
women dear old bodies ; they seemed really glad to see
me. . . . There happened to be a special Advent service in
church that night, so I was able to preach them a little
sermon. . . .
" We got to Likoma midnight of Thursday, Dec. i, and
so, at 5.30, when the Mission boys were coming down to the
Lake for their morning dip, they met their new father making
an unostentatious entry into his domain, and the first that
many knew of him was the sight and voice of him conducting
Mattins in the old Cathedral, just as if he had been there
day by day for years past. . . .
" Not content with giving me the charge of this place,
the Bishop has told me to be his examining chaplain ; also
sub-editor of the Likoma quarterly paper. ... I am the
only priest on this island, and also have to look after Chizu-
mulu, but I foresee that up to Christmas I shall have to
stick to this station in preparation for Christmas. The
work will be very heavy. Everybody here is exceedingly
helpful, and of course I am very happy."
One of the staff at Kota Kota writes :
Dec. 3, 1904.
" Mr. Douglas reached us on S. Andrew's Day after
breakfast the children gave him a royal welcome on land-
ing and accompanied him to the Mission with repeated
' Hurrahs,' songs, and clapping the most enthusiastic
impromptu demonstration that I have seen ! He seemed
very well and bright, and spent the day in paternal talks
with his old children, and preached at 8 o'clock Evensong,
celebrated at the English Eucharist next morning, and left
us again at 10 A.M. for Likoma. His visit seemed to speak
just one simple little word, and to express its power Love.
He calls out the best that is in people just because he loves
them. He was pleased with our work on the whole I think,
and considered it ' vigorous.' '
In the following letter he describes the condition of the
new Cathedral built on " the place of burning " of witches,
just as the Cathedral at Zanzibar is built on the site of the
old slave-market.
129 *
(To a Sister)
THE NEW CATHEDRAL
Chipyela, Likoma, December 18, 1904.
" These two weeks have gone apace, and that (the
first two weeks in a new place) is enough to show that they
have been extra special busy weeks. . . . The great pres-
sure has been the preparation of the Christians throughout
the island for their Christmas Communions. . . . After
Christmas I must get across to my other island, Chizumulu,
and I must keep a second Christmas over there. . . .
" We have just had about nine inches of rain in two and
a half days. This beautiful (from a gardener's point of
view) damp heat is suiting my new seeds admirably : they
were only put in about a week ago, and the zinnias and
convolvuluses are already three inches high. I mean to have
a hanging garden round the verandah in front of my door.
. . . Likoma station, and indeed the whole island, has
practically no grass, so that the experiment of keeping
mission cattle has signally failed. Two cows have died
since I have been here ; their death reduces the number to
one bull and two calves ; up to the present the priest-in-
charge has made himself responsible for the cattle's welfare,
but I'm thankful to find that Nurse M is both willing and
anxious to take charge of them. She thinks she will get
more milk, though how she expects to get any milk at all,
now that the last cow is defunct, don't ask me. You
mustn't suppose that we are consequently without milk ;
there are some goats and a few cows left belonging to the
natives, and we have an old factotum who gets together
a good many spoonfuls of salt's worth of milk per diem. . . .
" I have omitted to mention the two most important
buildings on the station, the old and the new Cathedrals,
the latter having a race to get built before the other tumbles
down. I scarcely know whether to marvel most at the
wonderful way in which the old church is still standing,
looking about as sound as it did three years ago, with the
assistance of innumerable props, or at the rapidity with
which the walls of the new chancel have reached completion.
130
Here is a beautiful little story of piety ; a deputation of
native workmen came to Mr. Glossop to say that they
thought they ought to pray that Mr. George may keep his
health, so that he may be enabled to finish the building.
I can't yet describe the Cathedral : externally it already
stands well, even without its two western towers and pin-
nacle. . . . The interior of the chancel is exceedingly
dignified. . . .
" I am very much looking forward to the other side of
Christmas, when I shall be able to find my way into the
villages dotted about the island, and see the outschools
and synagogues, i.e. the native rooms which answer the pur-
pose of mission rooms, where the teachers take daily even-
song, &c. On Sunday, the Christians from all parts of the
island come to this central place of worship, Chipyela ; it
means ' the place of burning,' so-called because the witches
were formerly burnt there. This is the Likoma story cor-
responding to the Zanzibar story of the Cathedral on the
site of the old slave market. . . .
" I preached my first Chinyanja sermon in this church
Christmas Day three years ago."
(To a Sister]
THE OFFERTORY AT LIKOMA
Likoma, December 29, 1904.
" The choir here is something too perfectly indescribably
awful or rather, the singing as a whole is so, and the choir
have been as bad as the congregation ; but we had grand
practices in the evenings almost every day for the three
weeks before Christmas, and really the change is already
very striking ; some of the boys have already developed
quite excellent head-notes, instead of yelling like street
arabs. The people made their Communion according to
their villages on Christmas Day at 6 and 7.30, and on
Monday there were many more, altogether between five
and six hundred. The High Eucharist was at 7.30, and,
as I had already officiated at the earlier service, I was able
to sit with the choir, and start the singing : we use no sort of
131 K 2
instrument. I think externally it was the most enthusiastic
service I ever remember ; the Cathedral was crammed
poor old Cathedral, so very much on its last timbers. The
Christmas offertory was a miscellaneous jumble of native
food, 133 eggs, brass coins and bone coins, which pass for
money on the island, a large number of cardboard tickets
representing so many days' work done for the new Cathedral
without payment, 120 farthings, as well as other English
coins. I was very thankful that the whole day passed off
without unseemly proceedings : I haven't heard of any-
one being drunk that day : at Mattins of that day and also
on other days, a large number have taken the pledge,
for periods varying from six months to ' until death.'
At Evensong we sang carols.
" I find the ' elders,' one appointed for each village, a
great assistance to me. If I want to know any particulars
about persons and past histories, or wish my words to be
made known in the villages, or desire that wives should
be brought back to their husbands, I can generally work
through the elders. . . . Goats play a very considerable
part in village life at Likoma. The payment of goats is
the customary fine. Yesterday I told a certain A. that he
must pay one goat to a certain B., whose head he had helped
to break open. A., according to native etiquette, retired
from my house in an overwhelming passion, but returned
again in half an hour's time highly pleased with himself,
and leading the required goat, which was tied to a tree
within a few yards of my house, whence B., with a bandage
tied round his head, that he might look his part every bit,
fetched it. Another goat story a youth came to my
verandah with a goat and a torn cloth. The goat had torn
it, and so the goat's owner must pay the fine. I said, ' Whose
goat is it?' He replied, 'It is the Mission's goat.' So I
honourably stumped up two bone coins (value 2%d.} ;
he retired in the worst of humours, and shortly afterwards
came back to say that he was very much astonished at only
receiving 2f d. ; it was customary to receive a whole fathom
(8d.), and therefore he would refuse to take the 2%d. I
said, ' So much the better for me.' He didn't return them,
132
and, when he met me ten minutes afterwards, he said that
he would like to give one of the two bones as his Church
offering, and he would keep the other for himself ! '
(To a Brother)
INFANT BAPTISMS
Likoma, Jan. 15, 1905.
" We are experiencing just now something that helps
us to realise to a small extent what ' the plagues ' were like.
Ours is a plague of flying bugs ! I think they don't bite,
and if you want to be polite you might call them ladybirds,
exaggerated to the fourth degree. As I came out of church
to-night, I was met by a strong smell of bug, but they
chiefly prefer the dining-room. Last night the tablecloth
was black with them, and one's clothes and the floor also
were liberally supplied with them.
" Since my last letter home, I have paid a visit to Chizu-
mulu. She is the little sister of Likoma, both islands being
under my charge. . . . Chizumulu, compared to Likoma, is
very untamed ; the people continue all sorts of heathen cus-
toms, and the two villages, at each of which we have a
church, are at constant war. The night I got there, I was
just going to leave the station to go back to the steamer
(to sleep) at 11.30 P.M., when I found a party of men seated
on the mission ground. They were so gory that their ex-
planation that they had been fighting was quite unneeded.
I heard that the fight was concluded by the middle of the
following day, when each side had successfully carried off
each other's goats. . . . My visit to Chizumulu practically
brought Christmas festivities to an end forme, and, since my
return to Likoma, I have had time to go about the island,
looking into schools, dormitories and synagogues. . . .
The custom here is for everyone who wishes to communicate
on Sunday to give in their name to the priest-in-charge on
Saturday, and to receive from him a ticket, which they put
in a plate as they go up to the Altar : so undesirable people
are prevented from communicating. . . .
" As for the infant baptisms, mothers with babes on their
133
backs began to besiege me as soon as I set foot on Likoma ;
to each of whom I used to reply, ' I can hear no words about
Baptism till the other side of Christmas.' But, now we have
reached the other side, we must go through with the business
boldly. So I first proclaim in church : ' Perhaps there is
some mother who thinks that her baby might be baptised :
if so, she may go to Donna N. S., who undertakes to write
down all the news about the babe, and then I will investigate
the news, and judge accordingly.' The ' news ' consists in a
description of the status of the mother, father, uncles and
grandmother of the babe, whether they are Christian,
catechumen, hearers, or rank outsiders, as also whether
their conduct is satisfactory, and whether they have elder
children, whom they do or do not send to school regularly
that is to say, whether there is a good likelihood of the child
being brought up a Christian. I was not altogether sur-
prised when Miss N. S. told me she had applications from
about eighty mothers."
(To a Sister)
INFANT BAPTISMS
Likoma, January 31, 1905.
" Among many other things, it has been pay-day, and
old women water-carriers, men and women school teachers,
sweepers of dormitories, lighters of lamps, house boys,
dining-room boys, washer-uppers and bell-ringers, &c., &c.,
to say nothing of our old factotum ' Charlie,' who from time
immemorial has been our general buyer of chickens, eggs,
and milk all come to be paid. . . .
" You may be pleased to hear that since my last letter
we have got thirty-six new baby Christians. Their baptism
was really most impressive. I had about eighty mothers
petitioning during the previous weeks, and it means many
hours' work, finding out those who seem to have a good
enough chance of being brought up in the Christian manner
of life. It is horrid to refuse mothers, but generally they
bear the refusal with praiseworthy equanimity. When I
had selected those whom I considered to be eligible, I
summoned the elders of the Church, and they sat on my
134
Verandah, whilst I called up the belongings of the babes,
i.e. their parents, uncle, grandmother, and sponsors, to
drum into them their obligations. Say each child had seven
belongings, and picture 252 folk swarming round about my
verandah in sweltering tropical sun. Then on the day of
the Baptism, everything was beautifully ordered, the parties
concerned being arranged in fours, the mother and babe in
front, the sponsors behind. I had told one school-boy,
who had been chosen as a sponsor, that he had himself
shown so stubborn a heart in the previous week, that he
couldn't be allowed to make himself responsible for anybody
else's heart ; but the parents of the babe were never told,
so the school-boy turned up, and, as it was too late to choose
anyone else, I had to content myself with asking him in the
presence of the multitude whether his own pride had de-
parted ; and, hearing that it had quite departed, he is now
a Godfather."
(To a Sister)
GOOD FRIDAY AT LIKOMA
The Patience, April 29, 1905.
" To write or not to write on a very rollicking sea, that
is the question. I am half-way between Chizumulu and
Likoma at least I ought to be half-way, but the wind is
dead against us, so alas ! Chizumulu still looks quite near,
and Likoma quite far. I wanted to reach Chipyela by
noon, so as to be in time for the people to give their names
to me for to-morrow's Communion ; but I suppose there
won't be a large number of communicants on the octave
of Easter Day. There was very much indeed to be thank-
ful for during Holy Week and Easter. The people came
in large numbers to the daily Eucharist with an address
on the events of each day, i.e. from Monday to Thursday,
the Cathedral looking almost as full as it does on Sundays ;
but at Likoma big week-day congregations are easy to
manage, as it is the rule for work on the station to be sus-
pended during church-time, so that all can come to church,
and there are now a very large number of hands being
employed on the building of the new Cathedral. . . .
135
" I had never formerly been at Likoma for Good Friday,
at least not until the evening, and I was anxious to com-
pare the conduct of the people at this central station with
other villages. I began by being rather unfavourably
impressed ; at least, there was certainly more talking on
the station than I had been used to out here, although it
really didn't amount to much (mostly old ladies !) . On the
other hand, the attentiveness of the enormous congregation
during the Three Hours' Service was most beautiful. The
native can stand any length of service, but then he likes
to go out and take an airing in the middle, but there was not
any sort of flocking to the door on Friday.
" On Easter Monday the Chipyela girls' school had its
prize-giving. Since Christmas it must have had a daily
attendance of about two hundred. The Bishop gave the
prizes, and I interpreted for him. . . .
" On Easter Monday afternoon we Europeans, instead
of going to bed, went for a picnic ; I only stipulated that
I might go in a boat, and take a cushion ; both requests
were granted, and I enjoyed it very much. . . .
" On Tuesday afternoon Mr. L. took me over to Chizu-
mulu in the C.J. and there I have been for the last four
nights very busy preparing for and keeping Easter over again.
The Christian men were conspicuously absent, an extra-
ordinarily large number of them having gone to seek work
in distant lands, as far as Fort Salisbury. It must be a big
eye-opener when they get into those civilised lands, and
see horses and carriages, and other strange beasts.
" This next week I must get my large Baptism class into
working order, with a view to a Whitsuntide Baptism. . . .
" The singing on Easter Day was fine and that re-
minds me of another work in front, viz. the forming of a
proper choir. Oh dear ! we are still only half-way between
the two islands, and it is 12 o'clock. But I learn discipline
by sitting in a boat ; foolish Europeans shout at the crew,
but it is useless, and the capitao resents it. So, even though
we had a temporary breakdown just now, and had literally
to undergird the ship, I kept a praiseworthy mumness. The
sun is also warm, but F. is holding a white umbrella over
me F. is a small Christian school-boy, who has been this
136
holiday with me ; you see he serves a purpose, and more-
over he sends you (my sister) his salaams : so also does W.,
who is lying on the bench the other side of me, and woke
up on purpose to tell me. . . . W., you know, is my own
boy : I picked him out of village life, and he really is doing
very well."
The following letter, describing his first meeting with
a Portuguese official, has a pathetic interest in view of the
manner and cause of his- death some six years later.
(To a Sister)
MEETING WITH A PORTUGUESE OFFICIAL
Likoma, May 28, 1905.
" I formed the excellent resolution of doing a little
serious reading this (Sunday) afternoon, partly to justify
my position as examining chaplain to Gerard Likoma,
but alas ! though I selected a kitchen chair to sit in, I very
soon began to nod, and the only remedy for nodding is a
letter home. I hope there never will be another examining
chaplain who opens as few books as I do ; but I really
don't think it can be helped, and therefore I suppose it
doesn't matter. . . .
" We have had a huge excitement this last week, the
sight of two European children : they were Portuguese.
The father is the head Portuguese official on the Lake.
One of his bomas is opposite Likoma, and the Bishop found
him there, and told me to send a boat over to convey him
and his wife and the two children (the children of a relation)
to Likoma : so, you see, he is not their father after all.
He talked English intelligibly, and we got on all right.
... It was nice to find them really keen on seeing the
church, and he asked me whether my ladies had got a little
crucifix which they could let his wife have. But, if she
was shy, Edmund, aged eight, and Georgina, aged six, were
not shy ; from the moment of their landing, they took
possession of the island, marching up in front of us all
from the Lake. . . .
" When we went to watch the boys play football,
137
Georgina rushed about the football ground at the utmost
peril of her life. As a matter of fact, their rushes always came
to a timely end through the assistance of their stockings ;
their foster-parents apologised for the fact that the children
had no boots, but, instead of boots, they each wore a pair
of huge grey stockings, the feet of which draggled out behind
them ; but they are really delightful children, full of fun,
and very friendly, and quite nicely behaved. . . .
" I don't think I have written home since I began my
duties in the Infant School ; we muster any number up to a
hundred, baby Christians^ catechumens, and heathen. The
opening of school is rather a long business, as each of the
three conditions of .infant says different prayers. The
Christians come in first, they are only about twenty, and
they say the Lord's Prayer and Creed ; then the catechumens,
and then the rabble. If I had no other work to do, I really
could get the school into order : as it is, we go on very
happily, and the children really learn a wonderful amount ;
so, at the present time, my morning after breakfast is
divided between infants and preparation for my big class
of Baptismal candidates, which I have daily, i.e. five times
a week midday. I must have it at midday, as many of the
candidates are working on the Cathedral, and midday is their
time for rest. I have about ninety candidates in this class,
and altogether, at Likoma and Chizumulu, there must be
one hundred and twenty-five being prepared. . . .
" I hope that the Baptisms will be on Trinity Sunday.
... Of course the choosing of candidates causes much heart-
burning among those who are not chosen, and a good deal
of my time the last few weeks has been taken up with an-
swering the question, ' Why have you not chosen me ? ' . . .
There are disappointed school-boys who stop away from
school for three days by way of protest, and the boy who
sends me his blanket and mat with the message that he
has departed to the village (he has already requested the
restoration of himself and property). Talking of blankets,
this last week we had a grand distribution of remnants
(a blanket is a red rug) to thirty little boys, who had each
swept a dormitory for five days : the blankets were obviously
too worn out for dormitory wear, but by no means too worn
138
out to be snipped and cut and squared and oblonged, and
presented as cloths to little boys, who had never before
worn any dress half as large as this bit of paper. I am
doing a good deal of teaching just now, as, after the Baptism
class and luncheon, I generally teach English to the class
of fifteen boys, who are anxious this year or next to go to
the College ; after that, there are generally many interviews
and cases, but I try and get time for a little quiet in church
before Evensong, if I haven't managed to do so in the morn-
ing. To-morrow to Wednesday is Rogationtide, and on
Wednesday we shall have our procession to bless the fields ;
we shall assemble down by the Lake, and first ask a blessing
on the Lake and fishing, which forms so very important a
part of Likoma daily life, and we shall sing ' Fierce raged,'
and then we shall walk through the fields of cassava, and
end off in the station quadrangle."
(To a Sister)
ADULT BAPTISMS
S. Michael's College, June 22, 1905.
" Now I will tell you how I come to be writing in the
guest room at the College : the reason is, that last Sunday
saw the big Baptism at Likoma really an accomplished fact,
most blessed and most thankworthy 123 more Christians,
all having arrived at riper years. The preparation classes,
which I took almost daily for the whole lot during the
previous six weeks, were of great interest to me, and, though
the candidates came from all parts of the island, I should
think that there was not an average of one absent per diem.
Nkwazi village was an exception, as, till the last week or so,
the candidates there were mostly taught by the native
teacher James ; then the final week for the emptying out of
all the evil of their heathen lives, with the promise that the
Baptism would be for the remission of sins (their actual as
well as original) . The Baptisms themselves were on Trinity
Sunday at 3.30, and the arrangements required much thought.
. . . All the Europeans, as well as some of the native teachers
had their separate duties to perform, so that all might be
done decently and in order. Of course all the new names,
139
generally common Christian names with outlandish phonetic
spelling, Esta, Lusi, &c., as well as the 123 witnesses, had
already been settled ; and then there were the 123 Baptismal
white cloths to be distributed to the witnesses for them to
keep till after the immersion. . . . For all the first part of
the service, the candidates and witnesses were arranged in
the catechumens' portion of the church, i.e. between the
catechumen barrier and the west end : then, before the
prayer for blessing the water, I walked up by myself from
the catechumen barrier to the font, which many hands had
helped to fill on the previous day. The font is about four feet
deep, and the priest stands in a little dry hole on one side ;
all the same, the candidates made such a splashing, that I
was very soon soaked to the skin, and your poor white stole
suffered dreadfully : however, you won't mind that in such a
cause. Then, after the blessing of the water, during a hymn,
the male candidates filed out of door I and into the transept
of the font by door 3, and the females filed out by door 2,
and in again by door 4. (Doors i and 3 are on the south,
doors 2 and 4 are on the north side.) As soon as I had
begun to baptise, the Bishop, with his little procession, left
his seat by the altar, and took up his position at the cate-
chumen barrier, and so received into the congregation each
of the newly-baptised as they came back into church in
their white cloths, and so, with their symbolical tapers
lighted, they took their places in front of the rest of the
congregation. The last person to be baptised was a woman
with a wooden leg, but she was really clever about getting
down the steps into the water and then out again. I had
finished the Baptisms long before the Bishop had finished
the receptions, and was able to watch nearly all the girls
being signed. Oh ! it was a very blessed day, and in the
morning I had already been made very thankful by a very
large percentage of the candidates taking the pledge to
abstain from the native beer. . . . The candidates only
took the pledge for six months or for a year : short pledges
generally seem to answer best out here ; they can always
be renewed. During these days at the College, I am advising
my four Likoma students, Basil, Wilfrid, Archie, and Stefano,
140
to begin their career as teachers by taking the pledge.
Well, now you see partly why I am at the College : I went
on Sunday night to the Bishop, and said : ' I am tremen-
dously well, but, all the same, I doubt for my sake and
theirs whether I had better go straight on to Chizumulu,
and prepare the Baptismal candidates, who are waiting for
me there, without a little easy : ' the Bishop said : ' You
had better go to the College for a few days, and you can
take my rifle and go up into the hills.' I replied that I
would rather take the books on which I have to set examina-
tion papers for Mr. C.'s priest's orders, but, even so, the
College would be a most delightful change, and so it is, and
I am enjoying it enormously."
(To a Sister)
NATIVE MARRIAGES
Likoma, August 6, 1905.
" Sunday afternoon, and my private flag is posted up out-
side my house ; it signifies that all the pains and penalties
which the Lord Mayor is capable of inflicting will be inflicted
on anyone who dares to say ' hodi ' at his door. Whosoever
sees the flag supposes that I am lying down. So I have
been for about half an hour, looking at some newly arrived
Spheres which contained T.'s most delightful picture of dear
old Uncle B.
" This morning I was busy. 7 A.M. the big sung
Eucharist ; I preached as usual, and started the singing,
led the Creed and Confession, which the congregation say
sentence by sentence after the Choregus ; the Bishop was
Celebrant ; Padre Wilson also assisted, and there were
about 130 Communicants. Since these last Baptisms,
we must expect that number most weeks. Then
breakfast, followed immediately by Mattins, when I also
officiated. Immediately after Mattins a big lot of people
mothers, fathers, uncles, grannies, sponsors in front of
my house, perhaps 120 in all, to be preached to on their
responsibilities, as a preliminary to about twenty infant
Baptisms which I administered immediately afterwards.
141
Then the marking of the Communicants' register in the
vestry, and that brought us to luncheon. After luncheon
more people waiting on my verandah. Two boys whom
I am going to marry to their respective girls to-morrow,
and who had to be warned that the Holy Matrimony of the
morning was not to end in a beery revel in the afternoon ;
and then various people who want to know whether I
can take them with me on the C.J. to Nkamanga.
" The last two businesses need some explanation. Alas !
like my predecessor Mr. Glossop, and like most others of us
who think anything about it, I funk the marriage day out
here. The natives would say that a marriage without moa
(beer) was not to be accounted a marriage, and Mr, George
would have said a few months ago that he would always
expect to find some of our young boys drunk in the evening.
Well, all I can do is to warn the boys beforehand, and I
depute one or two trustworthy men (elders of the Church or
otherwise) to superintend the marriage festivities ; but I am
not happy till I know that the moa jugs are empty.
" I am afraid Nkamanga does not come into any map of
U.M.C.A., but it is the stretch of mainland opposite Likoma
on the west side of the Lake, i.e. north of Kota Kota. It
is the province of the Scotch (Bandawe) Mission, but, during
the last few years so many of our Christians have migrated
there that we try to visit them and give them their Com-
munion about once a quarter. As a matter of fact I have
only once got over there (soon after Christmas) . Now I have
made all arrangements for going to-morrow by the C.J.
which was due at Likoma yesterday. But she has not ap-
peared ; so I do not know what my movements this week
will be. She is probably delayed by what is a sad dis-
appointment to us all. Mr. Ladbury, who has been very seedy
at Likoma for weeks, was taken down by the C.J. last trip
to see the Government doctor at Fort Johnston (because
Dr. Howard is away in the hills) and there at the south end
of the Lake he developed the bad kind of fever ; now we hope
he is safely past the crisis, but he will have to go home to
England immediately. Brother Sargent (Lichfield Evangelist) ,
whose furlough was in any case nearly due, will go home with
142
him to look after him. Ladbury is a very great loss to us
a most -excellent lay-worker, store-keeper. Since he came
back with me in November, he has been at Likoma looking
after the carpentry and (to me a most tremendous assistance)
he has run our station accounts. The thought of these
accounts on the whole we won't depress ourselves unneces-
sarily by thinking of them this afternoon I know they
nearly drove Glossop mad. Afternoon tea gong has just
' cried ' and after tea comes English Evensong and sermon
by the Bishop.
" In another two months the Bishop will, I suppose, really
have started homewards. He is only waiting for the dedi-
cation of the Cathedral as much of it as will be finished
that is, all except the lady chapel and vestries, and the
two western towers and the central turret. Certainly,
Mr. George is a marvel. When I reached Likoma eight
months ago, though the chancel and transepts were nearly
finished, the walls of the nave were scarcely begun, and now
they are putting on the roof. I must try and find time to
take some photos of it, but I am generally working from
6.30 A.M. to bedtime and nearly always working at high
pressure. But it seems to suit me.
" Another coming interest is the Theological College which
is to be started at Nkwazi on Likoma Island. The CM.
has been tried and (for a Theological College) it has been
found wanting. Mr. Wilson will be principal of the College.
Our two native deacons, Augustine and Eustace, who for
the last two years have been on and off the steamer, trying
to prepare for the priesthood, will make a fresh start at
Nkwazi, and Mr. Wilson will also have some others to prepare
for readerships and after that I hope some will go into
Holy Orders. I shall be glad to have Augustine and Eustace
on the Island, to assist at services and to preach ; but my
chief assistant will probably be Mr. Winspear who, as a new
deacon, is due out here some time this year. I shall be
especially glad to see him, as our printer, Willcocks, is soon
going home on furlough, and I shall probably have to boss
the printing office ! I shall practise printing when I come
home. Since my last letter home, we have had a visit from
143
Nurse Minter. It was so jolly seeing her, and we talked a
great deal of Kota Kota shop.
" When Miss Minter was here, the Bishop got her to trans-
late three hymns into Chinyanja for the Cathedral dedication,
and I am busy practising them with the unmarried portion
of the Christian Community, and then I shall have to collect
the elderly portion for practices during their midday rest
hour."
The following letter was written to Mr. H. E. Ladbury,
a worker in the Mission who was seriously ill :
Likoma, August 7, 1905.
" I know you have long ago just asked the good God to do
with you whatever He pleases, because what He pleases is
bound to be best, and so you will often be thinking over the
old hymn, ' Thy way not mine, O Lord/ and now the words
strike home to you, dear old chap, with a new and a big force ;
and you will need all their force at this time when physical
weakness and the thought of what you have got to leave
behind, and of difficulties which may be in front of you tempt
you to despond. But instead of desponding, you will just
lie quietly and thankfully in the arms of the Father, because
you know by actual experience how He has always loved
you, always up to to-day, and you are quite certain that He
will always go on loving you from to-day.
" I really don't think it much matters where we are, at
least it only matters that we are where God means us to be."
(To a Brother)
BUILDING THE CATHEDRAL
Likoma, August 16, 1905.
" Not a single person on my verandah ! Up to the
present, I have as usual had a continual stream of visitors,
including school-boys asking for holiday work at 4^. a week,
some of which their conscience returns as an offering towards
the building of the new Cathedral : other boys asking for
sleeping-mats as theirs have been eaten by the white ants ;
two other boys getting, if not asking, a whacking ; various
144
matrimonial arrangements to be seen to ; a widow wanting
to know where she is to sleep, as her home has fallen down,
and she fears the afiti (witches, body-snatchers, &c., who
are supposed to abound on the island), and so on
" I wish you could look in at Likoma station at the present
moment, and see all the workers at work on the Cathedral.
The Bishop intends to dedicate as much as will be ready on
Michaelmas Day, and I have been busy preparing the form
of service, and also teaching the congregation the special
dedication hymns. The Cathedral, when completed, will
be nearly as long as Worcester Cathedral. . . . This island
is made of stone (so much the worse for my boots), so there
is no lack of material ; on the other hand, all the timber
has to be brought over from the mainland ; the iron, &c.,
has come out from England. This last week the natives, who
are continually having eye-openers, have had their first sight
of stained glass windows. We have got about seventy skilled
masons, as well as a host of unskilled labourers, and now, in
the holidays, the building is flooded with children. Out here,
nobody can carry anything except on their heads ; so picture
thirty or forty infants solemnly walking one behind the
other, each with a pebble secured firmly by both hands on
the top of their noddles. Last week I had a nice little trip
to the west mainland, to look up some of our Christians,
who have settled there. The C.J. took me. . . . Do you
realise that we get really big seas on Nyasa, and this time
of year it is nearly always rough ; but the C.J. can stand
any weather much better than I can."
(To an Old Friend)
PICTURE OF MISSIONARY WORK
Likoma, August 20, 1905.
" Sunday afternoon you won't find many parish priests
in England who have time to write letters on the Sabbath.
My letter to you is in lieu of a sermon by the Bishop, he
has got neuralgia and is unable to preach to our select
English congregation of four males and four females. The
Bishop thinks it well for us to have one English service on
145 L
Sunday, so in addition to the regular services in Chinyanja
(language of Nyasa or the Lake) we have Evensong in our own
vulgar tongue. Our big native service is at 7 o'clock A.M.
when the old, dilapidated Cathedral looks packed some
six hundred altogether on the ground. I nearly always do
the preaching. We have now a new Cathedral, to be
dedicated as much of it as is ready on Michaelmas Day.
Likoma, which by the way is an island, whereof I am not
only priest-in-charge but also Lord Mayor, there being no
civil authority, is made of stones (so much the worse for my
boots), so there is no difficulty about material for building.
" When completed, the Cathedral will be 280 feet long
what is the length of Eton Chapel ? (150 x 40).
" But you are I see it in your letter, for which I thank
you, my very many thanks in an obvious and not unnatural
funk that our mission work consists entirely in making the
native attend chapel and wear more clothes. As to the
latter, I really don't think you could accuse our U.M.C.A.
natives of prodigality. Last Monday I was at a distant
part of my parish (another island, by name Chizumulu),
and though it was a gala day, with the Bishop coming to
confirm, there was uncommon little cloth to relieve the
monotony of black bodies and black legs. As a matter of
fact we are almost entirely successful in keeping the native
simple in his costume. One of my sumptuary laws runs thus,
' No trousers are allowed in church.' And if one of the
boys has borrowed a pair of boots from some elder brother
who has been down to Fort Salisbury, he knows better than
to show himself in them on my verandah. Of course it is
true that we aren't sent here to Europeanise the African but
to Christianise him.
" Then you ask me about industrial work : well, the new
Cathedral has been built entirely by the hands of our natives,
under the superintendence of our missionary architect and
missionary carpenters. We have now got about seventy
skilled masons anyhow more or less skilled also on this
station there are the carpenter's and printer's shops where
there is always great competition for admission to ap-
prenticeship. Then as Likoma is an island, we have to
146
-
employ a good many boys in the boats which go daily to the
mainland, five miles off, and there are the regular crews for
our two mission steamers, which are always on the go, up
and down the Lake. A good deal of the mission work I
mean the visiting of villages is done from the steamer,
the Chauncy Maples. So if a boy is really keen about
learning a regular trade, he stands a very good chance of
being taken on. At the same time we don't want to teach
the boys to despise the ordinary village life in so far as it is
healthy. I am always glad when any rather superior
teacher comes to me to buy a hoe with which he may dig
his field. The chief employment (outside the hoeing season)
is fishing. They do the whole business, from the planting
the shrub from which they make the string with which they
make their big nets, to the eating of the fish which, with a
greasy yellow porridge, is their almost invariable daily
portion. Fishing-nets are a fruitful subject for quarrels
and lawsuits. If you have a grudge against your neighbour,
you either steal his goats, or his fishing-nets, or his canoe,
and hold them as surety till he has made you proper satis-
faction. Oh these quarrelsome natives ! I wish my Lord
Mayoralty was at Jericho. A good many cases I send to be
settled at the Court of one of the petty village chiefs, but
sometimes they only make confusion worse confounded.
A few weeks ago there was a fight between two villages.
It began by some silly asses of one village calling a respectable
old gentleman and his wife of the other village slaves ;
which there is no denying they had been in years gone by.
I didn't supose it was a very serious matter and so I sent the
parties to a head-man in a neighbouring village that he
should square the matter up. Imagine my dismay when
shortly afterwards there came pouring into the Mission
station a howling and infuriated and bludgeoned-armed
mob, some of them largely decorated with gore. I found
that the head-man had funked and refused to hear the case
and that the parties had accordingly set to, supported by
their adherents ; it had been taken up as a general village
affair ; everybody was much too excited to allow the matter
to be settled that day, so I told them they must go back to
147 L2
their respective villages ; and they departed with many
mutual imprecations. I then told two of the most trust-
worthy of them (native Christians) to go that evening one to
each of the villages and find out the tempers of the villagers,
whether they still wished to fight or to settle the matter as
respectable citizens. One set of villagers was reported to
me the next morning as being in a most proper frame of
mind ; that even if their adversaries tried to annoy them
ever so much they would themselves be patient. My other
messenger told me that the youths of the village whither
I had sent him still wished to fight. So I had to send him
back again with the further message that I should be pleased
to see the sober-minded head-men of the village at my seat
of justice, but that I refused to see anyone who didn't know
how to behave himself ; and, moreover, that fighting on
Likoma island was out of the question ; that the people of
Likoma might choose between a mission authority or a
British Government authority, and that I had only to raise
the tip of my little finger to call in English magistrate and
police and six shillings hut tax. To this message I received
the satisfactory reply that the bloodthirsty youths had
been disarmed of their bludgeons which were safely stored
in an elder's house, and that only the head-men would come
to the hearing of the case. It was, by-the-bye, a Rogation
Day, and we follow the old custom of processioning through
the fields and asking a blessing on the crops.
" Well, as priest-in-charge I led the procession through
the fields from the Lake to the Mission, and then in the open
I gave the Blessing ; and then as Lord Mayor I said, ' I am
ready for the Court.' The law court is generally on the
verandah of my house. It was obvious that youths of
village A. had no business to call a respectable old gentleman
of village B. a slave, even if he had been one, and so I was
about to pass judgment that village A. must pay a goat to
village B. for using offensive language. But fortunately
there sat beside me a wise old councillor his name, Yakobo,
and Yakobo said, ' Excuse me, Bwana, but I would say my
thoughts, and my thoughts are that whilst the youths of
village A. most surely sinned in using abusive speech, the
148
youths of village B. inflicted with their bludgeons the deepest
wounds. Therefore let village A. pay a goat to village B.
for offensive speech, and then let village B. pay back to
village A. a goat for the bloody wounds.'
" From the gentle clapping of hands with which the as-
sembly greeted the judgment of Yakobo it was obvious that
he carried the mind of both parties with him, and I as
Lord Mayor passed formal sentence to that effect and blessed
Yakobo in my heart. And so we have lived happily ever
after. I used the opportunity, however, for rubbing in a
prospect of a hut tax, if by their evil doings the natives of
Likoma should be so unwise as to invite the British Govern-
ment to occupy the island ; I called the principal old chief
and said, ' How many huts have you, Mzungu ? ' (a hut is
equivalent to a wife) ; Mzungu said, ' Five.' I replied,
' That will mean for you to pay shillings six, six, six, six, six.
I expect you're keen for the Government to step in here,
aren't you ? '
" As a matter of fact the natives of the island scarcely
ever give trouble, and on that occasion what began in almost
nothing ended in nothing at all. A goat for a goat.
" It wouldn't be worth gassing to you like this, only I shall
be glad if you and Alington understand a little the sort of
life I live out here. It is a rummy kind of mixture. When
I want to be refreshed I look in at the Infants' school.
Picture a hundred infants, the majority of whom have never
learnt what it is to obey anyone. They are perfectly delicious,
and when one is naughtier than usual I lay him across my
knee and smack him in a motherly spirit. Just now it
is holidays, and about four hundred children are assisting or
hindering the building of the Cathedral at 4^. per week.
So two weeks' work enables them to buy a cloth, and
the third week's work can be given as their offering to the
Cathedral.
" The boys play football with bare toes and zeal, when-
ever they can get one."
149
(To a Sister)
DEDICATION OF THE CATHEDRAL
On board C.J. at Nkata Bay, October 17, 1905.
" My dear friend Captain Lyon has been hunting the ship
from end to end (about sixty-six feet, he has just measured
her with a three-foot rule for your benefit) , but no pen is to
be found.
" First of all this is to wish you many happy returns of the
day, and, secondly, it is to tell you about the annual meeting
of missionaries at Likoma for Retreat and Conference, and
the dedication of the Cathedral ; Monday and Tuesday,
September 25 and 26, were the days for the assembly, and
by Tuesday evening when we went into retreat we mus-
tered about forty. Barring those on furlough in England,
the only two absentees were Mr. Glossop who got to the
south end of the Lake just too late to catch the CM., and
the native deacon Leonard, who arrived on the Saturday,
having walked about 160 miles. Poor housekeeper ! she had
collected two sheep and one cow from different parts of the
Lake, but even so it is colossal work to feed forty bodies
for more than a week. However, she managed splendidly,
and everything went so smoothly that, when she retired to
bed with fever on the Saturday, her absence was scarcely
felt. The Bishop instructed me that I was to consider myself
a guest during the retreat, that is, to have no responsibility,
but, though we sent the school-boys to their villages to be
out of the way, the station was full of stranger boys, Nyasas
and Yaos by nationality, who had been brought by the Euro-
peans as their servants, of course all these had to be housed
and fed and kept in good temper, and, most difficult task of
all, prevented from making an outrageous hullabaloo during
our retreat, so on the whole I think I shall not consider
that I have been in retreat. I shall go off for a little private
retreat to the College or elsewhere one of these next months.
Glossop's absence was a great disappointment, and it meant
my having to preach at the dedication of the Cathedral, as
well as at the ordination of the deacons on the following
Sunday. The last service of the retreat was the dedication
150
service itself on Michaelmas Day. Michaelmas now is
certainly very full of big memories to me Harvest Festivals
and ' sticked ' apples from my very childhood ; then our
last Sunday at Salwarpe; then my last day at Worfield,
when I celebrated at the end of this last furlough ; and now
the dedication of the Cathedral for which we have all been
working hard. I need not tell you about the service itself,
for you can read about it in the Likoma quarterly. I sent
Canon Randolph a copy of the service. The rubrics at
least are in English. I hope everybody found the service
edifying I think it was very dignified. The Cathedral is
very good for sound, so that the singing showed up to
advantage. After breakfast that same day we that is the
missionaries and native clergy (one priest and three deacons)
went into conference and said many words. The conference
continued next day, but I absented myself, partly as I was
laying up for myself a little gentle temperature, and partly
because I had to prepare for the next day's ordination
sermon. I was not sure how I should feel next day, so I
took precaution in writing my sermon, which had to be in
English for the edification of the new English deacon, whilst
teacher Arthur interpreted it into Chinyanja for the benefit
of the general congregation. Our brethren dispersed on the
Tuesday, and I had the luxury of a few days in bed most
enjoyable and restful. Mr. Glossop turned up at Likoma
last week and is staying there in charge of his old flock (he
worked ten years on this island), till I return in two days'
time ; then he goes to his new charge at Kota Kota. Mr.
Piercy goes home on furlough.
"The Bishop has really gone, said good-bye to Likoma on
Monday, the same day that I came here. I am on the C.J.
and he is going down the Lake on the C.M.
" The other departure which affects me closely is that of
Mr. Willcocks as I shall have to look after the printing office
during his furlough. I passed through my apprenticeship
in about two hours. If the next number of the quarterly is
not quite so beautiful as usual, don't put it down to the
sub-editor (Bishop is editor) or printer-in-charge.
October 19. Back again in Likoma and Ink. I had a
very restful time at Nkata and have brought back several
of our young Christians who were baptised at Likoma in
infancy, but who have from their babyhood been living on
the mainland, west side of the Lake. One is a boy, James
Robert, fifteen years old, in whom Bishop Maples took special
interest. Now I hope we shall keep him at Likoma, and
that he will be confirmed on the Bishop's return. Yesterday
the C./. took me to another village a few miles from Nkata,
where I transacted business of all sorts in a tent which must
have had a temperature of about 130, and then I had a two
hours' sandy and rocky walk back to Nkata under a grilling
sun. Then this morning very early the steamers went back
to the same village, and brought the Christians from there
to Nkata. I celebrated the Eucharist for them on board.
