FROM-THE- LIBRARY-OF
TWNiraOUEGETORONTO
THIRTY- NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
IN THE COUNTRY DISTRICT NEAR
BOMBAY
CUTTING palm branches for Palm Sunday.
THIRTY-NINE YEARS
IN BOMBAY CITY
BEING THE HISTORY OF THE
MISSION WORK OF THE
SOCIETY OF S. JOHN THE EVANGELIST
IN THAT CITY
BY THE
REV. FATHER ELWIN, S.S.J.E.
AUTHOR OF " THIRTY-FOUR YEARS IN POONA CITY,"
" INDIAN JOTTINGS," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
ISSUED BY THE MISSIONARY ASSOCIA
TION OF SS. MARY AND JOHN, FOR THE
FURTHERANCE OF THE INDIA MISSIONS
CARRIED ON BY THE SOCIETY OF S. JOHN
THE EVANGELIST, COWLEY, IN BOMBAY
AND POONA, AND BY THE COMMUNITY
OF S. MARY THE VIRGIN, WANTAGE,
AT POONA. TO BE HAD FROM MRS. %
BENGOUGH, QUEEN ANNE S MANSIONS,
S. JAMES S PARK, S.W., PRICE 2/- NET.
A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. LTD.
LONDON : 28 Margaret Street, Oxford Circus, W.
OXFORD : 9 High Street
MILWAUKEE, U.S.A. : THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN Co.
32 ?o
^
Ifo
127500
PREFACE
IT has not been an easy task to gather up the
events of thirty-nine years, and to attempt to
weave them into a connected history. It has
involved much research amongst a variety of old
Magazines and Reports, and I have drawn freely
from these sources in the course of my narrative.
I have, however, had one great advantage that I
have been able to refer what I have written to
some of those who actually took part in the
work of the early days of the Indian Mission.
The first chapter, dealing with the call to India,
I was able to submit to Father Benson, and he
said that it appeared to him to represent correctly
what took place. Father Page and Father Biscoe,
who were the two first Fathers of the S.S.J.E.
to land in India, are still with us, 1 and the latter
in particular has the most intimate knowledge
of all that took place during the whole period.
Besides the help that other Fathers and the
Rev. J. H. Lord have given me, I have been
able to draw upon my own familiarity with the
1 While this work was passing through the press Father Page
was called to his rest, on October 24, 1912, and was buried in the
cemetery of the Poona Mission. R.I. P.
V
vi PREFACE
situation and circumstances during the more recent
years. I have had to content myself with a rather
dry recital of events, because it was necessary to
confine the size of the book within reasonable limits,
but at any rate the accuracy of the details given may
I think be relied upon. The photographs which
adorn the book were taken by Brother Leslie.
E. F. E.
YERANDAWANA,
POONA DISTRICT.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAP. I. THE CALL TO INDIA
II. BEGINNING WORK IN THE CITY OF BOMBAY
III. S. PETER S, MAZAGON
IV. THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS IN MAZAGON
V. ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES -
VI. TROUBLES -
VII. THE MISSION TO THE INDIANS
VIII. THE MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORK
IX. THE MIGRATION OF S. PETER S
X. THE PRESENT POSITION
PAGE
V
I
10
21
30
43
53
63
77
90
102
APPENDIX A.
APPENDIX B.
APPENDIX C.
APPENDIX D.
APPENDIX E.
INDEX
APPENDICES
OFFICERS AND RULES OF THE MISSIONARY
ASSOCIATION OF SS. MARY AND JOHN
OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF S. JOHN
RULES OF THE ALL SAINTS BOMBAY MIS
SION ASSOCIATION
SUMMARY OF S.SJ.E. MISSION WORKS IN
BOMBAY
SERVICES IN THE S.S.J.E. CHURCHES IN
BOMBAY -
vn
118
121
122
123
124
127
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE FACING CHAP.
I. IN THE COUNTRY DISTRICT NEAR BOMBAY -
2. BOMBAY AS SEEN FROM BLACK BAY
10
3. THE NEW S. PETER S CHURCH AT
MAZAGON - -21
4. THE NEW S.SJ.E. MISSION HOUSE AT
MAZAGON - 30
5. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS AT
43
- 53
- 63
UMARKHADI
6. AT PANWEL TEMPORARY HOME
7. AT PANWEL PERMANENT HOME
8. IN BOMBAY CITY - 77
9. CARPENTERS SHOP AT MAZAGON - 90
10. S.S.J.E. MISSION HOUSE AT PANWEL - 102
Frontispiece
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN
BOMBAY CITY
CHAPTER I
THE CALL TO INDIA
PAST events, viewed in the light of subsequent
developments, become matters of great interest
as time goes on, and GOD S good purposes, not
always fully understood at the time, become
apparent. As long ago as 1859 the Rev. R. M.
Benson, founder of the Society of S. John the
Evangelist, offered himself to Bishop Cotton, who
was then Metropolitan of India, for Mission work
in that country. Bishop Wilberforce had sanctioned
his going to India for two years on an experimental
journey before finally resigning the Parish of
Cowley, and arrangements for his departure were
so far advanced that he had actually begun to
make his final preparations with the full purpose of
going to India for good. But it may truly and
reverently be said that " the Spirit suffered him
not."
The actual external cause which brought about
his change of plan was the extraordinary and rapid
growth of the new district which had sprung up on
2 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
the extreme edge of his country parish through the
City of Oxford spreading out in that direction.
This fresh responsibility, which involved the
formation of the new Parish of Cowley S. John, the
building of Churches and Schools, and the providing
of all the usual parochial machinery, was the task
which seemed to have a prior claim, and Father
Benson reluctantly set aside the Indian project,
hoping that it only meant that its fulfilment would
be delayed for a few years. As events subsequently
showed, he was really detained in order that he
might establish and guide the Society which has
been privileged to give such a large share of its
spiritual energies to the evangelization of India.
Father O Neill came to live with Father Benson
in the Iffley Road in the year 1865. There are
vocations within vocations, and it was this step
which in a few years time secured for him the
privilege of giving himself to India. Meanwhile
other Priests joined them, and in October, 1868,
the then definitely constituted Society of Mission
Priests of S. John the Evangelist moved into the
Mission House in Marston Street which had been
made ready for their occupation, and which, with
many alterations and extensions, has been the
Mother House of the Society ever since. The
occupation of this new home commenced with a
Retreat for Clergy, October 5-10, 1868 ; and Father
Benson, in explaining the purpose of the Mission
House to the parishioners, adds, " We contemplate
eventually a Mission work in India whenever our
numbers may allow, and I would earnestly ask
THE CALL TO INDIA 3
your prayers that GOD may put it into the hearts
of some to join in this work."
The Cowley S. John Parish Magazine, the first
number of which was published in January, 1867,
has become a valuable record of the doings of
those early days. In January, 1891, its title was
changed to that of the Cowley Evangelist, as being
more appropriate to a publication which had ceased
to be a parish chronicle, and was now a monthly
paper on subjects Missionary and Religious, and
which was intended primarily as a means of commu
nication with absent members of the Society, and
with its associates and friends at home and
abroad. It is interesting to trace in its early
numbers the gradual development of Missionary
enterprise. When in March, 1867, a pupil-teacher
from Cowley, John Fairclough, afterwards well
known as a Priest in the Diocese of Rangoon,
first went out to Burmah as a Missionary, prayers
are asked for "the extension of Mission work in
India and the East." In July, 1868, a short
paragraph on Indian Missions concludes by saying
how " very important it is that the Mission work
of India should be strengthened." In November,
1870, Father Page is mentioned for the first time.
Father Benson, in announcing the fact that he was
going to visit America, says that " the Rev. Robert
Lay Page, recently Vicar of Coatham, in Yorkshire,
will have charge of the parish during my absence."
A parochial Missionary Association had also been
formed, and the first day of Intercession for Foreign
Missions was observed on December 20, 1872.
4 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
That this effort of prayer was to be followed
up by decisive action was quickly shown. In
August, 1873, Father Benson announced that
the way now seemed open for the Society to begin
work in two places in India, and that he himself
would probably accompany the party for a few
months. Bishop Milman, writing to him at
this period from Calcutta on the subject of a
branch of the Society being established in India,
says, <c With regard to your own coming ... it
would be extremely satisfactory to me if you could
come over to us, and see with your eyes, and hear
with your ears, the nature and character of the
field in India. You would also better find out
what modification of rule, and what adaptations for
climate, existence in India would require, and you
could also better understand what form your
Missionary work among the heathen had better
adopt." 1
The Bishop was disappointed when he learnt that
Father Benson was again prevented from going
to India by obligations at home which it was
impossible for him to ignore, and he wrote to
him, saying, " It is impossible to see India without
a stir of heart. The number of their population
and their character are unusually attractive and
awakening." Father Benson, in the Parish Magazine,
writes, " Our first work will be in Bombay. This
Mission will be primarily to the European and
Eurasian population, but it will rapidly branch
out into dealings with the native population.
1 Memoir of Bishop Milman, p. 242.
THE CALL TO INDIA 5
Father Page will go out at the head of the work.
It seemed plain that GOD had marked him out to
go there, and so I had no choice but to acquiesce.
Then shortly afterwards Father O Neill will be
going out to the Diocese of Calcutta. Our day
of Intercession for Missions to the heathen would
be meaningless if we were to hold back from
evangelizing India." The now well-known Litany
for the Conversion of India appeared in the same
number of the Magazine, and shows a marvellous
understanding of the special needs of the divers
groups of characters in that country, considering
that the writer had never been there.
A great farewell meeting took place in the
schoolroom at Cowley S. John in November,
1873, upon the occasion of the departure of
Father Page for India, Father Biscoe also accom
panying him. Many beautiful gifts and sums
of money for the use of the Church in India
had been given by friends near and far. Notable
amongst these gifts was the Chalice and Paten
from the Iron Church, the temporary building
in Stockmore Street in which the Fathers of
the Society ministered for so many years. Father
Page was allowed to take these sacred vessels,
hallowed as they were by so many associations of
Eucharists offered at the Altar of the Iron Church,
instead of almost identical new vessels which
had been offered by the parishioners for India,
but which did not arrive in time. The Mission
party sailed from Liverpool on Advent Sunday
evening, 1873. They arrived safely in Bombay
6 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
Harbour at 11.45 P- m -> January 6, 1874, the
Feast of the Epiphany, and made their Communions
on January 8th at Holy Trinity Church, Sonapur,
of which district the Rev. C. Gilder was the
Incumbent.
Father O Neill soon followed, arriving in Bombay
on February I3th of the same year. Although
he often visited the Fathers in that City and
preached and lectured there, he came out ostensibly
to work under Bishop Milman in whatever part
of the Calcutta Diocese seemed most suitable, and
he never formed part of the regular Bombay staff.
It may be best, therefore, to give at once the
brief details of his short life in India. His memory
is perpetuated in the present S. Peter s Church at
Mazagon, not only by the pulpit and choir screen
which were erected as his memorial, but also
by the exquisitely beautiful marble High Altar
which he had himself been allowed to place in
the old S. Peter s in memory of his mother.
When S. Peter s Church was rebuilt, as will be
told later on, all these memorials were removed
to the new Church.
Father O Neill proceeded almost immediately
to Calcutta and stayed with Bishop Milman, and
it was arranged that he should endeavour to settle
at Patna. This, together with Dinapore and
Bankipore, form practically one long town on the
banks of the Ganges. The S.P.G. owned a large
house at Bankipore which they were willing to
let. Father O Neill lived there a few months,
but the house, which was very much out of
THE CALL TO INDIA 7
repair, was soon afterwards purchased by Govern
ment for a Medical School, and he had to move,
and the Bishop advised his visiting various Mission
stations before finally deciding on any place of
residence. This he accordingly did, spending
also some time in Bombay, and preaching and
holding temporary Missions in various places, until
it was finally arranged with Bishop Milman that he
should endeavour to commence a permanent Mission
in the Native State of Indore. This State is under
the rule of the " Holkar," which is the family name
of one of the early Mahratta rulers of that territory,
and has been adopted as its dynastic title. He
arrived there at the end of October, 1875 ; tne
British Resident, who was always very kind to him,
characteristically telling him that it was the worst
place in India to come to.
There he spent practically the whole remaining
few years of his life. In 1876 he made an attempt
to take up residence in a village called Salotiya,
twelve miles from Indore, where he built a small
mud hut. But for various reasons the scheme
proved impracticable, and he unwillingly relin
quished it and returned to Indore. He lived there
a life of great simplicity. He dwelt amongst
Indians in one of the small houses of the Native
City, which he made no attempt to furnish ; and he
tried in all respects in domestic matters to conform
his ways to those of his neighbours. Besides his
rule of prayer as a Religious, and his daily offering
of the Holy Sacrifice in the room which he had
fitted up in the simplest manner as an Oratory,
THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
he led a studious life endeavouring to instruct a few
would-be Catechists and others, and always accessible
to any one who wanted to talk with him. He
was also not neglectful of the small European
community in the Camp, and visited friends there,
and frequently preached in S. Ann s Church.
But his chief care was for the very poor in the
Native City. Father Page, visiting him in July,
1880, writes as follows: "Preaching and Mission
machinery (if I may so call it) is not the special
feature of his method of winning the heathen to
CHRIST, though they form part of it. He cares
much for the native poor, and distributes to them
monthly a good deal of money in very small sums.
If any one should take exception to this, one
answer is that more than the sum distributed is
saved by his own abstemious mode of life."
Other of the Fathers visited him from time to
time, and the now well-known Brahmin convert
" Father " Goreh lived with him a good deal. An
Indian in Minor Orders, Mr. Samuel Gopal, was
also a great help to him in many ways. But Father
O Neill s time of service on earth for India was
to be a brief one. He had a short illness in which
he suffered much. But he had all the consolations
of the Catholic Church to aid him, and Father Page
and Brother Bcale to minister to him. " Oh, how
good it is to suffer," he said in the midst of his
pain, " one can never know the depths of suffering.
We live and learn." A soldier friend, Major
Carey, had with generous kindness, as soon as he
heard of his sickness, carried him off to his own
THE CALL TO INDIA 9
house in the Camp, and there on August 28, 1882,
he died. He was buried in the cemetery at Indore,
and soldiers carried the body to the grave, which to
this day is beautifully kept and tended by those
who cherish his memory.
CHAPTER II
BEGINNING WORK IN THE CITY OF BOMBAY
HERE are probably few cities which have been
so often described as Bombay. It is truly
spoken of as " the gateway to India," because it
is the port at which the large majority of travellers
to that country make their entrance. India is ill
supplied with harbours in spite of the extent of her
sea border, but the magnificence of Bombay Har
bour almost atones for the deficiency. The first
sight of this inland sea as the ship enters it in the
early morning, with the sun rising with all its
Eastern brilliancy, is one never to be forgotten.
Father O Neill, speaking of his first impressions,
says, " Bombay and India are utterly different in
houses, customs, climate, everything. Bombay is
really a cosmopolitan City like New York or Alex
andria." The real truth of the matter seems to be
that in this great City, the second largest in the
British Empire, except Calcutta which runs it neck
and neck, the varied ways in which divers races
have adapted themselves to city life can be made
a subject of interesting study. Owing to its central
position between East and West, and the diversity
10
I
BOMBAY AS SEEN FROM BACK BAY
(See p. 10).
BEGINNING WORK IN THE CITY OF BOMBAY 1 1
of people from India itself which are drawn down
to Bombay through the openings which it affords
for commerce and industry, there is no city in the
world which can show such a variety of types.
A walk through those parts of Bombay where
natives chiefly live enables the visitor to become
familiar with almost every sort of Eastern face and
dress. And as ships from all parts of the world
are to be found from time to time in Bombay
Harbour, an afternoon s walk in the neighbourhood
of the Docks or in commercial centres will bring
the visitor into contact with representatives from
almost all parts of the civilized world.
All these, Easterns and Westerns, some from
remote country districts, others from busy centres,
have formed for themselves a method of life in
their new circumstances which sufficiently satisfies
them, and in which they still retain some traces
of their origin ; so that the well-to-do Englishman
in his commodious bungalow, or the worker in
a cotton mill who forms one of the hundreds
who crowd into the many-storied lodging houses,
commonly called chawls, with which Bombay
abounds, have not altogether shaken off certain
characteristics of domestic life which they cherish as
reminiscent of their former state. But although
Bombay is so much an integral part of India that it
needs- to be studied by any one who aspires to a
knowledge of that country, it is a study which will
only aid him as introducing him to a conglomera
tion of types, living under somewhat artificial
circumstances, which he will meet with again in
12 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
their natural surroundings as he travels about
India.
From this it will be gathered to what an over
whelmingly difficult field of labour the first Fathers
who came to India found themselves called. The
circumstances of any great port make spiritual
work in such places peculiarly perplexing. And
if this is the case even in the great seaport towns
of England, it can well be imagined how greatly
all these difficulties are magnified in an Eastern
port. To begin work in the City of Poona, wholly
given up to idolatry as it was, took faith and
courage. The same virtues were equally needed
by those who had to discover how to get a footing
in the City of Bombay. There may be little to
suggest to the casual visitor that it is an idolatrous
city. His impression will probably be that it is
one in which the claims of commerce and labour
have crowded out religion.
Not that Bombay has lacked Christian workers,
at any rate in recent years. The variety of sects
which have now established themselves in India,
and in some instances are prolific with men and
money, adds to the perplexity of commending
Christianity to the heathen. Many of these de
nominations have representatives in Bombay. But
at the beginning of the last century Church people
living in that City could not have had many oppor
tunities of worship or of frequenting the Sacraments,
because there was only one Priest of the English
Church resident there, and even his responsibilities
were not confined to that place alone. Up to the
BEGINNING WORK IN THE CITY OF BOMBAY 13
time of the creation of the Bishopric of Bombay
in 1837 the single Church of S. Thomas (now the
Cathedral) seems to have sufficed for the spiritual
needs of British residents. But since that time
there has been a steady growth and development
of Church work in all parts of the City, one Church
after another being built in the different districts
where Europeans reside ; and the growing needs
of the Indian Christian population arc being pro
vided for, though somewhat more slowly.
But the real difficulty has always been the lack
of sufficient workers to make the different Churches
powerful centres of spiritual life. It was the sense
of this need which helped to bring about the call
to the Society of S. John the Evangelist to begin
work in India. Also there were some persons in
the City of Bombay who were yearning for greater
spiritual privileges, and who were desirous to see
the Catholic Faith presented in a fuller form than
was at that time the case.
A society called the Bombay Church Union had
been formed by this group of Church people who
were deeply interested in furthering the life of the
Church in India, and in 1869 they originated a
scheme for commencing a Mission in the City for
the benefit of Europeans and Eurasians, many of
whom, especially those who were poor, were in
evitably much neglected through the lack of Clergy.
The Union at that date was a flourishing though
not very large society, numbering amongst its
members Sir Theodore Hope and others whose
names were well known in Bombay as persons who
14 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
took a keen and practical interest in Church
matters. The members of the Union bestowed
much care and thought on the details of their
Mission scheme, and from the first, Bishop Douglas,
who was at that time Bishop of the Bombay
Diocese, cordially approved of their project. It
was in 1872 that he himself wrote a stirring letter
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, which attracted
a good deal of attention in England, in which he
emphasized the need of Communities both of men
and of women to labour in the Mission-field. It
was in response to a direct invitation from Bishop
Douglas, and with the encouragement of the cordial
co-operation of the Bombay Church Union, that the
Cowley Fathers came to India.