The Government steamer with its Mohammedan crew was
anchored a few yards from us. I wonder what they thought
of us. Now I must make up the mail, as owing to Mr.
Willcocks' departure I am for the time being Postmaster.
"You will see from the U.M.C.A. magazine that the
Zanzibar diocese is having a bad time plague at Zanzibar
and raid at Masasi."
(To a Brother)
GARDENING
Likoma, November 20, 1905.
" I have just proclaimed that I will not talk to anyone else
and I have shut my door, all because I want to write to you.
This afternoon seems to have been frittered away, and yet,
as a matter of fact, it has been one continuous talky talk
with almost no moments of half-time from ten o'clock till
five.
" My last letter, written nine days ago, was sent to Robin
before I knew of this most interesting news of his change of
station. Now I shall have to go home by the south route.
He and I might meet half-way and have a picnic at the Vic-
toria Falls. Why did you not join the British Association
just for the year ? This, being Monday, is the weekly sale
hence the hullabaloo. (Our head female native teacher once
said the difference between a native and European was that
152
the former speak loud and the latter speak soft.) The
former really only speaks loud when he is excited, but then
it takes almost nothing to excite him, and two yards of
beautiful blue cloth is enough to upset the equilibrium of
the most sober-minded. Mr. Crabb looks after the sale and
he is assisted by the great Charlie, head captain of Likoma
station.
' ' Of course I very much want to know how much of his
company my Bishop gives to Ely. Of course he will be at
the festival. I wish he could find someone at home who
would come out and be his examining chaplain. I am just
attacking ' Driver's Deuteronomy.' What in the world
does ' parenetic ' mean ? The two deacons Augustine and
Eustace are very happy with Wilson at Nkwazi, and on
Sundays one of them always comes in to Chipyela to assist
me at the Eucharist and sometimes to preach. . . .
" The oracle out here is generally a bit of leather, which
the seer smells and otherwise works. I am told that at Fort
Johnston the Government has called in all oracles, and
whips anyone who has one in his possession. The rains
have arrived, and the station which last week was a barren
wilderness has quickly become green with seedlings, and soon
we shall have the place a gorgeous blaze of zinnias zinnias
zinnias almost nothing but zinnias. If we want anything
else to grow on this beautiful island, the soil to make the bed
has to be brought by boat from the mainland. Last year
my own garden was rather a failure. I thought of having a
hanging one round my baraza, but the pots never got hung
and then the blight got to the convolvulus ; but this year I
mean to do better, only I know that somebody must do it
for me, otherwise it will never be done. Mr. George, my
nearest neighbour (houses about ten yards apart), has a
lovely oasis all the year round. I wish I had the Princeps
here to plan out my garden for me. 1 The C.J. has just
whistled, which means that I must stick this letter in the
mail bag and send it on its long journey.
" I am very well the rain has freshened us all up."
The reference is to Rev. Canon Randolph, and his garden at Ely
Theological College.
153
(To a Sister)
WANT OF RAIN
Likoma, ist Sunday after Christmas, 1906.
" As you see, my big Christmas is over, but I am expecting
to keep two more during these next two weeks, to-morrow
going by boat to Chizumulu, where I expect to stay over
next Sunday, and then going by the C./., if she appears at
Likoma between now and then, to the west mainland, which,
as you know, I visit about once a quarter for the purpose of
seeing our Church Christians who have settled over there.
We have as usual had a Christmas with very much to be
thankful for just about 600 natives of the island have
made their Christmas Communion in the Cathedral. I
myself celebrated in English at 5 A.M. so as to get a little
quiet before the bustle of the day. I was also able to take
the Blessed Sacrament from the altar to Arthur, our head
native teacher, who has for months been ill ; I have very
little doubt that he is consumptive. Before going into
church I had already sent boys with bells to the nearest
villages to call those who were to come to the first Chinyanja
service when Mr. Wilson was celebrant. In spite of their
being about 250 communicants at that service, it was over
by 7.30, and then the people streamed into the Cathedral
for the sung service when the Bishop officiated. Edith says
in her last letter, ' I daresay you will be very busy teaching
the choir the Christmas music.' Alas, I had no time !
For a fortnight before the festival we hadn't a single practice,
and the boys just now are very weak, not a single good voice
among them, whereas a year ago there were three good voices ;
so our singing this Christmas has not been beautiful. More-
over, Christmas comes to us at the very most piping swelter-
ing time of the year, and the African chorister, though he
is not exactly obstinate like the beloved A. H., simply thinks
it silly to sing when he doesn't feel inclined. Talking of
heat, the natives are wanting rain badly ; we reckon our
rainy season from December to May, but at present we have
scarcely had a drop. As I came up from my Christian men's
bible-class which I have in a village on Friday nights, one of
154
the men asked whether we might not start praying for rain
in church. I said we certainly will if you and some of the
other men come to me and tell me to-morrow that it is the
general wish. However, they haven't yet been. I expect,
however, we ought to start praying, especially as the heathen
(I hope no Christian) villages have begun using their charms
and consulting the oracle with a view to rain. I haven't
yet sown my own garden, but I hope Miss Bulley will do it for
me next week when I am away at Chizumulu. If you see
Mr. Frank George during his stay in England ask him to
tell you about my garden. He left Likoma a few days
before Christmas and I miss him almost more than it is
possible to miss anyone out here I mean that people come
and go, and one hasn't time to think who is here and who
isn't. But George's house is only ten yards from mine,
and I do miss him very much. He is a wonderful power on
the island. He is not very big in body, but he is huge in
his influence among the men and boys. His verandah is the
general gossip ground of the school-boys, and he is (to put it
mildly) perhaps the only person whose judgment of boys'
character I trust above my own ! ! And in his own work as
architect of the Cathedral, as the Bishop says, George has
only to throw a bit of dirt at the building to make the men
see exactly what he wants them to do, and they do it. Mr.
Winspear (my curate) has moved into George's house, He
too is a treasure, and his work (chiefly in looking after the
outschools on the island and superintendence of village
dormitories) is very thorough, but of course the natives don't
know him well yet. But talking of curates and Mission
staff, the Bishop told me a very delightful bit of news some
days ago, namely that Dennis Victor has definitely volun-
teered for this diocese. Moreover, if he can come very soon,
I believe he will work at Likoma."
(To a Sister)
NATIVE DISPUTES
December 27, 1905.
" Everybody is at the wedding this afternoon and that
may account for my being able to write to you. Of course, I
155
mean at the festivities in the villages which have succeeded
this morning's weddings. There were seven couples : three
of the couples were partially catechumens, and so were
married with a shorter service at the catechumens' ' barrier,'
but the other four were altogether Christian. I married
them, and the marriage service was followed immediately
by the sung Eucharist for S. John's Day. Out of all the
seven girls there were only two who could sign their names
afterwards. Outside the church there were the usual rejoic-
ings : damsels with their black wool powdered with flour ;
youths with antique guns (we had three of them this morning) ;
pages who hold umbrellas over the brides, and ancient
dames who make a shrill ' tremolo ' whistle by wagging
their tongues at lightning speed from side to side of their
mouths. It is one of the accomplishments of our Bishop ;
if you ever see him, get him to do it. With a little practice
you or K. or L. would manage it all right, at least the
waggle, but I never knew any European who could do the
whistle. Then, after I had sent off the wedding parties and
had breakfast, I had a great overhauling of all the boys'
blankets, which will be kept in store during the Christmas
holidays when the boys go to sleep in their villages. Last
holidays I let the boys take their blankets with them to
their homes, but I found that they were used largely as day-
clothing for their sisters and their mothers and their aunts ;
so I told the boys at these holidays, however much they loved
Mama, they must find some other way of showing their
love than by lending Mama the blankets, which are precious
Mission property.
" My last letter home was a nasty scrubby one to N.
I could not finish it off properly ; I was in the thick of a
serious law case, having just had to lock up one of our
Christians, a man who in a fit of passion had thrown a stone
at his own elder half-brother, the chief of his village ; the
man died in our hospital from the effects of the wound, a
fracture of the skull. So I had to send A.B. to Kota Kota
to be tried by Mr. Swann there for manslaughter. He
sentenced him to two years' hard labour, but six months of
that time will be remitted, on my informing Mr. Swann that
156
the head of the family has made to the representatives of
the dead man a payment, which is judged by me, acting in
consultation with some native chief, to be sufficient to
comfort them. That is how Mr. Swann combined the English
and the native system of justice ; the English say ' send
to gaol/ and a native says ' pay.' As a rule, if a man is
killed, payment goes to his mother's relations ; but the diffi-
culty in this case was that both parties had the same mother ;
so that, according to native ideas, there could be no big
payment. It is simply the question if the head of the family
would be willing to give a consolation present to the sister
and father of the dead man, he and A.B. having different
fathers. So I gathered together five of the wise men of the
island (and these old heathen chiefs really have a vast deal
of this world's wisdom) and I asked them their opinion.
They were unanimous in saying that A.B.'s chief, by name
Mzungu, ought to give presents to the sister and father of
the deceased ; the father's name is Kabutu. He is also the
head-man of his village. Then we asked Mzungu whether
he would give the presents. Yes, he would console the
sister, but not one jot or tittle would he send to Kabutu.
Hadn't Kabutu refused to send him anything when somebody
else died ? Sly old villain, he knew that anything he gave
to the sister would really remain in his own family, she being
on his mother's side, but anything he would give to. Kabutu
would go clean away into another village. At last he said he
would go back to his village and think it over ; the result
was that next day he arrived back on my verandah with a
really fine she-goat with which he was willing to comfort
Kabutu. I told him he could go back to his village and
leave the goat with me, and I would again call my advisers,
and ask whether the one she-goat was in their opinion
sufficient. Again their unanimous mind was that, whereas
Kabutu might have been satisfied, as a matter of fact he
would stick out for something more than the one goat ; and
therefore I should tell Mzungu to add on two fathoms of
cloth, the price of a he-goat, whereas the she was worth five
fathoms. ' But, Bwana,' said the worldly wise, ' don't you
go and show the two extra fathoms ; first go off to Kabutu,
157
only show him the she-goat, and afterwards, if he is stubborn,
trot out the fathoms.' Then a happy thought struck me :
Mzungu's brother had been to me the day before about a
beastly goat of his which somebody else had borrowed years
ago, and which he could not recover. I now sent him post-
haste to the village, and in an hour's time there was that
goat on my verandah, and its former owner. (As a matter of
fact it was a different animal, but that does not matter.) So
I carefully explained to its owner that if it had not been for
me he would never have got back his goat, and now of course
he would be willing to add on this goat to Mzungu's she-goat
so that he might help his brother out of his troubles. The
second goat was likewise she, and her owner said he couldn't
leave her, but he would send a he, and as my learned advisers
were agreed that a he would suffice I agreed also, and so that
night there were lodged in my goat pen she and he, wherewith
to dazzle the eyes of Kabutu on the morrow.
" So on the morrow my counsellors again assembled, and
I sent for Kabutu. He arrived with his sons, and I explained
how that by the pressure we had laid upon him, the chief,
Mzungu, had brought a fine she-goat to my verandah with
the desire of consoling the bereaved father, and I and my
counsellors for our part hoped that Kabutu would accept
and be comforted. But Kabutu had many words to say,
and he said all his, about wanting a cow, and my learned
brethren said all theirs, and meanwhile I was keeping a
sharp look out along the road for my boy whom I had sent
to fetch the pair of goats. When I saw him it was time to
close the case ; so I told Kabutu that whereas we were agreed
that a fine she-goat was no mean present, my counsellors
knew how hurt he was by his son's death, and they therefore
had voted that Mzungu's family should add on the he-goat to
the she, but that was our last word on the subject, and if
Kabutu did not accept this, he would not get anything. By
that time both goats were on my verandah and old Kabutu
was quite unable to conceal his satisfaction. He chuckled
away (not like Mzungu's chuckle), and he called for 'fire'
which means matches, and I gave not one match but half a
dozen, box and all, and he lit his pipe and puffed away in
158
highest good-humour and we all enjoyed the joke together.
So it was with me externally at least, and inside I had been
very anxious about the issue of this case : if we had not been
able to get the payment made and accepted, it might have
meant a village feud for years. So I was very thankful.
" These which appear to outsiders temporal business
matters have the effect of compelling me to feel the need of
Divine guidance. The priest-in-charge at Likoma certainly
needs a sort of Solomon's wisdom, and meanwhile, whilst I
was hobnobbing with these old heathen folks about goats and
cloth, I knew that there were many of my Christians waiting
for me in church that I might help them also as well as I
could.
" We had a very, happy Christmas Day, nearly 600
communicants in the Cathedral. Three priests : Mr. Smith
celebrated in English soon after midnight ; Mr. Wilson
celebrated at the first Chinyanja service at 6 o'clock for the
nearer villages ; and I myself at the sung Eucharist at 7.30,
when there were about 400 communicants. The CM.
arrived about midday of the festival, and we all had tea on
board, and the resident Europeans on board returned the call
at dinner-time, and afterwards we had a great phonographic
performance in the school.
" In two days' time I hope to go to Chizumulu that I may
keep Christmas again there."
(To a Sister]
UMBRELLAS
Likoma, 2nd Sunday in Lent, 1906.
" 1.30 P.M. and before starting to write I have had to
light a candle. Ominous rumbles overhead, and I wonder
how far I shall have got in this letter before we have a
deluge. My own boy will enjoy the deluge because I gave
him leave to take one of my umbrellas to his village, and the
deluge will give him an opportunity of showing it off I
mean showing himself off under it. I have four umbrellas ;
I often wish there were five, because there are four out -schools
to which monitors or teachers go daily from this centre, so
159
in the rains one of the four umbrellas has to go to each out-
school. I find, however, that a bath towel over my helmet
does very well for my own trotting about from breakfast
room to printing office, and printing office to schools, and
schools to church, and church back again home. I suppose,
as to breakfast and all meals you do realise that the meal-
room is a house all by itself whither we all congregate from
our own private huts. I am in a happy condition of mind
(here's the rain !) this afternoon for several reasons. In the
first place, everybody's temperature is normal or sub-normal.
Mr. George having departed to the college yesterday to keep
Padre Marsh company, I am at the present moment, and I
suppose shall be to-morrow, monarch of all the male depart-
ments. I shall start to-morrow by calling the head mason
and liberally giving all the builders a holiday. I find that
is a capital dodge if we become short-handed I mean if
we missionary overseers are not up to full strength. For
the same reason I rather encourage, than otherwise, the
printer apprentices asking a fortnight's leave to hoe in
their fields, or to seek their long lost mothers on the main-
land. You know that every native has a pile of mothers :
he has his big mother and probably several little mothers,
as well as the mother that brought him into the world.
So it is not improbable that a boy may ask leave to go
to the funeral of his mother to-day, and make the same
request a few months hence. Another reason for a happy
condition of mind is that whereas three boys after being
whacked ' did pride ' and departed to their villages, two
of them appeared on my verandah this morning after
Mattins, and ' did humility,' and I have little doubt that I
shall see the third before long. The Likoma island boys,
having been under Mission discipline so long, give very little
trouble this way, so when a boy, after gentle punishment for
talking after lights are out (metaphorically so) leaves my
room singing in a lusty voice, 'Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye,'
it causes the Padre painful, and his comrades a possibly
gleeful, surprise. At least, I think I should have felt some
glee, if I had been a comrade instead of a Padre. Then there
is another source of much happiness to-day. Did you see a
160
letter I wrote to Ted with a description of my attempt to
restore a lady to her husband ? The lady wished to be
restored, but papa (a heathen chief) refused to let her go.
Well, after months of pigheadedness on all sides the matter
was finally settled yesterday, and hubby and wife are once
more under the same roof, albeit their baby, who was with
its mother on the mainland, is likely to die from want
of Nurse Armstrong's medicine. We have had a good
beginning to Lent, except on Ash Wednesday itself, when
the people came shockingly badly to church. They had two
excuses : first, it was a very rainy morning, although the rain
cleared off in time for service ; second, they had not taken
in the notice. It is quite useless to give out a church notice
here as you would in England. A notice to these people, if it is
to produce any impression on them, should begin in this sort
of way : ' Listen to this, all of you listen to this word about
a big day. Next Wednesday, when we have slept three
days, on Wednesday at n o'clock when the sun is so high '
(here point up to the roof of the Cathedral to the place where
you might expect the sun to be at the appointed hour), and
so forth. However, neither excuse could be considered
sufficient, so that afternoon I sent a message to a large
number of defaulters that I wished to see them, and the next
day saw them in troops coming to my verandah, to whom
I drove in shame for their bad beginning. The next
Wednesday (the special service will be weekly) there must
have been about 600 Christians and catechumens in the
Cathedral. Instead of preaching I tried catechising, making
the congregation repeat the answers and texts in their four
divisions of school-boys and girls, and adult men and women.
I do not know whether the Christians have been catechised
like that before ; it took the adults by surprise and they
were shy, but they may be less shy another week. We are
looking forward with considerable joy to Miss Bulley's
return and Mr. Winspear's first appearance. Both ought to
be here before Easter. He is the deacon for Likoma, and I
shall be glad to have his help. Poor Chizumulu has had to
go a dreadfully long time without a pastoral visit ; I have
simply not been able to get over there. Our one great grief
161 M
has been the death of Mr. Partridge, one of our two young
Brixham trawlers ; he had just been landed at the college
from the C.M. in order to keep Mr. Marsh company and look
after the outdoor labour and students' food. Mr. Marsh
brought his body straight over to Likoma in a boat, and we
buried him that afternoon in the cemetery. The one who
will feel his death very deeply is Brimecombe, his mate out
here."
(To a Sister)
BOYS AND BOOKS
and Sunday after Easter, 1906.
" I have just finished a long talk about the daily round
with Mr. Winspear, my new curate. I am soon to go and talk
to Miss Bulley about her daily round, but in between the
two I shall start a letter for home. I am responsible for
Chinyanja Evensong later on, when the boys have come back
from their villages. Before I say anything else, please I
want you to thank everybody for the hosts of good things
which I got just at Easter.
" Then there were the kisibaus, with K.'s letter in which
she supposes they will reach me about Christmas. She
must thank everybody for making them who was concerned
in the making of them. They are more than ever acceptable
as we have been very destitute of them. It is really appal-
ling the length of time goods take in coming out from home.
The chief reason is that the poor old Shire is nearly dried up.
" We had a very happy Holy Week and Easter ; one of
the native deacons, Eustace, who is reading at the Theo-
logical College at Nkwazi at the south end of the Island, gave
the address at the long service. I received rather a shock
after the Three Hours' Service was over by finding that a
quantity of the boys had, during the morning of silence, ran-
sacked the library and taken out books to read, and in some
cases not even returned them. The library is our European
library, and is as much out of bounds for the native as any
of our private houses, and I had never known the natives
to go into it without leave ; so I was annoyed to find that
162
about fifty boys must have gone in, and equally amazed to
find that they really did not think that they had done wrong.
I issued an order that all who had gone into the library
must meet me in the school-room that evening, and I asked
them why they had chosen to go into the European library
instead of into the Bishop's house : they had as much right
to go into one as into the other, and the books were as much
theirs in the one as in the other. After I had finished my
jobation I said : ' Now stand up, those who really did not
think they were doing wrong to go into the library and carry
off the books/ and every jack-boy in the school-room stood
up, and I honestly believe it had not been against their
conscience, and even when books were not returned, I
believe it was a piece of native carelessness, and not deliberate
theft ; very likely a boy took a book on to a hill and when
he got tired of it might simply leave it there and not bother
about bringing it back. Black boys are even more casual
than white boys about properties which are not their own
or their master's. Anyhow I do not think the boys will
take French leave in the library again.
" Easter Day was very delightful. There were about
630 communicants in the Cathedral that morning, and a few
more during the octave, and the singing was tremendous.
There were six clergy present : three priests, Mr. Smith,
Wilson and myself : and three deacons, Mr. Winspear and
the natives Augustine and Eustace.
" Easter Monday Mr. Smith and I went over to Chizu
mulu to keep Easter there. On the previous Christmas
day they had had a village fight, so before Easter I sent my
greeting to say that I hoped they would rejoice at Easter
without too much beer, which is nearly always at the bottom
of a row ; and really in this Easter visit everybody seemed
to try their very best to make me happy, and I had almost
no quarrels to settle and not one broken head brought up
before me. Chizumulu keeps two churches, and / stopped
at the one village ' Same ' and Mr. Smith at the other
' Chiteko,' so that the two Eucharists were celebrated on the
Wednesday morning ; and I had to bustle back as fast as
the boat would let me go to Likoma, as I had a class of
163 M 2
baptismal candidates awaiting me in the afternoon. The
Easter adult baptisms were on the following Saturday.
They were the first adult baptisms in the new Cathedral.
There were forty baptised that morning. It shows some
perseverance that they are willing to come from all parts of
the Island (two or three miles) almost every day for eight
weeks for their special instruction. You probably know
by this time that the previous instruction has lasted four or
five years, i.e. two years (if regular) as hearers, and two more
as catechumens.
" No sooner were the baptisms over, than on the follow-
ing Monday I went over to Nkamanga (on the west mainland)
by the C.J. to keep Easter yet again with our Christians
who have settled there. During that week the steamer
took me eight hours north to spend a day and night at
Kondowe, which is the headquarters of the Scotch Mission.
I stopped with Dr. Laws, who has been out here over thirty
years.
" Kondowe throws poor old Likoma (bar the Cathedral
and hospitals) quite into the shade. Kondowe is at the
top of a hill ; the road from the Lake to the top is twelve
miles long, but there is a telephone if you please, by which
I was able to insinuate that the good folks at the top
might send a machila to meet me. Then near the top we
passed the great turbine which works the electric light and
machinery in the workshops, and the workshops are quite
tiptop. Obviously a very great work is being done there
spiritually, intellectually, manually, and I feel how much
this Presbyterian Mission may teach us."
(To a Brother]
CLASSES FOR CHRISTIANS
Chipyela, June 10, 1906.
" To-day ' Chipyela ' (i.e. the place where undesirable
people are burnt) is the Cathedral and its surroundings,
and to-day there are no worser faggots than those which
are boiling the kettle for afternoon tea, and on this blessed
Sunday afternoon there is not even the ubiquitous undesir-
164
able imp ; he has gone to his village. I am having a more
than usually quiet Sunday and a lazy one, as Padre Eustace
Malisawa, one of the native deacons, preached the Chinyanja
sermon this morning, and my curate, Winspear, a new arrival,
is going to preach to us in English this afternoon.
" The days at Likoma are so chock full of doings that
I really cannot remember much what I have been doing. I
know I have given some special addresses' to our band of
female native teachers they are really a very intelligent
set ; and I have been examining the native students at the
Theological College in their ' Bishop's exam.,' and I remem-
ber that I blew the whistle at a great football match between
Likoma and the training college for native teachers. So
you see we have two colleges, the Theological College on the
Island of Likoma, and the Training College for teachers on
the mainland opposite. Lately we have achieved a great
triumph, inasmuch as Likoma and the training college have
lately played two football matches, both of which have
ended without a free fight. The second match was played
at the college ; we went over there in one of our boats ;
I think we were about fifty in the boat as well as my arm-
chair. I very much wish you could have seen the game.
They gird up their loins and play with enormous zeal, and
urge on their companions in the fray by shouting out : ' You're
tired, you've got no strength left ' ; and then, when a goal is
got, the winners sing a chant and clap their hands in rhythm,
and have a graceful little dance and pick up pinches of dust
and throw it into the air, and their supporters among the
spectators do likewise.
' This last month we have started Bible classes for
Christian men in the villages. Generally speaking, there
are such a big herd of heathen to be looked after and taught,
that the Christians are forgotten ; and strange as it sounds,
these Bible classes for Christian men are quite a new experi-
ment. But I very much wish that you also could look in on
us in the village synagogue at my class on Friday evening.
I am astounded at the intelligence and thoughtfulness of a
large proportion of the men. They are evidently very keen
to understand, and they ask all manner of questions. These
165
are some of the questions which they have asked me during
the last month, ' The comparative merits of the English,
Scotch, and Roman churches ' : ' What was the name of the
tree of which Eve ate the fruit, and whether the tree was in
existence to-day ? ' ' How do painters and sculptors know
what our Lord looked like ? ' One man, said ' Bwana, I
think it was in this way. People used to cut letters in stone
long ago, and I think that they also cut faces of men in stone.'
I think he must have heard of a very ancient medallion of
our Lord which I believe exists, but I forget the story. Of
course the features are traditional. The classes are certainly
a great help in getting into the minds of these people."
(T,o a Brother)
ARRIVAL OF THE FIDDLE
Steamship Charles Janson, Lake Nyasa, Sept. 12, 1906.
" I do not know whether the waves and general racket
of the steamer will allow me to write, but I will have a try.
I have been spending two nights on the east side of the
Lake where we have a small colony of native Christians.
That is really their ancient home, but many years ago, I
suppose before white men had been seen on the Lake, there
was tribal war and these people fled from their home and
settled at Likoma. In recent years, however, now that
peace reigns everywhere, there has been a tendency to return
homewards, and so the Mission has to follow them. This
has been rather a smart little tour, as I only left Likoma on
Monday morning at sunrise, got across the Lake to Bandawe
where we dropped some passengers it is about forty
miles from Likoma to the Bandawe coast ; then we steamed
up the east side about twenty miles to Chizi, where I put
out everything that belonged to me except myself ; then
on to the next village, Nkata Bay, where I interviewed as
many Christians as I could till sundown ; and then the pony
carriage I mean the steamer trolled me back again to Chizi,
and returned itself with Wilson, the other priest who had
come to help me, to Nkata. So Wilson and I were able to
divide the work ; to-day he celebrated at Nkata and I at
166
Chizi ; and now the steamer has picked me up again with a
wonderful medley of passengers, including a young stowaway,
and we are on our way back to Likoma. The stowaway
is placid and contented, and he is the younger brother of a
Likoma boy, so I suppose he will not be left on my hands to
be fed. It is a most harassing job to decide which natives
to give ' passages ' to, and which natives to refuse. A
number of youths wanted to be taken across to Likoma, but
I refused on the ground of no room, and they immediately
set off to walk down the coast to Kota Kota, about 100
miles, in hope of getting on the steamer there. On the other
hand, there are folks who don't want to be taken on board,
but whom I would bring over if I could. There is one youth
married ; the last vision I had of him this morning was as of a
hundred yards sprinter making for the hills, lest I should
compel him to come back to his wife at Likoma. School-
boys are of course a special cause of vexation of spirit.
I am always weak enough to carry some over from Likoma
to see their sisters or their mothers, and one or another
always runs away. To-day I have safely brought back one
of last trip's runaways and left one of this trip's, so I feel
quits, but I think the stowaway may be counted as some-
thing extra to the good. I wish you could have been at this
morning's service. We had it in the hut of a native Christian.
The altar was made up of my camp chair with a tin box on
the top of it, and on the top of the box my ' Cowley Altar/
which you helped to give me. When I opened it.I found that
some of the linen was soaking in water and badly stained ;
I suppose it was water from a boat three days ago. How-
ever, we learn to take those sort of disasters philosophically
much more so than runaway legs round the corner and
nothing else in the box was hurt. There were about thirty
people present, and we were all squashed quite tight together ;
babies as usual ad lib, on their mamas' backs. You would
have liked it all very much except the heat ; the hut was
nearly pitch dark except for the two candles on the altar.
" Before I forget, I must expatiate upon the fiddle. It
arrived last week, G string and D string still intact, and I
played ' S. George,' and had to imagine the ' ground bass.'
It really was rather pathetic, and I did not dare to play
without the mute. But it was quite a joy even to tune it,
and find that I could still play harmonics. I have almost
forgotten how to put on the strings. I do believe, however,
that I shall use it for helping the choir up their scales.
The other thing I have to expatiate upon is the bacon ; that
arrived with the fiddle, but I cannot expatiate upon it at
the same length, as unlike the fiddle case it has not yet
been opened.
" I am in this cheerful mood because the waves instead of
increasing in volume are subsiding. I do not suppose you
have any idea what tremendous big seas there constantly
are on the Lake during this time of year. Till one knows
how wonderful are her sea-going powers, it seems to one
almost impossible that the little C.J. should right herself
when a big wave sends her slap over on her side. I do not
enjoy it, but I am scarcely ever seasick. At the present
moment I am watching a phenomenon which I believe is
unique, not known elsewhere, but almost daily to be seen
on the Lake. It looks like clouds of smoke on the Lake,
sometimes rising like a pillar to a tremendous height.
It is really clouds of tiny flies called Nkungu which rise out of
the Lake. The natives catch them and make flat cakes of
them, like black pikelets. Mr. Shannon, captain of the C.J.,
who is sitting on my right, is a born naturalist. Whilst
I think of it, the violin strings which came with the beast
itself, will not in all probability last very long. I suggest
that somebody should send me out a quarterly supply in a
little round sealed tin by parcel post, and say on the outside
what they are.
" Don't give up writing ; the longer I am away from
England, the more I shall need letters for my health's
sake."
(To a Brother)
A CHOIR OUTING
Steamship C.J., Oct. i, 1906.
" Here I am on board the C.J. in the middle of a choir
outing. When I got fixed up as a missionary in ' darkest
168
Africa ' (the sun is glaringly dazzling), I certainly thought
that I had left choir trips behind, but we are getting horribly
parochial. However this seems likely to be the very j oiliest
outing of the kind I have ever indulged in, and we have begun
it by having a grand funeral at sea ; they have just prepared
the corpse, rather a long one about ten feet, and perhaps
five feet round, partly to be accounted for by the fact that
it is really a double corpse there is an outside corpse and an
inside corpse ; the inside corpse was a poor little goat, and
the outside is a most villainous looking old crocodile ; all
the more villainous looking because the bullet went bang
through one eye. That was yesterday. The goat was
drinking by the Lake, and accidentally on purpose, the ' croc.'
drank the goat ; then Mr. Shannon came along and so the
' croc.' did not have time even to get a stomach ache.
To-day the croc, was hauled on board and we have taken him
out to sea and tied great stones to him, and now he has been
dropped overboard. It does not do to let dead crocs, lie
about anyhow, because they contain a most deadly poison
which natives are fond of extracting for medical purposes.
Oh I wish a hundred times that you and a lot of others were
coming this choir trip. Of course we are going to the
mainland, to a village Ngofi, about an hour and a half's run
by steamer. We, as you are not here, are Mr. Winspear,
Mr. Shannon (captain) and myself, choir and servers, about
three dozen of us. The boys have got food for two meals
rice porridge, with a bit of goat for relish (not the croc.'s
goat !). I shall dole out pinches of salt all the way round,
also a fish-hook to each boy. We shall be across by midday ;
before sunset I intend that we shall have Evensong in the
little church, and then start back by moonlight. I hope it
will all turn out as good as it looks on paper. I have not
been to Ngofi since my first six months on the Lake, when I
walked there along the coast with Mr. Eyre ; that was just
after the natives had burnt the Portuguese quarters there.
I have left a large party of missionaries at Likoma, as
besides the ordinary set there are the two new priests,
Russell and Clarke, ordained on Michaelmas Day, and De la
Pryme, who came over to assist at the ordination. I had to
169
examine them both for the second part of their priest's exam.,
' Driver's Deuteronomy ' and ' Illingworth's Personality.'
After January, as far as I can see, there will be a lull in
deacons' and priests' exams. The two native deacons,
Augustine and Eustace, will, I hope, be ordained in Decem-
ber, and Winspear, I believe, in January. These native
padres will have had more than a year's training under
Wilson at S. Andrew's Theological College, and before, they
had been working with the Archdeacon on the steamer. Our
one native priest, Yohana Abdallah, has just returned from
a visit to Jerusalem. I expect that he will turn up at Likoma
for Retreat and Conference in November, so that we shall
have an opportunity of hearing what his impressions of the
Holy Land are."
(To a Sister)
NATIVE CHRISTIANS KILLED
Likoma, Dec. 4, 1906.
" I have cut my Catechism class in school for the express
purpose of getting a letter off to you by the C.J., which is to
leave this morning for the south with the Bishop on board.
He wants to go to Zomba, the Government headquarters.
Then, on his way back, he will hold Confirmations at the
C .M.'s villages. But this will possibly mean his having to put
off the day of the ordination which was fixed for S. Thomas'.
Last week was principally taken up by me with the candi-
dates' examination. There are three of them, Augustine and
Eustace, who, after many years in the diaconate, are to be
ordained priests, and Leonard Kangati, who was my head
teacher at Kota Kota, is to be made a deacon. This will
bring up our staff of black clergy to three priests and two
deacons (both deacons being Leonards). We heard yester-
day that our other priest, Yohana Abdallah, had just had
an exciting and unpleasant experience. Last Saturday
170
week he was going back with other natives from Likoma to
his home at Unangu, when, on Sunday morning as they were
preparing for the Eucharist at their camping ground en
route, they were attacked by raiders belonging to a powerful
chief, Malinganile. The chief unfortunately was in the rear,
and did not know that Yohana was there, so two of
Yohana's men Christians were killed. Then up came
Malinganile, and when he saw Yohana they shook hands.
At present we have only got the news from three other of
Yohana's men who ran back to the Lake shore, and have
gone to report the matter to the Portuguese headquarters at
Mtengula ; we have had no news direct from Yohana, but
we hope he has been able to get back all right to Unangu.
But with two men killed and others probably wounded (a
third boy was killed, a printer apprentice going to Unangu
for his holiday), it was a very sad ending to his ' Retreat and
Conference ' week at Likoma. I wonder what the Portuguese
will do. Generally their efforts are quite futile. Only about
three weeks ago they made, an attack on Malinganile's
village, but Malinganile and his men simply ran away and
remain to fight another day. The other big chief who lives
near Yohana is called Mataka (not the old one of the same
name), and Yohana nearly fell foul of him as he was
journeying across country from the East African coast after
his visit to the Holy Land. Mataka had heard that Yohana
was leading an army of Germans against him, and it was only
after Mataka's scouts had ascertained for certain that there
were no white men with Yohana that Mataka allowed him
to go through his district, and not only so, but (as Yohana
told me) he stayed three days at Mataka's village, and
Mataka gave him a present and was altogether very civil.
Fortunately, Yohana is not only a Mission padre, but he
comes of a very good stock, so that the old heathen chiefs
do not disdain him.
" The week of Retreat and Conference was very delightful.
I mean especially it was very delightful seeing everybody
from the other stations, Kota, Kota, Mponda's, Malindi,
Mtonya, as well as those who work on the steamers. Miss
Mann was in good force and very keen about her work at
171
Malindi, an especially difficult station, where, in spite of
many years of work, they have not yet got a single woman or
girl to become a catechumen. At least I believe that is so,
but now things really seem to be looking up. Some of the
padres brought up large contingents of native boys that they
might see the Cathedral. I was rather dismayed at first
at this unexpected addition, as my chief aim during the
Retreat is to keep the station quiet as far as possible, and
even as it was, the first night of Retreat I had to drive away
a quarrelsome youth, and send him to sleep down by the
Lake. But really everybody behaved beautifully and the
visitors had brought their own cooks, so were no trouble."
A VILLAGE FIGHT
S. Michael's College, January 8, 1907.
" I have accomplished my visit to Chizumulu, but have
not been to the west coast as the C.J. hasn't turned up,
so I have come over here instead for a week's holiday,
and very delightful it is. The students are away at their
homes, so it is quiet. Mr. Marsh (Principal) is here, and
so is Mr. Taylor, who looks after the catering. I got here
yesterday (Tuesday) and mean to be here till Monday, leaving
the Bishop and Mr. Winspear (deacon) in charge of Sunday
at Likoma. Nurse Armstrong made a special pilgrimage
to the Bishop's room to say that she thought I had better
be at the college here for Sunday. I can't remember ever
having a Sunday free from responsibility since I have been
in charge at Likoma. I had a great time at Chizumulu.
The Chizumuluites are the strangest of people. Living on
an island only about three miles long, they spend a large part
of their time fighting between the villages. A year ago they
fought on Christmas Day ; this year they waited to fight
till I had got there ; then we had two days of it. On the
first day I knew nothing about it till it was over ; but on the
second day I girt up my cassock, and ran to the field of
action, where they were pelting one another with stones !
And there I stood on a little mound of earth between the
combatants and shouted, ' You shameless people, how dare
172
you defy the law ? Every jack-man that is a Christian
among you you'll just sit in disgrace among the cate-
chumens ; M.L. there have I been preparing you this
very morning for your first Communion drop that stone
this instant.' To which command M.L., who a few minutes
previously had been sitting at my feet in church, a nice
earnest young man to all appearances, answered ' No,
Bwana, no,' and off went the rock he was carrying in the
direction of some enemy's head. Then everybody thought
it was time to stop, and we pioneered the party that were
on the offence back to their village ; and then I called the
ringleader (a heathen) into my room privately, where he sat
gentle and submissive as a lamb whilst I talked to him ; and
then I talked to the few offenders who were Christians, in the
school, and afterwards I told poor M.L. that, as he didn't
seem yet to have learnt the first elements of Christian living,
he had better think it over during this next month, and I
would help him again next month to prepare for his first
Communion. What I tried to show the Christian youths
was that a man can't be two people, a thorough-going
Christian in church, and a thorough-going heathen outside,
and that's what they try to be. I don't know how far they
grasped the idea, but I know that they arrived at the con-
clusion that ' Padre doesn't like a noise ! ' Sunday at Chizu-
mulu (Feast of the Epiphany) was a wonderful day. There
are two Mission stations on the island, but, as I couldn't
be at both, all the Christians and catechumens of the island
came to Chiteko, the station where I was sleeping. The
church was nothing like big enough to hold the whole crowd,
so we first of all had Mattins for everybody out of doors,
when I preached of course about the light having now reached
even to the Gentiles of Nyasa. It is, by-the-bye, rather touch-
ing how the natives commonly speak of their heathendom
as the time when they lived in ' darkness.' Then we sent
the catechumens home, and the Christians came into church
for the Eucharist, when there were 140 communicants. I
still expect to go to the west coast next week. We are
dreadfully short of steamers. The C.M. is laid up for two
months and the C.J. is playing truant."
173
In January 1907 Arthur began to complain of pain in his
right leg. It got rapidly worse for five days, and he became
very lame, and finally had to take to his bed.
The following letter explains the situation :
(To a Sister)
A BAD LEG
Likoma, Jan. 22, 1907.
" The steamer is going to leave here in an hour's time,
and I finished my mail for it weeks ago. This, however, is a
medical P.S. to it. Since writing to F. I have been to Nka-
manga (west side of the Lake) as I hoped, but though I was
able to get through my work I did so under difficulties,
as I was bothered with what I put down as rheumatism in
one leg ; most happily we had to go to the Scotch Mission
station at Bandawe with an invitation from our Bishop
to the Scotch doctor there, asking him to come over and
pay a visit to Likoma. He and the Bishop had travelled
out together from England. So the doctor came with us
to Likoma and his advice to me is this : ' It is quite im-
possible to say at present whether the pain in your hip was
caused by rheumatism or not, but taking into consideration
your finger with its tuberculosis, you had better lie up for a
time ; whether it is rheumatism or not, a lie up won't do
you any harm, and then when Dr. Howard arrives (in six
weeks' time) he can decide. . . .' So I am going to rest in
bed for the next few weeks, and whilst Mr. Wilson will do
my work, I shall do his to the extent of teaching (lecturing !)
three or four students in preparation for their ' Readership.'
It will be a very good thing to have something light like that
whereby to pass the time. I have absolutely no pain in my
leg now and there is no reason to be doleful. I don't feel in the
least doleful ; perhaps I shouldn't even have troubled to
write this P.S. only you may hear from other sources that
I was laid by and you might wonder what was the matter.
In any case I shall stop quiet like this till Dr. Howard's
arrival he is very careful.'
174
Dr. Howard first saw him in March when he had been in
bed about eight weeks. He was kept in bed another
fortnight and then allowed to get up and to walk a little.
On April 2 he had to return to bed as he still suffered
pain. It was clear that any attempt to return to his work
and walk about freely over rough country was out of the
question, and it was determined that he must leave on
furlough.
ORDERED HOME
Likoma, April 14, 1907.
" I suppose this may be my last letter home from Likoma
Island for many a long day. I wonder whether you will be
surprised or not, when you get my cable which I mean to
send off by the Government steamer if it calls here this
week. . . .
" Well, my own feeling is that Dr. Howard is a very wise
man. From his first examination, about the middle of
Lent, he said that my leg was very nearly in a normal con-
dition. I felt no pain at all by any upward pressure from the
foot which I was bound to have felt if there had been any-
thing much wrong with the hip- joint, and I could move my
leg about with considerable freedom ; the two faults to find
were a little grating in the joint, and an occasional spasm if
I moved my leg thoughtlessly, especially in my sleep. So
the doctor kept me in bed till the Wednesday in Holy Week,
when he let me get up to try my leg, and I found I could walk
about quite comfortably. Of course the doctor would not
let me do much, but about Easter Tuesday I felt my leg not
quite so comfortable, so the doctor sent me back to bed
again, and then he began to tell me that he didn't think that
the leg would be strong enough to stand the strain of being
priest-in-charge for a good long time to come, and we are
agreed that if I can't be in full working order it is useless to
attempt half measures.
" For myself I feel very thankful for the doctor's decision,
and now it is decided for me to take my furlough this year, it
seems almost too good to be true that I really shall soon be
175
eating roast beef again ; I had meant to say something
more sentimental, but that will do instead.
" I am going to travel from Fort Johnston down the
rivers, and by machila to Chinde with Mr. Wilson, and so
also on with him to the Cape. We shall have to leave Fort
Johnston about June 10, and our boat leaves Chinde on
July 3 (so I believe) . We have to change boats at Durban,
and have five days there in a comfortable hotel. I wish
someone had been going on furlough (before Wilson) with
whom I could have travelled, but it would be rather awkward
going by myself, looking after luggage, &c., so I am glad to
have him, even though we don't leave the Lake for nearly
another two months.
" But I am going to spend these next weeks very
pleasantly. At the doctor's own suggestion I am going
down by the Chauncy Maples (leaving here in ten days'
time) to Malindi at the south end of the Lake. There I
shall have a month which I expect thoroughly to enjoy. I
know they will all make one comfortable, and there is a
charming hospital looking out on to the Lake.
" It is two and a half years, i.e. from November 1905,
since I have seen any European station of our Mission off
Likoma Island (except Mr. Marsh's college for teachers) !
The natives at Malindi talk Chi-yao, so I think I shall amuse
myself by learning a new tongue.
" Well, after Durban (I have of course planned it all out
with Dr. Howard), we arrive at the Cape, and so I am pro-
posing to Robin that I shall stay with him for a few weeks,
exactly how many I can't say. I think there may be a
chance of one of the sisters coming out from England and
possibly travelling home with me from there."
(To a Sister)
Likoma, Trinity Sunday, 1907.
" It was truly delightful to get the cable saying ' Sister
Capetown Edith.' I expect my cable made you think that
I am much less self-capable than I really am, but when you
176
SUNDAY AT LIKOMA
MR. DOUGLAS LEAVING LIKOMA, APRIL 1907
see me hale and hearty with an enormous appetite all
serene except for a leg which has to be remembered I hope
that you will enjoy your time at the Cape all the more. . . .
I am carrying with me a very full explanation of myself
written by Dr. Howard, and this I am to show to anyone who
shall further examine me. Dr. Howard wants me to see a
Capetown doctor, so that any change in my condition may
be notified. . . . Dr. Howard has every hope of my whole
self becoming quite sound again if I rest. So I spend my days
something after this sort lying down nearly the whole day ;
sitting up for meals ; I walk about the room when necessary,
and have my bath like a reasonable creature, and walk on to
the verandah, where it is quite delightful to lie and read.
Occasionally I go to church, and sit down for most of the
service.
" This is what I find suits me best. Walking causes me
no trouble at the time, but, if I get the least tired, my leg
begins to ache."
One of his sisters did come out to the Cape to meet him,
and he arrived in England in August 1907, and was laid up
for some months.
In September he was lent a bungalow in the New Forest,
and there he carried on the open-air treatment which he had
been recommended, and became very much better. The
bungalow was called " Little Hatchett." One or other of
his sisters and various friends stayed with him there from
time to time.
" Here I am," he writes on October n, " back again in
England, ' invalided ' home for the time being. From
January to June I lay, and then started home, reaching
England in August.
" Now I am doing open-air cure business in a bungalow
in the most charming part of the New Forest ; a lake with
swans, which make a noise like a flying ship, at my front
gate ; three miles of heather and gorse (alas ! not in blossom)
all round, mixed up with golden bracken, and then oak and
beech and pine forest. Beaulieu Abbey in ruins a mile
beneath me, and everywhere a hurricane of fresh air, so
177
healthy and, ugh ! so cold, especially for the poor Central
Africander. As a letter will take (until I return to African
Utopia) one day to reach me, instead of eight weeks, write
quickly."
On November 24 he writes to his sister :
" I have suggested to Dr. Sandwith that I should like to
pay him a visit before Christmas, and that it might now be
a good thing to see a surgeon and I mentioned to him
December 3, as I thought then I should have a good excuse
(being as near to Cambridge as London) for going on to
Cambridge for the great U.M.C.A. meeting in the Senate-
house, which is to commemorate Livingstone's speech there,
December 4, 1857, which gave the start to the Mission. And
now, at the meeting of December 4, 1907, a new diocese west
of Likoma is to be inaugurated. I got Dr. Sandwith's reply
yesterday saying that, after consulting with Dr. Oswald
Browne (another of our medical board), he had arranged with
Mr. Glutton, senior surgeon at S. Thomas's Hospital, that
I should meet Dr. Sandwith at Mr. Glutton's house at noon
of December 3. ... Of course the whole question of my
finger will be fully taken into account. I want particularly
to ask Mr. Glutton whether he advises any other form of
exercise to work off whatever stiffness remains, and to
strengthen the leg. He will no doubt also tell me whether he
thinks I should go on with the outdoor treatment. I shall
have had three and a half months of it, so I expect he will
say I can return to a more normal existence. I don't in the
least know whether, after this interview with the surgeon, the
doctors will give me more definite hopes of returning to
C. Africa. There is plenty of time to think about that ;
what I chiefly want now is to get surgeon's opinion as to
the best way of getting the leg perfectly free and strong
in its action. . . .
" The Emperor (of Germany three motor-cars) passed
our front gate an hour ago. I was in the garden close to the
house, so could not distinguish faces, and all the cars were
more or less shut up."
178
Early in 1908 Arthur had become quite strong again,
and there was soon no doubt that he would be able to return
to work in Africa.
This chapter may fitly close with the following
appreciation of him by Miss Schofield :
" I was a worker under U.M.C.A. 1899-1906, and during
the latter years had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Douglas
four times. What impressed me most was his eagerness
about things pertaining to the schools, and his joyousness.
" I well remember our first meeting. We, from Malindi,
were on our way to Likoma, and had put in at Kota Kota
to pick up workers there. As soon as we had exchanged
greetings Mr. Douglas plunged into school work. He was
anxious to know how far I was able to apply English methods
(I am a certificated teacher) to my African work : what
plans were being adopted at Malindi for getting and keeping
the children in school, and what had been abandoned on
account of failure. In the welfare of the girls he was
especially interested ; and also, if I remember rightly, as to
the advisability of teaching boys and girls together. Where
one's failures were concerned one felt how really he sym-
pathised, and his bright manner cheered one wonderfully.
" Our next meeting was when he was starting his fur-
lough. Arrived at the south end of the Lake, he had to wait
for a river steamer, and came from Mponda's to pay a call
at Malindi. He rode the donkey (Snowball ?), and on his
way had to pass through Chindamba's village, where was a
Mission school. He thought that it would be a nice little
surprise for the children and for me, if he were to ride in un-
announced. So coming to a large oblong hut which he
felt sure must be the school, he left the road, and rode
towards it. He was a little surprised at the absence of
' ABCha'-ing or other chanting in unison, and when inside
beheld an empty room. A man suddenly appeared and in-
quired if he wished to see the chief, as that was his house,
which had only just been furnished. Mr. Douglas explained
his mistake, and the school was pointed out. He dismounted,
told me the story, and was laughing heartily about it when
179 N 2
a messenger came to say that the chief was ready to receive
him. So he returned to the new house where Chindamba
was sitting in state in a deck chair on his verandah. The
usual polite greetings took place, and then I think Mr.
Douglas had to leave or send something in the shape of a
present, according to the native custom. He said it served
him right, and we had many a laugh over it.
" As I said above, he seemed to have a fund of joyousness
and to be happy and merry the few times I saw him ;
and I used to think that ' the Peace of God which passeth
understanding ' was shown in his face."
180
CHAPTER VII
THE THIRD SPELL OF MISSIONARY WORK
s. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE, 1908-1911
ARTHUR made a good recovery and started out again in
July 1908. His plan was to see something of his brother at
Rondebosch in Cape Colony and go up the country by rail,
joining his ship again at Beira. The following very interest-
ing letter describes his experiences.
(To a Sister)
ACROSS AFRICA
Illovo (Aberdeen Rennie Line), one day south of Beira,
August 26, 1908.
" My trek up country from the Cape to Delagoa Bay
is over, and now I must tell you all about it, because it was
quite one of the most interesting experiences of my life.
I left Capetown on Monday evening the lyth, and two nights
in the train brought me to Bloemfontein. All my journeying
was very comfortable and thanks to my tea-basket and some
of the good eatables which you all provided me with, my
food bill on the train dining-cars was not a very expensive
item. As I was getting out of the train at Bloemfontein on
the Wednesday morning a cheery voice greeted me, ' Let me
take your bag, Arthur.' I expect I had not seen E. Short
since he was at Malvern Link, so that of course I should not
181
have recognised him. He looked after me splendidly, both
on the Wednesday morning when I had only half an hour
at Bloemfontein station, and on my return from Modder-
poort on the following Friday. I was waiting for the train to
Modderpoort when up trotted a lady from S. Michael's with
a note from Miss Edwards, inviting me to their seven o'clock
Eucharist at S. Michael's on the Friday, and to breakfast after-
wards ; then off I went on my pilgrimage to Modderpoort,
reaching the station there at half-past two in the afternoon.
A young Father belonging to the Society of the Sacred Mission
met me at the station and brought me up to the community
house ; you can imagine what my feelings were like when
I reached the beautiful garden, of which the aunts love to
speak, and then the house, and close to the house Uncle
Jem's grave. 1 It lies between the grave of Father Beckett
and the later grave of Brother Arthur. Father Drake,
the present head of the community, arrived at the house
soon after me, and he gave me a most kind welcome, saying
among other things how grateful he was for the aunts'
continued interest in Modderpoort. After tea he took me
through the graveyard and garden to the farm.
" I took several photographs of Modderpoort.
" I slept in the community house in a little room next
door to the library in the same passage as the library
refectory. The church is, as you know, new and very beauti-
ful (except the iron roof) ; the vestry has an inscription
carved in the stone outside ' In memoriam Jacobi Douglas.'
On the following morning I had the privilege of celebrating
the Eucharist, and then soon after breakfast Father Drake
drove me over to Ladybrand in the very cart which Uncle
Jem used on his long treks ; at least the body of the cart is
the same. One hour's drive brought us to Ladybrand, and
then, whilst Father Drake went to examine the coloured loca-
tion school, I was handed over to Father Hilde, the member of
their community who is in charge of Ladybrand. The new
church of S. James at Ladybrand is in memory of Uncle
Jem, and after I had had a little talk with the caretaker,
Mrs. B., who was in Ladybrand in R.'s 2 time, though not an
1 Father James Douglas. - Arthur's brother, the Rev. Robert Douglas.
182
official, I went into the church. Father Hilde told me rather
a good story about the British commander in the district
during the war, how he told the then superior that he must
commandeer the church for use as a hospital ; but going into
the church he found the windows would not open (an essential
for a hospital), and saying it would be a shame to break
the beautiful stained glass he agreed not to commandeer
the church after all. The beautiful stained glass consists of
coloured paper pictures gummed on ordinary glass ; of course
the discreet Father kept quiet. I think it was Father
Saunderson, but I am not certain. I also saw the little
old church which Uncle Jem and Robin used, but it is now a
carpenter's shop. Then Father Hilde trotted me round the
town. . . .
' You can imagine how very hearty everybody was and
how they wanted to know about the aunts, &c. Then Father
Drake drove me back to Modderpoort in time for midday
dinner, and in the afternoon I pottered about in the garden
and saw Father Beckett's cave and the bushmen's paintings
on the rock. At eleven o'clock that night I had to say good-
bye to the beautiful place and the kind people, and Father
Drake walked with me to the midnight train which landed
me at Bloemfontein the next morning at 5.30. I walked
to S. Michael's Home and at a few minutes to seven I boldly
clanged the very loud front door bell, and my clanging
brought the Mother Superior out of Prime to welcome me.
She had been told by Miss E. of my coming, and indeed I
afterwards found that it was she, the Mother Superior, who
was most kindly going to act as hostess at breakfast in her
own rooms, the breakfast party consisting of herself and
Miss E., Edward, and myself ; but first there was the beautiful
service in the chapel, the celebrant being the chaplain, Mr.
Pinel, an old Ely man. Edward walked back with me to
the train for Johannesburg, leaving Bloemfontein 8.45. One
of my travelling companions was Mr. Rice, the new six-foot-
four priest in charge of the Railway Mission.
" In the latter part of the afternoon the train crossed the
Vaal river, and so from the Orange River Colony I entered
the Transvaal and reached Johannesburg about eight o'clock
183
that evening, and was met at the station by a lay brother of
the Community of the Resurrection whose acquaintance I
had made this spring at Mirfield ; and so within twenty-four
hours I had been in the chapels of three different communi-
ties, joining in Compline at Modderpoort and Johannesburg
and being privileged to make my Communion at Bloem-
fontein betwixt the two extremes. I had no time to see
the cathedral at Bloemfontein. You know that I was not
able to spend any longer time at Bloemfontein, as I was all
the time trying to overtake my party at Delagoa Bay.
And in fact I made up my mind that if by leaving Johannes-
burg on Saturday, the day after I got there, instead of
Sunday, I could better hit off my party at Delagoa Bay,
I must do so, and give up having my Sunday morning with
my Nyasa boys at Johannesburg ; so I was of course very
thankful and very pleased when I received a wire from
Delagoa to say I should be in time if I left Johannesburg at
noon on Sunday, so I had the whole of Saturday and the
most important part of Sunday at Johannesburg. After
supper on the evening I got there, I had a long chat with the
Likoma man who has been acting as catechist to the Nyasas
at Johannesburg, though I know him far better as one of our
best boatmen at Likoma. On Saturday he and I took the
train to a station on the rand, the whole way being lined
with mines, and I looked up another Likoma boy who was
acting as cook at a little boarding-house. I also went into a
compound and saw the kind of way the mine boys live and
sleep. By the time we got back to the community there
were half a dozen more Nyasas who had come to sleep and
to see me and to join with me in a Chinyanja celebration the
next day. As a matter of fact there happened to be fewer
Nyasas than usual at Johannesburg, but I was very thankful
to be able to do even what I did. Of course it was the first
time there had ever been a Chinyanja celebration in the com-
munity chapel, and though we were only a small company we
sang everything just as it is sung up at the Lake. By a
curious coincidence, four Nyasas had been baptised by a
priest of the community only on the preceding Sunday ; and
so on the Sunday after the Baptism they were able to be
184
present at a Eucharist in their own tongue. After breakfast
my time was largely taken up with receiving money (gold
and silver) from the boys to take home for their wives,
and to buy clothes for their children. Some of them had
not been back to Nyasa for six years, a terribly long time to
be away from home. I did what I could to persuade them
to return quickly. I was busy up to the last minute before
the cab came to take me to the midday train for Delagoa
Bay, so that I could not go to see Father Shaw ; I was so
sorry. So on Sunday at noon I left Johannesburg and,
via Pretoria, I reached Delagoa Bay on the next morning at
half -past seven, not a whole seven days since I said good-bye
to Rondebosch. Though I had wired to my party to expect
me by that train, none were at the station to meet me, for
the best of reasons ; four were keeping S. Bartholomew's
morning at the church of the Lebombo Mission, and one
was seedy in bed. That same morning we left Delagoa
Bay ; yesterday we stopped at Mhambane, where I
visited another Lebombo Mission station, and to-morrow
morning we ought to reach Beira, where we must tranship
into a little steamer to take us on to Chinde."
(To a Sister)
IMPROVED TRAVELLING ON THE SHIRE
Houseboat on River Shire, Sept. 3, 1908.
" Snodin, Tom Hallson, and I, who are inhabiting one
houseboat, have just finished a couple of games of
' patience ' ; the three ladies, Miss Murton, Miss Newton,
and Miss Nixon Smith, are in another houseboat a few
hundred yards ahead of us. So we have reached the
punting stage, and I have been taking snapshots out of the
rear window of this little house at the helmsman, and out
of the fore window at the punters. One is really almost
ashamed to travel up the Shire nowadays in this luxurious
fashion, whilst dear people at home are picturing the poor
missionaries having the same rough time they had twenty
years ago. As a matter of fact, the comfort of travelling
up the Shire has improved enormously since even I first
185
came out. Of course it is very hot, and I daresay the
thermometer in this room would be well over a hundred,
but whereas the little cabin, which I remember in old days,
was only high enough to creep into and sit down in, this
cabin I can easily stand up in ; it has a good opening at each
end, and room enough inside for three camp beds and a little
table, altogether adapted for playing ' patience.' More-
over, it does add very largely to one's happiness in travelling
when one has learnt to understand punters' habits, and can
talk to them in an impressive way. Till one can understand
their habits and language, one is always supposing they are
pulling the ignorant European's leg, and resting when they
ought not to rest, and so forth, but now all goes with
beautiful smoothness. Of course these river boys are not
Lake boys, but they can talk the Lake dialect sufficiently for
us to understand each other ; for example, when I came out
of the cabin at 5 A.M. this morning and shouted to them
slumbering on the bank ' Sonka moto,' they all knew that it
was my order to light a fire and make tea. At Beira we
found the little Beira-to-Chinde coasting steamer waiting
for us, so we did not even go ashore at Beira, but transhipped
straight away, and were off in the coaster within three hours
of reaching the Beira harbour. The thirty-six hours from
Beira to Chinde was much the least pleasant part of the whole
journey. The little coaster was just like a cork on the top
of the water, and went much slower than usual owing to
having a big barge tied on behind her ; but no matter
thirty-six hours is only thirty-six hours, and at Chinde we
recovered our spirits (our ghosts as the German doctor once
said to me) on finding that the Zambesi steamer was all in
readiness to take us on board. ... In spite of the fact that
it was nearly dark by the time we reached Chinde, and that
we were there only a couple of hours, I saw a wonderful
number of our Nyasa boys. They had got wind of the fact
that we were coming, and some were ready to welcome us
when we reached the harbour, and others kept turning up
afterwards. Some of them were boys whom I knew very
well. Several brought parcels of clothes which they asked
me to take to the Lake for their wives and friends. . . . The
186
Zambesi steamer, flat-bottomed, was a delightful boat, and
to my mind a very nice change from the ocean steamers.
. .. . We left Chinde August 28, and reached the junction of
the Zambesi and Shire on the following Tuesday morning,
but the Shire is at a low ebb, and so the steamer had to
disgorge us the next day into these two houseboats. I do
wish you could have been with me yesterday evening, or still
better, at night, as there is a half moon, and the boys were
punting up till nearly midnight. I stood for a time outside
the cabin and watched the river banks by moonlight and
the numberless fireflies, and of course the boys themselves,
and when we passed a village the people made bonfires, and
the banana trees in front stood out against the glow.
Altogether, in spite of the raucous singing of the punters,
there was a wonderful peace in the air. The natives tell us
that we shall reach the end of our houseboat journey this
evening, our destination being Port Herald, where is the one
terminus of the new railway. A passenger train from Port
Herald to Blantyre only runs twice a week ; the next train
leaves Port Herald on Saturday, and reaches Blantyre that
same evening, so by the use of the train we can now do
within one day what used to be reckoned at least three days'
trek. Letters from the Lake tell me that the C.M. is due at
Mponda's for Kota Kota, Likoma, &c., on the loth. If all goes
as we hope, we should be there by the loth or nth ; I must
send a wire to Mponda's to tell the steamer to wait for us. ...
" Mr. Snodin is wondering whether we are going to call a
halt for afternoon tea : that must depend on our ladies who
are ahead and not even in sight. Of course secondarily it
depends on the punters : if they have no food of their own
on board, they will probably prefer to punt on to the sweet
end, which is Port Herald and their home."
(To a Sister)
MEETING OLD FRIENDS
Steam wheeler Monteith, Lake Pamalombe, Sept. 9, 1908.
" Lake Pamalombe is a marshy widening out of the Shire
river, and is chiefly remarkable for the amount of explosive
187
gas which is contained in the water, so much so that it is
really dangerous to strike matches close to the surface ; but
from the point of view of weary travellers, Pamalombe is
really much more important as constituting part of actually
the last day's journey before we reach Mponda's ! Actually
we expect to be having a late afternoon tea to-day with
Padre Ker, &c., at Mponda's Mission station. So our
journey to the Lake comes to an end ; after that, there
remains the voyage up to Likoma, but that ought to be
almost unmitigated joy, only tempered physically by lake-
sickness, (at least I fear that the rough season will not be
over), and morally by the news of relapses and disappoint-
ments among natives in whom one is interested. However,
there are, of course, very numerous causes for thankfulness.
We reached Port Herald September 3, and had to remain
there not an attractive place till early Saturday morning,
when the bi-weekly train took us from Port Herald to
Blantyre. The distance by rail between these two places is
about no miles, and we took thirteen hours over it. Blan-
tyre is in the Shire highlands, very high, so the poor old
engine had a hard pull, and in one place she had to make
three attempts before she could get round a corner. More-
over the embankments are very steep, and look as if the first
heavy rains would wash them away, so no wonder that the
Government engineer has refused under present conditions
to ' pass ' the railway as a safe concern. However, it is of
course a great boon to Europeans and to natives ; moreover,
the carriages are comfortable, the feeding on the train is
excellent, and the scenery among waterfalls was, I am told,
most beautiful during the morning hours I unfortunately
was asleep. Another sign of civilisation is the telegram.
I received one at a station about 8 A.M. from Mr. Shinn at
Blantyre, asking me whether I could have a Celebration at
Blantyre next morning (Sunday) . I was able to wire back
' Yes.' The telegram was specially convenient, as we did
not get into Blantyre till 7.30 P.M., when it would have been
very difficult to make arrangements for the next morning ;
whereas, on receipt of my reply wire, Mr. Shinn was able to
send notice to all the English Church communicants. Mr.
188
Shinn is in the telegraphic department. We had a delightful
Sunday at B., stopping as usual at the very comfortable
boarding-house of the African Lakes Co. We had an
English Eucharist in the public hall ; there were ten
communicants in addition to some of our own party. . . . On
Monday morning we left Blantyre in six machilas, each
machila having sixteen men ; there were also twelve more
men for our light baggage, whilst our heavy baggage went on
separately, so our party must have been responsible for about
150 men to carry ourselves and our baggage. We had two
long days in machila, sleeping at night in a very good rest
house ; in the two days we covered sixty-four miles. That
brought us yesterday, 6 P.M., to a place on the upper Shire
called Liwonde, where a little steamer came down from Fort
Johnston to meet us. At Liwonde we met with a very
delightful surprise. I asked a native boy whether he knew
if the steamer was coming for us. He replied, ' I don't know,
but perhaps Mr. Jenkin does.' I said, ' What Mr. Jenkin ? '
He replied, ' Mr. Jenkin wa Mission ' ; so that's how I learnt
that, by a delightful chance, Padre Jenkin, who does the
river Mission work, happened that very afternoon to be at
Liwonde. He might have been anywhere else either on this
part of the river, or forty miles away up in the hills. So I
searched out his tiny houseboat and found him therein. He
had no idea that we were anywhere near. It was great luck,
as when I found him he was just starting off for another
village, but he thought our advent was a sufficient excuse for
altering his plans, so he had a jolly evening with us. Padre
Jenkin is able to use a motor bicycle for much of his work
which lies round about European Government settlements,
where the roads are kept in good order. His usual plan is to
sleep in his houseboat, and then, in the morning, go off on
his bicycle and visit villages, and then meet his boat again in
the evening at some appointed place whither it will have
been punted in the course of the day. The ' jolly evening,'
you will understand, was last evening ; then down came the
steamer from Fort Johnston, and we got on board. But oh !
the mosquitoes, and oh the nets ! My net was passable, and
by plugging up a few small holes with paper and sticking
189
stamp paper over one larger hole, I kept the mosquitoes out.
But Snodin and Hallson had shameful nets, full of holes, and
the mosquitoes swarmed. I was able to comfort my youths
in the morning by telling them that the mosquitoes were too
large and openly vicious to be the fever mosquito, which
generally does its work very quietly and unsuspectedly.
" A. J. DOUGLAS."
(To a Brother]
ARRIVAL AT LAKE NYASA FUTURE PLANS
September 17, 1908.
" It's difficult to head my letter with any locality. I am
sitting in the little mud-plastered rest house built by Arch-
deacon Eyre at Che Mapunda's village. Che Mapunda him-
self, the ancient chief of the village, has already paid me two
visits in this little hut although I haven't been here more
than two hours. On his first visit he gave me a letter which
Archdeacon Eyre has sent to me care of Che Mapunda ; on his
second visit he brought me a present of a fowl and some native
flour, whilst I had to get one of my boys, acting as interpreter,
to convey to the chief as delicately as possible that my boxes
(and consequently my return present) are still on the road
some miles behind me. The fact is that, as usual in Africa,
the unexpected has happened. I told N., in the letter I
wrote just as we were reaching the Lake, that though I had
not received any official communication from Archdeacon
Johnson (the acting Bishop), I quite expected to be going
direct to Likoma. At Mponda's, however, I got his letter in
which he asked me to choose between several alternatives,
but the one which he obviously favoured was a month's
visit to Archdeacon Eyre at Mtonya.
" This Mtonya trip seemed to me an excellent idea . . .
both because it was reported that Archdeacon Eyre was
very seedy, and also because it seemed rather a doubtful
good to send Tom Hallson, the new gardener, to start life
for himself at Mtonya with a seedy Archdeacon. So from
every point of view it seems best for me to go up to Mtonya
with Hallson, and do what I can to give him a good shove
190
off, and also see how the Archdeacon is. So these are the
reasons why Hallson and I are sitting at Che Mapunda's
village within twenty miles of Mtonya. We are making it a
five-days' machila j ourney from Malindi to Mtonya. We two,
in company with Brother Sargent, left Malindi on Monday
and soon began a long climb into the hills behind Malindi,
and during the whole journey we have been in the high-
lands, working up northwards and keeping a distance of
twenty miles from the east Lake shore, and sometimes we
have caught a glimpse of the Lake far below us. From
Malindi to Mtonya is all the country of the Yaos ; that is
why I have to speak to the old chief through an interpreter
who knows Chinyanja as well as Chi-yao. I am finishing
this letter at Mtonya, having covered the last nineteen miles
of the journey from Che Mapunda's by n o'clock this
morning. We have had a splendid time right away through
from Malindi more than ninety miles. Hallson was vac-
cinated at Malindi the day before we started, so it hasn't
been a very comfortable time for him. Just now there is
a good deal of smallpox in the country. This is about the
driest time of the year, so the country was not looking its
best. It can look perfectly gorgeous in the rainy season ;
but even as it was, nothing could take off from the magnifi-
cence of the great granite mountains through which we
passed, whilst, though there were almost no flowers, many of
the trees had already put on their brilliant red spring foliage.
All the new spring shoots out here seem to start with being
either pink or red. We had a grand reception at Mtonya,
the school-boys coming to meet us headed by a flag, and one
boy had his set speech all ready in English : ' O Dear Padre
Douglas, we are very glad to see you here ' ; and then, of
course, there was dear old Archdeacon Eyre with his white
cassock tucked up round his waist. I like the look of the
Station very much ; there is no brick or stone about the
houses, but they are built prettily, with plenty of room. I
am living in a three-roomed house which was built for one
of the ladies ; Miss Minter had it, and there is another close
to it which was Miss Medd's. It is rather sad that these
two houses should be generally empty ; I wonder when
191
the ladies will be able to return ; you know that they left
because an unruly chief made a raid near the Mission, and
it was thought to be unsafe for them. The air up here is
splendid ; it seems an ideal sanatorium. I hope that Hallson
will be able to get the vegetable garden in order. Mtonya
is about twenty-seven miles from the Lake, and my plan
for the future is to stop here two and a half weeks, and then
go down to the Lake at the nearest point, in time to be
picked up by the CM. ; so up to Likoma for the latter part
of October for the purpose of examining the would-be
deacons at S. Andrew's Theological College, and giving
them a Retreat. Then for November I expect to be at
Kota Kota.
"... then during December I must be at Likoma to
help Glossop in preparing the Christians for Christmas, and
in January I suppose I shall go to take charge of S. Michael's
College. One of the bits of news which met me at Mponda's
when I reached the Lake was that a large part of the college
had been burnt down. That is not really so bad as it sounds,
for most of the buildings which have been burnt down are
those which, in the natural order of African buildings, would
have sat down of themselves, or for safety's sake have been
taken down in another year's time ; and the new chapel
and dormitory have not been burnt. But Padre Marsh's
own house has been burnt except the walls, which were brick,
and many of his own goods must have been destroyed. I am
very sorry for him, but for me it means that I shall have
nice new buildings."
S. Michael's College is the college for teachers which
was then on the mainland at Kango opposite Likoma Island.
It was in Portuguese territory, and that fact added to the
difficulties of the work. Arthur was to spend a month or
two at Kota Kota, and then to take charge of S. Michael's
College in January 1909. In looking forward to his work
there he writes : " Mine will be a very difficult work and
I shall need your very many prayers."
192
(To a Sister]
ANTICIPATIONS OF COLLEGE WORK
Likoma Island, Oct. 26, 1908.
" During most of the day the thermometer in the shade
of my verandah sticks at 90, and even now at n P.M. it is
at 79, and not a breath of wind. My verandah for the time
being is the verandah of Likoma hospital, where I spent a
considerable time before my furlough. It is not acting as a
hospital for me now, but only as a very comfortable guest
chamber. We have been a very big party here during the
last few days, so that all the houses have been full. One
night at dinner we sat down a party of ten men and four
ladies and one other, Mr. Marsh, sick in bed. I posted
my last letter home at Kota Kota, which we reached on a
Saturday evening. I had a most delightful two days there :
the CM. on which I was travelling spent an unusually long
time there, as Archdeacon Johnson, who was also travelling
on her, had to give a series of addresses ashore to native
teachers. I gave them an address on the Sunday evening,
and also preached in English to the brethren on Sunday
afternoon. Most of the boys around the station there are
the same whom I knew only they are five years older. The
people there were very affectionate, and at Likoma since
my arrival there last Thursday, they have been perfectly
delightful. I have got the same boy to look after me who
took care of me when I was ill ' James Yonah.' My other
old boy, Jeffreys Mwaraba (M/s friend), has also maintained
a good character since I went away. I went to watch the
drill this morning. . . . The school drill is in charge
of a native soldier lately come from Zanzibar ; I think
he must have kept them at it for a specially long time
this morning for my benefit. Anyhow when it was over
they went to Mr. Glossop to ask if they might go down
to bathe. . . . The Cathedral has got on a good deal
since I saw it ; one west tower is finished and its twin
is half up. The eight bells -which can only be chimed
and not ' rung ' (as they are shaped like saucers stuck
up on edge) are in their places in the tower, and there
193 o
is to be a clock which strikes the quarters ! Mr. Marsh is
now well again, and intends to return to his duties at the
College to-morrow. I intend to accompany him in order to
take stock of school material and native food and see what
needs to be ordered. Most of the College was burnt down
two months ago, including the native food store. That was
the most serious loss ; otherwise the fire did good by clearing
away a good many old rickety reed houses, which stood
between the priest's house and the Lake, and blocked the
view. Now the view is opened out and it is exquisitely
beautiful. The College stands on the top of a hill over-
looking the lake with Likoma in the distance. . . . Mine
will be a very difficult work there and I shall need your very
many prayers for myself and the native teachers and the
students and the villages, which will also be under my
charge."
He was, however, kept a few weeks at Likoma by his
work as Examining Chaplain to the Bishop, and in the
following letter he mentions the friendly terms he was on
with the Portuguese official on the mainland, who was ill
and whom Dr. Howard attended.
(To a Sister)
S.s. Charles Janson, Nov. 17, 1908.
" The Lake is beautifully smooth, so I shall have no
excuse for not getting a letter ready for the C.J. to carry
down to Fort Johnston en route for England, after she has
dropped me at Kota Kota. I have had a very pleasant
though a very hot and thirsty month at Likoma ; my chief
business there was the examining of native candidates for
Holy Orders. ... I hope I was also able to make myself
useful to Mr. Glossop who has been priest-in-charge of
Likoma since I left Likoma invalided.
" He has lately been without his proper curate, so has
found it very difficult to get away from the Cathedral main
station to visit his outlying districts. But my stay at
Likoma gave him the opportunity. Since I was invalided
194
home there has been an addition to our fleet of Mission
sailing boats, Glossop having got one of his own, in which he
took me one afternoon for a sail. He is able to do a good
deal of his parishing by means of his boat. The object of our
journey that afternoon was to see whether the Christians in a
village had ' finished to put ' up a hut for a sick and needy old
lady ; money for providing the materials for the hut had
been provided by the Church collections, but the erection
was to be by the goodwill of the Christians in the old lady's
village. However when we got there, we found that the
goodwill had only carried them forward such a very small
way, that Mr. Glossop there and then issued a proclamation
that if the hut was not finished in four days, all people from
that village who were getting employment from the Mission
would be sacked from their work.
" The proclamation had a stimulating effect upon their
goodwill, and within the stipulated four days old J.'s house
was perfected. We are finding it necessary to teach
strenuously the law of charity and almsgiving. As to the
majority of mankind, so even to the Central African, the law
of tithes is not naturally acceptable. It is good in theory
but inconvenient in practice, especially when food on the
island of Likoma is dear. To-day I and the C.J. are
travelling over precisely the same ground or rather the same
patch of the Lake that we travelled yesterday. I said all
my good-byes at Likoma yesterday morning, but this
morning, I o'clock A.M., saw us puffing back into Likoma
harbour again, and another set of good-byes had to be gone
through to-day. The reason for all this pother was that
yesterday afternoon when we were getting near the end of
our day's run, we called at the head Portuguese official's
residence to pick up Archdeacon Eyre who had been helping
to keep the Portuguese King's birthday, and we found the
official in such a state of nerves and temperature that we had
to run all the way back to Likoma to fetch Dr. Howard.
As I write this we have just got back to the Portuguese and
have sent Howard ashore to comfort him. This Portuguese
really seems to be a good sort anyhow superior in educa-
tion to most that come out here. He talks English quite
195 o 2
well, having been partly educated at an Anglo-Indian Roman
Catholic College with a view I believe of taking Holy Orders.
I was introduced to him yesterday and told him, that after
Christmas I hoped to be one of his subjects S. Michael's
College being in Portuguese territory. . . . They had a very
large ' do ' here in honour of the Portuguese King, the
natives assembling from thirty or forty miles round.
" Archdeacon Eyre was the sole representative of the
Mission. I think eleven white men sat down to the state
dinner. The festivities in honour of the King of England
had been the previous week at the British headquarters on
the Lake, Fort Johnston, and the head British and Portu-
guese Government officials paid each other the compliment
of attending each other's dinner. I expect to be landed at
Kota Kota to-morrow and to stop there till after Christmas.
" The work at Kota Kota has extended very largely since
I was in charge there ; it must now embrace a district with
radius twenty-five miles, Kota Kota proper being its centre.
Then as soon after Christmas as may be I want to settle into
my work at S. Michael's Training College. My chief fear
is that the students' food will run short there. Food can
only be bought at certain periods of the year, and what with
the ravages of white ants in the rice store, weevils in the
flour, the overflow of unexpected students and general
miscalculation on the part of the overworked priest-in-
charge, there seems every probability of arriving at the last
food bag without knowing where you are or what to do next.
That is the universal experience of other principals-in-charge,
and I have no particular reason to think that my education
will raise me superior to the rest as a housekeeper."
(To a Sister)
MOHAMMEDANISM
Kota Kota, Dec. 9, 1908.
" There is actually a weekly post now from Kota Kota.
Mr. Clarke, the priest-in-charge of Kota Kota, is having a
196
little jaunt on the C.J, to Likoma, so here I am in my old
place, the only white man on the station. Yesterday I
borrowed the Government official's donkey in order to revisit
Sani, an outstation where I made the first catechumens six
years ago. Miss Thompson, the Mission nurse, also went for
the purpose of vaccinating ; she went by machila and I am
sorry to say that, both going and returning, the machila
beat the donkey ; in fact what with my own impatience,
and that of the machila as well, the donkey altogether got
a good deal beaten. However, all's well that ends well, and
I and the donkey accomplished the journey (eight miles
there and eight miles back) with no worse mishap than a
broken girth which .the one-eyed donkey-boy re-sewed by
the light of his one eye and a partially bashed-in helmet
which collided with a tree branch and thereby saved my head.
Sani is quite one of the prettiest places I know out here,
and of course it was delightful to find even a few of my old
boys. But most of the boys I knew best are away from the
district, and all the buildings on the Mission station are new
since my day. In six years they would have tumbled
down in the natural order of African houses, but as a matter
of fact many of them met with an unnatural death at the
hands of the Mohammedan villagers who set them on fire
Mohammedanism is more than usually aggressive to us there.
The teacher there was telling me yesterday that he wanted
to leave because the Islamites disliked him so much and
gave him a bad time. I told him of course that he must
expect nothing else and that it would be very astonishing if
the Islamites didn't dislike him. The majority of boys here
when they want to get much money find their way to Fort
Salisbury. It takes them about thirty-five days to walk
there. I am told that Nyasa boys have got such a footing
there now in the employment of Europeans that when one
Nyasa wants to return home he tells his master that he knows
another chap one of his own tribe who would like to
take his place. So now, outside Salisbury there is a little
colony of Nyasa boys. But although they get what our
people think are very big wages they don't bring very much
back with them as a rule. I was asking one of my old
197
Kasamba boys a few days ago whether he had brought much
wealth back with him from Fort Salisbury. He replied,
' Oh dear no, I ate it all down there ! ' So if a boy borrows
a shilling from you and you ask for it back again after you
have slept many days, he will possibly reply, ' I am sorry to
say that I have eaten it.' Even if he had spent it on cloth
he might still say he had eaten it. . . ."
Kota Kota, December 15, 1908.
" I had only written four lines of this letter to you this
afternoon, when one of the Mission ladies came running to me
with the most tragic news that a young Christian school-boy
had just been drowned in the Lake. She knew no particulars,
so she hurried down to the Lake with the brandy, whilst I
sent off men with a slung hammock to fetch our nurse, who
had gone to a school a mile away ; we didn't know whether
there might be a chance of reviving him. Then came the
truer account that the little chap had been seized by a croco-
dile, and that his body was not to be found. When I got
down to the Lake, there were twelve canoes searching the
water of the lagoon, for Kota Kota is on a lagoon, very
shallow. I believe the canoes put out from shore with splendid
rapidity. The crocodile was seen in the act of taking the
boy, and the canoes were after it in an instant. This evening
the boy's body was found, and it is now laid in the church.
We shall have the requiem in the early morning. It is a
nice custom at Kota Kota for the Christian lads to dig the
graves of their comrades ; there are sure to be plenty of
volunteers to-morrow. The boy has only got two near
relations, a mother, who cannot walk, and a school-girl sister ;
poor girl, she was lying on the sand quiet and exhausted
after her violent weeping, when the canoes were making
their search. For her sake and for the mother's sake I'm
108
glad the body was found. You know that Kota Kota was
the first place where I was in charge, and after six years of
separation from my first love, except for an occasional
glimpse, it is a very great interest and pleasure to me to be
back here over Christmas, and as the other priest will be
away till about Christmas Eve, I shall have the work of
preparing or helping the Christians here to prepare for their
Christmas Communion. But sometimes it is almost agonis-
ing work, and perhaps not the less agonising if one remembers
that their grossest acts may probably be, in God's judgment,
not worse than one's own acts of omission. But there is very
much to make one thankful, and some of those who were
the worst young scaramouches six years ago, are to-day
reputed paragons of diligence. It is most awfully nice
to find a little catechumen chap, whom I carried from the
village in my arms because he didn't mean to walk to the
Mission at proper bedtime, to-day serving me at the altar,
and getting the prize last year for top attendance at school.