In the Annual Report of the Union for 1874 we
read : "The great work of the year has been the
development of the long-projected scheme for a
Mission in Bombay to the poor Europeans and
Eurasians, the existing agencies being, as is well
known, altogether inadequate to meet the religious
wants of this large and increasing population. It
is with heartfelt satisfaction and gratitude to
Almighty GOD that the committee are able to
announce this commencement of Community work
in India. The project has been taken up by the
Society of S. John the Evangelist, Cowley, and
the Mission, which will henceforth be called
c S. John s Mission, consists at the outset of
two Priests, the Rev. R. L. Page and the Rev.
J. W. Biscoe, with Doctor Craister as a Medical
Associate, but hopes are held out that many will
BEGINNING WORK IN THE CITY OF BOMBAY 15
be added to the Mission staff. It has not been
found possible to obtain Sisters this year, but here
again the committee are encouraged to hope that
in a year or two a Sisterhood will be established
in connection with the Mission. Meanwhile some
ladies are to come out and take up such work as
is possible."
It may be added that though the Union con
tributed liberally towards the initial expenses of
starting the Mission, it was understood from the
first that the S.S.J.E. was to be quite indepen
dent of the Union. In 1876 it ceased to make a
definite grant towards the support of the work, but
individual members continued to be amongst the
warmest friends of the Society, and the meetings of
the Union were often held at Mazagon, after the
Society had settled there, and were addressed by
one or other of the Fathers.
This Bombay Church Union, ultimately amal
gamating itself with the well-known English
Church Union, has long since disappeared as a
separate society, but the works it inaugurated have
grown and prospered, and it is good to remember
gratefully how large a part laymen played in
bringing the first religious Community connected
with the Church of England into India.
It had been decided that the district belonging
to Holy Trinity, Sonapur, the Church where the
Mission party first made their Communions after
their arrival, was the most favourable one for the
commencement of operations. The Incumbent,
the Rev. C. Gilder, now gone to his rest, gladly
1 6 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
accepted the proffered aid. But it was understood
that the arrangement was only a temporary one
while plans were forming for the establishment of
the Society in Bombay. The first year or two were
of necessity largely spent in preparation for the
future. The Fathers quietly waited for the guidance
of GOD as to where they should ultimately settle.
Friends of the Society had provided them with
a commodious house, and made themselves re
sponsible for the rent. Father Biscoe soon found
congenial work in training the choir, the boys of
which came from the Indo-British School, a valuable
institution which still flourishes 3 and is now housed
in excellent buildings near the palatial railway
terminus. He and Father Page began to study
Marathi, so that if the door should open at any
time for work amongst pure Indians they might
be ready to enter in. However, in December,
1874, Father Biscoe had to return to England for
some years.
It is interesting to read of Father Page s hopes
and plans and anticipations in the home letters of
this period. He gathered experience by visiting
Mission stations in other parts of India, and he
preached a good deal in various Churches in
Bombay. On his first Good Friday he conducted
a two hours Service in Holy Trinity Church, a
kind of devotion which in those early days was
quite a novelty. The first Three Hours Service
in S. Peter s Church was preached in 1879 by
Father O Neill. It is now a common devotion in
several Bombay Churches.
BEGINNING WORK IN THE CITY OF BOMBAY 17
Father Page speaks early of the need of a staff
of Sisters and other ladies to do the work which
was ready to open out in any quantity. " Schools,
Hospitals, Visiting," he says, "are all fields of labour,
ripe and ripening. Those who come should be
thoroughly dependable persons and well-disciplined,
able to bear up against the enervating character
of the climate, willing and able to work under
disadvantages, more ready to sow than anxious to
reap."
Of Church-going in those days Father Page
says, " Though Bishop Douglas and some earnest
Churchmen here have done much towards bringing
about a better state of things, still Church-going is
for the most part reserved for convenient seasons,
generally once a week on Sunday evenings, and the
attendance at the Altar is sadly small. In addition
to our work amongst the English and Eurasians we
are continually being brought into contact with the
heathen, directly and indirectly, in whose presence
we have to maintain the truth and dignity of the
Christian Faith and life, and be living witnesses for
GOD. Cities where there are many Europeans are
little favourable for making converts of the heathen,
but I foresee a great many different ways in which
we shall have opportunities of getting a hearing
from them. Plans are always coming into my head
of all manner of things likely to work well, but the
time is not ripe for them, nor our numbers sufficient
to allow of our beginning more than we have on
hand at present."
The Society had to wait many years for the
c
1 8 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY
development of the work amongst the Indian
population which Father Page speaks of, and which
Father Benson alluded to hopefully in that early
address to his Cowley parishioners on the subject
of the Mission to India. But it is valuable to
see how, from the very first, the Fathers had it in
their minds as an object greatly to be desired and
sought for.
Bishop Douglas, having gone to England on a
short visit for the benefit of his health, returned to
India in November, 1874, and two ladies came out
under his care to work under the direction of the
Cowley Fathers, who moved out of their house to
make room for these new-comers. The house then
received the new name of the House of Charity.
The Fathers new quarters were over some stables,
and perhaps it was well that, as circumstances proved,
they were not to remain there very long. A
definite centre of their own was necessary for the
establishment of their Community life and work,
and they had some hopes that Government might
give them a grant of land for a Church, Mission
House, and School. Father Page had been joined
in December, 1874, by Father Rivington. But
though the latter was often in Bombay, he was
during the whole of his Indian career constantly
away for long periods, preaching and conducting
Retreats, and holding Missions in all parts of
India.
In the Parish Magazine for March, 1875, is a
brief extract from one of Father Page s letters
containing an announcement which was of more
BEGINNING WORK IN THE CITY OF BOMBAY 19
far-reaching importance than he was at the time
aware of: "The Society is moving from the
Church of Holy Trinity to the Church at Mazagon,
of which we shall have temporary charge. Whether
the Society will continue there after Easter is un
certain. As Mazagon is at a considerable distance
the Mission House has been moved also, and the
ladies have left the House of Charity. One of
them has commenced visiting the European Hos
pital."
Bishop Douglas had only been back a few months
when he fell alarmingly ill, and he was ordered to
return to England at once. His last act before
leaving was to appoint Father Page to the incum
bency of S. Peter s, Mazagon, in Bombay, and to
license Father Rivington and the Rev. Nehemiah
Goreh as his assistant curates. The Bishop also gave
Father Page permission to hold services and to
celebrate the Holy Eucharist in a room in a private
house on Malabar Hill, which one of the residents
had placed at his disposal for the purpose. The
population at that time in that part of Bombay was
almost exclusively English, and as the Church of
All Saints had not then been built it had at one
time seemed to the Fathers as if it was one of those
unoccupied districts which they might take up.
But as events gradually proved, the real call of the
Society was to settle in the midst of the teeming
thousands in Mazagon. " Father Page and Father
Rivington are now quite settled at S. John s
Mission House, Mazagon, Bombay," is the news
of May 10, 1875.
2O THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
It may be explained that Mazagon, Byculla,
Umarkhadi, etc., are the names of districts within
the City of Bombay, just as Whitechapel, Kensing
ton, Westminster, etc., form part of London. It
may be of interest to note that Mazagon means
fish town or village, and Umarkhadi means fig-
tree creek.
THE NEW S. PETER S CHURCH AT
MAZAGON, BOMBAY
THE end of the new S. Peter s Boys School
is to be seen to the right of the picture,
with part of the playground in the fore
ground (see p. 97).
CHAPTER III
s. PETER S, MAZAGON
MAZAGON, as it is now commonly spelt, was
originally a fishing village on the seashore.
Like the names of most Indian places which have
been done into English, the original pronunciation
has suffered in the process, and the Bombay cab-
drivers are sometimes rather puzzled as to where
they are meant to go when they hear the English
rendering.
Great improvements have been made in Bombay
of recent years, in which the Mazagon district has
participated. Wide streets have been cut through
congested areas, and multitudes of unwholesome
houses swept away. Nevertheless, even at the
present day, the district presents a scene of crowded
humanity, especially in those regions untouched by
modern changes, such as could be seen nowhere
except in an Eastern city. And that being so, no
amount of word-painting would convey a true im
pression to those who have never seen its like,
hence it would be a fruitless task to attempt to
describe that part of Bombay in which the S.S.J.E.
began its permanent work. Nor is it possible to
21
22 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
indicate in words the particular character of the
moist, hot-house heat which strikes the traveller
with such profound astonishment when he first comes
into it. It should be added, however, that modern
Bombay is not found to be a specially unhealthy
place for those who are willing to exercise reasonable
prudence, and that many people prefer its climate
to the dry and scorching heat of the elevated plateau
on which Poona is placed.
Those familiar with Bombay will appreciate the
quiet irony of a writer at about this period who
describes Father Page as going about with very
much the same activity as when he was in England,
"as if he were wanting to keep himself warm."
But Bombay is very pleasant in December, January,
and February, the so-called " cold season," when
the nights are cool. It is the incessant noise of the
crowded district which surrounded the old Mission
House which some people found much more difficult
to get reconciled to than the climate. Even night
often brought no relief, except from the cawing of
the crows with which Bombay abounds, and the
sounds of singing and music and general uproar
often continues into the early hours of the
morning.
Amongst the fishermen on the west coast of
India there are Christians who are descendants of
S. Francis Xavier s coast converts. They may
sometimes be seen wearing an enormous crucifix
and little else. But there are also in the Mazagon
district large numbers of Goanese Roman Catholics
who date their origin there to the time when the
S. PETER S, MAZAGON 23
Island of Bombay was in the occupation of the
Portugese. Their Churches, and here and there a
homely wayside Cross, but without the figure, gave
a more Christian aspect to that part of Bombay than
is usually to be found in the native quarter of an
Indian city, even before S. Peter s and the buildings
connected with the Mission were built.
About the middle of the last century a number
of Europeans with their families settled in Mazagon,
drawn thither by the work connected with the
Peninsular and Oriental and the British India
Steamship Companies and other industries. To
this day the extensive quarters of the P. & O.
are a conspicuous object near the Mazagon
" Bunder," or quay, from which a charming
view of the varied shipping in the picturesque
harbour can be obtained. A few large bungalows
still remaining with extensive compounds are a
reminder of the days when Mazagon was a fashion
able residential quarter. Those days have passed
away. Rapid and easy communication with England
makes the European much more migratory than he
used to be. Few attempt to form a real home in
India, and plague and pestilence of various kinds,
which sometimes swept through Bombay with
destructive effect before the modern improvements
had come into effect, caused many Englishmen to
seek for more salubrious surroundings in the out
skirts of the city. Most of the large bungalows
in Mazagon have come down in the world, or else
have been cleared away altogether to make way for
new streets or modern houses.
24 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
The original S. Peter s Church was built in 1858
from funds bequeathed by Mr. Shepherd, a resident
of Mazagon, on ground granted by Government
for the purpose. The Church was greatly enlarged
subsequently. It was built as a Chapel of ease to
Byculla, the adjoining district, or " parish," if it
may be so called, and the Chaplain of Byculla was
responsible for the services in the new Chapel, and
for the pastoral care of Europeans living in Mazagon.
Regular services were held on Sunday evenings,
and occasionally on Sunday mornings. In 1864 a
meeting of the congregation was held to consider
how they could give effect to the desire which was
gathering strength to separate Mazagon from
Byculla and form it into an independent parish.
This involved many considerations, such as the
raising of an adequate stipend for the support of
the Clergy, the building of a Parsonage house
and Schools, and the enlargement of the Church.
Carving out a new parish out of an old one is a
matter which, even in England, often involves a
great deal of complicated business, with some
differences of opinion. All these kinds of diffi
culties are greatly augmented in India when any
one endeavours to transact business, so that it was
not till after much discussion and many meetings
and long delay that at last in August, 1869, at a
meeting held to elect two Churchwardens and to
consider how the Church was to be enlarged, it was
stated that Mazagon was now a distinct parish,
entirely separated from Byculla, with rights of
marrying and power to act independently.
S. PETER S, MAZAGON 25
Meanwhile Government had made a grant of
T i ,000 square yards of land for the erection of a
Parsonage and School, and after some delay the
Parsonage was built on the site afterwards occupied
by the S. Peter s Boys School of later days. None
of the first three Vicars of S. Peter s retained their
tenure for any length of time, that of the Rev.
W. H. Harpur being the longest. He became
Vicar in 1870, and continued in office till 1875.
And it was his sudden departure for England which
made Bishop Douglas request the Society of S. John
the Evangelist, in the person of Father Page, to
undertake the charge of the Church and parish. It
was during Mr. Harpur s incumbency that the
enlargement of the Church was completed. This
quite transformed the building, not merely by more
than doubling the accommodation, but by greatly
adding to its dignity and suitability for reverent
worship. A good-sized chancel was thrown out on
one side and a nave on the other, with the result
that the east and west ends of the original building
became the north and south transepts of the re
modelled Church. A side Altar was eventually
placed in the transept where the original Altar had
been.
The history of S. Peter s, from its commencement
as a Chapel of ease in 1858 to the date of the
S;S.J.E. becoming responsible for it in 1875, is a
record of slow but steady development of Church
work, under circumstances often of great difficulty.
Besides the staff of Clergy, S. Peter s has been
fortunate from the beginning in the possession of
26 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
a few willing and devoted laymen who would not
allow themselves to be daunted by discouragements,
and the original supporters had the satisfaction of
seeing as the result of their labours the appoint
ment of a resident Priest, the creation of a separate
parish, the building of the Parsonage, the enlarge
ment of the Church, and the commencement of a
school for European boys in make-shift quarters,
which, however, apparently dropped into abeyance
for a while.
S. Peter s has, throughout its history, had many
generous benefactors, and though architecturally it
was not specially striking, the many beautiful objects
in its interior gave it dignity. In spite of tropical
trees and shrubs in the surrounding compound, the
many windows opening in their entire length, and
the punkahs hanging from the roof, the Church had
a very English look.
As there are many who have never seen punkahs,
it may be added that these consisted of long wooden
beams hung by cords, to which was attached a sort
of flounce of some woven material. A rope attached
to each beam was passed either through one of the
windows or through an aperture in the wall to the
outside of the Church, and there an Indian sat and
pulled the rope backwards and forwards with the
result that the swaying punkahs kept the air inside
in motion, after the manner of a fan, and made the
atmosphere bearable. Electric revolving fans are
now displacing the hand punkah in most Indian
cities, to the regret of the punkah-puller who
found in it an easy means of livelihood. Its
S. PETER S, MAZAGON 27
monotonous character was not distasteful to an
Indian.
But the S.S.J.E. was not allowed to enter upon
its work in Mazagon without opposition. Those
were stormy days in the Church at home, and
Protestant opposition made its influence felt even
in India. Much faithful work for the Church had
been done at S. Peter s before the advent of the
S.S.J.E., but many of the old parishioners were
suspicious of what, nowadays, would be considered
very moderate ritual changes, and were ready to be
up in arms when the Catholic Faith was preached
to them more fully than they had been accustomed
to hitherto. The opposition took the usual form
of meetings to protest, petitions to the Ecclesiastical
authorities, and letters to the newspapers. But it
gradually died down, and though there were some
who left the Church and went elsewhere, the con
gregations and the number of Communicants showed
a steady increase, and the faithful teaching of GOD S
truth gradually produced a band of worshippers
well-instructed in the Catholic Faith, who had
learnt to value all the spiritual privileges which
were now to be had at S. Peter s. Father Benson,
commenting on the attack, said : " There is every
cause to be thankful even for the opposition which
has been raised against us." And again, " We may
hope that recent troubles will tend to strengthen
our position in Bombay." And this certainly
proved to be the case.
The daily pleading of the Holy Sacrifice at
S. Peter s commenced in 1875, and ^ as continued
28 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
almost without intermission ever since, and constant
services, rendered with much care and such adjuncts
of ritual and singing as were possible, have been
the rule. As years went on other Churches in
Bombay followed suit, especially the Cathedral, and
whereas at one time those who needed Catholic
privileges and teaching had to travel down to
S. Peter s to obtain them, such blessings are now to
be had elsewhere. This, and the gradual migration
of English residents from Bombay, caused the
average congregation at S. Peter s in later years to
become smaller than it was in the days when Father
Page was in charge. But through all the stages of
its history the chief value of the work at S. Peter s
has been its ministry to individual souls, and that
has continued to be its characteristic to the present
day. Apart from the help that the Church has been
to people living in the immediate neighbourhood, it
has been an untold blessing to the many travellers,
clerical and lay, arriving or departing from the port
of Bombay, that at S. Peter s they were sure of
finding without difficulty the help they needed in
the ministry of Reconciliation.
Bishop Douglas was destined never to return to
India, and after a long and wearisome illness, in
which he set forth an example of patience as edifying
as he had previously set forth an example of active
energy, he was called to his rest just at the close
of 1876. The S.S.J.E. has always cherished his
memory with special affection because the Fathers
began their work in India under his guidance, and
though his Episcopate was a brief one he did much
S. PETER S, MAZAGON 29
to stir up the Missionary zeal of the Church. One
of the last letters he ever wrote was to Father Page,
assuring him of his prayers and blessing, and
sending kindly messages to his fellow workers.
His successor, the Rev. Louis George Mylne,
Tutor of Keble College, was consecrated on the
Feast of SS. Philip and James, 1876, and reached
India at the beginning of July. He landed at the
Mazagon " Bunder," and expressed a desire to go to
the nearest Church in order that the Te Deum might
be sung as an act of thanksgiving for his safe arrival.
Happily S. Peter s was close at hand, so that it was
the first Church to receive the Bishop who was to
shepherd the Diocese for so many years.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS IN MAZAGON
T)IONEER work in the Mission-field must of
-L necessity be largely experimental in its character.
Some things that are attempted come to nothing,
and this may generally be accepted as an indication
that the particular agency is not required. Others
take root and become permanent. But the experi
mental stage may continue for many years ; and
in countries which are only in gradual process of
transition from heathenism to Christianity, in which
the conditions keep changing from year to year,
the need for fresh experiments may constantly
recur. The first fifteen years of the Society s work
at Mazagon, until Father Page had to return to
England on account of his election as Superior-
General, were years in which his fertile mind was
constantly engaged in the problem of how best
to grapple with the conditions which made Bombay
such a fruitful, and yet such a perplexing, field of
labour. The reader will best understand how this
was so if we try to tell briefly the story of those
first years, and the way in which many of the
agencies, which are now an established part of the
Mission, first came into being.
30
THE NEW S.S.J.E. MISSION HOUSE
AT MAZAGON, BOMBAY
THE Chapel forms the upper story of the
projection to the left. The end of the
S. Peter s Boys School Boarding House is
seen to the right (see p. 99).
THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS IN MAZAGON 31
Schools are an obvious need everywhere because
children are the best Mission preachers, whether
they are bearers of early lessons in Christianity to
heathen parents, or in Catholic truth to Christian
parents who have not had the opportunity of
learning it in their own childhood. So as early
as July, 1875, we fi n d Father Page writing to
his parishioners as follows : " I am happy to be
able to tell you that I have rented a large
and suitable house and compound close to the
Church in Coppersmith Street for a Church School
for your children in this parish/ It was opened
on August 1 6th, and for the first few years was
under the charge of ladies who came out from
England to work under the direction of the S.S.J.E.