" I wonder whether you saw the pamphlet for the day of
Intercession by Bishop Weston of Zanzibar. I expect it
was very helpful.
" Almost immediately after Christmas I expect to
take up the work of ' Principal ' of the training college for
male teachers.
" Mind you find time to pray for S. Michael's College.
I expect to be the only white person at the College, and beside
the fifty or sixty boys, there are the surrounding villages to
look after ; but Likoma is only six miles off across the
water."
A WEDDING
Kota Kota, December 22, 1908.
" To add to my other business this week, I had a wedding
suddenly sprung upon me at 6.30, S. Thomas's Day, last
Monday. The last banns had been published on Sunday,
but I never thought of the pair wanting to be married till
199
after Christmas Day, so the first notification of the wedding
was when the bridegroom appeared in all his finery on my
verandah at 6.30 A.M. Moreover the wedding feast was
all prepared in the village. I discovered that by going
over to the ladies' quarters in order to ask whether the girl,
who was sleeping in the girls' dormitory, was expecting to
be married that day. As I was talking to Miss Newton,
who had charge of the girls, Miss Thompson, who has charge
of the kitchen, put her head out of the door and said, ' Is
the wedding to-day ? '
" I replied, ' What makes you think so ? '
" She replied, ' Because the goat's liver has just arrived.'
Therein is an excellent marriage custom which I have met
nowhere else than at Kota Kota ; when the goat is killed
for the marriage feast, the liver is sent to the Mission kitchen
as the parson's fee.
" On Christmas afternoon there are to be sports for our
Mission people. I must get my camera ready. I believe
the grown-up women's race is a most glorious sight. They
run with buckets of water on their heads.
" On the following night we have our Christmas dinner,
we shall be too tired to eat largely on Christmas evening.
We have asked the other resident Europeans at Kota to
dine with us. The possible maximum to accept our invita-
tion would be three, but of these three, two will probably
be away, so our guests will probably number one.
" I am waiting to plant my seeds till I get to S. Michael's
College ; it will be a splendid time to plant them, just in the
middle of the rains. I have procured from the Government
official here some red and yellow canna seeds, which I sowed
in boxes, and they have come up most successfully. Also I
bribed the boys here with a little salt to bring me the roots
of a large red lily which grows wild in great abundance here.
It has a very big round spiky bloom, a mixture of a hedge-
hog and a red sea-anemone. Altogether these will fill quite
a number of boxes, and Miss Fage has given me lots of pots
of variegated-leaf plants, so I must put the captain of the
Charles Janson in a specially good temper before I venture
to bring my garden on board with me."
200
(To a Brother)
CHRISTMAS AT KOTA KOTA
Kota Kota, December 27, 1908.
" It has been a great pleasure to me to spend Christmas
at my old station, and of course Christmas time has brought
me into specially close contact with many of my old friends.
But the Christian community here to-day is double what it
was when I was in charge. Then I suppose there were about
a hundred baptised, but on this Christmas Day about two
hundred made their Communion, the service lasting from 7
to 9 A.M. Then to-morrow there is to be a special service
for the catechumens in the district, and I am to preach to
them, but these, of course, will for the most part be un-
known to me, at least if any of these were catechumens in
my day they must have been jolly lazy not to have gone
forrader in this five years' time.
" After the Christmas morning services were over, we
had athletic sports for the natives. I very much wish you
and your boys could have seen them. The very small kids
were, of course, the most delightful, and keen as nails with
their loins girt up ; but the bigger boys' jumping was also
good, considering that they had not practised beforehand.
I took some snap-shots. The natives turned up very well
again for Evensong, and then after dinner we had a grand
performance of my phonograph in the big school before a
mixed audience, including the hospital patients and blind
school. This latter is a really fine institution. There are
now about two dozen blind boys and girls, and they are
taught to read Braille, and to make mats, baskets, &c. So
altogether Christmas was a very happy day, and even the
sports passed off without a single wrangle.
" I expect on Tuesday to go a little expedition to an
outstation fourteen miles away and spend the night there.
' Then the Charles Janson is coming here on Saturday,
and on Monday I must say good-bye to Kota Kota, and
get back to Likoma, and thence to S. Michael's College to
prepare for my first term. At present I am studying the
201
map of Europe and practising dumb-bell exercises for the
future benefit of the students.
" Besides the work of the College, with its fifty or sixty
students, there are four villages of which I shall have the
charge. Two of these are quite close, that is, within a mile
of the College, another is about three miles off, and the
fourth is a day's journey away right up in the hills. This
latter I shall only be able to visit in the holiday time.
" The College year is divided into two terms, each of
about five months, with the holidays at Christmas and July."
The following letters describe Arthur's impressions of
S. Michael's College as he found it. It will be seen that he
was bent on having a good garden from the first, and for
this purpose he constantly asks for seeds from England.
LIFE AT THE COLLEGE
S. Michael's College, February 4, 1909.
" I don't know where to begin when I want to tell you
all about the beginning of our term. However, I will start
by saying that the Charles Janson brought me and my Kota
Kota garden (done up in bags and tins) to the College in the
first week of 1909. Then I had only two hours in which to
put the garden into the ground. What a rush we had !
Mr. George was with me, and there were a few stray men
about the place who all helped to dump the plants into the
ground. I didn't like to keep them any longer in bags, and
then the steamer whistled, and that same morning I was at
luncheon with the big party at Likoma. There I stayed for
three days, and then, with all my household goods, boxes
innumerable, I came over to the College to stop. The place
was in a most astonishing mess.
" On mounting the little hill on which the College is built,
I was confronted with a long row of burnt ruins, about seven
houses, the old schools, dormitories, church, stores, which
had all been burnt to the ground last August by an accidental
fire . . . really the fire did a great deal of good. . . . When
202
I arrived, there were two young Likoma carpenters still at
work, fitting the windows into my own house, for that, like
most of the rest, had been burnt out, leaving only the stone
walls. There is a second European house which was in a
considerably worse plight, so that a mason was working
there, pulling down walls and building them up again, during
my first fortnight. But the school took the cake for
pigginess. There was scarcely a single piece of furniture
whole. In one class-room there were about three tons
(literally) of flour, rice and beans, with which the white ants
were having a grand time, as the bags had mostly been piled
on the floor without any tin underneath to keep the ants off.
The school was also the sleeping place of the cocks and hens,
and also of our one calf, whilst the four elderly cattle slept in
another little reed store, through the walls of which the bull
used to put his head and make his escape at night. So one
of our first works had to be to turn all the native food out of
the school and separate it from the ants and ant-mud, and
sew up the broken bags again, and then build up all the bags
again on a proper metal foundation in the only thief-proof
place we had, one room of the aforesaid second European
house, where the mason had finished his work. The school
itself had really only ' finished to be cleaned ' about the day
before the students arrived. Needless to say, now cows and
calf and cocks and hens have all their nice new little houses.
" I have been hard at work in school ; the day's business
has included overseeing English translation, then a lesson on
the Prayer-book, then sol fa, and this afternoon lessons on
how to read in church, how to keep a register, and physical
drill. That brought me to 4 P.M., since when I have been
looking after the various workpeople, and paying wages in
money, soap, salt, and cloth.
" Well, we have had a very delightful beginning to our
term ; we are now getting to the end of our first fortnight,
and everything has gone with a blessed smoothness. The
students (fifty-three with two more to come) have played up
splendidly, and accepted the extra discipline I have laid on
in the way of a little hard manual work and evening school.
Now we are in for a dose of learning from January to June.
203
The boys vary very much in age, a few are married and look
twenty-five, the youngest are, I suppose, about fifteen. So
far the College work has taken up my time so fully that I
have done very little with my villages. Before the students
came back the village school-boys used to spend a good part
of their time playing football and helping me to get the place
in order, and they really were very useful, but now their
holidays are over and the College term has begun, so they
are not quite so much in evidence.
" The villagers come up to the College for the Sunday
Eucharist, otherwise they have their services in their own
little churches, under the superintendence of the village
teachers.
" Now I must tell you about my real garden, because
after all my Kota Kota plants are only a very small part of
it, and at present there seem to be almost no signs of them ;
I hope they may reappear next year. But my Sutton seeds
give most excellent promise ; I was rather behindhand in
planting them, but now there are about a dozen boxes on my
verandah full of seedlings. I think the sunflowers will be
ready to plant out in a few days, and I think all the various
kinds of seeds have come up. My flower garden will, of
course, be close to my house, but down at the bottom of this
little rise (and consequently close to the Lake where the soil
is good), I am renovating what was once a fruit garden. It
was a devastated and burnt wilderness when I arrived, but
under the hand of a really good native gardener, the under-
growth is being cleared away, and many pineapple plants
are coming to light, whilst the many lime-trees and guavas,
which had their branches killed by the fire, are beginning to
sprout again from the bottom, and I have even had two
feeds of mulberries, a small kind, but very good."
(To A. C. Champneys, Esq.)
II
S. Michael's College, Nyasaland, Septuagesima, 1909.
" It really is splendid of you to have time to write to me,
and I shall try to get a letter ready to be put on board the
204
Chauncy Maples, which is due to call here during the week.
She calls for home-bound letters about once a month.
Since my return to Nyasa, I was doing all sorts of odd jobs
up to Christmas ; first spending a month at our hill station in
Yaoland, helping our young gardener, who came out with me,
to find his footing among the Yaos. Then I was at Likoma
Cathedral station, examining some native candidates for the
diaconate and one for the priesthood ; then I spent six very
jolly weeks at Kota Kota where I was in charge five years
ago. In spite of lapses among some of my old friends there,
I was made very happy by the great advance there has been
in the work in that district ; and some of those whom I
remember as young ruffians are now holding places of honour
as servers, &c., in the church. Then at the beginning of this
year I got to my new work here as ' Principal ' of S. Michael's
College for the training of native teachers. When I got here,
the students were away on their Christmas holidays, I'm
thankful to say ; as the place was in a pigsty-mess it took me
all my time during the first fortnight to get things decent.
' There was a big fire some months ago here which burnt
down all the old wood and mud buildings. Fortunately the
schoolroom and dormitories and chapel all of which had
been newly built were untouched by the fire ; but, for
lack of other accommodation, the cocks and hens, one calf
and about three tons of native flour, beans, &c., were
all living in the school. But though the students were
away, the school-boys from the neighbouring villages, of
which I also have the charge, were during the holidays
more than usually in evidence on the College football
ground, and they were capital helpers. You would
have been amused to see these kids shouldering the
heavy bags of flour and helping me to transport the
whole over to another house the only place which seemed
to be not only ant-proof but proof also against human
thieves.
' They have now been back a fortnight fifty-five of
them, aged from about fifteen to twenty-five, and we have
made a very happy start.
' The day's routine Chapel 6.30, but, before that, I can
205
see the boys sleepily sloping down to the lake, hugging their
coloured blankets round them, for their morning dip.
" It is, I confess, rather an inadequate dip, a sort of toes
and fingers business, but there is plenty of opportunity for a
proper bathe later in the day. Then school 8.30-12 ; then
their first meal porridge, beans and salt ; then school again
2.0 to 4.0, the last three-quarters of an hour being given to
physical exercises, either dumb-bell exercises, of which I have
got a very complete scheme, or else hoeing the ground.
Then at 4.0 o'clock they are free for football or anything else
that is going. Alas ! my football bladders have lately been
bursting like fireworks. I sat up one night, trying to mend
five holes with seccotine and patches from another bladder
worse than itself. What a pathetic appeal ! especially to a
man who once sent me two footballs, for which I didn't thank
half as soon as I ought. Then a jolly good bathe in which I
often join. Oh ! if only your boys could tumble into that
glorious blue lake instead of the L.C.C. paid-out baths.
Then Evensong; then their second meal porridge, beans
and salt ; then three-quarters of an hour's school, followed
by one hour in which to rot about ; then prayers and to bed,
and woe be to the boy who kicks up a row in his dormitory.
Doesn't that sound an ideal sort of life ? and certainly a
well-filled day is the way to keep these lads happy and
disciplined.
" I read with interest a letter of yours in the Church
Times. I understand that the Education Bill is defunct."
Ill
S, Michael's College, March 8, 1909.
" My large lambs have gone to bed. They sleep in
three dormitories, two dormitories for Nyasas and one for
Yaos. There are fifty-six lambs this term.
" To make writing a letter possible there are two neces-
sities : (i) that the students should have gone to bed ; and
(2) that the mosquitoes should not have got up. By a happy
chance, this being the night before the steamer, both neces-
sities are realised. We have Compline at quarter to nine,
and, though I don't want to enforce strict silence after
206
Compline (for after all the lambs are not strictly theological
but only pedagogic lambs), yet by half -past nine all ought to
be asleep, and so they generally are. I would like you to
know more of my daily time-table. If it is a fine morning
the boys, hugging their blankets round them, are straggling
down the steep path, this time of year with high grass each
side of it, to the Lake by about six o'clock. They don't
have a real plunge at this early hour, but only paddle and
dabble ; the real bathe comes at midday after their meal,
or later still before Evensong, when I often bathe with them.
Then by half -past six we are ready for the Eucharist. I told
the students at the beginning of the term that I hoped to have
the Eucharist, but that, as they had not been used to a daily
attendance at it, attendance would of course be quite volun-
tary. I really expected that eight or ten would be about
the average number present, but since the first day of the
term, six weeks ago, up to the present, I think that scarcely
any student has been absent once, and this, though the
Mattins which follows immediately after it is compulsory as in
English schools. I am very thankful for this readiness of
the boys to use the Eucharist, and we should pray that they
may not slack off. A special feature of each day's Eucharist
is the recital by me, after the Consecration Prayer, of the
names of village schools and teachers belonging to one of the
districts of the diocese. The boys have helped me to collect
the names of all such villages in their own districts, so that
by this means we are enabled to go steadily and methodically
through the diocese from one end to the other in our Euchar-
istic intercessions ; and these boys when they leave the
College will be glad to feel that they and their work are
mentioned in proper turn at their old College Altar.
" Another devotional exercise which, after the Eucharist,
I think I should be most anxious to use at the College and
to see in use through the diocese, is the informal prayer
meeting, but I haven't ventured upon that ; just because
of its informal character, I believe it wants very careful
management.
;<-.. ." Did you see what this quarter's Missionary intercession
paper said about the power of prayer meetings ?
207
" Well, Eucharist and Mattins last just about sixty-five
minutes ; remember Chinyanja phraseology is longer than
English. Then, whilst some boys, according to routine,
sweep the dormitories, the rest rot about ; only these days,
some will be rushing down to the lake again to see if they
have had any luck with their fish-baskets, made after the
manner of a lobster-pot, easy to get into, and impossible
to get out of. I see the boys reserving large balls of their
porridge to act as bait.
" Then, school from 8.30 to 12, with a half-time break.
There are two native teachers ; I teach English, singing,
geography, ' method,' dumb-bell, some arithmetic, Prayer-
book, and S. John's Gospel the latter is much the hardest.
They are much entertained at the dumb-bell exercises ;
I got a book full of them from the Kota Kota lady, Miss
Jenkyn, who is a professional teacher of physical exercises.
The students didn't know at first whether to like the un-
usually large amount of energy which the dumb-bells entail.
I heard one of them mutter to himself when he was under-
going some bodily contortion, ' Madness.' I'm not sure
whether it wasn't ' Madman,' if so, let us hope that he
wasn't looking further afield than his own self.
" After school, which has been going on again from two to
four o'clock, they bathe, or football, or borrow axes or knives
from me to cut bark-rope or reeds which they can sell at
Likoma for cloth ; then Evensong before sunset ; then their
second meal (porridge and beans, just like the midday
meal, except that sometimes one meal is rice and monkey
nuts) ; then at seven o'clock another bit of school, followed
by an hour's frolicing, and so Compline. It sounds very
delightful doesn't it ? and so it is, only it leaves the one
European precious little time for doing his own reading. I'm
thankful to say that I haven't got quite so many workmen and
women on now, as I have had when we were putting build-
ings into order. The big garden was a mass of undergrowth,
but now that we have got that cleared away, I think
that the gardener with two assistants ought to be sufficient.
It has got lots of lime-trees and guavas and quantities of
pineapples, and we are increasing the stock of mulberries
208
(a species which bears almost as soon as you plant it),
and Cape gooseberries, and now vegetable seeds which I
brought from home are doing splendidly. To-night I had
better French beans than, so far as I remember, I have
ever had before in Africa, although the seeds were only put
in the ground six weeks ago, and the lettuces have come up,
and I shall soon have tomatoes. My flowers too are going
to do, though I was late in planting them, but the large
bull, belonging to my herd of four cows and two calves,
went partially mad a few days ago, and rolled in my bed
of balsam seedlings. I stood by and watched it doing so
imagine my feelings. The cowman from a safe distance
hurled brick-bats at it.
" I have had a jolly visit during the last two days from
Glossop, priest-in-charge at Likoma. A few weeks ago two
of the laymen came over for the week-end, and I think that
the Likoma staff will like to come over in that sort of way,
when they see that I enjoy having them. But more than
that, I have actually been over to Likoma this week for a
night to talk to the Bishop about College plans, system of
entrance exam., the problems connected with the com-
mixture of Nyasas and Yaos, &c. After my special Lenten
service for the village Christians in the College chapel on
Wednesday afternoon, the Likoma sailing boat took me
over and I had a satisfactory and helpful talk with his
lordship."
HOLIDAY TRAMP TO MANDA
Likoma, Low Sunday, 1909.
" You see I am writing from Likoma ; I am here for two
reasons first because my own College lambs have got a
week's holiday, so the College is deserted, and secondly,
because this is a very great day at Likoma, the ordination
this morning of two natives to the diaconate and one to the
priesthood. They had their examination in Passion Week,
so that I had the correcting of their papers in addition
to the other work of Holy Week at the College. It was a
great pleasure to all most closely concerned when on Easter
209 P
Eve I was able to send word over to Likoma to the Bishop
and Padre Wilson, the head of the Theological College,
that I thought they could all three be ordained, so on Easter
Day there was special joy in the land. My special duty
to-day was to preach the ordination sermon. Thus there
now are four native priests and three native deacons in the
diocese.
" We had a very nice Good Friday and Easter at the
College. The students made their Communion at an early
hour on Easter morning, and then we had at seven o'clock the
sung service at which the villagers made their Communions
to the number of about 210. They are by nature very
patient about the length of services and were quite content
to sing hymn after hymn whilst the one priest was com-
municating them. It was wet on Easter afternoon, so my
phonograph was in evidence and, much to the delight of
the students, for the first time they heard their own voices
reproduced. Further joy awaited them in the evening,
when they had goat instead of beans, and then the large
contingent, more than half the College, who were going to
walk to their homes or their friends' homes in the Msumba
direction came to say good-bye to me, as they meant to
start as soon as the moon got up, I think about three o'clock
in the morning. So when I got up I found the College
more than half deserted the rest all went off in the course
of the morning, a goodly number going over by boat to
Likoma. These last went armed with bags of rice, as food is
very scarce on the island, and it is not fair to land a dozen
hungry youths and expect them to be fed for a week by the
Likoma station caterers. The boat which came over to fetch
the students no, it was another boat, but no matter (you
see our abundant means of communication) brought
to the College two of our laymen, Shannon and Snodin,
armed with guns with which they intended to shoot game
in the afternoon. They returned in the evening having
shot nothing, but I gave them an excellent dinner and sent
them back to Likoma at night.
" On Tuesday I mounted the hills to my outstation at
Manda, four and a half hours' tramp. It would be a more
210
beautiful walk in the season now the flowers are over
but parts of it are very grand. The chief lent me a house
to sleep in, but I had my own bed and bedding. In January,
after I had only been at the College a week or so, I got a
letter to say that all the Mission buildings had been burnt
down at Manda, these included the Church school and
teacher's house, and two private houses. I was afraid at
first that they must have been burnt on purpose, but there
was nothing to prove it, and indeed I expect now it was an
accident. But I told the chief that I could not build up
both the Church school and the teacher's house again, but
if he would be responsible for having the Church school
built without Mission money, I would, if satisfied that his
job was properly finished, then have the teacher's house
built with Mission money. He agreed to this, and when
I went up there last week I was pleased to find what a very
good new Church school his people had put up, so then I
agreed with him about wages for building the teacher's
house, and also a dormitory for the school-boys. This was
the estimate we agreed on :
" For teacher's house six men to receive three fathoms
(two shillings) each ;
" For dormitory two men to receive three fathoms each,
and thirteen boys (Christians and catechumens) to
receive one fathom (eight pence), their extra work
being given as a Church offering ;
" Ten women to receive two fathoms each for cutting
grass for the roofs, and one fathom each for
mudding the walls and floors ;
" Total estimated cost of teacher's house and boys'
dormitory, 2. 45. 8d.
" My return journey next day to the College was a
wonderful experience of rain. It began to rain when I had
left Manda three-quarters of an hour ; the rain caught me
just as I was in the middle of crossing a most perilous river,
and I wondered whether I should reach the opposite bank,
about four yards away, before I was wet through. It really
would not have mattered in the least if I had not done so,
for in a very short time I was soaked through and through.
211 p *
In a few minutes every hill path was a rushing stream and
the only alternative to the paths was high grass, of course
sopping ground underneath oozing with water. So in a
short time I made up my mind that it was pleasanter to
go splash, splash through the flooded path than brush, brush
and squash, squash through the grass ; the result was that
after about three hours' tramp when I was near the College
and walked through a river three feet deep with a rushing
current, I felt no wetter than before. On reaching the
College I comforted myself with a hot bath, lots of still
hotter cocoa, and a beautiful rich cake, my Easter present
from Nurse Minter. No ill-effects followed.
" Mr. Winspear was at the same time holding a retreat
for the three ordinands at the College, but the retreat ended
next morning, and we all crossed over together to Likoma.
We are an enormous party of Europeans here at the present
moment : the Bishop, Archdeacon Johnson, four other
priests, eight laymen and five ladies. The laymen include
our four steamer-engineers, who are engaged in putting the
two steamers to rights. The Charles Janson was the first
to be laid up, then the Chauncy Maples floated on to the
rocks and damaged her bottom, so for the last month the
engineers with the assistance of four hundred men have been
trying to pull her on to dry ground. But it has been a very
difficult job, as the wire ropes have constantly proved unequal
to the strain, and have snapped, and they have only managed
to haul her up a foot or so each day. I went to see her, poor
old thing, last Friday ; she looked so forlorn, half out of the
water. Now, however, the engineers have settled not to
attempt any more hauling, but to mend her, as best they
can, as she is. So I hope she may soon be running again ;
and when she can run again, she will be able to bring up
the material needed for mending the C.J., who was simply
worn out with old age and hard work. Her ribs, poor
thing, were in a most distressful state.
" I am finishing off this letter on Monday ; to-morrow I
return to the College, and I hope to see all the students
back before the evening."
212
VISIT FROM A MACHECHETA
S. Michael's College, 5th Sunday after Easter, 1909.
" You will see by the accompanying little bit of exercise
book paper that I am suggesting to you that the Coral League
should adopt Mwenyezari as their friend. As he received the
Cross at Pentecost, 1908, he ought if all goes well to be
baptised in the first six months of 1910.
" I and Mwenyezari ought to meet every Sunday morning,
when I teach the catechumens after the Eucharist. I shall
be very keen to hear and so will he be whether he has got
what he asks for, and has become friends with the Worfield
children. If so, the next step in the friendship should be for
one or two Worfield children to write him a letter. I do
hope they will write sometimes to their boy here.
" Our two excitements at the College lately have been
two species of wild beast. The first beast is called a mache-
cheta, and the other is called msonkos. First, the story of
the machecheta. I was just thinking of going to bed when
there suddenly without the slightest warning began a most
horrible row at the cowhouse a hundred yards from my house,
the poor cattle terrified out of their wits. The night watch-
man came rushing across to me, shouting, ' Padre, wild beast,
wild beast ! ' There was certainly no doubt about it, nothing
else could cause such a commotion, and equally certainly it
must be a beast of no mean size ; the only alternatives ap-
peared to me to be leopard or lion. So I really felt utterly
helpless. Though there was a rifle, there wasn't a cartridge
on the station, and if there had been I did not know whether
the watchman could shoot, and to my knowledge I had only
let off a gun once in my life on High Park Hills, where we
put up a bit of paper as a target ; moreover this was night,
so I said to the watchman, ' I don't see that we can do
anything, so I think under the circumstances you had better
come into the house ' ; so in he came. But it was really very
horrible to hear the poor cattle, there were four full-grown
ones and three calves. As a matter of fact a bolder spirit
than myself would probably have lit a large torch of grass
and have gone out in the hopes of scaring the beast away,
but unfortunately, or possibly fortunately, I am not bold.
213
When the general rumpus had subsided, or yet not so en-
tirely subsided, but that I had the consolation of knowing
that some cattle were still alive and hearty, I went to bed.
In the morning the watchman woke me with the news that
though the four big cattle were all right, all the three calves
had disappeared. The cattle-house is built of trees and the
calves slept in a side partition ; this had been broken into.
And then we began to find remnants of calf, the largest
remnant was the remains of the biggest calf which had been
dragged another hundred yards or more away to a dry
river bed. It was then that I heard of this beast called a
machecheta, a kind of large, fierce hyena ; the natives
said that they thought the damage must be the work of a
machecheta, or probably two, as if it had been a lion it would
have killed one calf and left the others. So that evening
with the assistance of some native soldiers of the Portuguese,
who had rifles and cartridges, we set two gun-traps, baited
with calf, one in the dry river bed, and one outside the cow-
house. If a beast came and touched the bait it would pull
the trigger and shoot itself. The next morning when I
woke up I said to the watchman, ' Did the gun go off at
night ? ' He said ' No ! ' None the less, when I had just
finished my toilet, one of the soldiers came along very quietly
and whispered that there was a wounded beast in the grass
near the cowhouse. So much for my watchman, who sleeps
so soundly that even a rifle shot near by won't wake him up.
So there was, of course, great excitement. Other gunners
arrived and the beast was killed as soon as might be. And
sure enough it turned out to be a machecheta, which had,
as we anticipated, come back to finish its last night's meal,
or perhaps in the hopes of finding something fresh.
" I sent the skin to Mr. Shannon, who is a very keen
naturalist, and that's the end of the first beast, but alas,
alas ! it is also the end of my three calves.
" The other beast which is causing much wider and more
serious trouble among the natives at the present time is
called msonko. It attacks every house without exception,
and poor women leave their houses, and at night hide in the
woods for fear of it.
214
" Mr. George told me that a few days ago he saw a woman
with a baby on her back creeping along on all fours. Msonko
was pursuing her, and the men who were with Mr. George
said that if the baby didn't cry she would probably escape,
but if the baby made a noise she would be caught.
" Msonko 's other name is Tax. I wonder how many
women there are hiding in the woods to-night to escape
their tax payment.
" The Portuguese native employees make raids on the
huts in the villages at night, and when they find anyone
who has not paid their tax they carry him or her off to the
Portuguese headquarters. If there is a married couple in
the hut, they carry off the wife as a pledge, leaving the man
free to search the country for the four shillings necessary
to redeem his wife. It is really more of a poll tax than a
hut tax, because, except in the case of a married or an
engaged couple, where one payment does for the two, every
person, except young children, has to pay tax.
" There is a girl working in my garden who has first paid
her mother's tax and then her own, although she sleeps in her
mother's house.
" Eleven of the College students were arrested last week
as they were walking past the Portuguese quarters, and I
had some difficulty in redeeming them. Of course the people
are very stupid and utterly improvident ; the tax has now
been in force about seven years and they know it is coming,
and they know just what will happen if they don't pay.
In a good many cases, probably, they really could not get
the necessary four shillings, but even where they could, they
don't. They put off the evil day, and then when the
msonko beast is on the prowl, they come to me with the
really lamentable tale how wife or sister is hiding in the
woods.
"As to the demand for tax payment from the College
students it is a new demand, and therefore I have sent full
particulars to the Bishop, who is on his tour round the
diocese, so that, if he thinks it advisable, he can call at the
Portuguese headquarters and come to some agreement/'
215
(To a Sister)
THE PRINCIPAL'S GARDEN
S. Michael's College, June 2, 1909.
" Mr. George sent me a messenger this morning to say
that he is on the mainland to-day, and that he expects to
reach the College sometime this evening. So I shall get a
letter written for him to take over to Likoma, to be put
on board the Chauncy Maples. Poor old Chauncy Maples,
not so very old either, she has not been running about the
Lake quite so long as I have, her first trip was during my
first month or so. Well, I know that I have already told
some one that during last Lent she dragged her anchor when
she was in harbour, and so sat down on some rocks, hence
for the last three months she has been in hospital herself,
dragged up on Likoma beach. And now I hear that the
engineers have managed to make her sound again and that
she is back in the water, and is meditating a journey to the
south end, which means a chance of sending a mail. The
running power of the Chauncy Maples is a matter of gravest
interest to the College students, because in June (this very
month) they are due to go home for their bi-yearly holiday.
If all goes on now as well as I hope it may do, the second
journey of the Chauncy Maples ought to take the students ;
they come, of course, from all directions, and the worst of it
is, that by the time some get home it is almost time for them
to come back again. We only expect to ' rest ' for one
month. I also am expecting to voyage round the stations
on the Chauncy Maples for the purpose of examining
candidates for entrance to the College. So far as is possible
I shall try to have them collected at centres. I don't know
whether you understand that we cater for two quite distinct
tribes, Nyasas and Yaos. As their name implies, the
Nyasas are mostly near the Lake, the Yaos are more in their
hills and at the south end of the Lake. So I have written to
the padres in charge of the two chief stations, Unangu and
Mtonya, to say that I hope that their candidates will come
down to the nearest point on the Lake, there to be put on
216
board and carried down to Malindi to be examined with the
south end boys. Unfortunately it is just the nastiest time
on the Lake, the south wind doth blow and we shall have
many comfortless moments. At this moment, looking out
of my window, I see great white horses on the Lake, so as
Mr. George has only come across in a cockle-shell of a boat,
I hope he will be prudent and wait till the white horses have
gone. My plants on the verandah look very much agitated
in the wind.
" The garden is really being a great success. My cannas
have been and still are gorgeous and capable of being spread
out next year over a larger space. Do you know a canna
when you see it ? It stands about three feet high and has
flowers, great large blossoms, which Archdeacon Johnson
liked so much, because he could unmistakably see them, of
all shades of yellow, orange, red, some of them striped red
and yellow together. Of the flower seeds which I brought
out from home, the zinnias and balsams did splendidly, the
former have been a great stand-by for church decoration.
The nasturtiums were scarcely given a fair chance, planted
out in the sun too soon, or not deep enough in the ground,
so though they tried hard to flower, they soon gave up the
attempt, but I think I shall try them in boxes on my
verandah, and keep them so another year in the shade.
" Just as I was writing about my garden, up came my
gardener Davis to have a look at my verandah, and I have
given him the last of my tomato seeds. The tomatoes are at
their best now, and both yellow and red grow to a great size,
so, I think I had better herewith ask for an order from
Sutton : tomatoes, beans, lettuce (I don't think I got hold
of a very good kind of lettuce ; of course, the climate is
against them, but mine were either very flabby or bitter,
so another kind might be tried) ; then I want to try potatoes
and cabbage, radishes, onions, and any other kind of
vegetables ; we might give them a trial. I feel rather
conceited when I can send over any vegetables to Likoma.
The doctor has given me a lot of flower seeds, so I don't think
I need ask for any from home, except a packet of nasturtiums
(not dwarf), and perhaps two packets of geranium ; I have
217
one geranium with lots of leaves. I bought some point-
settias from Kota and they, at least two, are in flower,
although they are only a foot high. [More commissions
follow.] And 120 reels of white cotton, if possible at \d.
each. The students pester the life out of me for cotton to
sew their cloths with, but they would gladly do a halfpenny-
worth of manual labour if they had the chance of buying a
reel. If \a. reels of cotton don't exist, I must have sixty
penny reels ! "
The letter which follows finds Arthur in the middle of
his summer holidays which he spent largely in examining
candidates for admission to the College. He ends the letter
by referring to an experience of Archdeacon Johnson which
will be read with interest.
THE LONG VACATION
S.s. Chauncy Maples, July 5, 1909.
" I am writing to you in the little saloon of the Chauncy
Maples ; in a day and a half we ought to be at the south end
of the lake, and so my letter will be considerably nearer
home than when I have to catch the post at S. Michael's
College.
" The College has gone down for its half-yearly vacation.
Nearly all the students who were within walking distance of
their home chose to walk home (although for some it meant
about 100 miles), rather than wait at the College for the
steamer to come and take them. I took the opportunity
of going up north into German territory by the steamer. It
was the first time I had seen the north-east of the lake. It
is only in the last few years that the Mission has spread into
that district ; the people there are more primitive and talk
quite a different language to the Nyasas. Then we came
back again to Likoma and picked up the College remnants,
and so we are journeying south.
The last two days I have been enjoying myself at Kota
Kota. My principal reason for risking my health on the
218
Chauncy Maples in this exceedingly blustery period of the
year is that I may complete the examination of candidates
who want to come to College. When I have finished I shall
have examined about 100 boys from all over the diocese.
The majority of them (seventy) managed to walk to the
College for a joint exam, near the end of the term. It made
a deal of work, but was really great fun.
" The Bishop came to the College for the end of the term
and expressed himself pleased with things in general.
" It ought to be really good for the native Christians to
know that the Mission is really hard up. I'm sure they think
that Mission shillings and cloth and soap reach to infinity.
" Dr. Howard and Miss Minter expect to leave us in
September and get married in Zanzibar, and then go home
for a honeymoon before they return to Zanzibar to settle
down. I wish we could hear of another doctor willing to
come here and do his work even half as well as Howard has
done it. Among his other good works he has trained a
couple of native boys as medical students. One of them
always travels on the steamer and gets a large number of
patients from the villages where we touch. I was very much
impressed by his skill and coolness a few days ago when a
fellow we had on board bashed another three times with a
hammer on the top of his head. Each time the wound was
right down to the bone, and I quite thought his skull must
be fractured. Fortunately it was not fractured, but it was
bad enough. However, our skilled native practitioner got
out his forceps and dug down and got the broken artery, and
had the bleeding stopped in no time. But the incident put a
sudden finish to our northern trip, as we felt bound to hurry
straight back to Likoma, and hand over the sore head to
Dr. Howard.
" As we are on such a disagreeable subject, I may as well
tell you that as we sat at breakfast this morning Archdeacon
Johnson told us that this was where he sat one day from
5 o'clock till 9.30 with a knife, for a part of the time at least,
held to his throat. His native cook was killed. It was in
the early days of the Mission, and for some reason the natives
of the village were in a state of unrest. Late in the evening
219
the natives cooled down and left the Archdeacon unmolested.
However, they had stolen the ship's boat (the ship, the
Charles Janson, was in the harbour), so the Archdeacon got
into a small native canoe (thinking each moment he would
be stopped again), and, with a grass reed as his only paddle,
reached the steamer. Archdeacon Johnson hardly ever
speaks of his own past experiences, and I had never heard
this story before."
(To a Friend)
HOLIDAY FOOTBALL
S.s. Chauncy Maples, July 6, 1909.
" I am having a trip round on the Chauncy Maples,
as the College has gone down for the half-yearly holiday.
Most of the students chose to walk down (although for some
this meant a walk of aboutioo miles) rather than wait for the
steamer to take them. The remnant who did not walk I
left at the College in charge of the head native teacher, whilst
I took the opportunity of going north by the steamer into
German territory. It was the first time I had seen the
north-east of the lake ; the natives talk quite a different
language to the Nyasas who live around Likoma. You know
that in this diocese we work under three European flags
British, Portuguese, German. One has to consider when
one goes to church which of the three kings Edward,
Manuel, or William has to be prayed for.
" Well, my primary reason for writing to you is to tell
you that your football arrived at the very right moment,
at the end of the term, enabling the boys who were left at
the College to have a good time whilst they were waiting
for the steamer to take them to their homes. . . . Also,
almost at the same time as the football, your letter arrived,
telling me you are sending out some mending apparatus.
Thank you so very much for all letter and football, and
the prospect of having something more serviceable than
seccotine.
220
" I am spending part of my holiday in going round the
diocese examining candidates for entrance to the College.
Before I have done I shall have examined about a hundred,
and, as there are only some twenty-five vacancies for this
next year, many will be the disappointments. The majority
of the candidates I managed to collect at the College
about seventy of them. It was great fun, as there was
plenty of food. We had to have two halls, one after the
other, as at some Oxford colleges, as these candidates for
the time being more than doubled our numbers.
" To-morrow we ought to reach the south end of the lake,
where boys are Yaos. Nyasas and Yaos fit in very happily
together at the College, although I give the Yaos a dormitory
to themselves. Of the two tribes, the Yaos are the more
dominating and look down on the Nyasas. Locally the
Yaos live mostly in the hills and the Nyasas near the lake.
" I look forward with pleasure to seeing your new book.
I read a notice of it in some paper. Thank you for
sending it."
A NEW CEILING
Likoma, August 2, 1909.
" I have not many minutes to write, as the steamer,
which was due to leave here to-morrow, has just arrived, and
has published her intention of going off again in an hour's
time. I also arrived here at Likoma about a couple of hours
ago, and I mean to spend the last week of the College
holidays here. You will have seen from previous letters that
I spent the first part of the holidays in travelling about the
Lake from almost very north to veriest south, and examining
candidates for entrance to the College. By that means I
have seen almost all the Europeans of the diocese, as well as
the country up north where we have been working in
German Protectorate for the last six years. They talk a
different dialect, indeed two different dialects, entailing two
new translations of the Church services. There is a print-
ing press on board the Chauncy Maples, and Archdeacon
Johnson, with the help of natives, was hard at work on this
translation during most of my journey.
221
" Then I got back to the College and spent the next
Sunday (S. James's Day) at my hill station ; then I got back
to the College again, and performed the examination of my
village schools at least two of them. And now for three
days (Sunday excluded), I have been hard at work making a
beautiful ceiling for my own house. A ceiling is useful for
two reasons (a) it prevents the clouds of dust with which
the insects, called borers (primarily because they bore not
me but the wood of the rafters), smother books, tables, and
clothes ; (6) a properly-adjusted ceiling, which fits on the
top of the walls, helps to keep out mosquitoes. In fact I
shall feel myself nearly mosquito-proof now, as I have got
wire gauze to all windows as well as the beautiful ceiling,
of which I am really very proud. The ceiling is made of the
backbones of long palm leaves (eighteen feet long), set
square-shaped, and over these are laid long plaited mats of
split reeds, golden in colour. I am glad it is finished, as,
though I let others do the climbing about the roof, it is very
tiring work looking up at your ceiling for three days and
wondering how soon a black foot will come plunging through
the gold.
" I shall return to the College before Sunday ; the
students return the following Tuesday, but the steamer
which brings them also brings all the Europeans to Likoma
for the annual Retreat and Conference. So I shall have to
leave the College in charge of the head native teacher,
Germano, for the first few days of term. At the Conference
I am hoping to propose that the College course should be
extended first two years at the College, a third year of
practical work in some school under a good teacher, and then
a fourth, final year back at College before the student gets
his teaching certificate. I think it ought to be workable,
although it means if possible a second European at the
College if there are to be these advanced fourth yearers. I
wish and I wish that we had got a trained lay master. They
have got an excellent lay schoolmaster at the Training
College at Zanzibar.
" This morning I forced my gaze from the golden ceiling
for the purpose of looking through the camera at Mwenyezari
222
and his two brothers. As the steamer leaves in a few
minutes I haven't had time to develop, but if the photos are
good I will send copies by next mail.
" Miss Minter has presented me with an English farm-
yard one cock, one hen, five chickens ; they look so large by
the side of the native fowls."
BEGINNING OF TERM
,Boati Chikulupi, August 31, 1909.
" I am sitting in this nice sailing-boat, waiting for my
boy who has had to run back for the mail bag ; when he
arrives with it I hope to be blown over to Likoma.
" I am going up to ' town ' for two reasons : (i) to get my
hair cut I shall get that done by the dispensary boy if he is
to be found ; (2) to have a tooth out I shall get that done by
the doctor. Dear Dr. Howard, it will probably be our last
happy little bit of comradeship together at Lake Nyasa ;
most pathetic. If the doctor and nurse really depart
to-morrow I shall see their send-off. We (the staff) have
done quite the proper thing and given them an ' Address/
most exquisitely illuminated by Mr. George, that most
remarkable man. He calls it ' the bit of paper ' !
" Mr. George came over to see me one day to put up a
church and a school. He put up the school from 8.30 to
10.30, and the church in a different village from n.o to 12.30,
and then went back to Likoma after lunch ! What he really
did do was to put up the entire framework of the one, and
only grumbled because the workmen at the other hadn't got
quite enough material for him to finish putting up the frame-
work ofihe other. After the framework, the building only
needs to be filled in with bamboos and reeds and grass.
" One of the dispensary boys told Miss Minter that he is
going to give her a sheep for her wedding !
" We have had a capital beginning to our new term
sixty-two students this term and I feel that I have got a
more methodical time-table for them this term than last.
They are, taking them all together, an unusually old lot of
223
boys ; their average age must be nearly twenty, the ages
varying, I suppose, between fifteen and twenty-eigh* ,1
" The Conference, following the Retreat for members of
the diocesan staff, was delightful. I mean, what was
specially delightful was the meeting with everybody. In my
position as ' Principal ' I am really more lucky than most
people in the probability of having an annual tour round
the stations and so seeing the brethren, he's and she's. I had
called on most of them in June, but it was still delightful to
see them again.
" The steamer which brought up most of the staff (e.g.
from Mponda's, Malindi, Kota Kota, Msumba, Lungwena,
and the River), also brought back most of the College
students ; they landed at the College in the dark of Monday
evening. The Retreat did not begin till Tuesday evening,
so I was able to have one night with the students before I
had to leave them for a week in charge of Germano, my head
teacher. Archdeacon Eyre was with me at the College,
having walked from Mtonya overland (perhaps in ten days).
On the Sunday, the last day of our gathering, who should
turn up at Likoma but Sir Alfred Sharp, the Governor of
British Nyasaland. We found him waiting for us when we
all came out from the Eucharist. It was, perhaps, good that
he should see our staff en bloc, and he had breakfast with us
before he went off again. He is a particularly pleasant man
to talk to."
THE COLLEGE GARDEN
S. Michael's College, November 9, 1909.
" We are getting hotter and hotter, and shall I suppose
continue to get hotter still for another six weeks, till the
rains come. I suppose you have scarcely ever felt the sen-
sation of sitting down after the smallest fragment of walking
and feeling the perspiration trickling down back and face.
That is about what we have come to to-day, and there are
those dear students playing football through it all. I
can hear the thump, thump of the ball on the iron-hard
224
ground. But it is not the energy of the footballers nor the
heat qua heat which makes me so irritable at the present
moment. The crows are the real cause of vexation, and
with the crows, the chickens. My chickens, looking about
for morsels of green stuff, espied my little oasis of green
juicy potted plants, and have had a real good tuck in at the
leaves. But that is nothing to the crows. For the last
few days the students have been sowing millet seed all
about the College acres. I got my first inkling that some-
thing was wrong from the little cow-boy who told me that he
had seen the crows eating the seed, but I tried to make light
of it, and replied that if the crows did take a few seeds I
supposed there would be plenty left. Next day the cook
told me the same tale, but I still tried to be light-hearted ;
but when yesterday the students came and said that the
crows had dug up and eaten every jack seed which they had
planted, I couldn't be light-hearted any more. However,
my spirits are rising again, as I have despatched a message
to Likoma with a request for a shot-gun. I believe, if you
blow off a gun, even without hitting anything, and continue
to do so for a fortnight it has most beneficial results, and
if there should happen, after so much blowing off of gun,
to be a dead crow, then if you tie it to a string and let it
waggle in the wind, I'm told the effect is tremendous.
As for my own little juicy oasis, Davies, the gardener, has
hedged it round and stretched a fishing-net over the top,
and now I am only hoping the chickens will come, I think
they will look rather sick. But alas ! there again the chickens
are only half as many as they ought to be. There is a
creature almost two feet long, like an enormous lizard, which
is partial to chicken. A fortnight ago the cook found, I
really forget how many, but almost a dozen small chicks,
the children of the European hen given me by Miss Minter,
missing, and a nasty little tell-tale hole at the bottom of
one of the walls, where the mwanzi had got in.
" Mwenyezari has arrived, and so my letter is interrupted.
For the sake of the uninitiated Mwenyezari is the small
boy who has struck up a friendship with the Worfield school-
children's ' Coral League,' and this last mail has brought
225 Q
him a letter from two of the Worfield boys, so he has come
up to the College from his village, a mile away, to receive
his letter and to have it interpreted. By next mail I hope
he will have found both time and courage to write a suitable
reply. It was jolly to see his pleasure at getting a letter.
He has been doing well since I sent my last report of him.
I think he will be baptised next year, and if so, I won't
forget that his name, or one of his names, is to be Thomas,
or as he will spell it, Tomaso. The natives have strong likes
and dislikes about names. I expect he will cotton on to this
one all right. Tomaso is a common name here, but in
any case, he can choose a second name to join on to it if
he likes.
"I have planted seedlings of flowering red and yellow
dwarf acacias. The oleanders planted last year have
flowered strongly ; then there is another yellow flowering
shrub whose name I have never heard, but I have planted
lots of it, and I have one frangipani (?), very sweet, which
I was given in a pot two years ago, but it is growing quite
big now. My flower garden and shrubs are all round about
the College buildings, but the vegetables and fruits are at
the bottom of the hill close to the water. Just now we have
more mulberries than we can eat, mulberry and pineapple
tart is not bad. Our ladies use pineapple in the Christmas
mincemeat, instead of (I suppose) ordinary apples.
" By-the-bye, not a sign yet of my Christmas plum-
pudding ! It is probably sitting somewhere on the
banks of the river Shire waiting to be moved on. - Just
now, with the water very low, things move dreadfully
slowly. . . .
" About four hundred girls attend the girls' school on
Likoma Island."
In the following letter to an old college friend, Arthur
describes his work at the College ; he speaks of the departure
of Bishop Trower, who left the Mission at the end of 1909 to
take up the bishopric of North-West Australia. The spiritual
phenomena of which Douglas speaks towards the close
of his letter is very remarkable, but is in entire agreement
226
with what many another missionary has experienced in
Africa and elsewhere.
(To Rev. C. R. McDowall]
December 27, 1909.
" If I wrote my to-day's address, I should have to say
' Somewhere in the highlands two days' walk from the Lake.'
Holidays ! Blessed word ! My students were carried
away some on their legs, some by our two steamers
to their homes in different parts of the Lake a week before
Christmas ; then I had a busy week helping my village
Christians to get ready for Christmas ; and then, after I had
communicated about 220 of them on Christmas morning, I
fled albeit a toilsome fly to another of my villages up in
the hills, getting there on Christmas evening, helping the few
Christians to spend their Christmas on S. Stephen's Day ;
and so this morning I really turned my back on all work and
am writing to you outside my tent which my boys settled and
pitched in a little bit of a village quite gloriously out in the
wilds. ... I am intending to walk to Unangu where one of
our three native priests has his station. I expect to get
there after another three or four nights taking it very
leisurely only about four or five hours' walk each day;
from Unangu I hope to go on a couple of days farther to a
European station (Mtonya), there to sit down for several
weeks and prepare mind and body for next term.
" I am instigated to write to you through having received
last mail a very pleasant letter from you. I do so very
much like hearing from you. At S. Michael's College, where
I am the only European, I am, I'm thankful to say, never
white-man-sick, but possibly letters are more than ever
valuable. There are about sixty boys at the College aged
from fifteen to twenty-five all of them hoping to become
teachers ; naturally they are fellows with rather more
intelligence than the ordinary run of natives; you will
understand better than I can tell you the intense interest of
(letter interrupted by an old Johnny of the place wanting
to know whether he can do a deal with me in honey in
exchange for a shilling) .
227 o 2
" January 14. Two and a half weeks since the honey
interruption. If I recollect aright I refused to buy the
honey ; but you don't get rid of a native as easy as all that.
Being unable to sell me the honey, he returned to me with it
as a present. Now none can refuse presents ; natives give
innumerable presents to us foolish Europeans, but alas,
nearly always on the unexpressed understanding that a
return present will be forthcoming of double the original's
worth. But I was so harassed by my honey present,
(beastly stuff, not like English honey, and with no pot to put
it in), that I determined on equity rather than liberality, so
I sent the old chap two pennyworth of salt. Well, really
that was not worth writing, but having begun the honey
story two and a half weeks ago I had to finish it.
" I got to Unangu, as I prophesied, in four more days ; I
spent three days there, and then on to this delightful spot
Mtonya another two long days. My good resolution of only
doing four or five hours' walking a day entirely broke down ;
thenceforth I nearly always did over six, and once between
eight and nine hours.
" I reckon that from S. Michael's College to this place I
have walked about 130 miles, and I have got another eighty
to bring me down again to the south end of the Lake, but I
mean to use a slung-hammock for part of the way. There
I shall wait for the steamer Chauncy Maples to take me
back to College, picking up the students at different places
en route. I wish very much indeed that you could have been
walking with me, especially at one point when the path took
me 4000 feet above lake-level, with glorious mountains in
all directions except in the direction of the Lake which was
plainly visible ; but there again, across forty miles of water,
I could see the hills on the opposite side, so extraordinarily
clear is the atmosphere at this time of year when the rains
have just begun. The lake-level is stifling at Christmas
time, a perpetual bath of perspiration ; up here, though the
thermometer doesn't go below 60 at night, I have the
blessing of a log fire to keep me warm. Meanwhile I am
laying in a stock of rude health and useful lecture-room
information for my lambs next term. I began to tell you
228
about my sixty lambs, and I told you that the youngest
looks about fifteen, and the eldest about twenty-five ; of
course I can only say ' looks.' It is only the babies of to-day,
born under the star of the U.M.C.A., that begin to know
really how many years they have been born. I have never
up to this past year had very close dealings with youths.
My closest acquaintance has been either grown-ups, or young
(private school age) boys ; and I rather doubted whether
I could raise as much interest in hobbledehoys ; but doubts
are rather rot and perhaps the best proof of my keenness
about the College students is that I never get white-man-
sick, as I remarked before. Now there is one very peculiar
thing about black boys I always think of them as more
Marlburians or Etonians than as ploughboys. I don't
know why it is, but it's a fact. Perhaps one reason is that
there are practically no social distinctions in a native tribe
and therefore one is permitted to treat them all as gentlemen.
Another good reason is that the natives of the Lake (not
those of the hills) bathe per week fourteen times oftener
than the English ploughboys and probably oftener than
you and I in our most zealous summer terms. Taking all
things into consideration my chief wonder is why, in spite of
a daily sweeping, their dormitories should always swarm with
biting creatures ; my dormitory at Marlborough never did.
But then twice a week we used to get asphyxiated with
brimstone, and I can't run to the expense of brimstone out
here. At present the College course for getting a teacher's
certificate is two years. But at our last diocesan conference
I made a bold suggestion for extending the course for four
years, viz. two years at the College, a third year of practical
training away from College in a village school, the fourth
year back at College. But one big difficulty is that such
an extension of the course, with a compulsory increase of
students from sixty to ninety, absolutely necessitates a
second European at the College. (Besides the College
work I have four villages with schools and churches for
which I am responsible.) So, wjhen you pray for S. Michael's
College, think of this new scheme and of the need of a
European teacher lay or clerical. We have lady teachers
229
quite first-rate, and the supply seems unlimited from
university, high school, and elementary school ; but we
have not one professional master ; well now, I want one
badly. Of course he must be in sympathy with our Mission
Church views ; otherwise he would probably not be either
happy or useful. As a matter of fact our Bishop who has
just resigned always said that he didn't want a school-
master, but even he would allow the need now.
" We are bishopless another matter of prayer and really
a very, very urgent matter. We want a man strong and
tactful in dealing with civil government (British, Portuguese,
German). A man of clear vision for the development and
extension of the native Church ; and a veritable father to
the natives and to the European members of his staff.
Our Bishop is leaving us and going to start a new diocese
in North- West Australia.
" In your letter you ask me about obvious signs of the
activity of spiritual forces of evil or good. Your questions
brought to my mind what the Bishop told me twice about his
experiences on a long tour he made through a heathen
district. He said that he felt the evil spirits all about
him. They pestered him with horrible thoughts which
he in no way liked ; and this went on till he got down to
the Lake again into the midst of Mission life, when his life
resumed its normal condition. He told me that he always
noticed the same thing the extraordinary power of the
spirits of evil whenever he was walking through heathen
parts.
" On the other hand I think that many of us are at times
permitted a wonderful consciousness of the other side of
good in the spiritual life more particularly a consciousness
that others at home are praying for us ; and then again and
again how marvellously the greatest perplexities become
unravelled in our own bits of work ; when I haven't had,
and even by prayer don't seem to get, the slightest idea
of what is the right course of action in a difficulty, I seemed
forced into doing what afterwards seems the obviously
right thing. I only say this to you because you more or
less ask me ; nor do I mean to say that such experiences
230
are necessarily more common here than among workers at
home.
' You mention Goathland ; so can I. Four of my last
weeks at home summer 1908 I lodged at Goathland
with some of my family.
" We lodged at a farm beyond the church. I routed out
Mrs. W. and family ; she keeps swagger new lodgings near
the station. We had a glorious tea with her. I regret to
say that you, Alington, and Evans have brought our reading
party into everlasting notoriety. The details of the bed
crisis are still clear in the mind of Mrs. W r ., and she has
educated her family in the knowledge of the same.
' Yet more again : this past year some of my sisters again
were at Goathland, and a friend of theirs happened to be
lodging at the W.'s, and Mrs. W. (now that I am safely out of
the way) regaled the ladies with the most monstrous fabrica-
tions of evil tales notably that the four young gentlemen
at night used to light their candles down below and then
have a race upstairs, and whoever got to the top first used to
hurl his candle down below on the heads of his brethren.
Now I am powerless to refute such stories. What can I do ?
W 7 rite to the Church Times and ask ? To say nothing of a
meek little missionary, could a revered head of a great
public school and an equally honoured pedagogue at the
Eton seminary for young gentlemen possibly be guilty of
such conduct ? Besides if it had been true it would have
been far too good a game for me to have forgotten that I
ever played it."
A WALK ON THE MAINLAND
Mtonya, January 15, 1910.
" Here I am at Mtonya, having had a fine walk of about
130 miles from S. Michael's College. The students went
home a week before Christmas, then I had a hard week,
helping my village Christians (about 200 of them) to prepare
for their Christmas Communion, so after the Christmas
morning Eucharist my one desire was to fly from the College,
231
and I accordingly flew up the very steep hill behind the
College to Manda, my furthest village three and a half hours
walk from the Lake. There I spent a second Christmas
with the Mission people, and then on Monday with my
cook and boy and nine porters I started on my long tramp
to Unangu, getting there very stiff, but very well, on the
following Friday afternoon. I reckon that my path from
the College to Unangu was about eighty-five miles, and
it is forty-five miles on from Unangu to Mtonya, so, as I
have already remarked, the total walk so far has been
130 miles. I started with the excellent intention of not
walking more than about five hours a day, but after the first
two days, good intentions failed and I generally did over
six hours a day, and from Unangu to Mtonya (forty-five
miles) I only slept one night on the road. It was at noon on
the last day, when only a couple of- hours from Mtonya, that
I told my boy, as we had reached a stream, to light a fire and
make some tea. I still had some very uninviting bread and
marmalade left in my portable larder, but no sooner had I
sat down than up came an unknown gentleman, who planted
a large basket in front of me and said, ' From Bwana (Mister)
Archdeacon/ and in the basket were all sorts of delicacies
from dear old Archdeacon Eyre : new bread, butter, cheese,
cake, a little packet of tobacco and a bottle of milk. He
didn't much expect me to turn up till the next day and
intended his hamper to meet me half-way between Unangu
and Mtonya; but what was almost the best part of the
hamper (you must pardon the ' almost ' under these
particular circumstances) was a splendid home-mail just
arrived at Mtonya ; the treasurer at Mponda's had thought-
fully sent up my letters, knowing that I was bound for
Mtonya, so I walked the last two hours in the company of
my brothers and sisters, really very enjoyable indeed.
Unangu and Mtonya lie very high, the thermometer here has
only been about seventy degrees, so that some days I have
indulged in a log fire, whereas at the Lake we have been
living in a perpetual Turkish bath. To get to Unangu I had
to climb over a ridge 4000 feet above the level of the Lake, a
glorious panorama of mountains all round, except in the direc-
232
tion of the Lake which was clearly visible with the hills on
the opposite side. The atmosphere at this season is extra-
ordinarily clear ; this was my first visit to Unangu, Padre
Yohana Abdallah's station. I was there from Friday to
Monday, and preached on Sunday through anjnterpreter.
The people along all these hills are Yaos. . . .
" We made out that Yohana and I were born the same
year, but he does not know the month of his birth. The
natives have a great respect for him, and he has a great
respect for his own office. . . .
" I rather hope that we European missionaries with the
vastly improved health of the Mission are getting to use the
machila less and trusting to our legs, but I. must not brag,
as when I set out again on Monday on the last part of my
land tour, I mean to be lazy and go in a machila for the first
two days, and then, sending it back here, I ought to have a
fairly easy last two days' walk down to Malindi. That will
have brought my trip to about 210 miles. At the south
end of the Lake I shall divide my time between Malindi and
Mponda's till the Chauncy Maples arrives to take me back
to the College, and we shall pick up the students at various
places en route. I expect to get one night at Kota Kota ;
I don't expect to get many days at the south end before
the steamer arrives.
" Doesn't all this sound a very delightful holiday and such
a thorough change ? All the same I am being pretty busy
in preparing work for next term. We have two holidays
per annum at the College, with possibly a week's break at
Easter.
" I hope we shall not be left very long without a Bishop.
I expect you are praying frequently for a right appointment.
We expect to have a visit from Bishop Hine about March.
I think I must try to get my adult Baptisms over by Easter
so that he can confirm."
A VILLAGE RAIDED
Steamship Chauncy Maples, February 3, 1910.
" My last letter home told about my capital walking tour,
beginning at noon on Christmas Day. It is 210 miles from
233
Mtonya in the hills to the south end of the Lake, but as I
lazily went in a hammock for the first two days, I had only two
days' walking at the end, winding up with the most awful
scramble down a dry precipitous river-bed over which I au-
dibly groaned ; but what must it have been for my men who
were carrying loads up to forty or fifty pounds ? To travel
comfortably I want nine carriers : two for tent, one for bedding,
one for camp-bed, table and chair, one for provisions, one
for pots and pans, and so on. The capitao generally carries
nothing but his own dignity and my gun ; so far I have
always borrowed some one else's rifle, but I have a good one
on its way out from home now. It is always as well to have
a rifle in the party when travelling, and on one's Mission
station when one is at home. But so far I have never seen
a wild beast of any size ; one came at night to the College
before I had got any cartridges and ate my three calves,
but that is an old tale. On one of my journeys I could not
see any game, so I stuck up a cartoon of Punch and had
pots at that. I am just awake to the fact of a general
election at home, but have heard no particulars. I think
there will be a considerable increase to the Mission staff
at my College within the next few months. First, I hear
good rumours that a real schoolmaster is coming out.
Nobody seems to know anything about him, except that
his name is said to be Peek. Well, if he comes, I shall
have first claim on him. Then another wonderful addition
will be effected by the arrival of two ladies. Poor things !
it is only by a sort of accident that they have got to be
planked down on our bachelor establishment. They were
to have gone to Mtonya (the place where I have spent most
of this holiday) to be with Archdeacon Eyre and a young
layman, but there has lately been a raid on a village quite
close to Mtonya, so that we are all agreed that ladies must
not go up there at present. We had an out-school at the
village which was raided ; our teacher there was wounded in
the leg, and a Christian school-boy was killed, so also was the
old chief himself. Our Mission buildings were burnt ; in fact
it seems to be the custom of raiders, who of course come
when the villagers are asleep, first to set fire to the huts, and
234
then shoot the poor people who come out, and carry off as
many of the women as they can. This is how our teacher
got shot, but he is now well again. His wife was carried
off by the raiding party, but the Mtonya people came up
splendidly and chased the raiders, with the result that,
whereas only a very few of the villagers were killed, they
killed about thirty-five of the raiders, and the teacher's
wife got safely home. Hallson, the young layman, was
the only European missionary at our Mtonya station.
The watchman woke him up about 4 A.M. saying ' War.'
He had heard the first gun.
" The village which was raided was about an hour's walk
from our main station. Hallson wisely sent all the school-
boys, and any others who liked to go, straight down to the
Lake twenty-five miles off. A few hours afterwards, when
the raiders had been chased off he went to look after the
wounded. As soon as a man is down the enemy cuts off his
head, and Hallson met people carrying heads slung together
on a pole. Altogether I think Hallson did very well. Whilst
the fighting was going on his right place certainly was on
the Mission station, looking after it. He is only a young
gardener's boy, so no wonder that when it was all over he
got his nerves a bit out of order and was sent for a trip on
the steamer to put him right. So that is why the ladies
are going to be at S. Michael's College, temporarily at least,
instead of going to Mtonya.
" Now we are just reaching Kota Kota. I shall try
and get up to my dear old first charge in time for dinner."
The letter which follows is interesting as it gives Douglas*
first impressions of Mr. Peek, who had joined the Mission as
a schoolmaster. As will be seen by successive letters
he and Arthur got on extremely well together, and his
premature death a few months later was a very real loss
both to the Mission and to the College.
Likoma, March 30, 1910,
" After a busy Lent and very happy Easter, I am having
a few days' rest at Likoma. The College has undergone a
235
wonderful transformation this last month by the arrival of
a schoolmaster and two ladies. I am going to turn Miss
Medd on to teaching the students German for German terri-
tory, and Portuguese for Portuguese territory. I should
like to find time to attend the Portuguese class. Mrs.
Williams, when she is not dispensing medicines, spends her
time as housekeeper between admiration of my cook and
despair of the kitchen range, which indeed is only a flat bit
of iron spread on the top of the fire. I implore her not to
make the cook discontented by suggesting an oven.
" The schoolmaster Peek seems likely to prove just what
we want. He was educated at one of the lower grade
Woodard schools, but for the last three years has been teach-
ing in Romsey National School. He is only about twenty-
one, so I shan't be shy about giving him my best advice,
and he, as a professional, is rightly somewhat critical of our
amateur methods, particularly of the old dented cow-bell,
which takes the place of the sprightly gong of the school-
master's desk at home. The boys have taken well to him, as
he plays football with them ; he was the captain of Boy
Scouts in his parish at home, so is well up in drill. If he can
stand the climate (he doesn't look strong), he will be, I
think, a most valuable acquisition and a tremendous help
at the College. On Easter Monday I left him overseeing
the whitewashing of his shanty whilst I went up to my hill
school and down again the next day. The walls of the
ordinary shanty are made of posts filled in with reeds and
then the whole is plastered with mud.
" I wish you could have seen my flower garden this last
month, the cosmos has been its chief glory. Will cosmos
grow out of doors in England ? I suppose it is a kind of
large single daisy, growing four feet high, with blossoms all
shades of pink and red. The zinnias and sunflowers have
been a fine show, and now the cannas are just coming on,
and they are the grandest flowers of all. Some of the
vegetable seeds sent out from home are, I believe, doing very
well onions, carrots, radishes, and even cabbages so Mrs.
Williams tells me, although it is almost too good to be true.
One longs for what the late Bishop would have called a good
236
old smiling cabbage. Lately, also, we have had almost
more mulberries than we could eat. They are much smaller
than, and not very like English mulberries, but the trees
have the great virtue of bearing fruit the year after they
are put in the ground. I have also planted quite a lot of
flowering shrubs pointsettias, oleanders, hybiscus, red-
blossoming acacias. My best pointsettia was hacked to
pieces by the students when they were hoeing the ground.
A flowering shrub is to them the same as a weed, or, at the
most, as an amazing whim of the European ; it is something
the watering of which may bring in pennies for themselves."
BIBLICAL QUESTIONS
S. Michael's College, April 20, 1910.
"As I have just finished Compline with the students,
which means it is nine o'clock, this may not be a very long
letter. Nine o'clock at home seems early, but then you
don't expect to be up at 5.30 every morning. To-morrow
I must be up before that hour, as before six o'clock I have
got to see to all Mrs. Williams' paraphernalia of luggage, as
well as herself, and a very ill student who will have to
be carried down to the steamer.
" Peek, the new young schoolmaster, is shaping very well,
and he and I get on very well together. His discipline causes
the students considerable surprise and, I fancy, admiration
as well. I am very glad that he was an elementary school-
master. He has made a good start in the actual teaching
in school, but at times I have to act interpreter. Next
week I have got to interpret ' Interest ' sums for him,
which will tax my linguistic powers. I particularly want
the students to learn about interest now, as we are hoping
to start a native self-supporting sustentation fund, which
is to bear interest in a bank. I know it will be a difficult
job to persuade the natives that when 100 have been
subscribed and only 2\ can be produced, that we Europeans
haven't ' eaten ' the other 97^.
" Miss Medd is principally busy with the girls' schools and
village women, but she has German and Portuguese classes
237
for the students. I told the boys they could choose which
they would rather learn, but that they must not learn both ;
about three-quarters of them chose Portuguese, the rest
chose German. That is a very fair division, as we have of
course far more work in Portuguese territory than in the
German Protectorate, where we only began to work about
five years ago.
" I am specially glad just now to be freed from so much
of the College teaching, as I have just begun preparing
Candidates for Baptism. We ought to have a big adult
Baptism this year in the villages belonging to me. I think
there are about thirty candidates. One of them is Mwenye-
zari, the Worfield Coral League's boy. He is to be called
Tomaso after a school-boy who died in Worfield. Mwenye-
zari and his elder brother, aged fourteen, both ought to be
baptised, and the baptisms should be in the first half of June.
" I very much enjoy taking the school-boys in their bap-
tismal preparation ; I told them yesterday., that though
there were many things in religion that we could not under-
stand, yet we can believe them. ' In Europe there are
carriages with people in them that fly about in the air;
you can't understand it, but as I tell you it is so, you can
believe it, can you not ? ' A general reply of ' No.' I
felt floored, and could only rejoin, ' Then I fear you think
Padre is a liar.' The students also are very interesting
in the biblical questions they ask. Two lots of students
came to me last night, one set wishing to know about the
sons of God and daughters of men, and the other set wishing
to know whether Jephtha really burnt his daughter to death.
I had to get old Bishop Wordsworth to help me out with
the latter difficulty ; as to the former, I told them straight
that I thought it was one of the things in the Bible which
we could not' understand, and they might as well give up
thinking about it.
" During Lent I started having five minutes' Chinyanja
intercessions (voluntary attendance) at midday, and I hope
to keep it as a permanent institution. We want our teachers
to get into the habit of a few minutes' midday prayer, but
T think that for the young ones Sext is not quite the right
238
thing. I want attendance to be quite voluntary, and
thereby become one test of possible vocation to something
beyond the teachership.
" In the Zanzibar diocese there is a guild for the purpose
of fostering vocation ; I think we may have something of the
same kind in this diocese.
" The Rhodesian new diocese seems to be going to make
a good start at last. De la Pryme is going from this diocese,
and the beloved Frank George is going after this year. He
offered his services to Bishop Hine months ago when we
had another new architect in the diocese ; then the latter left
the Mission, but as Bishop Hine has written to George
accepting him, George thinks he must keep to his promise,
and I expect he is right to go.
" Dennis Victor is enormously happy with his three candi-
dates for the diaconate and his parish of Nkwazi, and his
beautiful little church."
" BEASTS "
S. Michael's College, May 8, 1910.
" The Government steamer, which calls at Likoma once
a month, is expected next Tuesday, so I shall get a letter
ready to send by her. I'm afraid my letters may for the
next months be fewer than ever, as Archdeacon Johnson
(in lieu of Bishop) has determined to knock off the Charles
Janson's trip in order to save expense. I think he is quite
right to do so ; likewise he has shut down the carpentry
business and nearly all the printing office work for a year,
the reason being that we estimated a total expense of the
diocese for this year at 13,000, and the Home Committee
can only give us 11,000, so we have to cut off 2000 some-
where. This' move will give the new Bishop a better chance
of starting square and fair, and it is a good thing to show the
people at home that we don't want to kick over the traces.
Only a few young apprentices have been kept on in the
printing office, primarily for the sake of reprinting ' Esopo,'
otherwise ' ^Esop's Fables, ' for ' Esopo ' is out of print, and
how can you expect to attain proficiency in the art of
239
Chinyanja reading unless you have Chinyanja ' Esopo ' for
a reading book ? Having just laid in a good supply of
new tables and chairs, I voted for the suppression of the
carpenter's shop with a good heart.
" In the daytime we go along very smoothly, but nights
have been made lively by beasts. A lion walked along the
bottom of our garden, and killed three cows in their house a
mile from here. The next night my watchman came to my
window and woke me up. I said, ' What's the matter ? '
He said, ' It's bad out here.' I replied, ' What's the badness ?'
He said, ' There's a beast ! ' ' Where's the beast ? ' ' By the
dining-room.' However, by the time I could get my boots
on the beast had disappeared, but I thought it was then
time to put on a second watchman. Then the next night
just after dark, as the students were collecting for evening
school, there was a sudden uproar, and the watchman came
tearing over to my house for his gun, saying there was a beast.
I rushed out with mine, followed by Ayers, one of our
engineers, with a hurricane lantern. There was such a row in
the students' dormitory that I really thought the beast must
be in there ; great was my relief when I found only a lot of
frightened boys, and the beast, if it ever existed, had taken
its departure. I bravely fired off a cartridge into the air
just to show we weren't afraid of nothing ! However, really
and truly one poor man was killed last week in his hut by
the same kind of beast machecheta, a large hyena as that
which eat up my calves last year ; and Shannon, who
fortunately is a first-rate shot, met a leopard a fortnight
ago near here and slew it, so there is something in it after
all, although I expect foxes are responsible for some of
the scares. Schoolmaster Peek comes of a farmer family
and is rather a keen sportsman ; anyhow sufficiently keen
to get up after a fox at 3 o'clock in the morning.
" The only thing beside the watchman which has got me
up has been the comet. Even when the moon was half-
full and very bright, the comet looked a very decent comet,
but it will look a great deal finer when there is no moon.
I was surprised to find how very generally it had been
seen by the village natives. Even my women baptismal
240
candidates had most of them seen it, as I learnt when
I was teaching them about the wise men. My class of
boy candidates are perfectly delightful. I never remem-
ber having such a nice class ; of course, these are
villagers, not Collegers, who have all been baptised and
confirmed before they are allowed to enter College.
The baptismal preparation is a pretty good test of
keenness, as for about two months they come to me
four times a week and go to their village teachers on
the off days, and some of them live nearly an hour's walk
from the College.
" On Ascension Day we had ' sports ' for the College
students and school-boys. The high jump was won at four
feet six inches, which, I suppose, is not bad, considering that
they scarcely practise at all beforehand. Beside the ordinary
events, we had some of the sports one sees on board ship,
such as bolster bar, and 'Are you there ? ' We had got to-
gether really a remarkably good set of prizes, nearly forty ;
knives with one big blade a la Salwarpe school treat, and
nobody said ' It ain't keen ' ; scissors for cutting their
wool, quite large at 6d. each; gaudy belts, mouth organs,
whistles ; large red kerchiefs would have been another good
prize, only we hadn't any. And for quite the little boys I
gave fish-hooks, knives, scissors. I wanted some of the
Likoma staff to come over for the sports, but they were
already booked to go for a picnic. The footballs arrived all
right ; Peek is dismayed by the quickness with which both
bladders and covers burst out here. He played a lot of
footer in England, and has made an attempt to keep the
students to proper rules. Most fortunately I bought at
Johannesburg a printed book of rules, so I was able to show
that Peek had not devised the annoying restrictions out of
his own head."
THE NEW BISHOP
S. Michael's College, June 5, 1910.
" The years simply fly along !
" Well, we have been offering many thanksgivings for the
appointment of Cathrew Fisher to be Bishop of Nyasaland.
241 R
These past months have been a time of great anxiety, only
I felt pretty sure that it really would come right, and now I
feel pretty sure that it has come right. I hope he will see
his way to coining to us quickly.
" In my last letter I remember mentioning that I was in
the middle of preparing adults for Baptism, old women and
girls, youths and school-boys. The oldest old lady cannot
learn her words because, as she explained to me, her head is
dry. Her name is Apafika ; as she frequently does not turn
up in time for her class, and as the Chinyanja word for ' turn
up ' is Anafika, I feel entitled to enliven the occasion with a
pun. This morning, the last Sunday before their baptism,
I noticed the absence of the two biggest youths, and was
informed that they had been seized in war. On further
inquiry I found that they had been commandeered with
others to carry the little Portuguese, who has been collecting
taxes here, back to his headquarters at Mtengula, about forty
miles from here. This Portuguese and I have been on
excellent terms and I have no doubt that if he had known
the facts he would have let them off. However, they may
be back by Wednesday if they buck up. Except for this, the
Portuguese has done extraordinarily well. He has accom-
plished in fifteen days, without running in a single person,
the entire taxation of his district, whereas the people last
year had three months bad time, with continual night raids
by the police, and during that time our girls' schools were
practically closed, as the women and girls hide away, the
policy of the government official being to run-in the females
whilst their husbands and fathers look for their tax money.
But, as I say, this year the whole business round here has
been achieved in a wonderfully short time with really no
discomfort. One chief reason was that a very large number
of men have lately returned from their work at Johannes-
burg, so there has been a good supply of money in the
country.
" Only five more weeks of this term remain ; it has been
a very good term, but lately I have had much anxiety over
the scarcity of food. It has sometimes seemed almost to be
touch and go whether I should be able to keep the students ;
242
however, now the worst is over, and we have never reached
the straits Likoma station found itself in a week ago, when I
had a sudden visit from Mr. Willcocks, who looks after the
native store there. They had discovered, through what
misunderstanding I can scarcely say, that there was only
enough food to give one more meal to the boys who feed on
the station, and to the hospital patients. So they had
hurriedly to get rid of all the boys who could possibly get
to their homes, and then Mr. Willcocks came over here, and
we ransacked the stores for the very very little I could give
him. However, we reckoned that would be enough to keep
the hospital patients (about thirty) for the next two days,
and he, with the boat, went straight over to the opposite coast,
nearly fifty miles, to buy food ; leaving me at 8.30 P.M. on
Thursday he got back to Likoma with food at 3 A.M. on
Sunday morning. So that was touch and go. Among
other articles of food during the past fortnight I have been
buying monkey-nuts, about 7 worth. The natives bring
them, and then they have to be measured into a box ; one
box-full equals 8^., so you see by this time I have got to know
the look of that box.
" The steamer Chauncy Maples is expected here to-
morrow going down south ; her next trip down south
should take me on my annual tour of examination for
the College entrance."
MR. PEEK
A Lakeside Village, July 27, 1910.
" I am in the middle of my half-yearly holiday, but I am
spending most of it in touring round on the Chauncy Maples,
examining schools and candidates for S. Michael's College.
For entrance to the College, I have already examined over
120 boys and there are only about thirty vacancies.
" At this moment I am sitting in a native house, roomy
and airy, with twelve Yao boys writing their Old Testament
examination. There are, of course, no desks in this room,
so they are writing in all manner of positions, most of them
kneeling with paper on the ground, or else lying on one side,
or else with their legs stuck out in front. Mr. Peek is the
243 R 2
only other occupant of the room. He is really a very good
disciplinarian though the boys now and then get beyond
him in school.
" The second man at the station generally has rather a
hard time ; at any rate he has got to make his position for
himself, whereas the chief man on the staff has his position
assured to him by the fact that he is chief. Everybody
looks to the priest-in-charge to say the final word. Where
there are two Europeans at a station, missionary or civil,
they are always known among the natives as the big Bwana
and small Bwana. It was Archdeacon Eyre's one objection
(so he said) to travelling with the Bishop, that he found
himself transformed from the big into the small Bwana.
However, I give Peek practically a free hand in school,
making both students and native teachers look to him for
arranging details of school routine, and they all get on
capitally together. Poor man, but he has many shocks.
Judge of his estimation of native capabilities, by his asking
a fellow missionary on the journey out from home, whether
there was a laboratory at S. Michael's College. Whilst
the students are away, and I and Mr. Peek are travelling
round, I believe that Archdeacon Johnson is established
at the College with a number of German territory teachers,
for the purpose primarily of being taught German by Miss
Medd.
" This evening we hope to be picked up by the Chauncy
Maples. Whilst we are doing our exam, here, she has gone
on to a Portuguese government station in order to put on
board twenty tons of food for me, so you see I don't mean
to starve."
CATERING FOR THE COLLEGE
S.s. Chauncy Maples, August 12, 1910.
" You know that I and Mr. Peek have been spending
our holiday so far in travelling round, examining schools
and candidates for the College. We first went down south,
calling at Kota Kota both going and returning. Then we
got back to Likoma, and I had the job of seeing my students'
244
food, twenty-one tons, unshipped at the College and stored.
I had about sixty women carriers, and the loads averaged
seventy pounds. It is very wonderful what the women can
carry on their heads. The only evil result to myself was
that for about three days my eyes were very sore, I suppose
with flour and dust. I was determined to get in enough fodder
for the students this year, as during the last six months I
had many an anxious time, wondering how I was going to feed
them. We can't buy food in any quantity near the College,
and have to depend on boats and steamer. Sometimes it was
really a case of ' If the boat doesn't come in to-morrow,
we're done.' I get the big supply of food from the Portuguese
Government ; it is food that has been paid for hut tax.
Well, I hope it won't go bad, but I have no stone or brick
room to keep it in, as what was the native storeroom is
now Miss Thompson's bed and sitting-room. Since storing
the food, the steamer has taken us up north into German
territory. The natives there speak another dialect which
I don't understand. The trip up north has resulted in my
accepting five of these northern boys as students at the Col-
lege. They are the first batch that have ever come from so
far north, so it is a great event which will rejoice the heart of
Archdeacon Johnson, whom we left in hospital at Likoma.
The arrival of these boys (the first-fruits I hope of many
others from the same district) is bound to complicate our
time-table on second thoughts perhaps it won't ; I haven't
sufficiently considered, but anyhow circumstances will be
altered, as in these German territory schools English is a
forbidden subject, so they must come to College knowing
none. I must consider whether we ought to pile on the
German for them, making use of Miss Medd. The chief
reason for their learning English seems to be that some of
them may go on to become theological students, and then
they ought to be able to read English theological books.
" I am happy in leaving the College and College villages
so long, as Padre Clarke is staying there with a dozen
teachers who have been taken from their schools in
German territory, primarily in order to learn German
under Miss Medd, so there is a vacation term. Mr. Clarke
245
is, I hope, building more temporary storehouses, also
re-thatching my own house, and last, but not least,
building a new cattle stable. This last is necessary, as
we are, I hope, going to increase our herd. Our herd lately
has consisted of a bull, two cows, and three calves, but
I have long had my eye on the Mponda's herd which
probably numbers sixty or seventy ; and when I was
down there in January Mr. Craft, the treasurer, promised
me that I should have some, so I was determined on this
trip to get something more satisfactory than words out
of those in charge. (Mr. Craft is in England.) I settled
in my mind that I would have five or six ! Imagine
my annoyance when I was greeted on my arrival at
Malindi by hearing that Mponda's, in the generosity of
their hearts, had already dispatched on the road a cow and
calf for me. However, it was no good my pretending to
be very grateful, so I boldly told Padre Ker that I hoped for
about six. The result is that I trust that in slow stages
half a dozen beasts are walking the 170 miles, and the first
two ought to be at the College by now. But it seems largely
to depend on whether the Mponda's cowman will part with
the beasts. He is said to love them and weep over them,
and when Padre Ker and I wanted to pick out beasts for me,
though the cowman was told to be ready for us, he had
hidden himself and all the cattle and not a sign of himself
or a cow was to be seen."