This was the beginning of the now well-known
S. Peter s High School for Girls.
Next to education, another obvious Mission
agency in almost all foreign stations, and especially
in India, is medical work. Hence having secured
the commencement of the Girls School Father
Page s next effort was to find a house for a
" Cottage " Hospital as he called it, a name which
though so familiar in England must have sounded
quaint in India. The institution was in the first
instance to be for the women and children of the
European community in Bombay. Dr. Craister,
who had come out with the Fathers in 1874, was
ready to put his services at the disposal of the
Hospital. There were, of course, great difficulties
in obtaining a house suitable for this purpose,
but at last a property which belonged to Parsces
32 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
was purchased in the Baboola Tank Road, and
on February 15, 1876, the " S. John s Cottage
Hospital " was opened by the Archdeacon of
Bombay, the scheme already exciting a good deal
of interest and support. It was out of this that
the famous Medical Mission under Dr. Bradley,
to be described later on, grew.
Father Page writes : " We have now a School,
Hospital, and Parish, and these, with learning the
language, afford scope for any lady who is willing
and able to come out. India is capable of swallow
ing up any number of Missionary people."
In June, 1876, Father Page writes: "I have
made suitable arrangements for receiving some eight
or ten boys, who greatly desired to come to our
school, to be taught in the Girls School. I have
often spoken of our want of a Choir School. It
is now commenced in germ. I hope to erect a
large shed in our compound, and then either live
in it ourselves and let the Choir School have our
bungalow or vice versa." He adds, characteristic
ally, " For some reasons the long shed will be more
convenient for us than the present bungalow."
The separate Boys School did not come into exis
tence immediately, but it was quite true that the
early attempt to found a Choir School was the germ
of what up to the present day has been one of
the features of the S. Peter s Boys School, i.e.,
that it has been the source from which a choir of
English-speaking boys for S. Peter s Church has
been drawn, many of them being the sons of English
people stationed in Bombay or its neighbourhood.
THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS IN MAZAGON 33
But though the growth of the English work
necessarily came first, because it was for that in
the first instance that S. Peter s was built, the hope
of making a commencement amongst the Indian
population was not lost sight of. Father Page
writes : " An important development is a Native
School for boys. We have long felt it to be our
duty to do something for the heathen at our doors.
I have set apart two rooms with a separate entrance
at the School House which opens directly upon the
native street, and there a young Brahmin, a Chris
tian, from Ahmednagar commenced with twenty
boys. On the following Wednesday he had thirty.
Perhaps they will all run away next week. Here,
then, is our little seed of native work, Who knows
whereunto it may not grow ? We shall cherish
it with much care, and I am sure that our friends
in England will water it with their prayers." Per
haps they did not do so sufficiently, for the seed
was long in germinating. Nevertheless it was from
these homely beginnings that the Native Mission
was at last evolved. The Native Boys School did
not continue very long in its original form, but
already a few destitute Indian children had been
placed under the care of the Fathers, a particular
form of charity which has always been a feature of
the Mission work of the S.S.J.E. in India, and also
of the Communities of Sisters working in conjunction
with the Society. Father Page, speaking of this
development, says : " You will perhaps think this
a very small beginning, but the good providence
of GOD seemed to give us these children to take
D
34 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
care of for Him, and we are quite content to wait
till He sends us more without going out of our
way to seek them." And that has been the policy
of the Society till the present day with regard to
the reception of destitute children.
In October, 1877, Father Page very unexpectedly
returned to England for a month or two. Bishop
Mylne had a serious illness and was ordered to
Europe, and having set his heart on Father Page
accompanying him, it was so arranged. In Decem
ber of the same year Father Goreh, who had been
spending a year and a half in England, returned to
his native country, and the Rev. Brother Beale,
S.S.J.E. (late Vice-Principal of Warminster Mis
sionary College), sailed with him. The Rev. C. S.
Rivington, who for so many years was in charge
of the Mission in Poona City, was also one of
the travellers, as well as the first contingent of
Sisters of S. Mary the Virgin, from Wantage, for
work at Poona. Father Page started back again
on January 12, 1878. When they had been a week
out the captain put his own cabin at Father Page s
disposal for a daily Celebration, which nothing
interrupted. Three or four ladies were of the
party, going out to help in the Bombay work.
One of these, Miss Backhouse, died a few
months after her arrival in India. Father Page
speaks of the voyage from Liverpool of twenty-
seven and a half days as an " exceptionally fine
passage," which shows how speed has developed
since those days.
The next undertaking was the building of a
THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS IN MAZAGON 35
permanent Boys School, which the removal of the
Diocesan School from the adjoining district of
By culla and its amalgamation with the Cathedral
Choir School made a necessity. A small Boys
School was opened in hired premises on March i,
1878, and steps were taken to raise money for
the new building. Plans were prepared, and a
site was available in the compound previously
set apart by Government for a Parsonage arid
School for S. Peter s. The Indian Government in
those days devoted large sums to educational
purposes, and in due course sanctioned a grant
of ^490 towards the new building, which was
half its cost. The total sum required was quickly
raised by parishioners and friends. The building
was finished in October, 1879, and Father Page
writes : " TDeo gratias. A busy day, the opening
of our new School. It has passed off very happily."
The name of Mr. Thomas Counsell appears in
connection with the erection of this new building.
He proved himself a constant friend and adviser
in all such matters for many years until he retired
to England, where he died in 1901. Improve
ments in the Church, and the planning and super
vising of almost all the buildings connected with
the Mission up to the time of his retirement, were
part of his valuable contribution to the work. A
nautical touch in all his designs pleasantly indicated
his long connection with the P. & O. Steamship
Company.
In December, 1878, the arrival of the first four
Sisters of the All Saints Community for work in
36 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
India was an event of far-reaching importance as
regards the furtherance of religious progress in
Bombay. With them also came two or three
more ladies to help in the Mission. The Sisters
took up residence at the Cottage Hospital.
The yearning to get grip of the surrounding
heathen world again shows itself. Father Page
writes on February 3, 1879: "I am gradually
supplanting the heathen servants in our various
Institutions by Christian servants who will form
in time the nucleus of a Marathi congregation :
for you know that as yet we have been able to
do but little Native Mission work in Bombay.
Several of our Mission party are learning Marathi."
As it takes time and trouble to train Christian lads
for domestic service, and there is less responsibility
connected with heathen servants, many Missions
after a few first attempts drop the effort, and fall
back upon Hindus or Mohammedans. The few
Missions which have persevered patiently in this
department have been greatly rewarded by ulti
mately securing for themselves much faithful
service, and, what is more important, a household
in which the atmosphere of Christianity is apparent
even to the chance visitor.
On May 25, 1879, Father Page writes : "We in
augurated a Marathi service in Church this morning,
and it will be continued every Sunday morning at
9.30. Father Goreh took the service, and preached
to a small but attentive native Christian audience.
The service has fired us all with the resolution to
work hard at Marathi. One of the ladies and a
THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS IN MAZAGON 37
native Christian school mistress are visiting the
Marathi families in our neighbourhood."
The Sisters commenced a Church Needlework
Society to provide suitable Altar linen, embroidery,
etc., at moderate prices ; to make free grants of
the same to poor Missions ; and to give an
opportunity to ladies to devote in this way a
portion of their time and talents to the service
of GOD. The Hospital was now so full of Sisters
and ladies that a separate Community House was
becoming a real necessity. The All Saints Bombay
Missionary Association in England also came into
existence in June, 1879, anc ^ still flourishes. Its
object, as stated in its first prospectus, was to
promote the work of the All Saints Sisters who
have undertaken Mission work in connection with
the Cowley Fathers at Bombay. 1
The first distribution of prizes at the new
S. Peter s School took place at Christmas, 1879,
and this has continued to be an important annual
event up to the present day. Sir Richard Temple,
Governor of Bombay, presided, and the late Bishop
Johnson, at that time Metropolitan of India, gave
away the prizes. The number of scholars then
in the girls school was seventy-two, and the boys
numbered thirty.
Early in 1880 Bishop Mylne laid the foundation
stone of a Community House for the Fathers in the
same compound as that in which the Parsonage
and Boys School stood. It was built in native
fashion. That is to say it was a wooden framc-
1 See Appendix C, p. 122.
38 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
house, with the intervals between the woodwork
filled in with brick. Father O Neill, having come to
Bombay to preach the "Three Hours" at S. Peter s,
says : "The new Mission House is being fast built.
It is wonderful to see how the untiring activity and
single-hearted energy of Father Page bears fruit
in so many buildings and works." By the end
of June the Fathers had already taken up residence
in what was to be the home of the S.S.J.E. in
Bombay for nearly thirty years.
The house gradually became endeared to mem
bers of the Society who lived there for many years,
on account of the associations which gathered round
it. But no one could pretend to say that either the
building, or its situation, was calculated to promote
the health of its inmates in the climate of Bombay.
It was built on low ground with scarce any plinth,
on the edge of a most unsavoury lane, and its
unsubstantial character with its thin walls and tile
roof with no ceiling made both the hot and the
rainy seasons particularly trying. In the latter-
the lower part of the house was often actually
under water. Some of these drawbacks were a
little mitigated by a few alterations in later years,
but to the last its only recommendation was that
it certainly fulfilled all the conditions of religious
poverty. It contained, however, a large and airy
upstairs Chapel which was a great boon to the
Community.
In August, 1880, Father Page writes : "We are
just starting a S. Peter s Institute for a reading
room, library, classes, debates, etc. It will be
THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS IN MAZAGON 39
held in a portion of the Boys School. It promises
very well." The first mention was also made of
the possibility of the Sisters becoming responsible
for the nursing in the Jamshidji, the great Native
Hospital which was so soon to become the scene
of their best labours. Again, writing December,
1880, Father Page says : " We are building a house
in our compound in which we hope to train Native
Christian Catechists and men for Holy Orders ;
so the river of support from England must not
run dry." This building, long known as the
" Students Home," although it never did much
as regards the original object for which it was
built, proved extremely useful during a long
series of years for a great variety of miscellaneous
purposes.
In 1 88 1 the old Cottage Hospital buildings
passed into the hands of the All Saints Sisters.
They now used it as their home, and for some
of the purposes of their share in the Mission work.
A small schoolroom in the same compound, which
had been built for Jewish children, passed to the
Sisters also. The Girls School, which continued
to grow in numbers, had also to be removed into
a larger house.
The opening of a Native Dispensary at Mazagon,
in connection with S. John s Mission, on June I,
1 88 1, under the care of Miss Bradley, was an
event of permanent importance, because it was
the beginning of that Medical Mission which
through all these years has been such a power
and blessing amongst Indians. Its object, as the
40 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
first report from Dr. Bradley s pen states, was to
relieve the poor of the district by supplying them
with good and suitable medicines, by dressing
their wounds, and by attending at their own
homes urgent cases. Besides being a corporal
work of mercy it was hoped that the Medical
Mission would do much to overcome the pre
judices of the natives, and to prepare the way for
Christianity being brought home to the people.
In January, 1882, Father Page writes that the
project that the Sisters should nurse at the Jamshidji
Jejeebhoy Hospital had become an accomplished
fact. "It is a CnRiST-like thing to see the Sisters
ministering to poor Mohammedans, Hindus, and
Parsees, and what can avail more for their con
version than CnRisT-like acts like these. I greatly
rejoice that GOD has sent us to this great Native
Hospital. May He make us faithful to our
trust."
In December, 1883, Father Biscoe returned to
India, where, with the exception of a few brief
visits Westwards, he has lived ever since. He
wrote January 16, 1884 : "It is a great joy to
be back again in this country and to have a share
in the good work which is going on. It is quite
wonderful to see the results of the last ten years,
and to remember how in 1874 I left Father Page
in a couple of rooms over a stable at Sonapur with
no Church, no Schools, no Sisters, and only two
ladies who had just arrived."
The work of the All Saints Sisters continued
to develop steadily. They had established a little
THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS IN MAZAGON 41
home at Umarkhadi for Indian waifs and strays,
and in 1884 they were asked to undertake the
important charge of the Bombay Cathedral High
School for Girls, and especially to open a Boarding
House in connection with it where the children
would be entirely under the supervision of the
Sisters. At the end of the same year they became
responsible for the nursing at the S. George s
European Hospital, and held this trust for many
years. Government built a large bungalow for
their use in the Hospital compound, and in 1886
similar accommodation was provided for the nurs
ing Sisters at the Jamshidji Hospital. The Girls
School continued to grow and had to be enlarged.
It also became a matter of urgent necessity that
the Sisters should have a Community House more
suited to its special purpose, and especially a per
manent and properly appointed Chapel. All this
gradually came into existence on the site in
Mazagon, near the new S. Peter s Church, which
has become the permanent Indian home of the
All Saints Sisters. A House of Rest at some hill-
station to which Sisters who were engaged in
arduous labour in a trying climate could from time
to time be sent was a real need. Money for this
object was gradually collected, and in 1890 the
Sisters bought a property called " The Hermitage "
on the top of Matheran, about 2,500 feet above
the level of the sea, which has been their House
of Rest ever since.
Father Page s election in August, 1890, to the
office of Superior-General of the Society of S. John
42 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
the Evangelist brought his personal labours in
India to an end for the time being, although his
office enabled him to foster the work which he
loved so well so far as the always insufficient supply
of men and money would allow. He also visited
the Indian Missions in 1896, 1902, and 1906,
and finally, having been released from his office
of Superior-General, he returned to India in 1908,
and was located at Poona City as one of the regular
staff of the Mission there.
THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS
AT UMARKHADI IN BOMBAY
(See pp. 46, 69.)
CHAPTER V
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES
THE next fifteen years after Father Page s recall
to England were chiefly years of quiet, steady
spiritual work, building on the foundations already
laid, and ministering to individual souls ; and during
all this period Father Biscoe s capacities for a minis
try of this nature found abundant scope. The two
chief events during that period, the one constructive
and the other destructive, were the completion
of the almost palatial Boarding House for the
S. Peter s Boys School, and the coming of the
plague to Bombay which, as will be seen, affected
greatly the prosperity of schools in that city.
The S. Peter s boys had for some time boarded in
a house next the one which had been originally
built as the Parsonage, but as the school increased
in numbers greater accommodation, and a building
better adapted for its special purpose, became a
necessity. The new house was opened after the
summer holidays of 1891. Although Father Page
had already left India, the undertaking was the
outcome of his own energetic enterprise, and
the building had commenced before his departure.
43
44 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
It was built on the site of the old Parsonage, but
covered a much larger area, and being three stories
high, with pitched roofs and many gables, and
having wide verandahs on all sides it became one
of the most conspicuous buildings in Mazagon.
Those who slept on its top storey used sometimes to
say jokingly that the air at that elevation was so
bracing that a visit to any other hill-station was
quite unnecessary.
Father Benson having been released from his
office of Superior was at last free in 1890 to pay
his long-delayed visit to India, and he lost no time
in getting on his way. He writes in the Cowley
Evangelist a few farewell words to his friends,
saying : " I am just leaving England to pay a visit of
some months to India. It is impossible for me to
say just now how long I may be absent. Now that
Father Page takes my office of Superior I am set
free for what will, I trust, be towards the advance
ment of CHRIST S Kingdom. Let me ask your
special prayers that GOD may bless my journey."
Writing from the Arabian Sea, November 22,
1890, Father Benson says: "It is difficult to
conceive that those dark urchins at Aden who call
out for a dive, and who seem to be simply made to
live in the water, can have been made to live
on earth as their probation and in Heaven as their
reward, just like ourselves. But so it is. One
must realize how truly they have been redeemed
by the Blood of CHRIST, just like ourselves ; and
they have not rejected the claims of that precious
Blood so much as some of the white-skinned
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES 45
travellers on board, who perhaps look contemp
tuously upon them."
Father Benson spent just a year in India,
spending some time at the Missions in Bombay and
Poona, but also preaching and giving Retreats in
many parts of the country, and taking the greatest
interest in all that he saw and heard. He then
travelled on to America, visiting China and Japan
on his way.
On the Feast of the Purification, 1893, Edward
Hill Beale fell asleep. Although a professed
member of the Society he was known as " Brother "
Beale, because on account of the partial paralysis
from which he suffered he was unable to seek
Priests Orders. He had been ordained Deacon in
1869, and he spent his life in unwearied service of
prayer, preaching, and Missionary administration.
His elasticity of both body and mind was wonderful
when considered in relation to his bodily infirmities,
and the buoyancy of his heart strengthened, not
only himself, but all who were along with him.
He was sent out to India in 1877, anc ^ f r tne
greater part of his time there he helped in the
Bombay work. In reply to a suggestion that he
should revisit England, he writes : "1 do not see
why one should want to go back into Egypt when
one has escaped into a life of freedom. Of course
I could come to the July Retreat, but I am not sure
whether it would not be better to wait till we
are called into Retreat with Father O Neill. One
of the charms of India is that one dies and is buried,
when the time comes, with so little trouble and
46 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
fuss." However, chiefly to please others, he went
to England for a few months in 1887.
On another occasion he wrote : " More and more
I see that the only way to make Christians is to
live a Christian life. We can fill the waterpots up
to the brim, but He must turn the water into wine,
and He will do so if we are content to let Him
do His marvellous work/ In the course of his
brief but very painful illness in the Hospital in
Bombay, the Sister who nursed him said, " I fear
you are suffering a great deal," and he simply
replied, " And we justly."
In January, 1894, Father Kershaw arrived in
India, and identified himself much with the work of
S. Peter s Boys School. His own manly qualities
and his sympathy for boyish troubles made his
influence of great value, and many an old S. Peter s
boy still remembers him with affection and gratitude.
He threw himself with much vigour into everything
which he undertook, but he was not at all
strong, and after having been invalided home for
a time, he was on his return transferred to. the
Poona Mission, in the hope that the drier climate
might suit him better ; but in 1901 he again
fell seriously ill, and died on board ship on his way
to England on All Saints Day, and was buried in
the Red Sea. Amongst his many accomplishments
he had artistic gifts which he was able to use in the
service of the Mission. The Church of the Holy
Cross at Umarkhadi, to be described later on, was
built almost entirely from his designs. He was
only forty-four years of age when he died.
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES 47
" He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled
a long time" (Wisdom iv. 13).
The death of the Rev. Nehemiah Nilakanth
Goreh (or " Father Goreh " as he was commonly
called) removed a great personality from the Indian
Church on earth. The story of his conversion and
life now forms part of Indian Church history, 1 and
is too long to tell here. Though not actually
professed in the S.S.J.E. he spent some time
at Cowley, and when he returned to India in 1877
he lived the greater part of his time in one or other
of the houses of the Society, and preached and
lectured and wrote and worked for the conversion
of his Hindu fellow countrymen in Bombay and
in all parts of India. He suffered much from
weakness in his latter years, and died in Bombay on
October 29, 1895, at the age of seventy, which for
an Indian is looked upon as an advanced age. He
was buried beside Brother Beale in the plot
of ground belonging to the Society in the Sewree
Cemetery in Bombay.
On May 31, 1898, the Head Master of S. Peter s
Boys School, Mr. Dymond, died suddenly. He
had held this office since 1888, and in spite of some
physical disabilities he won the confidence of both
parents and boys, and the number of scholars
continued to increase until arrested by the outbreak
of plague in the city. The gap caused by Mr.
Dymond s death was filled by the transfer of
Father Tovey from Poona to Bombay. He came
originally to India in 1895, and was eminently fitted
1 See Life of Father Goreh, by C. E. Gardner, S.S.J.E. (Longmans).
48 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
both by training and experience for the Headship of
the school. He held this office until the school
was closed for a while at the end of 1903, and
in the next year he returned to England and helped
in the work of the Society there and in America.
He came back to Bombay December 5, 1911,
and at once took up his old work in the remodelled
school which had just been deprived of its head by
the death of Father Langmore.
The latter Father came out to Bombay early
in 1903, and, with the exception of one brief
visit home, he worked there till his short illness
resulting in his death on November 28, 1911.
Although he had a frail constitution, to be in
constant activity in the service of others was as
it were part of himself, and his love for souls
enabled him to turn his natural spirit of activity
to good account in GOD S service. His eager look,
his smile of greeting, the warm grasp of the hand
are memories not to be forgotten. When he first
came to India he began to learn Marathi. But
here, for once, even his own spirit of energy failed
him, and daunted by its difficulties he finally
abandoned the effort. This hindered him from
taking any very active share in the native work.
But many Indians had a great veneration for him,
and when he paid the village Mission at Yeran-
dawana in the Poona district a visit, the small boys
said he was " so like our LORD," because his
expressive face and close fair beard recalled to their
mind some of the sacred pictures which thay had
seen in books. He was in spiritual touch with
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES 49
all sorts and conditions of men. But apart from the
management of S. Peter s Boys School his most
valuable influence on behalf of Missions was
exerted amongst the European residents in Bombay.
It had long been felt that the English were
lukewarm in their interest in the Missions to the
heathen people of that great city, chiefly because
they knew so little about them. Father Langmore
set to work with his usual energy to supply what
was lacking, and succeeded in rousing a widespread
spirit of interest and sympathy which only needed
this kindling influence to set it aglow.
In 1898 Father Gardner, owing to ill health,
was transferred to Poona. He first arrived in India
in 1886, and was stationed at Mazagon, and worked
there all the time on and off, with the exception
of one visit to England, and a few Mission tours
into other parts of India, notably to the Canara
country at a time when a number of Christians from
the German Basel Mission were seeking admission
into the Catholic Church. Father Gardner was a
most assiduous parish Priest, and his small figure
was a familiar object at all times and seasons in the
streets and lanes round about S. Peter s. Besides
his literary labours, which were voluminous, he had
a great love for little children, and thought no toil
or trouble in their service too great. He also spent
a great deal of time daily in intercessions for a
variety of people, but notably for the boys and girls
in the various Mission Schools, whom he prayed
for by name. The transfer to Poona undoubtedly
prolonged his life, but he always suffered much
50 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
from weakness and ill health, and spent long periods
in the Sassoon Hospital, which he always turned
to good account as a Missioner amongst the other
patients. On Whitsun Day, June 7, 1908, he died
at that Hospital in Poona with just the same
child-like simplicity and cheerful, humble trust in
GOD which distinguished his life.
In December, 1899, Father Nicholson arrived
from England, and joined the staff at Mazagon.
On his shoulders was to fall the chief responsibility
of guiding the Mission through the great upheaval
which was to take place in a few years. In
January, 1903, he was made Provincial of the
Indian Province of the Society and Superior at
Bombay, which also included the post of Vicar of
S. Peter s. He held this latter office until 1909,
when he became Superior of the Mission at Panch
Howds in the City of Poona, and took up his
residence there.
Sisters of Mercy as a rule have the privilege
of working unknown by name to the world at
large in a way that is not possible for Priests, whose
names unavoidably are to be found in every Clergy
list. But amongst the faithful Sisters of All Saints
who lived and died for India it is impossible not
to make mention of Mother Gladys. She went
out to India in 1878 as one of the first four Sisters
of her Community who arrived in that country, and
she was appointed the first Mother of the affili
ated House in Bombay in 1895. She was a true
Religious, of wonderfully large-hearted sympathy
and great generosity of character. Even in build
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES 51
and countenance she was all that is typical of
what the word " Mother " suggests. But with the
simplicity and openness of a child she combined
great power of control over others, and ability for
the organization of Mission work. All who knew
her greatly loved and respected her, and her
influence extended far beyond the limits of her
Community.
In 1897, when negotiations were being carried
on with regard to the transference of the Diocesan
High School for Girls at Naini Tal, a distant
hill-station in the United Provinces, to the All
Saints Sisters, not without a good deal of
opposition on religious grounds on the part of some
members of the Committee, the Mother s practical
knowledge of educational work, and her open, firm,
but conciliatory, manner, won the confidence of
those in authority, and the now flourishing school
has become the property of the All Saints Sisters.
It was when on a visit to Naini Tal that, on
December 13, 1899, Mother Gladys died after
a brief illness. Her death was in perfect harmony
with the simplicity and trustfulness of her life ; and
she is buried at that beautiful spot.
The only practical use of making mention of the
devoted life and work of any of GOD S servants is
that those who remain may be stimulated by the
record to imitate them in their life of service.
Reference has been made to the many faithful
laymen who as members of the staff in various
capacities, or as voluntary helpers in the work of
the Church, have been such a strength to the
52 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
Mission from its first beginning. Many of these
have gone to their rest, and there is not space to
record their individual services. William Withey,
however, must be mentioned, if for no other reason
that it is a happy thing when the promise of
boyhood is fulfilled in manhood. The writer,
when merely a visitor staying with the Rev.
F. A. G. Eichbaum at S. Edward s Orphanage
at West Malvern, where this boy was brought up,
was much impressed with the conscientious and
earnest way in which he, when quite a boy,
performed all his duties, both religious and
secular, and this appears to have been his charac
teristic to the end. He was only sixteen when he
arrived in Bombay in June, 1885, and he died
of enteric September 30, 1892. He was all
the time a teacher in S. Peter s Boys School, and
for the last three years of his life acted as organist
at S. Peter s. He was naturally delicate, shy,
and with no special natural attractions. But he
developed a power of strength and character and
influence which was a real triumph of grace over
nature, and he gradually became greatly respected
and beloved. " Faithful, steadfast, and true," these
are the words in which those in India summed
up his character.
AT PANWEL
TEMPORARY Home hired by the All Saints 1
Sisters (see p. 75).
CHAPTER VI
TROUBLES
EFERENCE was made in the last chapter to
-LV the frequently recurring visitations of plague
as an event destructive in its character, and especially
in its effect upon Schools. Many books have been
written concerning the medical aspect of this mys
terious disease. Other volumes might also be
written giving the strange experiences of those
who were privileged to help the people in their
bodily and spiritual needs during the time of
trouble, and many pathetic stories might be told of
the desolation wrought in families by the sweeping
virulence of the pestilence. It first made its appear
ance in Bombay in 1896, and it spread with such
rapidity, and the mortality was so great, that the
people became greatly terrified, and the authorities
awoke to the fact that a crisis of much magnitude
had befallen the City. The Government therefore
decided that immediate and stringent measures
must at once be adopted to " stamp out " the
malady, as it was expressed, and that these measures
must be carried through however distasteful they
might be to the prejudices of the people. For a
53
54 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
time Bombay was in complete military occupation.
British soldiers were requisitioned to search the
houses in the plague-stricken areas for concealed
cases of plague, and when these operations were in
progress native cavalry were posted at the ends of
the street as a precaution in case of resistance
on the part of the inhabitants. The removal to a
plague Hospital of any one suffering from the
disease was made compulsory, but as the native
population strongly objected to this regulation
many of them did their best to evade it. The
entrance of Christian soldiers into the houses of
Hindus, and especially into those parts of the
house sacred to the preparation of food, was most
abhorrent to the inhabitants, and in the orthodox
City of Poona nearly produced a serious outbreak.
Houses also in which a case of plague had occurred
were disinfected by authority, and the fire engines
were brought into requisition in order to squirt
disinfectants all over the building. Roofs of houses
were broken up to let in sun and air. Bedding and
clothing which had been in contact with the disease
were burnt in the streets, and many of the scenes
described in De Foe s history of the Great Plague
of London were re-enacted, not only in Bombay,
but later on in the other towns and villages to
which the pestilence spread. The occurrence of a
plague death in a house was notified officially by
a red circle or cross painted on the wall or door
post, the date being sometimes added, and it was
not uncommon to see houses with eight or ten, or
even more, of these signs.
TROUBLES 55
Large Hospitals of the temporary character so
familiar amongst Indian buildings were erected,
but except under compulsion natives were most
unwilling to go to them, and as the percentage of
deaths amongst plague cases was appallingly high
all kinds of tales were abroad amongst the people ;
as, for instance, that patients in the Hospitals were
murdered so that the spread of plague might be
checked. It was extremely difficult during this
period of panic to get the necessary attendants to
work in the Hospitals, and the All Saints Sisters
promptly came to the rescue and offered their
services as nurses, an offer which was gladly
accepted. The scenes in the wards in those early
days, with all sorts of practical difficulties to be
dealt with, and deaths constantly occurring, will
never be forgotten by those who were privileged to
be there. Later on, when there had been time to
organize the Hospitals, and a plentiful supply of
nurses had come out from England, the task became
a comparatively easy one.
Efforts were made to prevent the spread of the
disease to other parts of India, and medical in
spection of passengers at Kalyan, the junction at
which trains from Bombay diverge, was instituted.
Long delays at this station became part of the
regular routine. First and second class passengers
were inspected in their carriages in a very cursory
way, but third class passengers had to alight, and
were lined up on the platform on a roped-in area
guarded by police, and were subjected to a minute
examination, with the possibility of having to go to
56 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
the detention camp in the vicinity of the station
when there was suspicion of plague, and to be kept
there under observation for some days. At one
time the luggage of all third class passengers was
disinfected, and as the method was rather rough
and ready their property was often somewhat the
worse for the process. Many Indians took to
travelling first or second class simply in order to
avoid these inconveniences.
But experience proved that none of the efforts
made to check the disease had any appreciable effect.
It came and went in a mysterious way, and the
many theories concerning it were most of them
dissipated in turn by fresh experiences. And as
regards its prevention or cure, in spite of the
amount of study which has been expended on it,
the most that can be said is that inoculation (which,
however, must be often repeated) is generally a
safeguard. It is curious that in all that has been
written about the plague its religious aspect is
seldom touched upon, and it is rare to find any
suggestion that the visitation may be of GOD S own
sending, although He allows it to come through
natural means. It is undoubtedly the same malady
as that which, in the days of the old dispensation,
was used by GOD as the agent by which people who
would not hearken to any other message were made
to listen. But it should be noted that if the plague
is part of GOD S message to India it is not meant
wholly for idolaters, because although Hindus were
attacked in the first instance it afterwards spread to
all classes of the community, including English folk.
TROUBLES 57
How far the message, if such it is, has been
listened to it would be difficult to say, but every
great trouble brings with it great blessings, and this
has been undoubtedly true of the repeated visitations
of plague. Not only has it given scope for wide
spread ministrations of mercy in Hospitals and
elsewhere, but the indirect results have certainly
tended to the growth of Christianity. Large
numbers of heathen children have at various times
been left homeless and friendless through its ravages,
and have been received into Christian Orphanages.
The efforts of the Government to stamp out the
malady proved futile, and as they were extremely
galling to the sensibilities of the people, they were
gradually dropped. But their ultimate result was
in some instances to produce a better understand
ing between East and West. The sympathy and
kindness of Sisters and Nurses and other workers
in Hospitals and plague camps gradually made an
impression, and awoke gratitude and confidence ;
and even the unwelcome visits of the English
soldiers, which in the early days nearly produced
an insurrection, ended by the two nations coming
closer together than they had ever done before.
The English soldier discovered that he had more
in common with the Indians whose houses he in
vaded than he was aware of, and the Indian found
out that kindly natures and warm hearts were to be
found beneath the soldiers bluff exterior.
The people in general, at any rate in the early days
of the visitation, were not unmindful of its religious
aspect, and religious exercises of all kinds were
58 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
carried on diligently by the different denominations,
heathen as well as Christian. Services of inter
cession were held often in the Cathedral at Bombay
and in many other Churches, and in some places
there were solemn Processions through the streets
singing Litanies and Hymns. It was curious to note
how the Hindus were the first to drop their religious
exercises when there was no apparent response, and
they tried, as they sometimes do, to bring the gods
to their senses by the policy of neglect.
Since plague returned year after year with varying
degrees of severity it began to have a disastrous
effect on the prosperity of the S. Peter s Boys and
Girls Schools. People were no longer willing to
send their children to school in a City which was
acquiring such an evil reputation from a sanitary
point of view, and residents moved away to healthier
localities. The number of scholars diminished so
greatly that it became apparent that the schools
would soon cease to exist.
The All Saints Sisters determined on a bold
stroke. They had already removed the little
nursery children from Mazagon to Khandala, a
charming hill-station at the top of the mountainous
ascent by which the train from Bombay climbs up
to the great plateau called the Deccan. The suit
ability of the place for children was proved by the
excellent effect the change had upon these little
ones, and though the rainfall there is very heavy
while it lasts, it was found that neither these young
children nor their guardians were any the worse
for it. So finally, after mature consideration, in
TROUBLES 59
January, 1903, the Boarding School was transferred
bodily to Khandala. An attempt was made to
carry on the Day School at Mazagon, but this was
found to be impracticable, and after a year the whole
of the S. Peter s Girls School staff was concentrated
at their new station.
It was a great undertaking to provide all the
necessary buildings for a large school, and for a
while the workers had to be content with somewhat
makeshift arrangements. But gradually all that was
needed was supplied, and now the settlement covers
quite a large area and is a conspicuous object from
the G.I.P. railway line which passes in full view.
The effect of the fresh air and the freer, more
robust life on the girls has been most marked, and
though the numbers are not so great as in the more
prosperous days in Bombay, parents send their
children in increasing numbers as they gradually
realize what an ideal spot it is for the promotion
of their health and happiness. The difficulty of
the heavy monsoon, such as it is, is much mitigated
by fixing the long holidays for that season.
The S. Peter s Boys School struggled on with
decreasing numbers till the end of 1904, and as its
removal to some other locality was impracticable it
was decided to close it, and the final social gathering
and distribution of prizes took place on S. Thomas s
Day. As the choir of S. Peter s Church had always
been chiefly drawn from the school it was arranged
that a few boys should remain as boarders in the
School House at Mazagon and should receive their
education at the Cathedral High School. But the
60 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
school was destined very soon to come to life again
in a modified form.
Early in the new century there came ecclesiastical
troubles in the Diocese of Bombay which, while they
lasted, were a greater anxiety than the coming of
the plague. These troubles are now in the category
of past history, and they can be touched with a light
hand. Like most attacks on Catholic truth the
ultimate result has been the more confirmation of
the Faith.
In 1897 Bishop Mylne s long Episcopate in the
Diocese of Bombay came to a close and he returned
to England, but not to a life of repose ; and he has
not only rendered strenuous service to the Church
at home, but the Church in India has always con
tinued to have a large share of his affections and
energies. Bishop Macarthur, who succeeded him,
had to resign his see in 1903 on medical grounds.
The great gathering in Bombay to bid him farewell
testified to the affectionate regard which he had won
during his brief Episcopate, and it would have been
difficult to find a more loyal or peaceful Diocese
than that which he left behind him.
His successor was Bishop Pym, who was enthroned
in February, 1904. Signs of coming trouble soon
became apparent, and these found expression in his
first charge, delivered in February, 1907, in which
Catholic truth and practice concerning the Blessed
Sacrament were openly attacked, culminating in
certain requirements which gave practical force to
his views. Of necessity a good deal of the onus
of contending for the Catholic Faith fell upon the
TROUBLES 61
S.S.J.E., although many of the other Clergy of the
Diocese were equally involved. A period of much
strain and anxiety followed. The final deadlock
occurred over the attempt to exclude the uncon
firmed from being present when the Holy Eucharist
was celebrated. On this question neither the Bishop
nor the Society would give way. An appeal was made
to the Metropolitan of India, the Most Rev. R. S.
Copleston, Bishop of Calcutta, and on January 3,
1908, he opened his Metropolitan Court at his Palace
in Calcutta to consider the petitions. It was eighty-
five years since this court had last been called into
operation. The cases were adjourned till February
1 8th, when the Metropolitan opened his Court in
Bombay, and also held a Visitation of the Diocese.
His decision that the attendance of unconfirmed
children in Church during the actual celebration of
the Holy Communion does not necessarily imply
any strange or false doctrine and cannot be legally
prohibited removed the chief difficulty. Bishop
Pym, who had been for some time past suffering
from a very trying and fatal disease, died a few
weeks after the declaration of this decision, thus
bringing to a close a somewhat tragic Episcopate.
But he had the courage of his convictions, and it is
pleasant now to recall his many personal gifts and
his natural kindness of heart.
It was no easy task which awaited his successor.
It was inevitable that this troubled period should
have left the Diocese in much confusion. Bishop
Edwin James Palmer was enthroned on November
17, 1908. His influence quickly made itself felt,
62 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
and not only were peace and order quietly but
steadily restored by his tact and judgement, but the
confusion which had been produced by the action
of the late Bishop gave much force to the suggested
restoration of Diocesan and Provincial Synods, which
was one amongst many other projects for the
strengthening and development of the Church in
India to which Bishop Palmer turned his attention.
AT PANWEL
THE All Saints Sisters Home for little
children (see p. 75).
CHAPTER VII
THE MISSION TO THE INDIANS
IT may seem to the reader as if we were slow in
reaching the history of the development of the
native work, which now forms such an important
feature of the Bombay Mission. But it was long
before circumstances opened the door for the
fulfilment of what was from the first one of the
chief hopes of those who were sent out to found
the Mission. Their primary call was to the
English and Eurasians, and it was for their benefit
in particular that S. Peter s Church was built. For
some years the small staff was almost exclusively and
very fully occupied with the spiritual duties con
nected with the English congregation duties which
were then more comprehensive than they since
became, when other Churches provided Catholic
privileges which at one time were only to be
found at S. Peter s.
Sometimes efforts were made by the Priests of
the Mission to reach the heathen world by means
of lectures and preaching, but these efforts were
of necessity spasmodic in their character ; and, as is
the case with most preaching, it is difficult to know
63
64 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
definitely whether they produced any tangible
results. There was, however, a responsibility of
another kind connected with the Indian world
which, as time went on, gradually made itself
known. As the number of Christians in Poona
and other places increased they began by migration
to make their presence felt in Bombay, and
amongst those who travelled down to that City
there were many who specially needed spiritual
care and guidance. Some were lads or men of
an enterprising nature who thirsted for adventure
or greater scope for their energies than they could
find in the Mission in which they had been brought
up. Others were those who, having got into
trouble and so lost their employment, came to
Bombay hoping to get a fresh start. And some
were loafers who imagined that in a great City
work would be easy and abundant and wages
high.
None of these varieties of disposition are
particularly easy to guide successfully, and for those
who had been accustomed to Catholic Faith and
practice, but who knew no English, 1 there was no
Church in Bombay which provided the sort of
privileges to which they had been accustomed.
The result of this was that, in a great seaport full
of innumerable temptations, many Indian Christians
dropped down into slackness and sin. There is
also the special perplexity connected with spiritual
work amongst Indians in Bombay that amongst
Christians as well as heathen the people are not
all speaking the same language. In Poona City
THE MISSION TO THE INDIANS 65
the only language required is Marathi, but to work
effectually in the City of Bombay at least three
or four languages are in frequent requisition.
Like most undertakings of permanent worth,
the work of the S.S.J.E. amongst Indians in
Bombay began almost unnoticed and unknown,
and continued to be of this character for many
years. Its real birthplace was in that part of
Bombay which is called Umarkhadi, in a portion of
the large bungalow which we have already been
familiar with, first of all under the name of the
Cottage Hospital, and afterwards as serving a great
variety of useful purposes. The attempt to hold
Marathi services at S. Peter s has been already
mentioned. After that, vernacular services were
held for a time in a shed at Mazagon which had
been fitted up in a homely fashion as a Mission
Chapel. But although it was from these small
beginnings that the Indian work has grown, it
was in that part of the old bungalow at Umarkhadi
which had been arranged as a Chapel that the
nucleus of a really Indian congregation was gradu
ally formed.