S. Michael's College, Sept. 26, 1910.
"... We have had a very good beginning to our term,
a more than usually large number of new students about
twenty-six. This means an extra special pressure of work, as
I like to give each new student about half an hour's private
talk. Some of them look very young, but that doesn't matter,
as I hope that now four years instead of two will pass before
they finally become teachers. I can't think how I got on
before Peek's arrival ; what it really means is that less is
left undone both in College and villages, and I try to get a
little more time for private reading. Next Thursday is our
patronal festival, but I am doubtful how far we shall be
246
able to use our church. Last year we had a very troublesome
business with the roof, and now it seems to be going badly
again, and yesterday it both looked so bad and gave out
such ominous creaks that I settled we must have service in
the school. Perhaps if we take the grass off the rickety
part, and so lighten the weight, we shall be able to use it
till it can be thoroughly repaired. Mr. Peek is splendid in
school, only he takes the native eccentricities in a very
serious way. He has just been in to me, to tell me that he
has been looking through the students' writing books and
finds them in a condition which he could not have allowed
in his first standard at Romsey. One boy has been doing
his cash accounts topsy-turvy in his modern language book ;
another has been fantastically decorating the marginal
line ; another has been writing his names (probably lots of
them, as they add on to their names ad lib.} on many suc-
cessive pages ; another has been writing ' This is the book
of Jones ; let no man steal it.' Peek says he finds it so
hard not to take these things to heart. However, I cheer
him by the promise that if he will select six of the most fan-
tastic, I will hold these up to the scorn and derision of the
whole College. I think he is really exceedingly happy
here, and the boys like him much, and now he is blossom-
ing out into Chinyanja.
"There was only one student who turned up late ; he
arrived a few days ago and told me gaily that he had had
smallpox, and that he had developed it about four and a
half weeks ago. He certainly seemed to be quite well, but
of course we promptly isolated him, and only waited for a
boat to carry him over to Likoma, as we had no proper
isolation place here. Then just as I was getting him into
the boat, he quite casually made a remark which showed me
that all that had happened to him was that he had been
properly inoculated (not vaccination). The inoculation, of
course, had had the effect of producing a very mild form
of the disease. However, we still thought it best that he
should be separated for a further time from the students, so
over to Likoma he went. But the report had already got
about the village that there was a boy who was dangerous
247
through smallpox at the College, so the villagers even refused
to come to the dispensary."
In the next letter difficulties with the Portuguese are
foreshadowed ; difficulties in regard to language, and pos-
sible difficulties as to the attitude of an anti-clerical Re-
publican Government towards mission work. As yet there
is no hint of the moral troubles which were yet to come and
which were to culminate in Arthur Douglas's death.
PORTUGUESE DIFFICULTIES
S. Michael's College, Nov. 6, 1910.
"... The students, this Sunday afternoon, have
many of them cleared off to the village, and the rest seem
blessedly quiet, so altogether it is a good opportunity for
writing home. Not that there is anything very exciting to
say. Perhaps the most out of ordinary event lately has been
the sudden departure of Archdeacon Johnson for England.
He got a cable from the new Bishop calling him to go at once
as he wanted to confer with him in England before he himself
left. His last furlough, after a very serious illness, was ten
years ago, and then he spent it in New Zealand or Australia.
It is twenty-eight or twenty-nine years since he first came
to the Lake and that was after a period in Zanzibar. His
furlough throws a good deal of responsibility on me, as,
archidiaconally, I am responsible for his Archdeaconry as
Archdeacon Eyre is for his own, whilst diocesanally Arch-
deacon Eyre and I have to act together.
" Another event which touches us perhaps more closely
than you is the deposition of Manuel you know that
S. Michael's College is in Portuguese territory. When I got
the news I did not know what to do about the Church
prayers, but for the present I am simply using the prayers
but without mentioning any name till we see how things
are shaping themselves at Lisbon.
" Talking of College being in Portuguese territory I fear
that there are very troublesome language difficulties ahead
of us and not so very far ahead. So far the Portuguese
248
haven't bothered us about what we teach or how we teach
in the schools in their territory, but the head official who
is just now stopping in this district and paid a visit to the
College last week, told me that he thought the time was
coming when it would be not only good to teach Portuguese
in the College, but it will be necessary, and that native
teachers will have to pass an exam, in Portuguese before they
will be allowed by the Government to teach. They have
already arrived at that point in the Lebombo (Delagoa Bay)
diocese and a great nuisance it is for Bishop Edmund Smyth
and his staff. However, I can, of course, understand the
Portuguese point of view that it is unreasonable to expect
them to allow English to be the language taught in Portuguese
territory. Then if the German government makes similar
demands as to the necessity of teaching German, we shall
have a pretty tough nut to crack, but at least I feel thankful
that at the present time one of our two ladies here, Miss
Medd, is rubbing the elements of German and Portuguese
into the students, and though the ladies only came here as
a temporary resting-place till it should be safe for them to
go to Archdeacon Eyre in Yaoland in the hills eastward, it
really seems as if we must keep her for the language's sake.
" I fear that a republican Portugal being, as I suppose it
will be, anticlerical, may also be anti-mission, but if so I hope
we may be stimulated to buck up all the more and meet the
difficulties."
(To a Brother)
HALLEY'S COMET
S. Michael's College, November 21, 1910.
" I have had an extra special rush this morning, but I
must get a letter started to you before going into school,
as the Chauncy Maples is expected here this afternoon.
" It seems rather out-of-date to talk about Halley's
Comet, but it struck me to-day that perhaps you really
haven't heard what a marvel it appeared to us. It used
to rise first of all about 4.30. When I first saw it, it must
have been about big enough to be covered by my finger at
249
arm's length, then I saw it again when it reached from the
horizon about half-way up the sky. That was the most
striking sight, and one couldn't wonder that the ancient
folk had compared it to a great flaming sword. Then I saw
it again in a manner that still puzzles me. It reached
from the horizon right up beyond the zenith, cutting the
milky way in two, in fact it looked rather like another
though more irregular milky way. But what especially
puzzled me was that whereas on the previous occasions the
point of the comet was clearly denned, on this night when I
believe we were passing through it, though the wide part
spread out as usual below the horizon and gradually narrowed
till past the zenith, it then faded away and there was no
point. The sky seemed clear, but of course there may have
been a haze ; can you suggest anything else ? From the
following day onwards the comet was in the west after
sunset ; we used to see it when we came out of Evensong.
I certainly had no idea that a comet could really ever make
such a magnificent show. I wish you could have seen it ;
it seems to have been such a disappointment in England.
" I hope you are having as good a term as we are. My
schoolmaster Peek is a splendid man. ... It is not the
college students but my village Christians who are my chief
trial. Just now in one village there is an awful lapse into
bigamy among a number of the Christian men. They
think that Baptism is a thing you can put on to-day and
take off to-morrow. In that village there is an excom-
municate Christian for the chief, and his example of course
causes a bad tone throughout."
The next letter records the very sudden death of Mr.
Peek, the schoolmaster, who had only been out a few months,
and whom Douglas had learnt to love and value much for
his character and efficiency.
DEATH OF MR. PEEK
S. Michael's College, December 4, 1910.
" The Chauncy Maples arrived unexpectedly, and
leaves early to-morrow, and I have been much rushed.
250
" You will have seen the news that my good helper,
Peek, has died. The blow is very great, both because it
was so sudden and because he was so very efficient. You
know how full my letters have been of such expressions as
' Peek is a treasure.' He began last Tuesday week with
ordinary malaria, but on Wednesday evening it developed
into blackwater fever, the one type of fever which is so often
fatal out here. As soon as Nurse Thompson told me, I
sent students to the village to hire a canoe in which they
paddled over to Likoma at night, getting there about n
o'clock. I sent a letter to Miss Armstrong, asking her to
come over immediately, and she arrived by boat 2.30 A.M.
I had also sent a night runner to try to catch up the steamer
which had left the College only on the previous day, but the
steamer made a specially quick trip southwards, so that my
messenger, though he went splendidly, could not catch her
up. I had written to the Europeans on the steamer, that
they must go instantly in search of a doctor. As a matter of
fact this particular form of fever needs more nursing than
doctoring, provided that the nurses know the treatment,
and three trained nurses, who were with Peek from the
Thursday to the following Monday, when he died, acted
splendidly, not scrupling to use the drugs which they
knew to be desirable. Miss Armstrong, as I have said,
got over here at 2.30 on Thursday morning, and at
8 A.M. she told me she was sure that Peek ought to be
taken over to Likoma hospital. Miss Armstrong has had
several cases of blackwater to nurse, so of course I fell in
with her wishes. She and Miss Thompson went over with
him. The nurses were at first hopeful. I went up to my
hill station at Manda on the following Monday, but at 4 A.M.
Tuesday I was awakened by messengers with the news that
he had died on Monday evening. I celebrated the Eucharist
for the Manda Christians at 5 o'clock and then hurried down
to the Lake as fast as I could, getting there at 10 o'clock, and
I and Miss Medd and eight of the head students went straight
over to Likoma and were just in time for the funeral in the
cemetery ; the students acted as bearers, and I said the
prayers at the grave. This afternoon I have had to write a
251
long letter to his father. ... It was a really very extra-
ordinarily beautiful character, very youthful and full of
excellent zeal, very adaptable to circumstances ; he turned
himself into a tinker, carpenter, and clock and watch mender
as soon as he arrived, though I fancy he had done almost
nothing of the kind at home. His praying was very remark-
able, most noticeable in the obvious earnestness and
strenuousness, with which he used to join in the opening
prayer at school, and the African boys caught on. It was
exceedingly helpful. He had the curious habit of follow-
ing prayers said by the priest in church in a semi-audible
voice. Now we can't help feeling forlorn, but there is
everything to be thankful for. Yet he had worked us up so
well that we seem to need a schoolmaster far more than
ever. I have asked Mr. Travers to put an intercession for
the College into the monthly paper.
" The Chauncy Maples has brought up our new priest,
Austen. This is not a newsy letter, but I must go to bed.
" I am very well and the students are behaving very
nicely, but my villages are a great anxiety, so many of the
Christian men lapsing into polygamy. There is a great
and urgent need of prayer. What can be their idea of the
Day of Judgment ? They would probably allow that they
do believe in it."
Arthur Douglas' eldest sister died on January 26, 1911.
She had never been at all strong and had latterly been very
much of an invalid. In so united a family the death of the
eldest sister was felt most keenly. Arthur's letter is entirely
characteristic of himself sensible, prayerful and Christian.
(To a Sister)
ON HEARING OF THE DEATH OF A SISTER
I
Likoma, Feb. 4, 1911.
" MY DEAREST , The cable reached me yesterday,
and to-day, by what seems a most kind chance, I am able to
have a day free from College responsibilities ; so I shall write
to you now, even though my letters cannot leave here at
252
present. (P.S. (later). An unexpected opportunity of
sending it to-day.) I am so very very glad that you cabled
to me, and so have enabled me to be one with you all so soon
in the sorrow and the peace and the prayers and the thank-
fulness and the blessed sense of God's overflowing gracious-
ness you do feel all that, do you not, even now ? I mean
that when we are possessed for a moment by the sense of loss
and abject desolation you when you go into her room or
think of her sitting in the garden yet by fixing our minds
on what God has done for our dear one, it is not hard to see
how exceedingly gracious He has been.
" My times of desolation are likely to be when the mails
come in and I receive no letter from her, or when I think of
her welcome at furlough time ; but there again the natural
man won't feel anything like the same desolation and
blankness as he would if he had not all your dear letters and
love. That sounds a low and a selfish line of thought, but
indeed I don't think that any of us are really inclined to be
selfish at this time. We have only just to think of the life
which seemed likely to be in store for her of bodily weak-
ness and, not infrequently, severe pain, her increasing ner-
vousness about herself, and the mental strain ; the very
infirmities of her spiritual being, so largely the result of
bodily infirmities ; and then, as we regard what her Father
has done for her during this wonderful fortnight, 1 we can
thank Him and thank Him and feel very near to Him our-
selves. I opened the cable at what was otherwise a very
special moment. The CM. had arrived at the College with
our new Bishop and also with the College students returning
from Christmas holidays. The Bishop just came ashore,
and then I and the two College ladies had gone on board to
go over with the big party to Likoma to witness the Bishop's
arrival and the Enthronization. I had been talking to the
Bishop on deck, and when I had finished my talk good Mr.
Wilson put the cable privately into my hands. I was able
to go down into a cabin and have a few minutes' quiet and
prayer before we reached Likoma. The Bishop is to be
enthroned to-morrow (Sunday), so I and the students are
1 It was really only a week.
253
here, and hence my day away from College responsibilities.
I was not very surprised at the news, and should have been
less so if I had already read my mail which came up with the
cable. My two ladies and the few others whom I have told
have been so full of sympathy. Mr. Wilson remembers
seeing F. at 'The Lowe.' God bless you all exceedingly
and me also, though we are so undeserving of His blessing.
" Your very loving brother,
"A. J. DOUGLAS."
(To his Eldest Brother]
II
S. Michael's College, Feb. 19, 1911.
" DEAREST , On the same day that I got the cable I
received a letter from you, in which you told me that you
were feeling especially anxious about our dear F. I expect
that you had all begun to feel that the operations had been
only very partially successful, and then our chief fear for her
would have been lest she should suffer great and prolonged
pain. God has been very merciful to her and, we may
rightly say, to us also ; for He has preserved us from the
anguish of knowing that a very dear sister is in acute
suffering. If we really love anyone, it is as hard (or harder)
to see that one suffering as to suffer the same oneself. Of
course we may be called to the discipline of seeing one of our
own brothers or sisters in physical agony, but if God does not
demand that discipline from us, we may thank Him for that
mercy. I have been thinking of you in particular during
this past fortnight. When the eldest sister dies, one feels
that that means a greater loss to the eldest brother than even
to oneself. . . .
" Your very loving brother,
"A. J. DOUGLAS."
(To an old Parishioner)
S. Michael's College, Likoma, British Nyasaland, Central Africa,
February 19, 1911.
" DEAR MR. BENNETT, ... I am exceedingly happy in
my work here. I am Principal of the Training College for
254
native teachers and have about seventy in my charge . They
are as jolly a set of lads as one could find anywhere, and in
the matter of brains they are of course, the picked boys from
the schools through the diocese. But I very badly want a
trained schoolmaster to help, especially as in addition to the
College, where I am the only European man, I have four
village churches and schools for which I am responsible.
So if you know of a young schoolmaster of the right sort,
send him along. We want him sharp. A fellow used to
elementary school work would be best. ..."
In the next letter Douglas speaks of the Bishop's desire
that S. Michael's College should be moved to Likoma
Island. The reasons for this step (which has since been
taken) were manifold, but the paramount reason was
doubtless in order to plant the College on English territory.
As long as the College was in Portuguese territory it would
be impossible to avoid difficulties it is enough to
mention the " customs " difficulty and there can be no
doubt that the Bishop has acted wisely in the matter. It is
impossible not to think of " what might have been " if the
change could have been made earlier. Douglas's life would
not have been sacrificed, and he would have spent his
furlough in England during the summer of 1912, as he
foreshadows in the following letter.
PROJECTED MOVE TO LIKOMA
S. Michael's College, April 2, 1911.
" We are all very full of the Bishop's scheme for moving
the College out of Portuguese territory on to Likoma
Island (British). If the scheme comes off in the course of
the next two .years, I think it will be a 'good thing for the
College, but these villages attached to us will have to put up
with much rarer European ministrations. I suppose they
will have to fall into line with all the other lake-side villages
which receive a visit from the Chauncy Maples steamer and
one of its padres only about once a month. If the College
is planted on Likoma, I am very anxious that we should not
255
get mixed up with the daily life of the big central station
there, or that anything should be done to lessen the corporate
life of the students. We should, of course, have our own
chapel, only going to the Cathedral on Sundays and other
high days. The Bishop quite agrees to this. I also bargain
for a place on rocky, hilly Likoma, where we can get a decent
football ground, and if possible, though the buildings should
be on high ground up from the lake, we ought to have a bit
of shore to ourselves where there are not a lot of village huts
(that, however, is difficult to find), and of course we must
be within early-morning-dip reach, to say nothing of after-
football-dip reach of the lake. We shall also want a field
where the students can plant monkey nuts, and other such
foods as are suited to their extraordinary insides. Just
fancy if we lived, year in, year out, on nothing but enormous
masses of stiff porridge (of course not oatmeal), exactly of
the consistency of putty, with a little mess of beans, nuts, or
fish to help it down, all this only occasionally varied by
another mass of boiled rice. We hope to be able to build the
College thus permanently owing to a 2000 grant from the
Pan-Anglican FunfL
" Although to-night I supped with ladies only, we are
really a European quartette now at the College, the fourth
being the young gardener, Tom Hallson. He has left us for
two weeks in order to go to his former station (Mtonya) in the
hills ; he wants to fetch down fruit trees, &c., from there.
Here at the College he has two gardens to look after ; I fear
he may find it much more difficult to get vegetables to grow
at the lake level, but he seems in good spirits about it, and
Mtonya garden was too far from the lake to be able to keep
other stations supplied with its produce.
" The Bishop is very anxious to diminish our expenses in
tinned fruits and vegetables from England by getting all we
can out of the ground here, and we ought to be able to save
in jam as well. The freight for everything from England is
so enormous, and that reminds me to say that if my dear
relations should ever send out anything to me through the
office in the way of personal comforts, otherwise called side-
lights on missionary asceticism, it would, I think, be a great
256
kindness if they would also send to the office the cost of
freight. If everybody's people would do that, the freight
bill would be considerably lessened.
" Now I have one really very interesting bit of news to
end up with. I have been looking ahead and talking to the
Bishop about the best time for my furlough, the result being
that I hope that at Eastertide next year I may be leaving
the College in charge of Victor, and be really turning home-
wards, so that I shall have the summer in England. That is
something very good to meditate on."
CORONATION DAY AT KOTA KOTA
Mponda's, June 25, 1911.
" You see I am writing from the south end of the Lake.
We finished our College term a week ago, and now I am on
my annual round, examining candidates for the College, and
also enjoying myself very much.
" We that is, the Chauncy Maples and all of us on
board spent Coronation Day at Kota Kota ; it was my
second Coronation Day at that place. There was a splendid
assembly of Mission natives belonging to Kota Kota and
the neighbouring villages. There was a feast for about 600 ;
it consisted of rice, dried fish, and for dessert everybody
had about a yard of sugar-cane to chew. Sugar-cane is very
nice, but it makes a very nasty mess on the ground, as the
chewing consists of merely sucking the juice and then spitting
out the cane. The College boys got hold of some sugar-
cane, but I had to make a law that he who chews must also
sweep, and that not merely at the big weekly sweeping up
on Saturday, but if he chews on Monday, so also on Monday
must he sweep. The Kota Kota feast came between the
early morning service, when I celebrated, and the Te Deum,
which we sang with the prescribed Accession prayers, at
ii o'clock. Then there was a wonderful clearance of
natives, whilst for the rest of the day we Europeans enjoyed
ourselves. Mrs. Williams, now housekeeper at Kota Kota,
fed us royally, and in the afternoon we walked to the nearest
river for a picnic. We had to have two picnics, because when
we got to the place we found teapot and tea had been left
257 s
behind. Hot water and condensed milk was the only
substitute, but personally I preferred to suck oranges
(real more or less sweet oranges which had come from a
Dutch mission near). Then when we had all finished the
first picnic, a table boy, my own dear Chimange (now Enoch)
arrived breathless with teapot and tea, and without a pause
he put them down, and trotted back again to Kota Kota, so
then we had to have the second picnic. Mrs. Williams had
been too tired to come herself and had eventually found that
the teapot had remained with her ; doubtless she also said
many words to Chimange about not idling on the way :
there was the evening dinner which he had to lay. Chimange
was the boy whom nine years ago I carried back to the
Mission when he was playing truant in his village."
(To a Sister)
ANTICIPATIONS OF FURLOUGH
Mtonya, July 22, IQII.
" I wrote your name, meaning to send you a birthday
letter, and now I remember that this will be a month too
late. Mtonya is in the Yao hills, about thirty miles from the
Lake and so cold that the thermometer goes down every
night under 50. When the captain of the C.M. saw my
bundle of bedding, which I desired to be rowed ashore from
the steamer in one of her boats, he seriously remonstrated.
It may seem odd to you that wherever one travels here,
even if one is going to visit one's dearest and most generous
friend, one always takes one's own bedding with one. At
least that is the rule. Archdeacon Eyre aged 62 our
dear old sea skipper, is in excellent form. I expect to be
here another ten days and then join the steamer on her way
up to Likoma. Before the students return to College, I
want to go to Likoma to pick out the site for our new
buildings. When you think of us during these next months,
you must try to remember to pray that we may act aright
in all that concerns this new and permanent building of the
College. We have by this mail got the news that a doctor
has offered for the diocese ; now we must go on hoping and
258
praying that a schoolmaster will be found. The building
of the College ought to be begun next April, i.e. after the
rains are over ; so, though I shall have the principal say in
choosing the site and in acceptance of the plans, the actual
buildings will, I hope, be put up whilst I am on furlough.
You probably know that the Bishop really wants me to
leave the Lake directly after Easter, so I ought to be home
in the middle of June, and I shall have five months in
England. What an enormous lot I shall have to see
G., J., E., K., and, I suppose, R., all in new quarters. I'm
very glad that there will still be some old quarters left.
I expect to have a very nice time."
The letters which follow were received after his death.
They are full of the thought of the new site for the College
at Likoma and of his time to start for England the following
Easter.
(To a Brother)
NEW SITE FOR THE COLLEGE
S. Michael's College, August 29, 1911.
" I am very much obliged indeed to you for the Income
Tax papers which I herewith return. I hope to leave here
immediately after Easter ; it is a very pleasant thought.
This last week is likely to prove of very great importance
in the history of the College, as I went over to Likoma
and helped in fixing the site for its rebuilding. Almost
before reaching his diocese, the Bishop settled to move the
College from this Portuguese side on to Likoma, which is
British territory, although only five miles from here. Our
new site seems admirably well fitted for its purpose. It has
a distinctly parklike appearance with its huge baobab trees.
On two sides, each five minutes' distance from the site, there
is the Lake ; doctors might like it to be a few minutes
farther away, owing to mosquitoes breeding round the
shore, but the site stands much higher than the Lake, and
further, the shore is singularly free of native huts, which
harbour mosquitoes. I hope the College boys will have one
259 s *
of the two shores entirely to themselves for bathing. Before
we finally settled on the site, two nurses went out to look at
it and approve. The College is planned for 100 students ;
it will be of stone, Likoma Island itself being a great granite
rock. The roofing is probably to be of a patent composite
material called ' polite ' or some such name ; it is put on like
slates, and is lighter than corrugated iron, and more orna-
mental, as it has to be painted. The principal buildings
will be chapel, school, recreation room (I hope), dormitories,
probably little studies for the seniors, a wall-less, but roofed
dining-place, and a sick-room ; and for Europeans there are
planned houses for the Principal, for the lay schoolmaster
(not yet forthcoming), and for the Bishop, so that he can
visit us, and of course a common dining-room. The whole
thing will probably cost about 1500 ; the money comes
from ' Pan- An.' We certainly couldn't afford to build a
new college out of our ordinary funds. The site is forty
minutes' walk from the Cathedral ; I think that I shall have
a donkey. This month the new Governor of Nyasaland,
Sir William Manning, and his new and quite young wife
paid a state visit to Likoma. They made their state entry,
he in all his plumes and feathers, at 9 o'clock on Sunday
morning. Practically all the inhabitants of the Island
were gathered to welcome them. The village chiefs were
presented to him, and then they attended a special
service in the Cathedral. They were very much impressed
with the largeness of the population, and I hear that
the Cathedral was very full for the service. We are,
I think, very fortunate in having him. I, of course, didn't
see him, as, though the College students were home for their
holidays, I always have villagers to look after. The students
return to-morrow that is one reason why I had better now
go to bed. I have this evening received a home-mail,
and I like the news of the Dulwich house for E. and K. very
much. I hope soon to hear that the landlord has been
squared all right.
" Very much love to all."
260
(To a Sister)
THE NEW COLLEGE
S. Michael's College, Sept. 19, 1911.
" My lambs have gone to bed and the villages also are,
I'm thankful to say, sufficiently quiet to-night to enable me
to write. Generally speaking, these villages round the College
compare very favourably with others in the matteis of
drumming and dancing and beer-drinking, but just lately
there has been an unusual amount, and the sound of a drum
has the most extraordinary effect on my mental equilibrium.
In fact even any rhythmical beating on a box makes me feel
very uncomfortable ; there are so many evil associations
connected with it out here. I had a very interesting day
last Friday, as Mr. Crabb, our carpenter and builder, sent
an urgent message by a Likoma boat, asking me to go over
there and fix on the actual spot for the building of the
European houses which will be attached to the new College.
The ground of the site is on the whole fairly level, but at one
end there is a rocky rise of about twenty-five feet, on the top
of which the Bishop suggested the European houses might
be built.
"Mr. Crabb was averse to it as the ground there looks
impossible, being a mass of enormous boulders. However,
as he said that the ground could be made up, I settled we had
better stick to the Bishop's suggestion ; from a health point
of view it will be good to be above the level of the students'
quarters. I shall have a magnificent view on my little
perch, being able to command the whole station, as well as
having no houses on a level in front of me to block the
distant view. The foundation stone is to be laid on Tues-
day, November 14, or Wednesday I5th, and the present
lot of College students are to come over to Likoma for it. I
shall already be at Likoma as it is the time of our annual
Conference for all members of the Mission staff in the diocese
clergy and lay. The CM. is timed to arrive with most
of the staff on Friday (loth).- Sunday night and Monday
there is a ' Quiet Day ' which I am to take ; Tuesday is the
consecration of the Cathedral, which hitherto has only been
261
dedicated ; then the foundation stone ceremony for the new
S. Michael's College, forty minutes from the Cathedral,
follows (I believe) on the same afternoon. You will get this
letter near the very time of these events, and I shall like to
think that you are all praying for a blessing on the building
of the new College, and also on the words which I shall have
to speak to my brethren male and female during the
Quiet Day. I have never conducted that sort of thing
before. 1 Mr. Crabb has already been so energetic as to begin
the making of a decent path from the College site to the main
(Cathedral) station, and at the same time as I was fixing my
house's position, Mr. Glossop, as priest-in-charge of the
Island, was busy paying the different owners for the cassava
roots (native food), which have to be pulled up all along the
route of the new path much as owners at home are com-
pensated for a new railway that cuts through their land.
When the new road is finished, I must consider what will be
best a solid cushioned bike or a beautiful donkey. Senti-
ment inclines me to the latter. I have received the splendid
illustrated papers of the Coronation functions. I believe
that you and E. and K. are chiefly responsible for them ;
but my first account of the actual accomplishment of the
ceremony was in Gerald's Daily Mail. Tell E. and K. that I
have also received a nice present of eatables. I am thinking
so very much of the move to Dulwich. 2 It sounds very nice,
but however nice it is, I do feel exceedingly glad that
' S. Katharine's ' still exists. My very best love to Miss C.
How tremendously busy you and the Misses B. are being just
now with the Missionary Exhibition. Give my love to the
Misses Bellett."
(To a Brother]
. ON THE EVE OF His FORTIETH BIRTHDAY
S. Michael's College, Oct. 8, 1911.
" This day ten years ago I was going across Europe with
Dr. Howard, Miss Minter, Philip Young, and others my first
journey this wards. I am a remarkably bad hand at dates,
1 The addresses are printed at the end of this memoir.
2 Two of his sisters moved from Worfield to Dulwich.
262
but I can't help remembering that I had my thirtieth birth-
day in the train, and now I am on the eve of number forty.
That is a tremendously big thought, but one consolation is
that to-morrow many of you will be very effectively helping
to bear the thought with me. We are expecting the CM.
from the south in two days' time, so it is possible that I may
get some birthday letters, and I hear rumours that a baccy
pouch is on its way to me from Newcastle ; it will be most
acceptable. As to letters, I have to confess that I wrote a
letter to N. which was intended to go by last mail, but it got
mislaid, so she will probably only get it at the same time as
this reaches you. Miss Parsons, one of our nurses, daughter
of the late Rector of S. Mary's, Bridgnorth, is spending the
week-end with us, having come over from Likoma, so
yesterday we that is, I and the three ladies actually had
the energy to picnic in our Mission garden under the cocoa-
nut trees. That garden is not, strictly speaking, the College
garden, and it is about a mile from here. These are, I think,
the only cocoanut trees anywhere on the shore of Nyasa, so
we are very pleased with them. This steamer ought to bring
back Hallson who, for the last few weeks, has been escorting
the Bishop on his first up-country tour. I shall be very
glad to see Hallson back, as he not only looks after the
gardens, but also sees to the students' food. The students
are really in a particularly argumentative frame of mind
to-night. Since beginning this letter I have had one in to
ask me a rather abstruse doctrinal point, and since he went
I have had two deputations on points of Church order !
There is much noise in their arguments, and much rejoicing
among those in whose favour I decide.
" We have, of course, just finished our patronal festival ;
I always like to be able to associate Salwarpe with it.
Glossop came over for Michaelmas Day. If / have been ten
years in the country he has been twenty, and he keeps
wonderfully fresh all the better I think for his temporary
resignation. Archdeacon Johnson is just as he was before
this last furlough. On his arrival up the Lake, the villagers
here gave him a very enthusiastic reception, following him
up from the Lake to my house, where he made a
263
characteristic little speech, ' Thank you tremendously, you
people, for following me up like this but what I say is,
Do let us altogether follow the Lord Jesus Christ.' He was
equally characteristic in his first conversation with me.
"Now to bed."
(To a Brother)
NEW REGULATIONS AT COLLEGE
S. Michael's College, Oct. 24, 1911.
" I got some footballs by last office box. Thank you so
much for sending them with such regularity. Even when I
come home on furlough, please go on sending them to
' The Principal, S. Michael's College.' My temporary
successor will probably be Dennis Victor. I have been
indulging in a few unusually anxious days at the College
this week, as there has been a ' strike ' among the students,
on the ground of the proposed extension of the training
course. They have known about it for a long time, but have
only now begun to take the matter very seriously. When I
came out of the church on Monday morning, I saw the
students (all except the final-termers, who do not come
under the suggested new regulations) assembled outside my
house. When I asked them what their words were, their
spokesman said, ' The years.' I told them (of course they
already knew) what the extension was that we hoped,
although the final decision had still to be given by the
Bishop. They went off from my house quietly, but on
coming out of breakfast, I found that they had departed,
and my good native deacon Yohana had already gone after
one lot to try to get them back, but he then failed. Half
the college had gone, and the rest (except final-termers) had
only not gone because they could not well get home without
the steamer. I knew how very important it was at least to
get them back for the present, so at midday I sent the
deacon with a letter from me, after one lot northwards, and a
teacher with a similar letter after the other lot southwards.
I wanted to give them every chance of returning, so I wrote
264
in Chinyanja something like this ' To the students who have
run away : I wish to tell you that the cause of your running
away is unworthy. I informed you this morning that the
Bishop had not finished to legislate in the matter of " the
years." I now tell you that you should come back at once
and wait for the Bishop's words. If after hearing the
Bishop's words you cannot agree to them, do not do the
work of running away, but say good-bye to me properly.
If you return at once, I do not intend to punish you for this
morning's running away, but if you do not return at once, I
shall not call you again, and I cannot listen to the message of
someone who has said, " Call us when the Bishop arrives
back and we will not refuse to come." I write this letter to
give you counsel. I am your Father A. J. D.'
" One lot arrived back at nine o'clock that night and the
others, who had gone much further, arrived back two days
afterwards. When they came back, I simply told them to
go into school and do all the college work as usual. I am
enormously thankful that they are back, but the future still
needs much prayer and circumspect walking. I shall
probably get separate talks with them in a few days' time.
But already they are behaving exactly as if nothing had
happened sitting about on my verandah, bringing me their
letters to post, &c. Of course when any of them does come
into my room, I do say a word in their private ear, but I do
not think the time has come to say much. Glossop, the
priest-in-charge at Likoma, with twenty years' experience
of the African, was over here yesterday, and was very strong
against giving in one jot, and I think he is right, even if it
should mean that very many of the present students do not
accept the regulations and consequently have to go, but I
hope very much that having had their strike, which seem-
ingly has fallen rather flat, they will (at least the great
majority) take the higher line the only line which is com-
patible with being much use as a teacher and preacher out
here. I wish you knew my native deacon Yohana. He
has a wife and two unmarrieo! daughters, all of them with
their ' Women's Teaching Certificates.' The women's certifi-
cates are managed by our professional lady teachers ; no
265
very high attainments are required for their certificates, but
it is very good, as giving the upper school-girls something
definite to work for, and a definite status.
" I hope to get off from here by the first steamer that
goes down the Lake after Easter. This will be my Christmas
letter home.
" Very much love to all."
I am allowed to print the following reminiscences of
Arthur Douglas written by Miss Constance M. Thompson.
" S. Michael's College was pervaded by his personality.
Before sunrise his voice was to be heard calling the students
to get up and go down to the lake to bathe. He did this on
his way to church, where he always made his morning
meditation before the 6.30 daily Eucharist, which service in
Chinyanja he had started on his first arrival at the College.
Although it was voluntary, by far the greater number of the
students were always present, and it was rare for none to
communicate. They were obliged to attend Mattins, which
followed so immediately that Padre could never say his own
thanksgiving till after that Office.
" At the Eucharist, immediately following the Con-
secration prayer, he read out the names of some of the
past students, and the places where they worked as teachers,
getting through the whole number in two or three weeks by
rotation. He was very particular about this as a part of the
College Service, and who can tell what enormous gain it
was to many a lonely and desponding teacher far away ?
" Directly after breakfast the strenuous day began. It
was a matter of wonder to many how incessantly he kept on,
never apparently giving himself any time off except on
Sunday afternoon, when from early dinner to tea-time he
retired to a deck-chair with an illustrated paper and dozed
comfortably. If a member of the staff, priest or layman,
paid him a visit, he was the courteous host, and sat on his
verandah smoking with them, but otherwise it was steady,
unremitting, methodical grind, quite cheerful withal, and
free from fuss. Even then he said he never caught up with
266
all there was to be done, but anything of real importance
always received attention. The first business after break-
fast was the giving out of food for the day for the whole
college. He felt this an important task. The lads were
working their brains very far beyond their usual habit, and
plenty of sustenance was necessary. Discontent with food
might soon have caused actual disturbance, and even when
he had a layman to help him, he never delegated this bit
of work to him.
" Of course the man-cook did the actual weighing out,
but Padre solemnly watched and counted every basketful
of flour, rice, and bran, and every score of small dried fish
strung together. By the time this was finished, the school
bell was ringing, and the students forming up into line, and
filing quietly into school. The Padre took a large share
in the actual teaching, but there were always native
assistants, and even, for all too short a time, an English
schoolmaster.
" When not in school he was more than busy elsewhere,
for he was parish priest to several populous villages, con-
taining a large number of Christians and catechumens.
Many were the disputes brought to him, and also many acts
of sinfulness brought to light and combated, besides happier
bits of work : advice given, work-people overseen and paid,
and correspondence ad lib. But on his busiest days and
here appears the leading characteristics of the man he
always found time for half-hours in church, where he would
be seen kneeling, with sheets of paper or note-books before
him, which one knew meant often lists of intercessions.
Probably each of his boys was remembered by name every
day, and he sent his staff to their prayers too. Once he came
across the quad to my house to tell me that a certain woman
was just coming for an interview with him, and that he
found she had fallen into grievous sin ; he finished by saying,
'And so now you can pray for her.' Another day, returning
from the village, he told me of another case of wrong-doing,
ending with the direction to ' pray for them when you get
home/ Prayer came into everything, indeed was the very
essence of his life.
267
" During quite six weeks before the large yearly Baptism
he would hold classes every day for as many of the candidates
as could possibly come ; and one weekly class he started
during the last year of his life, for communicants on Friday
at i P.M., when they gave in their names for Communion on
the following Sunday. One wondered how he managed to
give a really spiritual address at that hot hour. His boys
were naturally his first thought and special joy. During
their first term in college he had each for a private interview,
no doubt learning much of their individual character and
bias on those occasions. He entered into their whole life,
manual work, recreation, everything, and to hear him give
singing lessons was an education in itself.
" But he never for a moment relaxed strict discipline,
knowing well how fatal that would be.
" When lady-workers first joined the college staff, he
was a little doubtful as to how it would answer, chiefly on
account of the much restricted accommodation. But soon
he expressed keen appreciation of what they were able to do,
especially among the village women and girls, and no one
could have been more delightful to work under.
" The young English schoolmaster was a real boon and
joy to him ; fresh blood was brought in, and new up-to-date
ideas and methods. To Sydney Peek himself, Padre became
sincerely attached, but after a few months only, blackwater
fever cut short all the bright promises so far as this world was
concerned.
" The day following his funeral, in the second lesson at
Evensong occurred the verse : ' Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit.' And at the end of the lesson Padre
spoke, evidently on the spur of the moment, of how these
words could be applied (besides their greatest meaning) to
the death they were all mourning then, and of the fruit that
would surely come from that one young upright life laid
down. The boys first heard of Mr. Peek's death after they
had gone to their dormitories for the night. They were told
they could get up, and go into the church if they wished, and
many silently crept in there.
268
" On the last S. Andrew's Day of Padre's life he told his
students that they would be held responsible for the day's
perpetual intercession for Missions, and he gave them a few
directions.
" They responded well, and indeed worked it in much
their own way. Three or four at a time came into church
and one read a Litany aloud, the others making the responses.
Then they had a few minutes' silent prayer, and then rose,
tinkled the bell and went out, others always being close
outside ready to take their turn. They were gradually
learning the habit of prayer, and after their Compline many
stayed on their knees for several minutes, perhaps ten,
before retiring in silence to bed.
" Silence after Compline was a strict rule for the whole
station. After Mr. Peek's death, the Padre's work was still
more strenuous until he was able to have the help of a native
deacon, Yohana Tawe, one of the best teachers in the
diocese. There was yet another advantage in the deacon's
arrival, for he could assist at the Communion of the people,
thus lessening the length of the Sunday Eucharist, which, as
it was sung and with a sermon, and possibly 130 communi-
cants even on an ordinary Sunday, was a great strain on the
Celebrant.
" Padre's holidays were usually spent either in going round
the Lake in the Chauncy Maples examining boys at the
various schools, for the entrance examination to the college,
or else in visiting his hill stations and Likoma. This meant
change, but by no means idleness.
" One piece of work I have heard him express real
pleasure to be spared, and that was the Sunday morning
sermon. He usually spent most of Saturday afternoon
preparing it, sitting in church in order to be saved interrup-
tion, and no doubt, after the busy work he found it almost
a tax. On Sunday afternoon he visited one or other of the
little village churches, leaving the college to sing its own
Evensong with the native reader or deacon. He was very
anxious to get the village people to attend their own
small primitive churches in the evening, besides coming as
their obligation to the sung Eucharist at the college church.
269
It was a check on the beer-drinking that often took place
on the Sunday, as it was a day of rest from field work.
" He liked everything in the college church to be of the
greatest simplicity, such as altar frontals and any orna-
ments. He said it should be a sort of pattern to the students
of what they might make for their own village churches,
wherever they might be stationed afterwards, and if things
were too European they could not copy them, in fact it was
far better for them to keep them as native as possible.
" One of his students writing after his death said :
' Oh what great sorrow when our Padre was killed. Great
mourning indeed ! He leaves us here on the earth, our
companion has gone before to GOD. Now he is in Paradise,
resting in peace, until the day of meeting above. He was a
man strong in all his work ; he did not tire, no ! He was the
comforter of all students, now we are all patient ; we do not
know how to think about it, we know that he is at rest.' "
270
CHAPTER VIII
THE PASSING
(NOVEMBER 1911)
ANYone who has read the letters in this book from Mr.
Douglas will have realised that S. Michael's College, of
which he had now been Principal for nearly three years, was
situated on the mainland opposite Likoma Island, and was
in Portuguese territory. More than once Mr. Douglas has
alluded to the difficulties which such a situation involved
difficulties political, linguistic and moral, and Bishop Fisher
was anxious to remove the College to Likoma Island.