It was not one of the Fathers of the Society
who guided its formation in its early days. Not
only were they fully occupied in other ways, but
of those who had made some study of Marathi
there were none at that period who spoke it with
sufficient facility to enable them to take the
oversight of definite Indian work. Marathi is
a difficult language in its grammar and construc
tion, and also in its pronunciation. Not only is
F
66 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
it necessary to devote to the study much time
and labour in order to learn it, but it is also
essential that the learner should be in constant
intercourse with Marathi-speaking people, and these
were conditions which were impossible of fulfilment
by the Fathers of early days. What, however,
they were unable to do, the Rev. James Henry
Lord was allowed to accomplish. He had long
been interested in Jewish Missions, and after
working in East London for some few years
amongst the Jews there, he came out to Bombay
in the end of 1882 to help in the S.S.J.E. Mission,
having specially in view the Indian Jews, commonly
known as the " Beni-Israel," or children of Israel,
of whom there are more than ten thousand in the
Bombay Presidency.
As these Jews mostly speak Marathi, Mr. Lord
applied himself to the study of that language, and
as he gradually acquired facility in its use it
followed naturally that the few Indian Christians
attached to the Mission began to look to him
to supply their spiritual wants, and in November,
1884, they were definitely put under his care,
and the Native Mission in Umarkhadi may be
said to have come into actual existence at that date.
Mr. Lord, writing November 14, 1884, describes
the dedication of the House and Chapel to its new
purpose, Father Page giving an address in English.
Mr. Lord adds, " I did my best to put this into
Marathi for the Sunday morning sermon on the
following day." And so for the next fourteen
years this slowly growing congregation of Indian
THE MISSION TO THE INDIANS 67
Christians found their spiritual home in this upper
room, which had all the necessary appointments of
a Church and sufficed for the needs of those early-
days, except that it had the reputation amongst
some who went to preach there of being the hottest
place in India ! Sundays and weekdays the adminis
tration of the Sacraments and all the usual
services of the Church, with preaching and teaching,
went steadily on. Mr. Lord was usually single-
handed, with the exception of an occasional visit
from some Indian Priest, or one of the Fathers,
and such help as Catechists were able to render.
Though it was not a particularly easy congre
gation to guide, for the reasons already indicated, it
made a great difference to immigrants from Poona
and elsewhere, that now they had a spiritual home
to come to in which they not only found the
teaching and ritual to which they had always
been accustomed, and constant services and sermons
in their own language, but a Priest ready to listen
patiently to their troubles or complaints, and who
was able to converse with them in their native
tongue. The number of Communicants gradually
increased. Now and then the Bishop kindly came
and held a Confirmation in this little Church.
There were a few Baptisms yearly, chiefly the
children of the Christians, but occasionally heathen
or Jewish converts, or waifs and strays from the
Native Hospital or from the streets, gathered
in by the Sisters who were throughout of great
assistance in the gradual building up of the
congregation. A Native Christian Day-School also
68 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
became a necessity, partly for the sake of the
children of the congregation, but also to provide
for the education of the little boys of the Orphanage,
which from almost the earliest days of the Mission
had on a small scale formed part of its work.
As years went on it became evident that a
permanent and visible Church was a necessity, not
only for the benefit of the existing congregation,
but in order that the Mission should take a more
aggressive position as an agent for the conversion
of the heathen. To the ordinary passer-by the
Mission compound presented the appearance of a
place used for a variety of purposes, chiefly medical
and educational, and in which a few English and
Indian Christian people lived, but there was little
to suggest to the uninitiated that it was a
centre of Christian worship and enterprise. In
1897 an anonymous lady donor gave 1000 for the
building of a new Church, and subsequently when
that sum proved to be insufficient she gave an
additional 500, and then again when the building
was completed, leaving a debt, she gave a final
500 to wipe it ofF. On account of the comparative
cheapness of labour in India the cost of building
is not nearly so great as it is in England.
Father Kershaw turned his artistic gifts to good
account as the designer of the new Church, and
he took infinite pains in all its details. As Mr.
Lord was actually living on the premises, he was
able to watch its progress from its commencement
to its completion, which he did with vigilant care.
Mr. Counsell as usual contributed his large share
THE MISSION TO THE INDIANS 69
in the shape of definite practical assistance. The
foundation stone was laid by Archdeacon Scott
in February, 1898, Bishop Macarthur not having
yet arrived from England. There was great
difficulty in finding a suitable site for the Church
in the compound, the large bungalow covering such
a large portion of the ground. It cannot be
said that the spot chosen was a particularly happy
one, the building being wedged in between the
bungalow and a road always crowded with noisy
traffic, which makes the Church a very difficult one
to preach in. The site has, nevertheless, the
advantage that whereas formerly there was scarcely
anything to indicate the existence of a Christian
Church, the imposing western portico, surmounted
by the bell cupola and lofty gilt Cross, is now a
prominent object as seen from the street and cannot
fail to attract the attention of every passer-by.
Bishop Macarthur dedicated the new Church in
honour of the Holy Cross on December i, 1898.
The erection of a House of GOD on a spot where
there has never been one before is always a
great event, when we consider the great acts
in relation to the spiritual world which are
destined to take place within its walls. But the
significance of the event is greatly intensified when
the Church is planted in the midst of a vast
population in a heathen City like Bombay. The
acquisition of the Church of the Holy Cross, besides
the agencies that go out from it to the heathen
world, has done much to consolidate the work
of the S.S.J.E. amongst Indian Christians in
jo THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
Bombay ; and it is at any rate their own fault
if when Christians come to that city they do not
use the privileges offered in abundance.
At the beginning of 1903 the Rev. J. H. Lord
was at his own request set free to devote himself
to his special work amongst the Beni-Israel. He
had had for many years the double task of making
evangelistic efforts amongst the Jews, and also of
taking care of the Native Church. But latterly,
not only the Rev. J. W. Kemble had become
his helper in this latter charge, but also the number
of Fathers in India had increased, and some of these
had attained sufficient proficiency in Marathi to be
able to conduct services in that language, and to
talk to the people and to understand what they
said. Mr. Lord continued to take a large and
active part in the services and organization of
the Mission, and he shares in the home life of
the Fathers at the Mission House whenever he is
in Bombay. The Jewish work also continued to
centre round the Church and " parish " (if it may
be so called) of Umarkhadi, many of the Beni-
Israel residing in the immediate vicinity of the
Mission.
But they are to be found also in the country
district near Bombay, living in the villages of what
is known as the Konkan, the low-lying ground by
the coast at the bottom of the Ghauts, the range of
low mountains at the top of which is the Deccan,
the great level area on which Poona is situated.
Out in the country villages the Beni-Israel people
pursue a variety of occupations, and it was in
THE MISSION TO THE INDIANS 71
the course of his evangelistic efforts on behalf of
these Jews that Mr. Lord in the first instance
began to travel out into the country. The places
which he chiefly visited in early days were two
small towns called Pen and Panwel. They are
on the further side of Bombay Harbour, twenty
miles apart from each other, and from twenty to
thirty miles distant from Bombay. Pan some years
back contained 7,500 people, of whom 182 were
Beni-Israel, and the population of Panwel was
10,000, of whom 300 were Beni-Israel. There are
also many villages between these places more or less
inhabited by these Jews, but their tendency is to
diminish in number through migration to Bombay.
Even although the growing responsibilities could
not be turned away from, it took faith and courage
for a solitary Priest to take up so difficult a task
in so large an area. Besides the special perplexities
attending all Jewish work and the additional
difficulty of language, there were many practical
obstacles of climate, bad roads, or more often no
road at all, complications about how to get water
and where to lodge, and problems in the commis
sariat department to be faced. Added to which
Mr. Lord soon found himself confronted with
a task far more extensive than that of trying to
bring Christian influences to bear on the Jews
scattered about in this country district. In talking
and preaching to them in Marathi, which had now
become their vernacular, the Mission Priest and his
Indian Catechists found themselves face to face with
a vast rustic Hindu world far out-numbering
72 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
the few Jews, and in trying to minister to the
one it was impossible to ignore the claims of
the other.
And this brings us to a point only dimly
recognized in England, and that is the vast field
for Missionary enterprise in the country districts
of India. The majority of Indians live in villages ;
great cities and even big towns are few in
number in proportion to the size of the country.
Experience has shown that wherever Christian
influences can be brought to bear in a country
district, although the result may be slow in making
itself visible, these influences become productive
in the end, and that if they could be greatly
extended the conversion of the rural districts
of India to Christianity would be assured. It is
only because the supply of men and means is
so miserably inadequate that the results are at
present relatively small.
A glance at an Ordnance map of any Indian
district in which all the villages are marked will
give some idea of the vastness of the field which
the Church ought to possess. In those parts of
India in which the soil is so unproductive that it
is impossible to till the land the inhabitants are
necessarily few, because at present Indians are
almost entirely dependent for their subsistence
on the actual produce of the plot of ground on
which they live. But all the rest of the country
is thickly populated, and villages of large size, often
containing more than a thousand people, are
found at intervals of only a few miles. To take
THE MISSION TO THE INDIANS 73
possession of this rich harvest field necessarily
means a large outlay for labourers, and the
necessary machinery to enable them to do their
work. Nowadays, when the desire for education
is so widespread, there are few villages which
would not gladly accept a school, even although
it involved the distasteful condition that the master
should be a Christian. But the influence of the
few Christian Schools which have been planted
in Hindu villages is largely discounted by the
fact that the schools are so few and far between.
It would make all the difference if in a wide
area schools could be opened at the same time
in all the principal villages. This would also
obviate the extreme isolation of the solitary
schoolmaster, planted out by himself in a heathen
wilderness, and yet expected to maintain a high
level of Christian life and faithful work. Mr.
Lord also found that in the country district the
administration of simple medicines was of immense
use in disarming prejudice, and in this way he
was ultimately eagerly welcomed as a friend by
people who had begun by being very resistant
and distrustful.
A Christian School or Dispensary will not by
themselves convert a village. At most they
prepare the ground for the agencies which are to
follow, and these agencies ought not to be too
long delayed. The Christian Faith needs to be
clearly taught by preachers qualified by spiritual
earnestness and adequate training to deliver their
message with force and accuracy of expression.
74 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
Priests to administer the Sacraments and Churches
should if possible somewhat precede the actual
needs of the people, instead of, as is too often the
case, being supplied late in the day and scattered
far apart from each other.
How little it has been possible to carry out
this ideal in the tract of country in the neighbour
hood of Bombay in which Mr. Lord found himself
called upon to work can easily be shown. During
the thirty years of his Indian ministry he has
been practically alone so far as any systematic
European help in the country district is concerned.
Now and then one of the Fathers of S.S.J.E.
or some other Priest has gone out with him on
his rounds for a few days or weeks, but his only
real helpers have been Indians, and these for
the most part have not been in Holy Orders,
and sometimes were lacking in efficient training for
their difficult and responsible task. The pioneers
who prepare the way for the establishment of
permanent settlements in Indian country districts
must almost inevitably be Englishmen at the
present stage of the country s development, because
the acquisition of land for Christian purposes, and
the securing toleration as a neighbour for a
Christian Catechist or schoolmaster, are matters
which it would be difficult to accomplish under any
other auspices.
As early as 1888 Mr. Lord rented a native
house both in Pen and Panwel, where he lodged
when he visited those towns while he was touring
in the district. Such accommodation is the reverse
THE MISSION TO THE INDIANS 75
of convenient for even the most ordinary needs
of an Englishman, nevertheless it gave him a
centre for his evangelistic and Medical work, and
a place which he could call his own in each of
these towns, whereas elsewhere he was dependant
on the shelter of a tent, or such quarters as the
hospitality of the villagers might assign him. It
should be added that many of the Beni-Israel,
as they got to know and trust Mr. Lord, did
what they could to provide for his needs when
he was staying in their neighbourhood.
It was not till 1905 that any permanent building
was erected in connection with the Mission in
this district of the Konkan. In that year a small
house was built at Sai, a village lying between
Pen and Panwel, but at some seasons it is rather
difficult of access. The house is very simple in its
character, but it is well suited for its purpose,
and has a fairly large Chapel or Oratory, and the
immense help that it has been to Mr. Lord to
have even this homely Mission House shows what
might be done if their number could be greatly
multiplied.
In 1910 the S.S.J.E. purchased from Govern
ment a piece of land at Panwel, and built there a
Mission House with a Chapel in the same primitive
style as that at Sai. Quarters for Indian helpers
were also provided. In 1912 the All Saints
Sisters, having also acquired land, built a large
house at Panwel as a home for the little orphan
children of the Mission, who are generally very
delicate, and are in particular need of the fresh
76 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
air of the country. Schools were also opened at
various times in two or three villages, and Catechists
planted here and there. But how totally inadequate
this amount of machinery is to the greatness of
the undertaking is sufficiently apparent. Never
theless, the day of small things is not to be
despised, and after these years of patient sowing
there are evidences that the harvest is beginning
to ripen, and that it might be gathered in if
the labourers and the money to pay them their
hire were forthcoming. It is a rich field for
men with Missionary zeal, love for souls, good
health, and a readiness to face the drudgery of
having to learn a difficult language.
IN BOMBAY CITY
Near the Market (see p. u).
CHAPTER VIII
THE MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORK
WE have already mentioned the opening of the
S. John s Cottage Hospital in 1876, only two
years after the first arrival of the Fathers in India ;
and we have said that a Native Dispensary was started
in 1 88 1 at Mazagon in connection with S. John s
Mission, which was the commencement of medical
work amongst Indians.
People sometimes ask whether Medical Missions
in heathen lands have borne fruit in the form of
conversions to Christianity. Perhaps it may be
said in reply that this is not their primary object.
Medical Missions are established in the first instance
to relieve suffering humanity. Our Blessed LORD S
miracles of healing were not done merely in order
that His disciples and others might realize thereby
the truth of His Divinity. His heart was touched
by the infirmities of His children, and He stretched
forth His hand to heal them. Christianity, inspired
by the life of CHRIST, is bound to manifest its
Divine life in deeds of love and charity to the
suffering members of CHRIST S Church, and its
charity then overflows the ordered boundaries of
77
78 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
the Church and includes all of every nation whose
sufferings and helplessness are their claim for
healing and relief in their distress.
Medical Missions wherever they exist are centres
where the charity of the Church is manifested in
its most attractive and appealing form. The sight
of men and women, often of gentle birth and
generally of undoubted medical qualifications, put
ting on one side all desire for gain and profit and
devoting themselves to the CHRisT-like task of
relieving the squalid misery of an Indian city, or
the neglected sufferer in some distant village, is
one that can scarcely fail to exercise a far-reaching,
but often hidden and silent, influence upon the
minds of Christians and heathen, Europeans and
Indians. The spiritual results of Medical Missions
cannot be tabulated. They form a link in a chain
of influences which combine to produce the great
result. The history of almost every adult Indian
who has been converted to Christianity has shown
that it was a combination of circumstances which
gradually brought about his conversion, and more
often than not it was not the sower of the first
seed who reaped the harvest, and in many cases
the original sower would have been unaware that
the grain had taken root and grown to perfection.
We may well believe that, apart from a certain
number of Baptisms which have taken place as a
direct outcome of Medical work, its beneficent
influence has had its share in bringing about the
changed attitude towards Christianity which is
now becoming so apparent throughout those parts
THE MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORK 79
of India to which Christian influences have
penetrated.
The S. John s Medical Mission owes everything
to Dr. Gertrude Bradley. During the years in
which she has been engaged in this work she has
had from time to time many valued helpers, and
their names would make a long list. Nevertheless
it is she who has throughout been the life and soul
of the undertaking. She came out to Bombay in
1879 * take up work under Father Page, and was
at first engaged in nursing at the Cottage Hospital,
and in 1881 opened the Mazagon Dispensary,
half a mile away. It soon became evident that
a great career of usefulness lay open before her
if she took a Medical degree. Nothing daunted
by the labour that this involved, she took her four
years course at the Grant Medical College in
connection with the Jarrishidji Hospital in Bombay.
She then studied in Vienna, England, and Brussels,
and in August, 1889, returned to India a Doctor
of Medicine. She got to work at once, and a Dis
pensary was opened that year in the same house
in which she first began her Indian career, and
which has been ever since the head-quarters of
a flourishing Medical Mission.
There every morning, except Sunday, nominally
from 7.30 to 10.30 a.m., but often till noon or
even later, and again in the afternoon from 2
to 3 p.m., the doctor is busy with her out
patients. Of these there are often more than
10,000 attendances in a year. Almost every creed
and caste Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans,
8o THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
Parsees, Jews, and others come for treatment.
The patients include both the well-to-do and the
poor, and the fees of the former help to enable
those of the latter who are unable to pay to be
treated free of charge. Besides the patients seen
at the Dispensary Dr. Bradley has always had a
considerable private practice, and she is often called
in for consultations. It is largely by this outside
practice that the work is sustained, because all
but a percentage of the fees goes to the support
of the Medical Mission and the other agencies
which have grown up alongside it. The Doctor s
carriage is a familiar and welcome sight, sometimes
in the better quarters of the city and sometimes
in its crowded bazaars and narrow streets. Often
there are night calls from distant parts of the
town, and sometimes there comes an urgent
summons to attend some wealthy Indian lady
living far away from Bombay. Probably there
is no English person who is so intimately
acquainted with the inner side of every phase
of Indian life as Dr. Bradley.
In 1900 the Medical Mission was greatly
increased in efficiency by the whole of the large
bungalow being devoted to this object, and it is
now no longer only a Dispensary, but also a Hospital
with wards properly fitted up for the reception
of in-patients. Many Indians have a great dislike
to the idea of going into Hospital ; but those
who had had experience of Dr. Bradley s skill
when they were out-patients were willing to trust
themselves to her care as in-patients when they
THE MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORK 81
required treatment which could not be given in
any other way. This Hospital has done much
useful work. Each patient contributes towards
the maintenance of the charity according to her
ability. But there are two free beds which arc
nearly always occupied. One is the " Lancaster "
bed, endowed by Miss Molyneux through the
S.P.C.K., and the other the " Mahomed Abbas "
bed, which is supported by the family of the
Mohammedan merchant whose name it bears.
It should be added that the S.P.C.K. has for
many years given generous aid towards the
expenses of this Medical Mission, which are of
necessity heavy.
The old Fort of Bassein was acquired from
Government by Dr. Bradley in 1903 for the
purposes of a Convalescent Home, which is a great
need. Bassein is on the coast some thirty miles
to the north of Bombay and is a most interesting
old place. There are several bungalows within
the Fort, and one of them was opened as a House
of Rest on April 9, 1904, and services were held
during the season in one of the rooms which had
been furnished as a Chapel. But in 1906 Govern
ment determined to resume possession of the Fort,
which was needed for botanical experiments, so
that the proposed Convalescent Home came to
nothing. But as the Government were ready to
give land elsewhere in exchange it is to be hoped
that the project may be carried out in some fresh
locality. That there is a beautiful Home at Khan-
dala for Europeans, which Mrs. Tarrant for so
G
82 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
many years made a real home to all who came
to it, and established a tradition which is being
perpetuated in her successor, makes it all the
more urgent that Indians should not be without
some place, equally adapted to their own needs,
where they could go for rest and fresh air, and
sympathetic care. Many valuable lives are lost
because there is at present no place to send people
for change and nourishing food and attention when
they first begin to show signs of that delicacy of
constitution so common amongst Indians.
Dr. Bradley has not been content to confine
her energies to the Medical Mission, but other
valuable agencies have grown up in connection
with it for which she makes herself responsible,
and which owe their existence and healthy state
of efficiency to her enthusiasm and zeal which
evokes the same qualities in her workers. The
first of these institutions is the S. John s Night
High School, which opened in November, 1893,
with four boys. It is now probably the most
flourishing Night School that could be found any
where, with an average of 130 scholars. It has
also the standing of a High School, which is perhaps
unusual amongst Night Schools. Its object is to
encourage and help Indian men and boys who
are engaged in work during the day to continue
their education and to improve themselves. The
occupations of the students include clerks, teachers,
drawing students, draftsmen, shopkeepers, mes
sengers, policemen, errand and office boys, mill
hands, carpenters, turners, and compositors. The
THE MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORK 83
only condition of admission to the school is that
no student shall be attending, or able to attend,
any other. The hours are from 7 to 9.30 p.m.
There is a very competent staff of paid teachers
besides voluntary helpers. All the standards, both
vernacular and English, are taught, from the lowest
to the highest. Many of the advanced students have
greatly distinguished themselves, and have passed
difficult examinations which have enabled them to
secure appointments which never could have been
theirs without this aid. The successes gained by
pupils during the years since the school was opened
would make a very long record. It is under Govern
ment inspection and earns a substantial grant. The
Fathers of S.S.J.E. and others have often given
courses of religious instruction, and the school
is always dismissed with the Doxology. Almost
every phase of religion is represented amongst
the scholars. A visit to the school when it is
in full swing is a very moving sight. This curious
medley of young Easterns are so earnestly giving
up their evening after a hard day s work to further
study with the hope of thereby making their way
in the world, and yet so few of them are able to
look beyond it to Him to Whom they owe their
life. The Night School, however, brings them
into touch with many Christian workers who long
to help them, and it forms one of those agencies
in which all its influences, without being ostensibly
for the conversion of the heathen, tend in that
direction. Dr. Bradley acts as universal counsellor,
guide, friend, and referee. These men and boys
84 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
come and ask her help in applying for posts, show
her their letters and ask her advice. She visits
them in sickness and comforts them in their many
troubles, and they know that they are sure of her
sympathetic understanding. And that alone is a
matter of great importance because, partly from
difficulties of language, partly from English mis
understanding of the Indian nature, natives get
into great difficulties because those who are set
over them do not understand, or will not accept
their explanations.
The second institution which grew up under
Dr. Bradley s care is the S. Andrew s Day School
for non-Christian children which began in 1895,
and had at first up-hill work owing to caste customs
and prejudices. But it gradually won its way and
grew in numbers and has become very efficient.
Out of this has grown naturally, as the children
advanced in years and desired to continue their
education, the S. Andrew s Anglo-Vernacular
School which is doing excellent work. This
institution has always found its home at Umark-
hadi in the same compound as the S. John s
Hospital, but the Primary School had its quarters
for a while in the bottom floor of the Students
Home in the compound at Mazagon where the
Fathers lived. But in 1912 an entirely new
building was erected for the purposes of this
school in the Umarkhadi compound close to the
S. Andrew s High School.
Industrial work becomes increasingly an im
portant factor in most Missions. This is, of
THE MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORK 85
course, specially the case in educational Missions,
like the one in Poona City, where hundreds of
boys and girls are being trained for the duties of
life. But even in Bombay, where the number
of adult Christians out-number the younger
generation, there was great need of an occupation
by which some of the poorer Christian women,
widows or those whose husbands were through
no fault of their own receiving very small pay,
might earn a livelihood. Needlework is often
poorly paid, and many women through lack of
ability or early training show no capacity in that
direction. What is now known as the Seed and
Bead industry has supplied exactly what was
wanted.
The Indian jungles are remarkable for the
number of hard bright seeds of many colours
that are found upon their trees and climbing
plants, and even in some of the wild grasses.
Almost every colour is represented, and these
seeds if gathered at the proper season are hard
and durable. The beauty of many of these seeds
and their durability naturally suggested their use
as ornaments, and they are used to some extent
by Indians for this purpose, or as charms. But
the difficulty of piercing them and stringing
them together artistically stood in the way until
Mr. J. Wallace, Editor of the Indian Textile Journal
in Bombay, took the matter in hand. The drilling
of the seeds was the first problem to be solved,
which he did successfully, and the drilling machine
in its perfected form is both simple and efficient.
86 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
Guided by Mr. Wallace, who has been their
good friend throughout in this new enterprise,
the All Saints Sisters took up the work. Seeds
were contributed in small parcels by friends, and
the artistic taste of the Sisters soon produced
charming devices, including necklaces, bracelets,
napkin rings, hat-pins, buttons, loops for curtains,
screens, and other ornamental articles which soon
found a ready sale at remunerative prices. Certain
of the seeds were bleached and dyed in brilliant
colours, which added greatly to their effect. The
demand for seeds soon outran the irregular con
tributions of friends, and arrangements were made
for a system of supply direct from the jungles.
The different sorts of seeds now used in the
industry number forty, and they are all Indian.
But beads of special kinds have been introduced
amongst the seeds with excellent effect, and the
charm and beauty of these productions must be
seen to be believed. They have also the additional
recommendation that they are very cheap. It is
important that people should encourage this in
dustry by buying its products. With little or no
capital it is very difficult to tide over times of
slack trade.
A number of women and a few men and boys
are supporting themselves by this industry, which
pays its way and leaves a small balance when trade
is brisk. One of its advantages is that almost
every one, however unskilled, can find employ
ment in its varied stages. Some of the seeds arc
very dirty in their natural state and require a
THE MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORK 87
great deal of cleaning and polishing. They have
also to be sifted and sorted ready for dyeing
and drilling. In the latter process many un
educated women, with no aptitude for needlework,
become deft and handy. The threading and
wiring of the dainty chains is skilled labour, and
gives scope for intelligent workers with nimble
fingers and artistic aspirations. 1
The All Saints Sisters have for many years had
a Women s Workroom. But it has always been
maintained with great difficulty, and it does not
seem altogether fitting that an industry of the
kind should be any serious drain upon the funds
of a Mission. It is rarely possible to make
such institutions pay their way because the sort
of workers who need help are nearly always people
who, sometimes through natural infirmities and
sometimes through their own fault, are not really
efficient, and though some of them may ultimately
become so, the process of education is a slow one.
Nor is it always possible to find a sufficiently re
munerative market for the articles manufactured,
even although they may be beautifully finished.
It is probable that the industrial side of the
Bombay Mission may always be comparatively
1 Many of these details have been gleaned from a most
interesting article on the subject in the Times of India for
July 13, 1906.
Miss Jones, 12 Chalfont Road, Oxford, kindly keeps a stock
of the Seed and Bead articles which she sells for the benefit of the
Mission, and she is always ready to give information on the
subject, and is eagerly anxious for a great increase in the number
of her customers.
88 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
small because the City is itself a great industrial
centre, and it is on the whole best that Christian
men and lads at any rate should find their own
sphere of labour amongst the almost unlimited
activities of the vast City. There is scarcely any
class of labour which is not represented there,
and almost every one who is able and willing to
work can find a billet, and if he is honest and
industrious he stands a fair chance of gradually
improving his position, so far as the circumstances
of the particular occupation allow.
The chief perplexity connected with any Mission
industry in India is that if it is to prosper it must
be under capable management, and unless this
can be provided by a voluntary helper, which
rarely happens in the case of a trade, the cost of
management in a small business is prohibitive to
its financial success. If, on the other hand, the
industry has to depend on unskilled supervision,
it not only fails of its object as an educational
agent, but the unsatisfactory nature of the work
produced soon brings business to a standstill
through lack of customers.
In 1911 Brother Leslie, who came out from
England the year before, started a small Carpenters
Shop at Mazagon which has made a good be
ginning, and it is proposed to include brush-
making in this venture, which might possibly
become a success because it is very difficult to
get good brushes in India. It might also prove
to be a permanent trade for some of the boys of
the Holy Cross Orphanage. But the success of
THE MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORK 89
this venture depends largely on Brother Leslie s
own individuality, and in less sympathetic hands
it might easily languish.
Business men in India, both European and
Indian, are beginning to realize that although
Christians are not faultless they are to be pre
ferred to heathen workers, and there are an in
creasing number of Hindus and Mohammedans
who are glad to have Christians of reliable character
to help them in their business. A Mohammedan
Doctor lately accosted one of the All Saints Sisters
on the boat, as she was returning from Panwel,
and asked whether she could recommend any
Christian to work in the Dispensary at Panwel
as compounder. She asked why he wanted a
Christian. His reply was, " The work of the
Christians is quite different from that of others."
CHAPTER IX
THE MIGRATION OF S. PETER S
IN 1905 the site on which S. Peter s Church stood
was claimed by the Bombay Port Trust on
account of a new line of railway which was about
to be made in connection with an extension of the
Docks, and this led to the migration of S. Peter s and
the organizations connected with it to an entirely
new site. Before describing the migration a few
incidents connected with the S.S.J.E. work which
preceded the removal should be mentioned.
Father Maxwell, Assistant-General of the S.S.J.E.,
visited India between November, 1905, and March,
1906, as Father Page s representative. As it turned
out his visit was very opportune, because in 1907
Father Page resigned his office as Superior-General
and Father Maxwell was elected in his place, and
the intimate knowledge which he had already gained
of all the circumstances and condition of the Indian
Mission has stood him in good stead.
The same year that Father Nicholson became
Vicar of S. Peter s the Rev. J. W. Kemble, who
had for the last five years devoted himself to the
work at the Church of the Holy Cross at Umark-
90
CARPENTERS SHOP AT MAZAGON
(see p. 88).
THE MIGRATION OF S. PETER S 91
hadi, became one of the Missionaries of the S.P.G.,
and he is still on the staff of that Society.
In 1903 a large chawl, or native lodging-house,
which closely abutted on the Mission compound at
Umarkhadi was purchased by the S.S.J.E. Many
of these chawls arc of great size, and contain a large
population crowded together in very small rooms.
It is an extraordinary experience to penetrate into
one of these lodging-houses in the evening when
everybody is at home. This particular chawl
contained 112 rooms and was inhabited by about
500 people. They came from Gujerat and were
employed by the municipality as scavengers, or
" sweepers " as they are commonly called. In a
vast, city where, till recent years, there were no
sewers and all sanitation depended on hand labour
it can be imagined what an army of workers was
needed in this department. Even to the present
date Bombay is still largely dependent on this kind
of service.
The acquisition of the chawl brought with it a
certain responsibility towards its Hindu inmates,
and for some time an elementary school was carried
on, under rather difficult circumstances, for the
benefit of the children of the sweepers, and services
were held for them in the Church of the Holy
Cross, first by voluntary helpers and afterwards
by a Gujerathi Catechist. Ultimately the S.S.J.E.
parted with the chawl, and the school which did
not seem producing any useful results was given
up, but the Mission amongst the Gujerathi people
has continued and several have been baptized, and
92 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
the services in their own language in the Church
are generally well attended. Services have also
been sometimes held in Canarese.
A Reading Room, as a joint work of the Jewish
Mission and the S.S.J.E. Indian Mission 3 has
existed for a good many years, but not always in
the same quarters. The value of a room of this
nature depends largely upon whether the person
in charge of it has the tact and zeal to make the
agency productive. In order to provide the Beni-
Israel people with useful reading Mr. Lord pro
duced a small serial called the " M bhasser," or
Evangelist ; but it only appeared at irregular
intervals.
After the closing of S. Peter s Boys School the
big Boarding House was utilized tentatively for
many useful purposes. Amongst these were the
following :
1. The S. Peter s choir schoolboys lived there.
2. Sons of Indian Christians engaged in study or
business were allowed to use part of it as a Hostel.
3. The Holy Cross Indian choirboys found a
home there for a while.
4. Some Indian Christian boys at work in the
city boarded there until a separate Hostel was
arranged for their use.
During this period Miss Hurford, who was for
so many years the Lady Principal of the Govern
ment High School for Girls at Poona, also lived
in the Boarding House and made herself a mother
to the composite family gathered together under its
roof. The day schoolroom was now used as an
THE MIGRATION OF S. PETER S 93
Anglo- Vernacular Middle and High School which
was open to all comers, Christian or not. But it
soon began to revert towards its original status,
and in 1905 was revived as an English-teaching
school in which the boys who formed the Choir
School were educated, which obviated their having
to travel off some distance daily to the Cathedral
High School. The sons of Indian Christians living
in Bombay or elsewhere were also allowed to attend.
For many years there had been rumours to the
effect that the land on which S. Peter s Church
was built would be taken up by the Port Trust in
connection with the Harbour railway scheme, but
in 1905 definite notice was given that the site was
required, and on November 23rd of that year
S. Peter s and the land on which it stood passed
into the hands of the Bombay Port Trust. All
the furniture of the Church, the Altars, font, pulpit,
screen, seats, etc., were to be used in the new
building, but the shell of the Church went to the
Trust, the powers of which were practically un
limited, so that there was no possibility of resisting
the forcible acquisition. The Trust was of course
prepared either to find a site and rebuild the
Church elsewhere, or to give compensation in cash.
The latter was the offer ultimately accepted, and the
sum given was Rs. 58,000. The Church was allowed
to be used till the end of the year, and on December
31, 1905, Father Biscoe preached in it the last
sermon, and the last Holy Eucharist was offered
the next morning.
Some way of providing for the spiritual needs of
94 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
the congregation during the interregnum before the
new Church could be completed had to be devised,
and the Boys Schoolroom in the compound where
the Father s Mission House and the S. Peter s
Boarding House were situated appeared to be the
only possible place to utilize for the purpose,
although it involved the use as a schoolroom of
a large shed of corrugated iron which had been
recently built as a play shed a type of building in
which it was rather trying to keep school in a climate
like that of the City of Bombay.
Such of the fittings as were capable of being
placed in the improvised Church were removed
there, including the beautiful marble Altar, and when
all was arranged the result was much better than
had been hoped for, and for more than a couple
of years the full round of services on Sundays
and Weekdays was held with the same care and
devotion and regularity that were always among the
characteristics of the old S. Peter s.
The amount paid in compensation for the Church
was paid direct to Bishop Pym who, as Bishop of
Bombay, was trustee for the site, and the question
where the new Church was to be built became a
subject of much discussion. If it could have been
built in the S. Peter s Boys School compound all
the money could have been devoted to the fabric,
but there were objections to each of the different
suggestions made as to the part of the compound
which might be given up for this purpose. It was
impossible to curtail the already cramped play
ground. Other suggestions would have involved
THE MIGRATION OF S. PETER S 95
the destruction of existing buildings, or placing
the Church in such an unartistic relationship with
them that the result would be an eyesore.
When it became evident that some entirely new
site must be purchased Father Nicholson saw that
it opened the way for the acquisition of land which
might become the permanent centre of the S.S.J.E.
Mission work in Bombay. A large compound
belonging to a Parsee happened to be for sale at the
time, and it admirably fulfilled all the necessary
conditions. There was ample space for present
requirements and future developments. It was
quite in the centre of the Mazagon district, about
half-way between the Docks, near which the old
Church had been situated, and Umarkhadi, where
the Indian Church of the Holy Cross was placed.
It was bounded by roads on three sides, and had
a long and excellent frontage to the Mazagon Road,
with the great practical convenience of a tram-line
running past it. It was also quite close to the
Sisters Home, and on much higher ground than
the old compound ; and except for the sound of
the trams, which people soon get accustomed to,
it was for Bombay a comparatively quiet spot.
The chief difficulty in carrying out this scheme
was, of course, the large sum of money which it
would involve. But the project appeared to be so
obviously desirable that a public appeal was made
for help to acquire the new Mission compound.
The reasons given were :
i. That the growth of the work necessitated
more room.
96 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
2. The insecurity of the tenure of the old
compound which was Government property, and
the importance of placing the institutions on
higher ground and on property belonging to the
Society.
3. The impossibility of finding a site for the
Church in the old compound.
The amount of correspondence and the compli
cated negotiations which had to be gone through
before the scheme was brought to its happy con
summation need not be described, but they can
easily be imagined. Even in a European city the
acquisition of land and arrangements for the
erection of buildings are a troublesome business,
and in India all such difficulties are multiplied.
The transactions are seldom completed without a
lawsuit, and the Society later on was sued on
account of the alleged stoppage of a supposed right
of way through the new compound, the petitioner,
however, losing his case. The Bishop, on behalf of
the Diocese, purchased out of the compensation
money 1,500 yards of the site for the new Church, at
the corner of the Dockyard and Belvedere Roads ;
and after some delay the Government, having
resumed possession of the old school compound,
agreed to take 10,000 yards of the site so that the
new schoolroom could be built upon it near to the
new Church. The remainder of the site became
the property of the Society of S. John the Evan
gelist, and the boundary line is so arranged that
in the event of the S.S.J.E. ever ceasing to act as
Incumbent of S. Peter s, the portion belonging to
THE MIGRATION OF S. PETER S 97
the Church and school could be separated without
detriment to either party.
When the site for the Church had at last been
agreed upon, the work of building it was taken in
hand without delay. Plans had already been pre
pared by Mr. C. Stevens, who is well known as an
architect in Bombay, and the foundation stone was
laid by Lord Lamington, Governor of Bombay,
on S. Joseph s Day, March 19, 1907. Such good
progress was made that, though not complete in
all its details, it was possible to use it for the first
time on the evening of Maundy Thursday, April
1 6, 1908, and the first Holy Eucharist was cele
brated on the following Easter Day. The solemn
Dedication of the Church had to await the arrival of
the new Bishop. It took place on the Conversion
of S. Paul, January 25, 1909. Bishop Palmer cele
brated at the Solemn Eucharist on the morning of
that day, and the Dedication took place at 6 p.m.,
at which service the Bishop preached. The only
thing that at all marred the happiness of the
occasion was, that when the Church was completed
the cost of the building and site was found largely
to exceed the sum paid in compensation by the
Port Trust. This debt was for some time a matter
of perplexity and anxiety, until the Mother House
of the S.S.J.E. came to the rescue and first of all
liquidated the debt by a loan, and finally extin
guished it by making the loan a gift, although the
Church is diocesan and not the property of the
Society.
The new S. Peter s is architecturally a success.
H
98 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
Although comparatively so small, it is built on the
plan of S. Paul s Cathedral. It stands on high
ground, and its dome and Cross are a conspicuous
object and a welcome Christian landmark amidst
heathen surroundings. The style is the Early
Italian Renaissance. The interior effect is very
devotional. The spacious Sanctuary, the large
space covered by the dome which is used as the
choir, the ambulatories for processions, all speak
of a Church designed for solemn and dignified
worship. The Altars and all that appertain to them
and the other fittings of the Church having come
from the old S. Peter s, the congregation found
themselves curiously at home in the new building,
with the additional advantage that they were now
able to enjoy the architectural grace and dignity of
the new Church, qualities in which the old Church
was signally lacking. The elevated position and
careful attention to ventilation has made it possible
to dispense with the disfiguring introduction of
punkahs.
Amongst other serious responsibilities, the de
cision to remove from their former compound
involved the erection of a new home for the
Fathers of the Society, and although on medical
grounds it was highly desirable that they should
live in a less unwholesome locality, it was a serious
undertaking in the midst of so many wants to raise
the necessary funds to build a new Mission House.