" We have had a large gathering [writes Arthur Douglas,
on March 22, 1911] of the priests in the diocese to confer
with the Bishop. . . . One of the chief subjects of discussion
at our conference was his proposal for moving S. Michael's
College to Likoma Island. Our present buildings, i.e. the
church and school and dormitories, and native teachers'
houses, are not fully built of permanent material ; they are
a mixture of brick pillars, fitted in with reeds, and the
Bishop is dead set against building permanently in Portu-
guese territory. We are, as a diocese, far too ' stony
broke ' to build permanently out of our normal funds, but we
have a grant of 3,500 from good old Pan- Anglican, and
the Bishop is now applying for leave to spend the bulk of that
money in building the college permanently on the island
271
(British territory). On the whole I am in favour of the
move ; only I beg that nothing will be done to lessen the
corporate life of the college, that is, I hope we shall not be
too near the Cathedral and its surroundings. We should
go to the big sung Eucharist at the Cathedral on Sundays,
but all other services should be in our own college chapel.
Also I hope that we shall look on to, and bathe in, some other
bay than that where all the traffic of the island comes.
" However, these are details which will have to be
settled after we have got leave so to use the Pan- Anglican
grant. We should in any case have had to enlarge, as we
have a scheme for making the time of training four years
instead of two, so we shall have to accommodate over a
hundred students. Anyhow I suppose the move can't take
place for one or two years." ,
But the move was to take place much sooner than he
anticipated ; for the difficulties with the Portuguese were
brought to a terrible and tragic climax by the death of Mr.
Douglas himself at the hands of the Portuguese officer at
his station on the mainland.
The first cable received at the office of the Mission was
from the Bishop on November n, 1911, which contained
only the words, " Douglas died College, loth, particulars
later."
'.It was naturally assumed from this cable that Mr. Douglas
had died a natural death, and Mr. Travers went down to
Clapham to break the news to his brother Gerald, 1 who was
working at the Church of the Ascension, Lavender Hill.
It transpired, however, next day through the Times
newspaper that Mr. Douglas had been shot by a Portuguese
official in the presence of the Bishop.
On November 16, in accordance with this information,
a second telegram was received from Bishop Fisher endorsing
the statement of the Times correspondent, and also stating
that there had been difficulties with the Portuguese official,
that Mr. Glossop and Mr. Ayers were also present when
1 Now Vicar of Christ Church, S. Leonards.
272
Douglas was shot, and that the matter was now in the hands
of the Government at Kota Kota : and further that the
ladies and Mr. Hallson had been removed to Likoma and
that S. Michael's College had been closed.
Since then, of course, fuller details have come to hand.
The Portuguese officer who killed Mr. Douglas was
personally acquainted with him and they had even exchanged
hospitalities.
There had, however, been considerable dispute and
negotiation about the detention of one of the boats of the
Mission, whose crew had been locked up by the officer and
the native captain flogged.
On November 10, the Bishop and Mr. Glossop went
over to the mainland upon this business. They found that
their negotiations were much hampered by the difficulty of
language, as each side had to make use of an interpreter.
The missionaries, however, understood that the officer had
consented to release the crew, and while he walked back with
the Bishop to the beach, Mr. Glossop released them.
Unfortunately in doing this some disorder occurred. The
men got excited and laid hold of some Portuguese arms,
but the Bishop at once summoned them to lay down their
arms at the feet of the Portuguese officer, which they did
and order was restored. It was agreed that they should
all go together in the ship to bring the matter before the
superior Portuguese officer at Mtengula, but, unfortunately,
there arose a difference of opinion about the question
whether the officer should take some arms or some armed
companions ; the missionaries refused to allow this, and
consequently the officer left the ship.
When he had done so, he was seen running towards
S. Michael's College and firing two or three shots in its
direction, whither Mr. Douglas had returned. On this, the
Bishop felt obliged to put back to shore in order to secure
the safety of the ladies and of Mr. Douglas himself. A boat
was therefore sent off under Mr. Ayers, the captain of the
Charles Janson, and the officer with a guard came down to
the shore to meet it. At this moment Mr. Douglas came
down the path from the college to meet Mr. Ayers. The
273 T
Portuguese officer turned, saw Douglas, raised his rifle, and
shot him dead at a few yards' distance. Mr. Douglas was
entirely unarmed nor had the Mission party in the boat any
arms.
The officer, having committed this atrocious act, at
once fled ; while the party in the boat landed and took off
the ladies and removed Mr. Douglas's body. All this
happened under the Bishop's eyes.
It is impossible not to ask what was the cause of this
apparently cold-blooded murder. It is possible that the
motive may be found in the fact that Mr. Douglas had
interfered more than once on behalf of some native girls
whom this Portuguese wanted for immoral purposes. He
was thus thwarted by Douglas, and his murder looks like
an act of revenge. Arthur Douglas has indeed " laid down
his life for his friends."
" His death [wrote Bishop Fisher] was a real
martyrdom, for there is no doubt that he, and not some one
else, was the victim, because it was he who had saved the
girls, and I think he knew all along that he was running risks
in the matter. Native opinion, which is shrewd in its grasp
of essentials, is quite clear that he died for them."
Miss Bulley writes from Likoma, November 12, 1911 :
November 12, 1911.
" Perhaps I may be able to tell you some things that
others will not, and that you would wish to hear about Mr.
Douglas's death. I will not say sad because, though we
are one and all saddened and cast into gloom by it, for
himself it must have been happiness unmixed. He had
saved several girls from being carried away to a life of sin
at the Boma and he had been gladdened by the fact that
they themselves had with their parents asked him to protect
them. In the old days they would have cared little, but it
was a real fruit of his teaching and he himself was surprised
at their steadfastness. In the morning, as always, there
had been a Eucharist, and just before he walked down to
the Lake he had once more gone into church for a moment's
274
prayer with the others. When he was half-way down to the
shore, he thought the ladies might be feeling nervous owing
to some shots having been fired earlier, and sent back Mr.
Hallson to be with them, though no one had any thought of
danger. In the evening just after sunset we had the funeral,
half in Chinyanja and half in English so that all could join
in prayer for him who had so often helped us.
" To-morrow is our retreat which he was to have taken,
and our thoughts will be all for a blessing on him.
" It happened that yesterday morning was a solemn
Requiem for members of the Mission who had passed away.
It was a wonderfully beautiful service.
" He was over here last Sunday and Monday and went
over to see the buildings of the new college. He was
very cheerful, and we were so pleased to see him here.
" I remember the first day I saw him at Kota Kota
when he took me into the church so that we might begin our
work together with a prayer.
" Yesterday we went to lay the foundation stone of
his new college."
Miss Cogan writes to one of his sisters :
Likoma, November 14, 1911.
" You are so much in our thoughts at this time that I
must write a few lines to you to try and express my sympathy
with you and your sisters and brothers in your sorrow. I
was on the station when that dreadful shot was fired on the
shore, for I had been working under your brother for some
months. I don't want to pain you though with a repetition
of details which you will hear from other sources. What I
do want to do is to try to pay a last tribute to his memory.
" They were wonderfully helpful months lived on his
station helpful because his everyday life was so essentially
a Christian one. . . . Fearfully rushed sometimes, and yet
wonderfully patient through it all ; if anything unexpectedly
happened to increase his responsibility and his duties it
merely called forth extra cheerfulness and patience. Nothing
made him irritable, and in this climate where temptations
275 T2
to worry over details beset one continually, one feels it was
because he lived always so near to God.
" He was, too, so wonderfully patient in listening to
other people's difficulties, natives and the European staff,
so that we felt his advice was absolutely reliable and never
given hastily on the impulse of the moment.
"... Your brother was able to rise above the accidents
of climate and surroundings, and to live a life of joyful self-
sacrifice.
"The Bishop, I believe, has told your brother that
Padre was praying in church to within a few moments of his
death. He did not seem to be fearing violence on the part
of the Portuguese. I think he was merely following his
daily practice of being part of the morning in church. One
cannot help feeling that death in the actual fulfilment of his
duty would be more acceptable to Padre than a tedious
illness. I felt that, when we were struck down with grief
at our sudden loss, and also that he is now free for perpetual
contemplation of the Master he loved so dearly."
Particulars of the events following on this terrible
tragedy are given in a private letter from Bishop Hine dated
November n. Bishop Hine had been invited by Bishop
Fisher to take part in, and to preach at, the consecration
of Likoma Cathedral. Owing to delays on the journey he
did not reach the island till the loth, the day of the murder.
" Yesterday [he writes l ] the steamer the Chauncy Maples
had got up to the college, which is on the mainland opposite
Likoma, when we met the Charles Janson (the other
mission steamer) with flag flying at half-mast. Bishop
Fisher was on board and sent off a boat to fetch me to see
Douglas, who had just been shot by the Portuguese official
whose residence is close by the college. He was quite dead
before I got there ; must have died instantaneously, shot
through the heart.
" Lots of people, ignorant of all this, stood waiting on the
shore to give us their usual welcome, full of rejoicing. But
the flag at half-mast was noted, and suddenly a hush
fell, and as soon as the meaning was carried ashore, silence
i To Canon Randolph.
276
was complete over all the station. Douglas was carried up
to the hospital, and prepared for burial, vested in white
Eucharistic vestments, the Crucifix in his hands. He looked
wonderfully majestic and calm in death one whom, we
all felt, knew indeed, to be ready at any time to pass into
the presence of God.
" In the evening we buried him with solemn and beautiful
rites. In pace.
" He was one of the best and ablest men in the Mission,
well qualified himself some day to be Bishop ; one who had
done so much admirable work, one universally honoured
and beloved. . . . For us, it is only to ' weep not for the
dead, for he is at peace ' the words which came so strangely
fittingly in the First Lesson last evening and to thank
God for the life of one who has given his own life for his
people."
The following is an extract from another letter from a
member of the staff, who had been working with Mr. Douglas
at S. Michael's College, and gives details of the incidents just
prior to his death :
" On that morning, November 10, he (Mr. Douglas) was
in church very early as usual, and celebrated at 6.30 ; a
good many communicated as they knew he would be away
for the Conference before Sunday ; Mattins followed, then
breakfast, at which he asked us if we had any suggestions
as to a book to be read aloud at the Quiet Day he was to
conduct before Conference.
" He opened school as usual at 8.30. While I was giving
the first lesson the Charles Janson arrived with the Bishop
and Mr. Glossop, and he (Mr. Douglas) accompanied them
to the boma. Afterwards he returned, and said they
understood the Portuguese to admit he had no authority
from headquarters to seize Mission boats, and that he
had given back the Ousel peacefully. Later we heard
shots fired. Mr. Douglas did not believe they were fired
at the College, as the natives said, but over the Lake, and
he thought as an act of bravado. When he saw the steamer
he said, ' I expect the Bishop is anxious, and coming back
277
for you, so you had better be ready.' We told him we were
ready, as we had expected to come into Likoma for the
Conference. He then asked us Europeans to come into
church, and prayed that the Mission might be guided to
act aright in these difficulties, and that the students might
not lose their heads and do anything to provoke the autho-
rities. He sent back all who had not run away, into school.
He told me he thought he must ask the Bishop to let him
remain and follow in a day or two ; as the students were so
excited he did not think it would be fair to leave the native
deacon in charge alone.
" I think this was why he hurried down to meet the boat.
I am sure he did not think there was real danger. He did
not tell me he was going down, but returned to church, and
I went to the dispensary. Mr. Hallson tried to go with
him, but Padre sent him back, saying we should not be
left in the station alone at such a time. I do not think
if he had gone he could have done anything, as Mr. Ayers
was out of the boat and had nearly met Padre when the
Portuguese shot him without a word of warning. It was
on Mission ground. He had two native soldiers with him,
but they did nothing at all, and all three rushed off to the
boma." l
Bishop Fisher wrote as follows to Arthur Douglas'
brother about the funeral when all was over :
" We vested him in white Eucharistic vestments, and
put a Crucifix in his hands. The room in the hospital was
arranged with a little altar, and a watch was kept. This
was from 4.30 to 6 (in the afternoon). He was then carried
to the choir of the Cathedral, and rested there, while Vespers
were said and the first part of the Burial Service. Then
he was carried to the grave. He was carried by the two
English priests (Ker 2 of Ely was one the only Ely man
available, as Cox 3 was taking the service with me, and
Victor 4 was away ; but we felt sure he and you would like
Ely to be there), two native priests, two English laymen, and
1 Government Station. 2 Rev. Charles Ker of Mponda's.
3 Rev. Harold Cox of Kota Kota.
4 Rev. Dennis Victor, Principal of the Theological College.
278
two native laymen (our senior churchwarden and his
senior college student). The service was simple and beauti-
ful, just at sunset. The Magnificat at Vespers, the Lord's
Prayer and the Committal were in Chinyanja, and after
the Grace, ' Rock of Ages,' a very favourite hymn here, was
sung. There were thirty college boys who had escaped
here in various ways who were present and many island
Christians."
So death came to him a glorious death for him ; in the
midst of his work he died, one may truly say, as he had
lived, for his people.
"If he had known [writes one who had worked with
him l ] exactly what was going to happen, he would have
behaved exactly as he did. The very last act he did
was to go into the church again. It would have been so
different if one felt that his death had come in the middle
of some excited dispute. After asking for guidance, first
with the ladies in the church, and then again by himself,
no one can say his death was due to an accident. The
words of the lady who describes how he took them into the
church to ask for guidance reminds me so vividly of the
day when he took me into Salwarpe church for the same
purpose. We knelt up near the altar, and I dare say he
used the very same collect for his prayer. No one knows
how much I owe to him, and the manner of his death seems
now an inspiration to me, as his life was. No one could
wish for a more prepared moment to die could they ?
the more so that he so little expected death. Any other day
and moment he would have been in just the same frame of
mind. I think he was one of the people whom his friends
loved in proportion to their knowledge of him."
" I think we miss Mr. Douglas more day by day [writes
another worker 2 ] ; one finds oneself thinking of referring
to him in one difficulty or another and then remembering
that it is impossible ; one of the little girls that came to
1 Mr. Philip Young.
2 Miss Bulley (writing from Likoma) under date May 21, 1912.
279
him for protection is to be baptised here very shortly.
She is living here now ; in fact she is sleeping in our dormi-
tory during her baptismal preparation. I wonder some-
times how much she realises of it all.
" We have had his addresses given to us ; it seemed to
me so exactly like hearing his voice again. It is one of the
things for which I am very thankful, that I had his help
when first I came to Africa."
Another writes from South Africa of the " pathetic
grief of the Nyasa boys here when they heard the very
terrible news of Father Douglas."
Another : l " One does miss his prayerful life in our
midst, but it will always remain an inspiration to us. And
when the conversation takes a criticising tone, one remem-
bers how he would either have tactfully changed the tone
by a joke or if it were necessary forbidden the topic."
" He was one of the best and most spiritually minded
men I ever met. His absolute unselfishness has often been
an inspiration to me, and I hope it will be now more than
ever." 2
" I need hardly tell you [writes Mrs. Howard from
Zanzibar] that to us his loss is irreparable. He has from
the very first been to both my husband and myself a dear
friend, a constant inspiration, a brilliant and helpful example
of what an ideal missionary should be. He was such a
saint, and yet so deliciously human withal, it was impossible
to help loving him."
" He was [writes Miss Parsons from Nyasaland] one
whose spiritual life stands out as a bright example of the
practicability of living in the very busiest world, and yet
keeping the closest communion with the Unseen. As Mr.
Glossop put it on Sunday ' hewing out of each full day's
routine the time for private devotion and meditation.' '
Another 3 of his fellow-workers writes : " No one, so far
as one can see, could have been more prepared for a sudden
death than he was. His whole life and atmosphere seemed
to be one of prayer. I have always felt that he was the
most spiritually minded man I ever met."
1 Miss Cogan. 2 From Rev. G. H. Wilson. 3 Rev. H. A. M. Cox.
280
" One cannot help feeling [writes yet another i] that
of us all no man was more ready for the call [of death] than
he. Hallson tells me that just before going down to the
Lake he had asked the other Europeans to come into the
chapel for a prayer, saying, ' You never know what may
happen/ so that he passed out to his unknown and un-
expected death with a prayer on his lips."
Certainly such testimony as all this shows that he
whose letters we have been reading was no ordinary man,
but one who " being made perfect in a short time has
fulfilled a long time."
" I do not believe [writes the Bishop of Winchester (Dr.
Talbot) ] that the taking away of such a life is mere loss.
We may see and whether we see it or not, it will be true
that some great good is accomplished through it."
" There is no question as to the readiness, and as it
purely affects himself, as to the happiness of his death
[writes Bishop Fisher to Mr. Archibald Douglas]. I have
not known more than four or five people in my life who
were ready in the same way : it was not merely the
extraordinary high level of his general life though that
apart from the rest was a very wonderful thing but the
extraordinarily detailed care of each fraction of his time.
I see some one has said that had he known what was
coming he would have done exactly what he did : this is
absolutely true, but one can add to it (which means even
more) that had sudden death come to him at any other
moment in his life here, he would have been equally
ready.
" I have been told that he had a shrinking from a
lingering illness, and there was some reason to fear this
might have come to him, so it is conceivable that death
came to him with a quickness he wished and perhaps had
prayed for. At all events it is something to know that
it was, as Bishop Hine told me was absolutely certain,
quite painless and instantaneous.
1 Rev. C. W. Ker.
28l
" I suppose "I believe that since it was allowed to
happen it is best for all of us, but it is difficult to realise
it. Work that he could have done and that no one else
can do in the same way cries out for him, and he had a
strength on which others relied."
Miss Medd sent the following account of Douglas to the
Likoma Chronicle ; I make no apology for inserting it here.
"... One's first impression of Mr. Douglas in social inter-
course was that he was always at work and little interested
in other things. This, however, was not really the case,
for, though his actual work was his first object, his know-
ledge and interests were of the widest character. Owing
to the pressure of daily duties this would only appear
occasionally, and mainly when he was away from his own
station, but when one was with him under such circum-
stances one was surprised to find how much he had read of
general literature, and how many sides of life that he was
intensely capable of enjoying he had deliberately sacrificed
to his conscientious standard of thoroughness in daily work.
" He left those who worked under him a very free hand,
but he knew all that went on and, however busy, could
always be counted on to give a patient hearing and helpful
advice even as to details. At such interviews his knowledge
of the character of individuals struck one much ; he never
seemed to think of his people in classes but always as
individuals, and it was this probably which gave him such
a strong influence over them. The words ' The Spirit of
Discipline ' come into one's mind with regard to him.
His coming into a room to a meal was often sufficient to
check grumbling or unkind criticism ; he liked discipline
and would rebuke a fellow-worker for passing over a breach
of it.
" But above all else he was a man of prayer. The
amount of time he managed to secure for private devotion
was a subject of surprise to many of us. He was always up
and in church very early and was there long after anyone else
most nights, as well as using many opportunities during
the day. One remembers him at Likoma kneeling in the
282
still unfinished Cathedral undisturbed by the crash of tools
and other things dropped by workmen on the iron roof.
At the college he seemed when in church so absorbed in
devotion as not to mind the crying of children in our dispen-
sary, or the classes in college, or the shouting in the football
field, all of which places were quite close to the church. This
struck one the more as at other times he seemed peculiarly
sensitive to noise, leaving the table at meals to send people
away who were talking at all loudly near the dining-room.
When the women workers first came to the college he
especially asked them to check the noisiness of the native
women and girls, and some months later said how glad
he was that they were so much quieter.
" He had a great belief in the power of intercession
and especially liked the college custom of remembering
each former student by name at the altar as we prayed for
the work of the Mission in each district. It was his great
desire for the continuance of this custom that made him
anxious that the new college should have its own chapel
and separate daily services. Nor were the village Chris-
tians forgotten ; each month those on ulendo were especially
prayed for by name. For his private use he had a book
which contained the names of each Christian, catechumen
and hearer in his district, and from time to time he would
ask for the names of new school-children down to the
smallest girl or boy to add to it. It was as natural to him
to ask a fellow-worker to pray for some new work or some
particular person, as to ask them to take another class.
One was given a scrap of paper with some names to remem-
ber, or a note came requesting one to intercede for some
special person for some days.
" There is probably none of us who does not feel that
his death is, humanly speaking, a greater loss to the work
than we feel able to express ; yet may we not believe that
the side of his work in which he most placed confidence
that of intercession is still his ? The addresses which he
was to have given at the Quiet Day on November 13 have
been found and will be printed ; in them appears the follow-
ing very characteristic sentence which seems so particularly
283
true of his own life here. At the close of an address
on S. Peter's venture of faith when he walked out on to
the lake, he says, ' Go straight ahead with the venture, there
is nothing to fear ; the will of Jesus was at its beginning
and Jesus is at its end.' '
A touching tribute to the Rev. A. J. Douglas has been
written by one of the students at S. Michael's College to a
friend in England.
" We have been very sad because of our Father and
Principal A. J. Douglas who was killed by the Portuguese.
That day we were sad, and we wept a great deal, for he was
very clever in all his work ; he was not weak, nor was he
ever late for his work. He was a great comfort and help
to us students, he loved all his boys, and he was loved by
his students. Also he was very clever in teaching and
everything. He was strong in his prayers, he knew us
well, he was very wise. He was known to all ; and now
we must be patient that our hearts may be comforted ;
we cannot know much, but we know he is in Paradise, he
sleeps in peace."
It has been the privilege of the compiler of this little
Memoir to know, some intimately, several of the members
of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa who have
passed away.
As he recalls their names and their faces and thinks over
their characters, it is difficult to escape from feeling a
kind of religious envy that they have been allowed to give
their lives to so glorious a cause, while he has only been
called to plod on in a humdrum way at home ; for what
better destiny could any Christian desire than to have his
name enrolled among that galaxy of saints and martyrs
who have built up the Church in Eastern Central Africa by
their self-sacrificing and heroic lives ?
284
APPENDIX
THE following addresses were found amongst the papers of the
late Rev. A. J. Douglas immediately after his death on
November 10.
They had been prepared for the Quiet Day, which Mr.
Douglas was to have conducted, on November 13, in preparation
for the Consecration of the Cathedral and the Diocesan Conference
on the following days.
They have been printed practically as they stood, save for
obvious minor corrections and the translation of a few Chinyanja
expressions into English.
They are put out with the hope that something of his spiritual
force, which was such a strength to the Diocese, may be per-
petuated among us here, as we believe it is being exercised for
us in his life beyond the grave.
We are sure it will not be necessary to remind those who are
helped by his teaching of what, we know, would have been his
own wish, that he should be remembered at times of prayer,
and especially at the Holy Eucharist. Requiescat in Pace.
H. A. M. COX.
LlKOMA,
Passiontide, 1912.
THE MOUNTAIN OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
There are two mountains with stories which stand out
prominently in the Gospel. There is the Mountain of the
Temptation, and there is the Mountain of the Transfiguration.
285
Up the first the devil takes our Lord ; up the second our Lord
takes His three disciples.
My brethren, very much of our life in Africa has almost of
necessity to be spent on a mountain-top. You who are natives
of this land, of the true African ministry by education and
calling, cannot pass the day merely on the plain alongside of
others of your race. And we Europeans, most of us at least, hold
a position more isolated and therefore more conspicuous than
that which we should hold in England. There at home, we
should find our level alongside of many others of our own pro-
fession. There we should scarcely even reach up to our environ-
ment ; there we should be meeting with others far beyond us in
natural capability and spiritual graces. But here in Africa, at
least at our smaller stations, I am so often the priest, the layman,
the nurse, the school teacher ; it is I and so often no other, I on
my mountain-top. Yes, others have their mountain-top ; but
again, theirs are not the same as mine.
And therefore it is that this mountain must often be to me
the Mountain of Temptation. The position of isolation above
one's people means, of necessity, temptation. Satan is per-
suading us to use our position for ourselves. Influence, power,
popularity, aye, the hearts of our people, " all these may be
ours," so Satan persuades. But, my brethren, because we must,
whether we will or no, be so often on that Mountain of Tempta-
tion, therefore it also is that we so specially need the Mountain
of Transfiguration. Ah ! what a blessing this Quiet Day may be
to us whose business daily forces us to be looking down, down
into that over which we are placed. To-day gives us just what
we need, the opportunity to look up. If as we look down, Satan
is giving us his thoughts, there in the Transfiguration, when
the Face shone as the sun and the raiment was white as the light,
we are reminded afresh that all honour and power and thanks-
giving and praise are not for us but for Jesus Christ our Lord.
I propose that during our Quiet Day we should keep very
close to S. Peter ; it seems natural to do so on the eve of the
Consecration of the Cathedral. We begin then by being with
S. Peter on the Mountain of the Transfiguration ; that of course
means also being with our Lord. That is the one essential to
the right spending of the Quiet Day. "It is good for us to be
here," just in so far as we are here with Jesus. There may be
many possible ways of using our time to-morrow. One may
think it best to make a self-examination ; another may think it
best to reconsider his daily time-table, or to re-order his inter-
286
cessions and bring them up to date ; or, the time is so short, we
may think it best on the whole to do nothing that demands
concentrated and strenuous effort. In the sense of blessed
freedom from the burden of our station, it may be enough for us
merely to be saying with thankful hearts " Oh, it is good for me
to rest here," but again, only good if we are resting with Jesus.
But however we spend the day, there are at least certain
dispositions of mind which we may hope for if we are quietly
spending the day with Jesus. And first, we may hope to be
spiritually awake, we may claim from Him to be roused out of
our natural spiritual sloth. Even on the mountain of Trans-
figuration, Peter and they that were with him at first were heavy
with sleep. But then they awoke and saw His glory. Let us
ask Jesus to force us out of our natural dulness of spirit. And
at this time of great heat, we must ask Him to brace our bodies
as well. Don't grumble about the heat when you come out of
retreat ; you will probably lose grace if you do. Spending the
day quietly does not mean spending it sluggishly. Even if we
are only sitting on the hill or in our room, we must be awake to
the influence and presence of Jesus.
And the second disposition of mind which we must hope for
when spending the day consciously with Jesus is " Holy Fear."
The disciples " were sore afraid." Possibly theirs was natural
fear. For holy fear is only possible when the mind is quiet. The
deeper the stillness, the fuller the sense of awe. Try whether
that is not so as you kneel down to-night in the exceeding stillness.
Allowing not the slightest movement of body, and almost holding
the breath, cut off from all others, we become conscious of Jesus,
and of Jesus so awfully near. We feel, we see Him near. Dear
brethren, those most holy and awesome moments perhaps come
very seldom when up to the moment of going to bed we are
chatting with this one or with that, and busy about this thing
and that ; the mind, even as we kneel, is not quiet enough to
permit the consciousness of this close personal loving Presence,
but in the quiet of to-night or to-morrow we may expect it
this holy sense of fear so strange that we almost shrink from
it, almost refuse it when it comes ; so strange that we can only
just find words to say, " Oh, my Jesus, it is good for me to be
here."
Spiritual wakefulness, Holy Fear : and these seem to lead
naturally to a third disposition of mind that we may look for at
such a time as this ; I think that we may look for an increased
desire for communion with the spirit-world. " Let us make
287
three tabernacles." S. Peter having had the vision longs that
it may remain with him ; he prays for a continuance of the con-
templation of the spirit- world to which Moses and Elias belonged.
My brethren, we know that that prayer of S. Peter was refused.
The vision was only for the moment, as our Retreat is only for
a day. There was work waiting for Jesus and His disciples on
the hard dry plain below, as there is much work waiting for us.
And yet there on the mountain-top our Lord is in fullest sym-
pathy with that desire for the spirit-world. Not only has He
chosen for His companions two of the saints that belong to that
world, but He is speaking with them of His own death. It is
His exodus, to use S. Luke's expression His own exodus from
this world into the spirit-world beyond. To our Lord and the
blessed saints death is just a passing out.
How different this quiet sober contemplation of death from
the hasty violent outburst of S. Peter on this very subject only
a few days before. S. Peter had shrunk from the thought of
death. When our Lord had spoken of it down on the plain
below, S. Peter had dared to rebuke Him. But now on the
mountain-top our Lord is rebuking S. Peter, rebuking him by
allowing him to be witness of the manner in which those two
saints who, their own past exodus veiled as it was in mystery,
yet now as dwellers in the land beyond were able quietly and
soberly to speak with our Lord of His passing.
A retreat, a quiet day, is surely a time when we too may tune
our mind to the fact of death, facing the fact of our own death
as our Lord on the mountain-top shows us how to face it, quietly,
confidently. Death and the passing into the spirit-world so
often comes suddenly to workers in Africa, that we may be
especially glad of this quiet time, when we can speak to Jesus
of our exodus, praying that it may be simply when He will, and
as He will.
My brethren, that is all I would say with regard to the Quiet
Day itself. In it let us hope for and work for these three things ;
an increase in wakefulness, an increase in holy fear, an increased
realisation of death and the spirit-world beyond.
But I want our last thought to-night to be one not merely for
our use during the Quiet Day, but one that will, when the quiet
is over, send us back to the plain below with a recovered hope.
And the line of thought which leads from despondency to hope
is surely this. Think first of S. Peter's crushing disappointment
when our Lord spoke of His death and such a death. It was
the utter collapse of S. Peter's dearest hopes. Now within a few
288
days, when the disappointment must still have been taking all
the heart out of S. Peter (ah ! my brethren, we know those dis-
appointments, do we not ?), well, what does our Lord do ? He
takes S. Peter up into the mountain, and there He lets His God-
head blaze through that poor human Body. Yes, this Body,
by being crucified, seems thus to S. Peter almost to have turned
traitor to the cause of the Kingdom of Christ ; now S. Peter's
eyes are opened to see that, in spite of all, God is within that
Body, and, because the Godhead is within, that Body itself is
capable of Transfiguration. Ah, that is a long word. Let us
say as S. Luke says, because of the Godhead within, Jesus
" became other."
My brethren, here is the hope, first for our own selves. What
is possible to the human Body of Jesus is spiritually possible to
each one of us that has God within Him. If God is within me,
I too can be transfigured, I can become other than I am. And
God is within me. At my Baptism He put His own Life within
me for this very purpose, that I might become another. In
Confirmation He made His Home in me to be my strength } in
each Communion He enters into me to be my Food ; and again,
I say, all this He does in me that I may be transfigured. God
within me ; then, if I will, I can be " Perfect as the Father in
Heaven is perfect." Ah, now I know what that means ; at
least now I know how that is possible. It is by the Almighty
God within me making me what He is.
But Transfiguration is not something only of the inner life.
Jesus was Transfigured before His disciples. The change was
obvious, patent to the disciples. Will you go back to your
people with the change obvious to those among whom you
work, with a new patience, a new humility, a new sympathy,
a new joyousness ; will you go back with the change in your life
so obvious that your people cannot doubt that within you
"there is God"?
And the change which can be wrought in me can be wrought
in my people also, at least in those who, having received the Life
of God in Baptism, and not having deliberately rejected it, have
an honest desire, in spite of weakness and sin, to keep God
within them. My brethren, as we realise afresh that each one
of these has God Himself within him, shall we not even for the
least interesting of them feel a new and absorbing interest ; shall
we not feel toward each, even toward the least attractive, a new
respect, shall we not go back with a new and abundant hope for
all ? God has not put His Life for nothing into that stubborn
289 u
lad or silly girl, that ignorant woman or selfish man. The Life
is there, waiting for an opportunity to assert itself. God is
within, waiting in blessed patience till, it may be by your help,
He can effect the Transfiguration.
This is what we are to carry back to our work ; the assurance
that God is within all that is called by His Name. Remember
this, and it will be not only persons but the things of God also
that will take on for you a fresh glory ; yes, the seemingly
dullest of our Church services, those services which may other-
wise be a weariness to the flesh, a source of irritation. Ah ! but,
brethren, we may well be ashamed of our weariness ; there can
be no place for irritation, for when the service seems to go most
wrong, when the singing is bad and the people are inattentive,
and there is more than usual of going in and out at the door, we
can still throw ourselves back on God's promise, Where two or
three are gathered, there am I. If God is not in the service, it
is not the fault of an ignorant congregation, but of us few who
ought to know better. Remember, then, that God is within the
service, and that itself will bring to the service a new glory.
When things in the service seem going wrong, speak to God that
He may make His Power within the service to be felt. O my
God, steady us, quiet us, give us recollectedness, work a trans-
figuration !
My brethren, S. Peter down on the plain, we in our villages,
in our services, our people and ourselves, dwell in thought too
much upon the frail. Jesus on the mountain-top shows us that
the All-glorious God is still within the frail.
VENTURES OF FAITH
There are two incidents in the Gospel which tell us of
seeming danger on the Sea of Galilee. There is the storm when
Jesus is asleep ; that is the one incident. But this morning
I want you to think of the other incident, when Jesus is walking
on the waves. There are many points of resemblance in the
two stories. In each case there is the same boisterous sea, in
each case a fear of sinking, though there it is the boat, and here
S. Peter by himself. In each case there are just the same words
of rebuke, " O ye of little faith ! " Yes, certainly points of
similarity ; but now let us see where the stories differ it is a big
difference. For when the ship is ready to sink in the waves, and
He is asleep, the disciples have done nothing to bring the danger
on themselves ; wishing to cross the lake, they have ventured
290
nothing more than others had ventured daily the danger came
on them quite unexpectedly ; it was in no way of their own
seeking, and therefore, in that case, Jesus of course kept them
safe in it, and brought them safe through it.
But the case of S. Peter in the water is different. Here the
ship is safe ; it is he who had deliberately flung himself into the
waves ; he is solely responsible for his present trouble ; he has
of his own accord made the venture.
Many a time, my brethren, both these incidents have their
counterpart in our own experience. We have found ourselves as
those disciples on whom, with the Lord asleep, the storm came
sweeping down. An unexpected, almost overwhelming trouble
has fallen on us, a sudden temptation of appalling vehemence.
There has been no time for deliberate planning, no time to parry
the sudden danger, except by as sudden a cry from the heart,
" Save, Lord, I perish." That is the use of ejaculatory prayer,
the prayer shot out in a moment to meet the moment's unfore-
seen need. But to-day we are not thinking of the peril that
comes upon us whether we will or no : we are thinking of a
venture taken upon deliberation, something which S. Peter
has set himself to do after he has taken counsel of the Lord,
" Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee upon the waters " j
something not undertaken until he has received the Lord's
sanction, " Come " ; we are thinking not of a venture which was
forced upon S. Peter no one pitched him into the sea ; he
pitched himself in. It was a self-chosen venture.
:< And this also is easy to apply to ourselves ; there is not one
of us that has not made ventures in our life. Think of that
tremendous venture which a lad makes out here when he deter-
mines to shake himself loose of easy-going heathenism, and
throw in his lot with Christianity. Ah, that is a big venture,
though we Europeans forget to estimate it aright. Many have
made that venture in times past, but have sunk in the raging sea
of persecution. Many have come safely through, grasping the
hand stretched out to help. It was a venture, my brethren,
that we made when we settled on our profession. You may
remember S. Peter tells us first of all, that we must be sure that
Jesus Himself, and nothing else than Jesus, is in the business.
The apostles were marvellously loath to give our Lord credit for
being where He was. When they saw a strange phenomenon,
they would believe anything rather than the simple fact that it
was Jesus. After His Resurrection, though He had given them
every assurance that He would jrise again, yet when He did
291 u 2
appear amongst them they only thought it was a spirit. So,
too, now on the lake, when Jesus walked on the water, though
they had that very day witnessed His Divine Power in multiply-
ing the loaves, yet when they see this marvellous walking on
the water they only suppose it is a spirit, not even the Spirit of
Jesus. Jesus does not come into their thoughts. Jesus has to
force His Personality upon them, " It is I," and it is only then
that S. Peter says, still almost incredulously, " If it be really
Thou." The suggestion that should have come to their mind
in a moment, " It is Jesus," comes only amazingly slowly. Now,
my brethren, we need to give Jesus credit for being where He is,
and for actions where He is acting. Wonderful, splendid things
happen about us. One boy makes an extraordinary advance ;
a quarrel which has stuck suddenly melts into air. I remember
a case here at Chipyela, where, till midday on Saturday, both
sides were raging furiously, and suddenly the whole was settled,
and in an hour's time they came into Church together to ask
leave to seal the compact in next day's Communion. Now we
say, How wonderful, how extraordinary, how truly African !
Yes, but we had better own up straight and say, " How truly
Jesus." It was Jesus.
So, my brethren, those who would make successful ventures
must believe in the protecting Presence of Jesus, always at hand,
always watchful. They must cultivate that habit of thought
which gets behind all other causes, and is ready to say, "It is
Jesus."
But beside the general habit of mind which turns to Jesus,
which sees and feels Him near, we must make as sure as possible
that the particular venture is in answer to the call of Jesus.
Before S. Peter dared to fling himself into the water he had
heard our Lord saying, " Come." Yes, though his loving, eager
spirit itself naturally incited him to the venture, he did not
venture until he had laid his desire before the Lord, and had
obtained His sanction. " If it be Thou, suffer me to come to
Thee on the water," there is the man's natural earnest wish ; and
Jesus said unto him, " Come," there is the Divine sanction. Was
it not Pusey, who, when consulted on any line of action, used to
say, " First let us see what Jesus thinks of it ! " that is our
preparation for a venture ; there is to be first the general dis-
position of mind that is ready to see Jesus Himself as the prime
mover in the life about us, and then the laying of the particular
venture before Him and listening for the answer, whether He
says Yes or No. But once the venture has been made, once the
292
plunge has been taken, there is, my brethren, to be no faint-
heartedness, no regret, no wish that we had never left the boat,
no fear of the waves.
Ah, the waves and contrary winds are certain to meet us in
our venture. When you joined the Mission, the venture was
made doubly hard because the home wind blew contrary. When
things have been extra difficult out here, there may have come
the thought, " Why wasn't I content .to stop with James and
John in the boat ? " When inside her, yes, there were difficulties
at times, but nothing like these waves roaring and raging round
my head. Or the venture has been of a different kind : a new
scheme of work in my own department. I didn't begin it with-
out thought, I didn't begin it without prayer, but now I feel
that the fresh demand it makes upon my strength and time is
almost overwhelming ; some new class, some new scheme of
journeys through my district, some extra Sunday preaching, or
some special work of translation ; or else it is venture for my
own inner needs, some resolution about prayer or meditation or
Bible reading, or some piece of discipline I set myself to overcome
an evil habit. It ^vas not that I made the venture carelessly ;
I knew what I was doing ; I acted deliberately ; nay, I believe
now that I made the resolution in the Presence of Jesus, and in
accordance with the will of Jesus. Ah, my brother, do you so
believe ? then the resolution stands, the venture holds good ;
and ah, dear brother, there is nothing to fear. Art thou of so
little faith ? Jesus made Himself known to you at the beginning,
saying to you, " It is I, be not afraid " Jesus sent back to you
across the water the clear, strong, short command, " Come."
You do not now, even for a moment, really think that the venture
is too much for you, or the resolution impossible to keep. Per-
haps we even have the advantage of S. Peter. He made the
venture then after prayer and conscious of the Presence of Jesus,
but with a heart upset. But we when was it that you made
that solemn resolve ? almost certainly it was at a time when
you were soberly, quietly, under the invocation of the Holy
Spirit, taking stock of your life ; it was as a result of a Retreat,
or preparing for Absolution, or in seeing with what desire for
your life you could best go to your next Communion. My
brethren, with regard to ventures on which we determined at
those quiet solemn times, now, though the difficulties seem
immense, we are not going to be faint-hearted. Throw yourself
back in memory to the moment when under the consciousness of
your Lord's Presence you yourself wished for the venture ;
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wished, that is, to bring your life nearer to Jesus, when He sealed
your prayer with His " Come." But in that very word " Come "
we get a further incentive to persevere. When He bids us to
a difficult task, He is not content to say, " Go " ; He says,
" Come." As Jesus was at the beginning of the venture, so is
He also at the end. Well, then, in our venture we are not going
to the unknown ; for Jesus we know, and He is already standing
at the far side of the venture. Take a practical case. We have
formed the resolution of building S. Michael's College on this
island. My brethren, if that resolution was made otherwise
than in the belief that Jesus Himself is very near to us in the
enterprise, and in the further belief that the rebuilding is accord-
ing to the will of Jesus, and in answer to a call from Him, of
course we deserve to fail. But if we do believe that the start is
being made because Jesus has given the order, then we have the
further immense satisfaction of knowing that Jesus is not saying
to us, " Go " to Makulawe,i but He is saying, " Come " to
Makulawe. Jesus is already there. He is not only in the
beginning ; He is waiting for us at the end. And not merely
waiting ; for as the hindrances multiply and difficulties nearly
overwhelm, there He is, with Hand stretched out to help ; there
He is, ready for each one of us as the spirit within us fails ; there
He is, ready for these lads of Africa ; they can find Him there
and feel the grip of the Hand. Yes, surely it is these lads and
young teachers who specially need to feel that a strong sustaining
Divine hold is on them. They have made their venture. They
have by their profession largely separated themselves from their
former comrades and from their old home life. Standing alone,
discouraged, tempted to despond, it is surely they that need the
grip of the Hand ; and if only in their faint-heartedness they
will still keep their faces turned to Him and cry to Him, He will
bring them through safely to Himself.