However, as it had to be done, Father Nicholson
put out an appeal for this object in August, 1907.
The Society at home gave ^1,000 towards its cost,
THE MIGRATION OF S. PETER S 99
and the rest was ultimately contributed by friends in
India and England. The foundation stone was laid
by Father Biscoe on May 14, 1908, and on May 12,
1909, the house was dedicated to its religious use.
The Bishop subsequently dedicated the Chapel.
In spite of all the advantages of the Change it was
with somewhat mixed feelings that on that I2th of
May the Fathers vacated the old house in Dockyard
Road, which had been the home of the Society for
some thirty years. Father Chard, who had arrived
from England in November, 1908, had brief
experience of the old house before moving into
the new one.
The result has, in every way, proved the advisa
bility of the step, and has tended much to the
efficiency of all the work. Not only have the
fresher air and the diminished noise by day and
by night had their good effect upon the workers,
but all the scattered agencies are now drawn much
closer together. Not only is S. Peter s Church in
the same compound as the Mission House, but the
Church of the Holy Cross is now easily accessible,
especially as the tram-line runs past it. In fact it
is now so easy to get to all parts of Bombay by that
means that the Fathers found that they could
dispense with the horse and carriage which had
previously been a necessity. The house itself,
though retaining as far as possible the simplicity
of the old Mission House, is much better adapted
to its purpose, and does not suffer from the cramped
arrangements which the old conditions made inevit
able. It fronts the Mazagon Road, but it is set
ioo THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
back a little so that there was space before as well
as behind for the garden which it was a great
delight to Father Langmore to plan and bring to
perfection.
The last contingent to leave the old compound
for the new was made up of the boys and staff
connected with S. Peter s School, together with the
other residents in the Boarding House. The com<-
pound was finally vacated at the beginning of
September, 1909, and was handed back to Govern
ment. It was a difficult matter to find quarters
for this fresh contingent in the new compound.
The schoolroom was building, but was not yet
completed. It was, however, finished a few months
later, and on January 19, 1910, it was opened as
S. Peter s High School for Boys and Girls and
returned to its original status of a European High
School. The building is in every way well fitted
for its purpose.
The staff and boarders lodged temporarily in an
old bungalow in the compound, which was subse
quently pulled down. A new and conveniently
arranged Boarding House was built fronting the
Mazagon Road, a short distance from the Mission
House. A grant from Government, together with
the money given in compensation for the old Board
ing House, enabled this to be done. It was blessed
and opened by the Bishop of Bombay in March,
1911, and the boys are now admirably provided for.
The contract for the building was taken by the
Empson Mission Workshop at Poona.
On June i, 1909, Father Biscoe again became
THE MIGRATION OF S. PETER S 101
Vicar of S. Peter s ; Father Nicholson, the Pro
vincial Superior, having left Bombay to take the
oversight of the Mission in Poona City. Father
Moore, who had been Superior there, came to
Bombay to take charge of the Church and congre
gation at Holy Cross, Umarkhadi. In September,
1912, the Rev. J. R. Pearce, of S. Paul s College,
Burgh, sailed for India to take up work with the
S.S.T.E.
CHAPTER X
THE PRESENT POSITION
IN the limited space at our disposal, which made
it impossible to give much detail, we have not
been able to do full justice to many departments of
the Mission work. For instance, the congregation
at the Church of the Holy Cross which crowds
the building on a festival day is the fruit of a
variety of agencies, and the outcome of the
energies of many patient labourers. The Orphan
ages, the Holy Cross Mission Day School, the
indefatigable efforts of the Sisters of All Saints
working in the parish, these and many other
sources of influence have been barely touched
upon, and all that we can do is gratefully to record
the fact that, through the power of GOD S grace
which has given life to these influences, the fruits
are there. It only remains, therefore, to review
the present position of the Mission with regard
to the possibilities of the future. It is evident that
the need for increased spiritual agencies in connec
tion with the work of the Church amongst Indians
in Bombay will every year become more urgent.
This is partly so because the number of Christians
102
AT PANWEL
The S.S.J.E. Mission House
(see p. 75).
THE PRESENT POSITION 103
steadily increases, and partly because those who
are not Christians are much more ready to ask
questions and to listen to religious teaching than
they were some years back, and this is an
opportunity which it would be calamitous not
to make use of.
There is hardly any pastoral work of greater
importance than the careful shepherding of Chris
tians during the early days of their experiences
in a religion which is new to them. They have
still got much to learn, and they are often
surrounded with special difficulties and temptations.
In a city like Bombay, with a great native population
crowded together for the most part in the large
chawh already mentioned, the work of caring
for those amongst them who are Christians is
often perplexing. Some of them perhaps have
got out of touch with the Mission through their
own fault, or else, having come to Bombay as
strangers, have never got into touch with any
Mission at all. The following incident will help to
indicate the nature of this difficulty.
In February, 1909, a ten days Mission was
preached by Canon Rivington, helped by the
Rev. A. T. Sonawane, an Indian Priest, at the
Church of the Holy Cross. One of the great
objects of the Mission was to try and search for
and bring in lapsed or careless Christians, of whom
there were known to be many scattered here and
there in the city. Brother Arthur and several
Indian Catechists were busy throughout the Mission
in seeking for these sheep who had wandered.
IO4 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
It had been known for some time past that a large
number of Indian lads, nominally Christians, were
working at the Docks without any settled place
of abode, picking up a living as best they could,
getting their food at low-class eating shops, and
sleeping out in the open, or in wet weather trying
to creep in wherever they could find a bit of shelter.
The hopelessness of their being able to lead a re
spectable Christian life under such circumstances
in a heathen city was sufficiently apparent.
The Mission workers paid visits to the Docks
late at night and quite early in the morning
when the lads were " at home," if such a sole
cism may be allowed, with the result that there
were found to be between 150 and 200 lads of
this description employed in and about the Docks
who had drifted down to Bombay from up-country
Missions, chiefly from Pundita Ramabai s unde
nominational institution at Kedgaon in the Poona
district. And here it should be said that owing
to the laxity both in teaching and practice con
cerning Baptism in such Missions, although their
teachers profess to be pre-eminently " Bible "
Christians, many of their adherents ignorantly
imagine themselves to be Christians although they
have never been baptized. The Salvation Army
have definitely renounced this Sacrament, and have
substituted for it a rite of their own invention ; and
some of the dissenting sects, in their desire to
conciliate Hindus, have become dangerously slack
in their insistence on it as a necessity. The
Hindu, without fully understanding its meaning,
THE PRESENT POSITION 105
recognizes the significance of Baptism as a rite
which makes him a Christian and causes him to
cease to be a Hindu. The modern-minded Hindu,
who says he is a Christian at heart, wants to
become one without ceasing to be a Hindu, and
it is this impossible position which some modern
Missions outside the Church try to provide for
by saying that Baptism is not a necessity.
As a consequence of this laxity in practice
it was found that amongst the so-called " Chris
tian " boys at the Docks many had never been
baptized. During the temporary Mission about
fifty of these lads were brought into touch with
it to some extent, and a few of them attended
several of the Mission services at the Church. But
the first obvious need for their restoration was
some fixed abode where they could lodge, and
so get back in some sort to civilized ways of
living. A suitable room was rented for the
purpose, and many of the lads gladly accepted
its shelter. Mr. H. G. Lorimer, who was then
in the Customs department and lived at Prince s
Dock, was of much assistance in gathering the
lads together, and he interested himself much in
their welfare till his return to England in 1910.
The Mission to the Dock Boys continues, and it
has done much to help many of them to prepare
for Baptism and the other Sacraments which their
souls required. Several also have been enabled
to exchange their precarious dock labour for
permanent situations. Fresh lads still come drop
ping in from the country and need to be searched
106 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
out, and a Priest might find his whole time fully
occupied in seeking and caring for these dear
fellows. The work amongst them has also brought
the Priests of the Mission into touch with other
Christian dock labourers, some of them married
men who never attended any place of worship.
Christian people often have great difficulty
in securing quarters in Bombay because many
Hindus and Mohammedans resent having them
as near neighbours. The rent asked is generally
exorbitant considering the nature of the accommo
dation provided. Christians are often driven to seek
for lodgings at a distance from Umarkhadi, which
makes it difficult for them to come to Church or
for the Clergy to visit them. A number of Indian
Christians have settled in a part of Bombay called
Jacob s Circle, some two miles north of Umarkhadi,
and the S.S.J.E. have shared with the C.M.S. a
Mission room for the benefit of these settlers.
Sunday services and classes are held in it and
there is a resident Catechist. The Bombay Diocesan
Church Society has taken in hand the task of
raising money to acquire a site and to build a
Church for the inhabitants of this district.
Besides the pastoral care of Christians scattered
in such a perplexing fashion amongst an over
whelming heathen population, there remains the
still more arduous task of trying to reach this
heathen world itself, and almost the only agency
available, apart from medical and educational
influences which only reach a comparatively select
few, is street-preaching. The worker in this
THE PRESENT POSITION 107
department needs a variety of qualifications. Not
only ought he to be a persuasive preacher and
a good linguist, but he requires tact and good
temper to enable him to deal wisely with the
unexpected exigencies which may at any time
arise. Nothing is to be gained by coming into
collision with the police for causing an obstruction,
or by arguing with an audience inclined for
mischief, and the wise leader withdraws his forces
in good time, and tries again elsewhere. But
though this agency may often seem to be disap
pointing and scarcely worth the strain that it
involves, the number of converts who say that
they picked up their first ideas about Christianity
from what they heard in the street is considerable
enough to enable the street-preacher to persevere
in his Mission with faith and hope.
We will mention only one other agency con
nected with the city work which, if it could be
greatly extended, would not only help the lives
of young Indian Christians, but it would also be
a means of bringing under Christian influence some
of the large numbers of Hindus and other non-
Christians who come to Bombay for purposes of
study. This agency is the erection and manage
ment of Hostels for Indian men and lads. It is
not only the dock boys who need help. It is
very difficult for a Christian young man to find
respectable lodgings even when he wishes to do
so and can afford to pay for it, and many have
to put up with undesirable surroundings because
there is no alternative. Others not so well
io8 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
disposed soon reconcile themselves to the situation,
and their Christian tone and manner of life drop
down accordingly.
There is in a corner of the new Mission com
pound at Mazagon a commodious disused stable
and coach house, which was opened in 1910 as a
Hostel for Indian lads who were working in the
city, or in search of work, or employed in some
capacity in the Mission, and in spite of the arrange
ments being rather rough and ready it has been
a great boon. But what is really needed is a large
and properly arranged Hostel built for the purpose.
Or, rather, a series of Hostels suited to the variety
of circumstances of the young lives needing to
be thus safeguarded. There is ample space in
the new compound, and any wealthy person anxious
to promote Christian life in Bombay could hardly
do so more effectually than by building such a
Hostel. One for non-Christians might be included.
The Oxford Mission to Calcutta, a city resembling
Bombay in many of its circumstances, have used
Hostels for many years as a means of leavening
the heathen student-world with Christian influences.
The almost limitless possibilities of Mission work
in country districts has been already indicated,
and how its development is only held back through
lack of men and money. The district for which
the Bombay S.S.J.E. workers have gradually found
themselves responsible stretches to the foot of the
Ghauts. At the top of this mountainous range the
first station is Khandala, the place to which the Sisters
removed the S. Peter s High School for Girls.
THE PRESENT POSITION 109
This has become a small Christian settlement, and
the Sisters are now endeavouring to build a Church
there which would serve as the school Chapel, but
which would also be used by the Indian Christians
who in a variety of capacities find employment
in and about the school.
Continuous with Khandala is Lanowla, which
is a large railway centre, and there the Poona
S.S.J.E. Mission have a Mission House with a
resident Indian Catechist. At this point the two
branches of the Mission touch, and the district
for which the Poona workers is responsible then
stretches away to Poona and about ten miles
beyond, up to the great reservoir at Kadakwasla
which supplies Poona with water. The district,
therefore, for which the Indian S.S.J.E. is chiefly
responsible is roughly speaking about 130 miles
in length, and in width might be extended almost
indefinitely according to opportunities. That the
machinery for working this great area is totally
and ridiculously inadequate is sufficiently clear.
The Church Missionary Society to some extent
shares the responsibilities in the country area,
but their efforts are also greatly hindered by the
insufficiency of their funds and labourers. The
whole of Poona City belongs entirely to the
S.S.J.E., and the C.M.S. have a Church and
Divinity School in the Poona Cantonment.
Various Nonconformist bodies have schools or
other institutions here and there in this area ; but
it is impossible to regard a district adequately
provided for, however able may be the workers and
no THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
excellent the external machinery, if it is without
an Apostolic ministry, and therefore lacking the
Sacramental means of grace essential for its spirit
ual life. Even in areas where Roman Catholics
are stationed, if any of our own people are living
there, we are in duty bound to provide for their
spiritual needs. Our slackness in so doing probably
accounts for the great leakage of Eurasians to
Roman Catholicism which the last census has
revealed. Church of England people, rinding no
English school for their children within reach, send
them to one of the schools which Roman Catholics
have provided with a liberal hand, and the natural
result is that many children, and sometimes their
parents also, get absorbed into that religion.
There is no class of people for whom the Catholic
Church, as we have it in England, is more morally
responsible than the Eurasians, and there are
probably few Christians who are more readily
responsive than they are to spiritual efforts made
on their behalf.
Something should be said in conclusion concern
ing the agencies which solicit prayers and alms
for the support of the Indian Missions of the
S.S.J.E., and especially concerning the Missionary
Association of SS. Mary and John. The history
and work of this Association has been described
in the history of the Poona City Mission, 1 and
it should be observed that in order to under
stand fully the position of the Society in Bombay,
1 See Thirty-four Years in Toona City, by Father Elwin,
Chap. x. 2/- net (Mowbray & Co.). Also Appendix A, p. 1 18.
THE PRESENT POSITION 111
its development in Poona and its district should
be studied also. In 1911 it was announced at the
Annual Meeting of the Association that whereas
hitherto it had only supported the Mission in
Poona, it would now open its arms to take in the
work of the S.S.J.E. in Bombay as well. The whole
organization of the Association was to continue as
heretofore, but with a wider outlook and with
a larger interest. The generous acceptance of this
change by Mrs. Bengough, so long known as the
General Organizing Treasurer of the Association,
made the arrangement possible and insured the
loyal co-operation of the members.
The reason why the change seemed desirable
should be briefly explained. It need hardly be
said that the utmost unanimity of heart and mind
always existed between the workers of the S.S.J.E.
in Bombay and Poona. But for many years,
whereas in the former City the work of the Fathers
was chiefly amongst English-speaking people, in
the latter City a knowledge of Marathiw almost as
essential, so that there could be little interchange
of workers between the two Missions. The de
velopment in recent years of native work in
Bombay has been described. The migration of
individuals, and sometimes of whole families of
Indian Christians, from Poona to Bombay for
purposes of work grows more common, and they
then come under the spiritual care of the Fathers
in that City. Now and then the reverse process
takes place on the ground of health, and Indians
who suffer from the humid climate of Bombay
ii2 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
exchange it for the intensely hot but dry air of
Poona, and benefit accordingly.
This gradual drawing together of the two
Missions through natural circumstances made those
in authority anxious for an amalgamation of the
various organizations, so that there might be a
common plan and a greater unity of purpose
throughout the Indian work. This would result,
as it was hoped, in greater efficiency and fruitful-
ness. The Association, which has for so many
years been the chief means of support of the
Poona Mission, consenting to include Bombay
S.S.J.E. in its work of charity on behalf of India,
seemed to be the first all-important step in the
amalgamation. The result so far appears to justify
the change.
What has been said of the long stretch of rural
country for which gradually the S.S.J.E. has found
itself practically responsible, indicates another change
which the force of circumstances is bringing about
in many Mission areas. Till the last few years the
Poona City Mission was an example of what Bishop
Mylne has often spoken of as an intensive Mission.
That is to say, it did not attempt to cover a wide
area, but in its varied educational institutions it
endeavoured to provide the best possible training
in things spiritual and intellectual, having the
stately Church of the Holy Name as its devotional
centre. Even in the evangelistic work of the
district care was taken to confine it within a radius
often miles round Poona, so that the villages might
be visited with some frequency.
THE PRESENT POSITION 113
The system was probably the right one at the
stage in which it was in force, although perhaps
it savoured too much of the hot-house, and some
of those brought up under its influence were so
inexperienced in the outer world that, when the
time came for them to face life for themselves,
they did not always know how to steer their
course amidst the temptations and dangers which
are so cruelly great for scattered Christians in
heathen India. Anyhow, the growth of Christianity
in India makes it almost impossible for any Mission
to confine its energies to the area in which it began.
Christians are now sufficiently numerous to make
them a recognized factor in Indian life. The fact
that Christian work-people are now not only
tolerated, but even sometimes welcomed, causes
them to scatter here and there much more than
formerly for purposes of work, so that there
are Christians needing to be ministered to in
many places where some few years ago there
were none at all. Throughout a large part of
India the Name of CHRIST is now at any rate
known ; the desire for education makes a Chris
tian School welcome almost anywhere, if it could
be provided, and although it can hardly be said
that there is a demand as yet for Christian Evan
gelists, yet people in towns and villages are so
much more ready to listen than in former days
that it is impossible not to recognize the greatness
of the present opportunity, and to endeavour to
preach the Gospel far and near. The Indian
Mission of the S.S.J.E. may now be described
114 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
as being both intensive and extensile in its aspirations,
however much it may fail to carry them out. The
effort to train Indian Christians, both in their youth
and in their after life, to understand and practise
the faith which they profess, continues with the
same intensity as before. The effort to train the
boys and girls for the practical duties of life
continues unabated, but with somewhat greater
freedom and elasticity, so that when they are
planted out in the world they may be better pre
pared for what lies before them. And as regards
opportunities of Christian development in any
part of that area for which the S.S.J.E. appears
to be spiritually responsible, the Society would
feel bound to extend its operations as widely as
funds and the supply of workers, both Indian and
English, would admit.
The Fellowship of S. John l has done much in
helping to support the Bombay Mission by its
prayers and alms. Now that the Bombay and
Poona work are both included in the SS. Mary
and John Missionary Association, the Fellowship
of S. John of course looks upon the whole of
the S.S.J.E. Indian Mission as claiming such help
as it is from time to time able to render. The
All Saints Bombay Mission Association 2 helps to
support with its prayers and alms the Indian work
of the Sisters of the Affiliation of the All Saints
Community in India. The Bombay Association
for the Mission work of the S.S.J.E. was started
1 See Appendix B, p. I 2 1 .
2 See Appendix C, p. 122.
THE PRESENT POSITION 115
in 1903 with the object of enlisting the interest
and support of English people living in that
part of India in the Mission agencies round about
them. It owes much of its early success to Father
Langmore s enthusiasm. The Mazagon Mission
ary Union, which was founded in 1880 by Brother
Beale, was organized to promote interest in Missions
in any part of the world, but at the quarterly
meetings, held with such regularity, they have
often voted their grant to some part or other of
the S.S.J.E. Indian Mission. Individual con
tributors also send their gifts direct to one or
other of the Superiors in England or India.
A few suggestions as to gifts other than money
may be useful. Presents which Patrons may like
to send their children at Christmas, or any other
time, should be simple but good of their kind.