For this is the last point I would have us consider. It was
the man who made the venture ; it was he who, in spite of faint-
heartedness, reached Jesus sooner than those who made no
venture at all. Let me repeat it. Venturesome Peter grasped
the Hand of Jesus sooner than those others who just sat in the
boat and made no venture at all. Ah, our blessed Lord loves
the venturesome soul, and draws it right through to Himself.
Then, my brethren, what are we venturing these days ? I ask
first, what are we venturing for the Church in the land ? When
^The site chosen for the new College.
294
the Mission has been long established, is there still no venture to
be made toward a native self-support ? Of course the aura
popularis, of course native opinion, may blow contrary, but we
are not going to give up hope merely because of contrary winds.
No, if we haven't yet taken the plunge, it can only be that we
cannot yet see which way the Master calls. But some day
assuredly we shall make the venture, and the scheme which we
shall fling upon the waters will make its way, if it has the will
of Jesus at its beginning and the glory of Jesus as its goal.
Again, what ventures are we making those of us whose work
lies in districts mostly heathen ? The man who gets out to his
villages may feel disheartened by the indifference that meets
him, but Jesus will work with him sooner than with the priest
who sits complacent in his room at home. Again, my brethren,
Mohammedanism is dead against us ; so was the wind on the
Galilean Lake, but Peter made the venture. What ventures are
we making here ? Let us at least take the first step, and tell
our Lord that whatever He would have us venture, that we will
try, and try with confidence, knowing that He Who could check
the violence of the wind can check the onrush of Islam. Yes,
but He did not check the violent waves until after S. Peter had
thrown himself into them and made his venture in their midst.
Perhaps I do not know altogether what we can venture against
Islam, but at least we must make the possibility of a venture
a subject of prayer to our Lord.
And as with ventures in our work with others, so we may
expect to be called to fresh ventures in our own hidden life.
Why should it be otherwise ? we must go forward if we are not
going back. We look back on ventures in the past, ventures
that have brought us nearer to our Lord ; but can we come no
nearer ? This is the question for to-day. Is there nothing new
that I can venture to bring me nearer to Jesus, that is, to make
me more like Jesus ? Nothing further in the life of self-surrender
and sacrifice, of my time, my private income, my furlough ; no
further progress possible in the suppression of my own self or in
the acceptance of authority ; no further movement possible in
kind and courteous conduct toward those whom we have allowed
ourselves to think of as rather impossible ? My brethren, there
is for us the very great danger of our resting content on the fact
that we made one big venture when we offered ourselves to this
Mission. But what have we ventured further since we joined
the Mission ? In what are we nearer to Jesus now than when we
first set foot in Africa ? We all love the venturesome boy ; I
295
think that Jesus loves the venturesome Christian. Is there any-
thing which He would have you venture for His dear sake ? If
there is, now's the time to make the plunge, and when you get
back to your work, go straight ahead with the venture, there is
nothing to fear. The will of Jesus was at its beginning, and
Jesus is at its end.
S. PETER'S DENIAL
That act of venture of which we thought this morning was
typical of the man. In his love of the Master he flings him-
self into the water, and then he flounders, flounders terror-
stricken, only to be rescued by the Master's hand.
This afternoon we are to see the climax which such a character
can reach. Others have fled, but Peter plunges into the thick
of the dangers of Caiaphas' courtyard. But there, no sooner
has he plunged, than again he flounders ; ah ! flounders help-
lessly, only to be rescued by the Master Himself. When the
poor bound arms could no longer be stretched out to help, the
eye of Jesus was enough. Jesus looked on Peter, and Peter wept
bitterly. Ah, there was the rescue ! Is it not the same story
over again, yet intensified in each point ? The plunge deliber-
ately taken, followed by the faithlessness, and then, by the grace
of our Lord, the Recovery.
My brethren, I suppose that we all have reckoned with our-
selves why it was that Peter fell, Peter so strong in his profession
of faith, so enthusiastic in love. It was, was it not, that in
S. Peter one thing was lacking a knowledge of himself. He did
not know his limitations, he thought he was strong where he was
very weak.
Oh, how important is this old maxim, " Know thyself " ; and
this not merely that we may become penitents as we look back
on past sins, but that we may know where we need to safeguard
the future. Retrospection is only one half of the work of self-
examination ; the other, and perhaps the more important part,
is when we use that which is behind to make us wary for that
which may be in front.
And knowledge of self means that I know by experience what
is dangerous to myself and what 7 have to avoid. Whatever
others can do in a particular matter, I know that I with my
character cannot attempt it safely.
Now S. Peter knew that his companion S. John was inside
the door, and if S. John could be inside the door, why could not
296
he ? It is a fatal counsel to give oneself. It is a counsel which
has probably presented itself to all of us in one form or another.
Others can go to theatres, so I can go too. Others can read
these books, so I can read them too. Or others can exhibit an
affection towards the boys or girls under their charge, surely I
can do the same. If S. John can do this, S. Peter can surely do
it too ? Ah, no ! that does not necessarily follow. My brethren,
it is just a matter of knowing oneself, knowing one's own moral
limitations, and at all costs abiding by them. S. Peter should
never have passed through that door.
Now let us look at a second apparent cause of S. Peter's
collapse. Having passed into the courtyard, he allowed himself
to sink to the level of his surroundings : he sat among the ser-
vants, perhaps rough soldiers. At least, when inside the yard
he must have realised that there was evil, and consequently
danger to himself ; oh, if only, even after that first lie spoken to
the girl at the gate, he had kept himself aloof, he might even
then have pulled himself together and recollected what he was,
the chosen of the Lord, one who had been picked out to live very,
very near to Jesus, and had been taught to look at things as
Jesus looked at them. But, instead of so doing, he sits with the
servants, and the next moment he is cursing and swearing like
any one of them, choosing to be on a level with his surroundings ;
and his fall is complete.
My brethren, I hope I am not pressing the point too far
when I find in this a warning for myself. But there is a real
and a frequent danger to our high vocation by almost uncon-
sciously living, not in word, but in our attitude of mind, on a
level with the thought of the natives around us. Take as a chief
example our attitude of thought towards sin. Are you not con-
scious again and again of regarding sin, the gross sins which you
hear in native trials, with very little more real horror than that
with which the natives themselves regard it ; and we priests,
are we not miserably content if the matter is satisfactorily settled
at the court ? If a theft is proved, are we not tempted to feel
such satisfaction that the criminal is caught, that there is very
little room for real and exceeding distress at the sin itself ? We
who have been chosen to live very near to Jesus, in daily com-
munion with Him, let us try to think the thoughts of Jesus, try
to look at things as Jesus looks at them ; let us never sink to the
level of thought which we find around. S. Peter ran a terrible
risk to himself, and he rued it too, when he sat himself down
alongside of the servants. Here then are two causes of S. Peter's
297
fall. First, he did not know his own limitations, and, secondly,
he did not try to keep himself above the level of his surroundings.
And to these two causes I would add a third, something
indeed which seems so small a thing to be reckoned a cause of
such a fall ; such a harmless little thing, how could it result in so
great a moral disaster ? And yet three Evangelists give it
a prominent place in the story of his fall. What is this third
cause ? It is just that which brought S. Peter among the ser-
vants. It is the bit of fire at which he warmed himself. Three
Evangelists call attention to the fire, and all call attention to the
fact that S. Peter is warming himself at it ; making himself
comfortable, indulging in just a little bit of luxury, when the
utter moral collapse occurred. Again I say, oh, if only S. Peter
had eschewed that bit of fire, if only he had denied himself that
seemingly innocent little pleasure, if only he had been content
to put up with some hardness on the day when his Master was
being crucified, he would have escaped the laughing jest which
drove him to final denial. Experience tells us how easily S.
Peter would have argued with himself. " What harm can a little
fire do me ? I can watch ' the end ' all the better if I am warm
and comfortable." But we know how it turned out. Denying
himself nothing, he came to deny his Lord. My brethren, I have
no intention of dogmatising on the subject of self-denial and
bodily discipline. I would only say two things : on the one
hand, if I am right in supposing that, though the air was cold,
the fire was not a necessity but a pleasant little luxury (as lads
will light a fire here at nights) , then you will see I am in no way
suggesting that S. Peter should have done anything rash which
might have hurt his health ; on the other hand, his story does
emphatically warn us against pooh-poohing all little acts of
hardness and self-denial as silly, useless nonsense.
And yet once again, there is one other cause which I venture
to think may have sadly contributed to S. Peter's fall. He had
no one to support him in his trial. And yet, so far as we can
say, he might have had, for S. John was somewhere near. If
S. John had only stood by him, S. Peter, as it seems to me,
couldn't have lied, couldn't have cursed and sworn, would never
have sought the company of those rough fellows in the court.
Oh, why did S. John go and leave him ? Yes, I know that
S. John was probably standing very near to Jesus when S. Peter
was floundering ; but does it not seem to us that that was one of
those occasions when it might have been right, as we say, to
leave Jesus for Jesus, to leave prayer when a brother or sister in
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trouble needs us. Our Lord will understand ; we need not
bounce out of His presence all in a fluster, and in annoyance at
being disturbed ; we have only to tell our Lord that Peter is in
great trouble and needs us, and Jesus will understand, and the
atmosphere, the calm and strength of Jesus, will go with us. I
know, my brethren, that we have not a hint of this in the Gospel ;
it may seem mere conjecture, but somehow it does seem wrong
for Peter to have been left by himself when his great friend, who
must have known S. Peter's weakness, might have stood by him.
However this may have been, at least what a responsibility is
ours to stand by these brethren of ours in Africa, those who are
so quick to fall. What a responsibility is ours not to lose touch
with anyone whom we know to be passing through a time of
trial ; what a responsibility is ours to do all we can to strengthen
those who are away from home. How careful we must be to
answer the letters of those who write to us from South Africa ;
how careful that our teachers feel our touch of sympathy. There
must be no native attached to our Mission who can feel that he
stands alone in trial ; each man and boy, each woman and girl
must feel that there is someone ready to help, strong to sym-
pathise. Yes, if only Peter could have had John ! S. Peter fell,
partly at least, because he was friendless, alone.
And yet, the very fact that S. Peter was alone in his great
temptation does remind us that each one is ultimately responsible
for his own collapse or his own victory. It does give a dignity
to the conflict, it does give a tremendous sense of responsibility,
this knowledge that no one can decide for me the issue of the
conflict. If I fall, I am responsible for the fall ; if I do not fall,
it is I who, by using God's grace, have won for myself the victory.
If S. Peter had remained firm, it would have been on S. Peter
alone that our Lord would have turned with a look of " well
done " ; just as it was on S. Peter, and S. Peter alone, that our
Lord looked in intense sorrow. But, my brethren, as S. Peter
went out and wept bitterly, surely the sorrow in our Lord's
heart must already have turned into joy. They were tears of
penitence, and therefore of recovery. If it was the outstretched
hand of Jesus that saved Peter from the waves, it was the eye of
Jesus that saved him now. Yes, we are no longer thinking of the
causes of the fall ; we are reckoning now with the wonderful
blessed recovery. And here again, my brethren, I venture to
say that, as in the story of the Galilean lake Jesus was seen at
the beginning of the venture as well as at the end, so now we
trace the recovery from the fall, not only to the Eye of Jesus
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drawing him back from the depth, but to that most full and
blessed Communion which S. Peter had with our Lord only a few
hours before he took the plunge. Yes, Peter had made his First
Communion, and though his fall was terrible beyond words, the
power of that First Communion prevails. Let us dwell on this,
my brethren. Never has priest had such an awful crushing dis-
appointment among those to whom he has administered their
First Communion, as Jesus must have felt when His Body, the
apostles, a few hours after their communion, all forsook Him and
fled, those apostles who had made all the protestations that we
may expect from candidates for First Communion, " Though
I should die with Him, yet will I not deny Him." Yes, what-
ever disappointments come to us from the failure of our com-
municants, we shall never meet the failure like that of those first
communicants, all failing, and all within a very few hours of
their leaving that Holy Table in the upper room. All failed, yes,
not only Judas if we follow the Prayer Book in supposing that
Judas did communicate but Peter and all the rest ; together
with Judas in failure, but separated from Judas in the matter of
recovery. And why ? This is the next point. Why did
S. Peter recover, and why did not Judas ? Surely because
S. Peter, however badly he failed after communion, had made
that communion with a good intention, and Judas had not.
When Judas failed, there was nothing in him to counteract the
failure, nothing to turn the remorse into penitence ; but in
S. Peter there was the virtue of the Sacrament within him and
only waiting its opportunity to reassert itself ; and it found its
opportunity in the external circumstance of the Look of Jesus.
If there had been no virtue of the Sacrament within, the Look of
Jesus, the external look, might have driven Peter only into
remorse ; the inner virtue, Jesus Himself, prevented remorse,
and wrought a blessed penitence. My brethren, let me repeat
it, " The virtue of the Sacrament within awaiting its opportunity
to reassert itself." That is a great consolation for us who are
conscious of so much failure after communion. My brethren, if
the communion has been made with a good and honest intention,
we know that the virtue of that communion, the virtue of Jesus
Himself, has entered into us ; and in spite of our failures, in
spite of being upset, and, in spite of the fit of temper in which I
could have, not indeed cut off, but at least have boxed young
Malchus's ear, in spite of being surprised into saying a lie, in
spite of giving way to that old bad habit which I thought I had
conquered as I expect the cursing and swearing were a lapse
300
into the habit of his fishermen's life ah, in spite of that act of
cowardice, when I ought to have shown myself on the side of
right but was kept back through fear of public opinion, in spite
of all that may happen, and alas does happen to us when we
have, it may be, made our communion only a few hours ago,
my brethren, I say we may keep a good heart if only our com-
munion was made with the humility of Peter, " Dost Thou wash
my feet ? " with the devotion of Peter, " Lord, not my feet only,
but also my hands and head." Ah, the virtue of such a com-
munion could not be lost. It was always within, it was refound,
it manifested itself when Peter went out and wept bitterly.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
When S. Peter went out and wept bitterly, we knew that
those tears meant a rescue, a blessed recovery. This evening
we will see how the recovery was publicly acknowledged
by our Lord. We have read to-night the reinstating of S. Peter
before the eyes of his companions ; a reinstating which takes
the form of a public commission to be shepherd of Christ's lambs
and sheep.
It is a commission to do pastoral work ; and therefore it must
have a special message for us in these days, when, by force of
financial circumstances, if for no other reason, our efforts are to
be concentrated less on those ventures which belong to pioneer
work than on the feeding and the tending of those who are
already within Christ's fold.
I said " if for no other reason," but surely there is another
reason ; for even though we had money and men for extension,
yet the very fact of the growing age of the Church in this diocese
makes the call to pastoral work each year more persistent ;
pastoral work both among the lambs and the sheep. Yes ; let
us follow the order given' by our Lord. He first commits to us
His Lambs. What have not the last ten years wrought in the
lambs' fold in the Church in this land ! What an enormous,
almost alarming, almost overwhelming increase in the number
of the infantly baptised ! This year, for the first time as far as
I know, there was a Confirmation exclusively for those baptised
in infancy. But if that only goes to prove that even to-day
those infantly baptised and now confirmed are not very numer-
ous, you who know the stations where work has been established
for many years, will agree that the number of Christian boys and
girls of six or eight years is enormous. That is most blessed.
301
Ah, we may thank God for that ; and yet, even as we thank
Him, often we need to realise how very, very little idea there is
among the responsible Christian relations, parents, god-parents,
and native teachers, of the necessity even of teaching these little
ones their prayers. I can never forget how one native teacher
in a peculiarly high position, had not taught his son the Lord's
Prayer, though the lad was of an age to have known half the
Catechism.
One of my own teachers was obviously surprised when I told
him that if he ever had to choose between a class of infantly
baptised children and the usual Hearers' class, I thought that
the former was the more important of the two. It is not that
parents, or god-parents, or teachers intend to be slack in the
matter ; but the idea is new to them, because the phenomenon
of Christian children growing out of childhood is new to them.
Then, my brethren, upon us, to whom neither the idea nor
phenomenon is new, there does rest a tremendous responsibility
to keep close to our Lord's first commission, " Feed my lambs."
If we do not, what sort of a Christianity will it be here when
these children, who are allowed to do as they please to-day,
become the " go-as-I-please " lads and lasses of our villages ?
For these, surely, now is the day of salvation. Let us remember
one practical truth that children, to be kept up to this mark,
need to be looked up in their homes when they have been absent.
The weekly looking-up of absentees is a regular part of any good
Sunday-school system in England. If I may venture to say
what we try to do at S. Michael's College for the infantly baptised
village children on Sundays ; the teacher brings me the register
during the week ; we pass over one week's absence without
comment ; but if a child has been absent for two Sundays, I
write a notice to the parents, " Your child has been absent for
two Sundays," and it is a regular part of the teacher's weekly
work to see those parents in their homes and deliver them the
notice. That is only possible where a priest is resident ; but in
any case, might not the inspection of an infant Christian's
register be as much a matter of course for the perambulating
priest as the inspection of the other registers ; even more may
not these little ones be called to him on his monthly visit as
regularly as the classes for adults ?
And that brings us to the sheep. These, too, have to be fed ;
and, my brethren, do not let us teachers presume to think we
can feed our flock, whether of school-children or of adults, with-
out taking trouble about the preparation of the food. Our
302
teaching is to be simple in its elements as the flour and water of
the native daily meal ; but simple as that food is, the woman of
the house prepares it with much care ; she dare not serve it up
anyhow. Of course she may be called upon to cook all in a
moment, and then she will do her best and trust to luck. We
may have to preach at a moment's notice ; we will do it, and
trust to the Holy Spirit. But ordinarily w r e must not trust only
to God ; still less must we trust to our natural glibness of tongue.
If our teaching is to be simple, it is a truism to say that simplicity
is attained in proportion to the trouble we have taken in the
preparation. And, my brother Clergy, natives of Africa you
who have that wonderful African gift of fluency of speech at
which we Europeans marvel you know how that gift may
become a great snare to you, as certainly it is to many of the
native teachers. It becomes a snare to you if you trust to
natural ease of speech instead of to careful previous preparation.
My brethren, we have so far reminded ourselves of a few
matters concerning the nature of pastoral work ; now let us
consider what is to be the basis of our work what is it which
will produce the best pastoral work in us ? First, it is the
remembrance that these lambs and sheep are not really ours but
our Lord's. The commission to S. Peter is, " Feed My lambs,"
not feed your lambs ; " Tend My sheep," not tend your sheep.
We are to keep ourselves in the background and Jesus in the
front. We may say to the lad, " my son," we may speak of
" my people," but they are in truth the people of Jesus. Nothing
upsets our inner peace like jealousy, nothing spoils our work like
jealousy, and the only way to keep free from jealousy is to
remember that the child is neither mine nor hers ; the congrega-
tion neither mine nor his ; the child belongs to Jesus, the people
are the people of Jesus ; and if only the child and the people can
be brought to Jesus, it matters nothing whether they are brought
by me or by someone else. If we bear this in mind, we have
found a principal safeguard against petty jealousy amongst our-
selves ; and if we are to keep self in the background of our own
thoughts, and Jesus and His flock in the front of our own thoughts
how careful we must be that it is Jesus and not my poor self
that is in the forefront also of the people's thoughts ; how fearful
we must be lest their thoughts should stop short at us and at
our wishes, and fail to reach the point of saying, " Jesus, Whose
I am and Whom I serve."
Some of you may have lately read an article in East and
West by the Bishop of Lebombo, on " Discipline on a Mission
303
Station." Perhaps we do not agree with all that is there written ;
but at least the Bishop does point out a real danger of too many
Mission rules, and he does plead very effectually for the need to
throw our people's conscience back again and again on Jesus.
Don't let us think that all is well merely because the external
discipline is good. Of course we make our rules because we
want our people to be people of Christ but we need to test our
rules by asking how far does the thought of Christ, and a desire
to please their Saviour, enter into the people's observance of the
rule. But we have not yet reached the basis of good pastoral
work. Yes, to be effective, we must work in the knowledge that
the flock is the flock of Jesus ; we must love the flock as being
the flock of Jesus. But the true basis lies deeper ; it is found,
not in the words of the commission, " Feed My sheep, tend My
flock," but in the question which precedes it ; it rests not on my
love of the flock, but on my love for Jesus Himself. " Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? " Before our Lord will give
S. Peter the pastoral commission, He must know whether the
love of S. Peter towards Himself is sufficient for the fulfilment of
the work.
My brethren, it is an awe-inspiring thought that I can only
be an effective worker among the lambs and sheep in so far as I
love the Lord Himself. We are so tremendously conscious of
this poorness of love, that we instantly begin to fear poorness in
our work. Yes, we do well to fear ; but at least the colloquy
between S. Peter and our Lord on the subject of his personal love
is very comforting and very encouraging. Look at it close.
Our Lord first makes an exceedingly large demand on S. Peter
" Simon, lovest thou Me more than these ? Dost thou love Me
beyond these others ; dost thou love Me more than thou lovest
John, and James, and the rest of thy companions ? " And
S. Peter dare not give the full reply ; he dare not say, Yea,
Lord, beyond all these. His answer stops short : " Yea, Lord,
Thou knowest that I love Thee." His answer is short of Jesus'
demand ; and yet our Lord accepts the answer, and is content
to frame His next question on that reply. " Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou Me ? " But even so, the Love of which Jesus speaks
is of a higher, nobler, more spiritual kind than any to which
S. Peter can lay claim. S. Peter answers again, but using again
the simpler, more everyday word that means the natural affection
which one man may have for another. He dare not profess the
higher spiritual love which Jesus demands. Again, then, the
answer of the man comes short of the Christ's demand, but again
304
there is infinite condescension of the blessed Lord ; the Christ
again condescends to accept this lower love of His disciple, and
in His third question He takes up S. Peter's own word for love,
and S. Peter is able to answer, " Lord, Thou knowest that I love
Thee." Poor and unworthy as the love is, utterly falling short
of Thy first demand, yet such as it is with it I love Thee.
And, my brethren, for ourselves, conscious as we may be that
even this profession of love is more than we can truthfully use,
at any rate always, though at times, perhaps very often, there
may seem to be no affectionate regard of my soul for Jesus ;
though we dare not even say, " Lord, Thou knowest that I love
Thee," yet He who condescended in mercy to lower His own
first demand till it reached the level of S. Peter's capacity, will
be ready, may we not hope it, to condescend still further for our
sakes. My brethren, if we cannot yet say, " Thou knowest that
I love Thee," we can, each of us, truthfully say, " Lord, Thou
knowest that I want to love Thee." And if this be our honest
profession, we believe that Jesus will accept us not for what
we are, but for that which we want to be.
305
34'
35'
34-'
LAKE NYASA
INDEX
ABDALLAH, Rev. Yohana, 75, 170-
171
Ambali, Rev. Augustine 61, 74,
143, 153, i?o
Ants, 85, 113, 203
Armstrong, Miss, 45, 161, 172, 251
Atlay, Rev. G. W., 8
Austen, Rev. A. S. C., 252
Ayers, Mr. E., 240, 272, 273, 278
BAINES, Rev. P., 36
Bandawe, 166, 174
Baptism, classes for, 47, 136, 139,
268; infants', 48, 133-135;
adults', 65-66, 104-105, 139-141,
164, 238; candidates for, no,
121, 138, 241-242
Beckett, Father, 182, 183
Bell, Rev. Canon G. C., 10
Bishop, Rev. W., 36, 39
Blantyre, 41, 125-126, 187-189
Bloemfontein, 181, 182-184
Bradley, Dr., Dean of Westminster,
8
Brimecombe, Mr. Alfred, 72
Brixham trawlers, 70
Browne, Dr. Oswald, 30, 178
Bulley, Miss, 117, 155, 161-162 ;
letters from, 274, 275, 279, 280
CAPE, The, 176
Catechumens, dealing with, and
Christians, 80-8 1, 173 ; work of,
83 ; little, 103, 105 ; training of,
164, 213 ; preaching to, 201
Cathedral, see Zanzibar and
Likoma
Central Africa magazine, 40
Champneys, Mr. A. C., letter from, 7 ;
letter to, 204
308
Charlie, 153
Charles Janson, the, mission
steamer, 53, 85 ; bringing the
Bishop, 68-69 ; bringing friends,
90-91 ; travelling by, 126, 128,
145; stowaway on, 167; sea-going
powers of, 168; playing truant,
173; flag at half-mast, 276
Chauncy Maples, the mission
steamer, 53, 62 ; dedication of,
64 ; travelling by, 65, 67, 70, 176,
218-219; bringing the Bishop,
72 ; as a hospital, 74 ; bringing
friends, 90-91 ; the work of, 147 ;
repair of, 212, 216
Che Mapunda, native chief, 190,
191
Chiganga, 97, 98, 112
Chigwe, native chief, 93
Chinde, 41, in, 176, 186-187
Chinyanja language, study of, 34,
44i 59> 79 ; services and hymns
in, 42, 99-101, 106-107, 144, 208,
266; first sermon in, 56, 131
Chipyela, 131 ; girls' school at, 136
Chiromo, 125, 126
Chizi, 1 66
Chizumulu, under priest-in-charge
of Likoma, 129, 146, 161 ; heathen
customs of, 133 ; village fight at,
172-173; Easter at, 136
Clarke, Rev. J. P., 169, 196, 245
Cogan, Miss, letters from, 275, 276,
280
Compton, Lord Alwyne, Bishop of
Ely, 14
Conference, 108, 150, 151, 171, 277-
278
Cox, Rev. H. A. M., 278; letter
from, 280-281
Crabb, Mr. A., 91, 153, 261-262
Crocodiles, 41, 77, 169, 198-199
DANCES, village, 80, 82, 84, 97,
102-103
Davies, Rev. C., 74
Davies, native gardener, 217, 225
De la Pryme, Rev. A. G., 58, 59, 62,
67, 169, 239
Donkey, 112, 127, 197, 260, 262
Douglas, Arthur Jeffreys, birth and
childhood, 1-6 ; Confirmation, 7 ;
Marlborough, 7 - 10 ; Oxford,
10-13 ; " Exhibition " at, 10
Ely, 13-15 ; ordination, 16
curacy at Salisbury, 16-19
Rector of Salwarpe, 20-27
Assistant Diocesan Inspector, 21
interest in foreign missions, 28
volunteers for U.M.C.A., 29-31 ;
letter to child-nieces, 33 ; voyage
to Zanzibar, 34, 35 ; description
of Zanzibar, 36-39 ; voyage up
the Zambesi, 40-42 ; reaches
Lake Nyasa, 43 ; first visit
to Kota Kota, 56 ; reaches
Likoma, first Chinyanja sermon,
56 ; Lake-side visiting, 56-59, 65-
67 ; Holy Week at S. Michael's
College, 62 ; Good Friday at
Mataka's, and Easter at Likoma,
63-64 ; priest-in-charge of Kota
Kota, 69-121 ; meeting with
Bishop Trower, 68 ; priest on the
Chauncy Maples, 69 ; first fur-
lough, 119; finger amputated,
119; sails for Nyasa the second
time, 123 ; visits Kota Kota, 128-
129; priest-in-charge at Likoma,
128-177 examining chaplain,
137, 209, 210; describes native
lawsuits, 147-149; preaches at
dedication of the Cathedral, 150-
151 ; visits S. Michael's College,
172 ; invalided home, 174-177 ;
anticipates visiting a brother at
the Cape, 176; recruits in the
New Forest, 177-178 ; returns to
Africa, 181 ; journeys across
S. Africa, 181-185 >' voyage on
the Shire, 185-186 ; Blantyre,
188-189 ; arrives at Lake Nyasa,
190 ; visits Mtonya, 191-192 ;
re-visits Kota Kota and Likoma,
193 ; examines candidates for
Holy Orders, 194 ; Christmas at
Kota Kota, 199-201 ; Principal
of S. Michael's Training College,
202-272 ; examines candidates
for the College, 218-219, 221,
243 ; visits German territory
N.E. of Lake, 218; holiday 'at
Likoma, 221 ; visits Unangu and
Mtonya stations, 227-234; visits
a College out-station, 210-212;
keeps Coronation Day at Kota
:; Kota, 257-258 ; anticipates
furlough, 258-259 ; helps to
choose site for new College, 259-
262 ; anticipates Conference and
Retreat at Likoma, holding the
Quiet Day, and the laying of
foundation stone of the College,
261-262 ; anniversary of his
birthday, 263 ; death, 272-274 ;
funeral, 277-279
Douglas, Archibald, 19, 20, 30, 254
Douglas, Edward, 76
Douglas, Elspeth, S.C.S.P., 30
Douglas, Frances, 12, 252-254
Douglas, Rev. Gerald W., 3, 14, 15,
17, 29, 121, 272
Douglas, Gladys, Rita, Kathleen,
letter to, 33
Douglas, Lieut. Henry H., 30, 39,
117
Douglas, Father James, 182-183
Douglas, Molly, 19
Douglas, Mrs., i, 2, 6, 7, 19, 20, 29
Douglas, Rev. Robert Gresley, 17,
152, 176, 183
Douglas, Rev. Canon W. W., i, 19,
24, 28
Drake, Father, 182-183
Durban, 176
ELDERS, 132, 134, 142
Ely, 17, 28, 29, 112, 122, 153; Theo-
logical College, 13-15
Eyre, Archdeacon, 90-92, 112,
169, 190-191, iQS-^S, 224, 244,
258; letter from, 119
FAGE, Miss, 200
Farrar, Archdeacon, 8
Fasting, 46, 103
Fisher, Bishop, 45, 241, 253, 255,
256, 259-261, 263-265, 271-272,
274, 276, 277, 281 ; letters from,
274, 278-279, 281-282
Folliott, Rev. F. W., 29, 51-52, 56 ;
memorial to, 86
Fort Jameson, 114, 118
Fort Johnston, 112, 142, 153, 176,
194, 196
Fort Salisbury, 136, 146, 197-198
309
GARDENS, 130, 153, 155, 200, 208-
209, 217-218, 225-226, 236-237,
240, 256, 263
George, Mr. F., 142, 153, 202, 216-
217, 239 ; letter to, 45 ; architect,
49, 51-53, 131, H3, 155, 223
Glossop, Archdeacon, 45, 54, 142-
143, 150-151, 194-195, 209, 262-
263, 265, 273, 277
Good Friday, observance, 63-64, 136
Gore, Bishop, 14
Gwazas, 41
Kondowe, 164
Kota Kota, 43, 49-56, 59 ; arrival
at, 68 ; priest-in-charge at, 69-
121 ; church at, 49, 52, 64, 91-92 ;
difficulties at, 54, 94 ; mission
buildings at, 55 ; confirmation at,
72 ; dedication of hospitals at, 84 ;
Christmas at, 92, 200-201 ; visits,
128-129, 193, 196-202 ; wedding
at, 199-200; sports at, 200-201 ;
Coronation Day at, 257-258
Kumtuntumala, 115
HALLEY'S Comet, 240-241, 249-250
Hallson, Mr. Tom, 185, 190-192,
235, 256, 263, 278
Hearers, 55, 71, 83, 106-107, 120,
164
Hilde, Father, 182
Hine, Bishop, 239 ; letter from,
276-277
Hospital, 71, 84, 176, 193 ; ship, 123
Howard, Dr. Robert, 36, 38, 43, 71,
194-195, 219, 223, 262 ; superin-
tending building of Kota Kota
hospital, 84 ; medical adviser,
174-177 ;
Howard, Mrs., letter from, 280
INTERCESSION, practice and value of
prayer and, 45, 59, 120-121, 194,
199, 207, 229-230, 238-239, 252,
258, 262-263, 266-269, 278, 280,
282-283
JAMESON, Miss, 51, 55, 71
Jenkin, Rev. A. M., 189
Jiggers, 105
Johannesburg, 183, 184, 242
Johnson, Archdeacon, 47, 91, 170,
190, I93> 217, 239, 244-245 ; ill-
ness of, 74 ; experience of, 219-
220 ; furlough of, 248 ; return
of, 263
KAMUNGU, Rev. Leonard, 106, 150
Kangati, Rev. Leonard, 170
Kango, 192
Kasamba, church at, 71, 76, 86, 113 ;
troubles at, 79-81, 84, 97, 101-
103 ; work at, 93, 104, 108-109
Katunga's, 41
Ker, Rev. C. W., 188, 246, 278;
letter from, 280
Kiungani, 38
LADBURY, Mr. H. E., 36, 43, 50, 75,
142; letter to, 144
Ladybrand, 182
Laws, Dr., 164
Lebombo Mission, 185, 249
Leopards, 86-88, 107, 240
Liddon, Dr., 47
Likoma, island, " Beautiful," 54 ;
priest-in-charge at, 45, 126, 128-
177; Christmas at, 56, 154;
Easter at, 64, 163 ; Holy Week
a t, 135-136; Rogationtide at,
139, 148; ordination at, 209-210;
Retreat and Conference at, 74,
108, 150, 171-172, 224, 261, 277;
Cathedral at, no, 129-132, 135,
143-146, 149-151, 193-194, 260-
261 ; choir at, 131, 136, 144, 168;
football at, 165
Lincoln College, 10-13, 28
Lions, 43, 88, 107, 125
Liwonde, 189
Lloyd, Mr. E. W. M., 2-4
Locusts, 42
London, Bishop of, 10
London, H.M.S., 39, 117
Lozi, 78, 79, 99-100
Lyon, Mr. S., 128, 150
Lyons, Miss, 50-51
McDowALL, Rev. C. R., letter to, 227
Machila (hammock), travelling by,
78-79, 83, 100-101, 107, 125, 176,
189, 191, 197
Mackenzie, Bishop, grave of, 42
Madan, Mr. A. C., 117
Malindi, 50, 59, 126-128, 172, 176,
179, 191, 233
Malinganile, 171
Malisawa, Rev. Eustace, 61, 74,
143, 153, 162, 163, 165, 170
Manda, 210-211, 251
Mann, Miss, 71, 75, 82-83, 9-9 I >
101, 128, 172
310
Manning, Sir William, 260
Manuel, King, 248
Maples, Bishop, 52
Marlborough, 7-10
Marriage question, 72-73
Marsh, Rev. R. H., 35, 43, 5-5i,
57, 74, 162, 172, 192-194
Masasi, 28, 43
Mataka's, 62, 171
Matthew, Miss, no
Medd, Miss, 191, 236-237, 244-245,
249, 251 ; reminiscences by,
282-284
Minter, Miss, 35-36, 43, 71-72, 74,
79,90-91, 105-106, 108-109, in,
114, 117, 144, 212, 219; animals
and, 87-88 ; reminiscences by,
119-121 ; see Howard, Mrs.
Modderpoort, 182
Moffatt, Brother, 36, 38
Mohammedans and Mohammedan-
ism, 99, 103, 107, 120, 124-125,
197
Molesworth, Miss, 36, 43
Mombasa, 124
Morrice, Rev. Canon, 16
Mosquitoes, 38, 42, 85, 189, 190
Mponda's, 43, 49, 52, 69, 111-112,
114, 119, 188, 233,246, 257
Msumba, 210
Mtengula, 171
Mtonya, 190-192, 227-228, 256,
258
Murton, Miss, 185
NEWTON, Miss, 71, 75, 82, 185, 200
Ngofi, 169
Nkamanga, 142, 164, 174
Nkata, 150, 152, 166
Nkwazi, S. Andrew's Theological
College, 143, 153, 162, 170, 239 ;
village of, 139
Nyasa, map of, 40 ; boys of, 38,
77-84, 88-89, 94-96, 184, 186,
197-198 ; as medical students,
219; girls of, 88-89, 179 ; Lake,
43, 47, 56, 194, 217
OXFORD, 10-13
PALMER, Rev. Canon, 29-31
Pamalombe, Lake, 187-188
Pan-Anglican Fund, grant from,
256, 260, 271-272
Parsons, Miss, 263 ; letter from, 280
Partridge, Mr. H., 46, 72, 75, 91, 162
Peek, Mr. Sydney, 235-237, 240-
241, 243-244, 246, 250-252, 268-
269
Philipps, Rev. J. G., 46, 74
Piercy, Rev. W. C., in, 117, 151
Pollock, Bishop, 9
Polypode, The, 41
Port Herald, 187-188
Port Said, 34-35
Portuguese, territory, 120, 259, 271 ;
language, 236-238 ; difficulties
with, 248-249, 272-277 ; friendly
relations with, 137-138, 194-196;
taxes, 215, 245
Prayer, see Intercession
RANDOLPH, Rev. Canon B. W., 14,
17, 29, 122, 151, 153
Retreat, 108, 150, 171, 172
Rhodesia, new diocese, 239
Rondebosch, 181
Russell, Rev. R. A., 169
S. ANDREW'S Theological College,
see Nkwazi
S. Michael's Training College, 57,
60, 165, 176, 192, 194 ; visit to,
140-141 ; Principal of; 202-272 ;
examining for, 217, 219, 244-245,
257, 269; catering for, 196, 244,
246 ; scheme for removing, 255-
262, 271-272 ; students at, 209-
210, 216-219, 227-229, 264-265,
279 ; time-table, 206-208 ; foot-
ball at, 205-206, 220, 241, 264 ;
villages, 194, 202, 204, 210-211,
250, 252, 255, 261, 267 ; laying
foundation stone of new, 275
Salisbury, 16, 18-20
Salwarpe, i, 4, 19-26, 32-33, 76, 82,
106, 151, 263, 279
Sandwith, Dr., 178
Sani, 71, 76, 79, 83, 197
Sargent, Brother, 191
Schofield, Miss, 126, 127 ; reminis-
cences by, 179
Shannon, Mr: A., 168-169, 210, 214,
240
Sharpe, Sir Alfred, 224
Shire, River, 40, 162, 185-187
Sim, Rev. A. F., 52
Smith, Miss Nixon, 36, 50, 134, 185 ;
reminiscences by, 43-48
Smith, Rev. E. B. L., 54, 58-60,
64-65, 67-69, 159, 163
Smyth, Bishop, 249
Snodin, Mr. O., 185, 187, 190, 210
311
Society of the Sacred Mission, 182
Soulsby, Miss, 14
Steere, Bishop, 39
Stokes, Rev. F. W., 50-51, 53, 55-
56, 64, 68-71
Students, medical, 219; see S.
Michael's College
Suez Canal, 34, 35
Suter, Rev. W. B., 35, 36, 43, 50,
69
Swann, Mr., 54, 92, 117, 156-157
Swinnerton, Mr., 65
TAWE, Rev. Yohana, 264-265
Thackeray, Miss, 40
Theological College, see Nkwazi
Thompson, Miss, 197, 200, 245, 251 ;
reminiscences by, 266-270
Travers, Rev. Duncan, 252, 272
Trower, Bishop, 64, 72, 129, 137,
141, 143, 145, 146, 150, 151, 153,
156, 172, 174, 209, 210, 212, 230,
236 ; arrival at Kota Kota, 68 ;
at Likoma, 69
UNANGU, 171, 216, 227-228
Universities' Mission Jubilee Meet-
ing in Cambridge Senate House,
178
Utonga, 57, 58
VICTOR, Rev. Dennis, 155, 239, 257,
264, 278
WILD beasts, 213-215
Willcocks, Mr. L., 143, 151, 243
Williams, Mrs., 236-237, 257-258
Wilson, Rev. G. H., 143, 153, 166,
17, 174, 176, 210, 253, 254;
letter from, 280
Winchester, Bishop of, letter from
281
Winspear, Rev. F., 143, 155, 161,
165, 169-170, 212
Wordsworth, Bishop, 16
Worfield, 151, 238, 262
YAOS, 150, 191, 205, 209, 216, 221,
243
Young, Mr. Philip, 35, 41, 43, 50,
6 5> 7> 72, 74, 9i, 262 ; letter
from, 279
ZACHARY, Rev. F. E., 28, 32, 43
Zambesi, letter from, 40-43 ; 186,
187
Zanzibar, impressions of, 35-39 ;
hospital, 37 ; town, 37 ; Cathedral,
38, 39, 129, 131
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