Indians are quite able to appreciate the differ
ence between what is of real use and what is
chiefly made for show. For instance, an Indian
boy would select a knife with two good blades in
preference to an elaborate one of inferior steel. A
smart cricket belt, strong and with a serviceable
buckle, is always a welcome and useful present
in a region where braces are little known or
used. Comforters and jerseys are greatly valued
by Indians, who are chilly people and delight
in warm clothing when they can get it. It should
be remembered that there are many big lads and
men who are often exposed to the wet, and need
protection and warmth quite as much as the boys
do, so that knitted goods of ample dimensions
1 1 6 THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN BOMBAY CITY
are gratefully received. The best gift of all, for
anybody of any age or sex, is a good English
single coloured blanket. There is a great demand
for all sorts of cricket apparatus and footballs.
Also tennis balls would be welcomed in unlimited
numbers, and there is hardly any small present
which gives an Indian boy more pleasure. If gifts
are sent direct to India, carriage paid, it adds
greatly to their acceptableness. An occasional
present of a book to one of the Mission libraries
gives a great deal of pleasure to those living far
away. Such books need not necessarily be theo
logical. Interesting biographies, modern books
about India or other countries, in fact any books,
except fiction, that the would-be donor thinks
likely to be interesting are almost sure to be wel
comed by somebody. Second-hand books are
just as good as new ones, because the ravages
made by climate and insects soon reduce any Indian
library to shabbiness. Illustrated and other papers
(not daily ones) and magazines are all of use if
sent regularly before they are quite out of date.
Money contributions (not parcels) should be
sent in England to Mrs. Bengough, General
Organizing Treasurer, Queen Anne s Mansions,
S. James s Park, London, S.W. Donors can of
course direct that their gift should be allotted to
the Bombay or Poona work, or to the Indian
Mission in general, or to any particular department
of it. The Hon. Secretary of the All Saints
Bombay Mission Association is Miss F. W.
Barnard, 23 Portland Place, W., and gifts for
THE PRESENT POSITION 117
the Sisters various works should be sent to her,
or to Miss Kempe, 41 Albany Street, N.W.
Contributions in India should be sent to the
Rev. Father Nicholson, Provincial Superior
S.S.J.E. Mission House, Panch Howds, Poona
City ; or to the Secretary of the Bombay Mis
sionary Association, S.S.J.E. Mission House,
Mazagon Road, Bombay.
APPENDIX A
Officers and Rules of the Missionary
Association of SS. Mary and John.
President.
THE RIGHT REV. BISHOP MYLNE.
Warden.
THE REV. FATHER MAXWELL, SUPERIOR-GENERAL OF S.S.J.E.,
COWLEY S. JOHN, OXFORD.
Superior.
THE REV. MOTHER-GENERAL, C.S.M.V.
Patrons and Patroness.
THEIR ROYAL HIGHNESSES THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CONNAUGHT.
THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF BOMBAY, D.D.
THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD, D.D.
THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF READING, D.D.
THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF SOUTHAMPTON, D.D.
THE REV. CANON RANDOLPH, WARDEN C.S.M.V.
THE REV. CANON NEWBOLT.
General Organizing Treasurer.
MRS. BENGOUGH, Queen Anne s Mansions, S. James s Park, S.W.
(To whom all financial communications and arrangements about
New Branches and Meetings should be addressed.)
General Secretary.
Miss BENGOUGH.
For Literature j Slides, and Inquiries about Indian Children.
118
APPENDIX A 119
Needlework Secretaries.
For Fancy N eedlework for Sales
THE MISSES CHAMBRES, Carlett Cottage, Eastham, Cheshire.
For Native Garments, Work Parties
Miss SKLBY, 8 Coleherne Court, Bolton Gardens, S.W.
For Native Garments, Individuals
Miss D. GWATKIN, Grange-over-Sands, Lanes.
Church Embroidery Secretary
Miss BRAY, c/o Mrs. Best, Heath Lodge, Cheltenham.
Bankers.
MESSRS. COCKS, BIDDULPH & Co., 43 Charing Cross, S.W.
Object of the Association of SS. Mary
and John.
THE Object of the Association is the support of the Cowley
Fathers Indian Missions in Bombay and Poona, and the Wantage
Sisters Mission in Poona.
Persons wishing to join the Association can have their names
entered as Members or Associates by any of the Secretaries.
Members and Associates can receive their cards from the Local
Secretary or General Secretary.
Rule for Members.
i. To remember Foreign Missions, especially the Cowley-
Wantage, daily in their prayers. This may be by the use of the
Prayer of the Association on the Intercession Paper, or by including
in their Intercessions "All Foreign Missions, especially the Mission
at Poona and Bombay," or by using the Prayers, or Father
O Neill s Litany from the Manual of the Association.
I2O APPENDIX A
ii. To Communicate if a Priest, to Celebrate, with intention
for the Mission, on the Feasts of the Purification and of S. John
before the Latin Gate, or during their Octaves.
iii. To attend, if possible, the Local Meetings, and General
Annual Meeting.
iv. To give an Annual Subscription, and
v. To undertake some definite work for the Mission in one or
other of the following ways
Personal Service.
Taking a Collecting Card or Box.
Working.
Writing.
Circulating information, especially by taking in and making
known the Missionary Periodicals.
Encouraging Children to join the Children s Branch.
Rule for Associates.
To carry out any of the Rules for Members as they may be
able, and to subscribe not less than is. a year.
N.B. Subscriptions and Donations should be sent either to
the Local Secretary, or to the General Treasurer. All Subscrip
tions due on January ist.
The ^Annual Report, price 3</., post free, from Miss Bengough,
Queen Anne s Mansions, S.W.
Articles for any one in the Mission at Poona should be ad
dressed to the Secretary, S. Mary s Home, Wantage ; or to
Sister-in-Charge, 1 5 Penywern Road, Earl s Court, S.W.
N.B. If presents are bulky or weighty, a contribution towards
freight is acceptable.
APPENDIX B
Of the Fellowship of S. John.
THE Fellowship of S. John has for its object the binding into
one association of work and prayer those who, while they give of
their substance and their energy for the furtherance of the life
and work of the Society of S. John the Evangelist, desire to have
their part in the prayers and other good works that are offered in
it to Almighty GOD.
While, therefore, admission to the Fellowship presupposes on
the part of those who enter it a life marked by regularity and
devotion and a true zeal for the honour of the Incarnate Word,
it has seemed good to add these special prescriptions :
1. To make the life and work of the Society a matter of daily
prayer, saying at least one or other of the Collects provided
in the Handbook.
2. To help forward the work of the Society by some regular
annual contribution.
3. To communicate with intention for the Society and its
work on the Feast of S. John before the Latin Gate
(May 6), or within the Octave.
MEMBERS OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF S. JOHN should send their
offerings for any of the works of the Society to the local Secretary
if there be one and if not, to the Hon. Treasurer-General,
CHARLES D. SUNDERLAND, Esq., 29 Stanley Road, Oxford, to whom
cheques should be made payable. The address of the Hon.
General Secretary is MRS. KEIR MOILLIET, Abbotsleigh, Malvern ;
address of the Fellowship Room is c/o MRS. BIRT, 21 Regent
Street, Oxford. (Parcels only to be sent to 21 Regent Street.)
The Hon. Secretary for London is Miss STANLEY, 12 Ranelagh
Grove, London, S.W. ; for Oxford, MRS. SARGENT, 3 S. Margaret s
Road, Oxford ; and for Scotland, MRS. WARRACK, 38 Palmerston
Place, Edinburgh, with whom all Scotch members should
ordinarily communicate.
121
APPENDIX C
Rules of the All Saints Bombay Mission
Association.
Rule for Members.
1. To say daily the appointed Prayer of the Association.
2. To Communicate, with intention for the work, on the first
Sunday in every month.
3. To pay a yearly subscription of not less than 51., and to
help the work in every possible way.
4. To attend the Yearly Meeting, if possible, and the Monthly
Meetings for Intercessory Prayer.
Rule for Associates.
1. To say the daily Collect.
2. To ask GOD S Blessing on the Association the first Sunday
in every month at a Celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
3. To pay a yearly subscription of is.
4. To attend the Yearly Meeting, if possible.
Hon. Treasurer:
Miss KEMPE, 41 Albany Street, N.W.
Hon. Secretary:
Miss F. W. BARNARD, 23 Portland Place, W.
Copies of the Mission Paper may be obtained from the Hon.
Secretary, Miss F. W. BARNARD, 23 Portland Place, W., price
post free. Annual subscriptions, payable in advance, is. id.
122
APPENDIX D
Summary of S.S.J.E. Mission Works
in Bombay.
The Church of the Holy Cross, Umarkhadi.
Services in Marathi, Gujerati, and English.
Mission Room in Jacob s Circle.
Services in Marathi.
Holy Cross Mission Day School, Mazagon.
Holy Cross Boys Home, Umarkhadi.
j needed for a boy.
S. John s Hostel for Lads, Mazagon.
jy needed for a lad.
Holy Cross Industries for Women and Boys,
Mazagon.
Work amongst Christian Dock Lads.
Rent of two Houses, 25. Catechist, 25.
Evangelistic Work in Bombay Island.
Dr. Gertrude Bradley s Work.
Medical Dispensary and small Hospital.
S. John s Night High School for Lads.
S. John s Night Vernacular School.
S. Andrew s Vernacular School.
The Work at
PANWEL. Two Catechists, ^50.
SAI. Two Catechists, ^50.
VILLAGE SCHOOLS AT WALAK (for Beni-Israel Children and others)
AND AT PEN (for Mahar Children).
123
APPENDIX E
Services in the S.S.J.E. Churches in
Bombay.
S. Peter s Church, Mazagon.
HOURS OF SERVICE.
Sundays.
Holy Eucharist 6.30 a.m.
Matins and Litany 7-!5 a.m.
Choral Eucharist and Sermon - 8.0 a.m.
Children s Service - 10.30 a.m.
Choral Evensong and Sermon - 6.30 p.m.
Holy <Days.
(The Eve.) Choral Evensong and Sermon 6. o p.m.
Choral Eucharist - 7. o a.m.
Weekdays.
Holy Eucharist (Thursdays, 7.0 a.m.) - 6.30 a.m.
Matins (Thursdays, 6.30 a.m.) - 7. o a.m.
Evensong 6. o p.m.
Holy Cross Church, Umarkhadi.
SERVICES (in Marat hi, except those Indicated).
Sundays.
Holy Eucharist (English) 6.30 a.m.
Sung Eucharist and Sermon 7.30 a.m.
Matins and Sermon (Gujerati and Hindi alternately) 9. o a.m.
Children s Service at S. Peter s - - 11.30 a.m.
Evensong and Address at Jacob s Circle - 5.0 p.m.
Evensong and Sermon - 6.30 p.m.
124
APPENDIX E 125
E Ves of Festivals and Saturdays.
Solemn Evensong 7. o p.m.
Festivals.
Holy Eucharist (English) 6.15 a.m.
Sung Eucharist 7. o a.m.
Evensong 5. o p.m.
Weekdays.
Holy Eucharist 6.30 a.m.
Matins 8. o a.m.
Evensong 5. o p.m.
Litany and Address on Wednesdays 8.30 p.m.
INDEX
All Saints Bombay Mission
Association, 37, 114, 116,
122.
All Saints Home, 40.
Arthur, Brother, 103.
Backhouse, Miss, 34.
Bankipore, 6.
Baptisms, 67, 78,91, 104, 105 ;
Dissenters and, 104.
Bassein, 8 1 .
Beale, Brother, 8, 34, 45, 47,
115.
Bengough, Mrs., 1 1 1, 1 16.
Beni-Israel, 66, 70, 71, 75, 92.
Benson, Father, 1-4, 1 8, 27,
44,45-
Biscoe, Father, 5, 14, 16, 40,
43, 93, 99, I0 -
Bombay, 4, 10, 21, 91 ; Asso
ciation for Mission Work of
S.S.J.E., 1 14, 1 16 ; Bishopric
of, 13; climate, 2 1 ; Cathe
dral Girls High School, 41 ;
Church Union, 13-15;
Diocesan Church Society,
1 06 ; Harbour, 10, n, 71,
93 ; Port Trust, 90, 93, 97.
Books for libraries, 1 1 6.
Bradley, Dr., 32,39,40,79-84.
Burmah, 3.
Byculla, 20, 24, 35.
Calcutta, 4, 5, 1 08.
Canarese Services, 92.
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 14.
Carey, Major, 8.
Chard, Father, 99.
Chawls, II, 91, 103.
Choir School, 32,35,59,92,93.
Christians and wont, 88, 112.
Church-going, 17.
C.M.S., 106, 109.
Church needlework, 37.
Coatham, 3.
Compound, new, 95.
Contributions, 115.
Convalescent Home, 81.
Conversion of India, 5, 72, 78.
Copleston, Bishop, 61 ; his
visitation and decision, 61.
Cotton, Bishop, I.
Counsell, Mr. Thomas, 35, 68.
Cowley, i ; Evangelist, 3, 44.
Cowley S. John, 2, 5 ; Parish
Magazine, 3-5, 18.
Craister, Dr., 14, 31.
Crows, 22.
127
128
INDEX
Hostels, 92, 107, 1 08.
House of Charity, 18, 19.
Hurford, Miss, 92.
Dinapore, 6.
Dispensary, 39, 73, 77.
Dissenters, 104, 109.
Dock lads, 104, 105.
Douglas, Bishop, 14, 17-19, Indo-British School, 16.
T^ 25 2 . 8 Indore, 7-9.
Dymond, Mr., 47.
East and West, 10, 57.
Eichbaum, Rev. F. A. G., 52.
Empson Workshop, 100.
Eurasians, 4, 13, 14, 17, 63,
I 10.
Industries ; Supervision of, 88 ;
Brush-making, 88 ; Carpen
try, 8 8 ; Needlework, 85,87;
Seed and Bead, 85.
Intercession, 49, 58 ; Day of,
3, 5-
Iron Church, 5.
Fairclough, Rev. J., 3.
Fellowship of S. John, 114, Jacob s Circle, 106.
I2I . Jews, 66, 70, 92.
Johnson, Bishop, 37.
Gardner Father, 47, 49. J nes > Miss 8 7*
Gifts, 115.
Gilder, Rev. C., 6, 15. Kadakwasla, 109.
Gladys, Mother, 50, 51. Kalyan, 55.
Good Friday, 16, 38. Kedgaon, 104.
Gopal, Mr. S., 8. Kemble, Rev. J. W., 70, 90.
Goreh, Father, 8, 1 9, 34, 36, 47. Kershaw, Father, 46, 68.
Gujerathi work, 91. Khandala, 58, 59, 81, 108.
Konkan, 70, 75.
Harpur, Rev. W. H., 25.
" Holkar," The, 7. Lamington, Lord, 97.
Holy Cross, Church of, 46, 69, Langmore, Father, 48, 100,
9> 9 J > 95> 99 ; Mission at, 115.
99. Lanowla, 109.
Hope, Sir Theodore, 13, Leslie, Brother, 88, 89.
Hospital ; Cottage, 31, 32, 36, Litany for Conversion of India,
65, 79; Jamshidji, 39-41, 5.
79; Plague,55 ; Sassoon,5o; Lord, Rev. J. H., 66-75,
S. George s, 41 ; S. John s, 92.
77, 84. Lorimer, Mr. H. G., 105.
INDEX
129
Macarthur, Bishop, 60, 69.
Mahomed Abbas, 81.
Malabar Hill, 19.
Marathi language, 16, 66, 76 ;
Services, 36, 65, 70.
Matheran, 41.
Maxwell, Father, 90.
Mazagon, 6, 1 9-24, 4 1 , 44, 49 ;
Missionary Union, 115.
"M bhasser," 92.
Medical Mission, 39, 40, 77-
82.
Milman, Bishop, 4, 6, 7.
Ministry of Reconciliation, 28.
Missionary Association of SS.
Mary and John, no, III,
1 14, 1 18-120.
Mission House, Cowley, 2.
Molyneux, Miss, 81.
Moore, Father, 101.
Mylne, Bishop, 29, 34, 37,
60, 112.
Naini Tal, School at, 51.
Needlework, 85, 87.
Nicholson, Father, 50, 90, 95,
98, 101, 117.
Night School, S. John s High,
82.
O Neill, Father, 2, 5-9, 16,
38,45.
Opposition, 27.
Orphanage, 33, 41, 57, 68,75.
Oxford, City of, 2 ; Mission to
Calcutta, 1 08.
Page, Father, 3, 5, 8, 1 4, 16-19,
22, 25, 28-44, 66, 79, 90.
Palmer, Bishop, 6 1,62, 97, 100.
Panch Howds, Mission at, 50.
Panwel, 71, 74, 75, 89.
Patna, 6.
Pearce, Rev. R. J., 101.
Pen, 7i, 74, 75.
P. & 6. S.N.Co., 23, 35.
Plague, 47 ; inspection, 55.
Poona City, I 2, 22, 34, 42, 46,
47> 54> 6 4 8 5> I0 9 II0 -
I 12.
Preaching, street, 106.
Processions, 58.
Punkahs, 26.
Pym, Bishop, 60, 61, 94.
Ramabai, Pundita, 104.
Reading Room, 92.
Red Sea, 46.
Retreat for Clergy, 2.
Rivington, Father, 18, 19.
Rivington, Rev. Canon C. S.,
34. i3-
Roman Catholics, 22, 110.
S. Ann s, Indore, 8.
S. John s Mission House, 19,
39, 95 ; new, 98, 99.
S. Peter s Boys School, 32, 37,
38, 43, 46, 49, 94, 100 ;
Boarding House, 43, 92,
94; new site for, 95, 100.
S. Peter s Church, 6, 16, 19,
23-29> 34, 33>j8, 41, 59>
90, 99 ; new site for, 95 ;
new, 97.
S. Peter s Girls High School,
3i, 39> 59> Io8 -
K
130
INDEX
S. Peter s Institute, 38.
S. Thomas s Cathedral, 13.
Sai, 75.
Salotiya, 7.
Salvation Army, 104.
School, Native Day, 3 3 ; Anglo-
Vernacular, 84 ; S.Andrew s,
, 84.
Scott, Archdeacon, 69.
Sects, variety of, 12.
Seed and Bead Industry, 85.
Servants, Christian, 36.
Services in S.SJ.E. Churches,
124.
Shepherd, Mr., 24.
Sisters of All Saints , 37, 39, 40,
t 4 1 * 5 J > 55, 75> J02, 114.
Sisters of S. Mary the Virgin,
Wantage, 34.
Society of S. John Evangelist,
1,2, 13-16,25, 38, 47,96,
97-
S.P.C.K., 8 1.
S.P.G., 6.
Sonapur, Holy Trinity, 6, 15,
1 6, 19, 40.
Sonawane, Rev. A. T., 103.
Stevens, Mr. C., 97.
Students Home, 39, 84.
Summary of mission works, 123.
Sweepers, 91.
Synods, 62.
Tarrant, Mrs., 81.
Temple, Sir Richard, 37.
Tovey, Father, 47.
Umarkhadi, 20, 41, 46, 65, 66,
70, 84.
Villages, 70 ; Schools in, 73,
76, 109.
Wallace, Mr. J., 85, 86.
Wilberforce, Bishop, I.
Withey, Mr. William, 52.
Xavier, S. Francis, 22.
Yerandawana, 48.
PRINTED BY A, R. MOWBRAY AND CO. LTD.
LONDON AND OXFORD
BV 3290 B65E48 1913 TRIN
Elwin, E. F.
Thirty-nine years in Bombay
city
BV 3290 B65E48 1913 TRIN
Elwin, E. F.
Thirty-nine years in Bombay
city
